Jade Solid Gold Best 10 Awards Presentation 1985
Modern Audio
VCD 040040

At the end of May, Modern Audio, TVB's distributor in HK, started releasing TVB's annual Jade Solid Gold awards show on VCD for the first time. As most know, the 80s were the golden days of the HK entertainment industry and there was much crossover between the film/TV/music industries. With a major music awards show, the viewer knows the big names are going to come out even if they weren't singers. Here is a quick look at the 1985 edition:

Host: Winnie Yu

Singers (each singing at least one song): Alan Tam, Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui, Roman Tam, Jacky Cheung, Julie Sue, Lui Fong, Sam Hui, Danny Summer, George Lam

Presenters: Chow Yun Fat, Cherie Chung, Jackie Chan, James Wong, Loletta Chu, Eric Tsang, Sylvia Chang, Lily Li, Sammo Hung

This is how an awards show is done. The performers are enjoying themselves way too much and don't care if they screw up while singing the songs. A few of the singers even leave the stage to go to the VIP section and have their fellow singers help them out with their songs.

Alan Tam wins the Most Popular Male Singer award. This would be Alan's second straight win and he would win it again in 1986 and 1987. He would have no doubt won more awards but he stopped accepting awards in 1988 to give other singers a chance.

Anita Mui wins the Most Popular Female Singer award. 1985 was Anita's breakthrough year (thanks to her "Bad Girl" album) and she would win the Most Popular Female Singer award the next four years as well. The big song off of the "Bad Girl" album was "Why Why Tell Me Why" (aka "Bad Girl") which would become one of the most popular Anita Mui songs. Golden Harvest would release a film starring Anita the following year named after song (and the song was featured in it as well). The song was so ridiculously popular that it was frequently lampooned in HK films from the mid-to-late 80s. If you have ever seen a character in a HK film break out and start singing "Why Why Tell Me Why", they are goofing on this song. The funniest goof by far was when Anita herself made fun of the song in "Chocolate Inspector".

Non-singers receiving awards on the show include famous composers Michael Lai and Violet Lam. Both individuals scored many classic 80s films. Violet wins the award for best composer (for the excellent theme song from Heart Of Dragon sung by Julie Sue) and Michael Lai wins the award for best producer.

Highlights:

Alan Tam starts off the show with what would be one of several trips into the audience by the singers. First he goes over to where Jackie is sitting and gets a surprised Jackie to help him sing one of the songs from Armour Of God. His next "victim" is his Wynners bandmate Bennett Pang. Alan and Bennett also sing their theme song from Mummy Dearest during the opening medley.
George Lam lets loose with a great medley that includes songs made famous by other singers including Alan, Leslie and Sam (including a few seconds of the Aces Go Places 2 theme). George even manages to sneak in a brief version of the Happy Ghost theme song (!) originally sang by Teresa Carpio. He ends his 10 minute medley by going over to Julie Sue and having her help him sing her theme song from Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing. Awesome. Oh yeah, did I mention George also tries to get Sammo to sing during his medley?
Jackie running up behind Anita and scooping her off of her feet as she tries to collect an award for "Why Why Tell Me Why".
Sammo appears to give out an award and you can probably guess who he is going to give it to. If you know anything about the theme songs for his films, you know that he frequently used a certain singer. That singer is, of course, Julie Sue. At this awards show, Julie sings the themes for both Heart Of Dragon and The Millionaires' Express (duet with Danny Summer).
Keep an eye out for Maggie Cheung in the VIP section sitting next to Jackie and Willie Chan. She isn't a part of the awards show but she is shown several times in the audience. Ann Bridgewater can also be seen in the audience several times (how many remember her short-lived singing career?).
The awards show ends with all of the singers joining together and singing "Tomorrow Will Be Better". The following year John Woo would have a children's chorus sing that song in a A Better Tomorrow. Woo fans will also recognize the song Roman Tam sings during the show as the song Woo used in the restaurant scene in the beginning of A Better Tomorrow.
Since this is a film-related board, I will mention the film themes performed. They include: Why Why Tell Me Why (both songs), Aces Go Places 4, Mummy Dearest, Heart Of Dragon, The Millionaires' Express, Musical Singer, Armour Of God (the Alan Tam songs), Devoted To You, and Working Class.

The music is taped but most of the vocals are live. The songs that are most likely lip-synched are the opening medley, Sam Hui's Aces Go Places 4 theme song, Alan Tam's "Lorelei" (from Armour Of God) and "Tomorrow Will Be Better" performed by all of the singers at the end.

Running time is around 2 hours. Quality is average for a VCD but this is going to be the best it's going to get because Modern Audio doesn't release the TVB stuff on DVD. Definitely a treasure for music and film fans as it contains great performances from many recently deceased legends (Roman, Leslie, and Anita).

Note About The Packaging

Each edition comes on two VCDs. They are enclosed in a small hardcover book. Upon opening the book, you will notice the VCDs are inside a plastic sleeve glued to the inside of the book. Unfortunately, it may not be obvious how to get the VCDs out of the plastic sleeves. Don't rip the sleeves off of the book or you will ruin the packaging. To get the VCDs out, gently pull forward the top left edge of the plastic sleeve. You should see the top flap of the plastic sleeve. Gently pull the flap upwards. The plastic sleeve is now open and you can take the VCD out without ruining the packaging.

Where To Buy

Go to your favorite online retailer and search for "J.S.G.". Modern Audio has released every show up to 1992 so far.

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Screenshots

Alan getting some help from Jackie