daweaver, 10 months ago

#DeadOrAlive start off tonight's #TOTP. "In too deep" was a disappointment: the keyboard motifs are interesting, but Pete Burns' stentorian delivery is almost a monotone.

#TearsForFears at the EBU Montreux Rock Festival, a non-competitive song gathering for Eurovision members. I've always liked "Head over heels", and this is a properly spooky performance. A shame that SRG SSR's shot direction was so wobbly.

Looking up at Pete Burns, the frizzy-haired singer with Dead or Alive. He wears a grey patchwork cardigan and his trademark eyepatch. The rest of the band is in the background, and there's an orange Top of the Pops balloon in the bottom left.

daweaver, 10 months ago

Don't think I've heard this one by #TheDamned since this ep last came up. Which is my loss, as "The shadow of love" is a rollocking good tune, presented here with style and panache.

Phll Lynott's last week in the top 40, the debut for Simply Red.

Love the shot direction for the #FineYoungCannibals, tight to Roland Gift when he's singing, only showing the other two in instrumental breaks.

At the time, FYC were as much about Andy Cox And David Steele From The Beat as Roland.

Two of The Damned: the singer's on the right, dressed in a frilly shirt and dark jacket and with hair slicked back like a vampire. The guitarist keeps a good distance to the left, their spiky hair and dark clothes are silhouetted against the green-purple backdrop.

daweaver, 10 months ago

Breakers: #SimplyRed from when they were a band,

#TheCult seem to be a one man band (and than man is Ian Astbury).

#TheStyleCouncil show a girl eating a burger. Always reminds me of John "Drittsek" Gummer, which had an homage cut from CBBC's #Wolfblood

#Opus are not the most embarrassing act this hour.

There was a proper video for this Kool & the Gang single, but #TOTP preferred that clip from Montreux.

daweaver, 10 months ago

The #TOTP number one from #SisterSledge. Four Sledges in a line, all singing in close-part harmony, all doing the same pattern dance. Not their best work, but a pleasant disposable piece of fluff.

Dance-out is #GlennFrey's other hit, "Smuggler's blues", available on BBC Records.

The Chart Music podcast spent two-and-a-half hours dissecting this episode. And egregiously missed the point of the Ben Hardwick campaign.
https://chartmusiccouk.wordpress.com/2018/03/30/22-july-4th-1985-a-horrible-time-for-crisps-and-for-pop/

Show hosts Richard Skinner (blue shirt, big glasses) and Simon Bates (white suit, big glasses, a bit taller).

daweaver, 10 months ago

A publisher writes... "I was most flabbergasted to see #TOTP start with Shakin' Stevens prance about with oil-bound muscle hunks. This had all the erotic charge of a wet lettuce." I say, Miss Pringle, is that a new scarf saying 'Opus were less cringeworthy'?

#Aha have more erotic charge than that wet lettuce, though we could have seen more of Morten Harket in the video for "The living daylights", and less of the bloke in the suit.

Shakin' Stevens is in a white suit, dancing next to a large man wearing little more than boots and a small pair of shorts covering a bit of his modesty.