TOTP 80.27 04/09/80

Presented by DLT and Kevin Keegan so not repeated. Keegan's perm obviously considered too offensive in this day and age.

But anyway here's the full chart and the list of acts/songs featured:

Secret Affair - Sound of Confusion
Follow up to the rather spiffing My World, at no. 45 but did no better.

Kelly Marie - Feels Like I'm in Love
There's a new no. this week but this isn't it. up to no. 3.

Nick Straker Band - A Walk in the Park
Catchy summer hit at no. 22.

Hazel O'Connor - Eighth Day
Ironically beating Gary Numan to the No. 5 spot.

Billy Joel - It's Still Rock n Roll To Me - (Legs & Co.)
The Leggies are back after their brief summer holidays, in some exotic location, no doubt. Sadly we didn't get to see their routine to Joel's new one, now at no. 20.

Cliff Richard - Dreamin'
More male solo stuff with Sir Cliff at no. 10.

Sheena Easton - Modern Girl
With 9 to 5 already on its way down, Sheens gets to perform her other hit, now at no. 13.

The Beat - Best Friend
As mentioned last week it was probably Stand Down Margaret that was shifting the units on this 7" but here's the more acceptable and uncensored other A side. (promo video).

Randy Crawford - One Day I'll Fly Away
A touch of class is tonight's rather raunchy homegrown line-up. Have a look at the video recording here cos it's a bit of a classic.

The Jam - Start!
A surprising new no. 1 although the fanbase was huge by this time, which may explain its rather short reign. A lot of us heard Taxman for the first time too.

The Clash - Bankrobber
Up to no. 12 although The Clash were still no-show so you just get the the playout spot and loads of kids going mad on stage again, probably.

TOTP 80.25 21/08/80

BBCFour repeat here.
Full chart here.

In true 1970's/early 80's being on holiday and not having a telly therefore missing TOTP on Thursday night style I was again on holiday last week without a telly (in the year 2015 tut!), and so duly missed Thursday's show. So I've called in guest reviewer Gaztronix to give this week's Pops the once over.
Over to you Gaz!....

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Presented by Steve Wright with a youthful looking Sir Clifford of Richard* by his side all Smashy n Nicey

pic: popscene

We kick off with the Nick Straker Band and massive European holiday song A Walk In The Park. The guy in charge of TOTP FX is having a bit of a freeze-frame meltdown. Mr Straker has the most amazing hair - I'm sure it's inspired a Mighty Boosh skit or two.

Back to Steve n Cliff with some repartee on Sheena Easton. Easton, performing Modern Girl, has thankfully dropped the look that made her look like Gary Numan's younger sister and had opted for a style best described as 'Disco Sue Lawley'. Fair do's. There is a synth solo in this song - it's amazingly bad even for 1980 - I had to play it again. It was THAT bad.

Just Steve now - maybe Clifford has gone to check with his portrait in the attic. We get given what we get which is a video of The Jam performing 'Watch You Give Is What You Get.' Proper 80s vid it is too - intense staring at bright lights through Venetian blinds (what was it about the early 80s Venetian blinds phase?) (ed. the song title is actually 'Start!')

Smashy has gone, so we get Nicey Sir Cliff who looks a lot like Mike Read. Not Runaraaaaaaaahnd Mike Read but Frankie-smashing, slightly racist song writing for UKIP Mike Read. And exclusively for TOTP - Cliff has gone all mockney - well, he's drifting towards mockney, innit. That Cliff eh? Any more of this mockney malarkey and he might go the full Danny Baker. I'll keep you updated. And who's Triff introducing? Why it's only Cliff...sorry Shakin' Stevens. I genuinely can't tell you what the song is called, but he keeps shrieking 'Marie' so I'm guessing it's that. Cliff...Shakey is in Teddy Boy Hot Pink and is performing all on his lonesome tonight - a few fifties moves, hair the glistens and love for the mic stand. (ed. the song title is actually 'Marie Marie')

Back to Wright now and whassat Steve? Legs and Co? Ok. Dancing to what!? The Clash!? Yep - it's Legs and Co - dancing to Bankrobber by The Clash. All stripes, leotards and cages. If the English National Ballet did this, it be classed as 'challenging'. But as it's Legs and Co - no one bats an eyelid.

Smashy n Nicey are back together again. A little bit of Mockney from Smashy and only a smattering this time from Nicey. Oh and Elvis impersonations as the next tune is a bit of Rock n Roll from Shak...no hang on - it's Billy Joel and It's Still Rock n Roll To Me. It's a pop video, so I'm ignoring it to let you know that the best version of It's Still Rock n Roll To Me was performed by Laptop sometime in the late 90s. Seriously - dig it out. Joel gets chopped as soon as the sax solo starts to kick in - wise move Mr. BBC editor bloke - cheers!

Right back with Wright now and the countdown 30-11. Up next it's Hazel O'Connor. Ah at last - it's the eighties with Eighth Day. All that Rock N Roll had me worried for a minute. There is better work by O'Connor - honest, there is - but this isn't it. Cartoon new wave synth sounds are just the half of it - I haven't even got started on the lyrics yet. If Queen had been this melodramatic it would've raised eyebrows. Hey ho - the audience lap it up. And fair do's as it does bounce along a fair rate, O'Connor is an engaging performer and they have just been subjected to large amounts of throwbacks to the fifties.

Sir Cliff now - almost back to normal - only 10% on the mockneyometer.

It's The Piranhas and Tom Hark - one of those jaunty faux Caribbean things that you wished you'd never heard but later gets adopted by the terraces. Odd really, as its lyrics are actually an anti-nuclear war song! Yep - it's political! Not that you'd know from the bands appearance and demeanour. Peel used to love them apparently but dropped them like a stone when this came out.

Steve and Cliff again - no mockney this time and Doo-doo! Doo-doo! It's Kelly Marie and Feels Like I'm In Love. Doo-doo! Doo-doo! Kelly is dressed in a black jumpsuit with gold trim for Blakes 7 or an office party - back then it was impossible to tell. But the dancers either side suggest she may even eschew all of the above for dinner with Liberace.

pic: Gaztronix

Up next it's Steve n Cliff introducing - Cliff! Wow, how'd he do that? He's so smooth. That's not The Shadows though...I think...no idea to be honest, but if Hank Marvin isn't there then I'm guessing it's not. This is modern Cliff. It's a bizarre performance - the BBC FX Dept are having fun with this one. The band fade in and out around Cliff and shedloads of dry ice. I think the song is called Dreamin', so Cliff is dreaming of the band! Wow! D'you see wot they did there? Crazy Cliff, crazy band, crazy times! Paul Young would steal this entire sound a few years later. Cliff has a very loose arrangement with his tie and nonchalantly plays with his jacket which he casually slings around his shoulder as he sashays and dreams and pouts his way along. Rocking a look best described as 'Apollo from Battlestar Galactica on his day off heading to a picnic with friends in a park'

Countdown from 10-2. Cliff has woken up, his band have vanished and all he's got is his mate Steve. The number one and it's the godlike genius David Bowie with an absolute classic Ashes To Ashes. It's the video - Dave probably has better things to do, or maybe Cliff asked him to the picnic and Dave doesn't want to go - could be awkward. It's the whole video n all. Wright says 'some people say it's his best yet...' - he could be right. (ed. - first week at no. 1 for this Bowie single which knocked Abba off the top spot)

Back to our cheeky chappies now - cheers Cliff, who's off on tour. And that's it Folks. No idea what the end title song is - some very weak disco about All Over The World. (ed. Electric Light Orchestra!)

*in memory of the late, great Tom Hibbert


Thanks for that Gaz. We'll be back to 'normal' next week folks with more Pops fun before The Posh Proms (c) kick in. Laters!

TOTP 80.1 03/01/1980

It's appropriate that the first show of 1980 was introduced by fresh-faced Radio 1 DJ Peter Powell. As a relative youngster (28 at the time) Powell had his roots in the sixties and seventies but also had his finger on the pulse of newer music and would go on to champion many of the new pop acts of the early eighties. But on with the show..

The Clash - London Calling (chart rundown)
The single was stable at no. 29, which may not have put it in good stead in TOTP terms, but it was an appropriate opener to the decade by one of the more commercially successful punk bands and the song which definitely summed up of the mood of the time. It would go on to reach a peak no. 11 position two weeks later. The eponymous album had been released shortly before Christmas 1979 and would become a classic of the genre and the period. As far as I know the Clash never actually went on TOTP.

Madness - My Girl
The first new TOTP performance proper of the eighties, appropriately featuring the large '1980' numbered background. Madness had already become successful with two top 20 singles in the second half of '79 (One Step Beyond reaching  no. 7 in November) and with this instantly likeable new single they could do no wrong.

Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime (promo)
Definitely a festive 'left-over', about as appealing as cold turkey sandwiches on December 28th, but Macca's synthy Christmas single had gone up one place to no. 6, post-Chrimbo. It would plummet the week after despite this last ditch attempt to push it at the January sales.

Pretenders - Brass in Pocket
This is more like it - melodic pop with a 'new-wave' feel and a slinky 'post-punk' female vocalist to go with it! The single had already rocketed up to no. 5 and would indeed go on to do even better.

David Bowie - John I'm Only Dancing (promo)
Correct title: John I'm Only Dancing (Again), this was a 'left-over' form the seventies in more ways than one. Originally released in 1972, the song was remixed and revived apparently in order to up Bowie's sales, after the moderate success of late 70s singles DJ and Boys Keep Swinging, and to cash-in somewhat on the current dance/disco craze (hence its release also as an 'extended version' on 12"). The single was featured here as a promo-film, and did little to up the songs chart success as it would remain stable at no. 12 the week after. But no matter, Bowie would go on to do much greater things later in the year.

( - the BBC programme website list three songs here which were not featured on the repeat broadcast. I'd be interested to know if these were actually featured on the original broadcast.)

Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rappin'
More left-over turkey and, oh dear, it would also seem to be a Christmas song that time forgot. It may have been groundbreaking in its genre but one gets the impression that the UK/TOTP public was hardly ready for it. A non-chart feature, it disappeared without a trace after this showing.

Billy Preston & Syreeta - With You I'm Born Again
More music from Motown, or thereabouts, although this ballad would fare much better than the above mentioned rappin'. Released at the end of 1979, it was a new entry at no. 24. Apparently from the soundtrack of the film Fast Break (apparently) although I doubt that had much to do with its success. Like it or not, we'll be hearing a lot more of this in the coming weeks.

Chic - My Feet Keep Dancing (Legs & Co,)
Staying with our American cousins, more disco fodder here, as interpreted by in-house dance troupe Legs & Co. Not Chic's best-known song, and indeed it would be their last UK chart hit of a long run which had begun over two years earlier. A steady climber at no. 21, the song would slowly drop back down the charts, notwithstanding Legs & Co.'s admirable interpretation.

Dr. Hook - Better Love Next Time
As was often the case with the first song featured in each programme's running-list (see My Girl above) the song before the Number 1 was usually a new non-chart song, presumably because maximum audience attention would be at the show's opening and  just before the no. 1 (did people just tune in to see who was no. 1?). Anyway it's more American faux-country 'n' western  MOR this week with Union City's finest sons Dr. Hook (formerly Dr. Hook & The, er, Medicine Show). They had enjoyed a UK No. 1 single just a month earlier with When You're In Love With a Beautiful Woman, and although this follow-up and the subsequent Sexy Eyes would also fare well, their UK chart days were numbered.

Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall (Pt. 2) (promo)
And so to the this week's Number 1, the first of the eighties. Ironically it was the Floyd who had knocked the above mentioned Dr. Hook off the top spot in the second week of December 1979, continuing to stay there for some time. There's no doubting Another Brick in the Wall's now legendary status, although far from being a standard pop single, this extract from the concept album The Wall remains one of British pop history's most unlikely hits. Presumably it was the "we don't need no edu-cay-shun" chant, inspired, unsurprisingly, by Alice Cooper's School's Out hit, which appealed to many young record buyers across the land. Despite Pink Floyd's 'rock dinosaur' label, if anything it goes to show that it was the British artists (rather than the Americans) who were producing the most interesting and innovative music at the time (see Clash / Madness / Pretenders above).

Rose Royce - Is It Love You're After (closing credits)
As if to prove my last point, it's back to the yawnsome Motown-y ballads to ease us out of the programme. Not time for bed just yet though: White Rock is on next, so we can enjoy the "thrills, skill and immense courage of the (Winter) Olympic heroes".

See you next week.