Official chart in full here
This week's show presented by Mike Read, so behave yourselves and mind your language. He's even got the Nerdy Student-teacher Thought Police in ...
Detroit Spinners - Working My Way.. (chart rundown)
The Spinners were up a massive twelve places to no. 8 thanks to Legs' sterling 'working-women' routine last week. In other chart action, Top 30 new entries include songs by last week's performers Genesis, The Dooleys, Secret Affair and Siouxsie & The Banshees (yay!). The Vapors are amazingly up to no. 4, Liquid Gold at 5 and Marti Webb is stable at 3, all benefiting from being featured last week, unlike The Police, Fearne Kinny, Peter Gabriel and Rainbow, who all drop. Oh, and there's a mighty new number 1...
The Bodysnatchers - Do Rock Steady
It's the quirky new band of the week, and the ska revival is obviously still going strong as demonstrated by the 'Snatchers of which there are apparently many. The two featured instrumentalists look amazingly like the two girls from The Human League, or at least how they would be some one and half years from now. Mike avoids the 'all-female band' reference but can't do without uttering another kind of sad sexist quip. Good song.
Squeeze - Another Nail in My Heart
They were on a couple of weeks back (in 1980) although we didn't get to see them (in 2015). Disappointingly underlit and Jools Holland almost off the stage and uncaptured on camera.
Rush - Spirit of Radio
"Here's Rush" says Mike but it's actually Legs & Co. time, this week in a kind of throwback '70s psychedelic dance routine thing which wouldn't actually be so bad if it were not for the fact that it's occasionally superimposed with a bizarre secondary routine of the girls dressed in 'eighties' plastic clothes listening to fake radios in improbable settings. Read obviously not paying much attention as he keeps going on about 'the band..'.
Sad Café - My Oh My
Perhaps we were unduly harsh on them towards the beginning of the year when they did Sad Little Girl or whatever, because that was actually quite good compared to this bluesy dirge. Sadly (geddit?) this is going to do quite well...
Lambrettas - Poison Ivy
Mod revival also still not dead as we get this lot - probably from Norf London - doing their version of an old song (yawn..). It's also 'drummer front stage' time although with that jumper and possibly the worst mod haircut ever, he looks as if he's hoping no-one will notice.
Barbara Dickson - January February
Before which Mike climbs up the stairs and has a Sooty and Sweep-esque conversational exchange with a fake owl. Moving on, here's Babs Dickson who - like Sad Café - did not very well with her last effort but would do nicely with this one. The song has obviously been a couple of months in the making, although a little less thought has been given to her stage outfit.
Shakin' Stevens - Hot Dog
Here he is again (third time?) and he's still only at no. 24 for Chrissakes. Time to try something else Shakes... 'Eddie Cochran of the eighties'? pah!
New single plug time: oh it's David Soul who says how much he likes 'English bands' (sic.), and, hey he's got a new single out.
UB40 - Food For Thought
Thanks to that ridiculous interlude, English band UB40 don't get much of an introduction for their TOTP debut. On the face of it they look like a kind of all-male Bodysnatchers but of course they were much more than that. Just at no. 40 this week although this is gonna be huuuge. And yes they were singing 'Ivory Madonna'.
Martha & The Muffins - Echo Beach
Read obviously totally unimpressed by The '40 and intent only on getting his 'two Canadian bands' link in, firstly with Rush and now with Martha and her Muffs (but who are those two squares standing in front of him during this hugely important intro? one asks). Another song the 2015 audience missed when they were on two weeks ago (in 1980), and alas for reasons best known back then, instead of the 'Pops studio performance we get a faux-live promo film this time, which is also inexplicably cut short.
B. A. Robertson - Kool in the Kaftan
I wonder what David Soul made of this? B. A. Robertson was one of those totally disagreeable characters who made a lot of semi-comic hit singles and somehow got away with it. This one takes the p*ss out of the hippy/'love and peace' movement, some ten years after such things were fashionable, so obviously even longer in the making than Barbara Dickson's latest effort. Like Barbara he's Scottish although this link has obviously escaped Read's attention as he's been too busy concentrating on Canada.
The Jam - Going Underground
At least he takes a few seconds to tell us that this next one is straight in at number one .. even though he makes it sound like it was something that happened once a month or so in those days too. NOT SO! This was a MASSIVE event for a MASSIVE single which probably hadn't even been played on the radio much at that point, also given it's semi-veiled political critique. Although taking much from the mod revival, The Jam at least managed to create something new and exciting and bring the angry young musical men sentiment bang up to date. They even had to make it into a double-A side with the softer Dreams of Children for fear of not getting Going Underground played although it was the latter and its legendary promo film (The Police, please take note) which gave them their finest moment. Mike read somewhat redeemed by stating afterwards that with this instant chart top-spot they were now up there with the likes of Elvis, The Beatles, and, er, Slade.
The Vapors - Turning Japanese
Mike keeps the new wave vibe going with The Vapors who, were it not for The Jam, may have got to the number one spot via the new wave kids spending their cash on a song about .................But that's it..! ....We'll see you next week!
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