Firstly, that short T.Rex clip posted last week? The whole thing has now surfaced. There's a second keyboard player doing Gloria Jones' supposed parts! Swizz!
Clipped straightforward DLT, Stranglers' Something Better Change under the rundown, the Fleetwood Mac slide moved so we can see Mick's face.
The Dooleys – Think I'm Gonna Fall In Love With You
A band who'd become semi-regulars in the coming years, not actually on their debut - that was on the wiped show a fortnight previously - but dressed for their big break, Jim Dooley in the requisite half-open shirt and medallion unnecessarily tightened around his thorax, one sister in a cocktail bar evening dress, the other pushing the boat out in velvet full-length skirt and open jacket with tube top. She's not shy about casually pushing the side of the jacket aside to show her full worth either. At least all this preparation is something when allied to a form of disco that started out showband weak and is now fed through the orchestral mangle.
The Floaters – Float On
No, hang on, that's not it. "I've got some loonies up here" DLT remarks, which is two-faced of him given they're women and thus he doubtless chose them to join him. One seems to be rivalling Dooley Left in the cold studio stakes. (This is beginning to seem unseemly already, isn't it? I do apologise) The Jonathan Cainers of smooth soul are on tape, having like half the other smooth soul troupes we've seen fallen for the popularity of powder blue suits, bow ties and ruffled shirts in mid-70s Detroit. Maybe someone had a knock-off job lot going.
Elkie Brooks – Sunshine After The Rain
"A lot of people were really, really pleased" by her hit, apparently. Shooting her from underneath is an unkind way to repay the compliment, though, BBC. Curiously the theme for the week is overalls, red one-piece with zip and brooch that looks a lot like that worn by Mr Dooley for Elkie, pristine white for her band, including a drummer with a bravura perm. A four way mirrored shot attempts to add the visual element that costumes and plants used to provide, but the main note to take away is one horrid line of off-key harmony twixt Brooks and Ladybirds, who you may recall used to be her friends. Still, when it lifts at the end the audience seem keen, including one young chap literally spinning into the middle of the crowd shot. As the camera slowly pans back, DLT is miming along to the last words. I hope he wasn't doing that for effect as thinking he sings along with everything would explain a lot.
Mink De Ville – Spanish Stroll
"Brother Johnny, he caught a plane and he got on it". Yeah, we'd kind of been led to assume that. Faux-live clip, which reveals the backing vocalists to all be men. DLT bemoans "all that foreign lingo".
Carly Simon – Nobody Does It Better
Go on, guess how DLT linked into Legs & Co using the song title as leverage. No sitting down this week, and Flick must have had words as everyone's gone all out on their behalf. The stage has various levels and steps to work around. The set has funny round things hung all around like the curtain between the kitchen and counter in a cheap kebab house. The costumes use flesh-coloured materials and glitter to give a barely-there look, coupled with slit full length skirts, long gloves and a variety of cummerbunds. The routine veers from elegant solo spots to bits where everyone seems to just be doing their own sets of crouches and spins, which if you look closely are actually in pattern but on simultaneous viewing look a bit of a mess. They also have those eyemasks-on-sticks things that probably have a proper name, but only Gill seems to use hers for their proper purpose at one moment, as opposed to wafting them about like a rhythmic gymnastic implement.
Danny Williams – Dancin' Easy
One of the girls now with DLT has 'Midge' picked out in glitter on her T-shirt. You can tell the Slik kids a mile away. Taking "the anchor position", as DLT renames number 30, Danny's gone for the suave white suit this time. Half the audience join him two lines in, as if all suddenly realising it's that one from that advert simultaneously, and begin bopping on the spot immediately. In the background Legs & Co can be seen leaving their set to put coats on before they catch their deaths. Given two options of where to look, a good proportion of the audience chooses the third and stares at the overhead monitors. A man in a suit stands side of stage impassively throughout, watching the kids more than the singer. Security? Really? A red shirted friend joins him later on, ready to leap onto the stage right at the end, and tries to barge past an audience member despite surely not heading anywhere. Williams and his brown wing collars continues effervescently on regardless.
The Rah Band – The Crunch
Again. According to someone on Twitter the subtitles read 'STOMPIN' RHYTHM & BLUES PLAYED ON AN ELECTRIC KEYBOARD'. DLT claims he can get bin liners cheap. I bet he can.
Candi Staton – Nights On Broadway
A triumph of Flick-esque literalism in video making as Candi in an ambitious pink trouser suit sings from Broadway. At night. "I'm standing in the dark" she sings under film lighting. Then she sits on the bonnet of a Cadillac. Hope she asked first.
The Jam – All Around The World
Like Danny Williams, the Jam's set is flanked by a huge spiral of red lightbulbs, which they must be proud of as it keeps prominently appearing in a suspiciously large number of side-on shots. Unlike Danny Williams, Weller is wearing shades. If Williams had been given enough weeks, though... Midge Girl is standing right front and centre, angry young men proselytizing youth explosions right beside her, and she's standing side on chatting to someone. This happened last time the Jam were on. Were these really the salad days of punk's life if the youth are not only feigning ignorance but doing it so pointedly?
Elvis Presley – Loving You
Or so it says here, Elvis having died two days previously. It seems to have been cut for rights reasons - it was a clip from the film of the same name and the Presley estate are a lot more hard on that sort of thing being rebroadcast these days, especially as the Beeb don't hold the UK broadcast rights. When a run of Elvis reissues reached number one in 2005 the show was banned from broadcasting any actual footage of him.
Brotherhood Of Man – Angelo
After an age, it finally makes it to the top. Despite this, for once they're not available to come in. Space's synth odyssey Magic Fly sees us out.
55 comments:
Thought I'd try and get in a bit earlier.
DLT back again looky very blokey in a top he bought in the C&A sale.
How many brothels did they have to rob to get all of those red light bulbs?
The Dooleys were a prototype Human League. Dance music, big bloke with funny hair, one girl either side making shapes and providing backing vocals, and three faceless guys in the background, one wearing leather trousers. Only difference is Phil Oakey wore slap and high heels but give Jim Dooley time.
The Floaters, I bought the album at the time which has an extended 11 minute version. perhaps a bit too long. Never quite sure about the lyric "I like a woman who's quiet, who carry's herself like Miss Universe". Is Miss Universe especially quiet then? I don't see the connection. I'm sure we all remember The Barron Knights' version ("My name's Larry and guess what I don't like girls"...). Oh dear.
Elkie Brooks moonlighting from her job as a petrol pump attendant in a tight red boiler suit rivaling Rita Coolidge in the camel toe stakes. Yes we all paused it.
Mink Deville. Is that Neil Innes in the red cap? This is a great song, shame we don't hear all of it.
Legs and Co dancing in black feathers and holding masquerade masks on sticks. Is all these Victorian black ostrich feathers in honour of the death of Elvis?.
Danny Williams "Britain's Johnny Mathis". The Martini ad theme again, shaken but not stirred. Rather over-loud electric piano flourishes but quite nice all the same, actually an improvement on the record. I see Danny's been taking dancing lesson from Delegation.
Crunch time (again). What a shame only one performance of this exists.
Candi Staton (they got her name right at last in the rundown) and she's actually in/on Broadway. I like passers-by in the background, especially the kid with the popcorn who goes past twice as you do when your 8.
Paul Weller preempting Elvis Costello with the BIG specs or are they lightly tinted sunglasses? The only place you could get sunglasses like that in 1977 were Oxfam shops. I like the tall blond girl in blue staring at him at the start like he was from a different planet.
Elvis snuffed out after he snuffed it. How ironic. Does this mean we won't see or hear any of his other hits? They showed The Beatles last year, they showed Gary Glitter but not Elvis. I hate it when things get deleted. Of course we've got a plethora of Elvis tributes to come - eg I Remember Elvis Presley by Danny Effing Mirror and Phil Lynott's King's Call which I always mistakenly thought was a tribute to King Cone (the poor man's Conetto).
Brotherhood of Man with a song that's been in the charts for over two months. Ironic that Donna Summer dropped down to number three after three weeks at number one and yet we didn't have time to get tired of that because of the wiped show, But I am very, very weary of Angelo now and then we've got Figaro to come (did they have any other hits ending in O?). But they could have made the effort to come in. At least with the repeated footage we get to see some light bulbs of a colour other than red.
And lastly Space, well 30 seconds of it. A magic fly swat cuts it off too abruptly, perhaps they'll play more in the late repeat.
I was surprised that Mink de Ville's backing singers were men too! That's very strange, all these years and I thought it was a bunch of lovely ladies trilling the "ooh" bits. Nice dangly earings on Mr de Ville as well.
Did Mr Dooley have a really heavy head? Because he looked to be having trouble keeping it upright, like David Niven in The Brain.
The Floaters is a ridiculous record, but very relaxing if you're not laughing.
Elkie - had to look this up, but I know this song from the hit 90s dance cover by Berri, and never knew it was a cover. Did Elkie do it first?
Legs & Co always looked as if they aspired to be in a Bond movie title sequence, so it was only natural they dance to Nobody Does It Better.
I always look to see what films are playing when you can see a cinema in old clips, and Candi was miming in front of one showing Orca, presumably the Richard Harris versus a vengeance-hungry killer whale movie. Wiki says it opened on the 22nd of July 1977, so that clip of her must have been shot really close to it being broadcast. Also liked seeing the passersby looking dumbfounded at Candi's behaviour, no wonder she was beaming uncertainly.
No Elvis, and I can't imagine they'd cut such a big talking point from the 19.30 broadcast, so the estate of the King might have had their way.
We've already had Elvis this year via Legs & Co, Suspicion in January and Moody Blue in March, and it's through them we'll experience the upcoming number one run of Way Down.
A very pastel-ised show, and a mostly non-comedic and thus vastly improved DLT, playing the subdued card but we never find out why pre-watershed. I didn’t realise the Elvis clip might be cut due to rights issues, but I feel it made sense anyway as it would have seemed a bit random to pay tribute to his passing in primetime all these years later.
The mind can play cruel tricks. With his long hair, sideburns, open shirt, medallion, chest tuft and high pitch vocals, Jim Dooley comes across as a right smug prawn, and the backing vocalists are only partly synchronised, and still I loved this.
The Floaters were stylish and unintentionally comical dancers at the same time. I see Paul’s not too fussy, then. I didn’t expect Charles to have that voice – can someone who wants a Miss Universe type pull it off with that range?
I wonder why The Ladybirds were out of view while our Elaine was backed by a bunch of statues? Nay bother, another fab performance by Elkie, knocking old Rita into a cocked hat..and as for those trews! Why were those kids near the end dancing so fast?
Ah, Mink DeVille, the Yankee Steve Gibbons, playing that guitar almost as much as Tony Etoria. Did he think he was The Fonz? Loved the all-purpose sax / afuche / maraccas man. Talking of fine instrumentalists, I’m gonna miss The Rah Band’s foxy guitarist.
I was really worried that Lulu and Gill might topple over during that routine. Who had the idea of having them flitting about and twirling themselves giddy on different level boxes? Mind you, that routine and those costumes couldn’t have been pulled off with flatties.
First time I’ve heard anyone use the term “anchor position” in the show, and DLT decides to trademark it by saying it again after Danny Williams. Another white outfit? No dancing easy in those trousers. No dancing at all, actually – no ballroom. Boom boom tish!
The start of that Candi Staton clip was so jarring. “Here we are in a room full of strangers”...er, no, love, you’re next to a main road in grave danger of being splatted. “I’m standing in the dark”? What about all those pigging headlights?
Much better camera work for The Jam this time. A cool yet dynamic performance, but those grinning waving kids just didn’t understand the momentous event before them. Poor dunces.
At least we’ve seen the back of “Angelo”, complete with almost non-intro by DLT, obviously focussing more on back-announcing the Elvis video. By the way, The 'Man also started hits with an 'O' - remember "Oh Boy" from a couple of months back? Versatile, them?
Then we get to the most annoying part of the evening. Excellent, after Donna's reign we get some more of ABOTSOEED (a bit of that sort of European electronic disco) but we get the merest soupcon before the show closes. Possibly the shortest out-track of the run so far, and they chop a corker. Le boo!
Re the 'Midge' girl, surely she's out of date because Slik had split up by this point and the remaining members had changed their name to PVC2 who were a punk band. Ironic that she should ignore The Jam when her heroes were going in the same direction.
@Arthur - so you're going to miss The Rah Band’s foxy guitarist - do you mean the bass guitarist with chopsticks in 'her' hair?
Loved your comment about BOM's Oh Boy, I'd forgotten about that one.
Is it just me who seemed to think that Legs and Co were dancing completely bare chested this week? I had to give my specs a good clean and then go have a cold shower!
Also this week, I always for some reason thought that Kevin Godley and Lol Creme performed with Mink De Ville - no idea where I got that idea from.
Some great instrumentals around at this time - always loved that Space one especially.
Is is time for Telephone Man soon - can't contain myself for much longer?
Just to confirm, the Elvis clip was excised from the late show. It's been pointed out that most of the link into it is here. The credits sequence was the same length too, presumably curtailed when they had an extra song to fit in at very late notice.
And also, it would have been too depressing to find out that Elvis was dead and worse still the Brotherhood of Man were still going.
Nice though that Legs performance was, I'd love to see again my favourite performance of that song, which was Matt Baker and Liz Barker "singing" it on Blue Peter a few years back. If someone puts that on YouTube it'll be the best thing on the internet. I wish Legs had danced to The Crunch, not least because we'd have been able to hear the ace original version rather than the wimpy live version. And yes, it did say that in the subtitles.
Because of the wiped shows, the Sky at Night and the fact this is our only window onto 1977 rather than getting to hear Radio 1 at the time, some records on this show seem to come from nowhere and some crawl up the charts, so The Floaters have just turned up and next week they're number one, while Danny Williams was on weeks ago and has only made it to "the anchor position" - almost as good as number one, that.
And the best bit of the whole show was the pan out from Elkie Brooks where that girl in the audience spotted the camera and grinned straight down it.
Sorry, Angelo, it's over another month before you'll see the video for "Telephone Man". Its first showing was on the last wiped edition of TOTP. You'll hear Meri's giggly, breathy vocals over a chart rundown beforehand, though.
As for The Rah Band, I won't miss Chopstick Boy the bassist. It's definitely Foxy Gal I'll miss!
in a previous post i lambasted the doolies for being a poor man's abba. well, having heard this i have to hold up my hand and admit i was wrong - i now realise that i was giving them far too much credit (and offer up my apologies to abba for the slur!)
if anyone gets hold of the floaters' album (or rather the 12" single as like many soul/disco albums of the era the rest of it is complete rubbish), then they'll get to hear the 12 minute version, which in fact starts with the backing track that then segues into the vocal version via some spaced out ambient sounds. in my opinion the backing track is so good it's perfectly listenable in its own right as a soul groover, but also of course it means you too can be a floater and bellow out "caaancer! and ma name is laaarrrryyy!" or make up your own lyrics...
regarding the midge fan - wasn't the object of her affection in the new wave "supergroup" the rich kids along with ex-pistol glen matlock and future-new-romantic-puppet-master rusty egan at that point?
can't say i'm too broken up at the absence of "the king", although i don't think it's fair that anyone should have the right to object to anything being shown...
on a related topic, i've recently been watching the late 70's detective drama "shoestring", and apparently the reason it took so long to get a dvd release was because in an effort to make the radio station that it was based around seem more authentic, snatches of actual hit recordings of the day were used... and some bastard was probably holding out for royalties that they could probably easily do without anyway (i know reg is one suspect)!
Regarding the resurfaced clip of T.Rex, both Dino Dines AND Gloria Jones - a graduate in classical piano - play keyboards. The late Dino handles Hammond organ and synthesiser, while Gloria's on clavinet; all three instruments can be clearly heard.
One of the Legs and Co nearly fell off the rostra during her first twirl....
Re the 31 July 1975 Show it's great to see the whole of the Trex performance, it's a shame the whole show isn't uploaded. Interesting to see that on the rundown that week there were two Hamilton Bohannan singles in the chart at the same time.
@wilberforce re Shestring one of the the reviewers on Amazon revealed that the only artist removed from the soundtrack due to copyright/legal reasons was Lene Lovich (replaced with Blondie's "Heart of Glass"), which seems a bit weird as you'd think she could use the cash but I expect it's to do with the publisher or record company.
But a more outrageous example of source music ruining a DVD release is the Christmas 1984 Just Good Friends 90 min special. This was finally released in 2010 several years after the rest of the series, and was delayed because of an extended party sequence using the a Rolling Stones track.
The Stones still refused to let the BBC use it so the BBC have had to release it (at £31.99 thank you very much) with that 12 minute part of the soundtrack, SILENT WITH SUBTITLES so we hear no music!! Totally ridiculous.
The missing 'anchor position' song in that rundown is "Love Me Baby" by Susan Cadogan. Hamilton Bohannon's simultaneous hits were "Foot Stompin' Music" and "Disco Stomp".
DLT seems a bit subdued - wonder why ?
Love Elkie's red overalls - they look the same as the drain fixer man who comes in our local pub for a beer on Saturday lunchtimes.
Yep, I think it was Lulu nearly coming a cropper on that first spin. A bit harsh, but you have to admit it would have been coming.
I too liked the girl beaming down the camera after Elkie. A lovely smile, one to rival foxy Rah Band Guitarist
Following the gratuitous subliminal mention of Paul Nicholas, I decided to watch the opening 15 minutes of the "Just Good Friends" 1984 Xmas special on YouTube just to see what the fuss was all about. Good grief! Pen and Vince meet at a party held by a former Rolling Stones roadie and there are Stones songs playing constantly throughout the party sequence without a gap. To have that amount of time silenced for that reason is ridiculous. You'd have thought someone somewhere would have realised the significance of the music to the overall storyline and backed down or agreed to negotiate further. Still, Jan Francis was a bit of a looker, wasn't she?
Similar copyright problems afflicted a mid-90s drama series starring Ken Stott and a youthful David Tennant. Called TAKIN'OVER THE ASYLUM it was set in a psychiatric hospital radio station and so music was pretty central to the plot. However all the classic rock/pop songs we hear are blatant re-recordings, though we are supposed to accept that they are the originals! Not a bad drama series though!
not a bad show this week my highlights were the jam mink de ville stranglers and elkie keep up the weekly showing we are 5 weeks behind and another sky at night looms with disapointment from me never mind cant wait to see xmas 77 in march lol get the drift
I thought the guy in the suit that Simon put down to being Danny Williams' security looked more like Mr Bean, perhaps he was Danny's biggest, nerdiest fan. I think the guy in red shirt who runs on stage at the end was from Campari HQ, going to biff Mr Williams on the nose for backing the wrong product.
As the camera panned back at the end there were also two girls there in what looked like jodhpurs and riding boots. Funny things to wear to a pop show.
This is the last time we'll see old Barry Biggs in the chart. I'm going to miss his satin ringmaster outfit. It's a shame that they didn't start The Stranglers' Something Better Change halfway through for the rundown because then the line "Don't you like the cut of my clothes?" would have coincided with Barry's photo in the rundown. Serendipity indeed.
I thought DLT looked not just subdued but perhaps a little 'under the influence' of something. Not enough to start calling Rod Stewart's hit The Killing of Georgie Fame but still enough to notice.
So we did see a subdued DLT this week, and the Elvis death had to be respected ahead of any comedic side of DLT which we have got used to in these shows.
His introduction to the Elvis song was all we could see from the link from 'simon' in this trail.
The legs & co performance of Nobody Does It Better was ironic in that it could easily have described the great Elvis's contribution to pop music, thanks to Carly Simon's timely entry into the charts that week.
Candi Staton must have the greatest smile of 1977 from that video Night On Broadway, and again as the trend was in those days of Top of The Pops, that getting only two minutes of a video was doing us a big favour.
Some 10-15 years later we were redeemed by music TV channels who could give us the full video from start to finish....
A bit like if Englebert Humperdinck is the Tom Jones and Tony Christie the poor man's Englebert if Brotherhood Of Man are the poor man's Abba are The Dooleys the poor man's Brotherhood of Man?
The Floaters - quite impressive that something this good got all the way to Number 1 in the pop charts - love the album version too. Would have been great in the chill-out room at somewhere like Spectrum/Land of Oz back in the day.
Mink De Ville - I can't believe they're blokes on the backing-vocals too. This is a record that I've got to like as I've got older would have hated it as a teenager.
Bloody hell ear-rings in both ears we didn't do that in teenage England till at least about 1984!
Elkie Brooks - much prefer the U4EA/New Atlantic version
Danny Williams - really like this maybe not this TOTP version though. And wearing a genuine 1977 (just) pre-'Saturday Night Fever' John Travolta white open necked 3 piece disco suit
Rah Band - still think it's THE worst ever TOTP version by some distance. Even the way he says "The Crunch" is embarrassing
The Jam - I never realised how the words of this really make a point of distancing themselves from punk "what's the point of saying destroy" "can't dismiss what has gone before" etc. The Jam were always a 100 times more clued in than punk.
Space -(as revived at some Acid house parties in 1988/89) Donna Summer and now this and still Jean-Michel Jarre to hit the Top 5 - we were really spoilt for a few weeks. Pity we only a few seconds this time though.
Actually thought that was one of the better of these repeats.
Apologies for earlier putting this on last week's comments
80sbloke, a) I've cleaned up your posting in the wrong thread and b) you've just reminded me of something - when the Jam were first on there was a lot of reaction (and possibly some direction and creation too) to Kid referring to them as part of "a new rock phenomenon known as New Wave", but Uncut have recently brought out a special Weller magazine which is led by their first cover feature from May 1977, and in the first sentence they're referred to as a new wave band (indeed, Sounds' album review from the same month calls them "more widely accessible than just about anybody sheltering under the New Wave umbrella")
Late again this week....
Dooleys - I really like this song, as I've said before. Not too big a mauling by the TOTP orchestra either. Nice of the lady on the left to just wear a jacket and bra as well - must have been all the red lights....
Floaters - Another great song, nothing like something that's unintentionally amusing but still has a groove. Erm, there probably aren't many songs like that actually (Monkey Chop by Dan-I anyone?!)
Kudos to Lenny Henry for that send-up as well, he'd obviously properly studied the video. Rare to see something that funny from his more recent shows.
Elkie Brooks - Not keen on this one. Liked the dance version initially, but not so much now.
Mink De Ville - Great song, another slightly speeded up video because it's an NTSC transfer though! I can't work out who the lead singer looks most like though....
Alan Partridge's Wet Dream...er, sorry, Carly Simon - Well, the routine's OK I suppose, a bit better than most recent efforts.
Incidentally, are they playing the song live in studio off a wobbly 7 inch? Listen to the audio wobbling around like crazy!
Candi Staton - 2 things I liked about this.
1) There's an advert for some cigarettes (presumably) on one of the billboards in the top right corner where it looks like REAL SMOKE is coming out of the man's mouth. Please tell me that's an optical illusion.
2) I love the bit halfway through where she starts looking a bit confused and worried. Presumably someone was arsing about just out of shot.
(Not) Elvis - I just knew that something had been cut from DLT's intro, it was so obvious. I don't think this clip was a great loss actually, and the only song I liked of his that was released after his death was 'It's Only Love' so I guess I can cope with missing the others anyway (well, the ones that Legs & Co don't dance to)
By the way, there's an extra Pops week after next, but not in the way you might have hoped. Instead there's a one-off leap to 10/11/77 on Wednesday 3rd, as it's the night of the Kenny Everett biopic and that show features the Captain Kremmen video. The normal run continues uninterrupted on Thursday nights, which will be odd given a link in the Wednesday show makes direct reference to a previous single which debuts in the Thursday show.
I watched the show again last night to have another look what the girl does in front of the stage when the Jam are on. Very strange. Seems a massive over-reaction to realise that there's a camera behind you and you might be on TV, since you're in a studio anyway. It's the kind of wave you give to a friend you've spotted in a crowd.
Looking at that DLT Elvis link again, I suspect it was recorded after the rest of the show and jemmied in in case they couldn't find a clip short enough to edit in - nobody's surrounding him, he's in front of a blank bit of the set, on iPlayer the edited programme comes to 29:30. There's no logical reason why they couldn't have dropped the Rah Band or Jam for a proper length tribute clip.
I feel sure elvis died on a wednesday night (here).Remember news at ten being unsure whether he was actually dead with contradicting reports. So that would be totp recording day and therefore already in the can. So that would explain the tribute insert on the thursday.
Well, I haven't got any national newspapers here but looking at its scans on Google the Glasow Herald has it on the front page on Wednesday 17th (although it has potential National Front activity in Birmingham as its lead, strange for a Glasgow paper). Also the famous Radio Luxembourg announcement is according to this site on Tuesday night just before 11pm, so they'd have known by show recording time.
I remember this - it was announced on the Tuesday night by Sandy Gall on "News At Ten" as a very late newsflash, right at the end of the programme and just before the end credits.
As for the idea of dropping The Rah Band and missing out on Foxy Gal Guitarist one last time - sacrilege!
Didn't ITV have trouble getting the rights to footage of Elvis for their news bulletins at the time and had to represent The King with a photo - or was it a drawing? Or is that a myth? If not, it shows the estate had a vice-like grip on their property even then.
It seems strange that UK Gold were allowed to show the Elvis footage, but theh BBC not, They did cut DLT's intro to Sunshine After The Rain, but isn't really as big as loss!
great will see the kid next time with a haircut
re: The Jam, what i'm wondering now - since Midge T-Shirt Girl at the front proves that this performance belongs to this subdued cornflake episode, was the appearance on the 040877 wiped episode a 3rd appearance or a repeat of the first (210777)? seems unlikely at this early stage of their totp life but they did have 3 appearances of their summer 78 hit.
The Elvis estate seemed to be less autocratic in the past. Does anyone remember the fantastic 80s BBC series THE ROCK N'ROLL YEARS? Plenty of Elvis footage was used including 'Just loving you' for the 1957 retrospective. Incidently (ultra anorak mode!)in the episode recounting 1977 Elkie's 'Sunshine after the rain' was used to accompany the item about Elvis's death. By way of the new order they then immediately launched into the punk phenomenon.
I had a listen to the start of that Radio Luxembourg clip. It was a completely different world back then. The news headlines featured a brief summary of the details of Elvis's death, then onto the sport and some gratuitous plugs for the Daily Mirror before handing over to an emotional Tony Prince. Compare and contrast with the overpowering coverage of Michael Jackson's death in these days of 24 hour channel / internet lowest common denominator / reporting.
Elvis's death was all over radio one on the wednesday,they played his records every hour, DLT said on Thursday nights show it was a couple of days ago, it could have been inserted, The spy who loved me was the last film Elvis ever saw, so it was said.
Fashion faux pas of the week must go to the Dooleys' guitarist for wearing s toffee coloured leather trouser suit.
Midge Ure was still in PVC2 in August 1977 and would be until October when he joined Rich Kids, then Visage and then Thin Lizzy!
According to Popscene each performance of The Jam's All Around The World was different. It is odd that this was done with a fairly unknown group but they had done it before, eg Brendon.
Hard to imagine that the only footage the BBC can offer of Kenny Everett is a clip from TOTP.
I'll be very interested to see the Kremmen video anyway. It doesn't seem to be on YouTube, has anyone seen it here? Is it just footage from the Thames series with the "song" over it? I'm hoping for something more customised.
I was hoping we'd get one of Kenny's BBC shows on the same night as the docudrama thingy - is that not likely then?
I have the 'Naughty Bits' DVD which is a decent enough compilation of the Thames shows (though it is just a transfer of 2 VHS's I believe) but although the Beeb released a compilation on VHS, we've had nothing on DVD. Rights issues again presumably....
No, there's two different best of compilations either side of the drama.
Ooh, that's good news. I wonder if they're both BBC material or a mixture.
Either way I'm looking forward to this evening of Kennydom, I used to literally make myself ill (my asthma was VERY bad when I was young) watching his programmes.
Given the name of the compilations - with reference to "Television Shows", plural - and the fact there are two half hour shows, I am certain these are the two compilations that BBC1 showed just after his death. All BBC stuff, but still good.
Apparently the Pops repeat as part of this night might not actually be that 1977 edition...
Wow, it's changed on DigiGuide:
"MUSIC: Kenny Everett - Top of the Pops: 1973
On: BBC 4
Date: Wednesday 3rd October 2012 (starting in 7 days)
Time: 20:00 to 20:30 (30 minutes long)
Kenny Everett looks at the weekly pop chart from 1973 and introduces the Electric Light Orchestra, Elton John, Michael Ward, Status Quo, Pan's People, Englebert Humperdinck, Slade and Limmie and the Family Cookin'.
(Repeat, Subtitles)"
So... what do I do with that vis a vis this blog?
Can I be the first to say PLEASE do a commentary for it!
That's two great bits of news a TOTP from the classic (pre-light entertainment) era and a TOTP introduced by Kenny Everett something we'd never get in the usual repeats.
And ta to Simon for cleaning up my incorrectly placed post.
Wow, that is fantastic news!
Especially as I suspected that if it HAD been the 1977 edition, they would have missed it out later in the year rather than repeat it just to put us anoraks who like things in sequence all out of kilter.
Nice to see what I assume is a flop by Michael Ward there. And The Hump is on it too!!
That's an eclectic roster on Kenny's edition! Just checked up and found that The Hump's single was actually the flop on the show, only making the 40's, while Michael Ward (by the look of him, some precocious Neil Reid / Aled Jones type) actually made the top 20. Mind you, his single included the might of Alyn Ainsworth and the Mike Sammes Singers!
Any takers for a couple of quick pavilion-pleasing singles before the next ediiton?
http://one-for-the-dads.979225.n3.nabble.com/Some-Great-News-td3999676.html News From Sue Herself :-)
Great news - 1978 TOTP's will be shown on BBC4 next year !
GET IN!!!
I can just see Simon slapping his head against his forehead thinking "here we go again..."
The news just gets better and better. But we're not supposed to be discussing the 1973 show before it gets transmitted ('naughty, naughty' as Joy Sarney would say), that's tempting fate. But I can't wait either...
With regard to Captain Kremmen I'm sure I remember seeing Mike Vickers in the studio wearing a big cape but perhaps that was the video. This would make more sense because the TOTP's record for representing ITV-related acts (eg Benny Hill, Rock Follies) was not good and I expect they would rather show a video than have them (as they saw it) 'polluting' their studio.
BTW fans of Kenny Everett's World's Worst Record shows should check out Bill Bailey's fab site (I should express an interest as I contributed some of the info under my real name David):
http://www.chronoglide.com/wwwshome.html
Sorry meant to say Simon, yes please include a commentary on the 1973 show that we can comment on. It will be like a visual version of Pick Of The Pops - 1977 and 1973.
Regarding the smoking billboard in Nights On Broadway, the 'smoke' was actually steam and advertised Winston cigarettes (there was an identical smoker on the opposite corner of the building, with a Gordon's Gin billboard sandwiched between them).
Apparently, the Winston smoker(s) were resident in Times Square for five years and blew the last of their approximate 1000 daily smoke/steam rings on 13.9.1977.
Here's a photo of the one seen accompanying Candi:
http://goo.gl/RDanO
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