July 30th, 2006
Top of the Pops has left the building
First things first - there are two reasons this post will be short:
1) I started it on Monday and have been working like a Dickensian chimney sweep so abandoned it at a couple of lines intending to get back to it.
2) Today, after notching up lots of links, posts and general natter on the subject, I opened a page in the Telegraph, which caused all my Explorer windows to close and killed my (unsaved) 1,500+ word post.
Grrrr isn’t the word. This won’t be half as fancy, but here goes.
Tonight after 42 years, the curtain comes down on institutional music show Top of the Pops. TOTP was pre-teen musical education. Long before any of us were listening to Dave Fanning, John Peel or recording Nick Cave videos off Super Channel and 120 Minutes, there was a half hour of pop on Thursday nights. Our house watched it and so did everyone I know. With tonight’s final show, the sheen of nostalgia might coat hours worth of dross songs and bad performances, but everyone will take something memorable from it.
Like me, Gerry recoils in horror at the memory of Foster & Allen dragging Irish cultural stereotypes back 100 years by appearing in leprechaun suits during their performance of ‘Bunch of Thyme’. Michael of the Disillusioned Lefties is unfussed, possibly by virtue of his youth while Fergal at Tuppenceworth admits: “Was I a fan? Well, that’s like asking if I was a fan of the News.”
Why are we selective with memory? I trawl my brain for all the episodes I’ve watched and some of the memories are bizarre. How come I can remember Joe Dolce with his blackboard and pointer for ‘Shaddup You Face’, or Aneka in her kimono and spinning parasol for ‘Japanese Boy’? Then there’s Annabella Lwin’s mohawk when Bow Wow Wow did ‘Go Wild in the Country’, Dexy’s Midnight Runner’s performing ‘Jackie Wilson Says’ against a projected backdrop of bibulous gap-toothed Scottish darts player JACKIE Wilson and Mark King nearly being strangled by his own bass somewhere up around his neck every time Level 42 were on.
In my teens, the routine was to tune the radio in on Sunday nights with a long pipe lead (yes kids, no radio on the internet, never mind internet back then. It was all very Peig) to listen to the UK chart show. Then hope descended that one of the many obscure indie bands I liked had managed to scrape in to the Top 40 and bag themselves an appearance the following Thursday. I can still remember how simultaneously great and surreal it was to see The Wonder Stuff on there, looking clearly baffled and uncomfortable.
Three favourites?
Nirvana doing Smells Like Teen Spirit - This blogger was a fan for a year or two before Nevermind thanks to mail order and Sub Pop records. When they converted the masses with ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, I was itching to see how explosive they’d be on TOTP. The performance policy of the time involved music backing tracks and live singing but instead of his usual parched screech, Kurt performed in a low, wailing baritone and is not strumming the guitar at all. Crowd shots of the audience show them freaked out and still attempting to dance.
Any Smiths stuff
Any time The Smiths played the show, there was always a visual tic to latch on to thanks to Morrissey. Whether it was NHS glasses or him weilding bunches of gladioli, Moz always got the viewer’s attention. If I had to pick one Smiths’ performance on the show, it would an unforgettable ‘William, it was Really Nothing’. During the chorus of “Would you like to marry me?/and if you like you can buy the ring,” Morrissey rips open his shirt to reveal the words ‘Marry Me’ written across his chest in eyeliner. A nation of unsuspecting heterosexual indie girls nearly died swooning…
Bad Manners - ‘Lip Up Fatty’
Now this one’s more personal. Sometime in 1980, while attempting to put my pyjamas on at the same time as dancing around the sitting room to Bad Manners’ ska classic ‘Lip Up Fatty’, I walked in to the Super Sayer fire * (more Peig Sayers) and burnt the legs off myself. For weeks afterwards, I had diamond shaped burns down my legs, rather like an unpleasant pair or patterned tights. Great song though…
* Probably spelt incorrectly but can’t find any information on these three-bar portable fires on the web. Anyone remember them?
The last Top of the Pops starts at 7pm GMT on BBC2 tonight. At 10pm on the same station, there’s documentary: ‘Top of the Pops: The True Story’.
July 30th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
That would be Super SER heater. We had them too, and my sister managed to get a similar set of burn patterns one Saturday evening.
And the super ser still seems to be on the go, in a (slightly) updated style
http://www.calorgas-heaters.co.uk/calor_gas_heaters/super_ser_f150_portable_heater.htm
July 30th, 2006 at 12:09 pm
T-Rex’s Bang a Gong with Elton John on piano is one of my favourite moments, albeit before my time.
PS Can your comments handle HTML? If not, please tidy up the mess
July 30th, 2006 at 12:18 pm
Oh, so many TotP memories. My sisters and I had a special dance which we performed while watching the charts - well, a dance we performed while sitting down. Every song received a rating - hands in the air for a song we liked, hands towards the floor for a song we hated, hands sort of crossing over each other in the middle for a song about which we had no strong feelings, and fingers pointing towards the head for a song we didn’t know. All done in time to that bleepy music played over the chart rundown, of course.
July 30th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
One of my favourite memories of TOTP is also the Dexies Midnight Runners and Jackie Wilson darts player backdrop. Or what about Madonna in the pink wig rowing singing holiday.
There was always a row between my middle brother and I over whose turn it was to tape (video) our favourite bands and songs which nearly came to blows once because we both wanted to tape Japan’s Tin Drum.
I have also very fond memories of watching it with my Dad while growing up, I remember him loving Kate Bush (we all imitated her in Wuthering Heights) and of course Legs and Co and the other sexy dancing women (can’t remember their name at the mo
It was a Thursday night ritual which changed for me when it moved to Friday, it just never worked.
Oh and I recently threw out an old clapped out super ser in my flat, they are very much still on the go.
July 30th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
The only one I really remember is a band called ‘All about Eve’ and the girl just completely forgot to sing along when the song started and looking devestated afterwards. Don’t remember the song though.
July 30th, 2006 at 1:29 pm
I think its worth remembering Cork’s finest moment in international pop music - Sultans of Ping and the Frank & Walters both appearing on the show
July 30th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
Go on the super ser! Thanks Damian.
Colm, T-rex were always good. Nothing to do with Marc Bolan being very hot AT all.
Stellanova, I like your voting system. I was (as I’m sure every girl was) a queen of childhood dance routines. I remember one especially for Madonna’s ‘Into the Groove’, especially the bit about “At night, I lock the door where no one else can see”, which was all elaborate moon-pointing and key-turning. And not very good of course.
Red mum, I totally remember Madonna in that Pink wig (was it for Like A Virgin?) which we were shown in school one day. You know those near-the-summer-and-teachers-can’t-be-arsed-teaching-anything-new days? They fobbed us off with an episode of TOTP and we were all delighted with ourselves.
The other ladies were Pan’s People. In my original post that the computer ate, I mentioned an article from yesterday’s Guardian where they asked 25 bands for their memories of the show. I particularly like the idea of the “dangerous” Stranglers trying to hit on Pan’s People dancers.
Twenty, that’s Martha’s Harbour (see that Guardian article). I remember watching that and thinking they were trying to be all fey and gothy, not realising she couldn’t hear anything through the monitors.
James, at least SoP gave us back some of our dignity after the Foster & Allen episode. Does anyone remember Shane McGowan falling in to a drumkit during a Pogues performance on TOTP? Can’t remember the song…
July 30th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
I went to boarding school and other than the news, TOTP was the only show we were allowed watch. AHA to the Gladoli swinging non meat eating singer…we loved them all. Great moments, especially when the lead singer from the Housemartians swung his microphone and carried on ’singing’ even though it was facing away from him, or when There’s No Limits’s dude broke his necklace sing ‘Techno techno techno techno’ and the girlie nearly broke her neck on them, oh sigh. I shall nod to it and maybe raise a glass.
It’s sunday, I will definitely raise a glass.
July 30th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Laughing heartily here at the thoughts of young Sinead pointing to the moon and mime key turning. I had one of those dances for Brotherhood of Man’s Angelo, it was the 1970s, nuff said. ‘Long ago high on a mountain in Mexico, lived a young shepherd boy Angelo…’. I am trying to wrack my brains for how we interpeted in dance the phrase ‘long ago’ or indeed ’shepherd boy’.
July 30th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
Super Sers were also excellent for making toast. You’d stick your slice of bread on a fork and hold them up to the bars.
Bonus was, your toast had diamond shapes on it.
I still don’t really approve of toasters.
July 30th, 2006 at 5:08 pm
I used to make toast like that! It’s also cool eating toast done on one side only (the whole crusty versus fluffy thing).
July 30th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
I was (as I’m sure every girl was) a queen of childhood dance routines. I remember one especially for Madonna’s ‘Into the Groove’, especially the bit about “At night, I lock the door where no one else can see�, which was all elaborate moon-pointing and key-turning. And not very good of course.
Hee, those dance routines were indeed usually elaborate mimes. My friends and I had one to Madonna’s ‘True Blue” which basically consisted of miming all the words (lines “your heart fits me like a glove” and “no more sadness, I kiss it goodbye, the sun is bursting right out of the sky” particularly lent themselves to this approach). And of course Sister Sledge’s ‘Frankie’ was another dance routine favourite…
July 30th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
One of my favourite memories of TOTP is also the Dexies Midnight Runners and Jackie Wilson darts player backdrop.
Ahh, forgot about that.
The classic Jackie v Jocky incident. Brilliant.
July 30th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
Blondie’s Heart of Glass was my TOTP inspired childhood dance routine…’Once I had a love and it was a gas
Soon turned out had a heart of glass’… Oh dear, thanks for the memories (i think) Sinead!
July 30th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
Today, after notching up lots of links, posts and general natter on the subject, I opened a page in the Telegraph, which caused all my Explorer windows to close and killed my (unsaved) 1,500+ word post.
I think the real lesson here is not to read the Telegraph. For shame!
July 31st, 2006 at 11:03 am
The Youtube ‘William’ link doesn’t have what comes after the song… when presenter Mike Smith lifts his shirt to reveal “We love The Smiths” written there. I still have my tape from the 80’s so it’s on there. Horrible…
Also loved John Peel introducing Orville and playing keyboards on Rod Stewarts ‘Maggie May’. Find the clip and see him mugging for the camera…
July 31st, 2006 at 5:41 pm
we used to make toast on our Super Ser too. in those days no one had a toaster. i have to admit we had the horrendous and probably disease-making habit of sticking the bread onto the bars of the super ser itself; it somehow stayed on, probably attached due to a build-up of grease or other unappealing matter on the bars. you’d know the toast was done when the bread fell to the floor… it’s a wonder i lived to tell this tale.
ps happy birthday.
July 31st, 2006 at 10:02 pm
Ah, the nostalgia of it all. No week was complete without a fix of TOTP during the 70’s and 80’s. Was Boy George a boy or a girl, who would be number one, confirmation that you weren’t cool ‘cos you didn’t really ‘get’ The Smiths, The Cure et al. (I’m still not cool either)
PS thanks for the link
August 6th, 2006 at 10:20 am
Was it on TOTP that Morrissey ‘machine-gunned’ the audience when performing ‘The Headmaster’s Ritual’?
Or did I just dream that?
I mean, he didn’t do it for real, the machine-gunning, he just pretended to.
For some reason that moment sticks in my mind. Just can’t be sure it was on TOTP.
Great blog by the way - I’ve only just discovered you (!) via Yellow Stereo and the comment you left about The Sundays.
Sigh!
August 7th, 2006 at 8:07 am
- Colin
The Headmaster Ritual wasn’t a UK single (it was in some countries) so it wasn’t TOTP.
You didn’t dream it though… It was The Oxford Roadshow from Feb ‘85.
Relive your dream here, machine gunning towards the end:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=D6hLtntEB4w
August 8th, 2006 at 11:53 am
Martin,
Thanks so much for that… much appreciated.
And all hail YouTube!
Colin.