When you actually turn into a chess piece
07/02/85 (Gary Davies & Richard Skinner)
King – “Love & Pride” (2)
King get the show underway in high kicking style, but Love & Pride could go no higher.
Bryan Adams – “Run To You” (11) (video)
At its peak.
Phil Collins – “Sussudio” (12)
In the studio with his new backing band, but again the song was at its peak.
Kirsty MacColl – “A New England” (13) (video)
On her way to number 7.
Killing Joke – “Love Like Blood” (32) (breaker)
Became their biggest hit when it reached number 16.
Chicago – “You’re The Inspiration” (34) (breaker)
Their final hit, peaking at number 14.
George Benson – “20/20” (39) (breaker)
It didn't quite zoom up the chart but it did make it to number 29.
Dead Or Alive – “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)” (40) (breaker)
The next number one in waiting.
Howard Jones – “Things Can Only Get Better” (18)
No live vocal this time for what would be his penultimate top ten hit when it reached number 6.
Billy Ocean – “Lover Boy” (16) (video)
Going all Star Wars in this video, and the force took Lover Boy up one more place.
The Top Ten Videos:
The Art Of Noise - "Close (To The Edit)" (10) (video clip)
Strawberry Switchblade - "Since Yesterday" (9) (video clip)
Tears For Fears - "Shout" (8) (video clip)
Russ Abbot - "Atmosphere" (7) (video clip)
Bruce Springsteen - "Dancing In The Dark" (6) (video clip)
Prince - "1999" (5) (video clip)
Ashford & Simpson - "Solid" (4) (video)
They played most of this one, and it went up one more place.
Foreigner - "I Want To Know What Love Is" (3) (video clip)
King - "Love & Pride" (2) (video clip)
Elaine Paige & Barbara Dickson – “I Know Him So Well” (1)
The first of four weeks at number one for the big haired duo.
Pat Benatar – “We Belong” (23) (audience dancing/credits)
Went up one more place.
Next up is February 14th.
What's with the half-mast breeks, Paul? Did you buy a pair too small and wear them anyway, or were they customised with a pair of scissors?
ReplyDeleteBryan Adams running through the seasons in his video, a bit like our current "changeable" winter at the moment. Fair light rock tune from The Groover from Vancouver, and he gets Lysette Anthony running towards him too, which can't be bad.
Phil Collins with a song penned to take the piss out of a Japanese secretary who had trouble pronouncing "studio". Hilarious, I'm sure. The bass sounds like a washing machine gearing up to the top spin cycle. Scary bassist, too.
Kirsty MacColl with a little pop masterpiece courtesy of Billy Bragg. I remember reading Ceefax's music pages and someone wrote in to complain that she always did her own backing singing, which seemed an odd thing to take umbrage at since that was her forte. She was a one-woman Beach Boys.
Then the Breakers, hope we see Killing Joke in full, that's one mighty doom rock tune. Not bothered about the next two, and DoA will be back with a vengeance.
D:Ream next, with - hey! Did they rip off Howie? Probably not, the songs don't sound that similar. Nice keytar, there. Unlike the wax wrapping paper suit. As for the song, light, airy, but the optimism sounds forced.
Billy Ocean, recognising it would be fourteen years till the next Star Wars movie, and thirty-two years before the next Star Wars movie most people liked, remedied that with a nutzoid video apparently inspired by the Cantina scene, with a sexual assault vibe to end on. Someone put Billy in the Solo movie! The song is pretty butch for his usual fare, but it's OK.
Top Ten which hasn't changed that much, so we get Ashford and Simpson almost in full - where the Hell was Paul Rutherford, then, Dickie? Gaz actually made me laugh when he described Bruce Springsteen as America's answer to Russ Abbot.
Then Ellie and Babs commence their reign of mumsy terror at the top for the next month. Already tired of this.
Whoops, forgot to mention Pat! Odd choice to end on, a whiny bit of inspirational anthem, and the audience are reduced to shuffling about listlessly to it.
Deletedespite being produced by mike chapman of chinnichap/blondie fame pat benatar was yet another peddler of tedious/bland american rock a la chicago, foreigner, reo speedwagon et al. thankfully unlike them the great british public showed little interest in her, despite quite heavy coverage in the music press at the time
DeleteDickie and Gazza make for a pleasant and enthusiastic combination this week, despite the latter's naff Radio 1 "Medallion Man" jumper. I actually caught him sitting in for Wrighty on Radio 2 this afternoon, so it's a strange coincidence that on this show he talks to Gary Byrd about doing the same thing (except that was on Radio 1, of course). To my ears, Mr Davies sounds somewhat different these days, but maybe that's just me.
ReplyDeleteKing were clearly revelling in their new-found success, and a white-suited Paul runs through a gamut of moves and heart-pounding gestures in this lively performance. We finally get to see the Bryan Adams video in full, and it is a moody affair encompassing more than one season. Run to You is an excellent and atmospheric pop-rock song too, though I think Summer of '69 was probably his finest moment. Who could have known at this time that he would have the longest-running Number 1 ever (in consecutive weeks, anyway), or indeed would end up taking official photographs of the Queen?
If 1985 was anyone's year, it was undoubtedly that of Phil Collins. He was everywhere, most notoriously at Live Aid, and selling records by the bucketload. I can't say I've ever been keen on this one, not least because of the annoying gibberish title, but in fairness it does have quite a dynamic production and an impassioned vocal from Phil. I'm sure we have seen that beardy bass player somewhere before on these reruns, but I can't recall where - incientally, what kind of name for a band is the "Hot Tub Club?" Kirsty is on video, standing in various bleak wintry landscapes, a reminder that there were a number of cold, snowy winters back in the 80s - the song still sounds good too.
On to the breakers, and Dead or Alive's new single gets the big TOTP break that would help push it to the top of the charts - were those long nails appearing behind Pete's back real? We will also be seeing more of Killing Joke soon, but thankfully no more of that dire George Benson effort or Chicago's saccharine offering. While this was their last hit of any significance in Britain, they would continue to be big in the US charts for a number of years, even without Peter Cetera.
Howard Jones may have hoped things would only get better, though sadly for him his career would soon start going down the toilet. Clearly tired of being a one man band, he has brought along a score of cohorts for this performance, even emulating Phil Collins with his own brass section; the ubiquitous Claudia Fontaine, wrapped in a headscarf, is also well to the fore on backing vocal duties. You don't hear this one very often, but it's actually a nice, uplifting tune and definitely one of Howard's better hits - he does look utterly ludicrous here, though. The Billy Ocean track is another one you don't hear much. It's a decent enough song, albeit lacking a killer hook, but it is completely overshadowed by the ludicrously overblown video, clearly put together by a fan not just of Star Wars but also The Dark Crystal. I wonder how much it cost to make?
Dickie informs us that Paul Rutherford was in the Solid video, but I don't know if he was serious or joking. There is someone in it who looks a bit like him, but I don't think it was - or was it? Elaine and Babs are back in the studio to celebrate their ascent to the top, though Babs slightly spoils the staging by looking towards Elaine for a short while early on - I thought her leather outfit was preferable to Elaine's brooch-fastened adapted curtains. After that brief and totally unenlightening interview with Mr Byrd, Pat Benatar plays us out. I'm not convinced We Belong was the best choice with which to end, as it isn't massively danceable, but great to hear most of it anyway.
The Paul Rutherford comment I think was a joke, in that someone in the video dancing near Ashford & Simpson had a moustach in the mould of Rutherford, and Richard Skinner must have thought it was a Rutherford lookalike. I don't think so, but hey, each to their own.
DeleteI just loved the long playout of Pat Benatar at the end of the show. With Benetar never having graced the TOTP studio in person, and only a snippet of the video shown in the Breakers section the week before, this was the best we were going to get of her before the song went down the charts soon after.
Not just you John, I thought Gary sounded different when I heard him on Sounds Of The Eighties a while back. Unlike Steve Wright, who sounds as annoying now as he did in 1985.
Deletebefore i start, i've finally got to see that advert on this blog featuring bowie that (i think) thx mentioned a few weeks earlier. presumably the pic of him blowing up some bubblegum is considered the kind of "art" that punters are being advised to invest in by the advertiser. it looks like a case of "emperor's new clothes" to me, but sadly no doubt many people who have far more money than they need or deserve are attracted to such bollocks?
ReplyDeletetalking of bollocks, most of which is on this edition falls into that category in my view. the only exception is bryan adams - who was being spoken of as a new "boss" at the time, and sadly his consequent output reflected that. but if you want to listen to some driving stadium rock, then his debut british hit certainly gives the likes of "more than a feeling" and "don't fear the reaper" some competition with its mix of intricate guitar arpeggios and more strident axe action. i particularly like the bass riff under the power chords in the chorus, that i could happily listen to all day long
It's interesting that the title of the blog on this episode is so far from the truth. It was actually moving in the wrong direction with the shortening of the show to 30 minutes forever, shortly coming up in early 1985, thanks and no thanks to the arrival of Eastenders.
ReplyDeletePhil Collins - an extremely rare if not first ever appearance in the TOTP studio, whether with Genesis or solo. Does anyone know if before this point he ever performed in the TOTP studio, and if so which song? Still this new hit surprisingly did not trouble the top ten, considering it was one of his best, and punchy numbers. Certainly one that I liked a lot.
Chicago - in the Breakers section, well what a pity that there was to be no more from Chicago with Peter Cetera after this final bow-out record, well, in the British charts anyway, but as John mentions, they continued to have massive success in the late 80s in America without Cetera at the helm, and I remember in 1988 listening to Paul Gambaccini's American charts on Radio 1, that Chicago had a massive No.1 that year with the fantastic Look Away, the video of which stands proudly in my iTunes music video collection:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vFDBtCjcrI
I remember from Gambo's weekly US chart show on Radio 1, being so happy for Chicago that they were still able to scale the dizzy heights of No.1 in America, even without Cetera.
Phil Collins had been on a few times before! Off the top of my head - 'In The Air Tonight', 'Paperlate', 'Abacab' (maybe wrong on that?) and also 'One More Night'
DeleteAh, I see this has been answered below. Clearly I need to read ahead first!
DeleteThe Ashford & Simpson video in this week's top ten video rundown, now at the dizzy heights of no.4, and where Skinner says "lets stay with this one for a while', is actually the last 90 seconds of the video to final freeze-frame.
ReplyDeleteBut the video actually starts off 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.
Suffice 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
It's occurred to me that the weekly Top 10 Videos was actually in breach of TOTP's own houserule that songs should only ever receive airtime when, sales wise, they were in the ascendant.
DeleteIt seems that they were only keeping this feature on the show until Tears For Fears finally dropped out of the top ten, as they only gave them one TOTP appearance on the 3rd Jan show at No.8 on the ascent, and then unfairly not giving them another full feature three weeks later while still going up to No.4. As though the top ten video section was some consolation to them!
DeleteHaven't had the chance to watch this one yet, but in answer to Dory's Phil Collins question, there was the infamous first solo performance on the show with 'In The Air Tonight', accompanied by paint pot comment on the cause of his marital woes, and, with Genesis, he definitely appeared performing 'Turn It On Again' in 1980 and 'Abacab' in 1981. Apart from those three, I think this was his next 'live' appearance, although am by no means certain!
ReplyDeletephil collins was hardly a stranger to the totp audience by this point, having appeared numerous times both as a solo act and with genesis over the previous five years
DeleteHe also sang 'I Missed Again' and 'If Leaving Me Is Easy' in the TOTP studio in 1981 and 'Paperlate' with Genesis in 1982.
DeleteWe only missed out on TOTP the following flop solo releases from Phil; 'Thru these walls', 'Don't let him steal your heart away' and 'Why can't it wait 'til Morning'.
Deletethat reminds me - in the Radio Times popmaster quiz it gives the answer to Genesis's 1982 hit as Paperplate - oops!
DeleteThe only time I saw paper plates in pop music history, is the video for Last Christmas by Wham. The paper plates were seen the Christmas Day meal/party that Wham & friends had after a long day's skiing where George Michael was staring at a brunette across the dinner table, that was not one of the Wham girls, making his Wham girl jealous.
Delete'Paperlate' originates from a line in the opening song 'Dancing with the Moonlit Knight' from the sublime 1973 Genesis album 'Selling England by the Pound'.
DeleteI think Phil became less of a studio regular as the 80's went on, although he would return with Genesis in 1991.
DeleteOh, and did he appear as part of the 'Band Aid' line up for their studio appearance a few weeks prior to this ...? He appeared playing drums in the video ... I would check, but unfortunately my recordings of TOTP have been sadly depleted. My two year old decided that my laptop, "looked thirsty" over the Christmas break and kindly fed it coffee. I'm only just rebuilding the nearly a terabyte of music and recordings that had a strong allergic reaction and went to the great recycle bin in the sky ...
ReplyDeleteWhat a fabulous edition!! I watched this all through without a single FF.
ReplyDeleteKing – Love and Pride – Great start to the show with the three kings (brothers?) all looking alike and getting everyone going with their infectious anthem. The lead singer has ditched the Bay City Rollers outfit for this appearance.
Bryan Adams – Run to you – Nice mix of on stage and out in the snow complete with girl ‘running to him’. Impressive.
Phil Collins – Sussudio – Featuring Daryl Stuermer on guitar (from Phil’s and Genesis touring band), long time Genesis touring drummer Chester Thompson (who also played with Phil’s solo tours) and very long time session bass player Lee Sklar who looks very pleased to be in the TOTP studio – perhaps it was his first time? I’ve even spotted him credited on the excellent debut album from Fox in 1974 which contains gems such as ‘Only you can’. Both Lee and Chester didn’t play on the studio recording of this; however Lee did play bass on Phil’s next single release ‘One more Night’. Nice to see the cover photo from ‘No Jacket Required’ on the chart rundown.
Kirsty McColl – A New England – Surprisingly not one of Kirsty’s own but a great song and video.
Breakers – good to see Chicago in there. Great song which I don’t believe got another showing on TOTP.
Howard Jones – Things can only get better – They didn’t. But this was my absolute favourite single from Howard. I am sure the first line featured on the ‘Indecipherable lyrics’ round on the Buzzcocks. The guy who leans into shot during Gary’s intro looks kinda weird.
Billy Ocean – Loverboy – Definitely influenced by the famous Star Wars theme but also starts off next to the ocean.
Chart rundown – One line of Foreigner this time rather than the extended video we’ve been treated to the last couple of weeks.
Elaine Paige & Barbara Dickson – I know him so well – Deserved number one and another studio outing sees Barbara wearing much more subtle lipstick than in the video. Turned this up loud when I watched it!
Pat Benetar – We belong – Great to hear right through to the massed choral chorus near the end of the song and everyone seems happy dancing to it. I wonder if this all aired at the time?
Yes, considering Chicago got up to No.14 with this one, this feature at No.34 in the Breakers section was the only time the song appeared on the show. Another shocker from TOTP in my opinion, considering they played the Hard Habit To Break video as main feature on two separate shows a few months earlier!
DeleteAnd then it seemed liked they were embarrassed about the Foreigner video to have only one line of it this week after dropping from No.1. Did TOTP not like the American contributors to the British charts?
As Foreigner were now dropping down the charts, it doesn't surprise me that we didn't get much of the video, particularly as it had featured heavily on the show for several weeks by this point. They haven't been lingering for long on any of the fallers, and Foreigner were part British anyway.
DeleteWe're in for another traversty shortly. REO Speedwagon's big US no1 'Can't fight this feeling' managed to crawl to no16 in our charts (after its debut at no100 in w/c 24th February) despite no full appearance on TOTP. I seem to recall they showed a snatch of the second verse "My life has been such a whirlwind..." on the breakers but that was it.
DeleteThis single and the 'Wheels are turning' album was REO's big comeback after the highs of the 'Hi Infidelity' had been followed up by the disappointing 'Good Trouble' album.
There was definitely a bias by TOTP for British bands getting full plays on the show ahead of American bands, with the only exception being if an American band were No.1, but despite what John says about Foreigner being half American, half British, they fell into the American band camp because they were based there.
Deletei have my original recording of this show, and am able to tell you that Pat Benatar was faded out just 3 seconds after the final Michale hurl caption disappeared, when a plug for Mike Read's Saturday Superstore was announced. It's good now to see the full unaired recording of the end of TOTP.
DeleteI think that is the only benefit of these reruns over the originally aired shows at the time, because there have otherwise been more problems this time round with edited shows, missed out shows cos of Saville, DLT, Smith, etc.
DeleteAt least one good thing has come out of these BBC4 re-runs, i.e. some of these playouts in full, which we were denied in the 80s because of rushed programme scheduling on a Thursday night on BBC1.
Unfortunately it looks as if BBC4 are going to jump straight from the 7th March show to 4th April next week (8/9 Feb). There seem to be technical issues with 21/03/85 and Smitty hosts the shows either side of it, so that will mean three consecutive skipped editions to get through in quick succession, and five shows to tackle that week in total...
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of technical issues?
DeleteApparently the picture quality of the BBC's copy is too poor to broadcast, though why that is I don't know.
DeleteA reliable pair of pair of hands but still way too much waffle over the video clips. Again half of Strawberry Switchblade’s miniscule clip (and our last sighting of the lasses) is drowned out – and still Russ Abbot’s surname is mis-spelt!
ReplyDeleteGood grief, Paul King with both mullet and ponytail, plus plus fours and no mic stand to give him more room to pose, pout and do that bloody heart pounding mime.
I wouldn’t have been surprised if Bryan Adams got a stinker of a cold having been subjected to all that fake snow, water and wind. Oo, it’s that posh bird from “Three Up Two Down”!
A wonderful song for the wonderful Kirsty, with the most unapt line on the re-run yet as Kirsty runs her hand over her bump while singing “They put me on the Pill”!
Killing Joke – hard band, hard song. Love this. Chicago – soft band, soft song, soft furnishings.
So, Dickie thinks “20-20” will zoom up having jumped a whole one place in the past two weeks. Hmmm.
This is more like it. Classic disco by Dead Or Alive and another WTF moment coming up for TOTP watchers’ parents.
An astonishing outfit there for Howard Jones. Did he toss with Paul King for suits this week? Made me hungry for Edam. The song wasn’t his best but certainly not his worst.
What on Earth was the relevance of the video to Billy Ocean’s song? Was that Jah Jah Binks in there too? What an underwhelming chorus this song has.
Here come Leather Barbara and Granny Elaine. Hope this doesn’t stay top for long. Ah.
Oh dear, the Gary Byrd interview wasn’t one of the show’s finest moments, was it?
And we finish with a piece of classic disco – er, no, make that a piece of classic ‘putting out a small fire slowly’ non-disco. I agree Pat Benatar was a head scratching choice for outro.
Pat Benetar was probably the next in line for a main feature on the show, had the Breakers section not been in the show (which takes up the time of a full video), and you can see from the line up on the show that all the main feature acts were inside the top 20, with Benetar at No.23 getting the short straw for playout. Damn that Breakers section!
DeleteDead Or Alive would have likely been the playout instead.
DeleteAnyone else associate some/all of these tracks with snowy weather? I know Kirsty MacColl's video had snow on the ground, but hearing Love and Pride and Sussudio always makes me think of snow.
ReplyDeleteThought I'd check back and it turns out the night of the 8th of Feb 1985 there was quite a snowfall across the UK.
Memories eh?
From memory, I think we had about three very cold winters in a row from 1985-87. The "biggie" for me was January 1987, when there was a foot of snow in my back garden, large parts of rural Kent were cut off for days, and my school was closed for a week. Now, that was a proper winter...
DeleteI can remember the 1987 winter as only 27 out of a 1000 of us made it to school after a big snowfall (sadly I lived 5 minutes away) only to be sent home as hardly any teachers had turned up.
Deletei remember one of those winters when my car wouldn't start in freezing and snowy conditions, and having a basil fawlty-style mental meltdown accordingly!
DeleteI see DLT is making a comeback to the airwaves. Although he doesn't seem to have a job lined up, he's just said he will.
ReplyDeleteIt's a new digital station called United DJs Radio, which is apparently due to launch next month. If this article is to be believed, they have signed up some starry names, in addition to a good few I have never heard of:
Deletehttps://radiotoday.co.uk/2018/01/delux-radio-jocks-join-rival-united-djs-instead/
Note to Dave: I don't recommend phone ins.
DeleteFinally found time for this one so apologies if I repeat everyone else.
ReplyDelete2 quality presenters this week. 21 songs, crikey!
King looking slightly more sophisticated this week, how did the keyboard player get in the band?...he doesn't have the hair.
Must be one of the bigger number 2 records of the 80s in terms of airplay it still receives.
Bryan getting a boost from the breakers. The north americans really love their concert videos don't they. The rest is just a weather report gone wrong, why is the picture quality so bad on some of this video?
Phil Collins. As I said last week my favourite Phil song. Has he just come from the office? Still no idea what sussudio means 33 years on...oh well
Kirsty. Another breaker done good. Great song. Great singer. Average video.
And onto this week's breakers. How many will make next weeks TOTP I wonder
Killing Joke. An early 80s sound. New to me, not bad.
Chicago. Cheese alert.
George Benson. Not great on first listen. Pass
Dead or Alive. Classic tune. Looking forward to seeing this a few times.
Howard's back. Always reliable for a good tune. Nice bright outfit as well. Wasn't 80s fashion fun. Enjoyed this one.
Billy Ocean. Hadn't heard this before last week but growing on me fast. What is going on in this video. Did they have a load of spare costumes that needed using up? I'm looking for a narrative. ...
Nice to see they've nicked Dr Who's VFX box. Bit Five Doctors
Why didn't we get Bowie this week? Odd
Russ STILL going up...really? OMG
Prince. Shame we never got to see little red corvette. I wonder if it got much airplay at the time,
Another showing for Solid. Now I like this song but had enough of its now.
New number one...Nothing new to say. Nice to see the studio performance though
Great song by Pat Benatar to close.
Really good show,
morgie i presume when you mention bowie you are referring to the dame's collaboration with the pat metheny group for the theme from the film "the falcon and the snowman"? if so then i hope they get on the show at some point, as it's a summit meeting between probably the greatest rock superstar (who gives perhaps his most majestic vocal performance ever?) and one of my all-time favourite bands (metheny himself is of course a phenomenal and seminal musician, but his keyboard player/right-hand man lyle mays is a god as far as i'm concerned!). but how did such an offbeat pairing come about? i still have no idea even now, despite trawling the internet for an answer in more recent times
DeleteThanks for the info. Didn't recognise the song title.
DeleteJust seems odd that someone such as Bowie gets into the top 30 and they didn't even make it a breaker. Maybe there was no video?
you could be right about "this is not america" not having a video made for it. although even if the dame and co weren't available or bothered about shooting one, as it was written as part of a film soundtrack i would have thought some clips would have been cobbled together for one? it still doesn't excuse it not being used as playout/credits music though - specially when dross like pat benatar gets chosen instead!
DeleteI'm a bit late to the party too, struggling to keep up already with the thought of 5 editions in a week soon (as referred to above) not filling me with joy.
ReplyDeleteKing - Glad we got to see a performance of this. Paul King showing what a raving egotist he is but I suppose it's forgivable in this instance as the song is so good.
Bryan Adams - His later stuff is mostly drivel but the 'Reckless' era singles are uniformly good, 'Somebody' probably being my favourite. The incredibly pixellated bits in the video are odd - I was expecting a pull back to reveal somebody watching on a screen, but no....
Phil Collins - The Hot Tub Club is very much not one I'll be rushing to join, thanks.
Kirsty MacColl - I can't stand Billy Bragg most of the time due to the politics. However, this song proves that when he puts that to one side he can write brilliant songs. The 'It's wrong to wish on space hardware' line is nothing short of brilliant.
Breakers - Why do they do these backwards rather than starting at No.40? Why show George Benson when by definition a single going 40-40-39 in the chart is hardly a breaker? Still, NOW we know why 'You Spin Me Round' became such a massive hit - coming as it did after the George Benson & Chicago snoozefests, it couldn't fail!
Howard Jones - Lots of love for this it seems, and I'm glad because I think it's one of his best. My Dad had the 'Dream Into Action' album.
Billy Ocean - Easy to imagine the video director saying 'Just dance about a bit Billy, we'll put something else in later' then months later he sees it for the first time and spits out his tea....I really like this song for some reason, as it's usually the kind of stuff I dislike!
Paige / Dickson - Kudos for turning up again and singing it live this time.
Billy Bragg is more the ultra-patriotic right winger these days, if it's any consolation. You do get more conservative as you get older, as they say.
Deletenot that i'd know from experience, but i think you can pretty much guarantee that people will also get more conservative as they get richer. in my view if mr bragg has now become comfortably well-off as a result of his success, then whilst neither situation sits well with me i'd rather he changed his political allegiance to match that of his fellow wealthy and selfish scumbags, than pretend to be some kind of champagne socialist whilst continuing to line his own pockets and not help those worse off!
DeleteIf you want a right wing rock star, they don't come much more so than Killing Joke, on the next show. Not sure if they're exactly wealthy, though...
Delete