Top of the Pops 31 December 1988 25 Years of TOTP!

 25 Years of Top of the Pops

Words: Chris Arnsby

 Mike Read: “This is where Top of the Pops started life on the first of January 1964. A converted church in Dickenson Road, Manchester.”
Paul Gambaccini: And this is was the very first disc jockey. He's still going strong as well. Despite groups leaning on them these cameras as still working.”
Mike Read: “And they are still rolling the cameras 25 years later as we head into twenty five years of Top of the Pops.”
Jim Moir: “Yes it's number one! It's Top of the Pops.”

[Roll credits].

 Welcome to 25 Years of these writeups Top of the Pops. Extensive research (I used Google for nearly five minutes) has told me Jim Moir was the voice of the introduction. That's Jim Moir, director of a couple of episodes of Top of the Pops, and producer of Juke Box Jury and assorted other Light Entertainment programmes. Not the Jim Moir latterly known as Vic Reeves.

 Let's start as I mean to go on, with a conspiracy theory. Look at that picture of the Manchester studio. Does the sign over the door look odd to you? I can't find a comparable picture of the building but others show the BBC using a much simpler sign, black background with white BBC letters. And, wouldn't it  read BBC North rather than BBC Television Service Manchester Studios?

The sign is very bright with an overexposed look to the white background compared to the rest of the photo and there's an odd stepped black line at the bottom. Let's stop beating around the (Shepherds) bush. The picture looks doctored. I could believe the sign was an electronic overlay but if it is, it's a stunningly good one. The photo is clearly mounted on a caption stand, look at the way it wobbles, and the sign moves with the wobble and matches the zoom out perfectly. Maybe I'm overthinking it. The picture could be genuine but printed with boosted contrast on the sign to make it stand out.

 

The programme starts with a really well designed title sequence. A background of clips and photographs electronically edited into a single right to left panning image in faux-widescreen. A few objects are allowed to break the widescreen effect. A couple of dancers are cut from their original footage and overlaid on the widescreen in the 4:3 picture area. The blue bars of the current title sequence get the same treatment and appear to zoom out from the picture towards the viewer. It looks really good. It's technically sophisticated and nods to the past while looking contemporary. Shorn of its 25 Years logo this would work as a new title sequence (although its use of images of J*mmy S*v*l* would not be acceptable now). It's almost a shame the programme still uses The Wizard as the theme. Sorry Paul Hardcastle, as much as I love the song and associate it with Top of the Pops, it's time for a change.

 There's a studio recreation of the original DJ desk with the picture treated to look black and white. Then, after a Quantel transition, the picture jumps to the studio in living colour and a whole bunch of old DJs and Top of the Pops hosts lined up on the main stage (which looks different but we'll get to that later). David Jacobs says a few words, as does Pete Murray, and Alan Freeman. In the background are Mike Read, Andy Crane, Mark Goodier, Tony Blackburn, Kenny Everett, Mike Smith, Bruno Brookes. Weatherman John Kettley is also there for some reason, holding an umbrella. I guess it seemed cute.

SWINGING BLUE JEANS: “Hippy Hippy Shake”. Different captions for the special. I don't like them. They're very basic, just white Times New Roman letters. The Swinging Blue Jeans performed Hippy Hippy Shake on the first edition. It's a nice idea to get them back. I guess Dusty Springfield, the first singer, and The Rolling Stones, the second act, and the Dave Clark Five, third, and The Hollies, fourth, were all busy. Still, you know what they say. Fifth act's the charm.

TOP SIXTIES GROUPS: A montage introduced by Alan Freeman, David Jacobs and Pete Murray. I've taken all the montage names from the compilation of VT inserts which can be downloaded from ye olde Top of the Pops archive (https://mega.nz/folder/h0snQACa#uiNNqosfbdrfzODHsE1clw/folder/QgVgAShZ).

MANFRED MANN, Mighty Quinn. (15/02/1968)

PROCUL HARUN, A Whiter Shade of Pale. (26/12/1967)

DAVE CLARK FIVE, Bits and Pieces. (19/02/1964) A ropey looking telerecording of their 19/02/1964 performance. It might be the oldest surviving Top of the Pops moment. It, presumably, exists because it was transferred to film and reused the following week. The footage is damaged, covered in dirt, and the contrast is shot which gives the picture a blasted white radioactive look.

THE KINKS, Lola. (18/06/1970) This colour clip is captioned as 1969.

ANIMALS, House of the Rising Sun. Official promo film.
THE HOLLIES, I Can't Let Go. I'll discuss the Swiss cheese nature of the Top of the Pops archives later. Much later. Suffice to say there's a lot of slight of hand to present archive footage as originating from Top of the Pops. This clip comes from Beat Club (05/28/1966), a West German music programme.

THE BEACH BOYS, Good Vibrations. Captioned as 1966. The colour clip comes from The Ed Sullivan Show, 13/10/1968. It looks like absolute slop because it combines the worst CSO imaginable with video conversion from NTSC, and generational loss from being transferred across tapes for the final edit. Interestingly (no stop come back) the Top Sixties Groups insert ends with The Hollies. Was this clip was played into the recording from somewhere else -direct from VT?

 The montage ends with Alan Freeman, David Jacobs and a bored-looking Pete Murray in a new set. Or rather a restored one. The Top of the Pops crow's nest is back. Not seen since one of the eighties set designs (let's say the one for the 1000^th edition 12/05/1983 -is this right? I don't know!). I'd love to see the raw footage of Freeman, Jacobs and Murray getting into the crow's nest and down again. Mike Love is here as well and what follows is a poor interview even by Top of the Pops standards.

Alan Freeman: “Mike Love welcome back to Top of the Pops.” 
Mike Love: “It's wunnerful to be here. It's wunnerfulwith everybody celebrating…. Twenty five years...
Alan Freeman: [interrupting] Uh, Mike...
Mike Love: “... of Good Vibrations by the way! Uh! Huh!”
Alan Freeman: “And you've just had another number one in America haven't you.”
Mike Love: “We did we had the longest span of time between number one records...
Alan Freeman: [interrupting] “Unbelievable! Stick around!”
Mike Love: “... from 1966 to 88.”
Alan Freeman: [talking over Mike Love] Hold on.”

 THE TREMELOES: “Silence Is Golden”. The new crow's nest is just above the redesigned main stage. By the magic of television Fluff, David Jacobs, bored-looking Pete Murray, and Mike Love, have all vanished in the space of a cut from the crow's nest to the stage.

Time to discuss the new main stage set. The neon tubes and the colour screen have been swept away and replaced with flat perspex walls. The walls have flat semi-transparent surfaces with texture added by matt geometric shapes. There's a tall four-sided box in the corner where the stage walls meet and above that is the crow's nest. The neon Top of the Pops logo is gone. Is it missing just for this week or has it been taken away forever? I find myself a bit lukewarm about the new set but it might just be the shock of the new. It looks very plain compared to what was there before, but what it does do -which I like- is pick up the colours of the studio lights. Right now they are purple. Maybe I just don't like the colour. At the end of the song, as the camera pulls back, it's just possible to see the recreation of the original DJ desk used at the start of the show. It's back and to the right of the main stage. Tucked away in the corner of the studio.

STRAIGHT IN AT NO 1: Introduced by Paul Gambaccini and Mike Read.

SLADE: Merry Christmas Everybody. (25/12/1974). The caption dates the clip to 1980, I'm pretty sure that's not right.

G**y G*****R: I Love You Love Me Love. (15/12/1973)

THE JAM: Going Underground. (27/03/1980) Captioned as 1983, who's researching this?

POLICE: Don't Stand So Close To Me. (video) Captioned as 1980, but they've used the video from the 1986 re-release.

ADAM & THE ANTS: Stand and Deliver. (video)

FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD: Two Tribes. (25/12/1984)

DURAN DURAN: Is There Something I Should Know? (23/03/1983)

OFF THE WALL/PARTY HITS. This next montage is introduced by Kenny Everett.

THE VILLAGE PEOPLE: Y.M.C.A (promo film)

SHOWADDYWADDY: Under The Moon of Love. (04/11/1976)

FREE: All Right Now. (04/06/1970)

THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN: Fire. (18/07/1968)

BENNY HILL: Ernie. (promo film)

RAY STEVENS: The Streak. (27/12/1974)

SYLVIA: Y Viva Espana. (15/08/1974)

 MUD: “Tiger Feet”. Introduced by Kenny Everett with a nice camera move from Paul Ciani. Kenny is on the studio floor, looking up at a crane camera. When he's done with his introduction the camera moves over his head and pans on to Mud.

TOP FEMALE SINGERS:  Paul Gambaccini and Mike Read are back in the crow's nest and they are joined by, Moira Stewart? Does she have a favourite recording artist. “At the moment, Anita Baker.” Thanks for joining us Moira. Be careful going down the ladder.

SANDY SHAW: Long Live Love. (25/12/1965). A clip from the rehearsal for the Christmas 1965 Top of the Pops. It survives courtesy of VT Engineer Bob Pratt who was one of several people in the Television Centre basement who kept a secret stash of music performances to save them from being wiped.

CILLA BLACK: Anyone Who Had A Heart. Captioned as 1964. The actual colour clip is from Pop Go the 60s! A 75 minute special shown on BBC1 on 31/12/1969.

MADONNA: Like A Virgin. (13/12/1984).

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN: Little More Love. (07/12/1978)

KATE BUSH: Wuthering Heights. (video).

DUSTRY SPRINGFIELD: Son of A Preacher Man. Another clip omitted from the insert reel so possibly played straight into the programme from VT. Frustratingly I can't work out the source. It's not Top of the Pops.

 LULU: “Shout”. A sneaky pre-recorded performance given away by the Radio 1 FM logo in the background. The birthday show studio covers it with a 25 years logo. Can I work out when this pre-record was done? Yes, I think so. The horizontal neon tubes in the background are all blue on the right of the stage and the ones at the left back are red, this matches the set up for Cliff Richards' one performance of Mistletoe and Wine, 08/12/1988.

 TOP SEVENTIES GROUPS: Kid Jensen's back! He's joined by Errol Brown from Hot Chocolate. “Do you enjoy looking back at your old performances,” Kid Jensen wants to know. “No,” says Errol. Tough luck. Here's a montage.

HOT CHOCOLATE: So You Win Again. (02/06/1977)

T.REX: Hot Love. (18/03/1971)

ROXY MUSIC: Virginia Plain. (24/08/1972)

THE JACKSONS: Blame It On The Boogie (video)

ABBA: Waterloo. (25/12/74)

SEX PISTOLS: Pretty Vacant. Clip from The Sex Pistols first Top of the Pops “performance” 14/07/1977. It's actually a three minute video made by Virgin Records and used by the BBC. You didn't think they would be allowed into Television Centre did you?

ELO: Mr Blue Sky. (video)

 

SENTEMENTAL JOURNEY: That's the name on the countdown clock. Simon Bates is the MC.

JOHN DENVER: Annie’s Song. It's a video but I can't track down the source.

ST WINIFRED’S SCHOOL CHOIR: There’s No One Quite Like Grandma. (04/12/1980)

TERRY JACKS: Seasons In The Sun. (14/04/1974) Clip from Musikladen, the show that replaced Beat Club on West German television.

GLENN MEDEIROS: Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You. (07/07/88)

ENGLEBERT HUMPERDINCK: “Release Me”. It's nice of Englebert to come into the studio to perform but I've got nothing constructive to add.

 

ROLLING STONES SEGMENT: Introduced by Alan Freeman, with Bruno Brookes standing next to him but not allowed to say anything. This is the way.

THE ROLLING STONES: Jumping Jack Flash. (promo film)

THE ROLLING STONES: The Last Time. (04/03/1965)

THE ROLLING STONES: Brown Sugar. (15/04/1971)

THE ROLLING STONES: Let’s Spend The Night Together. (26/12/1967)

 

TEEN SCREAMS: Mark Goodier and Peter Powell are joined in the crow's nest by Les McKeown from the Bay City Rollers. Peter Powell seems distracted and gives an oddly hesitant introduction. Is he nervous about heights?

BAY CITY ROLLERS: Bye, Bye Baby. Annoyingly I can't narrow this clip down. It must be either 06/03, 13/03, or 20/03/1975.

DONNY OSMOND: Puppy Love (video)

KAJAGOOGOO: Too Shy. (20/01/1983)

A-HA: The Sun Always Shines On TV. (video)

BROS: When Will I Be Famous? (21/01/1988)

DAVID ESSEX: “Gonna Make You A Star”. This is the fifth live performances tonight; The Swinging Blue Jeans were on newish Record Needle stage, The Tremeloes were on the main stage, Mud were on one of the corner stages (the one augmented with Paul Ciani's giant neon constriction), Englebert Humperdink was back on the Record Needle stage, and that's where David Essex is as well. That's a lot of use for one stage, although it probably is the best looking one at present.

Three short talking-heads interviews follow; Petula Clarke, which in a display of Doctor Spock logic, must have been recorded when she was in studio for the 15/12/1988 show; then Cliff Richards and Lulu both, logically, recorded in the studio session for 08/12/1988.

 

TOP GROUPS: Tony Blackburn is joined by a pair of Bee Gees (Maurice and Robin) for the next montage.

THE BEE GEES: Massachusetts. (26/12/1967)

FLEETWOOD MAC: Albatross. This is in colour so it's not from 1968 no matter what the caption says. I think this is another clip saved by Bob Pratt, possibly from The Royal Television Gala (24/05/1970).

MADNESS: Our House. (video)

THE MONKEES: I’m A Believer. This is weird. Someone's dubbed I'm A Believer over a clip from The Monkees titles, and it's in black and white.

THE SHADOWS: Don’t Make My Baby Blue. (12/08/1965)

THE THREE DEGREES: When Will I See You Again? (15/08/1974)

BLONDIE: Denis. (video)

THE WHO: My Generation. I can't date this clip.

DIRE STRAITS: Sultans Of Swing. (video)

GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS: Midnight Train To Georgia (29/04/1976)

 THE FOUR TOPS: “Reach Out I'll Be There”. Back onto the new main stage. Check out that lovely long tracking shot across the studio during the introduction (cor!).

Mumu03, in the comments under the write up for 22/12/1988 show, tells the remarkable story of this recording saving the lives of The Four Tops. The band wanted to record this and Loco in Acapulco in the same studio session and catch Pan Am Flight 103 back to New York. Paul Ciani, who I guess didn't want to feature the old main stage set in the anniversary show insisted they return for the separate studio session for this edition which I think was the day afterwards.

 

VIEWERS ALL TIME HITS: Kid Jensen returns to introduce the songs chosen by Radio 1 listeners and readers of the Daily Mirror. Queen are here, well not all of Queen, just the two that always turn up; Brian May and Roger Taylor. John Deacon is no-doubt out painting the town red and Freddie Mercury is having a quiet night in.

QUEEN: Bohemian Rhapsody. (video)

JOHN LENNON: Imagine. (promo film)

SONNY & CHER: I Got You Babe. (12/08/1965)
[at this point the All Time Hits insert file has a clip from the promo film for Subterranean Homesick Blues but that's edited out of the finished programme]

U2: Pride. (video)

ULTRAVOX: Vienna (25/12/1981)

THE BOOMTOWN RATS: I Don’t Like Mondays (video)

 Mike Read and Paul Gambaccini are joined in the crow's nest by David Hamilton. The crow's nest consensus is that Cliff Richard is Britain's all-time-number-one-singer. I demand a recount. Answer me this David Hamilton. If Cliff's so great why can't he be bothered to attend the Top of the Pops 25^th birthday party? A brief talking-head interview with Cliff follows.

 CLIFF RICHARD: “We Don’t Talk Anymore”. Cliff Richard's top selling record, according to Cliff. This is another sneaky pre-record as part of the 08/12/1988 studio.

 

TOP MALE SINGERS: Because Cliff was pre-recorded his song is edited in to form part of this montage.

ROD STEWART: Maggie May. (30/09/1971)

ELTON JOHN: Daniel. (25/01/1973)

DAVID BOWIE: Starman. (06/07/1972)

PHIL COLLINS: You Can’t Hurry Love. (video)

STEVIE WONDER: I Just Called To Say I Love You. (video)

MARVIN GAYE: I Heard It Through The Grapevine. More editing shenanigans. The first chunk is footage of Marvin Gaye singing Can I Get A Witness on American music show Shindig! Observe how Marvin's lips don't remotely match what he's singing and how the footage is slowed down in places to stop the dancers becoming wildly out of sync with the music. Then there's an edit which causes a visible picture jump to different footage, the dancers going past in the foreground, that's from a Shindig! performance of Hitch Hike.

LIONEL RICHIE: Hello. (video)

MICHAEL JACKSON: Billie Jean. (video clip)

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Born In The USA. (video clip)

ROY ORBISON: Oh Pretty Woman. (promo film)

TOM JONES: Delilah. (clip from 07/03/1968)

PAUL McCARTNEY & STEVIE WONDER: Ebony & Ivory. (video)

ELVIS PRESLEY: The Wonder Of You. (photos)

SHAKIN' STEVENS: This Ole House. Paul Ciani sets the handheld camera operators running and they capture some great footage of Shakey. The operators are able to rove around the stage and singer more freely than the bigger cranes and so in the background we get also good look at the studio layout. There are only four stages set up, normally Top of the Pops has access to five or six. Either this special has been relegated to a smaller studio or everything's been shuffled around to accommodate the recreation of the DJ's desk.

Two brief interviews follow, first Lulu again and then Tom Jones interviewed outside with the Television Centre fountain in the background.

BIRTHDAY GUESTS: Peter Powell stands in front of selected members of the audience, “all our friends on stage are celebrating their twenty fifth birthdays as well!” Sweet. They've been allowed to request some songs.

DON McLEAN: American Pie. Clip from Sounds For Saturday, 29/07/1972.

THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS: You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling. (28/01/1965)

10 C.C. : I’m Not In Love. BBC2 ran a series called Six Fifty-five Special across the summer of 1982, from Monday 5 July to 20 August. This performance comes from one of those programmes but BBC Genome is tight-lipped about which one.

THE SUPREMES: Baby Love. (07/10/1964)

WHITNEY HOUSTON: I Wanna Dance With Somebody. (21/05/1987)

GEORGE MICHAEL: Careless Whisper. (video) The clip of Whitney Houston is squashed into faux-widescreen to ease the transition into the Careless Whisper video and George Michael is stretched 4:3 for the transition out.

BAND AID: Do They Know It’s Christmas? (25/12/84)

 

TOP 80'S GROUPS: Quick! Who says 25 Years of Top of the Pops to you? If you said Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards then you are Paul Ciani and I claim my £5. Eddie Edwards released a single in 1988, Fly Eddie Fly. Is “The Eagle” here to introduce a segment about novelty records? Nope. Apparently he was just passing.

The internet and the Official Charts page are in dispute over Fly Eddie Fly. The bits of the internet that remember the single tell me it was a Top Fifty hit. The Official Charts very much disagrees. POP FACT WAR!

DEXYS MIDNIGHT RUNNERS: Come On Eileen. (25/12/1982)

EURYTHMICS: You Have Placed A Chill In My Heart. (23/06/1988)

WHAM: Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go. (video)

CULTURE CLUB: Do You Really Want To Hurt Me. (25/12/1982)

GENESIS: Turn It On Again. (13/03/1980)

SOFT CELL: Say Hello Wave Goodbye. (video)

SPANDAU BALLET: True. (05/05/1983)

HUMAN LEAGUE: Don’t You Want Me. (video)

DEPECHE MODE: Just Can’t Get Enough. (24/09/81)

 

THE BEATLES: Paul Gambaccini and Mike Read introduce a segment dedicated to “the act that's had the most Number Ones during the history of Top of the Pops. Unfortunately Ringo can't be here, and George had a prior engagement, and someone forgot to call Paul, but look! Weatherman John Kettley is back. Not that he gets to say anything. Not even a quick “winds light to variable.”

The Beatles only appeared live on Top of the Pops once, in 1966 to perform Paperback Writer and Rain. Now obviously this is going to take pride of place in the BBC Archive and. No, I'm just being silly. Get that tape into the bulk-eraser post-haste. Do you know how expensive two-videotape is? £100! That's four and guineas ha'penny thrupence in old money. We need that cash to ensure the BBC keeps a complete archive of Trooping the Colour forever. It's really important to show that annual ceremony has remained the same since 1949. Fortunately David Chandler was more far-sighted than the BBC. He filmed the performance as a teenager and kept the off-screen silent 8mm footage. It's available to view on Youtube.

It's probably The Beatles fault really. They should have known better than to appear on the satanically dated 16/6/66 edition.

This Beatles montage also doesn't appear on the inset tape compilation. Is it missing or were the clips played in from a different source on the day?

THE BEATLES: Daytripper. ( promo film clip )

THE BEATLES: Hello Goodbye. (film clip)

THE BEATLES: We Can Work It Out. (film clip)

THE BEATLES: Hey Jude. (film clip)

 

The Beatles are followed by two quick interviews with Petula Clarke and Cliff Richard and then it's time for the grand finale...

 STATUS QUO:  Rockin’ All Over The World. There's a birthday cake and then Status Quo play the programme out with Rockin’ All Over The World, although no one remembers to put up a caption. But first, a surprise. It's Status Quo on video from 15/02/1968 looking slightly different. Status Quo are old pros and know to pretend to be surprised and delighted and embarrassed at how they look slightly different. Charmingly the VT clock for this clip describes it as END SURPRISE.

 The credits roll over shots of the crowd dancing, plus some nice angles of the new main stage from a camera operator up in the crow's nest.. Paul Gambaccini, Mike Read, and Paul Ciani get a “Compiled By” credit. Weintraub Entertainments Ltd, UPA, Vestron Video, and Spectra Color all get a “Thanks to”. This is, presumably for the clips they supplied to hide the gaps in the Top of the Pops archive. Two Floor Managers are credited, Iain McLean and John Spencer. Did this recording have more than one studio session? Paul Ciani did the Producing and Directing.