Words: Chris Arnsby
Anthea
Turner: “Well hallo there! We're all raring to go here at Television Centre for
another edition of Top of the Pops! Welcome to those of you who are joining us
from Radio 1! In FM stereo! Tonight in the studio amongst other's we've Status
Quo, and the Wedding Present but to start off it's Monie Love!”
I
wasn't sure what it was for last week. Now I can see the idea is the point a
camera at the audience and give the impression the crowd extends up above the
Main Stage. The question is, where is that camera? There's a circular thing in
the background which looks like one of the round Top of the Pops symbols
so we must be seeing at a picture from one of the studio bridges.
It's
a clever idea and the illusion is weirdly convincing. The problem, it ties up
one of the studio's two camera cranes for a single static image which is
frequently not all that visible. It seems like an odd allocation of resources
to me, but I'm not a BBC producer. Maybe it's as much about building atmosphere
in the studio as it is for the viewer.
Something
seems a little off during the saxophone break. Paul Ciani would normally drop
in a Quantel shot to show the output of more than one camera at once, and that
doesn't happen. A whizz forwards to the end credits reveals this edition was
Produced & Directed by Stanley Appel. It is healthy that I can watch Top
of the Pops and recognise the style of different directors? I'll leave that
question to the philosophers.
I'm
going to have to start clarifying my thoughts on Stanley Appel because a thing
called Year Zero has appeared over the far horizon. Little things cause me
concern, like his disdain for using Quantel effects during performances. It
feels like they point to a bigger misunderstanding about what Top of the
Pops is for. Stanley Appel treats studio performances as if they were live
concerts for the viewer. He wouldn't put a Quantel effect in the middle of a
performance because that's not what you would see in the studio. I'm worried
he's mistaken Top of the Pops for a music programme.
I've
seen a clip somewhere (ie, I can't find it right now) of Michael Hurll getting
defensive over criticism of the Top of the Pops music policy.
Effectively the old argument that Top of the Pops is bad for playing the
latest single by Tight Fit over Songs of Indifference by The Surly Longhairs.
This criticism misses the point of Top of the Pops, it's not a music
programme it's a Light Entertainment contest; who's won the race to Number One
this week? Stanley Appel's preference for real performances feels like he's
brought in to this argument and is shaping Top of the Pops into
something it was never intended*. Anyway, this is all a bit premature because
Paul Ciani sticks around into early 1991, all he's done is started a month off.
*The
counter to my argument is that I'm old and out of touch and Madness are not
coming back grandad.
[28]
DEPECHE MODE: World In My Eyes. Promo VT.
CHARTS: 40 TO 31. Anthea
Turner is up on one of the studio bridges, alas it is not the one I'm looking
for. It has the Radio 1FM logo in the background.
[4]
LONDONBEAT: I've Been Thinking About You. BBC VT, from the 13/09/1990 edition.
[29]
THE WEDDING PRESENT: Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me). The Wedding Present and
Anthea Turner in studio together. Do you think that's wise? The last time,
15/02/1990, Anthea Tuner topped their... remarkable... performance of Brassneck
with the comment: “Wedding Present! [wink to camera] Anyone want a toaster!?”
Still, nobody seems to bear a grudge. Although David Gedge occasionally seems
to resent having to mime.
This
is a damn fine performance. It's full of energy and anger. Vision Mixer Hilary
Briegel keeps the picture bouncing between a static shot of the drums, David
Gedge viewed by a constantly moving handheld camera, various shots of
instruments, and the crane used for shots which pan vertically rather than big
horizontal moves. It's difficult to explain why this works without using words
like claustrophobic but not having wide sweeping studio shots de-emphasises the
size of the space and makes it feel like you are sitting right in the front
row. I know this comes just after I've whined about Stanley Appel wanting to
turn Top of the Pops into a real music show but I am nothing if not
inconsistent. When it works, it works. It's just I don't think it works all the
time.
The
performance ends (more or less) on something which gives me hope for the
future. Come Up And See Me has a false ending. The song coasts to a stop and as
the guitar feedback builds we get an unbelievably brilliant shot. The picture
mixes with a shot from another camera; a close up on the double-headed guitar
which then zooms back out. The mix isn't just a cross-face. It uses an effect
that makes the dark areas of the picture transparent (and, the guitar player
has listened to the advice from the lighting director and made sure he's
standing right in front of one of the stage lights so the effect really works).
There's even, be still my beating heart, Quantel feedback applied to the
picture.
The
result is, this guitar flies in like a spaceship accompanied by feedback and a
sense of power building and then the song explodes back into life.
There should be a pantheon of great Top of the Pops performances. Ones that capture something beyond just a band on top form and freeze a moment perfectly onto videotape; this is one of those. Make your own list but I'd also offer up Jeffrey Daniel dancing to Night To Remember, Doug E. Fresh & the Get Fresh Crew with The Show, the Frankie performance of Two Tribes where Holly Johnson goes for a walk round the studio, the KLF's second performance of What Time Is Love, David Bowie singing Starman and (another Bowie moment) the criminally never used Time Will Crawl. This is what Top of the Pops does best. It takes an as-live performance turns it into a television event. (John- Not forgetting Adam Ant using all the stages for Goody Two Shoes and also whoever it was came on with dozens of identically hoodie clad extras- it might have been Eminem or maybe Blazin Squad??)
[15]
THE CURE: Never Enough. Promo VT.
CHARTS:
30 to 11. When
Anthea Turner introduced The Wedding Present she made an odd comment about “the
one they've chosen to play for us tonight!”. Clarification comes in the charts,
The Wedding Present are at [29] with an EP called 3 Songs.
[31]
STATUS QUO: The Anniversary Waltz -Part One. I don't like the sound of that Part One. It
sounds like a musical threat. Especially as Status Quo have taken a leaf out of
Jive Bunny's book of making terrible, terrible, singles and released a medley.
See the keyboard player. I've just learned he's Andrew Brown, he wrote the
theme song for Ace of Wands.
[9]
BASS·O·MATIC: Fascinating Rhythm. The second of three songs which all appeared on the 13/09/1990
edition. Bass-O-Matic are the only people who've made the effort to come back
to the studio.
TOP
10
[1]
MARIA McKEE: Show Me Heaven. BBC VT. A repeat from 13/09/1990.
[34]
RIDE: Fall (EP). Promo VT. Simon Mayo next week. That seems like a name we haven't
heard for a while. Yup, not since 31.05/1990.
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