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

wow! Some brill writing and interesting typos too.

woah!

^ that in reference to UB40's Dream A Lie video. i can see what they are trying to do but 35 years after the fact it's quite o_O (that said, nice song that i don't think i've heard before)

i've said it before but stray cats, showaddywaddy and matchbox in the charts. it's like punk never happened.

and again with the chats in the links.

shame about what happened to UB40; 2 rival versions touring the world, one with Ali Campbell, one uh.. without, both hating/sueing the other

http://ub40.org/
http://ub40.global/

Some 35th deathiversary this is turning out to be...

Bieber dominates this week’s rundown following the release of his new album Purpose, including no less than three singles in the Top 5: Sorry (1), Love Yourself (3) and What Do You Mean? (5). No other male artist has achieved this in 34 years, since John Lennon in January 1981 with Imagine (1), Happy Xmas (War Is Over) (3) and (Just Like) Starting Over (5) following his tragic death. (from Official Charts)

Pretty sure Lennon once said he was bigger than Biebus anyway, as a kind of pre-emptive measure.

Is this Tony Blackburn quote real? I know the Durrin Durrin one is, but... bloody hell.

Blackburn mightily resented being pushed into [the Radio 1 chart show] when he did it; and he was legendarily useless - "Massive leap of one place," "Sensational new sound of Durrin Durrin," "It's been a good week for John Lennon, he has three songs in the top ten" (Sunday after his shooting)

^ I'm sure it's accurate. Just amazed he didn't get more widely ridiculed for saying it

Great start this week: The Beat > The Specials > Gary Numan.

Don't watch the "Long" version, there are acts "between" those.

god, you weren't wrong. how do the baron knights live with what they do?

was wondering if the beat were trying to distance themselves from the two tone thing in what they were wearing (ie colours). and then wondered whether you'd call it ska or whether it was something more. i think the classic ska backbeat was in there but hidden under the guitars (teardrop vox restrung left-handed by the look)

then the specials were on in their christmas jumpers which made me wonder whether they were all in it together. (that's probably my favourite specials track and it was nice to see rico again)

does gary numan get a bulk-discount on arp's?

the chart's looking strong again.

The story I heard went along the lines of:

The guitarist's nephew found some guitars and stuff when visiting, and asked him "oh, were you in a band?" "Oh yeah, we had a bunch of hits" "Really? What were you called?" "Um, .. Hey look over there.. "

(Aparently, it took some doing after the "oh, you wouldn't like it, it's not yr thing really..")

was wondering if the beat were trying to distance themselves from the two tone thing in what they were wearing (ie colours). and then wondered whether you'd call it ska or whether it was something more. i think the classic ska backbeat was in there but hidden under the guitars (teardrop vox restrung left-handed by the look)

There's a bit of an afrobeat vibe to that Beat song. Maybe a bit Talking Heads inspired, as well.

It was a good track, I liked it.

the beat have been, i think, a bit overlooked, possibly due to not being on two tone (apart from that one single). but the best-of has a ton of hits. i'm not familiar with the lps though.

(oh, there's a cd box set with the 3 lps and a disc of singles for £11 on amazon marketplace. that'll do nicely...)

the beat had a run of about 4 amazing singles in 1980, just about my favourite band that year. and yeah, definitely a lot of afropop going in the rhythms and andy cox's guitar playing, but the other guitar sound on 'Too Nice To Talk To' is quite post-punkish, always reminds me of siouxsie & the banshees. actually i think robert smith played a vox at that time too?

I have just downloaded their greatest hits.

Strung lefthanded with a really weird tuning.

<3 Ranking Roger

1981 starts on thursday

but i think this is aposite today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEvUil9d74g&t=26s

(oh, apologies for the savile at the start of that - i did add a t=26s to the url to skip his intro but i think the ilm parser borked that)

No worries, we're all grown-ups.

but that vest... nobody should be exposed to that...

Show from '81 now. 70s rockabilly revival hanging in there with the awful Matchbox doing a version of "Over the rainbow", I think I had the 45 of that). Shakin' Stevens was popular around this time too wasn't he? Who were Sad Cafe btw? Dreadful. The Beat were great tho. Oh look Chas and Dave are on...

Digging The Specials woolly jumper and tartan pants look

well, that was mixed.

american 50s thing in there still, disco, glam, metal. and just a tiny snippet of joe dolce...

So much hair.

This episode seems more seventies than eighties so far.

That was written before PiL...

Last episode had Joe dolce at 3 and Vienna at 2, lennon at 1. Dolce famously kept Vienna off #1. This episode none of those are anywhere to be seen. Odd.

Duran Duran are on their way out of the charts as is teardrops' reward so we've missed them...

No, only you..

Reward has been on twice, Shakey's been at number one, they are doing two a week now (more or less, only one this week)

you are right, i guess the pvr hasn't been picking them up

last night's was:
09/04/81 (Mike Read)
Linx – “Intuition” (7)
Bucks Fizz – “Making Your Mind Up” (2) WATCH
Saxon – “And The Bands Played On” (27)
Keith Marshall – “Only Crying” (39)
David Bowie – “Up The Hill Backwards” (32) (Legs & Co)
Graham Bonnet – “Night Games” (12) (rpt from 26/03/81)
Public Image Ltd – “Flowers Of Romance” (31) WATCH
Eddy Grant – “Can’t Get Enough Of You” (44)
Gillan – “New Orleans” (24) (rpt from 26/03/81)
The Whispers – “It’s A Love Thing” (9) (video)
Hazel O’Connor – “D-Days” (10) (rpt from 26/03/81)
Shakin’ Stevens – “This Ole House” (1) (rpt/credits)

so they are already on april, which is odd.

luckily they are all still on iplayer...

Have not had a chance to watch this in ages.
Watching it tonight.
Wikka Wrap! Don't know how I've never encountered this before.

14/5/81 edition:

(i) Cup Final Edition! I was wondering why I don't remember such a thing (I'd have been outraged at curtailing TOTP) when I realise I clearly remember the result of that evening's final replay being announced from the stage of our primary school production of "The Wizard of Oz", yes yes I was, yes I played the lion, what of it?); this also explains why I don't recall the rubbishy Easton or Lizzy songs.
(ii) wtf are Kim Carnes's band wearing in the video for "Bette Davis Eyes"? If you'd asked me I'd have guessed that they were dressed up in US session dude duds but they're all done out like they're trying to look like they're at an Adam and the Ants fancy dress party, or a Visage video. Presumably an attempt to appear current in the new MTV world?
(ii) in the top 10 countdown as they show a snatch of Chas and Dave doing their Tottenham song, some wag has edited in footage of the goal City scored against Spurs in the proper final four days before.

An unapologetically Spinal Tap looking performance from Saxon. Actually this week's line up is pretty good. I think we've left the period where there'd be weeks with absolutely nothing of interest.

I must admit to ffwding through most of yesterday's, which I don't do often

I'll admit having some time for Bad Manners, but this song is piss-poor filler. I can't imagine anything like this happening on TV today, which is simultaneously a good thing and a bad thing.

"Depesh-ay Mode" - thanks Peter Powell.

ha, Simon Bates was calling them Depesh-ay Mode last night as well

I'm not sure why, there's no accent on the third 'e'. Maybe it's from a time when anything vaguely French got "ay" put on the end of it, whether it was supposed to be there or not.

Blame it on the Flambé

some terrible miming by kirsty mccoll yesterday, did she have a problem with her neck? there was also a horrible thumping noise throughout. sounded like the drummer was mic-ed up even though he was just pretending to play.

Dexy's and Spandau Ballet both terrific on the friday night edition. I had forgotten the existence of "Show Me". LOL at PPowell describing "Sat in Your Lap" as a change of pace after Dexy's; it was probably the most frantic song on the show! We seem to have leaped to June or July '81 already, with the Specials "still" at No.1.

They're doing 1982 in the second half of this year, hence the accelerated pace.

but isn't that just a function of them doing them twice as fast?

and was that the first appearance of the yellow pearl theme tune?

Maybe Jimmy Savile was presenting a lot of TOTPs at the time.

http://z6.invisionfree.com/popscene/ar/t1147.htm

25/06/81 (Simon Bates) - thursday
02/07/81 (Dave Lee Travis)
09/07/81 (900th edition) (Jimmy Savile, Alan Freeman, David Jacobs & Pete Murray)
16/07/81 (Peter Powell) - friday
23/07/81 (Richard Skinner)
30/07/81 (Steve Wright)
06/08/81 (Jimmy Savile)
13/08/81 (Simon Bates)
20/08/81 (Dave Lee Travis)
27/08/81 (Richard Skinner)
...

we must be missing some good stuff from those eps. Can't they just edit out the saville links and give us the music?

Oh, I could point you at the "Missing Shows" website and the punch-ups that have ensued during debating that issue.

Watching the Ghost Town vid for the first time in years, I realised alot of it was shot around the City of London financial district. I had assumed it was set in Coventry for years, as that's what the song is about. Guess they were cruising in the engine room of Britain's industrial decline.

It was indeed the first appearance of the Yellow Pearl theme. Re missing episodes, @TOTPFacts usually tweets individual YouTubes of notable omissions.

Pauline seems to have been replaced by someone called Anita. Goodbye, Pauline.

two medley songs in the style of stars on 45? 1981, what were you thinking?

live version of ghost town rather than the usual video was nice though - i guess that was rhoda and rico.

stars on 45 themselves over the end credits. gah!