One small step for Adam Ant
20/09/84 (Andy Peebles (doing his final show) & Steve Wright)
Bronski Beat – “Why?” (22)
Not risking a live vocal this time but the song became their second top ten hit peaking at number 6.
David Bowie – “Blue Jean” (17) (video)
Perhaps not one of his better known hits, but it came from his number one album Tonight, and it reached number 6. And the video features Andrew Ridgeley's brother, Paul, on drums, and Richard Fairbrass from Right Said Fred on bass!
Sister Sledge – “Lost In Music” (7)
A second studio performance for this re-mix , obviously making up for not coming in the first time around in 1979! It went up four more places.
Queen – “Hammer To Fall” (19) (video)
A run of the mill concert video for this banging fourth single from their number two album, The Works, it made it to number 13.
Nik Kershaw – “Human Racing” (20)
Performing the title track of his number five album, the single crossed the line at number 19.
Jonathan King – US chart rundown: edited out of course.
Scandal – “The Warrior” (video clip)
The Cars – “Drive” (video clip)
John Waite – “Missing You” (video clip)
Adam Ant – “Apollo 9” (28)
Just three years earlier he was the biggest act in the charts, but now he was crashing back to earth, but he was doing it with a great tune! It peaked at number 13.
Level 42 – “Hot Water” (18)
A second performance but the song got no higher.
Stevie Wonder – “I Just Called To Say I Love You” (1) (video)
Third of six weeks for Stevie's only solo number one. Spot the toast in the video!
Freddie Mercury – “Love Kills” (27) (audience dancing/credits)
It's Freddy again, this time with his first solo hit, which peaked at number 10.
Watch Noel Edmonds solve the mystery of that floating piece of toast in the video for I Just Called To Say I Love You. #TOTP 2/2 pic.twitter.com/RDmM6D1gao— BBC Four (@BBCFOUR) October 13, 2017
The mystery of Stevie Wonder's toast......
Really enjoyed tonight's show, the No.1 notwithstanding.
ReplyDeleteBronski Beat with a song I prefer to Smalltown Boy, it has the same message-making but it powers along with a great dance beat. Jimmy may not have been live, but he was having fun blowing us a kiss - what was in his bandmate's mouth, though? Eighties vocoder?
The video for Blue Jean lasted over 20 minutes and was actually a short film released to cinemas as a supporting feature (remember them?). Bowie's really funny in it, too, and if the song is just fine and no more, in the context of the film it sounds really good.
Sister Sledge, might not have been live but it was a rerecording, no doubt about it. No idea why they chose to rerelease this when they were on the record (hah!) as not liking the Chic-produced original very much. OK, it was for the cash.
Queen, don't hear this one too often and though the video is a cliché 80s concert effort, it's a muscular tune with some nice riffage and a strong Freddy vocal.
Nik Kershaw, and I may balk at agreeing with Steve Wright, but this was his best song for me too. Doesn't sound like anything else, an excellent slice of tuneage with great production and regulation weird video (that I doubt we'll see on here). Just a good show all round.
Adam Ant, heading down the dumper with style, this was one of his best songs for me and if it had been out a couple of years earlier it might have been as big as his other ones. Remember Bruno Brookes reading out the lyrics on his show and expressing bemusement, but who cares, it sounds fantastic.
Level 42 with a very animated performance, this one is re-growing on me, if that makes sense, loads of energy and they're all having a ball.
Ah, Angelo's beaten me to it with the toast anecdote! That's what I always associate with the Stevie video, well, that and the scene in High Fidelity (the film, not the book) where Jack Black gets furious with a customer who wants to buy a copy.
Second dose of Freddy with Love Kills, from the Metropolis soundtrack that Giorgio Moroder put together, and a storming pop track it is, I prefer this to a lot of his Queen material.
I objected at the time (and also now) to Bronski Beat's main opening lyrics "Content in your eyes as I turn to kiss his lips" as this was sung by a male (Jimi Somerville). Now I know that being gay was not frowned upon in this country, but really, there was no need to rub it in, especially as TOTP was a family programme, and frankly I'm surprised that TOTP at the time did not object to it. Even now I don't feel comfortable with those lyrics 33 years later.
DeleteThe line is "Contempt in your eyes as I turn to kiss his lips" and you're the living proof Dory! It's 2017, not 1947.
DeleteNeil B has made the full show, including JK, available on WeTransfer:
ReplyDeletehttps://we.tl/ng5jvPiiqd
Here's the full show, with the JK segment, thanks to Neil B! ~ https://we.tl/ng5jvPiiqd
ReplyDeleteYou got there before me John :-)
DeleteGreat minds think alike, Angelo!
DeleteJust doing my usual edit of this with the BBC4 version to put back JK in, and the strange thing is that the Queen video has been re-edited too (check out the "Give it to me one more time!" bit at the end, which is shot from totally different camera angles in each.) I'm mystified why this has been tampered with, it's possible BBC4 didn't realise there are two versions of the video, but even so I don't know why they would've felt the need to be messing with the original in the first place. Odd.
DeleteAnyway will restore it accurately in my version.
I wonder if Wrighty and Andy kept getting paired together because they had moustaches - even if that was the case, why was it their shows that always seemed to have the JK slot in this period? Anyway, this is sadly the last we will see of Andy, one of several victims of a cull of TOTP presenters in the autumn of '84 apparently instigated by incoming BBC1 controller Michael Grade, before he turned his attentions to Doctor Who. Andy may not always have been comfortable on camera, but I appreciated his musical knowledge and unflappable manner, and if there was any justice it should have been his arm-flapping, unfunny co-host who got binned...
ReplyDeleteBronski Beat follow up Smalltown Boy with a decent dance number, even if it doesn't quite soar to the heights of their signature hit. Jimmy seems to be enjoying himself, and I share THX's bewilderment at what the left-hand keyboardist had in his mouth - the camera never got close enough for me to determine. Many critics regard this as the point where Bowie really began to go into creative decline, but Blue Jean is a decent enough song, if strictly second division by his standards. It's a fun enough video, with the Dame adding genie and yuppie to his list of guises.
Sister Sledge give their arm movements another workout in the studio, and they also seem to be singing live, but I'm not sure. Queen are in their element on an arena-sized stage in this video for a commendably spirited rocker - their performance here rather prefigures their legendary set at Live Aid, which included this song. Oh dear, Nik's got his horrible chunky braces back on, and he is looking even more awkward than usual with no instruments on stage. One of his lesser known hits, and it sounded like an attempt to show he had real depth as a songwriter. I don't think it succeeds, but it's OK, I suppose.
JK is at Madison Square Garden, but as two of the three featured tracks will be on the show again imminently, I'll confine myself to saying that the Scandal song sounds like any number of American pop-rock records from this period, and the post-apocalyptic video didn't feel particularly original either. As his career prepared to nosedive completely, Adam Ant gets a haircut and changes from dandy highwayman to spaceman. Musically this is all over the place and signals pretty clearly that the game was now up for Mr Goddard, but the performance is fun enough.
Level 42 give us another energetic studio turn, before Freddie pops up again to play us out. I don't suppose either he or his bandmates were that thrilled that this and Hammer to Fall came out at the same time, but presumably different record companies were involved. Freddie appears to be dipping his toes in the Hi-NRG water here, and it works pretty well. The audience appear to enjoy dancing to this one too, and we actually get to see a bit more of them this week, with the cheerleaders less prominent.
Interesting stuff John. I never knew there was a cull of presenters but that would explain why Travis and Savile stopped appearing on the show around this time.
DeleteI wonder if Wright was given coaching at some point? I don't recall him being so fidgety in later TV appearances. Not sure I agree with his assertion that 'Human Racing' was Nik Kershaw's best single yet - I remember it as one of the tracks I always used to wind through on my copy of Now 4.
Love Kills though is one of my favourite songs from around this time. It was apparently considered for The Works and there's a slow version on the Queen Forever compilation.
Yes, 1984 seemed to be the end of an era for TOTP presenters, with four of them dating back to the 70s for presenting the show, i.e., Jimmy Saville, Dave Lee Travis and Kid Jensen and Tommy Vance all taking their marching orders in 1984, with Andy Peebles thrown in (I mean out) for good measure, having only dated back to 1983!
DeleteKid left of his own volition rather than being given his marching orders, but the others appear to have either been eased out (like Jim'll) or just dropped.
DeleteFor anyone interested in TOTP's 1984 ratings someone has posted some archive ratings for BBC1 on Digital Spy. The 11th October 1984 edition got 8.04m viewers, the Beeb's second most watched show of the night after a new show called Morgan's Boy. Not one I've heard of!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThat goes with my hunch that 1983 was when TOTP reached peak viewing figures of 11million+ at its very peak in all departments, but from 1984 this nosedived down to around 8 million viewers at best, largely due to a shortened show and the Beeb opted for two hosts on each show to make things worse. I noticed also that from the 1984 shows, Angelo stopped putting the weekly viewing figure for each episode. No strange coincidence Angelo?
DeleteMost weeks someone put the ratings on Twitter along with the Beeb's schedule for that evening, but if TOTP wasn't in the Beeb's top 10 there's no figure to post.
DeleteSomeone on the DS forum presumably has access to old ratings as they do 'on this day' figures as well as current ones and by happy coincidence they're looking at October 1984.
In 1984 terms that figure isn't as high as it has been but in today's figures 8 million would make TOTP one of the 10 most watched shows of the week!
Yes I used to get the viewing figures from BBC4s tweets during the shows, but they've stopped posting them, presumably because, like Steve says, they only have the fugures for the top ten shows of the week, and Top of the Pops was falling down the charts unfortunately at this time.
DeleteFreddie's solo single - co-written by Giorgio Moroder, no less - was released on CBS, whereas Queen's was on EMI. Their charismatic frontman had recently signed a separate solo deal.
ReplyDeleteI remember 'Human Racing' fondly; it was one of the first tunes I learned to play on a Casio synthesiser I had at the time, along with The Kinks' 'Sunny Afternoon'.
One tune I have never learned to play on any instrument is Adam's 'Apollo 9' - which was, unsurprisingly, my Mum's pick of that week's pops.
Level 42 - ah, that's better. Underrated nowadays, they were one of Britain's most accomplished bands of the 1980s. Still very much a jazz-funk outfit at this stage in their career, they would subsequently develop a more accessible pop-rock style that would sell to a wide-ranging audience in Britain and abroad.
The Freddie one is definitely good, though not sure how aware I was of it at the time the tune is familiar and takes you back to then.
ReplyDeleteHammer to Fall in comparison has never done much for me, certainly compared to their great song from this period Radio Ga Ga. It's probably better to look at it as a decent performance of a rock song, it's not really going for a pop sensibility. And for that it's ok.
Nick's song completely passed me by, it's smooth but maybe doesn't have the hooks of his other hits then. Though it's interesting to see him do something different.
I remember I very much liked Blue Jean at the time, insanely catchy.
Adam Ant - not that familiar with this, some great tunes up to the chorus, but maybe the chorus not quite as good. But with the energy it has maybe it doesn't matter too much. Rough sounding for the period so that might not have helped it.
I didn't like Missing You (more for female audience?) or Cars (too smooth). Warrior I wasn't aware of and maybe is a bit AOR/MOR, good performance but Hammer to Fall is better for a rock hook.
bronski beat: pretty much "small town boy" pt ii really
ReplyDeletebowie: the dame produces his own version of "thriller" i.e. a mini-drama that is 20 minutes long with the actual song only being three minutes or so. it's okay, but hardly one of his best. and playing a character that's a bumbling and bungling no-hoper is not really a good idea when you look like a god, as he did at this point
queen: the rest have all had hits from the album, so brian may finally gets his turn with some bread and butter metal-lite. although he contributed at least as many songs as freddie mercury and a lot more than the other two to the band's albums, it seems he was getting short shrift in the choosing of singles department. what with that and seeing roger taylor rolling in the money from the b-side of "bohemian rhapsody" (for which he got sod all), it was no surprise that not long after this was agreed (in order to stop them breaking up acrimoniously) that all queen compositions would be credited to the whole band rather than individuals - regardless of who actually wrote it
nik kershaw: this actually sounds like it could have been on a level 42 album, although without that act's musical dexterity it's pretty boring. by the way, has he ever expressed regret at dropping the "c" from his name?
adam ant: i can't say i've ever cared for anything he did, although his later less-successful stuff is an improvement on the big hits. i wonder if was where tony james (ex-generation x) got the inspiration for the mega-hyped sigue sigue sputnick that was to come the following year?
freddie mercury: i was wondering why was he releasing solo stuff whilst his band were still having hit singles from their latest album, and thx has now explained why. a sadly prophetic title there - did he already know he had picked up aids at this point?
Blue Jean was one of my favourite Bowie songs, and the classy video gave it some extra punch, especially the attractive girlfriend at the table who he was trying to impress throughout the video. I particularly liked his talking over the song towards the end to say something to her, much like hearing his normal non-singing voice at the start of the Peace On Earth No.2 single with Bing Crosby a couple of years earlier where they have some banter by the piano before the song begins. I think Bowie liked the sound of his charismatic voice in real life.
DeleteIf you went to see The Company of Wolves at the pictures around this time, you'd probably see the full Jazzin' for Blue Jean short, because they were often paired as a double bill.
DeleteBack with Peebles and Wright again, my least fave combination.
ReplyDeleteBronski Beat's Why? is amazing. A worthy follow up to Smalltown Boy and probably the first time on TOTP that a song lyric mentions a guy kissing another guy.
You could argue that it's one costume change too many for David Bowie at number 17. Okay it's a treading water exercise but a good one and proof that even his average stuff was better than some people's best. Funny video with The Dame having a dig at himself. I seem to recall that the full length video was shown on Channel 4.
Sister Sledge must have been on tour in the UK at this point because this is the second time in three weeks that they turned up in person to sing Lost In Music.And unlike little Jimmy they are singing live and looking very sassy and sexy in those outfits.
Queen getting all rocky (and ready for Live Aid) at number 19 with Hammer To Fall. This is pretty much standard Queen fare and a bit of a disappointment after the last three singles but a great stadium filler. Freddie is in good shape for a man of 39 apart from the Yosser Hughes tache.
Nik Kershaw and Human Racing. Not a great deal to get exited about here and certainly not his best song as Steve Wright said. Nik's vocals sounds strangely like Stevie Wonder at times which can't be a bad thing but the song isn't strong enough.
Haven't seem the Jonathan King segment so I can't comment except to say that I was never a fan of The Cars and especially Drive which was hugely overrated. And I grew very tired of it once it was hijacked by Live Aid.
Having run out of panto characters and folk heroes Adam Ant turns his attention to the space race with Apollo 9. This sounds like his last hit Puss In boots but with new lyrics and of course a new astronaut look for Adam and his mates (who are not the Ants except Marco, of course, who's always there).
So many new entries and risers in the chart this week that they're not featuring namely Stephanie Mils, Sade, UB40, The Jacksons, Prince, Kraftwerk, Malcolm Mclaren and Shaky. Plus a couple that are dropping that we never saw - Heaven 17 and Grandmaster Flash. There was a time when they would have crammed more it but they seem to be playing most songs in full these days.
A return for Level 42 which is not a lot different from last time. Nice to see but I would like to have seen another of the new entries.
The boring Stevie video made even more boring by some truly horrible effects and then play out with Freddie and Love Kills. I must admit I missed this at the time and while not as good as Living On My Own and I was Born To Love You it's not bad. And at nearly 4 minutes it must be one of the longest play out tracks ever featured. Not very impressed with the dancing at the end with the camera focusing on a bloke dressed like a boiled egg and a half-hearted body-popper. Come back Reg Hollis and Not Duncan Norvelle, all is forgiven!!
Yes Bama, it think it was the first time TOTP had a song lyric with two guys kissing. Suffice to say that my thoughts on this were highlighted above, with, erm, TOTP being a family programme.
DeleteThe Sister Sledge outfits looked liked something out of The Flintstones, so you could pick out Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble from it. In terms of your description of the Sisters Sledge as sassy and sexy, I would rather have Tracey Ullman and her two girlies wearing those Flintstone outfits, with their Sunglasses on for good measure!
With regard to many entries and risers not featured, I would say again as I said before, this is largely due the fact that the show was ruined at this stage by being cut own to 35 or 30 minutes long (erm, short) in 1984, and as best when it was 40-45 minutes long pre-1984 where you would seem more new entries and risers featured. The post 1983 days reflected significantly lower viewing figures from 1984 onwards when the show was shortened.
If it's a family show Dory why do you spend all your time (endlessly) talking about which girls you fancy?
DeleteNot the same analogy Bama. All the people on this blog are mature adults. The people who watched TOTP in 1984 were both adults and children, and that is what I am getting at. Of course the children of today may be different, but I was referring to children in 1984 where this would have been too risqué for their ears. I was 16 at the time, but would not have been wanting to hear those lyrics if I was 10 or 11 for example, which represented about half of the viewing figures back then.
DeleteGay people have families too. Friends as well. A couple of friends of mine in school subsequently came out as gay once they'd left, but they'd never have dared to do that at the time, even with Jimmy Somerville's reassurances. Anything that would make anti-gay bullying, or worse, gay-bashing, unacceptable is fine by me, and is fine by a lot of people. It's only a kiss! It's a sign of affection!
Deletedory why would you not want to be wanting to hear those lyrics if you were 10 or 11?
DeleteHighlight of the show for me this week was the playout, cos I thought the dancing was very romantic for Love Kills, with nice all round 80s clothing style with all those colours and solid white outfits too. People seemed very happy in those days because of people connection, compared to the stress and uncertainty facing todays young adult population with more device connection by means of mobiles phone and tablets.
ReplyDeleteI do emphasise that I eagerly await these playouts every week with curiosity to see how much of it they will show, because clearly every week the Beeb would have filmed it to completion of the song to play us out, yet at the time, the broadcast would pull away once the credits finished. in this week's case, it was pretty much played in full. Sometimes even, these studio audience playouts are much better than watching the original performer or the video!
Any sightings of the 27th Sep show with Mike Smith hosting? Looks like this one will forever be confined to the vault at the Beeb, as it wasn't shown on UK Gold either. I'm just curious to see how the studio audience danced to the No.2 on the playout, i.e., Ghostbusters on the playout, and if there were any party props and ghost outfits for it. Narrowly missed the coveted No.1 did Ray Parker Junior.
ReplyDeleteSome of the song of time climbing up the charts like madam butterfly Malcolm mclaren, the medicine song Stephanie Mills, torture by the jacksons and sunset now heaven 17 were never featured on top of the pops
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Popscene website, we get "The Medicine Song" on video in the next show.
DeleteOk hope they show it
DeleteI had no idea Andy Peebles was culled from the show. Big shame, as I thought he’d grown into the role. Also very unhappy that Nodding Dog Wright, pointing upwards at acts on the stage, unable to read the chart rundown and an absolute arse, got kept.
ReplyDeleteI’m sure Julie would have told us the Bronski Beat ‘vocoder’ was actually a multi-keyed electric kazoo with reverb and flange control! ;-D
Tremendous facial make-up on stagebound David Bowie – and it’s “Blue Jean”, not “Blue Jeans”, you useless prick!
Sister Sledge did better with their dance routine this time round. Those shoes didn’t go with the outfits.
Workmanlike rock from Queen, with Roger Taylor wearing a Wham! T-shirt. I guess George Michael returned the favour with his cover of “Somebody To Love”.
I agree Nik Kershaw’s song wouldn’t have been out of place with Level 42. I also agree it was typical Nodding Dog thought one of Nik’s most meandering songs was his best.
As for the banned part of the show, Scandal was a band from New York City whose track “The Warrior” made number 7. They had four other minor hits between 41 and 65.
Adam Ant there with a cameo-style codpiece and a right old veg omelette of a racket.
I always thought Level 42’s “Lessons In Love” would have made a better ballad with a different, sparse, slow backing. As for “Hot Water”, I see the drummer got his “What?” synced right this time.
Oo! It’s Disco Freddie. I wonder what John Deacon and the lads would have made of that?
Seeing as how Queen ripped off Chic on Another One Bites the Dust, I don't think they'd be justified in criticising Freddy's collaboration with the King of Eurodisco.
DeleteSadly Wright's status as one of Radio 1's biggest DJ's is probably what saved him regardless of his TV skills.
DeleteRestored BBC4HD version of 20/09/84 with the following added back from Neil B's upload:
ReplyDelete- JK segment.
- unedited final link.
- end of Queen video (heaven knows why they changed this...)
TOTP 20/09/1984
Full list of restorations:
https://drykid.github.io
Great work, drykid! Keep them coming!
DeleteThanks! Great work!
DeleteBowie - Intereasting video - looked it went on a bit further after the music...
ReplyDeleteAdam Ant - No impressed with Apollo 9 - wasn't this the song he did on Live Aid thta got him all the stick for not doing his hits? - It seems a long time before then.
I Just Called To Say I LOve You - the most boring song ever written, ever!
The career killing appearance by Adam Ant on Live Aid featured a performance of 'Vive Le Rock'. I think he was supposed to do at least another but his set was cut short.
DeleteThanks Niax - quite right, wrong track
DeleteWrightl looking smart and football fan-ish at the same time on this one. Another show ignoring the rising Kraftwerk and Malcolm Butterfly (Hi there Billy Joel!)…and another mixed bag.
ReplyDeleteBronski Beat – Why – did I listen to some of this? Thought I’d give it a try but then I realised and thought ‘oh no, it’s that’, so FF.
David Bowie – Blue Jean – (cop?). Angelo you’ve hit the nail on the head. Not one of Bowie’s best known nor best. Fans may have bought ‘Tonight’ and sent it to no1 when it came out, but Bowie fans I knew at the time said it wasn’t much cop….
Sister Sledge – Lost in Music - Yes there is something very appealing about this quartet and their outfits which are remarked upon. I suppose it’s not a great song but it does get into your head. ‘We are Family’ next.
Queen – Hammer to Fall – Classic Queen video of a hard rocking Brian May song. Fans know the story of the original ‘live’ picture sleeve for this single which was rapidly replaced by a boring plain red sleeve. If you’ve got a (black) live sleeve then hang onto it – I wish I had bought one at the time when I saw it in HMV Oxford Street. Anyway, the sleeve was allegedly withdrawn as it gives the impression the single is live when it’s actually an edited cut from ‘The Works’. However, the video is a supposed live performance in the same vein as ‘We are the Champions’ and damn fine it looks too, showing Queen in their prime on ‘The Works’ tour which I was fortunate enough to see. Oh yes, the chart rundown showed…..the live photo that was on the withdrawn sleeve. Thanks Drykid for the observation regarding the video; I never knew that.
Nik Kershaw – Human Racing – Not my favourite Kershaw hit, but quite appealing.
JK Section – (Thanks Neil B). Never heard of ‘Scandal’ apart from the Queen single of the same name. ‘Drive’ by the Cars is simply immortal and a staple of Magic Radio to this day whilst ‘Missing you’ was another cracker.
Adam Ant – Apollo 9 – I recall that mission sadly! One of those ‘orbit the moon’ efforts that preceded the actual Apollo 11 Moon landing. This track sounds like it belongs in 1981 and only the two drummers are missing.
Level 42 – Hot Water – A fabulous lip sync performance from Mark King which Echo and the Bunneymen could do with watching! It’s a lively dancey affair and one of the best songs on the show even if (as mentioned the other week) I prefer the live version.
Stevie Wonder – I just called to say I love you – So you have this song with just a video stuck at no1, what do you do? In 1976, Abba’s ‘Fernando’ was in a similar predicament and even Pans People couldn’t dance to that, so they simply cut is short; usually after the first chorus and that’s what they should have done with this perhaps? With ‘Hey Jude’ by the Beatles seemingly set for a long run at the top, they showed a video of the B Side ‘ Revolution’; perhaps they could have done that with this? Ah wait, the B Side is an instrumental version, so nope!
Freddie Mercury – Love Kills – Extended dance out again and the ‘planted’ couple get a lot of screen time, but it’s a fine song and good one to dance out to.
i can't say i was overly keen on "drive", but in my opinion the title track of the album that came from ("heartbeat city") was not only by far the greatest piece of synth pop made by americans, but by anyone for that matter:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKIJVKzgoSc
Not sure I'd say the best by anyone ever but it certainly is a brilliant track.
DeleteI liked the intro, which reminded me a bit of early Human League, but once the song got going properly it left me a bit cold, I'm afraid. Nice synths, anyway!
DeleteI don't think there's a single best song of any style, people have their favourites which is fine. For an earlier 80s synth track I'd pick something like Pleasure Victim by Berlin, though I'm sure there's others I like too.
DeleteWilberforce - I have given this a play on YT (what took me so long?!). Just sublime isn't it? Checked 45cat and it was originally tucked away on the B Side of the flop single 'Why can't I have you'.
DeleteAfter the success of 'Drive' this was re-released with a different catalogue number and then flipped to belatedly promote 'Heartbeat City'.
each to their own of course, and i was certainly ambivalent when it came to the cars (be it their 70's noo wave hits or "drive"). but i'm fairly sure i remember hearing it on "the whistle test" at the time and thinking "blimey, that's rather good". but sadly it never got any media exposure otherwise (despite the success of "drive") so i never heard it again for many years afterwards. then i discovered the album in a second-hand record shop, where i played the track several times over on their turntable!
Deletesorry starry, i gave the previously-unheard "pleasure victim" a go on yt and it didn't do anything for me. but as i said above: each to their own...
Isn't it amazing how many songs from big acts entered the chart in this week! Not that we got to see many of them.....
ReplyDeleteBronski Beat - Great pop song, and I think it's worth saying that I probably didn't even know what this song was about at the time, let alone be offended by it, Dory!
David Bowie - Middling stuff really.
Sister Sledge - Why has one of them seemingly attached a sporran to her skirt? We established previously that the 7" re-release was the original and the 12" a remix. So just to confuse us, this time we get a re-recording. They're definitely not singing live though!
Queen - A throwback to their 70s output, nothing wrong with that, though it was never going to be a massive hit.
Nik Kershaw - Nothing special, this song. Probably his worst single for me.
Adam Ant - I love this. And it sounds bloody fantastic on the radio. Should have been a Top 10 hit at the very least.
I agree with bama, would rather have seen something new than Level 42 again. The Freddie song seems very popular but even though it's the kind of thing I usually like it's not a favourite.
totp 27th September 1984 is here:https://we.tl/2mnB3688HV
ReplyDeleteNice one, thank you :-)
DeleteThanks! Watched and critiqued, but no doubt others will beat me to the punch and say what I'd thought! :-D
DeleteJust watched as much as I could manage - two thirds of it - of the video for "The Warrior" by Scandal, which someone on the comments comes across (both lyrically and) vocally as a cross between Pat Benatar and Heart.
ReplyDeleteWhy is an underrated song but at the same time I can see why it's overshadowed by Smalltown Boy as that song has so much atmosphere (from the very start too).
ReplyDeleteAndys last totp
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