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

1 november 1979

sparks (not heard this before, feel like a rehash of #1 song)
some kids choir
darts
the jam (eton rifles. probably more relevant today than it was at the time)
lene lovich* (birdsong, something i don't ever remember hearing before. taught hazel o'connor everything though.)
earth wind and fire (legs and co)
thin lizzy
suzi quatro
b a robertson
lene martel
fleetwood mac

nothing if not mixed...

* wow at this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lene_Lovich

Sparks and B.A. Robertson were great in this. Wtf were Darts? I mean they were total shit but there's something interesting about them

Trying to remember what dance track sampled that Sparks tune. Felix Da Housecat, maybe?

Gwen Stefani owes Lene Lovich a fair bit too

kagami sampled it.

one of the very first records i bought was by darts. their audience was probably 90% 10 - 12 year olds.

i loved Darts when i was 10

That Darts song was produced by Roy Wood, which perhaps accounts for why it sounds so different from their other hits.

Punk's dead

top 30 countdown

30 Charlie Daniels Band
29 Cats UK
28 Dooleys
27 Thin Lizzy
26 Dynasty
25 Buggles
24 Isley Brothers
23 Chic
22 Madness
21 Earth, Wind and Fire
20 XTC
19 Errol Dunkley
18 Iris Williams
17 Herb Alpert
16 Kool and the Gang
15 B A Robertson
14 Donna Summer / Barbra Streisand
13 Ramblers
12 Viola Wills
11 Suzi Quatro
10 Specials
09 Fleetwood Mac
08 Selecter
07 Sad Cafe
06 Abba
05 Commodores
04 The Jam
03 Queen
02 Lena Martell
01 Dr Hook

strange how it turned into such dreck so quickly.

actual playlist was slightly different from the above though

Dynasty (over countdown)
The Jam
Cliff
Donna & Barbra (Legs & Co)
Thin Lizzy
Tourists
B A Robertson
Suzi Q
Moody Blues
Kool & his Gang
Secret Affair
Ramblers
Showadywaddy
Dr Hook
Isley Brothers (over end credits)

at least 70% of that top 30 is great!

21 of that 30 totally do it for me.

was totally into the 2 tone stuff and the jam and xtc at the time

no idea what dynasty, ramblers or viola wills are without looking them up

yes, the two tone thing was coming up, but that's the only ray of sunshine in that list.

(xtc wouldn't been 'making plans for nigel', which is ok, was on last month. jam was eton rifles.)

ramblers were that one hit wonder sub-st-winifreds song about a sparrow.
dynasty and viola wills are, like a lot of that top 30, landfill disco.

(even if the artist names look appealing, they were all well off the boil by now, it being late 79. the secret affair and showaddywady, for instance, were both things i hadn't heard before, shadows of things i did know)

i remember sitting watching these the first time around, continually disappointed that there'd be one thing i liked in each 40 minutes.

Cliff song was pretty good I think, it was a flop but he was going through a good spell.

play that Saturn 5, drummer boy.

odd episode. no crowd shots, all videos / repeats of previous performances. industrial action?

which Cliff song was it?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04pvhmr

Cliff Richard - Hot Shot

ah yeah that was on Rock N Roll Juvenile which had its moments. interesting that Hot Shot was the big flop in between 2 mahoosive uk smashes.

July 1979 "We Don't Talk Anymore" UK Chart 1
October 1979 "Hot Shot" UK Chart 46
January 1980 "Carrie" UK Chart 4

did Mike Read briefly do a comedy jamaican accent after the Beat's version of Tears of a Clown or was I imagining it?

He's imitating Ranking Roger's vocal bit on the outro so he's doing a Brummie accent.

oh, didn't we have a lovely time...

not enough bassoons in rock imo.

TOTP hits the 80s tonight.

OK I lost track of these in the 70s, but...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05279pn/top-of-the-pops-31011980

...this is all over the place! time to get back on the bus?

the Revillos, Kenny Rogers, Azymuth, John Foxx, Madness, the Shadows, Rupert Holmes, the Ramones, Jon & Vangelis, Billy Ocean, New Musik (???), Captain Beaky (for about a week) (oh god it's Steve Wright being introduced as a hip young gunslinger) , the Specials and the least memorable song on Queen's Greatest Hits bleats on a bit while the cameraman points at the ceiling and fiddles with his new filters...

and we're back (i think we're two weeks or three weeks behind, yes, 15th feb 1980 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0544glm/top-of-the-pops-15021980 )

that captain beaky thing, it's terrible and he did it terribly in the studio.

followed by the flying lizards doing TV which is about as out there as totp gets, i think. simon bates record of the week, apparently.

a real ragbag of things this week.

SLF as well. on the edge.

paul macartney as ron meel (et al) in the Coming Up video

robert smith with short hair.

Christ, is this still on? And is anyone other than koogs watching it?

Other running commentary places are available

It doesn't help that it's on so sporadically.

Early human league (doing Gary glitter)
Johnny Logan.
Preludes ???
Michael Jackson
Matchbox
Legs & co vs awb
Jona louis
Cockney rejects
Boney m (doing my friend jack)
Ruts
Omd
Undertones
Dexys @ #1

Prelude. They had one hit with an acappella version of "After the goldrush" previously.

And after that, they still had one hit.

he, peter powell, called them "preludes", but wikipedia agrees with you. but then he did spend the rest of the show saying "hit 10" and "change of place", the jump-suited idiot.

boney m doing psych classic was a bit odd. hadn't heard it before.

Yeah, saw the shorter edition, will catch up later with Boney M.

"You'll always find me in the kitchen at midnight" Genius, Peter...

very ffwdable this week - lots of repeats and stuff like 'i'm forever blowing bubbles'

but the specials, telekon era numan...

And Junior Murvin, that's about it.

i had forgotten that (minor) lambretta's track too.

(and odd to see him wearing a shirt i associate with new romantics)

the karel fialka thing was odd. almost in the buggles or flying lizards vein when all i associate him with is the 'hey, matthew' slop (7 years later)

This seems like a completely different time to the last one, maybe they skipped a couple of weeks. Oh, OK, two things that I recognise from before - omd and legs and co dressed in rags and dancing to suicide is painless

.....and Mystic Merlin!

terrible this week.

9 week gap due to industrial action and then back with a slightly new format - guest host elton john. no chart at the beginning but, instead, a list of people who would be appearing (my heart sinking with every one he read out)

(26) THE PIRANHAS – Tom Hark
(2) DIANA ROSS – Upside Down (video)
(9) ROXY MUSIC – Oh Yeah (On The Radio)
(16) TOM BROWNE – Funkin’ For Jamaica (danced to by Legs & Co)
(21) HOT CHOCOLATE – Are You Getting Enough Of What Makes You Happy
(29) KELLY MARIE – Feels Like I’m In Love
(7) THE GAP BAND – Oops Upside Your Head (video)
(14) THE GIBSON BROTHERS – Marianna
(3) ODYSSEY – Use It Up And Wear It Out (danced to by Legs & Co)
(13) OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN & ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA – Xanadu (video)
(63) DON McLEAN – Crying (video)
(5) SHEENA EASTON – 9 To 5
(15) BAD MANNERS – Lip Up Fatty
(1) ABBA – The Winner Takes It All (video)
(10) GEORGE BENSON – Give Me The Night (crowd dancing) (and credits)

^ 7th august 1980. which means we are ahead of ourselves by about 5 weeks. and there are a lot of un-people presenting shortly too, another 8 episodes we won't see between now and the end of the year.

http://z6.invisionfree.com/popscene/ar/t1124.htm

Uhhh, some great stuff on there... or am I missing the point?

Yeah, only 63 really made my heart sink

killer lineup imo

Funkin For Jamaica and Give Me The Night in the same episode makes me wish I'd watched it.

Amazing episode tonight with Roger Daltrey and Tommy Vance sleezing over everyone and Roger hating on disco.

Still lots of the disco barrel being scraped IMO.

That dire hustler song could've been done by the flying lizards.

The other thing that struck me was the Ultravox and Bowie things felt like the start of new romantic, a couple of years earlier than i'd've said. (Rio 1982, but blitz club 79-80)

Flying Lizards were way more avant garde than that, c'mon!

There was just something about the delivery or the meter, made me think of the lizards. They'd've certainly improved it.

The episode with Roger Daltry was perhaps the oddest yet; painful to watch.

And seemingly edited?

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/07/05/bbc-under-fire-for-cutting-homophobic-joke-out-of-top-of-the-pops-repeat/

Yep, seems some people were looking forward to Roger's joke...