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Top of the Pops on BBC Four - Thread Four

Started by daf, June 06, 2022, 05:52:08 PM

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buzby

#270
Quote from: gilbertharding on August 16, 2022, 06:20:48 PMLondon was part of Decca when Decca was a record label (I guess it was to Decca what Capitol was to EMI). 'ffrr' was an acronym which appeared on Decca discs, standing for 'full frequency range recording'.

Not sure if this is adding anything to the sum of knowledge - but it's something I noticed when I was collecting old Rolling Stones albums in the early 90s, and noticed that there was a dance label called ffrr.
Yes, Decca was bought out in 1980 by PolyGram, an amalgamation of Philips' record division and the Deutsche Grammophon Group (who owned Polydor, hence the name), both of whom had originally been licencees for Decca in their respective territories.

Decca's London sublabel was indeed used for their US releases, though they alsu used the London American Recordings label for UK releases of records they had licenced from US labels.

Full Frequency Range Recording was the wideband (80Hz-16kHz), low signal  to noise ratio high fidelity recording process developed by Decca's engineers from WW2 military technology. They proudly stated this on the sleeves and labels of their records, and it was eventually universally adopted by the rest of the industry.

PolyGram relaunched London as a pop label in the early 80s under Roger Ames, and when dance music started kicking off in the mid-late 80s they set up ffrr as their dance sublabel, whose generic 12" sleeves used the original 1950s London and FFRR 'ear' logos:


Ames then reorganised the London label after PolyGram took over Factory Records' assets, making it the home of the ex-Factory roster and back catalogue they wanted to keep (this is when it became London Records 90 Ltd).

As I mentioned previously, when Ames left PolyGram to become chairman and CEO of WMG in 1998, he negotiated to take London Records 90, ffrr and their rosters and catalogues with him. However, PolyGram (later Universal Music Group) retained the London trademark and WMG licenced it from them. Ames retired in 2004, and in 2010 WMG gave up the licence to use the London trademark, renaming the label Warner Records 90 Ltd.

In 2017 WMG then picked the assets of the Warner Records 90 roster and back catalogues they wanted to keep (such as New Order's licencing agreement, and the ffrr sublabel) and sold the rest to the French independent label Because Music, who also then went off and aquired the London trademark outright from Universal Music.

The original question was whether Utah Saints were on an indie label, and in 1993 London and ffrr were both owned by PolyGram. What is now called London Records has been a sublabel of a French indie since 2017, but ffrr is still owned by WMG. Interestingly, the 2008 remix of Something Good was put out by Ministry Of Sound (owned by Sony), but they did not licence the original track from WMG. It was a completely new recording, and rather than pay EMI to use the Cloudbusting sample, they had it recreated by Hal Ritson at Replay Heaven.

daf

As an aside, for classical music recorded in the 60's I've found Decca records absolutely unbeatable for sound quality - no other label comes close!

(In dairy terms, Decca would be THICK double cream, compared to EMI's watered down skimmed milk.)


buzby

Quote from: daf on August 16, 2022, 09:59:35 PMAs an aside, for classical music recorded in the 60's I've found Decca records absolutely unbeatable for sound quality - no other label comes close!

(In dairy terms, Decca would be THICK double cream, compared to EMI's watered down skimmed milk.)
Yes, they were righly proud of their FFRR recording system, and it was initially developed to improve the fidelity of their classical recordings compared to everybody else (this 'Pop' malarkey will never take off!).

Norton Canes

#273
Quote from: gilbertharding on August 16, 2022, 06:32:21 PMOh - and that St Etienne song was crap

I did actually go through a phase when I tried to get into them - not in this first, 90's flush of their career but in the 2000's when they were putting out albums like Finisterre and Tales from Turnpike House that were themed around Brutalist urban developments and should have been like absolute catnip for me. But the music was still, like... you know on You've Been Framed when someone sucks up a whole crème caramel in one go, milky gloop, syrup and all? Like that.

The crown-wearing one with his cape reminds me a bit of the Dominators (from Doctor Who of course, where else?)

"Play the middle eight NOW"
"No, we must conserve power!"

gilbertharding

Quote from: Norton Canes on August 17, 2022, 03:01:23 PMI did actually go through a phase when I tried to get into them - not in this first, 90's flush of their career but in the 2000's when they were putting out albums like Finisterre and Tales from Turnpike House that were themed around Brutalist urban developments and should have been like absolute catnip for me. But the music was still, like... you know on You've Been Framed when someone sucks up a whole crème caramel in one go, milky gloop, syrup and all? That.

The crown-wearing one with his cape reminds me a bit of the Dominators (from Doctor Who of course, where else?)

"Play the middle eight NOW"
"No, we must conserve power!"


I knew people who liked them. I've enjoyed the odd track myself, I'm sure... just not that particular one.

They were very post-modern, weren't they? What they'd call 'meta' nowadays. Not that I haven't enjoyed a bit of post-modernism in my time. A spot of archness is fine.

Campbell Soupe

Quote from: gilbertharding on August 16, 2022, 06:32:21 PMOh - and that St Etienne song was crap and all.

Even as a fan of Ver Et, I'd agree: pure tossed off perfunctory.  The AA, Hobart Paving, is lovely, though...

daf


cosmic-hearse

Suede, Lenny Kravitz, G'n'R - lots of derivative trad rock tonight. Enjoyed Louchie Lou & Michie One though.

daf


kaprisky

That's Bowie's bassist, before she was Bowie's bassist, on the Tears For Fears track, isn't it?

I actually quite liked that episode.

Jackson K Pollock

Quote from: sweeper on August 14, 2022, 10:53:16 PMFucking hate 1993. Hated it then. Hate it now.

Sums up my thoughts entirely. I'm bowing out for a bit now, as the last few months have been an absolute chore for me.

Off topic, but I'm currently on a coach up to Manchester (thanks, rail strikes!) and we just stopped at the Norton Canes services. I just assumed it was your real name, not a West Midlands village I'd never heard of before!

Norton Canes

#281
"When we kiss our sugar kisses and the music starts to play, we've got love, we've got each other, and we're going all the way..."

So here it is then, broadcast at last, twenty-nine years since it was recorded and all that time gathering dust in the BBC vaults: the notorious late-night edition of Top of the Pops, the one-off experiment conducted by the BBC in the wake of the success of Channel 4's The Word to see if their own flagship music show could sustain a spin-off tailored for a post-pub, lewd n' loose adult audience. While the regular, early evening version of that week's show played it safe with an innocuous line-up of Marc Cohn, Maria McKee, Jungle Book (featuring a young Martine McCutcheon on stand-in vocal duties) and a live by satellite performance from Jethro Tull in Kuala Lumpur, this version, taped in advance and pending executive approval lest it prove too salacious for public sensibilities, pulled out all the stops and served up a steamy smorgasbord of the most shocking, shameless acts the top 40 could muster.

And if you want an indication of just how low the production team were prepared to stoop in order to serve up depraved thrills, then look no further than show openers Stereo MC's. As the camera moves forward through what can only be described as a scene from the most wanton circle of hell - dark, fetid and smoke-wreathed - Rob Birch issues a guttural rutting cry, assumes his sex stance (legs akimbo, outstretched palm indicating angle of engorement) and along with his gyrating hareem, launches into a paean to the joys of creation: "I'm talking about relations, I'm talking about creation, We need a combination..." Yes Rob, we know exactly what you're talking about. One can only wonder why the production team considered this degenerate revelry suitable for an impressionable audience of corruptible youngsters - as can be discerned from their aghast expressions, the sight of a leering Birch looming over them in full musth was something that likely haunted them for years to come.

After a pause for the relatively modest allure of Tina Turner gives the studio crew a chance to mop down the large stage, perversity of a different kind is served by the louche assortment of dissolutes going by the name Suede. Today this sort of opprobrious display wouldn't raise an eyebrow but back in the innocent early 90's when diversity meant a new flavour Twix and 'cis' was somewhere you got your house insurance, it would have enraged common decency to have given this bunch of wailing milquetoasts exposure on a publicly-funded channel. Watching them flail around here like a bunch of dancing inflatables at a sporting occasion one can only wonder how they possessed the strength to lift heavy objects like guitars, drumsticks and microphones, let alone use them to fashion the cacophony of squeals and shrieks which passes for music. So gaunt is Brett Anderson, in fact, that careful use of the iPlayer's pause button reveals that when he moves behind his microphone stand he actually disappears for a split second, only his limbs visible in the manner of a cartoon character hiding behind a lamp post.

One might suspect that with a rendition of popular hit 'Shout' by wholesome 60's starlet Lulu the atmosphere might become less provocatively charged but Louchie Lou and Michie One ramp it up to new levels of concupiscence, with their frenetic interpretation provoking an indecorous frenzy of coiling limbs and bare, undulating torsos set amongst a feral and sleazy backdrop of trash cans and chainlink fences. Duane Eddy's incessantly looped twang drives the backing dancers to greater and greater levels of lascivious delirium until even the Walk/Don't Walk sign becomes decidedly overheated. Guys, get a room! By the song's frantic climax even I was starting to get hot under the collar and was initially grateful for the welcome calm of Lenny Kravitz's Believe, until I realized that this was no virtuous ballad but a seductive number inviting further lecherous prurience, 'BSkyB and chill' if you will, its drowsy, honeyed air and hallucinogenic camera effects being a deceptive counterpoint to the keyboard player's brazen flaunting of his huge organ.

Once again brief reprieve was obtained during the BReAKers (though the sight of Axl Rose dashing around the stage in his postbox-red briefs will stay with me for a while, I fear) but the show's appetite for filth remained unassuaged as Tears For Fears took to the stage with an ensemble including a number of women with their legs literally wide open and even more disturbingly Roland Orzabal's mouth, which for reasons I can never quite pin down I've always thought indescribably dirty. And rounding off the night's iniquitous cavalcade was Lisa Stansfield, here bidding us wilkommen with an alluringly icy turd (sorry, turn) extolling the virtues of accurate and comprehensive erotic stimulation. After everything else it seemed almost perfunctory for Ace of Base to reprise their chart-topper but fair play to them, they managed to rise to the challenge as perhaps only Swedes could, injecting a greater note of orgasmic rapture into their performance - I'm definitely going to have to ask Mrs Canes if she wouldn't mind emulating Jenny's cry of "You're the FO-O-OX!!" next time I reach the point of no return, so to speak.

Despite the best attempts of all the evening's bands, however, unquestionably the show's most sordid moment was the revelation that Mark Franklin had bagged himself a cougar and was openly soliciting her in front of the cameras. Talk about in plain sight! Oh well Mark you go for it, pretty sure no-one's gonna get Yewtreed for inveigling a forty year old scorcher.

And that was that. A brave experiment but one that was probably doomed to failure from the outset. Nice touch of BBC FOUR to show it in a late slot, an acknowledgement perhaps that it still retains some capacity to shock a modern audience.

Norton Canes

Quote from: Jackson K Pollock on August 20, 2022, 12:01:26 PMOff topic, but I'm currently on a coach up to Manchester (thanks, rail strikes!) and we just stopped at the Norton Canes services. I just assumed it was your real name, not a West Midlands village I'd never heard of before!

How do you know it's not my real name? (It's not.) Hope the facilities were up to scratch!

daf


DrGreggles

Hang on, Guns n' Roses released Civil War as a single?
It may have been a decent enough song (certainly one of the least bad things they released after AFD), but it was on an album that had been out for 18 months which had aleady sold millions - and was also the b-side to the first single released from it.

daf

It was the lead track on an EP - oddly, despite the clip shown being from a live show, the EP featured the album version. It's likely to have been bunged out just to promote some upcoming live shows in the UK.

QuoteThe "Civil War" EP (better known as simply Civil War) is the third extended play by Guns N' Roses, released in the UK only on May 24, 1993. It is named after the song of the same name. The EP is a compilation, departing from the band's previous two live-style EPs. Included are songs from both Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, and an exclusive interview with Slash.

The front cover to the EP is black. Each copy was individually numbered. On the actual case of the CD, the silver words "Guns N' Roses" were stuck on. The EP-style case even features a flap advertisement in the "booklet", with one side advertising the band's gig at Milton Keynes, England, and the other side advertises the band's video single for Garden Of Eden which was released on the same day.

On the German Editions' front cover, the subtitle 'Civil War' and the blood-like graphical element is more on the right down corner, and there is no individual numbering.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_%22Civil_War%22_EP

daf


daf

Ali Campbell and The Ali Campbell's UB40 band (ft. Ali Campbell)

daf


daf


daf


daf


daf

How long's it been since PSB were on the show - feels like it was back in the 80s!

daf

Love this - though Pliers (or possibly Demus?) seems to be having a hard time locating all the right notes.

daf


daf


daf

Quote from: daf on August 26, 2022, 07:40:24 PMHow long's it been since PSB were on the show - feels like it was back in the 80s!

Hi @daf - just had a look, and it was only 1991, you big dummy!

daf


daf

3 June 1993: Presenter: Tony DOrtie

(18) | HADDAWAY – What Is Love
(02) | UB40 – (I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You (video and charts)
(12) | JAMIROQUAI – Blow Your Mind
(26) | TASMIN ARCHER – Lords Of The New Church (video)
- - - - - - - - - - - (Breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(24) | SADE – No Ordinary Love (video)
(13) | LISA STANSFIELD – In All The Right Places (video)
(05) | GREEN JELLY – Three Little Pigs (video)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


http://selectmagazinescans.monkeon.co.uk/?cat=679

(22) | A-HA – Dark Is The Night
NEW | P.M. DAWN & BOY GEORGE – More Than Likely (via satellite)
(23) | BRYAN FERRY – Will You Love Me Tomorrow
(01) | ACE OF BASE – All That She Wants (video)

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



kaprisky

Definitely watched that Therapy? performance of Turn at the time. May even have been the first time I'd heard of them.

And Two Princes is just THE sound of '93!