TOTP on BBC4

[Sean of the Shed]

TOTP on BBC4

Lots of people are obviously very easily amused, then.

[Jah Womble]

TOTP on BBC4

AC/DC's genius Touch Too Much greeted by blank looks from bewildered shufflers clearly disappointed that it wasn't the Nolans which was cut short just before the solo as the camera panned to Steve Wright who clearly had something wrong with his neck as his head was wobbling all over the place.

That might be one of the oddest sentences ever written.

[Calvert]

TOTP on BBC4

Yeah, it's not great is it?
Maybe not as strange as you're making out. I'm sure you get the gist, though.

[Squarewheelbike]

TOTP on BBC4

longeared wrote:

Nothing Wright has done has changed since the 80s. I'm amazed he's managed to maintain a flagship midweek daytime show for this long on national radio. A tedious cock who isn't even a tenth as entertaining as he thinks he is.

Lots of people love the show, though.

Lots of people bought Jeffrey Archer books!

[Jah Womble]

TOTP on BBC4

I suspect longeared was alluding to one of Wright's most tediously-overused expressions, as supposedly gushed by listeners to his Radio Two request show. Though I could be wrong.

[longeared]

TOTP on BBC4

No, you're quite correct Jah. Tough crowd on here sometimes...

[Gangster Octopus]

TOTP on BBC4

Speeding up the AC/DC song up to 1.5 time just about made it bearable.

[Calvert]

TOTP on BBC4

Aye, it'd be difficult to ballroom dance to, right enough.

[Borracho]

TOTP on BBC4

I keep meaning to start a thread on here about bands who are long overdue to be rehabilitated, and bands who have long since been rehabilitated but should immediately be shelved again. I'll give you three guesses which category AC/DC fall into . . .

[Calvert]

TOTP on BBC4

They've been rehabilitated more times than Gazza.

I don't care.
Their Bon Scott stuff is astoundingly good.
I'd pull the curtains if they were playing in the back yard.

Haven't we done this a billion times?

[Jah Womble]

TOTP on BBC4

The second and final showing of Touch Too Much occurred on the edition of TOTP that immediately followed Scott's death (19/2/80).

However, whichever wunnerful Radio One DJ it was that hosted that day didn't see fit to mention this in any shape or form.

[Calvert]

TOTP on BBC4

That's quite something.
I notice they didn't show the excellent live video of Too Much Too Young in its entirety either. Not sure if it was one of their typically clumsy edits, but I seem to recall there was a bit of a kerfuffle about the mentioning of a contraceptive device in the last line?

Jah will know this one too. Probably.

[Jah Womble]

TOTP on BBC4

Yep, that was pretty much it, AFAIR - the song was also curtailed by daytime radio to avoid the mention of 'cap' at its end. Like most R1 listeners would've picked up on that. The majority probably wouldn't even have understood what it meant.

[Squarewheelbike]

TOTP on BBC4

I think if you asked most people under 50 what a cap is these days you'd get blank looks!

[David Agnew]

TOTP on BBC4

MsD wrote:

The lyrics to Suzi Quatro's Mama's Boy pretty much illustrate why this was the first - and only - self-penned hit she'd enjoyed. (And I'd been a fan.)

That was awful. A disappointment , because I'd always had the impression that she was dumbing down to song Chinnichap songs (great tunes, shit lyrics) and would do something more proto-punk if she cut loose.

Was Suzi Quatro "for real" (so to speak). My only memories of here are from after her pop career, but she always seemed to be trying so hard to be cool, and a rocker, but had all the authenticity of a geography teacher doing a turn at the end of school term disco. Maybe it was the fact she was a bassist (and one who played a low-slung bass at that), which made her look different from other guitarists.

Last week:

1: SPECIALS - Too Much Too Young 
3: MADNESS - My Girl 
10: KENNY ROGERS - Coward Of The County 
15: JON & VANGELIS - I Hear You Now 
19: ASYMUTH - Jazz Carnival (legs & company)
20: NEW MUSIK - Living By Numbers 
27: RUPERT HOLMES - Escape 
29: SELECTER - Three Minute Hero (charts)
30: QUEEN - Save Me (credits)
36: RAMONES - Baby I Love You 
40: KEITH MICHELL - Captain Beaky 
46: BILLY OCEAN - Are You Ready 
47: JOHN FOXX - Underpass 
52: SHADOWS - Riders In The Sky 
56: REVILLOS - Motor Bike Beat 

Quick notes here - Six live in-studio performances, but the lowest six tracks shown. The audience must have felt more underwhelmed than normal (Ramones & BBC Orchestra apart) - Madness, New Musik & Rupert Holmes were all repeats.

Rupert Holmes was shown despite being a non-mover at 27, which seems odd.

This week:

1: SPECIALS - Too Much Too Young 
3: NOLAN SISTERS - I'm In The Mood For Dancing 
5: JOE JACKSON - It's Different For Girls 
8: BOOMTOWN RATS - Someone's Looking At You 
11: REGENTS - 7 Teen 
18: WHISPERS - And The Beat Goes On 
20: QUEEN - Save Me 
21: SELECTER - Three Minute Hero 
27: CLIFF RICHARD - Carrie 
28: BUGGLES - Living In The Plastic Age 
30: JEFFERSON STARSHIP - Jane 
44: CHORDS - Maybe Tomorrow 
46: TOURISTS - So Good To Be Back Home Again 
47: AC/DC - Touch Too Much 

No room for Styx, despite them being a climber in the top 10.

Jah Womble wrote: Yep, that was pretty much it, AFAIR - the song was also curtailed by daytime radio to avoid the mention of 'cap' at its end. Like most R1 listeners would've picked up on that. The majority probably wouldn't even have understood what it meant.

Perhaps he didn't want to highlight that it was a repeat showing. Although certain DJs of that era would have managed to suggest that "he may have died last Saturday, but he's still here tonight..."

[G-Man]

TOTP on BBC4

Suzi Quatro was very much a product. Her first year in England was spent not on recording but on shaping her image. But I think it's fair to say that the image was a reflection of her personality, rather than an artificial creation. That was unlike, say, Marc Bolan, who used to be a introverted hippie until he hit on the idea to make pop-rock music and play with gender types.

If Quatro looked like she was "trying hard", it probably was because she had to. Her persona was quite revolutionary: there were very few women playing rock music as solo acts, and virtually none who were also Top 40 acts.

[Jah Womble]

TOTP on BBC4

I think if you asked most people under 50 what a cap is these days you'd get blank looks!

Likely most would be imagining something along the lines of 'pop a cap in yo' ass' - which conjures up all kinds of unpleasant imagery.

Manufactured or otherwise, Suzi Q seemed very much the real deal for that first pair of 1973 hit records - both of which remain absolute barnstormers. As G-Man says, there weren't really any other hit-potential rock women: Bobbie McGee was launched pretty much simultaneously (and to almost unanimous indifference), but, uh, never looked quite the part to me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om-5e6YI5Ts

[KGR]

TOTP on BBC4

Suzi did cover Warm Leatherette, apparently in 1980. Includes a swear.

[wittoner]

TOTP on BBC4

[quote=G-Man post=1019210] That was unlike, say, Marc Bolan, who used to be a introverted hippie until he hit on the idea to make pop-rock music and play with gender types.

/quote]

Bolan's Hippie persona was every bit as much a construct as his later glam rock one, He was a mod at the very beginning of his career,

[Satchmo Distel]

TOTP on BBC4

Quatro was so before her time that there was a natural limit to how big she could become (like Patti Smith in another sense). Today there would be songwriters and producers falling over themselves to give her a long career in the spotlight.

Instead she became the younger sister of Fonzie's girlfriend.

[David Agnew]

TOTP on BBC4

1: Coward Of The County  - KENNY ROGERS
5: Captain Beaky  - KEITH MICHELL
8: I Hear You Now  - JON & VANGELIS
12: Rock With You  - MICHAEL JACKSON (legs & co)
17: I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down  - ELVIS COSTELLO
20: Baby I Love You  - RAMONES (credits)
21: Riders In The Sky  - SHADOWS
22: Buzz Buzz A Diddle It  - MATCHBOX
23: Too Hot  - KOOL AND THE GANG (charts)
39: Singing The Blues  - DAVE EDMUNDS
45: At The Edge  - STIFF LITTLE FINGERS
49: Take That Look Off Your Face  - MARTI WEBB
55: TV  - FLYING LIZARDS

John Foxx (31), Rainbow (second highest chart entry at 37), Peter Gabriel (38), Shalamar (44), Fern Kinney (new at 46), Sammy Hagar (new at 48) all passed over at the expense of BBC favourite Marti Webb.

[Sean of the Shed]

TOTP on BBC4

Looking back, that Captain Beaky shit was an exasperating pile of old twaddle, and more so for the poor fuckers holding up those placards behind him in the studio. Every one of them had a look on their face that gave the impression that they just wanted death to take them to spare them any further embarrassment, having never realised beforehand the true cost of entry in the Top of the Pops studio, ie the toll on their self esteem and mental health, and that is before they have even had to endure the groping hands of sexually deviant disc jockeys.

[Sean of the Shed]

TOTP on BBC4

Such a shame that none of the Shadows were capable of emitting anything other than a high pitched shrill squeaking sound only audible to dogs and bats.

[Jah Womble]

TOTP on BBC4

Clearly you don't recall the Shads' timeless vocal performance on 1975 Eurovision runner-up Let Me Be the One.

(Or perhaps the point is that you do..?)

[Sean of the Shed]

TOTP on BBC4

Not heard of it until you just pointed it out. Second place was actually a credible finish, until you realise that "Ding dinge dong" was first. It certainly didn't have the kind of competition of the standard of the previous year's winner.