Top Of The Pops

[Blondini]

Anyone notice the first six acts in the top 30 were all black and also nine others! And they say the seventies was racist.

[Graham76man]

Anyone notice the first six acts in the top 30 were all black and also nine others! And they say the seventies was racist.

Not in music!

However Pete Waterman explains it best in his bio. He basically says that music that those largely "black" Americans were producing was seen in the UK as art. This of course made it much more cultrally acceptable to certain white people in the UK.
Of course when Pete went to the US to see this music being made, he got a shock. For to them it was just like being on the plant at British Leyland. No art whatsoever.
If TOTP had gone out to the Southern states they would have been outraged by the pressence of black and white teenagers hanging around one another.
But nobody in the UK was bothered by it.

You only have to look at the clips of Soul Train a US pop show, sometimes used on TOTP, to see that white and black didn't mix.

I don't if it is true, but some US shows had to have a "black" person on them by law. Cop shows like Starsky & Hutch, popular in 1977, being one of them.

[Robbie]

This week's TOTP is my favourite edition so far this year. There wasn't a single song that I didn't like.

Did anyone notice that 'Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy' by Queen sounded like it was the output from the right speaker only? Some of the vocals and music were missing! It's strange as TOTP was broadcast in mono so shouldn't have had this problem.

[Graham76man]

This week's TOTP is my favourite edition so far this year. There wasn't a single song that I didn't like.

Did anyone notice that 'Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy' by Queen sounded like it was the output from the right speaker only? Some of the vocals and music were missing! It's strange as TOTP was broadcast in mono so shouldn't have had this problem.

I didn't notice that
I've recorded the late night and I'll check that Could have been a broadcast sound fault. Even mono broadcast are broadcast in Stereo. They just feed the right channel into the left. I've seen a TV show broadcast the whole time with the sound out of sync! I'm convinced at times the engineers never watch the +1 channels with the faults on them I've seen.

[Robbie]

Thinking about it now I can remember watching the video for 'Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy' years ago and noticing that the mid section lacked some of the vocals and music so it must be the way it was recorded at the time.

[CZB]

Next week a hyped record gets on TOTP

I guess that would be those previously briefly interviewed brothers.....?



7-7-77: Presenter: Tony Blackburn

(49) THE RAH BAND – The Crunch
(6) OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN – Sam ®
(NEW) SMOKIE – It’s Your Life
(25) BROTHERHOOD OF MAN – Angelo
(23) BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS – Exodus ®
(14) ALESSI – Oh Lori (video)
(48) BARRY BIGGS – Three Ring Circus
(5) BONEY M – Ma Baker (danced to by Legs & Co)
(26) ANDY GIBB – I Just Wanna Be Your Everything ®
(1) HOT CHOCOLATE – So You Win Again
(15) DONNA SUMMER – I Feel Love (and credits)



According to Tony Blackburn, Brotherhood of Man won the Eurovision Song Contest "a couple of years ago.....". Yes, 1976 !

[Blondini]

®
What does that mean?

[CZB]

®
What does that mean?

Oh, those are from the other archive - usually I delete them, but I forgot tonight!

I believe it means the performance is just a repeat of a previous one, rather than a new recording. Although I wasn't concentrating enough to notice if this was indeed the case for Bob Marley or Andy Gibb, I'm fairly sure that the "Sam" was exactly as per the 16th June edition.....

[Graham76man]

I guess that would be those previously briefly interviewed brothers.....?

Wrong my friend

The honour goes to the RAH Band the first track on In fact the same people who did the fiddle on the Alessi single (now selling on it's own merits) confessed to helping this track into the chart. It had been on the breakers list for a couple of weeks before entering at 49, which is when TOTP selected to play it. And of course it wasn't selling anything at all. Of course after the TOTP appearance it was selling. So it did the trick
Incidently that was a full live version, as the single sounds very different. I think the guy in the mask was Richard Hewson and the band was named after him. I just can't remember his middle name which was the "A" in RAH!
They had several hits in the 1980's. But they had to switch labels as Good Earth, had stopped issuing singles by the time they appeared on TOTP. In fact according to the 70's labels site the Crunch was issued in January of 1977 Perhaps why they hyped it

The Smokie record is great Another one of those records I mentioned in a previous post, with great stereo especially the drums! The bit in the middle were in goes zeeeee...dah dah da dum... is fantastic in stereo
And yes it was the butt of DJ's making jokes about a certain TV show with a Red Book

[Robbie]

The RAH Band record had indeed been released several months earlier, an advert for the single appeared in Record Mirror in or around March 1977 and I can recall it being reviewed in the Singles Review column around that time too.

The A in Richard A Hewson's name was short for Anthony. He was the arranger on the Beatles 'Let It Be' album and the rare instrumental version of Paul McCartney's 'Ram' album (which was released under the title 'Thrillington'). His most famous contribution to those two albums was scoring and conducting the orchestration on the track 'The Long And Winding Road'.

[Graham76man]

^Thanks for refreshing my memory Robbie

Do you remember if it was rated high or slammed in that Record Mirror review?

[Robbie]

^Thanks for refreshing my memory Robbie

Do you remember if it was rated high or slammed in that Record Mirror review?

I can't recall (but see * below). I just remember when it was in the charts that I had seen an ad for the record a few months earlier and that it had been reviewed.

However, thanks to discomusic.com, I do have James Hamilton's review of the record which appeared in his Disco page in Record Mirror in the issue dated 12 February 1977

RAH BAND: 'The Crunch (Pt. 2)' (Good Earth GD 7)
Jaunty basic Pop stomper with electronic voice effects.

http://www.discomusic.com/forums/showth ... sco-Column

This was in the days before JH fully developed his own unique style of reviewing records which basically was a description of how a song sounded and its beats per minute. In 1977 he mainly stuck to one sentence reviews. 'The Crunch (Pt. 2)' as mentioned in the review appears to have been the B side.

*It's possible that the review I remember reading was in fact the above review as I did read JH's column every week.

[Graham76man]

Yes the Crunch Part 2 is the B-Side. Side A is listed as Part 1. I know this because for my sins I did buy it However it was a EX Jukebox record, easy to spot as the centre spinner is knocked out, and I bought it at our local Post Office! Yes I still have it! Just dug it out of the box! Written by Richard Hewson (no mention of A), Good Earth GD7.

Record companies back then were only just bringing out 12 inch records, so to appeal to the likes of James Hamilton, they would put the rest of the track on the B-Side. DJ's would get two singles and mix the two tracks together into one long track.
The record company didn't often reduce the volume on the single down to squeeze the full track on as it created more rumble (a no-no for hi-fi buffs) and was a problem for DJ's mixing two different tracks together. The louder track would drown out the low volume disc two quick!
The 12 inch solved the length issue, but which DJ started the trend of using 12 inches first, is highly controversial amongst them

[CZB]

Tonight's early-evening repeat, featuring a short interview with Kenny Rogers, again seemed complete - although I read elsewhere that BBC FOUR have been trimming bits out of various performances over the last few months to make them a little shorter!




14-7-77: Presenter: Kid Jensen

(NEW) THE REAL THING – Love’s Such A Wonderful Thing
(24) RITA COOLIDGE – We’re All Alone (video)
(41) THE SAINTS – This Perfect Day
(21) THE COMMODORES – Easy (danced to by Legs & Co)
(30) DAVE EDMUNDS – I Knew The Bride
(NEW) JIGSAW – If I Have To Go Away
(29) SUPERTRAMP – Give A Little Bit (video)
(NEW) CILLA BLACK – I Wanted To Call It Off
(7) THE SEX PISTOLS – Pretty Vacant (video)
(1) HOT CHOCOLATE – So You Win Again
(2) EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER – Fanfare For The Common Man (and credits)





By this time, the public had long since called off any plans to buy Cilla Black singles in sufficient quantities to ever make them top fifty hits.....

Unfortunately, there is no repeat next week, as the monthly "Sky At Night" has also moved with "Top Of The Pops" to Wednesdays. Unless there are a few double editions to start catching up soon, there will be an even bigger stack left over for the Christmas / New Year period than last year!

[Blondini]

From Cilla to the Pistols! And only Kid Jensen could possibly understand punk - imagine Tony Blackburn introducing them.

Didn't know the first actual punk performance played on the show was The Saints - boy, that looks positively modern! (if you discount Eddie and The Hotrods, The Jam and The Stranglers as they were not strictly pure punk).

Cilla's song preceded a disco-tinged album. Both flopped, though i don't think that single is that bad.

There's a proms show on next Thursday which is why Sky At Night has moved. TOTP was moved because of the proms in the first place.

[Blondini]

Last Whole Lotta Love opening credits.

[Graham76man]

The lead singer of the Saints did look like he could have come from 2012
He dropped the mike too

Sorry to say this but the Sex Pistols of all the punk groups were crap. I think the Boomtown Rats earlier stuff was tuns better then any of their material. That song sums them up. Pretty Vacant in the head, me thinks

If you look at the following week's BMRB chart many of the records played went down, even the Supertramp one! Probably because (apart from the wonky chart used) TOTP had different attitudes to playing records. Some it would plug like mad from day one of its release. But others they would wait till it had been in the chart weeks, so it had run out of steam and fell after being played, such as the Supertramp one

[CZB]

Last Whole Lotta Love opening credits.

I had forgotten that when the theme tune was ditched, the chart rundown initially wasn't right at the beginning.....although I think it moved back there fairly quickly!

The full-length version of tonight's repeat isn't until 2.15 am!




21-7-77: Presenter: Dave Lee Travis

(10) JOHN MILES – Slow Down
(16) TAVARES – One Step Away (and charts)
(NEW) BAY CITY ROLLERS – You Made Me Believe In Magic
(5) BROTHERHOOD OF MAN – Angelo
(30) THE JAM – All Around The World
(9) ALESSI – Oh Lori
(22) BARRY BIGGS – Three Ring Circus
(24) SMOKIE – It’s Your Life
(25) FLEETWOOD MAC – Dreams (video)
(21) THE RAH BAND – The Crunch
(NEW) DANNY WILLIAMS – Dancin’ Easy
(17) QUEEN – Good Old Fashioned Loverboy
(1) DONNA SUMMER – I Feel Love (danced to by Legs & Co)
(3) BONEY M – Ma Baker (and credits)



I had to look up the chart performance (or not) of the Danny Williams song - surely adapted from / for a commercial?

Apparently it spent five straight weeks hovering between 32 and its number 30 peak!

[BrainDamageII]

I had to look up the chart performance (or not) of the Danny Williams song - surely adapted from / for a commercial?

Advert for Martini

[Graham76man]

Yes it was a Martini advert, using the slogan anytime anyplace anywhere. I couldn't find the advert that really triggered the single, but I remember it well. The nearest you can get is this poor quality add:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hfHDSXuXSM

The tune was still being used by them in the 80's.

The Bay City Rollers track is actually one of their best. The least polished version used on the show, only touches on the quality of the track. It should have been a massive hit for being a really good pop song. But the girls who went mad for them had left school and lost interest in them.
Nevetheless I will always remember a bunch of girls, fans of the band, coming into assembly at my school wearing the tartan scarfs! And the Headmaster saying to them "take the scarfs off. Scarfs are for outdoors not inside".

And I purchased both records!
In fact I bought 10 of tonights tracks!!!

[Robbie]

And I purchased both records!
In fact I bought 10 of tonights tracks!!!

I hadn't really got into buying singles in any great quantities at this stage in 1977. Although I had bought my first single in 1974 the amount I owned by this point in 1977 wasn't that much, at a guess it may have been about 30 in total (by 1985 it was over 3,000!).

The singles I owned that were featured in TOTP this week I bought well after 1977:

All Around The World - bought this in March 1980 with birthday money
I Feel Love - bought it in late 1982 when it was re-released / remixed

I got the 'Rumours' and 'Disco Fever' (a K-Tel album) as presents for Christmas 1977 so that accounted for another 4 of the tracks. But at the time I didn't own a single record featured on the programme.

[Graham76man]

I was a bit late getting into buying records, but by July 1977 I was in full flow! In fact I didn't start buying till after Christmas 76. I had this job at this small furniture making place, just before Christmas, paying 37p an hour! I was only there a few months, but they had Radio Hallam all the time playing constant pop tunes, so I was by then brainwashed Made worse by the Hallam top 40 on Saturday 9 till 12!
After board money, I was down town Saturday's buying records up! As singles were expensive I would go after the K-Tel albums too! Though of course they were a con As they would cut the singles down to around 2 minutes. The second verse tended to get the chop mostly. I think the record company reckoned most of us wouldn't notice.
The BBC also put out some Top of The Pops LP's. Full tracks just 12! But I remember they were quite expensive at the time.

[Blondini]

How old are you, Robbie? I forgot!

I didn't buy my first single till November 1988 (my 15th birthday) - Erasure's Christmas EP and Humanoid's Stakker Humanoid. My first record purchase was the Whitesnake 1987 album on cassette in January 1988. I was following the top 40 charts in 1985, though - an awesome year to start! Started to write them down every week from Jan 87, then started my own charts every week from Jan 93! I had grown dissatisfied with the sales chart by then. Don't know if they actually got worse or if it was just me growing up and honing my tastes. But i hardly ever listen to Whitesnake these days (or even Erasure who were my fave group for a couple of years).

[Robbie]

How old are you, Robbie? I forgot!

I didn't buy my first single till November 1988 (my 15th birthday) - Erasure's Christmas EP and Humanoid's Stakker Humanoid. My first record purchase was the Whitesnake 1987 album on cassette in January 1988. I was following the top 40 charts in 1985, though - an awesome year to start! Started to write them down every week from Jan 87, then started my own charts every week from Jan 93! I had grown dissatisfied with the sales chart by then. Don't know if they actually got worse or if it was just me growing up and honing my tastes. But i hardly ever listen to Whitesnake these days (or even Erasure who were my fave group for a couple of years).

I'm the wrong side of 40

The first singles I owned were 'Tiger Feet' by Mud and 'Devil Gate Drive' by Suzi Quatro, both of which I got for my 10th birthday. A day or two later I bought 'Jealous Mind' by Alvin Stardust followed by 'Billy, Don't Be A Hero' by Paper Lace so 'Jealous Mind' was the first single I bought.

I have a picture of me on my birthday standing behind my birthday cake and my birthday cards with me holding the Mud and Suzi singles in each hand!

[CrazyCrazy]

Loved the Summertime Special!