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

I'd forgotten that Hot Chocolate's song was a Christmas (of sorts) tune - kind of fits now though. Apart from them and the Buzzcocks, really a sort of blah week. IIRC not much happens now until early 1979 and the proper New Wave stuff kicks in. OTOH Boney M in a class of their own, even if the bloke looked like some manic ski instructor. Possibly my first memory of the actual physical production side of music was hearing 'Mary's Boy Child' being played off my father's Akai reel-to-reel tape machine and watching the tape spools rotating in almost a trance state, about five minutes after he'd recorded the track of the radio. I think it was then that a small light bulb went on above four and a half year old me's head that there was a technological element to music and the dim beginnings of the idea that it would be exciting to work in that area.

OK it's not on BBC4, but this TOTP2 Christmas show is the usual grab bag of the usual suspects (Wizzard, etc.), plus Emilie Sande why because she had a bit of tinsel around her neck and The Teardrop Explodes why because there's a Christmas Tree on stage. Also featuring Mark Radcliffe's oh-so-funny-it-hurts pomo hipster snarktastic between song commentary.

Mark Radcliffe's oh-so-funny-it-hurts pomo hipster snarktastic between song commentary

Still better than Steve Wright

oof...

Anyway, Barron Knights - possibly their only decent song is the one about Rubik's Cube, but I haven't heard that one in so long that possibly my memory is playing tricks on me and that one stinks as well.

Robbie Williams, fuck off. I know he's been made-up to look older in this video, but I can't believe that he's only a couple of months older than me.

A fun game for all the family: try and figure out whether it's Bowie or Crosby who wants to be there the least.

Crosby was out of it according to DB

"I was wondering if he was still alive. He was just… not there. He was not there at all. He had the words in front of him. (Deep Bing voice) “Hi, Dave, nice to see you here…” And he looked like a little old orange sitting on a stool. “Cos he’d been made up very heavily and his skin was a bit pitted, and there was just nobody home at all, you know? It was the most bizarre experience. I didn’t know anything about him. I just knew my mother liked him. Maybe I would have known (sings) “When the mooon,,,” No… (hums) “Dadada, dadada, someone waits for me…” That’s about the only song of his I would have actually known."

http://exploringdavidbowie.com/2013/02/05/david-bowie-the-interview-hours/

As a fitting tribute to Mud, that polystyrene 'snow' is still polluting the oceans to this day.

interesting tidbits about the upcoming Top Of The Pops BBC4 repeats from TV Cream:

Friday 3rd January 2014 BBC4:

21.00 Top of the Pops - The Story of 1979
Hooray! The repeat run continues into a fourth fantastic year, and we were unconvinced it would even last four months. It's remarkable it still is given how toxic the brand is now, but we're very very pleased, especially because it means we enter a fabulous year for music, with new wave becoming the mainstream and classic Look-In pop from the likes of Buggles, M and Squeeze dominating proceedings. Here's the now traditional curtain raiser of clips and not very interesting comments.

22.00 Top of the Pops - Big Hits 1979
And then as usual we've got the compilation of some of the stuff we'll see over the next twelve months, as well as some stuff we'll only get here. For what it's worth, if things stay as they are we lose eight Saviles, ten Travises and a strike, but that still means there's plenty to go at, so well done to BBC4 yet again.

Noel brings the dad joeks.

Brotherhood of Man's last TOTP appearance?

Hopefully...looks like they got a group discount for perms at the hairdressers...

hint: the later showing of this is 10 minutes longer.

olympic runners. a mixed-race, sports-themed disco band. odd.

car67 (from last week) i remember despite having not heard it in the intervening years. i also remember some pastiche done by DLT in the same vein as his Convoy record. but i guess we will be spared that.

When are they getting to the 80s?

they are 35 years behind, and staying there. so 2015.

I was about to say 'well it's not as far as 2015, it's only next year', but then I realised that 2015 is next year ;_;

i think oliver's army is the first thing i've heard on totp that i bought at the time.

and lene lovitch is the second

sex pistols vs legs and co

More like Sex Pistols vs Eddie Cochran (Pistols losing btw)

The 80s arrive early with M.

(slightly) longer version on later...

lot of good things on this. that israeli BoM thing in the middle, not so much.

had forgotten that Members song. cod reggae in places, but prescient. also, i think every band member was dressed like he was in a different kind of band...

The 12" version with a dub section is good! (I.e. Not embarrassing)

Bonus track on midnight showing was gen x - valley of the dolls. And chic. Also a much bigger chunk of staircase mystery over the lights at the end.

I think this one is a keeper!

had forgotten that Members song. cod reggae in places, but prescient. also

Cod reggae all the way through (and not very good cod reggae either), what a weird subject to write a song about

I got the feeling they were trying to be 10cc crossed with some Boomtown Rats political content.

last night (1979) had the damned (love song) and last week had the banshees (staircase). both what i would call 'goth' but both previously 'punk' bands. when did that fork happen?

(wasn't just a musical thing - they'd both adopted a non-punk dress style also (ok, apart from captain sensible)

and bright eyes got short shrift again. was number 1 in the charts but i don't think i've heard them play more than a minute of it. which i find curious.

The BBC can't afford to pay for extended usage of the film footage (see also Grease and Saturday Night Fever last year). Maybe they could have done if they hadn't paid all that money to former TOTP presenters and other "characters" in the past.

when i read this week what the BBC allegedly used to pay Susanna Reid i almost turned into my old man for a moment

some sterling performances from the young Billy Idol is recent weeks. All those evenings spent in front of the bedroom mirror pretending to be Alvin Stardust are paying off.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BmoFAcnCUAAikeR.jpg

that sparks single was another i bought at the time. (my first two batches of records ever, one from earlier in the year, one from around now). still sounds great and the long version on the b is better.

long version of the show had a repeat of the execrable monks song

This ABBA song sounds out of place enough on 'ABBA Gold', but compared to The Police and The Undertones it's like a relic from another era.

Wait what the shitting fuck? A disco cover of 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'?

Max Webster seems to have been written out of musical history. Probably those trousers.

Different bit of bright eyes too. Still v short though.

Xtc, m and Judas priest on the long version BTW

what's with the long version? did TOTP used to be 40 minutes long in the 70s?

The Tubes song is good this week(Prime Time?) never heard that before. sounds more modern than millions of records since.

yes, the 7:30 showing is cut down to 30 minutes (to fit bbc4 schedules?), the 00:00 showing is 40 minutes.

It used to run from 7.30pm to 8.10pm as I recall. Got trimmed to 30 mins at some point when the BBC decided that programmes had to start on the hour/half-hour.

are we going to start seeing DLT presenting shows again?

spoilers:

http://z6.invisionfree.com/popscene/index.php?s=2245a36f16e870d44e381f23043ae0a4&showtopic=8918
24-5-79: Presenter: David Jensen is next, i think. first tubeway army?

Only if he's cleared of the remaining charges against him.

Who the hell were "Liner"?

I remeber this being a mainstay of bargain bins when I was starting to spend lots of time in record shope in the early 80s but I don't think I remembered who the band were even then:
http://gdm.glorydazemusic.com/images/reviews/liner79.jpg

(That pic stolen from this article which has told me all I need to hear about Liner: http://gdm.glorydazemusic.com/articles.php?article_id=2668 ...even given my recent higher-tolerance for 70s AM music I'm not sure this will be for me.)

Spoiler2: I wonder if in a few weeks David Kid will say "tune in next week for the 800th TOTP's with Jixxx Sxxile" ?

xpost it was post-yacht rock.

was easy enough to find on youtube, probably taken from that very totp episode. one for the ffwd button, methinks.

Richard Jobson in terrible miming incident.

Liner, the Lidl Bee Gees.