Top of the Pops on BBC Four - Thread Three

[Pauline Walnuts]

Movin' On Up brings the Dad dancing.

I like the way he doesn't bother pronouncing the second half of the words, what with him being a bad ass all American boy.

But it impressive he can manage it on the word 'me'

[cosmic-hearse]

Color Me Badd are really weird, like an experiment gone wrong. Really charmless.

Contrast them with Boyz II Men who seem like lovely lads & can all sing.

[daf]

13 February 1992: Presenters: Claudia SimOn & Steve AndersOn

US:6 | COLOR ME BADDDDDDDDD – Heartbreaker
(06) | MICHAEL JACKSON – Remember The Time I Pretended To Have A Girlfriend (video)



(09) | RIDE – Leave Them All Behind
NEW | BRYAN ADAMS – Thought I'd Died And Gone On and On and On and On (video)
(04) | THE PASADENAS – I'm Doing Fine Now
- - - - - - - - - - - (Breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(12) | SIMPLY RED – For Your Babies (video)
(13) | THE TEMPTATIONS – My Girl (video)
(17) | PEARL JAM – Alive (video)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(01) | WET WET WET – Goodnight Girl (video)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[The Culture Bunker]

'Leave Them All Behind' going top 10 must have seemed a huge thing for Creation at the time, as well as Ride themselves. Shame it was all downhill for the band from here on, though.

Noted the Smash Hits singles reviews above mentions Tears for Fears as "pop's duo of doom" - presumably Curt Smith sacking it off hadn't become known at that point.

[Wacky Homemade Badges]

Nice Smash Hits. Mike Soutar still a long way from Grumpy Man On The Apprentice incarnation there, chomping merrily on a pile of letters.

[Norton Canes]

30 January 1992: Presenters: Tony DOrtie & Claudia SimOn

Confession time: I lurk on a couple of other forums that have TOTP repeats threads (look, I'm not proud) and sadly, over the past few weeks there's been a proliferation of posts along the lines of "I'm done with these, too much rave music, no tunes, the live singing is awful &tc.". So props to everyone here for a) recognising the dance stuff is absolutely brilliant (Mostly. Sorry, Shaft) and b) generally staying positive about the current shows and appreciating them as the top entertainment they remain. What a discerning bunch we are.

And Kicks Like A Mule were one of the best in-studio dance acts yet. Tony sounds so enthusiastic, I like to think he personally insisted they play the ragga version. Dream Frequency were great too... once Debbie had warmed up. Bit of a disappointing effort from DNA though.

Never really bought into the Manics at all, though I suppose I can see why alot of people found them so exciting. JDB's busting out a serious Bob Mortimer stance in the first bit of that song. File under 'Trying too hard'.

Tony gets a right jostling in that unruly crowd after James. Mind her hair, Tony!

6 February 1992: Presenters: Mark Fr@nklin & Adrian ROse

Ciao, Bernadette!

Something doesn't smell right with that interview. It's not live, is it. Them awkwardly talking over each other isn't caused by a satellite delay - it's because the Milan footage is prerecorded, both sides following the same script, and Mark Franklin's having to fit his lines into the silences. It obviously doesn't help that Marti can't keep a straight face while leaving his gaps. It's no Blink.

Comunque

Adrian does us a massive favour by keeping this largely moribund episode off the airwaves. Cheers, Aids. Top Of The Pops Facts got it bang on calling out Bobby Gillespie's "one-legged-goosestep/invisible lasso dance". What a ghastly shower the lot of them are. 2U again, Stiges again. Brits deso.

Also liking the way Stay is taking its time climbing up the charts ...

From no.10 to no.6 - yeah, that's a weird chart trajectory for a song that's going to spend eight weeks at the top.

Quite like Remember The Time, its new jack swing style is already sounding a bit dated but it's breezy and pretty catchy, an essentially low-key number that really doesn't deserve to be bogged down by all that interminable big-budget CGI video bollocks. One could even charitably say it might sit comfortably on Off The Wall.

Rosewatch:

Tall, isn't he



Definitely not trying to make up for any perceived inadequacy at all there, no way.

13 February 1992: Presenters: Claudia SimOn & Steve AndersOn

Color Me Badd, huh. Me and Mrs Canes were in hysterics when they went full-on McIntyre with that skipping routine. Things have really gone tits up in the CMB camp lately. More dirty laundry, if you want to go down the rabbit hole.

A whole ten minutes on Jacko and Addo though, hopeless. Could have been rescued by one more decent studio performance but instead we got more Pasadenas. Ah well, the saving grace was we got to hear the ambient mix of Goodnight Girl one more time.

[Pauline Walnuts]

I think the step up in quality from the dark, dark times of 1987/88 has been quite fantastic to be honest.

Shame about Ryan Bryan Adams and the showing of the full 2 hour Micheal Jackson videos. 😴

[monkfromhavana]

And Kicks Like A Mule were one of the best in-studio dance acts yet. Tony sounds so enthusiastic, I like to think he personally insisted they play the ragga version.

There isn't a ragga version of "The Bouncer", they just got someone in to do a vocal for TOTP.

[gilbertharding]

Looking at all these presenters, it's a bit of a surprise they ALL didn't decide to prevent the repeats. Tony Dortie's good. The rest... blimey.

Claudia Simon is like Dani Behr's less charismatic half sister. Bless 'em.

And Shakespeare's Sister:

I'm absolutely certain French and Saunders did a skit too, but youtube disagrees.

[Better Midlands]

I'm absolutely certain French and Saunders did a skit too, but youtube disagrees.

When I read that I thought yeah, the one with the foghorn before playing the N&B clip you linked - Mandela effect.

[Norton Canes]

I'm absolutely certain French and Saunders did a skit too, but youtube disagrees.

Dailymotion, on the other hand...

[gilbertharding]

Can I shock you? The Newman and Baddiel one is much, much funnier.

Thanks for finding it though!

[Norton Canes]

Was about to say much the same thing. You'd hardly say it's subtle but its sledgehammer punchline works in its favour. Plus bonus points for Baddiel's extra little trills and Newman's surplus honking at the end.

It's also nice they used an actual TOTP caption (albeit with an errant apostrophe). I like to think Punt (or is it Dennis) is specifically impersonating Adrian Rose. 

The French and Saunders one is... oh, quelle surprise, basically just Dawn French titting about. Directionless rubbish.

[gilbertharding]

There's nothing inherently wrong with French and Saunders titting about, of course. But the Mary Whitehouse Experience also does the viewer the favour of not hanging around. Quite modern, in that way.

(Mind you - I watched a bit of their "World Cup '94" sketch after that though - and it's very poor. Very, very poor).

[A Hat Like That]

From no.10 to no.6 - yeah, that's a weird chart trajectory for a song that's going to spend eight weeks at the top.

In at 27, as well.

Eternal flame was 33 - 13 - 5 - and I think Stay takes another week to get to the top.

[kaprisky]

"Tonight Matthew (or Leslie), I'm going to be Shakespear(')s Sister!"

I'm pretty certain that a couple of ladies did Stay on Stars in Their Eyes. The one playing Siobhan was really funny. They may even have won their episode.

Claudia Simon is doing funny things to me - first she wears a tie and jacket combo, then she turns up in a pair of denim hot pants. In February.

[non capisco]

I liked Tony Dortie saying "We'll see you...laterz!" then adding "Much MUCH laterz!" for absolutely no discernible reason at all. 

[bigfatheart]

Perhaps he had a premonition, knew that this moment would be repeated 30 years later, and was hoping to send a chill down the spine of these future people?

Nostra-Dortie

[Norton Canes]

Further bad news on the repeats front, I'm afraid. Although Dave Nice has signed off permission for the 2nd April 1992 edition to be shown, his co-presenter Mike Smash has refused to put pen to paper. Smashie - or as he prefers to be known these days, Mike Motherfucker - is now a big-shot radio exec in Malta and seems keen to keep details of his previous career under wraps.

[gilbertharding]

I still don't really understand why they don't just show the fucking things. Let him sue. What a prick.

I'm not a lawyer, but if it's a contract, the price of breaching the contract (not 'penalty') must be written into the contract. And it must be a justifiable cost, not some random inflated figure.

[DrGreggles]

Incidentally I did hear someone recently lumping Mike Smith in with the Yewtree lot and citing his missing TOTP repeats as evidence.

I, like Billy Bragg, remained silent.

[Norton Canes]

Couple of things to look forward to tonight: the last of the seven Year Zero presenters makes a belated debut (but don't get too used to her, as she presents five of her ten shows with Adrian Rose); and there's the beginning of a change in the way the chart is shown...

[daf]

Get your balls out for an Ed Barton Banger!

[daf]

KLFing ROCK!

[monkfromhavana]

KLFing ROCK!

It is a pretty epic video, especially when you consider how much money Michael Jackson spunked away on the video for his crap.

[monkfromhavana]

Also, the singer from Opus III's dad was the guy who write the classic Grange Hill Theme, Countdown as well some classic funk, "The Champ" by The Mohawks.

[daf]

Fantastic stuff - the vocalist was Glenn Hughes, who was, at various points, in both Black Sabbath and Deep Purple!

[daf]

Also, the singer from Opus III's dad was the guy who write the classic Grange Hill Theme, Countdown as well some classic funk, "The Champ" by The Mohawks.

Alan Hawkshaw? Absolute Legend!

[Norton Canes]

Just spent the last hour totally down an Opus III/Kirsty Hawkshaw/Alan Hawkshaw/Ed Barton/Orbital rabbit hole. Brilliant

[cosmic-hearse]

Came across this Alan Hackshaw belter from the (according to Discogs very expensive) Monster Club soundtrack the other day.