Metamatic Forums Socialising The Green Room 1976 and all that

You all may have heard that the BBC are going to start showing old Top of the Pops shows in their entirety again on Thursday nights, starting from April 1976....

Just looking at the charts for that week I was struck by how dismal it all was..post-glam and pre-punk..all Brotherhood of Man, Gallagher and Lyle, Tina Charles and all that kind of dosh.
Not a Bowie or Roxy track in sight!

Not surprising then that punk rock was just around the corner (sort of) and Dennis and his mates signed up to Island in that year, to try and put things right in the popular music world.

So what do we all think of *that* year? What are your chart or even non-chart musical memories or otherwise?
:rolleyes:

in an orderly queue please, and don't all shout at once..

I wasn't even a sperm back then!

But yeah, the BBC have decided to show a load of old crud, rather than iconic and influential stuff.

1976 was one of Bowie's best years for sure, with the Isolar tour and of course Station to Station, with "Golden Years" released ahead of the album, which for me, remains his best track.

And let's not forget that Oxygene was released, or at least recorded... not sure of it's actual release date.

Good shout on Bowie Alex although Golden years had been and gone, then TVC15 didn't make the Top 30, so we'll ahve to wait til next year fro Sound and Vision!

Oxygène also 'in the making' but we won't see it on TOTP for a bit!

I don't even know if Jarre appeared on TOTP or anything - being my all-time favouritest album ever by anybody, I really ought to know these things!

And then there was Bowie's Low - recorded in '76, though probably released early the following year.

When I look at the influential stuff from this era and a lot of the artists I like, I'd say most of it really started emerging from 1977 onwards, with 78-79 being the pinnacle.

Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express came out in '77, although it wouldn't be until 1978 with The Man Machine that things really started moving for them. Oxygene was released, Bowie released Heroes in '77, then we got Numan's Replicas album in 1978, along with Systems of Romance and Jarre's Equinoxe. Plus I was born, so things were obviously moving in the right direction. Then came 1979 and we got The Pleasure Principal from Numan and Reproduction from The Human League.

Yeah - a prolific and exciting few years musically. I would liked to have experienced all that.

Interesting they are doing this although i'm not sure why they are!

The chart looks very desperate too say the least, like Alex stated, 1978 onwards is when it gets interesting!

No wonder punk and all that got going shortly after this dull period in popular music history. The album charts aren't much better either.

I believe the Sex Pistols were already formed and performing in early 1976.

I watched a few last week on BBC4, it was strange just how 'now' it all was, in the sense that - so bland were the acts, they could easily of time-travelled to an episode of X-Factor and no-one would be any the wiser (except where the men are concerned; the extremely wide lapels, kipper ties and Mungo Jerry hair would of given them away).

In true historical fashion, I was relishing that 1977 was just around the corner. And with dross like Mumford & Sons around, I'm hoping 2012 is another 1977 too.

I really wouldn't want to watch all of those old TOTP's again, but it would be good to get a head-up when any of the greats are on.

Yes, I've often questioned why the yoof of today are listening to and watching these music and saturday evening 'light-entertainment' programmes, the sort of dross that our mums and dads made us sit through back in the day when I were only knee-high to Simon Cowells ego :rolleyes:

The thing I remember about 1976 was the drought, not just of good music but also the more traditional type. Although living in Scotland at the time, which wasn't so badly affected, we went to visit my grandparents in Buckinghamshire and everything was brown instead of green. You were only allowed 2" of water in your bath and you had to drain your bathwater into a barrel outside and use it to water your garden. Poor plants!

I was 14 at the time and I remember buying The Sensational Alex Harvey Band's 'Tomorrow Belongs To Me' album, so that's where I was at musically back then.

For me, 1977 was definitely the turning point, when I bought The Clash (the eponymously titled album, not the whole band). That was what weaned me off heavy metal / prog rock and got me thinking more carefully about what I listened to instead of just buying whatever the BBC was throwing at us through shows like TOTP and daytime radio. In fact, it got to the stage where I'd be embarrassed to go and buy something that had been on TOTP.

I'm in agreement with others here that I'd prefer to see re-runs of about 1977 - 1984 but since I no longer live in the UK, I can't even watch the tacky old 1976 shows.

Thinking about it now, the advent of Punk / New Wave / Electronic saw me shift from TOTP and daytime radio to OGWT and John Peel, in other words, the only time you could get good music was after 10pm when your olds had gone to bed and headphones were essential. Ahhh, those were the days....

There were one or two songs in that chart that I could almost live with, like Noosha Fox's 'Single Bed', though admittedly at the time it was more her thighs that I was interested in than her songs. Good to see Bill Nelson in there too, though Ships In The Night is one of my least favourite Be Bop Deluxe tracks.

What amazed me was the number of Beatles songs in there, EMI / Parlophone must have had a blitz on re-issues at the time.