We wish you a Merry Christmas!
25-12-73: Presenters: Tony Blackburn & Noel Edmonds
(-) SLADE – Cum On Feel The Noize
Who better than Slade to get us underway with their fourth of six number ones.
(-) DONNY OSMOND – Young Love (video)
With his first of three number ones.
(-) SUZI QUATRO – Can The Can
And the first of two number one hits for Suzi.
(-) SIMON PARK ORCHESTRA – Eye Level (Theme From The T.V. Series ‘Van Der Valk’)
Made it to number one in September 1973, but it was their only hit.
(-) LITTLE JIMMY OSMOND – Long Haired Lover From Liverpool (video)
Last year's Christmas number one but Little Jimmy didn't have another one.
(-) THE SWEET – Blockbuster
Performing their only number one hit.
(-) DAWN feat. TONY ORLANDO – Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree ®
This was Dawn's second of two number one hits.
(-) GILBERT O’SULLIVAN – Get Down (danced to by Pan’s People)
His second of two number one hits.
(-) GARY GLITTER – I’m The Leader Of The Gang (I Am)
His first of three number ones ~ though will be edited out of the show of course. But I haven't had chance to watch it yet!
(30) DAVID CASSIDY – Daydreamer (video)
His second of two number ones.
(-) 10cc – Rubber Bullets
With their first of three number one hits.
(-) PETERS & LEE – Welcome Home
Their only number one hit, taken from their huge number one album, We Can Make It.
(-) WIZZARD – See My Baby Jive
Performing their first of two number one hits.
(1) SLADE – Merry Xmas Everybody (and credits)
In the year when it was brand new, and it was their sixth and final number one hit.
A huge thanks from me to everyone who reads and contributes to this blog, your efforts and insights are always very much appreciated, and so I'd like to say to you all:
Merry Top of the Pops-mas Everybody!
Same to you Angelo! Here’s to ‘85.
ReplyDeleteThis was good to watch as a period piece. I note that Blockbuster wasn’t shown. I don’t know why..
was the "get down" clip the one with the dogs? just the thought of that (with one deciding he's had enough after about 30 seconds, and the rest just sitting there panting) still cracks me up!
ReplyDeletei would have just turned 11 at the time of original broadcast, but everything apart from the teeny bopper stuff of donny and cassidy (which i had no interest in - that was for girls!) instantly comes back to me. glam was my first proper pop interest, so it would have been (and still is) a show of extremes in my view with that being regarded as the good stuff whilst much of the rest i was familiar with being sneered at as lightweight pap (simon park, little jimmy, dawn, peters & lee). i do note that there was not one non-white act on the show (unless you include tony orlando's female backing singers) - which they probably wouldn't be allowed to "get away with" now, regardless of how relatively-commercially unsuccessful such practitioners might have been...
i remember my junior school buying four violins shortly before this, and (having already being fairly proficient on recorder and piano) being chosen as one of the four musical prodigies (in relative terms) to learn to play them. but even though i'd never played a guitar, i was aware that they had frets on them that made it obvious where to place a finger to play a note, and the violin did not - and my logical mind couldn't see why one should have to guess in that respect, so i never really got on with the damn thing. however i realised whilst messing about with it before one lesson that if i just moved my finger up and down the fretboard whilst bowing, then i could reproduce the sound of the police siren at the start of "blockbuster". and for the first time experienced a sense of pleasure playing the instrument. then the teacher came in and said something like "stop making that racket!"!
unless angelo is pulling the plug, then i'd like to say now that i've done a "gary glitter" (no, not committed illegal sexual acts with minors!) and changed my mind about retiring from submitting reviews and other comments to this blog as i've been threatening to for the last few months - one reason being that 1984 was so dire that it seemed wrong to end on such a low note. so all being well i've decided to carry on with not only 1985 (which i already know from memory is better than that) but also the first three months of 1986, whereby we will have had precisely 10 years of these re-runs. and at which point chart music pretty much went down the toilet for me, so i started looking elsewhere for my jollies...
Many thanks to Angelo and everyone from a long time anonymous reader. I'm sure there are many of us.
ReplyDeleteApparently The Sweet weren't shown because one of them was wearing a swastika armband...not very festive.
Good Lord, did the BBC not spot this at the time in 1973 to prevent these armbands being worn, or was it that such repugnant detail was not seen as offensive at the time? I doubt it somehow.
Deleteit is a curious case that the swastika symbol is much more maligned now than it was 40 years earlier, when the horror of what the nazis did was presumably far fresher in people's minds? or perhaps that generation (most of whom are now no longer with us of course) just wanted to put it behind them? also it has to be said that sexism and racism was far more acceptable in those days than the pc world we live in now, so that may be a factor with regard to a tolerance of it. to my recollection the offender in question (bassist steve priest, whose cod-camp interjections on what i consider the sweet's great glam trilogy may in themselves be far more offensive to some today than at the time) also wore a hitler moustache on the show, and if anything it was seen as humourous rather than distasteful. and of course it was perfectly okay for john cleese to use his finger for the same effect (even though his character already had a tache) in addition to goose-stepping and "heil hitler-ing" in an episode of "fawlty towers" (which surely wouldn't get out of the script editor's office nowadays, other than in a waste bin?)
Deleteit has also to be remembered that those alternative cultures who adopted the symbol (hells angels, punks) perhaps did so not because they supported the nazis, but because they saw those who defeated them as being repressors in their own right and thus used it as a sign of rebellion accordingly?
I think another reason why dressing up as a Nazi for comic effect was less controversial back then was because the Nazis had been regularly lampooned during the War, and so the antics of Steve Priest or Spike Milligan (who of course had actually fought in the War and regularly dressed up as Hitler in his Q series), would have been seen as an extension of that tradition. Times move on of course, but I think the Beeb is being ridiculously over-sensitive here, and once again trying to rewrite history.
DeleteIt's not only the BBC trying to rewrite history. I was watching the 1972 film Carry On Abroad yesterday on ITV3, and they edited out the scene with Sid James nuzzling a woman's breasts after falling to the ground after the team were kicked out of Madam Fifi's stripteaze parlour in Elsbels.
DeleteHow ridiculous of these TV channels. I can only imagine that there must be more women working in these BBC & ITV channels nowadays, and feeling vindicated somehow by past liberties and innocent fun in TV and film.
Bet they edited out Babs' nude scene, too!
DeleteI don't recall Bab's having a nude scene in Carry On Abroad, but I think you are referring to Carry on Camping, where her bra flies off during the outdoor stretching exercises. You'll be pleased to know that Carry On Camping will be shown tomorrow morning on ITV3. Don't know if any of it will be edited out though THX.
DeleteBabs is in the shower in Abroad, and Sid points at the soap suds on her arse and tells her she missed a bit. So they did cut it out!
DeleteOh dear, so it's not only TOTP shows that get items edited out from them for modern day audiences. It's a good thing that I still have the original VHS releases/box sets of the Carry On Films, so that they can be seen now exactly as they were seen back then.
DeleteDon't ITV3 show the On the Buses movies at this time of year, too? They always cut out the bit where the clippie's blouse burst open at the start of Holiday On the Buses, too, in afternoon showings anyway.
Deletei wanted to respond in more depth to what i see as the pc madness of exorcising soft porn/cheap gags from such films, but i was struggling to do so without coming over as some kind of pervert! i suppose the best i can say in that regard is that it's all part of "modern life is rubbish"...
DeleteThere was another awful cut yesterday on the ITV3 showing of Up Pompeii with Frankie Howard as main actor. They edited out the scene with the black fingerprints on Voluptua's breast after a session with Lurcio.
DeleteI can only think this is because of showing these films in the mornings or afternoons which ITV3 tends to do. Historically when these were on the BBC, they would only be shown after 9pm, and they kept the titillations in, which is still harmless fun for both sexes over 18's, not perversion!
Yeah, there's a danger of going all Cosmo Smallpiece about the casual approach to nudity in older movies, but it is a bit of a shame they have to be cut when shown at inappropriate times of the day.
DeleteIt's not the Pope painting over the nudes in the Sistine Chapel or anything, but you want to see them as the makers intended.
i actually watched "carry on camping" on xmas day whilst visiting some friends, and afterwards it occurred to me that one of the main plotlines is that a middle-aged man tries to get off with underage schoolgirl - which makes him a pedo. so shouldn't the whole film be banned because of that? that's not my personal opinion, it's just my logic of saying if the pc police are going to disallow things from less discriminatory times to be shown because they now break the pc rules, then do the job properly and consistently!
DeleteI'd rather they didn't, I'd rather we accept that things move on and we can learn from the past, whether it's PC or not. Media Studies was sneered at as a subject for academia for decades, but it seems more vital than ever these days to me so we can understand how we got to here and how to interpret what we see, throwing up your hands in horror at any sexism or racism of the past prevents you understanding why it happened and what it tells us about then and now. But I guess most people can't be bothered thinking too hard about what they're consuming - I hope I'm wrong.
DeleteI'm agreed with THX on this, as people are people, and as we are getting more and more PC, and the media making men the villains just for being aroused by women, you need to remember that in all these carry on films, the girls enjoyed the titillation as much as the men, but the women's needs seem to forgotten in all this, as they are getting damaged just as much with the removal of their fun and liberty at the same time as the men!
DeleteIt seems that the PC people are trying to blot out any form of life that existed in the 60's and 70's, apart from Dr Who and The Beatles, but they will never succeed. I for one love the Carry On Films, whether Sid James, Babs or Frankie Howerd, cos no-one does it better.
it seems i'm in the middle ground of this particular situation, in that i don't endorse demeaning/debasing women by making them get their "tits oot for the lads" (© sid the sexist), be it for a cheap laugh or more perverted reasons. but then again i don't like it that the right-on pc brigade go around revising history on the basis that it might offend a very small minority*. i was thinking how ironic it is that nowadays the only way it seems one can get to see a naked pair of womens' breasts in celluloid form (assuming that's one's peccadilo) is in deadly serious po-faced intellectual fare such as "1984", rather than mildly sexist and suggestive lightweight comedies such as the "carry on" films and "up pompeii"!
Delete* mary whitehouse was much-mocked in her lifetime for her prim and prudish opposition to the "permissive society" and the smut and lewdness it promoted, and yet not that long after her death it seems she has now actually achieved much of what she fought for i.e. that entertainment of a gratuitous sexual nature is censored, if not banned! surely a good suject matter for those media studies courses mentioned by thx?
It's become very strange, in that the world has turned simultaneously extremely prudish and extremely sex-obsessed. Nowadays the boobs (and more) are online, where you can be as perverted as you like, but never bring it up in the "real" world, for goodness' sake.
DeletePersonally I take a step back from it all, I like a good double entendre, but I'm not going to let lust rule my life the way it does so many others' because I'm not a teenager anymore. I wonder where this is going? It's a weird hypocrisy so far.
i hope other readers don't mind this strand going on a bit, as although it has nothing to do with pop music of the past directly it certainly has everything to do with growing up back then (which of course these shows were very much part of)...
Deleteyes, it's patently absurd that censors are busy cutting out the odd topless shot from ricketty old comedy films on the telly, whilst i presume the average budding pubescent can easily find a pair or tits (and other ladies private parts) on the internet - if so then it's like the french building the maginot line to keep hitler out, and then him just going around it!
going back to my time of pubescence in the early/mid 70's, the best most young boys had access to was a grainy black and white pair of naked breasts on page 3 of the scum (sadly all those in my family took either the mirror or the mail!), or if you were lucky then you had a mate who had managed to root out his dad's secret stash of "penthouse" and other gentlemen's magazines. i found out quite recently from a chum that another mate of his back then had to keep his solitary porn mag (that was no doubt considered prize booty) hidden in a field behind his back garden!
Hey, if you don't think sex has anything to do with pop (and rock) music, you're not paying attention!
Deletei'm just saying that this thread has deviated a bit from saying "that song on totp was really good/bad/whatever". of course i'm aware that sex (well, image at least) has played a massive part in popular music since "the king" exploded onto the scene in the mid-50's - sometimes to the detriment of the actual music in my view! before that music was seen very much as an aural experience, and even when played live was very much regarded as a mere accompianment/sideshow to whatever else was going on rather than the main event. whenever i get the opportunity, i like to point out that the only difference between a waiter and a musician in those days was that the latter held an instrument in their hands as opposed to a tray of drinks!
DeleteInteresting debate running here. It has made me think that one of the best episodes of 'Fawlty Towers' - 'The Psychiatrist' has its main punchline centering around John Cleese groping for a light switch and missing spectacularly! You couldn't just cut this scene out as it would render the rest of the episode meaningless. At least with 'The Germans' episode, the conversation with Major Gowan about cricket (that is now never broadcast) is a standalone scene and its absence doesn't detract from the main plot.
DeleteThe link between sex and popular music arguably begins with the young Frank Sinatra, who was the first singer to attract a large crowd of devoted teenage girls, the "bobby soxers" of the 1940s.
Deletei would say that john is probably right here, although there was also an english-based crooner in the 1930's called al bowlly who had started to develop a following of his own - as opposed to just being the singer in a dance band whose profile was barely any higher than the rest of the musicians involved (if anything, the band leaders/conductors were considered the star/draw, although none had any kind of sex appeal). sadly for him though, he was killed in the blitz in the second world war!
Deleteone song that bowlly is remembered for is "riptide", which was covered by robert palmer on the album of the same name that came out "this year" i.e. 1985:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBvrdanl5Do
Wasn't Franz Liszt the original focus of musical fan mania? Not that he was ever on TOTP...
Deletei've just read up about liszt on wiki, and if that's right then it seems thx is right too. i assumed the term "lisztomania" was just made-up for the film of that name starring roger daltrey as the eponymous hero (hardly surprisingly given the director was ken russell, who himself was a rare case of a larger-than-life celebrity in his line of work at that time), but apparently it was coined in liszt's lifetime as a result of the hysteria surrounding him as a performer (would anyone get excited about a guy sitting playing the piano alone on stage today?). presumably the leading opera singers of the pre-pop era such as enrico caruso had their besotted fans as well, but it seems popular music was very slow to follow suit by promoting the personalities rather than the music itself. even in the golden age of tin pan alley, the vast majority of what are now called standards were not written for particular singers or even as stand-alone material, but simply to provide fodder for the "here today, gone tomorrow" musicals that were the rage of the time
DeletePop-a-doodle-doo and Happy Christmas to King Angelo and his merry bloggers!
ReplyDeleteI have a story about those rockers Peters and Lee. I got taken (well, dragged) to see them at the Slough Fulcrum Theatre, which had a considerable drop from stage to the audience and thus the front row. The props lads had nailed a high plank about six feet from the stage edge to stop any potential stage diving by the blind chap, but, during one song, Lennie Peters stepped forcefully over it. Cue a tender ballad with Diane Lee pulling him back from an unplanned mosh with all her might.
The Sweet or, as me and my mates affectionately call them, Brickies In Make-Up!
ReplyDeleteSimon Park's hit was the theme tune to Thames TV's Dutch detective drama "Van Der Valk" and had reached number 41 when first released a year earlier. The B-side was the outro theme to Granada lunchtime courtroom drama "Crown Court". My nan had a massive old style 'sound system' in the 70's which took up almost a wall length with a tiny area for the turntable, and she only owned two singles - "Eye Level" and Junior Showtime 'legend' Glyn Poole's "Milly Molly Mandy"!
While on holiday in Majorca about 25 years ago, I joined in a hotel entertainment and sang "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" to a captive poolside audience of about 300. I gave it my best and was pleases to come second out of 145 acts The worthy winners were three grannies who did a blistering version of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy Of Company B"!
That was second out of 14 acts!
Deletedespite its blandness "tie a yellow ribbon" is actually a deceptively complex and convoluted piece as far as playing it as musical accompianment goes, with far more chords involved (and not just triads either) than the average pop song!
DeleteTie A Yellow Ribbon, was one of the best pieces on this Christmas 1973 show, not so much for the song or the lead singer, but more for the two lovelies, as tall fit backing singers wearing heavenly white around their bare bellies.
DeleteThe only other two songs I could pick out as enjoyable on the show were Simon Park Orchestra's Eye-Level, which was one of the best No.1's of the year, along with the superb Daydreamer by David Cassidy, who sadly departed our dear world a few weeks ago in 2017.
All in all, not bad for a Christmas TOTP show, and thankfully not wiped like most of the other 1973 TOTP shows.
A full copy of the show with Sweet and GG is available here:
ReplyDeletevimeo.com/248730144
I must say I couldn't see any swastika armband on any of the Sweet on this showing, so I don't know what the fuss is about. What I did notice is that one of The Sweet, i.e. the one with the red trousers, had three legs.
DeleteAs for Gary Glitter, it seemed he was really into his stilettos.
I think it is only in shot once, but Steve Priest has a big Swastika armband on his left arm.
Deleteif the beeb really find the swastika thing so offensive (or rather offensive to their audience, although the i suspect even now the vast majority watching wouldn't be bothered by it), couldn't they have done a cut and paste job by sticking in footage from elsewhere in their archives of the audience dancing at that moment instead? i know it's revisionistic history (which i frown upon), but better than than just chopping the whole thing for the sake of a couple of seconds?
Deletei thought i'd see if mr priest himself has anything to say about the circumstances, and came across this interesting feature on him and the other surviving member andy scott a few years back (not surprisingly priest merely sees the nazi/hitler/swastika thing as a jolly jape). i always thought it was a bit sad that they never put whatever their differences were aside and combine to make the most of the nostalgia market, but it seems both are managing to avoid selling big issues with their uk and us-based versions of the band respectively:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/sep/23/sweet-strange-history
ps - i noticed in the photo attached to the above feature that sweet frontman brian connolly has an "iron cross" painted on his chest. they had symbolic affiliations with the nazis as well, so should that pic also be banned accordingly?
Deletemy song ratings in order
ReplyDelete9/10
6/10
6/10
8/10
4/10
8/10
9/10
5/10
7/10
8/10
6/10
8/10
8/10
9/10
average 7.21
although i was very familiar with "blockbuster" at the time of it being a hit, i have no recall whatsoever of being aware of "the jean genie" back then - which of course was not only released as a single around the same time, but was also built around an identical riff (and was even in the same key)! somewhat surprisingly those involved with their respective recordings vigourously denied any knowledge of the other. but given they were also on the same label, surely someone noticed the similarity prior to release?
ReplyDeletei'm sure i'm not the first to do this by any means, but i fused the two tracks together as part of a megamix i did for a school reunion of mine a few years back:
https://www.mixcloud.com/wilberforcemixes/class-of-73-school-reunion-party-mix-part-three/
I had a feeling something other than Glitter must have been edited out, a shame it was Blockbuster as that's a great song. Overall this was a pretty good show, I even liked the very MOR Eye Level and Tie A Yellow Ribbon... I draw the line at the Osmond and Cassidy drivel though.
ReplyDeleteWasn't Tony Blackburn absolutely dreadful though? For all the talk about the golden age of TOTP he very rarely looked comfortable.
A pleasant surprise to watch (some of) this again as it was repeated in the 90s on BBC1 or 2 and I taped it and kept it on VHS (somewhere in the loft now!).
ReplyDeleteAs noted by others, the Steve Priest’s unfortunate choice of armband made this showing of ‘Blockbuster!’ unsuitable for today which is a shame as the song still sounds great. There is this performance on YT where the offending article has been ‘fuzzied out’ as they do with most car number plates on TV these days.
I loved the sweet innocence of the Gilbert O’Sullivan’s ‘Get Down’ Pans People routine and looking on the Vimeo posting can see the Blackburn/Edmonds bit about ‘out-glittering’ Gary Glitter after this which precedes his edited out spot. It was a great song at the time (as was his other big hit in 1973 – ‘I love you love’) and was hugely popular at Weddings and Parties and it’s such a shame what has come to light regarding the artist. Speaking of which, I dug out my copy of Ian Gittins’ excellent BBC book ‘Top of the Pops – Mishaps, Miming and Music’ as I rightly recalled that there was a photo of the ‘Get Down’ routine featured in it along with an anecdote. What struck me was the front cover! Only published 10 years ago, a grinning DLT and Saville plus a singing Rolf Harris feature prominently whilst 26 pages in, Glitter appears in typical wide eyed pose.
The Simon Park Orchestra tune still moves me – especially the strings section half way through as I used to play the violin in my local youth orchestra and can appreciate well-tuned violins when I hear them. Not easy to achieve!
David Cassidy’s hit was a double A Side with ‘The Puppy Song’ which is what I assumed they were going to show as he supposedly arrived live at an airport and sung it (mimed it) on the tarmac on one 1973 edition. The Guinness Book of No1 Singles puts us straight on this wheeze however, pointing out that Cassidy had already been in the UK for several days and had taped the song several days before the show.
Regarding edits. I spotted a couple. Wizzard’s ‘See my Baby Jive’ was missing the second verse (“The Tenor Horn is turning me on…”) and it looks like this was never mimed in the first place. However 10Cc’s ‘Rubber Bullets’ is missing the bit about “we’ve all got balls and brains, but some’s got balls and chains” and that looks to me like a really clunky edit. The instrumental bit on this song is also trimmed.
Peters and Lee. Hmmm hugely popular with Mums and Dads at the time. But what did Dianne Lee actually sing on this song other than very understated harmonies? It’s not a duet in the sense of he sings one bit, she sings the next and then they both sing the chorus etc. I really liked a later hit of theirs ‘Don’t stay away too long’ which had a lovely staccato string arrangement in the chorus and I’d often burst into it when playing a round of golf and seeing a ‘jet plane flying high above me…’…..and you could hear Dianne more on this track. Dianne married Rick Price of Wizzard….
Finally the Slade performance of ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ at the end is not one we see on the likes of TOTP2 largely because of the roller credits I guess. The whole band get engulfed as the camera pans back to reveal another camera. Nice way to end an enjoyable show.
Btw all the artists that reached no1 in 1973 were featured in this show but those that had two (Slade apart) only featured once. So we missed out on Donny’s ‘The Twelfth of Never’, Slade’s ‘Skweeze me pleeze me’, Wizzard’s ‘Angel Fingers’ and Glitter’s ‘I love you love’ (although we would have missed seeing the latter anyway).
Hope everyone had a good Christmas and all the best for 2018.
"eye level" was originally a library music piece and was actually written by a dutchman. however under his alias of jack trombey his prolific output was generally far more influenced by jazz and other american music forms rather than the "oom-pah" sound associated with his native country. i recently discovered via buying the dvd's that he also wrote what became the theme for "callan" (which of course was another popular crime series of the early 70's), which is in stark contrast to "eye level":
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PlAovUPg1M
i can't remember any other hits by peters and lee, but presumably from what sct says they weren't one-hit wonders? i do seem to remember they were "opportunity knocks" winners - is that right? with regards to ms lee's limited input, maybe she was there as some kind of human guide dog for lenny? although i thought this was strictly radio 2 fodder for the mums and dads (in fact more for the grannies of my generation), i had a strange fascination for it as i was aware it was one of the first singles that was released via plastic injection format whereby the "labels" were pressed into the actual vinyl rather than being paper that was glued on. "cum on feel the noize" (one of the first singles that i actually bought as new rather than second-hand) was another
Deletei suppose in a way lenny peters should think himself lucky that he only had a limited chart career - had he been more successful, he might have given stevie wonder some competition as the butt of the "blind" jokes and related pejorative comments that are still being used today!
Deleteby the way, i'm only half-joking about ms lee being lenny's guide dog (that's all coming back to me now that sct has brought the subject up)! i suppose she was also there to provide a bit of eye candy, although to my recollection she was basically a slightly more glamourous version of mary peters - who was what we would nowadays call a sleb having won blighty's only athletics gold medal in the previous year's olympics, but was not exactly a winner in the looks department!
DeleteLennie and Diane made 17 and 16 respectively with "Rainbow" and "Hey Mr Music Man", and "By Your Side" peaked at 39 in between the chart topper and the top three hit mentioned above.
Deletesct - Angel Fingers was used as the playout on the other 1973 Xmas show, broadcast on 27 December, which apparently still exists in full but will never be shown again as Jim'll was the host. It was actually the 10th anniversary edition, featuring both archive clips (virtually everything that survives from 60s TOTP) and new performances of some classic hits (Sandie Shaw doing Long Live Love, The Trems appearing with Silence with Golden, JK with, erm, Everyone's Gone to the Moon).
DeleteWizzard did Ball Park Incident on that show as well - here it is, and also the Angel Fingers playout:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7DerQqE1Xc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHWDUukZ2oc
Re David Cassidy, here is that airport performance, from the 500th TOTP:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwKOIB_gZmk
Incidentally sct, if that Ian Gittins book was only published 10 years ago I'm surprised that Glitter's image featured, as his name had already long been tainted by then, and his music banned from the airwaves.
DeleteHas anyone got a copy of the 27.12.73 TOTP show with JS, as the links above only have the Angel Fingers playout song?
DeleteJohn thanks for the steer on the YT clips above. I haven't seen any of them (for 44 years!). It just goes to show how the memory can cheat; I would have put money on that Cassidy tarmac performance being just 'The Puppy Song', but no, 'Daydreamer' was there too. I definitely watched it at the time.
DeleteYou're also spot on regarding the 1991 repeat of the 1973 Christmas Show. It certainly was novel at the time as it predated the UK Gold repeats of TOTP and was something you just didn't see repeated up until that point. A real novelty.
I think the 13th January 1977 edition did get repeated later that year for some reason, but I guess that doesn't really count...
I thought I was going mad in thinking that the 10cc performance was missing the 'balls and brains...' line, so thanks to sct for confirming it!
DeleteIt's a brilliant line that, but I suspect it was edited out from the original performance rather than BBC4's scissors. Surely they wouldn't be that touchy, would they?
I think 1973 was the first year where TOTP had two Christmas shows, and this trend would continue until at least 1984 it seems, where the second of the two 1984 Xmas shows will be shown tonight, i.e., the one with Lenny Henry presenting.
Delete1966 was the first year that there were two Christmas shows (though unusually neither was broadcast on Christmas Day that year). Two shows would remain the norm thereafter up until 1984, but after that it would go down to just one for many years, until after the weekly show ended.
DeleteThat would coincide roughly with the Jimmy Saville years from 1966-1984 before he bowed out of the show, so he must have been the primary influence for that. Funny coincidence in that from 1985 there was only one Christmas show!
DeleteNoax - the 10cc edit was on the 1991 repeat showing too (which featured Gary Glitter and The Sweet), so I suspect the line was edited out on original broadcast.
DeleteI can't recall whether at the time of the single's release, TOTP featured it uncut. At school, the focus was more on changing the chorus line from "load up, load up with rubber bullets' to rubber something else!
Incidentally the album cut of this song doesn't fade out at the end, but runs to a proper ending, which is never featured on any 'greatest hits' compilations.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/-7ktZyll7Lg
Full show here lads - Happy Xmas
ReplyDeletehttps://vimeo.com/248701197
Meer
Thanks Meer, but do you also have the 27.12.73 show that was shown a couple of days after the Christmas Day show?
DeleteDory, I've uploaded it to my vimeo page at vimeo.com/248901788
DeleteThanks very much Brie for uploading this show in full - it was particularly interesting to watch the 1973 performances of 60s hits, which I don't think I have ever seen before. That Kinks Top of the Pops song at the start was also new to me, though I don't think it was as good as the later Rezillos tune! What is frustrating about this show in retrospect is that there must have been people at the BBC in 1973 who could already see the value of the TOTP archive (what there was left of it by this time), and yet shows continued to be wiped for another four years. As the Americans say, go figure...
Deletethat's what happens when you employ people purely on the basis that they are your relatives!
DeleteLennie and Diane were also the subject of one of those famous 1970's misheard lyrics, where the lyric "Down in the dungeon, just Peaches 'n' me" from Queen's "Now I'm Here" sounded more like "Down in the dungeon with Peters and Lee"!
ReplyDeleteI can imagine playing their records incessantly in a dungeon would be an effective form of torture...
DeleteBelated festive greetings to Angelo and all other contributors. It was good fun seeing this show again after 26 years, though the experience was nowhere near as novel or exciting this time around as when BBC2 repeated it in December 1991, not helped of course by the 21st century airbrushing of "controversial" performances! Still, the show was a useful reminder that it wasn't all glam and glitter in the '73 charts, with MOR pop an equally potent force. I think the highlight was definitely the infamous Pans People routine - the song also happens to be one of the very few Gilbert O'Sullivan tunes that I can tolerate...
ReplyDelete'Nothing Ryhmed' is a pretty fine piece of music too....covered to great effect by Clodagh Rodgers too.
DeleteMy favourite song by him is definitely Clair. Get Down I find a bit repetitive. According to Wiki it was orginally a piano warm up tune for him.
DeleteBest dog themed song for me ,and a totp performance too, is very likely My Sweet Rosalie.
i thought "get down" was excellent at the time (i remember being really happy when i heard it was no.1 when listening to the johnny walker tuesday lunchtime chart countdown on a tiny tranny on the school playing fields), and a vast improvement on his drippy ballads that preceded it (although i'm not sure if he'd already updated his image from gauche hovis delivery boy to shag-permed medallion man by then or not?). however for some reason i missed out on the next single until only this year, when i was doing some research on the pop charts when i started grammar school in september 1973... and it's even better than "get down", with gilb giving stevie wonder a bit of competition in the funky clavinet-plating stakes:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baxkOKHFMYg
i hope this doesn't come over as sleazy a la dory, but the mention of the song "say, has anybody seen my sweet gypsy rose" reminds me of this LP which features a cover version of said song (wherein the answer to that question if asked by the motorbike-riding young lady on the sleeve surely has to be "well, pretty much yes!"):
Deletehttps://www.discogs.com/Unknown-Artist-12-Tops-Todays-Top-Hits/release/4106720
I think Starry may have been referring to this by the Brotherhood of Man?
Deletehttp://www.45cat.com/record/7n45602
I get the confusion though!
Yes sct353, that one
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r1TfxPW1-E
With Get Down I don't have any nostalgia from the period and I have no idea what his image was at the time, it just lives in the music for me. I'm not sure his voice is that different from the earlier stuff, he doesn't have a big voice much like Don Mclean or some other singer-songwriters at that time. That hook though, just two notes, while it can get in your head could have annoyance value to some after a few plays.
I have two major problems with Gilbert - his voice, which has always annoyed me, and his tendency towards writing clunky, banal lyrics. My impression is that he was desperate to be seen as a profound songwriter, but I don't think his talent matched his ambition. I quite like Get Down because it is more fun and catchy than most of his songs, though Alone Again (Naturally) isn't bad.
DeleteWilberforce - yes, by 1973 he had moved on from the Hovis delivery boy look!
yes john i know, but i'm not sure which single he unveiled his new look for - he might have already down so before "get down"
DeleteThere is surviving TOTP footage of him performing Clair in 1972, and his image had changed by then, though I don't know when precisely the change occurred.
Deletei checked on discogs and his debut album in 1971 has the hovis look, that was replaced by the contemporary makeover when his next album was released the following year. there is a pic of gilbert there that seems very recent and where he looks very old facially, but somewhat tragically still insists on wearing his trademark curly mop of brown hair!
Deletename-dropping time: i am acquainted with a guy who was in a band called fuzzy duck, who like gilb were on the MAM label started in the early 70's by pop manager gordon mills. unlike him they were a flop (original pressings of their only album now fetch at least five hundred quid), and i was told that he blamed their lack of success on "our manager spending all his time on that bloody gilbert o'sullivan!". but even had they been successful, they would probably have been fleeced by mills in the same notorious way that o'sullivan was!
I think we can nail down the point in time when O'Sullivan ditched the 'Hovis' image. Here is 'Ooh wakka doo wakka day' from around June 1972.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69zZpTRlNvk
The previous hit 'Alone again(naturally)' reached no1 in the States in June 1972 - several months after its UK chart peak of n03.
Apparently Gilbert's manager Gordon Mills decided that a better image was needed for America. This saw a big'G' sweater being worn as Mills felt that "a college sweater can be sexy". Hence the 'G' sweater on the "ooh wakka doo" which by then had been released in the UK.
Going back to Peters & Lee, the only other one I remember of theirs is 'Dont Stay Away Too Long'.
ReplyDeleteDidnt an impressionist of the time impersonate Peters & Lee by dressing half as Peters & half as Lee?
if that impressionist had really been impersonating them properly, then he would have been 90% peters and 10% lee!
Deletei actually got a rare opportunity to watch this edition on iplayer in the comfort of someone else's home (although i still should have boycotted it as a protest against sweet and gg being omitted!), and i noticed the following:
ReplyDeletesome guy next to one of the presenters pulling a face when donny osmond was introduced
some bizarre footage at the end of the david cassidy film where he rides off in the back seat of a car with a guy either side of him (presumably his minders?). i had forgotten that "daydreamer" is actually a pretty good song, and as such was wasted on teenybopper material like cassidy (whose voice obviously doesn't match his looks!)
i don't know if this has already been mentioned, but tony blackburn beats slimy in the predicting the future stakes by somewhat presciently making a mention of being "glitterless"!
also: listening to "daydreamer" i was struck by how similar it sounded to wham's "last christmas" - could that be why george michael "helped" cassidy with his comeback hit "the last kiss" the following year?
DeleteWhile we're on the subject of David Cassidy hits - a quick mention for Tony Romeo's 'I am a Clown' which I think is David's finest release. Some wonderful lyrics too.
DeleteThe Suzi Quatro record 'Can the Can' was easily one of my least favourite big hits of this era. However it's often thought to be Suzi's first single when in fact 'Rolling Stone' came out in July 1972 (and was in quite a different style and duly flopped). 'Primitive Love' also came out as a promo single in Feb 1973 but it's unclear if it had a full release or was an album promo. I much preferred Suzi's later output such as 'If you can't give me love' and best of all, the excellent duet with Smokie's Chris Norman - 'Stumblin' in'.
Her best song for me is If you can't give me love. I can't say I've liked Cassidy songs I've heard apart from Daydreamer.
DeleteWilberforce, I would say that Cassidy's Daydreamer comes off much better than Wham's Last Christmas. This is largely due the fact that Last Christmas has been much overplayed through the years, while Daydreamer only gets occasionally played, hence it has kept its sparkle and shine through the years, and I would agree that they sound quite similar, but strangely never thought that until now.
Deletedory i was not casting judgement on the (forgotten) cassidy and (overplayed) wham songs, just pointing out the similarity
Deletei also forgot to mention above that (suzi's screeching apart) how much i enjoyed listening to the driving rock of "can the can" for the first time in many years
Tony's cheery but awkward and Noel's humorous but cryptic: typical mid-70s presenter line-up!
ReplyDeleteAfter all that nuclear Armageddon of the 80s, a lot of this seems anodyne, if not actively banal, but Slade's Cum On Feel the Noize remains a classic rocker.
Donny Osmond sounding like something out of the 1950s instead of twenty years later, and not in a Gene Vincent way either.
Suzi Quatro yells her way through Can the Can, when I was little her hair used to bug me, but looking at her now I'm not sure why. Fair rock-pop ditty that was her stock in trade.
Simon Park Orchestra the only ones not miming, maybe making a passive aggressive point about the pop acts who did on the rest of the show? I really love this, I have a few CDs of library music and some of it was just excellent, though far from cool. This was one of the best examples. Vaguely recall Barry Foster on the actual programme.
Little Jimmy Osmond, proof that no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the British public, never mind the American. Treacly shite for undiscriminating grans. Jimmy's Mr Showbiz now, of course, he was on Pointless Celebs over Christmas and didn't do too badly (Mike Batt and Jona Lewie - the ace pub quiz team we never knew was out there!).
The Sweet, pity it was dropped but understandable when so many tabloids jump on the Beeb for perceived misdemeanours.
Tony Orlando and Dawn - Harry Enfield once got this stuck in his head as an earworm for three entire years. Tip for Guantanamo Bay torturers, there.
Gilbert O'Sullivan, a song about a dog so for once Pan's People's on the (cold) nose stylings were more accurate than usual. His stuff hasn't aged very well, though there's something uncomfortably raw about his more miserable tunes, and the story behind Clair is a genuinely sad one.
Gary Shitter isn't the leader of anyone's gang now, though the amusement factor of someone cluelessly putting on Rock 'n' Roll Christmas in a public place remains valid.
David Cassidy left us this year, an immensely troubled man who didn't ride the waves of success half as well as Donny did. This is nice enough, sorry for itself, please love me syrup, it did the job and sold in bucketloads.
10cc with their brand of sarky clever-clever pop well to the fore, looking a bit pleased with themselves, but this is perfectly acceptable for what it is.
One of my first TV memories is of seeing Peters & Lee (not on this - they were variety show staples) and Lennie always intimidated me a bit. Found out years later he'd been closely involved with gangsters, so that may have been it. As for the song, another one for the grans, but professionally put together.
Always thought this Wizzard tune sounded like Roy was singing "See my baby die!", which has troubled me for years. His usual sub-Spector shtick, a very talented man who pursued an avenue that didn't appeal to me.
Then Slade with one of the most overplayed records known to humanity, though they were not to know that back in '73. Chaotic presentation means this is a lesser-seen clip.
Young Love had been a big number 1 for then-Hollywood heartthrob Tab Hunter in 1957. Apparently Warner Bros set up their record label specifically to release his music, as he was under contract to them as an actor at the time. He also shared an agent with Rock Hudson, who stopped a scandal sheet from breaking the news of Hudson's true sexual preferences by giving them a story about Hunter's one-time arrest for disorderly conduct. The big irony is that Hunter himself turned out to be gay...
DeleteI strongly suspect that the "Simon Park Orchestra" was actually just the TOTP mob, as I am sure we have seen them wear those lurid orange sweaters on other shows.
i always find it a bit absurd that so many young hollywood actors practically hired for their looks alone in the 40's and 50's were actually gay (and consequently great lengths had to be gone to in order to hide their true sexual preferences from their armies of adoring female fans) - couldn't the film studios find enough straight beefcake?
DeleteThere were plenty of straight pin-ups of both genders, but homosexuality was illegal in those days, so for the gay pin-ups it would not only be career suicide to come out, it would attract the notice of the police.
Deletei'm just saying: why did the studios bother employing and grooming handsome young actors that were known or suspected to be gay (within the system, if not publically) for stardom, when they knew it was likely to cause them problems? especially when it's highly likely they weren't short of the straight equivalent to choose from. even though these days being homosexual is no longer illegal, as far as i know there are still no openly gay actors who play romantic leads in hollywood films. and of course there are also still persistent rumours that some of the straight ones are not what they seem (regardless of the change in the law, it seems the stigma remains), and as such heading-off-at-the-pass tactics probably still have to be employed...
Deleteregarding john's comment on the simon park "orchestra" (which didn't actually exist, and was just a functional name credited on the single) and the totp orchestra being one and the same, that was hardly a surprise given that many participated in library music recordings (from where "eye level" originated) as well as in the totp house band. although this tune was written by someone else (see above), simon park himself was a prolific library music composer (often under the pseudonym simon haseley)... as was the totp orchestra leader johnny pearson. in the wake of the unexpected success of the tune as a result of being used as the theme tune for "van der valk", an album by the non-existent combo was also released:
Deletehttps://www.discogs.com/Simon-Park-Orchestra-Eye-Level/master/226831
as you can see, it was very much a cash-in on the popular tv series. but although i have the album i don't have the series on dvd, so cannot confirm if theme apart the rest of the music was actually used in it or is just a random collection of library music/album filler
Just because you're good-looking and photograph well doesn't mean you can carry a film (Nick Kamen is on the repeats soon, I imagine?). A lot of gay actors were good looking and could carry a film, and as there was a "don't ask, don't tell" in place before these orientations became newsworthy - or gossip column-worthy - nobody bothered. The tide turned I think when George Nader was outed instead of Rock Hudson - George saw his Hollywood career ruined, and had to resort to European movies to headline. After that the rumours appeared in print about many performers, gay or straight or in between. It shouldn't be anybody's business but their own, but even today it's news when a celeb comes out.
DeleteI came across this 1975 edition on YT that I don't recall seeing before. It's missing a couple of tracks but worth watching for the live performance of 'Barbados' (with Pans People), Smokey's debut hit (and second single release), Roger Whittaker's wonderful 'The Last Farewell' (also sung live) and of course, the Rollers at no1.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2A6lVJod78
That is a good find sct353. Although this is very much in the BBC vaults and not one of the wiped editions, I doubt if this has ever been repeated since 1975, and it's a pity that BBC4 only began the reruns from April 1976, and some very good 1975 episodes have not been repeated since 1975, including this one, so this episode even deserves its own blog.
DeleteThe Sweet - bizarrely, this is missing as the opening track on the show. Perhaps the swastika was out to play again, and this must have been a big no-no for the Germans on Eins Festival, only 30 years after the fall of Germany. Or was it something else?
Typically Tropical - I just love the way that Pans People dress as air stewardesses for the start of this track, until the group filters through.
The Wombles - mid-1975 was late in the Wombles career, as they were the in-thing through a glorious 1974 for them, so the Super-Womble theme was now looking to go fictional as though some last hurrah for The Wombles, and this, well before the first Superman movie was released in 1978, as superheroes in 1975 were only present in comics, and not yet in film/movie.
The Bee Gees - the video for Jive Talking was also missing from this show, but for what reason?
Linda Lewis - now this was classy, unlike the cover by Cher in the 90s that got to No.1.
Bing Crosby - Good Lord, how did they get him in the studio? The humble person that he was, meant that he was not expensive for the BBC, like many others who found fame and fortune. sadly, he passed away only a couple of years after this performance of TOTP, but his daughter went to to be a star in the TV series Dallas in the 1980s.
Hi Dory - glad you enjoyed the 1975 show. Happy New Year to you and everyone on the TOTP Blog, and special thanks to Angelo for running the whole show and continuing to do so.
DeleteRegarding 'Action' by the Sweet, the comments on the YT page give the answer:-
"I had to cut that song out because of copyright . Sorry about that but YouTube wouldn't allow me to upload the show with that song in it.... you can only watch Sweet songs on the official Sweet channel".
...and here is the Sweet performance.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM0IWyQ5zcg
Thanks, but what was the reason for cutting out the Bee Gees video?
DeleteGood question....doesn't say why. I believe that it was the standard 'video' (film) made which can be viewed on YT as well.
Delete