That girl assisting the magician was much fitter than Debbie McGee.

That's a good single however my favourite is Emma (1974) and Brother Louis (1973), the latter would definitely be cut from broadcast by the P. C Brigade if the footage hadn't been wiped.

Yes, what a novel song incorporating the benefit forms and I love the DHSS chant they do- corny but great!
Of course a certain Brummie group took a benefits form title as the name of their group!
I liked Wham Rap at the time.

I am amazed that the Paul McCartney song 'Take it Away' got featured twice on TOTP as I have absolutely no memory of watching it, and no memory of hearing the song on the radio at the time, which was quite different to my experience a couple of months earlier with 'Ebony and Ivory'. Strange how some songs pass us by somehow.

Rewatched the full Thursday episode and enjoyed it more on second viewing. The Trio singer creeps me out a bit though, as does that whole "Happy Talk" performance.

I rather suspect that when they film this year's Xmas TOTP, we won't see:
a guitarist lighting a cigarette on stage
a magician pulling live animals out of a box
a man juggling fire on an indoor stage surrounded by a young audience
a dancer being filmed from between the legs of an audience member
a man singing the word "c**t"

but all of these were in the Thursday edition!

I love videotheque by Dollar and night train by Visage and the only way out by Cliff Richard and da da da by Trio, but I'm not keen on fame by Irene Cara or abracadabra by Steve Miller.

Who said that?

I think it's hilarious, with Cliff's blanket bombing of Millennium Prayer, Wired For Sound and Daddy's Home he can achieve the total and final destruction of Radio One.

Yeah, if they start playing Cliff Richard on Radio 1, the listeners will be deserting faster than runners fleeing Jimmy Savile on the London Marathon route. Listening figures will be decimated on a hitherto unimaginable scale Can you imagine the discordant jarring contrast in musical styles. It won't help Cliff sell a single record.
I would guess that if they are forced into it, they will play the absolute minimum of his stuff to try to preserve a shred of their musical credibility with the youngsters.
Like a lot of his musical contemporaries, Cliff is now well past his singing sell by date and should retire gracefully in his last years.

As Cliff Richard is a well known 'bible basher', I'm assuming that when he pointed towards the ceiling when miming the word you he was referring to God.

When I was 16 & a regular Radio 1 listener, my maternal grandfather was 69 - younger than what Cliff is now!

In the full year sales chart of 1982 it was at number 41, I think it may have been at number 39 or 40 on the version broadcast by Radio 1. But yes, it outsold both those number 1s - 'Happy Talk' was only number 70 for the year whilst 'I've Never Been To Me' made number 48 for the year.

Edit: it also outsold 'Beat Surrender' by The Jam! That record only made number 72 for the year! Though to be fair to The Jam they do have two missing sales weeks due to Christmas week (when no sales were collected) and the following week when the chart compilers changed from BMRB to Gallup so no sales from the latter were included in the 1982 chart. The same two weeks missing sales at least kept Renee & Renato at number 23 for the year when otherwise they would have been inside the top 10...

!!Yikes!! - I hope Rich wasn't browsing on here this morning!!

GariBaldi vs Rich Tea!! - I prefer a Jaffa Cake or Lemon Puff myself!

The song was played a fair amount though, but maybe it is not quite so memorable (or for some, irritating). I don't think it ever really escaped the shadow of "Ebony And Ivory", though.

I've just watched the late night edition & seen the 'Take It Away' video for the first time - I didn't know it had such a star studded cast:- Ringo Starr, George Martin, Eric Sterwart, Linda, John Hurt... etc..!!
I always liked this song & think it was Paul's latest, greatest hit he had in the UK!

I wonder why it was cut from the 7.30pm edition? - Great song!

Will have to properly catch up with this week's TOTP at some point. But I did catch some of last night's. Was David Essex giving it a bit of Adam Ant or was that just my tunnel addled mind?

Giving away that I was home to see that reveals my trip around the Underground for charity fell a little short of expectation. I did manage to get through 162 stations but had to call it a day after having a couple of funny turns (first time everything, yeah, yeah). My head just went a bit wibbly-wobbly. A mix of fatigue and what must have been a bit of travel sickness, which I only usually get in cars. Was hoping to at least smash through the 220 I did last year, but it wasn't to be. Ahh, nuts.

Also, thanks to Scott who donated. It's much appreciated. Just sorry I couldn't complete the challenge.

Ha ha, you're at it again Rich, you rascal!!

If you're lactose intolerant, then my God you should avoid this episode. There was more cheese there than in a 1970's fondue party.

It started with Poptastic then went into Cliff Richard, showing that even back in the early Eighties hiscringingly cheesy dancing style was that of a youth club worker who thinks he's 'down with the kids'.

Quickly followed (but only on the 7:30 showing) by David Essex who's dancing style was becoming a bit Dad dancing.

There was some good stuff such as Visage and Yazoo with Don't Go. And of course the appearance of Dexy's Midnight Runner doing that perennial wedding reception favourite 'Come on Eileen' (which back then I thought was about my Mum - do me a favour, I was only a kid back then!).

You know, I always thought Dexy's were a group who looked like it wasn't a good idea to stand downwind of them.

And of course a new number one meaning that colossal musical tumour Captain Sensible was off the top. I wouldn't say I hate him, but I always thought he deserves to reside in Dante's lowest circle of Hell just for being him.


Special mention goes to the monumental git in the red bow tie during the link between Cliffy and David Essex.
If possible, he managed to be even more annoying than LMSO.

For Gods sake he was dancing and "whoo-hoo"-ing during Poptastics talky bit without any music!

He must die. Howwibly.

Howwibly howwibly...

I really love Cliff's vintage stuff like We Don;t Talk, Devil Woman, Carrie, Wired for Sound, She Means Nothing to Me, Some People to name a few. But was shocked to read that post by Rich Tea about Cliff being played on radio 1, of all stations.
Of what possible interest can the music of an almost 80 year old man, who cannot really sing these days, and does MOR stuff have to the average 16-25 year old ?
How many of us 40 and 50 somethings are avid listeners of radio 1 or last listened to the station recently, I wonder?

It is a bad misjudgement if the rumour is true (but it may well be one of Rich Ts early April Fool's jokes- he's done a couple, since why would Cliff genuinely want to be on radio 1, sticking out like a sore thumb amongst their trendy tracks by artists almost all of whom would be in their twenties or thirties and highly popular among the young people?)
Cliff is best on Radio 2.

No, it is not only you. I have always seen them as a load of pretentious drivel, desperate to be Bowie, Roxy or Bolan clones and failing badly. One dare not say it in here though

I saw them many times in the mid 70's on the south London pub circuit and they were an absolute mess, playing a mix of punk/funk that no one was interested in at the time.

Ha, ha. Yes, I remember thinking at the time they were a very scruffy lot and why didn't they try to smarten themselves up a bit for their showbiz performances. The image got people talking.

All opinions are welcome on here Mou Mou. Diversity is what it's all about.

Indeed it is.

I will say however that to me most of the praise goes to Sylvian for the direction of the band, but they only really sorted themselves out when Dean joined [in my humble opinion of course].

I had a memorable Fullers bitter fueled discussion with Mr Dean in a well known Deptford venue one night, where we discussed our mutual love of the SG and the possibilities of the new RD guitar.

If they have to put him on Radio 1, perhaps just put his collaboration with The Young Ones on, 'Living Doll'... And at Christmastime, there's always Mistletoe and Wine...

It is heresy to most, but Mistletoe and Wine is far preferable to the dreadful dirge by McColl and the Pogues.