21/02/2022

Top of the Pops 2 February 1987

 

Presented by Chris Arnsby. John Peel: “Hello and welcome to Top of the Pops. No bad language in this programme I'm pleased to say.” Janice Long: “In the studio tonight we've got Curiosity Killed The Cat, we have got The Smiths, and over here at number eleven it's the wonderful Blow Monkeys and It Doesn't Have To Be This Way.”

[11] The Blow Monkeys: It Doesn't Have to be This Way. Wave goodbye to John Peel. His presenting run began in 1982 and it ends here. Well, not quite. They'll get him back once in 1995 although that's more as a pretext to get him on This Is Your Life. I'm not sure about the source of Peel's bad language crack. I assumed it was Eastenders, the programme was still dealing with the fallout of Den and Angie's merry festive divorce, but the Eastenders wiki-page (there's an Eastenders Wikipedia) doesn't have a record of any complaints until November 1987 when Eastenders broadcast British television's first gay kiss. Which was of course a major scandal because it featured a fully clothed man kissing another fully clothed man on the forehead. Swoons. What we need are more stolid, salt-of-the-earth yeomen types, like the lead singer of The Blow Monkeys. Who is looking super with his blow-dried flick of a fringe and skinny polo neck top, with... what's THIS? RUSSIAN WRITING ON THE FRONT!! BBC COMMIES CORRUPTING OUR KIDS.

 


[4] Randy Crawford: Almaz. Who on earth is standing next to Janice Long as she links into Randy Crawford? It looks like one of Harry Enfield's Double Take Brothers. Janice introduces Randy Crawford as “on video,” which she is, kind of. This is a repeat from her performance of 22/01/1987. Apparently her record company was too cheap to record a real video. (Fact John- Almaz is a word that means Diamond in several Arabic languages)



[12] The Smiths: Shoplifters of the World. The Smiths may be “teen terrific” according to John Peel, but it's noticeable that a gaggle of teens quickly leave as Mossirrey finishes singing. Why are they in such a hurry?

Top 40 Charts.

[5] Curiosity Killed the Cat: Down to Earth. Ahh, This is why. They wanted to get prime positions for the smooth moves of Ben Volpeliere-Pierrot. This week Ben is attempting to angry up my blood by adding dark glasses to his inventory but I'm in an uncharacteristically good mood. During the instrumental, Ben V-P moves to the side of the stage to collect a ghetto blaster. What's it for? I think it's an hilarious gag to cover the absence of a saxophone player and spare the band from the wrath of the Musicians Union.



Top 40 Breakers. [24] Five Star, Stay Out of My Life; [23] Eric Clapton, Behind the Mask.
[[19] Michael Crawford & Sarah Brightman: Music of the Night. On video. Sarah doesn't get to do much. “Mmm super,” is John Peel's verdict, which get a laugh from Janice Long. Peel goes on to add, “that's Michael Crawford who this week won a Variety Club award. Mind you, so did Mike Smith.”

Top 10 Charts.
[1] Aretha Franklin & George Michael: I Knew You Were Waiting.
On video. Ex Wham! Members occupy the top two chart places, with Pepsi & Shirlie at [2].

[14] Hot Chocolate: You Sexy Thing. “You know, she could make any old rubbish sound good and I think she just has,” is John Peel's verdict on the Number 1 song.

His last show, you say? Simon Mayo and Peter Powell next week. 

Performance of the week: The Blow Monkeys, It Doesn't Have to be This Way

1 comment:

  1. Peel's remark at the start was presumably about Jools Holland's f-bomb moment in a live, pre-watershed January 1987 trailer for The Tube, which was then essentially used as an excuse for C4 to end the show by April.

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