Double Bill!
words: Chris Arnsby
15/09/1988
Simon Mayo: “Hi
and welcome to Top of the Pops. Live on BBC1 and FM Radio 1 as well. A happy
show because we've got some brilliant bands but a sad one 'cause it's Peter
Powell's last show. Ahh.”
Peter Powell.
“So in that case we've got to make it the best show going! And it's with great
delight that on the Pops tonight, they've flown all the way back from Italy to
be on! Here's Bros!!”
And what of Mr
Powell himself? He's quitting just shy of his 12th anniversary of hosting “the
Pops!” His first show was on 03/11/1977 when Abba was at Number One with Name
of the Game. This is interesting (wait, come back) because his first stint on Radio
1 doesn't seem to have been until three weeks later, on Sunday 20/11/1977;
unless anyone can get more meaningful results from BBC Genome. He's off soon
from Radio 1FM as well, 25/09/1988 will be the date of his last show. To
be replaced by a Sunday breakfast show with Liz Kershaw and Mark Goodier.
This Bros song is terrible. The opening line appears to be “most of my friends were strangers when I met them.” More interesting is the fact that Bros has mushroomed from a trio to a quintet, suddenly there's a keyboard player and another bloke playing the guitar. (John- I want to know the story of those friends who were not strangers when he met them. That sounds more interesting)
17] THE
COMMODORES: easy. On
video. Charting again off the back of that Halifax Cardcash advert.
TOP 40 FROM
40 TO 31
[14] THE PROCLAIMERS: i'm gonna be (500 miles). Someone in the audience keeps shrieking. Have they got confused and thought this band featuring two blonde brothers is Bros come out for a second turn?
BREAKERS: [29 THE PASADENAS riding on a train];
[25 COLDCUT FEATURING JUNIOR REID stop this crazy thing]; [22 SALT 'N' PEPA shake your thang (it's your thing)].
[13] JASON
DONOVAN: nothing can divide us.
On video.
TOP
40 FROM 30 TO 11.
[2]
THE HOLLIES: he ain't heavy, he's my brother. There are two versions of this song in the
charts. The Bill Medley version, at [27] is going down, and was released
off the back of its use in Rambo III. The Hollies version was used in,
you guessed it, an advert; for Miller Lite.
TOP
10.
[1] PHIL
COLLINS: groovy kind of love.
A repeat of last week's performance. Or is it? Look again closely. Run the two
performances side by side. They're clearly filmed in the same session and the
camera moves are, more or less, the same but there are small differences. Most
notably at the start when a couple of silhouetted figures walk off screen as
the camera tracks forwards; they're not in the take used on the 08/09/1988
show. Also different is the crane pan across the audience on the bridge during
the instrumental. Stanley Appel obviously asked for two takes as the
performance was recorded and there's nothing obviously wrong with either one,
so presumably one was just a safety copy.
I wonder what the process was that led to Brian Whitehouse editing the
unused version into this edition.
[20] INNER
CITY: big fun. And now
it's time to say goodbye to Peter Powell. Mike Read's here, along with Karen
Keating, and Anthea Turner (who Peter Powell would go on to marry), Phi!!ip
Schofie!d, Paul Currie/Collie (no idea, sorry), Mark Goodier, Andy Crane, and
Adrian Juste (bloody hell, the first time he's been allowed back into
Television Centre since the Top of the Pops Christmas Day edition from
1981 -I think). It's an odd random selection of people.
Peter Powell's
final words before being covered in confetti: “Just been eleven fantastic
years! Thank you! To you for watching! And thank you...!”
22/09/1988
Nicky Campbell:
“Good evening and welcome to Top of the Pops. What a terrific edition of
EastEnders that was. Let me tell you everyone in Albert Square is gathering
round their television and their radio because we are in FM in stereo. On Radio
1.”
Andy Crane:
“Which is quite right so retune your radio to enjoy the Pet Shop Boys at number
nine. Domino Dancing.”
[9] PET SHOP BOYS: domino dancing. Andy Crane has slicked back his hair with gel. It doesn't suit him. Also, what's Nicky Campbell talking about. Eastenders is on after Top of the Pops not before. Except... on Thursday 22 September 1988 Top of the Pops was displaced from it's 7.30pm slot by Olympics Today; with Desmond Lynam bringing you all the latest (Olympics) news from Seoul. So, what happened in Eastenders episode 378. Well, according to the Eastenders wiki: “Matthew moves into the Square. Colin is anxious about his latest test results. Dot rallies friends for a new venture. David confronts Doctor Legg about Colin's health and reveals he has multiple sclerosis. They both agree it is best not to tell Colin the truth, as he may not have another attack for at least 20 years.”
Meanwhile, in
non-Albert Square news, the Pet Shop Boys have gone from a duo to a decapod.
There's Chris, and a bloke playing the guitar, and two backing singers, and
Neil wearing a nasty Harris Tweed jacket, and a four-piece brass section.
They're going to need a bigger stage.
[3] WOMACK
& WOMACK: teardrops.
A repeat of the 01/09/1988 performance.
TOP 40 FROM
40 TO 31
[4] BILL
WITHERS: lovely day. A
seventies song, back in the charts for some reason. Is it possible it was used
in an advert? Yes, indeed it was, for the Ford Escort.
Bill Withers looks every inch not the pop star. He's shambled on stage wearing a rugby top and white trousers, and he stands slightly round shouldered as if he's just stumbled off a flight from Los Angeles. I think he might be terribly jet-lagged, and the flashing lights and loud noise are not helping. A couple of backing singers stand behind Bill. They've been placed there to mime along to the “heys!” and “ah-yeahs!” artless dropped in to this Ben Liebrand remix.
Brian
Whitehouse is back in the chair acting as Director (and Producer). For Bill
Wither's introduction he tries shooting Andy Crane through a v-shaped piece of
scenery. The intent is to do a Stanley Appel-style single camera move from Andy
to Bill but it doesn't quite work. The effect is accidentally comic as Andy
Crane's head gets smaller and smaller before being obscured behind a lump of
neon.
BREAKERS: [30 TRANSVISION VAMP revolution baby];
[24] WHITNEY HOUSTON one moment in time]; [18] BON JOVI bad medicine].
TOP
40 FROM 30 TO 11. Back-to-back Breakers and Charts. Careful with the flow of the
programme Brian.
[16]
RICK ASTLEY: she wants to dance with me. “Well with this next song Rick Astley really
has conclusively proved that he's not just a pretty face, or not just a pretty
voice. He wrote it himself. He's at number sixteen. Here is the musical
genius.” I'm not sure how I feel about the hosts sneering at the acts. Even if
it is Rick Astley. I'm trying and failing not to get all po-faced but Nicky Campbell
misunderstands the point of Top of the Pops. He's the host, a cog
that keeps the gears of the show turning. No one runs home to watch Top of
the Pops because he's hosting and no one cares what he thinks about the
acts. His fantasy that he's the star of the show shows him up to be Simon
Bates: The Next Generation. Or, to put it another way. I think I like Rick
Astley more than I like Nicky Campbell.
TOP
10.
[1]
THE HOLLIES: he ain't heavy, he's my brother. Let's talk about that Miller
Lite advert. What's the deal with the weird post-apocalyptic band? The rest of
the advert is pretty generic. Bloke does things and drinks Miller Lite; be like
bloke. But also featured in the advert is that band, starkly lit and wearing
heavy clothes and hats which mask their faces in shadow, and playing huge
instruments with thick strings. What's going on there?
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