I have lots of images in my head from the recording but nothing firm - and I do wonder whether I might be suffering from false memories! Like on tonight's episode, I began to think that I had watched The Boomtown Rats and She's so Modern...
There was definitely some 'light' punk like The Clash there.
Silly thing is I can remember exactly what I was wearing and would love to see how awful I must have looked: heavy black platform wedges, cream thick tights, dark green corduroy skirt and cream roll neck polo sweater! Nice!
Also I had the 'flick' hairstyle which needed lots of hairspray!
Aside from the rather dubious branding of The Clash as 'light punk' (:eek:), you would never have seen them in the studio at TOTP as the group refused point blank to ever appear on the show - something they were at least consistent about during their entire career ...
... even though Mick Jones (as part of Big Audio Dynamite) and Joe Strummer (performing with Black Grape) later relented.
Thank you so much Darren1090. That must be the one and the timing might be right. The year I did my O'levels and listened to Capital Radio every minute I could. But my favourite hour of the week was the Sunday evening run down of the top 20 before I went off to youth club. Happy, happy memories :-)
Hi Sal,
The episode was presented by Kid Jensen, and the performers were:
(24) ROCKY SHARPE & THE REPLAYS – Rama Lama Ding Dong
(30) SALLY OLDFIELD – Mirrors
(13) PAUL EVANS – Hello, This Is Joanie (The Telephone Answering Machine Song) (video)
(NEW) BONNIE TYLER – Louisiana Rain
(21) LEO SAYER – Raining In My Heart
(25) MANKIND – Dr. Who
(27) DRIVER 67 – Car 67
(NEW) THE DOLL – Desire Me
(16) HOT CHOCOLATE – I’ll Put You Together Again (video)
(35) THE SHADOWS – Don’t Cry For Me Argentina
(18) FUNKADELIC – One Nation Under A Groove (danced to by Legs & Co)
(NEW) STEVE ALLAN – Together We Are Beautiful
(1) VILLAGE PEOPLE – Y.M.C.A. (video)
The only one on that list that could possibly be described as "light punk" is the Doll:
I was an audience member in 1978 or 1979 - can't remember exactly when. I also can't remember who were playing. But I do remember there was an act where there was an American style car (I think) on the stage from which the singers sang. I don't think it became a great hit - was more of a quirky song.
Does this mean anything to anybody?
Loving watching this series as often as I can. I know the words of nearly every song!
Aside from the rather dubious branding of The Clash as 'light punk' (), you would never have seen them in the studio at TOTP as the group refused point blank to ever appear on the show - something they were at least consistent about during their entire career ...
Sorry if my description of light punk offended you - but what I meant was the kind of punk rock that I really enjoyed listening to as opposed to the shouty/sweary/tuneless stuff! The Stranglers were known as a punk band, but Golden Brown is a lovely melody (my parents loved it until I told them what it was about lol!).
And I sort of know what I'm talking about as I was brought up in Bromley - the home of the early punk scene. I loved a lot of it - but not all! Went to one of the earliest Boomtown Rats gigs...
You must have been a clever girl If you sat your 'O' levels in 1979 as that would be a year early by my reckoning.
Yup, I was a year early all through my school years. A bad decision on my parents/schools part as I didn't do very well! Took A'levels a year early too and then had to retake so I eventually caught up with my age group!!
I seem to remember I was put up a class when I was very young because I knew what the colour of an orange was!!!
Darren1090 - you are so kind to put the list up. I remember all of those apart from The Doll so I'll try and find a playing of it. Thank you so much for your help!
Those songs are going to be going round and round in my head all night, especially "Hello, This is Joanie". How annoying (in a reminiscing-mode way!)
Edited to add that the Youtube of Driver67 gives the dates as February 1979...
The episode was presented by Kid Jensen, and the performers were:
(24) ROCKY SHARPE & THE REPLAYS – Rama Lama Ding Dong
(30) SALLY OLDFIELD – Mirrors
(13) PAUL EVANS – Hello, This Is Joanie (The Telephone Answering Machine Song) (video)
(NEW) BONNIE TYLER – Louisiana Rain
(21) LEO SAYER – Raining In My Heart
(25) MANKIND – Dr. Who
(27) DRIVER 67 – Car 67 (NEW) THE DOLL – Desire Me
(16) HOT CHOCOLATE – I’ll Put You Together Again (video)
(35) THE SHADOWS – Don’t Cry For Me Argentina
(18) FUNKADELIC – One Nation Under A Groove (danced to by Legs & Co) (NEW) STEVE ALLAN – Together We Are Beautiful
(1) VILLAGE PEOPLE – Y.M.C.A. (video)
The only one on that list that could possibly be described as "light punk" is the Doll:
Hopefully we'll be able to watch this episode next January, fingers crossed!
I distinctly remember going to school the morning after that episode and everyone complaining about The Doll being a very obvious attempt to mimic Blondie (badly) ...
Interesting to see Steve's Allan's original of 'Together We Are Beautiful' in there - a year before Fern Kinney's cover was a much bigger hit.
I seem to remember I was put up a class when I was very young because I knew what the colour of an orange was!!!
BIB - not a lot of people know that
I think the yellow Ford Cortina cab in 'Car 67' was on video - the controller (the taxi driver in a hat with a fake moustache) would have been what you saw on stage in the TOTP studio.
You don't happen to have the list of that recording do you? It might have a more punky number...
Pushing my luck here!
Not at all. I only didn't post this list as, being as the Car 67 performance is a repeat, you wouldn't have seen a car in the studio. (Though there is some doubt as to whether there ever was a car in the Studio, as raised by another poster).
(27) EDWIN STARR – Contact (and charts)
(51) NAZARETH – May The Sun Shine
(3) THE THREE DEGREES – Woman In Love ®
(37) THE MEMBERS – The Sound Of The Suburbs
(19) SALLY OLDFIELD – Mirrors ®
(39) UFO – Doctor Doctor
(14) BILLY JOEL – My Life (video)
(52) TWO MAN SOUND – Que Tal America
(28) GENERATION X – King Rocker
(61) THE POINTER SISTERS – Everybody Is A Star
(7) DRIVER 67 – Car 67 ®
(1) BLONDIE – Heart Of Glass (danced to by Legs & Co)
(8) ABBA – Chiquitita (and credits)
I am getting these lists from a web site called "Popscene"; for some reason it's impossible to link to it from here but you can Google it.
I'm surprised if you couldn't remember which DJ was presenting the episode you went to?
That was the edit- Man Tran had just been playing out on the late version.
What a great edition that was with all the extra tracks put in it and being longer. But why oh why does BBC4 not just show the long version at 7.30pm? Surely this channel does not need to be fixated with getting primetime shows into neat half hour segments does it? What difference does it make if the follow up programme starts at 8.10pm or 8.15pm? BBC4 does not have main news constraints and other immovable shows throughout the evening, so why are they being so rigid on this issue?
MrBernay of course you should like it coming from the area in question regards the Lowry song. I've always thought, and seeing it again now, that the song is extremely warm and genuine, comes from the heart and is a fine tribute record to LS Lowry. I bet the people at TOTP and Radio 1 that week gave the charts a double take seeing that go to No1, when it had fallen to 4 the week before. Having said that, just about 9 months ago we saw Lucille by Kenny Rogers do a 2 - 3 - 1 reverse. This was highly unusual though, and in the entire 1970's and 1980's I cannot think (without looking up) of another number one hit getting to the top like that.
Clare I am pleased you still have your vinyl copy of it, but can you still play it, like I can?
Just want to say hi to SuperSal1, I see you have been on DS quite some time, but was tonight your first posting on the TOTP thread? I love your story about getting in the studio. Those little children around Sir Paul during With A Little Luck were so cute, and all I could think of was how amazing it would be if they saw themselves on it, and that they would be my age or thereabouts now. Also wondered who they were?
If you want to hear something to make you laugh about the Driver 67, Car 67 song I have got a belter of a story for you. This is not a late April fool joke either. Believe it or not, but Car 67 was alleged to be none other than the favourite song of......The Queen Mother! :eek:
Having said that, just about 9 months ago we saw Lucille by Kenny Rogers do a 2 - 3 - 1 reverse. This was highly unusual though, and in the entire 1970's and 1980's I cannot think (without looking up) of another number one hit getting to the top like that.
'The Model' by Kraftwerk also moved 2-3-1... I thought you may have remembered that one
'The Model' by Kraftwerk also moved 2-3-1... I thought you may have remembered that one
I really ought to have done, you are correct. I needed the absent Highlander with me, as that was/is his speciality. Can't believe I forgot it, considering talking about it last summer on here.
Positions aside, and sales in mind, it is quite probable that a large amount of hits fall a place or two, or even more, down the charts but actually sell more in doing so than in the previous week they were higher up, after all, each single is only selling relative to everything else around it. :cool:
There was a story that "She's So Modern" was inspired by the girls in the Phonogram press office, among them one Mariella Frostrup, but it's difficult to verify.
You might be interested in the Popular thread on "Matchstalk Men", including my reminiscence on B+M's previous single which was about getting arrested on an away trip with Manchester United (and a disturbing verse about what happened to the opposition fans on the train!) - plus assessments of the respective Top 40 presenting styles of Tom Browne and Tony Blackburn: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2008/07/brian-and-michael-matchstalk-men-and-matchstalk-cats-and-dogs/?cp=0
I was suprised to see Manhatten Transfer after the BR's hadn't realised the late night version was longer. But Showaddywaddy and the Stylistics were there as well.
I found the Stylistics (is that how you spell them) interesting because they appear part of a change since 1976. In the 1976 version almost everyweek there was a different black singing group with 4/5 members in coloured suits. Now in 1978 you hardly see any and the Stylistics were the fist I had seen in ages, did punk kill them off or something or did they all take up Disco.
Is "The big ships sailed down the alley, alley, o" a Manchester thing or a countrywide thing?
Now I quite like this song but no way would the Mona Lisa bow down to a Lowry painting, she wouls smile/glower enigmatically down on them from a great height.
Comments
Aside from the rather dubious branding of The Clash as 'light punk' (:eek:), you would never have seen them in the studio at TOTP as the group refused point blank to ever appear on the show - something they were at least consistent about during their entire career ...
... even though Mick Jones (as part of Big Audio Dynamite) and Joe Strummer (performing with Black Grape) later relented.
Hi Sal,
The episode was presented by Kid Jensen, and the performers were:
(24) ROCKY SHARPE & THE REPLAYS – Rama Lama Ding Dong
(30) SALLY OLDFIELD – Mirrors
(13) PAUL EVANS – Hello, This Is Joanie (The Telephone Answering Machine Song) (video)
(NEW) BONNIE TYLER – Louisiana Rain
(21) LEO SAYER – Raining In My Heart
(25) MANKIND – Dr. Who
(27) DRIVER 67 – Car 67
(NEW) THE DOLL – Desire Me
(16) HOT CHOCOLATE – I’ll Put You Together Again (video)
(35) THE SHADOWS – Don’t Cry For Me Argentina
(18) FUNKADELIC – One Nation Under A Groove (danced to by Legs & Co)
(NEW) STEVE ALLAN – Together We Are Beautiful
(1) VILLAGE PEOPLE – Y.M.C.A. (video)
The only one on that list that could possibly be described as "light punk" is the Doll:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgIsG3tY-q4
Hopefully we'll be able to watch this episode next January, fingers crossed!
Driver 67 by Car 67? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGwYPd6ajTk
You must have been a clever girl if you sat your 'O' levels in 1979 as that would be a year early by my reckoning.
Sorry if my description of light punk offended you - but what I meant was the kind of punk rock that I really enjoyed listening to as opposed to the shouty/sweary/tuneless stuff! The Stranglers were known as a punk band, but Golden Brown is a lovely melody (my parents loved it until I told them what it was about lol!).
And I sort of know what I'm talking about as I was brought up in Bromley - the home of the early punk scene. I loved a lot of it - but not all! Went to one of the earliest Boomtown Rats gigs...
Yup, I was a year early all through my school years. A bad decision on my parents/schools part as I didn't do very well! Took A'levels a year early too and then had to retake so I eventually caught up with my age group!!
I seem to remember I was put up a class when I was very young because I knew what the colour of an orange was!!!
Those songs are going to be going round and round in my head all night, especially "Hello, This is Joanie". How annoying (in a reminiscing-mode way!)
Edited to add that the Youtube of Driver67 gives the dates as February 1979...
I distinctly remember going to school the morning after that episode and everyone complaining about The Doll being a very obvious attempt to mimic Blondie (badly) ...
Interesting to see Steve's Allan's original of 'Together We Are Beautiful' in there - a year before Fern Kinney's cover was a much bigger hit.
BIB - not a lot of people know that
I think the yellow Ford Cortina cab in 'Car 67' was on video - the controller (the taxi driver in a hat with a fake moustache) would have been what you saw on stage in the TOTP studio.
The same performance of "Car 67" was repeated on 1st February 1979, which Mike Read presented; but the original was definitely on 11th January.
You don't happen to have the list of that recording do you? It might have a more punky number...
Pushing my luck here!
Not at all. I only didn't post this list as, being as the Car 67 performance is a repeat, you wouldn't have seen a car in the studio. (Though there is some doubt as to whether there ever was a car in the Studio, as raised by another poster).
(27) EDWIN STARR – Contact (and charts)
(51) NAZARETH – May The Sun Shine
(3) THE THREE DEGREES – Woman In Love ®
(37) THE MEMBERS – The Sound Of The Suburbs
(19) SALLY OLDFIELD – Mirrors ®
(39) UFO – Doctor Doctor
(14) BILLY JOEL – My Life (video)
(52) TWO MAN SOUND – Que Tal America
(28) GENERATION X – King Rocker
(61) THE POINTER SISTERS – Everybody Is A Star
(7) DRIVER 67 – Car 67 ®
(1) BLONDIE – Heart Of Glass (danced to by Legs & Co)
(8) ABBA – Chiquitita (and credits)
I am getting these lists from a web site called "Popscene"; for some reason it's impossible to link to it from here but you can Google it.
I'm surprised if you couldn't remember which DJ was presenting the episode you went to?
What a great edition that was with all the extra tracks put in it and being longer.
MrBernay of course you should like it coming from the area in question regards the Lowry song. I've always thought, and seeing it again now, that the song is extremely warm and genuine, comes from the heart and is a fine tribute record to LS Lowry. I bet the people at TOTP and Radio 1 that week gave the charts a double take seeing that go to No1, when it had fallen to 4 the week before. Having said that, just about 9 months ago we saw Lucille by Kenny Rogers do a 2 - 3 - 1 reverse. This was highly unusual though, and in the entire 1970's and 1980's I cannot think (without looking up) of another number one hit getting to the top like that.
Clare I am pleased you still have your vinyl copy of it, but can you still play it, like I can?
Just want to say hi to SuperSal1, I see you have been on DS quite some time, but was tonight your first posting on the TOTP thread? I love your story about getting in the studio. Those little children around Sir Paul during With A Little Luck were so cute, and all I could think of was how amazing it would be if they saw themselves on it, and that they would be my age or thereabouts now. Also wondered who they were?
If you want to hear something to make you laugh about the Driver 67, Car 67 song I have got a belter of a story for you. This is not a late April fool joke either. Believe it or not, but Car 67 was alleged to be none other than the favourite song of......The Queen Mother! :eek:
I really ought to have done, you are correct. I needed the absent Highlander with me, as that was/is his speciality. Can't believe I forgot it, considering talking about it last summer on here.
Positions aside, and sales in mind, it is quite probable that a large amount of hits fall a place or two, or even more, down the charts but actually sell more in doing so than in the previous week they were higher up, after all, each single is only selling relative to everything else around it. :cool:
You might be interested in the Popular thread on "Matchstalk Men", including my reminiscence on B+M's previous single which was about getting arrested on an away trip with Manchester United (and a disturbing verse about what happened to the opposition fans on the train!) - plus assessments of the respective Top 40 presenting styles of Tom Browne and Tony Blackburn:
http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2008/07/brian-and-michael-matchstalk-men-and-matchstalk-cats-and-dogs/?cp=0
I was suprised to see Manhatten Transfer after the BR's hadn't realised the late night version was longer. But Showaddywaddy and the Stylistics were there as well.
I found the Stylistics (is that how you spell them) interesting because they appear part of a change since 1976. In the 1976 version almost everyweek there was a different black singing group with 4/5 members in coloured suits. Now in 1978 you hardly see any and the Stylistics were the fist I had seen in ages, did punk kill them off or something or did they all take up Disco.
Well it wouldn't be the keyboard player on the left that's for sure heh.
What did Linda do other than mime and wonder around the scottish highlands looking lost.
Bit early in the year for that isn't it, normally Eurocrap only appears after everybody has been to spain in the summer.
What exactly is a matchstalk, I know what a matchstick is.
Now I quite like this song but no way would the Mona Lisa bow down to a Lowry painting, she wouls smile/glower enigmatically down on them from a great height.