Top of the Pops 9th & 16th November 1989

Words: Chris Arnsby

09/11/1989

Nicky Campbell: “Well, Chancellors of the Exchequer may come and go but Top of the Pops is always here. Tonight is an extravaganza of rare exuberance. What a cast. Too many stars to mention just now. We're going to start with something that you're really going to enjoy. Welcome Electribe 101.”

[32] ELECTRIBE 101: tell me when the fever ended. Nicky Campbell really grates this week. He's hitting all the big words to show you his big brain and it reminds me why I never warmed to his 10pm show on Radio 1. I found him smug and self satisfied. If he was chocolate, he'd eat himself. As my nan would have said. Anyway, I'll never finish this write up unless I play my Steve Wright rules and limit myself to one criticism. Assume I'm groaning and rolling my eyes during all the links and use your imagination as to which of the bad words got used.

Nigel Lawson resigned two weeks ago (see 26/10/1989). To add a little context to Nicky Campbell's seemingly out of date reference  the affair dragged on and on. By this point it had settled down to mud slinging over whether Mrs Thatcher had or hadn't been told that Lawson would go if her special adviser Alan Walters stayed. Mrs T said she hadn't been told. Mr L said she had. Its the political version of Den and Angie arguing over custody for Roly. Meanwhile, on the night this episode was broadcast the Berlin wall was coming down.

[29] EURYTHMICS: don't ask me why. Promo VT.

CHARTS FROM 40 TO 31

[25] LINDA RONSTADT featuring AARON NEVILLE: don't know much. “One of those very special Top of the Pops moments now,” Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville have “agreed” to do a live studio vocal. It's a bit dull to be honest. Stanley Appel struggles to find a hook for the presentation and shoots the song like a conversation with one camera on Linda Ronstatdt and the other on Aaron Neville. Then he cuts between the two as required. Aaron Neville commits to his role in the love song and never takes his eyes off his partner. Linda Ronstatdt, on the other hand, is a ripe little ham and can't resist making occasional eye contact with the camera, she wants us to see more than just her profile.

Here are Stanley Appel's scores on the big cliches of soppy song direction.
Everything blurs into soft focus: 3
Camera zooms in slowly and then swoops upwards: 2
Linda Ronstadt stares right into the camera: 2.5.
At the end, who is the mystery person in the black suit who puts their arms above their head and leads the crowd into applause? One of Linda Ronstatdt and Aaron Neville's people?

[23] NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: you got it (the right stuff). Promo VT.

[31] THE ALARM featuring THE MORRISON ORPHEUS MALE VOICE CHOIR: a new south wales/the rock. A caption so long it fills four lines of text on screen. Promo VT. There's a nice transition into the song. The picture is faded to monochrome and shrunk down and angled to match the opening gate in the first shot of the video.

BREAKERS
[38] AND WHY NOT?: restless
[36] QUIREBOYS: 7 o'clock
CHARTS FROM 30 TO 11
[12] MIXMASTER: grand piano. Promo VT.

[28] JANET JACKSON: rhythm nation. Pre-recorded as part of the 02/11/1989 studio session. At the time of recording the Floor Manager took great pains to make sure the audience didn't cheer at the start of the performance. Here, the start is covered by the usual dubbed on crowd noise so what was the point of the fuss last week? Unless it was to avoid distracting Janet Jackson at the time?
Alan Jeffery is credited with Lighting for this and the previous week's edition. He pulls off a great look for the main stage. He puts revolving light stands behind the semi-transparent perspex sides of the stage and they produce long smears of red and blue light along the walls. It looks as if a Police car is parked off screen, which fits with the quasi-military uniforms everyone is wearing.

TOP 10

[1] LISA STANSFIELD: all around the world. The opening shot of Lisa Stansfield looks really distinctive. She's positioned in front of a featureless smoky blue background, lighter in the centre and darkening to the edges of the picture. The result looks almost filmic. It certainly doesn't look like she's in the Top of the Pops studio until Vision Mixer Carol Abbott cuts to a different angle and it's clear the effect has been generated by some clever backlighting and turning off the usual flickering studio lights.

[33] WONDER STUFF: golden green/get together. Promo VT. Simon Mayo next week.

 Performance of the week: Lisa Stansfield, All Around The World.

16/11/1989

Simon Mayo: “Welcome to Top of the Pops. With those beautiful pictures on BBC1 and Radio 1FM sound as well. We're going to start with a debut performance, a band from the dance scene, the underground scene in Manchester. They've never done it before. Would you welcome please 808 State and Pacific 707. Over there.

 

[20] 808 STATE: pacific – 707. A pan from the host to the band and the use of Quantel transitions to make the performance more visual. Is Paul Ciani back? [checks closing credits] No. No he isn't. Evidentially, Stanley Appel was casting around for something to add interest to shots of Graham Massey tootling away on his little electric-recorder-thingy, and Vision Mixer Sue Collins persuaded Appel to allow her to press some of the Forbidden Buttons on the gallery mixing desk. More please Mr Appell.

[24] UB40: homely girl. Promo VT.
CHARTS FROM 40 TO 31
[33] JIMMY SOMERVILLE  FEATURING JUNE MILES KINGSTON: comment te dire adieu. A very crowded caption. The normal format is to lower case “featuring” but this time they've gone for a smaller text size. This appears to be done to stop the caption spilling into a fourth line. If it did, it would take up so much of the screen you'd only be able to see the top of Jimmy Somerville's head.

[27] KAOMA: lambada: Promo VT.

CHARTS FROM 30 TO 11

[15] D MOB introducing CATHY DENNIS: c'mon and get my love. BBC VT for this repeat from 19/10/1989.

But first there's a public information notice from Simon Mayo. “Radio 1FM coming next to East Anglia. Look out for us in the middle of December.”

[12] IRON MAIDEN: infinite dreams. Promo VT.

BREAKERS

[35] PRINCE with SHEENA EASTON: the arms of orion

[34] FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS: i'm not the man i used to be

[2] PHIL COLLINS: another day in paradise. Promo VT.

TOP 10

[1] LISA STANSFIELD: all around the world. BBC VT. A repeat of last week's performance. Good Quantel work from Sue Collins (and Adam McInnes, Video Effects) to get seamlessly from the charts to the performance. The opening shot of Lisa Stansfield on stage is faded in over her chart countdown photo, and is then slowly spun out to full screen. Is this transition the reason there's no caption to introduce the song?

Oh bum, now I've thought about captions I'd better go back and see if they are still using the target-style caption at the start of the show for the host. Yes. Yes they are. And, more so, they've reverted back to the original chunky version as first used on the 24/08/1989 edition.

[28] INNER CITY: whatcha gonna do with my lovin'. Promo VT. Jenny Powell and Jakki Brambles next week.

 

Performance of the week: Well that show fell apart quickly. Two studio performances and then it's all VT. 808 State, Pacific – 707.