Popular '82

A surprisingly high 13 out of 21 for me, but about seven of those are hovering around the six mark.

Let’s see if I can find some other perspectives to look at 1982 from…

NME Critics’ poll singles of 1982;

1. The Message – Grandmaster Flash
2. Sexual Healing – Marvin Gaye
3. Shipbuilding – Robert Wyatt
4. A Town Called Malice – The Jam
5. The Look Of Love – ABC
6. Money’s Too Tight To Mention – The Valentine Bros.
7. Only You – Yazoo
8. The Boiler – Rhoda & The Special AKA
9. There It Is – Shalamar
10. Man Out Of Time – Elvis Costello & The Attractions
11. Walking On Sunshine – Rockers’ Revenge
12. I Can Make You Feel Good – Shalamar
13. Poison Arrow – ABC
14. Don’t Go – Yazoo
15. Inside Out – Odyssey
16. Planet Rock – Afrika Bambaataa
17. Young Guns Go For It – Wham!
18. Temptation – New Order
19. Beat Surrender – The Jam
20. Straight To Hell – The Clash
21. Just An Illusion – Imagination
22. Fat Man/Moya – Southern Death Cult
23. Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? – Culture Club
24. My Baby Just Cares For Me – Nina Simone
25. Say Hello, Wave Goodbye – Soft Cell
26. B-Movie – Gil Scott-Heron
27. House Of Fun – Madness
28. Ms Fine Brown Frame – Syl Johnson
29. Come On Eileen – Dexy’s Midnight Runners
30. Know Your Rights – The Clash
31. Buffalo Gals – Malcolm McLaren
32. Stool Pigeon – Kid Creole & The Coconuts
33. Slowdive – Siouxie & The Banshees
34. Night Nurse – Gregory Isaacs
35. Faithless – Scritti Politti
36. I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll – Joan Jett
37. Jump To It – Aretha Franklin
38. Get Down On It – Kool & The Gang
39. Mambo Bado – Orchestra Makassy
40. Pinball Cha Cha – Yello
41. Murphy’s Law – Cheri
42. Promised You A Miracle – Simple Minds
43. Head To Toe – Elvis Costello & The Attractions
44. Wham Rap – Wham!
45. State Of Independence – Donna Summer
46. Party Fears Two – The Associates
47. I Love A Man In Uniform – The Gang Of Four
48. I Can’t Go For That – Hall & Oates
49. Torch – Soft Cell
50. I Don’t Wanna Dance – Eddy Grant

I don’t remember ever hearing Seven Tears until it was covered here, but since I gave it a listen a couple of weeks ago, it’s been constantly popping back into my head, and I’m quite fond of it now. So it gets a tick from me. As do 12 others.

Yes, 15, with a couple of pretty borderline ones.

A massive year for me. I lost both my father and my virginity in the space of a couple of months, got my first proper wage packet and the subsidiary part of my degree, saw the Stones at Wembley from so far away it seemed like a different postcode, and the Members at Royal Holloway from close enough to tell the time by Nicky Tesco’s watch. And began the best few months of my life over on the coast of southern Brittany, which makes this stretch of Popular a great nostalgia-fest.

I voted for most of the songs I knew, except that I forgot to vote for Kraftwerk and there were a few I really didn’t like. In fact, I have not heard either of those The Jam songs so it seems like that’s all I’m really missing out on.

Now we have the peachy new VOTING SYSTEM on every track you might think we don’t need these polls,

Don’t you have to register to take part in that peachy new VOTING SYSTEM? I feel that I have registered on enough websites.

Here are the phantom number ones of 1982, that got to pole position on the NME chart, but not the Gallup one; One Of Us, I Won’t Let You Down, Abracadabra, Private Investigations, The Bitterest Pill, Heartbreaker, Mirror Man, Time (Clock Of The Heart) – all for one week except for two weeks of Culture Club over Christmas.

Elms was never my favourite writer (understatement alert!) and there’s boring and/or over-exposed records in that list (flash/simone) and round about this time he wrote a real tin-eared review of a record by james blood ulmer which i evidently still haven’t forgiven him for, but that list is very redolent of this year for me — i was so hungry for people who wrote well about the soulboy-club axis, about its flaws as well as its excellence (its flaws as explored from the inside, i mean: not outsiders hammering on them): what always struck me as curious was how defensive it always seemed, in reference to subcultures outside itself

i know savage so this comes with bias but boy has he aged better than peter york

nina’s is the over-exposed one i think — she made dozens of much better records

not hoggart, orwell! his stuff on saucy postcards, billy bunter etc (though he didn’t discuss pop music that i know of)

pop-commentator as mainstream columnist is what’s on the rise with york and savage (and julie burchill just off-stage: her face column started in 83 i think)

Probably the best remembered and most played of these in the US is, by the way, “Jack and Diane”. Was this even a hit in the UK?

I voted for 9. A brilliant year for music – the last great year for pop music to these ears – but not a great year for Number 1s.

FWIW, my Top 12 of 82

1. Japan – Ghosts
2. Scritti Politti – Asylums in Jersusalem
3. Dexy’s – Come On Eileen
4. ABC – Look of Love
5. Soft Cell – Torch
6. Madness – Our House
7. Aztec Camera – Pillar To Post
8. Shalamar – There It Is
9. Patrice Rushen – I Was Tired of Being Alone
10. Imagination – Music & Lights
11. Dollar – Videotheque
12. Simple Minds – Someone Somewhere In Summertime

Thanks Jonathan, for the heads up on Gilbert Seldes (and for your writing on music of the 20s and 30s over at your blog). The Seven Lively Arts is available online at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/SELDES/toc.html and it looks like an interesting read. There’s a fascinating quote:
thanks to the cable and the efficacy of transatlantic mails, we now know virtually everything that isn’t so, and virtually nothing that is important, about Europe.
that suggests that this forum is a development of an older conversation.

I seem to recall that Shipbuilding missed out on a TOTP performance because there was a BBC strike the week the song went up the chart. I had bought a copy at the shop in town which I knew was one of the select sample that fed data for the chart.

There were a few stinkers that year weren’t there! I managed to find 10 (I generally try to find 10) and Eddy Grant was the one who just made the cut. Gratifying to see None of Them! beating Renee and Renato – the last time such a stunt was successfully pulled, unless you want to count the Flying Pickets of course.

Didn’t put in a link to the first TPL post for 1982 so here’s one.

TPL does UNEXPECTED SEARING INDICTMENT OF THATCHER’S BRITAIN: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/dire-straits-love-over-gold.html

How much catching up?

Peter Powell welcomes us to the first TOTP of 1982, dressed in a woollen burgundy waistcoat, over a white shirt with a wing tips collar. Most would go with a bow tie with that collar but not Pete, he goes with a college tie.

Anyway, he throws himself in and introduces Philip Lynott and Yellow Pearl “attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, attack is what we lack”, it’s been on my mind a little recently. Despite his intro (and outtro) we don’t get Philip Lynott at all, but Zoo with some kind of traditional Russian dancing; which is exactly what I think of when Yellow Pearl comes on.

Foreigner “Waiting For A Girl Like You” live performance video cut very short. Always the bridesmaid in the US with this one, ten weeks at number 2, mostly behind ONJ and Physical.

Alton Edwards- I Just Wanna (Spend Some Time With You) -okay. Meanwhile some Twitter equivalent has told Pete to ditch the waistcoat.

Dead Ringer For Love- Meatloaf (+Cher) famous video. Both later, separately, had year end best selling singles in the UK. Wonder if that happened before.

Mobiles – Drowning In Berlin. I liked this a lot then and still do. She had that whole Toyah/Siouxsie thing going on. Peter with his kiss of death says they’ll be big in ’82.

Countdown and then Shakatak with Easier Said Than Done. nmcot. I struggle with this genre.

Jon and Vangelis – I’ll Find My Way home. Jon released a single called “Easier Said Than Done” in ’85. hmm, copycat.

The Human League -Don’t You Want Me twktc, but brilliant.

Good show overall.

Simon Bates tonight introduces Tight Fit. Totally changing their line up since “Back To The Sixties” last year, and these three have nothing to do with what’s coming out of the speakers. Wiki says the Undertones did a cover of this! (I’ll save you the bother, not them Undertones.)

ONJ- Landslide – I do like her singing here and the song is okay. The instrumentation dates this somewhat as does the video, which is not a criticism. Some songs hold up better than others.

Haircut 100 Love Plus One- On the heels of Favourite Shirts, this eventually went one better and gave them their biggest hit, peaking at three.

The Stranglers- Golden Brown. Seemed a great leap at the time, but through the eighties more pop and less punk stuff continued.

Listen SLF- great single which I don’t think got on an album at the time. “Now Then” came out in the summer and doesn’t have a bad track on it.

Fool If You Think It’s Over. Elkie Brooks – A Chris Rea cover and there is some weird coincidental fact about the chart careers of both versions which I can’t quite remember, but it will come to me. She had loads of singles but I can only see her singing Lilac Wine for some reason.

Alton Edwards – nothing to add.

Oh Julie – Shaky Number one and on a stage this time – no seated circle behind him doing the hand jive as per. He wrote this one so good for him. Simon says it’s his third consecutive number one, clearly not understanding the meaning of the word ‘consecutive’ or acknowledging the existence of ‘You Drive Me Crazy’ and ‘It’s Raining’.

Not my favourite but there has been worse.

Tommy the Vance is back and the show opens with the Fun Boy Three. A little more upbeat than Lunatics and they introduce the world to the delights of Bananarama. Terry tries his best to join in.

Stranglers on video this week, sticking around this one.

Bow Wow Wow- Go Wild in the Country, their first time on TOTP. It looks like Jon Moss on drums but there is no mention on wiki. Adrian Gurvitz also debuts with Classic. nmcot.

Hall and Oates- I Can’t Go for That. I bought Rock N Soul – a greatest hit package and played it a lot. Haven’t got much else by them though. Jackson admitted lifting the the bass line for Billie Jean and there are a couple of mixes on You tube but I’m not completely convinced.

Depeche Mode – this week they are going for smart, all wearing ties.

J Geils Band and Centrefold- massive world hit. HIs vocal style is similar to Jagger in places “no one could ever stain”, “girlie magazine”

Modern Romance re make Ay Ay Moosey with some rapping and the female sounds like she’s auditioning for “Allo Allo”. Charts and Elkie Brooks rpt. Haircut 100 again this week all in yellow jackets. Countdown and then Number One.

The Jam straight in with “Town Called Malice” officially a double A but Precious never got played that much on the radio. I don’t think it’s great but there’s a lot to like. The drums, the opening lines, and the bass line. (if not totally original)

Not my favourite but there has been worse

I don’t know about anyone else, but these are going past so fast,its hard to keep up.

There have been a bunch of highlights that I did want to comment on, (John Peel’s first TOTP in the modernish era, the farewell to Sue as part of Zoo, that time when Kirk Brandon called me a ‘diamond geezer’, etc, oh and the worst rap record of all time (you know the one)), but it all flies past so fast, like a tube train through Tottenham Court Station. (its open again? OK bad example but anyway)

Still, it won’t be too long until my favourite ever episode will be upon us, and I shall be doing a full one. And I shall use the immortal catchphrase ..

“My favourite, there have been worse obviously”

1982 speeds by so fast, can it be only yesterday that Racey were a fixture here? Well, no but…..

It’s the Jensen kid, and he leads us by the hand into .. Mickey! Well, it used to be Kitty when it was a Racey song, but now Toni Basil is the one who’s going to take it like a man. Um, OK, right.. Anyhow, I remember the first time I saw Toni was when she appeared with Davy Jones in the movie “Head” doing Nilsson’s “Daddy’s Song” and it got shown on the current version of Barry Norman’s movie programme. Not “Film ’68” as they hadn’t started it then. Some years later, I watched the DVD with Amber and Alice, and although they thought it wasn’t as good as the episodes of the TV series they had seen, Alice was quite taken with how Toni and Davy looked, and I had to break it to her that they didn’t become a real-life couple after that.

On to Gary Numan and not Gary Glitter please keep up. Anyway, what’s surprising to me is that I quite like this one, possibly because it’s less ‘futuristic’ and more ‘modern’ sounding.

Madness do a wacky video single about having heart attacks, and get their lowest charting hit since “The Prince” – This one has a ‘happy ending’ resolution, ah it’s a cautionary tale chaps. Not like the LP version which ends with a big clangggggg after “There’s nothing we can do”. It’s still pretty great though.

Goombay Dance Band. There’s no dancing, and it’s not a dance track. Apart from that… What is this song about? None of it makes any sense. It’s sort of Boney M-ish, there is a fire-eating solo, and the moral seems to be “if dreams were like eagles I’d fly away, but they are not and that’s why.” uhhhhhh….

Imagination Illusion – I used to hear this a lot in clubs around Windsor, and it still sounds pretty good. This is the age of the slide-bass. This is the aaaaaaaaaaaaage – “Of the Bass”. Oh, that’s old wassname, innit?

Now, my cheatie cribsheet has it that there are three excerpt of vids from the US charts, but we don’t get those for some reason. Instead we get The Jets with the next in a series of not exactly rocknroll songs but done like they are. Shaking S had all these wrapped up at one point, but he’s moved on to vaguely cajun sounding stuff, and this bunch are too comfortable in cardigans to really challenge anything. A few more hits lower down the chart, but no TOTP for you sonny jims.

Abba get a video of “Head over heels”, but the pop stops soon for Abba. Funny, they even look older here. It’s, you know, Abba. It’s OK.

Now here’s an actual punk track, into the chart because it’s the Adam and the Ants imperial phase. The gals dance to um hang on, is it.. No, it’s the Zoo gals. This is very Legs and co, but replaced by six dancers all mugging furiously when the camera points in their general direction. It’s funny, how they recorded a ‘radio friendly’ version swapping “nazi” for ‘nasty’, and ‘camp 29″ for “Lover of mine”, but that’s forethought for you.

ABC get the highest new entry, and it’s the golden suit days. Amber and Alice (in the modern day) recognise it immediately, which makes it the golden classic of this show. It’s been a bit light on “Golden Classics” this week, usually there’s two or three.

Tight Fit do that mid-song musical interlude dance where the male dancer in the middle turns left and gives one to the left, and turns right and gives one to the right girl dancer. Alice is almost shocked. Number one for a bit anyway.

And now we fade out to Robert Palmer’s pub singer version of “Some guys have all the luck”. Which is meant as a compliment.

And there we have it. Did you miss me, hey, while I was away?

You won’t see the American chart rundown on BBC4 for the entire three and a half years this monthly feature runs. Because of who presents it, of course.

It is incredibly convenient for BBC4 that the host never mentions it’s coming up and it’s not mentioned in the credits, so it can be very easily edited out.

Indeed, but since then he has been arrested again.

Simes! We missed you! Oh, OK we haven’t, but hey.. Its TOTP so what the heck..

Bow wow wow, and as Alice says she has a fashion look that would work right now. So, they finally get a hit proper, and it’s probably despite Malcolm rather than because of him. There’s a lot of interesting stuff that almost but not quite made it – the “WORK” single I felt was a missing classic. I do have some ads on tape (I think it was the sfx cassette magazine) where Malc shouts over the track playing, much like he did for the Sex Pistols (collected on the “Some Product” album). “I’m Sick .. SO AM I!!! sick of seeing signs YOU TELL ‘EM ANNABELLA!!” that sort of thing. So, eventually they became hitmakers, for a while anyway. More to come but not much more, it’s true.

Standing behind Simes are the fun boy three, but seeing as Bananarama havent turned up (maybe?) it’s a quick chat and into the video – for one horrible moment it looked like Simon was going to ask them to start singing.. Anyway, it’s lots of shots walking through underground walkways but strange things keep appearing. Not seen this one, not often anyway.

Depeche Mode, however you are saying it, and possibly the twee-est song for its time. Boy just wants to hang out with his ex. aww. Bless. Actually, I believe that Dave had already had his first herons by this point, but you know, Basildon and all that. There’s not that many bands that have hits over such a long period of time that runs from their ‘still teenage’ ness to being durtay blokey grungers – I do wonder if they still do “See You” in their sets occasionally. (note: Not to be confused with “See You (Jimmy)”)

Awww, it’s Pluto! Loved this guy, he always seemed to pop up with a hit every 5 years or so. OK, not that often to make a pattern of it. Anyway, there is something vaguely sinister underneath all this, not quite in the “Bantam Cock” vein, but not so far behind. Anyway, it’s a Benny Hill joke stretched to 3 mins, and we’ll leave it there. I think we’ll just change the subject, and call it… whatever.

Julio. For some reason, Terry Wogan would call this “Jaws” owing to his accent, but I can’t hear this here. Moving on..

The haircut 100 do Love Plus One, which is an odd thing to have on yr guest list. The rest of the song consists of those general song cliches that seem to suggest that this is on purpose. Still, it’s not as irritating (to me) as “Favourite Shirts” thanks to not having bad rapping on it. Hear a call.

The Associates! Now, I know there’s a fair few of youse have been waiting for these guys to be back on, so here you are. It’s pretty great, I will say, and I didn’t really get it back then so here you go. It sort of reminds me of those epic “Johnny Remember me” type things, I’m sure Joe Meek would approve, yes. And Simes gets to apply the kiss of death (the other kind, see below) with the “They’re going to be massive” statement.

Adrian Gurvitz we’ll pass over, and Tight fit we’ve done to death already, so we’ll go to…

It’s Kenny! And he’s dressed as Sid Snot the Biker bloke. But it’s all very bizarre, Kenny seems mildly drunk (or stoned – Legal dept, can I say that? Oh I can cause he’s deceased? I did say “Seems” so hey) and manages to throw in an absolutely filthy Julio joke that must have passed un-noticed thanks to nobody understanding it. And then they kiss. (that’s true, by the way. Check Kenny wiping his mouth when the camera’s pulled away).

On with the Medley – It’s Stevie this time, and it’s a passable impression: The excerpt of “Isn’t She Lovely” even has a substitute crying baby as well! That’s attention to detail.

I’m guessing that if I called the previous week’s appearance of the re-released (sort-of) Deutsche Girls as the final Punk-hit, I could complete my Punk/New Wave DVD set, but I’m running about four years behind now. Still, there’s a definite end for it, so I might actually get on with it. It started with Slik’s “The kids a punk”, and the only one I could not find was Plastic Bert’s “Sha-la-la-la-lee” but hey.

So, where do we go from here? Is it down to the lake I fear? Well, I thought I told you to leave me while I walked down to the beach. Never mind, I’ll give you a ring when we get to Minchella’s.

@47: I enjoy your commentary (and keep up the good work!), though I’m mystified as to how you consider “Love Plus One” to be a string of clichés. Perhaps this quirky little number has become overfamiliar to some, but I still can’t hear anything but youthful exuberance, brightness and originality. It sounds fresh as a daisy to me.