Get Set For Summer

When folk talk about music television shows from the 1980s nowadays it's generally the same old programmes that get a mention: Top of the Pops, The Tube, Whistle Test. But when did you last hear someone extolling the virtues of early 80s BBC Manchester Saturday morning kids' magazine programme Get Set For Summer? Not recently I'll wager. But then that's what makes this blog different: we're not afraid to talk up stuff that no one gives a toss about may have slipped out of fashion or the public's consciousness down the years.

And Get Set For Summer most definitely falls into this category. Presented by the unlikely yet quintessentially eighties pairing of Peter Powell and Mark Curry, this show went out on BBC1 during those quiet summer months while Swap Shop was resting and Noel Edmunds was recharging his batteries in his coffin in Transylvania.

I remember it from my own childhood but hadn't appreciated until now, revisiting clips of it on YouTube, just what a marvellously representative snapshot of the UK chart music scene of 1981-83 it provides. When a show gets Yazoo to provide its theme tune you really know it means business. And the number of bands it caught either in their pomp or just as they were about to go huge was impressive: U2, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode and - to use a typical K-Tel compilation album tagline from the time - many more...

Firstly, here's a diffident and giggly Simple Minds chatting to Peter Powell before performing a completely live version of King Is White & In The Crowd - on kids' morning TV! (They actually played out this show with a version of Sweat In Bullet - also on YouTube - if you please.) Watching these clips it's hard to believe that the band were only a couple of years away from becoming stadium rock monsters.

Next, Mark Curry chats to Clare Grogan about her role in Gregory's Girl - I can't believe I'd never realised that she'd been working as a waitress (but not in a cocktail bar) when Bill Forsyth spotted her and asked her if she wanted to be in the film he was about to make. This interview is immediately followed by Clare joining her Altered Images chums onstage for a jaunt through Pinky Blue. Lovely stuff.

And finally here are The Jam with a rousing and thoroughly live version of Funeral Pyre. I didn't really appreciate the greatness of this band until a few years later - I only had eyes for Madness in junior school - but goodness me could they wig out.

Sadly that seems to be about as much of Get Set For Summer that's available online at the moment. But who knows, one of these days maybe the BBC might finally get around to going through with its pledge of fully opening up its archive for public consumption. For now we can only imagine the treasures such a move would unearth.

Three Of A Kind #39

Three bands, three songs, one common title - the rather motivational-sounding Get Yourself Together. Has any other title ever produced three such different but equally brilliant songs? Quite frankly, I doubt it!

Firstly, we have French band Tahiti 80's gently encouraging pop nugget from their 2002 album Wallpaper For The Soul. This could well be enough to make me snap the hell out of any mood! (myspace / website)

Tahiti 80 - Get Yourself Together mp3 (available for 7 days)

Secondly, here's The Jam's slightly less altruistic but no less rousing take on the title, which can be found on the 1992 Extras album. (fan website)

The Jam - Get Yourself Together (live) mp3 (available for 7 days)

Finally, British band Velocette sing in French on this version of their sparkling debut single from 1997. This song has reared its lovely head at several important moments in my life and has secured itself a place in my top ten favourite songs ever, even though I dont officially have one.

Velocette - Get Yourself Together (French version) mp3 (available for 7 days)

You can buy music by all three bands from Play.com.

And since I love the song so much, here's the video for Velocette's English version of Get Yourself Together: