January 15, 20169 yr Author If I was being paranoid, I would suggest that they are showing two per week so that they get in as many as possible before BBC4 falls victim to the cuts.
January 15, 20169 yr Christ don't be saying that, I thought the whole point was to follow the year was it progressed, I've thoroughly enjoyed these past 5 years of repeats!
January 15, 20169 yr BBC4 doesnt get alot of viewers, its lucky if one of its programmes breaches the 1 million mark, and I dont think TOTP gets that many, so I woouldnt be surprised if it were to be axed. It'd be a shame, if it did happen I guess the best we could hope for if they did is they brought back TOTP 2 on BBC2. I would also miss the pop documentaries on BBC 4 aswell. Edited January 15, 20169 yr by fiesta
January 15, 20169 yr I really hope it isn't. BBC4 fills the remit to inform,educate and entertain better than any other TV channel. I figured that because so many shows were yew-treed they're simply dispensing with the need to follow the dates and are just pressing ahead. So we might get 1982 or even 1983 starting before the end of the year. By the way - Racey... I was 3 when that programme aired and even at that age I'd have found them embarrassing. Ditto Matchbox.
January 15, 20169 yr Author So, here we go with the second dose of Top Of The Pops for this week. Peter Powell is on hosting duties this time. Thankfully, the pointless co-presenters and embarrassing interviews have been dropped for 1981. Powell is actually wearing some normal trousers. All the others must have been in the wash. As we have skipped a week, there will probably be a few repeats from last night’s programme. Oh joy. Oh look, it’s a repeat already from The Look. Ah, this is better. Time for some Blondie. Another new one, this one from Spandau Ballet. Just as the weather is getting colder, it’s The Freeze. The Ballet look like they’ve visited some very odd jumble sales. We’ve been spared another dose of racey, but they’ve also cut XTC. Never mind, it’s a classic from Visage next. Vienna entered the chart this week, so it’s a double for Midge Ure. Nearly a year since Steve Strange died. The quality couldn’t last. Here’s Yarbrough & Peoples with “help” from Legs & Co. They seem to have stopped the music in favour of this rubbish. On to the first bit of the chart rundown, featuring a band called Dire Straights. I don’t remember then. I wonder if they were a tribute band of some sort. Now this just is not acceptable. They’ve cut Adam & The Ants again. Honey Bane next. Don’t bother with the Turn Me On bit, just turn it off. It’s a bit rubbish. Bad Manners again. I can just about remember it from yesterday. This is OK, but why couldn’t we get some Antmusic? OK, the edit from the chart rundown would have been awkward, but still. On to the top ten rundown. Yes, Happy Christmas (War Is Over) is still in the top ten. Imagine is number one for a third week, one of four John Lennon tracks in the chart. It almost looks like a 2010s chart with all these multiple entries. A better show than last night’s, but a rotten ending from The Gap Band. Sadly, no David Bowie. Maybe he was on the missing Yewtreed show. Also, no Queen and Brian Blessed. Fans of Blessed could have seen him on BBC2 later that evening.
January 15, 20169 yr MUCH better episode, my video enthusiasm took off in 1981 starting with Blondie and Visage which I videod onto my £20 tapes at the time, along with the chart rundown top 10 with the clips. As they are the highlights of the show, I think I showed remarkably good taste :P You may not be at all interested to know that (I have my video listings here) over Xmas 1980 I recorded Super Trouper (video) off TOTP, then The Beatles songs from Help! which was on TV in tribute to John Lennon. I managed to get some clips of Madness doing Embarrasment and Roxy's Same Old Scene before the Xmas TOTP episodes of which I recorded: Atomic Coming Up Don't Stand So Close To Me (a new frollicking in the snow Police video) Another Brick In The Wall No Doubt About It (new studio xmas performance) The Winner Takes It All Brass In Pocket (new Xmas studio performance) I grabbed a handful of clips of Gary Numan, Macca, Nolans, Kate Bush & Jam before the new year got off to a video start with Imagine. The video parade then started proper: Rapture Jumping Jack Flash (glam 60's Stones vid) Vienna Woman Fade To Grey Lost In Love (Air Supply on Tiswas) Reward Jealous Guy Just A Feeling Hey Jude at which point I opted for Daffy Duck: Duck Dodgers In The 24th and a half Century and Star Trek reruns. Hopefully most of the above won't be yewtreed...
January 15, 20169 yr BBC4 doesnt get alot of viewers, its lucky if one of its programmes breaches the 1 million mark, and I dont think TOTP gets that many, so I woouldnt be surprised if it were to be axed. It'd be a shame, if it did happen I guess the best we could hope for if they did is they brought back TOTP 2 on BBC2. I would also miss the pop documentaries on BBC 4 aswell. I hope not because BBC 4 is by far one of the best stations on the BBC - I doubt it costs much to run. I know it probably doesn't get much audience but most digital channels are like that surely apart from E4!? I have 3 shows recording from the station tonight alone.
January 16, 20169 yr Just watched 22/01/1981 Loved the Honey Bane performance. First time hearing that track and seeing it on TOTP. Best track on this episode. She is still recording and releasing albums. https://twitter.com/TheHoneyBane https://www.facebook.com/Honey-Bane-84440611099/ http://www.honeybaneofficial.com/ R1A6BTnsFzM
January 17, 20169 yr Just watching the 17/1 TOTPs here and Ant Music being performed - just a question who would yous all consider to be the first New Romantic band to perform on TOTPs?
January 22, 20169 yr Author I was out last night at a book launch, so I missed that programme. We’re now into February 1981 and a programme hosted by Simon Bates. Stray Cats get things underway with a song I’ve forgotten. Actually, it sounds so much like their previous single, the word “forgotten” doesn’t really apply. Some quality now with Blondie. Mind you, they’ve done better videos. Spandau Ballet next with a performance we saw last week. Fred Wedlock has, very sensibly, been cut. We also miss a classic TOTP contrast as Rainbow were next. They have also been axed, as have Dire Straits. That means we don’t get to see whether they sorted their spelling out. On, then, to the XTC song they cut last week. The purple bit of the chart rundown ends with a Cliff Richard song that rings no bells with me whatsoever. Apparently, the writer of this song later produced A-Ha’s Take On Me and Pulp’s Disco 2000. That helps to make up for it. The Passions with their one and only hit. It only got to number 25. The sort of greeny-blue section of the chart rundown. And now the nightmare begins. It’s Joe bloomin’ Dolce. Please make it stop. We’re down to two John Lennon songs in the top ten now, including the number one. There are also two from Adam & The Ants and two featuring Midge Ure. If he’s watching, Midge’s television might have been smashed to bits a few minutes ago.
January 24, 20169 yr The missing 7.30 show from Thursday... Slade drop by following their Reading revival with a bonafide rockin' comeback hit We'll bring The House Down, stompingly good! Woman, John Lennon's future chart-topper from Double Fantasy. The follow-up should have been Beautiful Boy, the gorgeous Japanese-flavoured song for his son, best track on the album and never a single. I don't love this is as much as I did at the time, with sadness and regret colouring my opinion in favour of it a bit. Still lovely though, showing John could do tuneful love songs as much as Paul... In the studio, it's Ultravox and the classic Vienna, saw them in Sheffield later in the year, saw them not that long ago in Bournemouth and still good. Midge is under-rated, he's still making great music, and this is just a perfect record. On video for The Gap Band, and a bit of funk that I much preferred to the big Oops Upside Your Head, this one has a better pace and tune, put the pedal to the metal, indeed. I like it. Legs & Co put some posh frocks on for one of Diana Ross' post-Motown ballads It's My Turn - it's co-written by Carole Bayer-Sager, but it ain't no You'e Moving Out Today... Time for another classic with a capital C, as Phil Collins starts his solo career with a massive bang, or rather do-do de-doo-DOO, and one fo the great drum riffs on any record ever. So good even gorillas on adverts can't ruin it. In The Air Tonight, like Vienna, was robbed of a number one slot. Susan Fassbender next, a fab little pop record that only I remember, I loved it, and still am quite partial to it, chugs along nicely, and she of course set up the template for Sarah Palin to borrow above the neck. Imagine still on top, it's a classic of course, immensely famous, and great sentiments, but I've pretty much overdosed on it now and could do with a break from it for a few years for it to freshen up again for me.
January 24, 20169 yr Some great songs this week with Vienna and Phil Collins, glad to see they performed in the studio which sometimes didn't happen for the biggest artists and TOTPs. What's the craic with Shud up ya Face?! Sounds like something that would have been released at Xmas not February lol it obv didn't affect its performance!!
January 24, 20169 yr Author I've got something to look forward to when I get round to watching the full-length version of Thursday's show :D
January 28, 20169 yr Some discussion here on the move to 2 editions a week https://twitter.com/nulpointsnet/status/692789234743263232 Edited January 28, 20169 yr by Mark.
January 28, 20169 yr Author The new two episodes per week policy means that we have reached mid-February already. Tonight’s host is Richard Skinner, pointlessly surrounded by half the studio audience. A good start with The Pretenders and some state of the art effects. For 1981 anyway. Ultravox next, so it gets even better. This time, we get the video. Methinks there is only one way it can go from here. I have this recollection of them always cutting part of the instrumental bit. Thirty-five years on, it still hurts. This, of course, is their first week at number two, the one people often forget. There was me at the time thinking “Surely it will be number one next week”. Eighteen months after we listened to Randy Vanwarmer’s version of Just When I Needed You Most, we now get a version by someone with the more mundane name (and very big glasses), Barbara Jones. A definite drop in quality, but it could have been worse. Skinner seems to have forgotten that Vanwarmer had a hit with it, only mentioning that he wrote it. An outfit called Coast To Coast and rock band Gillan have been left out. George Benson would have provided a change of pace from Gillan if they had survived the cut. Why do they always keep the Legs & Co routines. Haven’t we had enough chance to see how naff they were? Dear lord, this song is boring. A break for the first bit of the chart. Time for English teachers to despair as the next lot go by the name of Freeez. Another break for the next bit of the chart. Slade, a band whose titles usually contained some imaginative spelling have also been omitted. Perhaps it’s a protest against the lack of their usual spelling style. Beggar & Co with this week’s forgotten song. I hope to have forgotten it again within minutes. On to Kelly Marie. Yes, not only did she have a second hit, she even had a third. Good grief, bagpipes. Ah well, it was Burns Night this week. And we end with the top ten rundown and John Lennon. As alluded to earlier, Mark Chapman also played a part in preventing Vienna getting to number one. The next episode is Yewtreed, so we can expect some instant repeats tomorrow.
January 28, 20169 yr Agree about the Legs & Co, why oh why oh why... Cost To Coast were great fun, and everyone should do a bit of Hucklebuck-ing instead of not getting a chance to watch them. Pretenders were fab, it was around this time I saw them in concert at Mansfield Leisure Centre. They regretted it, but I didn't, hooray! Mansfield was total rockabilly in 1981 and it wasn't exactly full, bizarrely. I was also fond of Brit jazz-funk which was getting big-ish at the time, such as Freeez and Beggar & Co. I like to remind everyone that British r'n'b didn't begin with Soul II Soul. Didn't even begin with 80's jazz-funk. Answers on a postcard for earlier examples... :lol: I prefer to refer to the murderer of Lennon as He Who Shall Never Be Named, given that's what he most wanted. That's the polite version I use, normally I just go for a 4-letter word, and always the one starting with C.
January 29, 20169 yr It's great re-living TOTP and such a variety of music. I enjoy the majority of songs and that can include, shall I say the more "quirky" songs and performances, which makes me and my other half have a chat and laugh about.
January 29, 20169 yr Best song for me last night was Hot Love. All Kelly Marie's songs were great and very catchy. Her No.1 is one of my Top 5 faves ever. Can't say I've ever heard that George Benson song before. Not a hit though. As Suedy said, boring song to send you to sleep. Edited January 29, 20169 yr by Common Sense
January 29, 20169 yr Author Twenty-four hours on, and a whole fortnight has gone by. Peter Powell is our host this time. Ah well, it could be worse I suppose. Later in the evening, the second episode of a new alleged sitcom, Hi De Hi, was on. Not the greatest of starts. It’s Status Quo with another remix of their song. They really have got into “doing it by numbers” mode by now. John Lennon is no longer number one, so we get a Roxy Music version of one of his songs instead. A pretty good version, it has to be said. Not that Powell seems to have noticed that it is a Lennon song. We are spared a second dose of Beggar & Co, so we move on to pop’s most famous gardener, Kim Wilde, making her TOTP debut. Another chance to hear The Passions. This week is going reasonably well so far, particularly with the omission of Beggar & Co. The good stuff continues with Madness. The lyric sheet for this song was rather short. Kelly Marie and her bagpipes have been dropped. It’s the rockabilly slot next, with the Coast To Coast song cut from yesterday’s episode. Once is enough thanks. I keep expecting it to break into making Your Mind Up. The sods have cut Ultravox but given us a second dose of Freeez. Why didn’t they drop Freeez yesterday and give us some Slade? Kiki Dee is back after four years away (or about a couple months in BBC4 time). On to the top ten countdown and the number one, so it’s time to turn over for the football. Back next week for the beginning of March.
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