Musings on the byways of popular culture
In August 1997, punky popsters Symposium attended Top of the Pops to perform their current single Fairweather Friend. With considerable gusto the lead singer launches himself into the audience for a spot of televisual crowd surfing….. impressive! However when I watched this originally and now thanks to You Tube at 2:45 you can see the singers trainer being thrown at the drummer from the crowd! I can`t unsee this. Any more?
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Heard some Depeche Mode on the walk in this morning and it got me thinking that when I was small their name was often pronounced “Depechay Mode” by some folk (often DJs on Top of the Pops). I can’t remember when that went away, but it has always stuck.
Anyone got any other examples of this? For example, did anyone else (like me) erroneously call Kanye West “Kayne West” when he first popped up 10-15 years ago?
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Army of Lovers, Fairport Convention, Martha and the Muffins, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Nena, Todd Rungren, Golden Earring…
What do they all have in common?
You got it. They are artists with a considerable discography of rather successful material under their belts who have been consigned to the igmony of our One Hit Wonder thread. As Sniffity wisely pointed out, being a one-hit wonder is all a question of geography.
At home in Australia, Holland, Canada, Sweden etc, a band may have a long list of hits. But if you haven’t penetrated the UK or US charts more than once, you are dissed as a one trick pony.
Then what about those artists who have been labelled as an OHW and then go off and get another hit? This evening in the pub we were talking about John “Really free” Otway. A classic OHW I thought. But of no! He went and had another hit, Bunsen Burner, And then out on the road with the Two Hit Tour. And my friends tell me he’s written lots of fine songs.
This is a thread to put the record straight. A chance to post other songs by artists who’ve been landed with the » Continue Reading.
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wasn’t Weller weird when he was on ToTP? Remember the backwards Heinz tomato soup apron, how about the banjo and accordion in the Style Council days? This performance is well-weird. It’s Beat Surrender, the final single. The band is lined up backwards – drums to the front, Weller has decided to forego the guitar and frug with the young Tracie who seems to be wearing one of his nice jumpers. He’s a very poor dancer, she pretends not to notice. Foxton mimes the alternate lines – even though it’s Paul’s voice. He mimes more convincingly than Weller, yet Weller can’t hide his smirk after Bruce’s first line. Perhaps weirdest of all is the delivery of the line ‘that bullshit’s just bullshit – it just goes by different names’ from the first verse. If I remember correctly the radio edit went ‘that rubbish is rubbish’ – in this version Weller has re-recorded the line as ‘that bullfrog’s a bullfrogs they just go by different names’. I don’t know what my point is. I suspect this will be a very short thread.
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There are few music genres whose starting point can be so accurately pinpointed. It was 11th March 1971. T.Rex performed Hot Love on Top Of The Pops. Well, they mimed it. Drummer, Bill Legend, can clearly be seen thwacking his thigh with his fist rather than actually striking the snare drum and the cymbals remain strangely motionless. As a twelve year old, I was fascinated by the size of Steve Currie’s left ear. My dad probably enjoyed Pan’s People. Normally, they danced to a hit song when they couldn’t persuade the act to appear but, on this occasion, they performed a little prance to liven up the prolonged coda and keep the audience interested. The key thing was Marc Bolan’s face. It took a while to notice, but a couple of minutes in, he raised his eyes towards a spotlight above him and something caught the nation’s eye. Chelita Secunda had added two spots of glitter below his eyes. They looked like teardrops. He appeared to be conflicted with deep emotions. A million, young female hearts fluttered. Glam Rock was born.
Marc declared Glam Rock as dead in 1973, when he was promoting his soul influenced album, Tanx, but it » Continue Reading.
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Madness kick things off with Nightboat for Cairo. The band are equally split between fez, pith helmet or Arab headdress in costume choice – apart from someone who’s a sailor. Lots of nutty dancing. Repeat of Barbara Dickson singing January February. Dull dull dull. Which Dexys up next emphatically are not. Four-man horn section, De Niro caps and Kevin Rowland doing a 1000-year stare as if he can actually see the Wigan Casino in the far distance if he concentrates hard enough. Glossy new wave next from The Pretenders with Talk of the Town – in a cunning video that makes it almost appear that they are in the studio. Only the access to a better quality of video editing software gives it away. Or did they have to hand-colour each frame of the tape in those days. Behind the Kid this week is a new neon effect logo for the eighties. Legs and co work out to Leon Heywoods Don’t Push It – a slice of disco funk. One of those tracks I have absolutely no emory of hearing on 275 285 at the time, or at any time since. UB40 are back with Food for Thought – they » Continue Reading.
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Slightly later than normal, here’s your semi-regular survey of the national’s music life circa 1980, as reckoned by the BBC and the chart company, so more Marti Webb and less Crass if you will.
Introduced by Steve Wright in a boating blazer – cool on Paul Weller for circa five minutes a year before – we open with a riot of spandex, lame and leotards. It’s the Dooleys channelling ABBA in full disco mode on Love Patrol . The Police are already too big to appear on the show it seems and send another annoying video of their holidays in New York for Sue Lawley. Stewart Copeland is still finding it amusing to bash his drumsticks on anything around him (here some sweets).
Our first highlight occurs with Legs and Co, who are in for the Detroit Spinners. They have set up a roadworks, complete with scaffolding and one of those tents that used to appear over a hole in the road. From which they emerge in hardhats, highheels and dungarees. Imagine the Village People came from daytime ITV in 1978 and you’ve got some idea of what’s going on here. They are ‘Working Their Way Back to You’ » Continue Reading.
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We open (at least I think we do, my TiVo started a bit late) with a Blondie video for Atomic. On the unedited version I may have missed Shakin Stevens making his debut with Hotdog. Lots to enjoy with Blondie. Debbie literally looks great in a bin bag. There’s interpretative backing dancers, and some metal squares hung from the ceiling in a kind of Andy Warhol vibe. Then The Beat are in the studio with Hands Off She’s Mine. Has Saxa lost twenty years or is that not him on the sax? A repeat of the Buggles studio clip playing Plastic Age – that marigolds wearing keyboard player is a right wag isn’t he. It’s not a bad pop song. Then a dull Tourists song on repeat – so Good To Be Back Home. Now hide behind your sofa. First sighting of Fern Kinney with the monstrously catchy We Are Beautiful. Yet another repeat of a cliff video for Carrie. It’s a good programme – The Ramones are next with Baby I Love You. How cool do they look? Very. Jeans, leather jackets, fringes and colour coded t-shirts. The editors insert some lovely cutaways to the Totp orchestra playing along, » Continue Reading.
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While it’s not a vintage totp by any means this week there is still much to enjoy even if its Simon Bates hosting in a caramel colour leather jacket. Matchbox do the old double bass spin several times,. Keith Michell’s reading of Captain Beaky seems to go on for about ten years. There’s a video for Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down that sees Elvis hanging around in a French cafe while the Attractions…fall down; Jon and Vangelis’ awesomely silly video features a bloke in a leotard dancing on a flying moog; Dave Edmunds is in the studio doing Singing the Blues and Marti Webb is too doing Take That Look of Your Face from some Lloyd webber show. Kenny Rogers is no 1 with Coward of the County. The Shadows do one of the worst ‘lets go disco’ career moves ever with the lamentable Riders In The Sky. I feel strangely compelled to post Kiss’ I was made for loving you.
But the jewel in the crown is the Flying Lizards – on totp with not Money but TV – there are a lot of them onstage in some sort of performance art happening. The wonderful @totpfacts tells us » Continue Reading.
