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

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.

Sometimes I think Elvis died just to avoid crappy cover versions like this.

DEVIL WOMAN!!!
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LP_YP0I7zZY/SoFziAfbpiI/AAAAAAAAC-c/RoLUJLbssFU/s200/RikMayall.png

the shadows have let themselves go...

Mud go disco

Surreal

the shadows have let themselves go...

Even by 1976 standards that was one ugly backing band.

Was there anything good in this episode? Apart from Cliff?

The iplayer only has the 30 min version!

Blimey, Robin Sarstedt, what was that all about? Sutherland Brothers/Quiver was quite nice, not enough guys with combovers in the charts these days.

Guessing Annie Lennox has superseded the Sutherland Brothers as Aberdeenshire's biggest chart act though

The Sutherland Brothers and Quiver were pretty great, a lot of quality 70s country rock/AOR tunes. Never heard the Suths on their own tho.

odd that they chopped the Stones out of the longer version.

Robin Sarstedt song was familiar. probably from Jane Russell in The Las Vegas Story.

i think claire grogan has heard that fox single.

The Sutherlan Brothers did the original of "Sailing", and I knew it before Rods version thanks to a k-tel compilation.

Well....'punk had to happen' is a tired old theme, but IF it was ever true then this weeks shows why. Robin Sarstedt - just die you seedy bastard. Sutherland Brothers and Quiver - a soundtrack for cruisin' down the Gateshead bypass in your Hillman Avenger. The singer (Gavin Sutherland?) had great hair though. Frankie Valli, who I maintain it is impossible to dislike looked like he hadn't slept for a year. Manilow - unspeakably awful, and why did he have the piano stool so high? He could barely reach the keys. JJ Barrie - nothing can really describe the horror of this record, although he looked like a decent enough bloke. The Mud record was utterly bizarre - I have no memory of this at all. Even though it was a bit of a disco death-rattle from the bubble-glam stalwarts, they at least seemed enthusistic about it. And bonus marks go to Dave Mount for doing the 'let's arse about on the telly' walk around his drum-kit. What else was there? Ruby Flipper - what did Pan's People do to deserve this fate? Only bright spot was Cliff - crackin' song that with a lovely electric piano sound. The band were hod-carriers even by TOTP session-men standards. They made Sutherland Brothers and Quiver look like arch sex gods in comparison. Oh and of course Abba. But they faded it in verse 2 - bastards. A dire week but at least they didn't show Hank Mizell or John Miles. And how bored was Noel throughout?

Back in 76, I was still watching TOTP as a 14yr old, along with OGWT, but I don't think I was listening to anything much from the charts. I had some Pink Floyd albums, I think I'd just discovered the Syd era LPs. I had a couple of Status Quo albums (Piledriver, Hello) some Bowie and T-Rex, Story of The Who, some K-Tel comps. Within a year I'd be spending my pocket money on scratchy singles in home-made sleeves made by bands barely older than myself from Belfast, Manchester, Deptford and Ladbroke Grove. Happy days, and yeah they did HAVE to happen.

(Imagine a bootmix of "Give peace a chance" with the lyrics of "Sailing" over the top of it)

xpost obviously, blimey thread's suddenly busy.

Two of SB and Quiver played with Pink Floyd - Tim Renwick and Willie Wilson.

honey bane, basquiat, visage and decent old spandau in a single episode. and buster bloodvessel as Henry viii.

basquiat looks such a dork pretending to dj in the rapture video

The previously unknown to me Next Of Kin AND Moffats? Hansonsploitation really was a thing for a second there huh.

was that basquiat again in the atomic video at the beginning leading the horse? it was solarised so hard to see but...

I wonder why people bother covering Cameo's 'Word Up'? The original is perfect. Gun's version here is better than Mel B's attempt from 1999 but still it just sounds like a cover a band would throw into a live set to mix things up. Their cover version of Hot Chocolate's 'Every 1's A Winner' - which they also released as a single - is a similar mix of competency and head scratching "why would anyone do this?".

― you gotta roll with the pączki to get to what's real (snoball), Friday, 14 April 2023 19:08 (two years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0OZlKTemxk

The official end of Suede as a good band, the god awful She's In Fashion.

did that come before or after I Can't Get It Up?

Before, with (ughhh God..) Everything Will Flow in between.

I was working as a painter and decorator in 1999 and the boss's radio was tuned to Capital FM. The only two songs they ever seemed to play were Lou Bega's 'Mambo #5' and 'Livin La Vida Loca' by Ricky Martin, interspersed with Steve Penk's prank phone calls.

God, Geri doing "Mi Chico Latino", A Teens*, a stirring anti war song from Ocean Colour Scene AND Stereophonics in one episode, bleak stuff.

*I am as susceptible to the charms of a good novelty act as anyone but jesus, even the choreography's balls

lol I posted that before discovering what was #1 as well

i went to watch it live for the first time in months and the fucking snooker was over running like it always does.

That authentic TOTP experience.

Post Did "The Wicker Man" get broadcast?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001t443

says yes. but 40 minutes late.

Haha, I thought the A Teens track was quite good - but I have to admit I was “multi-tasking” when it was on.

jeez, they're digging them up tonight. sting, bono, Tom Jones, Bowie...

This is the month after I moved to London for a job, and I didn't have a TV until February 2000. So there's a six month gap where I didn't watch TOTP. It's weird seeing these dance acts basically for the first time because they all seem to have some visual gimmick. The 'The Launch' guy in a spacesuit, Eiffel 65 and their matching tracksuits.

I'm a bit behind but that A*Teens performance was shocking, the two boys looked like they'd only ever been shown the choreography once before. Also I don't know why Sharleen Spiteri decided to sing that album track in the voice you would use to parody the Bee Gees.

I'm gutted that Scott Mills' scandal has meant we've skipped a lot of episodes, this was the last summer before I started high school and one of the best ones for me!

An old 1991 diary entry reveals that the radio 1 chart broadcasts on Sunday were extended by half an hour from 5pm-7pm to 4.30pm-7pm in order to play the whole chart. Hadn’t thought about this for thirty odd years but I do remember it now. Presumably the 5-7 era was just the ‘highlights’.

These days Radio 1 speedruns the chart in an hour and 45.

I am enoying the saga of Britney Spears recording video after video apologising that she can't be on totp this week. If she ever does come on I'll feel a profound sense of narrative catharsis.