TOTP (08/07/1976)

Top Of The Pops is on Wednesday on BBC4 for a few weeks, which means it won't get bumped by the Sky At Night. Tony Blackboard is here to bring us the pick of the pops in early July 1976...

Sutherland Brothers & Quiver - when the train comes
This week's non-chart song which Tony likes. Its a nice inoffensive slice of 70s boogie rock and even a bit funky but ultimately just not quite good enough to break the band through into the 1st division. They would make the top 40 later in the year but that was more or less it. Decent music but lacking that star quality...

Candi Staton - young hearts run free
Candi has star quality however, she oozes it. On a stage somewhere she belts out this great disco tinged #2 hit. Many young (and old) male hearts fluttering as she does so.

Ruby Flipper are in the Blue Peter garden dancing to some horror from the Tubular Bells album. The theme seems to be some kind of ancient Greek Dionysian orgy (albeit watered down a lot for a pre-watershed BBC audience) though one of the dancers is wearing a shiek outfit which seems to ruin the effect a bit.

Billy Ocean - love on delivery
Billy nearly swallows his microphone which is the highlight of this rather generic bit of 70s soul.

Elton John & Kiki Dee - don't go breaking my heart
Elton and Kiki frolic in a recording studio somewhere. Elton, wearing a very tasteful suit with large blue checks, kisses the front of Kiki's dungarees.

Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Boston tea party
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the British kicking the Americans out of the empire Alex Harvey returns with this weird dirge. There is a cannon onstage and Alex is dressed as an extra from the Alamo film.

Dorothy Moore - misty blue
In what looks to be film from the states... recorded in about 1956... Dorothy sings this retro song in front of Liberace's dressing table.

5000 Volts - Dr kiss kiss
Just so you get the "Doctor" bit the bass guitar has a stethoscope hanging from it. Its an OK song, novelty pop but nothing more than passable. The singer looks like the female Holly from Red Dwarf.

Tony meets a non-entity who is the new member of the Bay City Rollers, they will release a new record soon, yay.

The Real Thing - you to me are everything
They are still at #1 and still very deserved if much of the rest of the show is anything to go by.