Old TOTP (BBC4)

Ah so Cameo were sampled for Gravel Pit. I hadn't noticed on the previous episode as I was rather distracted by the transphobic element to the video.
 
Christ the 1987 Blue Peter studio. This really is my era of memory now.
 
I never really frequent this thread but I felt an urge to give it a read today. Obviously the mere mention of a LARGE PENIS got my spidey senses in FULL SWING.
 
That Whitney performance was SENSATIONAL. I mean the song is obviously an all time banger and Whitney is an all time great, but she was captivating without even doing much.
 
Stevie Nicks having nothing to do but SWOOSH AROUND in the Big Love video is quite pleasing to watch.
 
Very pleased at Marti Pellow's wankerish prickisms being reappraised. I'm sure someone on moopy tried to defend him a while back.
 
I can remember the period they are broadcasting now really well. May '87 I was revising for my O-Levels. I worked Friday and Saturday nights collecting glasses at the social club across the road for £1.10 an hour, and I was allowed to keep my child benefit, which I think was about twelve quid a week. I used to feel so FLUSH having about £20 a week to myself. From that I used to clothe myself and buy a lot of music.

I think CDs were in the shops then, but I'm fairly sure vinyl and cassette were still a lot more popular. I didn't get a CD player personally until I started working full time in 1990. I think in '87 I was paying about £6 for an album on vinyl or cassette.
 
Ag said:
That Whitney performance was SENSATIONAL. I mean the song is obviously an all time banger and Whitney is an all time great, but she was captivating without even doing much.
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That performance seems to be wheeled out quite a lot, but every time I'm impressed by it. So fucking effortless.
 
Yeah, by this time I was 14 and music was everything to me. LPs were usually £5.99, I recall, sometimes £5.49. HMV even had a £5.29 price point for a bit.
 
octophone said:
Yeah, by this time I was 14 and music was everything to me. LPs were usually £5.99, I recall, sometimes £5.49. HMV even had a £5.29 price point for a bit.
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Didn't they used to have different coloured price stickers for each price point? Big round ones in a pale green, pink or yellow stuck to the front of albums...

If it wasn't them it was Our Price or somewhere. I don't think it was Virgin as that was in one of the underpasses, and I wasn't allowed there on my own :D
 
Oooh, pass. If they did, I never noticed.

We had a Virgin Megastore and an HMV on the same street - Union Street. Fopp is on that street now but not on either site. The HMV is Poundland and the Virgin is a Cex. Tells you everything...
 
All I can remember from around that time was CALIFORNIA SUE coming back to Weymouth briefly after having left about a year before and all us gang having a MEETUP in some flat somewhere, which CURIOSITY always reminds me of, and CALI SUE, me and STEW who now I look back on it with hindsight REALLY REALLY WANTED TO GET IN MY PANTS trooping down to the OLD ROOMS for a PORT AND LEMON which we thought EVER SO DARING
 
I always seeemed to have lots of MONEY around then. I don't know why unless MR EASTLAKE was paying me a massive PREMIUM to be the OLDEST PAPERBOY IN TOWN. Naturally just for laughs I used to hint at it coming from VERY DUBIOUS SOURCES :D
 
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Anyway BACK ON TOPIC and AWAY from the reminiscences of a SAD OLD QUEEN the MOST EXCITING THING IN ALL OF DORSET used to be the RECORD DEPARTMENT in the WHSMITH SALE!
 
I may well have my school holiday diary of 1987 somewhere. I only recall having a wet trip to Clacton that year. Some things never change.
 
lolly said:
Didn't they used to have different coloured price stickers for each price point? Big round ones in a pale green, pink or yellow stuck to the front of albums...
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Our Price used to definitely do this, but they were quite SMALL...
 
My main memory of 1987 was it being BLINDING music-wise
 
I remember being QUITE PUT OUT when they put the price of 12" singles up to £3.29

Althought in the case of 'BEETHOVEN (I LOVE TO LISTEN TO)' OH! BUT IT WAS WORTH IT

actually I probably bought that on the cheap in Woolies as per
 
I dunno, I remember scoring The Fall's "Cruiser's Creek" on 12" for £2.79 at the beginning of 1988 and it was BACK CATALOGUE by that time. Remember THAT? When you could buy a single a couple of years after it was released rather than struggling to find the damn thing a fortnight afterwards?
 
Ooh yeah. I bought STRIPPED by the MODE in '87 on a trip to COVENTRY

And then this shop opened at home that had all MANNER of BACK CAT GOODIES *attempts to justify spending £6 on an import 12"*
 
It must have been around this time I made a small fortune (well, for a 15/16 year old) from buying big bundles of 7" singles from one record shop, and selling them at a profit to another one about a mile up the same road. Happy days.
 
Can someone PLEASE explain to me how Samantha Fox was TWENTY YEARS OLD in that video. I just cannot accept it.

Wet Wet Wet and U2 are a fucking SCOURGE.
 
That Marti Pellow performance is one of the most irritating I have ever seen on the show. Other that Sam Fox and Whitney :disco:
 
Ag said:
What a weird sweaty jerky performance by Marti Pellow.
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I’m watching this now and by god I want to smack his face in. Surely they can’t afford a Coke habit yet...
 
Seeing tonight’s now- why on earth did we tolerate John Farnham?
 
Oh and that second Wishing I Was Lucky performance...

HORRIBLE. The camera fixating on the Pellow groin was not necessary either. I know he was bouncing in and out of shot the other week but this was not the answer.

I bet nice Kevin from Liberty X must be a joy to deal with (and listen to, to be fair) by comparison.
 
FetchFugly said:
Great song, according to Gary Davies. He also noted that Pepsi and Shirlie were doing very well - kiss of death there.
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That P&S performance was a REAL TREAT, though. "Goodbye Stranger" is so superior to the already marvellous "Heartache"...
 
Sheena said:
That P&S performance was a REAL TREAT, though. "Goodbye Stranger" is so superior to the already marvellous "Heartache"...
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They are quite similar but Goodbye Stranger always struck me as more memorable definitely. I don't know what they were thinking with All Right Now though.
 
I really don't like Heartache very much. Or thinking about it, more specifically either of their voices.
 
FetchFugly said:
They are quite similar but Goodbye Stranger always struck me as more memorable definitely.
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It's all about the ridiculous OVERBLOWN nature of it all.

SUDDENLY the STRANGER
MOVED to catch my EYE
I'm an EMPTY SHELL
And he doesn't know WHY

is perhaps topped only by

I WILL ALWAYS BE a SLAVE to the LOVE HE GAVE TO ME...

:disco:

I don't know what they were thinking with All Right Now though.
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I'm guessing after "Can't Give Me Love" (unfairly) bombed, they wanted to try something different. Wasn't it on a TV advert around the time as well, which might be part of it...

For those that don't know, the album is brilliant, by the way- one of my all time favourites from the era. Obviously the expanded version is best- we clearly needed ANOTHER act having a bash at SAW's "Who's Gonna Catch You?", after all...
 
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