Ah, Andy, the whole song is brilliant.

Not much more posting for me on TOTP 1982 tonight as this is going to be a great night for British sport, Scotland to win at the tennis with Mr Murray and then Wales to win at the football! Fingers crossed for both anyway!

Dewch ymlaen Cymru!

Have you heard the Barry Manalow version? Good ol' Bazza had a minor US hit with it in the summer of 1982.

Pob lwc i Gymru, Oggy Oggy Oggy!

Yes, "Maid Of Orleans" is good, and on the surface, is more melodic than OMD's previous single, "Joan Of Arc". However, with repeated listens i do prefer "Joan Of Arc". However, having said that, i have been mightily impressed with pretty much all i have heard from the group. Watching these repeats have surprised me with regards to OMD's output, that i have enjoyed it so much, because with the exception of "Enola Gay", back in the day, nothing OMD released as a single, left a very strong impression with me. They have been one of the great rediscoveries, for me, these repeats have afforded. I have all of OMD's albums now, although it has been Architecture And Morality which i have been concentrating on the most (from which the recent single releases come). Andy McCluskey does come across rather serious about his music, and can be quite outspoken in his dismissal of other genres. I can remember him saying how disappointed he was when guitar music came back into vogue during the nineties, and especially with Brit Pop. I think he believed the synth pop sounds of the early eighties were going to represent a permanent change in pop.

Shaky's version sounds like a masterpiece compared with Barry's cover, although it was good of Barry to show his appreciation by recording the song. It wouldn't have done Shaky's bank balance any harm, either. In a sense, Barry was scraping the barrel though, in my opinion. Still, there are a good few No 1 singles from 82, i like significantly less than "Oh Julie". Shaky's song still maintains a certain charm.

Apparently, Oh Julie is Shaky's favourite to perform live. Yeah, the Manalow version is a bit more middle-of-the-road.

Oi Oi Oi!

Well Andy has managed it, now it's up to Wales!

Pob lwc i Cymru indeed!

Thanks for letting me know and apologies for the delay been away working. It's a shame we miss out some episodes like this. I expect all of us have missed some of our favourites being shown. I understand it with the Leeds monster but it seems overkill with regard to DLT.

Yes, and especially in the light of the fact that the BBC seem to have a very different set of rules when it comes to the likes of Chris Evans, who seems to be holding onto his breakfast show. It seems strange how they have always bent over backwards in an attempt to pacify Evans, when milder natured and more grounded individuals get dismissed at an instant. I wonder if the BBC are frightened of him, as was the case with Savile. Matthew Bannister back in the 90's allowed Chris to bring his own production team with him to produce his breakfast show, as was one of his many demands, and for a station who was dead against 'personality' DJ's, again it was one rule for him, and another rule for the rest. For the life of me, i could never understand how he could have been deemed so indispensible (despite Radio 1 being in crisis at the time, due to BannIster's sweeping changes). I could see he had a certain talent, for sure, but he was not alone. Adding to this, an incredibly overbearing ego which was always bubbling over onto the surface, and Evans was always likely to explode over the smallest provocation. Even in more recent years, where Evans has attempted to display a more 'mature' image, his bullying nature was never far from the surface. Every morning on his breakfast show, his sidekick, Johnny Saunders was always taking a beating from Evans, which added up to gross intimidation, to such a degree that i couldn't listen to his show ever again. I was only waiting, mind, anyway for the likes of Ken Bruce to make an appearance.

Dave Lee Travis, especially, i feel a great deal of sympathy for.

Theres a musical bit after the chorus in Mobiles 'Drowning in Berlin' that always reminds me of the incidental music in early 80's Doctor Who, after JNT had just taken over. Think Logopolos/ Castrovalva.

Yep, I know where you're coming from. And of course, the Peter Davison era had just begun in January '82.

Looks like three cut from the early tonight. One I don't mind not seeing at all, the editing of the other two though.

I'm guessing the other two are of the heavy rock variety, if my guess for the three-song block is correct?

Yep, spot on. And having thought about it one's definitely a video and the other probably a repeat studio performance, so it's sort of understandable they've been cut.

A nice video treat will still be included though.

Looking forward to this one. I think the opening song is one of those I loved at the time, but genuinely haven't heard since 1982.

Evening pop pickers.


John Peel!

To be fair, John, they don't look Belgian...

I don't believe in the Westworld.

Me too. I remember it's odd chart run of in at 40 dropping out then re-entering at 40 the next week,

Oh, its a good start. I don't think I've heard this '82 either. Nice one.

Hi everyone, great intro from JP

I couldn't remember what Theatre of Hate looked like. It's all coming back to me now.

Are these guys the punk Stray Cats?

That lead singer in particular looks INTENSE.

He's got gnashers like Rob Beckett!

I believe he's trying a bit too hard.