The sound of the marimba can have a very strange effect on people.....
12/05/83 (Mike Read & Tommy Vance)
Modern Romance – “Don’t Stop That Crazy Rhythm” (26)
This was the band's penultimate hit, and with the help of Will Gaines' crazy jazz tap dancing routine, it made it to number 14.
Daryl Hall & John Oates – “Family Man” (24) (video)
Having a spot of trouble with the kids here, this was the duo's final top 20 hit, peaking at number 15.
The Belle Stars – “Sweet Memory” (29)
The follow up to Sign of the Times became their final top 30 hit, peaking at number 22. But edited out of tonight's 7.30 showing.
Pink Floyd – “Not Now John” (30) (video)
Taken from their number one album ,The Final Cut, this single got no higher than number 30. And it was also edited out of tonight's 7.30 broadcast.
Hot Chocolate – “What Kinda Boy You’re Lookin’ For (Girl)” (35)
Barring various re-releases of You Sexy Thing, this was the band's final top ten hit, peaking at number 10.
Galaxy featuring Phil Fearon – “Dancing Tight” (5)
With the help of Phil doing his impressive acrobatics again, Dancing Tight went up one more place.
The Creatures – “Miss The Girl” (21)
A second studio performance, and oh my, that parade of audience faces was quite extraordinary wasn't it! But Miss the Girl got no higher.
Men At Work – “Overkill” (22)
Flying in from Japan for this performance, and Overkill went up one more place. Whilst they had them in the studio, Top of the Pops also got them to perform It's a Mistake, which was to be their next single, but this performance was never shown.
Agnetha Faltskog – pops into the studio for the first time since 1976 for a brief interview and a cuddle with Tommy! The Heat is indeed On ;-)
Spandau Ballet – “True” (1) (video)
Third of four weeks at number one.
Kissing The Pink – “The Last Film” (19) (audience dancing/credits)
Now at its peak.
Next up is May 19th 1983.
A reasonable edition this week, with a few highlights: Hall and Oates providing Mike Oldfield with a major international hit by proxy, the melodica making its TOTP debut courtesy of Hot Choc's Larry Ferguson, and Men At Work sounding very Policey. Having said that, the latter band's hit deserved to fare as well as it did around the world; irrespective of its mediocre British chart placing, there have been few better songs written about emotional burnout.
ReplyDeleteAmendment to above paragraph: I forgot that Haysi Fantayzee's Paul Caplin played a melodica solo in 'John Wayne Is Big Leggy'!
Deletebauhaus's bassist also played one on a quite recent edition, although his was of the fixed blowhole type rather than the stick-in tubular variety
DeleteThe type Larry used was a more professional model, similar to my own Stagg melodica, which came with a flexible air tube as well as a smaller mouthpiece. I prefer the former myself, as I almost broke my front teeth once when I used the smaller type.
Deletei'm thinking about buying a melodica myself - julie as a player do you have any tips? i really dont want to spending any more than £20 if possible though, just in case i don't get on with it...
DeleteI managed to purchase mine from an online instrument store for only £12. I would advise you to start with a 32-key model, which combines the ranges of the 25-key Hohner soprano and alto melodicas. You will need an elementary grasp of the piano keyboard and some basic tonguing technique, probably acquired through study of the recorder, harmonica or any woodwind or brass instrument. As you can see from my profile photo, I am also a harmonicist.
Deletethanks julie - i originally played the recorder at junior school before switching to piano, and now i have started playing a harmonica. however it's only a cheap diatonic/ blues-type one and a bit limited, but proper chromatic ones are quite expensive (not to mention probably being quite hard to play). therefore i was thinking a melodica might make for a decent budget alternative?
DeleteWait a minute, one of the scenery shifters has stormed the stage! Oh, my mistake, he's supposed to be there. Modern Romance with a song I remember and sounds like it should be a cover of an old Louis Prima number or something. It's fair enough for what it is.
ReplyDeleteToo right he's a Family Man, he seems to have about twenty kids! Never been that keen on this Hall and Oates tune, it's slick but empty. Someone is playing a computer game over the video, not exactly Jet Set Willy, but there you go.
Liking the yips on this Belle Stars follow up, but you can hear why it wasn't as big a hit as their previous release. It's decent, but not Top 10 material. Getting A League of their Own vibe from watching them.
Pink Floyd, at first I thought this was a clip from The Wall, but it's not, it's a welding based, geisha chorused, health and safety pointing out record breaker! OK, it's not a record breaker, and it doesn't seem to have a tune either, but of a plodding drone with rawk guitar and silly lyrics.
Here's a bit more melody with Hot Chocolate, a pleasant mid-tempo slice of pop, the melodica makes it a little more distinctive. Think I prefer them funkier, though.
All the way through Galaxy we were wondering, is Phil going to do the flip... is he... is he.... yes! That was the best bit. Don't know what he's done to his hair.
The Creatures again, with the instrumental break made memorable by closeups of Zoo mugging to the camera in enigmatic expressions. In black and white, too. Pretentious, moi?
Men at Work, this is definitely growing on me, sounds like Split Enz to these ears. There's more of a tune there than I remembered. One concession to wackiness: the baseball bat drum stick. Those funny Australians!
Oh hello Agnetha, nice to see you, feeling chatty are we? Oh. Obviously not. Well, never mind, it's Number 1 time again, and a rare fast forward for me, nothing more to be said.
Kissing the Pink to end on, they really did like this, didn't they? That Chinese girl remains a highlight.
While it was nice to have a show that just concentrated on the current chart sounds, after the celebrations and gimmicks of the previous two weeks, this really was a bland affair and a bore to sit through. The hosts were decent enough individually, but Mike Read was being a bit too cool for school and seemed reluctant to make eye contact with TV when they were both on screen together, preventing any real rapport from developing. After his intermittent appearances since 1980, this show marks Mike's return to the roster on a regular basis, and while I can forgive him for being underwhelmed by this line-up I hope he shows a bit more enthusiasm going forward. Tommy seems happy to be there, as usual - did anyone recognise the face on his jumper?
ReplyDeleteThat infuriating device of showing the act before the presenter introduces them is inflicted on several performances this week, starting with Modern Romance. More of the same from them musically, which is perhaps why the director tried to liven it up with the white feathers and the tap dance routine - suffice to say, those elements have stuck in my mind far more than the song. Hall and Oates cover a Mike Oldfield/Maggie Reilly tune that had only reached 45 for Mike the previous year. The original is the superior version, much more dramatic and hard-edged than this, with better guitar work too. The H&O video also seems to sanitise the song by making it seem as if it is about a dad being harassed by his kids, rather than being seduced by some vixen! The computer graphics look pretty good for the time, but they become annoying after a while.
The Belle Stars follow up their biggest hit with a reasonable effort that has a good tempo but just lacks a memorable hook. I assume they were expressing their devotion here to a baseball team rather than the classic 1975 album by Justin Hayward and John Lodge! I had no idea that Pink Floyd released a single from The Final Cut, but while the video is as visually striking as you might expect, aurally this is hardly breaking new ground for the band. I say "band," but by this point Roger Waters had become so dominant, and his relations with Dave Gilmour so strained, that this was practically a solo album - indeed, this song is the only one on which Gilmour sang lead vocals. As we know, relations between the two would only get more poisonous over the next few years...
Hot Chocolate continue their seemingly endless run of hits with this pleasant but hardly ground-shaking offering. The melodica is like a keyboard version of the voice box so beloved of Peter Frampton and others back in 1976, but it doesn't look terribly elegant. Galaxy next, with an identikit performance and spot of acrobatics from Phil, before The Creatures provide some more deja vu. The big difference from last time is of course those rather creepy close-ups of the Zoo dancers' faces. This works fairly well in the context of the music, but I imagine it might have freaked out some of the kids watching!
Men at Work finally make it to the studio for what I guess was their only appearance. I still can't get into this song much, which just seems too drab after the perkiness of Down Under. Did the drummer borrow his baseball bat from The Belle Stars? Agnetha then shows up for a predictably awkward and unforthcoming interview with our hosts. Wrap Your Arms Around Me is actually a pretty decent song, co-written by Mike Chapman - my Dad bought the single at the time, but it only got to 44 on our chart. Yet another airing for The Last Film to round things off, with plenty of arm-based action from Zoo. In the very last shot, Mike finally seems to shake off his earlier nonchalance and is dancing along with some abandon...
Mike seemed to be singing along, too!
DeleteYes indeed, you can only see the fuller playout footage on the late night repeat, and just before it fades out, you can see Mike Read miming and singing along to Kissing The Pink.
Deletehosts: what with two sets of four eyes, this is like the pop equivalent of the two ronnies. if you didn't know any different you would think that the jocular vance was the presenter of radio 1's flagship breakfast show and the sardonic read was a late night/weekend specialist jock, rather than the other way around. i can understand tommy's enthusiasm for "the floyd", but not his equal apparent liking for galaxy
ReplyDeletemodern romance: having laid waste to various forms of latin music, they now do their best to do likewise to jazz as well. i was convinced this was a piss-poor cover of something by the likes of cab calloway, but it turns out to be of their own making. once again david jaymes can't resist jumping up and down to show us how floppy his hair is, and now he looks rather spookily like a simon le bon clone - even down to the hooped sailor shirt!
daryl hall and his band... sorry, john oates: err, that's about all i have to say about this other than it's yet more disappointment after the sublime "i can't go for that"
belle stars: one i can't remember at all, but quite amazingly after the flimsy drivel they've punished me with thus far this is really meaty and even a little funky! but why didn't they have their band name on the baseball uniforms rather than the "blue jays"? i'm not sure if dark-haired sax player misses her cue for the instrumental section, or just can't be bothered making the effort to move the mouthpiece to her lips?
pink floyd: or "the pink floyd" according to tommy, even though they dropped the definitive article at least ten years earlier. this is utterly turgid and plodding rock topped by horrid shouty vocals, which really makes me wonder what all the fuss was about. by this time they were effectively a roger "i'm not an entertainer!" waters solo act, so presumably in the interests of not entertaining he declined to appear in the video? which by the way was as crap as the music. the final straw (as opposed to the final cut) was when the cliched guitar solo kicked in, at which point it was a case of "not now rog"
hot chocolate: another one that is a complete blot in my memory. probably because it's fairly bland synth pop, although the melodica and one or two production touches (including modulation, which seems to be becoming ever-more commonplace now) brighten it up a bit
galaxy: having got over the nerves of performing his front-flip on his first appearance, this time phil's approach to it is far more composed. however he's not the first musician to employ such a crowd-pleasing manoevre, as nils lofgren was doing that kind of thing (albeit with the help of a mini trampoline) several years earlier. last time i pointed out that one of his backing singers was a lady diana clone, but i've now realised the other one is a helen shapiro lookalike!
men at work: this isn't too bad once one gets familiar with it, even though they come over as a cut-price police - the singer even looks like an uglier version of sting! the guitar solo is especially interesting and well-thought-out- roger waters take note
kissing the pink: tommy starts mouthing away to this at the beginning, but it's apparent that unlike readie he's headed off to the bar long before the end. it just doesn't seem right that such a doom-laden thing is being danced to by grinning girls in shiny cocktail dresses
I can't believe the lack of comments thus far for the last three shows. Makes me look prompt for a change!
ReplyDeleteA crappy revamp of the theme tune and titles leads us, appropriately, to one of the worst and dullest shows for a while in my opinion.
Modern Romance were heavily pixelated on my screen and their same old same old effort wasn’t enhanced by the prat in the backwards hat.
Hall and Oates with an inferior version of “Family Man” ruined even more by those bloody Space Invaders.
The Belle Stars were utterly forgettable, but at least they weren’t as bad a row as Pink Floyd with their arty / pointless video.
Hot Chocolate were average but outstanding in context of this show. Note the lack of number for their outro caption, denoting a non-mugshot at this stage.
Nice back flip by Phil Fearon and, after Hot Chocolate and Galaxy, it’s Bournville! Actually, it’s The Creatures in nicely matching black and blue and Siouxsie also on claves, Vancey! Was that Zoo bloke meant to smile in the ‘arty’ black and white’ section?
Had Men At Work’s drummer nicked The Belle Stars’ baseball bat? Lookswise, Colin Hay would have fitted in with Trio, and his interpretation of the lyrics showed there was more than one ham in the group (the other being Greg Ham)!
We finish with the second highest charting song on the show, at number 19. It’s the last time I ever heard Kissing The Pink on TOTP. See what I did there?
It is quiet, isn't? Was everyone totally underwhelmed by this week's instalments?
DeleteOh dear. Oh deary deary dear. This isn't much cop is it? The crowd do their best, but in truth its more in response to the prowling cameras than to any of the musical offerings. Oh well, lets do this thing.
ReplyDeleteModern Romance (or ModRom as I'm sure the kids would style them)are first up and its surely their last visit to a rapidly-drying well. The hair-flicking/pouting of blond ModRomer is annoying as is the we're-having-a-fun-party-time dancing of the rest of the band. The only interesting bit was the dancing.
Hall & Oates. This is an ok song but a terrible video. John Oates' moustache is growing prouder and bushier by the week.
Belle Stars. No memory (sweet or otherwise) of this.Yawn-inducing.
Pink Floyd. Similarly no memory of this and similarly yawn-inducing. The FF finger is twitching guys.
Hot Choc. Now here's one I DO remember and with not much love. Its poppy and cheery and it has a good production but it's not my cup of tea. Or hot chocolate.
Galaxy again. Press the button Shakey, press the button.FF FF FF.
The Creatures. FF FF FF.
Ah at last, something decent. There doesn't appear to be much love on here for this Men At Work track, but I really like it. I don't think I did at the time but many years later it popped up in an acoustic version on the comedy series Scrubs and that version did it for me. I think this is closer to their overall sound than the over-played Down Under.
Agnetha looking hugely desirable in her brief chat with TV, before Spandau at the top and Kissing The Pink play us out.
Scores. Not much spark between Read and Vance but separately they did an okay job. 6.
Musically, I can't go higher than 3 with only Men At Work being of interest.
This show was a bit like the hangover after a great party. After binging on all the Top 10 goodies the week before, we had the leftovers in the 20s for this edition!
ReplyDeleteModern Romance - I usually like their stuff but this single is an exception.
Hall & Oates - Just really dull.
The Belle Stars - Now this one I do like, even if it's not as immediate as their big hits. I had no recollection of it from the time but heard it last year and took a liking to it. The Blue Jays outfits look cool as well.
Pink Floyd - Good lord, this is dreadful. Some semblance of a tune would have been nice.
Hot Chocolate - 'Girl Crazy' was their last great single and the remaining few were mid-tempo average pap like this.
Men At Work - Everyone seemed to be down on this song in the comments for the previous show so I defended it, now I've turned up to this thread to find everyone saying that they quite like it! Obviously I'm a trend setter or something...
If there's one thing I've learnt through these TOTP reruns, it's that I seem to have a bit of a 'thing' about ladies in hats. The one at the end dancing to 'The Last Film' is rather nice!
Well folks, me just got round to watching this and I think it’s the first time I have seen it as I don’t remember seeing some of the songs featured on ToTP….
ReplyDeleteModern Romance – Don’t stop that crazy rhythm – One of the singers keeps staring wide eyed and the feathered dancers distract nicely from what is diminishing returns for the band that gave us THE party record of Christmas 1982.
Hall & Oates – Family Man – As noted by others the Mike Oldfield original featuring Maggie Riley on vocals was far superior. Maggie and Mike would have their revenge very soon though… I have never read any comment from Mike on what he thought of this version but I guess the royalties must have been nice, although the song is written by no less than six credited writers! Check out Oldfield’s picture sleeve for this…
Belle Stars – Sweet memory – No memory of this.
Pink Floyd – Not now John – Now then folks; who’s heard the original version of this on ‘The Final Cut’? Slight change of lyrics substituting the word ‘stuff’ in place of something far more offensive. It must have been a deliberate intention to release this as a single as not only does Dave Gilmour’s lead vocal need dubbing but also the girl backing singers. The climax of the song (not shown here) ends up with Gilmour practically shouting ‘Oi, where’s the f***ing bar John!’. Not one of my personal favourite Floyd tracks nor albums for that matter, although I do like ‘The Fletcher Memorial Home’ which was the only original track from this album to be included on the rather wonderful ‘Echoes’ compilation.
Hot Chocolate – What kinda boy you’re looking for – Nice song but nothing outstanding. Harvey Hinsley looks pleased with himself here even though you can’t hear his trademark guitar.
Galaxy – Dancing tight – ughhh… next….
Creatures – Miss the Girl – Ditto
Men at Work – Overkill – Not too bad this even though the last verse is a bit high for the lead singer. Funny how they flew in to promote this but remained absent for the entire chart duration of ‘Down Under’.
Agnetha – Wow! A treat to see the elusive one! The British producer not named was Mike Chapman (Chinn/Chapman songwriter duo) who produced Blondie’s hit albums and the first single released from the album was ‘The Heat is on’ which is pretty good, and backed with Agnetha’s own excellent composition ‘Man’. The title track was released a few months later. Frida chose a British producer for her solo album of course…
Spandau Ballet – True – Been reading Lesley Ann Jones’s Freddie Mercury biography and apparently Tony Hadley got Freddie very drunk before one overseas Gig.
Kissing the Pink – The Last Film – Worth watching to the very end for Mike’s ‘Star turn’!
men at work weren't exactly giving the likes of duran and spandau sleepness nights in the pretty boy stakes, so it was probably a good job that they never turned up in person to promote "down under" as it might have done a lot worse as a result!
Deletecontrary to what was said in the agnetha interview, mike chapman is actually australian! he did spend some years in blighty as half of the legendary chinnichap songwriting partnership, but by this time he had been living and working in the US for the best part of a decade...
DeleteAgnetha worked with Eric Stewart producing on her next album 'Eyes of a Woman'.
DeleteChapman's a funny name, like being called Blokemale.
DeleteRe Family Man, Oldfield apparently said that he wrote the chorus, and that the other writers were responsible for the rest of the song. It is credited to every member of Mike's band at the time.
DeleteThat's pretty unusual and they must have made a few quid out of the Hall and Oates cover.
Deleteit's a good job they weren't in the rolling stones and their names weren't jagger and richard then! by chance i actually read that the bit from "do-re-mi" from "the sound of music" that everybody knows ("doe: a dear, a female dear", etc) wasn't actually written by rodgers & hammerstein at all, but a female associate/employee of theirs!
Deletefurther to whether backing band musicians/less prominent band members get rightful songwriting credit or not, i once heard a story about the smiths where craig gannon (who was briefly a fifth member) was once playing a riff on his guitar, when johnny marr heard it and asked gannon to show him how to play it. that riff later became the musical backbone of the song "ask", that like all smiths songs was credited to morrissey and marr (and not gannon!)
DeleteThe only thing to add this week is that I don't remember Men At Work ever appearing in the TOTP studio, and like sct353, I think I never saw this edition first time round.
ReplyDeleteI did like the Tommy Vance and Agnetha shimmy when he put his arms round her and Mike Read gets jealous, immediately calling him 'swine'. Political correctness had not arrived yet in 1983 it seemed, even though the term 'video' had arrived about two years earlier in 1981.
Listened to the original of Family Man, and it does have a more parable-like flavour with a woman singing, which is to its benefit, but it is a bit strident, as opposed to H&O being a bit listless.
ReplyDeleteI do love the cover for Five Miles Out, though, what an evocative piece of artwork.
It's a fabulous cover, isn't it? Mike was inspired to write the title track after he got caught in a bad storm while flying his own plane.
Delete....yes the notes to the deluxe issue of the next album 'Crises' (for which we're due 'Moonlight Shadow' very soon) go into a lot of detail about this nightmare flight. Glad it wasn't me as I hate flying at the best of times!
DeleteLate again.
ReplyDeleteMike and Tommy look like a Before-and-After from a bad makeover show. Not quite sure which is which. Mike has done something really strange to his hair which makes it look like a dodgy wig. Tommy has terrible taste in knitwear.
I don't recall caring for this Modern Romance song at the time but it seems quite good hearing it today and I like the tap dancer at the front. Perhaps there is a bit too much going on and the band are clearly struggling with their image but this was a worthy hit.
Had zero memories of this Hall and Oates hit until I hear it and then I instantly recognised it as the Mike Oldfield song. A good video and I like the cool 1950s furnishings. Apprantly the two cartoon figures represent the man and the prostitute who propositioned him in the lyrics.
Sadly Sweet Memory isn't a patch on Sign Of The Times although the band have a good solid sound and I like the girls sporty look. I recall that I bought the album at the time and liked their cover of Al Wilson's The Snake.
I never understood Pink Floyd at the time and I'm sure I understand them much more now. This is very average and the video is not doing it any favours. Was it filmed in the defunct Battersea Power station?
That guy pretending to dance while balanced on that girl's knee looks decidedly uncomfortable. What kind of girl you looking for boy? A: one who doesn't have knobbly knees!
Nice use of the melodica on the Hot Choccy song which has an almost zydeco feel about it. Could have done without the cod-robotic dancing from the lone Zoo girl and why was she holding telescope? Oh I get get it, shes "looking". Clever stuff (not).
Galaxy back again. Although this is okay I can't see why this made the Top 5 unless people were so mesmerized by his backflip that they bought it on the strength of that.
The Creatures again and this time they fill the non-vocal part with monochrome fish-eye lens close-ups of the Zoo members/random cheerleaders which make them look even more odd than normal.
Like The Belle Stars Men At Work have trouble finding a worthy follow up to their big hit. Here the lead singer sounds too much like Sting and they don't have a clever/funny video to help sell it.
Spands again which I'm now bored with (again) and play out with Kissing The Pink. Not a bad show but i would rather see the acts from last weeks's show and it's a shame The Human League were kept off the top spot.
bama i take it that what you meant was that you're sure you DON'T understand pink floyd much better now? if so then it's good to hear i'm not alone in head-scratching as to why exactly their brand of plodding rock garners so much praise and respect?
ReplyDeleteHardly any fast forwarding for this one.
ReplyDeleteModern Romance - Definitely not heard this before. Pleasant enough.
Belle Stars - Don't think I've ever heard this before.
Pink Floyd - Bought single on import in the States. Neve seen the video before...
Hot Chocolate - Not up their usual high standard. Bit so-so
Men At Work - They were HUGE in th States in 1983. Bought the album. Remember the song. Never seen them 'in the flesh' so to speak.