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Top Of The Pops 1982 - BBC4


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Old 13-12-2016, 19:39
Andy_JS
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It's brilliant - but I have to say (sorry to sound like a total anorak ) that the definitive version for me is the US remix by New York DJ legend Larry Levan, which I think may be easier to find now than it was at the time (there are also some dreadful 90s remixes - avoid like the plague!).
Remixes of early or mid 80s dance/funk tracks are always worse than the originals. One of the iron rules of popular music.
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Old 13-12-2016, 19:39
Servalan
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Thanks

Not credited on the BBC list as a presenter

I have just started a new 1983 thread ready for January 6th !!
I hate to dent your enthusiasm, but the TOTP forum legend that is Rich Tea has beat you to it …

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2191824

Mods, please could you merge these threads? Thanks!
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Old 13-12-2016, 19:48
Servalan
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Remixes of early/mid 80s dance/funk tracks are always worse than the originals. One of the iron rules of popular music.
In the case of the Larry Levan remix, I'd disagree. It was done in 1983 - so very much of that era - and manages to create more drama out of the track without adding lots of extra instrumentation (a trend that I'd say is more 90s than 80s). By the worst offenders for me are those dreadful 'remixes' of Sister Sledge in the early 90s where all the (flawless) original instrumentation was stripped out and replaced with loads of horrible, tinny synths and drum machines. And, oddly, I have a strange feeling that the people responsible for that were also behind the 90s remix of 'You Can't Hide Your Love' …
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Old 13-12-2016, 19:53
Andy_JS
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In the case of the Larry Levan remix, I'd disagree. It was done in 1983 - so very much of that era - and manages to create more drama out of the track without adding lots of extra instrumentation (a trend that I'd say is more 90s than 80s). By the worst offenders for me are those dreadful 'remixes' of Sister Sledge in the early 90s where all the (flawless) original instrumentation was stripped out and replaced with loads of horrible, tinny synths and drum machines. And, oddly, I have a strange feeling that the people responsible for that were also behind the 90s remix of 'You Can't Hide Your Love' …
You're right, I should have excluded remixes actually done during the same period.
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Old 13-12-2016, 19:58
UrsulaU
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Well there's nowt on TV tonight so I thought I would start the ball rolling & decided it was about time to do my Top 5 favourite 1982 tracks. These are in descending order:-

1) The Associates - Party Fears Two ( of course!! )
2) PhD - I Won't Let You Down
3) The Stranglers - Strange Little Girl
4) Duran Duran - Save a Prayer
5) Blue Zoo - Cry Boy Cry.

And just bubbling under is Tears for Fears - Mad World & Japan - Ghosts!
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Old 13-12-2016, 20:13
Servalan
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Well there's nowt on TV tonight so I thought I would start the ball rolling & decided it was about time to do my Top 5 favourite 1982 tracks. These are in descending order:-

1) The Associates - Party Fears Two ( of course!! )
2) PhD - I Won't Let You Down
3) The Stranglers - Strange Little Girl
4) Duran Duran - Save a Prayer
5) Blue Zoo - Cry Boy Cry.

And just bubbling under is Tears for Fears - Mad World & Japan - Ghosts!
I'm loving how you subtly expanded your Top 5 to a Top 7 …

But even as few as seven tracks is nigh on impossible for me! 1982 is a vintage year with so much going for it (despite the likes of Rene & Renato and the Goombay Dance Band).
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Old 13-12-2016, 20:16
UrsulaU
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I'm loving how you subtly expanded your Top 5 to a Top 7 …

But even as few as seven tracks is nigh on impossible for me! 1982 is a vintage year with so much going for it (despite the likes of Rene & Renato and the Goombay Dance Band).
- I was going to do a Top 7 - but then I thought I'd need another 3 tracks just to make it a nice round Top 10 - & that would take me longer to think of...
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Old 13-12-2016, 20:30
Andy_JS
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Well there's nowt on TV tonight so I thought I would start the ball rolling & decided it was about time to do my Top 5 favourite 1982 tracks. These are in descending order:-

1) The Associates - Party Fears Two ( of course!! )
2) PhD - I Won't Let You Down
3) The Stranglers - Strange Little Girl
4) Duran Duran - Save a Prayer
5) Blue Zoo - Cry Boy Cry.

And just bubbling under is Tears for Fears - Mad World & Japan - Ghosts!
Excellent choice(s) — as Peter Powell might have said.

In addition to those, I'd also have to choose from the following:

ABC — The Look of Love
Talk Talk — Today
Dollar — Videotheque
Evelyn King — Love Come Down
Marvin Gaye — (Sexual) Healing
Stranglers — Golden Brown
Rockers Revenge — Walking on Sunshine
Patrice Rushen — Forget Me Nots
Carly Simon — Why
Shalamar — There It Is
Culture Club — Time (Clock of the Heart)
Associates — Club Country
Chicago — Hard To Say I'm Sorry

I'd also include The Model by Kraftwerk if we're counting that as a 1982 rather than 1978 record.

These are the top 100 best-sellers of 1982:

http://www.uk-charts.top-source.info/top-100-1982.shtml
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Old 13-12-2016, 20:32
sidneysides
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For those of you struggling with the Dropbox link for the 4th Nov 82 episode, select to copy it to your own Dropbox (takes 5 seconds) then download or watch from there. Works fine!
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Old 13-12-2016, 20:44
LuvJamTarts
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Watching these it does make you remember just how much shit there was in the charts as well as good.
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Old 13-12-2016, 20:50
Kid B
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I hate to dent your enthusiasm, but the TOTP forum legend that is Rich Tea has beat you to it …
#stopmeifyouthinkyouveheardthisonebefore

You could say he's taken the biscuit
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Old 13-12-2016, 20:54
DUHO
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Well there's nowt on TV tonight so I thought I would start the ball rolling & decided it was about time to do my Top 5 favourite 1982 tracks. These are in descending order:-

1) The Associates - Party Fears Two ( of course!! )
2) PhD - I Won't Let You Down
3) The Stranglers - Strange Little Girl
4) Duran Duran - Save a Prayer
5) Blue Zoo - Cry Boy Cry.

And just bubbling under is Tears for Fears - Mad World & Japan - Ghosts!
I used to do a top 20 each year from the late 70s to the mid 80s and my 1982 selections were

1 Spandau Ballet Instinction
2 Simple Minds Promise you a Miracle
3 Haircut 100 Nobodys fool
4 Fun boy three Summertime
5 PhD I wont let you down

Those were done as an 18 year old

if I were to choose now 34 years on and slightly heavier I would now go with

1 Soft Cell Say Hello Wave Goodbye
2 Stranglers Strange Little Girl
3 Associates Party Fears two
4 Haircut 100 Nobodys fool
5 Japan Ghost

just bubbling under Carly Simon Why Abba Under attack

so we are broadly similar Ursula

for the record the rest of the 80s I did at the time were

1980 Beat Mirror In The Bathroom
1981 Siouxsie and the Banshees Spellbound
1983 Fun Boy Three Our lips are sealed
1984 Echo and the Bunnymen Silver
1985 Propaganda Duel
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Old 13-12-2016, 20:55
UrsulaU
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Excellent choice(s) — as Peter Powell might have said.

In addition to those
I'd also include The Model by Kraftwerk if we're counting that as a 1982 rather than 1978 record.

These are the top 100 best-sellers of 1982:

http://www.uk-charts.top-source.info/top-100-1982.shtml
Ooh yes 'The Model' - how could I forget that one!? There's always one that slips your mind (or two if I include Talk Talk)!
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Old 13-12-2016, 20:59
Gulftastic
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1. ABC - All Of My Heart
2. Soft Cell - Say Hello Wave Goodbye
3. Duran Duran - Rio
4. Chas n Dave - Ain't No Pleasing You
5. The Jam - Town Called Malice

That's now. If you'd have asked me back in the day, then The Kids From Fame would have featured more.
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Old 13-12-2016, 20:59
UrsulaU
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I used to do a top 20 each year from the late 70s to the mid 80s and my 1982 selections were

2 Simple Minds Promise you a Miracle
3 Haircut 100 Nobodys fool

so we are broadly similar Ursula
Yes - I forgot about your No2 & 3 also - great tracks!
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Old 13-12-2016, 21:03
Kid B
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Well there's nowt on TV tonight

1) The Associates - Party Fears Two ( of course!! )
2) PhD - I Won't Let You Down
3) The Stranglers - Strange Little Girl
4) Duran Duran - Save a Prayer
5) Blue Zoo - Cry Boy Cry
How I loathe that Associates record... anyway, as you ask

1) Say Hello Wave Goodbye
2) Promised You A Miracle
3) See You
4) Go Wild In The Country
5) Hungry Like The Wolf
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Old 13-12-2016, 21:32
Jedikiah
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Say Hello, Wave Goodbye - Soft Cell
Party Fears Two - The Associates
Only You - Yazoo
Forget Me Nots - Patrice Rushen
Do You Really Want To Hurt Me - Culture Club
Ghosts - Japan
Time (Clock Of The Heart) - Culture Club
Never Give You Up - Sharon Redd
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Old 13-12-2016, 22:02
Servalan
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You're right, I should have excluded remixes actually done during the same period.
This is the Larry Levan remix of 'You Can't Hide Your Love' …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfhpE0yvEGE

It's on this compilation …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Journey-Int.../dp/B000CQJYZ4

… which I think is on iTunes.
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Old 13-12-2016, 22:09
Servalan
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Five? No. Seven. No. Ten. Also no.

Sorry - it's no less than 30 (in no particular order) …

The Associates | Party Fears Two
Japan | Ghosts
Carly Simon | Why
Rockers Revenge | Walking On Sunshine
The Jam | A Town Called Malice
The Peech Boys | Don’t Make Me Wait
Yazoo | Situation
Sharon Redd | Beat The Street/Never Give You Up
Evelyn King | Love Come Down
Imagination | Just An Illusion
ABC | Poison Arrow
The Clash | Rock The Casbah/Mustafa Dance
Vicky D | This Beat Is Mine
D Train | You’re The One For Me
George Clinton | Loopzila
Dollar | Videotheque
Patrice Rushen | Forget Me Nots
Odyssey | Inside Out
Culture Club | Time (Clock Of The Heart)
Sharon Brown | I Specialise In Love
Shalamar | Friends LP
Soft Cell | Torch/Insecure Me
Abba | The Day Before You Came
Simple Minds | Someone, Somewhere, In Summertime
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five |The Message
Whodini | Magic’s Wand
War | You Got The Power
Heaven 17 | Let Me Go
Cheri | Murphy’s Law
Planet Patrol | Play At Your Own Risk
Jennifer Holliday | And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going
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Old 13-12-2016, 22:15
Boz_Lowdownl
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I'm loving how you subtly expanded your Top 5 to a Top 7 …

But even as few as seven tracks is nigh on impossible for me! 1982 is a vintage year with so much going for it (despite the likes of Rene & Renato and the Goombay Dance Band).
Misprint there, for Rene and Renato the word "despite" should be replaced by "because".

1982 was an OK year, but no way would I call it vintage.
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Old 13-12-2016, 22:16
Boz_Lowdownl
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Well there's nowt on TV tonight so I thought I would start the ball rolling & decided it was about time to do my Top 5 favourite 1982 tracks. These are in descending order:-

1) The Associates - Party Fears Two ( of course!! )
2) PhD - I Won't Let You Down
3) The Stranglers - Strange Little Girl
4) Duran Duran - Save a Prayer
5) Blue Zoo - Cry Boy Cry.

And just bubbling under is Tears for Fears - Mad World & Japan - Ghosts!
You really were a child of 1982 Ursula!
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Old 13-12-2016, 23:04
Robbie01
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I've mentioned in previous Top Of The Pops threads that from 1977 to about 1984 I used to compile a personal end of year top 40. I can't for the life of me remember what my number 1 was in 1982. Possibly (in fact most likely now I think of it) it was 'You're The One For Me' (Instrumental) by D Train. I do remember that up there in the top 10 were records such as 'A Night To Remember' by Shalamar, 'The Message' by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five', 'Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag' by Pigbag, 'Ghosts' by Japan and 'Mad World' by Tears For Fears.
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Old 13-12-2016, 23:23
Robbie01
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Incidentally we will soon be getting a new chart compiler for the weekly charts that are used by Top Of The Pops. On 27 December 1982 Gallup took over chart compilation duties from the British Market Research Bureau. The first chart to be compiled by Gallup was based on the sales week 27/12/82 to 01/01/83 and is the chart dated 8 January 1983. The last chart compiled by BMRB was dated 25/12/82 and is based on the sales week dated 13/12/82 to 18/12/82. As usual, no sales diaries were completed during Christmas week itself so sales from 20/12/82 to 25/12/82 are missed out completely.

At least when Gallup took over the old diary system came to an end and in its place were "dataports" in which the record shop assistant would type in the catalogue number of the single. The sales information was then submitted, initially once a week, later several times a week and then eventually every night, sent by modem down a telephone line to Gallup HQ. These dataports, which looked very clunky, were eventually replaced with a barcode reader, initially a method which involved the assistant swiping a barcode reader pen (or "wand") across the barcode. Eventually the barcode readers we are now more familiar with were introduced in the early to mid 1990s.

Because there was no need to manually complete diaries Gallup were able to collect sales data 52 weeks of the year though at the end of 1983 a chart was compiled but never published and made public, the one that would have been dated 31/12/83 and based on sales from 19/12/83 to 24/12/83. The following year a new chart between the Christmas and New Year was compiled and published though Radio 1 never announced it as far as I am aware. but the chart, dated 29/12/84, was published in Record Mirror a week or two later.

Little known is the fact that in May 1986 technological and computer system changes meant that Gallup started to compile the new chart on a Sunday but the chart was embargoed by Gallup until Tuesday 8am. Mike Smith, on the Breakfast Show on Radio 1, started to do a chart teaser feature on a Tuesday at 8am in that same month where he would play some new entries and drop hints about chart movement ahead of the new chart actually being revealed at lunchtime. Bizarrely the industry didn't want the chart day moving forward to the Sunday but rapidly falling listening figures on Radio 1's flagship chart show on a Sunday in 1986 and 1987 (in the face of competition from the Network Chart which was effectively a week ahead of Radio 1's Sunday chart recap) and pressure from Radio 1 itself saw the chart reveal day moved forward to a Sunday in October 1987.
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Old 14-12-2016, 01:19
Andy_JS
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I've mentioned in previous Top Of The Pops threads that from 1977 to about 1984 I used to compile a personal end of year top 40. I can't for the life of me remember what my number 1 was in 1982. Possibly (in fact most likely now I think of it) it was 'You're The One For Me' (Instrumental) by D Train. I do remember that up there in the top 10 were records such as 'A Night To Remember' by Shalamar, 'The Message' by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five', 'Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag' by Pigbag, 'Ghosts' by Japan and 'Mad World' by Tears For Fears.
It's nice to know D Train's You're The One For Me was being appreciated at the time in 1982 despite not getting a play on Top of the Pops (which I think it should have done since it just got into the top 30).

Servalan has reminded me about Let Me Go by Heaven 17 which is one of the most underrated hits of the early 80s in my opinion. I don't know how it missed the top 40. Thankfully the public finally woke up to their potential with their next release Temptation in April 1983. There's an interesting video to go along with Let Me Go as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJrU9RIurFE
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Old 14-12-2016, 02:40
Robbie01
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It's nice to know D Train's You're The One For Me was being appreciated at the time in 1982 despite not getting a play on Top of the Pops (which I think it should have done since it just got into the top 30).

Servalan has reminded me about Let Me Go by Heaven 17 which is one of the most underrated hits of the early 80s in my opinion. I don't know how it missed the top 40. Thankfully the public finally woke up to their potential with their next release Temptation in April 1983. There's an interesting video to go along with Let Me Go as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJrU9RIurFE
I bought 'Let Me Go' at the time, loved that single. It almost made the top 40, stopping short by just one place.

I bought 4 of the first 5 singles that Heaven 17 released (all in 1981 and 1982), none of them made the top 40. The only one I didn't buy is the totally forgotten 'I'm Your Money'. I can't even remember that one.

With 'Temptation' they seemed to decide to move in a more commercial direction, presumably to actually have a decent sized hit. I can remember an interview the band did with The Face magazine in 1981 or 1982 where they seemed to be very dismissive almost to the point of jealousy at the success their former bandmate was having with his version of The Human League. Indeed, they came over as sounding bitter that Virgin Records were pouring more money in to promoting the League ahead of themselves. Given that at least The Human League were having more success with a more commercial sound it's no surprise that Virgin were bankrolling them more.

Heaven 17 were another act that I saw drinking in a pub when I was living in Notting Hill in 1987. They were often seen drinking in a pub called the Slug & Lettuce (a very 80s sounding name for a pub!) in Ladbroke Grove. As that pub was just around the corner from the Sarm West studios (owned by Trevor Horn and where Band Aid's single was recorded and filmed in 1984) and seeing as they released an album a few months later I assume they were busy recording that album at the time. By then their chart days seemed to be over, which remixes in the early 90s aside, it was.
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