Sax
20/08/87 (Janice Long & Steve Wright)
Wax – “Bridge To Your Heart” (20)
Nine years had passed since either of this duo had last featured on the show, and Andrew Gold was making his studio debut. This song was their only top 40 hit and it peaked at number 12, although perhaps deserved to go higher.
Five Star – “Whenever You’re Ready” (18)
In the studio again with another song and dance routine, this one peaking at number 11.
Sherrick – “Just Call” (23)
His only top 40 hit and it went no higher.
Bon Jovi – “Never Say Goodbye” (21)
Also in the studio tonight, with a bit of a Bruce Springsteen look and sound going on, but this tune went up no further.
Prince & Sheena Easton – “U Got The Look” (19) (breaker)
Peaked at number 11.
The Smiths – “Girlfriend In A Coma” (13) (breaker)
This first single from their number 2 album Strangeways Here We Come went no higher.
Pet Shop Boys & Dusty Springfield – “What Have I Done To Deserve This?” (10) (breaker)
Peaked at number 2
Sinitta – “Toy Boy” (4)
Back in the studio again but this song was now at its peak.
Spagna – “Call Me” (2) (+ credits)
For the second week running there's no video to show for the number one (Five Star were in the studio - why not get them to perform it - no one would have been any the wiser!). Spagna is on hand to close the show, but Call Me was at its peak. At least there's a new number one next week.
August 27th is next.
Wrighty returns after a lengthy absence, dressed Miami Vice-style and paired with a very hyper Janice, who is going in for the charlady look again. As has been the case before, she seems to raise Wrighty's game and they make an effective team, though sadly for Janice her pregnancy would soon bring her Radio 1 career to an abrupt end.
ReplyDeleteWax first this week, who could probably be termed a "superduo" thanks to the musical pedigrees of the two members. As Angelo mentions neither man had appeared on TOTP since 1978, but this excellent, upbeat pop tune was a worthy vehicle to restore them to the charts, even if, perhaps surprisingly, no further hits of any significance would follow. They don't look much different in this performance to how they did in the late 70s, though Andrew Gold does most of the heavy lifting, singing and miming the sax solo while leaving his keyboard to play itself. I've no idea why they called themselves "Wax", but I'd have thought that something like "Gigi" would have worked better as a play on their initials! Five Star next, with yet another narrow variation on their limited dance-pop sound. It has some energy, but they do nothing here we haven't seen or heard before, and the drab grey outfits reflect the lack of ambition in the song. The law of diminishing chart returns would now begin to set in for the Pearsons...
Sherrick turns up in the studio, looking very much like the smooth soul man and sounding like it too, though this is highly generic stuff that is indistinguishable from the kind of material Luther Vandross was releasing. Perhaps not altogether surprising therefore that his career soon petered out, but it seems that drugs took over and he would be dead by the age of 41. It's a surprise to see Bon Jovi back in the studio, as they were very big by this point, so credit to them for making the effort. They are very much in power ballad territory here, but I've heard worse. JBJ sports an unusually flat acoustic guitar, and I was also left wondering who the man was whose face adorned his shirt - he looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place him.
We will see two of the three breakers again, but this is all we get of this provocatively-titled Smiths song, which apparently Radio 1 refused to play at the time - TOTP seem to have no such qualms! The video is rather more memorable than the song, featuring clips from The Leather Boys, a forgotten Rita Tushingham vehicle that apparently was one of Mozza's favourite films. The band themselves had just split at this point, in part because Marr disagreed strongly with Mozza over the choice of b-side, a cover of a Cilla song called Work is a Four-Letter Word. New performances of tracks we've already heard close the show, with Sinitta wearing even less than last time while Spagna opts for a different colour uniform, but the same hair, which I have now come to realise is almost certainly a wig. Nice to see the balloons return for this performance - Spagna looks a bit startled at one point when one pops - and we also get the scrolling credits again. Notable also that, breakers aside, every performer is in the studio this time. The audience that week certainly got their money's worth, even if like me they found most of the music pretty uninspiring...
I bet more people remember The Leather Boys than Work is a Four Letter Word, mind you. The weirdo Cilla movie has never been commercially available since its cinema release back in the 1960s. One for Network to look into...
Deletei am certainly aware of and watched "the leather boys" a few years back (it starred tinker from "lovejoy" in a support role as a gay biker who befriends the main man, although apparently unlike in the book their relationship is non-sexual), but i never knew until now that cilla ever made any films! looking at the synposis, it reminds me of another film her co-star david warner made around the same time called "morgan: a suitable case for treatment". which was basically unwatchable, proving that even swinging london films can have their limits when it comes to indulging in some good old feelgood nostalgia...
DeleteI do remember seeing some clips from the Cilla film in a documentary a few years back, though I'd forgotten what it was called. Using the parlance of the time, it did seem "far out, man..."
DeleteMorgan's a real cult movie, I do like Warner in it (nice to see him in Mary Poppins Returns, too) but the character is unbelievably selfish when we're supposed to find him a rebellious hero. Some say the TV play it was based on is superior, I haven't seen it.
DeleteMind you, if Morgan is a cult movie, I don't know how you'd describe his collaboration with Cilla!
The superstitions keep on coming for a number one track with no video for a second week as MJ's 'I Just Can't Stop Loving You' was a mention he's still at the top - at least they close the show with a live performance for the first time since Terence Trent D'Arby's 'If You Let Me Stay' and the other notable one would've have been Maxi Priest's 'Some Guys Have All the Luck' which will be later next month, which makes it out of 3 live performances with end credits in between them.
ReplyDeleteIt was as though Spagna was at No.1 by the absence of the Michael Jackson video, and she must have been delighted to step in to that slot to close the show as a no.1 would do sometimes if there was no separate playout track, so this was some fine consolation prize for her.
DeleteI thought her dress style was amazing, and that other female performers in the TOTP studio could learn a lot from her, with the exception being Sinitta of course, where the less worn on that fine sporty body, the better for the viewers.
Wax kick things off with the jolly, cheesy, middle aged trying to get down with the kids for pop fun, Building a Bridge. It's very well produced, but awfully contrived: 10cc would be taking the piss out of this kind of thing in their heyday. Also: distracted by the chap in the pink vest, possibly the worst dancer on the show for some time.
ReplyDeleteFive Star bafflingly sporting screamingly tight corsets that make them all look anorexic, that's distracting too, but for different reasons. The song is pure formula, distilled into their own set of clichés by now. And their square bashing is making the set wobble alarmingly.
Sherrick with his fifteen (or three) minutes of fame, very slick, not unlistenable by any means, but like Five Star, formulaic, though a different formula this time. Wasn't sure if he was singing live or not; maybe not?
Bon Jovi with precisely the kind of rawk ballad gunge that never appealed to me as a teen. As noted, they're attempting a Bruce Springsteen rip-off here, but there's just no energy and Jon By Jovi's vocals sound terribly constipated. Why does one of them have a pic of Frank Sidebottom on his T-shirt?
Breakers: The Smiths with a rather lovely, delicate ballad of romantic desolation, it's more a sketch than single material, though. Moz plants his phizog over scenes from early gay drama The Leather Boys, which was a big favourite among a certain minority of the British population and is still quite touching today in its kitchen sink poignancy. A bit less angsty than Dirk Bogarde in Victim, anyway. RIP Dudley Sutton.
Sinitta, whose name Janice refuses to pronounce properly, and whose record contains a better guitar solo than Bon Jovi's effort, returns with her ball boys. Other than her costume change, it's much as before.
No Whackson, but he did have a military outfit - as in a costume, not private army, though you wouldn't put it past him - and so does Spagna, which is at least a jaunty end to the show. Those balloons look massive. Nice salute(s) at the end!
With no videos on the show apart from two Breakers clips, I thought Prince with Sheena Easton, and then The Pet Shop Boys with Dusty Springfield were the highlights of the show for me this week, along with the tasty Sinitta in the studio, and that was about it I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteAs September 1987 draws near, and the new 1987 autumn term round the corner, we will soon see the return of Mike Smith, although not on BBC4 of course, and some top autumnal tunes coming up, like The Bee Gees, Fleetwood Mac, TPau, and Was Not Was, so lots to look forward to in late 1987, as the current summer of '87 draws to a close.
Not a great edition. I never realise Janice was expecting at this stage - Paul Berry was he partner at this time and Wikipedia says they married in Sept 2017.
ReplyDeleteWax – Bridge to your Heart – Starting the 1987 ‘Bridge’ theme (T’Pau would call their debut album ‘Bridge of Spies’) we see Gold and Gouldman in the studio. I wasn’t sure if Gold had been on there before but Gouldman certainly had many times. Good song this and probably the best on the show.
Five Star – Whenever you’re ready – FF
Sherrick – Just call – FF
Bon Jovi – Never say goodbye – Not heard this before and it’s dreary.
Breakers – Prince and Sheena – Bizarre; were they an item? Smiths – Predictably underwhelming. Pet Shop Boys / Dusty – More on this later.
Sinitta – Toy Boy – Not great but I watched it through nevertheless.
Spagna – Call me – Didn’t bother watching this time. Played enough in the background on this show already.
Lack of no1 being shown - no loss.
Well, Sam Fox was good on Pointless Celebrities, alas she was paired with Duncan "Chase Me" Norvelle, who was hopeless. Mind you, they could have given him an extra chance seeing as how he's not in great shape.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand Carol Decker, soon to be seen in the repeats, was paired with Dennis from Musical Youth, and they were... third. So much for the 80s pop stars.
wax: sounds like andrew gold had a lot more to with this than graham gouldman. still, a bouncy and pleasant enough radio staple of the era. someone should have told mr gold that beards were out in the 80's. and that riser behind them is begging for someone to sit behind tapping along on drums a la the guy with chas and dave
ReplyDelete5 star - this must surely be the last few seconds of their 15 minutes before penury and hanging around in public toilets followed? again, it's not as bad as i'd like to wish it was, but it's not offering anything new either musically or visually - maybe if they had let looker doris have a go at singing lead, they might have lasted a hit or two longer?
sherrick: i have no memory of this guy whatsoever, never mind his hit. but this is actually rather good as a slice of sophisticated club/dance groove, and certainly better than what luther vandross was just starting to serve up on a regular basis (mr sherrick is a superior singer too in my opinion). he does look like the kind of guy whose pint you wouldn't want to spill though, which perhaps was a factor in his inability to stay the course?
bon jovi: goodbye boys - the boss himself is hideous enough, never mind wannabees
smiths: presumably not an autobiographical tale, bearing in mind morrissey's liking for films like "the leather boys"? it sounds like johnny marr is in a coma as far as the music is concerned, and listening to it with mozzer droning on is certainly putting me into one. there is always this assunption that people in both bands and football teams are mates, but like bobby charton and george best morrissey and marr were polar opposites - of whom if they weren't professional colleagues they would probably have crossed the street to avoid each other. so perhaps no surprise they had already split up by this point
Can I ask if anyone knows if there are any shows existing from March 1970? Or even clips? Would really like to see how Simon and Garfunkel and Lee Marvin were featured.
ReplyDeleteNo shows survive from March 1970, but a fragment of the video that accompanied Bridge Over Troubled Water does. It looks as if it was one of the videos that TOTP used to make in-house in those days, and it doesn't go very well with the song, in my view:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyS0kT-4oOA
The Lee Marvin video does not survive, but a few other clips from March do. Most intriguingly from my perspective, I have found on YT King Crimson's one and only TOTP appearance, performing Cat Food. It's amazing really that they ever appeared on the show at all!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmRbSFvh_90
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyS0kT-4oOA
sadly when robert fripp re-formed king crimson in the early 80's, despite some of their singles such as "matte kudasai" and "heartbeat" actually being quite radio-friendly they never sold in enough quantities to gain an invitation to return to the show
Deletenot sure of i've mentioned this before, but i strongly recommend listening to their "discipline" and "beat" albums from back then. don't bother with "three of a perfect pair" though, as that was a real disappointment in comparison!
Thanks for the S&G video clip John. I have never seen that before, and was obviously not watching at that point in time. Not a great fit to the song I concur, but it's just amazing to see what did accompany this magnificent song.
DeleteThe King Crimson clip is interesting also. Not a very commercial song at all, so no surprise it didn't chart. However, there were lots of records featured on ToTP at that time which didn't chart. I see that Audience with Howard Werth made it later that year with 'Belladonna Moonshine' and also Cat Stevens with the moving 'Father and Son' - was nobody listening?
(sorry for the 17 year diversion folks)
How Father and Son didn't become a hit at that time baffles me - it's one of my favourite songs. It makes it all the more galling that the terrible Boyzone cover made it to number 2!
DeleteAgreed John. It's right up there with my favourites. Interesting however to look at the 45cat listing with one contributor noting:-
Delete"This single (released soon after 'Lady D'Arbanville' reached no8) was, as shown, released in October 1970 and eventually charted (as 'Moon Shadow')at the end of August 1971. However, on its release in 1970, 'Father And Son' was the A-side as evidenced by the matrix numbers and the fact that it was listed for two weeks on the Breakers, from 14 Nov 1970, when it reached 2nd place.
Now the question is; when 'Moon Shadow' eventually charted, were people buying it for that or upon realisation of it's superior B-Side (A-Side in truth)?
https://www.45cat.com/record/wip6086
Interesting - it may be that Island decided to flip the sides over in the summer of '71 to tie in with the release of the Teaser and the Firecat album, which featured Moonshadow. They even made an animated video to accompany the song, as can be seen below. The narrator sounds suspiciously like Spike Milligan:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSbmk9QJsiM
A bit of a duffer of a show sadly, though unlike many I spotted that Janice was pregnant from those unflattering dungarees straight away!
ReplyDeleteWax - This is a great song, and it always surprises people when you tell them that it didn't make the Top 10. It should have done!
Five Star - Slim pickings after their previous few singles, and the surprising thing here is seeing quite how awful and out of step Stedman is. He was always the 'Ken' of the band, and later turned himself into Michael Jackson via plastic surgery of course.
Sherrick - Sickly and slightly ineffective. And that's just his look. Arf!
Bon Jovi - A forgotten single from them, and with very good reason as it's awful.
Breakers - I like The Smiths single, though it's blindingly obvious from the video that the band have already split.
Sinitta again (why?) then Spagna again (hooray!) which is fair enough, as the closest to the top spot that wanted to turn up. Interesting to see the extra credit at the very end of the Spagna performance, I'm guessing this is for the Americans who were by this point (I think) getting their own version of TOTP.
Hopefully, our BBC archivist friend is standing by as we'll shortly be jumping a full month of shows thanks to the unwelcome return of Mike Smith.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteGood Lord, you're right, I just spotted that there will be 7 TOTP shows to review this weekend because of 5 shows with Mike Smith not being shown by BBC4, and it is not even a Bank Holiday weekend to give us enough space between the shows.
DeleteI would suggest that we get one show per day over the next seven days, rather than all 7 in one go, as this could be overload for Angelo and also for the regulars on this blog.
We may as well also get the BBC4 shows sent as originals by our archivist, as BBC4 commonly cuts the playout short of what the original broadcast showed in 1987.
Coffee. Check.
ReplyDeleteEaster Egg. Check.
Pregnant Janice. Check
Let's go...
Kicking off with one of my favourite 80s pop tunes. This is crying out for balloons and dancers and a proper party vibe... However a couple of embarrassing Dads have turned up in their smartest clothes. Kinda kills the mood a bit.
Five Star just about still going. Where's Denice's waist gone, same place as the tune I think. This is poor by their standards. Their peak has passed. Denice of course still working the 80s circuit with various young dancers behind her,more One Star and the rest 😀
This Sherrick smooze is right up Wrightys street. Sunday love song written all over it. Not great though, instantly forgettable.
Bon Jovi back again. I had their greatest hits CD Crossroads and I dont remember this one at all. Judging by the screams this went down well with the young girls in the audience. Song is OK actually. Don't mind it at all
Breakers:
Prince. Great stuff. Sheena doing OK for herself. Like this one.
The Smiths. Cheery as usual. Next...
PSB and Dusty. What can I say. My favourite band with one my all time facvourite singers. 😀 😀 😀
Sinitta back again. Boys in tight shorts back again. Sing a long now.. 😀 😀 😀
MJ still no video.
Spagna plays out as the next best thing. 😀 😀 😀 Honestly prefer this anyway.
morgie, are you a suitable case for treatment?
DeleteChocolate overdose... 😀
ReplyDeleteGood start with Wax, but then...
ReplyDeleteOh god, 5 star again - did they have shares in the BBC? - FF
Sherrick - FF
Even Bon Jovi was a bit of a disappointment
Shame the breakers weren’t the main acts - bit mean to cut Dusty out
As i have mentioned on other occasions, i am one of the few SAW/Sinitta fans on the forum, so this allowed the FF button to cool down
Oops - Nearly ran out of intro for Spagna...