As regards TOTP on 1, they should've had a full performance from the Scissor Sisters, as that was a No 1 at least.
The Feeling - should've played 'Fill My Little World', 'Never Be Lonely' or 'I Love It When You Call'.
Gnarls Barkley - Why didn't they record a new performance of 'Crazy' when they were last in the country. They were guaranteed a slot on Xmas TOTP anyway, plus I hate that version of 'Crazy' anyway!
TOTP 2 - Is there any reason why the 1983/1984 performance of 'Merry Xmas Everybody' isn't used, as they've used both the 73 & 74 performances every year since the year dot. (I know there is one, as I've got it from original transmission!)
From which programme did 'Mull Of Kintyre' originate from? I thought it was Mike Yarwood?
A mixed bag certainly. Unlike the old days there were hardly any performances of the biggest hits of the year. No Nelly, Shakira or Take That, and they had three of the biggest songs of the year. And yet another airing for Miss Bunton dispite her single creeping into the Top 3 for one week.
If they can't get studio performances of the biggest hits of the year then they shouldn't bother with the show next year.
TOTP2 - Wright irritated me with his constant references to "two thousand six" instead of "two thousand AND six", the lineup was hardly original apart from the Cliff song from this year and the Killers song. Westy - the 20/12/1983 Slade performance has been shown down the years, they tend to rotate the surviving performances of "Merry Xmas Everybody", but it's been at least four years since the 1983 performance has been shown. And where did he get the idea of it being tradition to end with Bing Crosby "White Christmas"? Yes, it happened on last year's edition, but "White Christmas" was never played at the end of previous TOTP2 Christmas "specials".
The main TOTP today - The presentation was quite jarring, I even found Edith unbearable at times. It was obvious that the Christmas Number 1 was inserted at the last minute, and given that the Scissor Sisters have been over here regularly since the release of "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" that they could have done a pre-record for the Christmas special. I too thought the Feeling should have done another of their songs, even if "Sewn" peaked higher in the charts.
I hope it did well in the ratings and that it won't be the last TOTP on Christmas Day, but it could have been done better.
Not impressed at all, Girls Aloud were a nice bit of pop but apart from that...
The show was recorded quite early on in December and I got the impression it was a very last minute job. Why should the BBC Music team care about TOTP anyway - they've got more important issues like erm, the electric proms, to be dealing with
The presenters should stick to radio after that performance. Christmas Day BBC1 and all they could come up was that. No wonder the main show's gone. Thumbs down from me.
The Christmas TOTP was a one-off, recorded (as the above poster mentioned) earlier in December. Acts that were available that day were included, anyone else either had a video snippet or some other performance shown. Hence the scope for including certain acts was limited.
What I'm intrigued about is the performances that have been recorded for TOTP2 over the past couple of months - were all of those recorded at the same time; or were they recorded at a rate of a couple a week (highly unlikely given the potential cost). What about future performances? It seems a strange state of affairs for a programme that they readily axed.
Personal opinion for the specials? The TOTP2 show was good to listen to via Sky+ on Christmas morning itself (I don't mind Wrighty, to be honest, even if his script is highly predictable); as for the main Christmas TOTP, from the twenty minutes I've seen so far it seemed to be pretty much what the Christmas TOTP has been like for the last few years - entirely random. Some of the links dragged a bit, but even so, it was good to have the show back, so I didn't mind too much.
It was also as if they didn't accept that the main TOTP had been axed at all - it was like this was just the usual Christmas special. The TOTP2 Studio packages are recorded in groups once a month.
TOTP2 - Wright irritated me with his constant references to "two thousand six" instead of "two thousand AND six", the lineup was hardly original apart from the Cliff song from this year and the Killers song. Westy - the 20/12/1983 Slade performance has been shown down the years, they tend to rotate the surviving performances of "Merry Xmas Everybody", but it's been at least four years since the 1983 performance has been shown. And where did he get the idea of it being tradition to end with Bing Crosby "White Christmas"? Yes, it happened on last year's edition, but "White Christmas" was never played at the end of previous TOTP2 Christmas "specials".
White Christmas, as far as I know, has always been the last song on TOTP2 Xmas specials except 2002 when it was Eva Cassidy's Over the Rainbow.
As for Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody - they seem to dig out a different performance of Mud's Lonely This Christmas from the archives each year. The original of course being with Les and the ventriloquist "Mud On Road" puppet. Roy Wood and Wizzard did their original in 1973 then again in 1984 (the special Band Aid TOTP).
