Typical - one of the best songs of the year & it's Yewtreed! - By the way - I think every new band should name their first single after their band name to help newcomers remember who/what the band/song is!

It's only recently that I've noticed how "awkward" the singer from Talk Talk looks on these early appearances. Most singers & frontmen come across really cool & iconic - but he (Mark) looks like he has been suffering from constipation! (Sorry Mark if you ever read this!!)

Don't mind me. It's unfortunate that Andrew used to be one of the most popular names in the early 80s/late 70s. When I was at school there were always at least 3 Andrews in every class, and sometimes as many as 5.

It's not so bad when he's at the piano from the 'Life's What You Make It' Top of the Pops appearance from 1986 which I posted on the last page. Mind you, he does find it difficult to stay still!

It's 'David' in my family. There are loads of Davids - my brother, uncle, cousin(s), and grandad! I was named Ian after my dad. We're not very original in my family!

It's 'John' in mine - brother, cousins, Grandad etc etc ...

Yes - he looks a different person on that one!

...agree. Such a shame that Such a Shame didn't either!

and the records Bubbling Under...

DANCE FLOOR Zapp
DON'T LOOK BACK Korgis
DON'T WANNA LOSE Y & T
EVEN THE NIGHTS ARE BETTER Air Supply
FROM HEAD TO TOE Elvis Costello & the Attractions
GIVE ME I Level
GRACE Band AKA
HEAD OVER HEELS Galaxy
HIGHWAY SONG Blackfoot
HI HO SILVER LINING Jeff Beck
LORRAINE Explainer
NEVER GIVE YOU UP Sharon Redd
NIGHT NURSE Gregory Isaacs
NO SUBSTITUTES David Essex
ONLY THE LONELY Motels
PASS THE DUTCHIE Musical Youth
RIBBON IN THE SKY Stevie Wonder
ROCK 'N' ROLL FOREVER WILL LAST Spider
RUNAWAY Tokyo Charm
SHOCK THE MONKEY Peter Gabriel
SLEEPWALKING Gerry Rafferty
STAND BY YOUR MAN Wendy & Lemmy
TOTAL ERASURE Philip Jap
VOYEUR Kim Carnes
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? Cliff Richard

That really is Lemmy doing a version of 'Stand By Your Man' along with Wendy O. Williams of the band Plasmatics. The vocals are by Wendy alone, from what I can tell, Lemmy is on bass with other members of Motorhead present too. It's an absolutely dreadful record

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTSu8jGcTXg

The recording was a complete disaster. Fast Eddie, the lead guitarist, was so put out at having to record the track he promptly quit the group once the recording session had ended.

and you are correct! 'Five Miles Out' by Mike Oldfield was a joint number 82 along with 'Are You Ready?' by Bucks Fizz.

The OCC database and your chart source both seem to have a problem with joint positions...

Another Simple Minds fan here, great band, although the TOTP Glittering Prize performance, like before with Promised You, looks a bit amateurish and in contrast to their polished sound.

New Gold Dream is probably their masterpiece, it has so many well-crafted songs on it and has a lovely smooth continuity; Hunter and the Hunted is a recommended lesser-known track on there. My favourite track of theirs Up On The Catwalk was a minor hit from the next album, Sparkle In The Rain.

Despite the sound getting highly commercial thereafter I still enjoyed the Once Upon A Time album, but their next album and the no1 Belfast Child felt pompous and overblown and nothing after apart from See The Lights worked for me.

It can't be long before the original version of Valerie by Steve Winwood enters the chart although I think it missed the Top 40.

I actually prefer the original 1982 version to the rather bombastic, yuppy-style remix from 1987. Nice video as well in 1982.

Five Miles Out is an interesting album by Mike Oldfield, especially the singles Family Man and Five Miles Out itself. They both got into the 40s in the singles chart. Thankfully Mike's next album, Crises, was a massive hit in the summer of 1983.

Am reliably informed that John Peel (18/11) and Peter Powell (2/12) are on the 22nd and 23rd Dec respectively at the earlier time of 7pm.

Where is Michelle Collins? Wasn't she a backing singer for Mari Wilson?

Talking Back to The Night (the album it opens) was released in '82...

I just think it is nice to be able communicate with those of similar interests. Before the internet, i often felt a little isolated in having a great interest in music, amongst other things, but not always having anyone to share my enthusiasm with. I think we all have our own individual tastes, and opinions, and i always enjoy reading other people's perspective on things. It is often very interesting what others have to write, even when there is a difference of opinion to mine etc. Some may have a perspective similar to my own - others may be different, but i think we can all learn an awful lot from each other. It is good to try to be constructive, but also i see nothing wrong in saying something is crap etc. if it's something that really doesn't go down well with the individual. I think we are all big enough to have the capacity to use our own judgement in our beliefs not to take offence, but it is always very interesting to read what others think. No two people are ever always going to think alike. Yes, there can be passion at times in discussions, but as long as it is good natured i see nothing wrong. We are all big enough to be able to take a difference of opinion to that of our own. The feeding of egos comment, i have to admit i found very odd, because i have never really looked at writing on the forum as a means to that, and i'm not sure many others do, either.

Well you better ask the Emperor. Good luck trying! They're his quotes. I have no opinion about them.

I have a hardback book of his meditations (quotes) that I've had for quite a few years. It's where I sourced my quotes from upthread, and there are some very good ones in it too, such as the one you mentioned - "Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we hear is perspective, not the truth". I don't agree with all of them of course but they often make you think and ponder. I also currently read to a self help group once a week with books of this nature which can aid cognitive behaviour and aim to improve lives in a positive but realistic way.

The book is Marcus Aurelius Meditations - Living, Dying & The Good Life. By Gregory Hays. Published by Weidenfield & Nicolson/Orion. There are quite a few books of these quotes out there.

I still prefer referencing books first, especially with music trivia and stats if I can do. I have enough to trawl through. It's much more satisfying. The internet always has its uses for cross referencing information of course.


My chart source that I am copying the singles and album charts from onto here is the defunct ChartStats site, which as I've previously mentioned I copied all their singles and album charts into files on my computer for the years 1969 to 2010. They copy and paste rather nicely I think, although I do have to add the previous weeks positions into the brackets myself which takes a few moments but makes it look better. That site had green and black up and down arrows and yellow for new entries but when pasted they give a (-5) or (5) in brackets which actually means down five places or up five. So if I'm down at No32 and in brackets next to it, it says (-19) I know immediately it fell from No13 and put that in the brackets myself. I do check with my own Guinness Book Of Top Forty Charts for the singles but only to 40 obviously. The charts in that book are presented beautifully and I've often wished I could simply post them from that book on here somehow.

Before the Internet - the only time you would meet people with similar musical tastes/interests would be at a gig or concert with friends.
Before I went to live shows, when I was still at school, you could be the only one in your class (or even year) who liked a particular song or band. Yes it could be isolating, but it could be good thinking you had a unique way of thinking! Unless you had a friend with similar tastes or were in a particular fan club - you may never meet anyone with similar tastes for years. - Life is so different now with the Internet, but that individualism has gone now as there are probably 1000s of like minded people out there, with just a click of a button..

Nice post Jedikiah.

I'm tending to think I give a bit too much of myself on this thread and need to rein it in a bit and maybe keep strictly to the narrow subject matter and post far less with shorter posts. I think this will be my aim for 1983/2017, although almost four and a half years into it, my enthusiasm for this thread has not waned one bit.

In which case, you'll be able to help me find it by verifying which book and verse number that quote comes from....yes?

Good moaning pop pickers!

I hope fellow forumites see the crashing irony in this statement, which incidentally made me laugh my ass off as soon as I read it.

A bit of Weekend reading if you have the time...
https://www.webroot.com/in/en/home/r...t-with-a-troll

I believe also magazines such as Mojo and Uncut have lifted the lid a little on the mystique, surrounding certain acts and incidents, and also those BBC 4 music documentaries. Not that we shouldn't be grateful, mind, because they are so wonderfully informative, and they are the type of things i would have died for, back in the eighties when i was sniffing out crumbs of information from books etc. However, the increased profile of pop has definitely taken away a little of the uniqueness and the individuality of feeling close to something that isn't so universally embraced. Sometimes i do think, though, if pop was a little more interesting and challenging today, there would be less inclination for the need to keep looking back.

This thread is great though, because it covers a very broad topic, in all things relating to Top Of The Pops, and the various acts appearing on the show.

Nice posts about the thread from Jedikah, Ursula and RT, I always enjoy your posts and thoughts in particular, among others of course.

As nice as it is to read a post that expresses similar thoughts to my own, we are all individuals and there will always be another perspective or opinion.

I enjoy it when I learn something new about bands or songs, eg if someone was in a different band first , or who wrote what song, how singers are connected etc.

Looking forward to 1983 and that long hot summer.

I think I have caught all the Repeats, but haven't seen 'Da Da Da' by Trio or 'John Wayne is Big Leggy' by Haisy Fantasie. I remember they were on the show in 82. Are they missing-out some editions in the Repeats?

Whenever I hear this I always hear 'Bless my cotton socks, I'm in the news ' in the back of my mind.