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

It's easy to criticise that particular song, but it's at least interesting to think about. For example, if it hadn't been at number one I suspect you would have been married a long time ago.

It really does make you think now you put it that way :D

I’m now on the most recent show, and in retrospect Alex Party is a top-tier banger. I’ve just read that the production duo were also in Livin' Joy so they had form.

One of 95's many great no. 2s

catching up with the last four episodes and this is getting into serious nostalgia for me - this is the sound of Now 30 aka my first compilation, also the point where I started taping songs off the radio.

- that Deuce song is an absolute banger, they might have been a manufactured pop band but if you'd dressed it up differently it could have passed for something Paul Oakenfold would have done in his peak, and what a strange voice that lead singer has for a pop band. The other girl went on to be a very acclaimed make-up artist and was married to Ant until his life fell apart.

- DAME NICKI. I love that she's made a career last thirty years out of turning up, singing a donked-up version of someone else's song and looking like the divorce hasn't gone too well - a real gay icon.

- I would be very interested to find out if "Geordie In Wonderland" sold anything outside of five miles of Newcastle, what a dreadful song.

- The Human League did "Tell Me When" on loads of shows in that weird one-line staging.There's this video of them doing it on Live & Kicking, which even then must have felt odd. "Dad, why is your favourite band from old times on my Saturday morning kids show?"

- "Hoochie Booty" seems so out of order now. Some pre-teens singing about bums.

- MN8 feel just a little too late and the performances are uncomfortably sexual for a British boyband in way that Americans could have pulled off differently, but the song has two choruses and I'm never sad to hear it.

- Elastica were so fucking cool, both then and now.

- that Vanessa Mae version is not something I can remember from the time and when we were watching it this weekend both me and my boyfriend's eyes nearly fell out our heads at its absurdity.

- fun fact! One of the travesti ballerinas in that Annie Lennox live ("live") performance is also in the video for Alex Party's "Don't Give Me Your Life" - he went on to play a janitor in Benidorm. Why does my mind recognise these people and remember these things? That Alex Party song is a banger. Lennox' version of "No More I Love Yous" is what I would hear at my own torture camp, such a smug and irritating delivery.

- Kylie looked PHENOMENAL in that red PVC dress.

weren't elastica on recently with a different lineup or did i imagine that? male guitar and bass, later replaced by annie and donna.

um, youtube suggests i am wrong. must be thinking of another band.

I was surprised how much I liked the MN8 song now, at the time I don’t think I thought about it at all. You are right that it felt like something from a few years perviously, however what I also got from it was that it was like a rougher proto verison of the sounds that someone Backstreet Boys or N-Sync were using in a few years.

I spent years thinking MN8 were American and that their song was a hit in the US. On Now 31 it appears next to Montell Jordan's This Is How We Do It, which feels correct.

It's actually those two songs that always come to my mind when people talk about what a break from the norm e.g. Pony would be a year later.

oh it's the episode where Keith Allen presented the show and was super annoying...

Worst recent episode without a doubt.

First episode last night was fine, though Pete from D:Ream was one of the worst presenters they've ever had, and Damon gurning at the back of Elastica was v annoying. Only skipped one track (Bon Jovi) so was OK music-wise

Second show was awful in terms of presenting and music, skipped 60% of it, Celine Dion genuinely the best thing on, fuck off Keith Allen.

The Bon Jovi song at least didn't have JBJ acting like a preening cock but it's lyrics suffer from being a half thought out title stretched out to a song. It's the other new song on Bon Jovi's greatest hits album 'Cross Road', the other new song being 'Always'. I imagine that the hidden track at the end of that album is the sound of a barrel being scrapped.

tbh I will skip any bon jovi of any era

Both episodes were good (first more so, true)

I used Bon Jovi as an excuse to leave the house and find my cat

the worst boo radleys

legs and co are now all showing me their knickers. something for the dads...

I’d forgotten the Peter Powell era tweaks to the TOTP format, with tour date information and an interview with Paul Jones featuring between the acts.

Really enjoyed both 95 episodes overall, especially the first

Not sure why Oakey brought his microwave though.

here comes the dinner, man

He was tired of his meals being boiled.

Well, he's only human

He was after some lunch action

Jim Kerr trying to out-twunt Bono here but it's not working.

Holy crap that recap of Song For Europe candidates...

First episode not great, but second is making amends. U Sure Do builds such a great pop dance tune out of that Donna Allen sample.

so much screaming in the 95 shows, is that new?

original(?) of the first spiritualized single later.

ha, not even close

A lot of great stuff tonight. And that's probably the most I've enjoyed Some Might Say in years - it really cut through. Poor old Tony cracking a smile.

I guess he already knew Noel was going to sack him a few days later.

I'm a bit behind - that Keith Allen turn was truly repugnant.

I do wonder if a young Sacha Baron-Cohen was watching?

Nightcrawlers trying to reproduce the magic of the MK mix of ‘Push The Feeling On’ with the follow up single but missing the point completely

pj harvey looks a lot like naboo

What is naboo?

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/music/clubs-boosh-fans-party-away-129255

Fascinating! No recollection of this whatsoever

https://x.com/archivetvmus71/status/1731614276559704378?s=46&t=bJOqpCuQneT7ju08y55VSA

Two acts in and I'm more or less certain the most exciting thing about this week's first episode is that it's hosted by Dale Winton.

but the first act was Jinny. Keep Warm what a record.

Why is Craig Mclachlan cosplaying as Hard Gay?

Christmas 1977 edition on at 7pm if anyone can stand it.

Since they went to the trouble of filming Kenny Rogers in a bar, I was hoping that they'd at least stop the song when it gets to the line "for a minute a thought I was dead" and just have Rogers staring up at some huge dude for a full 60 seconds before continuing.

Xmas 1977 made it seem like the most depressing year that ever existed, I wasn't born until 11 years later but everything seemed so brown and maudlin. Also that bar Kenny Rogers was singing at had far too many lamps at it, it would have been a nightmare to work at.

Xmas TOTP isn't til Thursday and New Years Day, eventually it's just not going to happen at all

Well, the Christmas special from 1969 got rebroadcast comparatively recently (jsav presented so not hugely recently) but I did recall from the original broadcast how terrible it was!

some of the listings mags have entire nights of totp repeats

5th jan, 10 episodes of either totp, big hits or story of

12th jan, same, but with two hours of snooker in the middle

Christmas 1983 TOTP - better that 1984 because the big records of 1983 haven't been played over and over as much since?

I'll say it again - I have absolutely no memory of JoBoxers.

I once saw JoBoxers supporting Gary Glitter, and that right there is the unfortunate story of my 1980s

ive been watching the 80s xmas specials and i could have lived the rest of my life happy without knowing who "shakin stevens" is (this dude DID NOT make it to the us)

joboxers did make it over here tho. just got lucky got played on kroq a lot.