Repeats of Top of the Pops on BBC Four. Part 2.

"Don't monkey with my business."

They have a new drummer.

Come to think of it, there only seem to be three proper Duranies present.

Top Ten.

Berlin are Number One with Take My Breath Away.

Playing out with the Pretenders.

Video based on the opening titles of The Avengers.

With Chrissie Hynde as Emma Peel.

Mr Steed.

Chrissie goes at him.

That was an OK episode with the highlight being by the Pretenders and Mr Steed.

Now to look back at the thread and see what everyone else made of it.

The Call of the Wendigo wrote:I wonder if anyone ever made a triple-necked guitar?

They did! They did!



He's exactly the kind of man who I would expect to have a triple-necked guitar.

Swing Out Sister - Break Out.

Bob Geldof - This is the World Calling

Sort of translucent, ghostlike

We're in Dec 1986, at which time I had briefly and misguidedly bought a huge Casio tape deck that had a mini BW TV in it. I kept it for 1 week before deciding it was a mistake and taking it back to Dixons under their unwanted Christmas pressie credit note scheme. On the Sunday of that week I taped some stuff off the Top 40 onto a tape that I accidentally left in this thing when I took it back, and This Is The World Calling was the primary casualty. There was also All Fall Down by Ultravox.

I shall tell of what I spent the credit note on at the appropriate juncture. My punk/goth phase begins shortly kids, be prepared for the smell of damp suede and Marlboro smoke.

Spandau Ballet and Through the Barricades

Genuine Irish bagpipes

Berlin are Number One with Take My Breath Away.

That was an OK episode with the highlight being by the Pretenders and Mr Steed.

What song was it?

Don't Get Me Wrong.

Now then, a lot of that was good, and it's brought me a new perspective on a song which up to now has never reminded me of more than our 6th-form politics classroom at the tail end of 1986.

But I don't like her inserting herself into the Emma/Tara changeover in The Forget-Me-Knot. Not even Chrissie 'Hymn To Her' Hynde has the right to do that. She even has the cheek to use Steed's reaction shot on seeing Mr Peel - with all his flattering similarities to Steed - driving Emma away just after she - Emma - throws him that immensely meaningful look.

And then she compounds the offence by inserting herself into the 'Tara arrives as replacement' scene. They even quote the sad interregnum moment, with Steed in his flat, unflatteringly lit and with sad music making him seem a bit like a washed-up 60s politician. Emma has gone and he doesn't know that Tara has passed her on the stairs. Very much like those odd inter-companion moments in DW. It's a long way from the equivalent Lobster Quadrille moment where Cathy Gale leaves and he confidently gets on the phone to find a replacement.

So, although you meant well Wendi, you have forever eroded my respect for Chrissie Hynde.

The Call of the Wendigo wrote:Red Box - For America.

The Call of the Wendigo wrote:Didn't Jackson Browne write a song called For America?

Jackson Browne's For America came out in 1986 as well.

Coincidence or something altogether more sinister?

The Call of the Wendigo wrote:Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel - Don't Give Up.

The Call of the Wendigo wrote:Boring video that just involves hugging.

They're the poor man's Cliff Richard and Sarah Brightman. At least THEY kissed.

The Call of the Wendigo wrote:I thought all Shakin' Stevens' songs were famous. How come I've never heard of this one?

I don't think I had either. From the brief moment we saw of it it sounds his most "up to date" and 80s song yet, as opposed to the naff pseudo-50s songs he so oft releases.