I give marks out of 10 to every song – based on whatever criteria you like, here’s your opportunity to say what you’d have given more than 6 to from 1976. Tick as many as you like.
Loading ...And use the comments to discuss the year as a whole, if you like.
I'm writing about every UK number one single, in order. It's taken a while, it'll take a while longer. Wander around in the archives, or join in with the marvellous bunch of commenters we've managed to attract - new voices always very welcome!
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Didn’t know what to make of that one (wonder if the wiped 16/12 edition was any better?) – always liked the Barry Biggs’s ‘Sideshow’, that John Christie ‘Auld Lang Syne’ track made me cringe big time, and I noticed the black geezer out of Ruby Flipper dancing in silhouette behind Legs And Co and that’s about it.
Now if they could have got Steely Dan on there…
Argh! Missed tonight’s Xmas Special. Just saw a glimpse of Tina Charles in a stripy jumper and the Bo Rhap vid.
#512! On again at 3am.
Good luck.
Witchita, It’s on again on Christmas Day – the perfect day to watch it
Also, I see a cameraman has found a performance of Bowie doing Jean Genie on TOTP which the BBC are airing this Weds
Don’t forget iPlayer, wichita.
475 – “Mucky Sue” I have so named because of her generally expressionless face, unlike the others who smile sweetly just like the girls-next-door they are supposed to me. Sue was never like that. She was, though, a particularly wonderful dancer and displayed legs which went on forever.
I trust that clears up this vital point.
Unless I missed them, I don’t think the Brotherhood of Man featured last night, which was a surprise – whatever you think of it, it was certainly one of the year’s biggest hits (maybe even the top seller?) yet it was passed over for the likes of “Devil Woman.” Odd.
It’s a ‘two-parter’, they’re on ‘tomorrow’
@ Jimmy, 516. Thanks!
I imagine the Swede missed the Xmas special part one as I can’t believe he hasn’t passed comment on the outfits and ‘arty’ camera angles that went with legs and co’s dancing queen routine.
Last night – mostly seen it done it. The Killing of Georgie at last, though it’s not quite as good as I remember. I can’t think of the last time I heard this on the radio. Lyrics to ‘part 2’ don’t make much sense, either – he’s dead, Rod!
Thanks for the iplayer tips, gang!
I didn’t bother with part two, no real surprises to be had.
I’m sure that was the same as back in the day, always seemed like it was going to be interesting, but they always seemed to concentrate on the biggest but dullest stuff.
# 520 – Wichita is right, I’m afraid. The SKY digi-box chez Swede decided to go the same way as Jim Phelps’ wee tape machines so my Mucky Sue fix I was denied. It’s okay now, thank the Lord. And speaking of whom, compliments of the season to everyone at The Trigger, officers and enlisted!
Before we wrap up this thread and concentrate our TOTP comments on “Popular ‘77”, it seems only right (since it was originally posted on New Year’s Eve) to link from here to an interview with Sue Menhenick on the Pan’s People website, where she talks about being in the three resident dance troupes, the objections to Floid (“totally unfair and outrageous even then”), the proto-Runaways look for the 1974 Pan’s People single (working with Mike Batt and Chris Spedding), how she likes Depeche Mode (not the early years) and how polite and charming Lemmy and the Stranglers were.
http://panspeople.com/?q=sue
Plus on the excellent “Yes It’s Number One” site, Wichita of this parish reviews 1976:
http://yesitsnumberone.blogspot.com/
Thanks to my Rt Hon Friend, Erithian. The Sue interview is fabulous and underpins just what a total class act she is and always was. She would certainly be a wonderful choice for a judge on “Strictly”, which is something the Swede stays a mile away from but wouldn’t if Sue suddenly appeared on it. The only thing is that she’s far too nice to say anything bad about anyone, even if Erithian and myself were to come gliding across the floor together, a sight certainly too horrific for family viewing. I can also echo one of the comments in saying how lovely it would have been encountering Sue and the other Pans, Flips or Legs dining out and all the merriment this involved. I’m not sure Mrs Swede would have been similarly enchanted, though, and when I sent a couple of bottles of bubbly over with my compliments, my goose would have been cooked, I think.
Hats off too to Wichita for his piece. God, you’re a talented bunch on this website. Forward ho to 1977, folks!!
TPL goes into 1976 with one of the longest entries yet, not that I planned it as such.
TPL update.
TPL: yes, it’s them again. 1976 record buyers, eh? What were they on?
They were on to something, that’s for sure.
TPL: another update.
I had more to say about it here but FT is VERY difficult to post to late Saturday night – I keep getting “Bad Request” messagea snd it takes me ten minutes just to put up a simple link here as opposed to the approx. ten seconds it takes me on Twitter or ILx.
You need to sort out/extensively simplify this website because it’s going to put people off posting.
Apologies this glitchiness keeps happening to you two — I *think* (purely based on googling for similar problems on other word press websites) that it’s the interrelationship of long urls and the set-up of our web server, rather than the over-complexity or otherwise of FT itself (because some of the other websites worrying about it are much simpler). But I am not a WordPress tech-head.
(Also worth pointing out: like motorways, FT maintenance generally — inevitably — happens not during weekday working hours but at the weekends, after small children have gone to bed and the like. So late Saturday night may not be the ideal timeslot for posting important informational comments. And unlike motorway maintenance, FT’s elves work for the love of it: if they feel unloved, they do other things instead.)
i have to agree FT does seem very unresponsive at the mo.
(edit – mind you, that was just a couple of seconds to submit and refresh just now. Long by commercial standards, but i can live with that. i’ve been fretting when I see it taking ~10 seconds to click through a link)
Not sure whether this is relevant to other gremlins but it probably is: I normally just follow FT’s rss feed page, http://freakytrigger.co.uk/comments/feed/ rather than go directly to FT’s or Popular’s home page. But that feed page has been strangely blank/inoperative for at least the last 12 hours.
I’ve done some braindead housekeeping – minor WP update, delete 11000 spam, mySQL table optimise. it’s the hard things like reducing plugins/queries that will probably make the difference though.
i’ve also set it to auto-bin spam on old posts. i don’t think this is a big deal as I don’t think anyone looks in the spam bin any more, but thought it worth flagging up.
@admin. The Feeds page is loading up properly again now. Thanks.
@admin. Whoops, spoke too soon. The Feeds page is completely non-functional again under Chrome. It works under Firefox only on PCs, and it displays beautifully under Safari (on both PCs and Macs) but shorn of standand FT formatting.
TPL addresses immediate pre-punk hardcore feminism innit.
TPL: described by the guitarist as “our most important album.”
TPL finally reaches Abba.
TPL considers the final non-compilation UK number one album by Rod.
TPL at long last gets to these guys.
What guys? The link is not working.