Flop of the Pops
04/08/88 (Mark Goodier & Janice Long)
Kylie Minogue – “The Loco-Motion” (2)
Making her studio debut and getting tonight's unforgettable show underway with her second of three number two hits in 1988.
Fairground Attraction – “Find My Love” (14)
Eddi must have been hot in that big coat, but it was worth the sweat becasue the song went up seven more places.
Voice Of The Beehive – “I Say Nothing” (25)
Also in the studio tonight and the song went up three more places.
Kim Wilde – “You Came” (4) (rpt from 21/07/88)
Went up one more place.
The Funky Worm – “Hustle (To The Music)” (17)
Making their debut with what would be their only top 40 hit when it peaked at number 13.
All About Eve – “Martha’s Harbour” (22)
It's still awkward to watch even after all these years, but the studio audience were very supportive, and it all turned out alright in the end because the song deservedly went up twelve more places.
Yazz & The Plastic Population – “The Only Way Is Up” (1) (rpt from 28/07/88)
Well, Yazz was clearly in the studio tonight but it looks like this performance itself was a repeat from last week. But anyway, this was her first of five weeks at number one.
S Express – “Superfly Guy” (6) (video/credits)
Went up one more place.
August 11th is next
If this is Janice’s last show then it’s a shame. I will miss the variety she offered. Fitting to go out on a female dominated show.
ReplyDeleteKylie Minogue – The Loco-motion – Wow! I’d forgotten what a class act Kylie was in those days! She really nails this Little Eva number in her little red dress. The lady in red indeed (she even wears a red dress on the single sleeve) and boy does she dance! This was actually Kylie’s first release in Australia although that was a different (and inferior) mix.
Fairground Attraction – Find my love – Not looking particularly sexy in her old trench coat is Eddi Reader singing this very pleasant but low key song. Not a song to set the pulses racing.
Voice of the Beehive – I say nothing – Re-release of their first hit which reached no45 before they performed their Bangles impression, these honeys put the wonderfully titled ‘The things you see when you don’t have your gun (live at ULU)’ on the B Side…wherever ULU is.
Kim Wilde – You Came – Enjoyed seeing this studio performance again with Kim sporting her black mini dress, but I am surprised that they didn’t show the wonderful video where Kim looks stunning. Anyway, the song is a cracker and well deserved big hit.
Funky Worm – Hustle - FF
All About Eve – Martha’s Harbour – The stuff of legend. My question is; why didn’t they do a retake? Julianne Regan and Tim Bricheno certainly look clueless and were urged to do something by one of the technicians until after a while everything kicked into life.
Yazz and the Plastic Population – The only way is up – I was reminded of Kelly Marie when watching this. Bouncy, loud song with two backing dancers, although these two sing rather than just whisper ‘Ch-ch- ahhhhh’. Great no1 though…it had to be to prevent Kylie scoring a second chart topper.
S’Express – Superfly Guy – FF
It was a live show, so they couldn't do a retake. I think it was the last live show for quite a while in consequence...
DeleteThey didn't do a retake of All About Eve because it was a live show!
DeleteBeat me to it, John!
Deletesct353, ULU stands for University of London Union, and was a renowned student gig venue which has recently been re-opened. It's about a quarter of a mile south of Euston station.
DeleteThanka for the clarifications. I had forgotten about live shows as they've stopped harking on about it, and I have never heard of ULU!
Deletei also really liked Kim Wilde's frock which some could call a figure-hugging dress. Please put me first in the queue. Compare this with her 1981 debut with Kids in America, she was much younger and still comfy in the teeny jeans look. How things had moved on by 1988!
DeleteI vividly remember watching this show first time around thanks to the All About Eve debacle – I also recall it being reported in the papers the following day, with the article claiming that Kylie sent Julianne Regan a bunch of flowers in commiseration after the show, which was very good of her if true. All in all, a memorable edition for Janice to bow out on. She is not quite so hyper this time, which is some achievement given how loud the audience are, but I still don’t think she is as good as she was in her first few years on TOTP. She does work well with Mark, however, and this is his most assured appearance so far – I like the way they both make light of the “technical hitch” towards the end.
ReplyDeleteI actually think that, musically, this is a contender for best show of the year. Kylie gets things going in lively fashion with her in-no-way-camp backing dancers. This had been her first single a year earlier, and had been a big hit in Oz, but she re-recorded it with SAW for the UK market. It lacks the earthiness of Little Eva’s original, and it’s a bit risible singing about doing a “brand new dance” when by this point it was 26 years old, but it’s a fun version nevertheless. Fairground Attraction show up in the studio this week, once again looking a mite too pleased with themselves. Eddi is also a bundle of energy once more, with a look seemingly modelled on Michelle of the Resistance in ‘Allo ‘Allo...
Another great track next from Voice of the Beehive, which really should have climbed further up the charts. Another fun performance too, though my attention was mainly focused on the blonde sister, who looked great in her sparkly gold outfit. Proceedings lose momentum a little with the monotonous dance fodder provided by The Funky Worm, which is certainly a memorable name but not necessarily for the right reasons! The only things of note about this performance were the singer’s piratical head scarf and that bizarre Heath Robinson bass.
So we come to All About Eve’s moment of notoriety. You do have to feel for them, having their TOTP debut ruined in such a way, but despite their obvious embarrassment they are very professional and carry on, once they finally start hearing the backing track, as if nothing has happened. It’s actually a real shame this incident has ended up overshadowing the song, as it is a beautiful record with a classic folk melody and haunting vocals from Julianne, succeeding brilliantly in transporting the listener to the titular harbour side; indeed, this may well be my favourite single of 1988. Yazz is briefly interviewed, and it is nice to see her so excited about being number 1 – as she’s there, it does seem odd that she doesn’t give a new performance. We finish with the only video of the night, a rather claustrophobic offering from S’Express.
Yes indeed, it seemed that there was a little too much going on all at once in the S-Express video, but aside from that, it took me back to the late 70s disco era a la the Night Fever video (version 2) by the Bee Gees, and also the Summer Night City video by Abba, around the 1978 period.
DeleteClearly, it seemed that S-Express were influenced by that era for their new music, as this and their debut hit Theme From S-Express seemed to draw on those glorious disco days of the late 70s, it was a nice reminder in some ways of just how good that 70s disco sound was. Also really looking forward to their next offering Hey Music Lover which continues on this influence.
A notorious show, but I'll get to that. First up is Kylie singing rather flat on a bog standard cover of the Little Eva hit (Kylie decided against doing the Turkey Trot for her follow up). The dancers are performing some distinctly unfortunate moves, I guess Kylie like a lot of the SAW stable had a big gay following, but they were a tad too explicit here!
ReplyDeleteFairground Attraction with a song we've heard last episode, but now they're in the studio for the whole thing, still looking very pleased with themselves, but it is a very decent tune. Massive guitar, too.
My highlight of the show, Voice of the Beehive with a prime slice of jangly indiepop, exuberantly performed, though Woody is swamped in dry ice for most of it. Spiky lyrics with a strong melody were obviously their forte, and they had an even better song to come, though oddly it wasn't a big hit.
Kim Wilde we've seen before (why put prerecords on a live show?!), then a famous theme tune. Or it was in a different mix, for this was where The Mary Whitehouse Experience got their theme from, though they cut off the spoken word intro here. Away from that, it's pretty repetitive stuff, not enough variation to justify itself. Yeah, yeah, great in a club, etc.
I really liked All About Eve's gentle, acoustic single at the time, so imagine my horror when this farce unfolded. They did recover a little quicker than I remembered, but you could tell Julianne was mortified once they did. Nevertheless, it garnered them a lot of publicity, and gave them their biggest hit as a consequence, so all's well that ends well.
A repeat of Yazz to mark her appearance at number one, and she has dressed up in exactly the same outfit for a five second congratulation as she wipes away the tears of joy. But as Daphne and Celeste asked last year, whatever happened to Yazz?
Ron O'Neal was still alive in 1988, so could they not have got him to appear in the S-Express video instead of some white bloke with a stuck on moustache and shades? Sadly, it cuts off before we get the "Hey, fool, whatcha sayin', come on!" chant which is my favourite bit.
Oops, looks like I have The Funky Worm mixed up with Hithouse! Well, they do both have the Smurf-alike at the start...
DeleteYazz seemingly became a born-again Christian, and lives in Spain these days.
DeleteSo she got religion? Didn't prevent Aretha Franklin or Cliff Richard from continuing their music careers. Wonder if she's one of those ultra-pious born agains?
DeleteIt seemed quite obvious that the Funky Worm lead singer in all her bright coloured attire, was trying to copy Yazz's dance/hip movements in dancing style, but wasn't anywhere near as lanky.
DeleteTHX - she did release a "spiritual themed" album about a decade ago, so presumably her faith hasn't stopped her recording, but she has done virtually nothing music-related since then.
DeleteAs long as she's happy, I'm not too bothered if she's decided to stay away from the spotlight.
DeleteHopefully we do have no skipped August episodes this time round on BBC Four (as its the second time being a miracle at once for that August month) after the 13 consecutive episode run of Summer '87 in which Mike Smith didn't host a TOTP that previous Summer, as despite he had already lefted in March 1988 and we've already had two skipped episodes due to muted links and sound problems on master tapes.
ReplyDeleteAs with the 'Mimegate' TOTP performance of All About Eve, that clip was seen before on TOTP: The True Story in 2001 and also on The Story of 1988 this Summer in 2019 meant something we'd got to see it again for the second time in 31 years in full despite TOTP2 had shown it a few times.
The favourites in this episode was Kylie Minogue's TOTP debut of 'The Loco-Motion' this followed a pattern with 'I Still Love You' on 20/10/88 and the duet with Jason Donovan on 22/12/88 in which nearly did become that year's Christmas number one, they'd had to settle for the runner-up position due to Cliff Richard holding them off and but eventually had the first chart-topper of the year of 1989 and S'Express is a great play-out track with 'Superfly Guy', as its being the follow-up to their number one track 'Theme from S'Express' as the lyric 'It takes me higher' and also samples had just followed again on this one with 'Is this a mutha?'.
This week's show being an all-female cast, you can include S-Express in that, as the lead singer on all their tracks is female. I can't remember the last time a TOTP show had no male performers. I do remember one show not that long ago on these reruns where there was an all-male cast, but apart from these I can't think of any other shows up to now with a single-sex cast.
DeleteI would agree with you that Kylie's TOTP debut as late as her third single release, was the best performance on the show, and I guess that it was a long way to fly in from Australia when she was all the rage there and on practically every show, so it was some achievement to fly her over to Britain to perform this new track straight in at No.2, but very much worth it for regular TOTP viewers, as I for one loved it.
Did anyone else think Fairground Attraction were also hit by audio feed problems. Seems like they made a false start and then had to stop and wait for the song to begin.
ReplyDeleteI think it was just played very quietly in the studio, perhaps a hint of what was to come with All About Eve.
DeleteI noticed that, and the Funky Worm audio was all over the place with the trumpets / sax being extremely low in the mix. Presumably both of those acts dodged a bullet!
DeleteIn the original posting about Fairground Attraction, because is spelt becasue which is the most common mistake I make when typing, so am glad it isn't just me1
ReplyDeleteAt least they spelt it correctly on the 'Abbey Road' track listing. Teh is my big frequently mispelt word!
DeleteI always forget to check spellings fully before posting, despite having an 'A' Level in English Literature! If you get the feel and meaning of the post, job done!
DeleteBye, Janice. Ta, la, you’ve been top. You worked well with Mark too, so you would’ve been a good pairing in future. Shame.
ReplyDeleteA red outfit for Kylie with her pink Pound dancers. A bit of a coup to get her over at the time, I suspect, and a bubbly start to the show.
Fairground Attraction once again delighted to be on the show. Nice afuche and mariache guitar action, and Eddi’s obviously discovered contact lenses since the chart topper. As for a song with the vocalist searching round the world for their love, I’ll raise you with “Whole Wide World” by Wreckless Eric, the best song The Troggs never recorded.
Voice of the Beehive should have been massive, as least as massive as their latest puffball.
Wonderful song, and it was this one which was about Zodiac Mindwarp, not their first biggish hit. The lyrics had to be changed for radio airplay, as the line ”I see him every night” was originally “I get it every night”.
More often than not I FF repeats but I couldn’t resist the rewind of Kim Wilde for some reason. Ahem.
The Funky Worm, complete with pirate headgear, Timelords double drummers, brass section and appropriately invertibrate disco.
Erm, Janice, why not mention Matt Bianco’s TOTP studio side track in the rundown? We never saw the track you mentioned.
Poor old All About Eve. Julianne half-heartedly smiles early on then her expression changes to mild horror, Tim half strums when the camera focusses on his hands, they gaze and discuss what’s (not) going on then, with the sit-in protest 79 seconds long, the audience cheers (bless ‘em) and a few seconds later we get the start of their ‘performance’. Spookily, almost in sympathy, my PC packed up showing the iPlayer show ten seconds after Julianne started. That’s it, they’re done, we’ll never see them again!
Great interview with Yazz there. I like the way she wore the previous stint garb so as to pretend she’d just vaulted off stage when that was an obvious repeat showing.
S-Express with a “will this do?” cribbing of part of their chart topper in their new waxing. Brian Poole would’ve been proud.
Arthur - Janice has actually commented on her social media account about this show, stating that she knew at the time it would be her last as a Radio 1 didn't approve of her having a baby out of wedlock and she was about to lose her evening radio show.
DeleteApparently, Top of The Pops were far more relaxed, however because of the decision to move to simulcast, she became, to borrow her words verbatim, persona non grata.
As you say, a shame because on the evidence of this outing Janice and Mark Goodier made for a good pairing.
After the playout Janice describes live telly as a great laxative!
DeleteArthur, regarding Kim Wilde and The Funky Worm, I just watched the video for The Funky Worm, and the beginning of it has some animation with what sounds like Kim Wilde's voice:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZYjpWtqFuY
Uncanny that they are on the same TOTP show this week on individual performances, isn't it?
Hi Anonymous! I'm on again to ask if you've got the original Archive shows of the following that BBC4 made cuts from. They are all links to Smith and are all from 1985.They are 3/01, 21/03, 25/04, 5/09, 3/10 and 28/11. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteAnd please Anonymous can you got 25/08/83
Deletebrie sorry only have 05/09/85 and not the greatest quality either
Deletehttps://we.tl/t-kKJDe0HtMz
gia here is the ep, it was incomplete in archive i've restored the ending.
Deletehttps://we.tl/t-Eo48l6I7ER
Thanks Anonymous!
DeleteThanks Anonymous for this one. I'll have to ask xrayfour if he's got them. Any chance of 2/05/74 and 10/04/75 please?
Deleteyep here they are :
Deletehttps://we.tl/t-TtCtWaH9Pv
Great stuff, Anonymous! Many thanks again.
DeleteHere's 4 of them brie. I'll check out the last 2 later:
Deletehttps://we.tl/t-w6gT0THnwF
https://we.tl/t-Y8Tc2PSoQS
Cheers mate for these! At least two of these haven't been done by drykid so I wasn't sure if you could get them.
Deleteanybody got the full copy 7.11.85 or one with the ending restored ? thanks
DeleteHere's 3/10/85 & 28/11/85 brie. They are mkv files as the audio was drifting when I tried to convert them to mp4. If any of the others are out of sync let me know & I will upload the original mkv's:
Deletehttps://we.tl/t-IGmy8VRkIn
Here's 07/11/85 Meer. Also in mkv:
Deletehttps://we.tl/t-jcDHkhazke
Thanks mate for your efforts in getting these for me. I'll let you know later if they're out of sync.
Deletethanks for that buddy
DeleteHi xrayfour! I've checked all the shows that you've uploaded for me and I've found four of them are slightly out of sync. Could you upload them for me again as mkv files please. They are 17/05/84, 3/01/85, 21/03/85 and 5/09/85. Cheers!
DeleteHere's the mkv's brie. Shame the audio is poor on 21/03/85 but it's all we've got:
Deletehttps://we.tl/t-yUbGh5CYDI
https://we.tl/t-IfPXV8cdtl
Brilliant xrayfour! Thanks again.
DeleteLorra ladies tonight, and one of the better shiws for a while...
ReplyDeleteLocomotion - I am old enough to remember the song and dance the first time around and I don’t recall it being quite.so... physical
Slow start to Fairground not so well publicised as the more famous one
(Oh no, new entry at 40 for five star... will the hell never end!)
Another jolly ditty from voice of the bangles... (is this a reissue, i seem to remember it being earlier in the discography?)
Kim’s double entendre next, followed by a very very very very dull worm...
And so to the infamous Eve song. Surprised BBC let us see this after their recent sound quality withdrawals. The audience obviously couldn’t hear it at first either, as their cheer coincided with the miming beginning, I think they get another go next week...?
Wasn’t sure if Yazz was pleased to be number one :-)
Yes, Charlie, "I Say Nothing" was first released in Autumn 1987 and only reached number 45. Voice of the Beehive's next single, "I Walk The Earth", had the distinction of being the follow-up to "I Say Nothing" on both occasions, reaching 42 initially but a surprisingly low number 46 second time around.
DeleteKylie Minogue - Probably one of her worst singles, it does absolutely nothing for me.
ReplyDeleteVoice Of The Beehive - A fantastic pop song, goodness knows how their other single from the 1st album flopped twice, as Arthur has mentioned.
The Funky Worm - One of those songs where I really try to like it, but it never manages to become above average.
All About Eve - Considering how previous singles had been completely ignored even in the breakers slot, this must have been absolutely mortifying for them. At least the audience were on their side. Strange how the problems weren't mentioned by our hosts straight away but I wonder if they were too busy walking over to and preparing for the next link that they didn't realise?
Either way at least they got another chance, shame this was their only big hit though.
My very infrequent posts on this blog yet again arrive two or three weeks after the broadcast but here is my Tuppeneth.
ReplyDeleteKylie Minogue – It’s hard to believe it was her first studio appearance as she seemed to have been around forever by the time of this performance. I would imagine that her character in Neighbours is spending longer and longer in Brisbane by this point as I recall her doing a lot of TV promo’s during that summer including Wogan which you can find on Youtube.
Fairground Attraction – I like this song and it was a good performance. There was definitely a small technical glitch at the beginning and had things been different it might have been them we were talking about 31 years later.
Voice of the Beehive – I liked this song too but I had completely forgotten about it. They should have been so much bigger. I’m sure their last Pop’s appearance would be their cover of The Partridge Family’s I think I love you in 1991. Woody then returned to the Madness fold which appeared to become his day job again as the decade went on.
Kim Wild – I misheard the title of this song as UK until the lyrics were published in Smash Hits. It’s a good song and I believe she had a bit of a renaissance in the Summer of 1988 after a few years in the wilderness due to her high profile support slot on the European leg of Michael Jackson’s Bad tour.
Funky Worm – Not my thing then and not my thing now. They could have thought of a better name as it makes them sound like a novelty act which clearly they weren't.
All About Eve – I had only heard of this band due to their records advertised in Smash Hits and their name was scrawled across the bag of a girl at my school. They must have been mortified at what happened but recovered very quickly and very professionally. Of course they would return the following week to play it live. I love the song more now than I did then and I can sing along to most of the words. It’s a pity they were remembered for the wrong reasons as clearly they had something.
Yazz – Everyone knows this of course and given what we know now, I’m wondering if an intended live performance was hastily scrapped and replaced with a repeat performance due to what happened to All About Eve. Maybe Yazz had turned up with the same outfit by chance and they slotted in the quick interview at the end.
Janice's last show was certainly one to remember, and her partnership with Mark Goodier showed promise. She was perfect with John Peel after Kid Jensen and it a pity she was allowed to go.
Hmm, are you completely sure The Funky Worm weren't a novelty act?!
DeleteJust noticed your posts, hope you manage to catch up...
Ladies Night tonight it seems. A rather memorable show for all the wrong reasons.
ReplyDeleteFirstly for the end of Janice. Loved seeing her throwing herself into the show during these repeats. Her partnership with John Peel was legendary. I will miss her cheery bouncy presenting style.
Mr Goodier also appeared more relaxed tonight and less stiff. He's always looked a bit uncomfortable on TV but a great R1 top 40 presenter.
Safely free of her Neighbours contract Kylie Minogue brings her debut OZ single, a cover of “The Loco-Motion” to the UK. Looking rather fine and this was one of my purchases during the summer of 88. Straight in at number 2 as well, that's hugely impressive. Kept off by the unstoppable Yazz. Performance was ok and some very camp thrusting dancers in the background.
Next up a return of Fairground Attraction – “Find My Love”, more like "find the tune" as it took ages to get started. The first of todays sound problems as this sounded really quiet. I think they may be having problems...…
Song is nice enough, never a favourite but always happy to hear it.
Highlight of the show next: Voice Of The Beehive – “I Say Nothing” less remembered than their previous hit but just as good in my opinion. A great look as well, nice puffball skirt.
A repeat of firm favourite Kim Wilde – “You Came” Yes indeed Kim...
More sound problems for The Funky Worm – “Hustle (To The Music)” is a perfectly serviceable dance number but not gonna set the world on fire. Decent enough performance but they all stopped performing before the music finished leaving to an awkward pause before the crowd cheered.
Poor All About Eve. Not much to add to what everyone else has said but good on them for carrying on when the music started. Glad they get another go next week. Actually found myself quite enjoying the song tonight. That's a first.
Nice to see Yazz in the studio and we clearly were supposed to think she had rushed off stage. I think even 14 year old me didn't fall for that one. Maybe they had too many live acts already.
No breakers tonight so the only video of the week is S Express – “Superfly Guy" and it's crap (the video not the song). Oh Well.