Friday, July 27, 2012

Top Of The Pops (30/06/1977)

Noel is here to introduce late June 1977's hottest sounds including...

T-Connection - do what you gonna do
We start off with some rather grainy and lo-fi film footage that gets played on a big screen in the TOTP studio as the audience dance funkily... well dance anyway. To be fair the audience seem more animated than usual, not that its hard.

Gladys Knight - baby don't change your mind
And straight into the MV played a couple of weeks ago. Two songs in and nothing studio based yet? The MV itself is one of those behind-the-scenes films of life of the Pips. You know the kind of film, everything is cool and fun and nobody has a cross word for anyone else, those arguments are strictly for the cutting room floor.

John Miles - slow down
Into the studio at last, fast disco based pop played by a motley crew. The band's dressing room must have not had a working light, that must explain the drummer's green PE kit, mind you he is a drummer... Noel thinks the song has #1 all over it, so i guess its peaking in the mid-20s then.

Jesse Green - come with me
Jesse has a bit of a wardrobe faux-pas as his shades, while cool, continually reflect the studio lights giving him the effect like he has some kind of white laser spot on his head. Hopefully the sniper won't fire.

Queen - good old fashioned lover boy
Repeat of the non-TOTP studio performance of an earlier show.

Cliff Richard - what happens when two worlds drift apart
Cliff croons a low-key piano led pop song. Sounds very much like a reasonable if a bit lifeless album filler track but not quite sure what its doing here. Its Noel's record of the week which of course guarantees it was a mighty hit that peaked at... #46, oh.

Legs & Co are in fetching black dresses to dance to the Detroit Emerald's "feel the need in me". The stage set has black and white lines that head off towards infinity giving the whole thing a somewhat surreal air.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - fanfare for the common man
An Olympic tie in! Playing in an empty Olympic stadium somewhere a lot colder than the UK in July. I'm guessing its the Montreal 1976 stadium, didn't they just finish paying for the Olympics?

Hot Chocolate - so you win again
Hot Chocolate's first (and only) number one Noel tells us, after insulting them in the rather awkward segment from ELP's song. Its a good song though maybe flattered by the less than stellar competition at the moment.

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