Saturday, August 10, 2013

The Ten: great performances from The Tube

 All new features that aren't just tracks die an almost immediate death on STN but let's press on with them regardless. Simple enough, The Ten, we'd like to think reflecting the post-Buzzfeed clamour for lists (though not the post-Buzzfeed clamour for facile gifs, those can fuck right off) - irregular collections of ten things, whether it be a guest list or a load of links, like this first one, putting together ten YouTube clips from the most beloved part of Channel 4's 1980s cultural hand.


The Jam - A Town Called Malice, appearing on the first show on one of their last live appearances


Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Relax, the performance with which they get discovered, followed by a somewhat overdressed and outnumbered Jools gaining exact knowledge on their style


The Smiths - Hand In Glove

The Proclaimers - Throw The R Away. It's not in this clip but Paula Yates famously introduced it as "something really weird", though by the looks of her she can talk

The Art Of Noise - Close To The Edit in literal clown outfits with a mass of Fairlights, synths, samplers and a mixing console, Paul Morley adding comments as is his wont. It should however be noted the setup hadn't extended as far as replacing the audience with dummies.

Trouble Funk - Still Smokin' Tyne-side

Dexys Midnight Runners - There There My Dear, the infamous nine minute reworking with a talky bit in the middle and Kevin doing press-ups

The Redskins - Hold On/Keep On Keepin' On with a not totally successful interjection from a striking miner

The Fall - Smile/2x4 chosen and introduced by John Peel

Grandmaster Flash - The Message, performing some of the worst breakdancing ever committed to tape. That's not a real policeman at the end.

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