"Pop Goes the Band " - sad little series
What a sad little series is Living TV's Pop Goes The Band. The concept is: take an 80s pop group (so far, Dollar and Buck's Fizz); pillory the members for the natural ageing process, give them a makeover on the cheap, and then assemble them to perform just one song in front of friends and fans.
It's the usual tired formula of a makeover show but it's also a huge missed opportunity. Because the victims are all in their 40s and early 50s, they are either thin and wrinkled (Thereza Bazar, Jay Aston) or plump and non-wrinkled (Cheryl Baker, Mike from Buck's Fizz). Like all of us in that age group!
Instead of giving sound advice to viewers in that age group, we see the victims being dragged down memory lane to try to restore the contours they had in their 20s.
The show has a resident plastic surgeon but he isn't very busy. I think the budget only allows one op per show. Instead they get sent to a fearsome woman with needles called Nina, who offers ludicrous treatments like pumping oxygen into the skin involving hundreds of injections and a lot of pain. We never properly see any "before" or "afters" with her results. Thereza Bazar had terrible bruising from her Botox assault.
Meanwhile the gym routine consists of one session with the expert personal trainer, and then it appears the celebs are left to do their own thing. Now most of us know that we should have a gym routine, but like Cheryl Baker, we find any old excuse not to go. On a makeover show, you need the personal trainer to bully the victims into turning up every other day! Another example of the show being done on the cheap.
Then there's the stylist, someone called Hannah Standling. She seems to have no idea what 40 or 50 somethings want to look like. She put Cheryl Baker (pictured, left) into a matronly skirt and prim top when she had said she wanted to show some cleavage. I suggest Hannah learns some tips from Trinny & Susannah about showing off the parts you are proud of and camouflaging the parts you aren't. Jay Aston and Shelley Preston were both put in really quite atrocious baby doll type dresses.
I think Standling's options were limited because the list of suppliers at the end of the show includes Matalan, and with respect, cheap clothes are not the answer to the demands of the 40 or 50 something's figure. We need structural design and a quality cut and finish.
The show misses the chance to give some proper advice to this age group on how to look your best. It's not about looking artifically younger and trying to turn back the clock. All we can do is look as good as we possibly can for our age. I would like to see the personal trainer giving specific advice on a regime to counter middle aged spread. I would like to see Hannah Standling do the same, and the needle woman to talk some sense about prevention (sun screens, diet etc) rather than quack remedies and Botox.
