Top of the Pops on BBC Four - Thread Three

[The Culture Bunker]

1 Info Freako.
2 IBYT.
3 Real Real Real.

And that's your lot.

'Right Here, Right Now' was the one that probably bought the house Mike Edwards lives in - someone once told me the band could still rake in decent sums going over to the US to perform that single song at business conventions and whatnot.

I'm surprised it wasn't a bigger hit here, as I remember it getting a fair bit of radio play.

[DrGreggles]

1 Info Freako.

They peaked about 40 seconds into their first single, which might be a record.
At least they had a peak though.

[Norton Canes]

26 April 1990: Presenter: Bruno Brookes

Let's deal with the elephant in the room first, before it eats all the buns and shits on the floor - what an utter dog's breakfast they've made of the new captions. I know the CYPHER GRAPHICS were ultimately a bit of a cheesy novelty but at least their stripped-back implementation was clean and uncluttered. That faux-Futurist Flash Gordon guff they've got going on in the chart countdowns is hideous. Actually, if I'm pining for the return of any TOTP graphic style it's the one used on the late 80's with the beautiful mix of Univers and OCR-B on filled backgrounds that incredibly contemporary



A simple search for info on CYPHER GRAPHICS has led me down quite a rabbit hole. Here, for instance, because I know you've been lost without one, is a list of pretty much all the fonts used throughout the history of the show.

Anyway

(25) | PAT & MICK – Use It Up And Wear It Out

This week's episode does its level best to distract from the new graphics by immediately foisting this extraordinary spectacle upon us, weirdly redolent of the show's party-packed 80's era with a cadre of dancers deployed add pizzazz to Pat N's performance (within a couple of weeks the show has gone from Mick Patton to Pat N' Mick). Literally seconds of fun can be had spotting who's up for it and who doesn't have the NRG. Top marks to the punter stage left who suddenly flings her arms around like a panic-stricken air traffic controller just after the middle eight, but red jumper lady behind Mick is clearly flagging. It's a shame the production team didn't herd a few audience members on stage more often in this era.

TBH, it's all bit bit downhill after this...

(20) | JESUS JONES – Real Real Real

I managed to add 'Zeroes and Ones' to the sum total of memorable JJ tracks. 

(26) | PHIL COLLINS – Something Happened On The Way To Heaven (video)

Don't let the jaunty upbeat style fool you, it's another self-pitying dirge from the King of Feeling Sorry For Himself.

(33) | BRUCE DICKINSON – Tattooed Millionaire (video and credits)

A curious stab at an abstract video, ends up being self-consciously eccentric though. When it got to the bit where the shoes appear on the gangster's heads I had a vision of Alexei Sayle leaping into shot barking "The shoes are on their heads! The shoes are on their heads!"

3 May 1990: Presenter: Simon Mayo

(28) | B.B.G. feat. DINA TAYLOR – Snappiness (Sweet Inspiration Edit)

That Mayo eh, what a wag. Nice that the gag is spoiled by the punter behind him stifling a yawn burp cough.

( 4 ) | ADAMSKI – Killer

The bit I always used to hate in this is where the piano comes in after "The way you wanna...", because up to that point all the sounds had sounded unrecognisable electronic. Now, I can see it contributes a sense of warmth and euphoria. That dancer isn't very good, is she. Some of those moves look pretty wobbly.

(53) | EMMA – Give A Little Love Back To The World (video and credits)

And tonight's BBC4 double-bill ends as it began, with another throwback moment, this time to the age when they used to play out with a video right to the finish.

[dissolute ocelot]

( 4 ) | ADAMSKI – Killer

The bit I always used to hate in this is where the piano comes in after "The way you wanna...", because up to that point all the sounds had sounded unrecognisable electronic. Now, I can see it contributes a sense of warmth and euphoria. That dancer isn't very good, is she. Some of those moves look pretty wobbly.

I remember on hearing Killer rushing out to buy an Adamski cassette (which was of slightly earlier stuff) and it was all very piano-heavy, a bit cheesy, and nothing at all like sinister majesty of Killer, and I think I hurled it aside with great force. That was probably pre-N-R-G, the immediate predecessor to Killer, which managed to combine his trademark fake piano with lots of weird squelchy noises. As they say, having one classic single is something any band can do but very few really manage.

(18) | BRUCE DICKINSON – Tattooed Millionaire (video)

A curious stab at an abstract video, ends up being self-consciously eccentric though. When it got to the bit where the shoes appear on the gangster's heads I had a vision of Alexei Sayle leaping into shot barking "The shoes are on their heads! The shoes are on their heads!"

Everyone needs to watch the full Tattooed Millionaire video, there's some phoney deep and meaningful stuff but also Bruce pissing around in a (fake) submarine, on a motorbike, etc, and (presumably) mocking people for having plastic surgery. Bruce and Iron Maiden always seemed to be having a good time, at least.

EDIT: I don't think proper respect has been paid to the ultimate 1990 video, Andy Bell dancing with a disembodied blue hand for Erasure's Blue Savannah. What does it mean? Even Wikipedia doesn't know. The lyrics appears to be about someone being lost in a desert, but I think it was the time of early-peak Blue Man Group.

[daf]

I don't think proper respect has been paid to the ultimate 1990 video, Andy Bell dancing with a disembodied blue hand for Erasure's Blue Savannah. What does it mean?

My best guess is that it's a nod to the Blue Meanies 'Flying Glove' from Yellow Submarine. I see Kevin Godley directed it, and I imagine the title may have sparked off an association in his Beatle fan-brain.

 

The Dreadfull Flying Glove is the tertiary antagonist of the animated movie, Yellow Submarine. The main enforcer of the Chief of the Blue Meanies, and by extend to the rest of the Blue Meanies' army, the Dreadful Flying Glove is a minor fighter in the villains tournaments.

[Norton Canes]

There's something very Quentin Smirhes about it.

[monkfromhavana]

I remember on hearing Killer rushing out to buy an Adamski cassette (which was of slightly earlier stuff) and it was all very piano-heavy, a bit cheesy, and nothing at all like sinister majesty of Killer, and I think I hurled it aside with great force. That was probably pre-N-R-G, the immediate predecessor to Killer, which managed to combine his trademark fake piano with lots of weird squelchy noises. As they say, having one classic single is something any band can do but very few really manage.

LIVEANDDIRECT?

Fantastic stuff.

[buzby]

5 April 1990: Presenter: Anthea Turner

(16) |  HAPPY MONDAYS – Step On

Having got a hit with the Oakenfold and Osborne remixes of the tracks from the Halleujah EP, The Mondays swiftly gave Martin Hannett the elbow for this John Kongos cover, going with Oakenfold & Osborne again. It was originally recorded to contribute to their US label Elektra's 40th anniversary compilation (the Kongos original having been released by Elektra in the US) but they felt it was too good and kept it as a single, recording a cover of another Kongos track, Tokoloshe Man, for the album (again with Oakenfold & Osborne producing).

Shaun famously nicked the 'You know he talked so hip - you're twisting my melon man' line from a Norman Jewison interview in the documentary 'Steve McQueen: Man On The Edge',Despite Shaun saying he saw it on TV in the seventies, it was only made in 1986 and released on video in February 1990, right when they were recording the song.

This was Rowetta's first track as backing singer for the Mondays, having been recruited to initially reproduce the Tramiane Hawkins sample and Kirsty MacColl's vocals on from Halleujah for live performances. She was  a well known face on the late 80s Manchester scene, and had previously featured on a few locally-produced singles, including Vanilla Sound Corps' Back Where We Belong and Passion (VSC was a duo who would later be signed by Rob Gretton for his Rob's Records label - one half of the duo was Roger Lyons, who many years later would go on to become New Order's live sound engineer).

It's a good track, but it does represent the shift towards being a bit more dancefloor and chart-friendly - the corners and jagged edges of their earlier output  being smoothed off. I still regard Bummed and the Halleujah EP as their high point.

[buzby]

12 April 1990: Presenter: Mark Goodier

Ah, the Voice Of The Chart returns.

(23) |  JESUS JONES – Real Real Real

Hmm. I always thought the title of this was a bit ironic, as they sounded like the biggest bunch of 'baggy' bandwagon jumpers going, having already done the rounds in London under a couple of guises (Camouflage and The Big Colour) before a holiday in Ibiza in summer 1988 led to 'the realisation that there was always a dance element to our music', buying a sampler and morphing into Jesus Jones, with the addition of keyboard player Iain 'Barry Dogg' Baker (who was manager of Slam City Skates, and so was responsible for their 'skatecore' look).

They were signed to EMI's pseudo-indie Food (run by Bill Drummond's old mate David Balfe) and their first single Info Freako was released in February 1989, just missing out on the Top 40. Their next single, Never Enough also peaked at #42 in July, and their third single Bring It On Down did slightly worse, peaking at #46 in September. This would normally lead to crisis meetings with the A&R man, but their debut album Liquidizer was released in October, and reached a respectable #32 in the charts.

Their second album Doubt was released at the beginning of February 1990 with no supporting singles (this was the first single released from it, in fact), and still went straight in at #1. I detect some serious jiggery pokery on the hype front there.

(15) |  TECHNOTRONIC feat. M.C. ERIC – This Beat Is Technotronic

This Beat Is Exactly The Same As All OF Our Previous Singles, more like.

- - - - - - - - - - - (Breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(28) |  DAVE BOWIE & THE DAVE BOWIE BAND (feat. DAVE BOWIE) – Fame 90 (video)

I really liked this remix, and it was another of the records I bought on cassingle to listen to on the long bus ride to my part time job. It was released to promote the Changesbowie compilation and accompanying Sound & Vision tour (which itself had been pre-empted by the lavish Sound + Vision box set on Rykodisc at the end of 1989), and was given a pretty sympathetic update (for the time, there's no Woo..Yeah! or Soul II Soul drum break on it) by LA remixer Jon Gass.

The B-side of the UK release featured a more radical reworking by DJ Mark 'The 45 King' with a rap by Queen Latifah and dispenses with almost all of Bowie's vocals. This was the A-side of the Us release. There were also less-remarkable House and Hip Hop mixes by Arthur Baker (who was really going of the boil by this time) and the ultra-extended 14-minute Epic Mix by David Barrett (which was never released in the UK).

In the video the Dame does a better job at Vogueing than Madge, and features the unique moves of contemporary dancer Louise Lecavalier.

(24) |  THE CURE – Pictures Of You

I don't know what mix they used for Pictures of You, I think it's from the same album recording I had on CD and also on my 'remastered' vinyl, but it sounds more dynamic and less muddy than either version I owned.

It was a remix by Fat Bob and Fiction Records head honcho (and ex-cure manager) Chris Parry, assisted by the then-hot producer Mark Saunders (as mentioned recently via his work on Buffalo Stance). The Wiki entry for the single says the remix was only used in the 12" release and the album version was edited for the 7", but it was actually an edit of the Parry/Smith/Saunders remix. It was possibly a late admission that the muddy final mix of Disintegration had been a mistake?

[Satchmo Distel]

Are the double episodes a sign that they want to whizz through these years quickly, or that it's cheap TV in response to budget cuts?

[daf]

They've been doing two a week since . .  erm, let me check my Noosha Fox rolodex . . .

. . .  OK, I'm back - 2016 - when they began showing an extra edition on Fridays in addition to the regular Thursday showing. I think it was 2019 when they bumped the Thursday edition to join the one on Fridays.

They originally had them line up pretty much 35 years apart (to the closest thursday) - starting in April 2011 with April 1976. Here's how the years lined up -

2011 : 1976
2012 : 1977
2013 : 1978
2014 : 1979
2015 : 1980
2016 : 1981 + 1982
2017 : 1983 + 1984
2018 : 1985 + 1986
2019 : 1987 + 1988
2020 : 1989 + 1990 (part1)

[Norton Canes]

It's been mentioned that they might be trying to get through as many episodes as possible in case funding cuts means BBC4 going off air.

[edon]

Unless they got particularly unlucky with scheduling mither, I don't think they would've wanted to have that 2 month gap between 1989 and 90 if they are attempting to show as many as they can.

Apparently the shows are still pulling in decent enough ratings for BBC4, and have done better on Fridays than Thursdays, which presumably is why they made the double bills permanent. Wouldn't be surprised if they pull the plug on it when they get up to October 91 and the revamp with the no miming rule/gormless kids TV presenters/etc, though

[Menu]

I liked it when you could sync it up with Radio One and get the programme in FM Stereo quality!

[Auntie Beryl]

(re Jesus Jones)

Their second album Doubt was released at the beginning of February 1990 with no supporting singles (this was the first single released from it, in fact), and still went straight in at #1. I detect some serious jiggery pokery on the hype front there.

Doubt came out in early 1991, I think. International Bright Young Thing had briefly hit the top ten in the January deadzone, so a #1 album wasn't that much of a shock after three hits over the previous year.

[gilbertharding]

Fucking hell that Sonya performance is atrocious, the track, the choreography, the camerawork and Sonya's miming absolutely everything seems hasty and rushed.

I have no beef with Sonya at all, but it seems like everyone involved in that couldn't be arsed.

At least the backing dancer no longer looks exactly like what I imagine Sonya's dad looks like (and not just because there's now two of them).

[Gulftastic]

They've been doing two a week since . .  erm, let me check my Noosha Fox rolodex . . .

. . .  OK, I'm back - 2016 - when they began showing an extra edition on Fridays in addition to the regular Thursday showing. I think it was 2019 when they bumped the Thursday edition to join the one on Fridays.

They originally had them line up pretty much 35 years apart (to the closest thursday) - starting in April 2011 with April 1976. Here's how the years lined up -

2011 : 1976
2012 : 1977
2013 : 1978
2014 : 1979
2015 : 1980
2016 : 1981 + 1982
2017 : 1983 + 1984
2018 : 1985 + 1986
2019 : 1987 + 1988
2020 : 1989 + 1990 (part1)

Yeah, Yewtree and Mike Fucking Smith spoiled the 35 years ago concept. The amount they could no longer show simply made it unworkable.

[Jackson K Pollock]

Yeah, Yewtree and Mike Fucking Smith spoiled the 35 years ago concept. The amount they could no longer show simply made it unworkable.

Can someone explain what the Mike Smith deal is? That's the first I've heard of it (been out of the country) and I've tried to navigate back through digital spy etc but can only find people referring to it/swearing at him.

[Norton Canes]

From his Wiki:

Smith decided not to sign the licence extension that would allow the BBC to repeat the Top of the Pops episodes that he presented, with the BBC continuing to respect his wishes following his death. As a result, episodes featuring Smith have been omitted from the repeat run on BBC Four

[DrGreggles]

The BBC should fuck his wishes. IN THE EYE!

I assume a lot people think the Smith episodes are missing for similar reasons to the Yewtree mob, so it would be in the family's interests to let them show them.

[Icehaven]

NKOTB plumbing the depths.

[Icehaven]

Can someone explain what the Mike Smith deal is? That's the first I've heard of it (been out of the country) and I've tried to navigate back through digital spy etc but can only find people referring to it/swearing at him.

I completely forgot/didn't know he died.

[Icehaven]

Horrific, unnecessary and dull as fuck cover of Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. Jesus shite.

[daf]

10 May 1990: Presenter: Gary Davies

( 5 ) | KYLIE MINOGUE – Better The Devil You Know



(20) | THE WONDERSTUFF – Circlesquare (video)
(19) | MANTRONIX feat. WONDRESS – Take Your Time
( 8 ) | NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK – Cover Girl (video)
(18) | BEATS INTERNATIONAL – Won't Talk About It
(22) | MICHAEL BOLTON – How Can We Be Lovers
(14) | EN VOGUE – Hold On (video)
( 1 ) | ADAMSKI – Killer
(25) | THUNDER – Backstreet Symphony (video and credits)

[kalowski]

Caught the very end of this. That Thunder track was the fucking pits.

[matjam13]

For Tonight's Second Episode We Lost The Video Of Lisa Stansfield's What Do I Do Because Nicky Campbell Mentioned Cyril Smith In His Intro.
Full Episode Here https://we.tl/t-n0SlFFvAjJ

[monkfromhavana]

Both these episodes were unspeakably drab.

[edon]

All downhill fast after Kylie as far as I'm concerned, but that second show was particularly mediocre (Adamski and a mid tier DM single at the end notwithstanding).

I mean, Hothouse Flowers, The Pasadenas, later Eurythmics, Sam Brown, Paul Young, all on the same show - did they intentionally MOR it up as much as possible?

[daf]

I think that edition was curated by Eric Catchpole from Lovejoy!

[Sebastian Cobb]

That Pat and Mick thing is impressively awful.