Something fishy going on
23/05/85 (Mike Read & Steve Wright)
Go West – “Call Me” (17)
The show starts enthusiastically and Call Me peaked at number 12.
Katrina & The Waves – “Walking On Sunshine” (20) (video)
A somewhat grim video to accompany this spring time song that peaked at number 8.
Marillion – “Kayleigh” (7)
Getting rid of the weird make-up and going all mainstream paid off for Fish and the boys and Kayleigh went up five more places.
The Power Station – “Get It On” (24) (video)
Their second and final top 40 hit, this homage to T-Rex went up two more places.
Gary Moore & Phil Lynott – “Out In The Fields” (18)
Peaked at number 5 but edited out of tonight's 7.30 broadcast.
Stephen Tin Tin Duffy – “Icing On The Cake” (35) (breaker)
Could have been such a perfect name for his final hit had it not peaked at number 14.
Scritti Politti – “The Word Girl” (29) (breaker)
His second and final top ten hit, peaking at number 6.
Animotion – “Obsession” (28) (breaker)
Their only hit, peaking at number 5.
Depeche Mode – “Shake The Disease” (21)
Looking suitably moody and the tune went up three more places.
Paul Hardcastle – “19” (remix) (1) (video)
A freshened up version for its third of five weeks at number one.
Skipworth & Turner – “Thinking About Your Love” (36) (audience dancing/credits)
Peaked at number 24.
May 30th is next.
Did the Beeb keep pairing Read and Wright together simply because of their surnames? Anyway, Mike is as usual solid and knowledgable, Wrighty manic and vapid, though perhaps not quite so annoying here as he sometimes is.
ReplyDeleteA denim-clad Go West commence proceedings with a typically bland tune, though I marginally prefer this to their previous hit as it hasn't been played so much. Not much else to say about this really, other than the backing singer is quite comely. A gem from the pen of Kimberley Rew, who also wrote Going Down to Liverpool, Walking on Sunshine still holds up well as an infectiously feelgood pop song. The hit version was actually a re-recording, the song having originally appeared on the band's debut album two years previously. The video's drab, overcast London locations don't seem like a good fit for the lyrics, but maybe the band were being deliberately perverse; I just hope Katrina wasn't feeling frozen strolling around in that light clothing, while the Waves were well wrapped up in their big coats!
Marillion hit the studio to mark their big break into the mainstream - I wonder if Phil Collins' solo sales figures were a motivating factor? Anyway, this for me is leagues ahead of their previous singles and definitely deserves to be recognised as a classic rock ballad. Anything but classic is the Power Station's dire T Rex cover, pure self-indulgence from the Taylors and a waste of Robert Palmer's talents. The video looks nasty too, with its distorted image and lurid colours.
It's a pity that Moore/Lynott got chopped from the early showing rather than Palmer and co. A very different beast to Parisienne Walkways, I remember really liking this in 1985, and unsurprisingly it was played incessantly on Irish radio when I was on holiday in the Emerald Isle that summer. I have rarely heard it since, but the rousing chorus, guitar work and Gary's impassioned lead vocal still sound good. The duo are swamped in dry ice in this performance, which acquires poignancy from the fact that Phil would be dead little more than seven months later. As usual the breakers will be on in full in the next show, but I did wonder if all the black spots in Mr Duffy's video were meant to be the hundreds-and-thousands for his icing?
Sensibly the breakers and chart rundown are separated this week by a studio performance, with Depeche Mode once again deploying their now-signature gloomy sound. Despite the lack of any significant new musical direction here, this isn't a bad tune, though the only memorable thing about the performance itself is the way Dave Gahan's Nehru collar accentuates his long neck. Man United barely get a look-in during the video Top 10, despite winning the FA Cup just five days earlier, and poor old Phyllis doesn't get any of her song played at all this week. 19 is remixed to prolong its stay at number 1, though I still don't like it much, and then Skipworth and Turner play us out. Despite sounding more like a firm of accountants than a pop duo, this makes for a reasonably soulful, danceable conclusion.
(Comments written when there'd been none previously and all kept in to show great minds think alike!)
ReplyDeleteHaving been let out of work early due to the snow causing potential travel problems, I managed to watch most of the 7.30 Friday edition - I gave up when “19” came on.
What contrasting fashions for our hosts, with Mike Read looking like a chorus line member of “Happy Days” and Steve Wright looking like the ugliest penguin going. He didn’t seem to be anywhere near as annoying this time round, mind you.
Go West back, with a clean vest for Pete, a general denim blue colour scheme for the band, and a drum logo which shouts “GO” and whispers “West”. Buoyant performance and a good starter.
Never mind Vikki, here come our last real Eurovision heroes. CAREFUL OF THAT LEDGE, KATRINA! It didn’t look very sunny in that video, much of which was filmed half a mile to two miles from my workplace. Did I tell you I got let out early today? Why on Earth were The Waves moping about in those long coats?
I love “Kayleigh”. Obviously a ballad as Fish has a tie on. Bit of a greasy top lip there, mind you. Interesting interview with Fish on the internet this week where he’s worked out he would need 7 million streams to buy a pint down his local with the royalties.
“Get It On”? Get it off! Totally pointless.
Not much to say about the breakers, but I really enjoyed Depeche Mode, obviously sponsored by Emulator keyboards and blonde hair dye. Quite why Martin was walloping part of a budgie’s cake throughout escaped me. He’s obviously the Rob Davis of synth pop, if you remember how Mud’s guitarist used to look.
A couple of saucy comments during the video top ten (”Rhythm method”? “Nice Boys”???) and, after no video clip or namecheck for Phyllis Nelson a couple of shows back, this time we don’t get to hear her!
Part of the Katrina video was filmed very close indeed to my workplace, so close in fact that I could just about make out what these days is my office window...
DeleteI actually really liked The Power Station at the time, because of the unusual pairing of Robert Palmer with some of the Duran Duran group, and it was a pity they only had two chart hits, but this one called Get It On had a sexy feel to it thanks to the girl in the video teasing Palmer in his suave suit, so it was a good play by TOTP this week, although they could have played more of the video I thought!
DeleteLikewise on the Breakers section, the other sexy video was Animation, and I remember being really taken by the lead girl in the video with that blue summer dress, and willing this one on to getting to top 3 at least, but it only got to No.5 in our chart. The last part of the clip we saw this week shows her desperate for the guitarist, rolling about on the bed longing for him. Love it!
Not a Eurovision hero to me, I don't like Love Shine a Light at all, very bland song.
DeleteI think the reason Wright wasn't quite as annoying was because he wasn't given as much to do as Read, although he seems to have picked up Bates' annoying habit of ending links with 'look, over herr' and pointing at the stage. He'll be checking his watch next...
ReplyDeleteCorrection here not herr!
DeleteI imagine Wrighty got less to do in part because Michael Hurll couldn't stand him, but also because he clearly knew next to nothing about the acts he was introducing!
DeleteGo West with their usual ho-hum, never gets out of second gear rock-pop, though amusement stems from them bringing along Anthea Turner on backing vocals, who at one point completely forgets how to dance, bizarrely. Lead: over-intense.
ReplyDeleteKatrina and the Waves with one of the most overplayed "you must have fun, YOU MUST HAVE FUN" supposedly good time tunes known to humanity. I liked it at the time, but overexposure renders it irksome, and I preferred Sun Street anyway. Interesting to see the presumably ironic miserablism of the video, mind you. Brr!
Marillion with the hit everyone associates them with, no matter that they changed singers decades ago and have released umpteen albums of different music since. At least it has a half-decent melody, and Fish is one of the nicest frontmen in rock, but it's all too overearnest and straining for the heartstrings in its "poor me" manly way for me to respond to.
It is, however, a masterpiece compared to the slaughter of Get It On by The Power Station, which sounded horrible then and sounds horrible now. Bombastic doesn't begin to cover it, and the video is so arch that it could have been a window on Play School.
To YT and Moore and Lynott, with a song that might be political but the lyrics are so vague it's difficult to tell. Fair rawk riffs-a-plenty business, barked vocals and a military flavour.
Depeche Mode with a deceptively simple melody for their gloom rock, almost nursery rhyme in its basic tunefulness, but it lifts what was their by now usual pessimism to be one of their better post-Vince 80s efforts. Not sure why there's half a shopping trolley on the stage, nor why a woman is brought up to stand behind them for a few seconds then swiftly hurried away. Did she win a competition?
Ooh, a remix for Paul, and as the Read 'n' Wright intro proves, the comedy stuttering whenever this song comes up was already reaching epidemic proportions. Thanks for the additional information, Mr Hardcastle, but Ken Burns has replaced you as the greatest TV authority on the conflict with his major event documentary last year (recommended if you missed it on BBC Four).
Skipworth and Turner to play us out, not a song I recall, and now a few hours later... I still can't recall it.
I remember as a DJ doing mobile discos in the 90s, playing Katrina & The Waves as a regular tune every time, and agreed with John in that it came across as a feelgood tune every time it would be played. Still holds up very well now to those that were born in the 80s & 90s and who would be in their 20s & 30s now!
DeleteGood Lord, I just noticed that the Gary Moore & Phil Lynott song was edited out of both the early evening and late night showing. Was there something not PC about it, or was it some other reason that the Beeb could not show it present day? And for that matter, has anyone got the whole original show for us to see what we were denied?
ReplyDeleteThe full episode is playing tonight (saturday) only for some reason.
DeleteThis should I think be the last time that BBC4 need to edit the early showing. The only show longer than 30 minutes after this one is 18th July, and as Smitty hosts it won't be on BBC4 anyway.
DeleteSo is this the point in 1985 where TOTP got shoved into the 7-7.30pm slot before the newly launched Eastenders, rather than after Eastenders?
DeleteTOTP got moved to the 7-7.30 slot on 5th September, but every show from 30th May onwards is 30 minutes, except for that one edition in July.
DeleteIt was so much better when the show was regularly 40 minutes before 1985. No wonder so many upward moving hits during 1985 could not be played as a main feature, for example Debarge, Ashford & Simpson, REO Speedwagon, to name but a few.
DeleteAnother good show (bar the no1)… at different ends of the spectrum the hosts may be but that’s not a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteGo West – Call me – Not a bad tune really. Didn’t realise that Go West had a female vocalist and she doesn’t feature on the sleeve.
Katrina and the Waves – Walking on Sunshine – A bouncy feel-good song with a contrasting video set mainly on the Thames near Tower Bridge before it was refurbished. Looks like everyone was having fun. The Peter Davison story ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ made a few years earlier was also filmed around the location shown at the start of this video. I’m down near Southwark Bridge these days btw.
Marillion – Kayleigh – As noted previously, one of my favourite singles of 1985. Nice performance from the band, shame the 7” single edited Steve Rothery’s guitar solo – that edit does grate on me. As THX notes, Fish is long gone from Marillion and Steve Hogarth has been the singer ever since 1989 only really catching the eye with the fabulous ‘You’re gone’ in 2004 although I also have a soft spot for ‘No one can’ from 1991.
Power Station – Get it on – From one of my favourite albums; ‘Electric Warrior’, whilst not matching the original it does at least showcase Marc Bolan’s earlier song writing skills. Here we get Robert Palmer teaming up with some of Duran Duran and Chic’s drummer. Video cut a tad short, I can see why…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2vHbXI2p4k
Gary Moore and Phil Lynott – Out in the Fields – Edited out of the edition I watched (and both editions apparently). No guitar solo edit on this one. Surprising hit really. Here’s what we missed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62OogKTnAVg
Breakers – nothing to note here. Chart rundown is noteworthy for the brevity of some of the clips and the fact that football songs are given short shrift!
Depeche Mode – Shake the disease – Very minor key sounding with lots of low notes gives this hit a very sombre sound. Lead singer Martin Gahan sports another ‘unique’ hairstyle whilst Martin Gore gets ever more outlandish!
Paul Hardcastle – 19 – FF. Just to note that whilst we were ‘treated’ to five weeks of this nonsense at no1, across the pond they enjoyed ‘Crazy for you’ by Madonna, ‘(Don’t you) forget about me’ by Simple Minds, ‘Everything she wants’ by Wham and ‘Everybody wants to rule the World’ by Tears for Fears. (big sigh…)
Skipworth & Turner – Thinking about your love playout – Can’t remember this but aren’t those two ladies in white giving it some on the dance floor?
I noted an episode that had recorded on my box this week from 27/05/82 which for some reason I never watched and looking at the blog, my observations are absent (in fact it looks like I missed a few at this period, don’t know why). Can’t think why I missed this one as with Genesis, Japan, Duran Duran and Soft Cell it’s a really good one…and it’s hosted by John Peel. Good to read the observations made at the time by the usual suspects here!
i had to look back at the 27/05/82 show as a result of your mention and re-read the comments - it's still embarrassing to see that i not only got cindy ecstacy's forename wrong (i was convinced it was spelt cyndi a la lauper), but i was actually (un)correcting others as well!
Deletei also asked what became of her as she seemed to disappear after that, and i've now read that she was rumoured to have ended up as a guest house landlady in a british seaside town! wouldn't that be brilliant if that were true?
The Power Station video scene with the sexy girl's head set on fire is I guess what you were referring to sct353. It certainly was not something that could be broadcast on an early evening family show like TOTP, and it's a good thing I don't recall seeing this video first time round. Utterly shocking choice by Palmer and his Duran Duran friends!
DeleteOut in the Fields rocks nicely, though my favourite one with Gary Moore has been Empty Rooms.
Deletehosts: going by the direction his finger first points, wrightie doesn't even seem to know where the opening act are! although i liked his radio shows, on the telly the guy really is an arse and definitely on the rostrum when it comes to worst presenters on the show. although a distant third behind slimy and shitty (with the latter now beginning to pull away in the lead - and that's saying something!)
ReplyDeletego west: after an excellent debut single we get more of the same, but without any of the freshness or hooks that made "we close our eyes" so memorable
katrina: i remember kimberley rew (was that his given name? if so, then he must haved copped a fair bit of flak at school!) being talked-up as another johnny marr at the time. but if this yet-more-bloody-mock-motown drivel is anything to go by, then i fail to see what all the fuss was about. and wasn't he aware there was already a song with this title, as written by eddy grant (and of course later covered to great effect by rockers revenge)? there really should be copyright restriction on song titles in the same way as songs themselves, in order to stop people getting confused or even confounded - as i am when i try to look for cover versions on youtube of a fantastic 60''s burt bacharach song called "don't go breaking my heart", and find i can't see the wood for the trees thanks to that prick reg using exactly the same title for one of his efforts that was written at least 10 years after that!
marillion: they are never going to be part of my music collection, but this tune is vastly superior to anything else of theirs i've heard and i'm never going to object if i hear it by chance. two things i really like about it are the huge snare crunch leading into the (modulated) chorus (that i actually anticipated, despite having not heard it for decades), and the second modulation into the second verse (which is in a different key to the first verse) after the guitar break. so kudos to fish & co. for that
power station: i actually thought this more enjoyable than their debut hit. but then again it's only a typically-simple marc bolan number, so even they can't mess it up with over-production (although less van halen-style guitar hystrionics would have been in order). i do find it amusing that for some reason this track is known in america as "bang a gong", so it had to be subtitled as such here. there's also an amusing moment in the video where an attractive woman walks past the god-like john taylor whilst he's playing, and he can't decide if he's more interested in her or his bass guitar
moore & lynott: couldn't they afford to hire a drummer to mime away behind them? and isn't that actually a sequenced bass rather than bass guitar as "played" by phil? apart from that it's meat-and-potatoes hard rock of the era. by chance a guy i was acquainted with in the late 70's & early 80's recently informed me via email that he was a roadie for thin lizzy in their early days, and that moore tried to teach him to play guitar without success. he even sent me couple of photos of him and the band, including an unusually tache-free lynott - who he said never had any lack of self-confidence when they were struggling for success, but that was probably also the reason he self-destructed once they made it (ultimately dying as a result of his hedonistic lifestyle, not long after this totp appearance)
Get it On was renamed in the US to avoid confusion with a single of the same name by a group called Chase, which had been a hit in the States shortly before the T Rex single was released. Sadly, most of Chase got wiped out in a plane crash just a few years later.
Deletethanks for that john - even though the renamed t rex song sounds silly, it least it meant there was no "walking on sunshine"-style confusion going on!
DeleteI actually prefer Call Me to We Close Our Eyes (which I find jagged and forced).
Deletetwo-parter shocker!
ReplyDeletedepeche mode: more dull and earnest synth-pop topped with flat-as-a-pancake vocals - haven't people got fed up with this lot by now? i'm not sure from watching this if martin gore has entered his skirt-wearing phase or not yet (something that he apparently is now highly embarrassed about nowadays - unlike nick beggs of kajagoogoo fame, who still proudly wears them now!)
skipworth & turner: why is it that people who call their bands after their surnames always sound like a bunch of solicitors? i seem to remember quite liking this at the time, although it didn't make a lasting impression. there's not much of a tune there, but a solid groove that i might just be tempted to get hold off now...
Had that last act truncated their name to Skip & Turn, they may well have had greater success.
Deletehad they formed a few years later, perhaps they could have called themselves "turner and skip" as a cash-in on the popular film featuring tom hanks and a dog?
DeleteWhile looking at the play list Get It On was the stand out song, and it actually got played ! - but then chopped half way through - and its short anyway....the reason for this was the guitar solo....no.. its because the girl under the hair dryer hair catches fire. But this is nothing compared to the recent video for 'I Can't Feel My Face' by The Weekend (great video + song). So 1985 BBC censorship worse than today? And what about the World Trade Centre and the WW2 bomber with one engine on fire in the background. That's ok is it BBC.
ReplyDeleteIt would be hard to cover Get It On and it not sound great. I prefer this to the original because of its hard edge - like Aerosmith's version of The Beatles 'Come Together' or Faith No More doing 'Easy like a Sunday Morning'.
Love the way Robert Palmer snatches his newspaper.
Close second best - Animotion / Obsession
Worst, almost illness inducing - Go West
Go West - Average stuff, which I mystifyingly had to play quite a lot in my commercial radio days, so its inclusion in that Alan Partridge episode was quite accurate at least.
ReplyDeleteKatrina & The Waves - Housewife classic! I recently discovered the 12" version of this one, which is miles better and has meant that I can start listening to it again.
Marillion - A great song, with surely one of the best last lines ever?
The Power Station - Whereas the previous song is relatively understated, which is why it works, here is probably the most hideously overproduced song of the entire decade. Utterly without merit.
Moore / Lynott - Yet again, the editor has somehow decided that we can't see a song in the late edition for no apparent reason. Although I haven't seen the performance, I like the song.
Breakers - Blimey, no duffers. Admittedly the Duffy and Scritti songs are very lightweight but I like them.
Depeche Mode - Average, like most of their mid-80s output.
Paul Hardcastle - Remix of single and video here, interesting but not an improvement on the original in the case of the audio at least.
Marshall & Snelgrove...sorry, Skipworth & Turner - entirely forgettable.
I discovered a copy of the 27 February 1969 show on YT today. It isn't the greatest show musically (though there are a couple of gems) and the last few minutes are missing, but nevertheless it is a rare chance to glimpse a 60s TOTP. It is an even rarer chance to see the late Stuart Henry hosting the show, though most of his links are muted:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP36aBK-I_E
Hi John. Thanks for that. It features 'Please don't go' by Donald Peers which you never hear on the radio these days and is a guilty pleasure of mine!
Deletesct i had a listen to "please don't go" on youtube, and it's definitely one for the grannies... even in the 1960's. as such i suspect the reason it never gets played on the radio is because you're one of the few living people who likes it, or is even familar with it!
DeleteDonald Peers looks like somebody's grandfather in this performance, and indeed he was 60 at the time, so very much a throwback to a long-gone era. His vocal style doesn't appear to have evolved since the 20s either!
DeleteOK, so I have probably lost a bit of cred with that Peers admission! But it was the seventh best selling single of 1969 (no1 was 'My Way' and no8 was 'Get Back') so must have been popular with more than just the grannies!
Deletei'd have said "my way" was strictly for the grannies too, but going by the sales statistics presumably sct's theory applies to that as well as the donald peers song (and how many people could boast that they outsold the beatles?!)
DeleteWhilst on this enjoyable 1969 diversion (thanks John G)it is worth noting the top10 best-selling singles of 1969 in full:-
Delete1) My Way – Frank Sinatra
2) Je t’aime, moi non plus – Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg
3) Gentle on my Mind – Dean Martin
4) Honky Tonk Women – Rolling Stones
5) Nobody’s Child – Karen Young
6) Saved by the Bell – Robin Gibb
7) Please don’t go – Donald Peers
8) Get Back – Beatles with Billy Preston
9) I’ll never fall in love again – Bobbie Gentry
10) Dizzy - Tommy Roe
Closer inspection reveals half of these hits didn’t make the top spot!
‘My Way’ spent around 40 weeks on the chart in 1969 alone peaking at no5. It went on to register a staggering 122 weeks up to 1972!
‘Gentle on my Mind’ spent 24 weeks on the chart peaking at no2 (missing out to Marvin Gaye) and even now sounds great in stereo through headphones with its wonderful brass and string accompaniment.
‘Nobody’s Child’ spent 21 weeks on the chart peaking at no6
‘Saved by the Bell’ spent 17 weeks on the chart peaking at no2 missing out to the Rolling Stones
‘Please don’t go’ spent 21 weeks on the chart peaking at no3
A few surprises here given what was big in 1969 (e.g. the Archies 8 week run at the top with ‘Sugar Sugar’. Who remembers Karen Young’s one hit wonder? You certainly don’t hear that one on the radio these days, although I have it included on an eclectic EMI ‘Greatest hits of 1969’ compilation CD which also includes ‘Saved by the Bell’.
Interesting that Fleetwood Mac didn't make the Top 10 best-sellers, given they had three big (and brilliant) hits that year (Albatross, Man of the World, Oh Well), and I think outsold both the Fabs and the Stones in the singles market in '69. Also surprising that Sugar Sugar missed out, considering how long it spent at the top of the charts.
DeleteI have heard Nobody's Child a fair amount on internet radio stations in recent years, and I think my teeth rot a little more every time I hear the saccharine little ditty!
John - believe it or not, 'Albatross' was no11. 'Sugar Sugar' no14.
DeleteAt least Albatross did almost make the Top 10!
DeleteIt looks like the dark musical clouds are finally lifting and we can start to enjoy the occasional beam of sunshiny gloriousness.
ReplyDeleteGo West open proceedings with 'Call Me' - which is better than their previous one, but not a patch on the upcoming 'King Of Wishful Thinking'. Singer Peter Cox (who, by the way, has one of the greatest voices in British pop) gives it a bit too much welly in the dancing stakes. Less is more, Peter.
Marilion. Took their name from a lesser Tolkein book - The Silmarilion. Probably their most well-known song, and deservedly so, and still sounds decent today. The former Derek Dick is in his mid 20s here but has already been forced into a bit of a frontal comb-over by his rapidly diminishing forelock. Like the way the song ended - none of that fade out nonsense.
Power Station. When I was 10 I bought - with my birthday money - my very first album, Electric Warrior. This was peak Bolan and I loved that LP more than any other thing in my life. Apart from Get It On which, for some reason or other,I just disliked intensely. This version brought all that loathing back and added some horrendous industrial clangs to it.
Edited-Out In The Field. A welcome return to success and form for Phil Lynott. Had to You-Tube the video to give the following points. Phil Lynot was awesome.Much missed. Gary Moore, at one point plays some weird guitar hybrid. Anyone know what the hell it was? This is a great song.
The breakers. Duffy's song is, well, duff. (And not in the good Homer-Simpson-Beer way) But The Word Girl is simply sublime, and Obsession is a decent pop-dancer.
Depeche Mode. One of the few Mode singles that I liked, even if the band look a bit too fey for my liking. I, too, saw the girl go up on stage at the back and then get escorted off. Very weird.
The playout is one of those songs which is firmly rooted in my memory - as it was a proper floor-filler for about six months in 85.
Scores. Musically, we are at a high point of the year so far with only The Power Station and the by-now-bored-of '19' to bring me down. Excuse me whilst I blow the dust off my '8' key.
Read & Wright. Read so wants to be a pop star doesn't he? Sunnies, American sportswear and that affected way he looped the mic lead up and over his hand. Still he knows his music which is more than can be said for his partner in the penguin suit. A combined 5.
i know i'm a few weeks late on this, but i've just stumbled across a live performance of "life in a northern town" by dream academy from only a couple of years back... with (a hair-flicking) kate st john looking exactly the same as she did 30 years earlier!:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-dm3tQ3g_c
Hey wilberforce, that's really good! A very faithful rendition. Many thanks for the link.
DeleteApropos nothing, I have versions of 19 in Spanish, German, French and Japanese (7" and extended). The Spanish 12" mix is excellent dddddd-iez y nueva.
ReplyDeleteAnd onto the third TOTP today this time with Read (yeh) and Wright (boo) dressed up as penguin.
ReplyDeleteA full listen to the Go West breaker from last week, this is not a patch on WCOE. Fairly middle of the road/ AOR stuff
Future Eurovision winner Katrina up next with one of favourite 80s songs. A proper singalong hit from my childhood. The video isn't exactly sunny though is it? Don't remember ever seeing it before..
The record company obviously didn't expect this to be a hit and have spent naff all on the video. Hopefully they were watching this thinking...oh bugger...
You can get Katrina's top as a duvet cover now.
Marillion - Why was he called Fish? Maillion still going of course and I have a friend who is a super-fan and goes to their European yearly get together.
Power Station coming to the end of their short success with quite a good video. Shame about this version of the song, really does not suit Robert Palmers voice at all.
Breakers:
Tin Tin - Not heard this before. Good video. Song is Ok.
Scritti Politti - Classic 80s tune, hopefully we will get a performance.
Animotion - Another top tune, remember this one. Cracking.
Depeche Mode with one of their minor hits but a good performance as usual, and they have grown up a bit since we last saw them, not looking so baby-faced.
Was Wrighty there for any reason? Mike did all the work!
A new version of 19. This version much more emotional and lyric based. Not sure how many mixes this had but I think there are whole albums of them. Bit like M's Pop Muzik.
Skipworth play us out, a piece of generic disco.
Not too a bad a show. Over in a flash...
Marillion's singer was nicknamed Fish due to his habit of staying in the bath for ages after a day toiling amongst the trees - he used to work for the Forestry Commission.
Deletei went into quality save in my local precinct today go get some flapjack (which is dirt cheap there), but i was driven out without buying any for two reasons:
Delete1 - the place was full of fucking horrible screaming kids
2 - they were playing "walking on sunshine" over the PA!
Thanks Arthur. Just such an odd nickname for a brute of a man
Deletei was looking at the pics of the last two editions, and thinking "what if fish and jimmy nail had a scrap"? they're both bruisers to put it mildly, so i don't know who my money would be on
Deletei have also been reminded of the edtion of mike read's "pop quiz" where fish appeared on the same team as cat (prince's soon-to-be-henchwoman). sadly though they couldn't find a pop star named after a non-human species to complete the team!
Animotion isn't bad at all, there's a minimal synth pop sound to it (I've heard it compared to earlier Human League) but they add a load of layers on top of it, which makes it quite heavy.
DeleteJust realised the version I downloaded skipped a song.
ReplyDeleteMoore/Lynott - went and caught back up with this one, and it's a bit of a rocker. Bit Iron Maiden in places. Not sure I missed much
Best episode for ages, and loved the 19 remix
ReplyDelete