7.00 Bionic Woman 8.00 Leave It To Charlie 8.30 TV Eye 9 Best Sellers: From Here To Eternity 10 News 10.30 Best Sellers
And on BBC1: 6.20 Nationwide 6.55 Tomorrow's World 7.20 Top of the Pops 7.55 Blankety Blank 8.30 Porridge 9 News 9.30 The Silent Witness
(thanks to @tv30yearsago)
12-4-79: Presenter: Peter Powell
(10) THE THREE DEGREES – The Runner (and charts)
(75) LIGHT OF THE WORLD – Swingin’
(14) KATE BUSH – Wow ®
(27) SHOWADDYWADDY – Remember Then ®
(11) THE SEX PISTOLS – Silly Thing (danced to by Legs & Co)
(26) NEIL DIAMOND – Forever In Blue Jeans (video)
(3) RACEY – Some Girls ®
(24) SUPERTRAMP – The Logical Song (video)
(20) SHAM 69 – Questions And Answers
(22) KANDIDATE – I Don’t Wanna Lose You
(6) SISTER SLEDGE – He’s The Greatest Dancer (video)
(1) ART GARFUNKEL – Bright Eyes (video)
(25) WINGS – Goodnight Tonight (and credits)
(10) THE THREE DEGREES – The Runner (and charts)
(75) LIGHT OF THE WORLD – Swingin’
(14) KATE BUSH – Wow ®
(27) SHOWADDYWADDY – Remember Then ®
(11) THE SEX PISTOLS – Silly Thing (danced to by Legs & Co)
(26) NEIL DIAMOND – Forever In Blue Jeans (video)
(3) RACEY – Some Girls ®
(24) SUPERTRAMP – The Logical Song (video)
(20) SHAM 69 – Questions And Answers
(22) KANDIDATE – I Don’t Wanna Lose You
(6) SISTER SLEDGE – He’s The Greatest Dancer (video)
(1) ART GARFUNKEL – Bright Eyes (video)
(25) WINGS – Goodnight Tonight (and credits)
The 3 Degrees ~ play over the credits this week with their disco song The Runner at its number 10 peak in the charts.
Light of the World ~ they took their name from a Kool and the Gang album, but didn't achieve the same chart success, this swingin' number peaking at 45.
Kate Bush ~ an award winner 'last night' according to Peter (the Nationwide/Brits?) here she is with Wow at its highest position in the charts. A timely showing on BBC4 given her recent big announcement.
Showaddywaddy ~ were a casualty of the 7.30 editor's scissors. But we've seen this one before.
The Sex Pistols ~ ok, it's Legs & Co dancing punk again to the Pistols. Multicoloured, like last time, and with the added ability to leap into mid air and hang there for several seconds, before reappearing in a different part of the stage! On the other side of this record was Who Killed Bambi? which features the vocals of Ed Tudorpole.
Neil Diamond ~ a live clip of Neil performing Forever in Blue Jeans in front of a large and appreciative audience. He does have a great voice, though I don't think this clip shows the song at its best.
Racey ~ another chance to see the band perform their biggest hit, Some Girls, with two thirds of Legs & Co.
Supertramp ~ a timeless classic here, and also their biggest hit both in the UK, where it got to number 7, and the USA where it made it to number 6. The Logical Song was also the winner of the 1979 Ivor Novello Award for best song musically and lyrically.
Sham 69 ~ a new performance, having abandoned the karate gear of last time for more normal attire ~ indeed the fashions at this time are beginning to take on an early 1980's look already. Singer Jimmy Pursey seeming to have some difficulty staying upright during this one.
Kandidate ~ sounding more like Lionel Ritchie than Lionel Ritchie himself did at the time!
Sister Sledge ~ a second showing of the video for this Chic produced disco hit, again like several on the show tonight, at its peak in the charts.
Art Garfunkel ~ holy bunnyrabbits, so what's the story here? We do get the Watership Down clip after all, but only about 10 seconds of it! Still, that's better than cutting it from the show completely I suppose. Does it mean the BBC don't have to pay full price for it? What would Bigwig say!
Wings ~ play us out this week with their appropriately entitled final top ten hit, which somewhat unusually was not included on their forthcoming album, Back to the Egg.
The next show, the 19th April, is a DLT hosted one so sadly will be skipped, so next week will be the 26th April hosted by David Jensen.
Cutting the number one out of the show? The BBC are 'Art-less!
ReplyDeleteAgreed, I was pleasantly surprised to see the cartoon video, and was settling down nicely on the sofa to enjoy it after 35 years not seen, and what did we get?...about 30 seconds of it on the 7.30pm show.
DeleteI just hope on the full repeat later tonight that they show it in full, so I will reserve comment for now.
Sorry, we got 1 minute of the video of Bright Eyes, not 30 seconds, or 10 seconds mentioned by Angelo Gravity above. The stopwatch shows 1 minute exactly, but still it is not what was shown in the original top of the pops show, but significantly edited on last night's shows.
DeleteShowaddywaddy - the end of their 5 year domination of the UK charts was here on this show. It was their last hit ever of any significance, and they probably had enough by now, especially seeing Racey on the same show taking over their do wop style with more success.
ReplyDeleteI mean if you gave the Showaddywaddy song to Racey ,it would have got to No.2, but if you gave Showaddywaddy the Racey song, I doubt if they would have made top 5. I firmly believe that it was ironic that the two bands were on the same show, because this show was the changing of the guard.
Racey were now the new Showaddywaddy, and I think the realisation of that, meant the end for the Waddys. What could the dressing room have been like with those two bands meeting face to face two weeks earlier on the Mike Read show where i believe these recordings came from?
Supertramp - What can I say, but what a classic song and timeless in its popularity, for several generations to come. It still sounds so holistically intriguing and a great start to the spring of '79. Pity it only made No.7.
Art Garfunkel - Please BBC4, please show the full video on the repeat full length show, cos if you're gonna show Showaddywaddy for their swan song hit, you gotta give us the full Art Garfunkel video as it was shown on the show 35 years ago.
Otherwise please return my TV licence fee, cos we pay good money to the BBC for that, and frankly we've had enough of your editing and cutting out the memorable parts of these shows for no explained reasons.
I didn't see the late night repeat ~ I take it they still only showed a tiny fraction of Bright Eyes? It sounds like maybe the BBC have cut some sort of deal with the movie company to save money - maybe we'll get at least one full length showing of it whilst its still at number one?
DeleteSome Girls would have made a perfect song for Showaddywaddy, or Mud for that matter ~ but it was also the last really big hit that Racey had.
I think next week is a Sky at Night week ~ lets hope the DLT 19th April show turns up online :-)
The 'Waddy's follow-up "Sweet Little Rock 'N' Roller" actually peaked two places higher than "Remember Then", but true to say the lads then embarked on a final chart run of a number 22 amidst five songs which only got into the 30's. Even so, The 'Waddy were allowed to keep their place in the TOTP trailer park as they were still on the show nine times in the next three years after this edition!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI'll try again (a few typos in that deleted post)...
DeleteA brief rummage through the excellent 45cat website shows that The 'Waddy followed the self-penned number 32 smash "Trocadero" with a self-penned flop ("Take Me In Your Arms") which was probably the catalyst for their label to say enough's enough and turn them into a covers band, their next single being "Under The Moon Of Love". They had a couple of complete flops during their "peaking in the 30's" period, at which point RCA (who'd also signed Mud well past their 'best by' date) snapped them up for little return. The lads kept releasing singles sporadically until 1990 (including one on the Tiger label, whose logo of a tiger's head looks more like an alsatian's), by which time the teddy boy fad must surely have vaporised!
Yes, the last big hit of the Waddy's was in late 1978 with Pretty Little Angel Eyes at No.5, but the start of 1979 was the beginning of the decline, and I think that a large part of this was that Racey with their ingenious ideas of copying the Waddy outfits but adding the Legs & Co girls for more punch, was a shot in the foot for the Waddys who I believe accepted defeat, and the changing of the guard.
DeleteThe song 'Some Girls' could easily have been a Waddy song, but they would never have got to No.2 with it like Racey, cos they were missing the sex factor by not thinking like Racey to add Legs & Co for some extra punch.
Racey 5 : 0 Showaddywaddy (at full time)
Racey were certainly marketed as a teenybop group with sex appeal, I remember seeing them on the front of lots of music mags.But they didn't copy Showaddywaddy's outfits. They went for the college boy look with same coloured bumfreezer jackets and pleated trousers while the Waddys always had the teddy boy look with multi coloured drapes and drainpipes.
DeleteOK, so I make it Racey 4: 2 Showaddywaddy
DeleteBut still i think the song "Some Girls" sounds like a perfect Showaddywaddy song. It sounds a bit like "Under The Moon of Love" if you hear it a number of times.
If the "memorable parts" refer to clips from commercially-available films, that has been well explained - cost. If not, which "memorable parts" failed to make the BBC4 broadcasts?
ReplyDeleteYes, I meant by 'memorable parts' the clips from commercially available films, but how come UK Gold were able to show the Grease No.1's on their repeats as they were originally broadcast, but not BBC4? Surely UK Gold would have had to cut/edit, but they never did.
DeleteI don't know. I presume because UK Gold, in a very different broadcasting environment to today, was making enough from advertising revenue to afford what the film distributors were demanding for the clips. Perhaps film distributors are charging more these days. But I don't think the BBC's straightforward explanation - cost - is invalidated by what UK Gold was or wasn't able to do 15-20 years ago.
DeleteIn that case it would be good if we can get all the UK Gold versions, even for the BBC4 shows like this week's one with Peter Powell. That way we can see the original show exactly how the No.1 video Bright Eyes was shown.
DeleteDory the clip for Bright Eyes from this episode as originally shown on UK gold thanks to AGY
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=OXUOz21wpAc
Great, thanks, I feel a lot better now. I did notice however that you can buy the Watership Down DVD for as little as £5 from many retailers, so it is another option over the six-week reign of this song at no.1 until the end of May!
DeleteNice to see Light of the World actually getting the whole audience dancing, pity the song may have been funky but it was also tune-free.
ReplyDeleteKate Bush, ah, after this video was shown playgrounds up and down the land were full of little kids doing their "hilarious" arm-spinning Kate impressions - I know, because I was one of those kids.
Who was the Radio 1 DJ who used a clip from Remember Then to introduce oldies on his show? I have a vague memory of it.
Legs & Co dressed as Showaddywaddy doing punk. Liked Gill's angry expressions in contrast with Lulu beaming away as usual. Probably the last half decent thing the Pistols ever recorded, anyway.
Neil Diamond performing to the entirety of a small nation, there. Anyone know the location? Madison Square Garden or somesuch, maybe?
Supertramp, with a song that feels very sorry for itself. I recall being in French class in the 80s where the textbook was a bit behind the times, so there was great hilarity when we had to read out "J'aime le pop group Supertramp!" or whatever the phrase was.
Jimmy Pursey should have taken dancing lessons from any Weebles in the vicinity, because he was very unsteady on his feet and appeared to suffer a crisis of confidence during the instrumental break as a result.
Remarkable selection of hair on Kandidate's backing singers. Sister Sledge, if ever there was a video that really needed Floyd from Ruby Flipper it was that one.
I think I've heard enough of Art and the bunnies to suffice, so wasn't too bothered about only getting thirty seconds of Bright Eyes. At the time it was inescapable. I didn't see the film in the cinema because everyone said you were guaranteed to cry at it, and that didn't sound like my idea of a fun day out. Mind you, it's Rio 2 compared with The Plague Dogs (which didn't have a hit record on the soundtrack).
See? Even Sir Paul tried disco.
I wonder if next week they will also edit Art Garfunkel's handsome picture out of the stills for the chart rundown at the beginning of the show? Now that would really be taking the mickey out of us TV- licence payers!
DeleteBloody Hell! I just Wikified “The Plague Dogs”, advertised on the poster as “a special kind of movie magic from the creators of “Watership Down”. What an utterly depressing and soul-sapping film that must have been. Surprisingly, the film’s theme tune “I Don’t Feel No Pain No More” wasn’t written and performed by Leonard Cohen or Nick Cave as you might have expected, but by Alan Price, and it was a flop single on CBS.
DeleteFor the telly fact fans, “Leave It To Charlie” was a rehash of a Granada sitcom set in an insurance company - a right barrel of laughs - which originally starred Bill Maynard. This less than critically acclaimed version starred David Roper and Peter Sallis and managed to scramble to 26 episodes.
maybe mr diamond was performing at the hollywood bowl?
DeleteLot of recycling this week.
ReplyDeleteLegs and co still frame - I had a video recorder that let you do that when watching back recordings. Got used a lot when bought, then never used again. Thinking about it, it also had a sunburst setting, and a 'shuffling freeze frame' option (as in the Sham 69 track) - presumably it was a cheap version of the TOTP toy
The Logical Song - i have to confess to buying the Barron Knights' Topical Song... Well, I was young.
Sham 69 - the drummer was the worst 'miming' I have ever ever seen!
Watched the late night version - Bright Eyes was short, but did seem to be longer than 10 seconds
It was 60 seconds of Bright Eyes actually, and my conclusion is that it was the last 60 seconds of how it was shown on the show in 1979, and not the first 60 seconds.
DeleteI wonder if anyone has a UK Gold showing of this episode?.....then we will know for sure. Any takers?
Song, not performance, recycling
ReplyDeleteI agree with Angelo's point that the 80s look was already beginning to creep into TOTP by this point - Legs & Co's outfits most definitely had that sort of vibe. I actually thought their dance to the Pistols was quite good, though the Quantel effects are already starting to irritate me - the production team must have been very excited about it at the time, and indeed Doctor Who would start using Quantel very soon after this.
ReplyDeleteI've not got much else to say about this show, stuffed as it was with songs that have been on before. At least we did get a snatch of Bright Eyes - the Beeb must have negotiated some sort of cut-price deal for the shorter clip. Also, where on Earth did Roger "Supertramp" Hodgson get that peculiar singing voice of his from? I have always found it really irritating, though I will admit The Logical Song is probably the best thing they ever did - not that that is saying much...
Macca's unwelcome foray into disco reminded me that we have his truly appalling festive offering to look forward to at year's end!
This is one of the few episodes I recorded from UK Gold in 1993 and I can confirm that they did show a lot more of Bright Eyes back then, although not the whole song (approx 2.45). Before the song Peter Powell says "Time to think about this week's number one. It's brand new, it's Art Garfunkel and it's so good...". On the BBC4 edited version they start about 45 seconds into the song, showing the second part of the first verse and the start of the first chorus.
ReplyDeleteThis was a good show but made up of lots of repeated stuff as others as have said. Light Of The World were pretty funky and this reminded me in part of Spandau Ballet's Chant No1.
Ah that Kate Bush video, I don't think she ever appeared in person on TOTP again. This is the second song in the charts that mentions The Sweeney, funnily enough the year after the show finished. Not sure about the reference to Vaseline which seemed a bit cheap even at the time.
The trouble with Showaddywady's songs is that they're just too catchy and I remember at the time being annoyed to find myself singing along.
The Legs dance routine for Silly Thing really does look ahead of its time and they did the band a big favour as it probably made it a bigger hit than if they had shown a video (could they have appeared in person?).
Neil Diamond has done so many lives hows that this could be almost anywhere. It's a pity that he isn't wearing blue jeans but perhaps that was too obvious. For a live version this is pretty good.
I loved this Supertramp song a lot back then, it made me very introspective which I was anyway. I always hated the lead singer's lanky, greasy hair though. He certainly doesn't use Silvikrin.
Oh dear Sham 69 seem to have morphed into a cheesy heavy metal band. For a minute I thought Mr Pursey was doing the splits during the instrumental break before I realised he'd fallen on his toosh. Questions and Arseholes anyone?
Kandidate impersonating The Chi-Lites again. Pleasant enough but largely forgotten now.
Sister Sledge on video again and a truncated Bright Eyes. Okay but is it Art?
Wings go disco with that great bass line.
Interesting find from UK Gold 1993 Boogiewoogie. Any chance you could post the episode online, so that we can see the whole showing of Bright Eyes as it was then on Peter Powell's show?
DeleteIt's still worth seeing UK Gold editions, not only for the ones that BBC 4 do not show at all, i.e., Saville and DLT, but also when BBC4 do show but edit out or give us only 60 seconds of a song such as the new No.1 Bright Eyes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=OXUOz21wpAc Bright Eyes
Deleteregards
Pat M
I'm pretty sure Kate showed up again for Running Up That Hill a few years later. She recreated the video, IIRC.
Deleteto my recollection the horn section of light of the world (in their alter egos of beggar and co) played on spandau's "chant number one". gary kemp reciprocated by getting involved in beggar and co's sort-of follow-up "mule (chant number two)", although to no avail as that one flopped...
DeleteI think Kate Bush did several more Top of the Pops studio appearances over the years - her last one I think was in 1994 with And So is Love.
DeleteAs had already been mentioned, rather a lot of repeats this week, but still some good tunes.
ReplyDeleteThe Three Degrees song works very well as a backing to the chart, I think. Then we get the Light Of The World effort - hmmm....not for me unfortunately.
Thank goodness we get to see the Kate Bush clip. Funnily enough, one of my Facebook friends posted the Alan Partridge Kate Bush medley clip the other day, and that's a real treat as well.
Sex Pistols - I quite liked the tune, and the routine was really good fun. Now all Doctor Who fans know where they got the idea for the Raston warrior robot in The Five Doctors from.
That Neil Diamond clip was awful - he sounded like a chicken in a basket style entertainer, which he clearly isn't. Lovely spangly top too.
Supertramp - is it wrong to really love this song? It certainly isn't wrong to detest the atrocious version by Scooter.
What fine figures of men they are too - not a clean shaven face among them!
Sham 69 & Kandidate may have given us new performances but I still don't like either song.
I'm really annoyed by this Bright Eyes nonsense. On the one hand I totally understand why the Beeb wouldn't want to fork out loads of money for something that's repeated and doesn't get massive viewing figures.
On the other hand, it makes a complete mockery of the show as we all know that it's chopped to bits. I still think some kind of playout of the song over clips of stuff (Art Garfunkel, bunnies, whatever) would be preferable.
Still, new BBC4 controller - maybe everything will change! (NB It won't - unfortunately she was one of the loonies joining in the 'all panel shows are sexist' debate last year and has come out with some other nonsense about what a disgrace it is that there are not enough female science presenters. How about we just have good presenters, eh? Who cares whether they're male or female?)
Ooh, look, number one, it’s Art Garfu….
ReplyDelete“Excerpt courtesy of CIC”. Excerpt??? May as well have shown a still from the film instead. Shambolic. It comes to something when the fadeout song gets 30 seconds more airplay than the chart topper.
Unusual joint vocal / brass dealings from the lads who helped Spandau Ballet out on “Pressure Ron”. Made me all nostalgic for The British Hustle.
I liked the way we had two Technicolor gangs in a row, with Legs & Co following The ‘Waddy. Gill looked admirably menacing, and the gals looked like they enjoyed the routine if you can call it that. Judging by the stills when the gals were jumping, you couldn’t pick Pauline as a footie team defender.
Neil Diamond reminded me of a Bacofoil Bob Monkhouse, but not as bad as hearing that the sax break in “Logical Song” turns Pete on. Enough! Supertramp aren’t really my bag, but I love this song and I also rate “Give A Little Bit”.
Unusual format for The Sham with Jimmy at the back. At least he laughed off his “Bambi in stilettoes” misdemeanours. I think he may have tried a badly mistimed splits the second time he copped it. T-shirt and braces? Ooh, get you, a right Gok Wan!
Finally, how many Z’s in Kandidate? About ten if that song was anything to go by.
in contrast to last week i'm rather late to the party, so it will be interesting to see what points i can still contribute that haven't already been covered...
ReplyDeletehost: pete says "they're doing okay" for two introductions in a row! did they do the intro's in one take? if i was a director i'd have ordered a re-take, especially as one track that "was doing okay" was a a lowly 26 and the other was in the top 3...
light of the world: although i'd much rather see this than eurovision yuck, sadly this lot never pushed my buttons - they always sounded like they were trying too hard. reminds me a lot of hi-tension's "british hustle" that i never liked much either. still, at least it looks like they're enjoying themselves. was one of them bluey from incognito?
kate bush: i like bits of this song, but i get put off by the silly lyrics (especially the repeated "wows") and kate's shrieking in the choruses. why does the director black her out when she's shouting "wow"? surely that would be the time to do the opposite? by the way does anyone know if she's managed to shed some of her blubber for her upcoming live dates? with regard to the (presumably homosexual-alluding) reference to vaseline: a year after this programme was shown i was working in the inmates' shop in a prison. we had limited supplies (snout, sweets, etc) so some had to put in special orders that would be brought in by the screw that ran the store. one guy who was (to put it mildy) camp as a row of tents would often order a jar of nivea cream - one of the inmates who also worked in the shop was gay himself (but in contrast not the least bit camp), and confirmed that it was not likely to be used to keep wrinkles off the guy's face...
sex pistols/legs: whoever is singing on this (presumably steve jones?) sounds like a navvie doing karaoke! those freeze frames confirm what i have long suspected: that pauline is never quite in step with the rest of legs...
part 2 (again!)...
ReplyDeleteneil diamond: i'm far more interested in his suspect hair style than his suspect song - looks like what terry wogan was modelling around that time...
supertramp: at least neil's hair (if real) is clean, unlike this lots' singer! someone mentioned that the show is beginning to display an 80's look... but not in their case! if you saw their last totp performance some 5 years earlier, they wouldn't look any different with their lank greasy hair and straggly beards. it wouldn't surprise me if they all still looked like that even now. "dreamer" will always be my favourite but i quite liked this when it was played to death on the radio (but unlike our host, my favourite bit was when they sang "who i am" ever higher at the end)
sham 69: always a welcome site on the show but far from the relative glory of "if the kids are united" and "hurry up harry". i couldn't remember this at all, and another helping has not helped in that regard...
art garfunkel: with regard to previous discussion on the video, i presume the clip was a minute long because it was as cheap as they could get it for without busting the budget? reminds me of when session players were in their pomp in the 70's, and the musician's union made sure that if they exceeded their contracted time by even a minute then they would have to get paid overtime! personally i can't say i missed the bits that were missing so a minute was ample if not overbearing...
wings (i think macca had gone back to just "wings" rather than "paul mccartney and wings" at this point - did he not realise how difficult he was making it for the likes of the guinness book of hit singles and discogs?): i sort of remember this although i don't recall it being so obviously a disco-bandwagon-leaping attempt. the bass line is obviously "influenced" by chic's bernard edwards, but unlike him it is not effortlessly played nor seemlessly part of the groove, instead screaming "look at me! i can do funky disco basslines too!!". sadly at the expense of whatever else was going on...
mark: 5/10
"Mule" wasn't a complete flop - it peaked seven places away from a TOTP mug shot.
ReplyDeleteto me the definition of a hit single is one that (as you say arthur) gets a TOTP mug shot - surely anything that doesn't get that high can only be viewed as a flop? i seem to remember radio 1 pushing "mule" in the wake of spandau's success, but joe public was as stubborn as a mule (ho ho) when it came to helping it into the top 30. i was well into "chant no. 1" at the time and certainly remember being deeply disappointed at the "sequel". regarding lame british funk efforts, i remember all the hype about funkapolitan around that time - a kind of funk offshoot of the new romantic scene that were played to death on the radio. despite that (mainly due to the lack of any actual tune in my view) they barely made the top 40 if at all...
DeleteGood knock, WIlberforce! Funkapolitan made the charts once, with "As Time Goes By" peaking eleven places shy of the mug shot!
Deletenearly right arthur: it was actually "as the time goes by"... and had nothing to do with that song from the film "casablanca"!
DeleteAh, you must remember this, I'd checked the usually excellent Copyhex site, which replaced the brilliant and cruelly shut down Chart Stats website, and that's how they showed the song's title. As DLT's tape would go....wack wack oops!
Deleteas they say: never believe everything you read. the sad thing arthur is that even before you confirmed it i was already pretty sure that the funkapolitan 45 had got to no. 41 in the charts...
DeleteOne thing that struck me after watching this show, which I've never thought about before, are the two oft-heard defining elements of late '70s music, which never appear together. The first is the 'chattering' funk guitar (see Light Of The World) and the other is punk drumming with its characteristic 4 to the bar iron fist hi-hat (see Sex Pistols).
ReplyDeletePersonally I don't see the comparison between Showaddywaddy and Racey. While they may have similarities at roots level, in terms of recording contracts they're chalk and cheese. The former started out as a bona fide glam rock band with self-penned material, latterly finding success with regurgitated late '50s/early '60s numbers, whilst the latter signed to Chinnichap, recording original songs written for them. (OK, I know they later had a hit with Runaround Sue).
I'm sure that Legs & Co have used visual effects as an integral part of the choreography before, but this must be the first memorable occasion. It's quite sad to see what the Sex Pistols had become by this time - just two studio musicians - but at least the original line-up would reform many years later. I've just discovered that we have another Sultans Of Swing, with alternative versions on the single and the album. At least the vocals are different, with Steve Jones heard here and Paul Cook on the LP.
I can remember watching this Supertramp promo and thinking that they were on the same large, stepped stage as they were in a hazy, early childhood memory (possibly Dreamer). Suffice to say that they probably weren't, it was just something vaguely similar.
It wasn't easy to see what happened during the instrumental break in Questions And Answers - it looked like Jimmy had found a slippery bit of floor and possibly had genuinely hurt himself. And some rather poor direction, showing the back of a guitar amp with its mains lead coiled up - bit of a giveaway, that one!
So, exactly one minute of rabbits. It looks as though this has only just been arranged, given that it was omitted completely from the 29/3 show. My thought is that this clip, albeit just one minute of it, can be afforded simply because Watership Down was something that came and went in 1979. Grease, on the other hand, is still going strong as a stage musical to this day, and can therefore be milked for all its worth, thus putting it beyond the reach of the BBC4 petty cash tin.
i thought the same regarding the "watership down" and "grease" clips - like "YMCA" and "the ace of spades", the latter has transcended the era from which it sprang and as such its copyright owners can command big bucks for any use of it knowing the massive knock-on benefits of it to advertisers and suchlike. however "watership down" is as in-demand these days as the average racey single...
DeleteI remember my disappointment at buying Swindle and the version of 'Silly Thing' being very different - didn't realise it was a different singer. You learn something every day!
ReplyDeleteAnother example of a different version is 'I don't like Mondays' - the single was edited shorter and remixed. I recall my confusion a few years ago when it was played on the radio and I was thinking - 'this doesn't sound right!'
maybe that was intentional on the part of talcy malcy? (there may be a clue in the album title ha ha)
DeleteI'm aware of the single version of 'Mondays' being an edit but never knew it was remixed - I'll have to give it a listen. Similarly, I never realised that the single version of Baker Street was speeded up until it was mentioned on Chris's blog last year.
DeleteThe eponymous Rich Kids and Jilted John are more examples of different album and single versions (it's the single versions which appear on compilation CDs in these cases), and the Rezillos' Top Of The Pops is yet another.
There must be many more - not counting the mono and stereo mixes of the '60s/early '70s!
i seem to remember hearing that singles were deliberately remixed to sound a lot more tinny and treble-y than albums, to maximise their effect on cheap portable transister radios that were still popular at the time... can anyone confirm that?
DeleteMay have been true in the days of mono singles, but as far as I can hear, from around the mid-'70s onwards 45s and LPs have identical sound quality (although the former may sound noisier and more distorted nowadays since they tended to have a harder life).
Deletemaybe the record companies comissioned specially-manufactured 45's with the tinnier mix for radio DJ's, and the normal releases had the same mix as the album? as one involved in that industry, maybe noax can bring up another half century by confirming or otherwise?
DeleteAh, I'm not really old enough to have been on the radio when vinyl was king I'm afraid.
DeleteAt my student radio station we certainly played a lot of vinyl as we had a pretty large record library, but I'm not aware of any alternative mixes on 7" apart from one instance, although not related to a different sound as such.
We had 2 copies of 'For America' by Red Box. One faded, and the other didn't. No-one could ever remember which was which, so it was pot luck which one you got.
When CD came along, the versions were obviously identical except for being one track promos usually. Once in a while they released something for radio that was never intended for single release - I have a George Michael CD that is apparently quite rare as a result!
Here comes the half-century and applause from the pavilion! The different volume levels may depend on which pressing plant the single was manufactured at. I've noticed lots of comments on the 45cat website, particularly about American singles, along the lines of "this copy was obviously pressed at plant X in state Y as the sound's louder / quieter / tinnier than the copy from plant Z".
ReplyDeletei've noticed that amercian 45's sometimes have a different sub-number for the same release - does that signify the pressing plant? i've never really thought about it before, but how many record-pressing plants were there in the UK in vinyl's heyday, and were they all managed by the same company or were they independent operators? (this reminds me of clips on retro shows of disgusted middle-aged female employees having to help manufacture copies of "god save the queen" ha ha!)
DeleteWhile not mentioning the names or numbetrs of the pressing plants, the 7tt77 website has a fantastic section about different record labels' pressing plants - you can tell which company pressed what by the rough or smooth (or plastic)appearance of the labels, the type of dinking (i.e. three or four pushout prongs cut into the middle of the record), the style of run-off marking and wherebaouts they're placed on the 'dead' vinyl.
DeleteAnother interesting remix was Duran Duran 'Hungry Like The Wolf' - I live in New York in 1984 when the single was released there. That was a completely different mix which was unavailable over here until the deluxe edition of Rio came out - I thought it was vastly superior to the original!
ReplyDeleteGuys as we know his weeks edition of TOTP original TX 19.04.79 with DLT in charge was not repeated on UK Gold any body got an old VHS original ?
ReplyDeletePat M
I hope so, cos I would like to see Milk & Honey, the Wings video, as I believe this was their last single as Wings before McCartney went solo, and also the brilliant Gonzalez who haven't stopped dancing yet since their last appearance on TOTP on Mike Read's show in March.
DeleteCome to think of it, why is BBC4 still not showing the DLT episodes, as he has been cleared some time ago of the Yewtree allegations?
DeleteI have a feeling it came as relief to the Beeb when they started the ban, because it gave them a reason avoid a backlog of episodes, especially when fitting in the Sky At Night once a month, so it must have been a good get-out for them to avoid falling behind.
If there was no Sky At Night muscling in on the Thursday night schedule, would the Beeb be showing the DLT episodes? I think probably yes.
I dunno - DLT has not been cleared of all allegations, so the excuse to not show him remains.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI found this short montage of clips from the 19th April show. Includes Legs & Co with their nighties.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxaSHDBJ8mg
What a shame that this show will not be aired by the BBC.