Did these incidents take place at the BBC?

No.

Did these incidents involve any of the acts he produced and wrote for?

No.

Are you trying to drum up a bit of controversy on the thread?

Seems so.

Should you have bothered?

Probably not.



Nothing's been said but if we go with the pattern they've set up this year then 1983 & 1984 could well be on next year.

Yes 2 great songs there!

Billy Mackenzie ?!! I don't think I knew that!!

Regarding George Michael though - that was obvious from the first time I saw Wham on TOTP, (I actually thought Andrew Ridgely could be too). - So I was always amazed that people were so shocked when George first came out about being gay.

Pretty sure the story around Billy Mackenzie and Morrissey and the meaning behind 'William, It Was Really Nothing' was discussed on the thread a couple of years back.

Would check but the search function on DS is...well...bloody useless, and has been for some time.

Nice to be able to finally join in the 1982 party!

I thought The Story Of doco was better than the 1981 one. Everything was covered that I was expecting. I was disappointed that Boy George wasn't interviewed, though. The TV guide I have which highlights the show has a quote from George about people's reaction from seeing him for the first time on TOTP which I thought was taken from the show, but was obviously taken from an old interview. At least we did have an interview with Jon Moss.

Hopefully the myth that it was a TOTP cock up that led to the Jocky Wilson picture being put up for Dexy's performance of Jackie Wilson Said will finally be put to bed. As if the group wouldn't have realised beforehand if it was a mistake!

Not surprised to see Martin Fry interviewed. That performance of Look Of Love really sticks in my mind, not from the time but from when UK Gold started repeating TOTP editions

It was nice to hear Kid talking about John Peel returning to the show, though not sure why they chose to interview him half way up the stairs! The shows they present together, and the ones John did with Janice Long were great.

I'm glad the got an interview with Jeffrey Daniels. I've seen that first performance of his many times, but don't think I've ever seen the second one. Hope it isn't yewtreed.

I was interested to hear from the woman who recorded vocals on Wham's Young Guns, only to find Shirlie and Dee C Lee miming to them. I can understand her being bitter! While their debut performance certainly had an impact, I've always found that bit really cringey.

How dare they spoil the excitement of 1983 with showing the dreadful performance of Blue Monday! That is the year I really started to get into music - got my first walkman and started buying singles - so seeing it represented by that was a real let down.

Onto the Big Hits prog - two performances I would've liked to have seen are Trio's Da Da Da - truly jaw dropping - and the Piranaha's Zambesi. If Tight Fit's performance of Fantasy Island was yewtreed I would've been so annoyed that they showed The Lion Sleeps Tonightn instead. I would've definitely have swapped Dexy's Come On Eileen for Jocky Wilson Said and Duran's Rio for Save A Prayer, though I'm not sure if they did a studio performance of that. Not overly keen on Party Fears Two or Go Wild In The Country but the rest were fine by me. Too many the mention all the rest, but great performance of Goody Two Shoes by Adam Ant and Golden Brown and Only You are pure class.

So bring on 1982. Lol the mention of Garth Crooks co-presenting got my digging out that edition to remind myself how bad it was. His introduction to Buck's Fizz's My Camera Never Lies is dreadful!

Ah yes - That Smiths song does ring a bell now - I thought it may have been about unrequited love or something...

Here is a list of all Duran Duran studio TOTP performances



March 5 1981 Planet Earth 3m43s
May 21 1981 Careless Memories 3m00s
July 30 1981 Girls On Film 3m17s
August 13 1981 Girls On Film 32m47s
December 3 1981 My Own Way 3m32s
December 17 1981 My Own Way 3m35s
May 13 1982 Hungry Like The Wolf 3m30s
November 18 1982 Rio 4m34s
December 25 1982 Hungry Like The Wolf 3m35s (Top Of The Pops Christmas Party)
March 23 1983 Is There Something I Should Know?
April 26 1984 The Reflex 4m09s
May 3 1984 The Reflex 4m00s
May 17 1984 The Reflex 4m00s
December 25 1984 The Reflex 4m18s (Top Of The Pops Christmas Special)
December 25 1984 Wild Boys 4m15s (Top Of The Pops Christmas Special)
November 1 Wild Boys 4m09s
November 6 1986 Notorious 3m53s
February 26 1987 Skin Trade
January 14 1993 Ordinary World
February 4 1993 Ordinary World 03m26s
March 23 1995 Perfect Day 3m9s
September 10 2004 (Reach Up For The) Sunrise 3m01s
February 11 2005 What Happens Tomorrow 2m48s

The Falklands War was certainly mentioned, if the subject was touched upon quite briefly. The remark that Dexys were banned from Top Of The Pops was never made by the BBC. It was band member, Kevin Adams, who made that claim. He made it as a passing remark during his interview. The poor economic conditions in terms of lack of work, i thought was stressed quite strongly, during the narration.

One thing that very much annoys me is that thanks to Jimmy Savile both of the TOTP episodes featuring performances from the body-popping dancer Dee Iva — one of the members of the early 80s dance duo Flex, (dancing together with Zoo) — won't be shown on BBC4. The dates in question are 2nd June 1983 and 21st July 1983. I think Dee's dancing was really superb, almost as good as Jeffrey Daniel. You can watch both performances on YouTube. The songs are Waiting For A Train by Flash and the Pan on 2nd June and The Crown by the Gary Byrd Experience on 21st July.

Steve Archibald was in the Scotland squad and the Spurs squad. This must be a rare occurrence when the same person appears twice on the same show with different acts

I remember having a bit of a crush on Steve Archibald in 1982! One of the few times I was interested in football.

Just caught up with Big Hits 82. You're never going to please everybody, but I thought it was a good effort and they covered most of the year's big names & songs. Just be grateful there was no Seven tears, I've never been to me or Save your love!

I like John Peel's rather deadpan attitude to the party atmosphere. It made a nice change from the contrived and over excited manner in which many of the presenters began to appear, as the Hurll era progressed. Maybe John did really enjoy being there (i'm quite sure he did), but he did have an amusing way of demonstrating his disdain (whether genuine or not) for the frenzy with which Top Of The Pops progressively became. Kid Jensen always has a likeability about him, and seems a pretty genuine guy, but looking at some of my UK Gold 82 editions, even he became a little too over the top in his delivery. Partnering him with John gave him the option of playing off John's deadpan humour, and that possibly worked better for him than the shouting he was increasingly being told to use, by Hurll, as a way of him attempting to appear excited.

Just caught up on both the 82 shows after being on holiday.

I actually really enjoyed them both. Particular highlights/points of interest:

- the American singer who did the vocals for the Wham! track. I didn't know that, but remember the performance and dance routine very clearly. I remember sitting in the dinner centre at school discussing who was more fanciable out of George and Andrew ....

- The Jam in Feb of that year, Town called Malice/Precious was no 1 on my 14th birthday; that was the start of my Paul Weller obsession; loved The gift album as well. Although Paul looked very bored when they were doing Beat Surrender.

- which brings me to a query around the Smash Hits feature; the cover they showed with Paul Weller and Tracie Young wasn't published until 1983 when he was starting the Style Council. Why didn't they use a cover from 1982?

- Poison Arrow ABC still sounds very fresh I thought and Martin Fry looked great.

- I don't remember the big deal around the guy from Shalamar, maybe it was more of a club thing.

- Billy McKenzie has an amazing vocal, his looks reminded me a little of Marc Bolan.

- Can't stand Come On Eileen, one of the most overplayed songs of all time.

- Duran Duran really had some great songs, I think that they are literally the most complete pop group of the early 80s. Although I wasn't a fan at the time and always thought Simon Le Bon was a bit cringy, now I can see that he is a great front man for them.

- Loved the clip of Boys from the Blackstuff at the beginning of the show.

- Adam Ant is possibly the most vain man in pop.

Roll on the Episodes!!

I am really looking forward to watching the 1982 totp episodes again - this was when I began watching totp religiously . I have some vague memories of 1981, but it was definitely 1982 when I wouldn't miss a show. Watching the story of show, i think the six year old me back then was definitely fascinated by the whole flamboyant, Party atmosphere that was being created.

I also began buying Smash Hits magazine that year too - I still remember the first one I ever bought at 40p was John Taylor of Duran Duran in a swimming pool.

There are some great shows from 1982 coming up and a few real stinkers (gonna be fun reading the comments here when we get the december 23rd episode with one of the worst number ones ever and a dirge from a man and his green duck )

I watched the TOTP 82 highlights yesterday, for what I seen I don't think I'll bother tuning in to the re-runs as to me it showed the best in what the year had to offer, an awful poncy year in my opinion with the chart year ending with Renee & Renato - Save Your Love.

I have to say I'm enjoying the re-runs of TOTP on BBC Four.

The only real thing that interested me from the introduction for 1981 was how they created the opening sequence; the programme around 1982 seemed far more interesting IMHO.

In terms of Big Hits: 1982 I think Junior was the only one to sing live?!

I love Save Your Love from Rene and Renato LOL.

I have just been watching some of my old UK Gold 1982 episodes, and i must say i think there is plenty of good music during the year. Like most years, there is a mix of good and bad, and there are a number of songs that are highly impressive, that somehow have become lost within the midsts of time. It is well worth watching the shows, i'd say.

Why would you spoil it for yourself by watching old uk gold recordings? If I were you, I would wait to see them in full digital quality! Agree with you about the music. Big Hits was a good representation of the mainstream/commercial stuff, loved Haircut 100, Yazoo and ABC. Some of it not my cup of tea. There are so many forgotton hits of the 1980s that should def get played more. They could've played Wishing by A Flock of Seagulls or Glittering Prize by Simple Minds. An example of two amazing songs but scarcely played anywhere these days.

You still need the Uk Gold recordings to fill in the gaps caused by Yew Tree!

One of the best songs of 1982 in my opinion is Club Country by the Associates but I know that one performance was presented by the Hairy Cornflake and I'm not sure whether there were any others.

This one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUrly7U1gPA

I like the instrumental song, and how the camera goes round the entire studio just to show people dancing and having an amazing time.

ABBA's last single on this show. I wanted to see them mentioned in the story programme as it was the last year they did a thing, but thought it was fair enough they didn't get mentioned as they didn't play properly for the show.

Orville, Renee and Incantation - random show!