For the first time in what seems like forever, the stars have aligned and the BBC4 TOTP repeats and therefore the TOTP Rewind blog is in sync with the real world! Yes, it is October in 2021 and we have finally entered October in 1991. Come the broadcast of the repeats next Friday, we will almost be in exact parallel to the day with 30 years ago.
For now though, it isn’t exact timings that preoccupies the world of TOTP but the ‘year zero’ revamp. The 03 October 1991 show brought about the biggest changes to the show’s format in years. Radio 1 DJs as hosts? Gone! Paul Hardcastle’s “The Wizard” theme tune that had soundtracked the show’s opening credits for the last 5 and a half years? Gone! Indeed, said opening credit graphics? Gone! The option to mime to a backing track? Gone! Acts had to sing live from hereon in. Even the set was new with the show having been shifted from BBC Television Centre in London to BBC Elstree Centre in Borehamwood. All of these changes were the brainchild of incoming new producer Stanley Appel whose associations with the programme extended back to 1966 through various roles as cameraman, production assistant, director and stand-in producer. Despite his long standing connections with the show, I’d have to say ‘talk about a new broom’!
The concept behind all these changes was to make the show appear ‘cool’ again and install within in it a sense of it being fit for purpose as a music show reflecting the trends and taste of youth. So why get in someone who had been kicking around the show for the past 25 years? Appel was 58 at the time of being put in charge of the show! 58! That’s even five tears older than I am now and I am sooo middle aged!Given all of the above, could the new format work work? Did it succeed? Let’s see what happened in the very first show in this new era of TOTP…
Yeah well, straight off the bat I wasn’t keen on the new theme tune which was composed by somebody called Tony Gibber (who?). At least the previous theme tune was written by a bona fide pop star. Tony Gibber sounds like the name of a weatherman on local radio. In all of the online polls I have seen as to the best ever TOTP theme tune, nothing comes close to “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin and certainly not Tony Gibber’s effort! As for the new graphics, it looks like they were trying just a little but too hard to prove that this was the show for the kids and that new dance music they liked by having silhouetted figures dancing in…what was that supposed to be ? A generic warehouse setting seems most likely (it was actually The London Museum of Water & Steam). Meanwhile, the new metallic logo was widely ridiculed as looking like a weather vane.
Once all of that was out of the way, instead of the usual grinning fizzog of the host doing a to camera intro, we get a disembodied voice introducing the first act who are Erasure with their single “Love To Hate You”. I guess it was a solid and sensible choice of act to open the new look TOTP. Vince and Andy were in their imperial phase and the song itself is an upbeat number to help set the mood for the show. Andy seems to have come wearing striped, sleeveless pyjamas but it’s the backing dancers who cause you to gawp the most as they appear to be be dressed as four fortune tellers (possibly called Madame Zelda). Not sure what that was all about but someone should have asked them to look into a crystal ball to ask if this new TOTP format would be a success or not. Definitely a success was “Love To Hate You” which would become one of the duo’s biggest ever hits when it peaked at No 4.
Finally we get to see the new presenters who this week are Tony Dortie and Mark Franklin. Dortie had first been seen on 24-hour cable and satellite television channel Music Box before moving onto work for Children’s BBC on a show called UP2U which I think was meant to be a hip version of Blue Peter. If so, Dortie’s recruitment would tally with the strategy of trying to update the show’s image to be more ‘cool’. Mark Franklin was just 17 at the time of his elevation to national TV having previously worked on BBC Wiltshire Sound. By the end of his time on the show, Franklin would have presented more TOTP episodes than the likes of Bruno Brookes and Mark Goodier but that stint has hardly made him a household name I would argue. Still, they both seemed keen and enthusiastic although neither actually introduce themselves preferring to allow the on screen text below them to tell us their names. Dortie then gives some blather about the show going to reflect the changing trends in the UK music scene before saying something unintelligible about the Top 10. Here come those what Tony? I’ve rewound this a number times and still can’t understand what he’s saying. Being a mumbler is probably not great if you’re a TV presenter!
The Top 10 countdown then appears on our screens with nothing but the new theme tune playing over it. There’s not even any voiceover announcing the songs. It just looks weird. Back in the mid 80s the producers introduced a video Top 10 which played snippets of every song. This is like that but you can’t hear the actual songs! They even just throw away the No 1 reveal within the first five minutes of the show but then it is only Bryan Adams for the 13th week in a row so I guess there wasn’t much of an element of surprise anyway.
Then we’re onto the next act which is again in the new studio and its Voice Of The Beehive with “I Think I Love You”. I’m just putting this out there right now – I always liked this lot. A bit like a poppier B52s. Good songs and an enthusiastic delivery which is exactly what they give here. As markers for what we could expect from the new show, Erasure and Voice Of The Beehive weren’t bad choices at all.
Of course, “I Think I Love You” wasn’t actually a Voice Of The Beehive song and was in fact originally by The Partridge Family. I was just a little bit too young to remember this fictional family group that, like the Monkees before them, went on to have real life pop hits. Their TV show aired between 1970 and 1974 (so when I was between the ages of two and six) but it made a superstar out of David Cassidy who played eldest son Keith. “I Think I Love You” was The Partridge Family’s first hit peaking at No 1 in the US and No 18 over here.
The legacy of the song was strengthened by the reference to it in this clip from the film Four Weddings And A Funeral. A marvellously written speech expertly delivered in Hugh Grant’s characteristic bumbling, self deprecating style…
Although Voice Of The Beehive’s version would peak at a lowly No 25, I think they turn what many might see as a cheesy 70s pop song into a bouncy, jump-around-your-living-room radio friendly hit and it was a great choice of cover for them. Sadly, they would only have one more Top 40 UK hit and the band split after 1996 album “Sex And Misery” failed to chart. They still play the odd reunion gig and have a healthy community of fans on Facebook.
We go into the next studio artist with just a voice over link. As the camera switches stages to the new act you can see him awkwardly clapping along to Voice Of The Beehive. This just isn’t working for me. Is it meant to be seamless? It just looks awkward. That next act is Kenny Thomas or ‘Ke-aaaaarnny Thomas’ as Tony Dortie pronounces his name. Dortie seemed to do this sort of thing a lot as I recall, playing up to his London roots and regularly used phrases like ‘Peace out’, ‘Laterz’ and ‘Respect’. Sometimes he used to mix it up and say ‘Laterz. Much laterz!’. Was he encouraged to do it so as to try and up the show’s hip credentials? I wasn’t a fan.
As for dear old Kenny, “Best Of You” was his third consecutive hit of ’91 and like his first hit “Outstanding”, was actually a cover version. It was written by Booker T. Jones of Booker T. & the M.G.’s back in 1980 but, like “I Think I Love You” / Voice Of The Beehive earlier, it was a pretty good choice of song for Kenny to cover. Not that I liked it of course, I had an irrational dislike of Kenny back then, but the song fitted in with the brand of UK soul he was peddling.
I have since apologised in this blog for my aversion to Kenny as he seems like a very decent guy and has suffered some pretty horrendous stuff in his private life with his four year old daughter being diagnosed with a brain tumour. In the last week, Kenny himself was hospitalised with COVID and was very unwell. Thankfully he has recovered enough to be allowed to return home but he has had to cancel the 30th anniversary tour of the release of his debut album “Voices” as a result. That album was released eleven days after this TOTP performance so no doubt Kenny would have been on the promotional trail this time 30 years ago. Unlike Erasure, Kenny ‘s promotional budget could only afford a lone dancer up there on stage with him and you have to feel sorry for her as she seems to be freestyling desperately. “Best Of You” peaked at No 11.
Remember when TOTP presenters used to occasionally produce incongruous interviews out of nowhere with some of the acts on the show. I can recall The Police and Genesis being asked some truly mindless questions up on the gantry by the likes of Steve Wright for no good reason. Then of course there’s this from 1982. Was Debbie in on the joke or not?
Well, the interviews are back as Mark Franklin takes to the stage himself to chat to the next act who is Belinda Carlisle who is here to perform her new single “Live Your Life Be Free“. Before that though, Franklin starts meandering about how the show can now play any song from the US Top 10 now if it wants to …except they’re not going to as there are no British acts in the US Top 10 that week! WTF?! Why make a big deal of a new feature and then not actually, you know, do the feature? Plus, why did the act in the US chart have to be British? Surely the point was to play something that wasn’t in our charts anyway?! Madness.
Franklin is undeterred though and uses the fact that Belinda is American to shift from the US charts (where she hasn’t had Top 10 hit for three years) to her performance. All we get out of Belinda is the name of her new album (same as the single) and when it’s out. I guess that is the point of her performing on the show in the first place but none of this was really making any sense. Also nonsensical was Belinda’s decision to perform the song whilst wearing what appear to be marigold washing up gloves. To say it’s a live vocal (supposedly), I don’t think Belinda’s notoriously warbly and derided vocals sound too bad.
Oh and whilst we’re talking about promotional tools, check out the guy on guitar in the Monty Python T-shirt. Surely this was a deliberate plant by Virgin to advertise the fact that Monty Python’s “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” song had been released as a single and is in the charts and on the show later. “Live Your Life Be Free” (the single) peaked at No 12.
Next, Tony Dortie emerges from the throng of the studio audience to announce another innovative feature of the new format as he promises us “exclusive videos from all the big stars”. Brilliant! So who’s first then Tony? “Fun Day” by Steve Wonder? Obviously Steve is a legend of music but this song? Never heard of it! Taken from the soundtrack album (all Stevie originals) for Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever, the single peaked at No 63. whilst the album fared little better with a high of No 56 in the UK. Given that Stevie’s last UK hit had been three years earlier (and even that was a duet with Julio Iglesias) and that his reputation had taken a big hit after the colossal turd that was “I Just Called to Say I Love You”, were UK kids that bothered about Stevie’s latest song? I know, I know – his 70s stuff is fantastic but his 80s and 90s work? Maybe it was the Spike Lee connection that made Stanley Appel think it was a good idea. Hip film director making gritty urban movies. That’s giving the kids what they want. I wonder who else will show up in this feature?
The video prompted lots of online comments about the fact that it appears to depict Steve driving a car despite his blindness though none of the tweets I saw had the wherewithal to paraphrase the title of one of his 80s dud singles “Don’t Drive Drunk” to “Don’t Drive Blind”.
Oh God! Mark Franklin is back with another cringeworthy interview. This time his victim is Julian Lennon who is asked about why he wrote eco-anthem “Saltwater”. To be fair, Julian’s answer (“In my view the world has a bit of a problem because of us and I think we need to do something about it”) resonates even more loudly today and had we listened more to what he and others like him were saying 30 years ago, maybe we would be looking at a better world future. After nearly tumbling over his keyboards, Julian gives us a run through of his song which prompted a lot of undeserved ‘he’s just imitating his father’ type comments on Twitter. He can’t help the genetics he was born with. Although not a riveting performance, it does include a nice bit of slide guitar. Not sure he needed all that dry ice though and was that the best way to advertise his green credentials?
Meanwhile, in a BBC office somewhere, a few days before this broadcast:
Stuffy but very important BBC boss: Stanley! How’s the new look TOTP going? Got some good artists booked for the very first show of this exciting new era?
Stanley Appel: Oh yes! We’ve got Erasure and Voice Of The Beehive and Kenny Thomas…
Stuffy but very important BBC boss: OK sounds…erm…good. Who else?
Stanley Appel: Julian Lennon…
Stuffy but very important BBC boss: Not that hippy! Never could stand his farther either!
Stanley Appel: Oh…sorry…but the final act in the studio is a huge name!
Stuffy but very important BBC boss: Excellent! Whitney Houston? Madonna? If the next word that comes out of your mouth is ‘Bros’ I’m not going to be happy Stanley…
Stanley Appel: No, they’re huge I promise! Think Live Aid…
Stuffy but very important BBC boss: Not the f*****g Boomtown Rats?!!
Stanley Appel: No, think about it. We’ve got a brand new show the likes of which the world has never been seen before…just like Live Aid…and who opened Live Aid?
Stuffy but very important BBC boss: The Prince and Princess of Wales?! You’ve got Charles and Diana? Not just pop royalty, the actual Royal Family. That’s amazing Stanley. Unbelievable. Well done!
Stanley Appel: No, it’s Status Quo
*tumbleweed*
Stuffy but very important BBC boss: Tony…YOU’RE FIRED!!!
Status Quo?! STATUS “F*****G QUO?! That’s who Appel decided would be a good act to help relaunch TOTP and convince the nation’s youth that they were still a credible music show reflecting new and emerging trends?! In what universe was that a good decision?! This unfathomable choice is passed off as acceptable by use of a graphic that indicates that the Quo are included on the show as part of the album chart feature (their latest release “Rock ’til You Drop” is at No 10) but I doubt many of the watching audience were buying that – the reason for their inclusion I mean and not the album; clearly some people must have bought the album with it being at No 10 and all.
The band give us a horrible version of that old rhythm and blues standard “Let’s Work Together” made famous by Canned Heat (and later as “Let’s Stick Together” by Bryan Ferry) but just look at them! Francis Rossi is wearing a leather jacket over a collar and tie and jeans with a pair of black leather shoes! It’s just all kinds of wrong. And check out bass player John “Rhino” Edwards’ shaggy hair! Who had hair like that in 1991? Even Tony Dortie’s voice over intro is wrong as he says that the’ve had 25 hit albums but Wikipedia tells me that “Rock ’til You Drop”is their 20th studio album – unless he was including Best Ofs or live albums in that figure? Oh, who cares? This was just dire. In fact, I think the terminally uncool Dire Straits would have been a ‘cooler’ choice than Status Quo. Horrible.
They’ve retained the Breakers section for now but there’s only two acts in it this week as opposed to the four that have been crammed into this feature recently. First off is DJ Carl Cox with “I Want You (Forever)“. I have to admit that I didn’t think of Carl Cox as having hits under his own name but rather as a legendary remixer of other people’s tunes and a ‘superstar DJ’ which is probably why I don’t remember this track at all. That and the fact that I’m not really a dance head anyway so it probably just passed me by completely. As you can imagine, there’s lot of samples included here but I don’t know any of the original tracks so I’m not going to linger around here any longer.
As mentioned earlier, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” by Monty Python was in the charts and we all know who was to blame when a novelty record got into the charts around this time. No, not Timmy Mallett (for once) but Radio1 DJ Simon Mayo. Using his breakfast show to promote them, he’d already made unlikely hits out of “Kinky Boots” by Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman and “Donald Where’s Yer Troosers?” by Andy Stewart and now was at it again.
I can’t recall exactly why the irritating little tit decided he would turn his attention to the closing song from Monty Python’s Life Of Brian but turn it he did and so it came to pass that “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” would finally become a hit. It was originally released as a single to coincide with the film’s opening in 1979 but failed to chart. It was re-released in 1988 to help promote the film’s release on VHS but once again it flopped. Mayo clearly thought he had the golden touch by now and I guess he did when he inspired its re-release by Virgin and it became a No 3 hit. Thinking about it, was it intentional by Mayo to try and launch a campaign to knock Bryan Adams off the top spot and somehow make himself out as ‘the saviour of music’ in his eyes? I wouldn’t put it past the smug git.
Now I love Life Of Brian the film and a school mate taped the soundtrack for me when it first came out but did we need to have its most famous song in the charts in 1991? I don’t think we did. Its renewed popularity has led to it being voted the most popular song to be requested to be played at UK funerals in a 2014 poll by The Co-operative Funeralcare. It has also been taken up as a crowd favourite at sporting events and was sung by Eric Idle at the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics.
We end with the No 1 and it’s still “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” by Bryan Adams. How Stanley Appel must have been hoping and wishing with his whole being that there would be a new No 1 to coincide with new format of TOTP. Out with the old and in with the new and all that. The UK record buying public weren’t having that though and were still purchasing it in massive quantities. Tony Dortie is sat at a drum kit for no discernible reason before Mark Franklin does his intro sat behind Julian Lennon’s keyboards and what an intro. It’s totally non -sensical:
“Now 13 weeks ago, who would have thought 13 weeks later he would still have been No 1 but he is for the 13th week breaking all records it’s Bryan Adams…”
So that’s 13 weeks – got that everyone? That intro doesn’t make any grammatical sense does it?
There’s no play out video only the credits soundtracked by the new theme tune (just like with the Top 10 countdown) but of course there’s always time for a ‘”Laterz!” from Tony Dortie.
So what did we think of the new format? I can’t recall what my opinion was at the time of its original broadcast but watching it back 30 years later, it was a right old shambles.
| Order of appearance | Artist | Title | Did I buy it? |
| 1 | Erasure | Love To Hate You | No but I have it on their first Best Of Pop! |
| 2 | Voice Of The Beehive | I Think I Love You | Liked it, didn’t buy it |
| 3 | Kenny Thomas | Best Of You | Obviously not |
| 4 | Belinda Carlisle | Live Your Live Be Free | Nope |
| 5 | Steve Wonder | Fun Day | No |
| 6 | Julian Lennon | Saltwater | See 2 above |
| 7 | Status Quo | Let’s Work Together | F**k right off! |
| 8 | DJ Carl Cox | I Want You (Forever) | Not my bag at all |
| 9 | Monty Python | Always Look On The Bright Side of Life | Negative |
| 10 | Bryan Adams | (Everything I Do) I Do It for You | I did not |
Disclaimer
I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).
All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0010k2p/top-of-the-pops-03101991
TOTP Rewind - the 90s 