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

[Jockice]

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

The biggest sell-outs in music history. Of course they weren't restyled at all.

[PinkNoise]

Pete Waterman unleashing both I'd Rather Jack AND Kylie's Step Back In Time is the most blatant case of trying to have your cake and eat it in musical history.

[Darles Chickens]

Pete Waterman unleashing both I'd Rather Jack AND Kylie's Step Back In Time is the most blatant case of trying to have your cake and eat it in musical history.

What, because they sound the same?  Don't they all sound the same?

[DrGreggles]

What, because they sound the same? 

The lyrical content is somewhat contradictory.

[Satchmo Distel]

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.

In the 70s they sometimes shot several takes and showed different ones in various weeks. 'Instant Karma' for example.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Did they ever recut old performances?

I'm sure I remember seeing performances intercut with shots from the songs music video, but can't remember if the performance itself was a repeat or whether the music video parts were an attempt to brighten up a dull performance.

[famethrowa]

but Waterman managed to duck any flak

Did he manage to duck the Jack flak about Mac, despite being a prak?

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

The biggest sell-outs in music history. Of course they weren't restyled at all.

Oi! Leave Fuzzbox alone! That " International Rescue" song isn't much cop, but later on in the year came " Pink Sunshine" , a proper perky little pop number! The likes of The Shamen and The Beloved were bigger sell outs than this lot in terms of the Indie Types Seeking Proper Careers of '86.

Also, for all you Lisa fans out there- I once shagged someone who looked exactly like the lead singer of this group!!! There, it's said and done. Don't want to let my followers down.

[Better Midlands]

The likes of The Shamen and The Beloved were bigger sell outs than this lot in terms of the Indie Types Seeking Proper Careers of '86.

I don't think that's fair on The Beloved, there's was more of a Scritti Politti-esque transformation to gentle pop.

The Shamen were drivel after En-Tact.

[daf]

16 March 1989: Presenters: Simon Mayo, Sybil 'Emperor' Ruscoe & Rod McKenzie

(22) NEW ORDER – Round & Round
BASS! How high can you go?
(7) GLORIA ESTEFAN – Can't Stay Away From You
Sing Low, seat chair, you sit
(25) CHANELLE – One Man
No°25
(23) FUZZBOX – International Rescue
Brummie-birds are GO!



(2) MADONNA – Like A Prayer (video)
Yeah, Up Yours, the Pope!
(15) SOUL II SOUL featuring CARON WHEELER – Keep On Movin'
Back to Live
(1) JASON DONOVAN – Too Many Broken Hearts  (video)
Tractors! Tractors! Tractors!
(21) GUNS N' ROSES – Paradise City (video / credits)
Oxl Arse

[Egyptian Feast]

McKenzie gave me bad vibes. Wrong 'un vibes.

The Fuzzbox song was crap and yeah, they sold out and shat their credibility, but they look like they're having a laugh so I won't hold it against them.

I watched an old Chart Show from 86 or 87 a while back and 'Rules and Regulations' became one of my favourite music videos instantly. That kind of DIY charm could never be replicated on a major label budget.

Cheers in this household when Jason knocked Simple Minds off the top spot. Fuck off sub Bono. Such utter gash. It should have provoked retaliations.

[Satchmo Distel]

Sarah Bee was a strong supporter of Fuzzbox on the CM 1989 episode.

[Better Midlands]

(15) SOUL II SOUL featuring CARON WHEELER – Keep On Movin'
Back to Live

The best Soul II Soul track, just perfect.

[Camp Tramp]

Sarah Bee was a strong supporter of Fuzzbox on the CM 1989 episode.

I had totally forgotten Fuzzbox but Pink Pink Sunshine came back to me. I rather liked it.

[Satchmo Distel]

They've also got the "we were just sending TOTP up" get out of jail free card.

[The Culture Bunker]

I do remember 'International Rescue' pretty clearly as an eight year old - well, I did like Thunderbirds - and the follow up seems vaguely familiar. Naturally I had no idea at the time of their more indie roots - but their earlier stuff has aged a bit better. I think the label hooked them up with one of the guys who wrote some hits for the Bangles, which tells you something of their intentions, but alas, the Fuzzbox singer was no Susanna Hoffs.

[bigfatheart]

Cheers in this household when Jason knocked Simple Minds off the top spot. Fuck off sub Bono. Such utter gash. It should have provoked retaliations.

Belfast Child was number one when I was born. When I was a kid I was fascinated by it - I'd never heard it, but I'd looked it up in my parents' Guinness Book of Hit Singles. This was pre-internet, so I couldn't go and hunt it down, and I never heard it anywhere. I asked my parents and they couldn't even remember it. I knew Alive and Kicking and Don't You Forget About Me though, so I always assumed it would be another stadium filling, fists in the air, hooky anthem (or, at the very least, I assumed at that age that it would be a good pop song).

Eventually, when I was about 13-14, I saw that VH1 or whatever were showing every number one of the 80s in order, and it wasn't far off 1989. Excitedly I sat down to finally hear this important part of my own personal mythos, and then... that fucking wet fart of nothingness blithered its way out of the telly. Christ, what a load of absolute dog shit. I know it means absolutely nothing, but it makes me genuinely angry that that was number one when I was born. Fuck off, record-buying public of 1989, and fuck off Jim Kerr.

[Egyptian Feast]

I know it means absolutely nothing, but it makes me genuinely angry that that was number one when I was born. Fuck off, record-buying public of 1989, and fuck off Jim Kerr.

Ouch, you have my sympathies. I don't like 'Dreadlock Holiday'...I hate it, but I'm happier about it being my birthday number one now.

[Chriddof]

I was almost ten years old when Belfast Child was number 1, but I have no actual memory of it either. Yet I can clearly remember most of the other stuff in the charts this time - Fuzzbox, that Jason Donovan one, Soul II Soul, etc. It's so nothingy that despite having heard it recently, I can't recall anything other than Jim Kerr looking sad in black and white while singing something in a dull tone.

[jamiefairlie]

I don't think that's fair on The Beloved, there's was more of a Scritti Politti-esque transformation to gentle pop.

The Shamen were drivel after En-Tact.

Yeah but the Scritti sellout was appalling too, so there's no get out there. I truly loved the guitar Beloved and felt very betrayed when they 'saw the light' (took some fucking E's).

Don't get me started on The Thompson Twins!

[Billy]

I remember that VH1 Every Number 1 weekend, 2003-04 ish. I was about 15 and fell in love with a *ton* of songs I'd never heard before - S'Express, Black Box, Snap, Beats International, The KLF etc. In an era of shit chart music from Pop Idol contestants and dull R&B lifted from the States, the music of 10-15 years earlier felt like an utter revelation.

I wonder if the 15 year olds of today have the same attachment to music of the mid-late noughties...

[Better Midlands]

Yeah but the Scritti sellout was appalling too, so there's no get out there. I truly loved the guitar Beloved and felt very betrayed when they 'saw the light' (took some fucking E's).

Don't get me started on The Thompson Twins!

You'll hate me, but I was the biggest Into The Gap era Thompson Twins fan, although I did like QS&SK. In The Name Of Love is my favourite track nowdays.

[Better Midlands]

I wonder if the 15 year olds of today have the same attachment to music of the mid-late noughties...

My 19 year old daughter has a soft spot for that era of R&B such as Usher - Yeah, but her older sisters played it to death at the time as they were in their teens.

[Better Midlands]

.

[kaprisky]

That Dusty track is apparently going to be included on the BFI's new release of Scandal. They are also going to be releasing It Couldn't Happen Here, the Jack Bond film featuring Babs, Gareth Hunt, Joss Ackland's spunky backpack and PSB of course. I bought a VHS copy from a charity shop years ago but can't remember a thing about it other than the Always on My Mind bit.

[daf]

23 March 1989: Presenters: Andy Crane & Mark Goodier

(10) THE REYNOLDS GIRLS – I'd Rather Jack
The Kids are Revolting



(18) ALYSON WILLIAMS – Sleep Talk
The Funky Slumber
(3) DONNA SUMMER – This Time I Know It's For Real (video)
All are bored
(24) COLDCUT featuring LISA STANSFIELD – People Hold On
The Only Way Is Up North
- - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(34) PAT & MICK – I Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet
(29) ROACHFORD – Family Man
(33) BANGLES – Eternal Flame
(35) KYM MAZELLE – Got To Get You Back
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(32) KIM WILDE – Love In The Natural Way
Kissing America
(4) PAULA ABDUL – Straight Up
Find the Lenny
(1) MADONNA – Like A Prayer (video)
Top of the Popes
(27) BOBBY BROWN – Don't Be Cruel (video / credits)
Don't be a Sex-Pest

[Jockice]

Yeah but the Scritti sellout was appalling too, so there's no get out there. I truly loved the guitar Beloved and felt very betrayed when they 'saw the light' (took some fucking E's).

Don't get me started on The Thompson Twins!

Cupid And Psyche 85 is one of my favourite albums of all time, I'll have you know.

[DrGreggles]

(34) PAT & MICK – I Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet

"Fuck off."
"But it's for charity!"
"Fuck off for charity then."

[gilbertharding]

23 March 1989: Presenters: Andy Crane & Mark Goodier

Did you notice? That was all ladies (apart from The Breakers and, ironically, Bobby Brown)!!

Also, did anyone notice Madonna's tribute to Elaine Marie Benes' dancing, in the Like a Prayer video?

[A Hat Like That]

(4) PAULA ABDUL – Straight Up
Find the Lenny

Yes, enjoyed that!