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

[kaprisky]

1987 seems to have been the year of oiled-up, male backing dancers. Torso clearly beat Bananarama's boys here.

I liked Labour of Love at the time and I think it still holds up today. I even liked those early Wet Wet Wet singles!

Oh and was that Kenny G performance genuinely live? Well done if it was because that was a mad freak out at the end.

[daf]

16 July 1987: Presenters: Simon Bates & Peter Powell

(28) BANANARAMA – I Heard A Rumour
Oiled Pemmican
(2) BRUCE WILLIS – Under The Boardwalk (live clip)
Marty McFraud
(34) HUE & CRY – Labour Of Love
Tony Slattery and The Tony Slattery Band (feat. Tony Slattery)
(25) KENNY G – Songbird
"Go Home Dirty Bopper!"
(7) MEL & KIM – FLM (video)
Fun-der-birds are GO!


https://www.flickr.com/photos/51106326@N00/sets/72157664137145603

- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(32) LOS LOBOS – La Bamba
(27) THE CURE – Catch
(14) BOOGIE BOX HIGH – Jive Talkin'
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(23) FREDDIE MCGREGOR – Just Don't Want To Be Lonely
Ol' Sensible Trousers
(1) PET SHOP BOYS – It's A Sin
It's a . . It's a . . It's a-a-a . . . . It's a Strobe
(3) MADONNA – Who's That Girl? (video / credits)
Slammer!

[A Hat Like That]

1987 seems to have been the year of oiled-up, male backing dancers. Torso clearly beat Bananarama's boys here.

I liked Labour of Love at the time and I think it still holds up today. I even liked those early Wet Wet Wet singles!

Oh and was that Kenny G performance genuinely live? Well done if it was because that was a mad freak out at the end.

Labour of Love was a "oh, so that's what its called" moment here. One from my childhood car journeys I think.

Kenny G. "this is a bit van Halen, but on the saxomaphone".

I like "Catch" by The Cure. Gone massively down the wiki-hole on this, and starting to struggle with what's actually true here:

The song's lyrics, as written by Robert Smith, were inspired when Smith caught a broadcast of the Sylvester Stallone written film 'Rocky 2' in which Rocky's wife Adrian falls into a coma during childbirth. In a desperate hope to revive his wife, Rocky writes a poem for Adrian which at one point reads ".....and you kept trying to slip so I could catch you...." This moment moved Smith and years later when Stallone caught wind of this, he asked The Cure to write the theme song for his 1995 movie 'Judge Dredd'. Smith, a lifelong fan of the British comic book series, immediately began work on 'Dredd Song'.

This began a friendship and in 1998 both were to lend their respective voices to an episode of South Park that would serve as a sequel to the episode Smith appeared in (in which Robert Smith saves the world from Mecha-Streissand). The episode never came to fruition due to the actor's strike but Trey Parker claimed, "We were going to have Rambo go on a crazy rampage in South Park and the boys would be forced to once again call upon the amazing Robert Smith but it got scrapped."

[daf]

23 July 1987: Presenters: Janice Long & Simon Mayo

(26) BOY GEORGE – Sold
A-a-a-a-a-a-a-rse Holes
(3) ATLANTIC STARR – Always (video)
Tree Vandals!
(35) JUDY BOUCHER – You Caught My Eye
Naaa-Naaa-Naaa . . Nana-na-naaa . . Nana-na-naaa . . Hey Judy
(5) LOS LOBOS – La Bamba (video)
"The Mexican Sketch"
- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(37) ERROL BROWN – Personal Touch
(34) SAMANTHA FOX – I Surrender (To The Spirit Of The Night)
(33) MARILLION – Sugar Mice
(20) BEASTIE BOYS – She's On It
(29) LUTHER VANDROSS – I Really Didn't Mean It
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(13) SHAKIN' STEVENS – A Little Boogie Woogie (In The Back Of My Mind)
Glenn Ponder and Torso
(1) MADONNA – Who's That Girl? (video)
Metty Moop?


https://www.flickr.com/photos/51106326@N00/sets/72157666420297876

(10) BOOGIE BOX HIGH – Jive Talkin' (video / credits)
Is it Him? *

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* George Michael, apparently

[buzby]

16 July 1987: Presenters: Simon Bates & Peter Powell

Groan. these two are well past their sell-by date by now.

(28) BANANARAMA – I Heard A Rumour

This is the point SAW's production went to assembly-line shite, I reckon - it just sounds so cheap with those sampled synth horns parping away. The music and arrageent also bears a striking similarity to this 1986 Italo-disco tune.
Strictly judge Bruno Tonioni was one of the oiled-up dancers, apparently.

(2) BRUCE WILLIS – Under The Boardwalk (live clip)

Why do they keep showing this honking,  baldy, mugging cunt?

(34) HUE & CRY – Labour Of Love

Were these possibly a last-minute replacement for a dropout, going by Bates' comment in the intro?  More blue-eyed soul from Scotland, does't really do anything for me I'm afraid. Pat Kane looks like a young Ant McPartlin in an oversized suit. Rare appearance from a an Akai MX73 MIDI Master Keyboard (which isn't' connected to anything) on top of Greg Kane's Roland RD-1000 digital piano. This didn't feature aftertouch, which is a major shortcoming for a master keyboard.

This was their second single for Virgin's Circa sub-label, having been signed on the strength of their debut single Here Comes Everybody on Glasgow-base indie Stampede in 1986. Their first single for Circa, I Refuse, was released at the end of 1986 and stalled at #85 in February 1987

(25) KENNY G – Songbird

"mmm. Nice.' (not really, it's tedious noodling)
It' definitely live, for the wigout at the end at least (it's fairly obvious, as the sax on the record is drenched in reverb, but it isn't when they fade the record down for his tootling at the end). There's a radio mic with the dangling antenna lead clipped onto the end of his sax too.

(7) MEL & KIM – FLM (video)

This isn't a patch on their previous singles (despite the Cabaret Voltaire-esque Infernal Machine-manipulated vocal samples in the middle 8). It was the title track of their album, and was obviously recorded before the house-inspired Showin' Out (which as mentioned previously, was rush-recorded after the rest of the album to replace their original debut single).

Mel had been diagnosed with spinal cancer (a secondary from her earlier liver cancer) after experiencing back problems on the Respectable video shoot and the following promotional tour in Japan so they weren't available for the video. Instead, they were replaced by puppets and spliced-in footage from their appearance at Montreux. It looks very cheap and cheesy. Needless to say the girls hated it and were furious about the puppets and what that might infer about them.

(23) FREDDIE MCGREGOR – Just Don't Want To Be Lonely

Bland and dreary pop-reggae. The original Ronnie Dyson version from 1973 sounds infinitely better with the lush strings and brass. His backing singers are  Lauraine Smart and Heather Austin from the Cool Notes, who had a couple of Top 20 hits in 1985.

(1) PET SHOP BOYS – It's A Sin

They got their money's worth out of this VT, didn't they?

[Johnboy]

Unexpected sightings of Steve Nieve and a Red Lorry Yellow Lorry poster.

Hue and Cry's bass was held too high - totally unacceptable.

[non capisco]

Well, this is the third day in a row I've had "A Little Boogie Woogie In The Back Of My Mind" squatting in my cranium and ceaselessly prodding my brain.

"What's that tune you keep humming, non capisco?"
"Oh, it's Shakin' Stevens' Hi-NRG song. Written by Gary Glitter."
"PLEASE LEAVE THE PREMISES."

It's his best one since Green Door!

[Better Midlands]

Well, this is the third day in a row I've had "A Little Boogie Woogie In The Back Of My Mind" squatting in my cranium and ceaselessly prodding my brainò

"What's that tune you keep humming, non capisco?"
"Oh, it's Shakin' Stevens' Hi-NRG song. Written by Gary Glitter."
"PLEASE LEAVE THE PREMISES."

It's his best one since Green Door!

Then you're be pleased to know that the records company decided that a 9 minute extended remix was a good idea

https://youtu.be/PQk2i352N0E

Also Glitter's version is unironically a belter

https://youtu.be/fkoeh47nHfU

[non capisco]

Then you're be pleased to know that the records company decided that a 9 minute extended remix was a good idea

I've had the 24 hour remix of it playing in my noggin.

[buzby]

23 July 1987: Presenters: Janice Long & Simon Mayo#

They are definitely trying to make this pairing work, throwing the 'fresh meat' in with Janice. Mayo seems to be getting into it a bit now though, and is a bit less wooden.

(35) JUDY BOUCHER – You Caught My Eye

ZZzzzzzzzzz.......

(5) LOS LOBOS – La Bamba (video)

Another movie soundtrack single (and one we will be hearing plenty more of). It's not bad, but I would have much preferred it if they had just re-released the original Richie Valens version. at least they actually got the star of the film to show up for the video shoot, unlike that awful attempt at trying to cut the members of Starship into scenes from Mannequin.

- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(34) SAMANTHA FOX – I Surrender (To The Spirit Of The Night)

Despite ripping off another olf Italo-disco tune (it's a pretty straight rip of Raf's Self Control with different lyrics, right down to the Woah-Oh-Woah's in the choruses) it's not a SAW product this time (they only contributed her previous single to Fox's eponymous second album).

Like her debut Touch Me, this was was co-written by ex-Absolute Elsewhere/The Group/X-Effects/Gang Of Four bassist turned Jive Records house producer Jon Astrop (who owned Mount Pleasant Studio in London with his old bandmate Phil Saatchi, having built it using materials salvaged from the demolition of the old Lloyds building), session keyboard player and library composer Mark Shreeve (who was also the same Jive label as Fox and Astrop) with lyrics by NY-based journalist and erotic fiction author Karen Moline.

Astrop gave up his music career in the mid-90s to go back to being an artist (he had got into music while studying at Hornsey School Of Art) and has been reasonably successful. Unfortunately a van containing his entire collection of work that he toured round galleries was stolen in 2014 in North London

(33) MARILLION – Sugar Mice

Mark Kelly proudly showing off his swanky new Roland D50 again

(13) SHAKIN' STEVENS – A Little Boogie Woogie (In The Back Of My Mind)

This performance doesn't quite have the same impact after the initial shock of the first appearance (I was breathless from laughing when it came to the 'moonwalk' bit, aptly described by daf). I did put it on when I went round to see my sister the following weekend and their jaws were literally on the floor. It's funny how nobody remembers seeing it though.

(1) MADONNA – Who's That Girl? (video)

Another soundtrack single, this time for a shite Madonna film. Still on her 'Spanish' era (like La Isla Bonita this was also co-written and produced by Patrick Leonard). The best thing about this whole project was the animated titles from the film that were reused in the video. The 'Betty Boop' character was designed by Argentinean artist Daniel Melgarejo and animated in grease pencil by a 'who's who' of 80s animators - Bill Plympton, Ric Machin (who was also responsible for the overall direction), Doug Frankel,  Dan Haskell, Elinor Blake, Bob Scott, Bob Mc Knight and Ed and Norma Rivera, who were all working or freelancing at Broadcast Arts Inc studio at the time.

[northernrebel]

Going back a few months in the TOTP 1987 world I just had to say that John Farnham looked scarily like Donald Trump on occasion. The mullet didn't help, as it reminded me of the dreadful orange-blond husk the POTUS has for hair. I can't be the only one to have noticed.

On another note, Martin Fry really reminded me of the toff out of 'Cold Feet'. And Broken English were like a bad cross of Ghostbusters and the Rolling Stones.

Sam Fox is dire but she takes me back to every night club in 1987 - that SAW wall of sound!

Should I mention Stevie Nicks and her professional skirt-swirling, or the vengeful ghost of Mike Smith?

Probably not, ho hum bugger bognor.

[kalowski]

Well, this is the third day in a row I've had "A Little Boogie Woogie In The Back Of My Mind" squatting in my cranium and ceaselessly prodding my brain.

Say what you like about Gary Glitter (like he was a heinous monster who sexually abused young children and did so across continents and without any thoughts of compassion) but he knew how to write a catchy tune.

[Norton Canes]

Glancing at the schedules for The Roxy, I notice that in the week TOTP was inflicting another Judy Boucher song on us, its ITV counterpart was treating us to this utterly wonderful performance by Siouxsie and the Banshees. That proscenium arch was a definite stroke of genius.

[Janie Jones]

Well, this is the third day in a row I've had "A Little Boogie Woogie In The Back Of My Mind" squatting in my cranium and ceaselessly prodding my brain.

"What's that tune you keep humming, non capisco?"
"Oh, it's Shakin' Stevens' Hi-NRG song. Written by Gary Glitter."
"PLEASE LEAVE THE PREMISES."

It's his best one since Green Door!

Did you notice the lyrics? 'Tonight's the night... I can't wait any longer ... I'm locking the door ... you might put up a fight...' 

[non capisco]

To be honest I was too transfixed by the disparity between Shaky and his musclemen's dancing skills and energy levels to pay attention to the unsavoury verse lyrics. It's mainly been the chorus that has been the cause of my torment all week.

[Better Midlands]

Did you notice the lyrics? 'Tonight's the night... I can't wait any longer ... I'm locking the door ... you might put up a fight...'

They're pretty dodgy

Alright, Tonight's the night
The night I make my mind up
It's time to get it right
Just like we did before
Tonight's the night alright
And thought I know
You ain`t quite sure
You`re getting more excited
Cause you don`t know what's in store
Alright, you know the truth now
When I`m inclined
I usually find
A little boogie woogie In the back of my mind
When I`m inclined
I easily find
A Little boogie woogie In the back of my mind
Today's the day
I lay it on the line
The way to make you stay
And keep me company
Its time to get my way
Cause night time
Is the right time
When I`m feeling I like my action guaranteed
Alright, I feel good
Come on, tonight
When I`m inclined
I usually find A little boogie woogie
In the back of my mind
When i`m inclined
I easily find
A Little boogie woogie In the back of my mind
A little Boogie Woogie Boogie Woogie.........

[Norton Canes]

Did you notice the lyrics? 'Tonight's the night... I can't wait any longer ... I'm locking the door ... you might put up a fight...'

Yep, these are exactly the lyrics that I've been powerless to stop singing to myself for the past couple of weeks now. Mad.

[gilbertharding]

Did you notice the lyrics? 'Tonight's the night... I can't wait any longer ... I'm locking the door ... you might put up a fight...'

The best one of these was way back in 1976 (2011 in BBC4 years), someone on twitter heard the Dr Hook lyrics "When you think I've loved you all I can I'm gonna love you a little bit more..." and thought "...cystitis."

[Satchmo Distel]

Could be a Viagra jingle.

[Better Midlands]

Could be a Viagra jingle.

A Little Bluey Wooey

[the hum]

Glancing at the schedules for The Roxy, I notice that in the week TOTP was inflicting another Judy Boucher song on us, its ITV counterpart was treating us to this utterly wonderful performance by Siouxsie and the Banshees. That proscenium arch was a definite stroke of genius.

That's brilliant. Can't believe I haven't heard that track before, and even more astonished it flopped in the charts.

[daf]

30 July 1987: Presenter: Gary Davies

(13) HUE & CRY – Labour Of Love
Emergency bonce-powder for Slattery
(5) HEART – Alone (video)
Look out - Piano Bomb!
(9) FREDDIE MCGREGOR – Just Don't Want To Be Lonely
Spin low, sweet mirrorball
(14) BANANARAMA – I Heard A Rumour (video)
W-O-W
- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(30) STOCK, AITKEN & WATERMAN – Roadblock
(28) SPAGNA – Call Me (Montreux clip)
(20) THE GAP BAND – Oops Upside Your Head
(19) NEW ORDER – True Faith
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(22) MARILLION – Sugar Mice
Dick Dastardly in Motley
(1) LOS LOBOS – La Bamba (video)
From "The Elvis Costello & Brian Setzer from The Stray Cats Story"



(10) BEASTIE BOYS – She's On It (video / credits)
Beachy Boys

[Norton Canes]

9:34 - Get outta shot!

[buzby]

30 July 1987: Presenter: Gary Davies

(13) HUE & CRY – Labour Of Love

Somehwere there's a bank missing it's assistant manager. The Akai MX73 is subbed for the inevitable DX7 this week.

(5) HEART – Alone (video)

Written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, 80s songwriters extrodinaire (Like A Virgin, So Emotional, True Colours,, Eternal Flame, etc. etc.) and originally recorded by them under the name I-Ten for their sole album Taking a Cold Look in 1983. The Heart version was recorded for their 9th album Bad Animals, produced by FM Rock specialist Ron Nevison (Tom Kelly also provided the high harmony vocals on Heart's version).

It's all just typical US FM Rock bombast in the Jim Steinman 'Total Eclipse Of The Heart' mould really, isn't it? I think it also says something about how static that genre was that you could get away with releasing an almost identical cover of a track from 4 years before and still get a US #1 with it.

Oh, and btw - Bodyform

(14) BANANARAMA – I Heard A Rumour (video)

The girls raid the dressing up box.

- - - - - - - - - - - - (breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(30) STOCK, AITKEN & WATERMAN – Roadblock

Written by Mike Stock as an elaborate revenge scheme for their records not being taken seriously by club DJs and journalists. It was released as an uncredited promo on the fictional Lynx Records and received glowing reviews and wass a club hit.

It was only after that, in true 'Of course, I had the last laugh' Alan Partridge style, that it went on general release with under the S/A/W name. It famously resulted in a lawsuit when a tiny sample of the 'Rare Groove' remix was used uncleared by M/A/R/R/S (which is hypocritical, given all the uncredited lifts used on S/A/W's tracks) that was really about hem trying to stop Rick Astley getting knocked off the #1 spot.

(19) NEW ORDER – True Faith

I'll cover the track on the next episode, but this is the only appearance of the video. Directed by French choreographer  Philippe Decouflé (or Desouffle, as Steve calls him), who like most of the up-and-coming directors who were asked to make videos for New Order was spotted by Tony Wilson's friend Michael Shamberg, Factory's video producer and representative in the US. Decouflé used performance artists as dancers, and footage shot by Shamberg from the songs' first public performance at their Glastonbury 1987 appearance. There was also a little-known alternate version of the video intended for the US that used more of the band concert footage (including a typical Sumner tantrum and more of Hooky than just his leg). Some outtakes from Decouflé's filming were also used as between-video bumpers on the (the best of) New Order video compilation.

Wilson had paid for Factory to join the BPI so that the hoped-for sales of the Substance album would get officially recoginsed. A side effect of this was that the video won the 'Best Music Video' award at the 1988 BRIT Awards. Unfortunately when the band received it it had a prong broken off Britannia's trident, and the name of the track was mis-spelled as 'True Face' on the engraved plaque.

Outside his usual stage work, Decouflé went on to choreograph the video for Fine Young Cannibals' She Drives Me Crazy and the opening and closing ceremonies for the 1992 Winter Olypics at Albertville.

[The Culture Bunker]

(1) LOS LOBOS – La Bamba (video)
From "The Elvis Costello & Brian Setzer from The Stray Cats Story"

I'm perhaps one of the few people in the UK who has any Marshall Crenshaw albums (although Owen Paul had a huge hit with a version of Crenshaw's 'Favourite Waste of Time') - when over in America, I heard his 'Whenever You're On My Mind' and thought it was an excellent power-pop tune. The version of Buddy Holly's 'Crying, Waiting, Hoping' from the film soundtrack was produced by the bassist from the E Street Band, fact fans.

Crenshaw would appear again in our charts when he co-wrote the Gin Blossoms' #39 smash 'Til I Hear It From You', from the soundtrack of another film - Empire Records.

[daf]

Is that him doing Elvis Costello Buddy Holly then?

God, I loved Fantasic Planet of Love (Only ever heard Danny Baker playing it on his old Radio 1 saturday morning show - good lad!!)

[The Culture Bunker]

Is that him doing Elvis Costello Buddy Holly then?

Yep - I had assumed you were joking with the Costello remark!

[daf]

But of course - 'rib-tickling jokester' is my unwieldy middle name!

(I knew it was Buddy Holly, but not that it was Crenshaw playing he in the film)

[Satchmo Distel]

Siouxsie is a blind spot for me.

[Janie Jones]

They're pretty dodgy

Apologies for my pedantry but Better Midlands quoted edited lyrics with some of the rapier lines missing. Here's the correct version of the song 'A little boogie woogie,' written by Gary Glitter for Shakin Stevens.  I remember the song was considered sleazy and unacceptable at the time, particularly as Shaky was marketed to appeal to pre-teen girls, with matinee concerts in child-friendly venues. Remember, this is several years after Radio One's Mike Read 'banned' Frankie's Relax for saying 'when you want to come...' but the BBC was happily playing this song about locking someone in and overcoming their reluctance to have sex:
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/shakinstevens/alittleboogiewoogie.html