A host of 80s pop idols proved the old ones are still the best when Top Of The Pops arrived in Bradford.

The Top Of The Pops 1981 Reunion special was beamed live from Peninngton's nightclub, in Manningham Lane, Bradford, yesterday as part of the BBC's five-day Music Live Festival.

The themed show reunited some of the biggest names of the 80s and promised to transport the city in a musical time machine to an era when men wore make up and everyone was a new romantic.

Midge Ure, who performed a rocky version of his massive 1981 hit Vienna for the reunion show, said he had taken the chance to enjoy some of Bradford's other Music Live festivities.

The Scottish singer, said: "I came up here yesterday for the Later with Jools Holland and I've been wandering around town today.

"Everywhere you go there seems to be something going on. You turn a corner and there's a guy playing a guitar or something different happening.

"I thought Jools was fantastic last night. I'm a huge advocate of live performance and his show is just great. Live music is a nice change from five pretty kids dancing on a stage that is all we seem to get today!

"There's a whole generation of kids who have been brought up without knowing anything about live performance and that's quite scary. Hopefully things like Music Live will help to reawaken the kids' appetite for real music. It's time for a musical revolution."

Midge said that he was looking forward to taking part in the show and catching up with some old friends.

He said: "I can't really remember 1981. It's quite frightening to think that it was 20 years ago that Vienna was released. They've asked me to do it tonight so I'm going to give them an updated, Kerrang-ed up, version.

"It will be nice to see Eddie Grant again."

The Manningham Lane club was awash with of colour on Saturday when a huge army of cameramen, lighting technicians, and sound engineers bustled around to pre-record some sections of the show.

Dancers dressed in 80s fashions boogied to the Jackson Five's Can You Feel It while Eddie Grant's backing band warmed up with a funky version of Do You Feel My Love?

And ABC frontman Martin Fry rolled back the decades with a thumping version of 80s classic The Look Of Love.

Blonde-quiffed Martin, said: "I've never played Bradford before which is a shocking admission for a band from Sheffield.

"I'm not really into nostalgia but I've still got the same enthusiasm for the songs today as I had back then.

"It's nice to see the 80s revival going on and it's a good feeling to see some of your songs gain a sort of classic status. It should be fun."

The Police's classic 80s hit Every Little Thing was given a touch of "Spookdust" at yesterday's Top Of The Pops event.

Stateside band Spooks, who formed in 1994 and are currently in the charts with Karma Hotel, performed their own version of the song to an appreciative audience.

Lead singer Ming told the Telegraph & Argus: "It is fun to be here. When we heard the theme was 1981 it gave us a chance to do the Police cover of Every Little Thing. We put a little Spookdust on it to see what would come out."

The band were impressed by the Bradford TOTP audience. "They were a cool audience," said Ming. "Very 80s! They had never heard our version of the Police song but they joined in anyway.

"From the stage I spotted a Boy George, and I didn't know pirates were so big in Britain!"

Her memories of the 1980s were of bright pink lipstick and good music, from the likes of Boy George, Cyndi Lauper and, of course, The Police.

"I remember Karma Chameleon and loved it and I also remember the 1980s being known for breakdancing and Michael Jackson," she said.

The band felt that music since the 1980s had become a little less fun. "During the 1980s it was jumping around to music and now they have mosh pits!" said band member Hypno.