TOTP, the end

At the end of the day it deserved to put down as it = crap music = crap Tv programme

Just look at the miserable top 40 at the mo
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/singles.shtml

commercialized bland female singers
soft rock / corporate rawk atrocities / shite NME bands
pop trance rubbish

matty TAYLOR for last show!

40. REM performing Crush With Eyeliner on video link from Japan with the support band dancing around in bear suits. The last recorded evidence of Michael Stipe's sense of humour.
39. The drummer from Eels trashing the toy drum kit he'd been miming on.
38. Bis doing Candy Pop. A nation looks on bemused.
37. Gnarls Barkley's slowed down Crazy. Proof TOTP can still produce magic.
36. Flaming Lips with Justin Timberlake on bass and dolphin suit wearing duties.
35. Nirvana playing Teen Spirit. Kurt singing in a silly gothic voice.
36.

29. John Peel miming the mandolin grimly during Maggie Mae.
28. That plain wrong Pan's People performance featuring live dogs. Wasn't it for some Gilbert O'Sullivan tune?

There's bound to be a resurgence of TOTP2 in the wake of the nostalgia this decision will stir.

Yep, it was for Get Down. "You're a bad dog baby, but I still want you around".

Ah man, someone's gotta youtube this!

They didn't know how to deal with the pirates in the '60s - it's a demonstrable truism that most of the classic singles which hit our charts in '64-7 were played on Caroline first and BBC a long and very reluctant second - and I doubt they've really learned anything since.

Hahaha, I was going to say that TOTP (and New Order) died for me when they started doing rubbish like that. Now, New Order doing 'Thieves Like Us' live in the TOTP studio, that was more like it.

-- Marcello Carlin (marcellocarli...)

b-b-b-but totp wasn't as behind as bbc radio (though it was following 'ready steady go' innit).

Funnily enough, I saw a copy of Alan Freeman's "By Invitation Only" compilation on "Pick of the Pops Records" via Atlantic. Reminding you of how "Pick of the Pops" ended up, before the current revival. Twas all "Karn Evil Nine" and all that...

Actually that was Fluff's Saturday Rock Show. By the time of "Karn Evil Nine" POTP was Solid Gold Sixty with Tom "Funkin' For Jamaica" Browne.

It was on "Pick of the pops" records though, although it was more a translucent logon on the normal Atlantic records label...

First of an ongoing series, the sleeve says. Presumably a series of one.

But perhaps you already know this.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,818840,00.html, for anyone who cares. He tried to buy MGM once, you know.

Not exactly getting excited over this prospect.

Public service or no, the show will still be run by the same idiots and it'll fall into the same traps which killed it last time; presenters who might as well be muzzled and on a lead for all the personality they're allowed to project (and no Brand or Ross to upset the easily offended), the same muddled attempts to be "cool," the same old clips we've seen a billion times before.

Who needs TOTP when you've got YouTube?

Expect a return of miming – which was banned in the chart show’s latter years, upsetting some pop acts – and an end to the “three-minute rule”, which forced rock bands to play edited versions of their hits.

The loss from the schedules of Jonathan Ross, who is under suspension, has also acted as a reminder of how few slots there are for live pop performances on peak-time, main-stream television. Aside from Ross’s talk show, the only remaining slots are on Strictly Come Dancing, on which Beyoncé performed last week, and The X Factor.

There is the nub of it: People actually do want this, and ironically the stuff that they tried to remove from the TOTP by the end is the stuff that can survive- the 'family friendly' stuff that can quite happily go on "X factor" and/or "Strictly Come Dancing" (i mean, wtf? Beyonce on SCD looked about as wrong as having Nirvana on the sooty show would have been)

So, it *has* to be on Saturday night, half an hour, with the left field as well as the famfriendly, miming allowed, live performance also allowed, and GET SOME BACKBONE on running the show! Less kowtow to stars demands, make it something they WANT to be on.

(that's it)

The irony is that on a Saturday peak time basis the show would probably work better on ITV as a sort of bulwark between the Harry Hill and Cowell/Ant and Dec blocks.

But if BBC1 tried to stick it in between Dr Who and Casualty and go up against X-Factor or Saturday Night Takeaway the show would be slaughtered in the ratings.

Either way it's not going to happen. "Public service" will mean they'll shove it on in whichever graveyard slot they can get away with a la religious programming and just pump out the same old tired claptrap instead of looking at actively revitalising it - TOTP needs its Russell T Davies but he won't be found within the current ranks of the BBC.

In short:

1. It needs to be something that the artists want to be on

2. It needs the producer(s) balls on the line, and not "the next step in a career on the up"

3. It needs presenters who are allowed to demonstrate real character and personality and not. Talk. To. Their. Au-di-ence. As. Though. They. Were. Niiiiiine. Years. Old.

i.e. not Fearne Cotton.

If acts do mime then it's just gonna get the same old complaints from it's detractors. Why cant they just sing ffs.

it was mimey for 300 years in total so they can fuck off

here's a format idea i like:

Saturday night (piss off Casualty)
45 mins

studio performance #1
3 minute news report (artist or scene-related)
studio performance #2
40-11 countdown while hot new video plays
studio performance #3
breakers (brief clips of songs expected to chart the next day)
studio performance #4
interview with artist that performed first
studio performance #5
top 10 countdown
#1 performance or video into the credits

I'd watch that

Following further consideration a Saturday slot would be useless as a TOTP performance would have zero effect on the charts.

No live performances; there's Jools Holland if people want to be craftsmanned to death.

Why?

They sing on the records, so if you want that you can watch the video or listen to the record. Why cant they sing live on TOTPS?

Singing live would be OK, as a minimum.

No one should be prevented from performing live, but damn! make it sharp! or get EDITED!

I don't really care if it's live or mimed. It's nice to hear a good singer sing the song live, but not a terrible one. One thing they shouldn't do is mix in noise from the 50-strong 'audience' (which they used to do in the '80s and '90s and it sounded awful).

I was sorry to see the show go when it did. I had become accustomed, over decades, to the weekly routine of both the show and the singles charts but I think the moment has passed. Bringing it back now would not be interesting to the majority of people.

It's nice to hear a good singer sing the song live, but not a terrible one.

I would say yes, but then I think back to seeing New Order do stuff like 'Thieves Like Us', and those are some of my favourite TOTP things.

and that awwwweeesome time when they played "Love will tear us apart" with the audience whoops and dancers and all that.

Things not to be done:

Pointless dancers so prominently placed that you can't actually see the band (Lotus Eaters)
Stupid audience clapalongs ("Creep")
Live performances of any stripe - "Een-jicted wee-da py-son WE NO NEED ZIS ANIMOAR!"/"GO!!!"

Fuck live muso crap, I want my TOTP to be bright and superficial (but daft dancers are not bright and clapalongs are the wrong sort of superficial).

Actually, some of those daft dancers were friends of mine.

But, you're right...

Well I don't see why anyone should have to mime. I don't see the point of anyone miming. You may as well watch the video on youtube then.

or just listen to the CD. or just go to their gig!

Because TOTP is supposed to be mainstream entertainment, not a credible music show.

It's basically because the one rule that should, um, rule, and be immutable, is:

1) NO VIDEOS!

(apart from that chart run-down as detailed above. OK, maybe that one. Unless they got a new dance troupe together and did over-litereal performances of current hits. Yeah, like, "I predict a riot" where they could all throw sponge bricks at each other. or "are we human, or are we dancer" where half could be dressed as human, and the other half as dancers. Am I onto something here? Actually, no.)

No "Bo Rhap" if that rule had been exercised in TOTP's "golden age."

Pan's People doing "That's Not My Name" - strutting around with huge placards saying that they're Keith Chegwin, Robert Kilroy-Silk &c.

1) Yeah, but thems were the days where videos were particularly rare things.

2) Now you're talking!

Fulfill your fantasy of looking like a dork on TV by standing at the back of the Top of the Pops Christmas and New Year's Eve Specials.

Minimum age is 16.

Wonder what the maximum age is.