Top
of the Pops 1981 currently on BBC4 and being watched by Chris Arnsby (and presumably others)
Noddy
Holder: "LOCK UP YER DAUGHTERS!"
Simon
Bates: "Just 35 minutes away from Britain's number one. Welcome to Top of
the Pops with a good loud start from Slade. Right over here."
Slade:
Lock Up Your Daughters [45]. I was going to speculate on how many years it
has been since Slade were on Top of the Pops but its actually only been
seven months. They were last on in February singing We'll Bring The House Down.
Shortly before the start of the Joe Dolce Music Theatre's reign of terror.
Noddy Holder is on fine Tom Baker style eye-bulging form and this is a song
which deserved to do better than the number 29 it reached. Vision Mixer Carol
Abbott and the camera crew (Top of the Pops has started crediting the
Senior Cameraman, this week it's Geoff Feld) are on fine form, and capture some
nice images; the best being a shot of the drummer through the guitarist's legs
(the one that's not Noddy Holder or Dave Hill... I'm going out on a limb and
guessing Dave Lea).
Slade: Lock Up Your Daughters. Clearly an instruction that was not followed by many. |
Alvin
Stardust: Pretend [5]. "Now ask your mum, or even your grandparents
maybe, about Nat King Cole and they'll tell you he had a great hit called
Pretend." Pretend was released in 1953 and it's presumably because Radio 1
DJs were meant to exist in a state of eternal youth that Mr Born-In-1946-Bates
tells the audience to bother their impossibly aged parents -or grandparents,
rather than telling us what he remembers. Alvin Stardust's version is repeated
from the BBC4 skipped 10/09/1981 J*mmy S*v*l* edition. It's fine but Lance
Andrews -who was in charge of Sound that week- keeps fading up the studio
microphones so Alvin often seems to be competing with lot of audience chatter.
It makes him sound more like a pub singer performing an Alvin Stardust tribute
to a disinterested audience.
Depeche
Mode: Just Can't Get Enough [24]. Anticipation. Will Simon Bates called the
group Depeché Mode? Yes he will. Effortlessly annunciating whatever the heck the
letter é is called and seemingly unaware that in 2016 he will be mocked for his
BBC received pronunciation. The group's called Depech Mode not Depech-ey Mode.
Who do you think you are? Wallace Greenslade? I'll bet Simon Bates also refers
to his video recorder as a vid-a-o recorder like some Latin swot. Meanwhile, a
round of applause for the familiar video effect standby- dividing the screen
into quarters and applying a strobe effect. This now seems to have become the
official BBC Quantel visual for electronic music. It was last seen accompanying
Soft Cell and Tainted Love.
Dave Stewart
& Barbara Gaskin: It's My Party [36]. John Bishop is making a determined
effort to get his presence noticed as Director. Top of the Pops started
tonight with Noddy Holder yelling and now we smash cut straight from the end of
Just Can't Get Enough to a gong being struck, before cross-fading to Simon
Bates who announces It's My Party as the introduction plays. Is John Bishop
plotting to take over Top of the Pops from Michael Hurll? Are these
look-at-me-editing tricks the first plays in a coup d'television? Simon Bates
describes the song thus, "and here's a gentleman called Dave Stewart who
specialises in making oldies sound like something out of 1981." TIME MAKES
FOOLS OF US ALL FACT: The gap between the writing of It's My Party in 1962 and
its sound of 1981 remix is smaller than the gap between now and 1981.
Linx: So
This Is Romance [18]. Another repeat from the 0/09/1981 edition.
Diana Ross
& Lionel Richie: Endless Love [7]. Lulu is joined by Jeremy (John: Jeremy Corbyn?) for a
shameful display of mixed dancing. The rest of Legs & Co have been given
the week off.
Japan: Quiet
Life [39]. Back at the start of the show, just before the end of Lock Up
Your Daughters, the camera pulls back to show -right at the edge of the screen-
someone dressed a lot like the lead singer of Japan watching Slade's
performance. The low low resolution of 625 line videotape makes it hard to tell
if this fuzzy blob is David Sylvian or Vince Clarke (probably) of Depeche Mode
but as the blob appears to be wearing a tie I'm going out on a limb and naming David
Sylvian a secret Slade fan. Slade don't return the compliment and watch Japan.
Heaven 17:
Play To Win [52]. More showoffy editing. At the end of Quiet Life we cut to a blurred picture which snaps into focus over
the start of Play To Win. Then it's back to Simon Bates who again announces the
song over the introduction. John Bishop is coming for you Michael Hurll.
Cutting between songs like this is great, and makes the whole show seem like a
seamless event, but it must make it hard to pull out songs for repeats. They'll be missing their introductions.
Heaven 17 get a big cheer from the audience. Were they really that popular or
did something keep going wrong. A big cheer like this is often the audience
acknowledging a successful take after several failures.
Imagination:
In & Out Of Love [21]. For no obvious reason there's a big gold
harp at the side of the stage. Leee John absent-mindedly paws at the harp
during the musical break when a xylophone is playing. Nobody is fooled.
Madness:
Shut Up [22]. While Simon Bates is yammering on (and having trouble explaining
to the watching audience what a top twenty countdown is, and how it works) keep
an eye on the girl to his left. She's got a drumstick from somewhere but now
she needs to scratch her nose. She rests the drumstick on her lap but she's
jostled by the two blokes on either side of her and the drumstick falls on the
floor with a thump. There's a brief look down at the lost memento and then she
grins; easy come easy go. Madness are on film, and brilliant. This is a song
which -as a nine year old philistine- taught me that verses could do more than
just fill the space between catchy choruses. I remember being amazed to
discover jokes packed into the lines of this song "I'm as honest as the
day is long/The longer the daylight, the less I do wrong."
Number
One: Adam & The Ants,
Prince Charming. Adam
Ant is gamely doing all own stunts again. Good for him. Watch his slightly
panicked expression on the big chandelier swing, particularly as he's just
about to let go.
Closing
Titles: The Police, Invisible Sun [9]. Top of the Pops plays out
with stills from The Police's photo album. An internet search reveals that the
BBC banned the video because it contained images from Northern Ireland but if
that's the case then why trawl through Sting's summer snaps? Why not just play
out with the usual scenes of audience dancing? Did someone wanted to draw
attention to the ban by pointedly not showing the video?
Performance
of the week: Depeche Mode: Just Can't Get Enough
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