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

On the one hand it's so easy to take the piss out of Vanilla Ice. On the other hand it's so difficult because he inadvertently takes the piss out of himself.
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do i remember Chuck d or someone stanning for V Ice back in the day? he supported both Public Enemy and nwa on tour at least.

He really wasn't that bad a rapper. His flow was miles better than MC Hammer gor example.

I was thinking that if you just listened to the audio in isolation it'd be a fun enough early 90's Hip-Hop party track but the accompanying video immediately cancels any impulse on my part to defend it.

Ice Ice Baby is a great pop record. Pretty much everything else he ever did was atrocious, bar one uncredited collabo on the second Bloodhound Gang album, and Size Queen by Betty Blowtorch. He seems to have generally been appreciative of how lucky he is, though (but was doing super-spreader events during the pandemic, and played Mar-A-Lago's NYE party, so fuck him).

Chuck D's interest is covered in this great Jeff Weiss longread from October.

So much pointless nostalgia in the charts at this time - the Tina/Rod duet on "It Takes Two", Proclaimers doing "King Of The Road", Jimmy Sommerville doing "To Love Somebody" and fucking "Unchained Melody" on top for ages. Thanks god for 808 State and Julee Cruise (who could also be accused of nostalgia pandering but it's a different thing surely).

Well, I dig out "Ex-el" quite regularly but.

I think there's a fair difference in approach between Julee Cruise and Jive Bunny tbh

the jive bunny video was new footage and was just odd. it also seemed to be less of a mix than previously.

yes, there were original bontempi organ parts, didn't think they could make their music worse but I was wrong

the jive bunny video was new footage and was just odd.

Different to previous JB vids but equally tacky and appalling.

Forgot that live version of "Birthday" in my list of worst offenders in re: pointless rethreads. Not from the last two eps but same vibe.

And frankly Jive Bunny are at least Lovecraftian monstrosities and a total artifact of days gone by, I'd rather watch that than Macca or Tina Turner redoing a track from the 60's.

Always amuses me that the Jive Bunny lot ended up starting Tidy Trax and releasing a load of Tony De Vit hard house classics

jive bunny also released a version of 'it takes two'

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one for up-the-arse corner perhaps

And this is separate from the Brookes/Kershaw team up on "Let's Dance"? Good lord.

Monie Love (yes, I'm still a few weeks behind). I remember seeing 'It's A Shame (My Sister)' on TOTP in 1990 (I was probably watching it to see Ride) and liking it, but I don't remember ever hearing anything else by her until last year when she was on the 1989 reruns with that 'Grandpa's Party' one (which was also quite good). I'd always assumed she was American, but then wikipedia told me she comes from South London, so I was going to say something about how British rappers were still using American accents in 1990...but then it turns out she'd actually moved to the USA before she had those hits and still lives there now.

fucks sake

What, really?#totp #totp1990 pic.twitter.com/LJMLE1ufOt

— Centuries of Sound (@Centuries_Sound) April 9, 2021

BBC 1 and 2 are basically showing the same programmes.

Oh FFS, just went onto iPlayer for our Saturday morning routine.

In the words of a Liverpool supporter I once heard at Portman Road when there was a minute's silence for the Queen Mother, "Vive la République!"

the Saturday repeats were in the epg when i looked yesterday but that might change.

They're being shown at 1am.

I was also looking forward to the Masterchef final last night :(

went to watch Battlestar Galactica this morning and got Edwina Curry

She's definitely a Cylon.

is the grand national going to be on? I mean I'm sure he would be in favour of some cruelty to horses on TV.

How about some re-runs of Love Thy Neighbour and Mind Your Language?

Or re-runs of programmes broadcast several hours earlier, becasue according to BBC iPlayer this week's two TOTP episodes have been cancelled.

Another sad weekend morning in chez Chew.

Surely this is the event that will get us to finally abolish the monarchy, let's go lads

...and that event would be Vanilla Ice performing live on TOTP?

he put on a good enough show I guess? though I was easily pleased after hearing Pray AND Saviour's Day AND This One's For The Children by NKOTB.

Yeah Robert Van Winkle was easily one of the finer performers in this episode.

I thought The Dream Warriors on the other show also showed good chops.

Some really good performances these last two episodes but some terrible dross as well (Cliff particularly). There's no doubt that both Dream Warriors and Vanilla Ice were able to get a genuinely enthusiastic response out of the audience. But Vanilla looks like a dork trying too hard sometimes, especially when he dances (and particularly in the video where he's dressed like a waiter at a wedding reception). Jim Carrey's parody had already ben broadcast in the US on In Living Color back in October, but no social media back then so not many people in the UK would have seen it. On the other hand IIRC we'd already switched over to thinking of the Iceman as being a tool.

The 90's were full of this apolitical "let's make the world a better place" messaging, as seen on the entries by KNOTB and most egregiously Twenty 4 Seven (racism bad! being nice to animals good!); old school christian pablum by Sir Cliff fits right in. I think I used to assume I just remembered it that way because I was a child at the time but it does seem to have been everywhere.

and then you have vanilla ice singing about his tech 9

Vanilla boasting about being involved in a drive by shooting but the cops let him go because he's white?

So very white white, baby...

seen on the entries by KNOTB and most egregiously Twenty 4 Seven

Also The Farm, which is actually a pretty crappy song despite its iconic chorus.

I give that one a pass for being about a specific event and thus marginally less vapid, even if what the lyrics take away from that event is pretty naive and, yeah, not a great song in general.

and then you have vanilla ice singing about his tech 9

I always assumed this was just a regular pistol.

bloody snooker

this is worse than 9th april

Jesus christ.

Mmm, snooker is better than Phil docs, but.

but both are a load of old balls?

snooker next Friday too

snooker loopy nuts are we
us and them and him and me
we'll show you
what we can do
we can mess up the schedule
worse than Prince Phillip too