2nd October

1980: Ian Gillan attempts to summon up new reserves of menace and instead looks more than a bit bored. Given you can hear audience chatter in the quieter moments, he's not alone. Every hard rock band of the turn of the decade seems to have had a member who looked like that. Perhaps it was the same bloke. In invoking the late 50s model of rock in invoking the late 50s sound of rock, Matchbox frontman Graham Fenton more than runs the risk of coming across as Les Gray: The Next Generation. You'll see that Toyahagram ("roller!") again, and note she only begins applauding when she knows she's on camera. Legs & Co work the oracle around French maid outfits, tinsel, some bars and a sheet to Change before breaking into a low budget light show. Suspicion that Madness' Chas Smash might have had a pre-show livener or two aren't exactly disguising themselves - at one point he manages to squeeze between Suggs, debuting the look that would see him through three subsequent decades give or take a scarf, and the microphone. The people behind them aren't really getting into the party spirit, you have to say. DLT sees them off in a way only he knows how. Speaking of whom... that bit at the start where he promises something special? It's this. Worth a minute of any prime-time music show, I think you'll agree. And there goes Chas again. We can't just watch a live clip of Stevie Wonder afterwards either, as the show's Secret Rollerskate Walking Squadron get to work as the audience go absolutely wild.

1986: Pet Shop Boys, Neil in untypical leather jacket, Chris in typical sailor's hat. Neil's standing running man move during Chris' solo is quite something.

2005: Co-hosted by Fearne Cotton and... Jeremy Bowen. You know, when you next hear someone say "why don't they bring Top Of The Pops back?", this is why. Theirs are folk memories. The reality towards its end was someone thought just the thing to enliven a fast moving pop music extravaganza was BBC news' Middle East editor. This was probably a contributing factor on a general scale too, very late in the day Happy Mondays. Shaun can't know where he is. Bez knows what he's doing. It's not right.