Top of the Pops 16 October 1986

 

Reviewed by Chris Arsnby. Steve Wright: “Hello!! Good evening!! Welcome to another exciting Top of the Pops!!” Simon Bates: “Easy boy. We've got a new number one. We also have a great video which is so over the top you won't believe. And the Pet Shop Boys to kick off with. Here's Suburbia.” Steve Wright: “Ooh!!”  

[8] Pet Shop Boys: Suburbia. The audience are feisty. Stanley Appel allows their cheers to break into the title sequence and this continues into the first song.

I really like the Pet Shop Boys but they are not the most animated of acts and yet a chorus of excited noises accompanies Neil Tennant's every move. He starts the song facing away from the crowd and is rewarded with whoops simply for turning round. Later, after the first chorus, he moves the microphone stand and you could believe he was turning somersaults on the spot. The downside of all this approval, it starts to break through Neil Tennant's aloof persona. He clearly feels the need to give the crowd more but he's no Jimmy Somerville. What's a Pop Star to do? Awkward fist pumping is the answer, although I wish it wasn't. The Pet Shop Boys have set up their traditional white computer monitor and Stanley Appel (who this week is credited as Producer & Director, how does the BBC's job title system work?) gives it two big close-ups, as if it's the third member of the group. In fact, it gets a close-up before Chris Lowe who occupies himself with playing the keyboard.

 

[7] Cliff Richard & Sarah Brightman: All I Ask of You. On video, and directed by Ken Russell. To judge by Simon Bates' build up, “so over the top you won't believe it,” you'd think it was stuffed to the gills with Russell's trademark obvious penis metaphors but it's mainly just competent CSO and a dull song.

[25] Boris Gardiner: You're Everything to Me. Top of the Pops has entered a new design phase. The scenery tower era. The dawn of this epoch occurred when Modern Talking performed Brother Louie (21/08/1986) and the pair were joined on stage by a tall triangular structure with an illuminated white ball on top; like an abstract version of Sentreal, the Christmas Tree-ish alien from the William Hartnell story Mission to the Unknown. The... thing was back the following week to accompany Jaki Graham. It was suddenly even taller, with a banana-curve to it, and the Belisha beacon light had gone. The structure looked too fragile to survive in storage, being assembled and taken down on a weekly basis, and unsurprisingly it disappeared.

This week The Thing is back on stage with the Pet Shop Boys as if it's the fourth member of the group; after Neil Tennant, the computer monitor, and Chris Lowe. It's back to it's Modern Talking proportions and the light on top is AWOL. Next, Boris Gardiner is joined by two more of the things. These are columns rather than triangular, and they are made of four fragile looking vertical supports surrounded by solid plastic panels, to give the column a circular shape. The pair form wings to the stage on which Boris Gardiner performs and they are designed with gaps so the camera operators can capture exciting visual angles. The Beelzebub stage doesn't appear this week, has it been replaced? The Things are breeding exponentially; one, two... presumably there will be four on stage with the new Number One, and by Christmas there won't be room in the studio for anything except a forest of weird scenery towers.

Top 40 Charts.

[14] Marti Webb: Always There. The curse of Howard's Way continues as Marti Webb performs her lyrical version of the theme. No scenery towers, fortunately, so that's one less thing to worry about. Marti Webb performs on the main studio stage but it's unrecognisable because Lighting Director Ron Bristow has turned off all the background flashing neon strips. Marti sings in almost total darkness; lit only by floor lights shining through from under the rostrum and a few white lights on the ceiling, plus a single spotlight shining down. It looks like she's about to be abducted by a UFO. However Marti is not beamed up to the mothership, instead Ron opts to gradually turn up the studio lights. I've no idea why. This dull song is not building to any sort of crescendo. Take the opportunity to see how weird and cavernous the main stage looks when all its neon is shut down.

Top 40 Breakers: [28] The Housemartins, Think for a Minute; [24] The Police, Don't Stand So Close To Me '86; [22] Midnight Star, Midas Touch.

[23] Paul Hardcastle: The Wizard Top of the Pops Theme. Yes, that title's a bit of a mouthful but that's how Top of the Pops credits the song. For a one man band, Paul Hardcastle can really pack out the stage. There's Paul, six synthesisers in two stacks, a drum machine, two big bulky pieces of kit which look like they've been dragged in off the set of Space 1999, and a bank of 16 monitors in a 4x4 grid. How many were going to St. Ives?

Vision Mixer Kathryn Randall cuts between the video, Paul's studio performance, and the video running on the bank of monitors behind Paul. It's stylish and technically well done. The cleverest bit comes at the end when the credit for Paul Hardcastle appears on screen, and also on the bank of monitors behind him.

Top 10 Charts.

[1] Nick Berry: Every Loser Wins. “I've got a horrible half-memory this gets to Number One,” is what I wrote last week. I just didn't expect it to happen this quickly.

Blech. Fortunately Nick can't be spared from the Eastenders set so he's on video again.

[5] Status Quo: In The Army Now. Gary Davies next week. Status Quo are on video and the background to the closing titles is the same (yes, I checked) freeze frame from the title sequence as last week.

Performance of the Week: Paul Hardcastle, The Wizard Top of the Pops Theme