Wednesday 19 December 2012

19th December

1985: Is Paul Jordan dressed as some sort of cartoon character here? Nobody else wears a black bow tie over a yellow T-shirt. "Making their very first appearance this year as Father Christmas in the studio", a sentence which must contain the intended detail somewhere, Amazulu have indeed dragged out three Santa suits before running out, leaving the bassist with a hat and string of pearls. The Snowman had debuted on TV in 1982 but the Peter Auty-sung original had only charted at 78 the previous year. Aled Jones, however, had been the subject of an acclaimed BBC1 documentary so essentially got to cash in, an emergency reissue of the original only peaking at 42 while Jones got to plunge his hands deep within his jean pockets to a national audience and wrong answer in future regular trick pub quiz question. And they talk of TV spinoff stars like they're a new thing.

1991: Oh, megamixes. UK Mixmasters' Bare Necessities Megamix brought with it a host of mixed messages, hula girls on one side, a gorilla in a cap in the middle, a panda on the other. A panda! Come on, isn't there a clue in the Jungle Book's title? Watch the trumpeter comprehensively miss his cue. Lisa Stansfield has "literally just stepped off a plane", which suggests the Heathrow runway is rather too close to the studio for comfort.

2003: Atomic Kitten's routine for their remake of Ladies Night that nobody asked for seems to involve falling over in time. That's one very easily pleased audience if two strong blokes holding up a willowy woman gets that sort of reception. At least they know to hold off for Michael Andrews and Gary Jules, thus matching the amount of energy onstage.

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