Despite Billy's best efforts, Steve still can't get the hang of rock, paper, scissors...
28/06/84 (Andy Peebles & Steve Wright)
The Bluebells – “Young At Heart” (36)
Getting us underway this week is a song that will get to number one nine years later! But for now they had to settle for a number 8 peak.
Nik Kershaw – “I Won’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” (2) (video)
At its peak, but edited out of tonight's 7.30pm showing.
The Human League – “Life On Your Own” (29)
Phil has gone all stubbly faced for this second single from their top 3 album, Hysteria, which made it to number 16.
Bob Marley & The Wailers – “Waiting In Vain” (33) (video)
This song originally peaked at number 27 in 1977, this time around it got to number 31. Re-released to promote his huge number one greatest hits album, Legend.
Jonathan King - US chart rundown: Edited out of course.
Billy Idol - "Eyes Without A Face" (video clip)
Laura Branigan - "Self Control" (video clip)
Prince - "When Doves Cry" (video clip)
Ronnie and Mike Biggs - brief interview
Mike Biggs & The Magic Balloon Gang - "Superfantastico" (video clip)
Cyndi Lauper - "Time After Time" (video clip)
Billy Idol - turns up now to tell Steve Wright that he is looking for 'somewhere to rock and roll.'
Tina Turner – “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” (40) (video)
With perhaps her most celebrated song, which was also her joint biggest hit, peaking at number 3.
Alison Moyet – “Love Resurrection” (28)
Making her solo debut following the demise of Yazoo, this was the first of six top ten hits for Alison, this one peaking at number 10, and taken from her number one album, Alf.
Scritti Politti – “Absolute” (19)
Went up two more places.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood – “Two Tribes” (1) (rpt)
Third of nine weeks at number one.
Michael Jackson – “Farewell My Summer Love” (7) (audience dancing/credits)
At its peak.
July 5th should be next, but with Jimmy Savile and Mike Smith hosting, BBC4 will skip along to the 12th instead.
Out the two hosts Andy Peebles was by far the better this week, Steve 'great show Steve' Wright was trying too hard to be cool and still can't stop fidgeting.
ReplyDeleteIt looked like Phil Oakey had popped into his local hairdresser with a photo of Fish off Marillion and asked for something similar.
I don't remember the Bluebells appearance from first time round but when 'Young At Heart' was number one in 93 they'd add some topical reference to another chart song in during their appearances (2 Unlimited being one of them).
As we're getting the new chart graphics in the next BBC4 showing I'm guessing the banned show is the one with Smitty in the studio and Saville on a train?
The train show is 30th August, so still a few weeks away yet. It's fortuitous that Smitty presented alongside Jim'll twice in 1984, otherwise we would have lost even more shows from BBC4!
DeleteWhat is Savile doing on a train? The mind boggles.
DeleteShame he wasn't underneath it for what we know now! I think InterCity or whoever were trying to break their speed record between London and Bristol and it was seen as a perfect TOTP opportunity for some reason.
Deletebama have you forgotten that mr now then was the public face of british rail in the 70's? his slogan was "this is the age... of the train!". fortunately (in the interests of retro culture) you can still see a couple of his ads on yt:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut6D-1akP_w
Gosh! I loved that tune 'This is the age of the train'. Surprised that didn't get put out as a single....
DeleteProbably best not to think about what Savile was doing on the train.
DeleteIf the advert was being made today, he'd find that someone else had nicked his reserved seat and be standing up in the corridor for most of the journey.
what made me laugh about the ad was that he says "i travel 39,000 miles each year on business" - why not just say "around 40,000"?
DeleteI haven't seen this show yet, but I hope Scritti Politti have kept their drummer. I can't find much out about her, except she appeared in the videos for "Wood Beez" and "Absolute" and she was known as Sasha.
ReplyDeleteWe reach the halfway point of 1984 with a pretty decent show, and it was a relief to see that the Beeb's erasing of history didn't extend to chopping out GG's rather sinister mugshot. Wrighty wields a tennis racquet to remind us that Wimbledon is in full swing, but is otherwise a complete waste of space, as exemplified by his "interview" with Billy Idol and Mr Broad's silent guitarist sidekick Steve Stevens. Andy Peebles does much better, showing there is a place for solid if slightly unexciting competence - give me that over Wrighty's antics any day...
ReplyDeleteThe Bluebells start us off, setting a trend for the evening by dressing all in black. I always groan inwardly when I hear this, because it got played to death at the time of its 90s reissue, and I never wanted to listen to it again thereafter. In fairness, it is a good tune and I quite enjoyed seeing this performance in context. The League continue the sombre dressing theme, with the noble exception of Susanne Sulley who glams it up a bit in a shiny silver dress. This is arguably their most forgotten hit, and it's easy to see why really - while by no means a bad song, it is quite downbeat and lacks a good hook.
Presumably the video for Waiting in Vain was another Don Letts production, with the Mini-Bob appearing once more and this time enjoying a free holiday in Hawaii. The music is standard-issue Marley, but the video was enjoyably colourful, particularly in comparison to all those monochrome acts in the studio - seems a bit weird going to Hawaii rather than Jamaica, though. Tina Turner cements her comeback by striding along the Brooklyn Bridge and pushing the boys aside, but sadly we don't get to hear very much of this classy Terry Britten/Graham Lyle tune, which was originally offered to Cliff, but was turned down by the Peter Pan of Pop.
My favourite song of the night next, as Alf finally launches her solo career with one of her very best, an effort co-written with Swain and Jolley. Although she too is dressed in black she does at least look pleased to be there, and I'm sure she was also relieved, as in the months after Yazoo split Warner Bros had put her under a legal injunction to stop her recording her debut solo album with CBS, before a settlement was finally reached. Green at least varies the black with some white stripes for this second performance of Absolute, and a very 80s looking crowd give us more colour as they dance along, for the second time, to this 70s Jacko effort.
I'm glad they didn't offer "Private Dancer" to Cliff!
DeleteFrom memory, isn't Alison Moyet's song about getting her bloke's pecker back up for an action replay? The saucy lyrics seem to suggest it.
I noticed that the tennis racket that Wright was wielding when introducing Human League was a wooden one, as Wimbledon 1984 was on that week, and John McEnroe was the top player at the time, with guess what..a wooden racket. The modern day tennis racket made with metal had not not arrived yet at this point in history, so this episode of TOTP is a classic piece of nostalgia of how the world was then and how it is now, and not just with regard to pop music!
DeleteArthur - I can't help feeling "What's Love Got to Do With it" could have been quite an appropriate title for a Cliff film biopic, but it would have been nowhere near as dramatic as Tina's film! Regarding the subject matter of Alf's song, I have no idea if you are right, but I like to think that you are...
Deletewith lines like "a warm injection" and "i want you to grow in my hand", of course alf's lyrics are rude! and yet unlike "relax" it sailed past the bbc censors - maybe because it was a euphemism for sexual activity by "normal" folks, rather than those "bloody queers"?
Deletemaybe after cliff croaks (and everything comes out in the wash as a result) they will make a dramatic film of his life... whereby before he found god, he led a secret life that would be frowned upon by some - even today?
DeleteThere were a few comments on Twitter last night about Glitter's mugshot being kept in and the Daily Mail exploding in anger.
DeleteAll of the ALF album is great, For You Only is an unknown classic.
DeleteFull show with JK now available:
ReplyDeletehttps://we.tl/SigllbXlTy
Thanks John. I'm going to download it and comment on the complete show.
DeleteWe'll be seeing most of the songs featured in JK's slot in future shows, but I like pretty much everything featured here, with the obvious exception of Mike "son of Ronnie" Biggs' Brazilian number 1! What was most jaw-dropping about that was JK chatting away to Ronnie on Copacabana Beach as if they were old mates and it was the most natural thing in the world to be doing. I wonder what the relatives of the coshed train driver thought of that?
DeleteI thought the Nik Kershaw video looked like a Bradford & Bingley advert in places. There was an earlier (and in my view better) video for this song, presumably made when it was first released. This was I think filmed at Leeds Castle in Kent, not all that far from where I live:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsZDOTPELpU
Saturday Superstore did show a brief clip of the original video along with similar clips of Wouldnt It Be Good & Dancing Girls when he was on one morning!
DeleteSaturday Superstore did show a brief clip of the original video along with similar clips of Wouldnt It Be Good & Dancing Girls when he was on one morning!
Deletehosts: i note that the previous formula of hosts sharing the chores of reading out the chart countdown has been binned, as a clearly pre-recorded mr peebles does the lot
ReplyDeletebluebells: country and western was pure anathema to me at the time, so this cod-version of it was never going to float my boat. however thanks to its over-exposure since then for various reasons (noax has an expression for that kind of thing - what was it again?) i've sort-of learned to live with it. as was mentioned on this blog some time back, the clark gable clone on fiddle (one bobby valentino - not surprisingly not his given name) was only contracted as a paid sessioneer for what he no-doubt thought would be an instantly-forgotten single. but when it took up a life of its own he not only somewhat outrageously put in a claim for songwriting royalties (given that he was no doubt asked to fill up his 20 seconds or so with "something country-sounding" of his own making, rather than play a pre-written line), but was actually awarded some as a result! apparently the other guy on guitar is craig gannon, who later was briefly a member of the smiths... and who ironically had a far stronger claim to have sued for royalties from "ask" as he apparently came up with the original riff on which the whole thing is based, and yet as far as a know never got a penny for it!
human league: one that's slipped my mind completely, and not surprisingly given it's utter tosh where phil's weedy melodies and the musical backing seeming to be completely at odds with each other. and not even the presence of a real drummer can make up for that
bob marley: i have no recollection of this being re-released in the 80's - was there a reason for that (other than just yet another excuse to cash-in on a pop star's untimely death of course)? regardless, it's sheer quality and certainly the vest of bob's more laid-back tunes. i particularly like the breezy guitar solo and major 7th-feel of the refrain at the end
jonathan king: what is the point of being in rio if you're supposed to be focusing on the US charts? i remember the hoo-ha at the time that it was ronnie biggs' pop-star half-brazilian son mike (that doesn't sound right for a child of that age) being the reason he couldn't be extricated to face some good old-fashioned british justice for coshing the driver. but when they finally had to resort to heist-style tactics to get him back some years later, were all the public's taxes spent in doing so justified? not in my opninion, as the man himself admitted he still pined for the british lifestyle of fish & chips and sunday roasts, and thus his exile was a form of imprisonment in itself. not that king seemed bothered about his crimes... as no doubt he was regularly breaking the law himself ha ha! biggs jr's track was abominable by the way (especially given the wealth of quality music brazil has given the world over the years), but i had to laugh at the name of his band "the magic balloon gang"!
Peebles did all the chart countdowns because these were pre-recorded in the afternoon, when Wright was hosting his Radio 1 show.
DeleteWright could have done the Chart bits after his show or at least one of them. The fact that he has to read everything off idiot boards suggests that he wasn't capable of doing them.
DeleteIt would have depended on how flexible the Beeb was about timings for recording the rundowns. During the period circa 1981 when DLT was an afternoon R1 host I think there were at least a couple of TOTPs he presented where he didn't do the rundowns.
Deletept ii:
ReplyDeletetina turner: oh why couldn't this have just stuck at the bottom end of the top 40 for several weeks before disappearing again, as her last single did? that way we wouldn't have had to endure many more years of her squawking and screeching away over ever-more dreadul lumps of banal mainstream rock
alison moyet: i was never that keen on yazoo, so i was quite surprised to find myself liking her debut solo single. but then again it wasn't that much of a surprise given that she was now working with the team of swain and jolley, who first made their mark with the sumptuous sound of imagination and who by now were rivalling trevor horn in the most ubiquitous and in-demand producer stakes. so i listened to the "alf" album that my sister had (as one with only a passing interest in music that reflected her aspirational lifestyle, you will not be surprised to hear she also owned "diamond life"!) and discovered a couple of even better tracks in the form of "twisting the knife" and "honey for the bees". i am guessing that the latter is also a sex-related euphemism - not that i realised that about it or this single at the time. by the way: this means that mr king was not the only convicted pedo involved in this edition, as either swain or jolley now have form in that department too. so strictly speaking in terms of the yewtree-inspired revsionism, shouldn't alf (and other clients of theirs such as banarama and spandau ballet) also have been axed from these re-runs as a result?
i note in the tv listings for the athletics that coe, ovett, cram and budd get equal billing. which is abolutely farcical in retrospect as the first three were by far the greatest middle-distance runners the world had seen up to that point (and remain legends), whilst the latter was a barely-known south-african of part-british heritage who was conveniently fast-tracked to qualify to run for blighty by the tories (who only four years earlier had tried to stop the english team from competing at the previous olympics) in order to represent us at the los angeles games that year. where rather than become a legend herself, she only gained infamy as a result of tripping up her supposed rival (american golden girl mary decker, who unlike her had already proven her worth and was the favourite both in terms of achievement and sentimentality) before finishing the race in a pathetic 7th place!
ReplyDeleteI liked Young at Heart at the time, but as mentioned above it did get played to death later thanks to some TV ad (one of the best ways to ruin a half decent tune is to sell out for the adman's schilling). Bobby Valentino, who did indeed sue for his share of the royalties, tried to establish himself as an old time crooner. His single The Man Who Invented Jazz was pretty good fun, but I recall him on Jonathan Ross's weekday chat show when Dennis Hopper was a guest and Bobby was brought on to sing Blue Velvet. Unfortunately, he was absolutely appalling, and the audience knew it - the look on his face when he realised he was messing it up will haunt me forever. After it was over, Dennis sat dumbfounded.
ReplyDeleteNik Kershaw with one of those concert videos, though it sounds like the recording with the crowd singing played over it. I suppose Nik was a heartthrob, but it seems over the top to see girls screaming for him. Mind you, I felt the same way about seeing girls scream for Chesney Hawkes a few years later.
The Human League and Phil demonstrates how to keep your composure after someone has patted a balloon at your face. The song is fairly anaemic and the doleful lyrics don't help, but it's not the worst thing ever.
Bob Marley gets another video makeover with his mini-me. This was one of his stronger tunes, a wistful melody that still impresses, though it's light compared to what his contemporaries were up to.
Billy Idol teases Steve Wright's locks playfully after a trademark awkward TOTP interview, then we're into Tina Turner, who alarmingly for me is younger here than I am today. Can't hear this without thinking of the Lenny Henry parody, and the line about Madonna: "What's she, but a can of white emulsion?" But this was not really aimed at me in '84.
Alison Moyet, this was more like it, great comeback for her and proved she had what it takes to make it as a solo act. Excellent, dramatic production on this, and she too gets the balloon in the face treatment.
Scritti Politti, we know this one, but marvel with me if you will at the bloke in the audience wearing a knotted handkerchief on his head. Did he think they were filming at the beach?
Repeat of Frankie and then a repeat of Whackson with his own resurrection (of an old tune). Why we didn't get White Lines here I don't know, I'd have liked to see the TOTP crowd get down to that one.
I wonder if the Beeb had a problem with the lyrical content of White Lines, even though it is anti-drugs?
DeletePatchy edition this one with a number of FFs for me…
ReplyDeleteBluebells – Young at Heart – As Angelo points out, this got to no1 for 4 weeks in 1993 following its use in a
Volkswagen commercial. Co-written by Siobhan Fahey from Bananarama, the band, who had long since split up, reformed to promote it in 1993. It’s a pretty memorable song and the violinist gives Slade’s Jimmy Lea a run for his money.
Ni Kershaw – I won’t let the sun go down on me – A couple of weeks ago I wrote that this was not to be confused with Elton John’s ‘Don’t let the Sun go down on me’. Cue Steve Wright… The video is a mixture of ‘live’ with female crowd vocals overdubbed and bits of video. I fear, like Queen’s ‘We are the Champions’ video it’s not live, but interesting that they’ve bothered to do the dubs.
Human League – Life on your own – After the magnificent ‘The Lebanon’, this is indeed a bit of a crash. Not that it’s bad, just ordinary. Jo has glammed up well again in her high-waisted slacks whilst Phil again looks like he’s just got out of bed and, as Steve Hack remarks, emerged as Fish!
Bob Marley – Waiting in vain – Why?? FF
JK slot – Shame this is edited out. Biggs aside, this is a classic selection of hits, all of which the UK would wake up to (and in the case of Cyndi, had already belated woken up to).
Tina Turner – What’s love got to do with it – Wlberforce, I couldn’t have put it better myself. FF
Alison Moyet – Love Resurrection – Maybe I was naïve at the time, but I couldn’t understand why people said that the lyrics were suggestive. 33 years later I’m in no doubt!
Scritti Politti – Absolute – As Arthur notes above, there is scant info regarding the female drummer who looks smart in her white outfit. The record was produced by legendary producer Arif Mardin, who also had another record in the charts; ‘Against all odds’.
Chart rundown – Like John G, I was expecting there to be no no27…
Frankie – Two Tribes – Next
Michael Jackson – Farewell my Summer love – Two weeks ago we played out with this. Once again, it gets playout status. I noticed that Billy Joel was back in the charts with ‘Leave a tender moment alone’ but giving a second playout to ‘Jacko’ took precedence.
Here are the League’s own thoughts on ‘Life on your own’ made at the time of the release of the Greatest Hits package in 1988:-
DeletePhil – When Virgin said they were putting this out we tried to stop them so we’d have a rocking disco song. They said that this would go top three, so what could we do except watch it go to no16? The lyrics are rubbish really.
Joanne – Nobody hated it or anything, it was just the wrong song at the wrong time.
sct thanks for the thumbs up on my tina turner critique!
Deleteregarding the scritti drummer: she was only there as window dressing (not that green needed any, really) as the one playing on the record was either steve ferrone (ex-average white band) or fred maher (ex-material)
unlike much of his stuff i really liked billy joel's "leave a tender moment alone" at the time (and it would certainly have been preferred to that re-jigged wacko rubbish). it's still okay if bit overlong and repetitive now, but toots thieleman's harmonica playing remains excellent
The Human League song lacks the energy in the chorus that it needs.
DeleteIt's a brilliant song and the Innocent Man album still sounds good today. It was the first album I bought when I got a walkman for my 12th birthday.
DeleteI personally regard 'Life On Your Own' as one of Human League's most underrated offerings, though not exactly the floor-filler that 'Don't You Want Me' still is. They were, at this stage in their career, putting together more meaningful songs. Indeed, the lyric reminds me somewhat of Gilbert O'Sullivan's outstanding early work, or one of Rod McKuen's many classic MOR ballads. However, there had been a line-up change: drummer Jim Russell had joined from The Associates, but guitarist/keyboardist Jo Callis had quit, though he would co-write the League's minor Top 30 hit 'Heart Like A Wheel' in '90.
ReplyDeleteStill on the subject of splitsville, Tina's 'What's Love Got To Do With It?' would subsequently top charts around the world and win 3 Grammys, including the Song of the Year award for Terry Britten and Graham Lyle. The phenomenal success of this disc thus dramaticaly reversed the fortunes of the latter, who had been reduced to recording for a small independent label with Tom McGuinness the previous year. Graham would pen further hits for Tina, including 'We Don't Need Another Hero', in partnership with Terry Britten - but the erstwhile mandolinist's revitalised profile would also effectively estrange him from former colleborator Benny Gallagher until 2010.
At least two bands perform with invisible members this week: a bassist in the Bluebells' case, while keyboardists Anne Dudley and Andrew Richards are heard but not seen during Frankie's performance.
julie's last comment gives me the chance to say (not for the first time here) that the bluebells' guest fiddle scraper bobby valentino is actually anne dudley's brother!
DeleteI think there are quite a few invisible musicians on Scritti Politti's recording including the real drummer and a percussionist (not to mention all the effects).
DeleteAlso let's not kid ourselves that the members of FGTH are playing those instruments in the studio or on the record.
Typo above: DRAMATICALLY.
Deleteby this point in time, with all the technology that had been developed who could tell who was actually doing what on recordings? on "absolute" for instance, there's a brilliant bit in the extended version where green's voice is sampled for a solo, so is he really involved or not? perhaps if he actually pressed down the keys that played the notes. and i read that when japan recorded their stuff, it was actually the drummer steve jansen who actually did most of the keyboards (rather than richard barbieri who played them live) as everyone in the band agreed that he was the one with the best timing. but i suppose the bottom line is that it doesn't really matter who played what on a recording, as long as it sounds good. and frankie themselves made no bones about that in their appearance on the xmas show (if not others), by pretending to play each other's instruments rather than their "own"!
DeleteAnother dream team in charge of this one. Wright is such an utter embarassment - showing his lack of musical knowledge yet again by getting the Nik Kershaw title wrong, conducting an awful interview with Billy Idol and wearing a tie outside everything else. Jesus...
ReplyDeleteThe Bluebells - I'm not sure this qualifies as a housewife classic as to reach that accolade you have to be overplayed on the radio for years. This certainly got overplayed when it was re-released (including by me on student radio, I might add) which completely spoiled what love I had for it, but I don't think it is so much now.
Nik Kershaw - Nice to see the video with good picture quality, you should see the state of it when music channels play it. You also get to see his band, of course!
Human League - Hmm...not a bad song, but not particularly exciting either. Even if the crowd had been told to clap along as if it was a disco classic or something.
Bob Marley - Never been overly keen on this one.
JK segment - I absolutely hate the way the tabloids made Biggs out to be a 'loveable rogue' rather than the genuine nasty piece of work he was so almost glad not to see this section even though most of the tunes were decent. Billy Idol's song was about to give him his first UK hit after a lot of failed attempts.
Given how much stick we give the BBC4 editors though, let's give them some credit for leaving in the '...now back in the UK' at the beginning of Wright's link which actually made perfect sense coming off the back of Bob Marley's video rather than JK's bit as originally broadcast!
Tina Turner - A perfectly serviceable pop song, just not my kind of thing.
Alison Moyet - Brilliant song, the best on this show. Like everyone else at the time, I didn't know it was utter filth though.
FGTH - Quite surprised that 3 weeks in, we haven't seen the video yet. Had it not been made at this point?
Jacko - Can't believe they've used this for the playout AGAIN when there are many better candidates, some of which haven't been on.
Totally agree about Biggs, he had a dreadful song on the Sex Pistols' Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle soundtrack to which he could add being tone deaf to his crimes. Phil Collins had a fulsome tribute to Biggs' partner in crime to come, in both musical and cinematic form. That was rotten too.
DeleteI don't think the Frankie Two Tribes video was ever shown on TOTP on account of being too violent.
don't forget that the fourth member of the ronnie biggs/pistols collaboration (on bass) was the supposed nazi-in-exile martin bormann! oh, what a card that talcy malcy was...
DeleteIt wasn't just the Great Train Robbers, of course - the psychotic Kray twins were mythologised as folk heroes who loved their mum, and were treated like royalty when their funerals took place.
DeleteI remember at the time frantically trying to find the Frankie Goes To Hollywood video, which was not shown on any of the TV channels for the reason mentioned by THX. None of the VHS pop collections in the shops ever had this one on them, and it took years till the 90s even, until I finally found it somewhere on some collection or on its own. There may have been a short 30-second clip of it on The Tube or an ITV show but even they did not show it in full. Of course nowadays you can see it in all its glory on YouTube:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXWVpcypf0w
Neil B has put the 5 July show on 4Shared:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.4shared.com/video/hCP-rJTFei/TOTP_1984-07-05.html
A WeTransfer link has appeared too:
Deletehttps://wetransfer.com/downloads/297b4645aafbb11034d9ee1192d1cce520170908070556/b01780
Brilliant, thank you :-)
DeleteLove the bluebell song - not sure why they never really did anything else..
ReplyDeleteHuman League - always been a fan The League, and this is no exception. Similar to Don't you want me in its continuous narrative...
Love resurrection - i currently play in a covers band and our singer (a) sounds like moyet and (b) loves moyet, which means she is constantly wanting to do her songs. As a result, i am overexposed to her songs...
Michael jackson on the fade out again - sorry its dull...
No-one seemed to notice the famous person in the Nik Kershaw video at No.2 this week. It is none other than Lance Percival, who was a famous 1960's TV celebrity, and appeared in the 1963 film Carry On Cruising alongside Sid James. Here 21 years later in 1984 and looking old, did very well in the Kershaw video. Suffice to say that Lance Percival died only two years ago at the age of 81, having had an illustrious TV and film career in the 60s and 70s.
ReplyDeleteSorry Dory but that isn't Lance Percival but it does look a bit like him.
DeleteLots to enjoy here apart from the two presenters of course, although as others have pointed out Peebles is a lot better than Wright.
ReplyDeleteThe Bluebells feat a very young Craig Gannon and violinist Bobby Valentino last seen with Haysi Fantaysi. Around this time I was getting into Billy Bragg and remember seeing him live alongside Hank Wangford's band where Bobby Valentino was the violinist. He got around a bit! I liked this a lot at the time and it still sounds good today. A lot of the cheerleaders are doing that annoying treading grapes dance that real people didn't do. I wish they wouldn't.
Oo a live clip of Nik Kershaw or is it the video? No it's not the video which is on Youtube and is different, so it's a live video. Wow. This really helps sell the song, not that it needed much help as it was number two and would no doubt have made the top had it not been for Frankie.
The Human League back again. The Lebannon had only just dropped out of the chart and they're back with another goodie. A slightly restrained performance but I really loved the melancholy feel of the song. The video for this is great as well where Phil Oakey walks round a deserted London.
Another re-release from Bob Marley and another great video which must have cost them a few quid to film. I remember this well as it was one that I recorded on my music clips video tape and re-watched many times. Must have taken them a long time to wait for those two dolphins to jump out of the water.
The US charts - I quite liked the Billy Idol song at the time although I couldn't stand him and his stupid posing. Laura Branigan's song isn't much to write home about and she has the same blow up doll look that Sara Brightman developed later on. When Doves Cry was of course brilliant although Prince's daft antics always spoiled it for me. I had to check the date to make sure it wasn't April 1st as I couldn't believe that Ronnie Biggs' son was a number one artist in Brazil but I suppose Ronnie was a pop star himself, of sorts, after appearing with the Sex pistols. Weird that both he and JK ended up as jailbirds.
From their body langue it's hard to tell who hates Steve Wright more, Billy "don't touch the hair" Idol or the tall blond guy standing behind Wright when he introduced another Johnathan King.
Tina Turner on video is great to see and this is a huge improvement on her last single but oddly still debuts at number 40. She had to try so hard didn't she.
The Charts and I spy yet another Billy Joel song that we won't see, what had he done to upset the BBC?
Alison Moyet with her naughty song about sexual stimulation. I like the pink balloon hitting er on her bonce which slightly spoils the tone but she carries on with a smile. It must have been written into her contract "no stupid cheerleaders" because all the crowd seem to be genuine music fans.
Green and Co with a carbon copy of the last performance, minus Green's jacket and with the bass player doing that odd Birdie song style dance which at the time I wondered if it was a piss take of The Smiths as Morrissey did a similar dance.
Repeat of Frakie's 1st performance and then playout with Jacko AGAIN. Running out of ideas Mr Hurll? How about playing Billy Joel, Lionel Richie, Grandmaster Flash or The pointer Sisters who were all going up this week.
Fifty something here...
DeleteNot sure if it was coincidental but a few weeks previously BBC1 had broadcast a live Billy Joel concert from Wembley. For reasons best known to itself The Observer had asked John Peel to write a review of an earlier concert on that tour and it was fairly obvious that Peel had pretty much written the review before even arriving at the gig. (Peel had it in for Joel for some reason - note for example his comment on Joel having two top ten singles a few months previously). Joel took the opportunity of the live broadcast to diss Peel citing his failure to recognise Gershwin's 'Rhapsody In Blue' for example. I imagine this was not appreciated in certain quarters.
Incidentally I was lucky enough to see Joel perform in Chicago last month. Nearing 70 now and he can still put on a heck of a show .
are you suggesting that billy joel was blacklisted from "totp" because he had some kind of personal spat going with john peel?
DeleteI'm fifty something too and remember watching and enjoying that Billy Joel concert (it was broadcast in two parts). It certainly was around the time of 'Tell her about it' being in the charts. In retrospect it does make you wonder why the next three singles received the cold shoulder given that the Beeb had given so much exposure to Billy Joel recently.
DeleteRegarding Peel, he seemed to have it in for AOR in general; witness the sarcastic 'multi talented' tags inserted to certain artists on the chart rundown.
What an annoying twat Steve Wright is. Couldn’t someone, possibly Billy Idol, have smashed that racquet over his head to cut his racket?
ReplyDeleteAll The Bluebells are here this week, unlike in their mugshot, and in matching gear apart from a slight deviation by the self-loving fiddler.. From memory this song became famous thanks to a Volkswagen ad depicting the outcome of a divorce settlement.
Some bloody shrieking kids in Nik Kershaw’s audience – oh, and some bloke in his 20’s who should know a bit better.
It’s The League with their take on Soft Cell’s “Bedsitter”. I’ve never wanted to rip Bacofoil so much for a long time.
It’s that bloody kid again! I didn’t wait in vain to watch Bob Marley’s tribute video. FF.
WTF is that on Tina Turner’s head? What’s curlers go to do with it?
Ooh missus! It’s Alison Moyet with some melodic smut, plus the best smiley reaction yet to a balloon in the mush.
Hmm, holiday or sunbed since your last show, Green? Nice cummerbund and, indeed, the whole band looked smart. Great to see so many cutaways to and close-ups of Sasha the drummer.
The last two songs were “this again” and “not this again”!
Green should have changed his name to Orange to match his new colour.
DeleteOne thing that always bugged me about the League's Life On Your Own was the opening line - "winter is approaching, there's snow upon the ground". I would argue that if there was snow on the ground then winter was already here.
ReplyDeleteI remember it snowing at Easter one year in the early 70's!
DeleteIt also snowed in London in October 2008, and famously snow stopped play in a county cricket match in Derbyshire in June 1975!
DeleteWhat a contrat John, cos the following June in 1976 was the hottest summer on record.
DeleteThe irony is that in general the summer of '75 was warm, sunny and dry, after that cold start!
Deletejohn how do you know all this, given you weren't even born then to my knowledge?
Deletewhat i remember about that summer was that my best mate who i always hung out with (including buying and listening to records among other things of course!) was forced go on a month-long cruise with his (now-affluent) parents, leaving me to fend on my own for much of the school holidays. and boy that was tough - regardless of the weather conditions!
I wasn't born then Wilberforce, but I do take an interest in weather history. Part of the reason the drought of 1976 was so severe was because the previous summer had already been dry.
DeleteThe snow stopped play incident occurred in Buxton, Derbyshire where Lancashire were the opposition. The game had started on Saturday in sunshine (when Lanacshire racked up a big score with Clive Lloyd hitting a century), Sunday was a rest day and then on Monday the rain turned to sleet and then snow. I believe that being a 'high' town this contributed to this unusual occurence. The game ended on Tuesday with a right old thrashing for the home side.....due to the state of the pitch after the snow!
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ReplyDeleteRestored BBC4HD version of 28/06/84 with JK segment and final link from Neil Bs upload:
ReplyDeleteTOTP 28/06/1984
Full list of restorations:
https://drykid.github.io