Top of the Pops 1 Sep 1988

 

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby.
Mark Goodier: “Hello and welcome...”
Steve Wright: “Hello!!”
Mark Goodier: “... to a very special Top of the Pops tonight because it's the first ever nation-wide stereo simulcast.”
Steve Wright: “The man speaks the truth!! And here are the frequencies!! In Central Scotland at 98.6!!
Mark Goodier: “Yup, 98.6”.
Steve Wright: “In the north at 98.8 FM!!”
Mark Goodier: “98.8”.
Steve Wright: “And in the Midlands at 98.4 FM now!!”
Mark Goodier: “98.4”.
Steve Wright: “[to the crowd] Shut up you lot!!”
Mark Goodier: “Brilliant. So make sure you turn down the TV sounds, switch up Radio 1 FM...”
Steve Wright: “Woo!!”
Mark Goodier: “... and hear crystal clear stereo Top of the Pops. Now our first band tonight have been away for a long time. Welcome them back. Straight in to 18 at the chart, Level 42.”

 [18] LEVEL 42: heaven in my hands. Paul Ciani is away. As mumu03 pointed out in a comment under the 18/08/1988 write up, Ciani is tending to one of the other plants in his Light Entertainment garden, Call My Bluff. Recording a new series which would start broadcasting at the end of October. While looking up the dates on BBC Genone I came across a Christmas 1975 programme he produced for BBC2, Great Big Groovy Horse. “A rock-musical romp through the legend of The Wooden Horse of Troy.” That's a new entry at the top of my list of programmes I want to see about the Wooden Horse of Troy, beating out the Doctor Who story The Myth Makers.

 

The stereo launch is marked with massive amounts of Radio 1FM branding slapped around the screen. I don't know if Paul Ciani would have allowed this in his studio, it kind of suggests Top of the Pop is just the television wing of Radio 1 (FM) and I think both Ciani, and Michael Hurll before him, would have preferred Top of the Pops to be regarded as a programme in its own right.

Steve Wright and Mark Goodier (ugh, what a combination it's like chalk!! and boiled potatoes) are both wearing nasty white jackets. We never get a good look at them, but they seem to have the Radio 1 eff em logo as a repeating pattern, with a big red F on the right and on the left a corresponding M.

Meanwhile, Top of the Pops is broadcasting across the UK in stereo and Level 42 get the honour of being the first band on the first programme. Level 42. The band who make music for edgy wine bars where the white wine is served in red wine glasses!

[5] JULIO IGLESIAS WITH STEVIE WONDER: my love. On video.

TOP 40 FROM 40 TO 31. Steve Wright and Mark Goodier have sensibly ditched the nasty jackets.

[7] WOMACK AND WOMACK: teardrops. Stanley Appel is really committed to recording Top of the Pops as a single event. At the end of the Level 42 performance there was a lovely pull back to bring Mark Goodier into shot so he could take us straight to the next song. Likewise at the start of Teardrops Steve Wight introduces the song in a single camera move [With a teenager clowning around right next to him, “hi mum”, and apparently doing his best to sabotage the link. The kid's a television natural, watch the way he moves so Steve Wright never masks him from the camera].

Anyway, at the end of Womack and Womack watch out for Goodier and Wright scuttling for position at the back of the stage so they can be ready for the Breakers.

BREAKERS: [24 GUNS & ROSES sweet child of mine]; [19 GLORIA ESTEFAN & MIAMI SOUND MACHINE anything for you]; [14 YELLO the race].

[12] A-HA: touchy. “We're having so much fun on this stereo Top of the Pops,” intones Mark Goodier with the passion of someone wondering when the kettle will boil. There's an abrupt edit into a-ha. It would have been noticeable in a regular show but here, where everything has been as seamless as possible, it really stands out. I suspect this was a pre-recorded performance.

TOP 40 FROM 30 TO 11.

[6] BOMB THE BASS: megablast/don't make me wait. It's a video effect. Check out the super false colour/solarisation at the start. Lovely. The single is a double-A side with Megablast and I'd have quite liked them to give that a play, but if I want to listen to it I can always go and play Xenon 2 Megablast.

TOP 10.

[1] YAZZ AND THE PLASTIC POPULATION: the only way is up. Yazz can't make it into the studio so here's the video.

I've got a complicated relationship with The Only Way is Up. On one hand its a brilliant pop song on the other it reminds me of a very specific point in my life when I was bored beyond the event horizon of sanity.

I briefly got a summer job in a frozen chicken factory. At the end of the packing line were people who sorted the prepared chickens into boxes by weight. My job was to turn the chickens round as they came down the conveyor belt so the packers could easily read the labels. This was very boring. One day I noticed the conveyor belt had a seam in it. I timed how long it took the seam to do a single circuit of the belt. Then I worked out how long it was until the next break. Then I worked out how many circuits the conveyor belt would do in this time. Then I counted the number down.

The factory piped Radio 1 (pre-FM) onto the factory floor. This was peak popularity for The Only Way is Up. It was also the peak period for the Radio 1 playlist and every DJ wanted to play the Number One song, so over the course of the working day I'd hear The Only Way Is Up at least four times (Simon Bates, The Radio 1 Roadshow, Gary Davies, Steve Wright), going up to five if Simon Mayo played it after 9am on The Breakfast Show. Thus, I have a very odd association between hearing the waah-waah sound of the trumpets and thinking, “thank god, into single digits, only nine more times round until the next break.”

[9] PHIL COLLINS: a groovy kind of love. Top of the Pops ends with Mark Goodier playing the role of continuity announcer for BBC1 and Radio 1. “Stand by on Radio 1 for the seven-thirty news and for Eastenders on BBC1.”

Mike Read and Andy Crane next week. You will remember to tune in next week won't you. In stereo.

 PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK: Bomb the Bass, Don't Make Me Wait.

 Me vs Stanley Appel. Here's how I would have changed the running order for tonight's show.

 Appel: Level 42, Julio Inglesias with Stevie Wonder, Womack and Womack, a-ha, Bomb the Bass, Yazz and the Plastic Population, Phil Collins

Me: Bomb the Bass, Julio Inglesias with Stevie Wonder, Womack and Womack, Level 42, a-ha, Yazz and the Plastic Population, Phil Collins