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

Bit samey this week. Just waiting for Dannii Minogue to turn up.

Horror of Dracula is on Talking Pictures, might watch totp later.

(I was jokin’… it’s three hours of Bach’s St Matthew Passion)

That's what I thought! But they keep changing it at the last minute, so who knows?

The Bomb the Bass song was good.

Charly says always tell Bruno 'Tory' Brookes to go fuck himself.

TBF I'd be quite unsurprised if Liam Howlett were a Tory these days.

Charly AND What Can You Do For Me? AND Insanity all in the same show?

I mean also there was that horrible version of Happy Together by Jason Donovan, but basically going very well so far.

Old derelict deco terminal at Speke only good thing about that Farm video.

Didn't even spot it was Speke and that's where my family's from

So the key change in Oceanic's 'Insanity' always irked me, but the key change in 'Charley' always struck me a awesome. blah blah blah narcissism of small differences blah blah blah

Roxette deliver a practical example of not letting your guitarist sing lead.

"only 9 weeks" - strap in, it's going to be at #1 for another (checks notes) 7 weeks.

Oddly enough the metalhead in my group at technical college really liked the song.

I love both key changes, but especially Oceanic, so shonky, so real.

THey do it a second time as well. Just in case you didn't notice the first one.

New look!

obviously 30 kids in a huge warehouse space...

send very regressive so far. apart from Carl Cox you wouldn't think anything even vaguely new was happening.

*seems

2 unlimited at the 11th hour too, but overwhelmingly radio 2 vibes. dame kiri ffs.

and we're those permanent presenters? do they get better?

It's no secret that Bono is a preening twit...

The Fly? I'm still quite a bit behind. Caught up on a few last night. I had no idea that Diane Butcher off Eastenders had a pop career. Not a good one, it seems. I also had no idea who had sung that 'sunshine on a rainy day' song that everyone knows, and was surprised to see it featured a frilly-shirted guitarist who looked like he'd escaped from The Mission or something. Best song was 'Apparently Nothing' by the Young Disciples. I'm still only halfway through Brian Adams' reign of terror.

Frilly shirted chap playing with Zoë is Paul Inder, most famous for being Lemmy's son. And of course the song was written by Killing Joke's own Youth Martin.

ffs that Tony Dortie intro "let's get busy it's tin machine baby unusual". Although it's appropriate for the Tin Machine performance that follows. I sort-of liked this song but then heard a live Tin Machine concert broadcast on the radio and realised they sucked.

New, bigger, brighter bbc four dog as well. not keen. why is the FOUR bigger than the blocks?

first episode again very radio 2.

top knowledge, aldo

Youth was working with/shagging so many people at that time (Durga McBroom/Blue Pearl, Sara out of Bananarama) that the pick up bands on TV were nearly all punk or metal adjacent.

speaking of Speke airport, was that it in the last episode of Ridley Road, the last minute?

New look!

obviously 30 kids in a huge warehouse space...

― koogs, Friday, 15 October 2021 19:43 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

send very regressive so far. apart from Carl Cox you wouldn't think anything even vaguely new was happening.

― koogs, Friday, 15 October 2021 19:54 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Holy fuck I've only just caught up with this utterly excruciating episode. The disconnect between the intended edginess of the presentation and the actual performances (Julian Lennon! Status fucking Quo!) is astounding. The two vat-grown presenter guys are making me miss the subtle nuances and witty wordplay of Gary Davies.

Tonight's episodes are from almost exactly 30 years ago. Honestly doesn't feel that long ago from some of the performances.

Slightly above average bar band rollocks through 'American Pie' oh wait it's Don McLean.
Also having just the Top 10 rundown so early in the show kills the drama.

Neil Sedaka "back in full effect" ffs. It's not even like the presenters are trying to take the piss. It's just that they're crap.

someone called Adrian Rose, one of the no-name presenters from this time, is now a TV executive called Adrian Woolfe and has blocked his 15 episodes from 1991 & 1992 from going out, this includes the episode with the famous Nirvana performance

Holy fuck I've only just caught up with this utterly excruciating episode. The disconnect between the intended edginess of the presentation and the actual performances (Julian Lennon! Status fucking Quo!) is astounding. The two vat-grown presenter guys are making me miss the subtle nuances and witty wordplay of Gary Davies.

Just seen this one myself and echo every word above. I have no memory of those two presenters whatsoever.

someone called Adrian Rose, one of the no-name presenters from this time, is now a TV executive called Adrian Woolfe and has blocked his 15 episodes from 1991 & 1992 from going out, this includes the episode with the famous Nirvana performance.

Annoying. I hoped we'd seen the back of this now that we were beyond the Savile / DLT / Mike Smith days.

Dunno why they spoiled a sick rave backing track (Kicks Like a Mule?) with an aimlessly warbling sculpture-headed lady. Though I very much appreciated Moby's joi de vivre.

Didn't realise Mike Smith had refused to allow the episodes he presented to be re-aired, saves us from looking at his vile countenance I suppose.

Oh, not only him, after he died Sarah Greene upheld the 'ban' as it was 'what he wanted'

I don't really have a problem with Mike Smith but he was very Saturday early evening light entertainment and he worshipped Noel Edmonds so YMMV.

"Let's check these crisp biscuits which are slamming in style, boooyyyyyyyyeeeeee!!!"

Killer has almost as many different versions as Skyrim.

Even the caption writer can't be bothered now - Tina Turner's 'Way Of The World' is captioned 'Simply The Best'.

There was also “K-Class” on the countdown. Tsk.

British tribute act

was the Tina Turner in the album of the week slot? so that would've been the album name? (i ffwded through the entire two episodes)

There's a Neil Sedaka performance on a recent repeat which is literally the corniest thing I've ever seen.

How long did this 'new' format of TOTP go on for? I don't have any memory of these presenters or of the show seemingly being broadcast from an echoing aircraft hangar or of the top 40 countdown being replaced by a cursory 'here's the top ten' right at the start of the program, but I started university at pretty much the exact time the format changed (and didn't have a TV there so didn't see anything for the rest of 1991 as far as I know).

Intro sequence must have been the inspiration for the gay steel mill from The Simpsons

jfc I did not need to see up Axl Rose's kilt just then

We take it for granted now but that really was an inspired choice of cover song for them.

Moving on, this dirge is from Diana Ross' FIFTY EIGHTH album.

I imagine there's a song exactly like this on at least half of them.

"Here's a man who celebrates every Christmas by having a big big hit, Cliff Richard" - epic potential for lols wasted there.