Top of the Pops 17th & 31st December 1987

 

Presented  by Chris Arnsby. December in January. This really is the new year's hangover. If it wasn't for my pedantic need to finish of 1987 I could be into the early weeks of January by now.

17/12/1987
Gary Davies: “Hi. Good evening. Welcome to the last Top of the Pops before Christmas. In the studio tonight we have The Pogues with Kirsty McColl, Simply Red, and the Pet Shop Boys.”
Mike Read: “And up eleven places to this week's twenty one, Wet Wet Wet with Angel Eyes.”
Gary Davies: “Yay! Woo!”

 [21] WET WET WET: angel eyes. Note to self, check typing to make sure you haven't misnamed the song Angle Eyes. Angel Eyes by Wet Wet Wet is a different song to Angeleyes by ABBA. What's going on with the charts at the moment? (By, at the moment, I obviously mean 36 years ago. I am nothing if not topical). They contain two re-releases of old songs, nine covers, and two songs which have the same title as earlier hits, this and The Look of Love by Madonna. It's 1987, it's too early for repeats on this scale.

Angel Eyes is “serious” Wet Wet Wet so Marty Pellow reduces the jauntiness by fifty. He's wearing a black suit (sombre), not dancing, gazing straight ahead, and trying not to smile. You can still see the gor-blimey-Mary-Poppins loveable scamp persona moving under his skin, trying to break free.

 

Top of the Pops 10 Dec 1987

 

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Mike Smith: “The difference is that tonight Top of the Pops is live from Television Centre so anything could happen in the next thirty minutes, some jolly good tunes coming your way like down here we have the second highest new entry of the week. At number four. The Pet Shop Boys and You're Always On My Mind.”

[4] PET SHOP BOYS: always on my mind. Mike Smith's opening line sounds like the second half of a sentence. Who is he talking to? My guess, the continuity announcer probably said something like “and now it's time for our regular Thursday night visit to Top of the Pops...” and Mike Smith being live could follow on directly.

The Pet Shop Boys now have a well established performance style. You've got Neil Tennant's deliberately understated persona, where he does whatever the word is for the opposite of making love to the camera. He's got a new move in his diffident toolbox, he stands at the microphone with his arms folded. It's a piece of closed body language, unexpected from a pop star which -of course- makes him stand out and be more distinctive than if he was bopping along to the song. And Chris Lowe wears a hat. This week his hat has the word POSH written on it. He also wearing a super jumper with a silhouette of a robot on the front.

Top of the Pops 3 Dec 1987

 

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Gary Davies: “Hi, good evening. Welcome to Britain's number one pop show. In the studio tonight we have T'Pau, we've got the Proclaimers, and Paul McCartney.”

Janice Long: “And, interrupting their world tour to be with us, at twenty two, it's The Hooters, Satellite.”

 [22] THE HOOTERS: satellite. The Hooters perform on the redesigned main stage. Finally a chance to get an eyeful of the new look. Except... Geoff Beech, on Lighting, has decided to take inspiration from the twinkly synthesiser riff so he's put two flickering white lights right behind singer Eric Bazilian and they shine down into the lens into the camera. It's a great effect when the camera is lined up properly, Eric appears against a moving white backdrop. It looks fantastic. When the camera isn't lined up properly (which it isn't, most of the time) the picture just looks washed out and a bit flickery. And, here's the important bit, it stops me getting a good look at the new scenery.

Top of the Pops 19 & 26 November 1987

 

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby.

19/11/1987
Simon Mayo: “Hi, welcome to Top of the Pops with a very big Barry White, a not quite so big Donna Summer, and a waif-like Steve Wright.”

Steve Wright: “Yes it's true!! Welcome!! We're going to start off with Maxi Priest!! Some guys have all the luck!! Here!!”

 [18] MAXI PRIEST: some guys. New Sets! The initial impression is of neon tower blocks. Actually, although the blocks do have horizontal neon tubes on them, the blocks are reflective or semi-transparent -Perspex or some sort of gauze? - which get most of their colour by being lit from above which gives the blocks the impression they glow from the inside. There are also a few grills and grates designed for cameras to look through. These grates carry a hint of the forthcoming 90's trend for things to look a bit industrial.

If my mental map of the Top of the Pops studio is correct then Maxi Priest is standing on what would previously have been the stage with three perspex pyramids in the background. You can see it in the 12/11/1987 edition, it's the one Mirage performed on and opposite was the V-shaped stage used by Alexander O’Neil. Wide shots suggest all the old stages have been swept away although the same basic layout has been kept; a stage set into the corner of the studio, then steps leading up to a bridge, then steps down to another stage. Having all the stages look the same gives consistency and when cameras shoot of the edge of a stage the scenery appears to continue off into the distance. Has this change been driven by a desire to make the studio seem bigger, like the one used for Top of the Pops USA? Take a bow Grenville Horner, who is credited with Design. I assume he's the person responsible for the new look.

Brian Whitehouse (for it is he) delivers a nice camera move at the end of Maxi Priest's song. The camera pulls back for the standard wide shot of the studio then pans left and keeps going, and going, until it finds Simon Mayo standing on the stage opposite, and then it pans round him some more, until one of the Top of the Pops logos is visible in the background. Does Maxi Priest have a couple of siblings called Mini and Median? (John – Yes.)

Top of the Pops 12 Nov 1987

 

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Gary Davies: “Hi, good to see you again and welcome to another Top of the Pops. Action packed as always, in the studio tonight we have Mirage, Alexander O'Neil, and T'Pau.”

Peter Powell: “It's hit! After hit! After hit! One of the biggest! The Communards! Never can say Goodbyyyyyyyyyyye!”

Gary Davies: “Yey,”

[6] THE COMMUNARDS: never can say goodbye. Brian Whitehouse is sitting in the studio gallery this week and taking the Produced and Directed By credit. Approaching Christmas, Michael Hurll is off tending to the far reaches of his Light Entertainment principality. There's a new series of Entertainment USA on BBC2, preparations are in hand for 1987's Noel-Edmonds-Christmas-Post-Office*-Tower-Thing, with Gordon Kaye in Battersea; Mike Smith presumably preferred to spend Christmas Day 1987 with Sarah Greene. He's not going to get far with that attitude. Most intriguing of all, Michael Hurll's got a new Noel Edmonds vehicle on BBC1 called Whatever Next... “Presented with an unusual situation can you foresee the outcome?” I can foresee this 16 episode oddity won't be picked up for a second series by programme planners. You can watch the opening titles here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_xLi1xu9PU, stay for the moment when Noel Edmonds bounds on to the most late eighties set ever. All pastel pinks, and muted greys.

 

Top of the Pops 29 Oct & 5 Nov 1987

 

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. 

29/10/1987: Steve Wright: “Oh look!! There you are!! Good evening!! Welcome to the Top of the Pops!!” Gary Davies: “Hi, nice to see you again. We have a terrific show lined up for you. In the studio tonight we have Ray Parker junior, we have Scarlett Fantastic, and Rick Astley.” Steve Wright: “And we have Style Council and Wanted!! Right here!!”

26] THE STYLE COUNCIL: wanted. I'm restricting myself to one complaint about Steve Wright, in the hope it will reduce my overall number of bizarre rants. Look at him. All he has to do is turn and point but that's not enough for the mad-man of radio. He's too kerazy. It would be boring and kinda square. Instead he turns side on to the camera and sticks his tongue out. Wacky-doodle! We are less than one minute into this Top of the Pops and I'm in a sour mood.

Paul Weller isn't. He looks happy to be in the studio and he's apparently blacked out one of his front teeth for larks (I apologise in advance if he has some terrible dental problem of which I'm unaware). Why is he in such a good mood? Maybe because he's facing away from the flickering ceiling lights which Geoff Beech has decided to shine direct into the camera. It must have been received as a good idea at the time but the result is, it's difficult to spot Weller through the stroboscopic haze of his close ups. During the closing camera crane pan across the audience, watch out for the girl who flashes twin V-for-Victory signs at the camera. It's a classic brief moment of audience misbehaviour, and her friend throws a guilty look back as if she expects the camera to come screaming across the crowd and eject the pair for bad behaviour.

 

Top of the Pops 15th and 22nd Oct 1987 Double Bill!

 

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby.

15/10/1987

Gary Davies: “Hi, good evening, and welcome to Top of the Pops. We have a belting show for you tonight. In the studio Terence Trent D'Arby, The Alarm, the Fatback Band, and the Bee Gees.”  Mike Smith Peter Powell: “But for starters! They woke up in Birmingham this morning! Travelled down the M1! They're on Top of the Pop tonight! Please welcome their brand new hit single! UB40!
Gary Davies: “Woo”

[29] UB40: maybe tomorrow. God blew, and they were scattered. In the real world of 1987, as this episode aired, a depression was deepening in the Bay of Biscay and moving north-east. The aftermath of the great storm of 1987 can be seen in the off-air news recordings on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5i5FhsIaAg Fortunately for UB40, Top of the Pops was recorded on Wednesday so their journey back up the M1 wouldn't have been disrupted.

I could believe this episode of Top of the Pops was being recorded in a smaller studio. There's something about the presentation of UB40 which seems cramped. It's not just the 472 people on stage, that's typical for a UB40 performance (check out their chart photo it looks like a world record attempt to cram people into a phone box). It's the visuals which seem to bounce from one static image to another and back again with a lot less of the camera movement and sweeping crane shots.
Stanley Appel is back as Producer and Director and the Vision Mixer is Priscilla Hoadley , a familiar name, so it's not as if there's anyone new sitting up in the studio gallery. I ended up comparing this opening performance to the one from last week's show, Jellybean featuring Steven Dante; with Vison Mixer Angela Wilson. It turns out both performances are largely captured in the same way, a couple of cranes but most of the work is done via hand held cameras. Steven Dante is simply a more mobile performer than Ali Campbell, who stands on stage so the camera operator doesn't have to do anything. A week previously Steven Dante was dragging the eye of the camera all over the stage, which makes for more interesting pictures. Also, much disappointment that Maybe Tomorrow doesn't turn out to be UB40's cover of the theme to The Littlest Hobo.

Top of the Pops 8 Oct 1987

 

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Mike Smith: “Good evening and welcome to Television Centre. Another half hour of good clean family fun coming up.” Gary Davies: “And we start with the number twenty nine record this week. It's called The Real Thing. Here is Jellybean with Steven Dante.” Mike Smith: “This way.”

 [29] JELLYBEAN FEATURING STEVEN DANTE: the real thing. Thanks to Top of the POPS USA I recognise Jellybean. He wears a hat. He's famous for it. I've seen him twice and both times he was wearing one.

Stanley Appel takes over the Producering and Directoring this week. He starts Top of the Pops with a well composed shot of the studio behind the hosts, with a view of the crowd and Jellybean et al in the background. Normally the camera would have panned from the hosts round to Jellybean (and Steven Dante) in one continuous shot, but Top of the Pops is being directed with one eye towards reusing performances in America and instead Vision Mixer Angela Wilson cuts from the hosts to a nice clean wide shot of the stage which can be used as the start of the performance, snipped out and put on the weekly rocket to Pasadena. At least this is done for bands like Jellybean featuring Steven Dante, two backing singers, and man playing the drums*, not so much for people who may not be well known in America like, hypothetically, Steve Walsh.
* how many where going to St Ives?

Jellybean: "Where's me hat?" (Steven Dante not pictured)

Top of the Pops 1 Oct 1987

 

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Gary Davies: “Hi, really nice to see you again. We've got a terrific show lined up for you tonight. In the studio we have Shakin' Stevens, Steve Winwood, we've got Gary Numan, and the Bee Gees.” Mike Smith: “And also, live over here we have the Sisters of Mercy. Highest new entry this week.”

 [13] THE SISTERS OF MERCY: this corrosion. Right down at the front of the stage watching The Sisters of Mercy are a pair of punks. They don't do alot now, but like Chekhov's gun they'll become important in the final act of tonight's programme. The bloke has the word IDOL printed in red on the back of his black leather jacket. “Coming up later, Nicky Campbell, new DJ on Radio 1,” threatens Mike Smith.

 

Top of the Pops 24 Sep 1987 (plus bonus TOTP USA!)

 

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Gary Davies: “Hi, good evening. I hope you're well. Welcome to another Top of the Pops.” Mike Smith: “We've got a star-studded show tonight. Madonna, Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson. All comin' up.
Gary Davies: “We start off with Johnny Hates Jazz. I Don't Wanna Be A Hero.” Mike Smith: “Right over there.”

[11] JOHNNY HATES JAZZ: i don't want to be a hero. A good song but not the one I'd chose to open this edition. I've always felt the opening song should be punchy and energetic. I Don't Want To Be A Hero is a little too laid back, despite lead singer Clark Datchler's literal air punching to the staccato beats in to the chorus. It's not my job to edit Top of the Pops. This week that job belongs to Brian Whitehouse who is back after a couple of weeks of musical chairs with his two other partners in the game; Stanley Appel and God-King-of-all-Light-Entertainment Michael Hurll.

Top of the Pops 17 Sep 1987

 

Words: Chris Arnsby. Gary Davies: “Hi, good evening. Welcome to Top of the Pops. We have six acts live in the studio including Cliff Richard, Karel Fialka, Rick Astley.” Mike Smith: “On video tonight we've got Luther Vandross and right over here we've got a deaf leopard. Look.”

 [31] DEF LEPPARD: pour some sugar on me. Hope you like Gary Davies and Mike Smith. They're presenting the next four shows. Gary Davies is here for the next month to cover the launch of Top of the Pops USA, or Top of the Pops as the Americans obtusely insisted on calling it. Top of the Pops USA (I'm calling it that for clarity, if not accuracy, OK) launches next week (1987 time) on 25/09/1987 and Gary Davies will be providing the links for acts performing from London. Mia Peebles (no relation to Andy, or the town) will be hosting from Los Angeles (probably, I haven't actually looked up where Top of the Pops USA was made. It's bound to be Los Angeles, that's where all US Telly comes from). As mumu03 pointed out in the comments to the 06/08/1987 write up, Top of the Pops USA also accounts for a lot of Michael Hurll's absences recently -he's busy setting up the new programme.

Top of the Pops 10 Sep 1987

 

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Simon Bates: “Thursday night. Welcome to Top of the Pops. We're working our way to Number One just before seven thirty. Here's Peter Powell.”

Peter Powell: “Thank you Simon! And celebrating a massive hit in the States and now in the UK! Heart and Soul! Here's T'Pau!”

 [5] T'PAU: heart and soul. Last time, in the comments, Billy Smart pointed out that [“flame-haired songstress”, © All journalists ever] Carol Decker had problems deciding whether to mime along to the main vocal track or the chanted backing track, and she jumped between the two. It's true. She does have problems choosing a lane and tends to switch depending on which is most prominent. Watching and trying to guess when she'll change becomes mildly hypnotic and maybe there should be some kind of This Way Up drinking game which involves taking a slug every time [“flame-haired temptress”] Carol switches. Now, here's your chance to earn 50,000 pop points by naming another member of T'Pau without using Google. Too late.

T'Pau have, “been in the States, at the moment, for the last ten weeks,” according to Simon Bates. So who did I see two weeks ago on Top of the Pops, Simes?

 

"Flame haired songstress"

Top of the Pops 27 Aug and 3 Sept 1987

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. 
27/08/87
Gary Davies: “Hi, good evening. I hope you're well. We have a superb show for you tonight. In the studio we've got Wet Wet Wet, we've got Black, we've got T'Pau, we've got Rick Astley but first we start with a mega-band at number twenty three, Then Jerico, The Motive.

 [23] THEN JERICO: the motive. A mega-band? I vaguely remember them. The song is pleasant enough but I spend most of the performance worrying why the guitar player has a jumper wrapped round his shoulders when he's already wearing a jumper? Also, shouldn't it be spelt “Jericho”? BBC camera operators can be spotted in action as the first chorus kicks in. There's a wide camera shot of the stage which slowly pans round from stage left to the front. At the extreme left of the picture there's a hand held camera operator in a blue shirt who dashes along the front of the stage to change position. His camera cable nearly gets snagged on the head of another operator who is there capturing profile shots of lead singer Mark Shaw.

“Their first appearance on Top of the Pops,” says Gary Davies, “but be sure it's not going to be their last.” He's right. Then Jeric(h)o will pop back eighteen months in the future to perform Big Arena on an edition hosted by Gary Davies and... Anthea Turner? Oh no. Stop the world I want to get off.

 

Top of the Pops 20 August 1987

 

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Steve Wright: “Hello!! Good evening and welcome to another Top of the Pops!! I'm the one who's not pregnant!! This is the one who is!!”

Janice Long: “Lots and lots of things to get in tonight. We've got Sinitta. We've got Spagna coming on the show. Bon Jovi are here. Loads and loads of stuff and this is Wax. They are Building A Bridge.”

[20] WAX: bridge to your heart. The keyboard player is doing more than 50% of the work in this two - person band. He plays the keyboard, obviously, but he also plays the saxophone and does all the singing. He's also found time to work out little illustrative hand gestures to match the lyrics. On the line “I don't know what the future's going to be,” he looks all around with one hand shading his eyes. When he sings, “written guarantee,” he makes a signing-the-cheque motion. The other bloke doesn't bring anything to the group except guitar playing, vocal counterpoint, and a faint resemblance to Howard Stableford from Tomorrow's World. (John- The keyboard player is the genius Andrew Gold, multi- instrumentalist, producer, singer -`Lonely Boy`, `Never Let Her Slip Away`-and the son of Marnie Nixon who used to secretly provide the singing for actors such as Natalie Wood in West Side Story. The guitarist is Graham Gouldman from 10cc)

Top of the Pops 13 August 1987

 

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. “Come on don't forget that applause.” It's BBC master tape shenanigans again, as the picture rolls in on a wide shot of the Top of the Pops studio with Five Star on stage; they seem to be dressed in Blake's 7 series four jump suits. The voice of God booms through the studio speakers while the crowd whoop and applaud, “come on don't forget that applause, more more!” Who is this cruel taskmaster? It could be Floor Manager Hilary Bevan-Jones but I think you can hear Hilary just off mike carrying out the traditional Floor Manager duty of giving a ten second countdown. So, who is this voice roaring like a lion? Could it be Producer and Director Brian Whitehouse himself? Whoever it is, they whip the crowd to a frenzy, and Five Star launch into a performance of Whenever You're Ready. The show proper follows afterwards.

Peter Powell: “Hi it's Thursday night! We're happening again! It's hit after hit! It's Top of the Pops!” Simon Bates: “I'll tell you what we have got. We've got a first time which is incredible for a band of this qualidy with this number of hits Def Leppard. On the Pops for the first time with Animal here.”

[9] DEF LEPPARD: animal. Excuse the odd typography but I've decided to copy Top Of the Pops's preferred caption format this week. It looks stupid. Will I continue with it? Who knows. Meanwhile, admire Simon Bates' ability to spout words which form sentences but need two or three attempts to parse. He's like a Chatbot jammed on stream of consciousness. And yes, he did say “qualidy”. I didn't think much of Def Leppard first time round, but time has softened me. I quite like the structure of the chorus, “an I want, an I need, an I lust, animal.”

 

Top of the Pops 6 August 1987

 

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Gary Davies: “Hello again. Welcome to Top of the Pops. Something of a girls night out on the show tonight because we've got Sinitta, we've got Samantha, and we've also got Spagnia, but first we start with a song at number seven in the charts. Not only singing live but also playing live, here's New Order, True Faith.”

[7] New Order: True Faith. Now this is odd. Last week Gary Davies didn't mention who was hosting the show. Now, here he is again, but BBC Genome (who draw their information from the relevant issue Radio Times) describe tonight's show as “introduced by Peter Powell and Simon Bates.” They'll actually do the 13/08/1987 edition which the Radio Times describes as “introduced by Gary Davies”. Last time there was a short notice change of host it was because Janice Long cancelled because of her pregnancy. Here there's no obvious reason for the change apart from a brief game of musical chairs.

New Order are back singing live and playing live. Do you think that's wise? Remember what happened last time? Actually, this performance is fine. The only real point of interest is the mannequin set up at the back of the stage for some reason. Gary Davies claims it's a bloke called Terry, from France, who is also in the video. Gary, I think the band have been pulling your leg.

 

Top of the Pops 23 and 30 July 1987

 Reviewed by Chris Arnsby.

23/07/1987: Simon Mayo: “Hi, welcome. This is Top of the Pops with a live Judy Boucher, an extremely live Shakin' Stevens, and a kind of live Janice Long.”

Janice Long: “Erm, thank you. He is slim. He is sexy. He's stunningly attractive, Boy George”

[26] Boy George: Sold. This is, as Simon Mayo says, a live edition and as always my first thought is to find out what little bonuses are stored on the master tape. There's not a huge amount at the start but what's there is nice. The picture rolls as the VT Clock hits four seconds, and we see Simon Mayo and Janice Long standing ready to introduce the programme. The audience applaud and Janice says, to someone off-screen, “strategically placed I notice.” What filth is this in TC3 at Television Centre?

Jaki Graham, Step Right Up, begins playing through the studio speakers, and the screen blanks out to a 10 second clock which will count down to the titles. It's clearly not 6.59 and 50 seconds yet because the clock holds on 10, and we hear Jaki Graham continue while Janice and Simon exchange some banter about the regional news programmes and continuity which lead into Top of the Pops. “Do we hear continuity?” Simon Mayo asks, apparently sincerely to someone, but the exchange is drowned out by laughter caused by an off microphone comment from Floor Manager Iain McLean. Simon is very concerned about the question of continuity, and asks again a couple of times, he must get an answer from someone off mike, because he then says, “it just begins,” in a slightly awed tone. This is of course his first live edition so he's probably got a touch of stage fright as he contemplates how the programme “just begins” and is beamed into millions of homes. Fortunately, the watching millions never got to hear the chorus of vigorous throat clearing which follows, I'm just glad Top of the Pops isn't being broadcast in NICAM Stereo yet.

Top of the Pops- 9 and 16 July 1987

 

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby.

9 July : Gary Davies: “It's Thursday night. It's live. We're very hot. Welcome to Top of the Pops. Actually, tonight's show rather like an ABC of pop music, we've got A-ha, we've got Black, we've got the Christians, and we start with Shakin' Stevens”.

[26] Shakin' Stevens. A Little Boogie Woogie. Simon Bates reign of terror is over. I've never been so pleased to see Gary Davies. Even if he does look a little sweaty. Evidentially the place to be on the evening of 9^th July 1987 was not studio TC3 at Television Centre. If Gary looks a little sweaty, it's nothing compared to the friends Shakin' Stevens has brought along. Four half-naked and lightly oiled male dancers who leap, point, strut and caper energetically. It's certainly a memorable image. I wonder if the original intent was for Shakey to appear with female dancers and someone pointed out this was a little obvious, and then suggested the reverse. Regardless, showcasing my endless ability to be distracted by trivia I've just spent 10 minutes or so trying to work out what sort of trousers the dancers are wearing. They kind of look like the calf-length, skintight trousers that American football players wear.  Shakin' Stevens lets his dancers do most of the hard work. His knees aren't what they used to be (John- More like Rattlin’ Stevens then?). His main dance move is an air lasso motion. The song itself is king earworm. I went to bed with it rattling around in my skull and woke up with it doing the same. Listen to it at your peril.

 

Top of the Pops 2 July 1987

 

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby

Before getting started. A quick thank you to the two posters who commented under last week's write up. Billy Smart linked to his very useful list of The Roxy performances, which you can find here https://drunkennessofthingsbeingvarious.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-roxy-tyne-tees-itv-1987-88.html

mumu03 added, “Worth mentioning that although Bates was the host of the 2/7/87 edition, it was originally planned to be Janice Long, as mentioned by BBC Genome + the advance listings it pulls from Radio Times:

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/5ab6471492e520e611b3eb1d8d72bbcc

It's believed that she cancelled due to her pregnancy; her shows certainly become more sporadic from this point onward, with only four more to come before her final TOTP (4/8/88 - the live All About Eve miming cockup one)”.  I think we're all looking forwards to the All About Eve episode. Except possibly for the people who've already watched it on BBC4 who are remembering it with fondness. (John- Excuse me, what's with all this banter? I've always assumed the comments are spam!!)

 Simon Bates: “Hi and welcome to Top of the Pops and with a little bit of luck we'll have some guests towards the end of the programme, and we have a new number one. Here's a band that hasn't been on the show for three years but they're storming back with When Smokey Sings. It's ABC.”

 [11] ABC: When Smokey Sings. Dear Martin Fry. When you are not looking, your drummer occasionally puts his foot up on the drums. It looks untidy. I think you should have a word. Yours, etc.

Top of the Pops 25 June 1987

 

Reviewed by Chris Arsnby. Simon Bates: “OK. Welcome to Top of the Pops on a Thursday night. We've got some great music for you, some great videos. Terence Trent D'Arby, Pet Shop Boys, and Bruce Willis later on.”

Peter Powell: “And for starters! Let's Dance! In the right style! With Chris Rea on the Pops!”

 [18] Chris Rea: Let's Dance. Let's talk more about The Roxy. ITV's (or to be more exact Tyne Tees') rival to Top of the Pops using the Network Chart (for independent local radio stations and the NME) rather than Gallup, and broadcast on Tuesday each week. How nervous did it make Top of the Pops? Disappointingly not many episodes of The Roxy have made it online, but the first episode has and it's an interesting look at how the series wanted to sell itself.

The programme starts with a voice over from Alan “Fluff” Freeman: “OK pop-pickers. Here it is. At last. For all you music lovers. The Roxy. All right.” Is it a cliché, or a knowing spin on a cliché, or a deliberate use of a real cliché to show how cool the programme knows its audience is? I don't have time to peel that irony onion.

The title sequence isn't much cop. Nothing to worry Michael Hurll here. A lever flips in a control room and electricity flows down wires to illuminate a building; the Roxy, obviously, although this could be the titles for any Saturday morning kid's TV programme. The music's is equally generic, sounding pretty much like any contemporary television show, although you could equally argue this shows how quickly The Wizard has dated and by 1987 the Top of the Pops theme should sound more like Pump Up the Volume.