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

I've definitely found a new respect for London Boys after their appearances. Maybe 50/50 between the tunes and those dance routines.

BRITISH POLITICIAN SEX!

The mood whiplash there going from Chris Rea to Jive Bunny. 'The Road To Hell' is an odd song because for me it sums up a lot of late 1989, before suddenly the Berlin Wall fell and things changed drastically.

'Oh Well' by Oh Well???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z1aP74rtHA

There's a Pet Shop Boys interview where they're in the studio trying to make a 12" mix of 'Discotecha' and with some degree of amused disgust decide that it sounds like Jive Bunny's 'That's What I Like'.

The mood whiplash there going from Chris Rea to Jive Bunny.

Mood whiplash was fundamentally the beauty of TOTP and I miss it.

It’s always entertaining to see forgotten songs by artists remembered for bigger hits. E.g. the 'beautiful song' (boring ballad) by Living in a Box, or Bros and “Whoaaaaaaahhh… Chocolate In The Boxxx. Yeah!”

The singer of Living In A Box fails spectacularly at miming guitar.

I had forgotten quite how shit Living In A Box were.

Their self titled debut single is really good but they fall off hard.

I've said this upthread but Milli Vanilli are crap even in their music videos, which someone must have at least tried to edit to make them look somewhat competant. How did anyone think that these guys sang on their records? Fab looks bored and Rob looks like he's trying to read a Burger King menu while holding in what he fears will be an enormous shart.

Makes me sad seeing Milli Vanilli tbh.

I find Girl I'm Gonna Miss You really poignant, genuinely great single IMO.

Pretty much everything on the first episode tonight had already been on last week, I thought I was watching a repeat-repeat

I'd've bet money the Tina turner song was "simply the best" when it's just called "the best". Its chart career looks surprisingly short given its longevity as a song.

(It's another record, like ride on time, that I never need to hear again)

That queen track, I have never heard.

I had no idea until someone mentioned it on Twitter last week that Bonnie Tyler released The Best as a single the year before Tina Turner. Always thought it was an original Tina Turner song.

That's when you know you're over.

Queen's 'Scandal' is nothing to do with the movie of the same name that came out earlier in 1989, despite the aethetic of the video suggesting otherwise. They look so bored, especially Roger Taylor, drumming while looking off to the side like he was wishing he was off somewhere doing just about anything else. John Deacon's jaunty neckerchief seems oddly out of place in all of that.
In theory there's a lot I should like about Queen, but there are many problems with them that outweigh the good parts. Not least that any humour in their music seems forced and underneath that there's this dull determination to be taken seriously. In a mid 70s interview Brian May said that their original intention was to be "kind of like a heavy group but with good melodies and good harmonies", and if you take away the costumes, props, and videos that's what's left - kind of a heavy group with a few interesting riffs.

Nicky Campbell comparing an italo house producer to SAW is approaching Smashie & Nicey territory.
Janet Jackson looking like a character from Sylvester Stallone's movie version of Judge Dredd.

Janet Jackson looking like a character from Sylvester Stallone's movie version of Judge Dredd.

I thought that! A compellingly dystopian performance.

Nicky Campbell is a smug prick.

The thing is that on his Radio 1 late night show at the time he sounded completely the opposite.

don't remember a lot of this. war of the worlds remix? nope.

but it does appear to be the legendary roses / mondays episode.

(ffwds through happy mondays...)

I taped both roses/Mondays on VHS with the stereo broadcast input from radio 1fm backthen.

I guess now that tape is redundant

interesting viewing tonight, the past month or so has been deeply nostalgic, now it's the 1989 other people remember suddenly. 808 State were brilliant, Roses forgettable, Mondays rhythm section = where the action is.

The Jimmy Summerville song was the other thing I'd never heard. And he was dancing way more enthusiastically than the song warranted.

(As I said above, in 1989 I'd just started my first job and was fed up of chart music so this might be the first time of seeing a lot of this)

I’ve not watched the show yet, but the Mondays always seemed to understand what druggy, dancey, music needs - a solid groove with a lot of repetition. A little bit like a version of The Fall if they took E rather than speed.

One of the tunes that surprised me the most of the recent episodes was the Deboarah Harry track which I kind of recall vageuly from the time, but it’s been a bit of an earworm recently. Written and produced by a couple of members of The Thompson Twins.

Two solid episodes then Queen and Simple Minds do a big shit on proceedings.

Was that the bloke from black adder in the Kate Bush video?

(I ffwd'd through most of the episode tbh, double speed through the Tina turner)

Lol at the 4 new stereo transmitters, see ceefax for details.

Just got to the Queen / Simple Minds cess pool.

Nothing so far that didn't get the ffwd treatment.

(xps) Yes it was Tim McInnerny.

Kate Bush was in a Comic Strip episode with him in it too.

Confession: having never seen Rob 'n' Raz & Leila K on TOTP at the time, or even having heard of them until a few days ago, I spent the best part of three decades thinking that song ('Got To Get') was by Neneh Cherry.

I've started watching these to alleviate lockdown and also because this is, for me, pretty much where my personal history of pop begins - songs I'm not old enough to remember being new releases but being on the radio and familiar.

I was under the impression they didn't recycle performances nearly as much as they do. Some of them I've seen two or three times and only going on the ones on the iPlayer home page at this moment!

That Inner City song "Whatcha Gonna Do With My Lovin'" needs to be more fondly thought of than it is, so lush and warm. I am also really enjoying Jimmy Sommerville donning his good trackies and going wild for being on stage.

That Inner City song "Whatcha Gonna Do With My Lovin'" needs to be more fondly thought of than it is, so lush and warm.

Yeah I enjoyed that one - almost a precursor to the smoother end of 2-step.

Yes, it’s wonderful and actually a pretty faithful rendition of the Stephanie Mills original of which I tend to keep forgetting that it’s a cover.

Mood whiplash so strong this episode that it shifted Van Morrison's hairline back three inches.

You'll love this if you love the single mix; one of the very best remixes of the era, way ahead of the curve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmxiO4hhaWY

FBI Project and especially Bruno Brookes showing that waistcoats are for wankers.

"Hello I'm Bruno Brookes and I don't have a clue what the fuck is going on but I'm going to try and cover that up by using my standard 'enthusiastic DJ' voice."

yeah the Def Mix is my favourite part of that yesteryear Frankie Knuckles comp but I only knew it from there, I had no concept that at a point in time it would have been considered ~pop music~

boxedjoy, serious question: do you follow current South African music/the various SA house genre threads at all? House music in all its uniquely varied local splendour is a major part of pop music down there.

I don't, but only because I wouldn't know where to start with the immense and spiralling threads here!

House music has always been a major part of UK chartpop, at least in my narrative of history. My first homemade tape of songs recorded from the radio went "Don't Give Me Your Life/Two Can Play That Game/Dreamer/It's Not Over/U Sure Do," I got to live through the Ibiza crossover of the millenium and UK garage as well as the Rinse FM Pop takeover of the mid noughties. It's not that I think of that Inner City track being weird because it's house music, more that it's so lush and obviously aspiring to be classy, sophisticated, opulent, a kind of tastefulness that you don't really hear in the kind of dance music that tends to be chartpopular

it's so lush and obviously aspiring to be classy, sophisticated, opulent, a kind of tastefulness that you don't really hear in the kind of dance music that tends to be chartpopular

To go back to the original topic: there was a spell in the early 90s when those Def Club Mixes were one of my favourite things in music, but I don’t think these Knuckles/Morales remixes were ever chart hits in their own right. They definitely supported/enhanced the popularity of the original versions though, probably culminating in Morales’s remix of “Dreamlover”.

(also in the particular case of the Inner City track a lot of the qualities you mention are inherent in the pre-house Stephanie Mills original, which was a sizeable US hit)

oh I LOVE Dreamlover in Morales mix form!

that post is a wonderful primer and I massively appreciate it. breastcrawl your passion and excitement for this is so infectious and encouraging, I'm looking forward to spending some time with this later on

back to TOTP and there's a few specials on iPlayer just now which are ~interesting~ viewing, the Latin special is shameless and the FA Cup one opts for Anfield Rap over World In Motion which is a choice move

<blush emoji> and thank you for your kind words!