That was the late, great Colin Thurston.

They can't edit out the performances that are enclosed within the chart rundowns without spoiling the illusion of a seamless show. I agree with you about the best tracks being cut this week.

(Don't You) Forget About Me is by far my favourite Simple Minds single.

Agree with you on this Rich. Wasn't a big fan of DS, but loved Private Investigations. (Romeo and Juliet was good as well.)

But that isn't being dumbed down, it just means people have different interests. I wouldn't call anyone who knew about Bowie dumber than anyone who knew about Aurelius. But I do think the questions on specialist subjects are much easier these days, so I think the show has been dumbed down in that respect.

I have to say i was never keen on "Don't You Forget About Me". Simple Minds began to lose some of their artistry, by the mid eighties, as their sound became more bloated. I would easily put "Promised You A Miracle" and "Glittering Prize" above it without having to think twice. "Don't You Forget About Me" didn't have so much creative input by the group either, but its status as a film soundtrack really did seal its success.

Relieved to hear they aren't splitting up!😓

Sorry Jedikiah, but I think your post early 1980s production bias is clouding your judgement. I am sure if it had been released in 1979 you would be saying how good it was.

Adam Ant jumps the shark
This one is just a bad rehash of everything he'd done before, but with no cohesive hook

And the hair looks BAD

Bet you can't wait for next year's UK tour either

Next Thursday (1st Dec) is also the 40th anniversary of a very famous early evening TV appearance.

"You dirty sod, you dirty old man. You dirty b**tard, you dirty f*cker....what a f**king rotter"

Always fun to watch no matter how many times you see it - https://youtu.be/LtHPhVhJ7Rs

To be fair, Jim Kerr never wanted to record it in the first place because recording other peoples songs was so against the bands ethos at the time. And he thought the song was rubbish. He had to be railroaded into recording it by Chrissie Hynde and the rest of the band (despite sharing Kerr's view of the song itself) because it would help them make inroads into the US market.

They rearranged the writers original demo, Kerr adlibbed a few "hey hey heys" and "la la las", and knocked it out in a 3 hour recording session. Then promptly forgot about it.

It might have helped that the songwriter went to meet them, took them to the pub and grovelled.

Abba never actually announced they'd split up. They just "lapsed". I rather like the way they did it.

I really cannot work out how that Frida single failed to do well. It must have had so much radio play.


Well it gave Simple Minds an American No1 in May 1985. It's incredible how many British acts were going to the top of the American charts during that period. Wham and Tears For Fears succeeded them at the top spot over there, followed by Phil Collins, Duran Duran, Paul Young and Tears For Fears again. Then John Parr and Dire Straits later. All throughout the summer of '85 from May to October.

Maybe someone finally recognised that Bowie hadn't made a good album for 30 years.

Whilst i understood why Record Mirror made the change, it was never really the same from that point. It struggled to fit in the sheer depth of chart information it had previously provided and the feel of the magazine gradually became different.

Am I right in thinking that, even back then, BBC contracts allowed for at least one repeat, which presumably hasn't been used for most TOTPs, so the BBC would not need consent to repeat them?

You don't hear that often.

Both songs have the same problem. They have decent enough hook lines, but you expect them to build and develop further. instead they just go round and round in an endless loop.

There's only one swear word in it.

Well, this show has a far better selection of songs than we have been witness to for quite sometime, and none of these tracks, would necessarily give me the urge to fast forward. Not that they are all great, mind, but they are all fairly palatable.

First off, i can recall Mari Wilson's ''Just What I Always Wanted'' being one of those songs that can really lodge themselves in your brain, and fail to move for a good few weeks. Well it did with me! Not that that is a bad thing necessarily, because unlike David Christie's ulta catchy but annoying ''Saddle Up'', i do rather like this track, and i expected Mari to follow it up with some equally likeable successful hits, but apart from the smaller ''Cry Me A River'' hit, that never happened. Mari was quite retro looking and sounding, and ''Just What I Always Wanted'' is pure sixties, although the production sound feels quite contemporary. Her beehive looked quite striking too, and back in 82, there weren't too many other female singers who were adopting that retro look.

The Jam's ''The Bitterest Pill'' was a good choice for a single, which contrasted really well, with their more typical more abrasive sound. I can recall at the time it being described by one reviewer as being obviously influenced by The Small Faces ''Tin Soldier'', and although i can see that a little, in the slightly similar guitar patterns, it was nowhere near an obvious copy, or anything close. I believe The Belle Stars Jennie Matthias sings backing vocals, and the girl featured in the video is Lee Kavanagh, who appeared as the telephone voice in Department S ''Is Vic There''. The recording of this song was also the time Rick and Bruce first heard the news that Paul was disbanding the group. The song was a very effective soul influenced track, which pointed the direction to where Paul would be going with The Style Council.

We get five songs next which also have been shown in previous editions (some of which were yewtreed), although they are not repeat performances in every case. As i have previously stated, i do like all of these songs, Simple Minds ''Glittering Prize'', UB40's ''So Here I Am'', Shakatak's ''Invitations'', ABC's ''All Of My Heart'', and ''Talk Talk's ''Today'', and it would have been an awful pity to have missed the chance to have seen ''Glittering Prize'', ''So Here I Am'' and ''All Of My Heart'', simply because of Operation Yewtree. However, we were lucky on this occasion. UB40's ''So Here I Am'' isn't quite amongst their very best, mind, and i think as Sgt Rock pointed out previously, there is a prominent funky bass line, instead of the more typical reggae rhythm bass, which i think does work reasonably well. I do like it moderately. It is also the last of the old UB40, before they change tack, and go for that much more commercial sound (with the 'Labour Of Love' covers album etc). As i have noted previously, with regard to ABC, ''All Of My Heart'' has to be my favourite single release of theirs, and i would say it works well on every level. It has a great production, and a wonderful mix of both drama and melancholy.

Adam Ant's ''Friend Or Foe'' is a perfectly listenable track, but i think at that moment in time, it was perhaps his least impressive chart single to date (aside from ''Ant Rap''). He captures just a little of the old Adam And The Ants sound with Marco's distinctive guitar playing and emphasis also on a heavier drum sound. However, ''Friend Or Foe'' seems a much less daring adaptation, and has a far more sanitised sound than the likes of ''Dog Eat Dog'' etc. It has 1982 written all over it, and has a more formulaic 'pop' sound, which i don't find especially enduring. It wears rather thin pretty fast, in my opinion. Perhaps the weakest link in this edition of songs.

Carly Simon's ''Why'' has certainly been mentioned here a number of times recently, and it is a track i rate very highly. I am again not too impressed by Zoo's type of posturing (and especially the legs opening and closing), and one thing's for sure, Legs & Co. would have done a much much better job, with more traddtional dance content. Not the best way to present ''Why'' perhaps, but you really can't keep a good song down!

Survivor's ''Eye Of The Tiger'' and Grandmaster Flash ''The Message'' rounds off a rather more enjoyable episode than we've become accustomed to in more recent times.

7.5/10

But remember Frida appearing in the studio in 1982, when Abba were on their way out & considered unfashionable for many at that time, would be a lot different to Frida appearing in 1992 or 2002, when ABBA Gold had begun selling by the bucket load again & Mamma Mia was all the rage!
These days, it would be a rare event for the BEEB to see any Abba singer appear in the studio & probably couldn't afford their fees!!

Well done on your quiz Ursula

You are SPOT ON. ABBA became a dirty word not too long after they split and by say 87-88 it was almost as though they had been airbrushed from pop. The rebirth started as you said in the early 90s

I know theres something going on was a brilliant Frida track. I bought the album and sadly it was disappointing. Also in 82 bought Toni Basils word of mouth. a great LP......

Thank you DUHO - luckily it was a kind of Name That Tune/Bits & Pieces type quiz so I managed to get about 17 out of 18 right. (Possibly from watching & re watching years of TOTP!! )

Regarding ABBA - yes I remember being a bit of a closet fan in the 80s - I was into all my alternative music by then but still had all my Abba LPs at home which I would play once in a while. However - if you mentioned that at school - you would undoubtedly be teased about it until the end of term!!

Wish I had been teased at school in the late 80s as it would have made me about 8 years younger. was by then well onto the 31 years 3 months and 28 days I have spent at my current organisation

A desultory chart showing for the third album by the Greatest Band Ever (not just my opinion, also the view of esteemed movie critic Mark Kermode!).