Monday 17 October 2016

I'm a Wonderful Top of the Pops Baby

June 10th 1982 will not be shown on BBC4 due to the host being Jimmy Savile. So we must give a very big thanks to Neil B for uploading this edition onto 4Shared:

Top of the Pops 10th June 1982

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Thanks due also now to Erik Threlfall who has uploaded this edition to WeTransfer
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(Do not click the link if you wish to avoid Jimmy Savile!)

I say, has anyone seen my lovely coconuts?



10-6-82: Presenter: Jimmy Savile

(17) KID CREOLE & THE COCONUTS – I’m A Wonderful Thing Baby YouTube Clip
Making their Top of the Pops debut,with the first of three top ten hits in 1982, taken from top three album Tropical Gangsters. This one peaked at number 4.

(3) SOFT CELL – Torch
Went up one more place.

(13) THE ASSOCIATES – Club Country YouTube Clip
At its peak.

The JK bit:
(US 8) ASIA – Heat Of The Moment (video)
(US 4) TOMMY TUTONE – 867-53091/Jenny (Video)
(US 2) RICK SPRINGFIELD – Don’t Talk To Strangers (video)
(US 1) PAUL McCARTNEY & STEVIE WONDER – Ebony And Ivory (video)

(22) DIANA ROSS – Work That Body (video) YouTube Clip
Peaked at number 7 and was Diana's last top ten hit until Chain Reaction in 1986.

(27) STEVIE WONDER – Do I Do (danced to by Zoo)
Peaked at number 10.

(10) GENESIS – Paperlate ®
At its peak.

(1) ADAM ANT – Goody Two Shoes (and credits) ®
Adam had queued up patiently for his first of two weeks at number one.



Next then is June 17th 1982.

38 comments:

  1. Huge thanks to Neil B. It took absolute ages to download the edition, but it was worth it for the first five songs and the last one.

    Jim’ll in yet another unbuttoned top (oh please), but with a difference – failing to give any song titles in the countdown, not for the first time, but he gave all the climbers (from position X to position Y), including all the non-mugshot positions from last week. A first, and maybe the only time that happened?

    How superb musically and cutting edge sartorially were the first three acts? The retro style of Kid Creole and his gang (I felt sorry for the Coconuts relegated to dressing like a Kid copy) with an A-list song (see what I did there? At the truncated part of the song he lists his conquests starting with the A’s… doh, never mind). The first actual coati mundi I ever saw was at a zoo in Bognor Regis. Fact! Didn’t Kid… er, August Darnell, marry one of his fans eventually?

    Hark at Marc in a “Fetish” top! Well, if they allow Charlene to sing about subtle whoring… No Cyndi this time – was she too busy dealing drugs in New York this time?

    Black singlet, white singlet! (Sounds like an 80’s song title.) Look at that caked-on slap on joyously balloon kicking Billy. Still, he was outdazzled by Martha’s sexy lace-up swimsuit and shades. She looked every inch a lead singer and a baton pass from Debbie Harry.

    I enjoyed the first two US hits, though Asia’s dated itself straight away with the line “And now you find yourself in ‘82”. Tommy Tutone’s hit was a great bar room phone number rock song, a good companion to City Boy’s “5705”. This was Tommy Tutone’s second and final Yankee hit, following “Angel Say No” which reached 38. I hated everything about Rick Springfield, apart from the neat plate smash / cymbal crash sync in the video.

    More swimsuits in that Diana Ross video, but none with Martha’s wow factor. As for the song, dreadful – a Jane Fonda workout on 45. As for the next Motown act, I hate it when Stevie Wonder does those shouty vocals. Match them with Zoo, and it’s FF city, as was the re-run of Ginisess.

    I bet Michael Hurll thought “We may as well show the Adam Ant studio performance than the video – he took up all that studio space, and it was better than the vid anyway”.

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    1. The Associates were certainly the pick of the bunch on this largely workout/keep fit theme, from Martha's swimsuit on The Associates to Diana Ross to Zoo. Apart from that, a very ordinary show.

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    2. Miss Ross was no longer a Motown artiste by this point - Work that Body was her third single on RCA.

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    3. Aha! Thanks for clarifying that.

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    4. as far as i can recall, one of the coconuts (the lady on the right) was actually mrs creole at that time. but whether she and kid became an item before or after she joined tha band i have no idea

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    5. someone else other than me has finally spelt cyndi ecstacy's name right!

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    6. But you're spelling it wrong Wilby - it's Cindy with a y, that's how it is spelled on the record sleeve (cue Julie telling me that although it's spelled with a y on the back of the sleeve actually she spelled it with an i in reality).

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    7. apologies to bama and all: i was sure i read it spelt that way somewhere, but a check reveals to the contrary. maybe i was getting her mixed up with cyndi lauper?

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  2. Jim'll returns for the first time in almost six months, and gives a fairly solid performance, though his constant babbling about aerobics and marathons only starts to make sense halfway through when the audience begin working out to Diana Ross. Interesting chart rundown technique from the Jangly One too - no song titles, but plenty of detail on the number of places each climber had risen.

    I think Kid Creole and the Coconuts were a breath of fresh air in the 1982 charts, creating a unique sound and image to go with it. This debut hit sees them start as they mean to go on, though it does seem to finish very quickly. I liked the female backing singer who was dressed up as Mr Darnell! The Soft Cell performance isn't quite as memorable this time around, that bloke dancing at the edge of the stage not making up for the absence of Cindy. Still good stuff though, and I wonder if Marc's "Fetish" t-shirt attracted any complaints at the time?

    Some interesting fashion choices from Billy and Martha too, as The Associates finally get back on the show. It's a shame this song has fallen completely foul of Yewtree, and I'm sure plenty of BBC4 viewers would have liked to see Martha in her PVC leotard, easily eclipsing all the other violinists at the front of the stage. JK up next, with an incredibly dull selection of AOR from the US charts and an equally boring interview with Rick Springfield, who seems as colourless as his music. The only interesting thing about this segment was the first signs of the Second British Invasion, with the Human League now in the US Top 10 and other acts like Soft Cell now poised to break through. Given how rubbish this particular Top 10 is, I don't think it's that great a surprise that American record buyers proved receptive to the exciting new British sounds. Asia, of course, don't count!

    Work that Body must be one of the most forgotten -and forgettable - hits ever put out by Miss Ross. Clearly a blatant cash-in on the current Keep Fit craze, the video is one long ego trip designed to convince us what a great body she has, and it's all a bit tiresome. Stevie then attempts to make us forget about Ebony and Ivory with a middling new single, matched by a so-so routine from Zoo. It looks as if Odile Dicks-Mireaux dressed the dancers up in some rags she found in a dustbin...

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    1. Indeed, the 1982 keepfit craze seemed to take over from the 1981 medley craze, so we were now in full swing of the new pump-it-up TOTP, and Diana Ross was of course no exception with that fit body this week...

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  3. Shakey Shakerson18 October 2016 at 12:08

    He-Who-Can't-Be-Shown is, unfortunately for BBC4 viewers, the man with the mic this week. Thanks to Neil B though, we here at Best Years Of Our Lives, have a chance to see possibly the finest opening 1-2-3 in re-run history.

    First up Kid Creole, packing the stage with his Coconuts, and being a genuine breath of fresh air. Wonderful Thing is a wonderful song, but there was even better to come later in the year. One of those songs that just doesn't get played any more.

    Soft Cell - sans Cindy - with Torch. I miss her. I liked the Human-League-esque dancing and the stroll up to the mic to sing her part and, as the boys' performance is much the same why didn't they just repeat the Cindy one?

    And then we have The Associates. Glorious. Absolutely solid-gold 1980s classic. Billy looks so happy with life and is there anything sexier than a row of female violinists? I think not.

    JK in NY. God, his glasses were big, weren't they? I mean, huge. There is a flat screen TV on the wall in my living room that's smaller than them. There are a couple of reasons why I couldn't live in America. Their gun crime, their TV, Donald Trump, and their godawful taste in music. This top ten is evidence.

    And so, being the harbinger of doom that Johnathon King is, the show starts going downhill very rapidly from this point.

    La Ross, riding the coattails of the fitness boom. A routine funk-lite workout that goeson and on while Ross hollers exhortations to reach and stretch and push and grab and whathaveyou.

    Stevie Wonder. A so-so song made worse by us having to put up with Zoo.

    A repeat of Paperlate and a repeat of Adam's studio performance at number 1 to play us out.

    Scores. 4 for the host. The countdown was awful and his links were too. Even if you don't watch the show, you'll know exactly the kind of things he says.

    The show. 9 for the pre JK slot. 4 for the songs post JK.

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    1. Shakey, I agree with you about living in America (and don't start singing!) - but there's always BBC America if expats feel homesick in relation to TV. If I had to move to another country, I wouldn't mind settling in Australia or New Zealand.

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    2. I would add to Shakey's description of Soft Cell with the Human League-esque dancing by Cindy. Indeed Cindy also dressed like the Human League girls, let alone danced like them.

      I could just imagine at the time in the case of both pop groups that the mothers of these girls of Soft Cell and Human Leauge told them to dress nice and elegantly with a long dress and heels, as they were going to be on TV in front of millions of viewers, and not to dress like Siouxie Soux of The Banshees who was too much of a loose cannon with her TOTP outfits (not that we're complaining of course).

      Good girls go to heaven, as one of Jim Steinman's classic songs once said.

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  4. The section from the baseball stadium reminded me that New York Mets' pitcher Bartolo Colon recently scored his first ever senior home run - two weeks shy of his 43rd birthday and in his 3002nd match!

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    1. My favourite part of this week's show was indeed the baseball stadium intro on JK's section with the TOTP theme Yellow Pearl playing in the background mildly (if anyone spotted it), and just before JK starts talking. Pure genius to start of his slot like that. A gem of TOTP history right there in those first few seconds with JK.

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  5. you have to download the link supplied for this show rather than have it streamed, and sadly that's a no-go area for me as i'm paranoid what else will come along with it. so i'll have to make do with the youtube links that angelo has kindly supplied (which along with repeats thankfully make up the bulk of this edition anyway)

    kid creole: this vaguely funky track starts off rather weakly with the kid singing the bassline in almost the same register, but it gets better once it gets going properly. however his best is yet to come. it's funny how he was the hippest dude on the planet for a couple of years or so and with hit records to boot, then all of a sudden nobody wanted to know him anymore! i thought there were three coconuts but could only see two, then i realised that the third was dressed up as a kid creole clone for apparently no good reason. but where was coati mundi? according the the totp 2 caption he was there, but i never spotted him

    associates: i preferred billy in a suit to the boystown regalia, but bassist michael dempsey looks cooler than ever in shades and moody guitarist alan rankine has finally been coerced from the back of the stage. and as for the statuesque martha, i'll bet dory's got a bit excited over that skimpy wet-look swimsuit. and if that's not enough, we get a choroegraphed "cabaret"-style string section thrown in too. brilliant!

    diana ross: one i have no memory of whatsoever - maybe because i'd written her off after her dire cover of that doo-wop tune she put out shortly before this? okay dance stuff, but the backing singers seem to be putting in a lot more effort than miss ross does herself. i was a bit surprised to see how well she filled that leotard, but then again a lot of it could have been padding

    stevie wonder: i liked this a lot at the time and used to own the near-10 minute 12" version (featuring what to be frank is a pretty lame trumpet solo by the jazz legend dizzy gillespie), but i have just checked and i don't even have it on my computer nowadays. listening again on youtube i'm quite getting to like it again, but to my ears it could have come from the "songs in the key of life" sessions 5 or 6 years earlier

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    1. Coati Mundi was stage left as we looked wearing, if I remember correctly, a yellow and black hooped T-shirt. He slinked around and toyed with some percussion.

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    2. Coati Mundi made the Top 40 in the UK in 1981 with the medley Que Pasa / Me No Pop I but it wasn't featured on the show. There's a great video of him miming/dancing to it on YT:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO06a2KNBOs

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  6. Angelo, just found this Vimeo link for the 24th June edition with DLT, which is the show sandwiched between this week's two BBC4 airings of 17th June and 1st July.

    https://vimeo.com/153476399

    Alas three more shows to blog this week!

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    1. Cheers Dory! Yes, a busy week this week!

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  7. Had no luck getting this to play on 4 Shared, so a thousand thanks for the alternative download.

    Kid Creole, one of those sainted few American artists who were successful over here while doing nothing in America. Great groove to this, laid back and his self-confidence is highly amusing. Shame his hits petered out, always liked his style.

    Like Marc Almond's acting when the Cyndi vocals come in, reminded me of Veterinary Hospital or Pigs in Space on The Muppets when they'd look about to see where the announcer's voice was coming from at the end of each section. And a big bunch of flowers at the end, how nice.

    The Associates - was that the famed chocolate guitar we saw in this performance? Weird, manic, why does Billy have blusher on his cheeks and arm, full of beans, probably the highlight.

    Now, I think Asia's Heat of the Moment is a terrific bit of pop rock, so naturally we only get five seconds of it here. That's what was frustrating about these JK segments, you never got to hear enough of the songs he was plugging, so what was the point other than to feed his mighty ego?

    Anyway, Tommy Tutone is a sub-Cars plodder, and Rick Springfield makes Huey Lewis and the News sound like Metallica. If you ever see the film Rick made to cash in on his fairly late flowering fame, you get a lot of looks at his bare arse for some reason.

    Diana Ross, so this is why aerobics have been mentioned in every link: for about ten seconds of Zoo doing physical jerks. Yeah, that was really worth it. As for the song, this pops into my head occasionally but I'd forgotten its title. Not bad, but a bit of a cash-in - if only Jane Fonda could sing!

    Then Toto Coelo dance to Stevie Wonder, or it looks like it. Jolly ditty from Steveland, but he was losing his edge by now.

    Two repeats to finish on. Still can't spot the dancer who falls over during Adam Ant's number!

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    1. That just gave me thought regarding the JK section. If TOTP at the time in 1981/82 had given him his own whole show, which incidentally could have been called 'TOTP America with JK', or 'TOTP2 America', then acts like Rick Springfield, Asia, Huey Lewis etc' would have done a lot better in the UK and rivalled many of the UK hits for UK chart positions.

      As we can see, by mid-1982, there were hardly any US acts in the UK charts compared to homegrown acts like Soft Cell, The Associates, Human, ABC, etc. What a pity the BBC did not think of a sideline TOTP weekly show at the time with JK to front it every week, so that this would inspire the British public to buy these records, which would have then charted in the UK, a la our regular TOTP show every Thursday night.

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    2. It's all too late now in hindsight in 2016.

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    3. If only we could go back. As Alan Partridge said "I'd better go and build that time-travel gymnasium, then I'll come back aged 25, built like a brick shit-house".

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    4. Dory - I'm not convinced that Huey Lewis, Rick Springfield et al would have done much better in the UK even if there had been a regular American chart show over here. While plenty of music from both countries has successfully crossed to the other side of the Atlantic, I don't think that particular brand of FM Rock has ever had much appeal here, just as Glam and Britpop never caught on much in the States. I remember a few years back that Radio 2 tried quite hard for a while to break The Dave Matthews Band in the UK, but although they were huge in the States they never caught on with British music buyers, despite the radio exposure.

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    5. i can't say i was sorry the uk charts at this time were mainly filled with quirky british acts rather than bland american ones - as far as i'm concerned, huey lewis, meat loaf, reo speedwagon et al are a case of "yanks go home"!

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    6. I've been noticing recently that 1982 has been fairly barren for US acts in the British Charts, with the exception of Joan Jett and a small few others, whereas 1981 was a lot more succesful for them on our shores.

      It's just as well that TOTP persevered with the JK slot right through 1982, even though the likes of Rick Springfield, Asia, Tommy Tutone, etc on this week's JK slot still didn't make it here. I mean even Huey Lewis didn't chart in the UK till 1985 despite a JK slot with them in 1982!

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    7. JK did get his own US-based programme a couple of years later, "Entertainment USA". Basically the TOTP spot expanded to half an hour.

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  8. Jimmy Savile and Jonathan King in one programme! I think we can safely say that this will never see the light of broadcast TV again in our lifetimes. I just hope that 'they' don't do anything silly like junking the master tape.

    Kid Creole seems to have brought his entire entourage along - for miming to the single?! Highly accomplished stuff though, there's no doubt about that.

    That flugelhorn (I believe it was decided) in 'Torch' is definitely an earworm.

    I personally find the JK segments very interesting - the US charts of the 'gold' era (which appears to be something like 1955-1985) open up a whole new world. I had never heard of Tommy Tutone so went and checked YouTube. Very much in the mould of John Mellencamp, although perhaps a bit more 'pop'.

    As for Diana Ross, hasn't Olivia Newton-John already done this kind of thing? And as for Genesis, I've only just noticed that Phil Collins plays a left-handed kit.

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  9. I didn't bother watching the whole show. Not because of Savile, but the simple facts that there wasn't much here that I really like and also I'm a bit '1982d out' at the moment anyway.

    I just watched a couple of the clips, the first being the Kid Creole song. I know that this is a popular one, but I've never been keen on it and prefer his other big hits.

    I've already mentioned previously what a crying shame it is that we miss 'Club Country' completely. I was expecting this one to be the performance with the chocolate guitars but I'm clearly getting mixed up as that is yet to come I believe.

    Diana Ross - I do remember that single. Unfortunately.

    Stevie Wonder - Not his finest few minutes.

    And that, apart from some repeats is it. So, with one notable exception, we didn't miss much then.

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  10. I decided to watch the Asia video in full. Intriguing to see those dated "Goody Two Shoes" visualised here as, at one point, a woman's handed a number of pound notes one by one. An envelope with a London address is set on fire in the vid too, and yet the single only made 46 over here but did a 'Tommy Tutone' and peaked at 4 in the States.

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    1. Just watched the Asia vid again - I'm going to iTune the song! - and noticed it also includes a close-up of a couple's faces while arguing and the bloke clearly mouths "f#ck you"! They did well to get away with that on MTV and American TV stations.

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    2. I've just watched it myself. Although totally familiar with the band and song (when I bought my first VHS Hi-Fi recorder in 1991 I also bought 'Asia Live' to try it out - having already got their debut album on vinyl), this is the first time I've seen the video. That 'divided into 16' thing didn't half become wearing - someone should have told them that you weren't supposed to use it all the way through...

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    3. There is also a superb 8-minute live version video for download from iTunes for a mere £1.29. Hard to understand why such quality of music only made it to no.46 in the UK chart in 1982 after JK's plug for it on this show.

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    4. what is far more remarkable about asia than this banal record was that more than a dozen guitarists have played in the band at some point!

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  11. I don't usually bother to comment on the Savile shows, not because I'm offened but I don't usually have time.

    Not sure I care for Jimmy's weird get up but it makes a change from string vests and tracksuits and everyone else appears to be wearing a string vest. I have to say that despite the man's reputation everyone around him looks very happy to be here and and enjoying themselves.

    It's a shame they didn't broadcast this show as the first two thirds of it are brilliant. What amazes me about Top Of The Pops at this time is just how GAY it is. I don't just mean the acts - ie Billy MacKenzie, Marc Almond, the bloke from Tight Fit, but the whole look and feel of the show, the dancers, the cheerleaders, everything - it's like a gay night club from the time. I know because I was there. Michael Hurl was either gay or knew someone who was gay.

    I loved this Kid Creole song at the time and it's very impressive to see the whole band on stage even if they are miming, it's just shame they had to fade it early. Feel a bit sorry for pintsized dancer/percussionist Coati Mundi who had made the chart under his own steam the previoussummer but it was never shown and he doesn't get much screen time here. Looking forward to seeing this again.

    Brilliant to see Soft Cell back again but not so brilliant that they left poor Cindy behind. Was she ill or did she forget to get a work permit, who knows? The crowd really love this one and one of Marc's fans (male or female - who knows?) gives him a bouquet at the end which is nice.

    And the third treat in a row The Associates. Billy looks really happy and relaxed here and has a lot of fun playing keepy-uppy with a stray balloon. The band are their usual strong silent selves except Martha who's gone all beach babe on us and has inspired three members of Zoo to join in miming with violins.

    Heaven knows what the Americans thought of Jonathan King with his C&A jeans, bowlcut hair and re-entry shield glasses, I hope they didn't think all Limeys looked like that. Only 90% of us did (joke). But I'm glad I'm not American if their charts are anything to go by. They thought Rick Springfield - a singing soap star - was cool and also put Asia (shiver) in the Top 10. I feel a bit sick now.

    Diana Ross has clearly seen Olivia Newton John's Physical video, heard the intro from Ernie K Doe's Here Come The Girls and put them together as a crowd pleasing dance tune-cum exercise routine. And it works although I don't care if I don't hear it again. For a woman of 39 she looked amazing. I'm amazed.

    More dance moves with the back-again Zoo tackling one of Stevie's lesser (ie post 1977) hits. Can't say I care for this much.. The mistake Stevie made was falling out with the real powers behind his songwriting talent ie Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff.

    Then it's downhill with a repeat of Genesis and a repeat of Adam and Co stupidly played over the end credits. Good charts though with a lot of interesting new entries and sensibly read chart stats by JS.

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    1. That would make Diana Ross 72 years old now, and similar to Toni Basil. I wonder if she still dances like that now? They're moving into old age now, so let's hope they entertain us for as long as possible.

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  12. Help. Can't get the link to work!

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