Agreed and it peaked at number 10 alongside the likes of It's Raining and A Letter To You in his impressive run of 14 top ten UK hits in the 80's.

Cheque's in the post Kid B. Happy Christmas!

I just hope I don't have to replicate payment for your 25 siblings of the alphabet

Not sure I get what you mean (you may have to help me on that one) - anyway re the question of how long the BBC go up to in these years, I see there is a thread for '83 down below so if it does continue further in the future we may get to see FGTH!

And I hate it when someone jumps right into a thread and just makes things up to suit their argument.

Perhaps you can link to all the posts having a go at Sarah Greene.

No, thought not.

Yes, from what I remember it was an affectionate tribute. The song had been a flop but they recognised its quality and were hoping they could do better with it.

Glad I'm not the only one who loves it, some of the hate for it on here has been very strong!

Quite.

There's a difference between speculating on what might have been behind Smith's decision, and trashing/hounding someone. The former is perfectly legitimate, the latter not. But even the Tweet sent to SG was v politely worded, so I'm not sure what the problem is here …

I'm sure that may have been the case - and obviously the history behind the recording of that song is something that wasn't known at the time - but liking a song and bringing something new to it via a cover version are two different things … and I don't think the tongue-in-cheek changing of two words in 'The Day Before You Came' really qualifies as bringing something new to it. I'm not saying Neil Arthur should be Agnetha - how could he be? - but there's zero emotion in their version of the song, and the Barbara Cartland reference sounds like a bad attempt at being camp.

I think there could be a good cover of that song still to be done - but I have yet to hear it.

Kid A, Kid B, Kid C, Kid D etc. & payment from me to you for giving me a compliment.

At least I think it was a compliment?

If not, I'll have my cheque back!

I can be a bit too cryptic for my own good, but anyway.....

I don't think anyone's welcomed you yet, so greetings Kid B.

Be Interested to hear your preferences for styles of music (I'm guessing Radiohead's in there?) along with memories & recollections of tracks.

We're a nosey lot on here (or is it just me?)

From your link on 70's music, I'm guessing you're specifically interested in that decade, or have you only recently discovered the music through the Pops repeats?

Re your other question on the Pops, probably 2 Years in one & various Twitter postings have confirmed 'the Story of 1983' is in production, so expect '83 in January, likely followed by '84 mid-Year.

DS welcomes people? I thought being such a large forum it would be informal and bods could just go about unnoticed but you are right about the username, a play on Kid A. And to that end I now decipher Kid A-Z and the replicated cheque, thank you.

The eighties is my main interest really and why I follow these threads in particular and they can be quite amusing to read even when they are minor or major fallouts!

My current re-interest in the seventies was sparked by the Now 70's tv advertisement you see, the list is more than questionable and so I was inspired to list my own sixty favourite songs from that decade.

Styles of music

Well I'm not a dedicated follower of anything in particular, just a jack of all trades in any genre of music, if I like it then I like it. I was raised on a mix of country and prog-rock, as a teen it was all new-wave and punk and later on hip-hop and electro but I also have a deep affection for dancehall and dub reggae. Despite my username I'm not a Radiohead fan per se, fact I like Thom's brother's band, Unbelievable Truth more!

Re the current BBC4 series I wondered why they focused on (1979-1983?) or have I missed out - had they run a series of earlier 1970's fare before?

Thanks for the welcome anyway and I hope to contribute to the threads, perhaps while the show is running which seems to be popular.

Yes I agree - ABBA are ABBA, whatever the year! All of their songs are of a decent quality, compared to the majority of chart hits of today! However for me, much of their later stuff is more division 2 compared to their Premier league hits of the 1970s! They were definitely a more fresher sounding/looking group back then!

I recently watched the documentary about the making of 'Ghostwatch' in which Greene and Smith were interviewed and they were rather bitter about the BBC, ostensibly in the context of the way the Corporation gave in to the press furore over the programme and not only failed to defend it but tried to disassociate themselves from it - but it did seem to reveal rather deeper feelings.

The bottom line is that Smith was all over the BBC in the 1980s but in the 1990s I can only remember him doing 'Ghostwatch' and 'That's Showbusiness'.

And what did Sarah Greene do on the BBC after 'Going Live!' finished?

I don't think the 70s really got into gear until about 1973 onwards (except for maybe the albums charts). But as others have said - there was more than just Mud & The Worzels - Ha!! There was glam rock, soft rock, reggae, soul & disco all around by the mid 70s, so it was quite a range of styles.

However, as we all know - it was the late 70s that led the way in British chart music! There wasn't a bad genre out at that time! 😃 👍

We need a Mike Smith tribute evening on BBC4

Lots of his TOTP episodes,followed by a midnight showing of Ghostwatch

I'd love that

I think you're mistaken Kid B with the fallouts on here. We're all just one big happy family (like the Waltons), only occasionally like the Munsters.

Don't think you'll go far wrong with the breadth & depth of knowledge on offer here, some users also involved in the music industry in the past.

I think most decades are represented, which is another reason which makes this forum so addictive.

Re the Pops (with apologies to the 'seniors' on the forum), the Pops repeats started at 1976, as this was the Year the Beeb started to have a near-complete archive of the shows, though there's one or two which had 'mute links', one from 1981 in particular was skipped & obviously you know the story re Yewtree & now the Smithtree saga.

Still plenty to enjoy though.

I love Lifeline by Spandau Ballet.

Not a lot, as far as I can work out.

Your evidence rather confirms what I suspected … although there's a distinct lack of logic to it: stopping BBC Four from showing the Smith-hosted repeats is pretty feeble in terms of getting your own back, as I'm sure it doesn't really bother the BBC that much at the end of the day (as much as we might love the TOTP repeats, they're not Strictly or Doctor Who in importance for them).

Oh well!

In the debate about when disco stopped being disco (see earlier in this thread), I have to report that Record Mirror carried a 'Disco Top 100' chart to at least 1987 and most likely beyond that. Fact courtesy of some old issues I unearthed the other day!

More trivia may follow … or not, depending on how much time I can spend putting off writing Xmas cards!

Is Sarah Greene still doing tv work or does running the helicopter business still take up her time?

The latter judging by her Tweets.

Crikey, yes! Record Mirror, there's a blast from the past and yes I remember the Disco Top 100.

Yewtree, yes, Smithtree no but of course it's been discussed in depth here so I could spend a considerable time refreshing. I choose to focus on the music and chortle at those jumpers back in the day!

Yes, I spotted them too - Maz Roberts and Kim Leslie. Maz married Pino Palladino, according to https://ifyouwerethere1980s.wordpres...wealthy-tarts/.

Pop of the evening, pickers.

HI all - here we go