Originally broadcast
on 24/08/78
Watched on BBC4 by
Chris Arnsby
Kid Jensen. “Don't touch that dial 'cause the hits are on parade! This week to the tune of Andy Gibb and an Everlasting Love.”
Kid Jensen. “Don't touch that dial 'cause the hits are on parade! This week to the tune of Andy Gibb and an Everlasting Love.”
Chart
music: Andy Gibb, Everlasting Love [25]
Bilbo:
She's Gonna Win
[53]. Initial thoughts on Bilbo. They've boldly gone for a very beige clothing
colour scheme; the guitarist is wearing nasty shorts; one of the band plays the
accordion an instrument you don't often see on Top of the Pops (not since The
Wurzels were exiled to the land of smoke and ghosts); the lead singer really
needs to take his hands out of his pockets. It's not the worst song to open Top
of the Pops, but I'll bet it never troubled the upper reaches of the charts.
Bilbo: At no.53 times were so hard that only some of them could afford shirts |
David
Essex: Oh What A Circus [12]. Distractingly the bouncy baseline of this song
reminds me of the one later used for Christmas In Heaven from Monty Python's
The Meaning Of Life. More distracting is wondering what location was used for
this promo film? Initially I thought it could be somewhere on the London south bank
(all that concrete) but there's enough religious iconography on show that it
has to be a genuine church. Coventry or Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral were
my next thoughts but following an exhausting internet* search I can excitingly
and exclusively reveal that the video for Oh What A Circus was filmed at Clifton Cathedral in Bristol. Probably in one rushed night to judge by the
inadvertantly amusing bit where the cameraman has been instructed to film some
shadow play. In theory it should be a striking shot; a single candle flame at
the bottom of the frame and David Essex's shadow moving from pose to pose on
the grey concrete wall. Unfortunately there obviously hasn't been enough time
to set this up properly and bits of
David Essex's arm protude into shot as the shadow moves. Finally the
cameraman notices and moves the camera up slightly, and when this doesn't work
the shot crabs over to the left, ruining the director's vision by taking the
candle flame off centre.
Blonde: Picture This [61]. There's a surpisingly arty mix from the Oh What A Circus film into
Picture This with Blonde in the Top of the Pops studio. Oh What A Circus ends
with a close up of candle flames, which is faded to a single white studio light
shot through a star filter (thus looking like a camera flash -Picture This, do
you see?), and then on to Blondie on stage. Nice one unnamed Vision Mixer.
Lighting Director Mike Jefferies is playing around with the studio lights
again. His big trick here is fading down the overhead lights and lighting
Debbie Harry with a single spotlight while the rest of the studio, and band,
are in darkness.
Jilted John: Jilted John [10]. And Mike Jefferies is at it again. Last week he lit Child in pink,
and Darts in yellow. This week he lights Jilted John in orange and green.
Unusually the lights are strongest from the front so John and Gordon cast
massive shadows on the ceiling. It looks striking; more striking than Mike
Jefferies contemporary work on Doctor Who.
The
Motors: Forget About You [31]. A pleasant but ultimately generic rock track. It's
forgotten almost as soon as the music stops.
Foreigner:
Cold As Ice
[24]. Another outing for the promo film of Foreigner performing this song in
concert.
Hi-Tension: British Hustle [27]. This performance starts off with a fantastic wide shot of the studio which looks like a piece of pop art in its own right; the abstract shapes of the lighting grid, the weird angles of the different stages, and the semi-illuminated crowd. At the right of screen is Kid Jensen briefly dancing along to Hi-Tension.
Hi-Tension: British Hustle [27]. This performance starts off with a fantastic wide shot of the studio which looks like a piece of pop art in its own right; the abstract shapes of the lighting grid, the weird angles of the different stages, and the semi-illuminated crowd. At the right of screen is Kid Jensen briefly dancing along to Hi-Tension.
Boney
M: Brown Girl In The Ring [4]. The crowd standing behind Legs & Co look
familiar. There's Jilted John, and Gordon, the guitarist from Bilbo in his
nasty shorts, and a few members of Hi-Tension. Flick Colby's masterplan becomes
clear when Legs & Co turn and involve some of the watching audience in
their routine. It seems utterly appropriate when Legs and Co choose Gordon over
Jilted John and both stay in character. It turns out that in addition to having
“I taught John Travolta to dance” written on the front of his shirt Gordon has
added, “and Legs and Co” to the back.
The
Jam: David Watts
[32]. This performance ends with a magnificent camera pull back from The Jam,
round the audience, and across the studio to the Legs & Co stage where Kid
Jensen waits to introduce the number one song. Within the last few episodes
Robin Nash has been promoted from producer of Top of the Pops to executive
producer; this week's edition is produced by Phil Bishop. I can't help
wondering if the new blood coming in to the production team has resulted in a
minor change of look to the programme. As well as Mike Jefferies' lighting,
there seems to be an attempt to make the studio a place in its own right.
Rather than the old format of introduction, song, introduction, etc we now have
ambitious camera moves like the one which ends The Jam's performance, and more
introductions with the band already playing in the background; as happens for
The Motors and Hi-Tension in this edition.
Number One: The Commodores, Three Times A Lady. A mixture of Legs & Co's routine from last week, and the promo film
which shows The Commodores being collected from their London hotel and taken to
a gig.
Closing titles: The Rezillos, Top Of The Pops.
*
I do occasionally have a life. Just not this time.
Thank goodness you worked out where Oh what a circus was filmed. It was eating away at us here.
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