Glamorous Ghost

 Truly one of the immaculate TOTP appearances

The Subotnick-level electronics, the haunting refrain, the xylo tingles... the drumlessness  .... the hair... the white mask of Sylvian's face... the beauty of the other Japaneers....  even the shirt Sylvian is wearing

and the incredible video FX, still futuristic after all these years

It's quite amazing the way that the Top of the Pops camera crew and lighting people responded to the song, rose to the occasion... it feels like they knew something extraordinary was required for this appearance, or should I say, apparition. Every angle, every shot, enhances the song and cordons off the Japan performance in a special heightened pocket of the program, so different is the approach to how the other bands in that edition are presented. 

No wonder Mark Fisher, aged 14, was chilled in his bones, harrowed in his marrow * 

Appearances like these are one of the reasons why the late 80s UK Hit Parade felt so disappointing - such a fall from Associates, Japan, et al. 

Although the rot started as early as 1983 - the year after this was broadcast.

The whole 1982 episode is a good one

Imagination - their best song maybe, although the video is corny

The Gary Numan track, funnily enough, is from when he starts copying Japan - the fretless Karn-atic bass. A solid effort although nothing tops the Replicas / Pleasure Principle era material.

Alongside "Fade To Grey", this - "The Damned Don't Cry" is Visage's equal-first best tune. Is the video inspired by the Visconti movie?. Although a clothes horse, as a singer Steve Strange does pretty good job with the ashen Bowie-Low style. 

Even the tune from Classic Nouveaux - godawful group, I thought at the time - is quite diverting. Those strange drums.

(Forgot to mention ABC, "Poison Arrow" - discussed in the comments)

Tight Fit is good honest British tack.

The only real slop is the Leo Sayer tune. 

And then the incongruity of Derek and the Dominoes's "Layla" receiving a dance routine from one of Zoo. A flashback to a completely different rock zeitgeist. From a funny moment in the early '80s when various classic rock singles were reissued for reasons unknown and made the pop charts: Black Sabbath "Paranoid", Lynyrd Skynyrd "Freebird".

But Japan cut through it all with the astonishing stillness, the grace and gravity of Sylvian's performance

* my response to Mark's paean to Japan / The Tin Drum / "Ghosts" is in some ways the seed, or a seed, of Shock and Awe

As mentioned by Ed in comments, another apparition of "Ghosts" on BBC teevee - The Old Grey Whistle Test.