The Story of 1985 Top of the Pops

Hi! It's Top Of The Pops! Have we got a show for you?

Have we got a show for you?

-And it is live!

-And it's live!

-And they are the Conway Brothers!

-Which one's Ross?

1985, the year in which Top Of The Pops

had never looked more professional...

When you were watching it at home,

it looked like this really sophisticated nightclub.

..or felt more competitive.

There wasn't that much camaraderie with other bands.

Like, whispering and talking and pointing.

The show now reflected the state of Thatcher's Britain,

with a new breed of ambitious pop star...

We were so confident. We knew it was going to happen.

..rubbing shoulders with passionate political activists.

Their job was to look like they were having a great time,

and here I'm singing about, you know,

war and death, strikes, nuclear weapons.

..all soundtracked by the rise of sample-filled electronica...

Now, why anybody would want the sound of two dogs having

intercourse baffled me.

..and topped off by a wind-tunnel of big-haired power ballads.

You could see all the fillings in your mouth and whatever.

I couldn't watch it half the time. I was like,

"Oh, my... Oh, no. Oh, no."

# Everybody wants to rule the world... #

Imagine a vehicle that can drive you five miles for a penny,

a vehicle that needs no petrol, just a battery,

and that takes the press of a button to start,

the squeeze of a lever to stop.

The Sinclair C5.

It's a new power in personal transport.

January 1985 saw the birth of an '80s icon in a brave new

tech world.

And in a parallel universe,

Top Of The Pops also ventured into pastures new.

Now, on One, the people

and songs that are everyone's talking point in Top Of The Pops.

The show was still run by Michael Hurll

and regularly attracted ten million viewers,

but the first episode of the year had an announcement to make.

CHEERING

There are one or two changes in format on this week's

Top Of The Pops. Richard is now going to explain all.

Well, it looks like this, you see.

We went out to find out what you wanted from Top Of The Pops,

and the overwhelming request was more top hits, so from this week,

we count down the top ten, starting with Foreigner at number ten.

# ..this lonely life... #

In days gone by, only seven or eight acts would feature on the show.

This year, with short clips of videos from the top ten and beyond,

there would be up to 19.

# ..I want you to show me... #

This would soon benefit one band in particular.

Dead Or Alive had struggled in '84.

Late in that year, they got new producers and a new lease of life.

But their first single together proved a challenge.

It was the most frustrating

record in the history of Stock Aitken Waterman.

It would go up one week, it would go back the week after,

then it would go up and it would go down.

After the whole of the rest of that year,

it still hadn't really cracked the top 40.

So Pete Waterman took it under his personal...his personal belt,

to make sure that it was a hit.

CBS said they wanted another mix.

Now, I have to tell you, at this point, we'd done about five mixes.

We were running out of ideas.

And the BBC had a sound-effects department,

and you could buy these sound-effects records.

And covered everything -

every sound you could imagine was on these BBC archive sounds.

You know, doors, bridges,

bombs.

Police sirens, everything.

So, I'm looking down this

and I noticed there was on the list two dogs having intercourse.

Now, why anybody would want

the sound of two dogs having intercourse baffled me.

We got carried away with it, and we put it on the record.

So, it went out just the week before Christmas.

So, when we came back, the first week in January,

every club was playing this TDF mix.

I mean, it was like the depot was full of orders.

DOGS HOWLING

TDF, er, you know,

was not tour de force. It actually stood for two dogs F-ing.

# If I I get to know your name... #

Through January '85,

the TDF mix edged the song up the charts.

And as fate would have it,

in the last week of January, Top Of The Pops introduced their new

slot featuring bands just breaking into the top 40.

# Open up your lovin' arms I want some want some... #

Then suddenly, 14 weeks in, it was number 40,

and they decided to give us

a break on Top Of The Pops as a sort of new entry.

This song has taken two and a half months to make the chart.

From Liverpool, it's Pete Burns and Dead Or Alive.

You Spin Me Round Like A Record.

# ..move in just a little bit closer... #

So, when Michael Hurll called you and said, you know,

"We're going to put this record on as a breaker,"

we knew at that point that was the break we needed.

# Watch out, here I come

# You spin me right round, baby Right round

# Like a record, baby Right round, round, round... #

No matter how many mixes we'd done, the fact that Top Of The Pops

was going to show the video, we knew it was all over.

# Your love... #

Because we knew that once people saw Pete with his eye patch with

all the flags, we would be in the top 20 the next week.

We knew.

And that's the power that Top Of The Pops had.

We've got a new number one for you on this week's Top Of The Pops,

and it's a live Top Of The Pops, of course.

Dead Or Alive, another Merseyside band.

You want that moment where your dad goes, "Well, I've seen it all now."

Don't you, you know? "Oh, well, that's ridiculous."

# You spin me right round, baby Right round... #

I'm sure there were houses throughout the UK going,

"What's that?"

# You spin me right round, baby Right round

# Like a record, baby Right round, round, round... #

The dog howls on Dead Or Alive's infamous TDF mix were

programmed with a keyboard sampler.

# Hey... #

This new tech was much-loved by big producer

acts like Trevor Horn's The Art Of Noise,

who performed tracks on Top Of The Pops with minimum vocals

and sampled sounds.

Up till now, their favourite toy, the Fairlight Sampler,

was, at 30 grand, the same price as a house.

But in '85, at a quarter of the price,

came the Emulator II.

And it inspired a young bedroom producer at his mum's

house in Leytonstone.

Around the start of '85, I was just at home

and I was reading the paper and I saw that there was a

programme on about Vietnam coming on, so I taped it.

In World War II, the average age of the combat soldier was 26.

In Vietnam, he was 19.

And I found it very intriguing, the fact that the kids at the time that

were going out to battle were only 19 years old,

and yet in America you can't even have a drink till you're 21.

So I taped the programme,

and I was just mucking about with some rhythms

and stuff like that, and I put some of the commentary into the Emulator.

And one bit just said, "In Vietnam, he was 19."

In Vietnam, he was 19.

And I tapped it a few times, you know, on the keyboard,

and it went, "Na-na-na-na-na-na," and I thought,

"Wow! That's different."

Na-na-na-na-19. 19. 19.

Na-na-na-na.

The Vietnam war has inspired an unusual pop record due to be

released next week.

All the indications are that it's going to be a big hit.

In World War II, the average age of the combat soldier was 26.

In Vietnam, he was 19.

In-in-in-in in Vietnam, he was 19.

Alongside the single, Paul asked the producers of Vietnam Requiem

to create a video from the documentary's powerful footage.

In Vietnam, the combat soldier typically served a 12-month

tour of duty, but was exposed to hostile fire almost every day.

It was so powerful.

You're talking about young boys being sent off to foreign wars,

you know, and it really, really had a resonance.

According to a veteran's administration study,

half of the Vietnam combat veterans suffer from what psychiatrists

call post-traumatic stress disorder.

Many vets complain of alienation, rage or guilt.

Some succumb to suicidal thoughts.

Eight to ten years after coming home,

almost 800,000 men are still fighting the Vietnam War.

I remember going into a Chrysalis and watching it,

and I saw three women journalists actually come out crying.

And that was...

We thought, "Wow, what have we created here?"

It went in at number four in the charts first weekend,

which was incredible.

A brand-new act to go in and number four, at that time,

it just did not happen.

In Vietnam, he was 19.

In-in-in-in Vietnam, he was 19.

Michael Hurll,

who was the producer of Top Of The Pops at the time, basically

kept on saying to me, you know, "Do you not think that you could

"really do something on Top Of The Pops?"

I think it would have been difficult for him to do that.

How would he perform the song?

He'd probably end up like Harold Faltermeyer did, with the most

boring live performance than I think you'd ever see on Top Of The Pops.

Harold would not appear on Top Of The Pops again

and stalled at number two.

But Paul's cut-and-paste technique in music and video

proved an irresistible chart-topping formula.

He's a producer, he remixes records and he's number one.

Yes, for the second week running, Paul Hardcastle, 19.

We got to number one and we were quite amazed by it all,

but we obviously wanted to stay there.

Paul came up with several different mixes.

And one of the reasons we did that was because

Duran Duran were right behind us at number two.

# Choice for you is a view to a kill. #

I went back into the studio and I remixed the track

and I changed some of the vocals around.

N-n-n-n-n-n-nineteen.

I added some new documentary which I had found,

which took the war on slightly further

and I called it the Destruction Mix.

# Unlike Vietnam

# World War Two saw America unite behind their fighting men

# The two wars were just as different on the front lines

# As they were back home.

# N-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-nineteen. #

So a different edit would go on to Top Of The Pops each week...

..which then people went out and repurchased

and we stopped the biggest band most probably in the world then, which were the Duranies,

and also they had the biggest film in the world at the time with View To A Kill.

And little old me stopped them being number one

and it was quite a feat, really.

I think Simon Le Bon wasn't too happy!

Excuse me. Aren't you...

Bon, Simon Le Bon.

Now Dire Straits have said that they won't be touring after the end of next year.

It's simply too expensive.

But they've got a great video, Money For Nothing. This is it.

'85 proved a turning point for the industry

and for Top Of The Pops.

Videos were now more than half of the show.

MTV hadn't arrived in Europe yet,

but in America exposure on the channel almost guaranteed success.

By the mid-'80s what you were seeing

was the record companies at their peak power.

They knew how to market things.

If you were launching a new washing powder you'd do a big expensive ad,

put it in lots of slots and hopefully give it

some sort of twist that got people talking about it.

If you were launching a new band you'd make a big expensive video,

get it on MTV and hopefully with some kind of innovative twist

that got people talking about it.

# Now look at them yo-yos, that's the way you do it

# You play the guitar on the MTV

# That ain't workin', that's the way you do it

# Money for nothing and your chicks for free. #

And for three unknown musicians from Norway

with a background in prog rock,

video production would change their fortunes entirely.

Well, we were just three very ambitious guys

who moved away from our native Norway

without any other plan than to become pop stars.

Coming to England, that was really the first time

we sort of got bombarded with pop music.

There wasn't really that much around in Norway.

You know, you had, like, one hour a week on the radio

where they played pop music.

We took the ferry over the first time we came over

and Human League was the first thing we heard in the cab.

Builders would have blaring radios playing,

whistling along to pop songs that were current

and it just felt really vibey and really different.

Then hearing things like Soft Cell, Depeche Mode,

all that electronic stuff that was going on,

was to us kind of like, whoa, this is kind of perfect for us.

After a couple of years in the UK a-ha got a deal

and started doing the rounds of kids' TV shows.

But there was a problem.

Nobody bought their debut single.

Until Warner Brothers US, who had signed a-ha,

proposed a hugely expensive hand-drawn video aimed at MTV.

Now, three guys who come from Norway.

It's reputed that £100,000 was spent on their video. It's worth every penny.

A smash in America, now a smash in Britain. Take On Me, a-ha.

# We're talking away... #

It was just kind of a sweet animated depiction of a relationship

between this dreaming young girl,

who was all of a sudden called into the magazine

of her hero in the comic strip.

# I'll be coming for your love OK

# Take on me

# Take on me

# Take me on

# Take on me

# I'll be gone. #

The way it sort of... Well, you just saw it develop, didn't you?

You just saw it start as a sketch

and then it turned into this full-blown video.

# So, needless to say

# I'm odds and ends... #

I think it was something like 22,000 single drawings

made for that particular video.

# Slowly learning that life is OK

# Say after me

# It's no better to be safe than sorry... #

You suddenly see this video and the cost and you just go,

"What? This is ridiculous."

# Take me on

# Take on me... #

The good thing is that we became very successful everywhere very fast.

# In a day or two. #

We could not compete with anything like that. We couldn't do it.

I just looked at it and thought, you know what?

If that's the way the record industry is going, God help it.

I thought, that's a game-changer.

They've made the video as important as the music.

We actually sort of knew it was going to happen,

if I can say that.

We were so confident.

It helped us but it also propelled us

into this lighter end of the music press.

The bad thing is you don't get to sculpt your career.

Everybody assumes they know everything about you

based on that one song.

# Take me on. #

And when those cheekbones finally appeared in person

on Top Of The Pops, their teen image was sealed.

The fact that video led the way, it put our faces everywhere

and we didn't really expect that,

so we felt kind of pushed into the Smash Hits

and we kind of just embraced it,

but immediately thinking this is super uncomfortable.

What's going to happen now?

We just tried to hold on for dear life. It was like riding a wild horse.

# Take me on. #

I'm stuck there! I'm still stuck there!

1985 saw the biggest pop groups of recent years grow older

and start to take themselves very seriously.

Half of the Durans indulged their artistic side with Arcadia.

# Wild kind of look to the day

# Opening eyes impale neon flickers. #

Spandau were in tax exile on a long world tour.

Wham! were in China.

And Culture Club were falling apart.

This left a sizeable gap in the market.

You always have, every two or three years, a new generation of pop fans

turning around where they don't necessarily want the same heroes

and heroines as their big brother or sister, they want their own.

The record labels sensed an opportunity.

As did one band from Coventry, whose big boots matched their ambitions

and who appeared to know exactly what they were doing.

Two years ago when I first heard of King,

a picture came through the post of a dolphin and Doc Martens boots.

-Are you going to live that down?

-I think both those things simply were...

We used the dolphin and the boots as a symbol

of what King were about musically and spiritually.

# That's what my heart yearns for now

# Love and pride

# That's what my heart yearns for now

# Love and pride. #

When we arrived to do that debut performance on Top Of The Pops

I was wearing my yellow check suit.

# Start your journey... #

We all had this big spiky hair going off all over the place.

Almost like a Bay City Rollers kind of dress-up idea.

# Take your hair dryer

# Blow them all away... #

I thought we could be that mixture

of a credible rock band who could appeal to a teen pop audience.

Unfortunately for us, our record label looked at the check suits

and Dr Martens boots and saw a novelty band.

They could say, OK, hit-single band, great.

Maybe one year, two years of life.

# Love and pride... #

'85, King were everywhere.

I don't think there was one pop show that King did not appear on.

# Pride. #

Throughout '85 I think we were on Top Of The Pops seven times.

In the year that we broke through with things like Smash Hits and

videos and Top Of The Pops, you're going to be picked up by teenagers.

In the end for us, unfortunately,

that became the predominant audience that our record label

wanted to direct their focus for us towards.

Automatically now, the credible music audience, the gatekeepers,

are looking at that and thinking, they are not a credible music band.

# Love and pride

# That's what my heart yearns for now

# Love and pride. #

King weren't really part of my world.

They weren't part of the club scene. They didn't feel that cool.

They were like this weird, almost Frankenstein's monster,

with styled up bits of lots of other bands stuck together

with a kind of Rod Stewart mullet and some DMs on top.

Eventually we started bickering between ourselves as a unit

and by the time we got to the Christmas Top Of The Pops

we were pretty much over as a band anyway.

But then we went on to do The Old Grey Whistle Test New Year's Eve.

Och aye the noo, it's King!

And we were playing that show and my manager and I

had a serious conversation of saying,

we've got one great moment here,

why don't we go out and do our David Bowie Hammersmith moment?

And we seriously talked about it, which was to walk out on stage

and say, "Thanks everybody, it's been a great year, but King are never going to play together again."

And I kind of wish we'd done that now.

But in '85 it wasn't just the teenage Top Of The Pops market

that record companies had their eye on.

# I've got to take a little time

# A little time to think things over... #

I think the rise of the power ballad was very much

the record companies reasserting their control.

It was a way of appealing back to the mainstream

who had been alienated by pop at the start of the '80s,

by these weird girls dressed as boys and boys dressed as girls

and men wearing tablecloths across one shoulder.

# In my life

# There's been heartache and pain. #

You know, here you had a good, honest person

singing into a wind machine with a tune you could recognise.

Power ballad has to be very big hair.

Very serious expression.

Soaring vocals. Strings.

In a way it was kind of the housewife's revenge.

# I wanna know what love is

# Love that you feel inside

# I want you to show me

# I'm feeling so much love. #

Lots of synth washers and pads and drama.

# Who's gonna drive you home

# Tonight? #

It was big drum sounds.

# We're heading for something

# Somewhere I've never been... #

Snare drums going on for nine seconds per hit.

# Sometimes I am frightened but I'm ready to learn... #

Lots of emotion and...

..a little bit of cheese.

# Of the power of love. #

The Power Of Love was the biggest-selling record of '85

in a year that record labels found multiple ways

to target the mainstream.

The interesting thing about '85 I think

is the explosion of songs coming from movies.

# Get into the groove... #

Madonna had Into The Groove from Desperately Seeking Susan.

Harold Faltermeyer's Axel F was from Beverly Hills Cop.

Duran Duran's View To A Kill.

Tina Turner's We Don't Need Another Hero from Mad Max.

You got a situation where a lot of the big corporations

actually had a film on.

The synergy of record companies

and film companies, often being owned by the same people,

and suddenly realising, we could maximise our exposure to this song

if we have it on the soundtrack.

In '85 power ballads found a natural home on movie soundtracks.

And this tradition was arguably started by a ballad

from a British star, first released in '84.

Holding Out For A Hero was written for the film Footloose.

And it was in a very exciting part of the film

so it had to be high energy, you know.

They took me to a film studios to play the rushes of the part

where Kevin Bacon was doing the chicken run in the film, you know.

Where his foot gets stuck on the accelerator and he wins.

The record was initially a flop,

until it was championed by the same clubbing audience

who adopted You Spin Me Round.

And in '85 the song made a dramatic re-entry into the charts.

And still at number two, a great lady

who had no idea that the single had been released until it charted.

Holding Out For a Hero. Aren't we all? It's Bonnie Tyler.

When I was asked to go on Top Of The Pops I'll never forget where I was

because I was living in New York at the time in a suite in Le Parker Meridien.

There was a swimming pool on the top floor

and I get a phone call to say,

"Come back to London to do Top Of The Pops."

And I said, "Yeah!"

# Where have all the good men gone

# And where are all the gods?

# Where's the street-wise Hercules

# To fight the rising odds?

# Isn't there a white knight... #

I didn't even know it had been a big hit in the gay bars.

A lot of the gay bars and clubs and things were playing it.

# I dream of what I need... #

It became huge.

# I need a hero

# I'm holding out for a hero till the end of the night

# He's gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast

# And he's gotta be fresh from the fight... #

It's very majestic, you know.

And with Jim Steinman, everything's in there but the kitchen sink.

# I'm holding out for a hero till the morning light

# He's gotta be sure and he's gotta be soon... #

All those bongos, or whatever you call them.

# Larger than life... #

And the backing vocals...

They build and they build and they build to...

..a crescendo.

# Ah, ah

# Somewhere after midnight

# In my wildest fantasy... #

Oh, but the dreadful outfits of the '80s, oh, my God.

My father used to warn me.

He said, "You look like an American baseball player with them shoulder pads."

# Racing on the thunder and rising with the heat... #

In the '80s we all looked stupid like that.

# It's gonna take a superman to sweep me off my feet. #

They always had these cameras underneath your chin.

Looking up your nose. You could see all the fillings in your mouth!

I couldn't watch it. Half the time I was like this. Oh, my God, no.

# I need a hero

# I'm holding out for a hero till the morning light... #

I love the song, I love performing it live, as well.

# And he's gotta be larger than life. #

# I need a hero

# I'm holding out for a hero till the end of the night

# He's gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast

# Gotta be fresh from the fight

# I need a hero! #

That's amazing!

Talking of heroes,

July '85 saw a charity concert on a different scale.

To me it is not a pop concert. To me it's not a TV show.

To me it's simply a means of keeping people alive.

It got Royal approval,

as the new pop elite joined forces with rock's older statesman.

The feeling about the concert is so exciting. I think it's going to be marvellous.

I think it'll be on my mind just how many people are watching while I'm singing.

And the day was soundtracked by a power ballad

cut to extraordinary news footage.

# You can't go on

# Thinking nothing's wrong

# But bye

# Who's gonna drive you home

# Tonight? #

The greatest show on earth, the Live Aid rock festival,

has turned out to be the greatest fundraising event in history.

# Who's gonna pick you up

# When you fall? #

It brought generations together,

raised millions and revived rock music.

# Who's gonna hang it up

# When you call? #

If you were a rock band on Live Aid here or in America

it did wonders for your career.

# Who's gonna pay attention

# To your dreams? #

The Cars, Drive, you know,

that record sold millions on the back of it.

We were going to be the first band on until quite late in the day

when they managed to get the mighty Quo,

which was the perfect starter.

# Here we are and here we are And here we go

# All aboard and we're hitting the road

# Here we go

# Rocking all over the world. #

I remember seeing U2 on it

and thinking, oh, my goodness, how fantastic is that?

# I can't believe the news today

# I can't close my eyes and make it go away

# How long, how long must we sing this song?

# How long

# How long? #

It really did wonders for a lot of bands, even the bands

that had maybe slightly peaked - it rejuvenated them, I think.

If you want to hold your peace, come on, hold it somewhere else.

Somebody has to do something about this. Come on.

I don't want to hurt you.

But famine in Africa wasn't the only issue on people's minds in '85.

There were demonstrations against nuclear weapons

and the miners' strike reached a tipping point.

Billy Bragg's European tour.

And in his manager's old Volvo estate

young anti-pop star Billy Bragg toured the country

on a one-man mission.

Rock 'n' roll is on the road again.

The miners' strike had been going on since the spring of 1984.

A lot of people were involved in supporting different pits.

Billy himself came and did a gig before us

and raised us X amount of money.

And in return I should like to have the pleasure

of presenting him with this lamp.

Early on in the miners' strike I went and did a gig up in the north-east

in a mining town and the support act was a guy named Jock Purdon,

who was a guy who might have been in his 70s.

He was an ex-miner and he sat on stage,

didn't have any instruments, sang a cappella with his hand over his ear.

So I wanted to write a song that expressed clearly

that I was part of that tradition now

and Between The Wars was that song.

# I paid the union

# And as times got harder

# I looked to the government

# To help the working man

# But they brought posterity

# Down at the armoury

# We're arming for peace, me boys

# Between the wars. #

I was trying to make a point, not just about the miners' strike,

but also about the possibility of nuclear war because the idea

of nuclear annihilation was very real to us at the time.

I mean, the government were producing pamphlets

to tell you to hide under your living-room table

and keep your tail between your legs.

And it's a chart entry at number 40 for The Alarm and Absolute Reality.

And the thoughts of Chairman Billy

surprisingly catapulted him into the charts.

Down at 38, Mick Jagger, Just Another Night.

The great thing about Top Of The Pops is while most of it was kind of

mainstream light entertainment, there was always room for outsiders.

A new entry at 33, Billy Bragg and the Between The Wars EP.

And Top Of The Pops, because it was so simple - it was just me and the

guitar anyway - I wanted to play live and this caused no end of problems.

It took me three listens before I really understood this song.

This really is an evocative song.

Live in the studio, would you welcome Billy Bragg and Between The Wars.

I can remember Steve Wright asking what the song was about

so I gave him a whole explanation about nuclear war

and the strike and everything.

# I was a miner

# I was a docker

# I was a railway man

# Between the wars

# I raised a family

# In time of austerity

# With sweat at the foundry

# Between the wars. #

The thing about the audience for Top Of The Pops

was their job was to look like they were having a great time

and here I am singing about war and death, strikes and nuclear weapons!

# But they brought prosperity

# Down at the armoury

# We're arming for peace, me boys

# Between the wars. #

I remember the director going over to the audience

at the tip of the stage where I was performing

and giving them directions to kind of dance to the song.

And then nodding and everything.

Him walking off and then I walked over to the tip of the stage

and said, "Look, I'm really playing this live, I'm not miming.

"So do what you've got to do but bear in mind I'm actually playing live,

"so please don't do anything that distracts me."

# Theirs is a land of Hope and Glory

# Mine is the green field

# And the factory floor

# Theirs are the skies

# All dark with bombers. #

I felt I got a lot of support from that audience.

They realised there was something different here.

It wasn't just run of the mill, some bloke miming a song and it didn't really matter.

They recognised I was actually performing.

While Billy's song climbed the charts,

the impoverished miners resorted to desperate measures

and the strike came to a sad and bitter end.

And we were told, you'll never stand a major industrial strike,

let alone a coal strike.

Mr President, it lasted a whole year,

but we did just that and won.

The strike might have been over

but elsewhere political passions were still running high,

with anger at American cruise missiles

being stored at an airbase in Berkshire.

And some of Top Of The Pops' most famous faces

found themselves right in the middle of it.

When we went up to Greenham Common,

we went up to meet the ladies and it was a really early start.

We were going to take some wood and food parcels up to the girls at Greenham Common.

In the background you could see these bombers,

these massive American B-52s I think they were,

all covered in mist.

It was very, very eerie.

We went up to the fence and there was a soldier there

and he looked at us and said,

"I really like the Style Council, I didn't expect to see you guys here.

"What are you doing supporting these women?"

And I just sort of said to him about, you know,

do you not really listen to the lyrics that the band have actually

been singing about and what Paul has written about with these lyrics?

And he clearly just didn't understand it.

As we beg to differ and walk away

he just sort of gobs at us through the fence.

With their next single, the Style Council clearly

nailed their political colours to the mast,

taking aim at Thatcher's government

and targets closer to home at Top Of The Pops.

# You don't have to take this crap

# You don't have to sit back and relax

# You can actually try changing it... #

I remember Paul saying you've got to put a strong message out

that there is something better out there

and the whole thing about you can't sit back and relax

when Frankie Goes To Hollywood were telling everyone to relax.

Paul was very aware of the other artists around us.

He had a lot of opinions about the artists around us.

Weller was sticking to his guns

and if he wanted to blast pop aristocracy,

as I think they were now calling themselves, he would do it.

# Walls come tumbling down

# Governments crack and systems fall

# Cos unity is powerful

# Lights go out Walls come tumbling down. #

When we were at Top Of The Pops

there wasn't that much camaraderie with other bands.

A bit of meanness in the canteen like whispering and talking and pointing.

Very, very schoolyard.

For us at that time it meant we must be making a bit of a mark.

# Are you going to realise

# The class war's real and not mythologised?

# And like Jericho

# The walls come tumbling down... #

I think it was a bit of a call to arms at that time

and it firmly stamped what the whole band were thinking.

We all had different issues and agendas

but we were all broadly very, very left-wing.

It was the record for me that really encapsulated what the band was about.

# Are you going to be threatened by

# The public enemy Number 10?

# Those who play the power game

# They take the profit you take the blame. #

But when it came to the video, the band's decision to get real

and take pop to the comrades in Poland

took them on an enlightening journey.

This is our video for our new single called Walls Come Tumbling Down.

I knew, kind of, Poland was behind the Iron Curtain

and that was when the alarm bells started to ring for me.

But we went. It rained for four days.

Mick managed to bump into somebody and they dropped their baby on a tram.

I drank probably more vodka than I'd ever had in my life.

We hardly ate.

It was a very drab place, Warsaw, in 1985.

The people were very, very downtrodden.

You could see the evidence of alcoholism.

It was just a grim place.

We were recording it at this club called The Aquarium

and they kind of shipped in some students

that were allowed to come and watch us, probably all state approved.

And there's this one guy in the video who is slightly better dressed than everybody else

and he was hanging around and I think he was a spy.

When the Eurythmics let the cameras into their studios in '85

the power duo were at the top of their game.

# The sound of your voice on the telephone

# Make me feel distressed

# Make me all alone

# Why do I feel so incomplete?

# When you're not here I'm just obsolete

# I love you like a ball and chain

# Make it all right now

# Love you like a ball and chain

# Feels too good

# My bed is burning. #

Annie and Dave had a smash album with four hit singles.

And they, alongside other British power duos...

# Shout, shout

# Let it all out

# These are the things I can do without

# Come on. #

..proved that by working as a tight self-contained unit

in control of your sound and image...

# You don't know how to ease my pain

# You don't know... #

..this new breed of duo, including Tears For Fears and Godley and Creme,

could move from indie to mainstream international success

without losing their cred.

# It's the sound of my tears falling

# Or is it rain? #

Back at Television Centre,

Top Of The Pops tried to find their own dynamic duos

by continuing to pair presenters.

And in '85 when Kid Jensen, one of the show's favourite faces, left the BBC,

his long-term sidekick John Peel found a new friend.

Hello. Welcome to a live Top Of The Pops.

-I'm Aunty Janice.

-And I'm Uncle John.

And we're going to play some songs from the hit parade, aren't we, Janice?

They're smashing, like the Style Council and Walls Come Tumbling Down.

We were mates and both loved music,

both from the same neck of the woods

and we just hit it off straight away.

And when David Jensen left Radio 1 to go to Capital

Peely would only do Top Of The Pops with me.

He said to Michael Hallam, "I'm not going to do it unless I can do it with Janice."

And we used to have such a laugh.

Great pair of trousers. I'm really into men's trousers.

The less said about that the better, if you ask me!

We'd be chatting and then we'd think, shall we say that?

And he would go, you can't say that because you might get into trouble but I can say that.

And then I'd go, all right then, I'll do that.

I'll have you know that I've had him on my bedroom wall.

That seems to indicate a degree of agility

I didn't believe you were capable of, Janice, I must say.

We used to have great, great fun.

Giggling and being told off sometimes for some of the things we said -

not by the producers but complaints from the public.

# Wasn't it good? #

There was Elaine Paige, Barbara Dickson and Jennifer Rush

on the same show and we said, "Coming up tonight on the show..."

Paige, Rush, Dickson.

And Peely said....

It sounds like a sordid incident in a cheap motel.

And I said...

-I wouldn't know about that.

-That's not what I hear, Janice.

These are the more recent number ones from 1985.

It was a natural banter that we had.

Let's have a look at the top 40 selling singles in the country

this week, and guess where we start.

And we did - we just laughed all of the time.

At 38, Falling Angels Riding, David Essex.

And another chart entry at 37. Loose Ends, Hanging On A String.

But this one's going down to 36. This House, Big Sound Authority.

At 35, Russ Abbot with Joy Division's Atmosphere.

It was like that even when we went to Radio 1 to work

because I was on before him and all we'd do was giggle.

I remember him telling me once - and I can't remember whether this

was at Top Of The Pops or in Radio 1 -

but he said that he would like to actually get rid

of everybody at Radio 1 apart from me.

He said I could stay.

And Bruno Brookes, but he would put him on reception!

We are going to play you out, dearly beloved, with Amy Stewart.

Can I just say happy birthday to Peely? Goodnight.

-Bye!

-Goodnight.

This year also saw change in the presenter roster,

with the arrival of the first black DJ on Top Of The Pops

since the 1970s.

Bernie Michael cut his teeth at Radio Caroline,

where he acquired the DJ name Dixie Peach.

In '84, he was poached by Radio 1,

but curiously not to play the soul music he'd spun on pirate radio.

Dixie Peach was a lovely human being, Dixie Peach was,

and he really loved his soul.

Absolutely loved soul music, but for some reason he seemed to be

doing a rock show.

When I was at Radio 1, I was one of the few black presenters

on the station.

The fact that I was actually doing a rock show...

..I presume, made me more versatile.

In the summer of '85, this slightly wary newcomer was invited

to present Top Of The Pops.

There were very few black faces around at the time.

Anything you did would really stand out, as far as,

"What's he saying? What's he doing?" You know, "What's happening there?"

Thank you for being with us tonight on Top Of The Pops.

Next week, it's presented by Britain's answer to

Crockett and Tubbs - that's Gary Davies and Dixie Peach.

The first show was terrifying.

I got to the studios and I was amazed by the people at the gates,

as you're going into the building, screaming, and I got recognised,

which was really strange.

I think that was the very first time anyone shouted at me.

"Dixie!"

Went into the studios, everything was incredibly quick.

You were doing this, you were doing that, blah, blah, blah,

you've got so much time.

"Are you ready? Here we go."

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Welcome to Britain's best-loved serial, Top Of The Soaps.

You've seen him on Radio 1, for the first ever time on television,

a natural life-size effigy of Dixie Peach.

Thanks, Mike. I've been laying in the sun in anticipation

for this big event, but tonight I'm going to kick off with

Scritti Politti.

I'm still stunned the whole time I'm doing it.

Well, a bit of down, down to a bit of up, up.

I probably had a bit of paper down there and I would have had

what bands are coming up next on it.

Here are the top 40 breakers.

I bent down before we had actually finished doing the piece,

so that just goes to show that my timing and everything,

I needed to get that together. It took me a little while.

Madonna, great stuff by Madonna there.

Now to the sound at number 30, it's Feargal Sharkey with Loving You.

The links were mainly a natural thing.

We would get to the studio, we would have no idea who

was performing that particular show,

we had no idea what we were doing.

Hello, operator? Can you connect me to Flash Gordon, please?

Oh, hi, it's Flash speaking here.

Well, you had to rush. So, you'd finish...

"And here's the Smiths with How Soon Is Now?"

The Smiths, How Soon Is Now?

And as soon as they started, you'd have to leg it across the studio

and climb up these steps and get onto the gantry,

and then somebody would rearrange the crowd.

We were never told what to say, ever.

It was entirely up to you.

"When we do the first link, let's do this."

And I thought, "OK, all right."

Hey, how you doing? Welcome to Top Of The Pops, we've got

a knockout show lined up for you, and here is the only man who at

Radio 1 has got a better suntan than me.

It's funny looking back on it now, thinking, "Hmm!"

Maybe not!

It's Radio 1!

Me having a tan was always a running gag on Radio 1,

so I guess when Dixie and I presented the show

for the first time, it was just something we did in all innocence.

I think it was a bit of a thing that I thought could break the ice,

you know, at the time.

Not the way I'd do it now.

If it was hard making it as a black DJ, for Loose Ends, making it

as a black British soul act, after three years, six singles

and no hits, was nigh on impossible.

We were talking of a time, by the way, when nobody believed

that British black acts could have hits.

It wasn't, "Oh, fantastic, somebody is at last making some great

"British black records."

No, the opposite.

"How dare you! This is the American market."

# I'm living the

# Single, single, single

# Life. #

In the face of that prejudice, but inspired by the new electro soul

of American hit-makers like Cameo, Loose Ends went in search

of a stateside sound.

So we went to America, and the first thing... I'm a bass player,

and the first thing the guy does is, like, "Well, we're not going to

"put no bass on this record.

"We're going to put Moog bass, keyboard bass."

And they were fooling around with 808 drum machines.

MUSIC: Hanging' On A String by Loose Ends

We added it and instantly it was like the song just sort of stood up.

Boom, ba-dum, boom, boom, di, di, di, di, ding.

Boom, ba-dum, boom, boom, di, di, di, di, ding, boom.

You know, it had this little bell thing, dingy, dingy, ding.

The single went top 20 and Loose Ends finally got

the long-awaited summons from TV centre.

Cars were sent at seven o'clock in the morning,

it was almost like going to Buckingham Palace!

The guy came outside my house and stood up with his hat

in his... On his chest!

So he's standing there, so I looked out the window

and all the kids from the flats are looking,

"Who's this geezer standing outside?"

So we get to Top Of The Pops, the guy opens the door and we get out.

You are getting very nervous when you're in a BBC dressing room,

cos everyone around is so prim and proper.

Everyone is like that...

You know, the ladies come in with the clipboard

and the pencil in the ear and the walkie-talkies.

CHEERING

It's a very strange experience because people are cheering,

and the song's just starting up and it's quiet, it's not loud,

it's very quiet. And these people are going, "Hey!"

# I've waited, oh, so long. #

CROWD CHEERS

When I saw it back, I just thought, "Wow, it didn't feel like that."

They made it look so different.

The people seeing it, they don't get that,

they just get the performance.

# It's all a mystery to me

# Baby, I feel it, too. #

Friends were looking at it and going, "Gosh, Carl, can't believe

"it was you. That's not you, is it? Is that you?!"

# Maybe I've just changed

# Or could I be wrong for you?

# You, you

# You got me hangin' on a string now. #

Pop music was very white at the time,

but what you're starting to see is groups like Loose Ends,

which were the start of there being proper British soul music.

# You never told me you were waiting, contemplating. #

Still heavily influenced by America, but it was mixed with that

very English jazz funk feel, as well.

# You never told me you were waiting, contemplating

# With my heart. #

But in spite of their new-found success, Loose Ends

knew there was a danger of them losing their valuable home crowd

that had grown them in the first place.

# I waited like a fool. #

Once you were now making mainstream music,

you could lose your core audience.

It was almost a prerequisite of success...

..for British soul music.

# I'm not your plaything. #

We had these people that worked with us that showed us,

"The day you do Top Of The Pops, let's go round to Harleston...

"..like a little reggae club in Harleston, and let's do a PA

"for these people, because they don't know you're coming

"and you just now was on TV.

"So if you turn up, this is going to be like, "Wow."

# You never told me you were waiting, contemplating. #

Leading up to Christmas, competition for the coveted number one slot

was festively fierce and a perfect recap of the year.

Well, hey, how you doing? Welcome to Top Of The Pops.

Do you realise? Only ten days to go to stuff your Christmas turkey,

ten days to go to buy all your Christmas records.

Tonight some of the records you've already bought.

Among the contenders, there was a song from a movie.

# Say you, say me... #

Even if we don't all remember White Knights with Baryshnikov...

..and...

-..Helen Mirren.

-# That's the way it should be. #

# Will you ever learn to love? #

The Style Council's Dee C Lee had a soul power ballad in the top three.

# Good love will always come from me. #

In the wake of Live Aid, there was an update of last year's

number one.

# It's Christmas time

# There's no need to be afraid. #

Wham! re-released the biggest number two of all time.

# Last Christmas I gave you my heart

# But the very next day you gave it away

# You gave it away. #

# We're walking in the air... #

And a young Aled Jones soared into the charts.

# We're dancing in the midnight sky. #

Through the dry ice, it looked like no-one else had a snowball's

chance in hell of getting to number one.

But never underestimate the hit machine who'd been waiting

in the wings for a whole year.

Right now on Top Of The Pops, a very big hit,

the biggest climber on the chart this week, up 28 places

to number ten. Merry Christmas Everyone, here's Shakin' Stevens!

At that particular time of the '80s, I mean,

everybody and their dad was putting out Christmas tracks.

# Snow is falling

# All around me

# Children playing... #

In '84, Merry Christmas Everyone was sent down for the writer

Bob Heatlie, and I first heard it and I thought,

"Wow, this is a number-one record."

# Merry Christmas, everyone

# Time for parties... #

And we held it back till '85, because there's no way you can

compete with Band Aid, with a charity record.

# Time for presents and exchanging kisses

# Time for singing... #

The video, I think, was in Sweden, I believe, in Lapland.

# We're gonna have a party tonight

# I'm gonna find that girl underneath the mistletoe... #

I didn't know what to wear. I had these jumpers, I don't know

where they came from, and I thought, "I'll put this on."

# All the old songs love to give... #

I still get a bit of poke about my jumpers.

# Every day was Christmas

# What a nice way to spend the year... #

Shaky! I mean, a real British institution.

Everybody loved Shaky.

I think people like Shakin' Stevens, they do what they say

on the tin, you know, they're not kind of asking you to listen

to their prog album, they just do what they do and people

are very comforted by that.

I don't think there was anybody around like me

at that particular time, you know, dancing, throwing myself around

like I did.

# Underneath the mistletoe, we'll kiss by candlelight. #

I guess I just suited Top Of The Pops.

# Merry Christmas, everyone

# Merry Christmas, everyone. #

He smashed it, didn't he? He went straight in and beat everybody

and Wham! and Band Aid, they couldn't get a look in.

It was Shaky's year, wasn't it?

But hiding in those Christmas charts was the shape of things to come

for '86...

..with the soon-to-be number-one debut of the inspirational, poetic

and very English Pet Shop Boys.

# West End girls. #

MUSIC: Livin' On A Prayer by Bon Jovi

Not that in '86 anybody could stop the imperial tide

of big-haired metal...

..big-haired punks with the biggest recording advance in history...

..and big-haired soap stars.

As the song rightly says...

# Whoa, we're halfway there

# Whoa, livin' on a prayer

# Take my hand, we'll make it, I swear

# Whoa, livin' on a prayer

# Tommy's got his got six-string in hock

# Now he's holding in what he used to make it talk

# So tough

# Ooh, it's tough. #