Top of the Pops 21 Nov 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Janice Long: “Nick Cotton and the mob are after you. Hello, welcome to Top of the Pops.” Paul Jordan: “Yes, we've got a great show. Before that we've got Doug E. Fresh, we've also have Dee C. Lee, we have Wham! and also a record that I've had on my brain all day today. Janice Long: “In fact this lot have been going up the chart faster than they've been coming down the shaft, because they've just been released from the lift. It's Madness and Uncle Sam.” (John- So what’s the Nick Cotton reference for then? Is he on later?)
[24] Madness: Uncle Sam. Qui est paul jordan? He's one of the new faces of 1985, like Dixie Peach, and he won't last long as a Top of the Pops host, like Dixie Peach again. Paul Jordan disappears from hosting duties in April 1986, and from Radio 1 by May which is less than a year since he was first introduced on The Saturday Picture Show, 06/07/1985 as a “brand new Radio 1 DJ,” between TV funnyman Les Dennis and Battle of the Planets. Dixie Peach's stint on Top of the Pops runs slightly longer, June 1985 to May 1986, and he gets bonus points for staying with Radio 1 until 1987. Plus, he gets additional Light Entertainment bonus points for an October 1986 appearance on Blankety Blank with Les Dawson and guests Bella Emberg, R*lf H*rr*s, Lesley Judd, Karen Kay, and TV funnyman Lennie Bennett.
Madness have apparently been stuck in the lift at Television Centre. It doesn't affect them and they turn in a likeable performance. Did they really get stuck in a lift? Who knows? Attempting an internet search using variations on the words Madness and BBC just brings up assorted BBC-political-correctness-gone-mad stories from the tabloids.

 

Top of the Pops 7 &14 Nov 1985

Both shows reviewed by Chris Arnsby 07/11/1985
Steve Wright: “Yes!! Hello!! Good evening!! Welcome to another Top of the Pops!! With me and him!!.” Level 42!! Far Corporation!! And so many other bands tonight!!” Peter Powell: “For starters though we start off with one of the records that's one of the biggest selling in the world at the moment! Number one in five different countries! Number two in Britain! A-ha, Take On Me!”

[2] A-ha: Take On Me. Check out Morten Harket in his fashionable distressed denim jeans and leather band wrapped wrists. He looks very sharp, and so do his magnificently well defined cheekbones. There's not a lot to say about A-ha. This is a solid performance, I almost certainly watched it at the time and I would have been disappointed that Top of the Pops didn't show the video. On YouTube, you can find A-ha performing Take On Me on Saturday Superstore from April 1985; the songs second release in the UK when it reached the dizzy chart height of 154. It's worth a look just to see how pop music looked on BBC1 when it didn't have access to the full resources of Top of the Pops. The answer, a bit drab.

 

Top of the Pops 31 Oct 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Janice Long: “Hello. Nice to see you. It's Top of the Pops.” Simon Bates: “Hello, welcome, it's Elton John's video a little later on but we've got a cast of thousands over here. Have a look. Feargal Sharkey and A Good Heart at number twelve.” 

[12] Feargal Sharkey: A Good Heart. I've written before about my pathetic claim to fame, that in 1997/98 I worked in an office* next to Feargal Sharkey. (John- Was he just stood outside the building then? Or was there a Feargal Sharkey Office dealing with the world’s Feargal Sharkey things?) I would once again like to apologise for the fact that he had to work in the vicinity of a room full of ignorant 20 year olds who knew nothing of Teenage Kicks, or The Undertones, but who used to quietly sing A Good Heart in quavery voices after he'd been spotted in the lift. Tonight, Halloween the most evilest night of the year, Simon Bates can only speak the truth. Feargal Sharkey's stage is indeed packed; there's Mr Sharkey himself, three backing singers, a keyboard player, two drummers, and a saxophonist who appears to have jammed a torch down the bell of his instrument.

Top of the Pops 24 0ct 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Dixie Peach: “Good evening and welcome to another edition of Top of the Pops and tonight, as usual, we have a great line up for you. Live in the studio we've got Jan Hammer and Level 42.” (John- Slight contradiction there, Dix, mate)  Mike Smith: “And we start tonight with a man who's been living for this night ever since he was a kid, will you welcome with St Elmo's Fire at number six, John Parr.”
[6] John Parr: St Elmo’s Fire (Man In Motion). Tonight's Top of the Pops (retrieved from the Sutton Hoo horde https://mega.nz/folder/h0snQACa#uiNNqosfbdrfzODHsE1clw) is quite bad for the eyes. It's a digital conversion of an off-air VHS copy. It turns out that if you want to be really cruel to an MPEG encoder you should force it to convert something with massively variable light levels, rapid camera moves, and lots of smoke and fine detail. (John- Honestly I have no idea what he is talking about here!) Throw in Mike Smith's suit, charcoal grey with a sort of tartan pattern overlay, and a VHS tracking error at the bottom of the screen (how nostalgic), and it's probably a miracle this edition exists at all; frankly I'm amazed it wasn't rejected by the internet.

 

Top of the Pops 17 Oct 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Peter Powell: “Hello! Welcome one and all to another edition of Top of the Pops! On the show tonight we've got Elton John, we've got Jennifer Rush, we've got Colonel Abrams, and who else!?” Mike Read: “Well, one of the biggest risers in the chart this week heading towards the top ten. We're going to kick off with a bit of Rock and Roll, it's Shaky and Lipstick, Powder, and Paint.”
[18] Shakin' Stevens: Lipstick, Powder & Paint. Gather round children and I'll tell you again of the remarkable story of Shakin' Stevens. Now in the sixth year of his pop career, he's released 18 singles and all bar one have reached the Top 20 (Hot Dog, 24 in March 1980), and 11 of those singles made the Top 10. Lipstick, Powder, and Paint will not be one of those Top 10 songs but if you were to draw a graph (with Pop Success on the X-axis and Shaky Factor on the Y-axis) I think this might be the performance to come out right in the middle. I'd describe it as mean Shaky, but that makes it sound like he's had a Billy Idol bad-boy makeover. If you listen to the song it's nothing remarkable. It's another Shakin' Stevens cover of a fifties single. It's the performance that elevates it, and it's a great example of how Top of the Pops is able to work its magic.

 

Top of the Pops 12 Sep 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Steve Wright: “Here's Mike Read!! I'm Steve Wright!! Good evening!! Welcome to Top of the Pops!!” Mike Read: “Oh you're Steve Wright” Steve Wright: “That's me!!” Mike Read: “Number 12 we have Amii Stewart with Eddie Floyd's Knock On Wood.”
[12] Amii Stewart: Knock On Wood. [Just for the record, I have a post-it note stuck to my monitor reminding me not to spend all my time whining about the Mike Read/Steve Wright combination. Let's just take it as read, they both have a much higher opinion of their hilarity levels than I do.] Amii Stewart returns to Top of the Pops almost nine months after her previous song Friends peaked at 12. If this re-release of Knock On Wood was intended to cash in on the success of Friends (described on this very blog as, “an amiable enough song,” ho-ho, eh readers!) then it's very oddly timed. A look at the Official UK Chart website reveals some of the backstory. Friends was released by RCA Records. Amii's next single, a cover of That Loving Feeling which spent one week in the charts at number 95, wasn't released on a record label*. Then Knock On Wood is released on the Sedition label. It looks as if Amii's absence from the charts was caused by behind-the-scenes business.

 

Top of the Pops 5 Sept 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Peter Powell: “Hi everybody! Welcome to Top of the Pops and our new time for the whole of the autumn!” Mike Smith: “All the climbers, all the breakers, and a new number one to come this evening, and let's start off with a real wang-dang-arooga. It's that Tarzan Boy, Baltimora. This week's number three.”
[3] Baltimora: Tarzan Boy. No gorilla this week, disappointingly, and no loin cloth either (see the 22/08/1985 and 29/08/1985 editions respectively). Baltimora is still doing that thing where he throws his coat backwards and accompanies the momentary glimpse of his bare torso with a shocked Kenneth-Williams-at-that-moment-in-Carry-on-Camping face. It occurs here at exactly the same point it did on the 22/08/1985 edition, so it's an established part of the routine rather than a spur of the moment topless-protest at BBC old maids and their loincloth embargo. (Fact John- There’s a rather sad story about this song. Jimmy McShane who does all the promo performances like this one was a former paramedic from Londonderry selected to front the Italian based `group` more for his dancing- and presumably coatography- than singing. Despite the huge success of the song, follow ups flopped and he was soon back in regular life. He died in 1995.)

Top of the Pops 29 August 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Janice Long: “Hi thank you for joining us. Welcome to a very, very live edition of Top of the Pops. We're standing here right now, aren't we?” John Peel: “That's right. We can say really controversial things like bottom and they can't do anything about it.” Janice Long: “How controversial. He just wants to be in the newspapers. At eighteen this week, it's Mai Tai and this is Body And Soul.”
[18] Mai Tai: Body & Soul. Next week Top of the Pops is on the move again. The programme started 1985 in a 40 minute slot pinballing between 6.55pm, 7.20pm, and as late as 7.50pm when Paul Daniels wanted to play Odd One Out. Michael Grade dragged BBC1 kicking and screaming into the future (ie Wogan three times a week) with his February channel revamp and Top of the Pops briefly nestled between Eastenders and Tomorrow's World at 7.30pm. In April Top of the Pops and Tomorrow's World swapped places. A clever bod in Programme Planning worked out that shaving five minutes from the end of Tomorrow's World and starting Top of the Pops at 7.55pm created a variable length slot which could be telescoped from 30-40 minutes; depending on how much future news Tomorrow's World had to cover, and if you sneakily delayed the 8.30pm programme to just past the half hour. And that's how the schedule stayed until the autumn leaves start to fall.

 

Top of the Pops August 1985 mega-post!

All reviewed by Chris Arnsby

01/08/1985

Mike Read: “Hello. [to Mike Smith] You've just got time to change... too late.” Mike Smith: “Thank you very much. Thank you very much indeed. What has got style?” Mike Read: “Peter Powell?” Mike Smith: “No, no, no, come on. What has got style? What's got good looks?” Mike Read: “Steve Wright?” Mike Smith: “No, no, no, what has got a record in the charts at the moment?” Mike Read: “Me? No.” Mike Smith: “No... with all those things welcome Five Star.”

[18] Five Star: Let Me Be The One. The new Top of the Pops title sequence is rubbish. It's just rainbow colour bars and a piercing electronic tone. No, actually this episode (downloaded from Tutankhamun's tomb https://mega.nz/folder/h0snQACa#uiNNqosfbdrfzODHsE1clw ) is digitised straight from the BBC master tape; first we get two minutes of VT colour bars, then the countdown clock (generated on a BBC Micro to judge by the chunky pixels), and finally the real title sequence. I wonder how this escaped from the archives? It's a night of two Mike's, and an exercise in clashing host styles. Mike Smith wants to be silly, and Mike Read doesn't (or can't). Or maybe I'm being unfair as I find myself liking Smith more than Read. This is the last time the two Mikes host Top of the Pops together although they both stick around for a few more years. Mike Smith would present his final show in early 1988, and Mike Read could be seen until February 1989.

Regardless. Here's Five Star. Drilled to parade ground perfection and fully coordinated in movement and clothing. They're dressed in soft versions of American Football shoulder pads, with a numeral 5 on the front in a different colour for each person. This is how the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers would look if they formed a pop group in their spare time. It's a tribute to branding, before branding was a thing.  

Top of the Pops 25 July 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Dixie Peach: “We've got a fabulous show. We've got people on like Trans X, Feargal Sharkey, and Madonna. But we're gonna kick off right now with something to get you into that holiday mood. Here is Arrow with Long Time.”
[36] Arrow: Long Time. The start of tonight's episode of Top of the Pops has been slashed by the BBC4 Psycho-style editor. There are a couple of clues; Gary Davies is rendered oddly mute throughout Dixie Peach's introduction (although I'm fine with an overall reduction in the Davies word count); Dixie Peach's speech fades in abruptly after the audience cheer; and here's the real smoking gun, the font's all wrong on the hosts caption. It's not properly bolded and the drop-shadow isn't strong enough. It's obviously Bring Your Child to Work Day in the BBC4 Caption Faking Department.

Top of the Pops 18 July 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Peter Powell: “Hello, welcome to Top of the Pops! Good evening to you!” Mike Smith: “Let's not hang about. Forty minutes of the latest chart tunes. We start off at number thirteen with Simply Red and Money's Too Tight, and Mick is going to sing live. Aren't you Mick? [13] Simply Red: Money's Too Tight (To Mention). This episode of Top of the Pops comes from Smaug's horde at https://mega.nz/folder/h0snQACa#uiNNqosfbdrfzODHsE1clw Excitingly, it's an off-air recording which means the recording starts with a nostalgic blast. A glimpse of the (then brand-new) BBC1 computer generated globe. Even more exciting, this is a 40 minute edition of Top of the Pops . We haven't had one of those for a while. (Not since 03/01/1985 according to BBC Genome). Let's hope they use those extra 10 minutes wisely. What celestial conjunction has caused this change to the schedule? The Little and Large Show has come to an end. Don't worry, it's not permanent. They'll be back next year. And the year after that. And after that. And again for a couple more years. Meanwhile, once Eastenders finishes at 7.30pm, Top of the Pops and Tomorrow's World luxuriate and spread themselves out across the evening.First up is a 40 minute Tomorrow's World. It's the 1985 Prince of Wales Award for Industrial Innovation and Production, from Highgrove House in Gloucestershire. Then comes Top of the Pops, and then... Points Of View ? What? But that's a Wednesday night programme. What celestial conjunction, etc, has untimely ripped Points Of View from its usual slot. A Party Political Broadcast by the Labour Party. Oh no.

Speaking of Labour, here's Simply Red. Another band I can't watch properly because of passage of time. However, attempting to put aside years of accumulated prejudice, how do they do on 18 July 1985? Well, I don't much like Mick Hucknall's grey slacks.

Top of the Pops 11 July 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby.Janice Long & John Peel: “Hi! It's Top of the Pops!” Janice Long: “Have we got a show for you?” John Peel: “Have we got a show for you?” Janice Long: “And it is live!” John Peel: “And it is live!” Janice Long: “And they are The Conway Brothers!” John Peel:”Which one's Russ?”
[18] The Conway Brothers: Turn It Up. Top of the Pops used Turn It Up as the backing track for the host introductions on the 27/06/1985 edition. The mix of disco pew-pew effects and frantic Rawk guitar was irritating, until the introduction to Ben (a charity single raising money for seriously ill children) at which point it veered into inappropriate but that was an out of context clip. The high concept of the song appears to be a parade of people (neighbour knocking on door, old lady, etc) who you'd normally associate with asking for a record to turned down, instead (and this is the clever bit) asking for the music to be turned up. Except the stream of inspiration ran dry after neighbour and old lady, and that's your lot. Let's repeat the chorus until the end of the single. 

Top of the Pops 20 & 27 June 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Janice Long: “Hello, may I be the first to bid you a fond welcome to Top of the Pops.” Gary Davies: “Er, in other words Janice is basically saying, hi how you doing? What's on the show tonight Jan?” Janice Long: “Well we've got Harold Whatis..er.” Gary Davies: “ Faltermeyer.” Janice Long: “Yeah, we've got China...err.” Gary Davies: “Crisis.”Janice Long: “And we've got Mai......”Gary Davies: “Tai.”Janice Long: “And we've got Sting as well and a fine bunch of young upstanding men first.” Gary Davies: “In other words to get us underway here are the Fine Young Cannibals.”

[15] Fine Young Cannibals: Johnny Come Home. I remember the Fine Young Cannibals first time round but I don't recall them making much of an impression on me. This was clearly a mistake judging by this barnstorming performance of a very good song. I think Janice Long sums it up best when she shapes her words carefully like clay in the hands of a master potter and reveals “I think Roland Gift's voice is just...like...brilliant.” Despite all this praise, there is no way to describe whatever the hell it is the bass-player thinks he's doing. And he looks stupid doing it. Fred Wright is still on Lighting duties this week but Michael Hurll has had a word. The purple studio lighting has been dialled back from last week's visual cortex burning levels to a less strident shade of magenta. Week two of the new main set, for those keeping track, and someone has found the button that makes the neon tubes flash on and off. There's also a new addition, a row of round white lights that flash on and off to no obvious pattern. If you translate the flashes into Morse code they spell out “help I'm being held prisoner in the BBC lighting department,” but that's probably a coincidence.

Top of the Pops 13 June 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Mike Read: “Welcome to Britain's best loved serial, Top of the Soaps. You've seen him on Radio 1, for the first ever time on television a natural life-sized effigy of Dixie Peach.” Dixie Peach: “Thanks Mike. I've been laying in the sun in anticipation for this big event. Tonight I'm going to kick off with Scritti Politti, Word Girl.”

[8] Scritti Politti: The Word Girl . The Top of the Pops studio has been refurbished. The walls around the main stage used to be fitted with neon tubes that flashed in basic geometric shapes; circles, triangles, and squares (alright settle down Pythagoras). The new neon shapes are more complicated and don't flash quite as much. The effect is to increase the overall light levels and form a more definite boundary to the set. The higher light levels make it easier to spot the hosts sneaking off when their introduction is complete. They used to escape from the main set through a secret gap in the scenery by the neon Top of the Pops logo. The redesign has given them a proper set of stairs with a Health and Safety approved handrail. 

Top of the Pops 23 May & 6 June 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. 23 May 1985: Mike Read: “More exciting than Dynasty, more fabulous than Dallas, even better than Eastenders.” Steve Wright: “It's true!!” Mike Read: “Top of the Pops.” Steve Wright: “Top of the Pops!! And here we're going to start with Go West and Call Me!!”
[17] Go West: Call Me. Go West's Wikipedia page claims the band only has two members, lead singer Peter Cox and Richard Drummie, guitar and backing vocals. This must be a bone of contention for all the other people on stage performing Call Me. I only discovered the non-person status of the drummer, guitar player, second keyboard/guitar player, and backing singer because of an unfortunate moment just after the first chorus when the backing singer forgets how to dance. She's doing fine and then the rhythm just abandons her and she is left staring at her malfunctioning feet for a moment before getting back into the groove. Maybe it's best that she is not named by Wikipedia but using an impersonal pronoun feels rude and reminds me of my nan asking “who's she, the cat's mother?”

Go West- Call Me (or I'll kick your cat)

Top of the Pops 9 & 16 May 1985

2 eps for 1 reviewed by Chris Arnsby. 9 May: Janice Long: “Hello. Welcome to a live Top of the Pops. I'm auntie Janice.” John Peel: “And I'm uncle John. And we're going to play you some songs from the hit parade. Aren't we Janice?” Janice Long: “They're smashing, like The Style Council and Walls Come Tumbling Down.”
[13] The Style Council: Walls Come Tumbling Down. “You don't have to take this crap!” Tone it down a bit Paul. Knock off the casual swearing or we'll lose the audience. Or maybe that's the plan. BBC2 is showing The Moonraker (1958) against Top of the Pops. Perhaps the schedulers are hoping casual viewers will switch over, thinking it to be Moonraker (1979). (John- I’d have thought the opposite would be true!)

Top of the Pops 2 May 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Richard Skinner: “What a show we've got for you. We've got Chris Rea, New Model Army, U2, Paul as well, and you.” Mike Smith: “And a lot of noisy people as well. Seven new chart entries this week for you. So lots to come tonight, plus this lot, first time since Christmas 1983. Would I tell a lie? Welcome Eurythmics.” [25] Eurythmics: Would I Lie To You? Eurythmics. You know Eurythmics right? Two of them. A dour lady and bloke who always wears sunglasses indoors. Lots of parping synthesisers and attitude. Well this week Eurythmics have been replaced by the pod people. Everyone is smiling. No one is wearing sunglasses. There are about 4000 people on stage. It's hard to get an exact count because the studio's all smokey and atmospheric, and everyone keeps moving around and... what's the word I don't associate with Eurythmics? Dancing... that's it everyone keeps dancing and being all happy.
I'm possibly overstating how much of a change of direction this is for Eurythmics but it comes as a surprise when you compare it to their last single, Sex Crime (1984).

Top of the Pops 25 April 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Mike Read: “Hi, and welcome to Top of the Pops with Gary and myself. USA for Africa are on tonight, and the RAH Band, David Grant, Jaki Graham, and also Phil Collins.” Gary Davies: “In fact if you want to know how to get 17 hits in 33 minutes just stick around. To get us underway a song that's gone up 17 places to number 7 in the charts this week. Bronski Beat and Marc Almond, I Feel Love.”

[7] Bronski Beat & Marc Almond: I Feel Love.17 hits in 33 minutes? Yes, it turns out Top of the Pops has been given extra time. When Only Fools And Horses finished, Top of the Pops and Tomorrow's World swapped places on Thursday. Now Tomorrow's World has lost five minutes and is scheduled from 7.30-7.55pm, and Top of the Pops slots in between that and repeats of The Lenny Henry Show at 8.30pm.

I Feel Love is a study in contrasting performance styles.  Jimmy Somerville is a natural on stage. He dances like a club veteran and looks at home and completely unselfconscious. Marc Almond looks more awkward, and dances like... well, like me. Fair play to Marc. He's doing his best but he's got the wry self-conscious smirk of a man out of his element. Clearly he would rather be back in suburbia writing poetry about how ghastly it is to live in the suffocating bourgeois embrace of the provinces where no one understands him, and all his real talents go unappreciated. Marc Almond is wearing a small gold star pinned to his blazer lapel. Is it his badge for mathematical excellence? This is an oddly structured song with two false endings, put there to frustrate any DJ with the temerity to play the song on the radio. The first one shifts abruptly from I Feel Love to Johnny Remember Me. The pair continue to sing as Lighting Director Fred Wright uses this moment to cut the main studio lights leaving the stage lit by a spotlight, against a backdrop of neon tubes. The studio lights are then slowly raised again as the song builds. It looks great. Both false endings get big cheers from the studio audience.

Top of the Pops 28 Mar 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Out of the blue a mystery commenter put this link https://mega.nz/folder/h0snQACa#uiNNqosfbdrfzODHsE1clw under the Top of the Pops for 14/03/1985. I think the appropriate expression is; cripes! Or possibly, “My God. It's full of [pop] stars.” Opening that folder makes me feel like Dave Bowman going beyond the infinite, but I'm holding off  on evolving into a big space baby; although I do feel a sixth finger coming on. In summary, thanks mystery commenter. Mind you, I'd better pick up the pace. In the real world it's 19^th April, and I haven't even put the dinner on yet. Peter Powell: “[in media res, as all the cool kids say]...the biggest party in Britain! It's Top of the Pops!” Mike Smith: “yes we have a line-up to beat all line-ups tonight. We have Alison Moyet, Tears for Fears, and joining us from their sell out tour, the highest new entry this week on the charts, welcome Frankie Goes to Hollywood.” 
[5] Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Welcome To The Pleasuredome. Top of the Pops has rules; no band back two weeks in a row unless they are number one; feature the highest climber; and no singles going down the chart. Less obvious restrictions include the one keeping members of the production team out of shot as much as possible (which results in camera operators scuttling around and crouching in a way the frequently makes my back ache in sympathy). One other “rule” I've noticed is that presenters are paired so one is “senior” (don't worry, I'll stop doing “this” in a minute). John Peel gets top billing with Janice Long. Mike Read trumps Steve Wright. Simon Bates is first out of... whoever is unfortunate enough to be in the same studio as Simon Bates.

How does that work tonight? Logically Peter Powell should be the senior host. He's been doing this since 1977. Except that Mike Smith is Mr 1985. The man of the moment. He's hosting 16 shows this year; compared to Peter Powell's 14. The only reason Mike Smith doesn't present even more is that he's spread all over the BBC -Live Aid, Breakfast Time, Children's Royal Variety Performance, The Noel Edmonds Late Late Breakfast Show, he even gets a go at hosting the Radio 1 Breakfast Show when Mike Read goes off for a few weeks at the end of June (and he'll take it over in 1986). So, who's senior out of this pair? Will it be a partnership of equals, or egos at ten paces?
Meanwhile, here's Frankie. The band of 1984. It's an understated performance by their standards. Holly Johnson looks like a top-heavy egg timer in a black uniform that flares wildly at the shoulders, is pulled in tight at the waist and then flares again into jodhpurs; plus peaked-cap, and gold braiding and piping. The rest of the band are sensibly dressed in black long-legged singlets. This produces a good laugh at the start of the performance as the camera pulls back across the stage. We see the band looking like they are all about to warm up for a drama class, before we catch sight of Holly Johnson dressed as the generalissimo of a particularly unstable dictatorship.

Top of the Pops 14 Mar 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Mike Smith: “Good evening. We have a great crowd in here tonight and some fabulous tunes. Welcome to Top of the Pops.” Gary Davies: “And making their debut on the show tonight with a great song called We Close Our Eyes, Go West.”

[16] Go West: We Close Our Eyes. I'm still on my YouTube adventure so this episode has more sources than HP. We start our journey with a file called Top of the Pops 14/3/85 p1.Excitingly, this starts with the (then) brand new BBC1 computer generated globe and the continuity announcer “Rodney's aspirations to become a rock star receive a fatal blow from brother Del in Only Fools and Horses which is why he's not appearing in Top of the Pops, introduced this evening by Mike Smith and Gary Davies”. Top of the Pops 14/3/85 p1 cuts out as Go West start singing. Disappointingly the only other copy of this performance was uploaded 10 years ago and the picture quality is blockier than a Lego set. It's recorded from an edition of TOTP2 so assorted POP FACTs start popping up on the screen. Thus we learn that “Birthday boy Peter Cox is 42 on Tuesday.” How does that work? Is always going to be 42 next Tuesday? And “The band didn't take their name from the Village People. And have nothing to do with cowboys” Who knew, everyone in Go West suffered from pistolpetaphobia.

Go West- We Close Our Eyes (except when its snowing)