Friday 1 November 2019

I'm Gonna Be Top of the Pops

After eleven years the time has come to wave a fond farewell to Peter Powell on this 15th September 1988 edition of Top of the Pops!

That's what friends are for


15/09/88  (Simon Mayo & Peter Powell)

Bros – “I Quit” (4)
Bros fly in from Italy, where they seemed to have multiplied, with this aptly named song for Peter's final show, but it got no higher than number 4.

The Commodores – “Easy” (17) (video)
It had got to number 9 in 1977, this time around it reached number 15, but we did finally get to see some footage, which if I remember rightly, we missed out on eleven years prior.

The Proclaimers – “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” (14)
In the studio to perform this stonking tune and it peaked at number 11.

The Pasadenas – “Riding On A Train” (29) (breaker)
Peaked at number 13.

Coldcut featuring Junior Reid – “Stop This Crazy Thing” (25) (breaker)
Peaked at number 21.

Salt ‘N’ Pepa – “Shake Your Thang (It’s Your Thing)” (22) (breaker)
Got no higher.

Jason Donovan – “Nothing Can Divide Us” (13) (video)
Hot on Kylie's heels with his first of ten top ten hits and it peaked at number 5.

The Hollies – “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” (2)
It had originally peaked at number 3 in 1969, but nineteen years later it made it all the way to number one, where it will be next week, or in a couple of hours if you're watching it tonight.

Phil Collins – “Groovy Kind Of Love” (1) (rpt from 08/09/88)
Second and final week at the top.

Inner City – “Big Fun” (20) (video/credits)
Became the first of four ten ten hits for them when it peaked at number 8.




September 22nd is next.

41 comments:

  1. It's a sad day for fans of wholly inaccurate chart predictions as Peter Powell leaves the show. He began as the overexcitable young pup, and he exits as the grand old man of pop presentation, you have to admire his staying power.

    This Bros number is only remembered these days for its ridiculous opening line "Most of my friends were strangers when we met" - wouldn't all of your friends be strangers when you met? Did Matt (or was it Luke?) suffer a head injury? Anyway, searched in vain for a tune mired in all that overproduction, but came up empty-handed. Someone in the audience actually doing heavy metal devil horns. Ironic?

    The Commodores, this was back in the charts because of a bank advert featuring a bloke with no outside wall on his flat. Now it would be a housing scandal, but then it was cool. Bloody freezing, in fact, I would have thought. Anyway, classic tune, and not remixed, thank the heavens.

    Great invention, the BBC iPlayer, you can fast forward so easily.

    Breakers, we don't see Coldcut and Junior Reid again, pity because with its Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho-echoing chorus this was darn catchy. Salt 'n' Pepa not as good as their debut hit, and look at the state of those denims.

    Jason Donovan arrives on the pop scene with a pretty mundane effort, and a mundane video to go with it. I actually thought he was one of SAW's better artistes, but not with this example which fails to impress.

    Talking of songs from adverts, The Hollies had this revival thanks to a beer commercial, but we didn't get the brand here in Scotland where Tennent's and McEwan's battled it out for supremacy, so this single's rise to the top was something of a mystery to us. Not helped by the rerecording here, which sounds very pub band.

    Really useful that fast forward feature, as I said.

    Ah, this is much better, and if I was the sort of person who had house music pinups, Paris from Inner City would be mine. Great little tune, definitely one of the best outfits to emerge from the scene, and Paris brightened up viewings of The Chart Show, The Roxy and this. The follow up was even better. Top tip: don't search online to see what Paris looks like now.

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    1. Talking about missing walls, about 30 years ago I went on holiday to the Canary Islands and noticed a number of high rise flats missing the outside wall but furnished. The reason? An incomplete flat meant the tenant didn't pay the Spanish equivalent of Council Tax!

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    2. Presumably they had a high turnover of tenants, too, what with them falling out of their apartments all the time.

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    3. Yeah, I remember this Coldcut & Junior Reid breaker at the time, and yes, its a real catchy chorus, reminding me of the 70s cartoons Topcat and The Hair Bear Bunch.

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    4. Inner City's singer filled out a bit over the years, but I was probably 40% lighter back then myself. It made me wonder, some female singer should called herself Mica Paris Grey and combine the hits of Mica Paris and Inner City in her act!

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  2. PP must have been a popular figure at the Beeb, as I think he is the first TOTP host to get a proper send-off in his final show. I think he deserved it as well, not just because he does seem a genuinely nice bloke; for all his sometimes embarrassing gaucheness in his early years on the programme, his style did mature and for most of his tenure he did bring lots of enthusiasm to the show, and clearly enjoyed presenting it. He is in good form too for this last outing, and Mayo makes for an able foil, with some amusing banter about hair punctuating the links. As PP has been around for almost the entire span of these reruns, it's going to be weird not having him around anymore.

    It's very appropriate in the circumstances that the first song tonight is I Quit - PP was of course also about to leave Radio 1 to begin his successful second career as an agent/manager to the stars. Bros bring some extra personnel along for this rather cluttered, overproduced effort, with Matt overdoing his growling vocal affectations massively. It's no surprise to me this stalled at 4 - I don't think Craig was all that far from quitting himself at this point, though he would be around for a little bit longer. Angelo's right to say that we saw no footage of The Commodores doing Easy in 1977, just Legs dancing to the song. As Lionel Richie ballads go, it's one of the better ones, with an upbeat feel that stops it sliding into tedium, but I'm not sure why it was reissued at this point.

    Next up is The Proclaimers' most ubiquitous track. While it has been overexposed, particularly in more recent years after its appropriation by Comic Relief, it does have an irresistible energy and I can't dislike a song that manages to get the word "haver" into the lyrics - a typically committed performance from the twins here too. On to the breakers, and Coldcut go reggae with this Junior Reid collaboration, but neither it nor Salt 'N' Pepa's underwhelming offering live long in the memory, and we won't be seeing either of them again.

    The Neighbours takeover of the charts gathers momentum, as Jason Donovan takes his place in the SAW hit factory. You don't hear this one much these days, but it may well be his best effort, less formulaic than some SAW productions and with quite an uplifting chorus. Jason still has his mullet at this point - though that would soon disappear - and looks suitably handsome and misleadingly wholesome in the video. If I remember rightly, He Ain't Heavy came back at this point because it was being used in a commercial for Miller Lite lager, a brand that you don't see these days. At first I thought the band were performing live, but I think they were actually miming to an inferior re-recording - was this the version actually released at the time? This is never a song I would choose to listen to, but the 1969 version is miles better than this one. Interesting to see Allan Clarke here, 46 at the time but looking about a decade older, while Tony Hicks still seems positively youthful.

    We get our first glimpses on TOTP of Caron Keating and future Mrs Powell Anthea Turner as PP gets his cake and then has his farewell remarks rather unceremoniously drowned out. Inner City play us out with an average dance track and a video full of funky graphics and modish big letters, as well as another unconvincing attempt, following the recent Yazz promo, at conjuring up a club atmosphere.

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    1. in contrast to allan clarke, hollies guitarist tony hicks seems to retain eternal youth in the way that andy summers does. also in contrast to tony's thicket of thatch, the drummer bobby elliott was balding even in the 60's - first trying to hide that fact with combovers, and by this time never seen without a hat of some kind on his head. however for a while in the early 70's he wore a syrup!

      hicks and elliott still plod around the nostalgia circuit with the hollies even today (clarke was forced to retire several years back as his voice packed up on him). however it might surprise some that bassist ray stiles has been part of the band for about 30 years now - three times as long as he was a member of mud!

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    2. The Move's Carl Wayne was another pop veteran who joined The Hollies, in his case replacing Allan Clarke, though he died just four years later. Nowadays Peter Howarth is the lead singer - he was a toddler when the band had their first hit!

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  3. Just watched Children of the Night by Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman on TOTP2. She didn’t sing a note!

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  4. Just rightly David 'Kid' Jensen introduced The Commodore's 'Easy' danced to by Legs & Co. on the 14th of July 1977 episode unfortunately Lionel Richie and the rest of the Commodore group didn't want to perform on TOTP until 1979 with 'Sail On', despite their success came with 'Three Times a Lady' in 1978 only a promo video got shown.

    Also PP's first TOTP was on the 3rd of November 1977 and the first act was ELO's 'Turn to Stone' as the chart rundown track then closely followed by The Jam's 'The Modern World' as the first proper act in the studio on PP's debut show, lastly PP's final TOTP was his swansong with some decent tracks in there such as 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)' and 'Nothing Can Divide Us', which was also Jason Donovan's first hit in the U.K. but we have to wait for him to perform in the studio along with Kylie Minogue for the 22/12/1988 episode which featured a pregnant Neneh Cherry performing 'Buffalo Stance' in the studio and The Four Tops doing 'Loco in Acapulco' which is also from the same movie where Phil Collins 'A Groovy Kind of Love' was from.

    Also the post-MS archive will continue steadily as we do have a uninterrupted September and October '88 episode run on the way with another three being shown next Friday and a double bill back-to-back the week afterwards.



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    1. It's a nice coincidence that Easy by The Commodores first arrived in the year 1977 when Peter Powell started his TOTP stint, and then reappeared in the charts in 1988 on the same show that Peter Powell ended his TOTP career. How cool is that?

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  5. I bought the Hollies reissue and I'm pretty sure it's the original version that came out, the sleeve has a photo of the group from the sixties. Having said that, I would have watched this TOTP at the time and I can't recall them miming to this re-recording!

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    1. Update - definitely the original, I just dug it out the spare room!

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    2. Thanks Steve, my own memory from the time is that it was the original version. In that case, why the band used the re-recording for TOTP is something of a mystery - perhaps the MU reps were sniffing around...

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    3. The single featured a nice previously unreleased song 'Carrie' co-written with John Miles on the B-Side.

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  6. Not sure why PP is calling it a day, but nice to see him get a good send off. I don’t recall other hosts being given similar treatment. What Caron Keating was doing there with Read and Co. I don't know.

    Two shows to review this Friday and I’m late already having been first up on the previous show.

    Bros – I Quit – Were Bros ever popular in the States? Looking at their singles releases over there this one is missing so I assume not. I don’t even recall it. Ok I guess although the ‘Sounds’ review posted on 45cat is less than complimentary.

    Commodores – Easy – Agree with Angelo, I don’t think we saw this before, but we got Legs and Co instead.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lhUe7DGTW8

    I do like this one even though its re-release here is baffling and that guitar solo always sounds like ripping off Joe Walsh’s on ‘Hotel California’ (that ‘lift’ bit at the end).

    Proclaimers – I’m gonna be (500 miles) – Every year the company I used to work for ran a ‘ra-ra’ event at the NEC and every year they played the same music in the breaks which included things like ‘Chasing Cars’, ‘I don’t feel like dancin’ and this.

    Beakers – Not a single decent track amongst them this week.

    Jason Donovan – Nothing can divide us – Surprise this had aged well and it’s probably because you never hear it now. Typical SAW but catchy.

    Hollies – He ain’t heavy he’s my Brother – Great live rendition by Allan Clarke and friends (were there any other original Hollies there?). So what kept this off the top in mid-October 1969? ‘Sugar Sugar’ by the Archies and ‘I’m gonna make you mine’ by Lou Christie. Fair enough for the first one, but who recalls Lou Christie and his falsetto effort these days? Allan Clarke incidentally released a great single called ‘I don’t know when I’m beat’ (later retitled ‘Shadow on the Street’) co-written with Gary Benson, but it bombed.

    Phil Collins – Groovy kind of love – I’ve just watched the whole video through as strangely they opted to repeat the studio out for Phil here. Apart from Phil smoking throughout most of it, there are lots of shots of him and Julie Christie throughout making it a reasonable snapshot from the film. Certainly for me, one of the best no1s of the year.

    Inner City – Big Fun – Huh? This merely comes across as a piece of disco wrapping although the alternating red and yellow dress singer keeps the interest up to the last.

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    1. The big cake send-off for Peter Powell would seem to indicate that he himself decided to leave, and was not pushed out, hence there was a firm leaving date for BBC1 and Radio1 at around this time in 1988.

      With other presenters like DLT, Simon Bates, etc, there was probably no idea that it was to be their last show until after the event, whether pushed out or leaving of their own accord, but it does look like Powell had it all planned himself in advance, so good luck to him.

      Suffice to say, he never returned to TV or Radio after this point, not even in another career, and wiki says he left to start his own business outside of TV and radio. It was a great loss to TOTP, but it seems he was now being joined on the show by presenters more than 10 years younger than him, and the once young lad of the team was now becoming the old hand just short of 40 and followed Simon Bates out in the same year as two old hands of the show making way for the new crop of presenters starting to come through now.

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    2. Yes, I thought the same regarding Inner City on the playout, ie, the singer in those two alternating dresses did look very ooerr!, although I did think the song was also very good in the realms of THX's summary of it, being pretty much spot on for where we were at in the dance music scene at this point in the decade.

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    3. Er, it was Julie Walters in Buster, not Julie Christie! Although it would have been good to see JC on Acorn Antiques.

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    4. Thanks THX...I've got my Julie's in a muddle! At least I didn't say Julie Andrews!

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    5. Fair play to PP for leaving Radio 1 and TOTP before he outstayed his welcome, unlike some of his other long serving colleagues. It's hard to imagine Bates being given a big cake send off, although I'm sure a fair few of his colleagues would have liked to have given him a custard pie in the face...

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    6. Lou Christie! The male Mariah Carey of his time.

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    7. I'd also fancy seeing Julie Walters having a crack at "This Wheel's On Fire" while we're at it!

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    8. sct, Bros only had one Billboard hit, "When Will I Be Famous" peaking at an ironic number 83. Lucky old USA to miss what we suffered. Friends and strangers indeed!

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    9. Thanks Arthur. I guessed the US weren't taken that much by Bros judging by the comparative lack of singles listed on 45cat.

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    10. Regarding PP's departure, I think a large part of the reason behind his decision to make a career change was that he was less than enamoured of some of the musical trends of the late 80s, and felt that the time had come to do something else.

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    11. going by the drivel that has accounted for the vast majority of what's been on the show this year thus far, i can completely understand why PP felt it was the right time to move on. he may not have been the smoothest of hosts, but unlike some i could mention his enthusiasm when presenting the show seemed genuine. plus as a radio jock he always came over as a decent bloke with a true interest in the music that he played. so thanks for the memories peter!

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  7. Mostly downhill from the Proclaimers (and before them)

    Bros - not quite the sparkle of their earlier work...

    Proclaimers - never fail to lift the shoe

    Boring breakers...

    Hollies - fine track, out why the rerelease...

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  8. A real end of an era here. Last time we’ll hear mention of “The Pops”, I bet. I’ll miss that. Thanks for it all, PP. Can you take Steve Wright with you?

    “I Quit”? I wish you would, lads. Even got their logo on the OTV screeens behind them, the bigheads. Hang on, who are those other two on stage?

    One hell of a bracelet there, Lionel. A lovely tune which sadly steered The Commodores into HeartMagicSmooth ballad syrup land.

    Who was that idiot in the crowd with the incessant high pitch scream during The Proclaimers’ singalong? Craig, or Charlie there, with an “Are we really on the show?” smile.

    Unremarkable 80’s soul from The Pasadenas. I was more taken with the old railway stock and couldn’t find out what “N.E.D.D.” on one of the wicker boxes stood for – obviously North East(ern) something or other.

    Mellow reggae rave from Coldcut (properly done as one word on the mugshots this week) and Junior Weed, er, Reed who gets a mugshot credit unlike last week. Is that part of “Hall Of The Mountain King” used in the chorus?

    Those Salt ‘n’ Pepa jeans must have played havoc in the washing machine. And what did “EU” stand for on that bloke’s T-shirt? Spooky we should get this in Brexit time (puts tin hat on and retreats).

    Jason’s left foot perilously close to the edge of that riser, but not as perilous as the awful sounding vocals and truck driver key change for the chorus. Kylie would kill for hair that long.

    A poor facsimile of The Hollies’ old hit there. A poignant song for me, as one of my paternal uncles used to affectionately sing the title to my dad as a sign of brotherly love, bless them both.

    For goodness sake, let PeTER give us his leaving speech in full! Mister Channel 4 Opening Night in attendance, as well as Adrian Juste lurking tramplike in the corner. That reminds me, I wonder what Adrian John’s up to? Staring intently at someone in his shades, maybe? Oh God, the first sighting of Anthea Turner. Duck!

    I enjoyed Inner City’s rave lite. The words are a bit repetitive, but play me a wordy or Shakespearean rave song if you know one. On second thoughts... Only one hand on that cartoon steering wheel, tut tut, and a tough gig for the cameraman having to do close-ups of the singer dancing.

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    1. Come to think of it Arthur, the Coldcut track does have inklings of Hall Of The Mountain King in a sort of speeded up version, although my favourite version of the Hall track is ELO's version on the 1973 album On The Third Day, which is definitely worth a listen:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Bt7_vslAc

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    2. As I said, I think Coldcut was supposed to be harking back to the old gospel standard Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho. But Grieg might have got to the tune first!

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  9. Remember DLT's introduction of PP at the end of the 20/10/77 show? Still not sure if this went out on air as the playout track failed and they were both hanging around wondering what to do as it cut to the credits!

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  10. Bros - I remember it being a genuine shock when this went down in its second week on the chart. FWIW, I don't think it's too bad tunewise but clearly the lyrics are terrible.

    The Commodores - I do remember the advert, and at least it's a decent song that hasn't been tampered with.

    The Proclaimers - Fine of course, just WAY too overplayed these days.

    Breakers - I really like both the Coldcut and Salt'n'Pepa songs and both deserved to get higher. I remember the word 'pissed' (albeit the American meaning of it) being blanked out of the latter even though it was also in 'Push It' unedited!

    Jason Donovan - Not one of his finest efforts, the song was intended for and turned down by Rick Astley I believe.

    The Hollies - I have a real love/hate relationship with this song. Sometimes I really get into it, on another day all I can hear are the 'club singing' bits (sadly emphasised on this pointless different version used here)
    The first time I heard the song (though I can't recall if they used the original) was as the theme tune to Peter Davison / Philip Glenister sitcom 'Sink Or Swim'.

    Inner City - This for me is the weakest of the 5 singles released from their debut album, but it's still not bad.

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    1. Sink or Swim! It was Robert Glenister in it with Peter Davison, not Philip, presumably cast because they both had the same hairstyle.

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    2. Of course it was, I did know that but somehow picked the wrong one when I was typing!

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  11. Finally getting a day off to catch up... Oh the joys of retail at Xmas. And I'm about 3 months behind. Here we go...

    So long PP. My R1 Roadshow DJ but not one I listened to on R1. A big part of TOTP history and often overlooked. A very dependable presenter. Probably remembered most as Mr Anthea Turner.
    So long PP


    Boy Mayo and PP start off with Broa at their peak. Screen now. I remember the red jacket. This is the weakest of the singles so far though. Craig must be about to be shown the door and made more disposable by blending in with the other backing musicians. Love the silver mic. Looks like he's singing into a shower head.

    Commodores join the re release bandwagon. Classic song. Loving the Rich-Tea hair do. Why did this get a release I wonder. Pointless re issue

    Proclaimers. Singalong now.. And a career is made and a fortune earned in royalties. 😀

    Breakers:
    Pasadeners. Nice number this. They never came to much though did they
    Coldcut jump on the reagge lite bandwagon. Not their best.
    Salt n Peoa shake their thang. Not as catchy as Push It but fine if you like that sort of thing.

    And here is JD with his silly long hair. Neighbours contract still intact obviously as he's in video. Seen this man perform live and he cannot hold a fucking note. Bloody awful. Auto tune in full effect here. Not his best song either very forgettable. Inevitable he'd get a crack at being a pop star..

    Number 2. The Hollies at least bother to back up their re-release with a new appearance. I don't begrudge this a shot at the top spot as it's a great record. Some of them look suspiciously young for a 60s band though. 😀

    Phil still at the top.
    "How long does this this crap go on for" says the girl on the stairs looking at her watch 😂😂😂

    All the R1 personalities turn up to make sure PP leaves.

    And Big Fun to play out. This is a brilliant dance record. Inner City had a few such hits I believe. This is great..

    A show of old tunes leading the way tonight. Good job I knew most them from Mums record collection. 😀

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    1. As I mentioned, The Commodores were back in the charts because they were used in a TV advert. You can guess most of these 80s reissues were.

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