Top of the Pops 16th & 23rd June 1988

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby.

16/06/88

Mike Read: “Good evening. Welcome to Top of the Pops. We've got a real stunner lined up for you tonight. First of all here's a word from my good mate Gary Davies.”
Gary Davies: “Thank you very much. Hello. We start tonight with something really special. She's literally just flown in by helicopter to perform live tonight. Last year she took Europe by storm. This year she's taking Britain by storm. At number four, here's Sabrina and Boys.”

[4] SABRINA: boys (summertime love). Norma Ann Sykes? No. This is the other Sabrina. The one from Italy. The one who's artfully-cropped-into-widescreen video caused such consternation on last week's Top of the Pops. “As you can see! They're pretty liberal with some of their videos! In Europe!” was Peter Powell's verdict.

Well here she is in the flesh, so to speak. Wearing a flimsy top, and tight jeans. A lot of the blokes in the audience are crammed round the front of the stage. I would be remiss not to mention the moment towards the end of the performance when Sabrina reaches for the zip at the front of her flimsy top... and pulls it up. The real star of this segment is up on the balcony, behind and to the left of Gary Davies. A bloke with cropped hair wearing a white shirt and light grey suit. While Gary introduces the show he's constantly bopping, shifting from one foot to the other with grim determination. He can be glimpsed all through Sabrina's performance whenever the camera angle favours the balcony. Bopping and clapping away like a metronome. He's here to dance. Dammit. And he does.

[11] ERASURE: chains of love. The remarkable thing about Andy Bell's clothing is less that he's wearing a rainbow-coloured top with flared and ruffled sleeves, but that he's chosen to pair it with the most boring grey chinos. Did he get halfway through dressing for the show and think “this is a bit dull, I need to brighten things up a touch.” Or, did he get halfway through dressing for the show and think, “this is a bit over the top, I need to dull things down a bit.

TOP 40 FROM 40 TO 31.

[20] THE SISTERS OF MERCY: lucretia my reflection. Gary Davies appears to be introducing The Sisters of Mercy from within a dark cave. Rod Litherland, Lighting, has turned off as many of the studio lights as possible. Ironically all this darkness is Rod's moment to shine and he seizes it. When the camera pans from Gary towards the stage, the studio is black except for a few flashing red lights. Rod then fades up a couple of white spots (at the same time as the Sister's of Mercy caption fades onto the screen, that's teamwork) and the band and scenery are silhouetted beautifully. In a nice touch some working pendant lights are also hung from the ceiling and Dick Coles, Design, pops a spiral staircase wrapped with plastic trellis next to the band. It all gives the impression this performance is coming from a sinister cellar.

Gary Davies' link from The Sisters of Mercy to the Breakers. “Love that record, now here are some more happenin' choons.” Is he being ironic and playing up to the DJ stereotype? It's difficult to tell with Davies. My verdict; he is insensible and dreaming of the lovely Sabrina.

TOP 40 BREAKERS. [19 FAT BOYS/CHUBBY CHECKER the twist] the first single I brought. 16 years old. [25 EURYTHMICS you have placed a chill in my heart]; [26 A-HA the blood that moves the body]; [29 SADE paradise].

[21] MATT BIANCO: don't blame it on that girl. Matt Bianco? Are they still going? Yes. Is the surprising answer although they haven't been seen on Top of the Pops since performing Yeh Yeh on 31/10/1985. I'm pleased to see they haven't lost the bongo player in the intervening years.

The Official UK Charts reveal the truth of those difficult years; Yeh Yeh, peak [13] weeks in the chart 10; Just Can't Stand it, peak [66] weeks in the chart 4; Dancing in the Street,  peak [64] weeks in the chart 6 and last seen heading south at [88] in the week of 12/07/1986.

Matt Bianco have obviously thought about what needs to be done to get back in the charts. Front man Mark Reilly has brought a hat. He's also favouring a dance style that makes him look like he's about to break out a Max Bygraves impression; “I wanna tell you a story.”

Matt Bianco are Top of the Pops veterans. Mark Reilly should know what happens when you introduce moves into the performance that weren't done at camera rehearsal but, evidentially overcome by the reception his backing singer gets when he does some impressive dancing during the first beak, Mark decided to show off his own skills. During the second musical break he dances and drops into a Terence Trent D'Arby-esque hurdle split, to whoops of approval from the crowd. The snag? Mark, mate, the camera's over the other side of the stage behind the bongo player. Your admittedly impressive moves are almost totally missed on camera.

TOP 40 FROM 30 TO 11

[2] BROS: i owe you nothing. The lads got Sabrina. The ladies get Matt and Luke. This is a show with something for everyone. Matt Goss is giving it the full Pop Star bit. Towards the end of the performance he's grasping the hands frantically waved towards him. Luke, meanwhile, is doing the classic dummer-on-Top-of-the-Pops bit and checking out the camera whenever it appears to be pointing even vaguely in his direction. However, the real star of the performance is Craig*. He's semi-detached, off to one side in a little world of his own, he doesn't acknowledge the crowd, he doesn't acknowledge the camera when he gets an occasional close up. He's just there. Doing his own thing. *(John- Don't you mean Ken?)

TOP 10.

[1] THE TIMELORDS: doctorin' the tardis. Wet Wet Wet are dethroned. He's a repeat of nearly two minutes of last week's studio performance.

A small note. The stack of TV monitors that occasionally pop up as set elements are back, they've been piled up in the corner of the main stage. Gary Davies and Mike Read introduce The Timelords standing in front of the monitors, and on them is a (new) purple and green caption which reads “NUMER ONE”. New feature? One off? Lets see what happens next week.

[16] THE PASADENAS: tribute (right on) Bopping man is back. Still feeling the beat, although looking much more knackered now. He's at bottom left of the crowd around Mike Read and Gary Davies as they say goodnight. Nicky Campbell and Mark Goodier next week. Two new bugs together for the first time, without one of the senior hosts to guide them.

 PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK: The Sisters of Mercy, Lucretia My Reflection.

 23/06/88

This episode didn't get shown on BBC4 (unless anyone knows differently and history has made me a liar between 2019 and now). Reportedly, the BBC master tape contains the music but the hosts are muted out. The reasons for this are complex and technical, probably (for all I know they just didn't join the wires up right), and seem to related to difficulty of simultaneously broadcasting the program live in stereo on Radio 1, and live on BBC1 in glorious mono, and also recording the programme for posterity on videotape. However, the copy I downloaded from the secret garden (https://mega.nz/folder/h0snQACa#uiNNqosfbdrfzODHsE1clw/folder/QgVgAShZ) appears to be fine. The BBC supposedly discovered another copy of the episode too late to broadcast on BBC4. Is that what I've been watching? I don't know. Anyway, because this a BBC archive copy of a live recording there's some extra business at the start and end of the episode. So, let's watch and see, shall we.

 The recording starts with a white screen and an overlaid BBC countdown clock, “TOP OF THE POPS TITLES” and a countdown holding at 10. There's music playing, a song which Shazam was unable to identify, and behind it we can hear Nicky Campbell geeing up the crowd. It's hard to work out exactly what he's saying. It sounds like “we're live tonight, anything could happen...”

 The countdown starts.

Nicky Campbell: “Good evening. Welcome to Top of the Pops. Now, between you and me, it's a live edition of the show tonight so anything could happen [oh, I guess the pre-titles speech was just Nicky rehearsing his introduction]. We've got UB40, the Eurythmics, Maxi Priest. Not to mention Mark Goodier.” 
Mark Goodier: “I thought you said not to mention me. Listen we've got a great show lined up and we start with a band who are on tour with Wet Wet Wet and there are so many of them it's a wonder we can get them on the stage. It's the Pasadenas, just watch the dancing on Tribute, Right On. Right On.”

[6] THE PASADENAS: tribute (right on). Just watch the dancing. I would Mark but Paul Ciani keeps cutting between mid-shots of the singers. There are five frontmen to the band (plus six musicians, it must be crowded on the Wet Wet Wet minibus), and the other four Pasadenas are apparently constantly doing remarkable things, just over there, just beyond the edge of the frame, but we don't get to see much of them. We mostly just get medium close ups of whoever is singing at the time. The picture only cuts to wide shots of the band during the chorus, when everyone is standing at their microphone singing.

[8] PHIL COLLINS: in the air tonight ('88 remix). On video. The one where Phil Collins giant head lunges out of your television screen like he's the vengeful spirit from Ringu.

TOP 40 FROM 30 TO 11

[9] UB40 WITH CHRISSIE HYNDE: breakfast in bed. “Our live Top of the Pops. Having so much fun here,” says Mark Goodier with all the passion of someone describing the taste of boiled potatoes. UB40 have also assembled a squad of people for their performance. Can they beat The Pasadena's eleven? I think they draw level. It's difficult to be sure because UB40 keep bunching together on stage but I think there's eleven of them.

TOP 40 BREAKERS. [26 TRACY CHAPMAN fast car; [27 THE COMMUNARDS there's more to love]; [24 SALT 'N' PEPA push it]; [21 BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN tougher than the rest].

[5] MAXI PRIEST: wild world. A repeat of his performance from the 09/06/1988 edition. Repeating studio performances on a live edition feels like cheating. Especially as it's followed by Goodier's comment about “another live vocal on a live Top of the Pops.” “Yup, this is live. It's happening now,” adds Nicky Campbell, confounding the deception.

TOP 40 FROM 30 TO 11

[18] EURYTHMICS: you have placed a chill in my heart. Mark Goodier, “now something really special on our live Top of the Pops. Eurythmics one of the best bands in concert are going to do an acoustic, and totally live version of their current hit. This is, You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart. Totally live.” It's alright.

TOP 10

[1] BROS: i owe you nothing. A repeat of last week's performance.

[4] FAT BOYS/CHUBBY CHECKER: the twist. Gary Davis and Peter Powell next week. Chubby's had a name change on the caption. Last week he was Chubbie Checker.

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK: The Pasadenas, Tribute (Right On). I feel the need to justify my choice. This live edition only features three bands in the studio; The Pasadenas, UB40 with Chrissie Hynde, and Eurythmics. It's not going to be UB40. And while I can admire the technical excellence of Annie Lennox's singing, I find the acoustic version a bit dull. I like the single. Sorry.