Tonight's edition is another yewtreed edition so we will be denied seeing Ace Of Spades by Motorhead a pity as the drummer

with the band Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor has just died. And BOTH performances are YEWTREED!

 

Here's the DLT edition which should have been shown tonight from 20/11/1980

https://vimeo.com/129770337

 

and one more yewtreed edition after that which is the Christmas edition

hosted by Jimmy Savile and Peter Powell

https://vimeo.com/144469575

Edited November 12, 20159 yr by top40chartsuk

Wonder if BBC4 could compile "the best of what we couldn't show you" into an hour long TOTP2 special some time? Guess not as it's much cheaper just to broadcast the originals without making any edits or getting Steve Wright or Mark Radcliffe to record a "funny" voiceover.

I'm sure they could cancel one of those bloody watching-paint-dry bakery shows and pay for a whole decade of "bits wot were yewtreed". Music fans are shoddily serviced on TV, cookery fans are not. Both are hobbies, one is an artform, and one gives you diabetes in excess. Sorry bake-off fans :P

They should bring back TOTP2

Fab episode tonight the only quibble they played the wrong song from ub40 - earth dies screaming was much better. I recorded the top 10 rundown and supertrouper on my £20 video cassette at the time and played it loads so very much an old friend come home and now i get the whole episode. Bonus!

We’ve missed another Yewtreed episode, so we’re now up to the end of November. Earlier in the day, Blue Peter launched their annual appeal. The traditional method of collecting waste (e.g. tin foil) had been abandoned in favour of bring-and-buy sales. The money raised was used to fund homes and services for disabled people.

 

The programme starts with the BBC fulfilling their statutory obligation to show Showaddywaddy at every opportunity. Despite Tommy Vance’s confident prediction, it didn’t go anywhere near number one. Clearly, several members of the band forgot to pick up their suit from the cleaners.

 

On to UB40 with another double a-side. TOTP have chosen to show the “other” side. Oh dear, they wouldn’t get away with this blacking up today, whatever point they were trying to make.

 

Hall & Oates fill the first guest slot. Nice ‘tache there.

 

Robert Palmer next with his ode to detectives.

 

Another guest appearance, this time from ELO’s Bev Bevan.

 

Which brings us, seamlessly, to Legs & Co strutting their stuff to the Electric Light Orchestra. Will their interpretative dance be more imaginative than just walking away? Er, no.

 

FIrst part of the chart rundown. AC/DC and Motorhead in adjacent positions. Can’t see that happening in the 21st century.

 

Rockabilly from The Stray Cats making their debut, followed by the next bit of the chart.

 

Good grief, more guests. The Motels put in an appearance. They had two great singles, both of which just missed the top 40.

 

There are surprisingly few repeats from the last programme. Spandau Ballet have been dropped. After all, we really needed those incisive interviews.

 

We do get another London band though, it’s time for some Madness.

 

The top ten rundown (oh dear, that UB40 clip again) ends with Abba at number one. Sadly, we’ve missed a week of Blondie.

 

A final goodbye to the guests and then there’s a bit of Young & Company to accompany the closing credits.

Is the Xmas episode yewtreed this year? Really wanna see Jona Lewie climb the chart and John Lennon dominating after his tragic death!

Is the Xmas episode yewtreed this year? Really wanna see Jona Lewie climb the chart and John Lennon dominating after his tragic death!

 

Sadly the Christmas Day and New Years Day editions are both yewtreed.

 

Jesus Christ that's gutting!!

when are we going to come out of the 'yewtree' period altogether, anytime soon?

Edited November 22, 20159 yr by fiesta

I think it isn't until post 1983 that Saville left!

We’ve now reached the beginning of December and Peter Powell is our host once again, and he has another “interesting” choice of trousers. Later in the evening, it was time for the final of Come Dancing in its original incarnation.

 

Eddie Grant gets proceedings underway, leaving plenty of scope for improvement, but also the possibility of things getting worse.

 

The first two guests are part of Earth Wind & Fire. As usual, they have been able to write their own questions.

 

Neil Diamond has been cut. Good choice, but there’s a much better option still to come.

 

A massive improvement now, with the first performance of Jona Lewie’s Christmas (ish) classic, a regular on the TOTP2 Christmas special. Apparently, in Powell-world, Jona Lewie was a band. Who knew?

 

First part of the chart rundown now, and very red it is too.

 

There was really only one way things could go after Jona Lewie,and that is exactly what has happened as we get a combination of Kenny Rogers and Legs & Co. The song sounds like a Lionel Richie son, probably because he wrote it.

 

Time for the next (very green) part of the chart rundown.

 

AC/DC time now. I wonder why Legs & Co didn’t go for this one.

 

On to the purple bit of the chart rundown.

 

Now, the moment nobody has been waiting for. It’s time for that choir. The good news is that things cannot possibly get any worse.

 

Mike Oldfield has the next guest slot, wearing some sort of green number. Apparently he likes helicopters.

 

After the torture of the unmentionable choir, we get the Boomtown Rats with their schwa-laden pronunciation of banana. Flick Colby missed a trick here. We could have had some dancing bananas.

 

The top ten rundown starts with John Lennon. Just four days later, he was murdered in New York.

 

The rundown ends with another week at the top for Abba.

 

Finally, we get a bit of Diana Ross over the closing titles.

What date was this episode shown? Was Lennons track in the top 10 a new song? Great to see Jona Lewie on there, one of the Xmas greats! Did it sound it at the time?

 

Were the Boomtown Rats on their way down at this point, they seemed to be huge between 1977-79!

What date was this episode shown? Was Lennons track in the top 10 a new song? Great to see Jona Lewie on there, one of the Xmas greats! Did it sound it at the time?

 

Were the Boomtown Rats on their way down at this point, they seemed to be huge between 1977-79!

I always loved Stop The Cavalry from the first time I head it, and still do. I'm not sure I would have predicted how well known it would be 35 years later.

 

The episode was shown on 4 December 1980. The Lennon song was (Just Like) Starting Over, the first single from Double Fantasy. It fell to number 21 the following week, before rebounding to number one the week after. Quite what the chart would have looked like if downloads had been available (including Lennon and Beatles songs) is anyone's guess.

 

I liked Banana Republic, but a lot of former fans didn't. It was their last top ten hit as they faded away rapidly. Of course, four years later, Geldof was back.

Yeh, a bit like thin Lizzy in terms of a late 70s post punk band that fell rapidly away as the New Romanticos took over as we move into 1981 and the 80s really establish themselves properly in their own way. I'm sure we will hear this in the TOTPs 1981 review episode over Xmas!

Was looking at the chart run down and couldn't understand why Lennon fell the week after he died...then, of course, they couldn't get the records out into the shops in time until the following week.

I always loved Stop The Cavalry from the first time I head it, and still do. I'm not sure I would have predicted how well known it would be 35 years later.

 

The episode was shown on 4 December 1980. The Lennon song was (Just Like) Starting Over, the first single from Double Fantasy. It fell to number 21 the following week, before rebounding to number one the week after. Quite what the chart would have looked like if downloads had been available (including Lennon and Beatles songs) is anyone's guess.

 

I liked Banana Republic, but a lot of former fans didn't. It was their last top ten hit as they faded away rapidly. Of course, four years later, Geldof was back.

 

There was always a delay in sales and the chart week-ending in those days. Had downloads been available they would have dominated totally (Lennon and Beatles) as they showed the movies on TV, the media was huge - it's not necessarily obvious from this distance, but John Lennon had just come back after 5 years away, and only 10 years since the biggest band in the universe had split. The shocking manner of his death made it even more tragic than Elvis and previous partly-self-inflicted or accidental rock star deaths, and it also was the end of an era for those of us growing up in the 60's with hippie idealism, of which John was a leading light. That he was in the media giving interviews and seeming happy at that time just made it hard to take in. I was in a state of shock and upset for days, being my joint hero and all.

 

I also loved Stop The Cavalry, though I couldnt have predicted how ANY of the classic christmas songs would dominate to the extent they now do (even when I bought them and loved them myself) though I always thought happy Xmas War Is Over a timeless anthem. I also liked Banana republic, I even liked the Rats when they faded away chartwise...

There was always a delay in sales and the chart week-ending in those days. Had downloads been available they would have dominated totally (Lennon and Beatles) as they showed the movies on TV, the media was huge - it's not necessarily obvious from this distance, but John Lennon had just come back after 5 years away, and only 10 years since the biggest band in the universe had split. The shocking manner of his death made it even more tragic than Elvis and previous partly-self-inflicted or accidental rock star deaths, and it also was the end of an era for those of us growing up in the 60's with hippie idealism, of which John was a leading light. That he was in the media giving interviews and seeming happy at that time just made it hard to take in. I was in a state of shock and upset for days, being my joint hero and all.

 

I also loved Stop The Cavalry, though I couldnt have predicted how ANY of the classic christmas songs would dominate to the extent they now do (even when I bought them and loved them myself) though I always thought happy Xmas War Is Over a timeless anthem. I also liked Banana republic, I even liked the Rats when they faded away chartwise...

 

 

Merry Xmas Everybody was beginning to show how pop christmas songs were becoming integral to christmas though esp with Slades Reading show the summer before. Think Slade started reaching the top 40/75 from this xmas until the late 80s from now. Plus surely Bing Cosby/Nat King Cole had been xmas staples since the 1950s?

BBC to cut a third of Top of the Pops episodes to remove Jimmy Savile and Dave Lee Travis

At least 17 instalments of the 1981 series of the chart show will be dispensed with when it airs on BBC4 next year

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-11-27/...dave-lee-travis

Not much different from this years series. Saville becoming less involved - was he a radio 1 dj as late as 81?