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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

Norton Canes


Got to give her Hung Up and Sorry too from 2005. The rest of Confessions Of A Driving Instructor On A Dancefloor isn't too shabby either.

Sebastian Cobb

Quite like most of the immaculate era stuff. Holiday is probably my favourite, 'cos jellybean followed by like a prayer.

Lauper's She's So Unusual is still much better and more fun though.

daf

1 May 1986: Presenter: Mike Smith  ("Paul Shortino - Rough Cutt" caption Special)

(32) MAXI PRIEST – Strollin' On
Airfix Space-Bass
(3) JANET JACKSON – What Have You Done For Me Lately? (video / chart)
Argy De-Bargey
(24) PRINCESS – I'll Keep On Loving You
Power Bangles
(4) MADONNA – Live To Tell (video)
10% Eva Peron / 90% Eva Braun



- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(28) DEPECHE MODE – A Question Of Lust
(26) HEAR 'N' AID – Stars
(19) PATTI LABELLE & MICHAEL MCDONALD – On My Own
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(25) JOYCE SIMS – All & All
Always great in the Carry Ons
(1) GEORGE MICHAEL – A Different Corner (video)
In a White Room
(9) LEVEL 42 – Lessons In Love (video / audience dancing / credits)
Bom Badda-Bom Badda-Bom Badda-Bom Badda . . .

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
https://we.tl/t-3S722DthDR

Norton Canes

Quote from: daf on September 24, 2018, 04:11:10 PM
(28) DEPECHE MODE – A Question Of Lust

Putting the 'camp' into campanology. Please let the bells end!

But seriously, make the most of this vid, kids, 'cause Anton Corbijn will be along soon to cast his ashen grey pall over the band's next 32 years (and counting...)

Norton Canes

Unusually for DM they put out a cassette single edition rather than a limited edition 12":



Image stolen from internet - not sure why there are two copies of the cassette


The little 'LUST' badge was particularly nice:



I wore it on my t-shirts, jackets and cardigans for a couple of years, then I lost it, and rather than shell out for another cassette single package (by then they were already going for collectible prices) I surreptitiously stole one from inside an unfastened copy in the local record shop. Look, I'm not proud. I lost that one too.


Anyway despite its disappointing highest UK chart placing of 28 it's one of my favourite of the band's songs and deserves its third place in the track order of Black Celebration, the best album by any band ever. I love the mutant Spector-esque production, a kind of crawling, clang-punctuated wall of sound. There wasn't an official instrumental version but the Minimal Mix from the 12" showcases the constituent sounds really strikingly in its last couple of minutes. And the B-side is the band's greatest instrumental, an apocalyptic epic called Christmas Island.



canadagoose

Quote from: Norton Canes on September 24, 2018, 04:53:53 PM
Unusually for DM they put out a cassette single edition rather than a limited edition 12":



Image stolen from internet - not sure why there are two copies of the cassette


The little 'LUST' badge was particularly nice:



I wore it on my t-shirts, jackets and cardigans for a couple of years, then I lost it, and rather than shell out for another cassette single package (by then they were already going for collectible prices) I surreptitiously stole one from inside an unfastened copy in the local record shop. Look, I'm not proud. I lost that one too.


Anyway despite its disappointing highest UK chart placing of 28 it's one of my favourite of the band's songs and deserves its third place in the track order of Black Celebration, the best album by any band ever. I love the mutant Spector-esque production, a kind of crawling, clang-punctuated wall of sound. There wasn't an official instrumental version but the Minimal Mix from the 12" showcases the constituent sounds really strikingly in its last couple of minutes. And the B-side is the band's greatest instrumental, an apocalyptic epic called Christmas Island.
I'm a massive fan of A Question of Lust (hence my old avatar) and Black Celebration in general. I've only got the normal 7" rather than the cassette, but I'll look out for it on eBay, unless it's stonkingly expensive or something.


re. Madonna IIRC 'Ray of Light' was received over here as a return to form after several years of shite. I see her UK chart career as two, maybe three periods: mega-fame 1985-87, then she takes a year out, lots of messing about (mainly misses) from Like A Prayer to the mid-90s, then a shoot back to form in 1998 that lasts until the turn of the Millennium. Last good single? 'Hung Up' is not bad.

daf

8 May 1986: Presenters: Janice Long & John Peel

(23) THE CURE – Boys Don't Cry
Scary Clowns Don't Cry


https://www.flickr.com/photos/51106326@N00/sets/72157660550774103/

(4) PATTI LABELLE & MICHAEL MCDONALD – On My Own (video)
Big Mac with extra Marmalade
(37) MATCHROOM MOB WITH CHAS & DAVE – Snooker Loopy (with video inserts)
Hairbrush for me ba-a-a-a-r-net
- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(34) FORCE MDS – Tender Love
(22) VAN HALEN – Why Can't This Be Love?
(15) PETER GABRIEL – Sledgehammer
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(11) SPITTING IMAGE – The Chicken Song (video)
Most of these are dead!
(27) BILLY OCEAN – There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)
Stop going on about his bottom John, you're never going to meet it!
(1) FALCO – Rock Me Amadeus
War wohl jedermann bekannt
(10) WHITNEY HOUSTON – The Greatest Love Of All (video / audience dancing / credits)
Learning to love yourself (is the rudest thing of all!)

Pauline Walnuts

Has anyone got any idea who the Österreicherin who sings on the American mix/TOPTs performance is?



I'm asking for a friend.

Not seen the episode (I'm in the US) so was wondering if Peel had changed his approach by this time (three years into his regular presenting career) or was already a tired old presence that was stinking the place out?

That Spitting Image record is one of the worst No. 1's ever. After the first listen, which was mildly amusing but hardly hilarious, it simply became the same moronic singalong shit as the Agadoo genre it was sending up.

The charts seem to have reverted to 1975-76 at this point, albeit with the occasional gem like The Cure one.

DrGreggles

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on September 28, 2018, 11:14:08 AM
Not seen the episode (I'm in the US) so was wondering if Peel had changed his approach by this time (three years into his regular presenting career) or was already a tired old presence that was stinking the place out?

That Spitting Image record is one of the worst No. 1's ever. After the first listen, which was mildly amusing but hardly hilarious, it simply became the same moronic singalong shit as the Agadoo genre it was sending up.

The charts seem to have reverted to 1975-76 at this point, albeit with the occasional gem like The Cure one.

Possibly makes it the perfect parody then.

buzby

Quote from: OnlyRegisteredSoICanRead on September 28, 2018, 09:06:56 AM
Has anyone got any idea who the Österreicherin who sings on the American mix/TOPTs performance is?



I'm asking for a friend.
It's very unlikely to be her singing. When he was doing TV promos for it's European release in 1985 he had a different female keyboard player in his backing band (and ex-Supermax and Tokyo bassist Ken Taylor), and for subsequent 1986 appearances he has a male keyboard player, so it looks like she was hired in for this one appearance (it doesn't appear to be his then-girlfriend Isabella Vitkovic either)

The original 12" Gold Mix (which was edited down for the original GiG Records German 7" and LP release of Falco's '3' ) and the Salieri-version 12" remix (where the English backing vocals were added, made at the behest of his US/UK label A&M and used on the UK and US issues of the album), were recorded and produced in Holland by Ferdi & Rob Bolland (who co-wrote and produced most of 3 as well as The Quo's In The Army Now).

The English female backing vocals were provided by a Dutch session singer (as were the male backing vocals, as Falco refused to sing in English and hated the song from the start). For the US single release, A&M commissioned Powermix Productions (LA- based Boris Granich & Christer Modig) to produce the American and Canadian mixes using elements from the Gold Mix and Salieri-version. The version on the UK 7" and featured on TOTP is 7" edit of the American mix.

daf

15 May 1986: Presenters: Simon Bates & Mike Smith

(25) STATUS QUO – Rollin' Home
Delayed Live Aid Dead-Cat Bounce
(3) LEVEL 42 – Lessons In Love (Montreux clip)
Live from the James Bond Toblerone Lounge
(16) JOYCE SIMS – All & All
Oh Playlist, Up Yours!
(17) DOCTOR & THE MEDICS – Spirit In The Sky
Crushed Velvet Loons (No Breadheads!!)



- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(29) ZZ TOP – Rough Boy
(20) THE B-52'S – Rock Lobster
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(7) PETER GABRIEL – Sledgehammer (video)
Return of the Giant Prog-Weed
(1) SPITTING IMAGE – The Chicken Song (video)
Barry Took, John Cole, Right Royal Rev Robert Runcie, Lord Lucan . . .
(13) VAN HALEN – Why Can't This Be Love? (video / audience dancing / credits)
Wot - No Lee Roth?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/8ac4c9a57a2f813294f829bcafd6abb920180927195736/6d2997a842ed96d66dcf8ae643efc9fd20180927195736/c7173e

buzby

Quote from: daf on September 24, 2018, 04:11:10 PM
1 May 1986
(32) MAXI PRIEST – Strollin' On
Airfix Space-Bass
It looks like some weirtd amalgam of Cort Headless and a Westone Rail headless basses. Reggae has alawys had an affinity with the headless bass, despite them being shunned by most of the rest of the music world. The performance also features New York's all-female Burning Brass trio
Quote
(24) PRINCESS – I'll Keep On Loving You
Not bad, though it's the beginning of SAW's formula that had been done to death by the end of the 80s.. Princess was a bit of a Budgens Whitney Houston really. She's wearing a bit more support than on her last TOTP appearance, much to the chagrin of the cameramen and VT Christmas Tape compilers, no doubt.
Quote
(4) MADONNA – Live To Tell (video)
The instrumental of this was originally written by Patrick Leonard for the soundtrack of Fire With Fire (AKA Captive Hearts, a teen romantic drama jumping on the Footloose/Pretty In Pink bandwagon) but was rejected by the studio as they felt Leonard wasn't capable of writing a complete soundtrack. When the new Mrs. Penn started working with Leonard on True Blue, she heard the demo of the track, wrote some lyrics on the spot and recorded a demo cassette for Sean to pass to the director of his latest film At Close Range. As well as the song being used in the film, Leonard got the soundtrack gig for it too.

Quote
(28) DEPECHE MODE – A Question Of Lust
One of the occasional Martin Gore vocals. The video is a bit crap though, to be honest, but it does at least accurately portray DM's division of labour - Wilder appears to be doing all the work, Dave is trying to keep himself occupied hitting things while he's being usurped by Gore and Fletcher is doing not much at all. The video also shows their almost completely Emulator-based live rig. Wilder would sample loops and sounds from the multitracks that could be triggered from individual keys. It's the sample discs for these (and their eventual E-Max replacements) that he famously auctioned off after leaving the band.
Quote
(26) HEAR 'N' AID – Stars
What a bloody racket!
Quote
(19) PATTI LABELLE & MICHAEL MCDONALD – On My Own
I've ridden a bike along that footpath Patti is standing on - it's the East River Park on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, with the ConEd power plant and UN Building in the background.
Quote
(25) JOYCE SIMS – All & All
TNot the best Sims-Mantronix collaboration (that will come along a bit later), but still a decent tune. It almost sounds quaint compared to the likes of it's SAW contemporaries with it's cheap sounding unprocessed DX7 parping away and clattering 808 drums (personally, I would have dialled back a bit on the handclaps).

buzby

Quote from: daf on September 21, 2018, 08:53:47 PM
24 April 1986:
(17) THE SOS BAND – The Finest
Another from Jam & Lews' production line. It's got that instantly recognisable fuzzy 808 cowbell piercing through the mix too. They are going full on Yamaha assault wirh dual DX7s and a KX5 (there's another synth on the lower tier of the female keyboardist's stand, but we never get a clear shot of her). Love the male backing singer's left/right dancing - he moves like a mirrored sprite in an old 8-bit computer game.

I prefer Richard X and Kelis' cover Finest Dreams, whih melds the lyrics to an instrumental cover of The Human League's The Things That Dreams Are Made Of (and resulted in one of his typically unusual TOTP performances)
Quote
(8) FIVE STAR – Can't Wait Another Minute
Steadman has done a good job with the costumes there - I like the glittering effect from the black sequins catching the light.
Quote
(23) LEVEL 42 – Lessons In Love
Athouh he's inevitably got a DX7 and an Emulator II, Mike Lindup is still hanging on to his trusty Prophet 5
Quote
(20) AURRA – You & Me Tonight
Actual live singing - how did these unknowns manage to wheedle that out of Michael Hurll? Aurra had a bit of a convoluted background - it was originally vehicle for producer Steve Washington using members of his funk band Slave, but the lead singers Curt Jones and Starleana Youg decided to break away and signed to Virgin's dance label 10 Records in the UK. This single was the first product of that deal, but they were then sued by Washington over ownership of the name, resulting in them having to change it to Déjà. In the UK at least they never cracked the Top 40 again, and Young left in 1989.

Quote from: daf on September 27, 2018, 10:33:39 PM
8 May 1986: Presenters: Janice Long & John Peel
Lovely - now Peach has gone the Dream Team are back.
Quote
(23) THE CURE – Boys Don't Cry
Typical nderstated performance from Fat Bob there. Has there ever been a bassist displaying less rhythm than Simon Gallup does in this?
Quote
(22) VAN HALEN – Why Can't This Be Love?
Long is right-  there's more than a hint of Land Of Make Believe here
Quote
(15) PETER GABRIEL – Sledgehammer
Oblique reference to Chernobyl from Long about the fruit. Not much else can be said about this video as everybody knows it - directed by Stephen Johnson as an expansion of the techniques he used on the video for Talking Heads' Road To Nowhere, it features animation produced by Aardman and The Brothers Quay . It's an iconic video, but iIve always disliked the 'pseudo animated' dancing insert shots near the end (normally-shot film that's been treated to make it look like stop frame) - they give the impression they either ran out of time or money before it was finished.

The song features that bloody Shakuhachi flute sample from the Emulator II sample library (though in Gabriel's case being played on a Fairlight). It also features The Memphis Horns, and backing vocalist superstars Dee Lewis, Coral Gordon and PP Arnold.
Quote
(11) SPITTING IMAGE – The Chicken Song (video)
Although I enjoyed the absurdity of this song as a kid, I always preferred the more biting B side I've Never Met A Nice South African.
Quote
(1) FALCO – Rock Me Amadeus
I posted about this earlier, but Falco only recorded it under duress - he thought it was crap, and being Viennese he wasn't keen on singing about a famous resident of Salzburg. He also refused to sing in English, meaning that the more it was remixed for the UK and US/Canadian markets and the bigger it got as a worldwide hit, it featured less and less of his contribution (which was also reflected in the royalties he got from it). Apparently at the party in Vienna to celebrate it getting to Number 1 in the US, he was sat on his own in the corner, disconsolate that his career was now over as he would never be able to recreate the success.

daf

22 May 1986: Presenters: Gary Davies & Peter Powell ("I Ran The World" T-Shirt Special)

(20) JAKI GRAHAM – Set Me Free
Scarlet Rubber for my Bum
(12) THE B-52'S – Rock Lobster (video)
Be Fifties Too
(13) BILLY OCEAN – There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)
Billowing Floor Meringue
(2) PATTI LABELLE & MICHAEL MCDONALD – On My Own (video)
Prickly Pair (Big Mac gets access to the cactus at weekends and Christmas)
- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(28) PETE WYLIE – Sinful
(27) AC/DC – Who Made Who
(16) ROBERT PALMER – Addicted To Love
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(19) SIMPLY RED – Holding Back The Years
I say, Pater and Mater . . Lets all have some spiffing mashed potater!
(1) SPITTING IMAGE – The Chicken Song
Woggling Thatcher's Tongue



(6) MATCHROOM MOB WITH CHAS & DAVE – Snooker Loopy (video / audience dancing / credits)
I always pipe me eyeballs (?)

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: buzby on September 29, 2018, 12:02:09 PMHas there ever been a bassist displaying less rhythm than Simon Gallup does in this?
If I remember, he didn't actually play on it (Was Michael Dempsey - later of the Associates - wasn't it? I think they roped him in for the video).

buzby

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on September 29, 2018, 09:53:13 PM
If I remember, he didn't actually play on it (Was Michael Dempsey - later of the Associates - wasn't it? I think they roped him in for the video).
Yes, Dempsey came back (having been in The Associates and The Lotus Eaters, Chart Music fans,,after leaving The Cure) for the video to accompany the new mix, though he only appears in silhouette form (and his child counterpart is playing a Rick 6-string rather than Dempsey's distinctive Guild bass). The new mix with the rerecorded vocal has never appeared anywhere other than the single - the compilation album it was released to promote used the original 1979 version.

It doesn't explain Gallup's spasmodic dancing on TOTP though.

buzby

Quote from: daf on September 28, 2018, 05:28:11 PM
15 May 1986: Presenters: Simon Bates & Mike Smith
Bates does the classic 'chest mic' action when not speaking. Smith is wearing the 80s in jacket form.
Quote
(25) STATUS QUO – Rollin' Home
featuring Kunt on keyboards (inevitable DX7 and Yamaha CP70)
Quote
(3) LEVEL 42 – Lessons In Love (Montreux clip)
Textbook Montreux 'live' playback clip. They have all got black 'power' overcoats on, which King has accompanied with Puma trackie bottoms, the scruffy bastard. Lindup can't have his full keyboard setup onstage so has to make do with a Prophet T8 (the 8-voice replacement for the venerable Prophet 5)
Quote
(17) DOCTOR & THE MEDICS – Spirit In The Sky
I remember this performance quite clearly. with Doctor Clive's mad hair (he's from Knotty Ash - must be something is the water there) and the Anadin Brothers backing singers/dancers.. The record itself is a pretty straightforward cover of the Greenbaum original, but that's ok. The same year Fuzzbox also recorded a far more individual cover of it that was released on their Love Is The Slug 12" EP and was also included on their debut LP Bostin' Steve Austin.  From the resonant bass synth on it, I'm pretty sure this is the version Goldfrapp had in mind on Ooh La La.
Quote
(20) THE B-52'S – Rock Lobster
Lovely stuff. The answer to Smith's Why? is that the single and their debut album were reissued by Island Records as part of the Island Life 25th anniversary of Chris Blackwell starting the label. Their next album Bouncing Off The Satellites was scheduled for release at the start of August, and after the sad death of Ricky Wilson from AIDS during the recording sessions the band were not going to promote the record so the rerelease also got them some publicity.
Quote
(13) VAN HALEN – Why Can't This Be Love? (video / audience dancing / credits)
Wot - No Lee Roth?
A synchronised Bates/Smith watch check right at the end too.

non capisco

Quote from: buzby on September 30, 2018, 12:12:00 PM
.Lovely stuff. The answer to Smith's Why?..

Mike Smith is such a snarky, point missing, pop hating cunt on these. I know Peel's lugubrious drolleries piss some people off but Mike Smith is worse, playing some kind of adult 'voice of reason' and reacting to Doctor And The Medics like they're The Residents or something. "The question is...why?" Because it's The B-52's doing 'Rock Lobster', you dreary little jizz streak. Stop trying to make a virtue out of being sensible, you're supposed to be introducing pop music. Fuck off with your smug editorialising asides. RIP.


buzby

Quote from: non capisco on October 02, 2018, 11:35:25 PM
Mike Smith is such a snarky, point missing, pop hating cunt on these. I know Peel's lugubrious drolleries piss some people off but Mike Smith is worse, playing some kind of adult 'voice of reason' and reacting to Doctor And The Medics like they're The Residents or something. "The question is...why?" Because it's The B-52's doing 'Rock Lobster', you dreary little jizz streak. Stop trying to make a virtue out of being sensible, you're supposed to be introducing pop music. Fuck off with your smug editorialising asides. RIP.
Like a few of the R1 crowd over the years, he seems to activley hate music and is only doing the DJ gig as a route to a proper telly job (and to use his celebrity to restart his motor racing career).

daf

29 May 1986: Presenters: Janice Long & John Peel (Liverpool Double Special!)

(3) DOCTOR & THE MEDICS – Spirit In The Sky
The Crazy World of Clive Jackson
(10) ROBERT PALMER – Addicted To Love (video)
A Dickhead in Love
(22) THE REAL THING – Can't Get By Without You
The Story of the Hill Street Blues
- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(21) NU SHOOZ – I Can't Wait
(18) CASHFLOW – Mine All Mine
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


https://www.flickr.com/photos/51106326@N00/sets/72157662178636919/

(13) TEARS FOR FEARS – Everybody Wants To Run The World (video)
Comedy Midge (Oof! Right in the clackers!)
(20) PETE WYLIE – Sinful
Come round and break wind in your kitchen
(1) SPITTING IMAGE – The Chicken Song (video)
Lyrics by Red Dwarfs
(4) PETER GABRIEL – Sledgehammer (video / audience dancing / credits)
Someone clamp his nut down!

Neomod

Pete Wylie doing his best Vince Taylor impression there. Did like the guitarists look though. Very 80's art school.

Were Cashflow a Tesco value Cameo? I don't remember them at all.

Quote from: Neomod on October 04, 2018, 10:02:25 PM

Were Cashflow a Tesco value Cameo? I don't remember them at all.

They were on Larry Blackmon's label and he had a hand in writing and producing this.

Sebastian Cobb

I fucking love I Can't Wait.

The video is mental though; you can tell someone got a Paintbox for Christmas.

Norton Canes

Quote from: daf on October 04, 2018, 09:27:32 PM
29 May 1986: Presenters: Janice Long & John Peel

I missed this one. Presumably we got a double whammy of Peel's most tedious remarks.