Top of the Pops cancelled

[Loz]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5099894.stm

a sad day.. but it was enevitable, really. BBC didn't help matters by putting crap presenters on it and moving it around the schedules.

Used to watch it all the time in the 80s and early 90s.

[Paddy]

about fookin time

[Loz]

I've not watched it for ages. A combination of shit presenters and shit music has ruined it for me. When I was a kid, I used to watch it all the time, though. It was the best music programme ever when I was 13.

Even though I know I shouldn't, I fancy Fearne Cotton. Makes me feel a bit dirty.

[skosh]

it was the highlight of my week in the 60s

[jukka]

i once saw jimi tenor at pops of the tops and it was really funny.......

[thembuzz]

yeah, this is a real shame. i spent many happy hours in my teens and beyond watching top of the pops. obviously it's been shit for years (pretty much since they rebranded it 'totp'), but it's an institution

worse still, now popworld's rubbish, we have absolutely bugger all pop tv worth watching on terrestrial

[ckpqerjwrpwp]

the future's bright

[JE:5]

Oh damn. good fucking riddance.

[grobelaar]

All the telly pop shows are dying - CD:UK and now Top of the Pops - I'm dissappointed... I enjoyd getting my dose of shit pop and listening to what the kids like...

I'm sorry but watching one of the 20 MTV channels just isn't the same... boo!

[joe pinapples]

Top of The Pops was aces. Its a total shame its going, it gave me many a laugh and there were even occasional good songs. The idjuts who make up the management at the beeb have been trying to kill it for years, the fuckwits.

[Davenport]

Its a total total disgrace dude. Its like on the one hand it's one TV.. and like on the other hand its not.. it's kinda like in the ether. And one hand wants to turn the channel over to bbc one and watch it but like the other hand is stopping it.

[thembuzz]

top of the pops has given us some classic tv moments... nirvana's ridiculous miming and kurt cobain's eldritch-style baritone on smells like teen spirit, beck playing loser with a backing band of geriatrics... come on!

[Lady E]

i havent watched it since they moved it from thursday night to friday, but i wish it was still there - i think these continuities with the past are important so we can have accurate ways of judging how things have changed, or if indeed they have. it was an establishment show that anti-establishment people toyed with to create some brilliant television moments. im sad because it shows a lack of imagination on behalf of the BBC as to how to revitalise it. it is also a cultural benchmark of achieving popular success. only yesterday talking to neil landstrumm i was saying something about "never going to get on top of the pops" about someone or other. i expect it will be one of those phrases that lasts in the language that in 50 years time children will ask their parents what it means.

[joe pinapples]

yes but no doubt we will be able to see a great new DIY/Auction/Gardening program in that Thursday night slot instead! As presented by Jim Davidson.

[thembuzz]

how clean is your car boot kitchen in the sun?

[grobelaar]

TV is just dogshit these days – what with the recent spate of bank holidays I’ve noticed they’ve stopped putting anything special on – just the usual day time crap.

Still gives you a chance to see the horrors of things like Cash in the Attic – this programme amazes me. A bunch of fairly well-off twats with 3 or 4 kids and a couple of cars and nice house in Surrey want to take the kids on a weekend away to some boring old historical market town and they must have maxed out the credit cards or father has been laid off from his job at the accountants because rather than simply paying for the holiday they’ve got to get some Lovejoy-esque bunch of gits in to rummage through their house to find things worth selling.

The best bit about these programmes is that should the nob-ends actually turn out to not have much antique tat in the attic, or the spare garage, or the summer house in the back of their grounds – then neighbours and friends homes are raided, whereupon painting and ornaments that often end up going for 10K at the auction are prised from their possession in the name of entertainment. Can you imagine being convinced to flog your valuables just so your neighbours or in laws can go on a third annual holiday…

And Ben Fogal or whatever his name is – he’s the Satan of daytime tv surely…

[wheezer]

Originally Posted by Admin

i havent watched it since they moved it from thursday night to friday, but i wish it was still there - i think these continuities with the past are important so we can have accurate ways of judging how things have changed, or if indeed they have. it was an establishment show that anti-establishment people toyed with to create some brilliant television moments. im sad because it shows a lack of imagination on behalf of the BBC as to how to revitalise it. it is also a cultural benchmark of achieving popular success. only yesterday talking to neil landstrumm i was saying something about "never going to get on top of the pops" about someone or other. i expect it will be one of those phrases that lasts in the language that in 50 years time children will ask their parents what it means.

imho it was the right thing to kill top of the pops. this type of show does not work anymore because music is constantly gaining diversity and distribution methods - besides, look at mtv et al - it's not like they're all about the music content anymore either.

I guess they could've kept the name and changed everything else, but what's the point? making a clean break is also a sort of continuity, and a message at that.

[ckpqerjwrpwp]

Originally Posted by wheezer

imho it was the right thing to kill top of the pops. this type of show does not work anymore because music is constantly gaining diversity and distribution methods - besides, look at mtv et al - it's not like they're all about the music content anymore either.

Aye, well put.. I've been trying to think of a way to say that. Top of the Pops isn't meaningful in the context of ringtones, iTunes and MTV and this thread probably shows more than anything how different the media is for kids compared to the eighties.

[Lady E]

doesnt mean it cant be updated to reflect the twin horrors of ringtones and digital downloads

in what sense are people not going to want to see artists miming badly in a cheesy setting? i dont think that will ever go out of style.

i think an appearance on totp humanises the artist, places them in a continuum, brings them down to the level that is Elstree, part of pop's ever changing but ever remaining the same cycle. it isnt a fashionable zone (mtv) or a pseudo musical zone (jools holland). it is pop democracy - if you are popular, you'll get on it.

[ckpqerjwrpwp]

Originally Posted by Admin

doesnt mean it cant be updated to reflect the twin horrors of ringtones and digital downloads

in what sense are people not going to want to see artists miming badly in a cheesy setting? i dont think that will ever go out of style.

i think an appearance on totp humanises the artist, places them in a continuum, brings them down to the level that is Elstree, part of pop's ever changing but ever remaining the same cycle. it isnt a fashionable zone (mtv) or a pseudo musical zone (jools holland). it is pop democracy - if you are popular, you'll get on it.

Yeah I agree, and personally I do wish it was like it used to be. I think though that everything about the music industry these days is about dehumanisation... be it through packaging people as ringtones or everyone looking like a supermodel with their perfect bodies, teeth and hairstyles.

It's only ever been part democracy though, it's a lot about who has the biggest marketing spend.. and to be honest in the time that we are nostalgic about it was common practice for record companies to just go and buy thousands of copies of their own record to get it into the top ten.

[joe pinapples]

"Hiya! Welcome to Planet Pop!"



http://tv.cream.org/lookin/totp/

What a shame to get rid of such a brilliant British institution. And saying well it doesnt work in todays world blah blah blah means nothing.TOTP NEVER worked it was always daft and badly thought out. But it was hilarious on occasion. Its a real tragedy, I've spent countless hours watching it. RIP TOTP.

[ckpqerjwrpwp]

Top of the pops used to be a lot more absurd didn't it? I'm all for that on TV.
Maybe that's just rose-tinted glasses.. I can't think about it without blurting out "well music used to better in the olden days didn't it?"...

[grobelaar]

i think we should start a Save TOTP campaign - we can show the fuckers the power of the internet by making them keep the show with a very vocal minority of surly 30 somethings...

[ckpqerjwrpwp]

Yess! Oh no.. hang on.. I can't be arsed.

[Lady E]

oh there were some classic moments. the sheer joy as well of a band you liked being on there, and because it was live you always felt that something could go awkwardly wrong, never spectacularly wrong, just enough to be cringeworthy. remember new order doing blue monday live and it was the first ever occasion of a band's record sales going down following a live performance on totp? the klf filling the studio with people in white robes? the orb playing that ridiculous chess game? french kiss at number one with only a crappy video of a child playing with alphabet bricks? the nirvana performance loz mentioned was cool too. so many to mention. i love the footage of rod stewart doing maggie may with john peel miming playing the mandolin, and of course the total classic dexy's backed with the pic of jockey wilson.

[V Knid esq]

Originally Posted by Admin

doesnt mean it cant be updated to reflect the twin horrors of ringtones and digital downloads

in what sense are people not going to want to see artists miming badly in a cheesy setting? i dont think that will ever go out of style.

Exactly - actually in the last few months it had settled well into its Sunday slot and the change in format to include more retro footage (a la TOTP2) was working really well. If it wasn't for the short-termism of the wankers at BBC2 it could have developed really well into a FAMILY show, which it hadn't really been for a decade or more but was in its hayday... After all, Dr Who has shown that despite all the cuntwash that comes from focus groups and demographic study parasites you CAN still aim something at the whole age range with great success. In the multi channel world it was never going to go back to 20,000,000 viewers, but just like Smash Hits when they cut it down, it was actually ticking along very respectably compared to its competition. It's a DISGRACE.

I loved all those moments, the Orb was obviously a big classic, also the edition that had the Stone Roses and the Mondays (doing Hallelujah with Kirsty Macoll iirc), that one really felt like the lunatics had taken over the asylum - the swagger was so bolshy and the drug references so open.

[Lady E]

Originally Posted by joe pinapples

http://tv.cream.org/lookin/totp/

thats a good site joe, thanks - i love all the set designs

basically, nothing as shambolic and anachronistic as totp in the 70s and 80s could happen now, we all know too much. so in that sense - yes it is good to end its life.

[Lady E]

talking about smash hits makes me want to cry.

i desperately want to get a full set of 80s ones, keep on keeping my eyes peeled on ebay

why dont they reissue them in a massive book?

i particularly wanted 1987's "they're wild they're wicked they're wonky, they're the beastie boys!" cover. but i read it from about 1984 -1988 (graduated onto NME and MM) and each issue was read in extensive detail.

[V Knid esq]

TOTP horror moment - Jimmy Saville introducing some act with his arm around the shoulder of a then about 13 year old Colleen Nolan, flagrantly groping her breast.

[Lady E]

actually i really need to track down an issue of blue jeans or jackie that i did a photo story in from 1990 as well - apart from ebay, anyone got any ideas how you could find stuff like that? some sad person must be archiving these things.