TOTP: The Story Of 1983

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RobDaviesRobDavies Frets: 3062
edited November 2020 in Music
Great little retrospective of the pop music scene on iPlayer right now. 

Some interesting stories from some of the performers and a few artists that I’d completely forgotten.....Haysi Fantayzee being one of them.... how stunning was Kate Garner? And I never new that the ‘other one’ was Jeremy Healy, the DJ. 

Definitely worth 45 mins of your time.  I hope they make more....
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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    Oooh! I must take a look at that.

    I'd love to see a 1978 one, bloody loved that year!
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  • RobDavies said:
    Great little retrospective of the pop music scene on iPlayer right now. 

    Some interesting stories from some of the performers and a few artists that I’d completely forgotten.....Haysi Fantayzee being one of them.... how stunning was Kate Garner? And I never new that the ‘other one’ was Jeremy Healy, the DJ. 

    Definitely worth 45 mins of your time.  I hope they make more....

    Are those the ones voiced by Mel from Mel and Sue? If so they have been around for a while, not quite sure how many episodes there are. 

    I think the TOTPs they show on BBC4 are up to 1990 at present. That does seem to be the shittest year ever in pop music. The late 80s and into the 90s also dominated by a lot of electronic dance music which didn't fit the TOTP format well at all and for some reasons the show producers thought we wanted to hear the audience noise as loud as the music. Quite limited what they can show in terms of old episodes. Saville not only appeared on a lot of earlier ones but even reappeared for the final one. Mike Smith refused to give permission for the ones he presented to be shown and now he's dead so that's another bunch staying in the cans. 


    This was on last week, I just thought what a load of shit. Actually if you just listen to the track it may not be to my taste but it's fine but then reduced on TOTP to a squeaky mess:

         

    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • RobDaviesRobDavies Frets: 3062
    RobDavies said:
    Great little retrospective of the pop music scene on iPlayer right now. 

    Some interesting stories from some of the performers and a few artists that I’d completely forgotten.....Haysi Fantayzee being one of them.... how stunning was Kate Garner? And I never new that the ‘other one’ was Jeremy Healy, the DJ. 

    Definitely worth 45 mins of your time.  I hope they make more....

    Are those the ones voiced by Mel from Mel and Sue? If so they have been around for a while, not quite sure how many episodes there are. 

    Yeah - that’s the one.  I can only find 1983 on iPlayer.   :/
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  • RobDavies said:
    RobDavies said:
    Great little retrospective of the pop music scene on iPlayer right now. 

    Some interesting stories from some of the performers and a few artists that I’d completely forgotten.....Haysi Fantayzee being one of them.... how stunning was Kate Garner? And I never new that the ‘other one’ was Jeremy Healy, the DJ. 

    Definitely worth 45 mins of your time.  I hope they make more....

    Are those the ones voiced by Mel from Mel and Sue? If so they have been around for a while, not quite sure how many episodes there are. 

    Yeah - that’s the one.  I can only find 1983 on iPlayer.   :/
    When I’m channel surfing they seem to pop up on Yesterday who also have some of the Whistle Test compilations. Unfortunately they don’t seem to be included in their on demand programmes on the UKTV PLAY app. Although they do seem to have a lot of programmes about Nazi engineering. It’s a weird channel. 
    There are episodes on YouTube, I can’t work out the logic but I think they run 1978 to 1989 at least. 



    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    I think the TOTPs they show on BBC4 are up to 1990 at present. That does seem to be the shittest year ever in pop music.
    It's a definite contender. I've got almost every Now That's What I Call Music! album ever released - they started in 1983 - and it's a good illustration of the state of popular mainstream chart music at the time. There's obviously plenty of crap in every year, but the very early 90s are especially dire.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • ICBM said:
    I think the TOTPs they show on BBC4 are up to 1990 at present. That does seem to be the shittest year ever in pop music.
    It's a definite contender. I've got almost every Now That's What I Call Music! album ever released - they started in 1983 - and it's a good illustration of the state of popular mainstream chart music at the time. There's obviously plenty of crap in every year, but the very early 90s are especially dire.
    TOTP isn’t necessarily very representative but I watch the odd repeat and for the 1990 ones I’m just going ‘ no don’t remember that, no don’t know that one.’ 
    There’s a sort of end of big metal ( Whitesnake, Megadeath) a bit of goth ( The Mission) some boy bands ( Big Fun) quite a lot of dance/ rave and some quite random odds and ends ( a Fish solo single, I bet even Fish struggles to remember that one). I can see why grunge and Britpop came along and reenergised it all. 
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • the_jaffathe_jaffa Frets: 1778
    Whereas, I’m watching the 1990 episodes and loving a lot of the tunes. I was 15 and had just started properly getting into music so a lot of songs are fairly formative. 

    There’s a lot of shit too though. Cliff Richard and Bros being stand outs so far 
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  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 14323
    ICBM said:
    I've got almost every Now That's What I Call Music! album ever released - they started in 1983 - and it's a good illustration of the state of popular mainstream chart music at the time. 
    Each compilation in that series was collated within twelve months of the songs having charted and, hence, captured some of the perspective of its era. 

    The TOTP television programmes are compiled with the benefit of 20:20 hindsight. They seem to reflect what punters remember of the titular year rather than the way things seemed at the time. Also, "inconvenient" songs, artistes and presenters have been expurgated.

    A 2013 edition ought to include this but probably will not.
    Be seeing you.
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  • ICBM said:
    I've got almost every Now That's What I Call Music! album ever released - they started in 1983 - and it's a good illustration of the state of popular mainstream chart music at the time. 
    Each compilation in that series was collated within twelve months of the songs having charted and, hence, captured some of the perspective of its era. 

    The TOTP television programmes are compiled with the benefit of 20:20 hindsight. They seem to reflect what punters remember of the titular year rather than the way things seemed at the time. Also, "inconvenient" songs, artistes and presenters have been expurgated.

    A 2013 edition ought to include this but probably will not.
    The repeats on BBC4 are just that, repeats complete with all the songs we have forgotten. They are an interesting insight into how we often judge past eras of pop music quite inaccurately. The TOTP2 compilations and the Story Of programmes are more able to cherry pick. For example the video I posted above was the first  UK TV appearance for Candy Flip. A year later Nirvana made their UK TV debut on The Word which was probably watched by far fewer people at the time. For a couple of years Candy Flip and Big Fun were more important to the record industry than Nirvana.  
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • the_jaffa said:
    Whereas, I’m watching the 1990 episodes and loving a lot of the tunes. I was 15 and had just started properly getting into music so a lot of songs are fairly formative. 

    There’s a lot of shit too though. Cliff Richard and Bros being stand outs so far 
    If I watch TOTP from something that's maybe more 'my era' ( although I was probably listening to Muddy Waters or Frank Zappa rather than the charts) which is the late 70s, early 80s there's still quite a lot of stuff I wonder why anyone bought. To give him his due including Cliff Richard.   
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • RobDaviesRobDavies Frets: 3062
    Just found all the other ‘Story of’ episodes on YouTube.   Cheers.  =)
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  • The repeats on BBC4 are just that, repeats complete with all the songs we have forgotten. They are an interesting insight into how we often judge past eras of pop music quite inaccurately. 

    I sometimes put old TOTP episodes on iplayer when I'm ironing at the weekends. My kids often watch in mild confusion, and I end up giving old man "back in my day" lectures about why TOTP was ever relevant or important.

    I regularly get reminded of songs I haven't heard in decades. So far it's rare that the good stuff gets forgotten. There's regularly some absolute shite though. It's a really good antidote for "music was better when..." claims.

    Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.

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