Monday 4 July 2011

The Alternative TOTP Canon #20: NOVELTY WEEK: Star Turn On 45 (Pints) - Pump Up The Bitter

Appearing on Top Of The Pops as a comedy act is a double edged sword. On the one hand, you're in music because as a child watching the show you dreamt of being able to perform your work in front of millions of family viewers. On the other hand, you've done it through something you'd think twice about admitting to your potential children. It's also reliant on your audience. Stars On 45 and such medleys were a comfortably passed phenomenon by 1988, jokes about working men's club entertainment by whatever year The Wheeltappers And Shunters Social Club was cancelled. The late Steve O'Donnell and friends gave it a good go over more than a decade, though the source material has somewhat outlived the act in terms of usefulness. Well, it was around the same time as Morris Minor and the Majors. Special congratulations to whoever is responsible for the sound mix that makes the vocals inaudible for quite some time, and for the specific graphic at the end.

2 comments:

Noax said...

Well, there's something I wasn't expecting to see!

Many thanks for this - I missed many TOTP in 1988 and 1989 as a club I was in got together on Thursday nights so I don't think I saw this at the time.

If you're after some truly absymal summer holiday novelty hits, was 'Suntan' by Stan ever on the Pops? I remember everyone going on about how it was going to be a big smash, and then it got to....Number 40.

Simon said...

I remember all the radio play it got at the time too, but no, it wasn't on TOTP.

While I'm here, and in case anyone who might know is looking in, were Star Turn On 45 (Pints) purely a recording act or was there a proper touring show behind it? I can imagine the latter but they haven't really thought through the visual possibilities of their being on TOTP.