The Story of 1983 Top of the Pops

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

Welcome to another Top Of The Pops.

We're the Burke and Hare of British broadcasting.

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

1983...

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

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

and many happy returns.

But with the march of the video age,

was Top Of The Pops facing a midlife crisis?

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

# Oh-ho... #

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

We said to ourselves,

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

Bass guitars held high...

and low, as indie entered the mainstream,

with a live performance that wasn't exactly lively.

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

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

Dangerous, glamorous, beautiful.

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

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

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

maybe I can do it with beads.

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

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

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

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

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

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

A group of prominent international scientists say the world

has moved another significant step towards nuclear destruction.

In the year the doomsday clock moved closer to midnight,

protest was in the air at Greenham Common.

The recent antinuclear demonstrations at Greenham have

indeed been exceptional, as was the police response.

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

But, like Margaret Thatcher,

Top Of The Pops producer Michael Hurll

believed his work was only beginning.

And they've plenty of reason to celebrate,

even though we celebrated it 20 days ago.

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

In January, to inject young blood into the show,

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

I was absolutely thrilled to bits

with the fact that I was introducing U2.

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

# All is quiet

# On New Year's Day

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

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

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

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

-SHE CHUCKLES

-Oh, no!

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

doing very nicely.

-IRISH ACCENT:

-It's the luck of the Irish!

How embarrassing!

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

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

When we did the chart rundown,

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

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

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

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

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

So, up it a bit.

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

"No, could you make it really lively?"

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

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

And at number 12, Cacharpaya from Incantation.

It was really nice to see a female face

and somebody who is genuinely enthusiastic about music.

# Who's on the seventh floor? #

She was young, she was clearly a proper fan,

so that was really refreshing.

# What's in the bottom drawer? #

I was very excited that there were

lots of Liverpool bands doing Top Of The Pops.

# Spare us the cutter... #

You had Pete Wylie, you had China Crisis,

and Echo And The Bunnymen.

# Couldn't cut the

# Mustard

# Conquering myself until

# I see another hurdle approaching... #

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

Promptly phoned me up and she said,

"That Echo And The Bunnymen fella..."

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

"he's on drugs or drink!"

# Am I the worthy cross?

# Will I still be soiled

# When the dirt is off? #

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

Political pollsters Gallup took charge,

in a bid to stop chart rigging.

Selected record shops like this will be linked electronically

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

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

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

from Leighton Buzzard

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

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

but things weren't really moving forward very fast

and I said to the guys,

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

The solution was a new frontman - Chris Hamill,

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

Chris became Limahl, and Art Nouveau became Kajagoogoo.

Now all they needed was a record deal.

# Nobody knew the people who

# Were needing to save time

# So... #

Limahl had run into Nick Rhodes one night

in the Embassy Club in London.

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

"Do you want to hear my demos?"

Nick took the demos to EMI

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

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

and we got signed.

Despite Gallup's efforts, an ambitious band like Kajagoogoo

understood what they needed to do

to get their debut single into the charts.

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

the big thing back then.

So, nobody knew where the chart return shops were,

but you knew they were in a certain area,

so you had to do certain shops.

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

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

It's Kajagoogoo, Too Shy.

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

..so they did...

..an individual cutaway to each one of us.

And then finishing with Limahl.

# Time... #

Kajagoogoo were the paragon of 1983.

Perfect for Smash Hits and the teen press.

Perfect for Top Of The Pops.

# You're too shy, shy

# Hush-hush, eye to eye

# Too shy, shy

# Hush-hush, eye to eye

# Too shy, shy... #

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

by Nick Rhodes, now their producer.

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

It wasn't until Nick Rhodes said,

-IN BRUMMY ACCENT:

-"It plummets in the middle eight.

"We've got to change it."

I thought, "Well, this is now."

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

but it is pop music, and it is now.

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

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

I think we were just eager and very excited.

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

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

Naive.

When Kajagoogoo reappeared on the show in September, however,

someone had gone AWOL.

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

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

# Crying in some avenue... #

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

with a new single.

# Life in the Big Apple

# Moves very fast and so must... #

They thought they could be just as successful without him.

Fatal.

# Cops en route

# Are hot in pursuit

# As windows are shattered... #

We sacrificed something and, in the long term,

it didn't work out as well.

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

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

It was a party time.

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

with school leavers accounting for most of the increase.

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

for some the mood was defiant.

Sign on and party.

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

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

Now they were ready to enter the mainstream

and vie for chart success.

# Hey, everybody, take a look at me

# I've got street credibility

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

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

1983 was the year of "go for it".

By this stage, the mechanics of how you

become a pop star, get into the pop press,

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

-# Get yourself a job

-Get out of this house

-# Get yourself a job

-Are you a man or a mouse? #

They were a very visually aware generation,

thanks to having been brought up on TV.

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

-# Are you gonna get down?

-Yeah... #

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

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

Groups like Wham! were now the darlings

of the glossy music magazines,

aimed at a young, often female readership.

Keen to join the party,

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

IPC Magazines had spotted the massive success of Smash Hits

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

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

Number One started because nobody wanted to read,

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

What they wanted was a picture of Andrew and George

to put up on their wall.

We were writing for the pop fans.

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

to much analysis, at the end of the day.

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

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

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

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

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

responded to an ad placed by Paul Weller.

He wanted somebody 18 to 22.

I was 17 at the time, so I thought,

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

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

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

# Sweet dreams are made of this... #

It was kind of odd to find myself

suddenly on the cover of Smash Hits.

Just even doing interviews with magazines which I still bought,

papers which I still bought, as a fan,

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

a fan of for so many years...

It's very surreal.

It's Tracie, Paul and Mick.

Collectively, they're called the Style Council,

and this is Speak Like A Child.

# Your hair hangs in golden steps

# You're a bona fide in every respect

# You are walking through streets... #

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

I think he just thought the notion of saying

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

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

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

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

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

you know, just the little smirk that appears.

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

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

The following week, the golden Top Of The Pops rule

that no artist could appear two weeks running,

unless they were at number one, was inadvertently broken

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

# Who owns the house that Jack built?

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

There was something about Tracie's ordinariness

that people responded to.

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

She was a breath of fresh air.

What made the Top Of The Pops experience so vivid for

a newcomer like Tracie was meeting her fellow performers.

We had Twisted Sister on that show.

That's the most memorable part of my first

solo performance on Top Of The Pops.

# I'm on to your thinking

# And how you deceive... #

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

T-shirts and long hair.

They just looked like a bunch of American rock dudes.

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

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

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

And they were quite intimidating.

# I am and I'll be

# I will, you'll see

# I am and I'll be

# I am, I'm me. #

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

Know what I mean?

Appearing with her second single, however,

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

from Top Of The Pops choreographer Flick Colby.

I was on a stage and there were two dancers,

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

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

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

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

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

# Shooby-dooby-doo-ah

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

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

# But the black-and-blue bruise

# Would be... #

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

Yeah, it still makes me cringe now.

MUSIC: John Wayne Is Big Leggy by Haysi Fantayzee

If Tracie's appeal lay in her ordinariness,

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

and wanted to look extraordinary.

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

and she saw me sitting in the corner playing the guitar

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

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

She was like, "Well, why not?"

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

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

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

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

"We could do anything you want."

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

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

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

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

But she was very persistent.

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

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

was released in 1982.

We were so enthralled with video at that time.

We wanted to be a video-only band.

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

# Take me away

# John Wayne... #

# Well, I feel fine

# No, it ain't no crime

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

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

in February with their third single, Shiny Shiny.

Well, it's about absolutely nothing.

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

# Shiny, shiny, bad times behind me

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

So I had this sort of clapping song idea

but wanted to do it in a Cajun style.

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

which hadn't really existed.

# Sa-Sa-Saw a cop on the line

# Machinegun shine

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

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

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

and you were looking for any really powerful image

that would get you across.

# No chance

# No chance... #

Their stylist for Top Of The Pops was another scenester

with their own designs on pop fame.

I used to do their styling, Haysi Fantayzee,

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

Like, basically, do my look.

I sort of made Kate be a surrogate Marilyn.

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

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

# Shiny, shiny... #

It was fraught. Fraught and...

Because you're very nervous...

I mean, we weren't badly behaved.

We were, sort of, very professional, actually.

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

but it would have a curious afterlife in the charts.

Strangely enough, it was really funny,

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

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

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

So if you listen to Shiny Shiny...

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

..and you listen to The Lovecats...

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

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

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

# We miss you, hissed the lovecats

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

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

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

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

an old friend of theirs from clubland was going global.

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

when Boy George and Culture Club arrived in the city.

Culture Club were more photographed, more written about

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

'83 was the year that they actually became

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

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

Church Of The Poison Mind,

added a couple of new elements to their sound.

# Desolate loving in your eyes

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

The feedback from Church Of The Poison Mind was fantastic

for Helen Terry because I guess that was her unveiling

to the Great British public.

-# In the church of the poison mind

-In the church of the poison mind

-# In the church of the poison mind

-In the church of the poison mind

-# Church of the poison mind

-In the church of the poison mind

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

Also notable for the appearance of Judd Lander.

Judd was a plugger

and who knew that he played a mean harmonica?

Yeah, I got a phone call from Steve Levine.

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

"could you come over?"

And then the next thing is, "Judd!

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

HARMONICA SOLO

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

so it looked as if I was a hairy beast.

Culture Club, Church Of The Poison Mind,

including grizzly Judd Lander on harmonica there.

But it was their follow-up, Karma Chameleon,

that became the bestselling single of 1983.

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

And, on Top Of The Pops,

the band's appearance reflected their new international appeal.

# Karma, karma, karma... #

And we did a photo session in San Francisco,

where George wanted to dress the band up

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

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

which was my job.

They were wearing them when they launched Karma Chameleon

with their appearance on Top Of The Pops.

Those were the same outfits - they never returned them.

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

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

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

I remember there always used to be

an ironing board in the dressing room.

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

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

Always drama, always...

haberdashery.

# Red, gold, and green... #

I think I'd been to the bar.

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

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

and then get into the whole thing.

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

and I got into the groove.

# ..an addiction

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

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

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

# You string along... #

And then they bloody did better than us! Bastards!

As George became a household name,

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

was about to launch his own androgynous look

on the British public.

Famously, a new term was coined

for artists like George and Marilyn - gender-benders.

George had broken through with that look.

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

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

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

-REPORTER:

-'But similarities between Boy George and Marilyn remain.

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

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

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

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

But they actually hadn't. You know?

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

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

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

Marilyn's debut single quickly followed,

inspired by the success of his famous friend.

I was walking along Oxford Street and, like,

I was hearing all of this...

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

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

I hear... The lyrics are right there.

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

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

# I hear you on the radio

# I hear you all the time... #

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

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

I was getting more and more nervous,

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

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

-LAUGHING:

-I mean, it was like a death mask.

# Open up your loving arms

# See my heat burn white... #

I didn't make that mistake twice.

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

I think the biggest surprise

was, actually, simply that he could sing.

You know? He had a quite gorgeous soul voice.

# How can I tell you, baby?

# How can I tell you, baby?

# You're not here... #

Marilyn looked absolutely beautiful and more sexual than George.

You could see his midriff.

# How can I tell you, baby?

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

# Hey, you call into my brain

# I want peace of mind... #

The headline was "The Unacceptable Face Of Pop"

after my first Top Of The Pops.

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

"THIS on the TV?"

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

HE LAUGHS

# Who's that girl

# Running around with you? #

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

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

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

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

on the basis of having an underground following,

are now wanting to go mainstream.

# Tell me... #

And they want the big bucks.

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

And, in the charts, everyone was going pop.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Including the Thompson Twins.

After six years and two albums without chart success.

# Hey, you

# I've seen your face before

We became a three-piece because there was a sudden

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

we had been doing wasn't really leading us

out of the kind of very earnest underground music scene

that we were a part of.

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

We said to ourselves,

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

"we have to quit..."

# What am I supposed to do? #

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

# I hear you laughing in some other room

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

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

you had to look the right way.

# And you need to move about

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

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

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

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

"should be very black and have dreadlocks,

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

# Cos you got love, love

# Love on your side

# Cos you got love, love

# Love on your side... #

It was a pop experiment for us.

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

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

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

Now, the Thomson Twins are somewhat differently dressed,

but I'll tell you they're down there

and they've got a number-four record.

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

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

# I have a picture... #

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

why they shouldn't be having hits.

# An image of you and of me

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

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

when the flags came out.

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

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

You go from invisible to visible.

# We cry until dawn

# Oh-oh-oh

# Hold me now... #

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

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

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

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

and just took off.

In a year of change, there was something reassuring

about Top Of The Pops celebrating its longevity that May,

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

I just seem to remember every Tom, Dick and Harry

from Radio 1 was doing a link.

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

-Do you believe that, Janice?

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

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

It really is great.

Pop royalty sent birthday wishes by video.

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

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

congratulations for making it 1,000 shows.

And may you have 1,000 more.

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

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

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

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

-on Top Of The Pops?

-Er, Under Pressure?

-Under Pressure?

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

A rather reserved Bahamian Rhapsody.

Happy 1,000th either way.

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

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

# Let's spend the night together

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

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

While, in the studio,

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

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

# Last night when I got home... #

It didn't work well for me because

policemen wear these epaulettes over their shirts,

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

so they were digging into me.

Actually a painful experience physically.

# We dress up in disguise... #

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

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

# Leave no track... #

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

were also in the studio with their biggest hit yet.

# Temptation

# Keep climbing higher and higher

# Temptation

# Adorable creatures

# Temptation

# With unacceptable features

# Temptation... #

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

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

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

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

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

were The Human League themselves.

# The good advice of friends unheeded... #

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

As I remember it,

it was kind of like furtive glances in the corridors,

trying to avoid each other's stares.

# And so the conversation turned... #

This was kind of at the peak of our rivalry,

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

# And many fantasies were learned... #

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

# On that day

# Keep feeling fascination

# Passion burning... #

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

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

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

# To cut a long story short

# I lost my... #

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

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

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

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

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

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

that chart.

Up from four to three, Fascination...

To take it to the next level,

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

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

It's Spandau Ballet and True.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

It was a sense of taking a risk, really,

by doing something so commercial.

But you have to remember,

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

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

There wasn't much of that going on.

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

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

was very exciting for us.

Because we knew that was going to be great night,

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

# So true

# Funny how it seems

# Always in time

# But never in line for dreams... #

But the new soulful Spandau sound presented the band

with a challenge when it came to miming.

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

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

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

"and Martin mimes guitars,"

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

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

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

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

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

Being number one on the 1,000th show

brought with it the ultimate accolade.

They actually baked a huge great cake,

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

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

There was nothing slick about it, so why not?

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

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

that needed to change with the times.

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

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

it was going through a midlife crisis as well.

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

I think Michael Hurll saw the writing on the wall,

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

How can we do these charts?

How can we make the charts more entertaining?

MUSIC: Let's Dance by David Bowie

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

in this new global video age.

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

"Could we just have the video on, please?

"Well, how available are you?"

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

which is what Bowie would've done.

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

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

It was much better introducing an artist.

I was always disappointed when you introduced a video.

It's the first chance we in Britain

get to see this video on Top Of The Pops.

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

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

and in 1983, it was his promos

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

# I am the one... #

Michael had become such an acquisition

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

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

# She told me her name was Billie Jean

# And she caused a scene... #

I totally remember being blown away by seeing Billie Jean

and the pavement lighting up,

Michael Jackson just looking beautiful and cool.

# People always told me

# Be careful of what you do

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

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

It would never have happened.

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

# Looking like... #

Big-budget videos brought some foreign sunshine

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

You wanted your video on Top Of The Pops,

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

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

Top Of The Pops was now challenged.

If you don't have a unique performance,

why watch Top Of The Pops?

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

What couldn't be denied was that

pop videos offered drama and a sense of the exotic,

so one response was to build the programme around them.

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

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

John?

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

Cute, eh? Well, it was his idea.

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

was the video countdown.

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

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

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

where they've been recording some beer commercials.

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

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

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

for the sake of doing cheaper videos

rather than having artists in the studio.

That's Men At Work still number one.

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

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

Another strategy to compete with the international glamour

of video was to send its presenters to foreign climes.

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

this is the German entry for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Monsieur? Cheers.

# Rucksicht

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

Michael said to me...

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

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

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

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

Welcome to Singapore.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

pop music is not really as important for Asians

as it is for us in the UK.

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

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

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

Next up, it's a Chinese movie star,

television personality and song and dance man.

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

He is called Lam and here he is performing Mirages.

HE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE

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

of the globe tells you something about

what Michael Hurll may have thought of it.

HE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE

As well as trying new things,

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

MUSIC: Rip It Up And Start Again by Orange Juice

Flick Colby's Zoo were the last incarnation

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

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

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

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

that you can show of that band,

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

doing their interpretation of it, quite literally, sometimes?

# I said, rip it up and rip it up

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

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

# Out the window

# Look what's happening... #

# I'm rocking

# I'm miming... #

# I can't break away

# Though you make me cry

# I can't break away

# I can't say goodbye... #

Even this, though,

was about to be challenged by a band and a tune

from the indie underground.

MUSIC: Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division

Joy Division had been the epitome of indie cussedness.

After singer Ian Curtis died in 1980,

the others reformed as New Order.

But their attitude remained defiant.

We were men and women of principle.

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

would be to insist on performing live because

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

And finally, with Blue Monday,

there must have been sufficient momentum that somebody relented

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

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

singing live with Blue Monday.

We thought, "What have we done?"

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

-It's impossible.

-It's impossible.

-It's impossible.

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

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

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

on keyboards, the cameraman was like...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I made the cardinal error of looking like we were mining

but actually playing it live.

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

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

embrace the cheerleaders, get the streamers out and whoo!

# How do I feel... #

While the lighting was livelier than the band,

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

Absolutely great for me because, all of a sudden,

from a show that was fairly formulaic...

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

and, "This is going to be exciting."

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

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

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

# Aaah! #

No!

We'll keep on!

-It's live.

-It's live.

In a year of slick image and theatrical presentation,

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

I remember waiting to go on to do our slot,

and New Order were about to go on.

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

And he turned round to me and he said,

"Yeah, you should try it sometime."

# Now I stand here waiting... #

I remember thinking about it afterwards, thinking...

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

To perform that track,

in that environment,

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

Their musicianship got them through.

Or maybe not.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Eventually, in our Top Of The Pops performing career,

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

a little bit too much heartache

and that, perhaps...

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

-perhaps that would be better.

-Yeah, perhaps we should mime a bit.

Or maybe not even that.

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

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

Mrs Thatcher's decision,

the general election will be on June the 9th.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher

was hoping to secure a second term in Number Ten.

There aren't many voters inside.

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

who swarm around the Prime Minister,

follow her every move -

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

is to get the best possible exposure...

on the TV news that evening.

Let's bomb Russia!

CHEERING

Let's kick Michael Foot's stick away!

CHEERING

The result was a landslide victory

for Margaret Thatcher and the Conservatives.

Her political vision was consolidated.

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

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

# Leaving me here on my own

# It's so cruel... #

..as well as a future Prime Minister.

The image of the Labour Party's

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

more suited to the 1980s.

But in the summer heat, the mood seemed relaxed.

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

now appeared laidback in the new, hedonistic present.

# They tell me that it helps

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

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

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

and he's just enjoying it.

You can see the look on his face, actually.

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

# Don't matter what I do

# Cos I end up hurting you... #

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

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

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

# Club Tropicana drinks are free... #

Britain swooned by day...

# There's enough for everyone... #

But by night, it partied,

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

Club Tropicana is all about the video.

It just felt really exotic.

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

there's girls in swimsuits.

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

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

# Fun and sunshine

# There's enough for everyone. #

Michael Hurll had seen the Club Tropicana video

and he was very impressed by it,

and he decided he'd rather like to recreate

the atmosphere of the video in the studio.

So, it was set out as a club

with people at chairs and tables, apparently drinking.

In the corner was a girl in a shower.

Unfortunately, the shower tray started leaking

over the studio floor

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

started again, but it was good fun.

# Please, please tell me now... #

Causing a splash on the other side of the Atlantic

were bands at the forefront of this new British pop,

spearheading a second British invasion of the States.

Did you expect this sort of fantastic reception?

No.

In short, no.

And their calling card was video,

perfect for the young MTV generation.

What we noticed, in '83,

was that the states that had MTV...

we were huge amongst young girls,

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

In California, we did a Tower Records signing.

It was just mental.

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

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

because British acts were younger,

they were willing to make the videos,

they looked cool and that added to the power.

For this generation of teenagers,

this combination of fashion, videos and music was so exciting

and Britain got there first,

and it dominated the world in it in 1983.

Not every British band, though,

was prepared to embrace the new exotic of the video age

in their pursuit of chart glory.

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

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

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

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

What...are you on about?

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

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

the reality of life.

In keeping with this down-to-earth attitude,

rather than send in a video,

The Smiths made their debut in person

in the Top Of The Pops studio in November.

What a charming man and, talking of charming men,

at number 30 this week, these are The Smiths.

CHEERING

The intro to This Charming Man...

HE HUMS INTRO

What's going on there?!

# Punctured bicycle on a hillside... #

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

# Will nature make a man of me yet? #

It had more of a pop-y feel

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

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

# This charming man... #

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

whirling some flowers around his head,

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

# I would go out tonight

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

They were not shiny pop.

They were something a bit more,

and they were something a bit edgier,

but they were still young and it still felt fresh.

# Should care... #

Ah!

# A jumped-up country boy... #

But the band looked and sounded very different

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

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

and they were saying to me,

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

I was proud as anything, I said,

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

# I would go out tonight

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

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

And she looked me up and down, and said,

"When are you going to get changed?"

About two-thirds of the way through the performance,

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

and a balloon comes.

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

I can see it coming towards me

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

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

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

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

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

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

but, because it's Top Of The Pops,

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

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

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

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

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

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

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

And so on, for another three times.

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

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

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

Yeah. Yeah.

Cos one person was doing the...

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

And another person was doing a...

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

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

But it seemed to work.

-# Ba-da

-Ba-da

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

-Da-da-da-da #

As Christmas loomed, three minutes of fame beckoned

for The Flying Pickets -

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

# All I needed for another day... #

And if '83 was a year for reinvention,

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

# When I see you... #

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

that peaked at number two.

# All I needed was the love you gave

# All I needed... #

I liked the idea of taking something that was very synthesized

and doing it for voices.

# Only you... #

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

-Here they are.

-APPLAUSE

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

The Flying Pickets went one better,

reaching number one in the second week of December,

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

# I believe in woman

# My, oh, my. #

The race hotted up when a familiar bunch of faces

made their annual tilt for the top spot.

# Don't a woman need a man?

# Try and catch one if you can

# I believe in woman

# My, oh, my. #

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

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

At the height of the video age,

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

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

# Only you... #

We were never cool,

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

I think they all thought we were a bit barmy.

# Wonder if you'll understand

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

It was my idea to say,

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

-Yes.

-"That would be a good idea."

-Yeah.

-I think it was my idea.

-Probably, you're full of good ideas.

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

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

Well, I'm so disappointed,

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

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

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

because it has a Christmassy feel to it.

# Ba-da-da-da

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

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

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

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

Instead, six 30-somethings with dodgy haircuts

were happy to turn up in the studio and hum.

I remember hearing it a lot that Christmas.

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

I got a bit tired of it in the end.

The Christmas number one is a great tradition.

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

A CHRISTMAS number one.

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

-Yeah.

# Ba-da-da-da

# Ba-da-da-da

# Ba-da-da-da

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

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

with an IRA bomb killing six at Harrods in London.

And at Greenham Common, the protestors continued their vigil.

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

# Relax, don't do it

# When you want to go to it

# Relax, don't do it

# When you want to come... #

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

# Relax, don't do it

# When you want to come... #

..a young pop princess from New York

would make a memorable first appearance...

# Relax, don't do it

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

..and new pop's aristocracy

would put aside their rivalries for a good cause

on the mother of all Christmas singles.

# Relax, don't do it

# When you want to suck to it

# Relax, don't do it

# One more time...

Hey!

# Come. #