Presented by Chris Arnsby. [15] Cashflow: Mine All Mine. Gary Davies. “Welcome
to Top of the Pops and here to start us off is Cashflow and Mine All Mine.”
Check out the Mine All
Mine video where the padded shoulders have reached excessive proportions, even
by the standards of the eighties. Cashflow look considerably less ridiculous in
person. Everyone is a little less hunch-shouldered, although there's a nasty
selection of pastels on display and, regardless of what the guitarist thinks,
orange is a bad colour for a suit.
Gary Davies: “Can they
move or what? That's Cashflow and Mine All Mine. Well... Hey! How ya' doin' ?
Welcome to Top of the Pops. In studio tonight we have The Pet Shop Boys, we
have Simply Red.”
Simon Bates: “We also
have the new number one and it's good to know that while Phil Collins and Mike
Rutherford make solo hits, Genesis just keep on going. Here's Invisible Touch.”
[16] Genesis: Invisible
Touch.
On video.
[2] Simply Red: Holding
Back The Years.
“They're singing live in the studio.” Yeah, yeah, sure they are Gary Davies.
Oh, wait, Mick Hucknall really is singing live and he's doing a bit of audience
work as well. He's waving the microphone across the audience on each, “I keep
holding on.”
It's not getting much
of a response from the crowd but fair play on him for trying. Or, maybe it is
getting a response but someone in the gallery is turning Mick's microphone down
each time, in case someone shouts an obscenity. “Simpy Red with backing vocals
from the Top of the Pops crowd,” observes Gary Davies so maybe the audience
were muted to avoid bringing the programme into disrepute.
Top 40 Charts.
Top 40 Breakers. [21] Miami Sound Machine, Bad Boy; [19] Falco, Vienna
Calling.
[17] Pet Shop Boys:
Opportunities. Chris
Lowe is uncharacteristically animated. He flails at those drum pads like a
toddler having a tantrum. The yellow sou'wester falling away from one shoulder
sells the image completely. Keep an eye on Chris as the camera pulls back at
the end of the performance. He drops one of the drum sticks by accident, marks
the end of the song by raising both arms in the air like a boxer, and then
throws the remaining drum stick away across the stage.
[10] Nu Shooz: I Can't
Wait.
On video.
Top 10 Charts.
[1] Doctor & The Medics: Spirit In The Sky. Back in the studio
again for the third time and their first week at Number 1. With his shiny
purple jacket and huge mop of white hair the guitarist looks like a glam rock
version of Jon Pertwee's third Doctor. It's a missed opportunity that Clive
Jackson didn't dress up like the Master. Instead he boldly goes shirtless and
displays his svelte torso. “There goes a man who makes Rambo look like a wimp,”
is Simon Bates' nonsensical comment. It's in the vicinity of a joke and makes
Gary Davies looks more nonplussed than usual. Gary follows this with a request
that Simon Bates does “his Doctor and the Medics dance.” What follows is
technically indescribable. So here's a picture...
“It was better than
that in rehearsal,” lies Davies. Next week it's Mike Smith.
[9] Jaki Graham: Set Me
Free. On
video, plus credits and... no audience dancing, for the first time since (I
think) the return of Top of the Pops after the 1980 Musician's Union
strike. Instead a sinister yellow and red crystalline shape forms the
background to the credits and video.
Performance of the Week: Pet
Shop Boys, Opportunities
The Megaupload version of this one is the studio tape, in case you're interested in seeing Simply Red stopped in their tracks and having to restart and take after take of Bates and Davies rerecording their links. Davies comes out of it more sympathetically than Bates does.
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