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Topic: Top of the Pops from 1976 on BBC4< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
Cavalier (Lost Version) Offline




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Posted: Nov. 26 2015, 15:40

My recorder refused to leave DVD mode but the memories live on! :)   Not a bad interview at all - for my part.  It's an inescapable fact of modern life that we now see and hear opinions from every conceivable point of view and if you venture on to Twitter, for example, you'll find joy, despair, indifference and hatred for all aspects of tonight's edition.  You will see a bit of quick-thinking from Peter Powell during the interview:  there are consecutive tweets on the #totp timeline declaring that it's both bad even by hospital radio standards, and the mark of a true professional... ;)

Anyway, whether the fact was well-known or not, I can now add Wonderful Land (as played in the background) to my list of Mike's songs on Top of the Pops. :)


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Posted: Jan. 01 2017, 03:29

The BBC's eventual policy on dealing with the number of episodes deemed unfit for broadcasting today was to speed up the rate at which the programmes are shown.  The idea of having the broadcasts in the equivalent week was abandoned and, since the beginning of this year, they have been showing two shows each week: Thursdays and Fridays, with the usual uncut repeats later on those nights and at the weekend.

They make way for things like The Sky At Night and Proms concerts; otherwise, I'm not sure if it was the plan to fit 1981 and 1982 exactly into 2016, but here we are in 1983 again!

As with other years, the scene will be set with The Story of 1983 and 1983 - Big Hits.  It was always my intention to tell you to consider that Mike's lone eighties performance might just feature, however briefly, in the documentary, but I have a more substantial reason to now.  According to his BBC artist page, Moonlight Shadow is part of the Big Hits programme.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music....fc59f12

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b087lmbg

As one of the 'others', I have to hope!  12 artists are mentioned, and there is space for at least 15.  It may spoil any appetite you have to watch the source episode when it comes round - March would be my guess - but expect a fun fact or two.  Taking bets on the John Lennon "tribute" getting another airing!  ;)


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Cavalier (Lost Version) Offline




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Posted: Jan. 13 2017, 13:50

Clicking on the second link there will allow the chance of seeing a bit, or all, of the programme, for the usual period.  Both "The Story of.." and "Big Hits" will be shown again during the year, if past experience is anything to go by, and maybe beyond, so these highlights of the year will return.

They went with Hazel O'Connor, Maggie stepping in, and at least threw Houdini in with Lennon. ;)  I hadn't yet seen some of the performances of the other artists, as I left the UK in 1982 and watching upcoming shows  won't quite be the memory trip that recent years have been for me.  It's my teenage years though and a lot of favourites will come along!  Freeez's I.O.U. was one, but that was a case where once I went with the 12-inch, I couldn't go back! :D


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Posted: Mar. 10 2017, 20:56

Another one for the completists - this Friday's showing of the 12/05/1983 has included the Hall & Oates version of Family Man, in official video form.  One more broadcast editon, if the iPlayer is not at option.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08h9j0j


If your Mikey-sense is tingling, you may be recalling what you know about Moonlight Shadow and it's UK chart-run.  'Released' a few days back, on the 6th of May, it's about to make it's assault!
http://www.officialcharts.com/search/singles/moonlight%20shadow/
:)


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Cavalier (Lost Version) Offline




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Posted: Mar. 13 2017, 14:57

As it sometimes does, his BBC page is informing us that the last time Moonlight Shadow was played on the BBC is in the future... :O   Specifically, Friday the 24th of March.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08k52y1

The other landmark edition to look out for that of  the 7th of July; his first week at number 4.  His last week at that position is out, due to an undesirable presenter, and three more episodes covering the climb down the charts will also not be shown.  That leaves one more end-of-year playing of the video, and I think that will be it until 1992 - not that that was Mike's intention!  He probably wouldn't have turned up anyway, but it remains mystifying how To France failed to cross the Top 40 threshold the next year... :/


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Cavalier (Lost Version) Offline




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Posted: Mar. 26 2017, 19:38

The aforementioned 7/7/83 edition is due for re-broadcasting this Friday - the 31st of March, plus the usual two repeats.  If you hadn't guessed its significance (and I hadn't known about it until this month), Moonlight Shadow plays over the end credits/audience dance section.  Maybe it'll be thrilling, and maybe it won't! :D

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08kvpwj

As for the episode with the actual performance, I saw it for the first time today.  I was travelling on Friday evening and had no access to a power socket, but saw some of the responses on social media later on.  The performance is as we've seen it on the likes of YouTube, as well as the Crises reissue.  Mike gets a mention at the start of the show which (in another one of the facts I had never noticed before) turned out to be one of the show's live editions.

This was highlighted straight away, with the singer of Freeez being sympathized with on account of his having a cold.  There then followed a version of I.O.U quite at odds with the studio polish that I'm used to.  Clearly,  Freeez had been persuaded that the code of the Musicians Union still had to be abided to, but did Mike have to do any pre-recording too?  When the TOTP Guilty performance resurfaced, I made the assumption that Moonlight Shadow had just been straight miming to the original track, but seeing the rest of this edition has made me wonder.  Elton John is alone at the piano for his I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues, to the audio backtrack of the song as we know it, but my instinct tells me that the vocal track is new: i.e. I think the Union would not object to his singing along to it, as long as he did pre-record something that a musician - even if it were himself - got paid for.

I've not doubt the subject has come up before, here or elsewhere, so if an answer about who had do what in preparation for Moonlight Shadow comes, I am thankful for it! :)


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Korgscrew Offline




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Posted: Mar. 27 2017, 14:05

Quote (Cavalier (Lost Version) @ Mar. 26 2017, 23:38)
When the TOTP Guilty performance resurfaced, I made the assumption that Moonlight Shadow had just been straight miming to the original track, but seeing the rest of this edition has made me wonder.

I think you assumed right, it's absolutely identical to the record (other than being summed into mono, of course! ). I think the policy on miming changed after the 1980 Musicians Union strike, which might explain the shift between the Guilty and the Moonlight Shadow performances.

It seems to me like the Elton John track is also identical to the record...but Freeez do seem to have been using a different (and yeah, you would assume specially recorded) version of the song - doesn't look like even the vocals are live, though!
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Cavalier (Lost Version) Offline




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Posted: May 26 2017, 13:09

How time flies... no matter what year we're in!  It's the very end of 1983, already, and tonight (plus repeat, plus Saturday repeat) will see the re-broadcast of the edition from the 29th of December - notable, if you recall, for having Moonlight Shadow's video as part of a best-of-the-year show.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08rc78m


Going back a few months  ( or not!  ;)  ) , the 1st of September edition featured another of the European chart round-ups (a short-lived feature that you also saw in the show with the live performance);  this one distinguished by Mike being the reckoned number one at the time.  I think a video of this segment will appear soon - a posting will follow if it does.

I did catch the one with the end credits dance - the audience, in-house dancers Zoo, and out-house dancers, The Hassani Troupe all boogied, juggled and cartwheeled through the whole song, which was a nice touch!  On the night this tweet from the BBC Four account appeared, and I fancy you will agree with them! :D

https://twitter.com/BBCFOUR/status/847885830031015936

I think that they have had the advantage of picking through the BBC archives for that.  You may have seen this YouTube video from that same morning before...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qloJaYeXKWs

...but perhaps not this example which includes some earlier morning reviews as well! :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDp3cSOxUmg


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Posted: April 01 2022, 10:34

The last pieces of the puzzle slot into place in a few weeks time, but today's editions of the TOTP re-runs have Mike's final appearance and likely the last clip ever played.

The programme of 24/9/1992 has the 'Special Album Performance' of the single restructure of Sentinel, which most of you will already know from the current YouTube clips (naturally, I favour Alasdair Malloy's channel!;) ).  Having only been released that Monday, the 21st of September, this little BBC favour helped boost its profile ahead of the charts being announced at the end of the week.

Thus, the programme for 1/10/1992 includes Sentinel - at its first chart position of 16 -  as one of that week's Breakers.  I witnessed neither of these shows at the time, so I have a few hours left to wonder whether this clipped thrill comes from the performance or the video.  Hereafter come three more top 40 placings to look out for if you are fans of the countdown. ;)

And whether you are or you aren't, the countdown will probably be all you see of the curiously mismanaged release of Tattoo in December 1992.  Again, I was unavailable on Thursday nights so I won't know for sure until I watch them for the first time.  From there on, badly handled or not, nothing Mike released troubled the business end of the charts... :/


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Posted: April 01 2022, 11:40

I'd always planned to update this thread at some point, but less than five hours before the event in question is about my usual level of helpfulness... Even my desire to put it out first thing today has been thwarted five times before just now!

Mainly I was interested in repairing some of the broken links - probably by just editing to put new links at the bottom - albeit without actually doing anything meaningful such as contacting people.  I was well aware that the links to the Popscene site (the links that began with z6.invisionfree) were dead.  Searching for Popscene TOTP should work, but if you have interest in what they do this is where they landed:
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/popscene/

As I've been discovering this week, the passage of time is erasing some of their contributors' own links and uploads and naturally not just to those episodes with Mike's performances/appearances.  As I say, I've not been breaking my back in my efforts to trace current locations where one might watch whole episodes with Presenters Non Grata so it won't surprise should they be pointed out to me.

However this whole thread may appear in your eyes, it's more documentation than obsession that has fueled all this.  I'm still not even a YouTube uploader and for anyone viewing life through a Mike Oldfield lens, it's clearly far more valuable that some have gone to the trouble of sourcing clips from European TOTP broadcasts to partially preserve the memory of Guilty or Blue Peter in the unique ways they were broadcast to the British!


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Posted: April 01 2022, 12:27

Quote (Cavalier (Lost Version) @ May 26 2017, 13:09)
I did catch the one with the end credits dance - the audience, in-house dancers Zoo, and out-house dancers, The Hassani Troupe all boogied, juggled and cartwheeled through the whole song, which was a nice touch!  On the night this tweet from the BBC Four account appeared, and I fancy you will agree with them! :D

https://twitter.com/BBCFOUR/status/847885830031015936

I think that they have had the advantage of picking through the BBC archives for that.  You may have seen this YouTube video from that same morning before...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qloJaYeXKWs

...but perhaps not this example which includes some earlier morning reviews as well! :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDp3cSOxUmg

The Guilty/Incantations photo is gone - it can be guessed at but this is the the most important repair job today!  I don't know when or why the BBC Four Twitter account went, but went it did.  Mike's Breakfast Time appearance is still partially preserved but late on in the programme he was speaking and reviewing papers again, this time with the presenter Nick Ross.  A newspaper snipper concerning ants in space was picked out by Mike: BBC Four tweeted the clip as "Best. Story. Ever.", if memory serves! :p


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Posted: April 08 2022, 14:53

Mere minutes until the edition from the 8th of October, 1992 is repeated and It's That Man Again!  I did spot this while I watched the late showings last week, and while I would say that surely I must have looked at the BBC page for this show before posting, I clearly didn't.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001648s

Or possibly just mixed it up with one of the other shows and didn't notice his second place in the running order (further down last show).  This - should it follow the current 1992 format - I believe means the video will play as they countdown Nos. 20 to 11, and all in honour of Sentinel climbing to its zenith of 10.  The people at Popscene are generally not in favour of the way the chart rundowns were done in this era, and as yet I do not know if the full Top 40 rundown will appear by the time of Tattoo's chart placings.

In my defence, I did take this link at face value.
https://totparchive.co.uk/artist?id=1022
While I was searching for Popscene's new location, this alternative source seemed quite confident that 1/10/1992 marks the end of Mike's sonic TOTP career.  So, with a pinch of salt, I say to you that the actual swansong is re-broadcast tonight!  ;)


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nightspore Offline




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Posted: April 08 2022, 23:17

Re ""Who was that?"
"That was Venger - the force of Evil! "

No, it was verisimilitude, and it was on its way a long time ago.

Cavalier Lost Version = CLV = 155 = 5 x 31 = 5 x (2 to the power of 5 - 1)
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