Thursday 25 August 2011

TOTP 5/8/76 (tx 25/8/11): it's like punk happened

Let's get this out of the way first, because it'll be keenly felt in the comments box, I can tell. Yes, unfolding drama in the Ruby Flipper camp as it turns out TOCG isn't so O after all - not only was she not present this week, she'd been excised from the troupe's end credit! Did she get time off? Surely not, dancers can't go on extended breaks from the show, they just record in advance, surely. Unless... she does come back, but given she's not long for the show anyway maybe she went on strike like that time Noel Edmonds had creative differences and refused to do House Party one week.

Unless she was ill.

Shall we ask her?

She'll probably have forgotten. It's not worth it. Also, I wouldn't know how to ask her.

Jimmy's back in charge for one of what aren't that many appearances in 1976, at least in the sector of it we're covering. He's dressed up for the occasion this week, none of his glitter patterned speciality T-shirts, it's a jacket a bit like a police constable's, dignified if polka-dotted tie... oh, the pull-back reveals he's wearing a kilt. Always has to spoil things.

The charts reveal a new Wings single and a new Wings picture, all five holding gold discs to emphasise their big shot status. Linda looks most unsure.

Slik – The Kid's A Punk
Now, hold on youngsters, while there may have been prescience in choosing to release a song with that word in the title in July 1976, the month of the Ramones' celebrated catalystic London Roundhouse gig and six months after it was first coined in America to refer to that form of rock (we caught on in February within the Sex Pistols' NME debut - see, it's not just sneering at bad mainstream music fashion here, you learn stuff too), but what eleven year old Midge and baseball-attired friends are clearly meaning here, unless they were hugely prescient on writing it, is the (namechecked in the second line) youth gone wild delinquency/cool-as dropout use of the word. Midge backs that up with his opening stance, clicking his fingers contemptuously like someone who was just too damned good for Guys & Dolls round a pretend lamp-post. His acting masterclass isn't over once he gets into the song, though, staring down the camera on the chorus, challenging us to disagree with his assessment of the fictional subject. As if we didn't know from the dress sense Slik are by this stage definitely the sort of people who wish they were American or at least second hand aspire to its culture but aren't quite sure how to go about co-opting it, rolling out barrelhouse piano, FM soft rock choruses and the idea Glasgow is well across the idea of a "hip shaking, heartbreaking hobo". As a crazed sax player holds the middle eight hostage Ure, just to set the seal on this being someone else's dream, draws out a flick-comb and draws it across the sides of his hair like he thinks he once saw James Dean do. America was a long way away in those days, congenitally as well as figuratively. "Of course they're from Scotland, of course" Jimmy repetitively states afterwards, just to rub it in. It wasn't a hit. By this point in 1977 Ure was an actual punk in PVC2 (who were Slik with a new name, clothes and guitar tuning anyway) and then the Rich Kids.

David Dundas – Jeans On
And this week providing something to fill the stage gaps, the temporarily reduced Ruby Flipper! The message is clear. BACK OFF, HOT GOSSIP, THIS IS OUR PATCH. As if to show they can do the suggestive stuff as well as any Arlene Phillips choreography, their collective stance at outset will come in familiar to anyone who's seen Rita, Sue And Bob Too. For some reason all but Lulu are wearing hats too - huge peaked cap for Floyd, workman's cap for Sue, blue Liam Gallagher bucket hat for Philip, golf visor for Patti. Maybe Lulu's hair was too high maintenance to be messed with. Also worth noting "when I wake up" is literally rubbing of eyes. Dundas has at least remembered not to wear slacks this week, but he still looks a little friendless there all on his tod.

Billie Jo Spears – What I've Got In Mind
Jimmy must have completely mistimed a simple introduction as having introduced this video he chooses to improvise: "Also we have all sorts of other great sounds as well, on account of tonight is a good night for music. How about this one? Yes siree." Not exactly a flashy COMING SOON graphic, is it? Billie Jo is on whatever show it was that all the country clips come from and looks most unsure of her surroundings, and rather like a lost early 80s Coronation Street character.

Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel – Here Comes The Sun
It's a video and a half, this one.



Oh, no, that's not the right one, hang on a moment. Ah, now, this is it. Never quite tops its opening thirty seconds, really.



I want the percussionist's job. He's still not as threatening as Harley, despite wielding a mallet for his job. Harley himself has before long been comfortably covered from every angle.

KC & The Sunshine Band – (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty
Or The KC Sunshine Band, as Jimmy calls them. Of course Ruby Flipper were always destined for this one. Surrounded by an expectant audience and with TOCG having been kidnapped by errant gypsies Patti steps up and takes the jointly significant mantles of most gawping at camera and most minimalist top, although all three will catch their death if they go out like that. Obviously there's shakeage when required, and occasionally when not, but Flick must have been caught off guard by the reduction in numbers as the rest is mere leaning, arm waving and sidestepping filler. What's more, most of the shaking is done from the shoulders and on at least a couple of occasions the lower legs, which defeats the purpose of choosing this song. Dancer of the day goes to Floyd, who gets to illustrate the words "very well" in closeup by pretending to lick his finger and then making that circle with the thumb and forefinger gesture that people did in the 1970s to express goodness.

Dorothy Moore – Misty Blue
"Everybody take a breather!" Surrounded by pretty much the entire audience, which he creeps into surely accidentally while on camera in the background about thirty seconds before Ruby Flipper have finished, Jimmy cues up the same video clip as last time.

Billy Ocean – L.O.D. (Love On Delivery)
And will sir be favouring the mustard coloured waistcoat with matching trousers a size too small over the shirt with the green and white striped mint-like design tonight? Decently strident and professional performance, but this is where the cameraman gets his excuse to indulge in his weekly hit-and-run audience rampage, his target primed and set this week for a girl getting into Ocean somewhat, joyously bouncing around in her cool Wolfie Smith-turns-fisherman cap until being stopped in her tracks and then, judging by her expression, having her foot run over by the machinery.

Twiggy – Here I Go Again
One thing we haven't discussed in the two or three weeks since it was erected is the new stage backdrop, designed in a V shape without the point, with hundreds of small Noddy Holder's hat-style mirrors attached which at times move about as if being shaken by some black-clad stagehand. If it's meant to resonate the glitter of glitzy pop it only works in stages - Dundas' backing was a spectacular prism of random flashing, yet here they don't seem to reflect any light much as Twiggy doesn't seem to exude much charisma or singing ability. Of course this is the same Twiggy who stands now in her big eyelashes as shorthand for 60s Mary Quant fashion, going on to spend the 70s and much of the 80s in stage musicals and the early 00s being the worst This Morning host ever, but with a shot at pop in the middle. Fair to say that by this time she's less the waifish Vogue androgyne and more the lost Charlie's Angel in her all white trouser and waistcoat outfit and poor make-up. Just to make sure it's caught the trend of the day it's a country number (originally by Country Joe & The Fish), one that, reinterpreted in-house, loses Ms Lawson's voice somewhere in the mix. All the pleading eyes she makes at the mixed-in close-up camera shots won't save her now.

Elton John & Kiki Dee – Don't Go Breaking My Heart
Yeah, I know. What can you do? This time it's enlivened by Jimmy's original and wayward way with the language. "And now, what should we have now?" is the link's opening gambit and again it runs slightly too long for comfort, leading him to freestyle: "We have just time to say how are all of you at home? Very good we are? Here we go!" Rather too late in the show to be asking after us, your loyal viewership, but it's appreciated nonetheless. "We've assembled the troops!" Jimmy announces afterwards, though they aren't actually troops, they're women in nurses' uniforms whose presence is never explained, and he spends most of the link standing in front of them anyway, but is presumably something to do with Jim's famously tireless charity work. That's how he earned that OBE he proudly has displayed by his name in the credits. Hopefully. "Yes siree!" he concludes for the fourth time in the show. Someone called Jesse Green's something called Nice And Slow, which seems to be an instrumental only because in the actual version (he's on an upcoming show, you'll see) he doesn't start singing for more than a minute, soundtracks those controversial cast lists.

EDIT NEWS: So evidently BBC4 don't trust a pre-watershed audience with Sheer Elegance's 'challenging' subject matter, as It's Temptation misses out for the second of two appearances. Unique Sheer Elegance sense of fashion watch: red dungarees over blue shirts with sleeve ruffs. When at one point all three try twirls, all completely out of sync and one in a different direction to his colleagues, you begin to understand why they never had another hit. 5000 Volts turn up with just Linda, the guitarist (who doesn't even bother pretending when it comes to the talkbox bit) and bassist, so there must have been rows there. Lastly was Johnny Wakelin & The Kinshasa Band, which has to be posted for all sorts of reasons, from Jimmy's manner of disappearing out of shot to the shaker maker's manly chest, but mainly the bassist having some gloriously undignified issues with his headgear at 1:38.



Oh, and Jimmy was wearing a kilt to promote his role as Chieftain of the Lochaber Highland Games, a role he still holds after forty years albeit only in an honorary position now. That's not an excuse.

36 comments:

Arthur Nibble said...

No Cherry?? No Sheers?? No flaming good if you ask me!

In the countdown, look out for the Sunshine Band member having a strop as he obviously doesn't want his photo taken, and the member of Johnny Wakelin's band, dressed somewhere between a kitsch superhero and an American wrestler, looking upwards as if he's in the TotP audience trying to see himself in a monitor.

Jim'll makes a real hash of the first country intro - Billy Jo Spear with "What I've Got Is Mine". Even worse is the thought that the yeehah Ivy Tilsley wants to get into your trews. Help!

As for Twiggy, why would someone from Hornsey try that accent? Imagine Kate Moss trying to sing "Oh Susanna" in a weird accent - oh, hang on, that's already been done.

Arthur Nibble (again) said...

I also have this vision of Gilbert O'Sullivan watching David Dundas on TotP at home, clenching his fist and cursing at the screen - "Damn you, Dundas, that cake tier stage should be mine! Mine, I tell you!"

Dyonn said...

Jimmy did a lot of the links with his eyes closed for some reason.

Simon said...

On the Slik thing, it's been pointed out that the song references Gee Officer Krupke from West Side Story ("Golly Moses, natcherly we're punks!"), to fit the parallel look.

Bobby Morrow said...

I got a definite Gilbert vibe from Dundas too. He's just blow dried his hair a little more artfully than GOS.

Poor Billy Ocean showing what happens when you go clothes shopping with Sheer Elegance. An unfortunate, lurid, ball-hugging number that he tries to distract us with as he hawks the uninspired 'LOD' once more. Give it up till 'Caribbean Queen', will ya?

Slik were in a strange place. Unwilling to backtrack and do another piece of BCR inspired slop like 'Forever And Ever', they came up with extremely un-punky tune which sounds like a mixture of previous hit 'Requiem' and Kenny's 'The Bump'. Borrowed time, lads.

Twiggy, at 27, was obviously far too ancient to continue with her modelling career so turned her attention to singing. I've said before that she gave a pretty dismal performance on TOTP, but she wasn't helped by a brutal 'in house' backing track which drowned out her whimperings. I vaguely remember the single having a faux-country feel that was lost in this treatment. Ironically, I read yesterday that Twiggy is set to return to her 'music career' this year with a new album. One to pre-order!

Billie Jo Spears looked liked my Auntie Gladys. She gives a rather subdued performance and appears to be wondering why Tammy and Dolly get the best wigs. Not as strong as the previous year's 'Blanket On The Ground', but a sizable hit nonetheless, as I recall.

A video clip for Cockney Rebel! EMI must have had faith in them. I will have to watch this a few more times to pick up all the nuances but I fear old Steve couldn't truly get into the groove as he was too worried about the gusty wind wrecking his carefully arranged wispy hair.

Arthur Nibble said...

I can see it now, just outside the changing rooms in the bulk-buy dungaree boutique, as Billy gets ready to flip the coin and says to the Elegance, "Okay, here's how we'll settle it - heads you wear the red and blue, tails the yellow and green". I'm also getting this weird idea of them as Subbuteo figures in TOTP home and away dungaree strips.

Steve Williams said...

Don't worry, Cherry does come back, presumably she was on holiday and when they were finally taking Gavin's name out of the credits they decided to temporarily remove Cherry as well.

That Billie Joe Spears "video" was even more boring than the Dorothy Moore "video", and I liked how the Cockney Rebel video was shot on the cloudiest day imaginable. Not as good as the performance as the bassist couldn't groove on the spot much.

The other members of 5000 Volts are in that performance but because there's no space they're on the floor, you can just see them amid the audience right at the end. I love how the guitarists are at opposite ends of the stage, as if they'd been split up to stop them messing around.

The audience seemed surprisingly up for it this week, actually seeming to make the effort for Shake Your Booty, compare that to the grudging bop to Don't Go Breaking My Heart in a few weeks when Ruby Flipper dance to it (Cherry's in that one). The one in the red shirt and braces was really going for it, and he was also frugging away to Billy Ocean, although Billy didn't look half as cool as last time, that canary yellow all-in-one a real step down from the hot pink shirt, and he didn't seem to be bellowing the vocals quite as much.

Nice and Slow is one of those songs where I knew it, and I knew the name Nice and Slow, but I'd never put them together, I'm pretty sure that was alongside The Flasher in my parents' vinyl collection. It is ace, though. As you say, it was oddly an instrumental version as no other version I can find on YouTube has no vocals. I also note that it then appeared on the show four times despite not getting higher than number eighteen, though two of those shows are wiped.

Chris Barratt said...

Losing In Zaire & Dr Kiss-Kiss for the prime-time edit was understandable given their multiple appearences, but made the show weaker musically. The "Nice & Slow" playout was the instrumental, but was either a genius mistake or a moment of inspiration as it's a forgotten classic that belongs in any mid-70s disco mix. These August shows seem to be a lot stronger than what came directly before, but be warned - once September is out these repeats will become real snooze-a-thons once again

Bobby Morrow said...

Nice to see those lovable, schoolgirl botherers Sheer Elegance in the extended edition. Not so troubled by the subject matter this time (how soon we learn to accept!), but their costumes alone should have earned them a place in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. I wonder if this is the last time they feature at all? I'm presuming they had other (non-charting) follow-ups...

Dear 'Cassandra' still honking her way through the forever crap 'Dr Kiss Kiss'. Still having trouble with her hair as well. Either keep still, just sing slow songs or get a buzz cut, my lovely.

Forgot to mention Sir Jimmy announcing 'Billie Jo Spear' with 'What I've Got Is Mine'. No wonder she looked pissed off.

Don't think the Flipper will be around much longer. I have some old Record Mirrors from 1976 and in one of the August ones it mentions they've been dropped. They tried so hard too.

wilberforce said...

simon, you'll have to ask sue and/or lulu why formerly-omnipresent cherry (should she henceforth be referred to as TFOCG?) was MIA, when they do a Q&A on the pan's people site... btw i notice that lulu has now taken over from floyd (who must have been yellow-carded) in the air-singing department - with regard to the troupe miming to the records, i think in some way it makes it more watchable, but it also smacks of milli-vanilli-ism - what do other viewers think...?

talking of which, i've done a bit more digging on the 5000 volts "miming" scandal, and it seems luan peters didn't front because tina charles wasn't visually up to the job (as you can see here - it was only after she started her solo career that she let herself go) - what apparently really happened was that tina suddenly departed in acrimonious circumstances, and was replaced by luan who actually sung on the TOTP version, but because her voice was markedly different from tina's someone smelt a rat and the false-representation hoo-haa ensued... don't know why luan left the band afterwards though as it appears she could carry a tune to some degree (as evidenced here) - maybe she just wasn't shrill and raspy enough for their liking? (btw, her replacement is STILL getting bits of hair in her mouth - aarrgghhh!)

with regard to the chart rundown pics: 1 - didn't the superhero/wrestler in the johnny wakelin band later front the flying pickets? and 2 - the quo one is from the "blue for you" album photo sessions where the drummer is sitting in front of the others standing, and the beeb have cropped the shot so the only one whose head is entirely in the frame is the bassist - couldn't they have just used another picture?

as for the rest: i wonder if midge ure was watching his younger self combing his quiff in a cod-james dean/juvenile delinquent manner and thinking "god, i wish i could do that now"! also, if in the unlikely event any of queen were viewing, it might have belatedly occurred to them that if they had made the effort to appear "live" just the once, then the beeb might have allowed their video to be used for subsequent shows (as they had with their label-mates cockney rebel*). and as for twiggy, well, should she be considered a candidate for "can't cut the mustard when singing live on TOTP" along with robin sarstedt, lee garrett et al? i haven't heard her vocals on any of her records so can't say, but the backing certainly stank to high heaven, especially the drummer who played like he was john bonham on acid (and the guitarist sounded like a pagey-wannabe too with his horrible dentist-drill sound)... oh yes, and when she took her turn on the over-used "noddy holder" stand, my theory is they deliberately darkened-down most of it in a cheap and dismal attempt to make it look a bit different...

one more observation on the studio audience: it seems incredible that they allowed so many gauche, dowdy and mishapen ugly mugs with two left feet to be present (it's almost a freak show at times), but i suppose that's inevitable if your criteria for selection is based on being related to someone working for the BBC...

* i'm surmising here, but perhaps the inspiration for steve harley and co covering "here comes the sun" was that year's heatwave? if so it's rather ironic they picked one of few days when the sun wasn't actually beating down mercilessly to make their video - they even have to superimpose a shot of the damned thing at the end! perhaps in a rare display of wit sir jim should have referred to it afterwards as "here comes the wind"...

Arthur Nibble said...

Bobby, without giving too much away, The Sheers had one more crack at TOTP with a song that was just outside the top 50 but never made the chart. In fact, the week after their 'blue and red' period was the last week the lads ever spent in the top 50.

Bobby Morrow said...

Thanks Arthur. Info on the Elegance is pretty scant. I've having a hell of a job finding a retrospective CD box set!

wilberforce said...

hey, it takes me ages to draft these musings together, so if someone else has nipped in with the same observations whilst i'm doing so then sorry...

i seem to recall the jesse green 45 had an extended "disco" version on the flip, which may explain the long instrumental intro... i'm sure jimmy james also pulled the same trick with his two hits of that year, so at that time whenever i played games of subbuteo (purely coincidental reference arthur) with my chums lasting "3 records a half" with each player choosing what to play in turn, both my opponent and i oft-picked the extended versions of those tracks as final choices, not because we particularly liked listening to them, but simply because they lasted longer so if we were losing at that point we had more time to score! (btw it probably won't surprise you that the who's "won't get fooled again" was a particular favourite played to gain some "added time" ha ha!)

ps - bobby, love your comment about billie-jo losing out to dolly and tammy in the syrup department!

Big D said...

What Wilberforce says about Jesse Green rings a bell, while the record was climbing the radio stations tended to play the instrumental version, but once the vocal version had been featured properly on TOTP and it had made the top 20 (the vocal version only being played on the Sunday countdown), that was the side that then almost always got played.

Simon said...

Further to the 5000 Volts issue, is it just me or at 1:01 does Linda mime a coarsely popular two-word phrase clearly not in the original lyrics?

Bobby Morrow said...

Can't work out what Linda says at 1.01. I expect she's just happy she hasn't got vast chunks of hair in her mouth for once. Hang on, we aren't out of the woods yet...

Noax said...

What was going on with the background on the rundown pics this week? Was that a BBC4 thing or (presumably) the original broadcast?!
The Quo pic was actually a bit more centred this time but why were so many pics black and white or sepia? I did enjoy the Bee Gees one with their short lived 'World War 1 pilots' look though.

Slik - I actually thought this one was better than 'Requiem' but I suppose the law of diminishing returns meant it was always likely not to be a hit.

David Dundas - Have we got a new director this week? Whoever it is makes this look quite interesting, especially with the high shot of the 'Noddy Holder' set (think I mentioned that the other week!)

Billie Jo Spears - Ooh great, we've got another lookalike! Here's a clue - "Ooh, I know. I knooow. Basil!"
Bloody boring song though, I can't be doing with all this country music...

Twiggy - Speaking of which....she can't get the low notes at all can she? They're barely audible. I had to laugh when I saw the story about her new album coming out and wondered to myself whether they knew this repeat was going to be on. Now I know it's hardly likely to help sales. If 5000 Volts announce a comeback album then I will be very suspicious though.

As for our erstwhile host, of all the things I could've guessed Jim'll would be wearing when Arthur mentioned it was spectacular, I would never have gone for the kilt. I'd have been more likely to guess a Womble outfit to be honest...

Adam Maunder said...

This seemed like one of those shows that couldn't have been any more archetypically of its time, everything about it so firmly in-period that even if one didn't know for sure exactly when it went out, you wouldn't be too hard-pressed to make a spot-on guess.

There's Jim'll in a kilt, for a start. His position as Chieftain of the Lochaber Highland Games was in fact the reason the last-ever TOTP in 2006 didn't go out live - they recorded it on the Wednesday so's he could still go up and... toss his log or whatever.

Poor old Slik's offering must've sounded painfully dated even then, a bit like Pilot's subpar effort a few months back. Mr. Dundas & the Flipper, though - well... a match made in heaven, as well as an apparent precursor to Legs & Co's 'Car Wash' routine 2 years down the line.

And Billie Jo Spears! Quite a big star in the UK in her time - didn't she have her own BBC show for a bit? Glad to know I wasn't the only one to think she looked like the spitting image of Sybil Fawlty either, Noax. Apparently backed by the Yah-Hoo! Recovering Alcoholic Band, too. Liked the tune, but this is my favourite of hers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nowaKBqupyY

The Steve Harley clip did somewhat reek of The Innes Book of Records minus the humour, or indeed 'Nice Video Shame About the Song', and I'd be mightily surprised if Messrs. Popper & Serafinowicz were not at least partly familiar with it, judging by 'Little Mouse'.

'Shake Your Booty' is the quintessential Ruby Flipper song, and with them hustling around the audience (note the prime Lulu action, Stegron, if you're around), did give it that same deranged campfire feel that 'Harvest for the World' had a fortnight ago.

'Misty Blue' again, and if we're sharing memories, then that was definitely one I got onto at an early age - about 8? - from my father's 45 collection, African-American Jollies section. I rather like 'L.O.D.' too, though no, the orange dungarees apparently borrowed from Bill Oddie's 'Funky Gibbon' outfit do Mr. Ocean no favours at all.

What about Twiggy, then? Felt sorry for the poor cow stuck up there on her own, with nobody to emote to but the camera. Her non-modelling career does have loads of fascinating avenues, though - check out her YouTube channel. Yes, she's got one, y'know. She definitely had her own variety show on the Beeb - Clive James approved, surprise surprise - and her Muppet Show in '76 was as good as you'd hope. Fans of lunatic 60s pop grooviness should also dig this thing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1nvd30ztBo

And we still haven't mentioned the Pizzicato 5 - for shame! And Elton 'n' Kiki, well at least it gave me chance to go for a pee.

Lost to the edit - Sheer Elegance? No, they don't seem to have troubled the internet archivists much, do they? I imagine you can find a copy of their LP lurking around if you look hard enough, though. I must say I've been reading Mr. Underhill's 5000 Volts Story with keen interest - Luan Peters with a solo record? News to me! For the early years of Tina Charles, cf. the 1st series of The Two Ronnies, 1971:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyllSTldZcs

And Johnny Wakelin, with the song I couldn't stop singing when I first heard it a few weeks back. Again. Great.

Aside from the lack of Cherry totally nullifying my decision to get a haircut, as far as can be gleaned from the Pan's People & One for the Dads sites, she appears to have residences in France & the US, so contact'd probably be difficult. Tempting to think she's aware of these repeats, though, and of the ever-swelling fanbase she continues to generate.

Yes, this is still more fun than having anything better to do of a Thursday. See y'all next week?

Disappointed said...

I'd never seen Billie Jo Spears before, but on the strength of her hit records I imagined her to look a lot like Daisy Duke. How wrong I was, she looked more like Daisy Duke's gran. Bah.

Bobby Morrow said...

I've been trying to find a downloadable version of the Twiggy song, just to see if it was anywhere near as bad as the TOTP showing. Sadly, I've had no luck.

I do remember Twiggy having an album out around this time. The cover showed her walking through a wood/park looking depressed.

Quite why Twiggy was being groomed for pop stardom is a mystery. One imagines a jealous Dana, Lynsey De Paul and Clodagh Rogers waiting outside to beat her up for stealing their turf.

I don't know if BJS had her own radio show. I think Lena Martell did a couple of years later after her success with 'One Day At A Time'. Could be wrong, though.

My knowledge of tragic 70's singing frumps is worrying me now...

Simon said...

Twiggy in the studio. I don't think that's her natural accent.

In further developments from last week, the Chanter Sisters are back on BBC4! Their familiar figures and haircuts are singing backup for Gilbert O'Sullivan on the Sight And Sound In Concert repeat on as I type and presumably on iPlayer afterwards. Next thing before you know it there'll be a greatest hits album.

Welliman said...

Ha, ha, ha - yes I recognised the fabulous Chanter Sisters backing Gilbert too. Glad to see their hairstyles, dress sense and dance moves were as 'distinctive' as ever. I think they'd found their niche as backing singers, almost stealing the show from Gilbert. Looking forward to their Greatest Hits too...

Simon said...

Update! The first song from the first wiped show of this run has turned up on YouTube literally today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVEHcBS1xkM The 'cockerel comb with long crimped hair' look was big in July 1976. Excellent CSO work too, and the surprisingly durable stagewear of dungarees makes another appearance.

Arthur Nibble said...

Excellent spot, Simon! Now bring us 'Superspike' on Betamax and we'll give you the world! Never mind Hello singer Bob Bradbury's hairstyle in the clip, that's the first time I've ever seen anyone perform on TOTP with a broken leg and crutches. Makes that bloke from The Stylistics look a complete wuss!

Bobby Morrow said...

I know it's old ground but I've now to come to love 'Sideshow'. I scoffed and made snotty remarks, but they got me in the end. Thank God VCRs weren't around in 1976! Given the chance to replay and scrutinize, I would have an entirely different and completely horrible record collection today.

As I've said before, it's the non-achievers that have got my juices flowing. I'm thinking of writng up (somewhere) and asking for a compilation CD of all these great moments. Sunfighter, Glamourpuss, Marmalade (which I loved but didn't talk about), Tarney & Spencer, Pilot etc. I think it could be a hot seller!

wilberforce said...

if such a thing was ever released, perhaps it could be titled "top of the flops"?

Simon said...

Unfortunately there's not actually too many unknown names left this year, and those that are are usually Americans who are either earnest singer-songwriters or disco chancers.

Bobby Morrow said...

Top Of The Flops is cruel but apt! They could all get together and do one of those reunion tours! It would be interesting to see if The Elegance could still squeeze into those costumes.

On a different note, I've become strangely attached to Billie Jo Spears' 'What I've Got In Mind' (or 'What I've Got Is Mine', as I'll now forever think of it). I think BJS gave rather a good live performance of it. There were no BV's like on the record and she handled it with aplomb.

Remembering this country thing the UK had on and off throughout the 70s, I seem to recall a distinct lack of attractive women. It seems the deal was to look as much like a lazy drag queen as you could.

I also remember Olivia Newton-John taking to the States back then and becoming a country queen, somewhat inexplicably (ONJ's rendition of the murder ballad 'Banks Of The Ohio' from 1971 rather downplayed the tragic nature of the song. From the expression in her bright, peppy voice she could have been singing 'Agadoo')

I now realise that the quite beautiful Olivia must have hit country fans like a ton of bricks! They'd probably never seen anyone like her!

Sorry to ramble on about country music and ONJ. There's nothing on TV.

wilberforce said...

minnie ripperton of "lovin' you" and reaching notes only dogs could hear fame once damned olivia neutron-bomb (as DLT used to delight in calling her) with the rather witty quote "the blonde singing the bland"!

however, in the the more-than-quite-beautiful ONJ's defence i think she did a rather nice version of the classic lesley duncan acoustic ballad "love song"...

Arthur Nibble said...

To paraphrase Jesse from 'The Fast Show', this weekend I am be most listening to Hello. Thanks to Simon's find, I've had a gander on YouTube and I didn't realise they had some other cracking songs up their sleeve which deserved to be hits, like 'Star Studded Sham' and 'Teenage Revolution', the latter pressed up as demos then head-scratchingly never released as a single. Looks like I might be asking for a Hello compilation for a Xmas present!

Bobby Morrow said...

I believe there is an Hello comp available on 7TS records.

Steve Williams said...

If anyone's bothered, I was at my parents' house this weekend and got the box of 45s out of the attic, and as well as every George McRae single ever released, there was indeed a copy of Nice and Slow, and the B-side was the instrumental. So maybe someone on the production team put it on upside down.

I have to say that my parents' records look rather cooler - every big disco hit of the seventies, plus the two Official Prog It's OK To Like hits in I Want More and Sylvia - than the the records belonging to my sister and I, as we clearly fell for every single cliched craze from 1981 to 1991 from the Birdie Song to Do The Bartman, with the Lambada and Bombalurina in between. Though it does include Blame It On The Bassline by Norman Cook, bought by me with my own money aged ten in 1989.

Noax said...

Blame it on the Bassline - what a tune. "I tell you how to make yourself some pounds and pences, you've gotta mess with the lower frequencies. The lower you go the more you show you know...how to do it, keep the frequency low."

That's from memory, not the internet, though I know I can't prove that.

The guy who rapped on that was MC Wildski who nearly had a hit with 'Warrior', a tune that sampled 'Shout' by Tears for Fears and was also ace.

Back to your normal programme...

Old Applejack said...

Late as ever...

ONly saw it once before wiping off the Sky box, and I haven't checked on iplayer. But I thought I saw a familiar sight. I thought, on one song (can't remember which), I saw a marauding camera, possibly pulling out, and a middle-aged, balding, moustachioed man hastily ducking out of view. Was it the same fella again? (Heavy Metal Kids?) Or more likely, I'm imagining things.

And Sir Jim'll. I think he was saying all the right words. Just not necessarily in the right order...

Bobby Morrow said...

I saw that balding chappie duck too!

Erithian said...

R.I.P. Billie Jo Spears, as the roll-call of the departed from 1976 TOTPs continues.