Top of the Pops 18 May 1989

 

Words: Chris Arnsby.
Anthea Turner: “Hell-o! Come up and join us! Welcome! To tonight's Top of the Pops! Now Mark and I have studied the form and we have got hot show for you tonight!”
Mark Goodier: “Yeah. Indeed. We have stereo hits from Paul McCartney and Stefan Dennis and Bobby Brown. And we start with a guy who has had thirty one hits. Shakin' Stevens.”

[28] SHAKIN' STEVENS: love attack. I'm not following Anthea Turner's “studied the form” comment. It sounds like it should be a lame horse racing pun but the Grand National was on the 8 April 1989 and the Derby doesn't take place until 7 June. BBC Genome offers no clues. The only sporting event I can find is International Pro-Celebrity Golf, at 11pm Thursday, Terry Wogan and Rodger Davis v Russ Abbot and Ian Woosnam. Terry Wogan and Rodger Davis won by three pins and a submission.

Shakey's career has been remarkable but we are now in the twilight days. This is as good as it's going to get for Love Attack. His next single will get up to [18] but after that his songs will mainly stall in the lower reaches of the Top 40 (if they are lucky). The one exception, a Christmas miracle when The Best Christmas Of All gets to [19] but we'll save that for next year.

 Trigger warning -References to the Hillsborough disaster are included in this post.

 

 

[20] BOBBY BROWN: every little step. Promo VT.

CHARTS FROM 40 TO 31. In addition to the broadcast episode, if you go digging around you can also find an insert reel for this episode. This contains all the pre-recorded stuff, like the chart countdown which wasn't presented how I expected. I assumed the countdown slides would be prepared in advance and played back to the hosts at the start of camera rehearsals, and the hosts would then record the audio while watching the countdown. Later, the whole thing would be played into the evening's recording as a complete package.

Instead the chart insert begins with the mini title sequence (there's probably proper BBC jargon for this interstitial, I don't know what it is) and then goes to a blank screen as the chart countdown continues in pre-recorded sound only. Apparently the chart graphics are added during the evening recording, while the audio is played in from VT. At least, that's how its presented here. If you've ever sat in a BBC Television edit suite, and this is all wrong, then please leave a comment explaining how it really worked.

[10] ROXETTE: the look. BBC VT. A repeat from the 04/05/1989 edition.
Last time, I missed the freeze frame/wipe effect towards the end of Roxette's performance. It's a clever visual trick to tie in to the moment where the song briefly cuts out. Very nice. Also, Roxette are on the insert reel (obviously) but the performance has no captions. It's good to finally have confirmation that the BBC have worked out how to record performances without on screen graphics. Using two different machines presumably. Again, if you've lurked in the VT basement at BBC Television and this is all wrong, then please leave a comment explaining how it really worked.

BREAKERS: The Breakers haven't been seen for nearly a month (20/04/1989 was the last time they appeared) and previously they were slightly different! Excitement mounts. Will they continue to be slightly different and have the song title followed by the band name? No. They've reverted back to how they've always been done. Also, no Breakers on the insert tape. Which seems odd.

[34] ALYSON WILLIAMS featuring NIKKI-D: my love is so raw

[31] SAM BROWN: can i get a witness.

[32] DIANA ROSS: workin' overtime.

[22] PAUL MCCARTNEY: my brave face. Promo VT. An odd video, based, apparently, around the high-concept that Paul McCartney is worried you might forget he was once in The Beatles. You won't forget, will you?

[26] NENEH CHERRY: manchild.  No sign of the rag doll dancers who accompanied Neneh Cherry on Buffalo Stance (last seen at the start of 1989, 05/01/1989). This time Neneh Cherry goes solo but the lack of distraction gives me a chance to admire her giant Nefatiti-head pendant.

Mike Manning is back on Lighting and he reuses the swivelling floor lights, which can also be seen behind Roxette. During the Roxette performance the lights frequently shone directly into the cameras and a couple of times they completely bleached out the picture (something else I missed when originally watching the 04/05/1989 edition. I must have been distracted by the cat who reacted badly to Electric Youth by Debbie Gibson). The lights seem to have been set up differently to reduce the chance of this happening again.

CHARTS FROM 40 TO 11.

[17] STEFAN DENNIS: don't it make you feel good. Promo VT.

[25] DEACON BLUE: fergus sings the blues.

TOP 10.

[1] ferry 'cross the mersey: various artists. Promo VT. This is the video for the charity single released to raise money for people affected by the Hillsborough Stadium disaster. The presentation here differs greatly from the official version on Youtube. Missing is the opening caption, white text on a black background: “On Saturday 15 April, 1989 24,000 supporters of Liverpool FC travelled to Hillsborough, Sheffield for the FA Cup Semi-Final against Nottingham Forrest. This then fades into video of Anfield stadium covered in floral tributes and ribbons with the stark caption “95 PEOPLE LOST THEIR LIVES” This caption is then replaced with a scrolling bar giving the names and ages of the people who died.

Top of the Pops crops the video, zooming the picture in to remove the caption and names, although the top of the semi-transparent grey bar can be seen at the bottom of the picture looking a bit like a VHS tracking error.

Why crop the video? I can think of two reasons. One, at the time of broadcast Lord Justice Taylor was conducting an ongoing inquiry, which sat from 15 May to 29 June 1989. The victims were also the subject of inquests which had been been opened just after the disaster and then immediately adjourned until 1990; under these circumstances the BBC could well have been nervous about broadcasting the names of the dead.

The second reason is more prosaic. When Top of the Pops shows the video it starts approximately one minute in, with the caption already in progress. It would be insensitive to show some names and not others, so the caption is zoomed off screen.

I'm not sure Anthea Turner hits the right tone at the end with her bubbly “I'll bet that will still be number one on Sunday!”

[?] ?:? Something is wrong with the last two captions. The style guide is thrown away for Ferry 'Cross The Mersey, which loses the ALL CAPS name and also puts the song title first. Then, the final song gets no caption at all (it's Capella by Helyom Halib). Did the operator get it wrong. Did the Aston machine crash? I imagine some sort of red alert situation with flashing lights and all ticker tape across the gallery.

Simon Mayo hosts next week.

 Master tape bonus bit:  The screen goes blank after the video for Capella has played out in full (which takes an eternity, I swear I watched civilisations rise and fall outside my window and my beard is now 65,0000 feet long -maybe I should just have hit fast forward). Then, suddenly, the picture flicks back into life on a wide crane shot of the studio. Kylie's Hand On Your Heart is playing and two clots are dancing on the stage, clapping their hands and attempting to gee up the crowd. This goes on, while the camera wobbles a bit and adjusts its angle. Kylie transitions into Holly Johnson's Americano (Mambo Dub). Then suddenly the studio audio is faded in and the crowd cheers as Chaka Khan comes on stage and performs Ain't Nobody.

This is odd because right now (1989 zone) Chaka Khan is at [8] with I'm Every Woman. This seems to be a very, very early recording for a single which won't hit the charts until 2 July. The recording goes without a hitch. Chaka Khan bows, the picture fades to black and then suddenly returns. A man walks on stage. I think it might be the lesser-spotted Paul Ciani. He jovially addresses the crowd, but annoyingly whatever he says can't be made out. The crowd groans theatrically. Paul Ciani shouts “louder!”. The crowd cheers. Chaka Khan walks back on stage and does the song again, identically.

There are two potential problems with take one; first, a hand held camera operator is more than usually visible while standing behind the scenery. He's beautifully illuminated by one of the overhead lights and this may have been UNACCEPTABLE. Secondly, at the end, as the applause starts, Chaka Khan turns away from the crowd and quickly starts walking towards the back of the stage before turning and bowing. On take two she stands facing the crowd during the applause and then bows. Paul Ciani may simply have been looking for a better ending for the performance.

 PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK:  Neneh Cherry, Manchild.