Another week, another #TOTP performance from Sham 69. "Hersham boys" this time, filmed in a horrid brown-yellow filter.

David Hepworth was unimpressed for Smash Hits: "A tired, hollow effort struggling between weary attempts at rabble-rousing and blush-making pseudo-Springsteen 'street' songs that reek of desperation and contract fulfilling. As empty self-satisfied a record as anything they supposedly set out to replace."

Yeah, but why's the drummer got a dead animal on his head?
#Sham69

Olympic Runners perform a song called "The bitch". Title track to the Joan Collins film.

It's not the most liberated disco number. Begins with close-up of the female backing singer, who moves front stage later in the song.

The band was put together by Mike Vernon, who does the percussion here. Olympic Runners split up later that year.
#TOTP #OlympicRunners #NotThatSort

"If I had you" chimed The Korgis.

A weedy bloke in shirt and tie sings a weedy number, loosely based on a Rachmaninov interpretation of Paganini - but more classical work on BBC4 a little later this evening.

If this is the sound of summer, bring back spring.
#TOTP #TheKorgis

As promised, some classical work. On video, "Voulez-vous" from ABBA.

"Bang bang" from BA Robertson, which - inevitably - has lots of shots of BA's bandmate banging his massive drums.

The lyric mentions Johnny Fruin, an exec at BA's record label. File this alongside "Orinoco flow" as a big hit naming a label exec.
#TOTP #ABBA #BARobertson

A 40-minute #TOTP doesn't fit into a 30-minute slot without some editing. Snipped here: the video for "Girls talk" by Dave Edmunds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uEXJNS1llg

It's Legs o'clock: "After the love has gone" by Earth, Wind & Fire sees the gals lounging on a BBC beach boardwalk.
#DaveEdmunds #LegsAndCo

#TOTP production meeting.

- How can we portray "Beat the clock" by Sparks.
- A montage of clocks?
- Brilliant idea. Trebles all round!

The glamsters worked with disco producer Giorgio Moroder.

Sadly, this is the Mael brothers' penultimate appearance - we see 'em in November, and never again on TOTP.
#Sparks

"Gangsters" by The Specials. Terry Hall looks incredibly young in a striped shirt, with two Running Men by his side. The rest of the band jigs about, playing guitar or blowing their brass section.

For viewers watching in black-and-white, you're missing *nothing* - everyone's in shades of grey.

More of the single's impact came from its B-side, "The selecter"; ska-punk can be eerie and morose, not just sunny and peppy.
#TOTP #TheSpecials

Another snip for time: "Duke of Earl" from Darts. A repeat performance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFpVlkOCtOs

"Ooh! What a life" from The Gibson Brothers. A very purple staging, two guys at keyboards and one singer.

The singer's got great stage presence, and I need to hear this song a lot more.
#TOTP #GibsonBrothers

Number one: "I don't like Mondays" from The Boomtown Rats.

This video tells a story: children in a school assembly, the Rats stand on stage and sing. And then to a sitting room, and only then to the trademark white studio, before finishing back in the school.

I'm too young to appreciate how groundbreaking and subversive this was - if, indeed, it was like my cousins claimed.
#TOTP #BoomtownRats

#TOTP credits to "Born to be alive" from Patrick Hernandez.

And while Peter Powell stays in the hammock, hoping to surprise Legs & Co when they get back, we look at other channels.

Next on BBC1, Citizen Smith, where there's been a theft in the factory. Andrew Lloyd Webber conducts the Schools Prom on BBC2, and ITV sees Miss Ursa Minor crowned Miss Universe 1979.

Zap! Bang! Pow! More #TOTP in a few moments, it's one of my all-time favourite editions.

Jenny Powell and Steve Wright introduce Gun with "Better days".

Record Mirror summed up the mood:

"There hasn't been so much excitement about a new pop metal band since Def Leppard thumbed a lift from Sheffield many years ago. Gun are still hungry kittens in a world of sleek fat cats, and let's hope they always maintain some of their youthful enthusiasm. Deserve to be a surefire success." #TOTP

"Better days" is a tremendous driving rock track: it gets into the groove, gets loud, and by the second chorus we're all cheering with fists in the air. It is utterly brilliant, and Gun were impressive in this debut appearance.

Go listen to their album "Taking on the world", it is an under-rated classic. #TOTP