Right, own up, who's put itching powder in my shirt??
14/04/83 (Gary Davies & Andy Peebles)
Sweet Dreams – “I’m Never Giving Up” (41)
We begin tonight with 1983's Eurovision entry, featuring of course Zoo cheerleader Carrie Grant. It came sixth and the single peaked at 21.
Eurythmics – “Love Is A Stranger” (23) (video)
And talking of Sweet Dreams ..... here's the multi-wigged Eurythmics with Love is a Stranger - originally released without success in November 1982, it now re-entered the charts and peaked at number 6.
Bauhaus – “She’s In Parties” (35)
Became the band's final top 30 hit, making it to number 26.
Jonathan King – US chart rundown: Edited out as per usual
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Change Of Heart” (live clip)
Thomas Dolby – “She Blinded Me With Science” (video clip)
Daryl Hall & John Oates – interview + “One On One” (video clip)
Dexys Midnight Runners – “Come On Eileen” (video clip)
Kissing The Pink – “The Last Film” (32)
Making a most eccentric debut on the show here are Kissing the Pink, with their one and only hit, which reached number 19.
Sunfire – “Young, Free & Single” (28)
Another one it wonder debut here, Young Free and Single - introduced by Gary Davies as 'a song about me' peaked at number 20.
Kajagoogoo – “Ooh To Be Ah” (7) (video)
That Kenny Everett was turning up everywhere! And there's the chap from All Creatures Great and Small as well, taking a break from the cows in the Yorkshire Dales ~ but, unlike Christopher Timothy's arm, Ooh to be Ah went up no further.
David Bowie – “Let’s Dance” (1) (video)
Second of three weeks at number one.
New Order – “Blue Monday” (14) (audience dancing/credits)
A non-mover this week, it would peak at 12, gradually slip out of the top 80, then re-enter the top 30 after the summer and peak at number 9 in September!
Next up is April 21st 1983.
Oh no Gary "don't look at the eyes" Davies is paired up with Andy "great face for radio" Peebles. Why are they doing this to us?
ReplyDeleteSweet dreams eh? Bad nightmares more like. Just kidding. I had totally lost interest in Eurovision by this point although its fun to look back now and view the cheesy tunes and fashions. This is watered down Bucks Fizz but it's nice to see Carrie Grey/Grant in her youth teaching us how to sing, sorry mime properly. Health and safety would have something to say today about that business with the stools.
Eurovision songsters Sweet Dreams followed by Euryhmics whose last hit was Sweet Dreams. Has that ever happened before? I liked Love Is A Stranger ever more that Sweet Dreams and it was of course originally released first. Another fine video from Annie and Dave, I like the ventriloquist doll and Dave's early I-phone. The video ending (not shown here) with the male Annie pretending to be an android or is it a real robot? Spooky stuff. The line "love is a dangerous drug, after receiving it you still can't get enough of the stuff" reminds of The Sweet's Love Is Like Oxygen... "you get too much you get to high", etc.
Preened stick insect Peter Murphy looks like Tim Curry caught between the lift doors. "Going down!". Bauhaus left me cold back in 1983 and little has changed but I suppose this was the least worst of their hits. Nice to see a melodica in use. This reminds me a little of early Psychedelic Furs. Often wondered who "she" was in that was in parties - possibly politician Shirley Williams who defected from The Labour Party to join the SDP that year.
Kissing The Pink - the group with three (count 'em) drummers, one who doubles on trumpet. From memory they were named after the term for two snooker balls almost touching. I quite liked this at the time, the whistling bit reminds me of Peter Gabriel's Games Without Frontiers. The jerky lead singer reminds me of Kevin Turvey and the whole group seems over-animated. I like the "telling me lies" line.
Sunfire - Young Free and Single, it that the nicknames of the three of them? I think we guess which one is single.
Nasty bit of camera shake in the middle where the crowd are fighting back after being moved down again during Bauhaus. I had forgotten about this superb slow dancer which has a lovely lazy vibe about it and nice guitar solo played in octaves.
Ah the video for Ooh To Be Ah. I spy cuddly Ken, Christopher Timothy and who might be Stephen Hancock (Emily Bishop's dead hubby Ernest from number 3 Corrie Street) as the hotel receptionist. Not sure what it's all about, Nick Begg's shadow man reminded me of the recent ads for some fast food outlet (I forget which one) where each diner takes their other self with them.
The Dame still at the top. While I loved the song I did get a little bored with the video even at the time.
Play out with the studio version of Blue Monday which is much preferable to the "live" version. This arrangement/sound was stolen (Peter) hook line and sinker by producer Bobby Orlando for his Hi-NRG hit Love Reaction by Divine, except of course Divine's vocals are better than Bernard's (joke). A threatened lawsuit never happened probably because Blue Monday owed more than a little to Orlando's earlier hits.
Shirley Williams had actually defected to the SDP in 1981, and subsequently took Crosby from the Tories in a by-election. She would lose the seat back to them in the 1983 General Election.
DeleteKissing The Pink's Josephine Wells actually played soprano saxophone, not trumpet. She subsequently worked with Tears For Fears, The Communards and The Who's Pete Townshend, but her career as a musician was sadly cut short after she was involved in the Marchioness disaster of 1989, which left her with PTSD.
DeleteSunfire - now there's another fine R&B outfit I had completely forgotten about! Although a one-hit wonder, they were highly accomplished. Member Reggie Lucas subsequently produced the bulk of Madonna's debut album and wrote two songs for this set, including the smash hit single 'Borderline'.
DeleteSince you were talking about 'Blue Monday' in relation to plagiarism, bama, my jaw dropped open when I got a Donna Summer CD a few years back and her song 'Our Love'. You might want to check that one out....
Deletewow noax i see what you mean"! a shame the actual song is so crap though...
Deletebama i counted four drummers in kissing the pink!
Deletewilberforce - Yeah, you can see why it was an album track. Lucky for New Order than Giorgio Moroder didn't sue though, eh?
DeleteThe whistling tune backing on Kissing The Pink was quite captivating I thought, and really made the tune for me. I do like the caption on this week's blog with the likeness to itching powder in the shirt of the lead singer, and the term eccentric to describe him. Well done on this one Angelo! It should have been called the Last Itch I Ever Saw. I'll worry about the Film later.
DeleteI have heard Our Love before as part of a megamix but never the whole thing and the drum pattern is strikingly similar, maybe that's why they didn't dare sue Bobby Orlando/Divine.
DeleteAh, Sweet Dreams, not to be confused with, erm, Sweet Dreams, a duo who made number 10 in 1974 with a cover of Abba's "Honey Honey" and who were infamous because the female singer, Pickettywitch's Polly Brown, blacked up for TOTP and used the stage name of Sara Leone! Carrie Grant's Sweet Dreams shortened their name to Dreams for a flop follow-up and then disbanded.
ReplyDeletesorry just found this page enjoying it but Sweet Dreams! Carrie Grant wrinkling her nose and trying to look cute hardly
DeleteThought Gary was a lot more confident this time around, though the dull roar of conversation during the chart rundowns was a bit offputting.
ReplyDeleteA Eurovision flop to start with, I sort of recall this and the chorus is mildly catchy, but the barstool routine wasn't very glamorous. They look dressed for the gym.
Icy Eurythmics on video, embracing the technology and their sinister lyrics for an accomplished union of sound and vision.
Bauhaus who would like to have been as cool as that, and this is one of their more palatable singles as far as I can recall, but they were just trying too hard. Maybe a toy piano solo would have improved things?
Named after (Ted Lowe?) snooker commentary, Kissing the Pink were great 80s one hit wonders, if this got high enough to count as a hit. Eccentric sound and look, four drummers, enigmatically disillusioned lyrics, terrific stuff. And the last film itself? One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing. My, my.
On the other hand, I don't remember Sunfire at all. It's a laidback sound, but too basic, and rhyming single with mingle and NOT tingle was unforgivable. Young Free and Single was Gary's catchphrase, he had it on T-shirts and boxer shorts, because the 80s.
Kajagoogoo attempt the comedy video with mixed results, probably better than the song, mind. Some of it's downright weird, it looks like a comment on the toll fame was taking on the band. Maybe Cuddly Ken should have rapped on it?
See the old bloke in the bar in the Let's Dance video who starts dancing and everyone laughs at him? I think we can all relate to him now. Just me, then? Isn't it difficult to play guitar with white gloves on, Dave?
I suppose it's nice to hear the original Blue Monday rather than the remix, but I've just heard it too many times for it to have any effect anymore.
The best part of the Sunfire song was the three lovely girls in evening dresses dancing to it, i.e., the two obvious ones at the front of the stage (the white girl in black and the black girl in white), plus an audience member at the back with a black minidress. Oh and the song, I liked it too, and perfect for slow dance at the end of a Saturday Night disco, if you got that far. Give me the one at the back!
DeleteI’ll critique the show properly on Sunday, but just a couple of quick points while I remember.
ReplyDeleteI loved “The Last Film”. The synths really build through your speakers at the end of the single. Kissing The Pink is indeed a snooker term, with balls ‘kissing’ when they’re just touching. Kissing The Pink played on their name, mind you, as they released an album called “Naked”. Prior to this, their label Magnet Records had changed their label design to two-tone white with a soft glow area as if lit from above, and the KTP single was arguably the first Magnet single to have a red label with a white glow depicting a red snooker ball.
Sweet Dreams heralded the era of some functional, dare I say nondescript, Eurovision entries from the UK. Our next one was mildly controversial, due to perceived elements of miming, plus the group was booed due to England football hooligans running amok in the host country a couple of months previously, and the next three years saw acts with pretentious spellings of their names (Vikki, Ryder and Rikki), the former just scraping the UK 50 and the other two missing the top 75 by some distance.
We have had a run of strong shows recently, but sadly it ends here with a largely dull edition, not helped by the total lack of chemistry between Gazza and Andy Peebles. Individually they are mostly competent enough, but when they are onscreen together they seem more wooden than Thunderbirds puppets! Incidentally Andy - "Is there Something THAT I Should Know?" "THE" Culture Club? - tsk tsk! For some reason the chart rundown sequences are smothered in ambient noise this week, though thankfully this does not extend to the performances...
ReplyDeleteThis year's Eurovision entry to start us off, and Carrie and her pals seem to be paving the way for 90s boy bands with their stool usage. This was harmless enough, but very lightweight, generic and forgettable - presumably there was only one boy and two girls to try and limit comparisons with Bucks Fizz? They all looked a bit smug to me as well, and it was a bit of a shame they didn't all fall on their faces when they slid off the stools. Far classier material to follow from Annie and Dave, with a haunting tune that should have been a hit on first release. The video, as well as fully demonstrating Annie's penchant for wigs, remains quite an unsettling watch today, though having mentioned Thunderbirds puppets above its a shame we don't get to see the end where they both do eerily convincing impressions of Gerry Anderson's creations!
Bauhaus evidently had a good record plugger, given the number of times they got on the show. This is probably the best we have heard from them, not that that is saying very much. The Richard E. Grant-like singer annoys with his Bowie-aping vocals, but he does put in a relatively restrained performance this time. Kissing the Pink next, who quite easily take the award for most annoying act of the night with their multiple drummers, jerky movements and irritating keyboard player who looked like he was trying to audition for Monty Python's Gumbys. The song was repetitive and pretentious, leaving me relieved that this was their only hit.
The Sunfire tune is pleasantly soulful, but as with so many of the records on this show it fails to excite, and I soon found my attention wandering. Horrible as the Kajagoogoo song is, they certainly pushed the boat out a bit for this video, though it's nowhere near as funny as they seem to think. Still, Kenny Everett and Christopher Timothy are certainly left-field guest stars - presumably they had nothing else to do that day. New Order to finish, and it's good to hear the proper version accompanying some fairly lively studio dancing. However, is it just me or does it sound a bit muddy here?
While the Bauhaus lead singer did have Bowie-aping vocals, he looked more like Jim Kerr of Simple Minds, so Bauhaus this week was like a cross between David Bowie and Simple Minds.
DeleteConversely, the Kissing The Pink lead singer had the look and jerky movements of David Byrne of Talking Heads, and so we had a good take on Simple Minds and Talking Heads in this one. show!
DeleteYes, the keyboard player did have the look of David Byrne in the Once in a Lifetime video.
Deletefor some bizarre reason the kissing the pink keyboard player had a toothbrush moustache! an homage to ron mael perhaps?
DeleteWould you believe this was actually the SEVENTH week Kissing The Pink's single had been in the top 75? Definitely something of a slow burner.
ReplyDeleteJust to fill in a couple of blanks re the US clips...
ReplyDeleteAs previously mentioned by me when JK tipped it for big things in a previous show, Tom Petty’s effort stalled at 21 in the US and didn’t make the chart over here.
Thomas Dolby’s single, complete with interjections by English eccentric Doctor Magnus Pyke, did much better over the pond, reaching number 5 compared to 49 over here. Thomas’s two other US hits peaked in the 60’s.
Daryl Hall and John Oates’s opus reached number 7 in the US. They actually managed six Stateside chart toppers and 11 other top ten hits, with singles peaking at every position from 1 to 9. In contrast to all that, “One On One” made the UK top 63.
Dexys topped the charts both here and there but managed just one other (really minor) US hit, “The Celtic Soul Brothers” peaking at 86.
re: thomas dolby 45 - by sheer coincidence somebody told me only recently that "magnus" is a cod-cockney slang term for a lesbian!
Deletetotp 14 April 1983 with JK segment is here (thanks to Neil) https://we.tl/2z7fAR1AtI
ReplyDeleteThanks to Gia and Neil for the full show. The JK segment will forever be seared in my memory for the way in which that woman of a certain age, who looked like she had come from a Wild West brothel, kept pawing at our host during one of his links. Truly not a sight for the faint-hearted...
DeleteThe songs were a fairly interesting mix this time. Tom Petty has done some fine work, but I don't think this song ranks especially high in his canon - to be honest, in my view he only really came into his own when he hooked up with Jeff Lynne through the Wilburys. Given that this is probably Thomas Dolby's best-known single, and certainly the one I am most familiar with, it is very strange indeed that it didn't do better in our chart. I wonder what the Americans made, if anything, of Magnus Pyke?
A less well-known effort from Hall & Oates to follow, along with JK interviewing them for the second time in these slots, the purpose seemingly being this time to plug King's then brand new Entertainment USA show. The song was smooth but forgettable, with H & O were now coming to the end of their imperial phase - Oates looks even more Andrew Ridgely-like in this video, doing nothing other than dancing around with occasional backing vocal interjections! I don't know why so much of Come on Eileen got played, when the UK audience was more than familiar with it by this stage - they could have more usefully filled the time by having Tracey Ullman back in the studio, given she was still climbing the chart that week...
sorry john, but i've never understood the appeal of tom petty - i think we've done right to pretty much ignore him in blighty. amazingly given the relatively staid nature of his music, he was actually considered as "noo wave" when he started out! but then again i suppose he was compared to the american superstar bands of the time such as boston and the eagles...
Deletei agree with you though that showing even a nanosecond of "come on eileen" was utterly redundant, given that it was already a massive hit over here. wasn't the whole point of king's segment to bring to our attention stuff we wouldn't have got to hear otherwise?
The irony about Tom Petty's career is that it first took off in the UK, in part because the music press lumped him in with the Punk/New Wave scene, but he soon became far more appreciated by American audiences than British ones. I wouldn't say that I am a big fan, but at his best he has produced some very pleasant, melodic rock. He has also churned out plenty of tedious plodders too...
DeleteWith regard to Tom Petty, I was first impressed by his music in 1985 when he released the now legendary video for "Don't Come Around Here No More" which was a scary take on Alice In Wonderland in a living nightmare at the Mad Hatters Tea Party, and will be etched in the mind for years to come:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0JvF9vpqx8
Gia,
DeleteIs there anyway you can reupload the 17/2 and 24/2 programs again? I'd appreciate it.
This is one of the shows that I remember clearly from the time, due to a couple of performances particularly. More on that anon.
ReplyDeleteI didn't take to the large amount of studio noise as mentioned above, and there was an unwelcome return to intros starting, then the presenter suddenly appearing to announce what it is. It's not a radio show you know!
Sweet Dreams - Here's the first one I clearly recall, though I can't remember if I'd already seen it on Song For Europe. Probably. 1982 was the first Eurovision I watched so I was well behind this song and rather tragically, I still love it now. I believe that the stool routine went wrong on the night of the contest which probably didn't help it get votes.
Eurythmics - A much better song than 'Sweet Dreams' if you ask me!
Bauhaus - Not for me.
JK segment - There's only one song of interest here, which is Thomas Dolby's. I know for sure that it was all over the radio and the video got played on TV soon so it still mystifies me how it missed the Top 40. Great song.
Kissing The Pink - And so is this, another one on the Chart Runners compo that would have been a regular on my cassette player at this point. I quite clearly remember watching the slightly demented performance at the time.
Sunfire - ...whereas I don't recall anything about this at all. Probably because it's not particularly interesting.
Kajagoogoo - The video was more watchable than I expected, though that phone ringing all the time is bloody annoying! Limahl going to get his P45 not pictured.
I've just watched Sweet Dreams' routine from the final of the ESC '83 twice on YT, and I cannot find anything wrong with it. However, the trio may have been let down by the German orchestra's failure to replicate that distinctive electronic explosion that accompanies the slide from the stools on the key change. To think this happened in the land of Kraftwerk!
DeleteAh, that might be it Julie. Or I'm getting the ESC final mixed up with a performance on a different TV show perhaps.
DeleteThere's definitely a Sweet Dreams performance on the net where one of the gals' mic leads tangles on the stool behind her and causes momentary grief.
DeleteAs for Kissing The Pink, a promo video for "Last Film" shows no less than five of them drumming, and a video for previous single "Mr Blunt" (basic but catchy in a Thompson Twins fashion) confurms the group also included a second woman, with blonde hair, who must have left fairly soon after.
arthur that already blows my newly-formed theory as to why kissing the pink were so-called i.e. that there were 6 of them, and that the pink is worth 6 points in snooker!
Deletei looked at the "mr blunt" video (which is pretty much as arthur describes it musically - i can't really make out any of the lyrics, but i presume it's about the commie toff traitor that was outed as "the fourth man" around this time?), and it's good to see that something like this survives. does anyone know what and where the pagan hillside figure is (it's not the cerne giant)? there's a really funny bit in it where someone appears to be shouting "ow" as one of them steps in a cowpat!
further to the above i looked them up on wiki and found out the hillside figure is "the long man of wilmington". checking them out on yt also reveals a later incarnation as a practically different band (now known as KTP) transformed into authentic-sounding soul/club music purveyors, marred only by some dodgy rap-meets-shout vocals:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jakux0lPW2U
and rather amazingly, they still appear to be active today!
The Kissing the Pink performance I clearly recall is the one on Cheggers Plays Pop, though it was probably identical to the TOTP one.
Deletehosts: another odd-couple act this week with two guys who would have sounded quite similar on the radio, but couldn't have looked more different if they tried
ReplyDeletesweet dreams: with what is now typical eurovision cheese, complete with modulation at the end. the girl who's not carrie rather impressively swings a leg over those rather high stools at one point, suggesting that like her partner she might have been a trained dancer. and not surprisingly with a skirt that short and flared we also get to see what colour knickers she's wearing
eurythmics: ah, now we're back to the proper sound of 80's synth-pop, and what a stormer it is too. like others here i felt it was vastly superior to "sweet dreams" (the last single of theirs i mean, not the last band. although that practically goes without saying). a good video too, with annie looking far more alluring than she did when she appeared on the show in person a few weeks back. and that includes after she takes the wig off
bauhaus: as ever they look brilliant, but also as usual the music fails to match the image. this sounds basically like a flanged mess, with the only semblance of musicality coming when the bassist toots away on a melodica (an instrument seen as somewhat of a novelty, but other players of note include barney of new order and the god-like donald fagen of steely dan)
kissing the pink: all i could really remember about them was that i always felt a bit sorry for their lone female member, who looked far too frumpy to be a pop star! listening again brings back vague recollections of the music which is hardly commercial-sounding (not to mention having a rather flat vocal over it), so it did remarkably well to make the top 20. i do love the crazed mass of drumming human duracell bunnies though!
sunfire: thanks to julie for pointing out reggie lucas was involved in this - he did some sterling work in the soul/disco idiom in the 70's and 80's, including co-writing the awesome "back together again" for flack & holloway. but although this is pleasant enough it's hardly his finest moment. didn't gary davies use this as some kind of jingle on his radio show for several years?
kajagoogoo: like others i recognised messrs everett and timothy, but couldn't place what i assume were other actors involved. i don't know what these guys got paid for their participation, but i dread to think how much money was wasted on this video! in the late 80's i was back in my hometown for xmas, and whilst out jugging i bumped into a guy i was vaguely acquainted with at school. who told me that he used to direct pop videos! although i was impressed, at the time i had dropped any aspirations of being a pop star myself for an (ultimately failed) attempt at climbing the greasy pole (or maybe it was because i was too pissed?) so didn't press him more on what ones he was responsible for. however many years later i looked him up on the internet and discovered that he went on to become a film producer, including the first one in the "resident evil" franchise!
In my opinion, Annie Lennox looked betterin long hair (in this case a wig) than her short hair in the previous hit called Sweet Dreams. After watching this new video, I cannot think why she opted for short hair, or did not opt for a blonde wig on every occasion!
Deletedory as much as you may have found her quite attractive-looking in her long blonde wig, i'm pretty sure that annie was only sporting that (tarty) look in irony. her whole ethos at this time appeared to be about questioning gender stereotypes... particularly those that pleased sexist men!
DeleteYes the vocal on The Last Film doesn't appeal to me, the whole interest seems to be in the flute melody. I prefer Certain Things Are Likely by them in 86, it's just more catchy.
DeleteI think that the whole song was appealing, i.e., from the flute melody to the jerky movements of all the band members on purpose it seems, right to the female vocal that sounded like Aled Jones singing Walking In The Air. It seemed also to have shades of Talking Heads Once In A Lifetime video antics, coupled with a slight resemblance to Simple Minds. Suffice to say that TOTP must have been in agreement, cos Kissing The Pink would get two more appearances on TOTP in the next few shows!
DeleteBardo, Sweet Dreams and Belle and the Devotions I think were all excellent Eurovision entries showing British music was still churning out the melodies before it started to fall off. All 3 I think were more deserving to win than Making Your Mind Up. But because Bucks Fizz won and the others didn't they get forgotten or dismissed.
ReplyDeleteI recall Belle and the Devotions getting a pretty raw deal on the night due to circumstances beyond their control. Mind you it'll probably look like they were welcomed with open arms compared to the reception we're gonna get this year!
DeleteThe main problem seems to have been they had backing singers hidden away. Though the singer on youtube insists they didn't need them anyway. Looks like the BBC messed up in the staging of it. Even so all the UK entries in these years did quite well, none were flops at all. British music still had a high reputation.
DeleteI was more referring to the booing from the crowd they received because of something they had nothing to do with. Now the backing singers have to be on stage, of course.
DeleteThe results of the three you mention are enviable compared to what we have had in the last fifteen years, Jade Ewen aside.
I thought Gary Davies jingle was a rip off of captain sensibles 1984 hit glad it's all over?
ReplyDeletei'm still not sure about gary davies using "young free & single" as a jingle, but i had something coming up from the darkest recesses or my mind that he got the kane gang to re-do the vocals on their recently-released single "small town creed" so it went "ooh gary davies, ooh gary davies, ooh gary davies on the radio"... and a check has proved me right. result!
Deletecan anyone think of other commercially-released tunes that were adapted for use as radio 1 jingles?
I remember the Kane Gang Gary Davis jingle and there were a few others - Kenny Everett got Christopher Rainbow and Chris White to adapt a couple of their songs into Capital jingles in the late '70s (from memory Solid State Radio was one).
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI'm sure that Mike Read had a few, not that any come to mind right now.
DeleteNot a re-record, but DLT at one point mixed the intro to 'The Man With The Child In His Eyes' with one of his standard name idents so that it went 'He's here (DAVE) he's here (LEE) he's here (TRAVISSSSS!)' - really quite something, that one....
The Kane Gang debuted in 1984 Wilberforce, unless Small Town Creed was released in 1983 and failed to chart. I remember The Kane Gang's arrival in 84 with Closest Thing To Heaven, and I couldn't stop listening to all their music, including the brilliant first album which I still have in vinyl.
Deletedory i never said that gary davies adapted the kane gang's "small town creed" as a jingle in 1983, just that he used it on his radio 1 show! according to discogs the band in question did actually release singles in 1983 prior to "small town creed", which i certainly remember getting some airplay the following year and becoming a minor hit as a result before their debut "mugshot" single "the closest thing to heaven" (both from their debut album, released in 1985). a couple of years later they put out a second (and final) album called "miracle" that in my opinion contained a couple of gems in "motortown" and "strictly love it ain't" (plus an interesting attempt at "don't look any further", as also covered by m people several years later). sadly the band are also remembered for doing a tour where hardly anybody turned up to at least one venue!
DeleteIndeed, I remember the second album from The Kane Gang around 1987/88, which I also remember a song called "What time is it?" which I think is brilliant and my favourite on the Miracle album, along with Don't Look Any Further, which I think The Kane Gang did the best ever version of it in the history of pop music. Certainly the lead singer's voice was 100 times better than M People's version of it!
DeleteDon’t remember this edition at all and I don’t think it’s a particularly good one. I kept thinking when the bands started with no intro that a JK segment had been dropped and then up popped a presenter to introduce it.
ReplyDeleteSweet Dreams – I’m never giving up – Ok so I enjoyed this. Very cheesy song and routine but that coupled with the girl’s outfits made it quite compelling viewing. Some people have commented on 1974 Sweet Dreams and their Abba cover hit ‘Honey Honey’ (always one of my favourite tracks on the seminal ‘Greatest Hits’ album). I think there is a connection; Ron Roker co-wrote ‘I’m never giving up’ and also co-wrote ‘I Surrender’ (no, not that one!) the B-side of ‘Honey Honey’.
Eurythmics – Love is a Stranger – The highlight of the show for me. I was never a Eurythmics fan but this was just fabulous coupled with a suitably mysterious video. Yep, loved hearing this again.
Bauhaus – She’s in Parties – Is she really?
JK Slot
Tom Petty & Heartbreakers – Change of Heart – Never heard it before. TP never took off over in the UK and are perhaps best known for the duet with Stevie Nicks ‘Stop draggin’ my heart around’.
Thomas Dolby – She blinded me with Science – Magnus Pike I presume?
Hall & Oates – One on one – This had already flopped in the UK and they had to resort to a Mike Oldfield cover to restore their fortunes.
Dexys – Come on Eileen – So another chance to see the video. After 7 weeks of Michael Jackson this did topple him…but for only one week as it was back to Michael with ‘Beat it’ after that.
Kissing the Pink- The Last Film – Fidgets!! Snooky loopy…
Sunfire –Young, free and single – Maybe I was at the time but this didn’t strike a chord with me then nor now!
Kajagoogoo – Ooh to be ah – A suitably whacky video can’t paper over the fact that this is a pretty poor follow up. Regent Street hasn’t changed.
David Bowie – Let’s Dance – Yep,
still good, but they never showed the end of the video on ToTP with DB playing the guitar licks against the setting sun.
New Order – Blue Monday – Blimey we almost get the 12” version here as it goes on for ages past the credits (“contains previously transmitted material” indeed).
Good Lord, Michael Jackson with 7 weeks at No.1 with Billie Jean, when he only managed one week at No.1 with it here? And then as if that wasn't enough, he goes to No.1 immediately after with his follow up called Beat It, with only week in between with Come On Eileen at No.1. Hell yes, as they would say in Texas!
DeleteBut what was all that at the end to plug JKs new show in Britain called Entertainment USA? I mean, what did he have on the show, as I don't recall it? Was it a longer version of the JK slot, for his own TOTP length show? Someone please fill me in.
With the show having no edits apart the obvious JK slot, they had to play the playout song to its last balloon pop, even on the early evening first play, as the show was probably about 30 minutes long, inclusive of JK!
DeleteI must admit I did like this week's playout, as the studio audience dancing on this one was just brilliant I thought.
Entertainment USA was a variety type show Dory, from memory each edition would showcase a different city and have interviews and features about music, film, sport etc. The best thing about it was the theme tune.
DeleteRon Roker also sang the male vocals on "Honey Honey" (all three lines or so) but decided they needed to get another singer in to handle the earlier Sweet Dreams' promotional work.
DeleteIt’s the Lack of Rhythm Pals, with no chemistry at all as previously mentioned. Plus mark to Andy Peebles for mentioning Eurythmics’ single was a re-issue, but points removed for saying Forrest’s dreadful effort was superb.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t recognise Carrie “wife of that David” Grant without red hair. Nice upward camera shot behind the stools.
I agree Annie Lennox looked prettier in the long curly wig, and she transposed from smouldering to threatening in this vid, just as the beauty spot in her black hair alter ego moved from one side of her face to the other.
Bauhaus even take their Bowie fixation to putting the words “golden years" in the lyrics. In my days, she wasn’t in the can - Watneys Party Seven was. I couldn’t make out all the verbage around the rim of the guitar, but it mentioned the hurly burly world of pop music. Another fine use of melodica can be found on Joe Jackson’s “Geraldine and John”, a track on his “I’m The Man” album concerning a marriage ruined by an affair.
I thought Kissing The Pink were weirdly brilliant. The very definition of animated, with five drummers – as well as the four snare bashers, Mister Gumby thwacks a syndrum more than he plays his mini Rick Wakeman set-up. Plus marks to Josephine for looking worried / sombre during her solo vocal (nice lighting for her too) and the way she really walloped that snare.
I remembered Sunfire’s tune as soon as I heard the first line. Had it been written today, I’m sure the chorus would have had the line “I’ll share a tube of Pringles with you, baby”.
A weird vid for the Googoo which also included Mike Grady as the waiter – he played Robert Lindsay’s hopeless mate in “Citizen Smith” and the hapless lad trying to chat up a Swedish girl in a classic Pepsi advert.
Turns out our mates Kissing The Pink had the biggest selling single in Italy with "One Step" in 1987. It barely made the top 100 over here.
ReplyDeletethey seem to be ome of many british acts that attained some level of success further afield that eluded them here. but although having the biggest-selling single of the year in italy sounds quite impressive, what did that mean in terms of actual units sold?
DeleteNot sure, but, as of 2014, you get a gold disc for sales of 25,000 in Italy and a platinum disc for sales of 50,000. In Bulgaria, it's a gold disc for sales of 1,000 and a platinum disc for sales of 2,000!
Deletei've just discovered that sweet dreams tried to re-invent themselves post-eurovision a la bucks fizz with a bit more hip sound and look. and in their case with a name change as well, simply chopped down to dreams. but unlike their predessors it didn't work for them! of course i think we're all aware of what happened to carrie grant after that, but what about the others?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXHyGZ7kby4
Sweet Dreams should have been named after the trio’s surnames – McVay, Gray and Kray! I can’t find out what happened to Helen Kray, but Carrie Gray became...oh, you know, and (the irony of it) Bobby McVay is currently in Bucks Fizz!
DeleteHelen... not a relative of... you know who, a certain pair of twins?
Deletethat's just what i was wondering thx - by chance i was watching an episode of a 70's kids tv series called "king of the castle" on DVD a few days ago, where i recognised a very young jamie foreman... whose dad freddie was a notorious london gangster and associate of "a certain pair of twins"!
DeleteIf you watch Performance, basically all the blokes playing gangsters apart from James Fox seem to have been Krays associates. Adds a certain authenticity, I suppose...
DeleteI've really been getting into Kissing The Pink, as at the time I barely remember the song, but now I can even detect the first notes in a 20th Century Fox sounding intro before the whistling melody, which just really sets the tone perfectly for the song. I also watched the video for the first time today, and I really like it, but it could have been a 5-minute classic instead of the barely 3 minutes of it. Now where is that itching powder Angelo?
ReplyDeleteSuffice to say that the last film I ever saw was called Finding Dory. I admit I have not been to the cinema since August when I watched it there.
DeleteThat reminds me, you never told us what you thought of Finding Dory, Dory. I thought it was charming.
DeleteI thought it was quite lame when compared to the Finding Nemo. It had shades of American Tail in the storyline, where Dory lost his parents but found them again at the end of the film. A bit like Feivel finding his parents at the end of American Tail after he thought he lost them forever.
DeleteMy parents always seem to find me though, especially as it is their 53rd wedding anniversary this month. That reminds me, I must go shopping this week for a present for them.
Sounds like you had a disappointing night out at the movies! Blame Ellen DeGeneres, she was so obsessed with voicing Dory again that she strong-armed Pixar into making a sequel. I thought it was worth it for the octopus!
DeleteLook out, here comes another tenuous Sweet Dreams / Eurovision link! The first Sweet Dreams also entered “A Song For Europe” in 1976, finishing fourth in the UK final. By the time the duo’s sixth and final single was released, Polly Brown had left and been replaced.
ReplyDeleteI did the usual thing of editing the JK part back into the BBCHD recording:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.4shared.com/video/C-zVGPRyba/TOTP_1983-04-14__full_.html
Thanks drykid, great job!
DeleteThanks so much!
ReplyDeleteNo problem! btw it would be nice to go back and do the same for 17/2/83 but I wasn't quick enough to grab the full version when uploaded originally (WeTransfer links don't last for very long, I'm not a massive fan of 4shared but at least links are semi-permanent there...) Anyway if someone wants to re-upload that then I'll do a proper edit of it with the BBCHD version and add it to the rest :)
ReplyDelete