Top of the Pops August 1985 mega-post!

All reviewed by Chris Arnsby

01/08/1985

Mike Read: “Hello. [to Mike Smith] You've just got time to change... too late.” Mike Smith: “Thank you very much. Thank you very much indeed. What has got style?” Mike Read: “Peter Powell?” Mike Smith: “No, no, no, come on. What has got style? What's got good looks?” Mike Read: “Steve Wright?” Mike Smith: “No, no, no, what has got a record in the charts at the moment?” Mike Read: “Me? No.” Mike Smith: “No... with all those things welcome Five Star.”

[18] Five Star: Let Me Be The One. The new Top of the Pops title sequence is rubbish. It's just rainbow colour bars and a piercing electronic tone. No, actually this episode (downloaded from Tutankhamun's tomb https://mega.nz/folder/h0snQACa#uiNNqosfbdrfzODHsE1clw ) is digitised straight from the BBC master tape; first we get two minutes of VT colour bars, then the countdown clock (generated on a BBC Micro to judge by the chunky pixels), and finally the real title sequence. I wonder how this escaped from the archives? It's a night of two Mike's, and an exercise in clashing host styles. Mike Smith wants to be silly, and Mike Read doesn't (or can't). Or maybe I'm being unfair as I find myself liking Smith more than Read. This is the last time the two Mikes host Top of the Pops together although they both stick around for a few more years. Mike Smith would present his final show in early 1988, and Mike Read could be seen until February 1989.

Regardless. Here's Five Star. Drilled to parade ground perfection and fully coordinated in movement and clothing. They're dressed in soft versions of American Football shoulder pads, with a numeral 5 on the front in a different colour for each person. This is how the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers would look if they formed a pop group in their spare time. It's a tribute to branding, before branding was a thing.  

Troye Sivan- In A Dream EP review

If you’ve not heard of or heard Troye Sivan then now is the time. He’s already been around a while releasing two albums and he also has history as both an actor and YouTuber. Born in South Africa, raised in Australia and till lockdown resident of the US, he’s hardly a new artist except to the likes of me way off the zeitgeist these days! The great thing about that though is that sometimes you discover someone and there’s a lot of music to listen to. `In A Dream`, released last week, showcases six songs that take regret, sadness or reflection but channel those emotions in interesting ways. It’s won serious critical attention in places where someone like him could be ignored and that’s an indication that this music is seriously good. In fact its some of the best new music I’ve heard this year.

Top of the Pops 25 July 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Dixie Peach: “We've got a fabulous show. We've got people on like Trans X, Feargal Sharkey, and Madonna. But we're gonna kick off right now with something to get you into that holiday mood. Here is Arrow with Long Time.”
[36] Arrow: Long Time. The start of tonight's episode of Top of the Pops has been slashed by the BBC4 Psycho-style editor. There are a couple of clues; Gary Davies is rendered oddly mute throughout Dixie Peach's introduction (although I'm fine with an overall reduction in the Davies word count); Dixie Peach's speech fades in abruptly after the audience cheer; and here's the real smoking gun, the font's all wrong on the hosts caption. It's not properly bolded and the drop-shadow isn't strong enough. It's obviously Bring Your Child to Work Day in the BBC4 Caption Faking Department.

Top of the Pops 18 July 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby. Peter Powell: “Hello, welcome to Top of the Pops! Good evening to you!” Mike Smith: “Let's not hang about. Forty minutes of the latest chart tunes. We start off at number thirteen with Simply Red and Money's Too Tight, and Mick is going to sing live. Aren't you Mick? [13] Simply Red: Money's Too Tight (To Mention). This episode of Top of the Pops comes from Smaug's horde at https://mega.nz/folder/h0snQACa#uiNNqosfbdrfzODHsE1clw Excitingly, it's an off-air recording which means the recording starts with a nostalgic blast. A glimpse of the (then brand-new) BBC1 computer generated globe. Even more exciting, this is a 40 minute edition of Top of the Pops . We haven't had one of those for a while. (Not since 03/01/1985 according to BBC Genome). Let's hope they use those extra 10 minutes wisely. What celestial conjunction has caused this change to the schedule? The Little and Large Show has come to an end. Don't worry, it's not permanent. They'll be back next year. And the year after that. And after that. And again for a couple more years. Meanwhile, once Eastenders finishes at 7.30pm, Top of the Pops and Tomorrow's World luxuriate and spread themselves out across the evening.First up is a 40 minute Tomorrow's World. It's the 1985 Prince of Wales Award for Industrial Innovation and Production, from Highgrove House in Gloucestershire. Then comes Top of the Pops, and then... Points Of View ? What? But that's a Wednesday night programme. What celestial conjunction, etc, has untimely ripped Points Of View from its usual slot. A Party Political Broadcast by the Labour Party. Oh no.

Speaking of Labour, here's Simply Red. Another band I can't watch properly because of passage of time. However, attempting to put aside years of accumulated prejudice, how do they do on 18 July 1985? Well, I don't much like Mick Hucknall's grey slacks.

Review round up- Q magazine, TikTok, The Durrells Series 1

Q Magazine publishes its final issue this month ending 34 years of music coverage, a victim of the pandemic lockdown which made it impossible to sell the last few issues though it had falling readership even before this happened. In some ways, Q was like the Top of the Pops of magazines showcasing whatever was popular.  While it never had the bite of the old style weekly music press it made itself an indispensable successor as those papers fell away one by one.  It was less inclined to push new artists onto success as the weekly papers had done, rather it watched established acts develop. With excellent access even to the most elusive stars they were able to remain across the pop axis with aplomb adopting a breezy but often forensic approach that both informed and entertained. They even got an interview with Prince once, albeit one in which the interviewer was not allowed to take notes. 

Top of the Pops 11 July 1985

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby.Janice Long & John Peel: “Hi! It's Top of the Pops!” Janice Long: “Have we got a show for you?” John Peel: “Have we got a show for you?” Janice Long: “And it is live!” John Peel: “And it is live!” Janice Long: “And they are The Conway Brothers!” John Peel:”Which one's Russ?”
[18] The Conway Brothers: Turn It Up. Top of the Pops used Turn It Up as the backing track for the host introductions on the 27/06/1985 edition. The mix of disco pew-pew effects and frantic Rawk guitar was irritating, until the introduction to Ben (a charity single raising money for seriously ill children) at which point it veered into inappropriate but that was an out of context clip. The high concept of the song appears to be a parade of people (neighbour knocking on door, old lady, etc) who you'd normally associate with asking for a record to turned down, instead (and this is the clever bit) asking for the music to be turned up. Except the stream of inspiration ran dry after neighbour and old lady, and that's your lot. Let's repeat the chorus until the end of the single. 

Ad Break#20 Magnum, SEAT and, erm, the UK

Magnum- “True to pleasure” 
Last year on this blog we looked at the new Ruby chocolate and now it has made its biggest foray into the confectionary world with the new Magnum Ruby ice cream. The advert certainly portrays it as a luxury item so much so that it has its own shop which serves one customer at a time. This is not social distancing however, this ad was made before the lockdown, and is simply to illustrate just how exclusive a taste this ice cream is. The ad shows a young woman – played by South African model and actress Chloé Hirschman - drawn into an ornately appointed shop that looks like a cross between a casino and a bank. Greeted by a smartly dressed doorman she is shown the creation process which seems to involve a lot of models looking at the ice cream inside glass containers or handling chunks of ruby chocolate with tweezers as if they are valuable fossils. This is probably not how it’s actually made.

Lockdowned

So. The pandemic is not over by any means but we are starting to venture outside for a while at least and it seems an appropriate time to summarise the fifteen (is it?) weeks we’ve spent inside. Well mostly inside. In some ways for me it wasn’t hugely different as some of the things people were moaning about not being able to do- go to events, go on holiday, spend hours socialising – have been unavailable to me for the past five years due to my ongoing caring responsibilities as well as working full time. So forgive me if I can’t get too concerned for people wringing their hands about not being able to take a holiday “this year”. Plus I could shop and you soon got used to the queues. What did take me by surprise though was how much I had beforehand. If I thought my life was restricted before then this was something else.