But we do have the running order courtesy of Popscene and some Youtube clips (though not necessarily from the 17th April edition):~
The Selecter are told who is presenting this week's show...
Top of the Pops 17-4-80: Presenter: Jimmy Savile
(14) LEON HAYWOOD – Don’t Push It, Don’t Force It (and charts)
His one and only UK hit almost at its peak of 12 in the charts.
(37) PHIL LYNOTT – Dear Miss Lonely Hearts
Phil's first solo single but this didn't quite make the top 30.
(11) BARBARA DICKSON – January February ®
A repeat showing for this song now at its peak in the charts.
(50) GIRL – Hollywood Tease
The only charting single for this UK group, and their Top of the Pops performance didn't do them any good, Hollywood Tease got no higher than 50 in the charts. You can see a few seconds of it in the Legs & Co clip below..
(2) BLONDIE – Call Me (danced to by Legs & Co)
Legs & Co dance to Blondie once more, and Call Me would be number one next week.
(19) B.A. ROBERTSON – Kool In The Kaftan ®
A repeat showing here for Kool in the Kaftan almost at its peak of number 17.
(26) THE SELECTER – Missing Words ®
Another repeat showing, and Missing Words peaked at 23.
(51) THE RUTS – Staring At The Rude Boys
This was to become the band's third and final top 30 hit.
(8) THE PRETENDERS – Talk Of The Town (video)
Now at it's chart peak.
(12) DEXY’S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS – Geno
Still climbing and on its way to number one.
(34) THE NOLANS – Don’t Make Waves
This follow up to I'm in the Mood for Dancing also did quite well, making it to number 12.
(4) UB40 – Food For Thought
At its peak now in the charts.
(47) SHAM 69 – Tell The Children
This one was their final single to chart, making it to 45.
(1) THE DETROIT SPINNERS – Working My Way Back To You – Forgive Me Girl (Medley) (video)
A final week at number on for this last hurrah of the 70's.
(30) BOBBY THURSTON – Check Out The Groove (and credits)
Bobby's one and only UK hit, and it would make the top ten.
Big thanks as ever to Neil B for posting up this show, which happily played OK on my laptop. Jim'll had clearly decided to acknowledge the new decade's arrival by having a haircut and donning a suit, but his links were as spaced out as ever. The bit where he is seen clutching the young Coleen Nolan is obviously rather uncomfortable to watch now.
ReplyDeleteJim'll seemed very keen to emphasise how packed this show was, and it was certainly a diverse line-up, even if much of it was familiar. Phil Lynott's performance virtually looked as if it was Thin Lizzy in all but name, and the song made for a slightly lacklustre opener, signalling the overall decline in the quality of Lynott/Lizzy's output in the early 80s. I'm surprised that Girl were a British group, as their look and sound seemed fairly American to me - quite an atmospheric and well-lit performance, but a forgettable meat 'n' potatoes rock song that didn't deserve to do any better than 50.
Blondie up next, with what for me is their last classic single. A fine Legs routine too, with some nice moves to go with the stylish trouser suits and hats. Was the Ruts' song intended as some kind of tribute to 2 Tone fans? It does have quite an anthemic chorus, and is given poignancy by the fact Malcolm Owen would die just 3 months later - indeed, there are a number of drug casualties on this show, with Lynott and now deceased members of the Pretenders also featuring.
I see Kevin Rowland was now cultivating his pencil tache, and Dexy's managed another vibrant performance despite being crammed on a distinctly small stage. Credit to the Nolans as well for once again performing live, even if they weren't always entirely in tune - I am not familiar with Don't Make Waves but it seems to be a pleasant enough song. I assume, as this was their last hit, that this will probably be the last we see of Sham 69 on TOTP. As ever, Jimmy Pursey tries hard to sell the song, but this kind of straight-ahead punk was becoming a bit outmoded by 1980, and they already look like relics of an era that has passed.
I'm also not able to view it on 4-shared. Is there any chance that we get get this on We Transfer, like we did for 6th March DLT episode?
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have contact with Neil B to ask him to use a different medium than 4-shared to upload his copies of TOTP, as the same issue crops up again of not being able to download, despite trying through Safari and Google Chrome.
DeleteWe Transfer never fails, and it worked for the 6th March DLT episode which most people could not see via 4-shared.
Hi everyone.If I could offer some advice regarding these episodes on 4shared.com. .try using Google Chrome as your browser as I had similar difficulties downloading and watching them on other browsers.Google Chrome works like a treat and the only problem I have is transferring to them to my ps3 where I store all the episodes that have been made available through the Internet.For that I use a ps3 conversion program so they will work on there! It's a lot of messing around but worth it to see episodes that otherwise would had been lost forever in the vaults of the BBC if it wasn't for the likes of Neil B and others in uploading them for us all to enjoy...and for that I would like to say a great big thank you.Hope you get to view them too.Good love!
ReplyDeleteGoogle Chrome is not downloading it either. Can you transfer your copy to We Transfer?
Deletelooks like girl are the great "lost" item from this edition - i remember them being pushed as a pretty-boy HM act (preceding the hair/poodle metal that would come) but to no avail. their guitarist phil collen didn't do too badly afterwards though, thanks to getting the call to join def leppard...
ReplyDeleteThanks to Neil B for coming to our rescue again. This edition worked on my PC, unlike the last contraband one.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know why Phil Lynott’s song was given a solo artist credit? Why wasn’t this admittedly over-verbose and forgettable effort a standard Thin Lizzy production?
Taking the recent discussion about how to pronounce “caff-AY”, Barbara Dickson’s song is the only time I’ve heard February pronounced that way – “Feb-roo-airy”. I always thought it was “feb-yoo-ree”.
“I’m in a glam rock band”. “Really?” “Yeah.” “What are they called?” “Girl.” ”Hmmmm”. About all I can muster for this track.
Why were Legs & Co dressed in 2 Tone style for Blondie, then? An energetic routine, but not quite as frantic as The Ruts, complete with Mud-style bass and guitar synchronisation for an ace track in my opinion. The song’s about race problems at gigs with British Movement types causing aggro. For their part, Southall’s Ruts had previously recorded for the People Unite label, which probably gives you their stance on the matter.
A ridiculously small plinth for Dexys. They must have played bigger pub corner stages than that.
Oh, dear, Jim’ll. Put the poor girl down! And while you’re at it, turn down the mics for The Nolans and also Jimmy Pursey’s howling. No “Hurry Up Harry”, was it? Shame he didn’t mime the record instead.
The young Nolan did look a bit uncomfortable, didn't she?
DeleteFinally managed to watch this show thanks to troubleshooting solutions found online regarding how to open a file saying 'file not found'.
ReplyDeletePity that Neil B had no chart intro on this, and also it was missing the No.1 by The Detroit spinners and the Bobby Thurston outro, but we must still be thankful for his putting whatever is available, cos the BBC seem to have locked this episode in their vaults forever without allowing us to see it ever again, and it wasn't even shown on UK Gold.
We need some more comments on this Jimmy Saville show, so if anyone is still having problems downloading Neil B's copy on 4-Shared.com, then please find the following tip which I found online which actually worked, whichever browser you have:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KBGXgVAzEs
The result, which worked for me is
Deletehttp://4server.info/download/4shared.com/get/V0JH0005ce/TOTP_170480.html
Phil Lynot. Phillip Lie-Not acording to Saville (Freudian pronounciation?) Anyway, its a shame to see one of my musical heroes peddling this trash. All the usual lyrical tricks are there including the multi-rhymes per line but there is no sign of any sort of tune. Lizzy themselves were self-imploding around this time and this solo-foray might have been Phil's attempt to inject something other than drugs into his life.
ReplyDeleteGirl. Absolutely no recollection of this group or this song and on this evidence its not hard to see why. This is sixth rate hard rock with even less of a tune than Lynott's.
The Ruts. Arriving to the punk party a good six months too late with a song that has less of a tune than Girl's.
Sham's final hurrah and whilst their earlier stuff had a certain degree of oikish charm this is just barrel-scraping of immense proportions. AND it had less of a tune than The Ruts.
The show is only saved by new - albeit similar- performances by Dexys and UB40 so it gets an underwhelming 4
Streamed OK on my ancient (Windows Vista + IE9) computer, though perhaps more by accident than design. Thanks once again to Neil B for filling in the gap, worth watching for a high quotient of forgotten minor hits, stuff we've seen before but definitely worth seeing again plus a strangely 'old-fashioned' Legs routine.
ReplyDeleteGirl - a strange name, but if another all-male band can call themselves Queen then I can see the logic. I think.
Ruts - difficult to tell with the low-res video but I think it's another sighting of real cymbals.
Sham 69 - getting all serious but I can't help feeling that the song would have had more impact if they omitted the trite phrase "in the heat of the night"... But they had had their day.
sham 69 may have had their day chartwise by 1980, but apparently (like UB40) there are now two bands of that name currently active - one with three of those who were in the late 70's (hits) line-up (including jimmy pursey), and (rather bizarrely) another with none!
Deletethis occurred to me after i posted above: should the latter be calling themselves sham sham 69?
DeleteI'll look out for "Sham Sham 69"!
DeleteI discovered only recently the Dr. Feelgood are still going - with NONE of the original members! (John 'Gypie' Mayo can be considered 'original' in this context.) So does that make them a tribute band?
i was already aware that dr feelgood have been going without any original (or even recognisable) members for many years now, but maybe as long as their followers get "a shot of r&b" (to paraphrase the lyrics from "down at the doctor's") they don't really care who's actually playing it. but there are probably others out there who thought feelgood became a tribute band the day wilko johnson left! what about the likes of the animals and herman's hermits, whose only original members are the drummers who nobody would recognise if they walked past them in the street? or "by the jam" that at one point featured those members of the jam who weren't called paul weller? by the way, there's also two versions of the selecter out there these days as well: one called "pauline black's selecter" featuring her and (i think) the guy in the pic above, and "neol davies' selecter" with their main songwriter as the only original member. it all seems rather sad really, but i suppose it beats signing on for a living...
DeleteJohn 'Gypie' Mayo sadly passed away in october 2013. Saw various incarnations of the Feelgoods. Always a good night out.
DeleteVery sad to hear of the passing today of Errol Brown, lead singer of Hot Chocolate, at his home in The Bahamas of liver cancer. Errol was an icon of British pop history throughout the 70s and 80s. This only days after the passing of Ben E King.
ReplyDeleteSad news indeed. I always thought of Errol as one of pop's 'good guys' (and there were a lot of 'bad guys' around, whether known at the time or found out many years later). A Hot Chocolate biggie coming up soon (May 1980).
DeleteI recall seeing Errol on an episode of the ITV late night show Night Network circa 1989 where he was interviewed by Gary Glitter and he very skillfully put GG in his place.
DeleteCorrie Street viewers may have noticed that there was a cheeky reference to the character Tony (Terence Maynard) being an Errol Brown lookalike a few weeks ago when it transpired that his favourite brew was, you've guessed it, Hot Chocolate.
Some good news for everybody after this show there is only 26 more shows that feature Savile - 25 up to Aug 1984 and then the last regular show in 2006
ReplyDeleteOnly 25 up to 1984? That is quite a lot of shows that will be banned, so how can it be good news? I'm going to stamp my feet in protest at the BBC.
DeleteHe made brief appearances in the 1989 25 years show & October 2001 when Totp moved back to Tvc.
DeleteI wonder how many more DLT ones there are?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure he must have about 35 as if i 'm right he done about 10 shows a year and he also finished up doing regular shows at the end of 1984
DeleteNo less than 5 number ones in this weeks chart (Fern Kinney, The Jam, Detroit Spinners, Dexys and Blondie), even though we don't get to see the rundown or hear Leon Haywood one last time. And there were a lot of interesting songs in the bottom half of the top 75 this week that I strongly remember from the time namely Ride Like The Wind by Christpher Cross, Rough Boys by Pete Townsend, Love and Loneliness by The Motors and All For Leyna by Billy Joel.
ReplyDeleteI remember Phil Lynott's later tribute to Elvis Presley, King's Call (which me and my mate always said sound like King Cone) but this completely escaped me.
Barbara Dickson AGAIN, the same performance AGAIN.
I have no memory of Girl but I notice that there was also a song at number 61 by a band called Shy titled Girl. It would have been ironic if they had both been on the same show.
Two Two and op art clothes were influencing a lot of things in 1980 but were already becoming a bit passé but that didn't stop Flick adopting the look for Legs' Blondie routine. I quite like it
BA Robertson AGAIN. The same performance AGAIN but welcome repeats for The Selector and The Pretenders.
I was all over this Ruts single like a rash at the time and I was saddened when Malcolm Owen died. Their next single West One (Shine On Me) was even better but he didn't live to perform it. But we will see Rude Boys one more time in a few weeks.
Spurred on by seeing these old shows I dug out a lot of my old stuff I had back then including my fan club stuff for Secret Affair and The Specials (I was an 'official rude boy') and a box of badges including one for The Ruts.
The sad part about the sudden and excessive use of the Quantel video effects is that it doesn't really suit a lot of the 1960s-influenced music that's in the chart at this point, eg Dexys. It's a shame they shoot it in the way they might have done in the 1960s and give them space to perform.
I'll gloss over JS's treatment of the younger Nolan sister, Don't Make Waves is okay as a follow up to I'm In The Mood For Dancing and they heightened the fad of the jumpsuit just ahead of Sheena Easton.
A new performance by UB40 with the band already looking like old hands.
Although I was a fan of Sham 69s earlier singles I had fallen out of love with them by this point, and Jimmy Pursey's bizarre Keith Richard attire didn't help.
We'll never know if they showed the whole of the Spinners performance from Don Kirshners Rock Concert on this show as its missing and we miss the end titles.
I absolutely LOVE 'All for Leyna' and how that got no further than No.40 I'll never know. It must have been big in Europe though as I've heard it in at least 2 different countries when I've been on holiday.
DeleteAccording to Wikipedia, "All For Leyna" made number 16 in Spain.
DeleteMany thanks to Neil B for making 4 shared uploads, i am able to stream from the site and download files with no trouble. I signed in to 4 shared and I'm using Firefox browser - no problems here.
ReplyDelete