Top of the Pops April 29, 2017
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.trackback
I happened to catch terrestrial TV the other day, and along with the interminable ad breaks, there was a couple of Top of the Pops on. These dated from 1983 and it struck me what a weird programme it was. It has to be said the two editions weren’t great. New Edition were reaching to the heights of the charts and Spandau Ballet’s True was sliding down. Bright spots were the Beat and Funboy Three. Bar that it wasn’t exactly exciting. Blacmange’s … was on, a song I had quite happily managed to excise from my consciousness for nigh on four decades now.
And it brought back all those endless weeks where there was nothing of any consequence on the programme. For all the times Motorhead appeared with Ace of Spades, or New Order graced us with their presence, or even half way good songs were played there was usually ten times that number of groups of little or no real interest. Granted there was some entertainment in the perky jollity of whatever DJ or DJs was hosting it as set against some dour and grim outfit.
But yet we watched. I certainly kept watching on and off well into the early 1990s and intermittently after that until it was axed.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Several Top of the pops DJs were extremely “iffy” to say the least ,ranging from Saville to Peel and several others at different junctures.
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I was talking to someone recently who thought that the a good chunk of the 70s music industry – tv, radio, etc, was an area that wouldn’t look too good under close investigation in relation to what you are saying.
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Here’s another question though – I loved the BBC’s Sounds of the 60s series when it was shown in the early 1990s, so much so I wore out my video tapes of it. So I caught it again on BBC4 last year, only they’d edited out any links featuring Jimmy Saville. I’m in two minds about that – obviously it’s going to be upsetting for victims to see him on TV, but should we be rewriting history? Without defending the man, he was a significant presence for many decades and genuinely popular with audiences at the time. Presumably any episodes of TOTP he presented will never see the light of day again either.
As for those old TOTP episodes, it’s funny to realise that chart music was always mostly dross. We have selective memories that see the past as very different to how it really was.
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