Thursday, July 14, 2011

TOTP (24/06/1976)

Tonight's Top Of The Pops is hosted by David Hamilton who makes some lame joke about having a fan club as various humanoids fan him. But fear not as The Wurzels are no longer at #1!

Pilot - canada
I like some of Pilot's earlier stuff, i've not heard this song before though mostly because it didn't really chart much like everything they did after the mid-70s. Its a typical piece of late 70s soft pop rock : long hair, sweet harmonies and dodgy rhyming.

Bryan Ferry - lets stick together
Bryan is back on stage, back in his white suit and back delivering a performance of pure SEX.

Back in the BBC studio Ruby Flipper perform some nonsense to "The Flasher". Its a bit like drunken dancing improv in whatever outfits they could find. Someone is dressed as a lion, someone dressed like Snow White. Overall its like a drug induced nightmare. As usual then.

Demis Roussos - forever and ever
A large man dressed in a white tent, with sparkly accessories, warbles on a stage that looks like it could be a Butlins somewhere. This apparently made the top 10, amazing. At times Demis looks like Brian Blessed when he opens his mouth wide, he does have a beard you could lose a badger in.

The New Seekers - its so nice
They are back. Yay. Oh dear this is so bland, and it feels like it lasts forever. Even in 1976 this song seems way out of date.

Osibisa - dance the body music
A repeat of their performance from a few weeks ago i think, still funky and very 70s, a bit shapeless but genuinely fun.

Art Garfunkel - i believe when i fall in love
According to Wikipedia this single failed to chart in 1975, maybe it was reissued in 1976 and failed again. In any case Art proves he doesn't need Paul Simon to produce a good song. An odd lifeless performance on stage though.

The Real Thing - you to me are everything
Thank goodness the Wurzels have been deposed. If you remember it was JJ Barrie before them so this is the first proper song at #1 since ABBA. And a great song it is too, very worthy of being the best song in the pop universe in late June 1976.

1 comment:

  1. Am enjoying these reviews of TOTP 1976. It feels like they should form the basis of a sociology text. I'm watching most of the episodes thanks to the wonders of Series Record. It is a quite staggering watch.

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