Mike lets his hair down for once
02/08/84 (Simon Bates & Gary Davies)
Black Lace – “Agadoo” (19)
Well come on it is a great way to get a show underway! Their second of three top ten hits, Agadoo was their biggest, peaking at number 2.
Prince – “When Doves Cry” (4) (“Purple Rain” clips)
My oh my, some saucy goings on in this video! But number four was it's chart climax.
The Kane Gang – “The Closest Thing To Heaven” (15)
Went up three more places.
Tina Turner – “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” (5) (video)
Went up a couple more places.
A Flock Of Seagulls – “The More You Live The More You Love” (43)
A change of hair style for what became the band's final top 30 hit, making it to number 26.
Trevor Walters – “Stuck On You” (44)
Covering a Lionel Richie song that was still in the top 40 itself, and then beating it in the charts by reaching number 9, though it was his final top 40 hit.
George Michael – “Careless Whisper” (12) (video)
Going solo here with what was in fact the second single from Wham's forthcoming number one album, Make it Big. It was of course to be the song to replace Two Tribes at number one.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood – “Two Tribes” (1) (rpt from 19/07/84)
Eight weeks now at number one. And still one more to go.
Divine – “You Think You’re A Man” (16) (audience dancing/credits)
At its peak.
Gary with Peri from Dr Ooooooh!
Next up is August 9th.
Several nostalgic songs for me in recent episodes, from Jeffrey Osborne, The Kane Gang, Windjammer, Trevor Walters, Hazell Dean as well as more famous ones like Frankie and George Michael.
ReplyDeleteI bet The Kane Gang tops them all for nostalgia. I disagree with Gary Davies saying this week that for most men the closest thing to heaven is Tina Turner. What does everyone else think?
DeleteThe Closest Thing To Heaven has an inbuilt nostalgia with the sad longing it has, you probably feel nostalgia the very first time you hear it even.
DeleteI didn't like the Tina Turner song at the time, but I do like it now. It's a very smooth American style production, even though, as stated in an earlier thread, it was a British written song. And, no, I don't think I found her that sexy either. Soulful voice though.
In financial terms, Tina was the closest thing to heaven as far as her writers Terry Britten and Graham Lyle were concerned! The song was recorded in Britain, though Missouri-born keyboardist Billy Livsey was among the backing musicians.
DeleteThe Kane Gang had plenty to offer in terms of songwriting and vocal talent - but, like Squeeze, they lacked a sharp image. 'Gun Law' - an edgier, harder platter issued in early '85 - deserved to climb much higher than it did.
Gary Mid-Atlantic correctly predicted that Trevor Walters' reggae remake of 'Stuck On You' would outperform the original in the British hit parade! Trevor, who was undoubtedly the Barry Biggs of the 80s, covered Andrew Gold's 'Never Let Her Slip Away' as a follow-up - but this single would stall at No.73.
You know, when Spitting Image took the piss out of Black Lace they called them "those two wet gits with their girly, curly hair", but as we see, only one of them had girly, curly hair. I still say it's a pity "We're Having a Gangbang" wasn't a hit.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure if Prince recorded a song about that it would be a hit. Apollonia stark raving naked in this revised video, though not the bit that was paused by millions on VHS back in the 80s. According to Simes the Purple One attended the premiere of his movie with an older woman - his mum?
The Kane Gang with a classy slice of pop soul, but they look lost on this big stage, and for some reason Mr Kane has come dressed as Marlon Brando in The Wild One. The song survives the treatment.
Tina Turner, well, Gary's a big fan, huh? Featuring one of those gangs of extras borrowed from a Cannon action movie, I note.
OK, who was disappointed in Mr Flock of Seagulls' hair? He looked like Hazel O'Connor. The song, surprised it made top 30 to be honest, very ordinary. "I Ran... out of ideas."
If there's an equivalent of chicken in a basket for reggae, Trevor's hit would be it. Bit of a cheek, the whole thing, and even more that it did so well.
George Michael with his new video, and it spins a yarn, too. George cheating on his boyf- er, girlfriend! As for the song, at the time I couldn't understand why he was so fun in Wham! and so dull solo. That was the case decades later, sad to say.
Frankie there for the summer, gun and beauty spot performance again. What does "sock it to me biscuits yeah!" actually mean, then?
Divine gets them dancing, overlooking the jiving crowd like Big Brother in 1984. What do you mean it was 1984?
A Flock of Seagulls should have had this one as the lead single off their 84 album, much better.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqMoPCLmVmE
Totally agree with Gary Davies saying that The Kane Gang song was a perfect summer evening sound. I remember when I first heard it, it was in the evening, and as a 16 year old in that summer of '84 it was very meaningful when the song started with those golden words which forever stayed with me: "Here they come, a lonely boy and a lonely girl...they can't say where they're going...."
DeleteAnyone else notice today's confirmation of a six-week run for a BBC1 primetime pop show (with sketches!) on Friday nights? I wonder how many years / months /weeks that will last?
ReplyDeleteThey've given it a really rubbish title, Sounds Like Friday Night, which I doubt will help its chances much. As I have next to no interest in the modern music scene, and even less in most modern comedians, I probably won't bother watching. I believe it is going out at 7.30, so that will probably mean we just get TOTP on Thursdays during its run.
DeleteThank goodness for that, cos I prefer just the one episode of TOTP per week to keep it going as a fun pastime rather than a chore when 2-3 episodes per week are blogged.
DeleteI'm more 6 Music than Radio 1, so I don't know whether it'll play stuff that appeals to me, but it would be good to have a dedicated popular music show back on as an alternative to Later with Jools. I might give the first episode a look. Fingers crossed it's more TOTP and less The Roxy.
DeleteWell, it remains to be seen if this new show is 'The Closest Thing to Top of the Pops' ~ I'm willing to give it a go, anything is better than Fake Britain, or whatever it is that it's replacing!
DeleteIt's not going up against Corrie, is it? Hope they've learned their lesson...
DeleteThe Master Bates and Gazza are our guides this time around, though why Bates seems to think it's noteworthy that Prince should take an older woman to his film premiere is a question probably best left unanswered. Otherwise they both do a decent job, but annoyingly I didn't spot the delectable Nicola Bryant with Gazza - I'll have to look at the show again.
ReplyDeleteYou could not escape Agadoo at the time, and that was particularly the case for me, as this was another one that always got wheeled out at school discos by sadistic teachers who would force us to do all the moves. It was actually a French song in origin, dating back to the early 70s, but it can't be denied that the Black Lace version, for better or worse, gets in your head and stays there. The performance seemed slightly low-key to me, but I guess at this stage the record was not yet all-conquering.
There was a definite air of summer stasis to the charts this week, with a completely unchanged Top 5, which no doubt explains why both Tina and Prince get wheeled out for the third time, the latter admittedly with a slightly revised promo, though we see so little of it I don't know why they bothered. In between The Kane Gang are back in the studio - I find the earnest way the two singers hold their mics quite amusing, as if they were trying desperately to show how much they care.
Great to see the Flock back on the show, though Mike's shaggy mullet is a bit of a disappointment after his earlier tonsorial experimentation - you can also tell here that his hairline is starting to recede. Contrary to THX, I would rank this fine tune as one of my favourites of '84, thanks to its catchy chorus and dramatic guitar, and it should really have been a much bigger hit. There is a good video too, featuring a frozen-looking band on the Giant's Causeway.
The TOTP powers-that-be having resolutely refused to feature the original version of Stuck on You, it's ironic that this plodding reggae cover should get on the show when it isn't even in the Top 40 - perhaps that explains why Trevor ended up doing better than Lionel. A true classic from George next, though to be honest I've probably heard it a bit too often now. I'm not sure why this was put out as a solo track, given it was on the Make it Big album and George even gave Andrew a co-writing credit for it; in the States it was credited to Wham. I remember seeing the video on TOTP at the time, and wondering what all those ropes around George were for - looking at it again now, he appears to be backstage in some kind of theatre or concert hall. Perhaps surprisingly the gun-toting Frankie performance gets another airing, before Divine looms menacingly over the audience from the big screen...
The Prince promo this week was not the official video, i.e., it was clips from the movie which I think the BBC put together. The same happened when Blondie was at No.1 with The Tide Is High in 1980, where TOTP showed their own compilation instead of the official video.
DeleteWhen Careless Whisper finally reached the USA charts, it was named as 'Wham featuring George Michael', so I wonder what George himself preferred?
I think the Prince video was an alternate cut provided by the record company rather than something the BBC put together, I can't imagine the Beeb would have produced something that saucy.
Deletei'm nearly at the end of my marathon stint of reviewing practically every show since they started showing these re-runs (or not!) several years ago. and i have to say that now my self-imposed finishing line is in sight, i'm feeling much more a sense of relief than triumph... especially when i feel obliged to come with something of interest to say when shows are as dull as this one! so all i'm going to muse upon here is: accordingly to wiki george michael claimed that that when he was a mere 16, thanks to his burgeoning popularity as a member of his pre-fame band the executive he was already seeing another woman despite having a girlfriend at the time (and wrote about the experience shortly afterwards). but i wonder if even at such an early age he already had issues with his sexuality, and that his guilt really stemmed from that?
ReplyDeleteCome on, Wilby, dip your toe into '85 with us. I'll miss you for one if you disappear!
Deletearthur thanks for your encouragement, and i am tempted. but then again, just the thought of this album makes me want to stick to my guns!:
Deletehttps://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Greatest-Hits-Of-1985/release/385510
I guess the Opus single is what made the decision for you
Deletedory, opus are certainly one of the guilty parties. but at least they were one-hit wonders rather than the likes of howard jones, nick kershaw and kool & the gang, who continued to churn out vapid and lightweight pop that was fast making me lose interest in the charts at that point. it's not that it's all rubbish by any means (the tracks by bryan ferry, princess and go west are quality in my opinion - even if they are very much of their time), but the dross is already beginning to far outnumber the gems. and amazingly, that album doesn't even contain any of the dreaded (c)rap that came to dominate the charts in the latter half of the 80's!
DeleteSo we should not mention Ghostbusters then?
DeleteDon't mention Ghostbusters to Huey Lewis, at least.
DeleteTHX, it's coming up this very week on these TOTP re-runs, that is Ghostbusters.
DeleteI've probably heard it enough, to be honest, but I love the film and it will be good to hear it in an '84 context. Movie tunes were really getting big that year, weren't they?
DeleteAt the time I hated Opus but when I listen now there is a decent live energy to it. Is it a similar rhythm to Susanna? It's definitely better than The Final Countdown.
DeleteGo West - I couldn't stand We Close Our Eyes. Listening to them now Call Me isn't a bad effort by them.
Never liked the Ghostbusters song, though the synth in the chorus has a distincive 'horror' quivering sound to it.
Princess - never thought much of that, very middle of the road, though it's got a smooth soulful production which probably means more are amenable to it, it still feels simple and throw away to me.
I don't really write any year off now, happy to find music whenever. 85 has nice lesser known songs, the Amazulu song I knew at the time even.
I thought Go West's best single was The King is Dead, so naturally it completely flopped.
Deleteof course 1985 was the year in which all the "royals" managed to get themselves into the top 30 singles chart, veterans queen and newcomer prince being joined by princess and (the absolutely awful) king!
DeleteI like Love and Pride, and also Alone without You.
DeleteIt can be easy to remember things you don't like (for me Dead or Alive and 19 for instance), but it's better to just forget about them and discover the good stuff.
I remember my sister and me finding it hilarious that there was a royal "full house" in the charts at that time. Just needed an emperor and empress as well...
DeleteSome links in this caught my eye. It’s my old school mate Sandy Borne next to Gary (on the left) for the Tina Turner intro and surely that’s Nicola ‘Peri’ Bryant (from Doctor Who) next to Gary for the Trevor Walters intro?
ReplyDeleteBlack Lace – Agadoo – I absolutely hated this at the time. With the benefit of hindsight, it fills a gap and gets reeled out at virtually every children’s party even now, which is more that I can say for ‘Two Tribes’. The audience love it of course.
Prince – When Doves cry – Slightly raunchy video as Angelo notes which gets cut well short. Third airing for this which means someone in the ToTP Production Office really liked Prince.
Kane Gang – Closest thing to heaven – Kane Trio may have been a better band name? Not a bad song.
Flock of Seagulls – More you live the more you love – No more daft haircuts thank goodness, but hey, this is really good! Not heard it before. There’s a nice instrumental break too. Pleasant surprise.
Trevor Walters – Stuck on you – OK, so now I’m totally bamboozled! This is outside the top40 and featured, yet Lionel’s original ‘stuck’ around for a while and never got a sniff. Not even a playout (even Jacko’s vintage effort got that – twice!). So along comes Trevor with his reggae spin on it, hot on the heels of Lionel and, woof! He’s on. OK, so Lionel was never gonna rock up to the studio like Trevor has, but I guess the only other explanation is that there was no official video?
George Michael – Careless Whisper – Class, class, class. This song is everything to me that ‘Two Tribes’ isn’t. A perennial favourite that people often cite as one of their favourites and probably the best song George (and Andrew!) ever wrote. It’s just wonderful. How on earth it *only* came in at number 12 is quite beyond me. Perhaps if it had been issued under the name ‘Wham!’ it would have been straight in at the top and we’d have had two weeks less of….
Frankie – Two Tribes – Nearly there now. I’m not totally anti-Frankie btw. I really liked their next single. A track that really has stood the test of time viz. the 2013 cover by Gabrielle Alpin for the Christmas ad for John Lewis.
Divine – You think you’re a man – Oh please…..FF
So, actually, bar the last two songs, quite a good show.
...sorry Angelo. Just seen the top bit of the blog with the picture and that you've already pointed out Peri!!! That will teach me not to skip to the bottom first. I wonder why she didn't get a mini interview to promote Dr Who?...although admittedly it would not be back until January 1985 with 'Attack of the Cybermen'.
DeleteI like Trevor's version more, it flows better for me, but still expressive enough in the 'midnight train tomorrow' section.
DeleteI'll review this edition later in the weekend with any luck (I watched most of it on t'telly with the 'old girl' about midnight last night), but I liked the snarky way Oo Garry sort of dedicated "You Think You're A Man" to Slimes!
ReplyDeleteGreat start by the end caption mis-spelt Gary Davis – “We’ve got lots of other great music, but first it’s Black Lace”! I watched all this show apart from this showstopping opener (ahem!) with my wife, but this tune was my 1984 girlfriend’s mum’s favourite song. My then girlfriend was much cooler then her mum – she was into Killing Joke and Billy Bragg.
ReplyDeleteA whole 1 minute 22 seconds of the Prince video. Ambassador, you’re spoiling us!
The ‘old girl’ (she’s actually seven years younger than me) said Frankie Abbott in The Kane Gang was wearing awful jeans. Lead singer Martin Brammer (who’s from the seaside town of Seaham in County Durham and not Newcastle) appears to have been follically challenged as guessed.
My Bosnian wife remembered the Flock of Seagulls song more than me. It seems to have been played a lot on Balkan radio. Slimes gabbled away incoherent afterwards about their guitarist being half blind. Nice.
Trevor Walters should have covered a recent Billy Joel hit for complete pisstake effect.
And we end with a housewife classic (yawn), a very static number one (yawn), and Slimes’s fave. Three times FF at the end for me.
Ben from Curiosity Killed the Cat wore a hat all the time but wasn't bald, so it doesn't always apply. Bet he had terrible hat hair, though.
DeleteIncidentally, Martin Brammer on a recent Sounds of the 80s interview said he had produced and written for Olly Murs. You think you can trust someone and then...
arthur you've given me a chance to plug this most appropriately-titled killing joke track (that i i think came to my notice via this live performance on "the tube"):
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SeYlZdVVHA
thx you are right that over-use of titfer doesn't necessary equate to loss of barnet, but even nowadays the trouble is if any guy constantly wears a hat when there's no need (i.e. it's not raining or too sunny) then i can't help but think they've literally got something to hide?
by the way: mention of ben curiosity reminds me of that charidee single (another reason i'll be stopping reviewing on this blog shortly) where he appears on the sleeve with the likes of boy george and macca who are still instantly recognisable, whereas most today would probably look at it and ask "who the fuck is that guy?":
https://www.discogs.com/Ferry-Aid-Let-It-Be/release/1109963
To be fair, Curiosity didn't exactly have an enduring career!
Deletei was just making a point of the fickleness of fame. by the way, i was curious (ho ho) to see if the guy still has hair these days, and the answer is a resounding no, although he's not afraid to hide that fact under a hat (or a syrup a la reg):
Deletehttps://img.discogs.com/sLRxI70hSIUFE0b5-zXXCSN5mI8=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/A-1926843-1283116140.jpeg.jpg
What about The Kane Gang's lead singer, has he got new hair like Elton did, so that he can take the cap off and have nothing to hide under there?
Delete...so mr curiosity was not only a case of "here today, gone tomorrow", but also "hair today, gone tomorrow" - arf! arf!
Deletedory i don't know if the singer has got himself a syrup like reg has, but hopefully not as that's an even more obvious way to advertise you're a slaphead than if you wore a hat!
A quick Google reveals Mr Kane Gang is now bald as a cueball. He's gone for the scorched earth policy and got rid of the lot.
DeleteSo the cap is finally off? Yeah!
DeleteI found this superb interview of Martin Brammer in 2015 flirting with Sara Cox who seemed to love the charm, lucky fella:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN72dpuKGaM
Suffice to say that at 5 minutes into the interview, Brammer explains the single Closest Thing To Heaven, and makes interesting listening.
DeleteI wonder whatever happened to the nice Gary Davis?
DeleteGary went into music management after his radio career, and very successfully too. He's been popping up on the radio recently for the Radio 1 Golden Anniversary.
DeleteI didn't notice Peri either, maybe she should have given us a quick chorus of Doctor in Distress while she was there?
ReplyDeleteShe'd have had to time travel for real since the show hadn't been cancelled at that point so Ian Levine's 'masterpiece' hadn't been released on an unsuspecting world...
DeleteOh dear, how sad, what a terrible shame.
DeleteInteresting to see Wiggy Wogan was (probably as expected) named greatest BBC radio presenter of the last 50 years in an industry poll, with John Peel coming second, no less. Annie Nightingale was 4th, Kenny Everett came 6th, Danny Baker was 15th, and the only other TOTP presenter in the top 20 was Tony Blackburn who was in the sensational 20th place. No sign at all (quite rightly) of the BBC’s highest paid and most egotistical employee.
ReplyDeletewho was that then, arthur?
DeleteAs far as I'm concerned, that ginger bloke who took over from Wiggy in the mornings.
DeleteI always thought that cocky ginger bloke was far too overrated for being the BBC's highest paid person
DeleteHe is very Marmite, but those who love him really love him, and vice versa. Can't please everyone, I suppose. I still remember him being horrible on Radio 1 back in the 90s, and can't listen to him now, but if he's cleaned up his act, fair enough.
Deleteoh, you mean that cunt chris evans? who by the way i cannot make reference to without those two words preceding his name. and i genuinely thought you were referring to mr now then!
Deletewith regard to these overpaid bastards doing things that certainly anybody on this forum alone could do equally well if not better (if they're not doing so already), as i don't pay for a tv licence i'm really pleased to say that i'm not giving a penny towards their outrageously astronomical salaries!!
I don't think they'd let you on the radio if you turn the air blue, Wilberforce!
DeleteTrust me when I say that although it may appear the easiest thing in the world to be a radio presenter, it really isn't. There is a skill and an art to it and it took me a LONG time to get even an overnight show on the wireless.
DeleteThat said wilberforce, I totally agree with you about Chris Evans. He WAS good, up until about 1996 when colossal ego took over.
i presented a two hour radio show once a month (then later once a fortnight) for a few months about 15 years back - once you got used to managing the technical side of it, there wasn't a lot to it in my opinion other than good preparation beforehand. the only real problem i had was that it was on a community station, but because it was really badly promoted (which was nothing to do with me) as far as i could tell hardly any of the community was actually listening - which was why i packed it in in the end!
Deleteif anyone's interested, my broadcasts are available on the internet...
RIP Tony Booth, I don't think he released any singles, but he did play the most typical manager imaginable in what must have been the most accurate depiction of the 1970s music scene on film. No, not Slade in Flame: Confessions of a Pop Performer.
ReplyDeleteYeah...never did track down that 'Kipper' single! Nice little cameo performance from Sally Harrison who played the Record Shop assistant.
DeleteWas Tony Booth's character named "Randy Scouse Git" in "Till Death Us Do Part" after The Monkees' track of the same name, or was it vice versa?
DeleteMickey Dolenz was in London, saw the programme, and liked the phrase. Renamed 'Alternate Title' in the Uk
DeleteBlack Lace - Weird to see them on an almost empty stage, though the appearance that alwasy gets repeated can't be far off. Although it's annoying as hell, I am actually quite glad that I got to perform it on stage with (half of) them on stage in Carlisle in the pissing rain in 1998 when they had re-recorded it as it was in ad advert.
ReplyDeleteA Flock Of Seagulls - I love most of their singles, and this is one of the best I reckon. They definitely don't fit in as comfortably with mid-80s fashions and looks though, do they?
Trevor Walters - Bloody awful.
George Michael - If you think this is a bog standard ballad, try and sing it. I did, and then realised that it actually has a complex song structure. That said, it's never been a favourite of mine, I much prefer 'A Different Corner'.
I hated Black Lace with a vengeance back then and in the record shop I worked in we sold bucket loads of this. Now it doesn't seem so bad but I would never buy it. And the duo's image was always a bit off-putting.
ReplyDeleteNot the Prince video? I think you'll find it was albeit about half of it.
The Kane Gang return with another good performance but it would have ben nice to see the video.
That Tina Turner video AGAIN. I liked the song but I'm getting sick of the video now.
A Flock Of Seagulls or is it Creme Brulee from The League Of Gentlemen? Quite liked this at the time but hated the band's image, all recedeing hairlines backcombed to death and pleated clothing.
Haven't seen a reggae cover in the charts for some time. Trevor looks like a black Jeff Lynne. This is a fair version of the Lionel Richie song and it's nice that Trev bought his band with him.
George Michael with the vid we have seen countless times. I was never sure what George was going to do with those ropes, it always reminded me of PE lessons at school where our sadistic teacher tried to get us to climb up them.
In the Top 10 no less than 6 records are in the same place as last week including the whole Top 5. Phew!
I skipped Frankie this time, there's only so many times you can hear Two Tribes
End with just a snatch of Divine which is enough to satisfy anyone!
Those of a nervous disposition please look away now...
ReplyDeleteI think you'll find Divine didn't have a snatch. Boom boom tish!