Top Of The Pops

For the last year or so I’ve been watching TOTPS on BBC4 on Thursday evenings…for those that don’t know, they’ve been running the episodes in order through the 70’s and now it’s in to the 80’s.

On one hand it’s been great to see episodes that were originally shown 35-40 years ago that I remember watching when they were first shown, but on the other hand quite frightening that it certainly makes you realize how quickly time goes by…I wonder what Pans People look like now!.

Unfortunately iI don’t think it’s on this week, due to the tv strikes that put TOTPS off air…btw, they also cut the epidodes involing any presenter that’s had any connection with the Yewtree investigations, and ofcourse Jimmy Saville.

Blimey, cannot be showing to many now then.

It it is a great idea, that they should do in conjunction with MOTD. That would be great, the music and the football of the time, but every evening!

My favourite, Babs Lord

Then

With her husband Robert Powell in 2013

I’d like to see a rerun of The Old Grey Whistle Test.

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Looks like I was wrong as it’s on shortly…maybe a bit of Thin Lizzy or Hot Chocolate tonight!.

In the mid 80s it fell upon me to organise my companies dinner dance , hotel, band and DJ etc. :cool: Cherry… she was running an agency to hire groups/bands/

I was introduced to Cherry? long black hair? Never looked at their faces when they danced :astonished:

Anyway…she was really fit…even then :laughing: but now would be aged about 98? same class at school as Goatboy :smile:

Ooooooo Legs and Co in stockings and suspenders dancing to Funkin For Jamaica…nice! :wink:

It seemed so sort of innocent back then. Cant watch it now without thinking of all the pervery going on backstage.

There are some great acts on there, it shows the diversity of the chart too.

Back then you could see a US soul act, a punk band, straight into Boney M - a proper mix of styles, unlike the grey mainstream music spoon fed to the lazy public today.

Some radio stations now have a playlist of just a dozen songs, often forced upon them by corporations, and the thickos out there don’t realise there are more options available if only they would seek it out.

TotP may have been a haven of criminality but at least it had balanced musical content!

Meh, at times. The show was fucking dreadful in the late 80s, nowt but Stock Aitken and Waterman’s plaything. Also, I loved the way that the show seemed to insist on acts miming.

Nirvana making a mockery of the “sing the song, mime the instrument” policy.

Check out Grohl’s drumming around that 2:20 mark!

Legs & Co then

and now

Another TOTP miming performance that could have gone better:

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Bear in mind I wasn’t singing the praises of Stock Aitken Waterman - nor Boney M for that matter.

But hop back ten years and you’ll find The Stranglers and Lena Martell on the same bill.

Something for everyone.

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Especially Jimmy and DLT!

Meh, the place was full of Pap wannabes

The depressing thing is that with the barnet and all, people often sing this song at me. Especially in the 'States, where they don’t know accents and shit.

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Yeah, I can imagine that would be depressing, Pap :slight_frown:

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Originally posted by @Rallyboy

Bear in mind I wasn’t singing the praises of Stock Aitken Waterman - nor Boney M for that matter.

But hop back ten years and you’ll find The Stranglers and Lena Martell on the same bill.

Something for everyone.

Exactly!, the other week you had Madness, Jonny Logan and The Lambrettas on the same week…possibly Judas Priest as well, if my memory serves me right.

Oh, and you can also tell how times and attitudes have changed since the 70’s by the odd group/song that is shown occassionally…a couple of years ago they showed a group called Black Gorilla singing ‘gimme dat banana’…I was :astonished: