er ... boys ... I think we struck too many matches...
17/02/83 (Gary Davies & Peter Powell)
Wham! – “Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)” (8)
Its foggy in the studio tonight but Wham get us off to a bright start, although Wham Rap got no higher in the charts.
Tears For Fears – “Change” (4) (video)
At its peak.
Icehouse – “Hey Little Girl” (34)
'Australia's biggest band' on next with what became their only top 30 hit when it peaked at number 17.
Musical Youth – “Never Gonna Give You Up” (16) (video)
The band's second and final top ten hit, which peaked at number 6.
Jonathan King – US chart rundown: Edited out of course.
Pretenders – “Back On The Chain Gang” (video clip)
Lionel Richie – “You Are” (video clip)
Christopher Cross – “All Right” (video clip)
The Stray Cats – “Stray Cat Strut” (video clip)
Patti Austin & James Ingram – “Baby Come To Me” (35)
An American number one, made it to number 11 in the UK. But edited out of the 7.30 showing.
Madness – “Tomorrow’s (Just Another Day)” (24) (video)
Became their 13th top ten hit when it peaked at number 8.
Haysi Fantayzee – “Shiny Shiny” (23)
Peter predicts this will be the duo's biggest hit but it peaked at 16, making it their second biggest, of four.
The Fun Boy Three – “Tunnel Of Love” (14)
Terry looking as happy as ever to be here, Tunnel of Love went up four more places.
Kajagoogoo – “Too Shy” (1) (+ credits)
The first of two weeks at number one.
Tonight's BBC1 schedule.
Next then should be February 24th 1983, but quite incredibly BBC4 are still not showing DLT editions, for goodness sake! So instead they are skipping to March 3rd.
Gary Davies put in a much better turn tonight than on his last appearance. He was much better at doing the chart rundown than PP, who had a bit of a shocker, fumbling the last link and stumbling on the charts. Almost as shocking as his armpit high trousers.
ReplyDeleteMusically it was Madness I most enjoyed and it was good to hear the Icehouse song.
The show seemed to run short at 7.30. Was the Austin/Ingram track part of the US chart sequence and unable to be left in?
According to TOTP Facts on Twitter the top 10 video show is back next week.
The Patti Austin/James ingram track was not part of the JK US chart sequence, but was on the UK show in its own right, as it entered our UK chart at no.35 this week. According to Popscene, it was a new TOTP studio performance, and not the video.
DeleteThanks Dory.
DeleteAnd for a bit of stats geekery, this edition of TOTP attracted 7.44m viewers and was the most videoed show of the week (according to a ratings forum).
ReplyDeleteWhat a joy to see Iva Davies AM on BBC4! Icehouse deserved to be bigger in this country.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to catching the Austin/Ingram duet - which was penned by the late, great Rod Temperton - on the extended edition.
Shiver me timbers, the late night repeat (or what you call the extended edition), also edited out the Patti Austin/James Ingram track, and considering it was a studio performance, and I assume the pair came over from the USA to perform in the TOTP studio here, why oh why was this edited out even in the late night repeat?
DeleteShock, horror, disappointment, and confusion here, as this is one of the greatest ballads, if not duets, in the history of pop music. Even in 2017, it still gives me goose pimples whenever I hear this great love song.
Quick, someone upload the original uncut version of the show with the JK sequence plus Austin/Ingram in the TOTP studio, as this is double woe on top of the fact that as Angelo points out, DLT is still not being shown on the TOTP repeats for goodness sake.
The reason the Patti Austin/James Ingram track has been edited out is because Jonathan King introduces it straight from his US chart section.
DeleteYes, I also noticed that Austin/Ingram were cut out of the late showing. I can only think that the links surrounding the song contained references to JK, and it was deemed easier just to edit the song out rather than show it. Hopefully someone will be able to provide the whole show shortly, and we can find out.
DeleteJust seen Brie's post - dearie me, the BBC's behaviour is moving beyond pathetic now!
DeleteTonight's repeat showing of the same show is only 25 minutes long so maybe they've found fault with another of the artists!
DeleteCould be Musical Youth, cos one of the boys, towards the end of the video, sits on a bench next to a guitar-playing girl and squeezes her left breast, only to get the guitar smashed to pieces on his head, as she then walks away in anger.
DeleteFound it bore and John G! Here is the missing piece of the show on Utube. Basically JK finishes off his US top 5 rundown with Patti Austin & James Ingram as the new American No.1, and at the same time introduces them performing in the TOTP studio as a new entry at No.35 in the UK chart, and so it seems that BBC4 felt it was easier to edit out this new TOTP studio performance in one fail swoop with the whole JK section. That explains the whole mess on this week's show:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHY2DmEXhJI
Funnily enough, I was driving down a rainy North Circular Road in London this morning at 9.05am when Baby Come To Me was played by Smooth FM, which goes to show the timeless appeal of this song even on 2017!
Should say brie and John G! Computer keypads seem to get ahead of us sometimes with their own desire to change to a word they recognise.
Deletei'm "phoning in" this review as i just don't feel like making the trip to the library to watch it on iplayer. so no comment on the hosts, as their contributions were cut out of whatever related show footage i could find on youtube
ReplyDeletetears for fears: more weird dance moves by roland in the video - was he a student of tai chi or something?
icehouse: the best song that the sultan of suave never recorded! it's received a bit of a battering over the years as a roxy ripoff, but i don't care as i think it's one of the greatest tracks of the 80's and still listen to it regularly. they were formed and based in australia, but there were at two englishmen in their ranks in the form of keyboard player andy quinta and (very cool-looking here) bassist guy pratt. ironically in later years the latter (who by the way was the son of actor/musician mike pratt of "randall & hopkirk" fame) actually became the bass player of choice for mr ferry himself!
austin/ingram: i'm not sure if this came out before or after ingram's brilliant post-disco track "yah mo be there" - i seem to remember that initally bombing here before being rescued by a then-radical (but alas far inferior) remixed version. more slick, smooth, sophisticated and soulful sounds from the pen of the legendary rod temperton (i now see that julie beat me to that one - bummer!), although it's just a touch too close to the awful power ballad duets of the time a la "up here where we belong" for me to appreciate its class unconditionally
madness: this actually precedes wacko's supposedly ground-breaking "thriller" video concept of having some dramatic scenes at the beginning before the music starts. as usual a top quality effort visually (although sadly chas still hasn't managed to locate his razor), but the antics don't really mirror what is a relatively downbeat tune. and one that i had pretty-much forgotten, but listening again i have to admit they were probably far better tunesmiths than they were ever given credit for. by the way, when i watched this in yt an advert popped up for the band themselves performing at the tranmere rovers football ground later this year!
kajagoogoo: a couple of things i've found about them recently as a result of seeing them on the show:
1 - they released a single in their previous incarnation as art nouveau. it's quite good musically in a john foxx-era ultravox style, but the vocals are pretty weak and you can see why they went looking for someone like limahl:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGfs9ypNgYk
2 - nick beggs now has a penchant for wearing leather dresses!
Guy Pratt also played with post-Roger Waters Pink Floyd, and ended up marrying Rick Wright's daughter!
Deleteyes, i was aware of guy getting the gig with pink floyd - i once read an interview with david gilmour who (almost certainly throwing a jibe at his dour ex-colleague roger waters) said something like "finding another bassist was easy as they're ten a penny - the reason guy got the job was because he's a great laugh and fun to work with". in fact mr pratt is such a character that he even goes out as a solo act doing those raconteur-style shows a la rick wakeman!
Deleteas for roger waters, i remember once seeing a copy of some dinosaur rock magazine in the racks of a newagents with a front cover quote by him saying (no doubt without a trace of irony) "i am not an entertainer!"
I can't think of anyone in the rock world, save perhaps Van Morrison, who takes themselves quite as seriously as Mr Waters. It is a minor miracle that the other members of Floyd endured him for as long as they did!
Deletejohn, what about kevin rowland - surely he's in the frame? and even though i do like a lot of roland orzabal's music, he must be a contender too?
DeleteThis show followed up the previous week's new studio sets with another new concept - the smoke rising up from the floor on the main studio set near the video screen. I really did not like this, as first it climbed up the legs of the Wham Girls (must be why they chose white jeans, otherwise it would have obscured their legs if wearing skirts or anything similar), and then the floor smoke was not appropriate for a slow track with Icehouse.
ReplyDeleteAnd then the first showing in the UK of the video for Musical Youth - I quite liked it up to the point just before the end of the video when one of the boys sat on the bench next to the guitarplaying girl, then squeezed her left breast, getting her reaction of smashing the guitar on his head and breaking it, and understandably quite shaken by it, storming off.
I'm sorry, but how this scene was allowed in the video when producing it, was frankly unacceptable, and very derogatory in my opinion. At least when one of the Fun Boy Three had a similar feeling towards one of the Karen of Bananarama in their first video together, it was a pinch on the bottom in the video (which could also be frowned upon), but not a squeeze of a breast!
We were 4 years into the thatcher era, and these Carribean men (in both groups) were still in the dark ages, and should not have had their video shown, but TOTP decided instead to edit out the brilliant Austin/Ingram love song. The mind boggles indeed!
I noticed that two groups this week got the short straw with no second appearance on TOTP, despite still rising in the charts two weeks after their one and only appearance on the show:
ReplyDeleteFirstly InDeep with Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, with the two 18-year old girls still rising this week at No.13, and then Fleetwood Mac still rising at No.9 with Oh Diane. You could say that there was a good case of playing them instead of Icehouse and Austin/Ingram this week, who were still outside the top 30 at this point.
It just goes to illustrate further my point that the show should always have been one hour in length, so that you would not leave out any of the climbers who deserved another appearance on the show, yet still be able to have some of those bubbling under the top 30 like Icehouse and Austin/Ingram. Then everyone gets a fair crack on the show, and is a more complete picture of what is going on in the charts, yet this was never done outside of the Christmas shows.
i suspect that despite the onslaught of promotional videos now being made, the programme's producers (an a "canute trying to turn back the tide" scenario) still gave preference to acts making themselves available for a studio appearance in the flesh. that would of course been to the detriment of american acts such as indeep and austin/ingram. who were hardly likely to regularly travel several thousand miles at great expense just for a three-minute appearance on a british tv pop show... even if they insisted on singing live rather than mimed!
DeleteWham! emerging like John Carpenter's zombies from The Fog, another energetic showing, and George in double denim, or a Canadian tuxedo as I believe it's also called.
ReplyDeleteTears for Fears with some refugees from The Dark Crystal or somesuch. The narrative to this video is a bit of a mystery, but it's carried by the song.
Icehouse, never really gets into gear for me, this one, it plods along moodily without being very appealing. Men at Work were catchier.
Musical Youth take a trip, still attempting the Madness-style gags. They taught Rick Astley all he knew... well, he nicked their song title, anyway. Pleasant enough, but it was getting a bit samey now.
Weird we didn't get Patti and James, presumably it's in a later show?
Madness raid the dressing up box to show Musical Youth how it's done. Another bleakly catchy ditty from the boys, I kind of liked them when they got reflective and married that to a solid tune, it was a great combination.
Haysi Fantayzee, more or less a rerun of what they did before, except it was a new performance. The band Dexys could have been!
Fun Boy Three, another virtually identical reprise, only with a fire alarm-threatening ending. I'm guessing the timpani didn't go out with them on tour?
Then Kajagoogoo receive their moment of fame, not bad, guys, but not durable either. The drummer is the only member whose hair would be acceptable today. Is that a string vest, Limahl?
I noticed on the show listings that Patti and James return on the TOTP edition of 3rd March, so let's see how they fit into the grand scheme of things on that show, as it is not involving JK or DLT or JS, or anyone else that the Beeb holds fault with.
DeleteI may be mistaken, but next Friday's looks like a half hour show too, so maybe we're in for more snips?
DeleteNo THX, it was originally an half hour show.
DeleteOK, thanks, good to know. Let's be thankful for small mercies!
DeleteThat particular show was 35 minutes originally, but JK does a European chart rundown in it which I am sure will be cut.
DeleteYes , I've got it wrong as I forgot that the 10/3/83 show is a Mike Smith one. The 17/3/83 one is 35 minutes long and has a JK European section in it.
DeletePP and GD provide us with perhaps the weakest presenter pairing so far, spending hardly any time together on camera and producing zero chemistry when they do. PP also seemed very distracted this week, and as has already been noted stumbled badly over the closing link. Gazza did better, but did put on a weird, overemphatic, boggle-eyed expression in a couple of his links. Oh, the chart rundown technique of both hosts was also very repetitive and boring.
ReplyDeleteWham at least ensure a lively start to the show with a typically energetic performance. George is sporting a notable pigtail here, which I hadn't noticed on previous appearances - presumably it's a fake? Nice to get the proper version of Change, though the video is cut brutally short for some reason. It's an imaginative promo, if slightly pretentious, and someone should really have told Roland to drop the silly dancing. I wonder which ultra-modern building this was filmed at?
I hadn't heard this Icehouse song for a long time, but it's a great, slow-burning track, even if the vocals do owe a significant debt to one B Ferry esquire! Gazza talks about them as if they are the biggest Aussie band around, seemingly forgetting the huge international success currently being enjoyed by Men at Work. Musical Youth are rewarded for their chart success by getting a trip to Jamaica to film their latest video, and the usual sort of antics ensue. The music is strictly more of the same, and I'm surprised this got as high as 6 - I'm pretty sure I have never heard it on the radio. Madness come up with a typically inventive video, but the song sounds quite flat and repetitive to my ears, as if they were suffering a bit from creative exhaustion.
Nice to see Kate in her corset again, and the FB3 make what feels like their 550th studio appearance, this time without the potted plants but with the all-female band still present. Kajagoogoo close out the show with their new number 1, and unsurprisingly look very happy about it. Who could have guessed then that things would go so sour, so quickly?
Kate Garner while wearing a corset for the second time for Shiny Shiny, had a much better dress to go with it than last time. Elegance and style are an understatement, but she really is hot stuff in that dress, isn't she? Looks like this is her last TOTP appearance on our screens. Pity, cos she is a stunner in the realms of what other artists manage to get on the show.
DeleteKajagoogoo's first week at no.1, and immediately get put across the end end credits? Hmm, seems like the BBC did not like the fact that they were No.1 if they get the end-credits treatment on only their first week in top position. A bit odd I thought. I would have put InDeep or Fleetwood Mac on end credits, considering they were still climbing the charts with no main listing this week, and having not been on the show for two weeks!
I thought GD was the better of the two with the chart rundown, as he varied the way he read out each track whereas PP stuck to 'at 19, at 18 etc. As someone with 5 years experience of hosting TOTP you'd think he'd do better.
DeleteAs we say goodbye to Hayzi Fantaysee for the last time on TOTP, with only two top 40 singles to show for their efforts, here is the rare video for Shiny Shiny, which was impossible to see at the time when groups appeared in the TOTP studio at each time of asking:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjsnkIP4ddo&list=PL5E3AF66C1ADE1B8C
There is also a second 'video' but was probably a TV show with a barn studio set and rabbits mating in the background, with Garner wearing the same dress as in this week's TOTP at No.23.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H0OVJXKVLI
As if that wasn't enough, there are three other TV show performances outside of TOTP that were very good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ9TDsltQI0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVcjuLiJHqA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B7SrmOA7N0
Dory,
DeleteThere is a link for the Patti / James track where the beginning gives it away why it was cut
https://youtu.be/uHY2DmEXhJI
Thanks Anonymous, but I put the same link up a couple of hours before you on one of my postings above. It is a very good link though, so thanks.
DeleteDoes someone have the whole show to put up here, cos I would like to see the whole JK insert with the Pretenders up to The Stray Cats. I see that it was not shown on UK Gold, so it seems this was the first time that this show was shown since 1983, and so someone's original VHS copy may hold in good stead here if anyone can come forward with one.
ReplyDeleteAccording to my Wikipedia pages which I downloaded 3 years ago the 17/2/83 show was shown on UK Gold as well as the following 24/2/83 show.
Deletetotp 17 February 1983 with JK segment is here https://we.tl/UZGxRWwqzK
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff gia. I enjoyed more the scenes from the New Orleans Mardi Gras surrounding JK, more than the songs themselves in the JK segment. I didn't know that the Mardi Gras festival was so much fun, but it seems so, doesn't it?
DeleteInteresting that Stray Cat Strut charted in the US a stagerring TWO YEARS after charting in the UK in April 1981. Slow or what! It was also nice to see the new US No.1 Baby Come to Me being performed simultaneously across the atlantic in the TOTP studio as a new entry this week at No.35, and what a great love song it is, which unfortunately only got to No.11 in Britain, and not a deserved top 5 at least.
Yes, thanks Gia (and also Dory for your earlier links). Only two new songs in the JK section, though I don't think we ever saw that video for Back on the Chain Gang during the song's chart run over here. Lionel Richie appeared to be having fun surrounded by lovely ladies on this relatively upbeat number for him, and the Christopher Cross track sounded vaguely familar, but very dirge-like. There's an image of a flamingo next to him in this performance - he seems to have had a bit of a thing about them, as one also appears on the cover of his debut album. I wonder why it took nearly two years for Stray Cat Strut to take off in the States?
DeleteThe Austin/Ingram track is definitely a classy track, just a bit too smoochy for my tastes. Still, at least they made the effort to appear in the studio, and it was a nice performance. There was a further edit made to the BBC4 repeat, as Gary Davies mentions at the end that DLT will be hosting next week. No sign yet of that show online, but hopefully it will appear soon...
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DeleteAustin/Ingram at this stage had not got to the megastardom that they achieved later on in the decade, so were still upcoming at this stage in 1983, and it did not pose a challenge for TOTP to get them to come over from the US to perform in the TOTP studio.
DeleteJames Ingram would go on to do successful duets with other female artists, and the one I remember him most for was the 1987 duet with Linda Ronstadt singing Somewhere Out There which was the theme song for the Spielberg movie An American Tail, and also shown on a Aug/Sep 1987 edition of TOTP
I can't believe that the Beeb are still editing any mention of DLT, even though he was not presenting this week's show. The unfair treatment of DLT and Jonathan King is becoming extremely one-sided, and the Beeb should get a kicking from some external sources for harbouring a chip on their shoulder and subsequently letting down the licence-paying public by going over the top with these two presenters, and bearing a grudge instead of apologising for their babyish actions towards the two of them. Pathetic stuff really.
Gia
ReplyDeletethanks for full show
Meer
Thank you very much for the JK insert. Particularly please to see this one as I am off to NO Mardi Gras in a couple of weeks :-)
DeleteLordy lordy, it's Smashie and Nicey. The worst pairing so far. Smiley-Voice was at his incompetent worse, stumbling over his words several times and uttering banalities at a hell of a rate. And don't start me on his trousers. Ooh Gary Davies was only slightly better, in that he made sense when he opened his gob, but what was going on with his eyebrows. It looked for all the world as though they were moving independently from his body. No chemistry between them - as mentioned earlier, in fact they looked as though they didn't even like each other very much. They are lucky to get a 3.
ReplyDeleteThe Music. Not the greatest Wham song in the world, but it's fast and fun and comes with a fine performance from all.
Icehouse. Fine song, which possibly might have been better with some sort of solo as it's a bit one-note for me. This is the kind of song Japan would have recorded if they lived in sunny Oz instead of gloomy Britain.
Tears For Fears. I usually write TFF, cos its quicker, but hearing Smiley Voice say it has put me off it. This is my least favourite of all their hits, but Pale Shelter and Head Over Heels are due up soon.
Madness. One of their downbeat songs, and one that gets no air-play at all which is a shame as it's a little cracker.
I had no recollection of this Musical Youth song, just going from the title. But once it began, it came back to me. Nothing special really. Which neatly sums up the rest of the show. 6.
The next Yewtree'd edition is the one from my 21st birthday. I have no recollection of it. At all.
So you're twelve days younger than me, Shakey!
Deleteand i think only a couple of months younger than me, which means we would all have been in the "same year" at school!
DeleteIt's been many a moon since anyone has referred to me as being younger than them, and even if it is only by a couple of days or a couple of months, I'll take it.
DeleteI'm younger than the three of you, about 6 years younger, as I had just turned 15 at around this time in 1983, and still at grammar school and having to stay in every night doing my homework while watching the likes of Musical Youth and Fun Boy Three on a cold winter evening, and the winters then were a lot colder than they are nowadays!
Deletedory i believe the point being made here is that myself, arthur and shakey are all peers - had we all grown up in the same place, then you wouldn't even have been in the same school as us - never mind the same year!
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DeleteThere are plenty of schools to choose from Wilberforce, and considering we all live in different parts of the country, I would not have been expecting to be in the same school as yourselves. I would have only started secondary school around the time that you guys left, but we would have been enjoying the same music and TOTP, regardless of age. At least I'm still in my forties for another year or so till 2018.
DeleteI would expect that most of the regulars on this blog would have been born in the 1960's (including myself), but also a smaller number in the 1970's.
And at least one of us, to quote The Police, was "Born in the 50s"...
DeleteNice gag linking the smoky photo to the Fun Boy Three lyric there, Angelo!
ReplyDeleteI agree, not the best pairing of DJ presenters, but still not as painful as the dream team of Tommy Vance and Roger Daltrey. An interesting shared top ten rundown for the first time, a new pic for Indeep (sassy dancer’s got bushier hair) and Gary Davies gets to mention a song which ended up as the ‘bed’ for his Tuesday lunchtime chart rundown, “1999” by Prince.
Superb early balloon swipe by George Michael, but I thought it weird seeing the camera focus on Shirley and Dee Dee singing “Wham bam, I am a man”, and did anyone else clock Andrew look straight at the ‘jet black guy’ backing vocalist when those three words were rapped?
I like the way Tears For Fears are so posh and (Southern) English that they pronounce ‘laugh’ and ‘photograph’ the way Americans don’t. I couldn’t find the video location but discovered on YouTube the xylophonist was taking mescaline and has no recollection of shooting this vid as he was, and I quote, “off his tits”.
The first day’s holiday I ever booked off work was to see David Bowie supported by The Beat and DryIceHouse. Defo a David Sylvain impersonation going on here during the verses, and it’s spot on.
How to tell the lead singer, part 1 – different colour trunks to the rest in Musical Youth. A remarkable video for the breast clinch. Who on Earth thought that was a good idea?
I’m not keen on “Baby Come To Me”, but its exclusion from both television and the iPlayer version is just plain stupid.
How to tell the lead singer, part 2 – different colour umbrella to the rest in Madness. I flinched at Suggs’s ‘one cross eye’ trick.
Blimey, wasn’t Kate Garner thin? Probably still is. Sexy and sassy, and she knew it, and so did that ‘closeup’ taking cameraman. Interesting to hear Peter mention their previous single “Holy Joe” which was a massive top 51 hit and didn’t get a TOTP outing.
Here come the Fun Boy Three and more fun backing band, with Terry rehashing Pat Sharp’s hair from last week and a very prominent earring.
Kajagoogoo were almost as bad to these ears as Peter’s horribly fumbled link. Was he on mescaline?
I didn't notice the "clinch" first time around, so took a look on YT and right enough it's there. Plus in the full video one of the band becomes a stalker! Sexual harassment the Musical Youth way.
DeleteAny sightings of the 24th Feb show with DLT, which should be next up before this Thursday comes round with the first of the March '83 shows on BBC4?
ReplyDeleteWould be great see the return of Zoo after a two-month break since December '82, and also the debut of The Eurythmics as a new band for 1983.
Good Lord, I just realised that 4 shows need to go up this week on the blog, because two of them involve DLT and Mike Smith, and the other two have clearance to show by BBC4. This has gone from a pleasant hobby to doing work.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what our original blogmaster Simon would have made of all the extra work? He gave up after the first two years (well, a year and three quarters) of incisive critiques because he found it too much of a chore. I have to say I'm finding it a hard slog these days.
DeleteIf it was a chore for Simon on one show a week, then can you imagine what a chore it is for us, having to do blog four shows this weekend for example.
DeleteHighlight of this show were again the videos. Loved the Madness one!
ReplyDelete1983 was definitely the year of the "fat" Bass, as featured on the Japan, oops sorry I meant Icehouse, track.
As ever, Neil B has come to our rescue and made the 24 February show available on 4Shared - no WeTransfer link available yet, as far as I can see:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.4shared.com/video/Dem8unzyba/TOTP_1983-02-24.html
thanks to neil for the streaming link, and to you john for bringing it to my attention - another review is now safely in the can awaiting angelo's posting!
DeleteYT totp 24 February 1983 is here https:we.tl/74bsBfNNZr
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love WeTransfer. So easy and clean to download, no danger of picking up worms and viruses, and the perfect solution here. I really don't get the whole 4-shared thing which is more troublesome and unpredictable to say the least.
DeleteI record the late night version of the show for a reason, that is to see the least butchered version of the show. This week's edition was an absolute joke with all the edits, and the BBC's insistence in not even mentioning DLT is pathetic. His accuser has been on TV twice in the last week meaning that I had to miss QI and Insert Name Here as I won't watch her now out of principle. Don't get me started on (convicted criminal) Andy Kershaw's regular appearances on The One Show either...
ReplyDeleteThe Wham performance wasn't as good as the previous one, but Tears For Fears was improved by being the video (albeit edited) rather than the yucky re-recorded version in the studio previously.
Icehouse - I love this song, and I never really got the similarity to Roxy Music to be honest. They're such an under-rated band, just one other Top 40 hit here with the brilliant 'Crazy' and 'Electric Blue' should have been a huge hit as it was in the US. When I visited Australia I got a copy of their Singles Collection and I can recommend it, loads of great tracks on there.
Musical Youth - Unlike almost everyone else, I do recall this from the time, it's the only hit other than the biggie that I remember at all (well, '007' too, but they didn't write that!)
I may have been annoyed at the constant edits but it has to be said that the JK segment contained 2 real snoozefests (hello Lionel & Chris) and the vastly over-rated Stray Cats with their 'selling coals to Newcastle' moment in the sun.
I'm also not keen on the Austin / Ingram duet but it is silly that others didn't get a chance to enjoy it.
Both Haysi Fantayzee & Fun Boy 3 performances were not quite as good as before, then the No.1 which I'm already bored of!
it took me some time to work out who dlt's "accuser" is, but the fact that she seems so in with the beeb perhaps explains why he's still frozen out? even though your form of protest will not make a jot of difference as far as the beeb are concerned, i say good on you for boycotting the shows she appears in as it's her fault we don't get to see the dlt totp episodes! i did actually see the media whore in question in an episode of xmas university challenge just over a year ago, but although i didn't immediately reach for the off-button i have to admit that her presence made me feel a bit queasy and watching the show a bit less enjoyable...
Deleteby the way, can anyone enlighten me as to why the "accused" uses the professional name of dave lee travis, as opposed to his given one david patrick griffin? all this coverage of him thanks to yewtree and yet it still hasn't been explained!
How ironic, Noax, that you wouldn't insert the name of the accuser who's recently appeared on "Insert Name Here"!
Deleteone of the few joys of modern life is having access to youtube where you can pretty much check out the back catalogues of acts you had only one or two hit singles way back when, without taking a gamble and blowing much hard-earned cash on albums in the hope that unheard other stuff might be as good (as far as i'm concerned, purchasing an album on the strength of one single from it was a giant con by the music industry - it's like buying a car without without getting someone who knows what they're doing to check it out it first!)...
Deleteand it's a bloody good job i never investigated icehouse any further back then, as everything i've since heard that they ever recorded (other than "hey little girl") did nothing for me whatsoever!
It's a shame that you don't agree with me about Icehouse wilberforce, but it'd be boring if we all loved the same things. Did you check out their really early stuff when they were called Flowers when you did your search? The Flowers tracks are very New Wave and they recorded a track called 'Icehouse' which used to appear occasionally on early 80s compilations and (obviously) then became the band name.
DeleteArthur - I don't believe in giving her any publicity, however small and unlikely that might be amongst friends here!
no noax i didn't check out any of the flowers stuff, although mention of that triggers a dim recollection of their previous incarnation in the grey matter. anyway on your advice i have now given their "icehouse" album a listen on yt, and to me it's generic post-punk/art rock that i found myself mostly indifferent to. but the title track that also inspired the band name change stands apart as (pre-majure) ultravox-like dark synth pop
Deletei also thought i'd give the 1982 icehouse album "primitive man" another listen as perhaps i'd written it off too soon. but with the possible exception of "trojan blue" there's nothing on it of the sophistication and class of "hey little girl". it also doesn't help that iva davies mostly sings at a far higher pitch than on the single, plus there's far too much majure-style power-chording going on for my liking!
by the way, i don't think anyone has yet pointed out that "icehouse" is aussie slang for a mental institution?
another interesting thing about icehouse is that (to my recollection according to guy pratt in an interview) keyboard player andy qunta was a shady character who later fell foul of the criminal underworld and/or the law. andy now has his own website where in his otherwise-detailed bio he cryptically alludes to spending some time behind bars!
DeleteI find some of the comments here extraordinary. A woman complains that a man fondled her breasts and a jury, hearing all the evidence, accepts her version of events. Is she supposed to just accept it and do nothing. The sentence is spent and the BBC continues, for some reason best known to itself not to show DLT's shows - why is that her fault? I thought those attitudes died out years ago, clearly I was wrong.
Deletewhilst i in no way condone mr travis's alleged breast-fondling actions, the question has to asked that if his alleged victim was so appalled by this, then why didn't she either do something to prevent it happening, or at least report his actions to the relevent authorities immediately afterwards? might i suggest that as someone desperate to get their foot in the door of slebdom, she came to the conclusion that doing the right thing through resistance and/or making complaints would likely doom her chances of success and thus complied and kept quiet accordingly? if so then in terms of her consequent career trajectory it was certainly the right choice to make, but can she and her conscience sleep soundly at night as a result?
DeleteAnonymous - It is also a fact that the accuser went on a tour and made some comedy material out of the incident BEFORE taking it to court. Which strikes me as extremely hypocritical.
DeleteOh, and I forgot to mention - she tried to drag Dave Gorman to her defence presumably because he is a celebrity and therefore more likely to garner a few headlines. Shame then that he was in court for about 2 minutes to say 'I didn't witness the incident' before walking out again.....
Deletei think the police released their album "synchronicity" in 1983, and surely that is what is happening here? going by the musical youth video it was presumably seen as acceptable at that time for men to make deliberate contact with womens' breasts without fear of being prosecuted. so between then and when dlt was charged and sentenced for doing the same thing, was there an actual change in the law or was it just a case of change in public morality?
DeleteI think it is very hypocritical of BBC4 to show the Musical Youth video on the repeats, including the black boy folding a girls breast towards the end of the video, in both the early evening show, and the late night repeat, and at the same time they ban the DLT shows for him supposedly doing the same thing. Good Lord, it doesn't make sense!
DeleteAngelo, any chance of getting the 24th Feb DLT-hosted show on the blog tonight, as the March shows begin in a couple of days time on BBC4,and it would ease the avalanche of four shows between now and Friday if we could get this one up as soon as.
ReplyDeleteGood grief, there’s a lot of comments for this show on here already!
ReplyDeleteGary and Peter make a great pairing don’t they? In fact these pairings are growing on me as they do enable banter.
As for this show, well not a particular favourite really.
Wham – Wham Rap – Get yourself a job indeed… these boys and girls were the hottest thing going then.
Tears for Fears – Change – The folks in the video remind me somewhat of the ‘Mutos’ from some Dr Who story that I don’t really remember too well.
Icehouse – Hey little Girl – Dreary Aussie stuff. Give me Men at Work or better still Air Supply (still huge in the States).
Musical Youth – Never gonna give you up - ….never gonna let you go, never gonna turn around…… zzzzzz Peaked at no6???
JK section – Not watched it. Memo to self – watch it for Christopher Cross.
Patti Austin & James Ingram – Baby come to me – Not on the full showing that I viewed and I’ve just seen why. Sheesh!!
Madness – Tomorrow’s just another day – Another superb piece of video making and another classic nutty sound.
Haysi Fantazee – Shiny Shiny – “Now we’ve got a few new entries in the chart this week…..nah let’s get HF back again”. Prince anyone?
Fun Boy 3 – Tunnel of Love – “Girl it looked so pretty to me, like it always did….” Ah no, wrong song.
Kajagoogoo – Too Shy – Another band like HF who were always around to pop into the studio, not being on a current world tour etc. Good no1 nevertheless. Rolling the credits with it too.
Noticed ‘The Citadel’ starring Ben ‘Chariots of Fire’ Cross was on later. Now that was a good series.
sct prompted by your last comment i took a closer look at the bbc1 schedule above, with the following thoughts:
Delete1 - i have no recall of the robin "doctor in the house" nedwell comedy series whatsoever. but even if it wasn't very good, back in the the days when i had access to a telly it would have made an inreresting change to have watched some long-forgotten obscurity like that rather than be subjected to yet another repeat of something like "porridge" or "dad's army"...
2 - i wonder if the amount raised for "children in need" (i didn't know that had been going for quite so long!) is before or after the cut that wigon supposedly always took in return for hosting those shows? it's bad enough that wealthy slebs never seem to donate out any money of their own to the charidees they appear on behalf of, but to actually insist on a fee as a result of contributing to such an event really is the pits! i hope whoever has taken over from wigon now he's croaked has the conscience and morality to at least give their time freely...
wilberforce; re 'The Climber'; nope me neither. There's very little about it on the internet either. I must have been aware of it at the time given I watched TOTP and 'The Citadel'. I think I gave Claire Rayner a miss though!
DeleteUnless you're getting them confused with a differently named character, the Mutos were in Blakes 7!
DeleteThe Mutos appear in Doctor Who as well. They are characters in Genesis of the Daleks, and Terry Nation, as he often did, then recycled the name in Blake's 7.
DeleteAh yes, fair enough. Good old Terry with his 'Tarrant' obsession..
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAs this TOTP show is the last for Wham Rap, with only two studio performances and no video shown before its tumble down the charts, I took a look at the video for the first time and a few interesting observations come out:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsyHQgiem8c
1. George Michael starts off by getting out of his own house to go to see his friend Andrew Ridgeley getting a lecture from his parents to get a job and get out of the house, while George tries to convince him otherwise to "put a claim on your name is all you have to do" in order to get benefits instead of working as the way forward in life.
2. On the way to Andrew, George passes a Express Dairies milkfloat/milkman with the old blue and white logo/colours. Does this milk company still exist? I remember them in the 70s and 80s only.
3. When George finally arrives at Andrew's, he says "your more dead than alive in a 9 to 5", and when they are out on the street he says "gonna have some fun, look out for number 1, you can dig your grave I'm staying young". Ironic words indeed with George passing away a couple of months ago at only 53 years old.
4. The second half of the video is entirely in their own studio set, dancing with the Wham girls and with a studio audience of their own that would have given the TOTP studio audience a run for their money.
Express Dairies do still exist, and deliver milk to my door three times a week!
Deleteblimey - you still actually get milk delivered to your door?!? that antiquated and fast-dying practice reminds me of the story where phil oakey and martyn ware of the human league were having an argument whilst walking down a terraced street in the early hours, and one started hurling milk bottles left on the doorsteps at the other!
DeleteQuite a few people still have deliveries round my way...
DeleteDo the milkmen still have their tea break at a bored housewife's place/bedroom like Benny Hill used to do?
DeleteSadly not that I'm aware of, though I know our milkman occasionally takes a break while sitting in his float just round the corner from my house!
DeleteNot my intention to hide behind anonymity - I am occasional contributor 50 something.
ReplyDeleteWham Bam back again. Not sure why George has relegated his backing band to doing backing vocals when that was surely the task of Andrew and the girls who now have nothing to do but dance. But early Wham were all about the dance routines and less about the music weren't they. Not sure I recall George having a pony tail and I'm not sure it suits him. Maybe it's a clip on.
ReplyDeleteI remember the TFF video well, a lot of extras from Le Mis in a modern mirrored office block and we get to enjoy Roland's robotic dancing. Videos had really got good by this point and it was a pleasure to see them in place of the band performing sometimes.
Gary Davies - DON'T LOOK AT THE EYES!! DON'T LOOK AT THE EYES!!
Icehouse - the lead singer looks an undernourished David Bowie channeling the voice of David Sylvian - spooky stuff. And I love the keyboard player miming to the high backing vocals but mot looking even slightly embarrassed about it. But it's not a bad song.
Musical Youth with their third bite of the cherry and another funny video but I wonder what those Jamaican kids thought about the Brit kids dodgy dancing and off-key singing.
I remember the Madness video well and being a long-time loyal fan bought the single and the album. I had a memory of them doing this in person on the show but must have got mixed up with a different song. The 12 inch of this features an extended dance mix which they had started with Our House. I didn't care much for their dance mixes but their record company forced them into it to put something extra on the 12 inchers.
Haysi back again looking slightly cleaner than usual. I actually preferred this one to John Wayne Is Big Whatsit and even bought the 12 inch single. Was this the first song to use cut up repeated vocals?
Nice to see The Fun Boy Three again. As a Specials fan I liked and bought all of the FB3 singles but I have to say that none of them appears to be enjoying themselves here.
The Top Ten and at last a new number one in the shape of Cagemygoolies and it runs behind the end titles. Not sure why Ronnie Hazlehurst gets a credit, did he actually do anything this week?
Can I just add that why I quite like the look of the show at this point with Zoo on hold, a good sprinkling of videos and interesting camera angles, etc, there are still some cheerleaders that I am sick of the sight of. They should have rotated them more. On a spit.
a madness 12" dance mix? the very idea sounds preposterous, and a listen to the "12" warp mix" below confirms that - surely no club jock in his right mind played that? still, one for madness completists i suppose - however pointless it may be:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQJkXSlwEBI