There are two reasons to consider the early eighties as the nadir of Top of the Pops: one is the mushrooming of souless cut-and-paste medley records: occasionally by original artists, but more often as here, by Tin Pan Alley Zombies like Enigma. The other, of course, is the slow sidelining, and eventual disappearance, of dancers Legs & Co. Here they are, in one of their too-often front-of-the-audience appearances.
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11 comments:
Although it's hard to tell given how little camera time they get here, it's Gill in this "routine" instead of Rosie; this is from the same episode with the "Rainy Night in Georgia" routine where Miss Hethertington is also absent.
Is it just me or is one of the blonde singers the same girl who appeared on those equally irritating This Year's Blonde performances later in 1981? Why they get prominence over L&C is frustrating.
Well spotted Colm: I've changed the label. And yes, I'm pretty sure it's the same singer from This Year's Blonde.
It pain's me to say this, but how embarrassing it must have been for Legs and Co to be dancing and involved in such a poor, underrated, piece of a cheap cover montage as this! I have mentioned this before about 1981.Quality dancers like Legs and Co, pushed to the back of such groups as these.It doesn't bare thinking about.They might as well have been in the audience,if it wasn't for their dancing skills and lovely good looks as a Lighthouse for the viewer to focus on. Shame on the BBC! A sad but learned clip! Benja :-)
Yep we need a complete record of the Legs performances so thanks for this but it certainly does represent an indictment of the system at TOTP
I'll second that view P4pm. We do need as much of the Legs canon as possible and when my love for this music wanes there are always those silver shorts to fall back on!
Gosh Benja, you sound just like me, ive banged on for a year now about how i hate this kinda crap. Whats the point of having quality dancers who look simply stunning, and having them shuffed to the back. Michael Hurll needing shooting for these kind of stupid decisions, okay maybe shooting taking it to far, sacking would have been better.
I wonder what Flick thought of all this, or had she reached the stage where she knew the game was up for the Legs girls and basically just shrugged her shoulders. Could it be she was just waiting for her new boy/girl troupe to start at the end of 81 that kept her interested ?
Birds of a feather flock together Ryan lol.I do know that Legs and Co had no idea of their demise on TOTP until the very end,albeit in Oct/Nov 1981,this was mentioned by Lulu Cartwright. Who love her, said that it came as quite a shock to us all, as some of us had mortgages to pay.
Whether Flick knew this is another question? Though I would have hoped she would have stayed loyal to the girls and mentioned it.Back then though Ryan,even I detected a sense of change for the beloved Legs, which I didn't like was happening, but was inevitable by the evidence put in front of me on TOTP'S.God only knows what Legs and Co were thinking though. Mind you,when you are immersed in something you can become oblivious of anything happening around you.Poor Legs and Co! Anyway we had 5yrs of them on TV,and 7 and a bit of the lovely Sue.So all positive with me. Thanks! Benja :-)
I can understand Rosemary wanting
to give this one a miss, but she
would have graced "Rainy night in -
-" which was,for me, one of the best that year. Puppets could have
done what the girls were told to do
here,a case of "shut up,do as your
told and take the micky mouse fee",
i suspect.As a contrast, this tripe
is a valuable comparison to their
outstanding earlier work performed
with their usual cheerful good nature.
this routine was already posted on the blog on 23-7-2011. I mentioned the Tracey Ackerman story then. You are going senile on your old agae YMG! :-)
What a bunch of "numpties" (thanks Ryan) we are Bucksby. At least my comment was similar 2nd time around!
LOL, bit of a cock up this YMG. You need someone to prepare a list of all the routines youve pre-posted on the blog. Now i wonder who would be good at that job ?
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