Wednesday 11 July 2012

11th July

1985: Presumably as a quasi-injoke related to their radio status against that of the telly work, John and Janice would often start the show with knowing talking-down faux-enthusiasm. Here John gets one quick last joke in about The Conway Brothers, who did all normally play instruments but for their mimed work seem to prefer sort of jogging and jumping on the spot. Dave Stewart for once leaves the smug face pulls to Eurythmics' session bassist, who even gets his own garden chair. There's enough bad moustaches and trousers to go round to ensure Opus live up to cliche comedy. Somewhere amid the top ten videos Denise LaSalle and her frightwig leads the audience, in their hats and vests, in some sort of side to side swinging and clapping. Like the shortlived Top Ten Videos concept we don't often get to see the Breakers, so let's take that opportunity. Includes Russ Abbot clip and Peel looking horrified at Long's dancing at the end.

1997: A string section, a gospel section, a grimacing drummer, and all for 911. The arm waving from the audience doesn't last as long as all must have hoped, but Hey Jude clapalongs will solve everything. That's Alisha's Attic at the end, by the way. No, this crowd is only going to be enthused to the point of moshing by, as unlikely as it seems, Teenage Fanclub.

2003: As Liz Bonnin gets awkwardly stuck at the back of the stage S Club 8 (nee Juniors) do their vaguely unwholesome thing in front of a giant version of one of those buzzing wire/hoop games. Lisa Marie Presley's hitmaking potential really didn't last long, and it's not tricky to see why.

2006: Perhaps in a portent of how useless the studio concept that had worked so well the past 42 years was now seen, the show was presented from and almost exclusively featured content from T In The Park. And yes, kids, somehow the show died.

1 comment:

Steve Williams said...

Someone wrote into Creamguide last year who was in the audience for that 1985 episode and said that, as Eurythmics were on tape and Russ Abbott was pre-recording for a future episode, every single act she saw was making their one and only appearance on the programme, which must be pretty unique.