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

have only watched half of last night's but i laughed all the way through alex harvey. the clown. the bassist's hair. the drummer in a suit. the ax!

the surprise sisters were no way sisters.

I haven't seen this weeks yet, but I do remember it, I think.

Did they medley into "You won't see me" ?

Yes.

Hmmmm, girlbands weren't quite as, uh, glamorous in the 70s as now, were they? All worth it for SAHB, Alex didn't do much but still looked pretty scary!

BOLAN!

There must have been some kind of BBC enforced limit on the amount of excitement that TOTP could serve up in the mid 70's. Every stomping track had to be followed by some abject shite. Bolan followed by Lancaster & Bile, Frampton ("tube in the mouth") followed by Brotherhood of Spam (another song with a stupid twist ending).

DLT's world famous dual purpose pirate/yokel impersonation...

ruby flipper on acid again last night.

and for all the dreadfulness (bom, wurzels) i quite enjoyed it.

odd how that disco Mud song has been lost to history despite being on TOTP 4 or 5 times.

(i only got 17 minutes of the longer version but the extra bit i saw was a Thin Lizzy repeat)

Yes, Bolan.

Was that his last TOTP appearance? And, didn't he look so young? (and healthy!)

Actually, I shouldn't 'ask' that, I should know..

(There's a "Marc on TV" DVD that I did a sleevenote for, I don't think it has any TOTP though)

'Laser Love' from October 1976?
(and if the BBC can the repeats before we get that far)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tewzXZrUmJ0&feature=related

Liverpool Express song would have been more interesting if they'd bother to write more than just a chorus. Punk Rock = Year Zero, just decimated so much of this stuff.

But you have to remember that 99% of the British population despised/dismissed/detested punk rock and only a tiny handful of punk singles charted in 1977.

That said, my anticipation for Eddie & The Hot Rods grows with every passing week...

But you have to remember that 99% of the British population despised/dismissed/detested punk rock and only a tiny handful of punk singles charted in 1977

I know but its effect in the music business was more profound, it was like they realised that Mr. Big being the Most Exciting New Act of the year was, all things considered, not really good enough. Uh, but maybe I'm rewriting history here because wiki tells me Mr. Big's big hit was 1977!

Ah, but do you remember "Christmas with Dicken"? Their big hit "Romeo" was somewhat at the close of play, but still...

also:

That said, my anticipation for Eddie & The Hot Rods grows with every passing week...

― mike t-diva, Friday, 1 July 2011 11:20 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

We are of a mind, yes.

Demis Roussos looking like Spock's psychic half-brother from that Star Trek movie.

This week is pretty bad so far, two videos and Ruby Flipper pissing about (I'm not even going to call it dancing) to an instrumental.

That New Seekers track is apalling, presumably it was only bought by teenage lads who wanted to check Eve Graham out on totp.

Art Garfunkel clearly doesn't give a shit here.

I remember hating 'Diddy' David Hamilton a lot, but he's not that bad a presenter compared to the dross of Edmondsm the enforced wackiness of DLT, and the crepeiness of Sir Jimmy.

Mostly I watch this for the grim fascination of the awful music, awful fashion, ugly people and the bloke in Ruby Flipper dancing around dressed as a leopard, but I have to say the Roxy Music one tickled my fancy.

Ha Ha...wondered when the first reference to the Summer of '76 would occur...David Hamilton looking appropriately sweaty in his White whistle...

David Hamilton was very dull. His radio show used to play 'versions' from TOTP sessions to get round needletime restrictions, and was the housewives favourite. At least Edmonds was into his music..

Hamilton's R1 afternoon show also went out simultaneously on R2, as I recall - so it was MOR to the max.

RUBBISH EPISODE THIS WEEK.

longer version was 10 minutes rubbisher.

actually, i enjoyed it again.

Yes, I always watch the LONG VERSION.

I enjoyed what in 1976 I might have happily called Ruby Flidder, but obviously would not do that nowadays.

long version had extra Cherry Flipper doing a dance, Alex Harvey again and Johnny ("not Cash") Nash.

It was rubbish this week.

Also, what's with the iplayer not being updated with the longer version anymore?

i don't think it ever has been. certainly all the ones i have (think i'm missing the first) are the short version.

They did get updated previously.

the 5 iplayer downloads i have here are all the short version. am pretty certain all the others are too.

and i usually grab them the monday or tuesday after they air, which should be enough time for them to throw the longer versions up (otherwise they'd only be up for a day before being replaced)

But you have to remember that 99% of the British population despised/dismissed/detested punk rock and only a tiny handful of punk singles charted in 1977.

chapter and verse stats pls.

Big Hits: TOTP 1964-1975 on BBC2 on Saturday was much better. Lots of things everyone has seen before but it worked well enough. Driscoll/Auger still looks like 2028, not 1968.

I've had "Where do you go to my lovely?" stuck in my head since watching that.

could be worse, my brain randomly flings OOH-AR OOH-AR at me. was surprised to find out that Wurzels song is based on a Melanie song, though.

all the wurzels hits were based on other songs, that was the point (i thought), parodies that piggy backed other tunes.

Except for "Drink Up Thy Zider" ..

Honest, guv: I have seen a long iplayer version (at least two), and only a couple of times recently caught the actual late-transmission of the 40 min version.

yeah, that's a bit of a mystery. and, of course, i'd prefer the longer versions myself.

i had forgotten drink up thy zider. but #45 in 1966 who would blame me?

That was with Adge Cutler, the Dylan of Zummerzet, though. They were more credible in them days.

And then poor Cutler was killed in a car crash and the Wurzels resolved to go on but alas "Combine Harvester" was no "Blue Monday."

Johnny Nash's "Wonderful World" on the extended show was pretty good, we thought.

xpost: punk singles which charted (meaning Top 40) in 77: mostly from memory, we had 3 each from the Pistols, Stranglers and Jam, 2 from the Clash, plus Sheena Is A Punk Rocker, Gary Gilmore's Eyes, Your Generation (Gen X), This Perfect Day (The Saints)... OK, so 15 is perhaps not strictly speaking a "tiny handful", but it's still a tiny fraction! Widening the net, there was also Watching The Detectives, Do Anything You Wanna Do, Marquee Moon and Prove It... can't recall any more?

And of that list, how many did not feature on TOTP?

The two Clash ones (They banned themselves from the programme because they did a foreign TV show similar in concept and found they were crap at miming, no other reason actually), I dont think "Sheenah" was, apart from that: all those..

Oh, and "God save the queen" and "Anarchy" obv.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_in_music#Other_significant_singles_and_major_hits

God Save The Queen, obv. And was Holidays In The Sun aired? I have a feeling it wasn't. Also no memory of Television on TOTP...?

You are right.

some boomtown rats and x ray specs singles amongst that lot. not sure what made it to totp. (the couple of buzzcocks singles probably didn't)