It dawns on Andy, he should've checked the diary.......
19/05/83 (Simon Bates & Gary Davies)
D Train – “Music Part 1” (27)
Jetting in from America to get tonight's live event underway are duo D Train, with their first top 30 hit, which peaked at number 23.
New Edition – “Candy Girl” (3) (video)
It got to next week's number one but was edited out of tonight's 7.30 slot.
David Grant – “Stop & Go” (34)
His first solo single after leaving Linx reached number 19, but edited out of tonight's early showing.
Blancmange – “Blind Vision” (10) (video)
The lead singer looking weirdly a bit like Neil Tennant here, indeed the whole video has a slightly Pet Shop Boys-ish feel to it, or is it just me? Anyway, it was now at its peak.
The Beat – “Can’t Get Used To Losing You” (5)
Singer Dave Wakeling was looking very dapper in his dinner suit, but this was the Beat's final Top of the Pops performance before splitting up. The song went up two more places.
Wham! – “Bad Boys” (12) (video)
George Michael was indeed 19 at the time, and Bad Boys became their biggest hit to date when it peaked at number 2.
JoBoxers – “Just Got Lucky” (38)
An energetic performance of what became their second and final top ten hit, peaking at number 7.
Yazoo – “Nobody’s Diary” (20)
Written by Alison Moyet this was the only single taken from their number one album You and Me Both, and re-issues aside, it sadly also marked the premature end for Yazoo, who split up a few days after this performance, while this fabulous song went on to peak at number 3.
The Fun Boy Three – “Our Lips Are Sealed” (7)
And here's another band ending on a high, though maybe Our Lips are Sealed deserved to go further than its peak of number 7.
Spandau Ballet – “True” (1) (video/credits)
It didn't stay at number one for the rest of 1983, in fact this was its fourth and final week.
Next up is May 26th 1983, and this time the Police turn up on the right day.
A much better show than the previous week's, even if we have to put up with the company of compulsive time-checker Master Bates and Gary "Mr Charisma" Davies, who appears to be wearing some kind of Roman toga from the waist up. There is also a slightly melancholy feel to proceedings, with so many of the featured acts on the brink of splitting.
ReplyDeleteD Train provide a decent enough start with this solid post-disco number, a heavy Zoo presence adding some visual appeal to the rather untelegenic act. The Candy Girl video next, which helps to pioneer the "street" look and dance moves that would become commonplace among boy bands in the following decade - there is even an early sighting of a back-to-front baseball cap here!
Wow, David Grant had certainly had a bit of an image makeover since his Linx days. The headband may be naff, but the dance moves are pretty impressive and the song, while very much in keeping with the club sounds of the time, has a very catchy chorus which drills right into your brain. Presumably Blancmange had used up too much money on their trip to Egypt for the Living on the Ceiling video, as here they are confined to running on the spot in a studio or declaiming from a blancmange-shaped podium. However, the frequent cutting and close-ups work well with the song, and the flashing lights help to give it a disorientating quality - I liked the appearance of actual blancmange too!
Dave Wakeling did look very smart here as The Beat bid farewell, though his choice of waistcoat made him look like a snooker player - there was no toasting from Ranking Roger this time, for some reason. For much of George Michael's career, it would have been hard to take him too seriously as a "bad boy," though after the toilet incident in LA he did start trying to justify the claim! It's even harder to take Andrew seriously as a juvenile delinquent, but this is still a fun video and the song, while hardly subtle, does once again show that George's talent for pop songcraft was already firmly in place.
I was preparing to cringe as our hosts interviewed the Brighton players, but it actually passed off quite smoothly. Did the Seagulls actually release a Cup Final song that year? No mention was made of one here. On to JoBoxers, who manage to produce another infectious hit, but in a more soulful vein this time. They clearly had talent, and it's a pity their career would shrivel away after this, but I won't miss the singer's hyperactive dancing...
Bates then gets to interview The Police, and it feels a bit weird having Every Breath You Take discussed as a brand new song when we are now all so familiar with it. This encounter goes less well than the Brighton one, with Bates not giving Copeland time to answer his question, and then asking Andy fatuously if they were going to remain together forever. That would of course soon prove emphatically not to be the case, though the trio put on a reasonable show of affability here.
It's a great shame Yazoo split up so prematurely, and Alf does seem to be showing the strain a bit here, looking tired and as if she has been dragged through a hedge backwards - Vince's hair, meanwhile, has now reached the unspeakably awful stage. Nobody's Diary, however, is an absolutely superb record and a wonderful way for them to bow out. We then say goodbye to the Fun Boys, with Terry seemingly determined to rival Vince in the awful barnet department - he looks like he is trying to capture the Helen Shapiro look here. Another good performance, anyway, and Terry does crack a smile when he looks round at one point. Would he ever appear on TOTP again? Thankfully True is in its final week at the top, and we get some slow, almost static, dancing from Zoo to accompany the video this time.
The Wham video was definitely one of their most memorable ones, and I especially liked the running boy evolving into a running man, namely George Michael, who really was 19 at the time of this video!
DeleteIf this really was Fun Boy Three's last appearance, then it was a shame that Terry Hall embarrassingly missed miming the last line in this final studio appearance of Fun Boy Three!
With regard to the studio slow-dancing at the end of the No.1, one particular Zoo couple on the far right hand side of our screen were getting particularly feely out there. Anyway, you don't get slow-dancing by the current generation of young 20-something adults on pop music songs.
I thought the Colourfield were on TOTP with Thinking of You, but there's no sign on YouTube. They were on Whistle Test, though. Maybe Terry was on video?
DeleteThe Colourfield made two studio appearances for "Thinking Of You" in early 1985. Both appearances have been blocked from YouTube due to third- / multi-party / copyright infringement. Unless Janice, Slimes or Perky Powell are had up and unless BBC4 stop TOTP transmissions at the end of 1984, we'll see them both.
DeleteThe Seagulls actually released TWO singles in May 1983, one of which, "The Boys In The Old Brighton Blue", reached number 65. A band called Seagulls Ska made the top 20 in 2005 with "We Want Falmer", a re-write of "Tom Hark" with new lyrics by punk poet and B&HAFC fan Attila The Stockbroker, in protest at wanting the club to relocate back to the area (the proposed site at Falmer was initially blocked and then agreed and built).
DeleteI remember the pre-Cup Final viewing almost as much as Gordon Smith's tragic blocked shot which would have won the Cup had it gone in ("... and Smith must score!") as B&HAFC were sponsored by British Caledonian (remember them?) who flew them by helicopter!
Thanks Arthur for answering both my questions! Out of interest, what was the other Seagulls single in '83? Brighton were very lucky that they didn't go the same way as British Caledonian...
DeleteB&HAFC appear to have released a second single the same month called "In Brighton" which, from the songwriters' credits, looks to have been a re-write of "On Broadway" - my work PC doesn't have sound so I can't confirm that right now. The B-side to both singles was something called "Goldstone Rap". You can hear both sides here courtesy of the bespoke 45cat website....
Deletehttp://www.45cat.com/record/nrg11
I plucked up the courage to listen to the Goldstone Rap, and maybe it's just because my expectation were so low, but it actually wasn't too bad...
Deleteagreed, john - listen past the awful vocals, and there's some quite funky clavinet playing going down!
Deleteas for footballers rapping, it destroys the perceived wisdom that liverpool fc's "anfield rap" that was actually released 5 years later) was the first recording of that type. i remember them showing the video of "anfield rap" on "the saint and greavsie show", and afterwards saint asked greavsie "what to you think of that then". to which came the immortal reply "well put a "c" in front of it and it says it all really!"
somewhat interestingly "anfield rap" was written by craig johnston was actually playing for liverpool fc at the time. in an age when the presence of johnny foreigner (or "carlos kickaballs" as alan suger risibly described such players) in english football was very limited compared to now, his appearance in that year's FA cup final prompted the joke (that scans much better when said than written): "name two aussies that played at wembley?". to which everyone would immediately mention johnston before head-scratching for the second name... who in a trick question was ossie ardiles of "tott-ing-ham"!
Terry Hall also sung and played guitar with The Lightening Seeds on their Sense single in the early 1990s, the video of which I think was shown. Funnily enough Alison Moyet would appear on the following Lightening Seeds album.
DeleteThe oxymoronically titled 'Blind Vision' was my favourite recording by Blancmange, whom I have always rated well above The Pet Shop Boys.
ReplyDeleteOne could sense from the start that The Beat's Andy Williams cover, culled from their ageing debut album, was a desperate attempt to recapture their former chart glory. Their performance of the song on TOTP has the smell of goodbye about it, Ranking Roger pre-dating Amazulu's Sharon Bailey with his poorly mimed rhythm guitar. At the back, newly recruited keyboardist Dave 'Blockhead' Wright attempts to mime the orchestral strings on a viola, while Saxa - by now semi-retired from the band - takes turns to mime the sax solo with his replacement, Wesley Magoogan. The whole atmosphere is reminiscent of one of The Beatles' filmed performances of 'Let It Be', with a seated Andy Cox and David Steele going through the motions in the Lennon and Harrison roles while Dave Wakeling, in his gladrags, beams at the audience like a Brummie Sir Paul McCartney. Nevertheless, the former ska heroes' venture into easy-listening would prove to be their biggest hit of all.
JoBoxers' second hit was refreshingly exuberant, though they would not last long as a major chart force. I remember the drummer using a Coca-Cola can as a cowbell when they performed the song on ITV's 'Razzmatazz'.
As Jimmy Tarbuck pointed out on a Channel 5 Christmas special not too long ago, Yazoo's Alison Moyet was the Adele of her time. 'Nobody's Diary' is a splendid new wave/soul ballad of which Annie Lennox would be proud.
The Go-Gos' rockier version of 'Our Lips Are Sealed', which Fun Boy Terry Hall wrote with their rhythm guitarist Jane Wiedlin, was a huge hit in the US - but the Fun Boy Three's more haunting rendition, with its highly polished arrangement, was far superior and deservedly a British Top 10 hit.
The best thing about the Blancmange video was the great use of colours, and special effects. Hope no-one is epileptic, as this could be too much on the visuals.
DeleteWith regard to The Beat, agreed with all the above, but would also add that it had a UB40-feel to it, especially the background riff.
D-Train much in need of choreography with the most 1983-sounding record on tonight's show. It's OK, but does sound like a warm up for their biggest hit.
ReplyDeleteNew Edition with their painfully naff video next, it's clear there's only one of the boys who can dance, and it's all so squeaky clean you're somehow not surprised Bobby wound up the way he did: nobody could be that wholesome.
David Grant performing his best Michael Jackson impersonation for a song that can't make up its mind lyrically. Fair, but not very memorable, and Dave is a little swamped by Zoo's overenthusiasm despite his best efforts.
Blancmange living up to their name by being oh so blamncmangey (blancmangeous?) promoting the dessert as if it were a political party. Still a good tune, but the visuals are cheap and nasty.
Not content with doing Andy Williams' ditty, Dave Beat has nicked his dapper look as well, or maybe he's going to fetch the cocktails we've ordered? Miming rather unconvincing here.
Another video! Wham with their paean to being a c- er, not a very nice person, methinks they doth protested too much, they certainly didn't look too hard. For the "break down the door" line, what was missing was a shot of George smashing through a polystyrene door like The Incredible Hulk.
JoBoxers with another upbeat, whimsical toe tapper, or should I say foot stomper as the band, especially the lead singer, are very flatfooted in their moves here.
Yazoo looking as if they're about to cry with the poignant song about wanting to matter a little more. Intrigued by Vince's keytar, what's the little handle for? Apart from holding, obviously.
Couldn't work out if the Fun Boys was a repeat or not, it might as well have been for all the variation.
Oh good, True's last week at number one - next week's will be much better, I am utterly convinced of that and nobody can tell me otherwise.
ReplyDeleteOn the same day that this 19th May show was broadcast, Legs & Co appeared on the ITV Breakfast show earlier in the day to vehemently declare that they were still going as Legs & Co, but with two new girls in the line up and a supposedly 'new' dance style, they were looking for suggestions for a new name, with the presenter Nick Owen visibly sweating as he let them get on and perform:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq_cwZq4qP4&t=2s
Several personal points about this clip -
Delete1) This smacked of desperation, not meant to be a pun on the name they chose, which was SmaX
2) Poor Patti (my favourite after the sadly long left Cherry), not only relegated to furthest from the camera but shunted so close to that back wall she nearly hit it on a number of occasions
3) The two new members weren't as photogenic as the previous three
4) A very strange choice of song to dance to at breakfast time - "Nipple To The Bottle " indeed!
dory - whatever your motivation, well done on digging up this interesting clip. arthur - patti did get a close-up shot at the beginning (but despite that i still didn't recognise her at first!). as for the new recruits, i thought the blonde looked pretty striking and the brunette was a bit of a cherry clone! in my view "nipple to the bottle" was one of the best tracks of 1983, but sadly despite some radio play it never got ms jones a mugshot spot - maybe that was because of it's rather odd and embarrassing title?
Deleteaccording to the blurb under the video, other things happening on "this morning" was diet advice from diana dors. i would have said that's akin to getting oliver reed to lecture on the benefits of temperance!
Diana Dors did start losing weight pretty successfully. Then they found out it was because she had terminal cancer. Mind how you go.
DeleteThanks (thanx?) for the clip, Dory. Smax sounds like a breakfast cereal. Or heroin chic. I think they did a milk promotion ad around this time as well (maybe posted here a few years ago?). I bet they were filling in their applications for The Hot Shoe Show that very evening.
DeleteThis absolutely must be the edition that I watched in Cornwall on our school field trip as I remember Spandau Ballet being No.1 and the Cup Final being on that weekend. In fact I got back home just in time to see the end of the match and was told by my Dad that I'd missed very little of interest!
ReplyDeleteWe were in Padstow by the way - it was lovely back then before Rick Stein took over almost eveything there. We were allowed to watch 2 TV shows only: TOTP and Fame straight afterwards!
It's a shame that timekeeper Bates is back and that Gary Davies seems so nervous that he trips over almost every introduction. The interview with The Police was excruciating, reminiscent of Alan Partridge's time-filling up to the news. 'Ha ha..funny story Sting...ha ha...Stewart...Andy...CHARTS!'
D-Train - It's not really 'Disco' is it Simes? More like funk/soul really, and it's not as good as their other hit.
David Grant - The song doesn't do anything for me, and it's weird that they top-loaded the show with all the soul (if you include New Edition)
Blancmange - A shame that we didn't get a studio appearance, but the video is a good laugh and I don't think that I'd seen it before.
The Beat - Like the previous song, glad that we got to see it after being 'banned' on Show 1000.
Wham! - This is the one that George always hated, but I think it's perfectly good pop!
JoBoxers - I absolutely love this song, and I remember the lively performance on this and the other show they appeared on.
Yazoo - Probably the best song on the show, a beautifully written and produced song that was about Alf's unrequited love for Vince I believe.
FB3 - Happy to see this again, that's 5 good songs in a row! A rarity indeed..
Spandau Ballet - ...and then this. I'm pleased to see that this got roundly booed by our class as I remember. Even by the girls.
I would say that on this occasion the videos on the show were better than the studio performances. It does happen like that sometimes, so five good songs in a row as you say, would count 3 videos, if indeed the five songs stretch from Candy Girl up to Bad Boys.
DeleteMy mistake, I should have said 6 good songs in a row!
DeleteTo clarify, they are from Blancmange to Fun Boy Three inclusive.
I don't agree that either the Blancmange or Wham! videos were better than their respective studio appearances, sorry Dory!
Gary was a bit "off" - "Can't get loose to using you" indeed!
DeleteIt appears another single from Yazoo, "Walk Away From Love", was released in Japan and Spain in 1983. Maybe their record company thought it pointless to release the single over here due to the duo's status? I remember The New Radicals had a follow-up single to "You Get What You Give", a lovely mid-tempo ballad called "Someday We'll Know", released two weeks after leader Gregg Alexander had announced the band's split. It scraped the UK top 50 despite no promotion.
ReplyDeleteFWIW, we were playing that song on the radio station I was on at the time, Arthur! (CFM in Carlisle, for the record)
DeleteAdmittedly I think plays were restricted to the evening show that I presented, but at least we gave it a bit of a chance.
I suppose one of the most famous examples of a post-split hit is Time of the Season, which through the good offices of Al Kooper became huge in the US a year or so after The Zombies, plagued by a lack of commercial success, broke up. They were asked to reform in order to capitalise on the unexpected success, but the band members had moved on by then and declined. Still, I'm sure it must have been rather galling for them that the biggest hit of their career came too late...
Deletesurely the best example of a "post-split hit" is "young at heart" by the bluebells? the band had been defunct for several years when that song (that had originally been a top 10 hit) was used in an advert and rocketed to the top of the charts as a result - prompting them to temporarily reform to promote it on totp and other shows
Deleteeverything i've written here is based on individual youtube clips, so no real comment on either the hosts or their non-performing guests. although from i've read here that sounds like a good thing
ReplyDeleted train: vocalist james "d train" williams' sort-of shadow here was presumably hubert eaves III (don't you just love the way americans make life difficult for themselves by continually handing down the same forename to each generation?) who was the musical brains of the outfit. as such he could at least got himself one of those new fancy synths like vince clarke had to look a bit less surplus to requirements? yes it's "you're the one for me"-lite, but still of some quality. their best in my opinion though was the lengthy (10-minute long) track aptly called "keep on"
new edition: all i can say here really is that it wasn't just the odious bobby brown that went on to have a successful music career as an adult, the rest did too to some extent
david grant: a new solo career begats a new image change, from herbie hancock lookalike to wacko clone. but who got the idea for the headband first - mr grant, or visiting brighton & hove albion defender steve foster? bearing their surnames in mind, it might have been better had they worn shades instead. i have no real recollection for any of his solo stuff, but do admit listening to it now that it's actually quite good for a brit post-disco effort. is that wife-to-be carrie dancing alongside him at the end?
blancmange: listening at close quarters this is very good musically (if not quite in the "living on the ceiling" league), but it's still let down by neil arthur's foghorn of a voice. i wonder who played the mad 50's housewife?
beat: whenever i used to pore through "the guinness book of hit singles" (and that happened an awful lot in the 80's!) i always felt a bit sorry for the beat as they were sandwiched between the beach boys and the beatles, thus rendering their hits rather few in comparison - perhaps that might have been an incentive for them to stay together? thankfully we are spared the toasting from before (was that a specially-recorded version for totp?), but the horror this time is that hulking ugly mug that joined them just before their demise! saxa is still hanging on in there, but at least he lets wes take turns miming sax with him this time
wham: i would say that this one tends to get forgotten compared to their other hits. it's not disimilar to the first two, but the cod-brass synth patch sounds rather hokey these days. the video i watched on yt rather pointlessly featured some woman prancing about in a grotesque skimpily-clad fat suit (if you see what i mean). but was that the video shown here?
joboxers: i much-preferred this to "boxer beat" at the time, although the snare drum sound was pretty suspect. but nowadays it's far too cod-soul for my liking. the cool bass player wisely dispenses with his hovis delivery boy hat
yazoo: this is rather odd in that the backing sounds very kraftwerk-like, but offers absolutely nothing of interest in the way that their music does
The Wham video was the official one, with the black and white childhood scenes then George and Andrew doing their best West Side Story (seems to be quite the influence in the videos we've seen here recently).
Delete
ReplyDeleteGosh a few more comments on here than for previous weeks….
A bit like a bad start in a cricket match this one….three quick wickets and then a sublime century later in the innings…
So the three ‘quick wickets’ here are D Train, New Edition and David Grant and I’m not even going to waste my time ‘troubling the scorers’ commenting about any of them.
Blancmange – Blind Vision – I love the way the single’s sleeve gets shown here along with some gooey looking blancmange! This is great stuff. Actually the single’s sleeve was similar to the ‘I’ve seen the word / God’s Kitchen’ no65 hit a year earlier.
The Beat - Can’t get losing you – Was it just me or was there no superfluous rap this time? A great way to bow out after so many not so good singles. I believe Gary introduced this as ‘Can’t get loosed to losing you’…
Wham – Bad Boys – Was this THE Wham sound? Had all the clichés and hooks from the first two singles but somehow managed to still sound fresh. Don’t seem to recall this video though, must have missed it.
Joboxers – Just got lucky - …that I had FF handy. (another one out for a duck)
Yazoo – Nobody’s Diary – Now for the superb century! This song still tingles the hair on the back of my neck when I hear it. It’s just a wonderfully crafted piece of music with some excellent passages of instrumentation. When I think what was heading for no1 next week and this masterpiece it’s such a shame that no3 was all this could manage. Cue standing ovation at the end….
Fun Boy Three – Our lips are sealed – Still sounds good and Terry manages a couple of smiles here, particularly when the cellist plays her bit. Who were the girl backing band anyway? The Go-gos?
Spandau Ballet – True – Classy end to the show and nice to flip between the video (which we’ve seen a couple of times already) and the audience.
Didn’t mind not seeing Bob Marley but I’m sure we will soon as we’re almost into the ‘Legend’ era…Enjoyed seeing ‘The Police’ and hearing the familiar chimes of their monster hit in the background. Great interview!
As for the Seagulls, well as a Palace fan I certainly wasn’t rooting for them even though I have a third cousin (Steve Gatting) who played for them at that point, but I recall they got a replay against Man Utd in this final, and lost……as did Palace a few years later….but we didn’t lose 4-0 though!
the joboxers jibe had me guffawing out loud! a definite hit for six there...
Deletei didn't watch this fb3 appearance, but i assume it was the same backing band as the last one i.e. members of various british all-female bands such as the mo-dettes and the ravishing beauties...?
by the way, are all the cricketing analogies being done because you're also the third cousin of ex-england captain mike gatting?
My favourite cricket commentary lines are "peppering the boundary" (referring to lots of fours being scored by a batsman), and "meat and drink to the batsman" referring to bad bowling.
DeleteBy the way, I recently loaded a new ringtone to my iPhone which is the cricket them from the BBC archives, that the BBC used in the 70s and 80s when international cricket highlights would come on late at night introduced by Richie Benaud.
I recommend this ringtone in the App Store on iTunes, as you will never find a better one for your mobile phone ring, and on iTunes is called "Sports Theme Tunes" which is the identical sound to the BBC cricket of the 70's and 80's before we lost it forever to Sky who took over international cricket from the BBC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67xXbTaQlKI
A truly inspiring piece of music Dory. So many happy memories conjured up by that tune.
DeleteMy cricketin analogies 'pepper' my every day speech, an I'm always getting told off for referring to 'batting orders' and 'close of play' etc. I've met Mike and Steve once each, but their Mum a number of times.
the music being referrred to is of course "soul limbo" by booker t & the mg's. i agree it was (and still is) a very evocative piece of music and it was a great shame when the beeb lost the test coverage to channel 4 (for highlights anyway) a few years back with the "theme" music being replaced as well (didn't U2 do something instead?). when it was originally used it was most appropriate, given that the west indies were becoming rampant thanks to viv richards and their production line of fast bowlers, adding to the carnival feel of it all (even if ironically it was not only performed by non-west indians, but even a couple of white guys were involved!)
Deletei rememmber a chum buying a re-released "double A-side" single of theirs in the mid-70's, and when he played it to me i was not only amazed to recognise one side as the cricket theme, but the other was johnny walker's tuesday lunchtime new top 30 chart rundown background music - both of which i really liked, but had no idea what they were!
I'm surprised no one's mentioned the painfully high-pitched voice of New Edition's lead singer, which set my teeth on edge.
ReplyDeleteAs Arthur hinted earlier in the comments, the interview with Brighton striker Gordon Smith is a classic example (for those of us watching with the benefit of hindsight) of dramatic irony. Much is made in the brief interview of his goal-scoring prowess, but his failure to score when clean through on goal in the final seconds of the final was so catastrophic that Barry Davies's line in commentary, 'And Smith must score", became the title of a Brighton fanzine, a song by Attila the Stockbroker, and even a book.
Last but not least, as 'True' prepares to drop down the charts, can I belatedly stand up for it? I'm not a diehard Spands fan, but I've always thought 'True' was a classic rock ballad, beautifully written, arranged and performed, and I always get a tingle when I hear that sax solo. Maybe it's just become too familiar from years of exposure on Heart FM and their ilk, but seeing it in context on TOTP serves as a reminder of just what a classy song it was. (And I write as a dyed-in-the-wool rock fan.)
Nothing to be ashamed of in liking True, I like plenty of stuff that gets the thumbs down here, nobody judges you for it which is good! I'll Fly for You is the SB track I'm looking forward to, personally.
Deletegordon smith must be the footballing equivalent of doug sanders, who is remembered for missing an easy putt to win the only major golf tournament title of his career! regardless of his error that day, at the time smith was considered one of many talented scottish players in the old english first division that rarely if ever got a call-up for the national team - what the scottish FA would give for those circumstances now!
DeleteI'll Fly For You is probably the best of Spandau's later hits, but I've always liked Gold as well, even though nobody else seems to...
DeleteMy favourite of theirs is the brilliant Round And Round from 1984, and still to come on these re-runs!
DeleteGood to see a lot of love for 'I'll Fly For You' on here - it's my favourite too!
Deleteit never flew for me - i can't even remember how it went now. nor did anything from the "parade" album to be honest... that i remember practically bursting out of charity shops not that long ago!
DeleteMy fave Spands song is their debut hit, but I quite like the underrated and underplayed “I’ll Fly For You” and I love its cheeky bonking lyric “When I’m under you I’m overjoyed”!
DeleteLate again (bows head in shame):
ReplyDeleteD-Train with thier re-write of You're The One For Me from the previous year. This works well with the dancers really adding to it but as a tune it is really quite forgetable, probably explain why I forgot all about it.
Next up watered down Jackson Five with irritating squeaky voices. Hated this at the time and don't want to hear it again.
Nice to see David Grant back again as a solo artist in his red leather button-up boots but this is a long way from his Linx hits. Proving he's no Michael Jackson in the dancing stakes, like D-Train he utilises the talents of the random Zoo dancers which helps sell what is frankly a very average song.
I spy Jeff Stewart (Reg Hollis) in the crowd. At age 28 he was a bit old to be discovering his youth as a cheerleader but he must have been one of Michael Hurl's mates who was waiting for The Bill to start the next year.
I liked the Blancmange song a lot but I had no memories of the video. Nice to see them link in the cover of the single. Originally briefly signed to the Some Bizare label with Soft Cell and Depeche mode they were now singned to the not-so-cool London label.
I had mixed feelings about The Beat's cover of the Andy Williams classic, while I liked most of the band's output I was never sure if this was supposed to be serious cover or a pastiche, especially when singer Dave is hamming it up in a tuxedo and looking a bit sweaty and nervous in the process. Nice to see they bougfht back originally sax player Saxa as they knew this was going to be their swansong. Roll on The General Public.
A lot of the so-called cheerleaders in the background here are doing what I call the all-embracing grape-treading dance which is really annoying and these people clearly weren't employed for their dancing abilities but because they were either a) tall, b) had the right hairstyle, or c) were wearing the right (ie the wrong) clothes.
Catchy though it is I wasn't too keen on The Wham single and the video is very camp and silly with George and Andrew pre-dating Jacko pretending to be part of a hard biker gang which of course they cerrtainly weren't. There were no biker gangs in Bushey, just restaurants, a Conservative Club and posh charity shops.
The JoBoxers were the highlight of the show for me. Okay lead singer Dig Wayne is seriously annoying and can't even pretend to dance for toffee but it's a great song and I think the rest of the band do a good job. This nearly made it to the top but was their last big hit.
The brief, boring interview with Sting and co was even worse than the shy footballers and then they clumsily cut to the chart rundown which appears to be taking place in the rain. Why? Not sure why we only one D-Train member in the photos.
Yazoo diary song was another goodie for me although I didn't care much for Vince's daft carrot top hair style. This was one of the duo's sad songs but even their happy songs managed to have a melancholy tinge (eg Only you).
The Fun Boy Three song is also a bit sad and I identified with the lyrics of this being a bit of an outsider. Of course Terry could make the happiest song seem sad with his miserable mush. Maybe he was sad because as with the Beat this was to be the FB3's last hit and last TOTP appearence. Roll on The Colourfield.
The Top 6 including the poor old Human League who dropped to number 6 and then Spandex boys (again). Yawn. The fact that they end on this with the titles and cut to Zoo dancers doing their Pineapple Studios ballet routines in tube socks means the BBC are officially tired of it. Along with everyone else.
Why Gary Kemp was credited with the clever/weird Seaside Arms lyric he of course nicked it from Nabakov's Lolita and talking of arms Laurie Anderson kind of got there first with her O Superman lyrics - "in your long arms... in your automatic arms. Your electronic arms".