1976: Tony Visconti says The Surprise Sisters were his idea of a British Labelle. Not like this with awry choreography and tangled mike leads. Image-wise they're still some way away from The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Harvey not strictly family entertainment material. Osibisa bring the funk, as the keyboard player brings his champagne bottle on set with him.
1982: Going the extra mile, Billy MacKenzie of The Associates brings his best official hat and vest a good couple of years before Frankie Goes To Hollywood mined similar details. They never thought of the swimsuited string section, though. Someone's pointlessly messed about with this Soft Cell clip - it wasn't all shot within visual effects, the presentation clips around it are from the previous week and the audio's been redubbed. But apart from that... Incidentally, here's what Jimmy Savile doing a chart rundown sounds like. Song titles, Jim!
1993: Pet Shop Boys hadn't appeared in the studio since November 1990, five singles previously, apparently in protest at the ill-fated no miming policy. Of course they had to do something spectacular upon return - 3D effects, big hats, big chairs, Chris Lowe in big cardboard glasses hiding behind a big blob, dancers in silver wigs and breastplates wielding cricket bats. Sade and her formation stepping guitarists in some other studio... yeah, not quite the same.
2005: Say this for Rachel Stevens, she knew distractions. Where do dancers get swimming caps-cum-gimp masks from?
1 comment:
The Pet Shop Boys' non-appearance due to the no miming rule doesn't quite stack up, considering that Neil Tennant appeared with Electronic around July 1992.
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