Black Lace won't go hungry at snack time
16/08/84 (Andy Peebles & Steve Wright)
Tears For Fears – “Mothers Talk” (38)
Roland gets his first outing as lead singer with this first single from their number 2 album, Songs From the Big Chair. Mother's Talk peaked at number 14.
Howard Jones – “Like To Get To Know You Well” (10) (video)
Wandering around the streets is Howard getting to know everyone well, and his fourth of six top ten hits peaked at number 4.
Black Lace – “Agadoo” (2)
They've brought their own giant sized fruit with them this week, but not a pineapple in sight! And number 2 was as good as it got.
Iron Maiden – “2 Minutes To Midnight” (27) (video)
Is it Halloween yet? Usual scary sounding song from Iron Maiden and it peaked at number 11.
Jonathan King – US chart rundown: edited out.
The Jacksons – “Human Nature” (live clip + interview)
Bruce Springsteen – “Dancing In The Dark” (video clip)
Dan Hartman – “I Can Dream About You” (video clip)
Ray Parker Jr – “Ghostbusters” (video clip)
A Flock Of Seagulls – “The More You Live The More You Love” (29)
A second studio performance for this song which went up three more places.
Trevor Walters – “Stuck On You” (15)
And a second performance from Trevor on his way to number 9.
George Michael – “Careless Whisper” (1) (video)
After nine weeks, a new number one! The first of three weeks at the top for George.
The Pointer Sisters – “I Need You” (34) (audience dancing/credits)
Reached number 25.
Tonight's vintage #TOTP was first broadcast on 16 August 1984, when your Thursday night entertainment looked like this... pic.twitter.com/JgPETF2CCb— BBC Four (@BBCFOUR) September 29, 2017
Tonight on BBC1
Tears For Fears - as Angelo rightly points out, Roland Orzabal took over as lead singer at this point in theTFF career, but I must admit that Kurt had the better voice, so this move to put Roland as front man was not favoured by me, but their chart positions did not seem to be affected by this sea of change. With regard to Mothers Talk, it is was not their best offering by any stretch of the imagination, and their last hit Pale Shelter in 1983 was much better.
ReplyDeleteBlack Lace - highlight of the show for me at No.2 already in the charts, and a natural beach-style follow up to last week's Sunglasses by Tracey Ullman, but this time the prop was the dancing fruit. This studio performance reminded me of It's A Knockout, and was waiting for the fruit to tumble to the floor. Nice touch to make it carnival style with the exotic dancers in the mix on that overloaded stage among the fruit. no-one could really go hungry that day, could they?
The Pointer Sisters - taking their customary playout slot, as I don't think there was a video for this one, and with the likes of Legs & Co and Zoo now out of commission, the playout slot was the natural frontrunner for the Sisters to see us out this week. Some risqué upskirt opportunities from the BBC cameraman, but could you blame him with the array of lovelies in the studio audience this week?
I agree that Pale Shelter was a much better song than Mothers Talk, but their previous hit was actually The Way You Are at the end of 1983.
DeleteTears for Fears, not one of their best known tunes but I did recognise it, a little repetitive but better than their last effort as a single. Never mind that, I was distracted by the girl at the left in pink slacks who was dancing completely out of time with everyone else.
ReplyDeleteHoward presses the flesh with the starstruck denizens of London, accompanied by a small, mobile carnival. Funnily enough, the song lyrics suggest intimacy of a different kind, but according to the video he was simply being friendly to all and sundry. Not a bad ditty, but rather light on urgency.
Black Lace, I don't use the word masterpiece lightly and I'm not going to use it here. I know, probably sounds better in a club. Not one pineapple to be seen.
Iron Maiden, not too bad for them but you really have to be initiated into the metal fraternity to get the appeal. I never was, but guys at my school were. Is this another nuclear war song from the 80s?
Has Mr Flock brought his dad along to drum for him this time? What's with the teddy bear in the pocket? Two unanswered questions for a song I was hoping would grow on me on second listen, but it's still just OK at best.
Trev has ditched his band for some reason. First time I've noticed he has a piratical gold tooth, arr. Nice enough voice, but an insipid record.
We get more or less the whole George Michael video this time. I suppose it was the sax that made it, touch o' class.
Don't recall this Pointer Sisters one, not much of a chorus, maybe that's why it wasn't as immediate as their previous two hits.
If by Mr Flock you mean Mike Score, then you aren't far off - the drummer was his brother...
Deletethx you deserve a medal for spotting the young lady in pink slacks behind tff - the finest example of not having a clue how to dance since the girl in the sailor suit back in the late 70's!
DeleteYeah, she was hopeless, wasn't she? Oh well, God loves a trier!
DeleteGood to see that great Latino pop band Dr Beat in the charts with their classic song Miami Sound Machine.
ReplyDeleteThe usual caption writer really did have a long Summer holiday based on the evidence we've seen, didn't they?
DeletePoor old Andy Peebles finds himself lumbered once again with Wrighty, which perhaps explains why he mangles a couple of the song titles during the show. They try hard to make out that they have a good chemistry, but it is not convincing.
ReplyDeleteI am very familiar with this TFF track from the Tears Roll Down compilation, but it is not a favourite of mine, and in retrospect it seems a very strange first choice of single from Songs From the Big Chair, bearing in mind the monster (and far better) hits that were still to come off the album. Roland's bouffant mullet was by now fully developed, but that and the lack of a mic or a guitar for him to hold makes him look like a bit of a lemon. I remember this Howard Jones video very well from the time - even then I thought he was very annoying in it, with his perma-grin and United Nations t-shirt as he bothers the various bystanders. The song itself is pretty weak really, a mildly catchy chorus its only saving grace. A few years ago I saw an hilarious clip of him doing this on a live show (possibly sourced from one of the Noel Edmonds Christmas Day extravaganzas), where he was wandering around a hospital miming to the song while serenading various patients, whose health was probably not improved by the experience. It has to be seen to believed...
Oh no, Black Lace are back with the Munch Bunch and a couple of Carmen Miranda wannabes. In fairness, this performance is a lot more memorable than Iron Maiden's bog-standard, formulaic hard rock and equally predictable video - their huge popularity really does baffle me. Good to see the Flock back in the studio with this excellent tune, complete with lashings of dry ice; not so good to have Trevor back again with his tedious Lionel cover.
I don't remember this Pointer Sisters track at all, Ruth's trademark deep vocals being the only thing about it that stands out. Duncan Norvelle is centre stage again, dancing along with a female partner - I also notice that BBC4 didn't cut out the directorial credit for the JK section, even though they didn't show it...
The full show is available now, courtesy of Neil B:
ReplyDeletehttps://wetransfer.com/downloads/49bdfe9189700a594b9984f7eb36cd4520170929195056/2dfc18
It's slightly poignant seeing The Jacksons playing a big stadium here, as just a few years back the surviving brothers had been reduced to performing in places like Douglas in the Isle of Man (I saw them paying a visit to the Manx parliament while I was attending a conference there). Not sure why Human Nature was never released as a single in the UK, as for me it is one of the best songs on Thriller. The other tunes featured here would all feature properly on TOTP in due course, though in the case of the Dan Hartman track it would take another year. We get our first glimpse here of the famous Dancing in the Dark video, but not of Courteney Cox as yet.
The Jacksons are not the only veteran recording act no longer able to secure bookings at stadia, arenas or larger concert halls.
DeleteNot too long ago, The Human League performed at Liverpool's Clarence Dock - the concert having been advertised not at a railway station, but in my local fish & chip shop! Staying in the 'Pool, Howard Jones - another act featured in this week's repeat - was the main attraction at a nightclub in the city centre recently. He'll be touring the 02 circuit later this autumn, supported by Canadian one-hit wonders Men Without Hats!
Meanwhile, Graham Lyle - co-writer of Tina Turner's comeback smash - has performed mainly at hotels and smaller theatres, as well as a few outdoor festivals, since reuniting with Benny Gallagher in 2010. However, given that G&L, talented though they are, were not as popular as The League or Howard Jones - and certainly nowhere near as big as The Jacksons - that's hardly a step down the ladder for the duo. Indeed, in view of the singer-songwriters' lengthy separation, it is a step back UP. I hear they're working on a second stage musical, following the success of 'Caledonia USA' in Largs last year.
As JK says, the Dan Hartman hit called I Can Dream About You comes from the new movie Streets Of Fire. I remember this movie coming out here in the UK shortly after, with two songs by Jim Steinman (yes he's back on this blog again) including the the monster title hit "Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young", and "Nowhere Fast" which was done by Meat Loaf for his new album at around this time called Bad Attitude, so Steinman was back in full force in 1984 you could say.
DeleteHere's the trailer video for Streets Of Fire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eln48BCELk
Suffice to say, I do have the Streets Of Fire soundtrack album with these brilliant hits, including one by Marilyn Martin called 'Sorcerer', and Maria Mckee called 'Never Be You'. Of course these two female artists were not yet on our shoes until 1985 where Marilyn Martin famously dueted with Phil Collins for the brilliant ballad Separate Lives which we will see in the next few months on these TOTP reruns.
I much much prefer a Japanese version of "Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young" from 1986
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnvn0bNQXMw
Good Lord Starry, you've gone up in my estimation with this posting. How did you find this version? It's still not as captivating as the original version by Fire Inc. from the Streets Of Fire movie, but well done for sourcing it.
Deletegiven that wacko himself sang lead on most if not all the recordings credited to the jacksons (and those of the jackson 5 for that matter), why would anybody in their right mind waste good money seeing the rest of them perform?
DeleteThat 'Tonight is what it means to be young' from 'Streets of Fire' is just fantastic! Never heard it before but unmistakeable Steinman.
DeleteI discovered that version in the early 2000s, as soon as I got on the internet I was researching for foreign chart information to discover more music. Of course lots of this is now on youtube anyway.
DeleteI do like that version I posted more as I think there's more power to the vocal and arrangement. Though that video is a live performance (they rarely mimed in Japan), the studio version sounds even more powerful and assured. As with any cover it may take some adjustment if used to the original. But I think I actually found that version first and later found out it was a cover.
Sct353, if you like that song, I would recommend watching the film Streets Of Fire and buying the soundtrack album for all its songs. The film captures not only the two epic Steinman songs in it including the main tune Tonight Is What It Means To be Young, but it also it also gives a snapshot of 80s hero defeats villain to get the girl, and captures some 50s Rock 'n' Roll themes with the The Blasters who were the group in the JK slot singing Dan Hartman's hit I can Dream About You.
DeleteIt is one of my favourite films of all time, and should appeal to most people on this blog celebrating the 80s and the TOTP reruns, because it captures the 'retro' concept to perfection. Steinmsan's epic contribution was just the cherry on top.
This might be an apposite moment to mention the soundtrack to the Bat Out Of Hell Musical comes out on October 13th...
DeletePleased to say that I went to see the musical at The London Colosseum in early August, a couple of weeks before the end of its London run, and there were lots of fine tunes from Steinman and Meat Loaf, but with a cast of youngsters from a different generation doing the singing and dancing, but who have obviously been tutored on the Steinman work across Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Celine Dion, Air Supply and lots of other acts he could write for.
DeleteI think the two songs he did for the Streets of Fire soundtrack (mentioned by JK this week on TOTP for the Dan Hartman single) may have also been in the Bat musical, but there were so many songs, that I cannot be entirely sure.
hosts: not surprisingly andy peebles takes care of the more credible stuff (tears for fears) whilst wrighty handles the fluff (black lace). that respect they are well-suited to cover all the bases, unlike some pairings that are two peas from the same pod
ReplyDeletetears for fears, the first fruit of their labours for their upcoming "songs from the big chair" album which was by-and-large a masterpiece of its time. however this isn't one of the better songs on it, as it's a bit of curate's egg with some unwieldy sections that don't seem to fit with the rest. as angelo notes the modest roland was now coming to the fore and making himself the focal point of the act, both as main songwriter and lead singer. with regard to the latter it's obvious his voice is far stronger than curt's, although at times it does get a bit overbearing - as demonstrated here. on the follicle front there are alarming signs of roland's "judge" haircut emerging, but at least curt has now finally got rid of those silly rats tails
howard jones: just as i was thinking there was pop life after 1985 with the tff album, along comes this plodder to remind me that there really wasn't that much of it. peebles desribes him as a "young man", but he was already pushing 30 at this point (and looked it with thinning locks that a trendy plantpot hairstyle couldn't hide) which made him a positive methusalah in 80's pop terms. i am sure it won't surprise readers that this cod-reggae does not make me any more inclined to reciprocate howard's plea than his previous insipid rubbish did
black lace: why has the singer brought limahl's air guitar-playing dad along?
maiden: going all 80's synth metal on us, in the way that the "comic strip" HM parody band bad news was never allowed to do thanks to neanderthal guitarist den's insistence that they stick to the basics (we're just playing metal, right? metal! METAL!!"). of course i'm being facetious, as i suspect the never-changing maiden were the main inspiration for adrian edmundson's satire. this actually starts off in fine dandruff-dispensing fashion, before sadly going into a half-time beat which dissipates all the energy previously built up
a flock of seagulls: all the latest musical instrument technology (simmons kit, steinberg bass) can't mask just how dull and plodding this is (even on a second listen). the only thing that makes it even half-listenable are the delay-drenched guitar stylings that somewhat bizarrely remind me of pink floyd's "run like hell"! the barnets are inevitably of far more interest than the music, but although someone pointed out that mike score's tresses are starting to follow brother ali's down the plughole, he's got a way to go yet to catch up with the the bassist
trevor walters: yet another reggae-on-autopilot cash-in cover hot on the heels of a recent hit (although in lionel's case it wasn't that much of one) that's pleasant enough but nothing to get excited about. not having heard the original for decades i gave it a listen on yt, and was surprised at just how country-sounding it was - even by his selling-out standards!
pointer sisters: i never realised this was the follow-up to "jump" and certainly have no recall of it. it starts off well (reminding me of john waites' "missing you"), but although it doesn't quite hold my interest i can see it would have sounded great as pleasant daytime radio fodder. so (assuming it did get plenty of airplay) i'm surprised it didn't get a bit higher in the charts
There seems to be no video for this Pointer Sisters track, or even any footage from 1984 of them singing it. The only thing I could find was this 1988 live version by them, and wearing ball gowns. Never mind Ruth in blue, but I prefer the one in red with the shortest of the three dresses among the sisters:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04DsiU0czzc
Wrighty and Andy at the helm here and it’s a pretty good show once again, barring a few aberrations.
ReplyDeleteTears for Fears – Mothers Talk – Ok, try to see it my way….this was the first single off the ‘Songs from the Big Chair’ album…and the worst! (agree with John G). Having said that, a big improvement on ‘The way you are’. Chicago made a similar goof releasing the awful ‘Stay the Night’ first off the ‘17’ album and holding back the excellent ‘Hard Habit to Break’ at around this time too.
Howard Jones – Like to get to know you well – Ok, so I was dreading this, but the video (which I haven’t seen before) is great with all those famous London landmarks that I know so well and some iconic brand names that have vanished from the High Street. A number 9 Routemaster also features! There’s a nice sense of joie de vivre too, some of those folks must be thinking, ‘who on earth is this guy with the strange haircut shaking my hand’!
Black Lace – Agadoo – A nice gentle song indeed. Very fruity too! Tailor made for the Hurll era ToTP.
Iron Maiden – 2 Minutes to Midnight – Hmmm. Heavy Metal seemed to have taken a dive recently. Not much of a tune in this one really.
JK slot – Thanks Neil B again. ‘Human Nature’ – a great Dr Who story! Co-written by Steve Porcaro from Toto and Richard Carpenter’s song writing partner John Bettis. This would be where ’Dancing in the Dark’ got its UK push from whilst Dan Hartman would have to wait another year to chart with ‘I can dream about you’ which I don’t recall at all. Finally Ray Parker Jnr really did hit the nail on the head with the irresistible ‘Ghostbusters’ theme which you couldn’t escape in late 1984.
Flock of Seagulls – The more you live – This is a ‘lost’ gem. Really like this; even more so than their biggie ‘Wishing’. Just a great song and nice performance too.
Trevor Walters – Stuck on you – Lionel is still in the top40 and second time out for this feeble cover saw me reach for FF.
George Michael – Careless Whisper – At last!! A decent no1. What a great song and the whole video too. I recall being so relieved in 1984 when I saw the new chart that week. In the US this was released under ‘Wham featuring George Michael’ in early 1985 where it similarly topped their charts. George was quoted as saying that it was “off tangent with the rest of what we’d (Wham) been doing and that is why it was a solo single. It was put on the album to show that there was no question of a split and also because it was going to sell the record”.
Pointer Sisters – I need you – Following up ‘Automatic’ and ‘Jump’ was always going to be a big ask. Nice one to dance out to however and comparing to Neil’s original broadcast we can clearly see that more was recorded than broadcast.
Thank goodness we didn’t get to suffer ‘Dr Beat’ on this edition; one of my least favourite hits of 1984 – I did laugh when the chart caption appeared!
Indeed there was more footage of the playout on BBC4 this week than was originally broadcast in 1984, thanks to the original broadcast furnished by Neil B. However, BBC4 seemed to still cut it short of the full performance when the studio audience podium dancer's yellow miniskirt was so short that her white nickers kept showing, otherwise we could have got a lot more of the dancing. Pity that, cos this lesser known Pointer Sisters track was quite good for a lazy Sunday morning lie-in I thought.
DeleteAnother one I get to watch, thanks to John G and Neil B.
ReplyDeleteIt's the presenters who caught my attention this time. Steve Wright is still trying to be Kenny Everett (and failing) while Andy Peebles (entrusted with the entire chart rundown, which he does do rather well) does that common '1980s TOTP presenter' thing of obscuring his mouth with the mic windshield - what's that all about?
There seems to be a running joke with the No.28 chart position - or is it merely coincidence?
Peel had a habit of pretend ignorance when the opportunity arose. Look out for "mistakes" with Alphaville and Russ Abbott as we go deeper into the eighties.
ReplyDeleteA real ‘meh’ edition which I can’t find much to say about, made even worse by the appearance of that bloody nodding dog Wright.
ReplyDeleteTears For Fears – big, bombastic and boring part 1.
What on Earth was that top Howard Jones was wearing? Obviously not a Brexit fan. Showing my age – I noticed the top had the old South African flag on it. Did Howard get pushed from behind at one stage?
Great balloon shot into Wrighty’s mush before Black Lace. I do hope The Man From Del Monte said no to “Agadoo”.
Weird to hear soul lover Andy enthuse some heavy metal on the show. Sadly it was big, bombastic and boring part 2, with a ‘treble B’ part 3 provided by those pesky Seagulls.
Trevor Walters was okayish but I much preferred his other hit “Love Me Tonight”.
“Andrew Ridgeley’s going to be jealous about that!” – well, he got half the songwriting credit, Andy, so he won’t be too displeased. Besides, we’ve got his own wonderful solo career to look forward to. Erm...
Nice to see that lazy Pointer Sister’s standing up in their new mugshot – sadly, we won’t see it much due to this middling effort. Ho hum indeed.
Good Lord, I see next weekend there will be four shows to blog, cos the first and third will be shown by BBC4, but the 2nd and 4th will not be shown.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone got the 30th Aug and 13th Sep shows, cos Depeche Mode are unlucky to have been on both Yewtreed shows, and we will not see their Master & Servant at all on the BBC4 TOTP reruns!
On the rock side of things I definitely think Tears for Fears beat Iron Maiden here. 2 Minutes to Midnight doesn't have a great chorus hook, whereas Mother's Talk has an interesting contrast between the sad and angrier sections. It goes on too long for me maybe it needed an interesting break in the middle, but it's not bad.
ReplyDeletethere was actually a remix of "mother talk" produced for the american market - i've had another listen to it, and i can't say if it's better or worse than the original mix of what still sounds rather a rather weedy song despite all the bluster of the singing and arrangement. and i forgot to mention in my review: is this the first hearing of the synth-triggered "orchestral stab" patch that became the vogue for a year or two around this time?
Deletealso: apparently it's yet another dig by pop stars at the cold war stand-off that was in force at the time ("when the wind blows" was of course the title of the satirical post-apocalyptic graphic novel by raymond briggs that had been produced a year or two earlier)
The notes of the 'Songs from the Big Chair' remaster edition observe that "...phenomenal success was preceded and possibly even brought about by a bad patch for the duo. Two singles 'The way you are' and 'Mother's Talk' had fared relatively poorly in the charts....Smith later revealed that he enjoyed recording neither song and that both he and Orzabal realised that something was wrong...".
DeleteSo it's not just us!
Songs From The Big Chair was one of the most successful albums of the 80s, but not mentioned in the same breath as other albums of the era like Thriller, Brothers In Arms, etc. It was Tears For Fears at their very best, and peak, with this first release Mothers Talk as a taster, but better was to come with Shout, Everybody Want To Rule The World, and Head Over Heels through the 1984/85 period.
DeleteSuffice to say that TFF will be performing a one-off concert at The Royal Albert Hall later this month on 27th October, called Rule The World, and I must admit that I'm very tempted to buy a ticket.
Let's not forget that a clever piece of dubbing morphed 'Everbody wants to Rule the World' into 'Everybody wants to Run the World'. This was the signature tune for Sports Aid and the 'Race for Life' in May 1986. It returned the song to the top10 a year or so after it was an original hit.
DeleteAs usual, restored BBC4HD version of 16/08/84 with JK segment addded back from Neil Bs upload:
ReplyDeleteTOTP 16/08/1984
Full list of restorations:
https://drykid.github.io
Good stuff drykid. But you're missing 25th September 1980
DeleteThanks, didn't even realise there was an edit with 25/9/80, or maybe I did and since forgot.
DeleteAnyway would be happy to add that one, but I see the dropbox link to the complete version that someone posted at the time of BBC4 stopped working long ago. So I would be dependent on someone re-uploading it.
The same goes for several eps recently e.g. 19/7/84 where there the final link was edited. I'd love to do restored versions of those too, but it needs someone with the complete versions to upload somewhere.
Very sad to hear that Tom Petty has just died. I know his music is not universally popular on his blog, but at his best I think he produced some excellent stuff, and is for me one of the great figures in American rock.
ReplyDeleteSorry, that should be "this blog," of course.
DeleteYes, it's sad to hear of his death, and at only 66, it is all the more sad, G-d rest his soul. Petty was one of the nice men of the music world, and of course one of the Travelling Wilberrys formed in the late 80s with George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Bob Dylan.
DeleteThe first time I had heard of Petty was in 1985 when I saw the video of Don't Come Around Here No More, which was a scary sort of Alice In Wonderland Story, but a very clever production nevertheless, and would set the scene for his later work in the rest of the decade:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0JvF9vpqx8
I'm off to bed, but Tom's not dead yet, the reports were false. He might not have long to go, however. Must be awful for his family.
DeleteRIP Tom. Loved the duet with Stevie Nicks - 'Stop draggin' my heart around'.
DeleteIndeed that was a top single with Nicks. I was surprised to see that it charted as early as 1981 in Britain, even though it only got to No.50, but I don't know if that early version had Stevie Nicks on it, or did she do it much later with him, as I always thought that duet was a 1990's version.
DeleteIn fact I was even more surprised that his first single release in the UK was as early as 1977 with anther unknown song that peaked at No.36.
I watched last night on BBC4 'Rock Goes To College:Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' from 1980 at Oxford Polytechnic, although the first I ever heard of them was in 1985 with their first single of any note here called Don't Come Around Here No More, even though that also only reached No.50, but because of the famous video it seemed everyone was aware of him by then.
Dory - We must have seen that debut hit (Anything that's Rock'n Roll)that you mention on the 16th June 1977 Repeat run edition....
DeleteI'm pretty sure that we did see the Tom Petty appearance. It didn't surprise me to see the usual suspects (eg BBC Breakfast) trot out the typical half-arsed badly researched 'tributes'. "He had a string of hits", they said. Well...however highly regarded he was and how many albums he sold, the fact is that he had 2 Top 40 hits, 3 if you include the Travelling Wilburys.
DeleteDory - Stevie Nicks was on the original 1981 recording of Stop Draggin' My Heart Around; indeed, it is one of the tracks on Bella Donna, her debut solo album from that year. I think Tom had originally intended that the Heartbreakers should record the track on their own, but Stevie loved it so much she badgered him into making it a duet! I agree that it's a great song.
DeleteSct353, yes indeed you're right, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers were on the TOTP 16th June 1977 edition hosted by David 'Kid' Jensen, and played on the show just before the No.1, Lucille by Kenny Rogers. I had totally overlooked it, but considering that this performance by Mr Petty in 1977 was a new hit by a new band in the UK, and never got played again, it doesn't exactly trigger the memory.
DeleteIn fact nothing of theirs made the top 40 after that 1977 debut hit, until 1989 where he peaked at No.28 with the aptly titled I Won't Back Down, which was largely down to his impact that year with The Travelling Wilberrys, which was a much needed project to raise his profile in Britain
Looking at the schedules coming up, and the large number of Yewtreed shows for the rest of 1984, it looks like we will be done and dusted with the 1984 shows within 5-6 weeks from now, that is by Mid-November!
ReplyDeleteI mean this weekend alone, there will be four TOTP shows to blog.
Quite enjoyed this.
ReplyDeleteTears for tears track not one i remember well, but pleasant enough.
Howard Jones must have been miffed wth the London weather.
Iron Maiden doing what Iron Maiden do.
Oh no it's Peebles and Wright. Two wrongs don't make a Wright.
ReplyDeleteTFF's drummer looks like John Altman AKA Nick Cotton in EastEnders.
Love the Howard Jones song and the video. In fact all of his videos were pretty good and added something to the song. Seeing him wandering round London early in the morning takes me back to working at Our price in Oxford Street that same year.
The dancing girls and fruit liven up Agadoo. I hated this at the time and still can't being myself to watch it with any sense of enthusiasm.
"Nice to see some heavy metal in the chart" quips Peebles conveniently forgetting to mention that AC/DC were already in the chart. Iron Maiden on in concert on video. Didn't Spinal Tap come out that year? Just checked out the lyrics to this and they include "As the reasons for the carnage cut their meat and lick the gravy. We oil the jaws of the war machine and feed it with our babies". A bit different to Agadoo.
A flock of bad haircuts up next. This was slowly creeping up the chart but didn't get much higher. It's weird that they only had two big hits but I thought they did better in the chart than they actually did.
Trevor Walters back again even though we didn't see (or hear) Lionel Richie once. Fix! Don't care much for Trev's teeth, he he could eat an apple though a tennis racket as they used to say.
George on video again and play out with The Pointer Sisters. Don't recall the latter at all.