vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Mar 31, 2019 9:41:12 GMT 1
11/6. Powell and Bates. Live edition, with videos. Contradiction. Starting with the Australian no. 1. Singing live apparently. Australia has just discovered the mullet. Six years late. Well, they're catching up. "We're all someone's daughter, we're all someone's son". Surprised they didn't censor that. I should hate this but...its bombast carries it through. The bagpipes put it so far over the top Chris Bonington would quail. 22 WEEKS at no. 1? Wow.
Bruce Willis. God almighty, what a vanity project. We do however have The Temptations. On this clip Melvin Franklin's astounding basso profundo Voice of God is foremost.
Beastie Boys. Seems to be better to be on Breakers, get a quick rise, and then a full play the following week. Double bubble. This is utterly charmless.
Chartamundos. Broken English at 40. Comment on Brexit? Janet Jackson has a tribute to Numan. The Whispers? Are we in 1978?
The Firm at 13. No group pic. Now I tipped this to be a no. 1 hit at school about three weeks before. Nobody had heard of The Firm.
Back to Montreux, Run DMC following the Beasties. Did the Beeb get a job lot? Dull.
Breakers. Tom Jones. Um. Whitesnake. Cock rock. Well, it's not even rock. Nice girl in the video. Natural in her tiny whitey nightie. Of her I approve. ABC with a very Northern Soul-ish sounding "When Smokey Sings". Of this I definitely approve.
Johnny Logan at 2 with a Eurovision winner. This is utter, utter, utter, utter, cack. Horrible. There is not one redeeming factor whatsoever.
Top 10. George Michael new in at 4 with "I Want". Want what? I can go to the playout. A very feline Jody Watley. Very meh.
That show was dross.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Mar 31, 2019 11:59:57 GMT 1
Eighteen and its division by three. Janice Long looking like an embarrassing mom at the school fair. And Mayo. Introducing Sam Fox with some utter dirge. FF.
Whitesnake. FF.
Tom Jones. Too familiar to warrant listening again.
Charts. "Luka" going back up is about the only interesting thing. We cut to (half of) ABC. Finally something worth hearing. Really great single. Very out of place in the charts.
The interesting bits of the Top 40 are apparently Chris Rea and Janet Jackson. Well, the Rea song is quite jolly fun. Jackson isn't.
Curiosity KTC. That's a better name, actually. Hm, not bad. Bit bland, but there's hidden depths. Worth a listen.
Top 10. It's not very good at all. Michael only at 3. Houston off the top. I know what the no. 1 is because Phillip Schofield revealed it on The Broom Cupboard. It is, as predicted by moi, The Firm. This is bloody fantastic. So stupid and so undermines the worthiness of all the other chart contenders.
Playout is Modern English. Well, they tried.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 2, 2019 23:37:10 GMT 1
25/6. Powell and Bates. Chris Rea. White guitar. He's been around for a while. Still waiting for the top ten. Cameraman very visible on stage. Rea looks bored stiff.
Bruce Willis. No, not even Melvin Franklin's bass can make me watch this.
Pet Shop Boys. Thought they'd gone. "It's A Sin". Wow, this is dramatic. Think it a bit unfair though that they keep rocking up to TOTP when I don't think they've ever played live. Really big sound for this one. Almost ecclesiastical. Easily their best single. Out of absolutely nowhere.
Chartissimo. Bowie entering at 40. Sic transit. Lots of records making meagre rises. Whitesnake might get into the single digits. Only big climber is Terence Trout D'arby and that only just goes up double digit places.
And we stop off at him. Rather brooding record. Quite unusual instrumentation. Black music seems to be getting back to the experiments of the early seventies. One of the male backing singers seems to be Jimmy Krankie height. Quite like this.
Breakers. Prince. Falsetto and greenscreen. A bit salacious but to me it misses the mark. Too much atmos, not enough tune. Prince doesn't seem to have bothered with the video. Simple Minds with a live recording of an old one. Not overly bothered with it.
Cliff Richard with something from 1979. Well, he's getting there. Top 10. Michael's "I Want" is down. No airplay. Whitney still at 2, which means The Firm are still no. 1, deep joy. It is somehow life-affirming that this can top the charts ahead of the massively budgeted and hyped American invasion.
Playout is John"ny" Farnham at Montreux. The Beeb must have had a job lot of footage to use up.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 3, 2019 23:30:25 GMT 1
Beadle. It's Bates again. Was nobody else ever available? ABC to start, see above. Staggering towards the top 10.
Atlantic Starr. God, this is f***ing awful. It's f***ing Disney sh*te.
Chartissimo. Jackie Wilson still going. Any more graves to plunder? Living In A Box are not one hit wonders after all. Crowded House stuck at 27, that's a bit daft. Bond theme at 17.
Curiosity KTC with more yuppie boyband stuff. Another Montreux performance. Done it too recently to do it again.
Breakers. A-ha, Billy Idol, and first up, Black. Reminiscent of Furniture. Rather slow and brooding. Stands out in the fairly vapid chart. Idol's sounds about as punk as self-raising flour. It's almost country. A-ha's is not a great theme. Don't recall seeing the video before. It was a good Bond film though. Dalton is underrated.
Next up is "the band of the nineties". Oasis? Blur? Nope. Broken English. Looking like they've just finished their shift for UPS. This is OK, unusual in that the vocals are mostly buried in the mix. Singer sounds like Jagger.
Some special guests are in the studio, apparently, before they perform at Wem-ber-ley. Spur?. Top ten. Cliff back in there. Whitesnake DO make the single digits. Oh, Michael wants sex. Pet Shop Boys are now no. 1. Hm, although it's a great track, I think I'd've preferred a bit longer for The Firm.
They're not the special guests. After all, they don't perform. The guests are Genesis. Bit of a pointless interview. Playout is Simple Minds with a cash-in.
Not a great show. Yet again. No wonder I'm off the charts.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2019 14:41:06 GMT 1
Just been confirmed by someone on Facebook...Michael Jackson has not been banned from BBC4's TOTP repeats or the BBC
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Post by o on Apr 12, 2019 20:59:16 GMT 1
Some low points, Sinitta doing a song I'd forgotten, Toy Boy, with lots of upskirt shorts as she desperately tries to pull it down. And then the following week, the debut of Rick Astley! High point was Jesus and Mary Chain and Happy when it rains, Pseudo Echo was fun as well.
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Post by smokeyb on Apr 12, 2019 21:25:20 GMT 1
Just been confirmed by someone on Facebook...Michael Jackson has not been banned from BBC4's TOTP repeats or the BBC But fate dictated his number 1 song this week wasn't played as there was no video available.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 14, 2019 16:44:29 GMT 1
9/7, just Davies, and we start with, um, there's no other realistic way to describe this as anything other than a gay fantasy of oiled army male strippers with Shakin Stevens seemingly wandering in from the golf course and dancing like an embarrassing uncle at a wedding. What the actual f*** is this? Has someone transported Shaky to Studio 54 in 1977? Bemusing in the extreme.
Bond theme goes up. A-ha. It's very uninspired. But it's a big climber and could top the charts.
Chart me up. No pic for Boogie Box High. Mysterious. In inverted commas. Big jump for the Christians to 27. Can't be THAT big then. At most 13. Just thought. There's Black and Heart, but no Blackhearts.
And we va va voom to Black, singing live. I should like this but I find it dull. The stand-up bassist does not look like a stand-up bassist.
Breakers. Genesis with a cheapass video. Cheapass single too. The definition of filler. Jackie Wilson gets a new entry. He must be spending all his time in the studio lately. Mel & Kim with a bit of live footage. No video. There are one or two rumous about why they haven't shot a video yet. Hope they are not true. Heart. This is unusual, a rock band with two females in it. This is...rather interesting. It's something of a Bronte-saurus of a track. Dramatic and Gotterdammerungy.
The Christians get an outing. OK, so they went up 11. That's not that huge. It's OK, there's some promise there. A bit like Level 42 with more tune and less bass.
Top 10. The Firm are going down, sad face. Bruce Willis misses out on a play despite going up to 2. PSBs at the top, not playing the sepulchral video. Playout is Terence "Trout" d'Arby's rather seductive slice of slightly twisted soul. Girl in the video is hawt.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Apr 15, 2019 21:37:10 GMT 1
Blessed relief that I Just Can’t Stop Loving You didn’t have a video, although it’s a mystifying move for a man who, at various points in his career, made a massive deal out of videos. Still, how anyone ever thought that rubbish would make suitable first single material from Bad is completely beyond me.
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Post by raliverpool on Apr 15, 2019 22:07:06 GMT 1
Blessed relief that I Just Can’t Stop Loving You didn’t have a video, although it’s a mystifying move for a man who, at various points in his career, made a massive deal out of videos. Still, how anyone ever thought that rubbish would make suitable first single material from Bad is completely beyond me. Well the first single from Thriller "The Girl Is Mine" did not have a video, either; and that album still turned out quite successful.
It still seems quite interesting historically, that Siedah Garrett was a last minute that will do choice for the duet.
As it was first offered to Barbra Streisand who turned it down due to thinking the age difference on this love song between her & MJ would make the lyrics seem unbelievable; helped by the fact she did not like the song at all.
Then MJ's second choice was Whitney Houston; but it was turned down by Arista (Whitney's record label) as Arista records head Clive Davis "feared she would be overexposed", as she had just released her second album; although in his 2013 autobiography "The Soundtrack of My Life" he claimed he was aware of the rumours about MJ's "highly questionable sexual behaviour" (which the FBI first investigated in 1983 until POTUS Ronald Reagan stopped it) and thought it was best to avoid a possible future scandal.
I'm ashamed to admit I saw this very gig in 1988 and therefore saw this live performance of this song with the then unknown touring backing singer & guitarist Sheryl Crow:
And of course it was planned for his 2009 This Is It residency he would perform that song (as one of the 7 non mimed songs in his planned set) with his 02 support act ... Lady Gaga.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Apr 16, 2019 7:46:07 GMT 1
Why ashamed Raliverpool? I saw Jackson on the Bad tour too, first gig I ever went to. I was 11, and it was amazing.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 17, 2019 23:26:25 GMT 1
16/7. Powell and Bates. Starting with Bananarama. Keren is looking uber hot. But this is dire. The backing has the emotion and integrity of an eggy fart. And stupid brass stabs. It's obviously a SAWmill production because it is to music what Hitler was to Judaism. What a waste.
Bruce Willis at 2. Nope.
Hue & Cry. They're all over the place at the moment. This is OK, nothing more, but they're promoting themselves like mad.
Charts. There's nothing of any interest at all here. Other than Los Lobos and frankly it's a cheapass cover rather than giving Richie Valens a much delayed hit. I might be able to whizz through this show quickly unless there's a top 10 new entry of interest.
Kenny G. God almighty, the yuppies will be w**king themselves over this.
Mel & Kim. This time it's the video. And they're not in it, other than stock footage and marionette form. Bit worrying.
Bates introduces the breakers as "new songs" and the first one is "La Bamba". It's a song about a goat. Should have released the original. The Cure with something that's surprisingly sweet. Almost normal rather than Cure-ish. The highlight so far. Boogie Box High's pointless cover has cheap animation and proves George Michael can't sell records without his image.
Freddie MacGregor. Well, it's good to have a bit of variety, but this is just about the softest reggae imaginable.
Top 10. Black Heart at 8-9. There is a high new entry, but it's Madonna with By Numbers. PSBs at no. 1. Still we don't get the video. Playout is f***ing Madonna.
What a shower of b*st*rds.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 18, 2019 8:17:36 GMT 1
The day after Pi Approximation Day. Mayo, looking very school disco 1984, and Long.
Boy George to start. Don't remember this. For very good reason. It's the most appalling example of bandwagon jumping.
Atlantic Starr. sh*te.
Judy Boucher. Bit of lovers rock from her now. A distinct step up. Again I don't remember it. Charts look rubbish too.
Los Lobos. Graverobbers.
Janice Long is now in a sombrero. Oh dear. Breakers. Errol Brown. He's gone all Robert Palmer. Not very distinctive. Samantha Fox. Oh dear. Marillion. Sounds like their last one. Luther Vandross. Sorry, never got him, his solo output was the definition of by numbers. Beastie Boys. Has the joke not worn out yet?
Back to the studio. Shaky. His dancers are called Torso, apparently.
Top 10. Madonna is no. 1, natch. And playout is George Boogie Box.
God almighty.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 19, 2019 9:01:21 GMT 1
30/7. Davies. Hue & Cry. Told you they were always on.
Heart. First proper look at them. The brunette is FOXXXAAAYYY. It's not very rawk. I ought to hate this. Yet...it wins me over. Not sure how or why. Maybe it is the fox. But I like to think I can see above those things. I refer you to Sabrina and her pair of hits. I do also like the idea of a female-fronted - vocalist AND guitarist - having some success.
Freddie Macgregor. Happy that he's got a top ten hit. Doesn't make the song better.
Charts. Have I noticed before that they've gone to a mix of Gill Condensed and Times New Roman? Oh for feck's sake, SAW are doing their OWN records now? We have a few represented by art rather than pics.
Bananarama on video. Good job Keren's so gorge or I wouldn't bother. They seem to have nicked Shaky's dancers. Siobhan is marrying Dave "Not And Barbara Gaskin" Stewart so they're not in the studio. Bad timing.
Break me up, bitch. SAW with...well, it's not their typical stuff. Lots of old film footage. This reminds me of Herb Alpert's recent oeuvre. Spangna, with something that's been huge all over Europe. THIS IS WHY WE VOTED LEAVE. IT IS BEYOND ATROCIOUS. Gap Band, the rowing song. And New Order. THIS is more like it. Weird yet interesting video.
Marillion. They're trying REALLY hard for a number 1, aren't they? Real huge epic guitars and sentiments and so on.
Top 10. Los Lobos at no. 1. Don't need to see the film once you've seen the video. The bit right at the end of the film is a gutpuncher. Playout is Beasties. Can't be arsed.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Apr 19, 2019 14:23:04 GMT 1
Blessed relief that I Just Can’t Stop Loving You didn’t have a video, although it’s a mystifying move for a man who, at various points in his career, made a massive deal out of videos. Still, how anyone ever thought that rubbish would make suitable first single material from Bad is completely beyond me. Oh I think it's one of the best songs he ever did.
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Robbie
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Post by Robbie on Apr 21, 2019 9:02:46 GMT 1
Copy and pasted from a post made last night in the TOTP 1987 thread at DigitalSpy with thanks to the poster Servalan:
Now that is what I call a brilliant performance!
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 21, 2019 23:44:46 GMT 1
f***ing is, isn't it? Follow that, Cyrus. Without your 347 songwriters, 583 producers, and f***ing vocoder.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 22, 2019 9:57:10 GMT 1
6/8. Davies. "Girls' night out, with Sinitta, Samantha, and Spagna." Oh God. This is going to suck.
Oh. Maybe not. New Order live. This is very impressive. It's a great single as well. And they look so unlike pop stars. Like they've just popped out of the Price Waterhouse drinky do. And Hooky has been on the snakebite.
And we go from that to a bog-eyed Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram. Oh God, this is going to be no. 1, isn't it? Disneycore. Eff this.
Sinitta. OK, let's be honest, I would ruin her for other men. But this song has gone through the bottom of the barrel and is desperately scooping out earth in a mad headlong rush for the earth's core.
Charts. Echo & The Bunnymen, nice. We go to Smanfer on video. People buy this? Did it come with a poster?
Breakers. Wet Wet Wet. Well, this is actually quite jolly, if one ignores the exploita-video. Nice upbeat pop single with an attractive chorus. Maybe there's something there after all. Motley Crue. Not sure if serious. Def Leppard. It is what it is.
Studio. Spagna. f***ing hell, this is atrocious. It's out-digging Sinitta. And that barnet.
Top 10. Jacko is in at 5. I bet that's crap. The Wolves with "The Goat" still at no. 1. Wonder if Davies is going to make his habitual quip that the lyrics are better in Spanish?
Playout is SAW. It's better than literally everything else they have ever or will ever produce.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Apr 22, 2019 10:51:48 GMT 1
Sugarcubes. Powell and Bates. First time on TOTP for Def Leppard, well, I would have assumed they'd been on before, but whatevs. Bit before the chorus is pretty decent but otherwise it's so obviously a stadium rocker.
We follow that with the Crue. It's basically a show of last week's breakers then. Seems a bit unfair.
Another debut whcih Bates calls "superb" Rick Astley. Now this must be a new definition of the word "superb". One that means "utter sh*te". Horrible.
Charts. Wax. They look familiar. Who actually is Sherrick? J&MC, good times.
And we complete the breaker repeats with Wet Wet Wet. The scheduling for TOTP has gone completely to pot. It would have been far fairer, and given far more exposure, NOT to have the breakers, but just give the "breakers" their full play. Then they wouldn't have needed to waste literally half of this programme playing songs that had been on the week before. From this week's chart why not give a full play to Echo & The Bunnymen, J&MC, and Sherrick? They weren't on last week and merit a play.
Breakers this week. Wax with an interesting video. Did they get yer man Godley to do it? Decent song. Kim Wilde looking hawt. Song is crap though. Ah, we get a bit of Sherrick. Well, we're not missing much, it's very Alexander O'Neil, but he has a good voice. Aaaand we get a bit of the Chain. Yeah baby. This is where it's at.
Pseudo Echo. An anaemic cover of "Funkytown" with a space in it. What's the f***ing point?
MJ is no. 1, and there's no video, so they can't show it. Powell finds that hilarious. Lack of imagination from the Beeb, they could at least play it for the audience to smooch to or something. Not complaining, the song is total sh*te. Instead it's Hue & Cry.
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Robbie
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Post by Robbie on Apr 26, 2019 11:45:43 GMT 1
There are five Mike Smith editions coming up which won't be shown. Someone on the TOTP Facebook page has uploaded the episodes so grab them while you can...
03/09/87
17/09/87
24/09/87
01/10/87
08/10/87
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