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

Because, the first one (tonight) is 1976, where we get :

01/04/1976
With Abba, the Brotherhood of Man, the Beatles, Fox, John Miles, Diana Ross and Sailor. (R).

Then after that they are on Thursday night, 7:30pm, and basically are running weekly, each
episode being from (exactly) 35 years ago (near enough)..

Until BBC4 sack it.

Brilliant idea. I can relive my childhood. My earliest musical memories (from pre-school days) are stuff like Abba, The Wurzels, Showaddywaddy and Hot Chocolate.

This docu that's on now makes grim viewing.

The docu made some interesting points, and for all that I'd have loved if they'd started in 1964 (or whenever), 1976 is a good year to kickoff from.

The big point made was that the charts had become a 'variety' show source, as opposed to the 'teen hit parade' of the sixties. So, loads of Mathis, Roussos, BroMan, Abba and Radio DJs having comedy send-up hits.

It'll be like this for a while, but one I do remember being somewhat of a life changing moment was when Eddie and the Hot Rods did "Get out of Denver",and I went straight out and bought the (expensive) ep the next day.

I know, thesedays peopple decry the rods as being "not as seminal as Dr Feelgood", but I saw a repeat on TOTP2 and it was as good as I remembered. So, soon come, that show which showed the juxtaposition of this band against the other acts on that night.

(also, it means that the quality of dodgy Punk TOTP compilation DVDs are going to shoot up. If they get that far, of course)

What tickled me most was the former TOTP producer saying that they didn't get the Pistols on for "Anarchy In The UK" (which peaked at #38) because it didn't chart high enough, very important that we always stuck by the rules etc etc... followed by an April 1976 show featuring two (useless) acts which never charted at all.

The Hot Rods did well to get a TOTP appearance for "Get Out Of Denver", as a) the Live At The Marquee EP peaked at #43 and b) it was the lead track on the B-side.

It was track 2 on the a-side, but yeah.

Also, the funny was having Dave Bartram saying "yeah, a TOTP appearance guaranteed you a top 10 hit" and demonstrating this with a screening of their massive top (fillinasecond) hit "Trocadero"...

32

xpost - Aaargh, so it was!

The big point made was that the charts had become a 'variety' show source, as opposed to the 'teen hit parade' of the sixties. So, loads of Mathis, Roussos, BroMan, Abba and Radio DJs having comedy send-up hits.

Am I misunderstanding? cos the 60s had big hits for Ken Dodd, Englebert Humperdinck, the Barron Knights etc etc

Oh sure, but the theory being that those were in the minority, show-content wise.

oh on the show. yeah probly fair enough. chartwise it was variety a-go-go

Yeah, I don't think the point was that the charts had become (more) like a variety show, but that TOTP had.

fuck Noel Edmonds and his 'comedy' links

fuck Noel Edmonds and his 'comedy' links

I know, what a dick. Still we had the Four Seasons doing "Silver Star" this week. Also Eric Carmen's "interview" with Noel Edmonds, where you couldn't hear a word he was saying, don't be shy Eric!

Interviews on TOTP? that's a rarity...

"Inteview" not really the word.

"You wrote a song for Dana didn't you?"
"Mumble mumble mumble"
"What's the best song you've ever written?"
"Mumble mumble mumble All By Myself"
"Well all the best with the new single"
"Mumble"

Don't know what song he wrote for Dana

Oh and Noel was saying what a good album "Eric Carmen" was: a rare display of good taste from Edmonds there!

Noel had to say he liked it cos he didn't want to blow a raspberry.

My god that it horribly formed.

*is*

OK so Google tells me Dana covered "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again" from the aforementioned "Eric Carmen" album

Is Dana the one who did some religious kids programme called 'Wake Up Sunday'?

Sounds likely

10CC, "Mandy Fly Me" was on too. Fantastic!

NEdmonds always had his love of singer-songwriters, to be fair.

Big fan of Harry Chapin, yer Edmonds.

Balderdash certainly describes droll Noel's career.

This was easily the most WTF song on this week's show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iISUroWbu2U

I watched last night's 1976 episode, it was amazingly and compellingly bad. Lots of odd-looking folks I've never heard of awkwardly performing novelty songs, and one of Pan's People doing some remarkably gratuitous ass-shaking in the direction of the camera. I need more.

70s was the golden age for ugly blokes, you could still end up in a band on TOTP with groupies galore. Rubettes' (sans caps) song sounded more like the Beatles than the Rutles!

I'm watching this now. LOL at the male members of the Vagabonds miming the female backing vocals. Something massively depressing about second tier disco groups though, like they're trapped in time, it's as if they're composed entirely of all the bits of late 70's disco that don't influence music today.

Shoeless and carrying a walking stick with a bicycle bell on it? Fucking hell, Harpo could teach Lady gaga a thing or two.

Sheer Elegance one of the most misnamed bands ever judging by what they were wearing, the uglyness of the Rubettes & their overcocky drummer, the utter WTFness of Harpo. mandatory viewing from now on!

I'm sure Punk would never of happened if Sky+ would of been available in 1976...ended up fast forwarding most of last night's show...bring back Noosha Fox...become a little obsessed with s-s-single bed...

^^^ same goes for watching it on iPlayer. I don't know if 'compellingly bad' is the term, or just 'bad'.

the uglyness of the Rubettes & their overcocky drummer

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx-aH0oBscw

definitely 'compellingly bad' for me. and Fox lady really reminded me of Alison Goldfrapp which is a Good Thing.

Noosha F missing link between Clare Grogan and Goldfrapp. Love that record.

Ah, been catching up via good old iplayer on the wii.

Old enough to remember these episodes quite clearly in some cases.

Sad that they haven't gone back far enough in time to have Sparks on.

Still, don't recall that Gilbert O'Sullivan song though I must have heard it then.

Oh, last I heard, they are definitely doing this run for a year.

After that? Who knows...

Still, don't recall that Gilbert O'Sullivan song though I must have heard it then.

He was long gone as commercial proposition by 1976. That song sounded like a demo, did artists have to re-record tracks? I know they had to re-record vocals, hence the ubiquity of the Ladybirds. But then other acts obviously just mimed to the record.

They did 'have' to.

A lot of them switched the tapes post-session, apparently.

ooooooo-oooooooooooooh Vienna it's Slik

It's Midge Uuuurrrr...

And Paul knickerless

Jesus Christ, superstar?

DLT looks like Badly Drawn Boy.

This is sooooo much better than last weeks....

Only one novelty act so far.

Shit Brotherhood Of Man are still number one...

I haven't been watching the repeats but looling at that useful TOTP site it's striking how rarely there's a performance of a new entry outside the top 20. I think the number of new entries annually peaked in '96 but it doesn't necessarily make any odds as many acts enter the charts higher than they or their equivalents might've 5-10 years earlier.

Some performances or videos around this time are listed as (NEW) rather than any chart position, including for Suede's 'Trash' and Neneh Cherry's 'Woman', so seems it was actually fairly common at this point fir them to feature yet to chart stuff.

'Wannabe' was released as a single on the 8th of July 1996 and entered the chart at #3 on the 20th -

That's a big gap between a release and a sudden chart entry, looks wrong.

Yes as explained above, it entered on the Sunday of the week ending Saturday 20th July. For officialcharts lists, subtract 6 from the date to get the (Sun)day Goodier or whoever was announcing its entry.

But it coming in at #3 rather than straight in at #1 was a bit unusual for the time even for a debut - wonder if Fuller was aghast for a few days before seeing the subsequent midweek chart

Actually, I did notice that "England's Irie" was on two weeks in a row which is against the rules unless it's number one. Which it wasn't.

― Mark G, Sunday, September 29, 2024 5:16 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I preferred life a few weeks ago before I knew about this song.

I feel I must reiterate: England's Irie is excellent

Maybe ENBB would prefer 'Eat My Goal'

Other highlights of The Beautiful Game: the one Teenage Fanclub song I actively really enjoy (like Norman Cook becoming a Wilsonophile), Eurochild Ninety Six/Zero Zero which has a better beat than Euro Child, Adrian Sherwood disinterring the Barmy Army casuals for the then-best Primal Scream track since 91, the Shamen tune that's somewhere between psytrance and O.R.N., and I even enjoy that Jamirouqai track, probably my fav thing they did before they betrayed acid jazz with superclub sine bass. No way can it be the worst comp ever.

Actually, I did notice that "England's Irie" was on two weeks in a row which is against the rules unless it's number one. Which it wasn't.

― Mark G, Sunday, 29 September 2024 10:16 (yesterday)

I don't think those were the self-imposed rules, were they? I think they said they couldn't play a song two weeks in a row unless it had risen in the charts (or was no.1). I haven't watched many of these recently, but there have been loads of songs on two weeks in a row that weren't anywhere near number one. In fact, often it has been literally the exact same performance repeated.

Most 1996 episode of TOTP so far?

(either one tonight, honestly)

"In my peacock suit, do you think I suck?"

WTF?

Xposts I'm sure that was the rule.

Along with the one that says if a single goes down, it can't be on the show, even if it goes up again the following week, unless it gets higher than it's previous highest...

That's why "Blue Monday" wasn't on more often. Even though it hung around on the chart for months.

(Oh, and btw it did not go down chartwise after that first live performance. That's a fib. It went up the following week (and wasn't on the show, see rules) then went down.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smurfs_Go_Pop!

Number 4 as well, so it fits whatever rules were in play on TOTP that week.

"We're the Smurfs" – based on "Alright" by Supergrass.

turns out Crazy Legs is still leader of the rocksteady crew.

Deep Blue Something - a study in bad mid 90s haircuts.

And bad mid 90s music

I always thought the song would have been better if the couple realised that the only thing they had left in common was that they hated the film Breakfast At Tiffany's.

I guess “kind of liked it” is damning with faint praise.

Dennis pennis even worse than Keith Allen shocker

It’s kind of aged… but a least there was a touch of wit and comic delivery.

Worse than a close up of Harry Hill's face as he yells at us?

The Bluetones all look 12. And if they had been 12 in 1996 they'd be 40 now.

See, part of the reason I was reasonably excited to watch tonight's first episode was because the BBC4 website schedule uses a thumbnail of Jimmy Sommerville. Wearing a different shirt. And it's not a new (for 1996) song, it's 'Don't Leave Me This Way' from 1986. I'll still take it though.

1st episode tonight: The Manic Street Preachers use a racist slur on national TV, Babybird charms everyone, Donna Lewis brings a Yamaha CP-70 and two TX7 modules to a gun fight, and Spiceaggeddon continues.

2nd episode tonight: Nigel Kennedy looking slightly less of an idiot than usual.

Babybird charms everyone

caught up with the first episode this morning and I could see my boyfriend's skin crawling through this performance.

This was the era when I had stopped paying attention to the Top 40 for a little while because I had taped so many songs off the radio in the past year (to be 8 again!) and I missed a lot of the big stuff from this era. I must have been gifted with psychic pop knowledge to know to stop paying attention in time for You're Gorgeous and Breakfast At Tiffanys.

also the Wikipedia page for Smurfs Go Pop is a thing of wonder and I hope online editors never alter it

It's Reef with "It's Your Letters It's Your Le-tters".

Speaking of which, this guy does very droll video essays on 80s/90s brit pop culture which may be of interest to denizens of this thread -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qywD9sNCzU

Something disconcerting about the way tonight's first episode just moves directly on from Bjork's and Moby's performances without any comment, straight into bland boybands and Mick Hucknall.

and to top it off, Robson & Jerome.

Remember that this is Simon Cowell's fault.

Mick Hucknall ripping off Finlay Quayle pretty badly here with bonus dodgy patois

'Breathe' is my favourite Prodigy song by far, really playing to the relative strengths of both Keith and Maxim's voices and performing personas. It's also one of those songs - like the Velvet Underground's 'White Light White Heat' - where you don't realise how few lines there are in the lyrics until you see them written down.

It's certainly my favourite from this era, just a very very cool thing to be number one when there's so much shit elsewhere in the charts.

I prefer Smack..., and er, pretty much anything off their first two albums, but yeah Breathe is still excellent, certainly better than Firestarter.

Yeah, better than Firestarter, but far from their best. I probably like Break And Enter the most.

Break and Enter was the fist dance track I really loved, it has a special place in my heart.

As much as I’m more into the stuff before 96, Firestarter is iconic - you are both mad ;)

Also, every evening between Monday 16 and Thursday 19 December, BBC4 are showing the Christmas Day edition of #TOTP from the years 1978, 1985, 1993 and 2002.

— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) December 6, 2024

just copied a couple of dozen 1986 / 87 repeats that have been on the PVR since 2018 off onto another disk.

task for christmas holidays, go though 1980-87 episodes and either list what's on them or ditch them (or maybe i should just cut out the good bits)

last night was the noel edmunds in a box christmas episode (all recordings, nothing live - some kind of strike?). it's peak Grease year, kate bush, abba, probably too much boney m. i think i'm probably forgetting the worst of it despite just having watched it but the good bits are probably as good as these things got. (darts, showaddywaddy, brian and michael also, it's telling me)

Oh, wasn't that Noel's last TOTP presenting job? He looked hugely reluctant to even be there, if I remember rightly...

https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/1925238/top-of-the-pops-1978-christmas

" The reason the Christmas 1978 edition was so basic was down to a technicians strike at the BBC at the time, during the winter of discontent when just about anyone was seeming to take strike action. It even affected Top Of The Pops at Christmas that year. "

the forum he mentions is probably this one - https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/1772097/top-of-the-pops-1978-bbc4/p126 - but it's 126 pages...

I cannot read the phrase "winter of discontent" without having flashbacks to tories and internet tories using it as a get out of jail free card for the last 45 years

We sat down to watch the 1978 episode and it was dreadful. We made it through 20 minutes. It was all so brown and sad and everything felt like a novelty song with no punchline.

We then tuned into BBC4 to watch the 2002 episode which wasn't much better - some excellent highs but some really dismal stuff slotted through it.

i guess you can focus on the good bits and enjoy it or on the bad bits and not. i had the luxury of watching on catch up and could skip the worst of it.

> so brown and sad

the 70s

The Christmas specials were pretty much at best boring. At worst, focussed only on the top selling singles, no matter how dull.

And as for the "end of the sixties" one, it was a coproduction with German TV, so you got Cliff along with Horst Janowski who'd had a UK hit, no Beatles, stones, who or any of that. So poor, I remembered it when it got repeated a while back. It was in colour, but it was helmed by you know who, so it's never gonna be repeated again...