The Rolling "Top of the Pops" BBC4 Revival thread.

Its only the future in the past.

Nick Heywood looks like a blond version of someone I work with.

Is there a link between haircut 100 and orange juice? The former reminds me of the latter, those first two singles anyway. Similar kind of, I don't know, eloquence?

Some of these 82 episodes are the most 80s things ever, and the next episode will be nothing like it.

Seems like I am the last person on earth to link h100 with orange juice. But this was funny:

https://mobile.twitter.com/i_am_mill_i_am/status/735904378553503744

"Haircut 100: Orange Juice with no bits"

there's a bit in Simon Reynolds's Rip It Up And Start Again book where Edwyn Collins grumbles about Haircut 100 ripping of Orange Juice's look:

'I *know* that Haircut 100 got a lot of their image ideas from us,' says Edwyn Collins, still aggrieved after all these years.'l've got pictures of James Kirk, our guitarist, wearing Aran sweaters like Haircut wore on their album cover.'

Haircut 100 > Orange Juice though, imo

Is there a link between haircut 100 and orange juice?

Other than H100 stealing OJ's shtick and selling to to teenage girls?

xp!

> Haircut 100 > Orange Juice though, imo

That's fighting talk 8)

teenage girls had the right idea in this case. a Look In comic strip about Orange Juice's wacky misadventures might have been fun, however

http://www.arthurranson.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/main_image/haircut100.jpg

Orange Juice had 9 singles reach the top 75 chart and 3 top 40 albums.
Haircut 100 had 5 singles in the top 75 and only 1 top 40 album.

no Look In comic strip, though.

fwiw, Heyward left Haircut 100 after the first album, if you include his solo chart placements I think he'd be ahead.

judging a band's quality using chart placings is a can of worms waiting to be opened.

famous people i have shared a toilet with:
jimmy hill
edwyn collins

OJ are way beyond Haircut100 in every way, except for Look In comic strips.

xp at the same time or on separate occasions?

(jimmy hill was AGES ago - he used to race whippets at the local Dowty's sports and social club.
edwyn collins was a few years ago, post stroke, when he was playing the lexington)

High watermark for TOTP this week?

tight fit, hadn't that already been and gone?

didn't realise The Model had made it to number 1 in the uk.

both sides of the Town call Malice / Precious number 1. is that unique?

Offhand, I think the next double-a where both tracks appear will be the Wets/Bragg one.

As far as 'two songs from one band', I don't think it happens again until The Ramones' farewell, and the Sex Pistols reunion.

Sorry WTF? Kid Jensen: "Good to see Gary Glitter back on TOTP" o___O
And I don't remember this Madness song. The arrangement saves it, but Suggs sounds like he's sleepwalking through it.

ABBA in 'still not giving a shit about appearing on TOTP' video action.

"oh and btw everyone except Benny and Bjorn hate each other kthxbye"

Missed that Gary Glitter ref, I guess somebody's gonna get some words about that.

Oh wait I just watched it again - Gary Numan not Glitter.

Tsk.

This actually almost happened a couple weeks ago, Kid was all "Hello, hello, its my first show for a year, and its good to be back, and so.... Toyah!"

Oasis did two songs on TOTP in 1996, iirc.

This week's episode should have been 25/2/1982, but was skipped because unperson DLT was the presenter. We lose eight or nine episodes from the rest of 1982 because either DLT or Savile was the presenter. And there are a couple of shows with multiple presenters towards the end of that year where there'll be some noticeably sharp edits.

duel moog keytars on tha numan track. and a tam-o-shanter. obvious swerve into Japan territory in the music and clothes choices.

toni basil was 38 / 39 when Mickey was in the charts. her one-hit pop career probably the least interesting thing about her. had been dancing all her life, pretty much. was in Head and Easy Rider.

i like Cardiac Arrest, apart from the crossword clue lyric. tinkly piano, xylophone, horns.

The lyrics to 'Cardiac Arrest' aren't terrible, but 'House Of Fun' is a far better attempt at that type of song.

it's just that one line about 'like a big american car but misspelt with a d'. makes more sense with a comma in there because 'cadillac' also has a d in it.

the sleeve, iirc, had a crossword grid and some clues on the front.

I wonder if Chas & Dave's "There's No Pleasing You" has ever been played as the first dance at a wedding reception?

I used to know someone who looked like Bryan Ferry, but he wouldn't have been able to pull off this creepy bow tie and leather jacket look.

I'd forgotten how badly Spandau Ballet could dress sometimes. Two of them dressed like Sherlock Holmes is bad enough, but somehow Tony Hadley tops that with the checked shirt/knitted tie combined with brown leather trousers with the waistband pulled right up.

In those days, 'well dressed' = 'wearing a lot of clothes'

Well they certainly nail that 'wearing the whole mens section of the Freeman's catalogue' look.

If a meteorite wiped out Spandau Ballet, would astronomers class that as an Instinction Event?

never ever seen this blondie video before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7gqErYW0K0

episode was going so well but i've always hated House Of Fun.

I like the premise of the lyrics, it's just the relentless hahahaWACKYdoyousee? way in which they're presented. Which is basically every Madness song ever. It's not like they're smug, which would really make them detestable, just that you can literally see them trying. so. hard. to. be. liked. But to be fair to Madness, that was a common trait in a lot of early 80s pop.

Was it in the studio or the video with the kids?

the video

i had forgotten baggy trousers was earlier and just as bad.

There's a grotesque, slightly sinister edge that elevated them well above other practitioners of the monkey-business malarkey. And they interspersed Baggy Trousers, House of Fun etc with sincere material like Embarrasment, Grey Day, It Must Be Love. The likes of Tenpole Tudor or King Kurt (Stiff Records' attempts to clone Madness) never bothered with any of that. Captain Sensible did though. Which is why I'd rather listen to one of his albums than anything by King Kurt!

you can literally see them trying. so. hard. to. be. liked.

I don't think they really had to try too hard, their early stuff was very likeable.

yeah the trying to be liked thing.. never felt that way about them.

longer version of the kid jenson episode had the first bunnymen appearance on it (back of love), featuring some clown in the audience walking around on stilts...

wonderdog

this weeks episode was flawless - simple minds - "glittering prize", "the message", carly simon - "why", adam ant - "friend or foe". id no problem with "eye of the tiger" at no.1 either

that was friday.

thursday was another story.

I do like the boisterousness of the crowd in this era of TOTP

Re wonderdog, the rumour about who was in the dog costume is true..

https://twitter.com/BBCFOUR/status/801872398479978496