I'm guessing Pete Wylie didn't want to appear on the show and there was no video? Otherwise can't understand why Wah! haven't been on yet!

He was def on more than one TOTP at the time, though the post-xmas episode he appeared on is a Mike Smith show.

 

Just watching the extended version, Melba Moore has been cut off, but no Wah! He better be on the next show!

 

OK let's check...

 

Rich Skinner & Si Bates up for an intro onto Level 42, The Chinese Way. Not their best record, a bit by numbers but OK, and doesn't Mark look young! Nice T shirt. Then onto The Belle Stars and a triff video for the fab record, Sign Of The Times. I think FGTH borrowed the lazers a year later for their more broadcastable video of Relax.

 

The Fabs are back, Please Please Me and the 2nd in the 20th anniversary reissue campaign. Sadly the last to go top 40 - annoyingly for me considering the classics to come! Ne'er mind I charted them in my charts since they made the UK top 75 for the most part. Intended to be a Roy Orbison-style song, that would have worked better! David Cassidy did a live version in 1974, and charted.

 

Wham! Bam! I am a man, job or no job.. it's Wham! and the much-missed Georgie, his best mate Andrew, the future Mrs Kemp and the future (sort-of) Mrs Weller. Still great fun, young people dancing in the face of misery, unemployment, shit jobs and shit pay. I know, cos that was me and my 80's life....

 

...so it's not surprising I avoided anything which might make me tempted to feel a bit more miserable and wallow. Like Bauhaus. It's rocking enough, but a song is missing.

 

Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes, Up Where We Belong, a movie theme song hit co-written by Native American Indian (as we used to say) folk pop star Buffy Sainte-Marie. I love all elements involved, and Joe hadn't been on TOTP for 15 years, Jennifer never got the solo hit she deserved (many great singles), and Buffy was fab. Sadly the record still leaves me largely unmoved, I mean I don't dislike it...but I don't love it either...

 

Dire Straits, having stuck out a classy epic, and their finest moment (Private Investigations) opted instead for a bit of cheesy substandard 50's-throwback rocknroll. Twisting By The Pool indeed. Health & safety would have your guts for garters....

 

And they made it! Men At Work at 1, fab record, fab video, Down Under, Aussie lads having a laugh, who could not love it?! And the set up to so many innuendo-laden jokes, Have you been Down Under? Do you love it Down Under? Etc.

 

Electric Avenue for the fade-out, and bye for now...

 

 

Here's the one BBC4 couldn't show presented by Mike Smith & Tommy Vance

 

thanks for the link, that may be one I have on videotape waiting to transfer to DVD.

 

Wah! :cheer:

 

At this time I was 17 and doing my A Levels. I would record the singles I liked from the top 40 countdown on Radio 1 on Sundays onto a TDK blank cassette. From this week's shows,I recorded Too Shy,The Cutter,New Year's Day,European Female and Christian. Out of those,The Cutter is the one I like the best now.

Why couldn't they show that episode?

 

Thanks for posting tho!

Why couldn't they show that episode?

 

Thanks for posting tho!

Mike Smith didn't want his episodes to be shown so he withheld permission. I've no idea why.

Goodness that's strange - when does he present until?

...and off we go with the funtastic Hayzi Fantayzee, Shiny Shiny was jolly pop, but not a patch on John Wayne Is Big Leggy. Kate's outfit prob made up for the lack of Pan's People, though.

 

The ultimate DJ TOTP duo are back with The Kid n Peelie, who could want more!? And it's that club classic Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, Indeep still sounding funkily groovy. I could say it owes a bit of inspiration to Chic, fairly obviously, but it's great anyway as it's more low-key in the chorus department to avoid sounding too similar.

 

Chart rundown part 1 and Tears For Fears, singing live - kudos for that, but the net effect is less inyaface than the recorded version of Change. I say "live" - actually it's badly miming to a pre-recorded live vocal/performance, most bands used to slip the real version in while the staff were down the pub, but Curt n Roland must have missed a trick.

 

rundown part 2 and it's the fab snowbound video for New Year Day, one I video'd at the time, epic U2....Now THAT'S what I call a snowy day, kids today don't know what snow is, half an inch and the roads in the soft South grind to a halt. No exaggeration, panic sets in, like a bunch of headless chickens and staff call in to work saying they can't make it. Back in the day we used to walk miles to school in 6 foot snowdrifts, dressed in a brown paper bag with only a passing robin stuffed down the front to keep us warm. Pah!

 

Steppin Out again! No Wah! and every week it's Joe Jackson, slappy time for the editors! It's brilliant, but even so...

 

Happily the top 10 rundown shows longish videoclips now: including Wah! Hooray! Which leaves my other chart-topper still at 1, Men At Work Down Under

 

 

Half an inch? It doesn't take anywhere near that much to cause panic here in the soft south :lol:

...and we're off with fab Peelie & The Kid and the just-as-fab cool Icehouse, one of the best antipodean bands of the 80's. Hey Little Girl is a great record, taking up where Roxy Music left off after Same Old Scene. Not keen on the baggy pants, but the haircuts are not too dated..

 

OMD up next, this is going well very well so far. Genetic Engineering was very quirky and nothing like any previous singles, very upbeat for the subject matter. Andy as manic as ever in his performances, and the lumber-jack shirts were a fave dresswear choice of mine at the time.

 

John & David have, of course, amusingly switched shirts for the intros. Rundown time as we get the Nana's covering the terrific 1969 bubblegum gem from Steam - the appropriately titled Na Na Hey Hey Kiss His Bananas, (I may be having an alternate facts moment). Love the gals, great fun in concert, glad they had a hit with it, but this isn't a patch on the original. Those balloons are annoying.

 

Time for the MOR soul ballad duet, ever-popular back in the day with the older woman. James Ingram was a good singer, Patti Austin ditto, which is why they get away with singing actual live and come out of it pretty well. It's nice. It was nice in 1983, it's nice now - but it was never that special.

 

Top 10 Clips-time: Fun Boy 3 and the fab Fun Boy Three and their penultimate terrific single, Tunnel Of Love. They broke-up at their peak - Terry Hall had a very bad habit of doing that.

 

Thompson Twins, Love On Your Side still sounding funky and pretty good.

 

Madness, Tomorrow's Just Another Day, a mild slip in quality, and more downbeat than usual (jn an upbeat fashion), Tears For Fears, Change, one I didn;t rate quite as much as their other big early hits, but it sounds good in retrospect.

 

Musical Youth, I rather liked them and the reggae jollity, Eurythmics, The Tourists are (mostly) back, and better than ever, a revelation of androgyny and synth brilliance. A major classic, an extraordinary video, one of the great singers in Annie, and writers along with her ex Dave.

 

Toto, Africa, still massively popular, one I loved to bits at the time, and this is a terrif top 10! Kajagooglies, still on the shy side, ooh and at 2 a massive popular rock epic, courtesy of Jim Steinman falling out with Meatloaf and gifting Bonnie Tyler. She did a better job than he would have, OTT overblown brilliant classic. Hard to believe the little Lost In France singer is back 7 years later as a rock goddess. Spooky and effective video. I loved the top 10 video clips on TOTP.

 

And at 1...the key track off that biggest album of all time, Thriller: Billie-Jean. Michael turned into a sensation 14 years into his career, at the ripe old age of 24 (I was 6 months older). I adore the video still, and the single is original, moody, sexy, throbbing-bass-brilliance, a candidate for one of the top tracks of the decade. It's easy to forget that dancing pop stars in a creative-stylee had been out of fashion for decades at this stage, not since the days of Fred Astaire & the classic musicals, give or take the odd Grease, and that all changed pretty much from here on...

 

what a great episode!

 

 

 

 

Blackburn presenting?

a bit late on the friday start, but yes Tone Blackburn back "Vera Lynn was topping the chart last time I was on" and Gazza Davies then young free n single. Vera Lynn, 100 soon, was a mere 66 then.

 

The Nana's still having trouble dancing in time, amiably shambolic, followed by the Style Council debut hit, the fabulous Speak Like A Child, on video and better than any Jam record (in my cocktail 60's popjazz opinion) since Going Underground. Sacrilege!

 

Talking of cocktail jazz, Mezzoforte have a pleasant-if-forgettable instrumental groove before Ultravox turn up on video with a depressing turn of Visions In Blue. Not one of their best moments. Seen them twice in concert. Seen Bucks Fizz three times in concert. Stop sniggering at the back, good fun they were every time. They're in their Judas Priest leather-phase for the rather decent Run For Your Life, a sort of My Camera Never Lies part 2.

 

Joan Armatrading returns after a 7 year absence with the great Drop The Pilot. She never had the number of hits she deserved, but this was about as commercial as she got, and it suited her, albeit looking uncomfortable without her guitar! Love Joan.

 

At 1, Bonnie for a second week, in the studio. In those days I was always disappointed with a studio performance - I wanted to see the fab videos which added to a great song's appeal. Still, the wind-machine was a total influence on Eurovision for decades to come, shame they waited so long to get her involved, she coulda won for the UK in the mid-80's.

 

Fade out on Forrest. It's not a patch on the Hues Corporation inspirational original....

Not sure if Suedey has brand new access to a TV for TOTP '83 yet (in which case oops sorry, and I can retire as stand-in :lol: )

 

A good start with John & Dave on live hosting duties, they make a good show even better. Off with 1930's depression-era fashion-kids Joboxers and their bouncy Boxerbeat. They repeat that a lot. They were boxers you know. True fact. Boxing's loss, pop music's gain (for 12 months or so).

 

Bowie goes full-on dancefloor commercialism with the assist of Nile Rodgers and a brilliant video, aboriginal social commentary. I went mad on it at the time, watching it on telly at my parents NAAFI when I frequently visited their army base flat near Winchester. In retrospect he had better monster tracks, but it's still pop fabness.

 

Rip It Up? Not Little Richard, it's Edwyn Collins in Orange Juice. That takes the pip! As Suedey mentions in his chart commentary. Still Ed's 2nd-best record, and my word he looks like a child here! Lovely sax solo. Not enough sax in music these days.

 

Big Country turn up, Fields Of Fire putting out the template for all their singles that followed - guitar riff pop. Stuart was great but I always preferred The Skids. 1983 was their golden year though, and their best track would follow this one.

 

rundown, with a naughty quip about Love On Your Side, "uncomfortable but fun" ah Peelie, he would have been awesome these days on Twitter. On to Nick Heyward's solo debut, a low-key ballad, presumably to underline he wasn't a pop group anymore, Whistle Down The Wind was a cult film, but not his best record by any means, solo or group. Pleasant nuff tho. He also looks like a child, was this a pre-teen special episode?

 

Altered Images, and the old Chinney-Chap 70's producer is back on production polish, moving Claire & co away from New Wave pop and into dance territory. The band look very underwhelmed by the experience, and style change, but ssshhh I loved this record. Fab! Sadly it didn't give them an extended career and Claire moved onto Red Dwarf and other stuff instead before long. Mike Chapman also found his actual-real talents in less demand from here on too...

 

Leaving the chart-topper, bang! Instant new entry, as Duran were at the height of their commercial appeal. Never loved it that much, though I liked it's 60's Beatles-ey appeal, it just came over as Something I Should Know already. Happily it was all uphill for me and Duran Duran after this point, they eventually won me over. Result! This one is a decent record still, though.

 

David Joseph on play out, not one I recall much at all, I must be honest, but it would've sounded groovy in a club, or "disco" as the Kid said earlier...

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did see the programme, but didn't take any notes :P Rip It Up still sounds great. At around the time of Edwyn's big solo single (A Girl Like You) he supported McAlmont and Butler at the 100 Club in Oxford Street. For many years that was M&B's one-and-only gig, 'twas a great night - one of the best gigs I went to that year, probably the best other than various Suede gigs :D

We’re at the end of March 1983 with Richard Skinner and Steve Wright (who seems to have got up in a bit of a rush) sharing presenting duties. Something tells me it must be close to Easter.

 

The good news is that we start with New Order’s Blue Monday. The bad nes is that it can only go downhill from here.

 

On to The Style Council, an inevitable drop in quality but it could have been far worse. Indeed, it will probably get far worse later.

 

Mari Wilson has a go at Cry Me A River. Somewhere back in 1983 a budding architect was wondering what 21st century London might look like.

 

Time for some U2. Bono still without his trademark specs but he is insisting on wearing a hat indoors. His haircut looked relatively normal for the age he was then, At his current age it looks ridiculous.

 

The first part of the chart comes complete with Easter bunnies.

 

Kajagoogoo with a song whose title makes as much sense as the band name. Limah’s trousers make even less sense.

 

The next bit of the chart with more bunnies.

 

A jolly little number from Tracey Ullman. Wright’s lame “joke” is best ignored. Let’s just dwell on the hairbrushes instead.

 

Duran Duran in questioning mood are at number one.

 

Kenny Everett turns up to plug a new series of his show and his single. Speaking of which,...

 

loved the Style Council and Tracey Ullman cover of a US 60's gem, Breakaway still sounds fab being as it never sounded of it's time...

 

Kajagoogoo, just awful.

We’ve reached April 1983 and Simon Bates and Peter Powell are our hosts. Powell shows his usual dress sense.

 

Dexys Midnight Runners get proceedings underway.

 

Culture Club are up next. After the alleged joke in the last episode it’s just as well that Steve Wright isn’t on.

 

On to a bit of JoBoxers.

 

Yet another less than incisive interview. The previous ones haven’t been worth mentioning so I didn’t.

 

Time for some Twisted Sister. Well, some people might think so; others may disagree.

 

Good grief, it’s another interview. These two clearly taught Alan Partridge everything he knows.

 

Michael Jackson with the second song to have the word beat in its title. Make of that what you will.

 

First bit of the chart so we’re spared another interview.

 

Tracie has been cut.

 

Tunisia is represented this week by F R David. I don’t think Sidi Bou Said (the band, not the town near Tunis) ever made it onto the show but Bardo (the band, not the museum in Tunis) did.

 

The middle bit of the chart is next.

 

Nick (or Nicky according to Bates) Heyward with another solo effort. What happened to the old look? What’s that suit all about?

 

The chart rundown ends in style with David Bowie at number one.

 

Big Country play out over the credits.

well done on not referring to the sheer awful nursery rhyme quality of Twisted Sister. 80's glam metal was a pastiche on glam rock. Trouble was, they didn't realise that Glam Rock was a pastiche in the first place, and being a pastiche of a pastiche just makes you look stupid.....

EVERY NUMBER 1 IS AN ABSOLUTE CLASSIC IN THE 80s!!