This is my swimsuit!
24/01/85 (Mike Smith & Steve Wright)
Chaka Khan – “This Is My Night” (18)
In the studio at last! And it bounced up four more places.
Ashford & Simpson – “Solid” (13) (video)
With their only top ten hit which peaked at number 3
Strawberry Switchblade – “Since Yesterday” (5)
At its blog title peak.
James Ingram – “Yah Mo B There” (21)
Made it to number 12.
Top 40 Breakers:
Imagination – “Thank You My Love” (22) (breaker)
Their final top 40 hit, and it went no higher.
Billy Ocean – “Loverboy” (24) (breaker)
Peaked at number 15
Big Country - "Just a Shadow" (26) (breaker)
At its peak already.
Art of Noise - "Close (To The Edit)" (30) (breaker)
The first of three top ten hits, this one reaching number 8.
Bucks Fizz - "I Hear Talk" (34) (breaker)
They had of course suffered their terrible coach crash a month earlier, which kept them out of action for quite some time. And this tune went no higher.
The Top Ten Videos:
Russ Abbot - "Atmosphere" (10) (video clip)
Band Aid - "Do They Know It's Christmas?" (9) (video clip)
Wham! - "Last Christmas" (8) (video clip)
Madonna - "Like A Virgin" (7) (video clip)
King – “Love & Pride” (6)
Their first of two top ten hits, this one peaking at number 2.
Strawberry Switchblade - "Since Yesterday" (5) (video clip)
Tears For Fears - "Shout" (4) (video clip)
Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson "I Know Him So Well" (3) (video)
Getting closer to the number one spot.
Prince - "1999" (2) (video clip)
Foreigner – “I Want To Know What Love Is” (1) (video)
Second of three weeks at number one
Kirsty MacColl – “A New England” (38) (audience dancing/credits)
Four years after the Chipshop, a second hit for Kirsty. It was her only solo top ten hit, peaking at number 7.
Next up then is January 31st.
What was the point of Wrighty turning up for this one? His co-host did the lion's share of the work, and he couldn't even get Foreigner's countries of origin correct (they are British and American, Steve). Smitty was annoying in his own way, from announcing Chaka Khan as Nancy Reagan to his woeful attempts at humour during the video awards bit. Still, at least he did confirm where Alf's Love Resurrection video was made - I had always thought it was somewhere like Tunisia, rather than Israel.
ReplyDeleteYvette Stevens finally performs in the studio, with a skirt that leaves nothing to the imagination. The song has energy, but the production is clunky and on balance it is a mediocre follow-up to her number 1. Ashford and Simpson were of course veteran Motown writers, responsible for some of Diana Ross' best solo work, but I have never likes Solid much. It's all very slick, but curiously soulless, and the chorus always makes me think of going to the toilet! The video feels a bit smug as well, with all those young trendy types immediately joining our veteran artists' love-in as they take shelter from the rain.
Another good performance from Strawberry Switchblade, with the singer switching to a black PVC number this time, before yet another soul performer appears in the shape of James Ingram. This is a polished performance, and the song is a very respectable, well-sung effort, if not exactly exciting. I thought for a moment James was wearing spats, but I think it was just his socks!
An unwelcome innovation next as the breakers make their debut, filling up screen time that could have been devoted to more full-length performances. Interesting to see Imagination back in the charts after a long gap, but this was a pretty feeble-sounding effort accompanied by a risible image change to old-school Motown that was a world away from their old sex god look. The Big Country tune sounded like all their others on the basis of that brief snatch, and I wasn't too impressed by Bucks Fizz either from the short amount we heard, though their promo looked quite stylish. The Art of Noise's video also looked pretty good, and a definite forerunner to Sledgehammer the following year.
Best song of the night for me was probably from King, a fine pop tune with some interesting tempo changes before a rousing climax. I assume Paul donned the loud check suit to leave nobody in any doubt who the star was? I remember watching him on MTV a lot in the 90s, after we got satellite TV, and being surprised to learn he had been the King singer, as his hair was totally different by then. We get the Elaine and Babs video for the first time, featuring them against various tasteful backdrops (and a chessboard, of course), before some lively dancing to Kirsty Maccoll's excellent Billy Bragg cover closes the show. It was a surprise in The Story of 1985 that they didn't mention A New England during the segment on Bragg, as from a songwriting perspective this would be his biggest hit of the year, indeed ever.
The Chaka Khan debut in the TOTP studio sounded too much like her 1984 hit Ain't Nobody. It's a pity that Khan couldn't appear in the TOTP studio apart from an interview when she was No.1 with I Feel For You, and did not bother to perform it while she was there. Thank goodness that this new one for 1985 I don't recall, cos its crap.
DeleteAshford & Simpson I thought at the time was a breath of fresh air, and not a visit to the toilet to have a dump. After all, it make top 5 on both sides of the Atlantic, so it couldn't have been that pungent John!
The Strawberry Switchblade girls actually swapped designs since last time in the TOTP studio earlier in the month. This time the non-lead singer took on the polka dots as a long dress, whereas the lead singer with the nice pins wore the polka dots as a minidress last time round in the studio. Still, I love the outfits both times round. So eighties and loveable girls!
It may not have been pungent to others Dory, but it definitely whiffed to me...
Deleteas far as i'm concerned, "solid" is as rank to my ears as someone else's fart is to my sense of smell - if either were noticeable to me, then i would have to vacate the area!
Deletei also think i'm right in remembering whenever "solid" was played in clubs (which was sadly all too often) that the soulboy contingent would sing along (or to be more precise, bellow along) but replace the letter "r" in rock with the letter "c" - oh, my poor aching sides! i believe the same kind of thing happened with kool and the gang's "get down on it" that i think was also a hit later in this year. fortunately like "solid" i thought it was utter garbage, so in both caes if i were not physically able leave the room then i would virtually block it out of my ears
Good Lord, you two really got it wrong about Ashford & Simpson. It's a rock-solid hit as far as I'm concerned, so stop throwing stones at glass houses.
Delete"stop throwing stones at glass housees"? what is that supposed to mean? of course i know what the expression "throwing stones at glass houses" means, but i fail to see the relevance of it in this particular situation
DeleteDory - one of the great things about this blog is that we all have different perspectives and opinions, and there are in any case few things more subjective than music. It would be very dull if we all agreed with each other all the time!
Deletechaka khan: it's funny how some hits from back then remain indelibly stamped in the memory, whilst others are a complete blank - presumably because they weren't good enough to like, or hideous enough to hate either? this falls into the latter category i.e. middling and generic dance material that reminds me of several similar efforts that i can't put my finger on
ReplyDeleteashford & simpson: unfortunately i remember this one all too well, for all the wrong reasons - perhaps one of the worst club records of the 80's, if not THE worst. there is actually a link between this pair and chaka, as they wrote her disco classic "i'm every woman". so what went wrong between that and this?
james ingram: the third club track on the show, and by far the best one of the trio. however i don't know if this is the original version, or jellybean's inferior remix (which made me realise the point had been reached the point where remixes were being done just for remixes sake, with most doing nothing to improve on anything but insdtead usually making things worse). i loved it at the time and then went off it for a while thanks to the over-busy programmed drum machine patterns, but now i'm back on board again. shame it's all about jesus freaks though
imagination: i suppose this could be seen as yet another dance track, although to my recollection it got heard far more on the radio than it did in clubs, which given it was a bouncy but gentle shuffle wasn't that surprising. this seemed to hang around in the lower reaches of the chart for ages without ever getting any higher despite saturation airplay, which makes one wonder if perhaps a bit of payola was going on? whatever, it turned out to be a case of drinking in the last chance saloon for leee and his chums
billy ocean: another one that was missing from my memory banks (although not surprising as i never got the appeal of the guy), so i listened on yt to see which american act he was ripping off this time. and in fact rather than the usual suspects like wacko and lionel richtea, it sounds more like bon jovi ha ha. it was hard work listening to this to start with, and as soon as the chorus came in i had to pull the plug
king: oh dear, this represents all that was bad about the music scene of the mid-80's in my view. and for some reason that eluded me this rubbish used to get regularly played at clubs too, when they probably should have been spinning something like "can i" by cashmere instead - an excellent dance track that i'd just like to point out was floating around at the bottom end of the top 40 at this point
I suspect that the reason some tunes throw a blank is because they weren't on the Radio 1 play list?
DeleteAt work and in the car Radio 1 was an all day staple, but I have absolutely no recollection of the Cashmere, Chaka, Imagination or Limit 'hits'
that might well have been the case with the first three you mentioned (i possibly got familar with cashmere and the limit via hanging out at nightclubs), but to the absolute best of my recollection the imagination track got blanket airplay on radio 1 (the only station i ever listened to until i moved to london in the spring of 1985) at the time
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DeleteVery muddy sound quality, but big thanks again to our WeTransfer saviour.
ReplyDeleteJesus, of all the DJ combinations to have. No-charisma nodding dog Wright, and a host I’ve really grown to hate, smug cock-talking Shitty, both of them dressed like idiots as expected.
It’s the TOTP debut of those tree bearing thighs! I wonder why most of Chaka Khan’s performance was filmed in ‘up’ camera shots? And what was that shit about Nancy Reagan beforehand, Shitty? Now I’m beginning to see why he didn’t want his squirmworthy efforts repeated.
Ashford and Simpson, an excellent and underrated husband and wife songwriting duo, with an autobiographical song complete with a different video setting and premise. You could imagine Tina Turner ruining this song in overblown fashion.
Strawberry Switchblade back on and again wearing “I can’t believe this” grins. To think their first appearance was during the single’s 9th week in the top 75! Partly bearing in mind Rose’s switch(blade) from polka dots to skimpy PVC, how did this not climb any higher? Followed by another stupid remark from the clothes obsessed Shitty, bearing in mind how many times he bored us about Mike Read’s top last time he was on.
F#ck me, it’s the video awards again!
I’m pretty sure James Ingram’s song also featured Doobie Brothers singer Michael McDonald on vocals in the chorus. I much preferred Amii Stewart’s moves from last time to this. Typically, both our hosts loved this and it left me cold, not wanting to B there.
Carol Vorderman / Rachel Riley moment here – anyone else notice the title of George Benson’s single added up to its chart position this week?
So, how can Imagination’s track one place lower than James Ingram and two outside the top 20 be a top 40 breaker, for Christ’s sake? I liked this track and thought it deserved to go a bit higher.
Big Country with “Just A Shadow Of Our Previous Hits”, or “Wonderland” mark 4 only slower this time.
Billy Ocean with another song mistitled by the Letraset guy, who gave us “Thankyou” instead of “Thank You” for Imagination and then split Billy’s one-word title in two – oh, and he misspelt Russ Abbot yet again.
Art Of Noise, That’s Art with a capital “F” – and, yes, I did buy this (along with Chaka and the ‘Blade)!
Not Bucks Fizz’s best but still better than some we’d seen previously tonight.
Paul King looked such a rock star (in his head) in “Story of 1985” and in the studio, but I enjoyed this despite him trying to put me off. Pretty sure the un-glam keyboard player was a hired hand, as band photos only showed King as a four-piece.
Either it was cold when the first part of that video was filmed, or Elaine Paige was smuggling peanuts.
NO, Nodding Dog, Foreigner are part British part American. Do some research before we have to endure you!
The “Are they married yet?” about Pete and Janice was snidey but still the best thing Shitty has said all re-runs thus far.
And we finish with what I’d call a proper top 40 breaker (i.e. just inside the 40), the wonderful Kirsty MacColl with a Billy Bragg track especially re-written for her - a few words re-written plus a new third verse added. This came from a Bragg mini-album called “Life’s A Riot With Spy vs Spy” which I still find powerful and moving even today.
Michael Macdonald's best ever song title was his 1982 hit "I Keep Forgetting I'm Not In Love Anymore". Lyrics of the decade perhaps!
DeleteThe opening lyrics of A New England - "I was 21 years when I wrote this song/I'm 21 now but I won't be for long" - are a blatant lift from an early Paul Simon song, Leaves that are Green, which begins in exactly the same way.
DeleteSorry, that should have said "I'm 22 now!"
DeleteBilly Bragg has admitted he used the line intentionally as a tribute, as Simon and Garfunkel were an early influence on him.
DeleteInteresting - I did wonder if that might be the case.
Deletei wonder if the billy bragg song was brought to paul simon's publisher's attention, in the way that the beatles' "come together" came onto the radar of the notorious music mogul morris levy? once he became aware that john lennon had copied a couple of lines from chuck berry's "you can't catch me" for which levy owned the rights, true to form he set about sueing for all he could get. but in the end he and lennon reached an agreement whereby lennon's next album would contain several covers whereby the publishing rights happened to be owned by levy... thus spawning the notorious "rock n roll" set that lennon recorded on autopilot!
DeleteI discovered Leaves That Are Green back in the 90s but never related it back to A New England somehow. Love both songs though.
DeleteI definitely underrated the Imagination track, it has very nice vocals.
DeleteI don't agree on Ya Mo Be There though, I think it's very groovy and soulful.
Levy threatened to sue again when the Walls & Bridges album appeared before the Rock n Roll set after Phil Spector disappeared with the mastertapes.
DeleteThere are actually two versions of Leaves that are Green. Paul initially recorded it in London in 1965 for his first (for a long time very rare) solo album, The Paul Simon Songbook. Once fame and success arrived soon after, he rerecorded it with Garfunkel for the Sounds of Silence LP. I prefer the solo version, which is starker and more poignant:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59x99nk5fCo
Interesting the dislike of Smithy on here by so many. Growing up I really liked him. He was my first R1 breakfast DJ and I much prefer him to Wright or Powell.
DeleteObviously had I known he would block the repeats 30 years later I may not have been such a fan. 😀
Seriously though I think he was a great TOTP presenter, not taking it seriously at all.
i suppose if you were a kid when he broke through, then he might have made a good impression with his cod-chuminess. but as a twenty-something it was pretty clear to me it was all an act and simply the thin veneer of a conniver who was prepared to do whatever it took to succeed in showbiz
DeleteFor the second week running we have a 40-11 chart rundown in one piece, and this time by only one of the presenters, and not alternating between the pair. I'm not sure I like this format.
ReplyDeleteWith regard to this new concept of the Top 40 breakers, Good Lord, what is the point of sharing space on the show of 30 seconds of each of 5 'breakers', instead of playing one of them in full? In this case I would have picked either Billy Ocean or Bucks Fizz as a full feature/video.
I think TOTP still persisting with having a top ten video rundown was least favourable for Tears For Fears, cos they were still rising at No.4 this week, and did not get a full feature/play since the 3rd January edition three weeks earlier, so they missed out big time to be invited in again, now at no.4, so this top ten video rundown was unfair to them as Shout was probably their most successful hit ever.
Prince already at No.2. One of the best party records of the 80s, I remember loving it when I was at school, and going to my earliest school discos.
Delighted to see the full Foreigner video this week, where TOTP kindly played 4mins:40secs of the 5-minute video, now second week at No.1, whereas the week before, we only got just about 3 minutes of it at first week at no.1.
The Billy Ocean video will get shown in full soon.
DeleteThanks again for the download
ReplyDeleteIn the unlikely case of anyone wanting to know what won the 'Best British Video' the result was, as announced by Neil Kinnock on the night (in reverse order) 3) Wham Last Christmas 2) Wham Wake Me Up Before You Go Go 1) Duran Duran Wild Boys..
Kinnochio was pretty desperate for some stardust to fall on him, wasn't he? I wonder how much the results of this poll were down to people genuinely thinking these were the best three videos of the year, and how much it was due to the popularity of the artists themselves.
DeleteWhen I saw the line-up in the previous edition I thought 'Bet Wild Boys won it!'
DeleteWild Boys won? Then how come Smitty said the award was only open to British directors - wasn't it directed by Russell Mulcahy, an Australian?
DeleteI suspect he was making it up as he went along at that point. As per about 90% of his links - I think we can all see by now exactly why he didn't want these shown...
DeleteThanks KC. That was really bugging me not knowing.
DeleteShould of guessed though. All those Duranies. Wifey was one and probably voted.
😂😂😂😂😂
Not a great edition in either musical or host terms, with Mike Smith doing all the heavy lifting and that prick Wright doing almost sod all.
ReplyDeleteChaka Khan - NOW she turns up to perform! Sadly to some very average fare.
Ashford & Simpson - Not awful, but not great either and overplayed to death on the likes of Heart and Magic.
James Ingram - Make that 3 bland soul efforts punctuated by the excellent and 'unlucky to be saddled with Shitty twice' Strawberry Switchblade.
Only this current slightly rubbish era of TOTP could invent a breakers section that shows...no new entries, just climbers and non-movers. Not that I mind seeing Billy Ocean (much better than his bigger hits of the same era) Art Of Noise, and the Fizz though. I could easily do without yet another crap Big Country song however.
Ah, here comes raving egotist Paul King. Having said that, I think 'Love & Pride' is one of the best songs of the year. Let me guess, we're not going to get it on BBC4? (it wasn't on the 'Big Hits' show for some reason)
The Kirsty song is of course very good - by far the best thing ever written by the vastly untalented and tedious Billy Bragg. No surprise to me that he nicked some of it.
Noax, we actually DO get "Love And Pride" on BBC4 and, in my opinion, with two non-annoying hosts to boot.
DeleteWe hadn't heard of Thunderthighs since the 1970s, but here they were - ah, no, it was Chaka Khan in an extraordinary outfit (were they handcuffs?!) overpowering a very ho-hum bit of dance soul. Always reminded of watching her on Channel 4's soul show and my dad entering the room to exclaim "She has an arse the size of a bus!" then leaving again. Yeah, er, thanks for that.
ReplyDeleteAshford and Simpson were a crack pair of songwriters, but seemingly from the above comments it's a different kind of crack they're reminded of when they hear this. It's OK, but terminally unexciting, and the Cannon street gang in the video couldn't look more awkward if they tried.
Strawberry Switchblade all smiles as they reach their height of fame, enjoy it, girls.
James Ingram doing his best Michael McDonald impersonation (hey!) with a respectable number, slick and fairly catchy too.
The Breakers, then, Imagination serving some very weak tea, and I'm glad we get to see the whole of Billy Ocean's video soon, because it's completely nuts. Bucks Fizz made little impression, and Art of Noise made me very excited back then from the clip of the vid we saw.
I know King were slaves to their overproduced image and therefore ripe for ridicule, but as popsmiths they weren't half bad, and Love & Pride is a very decent single. You could feel the massive ego emanating from the screen, however.
Babs and Ellie, boring video for a song that's... not to my taste, then much the same went for Foreigner. Kirsty to end on, I hope she made it to the studio for this one?
yes of course the instantly-recognisable michael mcdonald was sharing the lead vocals on "yah mo be there" (although he only got a "with" credit in brackets). there was a documentary about quincy jones made around this time, which featured a scene with quincy sitting in the recording studio listening to a playback of this track and reaching out to the mixing desk to tweak a knob or slider. the above scene was later described at the start of giles smith's brilliant autobiographical tale of of a love affair with pop (called "lost in music"), with giles saying he wished he'd been in quincy's shoes at that moment. and i remember thinking when i read that: "me too"!
DeleteI was about to mention James Ingram doing two parts, he's ok at it but it would have been better with both of them there.
DeleteI wouldn't say King were slaves to their image, more that the audience were and that's why they didn't last I guess. They had a nice funky pop-rock sound and could perform live ok too.
Pop and rock are often about promoting through a strong image, you could say the same for many others like Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Prince etc. It's just that some get a longer run.
DeleteSure, but the better acts don't let the image rule the music, which is why we don't hear from Sigue Sigue Sputnik so much these days.
DeleteCongratulations to Simon Tyers, our old pal, who got his Teatime Theme Time played on BBC 6Music's Radcliffe and Maconie Show this afternoon. Three very good choices, and an excellent link (which I didn't get).
ReplyDeleteIs this the Simon who devised "Yes It's Number One", the first of the trilogy of TOTP blogs which got us to this point?
DeleteI assume so! I see his name on the end credits of Have I Got News For You quite often too.
DeleteThe Billy Ocean and Chaka Khan start fine but the chorus in both feels underwhelming to me. Ashford and Simpson and Bucks Fizz show them how to do a catchy and powerful chorus that provides a good culmination.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness someone else on here likes the Ashford & Simpson hit.
DeleteMe too Dory. But memories for childhood can make these songs really nostalgic
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DeleteThe video starts of with Ashford storming out of a New York taxi mid-journey having been arguing with her husband Simpson in the taxi, and then finds herself sheltering from the rain in a strange cavern where Simpson comes after her and makes amends by vowing that their marriage is Solid As A Rock.
DeleteSuffice to say that all the other characters in the video were strangers they met in the cavern who heard the singing by the pair, and came in to sing and dance with them to join in with their marital joy. Ahhhh....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3PoTnkLfxE
Wow, 38 comments already…I haven’t read ‘em yet so sorry for any repetition. Thanks whoever loaded this. Gets off to a poor start but then….wow! Not sure about the hosts here; they’re not on good form at all and the jokes are just not funny.
ReplyDeleteChaka Khan – This is my Night – So Chaka Chaka Khan deems to perform in the studio this time but nothing can rescue this pile of tosh.
Ashford and Simpson – Solid – So everyone smirkingly sung “solid as a cock” at the time and I have to say it’s Ok but not a particular favourite.
Strawberry Switchblade – Since Yesterday – Poor BBC4 viewers only got to see snatches of the video for this gem. Another striking studio appearance. Beach Baby, Beach Baby…
James Ingram – Yah mo be there – What does that mean? Urgh.
Breakers
The Imagination song sounds great although I don’t recall it. Big Country sounded like any other Big Country song. Billy Ocean was currently riding the crest of a wave (and the best was yet to come) whilst Art of Noise was just weird. The highlight was a welcome snatch from the excellent Bucks Fizz video for ‘I hear talk’; to quote their fabulous previous non-hit; “the golden days are over”, and their lack of studio appearance due to that awful crash wouldn’t have made much odds for this song.
Top10
We certainly get the best clip from Russ Abbot’s video!
King – Love and Pride – Not Mark King from Level 42, nor Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King, Nat ‘King’ Cole, King Crimson or even ‘King of the Road’. Just ‘King’. However this is a dance floor classic. I recall everyone singing their heart out to this one at a party. Like the way the singer wears the same outfit as on the record sleeve. First released in April 1984, a well-deserved slow burning hit.
Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson – I know him so well – Perfect situation this. Haven’t seen the video since 1985 and still love it. Recorded at Abba’s Polar Studios but not with both girls present at the same time.
Foreigner – I want to know what love is – Back to back gems and, at last we get to see the whole wonderful video with the girl arriving at the studio and the sheer joy on the gospel singers faces. Thomson Twin Tom Bailey sang on this one but he’s not seen in the video.
Kirsty McColl - A New England – Great way to play out. Hopefully we’ll see Kirsty soon.
Footnote. Saw a nice letter from former Pans Person Dee Dee Wilde in the Mail the other day. She runs a local Dance Group ‘Pans Fan’s in the West Country and at 71 is lucky to still be fit and dances every day.
"yah" is afro-american slang for "jehovah" i.e. god, as is of course the afro-caribbean/reggae equivalent "jah". so therefore it's all about finding salvation in the guvnor upstairs (as a certain cigar-smoking marathon-running disc jockey might have described said deity). which as i implied in my review detracts from what is otherwise an excellent dance track in my view, as i have no time for that kind of thing at all!
Deletei didn't see the show, therefore i'm guessing that bucks fizz hadn't got around to making a video for that record they released just prior to their accident? if if they had, then surely it would have been featured on the show in full at some point - even if just for the sympathy vote?
plus: i can't stand the paige/dickson thing, but regardless of that i always think it extremely suspect when a "duet" is recorded separately by those concerned. surely in order to make the thing work on an emotional level they have to sing together as a team in the same place at the same time?
further to my own reply: i am now wondering if james ingram and his semi-official duet-er michael mcdonald also recorded their parts for their single separately? if so then i suppose it would have been a case of "yah mo be there, but not james/michael" (delete as appropriate)
DeleteThere was a video for this Bucks Fizz single, made before the accident, and a brief segment was shown in the "Breakers" section on this show. The video would never get shown in full as the song climbed no higher. Perhaps TOTP had anticipated it would be a bigger hit, because of sympathy for the group after the crash - doubtless the full video would have been shown then.
DeleteYah mo be there was a bit God bothery. The yah=Yahweh, hebrew name for God. God will be there for you (apparently).
ReplyDeleteUtter crap song as well as content.
So Nancy up first. Not a patch on her number one. Shame she never performed that one. But quite a big name for totp to get over from the USA. Looks like she has stepped out of a Blakes 7 episode
ReplyDeleteNow here's a song I remember well. Don't remember the video or what they looked like but must have been on the radio a lot as I clearly remember singing along to this one..
Oh my word. Strawberry Switchblade. Whatever happened to them. Must have been a Saturday Superstore favourite. Forgotten all about this one. Great tune..
Still no idea who won the video award. So tempted to send off a postcard and see what happens.
James Ingram . Nope, me neither. Oh that song...how have I managed to go 30+ years without knowing who sung this? Oh well. Good song. Amazingly not a Top ten.
Aahh the Breakers. A regular part of my TOTP experience.
A good idea as the show went to 30 minutes. Glad they kept this big instead of the top ten video countdown, there would only be room for one and they made the right call.
Imagination. Suprised they didn't get a studio performance at number 22. Can't believe they were still going in 85. Not a great tune. Nice video though.
Billy Ocean with a forgettable number.
Big Country. Dare I say they all sound the same...
Art of Noise. This is more like it. Great record from them. A sign of things to come.
Bucks Fizz. A softer sound for the fizz (who lost another member yesterday ). Shame the promotion for this was limited after the accident as it's one of their best records.
King...of Saturday morning TV. He was forever on this. Went onto MTV after I think. Always assumed he was a solo artist. Never realised it was the band name to much later. Phone call for King.. Bay City Rollers want their suit back.
Paige/Dickson. Another one 10 year old me belted out around the house. Another Mum and Dad tune (although I think my Dad had a thing for Barbara Dickson - he had one of her albums)
Can't watch the video now post Peter Kay..������
Still a fan of the Foreigner song..
Kirsty is back. One of the most underrated performers of her time. Such a shame she died so young. Amazing voice and some great tunes.
A good solid show again. Like the breakers. Why they bothered with Steve Wright when smithy did all the work I have no idea.