Lapels of love
30/07/87 (Gary Davies)
Hue & Cry – “Labour Of Love” (13)
Getting tonight's show underway (before heading straight off to Glasgow to support U2) with what will be their only top ten hit when it peaks at number 6.
Heart – “Alone” (5) (video)
The American number one. I went up two more places over here.
Freddie McGregor – “Just Don’t Want To Be Lonely” (9)
In the studio (before heading off to Jamaica) with his only top 40 hit which was now at its peak.
Bananarama – “I Heard A Rumour” (14) (video)
Not in the studio tonight because Siobhan was about to marry Dave Stewart, and this song got no higher.
Stock, Aitken & Waterman – “Roadblock” (30) (breaker)
They were taking over the charts as producers, and this song became their first of two top 40 hits as artists when it peaked at number 13.
Spagna – “Call Me” (28) (breaker – Montreux clip)
Peaked at number 2.
The Gap Band – “Oops Upside Your Head” (20) (breaker)
It had peaked at number 6 in 1980, this remix stalled at number 20.
New Order – “True Faith” (19) (breaker)
Became their second of seven top ten hits when it peaked at number 4.
Marillion – “Sugar Mice” (22)
Newly married Fish was looking very colourful in the studio, but this song was at its peak.
Los Lobos – “La Bamba” (1) (video)
First of two weeks at number one.
Beastie Boys – “She’s On It” (10) (video/credits)
At its peak.
August 6th is next.
Another solid showing from Gazza on an edition that also unveils a new font for the graphic text, though I’m not sure I like it much. Not exactly much new to talk about either on this one, with plenty of stuff that has been on before, beginning with Pat and Greg. This performance isn’t much different from the first, but it does once again have plenty of dynamism to match the song. At long last, the Heart video finally gets a full play - not sure what took so long, really. This is a classic power ballad, sung superbly by Ann Wilson, who does a great job of building up the tension in the verses before letting rip in the chorus. In the 90s Martin Kelner used to host an excellent Saturday afternoon show on Radio 2 and I remember him playing an unplugged version of the song that was even better than the original recording, though sadly I never heard it again after that. As for the video, it’s got all the gothic ambience, big hair and guitar-playing theatrics that you could wish for, though the horse cameo was a touch too ostentatious…
ReplyDeleteFreddie is also back in the studio, with no backing singers this time and a shiny suit that doesn’t really fit with his dreads. Yet another one we’ve heard before next, with the Nanas getting up to some serious dressing up in their video, while also making use of more muscle men than they did in the studio. Thankfully, the one breaker that won’t be on again is that Gap Band reissue - who thought that tiresome tune deserved a second bite of the cherry?
Marillion next, with what I think is their very last TOTP appearance with Fish - not sure if they were ever on the show with Steve Hogarth. Mr Dick is dressed in his normal understated fashion, while the song itself is largely unmemorable but nevertheless quite pleasant, with some nice guitar. Anything but nice are The Beastie Boys, who close the show with more grating brattish rap, and a video full of beach-ready bodies which I am sure would never get made these days…
The reason that Heart had to wait so long to get a full play of their video (and very much worth the wait), was because in the two weeks prior, the top ten was awash with other superb American videos slightly ahead of them and also climbing, eg, Madonna, Atlantic Starr, Los Lobos, and considering the show was still at its reduced format of 30-minutes, the songs had to wait probably a week longer than they would have when the show was traditionally 40 minutes long in the 1975-1985 period.
DeleteI think there is probably some truth in that, though given we had seen the Atlantic Starr twice by this point I do feel they could have shown the Heart video sooner!
DeleteAbsolutely John!
DeleteI think that Atlantic Starr was more smoochy, and considering that the second full showing of their video was on a Janice Long presented show, I bet she loved it, and went for it ahead of a first showing of the Heart video.
DeleteI'm not taking sides by any means, as I like the melody of the Altantic Starr smooch (ahem song), but I equally enjoyed the stunning looks of Nancy Wilson (the blonde one) on Heart!
As a listener to Janice's Radio 1 Evening Show, I bet she didn't love Atlantic Starr! I remember her complaining bitterly when Starship were still at number one for the 4th week.
Deletejohn i think calling that gap band thing a "tune" is a bit of a stretch, as it's basically a bunch of guys whooping and hollering over a poor man's p-funk groove!
DeleteTrue enough, Wilberforce! In my defence, I was using it here as an interchangeable term with "song" or "record".
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ReplyDeleteThis episode is a perfect example if recent episodes. A few excellent tracks, and a a lot of mid 80s sound alike dross...
my favourite Heart sing is All i want to do is make love to you, but Alone is a close second. Another sibling breakup band...
Freddie Mcgregor, a perfect example of cosmetic reggae - FF
Bananarama - so the greased up male dancers are in the video as well...
In the mid 80s i used to go on lads trips abroad. After one such trip, i wrote an (unpublished) script called ‘Corfu - what a scorcher’ based on our exploits, and the theme tune was Road Block, and Oops upside Your Head featured in one of the scenes...
True Faith - love that video (wonder whether it was filmed in the Hacienda?)
Took me until the title lyric to recognise the Marillion track. They were better than I remember, I may seek out a GH if they have one...
Is Heart's All I Wanna Do the one with the seriously weird lyrics? Like it tells a story, and by the end you're wondering, "Did she say what I think she said?!"
DeleteYes, a sperm donor was required in the song.
DeleteComposed by Robert John 'Mutt' Lange no less!
DeleteThat was a 1989 release I think, so we are still a couple of years of TOTP away from that.
DeleteBased on Wilberforce's observation below about continued participation in this forum much longer, I have to admit I am not sure of my own 'reviewing towel end date'.
DeleteHowever, it's almost worth hanging in to see what BBC4 do with 'Doctorin' the Tardis' in June 1988 and the third Jive Bunny no1 'Let's Party' in December 1989, given the Glitter connections in both.
That's gonna mean hanging for a load of pretty dire stuff if looking at the list of no1's for those years is anything to go by!
for what it's worth, i still consider the late 80's as part of my "pop era" and a good stroll down memory lane. so the reason i'm growing a bit weary of making regular contributions to this blog is not so much because i have nothing to say (i can slag things off until the cows come home) but because there's been a serious dearth of anything featured this year that i have anything more than the slightest liking for. for example: i never thought the day would come when i would consider something by whitesnake as one of the top 10 best records featured on the show!
Deleteanyway, as i say: hopefully things will pick up a bit soon? i know that level 42 have a couple of corkers on the way soon, which helps...
I'm happy to persevere until the end of 1995. I mean you have Genesis still charting with new material in 1992, and Meat Loaf's comeback single and album in 1993 with 6 weeks at no.1 at the back end of that year. The greats of the 70s and 80s seemed to peter out en masse at around 1995, so there is still some way to go before giving up on here, and 1987 is far too early in my opinion. I mean Good Lord, we haven't even got started with Guns 'n' Roses for example, as they arrived on the scene in 1988!
DeleteYeah...perhaps I should hang in. Can't wait for the 16 weeks at no1 of Bryan Adams in 1991!! Now who can name the six records denied the top spot by Bryan without looking them up? I must admit I thought of two of them before checking, and one of the ones I missed is a classic!
Deletecan't say i'm too enamoured at the propect of that brian adams song being at no.1 for ages (isn't a similar thing happening quite soon with that lame troggs thing that wet wet wet covered?), but better that than the godawful guns n roses any day of the week!
DeleteThe Wets treated us to 12 weeks with their Troggs cover in June 1994. Before that (and after Bryan) we had 10 interminable weeks of Whitney at the top until rescued by 2 Unlimited!
Delete1988 and '89 are both poor musical years in my view, but I am determined to carry on reviewing until the end of the 80s at least. Whether I'll stick around for the 90s is something I'll decide when (and indeed if) we get there...
DeleteA chart pedant writes: The Heart track was released in 1990 and Love Is All Around was at No.1 for 15 weeks!
DeleteAs for the 2 potentially troublesome songs mentioned above, there is already an edit of the Jive Bunny song around that chops out the Glitter segments so possibly they could use that. The Timelords made one appearance with the man himself but I see no problem with any other appearances they made. But this is the BBC we're talking about so no doubt the scissors will be out again.
An episode nearly spoiled by the screams of two wailing harpies in the audience, I was seriously tired of their over the top "WOOOOO!" noises halfway through Hue and Cry, and they did not grow any more endearing.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the Kane bros, and it seems the strings are being played on the keyboard, which I suppose was possible then. Looks like the same suit, for a very similar performance.
Bombastic power ballad alert, we'll be getting a lot of these from now on, Heart who had been a folk rock band in the 1970s took a lucrative change of direction and the Wilsons turned rock chicks. Nice to see two women at the forefront of a traditionally male preserve, and Nancy does all of the heavy lifting in the video (the snide were wont to point out how far their vids hid Ann's weight problem, but it didn't affect that voice). All a bit overwhelming, in a sonic bulldozer way.
Freddie's returned, but shouldn't he have had a green braid to go with the red and gold in his dreads? Maybe it was round the back.
The vid from the Nanas, at least it's a respite from the screamers, they look like they're having a good time anyway, but I miss the cheery amateurism of their earlier days.
Classic video, and one of New Order's best tunes, in the Breakers, but they're in the studio for the full performance next week, which means we don't get to see any more of it, pity.
Marillion, apart from noticing with mild alarm how quickly it took for Fish to lose his hair, this was pretty monotonous stuff, with "sorry for himself" lyrics alternating with squealing guitar solos. Not my cup of tea. They appear to think sugar mice would wash away in rain, but they have a hard consistency, don't they? So they probably wouldn't.
One thing Los Lobos had in common with Richie Valens, same body shapes. Note Stray Cat Brian Setzer as Eddie Cochran in the clips, and Marshall Crenshaw as Buddy Holly - he edited a 90s book I still like to browse, Hollywood Rock, an encyclopaedia of rock and pop films. Time for a new edition, Marshall!
"Der-ner-ner, der-ner-ner-ner!" Killer riff to go with the supposedly ironic boorish lyrics, I see BBC 4 cut them off as quick as they could lest we sensitive viewers get the vapours. They still had to leave in the word "retarded" used as an insult, however, surprised it didn't get censored.
Really liked the Bananarama video if not the song. I loved the colours, the fun that they were having, and it seemed like even after 5 years on the music scene since they were introduced by the Fun Boy Three, they just seemed to enjoy each year that came through the 80s, and never got fed up nor completed their catalogue of hits by now.
DeleteTHX - on the "retarded" point, I think the Beasties were accused by British tabloids at the time of yelling something along the lines of "f*** off you cripples" at a group of disabled kids at a show!
DeleteDory - not sure Siobhan was enjoying life in the Nanas so much by this point, as she quit about 6 months later.
Gary Davies presenting this particular show said that Siobhan was about to get married to Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics, so Bananarama was no longer a priority when you are thinking lover (Dave) and babies.
DeleteJohn - yeah, the Beasties were horrified when that was printed, they held a press conference to call out the tabloids' bullshit. At heart they were nice Jewish boys who loved their mums. Moms?
DeleteThere were certainly babies with Dave - their first son was born in 1987, according to Wikipedia - but I think Siobhan's departure had more to do with her growing dislike of the synthetic SAW pop that the Nanas were recording. She of course moved on to Shakespears Sister soon afterwards, and came back with a very different sound.
DeleteAt this point in mid-1987, the American videos were just flowing like a waterfall, and of the highest calibre I must say. In recent weeks we have been spoiled with largely romantic videos in the top ten by the likes of Atlantic Starr, Heart, and now in at No.38 this week, one of my favourite smoochy songs, ie, James Ingram & Linda Ronstadt with Somewhere Out There, a song from Steven Spielberg's American Tail, and a mighty fine tune too. We will see it in full play in the next couple of weeks as one more of those romantic American videos rocketing up the UK Charts, which was now (happily) becoming a regular occurence in 1987.
ReplyDeleteAnother great American video in the top ten this week (although not romantic by any means), was The Beastie Boys on the playout, where it cut just as the video was getting a bit racey. I had the pleasure of watching it in full on YouTube, and it starts with the ice-lolly bite from the hot American chick in the silver bikini and red high-heel shoes on the beach, and the whole video is just under 5 minutes long with lots more bikinis on the beach, and I noted at the end that it was a 1985 video, so I guess the Beastie Boys must have released this a year or so before their huge debut hit over here in March 1987 with Fight For Your Right To Party, which is titled at the end of that video as 1986!
full playout of beastie boys, quality not great but it's all that's avalible
ReplyDeletehttps://we.tl/t-tPkkRp5JNW
Good Lord, all I can say is brilliant stuff Anonymous for putting out the full original show. The Beastie Boys playout had way more than last night's cut from BBC4, and what a video, in fact about 3-and-a-half minutes of it.
DeleteI mean the feature girl in the silver bikini in the video was some hottie to say the least. I could watch the full video all weekend, as it is a perfect time capsule of how things were in the 80s, while Benny Hill was still putting out new material for Thames Television, and similar to the antics on the then famous Porkys movies, but which nowadays would be considered uncool, and no going back. We shall never see its like again.
I dug out my UK Gold recording of this show before watching the BBC4 version just over a day before it aired, its a pity UK Gold left the Beastie Boys playout track in as it was allocated to a post-watershed slot over on UKG in the mid 90s and then the 1986 BBC logo in the white background in which UK Gold used from November 1992 to November 1st 1997 appeared, they must've had three shorter ad breaks when this episode got shown?...
DeleteWell a shame BBC4 didn't show the video in full in the late-night slot, they've may have kept the pre-watershed showing of the episode which was shown earlier in the evening, at least 'Roadblock's playout track will remain left in next week as its mainly an "appropriate" track, I don't think the 30/07/1987 episode will not get the extended track in Saturday's showing (will ever-less be the same as Thursday in where they cut Bananarama's 'Venus' video in full after the credits in a previous occasion on 19/06/1986)
As we are nearing to a missing cut performance track from Def Leppard from 13/08/1987 next week on BBC4 as UK Gold cut the first act out as with the "un-cut" factor policy for BBC4 apart from play-out tracks fading out.
heart: couldn't really remember how this went, but before i listened again i had the image in my head of a bunch of women playing beach football (or was it volleyball?) and a female vocalist hollering "woh! bodyform! bodyform for you!!". and afterwards i wondered if it was actually heart that did the music for that tampon ad, but if not it was certainly inspired by this track. i first saw them on "the old grey whistle test" in the late 70's, where both ann and nancy looked very svelte and fetching in their skin-tight spandex pants. sadly though by this time ann couldn't be shot from head-downwards, thanks to going on the los lobos diet!
ReplyDeletemarillion: at least heart have different things going on in the quiet verses and loud choruses, whilst this seems to be just the same thing over and over again at varying levels of intensity. the only thing of note here is fish going on about flicking through the channels on the tv - of course at this time us brits were lucky to have even four! i wonder if mr dick was ever reduced to having to perform marillion material after he went solo, just so he could pay the rent?
beastie boys: sadly not a novelty, but a bad stink that was going to hang around for quite some time. straight into my top 10 turkeys of 1987 list
Amazed at the run of shows without Smithy. Great to see Gary at the helm again. A mixture of songs for me on this one. Some big highs and some piffle.
ReplyDeleteHue and Cry – Labour of Love – Dream bill eh? H&C and U2.
Heart – Alone – AT LAST!!! Written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly who also penned ‘Like a Virgin’ and ‘True Colours’ amongst others, this is one of my songs of 1987 and the video is just fabulous too. I know I watched this edition of ToTP at the time as this made a real impact. Check out Heart’s other underrated power ballad ‘Secret’ from the ‘Brigade’ album and watch out for a number of belated hits for Heart on the back of this. Just beggars belief that this didn’t make no1 and ‘Jack your Body’ did, but I may have said that before….but in consolation, ‘Alone’ sold more copies.
Freddie McGregor – Just don’t want to be lonely – A bit of an anti-climax after Ann, Nancy and the boys.
Bananarama – I heard a Rumour – Now we know why those chaps were in the studio the other week; it was a re-enactment of the video which I don’t think much of. The marriage to Dave Stewart lasted 9 years I see. I forgot that they married.
Breakers – SAW – I absolutely detested ‘Roadblock’ at the time and still do! Spagna – So she’s blonde and singing a song called ‘Call me’ but she’s no Debbie Harry. Written by ‘I Spagna, G Spagna, A Pignagnoli’ with no sign of a Giorgio Moroder. Corned beef. Gap Band – Why did we need another dose of the Gaps with their jolly singalong tune? New Order – One of their finest songs!
Marillion – Sugar Mice – One of my favourite singles from Fish and the Boys. Steve Rothery gives us one of his best solos and the song is a real belter. With Fish just getting married (to Tamara Nowy who appeared in the ‘Kayleigh’ video) the divorce from Marillion was just down the line, due I believe to a row with the manager over excessive touring demands. I guess that is at odds with being a newlywed. They sadly divorced in 2003.
Los Lobos – La Bamba – Not for me.
Beastie Boys – She’s on it – Nor this. Frankly awful way to end the show.
Two big highlights. The rest not much to write home about.
sct you should be thankful that you had two tracks to your liking in one edition, given how piss-poor this year has been generally with regards to what's been on. i have to admit that unless things improve a bit in the last third of the year, then i might be seriously tempted to throw in the reviewing towel at that point. what's annoying is that to my recollection there was still some pretty good stuff being released in this year, but if so then sadly hardly any of it got onto the show...
DeleteHeart - Scientists can actually pinpoint the whole in the ozone layer made by their excessive use of hairspray apparently. At last we get to see it, and it's one of the finest power ballads.
ReplyDeleteThe Gap Band song is more of a wedding disco classic than a housewife classic but it's still utterly terrible and there's no need to resurrect it. So New Order are going to do one of their 'special' live performances of 'True Faith' on the next edition are they? I'd prefer the video....
Marillion - Exactly the kind of song I'd usually dislike but for some reason I do like this slow building tune.
Beastie Boys - I stopped the recording as soon as this dreadful crap came on. I've come to the conclusion that 87 might actually have a greater percentage of tripe than 86! Particularly in terms of what's been shown, I gree with wilberforce that some good stuff has been completely ignored.
This looks very interesting!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47854806
this gives me an opportunity to mention that in my last year of secondary school in the late 70's, the beeb filmed a fly-on-the-wall documentary (and forerunner of the now-ubiquitous reality shows) following two pupils taking their exams. for over a decade from the early 2000's i tried to track down a print of it in vain
Delete(originally to show at a school reunion), but finally uncovered one lurking in the BFI's archives 3 or 4 years back. sadly i could only watch it on their premises rather than acquire a copy for my own use, but it was still amazing to finally see it again nearly 40 years on!
Thanks for the link, sct. The missing edition they have recovered is apparently 13/11/69, hosted by Fluff Freeman and also the last ever b/w episode of TOTP. There are some really good tracks on it, particularly from the Fabs, Fleetwood Mac and Jethro Tull, so hopefully it will surface online soon, or even on BBC4...
DeleteThanks sct353, I did see that article on the BBC early evening news today, and it's amazing.
DeleteOn a similar note, for any Laurel & Hardy fans, there was a similar find a couple of years ago of a partially 'lost film' called The Battle Of The Century where the entire second reel never seen since it first came out in 1927, was found in America in 2015, and will have its full showing this month on 27-28 April at the Silent Laughter Weekend in Kennington, before it goes online if it ever does. Here is the explanation by the one who found it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MxC4glhB5Y
Great news about the recovered episode - would make a lovely Christmas treat this year, BBC 4!
DeleteOnline chatter elsewhere is now suggesting that only half the episode actually survives, with no links, but that the performances I mentioned above are part of the surviving footage...
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIs that you, Morgie?
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