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Miming on TOTP's


thebrig

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7 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

All the bands were miming, the audience knew they were miming and the people at home knew they were miming, what is the point pretending well?

Some people took it to an artform, stand in dummies and the like, sure iron maiden, quo and motorhead did that.

Then there are people that didn't even get round to it:

 

 

Poor old AAE... the production team forgot to turn on the feed into the actual studio but had it going out on the TV. They were waiting to start in embarrassed silence. Hence the smattering of applause half way through when the music starts and then Julieanne Regan actually does start singing.

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7 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

I love the video of Marillion miming Lavendar when Fish had his nodules and couldn’t sing. But this is one of my favourite subtle protests. Check out the singer’s tie... carefully threaded through the strings on his bass...  

 

 

7 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Edited by TrevorR
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6 hours ago, fleabag said:

He's using the tie instead of palm damping.

On another note, check out those vintage Staccato drums.  Wild :)

:) Of course, it’s not strictly necessary to palm mute when no one has actually plugged in your guitars and basses!

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Just now, NancyJohnson said:

Wasn't there some kind of union rule in the '70s that required each band to rerecord the song they were going to mime to for the show?

Yup, it was the bbc band rpthat had some sort of stitch up job done as they had to have a part in somehow. It’s been on a few documentaries over the years but I can’t remember the exact details.

 

Anyone remember the awful TOTP albums of the years best songs but played by completely different people?

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17 hours ago, thebrig said:

...just look at the bass player in this clip of Chicory Tip, his right hand is moving as if he is playing rhythm, and his left hand just doesn't move at all.

I'm more concerned about the squelchy Moog sounds apparently coming from that electric piano that's not plugged in... :|

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18 hours ago, thebrig said:

I was watching glam rock at the BBC the other night, and I couldn’t help noticing just how bad the miming on Top Of The Pops was, most bands never even tried to make it look like anything other than blatent miming, just look at the bass player in this clip of Chicory Tip, his right hand is moving as if he is playing rhythm, and his left hand just doesn’t move at all.

Don’t know why I’m posting this, I guess I just needed to mention it I suppose.

 

 

Think the Suzi Quattro mime was even worse. The drummer was dancing in middle of stage with Suzi and the guitarist while the drums were being played by Mr Invicible.

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TOTP did got through a period when everybody had to play live, I think it was so bad the soon abandoned the idea, shame they never show those performances, the story I heard was the band were required to record the backing track during the day (union rules) so they could mime to it on the show, the Beeb turned a blind eye so management could swap the tapes for the recorded versions afterwards, I think some bands took the fosters because they objected to miming, certainly Jimmy Pursey (Sham 69) insisted on singing live to a backing track, hence the intro "look who's on top of the pops mum"

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1 hour ago, PaulWarning said:

TOTP did got through a period when everybody had to play live, I think it was so bad the soon abandoned the idea, shame they never show those performances, the story I heard was the band were required to record the backing track during the day (union rules) so they could mime to it on the show, the Beeb turned a blind eye so management could swap the tapes for the recorded versions afterwards, I think some bands took the fosters because they objected to miming, certainly Jimmy Pursey (Sham 69) insisted on singing live to a backing track, hence the intro "look who's on top of the pops mum"

It was the early 90s... bands had to prerecord their instruments and had live vocals. At the time it was claimed that it was the BBC trying to get rid of dance music with sampled lyrics... not sure if that was true.

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I thought I remembered seeing a Stranglers clip on the UK TOTP wher JJ Burnel is jumping around wafting smoke away instead of playing and then Hugh Cornwell mimed the guitar solo in mid air below the guitar neck.

If that's one of the already posted clips, I apologise, but I just skimmed through and couldn't see it.  It made me howl with laughter when I first saw it.

Then again, it could have just been some sort of perverted dream I had....

There is also the classic clip of Sting singing Roxanne and just swinging the bass, not playing it.

Edited by Huge Hands
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Aren't Iron Maiden one of those bands who are usually very picky about TV appearances and try to apply a "We PLAY or we don't play." rule. Also I love the fact that Adrian has clearly said to the others in the green room, "Brilliant idea lads, but it you think I'm going to let Niko derrière about with my nice white Jackson and get a load of scratches on it..."

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1 hour ago, discreet said:

I say 'bum about', but it doesnt have the same impact. I hate the profanity filter now, it's dung.

Actually, at the moment I love it. It makes me chortle so much. Give it a few more months... Fortunately I’m not prone to Expletive Delighted outbursts so it’s rare to fall foul for me...

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