Top of the Pops 5 January 1989

 

Words: Chris Arnsby
Mark Goodier: “Hi and happy new year. This is Top of the Pops, now into its twenty sixth year.”
Andy Crane: “And in its twenty sixth year this is edition one thousand three hundred.
Mark Goodier: “My goodness. On tonight's show, Climie Fisher plus a-Ha and also Neneh Cherry.”
Andy Crane: “But we start with Erasure and Stop, number two.”
Mark Goodier:”Oooh.”

 [2] ERASURE: crackers international. Episode one thousand three hundred starts with a new title sequence. It's all right. It reminds me, weirdly, of the titles to Blake's 7 series D which replaced shots of the Liberator being chased through space with a pilot's eye view of a spaceship taking off.

The new Top of the Pops titles are a first person view as the camera zooms through a series of ducts. A few graphics are overlaid on the ducts, head-up-display style; a test cardesque pattern; a circle within a square with the numbers 40, 30, 20, and 10 at the north, east, south, and west of the circle; a soundwave; circles, like singles, with chart positions on them; and then the camera flies backwards out of the duct which is revealed to be the O of the new Top of the Pops logo attached to a textured backgroud which looks a bit like the hull of Red Dwarf (but blue).

The new titles are quite generic. With a few minor changes they'd work for Going Live, The Krypton Factor, or Tomorrow's World. They'd work for Points of View if you replaced the music with When I'm Sixty-Four, and the circles with letters, and the final pull back revealed the camera was flying around Barry Took's bin.

It's a shame. The last few sets of titles contained images that did a good job of echoing the feel, concept, and excitement of the programme; the singles zooming out of the fog; the exploding television screen; singles, CDs, and instruments being disassembled and recombined as the Top of the Pops logo. It's also a shame because 25 Years of Top of the Pops had a brilliant title sequence which looked like a lot of time and thought had been expended on it. Can we have that one back please Mr Ciani?

Oh, and now you've changed the titles you really need to change the music.

Stop is still brilliant. Priscilla Hoadley, vision mixer, is in charge of freezing the screen whenever Andy Bell goes “stop!” She doesn't manage to do as good a job as Carol Abbott on the 15/12/1988 edition. Priscilla's timing is off. New year's hangover? No thanks, I've already got one.

One of the camera cranes pulls off a terrific shot. The colour screen which used to stand by the main stage has been relocated. It now hangs over the gap between the Needle stage and the Main Stage (update your Top of the Pops studio maps now!). The camera is positioned behind the screen, onto which is projected the output from the camera (still with me?) Essentially what the viewer ends up seeing is Erasure on the Needle stage in the distance, with the same shot inset on the colour projector screen. It's a sort of live action inset shot. Very clever. More please.

[9] KIM WILDE: four letter word. A repeat of the performance from 22/12/1988.

Quick, let's talk about captions. New ones debuted on 25 Years of Top of the Pops. I didn't like them last week, I've changed my mind. They're very plain, a lot more stark and minimalist than the old ones, but they look good. The font is a sort of distressed Arial, which makes the captions look like a bit like printed ticker-tape. It will be interesting to see how they cope with longer band names or song titles. Paul Ciani has also decided to do away with the more animated caption at the end of the song. This might be for ease of editing as Top of the Pops has gradually increased the number of repeat performances following their fall from favour around 1985/86. 11 repeats in 1984; 8 in 1985; only 6 in 1986; 16 in 1987; and then a big increase to 46 repeat performances in 1988. Alternatively, if losing the animated end caption doesn't make editing easier, maybe Paul Ciani just didn't like them very much.

CHARTS FROM 40 TO 31: Mark and Andy are up in the new crow's nest to introduce the charts. They've also been redesigned in line with the new look. A picture to represent the single in the top middle of the screen, with the same picture stretched and replicated three times to make a background, and then the chart position, icon to indicate chart movement, singer/band, and title. The chart captions are centre justified while the ones at the start of each song are left justified.

[15] A-HA: you are the one. A second outing for the video.

BREAKERS: The captions for the Breakers are done in a slightly differently style. Same font, but white text and no background. The caption still scrolls like the old-style Breakers. 25 DURAN DURAN: all she wants is; 31 BOY MEETS GIRL: waiting for a star to fall; 28 GLORIA  ESTEFAN & MIAMI SOUND MACHINE: rhythm is gonna get you.

[37] CLIMIE FISHER: love like a river. Climie Fisher are on the new main stage. I was a bit lukewarm about this set previously but here it looks great. Rod Litherland lights it differently second time around and that makes a big difference. Last week Rod threw every light in the studio at the new set, this week he keeps it dark but highlights the matt geometric shapes, which turn out to be mirrored. As the camera pans round you see reflections of the band, the studio, lights, it keeps changing.

CHARTS FROM 30 TO 11.

[4] INNER CITY: good life. A repeat from 15/12/1988.

[6] NENEH CHERRY: buffalo stance. Neneh is back with her two dancers. This week they're dressed in multicoloured ponchos over silver lamé dresses and elaborate hats. It's quite an ensemble.

TOP 10.

[1] KYLIE MINOGUE & JASON DONOVAN: especially for you. A repeat from 22/12/1988.

Mark Goodier gives a quick chart summary, that Cliff Richard was at [1] for four weeks. It's a reminder the last two weeks of Top of the Pops haven't had any chart information. The 25/12/1988 edition was the Christmas Special which fudged what song was at [1] because Christmas Day was also Sunday, new chart day, and then 25 Years of Top of the Pops which was a nostalgic look back.

[7] FOUR TOPS: loco in acapulco. On video.

A new caption has been added; “producer for radio 1” this week that's Mick Wilkojc. He got a credit in the Radio Times listing for the 25/12/1988 show but not an on screen one.

 PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK: Erasure again, and Neneh Cherry again. Clime Fisher leave disappointed.