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Topic: Top of the Pops on BBC Four - Thread Two.

Started by Dr Rock, August 26, 2018, 02:21:41 PM

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Norton Canes

Oh Caron
Since you went my life has been barren
To have you back there would be nothing sweeter
I used to watch you all the time on Blue Peter

Norton Canes


Norton Canes


daf

20 October 1988: Presenters: Caron Keating & Steve Wright

(3) D MOB FEATURING GARY HAISMAN – We Call It Acieed (video)
I'll Have an 'E' please, Bob
(9) THE CHRISTIANS – Harvest For The World
Boo those Fat Cats! . . . BOO THEM!!
- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(5) ENYA – Orinico Flow
(29) DEACON BLUE – Real Gone Kid
(20) MILLI VANILLI – Girl You Know It's True
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(4) ERASURE – A Little Respect
A Little Repeat
(11) KYLIE MINOGUE – Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi
French Aural


https://www.flickr.com/photos/51106326@N00/albums/72157675077982903

(1) WHITNEY HOUSTON – One Moment In Time (video)
The Winner Takes it All / The Loser Trips and Falls
(6) THE WEE PAPA GIRL RAPPERS – Wee Rule (+ credits)
I'll have a  'P' please, Bob

DrGreggles

"Doyn Toyn Oyty Oyt"

EDIT: Oops, wrong episode.

daf

27 October 1988: Presenters: Simon Mayo & Anthea Turner

(10) MILLI VANILLI – Girl You Know It's True
The Two Stooges
(19) THE ART OF NOISE & TOM JONES – Kiss
Act Your Age, Papa



(17) ROYAL HOUSE – Can You Party?
While your feet are stumpin', and the jam is pumpin'
- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(29) TANITA TIKARAM – Twist In My Sobriety
(18) ROBERT PALMER – She Makes My Day
(11) YAZZ – Stand Up For Your Love Rights
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(21) DEACON BLUE – Real Gone Kid
Post-fab Sprouts
(1) ENYA – Orinico Flow (video)
Underground, Overground
(14) THE BEATMASTERS & PP ARNOLD – Burn It Up (+ credits)
Chopped out the Drugs

It's notable that they never had the courage to have two female presenters together in this era (AFAIK), despite the fact that Caron and Anthea both outshone their male presenting partners.

daf

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on November 16, 2019, 04:53:10 PM
It's notable that they never had the courage to have two female presenters together in this era (AFAIK),

Stay tuned - spotted two coming up at the end of 1989.

DrGreggles

The Jenny Powell/Jackie Brambles power combo?

#1719
I stand corrected!

Jenny Powell only ever did 3 episodes yet two were with female co-hosts: Sybil Ruscoe (28.9.89) and "Jakki" Brambles (Madchester, 23.11.89)

daf

Quote from: DrGreggles on November 16, 2019, 05:37:57 PM
The Jenny Powell/Jackie Brambles power combo?

28/09/89 (Jenny Powell & Sybil Ruscoe)
23/11/89 (Jakki Brambles & Jenny Powell)

buzby

#1721
Quote from: daf on November 09, 2019, 01:57:11 PM
13 October 1988: Presenters: Bruno Brookes & Gary Davies (Ladies Night Special!!)

(16) THE BEATMASTERS & PP ARNOLD – Burn It Up
Blimey, PP Arnold looks amazing in this performance (she had just turned 42). She had a bad car accident in 1985 and couldn't tour while she was recuperating so she started doing session vocals to keep the wolf from the door. She was doing a TV advert jingle that was being produced by the 3 musicians who went on to become The Beatmasters (soundtracks for TV ads were their day job), but they kept in touch and started working on material together.

After the success of their collaboration with The Cookie Crew, for the follow-up Richard Walmsley asked Arnold if she fancied worknig on a House track - she had no idea what House was but agreed as long as it would be funky and soulful. Burn It Up was the result. Onstage we get a classic Emulator II, Ensoniq ESQ-1 (the digital synth bother to the Mirage sampler), Atari ST (probably running Steinberg Pro24) and Manda has the classic Simmons kit.

The Beatmasters were also friends with The KLF (Amanda Glanfield did the 808 & 909 programming for  them too), and put Bill & Jimmy in touch with her for some session work around this time for thr Burn The Bastards single and what would be the aborted first incarnation of The White Room album. Their 'Mu Mu' chants from Burn The Bastards, and Arnold's 'KLF Aha-aha' form The Church Of The KLF would be reused on many of their big hits, for which Arnold has long had a beef with them for unpaid royalties.

Quote
(19) T'PAU – Secret Garden
Carol wearing a dress where you can see what she had for dinner (possibly trying to upstage Sabrina and Kim wilde?). Standard Yamaha DX7/Roland D50 combo on the keyboard stand.

Quote
(31) SABRINA – All Of Me
Still lacking any visible means of support. The cameramen must hsve been so disappointed with that red jacket.

Quote
(15) KIM WILDE – Never Trust A Stranger
This is a cracker of a tune - Ricky's production is great, wirh that reverse reverb on Kim's soaring vocals at the start of the chorus followed  by the echoes at the end, and the Vince Clarke-esque descending keyboard runs. He was certainly pissing all over S/A/W on Kim's 2 recent singles in '88 so far. Kim looks great as always (though check out the performance from Germany's WWF Club - blimey!), and is really selling the performance. The Casio VZ-1, FZ-1 and PG-380 Midi guitar from the You Came appearance all make their return.

Spudgun

Quote from: daf on November 16, 2019, 04:21:03 PM
27 October 1988: Presenters: Simon Mayo & Anthea Turner

(10) MILLI VANILLI – Girl You Know It's True
The Two Stooges

Was it my imagination, or was there a really blatant edit in that intro straight after Anthea says "Milli Vanilli"? I wonder if that was done at the time or more recently...

Norton Canes

Quote from: daf on November 15, 2019, 10:08:35 PM
20 October 1988: Presenters: Caron Keating & Steve Wright

So, did they really go to the trouble of putting the whole set together just for Kylie? I was going to say you'd be disappointed if that was the only time you ever got to a studio recording of Top Of The Pops and they only had one act, but I'm not sure seeing Kylie perform could ever be classed as a disappointment. It's a pretty good song too, but the plastic SAW production kills it absolutely stone dead - it's crying out for a sultry French jazz arrangement a la Joe Le Taxi.   

buzby

#1724
Quote from: Norton Canes on November 16, 2019, 07:27:08 PM
So, did they really go to the trouble of putting the whole set together just for Kylie? I was going to say you'd be disappointed if that was the only time you ever got to a studio recording of Top Of The Pops and they only had one act, but I'm not sure seeing Kylie perform could ever be classed as a disappointment. It's a pretty good song too, but the plastic SAW production kills it absolutely stone dead - it's crying out for a sultry French jazz arrangement a la Joe Le Taxi.

daf's listing is wrong - Enya was a studio performance too (mixed with the video), not a Breaker.

Quote from: daf on November 15, 2019, 10:08:35 PM
20 October 1988: Presenters: Caron Keating & Steve Wright
Nice little Blue Peter joke form Caron at the start. Her debut is unfortunately marred by being paired with that absolute tit Wright, who has gone overnight from the red glasses and braces yuppie to an embarrassing Acid Dad with that smiley shirt. I still think his drug of choice is Charlie though, going by his usual antics

Quote
(3) D MOB FEATURING GARY HAISMAN – We Call It Acieed (video)
MORAL PANIC STARTS NOW! The tabloid uproar from this episode led to a two-month 'Acid Ban' from the BBC playlists and TOTP, despite Danny D saying that the title referred to Acid House music and was nothing to do with drugs.

The video was directed by Marek Budzynski (who would go on to direct The Turtle And The Sea) and was only 2 minutes long as London/FFRR thought it would not be a hit and so didn't want to pay to shoot any more footage.

Quote
(9) THE CHRISTIANS – Harvest For The World
I'ts a decent cover version of the song, but it's all about the video really. The stop-motion section was directed by Richard Goleszowski of Aardman (who later went on to create Rex The Runt). The message of the video is pretty radical for teatime TV, to be fair.

Quote
- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(5) ENYA – Orinico Flow
It's not a Breaker, daf - it's a studio performance!

Ah, the Roland D50 demo song, specifically the PizzaGoGo pizzicato strings patch. It was all over the Watermark album, from which her first hit came. After leaving Clannad to continue working with the producer Nicky Ryan and his wife Roma (who writes the lyrics) she moved in with them at their farmhouse and Nicky built her a home studio. They were then commissioned to produce the music for the BBC series The Celts which had been released on BBC Records And Tapes in 1986.

Rob Dickins was a fan of The Celts soundtrack and signed them to WEA on the basis of the demos for Watermark, and jokingly asked if there was a single.  A couple of weeks later Ryan delivered the rough mix for Orinoco Flow. They had recorded the album with Tears For Fears producer Ross Cullum (both Rob Dickins and Ross Cullum are namechecked in the lyrics of the song) at Orinoco Studios in London but had a falling out, so the single was mixed by James Barton. Dickins decided to release it and it became an unexpected smash hit which also helped the parent album to sell bucketloads too.

I've always liked this song (it was certainly a refreshing change to the S/A/W monotony at the time), though the lyrics are mostly meaningless twaddle (it's more an excuse for her to vocalise and produce multi-tracked vocal harmonies drenched in reverb). Enya herself is a little like Kate Bush - reclusive, uses technology to compose and produce mostly on her own, hardly ever plays live and only releases sporadically (8 albums in 29 years). She's one of the richest musicians in Europe though, so she must e doing something right.

Quote
(11) KYLIE MINOGUE – Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi
Kylie looks really awkward here without any company onstage, and as the song drags on like she can't wait for it to be over.

buzby

#1725
Quote from: daf on November 16, 2019, 04:21:03 PM
27 October 1988: Presenters: Simon Mayo & Anthea Turner
Oh Lor, wooden Mayo and the personality vacuum of Turner, ably demonstrating that enthusiasm is no substitute for talent.

Notice that in the chart rundown we see the first effect of the BBC's 'Acid Ban' - Mayo can't say the title of D-Mob's record.

Quote
(10) MILLI VANILLI – Girl You Know It's True
Oh dear, Frank Farian pulling the same stunt he did with Boney M. and he nicks the 'Ashley's Roachclip' break from Paid In Full as well. He also used JJ Jeczalik's Funk Inc. orch hit sample from Owner Of A Lonely Heart and the Fairlight ORCH5 sample in the same song!
Quote from: Spudgun on November 16, 2019, 06:54:47 PM
Was it my imagination, or was there a really blatant edit in that intro straight after Anthea says "Milli Vanilli"? I wonder if that was done at the time or more recently...
There is a rather clumsy edit and cut to the stage, where normally the camera would pan from the presenters to the stage. The edit was because there was a link to a BBC Drug Alert Helpline (presumably as a result of last weeks BBC POP SHOW IN DRUG PROMOTION SHAME headlines) and the phone number is now used by Macmillan. the full intro can be viewed here.

Quote
(19) THE ART OF NOISE & TOM JONES – Kiss
Speaking of Jeczalik, here he is now, playing the Fairlight III's keyboard/trackpad while Anne Dudley plays the grand piano (Gary Langan had departed by this point). The song itself is OK, though the only think linking it to te classic AON is the middle 8 that quotes from their previous work (close To The Edit, Moments In Love, Paranoimia, Peter Gunn and Dragnet). However ,unless Duane eddy is involved there's no reason for a AON track to have a guitar solo. Old Leatherface does a decent performance though, throwing in al lthe old Elvis moves for the mums from atop Dudley's piano.

Quote
(17) ROYAL HOUSE – Can You Party?
While your feet are stumpin', and the jam is pumpin'
you ar eon the right lines with the link to Technotronic, daf, but Todd Terry (for it is he) had nicked it off Marshall Jefferson's Move Your Body, along with the intro to Can You Feel It? from the Jacksons Live album, the Oh Yeah from First Choice's Let No Man Put Asunder and the siren from Mantronix's King Of The Beats

Long before Technotronic and a host of other Belgians used it as a pattern, the track was used as the basis for The Jungle Brothers' I'll House You, which was also in the chart this week

Quote
(21) DEACON BLUE – Real Gone Kid
Blimey, Ricky Ross has the stare of a psychopath, doesn't he?

Cuntbeaks

Quote from: buzby on November 16, 2019, 09:33:26 PM
Blimey, Ricky Ross has the stare of a psychopath, doesn't he?

Can confirm.When i worked in Glens (Hutchisons, Robertsons and Stepek), I sold him the cheapest fridge we had in stock. A real fucking no name lump that our cowboy boss had bought in from Eastern Europe. They came packed in actual wooden crates and made as much noise as a tractor, he also looked like a tramp.

"A ship called Dignitas"

The Culture Bunker

For whatever reason, Deacon Blue were huge on local radio in Cumbria circa 1988-93. Pretty much all their singles from that time are burned into my brain because even if it was only a short ten minute car ride to see my grandparents, there was a chance 'Dignity', 'Real Gone Kid' or 'Fergus Sings the Blues' would be on the airwaves.

Norton Canes

Quote from: buzby on November 16, 2019, 08:12:36 PM
daf's listing is wrong - Enya was a studio performance too (mixed with the video), not a Breaker

Yeah, I whizzed through it on the iPlayer, didn't notice.

Quote from: buzby on November 16, 2019, 09:33:26 PM
the personality vacuum of Turner, ably demonstrating that enthusiasm is no substitute for talent

I was going to suggest this was a rare or even unique example of one presenter (Turner) succeeding another (the divine Caron) on two different programmes - but a fact check revealed it was Diane-Louise Jordan who stepped into the void left by Caron Keating, while Turner commenced her tenure a couple of months after the departure of Yvette Fielding.

Pauline Walnuts

Quote from: buzby on November 16, 2019, 06:42:42 PM

Carol wearing a dress where you can see what she had for dinner (possibly trying to upstage Sabrina and Kim wilde?).

Indeed, you could almost see Carol Decker's 'Secret Garden'.



Go on, get a good mental image.


nigeyb

Just watched 20 + 27 October

Royal House is a banger and a half - used to love jumping around to that one

The D Mob video is really great too - the song's a bit of an Acid house novelty tune but the vid....

Disturbingly I also quite enjoyed Deacon Blue's Real Gone Kid

I found them very annoying back in the day. I must be going soft in my old age but I think it sounds pretty good now. Hooktastic and precision tooled to be a massive hit but surprisingly enjoyable.

Jockice

#1731
Quote from: The Culture Bunker on November 16, 2019, 11:33:41 PM
For whatever reason, Deacon Blue were huge on local radio in Cumbria circa 1988-93. Pretty much all their singles from that time are burned into my brain because even if it was only a short ten minute car ride to see my grandparents, there was a chance 'Dignity', 'Real Gone Kid' or 'Fergus Sings the Blues' would be on the airwaves.

Not Chocolate Girl then? The song I maintain has the most nonsensical chorus of all time. 'He says she's the chocolate girl cos he thinks she melts when he touches her. She knows she's the chocolate girl cos she's broken up and swallowed and wrapped in bits of silver.' You what? Is she plain as well?

daf

#1732
Quote from: buzby on November 16, 2019, 08:12:36 PM
daf's listing is wrong - Enya was a studio performance too (mixed with the video), not a Breaker.

Apologies for this - I think what happened is that the Popscene listings I was working from had wrongly listed the Christians as a breaker for that show - in fixing that one, I seem to have managed to botch the one that followed.

Steve Wright going for undercover cop at a rave there.

Bit more enjoyable this week.

Lad from Deacon blue looks like one of the bad marines from The Rock.

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: Jockice on November 17, 2019, 10:43:13 AM
Not Chocolate Girl then? The song I maintain has the most nonsensical chorus of all time. 'He says she's the chocolate girl cos he thinks she melts when he touches her. She knows she's the chocolate girl cos she's broken up and swallowed and wrapped in bits of silver.' You what? Is she plain as well?
Mercifully not, as the male character in that Dylan-esque narrative epic has the same name as my old man. 'Twist and Shout' got a lot of play, though.

MiddleRabbit

Harvest For The World reminded me that the lyrics aren't actually, "Love's powerful anus."

monkfromhavana

The thing about D. Mob's "We Call It Acieed" is that there's not actually any TB-303 on the track whatsoever.

Gary Haisman was one of the "known" dancers from Crackers, so it's also a but surprising that his contribution is just wailing "acieeed" and doing some kind of semi-jack.

Anyway, from the period where even The Sun were punting out smiley t-shirts before deciding a matter of weeks later that it was all an evil cult. Steve Wright's acid t-shirt aiming to hype up his street cred (although he would later refer to "LFO" as being one of the worst records ever made). What's with all his jerky movements and odd gestures?

buzby

Quote from: monkfromhavana on November 18, 2019, 01:23:43 PM
The thing about D. Mob's "We Call It Acieed" is that there's not actually any TB-303 on the track whatsoever.
Indeed, it was mostly made on a Prophet VS, a sample-based digital synth with analogue filter, envelope generator and modulation. It did have the innovative Vector Synthesis joystick controller on it, and the technology went on to appear on the Yamaha SY-series and Korg Wavestation, both of which were created after Yamaha and Korg had taken over the ailing Sequential Circuits.

Quote
Steve Wright's acid t-shirt aiming to hype up his street cred (although he would later refer to "LFO" as being one of the worst records ever made). What's with all his jerky movements and odd gestures?
Have you never watched a Wright episode before? He regularly looks and acts like he's had two fat rails prior to a recording.

the

Years ago I did re-create the acid and bass lines from Acieed using Rebirth's version of the 303, and it sounded great (especially with the drum machines too). But I think Acieed sounds great anyway, it drives along, little bit dark and moody.

Acieed is a stylistically a weird intro for D Mob, whose later album had a wodge of really decent housey dance-soul tracks on it (very nicely produced by yer man too). Worthy chart botherers IMO.

Acid House was more of a "catch all" term by '88 though (it wasn't really used outside of the media TBH) Can You Party would have been chucked in there too.

We Call It Acid isn't a bad tune, I always thought that a good dub with the cheese taken out would turn up on an import somewhere, but never found one.