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TOTP on BBC4

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    TOTP on BBC4

    Gangster Octopus wrote: Too much hair for Howard...
    Not anymore!

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      TOTP on BBC4

      "Like Clockwork", incidentally, was the very first track played on 2fm, which first broadcast the following year.

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        TOTP on BBC4

        Stunningly poor show last night. An excellent reminder as to why the good ones always shone out...

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          TOTP on BBC4

          Substitute and 5705 were two of the catchiest choruses I can remember as a young'un. The fact that the verses paled into non-entity might explain why they have never warranted repeat airplay.

          Can't wait for some proper ELO.

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            TOTP on BBC4

            I like the structure of "Substitute". Restrained verse, then the build-up, and then the great chorus.

            Incidentally, "Substitute", which was originally recorded by The Righteous Brothers in 1975, came out at around the same time in a version by Gloria Gaynor. The story goes that it was released as a single. When Clout started having a hit with it in Europe, her record company decided to flip the single, and lead with the b-side, a song called "I Will Survive".

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              TOTP on BBC4

              Decent episode, that, I thought. Buzzcocks to start with, Steel Pulse, even most of the naffer ones were toe-tappers.

              I have to agree with G-Man - "Substitute" really was a cracking song. What made it even better was that Clout looked as if some people's mums had got together to perform at a school fete. Which is good, because even now, looking back at it from my advanced age, most of the male bands back then looked like people's dads - specifically Jack Whitehall's apparently playing keyboards for City Boy, and Dion Dublin's (I know) on drums for Showaddywaddy. Doesn't happen these days.

              Other highlights: the woman from Marshall Hain desperately trying to restrain the cat, and Rod Argent and Lloyd Webber doing the Argentine World Cup tune. I never knew it was them.

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                TOTP on BBC4

                As a 15 year old punk at the time, one of my secret crushes was on the Northern Lights singing lass. Looking back it was probably down to her top peanut smuggling!

                EDIT: forgot all about Racey starting off so seriously!

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                  TOTP on BBC4

                  That'll be Annie Haslam of this parish. Fine prog-folk singer who succumbed to some dubious magazine photoshoots when Northern Lights didn't quite precipitate a chartstorm.

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                    TOTP on BBC4

                    Jah Womble wrote: That'll be Annie Haslam of this parish. Fine prog-folk singer who succumbed to some dubious magazine photoshoots when Northern Lights didn't quite precipitate a chartstorm.
                    Really, any links?

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                      TOTP on BBC4

                      Tut, tut, boy - I'm ashamed to share the thread with you!

                      (In other words, 'no, I couldn't find any'...)

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                        TOTP on BBC4

                        How is Prostitute, sorry, "Subsitute" a cracking song? Maybe if the lyrics were totally different.

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                          TOTP on BBC4

                          MsD wrote: How is Prostitute, sorry, "Subsitute" a cracking song? Maybe if the lyrics were totally different.
                          Oh do leave off. It's a good pop song, well sung, with a nice strong hook. I never listen to lyrics. That way lies ruin.

                          I haven't analysed the lyrics to any extent, and have no intention to either, but even if they are awful, they're surely no more self-respectless than any of a thousand frustrated ugly, balding, boring man-band o'the seventies lyrics.

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                            TOTP on BBC4

                            MsD wrote: How is Prostitute, sorry, "Subsitute" a cracking song? Maybe if the lyrics were totally different.
                            Are the lyrics so foreign to normal life experience that they can be categorised as terrible? It's about unrequited love; surely they describe the impulse of anybody who is caught up in that horrible situation.

                            If you are suggesting a sexist angle, as some have done, then you're off-target. The song was first recorded by the Righteous Brothers, with the same lyrics (addressed to "Girl" instead of "Sam"). The sentiments of the song might not be entirely admirable, but they are universal.

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                              TOTP on BBC4

                              Yep, agree. In maturity one might look at those lyrics as something bordering on cringeworthy - but, who can honestly say, etc..?

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                                TOTP on BBC4

                                Did TOTP exclude Tom Robinson's "Glad To Be Gay"? Wiki says daytime Radio 1 got around the issue by playing a different track off the EP (which reached No. 18), but that presumably was without Robinson's agreement.

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                                  TOTP on BBC4

                                  Alderman Barnes wrote:
                                  Originally posted by MsD
                                  How is Prostitute, sorry, "Subsitute" a cracking song? Maybe if the lyrics were totally different.
                                  Oh do leave off. It's a good pop song, well sung, with a nice strong hook. I never listen to lyrics. That way lies ruin.

                                  I haven't analysed the lyrics to any extent, and have no intention to either, but even if they are awful, they're surely no more self-respectless than any of a thousand frustrated ugly, balding, boring man-band o'the seventies lyrics.
                                  It raises female hackles when it gets played in my office (Smooth Radio love it) and upon discussion, there are two things:

                                  1. A lovelorn girl offering herself as a secondbest stand-in fuckpuppet to a man is at more risk than a lovelorn young man offering himself on these terms to a woman, physically and psychologically, so it's kind of distressing to hear women degrading themselves like that

                                  2. We're not keen on women being eager to hoover up a man the moment his girlfriend leaves him unattended. "She" might be abroad on a humanitarian mission. Let Sam wait, FFS, and stop shoving your tits in his face.

                                  It's not just me, and it's one of my colleagues who tends to sing "Prostitute".

                                  I have a hatred of doormat songs, like Saving All My Love, or Upside Down, and always bellow the "find a man of your own" piece of lyric.

                                  There are some whimpering men I can't bear, either, don't get me started.

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                                    TOTP on BBC4

                                    Having danced to a nice bit of Philly which sounds as if it should have been earlier than ’78, I felt the torment of those members of Legs and Co unfortunate enough to try and interpret the Smurfs through the medium of dance. That is sublime and ridiculous right there.

                                    Nice that Tony Blackburn was so unafraid that he shortened Blue Oyster Cult’s ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’ at the end. He almost looked ready for a nice game of tennis afterwards (bit of a back-handed compliment there).

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                                      TOTP on BBC4

                                      Dear god, the Tom Robinson Band album was released 35 years ago. I've still got the free stencil somewhere. Glad To Be Gay wasn't on it, though.
                                      What a record. I played Winter Of '79 full blast at a drunken party in a friend's gaff the other day, amazing stuff.

                                      . Let Sam wait, FFS, and stop shoving your tits in his face.
                                      Superb stuff.

                                      We used to call it 'Prostitute' too.

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                                        TOTP on BBC4

                                        Did TOTP exclude Tom Robinson's "Glad To Be Gay"? Wiki says daytime Radio 1 got around the issue by playing a different track off the EP (which reached No. 18), but that presumably was without Robinson's agreement.
                                        Don't Take No For an Answer was the track selected by the BBC, who'd obviously never have touched Glad to Be Gay in 1978. That said, I think that had TRB wished only for GTBG to be aired then they'd probably not have issued a four-track EP (Rising Free) in the first place.

                                        (Edit: Things must've changed somewhat at Radio 1 within a year, because Robinson's 1979 single Never Gonna Fall in Love (recorded with The Voice Squad) was also a proto-gay anthem - and it was given blanket airplay that summer. Annoyingly for him, this very commercial track failed to dent the 75.)

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                                          TOTP on BBC4

                                          Calvert wrote:
                                          We used to call it 'Prostitute' too.
                                          Is there any adolescent in the English-speaking world who didn't?

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                                            TOTP on BBC4

                                            Coughs, looks at shoes..Actually there was someone in their early 20's who I knew very well who did as well.

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                                              TOTP on BBC4

                                              Never Gonna Fall in Love (co-written Elton John) doesn't seem to have an explicit gay theme in its lyrics

                                              http://www.metrolyrics.com/never-gonna-fall-in-love-again-elton-john-tom-robinson-lyrics-elton-john.html

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                                                TOTP on BBC4

                                                Fair enough, much less so than I recalled it. I think it was the 'every cat I meet's a tom' line that stuck.

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                                                  TOTP on BBC4

                                                  I'm a bit late to the party on the whole TOTP repeats thing, but is it not on at irregular intervals, like tonight, because it's hosted by He Who Must Not Be Named?

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                                                    TOTP on BBC4

                                                    No. Sky At Night is always on monthly on the same slot. Which has helped the Beeb, admittedly...

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