Totp

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Nori Brick
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Nobody has posted about the demise of this show, long before MTV and associated satellite channels the only music show on television was Top of the Pops. Others came and went..Ready, Steady, Go, the Six-Five Special, Thank Your Lucky Stars, (There was also one in the 70's with Mike Mansfield going 'cue bay city rollers' cant be bothered doing a search)....But TOTP survived it all.

Who can forget Dexy's Midnight Runners singing Jackie Wilson Said with a background of...the wonderful little fat scottish dartplayer Jocky Wilson or Pans People ( dances by Flick Colby) dancing to Flowers in the Rain wearing raincoats and holding a bunch of flowers..(Who the hell had a name like 'FLICK' in the 60's) or Jimmy Saville with his hair dyed (yes dyed there were no temporary paints in those days) half black and half white on the day TOTP went colour, crap miming, people picking their nose in the audience, young lads in the audience ogling at girls in hot pants without realising the cameras were on them, miscues, bad miming, floor managers with 'scream now' boards in shot..Status Quo, crap to watch on TV, crap to listen to on your CD, but absolutely fantastically unbelievable to watch live (which incidentally is why they survive decade after decade) , being on it 106 times and holding the record

RIPTOTP.... yet another end of an era
 
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It is saddening, the demise of a national institution.
I'll never get to say that ultimate in rock 'n' roll line now - "Mum, I'm on top of the pops!"

However it was inevitable - the minute they tried to appeal to everyone was the beginning of the end, using blonde haired sprogs instead of BBC DJ's was a very bad move.
 
got to agree i didn't watch it for years cos i'm an old git and think most of todays stuff is crap, but what a great show its been for the young of many generations even me ONCE when moby dick was a tadpole, i won't miss it for me,but i will certainly miss it for the kids. rip totp, this thread is probably in the wrong place lol ;)
 
I saw quo live live at F1 at silverstone the other day.
But yes fantastic it was in it's day, watching sabrina sing boys boys boys, so pretty, erm so full of life.
I think it will hold different memories for all of us, but it's dead, and the music channels aren't as popular as they were either, it's all down to the internet.

As someone has said on a local forum, if video killed the radio star, internett killed the video star, I think that sums it up perfectly.
 
Madhatter said:
I saw quo live live at F1 at silverstone the other day.
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Recall Tony (Anthony as he snobbishly prefers nowadays) Wilson prattling on about them being 3 chord no talents...something I am forever arguing with people about, in my opinion the true test of a performer/s is what they can do LIVE!!!.cant stand Sir Cliff, never seen him live, EXCEPT when he had half the bloody country singing summer holiday (myself included) during a rain storm at Wimbledon a few years ago
 
Madhatter said:
yes but they do the 3 chords so well :D
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Ripping off CCR's Rockin All Over The World with 3 chords and doing a dance with your guitar...how cheeky, how british, how top of the pops :D
 
Nowt wrong with Cliff, seen him on stage loads of times, a natural. I'm sorry to see the end of Top of the Pops though, it was my life when I was a kid.
 
Madhatter said:
As someone has said on a local forum, if video killed the radio star, internett killed the video star, I think that sums it up perfectly.
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I like that.

My week seemed to revolve around TOTP when I was a kid. :( Definitely the end of an era.
 
I don't think it's just the many specialist music programmes that have killed it. I think the end was nigh when they broadcast it against the most watched programme on ITV Coronation Street. In it's hay day TOTP could get around nine million viewers until they kept moving it around in the schedules.

TOTPs was always about the variety of music that made it into the charts. A footy team, a punk group and Terry Wogan's Floral Dance all on the same programme, brilliant.

My favourite TOTP's moment comes from 1982, after Culture Club appeared whilst still unknown. Everyone was asking the next day 'what was it?' That dainty, skipping, painted, six foot doll, was Boy George.
 
In my younger years.......:eek: ........it was my favourite show...and was then hosted by David Jacobs.....with stints by an up and coming Jimmy Saville.......
 
Remember watching the very first one on New Year's Day, 1964. "Glad All Over" by the Dave Clark Five was number one. Now, that makes me feel old!
 
I remember a band called Symposium doing their single Fairweather Friend. The singer dived off the stage into the crowd and then he reappears minus his shoe, which is suddenly thrown at him from the audience and hits the drummer in the face. Vastly entertaining!:D
 
My favourite ever performance was The Smiths performing 'This Charming Man' - not live of course, just playback - but Morrissey with his bunch of flowers & hearing aid looked absolutely ridiculous yet effortlessly cool at the same time!

Closely followed by The Jam with 'Eton Riflles' I think this may have been actually live - I can't quite remember. The Jam were one of the greatest live bands ever.

My favourite that I was actually young enough to see has to be either Oasis performing Roll With It, where Noel & Liam swapped around just to take the mick :p or Nirvana performing 'Smells like Teen Spirit' in the style of Morrissey - the cheek!!

Looking back; thank god for TOTP2! I hope that isn't cancelled aswell.
 
After forty years TOTP was one of the longest running programmes in the world. The back archive is staggering and it seems such a shame that the BBC will never be able to add to it with future musical acts.

Even though a lot of the acts mimed you still got to see how they really perform, unlike the studied performances they give in videos.

Big blond Babs in Pan's people was defintely my favourite, and I remember tut-tutting aged seven at the outrageousness of Marc Bolan.

It's very sad.

I'm sure with the right regular time slot it could have survived.:(
 
garinda said:
My favourite TOTP's moment comes from 1982, after Culture Club appeared whilst still unknown. Everyone was asking the next day 'what was it?' That dainty, skipping, painted, six foot doll, was Boy George.
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I remember that - my Dad was arguing that it was a girl and I was convinced it was a boy. I totally copied his look and my Dad couldn't work out what was wrong but he knew something was (a girl dressing like a boy who dresses like a girl) it didn't compute.

They kept switching TOTP around and then fiddled with the theme music. If they'd have gone retro back to the old theme tune and started airing TOTP2 on BBC1 at 7 o'clock on a Thursday night people would still be watching it. TOTP2 on satellite has Steve Wright presenting it and it works really well with a mix of old videos and whatever was on TOTP during the week. I suppose that will go too!
 
Blimey at last someone mentioned Pans People & there was legs & co after - the days before pop videas were the norm treat for all the daddies;)

Shame its a dying institution as it was something that was not missed, my mum taped the 25yr birthday edition & another one think when the 80's ended which was a great nostalgic look at the start to present of the time, i think it charged my love for old music of the 60's the show looked great in black & white:) then 70's & 80's, you have all mentioned memorable events - tinks shut yer eyes a mo cos i mention tom jones when he did kiss on TOTP he split his pants & had red undies on eewwww lol:D

TOTP lost its credibility certainly in the late 90's when more of us are tuning into MTV & VH1!! I remember they changed to Elstree [i think or from it] to modernised it sort of & brought the daft rule of singing live in 91/92 & there after therefore killing the interest & eardrums specially with rave/house/dance music thats technically altered or Dj'd mixed from other songs cos then the obvious became more obvious than the hayday of the mime.
 
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