The Story of 1983 Top of the Pops


The Story of 1983

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Hello. We're on a £5-an-hour bonus for wearing these hats.

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Welcome to another Top Of The Pops.

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We're the Burke and Hare of British broadcasting.

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I'm John. He's the likeable Canadian.

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1983...

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and Britain's favourite pop show was celebrating a landmark birthday.

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Happy birthday, Top Of The Pops, for a thousand weeks,

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and many happy returns.

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But with the march of the video age,

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was Top Of The Pops facing a midlife crisis?

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Top Of The Pops is dead meat if it's just showing videos.

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# Oh-ho... #

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And yet, a new pop ambition was in the air.

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We said to ourselves,

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"If you're not in the top ten by the end of this year, we have to quit."

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Bass guitars held high...

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and low, as indie entered the mainstream,

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with a live performance that wasn't exactly lively.

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"Saw you on Top Of The Pops the other week. What was that about?!"

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In 1983, the new order of pop stars was more flamboyant than ever.

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Dangerous, glamorous, beautiful.

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Is it a man? Is it a woman? What is it?

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And a strong image made you stand out from the crowd.

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Well, Haircut 100 did it very well with pullovers so I thought

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maybe I can do it with beads.

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Appearing on Top Of The Pops remained the dream...

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It was so important, you know. It could make or break you.

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..even if the reality could be a rude awakening.

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I really didn't want to do it. It still makes me cringe now.

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And, for the new pop aristocracy, it was time to go for it.

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It's a vintage year. I'd say that the '80s began in '83.

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A group of prominent international scientists say the world

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has moved another significant step towards nuclear destruction.

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In the year the doomsday clock moved closer to midnight,

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protest was in the air at Greenham Common.

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The recent antinuclear demonstrations at Greenham have

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indeed been exceptional, as was the police response.

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A strong leader had been in place for several years now.

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But, like Margaret Thatcher,

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Top Of The Pops producer Michael Hurll

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believed his work was only beginning.

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And they've plenty of reason to celebrate,

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even though we celebrated it 20 days ago.

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It's U2 in at number 23, and New Year's Day.

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In January, to inject young blood into the show,

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27-year-old Janice Long became its first regular female presenter.

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I was absolutely thrilled to bits

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with the fact that I was introducing U2.

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I mean, that doesn't get... You know, your first Top Of The Pops!

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# All is quiet

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# On New Year's Day

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# A world in white gets under way... #

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I think I came out of it, as well...

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And I'm sure I did, actually, cos I remember the NME going, "Really?"

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I went, "Ah, it's the luck of the Irish!"

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-SHE CHUCKLES

-Oh, no!

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Great. Bono, Edge, Larry and Adam there from Dublin,

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doing very nicely.

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-IRISH ACCENT:

-It's the luck of the Irish!

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How embarrassing!

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It's back to the charts and, this time, we start at number 19.

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Earlier that day, Janice had learned how to talk Top Of The Pops.

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When we did the chart rundown,

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you'd get there in the afternoon and that was the first thing you'd do.

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So I'd just be, "In at 40, it's Tears for Fears

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"with Change, or Mad World," whatever...

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And they'd... "Could you be a bit more lively?"

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"I think I'm really lively at the mo..."

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So, up it a bit.

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Dionne Warwick is at number 15, All The Love In The World.

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"No, could you make it really lively?"

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And, in the end, I just sounded as though I'd had too much caffeine.

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I was, like, over the top, but that's how they wanted it.

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And at number 12, Cacharpaya from Incantation.

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It was really nice to see a female face

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and somebody who is genuinely enthusiastic about music.

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# Who's on the seventh floor? #

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She was young, she was clearly a proper fan,

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so that was really refreshing.

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# What's in the bottom drawer? #

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I was very excited that there were

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lots of Liverpool bands doing Top Of The Pops.

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# Spare us the cutter... #

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You had Pete Wylie, you had China Crisis,

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and Echo And The Bunnymen.

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# Couldn't cut the

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# Mustard

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# Conquering myself until

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# I see another hurdle approaching... #

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And my mum phoned me up afterwards when I got home.

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Promptly phoned me up and she said,

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"That Echo And The Bunnymen fella..."

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She said, "I hope you're not hanging around with him -

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"he's on drugs or drink!"

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# Am I the worthy cross?

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# Will I still be soiled

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# When the dirt is off? #

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In 1983, the pop charts were also given an overhaul.

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Political pollsters Gallup took charge,

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in a bid to stop chart rigging.

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Selected record shops like this will be linked electronically

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to a computer. It will show where and at what time a record was sold.

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As the charts were being professionalised, so were the turns.

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Art Nouveau were a futuristic, avant-garde four-piece

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from Leighton Buzzard

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who'd been struggling to break into the big time.

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We'd been playing the local pub circuit for a while,

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but things weren't really moving forward very fast

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and I said to the guys,

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"We really need another guy. We need that focus."

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The solution was a new frontman - Chris Hamill,

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a waiter and face at the hip Embassy Club in London.

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Chris became Limahl, and Art Nouveau became Kajagoogoo.

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Now all they needed was a record deal.

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# Nobody knew the people who

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# Were needing to save time

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# So... #

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Limahl had run into Nick Rhodes one night

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in the Embassy Club in London.

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Limahl said, "Yeah, yeah, I've got a band.

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"Do you want to hear my demos?"

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Nick took the demos to EMI

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and they said, "Yeah, we've heard these," and he said,

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"Yeah, well, you haven't been listening to them properly, then,"

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and we got signed.

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Despite Gallup's efforts, an ambitious band like Kajagoogoo

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understood what they needed to do

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to get their debut single into the charts.

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We were hitting all the Gallup chart return shops because that was

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the big thing back then.

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So, nobody knew where the chart return shops were,

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but you knew they were in a certain area,

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so you had to do certain shops.

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Once that was done, we were set, really, for TV.

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It's their first appearance on Top Of The Pops.

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It's Kajagoogoo, Too Shy.

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It seemed like the producers of the show knew we were these new faces...

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..so they did...

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..an individual cutaway to each one of us.

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And then finishing with Limahl.

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# Time... #

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Kajagoogoo were the paragon of 1983.

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Perfect for Smash Hits and the teen press.

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Perfect for Top Of The Pops.

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# You're too shy, shy

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# Hush-hush, eye to eye

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# Too shy, shy

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# Hush-hush, eye to eye

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# Too shy, shy... #

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The band had been given a lesson in pop do's and don'ts

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by Nick Rhodes, now their producer.

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I remember it had a very avant-garde jazz middle eight.

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It wasn't until Nick Rhodes said,

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-IN BRUMMY ACCENT:

-"It plummets in the middle eight.

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"We've got to change it."

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I thought, "Well, this is now."

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It may not have been ten years ago, it may not be ten years from now,

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but it is pop music, and it is now.

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The transformation into pin-up chart-toppers was complete.

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It's gone to number one. This is Kajagoogoo. This is Too Shy.

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I think we were just eager and very excited.

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Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

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# Hush-hush, eye to eye... #

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Naive.

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When Kajagoogoo reappeared on the show in September, however,

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someone had gone AWOL.

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I think we all realised we'd come to a point that we couldn't,

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we couldn't carry on working with Limahl any more.

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# Crying in some avenue... #

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So that week, I was the lead singer on Top Of The Pops

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with a new single.

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# Life in the Big Apple

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# Moves very fast and so must... #

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They thought they could be just as successful without him.

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Fatal.

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# Cops en route

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# Are hot in pursuit

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# As windows are shattered... #

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We sacrificed something and, in the long term,

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it didn't work out as well.

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A lot of people talk about what vapid music came out of that period.

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It wasn't about making records to make people think.

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It was a party time.

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Unemployment's gone up again to almost 750,000,

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with school leavers accounting for most of the increase.

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With nearly one in four under-25s out of work,

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for some the mood was defiant.

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Sign on and party.

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The New Romantic "look at me" generation had vied for attention

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in the early '80s in the underground nightclub scene.

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Now they were ready to enter the mainstream

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and vie for chart success.

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# Hey, everybody, take a look at me

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# I've got street credibility

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# I may not have a job but I have a good time

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# With the boys that I meet down on the line... #

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1983 was the year of "go for it".

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By this stage, the mechanics of how you

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become a pop star, get into the pop press,

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get on the TV, had become known to that generation.

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-# Get yourself a job

-Get out of this house

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-# Get yourself a job

-Are you a man or a mouse? #

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They were a very visually aware generation,

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thanks to having been brought up on TV.

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It was almost as if they were born to become TV stars.

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-# Are you gonna get down?

-Yeah... #

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Pop was hip again. You were allowed to like pop music.

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# Wham, bam, I am a man... #

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Groups like Wham! were now the darlings

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of the glossy music magazines,

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aimed at a young, often female readership.

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Keen to join the party,

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Number One was launched by the NME's publisher in May.

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IPC Magazines had spotted the massive success of Smash Hits

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and decided, "We'd like one of those,"

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so decided to do, like, a weekly one, which was Number One magazine.

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Number One started because nobody wanted to read,

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like 5,000 words thesis on Wham! and their place in society.

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What they wanted was a picture of Andrew and George

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to put up on their wall.

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We were writing for the pop fans.

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It was just not the kind of music that really stood up

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to much analysis, at the end of the day.

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MUSIC: Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) by Eurythmics

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If Number One magazine was the young pretender, the Kajagoogoo,

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then Smash Hits was still the Duran Duran of pop magazines.

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And it even helped create a pop star from its own readership.

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The previous autumn, one of those readers, Tracie Young,

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responded to an ad placed by Paul Weller.

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He wanted somebody 18 to 22.

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I was 17 at the time, so I thought,

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"Well, I'm not going to get away with that." I let it go.

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And then the advert appeared again two weeks later so I thought,

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"Well, if he hasn't found anybody yet, I've got nothing to lose."

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# Sweet dreams are made of this... #

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It was kind of odd to find myself

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suddenly on the cover of Smash Hits.

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Just even doing interviews with magazines which I still bought,

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papers which I still bought, as a fan,

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and to be taking part in a show like Top Of The Pops which I'd been

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a fan of for so many years...

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It's very surreal.

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It's Tracie, Paul and Mick.

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Collectively, they're called the Style Council,

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and this is Speak Like A Child.

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# Your hair hangs in golden steps

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# You're a bona fide in every respect

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# You are walking through streets... #

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When we did Speak Like A Child, he wanted me to sit on the organ.

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I think he just thought the notion of saying

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"Tracie sat on Mick's organ" was hilarious.

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And then I was supposed to jump off at a certain point in the song

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and he said, "Right, we're going to practise this dance.

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"You do it and I WILL be doing it behind you." "No, you won't."

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And you can see, as I come off the organ and land on my feet,

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you know, just the little smirk that appears.

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It's like, "Will she? Won't she?"

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# You're cool and hard, never sound like a lecher... #

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The following week, the golden Top Of The Pops rule

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that no artist could appear two weeks running,

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unless they were at number one, was inadvertently broken

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when Tracie was on the show again, but this time in her own right.

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# Who owns the house that Jack built?

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# Don't you know that we own the house that he built... #

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There was something about Tracie's ordinariness

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that people responded to.

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# You hold to the sides and you go down... #

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She was a breath of fresh air.

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What made the Top Of The Pops experience so vivid for

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a newcomer like Tracie was meeting her fellow performers.

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We had Twisted Sister on that show.

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That's the most memorable part of my first

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solo performance on Top Of The Pops.

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# I'm on to your thinking

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# And how you deceive... #

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They just came in, you know, loud, American guys,

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T-shirts and long hair.

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They just looked like a bunch of American rock dudes.

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And when it came to showtime, they came out of the dressing room with

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enormous hair, loads of make-up, reeking of aftershave and cologne

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and they were just huge, cos of these heels they'd got on.

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And they were quite intimidating.

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# I am and I'll be

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# I will, you'll see

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# I am and I'll be

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# I am, I'm me. #

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Here's Tracie, Give It Some Emotion, or whatever you've got.

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Know what I mean?

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Appearing with her second single, however,

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was a much less pleasant experience for Tracie, thanks to an idea

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from Top Of The Pops choreographer Flick Colby.

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I was on a stage and there were two dancers,

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one either side of me, and after the rehearsal, Flick Colby came over

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and said, "I really think that you should dance with these guys."

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And I said, "I don't dance".

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"But it'll look great. You don't have to do much -

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"just kind of move about. You know, just, you know, writhe a bit."

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# Shooby-dooby-doo-ah

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# I'd like to kick you really hard... #

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And I really, really didn't want to do it.

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# But the black-and-blue bruise

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# Would be... #

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And what is even worse is that you can see I didn't want to do it.

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Yeah, it still makes me cringe now.

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MUSIC: John Wayne Is Big Leggy by Haysi Fantayzee

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If Tracie's appeal lay in her ordinariness,

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most of '83's new pretenders came from the underground scene

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and wanted to look extraordinary.

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I was living in this squat, and Kate just marched into our bedroom once

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and she saw me sitting in the corner playing the guitar

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and she said, "You look good. Can you be in my band?"

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And I was like, "I don't want to be in your band."

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She was like, "Well, why not?"

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And I was like, "Well, I don't really know you!"

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# Now, listen, honey, I can't do that

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# Not even for you, my sweetness... #

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And she was like, "Yeah, but you look cool.

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"We could do anything you want."

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# Now, big John, if that's a fact

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# Then how do you propose we do our act? #

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And then I was like, "Well, I've only had this guitar a week

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"so I'm not really that good. I'm not really ready for it."

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But she was very persistent.

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# He knows I tried, and he knows... #

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Jeremy and Kate's first single, John Wayne Is Big Leggy,

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was released in 1982.

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We were so enthralled with video at that time.

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We wanted to be a video-only band.

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I mean, my dream was to be a cartoon band, you know.

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# Take me away

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# John Wayne... #

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# Well, I feel fine

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# No, it ain't no crime

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# I was dreaming of a demon and I ate a dime... #

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Haysi Fantayzee brought some spice to the Top Of The Pops studio

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in February with their third single, Shiny Shiny.

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Well, it's about absolutely nothing.

0:17:250:17:28

That was... That was a sort of a nonsense song.

0:17:280:17:31

# Shiny, shiny, bad times behind me

0:17:310:17:33

# Shiny, shiny, sha-na-na-na... #

0:17:330:17:36

So I had this sort of clapping song idea

0:17:360:17:38

but wanted to do it in a Cajun style.

0:17:380:17:41

What was clever about it was that rap and singing formula,

0:17:450:17:49

which hadn't really existed.

0:17:490:17:52

# Sa-Sa-Saw a cop on the line

0:17:520:17:54

# Machinegun shine

0:17:540:17:56

# I was dreaming, not believing that I was alive... #

0:17:560:17:58

I was going for the Child Catchery kind of thing because that

0:17:580:18:01

really scared me when I was a kid and it was really powerful,

0:18:010:18:04

and you were looking for any really powerful image

0:18:040:18:07

that would get you across.

0:18:070:18:08

# No chance

0:18:100:18:12

# No chance... #

0:18:120:18:13

Their stylist for Top Of The Pops was another scenester

0:18:130:18:16

with their own designs on pop fame.

0:18:160:18:19

I used to do their styling, Haysi Fantayzee,

0:18:190:18:22

and then I got Kate to wear a corset...

0:18:220:18:25

Like, basically, do my look.

0:18:250:18:26

I sort of made Kate be a surrogate Marilyn.

0:18:260:18:29

Then I coached her in how to act on Top Of The Pops.

0:18:290:18:33

# Shiny, shiny, sha-na-na-na

0:18:330:18:35

# Shiny, shiny... #

0:18:350:18:36

It was fraught. Fraught and...

0:18:360:18:40

Because you're very nervous...

0:18:400:18:42

I mean, we weren't badly behaved.

0:18:420:18:45

We were, sort of, very professional, actually.

0:18:450:18:48

Shiny Shiny would be Haysi Fantayzee's last top-40 hit

0:18:500:18:54

but it would have a curious afterlife in the charts.

0:18:540:18:58

Strangely enough, it was really funny,

0:18:580:19:01

because the double-bass player called me up about two months later

0:19:010:19:04

and he said, "I've got this guy from The Cure

0:19:040:19:07

"and he wants me to do exactly what I did on your record."

0:19:070:19:12

So if you listen to Shiny Shiny...

0:19:120:19:14

# Shiny, shiny, sha-na-na-na... #

0:19:140:19:17

..and you listen to The Lovecats...

0:19:170:19:19

# We couldn't get closer than this... #

0:19:190:19:21

..you'll realise where he got the idea from.

0:19:210:19:24

# I'll show you in spring It's a treacherous thing

0:19:240:19:26

# We miss you, hissed the lovecats

0:19:260:19:29

# Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba

0:19:290:19:32

# We missed you, hissed the lovecats... #

0:19:320:19:35

Actually, The Lovecats is better than Shiny Shiny, so...

0:19:370:19:41

If Haysi Fantayzee were ragamuffins knocking on the door in '83,

0:19:430:19:47

an old friend of theirs from clubland was going global.

0:19:470:19:51

It was like Beatlemania all over again in Montreal last week,

0:19:510:19:54

when Boy George and Culture Club arrived in the city.

0:19:540:19:58

Culture Club were more photographed, more written about

0:19:580:20:01

and sold more singles than any other British band that year.

0:20:010:20:05

'83 was the year that they actually became

0:20:050:20:07

the biggest band in the world. They were a media phenomenon.

0:20:070:20:12

Not content to stand still, Culture Club's first single of 1983,

0:20:120:20:17

Church Of The Poison Mind,

0:20:170:20:19

added a couple of new elements to their sound.

0:20:190:20:21

# Desolate loving in your eyes

0:20:210:20:24

# You used to make my life so sweet... #

0:20:240:20:27

The feedback from Church Of The Poison Mind was fantastic

0:20:270:20:30

for Helen Terry because I guess that was her unveiling

0:20:300:20:34

to the Great British public.

0:20:340:20:36

-# In the church of the poison mind

-In the church of the poison mind

0:20:360:20:40

-# In the church of the poison mind

-In the church of the poison mind

0:20:400:20:43

-# Church of the poison mind

-In the church of the poison mind

0:20:430:20:49

# In the church of the poison mind... #

0:20:490:20:52

Also notable for the appearance of Judd Lander.

0:20:520:20:55

Judd was a plugger

0:20:550:20:58

and who knew that he played a mean harmonica?

0:20:580:21:02

Yeah, I got a phone call from Steve Levine.

0:21:030:21:05

He said, "I need a bit of harmonica work on a track,

0:21:050:21:08

"could you come over?"

0:21:080:21:09

And then the next thing is, "Judd!

0:21:110:21:13

"We're doing Top Of The Pops! Can you come along?"

0:21:130:21:17

HARMONICA SOLO

0:21:170:21:21

I had this sort of dead cat on my head, and I also had a beard,

0:21:210:21:25

so it looked as if I was a hairy beast.

0:21:250:21:27

Culture Club, Church Of The Poison Mind,

0:21:320:21:34

including grizzly Judd Lander on harmonica there.

0:21:340:21:36

But it was their follow-up, Karma Chameleon,

0:21:390:21:41

that became the bestselling single of 1983.

0:21:410:21:44

# Desert loving in your eyes all the way... #

0:21:440:21:48

And, on Top Of The Pops,

0:21:480:21:50

the band's appearance reflected their new international appeal.

0:21:500:21:53

# Karma, karma, karma... #

0:21:530:21:55

And we did a photo session in San Francisco,

0:21:550:21:57

where George wanted to dress the band up

0:21:570:22:00

in American football outfits, with the helmets and the pads.

0:22:000:22:03

So we had to rent those from a sports shop in San Francisco,

0:22:030:22:07

which was my job.

0:22:070:22:08

They were wearing them when they launched Karma Chameleon

0:22:080:22:11

with their appearance on Top Of The Pops.

0:22:110:22:13

Those were the same outfits - they never returned them.

0:22:130:22:16

I remember getting a bill from a very outraged sports outfitter.

0:22:160:22:19

# You used to be so sweet I heard you say... #

0:22:190:22:22

On Top Of The Pops, George did all his own make-up.

0:22:220:22:25

I remember there always used to be

0:22:250:22:27

an ironing board in the dressing room.

0:22:270:22:28

You know, and George used to do a bit of ironing.

0:22:280:22:31

I think he drove the band bit nuts, styling them.

0:22:330:22:37

Always drama, always...

0:22:370:22:39

haberdashery.

0:22:390:22:40

# Red, gold, and green... #

0:22:400:22:43

I think I'd been to the bar.

0:22:430:22:45

Because, quite often, you'd do your rehearsals in the afternoon,

0:22:450:22:48

you can pop in, have a quick snifter and then go back

0:22:480:22:51

and then get into the whole thing.

0:22:510:22:53

I thought, "Well, you know, bugger it. I'm enjoying this,"

0:22:530:22:56

and I got into the groove.

0:22:560:22:57

# ..an addiction

0:22:570:22:59

# When we cling, our love is strong... #

0:22:590:23:03

Their music was very middle-of-the-road,

0:23:030:23:05

which went brilliantly with George's really un-middle-of-the-road look.

0:23:050:23:09

# You string along... #

0:23:090:23:12

And then they bloody did better than us! Bastards!

0:23:120:23:15

As George became a household name,

0:23:190:23:21

a friend who'd work with him in the cloakroom of the Blitz nightclub

0:23:210:23:24

was about to launch his own androgynous look

0:23:240:23:27

on the British public.

0:23:270:23:29

Famously, a new term was coined

0:23:290:23:32

for artists like George and Marilyn - gender-benders.

0:23:320:23:37

George had broken through with that look.

0:23:390:23:43

They saw me as a dangerous, sexy counterpart to that.

0:23:440:23:50

It was like, "Oh..." Like, a bit bandwagon-y.

0:23:500:23:53

"Oh, let's pop her... HIM in and see what happens."

0:23:540:23:58

-REPORTER:

-'But similarities between Boy George and Marilyn remain.

0:23:580:24:02

'So is the public being duped into buying not the music,

0:24:020:24:06

'but an outrageous and slightly second-hand image?'

0:24:060:24:09

I kind of deluded myself into thinking, "No, that's not why...

0:24:090:24:12

"They've signed me cos I'm fab."

0:24:120:24:14

But they actually hadn't. You know?

0:24:140:24:16

And they would lie. The record company would lie, they would say...

0:24:160:24:19

I'd say, "You're not trying to sell me as the new Boy George, are you?"

0:24:190:24:22

And they would go, "No, of course we're not, Marilyn."

0:24:220:24:25

Marilyn's debut single quickly followed,

0:24:250:24:28

inspired by the success of his famous friend.

0:24:280:24:31

I was walking along Oxford Street and, like,

0:24:310:24:33

I was hearing all of this...

0:24:330:24:34

# Do you really want to hurt...? #

0:24:340:24:37

And I was like, "If I hear that song..."

0:24:370:24:40

I hear... The lyrics are right there.

0:24:400:24:41

"I hear you on the radio, I hear you... I want peace of mind!"

0:24:410:24:45

You know? So, that's how it came about.

0:24:450:24:48

# I hear you on the radio

0:24:490:24:52

# I hear you all the time... #

0:24:520:24:57

But even Marilyn was a bag of nerves when Top Of The Pops came calling.

0:24:570:25:01

Yeah, I made a huge mistake the first time I did Top Of The Pops.

0:25:010:25:05

I was getting more and more nervous,

0:25:050:25:06

and I started putting on more make-up and more make-up.

0:25:060:25:09

So, by the time of the actual performance...

0:25:090:25:12

-LAUGHING:

-I mean, it was like a death mask.

0:25:120:25:15

# Open up your loving arms

0:25:150:25:17

# See my heat burn white... #

0:25:170:25:19

I didn't make that mistake twice.

0:25:190:25:21

# Catch one breath, a silent sigh... #

0:25:210:25:24

I think the biggest surprise

0:25:240:25:25

was, actually, simply that he could sing.

0:25:250:25:27

You know? He had a quite gorgeous soul voice.

0:25:270:25:30

# How can I tell you, baby?

0:25:300:25:32

# How can I tell you, baby?

0:25:340:25:36

# You're not here... #

0:25:360:25:38

Marilyn looked absolutely beautiful and more sexual than George.

0:25:380:25:42

You could see his midriff.

0:25:420:25:44

# How can I tell you, baby?

0:25:440:25:46

I don't think George ever showed any flesh, ever.

0:25:460:25:48

# Hey, you call into my brain

0:25:480:25:50

# I want peace of mind... #

0:25:500:25:53

The headline was "The Unacceptable Face Of Pop"

0:25:530:25:56

after my first Top Of The Pops.

0:25:560:25:57

And it was just ranting, like, "How could they let this...this...

0:25:570:26:00

"THIS on the TV?"

0:26:000:26:02

And I was like, "Ooh. Touched a nerve, have we?"

0:26:020:26:06

HE LAUGHS

0:26:060:26:08

# Who's that girl

0:26:080:26:11

# Running around with you? #

0:26:110:26:13

1983 was the year when gender-bending was front-page news

0:26:130:26:17

and, suddenly, the front page was where everyone wanted to be.

0:26:170:26:22

I think people are learning lessons as we go into '83.

0:26:220:26:25

Some of them that have been on the go for three years already,

0:26:250:26:28

on the basis of having an underground following,

0:26:280:26:31

are now wanting to go mainstream.

0:26:310:26:33

# Tell me... #

0:26:330:26:34

And they want the big bucks.

0:26:340:26:36

In '83, the pound coin entered circulation for the first time.

0:26:370:26:42

And, in the charts, everyone was going pop.

0:26:430:26:45

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:26:470:26:49

Including the Thompson Twins.

0:26:530:26:55

After six years and two albums without chart success.

0:26:550:26:59

# Hey, you

0:26:590:27:00

# I've seen your face before

0:27:020:27:04

We became a three-piece because there was a sudden

0:27:050:27:08

kind of jolt of realisation that carrying on the way we were...

0:27:080:27:11

we had been doing wasn't really leading us

0:27:110:27:14

out of the kind of very earnest underground music scene

0:27:140:27:17

that we were a part of.

0:27:170:27:18

# All of those things that they say about you... #

0:27:180:27:21

We said to ourselves,

0:27:210:27:22

"If you're not in the top ten by the end of this year,

0:27:220:27:25

"we have to quit..."

0:27:250:27:26

# What am I supposed to do? #

0:27:260:27:27

"..and we'll do what it takes to get it."

0:27:270:27:29

# I hear you laughing in some other room

0:27:310:27:34

# And it makes me feel locked out... #

0:27:340:27:38

Being in a band at that point was more than just making music -

0:27:380:27:41

you had to look the right way.

0:27:410:27:44

# And you need to move about

0:27:440:27:46

# But I was taught that boys need girls and girls need boys

0:27:470:27:51

# You say that's not true... #

0:27:510:27:53

And we said, "OK, in that case, Alannah," who was blonde,

0:27:530:27:56

"should be very blonde and Joe," who's black,

0:27:560:27:58

"should be very black and have dreadlocks,

0:27:580:28:00

"and therefore I can't be either of those two - I'll dye my hair red."

0:28:000:28:04

# Cos you got love, love

0:28:040:28:05

# Love on your side

0:28:050:28:07

# Cos you got love, love

0:28:070:28:10

# Love on your side... #

0:28:100:28:11

It was a pop experiment for us.

0:28:110:28:13

We thought, "Let's see if we can do this."

0:28:130:28:15

Once upon a time, in the adventures of Tintin, they were two detectives

0:28:150:28:18

who dressed just like this, and they were called the Thompson Twins.

0:28:180:28:21

Now, the Thomson Twins are somewhat differently dressed,

0:28:210:28:23

but I'll tell you they're down there

0:28:230:28:25

and they've got a number-four record.

0:28:250:28:26

It's called Hold Me Now. Here they are!

0:28:260:28:28

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:28:280:28:29

# I have a picture... #

0:28:290:28:31

A band like the Thompson Twins, they could see that there was no reason

0:28:310:28:34

why they shouldn't be having hits.

0:28:340:28:36

# An image of you and of me

0:28:370:28:40

# And we're laughing We're loving it all

0:28:400:28:44

You knew you'd made it on Top Of The Pops

0:28:440:28:46

when the flags came out.

0:28:460:28:48

'83 was probably the critical moment where it all tipped over

0:28:490:28:53

into this kind of giddy, headlong run of success that we had.

0:28:530:28:57

You go from invisible to visible.

0:28:570:28:59

# We cry until dawn

0:28:590:29:02

# Oh-oh-oh

0:29:030:29:04

# Hold me now... #

0:29:040:29:07

It did feel a time when people thought, "Let's make some money,

0:29:070:29:12

"let's get big, let's see how big we can take this."

0:29:120:29:15

I think the Thomson Twins are a really good example of that.

0:29:150:29:18

They went very, very pop, very percussive, almost cartoonlike,

0:29:180:29:22

and just took off.

0:29:220:29:24

In a year of change, there was something reassuring

0:29:270:29:30

about Top Of The Pops celebrating its longevity that May,

0:29:300:29:33

when it reached the grand age of 1,000 shows old.

0:29:330:29:37

I just seem to remember every Tom, Dick and Harry

0:29:390:29:41

from Radio 1 was doing a link.

0:29:410:29:43

And I was in my pram for the first Top Of The Pops.

0:29:430:29:45

-Do you believe that, Janice?

-Andy, I don't believe it for a minute.

0:29:450:29:48

I wasn't in my pram, but we're having a marvellous time tonight.

0:29:480:29:51

It really is great.

0:29:510:29:53

Pop royalty sent birthday wishes by video.

0:29:530:29:56

Happy birthday, Top Of The Pops, for 1,000 weeks, and many happy returns.

0:29:560:30:00

To all of my friends at the Top Of The Pops,

0:30:000:30:02

congratulations for making it 1,000 shows.

0:30:020:30:05

And may you have 1,000 more.

0:30:050:30:09

And bands crammed into the studio to offer a word or two.

0:30:090:30:13

And no stranger to great occasions is one Steve Strange. Welcome.

0:30:130:30:16

Hello, it's great to be here. What a great party.

0:30:160:30:18

Roger Taylor, what was the last time you were actually live

0:30:180:30:21

-on Top Of The Pops?

-Er, Under Pressure?

-Under Pressure?

0:30:210:30:23

And only number one, actually, John. Only one number one, that is.

0:30:230:30:26

A rather reserved Bahamian Rhapsody.

0:30:260:30:28

Happy 1,000th either way.

0:30:280:30:29

# They say our love won't pay the rent... #

0:30:290:30:33

The show celebrated its past with classic black-and-white archive.

0:30:330:30:37

# Let's spend the night together

0:30:370:30:40

# Now I need you more than ever... #

0:30:400:30:43

# And the lights all went out in Massachusetts... #

0:30:430:30:50

While, in the studio,

0:30:500:30:52

one of the colourful class of '83 had come in fancy dress.

0:30:520:30:56

But I'd made a possibly ill-advised decision to dress as a policeman.

0:30:560:31:01

# Last night when I got home... #

0:31:010:31:03

It didn't work well for me because

0:31:030:31:05

policemen wear these epaulettes over their shirts,

0:31:050:31:08

and then I was playing an accordion which has straps on here,

0:31:080:31:10

so they were digging into me.

0:31:100:31:12

Actually a painful experience physically.

0:31:120:31:14

# We dress up in disguise... #

0:31:140:31:16

Phil Oakey said, "I used to like the Thompson Twins

0:31:160:31:19

"until that guy dressed as a policeman on Top Of The Pops."

0:31:190:31:22

# Leave no track... #

0:31:220:31:24

Phil Oakey's former Human League bandmates, now Heaven 17,

0:31:240:31:27

were also in the studio with their biggest hit yet.

0:31:270:31:30

# Temptation

0:31:300:31:32

# Keep climbing higher and higher

0:31:320:31:34

# Temptation

0:31:340:31:36

# Adorable creatures

0:31:360:31:38

# Temptation

0:31:380:31:39

# With unacceptable features

0:31:390:31:42

# Temptation... #

0:31:420:31:43

More than any other Top Of The Pops show, I thought,

0:31:430:31:46

"This is it, we've made it. We're part of pop royalty now."

0:31:460:31:48

# But you'd better believe it, yeah! #

0:31:480:31:52

# And it seems a little time is needed... #

0:31:520:31:55

To add spice, also appearing on the 1,000th show

0:31:550:31:58

were The Human League themselves.

0:31:580:32:00

# The good advice of friends unheeded... #

0:32:000:32:04

We weren't really talking to each other, to be honest.

0:32:040:32:07

As I remember it,

0:32:070:32:09

it was kind of like furtive glances in the corridors,

0:32:090:32:13

trying to avoid each other's stares.

0:32:130:32:15

# And so the conversation turned... #

0:32:180:32:21

This was kind of at the peak of our rivalry,

0:32:210:32:24

cos we'd kind of come up on the rails.

0:32:240:32:26

# And many fantasies were learned... #

0:32:260:32:28

And we were competitive, there's no shadow of a doubt.

0:32:280:32:31

# On that day

0:32:310:32:32

# Keep feeling fascination

0:32:320:32:36

# Passion burning... #

0:32:360:32:37

But holding on to the number-one spot for the third week running

0:32:370:32:40

was a band who'd come out of the underground club scene

0:32:400:32:43

when they made their Top Of The Pops debut three years earlier.

0:32:430:32:46

# To cut a long story short

0:32:460:32:48

# I lost my... #

0:32:480:32:50

But now Spandau Ballet were about to enter their imperial phase.

0:32:530:32:57

This was going to be our tenth performance on Top Of The Pops.

0:32:570:33:00

It's only so many Top Of The Pops that you're allowed

0:33:000:33:03

before you're not really a cult band any more.

0:33:030:33:06

And I'd grown up buying singles, I'd grown up loving Top Of The Pops,

0:33:080:33:12

I'd grown up wanting to be part of that, um...

0:33:120:33:16

that chart.

0:33:160:33:17

Up from four to three, Fascination...

0:33:170:33:19

To take it to the next level,

0:33:190:33:21

Spandau had to take a gamble on a whole new look and sound.

0:33:210:33:25

And number one on the 1,000th edition of Top Of The Pops...

0:33:250:33:28

It's Spandau Ballet and True.

0:33:280:33:30

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:33:300:33:32

It was a sense of taking a risk, really,

0:33:370:33:40

by doing something so commercial.

0:33:400:33:42

But you have to remember,

0:33:420:33:43

True, at that time, was an original thing to do.

0:33:430:33:46

You know, it was... A blue-eyed, soul thing like that didn't...

0:33:460:33:49

There wasn't much of that going on.

0:33:490:33:51

# Ha-ha-ha, ha-ha... #

0:33:520:33:56

The fact that we were number one on the 1,000th edition

0:33:580:34:02

was very exciting for us.

0:34:020:34:03

Because we knew that was going to be great night,

0:34:030:34:06

a really important night, and it was going out live.

0:34:060:34:09

# So true

0:34:090:34:11

# Funny how it seems

0:34:110:34:14

# Always in time

0:34:140:34:16

# But never in line for dreams... #

0:34:160:34:20

But the new soulful Spandau sound presented the band

0:34:200:34:23

with a challenge when it came to miming.

0:34:230:34:26

There's no bass guitar on True. It's a bass synth.

0:34:260:34:30

But, of course, Martin could not be standing there, not doing anything.

0:34:300:34:33

I then said, "Well, I'll play piano, mime piano,

0:34:330:34:37

"and Martin mimes guitars,"

0:34:370:34:39

which is my part, obviously. Which, if you look at it,

0:34:390:34:41

Martin's kind of not quite sure what he's meant to be playing.

0:34:410:34:45

So it was a bit of a risky one, it looked very different for us.

0:34:450:34:49

# This much is tru-ue This much is tru-ue

0:34:490:34:54

# I know, I know, I know... #

0:34:560:34:58

Being number one on the 1,000th show

0:34:580:35:00

brought with it the ultimate accolade.

0:35:000:35:02

They actually baked a huge great cake,

0:35:040:35:06

and then I think it was Spandau cutting it and it was awkward,

0:35:060:35:10

but it was quite British and it was, you know...

0:35:100:35:13

There was nothing slick about it, so why not?

0:35:130:35:17

Once the cake had been eaten, though, an uneasy truth remained.

0:35:190:35:23

Perhaps it was Top Of The Pops just as much as its acts

0:35:230:35:27

that needed to change with the times.

0:35:270:35:30

It was great that Top Of The Pops had made it that long and that far,

0:35:300:35:34

but at the same time, I think there was a sense of maybe

0:35:340:35:36

it was going through a midlife crisis as well.

0:35:360:35:38

# Don't stop, don't stop, don't stop that crazy rhythm... #

0:35:380:35:43

I think Michael Hurll saw the writing on the wall,

0:35:430:35:45

and I think that's why he was keen to experiment as much as possible.

0:35:450:35:49

How can we do these charts?

0:35:490:35:50

How can we make the charts more entertaining?

0:35:500:35:53

MUSIC: Let's Dance by David Bowie

0:35:530:35:55

The challenge for Top Of The Pops was to find its place

0:35:560:35:59

in this new global video age.

0:35:590:36:03

The first push would always be, "Could you...

0:36:030:36:05

"Could we just have the video on, please?

0:36:050:36:08

"Well, how available are you?"

0:36:080:36:09

"Well, we're not available, we're in Australia,"

0:36:090:36:11

which is what Bowie would've done.

0:36:110:36:14

But then you got nervous, because they might not put your video on,

0:36:140:36:18

and you had to get on the plane and come back and do Top Of The Pops.

0:36:180:36:21

It was much better introducing an artist.

0:36:230:36:26

I was always disappointed when you introduced a video.

0:36:260:36:29

It's the first chance we in Britain

0:36:290:36:30

get to see this video on Top Of The Pops.

0:36:300:36:32

He's at number 17, Michael Jackson, Billie Jean.

0:36:320:36:35

Michael Jackson was at the forefront of this pop video revolution,

0:36:380:36:42

and in 1983, it was his promos

0:36:420:36:44

rather than Michael himself that appeared on Top Of The Pops.

0:36:440:36:49

# I am the one... #

0:36:490:36:52

Michael had become such an acquisition

0:36:520:36:54

and a valuable acquisition that it was impossible to get him over.

0:36:540:36:59

He really focused in on suddenly realising the value of video.

0:36:590:37:04

# She told me her name was Billie Jean

0:37:040:37:07

# And she caused a scene... #

0:37:070:37:09

I totally remember being blown away by seeing Billie Jean

0:37:090:37:12

and the pavement lighting up,

0:37:120:37:14

Michael Jackson just looking beautiful and cool.

0:37:140:37:17

# People always told me

0:37:170:37:18

# Be careful of what you do

0:37:180:37:20

# And don't go around breaking young girls' hearts... #

0:37:200:37:24

He couldn't have done that in the studio. It just...

0:37:240:37:26

It would never have happened.

0:37:260:37:28

# You know, I'm still standing better than I ever did

0:37:280:37:32

# Looking like... #

0:37:320:37:34

Big-budget videos brought some foreign sunshine

0:37:340:37:37

to the Top Of The Pops studio, but it came at a price.

0:37:370:37:41

You wanted your video on Top Of The Pops,

0:37:410:37:43

but Top Of The Pops is dead meat if it's just showing videos

0:37:430:37:47

and there's no-one dancing around the acts.

0:37:470:37:50

Top Of The Pops was now challenged.

0:37:510:37:54

If you don't have a unique performance,

0:37:540:37:56

why watch Top Of The Pops?

0:37:560:37:59

# If our love was just a circus, you'd be a clown by now... #

0:37:590:38:03

What couldn't be denied was that

0:38:030:38:05

pop videos offered drama and a sense of the exotic,

0:38:050:38:08

so one response was to build the programme around them.

0:38:080:38:12

Well, we've had a number of letters from viewers recently who commented

0:38:120:38:15

on the great quality of some of the pop videos around, haven't we, John?

0:38:150:38:18

John?

0:38:180:38:19

Oh, yes, we call this section of the programme the Top-10 Video Show.

0:38:190:38:22

Cute, eh? Well, it was his idea.

0:38:220:38:24

One of the innovations that we brought into Top Of The Pops

0:38:300:38:33

was the video countdown.

0:38:330:38:35

This was a way of, I suppose, embracing what the enemy was doing.

0:38:350:38:38

# This is a sign of the times... #

0:38:380:38:40

Here's the Belle Stars who have just come back from Japan

0:38:400:38:42

where they've been recording some beer commercials.

0:38:420:38:45

They're at number four with Sign Of The Times.

0:38:450:38:46

One of the fears I had at the time was that maybe

0:38:460:38:49

we'd be selling the soul of Top Of The Pops

0:38:490:38:50

for the sake of doing cheaper videos

0:38:500:38:52

rather than having artists in the studio.

0:38:520:38:54

That's Men At Work still number one.

0:38:570:38:59

And I hope you enjoyed that new way of doing the charts

0:38:590:39:02

with moving pictures. If you did, please write in and let us know.

0:39:020:39:04

Another strategy to compete with the international glamour

0:39:040:39:09

of video was to send its presenters to foreign climes.

0:39:090:39:12

At number 16, we have Hoffmann & Hoffmann, Rucksicht -

0:39:120:39:16

this is the German entry for the Eurovision Song Contest.

0:39:160:39:19

Monsieur? Cheers.

0:39:190:39:22

# Rucksicht

0:39:220:39:24

# Keiner hat das wort gekannt und Nachsicht... #

0:39:250:39:28

Michael said to me...

0:39:280:39:29

He rang up and he said, "You're going to be in Singapore next week?"

0:39:290:39:32

I said yes. He said, "How'd you like to do a chart from Singapore?"

0:39:320:39:34

I said, "Fantastic! I'm going to have my holiday

0:39:340:39:36

"and stay on Top Of The Pops at the same time."

0:39:360:39:38

Welcome to Singapore.

0:39:380:39:39

They call it the Lion City or the Garden City and with good reason

0:39:390:39:42

because, in full bloom, this place is staggeringly beautiful.

0:39:420:39:45

So imagine my disappointment when I discovered that they didn't

0:39:450:39:48

have a singles chart, so I phoned Michael and I said, "Michael,

0:39:480:39:51

"we have a little bit of a problem here. What am I going to do?"

0:39:510:39:54

He said, "Oh, you can busk it."

0:39:540:39:55

Well, despite the relatively cheap cost of LPs and cassettes here,

0:39:550:39:58

some for as little as the cost of a single in the UK,

0:39:580:40:01

pop music is not really as important for Asians

0:40:010:40:04

as it is for us in the UK.

0:40:040:40:05

No-one in the UK, I think, cared about Asian pop at that time.

0:40:050:40:09

No-one cared about the European charts. It felt like...

0:40:090:40:13

It felt like Top Of The Pops were just trying to see what worked.

0:40:130:40:16

Next up, it's a Chinese movie star,

0:40:160:40:19

television personality and song and dance man.

0:40:190:40:21

He's also a heartthrob for millions of Asian women.

0:40:210:40:24

He is called Lam and here he is performing Mirages.

0:40:240:40:27

HE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE

0:40:270:40:28

The fact that we never did another chart from a far remote corner

0:40:280:40:32

of the globe tells you something about

0:40:320:40:34

what Michael Hurll may have thought of it.

0:40:340:40:36

HE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE

0:40:360:40:38

As well as trying new things,

0:40:420:40:44

a long-standing Top Of The Pops tradition was finally ripped up.

0:40:440:40:48

MUSIC: Rip It Up And Start Again by Orange Juice

0:40:480:40:50

Flick Colby's Zoo were the last incarnation

0:40:500:40:52

of the show's dance troupes, like Pan's People and Legs & Co.

0:40:520:40:57

That November, they strutted their stuff for the last time.

0:41:010:41:05

The dancers were great when you couldn't get the acts over,

0:41:060:41:09

you know, in the '70s or '60s, but once there's a video

0:41:090:41:12

that you can show of that band,

0:41:120:41:14

then why wouldn't you want to watch that rather than six people

0:41:140:41:18

doing their interpretation of it, quite literally, sometimes?

0:41:180:41:21

# I said, rip it up and rip it up

0:41:210:41:24

# Rip it up and rip it up... #

0:41:240:41:27

What didn't disappear was the Top Of The Pops tradition of miming.

0:41:270:41:30

# Out the window

0:41:380:41:40

# Look what's happening... #

0:41:430:41:45

# I'm rocking

0:41:470:41:48

# I'm miming... #

0:41:500:41:51

# I can't break away

0:41:510:41:52

# Though you make me cry

0:41:520:41:54

# I can't break away

0:41:540:41:56

# I can't say goodbye... #

0:41:560:41:58

Even this, though,

0:41:580:42:00

was about to be challenged by a band and a tune

0:42:000:42:02

from the indie underground.

0:42:020:42:04

MUSIC: Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division

0:42:040:42:07

Joy Division had been the epitome of indie cussedness.

0:42:140:42:17

After singer Ian Curtis died in 1980,

0:42:230:42:26

the others reformed as New Order.

0:42:260:42:29

But their attitude remained defiant.

0:42:310:42:34

We were men and women of principle.

0:42:390:42:42

We wanted to change the world, and one way of changing the world

0:42:420:42:46

would be to insist on performing live because

0:42:460:42:49

that's what the problem was with Top Of The Pops, we thought.

0:42:490:42:52

And finally, with Blue Monday,

0:42:520:42:54

there must have been sufficient momentum that somebody relented

0:42:540:42:59

and to teach us a lesson they said, "Yes, you can play it live."

0:42:590:43:04

So we're kicking off with New Order playing live,

0:43:040:43:07

singing live with Blue Monday.

0:43:070:43:09

We thought, "What have we done?"

0:43:110:43:12

I remember Bernard saying, "How are we going to do this live?"

0:43:120:43:15

-It's impossible.

-It's impossible.

-It's impossible.

0:43:150:43:17

# How does it feel when you treat me like you do?

0:43:170:43:25

# And you've laid your hands upon me and told me who you are... #

0:43:250:43:31

We did a camera run through and because I don't really move

0:43:320:43:37

on keyboards, the cameraman was like...

0:43:370:43:40

He zoomed in on my fingers and then of course I didn't play anything

0:43:400:43:44

and that was wrong, cos it was like all these different bits

0:43:440:43:48

where you hear the keyboard, but I'm not actually playing it.

0:43:480:43:52

Then I didn't move, so that was another...

0:43:520:43:54

-"What are we going to do with her?"

-"What are we going to do with her?"

0:43:540:43:58

# And you've laid your hands upon me... #

0:43:580:44:00

I made the cardinal error of looking like we were mining

0:44:000:44:04

but actually playing it live.

0:44:040:44:06

# I thought I was mistaken and I thought... #

0:44:060:44:09

You don't expect New Order to turn up at Top Of The Pops,

0:44:090:44:12

embrace the cheerleaders, get the streamers out and whoo!

0:44:120:44:17

# How do I feel... #

0:44:170:44:19

While the lighting was livelier than the band,

0:44:200:44:23

the BBC sound crew were on New Order's side.

0:44:230:44:26

Absolutely great for me because, all of a sudden,

0:44:270:44:30

from a show that was fairly formulaic...

0:44:300:44:33

..to be given the live band, ears pricked up

0:44:340:44:37

and, "This is going to be exciting."

0:44:370:44:39

My moment of glory was the thunderclap, so I had to swap...

0:44:410:44:44

You had to keep swapping the discs and pressing the buttons.

0:44:440:44:47

I got that wrong and instead of going "bang" it went "aaah!"

0:44:470:44:50

# Aaah! #

0:44:500:44:52

No!

0:44:520:44:53

We'll keep on!

0:44:580:45:00

-It's live.

-It's live.

0:45:000:45:02

In a year of slick image and theatrical presentation,

0:45:040:45:07

New Order's machine-driven pop was just a bit...underplayed.

0:45:070:45:11

I remember waiting to go on to do our slot,

0:45:110:45:15

and New Order were about to go on.

0:45:150:45:17

I said to Hooky, "It's great that you're doing this live."

0:45:170:45:20

And he turned round to me and he said,

0:45:200:45:22

"Yeah, you should try it sometime."

0:45:220:45:24

# Now I stand here waiting... #

0:45:240:45:26

I remember thinking about it afterwards, thinking...

0:45:260:45:29

"You're only playing three notes, it can't be that difficult."

0:45:290:45:32

To perform that track,

0:45:400:45:42

in that environment,

0:45:420:45:43

it couldn't have been ideal and...they just did it.

0:45:430:45:47

Their musicianship got them through.

0:45:470:45:49

Or maybe not.

0:45:500:45:52

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:45:520:45:54

Eventually, in our Top Of The Pops performing career,

0:45:540:45:57

to move on, we realised that it was...

0:45:570:46:00

a little bit too much heartache

0:46:000:46:02

and that, perhaps...

0:46:020:46:04

maybe, if we just stuck to the live vocal...

0:46:040:46:07

-perhaps that would be better.

-Yeah, perhaps we should mime a bit.

0:46:070:46:10

Or maybe not even that.

0:46:100:46:12

In June, whether there was a mood for change in the country

0:46:180:46:21

as a whole was put to the test at the ballot box.

0:46:210:46:23

Mrs Thatcher's decision,

0:46:250:46:27

the general election will be on June the 9th.

0:46:270:46:30

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher

0:46:300:46:31

was hoping to secure a second term in Number Ten.

0:46:310:46:35

There aren't many voters inside.

0:46:350:46:37

What there are, are hundreds of members of the media,

0:46:370:46:39

who swarm around the Prime Minister,

0:46:390:46:42

follow her every move -

0:46:420:46:43

and the idea, from the Conservatives' point of view,

0:46:430:46:46

is to get the best possible exposure...

0:46:460:46:48

on the TV news that evening.

0:46:480:46:52

Let's bomb Russia!

0:46:520:46:53

CHEERING

0:46:530:46:55

Let's kick Michael Foot's stick away!

0:46:550:46:58

CHEERING

0:46:580:47:00

The result was a landslide victory

0:47:000:47:02

for Margaret Thatcher and the Conservatives.

0:47:020:47:05

Her political vision was consolidated.

0:47:050:47:07

# It's a cruel, cruel, cruel summer...#

0:47:070:47:11

In the aftermath, Labour gained a new leader...

0:47:110:47:14

# Leaving me here on my own

0:47:140:47:16

# It's so cruel... #

0:47:160:47:18

..as well as a future Prime Minister.

0:47:180:47:20

The image of the Labour Party's

0:47:200:47:22

got to be an image that's more dynamic, more modern,

0:47:220:47:25

more suited to the 1980s.

0:47:250:47:27

But in the summer heat, the mood seemed relaxed.

0:47:310:47:35

Even Paul Weller, once the angry young man of pop,

0:47:350:47:38

now appeared laidback in the new, hedonistic present.

0:47:380:47:42

# They tell me that it helps

0:47:420:47:45

# But I know when I'm beaten... #

0:47:450:47:48

If you watch Long Hot Summer, he's...

0:47:480:47:51

you know, he's riding around topless in a punt, going down the Cam,

0:47:510:47:54

and he's just enjoying it.

0:47:540:47:56

You can see the look on his face, actually.

0:47:560:47:58

I think it was quite a relief for a lot of these acts.

0:47:580:48:01

# Don't matter what I do

0:48:010:48:03

# Cos I end up hurting you... #

0:48:030:48:09

From Number One magazine, we got Boy George to style Paul Weller

0:48:100:48:14

and did a cover with him in, sort of, fake furs and things,

0:48:140:48:17

which is not a look that had ever gone down with The Jam.

0:48:170:48:20

# Club Tropicana drinks are free... #

0:48:200:48:23

Britain swooned by day...

0:48:230:48:26

# There's enough for everyone... #

0:48:260:48:28

But by night, it partied,

0:48:280:48:31

and no-one captured that summer vibe better than Wham!

0:48:310:48:35

Club Tropicana is all about the video.

0:48:370:48:39

It just felt really exotic.

0:48:410:48:43

They went to Ibiza, they were in the pool, there's cocktails,

0:48:430:48:45

there's girls in swimsuits.

0:48:450:48:47

You couldn't do any of that in the Top Of The Pops studio.

0:48:470:48:49

That didn't stop Top Of The Pops from trying.

0:48:520:48:55

# Fun and sunshine

0:48:550:48:57

# There's enough for everyone. #

0:48:570:48:58

Michael Hurll had seen the Club Tropicana video

0:48:580:49:00

and he was very impressed by it,

0:49:000:49:02

and he decided he'd rather like to recreate

0:49:020:49:05

the atmosphere of the video in the studio.

0:49:050:49:07

So, it was set out as a club

0:49:070:49:10

with people at chairs and tables, apparently drinking.

0:49:100:49:13

In the corner was a girl in a shower.

0:49:190:49:21

Unfortunately, the shower tray started leaking

0:49:230:49:25

over the studio floor

0:49:250:49:27

and everything had to be stopped and mopped up, and...

0:49:270:49:30

started again, but it was good fun.

0:49:300:49:33

# Please, please tell me now... #

0:49:330:49:35

Causing a splash on the other side of the Atlantic

0:49:370:49:40

were bands at the forefront of this new British pop,

0:49:400:49:43

spearheading a second British invasion of the States.

0:49:430:49:47

Did you expect this sort of fantastic reception?

0:49:470:49:49

No.

0:49:490:49:50

In short, no.

0:49:500:49:53

And their calling card was video,

0:49:530:49:55

perfect for the young MTV generation.

0:49:550:49:58

What we noticed, in '83,

0:50:040:50:07

was that the states that had MTV...

0:50:070:50:10

we were huge amongst young girls,

0:50:100:50:14

there was a real "fan" thing that happened to us.

0:50:140:50:17

In California, we did a Tower Records signing.

0:50:170:50:20

It was just mental.

0:50:200:50:21

My God, I can't breathe! I can't breathe!

0:50:210:50:25

Our experience was, as MTV spread, so did British acts,

0:50:250:50:29

because British acts were younger,

0:50:290:50:31

they were willing to make the videos,

0:50:310:50:33

they looked cool and that added to the power.

0:50:330:50:36

For this generation of teenagers,

0:50:360:50:39

this combination of fashion, videos and music was so exciting

0:50:390:50:43

and Britain got there first,

0:50:430:50:45

and it dominated the world in it in 1983.

0:50:450:50:49

Not every British band, though,

0:50:510:50:53

was prepared to embrace the new exotic of the video age

0:50:530:50:56

in their pursuit of chart glory.

0:50:560:50:58

A lot of those videos, at that time...

0:51:000:51:02

You know, whether you're in the Seychelles or you're in Sri Lanka

0:51:020:51:05

and it's on the boat and you're clinging onto the mast...

0:51:050:51:07

# Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand... #

0:51:070:51:09

What...are you on about?

0:51:090:51:11

It doesn't say anything. That was the beauty of The Smiths.

0:51:130:51:16

The beauty of The Smiths' lyrics is that it brought home

0:51:160:51:20

the reality of life.

0:51:200:51:22

In keeping with this down-to-earth attitude,

0:51:240:51:27

rather than send in a video,

0:51:270:51:29

The Smiths made their debut in person

0:51:290:51:31

in the Top Of The Pops studio in November.

0:51:310:51:34

What a charming man and, talking of charming men,

0:51:340:51:36

at number 30 this week, these are The Smiths.

0:51:360:51:39

CHEERING

0:51:390:51:41

The intro to This Charming Man...

0:51:450:51:47

HE HUMS INTRO

0:51:470:51:50

What's going on there?!

0:51:500:51:52

# Punctured bicycle on a hillside... #

0:51:520:51:55

The whole song had a great, kind of, finger-snapping feel to it.

0:51:550:51:59

# Will nature make a man of me yet? #

0:51:590:52:02

It had more of a pop-y feel

0:52:020:52:03

than a lot of the other stuff that we'd done.

0:52:030:52:05

It seemed as though it was our, kind of, conduit to the mainstream.

0:52:050:52:08

# This charming man... #

0:52:090:52:14

The first time we'd seen Morrissey with his shirt undone,

0:52:150:52:18

whirling some flowers around his head,

0:52:180:52:20

and it was one of the few moments I think of that year.

0:52:200:52:24

# I would go out tonight

0:52:240:52:27

# But I haven't got a stitch to wear... #

0:52:270:52:31

They were not shiny pop.

0:52:310:52:33

They were something a bit more,

0:52:330:52:34

and they were something a bit edgier,

0:52:340:52:36

but they were still young and it still felt fresh.

0:52:360:52:40

# Should care... #

0:52:400:52:43

Ah!

0:52:430:52:45

# A jumped-up country boy... #

0:52:450:52:47

But the band looked and sounded very different

0:52:470:52:50

to the majority of the acts on Top Of The Pops that year.

0:52:500:52:53

We were in the green room and there was a couple of girls there

0:52:530:52:56

and they were saying to me,

0:52:560:52:57

"Are you in one of the bands that's playing on Top Of The Pops?"

0:52:570:53:00

I was proud as anything, I said,

0:53:000:53:01

"Yeah, yeah, I'm in one of the bands, called The Smiths."

0:53:010:53:04

# I would go out tonight

0:53:040:53:06

# But I haven't got a stitch to wear. #

0:53:060:53:09

I said, "We're just going to go on now."

0:53:090:53:11

And she looked me up and down, and said,

0:53:110:53:12

"When are you going to get changed?"

0:53:120:53:14

About two-thirds of the way through the performance,

0:53:180:53:20

Morrissey's got some gladioli and he's swinging them round...

0:53:200:53:23

and a balloon comes.

0:53:230:53:25

As he's swinging it round, it catches the air.

0:53:250:53:28

I can see it coming towards me

0:53:280:53:30

and I was thinking, "That's all right, it's just a balloon."

0:53:300:53:33

And then I'm like, "Hold on a minute,"

0:53:330:53:35

and it comes straight in here and it nestles, just right there.

0:53:350:53:38

# He knows so much about these things... #

0:53:380:53:40

And I'm playing, and I'm petrified,

0:53:400:53:42

cos normally, I'd just knock it out of the way

0:53:420:53:45

but, because it's Top Of The Pops,

0:53:450:53:46

I just froze and I thought, "I hope nobody can see that."

0:53:460:53:49

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:53:590:54:01

# Ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma

0:54:010:54:02

# Ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma... # Chorus.

0:54:020:54:06

# Ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma

0:54:060:54:10

# Ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma

0:54:100:54:12

# Ba-ma, ba-ma... #

0:54:120:54:14

And so on, for another three times.

0:54:140:54:16

And the idea of doing all those "ba-ma, ba-mas"...

0:54:160:54:18

# Ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma... #

0:54:180:54:21

..it was fun. It took us ages to get right, didn't it, actually?

0:54:210:54:23

Yeah. Yeah.

0:54:230:54:25

Cos one person was doing the...

0:54:250:54:26

# Ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma... #

0:54:260:54:30

And another person was doing a...

0:54:300:54:31

# Ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma, ba-ma... #

0:54:310:54:34

# Ba-da-da-da...#

0:54:340:54:36

But it seemed to work.

0:54:360:54:38

-# Ba-da

-Ba-da

0:54:380:54:40

-# Ba-da-da-da...

-Da-da-da-da #

0:54:400:54:43

As Christmas loomed, three minutes of fame beckoned

0:54:430:54:47

for The Flying Pickets -

0:54:470:54:48

a bunch of left-wing actors turned unlikely pop stars.

0:54:480:54:53

# All I needed for another day... #

0:54:530:54:56

And if '83 was a year for reinvention,

0:54:560:54:59

it was apt that their song was a reinterpretation...

0:54:590:55:01

# When I see you... #

0:55:010:55:03

..of a hit for Yazoo, from the previous year,

0:55:030:55:06

that peaked at number two.

0:55:060:55:07

# All I needed was the love you gave

0:55:070:55:10

# All I needed... #

0:55:100:55:12

I liked the idea of taking something that was very synthesized

0:55:120:55:15

and doing it for voices.

0:55:150:55:18

# Only you... #

0:55:180:55:19

And it's Only You by The Flying Pickets, live in the studio.

0:55:210:55:24

-Here they are.

-APPLAUSE

0:55:240:55:28

# Ba-da-da-da... #

0:55:280:55:29

The Flying Pickets went one better,

0:55:290:55:31

reaching number one in the second week of December,

0:55:310:55:34

but had they peaked too soon in the race for the Christmas number one?

0:55:340:55:39

# I believe in woman

0:55:390:55:42

# My, oh, my. #

0:55:420:55:44

The race hotted up when a familiar bunch of faces

0:55:440:55:47

made their annual tilt for the top spot.

0:55:470:55:51

# Don't a woman need a man?

0:55:530:55:56

# Try and catch one if you can

0:55:560:56:00

# I believe in woman

0:56:000:56:03

# My, oh, my. #

0:56:030:56:04

But with a week to go, The Flying Pickets upped their game.

0:56:040:56:08

# All I needed was the love you gave... #

0:56:080:56:10

At the height of the video age,

0:56:100:56:12

a group willing to turn up every week was a godsend,

0:56:120:56:15

especially if they were willing to put on a bit of a show.

0:56:150:56:19

# Only you... #

0:56:190:56:21

We were never cool,

0:56:210:56:23

and dressing up as snowmen isn't cool, so they...

0:56:230:56:26

I think they all thought we were a bit barmy.

0:56:260:56:28

# Wonder if you'll understand

0:56:280:56:31

# It's just the touch of your hand... #

0:56:310:56:33

It was my idea to say,

0:56:330:56:35

-"What if we just melt at the end?"

-Yes.

-"That would be a good idea."

0:56:350:56:38

-Yeah.

-I think it was my idea.

-Probably, you're full of good ideas.

0:56:380:56:42

# Ba-da-da-da... #

0:56:420:56:44

Come the day of reckoning, producer Michael Hurll was a bit gutted.

0:56:450:56:49

Well, I'm so disappointed,

0:56:490:56:50

I would have liked a new number-one record for Christmas.

0:56:500:56:53

We've now had The Flying Pickets for four weeks...

0:56:530:56:56

and I suppose, really, I hoped Slade would be number one,

0:56:560:56:59

because it has a Christmassy feel to it.

0:56:590:57:02

# Ba-da-da-da

0:57:020:57:04

# Ba-da-da-da... #

0:57:040:57:06

So, in a year of change at Top Of The Pops,

0:57:060:57:09

the Christmas number one wasn't by one of the new pop peacocks,

0:57:090:57:13

there wasn't a synthesizer in sight, and there was no exotic video.

0:57:130:57:17

Instead, six 30-somethings with dodgy haircuts

0:57:190:57:22

were happy to turn up in the studio and hum.

0:57:220:57:25

I remember hearing it a lot that Christmas.

0:57:280:57:30

Every flipping shop you went into was playing it, which...

0:57:300:57:34

I got a bit tired of it in the end.

0:57:340:57:37

The Christmas number one is a great tradition.

0:57:370:57:39

I think it was significantly more than just having had...

0:57:390:57:42

A CHRISTMAS number one.

0:57:420:57:44

-Not just a number one, but a CHRISTMAS number one.

-Yeah.

0:57:440:57:47

# Ba-da-da-da

0:57:490:57:51

# Ba-da-da-da

0:57:510:57:53

# Ba-da-da-da

0:57:530:57:56

# Ba-da-da-da... #

0:57:560:57:57

And so 1983 came to a close on a melancholic note,

0:57:570:58:01

with an IRA bomb killing six at Harrods in London.

0:58:010:58:05

And at Greenham Common, the protestors continued their vigil.

0:58:070:58:11

But 1984 would see Top Of The Pops regain its confidence and bounce.

0:58:120:58:18

# Relax, don't do it

0:58:180:58:19

# When you want to go to it

0:58:190:58:21

# Relax, don't do it

0:58:210:58:23

# When you want to come... #

0:58:230:58:25

A controversial debut single would climax at number one...

0:58:250:58:30

# Relax, don't do it

0:58:300:58:33

# When you want to come... #

0:58:330:58:35

..a young pop princess from New York

0:58:350:58:38

would make a memorable first appearance...

0:58:380:58:40

# Relax, don't do it

0:58:420:58:44

# When you want to go to it... #

0:58:440:58:46

..and new pop's aristocracy

0:58:460:58:48

would put aside their rivalries for a good cause

0:58:480:58:51

on the mother of all Christmas singles.

0:58:510:58:53

# Relax, don't do it

0:58:550:58:57

# When you want to suck to it

0:58:570:58:59

# Relax, don't do it

0:58:590:59:01

# One more time...

0:59:030:59:05

Hey!

0:59:050:59:07

# Come. #

0:59:110:59:13

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