Love don't live here why aye pet!
16/05/85 (Gary Davies & Peter Powell)
Kim Wilde – “Rage To Love” (22)
Kim gets her Suzi Quatro leathers on to get tonight's show off to a rockabilly start with a song that peaked at number 19.
Bryan Ferry – “Slave To Love” (14) (video)
As you might expect Bryan serves up a sexy video to go with his sophisticated final top ten song, (taken from his number one album Boys and Girls) that peaked at number 10.
Loose Ends – “Magic Touch” (20)
Peaked at number 16 but edited out of tonight's 7.30 showing.
Duran Duran – “A View To A Kill” (7) (video)
Le Bon, Simon Le Bon and the gang get up to all manner of secret agent stuff up the Eiffel Tower with this Bond theme that peaked at number 2.
Jimmy Nail – “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore” (8)
Making his studio debut with this Rose Royce cover that reached an impressive number 3.
Depeche Mode – “Shake The Disease” (25) (breaker)
It would be five long years before their next top ten hit. This one peaked at number 18.
Go West – “Call Me” (24) (breaker)
Made it ti number 12.
Marillion – “Kayleigh” (15) (breaker)
Now this one really was a breaker. Peaking at number 2, it was the band's biggest hit and their first of three top ten hits.
Top Ten Videos:
Simple Minds - "Don't You (Forget About Me)" (10) (video clip)
Tears For Fears - "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" (9) (video clip)
Jimmy Nail – “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore” (8) (video clip)
Duran Duran – “A View To A Kill” (7) (video clip)
The Style Council – “Walls Come Tumbling Down” (6) (video clip)
Steve Arrington - "Feel So Real" (5) (video clip)
DeBarge - "Rhythm Of The Night" (4) (video clip)
Bronski Beat & Marc Almond – “I Feel Love” (3) (video clip)
Phyllis Nelson – “Move Closer” (2) (TOTP clip)
Paul Hardcastle – “19” (1) (video)
Second of five weeks at the top.
Divine – “Walk Like A Man” (23) (audience dancing/credits)
Got no higher.
May 23rd 1985 is next.
Good show this one..better than I expected.
ReplyDeleteKim Wilde – Rage to love – Or should it be Kim Wilde and the Stray Cats? such like ‘Runaway Boys’ this sounds to me. Lively start, don’t recall this song though.
Bryan Ferry – Slave to love – Almost a coda to the Roxy Music album ‘Avalon’, but a silky smooth song none the less. Roxy and Ferry almost missed out completely in the USA bar a minor hit with ‘Love is the Drug’. Very strange.
Loose Ends – Magic Touch – Edited out of the show I watched thank goodness!
Duran Duran – A View to a Kill – Great video which features the Eiffel Tower scene with Grace ‘Mayday’ Jones amongst some very familiar band members. One of the best Bond (or ‘Bon’) themes for me. Wish the video showed the lovely Tanya Roberts though.
Jimmy Nail – Love don’t live here anymore – Great cover…so much better than the original with those annoying electronic drums. No Roger Taylor on drums here, but that looks like Mike Paxman on guitar (from Judie Tzuke’s original band).
Breakers – Not that keen on the Depeche Mode song, Go West nicked a Blondie title to lesser effect, whilst we get an absolute classic (and one of the best records of 1985 for me) from Marillion with the wonderful ‘Kayleigh’. I think they actually invented the name as there are lots of Kayleighs around aged in the 30 bracket. The song was originally recorded with different lyrics which makes interesting listening and was played live as such ahead of the single release:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vJThZqd6iA&list=RD_vJThZqd6iA&t=3
Paul Hardcastle – 19 – FF
Divine – Walk like a Man – FF
Quick end to a great show for me.
Kayleigh would of course be superseded by Kylie within a few years!
DeleteI rarely disagree with you sct353, but the Jimmy Nail version of Love Don't Live Here Anymore was nowhere near as good as the original from Rose Royce, as this song lends itself much more to female vocals and female despair, so I don't quite understand how Nail wanted to sing these lyrics as a male.
DeleteFemale vocals can often be more powerful on melodic music because of the greater range. I also think Nail isn't quite as assured on the vocal.
DeleteGazza and PP manage to host much more competently than the last time they did the show together, and achieve a decent chemistry. However, I can't help feeling that PP was getting a bit too old for this TOTP lark by now, even if he was still only 34 at the time.
ReplyDeleteKim Wilde wisely ditches the sci-fi gear from her last visit to the studio and gets back to basics in leather, faithful (and increasingly hairless) brother Ricky still in tow. Not for the first time she is borrowing from The Stray Cats here, but it's an energetic enough tune with some nice guitar embellishments. Roxy Music may have been no more, but Bryan Ferry very much carried over their late-period sound to this tasteful but ever-so-slightly dull effort. The video is chiefly notable for models miming to the words, some five years before George Michael deployed the same trick in the Freedom '90 promo.
I haven't seen the Loose Ends performance yet, but the song has a very similar sound to Five Star, pleasant but insubstantial. Incidentally, curious that Five Star themselves were ignored on this show, given their debut hit had jumped ten places since the previous week. Duran Duran and John Barry were unlikely bedfellows on paper, but they managed to come up with what for me is the last great Bond theme, even if the film it accompanied is a creaky affair notorious for a superannuated Roger Moore getting into bed with Grace Jones. Just a shame that the video (which we get in full, cheesy ending and all) contains all that annoying background noise drowning out the song.
Jimmy Nail begins his unlikely hit-making career with this creditable cover of the old Rose Royce song, which succeeds thanks to its rather chilly, stark production. Jim looks at ease behind the mic, but his bouncy backing band have a surfeit of bad hair. I'll comment on the breakers come the next show, but in the video Top 10 the Style Council seemed to be playing to a very disinterested audience, Steve Arrington was striking numerous poses and the Debarge video featured the now familiar (and surely by this time already clichéd) outbreak of urban dancing, this time in a car park. Sadly, a generally strong show ends with an irritating number 1 and a truly dire cover from the monumentally talentless Divine.
I'll save comment on the breakers for the next show
Oops, forgot to delete that sentence at the end!
DeleteA View To A Kill was Roger Moore's final Bond film, and I remember at the time thinking that Duran Duran were not worthy of singing the theme song, after the previous ones in the 70s an 80s, which were much more fitting, like Shirley Bassey, Sheena Easton, etc.
DeleteRoger Moore himself was now a crusty 57 years old, taking on his final James Bond assignment, and last overall film until a small comeback, and late career flurry in the early 90s around retirement age, but A View To A Kill was not his best Bond effort in my opinion, with no Britt Ekland to snuggle up in bed with, for example.
Sir Roger worked consistently after hanging up his Walther PPK, who can forget Michael Winner's Bullseye with Michael Caine? Or Boat Trip with Cuba Gooding Jr, his only gay role? Or The Quest with Jean-Claude Van Damme, the only co-star he had anything bad to say about? Or Spiceworld with The Spice Girls? If that's not a solid career in its autumn years I don't know what is! Sort of.
DeleteRoger almost crowned his career by winning the Razzie award for Worst Supporting Actor for his turn in Spiceworld. Sean Connery was nominated in the same category that year, but he didn't win either!
DeleteBest outfit of the night award goes to Kim Wilde's drummer and his medical refuse sack shirt.
ReplyDeleteWorst special effect award: Those video cameras on A View To A Kill although it has to be said Simon Le Bon's souped up Walkman looked pretty nifty.
PP has definitely perked up, life with Janice was clearly suiting him.
Yes, those video cameras were dire, weren't they? Having said that, it's appropriate in a way as I remember the film contains some really amateurish back projection in one scene. Sadly for PP, the relationship with Janice would be over by July.
DeleteAt the speed we're getting through 1985 we'll see how the break up affects PP before March is out.
DeleteForgot to say when I hear that Go West song I always think of the I'm Alan Partridge episode where he gets caught nicking a road cone and Go West are playing at the end.
kim wilde: blimey, something from her that i actually quite like, even though it's more than a little influenced by both the stray cats sound and prince's "let's go crazy". and she actually gives it a bit more welly vocally than usual too. baldie brother ricky really looks out of place alongside the rest of the backing band whose locks are almost as luxurious as kim's, but at least he didn't go for the reg cop-out option of wearing hats. has anyone else noticed that the title of the next song is almost the same as this one?
ReplyDeletebryan ferry: with the reformed roxy music having morphed into essentially himself and hired hands, the sultan of suave officially commences the third phase of his solo career. this isn't the best from the "boys and girls" LP by any means (i would probably place that in my top 3 albums of all-time), but it still oozes class and is representative of ferry's classic and timeless style that shows up most of the tacky and gaudy mid-80's musical fashions for what they were. i don't think much of the art-meets-soft porn video though
loose ends: i couldn't remember this one at all, although it sort-of came back to me once the vocals started. pleasant enough, but nothing sticks out to differentiate it from say, the coolnotes. there's no credit given for the sax playing on the album as far as i can tell, but if it wasn't david sanborn then whoever it was obviously had instructions to play like him
duran duran: supposedly co-written by them and bond score ubermeister john barry for the then-latest 007 effort, it sounds to me more like just another duran tune with barry adding a few trademark horn stabs on top - which were by far the best bits in my opinion
jimmy nail: i've never watched "auf wiedersehn pet", so i only really knew mr nail (apparently he started calling himself that after he stepped on one!) from pics of him at the time. but however good he might have been as a singer (and i've heard worse, although the geordie accent can't help showing through which detracts somewhat) he never had the face of a pop star. and standing in a dirty mac with hands in pockets hardly helps either. but i have admit the arrangement of this is quite well done (queen's roger taylor produced it, although he presumably wasn't available to be part of jimmy's backing band)
divine: i've only just listened to this now for the first time in decades. the backing is actually pretty good if you ignore the similarity to "i feel love", although the cowbell in the breakdown sounds mega-cheesy now. as for divine himself (or should that be herself?), i just can't help but be amused at his efforts to sing despite having sounded like he'd gargled with broken glass beforehand - although presumably it was always intended for comic effect?
i forgot to mention that jimmy nail was not the first of the "auf weidersehmn pet" cast to appear on the show - gary holton (who was to croak soon after nail's debut) did so quite early on in these re-runs as the frontman of the heavy metal kids (who i have just discovered are quite unbelievably actually still active!)
DeleteThe Bryan Ferry video was certainly the highlight of the show for me, and yes, it just oozed class, panache and style, that only Ferry could command. I mean those models were just second to none, especially the slender one dancing with the black guy. Good Lord, I could have watched her all evening!
Deletehowever it might be perceived, i don't think bryan's intent was to feature attractive female models in his video so that people like you could jerk themselves off over it, but to feature artful and sophisticated visual images that reflected the nature of his music
DeleteThe Heavy Metal Kids! Their TOTP appearance is best remembered for an old looking bloke getting in the way of the camera right at the start, looking like a rabbit in front of headlights and ducking out of sight!
DeleteGary Davies was quick to point out the Rage/Slave songs' similarity. The scamp.
Deletethx i didn't see the actual show itself, just the various clips on youtube. so sorry but i wasn't aware gazza had already made the same (near) connection
DeleteAh yes, the Heavy Metal Kids with 'She's no Angel'. A breaker that didn't break the charts! Those were the days (May 1976).
DeleteKim Wilde, hey this was pretty good! Maybe inspired by her dad's background in 50s rock 'n' roll, though sounding very Brian Setzer as mentioned, it has a strong chorus, bouncy verses and tuneful middle eight. Why wasn't this a bigger hit? The mysteries of the past...
ReplyDeleteBrian Ferry with a surprising change of image - oh, wait, he has models miming to his vocals while he mopes about in Sunday Colour Supplement visuals. I suppose it suits the song, a shade too restrained and slick, but I bet it sounded good in a... wine bar?
Loose Ends ploughing their own furrow with a similar song to their last, but hey, if you have a winning formula you don't make radical changes. Another one that's slick, but matey on the left isn't getting much to do - are they even his vocals?!
Duran Duran with a song that was more exciting than the film, a rather embarrassing end to Moore's Bond career as he might as well have been played by his stuntman. How can you mess up a Bond movie with Christopher Walken and Grace Jones as the baddies? Anyway, it's a very DD song, but not a very 007 song, and the arseing about in the video matches the arseing about in the film. The band seem to be pitted against each other.
Jimmy Nail with an over-produced pub singer version of the Rose Royce bit o' class, fair play to him for having the confidence to branch out. Anyway, this begs the question, whatever happened to Jimmy Nail? Last thing I saw him in was Evita. Hope it's not a Richard O'Sullivan thing where he's all over the place one minute and in a nursing home the next.
Paul Hardcastle still at the top, and by this time feeling the hot breath of Mike Oldfield's lawyers on his neck. For a novelty record that wasn't, still does the business for me.
And then, ah, the voice of an angel to see us out. Is it my imagination or have the lyrics been changed from the original? I might be wrong.
i wasn't aware until now that mike oldfield tried to sue paul hardcastle for plagiarism regarding "19". apparently hardcastle settled with oldfield out of court - which implied he had listened to "tubular bells" even if he didn't deliberately copy anything off it, and so probably thought better safe than sorry - especially given he was a newcomer to the scene and oldfield was a long-established legend. as i hope you can also see from the link below, i don't think oldfield had a leg to stand on anyway. but had i been hardcastle i would have told him where to sling his hook as not only is the supposed resemblance marginal at best, but i've never actually listened to the original "tubular bells" album!:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHgNMN9GXqc
Wilberforce - surprised you've not heard this bit of 'Tubular Bells'. It's not the main 'Exorcist' tune that spawned a million ringtones, but the climax to side one which is the Vivian Stanshall 'Master of Ceremonies'.
DeleteThe similar sounding 'Tubular Bells 2' (Oldfield ripping himself off as one of the comments on the YT link observes!) featured Alan Rickman in the role.
sct the only bit of "tubular bells" i'm familiar with is the main theme, which i've heard (presumably the original version?) as brief bursts of theme or background music on the telly or in films (but not in "the exorcist", as i've never seen that). plus via the champs boys, who did a disco version of it very early on in these re-runs. as you might have guessed from my reviews i'm not a big fan of the heavier end of rock (be it metal, prog or whatever), and that is one of many so-called "classic albums" that i've never had any desire to listen to!
DeleteAs someone who has listened to Tubular Bells a lot, I fail to hear any resemblance whatsoever between it and 19, so I can't help feeling Paul Hardcastle should have stuck to his guns. Mind you, Oldfield was later on the receiving end of a lawsuit when he sold his Ibiza villa to Noel Gallagher, only for Gallagher to discover part of it was slipping into the sea - Mike apparently paid him a six-figure sum, so what goes around comes around...
DeleteTHX - I did wonder if the Loose Ender in the loud jacket was their Bez before he finally started singing! Jimmy Nail is still in good health, as far as I know. The last time I saw him on TV was in the AWP revival in the early noughties, but more recently he starred in Sting's flop Geordie musical, The Last Ship.
You have reassured me as to Jimmy's health, John, I'd forgotten AWP had a revival, mind you that was a while ago.
DeleteIf anyone's particularly interested in Mike Oldfield he had a decent album out last year, must rank among his best ever at the very least.
DeleteHangin' on a String seemed to have a bit more bouncy energy to it than Magic Touch, I think that's one reason I liked it more.
DeleteMy Fast Forward button was well utilised again for this one I'm afraid...
ReplyDeleteKim Wilde - Awful stuff that might have done better 4 years earlier. Lucky to get into the Top 20 to be honest.
Bryan Ferry - Very slick and professional, but also a bit dull. His next single is better.
Loose Ends - Shame that we got to see this rather average soul tune and not their superior first hit.
Duran Duran - For some reason, I've always really disliked this. One of the few Duran singles that I'm really not keen on.
Jimmy Nail - Best thing on the show, who'd have thought I'd be saying that? Nicely produced, and I think his voice suits this quite well. Nicely mimed too, that doesn't happen often. Not sure the current fad of upward camera shots close to the performers did him any favours though!
Breakers: Go West and Depeche Mode both average, Marillion excellent but that's on the next one anyway.
Interesting that they showed a fair bit of DeBarge on the video countdown, almost to acknowledge that it mysteriously hadn't featured much on the show. Rather too much of Phyllis Nelson though.
Yes, I was quite disappointed at the time regarding the lack of Debarge play on TOTP, considering it peaked at No.4, it never got a full play/feature during this powerful run in the charts. TOTP has a lot of explaining to do, as the video was one of those really feelgood ones of the 80s and a dance floor classic, so why oh why did TOTP ignore this one, giving it only a one-minute play on the top ten rundown? Sorry TOTP, but I'm not impressed, but this had No.1 written all over it had TOTP played it as a main feature!
DeleteOh, the days of watching in suspense. Gary lists most of tonight’s acts while Peter PowELL gives the chart topper away immediately. Idiots.
ReplyDeleteI liked Kim’s image here but her voice isn’t suited to synthy rockabilly. Mind you, whose would be?
Hmm, a weird neon yellow edging around Gary linking to Bryan’s video. Don’t you just wish for once Mr Ferry would do a video dressed in jeans and a flat cap smoking a Woodbine?
And next it’s “Slave To Rage” – er, no, one of Loose Ends’ lesser known hits where Carl’s voice initially appears to have risen at least an octave.
Watching Simon Le Bon, all I could think of was “Hmmm, Betty!”
In terms of miming, apart from needlessly mouthing “Does it?” after the second line, Jimmy nailed it. Ahem. A decent (Northern) soulful copy. Last singer we saw with a tooth missing was Terry’s singing telegram mate in The Colour Field.
Proper emotive miming theremby Depeche Mode’s Andy Fletcher, who rarely sang on their tracks.
Go West with Pete still wearing that dirty vest and the second successive video clip with someone upside down.
We get the end of “KayLEIGH” as PeTER called it earlier in the show.
I loved the audience member facing away from The Style Council and chomping. Plenty of Phyllis Nelson this time round which makes up for the following week’s drought.
I wonder if Jimmy and Bryan mixed in the same social circles? I can't imagine Oz being too impressed at a posh Geordie, though.
DeleteI'm making one of my now occasional visits this week, as there have been some classy offerings on TOTP lately.
ReplyDeleteKim's 'Rage To Love' - although penned by her regular team of Marty and Ricky Wilde, and produced by the latter - was remixed for single release by Dave Edmunds. THAT would explain the similarity with The Stray Cats.
Bryan Ferry was as smooth as ever, with one of his finest post-Roxy singles, but Loose Ends proved even smoother with their brand of 22-carat modern R&B. Like Village People and Sting before them, they had referred to the Emlyn Hughes Rhyming Dictionary - but that gave me the opportunity to rework their hit as a chant for LFC: "Liverpool are magic/Everton are tragic/Anfield has the magic touch."
Duran's 'A View To A Kill' is my favourite Bond theme, bar none. I read somewhere that the great John Barry OBE put Nick Rhodes in his place at the recording of the song, after the latter had sworn at the legendary composer.
Jimmy Nail wisely reworked Rose Royce's smash as a stadium rock ballad, with co-producer Roger Meddows-Taylor on drums (though not on TOTP). The Artist Formerly Known As Oz thus joins Paul Weller and former Renaissance singer Annie Haslam as one of the three artistes who can claim to have covered a Rose Royce hit and surpassed the original - 'Wishing On A Star' in the case of the latter two. That does not apply to Madonna, who had remade 'Love Don't Live Here Any More' on the album 'Like A Virgin', but would not learn how to handle ballads satisfactorily until Joan Lader coached her into vocal shape for 'Evita'.
After Depeche Mode's pedestrian effort and Go West's telephone advertisement, came a veritable rock classic: Marillion's 'Kayleigh'. Not only did Derek W Dick invent a new feminine given name - a distinction he shares with fellow Scot JM Barrie, who coined the name 'Wendy' - but he also turns out an alternately delicate and explosive vocal performance. What would have happened if he, rather than Stiltskin's Ray Wilson, had replaced Phil Collins in Genesis? I wonder! According to a recent article I read on teamrock.com, Fish will be leaving the music business after a final tour this year, and is considering a new career in screenwriting.
Not a fan of Madonna's Live to Tell, then? I think that's one of her finest vocals, some time before Evita (and also for a film).
DeleteA friend of mine is a massive fan of Rose Royce AND Renaissance, I'll have to ask him which he prefers (without a Harry Hill-esque fight).
DeleteThat's definitely being provocative on Rose Royce. :D Weller takes a more rougher soul approach to Wishin' on s Star, I do miss the smooth magnificence of the Rose Royce record. Annie doesn't really compete with Rose Royce's style to me, similar with Jimmy Nail's vocal.
DeleteRenaissance will be forever Northern Lights for me, perfect late 70s nostalgia, though they did a nice progressive album I discovered later (Scheherazade and Other Stories).
With this being effectively the end of the road for Bryan Ferry's long and eventful career with his last top ten hit in the British charts and at this point reaching 40 years of age with Slave To Love, he did persevere with regular new hits for another 10 years up until the age of 50 in 1995, but could not compete with the new wave of music that took over between 1986-1995, like stock aitken waterman, house music, indie, etc.
ReplyDeleteAll credit to Ferry for keeping on just making new music despite all this, and it has to said that he will always be considered one of the all time greats in pop history, when music was 'proper' music, i.e., in the golden era of 1965-1985, as we take leave of the great man at this point in the TOTP reruns, and I must say that I have really enjoyed his TOTP contributions (mainly on video rather than in the studio) since these reruns started in 2011.
Does he not appear for 'Don't Stop The Dance' then?
Deleteferry might not have had much to do with the singles charts after the mid-80's, but he made at least two high-profile albums in the 90's - one of which ("mamouna") featured a long-awaited and much-anticipated artistic reunion of ferry and his old roxy mucker eno
DeleteFerry performs Is Your Love Strong Enough on the April 10th 1986 edition but we won't see it as Mike Smith co-hosts.
Deletethat was the first of a couple of stand-alone singles that ferry released to tie in with films, the other being "help me" (for the remake of "the fly" - being an appropriate title, as that's the classic line from the original version). neither were anything special in my opinion, and nor was his next album "bete noire" either - like many rock musicians, ferry went a bit off the boil in the latter half of the 80's (probably due to sampling and other technology distracting from more traditional musical crafts such as composition and arrangement) before making a return to form in the early 90's with "mamouna"
DeletePP and "ooh" Gary Davies up next then for 16th May (my aren't we wizzing through 85)
ReplyDeleteKim up first. Bit of a 50s throwback. As Angelo says a bit Quatro and a little bit Shakey as well. Not her finest hour but bops along at a good rate..wasn't she trying to break the US at this point?
Bryan Ferry - full video this week. (the breakers should be renamed "next week on TOTP"). Not sure about the video though. Well made but hardly memorable.
Loose Ends - back for more but this one is not as good. Probably won't listen to this one again.
Now this is more like it. Mum took me and my brother to the cinema to watch View To A Kill. Huge fan of the Bond movies growing up. This is a great song, great video (dodgy CSO excepted) - remember being absolutely terrified by Grace Jones as a kid. She'd probably scare the shit out of me now if I'm honest.
Not sure about the great voice PP but Jimmy Nail certainly did well with what he had.
Breakers:
Depeche Mode: Not one of their best unfortunately.
Go West: Call Me, I don't remember this at all. Not sure about this one..
Marillion: Another radio staple from the 80s. It's a good song but not a fave.
Why no Five Star? Boo..
In Vision and Sound - My word - Sound and Vision was what WHSmith used to call their Video/Music department. How old fashioned. Became "Sounds" and then "Entertainment"
Debarge not going to get a proper play on the show but still doing well.
Interesting that PP though Marc Almond might join Bronski Beat...can you imagine????
Not going to comment on Divine..so onto next week...