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Post by Frank Spencer on Aug 26, 2017 20:45:13 GMT
Only one episode to report on this week and not much to report ! Break Machine we've seen before on TOTP doing their first single so that wasn't anything to get excited about, Deniece Williams made much better records than "Let's Hear It For The Boy", Peter Powell cuirously pronouncing her name somewhere halfway between "Dennis" and "Denise" whilst at the end end Simon Bates once again boldly predicted the song was a cert for No:1 ... and once again got it totally wrong ! I wonder if he's ever won a bet on the horses ... The strobe overload on Hazell Dean's hit nearly made me fall off my sofa, I expect there may have been a pre-show warning about that here in 2017, but my Sky box didn't record that bit ... I wanted to see the end of Ultravox's video to see what happened after the nuclear explosion, but it was savagely truncated ! .... and it was nice to see Cecil & Linda Womack on TOTP. As Simes correctly mentioned. Linda is the daughter of Sam Cooke, but Cecil, who died in 2013, was also a brother of Bobby Womack who married Sam Cooke's widow not long after Cooke's death, this making him both Linda's stepfather AND brother-in-law. But there wasn't time for all that in the post song link ...
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Post by Steve Austin on Aug 27, 2017 11:22:07 GMT
My head hurts after reading that last part Frank Of all of the acts on this weeks show, Break Machine were my pick. Being part cyborg myself, I have a sneaking admiration for robotic dancing, I'm the original & best of course
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Del Boy
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Post by Del Boy on Aug 28, 2017 11:57:44 GMT
Ah 1984 and Robotics ..takes me back. It was all the rage in my neck of the woods to have some high top trainers a tracksuit and do some robotics/body popping on a bit of lino As has been mentioned earlier it was a poor episode and they all talk nonsense about whats going to be a hit etc like there industry experts rather than presenters
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Del Boy
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Post by Del Boy on Sept 5, 2017 23:38:19 GMT
Just watched 14th of July's episode. Not really a lot to write home about here despite the calibre of artists on offer. The likes of Elton John, Rod Stewart, Nick Heywood,The Smiths were on but the material wasn't great even though the singles were a success. Rod's was very average I thought and heaven knows I was miserable after watching The Smiths Liked the Nick Kershaw track but thought he was going to bounce off that trampoline looking stage he was on Frankie''s Two Tribes is a personal favourite and a worthy number 1
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Post by Frank Spencer on Sept 8, 2017 22:48:11 GMT
Another two episodes at once on the Friday evening sofa for me ! The 7th June show was far superior to the 14th June one and not just because the "Rhythm Pals" were making their last appearance together (according to the continuity announcer at the start....) - Spandau Ballet kicked it off in fine style , quite literally, being one of a number of acts giving the pink balloons a good seeing to across the two programmes this week ! Howard Jones also came across as enjoying himself on stage, whilst Wham! showed off their pop pedigree, dancing and mimng their socks off, proudly sporting "Number One" T-shirts to celebrate their first chart-topper, George's one (of course) being written in lots of golden glitter and displayed to the max by the end of the song with Pepsi & Shirley either side ... and Andrew wandering around in the background a bit out of sync clinging into a guitar to hide behind ! And the show even played out with a real favourite of mine, the song I always tell people is my top song EVER if they ask, the re-issue of "Thinking Of You" by Sister Sledge ... Surely the next episode couldn't top that ? No. It couldn't. As Del Boy suggested, the Rod Stewart track was incredibly average - I don't have any recollection of it at all ! - and the video was equally as naff, in fcat Rod made some pretty ropey videos (i.e. Baby Jane) in the 80s unlike Elton John whose all singing, all dancing promo was a mildly entertaining watch for three minutes earlier. I never liked the Smiths at all at the time, my soul boy / aspiring DJ days back then having no room for anything "alternative" or "post new wave" though I noted everything that was happening in the charts for future reference and wouldn't have said it out loud at the time, but did have a small soft spot for "Heaven ... " - and the band totally stole the show this week, with Johnny Marr casually perched on an amp playing some neat guitar riffs and Morrissey ... well he was unique to say the least wasn't he ?! I was surprised to see more foliage growing out of his underpants, I always though that was a one-off gimmick to make an impression on the first TOTP appearance, but this must be the third song they've done on TOTP with green stuff waving around behind him ! Hmmmm .... Oh and of course FGTH were fab doing "Two Tribes" for the first time at No:1. I am looking forward to seeing the "gun toting" performance again - luckily I don't think that one is next week as due to someone deciding it would be a great idea back in 1984 to open the show with a mediocre end-of-char-career hit by Gary Glitter, in 2017 the BBC have decided it would be too much trouble to edit him out and we skip an episode. (Credit to Popscene for the sneak peak forward at the show listings !) Actually there's nothing too much to cry about missing, Bronski Beat is a repeat of their live vocal from 7/6/84 and my heart barely skips a beat at missing the rest ... although Del Boy & Steve Austin might be aghast to miss Ollie & Jerry's one TOTP slot doing "Breakin' (There's No Stoppin' Us)" from the big breakdancing movie soundtrack !
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Post by Steve Austin on Sept 9, 2017 17:36:15 GMT
Del Boy & Steve Austin might be aghast to miss Ollie & Jerry's one TOTP slot doing "Breakin' (There's No Stoppin' Us)" from the big breakdancing movie soundtrack ! Here it is anyway Up yours BBC
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Post by Frank Spencer on Sept 13, 2017 23:33:41 GMT
I was almost tempted to FFWD through this week's one episode, but I resisted and sat through a fairly tame 30 minutes or so of mediocre 80s pop and repeat showings. In fact, the most interesting thing was seeing Steve Wright waving a tennis racket around during the first couple of links - maybe it was Wimbledon week ?? But even so ... As has been the case with other early 80s groups, one of the plus sides of having so many episodes thrust upon us out of sync with the time of year of their original showings, is that we see quite quickly how groups have evolved. For instance Spandau Ballet, Depeche Mode & Duran Duran by 1984 had all evolved into mainstream full on pop superstar acts from their first appearances as young New Romantic bands - although that was not quite the case with the Human League ! "Life On Your Own" was a very dull song I thought and although Phil Oakey had changed his look quite dramatically from 1981, the two girls were still lookng the same and doing the same dance moves as always ! It's hard to say anything about Alison Moyet's appearance in 1984 without sounding cruel, but I had forgotten she looked quite the way she did back then - gosh ! A great singer who recorded some fab pop songs in the 80s and a proper Essex bird from just dahn the road from me, now looking great in her 50s ... I had also forgotten that "Waiting In Vain" from 1977 by Bob Marley was re-issued in 84 and made the Top 40 again, hence explaining the dodgy video shown this week ... and once again the whole "censorship" issue re TOTP continues to baffle me - we missed out on a whole show last time as G*** G******r opened the proceedings, yet this week they are quite happy to show a picture of him and air his name being read out in the chart rundown, yet at the end of the show there is a savage edit where Andy Peebles presumably forward promotes J**** S******e's latest appearance in the studio next week ! No consistency, no common sense At least from a viewing point of view it was a short show with little we can't see or haven't seen elsewhere...
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Post by Dirty Epic on Sept 14, 2017 14:53:02 GMT
Here's a treat for the Breakdance fans... Enjoy!
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Sept 24, 2017 23:31:55 GMT
I've not watched TOTP for a long time, happened to turned it on a few days ago & what song came on first? Aga-bloody-doo that's what! After the Prince video Simon Bates revealed, as if imparting some piece of scandalous gossip- 'As a matter of interest, when the movie was premiered in the States he asked an older woman to accompany him to the premiere', then later after a performance by A Flock Of Seagulls- 'the interesting thing about the guitarist is that he needs his specs as much as I do because he's half blind', then after Trevor Walters- 'that's a terrific single isn't it?' to which Gary Davies replies 'yeah I think he could even do better than Lionel Richie did with that'
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Post by Frank Spencer on Sept 29, 2017 19:09:34 GMT
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