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    Originally posted by Sean of the Shed View Post
    There's probably an important message in that Radio Africa song, but it's wholly undermined by the complete shitness of it.
    You're not wrong there!

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      Fresh faced Simon Mayo being introduced by Janice Long tonight as Radio 1's latest Dj (March 86 episode)

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        Originally posted by elguapo4 View Post
        Fresh faced Simon Mayo being introduced by Janice Long tonight as Radio 1's latest Dj (March 86 episode)
        And his memorable introduction of the Pet Shop Boys while not looking at the camera.

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          It's ironic that the only way you can enjoy the Grange Hill Mob singing "Just Say No" is to be completely smacked off your tits.

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            The chart rundown apparently featured Gary 'Newman', Duane 'Eddie' and Atlantic 'Star'. Were the captions often that shoddy, or did they give the job to the work experience student that week?

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              Spellchecker programmes began to be incorporated into computers in the mid-eighties. Maybe that was a side-effect.

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                Originally posted by irony towers View Post
                The chart rundown apparently featured Gary 'Newman', Duane 'Eddie' and Atlantic 'Star'. Were the captions often that shoddy, or did they give the job to the work experience student that week?
                On the other hand, whoever it was now appears to be writing the near-illiterate online material for BBC 6Music and MOTD.

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                  Originally posted by elguapo4 View Post
                  Fresh faced Simon Mayo being introduced by Janice Long tonight as Radio 1's latest Dj (March 86 episode)
                  Yet he was already 27 and she was just about to turn 31, although 4 years age difference probably meant a lot more back then. He was earning his spurs on the Saturday evening slot, which is also where Gary Davies started out.

                  My main memory of him is that it was he who announced John Peel's death on Radio 5 Live, to where he had moved in 2001, aged 42, after 15 years with R1. I liked him a lot more on 5 Live than R1, but that's because I was way older than R1's target audience by then, as was he, despite him surviving the DLT/Gary Davies cull.
                  Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 22-09-2018, 15:07.

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                    I've always enjoyed listening to Simon Mayo – he seems one of the least obnoxious 'big name' DJs imaginable, has never pushed a loud radio 'personality' ahead of the music and has always been an incredibly easy listen. He was essentially the first DJ I ever listened properly to, too: he was doing the Radio 1 breakfast show when I started hearing it on the school bus in late 1990, aged 11.

                    I well remember him signing off from Radio 1 for the last time, circa Easter 2001, by which point I was nearly twice as old so it felt like he'd been there for ever. His closing words to his last show went something along the lines of, "I thought long and hard about what the best and most appropriate song we could finish with should be, but in the end I went... aaahh, sod it," – and played Ace of Spades. Class.

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                      Watched tonight's offering, started with It Bites and thought well at least it can only get better from here. Anita Dobson and Chris De Burgh then hove into view.

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                        The charts were well fucked by the middle of 1986. Although something terrible like Anita Dobson or Chris De Burgh could happen in a peak year (1981 = Birdie Song, Joe Dolce) it seemed to be becoming a weekly feature of 1986 rather than something that happened maybe three times a year in 1981-82. Furthermore whereas the Birdie Song or Dolce were not anticipated No. 1's, there was a sense of inevitability about the crap #1s in 1986-90. You saw them being hyped 6 weeks earlier on Wogan etc. In that respect it was worse than 1975, which was bad but seems less cynical than the mid-80s in hindsight. Made TOTP unwatchable and I didn't go back except if watching with someone else for laughs.
                        Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 02-11-2018, 02:46.

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                          The complete chart content of 1986 was poor, but the Number 1's were actually ok.

                          The standout Rank Bajin's were Chris deUrgh, Nick Berry, and possibly Cliff and the Young Ones (and again, possibly The Chicken Song, which had a great b-side, now no longer pertinent).

                          1986 Number 1's

                          *edit although you did say "middle of 86".

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                            Proustian Rush of Bob Wilson going through the league tables on Grandstand in last night's Breakers.

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                              The Young Ones was on Gold last night. The one where they're threatened with eviction. I think now, 30 years on, I can see why my parents thought it was shit. It's because it was shit.

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                                Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                                The charts were well fucked by the middle of 1986. Although something terrible like Anita Dobson or Chris De Burgh could happen in a peak year (1981 = Birdie Song, Joe Dolce) it seemed to be becoming a weekly feature of 1986 rather than something that happened maybe three times a year in 1981-82. Furthermore whereas the Birdie Song or Dolce were not anticipated No. 1's, there was a sense of inevitability about the crap #1s in 1986-90. You saw them being hyped 6 weeks earlier on Wogan etc. In that respect it was worse than 1975, which was bad but seems less cynical than the mid-80s in hindsight. Made TOTP unwatchable and I didn't go back except if watching with someone else for laughs.
                                The Birdie Song actually peaked at #2 - it was kept at bay by both Adam & The Ants' Prince Charming and Stewart & Gaskin's It's My Party.

                                (Neither of which stand up terribly well thirty-seven years later either, IMO.)

                                Viz 1986 - you can add Europe to that list. Bloody awful. That said, what a generally wretched year that was for chart-toppers.

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                                  Originally posted by Giggler View Post
                                  Proustian Rush of Bob Wilson going through the league tables on Grandstand in last night's Breakers.
                                  It's on in full tonight, so give it a contemporary vibe by talking about Clive Allen scoring again and Northampton Town running away with the fourth division.

                                  Lady In Red is a fucking awful song but I did gain some appreciation for Chris de Burgh when hearing some singer absolutely massacre it in the pub last Saturday night.

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                                    Last Friday's wasn't too bad. There were four songs that I didn't have to fast-forward through...

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                                      Grim stuff tonight, Cliff and Sarah Brightman, Marti Webb, Boris Gardiner, Paul Hardcastle.

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                                        I've been catching up over the last couple of weeks, a backlog which covered most of the summer episodes, making it even more wretched. Almost worth ploughing through just to see the odd contrasting gem like the Mary Chain or Housemartins.

                                        Also had what I think was a first, watching an episode that I'd previously heard covered on Chart Music, and as it was one that I'd listened to on a long run I could picture where I was when they were talking about each bit.

                                        Also notable in one of the more recent ones was the surprise from the hosts that FGTH had peaked at number 3 or 4 with their new single - they were looking a bit played out in retrospect.

                                        But yeah there was a tidal wave of shite that year.

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                                          I'd never heard "To be a lover" by Billy Idol before. It was quite a fantastic combination of Suicide and Idol's Gary Glitter for the USA persona. Idol is a massive fan of Suicide, it seems, according to Google. That puts a whole new perspective on the his post Generation X output for me, which I'd wrongly considered moronic MTV fodder.

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                                            I'm right enjoying the shows at the moment, because this is the precise time I discovered popular music and it's nice to see everything I remember as the start all in the context of the time. Some of the songs shown passed me by completely but stuff like In The Army Now, Rain Or Shine, Walk This Way, One Great Thing, True Blue, Walk Like An Egyptian, Don't Get Me Wrong, You Can Call Me Al - it might be largely shite now but at least it's my shite. Started watching TOTP sometime around late 86 / early 87 so that puts the repeats into a completely new phase when we get that far.

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                                              Bloody hell, I also totally didn't make the Black Ark connection with "To be a lover" either.
                                              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJJoSYTkJY8

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                                                Originally posted by Walt Flanagans Dog View Post
                                                Also notable in one of the more recent ones was the surprise from the hosts that FGTH had peaked at number 3 or 4 with their new single - they were looking a bit played out in retrospect.
                                                Rage Hard peaked at #4 - which I felt was an achievement, given that FGTH's star had been falling dramatically since the release of that hugely disappointing debut album eighteen months previously.

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                                                  Originally posted by elguapo4 View Post
                                                  Grim stuff tonight, Cliff and Sarah Brightman, Marti Webb, Boris Gardiner, Paul Hardcastle.
                                                  I've never seen anyone look as smiley and happy as Paul Hardcastle did...

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                                                    Originally posted by Walt Flanagans Dog View Post
                                                    But yeah there was a tidal wave of shite that year.
                                                    Word up.

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