Queen on Top Of The Pops

So for people with access to BBC iplayer the latest vintage edition of Top Of The Pops (20/9/84) features the video for Hammer To Fall, a new entry at number 19 in the chart. The presenter makes a comment about how loud it is (it's by far the heaviest thing on the show). And as if that wasn't exciting enough, the playout is of one Freddie Mercury with "Love Kills", another new entry at number 27. Truly these were heady days. This is possibly the only chance you will ever have of seeing a studio full of young people strut their funky 80s stuff, with much gusto, to the entirety of Freddie's singular disco masterpiece.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b ... s-20091984

Catch it while you can!

[WeeMann]

Funnily enough, I've just watched this.

And it's not just "The presenter, " it's Steve Wright.

There are some other clips from TOTP if you select it from the playlist link below.
https://www.youtube.com/user/kurgan46/playlists

Funnily enough, I've just watched this.

And it's not just "The presenter, " it's Steve Wright.

Nah, just 'the presenter', neither he nor Andy Peebles could grow a proper moustache..I hated the pair of tossers.

Queen were much better than Freddie on his own. Probably blasphemy but I didn't like any of Freddie's 'own' stuff. They were much better as a group than as their separate parts.

Queen were much better than Freddie on his own. Probably blasphemy but I didn't like any of Freddie's 'own' stuff. They were much better as a group than as their separate parts.

Sure the band were better than Fred, Brian or Roger as solo artists, but all three made some decent songs.

The reason I posted this was because it gives you a nice impression of Queen in the context of their time. For those of us who've seen the videos and so on a million times it's good to see them with a contemporary audience. HTF in particular stands out in what was a surprisingly poppy era with a LOT of Howard Jones/Nik Kershaw/Bronski Beat stuff happening, and drum machines all over the place. I don't know, it's so easy in retrospect for everyone to bang on about Queen being too synthy in the 80s but unless you were a metal or indie band EVERYONE on the radio/charts at the time was pretty synthy and drum machine heavy. "Love Kills' sounds way more TOTP/chart friendly than HTF, which of course was not a big hit by Queen standards.

Queen were much better than Freddie on his own. Probably blasphemy but I didn't like any of Freddie's 'own' stuff. They were much better as a group than as their separate parts.

I don't think there are many people who would disagree with that. The fact none of the band's solo works lived up to what they did as Queen is pretty apparent.

[WeeMann]

The reason I posted this was because it gives you a nice impression of Queen in the context of their time. For those of us who've seen the videos and so on a million times it's good to see them with a contemporary audience. HTF in particular stands out in what was a surprisingly poppy era with a LOT of Howard Jones/Nik Kershaw/Bronski Beat stuff happening, and drum machines all over the place. I don't know, it's so easy in retrospect for everyone to bang on about Queen being too synthy in the 80s but unless you were a metal or indie band EVERYONE on the radio/charts at the time was pretty synthy and drum machine heavy. "Love Kills' sounds way more TOTP/chart friendly than HTF, which of course was not a big hit by Queen standards.

Agreed. Just watching another episode and, although there was some great music in the charts at the time, you've got things like Agadoo outselling HTF.