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

the later Storys Ofs were on BBC Two saturday evenings a few months ago

xp first two eps next Friday are from 1993, then one from 1979 and one from 1987.

Lumme

As much as I like Billy Joel, "All About Soul" is fucking garbage.

Sometimes I wonder if the instruments that the acts are miming with are their own or if they're from some BBC Television Centre cupboard. The Shamen rocking a Roland G-707 synth guitar and an Oberheim Four Voice here.

(although the guitar does have a sticker on it protesting against Thorp Nuclear Reporcessing Plant so at least the sticker is The Shamens if not the guitar itself)

i have a vague memory of seeing the shamen live and them having a Roland G-707.

One of the surprising things about these early 90s episodes is how many hit 2 Unlimited had, and how much better they were than I remember. I guess it's easy to assume the Spitting Image "no no, no no no no, no no no no, no no there's no lyrics" joke was an accurate reflection of what the band were really like, but it's not.

techno

Hard agree, the band had pop chops for days.

Tony Dortie presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 2 December 1993 and featuring U2, Bjork, M People, East 17, Mr Blobby and Meat Loaf.

One of these things is not like the rest of these things...

3D glasses, the Meta Quest of the early 90s.

Jeremy Clarkson?

I thought it might have been some kind of charity single but apparently not. Carol Vorderman is in the video as well, but tbh she was everywhere on TV in the 90s.

I'm sure I had that remix of Big Time Sensuality, does anyone know which one it is?

Fluke Minimix?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CwVLnl9m40

Yes, nice one GP - that’s a group I’ve forgotten about.

2 Unlimited gleefully leaning into the ridiculousness with their performance of 'No Limits' on this Christmas 1993 edition. But elsewhere it seems that the editors of this episode were hitting the fast forward button more often than I was.

1993 is a bad year for TOTP, not a great year for the charts, but the selections on TOTP (loads of big name boomers with their latest shit singles many of which didn't even do well) were even worse. And still annoyed about the apparent boycot of The Prodigy.

Hard disagree, this year and Christmas episode was full of bangers.

1993 is all eurodance, ragga and waistcoats, I have no issue with this. The problem is that TOTP in 1993 seems committed to pretending that young people want to hear stadium metal and dadrock. I'm a few episodes behind but the last one I watched had the crowd going wild for 2 Unlimited and then completed disengaged for everything else.

Ah, yes, I get you.

Exactly, every week we had a chart countdown with loads of great stuff then across to another satellite link of Rod Stewart from Paris at #34. The charts were maybe 10% heritage acts but the show was sth like 50%. Even the good Eurodance stuff was often ruined by a combination of ill-judged live vocals and backing track mixed way too low.

also Take That can fuck off forever

I also think it's telling that, in this era, when TOTP show an exclusive performance of a yet-to-be-released single, it inevitably ends up charting. It feels like the show is trying to influence rather than reflect popular taste, and you only need to look ahead fifteen years to see how that ends up working out for them.

According to wikipedia, it was the Prodigy who boycotted TOTP, not the other way round. xps

guess the idea was "this show is for everyone, we have to play the older acts to keep the mums and dads watching" which is tbh the kind of audience targeting fuckery that has been a plague on the BBC for the last 20 years.

xp yeah but it was TOTP that refused to play the videos

They've also managed to avoid Goodmen's "Give It Up" which has been hanging around for weeks and weeks.

There was a similar attitude in the 1970s with lame-o third-rate soft rock acts like Liverpool Express and Smokie turning up every week, while disco was tolerated by the producers at best.

b-b-but Liverpool Express were the new Beatles!

excuse me a moment.

A ha ha ha...

Righto, onwards

("Every man must have a dream" was basically "Imagine", righto o&o)

Was Righto their drummer or something?

It's possible

The "Give It Up" situation will descend into a farce in 1995 when Simply Red release Fairground and it's given blanket coverage.

I was put off from watching last night's repeat of the Christmas 1990 episode because the BBC saw fit to make the thumbnail a screenshot of Timmy Mallett mid-"oh yeah".

Also TOTP Review Of Year 2022 is on tonight at 10:40pm on BBC2 if you can muster the level give-a-shit-ness required to watch 'Clara Amfo and Jack Saunders present a hit-packed show'. Missed out a letter there.

Shogw

I'm sort of glad they never played Give It Up because I missed half of '93 and wanted to see that one.

You Are My Love is brilliant.

7pm tonight there's "Smashie and Nicey's Top of the Pops Party" - a retrospective on the show's first 30 years, originally broadcast on 4th Jan 1994.

If you don't fancy that then there are two regular episodes following.

I was just coming here to say I think I'll skip Smashie and Nicey. The BBC broadcast a mockumentary about them that went through just about all the jokes anyone could make in about 15 minutes. Unfathomable to me - both then and now - how those two characters became so big.

The good news is that there's not that much Smashie & Nicey, the bad news is that they've added a load of later clips, everything only gets 30 seconds, and the whole thing is an incomprehensible mess.

In the context of 1994, 'Things Can Only Get Better' isn't that bad, despite the singer's attempts to come across as an egotistic cock. It sounded worse during the 1997 General Election.

the sax solo is the only good bit

'Blow Your Whistle' is the kind of song that I was excited to hear in the club as a 19 year old but then after two minutes dancefloor freneticism I'd be "ffs enough" and dive towards the bar for another drink.

Marti Pellow, so sweaty.

Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting can all fuck off together pls

all for one, all fuck off

1977 was very white male, with only pussycat(!) as relief (and legs and co dancing around whilst dressed as car wash brushes). david soul sounds like he was pitch shifted up a couple of octaves.