Words: Chris
Arnsby
17/11/1988
Gary Davies:
“Hello. Good evening and welcome to Top of the Pops. You know, the last time my
friend Susie Mathis appeared on Top of the Pops was in 1968 with a group called
The Paper Dolls.”
Susie Mathis:
“But I was only seven at the time Gary. Mind you, they must have been impressed
because they asked me back twenty years later.”
Gary Davies:
“Well it's good to see you back. We've got a great show for you. We start off
with who?”
Susie Mathis:
“Start off with Yazz at number two.”
The group made
three appearances with a song called Something Here In My Heart; 28/03/68,
11/04/1968 and 18/04/1968. I don't understand how they made two back-to-back
appearances when they weren't at Number One. The Paper Dolls were back once
more on 21/11/1968 to sing their less successful follow up song, Someday. Then,
after a few more unsuccessful songs the group split in 1970.
Susie Mathis
moved on and joined Manchester's Piccadilly Radio in 1979. The same year as
Gary Davies. She had a decent radio and television career, including an eight
week stint on Radio 2, in May and June 1986, in the sleepy 4-6am slot.
I don't think
it's a coincidence that Susie Mathis is here. Gary Davies describes her as a
friend and I think we can take him at his word. I can't help feeling he's the
éminence grise, arranging for her to be booked at a time when Top of the
Pops was trying out new hosts and also as possible to the twentieth anniversary of her last appearance.
Meanwhile, Yazz
is repeated from her performance on 03/11/1988.
TOP 40 FROM
40 TO 31.
[29] ALL
ABOUT EVE: what kind of fool. “Singing
live”. Always a bit risky, that. This episode has a slightly different
structure (repeat performance first, then charts, then the first “live” studio
performance) so I peeped ahead at the closing credits to see who was
responsible. It's Brian Whitehouse, which caught me by surprise. I described
some of his recent Top of the Pops work as pedestrian but here that's
not the case.
Putting Yazz
first doesn't strike me as the choice of Pedestrian Brian Whitehouse. What Kind
Of Fool would be fine as the opening song but Yazz is clearly better in a
hook-the-audience way; even if it is a repeat. However, opening Top of the
Pops with a repeat is not something Top of the Pops has done before
(qualifier, I only checked back as far as 1984) and I choose to believe
Pedestrian Brian Whitehouse would have played it safe, and stuck to the usual
formula.
[4] INXS:
need you tonight. On
video.
TOP
40 FROM 30 TO 11.
[28]
MICA PARIS: breath life into me. Pedestrian Brian Whitehouse is not in the house. Brian Whitehouse
uses some lovely shots of Mica Paris backgrounded by the big video screen at
the side of the main stage. There's nothing significantly different about his
direction this week but it just feels like he's putting in a bit more effort.
[22]
TANITA TIKARAM: twist in my sobriety. Again, it feels like everyone is a bit more engaged than
previously. The direction and cutting is slow and deliberate to match the mood
of the song. There's a lovely moment when one of the camera crew catches a big
close up of Tanita Tikaram with a white spotlight in the background.
Technically it's not a good shot because the light keeps bleaching out the
picture, but Brian Whitehouse chooses to hold on it because it's moody as heck
and Vision Mixer Priscilla Hoadley cross fades it to a profile of the oboe
player, leaving the white spot hanging briefly in the background like the
setting sun before fading. My rating; two thumbs up!
TOP
10.
[1]
ROBIN BECK: first time. A repeat of last week's performance.
[12]
SALT 'N' PEPA: twist and shout. Simon Mayo and Andy Crane next week. Gary Davies wants to know of
Susie Mathis, “your first time on Top of the Pops for twenty years. You enjoyed
it?” “I loved it,” comes the reply, “I run true to form I'll see you in 2008.”
“I'm sure it'll be sooner than that,” says Gary and he's right but next time
Susie Mathis will have to share the screen with Bruno Brookes.
24/11/1988
Andy
Crane: “Hi. Good evening. Welcome to this week's Top of the Pops in FM stereo
on Radio 1. Featuring Deacon Blue, Bananarama, Chris De Burgh, and Simon Mayo.”
Simon
Mayo: “Thank you very much. Some important business. Just twenty seconds ago
the latest Radio 1 FM transmitters were switched on... over here like this.
Oxfordshire is now on, on 98.2. It's now on.”
Andy
Crane: “And if you're watching in Belfast and the surrounding area you can join
us on 96.0.”
Simon
Mayo: “OK, so they're the latest transmitters. Here's your first stereo tune
perhaps. It's Tiffany at twenty one this week.”
Andy
Crane: “Yeah!”
[21] TIFFANY: radio romance. Simon Mayo and Andy Crane have been given a map to point at, how delightfully old school. It even as STEREO written at the top in red letters. This is a shame because Dickie Higham has coloured the studio background with red lighting and the text is less visible than it could have been. Flashing video effect circles are overlaid on the map. They radiate out of the highlighted regions to give visual representation of all that pumping twenty-first century stereo power.
And
what's the first song for this bold new stereo Elizabethan age? Tiffany.
Joining Level 42 with Heaven in My Hands, and Sinitta with I Don't Believe In
Miracles as a stereo launch legend. Presumably Tiffany's song was chosen
because of the title. I don't think Simon Mayo likes it very much. His strained
grin betrays his underlying feelings about Radio Romance being the first
experience of the magic of stereo for viewers/listeners in the
Oxfordshire/Belfast and adjacent regions.
[19]
BOMB THE BASS featuring MAUREEN: say a little prayer. “Brilliant,” is Simon
Mayo's verdict. Alas, I am distracted by the scenery. Is this a new set?
At
the front of the stage is a shiny silver metal effect pillar which tapers down
to the ground like a pin. It has a yellow neon tube wrapped around it. This is
definitely new. However, at the back of the stage are square metallic beams
with with masking tape on them to give an effect somewhere between graffiti and
camouflage. The square beams aren't new but the masking tape is, I think.
What
we're looking at is possibly a redesign of the stage which had two beams
running across the top, which met in the middle in an x-shape. The one Yazz
used for Stand Up For Your Love Rights on 03/11/1983.
I
think the front of the stage has been cut off to add the giant pin-thing along
with a circular scaffold round the top at the front. Meanwhile, the back of the
stage has had the tape added to give a different texture to the surface.
TOP
40 FROM 40 TO 31.
[8]
DEACON BLUE: real gone kid. The Top of the Pops gods smile upon me! The next
performance repeats Deacon Blue's appearance from the 10/11/1988 edition and
what stage are they using? Why, it's the new pin stage in it's previous x-beam
incarnation. Some roving camera work in this and tonight's Bomb the Bass
performance reveal both stages are in the same place on the studio floor plan.
If you were standing on the main neon-logo stage looking down the length of the
studio this would be the next one on the right.
BREAKERS: [12 MICHAEL JACKSON
smooth criminal]; [7 PET SHOP BOYS left to my own devices]; [6 IRON
MAIDEN the clairvoyant].
[20]
BANANARAMA: nathan jones. Brian Whitehouse is pulling off some lovely crane moves in this
episode. Check out the one used to pan from Simon Mayo and over to Bomb the
Bass, or indeed this one at the start of Bananarama. The camera pans up and to
the left to give us a view of the Nanas on the main stage behind Simon Mayo
(he's on the new pin stage for those keeping track) and then pans back across
the studio to bring the group into a head to toe long shot, just in time for
the end of the introduction. It's very well timed.
Brian
Whitehouse really does seem to have upped his game recently.
What's
changed. The last couple of shows have been much more dynamic. Were all the
camera cranes off being used to record Christmas 1988 shows? Or, while the
festive stuff was being recorded, was Top of the Pops relegated to
smaller studios where there was less space for fancy camera moves like this?
TOP
40 FROM 30 TO 11.
[3]
CHRIS DE BURGH: missing you. On video. At the end of Andy Crane's introduction, Vision Mixer
Hilary Briegel adds black bars to the top and bottom of the picture. It's a
clever way to transition into the faux-widescreen video for Chris De Burgh's
ghastly song.
TOP
10.
[1]
ROBIN BECK: first time. A second repeat of Robin Beck's 10/11/1988 performance. Top of
the Pops seems reluctant to run the video. Presumably they object to the
footage in the video which is recycled from the Coca-Cola advert. [Drink
Pepsi!]
[25]
HITHOUSE: jack to the sound of the underground. Bruno Brookes and Mike Read
next week. Simon Mayo has to run to catch a plane because “next week” the
Breakfast show comes from Belfast (in glorious Tiffany stereo).
01/12/1988
Bruno Brookes:
“Hello. Good evening and welcome to Europe's number one TV pop show. This is
Top of the Pops with the hits in vision. And the stereo sound of Radio 1FM.”
Mike Read:
“Really?”
Bruno Brookes:
“Yeah.”
Mike Read:
“Fantastic. Right. Just shortly ahead of their tour, first up tonight on Top of
the Pops, Rick Astley and the gang at number twelve and Take Me To Your Heart.”
[12] RICK ASTEY: take me to your heart. Rick Astley, a good safe (bland) choice to open Top of the Pops although he's not doing much for my word count. We're at the start of the race for Christmas Number One and surely no one, not even the most optimistic Rick Astley backer, thought this was doing to get to the top, did they? Even Rick looks a bit bored.
TOP 40 FROM
40 TO 31.
[8] MICHAEL
JACKSON: smooth criminal. Michael
Jackson is on video. Bruno Brookes garbles his introduction, “if you really
want to see a dance routine then keep your eyes peeled out.” Keep your eyes
peeled out? Peeled out? This is why Bruno Brookes didn't take over from Shaw
Taylor on Police 5
BREAKERS: [24 GEORGE MICHAEL kissing a fool];[16
ANGRY ANDERSON suddenly (neighbours wedding theme];[7 CLIFF RICHARD
mistletoe and wine];[6 PHIL COLLINS two hearts]
[4] PET SHOP
BOYS: left to my own devices.
The Pet Shop Boys appear on the same stage as Rick Astley. Usually this is a
sign that one of the two performances have been sneakily pre-recorded but Brian
Whitehouse does a seamless pan from the hosts to the group at the start of
both. Clearly the scenery shifters have been hard at work moving Rick Astley's
keyboard, drums, and quiff off stage to clear a space for the two Pet Shop
Boys.
Vision Mixer
Hilary Briegel runs the video alongside the performance but it's not cut into
studio footage in the usual way. The video has been recorded looking up through
a glass floor and the different perspective allows it to also be mixed over the
studio footage, an effect which works very well indeed.
Brian
Whitehouse is confident enough to allow the Pet Shop Boys performance to play
mainly as long and static medium or tight close ups. He doesn't feel the need
to keep moving the camera or adding in lots of quick cuts. The energy of the
performance comes from the music and the audience dancing away in the
background.
There are three
cuts in about 45 seconds of screen time. Brian and Hilary have divided the
lyrics into couplets and allow these to play out before changing the shot. single slow zoom into a medium close up of
Neil Tennant covers the lines: “It's not a crime when you look the way you do,
the way I like to picture you. When I get home it's late at night, I pour a
drink and watch the fight.” “Turn off the TV, look at a book. Pick up the
phone, fix some food.” Is a low angled hand-held camera shot. “Maybe I'll sit
up all night and day. Waiting for the minute I hear you say.” Is a bigger close
up. And the transitions between shots are cross-fades rather than cuts which
helps maintain the deliberately slow pace.
It's great.
Sometimes less really is more.
TOP 40 FROM
40 TO 31.
[2] BROS:
cat among the pigeons.
Bros and Rick Astley on the same Top of the Pops? I knew I shouldn't
have shot that albatross.
TOP
10.
[1]
ROBIN BECK: first time. A third repeat for the performance from the 10/11/1988 edition.
The BBC really didn't want to use the video. This is probably (ie, I can't be
bothered to check) the first time a single performance has played weekly for
four weeks. Let's hope Robin Beck isn't still Number One next week.
[18]
HUMANOID: stakker humanoid: Caron Keating and Nicky Campbell next week.
Top
of the Pops plays
out with something different. A new studio performance running under the
credits. With a few limited exceptions Top of the Pops has played out
with a video since June 1986, and those exceptions were mainly the run of
repeated performances around October 1988. Brian Whitehouse is so keen to make
it clear we're not watching a repeat or a pre-recorded performance that he uses
the pan-from-the-hosts-to-the-stage camera move for the third time in this
edition.
Humanoid
put on an impossibly energetic dance performance, I'm knackered watching it.
Brian Whitehouse works the camera crew hard as well. Check out the moment when
we get pictures from a hand held camera operator who is dashing down the stairs
at the back of the stage; that seems unsafe.
Closing
credits are overlaid on the studio footage, for the first time in ages the
picture isn't shrunk down into a smaller box to allow the credits to roll over
a plain background. Instead the credits run over a wide shot of the stage with
the backs of the audience at the bottom of the screen providing a safe dark
space for the credits to be clearly read.
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