1981: Dystopian futures are one thing, but John Foxx really didn't have to go as far as dancing like Andy McCluskey, especially since OMD themselves have given him a keyboard to prod with one hand so he has to remain planted to the spot. See that big white grand piano? Once Peter Powell has got too close to Miss Torquay that came back into use for The Teardrop Explodes. Anyone who's read Julian Cope's memoir Head On, or can just read this extract, will know it wasn't quite as straightforward as it looks for him. The Bucks Fizz performance he refers to in there is mostly notable for Jay's continued resistance to dressing as demurely as everyone else and the feather fall that appears to take place halfway through. Back to the start, note the bloke trying to get his hands literally on Lulu before Modern Romance and Geoff Deane's horrible pink suit. Dollar have come in cut-price regency and sailor outfits. And at the end, Powell pulls somebody's hat off with precision, exchanges awkward compliments with a Bogart-hatted Numan and then Funkapolitan get everyone to hold up big playing cards like pop's own Dolly Dealers. How many of those people were really required?
1987: See, even when in Squeeze Jools couldn't help but mug into camera. Not only do they not have a proper saxophone, they can't even find someone to pretend.
1992: Dangerous rave drugs brought into the home by The Shamen. Mr C doesn't look entirely convinced by the becostumed visualisation of the titular character - not Jerry Sadowitz as in the video, you can tell because it's still on YouTube. Is it just me or does the backing singer on the left look familiar? Now a duo Bananarama were just about hanging on, in a neat reversal getting the men to play around with feathers, though given how much we've seen of their early days seeing them in smart dresses doing choreographed movements looks all wrong. From much the same space comes Sonia, which is just posted here so you can admire the maybe slightly overplayed video description given it's a mocked SAW product doing a cover version.
1999: The tour popped into Brighton, but the rest of Moloko couldn't be arsed. Roisin makes up by dressing as a futuristic worm.
2004: The BBC once had so much money they could afford to maintain and run their own rooftop swimming pool, closed to the public and never seen on screen except when they couldn't find anywhere else to put JoJo. Breaking all the rules, it's clearly not been filmed in one take.
1 comment:
Modern Romance three days running! You could set your watch by their single releases. At least now Geoff Deane is wearing a horrible pink suit it means David Jaymes can't wear the horrible pink suit he seems to wear in all their other performances, while doing his trademark mincing dance.
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