Our journey back in time has now reached May 1982 and an episode fronted by Simon Bates. The presence of Kevin Keegan may not be a good sign.

 

Junior Giscombe gets proceedings under way. That’s not a good sign either. Still, it leaves plenty of room for improvement.

 

We had Yazoo last night. Depeche Mode, on the other hand, have been cut.

 

With the World Cup just weeks away, we get the England squad’s effort, based on a British Airways advert. No prizes for guessing that it’s terrible. I’m recognising far too many of these players. It makes me feel old. Apparently it was co-written by Adrian Gurvitz of Classic “fame”.

 

We are deprived of another chance to hear PhD by the editor’s scissors.

 

Tight Fit are back. Oh joy.

 

Football time again with Tottenham’s FA Cup song featuring Chas & Dave. Glen Hoddle thereby becomes one of the few performers to have appeared twice in one show. Obviously, it’s terrible. Still, it provided an excuse to show that Ricky Villa goal again.

 

The first bit of the chart is preceded by a time check, just to convince us that it really is live.

 

I’ve forgotten this song from Patrice Rushen. With luck, I will have forgotten it again soon.

 

After the next bit of the chart, we return to football again. You can tell this programme must be old as it’s from a time when Scotland used to qualify for major tournaments. Steve Archibald joins Hoddle as a two-times performer on one show. Doesn’t he claim to have been the first? Oops. By the way, this song is terrible too. Bagpipes, BA Robertson, it’s all there. Is it just me, or was that song about five hours long?

 

Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder complete a hat-trick of non-Yewtreed weeks at number one.

 

Oh loo, Paul McCartney himself has turned up. He’s said hello to Heather who has just broken her leg. I assume it wasn’t Ms Mills.

 

We end with Fun Boy Three and Bananarama.

 

Just the one episode next week, on Friday. Anyway, time for some actual football now. Come On You Toffees. (aka anyone but Palace).

Glen Hoddle thereby becomes one of the few performers to have appeared twice in one show.

 

Used to be my favourite 'pub quiz' question - who was the first performer to appear twice on one episode of TOTP. My answer was Steve Archibald...because I knew he'd been on with Spurs and Scotland, but didn't realise England were also on. Was Hoddle the only Spurs player in their squad then?

 

Steve Archibald joins Hoddle as a two-times performer on one show. Doesn’t he claim to have been the first? Oops.

See, I wonder if that was me on here a few years back, but wouldn't be surprised if Steve actually did lay claim to that.

 

Paul McCartney himself has turned up. He’s said hello to Heather who has just broken her leg. I assume it wasn’t Ms Mills.

 

Ha, I said exactly the same thing!

 

 

Just catching up with last weeks totp and fab it is too!

 

The look of love pure class, i won't let you down triff, abc im seeing in concert with full orchestra in 2 weeks, both tracks topped my charts.

 

Madness and adam ant both on top pop form.

 

Fantasy island is pure guilty pleasure, love that top pop toon, :lol: ditto rocky sharpe and his shoulder standing rocknpop

 

I must be going a bit giddy as i even enjoyed iron maiden. Theres a sentence i never expected to type...

 

Nicole is sweet, good winner of eurovision that year and the last good euro winner till amina was robbed in a rubbish draw in 1990.

 

 

I was rather late watching Friday's programme, hence the lack of comment. Overall, it was a decent show with Adam Ant the definite highlight. It was a great performance from him. It's a shame his time at the top was so short.

I looked up Adam Ant's chart run - he was held back by Madness' House of Fun for two weeks which seems kinda ok. At least it wasn't Paul & Stevie or Nicole :)

It’s a short programme today as the FA Cup final went to a replay. Sadly, that means we don’t get quite so much of John Peel. OTOH, we don’t have to look at his Liverpool shirt quite so much. Of course, it means that nothing gets cut. Whether that is good news or bad will become apparent as we go on.

 

Genesis get us started. Let’s hope the caption writer has learned how to spell their name this week. Yes, (s)he has.

 

Blondie are up next with Debbie Harry in the studio to take us in to the video. This one is a bit of a forgotten gem. Oh, now we have Ms Harry with Roger Taylor (the Queen one).

 

We recently had a Scot singing Japanese Boy. Here are Japan singing Cantonese Boy.

 

On to Duran Duran and their Roger Taylor. Will the tennis player turn up next? Still, it’s turning into a decent show.

 

The first bit of the chart next. A distinct lack of sarcastic comments from Mr Ravenscroft here. At least he can pronounce Depeche Mode’s name correctly.

 

The decent quality continues with Soft Cell. Did Peelie choose the line-up himself? Meanwhile, Soft Cell have their very own female Bez. Bezess perhaps. Oh hang on, she does a bit of singing at the end. I’s forgotten that bit.

 

Time for the nutty boys of Madness at number one. And Debbie’s still there. Somehow I suspect they didn’t play this song to the Pope who was visiting Britain at the time.

 

The shortened show is brought to an end with Fun Boy Three. A pretty good show tonight. Will tomorrow’s be as good?

 

good comments there Suedey, fab show tonight, Japan sounding better than I remembered, one I need to buy - it's one of 2 I never got round to buying on the show tonight, Genesis the other also not bad.

 

John Peel said it was a great line-up and so it was. My fave then and now is Soft Cell, so fab. The gal singer is Cindy Ecstacy later of Vicious Pink Phenomenon. Or Fer mah na mah nahn as I say it.

 

Debbie was right about Madness in the States, without ska there would be no Gwen Stefani. I love ol' Gwen and No Doubt, among others of her generation.

 

Hah! Pope. House Of Fun. Condom reference. If only Mr & Mrs Trump, and Mr & Mrs Farage had used proper precautions back in the day....

We move into June 1982 with a show fronted by David Jensen. The original show was only 30 minutes long (and was shown live), so we get the uncut version again. Later in the evening BBC1 showed the final of International Mastermind which is why it’s a short programme again.

 

It’s a good start with ABC.

 

It gets better. Here’s Adam Ant. And it’s topless Adam in the video. Some of the time anyway.

 

This really can’t last much longer. The good stuff continues with Echo and the Bunnymen and the second song with a “The xxx Of Love” title and no power in sight. Depeche Mode (still in the chart but going down) could have made it a hat-trick. After Soft Cell last night, the Bunnymen also have a Bez-alike.

 

And still the standard remains high with Siouxsie and the Banshees. Sorry Siouxie, Ian McCulloch wins the best haircut award this week.

 

Now we get the first part of the hit sound countdown. Or chart in plain English.

 

You know it’s been a good show when the appearance of Fun Boy Three sees the quality drop.

 

On to the next bit of the chart. Oh dear, Depeshay Mode are back.

 

Well, it had to happen, although even this song from Charlene only qualifies as poor rather than anything worse. The Ned’s Atomic Dustbin version os much more fun.

 

The top ten countdown ends with a brilliant top five with Madness still at number one. By the wonders of technology we get Madness from Japan. That’s what they said anyway. I’m not convinced myself.

 

The play-out song is the worst of the show by far. It’s Junior Giscombe. The fact that he’s performing live in the studio doesn’t change anything.

The Ned’s Atomic Dustbin version os much more fun.

 

It was rather good - weirdly I'd never heard the Charlene original then...and not entirely sure they had either.

We’ve skipped a week so we are now up to the middle of June. Simon Bates is on hosting duties. It’s back to a full-length programme so some songs will have been cut. The programme immediately after TOTP was the first episode of Fame. You have been warned. I probably missed this programme as the World Cup match between Northern Ireland and Yugoslavia was on ITV.

 

Natasha gets things going. Another version of the same song was lower down the chart.

 

Another chance to see ABC. Is it just me or does Martin Fry look like Robert Bathurst?

 

Time for some Roxy Music. It seems to be formal dress night on TOTP.

 

On to something rather more edgy from Bow Wow Wow. They clearly didn’t get the memo about formal attire (or any attire at all). Somewhere, a 36-year-old Donald Trump was getting very excited.

 

Queen with one of their less well-known hits. At least Freddie is complying with the dress code (even though this was recorded in an empty studio a few weeks earlier).

 

Charlene and Gary Numan have been cut.

 

Duran Duran in the studio this time. Well, they’re jackets, but still rather scruffy by this episode’s standards.

 

Top thirty countdown time.

 

Toyah goes all Aldous Huxley.

 

On to the middle bit of the chart.

 

It’s another The XXX Of Love double as Echo and the Bunnymen are back (looking scruffy). If you remembered this from last week you would have got a Pointless answer a couple days ago.

 

Adam Ant is at number one and ends the show on a high.

Wow didn't realise Adam Ant did anything solo wise after his ants got crushed?!

 

Why did artists like Queen never do TOTP?

Natasha gets things going. Another version of the same song was lower down the chart.

 

It's funny, I always assumed the Belle Stars had the big hit with this one - but that's just because it's gone on to be used on several soundtracks over the Natasha one (or the original for that matter). An example of the power of TOTP though - Natasha climbed quite nicely after that performance while the Belle Stars dropped out of the top 40 altogether. Had it been the other way round then it'd be interesting to see how the versions clashed.

 

As for Adam Ant - if you watch the video, you'll see Marco Pirroni is still working with him by this time, so he has one Ant, just not the rest.

If you had asked me before yesterday, I would also have said that the Belle Stars had the bigger hit!

We’ve skipped a Yewtreed week, so expect some repeats from yesterday. As a special treat, John Peel is back in a silly hat. It’s a short programme again, so no cuts. I assume there was a World Cup match later.

 

We start with Visage. Customers of Southern Trains may not like this one.

 

On to The Jam on film.

 

A repeat from Queen next with the intro to Forever In Electric Dreams followed by their song. This was Freddie’s last appearance in the TOTP studio.

 

Oh dear, here are Dollar to spoil the party. At least it’s not quite as bad as their usual standard.

 

Time to join Peelie for the chart. Lynrd Skynrd’s Freebird was making one of its then regular appearances.

 

Someone called Cheri is next up. I have no recollection of this whatsoever. I hope to return to that happy state very soon.

 

On to another bit of the chart.

 

Midge Ure with his first solo single. A decent effort, but not a patch on the Walker Brothers’ original. As he played on the theme tune and the Visage single, this is his third contribution to tonight’s show.

 

At number one we have Captain Sensible with one of the unlikeliest solo hits ever, first played on radio by Peelie himself. Who would have thought that a member of The Damned would get to number one with a song from South Pacific?

 

After opening yesterday’s show, Natasha close today’s.

 

I remember Murphy's Law by Cheri. Disagree with Suedy, Dollar's song wasn't one of their best and wasn't top 10 either. Did we miss Charlene at No.1 then?

I'm caught up post-holiday now, all good shows.

 

Loved Dollar, I'll be alone on that one then.

 

Never liked the Belle Stars version of Iko Iko much, nor the original. Natasha's is the most decent.

 

That rubbish Charlene record was on Motown - oh how the mighty are fallen. It flopped in the 70's, quite deservedly, then insisted on being resurrected. I've seen her do it live in a pub, or something, in Bournemouth many years later - I sort of forgot it immediately so I can't be sure I wasn't hallucinating :lol:

 

The rest are all largely fab, and a big up (cos no-one else is) to Junior, flying the flag for Brit Soul, classic ABC who I'm seeing on friday with full orchestra, punk novelty South Pacific (yes I bought it too) and the legend that is Peelie, the best DJ on TOTP by a million miles - and his daughter liked Dollar too :P :lol:

Been uploading some full 90s TOTP episodes to my YouTube channel if anyone's interested.

 

I do hope they carry on broadcasting the shows on BBC Four for years to come! The early 80s are fun but can't wait till they get to my era.

Time for another slice of 1980s nostalgia with David Jensen as our host. We’ve had a few good programmes lately. Can it last?

 

It’s not a good start as Imagination get things going.

 

In line with the warning from an earlier programme, here’s Irene Cara. Sadly, there will be more of this dross to come in the following weeks.

 

The rubbish continues with Shalamar.

 

AC/DC and Trio have both been cut. Some weeks that might be OK. This week it looks like making a bad programme even worse.

 

Two years after Diana Ross’s Upside Down, here are Odyssey with Inside Out. It’s awful. Couldn’t we have had Trio?

 

On to the first bit of the chart on the electric scoreboard, leading up to Bananarama at number twenty. It’s not very good, but that counts as good news in this show. Tow of the people who wrote this also wrote the Imagination song. Luckily for them, asbos hadn’t been invented in 1982.

 

And we’re on to the next bot of the chart followed by Bucks Fizz.

 

Captain Sensible is still at number one so it’s not all bad. This performance looks like a Flaming Lips gig with a guest appearance from Worzel Gummidge.

 

We end with the Steve Miller Band, a band who had to wait almost 30 years to become part of a political joke.

 

Not exactly a vintage edition. Let’s hope for better tomorrow.

 

jolly and swain (for tis they) wrote some good pop songs, not only Imagination and the Nana's, they co-wrote Alf/Alison Moyet and plenty of others to come through the 80's.

 

Tut tut at calling Shalamar rubbish, they were the cool end of American popsoul at the time! Jeffrey Daniels inspired Michael Jackson & a generation of body-popping kids.

 

AC/DC and Trio getting cut...? Phew! Good call for once :lol: Da da da, blip blip blip and repeat for 4 minutes :P AC/DC, pretty much the same as any other AC/DC track post Back In Black. Oops, my bias is showing :lol:

 

Irene Cara was a good movie theme tune in 1980, by the time the TV show had more than outworn it's welcome ( a sort of humorless Glee) I think we'd all got sick of it for a few decades. :o

 

Bucks Fizz. Pure gorgeousness, and touching.

 

Even TOTP hammy magician couldnt ruin Abracadabra, that's how good it is. :cheer:

 

I must say, the recording quality of this episode is fresh and crystal-clear, which is not usually the case with old TOTP's. Not sure why though....

I must say, the recording quality of this episode is fresh and crystal-clear, which is not usually the case with old TOTP's. Not sure why though....

 

I noticed that too. The volume seemed much louder too compered to other episodes.