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Post by Arthur Pringle on Sept 29, 2017 21:17:57 GMT
Not sure whether it was Mike Score or not but I remember a documentary where one member of AFOS explained that the famous hairstyle was conceived to disguise his premature hair loss, a New Romantic take on a George Roper double combover & a Colin Crompton comb forward.
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Post by Frank Spencer on Oct 5, 2017 15:02:01 GMT
One quite interesting episode and one rather dull one last week. Tracey Ullman kicked off the Peel & Skinner edition looking well hot singing "Sunglasses" with two almost as hot backing singers, complete with beach towels, beach balls, skimpy pool cossies and a huge deck chair, but in a rare example of TOTP unpredictability, not a pair of sunglasses in sight !! For the soul boy side of me it was great to see Windjammer & Jeffrey Osborne in the studio, while Hazell Dean brought on a flashback looking scarily like one of my first "serious" girlfriends I had around that time, a fling which ended rather awkwardly ! (I was only 22... ) I never had a girlfriend who looked like Laura Branigan but I watched the video for self-control quite carefully, but like so many from the States in this era it was still hard to make out what on earth it was all about !! And you have to hand it to Frankie Goes To Hollywood that apart from the odd time when a performance was repeated, each appearance on TOTP doing "Two Tribes" they kept it fresh ... it was "Frankie Goes Walkabout" this time, but did you spot the eery coincidence that in the week Liz Dawn passed away, Holly was 'reading' a copy of The Sun with a headline that read "Street Star Vera Faces Sack" ? Despite Steve Wright's usual "wacky enthusiasm" and Andy Peebles steady professionalism, the other show last week was a bit of a yawn with only Howard Jones' feelgood video for "Like To Get To Know You Well" stopping my fingers wavering over the FFWD button. Trevor Walters was back on with his version of "Stuck On You", but this time totally on his own without the backing band that appeared with him two weeks ago - and in a second ( belated ) "Did You Spot...?" feature ... what about that guy who was merely 'playing' the triangle in that band ? If ever there was a candidate for "I'm only doing this so I can say I was on TOTP..." it was him !!
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Oct 13, 2017 12:12:41 GMT
I loved Tracy Ullman's Sunglasses, it was a great song. Tracy did one other I really liked, They don't know, from about September 83, which was originally done by Kirsty MacColl.
Frankie Goes to Hollywood were one of those acts I just never liked and never "got" at all I'm afraid
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Post by Frank Spencer on Oct 13, 2017 18:53:28 GMT
It was really quite an interesting week on TOTP84 last week. I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode from 23/8/84 hosted by Tommy Vance & Mike Read with very watchable studio performances by Alphaville, Spandau Ballet and Miami Sound Machine with an oh-so-young, but ever-so cute Gloria Estefan up front with a rare chance to se George Michael doing "Careless Whisper" in front of an audience as opposed to on the well worn video we've seen a hundred times. Break Machine were doing their stuff too - for a THIRD time ! I couldn't believe they actually had THREE hits that ALL sounded the same, I knew there were two similar ones, but good grief - still full credit to them for those moves all the same ... On video, even though I remember Elton John having a penchant for completely OTT big production jobs in the mid-80s, my eyebrows were seriously raised at the amount of time and money that must have gone into the one for "Passengers" - the song is OK, but he definitely earned a hit with the effort that went into making that promo, wow !! Tracey Ullman was inevitable on the beach for her vid for "Sunglasses" and this time we saw LOTS of sunglasses being worn and her usual gentle but enjoyable humour being displayed, a lovely talented lady who I never appreciated at the time. As for Rod Stewart - well Elton beat him hands down when it came to promos, Rod really must have set some sort of record for the longest run of crap videos for his singles in the 80s !! Talking of records .... we didn't get to see TOTP from 30/8/84, which was a real shame as a new train which had been named "Top Of The Pops" was attempting to set a high speed record from London to Bristol and they were covering it live on the show. Very ambitious, but those of us watching at the time only got to see Bucks Fizz performing half of their much rehearsed choreography to the unusual "Talking In Your Sleep", with Bobby G taking lead vocals and the two boys both "playing" guitars, as on board the train along with Norris McWhirter, Simon Bates & Richard Skinner were ... Mike Smith & Jimmy Saville ! Groan ... The song was seriously curtailed (check out the clip below...) as the cameras cut live to Bristol's Temple Meads Station, but the Beeb made it up to Bobby, Mike, Cheryl & Jay the next week when Janis Long and John Peel amusingly introduced them as the first act on the 6/9/84, a rare example of a group being on two consecutives weeks without ever being at No:1 with the song performed. It also meant that Bucks Fizz had inside the space of three months been involved in a coach crash AND run over by a train ... sort of !! Bobby, Mike, Cheryl, Jay, two surprising guitars and an unexpected train ! PS: Credit to the wonderful Popscene for throwing a ray of light on the BF mystery with their notes
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Post by Frank Spencer on Oct 18, 2017 23:34:14 GMT
Just one episode to give the once over this week and a few bits and pieces worth highlighting if you've not seen it yet, hosted by Andy Peebles & Steve Wright. David Bowie's video for "Blue Jean" is pretty good as it is, but I remember that, along the lines of "Thriller" there was a long 15 minute version which tells the whole story hinted at in the 'radio edit' - I have it on a video tape somewhere behind the telly !! Another less remarkable video was the one for Queen's "Hammer To Fall" not one of the most memorable hits from their mid-80s renaissance period, but it is interesting to see drummer Roger Taylor wearing a "Choose Life" T-shirt, one of a number of popular slogans it was cool to wear in huge letters pretty much covering the whole front of your chest, I think Wham! were the ones who thought of that one. Sister Sledge did "Lost In Music" in the studio again, but this time with live vocals, doing a great job and giving it some welly, plus it was nice to see Joni Sledge in great form after she died suddenly earlier this year age 60. Adam Ant was also in the studio for "Apollo 9", a pale imitation of previous glories in 1980-82, a period when he put out some fantastic videos and turned in some brilliant TOTP performances. This time he rather too predictably seemed to be wearing "half a spacesuit" and curiously with no obvious trademark make-up on his face, except for some slight smudged black markings which look like to HAD applied something but changed his mind on the way to the stage ! Although he is still around and doing his stuff, that was pretty much the end of his golden era ... And so onto October 1984 next time - at least we will be in the "right time of year" again at last !
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Post by Steve Austin on Oct 19, 2017 18:54:22 GMT
Got to hand it to you Frank for sticking with this and providing these reviews. I'm enjoying the shows as a whole but a lot of the acts are not my scene. I'll be tuning again this week and look forward to your next report
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Oct 19, 2017 22:40:09 GMT
Yes I agree, well done Frank. I watched tonight's show in full for once & it was a bit of a stinker, though I thought Adam Ant was ok. I grew up during this era & I'm pretty sure I didn't like most of the music even then. Culture Club have always baffled me, I think they looked & sounded dreadful & this song in particular with its banal lyrics- 'War, war is stupid & people are stupid', not exactly 'Imagine' is it? The videos of this period are awful too, The Cars 'Drive' being a good example & I think I prefer Agadoo to Stevie Wonder's 'I Just Called To Say I Love You' Even The Stranglers were bad. Going back to last week's show, Elton John's 'Passengers', which I don't think I've heard since 1984 but instantly remembered, a song seemingly produced to sound as annoying as possible, was another horror with a video to match. The BBC4 continuity announcer seemed to be having a go at Bronski Beat's performance, presumably Jimmy Somerville's miming, when she quipped 'if you can you tell me why you don't think this show is live, send me a message at #totp' ( their song 'Why' has the refrain 'can you tell me why' ). Seemed a bit of an odd way to introduce the show
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Oct 20, 2017 8:06:12 GMT
Got to agree with Arthur there, this was the period when music started to go down the plughole fast. There is probably only Queens "Hammer to Fall" from that selection I liked.
The thing is there has always been garbage in the singles charts at all periods in its history, from the 50s through to the present day, in the run down we did of 78/9 which was a very good era, there was the odd bit of rubbish in amongst the good stuff, but when creativity and originality get thin on the ground, the rubbish fills in the vacuum left.
The impetus which chart music got from the very exciting late 70s period had run out of steam by about 83, hence the poorer quality stuff filling up the charts.
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Post by Windy Miller on Oct 20, 2017 9:50:30 GMT
Yesterday's TOTPs, (04/10/1984), included this instantly recognisable location :-
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Post by Dirty Epic on Oct 20, 2017 14:07:24 GMT
Yesterday's TOTPs, (04/10/1984), included this instantly recognisable location :- Who's promo was that Windy?
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