Words: Chris Arnsby
Bonus master tape bit: The picture stabilises on a long shot of the new Triangle Stage. Two members of the studio crew are working the crowd. The sound quality is a bit too muffled to accurately transcribe what they are saying, alas for the historical record, but it's basically a warning to the audience to avoid the people shepherding the cameras around: “...They go rushing at great speed. People are going to push you out of the way. Don't hit them. Don't touch them. Don't do anything to them. These guys are here to save your lives alright? Give them a round of applause. Right? They're over there [points]. They're over there [points]. They're over there [points]. They've got a Top of the Pops t-shirt.... quiet... now listen... I want a great big round of applause for the brilliant the wonderful the divine Liza Minnelli!”
Liza
Minnelli enters. She waves shyly. And then starts to sing Love Pains. Her
performance style is very similar to the one she used for Losing My Mind
(10/08/1989) very mannered, very still, and a lot of direct eye contact with
the camera; a very Princess Diana-ish Bambi-eyes gaze looking up at the camera
through her fringe. The song comes to an end and the lens of the camera wanders
away as if it is hunting for something new to look at.
The
screen blanks out as the audio continues.
Voice
1: “Lovely.”
Voice
2: “Well done.”
Liza
Minnelli: [Joke shouting] “Oh drat! We have to do it again you guys.
[Crowd
cheers and applauds].
The
picture snaps back on and focuses again on a long shot of the Triangle Stage.
The long shot is held for around a minute, time enough to take in a strange
object which hangs from the ceiling and gently rotates, to the left of the
stage. Take two ends quickly, after about 25 seconds. There seems to be a
problem with the crane shot, it's misaligned as it pans in and Liza Minnelli
drifts out of the centre of frame. The screen blanks and the crowd groan as the
music cuts out.
“Throughout
the show we do get technical hitches. It's not always your fault.” Says one of
the studio crew. To the crowd presumably. “Don't worry about it. Just bear with
us. Bear with us as we try and record this show, yeah?” Take three is fine.
Love
Pains will not feature on Top of the Pops.
The
screen blanks again. When we return to the studio we are apparently looking at
Mark Goodier down the Death Star Trench. This odd look comes courtesy of either
Vision Mixer Hilary West or Ian Simpson in Video Effects. They are rehearsing
the Quantel transition out of the Top of the Pops titles and because the
countdown clock for the title sequence is currently held at 10 seconds, the
effect is of two black walls sandwiching the host.
Mark
Goodier looks around and waits to be introduced. When he is, the effect is
electric as always: “Yo!” he says, unaware of the black sheets which continue
to spin and fade around him on screen. “I can't hear you. I'm sorry I can't
hear you,” he expertly taunts the crowd. “Hello!” He improvises. “We have a
brilliant show for you tonight. I hope that you are going to continue to be
loud. Are you going to continue to be loud?” The crowd assure Mark that they
are indeed going to continue to be loud but Mark can't hear them and he is
forced to ask again.
Alas
for history. This Wildean dialogue is cut short by the start of the programme.
Roll
titles.
Mark Goodier: “Good evening. Welcome to Europe's number one TV and radio pop show. The pops tonight has some very big stars. Cliff Richard, Chris Rea, Adam Ant, and Sinead O'Conner later. And we start with the first lady of rock and roll. Live in the studio, here is Tina Turner.”
[13] TINA TURNER: STEAMY WINDOWS. David Ward is back in the Cypher Graphics control suite. How will he respond to the gauntlet of excellent caption graphics which Rockett Norton threw down last week? Well, David Ward has clearly upped his game but the caption he produces for Steamy Windows is a variant on the one Rockett Norton produced last week. So round one, goes to Rockett.
Chris
Kempton has been rotated off Lighting to work on something else; possibly Single
Voices, “a series of dramatic monologues”. He worked on Royal Enclosure
starring Sheila Hancock which was broadcast on 06/05/1990. Rod Litherland
spurns the blue and purple colour scheme of the last few months and instead
lights Tina Turner in shades of red and white, and a bit of blue.
For
that authentic steamy look, studio smoke is being pumped onto the stage rather
than the usual preferred dry ice.
[24]
CHRIS REA: TELL ME THERE'S A HEAVEN. Promo VT. CaptionWatch, the David Ward fightback starts here. The
chart position is flown in on angel wings made from the words of the song
title.
CHARTS: 40 to 31
[2]
BEATS INTERNATIONAL Featuring LINDY LAYTON: DUB BE GOOD TO ME. A couple of weeks ago the
studio crew tore holes in the fabric of the Neon stage to pipe in dry ice. This
week the pipes run over the top of the scenery and the dry ice cascades down
the front. It looks lovely but I'm a bit concerned for the camera operator who
spends ages crouched in one of the falls; it is neat CO2 after all.
A
shout out to Rod Litherland who cleverly lights the Neon Stage by turning off
most of the lights. The neon tubes stay on but the rest of the stage is
illuminated by white lights and this allows the scenery to keep its normal grey
colour. It gives the stage an industrial look which I like.
CaptionWatch:
Disappointing. The chart position bounces off the word BEATS (and cleverly
compresses the letters as it lands on top) but its not that fancy.
TrouserWatch:
David John-Baptiste is the only person who has remembered to bring his Dub Be
Good To Me tracksuit bottoms this week.
[19]
CLIFF RICHARD: STRONGER THAN THAT. Promo VT. CaptionWatch: David Ward is mainly just shuffling the
text around. Try harder David. “Let's make a prediction. That deserves to be a
top five record,” says Mark Goodier who apparently has no control over the
nonsense that falls out of his mouth.
BREAKERS:
[32]
THUNDER: DIRTY LOVE
[33]
ELECTRIBE 101: TALKING WITH MYSELF
[36]
JAMIE J MORGAN: WALK ON THE WILD SIDE
[38]
RENEGADE SOUNDWAVE: PROBABLY A ROBBERY
[27]
GURU JOSH: INFINITY 1990'S TIME FOR THE GURU. A song which I though was
basically just a sample from Pacific State by 808 State, but doesn't appear to
be.
Guru
Josh are having a whale of a time. They've brought along four ladies to
unconvincingly mime playing the violin and, at just about the point when
everyone watching goes, “I don't think they're really playing those violins,”
the ladies put them down and start dancing like maniacs.
CHARTS:
30 to 11
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[22]
ADAM ANT: ROOM AT THE TOP. Paul Ciani gets some good hand held work out of the camera
operators and I'm a fan of the well-timed Quantel transition which sees the
picture swoosh away as Adam Ant sings, “wweeeeelll”. But somehow the
performance seems a little flat. Adam Ant is out there busting some sweet dance
moves, and so on, but a lot of them are not captured by the cameras or they get
lost in the general motion. I'm just not feeling it. Sorry Adam.
TOP
10
[1]
SINEAD O'CONNOR: NOTHING COMPARES 2 U. A new studio performance but one still cut
short because the single runs to over five minutes and that's too long for Top
of the Pops.
The
slower pace of the camerawork allows for a chance to look at the mysterious
rotating thing hung stage right. It's like a giant-sized Christmas tree
decoration hanging from the studio ceiling; made up of different sizes of
perspex rectangles. It looks nice but it doesn't really do anything except
occupy space. It sits in the gap where the very long departed fifth stage used
to go. How long before the dangling thing gets wrecked by the scenery team?
[29]
AEROSMITH: DUDE (LOOKS LIKE A LADY). Promo VT. Jakki Brambles next week. Keep an eye on the back of the
crowd because I think Guru Josh creeps in at the left of the picture; if it is
him, he's changed into his going home clothes.
Bonus Master Tape Bit: More studio chatter over a blurred still from the title sequence. And a bit of banter between Floor Manager Carmella Milne. This follows on from what I think is a re-take for Mark Goodier's introduction to Cliff Richard.
“Come
down now Mark.”
“Down
from the tower. You mean I don't have to sleep here.”
And then one of the studio crew winds up the audience to cheer for Belinda Carlise, who sings Runaway Horses. Yet another performance which will not feature on Top of the Pops. BBC4 really is missing a trick, they should make a programme out of these unused songs.
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