10th March

1977: Smallest man in pub rock Graham Parker & The Rumour indulge in lots of fist pumping and miming something during the bridge. The UK didn't quite retain its Eurovision crown, Lynsey De Paul & Mike Moran finishing second taking on the might of the continent with back to back duelling piano jazz chords and ramming the title and sentiment home with a mock newspaper. Glam wasn't dead! At least in the home of Brendon, whose rhythm section might be the smartest turned out people in this entire blog.

1983: Edwyn Collins always likes to mention the Pops performance of Orange Juice's Rip It Up and the expectations it didn't live up to, but that's the second appearance (don't worry, we'll get there). This is the first, mostly enlivened by Edwyn losing his shades off-camera and the gentleman having some sort of rhythmic seizure next to Mike Smith.

1988: Oh now look, they're just teasing us with Vanessa Paradis' age now. The formation sax team are back, though they didn't get back to pick up their coats from Sketchleys in time. They've picked up the scarves, though, the manufacturers taken from Slade's contacts book. One of the sax blokes is clearly pulling double duty too, on synths with Taja Sevelle and her maze of ringlets and gardening gloves.

1994: It's the big stage Bobby Gillespie always wanted, as Primal Scream get the special glamorous gold curtain and Denise Johnston's vocal rivalry. And yet they're still not as popular that week as Doop. I fail to see the connection between flapper dancers and detergent, but there you go. Not even they share in Carter USM's light show. What's going on at 1:49? What are they all jumping to? How come they still miss the namecheck of the show itself? Well, that one's intrinsically answered.