TOP OF THE POPS

Lorelli!

I don't remember following it that much as a child, it was just sort of always there. We did watch it every Christmas Day to see who got number 1!

Im too young for this but I came across a performance from Slade and really love it. The clothes, hair, audience dancing, the drummer chewing gum :pac: etc. Doesn't sound cool but it is

Anyway TOTPs memories, stand out performance etc?

Del.Monte

I used to have that single in my collection amongst many others by Slade,
T Rex, The Sweet and Status Quo. As for Top of the Pops - I didn't get to see it that often in single channel land, and by the time we got BBC I had moved on to serious stuff like the Old Grey Whistle Test with 'whispering' Bob Harris and Anne Nightingale.

Bob Harris specialised in interviewing bands that hadn't been heard of for years but were promising that they were going into studio - next week - to cut a new disc only to disappear again without trace. A lot of mind altering substances involved one suspects.

Great music back then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfKWPyj51vU

thesandeman

My favourite memory was when Status Quo were miming some song on a live show. Drummer and drum kit fell off the back of the stage. The rest of the band turned around and burst out laughing while the song carried on playing merrily away.

smilerf

Mine was Oasis covering Slades Come on feel the noise and Liam was so out of it his miming was about 10 seconds behind.. Gas

Lorelli!

Nirvana apparently sabotaged their own performance on it because they didn't want to mime.

Silvera

I recall racing into our sitting room every Thursday evening at 7pm back in the 80's to watch Top of The Pops

There would be some anticipation as the chart was counted down to see who would be this weeks Number 1! (pre-internet and mobile phone days kids )

I often watch the ToTP repeats which are regularly shown on BBC4.

Zaph

The best TOTP theme music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0PiVpHvXd0

Lorelli!

I saw this the other day. It's John Lennons first performance on the show without The Beatles singing Instant Karma with an unusual input from Yoko!

CINCLANTFLT

Silvera wrote: »

I recall racing into our sitting room every Thursday evening at 7pm back in the 80's to watch Top of The Pops

There would be some anticipation as the chart was counted down to see who would be this weeks Number 1! (pre-internet and mobile phone days kids )

I often watch the ToTP repeats which are regularly shown on BBC4.

Our purchase of a video recorder to allow us to finish milking the cows and then watch A.L.F. had a sudden follow on extra advantage... we could now also record TOTPs and watch it at the weekend, rewatch our favourite songs etc.

Silvera

The arrival of a video cassette recorder was quite a revelation for us all back then!

I recall my brother buying a Mitsubishi video recorder c.1988 - for IR£900?!!:eek:
We still have it at home - in working order

refusetolose

smilerf wrote: »

Mine was Oasis covering Slades Come on feel the noise and Liam was so out of it his miming was about 10 seconds behind.. Gas

well the lyrics go like "so ya think my singings out of time"

liam knew what he was doing don't worry

another time for roll with it liam and noel swapped places so noel was miming to liams voice

Skerries

this is Never Mind The Buzzcocks taking the piss out of one of the funniest things on TOTP

Zaph

Silvera wrote: »

The arrival of a video cassette recorder was quite a revelation for us all back then!

I recall my brother buying a Mitsubishi video recorder c.1988 - for IR£900?!!:eek:
We still have it at home - in working order

The only time I ever queued for a sale was to buy a video recorder. It was in 1986 and I paid £400 for a Marantz (Phillips' upmarket brand) VCR, reduced from £650 in Switzers. Shortly afterwards I was out of work for three months and I probably watched one or two films a day every day until I went back to work. Xtravision must have loved me. The video is long gone now, but it lasted for many years and took a lot of abuse.

darkdubh

Lorelli! wrote: »

Nirvana apparently sabotaged their own performance on it because they didn't want to mime.

I remember watching that, not too far from the truth I'd say :pac:

Max Headroom

A lot of people go on about the 80's music..but when you watch TOTP again, there was some awful shyte back then too....

rubadub

Zaph wrote: »

It was in 1986 and I paid £400 for a Marantz (Phillips' upmarket brand) VCR, reduced from £650 in Switzers. Shortly afterwards I was out of work for three months and I probably watched one or two films a day every day until I went back to work. Xtravision must have loved me.

Do you remember seeing price tags on the videos in video rental places? think they were hundreds. I am not sure if it was the true price (doubt they paid that) or just an excuse to charge loads if you lost it, and also to make the rental price not sound so bad.

My father got to bring the video player home from work, real big deal, nobody I knew had them. I remember a lad in school (wealthy dad) would bring his into school and we got to watch a film with a sound teacher, even the school could not afford one.

If you look at the guinness price index

http://www.finfacts.ie/Private/bestprice/guinnessindex.htm

in 1986 a pint was 1.64euro, the 400punt video is 503euro, so 306.7 "pints of guinness" today, well over a grand. Thought it would actually be more, I would like to see more info on "price it was then vs now" sites. There are old argos catalogues online you can check which are a very good read.

L1011

rubadub wrote: »

think they were hundreds. I am not sure if it was the true price (doubt they paid that)

They did - no way of tracking royalties from rental income back then so it was front-loaded. Rental copies of blockbusters cost hundreds. Rent a decent number of times at a high price, some times at a cheaper price, sell some off, rent a few remaining copies a few times at a cheaper price again, sell most/all of, rinse, repeat until you made a profit on the entire rental. Or eventually didn't, which is why there's basically nowhere except maybe a few small rental places left.

Trying to compare old prices with now is very difficult as people's purchasing power has changed also - drink has always been very dear here by world standards and has increased beyond the norm to try keep it so as purchasing power grew.