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29 October 2014
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What qualities did you need to be a TOTP presenter?
"None really. Just turn up and go for it. Any planning would make you much more nervous. I loved it. I would like to hang out there now. I went a couple of years ago - and took my son Fred 'cos he wanted to see Take That doing their final performance. It’s still got a buzz about it now - it was just a great vibe."

You were involved with Band Aid. Did you know much about the project before it was launched?
"I actually got wind of it beforehand. Bob Geldof and Midge Ure had told me so I knew there was going to be this big build up to all of that. It sounds really crass but it did bring people together and there was an aim and a motivation to one particular goal which was a fantastic feeling and I was very proud. I was around so much I actually launched Band Aid at Wembley."

What did you think about the music of that era?
"I think it was a fantastic era and you had all sorts of stuff going on. Wham were fantastic pop and then if you wanted it the other end you had your cred bands like Public Image Ltd, The Smiths and stuff. The dance thing was starting to come through as well so it was a great decade."

Can you remember any embarrassing moments from TOTP?
I did an awful lot of live shows but you didn’t have to do a lot. The only one I can remember is the All About Eve performance which was a technical disaster where they couldn’t hear their backing track and didn’t start miming when they should have. The nice bits for me were if there was someone you were really into like John Lydon or Morrissey and they looked over at you while they were playing - that was special!"

Simply Red
"That's a bit supermarket, isn't it. I'm not making that many bottles. "
Robin Gibb
"There's been great moments both as a songwriter and as a performer."
Paul Roberts - The Stranglers
"We certainly weren't going to call ourselves The Bay City Rollers."
Lisa Stansfield
"I just thought, how many times do I have to sing this song?"
Soft Cell
"I think it's the only time that a banjo's been played in the Ministry of Sound."
Erasure
"Agnetha said she liked it. If I met them I would curtsey."
INXS
"We really surprised lots of people by simply hanging in there."
Kim Wilde
"I used to be really jealous of Claire Grogan...I thought she was gorgeous."
Dollar
"Failure was not an option, we were materialistic and greed was good."
Human League
"We did a US tour with Culture Club and Howard Jones...solely for the cash."
Altered Images
"Women were treated as a bit of a novelty in the music business in 1981."
Belle Stars
"The pop music lark just seems like a lifetime away now."
Steve Strange
"Look, you’re playing me like a bitchy queen and I’m not like that."
Five Star
"We all grew up wanting to be famous and we lived our dream..."
Phillip from Ruby Flipper
"At my age, I'd find it difficult to get my legs where they used to go..."
Glen Campbell
"I got to work with literally everyone in the business; Nat King Cole, Sinatra..."
David Gray
"Lots of tension in the camp. We're battling Gareth Gates for the No.1 spot"
Robert Palmer
"There's this homegenised force feeding of what is hip."
Marilyn
"I think George manipulated our relationship for publicity"
Tom Jones
"I'm pulling all my old jewellery out now and comparing my rings with Wyclef"
Ruth From Pan's People
"I could show you dozens of times I forgot the moves..."
Badly Drawn Boy
"Everybody has to do what everybody else does in order to have a hit single"
John Otway
"I think the music business is probably not happy with what we've done..."
Jimmy Cliff
"I look at someone like Ms Dynamite, I come away with a positive feeling."
Human League
"We wouldn't trust anyone that didn't wear eyeliner."
Status Quo
"I probably went about four or five years with a pair of stage jeans"
Gary Numan
"There are so many things in my past that you could make fun of."
McAlmont and Butler
"We were big enough to get over any-thing that may have been exchanged."
Primal Scream
"The producer at the time told us we'd never work again."
Oasis
"I prefer miming, I prefer if we weren’t playing live."


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