.......please please tell me now! .....
23/03/83 (David Jensen & John Peel)
JoBoxers – “Boxerbeat” (21)
Looking like a cross between Madness and Dexys Midnight Runners, and making their debut on the show with the first of two knockout top ten hits, Boxerbeat landing the biggest punch reaching number 3.
David Bowie – “Let’s Dance” (5) (video)
Arguably his best known song, Let's Dance became Bowie's fourth (of five) number one.
Orange Juice – “Rip It Up” (9)
A second studio performance, helped out a little this time by Zoo, Rip it Up went up one more place.
Leo Sayer – “Orchard Road” (27) (clip from his TV series)
Leo's final top twenty hit, until the 2006 number one remix of Thunder in my Heart. But edited out of tonight's 7.30 slot.
Jonathan King – US chart rundown: Edited out
After The Fire – “Der Kommissar” (video clip)
Frida – “I Know There’s Something Going On” (video clip)
Golden Earring – “Twilight Zone” (video clip)
Styx – “Mr Roboto” (video clip)
Michael Jackson – “Billie Jean” (video clip)
Big Country – “Fields Of Fire (400 Miles)” (31)
Another debut on the show tonight, though singer Stuart Adamson had of course previously been on the show with The Skids. The first of four top ten hits, peaking at number 10.
Nick Heyward – “Whistle Down The Wind” (26)
Despite the nervous start and the missed cue, this was a terrific first solo single from Nick after leaving Haircut 100, and the first of three top 20 hits from his number 10 album North of a Miracle, peaking at number 13.
Altered Images – “Don’t Talk To Me About Love” (12)
Dancing her way through the jungle of streamers, this song became Clare and the boys' third and final top ten hit, peaking at number 7.
Duran Duran – “Is There Something I Should Know?” (1)
Straight in a number one, their first of two chart toppers. And this performance was pre-recorded three weeks prior to the show!
David Joseph – “You Can’t Hide (Your Love From Me)” (13) (+ credits)
We conclude with a studio performance, aided by Zoo once more, but this song was now at its peak.
Tonight's line up
Tomorrow's line up
Next up is March 31st 1983.
Tonight took me right back to the start of this re-run, when I’d have my critique on the blog within half an hour of Simon posting his comments. Three days off work with a virus and a self-imposed exile from the usual Friday night pub meet meant I eagerly watched the 7.30 edition for the first time in years – and ,boy, I wasn’t disappointed. Definitely one of the best shows so far for me, though sullied in part by too many cuts to pointless dancers.
ReplyDeleteThe Rhythm Pals were safe pairs of hands in the live context, apart from crashing the top ten countdown, and I loved Peelie’s mickeytake of how Paul Weller sings “Speak Like AYY Child”.
“Boxerbeat” always sounded a hit, but I wanted to slap the overly busy and ostentatious plaster faced singer. Nice subtle two stroke mic wank there, as well. Nice. At least he was sometimes obscured by that huge dancing boxer, who was matched up with a way smaller woman boxer. Boooo!
An arty and symbolic video for David Bowie’s effort, though I think the moral was that Aborigines should never wear red shoes. Did I ever tell you I booked my first day off work to see Bowie, Icehouse and The Beat? Ahem.
Never mind a beating heart, Edwyn Collins gave us a bleating ‘heart’ vocally. I preferred his endearing mic stand technique to that of BoxerPrat. Was that a sozzled Brian Travers or guttered Daryl Hall on sax duty?
Shame we never got Leo Sayer’s opus from his own show early doors, plus we missed some Euro hits which were as big in America, but only “Billie Jean” even managed to break the UK top 40.
Religious rock band After The Fire, complete with squire tweed dressed drummer Ivor Twidell, made 5 in the States with “Der Kommissar” but only number 47 over here. They were unlucky enough to be booked for TOTP with their only top 40 (and number 40 at that) UK hit “One Rule For You”, but were dropped when it was felt there was already enough electronic music in the edition as Gary Numan was also on.
Frida’s song was a big Euro hit, a US number 13 and a UK number 43. Meh. I always, always preferred Agnetha anyway. “Radar Love” hitsters Golden Earring’s track made top spot in their native Holland, 5 in Belgium, 10 in the US and absolutely nowhere here. “Babe” offerers Styx’s effort made 3 in the US, 8 in Germany and the bargain bins over here.
Eat that, Jobson! This is how to front a band. Get those bloody dancers’ heads out of shot! A wonderful debut from Big Country which I’ll iTune tonight – I already have the single which doesn’t have tonight’s long repeated fade. Drummer Mark and bassist Tony had previously and unexpectedly had a chart hit without getting any reward – they were in a group called Music For Boys whose single’s B-side was accidentally pressed onto thousands of the flip side of The Stranglers’ “Golden Brown”. The singles were at the same pressing plant and had the same three digits in their catalogue number.
I thought the same about the lead singer of JoBoxers, awful intensity that was very off-putting to say the least. At least the studio dancers in red boxing shorts redeemed it somewhat with the camera close-ups of their fine pins. Funny that I thought exactly the same as Angelo while watching Joboxers, i.e., that they were a cross between Madness and Dexys Midnight Runners, as I was going to relate this same thought!
DeleteWith regard to the Bowie video, it was a story of aborigines trying to somehow fit in to the big city life, and failing abysmally by means of lagging a heavy microscope on the streets among big traffic, and the poor cleaner washing the road by hand. How awful. The red shoes were just the last straw when the group finally had enough and squashed them to go back to their simple mountain life.
Part 2 needed this week!
ReplyDeleteBloody Hell, Nick Heyward looked happier in the dog end days of Haircut 100! I guess this was his transition from pop boy to broody man. Nice tune spoilt by fretless f#cking bass and the lack of a keyboard player on stage.
Woah, it’s Legs and Leather Claire giving Bonnie Tyler a little trot for her money! Look and try to learn, Tracie. The lads’ facial images (see what I did there) showed coy embarrassment at having to mime Claire’s backing vocals, plus a surprisingly reserved crowd for this as well.
There’s always one completely rotten apple in the basket. Still, at least Duran Duran bothered to turn up. Maybe they hadn’t had time to book an exotic video location. From the lyrics, I fully understand why people would cross the road to avoid LeBon and that nuclear war lyric was just dreadful.
Ay up, David Joseph’s brought a band along this time! Is it actually Hi-Tension? No matter, he and they are still sporadically engulfed by those bloody dancers.
Well, this feels weird. No mad Sunday night catch-up like normal for me (as I’ve exiled myself from football tomorrow), and only a quarter of the usual number of shows to enjoy and review this week. So, what do I do for the rest of the weekend?
Did you notice Nick Heyward fluffed the first line, and missed miming it altogether? How embarrassing it must have been for him watching the show afterwards.
DeleteClaire Grogan was just candy to the eye, and like Jay Aston, could always look good even on a bad hair day. Imagine if Bucks Fizz were on the same show as altered images. Wow!
I missed Nick's miss but Angelo caught it. Maybe the gaff inspired a chorus to one of Nick's later hits ..."gonna take that situation and do it right" (can't wait for his, erm, intriguing Elvis Costello affectation in that tune!).
Deleteregarding the line "you're about as easy as a nuclear war": simon le bon obviously had a thing about the apocalypse, as an early (and famous) quote of his was "we want to be the the band that people are dancing to when the bomb drops"
DeleteIn the early 80s, around this time and peaking in 1984, there was a real fear of nuclear war, as it had been around 40 years since the last world war, and people thought it inevitable that the next world war was around the corner, and the nuclear option was so hyped up at the time by world media, that it appeared in pop videos aplenty, the most notable one being the Two Tribes video by Frankie Goes To Hollywood which ended in an apocalypse and total world destruction:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXWVpcypf0w
The early 80s were also a period of heightened tension between the superpowers, thanks to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and attempts to repress Solidarity in Poland, as well as the election of the fiercely anti-Communist Reagan in the USA. We actually came perilously close to nuclear war in September 1983, as we now know that during that month the Soviet Union's early warning system erroneously reported that the Americans had launched a nuclear attack. It was only the quick thinking of the Soviet officer on duty, who correctly identified it as a false alarm, that prevented potential Armageddon.
DeletePhew, what a relief John, and we're all here 34 years later thanks to that quick thinking Soviet officer.
Deletedon't forget that the yanks (and quite a few other countries)* boycotted the 1980 moscow olympics in protest at the soviets' invasion of afghanistan... and that they and the entire eastern bloc then did tit-for-tat and boycotted the 1984 los angeles games in return!
Delete* of course we had a half-way house in 1980 whereby our team competed without the official endorsement of thatcher's government! thus leading to criticism in certain quarters that the four gold medals we picked up in the atheletics events were cheaply won. that could certainly be applied to allan wells, but hardly to seb coe, steve ovett and daley thompson...
Ah yes. September 1983. Operation Able Archer and the soviets shooting down the Korean airline. Dear lord they were dangerous days.
DeleteI remember the drill at school in 1983/4 where we had to take down a door, paint it white, put it over us and assume it would save us from the "flash".
and there was also this:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=when+the+wind+blows+full+movie+
Not to mention " the day after". Not as terrifying as threads but still influenced Reagan a lot.
DeleteIf Threads is the scariest programme I have ever seen, When the Wind Blows is one of the saddest. Raymond Briggs based the elderly couple on his own parents, subsequently immortalised by him in the touching Ethel and Ernest, which was on TV over Christmas.
DeleteAll in all, a very good show based on it being focussed on studio performances, and only one video this week, being David Bowie. The allure of Zoo to help out some of the studio performers like Orange juice and Big Country, really made the show shine out, especially the Zoo girls on Orange Juice in those red boxing shorts. And then Julie of Zoo taking star dancing role on Big Country. Very nice!
ReplyDeleteIn that Song For Europe photo, is the blonde woman to our right of the chap in that vivid blue suit wearing a face mask to avoid being recognised?
ReplyDeleteAlso, the girl in pink to our left hasn't got her head on back to front - she's actually turned her head to talk to her team mate.
DeleteThankfully just the one show to review this week, and it was a very good one too, a worthy choice as the first live outing of the year. Kid and Mr Ravenscroft were the obvious choice to host, and they give their best showing yet as a duo, being very droll but cutting out the smugness. One thing that puzzled me was Kid deciding to wear a St Mirren jumper when he is a Crystal Palace fan - maybe it was a tribute to the large Scottish presence on this edition...
ReplyDeleteJoBoxers give a fantastically energetic performance to get us underway. My sister loved this at the time, and our parents bought her the single - the drumming still sounds excellent, though I find the singer's voice a bit irritating these days. Inevitably, the Zoo dancers all have boxing gloves on! Off to Oz next with this famous Bowie video, which looks to me to be making some kind of point about the exploitation of aborigines. Let's Dance is often regarded as the point where Bowie went into creative decline. It is certainly his most mainstream release up to this point, but it still sounds good today. It's also the first Bowie song I remember - when I found out later on that he had already been around a long time by this point I was surprised, as I had assumed he was a contemporary of the likes of Duran Duran...
Edwyn ditches the shades for this new Orange Juice performance, while Zoo rip paper up to the side of the stage - Flick was in full literal mode this week! Little did Edwyn know that it would be a decade before he would enjoy major chart success again. For Little Leo, a decade of chart success was now coming to an end, but he signs off in style with this excellent, low-key account of the break-up of his marriage after he had an affair. This was originally recorded as a demo, but was deemed strong enough to put out without any further enhancement. Unfortunately this performance, from Leo's own BBC show, is a bit too stagy to do the song justice.
After pronouncing his disdain for basketball, JK guides us through an intriguing but fairly lousy group of US hits. After the Fire are an internationally successful British group I have never heard of, and I can see why on the basis of this dodgy effort. While it's nice to know that Golden Earring did have a hit besides Radar Love, this was utterly forgettable, and Mr Roboto was unspeakably bad. I can't share JK's love for that lumpen, drum-heavy (inevitably, with Phil Collins as producer), overproduced Frida track - like Arthur, I prefer Agnetha in any case. In their attitude to all these records, I think UK record buyers showed impeccable taste...
Big Country are rather forgotten these days, but they produced some great songs. I wouldn't say Fields of Fire is their best effort, but it shows their distinctive sounds was already fully formed, and it has plenty of energy and invention. Stuart Adamson looks quite a bit like Morten Harket here - did Morten use him as a style role model? Nick Heyward was evidently trying to put his teen pin-up past behind him by getting all serious and moody, though his efforts are undermined a bit by his failure to mime the opening line! Not a bad song, but it lacks the catchiness of his Haircut 100 hits.
Altered Images make their final TOTP appearance, and it's a memorable one as this is probably their best single. Clare was clearly trying to vamp her image up a bit here, and succeeds pretty well - at least she hasn't got a stupid bow in her eyes anymore! A pre-recorded Duran Duran then celebrate their first number 1, a band now at the peak of their success and fame. I think this is one of their better songs, though it is spoilt a bit by that crap "nuclear war" line and the jarring key change at the end. David Joseph plays us out, wisely starting his performance on the stage this time, though he still suffers the misfortune of getting obscured by Zoo in places as they strut their stuff...
john your remark about kid... sorry david jensen being a palace fan reminds me of the story that his icelandic wife supposedly recommended her countryman hermann hreidersson to the club! it was the first of many for hermann in a 15 year career in the english leagues, during which he won the FA cup with portsmouth. however he also jointly holds the unenviable record of being relegated from the premiership the most times!
DeleteHermann always gave his best when in a Brentford shirt. Class act.
DeleteYes, I remember Hermann playing for Palace during the 1997-98 relegation season, which was even more disastrous than the current one is proving to be...
DeleteI must be the only person who likes the Nuclear War line, it's on a par with "and where there used to be some shops" in The Human League's Lebanon and the "apple crumble" line from ABC's That Was then, and makes me smile.
Deletelike it or loathe it, the nuclear war line is that one that everyone remembers about that song! as for the human league lyric, that looks so utterly lame on "paper" that i'm looking forward to hearing it in context when the track hopefully shortly appears on the show...?
DeleteWasn't '83 a vintage year for comeback hits by soul singers? Following post-Smokey Miracle Billy Griffin, and preceding ex-Kandidate singer Phil Fearon (soon to storm the hit parade and the clubs as leader of Galaxy), came former Hi-Tension lead singer David Joseph with an upbeat, if unspectacular, post-disco offering.
ReplyDeleteTalking of comebacks, Altered Images surprised even their harshest critics with a Mike Chapman production that may well have made his former clients Blondie green with envy. The Glaswegians' decision to alter their sound, style and image, as well as their line-up, paid dividends - but, alas, only in the short term. Lead guitarist Stephen Lironi is still happily married to Noosha Fox soundalike Clare Grogan.
A big thumbs-up to Nick Heyward, too, with a single I fondly remember buying from a long-gone record shop in my hometown. It rained on the way back home, with the result that the dye from the pink and white paper bag permanently marked the white picture sleeve of the single, thus reducing its value as a collectible - but I would never part with such a perfect platter. Pino Palladino's fretless bass would be featured on a string of Paul Young hits later in the year.
Arthur mentions Elvis Costello above; I have yet to hear a closer Costello soundalike than JoBoxers' Dig Wayne!
sorry to disappoint you julie, but the nick heyward single is hardly collectable - you can pick one up in decent nick (ho ho) off discogs for a quid!
Deletei might have told this tale before, but that reminds me of when toyah appeared on "never mind the buzzcokcs" and in one of the few instances of something humourous happening, the host introduced her by saying "she once released a single saying she wanted to be free. well, she's now nearly achieved that ambition as you can buy it in a charity chop for 10p"!
ReplyDeleteAn excellent show.
Jo boxers - heard this in compilations, but not seen the band before. Good, if derivative, tune.
Orange juice - seen on TOTP2, and again heard on compilations.
Never heard the Leo sayer track before, but again enjoyed it.
JK - surprised Frida didn't do better in the U.K.
There is a non censored version of the Golden earring song which is the only one I had been seen before returning to the uk
Big country - the rather excellent 'bagpipe sound ' adopted by slade later in the year.
Nick heyward definitely proved it was live :-). Again, not heard before, but very pleasant
Altered images - my favourite single by them
Duran Duran - impressed that they turned up to the studio.
Best episode for ages
Her Indoors wanted to watch a different telly show in bed till the early hours, so it gave me a chance to watch the show again and fill in a few blanks.
ReplyDeleteI liked the American Express ad during David Bowie’s video, when the jewellery shop owner's given the AmEx card and cheerily mouths “That’ll do nicely”!
A "Crossroads" style phone box door for Leo Sayer, and I wish the booth’s neon signage had been white to show a bit more tradition, and why didn’t Leo just do a Renato and sing to the focus of his attention if she was in that window above him? Mind you, I think she’d been hypnotised. Quite a complex, long song to be a hit but Leo did it well. Apparently, the single version was a one-take demo which Leo was told couldn’t be bettered.
Oooh dear, that really was a big gaff at the start by the young Nigel Farage – erm, Nick Heyward.
Great. We get even more of those bloody annoying dancers in the long cut of David Joseph.
I thought the dancers worked well for the David Jospeh track, they were in the right place for once, unlike the dire routines for Orange Juice and Big Country.
Deletehosts: much as i despise him as the carpetbagger of dee-jays. i had to chuckle out loud at peel's comment on "the ethnic sounds of modern romance" in the chart countdown. and on that front more kudos is gained for pointing out how absurd the modfather's pronounciation of his song title is. kid... sorry, david jenson also scores for pronouncing bowie's surname correctly (take note, other presenters!)
ReplyDeletejoboxers: does anyone know what a joboxer actually is? what i remembered about this lot was that the musicians were previously the backing band of indie cult legend vic godard before hooking up with american singer dig wayne (not surprisingly that wasn't his given name). they and their depression-era image were hyped quite a bit by the music press at the time, with the result this early dexy's soundalike being a bit of an anti-climax to my ears. it's entertaining enough to watch with the dancers though, and i always thought the bassist looked really cool
bowie: visually he was looking better than ever (and amazing youthful for a guy in his mid-30's), however sound-wise nile rodgers' big production tries but doesn't quite conceal the fact that this is really two separate songs pressed into one. for all that it's still good to hear it again though, and it's certainly better than the sell-out guff that was to follow
leo sayer: like all his stuff there's not much to sayer bout this (ho ho). i wondered about the significance of SW12 in the orchard road neon sign and assumed it was a london district, so i looked it up on googlemaps but couldn't find any sign of it. however somewhat spookily it led me to orchard road in highgate, where a good friend i have known for over 30 years resides!
king section: as i keep saying, the man is utterly odious. and yet i totally agree with him on basketball being devalued by the fact that scoring happens so frequently. presumably when doctor naismith invented the game he didn't take into consideration that professional teams would simply scour the nation for physical freaks that were so tall that they didn't even need to lose contact with the ground to stick the ball in the basket, thus rendering the concept utterly redundant? as such it's right up there with the other idiotic sports so beloved of the septics: american football (where the only time the ball makes contact with the foot is when penalty kicks are taken, and scores are called "touchdowns" even though the ball doesn't actually need to be grounded. plus the rules are uttlerly incomprehensible) and baseball (a with-bells-on version of similar amateur/recreational games where the pitcher has no target to aim at)! as for the music clips: there's an interesting irony in that hoary old rockers (of varying nationality) are obviously being influenced by the british synth pop scene, yet get big in america whilst not being able to give their stuff away in blighty!
further to mentioning my chum who lives in highgate: when i first met him in the mid-80's, he told me that paul young used to live next-door to him. and of couse pino paladino (who appears on this show) later became mr young's bass player! cue "twilight zone" music...
DeleteLeo's road sign and, indeed the song title, had a bit of poetic licence. W12 was the start of the postcode for BBC Television Centre where I'm guessing his show was filmed. The song was actually based on Churchfield Road, Acton W3 (though part of Acton actually is in W12), where Leo's wife had moved to. The song's based on a phone booth call Leo made to his wife when she'd relocated there after his misdemeanour.
Deleteeven further to the above: not only is my mate a big fan of leo sayer, he once even met him by chance in a pizza hut! when he told me that i responded by asking if leo was taking the orders? sadly though that wasn't the case...
DeleteAccording to The JoBoxers Official Web site... The band's name came about when someone remarked that there seemed be a lot of boxers named Joe - hence JoBoxers.
DeleteWhat a lame reason... you could say it's a load of pants. Ahem.
Deletejoe louis... joe frazier... joe bugner... is that enough boxing joes to justify the band name? i agree with thx that whatever the reason it's hardly a knockout!
Deletept 11...
ReplyDeletebig country: the return of the brooding and enigmatic stuart adamson with the legendary "bagpipe guitar" sound. at the time this lot were seriously vying with U2 as "the bombastic-but-earnest rock band it's cool to like", but sadly for them they never kept up with bono and his chums - perhaps a reason for adamson's eventual sad suicide? i've not heard this for yonks, and although i wasn't that keen on it at the time i have to admit that listening now it's quite invigorating. and the band's performance reflects that - other than drummer mark brzezicki who looks rather studious (which is not surprising given that he's noted for his drum clinics, one of which i saw at the olympia music show in the late 80's that was actually quite impressive)
nick heyward: he might be all-at-sea with the first vocal line, but he impressively makes up for it with the tricky "huh" bit later on. this starts off promisingly in a moody vein, but actually gets less interesting as it picks up momentum. the first (but no doubt far-from-last) appearance of the year on the show for the ubiquitous pino paladino and his trademark fretless bass sound
altered images: clare tries to go for the sophisticated look and sound, but frankly just doesn't have either the face or the voice for it. musically a pseudo-funk effort that (like mike chapman's blondie productions) one wonders how much any of the band musicians actually had to with it?
duran duran: one of their better efforts in their canon, but although pleasant enough dance-pop it's not worthy of being in my music collection. possibly due to the strained vocals of "whiny" le bon, and also possibly because it features another middle eight that lets it down somewhat. nick rhodes is actually caught in the rare act of playing a synth with more than one hand!
david joseph: he's obviously found himself a time machine and read my comments on making the mistake of not using a microphone on his last appearance. although different dancers from last time, they appear to be doing the same cool formation routine (at the start, anyway) that looks like an 80's re-tread of the "new york hustle" as popularised in "saturday night fever". i actually worked out a simplified routine of that to do with a musical group i was involved with until recently, but sadly i never got the chance to put it into action. so one for the bucket list i suppose...?
I remember at the time when Duran Duran went straight to No.1 with this as a new entry, that I thought what's all the fuss about this one? It certainly wasn't as good as some of their 1981-82 singles which could not make it to the dizzy heights of No.1, and I was wondering what the record-buying public found appealing about this new "No.1." Good Lord, gimmee the next No.1 already.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteTo be fair, Duran deserved to reach No.1 with a song that demonstrated their harder, rockier side. Someone wrote to the letters page of one of the music papers - probably 'Record Mirror' - around that time, accusing the band of trying to imitate The Beatles "with harmonies, harmonicas, and uniform dress". Point taken, but Duran were developing musically and lyrically, their artistic zenith being the Bond theme 'A View To A Kill', which was only a couple of years away. It was unfortunate that they subsequently suffered burnout as a consequence of their management overworking them, resulting in the departures of both Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor in '86.
DeleteAs I have mentioned before on this site, Leo Sayer - along with David Essex OBE and Elkie Brooks among others - sensibly tailored his music to meet the public's new tastes, with greater emphasis on electronics. Neither he nor his collaborator Alan Tarney, however, had lost the ability to craft timeless songs. 'Orchard Road' may have peaked at No.16 in Britain (and No.17 in Australia, where he now resides), but it proved to be a satisfying coda to his decade of consistent chart success.
P.S. Leo released a new album, 'Restless Years', two years ago in Australia and the USA; this set has been made available in Britain in MP3 format. It's a good, solid, melodic soft-rock collection; the guitar work on 'One Green World' reminds me somewhat of Dire Straits, while the reggae-tinged 'Yes It Is' could have been recorded by Ace of Base. Little Leo's relocation to Sydney has obviously revitalised him!
DeleteThanks Julie, I will have to seek out that Leo album. I've always felt he was an underrated talent, though admittedly he hasn't helped himself with the naff image and huge ego he has displayed over the years...
Deletedory i think the great british record-buying public must have felt sorry for duran duran having had so many hit singles without a number one, whilst duran member nick rhodes' protegees kajagoogoo managed it at the first attempt!
DeleteThe record buying public don't buy records out of feeling sorry for anyone. There must have been something behind the scenes that helped this to go straight in at No.1. Buy one get one free?
Deletethey do if the artist in question has croaked!
DeleteReally enjoyed this one, it had genuine energy and vim. We kick off (punch off?) with the enigmatically-named JoBoxers (who was Jo?) and their stomping good time, even if in person they look a bit affected.
ReplyDeleteCorrect me if I'm wrong, but I don't hear a double bass on Let's Dance. Anyway, the classic (or much-played at least - did Dame Dave promote this anywhere?) video, which of course includes a nuclear bomb going off because the 80s. Showed he was able to keep up with the upstarts, though my favourite single off this album was yet to come.
Orange Juice with a more confident performance this time, maybe they were inspired by the dancers? Any night owls recall Edwyn's sitcom West Heath Yard? It's not even listed on IMDB! "See you in the charts!" If you get a chance, check out the film The Possibilities Are Endless, a poetic look at Edwyn's illness and recovery: you'll be full of admiration for his wife Grace, if nothing else.
Leo Sayer turning the art of conversation into song, clunkily too, the only real duffer in the show. But even that has novelty value. Was that lady waiting for the pips to stop or had she refused the charges?
Big Country with patented Scottish rock, so much better than boring old Runrig, a real wall of guitar sound that started a run of similar hits, pretty much all of them of this quality.
"He's not Jesus, he's just a fella!" Not sure of the connection between the song and the film, but a slightly dazed looking Nick Heyward delivered a lush pop tune with his solo debut. Like the way he waits till almost the end to mention the title.
Altered Images and their triumphant return with their best single, the only way was up from here on... erm, maybe not. Clare was in Red Dwarf, I suppose. But this was a great tune, and she wasn't barging into her bandmates this time: a sign of maturity!
Duran Duran will never be my favourite band, but this sounded rather good, unlike others I like the nuclear war line because the 80s. Had Threads been on yet? They all looked very confident, as if they were sure this was going to make it all the way. Like the way the beat changes at the end.
David Joseph to finish on, a better performance this time, though it was more a dancers' showcase (and Peelie joined with dancing that can actually be described as sarcastic, no small feat). Bravo!
It's interesting how this is unanimously the favourite single of Altered Images with everyone on here. It was their last hit of any significance, with the next two releases during the year not even making an impression on the charts.
DeleteSeems that their two year adventure from 1981-1983 was short and sweet, succinct and tasty (Claire Grogan), with Scotland's finest lass in the limelight. This coupled with Big Country on the same show, was probably the most Scottish representation in one show, and I thought it made this edition stand out from recent ones.
Altered Images did reach No.29 with their next single 'Bring Me Closer', but 'Love To Stay' faltered at No.46 and was followed by the very Blondie-like 'Change of Heart', which missed the 75.
DeleteBoth Bowie and the Durannies preceded the reassuringly shit-scary "Threads" which was shown in September 1984.
DeleteJulie, this was a similar fate with Dollar in 1982, who would call it a day when their last two hits failed to chart significantly. Pop groups like Dollar and Altered Images fall away with dignity.
DeleteI remember Stephen Hendry, the world's top snooker player in the 90s and early 2000's saying upon retirement, that when you lose regularly to players that you would normally beat quite easily, it's time to go, and leave on a high note rather than continue losing with embarrassment.
Arthur - I was too young to see Threads at the time, but eventually watched it in a school RE lesson (!) in the mid-90s. Suffice to say it had lost none of its power in the intervening decade, and remains the most frightening thing I have ever seen.
DeleteI started watching Threads when it was on TV when I was a kid, but as John indicates it was so scary I had to give up about half an hour in an go to bed. Heard about it the next day in school from the others who were made of sterner stuff, though!
Deletedon'r forget that clare grogan ended up behind the reception in the "crossroads" motel! thus having something in common with kate robbins who also hung out there for while. were there any other pop stars in "crossroads"?
Deletei remember watching "threads" when it was repeated a year or two after the original broadcast that schocked the nation, and what i seem to recall about it was that many people were convinced it was only a false alarm to the point where they still tried to get on with their daily lives! although hardly entertaining, it's certainly something i would like to watch again some day...
wilberforce - it was actually Dee Hepburn, one of Clare Grogan's co-stars from the film 'Gregory's Girl', who played receptionist Anne-Marie Wade in 'Crossroads'.
Deletesorry julie, getting my wires crossed there (note to myself: must check the internet to make sure the rubbish i have had stored in my head for decades is accurate!)
Deletelooking ms grogan up on IMDB, i was quite surprised top learn that she did actually appear in another soap ("eastenders") in the 90's!
Yep she was Ian Beale's girlfriend.
Deletei haven't watched eastenders for decades now (it was far too miserable for my liking!), but i do believe that ian beale is still in it. but if so, then is he the "ken barlow" of eastenders i.e. the only character from the first-ever episode left?
DeleteIan is the only original character who never left, but both Sharon and Kathy have returned after long absences. I stopped watching EastEnders after Barbara Windsor joined - she couldn't do dramatic acting to save her life!
DeletePart 1
ReplyDeleteFor various reasons that I won’t go into, I remember distinctly watching this one round a friend’s house. It’s pretty impressive too. Yet again we get the Kid and JP together although they do seem to spark off each other very well so why change a winning formula? What has JP got against Toto though?
Joboxers – Boxer Beat – Continuing the ‘boxing’ theme started by Survivor last year, although I would certainly class this as distinctly lightweight compared to the heavyweight punch of the US band. Joboxers had a chart life that was solely 1983 and then nothing.
David Bowie – Let’s Dance – Seen this video so many times but it is still a cracker, and a great song too, even in this edited form. The ‘Serious Moonlight’ tour that followed was reckoned to be his best ever by Bowie aficionados and who am I to disagree? Wish I’d been there.
Orange Juice – Rip it up – Speaking of lightweight….
Leo Sayer – Orchard Road – Co-written with Alan Tarney who wrote many of Cliff’s hits of this era and ‘January February’ for Barbara Dickson. In his own words, Leo rushed to the microphone while Alan was playing a ‘Bach like riff’ on his Fairlight Synth and poured his heart out regarding the state of his marriage with no lyric sheet, and so pleased were the two of them they released the song ‘as is’ in demo form (as John G and Arthur also note), without even mixing the track. The model in this video didn’t have much to do. Would be nice to see Leo’s TV series again; Judie Tzuke guested on one episode singing the quite wonderful ‘Come Hell or Waters High’, a minor hit for D C Lee a few years later.
JK slot (at 1:20 on the link below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of_j74-QlR8
After the Fire – Der Kommisar – “U can’t touch this” eh? ATF had been going for a while when this was released but they never really cracked the UK charts.
Frida – I know there’s something going on – Absolutely should have been a huge hit! Sadly even an extended excerpt of Frida’s stunning video couldn’t give this overlooked single a push back into the UK charts. Co-incidentally Phil Collins was trying to follow up the massive ‘You can’t hurry love’ single at this point and sat at no47 with an underrated single, ‘Don’t let him steal your heart away’. Only got two places higher and the fourth single from ‘Hello…I must be going’ which was ‘Why can’t it wait ‘til Morning’ failed to trouble the scorers. Phil would bounce back next year against all odds…
Golden Earring – Twilight Zone – Don’t recall this at all. Loved ‘Radar Love’.
Styx – Mr Roboto – Another one I don’t recall. Loved ‘Babe’.
Thanks for the JK insert sct353.
DeleteAfter The Fire was one of those rare British bands that charted in America before charting here (or never charting here I think). I wonder how many other cases like that occurred. The lead singer certainly sounded like having a distinct northern accent, but wowing the Americans instead of the British.
Frida going solo - at this point the Abba split had not been announced yet, so this solo effort from Frida should have rung alarm bells for staunch Abba fans. I don't recall this one, but if I had, then I would have been thinking the end of Abba could be near.
The new Styx effort was a far cry from their worldwide hit called 'Babe' in 1980. Certainly by 1983, I was not aware that they were still going, and this effort sounded like a cross with REO Speedwagon, and not feeling like true Styx in my opinion. Suffice to say that 'Babe' was one of the first videos I purchased from iTunes in 2006 and when I got my first iPod classic, and when iTunes had finally arrived on our shores.
You might be interested in seeing this YT clip of Justin Hayward on Leo's show:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlFq5IvlGss
Judie Tzuke also released a beautiful multi-vocal single called "For You" which was probably too eclectic to be a hit but deserved to be.
DeleteIndeed Arthur, Judie's first single from her debut album 'Welcome to the Cruise'. I have had the pleasure of seeing Judie live around a dozen times and 'For you' was still being performed with her two daughters providing the distictive backing vocals until fairly recently. It was also a Radio 2 staple in the mid 2000s.
DeleteAh John G thanks. Not only have I watched Justin, but a quick search and I found the Judie Tzuke performance from Leos show. Haven't seen this since 1983. A lovely live vocal and some very sympathetic backing instrumentation. Made my day thanks!
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUgdH85WAck
Thanks for the JK slot, sct353. No footie today as I still feel ill, so I’m stuck in and thought I’d watch it.
DeleteFrida – “I know there’s something going on which the Abba fans will realise now I’ve released a solo single..."
The Styx video made me laugh out loud. It looked like a comedy show / Frank Sidebottom mickeytake of robotics and made Dee D. Jackson’s “Automatic Lover” look like an epic.
There were two cocks in the top ten rundown footage, the mascot doing a superb job of imitating what we thought of JK all along.
JK mentioned four songs in the US top 26 to 50 positions which he thought would go on to do well. The results? “Welcome To Heartlight” by Kenny Loggins ran out of battery and only reached 24, “Even Now” by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band made the even number peak of 12, “Change Of Heart” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers stalled at 21, and “Little Red Corvette” by Prince motored to number 6.
I guess if you want proper top level forecasting, leave it to Andy Peebles.
Engage smug mode - I saw the Bowie Serious Moonlight Tour at Madison Square Garden, and pretty ace it was too!
DeletePart 2
ReplyDeleteBig Country – Fields of Fire – Splendid sound for a debut hit (but second single after ‘Harvest Home’ which wasn’t a hit). I saw Big Country at Queen’s last ever live show at Knebworth on a balmy August day in 1986 and found them quite repetitive after about half an hour and I don’t think they went down too well with the huge crowd who had come to see Freddie and co. Also on the bill were Status Quo and Beloius Some (remember them?)
Nick Hayward – Whistle down the Wind – First line goof aside, didn’t Nick look nervous at the start? Glancing back to the wonderful bass player Pino Palladino (who recently graced Gary Numan’s recent hits and as Julie states, would play on Paul Young’s hits later), he had no need to be as this is a quite exquisite song that I haven’t heard since, 1983 probably. Really enjoyed this.
Altered Images – Don’t talk to me about love – A band that grows on me with every performance. After the dire and silly ‘Happy Birthday’ it’s almost as if Clare grew up herself – perhaps encouraged by her ‘Gregory’s Girl’ appearance. Enjoyed hearing this again. I agree with Julie that Clare does sing like Noosha Fox….ah now there’s a great album – ‘Fox’….
Duran Duran – Is there something I should know? Opinion is obviously divided over that line of lyric. I’m in ‘I hate it’ camp. I bought the 12” ‘monster mix’ of this and was disappointed in that it was mainly instrumental. I think, to answer Dory’s question, this was carried straight to no1 on the wave of ‘Durannie’ mania at the time.
David Joseph – You can’t hide your love – If ever a record helped decide when to press ‘ stop’…
It was a case of Claire Grogan growing on me with every performance, not the band. Who said Happy Brithday was silly, when girls like Claire were singing it.
DeleteBelouis Some was a 'him', real name Neville Keighley, whose only mugshot hit "Imagination" was accompanied, possibly helped into the charts, by a raunchy video which was only shown late at night or banned by some stations altogether from memory.
DeleteMr Some was much-hated by Smash Hits, who always called him "Belouis" "Some". I don't know what he did to piss them off (aside from sub-par records).
DeleteAaand we're back with the topic of nudity in pop videos - Duran Duran had beaten him to it.
I remember that seeing that Belouis Some video called Imagination, and I recall that it was probably shown on one of the late night programmes on ITV or Channel 4, because of the burlesque cabaret visuals of undressed girls and innuendo with it. It was shown on The James Whale Show or similar type of show at the time.
Deletei thought belouis some was actually a geezer rather than a band. that hit of his/theirs "imagination" was a highly bowie-influenced mix of rock and dance, so really sums up the mid-80's for me
DeleteI recall seeing the Belouis Some video on the Max Headroom show.
DeleteAh yes, so that was the show. Whatever happened to Max Headroom?
Deletemax headroom was a computerised alias/avatar for an actor called matt frewer, who has steadily appeared in films and tv series (on both sides of the atlantic) ever since then...
DeleteJust watched the JK segment, and from the tiny clips on offer I did recognise After the Fire, that's quite a well known tune I thought, even if it wasn't a hit here. It has mild charms, though the verses sound like That's Living All Right by Joe Fagen.
ReplyDeleteFrida struggled to be heard over the drums, who knows if Golden Earring were any good from that three nanosecond extract, and I do know that Styx song too, amusing production - is it the inspiration for that current TV series called Mr Robot(o)?
I like the blog title of Is There Something Top Of The Pops Should Know?
ReplyDeleteHow about Don't Talk To Me About Top Of The Pops? Surely that was your second choice Angelo. I guess Altered Images will be back in two shows time, so we can still get this one in.
Afraid not, Dory. That's the last we'll ever see of Altered Images on TOTP. We've also had the last studio outing for Leo Sayer and, seeing as "Orchard Road" had peaked and gone down in the two weeks after his show snippet, I think it's the last we see of Gerard (his real name) as well. Seeing as he released two singles singing about weather conditions in his heart ("Raining" and "Thunder"), I wonder if Leo ever thought of compiling an album of different meteorological titles - "Sleet / Hail / Snow In My Heart"?
ReplyDeleteThe snow must go on?
DeleteGood Lord, you're right Arthur, there is no second outing for Altered Images, and like Haysi Fantayzee and Leo Sayer, we say goodbye to all three chart acts on TOTP for good, and all with their final bow in the month of March 1983.
DeleteHa, ha, ha! You're a scream, Arthur! You forgot "Hurricane In My Heart" and "Sunshine Im My Heart", though!
DeleteArthur your comment/suggestion about Leo Sayer's weather themed album put me in mind of The Eight Seasons Of Chromalox, a musical about air conditioning. Seriously! Check it out here:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6wPF6GvJH8
Wow - less than 24 hours after broadcast, and the blog has already racked up a half-century. As a result, some of the following comments are 'moo' ( a Joey Tribiani reference, there)
ReplyDeleteJoBoxers. A bit of a Dexys Mk 1 look to their outfits for some reason, but this has none of the punch (ahem) of that band. I quite like the verses, but it degenerates into pop nonsense in the chorus. And, obviously, the Zooologists don their boxing gloves to help out.
The Dame goes all poppy with his most chart-friendly song in years. Despite the rather odd decision to wear white gloves (was he a bit germ-phobic or was a snooker game about to break out?) Bowie still manages to look cool in a video that I remember being played to death on MTV. I'm very much a fan of Ziggy-era Bowie, but this still holds up well.
Orange Juice accompanied by more Zooologists being literal. Collins looks a tad more comfortable this week. Still a great song.
Little Leo. Didn't know about the whole demo story, which makes this enjoyable slice-of-life tune more impressive. I always liked the toussle-haired little munchkin, especially when he was in story-mode (particularly liked Moonlighting). Not sure about the video because of the girl who looked as though she was a mannequine. And that was a poor stab at creating a telephone box. Never came across one that looked like that.
And then we step it up even more.
Big Country. Glorious. Abso-chuffin-lutely brilliant. Nothing more need be said.
Nick Heyward. A great song which is marred here by a nervous performance. Obviously there is the glaring mime-miss right at the start (did they not consider starting over again?) and then there was the constant glancing over his shouder, presumably worried that his former bandmates were gonna creep up on him and deck him.)
Altered Images. Quite clearly the best single of their brief moment in the pop sun. The band look more professional and Clare has toned down the kookiness slightly. All in all a great little pop tune.
Duran steamroller their way straight to the top and David Joseph and his band see us out.
So to the scores. The Rhythm Pals are back on form after their last rather weak outing. Despite an occasional blip this was live tv presnting at its best. 9.
The show itself was highly enjoyable and only the JoBoxer opener stopped this from being a 9. So its a well-deserved 8.
I reckon the fact it was live prevented Nick Heyward having a second take, and there might not have been enough time in the tight scheduling either. Besides, Peelie's pretend balls-up at the start of the show would have made a Whistle re-start look really ironic!
Deletewith regard to the BBC1 schedule for that evening, presumably the "QED" in question was the science educational programme rather than the period detective drama starring sam "law & order" waterston? rather confusingly i think they were both around at the same time...
ReplyDeletealso, what exactly is tim rice doing? at a guess a monologue on the meaning of life before the shutdown? if so then no doubt there were religious overtones, as was the way with these peculiar programmes that forced onto the viewer at the time. i remember the ones on TVS where some people sat around in a kitchen drinking steaming mugs of hot cocoa and discussing what kind of day they had. but you could almost guess to the second when the words "jesus" and/or "god" would enter the conversation!
A quick check on Google and the BBC Genome confirms "QED" was the educational programme, and "Tim Rice" was the name of a half-hour music and entertainment show he hosted from the Greenwood Theatre in London which was on Wednesdays in March 1983 on BBC1.
DeleteAnyone else fancy having a go? I seem to have taken over for the weekend!
I can't remember the TVS shows Wilberforce but my local radio station used to have a religious show where you could predict when the god reference would appear. It was a discussion programme that usually had someone young to 'get down' with the kids.
DeletePeople sitting around drinking cocoa and discussing their day sounds a bit like Houseparty which TVS's predecessor Southern used to show in the afternoons.
As for TOTP I watched the late night repeat for a change. A really good show, great songs, great hosts and the return of a literal dance interpretation during 'Rip It Up.'
Part 1!
ReplyDeleteThis show is very familiar to me as it was one of a handful that I recorded and kept in its entirety from a UK Gold showing in 1994. That isn't to say that it wasn't enjoyable watching it again in context, in fact it highlighted an oddity of this showing - for reasons unknown, the JK segment appeared after Altered Images (also, as that went straight into a break, and then the rundown immediately followed that, Peel and Jensen's minor balls-up in crashing it was removed!!)
The thing that always annoyed about this one was the almost constant presence of Zoo. The guy with the blonde spiky hair becomes a major irritant. Watched out of context, it made it seem like this was a normal weekly occurrence, but as we know from watching them in sequence, this is the most Zoo-heavy show for weeks!
Anyway, the actual songs...
JoBoxers - I prefer their other big hit. Their look was explicitly based on Brando in 'On The Waterfront' and given that this is what Dexys Mk.1 were aiming for too, no surprise that there's a similarity!
Bowie - I got so bored of hearing / playing this on the radio that it was only last year after his death that I listened to it *properly* for the first time in years and realised how brilliantly produced it is.
Orange Juice - I like the fact that they mess around a lot here. Shame about the literal Zoo interpretation getting in the way a bit.
The spiky haired dancer was called Eddie Kemp. A good dancer but over-used here. He also did a lot of the choreography at this point.
DeletePart 2...
ReplyDeleteLeo Sayer - A weird one this, as it seems a bit ponderous at first (and is I think a tad over-long) but over the years it's crept up on me and now I really like it. Having the genius that is Alan Tarney involved probably helped in that.
JK bit : That demented New York Knicks mascot taking the piss out of him never fails to amuse. As for the songs, the After The Fire one is very good and no-one seems to have mentioned so far that it was written by Falco (of 'Rock Me Amadeus' fame later) and should have been a hit.
The Frida song is average, Golden Earring completely forgettable and Styx...well...part of me wishes it had been a hit here so we could have seem that utterly ludicrous video in full!
Big Country - Oh god. When I did my NOW album marathon (for charidee) a couple of years ago I unexpectedly developed a hatred for them as they are on many consecutive NOW albums with songs that all sound roughly the same. 'Chance' is great but I can't stand most of the rest, sorry.
Nick Heyward - Another song that flies under the radar a bit, but is a good one.
Altered Images - Chalk me up as another who thinks this is their best tune, by far the loveliest Clare has looked on TOTP as well.
Duran Duran - Not their best single, but hardly their worst either. They don't do it live very often so I don't think they're overly keen on it though.
David Joseph - At least they left the worst until last!
I checked out the Styx video for Mr Roboto, this is nuts, so much better than Babe! From a concept album, you say? I'd never have guessed.
DeleteA few things I remember from Leo Sayer's show(Monday nights BBC2 810pm!)
ReplyDeleteRoger Daltrey performing Walking In My Sleep.
Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull performing Fly By Night.
Leo & Gary Numan performing 'On Broadway'!
Any Leo clips on YT anyone know?
i think leo and gary numan performing "on broadway" is deserving of at least two exclamation marks!!
DeleteWesty - a couple of Leo guest spot clips are referenced further back in this thread, but you don't see much of the man himself.
DeleteI must apologise for my absence on the blog for the last few weeks. Don't worry I'm not dead, but someone kindly bought me a subscription to the Ancestry website fat Christmas and I've been busy investigating my family history and have uncovered a lot of interesting stuff that I won't bore you with. But this weekend I had a TOTP marathon and watched 8 editions and I am trying to comment on them all starting with this one...
ReplyDeleteBack with Peelie and the Kid again both on good form. Up until 1983 I never really got John peel but his regular appearances on the show with David Jensen helped me warm to him and I even started listing to his show and made many new musical discoveries.
The Joboxers image seems a bit too manufactured now what with the 1930s New York clothing and the fake bruises and plasters but musically was brilliant and at the time this was just what I needed to hear. At the end of 1982 I recall going to see Madness in concert at the Hammersmith Odeon and The Joboxers were the support act and from what I remember were pretty good although I had flu at the time and was not at my best.
Then Bowie on video with what was perhaps THE single of 1983. Of course this is so famous now it's not really worth commenting on. I didn't understand the video at the time but there has been a lot in the news about recently. When you heard this it was hard not to dance.
Next Orange Juice with a very fresh-faced Edwin Collins which is just pure magic. I bought this at the time and remember putting the fold out poster that came wrapped around the single on the wall (somewhere there is a photo of me with a spiky flattop standing in front of the poster on my bedroom wall). I love the mad faux rock and roll thing the guitarist is doing to the sax player offset with the girls from Zoo ripping up bits of paper while they dance and grin inanely.
Leo Sayer returns. I love songs about real addresses and I guess this is one in South London judging by the postcode, let's hope it's not the Elm Guesthouse!
Big Country and the superb Fields Of Fire with a very animated, excited crowd although marred by the Zoo dancers (again) who just shouldn't be dressed like that dancing like that to this music, it's all wrong. Go away!
Feel a bit sorry for Nick Heyward who misses his cue here looking nervously round to session bassist Pino Palladino for help but Pino ignores him as if to say "you're on your own mate". I remember not liking this at the time, maybe because he left his band which was never fully explained, or maybe because it was a bit too MOR.
Altered Images with Clair doing her own backing vocals which always sounds odd when mimed. While I liked their earlier stuff I recall not liking this at the time maybe because her voice goes all chipmunk at the end but I like it now. She seems to be enjoying herself a lot while the guys look a bit subdued.
I had forgotten that Duran went straight to the top with Please Please Tell Me now. I was never really a fan but they did make some powerful pop records and it's hard to ignore their power at the time. Had to laugh at the camp guy with the blond hair standing behind Peel and Jensen who does that ludicrous thing of animatedly looking at each one as they talk. He seems to have replaced Craig Fairbrass as resident annoying cheerleader.
Playout with David Joseph which I remember dancing to in the clubs at the time. Zoo are back with a vengeance this week and the cameraman seems more interested in Eddie and the other dancers than poor Mr Joseph who ends up out of focus in the background.
All in all a great show which has (a few irritating cheerleaders aside) found its ultimate look at last and it only took 19 years.
bama there's no need to apologise for your absence, at least as far as i'm concerned - it's just good to have you back! and i'm sure i'm not the only one thinking that? i would think that most of you who try and regularly contribute reviews and other titbits here have busy lives, so find it difficult to keep up at times. i don't have much in the way of commitments, but even i find there are times when only my obsession with keeping up my unblemished record of having commented on every edition thus far gets the job done!
Deletebut whenever a regular contributor does disappear, of course it's likely to lead to speculation that they may no longer be with us (and most of us are at an age now where our peers are beginning to gain the attention of the reaper - damian of "the time warp game" hit being the latest victim). it also makes me wonder what will happen to all my internet accounts when i croak? i don't have any nearest and dearest or even next-of-kin* to take care of my estate (not presently, anyway), so when i go i have no idea what will happen to my physical chattels... never mind my virtual ones! but i suppose by then i'll be past caring...?! anyway bama, i'm now looking forward to reading your "back catalogue!"
*i had heard that my forbears were once rich, but that my ancestor in question was the black sheep and cut out of the family fortune accordingly. but i certainly have no wish to dig about to find that out for certain! if so then it obviously runs in the family as my parents' estate is probably worth several hundred thousand quid, but due to our irreconcilable differences i have had no contact for many years now (i didn't even hear that my mother had died for certain until about 6 months afterwards!) so i doubt i'll ever see a penny of it...!
It's not just Damian who has left us recently. Peter Skellern died a few days ago, having recently been ordained as an Anglican priest.
DeleteApparently, any solicitor can arrange that your internet presence/accounts are included in your will, but they say that it is your duty to update the will if any details change, for example if new internet accounts are opened, to then update the will a couple of times a year or so. Certainly everyone over the age of 50 should be updating their online details regularly with their solicitor once there is a will in place.
DeleteAh that's so sad about Peter Skellern. I didn't know until just reading this today. What a talent. This is one of my favourites from Pebble Mill.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KewzkwA6k1M
More sad news to report, as we have also recently lost John Wetton (King Crimson, Asia) and poor old David Cassidy has announced he has dementia, which doubtless helps to explain some of his rather strange behaviour in recent years.
Deleteone reason we keep hearing about the deaths of well-known musicians, film stars and suchlike far much more than we did 30 or 40 years ago is that that there are so many more of them these days!
Deletethat reminds me of the first celebrity death i recall learning of: actor edward g robinson in january 1973. i had just turned 11 at the time, but although i don't think i'd seen any of his films i was already aware that he was a prominent figure from the "golden age" of hollywood. in fact i remember around that time i was playing tennis with a friend and his dad, and it suddenly occured to me for the fist time that i wasn't going to be around forever (!). so perhaps edward g's passing was a factor in coming to that sad realisation...?
On the whole a stunning episode I thought. In fact, without "gushing" I think the best one since the 80s episodes started imo. Possibly because I am now starting to recall nearly all the stuff on here.
ReplyDeleteI dont usually critique (low attention writing threshold!) but want to make a change on this one:
Joboxers. OK I suppose.
Bowie. Just wonderful. Amongst his finest hours and probably the first time I have seen the video!
Orange Juice. Most enjoyable.
Leo Sayer. Not that great.
Big Country. Best act on here. What a album the Crossing was and I feel their finest hour will appear in a few months....
Nick Heyward. Another stunning little song I thought.
Altered Images. Easily their best song and what a sexy little poppet she was and indeed still is!! Her google images are lovely. Interesting story about the scar on her cheek...
Duran Duran.. This is a record as this was the first point I fast forwarded in the entire episode! Utter crap. In fact I carried on FFWDing past David Joseph too.
A most enjoyable 40 minutes of (mostly) Tv heaven. 9.5/10 including the presenters who i enjoyed.
Neil B would you by any chance have the full [BBC1] Version of this show ?
ReplyDeleteAs usual I did an edit of the BBC4HD version with the missing JK bit (although still missing a link due to UK Gold):
ReplyDeletehttps://www.4shared.com/video/Frn-HjkAce/TOTP_1903-03-23.html
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThanks so much for the BBC4HD edit of this episode with the JK bit added in. Will you uploading the 30/3 and 7/4/83 shows with the JK portions in too?
ReplyDeleteThere wasn't a JK segment in either of those two eps, I think? Next edited one is 14/4 but I see Neil has now supplied a full version of that so should be able to do a better version.
DeleteGreat. Thanks for the update.
ReplyDelete