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

Friday nights are my fave just because of this. So good! I just wish you could watch all of them on the app thing and not just the ones they’ve shown recently.

T'Pau with one of their songs that isn't 'China in Your Hand', followed by Level 42 featuring Mark King in a vest and David Miliband on keyboards. So far, so grim.

Thank fuck those headstock-less basses fell out of fashion. They just look so wrong!

'Heart And Soul' and 'China In Your Hand' are the only two T'Pau songs I'm even aware of.

This WASP song has far fewer lyrics than you might think, even for a paint-by-numbers late 80s hair band.

"Hey guys, what if we try and rip off Alice Cooper and KISS at the same time, but without the talent of either?"

Hey Matthew when you're watching TV hey hey Matthew what do you see?
Peter fucking Powell.

Depeche Mode at 26 and New Order at 27.

Jesus christ... Depeche Mode, New Order and Prince are all in the charts, but what do the BBC see fit to show in the year of '87? Graham fucking Gouldman. Again!

HORN!
This Wax single is... 'frantic' I think is the word.

U2 head and shoulders above everything this episode!

I like that Wax single. Graham Gouldman is fine by me. Bono, ugh.

wax were good

(I'm assuming the song was bridge to your heart)

It was. He didn't do much wrong, Graham Gouldman, when all's said and done.

The Alarm in 'desperately wanting to be U2' action.

Serious mullet action.

One of my favourite ILX posts of all time is where another ILXor talked about hearing the most exciting brutal industrial beat they'd ever heard while tripping on acid, only for them to find out later that it was The Bee Gee's 'You Win Again'.

Also the oblong gadget Maurice Gibb was playing is a Stepp digital guitar. I used to know someone in the mid 90s who owned one, despite being a student, because they were going cheap on the second hand market on account of not being very good.

Wow did Neil Tennant lose a bet and have to wear that 3-sizes-too-big jacket?

Also his hairstyle on tonight's show closely resembles one of my bad hair days.

Okay, Kiss, I fucking get it, these are crazy nights!

Pet Shop Boys and Erasure on the same episode. Awesome 😎

As Kiss songs go, 'Crazy Nights' isn't bad, but that live version was a mess.

I'd go as far as saying that it's the only Kiss song that I like in any way!

Y'know, if you squint, Maurice Gibb looks just like Mark King!

Sounds like a not-shit week this week.

It seems to have started off well enough!

Considering this George Michael video probably cost about £20 to make, it's incredibly cool.

Ah, spoke too soon, here's Stock Aitken Waterman puppet Rick Astley with one of his songs that isn't the one that everyone remembers. Unfortunately, the peak era of Stock Aitken Waterman with Kylie and Jason etc. is still yet to come, so we've all got that to look forward to.

To be fair this isn't one of the really terrible SAW singles, but it's clear that it was written before they decided who in their roster would actually sing it. Astley makes the song work here, but he's bordering on SHOUTING! IS! EMOTION! style of Tony Hadley.

That chart rundown shot of Bryan Ferry makes it look like he's peering through your patio doors.

Two Rick Astley songs in the Top 40. TWO!

Fashion disaster area Steve Wright (in the afternoon evening).

I can't seem to get warm enough
Even with four blankets and a sheet

Every tried a duvet, Ray?

With (ooh) Gary Davies (on the radio)

(xpost)

I had a feeling George Harrison and T'Pau might make an appearance on this when I saw 'em in the rundown... wish they'd shown more of that Eurythmics track!

Oh god, what the fuck is this bollocks!?!

Yeah, it's just such a weird song and video at a point where you'd expect most acts to play it safe (although Lennox did later).

Hahahaha, the guitar guy with the red cowboy hat is blatantly trying to upstage the singer here!

Actually, the Top 10 really isn't all that bad considering!

Clearly they didn't film enough footage of the Bee Gees and had to throw in everything. There might even be a kitchen sink in there somewhere (with a solarising filter and shown upside-down).

This Fleetwood Mac video might be a bit heavy on the Quantel Paintbox but at least I don't feel like I'm having a seizure watching it.

Half the fun is waiting for the bits with Mick Fleetwood in, so you can see how off his fucking tree he is.

Also it's funny how there's nothing for John to do in this video except walk across the frame.

Jack Mix... 4? WTF?

Don't worry, there's only seven of them (as far as I can ascertain).

Also 'Criticise' is the best Alexander O'Neal single, at least for my money.

Have we skipped an episode or two? Because the jump in chart position for both T'Pau and George Harrison between the last episode and this one was huge!

I suppose it's worth pointing out that at this point in time it had only been 20 years since the release of Sgt. Pepper's, but 1967 and 1987 feel fucking worlds apart to me.