BBC FOUR is showing TOP OF THE POPS 31.03.83 which features the classic performance of "Blue Monday". I know it's been of youtube for years, but it's on the shown on BBC Four, so maybe the resolutionwill be better. You will also be able to see them playing live, while everyone else (U2, Duran Duran, Style council) are miming.

Worth a(nother) watch. It's on thursday 23rd Feb at 7.30.

i'd hardly call it a classic performance

terrible is a word i'd use

Just watching my recording of this from last night.New Order were on first on that edition of TOTP? I'd always remembered it as them being on half way through.Funny how time bends the memory.Style Council were on after them with Speak Like A Child with Weller (and Tracie, remember her?) miming.Weller miming on TOTP after New Order played and sang live, that Weller bloke was always such a soft sell out cnut

Edit: And U2 were on that same edition performing Two Hearts Beat As One in the TOTP studio? Don't recall that either.Bongo and his idiots miming like Paul Weller.Mugs.

Edited by user 24 February 2017 13:46:36(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Steve Morris screws up the order in which he is supposed to feed the floppy disks into his keyboard so when there is supposed to be the dramatic thunderclap, it lets out a wimpy 'aaaaaah' instead. If you look you can see him laughing to himself when it happens.

I know I'm resurrecting a really old thread, but just thought I'd let you know that, TOTP actually repeated the 'Blue Monday' performance on 06/10/83 (presumably after the song re-entered the charts).

This might explain why you remembered their performance in the middle of the programme, not the start, and why you don't remember Bongo.

Here's the listings for both editions of TOTP that featured the 'Blue Monday' appearance:

31/03/83 (Richard Skinner & Steve Wright)

New Order – “Blue Monday” (17)
The Style Council – “Speak Like A Child” (4)
Mari Wilson – “Cry Me A River” (30)
U2 – “Two Hearts Beat As One” (24)
Kajagoogoo – “Ooh To Be Ah” (20)
Tracey Ullman – “Breakaway” (18)
Duran Duran – “Is There Something I Should Know?” (1) (video)
Kenny Everett – brief interview as Sid Snot
Kenny Everett – “Snot Rap” (27) (audience dancing/credits)

06/10/83 (David Jensen & John Peel)

Freeez – “Pop Goes My Love” (33)
David Bowie – “Modern Love” (2) (video)
Depeche Mode – “Love In Itself 2” (26)
Meat Loaf – “Midnight At The Lost & Found” (28) (video)
Nick Heyward – “Blue Hat For A Blue Day” (24)
Howard Jones – “New Song” (13) (video)
David Grant – “Love Will Find A Way” (38)
The Alarm – “68 Guns” (19)
New Order – “Blue Monday” (10) (rpt from 31/03/83)
Culture Club – “Karma Chameleon” (1) (rpt from 22/09/83)
The Rocksteady Crew – “(Hey You) The Rocksteady Crew” (29) (audience dancing/credits)

So, yeah, the repeat performance was a lot later in the show than the original showing. Do any of the other artists ring any bells with you? DM, Bowie, Freeez, Howard Jones etc?

I've been doing some digging around about the band's appearances on TOTP.
'Blue Monday' was actually played a third time on 14/04/83. It was the 'playout' record at the end of the programme, with the audience dancing along as the credits rolled.

Not only that, but 'Confusion ' was also a 'playout' record on 01/09/83 and, incredibly...

'Love Will Tear Us Apart' was too, on 10/11/83.

I have clips of the above 'events', so if anyone is desperate enough to want to see them, just let me know.
Just imagine... BBC TOTP buffoons grooving away to the dulcet tones of IKC. Sounds too unlikely to be true...

Oh - LWTUA is actually on YouTube (in pretty awful quality; much worse than mine):

Ah, OK.
I just thought that it was a possible reason for you remembering things in a different way, but it sounds like it isn't that.

I had a similar thing recently seeing the reshowing of the episode of TOTP that included 'True Faith' (06/08/87). The BBC have recently repeated this episode.

I definitely know that I didn't see 'TF' at the time and didn't actually catch it until someone sent me a videotape of it circa 1990.

However, watching that episode, I definitely remember seeing 'Spagna' doing 'Call Me', so it makes me wonder how I missed 'New Order'.

The only explanations are:

a) As 'New Order' were on first, maybe I missed the very beginning of the programme (having my tea etc.); or
b) 'Spagna' also appeared on the previous week's show (30/07/87), so maybe I saw that episode with her on and not 06/08/87.

The only thing wrong with theory b) above is that New Order also appeared on that programme too (presumably when the video for 'TF' was shown). I, again, have no recollection of that.

I used to watch TOTP religiously circa 1987-1997, so it seems strange that I have no memory of New Order.
As you said, it's probably just our memories skewing events.

(PS don't ask me why I remember 'Spagna' so vividly. I think it's just that that track reminds me of a certain time in my life.).

Copying and pasting an old post:
There's a popular misconception that NO always did live-but-shite TOTP appearances which did chart performances more harm than good. Like a lot of the mystique around the band, it sounds awesome and fab and very NO but isn't actually true, or at least ain't been true for Decades till A Later Date. BM sure, but TLU is fine - Gillian actually said she was proud they managed to do justice to it - while True Faith and even the much-maligned Technique trax (Bernard: 'The hardest LP to play live') are hardly an embarrassment. In fact this was when they won over a bunch of fans, including that cunt called Michael Monkhouse.
After that they were a finely-honed live outfit and it's unsure TOTP appearances were live at all, let alone crappy. Only half the synth seems to be covered in World, and Hooky's bass has a fascinating ability to play itself in Ruined in a Day and Here To Stay.
File under: NO the indie band, NO never play the same set twice, NO tell interviewers to fuck off.

^ Wow that's strange you never heard BM when it was first in the charts, on the radio etc. Even if you weren't following music back then it would have been pretty hard to avoid the song.It was on the radio and everywhere a LOT.


Yeah this misconception that New Order were always crap on TOTP; it was only BM on TOTP that was a disaster.Well when i say disaster i mean from a musically proficient point of view.Later appearances for stuff like Thieves Like Us, True Faith and Round & Round were all pretty tight though Hooky's bass was always way too loud and maybe Bernard's singing on Round & Round on TOTP was a bit off in a couple of places.

Likewise I missed BM first time around. I was 11 too. The first time I heard it was at a school disco 4 years later (and dancing to it).

I guess that 1983 episode must have been one of the rare occasions I didn’t sit down and watch TOTP😕

I was about the same age as you (still am?). And I was very aware of BM because Tommy Vance (RIP) used to play it in full on the Sunday Top 40 show. For...months! It was the only time I would hear the whole track. So I taped it, as I did with much of the top 40 (started doing so in 1979 when my dad bought a tape deck, I think Gary Numan's Cars was the first thing I taped). But as BM eventually slid down the charts, my tape got chewed up. Annoying. So I went out and bought the 12" ("Holiday" edition - no die cuts) because I just couldn't do without it. I had the Patrick Cowley mix of I Feel Love on the same tape, but I didn't replace that for quite some time.
So by the time NO appeared on TOTPs, I was super keen to see them. But I believe it was actually on early that night (can't believe I remember this). It was normally on from 7pm til 7.40 but something was happening that night and it was a shorter half hour show from 6.30 til 7pm - my dinner time. When I realised I had missed my chance to catch them, I was DEVASTATED!! What did they look like? Did they play for seven minutes?? I moaned about it for days. Maybe that's why you missed it at the time.



Yep, Paul Young for me. That also came out in '83 (although it was a single in '84). I have no idea if the JD version got much airplay when it was released as I was living in a tropical country in '80 &'81, so I have this horrible gap in my western pop culture memories/knowledge. I really liked the Paul Young version! It was all I knew...

You see, this is why this forum is the best.

Just great hearing all these reminisces. And why I visit these forums every day.

And, yes, Stephen Morris is one bloody brilliant drummer. And seems a genuinely lovely guy.

The Genome website states the 31.03.83 edition of TOTP was on ( or scheduled to be on) from 7.25pm to 8pm and the 06.10.83 edition was on ( or scheduled to be on) from 7.30pm til 8.10pm.

So both editions were apparently on round about the same time of evening but the October edition was 5 minutes longer.Those schedules might have had a last minute change on one of them ?

There’s an often used photo of New Order on TOTP doing Blue Monday but Bernard is wearing different clothes. Can’t find and post it right now as am posting from phone and it’s too fiddly. I guess the photo is from a rehearsal and in it B has I think dark trousers and maybe a brown short sleeved shirt ( or vice versa) . In the aired version he has jeans and denim jacket. Interesting little bit of trivia for you there.

Yeah i first noticed it some years ago.Wonder if Steve fed the right floppy disc in on the other take? Maybe if they have the recording of this other take it'll be included on the P,C & L definitive box? Ah well, we can but hope.