Bananarama's granny wonders where all her bloomers have gone....
8-7-82: Presenter: David Jensen
(5) IMAGINATION – Music And Lights
I'm starting to get the impression that Imagination were just a little OTT.....
Music And Lights was now at its chart peak.
(4) IRENE CARA – Fame (video)
This charted on the back of the tv series which came to our screens in June 1982, though it is the title song from the original movie which came out two years prior. There seems to be more talking (and fighting) in this video than singing! And after causing all that traffic chaos, it went to number one of course.
(6) SHALAMAR – A Night To Remember
Jeff Daniel returns by popular demand - 'hundreds of letters' no less, and perhaps he must've known that his first routine would be yewtreed so was determined to make sure he finally got on BBC4.
The song went up one more place.
(15) AC/DC – For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) (video)
Edited out of tonight's 7.30pm showing.
(30) TRIO – Da Da Da
Shame ~ Trio's memorable studio performance was also edited out.
(3) ODYSSEY – Inside Out
A studio performance here but the Jesse Rae penned Inside Out got no higher than number 3.
(20) BANANARAMA – Shy Boy
Appearing for the first time Fun Boy Three-less, and with a song that wasn't a cover, but written by producers Steve Jolley and Tony Swain, (who also co-wrote Music and Lights) the girls recorded their third top ten hit of 1982, when Shy Boy peaked at number 4.
(13) BUCKS FIZZ – Now Those Days Are Gone (video)
Going back to the 1940's in this video for their first top ten hit that wasn't also a number one, though it seems to me to have a passing resemblance to The Land of Make Believe, peaking instead at number 8.
(1) CAPTAIN SENSIBLE – Happy Talk
Second and final week at number one for the Captain (or is it Wurzel Gummidge?) and the Bunny Mixtures! And yes, the line in the lyrics officially is 'I'm a lucky cuss' but that's not quite what he sings...... Apt, really, considering he took this to number one!
(2) STEVE MILLER BAND – Abracadabra (crowd dancing/video) (and credits)
We play out with some real live rabbits being pulled from a magician's hat with the aid of his very glamorous assistant.
Fame at last! Grab your legwarmers and leap on a car roof, it's #TOTP tonight at 7.30pm on @BBCFour https://t.co/KJrfnmL05b pic.twitter.com/CN5atW4GMy— BBC Four (@BBCFOUR) October 27, 2016
Next then is July 15th 1982.
A fantastic show this week from start to finish, with the 80s now in full flow, with the fun atmosphere of the era for all to see, as Britain was embracing change and more freedom of expression like never before in a Thatcher era now 3 years in motion. There were three iconic elements of this week’s show:
ReplyDeleteIrene Cara – straight in at No.4 with the original promo video with Bruno’s father having a punch up on the street. This MGM clip being shown on these re-runs is evidence that the Beeb has finally resolved its issues with the movie houses, where we saw the appalling editing of Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Watership Down a couple of years ago in 2013-2014 when they were repeating the 1978 an 1979 TOTP shows. If anyone is still unsure, then Irene Cara’s Fame movie clip this week will finally shed any elements of doubt.
Odyssey – their last ever appearance on TOTP at No.3 this week with Inside Out, and their last top 40 hit, as the curtain came down on their top 40 career right here this week at their peak. From Native New Yorker in 1978 to Inside Out in July 1982, their contribution to disco on our shores was second to none, so thank you for the memories, especially the brilliant If You’re Looking For A Way Out in 1980.
Bananarama – first independent single without the Fun Boy Three who had kindly broken them into the music scene with the fine accompaniment on the last two hits with them. Now the girls could do it by themselves, and they showed just how comfortable they were in the TOTP studio without Funboy Three. The beginning of a rollercoaster ride for the girls that would last for the rest of the decade and further, with new singles released every year till 1993!
This was actually Bananarama's second independent single. They'd released a single in September 1981, a karaoke style version of an African song called "Aie A Mwana". It wan't a hit but got considerable Radio 1 airplay, and I think it was from that airplay that they got noticed by the FB3 and others.
ReplyDeleteAnd I thought Neville of Funboy Three fancied one of the Banarama Girls and got them their first break!
Deleteto my recollection "aie a mwana" was produced by none other than sex pistols' drummer paul cook?
DeleteHe did indeed co-produce it. Well played!
Deletethanks arthur - i stuck my neck out there and went off a 35-year old memory rather than refer to the internet where all that info is no doubt easily available these days (honest guv)!
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ReplyDeleteForgive me for my absence from this forum recently, but I'm currently studying for a GCSE in English literature - the one subject I failed at O-level as a teenager. Think of it as my equivalent of Billy Joel's missing credit from his high school diploma! I've been making notes on 'Romeo and Juliet' this week.
ReplyDeleteBack to the matter in hand - and this week's TOTP reflects the diversity and sheer quality of popular music in '82 (Trio and AC/DC excepted). Shalamar, Odyssey and our own Imagination all thoroughly deserved the consistent success they enjoyed in this country throughout the post-disco era of the early 80s.
Bananarama - using the same production team as Imagination at this stage - launched their post-Fun Boy Three career in style with a song that led a journalist in my home city's local rag to dub them 'the Shangri-Las of the 80s'.
Bucks Fizz proved their versatility with this immaculately produced ballad, their first single to feature Mike Nolan as lead singer. He'd never dream of swearing - unlike Captain Sensible, who does indeed use THAT word in the penultimate verse! At least two of Dolly Mixture's rabbit costumes are pink - would that not have been a product placement for a certain brand of battery?
Finally, Steve Miller's second biggest British hit - interpreted in the studio by a torch juggler and "a couple of Paul Daniels rejects" as a reader of 'Smash Hits' described them at the time. This venture into synthpop by the seasoned blues-rock merchant was a well-executed, sensible move that widened his appeal, even if it did steal the main riff from The Kinks' 'You Really Got Me'. More recently, he has been teaching music at the USC
Typo above: Captain Sensible uses THAT word in the LAST verse.
DeleteI mentioned the good Captain's use of the C word last time but I guess his excuse was that he was really saying "Cuss" which is slang for chap. Mind you several Jam songs with rude words passed under the radar over the years (including Just Who Is The Five O'Clock Here) and lets' not forget John Lydon got away with singing Pretty Va-c*nt on Radio One.
DeleteHope the studies are going well, Julie. No need to apologise for the brief sojourn - I'm just glad you reversed your previous decision to retire from the forum.
Deletei got a grade E "O" level in english lit at school (1978), and certainly don't have any aspirations to improve on that. had we studied "lord of the rings" (despite being aqbout nothing but goblins and gobbledeegook so hardly educational, it was on the curriculum at the time) i might have got a grade A as i read it every night in bed for fun anyway. sadly though the teacher responsible (who like most at my school was a complete prick) decided we should study some thomas hardy drivel, in the delusion that because it was set locally there might be more interest in it for us. but as far as i was concerned it had no relvence to me, and might have well have been set on the planet mars. in fact i wish it had been set on mars, as then i might have actually read it with a bit of enthusiasm!
Deletewe also had to study "romeo and juliet" as well, which i found equally indigestable. as part of that we went to a special screening of franco zeffirelli's fim adaptation at the local fleapit. however although it was very colourful it strictly followed the bard's antiquated and tedious libretto word-for-word - the only really good thing about it was during the balcony scene where romeo goes on about two shining stars... just as juliet leans over it in her low-cut dress! that one raised a few sniggers at the back...
When I did my English Lit GCSE 20 years ago, we studied the "Scottish play." One day our teacher decided to show us the film version directed by Roman Polanski, but he kept fast forwarding through all the bits featuring sex and violence!
DeleteJulie - a Duracell bunny did appear in a Depeche Mode performance a few shows back.
DeleteI remember that, John. In the Smash Hits Yearbook 1983, Captain Sensible revealed that he collected toy bunnies as well as owning a real rabbit, and that it was his idea to get Dolly Mixture to dress as rabbits.
DeleteI got an A in Higher English, fat lot of good it did me, mind you! We did Macbeth (I suppose we'd have to) but got to visit the theatre to see a performance, so no movies for us. The closest we got was Othello, where we saw the BBC Shakespeare with Anthony Hopkins in blackface (sheesh). Bob Hoskins was a great Iago, though.
DeleteOh, and the Zefirelli Romeo And Juliet features the pair both stark naked in one scene - sounds like you got the edited version, Wilberforce! Swiz!
We did see it at the theatre too, though some of the kids just chatted all the way through it and kept distracting the actors!
DeleteHaving just watched Trio on the late night showing, I found two things very irritating about them. Firstly the awful bubble gum chewing by the lead singer while performing on TV, which is a big no no as far as I'm concerned. Secondly, one of the group lighting a cigarette and attaching it to the microphone, a big no no from TV broadcasting channels in today's world of health & safety, but clearly in 1982 these new rules were far from being implemented yet.
ReplyDeleteNot a fan of Paul Weller, then? Surely the king of the gum chewers.
DeleteThat wasn't the microphone the guitarist stuck his ciggy onto, it was a guitar string, an old musician's trick.
I may have said this before, Weller is the most overrated, talentless twat to ever call himself a "pop star". The fact he vigorously chews gum confirms this.
Deletesmoking axemen such as keef and ronnie wood don't (or rather didn't, as i presume such practice is not allowed these days?) usually stick their lighted fag on the end of their guitars in the manner the trio guy does - they insert them into the gap between the strings and the headstock
DeleteWeller borrowed his gum-chewing antics from one Nick Lowe who famously used to do it in his Brinsley Scwartz days.
DeleteCompare these two clips, see any similarity in the look and sound?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSlyn0WoSjc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdjD8zn_9iQ
i suspect the modfather took up the gum-chewing habit because he thought it made him look both hard and cool. no doubt he was (and probably still is) also a heavy smoker for the same reason...
Deletechewing the fat over gum reminds me of a classic dave allen joke:
Deletea recalcitrant gum-chewing youth is up before the beak, who orders him "stop masticating, young man". so he takes his hands out of his pockets!
I read somewhere that some singers do it because it calms their nerves/stagefright but I guess it doesn't look that good.
DeleteBut I am convinced that Weller borrowed the gum thing and his early Style Council look from Nick Lowe (he was also obsessed with Magical Mystery Tour-era Paul McCartney and that shows in some of the early Style Council videos).
Imagination with their typical reserve and conservative dress code to begin, though there's a guy in blue breeks trying to muscle in on their act. Breezy little number.
ReplyDeleteI was one of those kids who loved The Kids from Fame, so I would have already been drawn into watching their show by this time. Because Irene Cara never made a video for the theme, we get this noisy clip from the film, which was far grittier than the TV show, though fighting aside it might be difficult to tell.
You can't keep a good man down, and here's Jeffrey back, dancing with a cup of tea presumably because he's in Blighty. Like to see him doing the "walking down stairs" mime that comedy dads did behind sofas.
AC/DC and the poorly filmed concert footage (of course) with a song where everyone remembers the bit when they do the title, but the rest of it slips the mind. Not bad, but maybe not front rank.
Disaffected German art pranksters ahoy! Infernally catchy ditty, highly amusing but why were the audience waving crudely drawn pictures of themselves? Was that in the band's rider?
Odyssey with their final hit slice of classy disco, sounds a little like the last gasp of an era, but it's well performed and arranged.
Bananarama strike out away from the FB3 with a genuine pop hit, a good match to their bored-sounding vocals (though not as bored as Trio, natch).
Bucks Fizz go all wartime nostalgia on us, I thought a mishap had struck the Bobby "character" and he would be revealed to have been missing in action, but his elderly equivalent was there at the end of the video. That's nice. As for the song, very "sad ABBA".
Captain Sensible, almost completely unrecognisable (maybe it's because he's taken off his glasses), surrounded by a tribute to the TISWAS tribute to Watership Down. I'm not 100% sure he really is swearing, wasn't that a story put about to make him sound edgy? It's hard to tell.
The prestidigitators in the Steve Miller band not good enough for TOTP, huh? So we get bottom of the bill variety acts to flesh out the performance (that reminds me, why isn't The Good Old Days on this week?). All adds to the nuttiness, I suppose...
"Reverse thrust" , Kid?!
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DeleteWrong THX, Irene Cara DID make a video for Fame with herself appearing in it, again outdoors with the yellow taxis but it's not clear when it was made, so here it is for those who were not aware of it:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2jh7N7Fldk
Clearly this video was made in addition to the video we saw this week on TOTP (and thankfully without the punch-up scene with Bruno's father and the guy wrecking his yellow taxi).
I'd forgotten about that, I think it was even on TOTP, wasn't it?
DeleteWell, we'll find out tonight when it is no.1, having taken over top spot from Captain Sensible, and also the next two shows next week where Irene holds on firmly to the No.1 spot.
DeleteWe will definitely see that video tonight - I think it was made especially for TOTP.
DeleteReally? Two different videos from No.4 to No.1 in this tune's journey to the top of the charts? Good Lord, why would she do a new video just for TOTP when we had one already for the worldwide market, i.e., the one with the punch-up in the street?
DeleteMy guess would be that the BBC got special access to all things Fame-related because they had just started showing the TV series. Although Irene Cara did not appear in the series, the prospect of a big UK hit probably helped persuade her to do the video.
DeleteThe punch-up clip wasn't an official video, it was an extract from the film where they had played the theme song. Heh, I'm sure you don't need me to tell you the difference between a film and a video, Dory!
DeleteCrickey, I need to watch the original Fame movie to put things right. Anyway, looking forward to seeing the new 'film', ahem 'video' from Irene Cara herself tonight on BBC4, with a big new No.1 for us to relieve us from Captain Sensible and his parrot!
DeleteYou can get a DVD of Fame on Amazon for the princely sum of 1p. Make sure you get the original and not the remake, which is OK, but doesn't have that New York City danger about it like the first one had. I remember the buzz us TV Fame fans felt when the film was on and it turned out it was not for kids at all!
DeleteBut then does the postage cost £10 to make it no cheaper than buying in the shops in person?
DeletePostage just over a pound from the seller, I think. Either that or try a charity shop.
Deleteperhaps "the good old days" isn't on this week because the master of ceremonies leonard sachs got sent down for importuning (when he was in his mid-70's!)
Deleteby the way thx: for the benefit of those south of the border, what are breeks?
Well, TGOD is back on next week, so maybe not, but I had no idea Len had a criminal record! He seemed such a nice man, too.
DeleteOh, and breeks are trousers.
so one guy with a criminal record for sex crimes is deemed to be acceptable to be seen on the telly by the beeb, whilst another who has served his sentence for a similar crime is not. not to mention another who was never charged with anything in his lifetime - talk about double standards!
DeleteJust looked Len up on the net and basically he was fined for asking men for a shag in 1984 (a year after TGOD ended) - he might have been pardoned under the new system this week, actually. I bet facing his wife was punishment enough...
Deletethx what is this new system of "pardoning"? and does it affect DLT?
DeleteNot unless DLT has been cottaging at some point in his life! That would be a story.
DeleteNo, it's pardoning gay men who were arrested for basically being gay, Alan Turing the war hero is the most famous example, and because homosexuality isn't a crime now, all those who were convicted have been retroactively pardoned.
It's not a practice of the police that ended in the late 1960s, as Len found out to his cost (did he proposition an undercover copper, I wonder?). The pardon seems like a token gesture to me, and won't help those whose lives were ruined by their arrests, but at least it's something.
There may have been bottom of the bill variety acts accompanying the outro but, in terms of chart places, this edition was all killer and no filler. Has anyone else noticed that not only was every song by a mugshot act, and not only was there a solitary act outside the top 20, this show contained the entire top 6? When was the last time that had happened on the show?
ReplyDeleteInteresting debate about swear words on the show. I still find it interesting that, on Radio One, The Stranglers occasionally got away with “Shit” in “Peaches” and Chumbawamba regularly got “pissing” aired via their big hit, and Heart still retain “Sex On Fire” by Kings of Leon and “Hey Ya” by Outkast on their rotation playlist, the latter including the lines “don’t want to meet your mom–ah, just want to make you wanna cum-ah”.
Finally, I can’t hear that Trio song without thinking of the later cash-in “Ariston-and-on-and on” TV ad.
Seems to explain my comment at the very top of the blog that it was a fantastic show this week, without realising that we had all top 6 singles featured in full performances. W would have to trawl through TOTP shows in these reruns from 1976 onwards to see if we had a top 6 all featured, but I seem to recall that it has happened once before, as it was a talking point on the blog, but I cannot remember which show it was over the 5-6 years of these repeats.
DeleteI have vivid memories of that Ariston advert and its jingle - kids used to sing it to each other in the playground at my school!
DeleteA quick trawl reveals that in 1981 two shows played 4 out of the top 6, thusly:
Delete29.1.1981 included nos 1, 2, 3 and 6
24.12.1981 included nos 1, 3, 4 and 5
There must be others.
OMG I'm own with this one. I'm officially a chart stats geek.
DeleteSuspicious edit just before Trio - The link begins (in voice-over) over the end of AC/DC, and there appears to be the words "European Charts" on the screen behind the Kid.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I spotted that too - looks like we have lost yet another segment to the scissors, presumably due to JK's involvement.
DeleteWe did indeed miss another US segment which featured the following -
Delete"Love's Been A Little Bit Hard On Me" by Juice Newton" (US #7 at the time, peaked at 4, her only UK chart entry was "Angel of the Morning" which reached 43 in 1981)
“Eye Of The Tiger “ by Survivor (US #5 at the time, you know the story)
“Hurts So Good” by John Cougar (US #3 at the time, rose to number 2, the prequel hit to Stateside chart-topper “Jack And Diane”)
US chart topper “Don’t You Want Me” by The Human League (the British invasion starts here!)
PS - Still waiting for Phoebe Cates from the last snipped rundown!
It seems that Neil B will make this segment available over the weekend - I'm still hoping he may also be able to provide us with Phoebe! I was not expecting there to be a US chart feature in this show, as Popscene did not include it in their running order - I see they have added it in now...
DeleteIndeed, we need 17th June full show with the European No.1's, and this 8th July show with the JK segment. Wow, what a mess that BBC4 are still putting us in when we want to watch a full show exactly how it was back then.
DeleteAs others have said, a good show this for the most part. For some reason the picture quality was also pin sharp, almost as if it had been restored!
ReplyDeleteImagination - Another chance to open the show, another silly costume for Leeeeeeeeeeeee
Irene Cara - I can totally understand why they recorded another video for the song as this one is a) Not the single version (I think) b) From the film and nothing to do with the hit TV show and c) Has the song barely audible at times
I loved The Kids From Fame and this song.
Shalamar - You never usually see this performance, do you? Would have been better if the Kid had been stood behind that Dj deck (?) with Jeffrey popping up after being introduced.
AC/DC - Like most of their songs, I know lots of people who get excite by it. I don't.
Trio - Performance of the night! So much to love: the audience's self-portraits, the deliberately weird direction (kudos to Hurll for going along with it) and the football with 'thanks' on it which is either thanks to the Germany team (who would play their World Cup semi against France that night) or to England for not beating Spain - not sure which.
As for the song itself, a friend had that Casio keyboard used on it so you can imagine how exciting that was at school.
My sister had one of those keyboards too - I remember she learnt to play the EastEnders theme on it a few years later!
DeleteMaybe Kid could have pulled Jeffrey up by his ears like Chris Tarrant used to do with the kids on TISWAS.
DeleteI had a Casio VL Tone and used the rhythm tone to keep me in time when I recorded my own songs (very badly)!
DeletePart 2!
ReplyDeleteOdyssey - Glad that we got to see this great song, although the performance is a little weird and looks under-rehearsed.
Bananarama - It's a slight song, but I do rather enjoy it. You can tell that Siobhan is the proper musician as she's the only one even bothering to mime!
Bucks Fizz - A nice video that reflects the feel of the song very well.
Captain Sensible - I am amazed that the bunny girls were allowed to dangle their carrots where they did....
Steve Miller Band - Zoo were noticeable by their absence again, a shame therefore that we had to see the return of the circus acts to spoil an otherwise good show.
host: david "kid" is as decent as ever - nothing more can be added really. other than to say watch the guy behind his right shoulder as the no. 1 hit is introduced - it's painfully obvious he needs to be told to clap on cue rather than react naturally, and also painfully obvious that he jumps the gun!
ReplyDeleteimagination: did they really need to be the lead-off act again this week? in the OTT togs dept, leee's hat-thing loses out to ashley's harem pants (was MC hammer watching?)
irene cara: my younger "normal" sister liked this crap (well, the tv series anyway), so of course i had to hate it. not that i would have liked it much anyway. and i never cared much for the theme tune at the time either, although like "bohemian rhapsody" and other songs that have become institutions (or should i say have "lived for ever"?) it's listenable now... if not much more than that
shalamar: sadly there's not enough backsliding from jeffrey here, which is what we all really only wanted to see
ac/dc: a tuneless noise to accompany the irritating one-trick pony on guitar
trio: do this lot win the award for ugliest act to ever appear on totp? take away the casio vl-tone rhythm (which was the only decent drum pattern on the thing) and there's practically nothing left! as star trek's bones might have said to captain kirk: it's art jim, but not as we know it
odyssey: i'm getting to like this more and more, especially the syncopated vocal break about half way through
bananarama: i remember quite liking this despite already realising that this bunch of chancers were probably on the last one of their fifteen minutes of fame (sadly i was very much wrong there). but then again it's not surprising given that swain and jolley of imagination fame were behind it. i'm wondering just a what point i started to despise what was virtually a novelty act continuing to rack up the hits? sartorially they look like they're dressed in little but rags, which may be a pointer to things to come but it does little for me - they obviously didn't shop at the same emporia as the statuesque martha!
bucks fizz: the boys really should have go their hair cut for this retro-video. was that actually cheryl made-up to look old right at the end?
captain sensible: at last dolly mixture have got rid of those stupid guitars!
steve miller band: is that the blonde from banarama that casually strolls across the set at the start of this? the conjurers here aren't even going to give paul daniels sleepness nights, never mind the likes of david copperfield
I must admit Wilberforce that Trio were probably the ugliest guys I think I've ever seen in that TOTP studio. I don't think it would have been good if they made to No.1 with this one. Thank goodness they didn't.
DeleteI was thinking the same regarding the blonde strolling across our screen at the start of Abracadabra. I think it was one of the Bananarama girls, yes indeed.
We've seen some spectacularly ugly punk bands that have looked worse than Trio.
DeleteWhich one was it with the singer who was about 10 years older than the rest of them who used to turn up quite often? They were definitely not pretty boys.
noax i think you're thinking of uk subs? they might not have been oil paintings, but even they weren't as ugly as trio! not even the exploited were as ugly as trio!!
DeleteThe members of Trio (two of who are now dead) were in their mid thirties here and looking plain/ugly was clearly part of their art.
Deletedoes the surviving one now record/tour as solo?
DeleteThanks wilberforce, it was UK Subs I was thinking of, I had forgotten (both musically and facially) the horror of The Exploited!
DeleteIt seems like a quick return to the ToTP studio for our favourite Canadian - but that is only because of our twice-a-week-and-skip-certain-episodes schedule in 2016. Back in 1982 it had been over a month since we last set eyes on The Kid.
ReplyDeleteImagination are this week's openers in a by-numbers routine where they are - for them at least - fairly sensibly dressed. Leeee's stomach doesn't look as though it has seen the inside of a gym for a while.Might have been better wearing a nice baggy T-shirt there son. Encrusted with diamantes naturally.
Theme from Fame. The film was an at-times gritty look at the downside of the entertainment industry. The TV series was more of a school-based drama with added 'lets-do-the-show-right-here'-ness. Just right for the majority of the ToTP audience. The street sounds and dialogue were very intrusive, and God only knows how many counts of Public Nuisance, Disorder, and traffic offences this lot racked up.
Our boy Jeffrey is back - thanks to literally hundreds of letters who loved the way he moved his feet. So this time he (or the Beeb) stick him behind a desk for a good part of it. Good move.
Odyssey. I always thought the lady with the braids sang all of their songs. Obviously I was wrong. The singer here looks a bit . . . I dunno, there's just something a bit weird that I can't put my finger on. Great song though.
Those ragamuffin Nanas are back -this time without Funboy Three, and it's a decent pop song. They still look like the girl round the corner, which I suppose was part of their appeal. It certainly wasn't their vocal abilities.
Bucks Fizz. A well-though out nostalgic video echoing the theme of the lyrics. Apparently Bobby Gee was attacked by those swans. Can't say I blame them - he has that kind of face that even feathered creatures can take offence at.
The Captain still at number 1 before we have the bizarre sight of real-life (and not very good) magicians whilst Steve Miller plays us out.
Because the song is called Abracadabra.
And magician's used to say 'abracadabra'. D'you see?
Thankfully this literal illustration for songs was binned. I mean you could imagine the problems they'd have next week with Dexy's Midnight Runners!!
Scores. The Kid was as good as we have come to expect. He has ditched the 'chart sound count down' thing thankfully, but is he trying out 'the electric scoreboard' now? 9
Musically it was just above average. The best of the bunch being the mixed-sex line ups of Odyssey, Shalamar and Bucks Fizz. 6.
Blimey. You blink and there are already 41 comments and only half of them repeat entries from Arthur (just a joke, sorry Arthur).
ReplyDeleteImagination open the show for the second time in two weeks which shows a distinct lack of imagination on the part of the producers. But this was actually better than the last one. I see former Disco Dance champion Grant Santino (the guy with the blue trousers and braces) has now stolen Craig Fairbrass's place as chief cheerleader and attempts to upstage Leeeee and Co. He doesn't manage it not with Lee adorned in an outfit that is part futuristic bulfighter and part wedding dress. No one out-camps Leeee.
And then Irene Cara on video or at least the dance sequence with dialogue from the Fame film. I remember this from the time and loving it to bits but it all seems a bit silly now. The Italian cab driver seems to have a very good sound system going on there even thought it looks like a couple of old Tannoy speakers. Now where are my legwarners?
Shalamar and JD's back with another incredible dance routine. Of course it has little to do with the lyrics except it was certainly made it one night to remember. I seem to recall that after seeing this my friends and I all tried to copy it and failed miserably.
Last time it was The Jam with the truncated live clip, now its ACDC's turn. Well we can't have to much fun can we, there have to be a few bad bits. Well it's a good title but the music is it a bit too in your face for me. And I always found the schoolboy thing a bit weird. There are private clubs for that sort of thing.
Da Da Da was one of those tracks that I quite liked but never went as far as to buy. This is a brilliant performance and probably the highlight of the show. The crowd look like they are all waving portraits which were presumably drawn by one of the band although what it has to do with the song is anyone's guess. The guys in the masks look like they're trying to copy Mr Daniels robo dancing and are failing miserably. I like the business with the pocket Moog or whatever it is.
Oh no that bloke's back, the one who looks like the painting George Michael has in his attic. you know the one - all highlighted hair, tons of eyeliner and a little moustache in case anyone thought he might be straight. A few weeks ago he was wearing a ludicrous canary yellow zoot suit, the following week a bright orange one. This week he is wearing orange AND yellow. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Nice to see Odyssey in the studio as opposed to relying on Zoo to interpret their music in dance. This was a super, effortless performance and it's easy to see why they were loved. I like the lead singer's husky voice which really makes the song for me, and this still sounds brilliant today.
Producers Jolley and Swain's second bite of tonight's cherry with Bananarama who seem to have been to the same hairdressers as Duran Duran, or is it the other way round? They get the lot, a big stage, dry ice and are bathed in pink and orange light and they're still shite. Can't dance for toffee, can't sing in tune. Reminds me again, why were they famous?
Bucks Fizz on video inspired by the movie Yanks. This was just lovely.
Nice to see the Jam have gone up again. This single featured a great song on the B-side called The Great Depression.
And the good captain still at the top. This week he's channeling Worzel Gummidge and for some odd reason the Dolly Mixture girls are giant rabbits. Well it made a change I suppose.
They play out with Abracadver and show some live magic weirdly intercut with more magic tricks on the video which kills the illusion slightly. Weirdly the audience don't seem to be taking any notice of the magicians so we can assume that were filmed three weeks earlier for health and safety reasons. I noticed a stray Bananarama member at the start of this but she doesn't take part in the dancing. Of course not, they want people who CAN dance.
bama the "pocket moog" was (as i've mentioned above) the casio vl-tone, which was marketed as the first affordable monophonic synth * at a cost of around £35 to my recollection (which was still a lot of money in those days it has to be said). but to be honest you got what you paid for as it was little more than a novelty item with limited (and rather feeble) sound patches plus a few rhythm pattern presets that were mostly unusable
Delete* you could say that the stylophone got there first around 15 years earlier...?
Thanks for the low down Wilby. I do remember seeing synths at the time but never one that small.
DeleteYou cheeky minx, Bama! :-D
DeleteI think I've worked out why some of my messages repeat. It depends on whether I log into the blog via a search engine where I'm already set up as Arthur, or whether I use an unregistered version which appears to cause those duplications.
Kid follows John Peel's example from last week and dresses for his summer hols while hosting this edition. He is thankfully spared the more manic cheerleaders this time round, though the guys in dinner jackets seem determined to claim the Fairbrass crown as number 1 attention seeker!
ReplyDeleteHowever, when Imagination come on you can't really take your attention from Leee and his impressive wedding hat. Despite this, the performance is a relatively restrained one for them, but still entertaining. It occurred to me watching this that Leee was just a few months away from his plank-like turn in Doctor Who, where he also got a nice opportunity to dress up. Irene Cara had rather more success as an actor as well as a singer, and her vocal performance on Fame is superb. Sadly you can barely hear her on this "video," with the film soundtrack constantly intruding. I've never seen the film, but do remember watching some of the TV episodes in the summer holidays in the mid-to-late 80s. Not really my cup of tea, but the theme song still packs a punch and really does evoke the era, not least through its bombastic production and go-getting, egotistical lyrics.
Back by popular demand, Mr Daniel dons some dubious stripy trousers as he treats us to some more moonwalking and body popping, with added tea drinking. Perhaps not quite up to the standard of the previous routine, not helped by Jeff being stuck behind the desk for part of it, but still good fun. A bit of a comedown thereafter, as AC/DC serve up another helping of their predictable screechy bilge, but this happily soon gives way to a truly memorable performance from Trio, full of ironic looks and dummies doing robotics. In our censorious age, I think we can count ourselves lucky that the antics with the cigarette were not censored by BBC4! This song (if that is the right word for it), also extended the great 1982 German invasion of the UK charts to another Top 10 hit, and indeed almost another number 1.
At least Odyssey turn up in the studio this week to spare us another Zoo attempt at their hit, and they turn in an understated but classy performance, even if the bloke's dress sense still hasn't fully moved on from the 70s. Bananarama put us firmly back in 1982, style-wise at least, though their sound owes much more to 60s girl groups, minus the vocal proficiency. Even so this is well-produced and catchy, and showed the Nanas did not need the Fun Boys in order to prosper. Like others here I thought the Bucks Fizz video worked well with the song, and it looked as if a fair amount of money was spent on it. However, I feel a bit sorry for Cheryl and Jay having to sport those deeply unflattering 1940s hairstyles...
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is a performance of Happy Talk that never gets put on the compilation shows! A truly hallucinogenic experience, as Captain Gummidge dances with his giant rabbits while that bloody bird continues to flap above. If I had seen this at the time I would probably have been terrified, as I found old Worzel very scary when I was little! Some third-rate magicians then do naff tricks with real rabbits to Steve Miller's plodder, while a guy on the dance floor catches the eye by bearing a distinct resemblance to Jacko in the not-yet-made Billie Jean video...
The Doctor Who story that Leee appeared in was 'Enlightenment' written by Fiona Cumming and starring Peter Davison as the (5th) Doctor. Sort of boat race in space.
DeleteEnlightenment is a good story, only marred slightly by Leee's non-existent acting skills and Lynda "Nurse Gladys" Baron's hamminess!
DeleteJK version link - We Transfer
ReplyDeletehttps://we.tl/L9PNfVI3zm
Seems like your WeTransfer link is from an old version of Mac OSX and is not supported by Quicktime on the current versions of OSX, and so it will not open on WeTransfer. I tried going through the VLC application to open it as it seems to be an Avi file, but it will still not open.
DeleteAny solutions anyone?
The download worked on my laptop, so thanks Anonymous! The excerpts from the featured songs were quite lengthy this week, and Juice Newton's video was amusing, not least for her horrendous fringe. There was also a brief and not entirely friendly interview with John Cougar (seemingly without the Mellencamp at this stage), in which he forecasts the death of rock 'n' roll some 20 years or so after this had first been prophesied, and a good 30 years before another wave of obituaries began to be written. However, the segment is most worth watching for JK taking a pop at Phil Oakey for complaining in the press that the US chart spots on TOTP were a waste of time!
DeleteThanks, Anonymous! Shame they didn't aim one of those cannonballs at JK in the US charts section while they were at it. That bugler sounded like he was copying Les Dawson's piano technique. I couldn't decide if Judy "Juice" Newton's fringe or her suitor's moustache was the more hilarious. Confirmation indeed that JK introduced the missing Euro section from two weeks back, and David Kid mentions this in detail in his intro to Trio, hence the scissors and Copydex before they came on.
DeleteI'm also struggling to download the file with only a'this page can't be reached'response.Any chance of uploading it elsewhere.
DeleteStill cannot download it - anyone with alternative upload options? Also still waiting for the 17th June full version with the European No.1's including Phoebe Cates.
DeleteTOTP 07 08 82 full version (with JK section) www.4shared.com/video/pQITSvHOce/TOTP_1982-07-08.html
DeleteAt last, I could see it in full on 4-shared. I must say that as in the words of ACDC on this show, 'for those about to rock, we salute you', can I say the same for Neil B. What a star to be able to show us what BBC4 will not. Thanks Neil.
DeleteWith regard to this JK section, I noticed that the Human league video clip was the original unedited version with the pistol shooting at the brunette of the group. This scene although shown on TOTP in 1981, was then edited to remove this part when it got to No.1 the following week in Dec 1981, yet now in July 1982 when on JKs clip for No.1 in the USA, TOTP forgot to remove that part, as they did when UK No.1!
Thanks Neil.Great to be able to download it too.Any chance of uploading the full edition of 17/6/82. Going back to the 8/7/82 programme it shows how petty the BBC are by cutting Kid Jensen's backcheck to Irene Cara just because he says 'another slice of Americana coming up later'.
DeleteThe self portraits that the crowd watching Trio are holding must be in response the the band's album sleeve and some releases of the single which had crudely drawn self portraits of the band on it.
ReplyDeleteThe single was produced by John Lennon Plastic Ono Band member Klaus Voormann.
Not the best of editions for me but one fabulous highlight… David ‘Kid’ is now morphing into David and his presentation is enthusiastic but not sure of his apparent taste?
ReplyDeleteImagination – Music and Lights – One of those records that just washes over me without making any impression whatsoever despite more preening from Leee and co.
Irene Cara – Fame – the whole ‘Fame’ lark just went completely over my head and I recall being annoyed week after week when the wretched albums just wouldn’t budge off the top of the charts (for the record ‘The Kids from Fame’ spent 12 weeks at No1 in the album chart; 8 initial weeks followed by a 4 week run at No2 when Dire Straits excellent ‘Love over Gold’ displaced them, only to regain the top spot for another 4 weeks…and then we got ‘The Kids from Fame again’ !!! (which didn’t make No1)) Watching this again, I don’t know what all the fuss was about.
Shalamar – A Night to Remember – Nice to see this again, but is it just me or was the first ‘DLT show’ routine from Jeffrey better?
AC/DC – For those about to rock – Not a great fan of hot and underdressed rockers yelling out this raucous racket. Forgive me for not saluting this.
Trio – Da Da Da – Utter rubbish. As for the cigarette lighting routine, who sanctioned that? Not the LFB I am sure. Nice self-portraits in the audience however!
Odyssey – Inside Out – Not a great fan really but this is a reasonable sound performed with much joy.
Bananarama – Shy Boy – On their way now. Nice retro sounding song with the usual semi jokey performance from the trio (prefer this Trio to the other one!).
Bucks Fizz – Now those days are gone – The highlight by a mile. Andy Hill and Nicola Martin must take pride in having written such a wonderful song and top marks for the video director too with a very poignant last scene (thank goodness it wasn’t chopped here). It’s a beautiful song, perfectly recorded by an under-rated band. A song that never ages. Unbelievable that in some countries it was put on the B Side of ‘Are you ready’.
Captain Sensible – Happy Talk. From the sublime to the ridiculous…..
Steve Miller – Abracadabra – Wow – nice mixing of some real life conjurers with the natty video for this excellent song that was only deprived of no1 by the ‘Fame’ explosion and the above ‘novelty’.
Did anyone notice what was at No22? The mighty ‘Free Bird’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd but not a peep of this all-time classic to help it up the charts. Instead we get ‘Da da da’….duh!
Stephen, the Kids From fame singles releases would start immediately after this Irene Cara No.1, and till the end of 1982 with the brilliant Starmaker getting to No.3 in the charts. The whole Fame phenomenon was just starting here in July 1982, so hold on tight everybody for a 6-month roller coaster ride with The Kids From Fame until Christmas '82.
DeleteRegardin Lynyrd Skynyrd, maybe it was the difficult spelling of the group's name that put off TOTP from covering it while it was rising up the charts. I can't think why else, unless there was no video for it, and it was not something that Zoo could dance to. Any thoughts here?
Hmmmm not convinced by them kids and I always hated 'Starmaker' myself. Just seen the next show with the proper video for 'Fame' at no1 and, aside from the self promotion by the cast, its a big improvement on the shambles video shown on this show. In fact I'd even go as far as to say that the song has grown on me!
DeleteRegarding Skynyrd, probably just not the kind of music TOTP wanted to promote, although they did stretch to AC/DC here. However, if only more more people had heard 'Free Bird' in its true glory here rather than that 'Baby I love your way' segue that came out a few years later....
Oh yes, it was in January 1989 when the double a-side Baby I Love Your Way/Freebird was released by Will To Power made it to no.6 along with this superb video, with excerpts of Lynyrd Skynryd's Freebird:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79r_XaUU7yE
There have been quite a few songs that made the lower reaches of the Top 30 recently that were not represented in the show including Lynyrd Skynryd plus The Rolling Stones Going To A Go-Go, Prelude After The Goldrush, New Oder Temptation and UB40 Love Is All, to say nothing of the ones that were just outside the 30.
Deletedoes anyone know the reason for "free bird" (that i consider an all-time rock classic by the way - the bit where it transitions from country-style ballad to guitar solo frenzy always gets me excited!) getting back in the charts at this point?
DeleteI'd also like to know the answer to this question anybody - thanks Wilberforce.
Deleteit doesn't look as if anyone here knows or wants to enlighten us as to why "free bird" got back in the charts, but a couple of things of interest about lynyrd skynyrd i can tell you about:
Delete1 - they named themselves after one of their teachers at school, a mr leonard skinner who was strictly old-school and with whom they frequently clashed regarding having long hair (by the way, can anyone think of any other chart acts that had no vowels in their name? i can think of one...)
2 - several of the band (including lead singer ronnie van zant) were killed in a plane crash, ironically only days after their record company released their latest album called "street survivors" with a front sleeve showing them engulfed in flames!
Wilberforce - I can only speculate that 'Free Bird' was a slow burner type song. A lot of people like myself had not heard it until the late 70s following it being played on a lot of commercial radio stations. When this excellent value EP came out it was an atractive purchase proposition. All nine minutes crammed into the 7" grooves with the simple boogie of 'Sweet Home Alabama' on the other side too.
DeleteThe original 7" release in 1977 was edited but I don't really want to contemplate how 'Free Bird' with its wings clipped might have sounded!
Both Sweet Home Alabama and Free Bird seem to get a lot of radio play nowadays. The attack on Neil Young in the former song, "a southern man don't need him around anyhow" always amuses me, because it's so lame and I very much doubt Neil would have wanted to be anywhere near a good ol' boy in any case!
DeleteIt seems that Freebird was never officially deleted after it's initial UK chart run in 1976 (when it reached number 31) and re-entered the charts twice, in late 1979 when it reached 43 and then in '82 when it made number 21. I guess it was one of those records that sold all the time like certain Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin albums but was unusual being a single and not an album.
DeleteAnother fine show well hemmed by David, or Is it Kid, or both?
ReplyDeleteImagination were dolled up, weren’t they? Ashley felt confident enough to dress like Leeeee a year ago, even Errol looks (un)dressed for the occasion, and as for Leeeeeee – words fail me.
I could barely hear Irene Cara in that video, and didn’t they cut half of the first verse as well to compound matters?
Jeffrey Daniel’s routine wasn’t as good this time. Too much hoppy skippy stuff, crap camera work constantly cropping his shins / legs so we couldn’t see his full movements, and whose great idea was it to have Jeffrey moonwalk behind the desk so we couldn’t see the unique selling point properly?
I liked the way David Kid emphasised the word “Raaahck” when introducing AC/DC’s tender love ballad enticingly crooned by Brian Johnson. Angus Young’s a great guitarist but I find his stage persona highly irritating.
Yes, David Kid, we missed seeing Trio topping the Swiss charts because your lot cropped the Euro chart section from the show a few weeks back. Marks given for announcing the translated long version of the song’s title on German release, one mark deducted for accidentally switching the middle part of the title. This was the other hit act on the Mobile Suit Corporation label, with the company name translated into German on the paper B-Side labels. Main Trio man looked a bit like Arthur Smith to me. Award for worst word in a song since Bardo’s “Tooken” goes to use of the word “Cain’t” in “Da Da Da”. Also an award for most useless, er, use, of the Toppatron thus far.
I liked the way Odyssey’s Louise Lopez either teased us early doors or hurriedly remembered to start miming the first line of “Inside Out”. A class song, beautifully sung and nattily choreographed. Compare and contrast with Bananarama, apparently including a gal called Keiran according to David Kid. If only the three of them had different vocal ranges. Wilson Phillips they ain’t.
Classy video for Bucks Fizz, though I was most taken by the studio sign behind Mike Nolan. If “R” stood for Rehearsal, did the “T” stand for transmission or taping?
Captain Sensible with no glasses, three young women in rabbit onesies who all look about 12, and that fecking bird again.
I couldn’t help thinking they should have hired Tommy Cooper to provide the magic accompaniment to Steve Miller. Glass bottle bottle glass!
now that we've reached the nervous nineties for the first time for a while, i thought i'd try and bump it up to another century by once again enquiring as to the popularity of this blog...
ReplyDeleteit's been going now in one form or another for over five years, and yet most of the regular contributors have either been on board pretty much from the start (certainly myself and arthur, and maybe a couple of others) or have been involved at least since the "late 70's". it's certainly not "gone viral" or anything (even if that might be a good thing, as i for one don't want to see thousands of inane twitter-style comments!) - does anyone know or can make a guess as to why not?
also: does anyone know how many "hits" this blog actually gets on average, and if that average has gone up or down over time? perhaps angelo as blog owner could answer that one?
The number of comments on most weeks has been overstated because some people post the same comment twice un-necessarily, and I would prefer that these 'duplicates' are removed, as well as the postings that say 'this comment has been removed by the author', which is also overstating the number of comments. In other words, we need a clean-up (deletion) of these two occurrences as soon as they appear on the blog.
DeleteYou ask an interesting question, Wilbeforce. Digital Spy has a popular TOTP forum, which perhaps causes fewer people to comment here than might otherwise do - there is also the Popscene forum, which some people also use to comment on the individual shows. It would be interesting to know how many "lurkers" we have on this blog, who read the posts but don't comment themselves...
DeleteThe number of posters, and posts, has certainly increased over time, although not wildly. I think the average re-run viewer would be aged 45+ - not exactly the type of person to actively seek out and contribute to a blog. I'm with Wilberforce on this one as I quite like reading comments from the regular contributers without wading through page after page of comment-cack from people sniping at other people about their lack of musical taste or knowledge. It's like living in a nice little village rather than in a sprawling unfriendly metropolis. Although I'm sure Arthur would feel more appreciated if the 'viewing figures' were higher.
ReplyDeleteOne of the nicest things about this blog is that we all respect each other's opinions and just enjoy talking about the shows and related topics. Compare and contrast with the Digital Spy forum, which more often than not turns into a war zone!
DeleteI don't mind how appreciated I am or not. I'm just happy to be here with my TOTP mates - and happier if I don't make unwanted double entries, get my facts right and /or or get my spellings correct before I send a comment! :-D
DeleteFunny to think when I looked at the initial blog from the very first week, I was very cautious about joining in and I didn't say much at all in the early days!
as a result of arthur's posting above i've just looked at the responses to the first broadcast show of this run as reviewed by simon (remember him?) on his "yes it's number one" blogspot back in 2011. i was in fact one of four who posted - not by analysing the whole show like nowadays as simon did a thorough job of that himself, but by carping at the glut of old beatles' music cluttering up the charts to the detriment of contemporary sounds. five years on i'm doing exactly the same thing with their movie medley ha ha!
Delete