The latest Top of the Pops dance troupe might need a slight rethink.....
10/05/84 (David Jensen & John Peel)
Belle & The Devotions – “Love Games” (12)
Went up one more place.
Queen – “I Want To Break Free” (3) (video)
At its peak.
The Flying Pickets – “When You’re Young & In Love” (7)
Also at its peak.
Bob Marley & The Wailers – “One Love-People Get Ready” (6) (video)
Went up one more place.
Terri Wells – “I’ll Be Around” (28)
With her only top 40 hit which peaked at number 17.
The Pointer Sisters – “Automatic” (4) (video/Zoo)
Went up two more places.
Duran Duran – “The Reflex” (1) (video)
Second of four weeks at number one.
Jeffrey Osborne – “Stay With Me Tonight” (24) (audience dancing/credits)
His first of two top 20 hits, this one peaking at number 18.
Today's BBC1 lineup
Next up is May 17th.
There wasn't much here that we haven't heard before, but it was good to see the Rhythm Pals together for the penultimate time. Peel managed to throw a couple of barbs during the short duration of the show, his mimicking of the Automatic dancers being the undoubted highlight.
ReplyDeleteBelle and the Devotions, still looking like an explosion in a paint factory, start us off having managed to get through Eurovision in one piece. According to Wikipedia Belle herself, real name Kit Rolfe, later recorded a song with Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards called Fly Eddie Fly, which thankfully I have never heard! The Pickets are back in the studio, their nightwear suggesting this effort sent them to sleep as readily as me.
I can't say Terri Wells' cover of an old Detroit Spinners track did much for me either. Far more interesting from my point of view was her highly elaborate hairdo, into which much more effort appeared to have gone than the actual record! We then get a highly bizarre semi-resurrection of Zoo for The Pointer Sisters, the director evidently deciding that the video was far too boring to show unadulterated. Needless to say the disjointed dance sequences don't work at all, but the spectacular campness of it all lodges it firmly in the mind. Those two moustachioed fan dancers, who reminded me a bit of the British airmen in 'Allo 'Allo, were the definite highlight for me. Both they and the robot then liven up some otherwise lacklustre audience dancing to an equally lacklustre, Elton John-like Jeffrey Osborne track - you can see why this is the hit of his that you never hear on the radio.
As an aside, in the listings that Angelo has posted I am intrigued to see a programme called Pot the Question. I don't have any memory of it, but it looks like a forerunner of the much longer running Big Break.
I was going to say that I just loved the colours on Belle & The Devotions, and while you can call it an explosion in a paint factory, I wouldn't mind giving them some more colour, haha, especially the lead singer. Ooh er!
DeleteI did find it a little odd that they needed to bring back Zoo and a robot to dance to The Pointer Sisters, whereas I though the video was quite good, even though it was all a frontal shot of the three sisters. It does stand out as one of the all time disco classics, not just of he 1980s.
I remember about 4-years ago when I was at a 80s & 90s party night, some girl who was in the event who was very young and not even born in the 80s, heard this song Automatic being played, and asked me what the name of the song was, and of course I knew the answer cos I was 16 in 1984, and was about to start taking my o levels around that time.
Peel and The Kid back again with a show largely made up of stuff we've seen before including no less than four (count 'em) artists who are non-movers. What a swizz!
ReplyDeleteBelle and The Demotions back again this time in shorts that make that backsides look a tad on the big size. Not a good look girls. Okay it's a nice upbeat sub-Motown tune but so obvious and cliched, no surprise that it only came 7th in Eurovision. I've just realised that they have now employed a new set of cheerleaders who we are seeing week after week. Less conspicuous than the previous ones (ie they don't dress like self-obsessed tossers) they are still clearly getting paid to clap, dance, grin and, er, cheer at the right moment. And some are better at it than others for making it look genuine and not forced which most of it is.
More-or-less the whole of the Queen video. Seen it a million times but it still makes me smile.
Dressed like that The Flying Pickets should have done a cover of Roxy Music's Pyjamarama. This is definitely one to hear and not to watch but the public didn't seem mind the band's creepy look and weird dressing-up games.
Blimey, they're remixing videos now! An updated video mix for Bob Marley with extra footage of the man plus the inclusion of one of Musical Youth and bizarrely the park keeper from their first video. Not sure this makes it any more "star-studded" but there you go. George Roper is still in it and he will always be a star to me.
The charts with Relax going back up again, are Frankie ever going to release Two Tribes? "The Longest Time" is apt title for Billy Joel as this must be the longest time since we've sen him, poor thing. Small wonder that The Cocteau Twins (pearly dew-drop) dropped down as they never featured them on the show (boo!) and small wonder that New order dropped after last week's fiasco.
I had forgotten about Terri Well's cover of the Detroit Spinners' classic, not as good as the original of course but still a worthy version and apparently she was one of the backing singers on the original version, so I guess she's entitled to record her own version. This is one of several club hits in the chart this week.
The Pointer Sisters video is thankfully cut up with some "interesting" dancers - a self-absorbed body-popping muscle man (who we saw earlier with Peel), a robotic dancing robot and two exotic male fan dancers in vests. The latter Michael Hurl clearly found in Heaven or some other gay club. Well it's different.
Top Ten and Duran Duran still at the top and play out with Jeffrey Osbourne. I remembered On The wings Of Love because my mum bought that one and got on everyone's nerves by playing it and singing along at every opportunity but I have no recollection of this one. We see the return of the dancers again, or at least three of them (two fan dancers and and Mr robot). What happened to the muscle man? Don't answer that!
Indeed a May 1984 chart rundown with a former No.1 from Feb 1984 now going back up the charts to No.26 for FGT Hollywood, was all the more impressive considering that their second single Two Tribes was still not released at this stage. I wonder if they would have played Relax this week, had it not been a banned single by the BBC the first time round in February?
DeleteUsually when an act have a massive selling number one hit they rush-release the follow up before the big hit has even dropped out of the charts, eg both Culture Club and Billy Joel did it with their follow ups to Karma Chameleon and Uptown Girl, both entering the charts while the previous hit was till in the Top 40. But with Frankie, nothing but a long gap. I get the impression that they were having trouble coming up with the goods and were recoding and re-recording stuff with session players trying to get the sound right. It paid off of course and they had two more number ones (one that was truly massive) and a number 2 hit.
DeleteIndeed, and we're only a couple weeks away from that huge No.1 of nine weeks, and I wonder if Relax was to continue its rise up the charts alongside the Two Tribes chart topper. Being up again to No.26 this week, you would think so.
DeleteRe Two Tribes - perhaps Trevor Horn wanted to perfect the 17 million different mixes before it finally got released? Frankie had actually played the song on John Peel's show as far back as October 1982.
Deletefrom what i can remember, the various "two tribes" mixes consisted of a combination of the band (and that was mainly limited to vocals), machines/technology and session players such as norman watt-roy - known to totp viewers as the bassist for ian d(r)ury and the blockheards
DeleteUnglamorous shorts and tights for Belle and the Devotions to kick off an overfamiliar, "will this do?" edition.
ReplyDeleteNext Queen, another repeat, what did Brian May's hair look like after those curlers came out? None more curly?
The Flying Pickets dressed as the Lost Boys (not the vampires), thank Christ there wasn't a strong breeze in the studio at the left hand side.
Don Letts serves up a new edit of his Bob Marley vid, but a few captions wouldn't go amiss. Has the BBC Four Twitter feed been any help with identification of those celebs?
Terri Wails, sorry, Wells in a perfunctory club cover of the old soul number, though she is outperformed by that barnet and those American footballer shoulder pads.
And now, the comedy. I was laughing out loud at the attempts to add interest to the Pointer Sisters, highlight of the show! Was that Tik without Tok or Tok without Tik? The fan dancers - a spoof couldn't have been funnier.
Duran Duran really were a bunch of poseurs, weren't they? Does anyone use the word "poseurs" anymore?
Quite like this Jeffrey Osborne track, you don't hear it that often mind you. I note there's another Footloose hit in the charts, but we don't hear that one.
I did prefer the first Belle & The Devotions appearance on the show two weeks earlier, when they were dressed in miniskirts. This second time round they came in supposed shorts, but looked liked nappies, and it was a little disappointing, but they had won me over the first time round on TOTP.
DeleteWould definitely agree that The Pointer Sisters track was the highlight of the show, but it was very messy to use part video and mainly an ugly Zoo dancer and a weird robot. Why couldn't we see the whole Pointer Sisters video?
At the time I had just bought a VCR and tried to tape all my fave acts from the show. This particular week I recall hoping to record the video for Automatic and was severely disappointed to find it interrupted by the motley crew of dancers. I even rang up the BBC to complain not that it did me any good.
DeleteIn those days before music video channels, TOTP was the only way you could see pop videos, and VCRs were a much needed tool for pop music enthusiasts, so I can understand the huge level of disappointment to be robbed of the Pointer Sisters video when VCR was at the ready. Darn!
DeleteAt last, some sparkle back on TOTP after a few bland episodes! As Dory points out above, Belle & The Devotions' outfits did resemble infants' incontinence pads. Indeed, a reader of 'Smash Hits' commented at the time: "Belle & The Devotions were in their nappies, and The Flying Pickets were in their pyjamas." Neither band was exactly A-list, so surely their respective schedules could not have been THAT tiring?
ReplyDeleteTerri Wells must be saluted for belatedly taking 'I'll Be Around' - originally a smash in the US for the (Detroit) Spinners - into the British hit parade. Phil Hurtt, who was Thom Bell's collaborator on the song, had previously scored a notable British hit in '81 as co-writer of Hi-Gloss's 'You'll Never Know'.
The variety turns are back for 'Automatic': a body popper, a robotic dancer with a silicone head, and a couple of iron pumpers toting outsize hand fans. Wouldn't we see the robot again a year or so later, lending The RAH Band a helping hand in 'Clouds Across The Moon'?
The only other time a group came in pyjamas to perform in the TOTP studio was The Boomtown Rats doing Rat Trap in 1978, or was it only on the video, but pyjamas were definitely their forte, but the nappy effect looked like a first for Belle & The Devotions, as it was already a weekly occurrence for the girls in the TOTP studio audience. But the Zoo effect for The Pointer Sisters at No.4 was really not the way forward when there was a complete video from the Sisters that they could have shown.
Deletedespite having a pretty good voice hinmself, phil hurtt spent much more time as a backroom boy than in the spotlight. but mention of him gives me the chance to plug what i consider a disco classic:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssOU8kUYHl0
Giving It Back. I remember it well, I bought it the same year I bought Bama Boogie Woogie by Cleveland Eaton, both had similar string arrangements. Those early jazz-disco singles were the best.
Deletebelle & devotions: like a few others that have been on these re-runs, the lead singer is more than a little mutton-dressed-as-lamb. and although i didn't think it could be possible, the costumes are even worse than last time
ReplyDeleteterri wells: i thought this dance track was sheer heaven back in 1984, and time has not dimmed that view. i didn't know it was a cover of a 70's soul tune (by the detroit spinners) then, but although i've since heard that i still think it's a big improvement on the original. if you can, then listen to the 12" version with its old-fashioned hammond organ solo (that surprisingly works amongst all the synthetic sounds). visually terri is certainly an improvement on last week's female dance act, but like similar predessessors still suffers somewhat from being alone on the stage. but at least the director helps her out a bit - not just with some close-ups, but also a zoom-out shot of a dude in the audience with a magnificent cockatoo-style mullet!
pointer sisters: another electro-tinged dance number, and although i don't think of it quite as highly as the terri wells track it's still a goodie. presumably the video has the same shot of them just swaying about all the way through? in which case i can see why they wanted to fill up the screen with something else, although the freddie mercury wannabees waving fans around about wouldn't have been my choice
jeffrey osborne: the third post-disco/dance tune on the show (in this case from a guy who was previously in not-that-good-in-my-view 70's soul/disco act LTD), which must be some kind of record. if i heard this in a club, i would probably think it okay if not in the same league as those that preceded it. but listening for second time now, it's beginning to grow on me. does anyone remember barack obama dropping a clanger a while back by referring to the ex-cuntservative minister george osborne as "jeffrey"?
Yes, you could say this this 'mutton-dressed-as lamb was a bit like Toto Coelo and Natasha's Iko Iko in 1982, but the mutton on this occasion looked quite tasty.
Deleteit looked a bit on the tough side to me!
Deletein case anyone looking here likes the terri wells track, i'll grab the chance to recommend this equally-good one from the same album:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V9hVlzT-WE
Nice to get a run of shows on BBC4 without gaps….
ReplyDeleteBelle and the Devotions – Love Games – Not so sure about these outfits as I much preferred the mini skirts of a couple of weeks ago as does everyone else I see! But the song still sounds great in a very 60s way.
Queen – I want to break free – What more is there to say about this superb song and iconic video? Nice to see practically the whole thing shown this time.
Flying Pickets – When you’re young and in love – “So how can we look even more silly than we did in the snowmen outfits?”. “I know, let’s wear our jim-jams”. Marvelettesous….
Bob Marley – One Love – Next…
Terri Wells – I’ll be around – Next…
Pointer Sisters – Automatic – Again the video is show in snatches (actually, I cannot find a complete showing on YT at all). In the middle we get one of the Autons from the Dr Who stories ‘Spearhead from Space’, ‘Terror of the Autons’ and more recently, ‘Rose’. The dance is quite jerky really and there’s no sign of that destructive wrist gun. Oh yes, the song’s great.
Billy Joel – The longest time – Ah no, not enough time to squeeze Billy in again…..
Duran Duran – The Reflex – This also topped the US charts shortly afterwards and is staying rooted to the spot here.
Jeffrey Osbourne – Stay with me tonight – If you look closely as Peel and Jensen as they introduce this you can see a girl in-between them with a red necklace whose surname is also Osbourne and, as I have mentioned before, was in my class in infants school. I haven’t seen here on the show for some months now, but it’s clearly her shown a few times on the left of the screen enjoying dancing to Jeffrey’s excellent single which gets faded just at the guitar solo. Jeffrey of course would continue flying high with his next single….
Porridge – New Faces, Old Hands – I remember well watching this episode on it first showing in the early 70s and still have the ‘Radio Times’ cover in my scrapbook showing Ronnie Barker’s face in photo fit. Timeless comedy
Interesting to hear that you kept scrapbooks of your fave TV shows as a kid. So did I including Blue Peter, Fawlty Towers and Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.
DeleteAnd the Osbourne girl you mention, is she famous then?
The Yesterday channel on Freeview and Sky has just started showing the Some Mothers Do Ave Em comedies, where they showed the first three episodes ever, only a couple of weeks ago!
Delete...if you do a google search on 'Sandy Borne' she pops up. That's my claim to fame anyway!
DeleteI've got 'Blue Peter' cuttings in my scrapbook too along with numerous Dr Who stuff....and also some pictures of Michael Crawford in 'Some Mothers do 'ave 'em'. I stopped in 1975 unfortunately.
in the early 80's i collected as many cuttings from the weekly music papers as i could afford to get my hands on about the new romantic scene, and kept them in an old-fashioned binder. i owned it for well over 10 years despite several moves in that time, but after being forced to severely downsize i had to ditch a lot of my possessions, and so gave it to a guy who i had recently played in a "romo" (new romantic revival) band with. of course i wish i hadn't done so now!
DeleteSct353, regarding your comment on not being able to find the Pointer Sisters video on Utube, my version of Utube hs the whole video in mint condition with very crisp sound, that I couldn't help but start dancing - "no way to control it, it's totally automatic...."
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkLJqySu90Q
Ah yes, thanks Dory, got it now. Great stuff.
DeleteSct353, actually your gorgeous ex-classmate Sandy has been on a few times recently...if you watch the 19th April episode she was featured very prominently dancing to Nik Kershaw's Dancing Girls and throughout the rest of the episode wearing some very fetching shorts (https://www.4shared.com/video/-bWhbJbGca/TOTP_1984-04-19__restoration_.html) as well as looking absolutely gorgeous dancing to Galaxy on the 8th March episode (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIWGKAz5lU4).
DeleteHope that helps :)
A shame given that this is the penultimate Rhythm Pals show that there is so much that we've seen before. Of the stuff we haven't...
ReplyDeleteTerri Wells - No recollection of this whatsoever though it's OK I guess. I too admired her hair sculpture.
Pointer Sisters - Hilariously bad attempt to liven the video up. I remember it appearing on 'Never Mind The Buzzcocks' where they muted TOTP clips and you had to guess the song. I was very suspicious that they had no trouble getting it right but seeing this in context now, I can see how it would stick in the memory!
Jeffrey Osborne - Surprisingly given how much I hate his bigger hit, I found this one quite enjoyable.
Of the rest, let me just say that I do wonder whether Belle & The Devotions, slight though the song is, would have done better had they gone anywhere near an actual stylist. They look absolutely hideous.
Good Lord, I just noticed that there's no TOTP at all this coming week on BBC4. You could almost call it our summer break. Which means that the following week on the Bank Holiday weekend, there will be 4 episodes to blog, cos the two episodes sandwiched in between the Thursday and Friday airings, will be those with Mike Smith and DLT in them.
ReplyDeleteBut at least at the end of this month we will have cleaned up on all the No. 1's before the arrival of the huge 'summer No.1 of 1984' with a staggering 9 weeks there between mid-June to Mid-August '84, which will be the main focus of the Sep 2017 blog no doubt!
Yawn.... I'm dreading those 9 weeks! Hope there are lots of editions in that run that won't be shown on BBC4 to hurry things along! George - your 'Careless Whisper' will be eagerly anticipated by me!
DeleteThere will only be 3 episodes to blog that week, as BBC4 won't be showing a Friday repeat because of the Proms.
DeleteSome respite then John, thanks for the heads up.
Deletesct353, only two of those 9 weeks at No.1 for Two Tribes will be yewtreed episodes, so we're in for the long haul with this one at the top, and pretty much the whole of September 2017 on BBC4 when these June-Aug '84 shows will be dusted off and aired once again.
I think there's just the one episode (on Thursday) next week, Dory.
DeleteIndeed, but I think we will get the two following episodes also next weekend, not from BBC4, but as links to these Yewtreed episodes
DeleteBetter to spread them out across the week, if possible, so as not to exhaust ourselves.
DeleteNot sure if or when I'll be able to watch and critique the recent two editions, but...
ReplyDeletea) This must rank as one of the editions with the lowest viewing to peak position ratio, with the seven non-number ones on the show climbing a further 21 places between them, with over half that number for one song alone.
b) That dancer in the picture sure ain't Cherry Gillespie. Deep sigh.
Regarding those BBC1 programmes, poignant to see mention of the late Richard Beckinsale and his widow Judy Loe in separate shows on the same evening, plus mention of a “sexy domestic” (racy stuff there for the Beeb) and the future arrives with some Ceefax sub-titles!
ReplyDeleteAs for the hosts, where were their costumes this time? The tall one’s David Jensen, so whoever captioned him David Jenson at the end needed a good slap. Nice to see (three quarters of) The Smiths get mentioned in their caption this week, plus we get a photo opportunity for OMD’s drummer Malcolm. Hoorah!
BOOOO! It’s Bell End The Devotions. Actually, HOORAY! for six lovely pins, especially those of Kit Rolfe who’s growing on me. Shame that’s the last we ever see of her.
Surely The Flying Pickets should have covered Roxy Music’s “Pyjamarama” in that garb. Red Stripe obviously wanted to be in Bell End The Devotions with those legs.
A perfunctory cover by Terri Wells, but I dig the dogtooth check top. She flew in from Philadelphia, which reminds me, I saw that film “Philadelphia” and was sorely disappointed. No mention of soft cheese in it at all.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I rarely swear on this blog, but f#ck me, dear dear dear! What a way to signpost The Pointer Sisters’ now non-strobe video, with right hand sister being slow hand with her late start (see what I did there?). We really needed Dee Dee Jackson’s “Automatic Lover” robot for full comic effect. Superb urine extraction by Peelie straight after.
Oh look! 45-year-old baldie fan dancer’s back for the Jeffrey Osborne playout. I know the other culprits were there too, but there was only one show stealer, let’s be honest.
Arthur, I made the Pyjamarama joke about two miles above, but I agree with you about the fan dancers. I am not one their fans as Joan Crawford's daughter once said.
DeleteWas Brucie ever on TOTP? He did release a few records! RIP great man.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Bruce appeared on the show on 8th February 1974 to promote his single 'Didn't he do well' which was backed with 'Life is the name of the Game'.
Deletehttp://www.45cat.com/record/6006285
I am sure the show is wiped.
My favourite bits in the Generation Game was when the contestants had to watch a play (which Bruce was always in) and then take a couple of the roles and ham it up using bits of paper for the lines etc. Absolutely priceless. RIP Bruce.
...and also on 9th October 1975 with 'Sandra', co-written by....wait for it....Barry Manilow!
Deletehttp://www.45cat.com/record/k16614
As a kid my brother and I had an LP of Alice in Wonderland where Bruce played the March Hare and Tommy Cooper was the Mad Hatter - brilliant stuff!
DeleteMore Brucie connections - his daughter was in the vocal group Guys and Dolls and married lead singer Dominic Grant.
Also Saint Etienne's You're In a Bad Way name checks him in the lyrics ("get your kicks watching Bruce on the old Generation Game").
My favourite Guys & Dolls track is 'There's A Whole Lotta Lovin' which got to No.2 in 1975, and Forsyth's daughter plays along Bazaar and Van Day in the group before they went on to form Dollar:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsbSPLKgPP4
don't you mean sings along bazaar and van day in the group? in fact, none of them actually sung on "there's a whole lotta lovin" at all, as it was the work of faceless session singers!
DeleteI actually really like G&D's version of 'You don't have to say you love me'. I wonder if the session 'guys and dolls' sung on that one too?
DeleteYeah Wilberforce, I did mean 'sings' along with Bazaar and Van Day on There's A Whole Lotta Lovin'. sct353's question is interesting, but I would expect that Guys & Dolls must have sung something on their songs, cos there are three couples turning out every time for the group, i.e., 6 people, so it would be a waste if they didn't sing within any of their songs.
DeleteAnyone watch Sounds of the 80s on the BBC Red Button? Belinda Carlisle was the special guest, and she's gone for the windtunnel look of too much cosmetic surgery, it seems. Entertaining to listen to, though, and they played her best solo song Leave a Light On, which was a bonus.
ReplyDeletei haven't watched that but i was prompted to look up a few recent pics of ms carlisle, and i see what you mean. of course she transformed herself from the chubby tomboy go-go of the late 70's into the svelte solo siren of the late 80's with much acclaim, and i suspect is desperate to hang on to that look despite the ravages of time.. even if it means dubious results!
DeleteIn the same weekend that we lost Bruce Forsyth, another big time comedian, Jerry Lewis passed away today at the age of 91.
ReplyDeleteI remember mostly his film The Nutty Professor which was shown decades later and still funny, where he started out as a wimp and through a potion drunk accidentally,he turns into a man that can win any woman over.
Not to be confused with Jerry Lee Lewis, the pop legend, who is still very much with us at the age of 81.