Two nights ago BBC Four included footage of convicted murderer Phil Spector being interviewed on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1972 on 'The Richest Songs in the World' presented by Mark Radcliffe.
It would appear the BBC regard the alleged jiggling of a woman's (presumably clothed) breasts as a far more serious offence than shooting her dead through the mouth.
A very powerful point, well made if I may say so Fave St. Could do with being brought to the attention of the BBC that one. I need say no more, except thanks for noting it here.
Interesting what you write about Record Mirror. The only music mag I ever bought was the NME, and wait for this, I did not buy my first ever copy until that famous, and looking back rather daft chart battle of August 1995 between Blur and Oasis, neither track which I much care for. That made me just turned 26 when I bought my first ever NME. A bit late I suspect by usual standards. I bought it regular for 2 years and never again after 1997. I suspect it was a great read throughout the 70's and into the mid 1980's though. I kept the ones I bought from the mid 90's for a while, but eventually binned the lot, it was shocking just how dated they seemed to me. Plus the letters pages always seemed full of such twaddle!
Record Mirror was a chart/TOTP obsessive's paradise - all the official charts plus great commentary from Alan Jones (the same Alan Jones - I think - behind the excellent Disco Discharge compilations). It also had the best disco/club music coverage by far of the 70s/80s, courtesy of the late and legendary James Hamilton. As a whole, RM was not a market leader and that maybe why it seemed to change its identity, momentarily becoming a Smash Hits clone in the early/mid 80s ... but it never suffered from the pretentiousness the NME cloaked itself in.
Clicking on that link gives me a blank page without any search results. Presumably it's necessary to register to view anything? I'm not very keen on registering on that website since they want to know all sorts of things such as the name of my company and my phone number - clearly the site is intended for professional usage, not for people like me to watch old episodes of Top of the Pops.
Clicking on that link gives me a blank page without any search results. Presumably it's necessary to register to view anything? I'm not very keen on registering on that website since they want to know all sorts of things such as the name of my company and my phone number - clearly the site is intended for professional usage, not for people like me to watch old episodes of Top of the Pops.
Hmm, that's interesting. I've just accessed it and I certainly didn't register. Took quite a long time to load-up, but gave me a '73 edition of TOTP.
Perhaps your anti-virus, or similar, could be blocking it?
I think during 1986 there was a change in bands that were appearing on TOTP. You have the first half of the 80s being Spandau Ballet, Culture Club, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and the Thompson Twins etc. And funny how by 1986 most of these bands had disbanded, and you had new bands coming on the scene like The Pet Shop Boys, A-ha, T'pau etc. With this and the ever growing rise of dance music, it's easy to see why you disliked the change. I personally prefer the early part of the 80s. I think 1984 and 85 were the best years ever, but it's a tough call as every year had it's gems back then.
Indeed, Wham, The Police, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Dexy's, Madness, The Damned, Eurythymics, Big Country, ELO,Culture Club, Human League and dare I say it Buck's Fizz all enjoyed their final or last big hit in 1986.
OK some did manage a comeback single a decade or so on, but in reality the charts have never been quite the same post 86, It almost seemed to me, that at one minute past midnight on January 1st 1987, was the time the music died with the arrival of the anti-christ Waterman.....
Clicking on that link gives me a blank page without any search results. Presumably it's necessary to register to view anything? I'm not very keen on registering on that website since they want to know all sorts of things such as the name of my company and my phone number - clearly the site is intended for professional usage, not for people like me to watch old episodes of Top of the Pops.
Actually I'm having the same trouble. It was working fine for me the other day. Could be a technical fault with the website at the moment.
Indeed, Wham, The Police, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Dexy's, Madness, The Damned, Eurythymics, Big Country, ELO,Culture Club, Human League and dare I say it Buck's Fizz all enjoyed their final or last big hit in 1986.
OK some did manage a comeback single a decade or so on, but in reality the charts have never been quite the same post 86, It almost seemed to me, that at one minute past midnight on January 1st 1987, was the time the music died with the arrival of the anti-christ Waterman.....
Yes I agree, suddenly manufactured pop was born, and as someone pointed out sometime in 1986 every song had the same tinny synthesized beat. Even bands from the 70s were doing it. Must be an era they don't look back on with fondness. I remember an interview with Bernard Summer of New Order and he said it was spending so much time making music in front of a computer rather than working as a proper band that caused them to split up in the late eighties. I'm not going to say tho it was all rubbish after 1986 because it wasn't IMO. There was still some great songs, mixed in with all the rubbish. By 1989 they were few and far between, and by 1991 the real 80s was but a distant memory
You do realise now you've said that, the Daily Heil will be 'exposing' the BBC's 'secret agenda' to screen Saville episodes over the internet ...?
The BBC have a bigger question about allowing the public to access its archives. The real question here is: have the rights for these shows been cleared so they can be broadcast in this way? Or is this some kind of bizarre anomaly that has slipped through the net?
Thank you so much for highlighting the existence of the BBC Motion Gallery. As I write (in spite of having a slow connection speed and occasional interruptions for buffering) I am enjoying Johnny Mathis and Deneice Williams, singing the sublimely beautiful "Too much too little too late", one of my favourite records from 1978, followed by Legs & Co dancing to Chic, "Everybody Dance". Boney -M with "Rivers of Babylon" are up a bit later.
It's the 4/27/78 edition, introduced brilliantly by one of my favourite TOTP presenters - but I guess that it won't end up getting shown on BBC 4 in April 2013.
I can even envisage some bright spark coming up with the idea of taking certain episodes off the archive. It's a shame that it's not possible to download and keep stuff from here, unlike a certain other well-known internet video hosting site.
Record Mirror was a chart/TOTP obsessive's paradise - all the official charts plus great commentary from Alan Jones (the same Alan Jones - I think - behind the excellent Disco Discharge compilations). It also had the best disco/club music coverage by far of the 70s/80s, courtesy of the late and legendary James Hamilton. As a whole, RM was not a market leader and that maybe why it seemed to change its identity, momentarily becoming a Smash Hits clone in the early/mid 80s ... but it never suffered from the pretentiousness the NME cloaked itself in.
Totally agree with what you write Servalan. RM was the only music paper / mag which I bought as well. In the late 70s its music coverage and commentaries were of top quality. RM also used to publish the USA top 75 and this alongside Paul Gambaccini's excellent input on Saturday afternoons would keep any interested teenager abreast with what was happening across the pond. Alan Jones' commentaries and chart analysis were worth the 60p alone. Great memories.
Much to my surprise I have just noticed that there is yet another "current" edition of Top Of The Pops being shown on primetime BBC1 tonight at 7pm, in addition to the Christmas one from Christmas Day. So now there is a New Year's Eve edition, where it says they will be revealing the first number one of 2013, known since yesterday I presume.
I will not be watching it!
But a number of things hugely irritate me about this. Firstly, deemed okay for primetime BBC1 just like in the old days. Yet only in the holiday period. Yet demoted to BBC2 and axed weekly six years ago. So why is it so damned prestigious over Christmas and New Year all of a sudden? Let's face it, the music can be worse now than at other times of the year much of the time anyway, regardless of sales. Clearly there has been no Savile phobia about the brand itself.
Which brings me around to my second point, and that is the un-certainty that has surrounded the BBC4 weekly repeats from 1978. If they are happy to show not one, but two brand new editions in prime BBC1 slots, it goes without saying that there should be no question whatsoever of any doubts ever having, or still hanging over the continued showing of TOTP 1978 on niche BBC4.
just having a listen to this video on Youtube playing the UK number 1s of 76 and 77 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHh5fT3mQoo and it reminds me of all the happy thursday (and wednesdays in the proms season) nights watching the TOTP reruns over the last 20 odd months on BBC Four.Looking forward to hopefully seeing the 1978 episodes in a few weeks time
yeah it was gobsmacking to see the jean jeannie clip on last years TOTP2 special.
When John Henshall returned his 'Jean Genie' clip to the Beeb last December the story featured on the BBC News and their Arts Correspondent suggested the retired cameraman had a cache of at least 100 other clips from the same era squirrelled away - to my knowledge he hasn't revealed any more to date .
However I was pleasantly surprised to see the 'Slade - Coz I Luv You' clip retrieved from Bob Monkhouse's private TV and film archive on 'Slade at the BBC' just before Christmas (41 years to the month since it was last screened) as I assumed the BBC would deem this black and white, off-air recording as unfit for broadcast. The link below reveals persona non grata Jimmy Savile introducing this performance on the 18 November 1971 edition of TOTP without his trademark peroxide hair (I wonder if his dark coloured Beatle mop is a syrup?). The video is time-coded which makes me suspect it may have been smuggled out by a BBC employee.
According to Popscene the only surviving colour performance from the two complete monochrome editions of TOTP which the family of the late entertainer donated to the BFI features Tony Christie singing 'Is This The Way To Amarillo' from the 2 December 1971 show accompanied by the TOTP orchestra with the Ladybirds on backing vocals. It seems this only exists because it was licensed to ZDF for use on the 'Disco' programme in Germany (where the song became a No. 1 hit) which explains the TV studio alternation. Jimmy Savile appears centre-screen at the start with the same dark brown Beatles/Michael Parkinson hairstyle - 24 years later the record reached No. 1 in the UK where it stayed for 7 weeks and went on to become the biggest selling single of 2005.
The link below reveals persona non grata Jimmy Savile introducing this performance on the 18 November 1971 edition of TOTP without his trademark peroxide hair (I wonder if his dark coloured Beatle mop is a syrup?).
I Think thats jim in his "Twin Brother Percy" alter ego that he presented a few shows as (we had the may 12th 1977 episode with jim in his percy guise this year )
When John Henshall returned his 'Jean Genie' clip to the Beeb last December the story featured on the BBC News and their Arts Correspondent suggested the retired cameraman had a cache of at least 100 other clips from the same era squirrelled away - to my knowledge he hasn't revealed any more to date .
Henshall was in the audience at Missing Believed Wiped last month. IIRC he said that people are still going through his collection, so I guess there may be an announcement when they've finished, unless anything as newsworthy as the Bowie clip turns up.
A very powerful point, well made if I may say so Fave St. Could do with being brought to the attention of the BBC that one. I need say no more, except thanks for noting it here.
Not really a powerful point at all. There is a massive difference between using clips of people (like Hitler as has been mentioned up thread) in documentaries and showing the shows they presented in their original form.
Thank you so much for highlighting the existence of the BBC Motion Gallery.
I can even envisage some bright spark coming up with the idea of taking certain episodes off the archive. It's a shame that it's not possible to download and keep stuff from here, unlike a certain other well-known internet video hosting site.
I registered myself and have been able to watch episodes without any problems. Regarding the downloading of clips from this site, I am guessing that it isn't possible as alluded to above ?
My final thoughts on TOTP 77 before this thread gets closed and we move onto TOTP 78.
Just got round to watching the final two weekly episodes of 1977 and the Christmas episode. Have to say I fast forwarded through most of them, which sort of typifies my watching of the 77 series.
I doubt I will keep the Christmas day episode as I have done with the 76 episode.
Anyway, onto 1978, the year I go to high school, Scotland in the world cup:( and being on the march with Ally's Tartan Army to look forward to!!
Yes I agree, suddenly manufactured pop was born, and as someone pointed out sometime in 1986 every song had the same tinny synthesized beat. Even bands from the 70s were doing it. Must be an era they don't look back on with fondness. I remember an interview with Bernard Summer of New Order and he said it was spending so much time making music in front of a computer rather than working as a proper band that caused them to split up in the late eighties. I'm not going to say tho it was all rubbish after 1986 because it wasn't IMO. There was still some great songs, mixed in with all the rubbish. By 1989 they were few and far between, and by 1991 the real 80s was but a distant memory
I don't think it was that sudden, really - manufactured pop has pretty much always existed. What happened in the 80s was that advances in technology made it much cheaper to make records. The massive international success of the Human League's Dare album was a sign that skilled musicians were no longer required to generate successful product - the producer was king. Club music was quick to embrace the changes, not least Jam & Lewis, Hi-NRG and the early house records ... all of which SAW ripped off shamelessly.
What SAW did was show the music industry that they could increase their profit margins - and this is the 80s, where money was king - and that is what fuelled the increase in manufactured pop. So, as much as the industry establishment looked down its nose at SAW, its greed kept them in business, and drove it to ape their MO. This only got worse in the 90s with the rise of Fuller and Cowell.
Those changes also undermined TOTP. How many studio creations looked limp and lifeless in the BBC studios, yet had earned their place on the show with their chart placings? Add the rapidly exapnding promo clip market and the rise of 'request' channels like The Box (and I wonder who was doing the requesting ... :rolleyes:;)), and TOTP looked increasingly outdated.
I don't think it was that sudden, really - manufactured pop has pretty much always existed. What happened in the 80s was that advances in technology made it much cheaper to make records. The massive international success of the Human League's Dare album was a sign that skilled musicians were no longer required to generate successful product - the producer was king. Club music was quick to embrace the changes, not least Jam & Lewis, Hi-NRG and the early house records ... all of which SAW ripped off shamelessly.
What SAW did was show the music industry that they could increase their profit margins - and this is the 80s, where money was king - and that is what fuelled the increase in manufactured pop. So, as much as the industry establishment looked down its nose at SAW, its greed kept them in business, and drove it to ape their MO. This only got worse in the 90s with the rise of Fuller and Cowell.
Those changes also undermined TOTP. How many studio creations looked limp and lifeless in the BBC studios, yet had earned their place on the show with their chart placings? Add the rapidly exapnding promo clip market and the rise of 'request' channels like The Box (and I wonder who was doing the requesting ... :rolleyes:;)), and TOTP looked increasingly outdated.
Dare by Human League is infact one of my all time fave albums I have to say. But I didn't actually buy it until 5 years after it's first release. But I also recall in a documentary about this kind of music, Andy McLuskey of OMD saying that people sneered at his kind making electronic music on synths as just pressing buttons and out came the music, and making it quite clear that he still had to write the tunes himself, the synths didn't do it for him.
Regards Waterman and his dubious effect in the late 80's, I could scarcely believe a recent quote from him in which he said without any hint of embarrassment "Why, when I have gone to all the trouble of making a record in the studio and perfecting the sound as I want it, would I bother to let my artist then go on a show such as TOTP and sing it live". If this man is a genuine music lover then I am the Pope! But he's never short of something to say for himself is he. :yawn:
One thing I have never really understood is why there is still a Christmas TOTP at all, if it is considered out of date and not worthy of it's weekly outing it had for 42 years, then why does Christmas Day make any difference? Not to mention on BBC1 in it's age old slot, when they first of all took it off Thursdays back in the 90's, then flipped it over to BBC2 in 2005 before getting rid in July 2006. Yet come Christmas, apparently the rules change, and the old tradition still applies. Rather odd when you think about it, and somewhat illogical.
BIB - You sound like Mr. Spock .
I read in the gossip column of a tabloid newspaper around 10 years ago that Paul McCartney was unimpressed with the current crop of TOTP performers - I think he was quoted as saying TOTP nowadays was 'all synthetic music, boy bands and girls not wearing very much' :yawn: :eek: .
TBH I wish the BBC had put the tired show to bed in 2006 and let it RIP. IMO the programme had long passed its sell by date. I was relieved when it was finally taken off air and disappointed when it was resurrected for Xmas 2/3 years ago. For x number of years it seemed to me that the BBC were treating TOTP like a sacred cow when they were basically flogging a dying horse that deserved to be shot and put out of its misery (the rant of a grumpy old man :mad: ?).
I read in the gossip column of a tabloid newspaper around 10 years ago that Paul McCartney was unimpressed with the current crop of TOTP performers - I think he was quoted as saying TOTP nowadays was 'all synthetic music, boy bands and girls not wearing very much' :yawn: :eek: .
TBH I wish the BBC had put the tired show to bed in 2006 and let it RIP. IMO the programme had long passed its sell by date. I was relieved when it was finally taken off air and disappointed when it was resurrected for Xmas 2/3 years ago. For x number of years it seemed to me that the BBC were treating TOTP like a sacred cow when they were basically flogging a dying horse that deserved to be shot and put out of its misery (the rant of a grumpy old man :mad: ?).
Very good you old trekkie! I liked that one.
Regards TOTP, you are right. When something you love goes bad, you really want to see it put out of it's misery. It should probably have gone around the year 2000 in my opinion, or even a year or two before that. When they changed the graphics around 1998 I thought they were utterly pathetic. It seemed to have a succession of rapid re-launches, such as one in October 2001 featuring Jimmy Savile that I have on VHS which was not a bad show infact, featuring some good sounds at the time, and I recall another re-launch about December 2003 which did not last five minutes. For me, in those final years it became something very different from the days of say 1976,77,78 when it was considered family viewing to a large degree. In the final years it seemed more like an extension of Saturday morning kids TV, or simply a kids show put on when the adult stuff was meant to be on. The music scene at the moment, in terms of commercial mainstream pop singles is nowhere near varied enough to make such a show as TOTP remotely viable in the slot it used to hold during the period we are all now reliving. That to me is a great shame.
Don't forget that TOTP 1978 officially begins tonight on BBC4 at 9pm with The Story Of 1978 at long last! This is followed by a whole hour of some of the big hits on TOTP during 1978 also.
Regards TOTP, you are right. When something you love goes bad, you really want to see it put out of it's misery. It should probably have gone around the year 2000 in my opinion, or even a year or two before that. When they changed the graphics around 1998 I thought they were utterly pathetic. It seemed to have a succession of rapid re-launches, such as one in October 2001 featuring Jimmy Savile that I have on VHS which was not a bad show infact, featuring some good sounds at the time, and I recall another re-launch about December 2003 which did not last five minutes. For me, in those final years it became something very different from the days of say 1976,77,78 when it was considered family viewing to a large degree. In the final years it seemed more like an extension of Saturday morning kids TV, or simply a kids show put on when the adult stuff was meant to be on. The music scene at the moment, in terms of commercial mainstream pop singles is nowhere near varied enough to make such a show as TOTP remotely viable in the slot it used to hold during the period we are all now reliving. That to me is a great shame.
Don't forget that TOTP 1978 officially begins tonight on BBC4 at 9pm with The Story Of 1978 at long last! This is followed by a whole hour of some of the big hits on TOTP during 1978 also.
BIB - I couldn't agree more, Rich. The final relaunch was easily, for me, the worst period in TOTP history. Thank you, Andi Peters, for a terrible host, a rubbish new format featuring interviews (why?) and an appalling selection of featured artists that seemed more geared to getting in with Simon Cowell than anything else.
Today's charts are indeed atrocious - and I'm speaking as someone who would love to say otherwise. Record companies are obviously quite happy to fill them with so much X Factor pointlessness and Autotuned hip hop-goes-to-Ibiza 'dance tracks' that there is very little room for anything different. And it's the music industry's greed that I ultimately blame for that and, indeed, for TOTP's demise: we've seen people on the 1977 documentary say how important the show used to be - but now, it's hard to see how it would have the same kind of function ... and, without record companies' support, the show would just flounder.
Dare by Human League is infact one of my all time fave albums I have to say. But I didn't actually buy it until 5 years after it's first release. But I also recall in a documentary about this kind of music, Andy McLuskey of OMD saying that people sneered at his kind making electronic music on synths as just pressing buttons and out came the music, and making it quite clear that he still had to write the tunes himself, the synths didn't do it for him.
Regards Waterman and his dubious effect in the late 80's, I could scarcely believe a recent quote from him in which he said without any hint of embarrassment "Why, when I have gone to all the trouble of making a record in the studio and perfecting the sound as I want it, would I bother to let my artist then go on a show such as TOTP and sing it live". If this man is a genuine music lover then I am the Pope! But he's never short of something to say for himself is he. :yawn:
Reminds me of someone on this forum who keeps presenting his opinions as facts - wonder who that could be.......
Comments
A very powerful point, well made if I may say so Fave St. Could do with being brought to the attention of the BBC that one. I need say no more, except thanks for noting it here.
Record Mirror was a chart/TOTP obsessive's paradise - all the official charts plus great commentary from Alan Jones (the same Alan Jones - I think - behind the excellent Disco Discharge compilations). It also had the best disco/club music coverage by far of the 70s/80s, courtesy of the late and legendary James Hamilton. As a whole, RM was not a market leader and that maybe why it seemed to change its identity, momentarily becoming a Smash Hits clone in the early/mid 80s ... but it never suffered from the pretentiousness the NME cloaked itself in.
Hmm, that's interesting. I've just accessed it and I certainly didn't register. Took quite a long time to load-up, but gave me a '73 edition of TOTP.
Perhaps your anti-virus, or similar, could be blocking it?
http://www.bbcmotiongallery.com/gallery/clip/2B002FB76_xxx.do?keywords=top%2Cof%2Cthe%2Cpops and it does indeed come up with the programme to watch. However it doesn't seem to be possible to search for anything else, it just gives zero search results.
Indeed, Wham, The Police, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Dexy's, Madness, The Damned, Eurythymics, Big Country, ELO,Culture Club, Human League and dare I say it Buck's Fizz all enjoyed their final or last big hit in 1986.
OK some did manage a comeback single a decade or so on, but in reality the charts have never been quite the same post 86, It almost seemed to me, that at one minute past midnight on January 1st 1987, was the time the music died with the arrival of the anti-christ Waterman.....
Actually I'm having the same trouble. It was working fine for me the other day. Could be a technical fault with the website at the moment.
Yes I agree, suddenly manufactured pop was born, and as someone pointed out sometime in 1986 every song had the same tinny synthesized beat. Even bands from the 70s were doing it. Must be an era they don't look back on with fondness. I remember an interview with Bernard Summer of New Order and he said it was spending so much time making music in front of a computer rather than working as a proper band that caused them to split up in the late eighties. I'm not going to say tho it was all rubbish after 1986 because it wasn't IMO. There was still some great songs, mixed in with all the rubbish. By 1989 they were few and far between, and by 1991 the real 80s was but a distant memory
Thank you so much for highlighting the existence of the BBC Motion Gallery. As I write (in spite of having a slow connection speed and occasional interruptions for buffering) I am enjoying Johnny Mathis and Deneice Williams, singing the sublimely beautiful "Too much too little too late", one of my favourite records from 1978, followed by Legs & Co dancing to Chic, "Everybody Dance". Boney -M with "Rivers of Babylon" are up a bit later.
It's the 4/27/78 edition, introduced brilliantly by one of my favourite TOTP presenters - but I guess that it won't end up getting shown on BBC 4 in April 2013.
I can even envisage some bright spark coming up with the idea of taking certain episodes off the archive. It's a shame that it's not possible to download and keep stuff from here, unlike a certain other well-known internet video hosting site.
Totally agree with what you write Servalan. RM was the only music paper / mag which I bought as well. In the late 70s its music coverage and commentaries were of top quality. RM also used to publish the USA top 75 and this alongside Paul Gambaccini's excellent input on Saturday afternoons would keep any interested teenager abreast with what was happening across the pond. Alan Jones' commentaries and chart analysis were worth the 60p alone. Great memories.
I will not be watching it!
But a number of things hugely irritate me about this. Firstly, deemed okay for primetime BBC1 just like in the old days. Yet only in the holiday period. Yet demoted to BBC2 and axed weekly six years ago. So why is it so damned prestigious over Christmas and New Year all of a sudden? Let's face it, the music can be worse now than at other times of the year much of the time anyway, regardless of sales. Clearly there has been no Savile phobia about the brand itself.
Which brings me around to my second point, and that is the un-certainty that has surrounded the BBC4 weekly repeats from 1978. If they are happy to show not one, but two brand new editions in prime BBC1 slots, it goes without saying that there should be no question whatsoever of any doubts ever having, or still hanging over the continued showing of TOTP 1978 on niche BBC4.
Happy New Year 2013 everybody!
Happy Hogmanay Highlander!
When John Henshall returned his 'Jean Genie' clip to the Beeb last December the story featured on the BBC News and their Arts Correspondent suggested the retired cameraman had a cache of at least 100 other clips from the same era squirrelled away - to my knowledge he hasn't revealed any more to date
However I was pleasantly surprised to see the 'Slade - Coz I Luv You' clip retrieved from Bob Monkhouse's private TV and film archive on 'Slade at the BBC' just before Christmas (41 years to the month since it was last screened) as I assumed the BBC would deem this black and white, off-air recording as unfit for broadcast. The link below reveals persona non grata Jimmy Savile introducing this performance on the 18 November 1971 edition of TOTP without his trademark peroxide hair (I wonder if his dark coloured Beatle mop is a syrup?). The video is time-coded which makes me suspect it may have been smuggled out by a BBC employee.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Jhe6M6iQms
According to Popscene the only surviving colour performance from the two complete monochrome editions of TOTP which the family of the late entertainer donated to the BFI features Tony Christie singing 'Is This The Way To Amarillo' from the 2 December 1971 show accompanied by the TOTP orchestra with the Ladybirds on backing vocals. It seems this only exists because it was licensed to ZDF for use on the 'Disco' programme in Germany (where the song became a No. 1 hit) which explains the TV studio alternation. Jimmy Savile appears centre-screen at the start with the same dark brown Beatles/Michael Parkinson hairstyle - 24 years later the record reached No. 1 in the UK where it stayed for 7 weeks and went on to become the biggest selling single of 2005.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHuOagWzaws
Henshall was in the audience at Missing Believed Wiped last month. IIRC he said that people are still going through his collection, so I guess there may be an announcement when they've finished, unless anything as newsworthy as the Bowie clip turns up.
Not really a powerful point at all. There is a massive difference between using clips of people (like Hitler as has been mentioned up thread) in documentaries and showing the shows they presented in their original form.
I registered myself and have been able to watch episodes without any problems. Regarding the downloading of clips from this site, I am guessing that it isn't possible as alluded to above ?
Just got round to watching the final two weekly episodes of 1977 and the Christmas episode. Have to say I fast forwarded through most of them, which sort of typifies my watching of the 77 series.
I doubt I will keep the Christmas day episode as I have done with the 76 episode.
Anyway, onto 1978, the year I go to high school, Scotland in the world cup:( and being on the march with Ally's Tartan Army to look forward to!!
I don't think it was that sudden, really - manufactured pop has pretty much always existed. What happened in the 80s was that advances in technology made it much cheaper to make records. The massive international success of the Human League's Dare album was a sign that skilled musicians were no longer required to generate successful product - the producer was king. Club music was quick to embrace the changes, not least Jam & Lewis, Hi-NRG and the early house records ... all of which SAW ripped off shamelessly.
What SAW did was show the music industry that they could increase their profit margins - and this is the 80s, where money was king - and that is what fuelled the increase in manufactured pop. So, as much as the industry establishment looked down its nose at SAW, its greed kept them in business, and drove it to ape their MO. This only got worse in the 90s with the rise of Fuller and Cowell.
Those changes also undermined TOTP. How many studio creations looked limp and lifeless in the BBC studios, yet had earned their place on the show with their chart placings? Add the rapidly exapnding promo clip market and the rise of 'request' channels like The Box (and I wonder who was doing the requesting ... :rolleyes:;)), and TOTP looked increasingly outdated.
Dare by Human League is infact one of my all time fave albums I have to say. But I didn't actually buy it until 5 years after it's first release. But I also recall in a documentary about this kind of music, Andy McLuskey of OMD saying that people sneered at his kind making electronic music on synths as just pressing buttons and out came the music, and making it quite clear that he still had to write the tunes himself, the synths didn't do it for him.
Regards Waterman and his dubious effect in the late 80's, I could scarcely believe a recent quote from him in which he said without any hint of embarrassment "Why, when I have gone to all the trouble of making a record in the studio and perfecting the sound as I want it, would I bother to let my artist then go on a show such as TOTP and sing it live". If this man is a genuine music lover then I am the Pope! But he's never short of something to say for himself is he. :yawn:
BIB - You sound like Mr. Spock
I read in the gossip column of a tabloid newspaper around 10 years ago that Paul McCartney was unimpressed with the current crop of TOTP performers - I think he was quoted as saying TOTP nowadays was 'all synthetic music, boy bands and girls not wearing very much' :yawn: :eek:
TBH I wish the BBC had put the tired show to bed in 2006 and let it RIP. IMO the programme had long passed its sell by date. I was relieved when it was finally taken off air and disappointed when it was resurrected for Xmas 2/3 years ago. For x number of years it seemed to me that the BBC were treating TOTP like a sacred cow when they were basically flogging a dying horse that deserved to be shot and put out of its misery (the rant of a grumpy old man :mad: ?).
Very good you old trekkie! I liked that one.
Regards TOTP, you are right. When something you love goes bad, you really want to see it put out of it's misery. It should probably have gone around the year 2000 in my opinion, or even a year or two before that. When they changed the graphics around 1998 I thought they were utterly pathetic. It seemed to have a succession of rapid re-launches, such as one in October 2001 featuring Jimmy Savile that I have on VHS which was not a bad show infact, featuring some good sounds at the time, and I recall another re-launch about December 2003 which did not last five minutes. For me, in those final years it became something very different from the days of say 1976,77,78 when it was considered family viewing to a large degree. In the final years it seemed more like an extension of Saturday morning kids TV, or simply a kids show put on when the adult stuff was meant to be on. The music scene at the moment, in terms of commercial mainstream pop singles is nowhere near varied enough to make such a show as TOTP remotely viable in the slot it used to hold during the period we are all now reliving. That to me is a great shame.
Don't forget that TOTP 1978 officially begins tonight on BBC4 at 9pm with The Story Of 1978 at long last! This is followed by a whole hour of some of the big hits on TOTP during 1978 also.
BIB - I couldn't agree more, Rich. The final relaunch was easily, for me, the worst period in TOTP history. Thank you, Andi Peters, for a terrible host, a rubbish new format featuring interviews (why?) and an appalling selection of featured artists that seemed more geared to getting in with Simon Cowell than anything else.
Today's charts are indeed atrocious - and I'm speaking as someone who would love to say otherwise. Record companies are obviously quite happy to fill them with so much X Factor pointlessness and Autotuned hip hop-goes-to-Ibiza 'dance tracks' that there is very little room for anything different. And it's the music industry's greed that I ultimately blame for that and, indeed, for TOTP's demise: we've seen people on the 1977 documentary say how important the show used to be - but now, it's hard to see how it would have the same kind of function ... and, without record companies' support, the show would just flounder.
Roll on ... 1978!
Reminds me of someone on this forum who keeps presenting his opinions as facts - wonder who that could be.......