Tope of the Pops!
12/07/84 (John Peel & Tommy Vance)
Shakatak – “Down On The Street” (33)
With what was to be their second and final top ten hit, indeed their final top 40 hit, when it peaked at number 9.
Tina Turner – “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” (10) (video)
Went up seven more places.
Neil – “Hole In My Shoe” (5)
Nigel Planer's character from The Young Ones, with his only solo hit, peaking at number two, just like the original by Traffic in 1967 ~ but why did it have to be cut from the 7.30pm showing!
Alison Moyet – “Love Resurrection” (13) (video)
Going to the holy land of course with this video, and the song duly rose to the occasion, and climaxed at number 10.
Phil Fearon & Galaxy – “Everybody’s Laughing” (28)
In the studio and also on its way to a peak of number 10.
Echo & The Bunnymen – “Seven Seas” (26)
Singer Ian is joined by a penguin on drums and a fish on guitar to perform this third single from their top four album, Ocean Rain, and this shanty sailed to number 16.
The Bluebells – “Young At Heart” (14)
They'd seemingly raided the BBC waistcoat department earlier, with Young at Heart on its way to number 8 this time around.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood – “Two Tribes” (1)
Fifth of nine weeks at number one! And Relax was also at number 2!
The Jacksons – “State Of Shock” (20) (audience dancing/credits)
Together with Mick Jagger, taken from their top 3 album Victory, this single peaked at number 14.
Watch @LoveTinaTurner teach Russell Harty the ‘Pony Step’ in 1984. Do feel free to join in at home. #TOTP pic.twitter.com/oT0c0S1gRl— BBC Four (@BBCFOUR) September 15, 2017
Tina and Russell do the Pony Step!
Next up is July 19th.
One of Shakatak's most famous.
ReplyDeleteEverybody's Laughing I think is nice, good fun, latin tinged.
The Jacksons playout was really annoying, that percussion sound through it was painful. An attempt at a funky song.
Hole in My Shoe is a decent novelty song, the arrangement is good and it mickey takes the 60s well enough.
Deserted by his Rhythm Pal, JP tries out TV as a new partner. On paper this seems like an inspired pairing, but it doesn't quite work in practice, perhaps because the gap between Tommy's manic enthusiasm and Peel's mordant wit is just that little bit too wide.
ReplyDeleteDid Shakatak arrange their single release dates so that Bill Sharpe could make sure they were on TOTP in the same week as his "old mate"? In any case, it wasn't so much his shirt that perturbed me as the extremely messy hair being sported by the singer! An unusually up tempo effort from this lot, and therefore not as dull as earlier releases - despite being blonde the dancer in yellow down the front bore a distinct resemblance to Carol Vorderman. A longer slice of Tina's video to follow this time, before Neil makes his TOTP debut. I thought this was hilarious at the time, but I was only 4 - watching this performance now I would only put it in the "mildly amusing" category, though Nigel delivers his (presumably rehearsed) spoken shtick and pratfall well enough. The Lulu reference amused me most, because given how big the Young Ones were at the time I'm surprised she wasn't up there on stage with him, riding the latest bandwagon...
Alf transports herself to the desert, and pretends unconvincingly to be a Bedouin - I wonder what the real tribespeople who appear thought of it all? Peel didn't seem too impressed by the video, but it does have quite a refreshing "documentary" feel which makes it stand out from its contemporaries. Back in the studio, Phil Fearon rattles through another lightweight offering which is pleasant, summery and highly disposable. No gymnastics from Phil this time, perhaps because the stage is covered in balloons.
In terms of wacky performances, it's fair to say that Echo and the Bunnymen comprehensively upstage Neil on this occasion, though the drumming penguin and (rather creepy) fish guitarist do slightly overshadow a very pleasant song, which I could easily imagine being used to flog the cod liver oil that shares its name. I wonder if they decided to do this performance to show that they had a sense of humour? I recall that they do get mentioned in The Young Ones, as Rik Mayall's character is a fan. The Bluebells all pretend they are in the Wild West for this second performance, though singer Ken McCluskey does himself no favours wearing those glasses.
On to the number 1, and Frankie return to the studio for a third go at Two Tribes, but apart from Holly's big coat at the start there is nothing much to mark out this performance. A very poor playout track this week - I have never really understood why Jacko made one more album with his brothers after the mega-success of Thriller, and when you listen to this lumpen Jagger collaboration the mystery deepens even further. The audience and cheerleaders do their best with it, and the blonde Carol Vorderman makes another appearance.
i suspect that wacko carried on making records with his brothers because he felt sorry for them. either that or poppa joe forced him to do it!
DeleteI think Poppa Joe was out of the picture by this time, so it probably was pity, or maybe a contractual obligation - he didn't work with his brothers again after the Victory album.
DeletePoppa rumbo a rumbo hey Poppa Joe coconut, Poppa Joe, hey Poppa Joe....
DeleteYes, Rik in the Young Ones wrote the Bunnymen a letter, didn't he? "Dear Mr.Echo...."
DeleteJacko's hair caught light when he was doing the Pepsi ads with The Jackson's around this time, I bet he regretted working with them then.
Deleteshakatak: "street" is hardly the kind of word one would associate with the vapid cocktail funk this lot churned out, although by their standards i suppose the chorus is a bit tougher than usual. and they've also now ditched beardy guy on second keyboards, which gives them a bit more cred. are those dancers in the unflattering white and yellow outfits part of the act, or audience ringers?
ReplyDeleteneil: although it was aimed squarely at my generation, i never really went overboard for "the young ones" - perhaps because i wasn't a student? i thought it was very shouty, and that the funniest one was the guy they brought in to replace fellow comic-stripper peter richardson as mike (although later viewings made me realise he was actually crap). i remember watching the comic strips around this time, and finding them much more amusing - especially the "bad news" lampoon that i much preferred to "spinal tap" that trod similar ground. as for this solo effort by "neil", like most comedy/novelty records it was okay to listen once or maybe twice, after which it long-outstayed its welcome
phil fearon/galaxy: i never realised that he and his chums had so many hits - i certainly don't remember this, and listening now i can see why as it's real lightweight in-one-ear-and-out-the-other stuff. and not helped by the cretinous "woh-oh" chant going on. lady diana and helen shapiro have now got themselves some rather nasty perms
echo & the bunnymen: probably their weakest hit. and why hasn't mr mac joined in with the oceanic fancy dress theme? for some reason there's no sign of the bassist, but surely they could easily have given a ringer the fish head to wear instead. although maybe the guitarist's acne was so bad that week that he couldn't face the cameras otherwise?
wacko/jagger/jacksons: i remember the hoo-ha over this latest superstar duet (but how exactly were wacko's brothers involved?) and being very disappointed with the result (as with "beat it", i was not impressed with wacko's efforts at being a rocker). and it's no better now. looking it up on wiki it seems it was originally intended for freddie mercury rather than jagger, although the latter seems much better suited to applying his unique vocal style to what is a wisp of a tune
Shakatak's former second keyboardist Nigel Wright had left by this time to focus on his already prolific career as a producer and arranger. His numerous credits include soundtracks such as 'Evita' and cast recordings including 'Sunset Boulevard'.
DeleteAs for the dancers, they were not part of the act - though they did appear to be lip-synching to the pre-recorded backing vocals. 'Strictly' judge Craig Revel Horwood would not have stood for that!
Mr Vance rightly described 'What's Got To Do With It?' as being "very definitely British". Not only was the song recorded in London, but it was composed by Mancunian Terry Britten in collaboration with Bellshill's finest, Graham Lyle - though the former did make his first recording down under.
Staying with Tina, she would take Jacko's place at Live Aid for Sir Mick's raunchy performance of 'State of Shock'.
It's curious that Jacko didn't turn up at Live Aid, given that he co-wrote the USA For Africa charity single that we will doubtless be hearing as part of these reruns in the early part of next year. Indeed, I have read elsewhere that he and Stevie Wonder were so opposed to the whole idea of Live Aid that they tried to organise a boycott, though I have no idea if that's true. Does anyone know more?
Deletei remember when stevie turned up at wembley for some other charidee event that were the vogue for a while as a result of live aid, and had his equipment nicked - thus providing tracy chapman with an unexpected bite of the fame and fortune cherry. if she didn't do the dirty deed herself then at least she should be thanking the tealeaf every day of her life as a result, as i'm pretty sure she would never have broken through otherwise...
DeleteDance on the left foot, dance on the right foot, it's Shakatak with a fairly decent slice of their patented wine bar soul, which had somehow taken the nation by storm and spawned imitators. Kylie was obviously taking hair tips for the cover of her debut album.
ReplyDeleteEddie Large next, "I'm Tina Turner, I am!" how we laughed. Oh wait, it's the real deal, strutting her way down that street Shakatak were presumably on about.
Having not heard Neil's hit properly in a while, this was actually pretty funny and made me laugh more than those Barron Nights appearances. I was just the right age for The Young Ones, in fact my mum wouldn't let me watch it so I had to do so in secret, which made it even more exciting. Good on Nige for a blatant cash-in that wasn't a complete waste of time, the album he made is well-thought of among comedy fans too. I still chuckle at his shout of "Fascists!" when he sings the "tin soldiers" line.
Alison Moyet, now about this time Nastassja Kinski was in a movie called Sahara where she was kidnapped by a sheik played by Ben Kingsley - was this video where she got the idea from? OK, it was probably Rudolph Valentino. Or the Turkish Delight ad. Listening to that middle verse, it is filthy, isn't it?
Once again, a Phil Fearon record I wouldn't have recognised from the title, but once it hit the chorus I was like "Oh yeah, this one". Displaying a zero tolerance attitude towards the balloons (the audience get the message early), this is perfectly decent pop fluff, I suppose he had got the hang of it by now.
Echo and the Bunnymen with a comparatively upbeat tune for them, and proving the spirit of Pan's People over-literalism was still alive and well into the 80s. Ian could at least have dressed up as a mermaid, come on, get in the spirit.
The Bluebells with a waistcoat-tastic rendition, to a man they look like early 90s game show contestants.
Appropriate that Tommy Vance should be on the show with the number 1 that features another great voiceover man, Patrick Allen, possibly the greatest ever, with apologies to Tom. You could imagine Vance doing the "You and your family must take cover" business here, nevertheless.
Mick Jagger obviously saw his old rival Paul McCartney having success with Whackson and thought he'd have a go as well. The results, hmm, lumpen and laborious. You can hear why this doesn't get revived too often.
Oopsh, my mistake, Nastassja was in Harem, not Sahara. Sahara was Brooke Shields.
DeleteI read somewhere that Alison was thinking of the opening scene from The Exorcist, when deciding to film in the desert
DeleteWow, that's a lot cooler than what I was postulating!
DeleteNow I think of it, Yazoo had done a horror movie video for one of their songs, hadn't they? A lot more jokey, though.
DeleteSorry this was an edition I didn’t enjoy very much. Lionel Richie is getting the ‘Billy Joel’ treatment although ‘Stuck on you’ is not my favourite song of his by any stretch. Surprised to see John Peel still hosting and this time with someone other than the Kid.
ReplyDeleteShakatak – Down on the Streets – Their second biggest hit I see but it made little impression on me at that time, possibly because I was boycotting the show due to the no1 single…
Tina Turner – What’s love got to do with it – Search me…..
Neil – Hole in my Shoe – I loved Traffic’s version of this….but ‘The Young Ones’ went right over my head and so did this cover.
Alison Moyet – Love Resurrection – Mystic looking video but lyrically surprising that nobody twigged the true meaning. Love the ‘climax’ reference Angelo!
Phil Fearon – Everybody’s Laughing – Not a bad song if rather light. I also liked ‘Everybody’s Laughing’ by Hot Chocolate which was placed on the B Side of the excellent ‘You could have been a Lady’…and could easily have been a double A Side.
Echo and the Bunnymen – Seven Seas – of Rye? Sailing on perhaps? It’s Ok, but as JP observes, they look rather mad in the fancy dress costumes.
Bluebells – Young at Heart – Enjoyable bit of entertainment.
Frankie – Two Tribes – Four more weeks to go after this, so we’re over halfway through now….
Jacksons & Mick Jagger – State of Shock playout – I’ve never even heard this before and it’s frankly awful. People were buying anything by Jacko at this point in time and I heard Mel Giedroyc on the radio this afternoon going on about how she’d played ‘Bad’ so many times that the tape wore out.
Any cricket fans will note that in 1984 Essex won the County Cricket Championship and they’ve just won it for a seventh time this season with two games to spare, 25 years since they last won it. Nothing to do with ToTP of course but I felt like I wanted to share this being a lifelong fan and current member!
I liked Trevor Walters version of Stuck on You at the time.
DeletePoor Peelie looked a bit subdued without his usual partner, didn't he? Still gave us his trademark dance at the end though....
ReplyDeleteShakatak - Guaranteed to get me onto the FF button in double quick time.
Neil - I too wasn't a massive fan of The Young Ones at the time though many friends at school were. I think Nigel Planer's performance is an improvement on the single recording though! Someone at BBC4 must hate it though, to chop it out rather than one of the videos either side.
Phil Fearon - "Everybody's laughing". That's cos your flies are undone Phil, arf! Another one that I skipped past.
Echo and the Bunnymen - I really like this one, and was that Bill Drummond at stage right (our left?) as I think he managed them in the early days.
Jacksons / Jagger - Should work, but is an utter car crash of a single.
I thought TV and JP worked well together. Peelie did remark he felt second fiddle at one stage in the show, but Tommy redeemed that by bigging up John’s first airing of “Two Tribes “ on the radio.
ReplyDeleteDown with the kids, it’s Shakatak, flanked by two dancers way too close to the stage, and Gill Saward with ‘dragged through a hedge backwards’ hair. Lyrically, this was Shakatak’s “War And Peace”.
Next, according to Peelie, it’s T-Tina Turner. Lots of looking up and down that balcony by Tommy beforehand which reminded me of his new chart rundown ‘up arrow, down arrow’ lecture in one edition.
Either that was brilliant miming by Nigel Planer or the mics were very responsive to his vocals. A decent and not overly ha-ha-hilarious version of Traffic’s classic, and an excellent pratfall.
Here comes Alison Moyet. Not so much Bedouin as let’s got to Bedouin. Boom boom tish! Nice analogy in the video when the words “barren land” kicked in, and I enjoyed both Alison’s inspiration for the Angel of the North at the end and the pyramid influenced end of video namecheck.
My favourite Galaxy tune but not a difficult choice. Funny to see Galaxy on the Toblerone stage. A song with a story, not exactly Stan Ridgway’s “Camouflage” but a good effort nonetheless.
So out of character to see Echo and the Bunnymen goofing along. Where was the bassist? Having trouble getting into his octopus costume? Surely Mac should have been dressed as a mac-kerel!
Yeehah! It’s The Bluebells with a speccy singer this time round.
Holly Johnson was robotically charismatic here. I loved the way at one stage the bassist looked round at the drummer to make sure they were in time when (a) they were miming and (b) they probably weren’t on the record in any case.
The Jackson family’s contract to have the playout track continues, this time with an absolute dog of a track.
I notice that both late night showings of 19/7/84 are both 30 minutes long when the original airing was 35 minutes long so somethings been edited out again!
ReplyDeleteWell, the iPlayer version I am currently watching states it is 33 minutes long.
DeleteState of Shock is how I was feeling after hearing this playout. It had a good effect on me in the end, cos the studio audience's good dancing had a really good vibe to it and made the song all the more punchy. Big thumbs up for this one!
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Shakatak songs is that after a while they all blend into one and sound the same. Hate the way Bill Sharp keeps looking at the camera smugly, and the way the crowd cheers during the middle eight as if they were doing something amazing. They're not.
ReplyDeleteTina on video again but we see a bit more of it this time. Love the song but the message is a bit depressing.
Neil is what it is, a lot of fun but seems a bit silly at the same time. In a weak moment I bought this at the time but immediately regretted it as once you've played a few times you don't want to hear it again. It's quite impressive the way Nigel Planer has combined miming to the track with live spoken words bits, not an easy task with a largely unresponsive audience.
Alison Moyet on video, not bad but was I was never a fan of the song.
Galaxy - the goodness chocolate.Phil straying into Kid Creole territory here complete with his own poor man's Coconuts who the cameraman seems to be more interested in than Phil. Can't say I blame him as Phil is a bit boring here.
Loved Seven Seas although I thought the dressing up antics were unnecessary and I wonder if originally they were all going to put on costumes but Mac changed his mind at the last minute. Interesting to see Bill Drummond and a mate operating the sea at the front.
The Bluebells. On the plus side they are all wearing nice different coloured waistcoats but lead singer Ken has decided to wear his John Lennon specs which don't really suit him. Guitarist Craig Gannon had just turned 18 here but looks about 12.
Frankie at the top with a new performance. A shame they can't show the video as the performances are getting a bit samey but better was to come.
Nice funky groove play out from The Jacksons. Jagger doesn't offer much here and they should have maybe done it with just Jacko.
The playout sounded 100% Jagger and 0% Jacksons, it was that dominant from him!
DeleteDue to life being amnic at the moment, only just got around to watching some TOTPs.
ReplyDeleteLOVED the Neil performance - breath fo fresh air! Fairly average show otherwise.
Don't remembner 'Seven Seas' being such a wierd song :-)
'amnic'??? That was 'hectic' Mr spell-checker... (and please remembner that)
DeleteHaha
Delete