TOTP on BBC4

[Benjm]

TOTP on BBC4

Ruby Flipper are, entirely logically, dressed as French sex workers for Play That Funky Music, White Boy, prompting a 'nice outfits' quip from the repulsive Hamilton.

Old friends Liverpool Express then make a return before the producers charitably allow David Essex to make a nationwide televised appeal for a heavy beating.

New chart-toppers Pussycat make Dr Hook look like Roxy Music.

Having missed a few weeks, I foolishly assumed that I'd just be able to slip back into it. That was hubris - a few half episodes to reacclimatise would have been far more sensible.

[Jah Womble]

TOTP on BBC4

These TOTP repeats are very much 'occasional' snacks, in my book. Consuming the whole lot is asking for trouble, frankly...

[oscar mike]

TOTP on BBC4

Ruby Flipper are, entirely logically, dressed as French sex workers for Play That Funky Music, White Boy, prompting a 'nice outfits' quip from the repulsive Hamilton.

According to Wikipedia, that was their last appearance, it seems Bill Cotton wanted an all-girl troupe. Legs & Co made their debut the following week.

Yes, I'm bored at work.

[Commodore]

TOTP on BBC4

Lagging slightly behind after a week away so at this point Mississippi has now become my latest ear-worm (far too many S's and P's though, took me at least five goes to spell it correctly). Sadly no-one seemed to tell Bolan that Glam was dead. He remembered his shirt this time though.

No particular low-lights this week as it happens (now then, now then), although the sorry looking Ruby Flipper duck competes with the shabby creation performing with a somewhat ill-at-ease looking Dees, clearly unprepared for the success of his own piss-take.

Rubberband Man was just fine, although it looks as though Ruby Flipper were doing some sort of Shake-weight demonstration. Never thought I'd suggest that they were ahead of their time.

Having murdered reggae, Paul Nicholas and his hat do more to damage disco than the aforementioned Dees. Thank the lord for Abba, says I.

Savile's shirt is hideous, but works in making him less so. It bears repeating that he is the lowest on the cuntitude factor compared to his fellow presenters. An indictment if ever there was one.

[Squarewheelbike]

TOTP on BBC4

Ruby Flipper have been binned! Never saw that coming. They've kept some of the lasses and added a few more, so it's now six girls. If you write in to Ed "Stewpot" Stewart you can suggest a new name for them!

Thought long and hard, and think I'll go for;

"Flange"!

Any other suggestions out there?

[Come along, Min]

TOTP on BBC4

New dancers looked dreamy, sexy and wonderful this week. Pure class when compared with Ruby Flipper. Also, the main dancer had noticeable legs.

For that reason I sent a postcard with my suggested name of - Legs & Co..

Crossed fingers.

[Sean of the Shed]

TOTP on BBC4

My choice would be Oh, it's this lot again, I guess they couldn't afford him.

[Benjm]

TOTP on BBC4

It takes a special kind of pillock to impress after all these weeks of watching world class creepiness and stupidity from Saville, Hamilton, Travis and Edmonds but Ed Stewart easily holds his own. No wonder Danny Baker was so taken with his autobiography.

The demise of the Flipper could mark the end of TOTP 1976 for me. I phoned in to suggest Lech & Co as the new name, to more explicitly acknowledge the troupe's purpose, but it was a bad line. We'll see.

[torres]

TOTP on BBC4

That cunt Stewart was always pretending to be a big Everton fan in the 60s and 70s, he must have reverted to Chelsea as their fortunes improved.

[My Name Is Ian]

TOTP on BBC4

I am downloading a lot of TOTP from the mid to late 1980s at the moment, and each episode is like a little time machine. Doesn't even matter if the music is any good, really.

The truly remarkable TOTP thing that I now have in my possession now, though, is the 25th Anniversary Special from 1989, featuring a number of almost-but-not-quite one-hit wonders from the 1960s (The Swinging Blue Jeans, for example, open it) in leather trousers, with a slight hint of desperation in their eyes. "We've still got it", they say, without saying it. They haven't.

[George]

TOTP on BBC4

How much SAW dreck is there on that show? Not the greatest period in pop to celebrate such a milestone.

[Come along, Min]

TOTP on BBC4

@My Name Is Ian

I would like to get my mits on that 25th anniversary show. How do I go about it?

[My Name Is Ian]

TOTP on BBC4

George: It's not an ordinary episode of TOTP, so there isn't much.

Atlanticjaxx: Drop me a PM, would probably be the easiest way.

I think I probably have 1000 words on this programme in me. I might get on that this afternoon.

[George]

TOTP on BBC4

We've got the shows entire 30th anniversary evening from 1994 on a dusty old VHS tape somewhere. proceedings include the resurrected for one night only 'Mike Read's Pop Quiz'. Danny Baker's 'TV Heroes' focusing on the TOTP audiences might be on there as well, I'm not too sure. I'll have to trawl through all the old cassettes to try to find the thing and possibly get it uploaded.

[Commodore]

TOTP on BBC4

Ah... Stewpot (how did he get that name?) The bit at the end with Joe Bugner was awkward, reminiscent of Peter Marinello's ill-conceived appearance.

I also now want to play slide guitar using a gun like that Pussycat fellah. Maybe Jim can fix it for me to... oh.

[Satchmo Distel]

TOTP on BBC4

Stewpot's autobiography from the above link:

"I met my wife when she was 13, in 1970…" P.146 (He was 34 at this point)

"…my wife started on my stomach – and nothing else! – when she was 13…" P.147

[George]

TOTP on BBC4

Danny Baker's other favorite Sing Lofty: Thoughts Of A Gemini (the autobiography of Don Estelle) looks like another jaw dropper as well.

[dalliance]

TOTP on BBC4

Gah, what on earth was that about with Ruby Flipper dancing to Theme From Jaws.

Look scared now, all 2.43 seconds of sheer hereawfulness is on You Tube

[Come along, Min]

TOTP on BBC4

It wasn't Ruby Flipper, they were correctly dumped a couple of weeks ago.

The troupe on tonight were the still to be named Legs & Co.

They were great, I could watch them boogie all night. Sexy as you like, shaking their ass in their panties, mmm.

[Jah Womble]

TOTP on BBC4

Grim stuff, last night's episode - first one I've watched for a few weeks. Remarkable to see how amateur the whole shebang was, with Blackburn improvising badly over an appalling script and some of the acts sounding like they'd never played before in their lives. (Simon May - bloody hell, I bought that single for my mom! How grim was that? Though not as dreadful as his performance of 'We'll Gather Lilacs'. Look out for that some time in 1977...)

And what the eff was going on with Peter Cetera' of Chicago's hair?

That cunt Stewart was always pretending to be a big Everton fan in the 60s and 70s, he must have reverted to Chelsea as their fortunes improved.

At least David 'Quid' Jensen had the excuse of being Canadian when he openly switched from Wolves to Crystal Palace in 1979.

[Benjm]

TOTP on BBC4

dalliance wrote:

Gah, what on earth was that about with Ruby Flipper dancing to Theme From Jaws.

Look scared now, all 2.43 seconds of sheer hereawfulness is on You Tube

That is poor, and encapsulates what has been lost with the purge of the male dancers; at least in a Ruby Flipper routine one of them would have drawn the short straw and been made to run around dressed as a shark.

[George]

TOTP on BBC4

Simon May and his ''Orchestra'' (a Yamaha DX7) were later responsible for the theme tunes to Eastenders, Eldorado and Howards' Way. A damning body of work.

Christ! Blackburn proclaims The Summer of My Love to be one of his 'Records of the Week' as well.

[Jah Womble]

TOTP on BBC4

Indeed - how May managed to claw any kind of music career from the wreckage of his attempt at pop stardom, I'll never know.

'Summer of My Life' - the actual single version was slightly better, but not much. (Like I said, look out for the May 1977 edition when he murders 'WGL'. Jaw-dropping stuff...)

[Squarewheelbike]

TOTP on BBC4

Well I was initially freaked out by the Jaws dance routine, but it quickly gave way to mmm fit dancers in rubber!

[Commodore]

TOTP on BBC4

Quite a mix of the sublime (Joan Armatrading) and the god-awful (Chicago). Blackburn destroyed what precious little cred he had left with championing May's saccharin offering. The Jaws routine was interesting, one Lalo Schifrin number I wasn't aware that existed.

Most heart-warming bit of nostalgia was hearing that postcode back in the days when post was king. W12 8QT somehow evokes memories of every BBC kids programme I watched at childhood and rolled of the tongue no matter who pronounced it. Same could be said of Leo Sayer; hate him or really hate him he was a defining act for that era.