TOTP 80.26 28/08/80

BBCFour repeat here.
Full chart here.

Presented by Peter Powell and B.A. Robertson

pic: popscene

Well we're back off our holidays but there are cases to be unpacked, washing to be done and plants to be watered so just a quick run-through this week.

First of all I'd just like to reiterate my view that B.A. Robertson is/was a burke and is/was never funny. Peter Powell was always a bit borderline embarrassing, but usually redeemed by his tastes in music. Not so this time I'm afraid. On with the show...

Ok well it's the usual 'preview' which interestingly puts the two promo videos (David Bowie and Gary Numan - oooh the irony) up first followed by a few other minor acts.

The Barracudas - Summer Fun
It's the novelty band up first of course, in true TOTP tradition. An appropriate choice as it's already late August and probably raining. Equally appropriately, this got nowhere.

Gary Numan - I Die: You Die
More summer fun! Not! Gazza's back with another new single, and like its predecessor We Are Glass is not from the forthcoming album. Ergo his millions of fans rushed out and bought the 7"(*) and made it a new entry at no. 8. Promo video only of course in which Gary sits in his car (where he feels safest of all), lurks in front of a microphone and wanders down dark and empty corridors. I can't hide my love of this track but the video is totally cringe-worthy and dates it incredibly, as most videos do, turning Gaz into a parody of himself. (*lovely piano version of Down in the Park on the B side btw).

The Selecter - The Whisper
In which Pauline has evidently abandoned her boy-ish sharp black suit 'n' trilby in favour of a more Thatcher-esque affair, although she continues to bounce around a lot like the rest of the band. Some kind of attempt to bring the ska sound into the 80s? Oh dear.

Mike Berry  - The Sunshine of Your Smile
"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." - Ludwig Wittgenstein.

The Skids - Circus Games
Oh still about, are they? Actually I've always quite liked The Skids so nice to see them back on, and with a good tune too. More smart clothing in an attempt to 'modernise' their image, although I must confess I preferred their 'modernist' look. This made no. 32 and so possibly their last appearance on the Pops. Question: Why is Jobson sucking his finger at the beginning of this?

Elton John - Sartorial Eloquence
Former TOTP guest-presenter Reg really was struggling at this point in his career and this kind of dirge with such a difficult title wasn't getting him anywhere either. But as we well know he was one of those 70s artists who would go on to re-invent themselves for the eighties. Hang on in there Reg.

Sue Wilkinson - You've Got to be a Hustler...
Second Pops performance for Sue and pals and she's been tarted up a fair bit this time, spandex 'trousers' 'n' all that, making her a kind of raunchy Sheena Easton, if you will. The keyboardist has even tried to copy her look. Still struggling at no. 25 though and got no higher.

Ian Dury & the Blockheads - I Want to Be Straight
Another throwback to the late 70s (see The Selecter, Skids above) and frankly the geezer's past his best. Obviously on some kind of post-70s hangover/hiatus, Dury confesses that he wishes to turn over a new leaf, and stop misbehaving himself. Nobody believed a word of it of course.

Village People - Can't Stop the Music
Yet more late 70s stuff still dragging on through .. Where are the eighties?????

Judas Priest - United
So after Village People what do you get? Judas bleedin' Priest! Lots of leather and Marshall amps and a singer looking like he'd much rather be somewhere else. The kids seem to be enjoying it, but oh my God .. what a very disappointing show this has turned out to be.

Top 10 rundown and then...

David Bowie - Ashes to Ashes
Thank Goodness for that! Sir David has come to save us all by letting us hear something modern and eighties and showing Gary Numan how a video should be made in this day and age. Second and final week at no. 1 (oops, spoiler) but the legacy lives on.

OK, end of a rather abysmal show, and it's the customary 'let the kids go mad on stage' moment. Thank you B A Robertson for nothing.

The Beat  - Best Friend
A bit of quality ska to play out on, although of course it was the other A side 'Stand Down Margaret' that was selling the single.

A show hardly worth coming back off our holidays for; things can only get better. Can't they? See you next week, sort of.

TOTP 80.23 7/08/80

BBCFour repeat here.
Full chart here.

Introduced by Peter Powell....and Elton John. Elton John? 

Well it's back: after a nine week hiatus The Pops was back on our Thursday night screens and the arrival of a 'guest presenter' with the regular Radio 1 DJ already hinted at the fact this was An All New TOTP, folks. Now let's get on with the chart rundown and see who's number one....

Wha? No chart rundown? Only a preview of "what's coming up" over some old 70s rock music? So how are we supposed to know who's no. 1 and know when the show is over when it comes on at the end? Whaddya mean you're not supposed to know? Oh well..let's see if this new-fangled idea works, shall we? A new broom will only sweep well for a bit.

Powell does indeed duly give us a preview of the main acts which are coming up, albeit out of sync. There does seem to be an awful lot of movement .. .lots of dancing and bright lights. Whatever next!

The Piranhas - Tom Hark
OK let's get this thing started. Lots of new features already but starting off with a 'novelty' band/song is an old trick that obviously hasn't been put to bed. Here's a whacky ska-reggae pub band sort of affair miming badly to their instruments. The highlight seems to be a stand-up drummer, bare and oily chested, 'playing' drums with a pair of...cucumbers? He sort of reminds me of Christian Bale in American Psycho which is a tad disturbing, as is this whole set-up. Now at no. 26, it would reach the Top 10 within a couple of weeks. Oh and since we weren't given The Chart Rundown, behold! There's now a futuristic computer graphic at the end of each song telling you name of the band and chart position! Wow!

Diana Ross - Upside Down
The inter-presenter banter continues as both men admit they can't whistle (pah!) and Elton confesses he tried to kill off disco, now "rearing its ugly head" again with Ms. Ross at No. 2. Well shucks to you for not being able to kill off Nile/Rodgers with your pathetic ballads Reg! Bit of a weird grainy, filmic collage promo for Diana, but no matter; this was already a big summer hit based on its radio play only and a bit of a classic in the making. Kept off the top spot only by the mighty .. oops not allowed to reveal anything!

Roxy Music - Oh Yeah
John gives us a bit of useless (and largely incomprehensible) banter about Chic and then states 'onto better things' .. as some of his pals are in the studio. Roxy Music seem to have timed their single releases to coincide with The Strike, as they were on the last programme before It happened and here they are again bang on schedule in The New Pops. The second single off Flesh + Blood album didn't disappoint. Another classic and this time Bryan Ferry has some decent trousers even though he moves as if his feet were stuck to the floor, but i suppose he can get away with that.

Tom Browne - Funkin' For Jamaica 
Elton seems to have gone for a lie-down after all that strenuous presenting work, so Pete's on his own to introduce Tom Browne and LEGS AND CO!! WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING PETE!? Oh .. I see. Not content to give us the odd glimpse of their pants up to know, the Legs are actually performing....IN THEIR UNDIES! Sexy! Raunchy! Hot! ..oh no sorry I mean NO! this is blatant sexist rubbish and should be banned off the BBC! It's disgusting! However we do get to learn each individual's name thanks to that new-fangled computer graphics machine. Good song too. Was it?

This is Sue. Apparently. pic.: BBC cameraman

Oh wait. Pay attention. It's the Charts! Only from no. 30 to 21 though.

Hot Chocolate - Are You Getting Enough of What Makes You Happy?

Phew! A bit steamy this title too innit? Where's Mary Whitehouse these days? Like Roxy, the Chocs were also on the last Pops, but were less successful with this fairly unmemorable number. Perfectly fine to whiggle to though, just look at al the kids! Dancing!

More chart rundown? Oh I get it...it's the charts a bit at a time. Nice idea. Might even catch on.

Kelly Marie - Feels Like I'm In Love

Let's have something new at last shall we? What's this? A wee Scottish red-haired lassie doing the disco thing with two strapping dark-skinned chappies in tight bodywear? Och, the brazen hussie! But the British public loves this kind of singer of course and this song would have Kelly whizzing up the charts all the way up to no, 1, although I really shouldn't be telling you this of course.

GAP Band - Oops Upside Your Head

More wiggly disco stuff , this time from o'er the water. Oklahoma to be precise. Already at no. 6 although didn't get any further on the strength of this poor 'live' promo-video. And no I won't go into that embarrassing eighties dance craze that this song had started off. You know the one where everyone sits on the floor,one behind the other and.....

Gibson Bros. - Mariana

Oh no! More dancing! Live in the studio! With coloured balloons! Can you cope? The Gibson siblings are back with a 'long-awaited' follow up to the Cuba/Salsa thing earlier in the year. They're obviously well in with Flick Colby too as, and not for the first time, there are assorted Legs dancing along, although sadly not in their knickers anymore. Well they are in their knickers but with other stuff as well. But we digress. Do the Eighties start here? 

Elton John has completely disappeared by the way. Probably trying to 'kill off disco' somewhere. But here's a nice interlude .. the ones we missed "while we were away" (see also my very own blogpost below).  More bottom-wiggling to Odyssey, some nice Olivia Newton-John/ELO, plus the woeful Don McClean...

Sheena Easton - 9 to 5

Second wee Scottish artiste of the night although an all together more modern girl (geddit?) compared to red-head Kelly. Easton had been the subject of an episode of the BBC's The Big Time documentary series, which in her case followed the lassie's career up to recording and launch of Modern Girl, which however failed to make any big impression, and indeed 'the big time' back in April (of which we are reminded via a short clip).  Not so this catchy number which shot her to stardom (dragging 'Modern Girl' along with it) making Sheena one of the first big stars of the Eighties. Totally un-p.c. subject matter now of course: woman sings about her successful man out at work while she waits all day for him to come home so that they can 'make love' and 'take off'. Hmmm. Acceptable in the (early) eighties, just like the green jumpsuit with matching white boots. Cute though.

Bad Manners - Lip Up Fatty

Elton's back, although he's obviously been out because he's now got his mac on, or just getting ready to 'take off'? For some reason he's given the arduous task of presenting Bad Manners and their latest one which had been going around for quite a bit, such that it may even had qualified for the whacky newcomer spot on the last Pops before The Strike, had it not been for Liquid Gold. But anyway here they are being 'nutty' or whatever, although sadly still very much stuck in the late seventies I'm afraid. 'Lip Up Fatty' is in no way Eighties, jumpsuit or not.

Chart countdown from no. 10 to no. 2 with a snippet of a performance of each song, Pops studio or other, which is good because we get to see a few seconds of Kate Bush's splendid Babooshka video. Just a tiny bit, mind. Then, at last, it's... No. 1 time!

Abba - The Winner Takes It All

It's not easy to explain how big Abba were at the time or even why perhaps, but there was something already inherently eighties in their pop stardom, even though most of it happened in the seventies. Which is why it's sort of appropriate we should be seeing them at the top spot in this first TOTP eighties-style proper. Does that make any sense? Possibly not, but even though this is a sloppy ballad about a twenty-something couple divorcing and suffering the consequences, as a spotty 16 year old I could somehow totally relate to it. Plus I wanted to marry Agnetha after this of course, knowing that she had now become single, and they had some great eighties clothes in Sweden. First week at no. 1 after a momentary pause at no. 9, and like the song, the video is also now nigh-legendary.

George Benson - Give Me the Night

Elton John decides to adopt a faux-Irish accent when promoting his new single with Pete. I'm sure there must be a reason for that. Somewhere. he even manages to re-state his dislike of disco music before p****ing off to America and Australia or wherever. I'd much rather have stayed on the stage to jig about with all those pastel shades and jumpsuits. I'd really like to know who that girl with hat at the front is/was. Looks like a budding New Romantic..

That was quite a strenuous re-opening night. Better make a cup of tea.

See ya next week!

TOTP 80.22 29/05/80

BBCFour repeat here.
Full chart here.

Introduced by Kid Jensen - and what a very smart and polite young man he is too.

Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway – Back Together Again (chart rundown)

This one's in at no. 22 but all in all it's a pretty uninteresting chart with not much going on, except for a new number one. Orchestral Manoeuvres are into the Top 30 at last, just one place behind the Electric Light Orchestra with their new one I'm Alive. Perhaps it was all these 'orchestra' manoeuvres which upset the BBC orchestras leading to the strike which kept the Pops off the telly for an amazing nine weeks. Well, we shall never know, as indeed no-one doing tonight's show evidently had no idea of what was about to hit them.

Liquid Gold - Substitute

They're back after the mega-hit Dance Yourself Dizzy, and full marks to them for being so quick off the mark with this follow up which would go Top 10 within a month despite lack of whacky TOTP promotion. This reminds me of the kind of funky Brit-disco which would emerge again in a couple of years with Wham! and the like., so these things obviously go in cycles. Never mind.

Hot Chocolate - No Doubt About It

It's getting a bit hot in here so better cool things down a bit with loads of dry ice and 'space' effects for this classic Hot Chocolate number which had got to number 2, where it would stay, effectively making it one of those classic 'nearly number ones'. Errol Brown's voice and indeed wiggle, will live on forever.

Elton John - Little Jeannie

Oh dear - Reggie was obviously well past his "Crocodile Rock" heyday, and this looks and sounds like a rather last ditch attempt to revive a seventies based career in the eighties (hello Smokie). This got nowhere and continues a rather large grey area (notice I didn't say black hole) in Elton's career, but as we all know he'll still be standing in a couple of years, and will soon become big mates with princesses and stuff. 

Crown Heights Affair - You Gave Me Love

Thankfully Legs are back in their usual half-way-through-the-first-half position and are doing a bit of proper dancing and showing off their pants, hooray! It's a cheer-leader themed routine this week and - shock, horror, probe - even the audience are involved! Whatever will they think of next?

Don McLean - Crying

You know how it is. You're sitting in your log cabin, 'round an open fire, strumming on your guitar .. and you're crying. It's a promo video, not a re-used BBC Christmas studio set of course, and is one of the few good reasons why the Pops will be off the air for the next couple of months. This was already at number 13 and would get to number 1. For three. Whole. Weeks. 

Thin Lizzy - Chinatown

But enough of this namby-pamby moping around the place. Let's get some proper rock in leather trousers back on! After Phil Lynott's failed attempt to shake the world with his solo career a few weeks back, the whole group is back in town - China town in fact. This one would slowly but surely reach the giddy heights of no. 21, but we won't be seeing it on the Pops again. Meanwhile girls in sensible trouser suits look on.

Roxy Music - Over You

Speaking of sensible trousers, sensibly dressed Kid 'Man at C&A' Jensen gives a lengthy introduction to the also sensibly dressed Roxy Music with their new hit. I'm no Roxy expert but I did notice that that's not Phil Manzanera on sax so where's he gone? First hit single off the new Flesh + Blood album which effectively kick-started their 'smoothie' eighties image. Oh and to be honest only Bryan Ferry could get away with wearing a pair of trousers like that.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Messages

More sensibly dressed young men please! Here's the most unsensibly named group ever with the second performance of their wonderful, wonderful song, this time reinforced with their full stage gear, some extra sate of the art drums and of course the full special effects treatment. Only one member of the band is not wearing a tie and will consequently be kicked out soon. This had finally gone Top 30 and would peak at no. 13 in three weeks time. Obviously the last time we'll see this song performed but they'll be back later in the year with something much bigger, and even more sensible clothes.

Jermaine Jackson - Let's Get Serious

Or rather let's not get too serious and bring some mindless American disco music back on. It was Michael last week and this week its another Jackson sibling doing his thang on some US pop show, which someone kindly taped and sent over to the Beeb in London, England. Thankfully he was previously informed about tonight's dress code.

Stiff Little Fingers - Nobody's Hero

Oh well, enough ties already, better get the punk rockers in from the provinces. An unsuccessful attempt to follow up the moderately successful At The Edge (can you whistle it?) and indeed we'll never see the likes of them on the Pops again. End of an era in more ways than one tonight.

Mystic Merlin - Just Can't Give You Up

Bit of a performance video for this one as Mystic Merlin do a bit of magic - as befits their name - on the only young wench of the group who was already in a bit of a trance. Behold! She levitates! It's all done with mirrors, y'know. The Mystics climbed just a l'il bit higher after this showing but then appropriately disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Lena Zavaroni - Jump Down Jimmy

The only reason I can fathom as to why Ms. Zavaroni (née Zavaroni) suddenly appeared on the Pops with this is that she  had just launched her own new music show on BBC One, entitled Lena. What I can't fathom is why said show was evidently in no way affected by the BBC orchestra strike, and remained firmly on air for the next six weeks, while Top of the Pops was off air. Some kind of conspiracy going on here? Had no-one ever thought of this? Anyway, rubbish song that got nowhere.

The MASH - Suicide is Painless

There seems to be some doubt in the webosphere as to whether this Legs & Co. repeat from last week was used in the original broadcast, but no matter, this seventies MOR dirge with lyrics written by a 14 year old was the record most purchased by the Great British public this week and that's that. So much for 'the sound of the eighties', as announced by Peter Powell at the beginning of the year. Twenty-two weeks on and, with very few exceptions, there hasn't been anything much that has broken from the seventies mold. A bit sad really.

Lipps Inc. - Funky Town

We play out with this one tonight, now in the top 10. At least it has a hint of 'modern' about it.

I wonder if anyone to do with the show had any idea of what was going to happen next: the 9/11 of Top of the Pops, an event which would shake up the show and possibly attitudes to pop music in Britain forever. Or would it?

See you in the future.