Top of the Pops 11th & 18th June 1986

Presented by Chris Arnsby. 11 June -

[20] Sigue Sigue Sputnik: 21st Century Boy. Mike Smith. “Live from London! It's Top of the Pops!”  Sigue Sigue Sputnik perform their second single on their second visit to Top of the Pops. 21^st Century Boy will also be their second best performing release and peak at number 20. The song also sounds like Love Missile F1-11 played at a slightly slower speed, which makes it second hand. Sadly for numerology this is where the run of twos break down because 21^st Century Boy stayed in the Top 20 for only one week. Check out lead singer Martin Degville who often forgets when he's supposed to be miming because he's more interested in grinding his crotch against the air. Mike Smith. “Sigue Sigue Sputnik, this week's number twenty with 21st Century Boy. This week we have an international extravaganza of bonhomie, fashion, and good taste. Top of the Pops. Live on a Wednesday night. With Falco.”

[10] Falco: Vienna Calling. On video.

[19] Lovebug Starski: Amityville. A good example of how staging can liven up a performance. Mr Starski is on a split level stage with some of the audience behind him on a rostrum, some in the far background on scenery bridges, and the rest on the studio floor looking up at the performer. Starski can bend down and direct his performance to the audience on the floor, he can look up to the people in the distance, or he can hop up onto the rostrum behind him and interact with the people close at hand; to their embarrassed delight. It suits his manic style, which veers perilously close to uncle-showing-off-at-a-wedding but never quite tips over into awkwardness. I do worry about the trailing microphone cable as Lovebug darts hither and yonder across the stage. It's a trip hazard. However Mr Starsk is an old hand at this, and he is confident enough to showboat, with the move that involves spinning the microphone on its cable and catching it in the other hand.

Top 40 Charts.

Top 40 Breakers. [24] Bucks Fizz, New Beginning; [21] Amazulu, Too Good To Be Forgotten; [16] A-ha, Hunting High And Low.

[6] The Real Thing: Can't Get By Without You. The Real Thing continue to put the lead singer on the far right of the stage; leading to him hogging 90% of the screen time and close-ups. Towards the end of the performance Producer and Director Brian Whitehouse decides to give some screen time to the other three while the main camera is being lined up for the final pull back across the studio. Two handheld camera operators have to provide the close-ups, bobbing up and down like Meerkats to avoid being caught on the wide shot. This goes wrong right at the end. We get a nice long look at one of the camera operators, his arms aloft, holding his camera as high as possible above his head to get a close-up of the bloke in the red jacket, before someone obviously barks a warning in his headphones and he ducks out of sight; lest the viewers get to see a member of the television studio crew making a television programme.

I feel like I've missing something important. Mike Smith said this was Wednesday? And he's made a couple of throwaway references to Dallas? *consults BBC Genome* Yes indeed. This live episode of Top of the Pops went out at 7.40pm on Wednesday which would probably have been around the normal recording time for Thursday episodes. It nestled between Wogan (“Flunkeys of Wo Gan, revered oriental mystic, usher you into incense-filled corridors of the occidental temple on Shepherd's Bush Green to share the mysteries.) and Dallas (“Jamie's outing to the fields might mean that she breathes her last..... “).

Thursday evening was filled with World Cup Grandstand, Northern Ireland v Brazil. Look away now if you don't want to know the result; Northern Ireland 0, Brazil 3. (John- We wuz robbed etc)

[5] Robert Palmer: Addicted To Love. On video.

Top 10 Charts.

[1] Doctor & The Medics: Spirit In The Sky. It's sweet of Doctor & The Medics to keep coming in to the studio. It's an indication of how central Top of the Pops was, not just to the music industry but also as part of people's lives. If you lived in the UK you grew up with Top of the Pops and that's reflected in the effort groups make to appear in the studio, and their enthusiasm to try and keep performances fresh.

Think back to 1984 when Frankie Goes To Hollywood seemed to be the biggest band in the country. Two Tribes was at Number 1 for nine weeks across the summer, and the band still managed to make five of the nine studio days -and come up with different presentation each time.

Doctor & The Medics have been allowed to hang their banner across the back of the stage again, and for their fourth appearance in five weeks they've made a few changes. Clive Jackson's mop of hair tumbles around his head instead of being piled into something resembling a unicorn-horn. The Anadin Brothers are dressed as saucy maids and at the side of the stage their white wedding dresses are worn by two mannequins.

During the guitar break Clive Jackson stands at the front of the drummer's podium, his head tossed back and both arms raised as if he's giving benediction to the audience. He then steps forward and the whole band crouch for a bit of previously arranged business where they all stand as one on the line “never been a sinner,” and give a Suzi-Quatro style air kick. Except the yellow shirted guitarist is having too much fun rocking out. He crouches, and then springs up, and then crouches again, and springs up, and then remembers what he's supposed to be doing.

Ironically the big air kick moment is spoilt by an unusually badly timed cut between cameras. Vision Mixer Kathryn Randall wants a close-up of Clive Jackson as he starts singing, but this means cutting from a wide shot to a close-up right in the middle of the kick and the impact of the movement is lost.

[22] Janet Jackson: Nasty. Gary Davies next week. You will remember to stick around and watch Dallas won't you? This is the series which Thames and the BBC fought over. Meanwhile, Top of the Pops closes with Janet Jackson and the credits roll against a blurry close-up of scenery.

Performance of the week: Lovebug Starski, Amityville

 

18 June -

[11] Bucks Fizz: New Beginning. Gary Davies. “Welcome to Top of the Pops, and we welcome back to Top of the Pops Bucks Fizz with New Beginning.”

The audience are seriously excited to see Bucks Fizz. It's their return to the Top of the Pops studio after a terrible tour bus crash in December 1984 followed by a year in which recovery was interrupted by Jay Aston's unexpected departure, and subsequent newspaper story The hateful, bitchy world of Bucks Fizz.

New member Shelley Preston is welcomed to the studio with excited whoops, shouts of “yeah!” and applause. Very unusually the audience cheers are allowed to spill over the opening titles, a new idea by Producer and Director Brian Whitehouse. Shelley Preston is dressed in a black leotard stamped with the words HOT PROPERTY, black boots, and a flimsy long black shirt which looks like it was flung on at the last moment. A bit of sex appeal never hurt but this seems cynical and sleazy because the rest of the band are all dressed very sensibly.

Clothing aside, this is a great start to the show. Bucks Fizz pack the stage with six drummers, and the obviously percussion heavy song sounds really good; although the lyrics are bobbins and read like they've been translated into English by a circuitous route. “Build a new world, where the codeword is love/ In this new world all the children are one.”

Gary Davies. “That is one heck of a powerful way to start. That's Bucks Fizz and New Beginnings. Also in the studio tonight we have Amazulu and Nu Shooz, we have seven videos for you. Here's the first one from A-ha Hunting High and Low.”

[5] A-ha: Hunting High And Low. On video.

[9] Amazulu: Too Good To Be Forgotten. “You can see 'em playing live at Glastonbury tomorrow,” reveals Gary. He's right you know. Amazulu took to the main stage at 3pm between That Petrol Emotion and Paul Johns, chair of CND, followed by The Waterboys. Tickets cost £17 (adjusted for inflation, that's a swimming pool filled with gold Krugerrands).

Top 40 Charts.

Top 40 Breakers: [22] Bananarama, Venus; [21] Queen, Friends Will Be Friends; [14] Owen Paul, My Favourite Waste of Time.

[3] Nu Shooz: I Can't Wait. Brian Whitehouse opts to present Nu Shooz in a surprisingly static way, mostly shooting lead singer Valerie Day in a straight medium close up. Maybe it's intended to echo the video and match the laid back feel of the song. It’s not necessarily a bad thing but it's unusual by Top of the Pops kinetic standards to have single static shots which last for up to 20 seconds.

Designer Roger Harris has premiered a new set design; a perspex stage backing covered in thick dark lines that form triangles which link to form a giant star. Unfortunately in the medium close ups they appear to form an inverted pentagram and give the impression that the thing Nu Shooz can't wait for is the coming of the Antichrist. Henceforth this stage will be known as the Beelzebub stage.

[12] The Housemartins: Happy Hour. On video

Top 10 Charts. Wham! [2] get an enormous cheer when their caption comes up. Again, there's a sense that Brian Whitehouse is lightly playing around behind the scenes and trying to make the audience more of a feature.

[1] Doctor & The Medics: Spirit In The Sky. After dutifully slogging into the studio four times in five weeks, Doctor & The Medics are finally unavailable. Here's the video instead.

[18] Miami Sound Machine: Bad Boy. Mike Smith and Steve Wright next week. “As you saw in the charts, Wham! are number two, unfortunately their video wasn't finished in time to be featured in this programme.” An unusual Top of the Pops apology there from Gary Davies, which shows the Wham! Split! Was Big! News!

It raises the question of who would have been bumped if the Edge of Heaven video was ready? Not A-ha, so it must either have been Miami Sound Machine or The Housemartins. Personally I'd drop the disturbing everyone's-a-cat video for Bad Boy, if only for the poorly thought out joke about the cat reading Playcat magazine with the underage kitten centrefold.

This week, the credits roll over a blurry piece of blue and purple neon scenery.

Performance of the week: Bucks Fizz: New Beginning.