The Story of 1981 Top of the Pops

Hello, good evening. Welcome to another edition of Top Of The Pops.

The cream of the crop of British pop.

This is the programme that does not hang around.

1981, Top Of The Pops in its 17th year...

19 million people every week.

..still on a Thursday night,

holding ground against Kenny Everett - then on ITV...

It's all done in the best possible taste.

..as a generation of teens donned their glad rags

and seized the day.

Hey, listen, you're on Top Of The Pops.

If we can write good songs

and we can somehow make some sounds,

then we can get on Top Of The Pops.

My mum had come to the school and said,

"Our Susan and Joanne have got to go

"cos they've got to go to Top Of The Pops."

Under producer, Michael Hurll...

-Spandau.

-Yep.

-Available, right?

..Top Of The Pops embraced this shift and upped its game.

We had a Planet Earth...

LAUGHTER

Yeah, they took things very literally, didn't they?

And the show got cutting-edge titles

as the studio was reborn

as a full-on '80s party.

Have we got something brand-new for you tonight?!

Complete with fire-eaters

and notorious cheerleaders.

I always took a bit of a dim view of them being anywhere near me.

You think, "What's happened to the programme?

"It's kind of sex-ridden all of a sudden. What's going on?"

# And I just can't seem to get enough... #

And so, it's official at last,

Prince Charles is to marry Lady Diana Spencer.

I think it's marvellous, I really do.

Very nice, very nice.

Spring '81 came loaded with new intentions...

What do they have in common?

What a difficult question.

-What do you think we've got in common?

-Sense of humour.

..but a Royal wedding

and the first affordable home computer...

Far and away, the best example here is the Sinclair ZX81.

..couldn't hide this.

The number of people out of work is still on the increase.

More than one in ten of Britain's workforce

is now out of a job.

I grew up in the '30s with an unemployed father,

he got on his bike and looked for work,

and he kept looking until he found it.

APPLAUSE

But if the real world was in recession...

..the pop universe was in escapist recovery.

After a sales dip in 1980,

entertainment was back in vogue.

The arrival of the New Romantics at the end of the year

had glammed up the charts

and the cult was now spreading out of London.

Birmingham saw the opening of new romantic haunt, the Rum Runner.

With its own regional twist on the scene

and a dashing house band.

The Rum Runner was like a lot of kids went back towards Bowie

and Kraftwerk, and this kind of European...

There was a little bit of disco in there

and it was a little bit more flamboyant.

It was references to the film Cabaret.

It was a lot of fun.

Great energy, great music,

fantastic sound system they had in there.

In comparison to the scene I'd been part of in Birmingham -

which was sort of 2 Tone - Dexys Midnight Runners, UB40,

lots of band playing in back rooms of pubs and little halls -

this felt really posh

and dressed-up, and a bit intimidating,

and a little bit pretentious.

You just know when things are going to take off.

I went to a pub one night

and I got 30 bits of paper,

I'd just started a breakfast show,

and every request was for Planet Earth.

These were all different people.

I've only played the song twice on the breakfast show.

Everyone wants this song. I said,

"They're going to be enormous."

Spinning like an apple, just outside the top 40, Duran Duran.

MUSIC: Planet Earth by Duran Duran

# I only came outside to watch

# the nightfall in the rain... #

We always saw ourselves releasing singles.

We wanted to be a singles band and we wanted to be on Top Of The Pops.

# Some New Romantic

# Looking for the TV sound

# You'll see I'm right some time... #

The song itself, when we wrote it,

we took all the elements that we liked and merged the sound -

a little bit of Giorgio Moroder,

a little bit of Chic,

disco, dance groove,

and a little rock guitar...

and a little bit of glam, and suddenly...

that was our sound.

# Look now, look all around

# There's no sign of life... #

Once they're in the charts, they are on the Pops.

Top Of The Pops really pull out the stops.

They want to present this new band brilliantly.

They even made them

a giant Planet Earth.

# This is Planet Earth... #

Yeah, they took things very literally, didn't they?

Like you said, Soft Cell had a padded cell

and we had a Planet Earth.

Yeah, they made an effort

and the people there were always really great.

It was fun.

Duran Duran.

CAMERAS CLICK

As the year progressed, the show saw Duran swap a New Romantic image

for the heavy fringes and shoulder pads of a different type of glam.

# See them walking hand in hand across the bridge at midnight

# Heads turning as the light's flashing on her so bright

# Then walk right out to the four line track

# There's a camera rollin' on her back... #

I think the punk ethic felt, at the time, very anti-fashion...

# I sense the rhythm's humming in a frenzy all the way... #

..whereas this felt like it was all about hair and make-up,

and dressing a certain way.

# Girls on film... #

Also, it felt like you had to have a certain amount of money

to buy those clothes.

# Girls on film

# Girls on film... #

We'd got some money from EMI and we'd gone shopping in London.

We had been to Antony Price's store on the King's Road

and I think we had gone to PX in Covent Garden and bought some gear.

We upped the visuals a little bit.

MUSIC: Any Second Now by Depeche Mode

While Duran were swanking up in Chelsea

and putting down the deposit on their yachts...

..the locals of Southend,

embracing a DIY punk ethic,

were going electro.

# Such a small affair

# A relapse, someone closing like the nightclub door... #

We use to rehearse really a lot.

There was nothing else to do in Essex, in Basildon.

# Here again and when you speak

# I watch you move away and seem so sure... #

We were playing music for our friends

that we could dance to, move to

that our friends would like, too.

and that was really...

That was probably about as far as our ambition went at the time.

The successful local band, Depeche Mode.

Their music is a blend of electronic futurism and disco.

# Let's all get together, come and hold my hand

# Baby, it's a bright new day. #

Suddenly, at the turn of the '80s,

synthesisers weren't expensive any more.

Japanese companies were making very accessible models.

We just gradually discarded our guitars for synthesisers.

It was just a natural progression.

We just loved the sound, it was good.

With Depeche Mode, what you had was some young kids

making a pop band at home

and making these incredible sounds.

CHEERING

INDISTINCT

MUSIC: New Life by Depeche Mode

# I stand still stepping on the shady streets

# And I watch that man to a stranger... #

It gave us the ability to realise,

"Well, if we can write good songs

"and we can somehow make some sounds,

"then we can get on Top Of The Pops."

Let me introduce you to a new band called Depeche Mode.

Now, they had a record out earlier this year

that didn't do everything it might have done -

but this one, New Life, is just immaculate.

# Complicating, circulating

# New life, new life

# Operating, generating

# New life, new life... #

When we first went on Top Of The Pops

and I think a few times after that as well,

we would get on the train and

we'd put our synthesisers in a suitcase,

wrap them in blankets and stuff so they wouldn't break...

# Transition to another place... #

..and then walk to the BBC.

I think that went on for quite a while until...

we realised other people were showing up

with people helping them to do that.

# Complicating, circulating

# New life, new life... #

Dave Gahan got into futurism by commuting to trendy London clubs

from Mum's in Basildon.

There wasn't any of that flash.

We kept pretty down-to-earth for a long time.

We were young, we were still teenagers -

incredible when I think about it now.

The cute, all-ears charm of a young Depeche Mode

won them a string of hits

and Top Of The Pops appearances.

Something that had eluded Sheffield's finest synth band,

even though they'd appeared on the show the year before.

Famously, The Human League, they got Top Of The Pops,

went on Top Of The Pops

single went down.

You have to ask yourself, "Why?"

-# Rock and roll

-# Hey

# Rock and roll

# Rock and roll... #

The blokey and art school version of Human League

failed to charm the charts...

# Rock and roll

# Rock and roll... #

..which led to a split, with main synth players

Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh departing -

leaving just singer Phil

and back projection man Adrian

holding it all together.

# Do you think they're wiser than in the past?

# How long do you think it's going to last? #

I went up to see the Human League in Sheffield

recording in their home studio...

# Boys and girls... #

.. but they couldn't actually play instruments in the conventional way.

When they were demoing Boys And Girls,

they had all the numbers written on the keyboards.

They couldn't play a chord or anything, it was just one finger.

Usually, with a synthesiser,

you don't have to be manually good at all.

That was why we turned to them in the first place -

cos no-one could learn how to do the guitars either.

But two events would transform The Human League.

Phil hired Stranglers producer Martin Rushent.

Somehow the songs become bigger.

He gave them a rounded sound.

He took the potential of the tunes they had

and emphasised the melody -

and when you get that,

you could actually appeal to a much broader audience.

And Phil, thinking of the band's image and appeal,

headed into Sheffield's club land

and persuaded two teenage girls he met on a nightclub dance floor,

who had never performed professionally,

to front the band with him.

We were both 18, we were doing A-levels at school.

My mum had got a phone call,

she had to come to the school

where Joanne and I were having an English Lit lesson.

She banged on the window first

and then she came into the class and said,

"Our Susan and Joanne have got to go

"cos they've got to go to Top Of The Pops."

Everyone hated us in sixth form anyway,

so they were all like...

MUSIC: The Sound Of The Crowd by The Human League

# Put your hand in a parting wave...

# Pass around... #

They very much were girl-in-the-audience...

Actually, the Top Of The Pops audience.

They were just ordinary fans.

-# In a parting wave...

-Pass around

# Make a shroud pulling combs... #

There was no contrived image.

Our clothes were what your mum had bought at a jumble sale.

-No, that black dress, my mum used to wear.

-Yes.

The black dress you wore was one of my mum's.

It was one of her mum's original dresses -

yours, she'd got from a jumble sale.

# Get around town

# Get around town

# Where the people look good

# Where the music is loud

# Get around town

# No need to stand proud... #

We weren't extraordinary.

We're not the best singers in the world

by any stretch of anybody's imagination.

We'd have never got through the X Factor.

We can't dance very well.

We're not Cindy Crawford.

You two were always like stars,

that was the odd thing.

You took on Top Of The Pops, or anything,

as you would take on a club in Sheffield.

It meant exactly the same to you.

# The shades from a pencil peer...

# Pass around

# A fold in an eyelid brushed with fear... #

I feel really proud that we did

one of the weirdest ever successful singles.

That must be the weirdest record that has ever got in the top ten,

isn't it? It's so strange.

# Get in line now

# Get in line now

# Stay in time with the rhythm and rhyme... #

It was a very empty record...

# Where the people look good... #

..and it had motored along in a sort of cavernous, threatening way.

# No need to stand proud

# Add your voice to the sound of the crowd... #

Then we hit the bit that we nicked from Iggy Pop, where it goes...

"Ah! Ah! Ah! Ahhh!"

Why did people buy that?

# Get in line now

# Get in line now

# Stay in time with the rhythm and rhyme

# Get around town... #

It was odd and we got away with it.

It went up the charts, it didn't go down.

In '81, a generation of kids from the clubs

came up with a new, joyful take on pop music...

..and moreover, they pioneered a novel way

of presenting their songs

on Top Of The Pops.

Pop videos are a growing phenomena,

capturing large slabs of free air time on pop and children's shows.

This year, Top Of The Pops has transmitted more than 20 pop videos.

APPLAUSE

Also doing well in the charts as Mr Cliff Richard.

He's wired for sound and vision.

Music promos weren't exactly new

but, this year, the young guns showed their elders - yes, you, Cliff -

how to get the most out of them.

# They're wired for sound

# Into the car, go to work and I'm cruising... #

There were sort of two styles of video in '81.

# Traffic froze... #

There's the old ones, like...

The old style, I mean - like Shaky's This Old House.

What does Shaky do?

He stands in front of an old house and mimes.

# Ain't got time to fix the shingles

# Ain't got time to fix the floor

# Ain't got time to oil the hinges

# Nor to mend no window panes... #

It seems during 1981 that videos somehow just changed.

They stopped being straightforward,

miming performances of songs.

One synth band who'd make a huge impact,

with what would perhaps prove to be the most popular video of the year,

was Ultravox.

I remember going to the record company

and asking if we could make a video - we had this great idea.

They just said, "Why? What's a video going to do?"

I had to kind of explain...

Here's me, some geeky artist,

talking to the record label,

trying to explain that, with your own video,

you could be on multiple TV shows on the same evening -

get all over Europe, all over the world, whatever.

They eventually went off and...

We borrowed the money to make the video cos they didn't get it.

MUSIC: Vienna by Ultravox

# We walked in the cold air... #

The opening sequence,

there's a horse running along the cobbled streets.

That's in Covent Garden,

before it became the tourist trap that it is today.

# Freezing breath on a window pane

# Lying and waiting... #

There's a bit where this young lad

gets shot, for whatever reason,

and that was in Kilburn State Theatre.

# The man in the dark in the picture frame

# So mystic and soulful... #

There's a girl dancing on an empty stage,

that was in central London.

Then we all piled into this plane

and went off there and shot all round Vienna for a day

to shoot the rest of it.

# The energy's gone, only you and I

# And it means nothing to me

# This means nothing to me

# Oh, Vienna. #

Of course, once Vienna was shown on Top Of The Pops,

the world changed.

That really is a magnificent film, isn't it? Good bit of music, too, from Ultravox.

How bands presented themselves changed forever

cos every band wanted a video.

The video was shown repeatedly on Top Of The Pops

and helped propel the band to number two for four weeks running.

Held off the number-one slot of course...

Uno, due, tre, quattro...

# What's-a matter you? Hey! #

..by an Australian-Italian with a mandolin.

# What-a you think you do?

# Why you look-a so sad?

# It's-a not so bad

-# It's a nice-a place... #

-Travesty.

# Ah Shaddap-a your face! #

At the same time as Midge was keeping the number-two spot warm,

elsewhere in the charts...

All right, Visage, Steve Strange, about to have himself painted -

it's called Fade To Grey.

..Midge had another project that was a pure product of this new video age.

# One man on a lonely platform

# One case sitting by his side... #

This was something that was never intended to be performed live.

It was a studio project.

We never, ever appeared as a band.

Visage was a product of the video generation.

Never will you see these people

in the same room together.

# We fade to grey... #

Personal appearance becomes less important.

Getting your image out through these videos

becomes the prime way of exposing your music.

# Fade to grey... #

Look at Adam and the Ants, how many weeks at number one during 1981?

Six, seven?

He didn't do a live spot in Top Of The Pops during that time.

He was represented by his videos.

A real revolution.

# Stand and deliver

# Your money or your life. #

Narrative, storylines,

dramas, costumes, situations.

Somehow that meant that it was a positive to have a video

in a show like Top Of The Pops.

THAT is the big change that happens in 1981.

This is BBC One.

In years gone by...

Yes, it's number one, it's Top Of The Pops.

..the show had always had an unforgettable theme tune...

..and an era-defining title sequence...

MUSIC: Whole Lotta Love by CCS

..featuring eggs, oranges

and Action Man...

..but by the start of '81, as we moved into the pop video age,

the show's theme tune and titles had both gone missing.

You're right, it's Top Of The Pops.

Some great music tonight.

We've got the Pretenders to start the show

with a Message of Love. Yes!

In the summer of this year, producer Michael Hurll

set about commissioning a title sequence

that would place the show firmly in this new decade.

And as the production team searched for a new theme tune...

# We all must beware of the yellow pearl. #

..a track co-written by Midge Ure with Thin Lizzy

grabbed their attention.

The original recording was quiet, small and very thin...

..but when I was asked to do an instrumental version...

..I put proper drums on it.

Big kind of Burundi tom drums...

HE AIR-DRUMS AND HUMS ALONG

..which gave it a whole different flavour.

-You've got the big synth melody...

-HE HUMS ALONG

It just kind of grew.

# Attack, attack, attack

# Attack, attack, attack, attack

# That's what we like... #

With a theme tune in place,

young, in-house graphic designer

Marc Ortmans began devising a new title sequence

inspired by the idea of records flying through the air.

Coloured vinyl was one of the big things at the time,

which was rather fortuitous because that gave us instantly great props.

One of the sleeves I found in the box, says,

"Young Blood in blood-red vinyl."

So it's quite possible that's actually what this record is.

# Where are you going now?

-# Young blood...

-#

The way it was done was,

we set the camera up in the ceiling of a studio,

got a big box on the floor full of dry ice,

so it was...

We've got this bubbling cloud...

..and then we hurled these records...

There were two of us. ..next to the camera,

throwing as many as we could get our hands on past the camera

and down to the floor.

As you can see, this one...

had a bit of an accident on the way

and most of them did actually get broken.

The trick of making them appear to come right up to the camera

and just miss, but never hit,

is by reversing the film

so they seem to come out of the clouds

but come dramatically close to it.

Probably about half of them got completely smashed to pieces.

Mark finished the day by filming the show's logo,

cut out of reflective steel,

and a hydraulic hammer smashing a pink screen print.

He then set about editing it all together.

Nobody cut things fast.

Nobody cut things really tightly...

Rhythmically.

As you know, the film, when you're cutting it,

you're literally sticking it together with Sellotape

and a splicer, and I seem to remember, that cutting copy

was more Sellotape than film by the time we finished.

We just had so many cuts.

All over London, foreign television crews

have been holding last-minute conferences

to ensure nothing has been overlooked for the big day.

With a predicted worldwide viewing figure of close on 700 million,

the royal wedding is the biggest audience catcher

in the history of television.

For days, they've been beaming pictures back to Tokyo.

Is your hat heavy? Your...?

-No, not particularly.

-No?

In the countdown to the big day,

the whole world looked to Britain

just as a long-running problem

reared its head again.

It just kills you.

You know you haven't done anything

but yet still people try to pin something new.

It's not a very nice feeling.

Complaints about the police are universal

throughout the black community.

Middle-aged matrons and respectable working fathers,

clerks and cooks, and councillors

all have their own experiences.

People were fed up being searched.

Black people were fed up with walking around

under a cloak of suspicion the whole time.

You could be walking any time of the night or the day,

and a police car would stop and they would stop you and search you.

It was difficult for my brothers.

Fortunately for them, they didn't kick off.

If you kicked off, then you'd get a kicking from the police.

You'd worry every time somebody black and male

left your house at night.

From early afternoon, gangs of youths,

some white but predominantly black, held the police at bay.

At about 5pm this evening,

it came to a head.

Tonight, the violence turned toward starting fires.

In the Fire Brigade's words, "Too numerous to count."

It was the spark that lit the fuse.

Riot after riot ripped the country apart in cities across England.

It wasn't just anger with the police.

With unemployment heading towards three million,

amid factory closures and mass lay-offs of workers,

the country was in its worst recession since the 1930s.

HE PLAYS INTRO TO "GHOST TOWN"

MUSIC: Ghost Town by The Specials

Great pop music just gets the pulse,

gets the zeitgeist

and Jerry Dammers just tapped straight into that with Ghost Town.

# This town

# Is coming like a ghost town

# All the clubs are being closed down... #

The song took about a year to write it all.

I was messing about with the tune first of all

and the lyrics came afterwards.

# Bands won't play no more

# Too much fighting on the dance floor... #

It was based on what we were seeing touring round the country.

We did a gig in Glasgow

and there were little old ladies selling their household goods

and, in Liverpool,

just driving into the city and all the shops were boarded up.

It was just a very strange atmosphere.

In the '60s, Coventry was like a boom town.

It was like gold-rush town, really.

# Do you remember the good, old days before the ghost town? #

That had all gone pear-shaped, obviously,

so I had this very joyful middle eight

in the middle of the song,

which was very commercial and sort of sing-along.

It was a very strange coincidence

that this was going up the charts

and the whole country was erupting into rioting.

The sus laws were in full effect

so the song was written in reaction to that.

That's the line, "People getting angry."

# Can't go on no more

# People getting angry... #

It was an amazing thing that a song like that

could be on Top Of The Pops.

You know, the fact that it was on Thursday night,

kids could discuss it the next day at school

and also they had time to buy the record.

It's almost like people voted with their cash for political ideas.

It's strange but that's what they were doing in a way.

# This town...

# Is coming like a ghost town... #

The song had this diminished chord in it...

..which was the devil's chord in the Middle Ages.

People were banned from playing it

on the pain of death and...

Yeah, that was the chord

that launched Black Sabbath's career and...

sadly, seemed to mark the end

of the original line-up of the Specials.

In fact, on Top Of The Pops was the last time we ever performed.

Fun Boy Three came in the dressing room

and announced that they were leaving afterwards,

so that added to the surreal

and rather sad atmosphere

of the whole time, really.

Yeah, so there.

So, London now sees, for the first time,

their Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess of Wales.

It is the happiness of the crowd,

it is as though a whole nation is gathering

in front of Buckingham Palace saying,

"Yes, we do respect law and order.

"Yes, we can be happy.

"Yes, we do like each other

"and we do like being British."

If Charles and Di were '81's golden couple...

Oh, that's what everybody's been waiting for.

..22 years earlier,

a pop dynasty was in the making.

1959's wedding of the year

saw British rock and roll star Marty Wilde marry his teen sweetheart,

singer Joyce Baker.

# Each night I ask the stars up above

# Why must I be a teenager in love? #

In the '60s, Marty turned songwriter

for Top Of The Pops star Lulu...

# I'm a tiger

# I'm a tiger

# I'm a tiger, I'm a tiger... #

..and in '81, it was his daughter's turn.

We were all living at home.

Me, together with my dad, Marty,

and my mum, Joyce,

and my brother, Ricky.

He and I had bedrooms next to each other upstairs.

He had left school and

he had joined my dad's band -

so he was becoming a very good musician.

The Wasp synthesiser was in his bedroom

and I do remember hearing the bloody thing making such a racket.

It had this sort of incessant

"ba-da-da-da-da-da-da".

It was enough to drive me insane.

But little did I know,

he was writing the song that was going to change my life.

Ricky had gone up to London to meet Mickie Most

to try and get a record deal.

Of course, you know, there's me all ears.

I go, "I'll come up as well."

I made myself look the best I could that day.

I'd just been to the hairdressers and had my hair all dyed blonde

and I just walked in determined to make something happen.

Mickie Most really took to Ricky big-time.

He had spotted me and asked my brother if I could sing

and the rest is history, really.

MUSIC: Kids In America by Kim Wilde

# Looking out a dirty, old window

# Down below the cars in the city go rushing by

# I sit here alone and I wonder why

# Friday night and everyone's moving... #

If you see my first performance on Top Of The Pops,

it looks like I'm snarling at the camera -

that I'm meaning to do that, somehow -

but actually, it was because I was terrified

cos Madness were on the stage opposite me

and I'd just been buying all their records

and they're a young, overwhelming group of lads.

They were a bit rough around the edges, Madness -

well, they still are, aren't they?

I just sort of stood there swaying a little bit.

Just a little bit.

That's because I was scared.

# Hotshot, give me no problems

# Much later, baby, you'll be saying never mind... #

Then we kind of took that idea and did it with the video as well,

so I became pouty, non-smiling, moody...

Which, I sort of was a little bit sometimes -

but it wasn't really me.

Right now, for starters, who else but Kim Wilde?

MUSIC: Chequered Love By Kim Wilde

# You say everything's all right

# I say nothing can go right, yeah

# Oh what a game you can play... #

Kim Wilde hit big...

It's Kim Wilde's new video.

-Quite an interesting one. Good morning.

-Good morning.

-How are you, all right?

-Yeah.

..but Kim, just a young '80s teen at heart,

struggled with her traditional "It girl" image.

Kim Wilde and her friend Claire

went to a small shop where you can buy a whole outfit for just £5.

Is this the sort of stuff that

-you like to buy from here?

-No.

Sometimes I found it really hard to switch hats

from being Kim Smith

with my best mates and buddies that I knew at school,

which I was doing,

and then being Kim Wilde.

Glamour puss with the red lips and the pouting, and all that stuff.

Sometimes it got really confusing.

It did get a bit lonely sometimes.

The famous daughter of a famous father, Kim Wilde.

CHEERING

The best support that I had was that I had my family

either physically there -

as my brother Ricky was writing all of this material -

and then of course my mum and dad,

they'd just had two children themselves,

so they were bringing up two more children.

Yeah, my whole life was very focused on family first, actually.

So, I'd go home after doing Top Of The Pops

and I'd be changing my sister's nappy or my brother's nappy.

APPLAUSE

Back to the chart at number 14, it's Kool And The Gang, and Steppin' Out.

For years, American R&B acts had had a huge presence on the show -

but in this year, a genre would emerge

that was a distinctly black British response.

At the time, the Americans had become really, really slick.

# You work hard the way I do... #

Lots of the American musicians at the time,

they were coming out with various music scores and everything -

where the bands over here were just literally off of the street.

-# Steppin' out tonight

-# Steppin' out. #

The way we recorded, the way we learned to play our instruments

the way we applied our music was totally different.

Often, we wouldn't go out there wearing sequinned clothes

and shiny gear,

we were just like street kids.

Everybody had their own identity.

There was a uniqueness.

We didn't sound like someone else's remix.

We were all very, very different.

London is made up of all little villages and,

depending where you come from,

that's what you do.

# I shot the sheriff... #

Take Beggar & Co

or Light of the World,

who came from Tottenham,

who had a big bass rhythm behind their stuff.

MUSIC: Flashback by Imagination

# Flashback to the days when the nights were young... #

Leee John was from Mill Hill.

# When we could do no wrong... #

His slant on soul was the falsetto -

very high voice.

# When our hearts were so strong... #

His experience of nightclubs like Brown's -

that style of boys in shorts

and very camp,

then you had Freeez.

They came from Hackney

and what they drew from that

was a more perky soul sound.

It's always good to see new names on the charts

and here they are now, the Freeez -

a brand-new group with a brand-new sound, the Southern Freeez.

With Ingrid, she was very...

"I don't care" sort of attitude.

She was actually singing slightly like she was singing cockney.

HE MIMICS INGRID

You know, like she didn't care.

# Love

# Saw it in your eyes

# Sensed it in your smile... #

1981, I was a social worker in a children's home in Hackney.

# When I saw you on the floor

# Doing the southern freeez... #

I just think it's about being authentic.

It's about being yourself.

I'm from North London, I'm not going to compromise who I am

for the sake of...anything, really.

That's why I did it as me.

# In the way you move

# I like it very much... #

Top Of The Pops was a bit of a shock.

You get a phone call and you get told to come down

at least three hours before you actually appear,

so you've got all this time to waste

and they show you the BBC bar

where a pint of beer cost about 10p in those days

and there's all these middle-class old men

who are intrigued by this black woman in tails and a bowtie -

and keep buying me drinks because they are going,

"Fascinating, fascinating."

So, by the time I got on stage, I'm a little bit squiffy.

First of all, they play the intro of the song

and I walk up to the mic

and it's not even pretending to be a mic,

it's just a bit of metal in a mic stand, no wires on it,

no holes in it

and I burst out laughing.

# Time

# Time is moving on... #

Michael Hurll got a little bit annoyed

because I kept bursting out laughing every time I approached the mic

saying, "Get that thing of the stage."

He did take it off because I think he thought

it was just going to take all night otherwise.

And in '81, on the same show as Freeez,

another Britfunk band made their Top Of The Pops debut

with a song that came straight from their local streets

and the harsh reality of '80s Britain.

Somebody Help Me Out,

it's funny because I remember me and Kenny once,

we were walking down Tottenham.

A homeless person came along, asking for change for a cup of tea.

We gave him a couple of quid and I remember saying to Kenny,

"Isn't it sad that guy's like that, that cry of help?"

We went out and wrote that song

immediately after that happened.

Beggar & Company and Somebody Help Me Out.

# Somebody help me out...

The whole thing was based around this guy,

so when we went on Top Of The Pops, it had already been set that

this is how we were going to look.

# Whoah-oh, whoah-oh, whoah-oh

# Whoah-oh, whoah-oh, whoah-oh... #

Basically, just go into your wardrobe, get donkey jackets,

woolly hats, a coat, a mac,

just turn up at Top Of The Pops and wear that.

Like a bunch of musicians who needed help...basically.

# Please help me out

# Give me a chance

# I'll show you that I'm still around... #

We just did that real rugged look to sort of

match the type of music that we were playing.

We were surprised at the impact it had.

If anything, no band in the soul-funk fraternity

had ever dressed down in the manner that we had

and that became our classic look.

# It hurts deep inside... #

The DJ said to us, "How do I introduce you?"

I said to him, "Just say it's like tramp funk."

That got edited out.

MUSIC: Chant No 1 by Spandau Ballet

Even bands like Spandau Ballet

picked up on this sound.

They got Beggar & Company to play on Chant No 1.

-# I don't need this pressure on... #

-Fantastic, heavy bass funk tune.

# I don't need this pressure on

# I don't need this pressure on... #

We were doing Top Of The Pops the same day as Spandau Ballet,

which was very interesting because they were like local lads like us.

They were totally knocked out by the horns

so they asked about a collaboration.

For a while, we were going to the same clubs as them.

Steve Strange's club in Camden Town

and another one called the Le Beat Route.

Brit funk brought black and white together.

Suddenly there was this huge element of music going out

and all the young black and white soldiers were integrating.

Guys now were now going out with white girls

and white girls were going out with black guys.

It cut down that barrier.

With the Spandau collaboration going to number three,

members of Beggar & Co

made the second most appearances

on Top Of The Pops in '81 -

second only to Shakin' Stevens.

Joining them on the show in summer '81

were the last Brit funk act to get signed up -

who would be most successful

and the most controversial.

Imagination may have come out of the Brit funk movement

but they'd kind of moved into something else.

I'm not sure quite what it was because it's just them, isn't it?

It is an Imagination sound.

That dreamy, soulful,

almost reflective quality

was much slower Brit funk.

MUSIC: Body Talk by Imagination

I was watching all my friends going into the charts

and it was like, "Wow, we're one of the last ones to break."

We knew we had to be doubly dynamic, doubly top,

really skilled at what we did -

making sure that when we went live

that we were a force to be reckoned with.

# Morning, afternoon and night

# We lay together side by side

# Searching for lust

# Searching for breath

# Searching for the touch of life... #

When I was a kid, you watched Top Of The Pops and think,

"Wow, one day I'd love to be on that show."

You are mimicking yourself in front of the mirror and,

all of a sudden, you are doing it.

# Body talk... #

And I remember being in front of the camera and being told,

"You've got to make love to it. You've got to make love to it."

# As it overflows, pleasure grows

# All the dreams it can bring... #

Leee John had done rehearsals

and there would be no problem at all.

Come the take,

Leee turns up,

walks on stage wearing very baggy light cotton trousers

and, very clearly, nothing underneath.

# Cool and kind, so soft and pure

# A touching moment... #

His swaying dance portrayed him rather more graphically

than the director was prepared to accept.

I'm laughing...memory.

Oh, dear.

Michael Hurll came down,

stopped the show dead,

sent him off,

"Put a jockstrap on!"

# Body talk... #

Except, I don't think the message got through to the drummer.

By the end of the song, Errol gets up from the drums

and starts coming out to the front to dance...

..so, by the time the camera focused in,

baby, he was like, "Hey."

APPLAUSE

Body Talk - and it doesn't leave much to the imagination, does it?

# I ain't gonna stand for this... #

And neither did Legs & Co.

The dance troupe had been a staple of the show for the last seven years.

But in this year, they increasingly found themselves wearing less...

and less.

-# Freak out!

-Le Freak, C'est Chic.

-#

Now then, here's Legs & Co with something shocking for your eyes.

MUSIC: Bermuda Triangle by Barry Manilow

# It makes people disappear

# Bermuda Triangle

# Don't go too near. #

I think that Legs & Co had got to the point

where it was really like soft porn.

They were in the tiniest clothes possible.

MUSIC: Ai No Corrida by Quincy Jones

# Ai No Corrida,

# That's were I am

# You sent me there

# Your dream is my command... #

The Ai No Corrida costumes were absolutely outrageous.

Strategic fig leaves placed -

but when we actually recorded the number,

we didn't do it in the show

and it was supposed to have two camera crew,

the rest of the studio had been cleared.

Word must have got out about the costumes, or the lack of costumes,

because we noticed the doors were opening

and the studio started filling up again.

People were coming in for a quick look and,

"Oh, gosh, go and get someone else.

"You won't believe what they're not wearing."

By the end of the routine, everyone was in there. Again.

Their wild, backcombed, mean bitch look has brought Hot Gossip

countless admirers and imitators.

Hang on, Laura, you've got to stay that way.

Along had come Arlene Phillips on Kenny Everett's show...

..and, in a way, Hot Gossip,

they were in suspenders

but they were just in control.

It was a little more dominatrix, perhaps -

like, "Us girls are taking over."

I think bringing men into the dancing completely changed things,

because then it wasn't just for the dads.

It was always that horrible, seedy thing that the DJ would be like,

"Pull your chair up, guys."

Ladies and gentlemen, this is where Dad...

You pull the chair a little closer, Dad,

because it's time for the heavy breathing, Dad.

There's no doubt about it at all

because we have six very beautiful girls for you.

They are Legs & Co.

Suddenly Legs & Co looked really outdated.

MUSIC: Will You? By Hazel O'Connor

This was the way the show was going.

# It's getting kind of late now... #

We were aware, certainly by July,

that the writing was on the wall for us and

we were into our last few months.

# Stay now, stay now

# Or will you just politely say goodnight? #

We didn't know till about halfway through the year

of the ultimate change,

which is that we would be no longer required to be on the show any more.

One of our final performances as a group was to the Birdie Song.

MUSIC: The Birdie Song by Werner Thomas

It apparently went down a storm at parties

but it certainly wasn't our favourite routine.

Certainly not one that we were very pleased about being seen

doing as our last performance.

It was a bit of a shame...

but that's how it ended -

ended on the Birdie Song.

MUSIC: Twilight by Electric Light Orchestra

But Legs leaving was just part of Michael Hurll's plan

to trump the competition.

In November, he introduced Zoo -

a 20-strong dance troupe to take on Hot Gossip.

# The visions dancing in my mind... #

It was a little bit more loose, it was more exuberant.

You had more street dancers in Zoo,

therefore you got a lot more energy, flips, splits and stuff like that.

# Am I awake or do I dream? #

One of the biggest changes was that suddenly there were male dancers -

not only male dancers but black, male dancers.

These guys who were amazing club dancers

and amazing technical dancers.

MUSIC: Let's Groove Tonight by Earth, Wind & Fire

Clive Clarke, he was a street dancer.

I knew him from clubs that we used to go to,

like Crackers and Bird's Nest.

# Let's groove tonight

# Share the spice of life... #

I entered the disco dancing championships.

After winning, I did an audition for Top Of The Pops.

They said, "Right, you're on the first show."

# Let this groove get you to move...

And, in the dress run, the cameras and for the lighting and all that,

I hit my knee against a metal bit of scaffolding,

right on the kneecap.

I couldn't even stand up, it was so painful.

Flick said,

"Well, Tony and Pinkie..."

Who I knew really well, fantastic dancers,

they had worked with Kelly Marie,

they said, "..they're ready to take your spot."

I was like, "Hell, no!"

Suddenly the pain went.

# We can boogie on down...

That competitive spirit against arch-enemies of the dance floor,

I was never going to give it away, they would have to kill me.

MUSIC: Runaround Sue by Racey

By '81, Michael Hurll was injecting new life

into all areas of Top Of The Pops.

Increasing the size of the studio audience and, with hand-held cameras

and swooping crane shots, bringing in a new immediacy to the show.

Even though there were still visible crowd marshals

in red tracksuits herding the public...

# This girl will leave me with a broken heart... #

..bored kids looking at the camera...

saying hello to Mum

and looking at themselves on the monitor.

In November, Michael Hurll staged an intervention.

Taking his cue from the advent of Zoo,

he repopulated the studio

with a huge swathe of entertainers and cheerleaders

to create a permanent party atmosphere.

Hello and welcome to Top Of The Pops.

As always, we're changing things around just a little bit.

We've got something brand-new for you tonight.

Stay with us, enjoy the show, for starters,

Modern Romance - Ay Ay Moosey.

The public had to take a back step because of all these crazy,

ego-driven dancers that had turned up, called "cheerleaders."

I being one of them.

Our job was really to show off.

That was why we were chosen.

We were show-offs.

# When I hear those trumpets

# The congas start to play

# My heart it starts dancing... #

Michael wanted us to look like we were fans of the music,

people who would buy the music.

He wanted us to look like the girl next door,

but a super-sized version.

I was a dancer but I would also be a cheerleader. I didn't care.

I just loved it.

Sometimes people would wave to their parents,

or God knows what else,

and you could actually just curtail that with a hand action.

We were packing in the audience.

We were like a sheepdog.

"Move them sheep, put them in front of the camera, pull them out,

"hands up, wave, smile.

"Big cheers, big whoop-whoop-whoops!"

We would be there at the front of the stage,

at the side of the stage, on the stage, at the back of the band.

# Get away, run away

# Far away... #

Everyone just wanted to be seen on that show.

It was incredibly competitive.

You'd turn around while you're performing your song

and there would be some girl gyrating like a go-go dancer

on a podium next to you.

You'd think, "What has happened to the programme?"

"It was kind of sex-ridden all of a sudden. What's going on?"

MUSIC: Cambodia by Kim Wilde

I always took a bit of a dim view of them being anywhere near me.

I never much cared for dancers interpreting my music

because I was arrogant enough,

not too arrogant, of course.

Not as arrogant as some -

but arrogant enough to think,

"I just don't want those dancers around me."

# Well, he was Thailand-based

# She was an Air Force wife... #

As well as the cheerleaders,

in the audience,

you would see people from nightclubs,

like Blitz kids,

who eventually would become stars in their own right.

I vividly remember doing Cambodia

and looking down

and seeing this beautiful person standing in the audience

and I couldn't quite work out

if it was a male or a female,

I had never seen anyone look like that, who was so unique...

# I will get you by... #

..and it was Boy George.

# And if I don't, I sure will try

# Yes, tonight, Josephine... #

I just remember feeling like a bit of an impostor thinking,

"What am I doing here? He should be up here."

# Well I'm gonna give my heart to you... #

He knew where he was going and

very shortly after, of course, he was standing on that stage.

It was sort of like a rites of passage.

If you wanted to become a singer,

Top Of The Pops was one of the only shows

that was easy to get on a guest list

and get yourself on TV to see how it worked.

It's a bit like research.

# Yes, tonight, Josephine

# Yes, tonight. #

APPLAUSE

MUSIC: The Land Of Make Believe by Bucks Fizz

Michael, we can all feel that it's cold, but exactly how cold is it?

In fact, it's so cold that I had to

get some more temperatures made this afternoon

because we just haven't had call for temperatures

as low as -16 or indeed -20,

which I'm using on the chart for this evening.

December '81 would prove to be

one of the snowiest months of the 20th century,

with record-breaking low temperatures and blizzards.

Even...

# In the land of make believe. #

Here's The Snowmen and the Hokey Cokey.

Christmas saw a seasonal pack of contenders climbing the charts,

chasing the coveted number one slot...

# Well, I wish it could be Christmas every day... #

..but what few had their eye on

was the synth pop dark horse coming up on the rails.

Least of all, the band themselves.

We'd had three singles from one album -

Sound Of The Crowd, Love Action and Open Your Heart.

-We thought that the public would be fed up with us, didn't we?

-Yeah.

We thought they'd be bored - that they'd had enough.

The record company, "We're putting Don't You Want Me out."

We said, "No, it's our sort of Des O'Connor song,"

I think is what we said at the time.

Hence last track, side two,

bit of a gap between the one before.

I'm sure what they meant by it being their Des O'Connor song

was that it's a little bit cheesy, the sentiment,

but we'd held back Don't You Want Me

because we thought that was the best.

MUSIC: Don't You Want Me by The Human League

We insisted on putting a poster in with it

because there was no added value.

Anyone who had Dare had already got it,

so why should anyone else buy it?

# You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar

# When I met you

# I picked you out

# I shook you up

# And turned you around

# Turned you into someone new... #

When you are in a band,

your aim is to get to number one.

When someone phones you up and says,

"Fabulous, you're number one."

You go, "Wow, that's brilliant," for about five minutes

and then it's a bit...

-"What we do now?"

-Right, "What do we do now?"

It's been the worst December weather since 1901.

Abandoned cars and coaches had still to be dug out of snowdrifts

this morning.

It was the day we got stuck in the snow near Fishguard in Wales.

Yeah.

We were on tour, we were going to Ireland,

getting the ferry to Ireland,

our bus driver had to get off,

go to the local farmer

and get a tractor to come and pull us out.

We were there for hours.

We were freezing, we had no heating,

we were wrapped in the curtains from the bus,

and it's like...

"Right, OK, so this is being number one, is it? Great(!)"

# I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar

# That much is true

# But even then I knew I'd find a much better place

# Either with or without you. #

My biggest memory of being on Top Of The Pops

when we were number one at Christmas was when our producer,

Martin Rushent, was in the crowd and...

..he was a practical joker

so he decided to bring along a can of crazy string.

# Don't you want me, baby?

It went straight into my mouth.

There are just shots of me going...

Spluttering.

I tried to spit all this stuff out of my mouth.

# Don't you want me

# Oh

# Don't you want me, baby? #

Don't You Want Me was number one for weeks and weeks, and weeks.

I think the band are very genuine people and, amazingly,

unaffected by all of this huge success.

As '81 gave way to '82,

The Human League would also top the US chart

and point the way for the new pop generation.

It's MY first Top Of The Pops and it's THEIR first Top Of The Pops.

Wham!

As next year would see the arrival

of yet more British young guns...

# Hey, sucker

# What the hell's got into you? #

..who would storm the national and international charts...

# That's the look

# That's the look

# The look of love... #

..and Top Of The Pops added the "Ooh" factor...

-Gary Davies, Gary.

-Hi, Peter.

-Janice Long, Janice.

-Hello.

..with new presenters in a balloon-packed pop paradise.

# Heavens above!

-# That's the look, that's the look

-# Hip, hip, hooray

-# That's the look, that's the look

-# Yippy-ay! Yippy-ay-ay!

# That's the look, that's the look

# Be lucky in love

# Look of love! #