TOTP’s producers thought they had sated the grunge trio with a compromise that allowed vocalist Kurt Cobain to perform his vocals live. Nirvana turned up to the BBC studios armed with a generation-defining anthem in tow, only to be shocked when they were informed that they wouldn’t be able to play the song live. The most infamous troll in Top of the Pops' entire history? It surely must be. Still, despite the urban legend to the contrary, Blue Monday actually climbed the charts the next week, so it all worked out fine in the end. Even though today the whole thing feels oddly charming, Sumner’s awkward little laugh toward the end feels like an acknowledgement that he knows it’s all going tits-up. The synths are overpowering and often out of step with the rest of the band, the mix is flat and vocalist Bernard Sumner, not a man known for his charisma at the best of times, looks and sounds like he’s been forced onstage and told to sing as part of a hostage situation. But when you couple the difficulty of performing what was then an entirely new genre of music and a studio not used to the demands of live acoustics, you get something of a car crash. “Playing live, singing live,” presenter Richard Skinner explicitly discloses by way of introduction, and, there’s no doubt about it: New Order are definitely playing Blue Monday live. But a look at this performance from dance-rock legends New Order may lead you to concede that they had a point when it came to their insistence on miming. Obviously, there were a lot of bands that really weren’t keen on this whole lip-synching malarky that TOTP forced upon them. They do eventually settle into it, but when the song's solo comes along, Corwell sarcastically performs it no-handed right into the camera. Even when Cornwell starts singing, with his vocals legitimately being performed live, Burnel trots off to find a newspaper, aggressively waving it about to clear the smoke. When The Stranglers came on to play their 1977 top-ten hit No More Heroes, you could clearly see vocalist and guitarist Hugh Cornwell and bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel more concerned with wafting the dry ice off the stage than making any suggestion that they were playing the song. Those punk bands that did show up massively jarred with TOTP’s usual aesthetic. The two biggest names in the scene completely gave Top of the Pops a swerve The Clash never played the show, and it wasn’t until their 1996 reunion that Sex Pistols appeared. If you believe that any review contained on our site infringes upon your copyright, please email us.When punk broke big in the late 1970s, it wasn’t a genre that was really compatible with primetime BBC television. All submitted reviews become the licensed property of Sheet Music Plus and are subject to all laws pertaining thereto.If you have any suggestions or comments on the guidelines, please email us. We cannot post your review if it violates these guidelines.Avoid disclosing contact information (email addresses, phone numbers, etc.), or including URLs, time-sensitive material or alternative ordering information. Please do not use inappropriate language, including profanity, vulgarity, or obscenity.
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