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Post by andrew martin on Nov 29, 2004 12:46:27 GMT
I take it everyone's still in a state of shock - why no posts!!!  (In case anyone hasn't heard - the BBC is moving TOTP to Sundays on BBC2 in the spring, and making it a longer show with an element of TOTP2 in it - so that's why they stopped the latter...!) |
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Post by andrew martin on Nov 29, 2004 12:47:53 GMT
Apologies for that inadvertent emoticon - I hate emoticons (and internet abbreviations)... not that you wanted to know that...
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Post by Laurence Piper on Nov 29, 2004 15:39:27 GMT
It's not unexpected by me. It's a great shame that it'll no longer be aiming for a mainstream audience though. It's now going to become a niche programme; I can imagine a slightly Whistle Test type of re-packaging. The most recent facelift of TOTP inder Andy Peters was pretty dire though (the previous version was far superior) so i'm not surprised no one is watching any more. A shame that TOTP2 is to be incorporated into it though - to my mind they are separate shows and if you include it in the regular TOTP then that takes screen time away from presenting new acts.
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Post by I dont know on Nov 29, 2004 17:16:40 GMT
Why oh why cant they take it back to the days when it was amazing.
Anyone remember the legendary Oasis dual performance of Dont look back in anger followed instantly by Cum on feel the noize???
I had never heard them perform it before that show and it was a complete surprise to me that they were going to perform anything after Dont look back in anger and I was just blown away.
idk
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Post by Skytower on Nov 30, 2004 3:50:37 GMT
That was an amazing double-bill at the time - made slightly amusing by the fact that Liam didn't seem to know the lyrics and was miming atrociously.
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Post by CliveUK on Nov 30, 2004 7:02:38 GMT
I thought that 'Cum On Feel the noize' was performed live by Oasis. Liam cleverly pretends to mime badly through the lyric "So you think my singing's out of time,
well it makes me money"
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Post by William Martin on Nov 30, 2004 15:01:53 GMT
Totp + Totp2 = Totp 1&1/2?
Its a shame the bbc couldn't have found a way to make it more relevant to todays music but putting up aginst very highly rated ITV shows didn't help at least totp2 is 1/2 back
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Post by Paul C on Nov 30, 2004 18:02:13 GMT
I just wanted to add my thoughts to this particular thread concerning 'Top of the Pops'.
Being somewhat of a 'Top of the Pops' veteran (I have actually appeared on 43 shows) dating back as far as 1988, the news today came as no great surprise.
Basically, there are many factors as to why 'Top of the Pops' can no longer sustain a prime-time BBC1 slot.
Obviously, from the BBC's point of view we have, firstly, the ailing viewing figures. Today we are averaging only around the 3 million mark.
Now some may argue that perhaps in the face of stiff competition, 3 million sounds still pretty respectable, and indeed, compared with the audiences of satellite/cable stations and rival pop shows on the analogue network, yes, 3 million isn't bad. However, 3 million is not good enough for a BBC1 prime time show - hence the sideways move to BBC2. 3 million viewers for BBC2 would be considered "acceptable" and therefore perhaps a justified move on the BBC's part....
There are of course other factors. 'Top of the Pops' ratings began to sink slowly towards the end of the eighties, although picking up a little in the nineties, it was soon evident that 'Top of the Pops' would not achieve the great audiences seen 20 + years ago. Obviously, the afore-mentioned competition has hammered the show's ratings somewhat. Even Freeview viewers now have 2 music channels and although plagued by commercials, still offer a constant, almost on demand, pop music.
It also has to be remembered that the charts are now not as important as they once were. People don't seem to care these days. A song going straight in at Number 1 for example, 20 years ago, would have been really achieving something. Nowadays, this is the "norm". Single sales have, of course, dropped off dramatically. More and more people are downloading from the internet and perhaps 'Top of the Pops' should, in it's new slot, reflect this a little more...
As we know, 'Top of the Pops' has had revamp after revamp. I for one, thought that when the show returned to the BBC TV Centre in October 2001 after 10 years at BBC Elstree that this might (for some reason!) help the show pick up a little. When it moved to Elstree in October 1991, the sets became drab, the look and feel of the 'old show' was out of the window. I know 'Top of the Pops' needed to move with the times, but I don't think it's moved in the right direction.
Again, recently, last November, we had another relaunch with the "All New Top of the Pops" (noticed that got dropped pretty quickly !).
I went to one of these revamped "all new" shows in January this year. Whilst the sets still didn't look that great to me (just a personal thing of course) and the fact the show was live, it was almost like being back in the eighties regarding the actual studio atmosphere.
As I mentioned earlier, 'Top of the Pops' has truly, (especially recently) lost it's way. It's latest incarnation under the control of former kids tv presenter, Andi Peters, has, I fear, damaged the show to the extent it's now going to be moved from prime time BBC1 after 41 years.
I mentioned at the start of this that this news comes as no surprise - which it honestly doesn't. It was only a matter of time. I suppose we should be grateful that its not been kicked over to BBC3, which I know, was a possibility.
As you may have guessed from the length of these comments, I am pretty passionate about 'Top of the Pops' but at the same time, I know something had to be done.
I just hope that it doesn't get slowly killed off, tucked away over on BBC2 on a Sunday evening... Remember, TOTP2 just dwindled away this year, with no real explanation from the BBC.
Thanks for sticking with this and reading my comments...
Over to you now....
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Post by Gary on Dec 1, 2004 0:22:00 GMT
If they arent planning to use the change of station to kill it off then it maybe a good thing. If it concentrates less on glitz. It cant really change too much though as it is still called top of the pops and so it has to be about the charts.Thats a problem for it to face.
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Post by CliveUK on Dec 1, 2004 6:39:15 GMT
The fall of TOTP seems have come very rapidily. Only two or three years ago TOTP seemed very much on the up. There were spin-offs shows springing up almost everywhere. TOTP2, TOTP Eurochart, TOTP Prime. It seemed that the then current branding of TOTP was something that was very strong for the BEEB.
TOTP2 was regularly getting higher viewing figures then TOTP, I still cannot understand why TOTP2 was pulled when it was a strong performer in its slot.
I feel that this merging of TOTP and TOTP2 is aiming to steal some of the audience from TOTP2 (TOTP = 3 million viewers + TOTP2 = 3 million therefore merging the two = 6 million viewers !!!!)
I'm not sure how this is going to work, 'Sugababes' are not going to sit comfortably next to 'Pickerty Witch' and I could assume that the TOTP2 aspect of the new show will just be clips of TOTP from the past few years, rather than the real vintage stuff that used to be shown. There are comments that the new TOTP will be more aimed towards "The Clarkson Generation" which does not leave me with much confidence.
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Post by Westy 2 on Dec 2, 2004 19:52:14 GMT
The fall of TOTP seems have come very rapidily. Only two or three years ago TOTP seemed very much on the up. There were spin-offs shows springing up almost everywhere. TOTP2, TOTP Eurochart, TOTP Prime. It seemed that the then current branding of TOTP was something that was very strong for the BEEB. TOTP2 was regularly getting higher viewing figures then TOTP, I still cannot understand why TOTP2 was pulled when it was a strong performer in its slot. I feel that this merging of TOTP and TOTP2 is aiming to steal some of the audience from TOTP2 (TOTP = 3 million viewers + TOTP2 = 3 million therefore merging the two = 6 million viewers !!!!) I'm not sure how this is going to work, 'Sugababes' are not going to sit comfortably next to 'Pickerty Witch' and I could assume that the TOTP2 aspect of the new show will just be clips of TOTP from the past few years, rather than the real vintage stuff that used to be shown. There are comments that the new TOTP will be more aimed towards "The Clarkson Generation" which does not leave me with much confidence. Thank god some of us taped TOTP 2 ! I wonder what time slot it will have on BBC2? Hope it avoids the 730pm slot ! |
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Post by William Martin on Dec 3, 2004 16:20:34 GMT
and lets hope they don't let a comitee within a million miles of it.
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Post by Westy 2 on Dec 4, 2004 19:27:34 GMT
Anyone got a copy of Xmas 83 performance of Spandau Ballet's True to hand?
Does it suffer from sound interference in part?
My off air copy (from Sutton Coldfield transmitter!) does, so I wondered if it was a regional or network problem?
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Post by Paul C on Dec 6, 2004 18:18:35 GMT
Westy
I have a copy of this - original off air and no - i can't hear any sound interference at all - recorded from the Midhurst transmitter in the South East.
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Post by Neil Barker on Dec 6, 2004 21:02:33 GMT
Hi Paul. Do you have any other editions of TOTP from 1983?
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(In case anyone hasn't heard - the BBC is moving TOTP to Sundays on BBC2 in the spring, and making it a longer show with an element of TOTP2 in it - so that's why they stopped the latter...!)
