Possible pre-Mary Chain Bobby Gillespie sighting on TOTP2

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I saw the last minute or so of the early-80s Altered Images top of the pops performance that was on TOTP2 last night, and it struck me right at the end that a bloke dancing right behind the band didn't half look like Bobby Gillespie.

Not only was he the same sort of rhythm-free stick insect as the latterday Primals gentleman, he was also doing a more restrained version of Mr G's post-ecstacy handclapping dance move.

I'm sure I once read that Bobby Gillespie was a roadie for Altered Images, so was this one and the same person?

Can't really see the world at large giving a rat's azz about this one, but it's posted now nonetheless!

― M Carty (mj_c), Thursday, 8 January 2004 13:35 (twenty-two years ago)

did he do that ridiculous "I'm really hard, me, honest" stare direct to camera, like he always does when he's on tv?

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 8 January 2004 13:52 (twenty-two years ago)

It wasn't in evidence. I wonder where that comes from? The first time I saw Primal Scream (back in 1991) the show ground to a halt for quite a while, as Mr Gillespie tried to get some heckler to come up on stage and duke it out!

I can't exactly see him having been able to put his money where his mouth is/was, so it's a real shame that the heckler didn't take up this offer.

― M Carty (mj_c), Thursday, 8 January 2004 14:01 (twenty-two years ago)

yes, that would have been teh funney, woudn't it. Worst case of BG handclap dance move = screamadelica tour at newcastle, wher he couldn't actually keep time with his own music.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 8 January 2004 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I think that was the case nearly every time I saw them!

Another notable dance move: Somehow managing not to notice the speaker stacks, dancing/strutting right into them and landing on his arse at Hammersmith Palais in 2000.

― M Carty (mj_c), Thursday, 8 January 2004 14:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Gillespie would have been in The Wake when Altered Images were in the charts.

I read a review of a Primals gig where Gillespie's dancing was described as "bestriding the narrow world like a colobus".

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 8 January 2004 14:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, it very well could have been Bobby G. He was a roadie for Altered Images either before or concurrent with his time in The Wake.

― krispy kremers, Saturday, 10 January 2004 15:34 (twenty-two years ago)

is he like 60?

― keith m (keithmcl), Saturday, 10 January 2004 17:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Next thing you guys will tell me, Noel Gallagher was a roadie for Inspiral Carpets. Imagine that!

― donut bitch (donut), Saturday, 10 January 2004 18:23 (twenty-two years ago)

did he do that ridiculous "I'm really hard, me, honest" stare direct to camera, like he always does when he's on tv?

Although my memories of New Year's Eve are blurred by flueyness and whisky, I seem to recall BG even did this on the Jools Holland New Year's Eve thing on BBC. The whole show was complete rubbish (obviously), but BG's pose had me weeping with laughter, particularly as (again if I remember correctly) it came at the end of that well known call-to-staff-the-barricades, "Rocks".

― Snnap Dragon (snnap dragon), Sunday, 11 January 2004 15:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I saw that as well, which is what reminded me of it. I'd previously seen him do it on the priory, when they did kill all hippies, or whatever it is, the one that sounds like a cross between sigue sigue sputnik and hawkwind. It just looks so fucking ridiculous. What struck me on the "later" performances was that usually the band is ok-good, but they are always let down by bbby's rotten singing, ike someone tied a boat anchor to a motorbike, and said 'let's see how far you get with that!!' but this time around the band sounded really piss weak. Other bad prml scrm sight on "hootenany" was mani doing some sarky mocking dance when lulu was singing, when lulu was 10000000x better than prml scrm!!

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Sunday, 11 January 2004 21:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Which (Altered Images) song did they show? I missed TOTP2 but I have a couple of performances lying around at home. It would be nice to see...

― harveyw (harveyw), Monday, 12 January 2004 08:51 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

Just for the record, at least one of The Wake (the enigmatically named "Caesar") was also in Altered Images. This was around 1982, when Wee Bobby was supposedly the Wake's keyboard player. And yes, he IS like, 60.

― everything, Thursday, 29 December 2005 00:51 (twenty years ago)

twelve years pass...

Guy in the camo jacket and boots at 0:22? Don't think it's him.

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

― everything, Saturday, 20 October 2018 18:23 (seven years ago)

Fucking hell is that Bobby G face a meme already? Please kill me now.

― Matt DC, Saturday, 20 October 2018 21:23 (seven years ago)

Oh, I thought someone had posted that Andrew Neil thing

― Mark G, Sunday, 21 October 2018 08:04 (seven years ago)

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