The dormitory that I lived in while attending Exeter University in England was called Montefiore Hall. Monty, for short. It wasn't really a dormitory per se. It was more like a big English country house with lots of spacious rooms big enough to acommodate two beds/two desks/two dressers, etc. It was a great dorm, and I made the right decision to live “in hall” and take my chances with a British room mate, rather than live in a flat with one of my classmates from Kenyon. Nothing against my Kenyon classmates on the Exeter program… it's just that none of them were in the position to take me home for the weekend to a new town I'd never visited before. None of them could explain all the arcane British lingo I heard on a daily basis (for example, there was no need to worry, I soon learned, if Pete, my room mate from Cardiff, had: a) gone to the bog for a slash or b) nipped round the back for a puff on a fag). More importantly, none of the Kenyonites could share their wealth of popular British culture at 2am while laying on the floor of their dorm room, drunk out of their minds, while the stereo played.
Thursday nights were special in Monty for several reasons. First, every Thursday the dining hall served fish n' chips with mushy peas — easily one of my favorite meals. My British friends would always give me a hard time because simple courtesies with an American accent went a long way with the ladies in the kitchen. In other words, I always got extra portions of chips just for saying “thank you” with that “luvley yankee accent.” Besides fish n' chips with mushy peas, Thursday was also the night Top of the Pops aired on BBC television. So after dinner we would walk down the hall from the dining room to the tv lounge and join 20-30 other students in the throes of procrastination lounging about in front of the telly. Now I had heard Top of the Pops referenced many times before traveling to England. For many British bands, the opportunity to play on TOTP really signified that you had finally hit the Big Time. Top of the Pops was essentially a country-wide countdown show. It mixed music videos with “live” studio performances in front of a dancing audience, by bands whose songs were either firmly entrenched in the charts or had just entered the charts. The “just entered” category could be anybody in the top twenty, I believe, and that's where you saw the most week-to-week fluctuation and diversity. The top ten, however, could remain static for weeks — subjecting viewers and listeners to the same top songs — show after show, week after week. This could be both extremely annoying as well as downright hilarious. Needless to say, despite all the hype that I had built up in my mind about the show, it was utter crap. Whatsmore, all the Brits in the TV lounge every Thursday night at 8pm knew and understood this fact. “And that, my fine American friend, is what makes the show so brilliant.” Ahh, now I understood… Every Thursday night we'd gather together in a noisy, smokey, stale beer smelling tv lounge to watch a show that was so bad, it was brilliant. Sometimes the videos—by bands I had never heard of before—were very cool and interesting to watch. Sometimes the band themselves would be the studio guest and you could see what they looked like and imagine how great they'd be in concert — especially if they didn't have to lip synch. Other times, if the country had inexplicably embraced some no-name schmuck with a new record and catapulted him to stardom via absurdly high record sales, you got to make fun (or take the piss out of — see, I was a quick study!) some of the most dreadful pop entertainers England had to offer. On any given week the show would reflect this bizarre amalgamation of ecelectic musical tastes, trendy new discoveries and commercial record sales. That's what made the 30-minute show so damn much fun to watch. My school mates would actually get all worked up over the evening's TOTP outcome. “There's no way that song should be number one!” “I can't believe so-and-so is back. I thought he had OD'd.” etc., etc.
To be honest, I'll never forget certain things I saw on TOTP while sitting in that TV lounge. The beautiful black and white video for the song “Vienna” by Ultravox. The Who performing “You Better You Bet” after having dropped off the planet for five years following the death of drummer Keith Moon. Bryan Ferry's homage to John Lennon after he was murdered, covering “Jealous Guy” at number 2 and John Lennon's “Imagine” at number 1 the same week. U2 performing “I Will Follow.” To name a few.
Today's song is inspired by one of those unforgettable TOTP performances. In 1980, angular, staccato guitar, heavy reverb, primal drumming, percolating synthesizers and often dark imagery was all the rage. So you can imagine my curiosity and surprise when the lead riff from this song blasted from the tiny speaker on the tv set and it seemed to come from a trumpet, not a guitar. Combine that with the opening line: “bless my cotton socks I'm in the news,” the name of the band: The Teardrop Explodes, and the insane pop genius of front man Julian Cope, and you have The Happy Medium Song of the Day: “Reward.” (Please use the comments box to share your thoughts.)
Today's song is inspired by one of those unforgettable TOTP performances. In 1980, angular, staccato guitar, heavy reverb, primal drumming, percolating synthesizers and often dark imagery was all the rage. So you can imagine my curiosity and surprise when the lead riff from this song blasted from the tiny speaker on the tv set and it seemed to come from a trumpet, not a guitar. Combine that with the opening line: “bless my cotton socks I'm in the news,” the name of the band: The Teardrop Explodes, and the insane pop genius of front man Julian Cope, and you have The Happy Medium Song of the Day: “Reward.” (Please use the comments box to share your thoughts.)