Full chart here.
This show was not repeated on BBC4 in 2015, as it was presented by J*mmy S*vile, but here's the line-up anyway, courtesy of Turn it on Again > Top of the Pops 1980:
Leon Haywood – Don’t Push It, Don’t Force It (chart rundown)
Not a terribly exciting chart this week, the highest new entry being Sky's Toccata, as featured last week. There are however are couple of big movers who make fairly unlikely bedfellows in the battle for the top spot before long....
Phil Lynott – Dear Miss Lonely Hearts
Thin Lizzy leader had obviously got a bit peed off with working with bandmates so decided to embark on a solo career à la John Foxx. Unlike Foxx however, Lynott continued to stay in Thin Lizzy at the same time and even have his band mates guest on the album Solo in Soho. Confused? Well never mind cos this will get nowhere. Lynott's biggest solo hit would be Yellow Pearl, co-written with Midge Ure for said album, which would later become the TOTP theme tune. Midge Ure of course replaced John Foxx in Ultravox - see what I did there?
Barbara Dickson - January February
Stable at last week's no. 11, but somebody obviously decided she needed to a leg-up. Which she didn't get.
Girl – Hollywood Tease
Blimey! Who's this? Some kind of glam-rock outfit who don't want to join the new heavy metal movement? Reminds one of early Japan (David Sylvian's band, not the country) but more Led Zeppelin than Roxy Music. I swear I'd never heard this before in my life, and probably never will again either.
Blondie – Call Me (Legs & Co)
This one is already at no. 2 - yes number two - guys n gals, without so much of a Pops' credits run-out up to now. Still no sign of Debs and the boys though so one will have to make do with the Legs, dressed a kind of ska suit affair with coloured tops, Pauline Black wouldn't be seen dead in.
B. A. Robertson – Kool In The Kaftan
Tiresome and thankfully here for the last time with this one.
The Selecter – Missing Words
Again, struggling somewhat chart-wise but they won't need to make the trip down from Coventry again for a bit.
The Ruts – Staring At The Rude Boys
New in at, er, no. 51 folks. Not a patch on Babylon's Burning but this wouldn't do too badly for them.
The Pretenders – Talk Of The Town
Top 10 again after their no. 1 smash, but we won't have to endure this tedious video no more. Still a great tune though.
Dexy's Midnight Runners – Geno
Geno! Geno! Geno! This one's up to no. 12 this week and obviously causing a bit of a stir up and down the country as the single is bought by young punters who had no idea who Geno Washington was. And to think Record Mirror called this "a turgid eulogy with few redeeming features". Stay tuned.
The Nolans – Don’t Make Waves
Bubbling under the Top 30, and we still have I'm in the Mood for Dancing still ringing in our ears. Lovely ladies with a lovely dance routine and a lovely live vocal. Lovely.
UB40 – Food For Thought
Up one more place for the Brummie boys who were hitting their peak with this one at no. 4.
Sham 69 – Tell The Children
More fag-end of punk rock, although would fare much worse than, say, The Ruts. But Sham 69, you may now disband.
The Detroit Spinners – Working My Way Back To You
My colleague Angelo has reminded me that this is actually a medley with Forgive Me Girl. Still at no. 1 but I think that's quite enough of the '70s for now thank you very much.
Bobby Thurston – Check Out The Groove
Oh no! More seventies?
Showing posts with label Detroit Spinners. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Detroit Spinners. Show all posts
TOTP 80.15 10/04/1980
Introduced by Simon Bates
BBCFour repeat here
Chart here.
Liquid Gold - Dance Yourself Dizzy
Charts: Dexy's and Selecter just manage to creep into the Top 30 after last week's performances, although it's giant leaps for The Pretenders and Madness after theirs. Blondie are back big time, as is, surprisingly, Mr David Essex. Messrs. Doctor Hook and UB40 both make Top 5 and there's a new No. 1 ...
Undertones - My Perfect Cousin
Surprisingly (The) Undertones had only made the Top 30 once in the one and a half years since their debut, the seminal Teenage Kicks, being perhaps too strongly linked to their champion John Peel to be accepted into the mainstream. Five singles later however and here is what would become their biggest hit, and quite rightly so. Notable for its witty lyric which name-checks Sheffield synths-only band The Human League, cleverly rhyming 'advise her' with 'synthesiser'. As a homage, the NME ran the feature "The Human League's Guide to Synthesisers" later in the year. Fact.
David Essex - Silver Dream Machine
Wow! He's back! Looking at David's wiki page, he seems to go back further than we'd like to think. He did of course reach his peak around 1973-75, when he was endowed the enviable mélange of 'dishy' looks (or so my sister used to tell me) and some damn fine songs to make into hit singles. Later in the seventies he'd had to rely on the Evita musical to get another top-5 single (namely with Oh What A Circus in 1978) but since then ..naffink. This one put him back on, er, track for a few weeks though and was taken from/made for the feature film Silver Dream Racer, starring Essex himself. Apparently it was a complete flop although the single would do better.
Dr. Hook - Sexy Eyes (Legs & Co.)
Uh-oh, it's getting complicated again. The girls form a circle and so a kind of folk dance round thing, although "special effects" has to quadruple up the screen for some reason, they we get a close up of each dancer in turn, each doing more or less the same things over and over, with the occasional flash of knicker, and then we get some silk scarf slow motion pseudo-ballet dancing too. Hmmm. Last week's thing is going to be very hard to beat.
Saxon - Wheels of Steel
..and following on from David Essex and his motor-cycling saga, here's Barnsley band Saxon, originally named 'Son of a Bitch', fact fans with their new offering. While the rest of the country was getting excited and hot under the collar about punk rock, new wave and all that, these lads were waving the 'heavy metal' flag and indeed continued to do so through much the eighties, bless 'em. Rousing stuff.
Sky - Toccata
It's about time we had a novelty instrumental band/single back in the charts after The Shadows let us down a bit earlier in the year. Emerging from the classical-cum-progressive scene in the early seventies, this mixed Ossie-UK outfit (guitarist John Williams their most famous member) had enjoyed a big success with their debut eponymous album in '79 and were now ready to for the Pops with this adaptation of Bach's "Toccata and fugue in D minor", as a preview of their second album, adventurously named Sky2. Great stuff.
Judas Priest - Living After Midnight
More rock/heavy metal à la Saxon, and those tight trousers are now up to no.12
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Happy House
Another slow mover and another repeat although we're obviously a bit short of material this week to be able to show anything better and more exciting. Except for David Essex.
Sad Café - My Oh My
Somebody obviously thought this one needed a push too. Strangely it went up one place the week after this but then up seven more places the week after, which probably means we'll be seeing them again. Groan.
Bodysnatchers - Do Rocksteady
It's the ska band slot and the all-female Bodysnatchers are slowing climbing up so it's their turn. They won't get any higher though, not with this or anything else. Ever.
The Buggles - Clean Clean
Well after a run of four slow movers, it's about time for something new! With scary intro (see above)! The Buggles hardly seem to have been away two minutes but they're back with another single, lifted from their Age of Plastic album. Hardly sound of the eighties material this one though. Since Video Killed, chart performances are getting progressively worse and this, I fear, is the last we'll ever see of them on the Pops.
Detroit Spinners - Working My Way Back To You
..and they've worked their way up to the no. 1 spot, knocking The Jam down two places. A good song but hardly no. 1 material, one thinks. Not really what the kids want.
Secret Affair - My World
Quite frankly I'd have expected Blondie and their new smash Call Me to me to have been played here, Secret Affair having climbed just one place after last week. But no matter.
See you next week!
BBCFour repeat here
Chart here.
Liquid Gold - Dance Yourself Dizzy
Charts: Dexy's and Selecter just manage to creep into the Top 30 after last week's performances, although it's giant leaps for The Pretenders and Madness after theirs. Blondie are back big time, as is, surprisingly, Mr David Essex. Messrs. Doctor Hook and UB40 both make Top 5 and there's a new No. 1 ...
Undertones - My Perfect Cousin
Surprisingly (The) Undertones had only made the Top 30 once in the one and a half years since their debut, the seminal Teenage Kicks, being perhaps too strongly linked to their champion John Peel to be accepted into the mainstream. Five singles later however and here is what would become their biggest hit, and quite rightly so. Notable for its witty lyric which name-checks Sheffield synths-only band The Human League, cleverly rhyming 'advise her' with 'synthesiser'. As a homage, the NME ran the feature "The Human League's Guide to Synthesisers" later in the year. Fact.
David Essex - Silver Dream Machine
Wow! He's back! Looking at David's wiki page, he seems to go back further than we'd like to think. He did of course reach his peak around 1973-75, when he was endowed the enviable mélange of 'dishy' looks (or so my sister used to tell me) and some damn fine songs to make into hit singles. Later in the seventies he'd had to rely on the Evita musical to get another top-5 single (namely with Oh What A Circus in 1978) but since then ..naffink. This one put him back on, er, track for a few weeks though and was taken from/made for the feature film Silver Dream Racer, starring Essex himself. Apparently it was a complete flop although the single would do better.
Dr. Hook - Sexy Eyes (Legs & Co.)
Uh-oh, it's getting complicated again. The girls form a circle and so a kind of folk dance round thing, although "special effects" has to quadruple up the screen for some reason, they we get a close up of each dancer in turn, each doing more or less the same things over and over, with the occasional flash of knicker, and then we get some silk scarf slow motion pseudo-ballet dancing too. Hmmm. Last week's thing is going to be very hard to beat.
Saxon - Wheels of Steel
..and following on from David Essex and his motor-cycling saga, here's Barnsley band Saxon, originally named 'Son of a Bitch', fact fans with their new offering. While the rest of the country was getting excited and hot under the collar about punk rock, new wave and all that, these lads were waving the 'heavy metal' flag and indeed continued to do so through much the eighties, bless 'em. Rousing stuff.
Sky - Toccata
It's about time we had a novelty instrumental band/single back in the charts after The Shadows let us down a bit earlier in the year. Emerging from the classical-cum-progressive scene in the early seventies, this mixed Ossie-UK outfit (guitarist John Williams their most famous member) had enjoyed a big success with their debut eponymous album in '79 and were now ready to for the Pops with this adaptation of Bach's "Toccata and fugue in D minor", as a preview of their second album, adventurously named Sky2. Great stuff.
Judas Priest - Living After Midnight
More rock/heavy metal à la Saxon, and those tight trousers are now up to no.12
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Happy House
Another slow mover and another repeat although we're obviously a bit short of material this week to be able to show anything better and more exciting. Except for David Essex.
Sad Café - My Oh My
Somebody obviously thought this one needed a push too. Strangely it went up one place the week after this but then up seven more places the week after, which probably means we'll be seeing them again. Groan.
Bodysnatchers - Do Rocksteady
It's the ska band slot and the all-female Bodysnatchers are slowing climbing up so it's their turn. They won't get any higher though, not with this or anything else. Ever.
The Buggles - Clean Clean
Well after a run of four slow movers, it's about time for something new! With scary intro (see above)! The Buggles hardly seem to have been away two minutes but they're back with another single, lifted from their Age of Plastic album. Hardly sound of the eighties material this one though. Since Video Killed, chart performances are getting progressively worse and this, I fear, is the last we'll ever see of them on the Pops.
Detroit Spinners - Working My Way Back To You
..and they've worked their way up to the no. 1 spot, knocking The Jam down two places. A good song but hardly no. 1 material, one thinks. Not really what the kids want.
Secret Affair - My World
Quite frankly I'd have expected Blondie and their new smash Call Me to me to have been played here, Secret Affair having climbed just one place after last week. But no matter.
See you next week!
TOTP 80.13 27/03/1980
Presented by Peter Powell
BBCFour episode page
Full chart here
The Vapors - Turning Japanese (chart rundown)
Interesting how we played out last week with The Vapors and kick-off tonight with....The Vapors, who are now on a par with Madness for being featured four times with the same song.
A fairly stale looking chart tonight as the top 4 are still battling among themselves, although Brit-power wins through with The Vapors and Liquid Gold both going up a peg and The Jam still holding their own at no. 1. Martha and the Muffins, Lambrettas and Squeeze all benefit from being featured last week as do UB40 who climb a massive twenty places and indeed go Top 20 just keeping Siouxsie & the Banshees out. New wavers aside, Barbara Dickson and B.A.Robertson both make good progress after making the effort to go down to the TOTP studios last week, less so Sad Café. Anyway we're late so let's get on wi'it.
Liquid Gold - Dance Yourself Dizzy
Still annoying as ever but definitely the prototypes of the hedonistic party-obsessed eighties which were just a couple of years away. A future Wham! were no doubt watching this. In that sense the most 'sound of the eighties' song/band to date. Drummer still hell-bent on showing as much of his skinny white body as possible although he's got his vest on this week.
Genesis - Turn It On Again
I don't quite know why Powell goes all serious for 'something more serious' by Genesis as I'm sure one could dance oneself dizzy even to Phil & pals if one really wanted. In fact there's quite a lot of dancing to be done in this week's show. Genesis were making slow progress but for some reason benefited massively from this repeat.
Brother Johnson - Stomp (Legs & Co.)
'Legs 11' 'cos it's Legs & Co. dancing to Stomp which is at no. 11 - geddit? There's a kind of seedy stripped down disco-stage for the girls this week who do their best to show us what 'stomping' really is. We'll be back here later.
Dr. Hook - Sexy Eyes
Oh God they're back. Has this one been on already? Can't remember. Wait, hang on..does he say "Sexy eyes..gettin' down on you" in the chorus? All a bit pervy if you ask me.
Judas Priest - Livin' After Midnight
Speaking of pervy! Gerraload of all that heavy metal leather gear wouldya! The girls in the front row with their nice dresses are all loving it and clapping along anyway! ..and there's even some dancing to be done! I didn't remember the lead-singer having all that hair.
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Happy House
Why does Powell go all serious with his voice before certain songs? It's a repeat of two weeks' ago, but hey! you can dance to it! and pull confetti out of your pocket! It's all quite sane.
Secret Affair - My World
Wow Pete's suddenly not so serious anymore and is positively enthusing about this lot! Very good track actually and this week's performance does them and the song more justice than the dark Legs & Co. underbelly location of two weeks ago. The jacket and tie makes him look a bit like a smiley Gary Numan but nowt wrong with that. Just dance!
The Dooleys - Love Patrol
Don't sit down just yet! There's more dancing to be done! Just noticed this is rather Abba-esque, or at least it's what Abba were doing two or three years ago. End of the line here for The Dooleys I'm afraid.
John Foxx - No-One Driving
Amazingly even the glacial Mr Foxx is dancing too! Yay! He must have got a few tips off Legs & Co. before they left the set to make way for the four keyboardists, one of which is also doing a lot of dancing and even occasionally pressing a button! Quite a contrast to Foxx's more somber debut for Underpass a few weeks back, and sadly this more bouncier-one didn't move an inch after this week. Still a tad too early for the synth-pop age. Not Foxx's last single of the year but his last Pops appearance until Summer '81.
Detroit Spinners - Working My Way Back to You
More dancing to be done here by this rather dated vocal/dance troupe set-up, which would gradually go out of fashion only to return with the boy-band fad in a couple of decades time. They've obviously also seen Legs & Co.'s routine by taking the 'working' metaphor to its literal limit. Or perhaps it isn't really a metaphor after all.
The Jam - Going Underground
Powell approaches orgasm as they're IN THE STUDIO! And Paul Weller is wearing .. an apron! Inside out! Not sure if that gesture was ever explained by Weller but no matter, it's just good to have them on, and doing a very convincing mimed performance of this week's number one (even the promo film was quite good actually).
Leon Hayward - Don't Push It Don't Force It..
Ooo-er! Actually Hayward's debut single was entitled 'I Wanna Do Something Freaky To You' so it all follows ....
Not sure what Powell's mumbling on a about at the end but anyway see you next week (or rather in two weeks if you're reading this in 2015).
BBCFour episode page
Full chart here
The Vapors - Turning Japanese (chart rundown)
Interesting how we played out last week with The Vapors and kick-off tonight with....The Vapors, who are now on a par with Madness for being featured four times with the same song.
A fairly stale looking chart tonight as the top 4 are still battling among themselves, although Brit-power wins through with The Vapors and Liquid Gold both going up a peg and The Jam still holding their own at no. 1. Martha and the Muffins, Lambrettas and Squeeze all benefit from being featured last week as do UB40 who climb a massive twenty places and indeed go Top 20 just keeping Siouxsie & the Banshees out. New wavers aside, Barbara Dickson and B.A.Robertson both make good progress after making the effort to go down to the TOTP studios last week, less so Sad Café. Anyway we're late so let's get on wi'it.
Liquid Gold - Dance Yourself Dizzy
Still annoying as ever but definitely the prototypes of the hedonistic party-obsessed eighties which were just a couple of years away. A future Wham! were no doubt watching this. In that sense the most 'sound of the eighties' song/band to date. Drummer still hell-bent on showing as much of his skinny white body as possible although he's got his vest on this week.
Genesis - Turn It On Again
I don't quite know why Powell goes all serious for 'something more serious' by Genesis as I'm sure one could dance oneself dizzy even to Phil & pals if one really wanted. In fact there's quite a lot of dancing to be done in this week's show. Genesis were making slow progress but for some reason benefited massively from this repeat.
Brother Johnson - Stomp (Legs & Co.)
'Legs 11' 'cos it's Legs & Co. dancing to Stomp which is at no. 11 - geddit? There's a kind of seedy stripped down disco-stage for the girls this week who do their best to show us what 'stomping' really is. We'll be back here later.
Dr. Hook - Sexy Eyes
Oh God they're back. Has this one been on already? Can't remember. Wait, hang on..does he say "Sexy eyes..gettin' down on you" in the chorus? All a bit pervy if you ask me.
Judas Priest - Livin' After Midnight
Speaking of pervy! Gerraload of all that heavy metal leather gear wouldya! The girls in the front row with their nice dresses are all loving it and clapping along anyway! ..and there's even some dancing to be done! I didn't remember the lead-singer having all that hair.
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Happy House
Why does Powell go all serious with his voice before certain songs? It's a repeat of two weeks' ago, but hey! you can dance to it! and pull confetti out of your pocket! It's all quite sane.
Secret Affair - My World
Wow Pete's suddenly not so serious anymore and is positively enthusing about this lot! Very good track actually and this week's performance does them and the song more justice than the dark Legs & Co. underbelly location of two weeks ago. The jacket and tie makes him look a bit like a smiley Gary Numan but nowt wrong with that. Just dance!
The Dooleys - Love Patrol
Don't sit down just yet! There's more dancing to be done! Just noticed this is rather Abba-esque, or at least it's what Abba were doing two or three years ago. End of the line here for The Dooleys I'm afraid.
John Foxx - No-One Driving
Amazingly even the glacial Mr Foxx is dancing too! Yay! He must have got a few tips off Legs & Co. before they left the set to make way for the four keyboardists, one of which is also doing a lot of dancing and even occasionally pressing a button! Quite a contrast to Foxx's more somber debut for Underpass a few weeks back, and sadly this more bouncier-one didn't move an inch after this week. Still a tad too early for the synth-pop age. Not Foxx's last single of the year but his last Pops appearance until Summer '81.
Detroit Spinners - Working My Way Back to You
More dancing to be done here by this rather dated vocal/dance troupe set-up, which would gradually go out of fashion only to return with the boy-band fad in a couple of decades time. They've obviously also seen Legs & Co.'s routine by taking the 'working' metaphor to its literal limit. Or perhaps it isn't really a metaphor after all.
The Jam - Going Underground
Powell approaches orgasm as they're IN THE STUDIO! And Paul Weller is wearing .. an apron! Inside out! Not sure if that gesture was ever explained by Weller but no matter, it's just good to have them on, and doing a very convincing mimed performance of this week's number one (even the promo film was quite good actually).
Leon Hayward - Don't Push It Don't Force It..
Ooo-er! Actually Hayward's debut single was entitled 'I Wanna Do Something Freaky To You' so it all follows ....
Not sure what Powell's mumbling on a about at the end but anyway see you next week (or rather in two weeks if you're reading this in 2015).
TOTP 80.11 13/03/1980
Shown on BBCFour as from 19.03.2015
Full chart here
Back to some kind of normality this week after all that faffing about with Winter Olympics and Steve Wright is back in charge.
Rush - Spirit of Radio (chart rundown)
Let's face it, any song with 'radio' in the title isn't going to played and played by all witless DJ's, especially of the Radio 1 variety, and sure enough this one proved an improbable hit for American dinosaur band Rush, and was already at no. 23, one of several new entries which also included The Labrettas and Martha & The Muffins who were on last week (apparently).
The Dooleys - Love Patrol
Well after having got rid of The Nolans we're stuck with another Brit family-run group who'd been having hits since 1977, amazingly a whole decade after they'd originally formed. This one was not their best, despite attempting to go 'eighties' with all the colourful lycra, and would indeed be their last Top 30 hit and TOTP appearance.
The Police - So Lonely
This one was getting rather huge so Sting & pals obviously had the pressure on them to get a promo video/film made up, which they duly did so by mucking around on metro trains in Oriental cities, singing down walkie-talkies. Somebody recently wrote that Police promo-videos were mostly them just mucking around in front of a camera, but it worked.
The Detroit Spinners - Working My Way Back to You
Speaking of mucking around, here's Legs &Co.'s weekly contribution where Flick has taken the 'working' metaphor from the title and transformed her girls into, well, workmen complete with striped tent and scaffolding. Only one of them is wearing a hard hat though, which wouldn't get past Health & Safety these days. Highest new entry at no. 20.
The Brothers Johnson - Stomp
Promo-film of what looks like something that came from about 1977. There are loads of 'em too . .are they really all brothers? Who knows.
Secret Affair - My World Today
Who are are actually located underneath Legs' scaffolding/work in progress set-up, and pretty much to their chagrin I can well imagine as it's all dark and dingy and doesn't do any justice to the band or song at all - poorly lit and mostly, er, behind bars. Is this really their world? perhaps they wouldn't want it any other way..
Liquid Gold - Dance Yourself Dizzy
But from the sublime to the ridiculous. What are they on?
The Vapors - Turning Japanese
A fresh studio performance of this excellent number, and no random 'Japanese' pics this time. And we still don't know what it's about.
Rainbow - All Night Long
Another promo-film repeat but this had already gone huge, so justified.
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Happy House
Gibson Brothers - Cuba
Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers
Marti Webb - Take That look Off Your Face
Genesis - Turn It On Again
Fern Kinney - Together We Are Beautiful
It's a new number one but how the hell that happened I shall never know. Dull repeat performance of a couple of weeks ago in that tangerine-esque dress. I suppose it's a testament to the variety of the British charts that this kind of thing could outsell Blondie who in turn outsold Kenny Rogers who in turn..etc. It might be nice to have something British at no. 1 though.
Captain & Tennille - Do That To Me One More Time (playout)
More dross to play us out, after it had been featured proper last week.
That's all folks. Not long before next Pops!
Full chart here
Back to some kind of normality this week after all that faffing about with Winter Olympics and Steve Wright is back in charge.
Rush - Spirit of Radio (chart rundown)
Let's face it, any song with 'radio' in the title isn't going to played and played by all witless DJ's, especially of the Radio 1 variety, and sure enough this one proved an improbable hit for American dinosaur band Rush, and was already at no. 23, one of several new entries which also included The Labrettas and Martha & The Muffins who were on last week (apparently).
The Dooleys - Love Patrol
Well after having got rid of The Nolans we're stuck with another Brit family-run group who'd been having hits since 1977, amazingly a whole decade after they'd originally formed. This one was not their best, despite attempting to go 'eighties' with all the colourful lycra, and would indeed be their last Top 30 hit and TOTP appearance.
The Police - So Lonely
This one was getting rather huge so Sting & pals obviously had the pressure on them to get a promo video/film made up, which they duly did so by mucking around on metro trains in Oriental cities, singing down walkie-talkies. Somebody recently wrote that Police promo-videos were mostly them just mucking around in front of a camera, but it worked.
The Detroit Spinners - Working My Way Back to You
Speaking of mucking around, here's Legs &Co.'s weekly contribution where Flick has taken the 'working' metaphor from the title and transformed her girls into, well, workmen complete with striped tent and scaffolding. Only one of them is wearing a hard hat though, which wouldn't get past Health & Safety these days. Highest new entry at no. 20.
The Brothers Johnson - Stomp
Promo-film of what looks like something that came from about 1977. There are loads of 'em too . .are they really all brothers? Who knows.
Secret Affair - My World Today
Who are are actually located underneath Legs' scaffolding/work in progress set-up, and pretty much to their chagrin I can well imagine as it's all dark and dingy and doesn't do any justice to the band or song at all - poorly lit and mostly, er, behind bars. Is this really their world? perhaps they wouldn't want it any other way..
Liquid Gold - Dance Yourself Dizzy
But from the sublime to the ridiculous. What are they on?
The Vapors - Turning Japanese
A fresh studio performance of this excellent number, and no random 'Japanese' pics this time. And we still don't know what it's about.
Rainbow - All Night Long
Another promo-film repeat but this had already gone huge, so justified.
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Happy House
Show highlight: possibly not their first TOTP after Hong Kong Garden a
couple of years back although I doubt they'd been on with intervening Top 30
singles The Staircase Mystery and Playground Twist (correct me if I'm wrong). Siouxsie and pals
on fine form looking anything but happy but then that's post-punk irony for ya.
This then was the start of their household name popularity proper and one which
would last chart-wise for a few years to come. Legends in the making.
Gibson Brothers - Cuba
Well after the euphoria of Happy House even this seems a lot easier to
digest, and in fact seems like an appropriate segue. Much better placed last
week and already up to no. 16. Steve Wright shows off all his DJ knowledge by
repeatedly letting us know it was a re-release but quite frankly Stevie who
gives a f..
Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers
It's the promo film again sadly, but you have to be grateful for small
mercies. Like The Police and Rainbow this had become huge, even more so in fact as it was
already at no. 4, and so the Pops people could hardly ignore it.
..and likewise this one which was now stable at no. 3 although 'twas the
end of the road chartwise. Perhaps Marti could've done with freshening it up a bit - this was the third showing for the same performance
Genesis - Turn It On Again
More cathartic TOTP moments as we have a rather new look and new
sounding Genesis in the studio (albeit recorded earlier?) to present their new
single just prior to the new album Duke. It's all new! JAzzy 80s coloured gear and they're almost dancing even! Cracking song with about five different time signatures - prog goes pop.
Fern Kinney - Together We Are Beautiful
It's a new number one but how the hell that happened I shall never know. Dull repeat performance of a couple of weeks ago in that tangerine-esque dress. I suppose it's a testament to the variety of the British charts that this kind of thing could outsell Blondie who in turn outsold Kenny Rogers who in turn..etc. It might be nice to have something British at no. 1 though.
Captain & Tennille - Do That To Me One More Time (playout)
More dross to play us out, after it had been featured proper last week.
That's all folks. Not long before next Pops!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)