Billy begins to think about what he'd like for lunch.....
03/11/83 (Peter Powell & Mike Read)
ABC – “That Was Then But This Is Now” (25)
And so we reach this year's blog title song, we'll be needing a new one soon! Number 18 was its apple crumble peak.
Donna Summer – “Unconditional Love” (22) (video)
Glamorous Bonner Hill Road Girls School teacher Donna enlists the help of Musical Youth to reach number 14 in the charts.
Elton John – “Kiss The Bride” (20)
Er ... is it Lofty from It Aint Half Hot Mum? I'm not sure but the song got no higher in the charts though.
The Police – “Synchronicity II” (26) (video)
The third single from their number one album, Synchronicity, this single peaked at number 17. But edited out of tonight's 7.30 show.
Jonathan King – US charts: Edited out.
Stevie Nicks – “If Anyone Falls” (video clip)
Quiet Riot – “Cum On Feel The Noize” (video clip)
Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson – “Say Say Say” (video clip)
The Fixx – “One Thing Leads To Another” (video clip)
Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton – “Islands In The Stream” (US TV clip)
Oh, I was looking forward to this, I can't believe they edited it out of the 7.30 show! Anyhow, it made it to number 7.
Status Quo – “A Mess Of Blues” (24)
With no sign of bass player Alan Lancaster here, this Elvis cover made it to number 15.
Madness – “The Sun & The Rain” (21) (video)
What a great video! And for what was, almost unbelievably, the band's last top ten hit of the 80's! Peaking at number 5.
Shakin’ Stevens – “Cry Just A Little Bit” (19)
Lots of cheers for Shaky in the studio, although he actually recorded the performance two weeks earlier, and this Bob Heatlie song (he also wrote Japanese Boy) made it to number 3.
Billy Joel – “Uptown Girl” (1) (video)
Such a memorable video, and the first of five weeks at number one; and the song that replaces it will be the Xmas number one!
Men Without Hats – “The Safety Dance” (6) (audience dancing/credits)
At its dansez peak.
Tonight's BBC1 schedule
Next up is November 10th 1983.
regarding a name for "next year's" blog, i've trawled through my own collection of hits from 1984 (which is probably a relatively small percentage!) and come up with the following candidates:
ReplyDeleteabsolute (scritti politti)
wonderland (big country)
wishful thinking (china crisis)
holiday (madonna)
let it all blow (the dazz band)
let the music play (shannon)
Let the Music Play sounds promising. Someone else suggested Sex Crime but I think will steer clear of that one!
DeleteYeah, we wouldn't want Let It All Blow, for similar reasons.
DeleteHere's a couple of further suggestions:
DeleteTogether in Electric Dreams (Oakey/Moroder)
Feels Like Heaven (Fiction Factory)
john i think you've nailed it with the fiction factory suggestion!
DeleteMike was in a good mood, impressions and everything, lifted Pete's game which was nice.
ReplyDeleteABC, obviously for posterity's sake (the blog title) it is something to treasure, but their former knack for a tune deserted them here, it's not terrible by any means, but sounds half-hearted. Chiefly memorable for the pudding mention (or dessert if you're posh).
Donna and the Youths, a cheery little ditty, and another video showing the influence of Madness. Her teacher look is very unflattering. Weird combination (how did it come about?) but it succeeds warmly if not brilliantly.
Elton John, resplendent in a pair of teenage boy's bedroom curtains and jockey's helmet, for reasons best known to himself. No, me neither. Very explosion-heavy staging. Funny how this wasn't a bigger hit, but I suppose everyone who wanted it was getting the album.
The Police with their intense tale of suburban pressure and... The Loch Ness Monster?! Or the Lake Ness Monster as Sting seems to think it's called in two of the verses, but in the middle one it's a loch. I think there's only one lake in Scotland anyway. Quite like this one, it's weird in a good way. Pretentious, though.
Weirdly, Kenny and Dolly were edited out of the late night repeat too - BBC unable to get the rights to the clip? They're greedy, these US TV companies.
Status Quo do their thing to an oldie this time, and make it sound exactly the same as their other efforts from this period. That sharing a mic business always bugged me - you have one each! What possible benefit can there be?!
Madness deliver the goods once again, not one of their most famous tunes, but it is rather fine, with their patented melancholy mixed with jollity. The big finger is a clever touch.
Shaky with a not bad at all non-cover from him, sporting the double denim as was regulation, once again a textbook performance, possibly because he was a bit of a one trick pony. But it was a good trick.
I remember being impressed that there were sound effects in Billy's video. Yes, I watched it again.
The Men Without Hats Apart From Their Hats to finish with a flourish, pretty decent show this one, felt less stagnated than the other recent ones we've seen.
The Donna Summer video was indeed an excellent one. From the bland schoolteacher being strict with her students, to getting fed up with that life, and raring to put the party outfit on and get dancing with the students, where she becomes popular with them in her new evening mode. I liked the way the red London bus takes Musical Youth home after an interesting day in the classroom, the playground, and then out on the town with Miss Summer.
DeleteMusical Youth taking second fiddle here to Donna Summer was a little unusual, considering their dramatic burst onto the scene a year earlier with Pass The Dutchie, and also appearing in the TOTP studio with 007, only a week before this November '83 edition. Their time was numbered only a couple of months later at the start of 1984 with final hit called Sixteen which failed to trouble the charts.
'Sixteen' - with ex-Shalamar member Jody Watley playing Lulu to Kelvin Grant's Gary Barlow - did reach No.23, but it was indeed the reggae band's final British Top 40 hit and would also prove to be the Brummies' TOTP swansong.
DeleteMusical Youth had already made their second and final Hot 100 appearance in the US with 'She's Trouble', a brave but retrospectively unwise attempt at R&B that missed the British Top 75, as did the Eddy Grant-penned 'Let's Go To The Moon', which is not one of his better efforts.
I remember the band's live rendition of 'She's Trouble' on a TV awards show; they performed the song in the style of a boyband, dancing to an orchestral backing rather than playing their own instruments. The band's drummer Freddie 'Junior' Waite took lead vocal rather than Dennis Seaton, who had similarly relinquished his usual role on 'Sixteen' - possibly because Youth's management and record label was aiming to establish each member as a star in his own right. Alas, this policy backfired.
'She's Trouble' was composed by Terry Britten, Susan Shifrin and Billy Livsey - all of whom would subsequently make a mint as regular members of Tina Turner's backroom staff, along with Graham Lyle.
well done julie for managing to steer us once again in the direction of your heroes gallagher and lyle (a sort-of musical version of "six degrees of kevin bacon"). now let's see if shakey shakerson can do the same with freeez...
DeleteGraham Lyle - who will be touring the Scottish festival circuit with Benny Gallagher this summer - had nothing to do with Musical Youth, but co-wrote both 'What's Love Got To Do With It?' and 'We Don't Need Another Hero' with Terry Britten.
DeleteTalking about burying the hatchet, did you hear this week about Noel Gallagher - no relation! - taking to the stage with Damon Albarn's Gorillaz on 'The Graham Norton Show'? To think the Oasis mastermind once wished a deadly disease on Blur's frontman!
Angelo, sorry to have to say this, but the Kenny Rogers/Dolly Parton duet was also edited out of the late night repeat. Good Lord, what is going on here BBC4? Kenny and Dolly are no DLT or JK! Is there some objection by Rogers or Parton themselves? Someone please explain.
ReplyDeleteOh, and while on the subject, has anyone got this full 3rd November show with the JK section, plus the missing Kenny/Dolly song clipped out by BBC4 this week on both repeats?
Oops actually I just realised the Kenny/Dolly clip was part of the JK segment, which explains its absence - its first proper appearance on the show will be December 1st - but guess what ~ DLT! But we will I think finally get to see it on the 15th December show.
DeleteCrumbs, I just realised that next weekend is four shows to blog, and all with Billy Joel at No.1, as we rattle through the whole of November 1983 by next Friday! Hope someone can come up with the two shows with JS and DLT that will be skipped by BBC4.
DeleteCalvin Henderson did have an edited version of the 17 November show on YouTube, but his account has now mysteriously been closed down - I suspect the copyright police came calling again! Hopefully a full version of that and the 3 November edition will become available in the next few days.
DeleteThe full version of 3rd Nov is now available from gia's link further down this blog, but certainly awaiting keenly the 17th Nov & 1st Dec editions for this week's blogs, just to see Christie Brinkley on all four episodes with Billy Joel at no.1! Neither of these two episodes that BBC4 will skip this week were shown on UK Gold, so we'll need one of our usual rescuers to come up with the goods.
DeleteABC - this was the start of their phase two, and least successful phase between 1983-1986, where all their hits failed to trouble the top twenty, and peaked quite low down in the charts. This tune was an example of poor follow up to their 1981-1982 huge success, culminating in 1982 with the brilliant top 5 hit All Of My Heart.
ReplyDeleteElton John - now that's more like it, and easily my favourite Elton track of his full singles catalogue. Kiss The Bride was so Meat Loaf like in its style, panache and splendour, and deserved better than a peak of No.20! The studio performance this week recreated the sexy girls look from the video by means of the sexy fishnet stockings on show by the two Zoo couples/dancers accompanying Elton on the back of the stage.
At this point in Elton's career, he was still camera shy of his baldness, and never appeared in studio or video without a hat, but the hat this week was like something out of It Ain't Half Hot Mum as Angelo mentions, and didn't really befit the record, somewhat blighting such a good song.
The Police - this seemed to be a precursor to the video for Duran Duran's hit called The Wild Boys a year later in 1984, as the Duranies seemly took a leaf out of The Police book, by emulating this video into their own production. Nevertheless, Synchronicity II was The Police's last significant hit and penultimate one, as the follow-up King Of Pain a couple of months later at the start of 1984, failed to make any impression, and ultimately called time on their illustrious 4 years in the charts since 1979 with Roxanne.
Men Wthout Hats - probably the finest studio audience dancing performance of the year so far for the weekly playout honour. Pity that the colourful video with Louise Court (Dansez) wasn't shown a second time, especially as The Safety Dance was at no.6 this week, and about to hit the top 5!
Zoo were no more by this point, so Elton's dancing couples did not formally belong to a troupe, though they may well have been ex-Zoo members.
DeleteDory - 'King of Pain' reached no17....same as 'Synchronicity II'.....
Deleteas you mention, 1984 is just around the corner. May I suggest "Relax - it's Top of The Pops 1984", reflecting the rise of FGTH in that year, and the realisation that Mike Read truly was a reactionary dude
ReplyDeleteas you mention, 1984 is just around the corner. May I suggest "Relax -it's Top of the Pops 1984", reflecting the rise of FTGH in that year, and the realisation that Mike Read was a reactionary dude.
ReplyDeleteRelax is not a bad suggestion :-)
DeleteMike Read seemed to be well up for presenting a live show, and as noted by THX his enthusiasm appeared to communicate itself to PP, who seemed much more his old self this week and was happy to join in with Mike's antics. ABC return for the first time in a year, but this is something of a disappointment, starting brightly but fading towards the end, and not helped either by Trevor Horn's absence. Apple crumble line aside, the most striking thing about this performance was the band's new dressed down image, a world away from the glamour of their previous appearances, and not a change for the better.
ReplyDeleteAny viewers puzzled the previous week by Tone's reference to Musical Youth as Donna Summer's backing singers now have the mystery solved, as we see the video for their unlikely but pleasant enough collaboration. Make-up and costume did a good job of making Donna look incredibly dowdy in her teacher guise, but happily her normal glamour is restored by the end, even if she looks rather incongruous against a backdrop of red London buses and telephone boxes. You have to give credit to Elton for turning up to perform in the studio so frequently, even though a star of his magnitude had no need to do so. He certainly makes an impression here with a truly bizarre outfit, even by his standards, and a hat that makes it look as if he has hot-footed it from a construction site.
The Police next with one of their lesser known singles, and a video that seemingly takes inspiration from Mad Max. It was certainly a visual treat, particularly seeing Stewart drumming on top of that precarious pile of rubbish, and the song itself is OK but not as arresting as the two previous singles from the Synchronicity album. Quo manage to make this superior Elvis song sound very tame indeed, and the fact they resorted to a cover at this point shows how much they were running out of steam creatively. Alan Lancaster's absence is notable, and related to the growing strains in his relationship with Francis Rossi and desire to spend much of his time in Australia, causing tensions which would soon reach breaking point...
The Madness video is indeed very good, with inspirations apparently ranging from Singin' in the Rain to (like that recent Heaven 17 promo) The Numskulls! The bits with the band playing in the earhole were fun and inventive, though the song itself is a bit anonymous - it would have seemed improbable at the time, but the band's glory days were now drawing to a close. Shaky does his normal thing in the studio, but this is actually a pretty decent song and probably his best release since You Drive Me Crazy. As with that earlier song, it does make me wonder if the speech impediment was an affectation rather than genuine! Safety Dance makes for a great playout, and the audience bounce around enthusiastically to close out one of the better editions from that autumn.
I remember The Numskulls well: Brainy, Blinky, Nosey, Luggy, Alf & Fred. They were the inspiration for the strip 'Driving David Beckham' in Viz.
DeleteShaky's 'Cry Just A Little Bit', as well as being my favourite recording of his, was his only single to dent the US Hot 100, peaking at No.67.
I'm impressed you remembered their names, Julie - they had long since escaped my memory!
DeleteAny sign of the full version of this show with the JK segment? Would love to see Stevie Nicks and the Rogers/Parton duet. Looks like we will not see JK again until Feb 1984, as he takes a very long Xmas break!
ReplyDeleteIf anyone's interested, Glenn Marshall's put up a March 1976 edition of Supersonic at vimeo.com/215890955
ReplyDeleteJust watched it, and I would make the following observations:
Delete1. I'm surprised that Gary Glitter was still active in 1976, as I thought his chart days were over well before that.
2. Supersonic seems to have been ITV's answer to TOTP, but nowhere near the vibe of TOTP, and watching this episode it felt more like an episode of the Old Grey Whistle Test.
3. The only performance on Supersonic that seems to have been preserved and reeled out over the years iss Roxy Music's Love Is A Drug, where in the absence of a video and\or a TOTP studio performance, the Supersonic performance is now the 'official video' for this song, and is still regularly the clip shown on Vintage TV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n3OepDn5GU
Gary Glitter's 11th straight top ten hit , Doing alright with the boys , had only been in the previous summer , so he was only just at the end of his major chart hits in early '76.Supersonic was shown at teatime in kids telly as I vaguely remember seeing it on ITV along with Lift Off with Ayshea and Shang a Lang!
Deleteas we've seen from these re-runs, inbetween "retiring" mr glitter was continuing to appear on pop shows as late as 1977. and having hits into the 80's (presumably if he did "another rock n roll christmas" on the show when in 1984, that will get airbrushed out?)
DeleteGG made one appearance on the show in 1981 that got cut out, so it's a pretty safe bet his 1984 comeback will be airbrushed from history by BBC4.
Deletehosts: this pair are okay in my view, but once again mr read feels the need to wear shades indoors which is a questionable practice. and his reg link is somewhat muddled, but he makes up for that at the end with some actually rather good impressions of peel and jensen. if i'd have been the director i would have got him to inmpersonate as many jocks as possible in full costume thoughout the show (including janice long of course!)
ReplyDeleteabc: they were like a band version of "ten little indians" in that one by one original members left, never to return. the bassist was the first to depart very early on, and now the drummer's been replaced. the saxist has very little to do here other than weave about all over the place, so not surprisingly he was the next to go in short order. the guitarist did manage to stick it out for a few more years but he is no more either now, just leaving mr fry as the representation of the act. martin's hair suits him better this way than the floppy fringe he had in the gold lame suit era, but musically this really is a nothing song and small wonder it made very little impression. and hardly deserving as the title of this esteemed blog in that sense!
donna summer/musical youth: rather surprisingly this was produced for donna (by the irish alien michael omartian - i jest, he's american really) rather than the youth, as it sounds far more suited for them with its west indian feel. it's nothing special, and donna's shrill delivery is rather unappealing to say the least. did the director know about the howard jones video that also featured schoolkids (or vice-versa?). i don't think i spotted a single black face among the child extras, which suggests it was more likely shot somewhere like hertfordshire than handsworth. that reminds me of the time when arsenal's ground was under construction with one end replaced with a mural of supporters - it had to be repainted after complaints that there weren't enough ethnic minorities in the "crowd"!
reg: whatever i think of him, i suppose you have to give the guy credit to make the time to appear in the studio given that no doubt he had to be everywhere at once. but playing air piano whilst all anyone can hear is invisible guitars is not exactly pushing the boat out to promote it. the latest stupid hat he's wearing (we all know you're a slaphead reg!) reminds me that at this time i used to ride a motorbike wearing one of those old-fashioned cork helmets with leather straps, as i hated the close-fitting contemporary ones. of course i got stopped whenever plod got sight of me, and no doubt they saw an opportunity to brighten up their day with an arrest. but i would display the british safety standard "kite" logo that was inside the helmet, which would completely flummox them and so let me go on my way!
police: my my, what an impression "mad max 2" * has been making on our pop stars - first the numanoid, then duran duran, and now this lot. sting certainly looks the part of a road warrior with his bronzed bony features and freshly bleached and blow-dried barnet, but (the now 40-something) andy summers is faintly ludicrous atop of pile of junk bobbing about with a telly arial for a "guitar". this starts explosively, but then starts to get bogged down and lose its way somewhat - in my opinion they should have released the far more immediate (and vastly superior) "synchronicity i" as the third single instead
* i didn't see this until 1984 as part of a sci-fi all-nighter at the scala cinema in kings cross - a fest which also featured "mad max 1", "blade runner" and "escape from new york". and bizarrely amongst it all was a black & white roger corman horror b-movie (parodying the beat generation) called "a bucket of blood"! most of the audience were of the alternative variety (including one or two familar pop star faces) and smoking dope. but despite the second-hand effects of that and the fact that i was living a 9 to 5 life at the time, i somehow managed to stay awake for most of the night!
DeleteBlimey, you're right, Andy Summers was nearly 41 at the time of this TOTP episode. It means that he would have been 36 years old when the Police made their debut in 1979 with Roxanne, which is relatively late for up-and-coming groups like The Police. He is 9 years older than Sting and Stewart Copeland. That is a strange age combination for the three of them, but somehow he must have steered the other two towards success with his maturity on board.
DeleteFifty something here.
DeleteI seem to recall an interview with Martin Fry around 1990 where he said that ABC were playing in Tokyo and, without warning, the drummer launched into a drum solo which lasted 15 minutes much to everyone else's bemusement. Apparently the Yellow Magic Orchestra were in the audience and said drummer had decided it was his chance to audition...
andy summers started off in the early 60's and spent the rest of that decade and most of the next in various modestly successful oufits, before joining the police in what he probably thought would be the autumn of his career. but thanks to being blessed with youthful looks (that he still has to some extent even now!) he caused some shocks when he was "outed" as a veteran when they first broke through. i think you are right in that he acted as the "lukewarm water" inbetween the fire and ice that was stewart copeland and sting!
Deletei forgot to mention that toyah was another one leaping on the mad max bandwagon (or chariot in her case!)
DeleteDonna always sings well so don't get Wilberforce is on abahrt on ere. Ere it was filmed in Kingston-upon-Thames ahrter London multicultural area. Why is e point scorin on race when Donna n Musical Youth are black n Donna never got the credit wot she deserved for er stunnin music from the black communi'y n all she always was n always will be so much more than the Queen of Disco with er powerahrse voice n thass all there is to it.
Deleteunlike "synchronicity II" (which bears no relation to "synchronicity I"), this is pt II...
ReplyDeletequo: alan lancaster had upped sticks to oz at this point, which caused friction within the band as his availability was therefore somewhat limited. so in one of their videos (was it for this?) they actually replaced him (without his knowledge or consent) with some kind of puppet effigy! if i hadn't been told that this was a cover of a song by the king, there was no way i would have guessed - it sounds exactly like the last one that was on the show what seems only a couple of weeks earlier, that also had the word "blues" in the title
madness: after the aberation that was "wings of a dove" they return to some kind of form (albeit with what sounds like "tomorrow's just another day pt ii"). it almost goes without saying it's another excellent video, and i like the "land of the giants" effects - especially when a midget chrissie boy bursts out of the fire alarm
shakin stevens: i had the misfortune to catch a few seconds of this before the FF button was safely in my grasp, and couldn't help noticing the absurd teenaged-girl screams superimposed for a mild-mannered and ordinary-looking guy now in his mid-30's!
men without hats: having listened to this again now, i noted the inclusion of the word "imbecile" in the lyrics - like abc's pudding, that probably doesn't crop up in pop songs very much either. did i spot angus deayton in the audience?
Funny that 'aberration' you referred to as Wings of A Dove, happens to my fave Madness tune and narrowly missed the no.1 slot, having got to no.2 with it in the summer of '83.
Deleteeach to their own i suppose, but i suspect that very few madness fans (or even those who have a passing interest in the band) would choose "wings of a dove" as their favorite song by the nutty boys
DeleteFinally watching this on catch up now, and didn't notice when I saw this at the time in 1983, but pretty sure the drummer for ABC was Hugo Burnham, from the Gang of Four
ReplyDeletei think you could be right about hugo burnham (the drummer on the record was american session legend andy newmark, who was hardly likely to cross the atlantic just to appear on totp). but it's not that easy to tell, as if it is him then he has a lot more hair than in his gang of four days!
DeleteAndy Newmark was interviewed for the excellent BBC4 documentary on the making of Carly Simon's classic No Secrets album on Friday. He revealed that, even though he was Carly's regular drummer at the time, producer Richard Perry did not think he was producing the right drum sound for You're So Vain, so Jim Gordon was drafted at the last minute to play on the track instead.
Deletei correctly recalled that jim gordon was the schizophrenic who ended up in a loony bin (and is still there) for killing his mother with a hammer. but seeking confirmation of that on wiki rather spookily reveals that the murder actually took place in "this year" (1983)!
DeleteYes indeed - a very sad story.
Deleteif reg (or boy george for that matter) approached men without hats and asked to join their band, presumably the request would be denied?
ReplyDeletetotp 3 November 1983 with JK segment is here (thanks to Neil) https://we.tl/NRhqtxSW6R
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff, just managed to watch this.
DeleteStevie Nicks is once again in fine form and more popular in the USA than here in Britain.
Why a group called Quiet Riot would want to do a cover of an early 70s track by Slade is somewhat bewildering to say the least. Also, I wonder why Linda McCartney insists on appearing with the main characters in Paul McCartney's videos.
This stretches back to the Wings days from around the time of Mull Of Kintyre in 1977, and possibly in the earlier Wings videos too. Anyway, it's the last JK segment of 1983, and it will be a while until Feb 1984 where he returns, but that will not be long considering the way BBC4 are flying through these episodes.
Thanks Gia for passing the link on. JK bemoans the cleaning up of Times Square before introducing another lacklustre, generic offering from Stevie Nicks which underlines her gathering creative decline. Quiet Riot's Slade cover is pretty faithful to the original, but without Noddy singing it just isn't the same, and it feels deeply unfair that it should be another group who had a hit with it in the USA - having said that, Slade would soon achieve some belated Stateside success. We then get our first glimpse of the Mackson video, before yet another obscure British group who had more success over the Pond, of whom there seem to have been plenty around this time - on the basis of what we get here it is pretty tune-free and forgettable. Islands in the Stream is a nice song, but this showbizzy live version doesn't do it many favours.
DeleteDory - there is a "best of the year" JK segment on the 29 December show.
DeleteSheez, I was wondering why it was so long till JK next appears. I overlooked the 'best of 83' JK segment in December.
DeleteSome good stuff here this week….
ReplyDelete…and some not so good.
ABC – This was then and this is now – Well what was then was the superb album called ‘Lexicon of Love’ and then came this. What happened?
Donna Summer – Unconditional Love- As if we can’t get enough of Musical Youth they pop up here with the once mighty Donna Summer. Cue FF.
Elton John – Kiss the Bride – This just hasn’t worn well for me and Reg on his own playing at the piano makes it even less appealing.
Police – Synchronicity II – One of the mega tracks on the ‘Synchronicity’ album I just love this but I always felt the video was a let-down. It could have been so much more dynamic and exciting.
JK slot – The UK was seemingly impervious to Stevie Nicks at this time and hence we missed out on some great singles. Why on earth did they show so much of the ‘Say say say’ video? This was destined for no1 in the States and it rallied over here back into the top10 after this. Kenny and Dolly would have their moment, Quiet Riot do a great Slade tribute turn, and the Fixx…who???
Status Quo – A mess of blues – Anyone familiar with ‘Boring Song’ by Status Quid (co-written by Angus Deayton) will notice some huge similarities here! Green guitar from Mr Rossi again! A bit like Brian May, always plays the same guitar.
Madness – Sun and the Rain – I agree with opinions that ‘Wings of a Dove’ was an aberration (sorry Dory!). This was more like the nutty sound and video. In fact my favourite Madness track would come a while later with the huffing and chuffing of ‘Waiting for the Ghost Train’.
Shakin’ Stevens – Cry just a little bit – Another one to rally after some naff singles. Listening to this now I was struck by just how similar the backing track is to Madonna’s ‘True Blue’ (which of course hadn’t even been conceived then).
Billy Joel – Uptown Girl – I think everyone had had their fill of Culture Club by now (good song though that was) and this was the perfect ‘feel good’ antidote.
Men without Hats – Safety Dance – If ever a song had ‘dance playout’ written all over it then this is it! Studio audience and extras duly let their hair down!
Musical Youth were on three TOTP episodes in a row without being No.1, i.e., two for themselves and one week in between with Donna Summer, so from 27th Oct to 10 Nov (three episodes) we were seeing them every week in one form or another!
DeleteAnd yes indeed, the Safety Dance playout was for me the best studio audience dancing I have ever seen on TOTP. I suggest every one of us watch that scintillating edge-of-your-seat playout a few more times and see what I mean. I'm still dancing now.
the fixx was an english synth-pop act that despite being hyped never took off here, mainly due to a heavy american influence on their sound. so not surprisingly they made far more inroads there. the same could be said about huang chung (originally named after the sound their guitar made), who had to change their name to wang chung so ignorant yanks could pronouce their name properly!
DeleteYes, I remember Wang Chung's big hit here soon to come in 1984, called Dance Hall Days. "Take your partner by the hand....."
DeleteSorry, that should say "take your baby by the hand...."
DeleteJack Hues, the singer with Wang Chung teamed up with Tony Banks of Genesis in 1996 to sing on the 'Strictly Inc.' album. The 17 minute epic 'An Island in the Darkness' is one of life's great musical pleasures for me...
DeleteMe back again briefly (very fed up at work).
ReplyDeleteI might have already put this on the blog recently, and apologies if so, but some unusual facts about Donna Summer...
1) Her middle name is Adrian
2) Her surname was mis-spelt on the label of her debut single (her married surname was actually Sommer)
3) That first single, “The Hostage”, was banned in France as its subject matter involved a kidnap and killing, and a French politician had been kidnapped around the time the song made the chart.
her actual given name was LaDonna (note the "D" in upper case), the kind-of "made-up" name which was and still is in vogue for female offspring of african-american (and afr-caribbean) ethnicity, but presumably when she left her native shores to work in europe she was advised to drop the "la" bit?
Deleteby coincidence the police guitarist andy summers has a similar thing with his surname, in that it was actually spelt "somers". but in his his case i think he changed it deliberately to avoid confusion over the pronounciation...
by the way arthur: i hope you're still reading the blogs, even if you don't have the time to make anything other than minimal contributions at the moment? as a peer of mine you must be finding it somewhat frustating not to be able to contribute the way you did, as i know i am now sort-of at a peak when it comes to my interest in the pop charts and the associated memories of my life back then!
Hi Wilby. I'm still visiting my dad every evening which, as you can imagine, leaves less time to do chores and cuts into relaxation time. I admit I've got to the stage where I'm too tired or fed up to even read the blog. I've got a few days off next week and the week after so I might just be able to watch TOTP and bore you again for a limited period!
DeleteAh. Just seen later in this thread there'll be four shows this weekend. No chance for me to check these out with my current circumstances. Had it been two editions I could have managed it. I'm beginning to yearn for the very start of the re-runs - for the relatively new forumites, for the first year or so we only had three shows a MONTH (and complained about it) due to the Thursday night slot being given over once a month to "The Sky At Night"!
Deletearthur, something to bear in mind is that you don't have to watch the actual programmes in order to make comment here. as i think everyone knows, i don't have a tv licence so usually watch the bits of interest not already seen on the shows on youtube (which rarely lets me down) in order to have my say. and in the event of that not being to hand, then just knowledge of the music plus my own memories is usually enough to go on...
Deletehas anyone else noticed our old chum paul nicholas popping up in "just good friends" on tv that night? his character was a good deal younger than paul himself - the guy playing his dad was only seven years his senior!
ReplyDeletealso: note the cash-in on the snooker boom of the early 80's with a drama serial based around the game (which at this point despite its success still had an association with its somewhat-shady working-class roots)
I thought that Powell was much better on this one, but dear me, Mike Read annoyed the hell out of me. Yes, you can do impressions, well done. Take the bloody sunglasses off! (To be honest, I always thought he was rubbish on Saturday Superstore and even Pop Quiz was OK despite not because of him)
ReplyDeleteABC - I really like this song, although their new image is admittedly not great so I can understand why it didn't quite take off.
Donna Summer - It's cheesy as hell, but I like this too. Unlike everyone else here, I prefer her teacher outfit to that hideous thing she dances around in at the end!
Elton John - What on earth is Read dribbling on about before this - something about pit stops ?! I now know why this didn't get any higher after this appallingly badly staged performance with Elton constantly having to gaze slightly sideways at the camera and some terrible choreography - maybe they still needed Flick after all...
The Police - Looks like a Russell Mulcahy video to me - is it? Not overly keen on the song.
JK - Unlike many I would gladly never heae 'Islands In The Stream' again so didn't mind it being chopped! The rest were nothing to write home about either bar Jacko / Macca.
Status Quo - Rubbish.
Madness - See, Mr.Read, Suggs is allowed to wear sunglasses because unlike you, he is cool. And is obviously doing it for comedy reasons. Nice video, average song.
Shaky - More rubbish.
The playout I know very well as it was featured in Danny Baker's 'TV Heroes' show dedicated to the TOTP audience. Which - here comes a non-fascinating - anecdote I transferred from VHS only last week....
As we wait another few days for the next four shows to go up this weekend, and having seen the UK and US top tens in this week's show, here is what the Aussie top ten looked like in the same week of 3rd Nov 1983:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMIY-qMbuA0
Good to see The Safety Dance also in that top ten, as well as a rare KC & The Sunshine Band video for Give It Up. Never seen that one!
Hi Guys. Sorry I am bit behind on these re-runs at the moment as I've been a bit busy lately. Now trying to catch up and see that I can't download the 29th Sept show. Looking at the line up its a pretty good show. Can anyone post it either on the comments to this or the comments to that particular show. Please please please??
ReplyDeleteThe 17/11/83.edition has been put up at wetransfer.com/downloads/7cb305bdfaa
ReplyDeleteThanks brie, but I got an error message when I went to that address - are you sure it's correct?
ReplyDeleteCrumbs, I also got an error message. Please check your link again for us brie.
DeleteTry it with https:// at the front as it's working on mine.
Deletestill doesn't work. please can you put the FULL link that works for you
DeleteThis is the FULL link https://wetransfer.com/downloads/7cb305bdfaa2a4015eef10f78704f98f20170506090613/3865f4 Good Luck!
DeleteGreat stuff brie, just had the pleasure of watching this great show, and I'll wait to comment till it goes up tomorrow on this blog. Do you happen to have 1st Dec 1983 while you're at it, as we'll also need it on here this weekend?
DeleteNot yet Dory, but i'll keep looking out for it. Glad you could finally get the 17th!
DeleteThanks for posting the full link brie - it worked for me this time!
ReplyDeleteThese shows are getting more and more video heavy, but that's not a bad thing as videos were getting really good by this point.
ReplyDeleteI think I was the only person who liked the new ABC song at the time which I recall was described somewhere as Curtis Mayfield meets Hendrix. I worked at Our Price at this time and there were loads of sampler flexis for their Beauty Stab album on the counter and I grabbed a few of them thinking they would be rare collectors items in years to come. But they're not. I spy The Bill's Jeff Stewart in a striped vest at the back.
Donna Summer with a song that I had completely forgotten about. Good video filmed in a real West London school and everyone looks like they're having a good time. The guy playing the Will Hay-type headmaster was the old timer in the Haircut 100 video for Fantastic Day.
Elton John makes his regular appearance on the show, as always sans band but this time with added dancers and wearing a bizarre outfit that's doing him no favours. I'm not sure any bride would want to kiss him dressed like that.
The Police with an average song but with a really expensive video directed by Godley and Creme. Not sure I cared for this at the time.
What's not to like about the Madness song and video. A real return to form after the last hit but for me this really marked the end of their classic era until the band reformed in 1999
Status Quo bash out their own take of an Elvis classic and this sounds better than I thought it would but it's hard to see why it would sell enough copies to make the chart. More cod Elvis in the shape of Shaky. I have no memories of this but no doubt would have disliked it at the time.
Great to see Billy Joel at the top and it's easy to see why this went to number one so quickly.
Ironic that they are playing out with The Safety Dance with such haphazard dancing which looks rather dangerous especially striped-vest man Jeff Stewart with his mate perched on his shoulders.
The Safety Dance got the short straw this week at no.6, to be the playout and not a main listing, and considering they only had one main listing throughout the run of this superb single in the charts , TOTP made up for it the following week by showing a clip of their video in the return of the top ten video show, as some sort of solace for Men Without Hats, even though it was starting its decline the following week.
DeleteLong way behind on my watching, but this is one of the best for a long while...
ReplyDeleteThe main reason for that Charlie is because The Safety Dance played out the show in what was probably the greatest ever studio dancing playout on TOTP, coupled with the first week at No.1 for Billy Joel and his video.
Delete