The Rolling "Top of the Pops" BBC4 Revival thread.

fuck Noel Edmonds and his 'comedy' links

fuck Noel Edmonds and his 'comedy' links

I know, what a dick. Still we had the Four Seasons doing "Silver Star" this week. Also Eric Carmen's "interview" with Noel Edmonds, where you couldn't hear a word he was saying, don't be shy Eric!

Interviews on TOTP? that's a rarity...

"Inteview" not really the word.

"You wrote a song for Dana didn't you?"
"Mumble mumble mumble"
"What's the best song you've ever written?"
"Mumble mumble mumble All By Myself"
"Well all the best with the new single"
"Mumble"

Don't know what song he wrote for Dana

Oh and Noel was saying what a good album "Eric Carmen" was: a rare display of good taste from Edmonds there!

Noel had to say he liked it cos he didn't want to blow a raspberry.

My god that it horribly formed.

*is*

OK so Google tells me Dana covered "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again" from the aforementioned "Eric Carmen" album

Is Dana the one who did some religious kids programme called 'Wake Up Sunday'?

Sounds likely

10CC, "Mandy Fly Me" was on too. Fantastic!

NEdmonds always had his love of singer-songwriters, to be fair.

Big fan of Harry Chapin, yer Edmonds.

Balderdash certainly describes droll Noel's career.

This was easily the most WTF song on this week's show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iISUroWbu2U

I watched last night's 1976 episode, it was amazingly and compellingly bad. Lots of odd-looking folks I've never heard of awkwardly performing novelty songs, and one of Pan's People doing some remarkably gratuitous ass-shaking in the direction of the camera. I need more.

70s was the golden age for ugly blokes, you could still end up in a band on TOTP with groupies galore. Rubettes' (sans caps) song sounded more like the Beatles than the Rutles!

I'm watching this now. LOL at the male members of the Vagabonds miming the female backing vocals. Something massively depressing about second tier disco groups though, like they're trapped in time, it's as if they're composed entirely of all the bits of late 70's disco that don't influence music today.

Shoeless and carrying a walking stick with a bicycle bell on it? Fucking hell, Harpo could teach Lady gaga a thing or two.

Sheer Elegance one of the most misnamed bands ever judging by what they were wearing, the uglyness of the Rubettes & their overcocky drummer, the utter WTFness of Harpo. mandatory viewing from now on!

I'm sure Punk would never of happened if Sky+ would of been available in 1976...ended up fast forwarding most of last night's show...bring back Noosha Fox...become a little obsessed with s-s-single bed...

^^^ same goes for watching it on iPlayer. I don't know if 'compellingly bad' is the term, or just 'bad'.

the uglyness of the Rubettes & their overcocky drummer

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx-aH0oBscw

definitely 'compellingly bad' for me. and Fox lady really reminded me of Alison Goldfrapp which is a Good Thing.

Noosha F missing link between Clare Grogan and Goldfrapp. Love that record.

Ah, been catching up via good old iplayer on the wii.

Old enough to remember these episodes quite clearly in some cases.

Sad that they haven't gone back far enough in time to have Sparks on.

Still, don't recall that Gilbert O'Sullivan song though I must have heard it then.

Oh, last I heard, they are definitely doing this run for a year.

After that? Who knows...

Still, don't recall that Gilbert O'Sullivan song though I must have heard it then.

He was long gone as commercial proposition by 1976. That song sounded like a demo, did artists have to re-record tracks? I know they had to re-record vocals, hence the ubiquity of the Ladybirds. But then other acts obviously just mimed to the record.

They did 'have' to.

A lot of them switched the tapes post-session, apparently.

ooooooo-oooooooooooooh Vienna it's Slik

It's Midge Uuuurrrr...

And Paul knickerless

Jesus Christ, superstar?

DLT looks like Badly Drawn Boy.

This is sooooo much better than last weeks....

Only one novelty act so far.

Shit Brotherhood Of Man are still number one...

They were there for 6 weeks.

The guy without the 'tasche wants to die.

I still fucking hate the last line of that song...not for the paedo connotations...just cos i hate it...

So, there isn't a TOTP this week, but there is a "Primal Scream" themed evening coming up on Friday.

AAAAAAAAAAARGH

No, the band, not the Janov therapy.

You could kind of see why Midge Ure ended up in Ultravox, I mean "Requiem", the title sounds an like Ultravox song. Slik were a pretty cool looking band by 1976 standards.

Oh, it was very Ultravox, for sure.

I got tickets to see them live in 1978, Top Rank, Reading, thanks to being at the Radio210 offices at the right time: The whole band were there, I met them all, and got the signed piccies, and for some reason that escapes me two free tickets and a bunch of discount vouchers. It wasn't full to say the least, and the support band, "Screemer", were perfectly competent early seventies pophairies that would lose their career path in the wake of punk...

That 1978 should be (Nov) 1976 (oops), timings at that point in history are crucial.

Mud go disco, urgh...

Didn't the guitarist write 'Can't get you out my head' by Kylie...sounds a bit like it...

Frankie Valli's tired performance there. He really got a boost from appearing in Grease in '78, didn't he.

This song by Björk repeats a lot too, but it does have the virtue of not being long.

Assuming this kid singing about being 17 is actually 17, he's 45 now.

if you mean Toby Slater from Catch then no, sadly he died in 2021.

merri-choney

Repetition is good. Oasis by this time were not.

No TOTP (at least from 1997) tonight because of the snooker (two episodes from the 80s on later). Not much changes.

U&Eden channel have taken to running Totp repeats too. 1998

911 (so called because they should have been arrested by the police) the Black Lace of boybands.

Haha, I have a little soft spot for them now after watching Boybands Forever.

Enojyed seeing Double 99 RIP Grove this week.

I love that there was a cash in book for them called "The Truth About 911"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmK82lFAmJg

5ive's 'bunch of scally lads being loud at the local shopping centre' look is strangely timeless.

the guy singing about wanting to be teenage was 36 in 1980.

Tonight's episode from 1997 is the Christmas Day edition. Pretty sure I wouldn't have seen this when it was originally broadcast so it could be interesting.

Pretty much all bangers that ep, though 1997 me would be shocked and appalled to hear me say it.

There was an ep recently where they included a Bono xmas message and a charity single that wasn't even in the charts yet and I was like "hold on, they don't usually do this". loled at the end to discover this was because the Teletubbies were #1 for the second week running and someone at the show clearly must've been like "we are NOT playing this a second time"...so they just put it over the closing credits.

I don’t mind the TOTP reruns but 5 or 6 of them on a Friday night is taking the piss. Especially when that means any docs are shunted into the early hours of Saturday.

can understand that complaint but the average quality level of a BBC4 doc these days is so bad I can't be angry much

It ain't BBC Four if they don't programme that bloody John Denver documentary for nine-o'clock every now and then. 'What Frank Sinatra was to the 40s, what Elvis was to the 50s, and the Beatles were to the 60s, John Denver was to the 70s'. Hmmm.

These Rialto lads really wanted to be Pulp eh?

They released a new album last year! The single was not for me but it was very far from the usual embarrassment of these types of bands trying to recapture past er glories

They were Kinky Machine before they were Rialto.

Bacofoil era Usher

They were Kinky Machine before they were Rialto.

Had no idea - I remember Kinky Machine.

Also had no idea how posh the singer was (from Wiki):

Hon. Louis Robert Eliot (born 11 April 1968) is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist, formerly of Kinky Machine and Rialto.[1] He is the second son of Peregrine Eliot (1941–2016) and Hon. Jacquetta Jean Frederika Lampson, third daughter of the Scottish diplomat Miles Lampson, 1st Baron Killearn. In the early 1980s, his father held Elephant Fayre at their home Port Eliot. In 1988, his father succeeded as the 10th Earl of St Germans. His parents divorced in 1989.[2]

He had an elder brother, Jago, Lord Eliot (1966–2006),[3] and has a younger brother, Hon. Francis Michael (born 1971). He was educated at Eton.[2]

what was the music under the chart rundown during the middlemass-presented show tonight? vaguely dnb, unlike anything else on the show.

second week in a row when i've owned one of the records (Spiritualized last week, Lion Rock this. oh, probably Cornershop too)

that's 24:50 into this

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002gk6n/top-of-the-pops-13031998

I didn't recognise it but sounds quite Timbalandy

instrumental of Beenie Man "Who Am I" which was just outside the Top 20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhqpISpm1n4

yep, thanks

'it can only be... Kula Shaker!'

in my limited experience of all saints (under the bridge and the previous one) i have noticed that one of them never takes a turn at a solo and seems to be there to make up the numbers.

But was/is married to either Liam Gallagher or Liam Howlett

I dunno which Appleton sister is which.

I'm a little behind on catching up with these but the Ian Brown harmonica solo was gruelling. And there was a recent episode that was definitely 90% repeated footage and not even subtle about it.

Howling at the Busta Rhymes performance with random people in the street shouting the hook!

comedy cover of Kung Fu Fighting with added breakdancing
comedy cover of beastie boys with added breakdancing

I'm not watching this but if it's Bus Stop then your man doing the rap is Eurovision troubler Daz Sampson!

I thought he looked familiar but I couldn't place him.

Even tho I know they're Bus Stop I misheard Zoe announcing them as Bust Up, which suits a song called "King Fu Fighting" better

Although the weirdly resonance-free name Bus Stop is what attracted me to the song years ago when I asked my mum to buy me Fresh Hits 98 from a jumble sale. Just one of those deliberately faceless names, like Tin Tin Out.

Tbh, a more coherent mid-98 hits package than Now 40 (which despite a generally strong second disc I've always been a bit baffled by)
https://www.discogs.com/release/1759870-Various-Fresh-Hits-98?srsltid=AfmBOoo9PkuCIBr292kV6A-jbIZipqxuKsfI9TPuf_kktAVxKJEQ-9O4

"A one-off supergroup, consisting of Echo & The Bunnymen, Ocean Colour Scene, Space (4) and the Spice Girls" !

"While Echo & The Bunnymen, Ocean Colour Scene and Space (4) are credited on the release, only their respective lead singers were involved in the recording and performance."

but that was obviously will bunnyman on the far left on totp