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Post by Frank Spencer on Mar 24, 2018 22:23:25 GMT
Well, I sat through my four-episode pop fest today and I have to say highlights were pretty thin on the ground ! If there was one thing that really stood out (and I have said it before!) was how much Janice Long was enjoying herself across the two episodes she hosted, totally genuine and a breath of fresh air compared to many other of her contemporaries who either took themselves and the charts too seriously or thought they were funnier than they really were ! Curiously, she "flew solo" for the first show as "Peely couldn't make it" and the first two links were savagely edited though according to Popscene so songs appeared to be left out - weird. My imagination was running wild !! ... Onto the 6th June and roughly seven months before his death in january 1986, Phil Lynott appeared on TOTP with Gary Moore, not my favourite piece of music by a long stretch, but an interesting slightly morbid watch knowing that Moore also passed away more recently in 2011. On a much lighter note, soul & disco groups often had extravagantly colourful outfits in the 70s and early 80s, but Kool & The Gang's attire in the clip for "Cherish" recorded live in Montreux took things to a whole new level ! Pass the sunglasses ... ... There was a shaky debut for Dixie Peach on 13/6/85, slightly painful viewing, as I think was touched upon in "The Story Of 1985" programme but that aside it was a rather mudane show with a minor exception of the Fine Young Cannibals "bendy leg" dancing ! ... I also struggled to keep my concentration watching the fourth TOTP in a row from 20th June but maybe that was just one too many by then ! Sting's "If You Love Somebody" was the possible highlight, I might have struggled to recognize a photo of him from that performance with his glasses and hairstyle though, not the image I have in my mind of him from this period ! The next show was hosted by Mike Smith & Peter Powell, so we will be well in to the summer months the next time I see an episode - one way or another !!
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Post by Frank Spencer on Apr 6, 2018 14:02:23 GMT
The episodes are coming thick and fast ! It's the start of April 2018 on the outside, but here in TOTP land we are already in the middle of July 1985 ... and as usual I am struggling to keep up, so I think I will probably restrict my future posts to a highlight of each episode that may be worth checking out on the i-player or You Tube, etc if you missed it . On 4th July 1985 we got our very first glimpse of a young Mick Hucknall and Simply Red as the video for "Money's Too Tight" to mention was shown in the "breakers" - alas we miss out on the group's studio debut due to Mike Smith hosting on 18th July, but I will see if I can find it and post here later ... On 11th July there was a classic example of "Who do TOTP think they are fooling?" when the Eurythmics 'peformed' "There Must Be An Angel" with no sign of any drum machine let alone a drummer, no "operatic" backing singers on stage, just a random anonymous bass player with his back to Dave Stewart who is clumsily thumping away at a keyboard and Annie Lennox miming her vocals well - but unconvincingly "playing" the Stevie Wonder harmonica solo !! Of course, we all know that 99% of artists mimed on the show ... and we love it that we almost believe our faves are doing it live, for real, when actually there is a key part of the song conspicuous by any relevant musician singer's absence in the studio !! Two more shows to flick through this evening ...
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Post by Steve Austin on Apr 6, 2018 18:34:18 GMT
Thanks for posting Frank, you're ploughing a lone furrow at the moment, slim pickings for me but appreciate your continued enthusiasm. Roll on the baggy scene at the end of the decade.
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Apr 6, 2018 20:32:26 GMT
Agree with Steve, the era under consideration was not my bag at all, but Franks efforts and enthusiasm are to be applauded.
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Post by Frank Spencer on Apr 6, 2018 23:47:53 GMT
Cheers guys, but it won't be long the way these episodes are coming so quickly that we are into an era where my own enthusiasm faded as I got older and involved in different musical circles !! Three more shows watched this evening (I so needed a chill out day on the sofa today !!) with my personal highlights being the first showing of "Desperately Seekng Susan" packed into three minutes of the video for "Into The Groove" and for cheesy naffness, Trans X "Living On Video" - did they REALLY fly them over from Canada to do THAT ? Bet none of them were actually on the record let alone from Canada !! ... The vid for "Money For Nothing" always impresses, really neat and good to see it all the way through and it was also nice to catch a minute in the "breakers" of Maze feat Frankie Beverly. I never went to many concerts in the 80s but seeing them at Hammy Odeon in the summer of 1985 was probably the best, pure class, real talented musicians and had the audience in the palm of their collective hands ... I think Gary Davies said something about that pile of dog poo by Opus being THE summer sound of the year the previous week, but for me I think that award would go to Princess "Say I'm Your Number One" it really brought back memories of playing that and other similar sounding tracks at soul gigs to great response, on the back of play from the early London soul pirate radio stations... Finally, quite an impressive effort for Phil Collins to film himself singing "Take Me Home" in a number of world capitals, but it was a shame he didn't make the same sort of effort to iron his suit for the studio performance the following week !! More soon ... ish !!
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Post by Frank Spencer on May 9, 2018 23:51:29 GMT
Episodes have been a but thin on he ground lately due to various events being shown on BBC4, but I have now seen all three of the latest bunch and have plucked out some highlights for you to hunt down, should you not wish to waste awhole 90 minutes of your life !!! On 22/8/85 the show hosted by Steve Wright & Gary Davies kicked off with Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam's "I Wonder If I Take You Home". I remember the song OK, not a classic, but the look our Lisa was sporting was just so 1985 and brought back lots of memories of over dressed girls in clubs literally clanging with big jewellery as they danced !!! I noticed a little predictability creeping into certain performances over the three shows too - Baltimora singing "Tarzan Boy" with a gorilla dancing with a scantilly clad young lass was straight out of ther Pans People 1976 "Jungle Rock" routine ! I said earlier about "over dressed girls" (why wear one outfit when you can wear two or even three at the same time ?) and big coats (for both boys and girls) were very much en vogue it seems although surely very impractical seeing as we were in August at the time ! However, Kate Bush totally stole the show doing "Running Up That Hill" in the studio wearing one, looking sensationally gorgeous as ever Janis Long & John Peel have become as entertaining as Peel & The Kid did as a double act, but in a different way and I always enjoy their hosted shows as a result, though this one on 29/8/85 was a tad thin on musical highs, although seeing Paul Hardcastle thumping his portable keyboard randomly on stage whilst James "D Train" Williams sung his heart out on Paul's remix of "You're The One For Me" brought a smile to my face - as did the blak leather outfits worn by Mai Tai who opened proceedings with "Body & Soul" ... - again !!! We missed out on 5/9/85 when Peter Powell hosted with Mike Smith, but there was only one song I'd not seen before either as a video or studio performance - Rebecca Storm singing "The Show" ... and I don't remember that one at all !! Finally, I just got round to watching the ever more shambolic Steve Wright playing silly beggars bteween songs with Mike Read. This time the "highlights" were non-musical with Amii Stewart miming into a microphone with a 6 foot "lead to nowhere" attached (though it did look good in the instrumental twirly bit!) -surely you would mime into a radio mic or just the mic without the lead, if bother with a mic at all ??!! And having announced that Derek "Fish" Dick had a ruined throat and had to cancel the latest Marillion tour as a result, the gag with having the lyrics on a large pad of paper fell very flat as Del Boy struggled to keep in sync and also had trouble tearing one or two sheets off the pad, but credit to him for being a good sport and having a sense of humour I guess. Mustn't take this TOTP lark too seriously !
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Post by Steve Austin on May 10, 2018 7:55:47 GMT
Another entertaining review Frank I enjoyed Mai Tai for the same reason you did but it is all getting a little silly now. I'd forgotten how big Madonna was at the time and it still amazes me that the big hits as I remember them entered the charts in the late 30's and climbed their way up, unlike today when they fly in and out again. Looking forward to The Beastie Boys and a reprise from The Sisters Of Mercy later in this decade before some old skool rave and the second summer of love, followed by the baggy scene but we have to get through the SAW period first
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Post by Dirty Epic on May 10, 2018 19:15:45 GMT
Looking forward to The Beastie Boys and a reprise from The Sisters Of Mercy later in this decade before some old skool rave and the second summer of love, followed by the baggy scene but we have to get through the SAW period first Beastie Boys! Yeah looking forward to some of that stuff to Steve Esp the 1988-96 period... If they show it. As you say just got to wade though some dire crap before we get to that.
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Post by Cartman on May 11, 2018 13:04:55 GMT
Interesting updates, and I love Frank's enthusiasm!
Agree that massive amounts of utter dreck to get through until the charts and music scene started to pick up. One thing I regret now was missing out the baggy/Madchester stuff from the end of the 80s. I was only sort of vaguely aware of it really but have developed a bit of a liking for the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays in more recent times, I love the Monday's Step On.
The thing was I thought the standard of chart music started to get so bad by about 1984/5 that I just stopped listening to it and lost interest in it, and only started to take any notice of it again from about the mid 90s, so anything between about 1985 and 95 is a bit lost on me. I categorise this 10 years as a kind of wilderness period and there are probably no more than about 20 or 30 songs from this whole period I like.
I might get round to doing a list later.
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Post by Frank Spencer on Jun 8, 2018 20:21:56 GMT
Here we go again ! Two September shows to flick through, the first hosted by Simon Bates & Peter Powell, kicked off with an enthusiastic performance by Red Box doing "Lean On Me" complete with their three well choreographed drummers. I have to say that although this is far from the greatest period in TOTP history, someone somewhere still knew how to choose a good show opener, the first songs have been consistently lively and entertaining of late ... The "video" for 'Angel' by Madonna was a rotten cop out instead of keeping the high standard (usually !) of her hit vids going somebody just cobbled together bits of all her previous ones !! I guess her record company were releasing singles just too quick for her people to get anything sorted, plus she would be dashing everywhere to promote herself too ! ... And spot the "Celebrity Lookylike" !! Is it just me or did lloyd Cole in 1985 look JUST like the present day Alan Carr ?!
Onto the 26th September 1985 and my Sky Box failed to record the very start of this show, but I did catch most of the opening song "It's Called A Heart" by Depeche Mode, four years on from their TOTP debut and now looking very much more confident and full of stage presence as you might expect after the success they had by then !! Not much else to enthuse about after that though, I don't remember the Style Council track "The Lodgers" at all, by far from being their finest moment, and watching Bonnie Tyler doing "Holding Out For A Hero" in the studio you really felt she could have done with a bigger stage and a few more effects for such an epic OTT song ...
Ah, I see two more episodes will be on my planner soon, fingers crossed for some more gems to enjoy. Although my interest in pop faded badly towards the end of the 80s, rather than the middle of the decade, I tend to agree a little with most others on here - they are getting rarer to find ! We shall see ...
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