Top Of The Pops 1978 - BBC4

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  • FroodFrood Posts: 13,180
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    Rich Tea. wrote: »
    Lyric is infact "I could be an inmate in a long term institution" and as he says institution he sniggers, which I just keep wondering if it was meant to be, or just an accident and they liked it so kept it in. My own mental block messing up the lyric!

    On the single and album tracks Ian had a slight giggle as he says "institution" so he probably did it in an early working and liked it.
  • merrim01merrim01 Posts: 2,684
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    The documentary was okay I thought, once again a lot of talk about punk. Now I like quite a bit of punk music but in all 3 of these documentaries so far we've had it mentioned relentlessly. When I think of later years, house & trance music had a much bigger effect than punk did on the charts overall. As other people have said the show didn't ignore punk it literally reflected what was in the chart at the time. It always feels like they are moaning about TOTP in these documentaries which defeats the object of having the documentary. Why are they so obsessed about being seen as 'cool'? Lets not forget what was cool in 1977 to some was disco, country and not punk. Not every teen would have loved punk either just like when I was a teen not everybody loved trance, r & b or rock.
  • chemical2009bchemical2009b Posts: 5,250
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    Looks like it will be another while before we get DLT's shows back, he's been rebailed until March. :o

    http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/dave-lee-travis-bailed-1523112
  • UrsulaUUrsulaU Posts: 7,239
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    Looks like it will be another while before we get DLT's shows back, he's been rebailed until March. :o

    http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/dave-lee-travis-bailed-1523112

    Oh crap - it means more out of sync repeats - if any - just when the shows are getting good! :mad:
  • tortfeasortortfeasor Posts: 7,000
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    ... They also run down the producers for choosing not to have punk bands on, when the producers just featured whoever was in the charts at the time. The reason why there was more punk on TOTP in 78 was because more punk began to get into the charts. In 1976 and 77 there was very little punk in the top 20 hence why it didn't appear so much...

    I'm with you on all of that. You only have to look at the makeup of the charts from 1976, 1977 and 1978 and compare the number of new wave/punk acts in the top 30 for confirmation of what you've said. There were definitely more new wave acts having hits in 1978 than 1977.

    A point made on the Punk Britannia documentaries is in my view important here: Bands like the Buzzcocks, who would go on to have quite a few hits in 1978, were around in 1976/1977 during the punk 'explosion' but they weren't signed to labels and were releasing things independently (e.g. the Spiral Scratch E.P.) or if they were signed, they were with small labels. They weren't getting their music out in sufficient quantities to enter the top 30 in 1976 and 1977.

    It's arguable that some of the groundwork for a lot of the British acts shown on the Story of 1978 doc (Sham 69, Buzzcocks, etc.) getting signed by bigger labels at the end of 1977 and hence getting records into the top 30 in 1978 was because those acts having hits in 1977 like The Stranglers, The Adverts, The Jam etc. were making headlines and selling enough to make the powers that be think, "hang on, we should sign a few more of these bands."

    Overall, I don't think it's fair to blame the producers at the time for the lack of punk/new wave acts on the show either. They were only working to the established 'rules' of the show that had been set up in the 1960s. Maybe they could have campaigned for the relaxation of the requirements that acts could only appear if they had singles going up in the top 30 but then I don't think the Beeb would have been that willing to change an established format at the time.
    ...On the subject on miming, I actually prefer it when they didn't sing live. It makes it sound so much better. When all artists were forced to sing live in 1991, I think that's when it went downhill. Some of the bands sounded awful...

    I remember that period well and I do wonder whether it had some influence on particular acts (or their management) choosing to send the videos in rather than appearing in the studio. I remember that there were more videos being shown around that era. Some of those acts genuinely sounded poor but then you also had Nirvana performing 'Smells like Teen Spirit,' which was deliberate. Furthermore, there were also issues with the many dance tracks where the artist who actually sang on the track wasn't the same person as the usually slim and attractive lady who appeared in the videos and on TV. Plus that whole thing of stutter and other effects on the vocals which was popular at the time. It's no wonder that the policy didn't last long really and that by the mid-late 1990s miming had returned.

    I've just found an old article from 1993 about the 'live vocals' situation: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/loud-call-for-miming-to-return-to-top-of-the-pops-1510818.html

    It's an interesting article because I sort of agree with what the pluggers quoted in the article said but at the same time I think it's arguable that if the artists concerned couldn't perform consistently well to appear on a show like TOTP, were they really worth their salt?
  • Rich Tea.Rich Tea. Posts: 22,048
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    Looks like it will be another while before we get DLT's shows back, he's been rebailed until March. :o

    http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/dave-lee-travis-bailed-1523112

    So let's get this straight. During the Story Of 1978 documentary it was deemed perfectly acceptable to broadcast DLT appearing in it some 4 or 5 times throughout, yet when it comes to individual editions of TOTP 1978 it is deemed un-acceptable to show him appear maybe 7 or 8 times throughout, just a couple more than the documentary. Mmmm, I'm trying my best to get my head around that decision, and failing miserably! :rolleyes:
  • Tele_addictTele_addict Posts: 1,113
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    Looks like it will be another while before we get DLT's shows back, he's been rebailed until March. :o

    http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/dave-lee-travis-bailed-1523112

    That's a shame. Thought we were getting back on track. Luckily, we will only miss 2 episodes between now and march. Unfortunately we will miss some good songs - Nazareth Good Train Gone, Odyssey Native New Yorker and we will miss Blondie's first ever performance of Denis!! It would be nice if by showing DLT on the Story of 1978 meant that the DLT ban had been lifted, but it's doubtful.
  • Misty08Misty08 Posts: 1,113
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    Hotelier wrote: »
    I always assumed TOTP acts mimed to the studio recordings. But they didnt, they werent allowed to(MU rules). What they were allowed to do was record a live performance and mime to that. So they'd go in the day before for eg, the TOTP producers would record their live performance. It's a testament to the skills of the producers, to get a sound very similar to the studio recording.
    This was from 1966 -1980.

    I think it was revealed recently that this was a bit of a con, and most of the acts only pretended to have re-recorded a live version!
  • Tele_addictTele_addict Posts: 1,113
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    They should just carry on showing his episodes up to march, then if he is found guilty which he won't be, by all means they can stop showing his episodes. But it's unfair to not show his episodes when he hasn't been found guilty of anything yet. What happened to innocent before proven guilty?
  • faversham saintfaversham saint Posts: 2,535
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    Misty08 wrote: »
    I think it was revealed recently that this was a bit of a con, and most of the acts only pretended to have re-recorded a live version!

    Some bands would use the original studio backing track and just record a new vocal over the top of it for the show. An obvious example of this from 1977 was No More Heroes by The Stranglers. I've noticed quite a few posters on these threads refer to artists singing 'live' but I suspect this was rarely (if ever) the case. I expect almost without exception the artists were miming to the re-recordings they prepared earlier and these could have been overdubbed. In some cases the TOTP version was superior to the original record IMO - I always thought Starman as performed (mimed to) by David Bowie on TOTP in 1972 sounded far better than it did on vinyl.
  • EraserheadEraserhead Posts: 22,016
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    Luckily this should be the last year where we get 'punk changed everything' as punk declines towards the end of 1979. I also didn't like some of the things that were said. Lead singer of the Skids Richard Jobson saying how much he hated being on Top of the Pops amongst 'a sea of shit' as he put it. His opinion only, and he was actually lucky to have been offered TOTP. What made him think he was so much better than all the other acts on there? And who was that other woman who was moaning about it being all light entertainment and legs and co...excuse me love, nothing wrong with a bit of legs and co! You get the feeling that all these people being interviewed were running the show down because of it's cheesiness, miming etc, when there was nothing wrong with it the way it was, that's why we all watch even now. It may not appeal to the music critics, but there was enough variety for everyone, and if there had been an alternative as Richard Jobson said at the end, it would not have been as popular as TOTP.

    While some admired the Clash's stance on not doing TOTP there were plenty of punk / new wave bands who would have killed for the chance to be on TOTP. Sham 69 were derided by some punk purists for "selling out" but as Jimmy Pursey said, if you weren't willing to put your music out there then what chance did you have of bringing your art to a mass audience? There was little alternative apart from Whistle Test and that was hardly a prime time show.

    The story of 1978 was, as far as I can recall it, utterly dominated by Grease and Boney M and big disco hits, by Darts and the Bee Gees. 1978 was Baker Street and Hot Legs, Wuthering Heights and Starship Trooper, Three Times a Lady and Mr. Blue Sky.

    In retrospect punk and new wave took on an overarching importance because they spawned the great rock and indie acts of the next decade, it spawned the explosion of independent record labels which allowed artists the freedom to do whatever they wanted until the 1990s when commercial concerns took over everything.

    But the story of 1978 wasn't about the Skids or X Ray Spex, as good as they were. Not for Top of the Pops. Having said that, 1978 was also the year of Teenage Kicks and Ever Fallen In Love and Roxanne and Down in the Tube Station At Midnight...but that's the commercial stuff...
  • AZZURRI 06AZZURRI 06 Posts: 11,173
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    Reading that the 1978 TOTPs kick off on January 17th is the first bit of good news we have had for a while, on the TOTP front. Personally I was happy to see the 1976/77 editions but I am more than happy to watch 1978 again. What memories. :)
  • Rich Tea.Rich Tea. Posts: 22,048
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    They should just carry on showing his episodes up to march, then if he is found guilty which he won't be, by all means they can stop showing his episodes. But it's unfair to not show his episodes when he hasn't been found guilty of anything yet. What happened to innocent before proven guilty?

    He won't be found guilty in March Tele Addict, because he hasn't even been charged with anything, so the worst that can happen is a charge of some sort, never mind any kind of conviction!

    Someone who has been charged, in an un-related case, is Stuart Hall, aged 83, and was in court to plead on Monday. When I heard the details tonight I did not know whether to laugh or cry, like he used to on TV. The charges are that between 1974-1984 he allegedly "touched" 2 girls, and "kissed" the other. Kissed!! Up in court for a kiss? An alleged one at that. I'm sorry, but Savile has unleashed some very dodgy issues here against people at the height of fame in the 1970's, and I'm no longer buying into a lot of it.

    In 1978 I actually saw Stuart Hall doing It's A Knockout with Eddie Wareing, Arthur Ellis, Mike Swann and others, when they came to my area. It was Milton Keynes v Stevenage v Hemel Hempstead, and shown on BBC1 two weeks later at the late May Bank Holiday, where I recall being visible with my father briefly if I remember correctly. It was great fun.
  • darren1090darren1090 Posts: 211
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    All that was said when DLT was originally arrested, was that his episodes from the remainder of 1977 were suspended. No mention was made of any after that.

    The Savile furore has, to a certain extent, died down a bit now. DLT hasn't been charged with anything. As noted, he appeared several times in "The Story of 1978".

    Maybe we can hope that the BBC will show DLT's episodes as long as he hasn't been charged with anything. As many have noted, many of the artists that appear on the show have been convicted of worse than what DLT is alleged to have done.

    I'm also intrigued by the schedules for 20th January, which has TOTP broadcasts at midnight, 00:30, 01:20 and 03:25. At least one of those should be the repeat of 5/1/78 on 17th January, but could the other three shows be of episodes we've missed? Maybe it's just another rerun of the Story of 1978 and Big Hits 1978...
  • darren1090darren1090 Posts: 211
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    Actually, ignore my last paragraph above. It seems that it's as follows:
    00:00 Top of the Pops 1978 (5/1/78)
    00:30 The Story of 1978
    01:20 Big Hits 1978
    03:25 Top of the Pops 1978 (5/1/78)

    A bit strange to repeat the same episode twice in one night!
  • merrim01merrim01 Posts: 2,684
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    It would have been nice if it was other episodes in those slots but they obviously want to re-run the documentary & big hits to coincide with the showing of the 1st episode from 1978 even though they could have started the re-runs last week? I don't really care if we are in sync or not to be honest as we are still skipping episodes and the odd one is missing which throws it out anyway.
  • UrsulaUUrsulaU Posts: 7,239
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    Rich Tea. wrote: »
    The charges are that between 1974-1984 he allegedly "touched" 2 girls, and "kissed" the other. Kissed!! Up in court for a kiss? An alleged one at that. I'm sorry, but Savile has unleashed some very dodgy issues here against people at the height of fame in the 1970's, and I'm no longer buying into a lot of it.

    .

    I agree!! - This whole thing just seems to be getting blown all out of all proportion - which in effect is affecting our TV viewing!! :mad:

    - I know it sounds uncaring to the "alleged victims" - but we are talking about late 70s TOTP episodes here - which cannot be missed!! :D
  • UrsulaUUrsulaU Posts: 7,239
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    :cool:
    Luckily, we will only miss 2 episodes between now and march. and we will miss Blondie's first ever performance of Denis!! It would be nice if by showing DLT on the Story of 1978 meant that the DLT ban had been lifted, but it's doubtful.

    Yes - but probably 2 of the best episodes - especially the one with Blondie on!! :mad: - A piece of history in the making there with that icon!! :cool:
  • Tele_addictTele_addict Posts: 1,113
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    UrsulaU wrote: »
    :cool:

    Yes - but probably 2 of the best episodes - especially the one with Blondie on!! :mad: - A piece of history in the making there with that icon!! :cool:

    I know, this would be a travesty, probably one of the major turning points of the year and we might miss it! Really, what harm would it do the BBC if they showed these episodes? Are hoards of people going to complain to the BBC for showing a man who allegedly touched a woman's breasts 30 years ago? I don't think so. I think more people would phone to praise them for having the balls to show the episode! I'm really tired of the whole Jimmy Saville thing now and I'm probably not alone. Yes it happened, it shouldn't have happened but life goes on. I really don't think people would care less if DLT was shown and I hope the BBC make the right decision.

    On a more positive note, it's good to see Top of the Pops offically confirmed in the Radio Times listings today. There was a time back there when I thought we would never see that :)
  • Rich Tea.Rich Tea. Posts: 22,048
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    darren1090 wrote: »
    All that was said when DLT was originally arrested, was that his episodes from the remainder of 1977 were suspended. No mention was made of any after that.

    Maybe we can hope that the BBC will show DLT's episodes as long as he hasn't been charged with anything. As many have noted, many of the artists that appear on the show have been convicted of worse than what DLT is alleged to have done.

    Consider the "suspended" DLT 1977 Top Of The Pops episodes gone. They've kicked off 1978 now, so the reality is that it would be rather out of place and unlikely that BBC4 are suddenly going to drop 2 or 3 DLT editions from '77 into the mix of 1978's. I do however fully expect his 1978 shows to be shown as soon as this bail thing is cleared away.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 297
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    Misty08 wrote: »
    I think it was revealed recently that this was a bit of a con, and most of the acts only pretended to have re-recorded a live version!

    Yes, this was revealed in the TOTP 1977 story a year ago. Acts used to somehow swap the new performance for the original.
  • darnall42darnall42 Posts: 4,080
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    The TOTP repeats featured on news on radio 2 tonight (Check out the 6pm bulletin in the middle of Simon mayo's show http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pmfgx )
  • Tele_addictTele_addict Posts: 1,113
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    darnall42 wrote: »
    The TOTP repeats featured on news on radio 2 tonight (Check out the 6pm bulletin in the middle of Simon mayo's show http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pmfgx )

    That news doesn't really tell us much. According to her, the repeats stopped last year when Jimmy Saville was found to be a sex offender, which obviously isn't true. She then said the repeats will resume later this year. Hmm how about next week? :rolleyes: Hopefully she means the DLT repeats will resume :cool:
  • Rich Tea.Rich Tea. Posts: 22,048
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    When they come back on next Thursday night 17th at 7.30pm, with the 5th January 1978 edition, we are all still going to have the pleasure of a further month of Mull Of Kintyre at No1! :D
  • FroodFrood Posts: 13,180
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    Rich Tea. wrote: »
    When they come back on next Thursday night 17th at 7.30pm, with the 5th January 1978 edition, we are all still going to have the pain of a further month of Mull Of Kintyre at No1! :cry:

    Fixed that for you.

    And when we are finally put out of our misery we have a far better chart topper - Uptown Top Ranking.
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