Top of the Pops 12 March 1987

 

Review by Chris Arnsby. Steve Wright : [Wandering on from the left side of the screen] “Ah!! There you are!! Good evening!! And welcome to another Top of the Pops!!”
Mike Smith: “Don't shout at me please.”
Steve Wright: “Sorry!!”
Mike Smith: “We have a marvellous show...”
Steve Wright: “Marvellous!!”
Mike Smith: “... for you this evening. Marvellous show coming up... ”
Steve Wright: “Super!!”
Mike Smith: “... Including down here, Alison Moyet”
Steve Wright: “Yaaaaaaayy!!”

[16] Alison Moyet: Weak in the Presence of Beauty. Alison Moyet's been given one of those late-eighties power hairstyles which involve applying copious amounts of styling mousse and facing a fan set to King Lear. “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!”  The resulting storm-tossed look is great but has one design flaw. When Alison shakes her head a rogue strand of hair sticks right to the side of her face with the tip almost in her mouth. In the low angle shots it also casts an unattractive shadow. What's a pop star to do? Fortunately there's about to be a trumpet solo and while the eye of the camera is distracted Alison wipes the offending strand back into place. What a pro.

 

[3] Jackie Wilson: I Get the Sweetest Feeling. “More old songs tonight than any old Radio 2 programme could ever offer you,” says Mike Smith.

Time makes fools of us all. Those eighties days are long passed when Radio 2 played Stanley Holloway's Let's All Go Down The Strand! ('Av a Banana remix) from wax cylinder. Instead today you can listen to Steve Wright playing the 35 year old Weak in the Presence of Beauty. What an age to be alive. Jackie Wilson is on video.

[25] Nick Kamen: Loving You is Sweeter than Ever. “Love is sweeter!!” is Steve Wright's attempt at the name of the song. Nick Kamen is forced to perform in a clean white t-shirt because his career is doomed to tie him to things which remind people of laundrettes. It's a cover of the original by the Four Tops.

Top 40 Charts.

[4] Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender. On video.

Top 40 Breakers: [32] The Mission, Severina; [31] Bruce Willis, Respect Yourself; [24] Genesis, Tonight, Tonight, Tonight.

Suddenly we're back to the hosts announcing the Breakers as each video clip starts to play. This is noticeable because it hasn't been done for ages....  I sense something; a presence I've not felt since 18/09/1986. Yes, Michael Hurll is back and sitting in the Producer and Director chair for the first time in six months.

It's odd. The Breakers were introduced as part of Hurll's “more top hits” policy to put more music in the programme and yet he reverts Stanley Appel's change which stopped the hosts yakking all over the songs.

[21] Beastie Boys: Fight For Your Right. On video. I just like to add that I absolutely hated this song in 1987, but I've mellowed on it over the years.

Top 10 Charts.

[1] Boy George: Everything I Own. “... and he's back on Top of the Pops for the first time since 1985,” says Mike Smith. Who has forgotten about Culture Club's appearance on the 13/03/1986 edition, hosted by Mike Smith and Steve Wright?

There's a lot to unpack about Boy George's performance here. Firstly, he seems to have been allowed to bring along his own scenery. Two large black monoliths decorated with spoons. If that description sounds odd, it looks even stranger on screen.

Secondly, the rest of the stage is filled with lots of guitars and a full drum set. Now, Culture Club didn't break up under the best of terms following the end of the relationship between Boy George and drummer Jon Moss. Are the unattended instruments sending a message that Boy George can do this without the rest of the band?

Maybe Boy George just felt self-conscious about appearing on stage by himself and wanted to fill the space somehow, although even as I was typing that I realised the words self-conscious and Boy George don't really go together.

[33] Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Watching the Wildlife. On video. This is the last Top of the Pops sighting of the hot band of 1984.

Simon Bates and Peter Powell next week!

Performance of the week: I haven't played my 1987 Joker yet so it's Beastie Boys, Fight For Your Right.