U2 | TOTP Rewind – the 80s

TOTP 31 MAR 1983

Posted on February 28, 2017 by 80stastic

During the course of TOTP history there have been some iconic performances. Think Rod Stewart and The Faces doing “Maggie May” complete with John Peel on mandolin and an impromptu kick about with a football. Or Boy George and the whole gender bender controversy when Culture Club made their TOTP debut. And then there was Dexy’s Midnight Runners doing “Jackie Wilson Said” with a backdrop picture of darts player Jocky Wilson. Well, we have arrived at another such performance. Yes, it’s that episode with New Order doing a live rendition of “Blue Monday” But we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. First things first…

This episode’s DJ presenting twins are Richard Skinner and Steve Wright. Yes that Steve Wright. Now I have to admit that as a 14 year old I found Steve Wright funny. I did. I loved his afternoon show and I lapped up all those characters he created like Mr Angry, Dave Double Decks and Sid the Manager. Now however, I can’t stand him. He’s still on national radio (Radio 2) and he’s been phoning it in for years. Really he has. Anyway, it’s him and Skinner and the studio has been transformed into some sort of Easter fairground complete with rides. This is the height of the TOTP as “pop party” format.

Clearly wanting to subvert that format are New Order. Their single “Blue Monday”(yes yes, the biggest selling 12″ single of all time – we know!) had been around the charts for a while and when it entered the Top 10, TOTP could no longer ignore it so they got the band on. One problem though, the band, who had created quite a myth to wrap themselves in by this point, refused to mime. The solution? They would play live. That’s live as in playing and singing live! It spawned one of the seminal performances in the show’s history as the band made a right hash of the song – it really does stink the studio out. Its tinny sounding, Bernard Sumner’s vocals are weedy and strained and the band look bored and embarrassed. Thankfully its a 7″ edit that they do and not the epic 12″ version – nevertheless, if my Dad was in the room for this no doubt he will have proclaimed one of his standard sayings such as “the bigger the rubbish, the longer it goes on”. I myself thought it sounded edgy I think.

Unusually, every artist on the show this evening are in the studio – no promo videos at all (except for the number one song) . Why? To show off the studio’ fairground design? Who knows. Anyway, it means we get to see Style Council hamming it up with “Speak Like A Child”. When I say “hamming it up” I mean having a private joke between themselves really. At this point the band included Tracie in their ranks before she went off to pursue her own brief solo career. I was already aware of Tracie thanks to her appearance on the last Jam Single “Beat Surrender”. Here she displays her girl next door charm with a nerd shuffle of a dance while Weller looks on amused. Apparently there was some sort of bet going on between them about doing a dance routine. Its not a great performance but reminds me of the peak of my brother’s Weller / Jam obsession as he was going to our local hairdresser weekly at this point to try and perfect the Weller bonce.

The mood is slowed right down next with the rather wonderful Mari Wilson doing a cover of the Julie London standard “Cry Me A River”. This was quite a departure from her hit of the previous year “Just What I Always Wanted” and seemed quite incongruous in the charts at the time. I always liked it and thought it sounded classy and I suppose it just goes to show that the 80s weren’t always full of plastic pop stars with synthesizers and cheesy grins.

Back to Skinner and Wright for a link into U2. Before we get to Bono and co though, check out the guy to the left of Skinner in full on S and M gear! How the hell did he pass the audience dress code?! As for the song – “Two Hearts Beat As One”– I always thought this sounded totally inferior to previous hit “New Year’s Day” and I see nothing here to force me to revise my opinion. Indeed, we are seeing the beginnings of Bono going into full on knobhead mode.

Talking of knobheads, WTF is Steve Wright wearing in this next link? Oh it’s an hilarious Timmy Mallett style comedy hat. Bellend. Anyway, next it’s those cheeky charts imps Kajagoogoo back again with the follow up to their huge No 1 hit “Too Shy” from just the other month. This one is called…“Ooh To Be Ah”?? Seriously? Yep – this is what they came up with for a follow up and similar to U2, it’s vastly sub standard compared to their previous hit. There’s no killer hook like before, there’s no strong melody…in short it sounds like a jingle in search of a song. None of this would stop it climbing into the Top 10 but it was the start of the law of diminishing returns for Kajagoogoo.

Now, if I said to you the next performance is the one with the hairbrush as a microphone who would you guess it is? Yes, it’s Tracey Ullman with “Breakaway” of course. This is a great pop song done at break neck speed and with some panache by Tracey (with an “ey” as opposed to the Style Council’s “ie” version). Well known at the time for her appearances in hit comedy show Three Of A Kind (Steve Wright even describes her here as the “funniest woman on TV apart from Boy George” in a rather un -PC way), Ms Ullman launched a brief but successful pop career with this song. Indeed, so successful that she was voted best female singer in the 1983 Smash Hits readers poll and there is no greater accolade than that. Ahem.

Now we’re into the Top 10 rundown ending with a second week at No 1 for Duran Duran with “Is There Something I Should Know”. Obviously the boys were on the run from screaming fans that week so we viewers had to make do with the video (the only one in this week’s show). By this point Duran were well known for embracing the video as a promotional tool after the trilogy of videos from their “Rio” album and this one cranks up the pseud-ometer to eleven. What’s it all about? I have no idea but it was all very arty stuff for sure.

There’s still time for one more cringeworthy section which is basically a plug for the Kenny Everett show which followed TOTP. Kenny was pedalling his Sid Snot creation at the time and had released a novelty single “Snot Rap” which was in the charts and is the fade out music this week. “Sid” appears for a deeply unfunny interview with Skinner and Wright and you just know the latter is so desperate to be Kenny Everett at this time that it hurts. He would never come close…

Disclaimer

OK – here’s the thing – the TOTP episodes are only available on iPlayer for a limited amount of time so the link to the programme below only works for about 2 weeks so you’ll have to work fast if you want to see Steve Wright’s comedy genius unleashed and I can’t find the full programme on YouTube.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08fsfy0/top-of-the-pops-31031983

However for posterity’s sake I include the Top 40 run down below.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I buy it?
1	New Order	Blue Monday	I’ve got the Substance CD but I didn’t buy it at the time
2	Style Council	Speak like a child	My brother bought it so I owned a copy by proxy
3	Mari Wilson	Cry me a river	Not this time
4	U2	Two hearts beat as one	Ooh no
5	Kajagoogoo	Ooh to be ah	Nah – even as a 14 year old I could see through this
6	Tracey Ullman	Breakaway	No I didn’t actually
7	Duran Duran	Is there something I should know?	It was on my copy of Now Vol 1 so technically yes
8	Sid Snot	Snot Rap	Oh dear no…

Some bedtime reading?

01-smash-hits-31-march-13-april-1983-226x300

http://www.shanemarais.net/smash-hits-magazine/smash-hits-31-march-13-april-1983/

TOTP 03 FEB 1983

Posted on February 15, 2017 by 80stastic

Blimey – is that time again already? Excellent it’s Thursday evening and time for the 1983 version of me’s weekly fix of chart sounds. Who’s hosting this week? It’s Kid Jensen and Peel…again. I’m guessing they had good audience feedback the last time they were paired together. To be fair they do have some chemistry between them even if its a bit dry and based on sending each other up. However, after Simon Bates and Richard Skinner last week they do have that bit of sparkle to them although comparing themselves to Torville and Dean as Peel does is stretching the metaphor a bit.

Anyway, we’re straight into the music and this week’s opener is Haysi Fantayzee and it’s quite a spectacle even by 1983’s standards. I can’t recall what the 14 year old me made of them – patently they are ridiculous with their …well how would you describe their look? A some sort of foppish Dickensian character and a …hooker? Main HF man Jeremy Healey is on record as saying the song – “Shiny Shiny” – is not about anything, nothing at all – pure nonsense. Maybe they knew the game was up at this point and they were just having a laugh as this was to be their last hit after the previous year’s “John Wayne Is Big Leggy”. I have two distinct memories attached to this single. The first is Nick French at school saying ” I love that song by Haysi Fantayzee” and then pronouncing it “Shinny Shinny” therefore immediately outing himself as someone who had clearly never even heard it. The second is much more recent when my wife put it on the jukebox in a very ‘rockist’ pub in Malvern about five years ago thereby nearly causing a riot when a big burly bloke approached us and enquired “Did you put this on? It’s shit”. Luckily my wife is very articulate and managed to diffuse the situation by initiating a discussion about who was better – Bob Dylan or Tom Waits.

Next up is Indeep with “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life”. Amazingly and to their credit neither Jensen nor Peel take the bait of trying to make a comedic quip based on the song’s title and their own employment by Radio 1. The act themselves are two female singers and a very beardy …ahem…”DJ” (presumably of the titular variety). The song is based around a very Chic sounding backing and features some hip hop style rapping. Kid Jensen informs us afterwards that they are doing some UK concert dates. Can’t imagine the touts made much money on those tickets.

Another studio performance follows with Fun Boy Three – I knew about this lot from their collaborations with Bananarama the previous year and of course that they formed from the ashes of The Specials. The song is “Tunnel of Love” and it’s such an odd sound to be in the charts at this time what with a cello to the forefront and some very sombre lyrics about a relationship that goes sour but it’s also brilliant. Terry Hall’s hair is astonishing at this time – a massive gravity defying bouffant of a thing – but it’s his deadpan delivery that enthrals and he remains a unique vocalist and performer.

Finally, a filmed performance is next but its not an official video as such but from the Late Late Breakfast Show as Peel informs us. The act is a strange one being 70s behemoth Fleetwood Mac. I’m not sure I knew much about The Mac at this time. Had I been familiar with their previous work (“Rumours”etc), no doubt this fairly trite ditty would have been a disappointment but I recall thinking it was pleasant enough at the time. The performance is fairly pedestrian probably reflecting the famously strained relations in the band – not that I knew any of that. So boring is the footage that we are treated to some cut backs to the TOTP studio for some 50s style rock ‘n’roll dancing from the audience. It’s all very lame. However, watching it back now I am struck by how bizarre Mick Fleetwood looks – has there ever been a more odd looking musician – except for maybe Marillion’s Fish. His legs look so massive behind that drum kit. Fleetwood would go on to infamously balls up presenting the BRITS in 1989 with Sam Fox and also to become the inspiration for the lead character in one of my favourite novels Espedair Street by Iain Banks.

Back to the studio now for “the 2nd great success story of ’83” Jensen informs us and it’s those Kajagoogoo lads again. “Too Shy” is on its way to its final destination of No 1 and all is rosy in their garden at this time. Before the Summer is out though, Limahl will be gone and recriminations will form that will last for years. But for now…

At the song’s finish, Peel asks “What did you mean the no 2 success story of the year?” to which Jensen replies “Well I meant Wah! being Number 1”. Its a curious exchange but obviously refers to Peel’s endorsement of his fellow Liverpudlian Pete Wylie’s act having cracked the Top 3. I would go onto love Pete Wylie throughout my life and only last November I caught him live yet again. But for now, there is no sign of him…

A hot new act are next – Tears for Fears. Yes I know it sounds ridiculous now to refer to TFF as a hot new act but that’s just what they were. I knew all about this lot – well, I knew and liked their first hit “Mad World” so this made me an authority on them in my head. Their new single was “Change”. In truth, it wasn’t a patch on “Mad World” and hasn’t aged well to my ears but I thought it was pretty good at the time. Greater things would come their way later on in the decade.

A video next and its U2. The promo for “New Year’s Day” is actually quite epic in its cinematography. Set in a snow laden wilderness, nothing is left out. Foreboding sky? Check! The lads (or maybe their stand-ins) on horseback? Check! Some black and white images of warfare complete with tanks? Check! Only the piano keys animation lets it down. A year later Duran Duran would attempt something similar for their single “New Moon on Monday” but failed rather miserably.

A genuine innovation next and its completely dates the show watched through our 2017 digital world eyes which is a shame as no doubt I would have loved this idea in 1983. The Top 10 run down but using actual promo videos instead of a still of the band or artist. Wow! I know! Some 10 years later ITV’s The Chart Show programme would consist entirely of videos with only computer graphics as the presenters. But for now, in February 1983, this was cutting edge. Quaintly, Jensen says the show has received lots of letters from viewers about the high quality of the videos they have been showing. Yes letters – not texts or emails or tweets or posts on Facebook – letters written on paper with a stamp on the envelope.

We then duly get the Top 9 singles (U2 had just been played at No 10) countdown in video format. Echo and the Bunnymen at No 8 have a video that is very similar to U2 (another reason why these two songs are forever twinned in my head). And yes! There he is at last at No 7 – Pete Wylie (or rather Wah!) with “Story of the Blues” – excellent stuff. We wend our way upwards taking in Kajagoogoo at No 5 (or ” these little blighters” as Peel refers to them hardly able to hide his disdain) and ending up at Men at Work still at No 1. At the end, Jensen cranks up the quaintometer again by saying “and I hope you enjoyed that new way of doing the chart with moving pictures if you did please write in and let us know…”

The fade out music is Billy Griffin..again.I’ve still no idea who this person was and apparently neither did the TOTP team as they still haven’t tracked him down to get him to do a studio performance…

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC.

OK – here’s the thing – the TOTP episodes are only available on iPlayer for a limited amount of time so the link to the programme below won’t work come 27th Feb so you’ll have to work fast if you want to marvel at a video Top 10 in 1983 and I can’t find the full programme on YouTube.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08bqdzj/top-of-the-pops-03021983

Order of appearance

Artist

Song

Did I buy it?

Haysi Fantayzee

Shiny Shiny

No sir

Indeep

Last night a DJ saved my life

Nah

Fun Boy 3

Tunnel of Love

No but I have it on a Terry Hall collection CD

Fleetwood Mac

Diane

Kajagoogoo

Too Shy

It was on my copy of Now Vol 1 so technically yes

Tears For Fears

Change

Not in 1983 but I have Tears for Fears CDs in my collection now

New Year’s Day

I own this – what of it?

Men at Work

Down Under

It was on my copy of Now Vol 1 so technically yes

Billy Griffin

Hold me tighter in the rain

Hell to the No!

Some bedtime reading?

http://likepunkneverhappened.blogspot.com/2013/02/february-3-16-1983.html

TOTP 20 JAN 1983

Posted on February 9, 2017 by 80stastic

Well after last week’s err…eclectic mix of performers, here comes some proper bona fide artists. This week’s pair of presenters are Gary ‘medallion man’ Davies and Keith Chegwin’s sister otherwise known as Janice Long. Now I’ve always liked Janice – she was another of those “its all about the music” DJs in a later time slot and up until a couple of weeks ago was still on national BBC Radio until the powers that be decided they didn’t need actual people presenting shows anymore and they booted her off unceremoniously to be replaced by streamed shows of concerts and documentaries. This country etc….

As for Davies, he became amazingly popular in the lunchtime slot on Radio 1 what with his housewives choice good looks and features such as his ‘sloppy bit in the middle’ love song section – think a watered down version of ‘Our Tune’.

No doubt my 14 year old self was sat in place on the sofa eagerly awaiting this week’s pop picks. So who’s first? Oooh its that new band with the daft name and the incredibly catchy song. Yes it could be none other than Kajagoogoo. Now I can’t remember if I knew what they looked like before this momentous appearance but we all did after this. Where do you start? I guess inevitably with Limahl’s hair which was quite shocking at the time even though we had already just got used to Boy George’s gender bender image. Then of course there was Nick Beggs’s beads – dangling at the bottom of his peroxide explosion atop his head. In all my years I have never seen anyone try to recreate either look so preposterous were they and yet they somehow seemed ….exciting? Well to this 14 year old’s eyes anyway – bearing in mind that my own hair was probably some sort of lego man blob at this point no wonder I was impressed. Anyway, as for the song, you can scoff all you like but this is a magnificent example of a well crafted mid 80s pure pop masterpiece. It builds steadily and seductively to an insanely catchy hook. Briefly they would become a pop sensation (no doubt drawing ill judged Beatles comparisons) and we would see much more of them in the following months. Inevitably it all went horribly wrong….

Next up is a poll topping exclusive video Janice informs us as Joe Jackson appears on our screens with “Steppin’ Out”. Now at this point I don’t think I knew who Joe Jackson was – which seems incredible to me now – but this was probably my first taste of his work. And what a song it is with that lazy yet driving beat it’s an unusually structured song but it has stood the test of time well to these ears. I’m pretty sure he would have been one of those artists that I did my research on so as to look knowledgeable to my mates at school – Joe Jackson – oh yeah its good but I prefer “Is She Really Going Out With Him?”. What a pretentious nob – me not Joe.

As for the video, there’s some nice shots of New York but not a lot to else to say about it but make up your own minds…

Back to the studio for a genuine stand out moment – my first glimpse of Echo and the Bunnymen with their massive anthem “The Cutter”. This song is immense although this version has that curious specially recorded backing track feel to it. A re-recorded backing track? Yep it was all to do with a ban on miming which was introduced in 1966 following discussions with the Musicians Union. In an attempt to spare the blushes of acts actually trying to play live and failing, a compromise was reached whereby a specially recorded backing track was permitted – as long as all the musicians on the track were present in the studio. Anyway, that isn’t what we were all talking about at school the next day, it was the fact that Ian McCulloch, or Mr Echo as I may have thought he was called at the time, does some sort of primal half -strip with both bare shoulders and a glimpse of nipple exposed. If my Dad was in the room at this point, no doubt he would have called him a “rum bugger”.

This segues curiously straight into Melba Moore with no link from Janice or Gary. Similar to Sharon Redd last week, I have no recollection of this song at all – I think it’s obvious even at this early stage of my pop appreciation that 80s soul divas were not my thing.

Janice is back to introduce the next studio act and its another iconic performance – two in the same show – this time “New Year’s Day” by U2. It’s dawned on me that this must be the reason why this song and “The Cutter” always go together in my head. Its an odd sensation watching the 1983 version of U2 – all bad hair and wide eyed wonder – Bono is still a bell end though. At the song’s end Janice does a terrible Irish accent as she proclaims “its the luck of the oirish”. Shocking stuff.

After a quick chart run down we are back to the videos and it’s American songstress Laura Branigan and “Gloria”. I recall not minding this song at the time but more importantly it is forever linked in my head with Coventry City vs Worcester City (my hometown team) in the FA Cup 3rd round tie from the same month that this was a hit . It was played on the PA system before the game and as this was a big day in my young life at the time I have retained fond memories of this song even if my liking of it has waned over the years.

Then we’re back to the chart run down with Janice before she introduces
The Stranglers in the studio with “European Female”. What a curious song this is. Very understated but with a haunting quality to it. The band themselves of course have had curious (and very long) career. Still its nice to see them on screen with Hugh Cornwell still in their number at that time.

The final chart run down concludes with Phil Collins still at No 1 and still on video – still no sign of Phil actually getting his lazy arse down to the TOTP studio then.

The fade out song is by Billy Griffin and “Hold Me Tighter In The Rain” No me neither.

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC.

OK – here’s the thing – the TOTP episodes are only available on iPlayer for a limited amount of time so the link to the programme below won’t work come 20th Feb so you’ll have to work fast if you want to see Garry Davies and his chest hair and I cant find the full programme on YouTube.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0894fnq/top-of-the-pops-20011983

However for posterity’s sake I include the Top 40 run down below also.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I buy it?
1	Kajagoogoo	Too shy	It was on my copy of Now Vol 1 so technically yes
2	Joe Jackson	Steppin’ Out	Yes – on CD later in life
3	Echo and the Bunnymen	The Cutter	Yes on CD later in life
4	Melba Moore	Mind up tonight	Obviously not
5	U2	New Year’s Day	I own this – what of it?
6	Laura Branigan	Gloria	No
7	Stranglers	European Female	Yes – on a greatest hits CD
8	Phil Collins	You can’t hurry love	On Now Vol 1
9	Billy Griffin	Hold me tighter in the rain	Uh uh

Some bed time reading?

http://likepunkneverhappened.blogspot.com/2013/01/january-20-february-2-1983.html