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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

Gulftastic

To speak ill of the dead, that twat is spoiling it for everyone. We're free of the nonces, but now vanity from beyond the grave is ruining it.

daf

#421
We STILL haven't had a full year of episodes shown yet * - even though the last 'wiped' one was way back in 1977!

Here's my guesses/hopes for the most likely candidates for Big Hits '87 from that list :

ALISON MOYET – Weak In The Presence Of Beauty
THE HOUSEMARTINS – Five Get Over Excited
SQUEEZE – Hourglass
DEF LEPPARD – Pour Some Sugar On Me
KAREL FIALKA – Hey Matthew
JAN HAMMER – Crockett's Theme
THE SISTERS OF MERCY – This Corrosion
ERIC B & RAKIM – Paid In Full
RICK ASTLEY – When I Fall In Love
- - - - - - - - - - -
BEASTIE BOYS – (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party) (video)
M/A/R/R/S – Pump Up The Volume (video + credits)
FREDDIE MERCURY & MONTSERRAT CABALLE – Barcelona (video)


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*(our first one will be 1989).

Norton Canes

Quote from: daf on December 23, 2018, 02:21:04 PM
16 :
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
15/01/87 (Mike Smith)
29/01/87 (Mike Smith)
26/02/87 (Mike Smith & Steve Wright)
12/03/87 (Mike Smith & Steve Wright)
26/03/87 (Mike Smith)
09/04/87 (Mike Smith)
07/05/87 (Mike Smith)
28/05/87 (Mike Smith)
03/09/87 (Mike Smith)
17/09/87 (Gary Davies & Mike Smith)
24/09/87 (Gary Davies & Mike Smith)
01/10/87 (Gary Davies & Mike Smith)
08/10/87 (Gary Davies & Mike Smith)
05/11/87 (Janice Long & Mike Smith)
10/12/87 (Mike Smith)
25/12/87 (Gary Davies & Mike 'Scrooge' Smith)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

And here's what we won't be seeing on TV (unless they include a few in 'Big Hits 1987') :

STUDIO PERFORMANCES :
DEPECHE MODE – Strangelove

Oh get to fuck, just get to fuck. Surely there must be some way to trample over this cunt's legacy.

kalowski

Quote from: Norton Canes on December 23, 2018, 05:56:32 PM
Oh get to fuck, just get to fuck. Surely there must be some way to trample over this cunt's legacy.
Can't the just show shortened versions, cutting his links out?

Spoken by an actor: "And straight in at number 12, it's Sheffield's finest Def Leppard with Pour Some Sugar on Me."

buzby

Quote from: daf on December 23, 2018, 12:20:43 PM
That was odd wasn't it - I think there's another audio flub in there too . . . bear with me while i check . . .

Ah yes - coming out of the number one you can hear the audio split left and right with a slight delay (so it's like a 'ping-pong' effect) :
"So that's what happened to Renée and Renato, I always wondered"

Wonder if they were still working the bugs out of the stereo feed (I think this show is in stereo - but it's so narrowed, they may as well have stuck with mono!)

I noticed that too, but thought it was an encoding error at first. I've just gone back and listented t othe whole thing on headphones and there's a slight delay all the way through on the right channel up until the end of the first chart rundown, when the first flub occurs (his mic and studio ambience are in the left channel, and the studio ambience and VTR track are in the right - he says 'Wild guess Steve, that's a pause', presumably as he recorded the two chart segments consecutively).

After that it syncs back up again, until he goes into the Top 10 where the slight delay on the right channel comes back, then going into the Number 1 it all goes a bit 'phasey', like a slighly delayed copy of the signal s being mixed into the live signal. Coming out of Europe it momentarily drops out on the left channel, and going back into the studio the delay goes haywire for a short period on the Renee and Renata line.

At a guess, I would say for the studio links they were either applying a slight delay to Smith's mic to create a pseudo-stereo signal, or it was being fed back into the monitors in the studio and the delayed signal was being picked up on the ambience mics. At the end the massively delayed signal is due to somebody misrouting during the fade from the Europe VT (kind of like what happened to Macca at the Olympics, where the stage monitor feed got delayed and the stadium ambience feed came through first).

Ive been back and checked the earliest one on iPlayer (The Davies/Mayo one) and that is in perfect stereo, so I guess they just had the YTS trainee in on sound mixing this week. Indeed, I've been listening to some clips from as early as 1984 and the studio performances and links are recorded in stereo with the VT playback still in mono, so it looks like they had gradually upgraded at least the TOTP studio to handle stereo well in advance of the first NICAM* tests.

Looking at the waveforms, it looks like they were recorded in M/S stereo (Mid/Side, or Mono sum/Stereo Difference),, so if you add the M and S tracks you get the Left channel ,and subtracting the S track from the M gives you the Right channel (this wuld account for the phasing when switching from a mono to stereo source I noticed above). It also gives you the advantage that the Mono audio signal can be taken directly from the M track on the tape.

*The BBC had already moved over to using a version of NICAM to distribute it's national FM Stereo Radio broadcasts to the transmitters, but it wasn't the same as the one that was selected for broadcast to TVs (NICAM 728, named after it's 728kbit/s bitstream). To keep spares commonality with the radio studios, BBC TV used the same variant of NICAM they were using for radio for distribution to the TX sites, which meant that needed to fit NICAM 728 transcoders at each transmitter.  The IBA broadcasters had no radio to worry about so they adopted the NICAM 728 format from the off to distribute programmes from the studios to the transmitters, so no transcoding was required. This may be why the BBC dragged it's heels in rolling out NICAM in comparison to the IBA.

buzby

Quote from: kalowski on December 23, 2018, 06:00:37 PM
Can't the just show shortened versions, cutting his links out?

Spoken by an actor: "And straight in at number 12, it's Sheffield's finest Def Leppard with Pour Some Sugar on Me."
Like the old Sinn Fein censorship on the news - pixellate his face and get Coogan in to do an impression of him.

Bobtoo


buzby

Quote from: Bobtoo on December 23, 2018, 06:29:50 PM
Why is it we can't have the Mike Smith ones?
He refused to sign an extension to the licence the BBC had to broadcast episodes that he featured in  (which was originally for 25 years IIRC, so the UK Gold repeats were OK, but Edmonds had refused to sign an extension for those), ostensibly due to not wanting to be associated with Savile post-Yewtree, but possibly due to a grudge he and Sarah Greene had about their treatment by the BBC post-Ghostwatch.  They were still trying to get his permission when he died, and Greene has opted to carry on his stance.

DrGreggles

Quote from: Bobtoo on December 23, 2018, 06:29:50 PM
Why is it we can't have the Mike Smith ones?

He was a cunt and his missus wants to ensure that everyone remembers this.


Jockice

Quote from: daf on December 23, 2018, 02:40:10 PM
We STILL haven't had a full year of episodes shown yet * - even though the last 'wiped' one was way back in 1977!

Here's my guesses/hopes for the most likely candidates for Big Hits '87 from that list :

ALISON MOYET – Weak In The Presence Of Beauty
THE HOUSEMARTINS – Five Get Over Excited
SQUEEZE – Hourglass
DEF LEPPARD – Pour Some Sugar On Me
KAREL FIALKA – Hey Matthew
JAN HAMMER – Crockett's Theme
THE SISTERS OF MERCY – This Corrosion
ERIC B & RAKIM – Paid In Full
RICK ASTLEY – When I Fall In Love
- - - - - - - - - - -
BEASTIE BOYS – (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party) (video)
M/A/R/R/S – Pump Up The Volume (video + credits)
FREDDIE MERCURY & MONTSERRAT CABALLE – Barcelona (video)


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*(our first one will be 1989).

Karel Fialka was the first pop star I ever interviewed. He was chuffed that I remembered The Eyes Have It, his near hit from the start of that decade, which was his Top Of The Pops debut.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVSzewiBo6E

northernrebel

What a way to be remembered.

Cheers, Mike Smith. When I go, I want people to remember that my ego ruined their innocent pleasure.

daf

(Sorry it's late  - I completely forgot about this one!)

18 December 1986: Presenter: Mike Smith

(15) THE GAP BAND – Big Fun
Hat . . on . . top your head . .  I said, Hat on top your head
(2) JACKIE WILSON – Reet Petite (video)
I'm in heaven, when you . . . move one finger just a tiny amount
. . . and then the next finger . . . just a tiny amount . . .
and then the next finger . . . just a tiny amount . . .
(20) DEXYS MIDNIGHT RUNNERS – Because Of You
Jacko Brush Strokes Said
(10) A-HA – Cry Wolf
Arroooooooooo!


https://www.flickr.com/photos/51106326@N00/sets/72157663475442011

- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(34) PAUL MCCARTNEY – Only Love Remains
(28) EURYTHMICS – The Miracle Of Love
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(25) STATUS QUO – Dreamin' (video)
Francis take a bow
(1) THE HOUSEMARTINS – Caravan Of Love
The Flying Pipits
(8) THE COMMUNARDS – So Cold The Night (video / credits)
Off to Lapland!!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/4ff396394c00bfe8ecda057b75108afa20181226202856/9e100f

Chriddof

Quote from: buzby on December 23, 2018, 06:27:26 PM
Like the old Sinn Fein censorship on the news - pixellate his face and get Coogan in to do an impression of him.

"Gary Davies is a legitimate broadcaster. Radio 1 have been forced into this position. DLT is being antagonistic and he is making me very angry."

famethrowa

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on December 22, 2018, 02:20:23 PM
Pedant point to Chuck Lorre, just in case he's reading: Debbie Harry's debut solo album was "KooKoo", back in 1981. And if the Chic lads couldn't get her career firing up again, I'm not sure he had much chance either.

I think Mr Lorry might be talking out his arse there. His song was her first big one, sure, then 2 years later I Want That Man was playing on every radio in the world, then 2 years after that she was playing Wembley with INXS? Hardly a descent into obscurity.

famethrowa

Quote from: daf on December 26, 2018, 10:17:31 PM

(2) JACKIE WILSON – Reet Petite (video)
I'm in heaven, when you . . . move one finger just a tiny amount
. . . and then the next finger . . . just a tiny amount . . .
and then the next finger . . . just a tiny amount . . .

For fuck's sake

buzby

Quote from: famethrowa on December 27, 2018, 10:49:26 AM
I think Mr Lorry might be talking out his arse there. His song was her first big one, sure, then 2 years later I Want That Man was playing on every radio in the world, then 2 years after that she was playing Wembley with INXS? Hardly a descent into obscurity.
I Want That Man only got to #2 in the Billboard Alternative chart, based on airplay from a very small (25) pool of radio stations. It didn't translate into actual sales or cross over Iinto mainstream radio, as it never got into the Hot 100. French Kissin' got to #57 in the Hot 100, her highest solo chart position post-1981 (even the Blondie reunion hit Maria only reached #82 on the Hot 100), so he is arguably correct from the US perspective (which is what most Americans take)

buzby

#437
Quote from: daf on December 21, 2018, 08:51:48 PM
11 December 1986: Presenters: Janice Long & Steve Wright

(24) ALISON MOYET – Is This Love?
I heard this a lot as a kid, as my sister was a massive fan of Yazoo/Alison. This was the first single off Raindancing, and was co-written with David 'A' Stewart of the Eurythmics under the pseudonym Jean Guiot (which he would later revive when writing fro his missus' new outfit) and produced by US uber-producer Jimmy Iovine, as Alison's manager had moved to LA and persuaded her to move out there too.

Stewart was friends with Iovine, and had come to visit him while he was recording the album. Iovine suggested he write a song with Alison, and to avoid problems with his publishers he used the pseudonym. Moyet was not happy with the album and the protracted recording sessions where Iovine and his engineers took over control*. feeling it sounded too glossy and American. The promotional tour for it also provoked the breakdown of relations with Sony/CBS, which led to a protracted legal battle to be released from her 16-album contract.

*This seems to be a recurring story for British acts working with US producers in 1986.

Quote from: daf on December 26, 2018, 10:17:31 PM
18 December 1986: Presenter: Mike Smith
What a bell-end.
Quote
(15) THE GAP BAND – Big Fun
Twin DX7 attack (on one you can almost read the hire company's label) and a Roland JX-8P at the bottom of the stand. This was obviouly an influence in the later Inner City song of the same title, though it's just different enough so Kevin Saunderson could avoid being sued.
Quote
(2) JACKIE WILSON – Reet Petite (video)
I'm in heaven, when you . . . move one finger just a tiny amount
. . . and then the next finger . . . just a tiny amount . . .
and then the next finger . . . just a tiny amount . . .
Animated by Giblets (Rob MacGillivray, Mike Sumpter, Carol MacGillivray and Michael Olley). On the back of their work on The Housemartins' Happy Hour they decided to make another music video to act as a showreel for their studio, and picked Wilson's Reet Petite to work with. Their animation was included as part of 'Video Jukebox', a programme about the history of music videos presented by Peel & Walters shown at 9.30pm on BBC1 on 9/5/86*, and the buzz generated by this prompted indie soul & dance label SMP (a sublabel of Passion Music, the UK licensee of Wilson's recordings from CBS) to reissue the single (they had originally released it as a 12" in 1983) at the end of November, seemingly in a deliberate attempt to get the Christmas No.1 which was successful, coincidentally knocking Giblets' previous clients off the top spot.

*As usual, the Wiki article on the song is wrong - it says the video was first shown on an episode of Arena, but the BFI Archive and BBC Genome database disproves this.
Quote
(10) A-HA – Cry Wolf
It's that DX7 and JX-8P again, accompanied by the usual Simmons SDS pads. The first single from their 'difficult second album' (well, relatively difficult - it still went platinum and garnered two Top 10 singles, but it was nowhere near as successful on that front as Hunting High And Low had been, which had been strip-mined for singles).

you missed this one from the Breakers, daf:
Quote
- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(3)0 ELKIE BROOKS – No More The Fool
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Written and produced by ex-Argent guitarist and prolific songwriter Russ Ballard (God Gave Rock & Roll To You, Since You've Been Gone and So You Win Again for Hot Chocolate). The instrumentation at the start sounds a bit like Vienna-era Ultravox, but overall the somg could easily be mistaken for something by Jim Diamond (and not just Elkie's voice - the tune isn't that far off I Should Have Known Better).

kalowski

Can I just say, for the record, quite how much pleasure I get from daf's run down and Buzby's subsequent commentary. I await them with baited breath. A highlight of my week.

Keep it up! (Please)

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: buzby on December 27, 2018, 10:12:41 PMThe first single from their 'difficult second album' (well, relatively difficult - it still went platinum and garnered two Top 10 singles, but it was nowhere near as successful on that front as Hunting High And Low had been, which had been strip-mined for singles).
Second single from the second album, after "I've Been Losing You".

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: kalowski on December 27, 2018, 10:20:13 PM
Can I just say, for the record, quite how much pleasure I get from daf's run down and Buzby's subsequent commentary. I await them with baited breath. A highlight of my week.

Keep it up! (Please)

Same

daf

#441
Quote from: buzby on December 27, 2018, 10:12:41 PM
you missed this one from the Breakers, daf

SHIT ON IT!!!

Thanks for catching it Buzby

please cut out this corrected version & paste into your copybooks :

- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(34) PAUL MCCARTNEY – Only Love Remains
(28) EURYTHMICS – The Miracle Of Love
(30) ELKIE BROOKS – No More The Fool
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

buzby

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on December 27, 2018, 10:22:37 PM
Second single from the second album, after "I've Been Losing You".
Bloody hell, yes. I lost my bearings in the single release schedule there. The video was another Steve Barron tour de force with the Quantel, featuring the then novel effect of digital video frame stabilisation (where the 'target' box is placed around the eyes and the subsequent video frames are shifted and warped to keep the target in the box).

Quote from: daf on December 27, 2018, 10:32:46 PM
please cut out this corrected version & paste into your copybooks :

- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(34) PAUL MCCARTNEY – Only Love Remains
(30) ELKIE BROOKS – No More The Fool
(28) EURYTHMICS – The Miracle Of Love
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
FTFY, daf

daf

Quote from: kalowski on December 27, 2018, 10:20:13 PM
Can I just say, for the record, quite how much pleasure I get from daf's run down and Buzby's subsequent commentary. I await them with baited breath. A highlight of my week.

Keep it up! (Please)

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on December 27, 2018, 10:28:41 PM
Same

Cheers!


daf

Quote from: buzby on December 27, 2018, 10:56:24 PM
FTFY, daf

BALLCOCKS!!!

third time lucky -

- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(34) PAUL MCCARTNEY – Only Love Remains
(30) ELKIE BROOKS – No More The Fool
(28) EURYTHMICS – The Miracle Of Love
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


daf

#446
25 December 1986: Presenters: Simon Bates, Gary Davies, Janice Long & Peter Powell (King Herod, Little Donkey, Virgin & Child)

BILLY OCEAN – When The Going Gets Tough The Tough Get Going
When the turkey gets stuffed the sprouts get cooking
- - - - - - - - - - - - - (videos) - - - - - - - - - - - - -
THE COMMUNARDS – Don't Leave Me This Way
A-HA – The Sun Always Shines On TV
EUROPE – The Final Countdown
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
DOCTOR & THE MEDICS – Spirit In The Sky
Spirits in the mince pie (splosh on the brandy!)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - (videos) - - - - - - - - - - - - -
CLIFF RICHARD & THE YOUNG ONES – Living Doll
SPITTING IMAGE – The Chicken Song
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
BORIS GARDINER – I Want To Wake Up With You
. . . and a Tangerine, Scalextrics and the Beano Annual
- - - - - - - - - - - - - (videos) - - - - - - - - - - - - -
DIANA ROSS – Chain Reaction
BERLIN – Take My Breath Away
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SIMPLY RED – Holding Back The Years
Strangled by the wishes of pater
Hoping for the arms of mater
Save some of this gravy for later
To pour upon my roast Potater

- - - - - - - - - - - - - (videos) - - - - - - - - - - - - -
NICK BERRY – Every Loser Wins
FALCO – Rock Me Amadeus
GEORGE MICHAEL – A Different Corner
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
PET SHOP BOYS – West End Girls
A Very Merry Chris Lowe, and a Happy Neil Tennant!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - (videos) - - - - - - - - - - - - -
MADONNA – True Blue
MADONNA – Papa Don't Preach
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
CHRIS DE BURGH – The Lady In Red
Pulled a Cracker!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
THE HOUSEMARTINS – Caravan Of Love (video)



(1) JACKIE WILSON – Reet Petite (video)
Nuts!
WHAM! – Edge Of Heaven (video / credits)
They Two Kings of East Finchley Were

A better year than I remembered based on that line-up. Prefer it to any year of No.1s since 1982.

Sebastian Cobb

It's all wank blue-eyed soul from this point isn't it?

Can't wait until Marti Pellow and Hucknall gear up their feud over who the king of it is, to which we all know the answer is 'neither of you'.

Sebastian Cobb