Chart Music: the Top Of The Pops Podcast

David Stubbs, Taylor Parkes  and  Al Needham  look on in horror as DLT goes full-on PLP (as in Pepe Le Pew) on Elkie Brooks, while Kelly Marie feels safe with her two chaperones. More car nonsense. And Christopher Lilliput. Video Playlist  |  Subscribe  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  The Chart Music Wiki  |  Patreon Hosted on Acast. See...

Taylor Parkes, David Stubbs  and  Al Needham  commence an intensive evisceration of this episode of Top Of The Pops, but oh dear – Dave Lee Travis has decided to fill the studio with boxy cars and bored women in Talbot t-shirts... Video Playlist  |  Subscribe  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  The Chart Music Wiki  |  Patreon Hosted on Aca...

David Stubbs ,  Taylor Parkes  and  Al Needham  prepare the ground for an intensive dissection of an episode of Top Of The Pops from 1980, a year which has very much established itself as the Ken of the Eighventies. There’s a flick through the NME from that week, fond reminiscences about the Good Old Days of the first lockdown, Robin Askwith’s overuse of sticky tape in the 1970...

The latest episode of the podcast which asks: would you let  your  daughter marry this episode of Top Of The Pops? It’s the first episode of the year, Pop-Crazed Youngsters, so the ever-forward-looking Chart Music throws itself all the way back to the glorious year of ’73, where the hair grows wild and free, Bacofoil androgyny is at its peak, Look-In can operate as a dating service and n...

Simon Price ,  Neil Kulkarni  and  Al Needham  bring this Golden Age episode of the Pops home, as Slade finally – and fatally – learn to spell single titles correctly, Limmie and Family Cookin’ do something that isn’t  You Can Do Magic,  the Top Of The Pops Orchestra earn some beer money on the side, and we get treated to one of the greatest singles of the year – for...

Simon Price ,  Neil Kulkarni  and  Al Needham  watch Kenny Everett patronise a choirboy, thrill to the sight of Status Quo in their natural environment, watch Pans People caper about like five sexy Steve Austins – the half-robot, not the wrestler – and stare aghast at the voluminous head of Engelbert Humperdinck… Video Playlist  |  Subscribe  |  Facebook &nb...

Simon Price ,  Neil Kulkarni  and  Al Needham  examine the case of Kenny Everett – the Problem Child of Radio One – as he embarks upon his final stint on The Pops, while David Cassidy arses around with a dog, Jeff Lynne carries a hundredweight of hair on his head, and Elton John is stalked through the streets of Hollywood as he nips out to buy some cowboy gear… Video Playlist&n...

Simon Price ,  Neil Kulkarni  and  Al Needham  reunite for a new year of picking at the open wound of random episodes of TOTP, discuss being a news item on Twitter for saying Oasis were lumbering and ponderous, and prepare the ground for a vintage episode by perusing that week’s issue of Melody Maker, paying particular attention to Welsh Glam tours and the rancid t-shirt advert...

The latest episode of the podcast which asks: why do we always leave the end-of-year episodes to the actual end of the year? Warning:  if you listen to this episode, your ears will be breaking the Rule Of Six, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself, because Al has decided to throw a New Years party with all manner of special guests who will be dropping in, sitting by the fire, contemplating...

Into the final stretch of a whopping Xmas episode of TOTP, and some absolute  beasts  of 1983 hove into view. David Bowie plays a pub gig in NSW, Jahwaddywaddy invent Breggae, Billy Joel demonstrates that posh girls all want it off a petite mechanic, really, the Christmas #1 of ’83 pops up to rile Smash Hits readers, and Inky Peebles lies that the ‘party’ is going to continue into Boxing...

Finally, the Gang’s all here when the  Rock Expert  pitches up, and the journey into the heart of the 1983 Xmas Top Of The Pops goes on. Adam Ant’s crown begins to slip, The Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boys from Quality Street look upwards, Bucks Fizz get all hard-hitting and mature, an American police officer has a bit of a dance, and Carol Kenyon makes your dad drop his Satsuma…  Video Pl...

The Chart Music works do – held after Christmas, because we’re proper mingebags – is kicking  right  off, and we’re only at the halfway mark of the ’83 Xmas extravaganza. Mike Smith has a wide-on for some Real Aussie Men, Our Sarah uncorks a  stupendous  slam poetry re-enactment of Bonnie Tyler’s finest five-and-a-bit minutes, Annie Lennox glares at us, Janice Long gets massive...

Our New Year’s do has only just begun, with two very special guests –  Price the Wolfchild  and  The Incredible Kulk  – dropping in to lob their coats in the spare bedroom and pick at the sumptuous buffet that is the Top of The Pops 1983 Xmas episode. Revel in the joy of Inky Peebles refusing to join in the Panto atmosphere as Freeez caper about, the Bad King of Pop reveals a h...

Al Needham ’s hosting a late New Year’s party, and all the Pop-Crazed Youngsters are invited. And unsurprisingly, it involves you being made to sit in an armchair and watch an episode of Top Of The Pops while other people shout at you – and this time, it’s the Xmas Day one from 1983. But before that, him and  Sarah Bee  and  Taylor Parkes  leaf though that week’s Melody Maker,...

Chart Music #55: 23.12.1982 – Hygge Pop The latest episode of the podcast which asks: why hasn’t London got a Revels World? It’s getting to look a lot like Christmas, Pop-Crazed Youngsters, and you know what that means: the Nanas of the Kingdom start fiddling with their purses at the counter of HMV and encrust our beloved charts with the mung of novelty. We can’t lie: this episode of The Pops has...

Al Needham ,  David Stubbs  and  Neil Kulkarni  watch aghast as Pop Santa curls one off into their stockings, as we reach the appalling dénouement of this episode of The Pops. It’s a full-on Nana takeover, as we submit to the sickening one-two punch of Emo duckling whinge  and  the West Midlands version of the Red Shoe Diaries…      &nbsp...

Neil Kulkarni ,  David Stubbs  and  Al Needham  continue the death-march into the final TOTP of 1982, pausing to gaze upon Zoo having an ethnic knees-up, reflect upon the last stand of Abba, witness the slow afternoon of Imagination, and muse upon what Comrade Shaky’s version of the Fool’s Gold loaf would be… Video Playlist  |  Subscribe  |  Facebook  |...

Flags! Balloons! Tinsel! Zoo Wankeridge!  David Stubbs ,  Neil Kulkarni  and  Al Needham  start to gum their critical teeth up on the manky, non-Cadbury selection box that is the last proper TOTP of ’82, and imagine a world where Bing Crosby and David Bowie cover Prince Buster…     Video Playlist  |  Subscribe  |  Facebook  |&nb...

Al Needham, Neil Kulkarni  and  Rock Expert David Stubbs  come together to reveal the Christmas Chart Music Top Ten, leaf through a Melody Maker with balloons and a Jam flexidisc on the cover, talk about keeping the electricity on at their house by flogging off armfuls of review copies at the Record and Tape Exchange, and prepare for a grim death-march into a  Top Of The Pops &...

The latest episode of the podcast which asks: would  you  go to see Panties at Canning Town Bridge House? Unbelievably, Pop-Crazed Youngsters, this appears to be only the second time we’ve chanced across 1978 – which is a shameful way for a podcast about Top Of The Pops to act, because this year is  rammed  with cultural behemoths dominating the landscape, with the musk of all...

We’re into the final stretch for an outstanding episode of The Pops, and  Al Needham , T aylor Parkes  and  Neil Kulkarni  strain every sinew as they navigate Disco Cilla, avoid Jimmy Pursey as he tumbles to the floor, bow to the true bosses of 1978, and join Joe Jordan and Kenny Burns for a geographically incorrect carnival, just before they fall on their faces like Bobby...

The twin cultural juggernauts of 1978 collide in this episode of  Top Of The Pops , and  Taylor Parkes  and  Neil Kulkarni  beg  Al Needham  to slow down so they can have a good look at the splintered and mangled carnage. A second shift for Legs & Co appears to catch them with their pants down, the TOTP Orchestra lay off the Party Fours for a bit, and your Ma...

Uh oh – The Pops has finally got some competition, as the pilot episode of  Revolver  crashes into ITV’s Saturday teatime schedule, so naturally  Neil Kulkarni  and  Taylor Parkes  have a look at it while  Al Needham  chivvys them through the opening shots of this week’s episode. Get ready for top-drawer critical analysis on disco strippers, late-Seventies j...

Team ATVLand –  Al Needham, Taylor Parkes  and  Neil Kulkarni  – reassemble for a catch-up about posture correctors, run down the brand new Chart Music Top Ten, leaf through that week’s NME, and gird each other’s loins in preparation for a massively intense burrow into a  Top Of The Pops  from the very the heart of 1978…  Video Playlist  |  Subscribe &n...

Chart Music #53: May 12th 1988 – Boing! Boing! Boing! The latest episode of the podcast which asks: if the first girl that Prince met on Alphabet St happened to be Blunder Woman, would he jerk his body like a horny pony would?  This episode – THE LONGEST EVER, Pop-Crazed Youngsters – finally sees us slipping the surly bonds of this rubbish century to touch the smiley face of 1988. We’re...