When We Were Young*

Gray has already beat me to the publish button on this one, but I couldn't let it pass without briefly commenting on the news that the BBC has decided to cancel Top of the Pops after 42 years.

Knowing that I was going to blog about its demise, I tried to cast my mind back to those classic performances from the show that made the sort of youthful impact that makes you think you've got a walk on part in the Wonder Years - cue voiceover - but I realised that with the advent of TOTP2 in recent years, those stop-you-in-your-track performances that stick in the mind were actually seen after the event: sometimes 10, 15 or 20 years after the event in the case of the Associates performing 'Party Fears Two', Bob Geldof tearing up a picture of Olivia Newton John and John Travolta (I may have actually seen this at the time, but don't quote me on it), and Paul Weller wearing an apron whilst performing 'Eton Rifles' with the Jam.

However, I am staking a claim that I saw the following top five performances on the night and also putting my hands up to the fact that they made an impression of sorts on that younger version of myself:

Soft Cell performing 'Tainted Love' first time round. I don't care what people say about the androgynous Bowie, Boy George, Marilyn or Pete Burns. It was Marc Almond who freaked out Middle England when performing on Top of the Pops.

Dexys blasting out their version of Van Morrison's 'Jackie Wilson Said' with that massive picture of Jocky Wilson as a backdrop. (And what is the internet coming to? I can't believe I can't find a jpeg of this seminal performance to link to.) I was into Dexys at the time, 'cos I played my sister's copy of Too-Rye-Aye to death, but I have to say that I was more in love with Jocky Wilson than Kevin Rowland at the time. I loved darts at that point in my life, and there was no greater drama that a Jocky Wilson versus Alan Evans darts match. Was it ever cleared up if the pic of Jockey was a wind up or a genuine mistake? There has always been conflicting reports on this.

Carol Kenyon providing guest vocals for Heaven 17 on their biggest hit 'Temptation'. Gray is more than welcome to Pans People.

The first appearance of the Smiths on Top of the Pops, playing 'This Charming Man' It's the 'I remember where I was when Nasty Nick got found out' moment for my generation, or at least it should be, and it's still the greatest opening guitar riff in the history of rock and roll/pop/grunge/grime/shoegazing/crunk and hip hop this side of the Undertones Teenage Kicks.

All About Eve's lead singer missing her cue when miming to Martha's Harbour and fucking it up majestically.

There's no place for that episode of TOTP where Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays performed on the show for the first time, and thus launching Madchester and one million stupid haircuts into the mainstream; Evan Dando doing his Morrissey impersonation whilst singing 'Mrs Robinson'; Shane McGowan three sheets to the wind whilst mumbling through Fairytale of New York ('87, '91 & '05); or even the genuine excitement of seeing Wham New Model Army on evening telly.

Now, if only someone other than myself could remember 'Switch' - the music show that Channel 4 would put on when 'The Tube' was off air - and the group, Flesh**, who featured on the Letter to Brezhnev soundtrack, I could really wallow in the eighties nostalgia for a couple more hours prior to sitting down to watch the Aussies dump Italy out of the World Cup.

*The Jam

**mp3s to the usual email address please.

UPDATE

The Australians were totally robbed. I feel absolutely gutted, and other such sporting cliches.