Top of the Pops- 2nd & 9th March 1989

Words by Chris Arnsby.
02/03/1989

Gary Davies: “Hello. A very good evening to you. It's Thursday night, welcome to another Top of the Pops.
Anthea Turner: “And tonight in the studio we've got Sam Brown, Tyree, Texas, and Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine!”
Gary Davies: “But first we're going to blow the house down will you welcome Living In a Box.”
Anthea Turner: “Yeeeeess!”

 [17] LIVING IN A BOX: blow the house down. More thunderflashes. The BBC has invested in a new type which send up a shower of sparks and a less smoke than the old ones. The first round of sparks go up following the line “don't be afraid, let it show.” This is a bit of a shame because the next line is, “don't be afraid, just let it explode.”

Did someone hear “don't be afraid,” and press the button too early? This speculation is confirmed when the second time the “let it explode,” line is used a nice shower of sparks busts up behind the band. And the third time. At least whoever's finger was on the button got the timing right for the final round of explosions at the climax of the song. (John- If, as previously confirmed, they live in "a cardboard box" blowing said dwelling down would not be that difficult)

[4] SAM BROWN: stop. “Over there,” says Gary Davies and points. Sam Brown isn't over there, she's on videotape in a performance repeated from the 16/02/1989 edition. Gary Davies we are wise to your lies and knavish tricks.

CHARTS FROM 40 TO 31.

[9] JASON DONOVAN: too many broken hearts. Unless you are Anthea Turner, in which case the song is called Too Many Lonely Hearts. Jason Donovan is on video. Afterwards, Anthea Turner announces that Jason Donovan is “looking really hunky!” “I'm glad you think so,” says Gary Davies, then lest anyone might question his place on the Kinsey Scale he quickly adds, “... I don't.”

BREAKERS:

[23] DEPECHE MODE: everything counts

[26] DEACON BLUE: wages day

[30] DONNA SUMMER: this time i know it's for real 

[28] W. A. S. P. : mean man

[16] TYREE FEATURING KOOL ROCK STEADY: turn up the base. Top of the Pops has previously made use of an effect where the programme's logo is rotated, as if pasted on all four sides of a box. Now, Vision Mixer Hilary Briegel feeds the output of four cameras into the effect, one for each side of the box obviously, and it looks great.

Two things really help. The first being that all four camera angles are sufficiently different to sell the visual; there's a close up of Tyree working the record decks; then one of Kool Rock Steady; then a wide shot of the stage with Tyree to the right of the picture and Kool Rock Steady to the left; and then finally a reverse angle. Also, the spin of the box has been set so it appears to rotate on each repeat of “turn up the base/turn it up,” it could be a happy coincidence but the timing seems too precise to be anything except deliberate.

Veteran effects technician Dave Chapman is credited with video effects this week. He's clearly had a go at the Quantel box with his soldering iron.

CHARTS FROM 30 TO 11.

GLORIA ESTEFAN: can't stay away from you. “Singing live!” says Anthea Turner. Well yes, she is singing live on this recording which is played in from the 16/02/1989 show.

[8] TEXAS: i don't want a lover. The 16/02/1989 tape has been getting a lot of use tonight. So when Gary Davies announced that Texas are “singing live tonight,” my response is to raise a sceptical eyebrow and go “yeah, suuuuure they are,” and then possibly to speculate about whether Texas will be joined on stage by Jimmy Hill. But I'm wrong. Texas really are behind Gary Davies.

Anthea Turner is now so excited that she steps on Gary Davies' link. “That is just such an excellent, excellent song,” he says and then attempts to continue, getting as far as “let's.. ta...” before Turner butts in and bubbles, “and now our last look at the charts! Our final countdown!” Gary Davies stares into the camera and works on his poker face.

TOP 10:

[1] SIMPLE MINDS: belfast child. On video.

[14] POISON: every rose. Who's on next week? Anthea has the answer, “Nicky Campbell and a few guests from Comic Relief.” How intriguing. It's certainly something to think about while Every Rose plays out over the closing credits.

 PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK: Tyree featuring Kool Rock Steady, Turn Up The Base.

09/03/1989

Nicky Campbell: “Oh yes. Good evening and a very warm welcome to a special Top of the Pops, Comic Relief edition. Let me introduce you to my very special co-host Lenny Henry!”
Lenny Henry: [Shrieks] “Yeeah. We're red nose rockin' for the next thirty minutes. I'm gonna go absolutely crazy, here's my pants [does Rik Mayall-esuqe hip wobbling] and here's my pals.”
Norman Pace [as Ron]: “Listen. Give your cash to comic relief.”
Gareth Hale  [as Ron]: “Because it's hard to talk when you ain't got no teeth.”
Nicky Campbell: “AndherearetheReynoldsGirls.”
Lenny Henry: “Yee hah!”

 [17] REYNOLDS GIRLS: i'd rather jack. Things fall apart immediately. The introduction to Top of the Pops takes almost twice as long as usual, 30 seconds. I like to imagine Paul Ciani sitting in the studio gallery smoking eight cigarettes simultaneously and shrieking into Nicky Campbell's earpiece “why are they still talking? CUE THE REYNOLDS GIRLS.”

To modern eyes, the Reynolds Girls arrive with a lot of baggage. Much time has been spent debating whether the song is legitimate protest, a foretelling of Matthew Bannister's defenestration of the Radio One old guard, self-aggrandising rubbish, a joke, an act of Swiftian self-loathing on the part of Pete Waterman, or [insert other opinion]. I have little to add. Except that I was 17 in 1989. I didn't care about the age of the DJs on the radio. They were all old. I didn't much like the Rolling Stones, Dire Straits, or Fleetwood Mac. And I thought I'd Rather Jack was rubbish. Pink Floyd got a pass because I had nostalgic memories of being frightened by the marching hammers in the video for Another Brick In The Wall.

The direction for the Reynolds Girls is surprisingly poor. Go back and watch Mel and Kim perform Respectable, 05/03/1987. The pair are mainly shot in mid shot or close up, and they dominate the screen. Generally the only time both are shown head to toe on camera is when they are not singing and then they don't dance so much as stride around, fashion show style. By contrast, the camera angles for the Reynolds Girls don't take their dance routine into account. The pair are often left facing away from camera. When they are looking the right way, Paul Ciani's direction favours long wide shots that leaves the pair marooned and alone on a vast stage. The wide shots wouldn't be a problem if there were 10 Reynolds Girls or the choreography was amazing, but there aren't and it isn't. The performance looks like two of your mates mucking around in the disco while the 42 year old Pete Waterman complains that the 28 year old Nicky Campbell is too old to play his songs.

It does seem a bit on the nose for this song to be on Top of the Pops the same week Jason Donovan's terrible song reaches Number One. What's that Pete? I can't hear what your complaining about over the sound of all the money you're making.

(John- And all this time later millions of people still listen to Fleetwood Mac whereas the Reynolds Girls……….)

[16] DUSTY SPRINGFIELD: nothing has been proved. This being Comic Relief Eve the studio is festooned in red noses. Lenny Henry wears a gold-lamé coat with red noses stuck to it.

Another chaotic link, Lenny Henry attempting to link the Reynolds Girls to Dusty Springfield comes out with the non sequitur “I'd rather jack supremo... no...” “Profumo,” Nicky Campbell corrects him. Was his original line was supposed to be “I'd rather jack Profumo”? I'm not sure that's much better.

Dusty Springfield shakes her head and puts her hand to her forehead before she starts singing. It looks like she's corpsing. Is Lenny Henry pulling silly faces at her?

CHARTS FROM 40 TO 31. Vas Blackwood joins Lenny and Nicky in the crow's nest to introduce the charts. The background to the wipe into the charts is a tile of the comic relief logo for 1989. And, the countdown has two overlaid red noses either side of the chart position.

[24] WOMACK AND WOMACK: celebrate the world. Did any of these links get rehearsed? Hale and Pace are in the studio as The Management (which caused me no small amount of confusion at first because I couldn't remember which year they were responsible for the single, it was 1991) and they introduce Womack and Womack as part of a messy link which rambles into  the introduction to Celebrate The World.  Womack and Womack are clearly recorded earlier but I can't really work out when.

[18] DEACON BLUE: wages day. There's a small podium at the end of each wing of the main stage, it's occasionally used by the hosts. This time a couple of lads and a girl are standing on the one at the end of the stage right wing, clapping along. Have they been placed there by the floor manager or did they climb up under their own initiative to get a better view? It doesn't really matter because suddenly they are in the way. As one of the camera cranes tracks backwards, just after the first split screen shot, it catches a member of the studio crew getting the trio off the podium so it can be used by one of the handheld camera operators.

Keep an eye on the back wall of the stage at the same time. See it wobble. There's a handheld camera operator back there, alternating between getting shots of the drummer and the keyboard player, he must have backed into the wall hard.

CHARTS FROM 30 TO 11.

[15] PAULA ABDUL: straight up. Paul Abdul is travelling with a full posse. Herself, and two pairs of dancers and three chairs. Abdul, and the two women dancers, stride over and sit facing the camera in a position popularised by Christine Keeler, appropriate for a show which also features Dusty Springfield singing Nothing Has Been Proved.

During the first chorus, watch out for Lenny Henry blundering into shot as he heads to the mark for his next link. Let's hope Top of the Pops wasn't planning to use this performance again because its just been very effectively time stamped.

This is a catchy pop song but not necessarily a brilliant one. The performance is brilliant, elevated by the choreography and camera direction. Everything that's wrong with the Reynolds Girls performance is right here. 

I got thinking about the difference between the two routines. I think it comes down to the difference between being professional and being amateur. Paula Abdul is clearly an experienced professional. The Reynolds Girls aren't. Being an amateur performer on Top of the Pops can be charming and endearing and could have been made to work in the Reynolds Girls favour, but their image is all wrong. They're not professional dancers so why give them a routine to remember? Instead encourage them to act looser and have fun. In the end, I think the person who prepared the Reynolds Girls for television did a very poor job and doomed them from the start.

[3] BANANARAMA/LANANEENEENOONOO: help. On video.

[11] DONNA SUMMER: this time i know it's for real. Another pre-recorded performance but this time it can be dated to the studio session for last week's show. Check out the vertical configuration of neon tubes which can be seen on the other side of the studio. They first appeared last week on the stage used by Tyree and Kool Rock Steady.

TOP 10:

[1] JASON DONOVAN: too many broken hearts. On video.

[21] : mean man. Sybil Ruscoe and Simon Mayo next week, hopefully joined by Rod McKenzie. W. A. S. P. plays out over the closing titles with this week's hosting duties credited to NICKY CAMPBELL & LENNY HENRY and friends of COMIC RELIEF.

 PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK: Paula Abdul, Straight Up.