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)
(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.
(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
(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.
8 May 1986: Presenters: Janice Long & John Peel
Lovely - now Peach has gone the Dream Team are back.
(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?
(22) VAN HALEN – Why Can’t This Be Love?
Long is right- there's more than a hint of Land Of Make Believe here
(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.
(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.
(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.
