Sunday, December 09, 2007
The countdown
Top 10s for me will never be as exciting as Tuesday lunchtimes at school, listening to the radio for the new Top 40 countdown. Even the fact that Radio One had the irritating Janice Long as their lunchtime jock couldn't dampen my enthusiasm for the newly-minted charts around 1982/3. At that time, not only did I know all the bands in the singles and albums charts, but also I thought most of them were at least "quite good". Albums released in 1981-1984 make up a sizable chunk of my CD collection today although in general the 70s has now overtaken the 80s in the decade-to-decade shoot-out.
Back to the excitement. The most memorable lunchtime chart show ever was in 1983, when David Bowie was hanging in there at Number One with Let's Dance. Dave had been riding high for two or three weeks with his first number one since 1980 (in fact his first decent single in more than two years, and the one that suddenly made it cool to be a Bowie fan, as until then any hardcore schoolboy fans were branded as queers, weirdos, or both). I was of course worried about the threat from Spandau Ballet's True, which was getting more airplay and tipped to displace Dave. We'd find out at lunchtime on that Tuesday - so as the fifth, fourth, third and second-placed records were played, I was holding my breath each time hoping to hear Tony Hadley's "So true, funny how it seems..." and hoping not to hear the "daaah, daaah, daaah, daaaah" build up to Let's Dance. This time around, I heard neither, which caused total confusion. Surely Spandau hadn't misfired and dropped DOWN the charts? But Dave would still be at number two, wouldn't he?
Then the countdown from 40 to number one - and Let's Dance has slipped to SIXTH place - AND Spandau are number one. Oh the pain. I could not concentrate all afternoon, mulling it over ? how could Dave have slipped so far, were Bowie fans doomed to another two years of being treated as oddities like the man himself? Thankfully the infamous China Girl video (look on YouTube if you don't know it) changed all that.
So although I digress, perhaps you get an idea of the excitement around a top 5 countdown?
Back to the excitement. The most memorable lunchtime chart show ever was in 1983, when David Bowie was hanging in there at Number One with Let's Dance. Dave had been riding high for two or three weeks with his first number one since 1980 (in fact his first decent single in more than two years, and the one that suddenly made it cool to be a Bowie fan, as until then any hardcore schoolboy fans were branded as queers, weirdos, or both). I was of course worried about the threat from Spandau Ballet's True, which was getting more airplay and tipped to displace Dave. We'd find out at lunchtime on that Tuesday - so as the fifth, fourth, third and second-placed records were played, I was holding my breath each time hoping to hear Tony Hadley's "So true, funny how it seems..." and hoping not to hear the "daaah, daaah, daaah, daaaah" build up to Let's Dance. This time around, I heard neither, which caused total confusion. Surely Spandau hadn't misfired and dropped DOWN the charts? But Dave would still be at number two, wouldn't he?
Then the countdown from 40 to number one - and Let's Dance has slipped to SIXTH place - AND Spandau are number one. Oh the pain. I could not concentrate all afternoon, mulling it over ? how could Dave have slipped so far, were Bowie fans doomed to another two years of being treated as oddities like the man himself? Thankfully the infamous China Girl video (look on YouTube if you don't know it) changed all that.
So although I digress, perhaps you get an idea of the excitement around a top 5 countdown?
# posted by Nesjo : 13:12
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