vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on May 24, 2020 13:59:45 GMT 1
17.8. Campbell and Turner, who announces Italian dance music is going to be the biggest thing ever. Be still my heart. Black Box. It is SO obvious that the hottie is not singing. It's basically half a song. Couldn't be bothered to write verses so just threw it out there.
Jody Watley. Completely, totally, utterly, forgettable. The proof being I had forgotten it from when it came out and I've forgotten it already.
Charts. Starlight don't have a pic. Martika at 5, Turner predicts it will go further. Great song, and one of the best performances of someone just standing there and miming, she builds up the emotion like an actress.
Alice Cooper. Top 5. This is a very pleasant surprise.
Breakers. Starlight get a play. This is quite jolly. Great chorus which is a contrast to the Chicago-ey bits between. Probably needs more oomph. Alyson Williams at 40, this definitely needs more oomph, it's a waste of her talent. Video looks like they made it for another song and just shoved it in for TOTP. Then Jerico (why did they drop the h?). Corporate rock.
Fuzzbox. This is the one where Tina has the whip. They are the unlikeliest rock stars. They are plainly not taking it seriously one iota. Highest new entry is Queen at 26. Anyone remember it?
Neneh Cherry with a more conventional pop song and a friend. Three songs and all very different. This is the weakest though.
Queen. Let's see if I remember it. I don't. Doesn't really sound like Queen. Other than the vocals. Seems to go on forever and doesn't do anything.
Top 10. Jive Bunny still no. 1. They start it a bit later than in previous shows and add an insert of audience dancing. Seems to be more danceable than Black Box. Mmm, I could do with a hot dog.
Adeva on the playout. That voice is sheer power.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on May 27, 2020 22:22:42 GMT 1
24/8 (=3). Goodier and Brambles. In the studio, Betty Boo & The Beatmasters. Beatmasters look nothing like what their sound is. Boo seems to have a voice in there as well as a somewhat cartoonish rap. It's a weird yet winning combination.
Lisa Stansfield. See above. She's absolutely delighted to be on Ver Pops.
Chartbeats. Eurythmics in only at 40. Bubble burst? Malcolm McLaren and Lisa Marie at 34, that is one hell of a track.
Up 21 places, Alison Williams. See above again.
Starlight. Again we are back to breakers getting two goes on TOTP. So Then Jerico will be up soon. This is despite, as Brambles said, there being loads of new entries.
Aaaaaand right on cue is Then Jerico. OK, so that's half the programme in total being repeats.
Charts again. Adeva goes up 18 to 18. Maybe she will bust through the glass ceiling at 17.
God almighty. Goodier is wearing clown shorts. What in the name of all that is holy? Bon Jovi, who get a play because they so obviously need it. Bog standard. In that it needs flushing.
Adeva, see above. Cliff Richard, highest new entry, this is terrible. SAWmill by numbers. At least Cliff gives it some persona.
Charts. Alice Cooper at 2, shame he hasn't boiled the bunny. Playout is more SAWmill from Donna Summer.
Point of order. New entries from Eurythmics, Debbie Gibson, Malc, FYC, Damian. Plus Manic MCs climbing when they were not on last week. So how come we had FIVE tracks that were on LAST week's show? Every one of them should have been dropped in favour of a new entry. Literally half of the show was on last week. (Including the no. 1.) What an absolute waste of primetime publicity.
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vya
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Post by vya on May 30, 2020 10:34:21 GMT 1
14 Sep 1989. Quite a few repeats, not great overall.
Damian - "The Time Warp". A paean to a lost, more oppressive, age, I suppose. Seems unavoidable now. Maybe earplugs are the solution.
Madonna - "Cherish". Clear demonstration of the progression of Madonna's career, quality-wise. Unlike the more powerful two previous singles from "Like a Prayer", this is essentially a straightforward uncomplicated pop song with no particular point to drive home. Pleasant, simple tune. And a fine video too. But a cut above the last time she released anything along these lines, a couple of years earlier. Nice.
Technotronic ft Felly (allegedly) - "Pump Up The Jam". Aggressive and brash and kind of inescapable. Hideous, even. It strikes me that the best act around this time to pull of the "get models to pretend to be the singers" thing was the US act Seduction, who released a string of fine singles that were big stateside but were largely ignored here (1 week at no 75 for one of their less good releases). Rather them than this, anyway.
Tears For Fears - "STSOL". Much better video excerpt than last time, at least starting near the beginning of the song. "Kick out the Style, bring back the Jam" is not a bad cultural critique of Some Of The Things That Went Wrong in Britain In The Eighties.
Sydney Youngblood - "If Only I Could". At last, Raze's "Break 4 Love" gets a long overdue TOTP showing. Albeit not quite like that. This is more than tolerable - and its fascinating to note the little percussive touches (mostly round about the chorus) that serve to knit Youngblood's vocals with the Raze backdrop, which otherwise are largely independent of each other.
Breakers. Now introduced before they are played, without being talked over. A good idea. London Boys - "Harlem Desire". Gosh, the merry men have discovered a minor key. Not sure this is a good idea. Rolling Stones - "Mixed Emotions". Sounds inescapably like the Stones, who were clearly too big to suffer the contemporeanisation indignities recently heaped upon Bowie or Ross. Just not the Stones on a very good day, lifting mini-chorus notwithstanding. We Are Sexual Perverts- "Forever Free". Now they are getting chart singles consistently it is evidnetly time to show the world that the mean mothe-f'in men also have hearts and can do rock ballads just like wot Poison can. Whatever.
Tina Turner - "The Best". Still corporate rock.
Black Box - "Ride On Time". Waaah haaah.
Aerosmith - "Love In An Elevator". Felt like a (musically persuasive) Benny Hill throwback even then. (Their next single, big in the US, but made no 76 here, "Janie's Got A Gun" was quite the opposite - them really showing their sensitive and psychologically insightful side in an utterly uncringeworthy manner)
Madonna and to an extent Youngblood apart this was a pretty rubbish edition, in all.
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vya
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Post by vya on May 30, 2020 11:21:30 GMT 1
21 Sep 1989. Nicky Campbell: clearly more intelligent (and less of a Tory) than the other Radio 1-affiliated presenters. And doesn't he know it?
London Boys - "Harlem Desire". Minor key. Social commentary + skilful backflips. Almost shares its name with that of the prominentish French socialist politician, Harlem Désir. It doesn't quite work.
Aerosmith - "Love In An Elevator". Not in the times of social distancing, please!
S-Express - "Mantra for a State of Mind". Probably mostly a hit on the basis of the S-Express name. But kind of delicate and fascinating and deep-ish in its way without ever threatening to come close to memorable classic status.
Richard Marx - "Right Here Waiting". Superior piano-led ballad.
The Wonder Stuff - "Don't Let Me Down, Gently". A bit of a riot. Anarchic energy and wit with a hint of spiky attitude. The songwriting could be tightened up a bit, but, wow, the guitar-work.
Breakers: The Beautiful South - "You Keep It All In". Ah, emotional repression. Much superior to their debut. Gloria Estefan - "Oye Mi Canto (Hear My Voice)". With the welcome return of an overtly Latin element to the sound machine. Pretty, appealling. Aretha + Whitney - "It's Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be". Sadly, so, so, so, much less than the sum of its parts. The smothering 80s production and the dire quality of the song are the culprits. Deacon Blue - "Love And Regret". Utterly, utterly gorgeous. Quite possibly their best single to date.
WASP- "Forever Free". Tolerable, just.
Black Box - "Ride on Time". Such a hot temptation.
Janet Jackson - "Miss You Much". Masterful in its regimentation.
A mixed bag but one more or less devoid of brilliance.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on May 31, 2020 21:39:03 GMT 1
I love Pump Up The Jam! It’s just so throbbing and urgent and yet crisp and sparse as well. The bass is amazing. Reminiscent of a long gone time when big dance hits could still have the feeling of sounding new and different.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jun 6, 2020 9:42:58 GMT 1
They put a load up when I wasn't looking. 31/8 Davies. An audience that is bouncing like feck even though there's nothing on. Davies claims it's a special show because they're starting with Fig Bun. Is this "special" in the Olympics sense?
Debbie Gibson with something that sounds like it was created by a group of young Christians for Sunday morning kids' tv. Surely by now she should be doing something a bit more grown up? Maybe my little jibe above dies indeed work for the entire show...
GnR. This has all the hallmarks of a follow-up single from a one-hit-wonder. It's just filling space. Doubt we will hear from them again in the UK. The US, probably, but that's not an endorsement of quality.
Charts. Black Box. Yes, she's hot. But this entire concept is repellent.
Tina Turner with a showstopper from a musical sort of thing. Best thing on a very, very poor show.
Eurythmics. With a full band for once. It's not improved things, this is woeful. It's not Eurythmicy, it's like Robert Palmer from three years ago.
Charts. Back to 20. Donna Summer. The SAWmill incorporating a tiny, tiny amount of Chicago house into their production. Great voice. Song only just qualifies as a song, it is so instantly unmemorable.
Highest new entry is at no. 9. That's quite a high one, so doubtless we will get the full video? Nope, we join two-thirds of the way through. It's Tears For Fears with what may well be the best top 10 this year. They've gone full psychedelic Beatles and it works. This is magnificent. And TOTP cut it short so they could play the utter sh*te they have played on the show? The song selection and editing in recent weeks has been DIABOLICAL. Someone needs firing. From a cannon into a cliff-face.
Highest climber. Damian's "Time Warp". This is two bugbears in one. One, I've never understood why the original has never been released. It's one of the great songs of the seventies, it's fun, it's exuberant, it's inclusive. Two, the habit in 1988 of making really, really, really sh*tty remixes of songs for the sake of it. And this...this is the absolute barrel-scraping worst. This takes everything about the original that's brilliant and replaces it almost surgically with PWL abortions. This is perhaps as close music gets to being actually, positively, evil.
Top 10. The bunny is still no. 1. I get the feeling the biggest budget on this was animating the rabbit. It really says a lot how vapid and detrimental the music scene is that this hack job can spend 5 weeks at no. 1.
Malcolm McLaren on the playout. Again, another waste, because this is astounding. Seductive, sublime, subliminal, susurrational, sensational.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jun 6, 2020 10:02:43 GMT 1
Seven of nine. Bruno Brookes, who is dressed like the audience, i.e. it's after work drinks.
Marillion with a new singer. Sounds like The Cult. But with a not as distinctive a singer.
Highest climber is Richard Marx, not as funny as Groucho. God almighty, this is dreadful.
Starlight, been done to death now. Seems to have been climbing forever. LOL, Mussolini.
Prince. Well, don't remember this at all. Not surprising, it's Prince by numbers. It's weird that anyone bought this. In that it's surely only for the sort of fan who would already have the album.
Alyson Williams. Can't be bothered with this again.
Depeche Mode. Well, they've discovered Foetus, it seems. Much harder edge than hitherto. I like the hos.
Charts. Adeva at 17, lol. New number one, apparently. Janet Jackson, who has also adopted a harder edge. She's looking good. But the music comes across a bit as Sandy in Grease going metal. It isn't really her. It's what a focus group has told her she should do. Not for me, Clive.
Highest new entry is Jason Donovan. Oh God. This makes you warm to genocide. He can't even mime the guitar. By a coincidence, 3 is not just the number that this has reached, but the combined IQ of everyone who bought it.
Top 10. New no. 1 is Black Box. I think I'd prefer the bunny.
Playout is The Cure, with something more brooding than normal. It's the least lovey lovesong I've heard. Almost murderous.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jun 6, 2020 12:41:41 GMT 1
14/9. Crane and Mayo. Can't they find a DJ called Neys to do TOTP with Simon?
First up is Damian. This has to be the cheapest way of getting a hit. Take an iconic record, dress up like a berk, and mime to someone else wrecking it.
Madonna at the beach. She'll get sand everywhere. This isn't too bad, actually, sweet sixties-tinged paean.
Charts. Aretha & Whitney sounds like it should be something the public would want but it's at 40. Mayo asks about Belgian pop stars but misses out Front 242. Technotronic, who aren't there, and Felly, who is there, but who didn't sing. Is this actually real? This is about as fake as it gets. Avoid.
TFF. This time they play the start of the video. Amazing to think they've never had a UK no. 1, thanks to the most obnoxious record ever released.
Charts look dull, the only interesting thing is the big climb for Sydney Youngblood, with something rather surprisingly wonderful. Rather nice bit of laid-back soul with an engaging voice. A good one.
Breakers. London Boys have already run out of ideas musically. Rolling Stones with some rawk, it's not very distinguishable. WASP...with a ballad? Wow.
Tina Turner, see above.
Top 10, the top 2 is morally repellent. Playout is Aerosmith, with a decent sense of humour for once. Playing on a fad whereby couples get into lifts and press the emergency stop between floors so they can have a quickie. Amazing the BBC has not censored it.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jun 6, 2020 13:11:40 GMT 1
21/9. Nicky Campbell. London Boys. Well, naturally, they were on the breakers. Starts with the requiem thing and then the only real difference is that it's more a solo for the one in red.
Aerosmith, who are also on despite being on last week.
Charts. Campbell likes J&MC? Who knew? S'Express, Mark Moore being approached by Prince? Campbell throws shade at the SAWmill. This is more about the vocals than the sampling. Not as good and nowhere near as much fun as the earlier ones. Still got the blonde cutie on keys.
Richard Marx. Feck him.
Charts, and the Stuffies finally make the top 20. This is the first song that gets a party atmos going. Crowd likes it. It's a lot more folky than their previous oeuvre. As usual though a touch of brilliance has been sacrificed for commercial success.
Breakerinos, aka Next Week's Show. Beautiful South, who now have a female singer. Is this going to be a thing? They keep adding vocalists? Dave seems to have eff all to do. Gloria Stevens with something that sounds the same as everything else she's done. Aretha & Whitney, which seems to be borrowing from "Dreadlock Holiday". Whitney couldn't be bothered to turn up for the video, it seems. Deacon Blue, dull dull dull.
WASP, again a repeat from last week. This is so weird. It's like a brickie wearing a dress. It's more funny than anything else. "Every single rock & roll cliche in the book" per Campbell. He doesn't give a toss tonight, it's quite funny.
Top 10. Janet Jackson on the playout.
No J&MC? Bloody HELL. Shocking that the BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation would rather suck up to the sister of a paedo than promote British acts.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jun 6, 2020 14:17:34 GMT 1
28 September. Roscoe and Powell. Now there's a sandwich. Sydney Youngblood to start, see above.
Kate Bush in at 12. There's something oriental about this. Doesn't really set her voice off to the best. Seems to be more an excuse for her to do some mad dancing in the video.
Beautiful South. Lacks the spark of the debut. Oh, Dave gets a token verse. But it's dull.
Technotronic on video. God, Felly's dancing is sh*te. There's just no need for this.
Charts, they already did 40-31 but it was dull, 30-11 is also dull. Dull is the watchword for the programme post-Youngblood.
As if to emphasize the dullness of this programme, next up is Wet Wet Wet, with something intensely dull. I'm feeling the will to live drip out of me the longer this goes on. Let's FF it.
Breakers. Billy Joel with a history lesson. Heh, this is quite fun. We think we have weird times now but 1963-75 saw the US kill a President, land on the Moon, lose a war against North Vietnam, and sack a President. Curiosity. DULL!!!!!! You can almost smell the yuppie canapes. Hm, St Kitts flag.
Highest new entry is Erasure. This is a palpable step-up, rather angry and, unlike the boygroups just on, it has a TUNE. Builds up nicely as well, although we do not see the peak. Lyrics sound a bit mad.
Aaaand it's back to the dull with Glo Steve. I really can't be doing with this.
Top 10. Let's just skip to the playout. God, Janet Jackson AGAIN???! Oh, no, it's Karyn White, but it looks and sounds identical.
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vya
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Post by vya on Jun 6, 2020 19:22:29 GMT 1
28 Sept. A week of not entirely successful comebacks.
Sydney Youngblood, "If Only I Could": sounds even better second time around.
Kate Bush, "The Sensual World". Her first single for ages, title track of a forthcoming album. Not really an obvious single, if Bush still contemplates such a thing. Quirky, eccentric, obviously, and mildly, quietly, compelling but devoid of a hook.
Beautiful South, "You Keep It All In". Hull with its musical flair. Great interplay between the three vocalists. As charming and eccentic and provinical English as your average 1970s BBC sitcom, and better than their debut, and up there with the Housemartins' best.
Technotronic "featuring Felly", "Pump Up The Jam". The video is as appealling and attractive as the music. Not at all.
Wet Wet Wet, "Sweet Surrender". Man can Pellow grin for Scotland. Another comeback, and I sense they want to prove they are not just for kids, but serious, soul and blues guys. Which results in this not having the chops to be a contender for future minor classic that several of the PISO singles did have.
Breakers: Billy Joel, "We Didn't Start The Fire": not sure which is cleverest - the taut, carefully controlled anger (imagine the contemporary version...) or the strictly chronological order of events related. Curiosity, "Name and Number". Another comeback, and the cat is dead. They were smug and sh*te before, and are smug and sh*te now. Johnny Hates Jazz's comeback single is about to peak at number 84. Pity this couldn't have done the same.
Erasure - "Drama". Another comeback. And like the Wets, a toning up of seriousness and "maturity". While it has swirling moments that drag the listener in, again, it feels insufficiently engaging to be a real comeback moment. Video brutally cut by the beeb.
Gloria Estefan - "Hear My Voice (Oye Mi Canto)". For me, the highlight of the edition by a long way. Slick and well-produced, yes, but back with the Miami Cuban vibe and intricicies they used to have. My fears that she was going to make tracks that sounded at home for Pepsi ads, now the credit is as a soloist, haven't been realised. Yet. Delightful, even.
Black Box - "Ride On Time". You'd think given their mic-abuser never sings, she'd mime better than this. I think this is the new, legal, version of the track with Lolleata replaced by Heather Small, the singer of an obscure Mancunian soul group, Hot House (an inferior relative of their neighbours, the Distant Cousins). Unfortuantely, whereas Holloway has lungs of steel, Small has the throat of a fog-horn, although her own group's records have tended to be more calm and mellow for this to have become apparent there. It is what it is, still.
Karyn White - "Secret Rendezvous". Following in the same new jack swing model path already trod by Keith Sweat, Bobby Brown, Janet Jackson and others, but a pretty decent trot down that path. A re-release, I think, and a not unpleasant ending to the show.
Not great, not dreadful.
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vya
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Post by vya on Jun 6, 2020 21:23:10 GMT 1
5 Oct. How annoying Steve Wright is.
Rebel MC & Double Trouble - "Street Tuff". The credits on their last record are placed in reverse order. Is 'e a yankee? Nah, 'e's a Londonah! Playful enough to be enjoyable-ish.
Cher - "If I Could Turn Back Time". That's quite some video. Cher entertaining lots of sailors and riding on cannons. It's quite some song as well. Generic mainstream rock for radio as Diane Warren does, but its powerful and Cher can pull it off.
Curiosity Killed The Cat - "Name and Number". Insufferable tosh.
Billy Joel - "We Didn't Start The Fire". Would have been nice to see more of the video. Finely crafted stuff, enduring, quality.
Sonia - "Can't Forget You". Clearly Sonia is being marketed for her bubbly, likeable personality, rather than getting the songs from SAW's top drawer. Actually nowhere near as weak as I recall it being, but pretty forgettable, which, for a throwaway pop song, is not what is required.
Breakers: Living In A Box - "Room In Your Heart". Gorgeous scenes of Siena in the video, even if the interpretation of some of the lyrics (e.g. "the door is open now") is ridiculously literal. Better than their early singles in 89, at least; Belinda Carlisle - "Leave A Light On". Diane Warren's grubby mitts all over this, a bit too much, I'd say. Taking what worked so well on her last album and turning up the volume on it doesn't entirely play to Carlisle's more subtle strengths. That said, it's insistent and powerful and will surely do well; Milli Vanilli - "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You". If the charts weren't already overladen with acts pretending to be what they're not, there'd be a case for praising MV as a wonderful conceptual art project with added music, along the lines of Pussy Riot or early Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus. But ballads like this don't even play to what limited strengths they have, so let's not say that.
Bros - "Chocolate Box". The misguided Goss reinvention as soft rock poppers continues. Problem is, the material doesn't stand up, and they aren't long enough established to do genre shifts like this unless they want to lose their fan base pronto. Sure there are teenage boys in Stevenage with Grolsch bottle tops on their shoes, but not that many of them. The song is not quite entirely dreadful, but it looks increasingly like they are going to disappear as quickly as they appeared.
Black Box- "Ride On Time". I think I would pay never to hear Heather Small's vocal assaults ever again. Bring back Loleatta Holloway!
S-Express - "Mantra For A State Of Mind". Calming, appealling, art. And sounds far more like its genesis were in Detroit or Chicago rather than in Barking. Thankfully.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Jun 7, 2020 10:33:32 GMT 1
My Sky+ link broke after the first show last night, so it didn’t record the second one and isn’t planning to get next week’s either. The issue appears to be that they inexplicably changed the show’s name in the listings from ‘Top of the Pops: 1989’ to ‘TotP: 1989’. How stupid.
I’m looking forward to watching these as I don’t think I’ve knowingly ever heard the Heather Small vocals in Ride On Time.
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SheriffFatman
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Post by SheriffFatman on Jun 10, 2020 21:47:03 GMT 1
Oh my God, Steve Wright’s ponytail! That is truly horrifying 🤮
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jun 13, 2020 9:53:02 GMT 1
5/10, Wright and Brambles. On commence avec le Rebel MC et les Double Trouble. "Liquidator" sped up again. The rhyming is really bad. Audience is getting into the last single, by the sound of it. OK but a bit bland.
After Wright goes on about being live, we then get a video. Wow, could this video get any more suggestive? Some sort of big naval ship full of phallic guns and seamen. It's one of those songs that's written to be a lighter-in-the-air epic, it could have been done by Maltloaf or Bonnie Tyler. It's nothing special. Just horribly cynical.
Forty me up babes. Fresh four-ty. Heh. Wedding Present FINALLY make the 40 after being robbed a couple of times.
After two years away, Curiosity Killed The Cat. I'm sure most kids would not have been upset if that particular dog had been put down.
Billy Joel, joined mid-video. Is this ironic? "We Didn't Start The Fire" being sung by someone of the generation that did most of the things that he was singing about? Sounds like he bloody did start it. It's quite clever though.
Charts again. Sonia, who is going out on tour. That's a terrifying prospect. The Wedding Present are in the top 40 so we get Sonia. God almighty, there is not one single redemptive quality about this utter, utter, utter sh*te. Prediction: Sonia will be gone by the end of the decade, the Wedding Present will not be.
Breakers. Living In A Box with a love song. Not expected. Really hot girl in the video. Not a great song though. Belinda Carlisle looking hawt. They're not talking over the songs so we get a bit more of the music. This is uproarious. Milli Vanilli, who sing in perfect English but can't speak it. The backing vocals are the best thing in this single.
OK, we have three breakers, but none of them is The Wedding Present. Who is booking the acts? Bros on video, well, they released this just to fill time, didn't they? There's nothing in this that's got any worth. None of the fizz of much of their other output.
May we well scoot to the playout. Which is S'Express. See remarks about Bros.
I'm somewhat angry about this show. Lots of repeats, again, from the previous week, and a deliberate decision to eschew an act that has finally broken into the 40 after being ripped off by Gallup before. And what's more the acts on were mostly crap. A disgrace of an episode. Positively harmed the contemporary scene.
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vya
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Post by vya on Jun 13, 2020 16:16:35 GMT 1
12th Oct, Gary Smooth Bit In The Middle Davies. Seemed so tasteful when he started on Radio 1, with his Look Of Love (Part 4) theme tune, but in retrospect the last of the old-school trainee Smashee and Nicey's, mate.
Not a good edition.
Chris Rea - "The Road To Hell (Part 2)": a decent start, though. Heartfelt, intelligent, crafted, rock, resplendent with provincial pride and grit. Relatively subtle social comment mixed in. But let's just pretend it's about the M25.
Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers - "That's What I Like". Davies misnames this. Having had this in my head as "the best Jive Bunny single" (which is rather like comparing venereal diseases), I was a bit disappointed. Granted the edit was brutal. But for how much longer will we have to endure this plague?
Cliff Richard - "Lean On You". This is really weird, and not memorable, almost Cliff being a parody of himself in the first section. Real soy-boy harmless vegan department store muzak, ineffectual toss, Justin Trudeau doing pop music (without on this occasion blacking up). Then it livens up, almost aggressively, almost in a manner that recalls probably his best single of the 80s, "Wired For Sound", before alternating between really wet and attention-seeking bits. It's a mess. And he is seriously overacting on stage. He was still putting out good singles as recently as 1987, is the tragedy of it.
Belinda Carlisle - "Leave A Light On". A bit too route one for the material, I'd prefer an out-from-the-back, tippy-tappy approach that would allow the subtleties and variety of Carlisle's talents to be made readily apparent. Not dreadful though.
Milli Vanilli - "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You". Have to agree with Vas that the female backing vocals are the best part of this.
Sinitta - "Love On A Mountain Top". What on earth has gone wrong here? Not that long ago, Sinitta was putting out, yes, obvious pop-disco-HI-NRG singles, but with character and a certain unique appeal. There was nothing subtle about them, but they were sometimes fun. This isn't. I fear she's going down the UB40 Idiot Jukebox route. Or, maybe even worse, adopting the Sam Fox approach of dropping bright & appealling pop singles to sound and look more "street". No no no.
Living In A Box - "Room In Your Heart". Against my judgement that LIAB are no more than an incarnation of Breathe endorsed by Bobby Womack, this is solid radio pop. Great female backing vocals, too. Richard Derbyshire's attempts to mime the lyrics almost recall that All About Eve incident.
Black Box - "Ride On Time". It's surely becoming too late in the year for this.
Fresh 4 ft Lizz E - "Wishing On A Star". One of the lesser constellations in the trip hop (as it wasn't yet called) Bristol night sky. It's tolerable, and Smith & Mighty (absolutely, at this point, the pole star there) are producing it, and their sound is immediately recognizable, and appealling. Open and spacious, if the vocal performance is a bit lacking in emotion.
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vya
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Post by vya on Jun 13, 2020 18:04:13 GMT 1
19th Oct, Mark Goodier. Several cover versions. D-Mob introducing Cathy Dennis - "C'Mon and Get My Love". Not unpleasant (her voice especially), but fairly inconsequential.
Billy Joel - "We Didn't Start The Fire". At least this time we see the opening bit of the video.
Martika - "I Feel The Earth Move". Doing the Carole King track, Martika looks much less forceful than she sounds. Unlike "Toy Soldiers" the style of production, etc, is pretty generic late 80s US dance-pop, but it's still agreeable enough. What IS doubleplusgood about this is that its release led the planned Big Fun version of the track being nixed as a single, which would have been dreadful.
Breakers: Adeva - "I Thank You". One of the more interesting newcomers of the year, and this is one of her stronger moments thus far. Smoother than hitherto, mostly; Queen - "Scandal". Queen being Queen, with lots of Queen characteristics. OK; De La Soul - "Eye Know". The D.A.I.S.Y. Age grooves on with some help from Steely Dan and complex convoluted rhymes. Positive vibes.
Cher - "If I Could Turn Back Time". Corporate AOR rock done well. Nearly as well as in "I Found Someone", actually.
Deborah Harry - "I Want That Man". Also a lil bit corporate AOR rock - although maybe that's in part a consequence of what became that must have looked back to Blondie with affectionate glances and a tape recorder to find one of its starting points. Characterful and determined, with an anthemic chorus.
Sybil - "Don't Make Me Over". A rerelease from the summer. Updating - almost but not quite in the Bristol style from the other side of the Atlantic - of the old Bacharach & David number. Sweet and appealling and a bit unassuming.
Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers - "That's What I Like". As I'd not noticed at the time, the first bit of the video shows a printing press churning out newspapers that appear to be in Czech (I think), followed by (Soviet?) tanks. But that was 1968, whereas the ensuing references, in both the video and collage of recreated tracks, seem to relate more closely to 1956 (i.e. Hungary)! A katonák februárban nem harcolnak a folyó mellett?
Oh Well - "Oh Well". Dutch dancey cover of Fleetwood Mac. Sounds a few years out of date, a bit clunky and heavy. They went on to do a cover of Golden Earring's "Radar Love", which sounded near to identical to this. Oh well.
Not uniformly great.
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TheThorne
Member
*Hillside, slip and slide, feel the pain, it's no surprise!*
Posts: 27,528
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Post by TheThorne on Jun 13, 2020 20:16:50 GMT 1
Cathy Dennis super cute though, think she started my obsession with redheads
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SheriffFatman
Member
Been spending most our lives living in the Cheshire countryside
Posts: 10,930
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Post by SheriffFatman on Jun 14, 2020 12:33:24 GMT 1
Martika, Cher, Debbie Harry and Belinda Carlisle all having sizeable hits at the same time with songs that are stylistically very similar. Any of them could be singing any of the songs and it would work just as well.
Quite a bit of time given to the breakers on that show. Eye Know by De La Soul the best thing they’ve had on for a while.
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Tom
Member
*Of Royal Blood*
Posts: 15,419
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Post by Tom on Jun 19, 2020 20:56:31 GMT 1
My Sky+ link broke after the first show last night, so it didn’t record the second one and isn’t planning to get next week’s either. The issue appears to be that they inexplicably changed the show’s name in the listings from ‘Top of the Pops: 1989’ to ‘TotP: 1989’. How stupid. I’m looking forward to watching these as I don’t think I’ve knowingly ever heard the Heather Small vocals in Ride On Time. Only discovered a few years ago that it was Heather Small who sung the other version, even though I had heard that version before, presumably on some compilation, as I remember thinking it wasn't as good as the Loletta Holloway version that I fell in love with when Capital Fm played it in in the mid 90s. And I heard it on there a few times I think as I wanted to tape it everytime it was on! Don't understand why I don't seem to remember it from the time given my love for it.
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