Top of the Pops Repeats

[thehamish]

I'm not saying it wasn't seen on telly at all, thehamish. Just that it initially failed to transform the mainstream in any measurable way until a couple of years in. And, in the meantime, 1977 TOTP still looks as though it's been preserved in aspic since 1973.

Hey, im not arguing. On another site, the BOM's current song was described as "the pinnacle of their brit Abba phase". i am now banned from that site. ahem. Watching these episodes is like watching the last days of the roman empire for me, cant wait for The Saints etc.

[TheRoadWarrior]

I've caught a few of the TOTP episodes and they've been interesting, but prefer programmes on BBC4 like the recent run on every group and era, the latest being about The Doors - L.A. Woman.

[Dave Jay]

Hey, im not arguing. On another site, the BOM's current song was described as "the pinnacle of their brit Abba phase". i am now banned from that site. ahem. Watching these episodes is like watching the last days of the roman empire for me, cant wait for The Saints etc.

Yup, that BOM song was beyond hideous! It's funny, though... I would have been the first to extol the virtues of growing up watching TOTP during the '70s... how much worse it is today... how they don't make 'em like that any more, etc. etc.

But watching it now it really puts it into perspective. Apart from the odd golden period during the late '60s and late '70s/early '80s, the mainstream has ALWAYS been shit. I must've been wearing some fuck-off pair of rose-tinted glasses to think otherwise.

[drterror666]

I never really thought of it before how TOTP at the end of the 70's was stuck in some kind of conservative time warp. Thank the gods we had a plethora of punk/new wave that finally forced them to break the mould.

[thehamish]

Indeed. It all seems like some hideous end of the pier show. roll on thursday though.....

[TheRoadWarrior]

that said,
Pan's People still warm up the coffee cup.

[drterror666]

Well, you would, wouldn't you?

[Blink]

Well, you would, wouldn't you?

What about Legs & Co ?

[drterror666]

Legs & Co. and Pan's People? Are you trying to kill me?!

[Blink]

Legs & Co. and Pan's People? Are you trying to kill me?!

Depending what era you come from ? Some go for Pan's People and some go for Legs & Co.

[TheRoadWarrior]

I'm not sure when I first saw either of them, that's the problem with some of the repeat-cycles, some of the TOTP's are definitely a bit fuzzy, I may have been too young... only started noticing them around the early to mid-eighties. Ahh, what the heck, good art is good art, whenever you discover it! I'm catching up now.

[thehamish]

Top of the Pops 7th April 1977
Ahem, Diddy Hamilton appears flanked by prepubescents, looking for all intense purposes like the archetypal PE teacher, first up are Blue, who were faceless mushy plop and one of the many reasons Punk had to happen, then next up was Billy Ocean, who wore a suit so red it was like a walking version of Suspiria, in fact i had to turn the contrast down haha, the song was a faux Motown concoction, meh.
Next up was David Soul (with Hamilton and Dundas on this week, there was an overload of Daves this week....) who luckily wasnt in the studio, so they whipped out Legs & Co who resembled those toilet roll covers you used to get....
then twas D Dundas, can i just say here that Jeans On was his only half decent song (and that's pushing it) as this dross was unbearably twee.
next Diddy tried some humor. And Failed, soft target etc.
the rest of the programme was a cavalcade of complacent smuggery (Bonnie Tyler, Lyndsey De Paul, Stylistics...) topped off with a desultory "interview" with Mike Nesmith (looking like Bonnie Prince Billy's dad...) then came the mighty ABBA with one of the most bitter number ones ever, great video as well, those backwards glances! indeed a picture speaks a thousand words.....Moody Blue was the playout, he already sounded dead at this point as far as i could hear anyhow....

[Blink]

Lyndsey De Paul

With Mike Moran singing Rock Bottom the brit entry for Eurovision that year it came and it went. At least Lyndsey looked nice.


Out of the 7th April 1977 episode there were only about 4 tunes that had not been on before from a previous episode,that is the problem with TotP is the repeat performances.

[Mark Y]

I think this week's was one of the worst I've seen. Bring on the punk groups!

[thehamish]

Indeed, total mush, can only imagine the nightmare if you hate the swedes as well haha, The Visitors reissued 23rd btw!!! Cannot pissing wait ahem.

[Blink]

Tonight at 7.30 BBC Four,this time David Jensen looks at the weekly pop chart from 1977 and introduces the Dead End Kids, Showaddywaddy, Elkie Brooks,Cliff Richard, Manhattans, Deniece Williams and OC Smith.

The Legs & Co routine is a hoot.

[Dave Jay]

Just finished watching this week's episode: the usual crap, with the definite low point being The Dead End Kids, the singer of whom dresses like Leo Sayer on smack and has the dead-eyed stare of a kiddie fiddler.

Only real plus for me this week was Deniece Williams' 'Free', which I've always thought to be a feckin' gorgeous tune. Oh, and the line from the otherwise dirge-like 'Pearl's A Singer' that goes "She wanted to be Betty Grable, but now she sits there at a beer-stained table." My life encapsulated in song, right there.

[drterror666]

Oh, and the line from the otherwise dirge-like 'Pearl's A Singer' that goes "She wanted to be Betty Grable, but now she sits there at a beer-stained table." My life encapsulated in song, right there.

I think that line may actually encapsulate the lives of nearly everyone on here!

[thehamish]

Last nights episode was total slurry. Even the awful Legs & Co "routine" failed to raise a titter. Only Jensen's blatant drunkeness livened proceedings up a tad. Thankfully ABBA are still number one, astride the pop spectrum like four gods with cobs on, with the dour, sour "video" (though Under Attack is more crippilingly hard to watch....)....not long now til The Visitors, i may just pass out with excitement before then....

[Dave Jay]

Wow, that Legs & Co. dance number was some of the most embarrassingly bad choreography I've ever seen. But you gotta love the exquisite obviousness of their routines: got a song called 'Love Hit Me'? Well then, simply have the girls hitting each other repeatedly for three minutes. Genius.