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

[daf]

eschewed

Bless you.

[daf]

25 June 1987: Presenters: Simon Bates & Peter Powell

(18)  CHRIS REA – Let's Dance
Put on your Jogging Bottoms and sing the Blues
(3) BRUCE WILLIS – Under The Boardwalk (live clip)
Behind the Audience Claps . . . (Audience . . . Claps)
(5) PET SHOP BOYS – It's A Sin
Tennant of Wildfall Hell
(14) TERENCE TRENT D'ARBY – Wishing Well
Introducing the Big Hat According to Terence Trent D'Arby
- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(23) PRINCE – If I Was Your Girlfriend
(22) SIMPLE MINDS – Promised You A Miracle (live clip)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(26) CLIFF RICHARD – My Pretty One
The Tarney Touch
(1) THE FIRM – Star Trekkin' (video)
Wot no Gorn?



(7) JOHN FARNHAM – You're The Voice (Montreux clip / credits)
TV Week "King of Pop" 1969-1973

[Sebastian Cobb]

Without 'It's a Sin' that episode would've been utterly superfluous.

[Captain Z]

Christ, Cliff Richards looks good for, what, 47 here!

[Johnboy]

I enjoyed Samantha Fox and ABC

Pet Shop Boys had two good songs, this wasn't one of them - I mean, he doesn't do much does he?

[Pauline Walnuts]

Peter Powell having trouble actually presenting the acts, "Here's Terrence Trent-Derby with Wishing. [lets bus in] Well."

[buzby]

11 June 1987: Presenters: Simon Bates & Peter Powell (Election Night Special!!)

(15) JOHN FARNHAM – You're The Voice
Haggis Strangler

Written by Manfred Mann's Earth Band guitarist/singer Chris Thompson during a writing session with songwriter Andy Qunta and  keyboard player and Eurythmics backing singer Maggie Ryder, set up at the suggestion of their publishing company. Thompson was supposed to go to a CND march in Hyde Park but had overslept. The idea for the song came while they were watching TV coverage fo the march in Thompson's studio. To finish the lyrics he got in touch with Whiter Shade Of Pale co-writer Keith Reid.

Thompson was recording his own album at the time and played the completed demo to his label boss, saying he felt he had a hit on his hands. The response he got was 'Nobody listens to protest songs anymore.'. Andy Qunta had been working with Icehouse, and took a copy of the demo cassette back to Australia with him.

Farnham had lost his record deal (he had been dismissed as a joke after the release of Sadie The Cleaning Lady early in his career) and was trying to self-record a comeback album, co-financed with his manager Glenn Wheatley (Farnham was broke and had to sell his house and car, so Wheatley had remortgaged his house for $150000 to fund the recording of the album that became Whispering Jack) and were casting around for songs. One of Wheately's employees had been in the studio where Qunta was working with Icehouse and had heard him olay the demo of You're The Voice, and asked him for a copy. Wheatley realised it would be a hit, and it ended up being the last song to be recorded for the album.

It had been largely recorded using a Fairlight in the garage of the rented house Farnham was living in, including a sample of a car door being slammed for the bass drum. Thompson's original had a bass solo, but Farnham replaced that with the bagpipes. After recording it, they had to get in touch with Thompson to get his permission to release it. Initially he refused, saying there's no way the bloke who put out Sadie.. is recording it, but he was eventually persuaded to approve it, as long as he had the opportunity to veto it once the song was finished. When Thompson finally heard it, he was impressed, and approved the release.

Wheatley couldn't get Farnham a deal despite having a hit on his hands, and so had to release the album independently. They couldn't get any traction with the big national and local radio stations either, so a copy of the 1/4" master tape of the single was sent anonymously to one of the smaller Melbourne radio stations (the two biggest ones had rejected it) and after playing it the response from their listeners led to it being the most requested song that week. Wheatley decided to put the single out himself too in September 1986 and recorded a promo video for the track fro $5000. It entered the chart at no. 40 in October and 4 weeks later got to Number 1. The album was released 2 weeks later and also went to number 1, and stayed there for 26 weeks.

The track was gradually licenced to other record companies around the world i the following months, reaching number 1 in Germany and Sweden, top 10 in Austria, the UK, Ireland and Switzerland, and top 20 in Belgium, the Netherlands and Canada. The one market it failed in was the US, where the licensee RCA had decided t remix it and leave off those annoying handclaps in the intro.

Despite all that, I can't stand this song. The sentiment is fine, but it's very over-produced, but the dealbreaker for me is that bagpipe solo - anything that evokes Celtic Rock really turns me off.

(16) RUN DMC – It's Tricky (Montreux clip)

this is a great performance. I love Run's 'how Trrriicky?' bits in the choruses - he almost sounds English.

(1) WHITNEY HOUSTON – I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) (video)
Distressed Woodpecker

It's that infamous 808 cowbell, daf - totally unsinkable no matter how you try and hide it in the mix.

[buzby]

18 June 1987: Presenters: Janice Long & Simon Mayo (The Milk Cream Seller Special!!)

Mayo being wooden and charisma-free again. I think Gary Davies must have asked not to be paired with Janice again as he was being sexually harassed.

(8) SAMANTHA FOX – Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now

Dire

(16) WHITESNAKE – Is This Love? (video)

Dreadful - poodle rock ballad with a double-necked guitar for good measure. Regular Whitesnake video eye candy (and Coverdale's then girlfriend)  Tawny Kitaen appears, having previously been Tom Hanks' bride-to-be in The Hangover prototype leer-a-thon Bachelor Party

(20) TOM JONES – It's Not Unusual

Can't be bothered singing live this week

(21) CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT – Misfit

Of all their songs, this is the one I least hate. Vol-au-Vent is still a cock though. I particularly like that they didn't even try with the top DX7 on the keyboard stand - the mains cable is wrapped around the arms of the stand with the plug dangling in full view.

(1) THE FIRM – Star Trekkin' (video)
Beam me up Spuddy

Picked up for national airplay by Simon Bates (another of his many crimes) . The video was made in a week by Pete Bishop at Film Garage (the spuds were bought from a stall at Green Lanes market) with motion control model shots done at the Motion Picture Company. Fluck and Law had originally been asked to do it but were too expensive and needed more than a week. The plot was that Kirk was suppose to be hallucinating and everything turned into food. The end f the video wasn't often seen, but features a distorted image of Ronnie Reagan wearing Mickey Mouse ears. The editing of the video was completed and the tape delivered just before the episode was recorded.

(26) BROKEN ENGLISH – Comin' On Strong (video / credits)
Mick Jagger's Scrapheap Challenge

As referenced by daf, Broken English consisted of a couple of members of The Counterfeit Stones tribute band and some session muso friends of theirs. Singer/guitarist Steve Eldon had written the song as a Stones pastiche and was encouraged by a friend to put together a band to release it and they were picked up by EMI. They were another one-hit wonder with this and their appearance on the first episode of The Roxy getting the song to #18 in the charts. The two follow-up singes failed to crack the top 75 however, and EMI shelved their already-recorded album, which finally received a release in 2007.

I don't mind this - it's better than most of the real Stones 1980s output, and the band are clearly having a laugh with it. The Ghostbusters thing in the video is pretty fun too. Speaking of the video, there's no record of who directed it but I reckon in must have been Tony van den Ende, as it's extremely similar to his 1985 video for pre-KLF Cauty and Youth vehicle Brilliant's SAW-produced Love Is War

[the hum]

I'm wondering, fun though it's been, if this repeat-fest will have much legs beyond the era we're already up to. Full shows up on Youtube from about 89 onwards seem to have almost universally negative comments (and it is genuinely un-memorably rotten from about that point on). It also breaks around that point with, what I would guess, is the average BBC4 viewer's nostalgia paradigm.

[DrGreggles]

I want them to last until 1990 at least, so Faith No More make an appearance.

[Norton Canes]

I reckon it could go through the 90's at least, I'd happily continue to watch. Plenty of indie stuff there, even though the pop bands become less than interesting.

[Delete Delete Delete]

Yes give me all the 90's stuff, give it to me now.

[Chriddof]

I reckon it could go through the 90's at least, I'd happily continue to watch. Plenty of indie stuff there, even though the pop bands become less than interesting.

Yeah, this is my view as well. Though I think I'd start to bow out after 1995.

[Norton Canes]

I think even post-Britpop there was a steady trickle of indie acts still making it into the charts, and onto TOTP. I can remember an article in the NME bemoaning the fact that the charts had started to become a no-go zone for indie bands, and while I'm not exactly sure of the date, IIRC correctly it made mention of Aerosmith's video for Don't Want To Miss A Thing being a virtual fixture on the programme for several weeks, which would date it to Aug/Sep 1998.

[Uncle TechTip]

I wonder if they have to go through the same bollocks when it comes to the guest presenters like Justine Frischmann and Lee & Herring.

[Norton Canes]

Be a laugh if Jarvis Cocker doesn't sign up and we don't get the Blur/Oasis edition.

[Chriddof]

I think even post-Britpop there was a steady trickle of indie acts still making it into the charts, and onto TOTP. I can remember an article in the NME bemoaning the fact that the charts had started to become a no-go zone for indie bands, and while I'm not exactly sure of the date, IIRC correctly it made mention of Aerosmith's video for Don't Want To Miss A Thing being a virtual fixture on the programme for several weeks, which would date it to Aug/Sep 1998.

I wasn't so much talking about that, but rather for me personally the mid-late 90s quickly became an increasingly dull and creatively barren place for British indie thanks in part to the influence of Oasis. By the end of '96 I remember hating almost everything going on in what remained of Britpop - you still got indie acts appearing on TOTP but I wouldn't always be that bothered. The following year Damon Albarn was derided by Select Magazine (amongst others) for saying that nothing of any major cultural importance was going on in London anymore, but that struck a chord with me (no pun intended).

[Sebastian Cobb]

British indie went on a downward trajectory when Creation sold to Sony and they picked up Oasis.

[gib]

I reckon Elastica was the last album i bought that might count as britpop *looks it up* oh 1992.

[Chriddof]

Not sure where you got that date from - Elastica's debut was released in 1995.

[DrGreggles]

Not sure where you got that date from - Elastica's debut was released in 1995.

To the joy of Wire and The Stranglers' bank managers.

[gib]

Not sure where you got that date from - Elastica's debut was released in 1995.

I got it from lazy googling, appreciate the correction.

[Darles Chickens]

(1) THE FIRM – Star Trekkin' (video)
Wot no Gorn?

A month or so later, an unknown group called "The B. Boy's" released a single called Start Wrekkin' which parodied both this and the Beastie Boys - and reached the dizzy heights of number 95 in the charts.  My 11 year old self found it hilarious.  A remix of this track later found itself onto The Firm's follow-up album "Serious Fun", pretty much cementing the theory that The B. Boy's were a pseudonym for The Firm themselves.

[Gulftastic]

We're at the point in my youth now with the repeats when I started to think that popular chart music was getting a bit rubbish. And the full hell of SAW is about to be unleashed. Oh, and is that Bros on the horizon?

[A Hat Like That]

I think even post-Britpop there was a steady trickle of indie acts still making it into the charts, and onto TOTP. I can remember an article in the NME bemoaning the fact that the charts had started to become a no-go zone for indie bands, and while I'm not exactly sure of the date, IIRC correctly it made mention of Aerosmith's video for Don't Want To Miss A Thing being a virtual fixture on the programme for several weeks, which would date it to Aug/Sep 1998.

but there weren't *that* many indie bands charting around then.

If you get to 1995, you might as well hold out to 2006. Except, they can't show the last ever one, can they?

Star Trekkin' - utterly dire. It sounds so cheap.

It is the same The Firm as Arthur Daley E's Alright, right?

(on a similar note, Tight Fit - how much overlap was there between Back to the 60s and The Lion Sleeps Tonight?)

[A Hat Like That]

Rather loved seeing JOHN FARNHAM – You're The Voice making its appearance. It's bad but it definitely soundtracked something in my childhood.

[Pauline Walnuts]

Star Trekkin' - utterly dire. It sounds so cheap.

It is the same The Firm as Arthur Daley E's Alright, right?

Not Jimmy Page's finest hour.

[daf]

A month or so later, an unknown group called "The B. Boy's" released a single called Start Wrekkin' which parodied both this and the Beastie Boys

Bloody hell - the state of the sound on that upload - I've heard better audio coming from wax cylinders!

[buzby]

A month or so later, an unknown group called "The B. Boy's" released a single called Start Wrekkin' which parodied both this and the Beastie Boys - and reached the dizzy heights of number 95 in the charts.  My 11 year old self found it hilarious.  A remix of this track later found itself onto The Firm's follow-up album "Serious Fun", pretty much cementing the theory that The B. Boy's were a pseudonym for The Firm themselves.

I'm not so sure. The B. Boys version of Start Wrekkin' came out while Star Trekkin' was still in the Top 20. It was also on a completely different indie label called Debut Edge Records (rather than The Firm's own label Bark Records), which was the home of Nigel Wright and used to put out his cash-in soundalike and megamix singles under names like Who'e That Blonde and Mirage (he was also the producer behind MC Miker G and DJ Sven,  who were also on Debut Edge).

The B. Boys single was released while Star Trekkin' was still in the Top 20 (though after it had been Number One), and the version on The Firm's album sounds completely different. I suspect that the B. Boys version was actually a quick Nigel Wright cash-in, and The Firm then covered it to use as filler on their album.

Star Trekkin' - utterly dire. It sounds so cheap.
It is the same The Firm as Arthur Daley E's Alright, right?

It sounds cheap because it was cheap (it's bascially all performed on a DX7). And yes, it was the same The Firm (John O' Connor and Grahame Lister). They nicked the basis of the song from a bunch of Sealed Knot reenactors who came up with the original lyrics as a song to sing round the campfire to the tune of The Music Man, and who later took them to court over it.

(on a similar note, Tight Fit - how much overlap was there between Back to the 60s and The Lion Sleeps Tonight?)

The Tight Fit of Back To The Sixties share nothing with the later The Lion Sleeps Tonight/Fantasy Island iteration ofther than a name and a record label. Both versions were monikers used by two different producers (Ken Gold in the medley era, Tim Friese-Green in the 'Lion' era) with different groups of session musicians.

[gilbertharding]

A few years later - about 1990 - when I worked for the precast concrete firm, one of the other draughtsmen was a Moody Blues fan called Des whose principal hobby was grass track car racing.

He came up with the brilliant idea of changing the words of the song to grass tracking*, and the not so brilliant idea of singing it around the office until we all hated him a bit more.


* I can't recall, but wouldn't be surprised, if he changed some of the other words too.