1980: As we saw last week with Roger Daltrey's little hissy fits (Cliff Richard took his place this week), The Clash were no more receptive than ever to the idea of appearing on TOTP, supposedly as they didn't want to mime (though there were eventual appearances by Mick with Big Audio Dynamite and Joe, who said in 1979 "it makes me sick that it's still on, I want it to end", guesting with Black Grape), so someone would have to do it for them, and very literally so, though the edible gun barrel is a neat touch. Why wouldn't they want to appear alongside Kelly Marie and her overdressed cabaret dancers, eh? By the way, why did Steve Wright always specify he was presenting "Top Of The Pops 2 from London"? Where else would he likely be?
1986: Depeche Mode arrange the keyboards in a triangle and put Dave in the middle, meaning he has to act the frontman without a front to call his own. Bad planning. Unlike Modern Talking, who lack in band members but make up for in huge light fitting.
2005: Obviously we know they're there so something can be extravagantly ripped off, as it's them, but Girls Aloud's MOT centre chic, especially applied to a song about summer, is something that could have been run with much further. There's not even any cars there, no wonder the staff are having to work on a distraction. Still it's less impressive kitting out than Super Furry Animals' neon coats. Lighting and song breakdown's fault, I know, but the audience seem to think the song has ended at the midway point. Ian Brown has none of the above, but he does have his patented walking on the spot dance to make up for it.
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