They don't like it up 'em!
30/06/83 (Richard Skinner & Tommy Vance)
Shalamar – “Dead Giveaway” (8)
Getting the action underway are Shalamar, but their final top ten hit was now at its peak position. The group also recorded a performance of their next hit, Disappearing Act, and by the time it was shown they had split up!
Heaven 17 – “Come Live With Me” (16) (video)
Second of three top ten hits peaking at number 5. But edited out of the 7.30 showing.
Nick Heyward – “Take That Situation” (14)
This lively song went up three more places.
Irene Cara – “Flashdance (What A Feeling)” (3) (video)
The song went up one more place, then who should turn up in the studio but forces sweetheart Jennifer Beals, star of the movie Flashdance, and Richard Skinner delivers a reasonable interview.
Paul Young – “Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home)” (12)
Last seen, missing in action, in 1978 with Toast, Paul returns here with his first solo hit which became his first and only number one, and his first of seven top ten hits.
Tom Robinson – “War Baby” (17)
Also awol since 1978, the magnificently moody War Baby became Tom's second and final top ten hit, reaching number 6. Looks like he's smartened himself up a bit in the meantime too.
Bucks Fizz – “When We Were Young” (10)
Well, Mike is ready for action in his combat gear, not so sure about the others though! Their penultimate top ten hit, now at its peak.
Rod Stewart – “Baby Jane” (1) (video)
First of three weeks at number one for Rod.
The Truth – “Confusion (Hits Us Every Time)” (22) (audience dancing/credits)
Their only top 30 hit, now at its peak.
It's July 7th 1983 next.
Shalamar - not much to say about this one, apart from the fact that Jody Whatley was looking quite tasty in that dress on the stage, even though there was not much going in the boob department.
ReplyDeleteIrene Cara - one of THE songs of the summer of '83 if not the whole of '83. Never fails to impress, including Jennifer Beals, who was only 19 in this interview and video, and I didn't realise just how pretty she was until seeing it now, all these years later. She's still only 53 now, and Irene Cara, the actual singer on the video a mere 55 now!
Bucks Fizz - more arousal following Whatley, Beals and Cara - now Jay Aston with her suspenders. Oh and the song was very good too!
We're halfway through 1983 already, though looking at Tommy's jumper you might be forgiven for thinking we had jumped even further forward to Christmas! Dickie is more appropriately dressed for the summer, and the two make for affable hosts, though they don't get much screen time together.
ReplyDeleteShalamar give us another performance of their latest hit, with some moonwalking from Jeffrey this time, though when he starts his mini-routine the camera is as far away as possible! I couldn't make out whether he was wearing some kind of tasselled headgear, or hair extensions. It's nice to hear a Heaven 17 song which isn't Temptation. I like this sombre and classy effort a lot, and the sad, bittersweet video matches it well - Glenn Gregory's vocal is a bit Oakeyesque in places.
Nick Heyward is back once more, and gets positively carried away towards the end as he starts ill-advisedly dancing around the stage - nice to see him enjoying himself, though. Jennifer Beals didn't exactly go on to a stellar career after Flashdance, but she acquits herself pretty well in this unusually lengthy interview, which Dickie handles professionally - thank God that Bates didn't get to do this one...
It's easy to forget now what a big star Paul Young became for a brief while, and if he had had the songwriting ability to match his vocal talent he might have been better able to sustain his success. As it was, he would prove heavily reliant on covers, but this epic, slowed down version of an early Marvin Gaye record was a deserved big hit - just a shame about that horrid shiny grey suit! Another good song to follow from Tom Robinson, the slightly wordy verses offset by a great chorus and nice sax work. This would, however, be his last hit of any significance.
The Fizz pull out all the stops for this studio appearance, with Jay basically in her underwear and Cheryl striking Christine Keeler poses on that chair. However, Mike's attempts to look hard in his combat fatigues do introduce some unintentional comedy into this performance! After the new number 1, more amusement is to be obtained from Dickie's endearingly awkward bopping to The Truth...
By the way Angelo, I enjoyed the Brian Hanrahan parody!
ReplyDeleteCheers, yes it was a highly memorable bit of commentary he came up with :-)
Deletei've pretty much given up on trying to catch the show in its entirety elsewhere, so it's another review based on whatever relevent clips i could find on youtube...
ReplyDeleteheaven 17: perhaps this was edited out of the early showing due to the dubious (well -certainly in this age of yewtree, if not at the the time) first line of the lyric? another plodder from them musically, and i never liked glenn gregory's singing anyway so a few more seconds just to remind myself was enough for me (and i've now forgotten it again!)
paul young: i don't like the "classic" motown sound that much if at all - even when it's tarted up to the hilt with 80's productions tricks! so i certainly never understood why this dirge was so popular. but perhaps when your competition is the likes of glenn gregory and david gahan with their flat foghorn deliveries, then small wonder young stood out from the crowd as something fresh and different. i remember him getting a lot of flack at the time for daring to cover the sacrosanct "love will tear us apart", and listening to it now i can't say it was really justified by any means. but sooner that than "WILMH" any day! i also remember someone pointing out on a record-collecting site that you could always spot the (oft-found) "no parlez" album in a charity shop crate without even rifling through, due to it's distinctive sleeve design!
tom robinson: he may have been somewhat more limited vocally than paul young, but his track doesn't scream "1983!" from the rooftops and in fact could have been recorded at any point 10 years either way. it's a nice enough groove, although (as i think it was pointed out if not actually parodied somewhere) tom really does try to cram all his wordiness into far too small a melodic space. for some reason he had relocated to bournemouth by this time, and was using at least a couple of local scene guys in his new backing band (not sure if that included the saxist, who does the old "playing more than one of them" trick employed by mr haircut 100). and they were actually rehearsing at the same place as i was at this point, although i only ever encountered tom there on one occasion when he had his nose buried in what was no doubt a heavy political tome in the dingy kitchen...
Regarding the Heaven 17 first lines of this song, it was not frowned upon at the time for 20-year age gap couples, even though it was unusual.
DeleteThe late Radio 1 DJ Ed 'Stewpot' Stewart was not far off such a big age gap, as he was 33 when he married a 17-year old girl, and they were together happily married for 30 years, having two children, and then grandchildren, so it does work for some!
rod stewart's lady friends are usually many years younger than him (mrs merton coming to mind here)... and at least 2 inches taller!
DeleteLucky for some! Mick Jagger also comes to mind, and yes also Ronnie Wood, who have both recently become new fathers at 70 years old or so.
Deleteas someone who like many of these superannuated rock stars is considered of average height for a man if that: if i had my pick of women as they do (mrs merton alert!), then there are plenty enough to choose from who wouldn't make me look like a shortarse!
DeleteYour surname would have to be Stewart, like Rod Stewart and Ed Stewart who could easily tie the knot with girls half their age, and stay happily married for years.
DeleteWhat a pleasure to hear Tom Robinson's 'War Baby' - an honest-to-goodness classic that has never dated. With Liverpool's own Mark Ramsden on tenor and soprano saxophones, it could not miss. Had it been issued on a major label, it might have been an even bigger hit - who knows? Peter Gabriel would provide songwriting assistance on Tom's accomplished follow-up, 'Atmospherics (Listen To The Radio)', which would also reach the Top 40.
ReplyDeleteHeaven 17's 'Come Live With Me' would probably be too controversial to be released today, especially in the light of recent events. For its time, it was a work of the highest quality.
Irene Cara's second and final British Top 10 hit - though more would follow in other parts of the world - may not be cutting-edge, but for me it brings to mind a stick of rock with "HAPPINESS" stamped all the way through. As well as being musically exuberant, it carries as message of positivity.
Indeed that upbeat feelgood tempo of Flashdance and Irene Cara was typically like the ELO tempo up to and including the Time album of 1981. The long-awaited return here in June 1983 with the Secret Messages album, apart from the new single Rock 'n' Roll Is King, gave off signals that the band were less happy, and this came out in the music of the new album.
DeleteTommy struggling to be heard over his jumper in this episode, but great to hear him intone "Iron Maiden" in the chart rundown.
ReplyDeleteShalamar with a song where they apparently wrote down a few popular phrases and built the tune from there. It's an energetic performance, but not much more than that.
Heaven 17, eesh, those dodgy lyrics! Doleful ditty lamenting the singer's cradle snatching ways, but lacking much sparkle either in production or melody.
Nick Heyward, somewhat upstaged by the dancer on the left, for er, obvious reasons, so that not even Nick's space invader impersonation can distract from her. Great instrumental break on this one.
After Jennifer Beals not dancing or sinigng, we get Jennifer Beals interviewed, and she seems personable enough. Her next film would be The Bride, co-starring the man who had just been at number one, and one of the biggest flops of '85, ensuring her profile would never be as high again. Probably very sensible to stick with Yale.
Paul Young takes a jaunty song and makes it all regretful in a cover that succeeds for doing something genuinely different. I did get sick of it at the time, mind you, and Paul's Bacofoil suit isn't flattering.
Tom Robinson's raw vocal makes War Baby stick in the mind, though he has Showaddywaddy levels of overmanning on the stage. He's a DJ himself, now, of course.
Bucks Fizz want you to take them very seriously, but Mike dressed as Chuck Norris undercuts that, and Jay has forgotten her trousers. Dramatic song that is growing on me.
Rod Stewart, now with the chess playing machine in this video and the egg top remover in the Heaven 17 video, this was verging on an episode of The Gadget Show. But what's in the kennel that frightens Rod? Is it Dogran?
The Truth with their mishmash complete a fair episode.
Right, so we have a 25-year-old Glenn Gregory trying to pass himself off as 12 years older and having a girlfriend 20 years younger than his ‘new’ age!
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the consequences would have been if Bobby Goldsboro’s “Summer (The First Time)”, about a 17-year-old boy losing his virginity to a 31-year-old woman, had been a hit at this time and not in 1973?
On a similar topic, last week I caught part of a BBC4 documentary on American rock and roll, mainly the part where Jerry Lee Lewis’s UK tour was abandoned after discovery he’d married his cousin who was below the UK marriage age, and he originally said she was 15 when she was really 13.
i remember jerry's jailbait kissin' cousin and (not surprisingly, now-ex) wife myra-gale actually briefly appearing on and being interviewed on "the tube" around 1983. of course by that time she was pushing the grand old age of 40...
DeleteSkineeeeer!! and Tommy - Face For Radio- Vance are this week's hosts for a show which doesn't really promise much, but which delightfully delivers far more.
ReplyDeleteShalamar up first. Couldn't recall this from the title which is understandable as the chorus is hugely forgettable. But the verses are top-notch and it's a fine performance all round, apart from the director who decides to not allow us a close up of Jeff's mime artist/moonwalk thing. Strange clothing choices all round.
Next up, the only decent thing Heaven 17 wrote, even if it is a bit 'wrong' lyrically. And when I say 'decent thing' you have to bear in mind that there are few fruits on this particular tree.
Nick Heyward. Don't think I particularly liked this back in the day, but you know what? It's actually good. Very good. Exhuberant, i think the word is. Lots of brass, very very catchy. Well played Nick.
FF through Flashdance. Overplayed Mum Disco at its cheesiest.
Paul Young. At the time this was a much admired single. Young can certainly sing better than most of his peers, and the throbby bass was unusual. It might not be as admired today, but I still have a fondness for it.
And we follow that with my pick of the day. I was a TRB fan back in the 70s (saw them at the Liverpool Empire supported by Stif Little Fingers) and I was disappointed when they split. This was a welcome and unheralded return for the former schoolboy-tie-wearing-Grey-Cortina-driving one. As already mentioned, the verses are very wordy and push the boundaries of what does and what doesn't scan, but by Jove it works. There are a couple of negatives about the performance though. Tom's Deidre-Barlow glasses are one; his over-miming is another; and the rather odd, bored-looking backing band (of which there are far too many) is a third. But still, what a song.
Bucks Fizz, once again raid the dressing-up box, or rather, four separate dressing-up boxes. Quite why anyone thought that those 4 disparate costumes would meld into one glorious whole, I'm not sure. And beside which, we're all only looking at Jay aren't we?
The song isn't bad, but like Shalamar, it's chorus is nowhere near good enough.
Somehow Rod is number one.
Okay - the scores. A few mistakes from TV, not least of which is incorrectly naming Paul Young's song. Oh and the jumper! Skinneeer!! was his by-now usual professional self and handled the interview well. 7.
Musically. At last I can blow the cobwebs off the number 9 on my keyboard. Only Rod and Irene Cara prevented this from being a maximum score, and I could happily watch it again. Well most of it.
I was going to slag off TV's jumper wearing antics, given that it wasn't the right time of year to be sporting one, but then I'm watching silly old pop songs indoors on a beautifully sunny Sunday afternoon, so as the charming old phrase goes, who's the ****?!
ReplyDeleteHeaven 17 - I prefer it to 'Temptation' given that you never hear it now (presumably for the obvious and slightly tedious reason) even though it was a big hit.
Nick Heyward - When Tommy introduces this, isn't that Anita Dobson to his left? And to the left of her, is that Duncan Norvelle?! (I saw him on a previous edition but forgot to mention it)
As for the song, I'm really glad that the repeats have brought it back to my attention.
Paul Young - I can appreciate WHY people like it, but I never found it particularly interesting I'm afraid.
Tom Robinson - Ditto. Never got the love for this one at all. I didn't know it at the time but have heard it since, and I can say that I much prefer the follow-up 'Atmospherics' which weirdly only just scraped into the Top 40.
Bucks Fizz - Best thing on the show by a mile! Musically, not fashion-wise, obviously...
I thought I spotted Duncan "Chase Me" Norvelle as well, but wouldn't he have been a fairly established comedian by then? If so, you'd think a patented TOTP awkward interview would be in order. Probably just a looky-likey.
DeleteI’ve been on a short break so thank goodness there are only two shows to watch and review this week!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, dropping one place to no38 and therefore not being featured on the show was one of my favourite singles of 1983; ‘I won’t hold you back’ by Toto; Steve Lukather’s superb ballad from ‘Toto IV’ reached no10 in the States.
Opening up is a quick FF whizz through Shalamar and onto….
Heaven 17 – Come live with me – Classy looking video (shot in Paris?) and a great follow up to ‘Temptation’. The very first single I bought aged about 6 was ‘Young Girl’ by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap.
Nick Heyward – Take that situation – Plenty of fretless bass as on’ Whistle down the Wind’ but no sign of Pino…
Irene Cara – Flashdance – Cue much adulation! This is still so great to hear with its gradual climax to the chorus. The video is the perfect accompaniment. Nice interview with Jennifer Beals afterwards makes you wish that some of the previous interviews had more substance.
Paul Young – Wherever I lay my hat – Third single from the ‘No Parlez’ album after ‘Iron out the rough spots’ and ‘Love of the common People’ both flopped and it’s another cover that hits the spots this time! Hi Pino on bass!
Tom Robinson – War Baby – Not one I recall with much affection but it’s not too bad on hearing again. Tom appears to have calmed down after the anger of his late 70s recordings.
Bucks Fizz – When we were young – (is that Paul Young?). Fine performance and er, nice outfit Jay! Next release would be ‘London Town’ which appears to be a poor choice for a single name as Wings’ similarly failed to register much with their capital flavoured single in 1978.
Rod Stewart – Baby Jane – I can see why the record buyers of 83 loved this.
The Truth – Confusion hits every time – Played to the very end.
Pathetically late I know but I might as well add my ten penny worth.
ReplyDeleteI had a secret love of Shalamar songs back in 1982/83 and this was one of their best. Loved the body popping antics of Jeffrey somewhat spoiled by the twat dancing in the foreground. This was the problem with the show is those days, too many dancers - the audience, Zoo and the bloody cheerleaders, too much going on distracting us from the acts
Heaven 17. This one sounds better the more you hear it and the glossy video really helps sell the song. While smug Glen Gregory used to annoy me I always thought the other two (not The Other two from New order) looked like estate agents or bank clerks, not at all like pop stars.
Predating Phil Collins staccato horn-led Sussudio is Nick Heyward's Take That Situation. I had forgotten about this and how good it is although I'm not sure what the Kermit the frog vocals are all about in the second verse.
I loved the production on Paul Young's No Parlez album, in particular this single. After years of singing soul covers with Q-Tips (I remember buying their version of tracks Of My Tears) he finally had a hit with a cover of a Marvin Gaye song and deservedly so.
I had mixed feelings about the Tom Robinson song, I liked it but the strained vocals and "Bulging eyes" lyric put me off a bit. Love the two saxes.
Bucks Fizz doing what they do and doing it very well but still too theatrical for my taste.
Rod at the top and play out with The Truth. I remember the lead singer Dennis Greaves when he was in Nine Below Zero. Good song.
bama i always find your reviews of interest, but you're lagging so far behind at the moment that it's a miracle i've even read your latest contributions! hopefully you'll make a superhuman effort to catch up, as i'm sure that other regular contributors and readers are now missing out on your wit and wisdom?
DeleteHeaven 17 - nice video, but I had to visit the lyrics to find out why they split up...
ReplyDeleteNick Heyward - second hearing of this, and I rather like it.
Tom Robinson - great song - I bought the single - but this live performance was missing something...
Bucks Fizz - the missus came into the room halfway through this, and it took her a while to work out who they were :-) Jay as lovely as ever
Does Anyone Know Where I Can Get A Copy Of This Episode? Thanks
ReplyDeletehttps://wetransfer.com/downloads/fbffdc520935bed7cc5ffcfe35fbe85220180423105056/574229
DeleteThank You So Much!! :)
DeleteDoes Anyone Know Where I Can Get A Copy Of This Episode? Thanks
ReplyDelete