We’re nearing the end of this series now. So far, we’ve had California Dreamin’ , Moonlight Shadow, The Smurf Song, The Clapping Song, Chiquitita, Lady in Red and Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Anyone remember Falco?
In 1986, my favourite TV programme was Top of the Pops. Every Thursday night, I could be found glued to the TV waiting to hear if my favourite song had made it to the prestigious No.1 slot. Mum and Dad used to moan and groan about the ‘hideous racket’ coming from the TV, but they always let me watch it.
I was fourteen years old that year and had recently got into athletics. A friend suggested we join the local athletics club so we did. But there was one snag – the main training day was a Thursday evening – at the same time as Tops of The Pops. Now, this was 1986, before most households had a video recorder. So I didn’t have the option of recording the show.
It was May and Rock Me Amadeus by Falco was No.1. I loved the song. It was so different, so powerful and highly catchy. I had to know if it was still No.1. And I knew just the thing to do.
I may not have had a video recorder, but I did have a tape recorder. It wasn’t a particularly good one, but it served the purpose it had been bought for – for my friend and I to sing into (or screech would probably be a fairer word for it).
So I told Dad what I planned to do. He’d need to have the TV on so it picked up the sound. He muttered that it was ‘alright, I suppose’. The tape recorder wasn’t very good at picking things up, so I positioned it as close to the TV as possible.
Off I went to athletics club, and back I came eager to listen to Tops of the Pops. When I pressed ‘play’, you could definitely tell it was Top of the Pops. But I clearly hadn’t accounted for all the background noises, which were somehow much louder than the TV – Dad rattling the paper the whole way through, coughing, belching and other such bodily noises, Mum starting a conversation about the mess Dad made when he ate his biscuits in the lounge and of course, I’d forgotten that we have the loudest clock in the world and so the TV programme also had to compete with its incessant ticking.
So, after all that, was Amadeus still No.1? No, it wasn’t. Usurped by Spitting Image and The Chicken Song. I wasn’t impressed.
Did the recording of Top of The Pops last? No. Neither did the athletics.
Esther Chilton 
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