TOTP on BBC4

[Squarewheelbike]

TOTP on BBC4

Thoroughly enjoyed thi weeks repeat. A young Rita Crudgington making an apperance, and the the producers coming to the conclusion that the best thing to do with Legs & Co was to put them in tiny pants and film their arses. Worked for me!

[Come along, Min]

TOTP on BBC4

Excellent show tonight, one of the best I've seen. All sorts of great stuff, hardly any crap. That bug eyed twat from the Darts who keeps extending his part too far really gets my gander.

Elkie Brooks doing a very sweet groovy version of Only Love Can Break Your Heart was the surprise gem. X Ray Spex proper rocked it, Poly Styrene looked like she was enjoying it so much, great record as well. Plastic Bertrand had a blast, what a classic pop record that is. Legs & Co. doing Love Is in The Air.. terrible outfits though, and their set looked like it was horsed together without a second thought.

1978 was very good year.

[G-Man]

TOTP on BBC4

I bet Plastic Bertand wasn't singing live.

[Come along, Min]

TOTP on BBC4

ha!, no, but his performance was good, if dancing around like a kid can be entertaining he nailed it.

[Jah Womble]

TOTP on BBC4

This week's was indeed a goodie. Very decent chart balancing Rose Royce, Boney M, etc, with The Stranglers, Ian Dury and Squeeze, etc. Mixed memories of revising for 'O' levels and anticipating the impending World Cup...

That bug eyed twat from the Darts who keeps extending his part too far really gets my gander.

All those Seaside Special-friendly acts seemed to have someone like that who over-egged it all. That annoying bloke from The Flying Pickets with the sideburns always taking his teeth out for no good reason springs to mind...

Only Love Can Break Your Heart was a good choice of song for Elkie Brooks, but, man alive, that arrangement sucked big time. She had a big voice - why didn't they allow it space? No wonder it wasn't a hit.

I think Smokie were on pretty much every week.

X-Ray Spex won the day, of course. Great, great record - and props to TOTP for playing out the entire track.

[Gangster Octopus]

TOTP on BBC4

I used to wonder why I never picked up on Chic before Freak Out, especially as they had quite a few hits before it. Watching the last few months of TOTP 78, it's become obvious why. They're always in the chart rundown, but never seem to appear on the show...

[Jah Womble]

TOTP on BBC4

(NB It was Rose Royce, not Chic, over this week's chart rundown.)

[George]

TOTP on BBC4

Raffaella Carrà at No.12!! - she plays the show out at the end as well.

I never thought she did anything over here?

Peter Powell is unbearable to watch. I'm not even sure he was human.

[Gangster Octopus]

TOTP on BBC4

Jah Womble wrote: (NB It was Rose Royce, not Chic, over this week's chart rundown.)

In, not over.

[Jah Womble]

TOTP on BBC4

(NB It was Rose Royce, not Chic, over this week's chart rundown.)

In, not over.

Eh? It was It Makes You Feel Like Dancing - the Rose Royce hit (ie, not Chic) - that was played over the rundown. What's da issue?

Raffaella Carrà at No.12!! - she plays the show out at the end as well.

I never thought she did anything over here?

Do It Do It Again (or whatever the title) was a sizeable hit here on the back of many, many light ent appearances by her on TV: for about a month she seemed to crop up doing that stupid 'whiplash' dance every time I switched the blessed thing on. Never had another hit, of course.

[Gangster Octopus]

TOTP on BBC4

Basically Chic always appear (usually round about #18 (without a bullet)) on the rundown, but I've yet to hear them in any way; on the show, being danced to by Legs & Co or over either the chart rundown or the end credits.

[David Agnew]

TOTP on BBC4

They've been on at least twice (either video or legs&coed), as they've been introduced by Tony Blackburn twice, both times calling them "Chick"

[Gangster Octopus]

TOTP on BBC4

They must pick the weeks when I'm not watching. Typical...

[Gangster Octopus]

TOTP on BBC4

Thinking about it, that's probably what happened thirty-five years ago as well...

[Jah Womble]

TOTP on BBC4

Okay, I think I understand. Assumed you were referring to this week's specific show. Perhaps you were. Oh, I don't know.

[pat51]

TOTP on BBC4

Wonderful mix tonight

Substitute by Clout, a clip borrowed from Dutch TV as the South African roots of the girls meant Equity ban on live appearances.kept off the Number One by 'You're the one that I want

Smurf Song to start and Marley to finish

Justin Hayward, ELO ,a band that might have been Magazine

And 5 7 0 5 ..a wonderful OTT romp about a dead phone line

AND 'PRODICAL SON' by STEEL PULSE. Amazed the Handsworth Revolution was allowed on TOTP.

The presenter made Bob Harris sound shouty..

[Squarewheelbike]

TOTP on BBC4

Were Clout recruited through a female prison officer network, they were scary!

[G-Man]

TOTP on BBC4

Ha. You and Jah Womble should get together for a discussion on Clout. I maintain that the blonde on the keyboard was quite lovely though.

[Come along, Min]

TOTP on BBC4

The Clout record is a great little pop record. I thought their appearance had a certain charm to it, it had me grinning from ear to ear. They looked like a collection of Shake N' Vac ladies.

Leg's & Co bit (The Boogie Oogie Oogie piece rather than the Grease piece) was a good one this week, with particular credit going to the member of the troupe in the front right wearing the dress with the high cut leg slit.

Pity they cant show the film footage from Grease for the #1. L&C's piece for that is terrible. That black fellow they draft in for it is wooden and jars with the vibe a bit too much for me.

[Gangster Octopus]

TOTP on BBC4

pat51 wrote: a band that might have been Magazine

You didn't recognise Buzzcocks?

[pat51]

TOTP on BBC4

Gangster Octopus wrote:

a band that might have been Magazine

You didn't recognise Buzzcocks?

thought it wss Howard ..but the song wasn't quite 'spiral scratch' style

[Gangster Octopus]

TOTP on BBC4

Too much hair for Howard...

[Jah Womble]

TOTP on BBC4

thought it wss Howard ..but the song wasn't quite 'spiral scratch' style

The clue is usually in the 'love interest' lyrics - little of that existed in Devoto's days.

Not a bad edition at all, that, with TOTP - having succumbed to the new wave - finally pandering to a bit of contemporary reggae action. (I hadn't realised that Steel Pulse had performed Prodigal Son on the show, so good to see that and my old mate Mykaell Riley.)

Marshall Hain's Dancing in the City has aged quite well - even if they did look like a couple of Fame also-rans who'd just been given the bad news.

Pity they cant show the film footage from Grease for the #1.

Pretty sure it was aired for most of those nine long weeks that the song was number one. (Ditto the clip for Summer Nights.)

But let's not get onto Clout again, eh?

[Gangster Octopus]

TOTP on BBC4

Jah Womble wrote: Pretty sure it [the Grease video] was aired for most of those nine long weeks that the song was number one.

Yeah, me too.

[David Agnew]

TOTP on BBC4

They definitely did for Summer Nights, but the film was out by then, it didn't come out until August 1978.