Tedward

Not yet, but should be soon. There are a few performances from the show on there already though (PSBs, T'Pau, Bee Gees).

Very surprised that 1988 is very near already, guess that's what the missed Mike Smith editions do. Speaking of which, we should be getting more episodes than ever after his exit in early '88 after presenting just 4 episodes from January to March, so to wrap that year up we should be getting back to back episodes in one night more often! Definitely looking forward to house becoming a bigger thing in the charts, on the last one of 87 we'll be seeing House Arrest by Krush, one of the first proper British-made house hits, good song. The Story of 1988 and 1988 Big Hits look likely to be shown in early June, as the December episodes will be shown next week and the week after. Will be weird seeing Fairytale of New York and other Christmas songs in summer, but the actual Christmas show will sadly be skipped due to Smithy. I have the episode downloaded already, not watching until the editions leading up to it are done and over with. One of the best episodes on recently has been 27/08/87, a very strong line-up indeed (PSB's, Then Jericho, Black, T'Pau, Prince + Sheena Easton- all great songs), the one before that was decent as well (Wax, Sherrick, Spagna, good stuff), surprisingly no videos besides a couple of breakers! Disappointed that we missed 01/10/87 due to Smith though, another pretty strong episode with only Shaky being the weak track in there.

Couple of okay editions on recently, Friday's (13/08/87) probably being the best of the bunch. Do have a soft spot for Def Leppard and their album Hysteria from which Animal is from, and most of the breakers shown were great (Bridge To Your Heart, Just Call, Happy When It Rains, all favourites from this chart). Plus a third showing for Labour Of Love, yet it still not being tiring- good song that. And a good job Jacko hadn't made a video for his #1, or BBC might've had to drop this episode. Also some interesting points, with Rick's debut and arguably the beginning of the SAW domination, an obscure Australian band Pseudo Echo- giving us Bates' surprisingly truthful prediction for Aussie acts crossing over, as well as the banned version of Wet Wet Wet's Sweet Little Mystery. They were sued by Van Morrison over stolen lyrics in this song after it charted, and the one shown on TOTP recently is the version with the unaltered, plagiarised lyrics, which aren't heard on their album or any music channels showing the video! Looking ahead to next weeks episodes, its the last couple before Smith comes back and messes everything up with presenting 4 in a row :( Some of the songs we won't be missing out on before he returns include T'pau- Heart & Soul, Then Jericho- The Motive, and the great PSB'S & Dusty Springfield's What Have I Done To Deserve This, as well as some of last week's breakers in full (Wax + Sherrick), and another live vocal performance from Black, with their biggest hit Wonderful Life.

Yes, that was weird, 16/7/19 only got moved to Friday due to an issue with the video quality of the Madonna playout apparently. Been a mixed bag in terms of the editions on recently, 9/7/87 with Black, The Christians, and Pet Shop Boys at #1 was a pretty decent one, but 23/7/ was pretty dire, not one song I really liked on that- only saving grace being Simon and Janice as hosts. Though not on the same level as with John Peel, I thought they worked pretty well together, which is a shame as Janice only did one more with him after this about a year on from now in 1988, one of her last episodes in fact.

Mike Smith didn't agree to have his Top Of The Pops episodes re-shown when he was still alive, supposedly due to a falling out with the BBC or something, most likely about his bad treatment by them after appearing in the infamous Ghostwatch programme which someone killed themselves over. The Beeb is now "respecting his wishes" after his death, and hasn't included any of his shows in the repeat run since he started in November 1982. Even though this has meant missing out on a sizeable chunk of episodes, as after appearing in 12 over the course of 1982-84, he presents 16 each year for 1985, 86, and 87 (where we won't be seeing the Christmas show and a whole month of episodes from September- he co-presented those with Gary Davies). So nothing Yewtree related- frustrating though, when you think that after banned presenters like Savile and Dave Lee Travis stopped in 1984, Smith became one of the hosts with the most appearances for the next few years afterwards until he leaves after March 88!

Not posted in here for a while, have still been watching the repeats though. Favourites from recent episodes for me have been Cameo's Back And Forth, JAMC's April Skies, and the brilliant It's A Sin which deserved the #1 spot we'll be seeing it at next week- though the current song at the top is utter dogshite :lol: The episode from 5th March 87 that was shown a while back is probably the best one from this year so far- Forgotten Town, It Doesn't Have To Be, Respectable, Manhattan Skyline, all great songs performed on that ep. I do miss John presenting with Janice though, her shows with Gary Davies and Simon Mayo haven't been the same! We have also been missing some pretty good Mike Smith editions, the episode previously mentioned with Depeche Mode was a great one. At the moment the repeats are at a point in the year where he doesn't present an episode for three months (June all the way through to August), probably the longest stretch of consecutive shows BBC4 has had since Yewtree happened! However Smithy comes back with a vengence in September and presents a whole month of episodes- where we'll miss Pump Up The Volume's entire run at #1. This is also the point at which the American version was launched, and I've heard all of Gary's links are left over on the UK master tapes- if true, will be interesting to see some on the Smith editions he co-presents if we keep getting ones taken from the BBC Archive. There was a recent live episode he presented, with left over footage in which you could hear him speaking to the audience.

Anne Marie :lol:

The repeats are going to miss that, it's on a Mike Smith episode. Though hopefully by the time house is in full force, he will be gone!

The two studio performances aside (Swing Out Sister and Gap Band) that was pretty forgettable.

Wasn't a good one tonight, only real highlight was Is This Love, and its the second time we've seen it as well! Looking at the episode guide, there's another pretty crap edition tomorrow with only two performances, but things will pick up next week with a decent one featuring Dead Or Alive (didn't think we'd be seeing them again!), Curiosity Killed The Cat, and a noteworthy #1, Jack Your Body- the first house record to go to the top, then John Peel's last episode the week after that.

The Only Way Is Up is a far better song though tbf

Not here for any of these new peaks :puke2:

Christmas edition, as I thought, was terrible. 1986 wasn't a completely terrible year for chart music, but it certainly was for #1's, and it was reflected by that episode. Lady In Red and that Boris Gardiner song are shite, When The Going Gets Tough is average at best + incredibly overplayed, and Spirit In The Sky is an average at best cover of the original imo. I only really liked West End Girls (which wasn't even released in 86) and Holding Back The Years (wasn't a #1!). Way too many songs only shown on video as well, surely they could've gotten some more acts in. It's a shame they weren't doing the new years episodes at this point, if there was one this year it could've been great with lots of records that missed out on #1, was a lot of good ones that only peaked at #2.

I do quite like Five Star's run of singles from Silk & Steel, yes they're all cheesy but great pop songs imo. Don't care much for everything else that they did though, can definitely see why they started going down after 86!

I do like Shotgun, I just don't see why everyone loves it so much- Paradise was a much superior song in every way imo

Was going to vote Freaky Friday but I hate These Days to death- such a nauseating song and far removed from most of Rudimental's other songs which I loved. So glad it only got one week, and only because Drake went on ACR! Didn't actually think this year was that bad for #1's, there's been better ones but I'll take this year over 2017. Then again though I do actually quite like Drake while most people don't :P Would probably order the #1's of this year like this, pretty much everything after Shotgun I either don't care much about or don't like- 1. Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa - One Kiss 2. Clean Bandit ft. Demi Lovato - Solo 3. Jess Glynne - I'll Be There 4. Calvin Harris & Sam Smith - Promises 5. Drake - God's Plan 6. Ariana Grande - thank u, next 7. Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper - Shallow 8. Drake - Nice for What 9. Drake - In My Feelings 10. Dave ft Fredo- Funky Friday 11. Benny Blanco, Khalid & Halsey - Eastside 12. George Ezra - Shotgun 13. Baddiel & Skinner & The Lightning Seeds - Three Lions 14. LadBaby - We Built This City 15. Eminem ft. Ed Sheeran - River 16. Lil Dicky ft. Chris Brown - Freaky Friday. 17. Rudimental ft. Jess Glynne, Macklemore & Dan Caplen - These Days

Entire top 25, christmas songs- just goes to show how weak streams are at the moment for everything else, especially Sweet But Psycho, which is at #30. Mariah is a dead cert for #1.

Would also put her up pretty high on the year end chart as well

Gary Davies, Simon Mayo, and Bruno Brookes also hang on until the 1991 relaunch of TOTP, in fact the latter two return in 1994 after Ric Blaxill takes over as producer!

Zero clue on what he did at R1 mate but he was very on/off with it iirc. He leaves TOTP around the same point Michael Hull stops producing so thinking those two could be related! Here's the episode guide I always use for TOTP, not many inconsistencies from what I've seen on it. All years covered + Christmas editions listed under extras! https://episodecalendar.com/en/show/top-of-...ps-uk/season/43

I'm sure you'll live

Mike Smith was the presenter with the most appearances in both 1985 and 86, so it has been really annoying. Was checking the episode guide for TOTP in 87 and it does look like Gary Davies has more episodes than him that year so we should get a few more shown next year, especially with MS finally leaving in April 88-ish!

There's only one more John Peel episode left from February 1987, looks like a good one so looking forward to it. The Christmas 1986 ep doesn't look too great though, both Chris De Burgh and Boris Gardiner have performances in that one :manson: not a good representation of that year at all Today's was pretty lacklustre, no real standouts to me. Definitely a downslide from last weeks, hope tomorrow's is better.

You what :w00t:

Glad that George didn't perform Shotgun for once, though he's screwed potential promo for Hold My Girl up royally.