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

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.

Bob Marley

Christmas Day 1991 - I likely didn't see this at the time as it was on at 2pm and my family were likely chowing down on Christmas comestibles.

some of these flashbacks feel like AGES ago, but can be 6 months tops

For some unknown reasons tonight's episode is a re-rerun of the 1984 Christmas Day show. So we're spared a week of crap junior Radio 1 DJs spouting nonsense.

Holy shit the bit in the video for 'Go Go' where George jumps into the frame and then Andrew does right afterwards is joyous.

the '84 Christmas show with them all announcing each other and then all joining up for the finale is a bit of a classic.

'88 next week

Looks like the rest of the month is Christmas TOTP reruns.

and we got to Xmas with the reruns anyway so they'll be in sync when they restart (for a while)

Are they ever going to do a 1991 show like they did for all the other years?

Bruno 'Tory' Brookes is appearing in panto as Jim Davison.

88 and 89 Christmas shows were full of SAW stuff and i ffwded through them in about 5 minutes each

I watched Erasure on last night's episode then skipped the rest.

I've said it before but 89-91 might be my favourite musical period, just not this.

Me and my partner unanimously switched over the THIRD time J-Don appeared.

I posted this on the favourite mixes of 2021 thread

https://soundcloud.com/sorry-records/sorrymix10

The night before the club's final morning, longtime resident boxofbox took the decks one last time; delivering a six hour set that stretched well into the morning hours, going a full two hours past the city’s legal closing time, and playing record after record to deliver their final love letter to the sweat-packed floor of revelers that called the club home. Thought to be lost to time -- a new trove of DAT tapes containing the complete soundboard recording of that legendary night were recently unearthed from a box found deep within a storage closet in the long dilapidated and recently shuttered subway station record shop MTA TRAX which operated on the Northeast side of Times Square - 42nd St. station for the better part of the last forty odd years. boxofbox’s DATs contain a tracklist that is simply stacked with some of the greatest dance hits from the era, where radio-candied pop hits meshed with sultry rnb and the emergent sound of new jack swing, as well as some early signals of the rave era to come as it was taking shape.

basically a six hour mix of crossover dance music from the late 80s/early 90s, it aligns perfectly with the good stuff (or at least, what I think has been the good stuff) on TOTP repeats lately

Nice, thanks :)

Been enjoying this Boxedjoy, as far as I can see this club never existed, but a great concept and a great mix of some amazing tracks. Before the penny dropped this wasn’t quite as in seemed I was absolutely in awe of some of the drops and blends on a live mix.

I guess why I was so sold on this mix was remembering dancing to so many of these tracks at the first clubs I started going to with my fake ID :)

Hmm, Noel does his last totp from an office, for the Xmas 78 special

Darts, then Boney M, then Brotherhood of Man, then the Brighouse and Rastrick brass band?

This is why punk had to happen...

Oh, wait