Reviewed by Chris Arnsby
07/04/1988
Gary Davies:
“It's the UK's number one pop show. Hello. Welcome to Top of the Pops. In an
action packed programme tonight we have Hazel Dean, Ben Goldsmith, Scott
Fitzgerald, and the Pet Shop Boys.”
Simon Mayo:
“And we are starting at number fifteen. She's been chased by the press
everywhere. Taylor Dayne, Prove Your Love.”
Taylor Dayne has been “chased by the press everywhere,” according to Simon Mayo. A quick, free, search of the British Newspaper archive reveals 1988 was certainly Taylor Dayne's year; 486 results compared to 49 in 1987 and 80 in 1989. The most intriguing* result is from the Daily Mirror, 05/02/1988, “*SEXY new pop sensation Taylor Dayne has launched an attack on Madonna, with whom she is constantly compared. Taylor at No. 8 with her wonderful single Tell It To My Heart can't bear Madonna's tarty image. She ...” Alas for research, that's where the free preview ends.
[13]
FLEETWOOD MAC: everywhere. On
video, with “a lot of snogging,” according to G.Davis, London, W12 8QT.
TOP 40 FROM
40 TO 31.
[16] GLEN
GOLDSMITH: dreaming.
I've got nothing. [inspiration strikes] What does the free British Library
Newspaper archive tell us? Glen Goldsmith appeared live somewhere in the
Bridgewater area, admission £3, that was February 1988. You could catch him in
Liverpool in November 1988 at DISCO ALL NIGHT with Jacki Graham and Bruno
Brookes. More topically for this write up the Aberdeen Evening Express,
01/04/1988, ran an interview with Glen. Sadly the free preview only reveals
this titbit. “...thing he did often. 'No not at all', replied Glen a bit
surprised. 'In fact they made the whole thing up. Basically I’m a really boring
guy who just likes to get on with music.' You said it Glen old chum! So Glen,
what scandal have you got to thrill our readers ...”
TOP 40
BREAKERS: I've been a
bit lax about reporting minor format tweaks recently (for shame) so in an
effort to make amends... Paul Ciani has been getting the hosts to introduce the
Breakers while standing in front of a bank of monitors showing the Top of
the Pops logo. (In fact, Paul seems quite keen on bringing a bit of
branding to the show, check out the pan during Taylor Dayne's song which starts
on a wall-mounted Top of the Pop's logo before sweeping round to the
band). This bank of monitors has previously been set up on one of the stages,
but that obviously reduces the amount of performance space, so this week the
monitors are in a corner of the studio. This is worth commenting on because the
Breakers are introduced with a shot which slowly zooms towards our two hosts
giving:
A) us a chance
to see the studio floor. It's painted black and looks a bit lumpy.
B) confirms
that the Top of the Pops hosts do indeed have legs. We normally only see
them in mid-shots cropped at the waist.
The Breakers. [no
24 NATALIE COLE pink cadillac]; [no 23 PEBBLES girlfriend]; [no
22 AC/DC that's the way i wanna rock and roll]; [no 25TAYLOR DAYNE
prove your love].
[20] HAZELL
DEAN: who's leaving who.
Gary's still in Breaker's corner to introduce Hazell Dean. Paul Ciani has made
me a liar. This isn't a corner of the studio. It's one of the stages. The
studio lights have been turned up a bit and now I can properly see the perspex
scenery around the edge. Also, the picture on the monitor has been tweaked.
It's now showing the Top of the Pops logo (branding, again) and the
magic of Quantel has been used to make the logo rotate as if it was pasted to
the outside of a box.
Hazell Dean is
on a corner stage, with two sets of stairs down from scenery walkways acting as
stage wings. Floor Manager Iain McLean has arranged a string of audience
members down the stairs on one side, along the back of the stage, and then up
the stairs on the other side. I've already mentioned that the audience are
particularly boisterous tonight, and this means a line of excited dancing
people can always be seen in the background. Chris Kempton's Lighting colours
the crowd at the front of the stage orange, and the people at the back blue,
while Hazell Dean stands out because she's lit with while spotlights.
The overall
effect is to take a song which is fun but pretty average and give it a boost
via the presentation; which is, sort of, the Top of the Pops mission
statement.
TOP 40 FROM
30 TO 11.
UK SONG FOR
EUROPE, SCOTT FITZGERALD: go.
April? Again? How jejune. Scott Fitzgerald has actually been on Top of the
Pops before with two performances of a duet with Yvonne Keeley, If I Had
Words; 19/01/1978 and 02/02/1978.
Go is a dreary
ballad. Naturally I headed to Wikipedia to look up the song's fate, somewhere
around seventeenth would be my guess. Nestling in the bottom third of the
scores. However...
This dreary ballad came second. And only lost by one point. To Switzerland. How did that happen? The UK is traditionally out of step with Eurovision, releasing bouncy disco songs in years when slow songs clog up the top positions and vice versa. Except in 1988 we somehow got the timing right and did really well. The UK was ahead, 133 points to Switzerland's 118, with three countries left to vote. And the contest was only lost because the final three countries were a triumvirate of Britain's historical enemies; the French (no points to the UK, 1 point to Switzerland); Portugal (UK 3 points, Switzerland 12); and Yugoslavia (no points to the UK, Switzerland 6 points).
The winning Swiss song was called Ne partez pas sans moi (No Parties at my House) and it was sung by Céline Dion. So, My Heart Will Go On is the fault of France, Portugal, and Yugoslavia. Scott Fitzgerald is singing out of Breakers Corner, with the eight monitors now showing the output of one of the cameras.
TOP 10. Oh no! Bros are stuck at [2] again.
What a personal disaster.
[1] PET SHOP
BOYS: heart. Chris Lowe
has gone for a nautical theme to celebrate mucking Bros around. He's dressed in
assorted shades of blue, wearing a light blue t-shirt with The Yacht Club
written on it, and wearing a sailor's cap.
For the first
time, Quantel transitions are used on a non-dance music song. Vision Mixer
Hilary Briegel spins the picture off screen on some of the orchestral stabs. A
freeze frame is also used to good effect towards the end of the song, when the
music briefly pauses.
[21]
JELLYBEAN/ADELE BERTEI: just a mirage. Bruno Brookes and Steve Wright host next week. Bluegh.
All about that
what's?
That was the last episode of The Roxy (you can watch it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHmMbw8oYYI). Hosted by David Jensen, Pat Sharp, and
Paul Nolan.
The last edition featured a performance of
Let's All Chant by Pat & Mick aka Capital Radio's Mick Brown and Pat Sharp.
You know, one of the hosts of The Roxy. Obviously it's great for The
Roxy to have one of the hosts
introduce their own record (a privilage denied to D*v* L** Tr*v*s when his
terrible single Convoy UK featured on Top of the Pops, 29/04/1976) and
it will be interesting to see how Top of the Pops copes when it enters
the Gallup Top 40.
Steve Wright:
“Hello!! Good evening!! And welcome to Europe's number one TV pop show!! With
me Steve Wright!! And Bruno Brookes, 'ere!!”
Bruno Brookes: “Thank you very much. And we start with Bananarama who have the highest climber on the chart this week at fourteen. I Want You Back!”
It's been about eight months since Bananarama last graced the studio, I Heard A Rumour 16/07/1987. That was the performance where they brought along three oiled men wearing baseball hats, sunglasses, shorts, socks, and shoes. This time Bananarama are once again supported by three men but they are more sensibly dressed for the changeable spring weather. It's not a satisfying performance. The song sounds squeaky. It's produced by the inevitable Stock, Aitken, and Dennis Waterman and maybe the problem is that it sounds a lot like a lot of other songs in the charts. The performance also looks a bit over rehearsed. Overall, it's an unsatisfying package. Bruno Brookes microphone isn't turned up enough as he back announces Bananarama and much of what he says is lost under the studio noise.
[11] NATALIE
COLE: pink cadillac. On
video.
TOP 40 FROM
40 TO 31. Actually, I'm
not sure if the problem is with Bruno Brookes microphone. He's perfectly
audible going into the charts but what he says sounds like, “Natalie Cole's
turbo and suits Steve that.” All the words are recognisable but, like some of
the assemblages of words that fall out of Simon Bates' mouth, it doesn't make a
lick of sense.
[3] CLIMIE
FISHER: love changes (everything). Simon
Climie now looks 67% more comfortable with being the lead singer of a pop group
than he did on the band's first appearance; all the way back on 31/12/1987. He
decides to sing the opening lines of the song directly to someone in the
audience. He crouches down, gazes into their eyes and then scuffs their hair.
Disappointingly the camera cuts away before we can see the reaction of the
person he did this to.
TOP 40
BREAKERS: Typical, I
mention Breakers' Corner for the first time last week and it's disappeared.
Bruno and Steve introduce the Breakers from in front of the big colour screen
on the main stage.
[no 20 DEF LEPPARD armageddon it]; [no 25 S-EXPRESS theme from
s-express]; [no 23 T'PAU sex talk]; [22 JERMAINE STEWART get
lucky]
[15]
JELLYBEAN/ADELE BERTEI: just a mirage. Jellybean featured three times on Top of the Pops USA.
Now that's been cancelled he has to fly across the Atlantic to stand behind a
keyboard wearing a hat, while the camera focuses on his companion.
Chris Kempton's
Lighting has been a bit dull so far. Very sensible. Very blue and purple. Now
he goes nuts and throws caution to the wind. Jellybean's stage is lit fiery
orange and yellow. It looks like the apocalypse is breaking out in a small
corner of studio TC3. It looks great.
TOP 40 FROM
30 TO 11.
[13] PEBBLES: girlfriend.
Another traveller across the Atlantic. If only there was some American music
programme that Top of the Pops could pull performances from. You could call
it The American Roxy . Once again
Chris Kempton pulls out the Lighting manual and throws it away. The colour of
Girlfriend is deemed to be purple with neon pink highlights, and there's a
mirrorball at the back of the stage because, well just because. The perspex
scenery picks up the colours of the pink lights and looks weirdly organic at
times.
Pebbles herself is wearing a purple ruffled dress with a ragged, lacy cut at the bottom. She slinks across the stage, ankle deep in dry ice and while this is obviously a well practiced performance it feels more natural than the one from Bananarama. I can't stress how good this all looks. Helped by some inventive hand held camera work. The best moment of the programme comes when one of the camera operators crouches down at the side of the stage and catches an upward angle taking in Pebbles, the purple and pink scenery, the mirror ball, and the dry ice rolling off the stage in the foreground like a waterfall.
TOP 10. Poor Bros, [2] again.
[1]
PET SHOP BOYS: heart. A repeat of last week's performance.
[2] BROS: drop the boy. Simon Bates and Peter Powell next week. ¡Ay,
caramba! Top of the Pops closes with Craig and his support band on
video.
Peter Powell:
“Hello! Welcome to another edition of Top of the Pops which I think tonight
features a future number one and certainly the biggest dance record in Britain
at the moment!”
Simon Bates:
“And it's the return of the platform heels. Here's a lady called Sheelo. She is
six foot two inches in her heels, she's standing next to Michelle of S-Express
on Top of the Pops at number three.”
Writing about
the 23/03/1988 edition, I talked about how the presentation of Bass (How Low
Can You Go) didn't do the song any favours. I feel the presentation of Theme
From S-Express comes perilously close to making the same mistakes. Paul Ciani
is very fond of his long, slow, panning crane shots but they don't always work.
The problem is, during the crane shots, there's a lot of stuff going on “over
there” [*makes arm waving motions*] in the middle distance but it's too far
from the audience at home to have any impact. Then sometimes we cut from a
panning crane shot to another panning crane shot and it the visual presentation
feels slow and repetitive. Compare it to the moments where handheld camera
operators are dashing around on the stage getting right in the middle of the
action. Those moments are exciting, especially when one of the handheld
operators moves in so close to Mark Moore that his camera gets bonked by the
edge of Moore's keytar.
Less crane shots. More handheld action. Get on it Paul. You need to be more Michael Hurll. Work your studio crew harder and faster*. I've also mentioned before that Paul Ciani seems much keener on branding. He finally reaches the logical conclusion and uses the Top of the Pops logo as the background to some of the Quantel transitions.
My new favourite
fact -and apologies to everyone who already knew this- the bloke saying “enjoy
this trip/and it is a trip” is Gene Roddenbery. It's taken from a spoken word
record called Inside Star Trek, and you can hear the originals here https://youtu.be/pZrRY-SLAig?t=270
[14] GEORGE
MICHAEL: one more try. On
video. Good news for worried George Michael fans, Peter Powell reveals he's
“just reunited with his girlfriend in San Tropez.”
TOP 40 FROM
40 TO 31.
[15] DANNY WILSON: mary's prayer. No
one in Danny Wilson is called Danny Wilson, or indeed Danny or Wilson. Why
would they lie about something like that?
TOP 40
BREAKERS: Breaker's
Corner is back and Simon Bates and Peter Powell stand in front of monitors arranged
into two 2x2 groups. In what can only be described as a presentation
breakthrough, the picture on the monitors alternate so that some are displaying
the Breakers logo full screen, while the others are displaying the Breakers
logo on the side of a rotating cube. [no 19 PAT & MICK let's all chant];
[no 21 WILL DOWNING a love supreme]; [no 25 JAMES BROWN the
payback mix (part one)]; [no 24 PATRICK SWAYZE FEATURING WENDY
FRASER she's like the wind] -or, according to Simon Bates, “She Likes The
Wind.”
[17] JERMAINE STEWART: get lucky. This week Jermaine has A Flock of
Seagulls style hair.
TOP 40 FROM 30 TO 11.
[6] HAZELL
DEAN: who's leaving who. Simon
Bates goes wildly off road during his Hazell Dean introduction. “There's a lady
who always has a summer hit,” it's April Simon and also, always doesn't really
cover two Top Ten songs in 1984 and followed by another in 1988, but please
continue. “Third time lucky...” What? “...It's spring into summer.” What?
TOP 10.
[1] PET SHOP BOYS: heart. On
video.
[10] THE JACKSON FIVE: i want you back. Gary Davies and Nicky Campbell
host next week.
28/04/1988
Housekeeping
first. Thanks to mumu03 who
commented under titanic March 1988 megathread. He pointed me in the direction
of this link https://www.theatrecrafts.com/archive/documents/lsi_01_topofthepops.pdf and a 1985 interview with Eric Wallis,
Lighting Deity (as I believe was his official BBC designation). It's a really
interesting insight into the way the programme was lit and how visual effects,
the set designer, and lighting director all work together to define the final
look of each episode. It was clear the new sets, introduced 19/11/1987, were
the product of teamwork because they were so carefully designed to pick up and
reflect the studio lighting. However, I didn't realise this cooperation was a
weekly event. In my naivety I assumed each department turned up for Wednesday
recording and did their own thing as directed by Paul Ciani. I also didn't
realise Top of the Pops ignored most of the studio lighting and instead
rented a lot of kit on a regular basis. This explains why Top of the Pops
looks so much better than other BBC shows; see this virtually contemporary Going
Live!* performance of I Want You Back by Bananarama from 02/04/1988 https://youtu.be/FmWXo54PWb4?t=3157
We now return you to your scheduled programme.
Gary Davies:
“Hello. We're so glad to see you again. Welcome to another Top of the Pops. In
the studio tonight we have Fairground Attraction, Bananarama, Will Downing, and
S-Express. And Nicky Campbell!”
Nicky Campbell:
“Oh yes. Thank you very much. But we're going to start off this evening with a
London based band who are zooming up the charts with a charity record. Here's Mick
and Pat.”
[15] PAT & MICK: let's all chant. Check out Gary Davies' smirk when Nicky Campbell refers to “a London based band.” It's the funniest thing he's heard for ages. Obviously it's a dig at Pat & Mick, the Capital FM DJs who are raising money for Capital's Help a London Child charity drive, but I'm sure it's all jolly-good-knockabout-fun and everyone had a laugh about it in the BBC bar afterwards; as is referring to the pair as “Mick and Pat.”
Let's All Chant
is a weapon grade earworm and breaches two multinational treaties. Listen
carefully to the audience cheers and applause mixed into the title sequence and
you'll hear some diabolical fiend cutting loose with a pre-emptive “woop-woop.”
Pat Sharp
briefly worked for Radio 1 in 1982/83 and hosted a few Top of the
Pops; 02/12/1982, 30/12/1982, 10/02/1983, 26/05/1983, and 21/07/1983. In
fact, Gary Davies and Pat Sharp were both hired at the same time and introduced
as new bugs on the 02/12/1982 show along with Janice Long. Pat Sharp was also
one of the hosts of The Roxy. I wonder if it was a little frustrating
for the Top of the Pops team, they've just seen off the competition and
now its ghost is back, risen from the grave like one of those Draculas which
were such a nuisance in the late eighties.
What else?
There's been a slight redesign of the main stage with the addition of a couple
of podiums for the four dancers. Permanent or temporary? Stay tuned! The
podiums keep the audience back further from the edge of the stage than usual so
this is the first time I've really noticed the steps running from the front of
the stage to the floor, although they've pretty much always been part of the
set.
“All of that
money goes to charity, probably how to teach Pat Sharp how to dance,” Gary
joshes at the end of the performance. Still I'm sure it's all jolly-good-knockabout-fun and so on and so
on.
[14] JAMES
BROWN: the playback mix. Yes.
I know the single is called The Payback Mix Part One but round these parts we
go by the BBC caption. Oh, and congratulations to the audience member who does
this during Gary's introduction...
TOP 40 FROM
40 TO 31
[12]
FAIRGROUND ATTRACTION: perfect.
My dad didn't much like this song. He thought it was weedy. I can see his
point. The song's jaunty but a bit twee and hearing it played to death on the
radio, and then in a million ASDA adverts didn't help.
Lead singer
Eddi Reader leans into the folky-free-spirit sound by waving her arms and
spinning round in a circle so her big coat billows out around her. This makes
her a bit of a menace when she gains in confidence towards the end of the song
and her billowing coat threatens to get in the faces of the drummer and
guitarist. No wonder the band broke up in
1990.
TOP 40
BREAKERS: Scrolling
caption. [no 23 BRENDA RUSSELL piano in the dark]; [no 26 THE
PRIMITIVES out of reach]; [ no 28 LUTHER VANDROSS i gave it up]; [ no 29 JOYCE
SIMS walk away].
[5]
BANANARAMA i want you back.
This is the episode briefly featured as behind the scenes footage in The
Story of 1988. A clip is shown of a production meeting with record pluggers
where Paul Ciani says, “Bananarama at number five... with dancers. Same dancers
[indistinguishable]... wearing something different please... wearing something
[laughter].” This is less a reference to their first outing for this song, with
its semaphore arm movement choreography, on 14/04/1988, than the oiled men of
16/07/1987.
There's a nice
piece of direction going into the first chorus as the hand held camera operator
starts on Keren Woodward -for the “how could you go/how could you go” with the
hands held in a lateral stop-in-the-name-of-love gesture, then pans to Sara
Dallin - “we had a love/most people never...” spin arms into Vampirella pose-,
and finally to Jacquie O'Sullivan - “...knoooow/oooooohhh” arms-straight-up and
then back down.
“There's
Bananarama,” says Nicky Campbell afterwards, “with some great dancing. Mick and
Pat eat your heart out.” Still I'm sure it's all jolly-good-knockabout, etc.
TOP 40 FROM
30 TO 11
[16] WILL
DOWING: a love supreme.
Or, “Will Dowing,” if you read the caption at the end of the performance.
TOP 10.
[1]
S-SEXPRESS: theme from s-express. A
repeat from 21/04/1988. Visibly cut short.
UK SONG FOR
EUROPE, SCOTT FITZGERALD: go.
Bruno Brookes and the rarely seen Adrian John next week. Theme from S-Express
is, presumably, snipped to allow the final song to play out in full. Le
Royaume-Uni's mimsy but unexpectedly successful** song for Europe.
PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK: Fairground Attraction, Perfect.
* This edition of Going Live! also includes an interview with Mike Smith just after he announced he was leaving the Radio 1 Breakfast Show. It's mainly about his interest in motor racing but there's also a bit of brief chat about the Breakfast Show and this report from Showbiz reporter Neil Clements in “Thursday's Daily Express”. “Although he's not severed links with the BBC he will still continue to work on Top of the Pops and Going Live! The BBC show hosted by former Blue Peter presenter Sarah Greene.” https://youtu.be/FmWXo54PWb4?t=1871
Sterling work Neil. 100% right. Except for the bit about Top of the Pops. And
Going Live! PS- Mike Smith is dating Sarah Greene.
** but not successful enough.
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