Does anyone remember a Channel 4 documentary about the pop video, screened on the night of the 1987 general election? [apparently YES--now this thread is RFI: Omnibus: Video Jukebox]

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Do any UK posters remember a documentary about the pop video, screened on the night of the 1987 general election? [see thread title --mod]

My mum taped it for me, and I was ill at the time so I remember watching it while lying on the floor, and occasionally throwing up into a basin. Unfortunately, my parents, in their wisdom,
bought Betamax, so when the player broke down, the tapes got thrown out too.

I always think about it when I see another clueless list programme/documentary. For a start, it was 5 hours long. Not only that, but most of the videos were played in their entirety, without some imbecilic host/pundit wittering on over the top. And rather than today's fools, there were good interviews with David Bowie and Ken Russel (the only two that I can remember.)

Some videos/filmed performances* I remember

Toni Basil - Mickey
David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes
David Bowie - China Girl
Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star
Eric Burdon - When I was Young
Duran Duran - Union Of The Snake
Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall Part 2
Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant*
Rod Stewart - Sailing
Rolling Stones - We Love You*

That's probably only 20-25% of the total.

I don't know where I'd start to look for a copy...

― Ben Dot (1977), Thursday, 7 September 2006 03:05 (nineteen years ago)

Wasn't it 'fronted' bu John Peel and John Walters?

I have it somewhere in my loft, I think.

God knows where i'd start looking in there though.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 7 September 2006 09:30 (nineteen years ago)

It was on BBC2, wasn't it? I had the whole thing on video, for years and years. Maybe I still do. But unlikely, on balance. I should get round to sorting out those old videos. There's a great Tony Wilson-fronted punk clip show in there somewhere, from round about the same time.

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Thursday, 7 September 2006 09:48 (nineteen years ago)

no the VIDEO JUKEBOX special fronted by peel and walters was on bbc2 on a friday night, but yeah around the same time i think. it's not an exaggeration to say that this six hour programme (also taped on betamax !) changed my life. it showed interviews with tim pope and david byrne, and introduced me to THE CURE, TALKING HEADS, STEELY DAN, TOM TOM CLUB, STOP MAKING SENSE...

man i'd LOVE a copy of that.

― pisces (piscesx), Thursday, 7 September 2006 09:49 (nineteen years ago)

this is a legendary prog. never seen.

― a rapper singing about hos and bitches and money (Enrique), Thursday, 7 September 2006 09:55 (nineteen years ago)

i think it was shown in a cinema a few years ago.

― a rapper singing about hos and bitches and money (Enrique), Thursday, 7 September 2006 09:55 (nineteen years ago)

http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/301729?view=synopsis

― a rapper singing about hos and bitches and money (Enrique), Thursday, 7 September 2006 09:56 (nineteen years ago)

good spot there milton! wow! the entire tracklist!! full-on Proustian rush reading that.

it explains why it took me 'til university years to 'get' bowie! those clips they showed of him (blue jean, china girl, dancing in ths street. etc) put me off for a decade.

― pisces (piscesx), Thursday, 7 September 2006 10:10 (nineteen years ago)

Thanks for the info. Wonder if the BBC will ever give it a DVD release? They should do.

I wonder why they eschewed showing entire Madness videos, in vavour of a whole load of clips? Maybe they wanted to show more videos than time would allow?

― Ben Dot (1977), Thursday, 7 September 2006 17:13 (nineteen years ago)

Presumably because Madness' videos could have been a programme on their own, so they went for an overview of "how videos were totally fucking aces in the early 80s - well at least when Madness did them".

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 7 September 2006 20:25 (nineteen years ago)

Did anyone else conspicuously fail to DVDRecord any of the Reading Festival? Did they broadcast a spoiler signal? Or was it just my own dumb fault?

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 8 September 2006 07:35 (nineteen years ago)

the bfi could upload the show (see the guardian arts section).

― a rapper singing about hos and bitches and money (Enrique), Friday, 8 September 2006 07:37 (nineteen years ago)

the only other google result for 'omnibus video jukebox' points to a website designed by stevem... the ilx cabal at work...

― Koogy Yonderboy (koogs), Friday, 8 September 2006 07:54 (nineteen years ago)

man the bbc and their useless treatment of their own invaluable pop archive -

message to anyone from the beeb reading

****PLEASE RELEASE THE DVD OF THE "DANCING IN THE STREET" SERIES FOR GOD'S SAKE SO AS WE CAN ALL DIE HAPPY*****

thanx.

― pisces (piscesx), Friday, 8 September 2006 08:18 (nineteen years ago)

five years pass...

Video Jukebox.. man i'd love to get a torrent of this. you'd think it'd be up on You Tube by now @ least.

― piscesx, Wednesday, 28 September 2011 16:02 (fourteen years ago)

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