Top of The Pops - Send-ups

Send-ups

A number of performers have sent up the format in various ways. Mainly this has been performers who disliked the mime format of the show, often as a more effective protest against this rather than just refusing to appear.

• When Fairport Convention appeared to promote their 1969 hit "Si Tu Dois Partir", drummer Dave Mattacks wore a T-Shirt printed "MIMING".
• When The Smiths appeared on the show to perform their single "This Charming Man", lead singer Morrissey was unhappy about having to lip-sync and so held a bunch of gladioli on the stage instead of a microphone.
• In the 1970s The Stranglers performed their song "No More Heroes", with Hugh Cornwell deliberately miming terribly. Also, during the guitar solo Cornwell "played" the guitar with his teeth and drummer Jet Black sat in the opposite direction from the drum kit and drummed the air. They performed similar antics two years later when miming their hit "Duchess".
• In 1977, Australian punk band The Saints appeared when their minor hit "This Perfect Day" made the lower reaches of the chart. Singer Chris Bailey deliberately mimed the lyrics out of time before continuing to sing after allowing the microphone to fall out of his hand. Meanwhile guitarist Ed Kuepper stood stock still, staring blankly away from the camera whilst strumming intermittently at a fraction of the fast pace of the guitar on the record.
• During their performance of "Tom Hark" in 1980, the drummer for The Piranhas used plastic fish instead of drum sticks.
• Northern Irish punk band Stiff Little Fingers appeared a few times on the show and each time didn't take it serious. Normally singer Jake Burns would pull silly faces and flirt with the camera while playing. Drummer Jim Reilly would purposely hit the drums in a repetitive manner that didn't match up with the song and at times would pull the drum kit apart before the song was finished. And once, while playing the song "Just Fade Away", Reilly played a bodhrán rather than drums.
• While performing their 1982 hit "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)", the band Dexys Midnight Runners were seen performing in front of a projection of the darts player Jocky Wilson instead of soul singer Jackie Wilson. Dexys frontman Kevin Rowland later said in an interview that the use of the Jocky Wilson picture was his idea and not a mistake by the programme makers as is sometimes stated.
• In 1985 Fish of Marillion, while performing "Lavender" with the band, was seen clearly miming while holding up a giant notepad with the song lyrics on. At times his mouth wasn't moving when his voice was being heard, with one occasion tearing off a sheet of paper and not moving his mouth. Presenter Mike Read made this more obvious by stating that Fish had a throat problem, forcing their tour at the time to be cancelled.
• When Oasis mimed to "Whatever" on Top of the Pops in 1994, one of the cello players from the symphony was replaced by rhythm guitarist Bonehead, who clearly had no idea how the instrument should be played. Towards the end of the song, he gave up the pretence and started using the bow to conduct. A woman plays his rhythm guitar. Also, Noel and Liam Gallagher swapped roles during their performance of "Roll with It" – with Noel miming the lead vocal and Liam playing the lead guitar solo — and Liam walked away from the microphone and chewed gum during a 2005 performance of "Lyla".
• Faith No More lead singer Mike Patton also showed he was obviously miming a performance by sticking his tongue out of the side of his mouth during close-up shots. Also, their 1997 performance of "Ashes to Ashes" on the show featured Robin Guy (of the band Sack Trick) on drums instead of their actual drummer. He apparently wore a "Puffy" mask as a joke in reference to Faith No More's actual drummer, Mike "Puffy" Bordin. Mike Patton can be seen giving Guy the finger during the performance, supposedly because the mask fell off (or was taken off on purpose) as soon as the performance started.
• In Nirvana's only performance on Top of the Pops, frontman Kurt Cobain "played" his guitar with his fingers inches away from the frets (and occasionally clutched the microphone to make it obvious that he was not playing), drummer Dave Grohl danced around in his seat for most of the performance, and bassist Krist Novoselic waved his instrument around his head. Since TOTP featured live vocals at that time, Cobain took the opportunity to sing in a low, dramatic opera voice, later claiming he was trying to impersonate Morrissey.
• Singer Les Gray of Mud went on stage to perform with a ventriloquist dummy during the performance of Lonely This Christmas and had the dummy lip-synch to the voice-over in the middle of the song.
• During Mott The Hoople's performance of their single Roll Away the Stone in 1973, drummer Dale Griffin plays with very large, oversized drumsticks.
• For Orbital's debut TOTP performance they just stood around, occasionally leaning forward to press a button on their sequencers. One of their machines had its power plug deliberately draped across it, to show the equipment wasn't even plugged in.
• EMF appeared on the show with one of the guitarists strumming along while wearing boxing gloves.
• In Blur's performance of "Charmless Man" in 1995, Dave Rowntree decided to play with oversized drumsticks, while Graham Coxon, played a mini guitar.
• In Green Day's first Top of the Pops appearance in 1994, the band played the song "Welcome to Paradise". Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong wore an otherwise plain white t-shirt with the phrase "Who am I fooling anyway?" handwritten on it, most likely a reference to his own miming during the performance. He could also be seen not playing his guitar during the instrumental bridge in the song.
• The performance of "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart and The Faces featured John Peel miming on mandolin. Near the end of the song, Rod and the Faces begin to kick around a football. This is despite the fact that the music can be still heard playing in the background.
• Eels performed "Novocaine for the Soul" playing on toy instruments, which they then trashed.
• The Cure were known for their abhorrence for miming their songs whilst on TOTP and on several occasions made it obvious they were not playing their parts – using such stunts as playing guitar left-handed, miming very badly out of synch and dressing their instruments up in clothes.
• During "Sing" by Travis, a pie fight broke out which aped the music video of the song. Even though the members of the band got involved, the music still played in the background.
• Ambient group The Orb notably sat and played chess while an edited version of their 39:57-minute single "Blue Room" played in the background.
• Feeder's last performance on the show in 2006 of "Lost and Found", seen live-only guitarist Dean Tidey take over bass guitar duties of Taka Hirose, as Hirose was attending the birth of his third child. As the performance was mimed instrumentally using the studio recording (excluding the lead vocals which Grant Nicholas sang live), Tidey was seen pretending to play along to bass parts not even recorded by him as well as miming along to Grant Nicholas's voice on the recording when it came to backing vocals, therefore fooling the audience into thinking that was his singing voice. Tidey has never spent any time with the band in the studio.
• Depeche Mode's performance of "Barrel of a Gun" in 1997 featured famous Dutch photographer and director Anton Corbijn who mimed playing the drums.
• All About Eve performance a dubbed version of "Martha's Harbour" in 1988 was a well-known incident, owing to a studio technical error, the taped vocals were broadcast without the band being able to hear them, resulting in the TV audience hearing the recorded version of the song, while the band members sat motionless on screen waiting for their cue to begin.