Thursday 2 May 2019

You Win Top of the Pops

Congratulations! All tonight's numbers are on your ticket making you the lucky winner of the 15th October 1987 edition of Top of the Pops!

They sing again


15/10/87  (Gary Davies & Peter Powell with brief appearance from Liz Kershaw & Ro Newton)

UB40 – “Maybe Tomorrow” (29)
Getting us underway tonight, banjo and all, with a song that peaked at number 14.

Five Star – “Strong As Steel” (16) (video)
At its peak.

The Alarm – “Rain In The Summertime” (20)
Went up two more places.

Terence Trent D’Arby – “Dance Little Sister” (30)
Went up ten more places.

Los Lobos – “Come On Let’s Go” (26) (breaker)
Their final hit and it peaked at number 18.

Bananarama – “Love In The First Degree” (22) (breaker)
Peaked at number 3.

Fleetwood Mac – “Little Lies” (21) (breaker)
Peaked at number 5.

Was (Not Was) – “Walk The Dinosaur” (18) (breaker)
Became their first of two top ten hits when it peaked at number 10.

The Fatback Band – “I Found Lovin’” (7)
Their first top ten hit since 1976, and their second of two top tenners, and number 7 was its peak.

The Bee Gees – “You Win Again” (1) (rpt from 01/10/87) 
First of four weeks at number one.

Billy Idol – “Mony Mony” (17) (video/credits)
Billy curls his lip around his third and final top ten hit.

October 22nd is next.

32 comments:

  1. There was a storm a-brewin’ tonight on this one. Yes it was the night of the infamous Michael Fish weather prediction and as it happens my first date with my girlfriend, now wife. So I definitely wasn’t watching this! I missed quite a good one actually.

    UB40 – Maybe Tomorrow – Excellent start to the show. Catchy and not one of theirs I recall. Song writing credits go to ‘The Corporation’. What’s that all about? Not the ‘Softly whispering I love you’ crew surely?

    Five Star – Strong as Steel – Ahhhh! How many more have we got to go from this lot?!!!! FF

    The Alarm – Rain in the Summertime – Exploring the same theme as Belinda Carlisle would on her ‘Runaway Horses’ album (check out the anniversary tour this year) we get an absolutely fabulous song from the Alarm. Well-deserved success as PP points out – no18 is pathetic when you think of some of the stuff further up the chart.

    Terrence Trent Derby – Dance little Sister – Ouch this is a drop in quality. Not a patch on the previous two singles. Incidentally the US caught on to ‘Wishing Well’ in May 1988 sending it to the top of their chart.

    Breakers – Two gems and two ‘Yes wells’. No prizes for guessing which of the two I prefer!

    Fatback Band – I found lovin’ – Dance classic. Just love this. Deserved hit and much preferable to Mr Walsh’s rendition.

    Bee Gees – You win again – Writing this on 2nd May. Didn’t post any reviews on the ‘First of May’. Great no1 and a shining light in the top3 this week.

    Billy Idol – Mony Mony – Tommy James and the Shondells had the unusual distinction of spending three weeks at no1 with this song in July/August 1968…but spread over four weeks. One week was interrupted by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown and ‘Fire’. Anyway, Billy’s version ain’t bad at all.

    This week’s ‘US no1 flop in UK watch’ – ‘Lost in Emotion’ by Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam. Well, it got to no58 here so an improvement over ‘Head to Toe’ I guess. Great track in my opinion and some slinky moves from Lisa in the video…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=If8by9Df4wM

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    1. i remember hearing the 1987 storm going on outside my bedroom window in the early hours of the morning, but regretably never made the effort to go outside and actually see how bad it was. as a result of that i always now try to make an effort to do so when i hear high winds, but of course none since have been anywhere near as bad as that was!

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    2. I have never again heard the wind scream the way it did that night - it was quite scary. I think the only storm that has come close to it in my experience was the Burns Day one in 1990, which affected more of the country and actually killed a lot more people, as it happened during the day. My chief memory of that one is the roof of the school hut blowing off while we looked on from a nearby classroom!

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    3. Yes indeed sct353, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam were the big thing in the USA in the late 80s, getting to no.1 with most of their singles. I remember Lost In Emotion, as I was a regular listener of Paul Gambaccini's American chart show every week on Radio 1, on Saturday afternoon's, and it seemed that Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam was the equivalent successwise of our Wham or George Michael.

      This one certainly was a fantastic video by Lisa Lisa, as it seemed that it was one big summer party on the video with not only the group on stage, but also everyone around them in the audience. We have certainly never seen their like over here in Britain.

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  2. As mentioned by sct, the Great Storm swept through southern England just hours after this show first went out, keeping me awake half the night and ripping up a number of the trees that stood on the road I lived on back then. No signs of tempestuousness in the relationship here between Gazza and PP, who both appear to be having a great time. Having hosted the show for almost exactly a decade, and now into his final year of doing so, it is nice to see that PP had by this time fully recovered the enthusiasm he seemed to mislay around 1984-85, albeit in a less cringe-making way than in his early years on the show.

    Ali wields a banjo for some reason on this latest UB40 effort, though you can't really here it on the record. Despite that, and the upbeat brass sections, this is in essence a typically one-dimensional plodder from them that I forgot about as soon as it ended. The same goes for Five Star, here performing one of Diane Warren's less memorable compositions, though I suppose it is inoffensive enough. The video is more memorable, with Denise having something of a love affair with the vintage car she saves from the scrapyard while wearing something weird around her head - to keep the wind out, maybe? The group do seem to have had a bit of an obsession with the word "steel".

    The Alarm are back, and it looks as if Gordon Ramsay has become their new singer! This isn't bad, and could well be a grower, but you get the feeling they were trying to turn themselves into the Welsh U2 here. I don't remember TTD releasing Dance Little Sister as a single, and I'm surprised he did as I have always thought this to be the weakest single on Introducing the Hardline, with a rather tinny guitar and synth sound - the dynamic, quirky Rain would have been a better choice, and would most likely have charted higher. Still, Terry gives his vocal plenty of welly, and gets in an impressive splits right at the end of this performance.

    The breakers are all on again, so on to the Fatback Band with a classy dance record that for some reason went through two reissues before finally becoming a big hit. This is far preferable to the shouty Steve Walsh version, and we get a smooth, slick performance too. Billy Idol to close, with one of those covers that to my mind actually surpasses the original; it also knocks spots off Mr Broad's own first attempt at the song, recorded in 1981. This is supposedly a live version, though if so it was almost certainly cleaned up heavily in the studio. It doesn't matter however, as it rocks along very nicely indeed, Billy making the song his own. We get the standard "in concert" video, chiefly notable for what doubtless would now be deemed Billy's sexual harassment of his keyboardist. Incidentally, in the States this got to number 1, replacing Tiffany's version of They Think We're Alone Now, which was of course another Tommy James and the Shondells tune.

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  3. Incidentally, that Radio 1 show Liz Kershaw and Ro Newton turned up to plug sounded dreadful - did any contributors here ever listen to it? I also wonder what became of Ro, who was a presenter of Whistle Test towards the end of its run.

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    1. i have no memory of ro newton whatsoever, despite being a regular watcher of OGWT from the late 70's until its late 80's demise. i don't even know what gender he/she was!

      also with regard to the mention of tiffany: has anyone else watched her fighting with her late 80's pop "rival" debbie gibson in some schlock low budget sci-fi film released after about 20 years after their pop heyday?

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    2. Ro was short for Rosemary, so there's your answer. I did used to listen to Backchat, it was pretty amusing thanks to the piss-taking presenters, kind of Smash Hits in tone. They had a jingle from the O'Jays which went "People all over the world, join hands, start a love train - Backchat!" That unwittingly goes through my mind whenever I hear Love Train.

      I saw Debbie Gibson in Megashark vs Giant Octopus, which was one of the most boring films I've ever seen, so wisely, I think, decided to leave the cheapo mini-genre there and never return.

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    3. presumably to try and re-ignite their flagging careers, both debbie and tiffany appeared in separate entries in the mega-monster series churned out by notorious cheapo film production company the asylum (whose other "speciality" is cashing in on hollywood blockbusters by making and releasing knock-off versions for the home viewing market at practically the same time), before teaming up to re-live their so-called rivalry in "mega python vs gatoroid". actually i think their acting isn't that bad (especially tiffany), and given the choice i'd much rather watch their movies then listen to their music!

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    4. Ro Newton mentioned at the end of the show that Robin Gibb wears women's clothing. Er, where is the evidence for that? I remember that in the 80s, men wearing womens clothing was a norm for the Two Ronnies in many of their funny sketches, and also Les Dawson and Dick Emery regularly did so for their own comedy shows, but I'm not aware of any pop singers doing so, apart from Freddie Mercury in the Queen video for I Want To Break Free, which is understandable in what the song was portraying.

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    5. She was joking, Dory.

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    6. umm... david bowie, the rolling stones, reg, U2, iggy pop, prince, damon albarn, the red hot chili peppers, kurt cobain and the other queen members (as per that video) among others have been known to drag up on at least one occasion. not to mention the likes of divine and rupaul i.e. career drag queens that have had pop hits!

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  4. UB40 with a not bad effort to begin, though the title in the chorus keeps sounding like the song's about to end imminently. Not sure there's much banjo in reggae. Though you wouldn't put it past Lee Scratch Perry. You could use a drum machine for that beat, guys.

    Vaguely recall the Five Star item once it reaches the chorus, it's middling stuff, neither terrifically catchy nor egregious. Thought we were in for another post-apocalyptic 80s video, but instead we were in a scrapyard, with a bit of thespianism from Doris. Or was it Denise?

    I mostly remember this Alarm track for the hilarious first line of the middle eight, which Mike renders completely incomprehensible. Listen out for it, I guarantee you'll crack up. Anyway, more anthemic pop rock from the boys from the Valleys, perfectly acceptable if you like that kind of thing, and they had plenty of it.

    Yeah, Terence's grandma joke got a little grating over the amount of times this was played on the radio, but this grooves along neatly, if steeped in soul cliché - and that's just his James Brown ripoff moves. I wonder if he can still do that? Brown was famously attempting the splits way past the point when his age (and his waistline) was catching up with him.

    The Fatback Band, with the proper version of this tune, thank goodness. It's monotonous, but the heartfelt vocals sell it. I expected to see them with instruments, were they strictly a vocal outfit, then?

    The Gibbs take their rightful place at the top with this classic, though Maurice's gadget looks like a prop rather than an actual instrument. Presumably we get the psychic flashcard video at some stage?

    Thanks for the laugh, Ro! Genuinely! Gary asks her if she's picked up any gossip and she starts saying Robin Gibb wears women's clothes before Pete panics and cuts her off! Backchat was a pretty decent little Sunday afternoon show, nicely irreverent. Liz is still on 6 Music, but whither Ro?

    Billy Idol to end on, featuring extreme closeups of his sneering phizog that I suppose suited the in your face cover. Leave the keyboard player alone, sex pest. This got a lot of play at the time, and it is a good tune, but I do prefer the original to this bombast.

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    1. thx actually i don't think it was either doris or deniece at the beginning of the 5 star video, but rather grace jones!

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    2. I would have thought Stedman was more the Grace Jones fan...

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    3. yes, stedman (the bored shitless older one i presume?) would have made an excellent male grace jones inpersonator. perhaps that came to mind as he was tying up his bindle when he and his family had to vacate the mansion they could no longer afford to live in?

      talking of grace clones: that reminds me of when i was in a band in the early 80's that was influenced by the compass point sound, and i was really looking forward to seeing the poster for our debut gig. but when i did i was really pissed-off, as it was dominated by a pic of grace and her army of clones!:

      https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/464363411548338637/

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  5. UB40: after a brief return to their early form with the last couple of singles, ali and co revert to reggae-on-autopilot. also after his brief turn as lead vocalist, astro is now relegated to air-cabasa duties (obviously the hip percussion instrument at that point, as jellybean had one on last week's show). not sure if ali's banjo playing is also of the air variety, as there is some plucking going on that could be made by one of those. it's interesting that both the campbell brothers play their instruments macca-style, although i wonder if that's because they're left handed or their left-handed folk singer dad taught them to play that way?

    5 star: quite an ironic video, given that their career was just about to go on the scrapheap (had they bought their mansion by this point?). this is actually surprisingly quite good to my ears, although the production is at least two years out-of-date. which may have added to their demise. has anyone else noticed that the older brother always looks bored shitless? but then again not that surprising i suppose, given that all he ever seems to do is dance at the back (has anyone else ever detected any actual male vocal on any of their records?)

    alarm: is this suppose to be a live recording, or was the crowd noise just an effect? yes, i agree it's very U2 like. however it's not only slightly preferable to what bonzo and do were doing at this time, but also a lot more preferable to their earlier punk-meets-the-boss stuff. rather pathetically it seems that the singer is now reduced to touring small venues with a pick-up "band", that vocals apart seem to be miming to backing tracks!

    terence t-d: i suppose this is the forgotten one of his quartet of hits from his debut album? although listening again now it's actually quite infectiously funky, and certainly better then his previous two for me

    fatback band: the originators of this track actually get to perform in the studio. although it's hardly the disco/funk outfit i remember from the 70's, with presumably most of what original musicians still in it being left at home to save on the air fares? like many such acts that that continued on past the disco era (ew&f, cameo, etc) what was being produced was now mainly by machines rather than human beings, so most of the many previous members were removed from the payroll. the first time i heard this was in 1985 when i had just moved to london and was living in a nurses home (no, that experience wasn't as good as it sounds!), where one of my flatmates gave me a dance/club cassette compilation. most of which was new to me - including this, that i found lovin' (sorry!). i do still like it, but have probably heard it once too often now. but given the dearth of good stuff on the show this year, it's still a dead cert for my top 10 crackers list

    billy idol: a pointless rocked-up re-tread of a 60's tune that never did much for me. what exactly is a "mony", anyway? i never listened closely enough to the song to find out

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    1. Brings to mind 'Soley Soley' by Middle of the Road

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    2. Mony Mony seems to be like Doo Wah Diddy, a bit of catchy nonsense for a 60s pop song.

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    3. "Mony" is actually M.O.N.Y., an acronym for the Mutual of New York, which had its initials illuminated on top of an office building that Tommy James could see from his apartment.

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    4. thanks for the explanation john, but i have to say that looking at the lyrics it hardly validates whatever the hell it's supposed to be about!

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    5. I think Tommy and co just wanted something catchy and memorable as a title, regardless of the sense it made...

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    6. seeing as the subject of the song appears to be a guy wanting the attention of a young woman, wouldn't it have made sense to have used a female name (which were common song titles at the time anyway i.e. michele, joanna, etc) rather than some silly nonsense thing? minnie minnie comes to mind...

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    7. or how about molly molly?

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    8. As far as I can gather, they were inspired by songs with nonsense titles like Hang On Sloopy or Woolly Bully. As those were big hits, they seemed to think such titles could help you sell a lot of records. I have my doubts about that theory, to put it mildly, but there you go.

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  6. Hmmm - so PP tells us that one song has gone up 17 places to 17 whilst another has gone up 18 places to 16. Let me get my slide rule....

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  7. The Fatback Band on this TOTP performance were just superb, and the highlight of the show for me. They were regulars in the British charts in early 1976, just before these reruns began on BBC4 in April 1976.

    I was looking at the first quarter of 1976 UK Charts, and the Fatback band had two big singles in the chart between Jan-Mar 1976, with I think only the videos shown on TOTP, as I don't think they appeared in the TOTP studio in the 70s, so it could be that this newer looking line up in 1987 with I Found Lovin' was their first appearance in the TOTP studio, if anyone can clarify for me?

    Anyway, here are their two 1976 videos in the Bristish charts which were typical of that 1976 disco period and contagious disco sound:

    Do The Bus Stop:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeeOPR8bxac

    The Spanish Hustle:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJB8qbGg8BQ

    The band members at the BACK of the band on Spanish Hustle were indeed FAT, so this is probably the origin of the name of the band FATBACK, as I originally mentioned on the last show that the band were not fat at all on the line up by 1987 with I Found Lovin'!

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    1. that's a fat-uous assumption, as the origin of the band name had nothing to do with the girth of its members

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  8. UB40 - One of their better late 80s efforts, certainly infinitely preferable to 'Rat In Mi Kitchen'

    Five Star - I'm amazed that this is a Diane Warren penned song. She must have knocked it out on an off day.

    The Alarm - A good song, though Mike Peters almost rivals Mark Shaw in the 'believe your own publicity' stakes.

    Terence Trent D'Arby - The slightly odd looking backing singers are back, hooray! Thankfully they've left the vests in the dressing room this time. As for the tune, it's alright but probably the weakest of the 4 from his first album. Still surprising that it didn't get any higher than No.20 though.

    The Fatback Band - This kind of stuff doesn't do anything for me.

    Billy Idol - An average rocker, but better than the Amazulu version that was out at the same time. Not sure whether that was just a coincidence or if there were some spoiling tactics going on by either party...

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  9. Another heavy use of the FF...

    Ub40 - maybe not.

    5 star - will they never go away? please stop, pleeeeease stop...

    Alarm - i didn’t recognise this until the chorus. Not one of their best.

    Once again the breakers are far superior to the dross around them

    I can’t watch the Bee Gees without seeing Kenny Everett

    Crikey, Liz kershaw looking 100% 80s

    Ah mony mony - one our band’s songs... My favourite version is celia and the mutations aka the stranglers.

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  10. Too many TOTP. Not enough time... aaahh

    PP gives us a travel update. All the way down the M1 come UB40 and Ali's bought his banjo. Don't recall this smooth jazz sounding song at all. It's certainly a good tune just lacking in any punch. Wonder if this got much radio airplay. I liked it.

    Secret Project PP...oooh

    Five Star NOT in the studio. That must be a first. It's ballad time. What the hell is Denice wearing on her head? Loving the scrapyard with it's gate you can walk around the side of. Has Denice done away with the rest of the group...
    Oh hang on.. here they are waving their arms around.
    The song isn't actually too bad. Denice lining up a solo outing maybe...

    The Alarm. Wales finest (before the Manics) back in the studio. Wasn't interested in them at all at the time but I don't mind them now. This is a good song. Like this.

    PP reads the charts and introduces TTD with all the enthusiasm of someone going to the dentist.
    Luckily Mr D'Arby has a funky tune to liven things up. More talent in his little finger than PP has in his entire body. Quality tune as well. Gonna have to dig out this album again I think.

    Breakers:
    Los Lobos has a second hit? Who knew? Oh I know this song. The original is very good, This is a by the numbers cover and fairly pointless.
    The Bananas are in prison with their prison dancers. Very catchy number this. One of their best.
    Fleetwood Mac back with the very radio friendly Little Lies. Massively overplayed at the time. Good to hear it again now.
    !3 year old me LOVED Walk the Dinsoaur. WHAT A TUNE.
    Nice to have the breakers back but so short clips was not good.

    Fatback Band with an 80s soul classic. A staple of Heart 80s dance hour. Great song. Always love to hear this. Much improved on last weeks version!

    Amazed MJ didn't make the top.

    Bee Gees! One of the best songs of the year.

    Oh I remember Backchat. And doesn't Liz look fab in her spotty outfit,

    Ending with a live version of Mony Mony. It's a great version. Rock out.....

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    1. regarding peter powell's "lack of talent", i have a chum who frequently sneeringly describes a deejay as "a man who plays records"!

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