1976: Interesting thing to note about David Dundas' performance, apart from that the jeans-flogger is wearing slacks; down the front are three dancing girls in T-shirt emblazoned 'HOT GOSSIP'. Arlene Phillips' decency-challengers did exist at the time, but didn't get on telly properly until 1978. A guerrilla move on Phillips' part? Next time he was on, he was accompanied by Ruby Flipper. Perhaps everyone was distracted by the sequence in which the director tries to catch out Steve Harley. Johnny Wakelin & The Kinshasa Band incorporates two drummers *and* a man on various percussion, all of it at once. 1776 pay tribute to the US bicentennial with a man who bears a striking resemblance to the notorious prisoner Charles Bronson; 5000 Volts return having forgotten to bring the talkbox, as you can see when the ever mugging guitarist clearly goes to use it to find it's not there just after Linda Kelly gets too much of her hair in her mouth at 1:43. And then there's Sheer Elegance, perhaps one of the most morally dubious records ever on TOTP, especially if they're going to be wearing boxing gowns and handling pairs of knickers.
1982: Full marks to The Belle Stars for effort, but there's not a lot of actual clapping going on. Or convincing miming. Roger Kitter's McEnroe spoof The Brat might have worked better in its mis-en-scene were the in-vision audience not busy with their own choreographed moves. Someone's outdone themselves there. The rundown is worth watching for Simon Bates' apology that there's so much ahead the pre-recorded and skilfully edited show might overrun. That bodybuilder at the end should have been told where to get off.
1993: With their getting it together in the festival country vibe The Waterboys seem hugely at odds with the pillars of fire their set's been assigned.
1 comment:
Bates' comment about overrunning has always amused me, and the whole of this show used to be online and at the end he says they have indeed overrun and will "get into trouble", before the playout then goes on for ages. Presumably, the episode of Fame following it had to be edited for unsuitable scenes so Pops were allowed to dawdle to fill the gap, but I like the idea that the Nine O'Clock News might have been delayed because they had to play the whole of Stool Pigeon by Kid Creole and The Coconuts.
I also like the idea that people would phone Top of the Pops to ask them what the number one was about.
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