Here we are, back again for another dose of TOTP rom 1982. Peter Powell (in a very white outfit) is doing the honours. It’s a 45-minute show this time, so we’ll have even more cuts. Whatever is left should be an improvement on the last show.

 

Back in 1982 it started with Hot Chocolate.

 

Paul McCartney is the first victim of the editor’s scissors.

 

Cliff Richard, on the other hand, survives and gives a whole new meaning to the term green belt.

 

Yazoo have also been axed. Not a good decision.

 

David Essex is next for people who thought he was finished by now. The top part of his outfit is even more white than Powell’s.

 

A great cover version from Japan. When David Sylvian grew up he changed his name to Patricia Hodge.

 

Dexys Midnight Runners with possibly their most famous song. Not quite sure what happened in the BBC costume department here. I think they must have chosen their outfits and got dressed in the dark.

 

Chart countdown time.

 

Leo Sayer is here to send us to sleep. His costume came from the Play School section.

 

The chart countdown resumes.

 

Another chance to hear Visage.

 

Oh dear, Irene Cara is at number one. The message from the Fame cast looks like it was filmed in 1958.

 

We get a plug for Fame (on next) before the show ends with Dollar. Mmm, that episode was hard work again.

Watched the late edition last night as the early one on Fridays clashes with Corrie. Really like the McCartney song Take It Away.

I fell asleep with the TV on and woke up mid-recording of the later edition to Macca's Take It Away, a great forgotten gem of a pop single reminding how effortlessly he could knock off a great melody back in the day.

 

Anyways watching the full show now, a last classic moment for Hot Choc some 12 years into a non-stop run of annual hits, charming and still popular for the late great Errol.

 

One of Cliff's many good early 80's tracks, and a fab Yazoo dance classic.

 

Ol Dave Essex was one of the classy teen pop stars of the 70's, versatile and original and still very British in sound, and this was his final good record, pretty much. Dexy's is still a classic party record. My Aunty Eileen got fed up with it pretty quickly though, oh come on Aunty Eileen!

 

Japan, oops sorry, I could never tolerate this wimpy monotone cover of a classic Motown Smokey Robinson song. Nice lipgloss though, and perm :lol:

 

Leo Sayer, for a change doing an actual good ballad (though the TOTP orchestra as usual doing their best to make it plodding - everyone else was miming, leo was singing live) not surprisingly as it is a Bee Gees song.

 

Another goodie from Visage, the first video I recorded on my brand new betamax video recorder that I bought myself now I had an actual permanent job for the first time in my life - 2 years after leaving Uni, and misery and financial edge-living, yes I actually got a job as Storesman in a photo lab. Photolabs were places where people used to have to send stuff to get photos out of their cameras. If the quality was poor whole spools of printed photo paper were dumped in the work skip, featuring peoples personal private photos. Occasionally you'd get a few naughty ones (they were not returned printed, and illegal ones sent to the police) and I'm ashamed to admit I'd occasionally flick through them if I had a spare moment in between lorry deliveries. OK, I admit I helped myself to some private photos (the firm doesn't exist anymore) when the troops came back from the Falklands - their photos of aircraft flying over British warships seemed like they might be of historical interest someday, and it was just a waste to destroy them, I reasoned. I was, of course, ahead of my time as everyone now helps themselves to other people's property off the interwebby reasoning they shouldn't have sent it in for developing if they didn't want other people to have a copy.

 

But I digress as usual. Irene Cara. At least she made a new video for the 2-year-old song for the Beeb. At least it wasn't the TV cast singing. :lol:

Come on Eileen will be gunning for the top spot after that promo on TOTPs no doubt, absolute classic!

 

Did radio 1 still play cliff and McCartney in 1982?

 

And finally - Didn't David Essex chart that December with Winters Tale?

Come on Eileen will be gunning for the top spot after that promo on TOTPs no doubt, absolute classic!

 

Did radio 1 still play cliff and McCartney in 1982?

 

And finally - Didn't David Essex chart that December with Winters Tale?

 

Radio 1 still played Cliff and Macca yes, in those days actual oldies dating back to the 50's still got radio 1 plays, cutting edge youth stuff was for the evenings. Not heavy plays though, that was more teen-appealing acts like ABC, Culture Club, Adam Ant, Madness and so on.

 

David still had more hits yes, that one, the Mutiny On The Bounty thing and some smaller hits into the 80's (like Betjeman/Mike Read's song), but I didn't rate most of them, bar Fallen Angels Riding. B-)

Time for another slice of July 1982 style Top Of The Pops with Simon Bates doing the honours in a live show.

 

After losing the Iko Iko battle, the Belle Stars have moved on already.

 

On to the latest video from Madness. Time to spot the

High Street names that have now disappeared. Apparently they had played God Save The Queen on kazoos the previous night. The boring one, not the one by the Sex Pistols.

 

Bananarama have been dropped.

 

Some alleged comedy from The Brat.

 

Trio have been cut again. What has the editor got against this? Their dotty little song was at its peak this week, so we won’t see it in the early evening slot. I suppose Da Da Da ought really to be dashy rather than dotty. That would be Dit Dit Dit.

 

Junior Giscombe is back on again.

 

Time for The Stranglers. That, as always, is a good thing. For some reason they are performing inside a giant watch.

 

After some more babbling, it’s the first bit of the chart. Oh dear, Dollar are on yet again. Deely boppers in the audience klaxon.

 

The remaining bit of the chart contains a mistake as usual. Midge Ure apparently performed a song called Regrets.

 

Irene Cara is still at number one. Just when you wanted a Yewtreed episode. Not sure what the buff bloke with his top off is all about.

 

Kid Creole and the Coconuts finish the programme before 1982 viewers can go back to watching Fame. Or changing channel. Possibly to a violin competition on BBC2 followed by a Newsnight special on the Rolling Stones to mark the 20th anniversary of their first live show. Even later that evening BBC2 showed The Associates. Sadly, that wasn’t a chance to play Party Fears Two, it was a new comedy series.

 

More tomorrow.

Ooh The Brat was terrible, awful, how did that survive and the Nanas didn't!

 

David Van Day is recovering from a heart attack at the mo. On grounds of good taste I should mention I loved Dollar records, rather than whittle on about his attempt to steal the Bucks Fizz name for touring purposes and the just terrible farce I saw the other year that he "starred" in along with CJ off Eggheads.

Oops!

 

Stranglers, Kid Creole, Madness fab!

Dollar seem to be on TOTPs 1982 every week!

Some alleged comedy from The Brat.

 

Roger Kitter was well known for alleged comedy. He played Captain Bertorelli in Allo Allo. Not that Bertorelli was an awful character, it's just that he was expected to replace Sam Kelly ('Tler!) and that would never work. What a mistake-a-to-make-a.

We’ve reached the end of July and our host is Mike Read. Later in the evening BBC1 showed the first in a new series of the Des O’Connor show with guest Max Bygraves. It’s safe to assume I found something better to do.

 

Dexys Midnight Runners are first on.

 

The good start continues with a Yazoo video. I wonder if Vince’s hairstyle will ever be back in fashion.

 

A repeat performance from Hot Chocolate is up next. Presumably some of the people watching Des O’Connor later did so with a nice cup of hot chocolate.

 

Repeat time again, this from Cliff Richard.

 

Elkie Brooks with a cover of a Moody Blues classic has been cut.

 

We have another alleged comedy slot. Tonight’s comes from The Firm. Mike Read’s attempt at a cockney accent is even less funny that the song.

 

Time for a slightly wobbly chart rundown.

 

Paul McCartney survives the editor’s knife this time. We also get George Martin on piano, good old Ringo on drums and John Hurt in the video. And Linda doing whatever it is Linda does. John Hurt, of course has had a great career with the highlight being his appearance in a Suede video.

 

On to the next bit of the chart before David Essex is on again.

 

We finish with Irene Cara still at number one. Sadly, all three of this song’s chart-topping weeks have avoided the Yewtree axe.

Surely John hurts 2 finest moments are the alien bursting out of his chest and being doctor who? :-)

 

Ok I'm biased......

I'm perfectly happy for those two moments to complete the top three.

Here we go then for another dose of 1982 music. This episode from August is fronted by David Jensen, a man whose country of origin may be about to gain a few more residents. This was the world of Reagan and Thatcher. It’s almost possible to feel nostalgic for that era today.

 

Madness get things off to a good start. They’ve got a Maddiemobile. My niece, Maddie, will be four on Monday. According to BBC4’s Twitter feed, the skeleton is the one used in Steptoe.

 

The good start comes to an abrupt end with Junior Giscombe. I can only assume the BBC managed to negotiate a long-term arrangement with a particularly low fee to get him on.

 

Things then got worse with a reshowing of The Brat but we have been spared that horror.

 

Donna Summer is next, accompanied by Zoo.

 

Now we get the Belle Stars again.

 

On to Kid Creole. This isn’t going terribly well so far. The dancers clearly forgot to bring any clothes so had to improvise.

 

A dodgy coconuts joke followed by the first bit of the chart.

 

Bad Manners with a typically bizarre cover and some more strange costumes.

 

The Stranglers are back at the end of the next section of the chart. Things are looking up.

 

The chart rundown ends with Dexys at number one.

 

We end with Survivor’s homage to a curry house in Bournemouth.

curry house. Arf! Locally well-known of course... :lol:

 

Junior was, of course, good enough for Kim Wilde to have a big duet hit with, and what's good enough for Kim is good enough for me :P

 

Rubbish: Brat. Belle Stars.

Adequate: Bad manners. Junior.

Good: Madness. Kid Creole. Donna Summer

Fab! Stranglers, Survivor, Dexy's

 

That concludes the chart forecast :lol:

I'll let Suedey do the full version, just note that this was one of my most-fondly-recalled TOTP of the early 80's, John Peel letting slip his love for Sheena and her fab Machinery, fnar fnar, some great one-liners, and a host of good acts, or at least entertaining ones :lol:

I've been watching the football, so I haven't seen tonight's yet. Not sure when I will see it, so feel free to post a fuller round-up.

Okey Doke, it's the fab Peelie hosting in a bin liner, having "sold-out". Meanwhile, dressed in multi-coloured bin-liners it's Toto Coelo (some sort of exotic skin disease opines John Peel) and that annoying chanting song about cannibalism. Probably not literally, I suspect it's more to with 5 young girls lauding oral sex. I may be wrong.

 

Up next Alf & Vince and their best record, Don't Go. Have I ever mentioned how much I hated the change in early 80's to the "party" whooping and moronic clapping along ruining the record which is left faded way down in the mix? No? Well, I have now. I still hate it.

 

Peelie conforming Trio were annoying by way of intro to Boystown Gang's big European gay disco anthem cover of Andy William's cover of Frankie Valli's classic Jersey Boys-anthem Can't Take My Eyes Off You, a Four Seasons masterpiece and future 90's big hit for Pet Shop Boys piss-take of U2's Where The Streets Have No Name. All 3 versions are much better than this one, though gay men of a certain age love it.

 

The much-missed tragic Billy Mackenzie on The Associates 18-Carat Love Affair, which peaked at 21, and wasn't their finest moment, albeit OK. The other double A side was a cover of Diana Ross' Love Hangover, and I suspect that drove most of the sales.

 

Machinery, and Sheena is up with her best pre-Prince single, IMHO. Fortunately the rhythm is too complex to risk allowing the studio clappers to ruin it so we just get the nuts and bolts and cogs of the track, Sheena miming, and the backdrop to fit. "what an artiste, what an artiste! Her best since 9 to 5". That's JP speaking, and he means every word, he owned 3 copies of 9 to 5 which he stored in his Most-Loved Box of 50 singles and took on DJ'ing nights out.

 

Haysi fantayzi up next! Kate & Jeremy and the truly original, and fab, and naughty John Wayne Is Big Leggy. Topped my chart, quite rightly, a barrel of fun. Their outfits were adopted as THE outfit of the Hippie Green inclined community, and Jeremy Healey went on to DJ dance success.

 

Hurry Home, from Wavelength. Who? Indeed, but I liked this pleasant synth-based overly-harmonied ballad. They look like they'd be more comfortable in Eurovision though, or hiding in shrub undergrowth with that Mac.

 

Dancers dancin to Kool & The Gang doing Ladies Night Part 13 aka Big Fun. If only Big Fun had done a record called Kool & The Gang. OK, maybe not.....

 

Chart rundown and fab Fun Boy Three, with my fave version of the George Gershwin 1930's classic from Porgy & Bess, and best-known in Billie Holliday's great recording of the genius and evocative song, Summertime. Peelie prefers Gene Vincent's version though. He's wrong.

 

charts. The Firm. Arthur Daley. Cockney bollocks about a TV show character from a show I never watched or liked. I think that's the main reason I also never watched Only Fools And Horses, sort of Arthur Daley part 2.

 

That leaves the number one from Dexy's, party classic Come On Eileen, celtic folk pop of the finest order. Even if they did turn up to the studio in pullovers before changing into denim gypsy costumes. Not really Dexy's of course, it's Kevin Rowland with a bunch of hired hands, the first line-up having buggered off to form The Bureau.

 

And that completes the history lesson... :lol:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun Fact: Bob Holness' daughter Ros was a member of Toto Coelo. Not sure which one of the group she was though.

Fun Fact: Bob Holness' daughter Ros was a member of Toto Coelo. Not sure which one of the group she was though.

The saxophonist?

Ha ha! I think she did play the saxophone solo on Wax's Building a Bridge to your Heart a few years later.