We’ve missed a Yewtreed episode, so we move on to a David Jensen-fronted programme from the beginning of March 1982. It’s even a live show this week.

 

A repeat performance from Toni Basil gets proceedings underway.

 

When these repeats were scheduled, the BBC might have anticipated comments about “Chameleon Dave” when this Gary Numan song was played, but the man also known as “Dodgy Dave” isn’t quite so important now.

 

Repeat time again, this one from Madness so there are no complaints.

 

They seem to have got a decent editor this week - the Goombay Dance Band and Imagination have been dropped.

 

Compared with the last two (axed) songs, almost anything would have been an improvement. Here are the Jets.

 

Crisis time for Abba as the hits start to dry up. Benny and Bjorn appear to have forgotten their usual tax-deductible outfits.

 

Relative flop time for Adam and the Ants as well. Oh dear, it’s Zoo time.

 

Time for the chart, aka the hit sound countdown, as nobody else has called it. Ever.

 

The rundown pauses for ABC. Oh, that’s where Abba’s tax-deductible outfits went.

 

That brings us to the top fourteen with Tight Fit at number one. No extended top ten clips this time. Still, we do get people dressed as animals on stage, long before The Flaming Lips turned it into an art form.

 

Robert Palmer plays out over the closing titles.

a mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous, which is how I tend to view 1982 which had a few too many novelty tracks for me, even though some were mildly entertaining.

 

Adam Ant could dig up any old fart in a recorded spacesuit, he was that popular at this time, as he was busy disbanding the Ants for a glorious solo career (well, one glorious chart-topper that is before it all got a bit Puss In Boots-ey, one nursery rhyme too many) :lol:

 

Abba very much went for the wrong single off the album, the one they wanted wasn't supported by the record company (Slipping Through My Fingers double A with Two For The Price Of One would have been much bigger, and the American single When All Is Said And Done would have been very big, easily the best track on the Visitors album). In fact, almost any track off the album would have made a better single....oops!

Relative flop time for Adam and the Ants as well. Oh dear, it’s Zoo time.

 

It would have been had it been a new release but it was a cash-in from his old label and "flopped" due it being either more raw than what the new Antpeople were into or because the label didn't have the same distribution power.

Time for another dose of vintage TOTP from March 1982. We have to put up with Simon Bates this week.

 

Bow Wow Wow get things underway.

 

On to Fun Boy Three and Bananarama. Easily the best thing Bananarama ever did.

 

Depeche Mode next. A decent start tonight. I’m sure it won’t last.

 

We’ve had Mickey a few times recently. However, Pluto’s performance has been axed so I will have to wait a while longer to be reminded what it was like.

 

Oh dear, Julio Iglesias is back.Good grief, this song is dull.

 

Ah, that’s better. It’s Haircut One Hundred. Ah, someone has reminded Bates who they are in time for the back announcement.

 

Time for a few minutes of excellence from The Associates as promised in the chart rundown which we’ve just had.

 

On to the next bit of the chart.

 

From a true classic to the less classic Classic. Here’s Adrian Gurvitz.

 

The chart ends with the top eleven this week and Tight Fit are still number one.

 

A guest appearance from Sid Snot and the subtitle bloke (or blokess) wimped out of repeating the Julio Iglesias joke.

 

The medleys still haven’t gone away entirely. Stevie Wonder is the latest victim. Thankfully, we aren’t subjected to very much of it.

The Associates: magnificent soaring epic.

 

Love Haircut, depeche, FB3 & Nanas....

 

Pluto was Your Honour, a whimsical bit of reggae, I think. Previously aka Pluto Shervington he of the Dat ding 'ere in 1976. I recall a sort of whitish courtoom video at some stage, but I wouldn't swear to that in court :P

Ah yes, I remember Dat. It was good to see a lot of love for The Associates on Twitter.

Kinda surprised to see that Party Fears Two only got to number 9 - if I'd been a record buyer back then (I was only 5) then I'd have been straight out to buy it after seeing it on TOTP.

 

Pleased to see the Tight Fit video, it's one of my favourites for over the top, jungle-based stupidity.

Haircut 100 and there single was epic, loving it for the first time!!

Our race through 1982 has reached mid-March. Apparently the task of presenting TOTP has now got a lot more complicated, so it requires two Radio 1 bods instead of one.

 

We start with Classix Nouveaux with a silent Steve Wright pretending he knows who they are.

 

The decent start continues with ABC.

 

The good news is that Leo Sayer has been cut. The bad news is that Imagination haven’t been cut. OTOH, I’m a bit behind so I can use the FF button.

 

Derek and the Dominoes have also been cut. It’s not all bad news though as the Goombay Dance Band have also ended up on the cutting room floor again.

 

Back to the good stuff now and Japan’s finest hour.

 

Japan are at number 31, a fact which leads seamlessly in to the first part of the top 30 rundown.

 

On to Gary Numan then. Blimey, he smiled!

 

Time for the second bit of the chart. Oh, Depechay Mode are back.

 

It’s a synth-heavy episode tonight as we get Visage next.

 

The top ten finishes with Tight Fit still at number one. People could have bought Japan, Visage, ABC or Classix Nouveaux but they bought Tight Fit instead. Apparently their presence in the studio is a special treat. Whatever, the costume budget was obviously very small. They don’t seem to have spent much on teaching them how to mime either.

 

A mostly good episode (shame about Imagination) ends on a low note with Kool and the Gang.

 

The Olympic Games start tomorrow, so there will now be a short intermission before the next TOTP.

oddly enough the only bits I recorded at the time onto Betamax were Imagination and Tight Fit. The latter was more to do with the outfits (it was pre-teens who was buying it, trust me, I was volunteering at a youth club at the time), the former the ghostly video. MJ took notes....

 

I'll be honest I loved the whole bloody episode, including the missing brilliant Clapton, bar the Kool And The Gang fade out, which was OK :cheer:

 

 

Tight Fit were at number 1 for 4 weeks my goodness - and I am embarresed to admit I share the lead singers name lol.

 

Anyone watching the drama on ITV on a Monday night - Brief Encounters? It is based in 1982 and the soundtrack is basically the current series of TOTP!

Edited August 5, 20168 yr by Steve201

I was 5 when Tight Fit were number one and I loved it! My introduction to that song was on Playaway where it was sung by Floella Benjamin, I'm pretty sure she sang Pass the Dutchie later on...where the "dutchie" was some kind of bowl of snacks being passed around the Playschool toys.

 

But it was great that Children's BBC was so linked to what was happening in the pop charts back then. Certainly beat "the wheels on the bus go round and round" all day long.

Just watched the episode - omg that Japan record was pretty unique and special - first time I have ever heard it!

Just watched the episode - omg that Japan record was pretty unique and special - first time I have ever heard it!

Good to see you're making some new discoveries! I loved the Japan song at the time, and it still sounds great today.

It does and it seemed to be all live - downloaded Haircut 100 last week and is currently no2 on my personal chart.

 

I'm downloading any favs or classics and basically making a yearly greatest hits on my PC.

After a short break, our regular half-hour of nostalgia is back. This episode, from the end of March 1982, is fronted by Peter Powell. He is joined by Garth Crooks whose waist size has roughly doubled in the intervening 34 years. Later that evening a comedy show got its first airing on BBC1 having originally been shown on BBC2 in 1981. A Kick up the Eighties featured a then little-known Rik Mayall as “investigative reporter” Kevin Turvey.

 

Altered Images get things going with a song that isn’t Happy Birthday.

 

Perhaps now would be a good time to do something else for a few minutes. Here’s Julio Iglesias.

 

Bucks Fizz are up next with a title that isn’t really accurate. One of the girls is wearing wrapping paper left over from Christmas.

 

The full version had a Irish interlude - a week after St Patrick’s Day - featuring Foster & Allen, Boomtown Rats and The Nolans. It has all been cut.

 

That cut has deprived us of a classic “only on TOTP moment” as The Nolans were followed by Killing Joke. The keyboard player wouldn’t be allowed on a French beach dressed like that.

 

On to a repeat performance from Pluto Shervington.

 

Oh dear, this isn’t going well. It’s Chas & Dave. The addition of a string section doesn’t make them any better.

 

And it gets worse as the Goombay Dance Band have somehow made their way to number one.

 

They have saved the best ‘til last as we play out with The Associates.

 

I rather liked that Chas & Dave song - which was quite an achievement (and a one-off) as I usually hated their records.

 

Bucks Fizz, pop perfection as they took over Abba's crown. Loathed for being a boy-girl singing group who relied on their regular writer-producers to keep the hits coming, you can see how the current music scene is nothing like that. No, these days singers rely on flitting about between one or more of the 20 or so Hit Machine songwriters-for-hire, the very idea of sticking with just one is ridiculous! Last done by Girls Aloud to good effect too. I call it musical relationship consistency in a pop world of musical slappers :lol: :P

 

7 Tears wasn't the worst chart-topper of the year. No, don't laugh, you'll see... :lol:

Yes, there is indeed a worse number one to come :cry: Bring on those sweaters :puke2:

Tonight’s episode is from 1 April 1982. The following morning we awoke to the news that the Falkland Islands had been invaded causing outrage among people who had never heard of them 24 hours earlier. The good news is that our host is John Peel.

 

Motorhead get proceedings underway.

 

Things take a turn for the worse in the form of Imagination.

 

A typically inoffensive number from Roxy Music is next.

 

On to one of the few acts with two Xs in their name, Classix Nouveaux. Of course, John Foxx outclassed them all with a double-X in his name while X-Ray Spex managed to top and tail their name with the letter.

 

The editor is being kind to us tonight. Dollar and Leo Sayer have been dropped, and so has the year’s Eurovision entry from Bardo.

 

The chart rundown now. Even Peelie calls them De-pech-ay Mode. Oh dear, another illusion shattered.

 

Status Quo with one of their record-breaking appearances on the show. Note an early airing for the “Status Quo are old” joke.

 

The next bit of the chart leads up to another chance to hear a masterpiece from Japan at number nine.

 

From the sublime to the ridiculous as the Goombay Dance Band are still at number one. Ooh, are they going to set fire to all remaining copies of this rubbish? Let’s hope so. Looks like I’m going to be disappointed.

 

Shakatak play us out at great length.

Ah yes, the Falklands, how marvellous Maggie did nothing about the Argentinian reccy on South Georgia, and didn't bother to send back the protective battleship she'd withdrawn from the region not long before. Who could have predicted a desperate and unpopular military junta would do such a thing to try and divert attention from themselves? Who could have predicted how important the islands were to the British spirit against invading Johnny Foreigners (only the British Empire had the right to do that! The cheek!)? Who could have predicted the most unpopular PM in history could make herself suddenly popular by winning a short war? :o

 

Err, actually a moron could have predicted, and I have such sweet memories of being alone in my criticism of the mouth-frothing indignant British population demanding a war instead of jobs, and killing foreigners instead of racial equality at home.

 

The more things change... etc.

 

My Camera Never Lies lining up to top the chart in irony - it lied through it's teeth, the media carefully controlled by the Tories. 7 Tears on top, one for each of the first 7 of the 9 hundreds killed (9 Tears didn't scan), Ghosts, Just An Illusion (political honesty), Is It A Dream? No, more than this, a nightmare...

 

See even the less classic songs have hidden depths :lol: