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Top of the Pops

1990 on BBC Four (January 2018)

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NT
NorthTonight
If we reach 1991, Queen’s Innuendo was played out across the titles and I don’t think they got anywhere near the 6 minutes thirty it lasts. I seem to remember TOTP was also slightly shorter due to the Gulf War coverage.
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JA
JAS84
The BBC genome does not take into account the many schedule alterations that took place at the time in early 1991.
Yeah, they just lifted the listings straight from the Radio Times, which of course would've been outdated quite often when the Gulf War was constantly forcing schedule changes.
CO
Colm
There's a 1992 edition which went out on a Saturday due to sports coverage...

(checks Popscene)

...Saturday 13th June 1992 at 5.30pm...

(checks Genome)

...as BBC1 were showing live coverage of Yugoslavia v England in the Euro 92 championship on the Thursday night, and CIS v Germany on the Friday.

I'd thought it was an athletics event which caused that particular schedule shift, but it turns out I was thinking of an August '94 edition which was a live broadcast on a Wednesday evening instead.
SW
Steve Williams
Colm posted:
There's a 1992 edition which went out on a Saturday due to sports coverage...

(checks Popscene)

...Saturday 13th June 1992 at 5.30pm...


Yes, and I remember the Radio Times made great play of it being the first Saturday Pops for at least 25 years and how interesting it would be to see what effect it had on the charts as viewers wouldn't be able to buy any records they saw before the new chart was compiled. But of course it was actually the second time it had been on Saturday in under two years.

That was the first time the move to Saturday had been planned in advance, mind, the one on the first day of the Gulf War - which was shown at 6.25 on the Saturday, replacing Allo Allo - was always intended for the regular slot. BBC1 was pretty much non-stop news that day, with just breaks for Neighbours and 'stEnders.

Anyway, to give the opposite view, I think I might prefer the current Pops format, I know it's a bit annoying for some records getting chopped out, but I think rather that than a handful of records and a load of stuff not being played at all, and I also think it's more effective than circa 1985 when it was a couple of records in full and then thirty second chunks in the Breakers and Top 10 Videos. And the less we hear of Belfast Child, the better.
NT
NorthTonight
If we reach 1991, Queen’s Innuendo was played out across the titles and I don’t think they got anywhere near the 6 minutes thirty it lasts. I seem to remember TOTP was also slightly shorter due to the Gulf War coverage.



You're right. The Gulf War began in the early hours of 17th January 1991, a Thursday, and caused the cancellation of that night's TOTP which was delayed a couple of days until Saturday night. Was this the only ever regular weekly edition to go out on a Saturday night? Possibly but am not certain. The Queen record Innuendo then debuted at the top spot the next day and its one and only TOTP play would have been on Thursday 24th January and it got massacred. For such a magnificent record that topped the charts by such a huge classic group that was diabolical and it's amazing I can still remember clearly to this day my irritation.

Innuendo was considered a second Bohemian Rhapsody at that time which begs the question, did TOTP back in late 1975 and early 1976 ever shorten the 6 minutes of that on any of the many weeks it ended the show at No1? I bet they did when it returned to the top at the end of 1991. I'll have to check as I've got a couple of those shows on old VHS.

The BBC genome does not take into account the many schedule alterations that took place at the time in early 1991.

Even this week in February 1989 with a similarly longish and rather grand No1 production from Simple Minds with Belfast Child, the track was treated very poorly, starting the song a long way into it and even having done that they snipped the ending off too.

Instead of trying to impossibly squeeze 12 songs into fractionally less than half an hour, plus a countdown in three parts they'd have been far better to have given more time to 7 or 8 songs and had a think about how to deliver the countdown in a more time effective manner.

I always thought the perfect time for an edition of TOTP was 40 to 45 minutes. Thirty minutes was too short and sixty would maybe be a touch too much.


I think they may have played the full Bo Rhap at Christmas 1991 but not sure about other weeks. I remember one week ( at least ) they played the “ other side “, as it was a double A side, “ These Are the Days of Our Lives “. They used the, at the time, rarely seen version of the video with the animation as well as the band, which had originally been made for the USA release in September 1991.
JA
james-2001
As someone on Digitalspy pointed out, someone's recently added that Paul Ciani died of AIDS to his IMDB profile (it certainly wasn't there when I'd looked at it last summer). Anyone know if there's any truth in this, or someone's just made a (rather crass) assumption based on his long absences in 1988 & 89 and sudden departure in 1991?
Last edited by james-2001 on 7 February 2020 12:04am
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LL
Lottie Long-Legs
“WAGE Day”, too 🙄

What's this record called "Too Many Lonely Hearts" that Anthea Turner talks about?

Taking over the song title mispronunciation mantle from Simes and his Batesisms.

No excuses whatsoever for it. Incompetence.
VM
VMPhil
At least 'Belfast Child' wasn't cut down quite so badly this time.
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