Top of the Pops 21 September 1989

 

Nicky Campbell: “Woah. Welcome to indisputably the nation's top pop show. What an opener we've got for you tonight. They're frenetic, flamboyant, fun loving, the lot. You can tell from their name that they come from Germany. They're here tonight with Harlem Desire. The one and only, the two and only, London Boys.”

[21] LONDON BOYS: harlem desire. Stanley Appel doesn't like starting Top of the Pops with the host in the crow's nest. What's that all about? My best guess, he doesn't want to deal with the slight additional crowd wrangling involved in starting the show on the audience, panning the crane up to the hosts (while the Floor Manager shuffles the audience off the stage as quickly and quietly as possible), and then back down to the main stage.

It seems an odd thing to take against but its his signature in these 1989 shows; hosts in the crow's nest, it's Paul Ciani, hosts elsewhere in the studio, take a bow Stanley Appel.

The London Boys are full of vim. They pull of an impressive selection of forward rolls, back flips, etc. Not easy on that flimsy looking rostrum. It's not built for gymnastics.

[17] AEROSMITH: love in an elevator. Promo VT. OK. Last week, when Top of the Pops showed the Promo VT it was bowdlerised. There were shots of one of Aerosmith (I don't care who: let's say Brad Whitford) making out with a hawt chick. She's topless but turned away from the camera and covered with a big black box labelled “censored”, lest any of her naughty bits be even slightly exposed on television and turn the watching teens into slavering degenerates who vote for socialized medicine. I think this version was made by Aerosmith. The "censored" version uses footage of the band not included in the raunchy version, so it's clearly not a BBC edit. The band have toned it down for stuffy TV channels to timid to cope with the raw sexual power of, let's say Ray Tabano and his paramour.

However, the BBC was clearly worried the "censored" version was still too sexy so this week they've edited away all the footage of Peter Criss kissing a lady right on the mouth and replaced it with less steamy footage from elsewhere in the video. Who knew Love In An Elevator was so complicated?

CHARTS FROM 40 TO 31.

[24] S'EXPRESS: mantra for a state of mind. Who is credited with Sound this week? Mark Holland. Mark, you've messed up the microphones. Listen during the introduction, Nicky Campbell's microphone is still faded up and he can be heard saying, “stay here,” “I can't remember,” and “let's boogie on down.”

Stanley Appel records S’Express as if the band are in concert. Paul Ciani would have used it as an excuse to break out the Quantel box. I'm more in sympathy with Paul Ciani's approach. I want Top of the Pops to use the technology available to it. It should look like a television programme not footage from the front row at a concert.

[2] RICHARD MARX: right here waiting. Promo VT.

CHARTS FROM 30 TO 11

[19] THE WONDER STUFF: don't let me down, gently. The Wonder Stuff much better suits Stanley Appel's Glastonbury-in-White-City approach.

BREAKERS:

[31] THE BEAUTIFUL SOUTH: you keep it all in

[30] GLORIA ESEFAN: oye mi canto (hear my voice)

[29] ARETHA & WHITNEY: it isn't, it wasn't it ain't never gonna

[28] DEACON BLUE: love and regret

[25] W.A.S.P.: forever free. Promo VT.

TOP 10

[1] BLACK BOX: ride on time. A repeat from the 14/09/1989 show.

[22] JANET JACKSON: miss you much. Promo VT. Sybil Rusco and Jenny Powell next week so we exit the programme on a bizarre comment from Nicky Campbell about how he likes to think he has “struck a blow for male liberation.” Nicky's been showing off all evening -I skipped over his introduction to Richard Marx. It's been a while since he's been this insufferable and I wonder if he gets a freer reign on the script when Paul Ciani is away.

Performance of the week: The Wonder Stuff, Don't Let Me Down, Gently.