Then it was still to do with the white stuff, so to speak.

Thank you very much! My username is a nickname that I got from my little brother when I was growing up. He couldn't pronounce my full name so it came out 'lurs'. The pops was added on over the years but it was quite fitting because I HAD to watch TOTPs religiously every week from about 1981 onwards!

The first group I remember liking was Bucks Fizz. I loved their sqeeky clean image and cutesy dance routines. I also remember the Adam and the Ants video Stand and Deliver and being realy struck by it.

First TOTP memories?

Either the video to Bo Rap, or Laurel & Hardy doing 'Trail Of The Lonesome Pine'

Yay! I'm finally getting to see TOTP from last Thursday in full and am enjoying it so far.

It's a bit further 'North' RR1, as the L would make Tel, the truncated Terry.

First to spot who hasn't already wins a virtual coconut.

I thought I'd proof-read the backside out of the blighter but there's always one, and the DS portcullis dropped before I could get 'Close (to the Edit)'.

It was touch & go too, but earlier I felt to make such a schoolboy error on here is unforgiveable.

As punishment I'm currently in a darkened room listening to 'An evening with the Goombay Dance Band' as a form of enforced aural self-flaggelation.

Harsh but fair in the circumstances.

As a poster once said, "Well if that's how you get your kicks"...

Who was that?

1975? - Yes that was probably one of mine too!

Although I do have vague memories of Gary Glitter always being on the box in the early 70s, when I was a tiny tot and my older brothers & sister were watching the Pops! - Gary always had a way of engaging with the kids!!

I'd probably been watching TOTP for sometime by then but the first record I remember seeing was the wonderful 'Tiger Feet' by Mud. I still love the song to this day!

- I thought I'd already found it - Am I allowed to say or shall I keep quiet?!

Well indeed.


Pretty sure mine was The Sweet doing Little Willy as I'm told I then spent half the next day humming the chorus.

Now you've already had your coconut along with Mr. Gazebo so shhhhhh!

My first car was a Metro as well. "Primula Yellow" was the colour and it was horrible.
Everytime i used it another bit fell off. Eventually the floor panel rotted away and i was left looking at the road through the floor like the cars in the Flintstones.


I remember being scared witless by the keyboard player from Sparks. Can't remember what the song was

Yes mine was a few years old when I got it & it also turned into an old rust bucket before long!!

Mr Gazebo!!

Ok - I've yet to see this coconut though!!

'This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us'? It would be Ron Mael and he looks a bit like Hitler when he plays the keyboards on that song...

Thanks. It's so nice to get such a warm welcome. Looking forward to reading Andy's reviews. Stiff Little Fingers definately have the Britpop image. Especially the haircuts! I don't know much about them at all. I know that they were on TOTPs a couple of years previously, but their style was different, more Punk maybe? I am trying to think of bands that they remind me of. I wonder if they influenced any Britpop bands. I will check them out on Youtube.
The Cure were on a few times in the 80s. Robert Smith played with Souxsie and the Banshees but I'm not sure if he apperaed with them on the show. I like their music too. Only saw The Cure live once on the Wish tour at the cavernous NEC. It was great to be there but sadly I could hardly see them as I was so far away from the stage. I think Simon was off sick ! Somehow though, despite the venue, they still made it feel intimate. I vaguely remember that Robert told some joke about a bee! I can't remember seeing them on TOTPs in the 80s. They just didn't appeal to me at the time, but I got into them in the early 90s. I met someone once who worked at their record company, toured with them in the 80s and I was so jealous! My friend went over to Robert at a festival in the 80s and was so overcome that all he could manage to say was I realy like your band'.

Ha ha - coconut please.

March 11th not February 11th.

I may be wrong here ... I usually am tbh but wasn't it Rich Tea's neighbours who had the gazebo?

There is a touch of the Bates about you Andy lad! Simon , not Norman of course.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow night's Top Of The Pops - from 18 March 1982, two days before my 18th birthday! Yay!

Seeing Bruno Brookes in a leather jacket hosting the show sometime in the late 80s.

Not that one Robbie, I'd have been about 1 when that came out!

I'm guessing it must have been "Beat the Clock" or something else from that era.

Along similar lines I was thinking of the first pop single that I remember well and remember singing along to.
My Aunt had the single Angelo by Brotherhood of Man. I would ask her to play it over and over again when I was at her house in the late 70s. Fortunately the record player was in her bedroom so I didn't disturb anyone! I was probably watching TOTPs in 1977 when I was 3 and saw them but have no recollection. She had lots of records but for some reason I was obsessed with that particular one. You don't hear it that often which is a shame because I think it's a really pretty song.

Deffo Rich Tea with the gazebo. I leapt on it first. He's changed since he had it built imo


As for early memories, my mum insists as a toddler I was forever singing Gonna Make You A Star by David Essex

Oh dear - another step closer to Batesville Arizona for your truly! There really is no hope for me now.

Gonna make you a star is so much more respectable than Wimoweh - my gazeboless life is just one almighty train crash!

My First Totp Memory would be from around 1985 (not sure of the exact date) Mai Tai Performing History and a Top ten video countdown.

At last! Thanks Ramraider, the joke is on Andy. Indeed it was my partying neighbours with the gazebo, not me.

We have our own resident Simes on the thread it seems - Andy'Countdown Capers' Bates.