Top of the Pops 3 January 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

 Gary Davies: “Hello. Very good evening to you. Happy New Year from everybody here at Top of the Pops. We're coming to you live from Television Centre, we're also in stereo on Radio 1FM. Something for everybody on the show tonight. A lot of variety. We start off at twenty nine in the charts with Twenty Four Hours. Over there! Betty Boo!”

[29] BETTY BOO: 24 HOURS. Welcome to 1991. It's just like the end of 1990. Remember how I spent 600 words complaining the 20/12/1990 edition only had one studio performance? Well, that again but with the production team working twice as hard. Hope you like, Betty Boo and Seal. (Fortunately I do).

I don't want to sound churlish. It's probably hard enough shepherding four or five acts into the studio at the best of times, who wants to do it during the New Year break. What I don't get is, why is this a live edition? To me, live TV should be an event in itself. Like the 20^th Anniversary edition which kicked off 1984. You do something big and spectacular, not a New Year's diet edition. However, it occurs to me I'm thinking about this edition of Top of the Pops like a viewer maybe I need to think like a BBC Producer.

Top of the Pops is recorded on Wednesday with the preparation for the show done on Monday and Tuesday followed by the studio setup overnight on Tuesday (I think). Well in 1991 Tuesday was New Year's Day. From the Producer's point of view making this a live edition is sensible because it allows for a shortened production period. You can make life even easier by having fewer acts in the studio because that means less time is needed for camera rehearsals.

Suddenly the pattern of past Top of the Pops makes more sense. The 04/01/1990 edition was also live because New Year's Day fell on Monday; so there's a shortened production cycle again making a live edition seem like the better option.

Going further back, all the live shows fall on years when the Bank Holiday would result in less time to sort everything out. The 1987 show went out live on New Year's Day itself using, I assume, whatever camera crew was on standby at TV Centre anyway* and presumably the sets could be put up earlier because this was the one time of year TV Centre wouldn't be constantly making programmes. The year before, the programme went out live on 02/01/1986 and before that it was also live on 03/01/1985 and 05/01/1984.

The only two years in the previous decade when the first show of the year was recorded as normal were 1988 and 1989, when there was enough of a gap after the Bank Holiday for Top of the Pops to stick to the standard production cycle; 05/01/1989 and 07/01/1988.

* I imagine there would always be a camera crew on standby in case a special programme needed to be organised to cover live breaking news.

[34] BILL MEDLEY & JENNIFER WARNES: (I'VE HAD) THE TIME OF MY LIFE. Promo VT. “Rereleased to coincide with the British telly showing of Dirty Dancing,” says Gary Davies. It was ITV's big Boxing Day film for 1990, going out at 8pm.

CHARTS: 40 TO 31. To prove it's live, here's a technical mistake. Vision Mixer Sue Collins has forgotten to add a background to the transition into the charts, so instead of a background we see the colour test bars.

[31] GAZZA: GEORDIE BOYS (GAZZA RAP): Promo VT.

[14] BLACK BOX: THE TOTAL MIX. Promo VT.

CHARTS: 30 to 11

[11] SEAL: CRAZY. “He's just come back from a long Christmas squawk in New York.” I have no idea what this means. He's Seal not a seagull. Seal's don't squawk Gary. First rule of links, you must have factual accuracy. (John- That would be a Christmas honk. Seals honk, that's official)

The captions have had a bit of an upgrade. They are a long way from the glories of the Cypher system briefly used in early 1990 but a step up from the bog-standard graphics used ever since. Has the BBC worked out how to do Cypher-style graphics on the cheap. Oh, and the text is ALL CAPS now.

[25] C&C MUSIC FACTORY Featuring F. WILLIAMS. GONNA MAKE YOU SWEAT. Okay, 99% ALL CAPS. Promo VT.

TOP 5 DECEMBER ALBUMS

[5] CLIFF RICHARD: From A Distance (The Event*).  Promo VT for Saviours' Day.

[4] CARRERAS/DOMINGO/PAVAROTTI: In Concert. Promo VT for O Sole Mio.

[3] PHIL COLLINS: Serious Hits... Live! Clip from the Seriously Live video.

[2] ELTON JOHN: The Very Best Of Elton John. Promo VT for Sacrifice.

[1] MADONNA: The Immaculate Collection. Promo VT for Vogue.

*REMAIN INDOORS.

[23] ANTHRAX: GOT THE TIME. Promo VT.

[21] PATSY CLINE: CRAZY. The internet says this clip is from an 08/11/1961 edition of American Bandstand but American bandstand was hosted by Dick Clarke and on this longer version of the clip (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0q4CuYk2TE&list=RDw0q4CuYk2TE&start_radio=1 ) the host chats to Patsy Cline and he's not Dick Clarke.

Gary Davies describes this as “a clip of her singing on a Nashville TV show.” He goes on to add the show was “sponsored by pet milk”. Gary, what did I tell you about factual accuracy?

Astonishingly, Gary Davies is 100% correct and the internet is wrong. The Pet Milk Grand Ole Opry show ran from 1960 to 1963 and Patsy Cline appeared four times. I think this clip comes from the 07/02/1962 edition.

Pet Milk, was actually a brand of evaporated milk called PET Milk. It wasn't just special milk for pets.

TOP 10

[1] IRON MAIDEN: BRING YOUR DAUGHTER... TO THE SLAUGHER. Promo VT.

[36] ORCHESTRA ON THE HALF SHELL: TURTLE RHAPSODY. Promo VT.

 Countdown to Year Zero revamp: 40

Performance of the week: Betty Boo, 24 Hours.