Abracadabra!
03/04/86 (Janice Long & John Peel)
Big Audio Dynamite – “E=MC²” (20)
Peaked at number 11.
George Michael – “A Different Corner” (4) (video)
Became his second of seven number one hits.
A-ha – “Train Of Thought” (23)
Their third of eight top ten hits.
Paul Hardcastle – interview
The Real Thing – “You To Me Are Everything” (5)
Got to number one in 1976, but this re-mix was now at its peak.
Falco – “Rock Me Amadeus” (10)
Will get to number one next month!
Cliff Richard & The Young Ones – “Living Doll” (1) (video)
Second of three weeks at number one.
The Style Council – “Have You Ever Had It Blue?” (27) (video/audience dancing/credits)
Peaked at number 14.
April 10th is next but it's yet another Mike Smith one so won't be shown on BBC4.
The Wizard finally makes its debut. As I’ve mentioned before, I always thought this was a poor replacement for Yellow Pearl; I will concede that the intro is quite dynamic, but it soon descends into twiddly nothingness. The new titles are very busy, matching the music, but don’t have the same impact as the flying records. However, worst of all is the multi-coloured mess of the new logo; it was always going to be tough to replace the previous one, but this doesn’t hit the spot at all, and in retrospect it could be taken as a symbol of the show’s gradual decline. At least we have Janice and John to guide us into this new era, though I thought Janice made a bit of a mess of the Paul Hardcastle interview, not least as Yellow Pearl had been used for nearly 5 years, not 3. Peel was on droll form, but largely kept his claws sheathed except for a barbed reference to Queen’s controversial Sun City gigs.
ReplyDeleteBig Audio Dynamite make for a great start to the show, the insistent beat and energy of the song making it one of the superior releases of the year; they also get the honour, if that's the right word, of being the first band to play on the main stage with the new logo behind them. Another excellent song to follow, George on top form with this achingly poignant ballad, one of his finest moments. For some reason this doesn't get played as much as Careless Whisper, but it is just as good, if not better, and very much sets the scene for his post-Wham career, with the split now imminent. Nice moody b/w video too, spoilt only by the thankfully short-lived mullet.
A-ha return, giving Janice a good opportunity to ogle Morten's bum, something which would probably land her in hot water these days. You never hear this one now, and perhaps that's not surprising because it doesn't stand out anywhere near as much as the first two hits, though it does have quite a melodic chorus. No breakers this week, presumably because of the Paul Hardcastle interview, so straight on to The Real Thing, clearly keen to exploit this renewed burst of chart success by making another trip to the studio. They all seem to be wearing smart casual, though I think their interpretation of that leaves something to be desired...
I would imagine Rock Me Amadeus was intended as a cash-in on the success of the Oscar-winning film from a couple of years previously, and it certainly succeeded big time. I remember being on holiday in Scotland in the summer of '86 and playing this a lot on a juke box, as I found the chorus irresistibly catchy, as I'm sure did many others. I never did figure out what he was jabbering about in the verses however - was it in English, German, or gobbledegook? - and the sudden key change near the end where the female keyboardist starts singing is a bit disconcerting. A decent studio performance, anyway, though it's a shame Falco didn't don his Amadeus costume for the occasion. We conclude with a drab Style Council video, for a song that is basically a sped up version of Long Hot Summer with a bossa nova beat.
TOTP's decline, in truth, can probably be traced back to 1985 and the reduction in its running time to only 30 minutes, with a glut of silly innovations thereafter such as the Top 10 Video Chart, removal of the presenters' opening introductory link, and chart rundown over a video. Further errors of judgement included a reliance on videos in place of studio performances in an attempt to compete with MTV, poor host selection (e.g. Paul Jordan, Dixie Peach) and excessive overuse of the same presenters (especially Mike Smith, Steve Wright and Gary Davies), two of whom were dire.
DeleteThe problem with the revamp, while not exactly awful, is that it was never likely to top Yellow Pearl, so represented a further retrograde step in the programme's decline.
Although Michael Hurll was easily the show's greatest producer, he was making mistakes towards the end of his tenure.
Anonymous, it's a case of all good things come to an end, and a bit like some leaders who come towards the end of their tenure, sometimes press the self-destruct button. The biggest mistake of the above, is shortening the show to 30 minutes when Eastenders was launched, as this started the domino effect producing the other mistakes on TOTP production that you correctly outline.
DeleteAlthough the 'flying records' was the best opening sequence I prefer The Wizard to Yellow Pearl as this was when I was watching TOTP every week. That said, I can't remember them doing the chart over a video first time round, and it seems ridiculous that Michael Hurll didn't think of simply scrolling the chart along the bottom of the screen like they did in the early nineties.
DeleteIt's notable that on this show we were back to the normal Top 40 rundown - I wonder if that was because they wanted to showcase more of The Wizard, or because Peel was resistant to the new format? Either way, the new-style countdown would return, but only for two more shows.
DeleteThe production mistakes described above were certainly all factors in the TOTP's decline, though I think the restriction to 30 minutes was crucial in denying the show room to breathe, and denying viewers the time for a proper overview of the weekly chart. The decline in singles sales in the late 80s, and the rise of faceless, untelegenic dance acts, would not help matters either.
Add to that list the chart being announced on a Sunday rather than a Tuesday which meant the top 40 was the best part of a week old by the time Thursday came around.
DeleteMore could have been done by the production team at the time to maximise the 30 minute slot, like reducing the length of each Breakers clip to no more than 15 seconds, running 40-11 as captions over a video as mentioned above or speeding up the credits and top 10 countdown. All things they did later of course...
Steve, your idea of scrolling the the chart horizontally along the bottom of the screen was not invented yet in 1986. The first time it appeared on British televisions was around 1990 when Sky TV launched, and it was a new concept on news and sports channels, and Final Score on a Saturday, for giving us news and sport headlines.
DeleteIt was in the early 2000s I think, that the BBC wised up to this and did the same on their own main channels, so in fairness to the 1986 TOTP editions, the roller blind type of chart rundown as in this week's TOTP was nothing different to what people would have expected in the 80s, and before the arrival of satellite and cable TV.
John, I quite liked the top 40 rundown back to its usual format, with the added new background of The Wizard, as the chart rundown felt a lot more special and for paying more attention to, or sitting up and watching/listening!
DeleteI would hope it was the former, rather than latter of your two possibilities, for returning to the original chart rundown format with each song being called out, and not just the risers up the charts that were highlighted in the March shows over the video being played.
I'm pretty sure the ticker format for scrolling info along the bottom of the screen had been around since the 1950s, in the US at least, but on UK election broadcasts too. It's even used for the credits in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.
DeleteI wonder if they tried to get Cliff Richard & The Young Ones into the TOTP studio for their No.1 single? Well, that could have been dangerous, in that The Young Ones would likely to have smashed up the whole studio, and we wouldn't want that I suppose?
ReplyDeleteOoh, fancy schmancy computer graphics, they'll be turning the screen into a saxophone like in Friday Night Live next.
ReplyDeleteBAD with one of my favourite 80s tracks, still sounds great with its relentlessness and superb, unusual subject matter. Mind you, if you haven't seen the films in question the spoilers come thick and fast. Reminds me of watching Film Buff of the Year as a kid and for a question they showed the big twist at the end of Don't Look Now, which ruined the film for me when I finally caught up with it a few years later. Thanks for nothing, Robin Ray! Don Letts displaying a casual attitude to miming - I don't think he presses his keyboard once.
George Michael with a song that bored me to tears, rather than moved me to tears, at the time. I used to dread it coming on because it felt like it went on for ten minutes or something. Not that keen on it now - cliché black and white video alert, too.
A lesser-heard A-ha, which is most of them apart from their first two hits and the Bond theme, but it soars to an extent with a nice twiddly synth refrain. That keyboard is as shoogly as they come, no surprises when it collapses.
Maybe if Paul Hardcastle had released The Wizard the day after this was broadcast, it would have been a bigger hit?
The Real Thing with their nasty drum machine-filled remix, they still look like talent show winners, but I don't begrudge them their second wind, they were good guys.
Falco, yes! Tremendous bit of pop, best Austrian rapper ever! Not a hotly contested field, I'll admit. A man actually wearing lederhosen onstage, yeah, embrace those stereotypes! A deserved hit, totally barmy and so much fun with it.
Was musing how much The Millennium Prayer would have been improved by the presence of The Young Ones. A missed opportunity.
The Style Council's contribution to the Absolute Beginners soundtrack at least sounds a lot more 1950s jazz than Bowie's effort, so that's in its favour. Not a bad pastiche, really.
The unedited final link can be seen here, courtesy of Neil B:
ReplyDeletehttps://we.tl/t-UNytYMkXDu
Anyone know why next Thursday's TOTP is in the listings as a repeat of this edition?
ReplyDeleteI read elsewhere that they listed it again for next Thursday as an insurance, in case the Prom last night overran and they couldn't show it. As it was on last night, I don't know whether they will show it again on Thursday or move on to 17 April.
DeleteI suppose we'll have to wait and see. I was glad the comedy violinist finished on time last night, for more reasons than one.
DeleteI see that they did put this show on again tonight, which rather begs the question of why they bothered showing it last Friday - why not just wait until tonight?
DeleteIndeed, and whats more, it looks like there is nothing now on BBC4 until Friday 14th Sep for the next show of 17 April '86.
DeleteOn the positive side, there is absolutely no chance now of BBC4 running out of regular shows a month before Christmas, as happened last year.
Deletebig audio dynamite: i hate to say it, but this is by far the best thing on the show. mick jones isn't much cop as a singer, but he still pisses all over his clash ex-colleague joe strummer. as then i think it's alright musically, but something stops me from liking it wholeheartedly - maybe it was the hype? don letts appears to the black version of andrew ridgeley
ReplyDeletegeorge michael: whatever songwriting talent he might have had, it's quite obvious from this wafer-thin effort ("indifferent borer" would have been a more appropriate title) that the well has run dry by now. freddie mercury really should have started grooming george to take over from him in queen the moment he realised he was in his way out, and saved everyone (including george himself) the agony of his subsequent wasteland of a solo career. you see, in a way andrew ridgeley was far more important than people ever gave him credit for!
a ha: like thx says, there were the first two singles, the bond effort....and what else? this first of the "what else" category (that i can barely remember if at all) has verses that are somewhat ripped-off from "scary monsters and super creeps" and a rather in-yer-face chorus
falco: this extremely annoying drivel goes straight onto the provisional list for my top 10 turkeys for 1986, although i suspect as the year goes on it might get some substantial competition. why are there guys pretending to play guitars and basses when it's quite clear there are none whatsoever on the record (well the bits i was able to stomach, anyway)? i was trying in vain to remember that other austrian shite that was a hit a year or two earlier (i thought it was the art company, but they were dutch), and had to enter "austrian pop" into my search engine where i found a "top 100 austrian artists list". not surprisingly it is dominated by classical composers, with herr mozart himself at the top. falco just scrapes into the top 20 despite the success of this, followed rather amusingly (and appropriately in my view) by a band called pungent stench
style council: giving matt bianco some competition in the cod-latin stakes. even though the modfather isn't bellowing his head off for a change, it's quite obvious that they are trying far too hard with their limited knowledge to replicate the effortless sophistication and mastery of antonio carlos jobim. and it takes a lot more than just adding major sevenths on top of simple triad chords to do that
Regards A-Ha, I'm a big fan of the keening "Hunting High and Low" and the comeback top tenner "Analogue".
DeleteBest thing they did after TV was Cry Wolf. Will come up later in the year. Its a great record. Although Hunting is very atmospheric.
DeleteAny sightings of the 10th April edition, as it will not be shown by BBC4 due to Mike Smith? For one thing, I'm pleased it is the final week at No.1 for The Young Ones & Cliff Richard, but more in anticipation, I can't wait to see the Simple Minds follow-up single (and video) to the brilliant Alive And Kicking, if indeed it could be matched in the sheer genius category!
ReplyDeleteHere it is https://we.tl/t-ciOTcp7zyD
DeleteHere it is https://we.tl/t-ciOTcp7zyD
DeleteThank for revealing your self Anonymous, aka Robert129
DeleteMany thanks for the link!
DeleteOh no, it's an Avi file, which is not compatible with mac book/apple. Could you possibly provide it on mp4 format, like the usual WeTransfer uploads on here?
DeleteI was 22 in 1986 and payed close attention to Radio 1 FM. The new all the time FM was a true luxury.
ReplyDeleteBAD. Janice Long had an evening show (I think)and she went on and on about how good this was. To me it was the worst thing I'd ever heard.
GM. Never watched this all the way, I have now and it was the musical equivalent of eating a slug.
A-HA. Too sensible.
TRT. The best thing here was the blank expression on the face of Paul Hardcastle as the camera panned over.
FAL. I remember a wonderful interesting special one off show on Radio 1 FM in which Jonathan King described how to spot talent, become a pop star and not die in the process.
Regarding this Falco song as soon as he heard it he a bet on it being number one.
Best thing on the show.
CR YO. I remember this causing comment at the time.
TSC. If only the Jam had had a second guitar and had gone for a heavier sound...
Yes, Janice had an evening show at the time. Then she left on maternity leave and came back to find there was no place for her anymore. Big shame. Always remember her laughing her head off at Walters' Week. When Liz Kershaw took over, she didn't laugh once. It was kind of uncomfortable to listen to.
DeleteWhat is a puchgrand?
DeleteA Puch Grand Prix, to give it its full name, is a make of moped which feels more like a motorbike due to its horse power.
Delete"I like a bit of a cavort. I don't send 'em solicitor's letters. I apply a bit of... pressure."
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, The Happy Mondays sampled Performance too, on Mad Cyril from their classic Bummed album. I wonder if Shaun Ryder was more influenced by BAD or the film? To be fair, they did use different clips.
Having a look at the A-ha video for Train of Thought, which I never saw at the time, it seems they were going for Take On Me Part 2. Also trying to convince us the synth whistle is pan pipes.
ReplyDeletetotp 10th April 1986 in mp4 format is here:https://we.tl/t-AqqyzQSS0c
ReplyDeleteNice one :)
DeleteNice to see my favourite duo back again. Janice is saucy (“Have you ever had it blue?” fnar fnar!) and John Sarky (“Queen, the Sun City Boys”).
ReplyDeleteBAD – E=MC2 – Albert said no less. Prefer Landscape’s take on this theme!
George Michael – A Different Corner – Surely one of the most boring videos ever, and not a particular favourite of his solo output for me. No3 in the Smooth Radio top500 earlier this year (big surprise) behind ‘Careless Whisper’ by George Michael and no1 ‘Perfect’ by Fairground Attraction, sorry Ed Sheeran.
A-Ha – Train of Thought – Sounds like Knopfler singing the verses, but not one of their best for me. They wouldn’t need to hunt high and low for the next excellent single.
Paul Hardcastle – Much as I’m not a Hardy fan, I have to say he came up with a decent piece of music here for the theme tune.
Real Thing – You to me are everything – Surprised to see this on again, but it’s great despite the counter melody missing towards the end and all round being an inferior mix.
Falco – Rock me Amadeus – Fabulous!!!
Cliff / Young Ones – Living Doll – Not fabulous!!
Style Council – Have you ever had it blue? – had what blue? Not bad for them actually…
PS the ELO picture on the chart rundown was just Jeff and Bev (no Richard). ELD perhaps?!
DeleteWere they still carrying Mik Kaminski in ELO at this point?
DeleteKaminski was not credited on the 'Balance of Power' album but a photo inside the CD reissue shows him part of the touring band in 1986.
DeleteThank goodness we got to see this one, it must be one of the strongest line-ups of the 86 shows (admittedly, that's quite a low bar)
ReplyDeleteBAD - An excellent song to get the show underway, though you wouldn't have bet on them getting the first go in front of the new logo, would you?
George Michael - Not a great deal of love for this on here, which I understand as I found it dull at the time too. Then at some point in the 90s (I forget exactly when) I completely changed my opinion of it, to the point that it actually makes me quite emotional now. When George passed away I could not get it out of my head.
Oh, and 'If I could, I would, I swear' is a pretty economical but fine closing line to a song I reckon.
a-ha - An unprecedented event, 3 songs in a row in 86 that I didn't have the slightest urge to fast forward through! This is the forgotten hit from the brilliant 'Hunting High And Low' album and I love it.
Then The Real Thing turn up and spoil everything.
Falco - I really like this too, and it's one of those songs that annoyingly never turns up in its 7" form on compilations as it was remixed for UK release. The lady singing 'baby baby, do do me, rock me' or whatever it is doesn't appear on other releases.
So good was this show that they've even provided a Style Council song that I can actually tolerate for some reason. This is even more surprising given that it sounds like Matt Bianco who I detest.
I positively HATE the new theme tune. Can we have “Whole Lotta Love” back?
ReplyDeleteLocal lads done good, Janice? The leader’s been in the charts regularly with The Clash – but finally on TOTP, and doesn’t Mick Jones enjoy it? Oo, there’s Don Letts, the BAD Bez. Enough time to boil an egg to this track.
Is that George Michael or “Deal or No Deal” era Noel Edmonds? What a ripsnorter of a video.
A-Ha’s “Train Of Thought” was almost as bad as South Western Railways, but at least it ran on time. The return of Hired Hand Drummer there.
Gee, thanks for commissioning the new theme tune, Michael! At least we got a half-decent interview. Compare and contrast with previous efforts involving Chicago and Mike Nesmith.
Get down (off the sofa), it’s Crufts Boy and his mates. They may be The Real Thing but this re-mix is an awful facsimile.
Wahay! A proper countdown again! Now can we just have it without the headache-inducing background graphics? And it’s Atlantic Starr with two r’s while we’re at it.
Oh dear, here comes another future number 1 to be FF’d in this household. Falco went onto better things when he joined Tottenham Hotspur in my opinion. German’s such a hard sounding language, isn’t it? Listen to the way some countries say “I Love You”… “Je T’Aime”, “Ti Amo”, even “Volim Te” (Bosnian)…and in German it’s “ICH LIEBE DICH”!
“Have You Ever Had It Blue”? Do they mean steak? Tut, ripping off their own “Long Hot Summer” in the chorus. Nice shoes but not so nice front teeth at the start of the vid. Still, at least Weller wasn’t chewing cud like usual.
PS – Motormouth MeMeMe Chris Evans to leave Radio 2. That means I can add it as a favourite again to my settings in late December!
Can't say I'm sorry that Evans is slinging his hook, but if they give the gig to Sara Cox, as I fear they will, I'll continue to give that show a wide berth!
DeleteArthur, I agree that Whole Lotta Love is probably the best TOTP soundtrack, but disagree about the suggestion that the new background graphics with Hardcastle tune during the chart rundown should be removed, as I thought it gave the rundown a more engaging feel to it, and I think it has improved that part of the show. I certainly enjoyed it more with those graphics!
Deleteactually arthur falco's footballing namesake (that i had planned to mention in my next review - bah!) was actually departing spurs around this point, and was later to join graeme souness's legion of sassanach mercenaries at rangers
DeleteFeel free to do your Falco quip next time, Wilby. Maybe not on this forum, but I've noticed that family-wise and work-wise my opinions count for nothing right now and I may as well be invisible.
Deletedon't worry arthur - i'm not losing sleep over it! i wonder if whenever mark falco scored a goal after his namesake's hit there was a burst of "rock me amadeus" over the PA as a result?
DeleteSmall observation re:the George Michael vid. Does anyone remember that talentless hag Paula Yates performing what was practically a soft porn version of this vid on the tube. All soft lighting and bed poses etc.
ReplyDeleteno, i don't remember paula yates doing the above. but i do remember she was a talentless hag (who did whatever it took to become famous - regardless of that)
DeleteMy BBC4HD restoration of 3/4/86, with Neil B.'s copy of the missing bit inserted back in:
ReplyDeletehttps://we.tl/t-q1M1cN3wfg
Lately I've been posting these restoration links on Popscene too; I think from this point on I'll just put the links on there as there's no point in duplicating everything and it's a lot easier to find stuff on a message board compared to comments on a blog. Just saying in case anyone wondered if I'd stopped doing these, anyway.
Most TOTPS get 3 showings on BBC4, but am I right in thinking this has gone awry? The previous edition only got 2 (the Thursday early evening and Saturday), and this one will get 4 (Friday/Saturday/Thursday and again tomorrow)
ReplyDeleteWhat did you say? The Wizard.. Ha ha ha ha ha 😀 😀 😀 😀
ReplyDeleteCue quality new TOTP THEME.
They dont quite get the graphics right first time around (the later 89 version is much slicker) but still a breath of fresh 1986 air to these ears.
And for the relaunch we get Janice and John back together. Hooray.
So a brand new logo as well. I'm not actually sure it's an improvement but is the one I remember the most. Fits in better with the new look studio that has been appearing over the last few weeks.
Obviously for a new start u don't want any sound problems.... Quick quick, turn it up...
Da Dynamite kicks off the new era. Fabulous song even though I couldn't pick the band out of a line up. Pure pop quality.
Live and direct. And a name drop for the little ravencrofts. Oh I miss JP..
Great ballad from George next. Going for the Noel Edmonds beard and jumper look must be the most uncool phase of his life. The song is top drawer and the video goes very well with it. Just as good as Careless Whisper.
Aha back and failing to get 3 big hits in a row. Train of Thought is OK. Very much an album track I think. The wonderful Cry Wolf still to come this year.. Glad Janice liked Mortons bum.
Mr Hardcastle gets a quick chat about his new single (but not The Wizard yet). Very in depth Janice.
Real Thing back for more. Great tune.
Band in desperate need of a stylist. Have they just got off the bus and walked in. Who told the guy on the right there was a dress code. Can imagine the other having a good chuckle at his expense.
Yeah. The countdown is back and looking good. Janice and John having fun.
Falco up next. Tune of the night. Again. Just fabulous. Soon to be number one here as well Janice.
Missed the breakers this week but they'll be back
And so we have the Top Ten followed by Cliff and Co still at the top.
Huge edit cuts out the Smithy mention and the Style Council play us out with one of their lesser hits which sounds far too Matt Bianco for my liking.
A good show. New format settling in well.