Top of the Pops 11 January 1990

 

Words: Chris Arnsby

Simon Mayo: “Welcome to Top of the Pops. Coming up before seven thirty, you're going to see some of the UK's top live bands. Don't go away. Sorry about the glasses by the way but underneath I look though I've done about five rounds with Mike Tyson. I might show you later. We'll start at number fourteen with the FPI Project, Going Back to My Roots.”

 [14] F.P.I. PROJECT featuring SHARON DEE CLARKE: going back to my roots.

Simon Mayo is doing the whole Roy Orbison bit. Black leather jacket and dark glasses indoors. He looks like an idiot. Alas for my powers of attention, I talked over his explanation for the glasses because I was too busy having a conversation about how silly he looked. Conjunctivitises, apparently.

Meanwhile, the F.P.I. PROJECT have gained a singer. Sharon Dee Clarke. This results in the group getting their third caption from two performances; the 21/12/1989 show credited them as F.P.I. PROJECT present RICH IN PARADISE; the 04/01/1990 repeat listed them as just the F.P.I. PROJECT; and now they are F.P.I. PROJECT featuring SHARON DEE CLARKE.

The Rig season two

The first season of The Rig was a curious series that ended up a long way from what you might expect with an ecological thread and ambitious staging far exceeding expectations. When you think of recent series cancelled by streamers, despite creating a big buzz and seeming popular, it seems odd that The Rig has sneaked though to a sophomore year. I liked the first season but I hadn’t realised it must have done well enough to pass the mysterious criteria streamers have for renewal. Yet survive it has and two years on we have season two.

Top of the Pops 4 January 1990

Words: Chris Arnsby 

Bonus master tape bit: The recording starts on a VT countdown clock held at 10 seconds. The Next Generation by Neneh Cherry is playing and mixed with the low mumour of the studio audience. Several of the studio crew can be heard attempting to gee up the crowd. “Ah go on,” says someone who is probably Gary Davies as the clock begins counting down to the titles.

 Gary Davies: “Hello. Good evening. Welcome to Top of the Pops. Firstly, happy new year. Secondly, happy birthday because Top of the Pops is twenny six years old tonight. And thirdly we are totally live tonight. So we have a real fast frenzied show for you. To start us off, here's Hey You from Quireboys”.

 

The Box of Delights (1984)

 

Produced in 1984 and recently re-released in a special edition blu ray, the BBC’s The Box of Delights adaptation is lauded as a classic and it’s easy to see why. With an unprecedented for the time £1m plus budget the six-part serial places John Masefield’s story in as many real surroundings as possible with a minimum of tv studio and a maximum of location while depicting the more fantastical elements largely using animation. It’s an approach that gives the production a timeless look which, had it relied solely on blue screen effects of the day, might appear more ragged to the modern eye. Noticeably where it does do that those are the bits that have dated the most though the composition of many of them still looks good. A serial that is fondly recalled by a generation, how does it hold up forty years on?

 

Top of the Pops Review of the 80's (28/12/1989)

 

Words: Chris Arnsby

Mike Read: “Hi. Welcome to our farewell party.”
Paul Gambaccini: “It's time to say goodbye to the eighties.”
Mike Read: “We have Police, the [can't make out, sounds like Brits?]*, we have Madness to Madonna. They're all here in tonight's party.”
Paul Gambaccini: “In the studio or on video. All your favourites here. We begin with the most consistently successful group of the eighties. Status Quo, Burning Bridges.”
*I cannot work out what Mike Read says here, or even guess at a word which would make sense in context.

 STATUS QUO: BURNING BRIDGES: “That was a dreadful rag bag programme and was thought of such at the time within TVC; it was put together very last minute and some of guest choices were definitely a case of who was around rather than genuinely representing the 80s.” That's Richard Marson, writer, television producer and director, who was working for the BBC at the time, commenting on the Review of the 80's at Roobarb's DVD Forum.

Maybe this explains why the first act is Status Quo. The same group who, less than a year ago, played out the 25 Years of Top of the Pops. Does the Top of the Pops office have them on speed dial? And why are they singing 1988's Burning Bridges? A song slightly over a year old. What about 1983's Marguerita Time, that got to [3]. Or 1980's What You're Proposing, [2]. Or In The Army Now, from 1986 which also got to [2].

I get that Status Quo had ten Top 10 songs in the decade (it's not quite 1 a year, their two 1989 singles didn't break the Top 40). I get that they're successful. I get that they are popular. I get that their answerphone message is “we'll do it.” But it bodes poorly for the the rest of the studio acts. Right from the start, this review of the eighties feels past its sell by date.

Broadly speaking, all Brian Whitehouse and his team need to do is repeat the success of 25 Years of Top of the Pops which hit on the ideal format at the end of 1988. A mix of old clips and representative studio performances. A few talking heads would be nice but not essential. Most importantly, the programme should be built around 10 studio performances to represent each year. A show like this takes work. Or you can call Status Quo.

 

TV Review- Doctor Who: Joy to the World

 

Unashamedly sentimental and including variations on ideas Steven Moffat has utilised before, `Joy to the World` is the best episode featuring Ncuti Gatwa so far. It’s a three-act story, the first frantic and light as we have come to expect for Xmas Specials, the middle part quieter, considered and the best thing about it and then an ending that is likely to provoke differing responses.

 

Top of the Pops 21 December 1989

 Words: Chris Arnsby

 Anthea Turner: “Hello. Good evening and welcome to the very last chart Top of the Pops before that Christmas spectacular.”

Bruno Brookes: “Yup, absolutely. Bros and Sonia and a brand new number one coming later. First of all a climber of ten places to number thirty here are the FPI Project going Back To Their Roots.”

 [30] F.P.I. PROJECT present RICH IN PARADISE: going back to my roots. The hosts introducing the show from the Crow's Nest! Quantel transitions used as part of the performance! No. Paul Ciani isn't back but it's odd how much Stanley Appel decides to ape his preferred format for the final “real” Top of the Pops. (The next two are the Christmas Day show and a look back at the eighties.)

TV Review- Phil Collins: Drummer First

 

Phil Collins’ prowess as a drummer is less discussed these days than his incredible Eighties ubiquity, his ever turbulent private life and, more recently, health issues. So it is refreshing to find that as the name suggests  Phil Collins: Drummer First aims to place that side of him foremost in his long career. He has always described himself as a drummer who sings rather than vice versa and over two hours the breadth of his musical endeavours is explored.