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March 29, 2024, 01:33:34 AM

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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

Previous topic - Next topic
Quote from: Bobby Treetops on February 10, 2020, 01:50:06 PM
Well I brought it on 12-inch, so I'm the bigger fool.

Almost 3 times as much ... christ.

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: boki on February 10, 2020, 05:29:35 PM
Yeah, it's a bit rich seeing as he's also got Kylie, Jason and Rick all crooning hoary old ballads.  Maybe the lasses themselves had more creative control than we'd assume?
Didn't they say in an interview at the time that they quite liked Fleetwood Mac, actually?

Bobby Treetops

Quote from: A Hat Like That on February 10, 2020, 06:01:58 PM
Almost 3 times as much ... christ.

I've just checked and looks like Belfast Child was the same length on both the single and twelve inch, no added bonus mega-mix for me.

Instead I got an extra track of Simple Minds pompous (I can't be arsed to listen back to see if this was the case, it's just very good guess) cover version of Biko, happy days.


Johnboy

a most underwhelming comeback, front of the NME and everything

boki

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on February 10, 2020, 06:03:53 PM
Didn't they say in an interview at the time that they quite liked Fleetwood Mac, actually?
It's a fair point.  I quite like Fleetwood Mac, too, but most of the time would rather Jack.

gilbertharding

I'm only a year older than the older Reynolds Girl, and while I had only a slight appreciation for Heavy Metal in 1989, I was a big fan of the Rolling Stones and music from the past in general, including early Pink Floyd. I drew the line at Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac and singing along with Yazz though.

In fact, it's only in the last 10 years or so that I felt ready to begin to appreciate The Mac (by which I mean Rumours and Tusk).

gilbertharding

Quote from: daf on February 08, 2020, 11:59:12 AM
2 March 1989: Presenters: Gary Davies & Anthea 'Cocaine' Turner

(4) SAM BROWN – Stop 
Gentlemen Prefer Browns


Did anyone else notice that they introduced Sam Brown as being 'over there', and pointed... but it was the exact same clip they'd shown on the 16 February show - including the dead giveaway of two stage-hands running away in the background.

Norton Canes

Got a feeling they might have introduced Gloria Estefan as being 'live in the studio tonight' despite showing the clip from a couple of weeks ago, too. Also noticed a reference to a 'cameo' of Belfast Child, presumably in reference to the way that track like many others had been completely cut down.

daf

Quote from: boki on February 11, 2020, 12:31:11 PM
most of the time would rather Jack.

How come Mike Read didn't have a problem with this one then, eh?

It's clearly about wanking!!! *

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* ( . . . is what I thought at the time - having never heard of "Jack music" . . . might be about both, of course)

buzby

#1990
Quote from: boki on February 10, 2020, 05:29:35 PM
Yeah, it's a bit rich seeing as he's also got Kylie, Jason and Rick all crooning hoary old ballads.  Maybe the lasses themselves had more creative control than we'd assume?
Everything You Never Wanted To Know About The Reynolds Girls, And Never Thought To Ask

Linda and Aisling Reynolds were part a family of 9 siblings from Litherland, a posh suburb to the north of Liverpool (though they were originally from Ireland) who were all involved with performing from an early age - they performed as The Reynolds Family Singers around the North West and in Ireland in the late 70s and early 80s, even making it as far as cabaret apperances in New York.

Eldest sister Bernadine Reynolds had appeared in Bleasdale's Scully mini-series in 1984.
Older sister Majella Reynolds appeared in the 1986 Mersey TV one-off teen drama What Now? alongside Vic 'Jack from Bread' McGuire  and later as Bianca in 1 episode of the Steven McGann-starring Liveprool-based sitcom Help!
Youngest sister Debbie Reynolds was the original Katie Rodgers in Brookside from 1987 to 1989 before being replaced by Diane Burke.

Aisling had been appearing on stage since she was a toddler and peformed in pantomimes at the Liverpool Empire and in West End productions. Linda had a similar background, appearing as Molly in the West End run of Annie in 1978. As their other sisters started to get involved with TV, their parents thought it would be a worth trying to set Aisling (then 16) and Linda (then 18) up as a Mel & Kim-style girl group. In the late 80s Pete Waterman had a saturday lunchtime radio show on Radio City in Liverpool, and after one show the sisters were waiting outside City's studios in Stanley Street to give a demo tape to him (the same route that Sonia took to 'stardom') He listened to the tape and decided to sign them up as a 'development' act.

According to Waterman, the track was inspired by a radio seminar he was attending "where everyone was banging on about demographics. I wanted to make a record that cocked a snook at that whole idea of the blanding out of youth culture, something that pricked the balloon of pomposity about having reverence for old rock bands. It was just a bit of fun" and he decided on a whim that his new signings would be the vehicle for his arrogance. The promo video featured the sisters dancing in front of various Liverpool landmarks - the Liver Buildings, Pier Head, Maritime Museum, St. George's Hall etc.

Not everybody at PWL was a fan of the record though - Phil 'Hitman' Harding said "This record epitomized how bad it could get, and confirms to me that this year was the start of the PWL/SAW creative downfall. The record was awful – cheesy and corny beyond belief and I felt embarrassed to be associated with the building every time I heard it on the radio. I can't explain it any better than that. Many others in the building felt the same about it, yet no one dared say anything about how horrible the record was, for fear of losing their job."

According to Waterman, all was going well until the Girls' TOTP appearance as they had got their image all wrong, which killed off it's rise up the charts (he reckons it would have got to number one if it was Mel & Kim). The actual chart data doesn't support this though, as it peaked at #8 on the 1st of April. However, the single did provoke a backlash in the media and music press for both it's anti-rock sentiment and how terrible it was, but Waterman managed to duck any flak (and as The Cuture Bunker said, in interviews the Girls themselves said they actually didn't mind Fleetwood Mac).

The Girls performed on the 1989 Hitman Roadshow concert tour alongside Kylie, Jason, Big Fun, Sinitta and Sonia. Plans were made for a follow-up single and album, but according to Waterman they got 'too big for their boots' and wouldn't cancel a pre-booked holiday for promo work, the sessions were scrapped, and they were dropped as a result. Harding later said that he'd heard that the sisters' manager, their father Walter, had been very difficult to get on with and do business with, but that the girls themselves were easy going.

Walter then set up the Renotone label to record a follow-up single, Get Real with songwriters/producers Lord'N'Elliot (Mark Lord and Bruce Smith-Elliot, who would later go on to work with PWL and Kylie). It didn't chart and that was the end of the Reynolds Girls. Linda did briefly resurface in 1992 as a vocalist for club outfit Hype on What You Wanna Do To Me?, who supported Take That on their early live dates, but it didn't exactly set the world on fire (it's so obcure it doesn't exist on Discogs), and now apparently lives in Ireland. Aisling graduated with a B.A. (Hons) degree in Time Based Media in 1997.

They haven't commented on their 15 minutes of fame since, and ignored requests for interviews and to contact and the promoters of Waterman's Hit Factory Live concert in 2012 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of PWL.

daf

Quote from: buzby on February 11, 2020, 03:16:04 PM
Phil Harding : "This record epitomized how bad it could get, and confirms to me that this year was the start of the PWL/SAW creative downfall. The record was awful - cheesy and corny beyond belief and I felt embarrassed to be associated with the building every time I heard it on the radio. "

What's he on about? It's probably the best sounding record from them up to this point - like something the KLF would have done in their Disco 2000 guise.

Miles better than all that soupy Rick Astley or Jason Donovan muck!

buzby

Quote from: gilbertharding on February 11, 2020, 02:25:39 PM
Did anyone else notice that they introduced Sam Brown as being 'over there', and pointed... but it was the exact same clip they'd shown on the 16 February show - including the dead giveaway of two stage-hands running away in the background.
Quote from: Norton Canes on February 11, 2020, 02:36:43 PM
Got a feeling they might have introduced Gloria Estefan as being 'live in the studio tonight' despite showing the clip from a couple of weeks ago, too.
They had been doing that for donkey's years by this point, re-using VT of previous weeks' appreances by artists and presenting them 'as live', especially for long-running number ones (I think the upcoming Black Box one gets repeated something like 6 times).

boki

Quote from: buzby on February 11, 2020, 03:16:04 PMPhil 'Hitman' Harding

I'm surprised he got to call himself that, especially as it appears that cuddly train enthusiast Pete Waterman seemed to rule with something of an iron fist.  Great stuff as ever, Buzby.

gilbertharding

#1994
Quote from: daf on February 11, 2020, 03:23:03 PM
What's he on about? It's probably the best sounding record from them up to this point - like something the KLF would have done in their Disco 2000 guise.

Miles better than all that soupy Rick Astley or Jason Donovan muck!

I'm sure I remember having a distinctly love-hate relationship with that song at the time.

As I say, I'd spent most of the 80s thinking modern (chart) music was mainly guff - and sought refuge largely in 'music from the past' (along with enough other people around my age for a bone fide SCENE, it turns out).

The Reynolds Girls were at the same time a prime example of what I saw as the worst of 80s chart music, but with an undeniable, and thrilling message: 'Shove off Grandad'.

Jockice

My main memory of that song is writing an article that mentioned it at a time when the editor had issued an edict against the use of slang language. The bloke who subbed it was about 60, so I wasn't really that surprised when it appeared in the paper retitled I Would Rather Jack.

JesusAndYourBush

Quote from: buzby on February 11, 2020, 03:16:04 PM
Eldest sister Bernadine Reynolds had appeared in Bleasdale's Scully mini-series in 1984.
Older sister Majella Reynolds appeared in the 1986 Mersey TV one-off teen drama What Now? alongside Vic 'Jack from Bread' McGuire  and later as Bianca in 1 episode of the Steven McGann-starring Liveprool-based sitcom Help!
Youngest sister Debbie Reynolds was the original Katie Rodgers in Brookside from 1987 to 1989 before being replaced by Diane Burke.

Also, Aisling had a very brief blink and you'll miss it appearance in an episode of Bread.

DrGreggles

Quote from: JesusAndYourBush on February 11, 2020, 06:45:52 PM
Also, Aisling had a very brief blink and you'll miss it appearance in an episode of Bread.

The best way to watch 'Bread'.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: buzby on February 11, 2020, 03:39:14 PM
They had been doing that for donkey's years by this point, re-using VT of previous weeks' appreances by artists and presenting them 'as live', especially for long-running number ones (I think the upcoming Black Box one gets repeated something like 6 times).

Mayo and Kermode were talking about this after Kermode caught him on totp and was ribbing him for looking young and cheerful. Mayo was saying you always had to point towards the performance but often it was nowhere because it was a VT.

Did they ever recut old performances? I thought they did that on one of the PSB ones but I also would've thought in those days it would've been vision mixed and recorded to a single tape.

buzby

Quote from: daf on February 10, 2020, 05:10:20 PM
Probably the best song on the show, though - some lovely squiddly Roland 303 bits in there.
I'm fairly certian there is no TB303 in there, daf. The squelchy sound has got PWM in it, which the 303 couldn't do. It sounds to my ears like a Roland Juno Alpha where the filter cutoff could be tweaked with the data entry wheel.
Quote from: daf on February 11, 2020, 03:23:03 PM
What's he on about? It's probably the best sounding record from them up to this point - like something the KLF would have done in their Disco 2000 guise.

Miles better than all that soupy Rick Astley or Jason Donovan muck!
The irony being that Disco 2000 was The KLF actively aping S/A/W's production techniques and sound, specifically their work with Bananarama and The Reynolds Girls ('Uptight' was released a week after the episode of TOTP that I'd Rather Jack was featured on).
Quote from: boki on February 11, 2020, 04:05:16 PM
I'm surprised he got to call himself that, especially as it appears that cuddly train enthusiast Pete Waterman seemed to rule with something of an iron fist.  Great stuff as ever, Buzby.
Apologies, that should obviously have been Phil 'Mixmaster' Harding - I obviously had Waterman's Radio City show on my brain at the time (The Hitman On City - God, he doesn't half talk some shite - let the record play, Pete!).
Quote from: gilbertharding on February 11, 2020, 04:31:30 PM
The Reynolds Girls were at the same time a prime example of what I saw as the worst of 80s chart music, but with an undeniable, and thrilling message: 'Shove off Grandad'.
Though ironically it was one of pop's 'granddads' ('A DJ twice their age' to quote the lyrics) who was behind it all, and it's creation was driven by his desire to be taken seriously by the rest of the music business.
Quote from: JesusAndYourBush on February 11, 2020, 06:45:52 PM
Also, Aisling had a very brief blink and you'll miss it appearance in an episode of Bread.
As did virtually everybody in Liverpool with an Equity card at that time! She also had a bit part in a 1989 episode of Don Henderson/Leslie Grantham clubland drama The Paradise Club.
Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on February 11, 2020, 08:01:11 PM
Did they ever recut old performances? I thought they did that on one of the PSB ones but I also would've thought in those days it would've been vision mixed and recorded to a single tape.
The studio tapings were vision mixed live to VT, as you say. I think sometimes they did edit in shots from previous runthroughs or rehearsals though for subsequent repeats, especially if something went wrong during a 'live' recording.

buzby

#2000
Quote from: daf on February 08, 2020, 11:59:12 AM
2 March 1989: Presenters: Gary Davies & Anthea 'Cocaine' Turner
Jesus Christ, turner is nearly as incoherent as Steve Wright in his 'prime'.
Quote
(17) LIVING IN A BOX – Blow The House Down
Fourth Little Pig : Cardboard
DX7 Corner returns (with Mk2s this time ) plus a D-50 on top (echoing theri relative positions in the synth hierarchy at the time) and the standard Simmons drumpads. Richard Derbyshire still looks incredibly uncomfortable fronting this band.

This was the lead single off their second album Gatecrashing, and features another Brian May guest guitar solo spot - Queen were in the studio next door at Olympic Studios when they were recording their second album, and their producers Dan 'Instant Replay' Hartman and Tom (brother of Chris) Lord-Alge asked if he wouldn't mind doing a solo as a favour.
Quote
(4) SAM BROWN – Stop 
I just want to drop in this wonderful acoustic performance Ms  Brown did in 2003 on the Des & Mel show, self-accompanied on the piano (Jools Holland not required). it was 4 years after this when she sadly lost her voice.
Quote
(16) TYREE featuring KOOL ROCK STEADY – Turn Up The Bass 
This is fairly dreadful, isn't it? He's miming too - instant cred loss for a rapper in my book.
Quote
- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(23) DEPECHE MODE – Everything Counts (live)
Oh dear. This is the point I started to 'consciously uncouple' from DM, as upon seeing '101' is was clear they were rapidly disappearing up their own arses.

Quote from: daf on February 10, 2020, 04:52:54 PM
9 March 1989: Presenters: Nicky Campbell, Lenny Henry & Hale & Pace (Comic Relief Special)

(17) THE REYNOLDS GIRLS – I'd Rather Jack
See above!
Quote
(16) DUSTY SPRINGFIELD – Nothing Has Been Proved
This is great, though it's a shame Tennant couldn't be present to do his backing vocal bits.
Quote
(24) WOMACK & WOMACK – Celebrate The World
Singing live unfortunately - Linda is great, but Cecil is honking all over it.
Quote
(15) PAULA ABDUL – Straight Up
Another banger - the second single off her debut album forever Your Girl (lead single Knocked Out stalled at #45 the previous September), it was written and produced by Elilot Wolff, Chaka Khan's keyboard player . A great performance too - it's clear to see she was Janet Jackson's choreographer
Quote
(11) DONNA SUMMER – This Time I Know It's For Real
Great - S/A//W manage to make Donna 'God Fearin' Summer sound like Kylie and Jason. The standard Dee Lewis and Mike Stock backing vocals, Matt Aitken guitar, 'A. Linn' percussion and 'Mixmaster' Phil Harding at the controls.

kalowski

Is it just me who hears "Nothing Has Been Proved" and wants to shout "Proven! It's Nothing Has Been Proven. Unless you're talking about bread, Dusty."

Norton Canes

Quote from: buzby on February 11, 2020, 09:47:03 PM
Oh dear. This is the point I started to 'consciously uncouple' from DM, as upon seeing '101' is was clear they were rapidly disappearing up their own arses

Just before Violator? There's still time to recant!

Interesting stuff about the set-up of the Pasadena Rosebowl gig on the DM documentary covering the Music For the Masses era - from about 28:00 minutes here, including the revelation that Dave Gahan could easily have been pulverised by the dodgy rig

Quote from: kalowski on February 11, 2020, 09:57:20 PM
Is it just me who hears "Nothing Has Been Proved" and wants to shout "Proven! It's Nothing Has Been Proven. Unless you're talking about bread, Dusty."

The Pet Shop Boys have a history of getting words wrong though.  It niggles me every time I hear "if I was you" in "I'm Not Scared" too.

And the lyricist had been a journalist beforehand so it seems deliberately perverse.

Norton Canes


Norton Canes

Gloria in excessive (though that crackle on the mic gets me every time)

Norton Canes


Norton Canes


Norton Canes

Fuck me I'd forgotten what a dog's breakfast that Fuzzbox song is