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Post by peterfitzpatrick on Jan 5, 2015 19:42:23 GMT
Interesting perspectives ...
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Kev Hunter
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The only difference between a rut and a groove is the depth
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Post by Kev Hunter on Jan 5, 2015 21:28:49 GMT
I think the first performance from the 1980s of interest for me would be New Model Army in May '85, with a great live rendition of "No Rest" : www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KhcV2wxTt8Certainly between 1982 and 1987, C4's The Tube managed to outshine TOTP musically and aesthetically. I couldn't have imagined ever seeing bands such as Gun Club, Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction, Lords Of The New Church, Play Dead, etc on TOTP, but they made it onto The Tube.
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Post by Richard Marple on Jan 5, 2015 21:56:41 GMT
The Tube seemed to overtake The Old Grey Whistle Test as the best music programme for non-mainstream acts.
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Post by peterfitzpatrick on Jan 6, 2015 9:36:32 GMT
And there is the point that is missed with regard to TOTP: it was a chart focused show. The Tube had a completely different audience and just like TOTP and OVWT we had to sit through a lot of dross to get to the gems. Whether one show or the other was musically "better" at any given time is a purely subjective opinion.
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Post by Sal Mohammed on Jan 6, 2015 9:59:54 GMT
You could say the same with the charts today. I'm sure most people on this board isn't interested in One Direction or other talent contest bands, not that Simon Cowell is trying to sell to the likes of us. Most of the artists that I listen to today will be at the lower end of the charts but now we have Later with Jools to replace OGWT and The Tube. Have things changed since the 80's?
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Post by Tony Walshaw on Jan 6, 2015 10:02:16 GMT
Some interesting points on this thread.
I think that the 'party atmosphere' invigorated the show. It is unfortunate that they had abandoned the similar grooviness of the @1970-71 shows. Thus the New Wave soundtrack of the late 70s was accompanied by a Two Ronnies/B&W Minstrels studio atmosphere.
The party atmosphere was right for the Wham/Duran Duran period, but as others have said I think music declined into blandness towards the end of the decade.
The earlier 90s had interesting music, indie & rave-based, bubbling away beneath the mainstream, which emerged as the 'Britpop' phenomenon. Since then, it has been less potent, and in the last 4-5 years has been particularly bland.
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Kev Hunter
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The only difference between a rut and a groove is the depth
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Post by Kev Hunter on Jan 6, 2015 10:53:14 GMT
And there is the point that is missed with regard to TOTP: it was a chart focused show. It was indeed, but at least from 1970 onwards - for a few years, anyway - TOTP gave us a taste of music that was outside of the Top 30. This was in part due to the oft-mentioned Album Slot but also thanks to the inclusion of 'haven't-got-a-snowball's-chance-in-hell-of-being-a-hit' new release singles, e.g. Opus' "Baby Come On", King Crimson's "Cat Food" (as mentioned here in another thread), Mott The Hoople's "Midnight Lady", Esprit de Corps' "If [Would It Turn Out Wrong]", and others, whereas in the 1980s TOTP became purely a showcase for what was already being played to death on Radio 1. It didn't seem to take any chances at all.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2015 11:56:08 GMT
As a chart show, TOTP was, musically, really only ever as good as the charts: by & large, if they were rubbish, so was TOTP.
The presentation of the mid 60's to the mid to late 70's was, for me, the most effective. The party atmosphere thing which prevailed in the 80's was horrid. But then, so was a lot of the music to which the party vibe was well suited. Ironically, someone on one of those BBC4 docs way back when said that the producer responsible for the party thing was one of the least party-like people you could hope to imagine.
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Post by Sal Mohammed on Jan 6, 2015 13:03:23 GMT
The party atmosphere worked for Agadoo, Superman and Russ Abbott's Atmosphere.
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Post by nicadare on Jan 6, 2015 16:34:29 GMT
1981-1983 were wonderful years for music and TOTP was worth watching. I think the anti-synthesizer brigade have reared their ugly heads
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Post by Richard Marple on Jan 6, 2015 18:16:28 GMT
As the 1980s make up almost all my pre-teen years I do have a soft spot for the music of that time, though I've savvy enough to tell the really bad stuff from the "not really good but it was as everywhere" material.
As videos became standard there seemed to a shift towards watching TV shows that featured music. As well as TOTP & the ITV chart show the weekend morning shows featured a lot. Even after hearing a song a few times on the radio seeing the video often added an extra dimension to it.
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Post by Alan Turrell on Jan 6, 2015 22:12:10 GMT
When talking about 80s music and synthesizers i must admit i liked stuff like Ultravox ,Tubeway Army , Visage etc the early 80s ,but i'll never forget George Harrison calling it crash bang wallop music and i must say he had a point.
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Post by Tony Walshaw on Jan 6, 2015 22:48:56 GMT
When 'Got My Mind Set On You' was a big hit, he was asked about other current music. "Kylie Monologue" was one of his replies. :-/A bit harsh really, she had just arrived on the scene in her SAW early days.
But it was a time when music generally had taken a nosedive.
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Post by Chris Barratt on Jan 7, 2015 0:07:03 GMT
I think people are being a little harsh all round. Generally speaking, aside from gaffs like The Vapors' 'drumgate' the production values of the TOTP performance of 79/early 80 was very high - why Robin Nash never thought to do do anything with the listless audience is beyond me. Similarly, the sets of January-May 80 look great and very of their time The Michael Hurll revamp took a few months to get right, but by early 81 they got there. The show got steadily more and more OTT up to the end of '84 but it was entirely in keeping with the times - the essence of which was captured perfectly between '81 and '84. The popularity of videos and also the 30 minute timeslot once the BBC commissioned Eastenders buggered the format, and the show had lost it's mojo by 1986 - too much dry ice, unimaginative camerawork, excessive canned whooping & cheering (fine in 1982, passe and unnecessary by the late 80s) and poor editing (crashing videos midway thru, too much time spent on chart rundowns & 'breakers') made the show less-than-essential viewing. Funnily enough the show regained form shortly before the 'Year Zero' reinvention when Michael Hurll returned temporarily to deputize for the terminally ill Paul Ciani in Spring 1991. I really enjoyed Ric Blaxill's reign as producer, the show became unmissable - but then again I loved the music of 1994-1997.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2015 9:30:50 GMT
That move to 30 minutes, seemingly a small change, turned out to be highly significant. Ruined it for me. The whole party thing just trivialised the music, but then, by that time, the corporate elements seemingly on the backburner in the 60's & 70's were reasserting dominance and putting out bland tripe ... Brother Beyond, anyone??? Big Fun??? Curiosity Killed The Cat??? The best that can be said is that it expressed the zeitgeist.
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