The prefab two!
28/11/85 (Dixie Peach & Peter Powell)
David Grant & Jaki Graham – “Mated” (22)
David and Jaki get tonight's show underway and the tune, which would be David's final top 40 hit, went up two more places.
Whitney Houston – “Saving All My Love For You” (9) (video)
Will be number one in two weeks time.
Artists United Against Apartheid – “Sun City” (29) (breaker)
Charity single which peaked at number 21.
Paul McCartney – “Spies Like Us” (26) (breaker)
From the movie of the same name, it peaked at number 13.
Go West – “Don’t Look Down-The Sequel” (24) (breaker)
Not from the movie of the same name, or even the sequel, but it did peak at number 13.
Prefab Sprout – “When Love Breaks Down” (25)
Making their debut on the show but this dreamy song got no higher.
Phil Collins & Marilyn Martin – “Separate Lives” (10) (video)
His fifth top 20 hit of the year, this one peaking at number 4.
Wham! – “I’m Your Man” (1) (video)
First of two weeks at number one.
Starship – “We Built This City” (35) (audience dancing/credits)
Peaked at number 12.
Next up is December 5th, but it's a Mike Smith edition.
For starters, the future Fame Academic and the former wages clerk teamed up again. After dipping into the Detroit Spinners' impressive catalogue of hits for their smash debut, David and Jaki turned to the work of another great songwriter from Philadelphia: the one ane only Todd Rundgren. 'Mated', originally recorded by his band Utopia, is to date the only Rundgren composition ever to penetrate the British Top 20, though the man himself had reached the lower end of the 40 with 'I Saw The Light'. Sadly, England Dan and John Ford Coley's cover of another Utopia original, 'Love Is The Answer' - one of the great inspirational songs of our time - peaked at No.45 in Britain despite its US Top 10 placing.
ReplyDeleteWhitney next, with a sumptuous ballad from the pens of Michael Masser and Gerry Goffin. She was one of the most charismatic divas ever.
Following The Mighty Wah's Josie Jones, and preceding Deacon Blue's Lorraine McIntosh, comes Prefab Sprout's Wendy Smith as the band's token surplus member. Nevertheless, Paddy McAloon has written some very fine songs, including the Springsteen jibe 'Cars and Girls' and Jimmy Nail's 'Cowboy Dreams', the latter seemingly owing a debt to Lindisfarne's 'Warm Feeling'. The soothing theme tune to ITV's Sunday night drama series 'Where The Heart Is' also came from Mr McAloon's pen.
Marilyn Martin, who has also worked with Stevie Nicks and Kenny Loggins among others, made a respectable bid for solo stardom soon afterwards with the polished AOR offering 'Night Moves', which I purchased - but it failed to chart in Britain despite being co-written by John Parr. She also recorded an accomplished cover of Phyllis Nelson's 'Move Closer' around that time.
Yog and Andrew deservedly hit the top with their nod to classic Motown. To finish, the audience boogied round Prefab Sprout's drum kit to the strains of (the former Jefferson) Starship's surprise comeback hit.
Typo above: the one AND only Todd Rundgren.
DeleteI nevver redoo my tippos - I'd be here all night if I did!
DeletePrefab Sprout. Brilliant and underrated, especially their early years' work, in my view.
I love "I Saw The Light"- my current Todd Rundgren fave is the follow-up in the USA, "Couldn't I Just Tell You", which only peaked in the 90's over the pond.
A Wizard, a True Star is a fantastic Rundgren album if you haven't heard it. So much tuneage!
DeletePP persists in his annoying new habit of calling the show “the Pops,” but otherwise turns in one of his better performances and seems to get on well with Dixie. The latter is also on reasonable form, if still not completely at ease in front of a camera.
ReplyDeleteLots of slower songs on this one, starting with this latest effort from David and Jaki. It’s a solid but unspectacular slice of pop-soul, the most memorable things about the performance being Jaki’s lustrous mane and David’s distinctly mangy ponytail. Whitney next, who I hold responsible along with the ghastly Mariah Carey for the appalling trend that has seen so many female singers wobble their voices around to the max in the misguided belief it makes them sound more sincere and emotional. What a pity Whitney went down that route, and that is before we mention all the wrong choices she made in her personal life, as this debut hit demonstrates that she was perfectly capable of singing a song straight, and doing so to great effect - for me, this remains the best thing she ever did. The woman playing her love rival in the video looked fierce, and I also notice that they filmed it in London, for some reason.
Breakers time, and Artists Against Apartheid provides us with the unedifying spectacle of a group of self-satisfied pop stars virtue-signalling like mad about how they won’t play Sun City. I forgot how this went as soon as the clip ended - give me Spitting Image's I Never Met a Nice South African any day! Spies Like Us is a film I enjoyed when I saw it many years ago, though I don’t recall Macca’s rather dull theme song. He looks very grey in the video, much more so than he does these days, and also very punchable indeed when he is playing the drums. We will see more of Go West anon.
Prefab Sprout are one of those groups that everyone seems to love except me. Their stuff is all very tasteful and well produced, but I also find it anaemic in the extreme, and this song is no exception. I think part of the problem is that I have never liked Paddy McAloon’s voice, though his blonde companion here provided some visual compensation! If Prefab Sprout were boring, this Phil Collins snoozefest is ten times more so, one of the dullest things he ever did. Marilyn Martin would not achieve much chart success on her own, and had better fortune as a backing singer. Ironic that Phil is playing the composer in the video, as it was actually Stephen Bishop, of On and On fame, who wrote this. We also get a few brief clips of White Nights, the now largely forgotten film that this (and Lionel Richie’s Say You, Say Me) come from.
At least the show closes in livelier fashion, with the audience getting down to We Built this City. This is probably one of the most critically-reviled hits of the 80s, often held up as the epitome of soulless, corporate rock, though I think much of the vilification comes from the fact that Starship were the latest incarnation of hippie idols Jefferson Airplane, and were thus considered to be “sell outs”. Admittedly this is no White Rabbit, but it’s a harmless, feelgood song that is far preferable to many others from 1985.
5 December available here, courtesy of Neil B:
ReplyDeletehttps://we.tl/cW5Uy4PsTb
The uncut final link for this show can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpB7S_j2ixM
Dave and Jaki with a song which had what I considered a rude title in 1985, and dismissed it in a fit of prudery. Hearing it again, however, it's a lot better than I remembered, nice melody and well-performed, yes, very slick, but not half bad.
ReplyDeleteWhitney Houston about to single-handedly ruin soul singing and indeed TV talent contests for decades to come. I was never a fan, she had the pipes but her control was all over the shop. Apparently that new documentary about her (not the Nick Broomfield one) is riveting, well... maybe it is.
Breakers, and Artists Against Apartheid, must have stung them not to do as well as Queen in the charts, who were artists fully in support of apartheid. Loved this at the time, sticking it to the fascists and all that, and it's great to hear even a snippet of it. Was this an actual charity single, and if so, who got the cash?
Best thing about Spies Like Us was the theme tune, and even that wasn't exactly vintage Macca. The film had been mysteriously overrated in recent years, like the Dragnet spoof, when it's really pretty lame.
Prefab Sprout straying into dream pop territory before that was a proper "thing", sorry for themselves lyrics adding an edge to the sparkle. Wendy looks like Lori Singer here - but thankfully didn't sing like her.
Phil and Marilyn, how I hated this at the time, it seemed to go on for about an hour of tedious misery, and time has not been any kinder to it. I have this in the same file of the damned as Michael McDonald and Patti LaBelle's On Our Own for mid-80s AOR yawnfests.
Wham advertising the Marquee, and you can bet George would have loved to put two blokes kissing in the video too. Song's OK, but by the numbers for this bunch.
Starship to close, talking of slick (and Slick), incredibly corporate but somehow annoyingly well-made enough to make up for it.
i once watched a documentary on how the titanic was built. it was rivetting
Deletei suppose the irony of queen not taking a stand against apartheid like most rock stars of the era was that (unlike the vast majority of them) freddie mercury would have been a victim of that particular regime himself!
Deletethat reminds me if when i was at school in the 70's and someone had stuck a "rock against racism" leaflet on the wall at the back of a classroom that stated "if the national front gain power, then all these rock stars will be deported"! of the pics shown, some were blindingly obvious why. but i couldn't understand why freddie was there, as in my ignorance i thought he was as white and english as i was!
hosts: dixie's fixed grin at the start is somewhat unnerving to put it mildly. in contrast old hand pp seems a bit disinterested with it all now
ReplyDeletegrant/graham: from the start this is evidently from the same production team responsible for "round and around", although tune-wise it's not in the same league even if the backing hook (which is the only bit i remember) sort-of saves the chorus. i am presuming that this love duet was in fact just a professional relationship as dave had started going out with carrie whatnot by now? it's funny how the word "mate" is used to describe both a life partner of the opposite gender, and those of the same gender that you go down the pub or go shopping with - shouldn't one meaning be deleted in order to stop the confusion?
whitney houston: it seems unbelievable in retrospect, but at the time i really did think this had a bit of class about it. now all i can think of when i come across it (which mercifully isn't that often these days) is "where's the sick bucket?"
prefab sprout: i was utterly disinterested in them at the time because of their silly name (and probably the fact that i'd always hated sprouts). and the hype didn't help too, as although their record company did all they could to make this a hit it never went beyond the "this is pleasant enough but nothing to get excited about" category in my estimation. it wasn't until several years later when introduced to the "from langley park to memphis" album that i became aware of just how special paddy mcaloon (i always thought that was a rather unfortunate surname) was - from the mid-80's to the early-90's anyway, and still love a lot of his/their stuff from that era. but despite that i'm still ambivalent about this. his girlfriend wendy always copped a bit of flak as a sort-of female andrew ridgeley/bez, but whenever her ethereal vocals were employed they certainly added an extra touch of icing to a cake that (mainly thanks to the efforts of producer thomas dolby) was already handsomely decorated in that manner
phil collins/marilyn who?: not another bloody duet
starship: i wonder what the old height-ashbury acid heads made of this corporate-rock-by-numbers? mind you, by then they were all probably married with teenage kids, living in leafy suburbs and CEO's of banks and suchlike anyway!
Paddy McAloon's album I Trawl the Megahertz is well worth a listen, inspired by the time he was legally blind and passing the time by going along the radio dial listening for snippets to hear.
Deletethe paddy mcaloon bubble started to burst for me when i found myself most disappointed with the vast majority of the much-trumpeted "jordan: the comeback" album (although "all the world loves lovers" remains one of the best things he ever wrote). but the real shark-jumping moment came after that, when my mother informed me she had heard (and liked) a very bland then-current sprout single (probably "a prisoner of the past") played on terry wigon's radio 2 show! it probably didn't help that by then he had ditched the floppy hair of the early 90's in favour of a crew cut and a beard you could hide a badger in instead
Deletethis is nothing to do with this particular edition, but when i saw the wiki notification that joe jackson had died i instantly thought it to be he of "is she really going out with him?" fame. only when i read the entry did i discover it was actually wacko's nasty dad!
ReplyDeleteGrant / Graham - A song I completely ignored at the time, but now realise is actually pretty decent stuff even if the lyrics are a bit icky if you actually think about them.
ReplyDeleteWhitney - Boring as per most of her ballads.
Breakers - Nothing much to see here. Artists Against Apartheid seems to be lots of people I can't recognise and Springsteen shouting (just for a change), the Macca song has dated horribly and the Go West track is merely OK.
Prefab Sprout - A great track finally getting its brief spell in the chart after being released about 5 times.
Collins / Martin - Even duller than Whitney.
A decent No.1 and then Starship to finish which is great fun despite being incredibly cheesy.
Kitchenware Records definitely believed in "When Love Breaks Down" to re-release and re-plug the single time and again until it finally became a hit.
DeleteYou could almost imagine this edition as one of those late night love song radio shows.
ReplyDeleteToo many happy pills beforehand for Dixie, methinks. Nice that Pete gave us the ‘uppers’ at the start of the show and didn’t ruin the suspense by listing who was on.
An admittedly rude sounding song title for Dave and Jaki, here again in her fave pink. Meanwhile, Linx’s Sketch still sits at home watching and pining.
The ‘worlds collide’ combo of a yell/grunt Brooooce and Mister Ramone on a charity song which was nondescript but still way better than that recent turd by Dionne Warwick and mates.
Paul McCartney with the “Coming Up” video Mk II, followed by Go West with “We Close Our Eyes Mk II”.
Prefab Sprout with a wispy gem which admittedly takes a bus ride to get to the chorus then eventually outdoes “Mated” by mentioning easy sex in the lyrics. Paddy’s brother Martin McAloon there playing bass as solidly as ever, and poor Neil Conti on drums if you can actually see him.
Phil and Marilyn with tonight’s ‘sponsored by Tate and Lyle Syrup’ song, obviously set in the Soviet area as shown by the Russian word for camera on that, erm, camera. I bet that snatch of spoken dialogue at the end wasn’t included on the single.
Whoever made Dee C Lee sit backwards on that chair? Looked a bit awkward to me.
Starship’s song with the title of their album at the time “Knee Deep In The Hoop-La” in the lyrics. Nicest thing I can say about this.
i read somewhere a while back that martin mcaloon is now a university music lecturer somewhere in his native north-east. no idea what wendy (who split from paddy some time back) is up to these days though. neil conti was always an in-demand sessioneer as well as a member of prefab sprout, and as such achieved a sort-of fame by being part of bowie's pick-up band for his "live aid" appearance
DeleteRestored version with the full final link added back into the BBC4HD version:
ReplyDeletehttps://we.tl/YzBxVydY8v
(Link will probably only work for a week.)
Thanks drykid,however when I downloaded it, it only gave audio and no visual, as I am on holiday, and cannot access BBC iPlayer from abroad, hence dependent on watching it from WeTransfer or similar vehicles. Is there only an audio link from your version, or does it have the visuals, so that I can see the show, not just hear it?
DeleteAny chance that someone can put the original BBC4 showing of this 28th Nov show on WeTransfer for me, as the following one from Angelo, i.e., 5th Dec, downloaded perfectly with sound and visuals. Drykid, it seems your restored version of 28th Nov only puts out the sound and not the vision for this show, so I still cannot blog. Someone to the rescue please with a new link!
DeleteIt plays ok with video for me, so unless something went wrong with the upload process then I think it's just an issue with your PC. Have the other restorations I've done in the past played ok for you?
DeleteI just realised why. It's because you uploaded it for us as an avi. file which is not compatible with macbook, so if you can upload it again please, but as a mp4 file, i.e., like Angelo's whole show uploads of the Mike Smith hosted shows, then that would be great!
DeleteThat would require me to re-encode the whole thing, that would take hours and to be honest I'd rather spend the time restoring 12/12/85 instead. Have you ever tried installing VLC Media Player? On Windows that plays just about everything as all the codecs it needs are built into it. I'd imagine it would be much the same with OSX too.
DeleteIt's OK, I'm back from holiday, and grateful to have the BBC4 edition recorded on my SkyBoxHD, so guess what, I can now blog.
DeleteMy goodness, turn my back for a week and we have 4 TOTP.
ReplyDeleteHow long has PP been doing this show???
He still seems like a rabbit caught in the headlights. So bland and lacking in any personality. And people have a go at Smithy!
First up David and Jaki with a forgettable number - who says they are mated?
Whitney up next - superb song, really remember the video especially the man she is singing to. Must find out who he is and whether I just remember him because of this video or if he is in something else.
Chart rundown heavy on new entries - not sure how many of them we will actually see..
HELLO PET SHOP BOYS - my all time favourite band make an appearance.
BREAKERS
Sun City - great sentiment, crap song.
Paul McCartney - not one if his best but its OK
Go West - missed this completely last time around, bit by numbers but the best of the breakers this week.
Prefab Sprout - Remember this song having a bit more oomph to it, did it get a remix? Maybe I'm just mis-remembering. Always liked the songs Sprout put out.
Top Ten:
Phil and Marilyn - again another one I don't remember. It's really slow to start... who is this Marilyn woman. Gonna have to scroll up and see if anyone has mentioned her.
Love the Talking Heads video
How is that Dee C Lee song NOT a sixties cover!
UB40 doing really well with this hit.
Wham! - Obviously globe trotting as they have avoided the studio. Shame, their performances were always fun.
AND FINALLY
HERE IT IS...As promised in January
THE FIRST SINGLE I EVER BOUGHT with my own pocket money, still love it today. Best song on the show by a long way...
PP had been doing the show for 8 years by this point, and he didn't finally bow out until September 1988. Given the frequent bouts detachment and disinterest we have seen from him during '85, he might have been well-advised to stop much sooner. We won't actually see him again now until May '86, so hopefully he will have cheered up a bit more by then!
Deleteso the Whitney man is Ricco Ross.
ReplyDeleteLater the ringmaster in Dr Who's Greatest Show In The Galaxy in 1988
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteLate to the party with this one, but have just come back from holiday to my recordings, so here goes.
ReplyDeleteThis edition was as Dixie himself mentioned in the early part of the show, quite a romantic one, and I would say probably the most romantic TOTP show since 1978, and you could have imagined just sitting with your loved one here in 1985 on the sofa late at night, with shoes off and having a good cuddle watching this above-average romantic level for the show, as though we were back in the 70s again.
David Grant & Jaki Graham - just love this, and the way the pair sing it. They also looked very suited to each other, and felt very comfortable on the stage singing romantically together. Best thing they both did in my opinion.
Whitney Houston - her first hit in the UK, but had already made it to no.1 in the US as Powell mentions, Whitney looked like she was made for the big time, and came from a singing family led by the great Dionne Warwick, so this did nothing but good for paving the way for Whitney to dominate the charts for at least another two years or so.
Phil Collins & Marilyn Martin - one of my favourite love songs of the 80s, never mind just 1985. Marilyn Martin while of superb singing voice in this duet, I thought could have made more effort with her hair and clothes in this video which did not do her justice, considering her great voice on this record with Collins.
Top Ten Rundown - The Talking Heads now reached their peak at No.6, and their most successful record on this side of the atlantic. Road To Nowhere is a fine work of art, and pity that they could not make top 5 with it, as it was deserving. Everything after this, failed to make the top 10, so this was the point in 1985 that the Talking Heads reached their pinnacle, before sliding down the ratings with the British record buying public.
With the great offering from Prefab Sprout to add to the romantic feel of the show, this was the best TOTP show of the year by a mile I thought.