Top of the Pops

Dudess

Remember it was the best thing ever if you were a kid in the eighties...

I remember being unable to contain my excitement while Garda Patrol droned away before it. That was the longest 10-minute period I've ever known...

Pigman II

Remember it was the best thing ever if you were a kid in the eighties...

StreetHawk was better. I defo remember fights in the house because this show went head-to-head with TOTP for a while.

Dudess

I never watched Street Hawk (the poor man's Knight Rider)... Awesome theme tune though.

Pigman II

Nah you're right, It was rubbish (much like most American 80's tv). I think I just liked watching anything with car/boat/plane/bike/helicopter etc when I was that age. The gimmick was the star.Poor mans Knight Rider is right ..... and Knight Rider is/was garbage itself! :eek:

I watched TOTP too. Always remember taking it personal if some song I liked at number one got toppled by something I didn't like. I also remember seeming to consistently like the song that was stuck at number 3 each (my first taste of being 'alternative' perhaps?) It was a more interesting time for pop music. You got the feeling that the rankings each week really were a representation of public tastes rather than just the engineered, ballot-stuffed charts they are today.

stovelid

Best thing was the way that even though your indie heroes disparaged 'the charts', they still secretly loved TOTP and ended up self-consciously miming a tune to a crowd of body-popping spas wearing deely boppers.

dennistuam

great show and it is coming back for christmas as well

i remember having the xmas number 1 and new years no 1 was a big thing then

the one i remember was frank kelly fr jack making a right edjit of himself about turkeys and doves , next after him was frankie goes to holiwood relax ,great song of course i was a bit thick to its meanings also the furey brothers was on it and the producer said to finbar furey could he sing with his eyes opened finbar said to him i will keep one eye open on you
then the presenter i think it was pat cash introduced them as the furry brothers wat a t bag

did thin lizzy do a theme tune

stovelid

dennistuam wrote: »

did thin lizzy do a theme tune

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhNa3uw01O4

Loopy

We all loved it in our house and I vaguely remember when it first started the dancers think they were called legs & Co. - damn sexy women:pac:

Latchy

I loved the whole naffness about TOTP and some bands careers depended on being seen on it .Read an article in one of the rags the udder day that it is making come back .

Pigman II

stovelid wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhNa3uw01O4

Never heard that before. This is the one I remember growing up with....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL4WKQIrkOw

stovelid

Pigman II wrote: »

Never heard that before. This is the one I remember growing up with....

Remember Paul Hardcastle one too, but it was later then the Lizzy one I think. The Lizzy one was at the very start of the 80's (or even the late 70s?) IIRC.

Bearhunter

Yellow Pearl (by Phil Lynott, from his solo album Solo in Soho, not Lizzy BTW) became the theme tune in 1981 and lasted until about 85 or 86 when the Hardcastle tune (The Wizard, I think) took over. Before Philo it was a crowd called CCS doing a dumb flute version of Led Zep's Whole Lotta Love.

Ann22

I remember both these tunes. Thin Lizzy one was very early on. Really only started watching it when Shakin' Stevens was around, I was delighted when he was no1 with 'Green Door' I was in my element. My first pin up, there he was beside my bed in a pink blazer, hair all gelled back.:o

Bearhunter

Ann22 wrote: »

I remember both these tunes. Thin Lizzy one was very early on. Really only started watching it when Shakin' Stevens was around, I was delighted when he was no1 with 'Green Door' I was in my element. My first pin up, there he was beside my bed in a pink blazer, hair all gelled back.:o

God I remember that poster; I had one too.

humberklog

I'd have the cassette recorder precariously balanced on the tv cabinet edge as near the tv speaker as possible. Wait til a tasty fishy came by through the general dross. Something tasty...Golden Brown, Ghost Town, Living on The Ceiling then BAM: Hold down the Rec+play buttons...put hand over the sisters mouth...Silence. Then livingroom door would swing open with a clatter, bustle and bang with my fathers voice booming..."where's me Jayzuz jammer keys? What that's sh!te your listenin too. Music's crap now you know". Press Stop. Bang head of tv.

I loved the Zep cover intro most.

dSTAR

looptheloop wrote: »

We all loved it in our house and I vaguely remember when it first started the dancers think they were called legs & Co. - damn sexy women:pac:

V good memory.

What a blast from the past

jill_valentine

They didn't always mime, or in recent years they didn't.

Damn, I miss mainstream tv having decent music shows on it.

mixer101

dSTAR wrote: »

V good memory.

What a blast from the past

Wasn't it Pan's People before Legs & Co...?;)

BLITZ_Molloy

It's a shame they cancelled it. Gnarls Barkleys performance on the last episode really showed it still had alot of entertainment value.

I like Jools Holland but he can choose alot of massively dull middle of the road crooners like Michael Buble. It'd be much better if he stuck to the edgier stuff.

humberklog

BLITZ_Molloy wrote: »

It's a shame they cancelled it. Gnarls Barkleys performance on the last episode really showed it still had alot of entertainment value.

Excellent recall. Dressed as ship captains if memory is as good as yours. Stunning performance.
Fully agree with you too. It had a lot to offer. It was a programme that went through peaks and troughs. Big trough mid 80's to mid 90's as did BBCR1 but like the radio station it had regained a lot of ground by reinvigorating itself by that mid 90's. They decided on insisting on live performances and taking the likes of simon bates, the hairy cornflake and jimmy saville out the back and icing them. In came the likes of jamie theakston, moyles, sarah and other edgier guest presenters and it went really well. It (I thought) became 'relevant' for the first time since possibly the 60's(before my time).

jill_valentine

BLITZ_Molloy wrote: »

It's a shame they cancelled it. Gnarls Barkleys performance on the last episode really showed it still had alot of entertainment value.

I like Jools Holland but he can choose alot of massively dull middle of the road crooners like Michael Buble. It'd be much better if he stuck to the edgier stuff.

I hate Jools himself, so I have to Sky+ the thing so I can skip through his bits.

I just think it's a massive shame that there aren't any music shows on anymore where live pop (uh... "live" pop...) can live alongside less mainstream stuff. There's late night loop shows for indie, and all day loops for pop, but I want a show where I can see like...Slipknot and Katie Perry and Kate Bush within a few minutes of each other. Top of the Pops used to cover a hell of a spectrum. I just miss that variety.

Gnarls Barkley were brilliant. Right up until the end, there were some gems buried in there.

This, for instance, was only three years ago, and it's one of the most amazing live TV performances I've ever seen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrVS73xfdfY

I miss the show that would have brought something like that to a kid who went in looking for... Girls Aloud or something. And vice versa. I find myself only listening to the stuff I think I'm gonna like now, and I think that's a shame. Good music is good music.

therewillbe

totp, ok but the whistle test was excellent .BRING IT BACK !

TheIrishGrover

humberklog wrote: »

I'd have the cassette recorder precariously balanced on the tv cabinet edge as near the tv speaker as possible. Wait til a tasty fishy came by through the general dross. Something tasty...Golden Brown, Ghost Town, Living on The Ceiling then BAM: Hold down the Rec+play buttons...put hand over the sisters mouth...Silence.

Remember those old Philips ones with the counter on them and everything. But you had to be Arnie bleedin' shwartznegger to push the Rec+play button at the same time or your fingers would snap off.

..... 'course, I hope you remembered to break off the tab on the tape incase you accidentally taped over it

stovelid

TheIrishGrover wrote: »

..... 'course, I hope you remembered to break off the tab on the tape incase you accidentally taped over it

and then decided to tape over it anyway, so you'd chew up bits of paper and stick them in the tab-holes.

I feel guilty now:

marti101

Paul http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3LdMAqUMnMHardcastle he did that song Nineteen onof the best songs of the 80s

CSC

My favourite ever Top of the Pops was the Blur v Oasis night in 1995. I was gutted at the time though when Blur topped the charts with Country House.

The guy

What was the mid to late 90's version of TOTP except it was Irish and was on on Saturday Mornings?

ninaford

its coming back xmas day...who do you think will be on it???

who will take xmas number 1???

marti101

Itll have to be Alexandria or maybe even Leona Lewis who knows

kincsem

The most emotional moment imo on TOTP was a film of Otis Redding while his number one "Dock Of The Bay" played. He recorded the song three days before he died in December 1967 and afaik it was a number one in January 1968.

Its more usual for an artist to hit number one with a re-release after his/her death. But "Dock Of The Bay" was a good song never heard before.


This very moving Bill Withers performance is on a DVD I have of The Old Grey Whistle test.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIdIqbv7SPo

Check out the drummer on the right.