He he, it had certainly changed a heck of a lot by then. Have to confess I liked Oasis. (Well, their music anyway.)

I thought their final 2 singles 'The Bitterest Pill...' and 'Beat Surrender' were really good and a great 2 singles to go out on.

The Jam may have been the only act to do this if as I understand it The Beatles and Oasis played both sides of their double A sided singles on TOTP as their records were climbing the charts in 1966 and 1996 respectively - but not after they reached No. 1.

I'd totally forgotten. Oasis performed the 2 songs the week before entering at No.1. All 8 of Oasis' No.1's were 1 weekers.

If you have TiVo - the advance listings for the two TOTP versions have the artists displayed - so you can see in advance who has been dropped from the early edition.

''The Bitterest Pill'' was fine, if a little different from The Jam's regular sound. ''Beat Surrender'' seemed rather more contrived, and, for me, was one of The Jam's weaker efforts. The sentiment of the song was the primary importance, here, but i really don't feel there is much inspiration lurking behind all the brass, etc. I remember at the time ''The Bitterest Pill'' being described by journalists as being influenced by The Small Faces, ''Tin Soldier'', and although i can understand their point, i don't see the resemblance as being all that obvious. However, with ''Beat Surrender'', with the addition of Tracie Young, and especially later D C Lee in the Style Council, as the female backing, i think it is obvious that that idea of the female vocalist, also came from The Small Faces, when they performed alongside P P Arnold in the sixties. Weller took a lot of Steve Marriott's mannerisms too, but he could never quite emulate his voice (that is if he had truly ever attempted to).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rLF-QAS67I
Small Faces - Tin Soldier

I think ''Precious'' was a pretty good Jam track, and a very effective change of direction. I believe both the funky sounding ''Precious'', and ''A Town Called Malice'' are considerably stronger than ''Beat Surrender'', although the latter did make an effective bridge to what The Style Council would later be doing, and especially with their first single, ''Speak Like A Child'' - the brass, especially.

Ah, great to hear 'Tin Soldier' again. Not heard that one for a long time.


You could hear the transition from The Jam to The Style Council towards the end of the Jam's run of hits. Not sure if it's true but I heard that 'A Solid Bond In Your Heart' (An eventual hit for The Style Council at the end of '83) had originally been planned as the final Jam release in December '82. They went for 'Beat Surrender' instead.

Here's a demo of The Jam's version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5Qd1KA89II

Possibly - I know his mum invented Tippex apparantely!!

Anyone with the Dlt show, whats your sound like?

Mine was taped off Uk Gold & the sound was quiet so Im hoping any other copies that pop up have better audio!

Wham did it in 1986 on the week they split up.
The recorded Edge of Heaven for the first week at number one,and Where did your Heart Go (B-side) in the same week

My copy seems ok soundwise, but for picture quality, while not bad, it could definitely be better. I too, am hoping there is a better copy lurking somewhere!

Yes, i heard that rumour too. I think Paul Weller was probably right to attempt to go out with a stronger sentiment for The Jam's last single than "Solid Bond In Your Heart". I always found that track infectious (and including The Jam's demo), and it makes a nice Motown pastiche. However, it doesn't come close to being one of Weller's more inspiring songs. Nor was "Beat Surrender" for that matter, but the latter at least lyrically captured a more suitable tone. It wasn't so breezy. Weller, though, hadn't lost his muse with The Style Council, even if their output could seem a little too self conscious and frustrating at times. I believe "Long Hot Summer" was arguably the best thing they ever recorded, and rather contemporary sounding for 1983 too, although i like a number of their single releases. I especially thought their slow piano based take on "My Ever Changing Moods", was one of the best things Weller ever recorded.

It seemed like the party atmosphere was getting really into full swing at times with this episode, although i found the show's contents pretty mediocre for the most part. After a fairly promising start to 1982, i have found the quality of the last episode or two has begun to dip.

Madness' ''Cardiac Arrest'' has a comedy element to its sound, but tells a rather grim story. It reminds of Ray Davies observational type of lyric writing, and works really rather well, although the song strikes me as being of the group's less distinctive single releases. I do like it all the same. Certainly less irritating than the likes of ''Driving In My Car', but perhaps less memorable, too. I don't think the BBC gave it much airplay, either, on account of its subject matter, hence it didn't prove one of Madness' bigger hits. UB40's ''I Won't Close My Eyes'' seems along pretty much the same lines, in terms of it being much less memorable than the likes some of their other early single releases, like ''Food For Thought'', for example. It works well if you are in the right mood, perhaps, but for me lacks that vital spark. It is amazing to think despite the glitz and the glamour of what the early eighties sound (and vision) was becoming, UB40, still seemed to be entrenched in the 1980 era. That wouldn't last much longer, mind, with ''Red Red Wine'' and the Labour Of Love album making a huge splash the following year.

ABC definitely brought us right up to date, though, with ''Poison Arrow''. Martin Fry is in full flow too, in his gold suit, and i think the song definitely stands up very well within their catalogue of hits. Not my personal taste, i must say, but ABC showed that pop was definitely not standing still in the early months of 1982.

Following The Jets ''Love Makes The World Go Round'', which i don't mind, i think the quality of the music begins to decline rapidly. Firstly with Robert Palmer's ''Some Guys Have All The Luck'', followed by ''The Lion Sleeps Tonight'' , and then Toni Basil's ''Mickey'', none of which i can say i have any real liking for. I much prefer The Persuaders original reggae version of ''Some Guys Have All The Luck'' from the early seventies, to Robert's electro pop version, and Toni Basil's ''Mickey'', i failed to realise at the time was an old Racey album track, originally called ''Kitty'', and penned by Chinn/Chapman. I notice Craig Fairbrass giving a helping hand to Basil, as she demonstated her main occupation on the dancefloor.

It was surprising also how, just for this week, the show reverted back to showing snippets to the video countdown of the top ten, which hadn't been a feature of the show since 1980.

It was great also to hear the other side to The Jam's ''A Town Called Malice'', in ''Precious'', although i don't believe either of those tracks quite rival The Jam's very best work, but they were both of a fairly high standard all the same.''Precious'' was a good funk track, that in a sense forecast where Weller would be going with The Style Council, except the latter seemed to stress their r+b, in a rather more mellow way.

Despite a few pretty good moments, i found this edition rather poor, judging it against a number of the previous episodes from 82. Mike Read was ok. but his jollity can seem a bit forced at times (and especially when he was singing along to ''The Lion Sleeps Tonight'' during his introduction to the song).

5/10

the show has popped up on vimeo and the picture quality and sound are pretty decent ( I'm sure angelo will have post the link on his blog later today )

Why is the lion sleeping tonight in the centre of the village, villagers can't be happy about that heh.

Well it was 1982, surely any video was considered a good one back then.

This is the one I've been waiting for! 18th Feb 1982. I am 14 tomorrow and The Jam are doing both tracks, happy birthday to me! I actually feel a little teary watching this just thinking back to those days.

As has been said the lyrics to Town Called Malice are hard to beat, especially "to cut down on beer or kids new gear". I think Precious works better as an album track though. But really enjoyed seeing both songs in the context of that edition.

The rest:

Madness - really dislike this song, weird subject to bounce about to.

ABC - the more I hear it, the more I like it.

Tight Fit - its been hanging around for ages, can't believe its still going to be number 1.

Toni Basil - glorified novelty record, remember it being everywhere.

Top Ten " video" show - don't remember the OMD video at all. Soft Cell one was great though.

Just been re watching the Top 10 video countdown & what a good bunch of acts are featured:- XTC, Kraftwerk, OMD, Soft Cell, The Stranglers... We really were spoilt with pop music in those days!

I wonder why they didn't continue with the video countdown.

Still has his hair, and performs on a regular basis, with both Spear Of Destiny and Theatre Of Hate.
TOH have a new album, their first in decades, out later this year.

It's not being jovial about heart attacks. It's about telling someone to chill out so they don't have a cardiac arrest from the stress of daily life. It's bouncey to say, 'Hey, life doesn't have to be about work work work. Take a bit of time out and think of all the nice things around you and relax a bit.' Just in a more lyrical way, hence why it's jolly.

As a single it had a fairly cool reaction (their first not to reach the top 10) but had it remained an album track it would probably be lorded as a hidden gem.

Channel hopped to the Old Grey Whistle Test last night, compilation show, all music though and no Bob Harris <nice >, one of the acts was Brinsley Schwartz fronted by Nick Lowe, can't remember the name of the song but it was remarkably reminiscent of Style Council's Speak Like A Child. Mind you Weller is no stranger to borrowing. what with Start and The Beatle's Taxman also Changing Man and ELO's 10538 Overture.

Some interesting stuff on that OGWT and well worth a watch, had a double take when a band I'd never heard of Vinegar Joe appeared fronted by Elkie Brooks with Robert Palmer on vocals and guitar.

All the best

Pub

Here's the audio (ignore the video images) starts 12 seconds in ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLDr5bdAhkc

The video is an interesting example tbough of how slow a lot of US artists and record companies were in picking up on the potential of video compared to the UK. Watching these TOTPs, it can be seen that, if a US artist made a video at all, it was often either concert footage, or somewhat unadventurous and detached. Take George Benson tonight. Apart from a general nostalgic nod to steam trains in a 'Never Give Up On A Good Thing" sense, he is just sat there singing. He may as well have been sat anywhere. The lack of imagination compared to UK videos is striking.

I remember at the time being irritated when it appeared that The Jam were only going to perform Precious when it had received virtually no airplay compared its much better known double A side. It was noticsable that Town Called Malice was only introduced as a bonus since they had time to spare. It dod make me wonder whether Paul Weller had bern difficult and had tried to insist on only performing Precious and so Town Called Malice only got on by the compromise of letting them perform both tracks, with Precious introduced as the number one.

He was either pretty angry, or was hearing voices.