It’s 1991 and my life has already changed seismically even this early into the decade. Just a few short weeks ago I married my girlfriend of four years and we moved to Manchester to start our life together. Despite only knowing one person each that lived there at the time, we have settled in pretty well. Crucially, I have secured permanent employment at Our Price (after a Xmas there as a temp) and I like the job and the people I work with. Although we don’t have much money, Manchester, and indeed life, feels exciting.

In tandem with my life change, TOTP will undergo its own far reaching overhaul of its format later in 1991 which would come to be known as the ‘Year Zero’ revamp. Fearing that the show was no longer seen as ‘cool’, its incoming, new producer Stanley Appel decided to sever all ties with Radio 1 which had been closely associated with the show since the station’s birth in 1967. In a dramatic cull, the established Radio 1 DJs who hosted TOTP were replaced by …well, who were these people in fact? Names such as Claudia Simon,Tony Dortie and Mark Franklin meant nothing to me but crucially they were young (Franklin was just 17 when recruited from local radio) and that seemed to be good enough reason to employ them for Appel. Quite why a man whose previous credits included Blankety Blank, Marti Caine, Leo Sayer, The Paul Daniels Magic Show and 70s impressionist Mike Yarwood and who was 58 at the time, was seen as the person who knew about what was ‘cool’ or not, I’m not sure. Aside from a new presenting team, Appel brought in a rule meaning acts had to sing live, a Top 10 countdown without any voiceover and acts being introduced off camera History has shown that Appel’s changes were not popular and they were reversed later in the decade.

Musically, there seemed to be little change in terms of what dominated the charts. We had No 1s from established stars like Queen, Cher and Michael Jackson. There was the obligatory charity record at the top of the charts in the appalling “The Stonk” for Comic Relief, a novelty single achieving the same feat in “Do The Bartman” by The Simpsons and yet another Levis advert inspired No 1 single, albeit the song was pretty good (“Should I Stay Or Should I Go” by The Clash). And of course film soundtrack No 1s were still prevalent courtesy of “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)” from Mermaids and indeed the biggest selling single of the year with 16 consecutive weeks at the top for Bryan Adams with “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” from the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. So much to look forward to!

It wasn’t all bad news though – The KLF stormed to to the top of the singles chart with “3 a.m. Eternal” whilst there were also No 1 albums for ‘new’ acts like Jesus Jones and The Farm. James finally got the success they deserved via a re-release of “Sit Down” and there was some stone cold classic dance records released this year from The Source featuring Candi Staton, Massive Attack and The Young Disciples. Then of course there was grunge, Nirvana and all that.

There was tragedy as well as the world of music lost both Freddie Mercury and Steve Marriott before their time. And perhaps the biggest blow to music was dealt on 17 Feb when Ed Sheeran was born this year. No seriously though, I do hate Ed Sheeran.

Plenty to see and listen to then. Let’s get to it….

Disclaimer

All opinions are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC.