TOTP 80.35 30/10/80

First broadcast 30/10/80
Repeated on BBCFour from 29/10/2015
Presented by Peter Powell
Guest presenter Colin Berry
Full chart here.

We open up the show with the party already in full swing, with loads of balloons and not a drop of Babycham in sight. Peter Powell in full-smug mode on, light blue T shirt and with him (in dark blue T shirt) is, er, Colin Berry. Who? Apparently some posh geezer from Radio 2 who has been 'getting up early'. How interesting. On with the show please...

Adam and the Ants - Dog Eat Dog
Second performance from Adam and his mates who are up to no. 13 and prepare for world domination. It's a pity they're on first as all the rest is made to look even more rubbish than it actually is.

Watch me Daddy-o!

Odyssey - If You're looking For a Way Out
Boring song, sung by boring people in boring video. Boring. (cit. Rick the Student). At no. 6, obviously.

Bad Manners - Special Brew
Slightly less boring although ska really was reaching its end surely? You know the score - lots of nuttiness and the big fat bloke in a grass skirt. Redeemed only by the ace line "I wanna spend all my money on you". One place above Odyssey and the last we'll see of them for a bit.

David Bowie - Fashion (Legs & Co.)
New in at 20 and Peter Powell shows us he really knows his stuff by telling us the full title of the latest Bowie album. We'll see the proper video for this in a couple of weeks time although while we're waiting for The Dame to make it, here's the luvvly Legs strutting their stuff, although sadly the cameras remain frustratingly distant from the stage/catwalk.

Beep beep!

Sheena Easton - One Man Woman
Our Sheen has been busy making a video for this one so she didn't have to bother about going to the TOTP studio too often. Not a great song but the whole look and feel of it is very Eighties. But that's the only redeeming (max) factor I'm afraid as the song is a bit rubbish. At no 17 but will peak next week at only 14.

I'm sure Phil Oakey is watching this.

Olivia Newton John & Cliff Richard - Suddenly
Oh dear. More dreariness from this perhaps unlikely couple. This is another one from Xanadu although Olivia did more interesting things on that album/film/concept with ELO. This dirge was written by John Farrar who'd also done better things for Olivia on Grease. They'd better hurry up and get physical, physical...

Showaddywaddy - Why Do Lovers Break Each Other's Hearts 
Or indeed why do a band like Showaddywaddy continue to have hits and appear on Top of the Pops? Not very Eighties at all, aside form the coloured streak in the singer's hair. At no. 22 but I don't think we'll ever see them on the Pops again. And why after seeing this do I get the impression they might have been a (closet) gay band? Never mind..

Oh it's Top 10 countdown already.

It's eight fifteen...

Barbara Streisand - Woman in Love
It's the third slow ballad (yawn) of the night but this is obviously way ahead of the rest. At number one for the second (of three) weeks in fact.


Don't forget to order your special T-shirts from the Radio Times and we'll see you next week as the TOTP-Tardis whooshes forward in time! Byeeeee!!

TOTP 80.29 18/09/80

Full chart here

Presented by Simon Bates and Olivia Newton-John (phwoar).

and what's so funny about my nose then?

Well not sure what "small problems" The Pops were (still) having, but it seems to mean that we have Simes and Olivia in a studio with just one cameraman with some repeated footage and promo videos edited in, and no Legs & Co.!. Which all makes for a very dull show and not very 'eighties' at all. Not to mention Bates wearing the worst jacket/suit/tie combo ever worn on the telly. Ever.

Somewhat wearily, we press on...

XTC - Generals and Majors
Fortunately this new single from The Partridge Boys had one of those new-fangled promo-videos (films) to go with it, so at least we get the novelty opener albeit in a new format. Virgin were wont to pumping a lot of funds into XTC, as can be seen from their often extravagant (ie. expensive) singles sleeves (picture sleeves, fold-outs, free games..the lot). As Symes rightly points out there was even a special documentary made about the band making their new album ("Black Sea"). I remember it being particularly interesting seeing how they got that clanging sound in Towers of London. Again a very expensive way to launch a new single, but Branson was paying so who cares. Somewhat undeservedly this failed to make the Top 30. Keep trying guys.

Randy Crawford - One Day I'll Fly Away
Repeat of a previous performance but emotional, nonetheless. Randy had also beat Elvis (Presley) to the no. 2 spot, so extra kudos to her.

Stevie Wonder - Masterblaster (Jammin')
Where did this come from? Wonder has seen his way (ehem) to no. 4 already with his first hit of the 80s and indeed for quite a long time. Nice summer hit, even though it's already September and raining.

Sheena Easton - Modern Girl
Here she is again .. I've lost count of how many times our Sheen's been on but she's now at her peak of no. 8 and we won't be seeing her again for a bit. But credit where credit's due - she's probably about the most 'eighties' thing about the show. I hadn't seen this before but there's a classic Pops moment when Sheens gets camera-bombed by a po-go-ing punk in the audience!

Sheena....

...bombing!

Nick Straker Band - A Walk in the Park
This was stuck at no. 20 (and continued so for another week) but we're a bit short of material so Nick and pals get a re-run before falling into oblivion. Did Simes just say he's "hanging on for grim death"? Pwahahahahaa.

Just to liven things up a bit here's Bill Gates, er no sorry, Jonathan King with a not-so-subtle advert for the Rubrik's cube:

separated at birth

Madness - Baggy Trousers
They're back: the band that kicked off the 80s Pops are with us again with some new material. They haven't lost they're 'nutty' edge (yet) with this one, their response to Another Brick in the Wall, since it's a more light-hearted throwback to school days and (no) edu-cayshun. A taste of their forthcoming album Absoloutely.

..and another guest! It's Wonder Woman! In a Chinese jacket!

Billy Joel - It's Still Rock n Roll To Me
Enough of Camden Town already, let's go Stateside. Another non-mover at no. 14 and it didn't get much higher, although another step towards Joel's Uptown Girl god-like status.

Kelly Marie - Feels Like I'm in Love
Phew, it's no. 1 already and here's Kells to put us all out of our agony, even though Simes seems to have enjoyed all the attention, possibly because that's what being a DJ is all about.

Queen - Another One Bites the Dust
Hasn't this been a playout one before? Queen may have updated their sound (a bit) but obviously still hadn't caught on to the new-fangled video malarkey. These 70s dinosaurs will never last.


Hey ho, another show over. The BBCOne site rather dourly tells us that there are "no upcoming debut broadcasts" ..debut?....as BBCFour makes way for The Posh Proms (c) which is possibly just as well as we all need a break.

See you some time in the future, by which time The Pops will have sorted out its "small problems". We hope.

The Ones (and other hits) that got away

Here's a list of songs which were hits during the TOTP strike period:

Number 1's:

Don McLean - Crying
We'd already seen the promo video a couple of times, and after three weeks of a song about suicide the Great British public chose three weeks of a song about crying. Britian was obviously a very miserable place.

ELO & Olivia Newton John - Xanadu
But enough moping already! Here's a shiny new Olivia and the fabulous Electric Light Orchestra from Brum who sadly didn't get the chance to show off their first and only time at the top spot on national television on a Thursday night. Travesty indeed. ELO also got to no. 20 with I'm Alive and to no. 11 with All Over the World, all by themselves.

Farrar, Newton-John, Lynn: The Xanadu team (pic.: donosdump.com/xanadu/)

Odyssey - Use It Up and Wear It Out
A chart-topping anomaly in these TOTP-less wilderness days perhaps. They knocked Olivia and pals off the top spot and stayed there for two weeks.

Abba - The Winner Takes It All
This one was however fully justified in making it to the top. More miserableness, true enough, but a classic heart-wrenching ballad about a post-split couple hurtling into a divorce. Bjorn says it was totally non-autobiographical and we totally believe that, don't we. Top promo video too, but I still can't bear to watch it when Agnetha looks into the camera and sings in trembling voice "Now I understand, you've come to shake my hand..". Their seventh UK no. 1 and the first to be shown in the new style Pops, coming up.



Other Big Ones

Kate Bush - Babooshka
Still one of her best known songs but as it peaked at no. 5 in the first week of August the classic promo-video never made it to the Pops.

Leo Sayer - More Than I Can Say
This one also peaked beginning of August, making it to no. 2. The permed-one never got to sing this smoochy classic on a TOTP stage (although a stand-in did for the nigh-legendary pilot show).

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Could You be Loved
Some cheery summer rasta sounds at last, peaking at no. 5. Marley would be dead within a year, although not even a posthumous release of No Woman No Cry managed to beat this chart-wise.

UB40 - My Way of Thinking
More summer reggae sounds man in this follow up to Food For Thought. Peaked at no. 6.

Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
It's still debatable as to whether this post-punk classic went Top 20 because of radio-play dominance through TOTP's non-showing or whether it would have been a hit anyway, following singer Ian Curtis' suicide at the end of May. But no matter, it's another classic and their one and only chart hit, which would re-surface again in 1983.

The Korgis - Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime
More sloppy gloomdom, although a bit more 'sound of the eighties' than most of this kind of stuff that was around. Sadly they never managed to make a decent follow up and the parent album Dumb Waiters (great cover) only made it to No. 40.

Splodgenessabounds - Two Pints of Lager and Packet of Crisps Please
Again we are left to wonder if this novelty-punk record would ever have got to the Top 10 or even onto Top of the Pops in a non-BBC-orchestra strike parallel universe. But it was a bit of a laugh, and we all know how us Brits like to have a laugh amid all the crying. Especially if it's about crisps and beer. Or a strike.

We're laughin'! (Official dispute pic.: overgrownpath.com 01.10.2010)