After a ‘golden mic’ guest presenter spot from East 17’s Tony and Brian last week, we’re back to the roster of Radio 1 DJs and guess who we’ve got again this week? Yes, it’s Simon ‘Smug’ Mayo! I know I bang on about him on a regular basis but he really is/was insufferable! I think it’s the way he seems to think that the audience had tuned in to see him and what he had to say rather than the artists and the music on the show that really irks me. You weren’t the main attraction Mayo, you really weren’t. I know I’ve accused fellow presenter Mark Goodier of being a bit dull in the past but at least he realised why he was there and got on with the job in an unassuming way. Somehow, Mayo’s ego wouldn’t allow him to follow suit. Right well, let’s see how many times he can piss me off in this particular show. Rant mode engaged…
Mayo kicks off his demonstration of his witty repartee with this pathetically weak intro:
“Franklin D. Roosevelt…John F. Kennedy…and Sophie B. Hawkins…”
That’s it. No welcome. No promotion of the show. Just an incredibly tenuous exercise in name association. Assuming that he came up with his lines himself, did he really think that was good enough? It’s not a start that bodes well.
As for Sophie herself, it’s quite a memorable performance of her hit “Right Bedside You” with her strapped to a bongo drum throughout. I can’t work out what the parked bicycle on stage was all about though other than it was…well…right beside Sophie. Going back to her name though, I wonder why she used the affectation of a middle initial? Was there another Sophie Hawkins whom she wanted to avoid being confused with? I’ve looked online and the only other Sophie Hawkins I can find is someone who designs jumpsuits for a living. Damn! I wish I wore a jumpsuit? Nah, it doesn’t quite work does it?
More buffoonery from Mayo next but this time he tries to illicit some humour from the song title rather than the artist’s name. The former is “Rollercoaster” and the latter is The Grid so Mayo sees it as a perfect opportunity for some physical comedy by asking the TV audience to put their arms in the air as if they are on an actual rollercoaster. With his own arms aloft, he gestures to some off camera minion to put a microphone to his mouth so he can continue to speak as he says “Here we goooo…”. It’s about as funny as whiplash.
As for The Grid, their huge surprise hit “Swamp Thing” had only just dropped out of the charts after a marathon run but they were back in immediately with this follow up. I’m sure people who know about these things would say that it was a ‘banger’ or something but all I know is that it didn’t have that distinctive banjo hook that its predecessor had and therefore didn’t cut through to a mainstream audience in the same way. “Rollercoaster” peaked at No 19 whilst “Swamp Thing” went to No 3.
After trying some physical comedy, Simon Mayo attempts a play on words in his next intro. “Lend your ears to Lisa Loeb” he delights in telling us. Careful your sides don’t split everyone!
After being part of the satellite segue the last time she was on, this time we get the official video for “Stay (I Missed You)”. Directed by her friend Ethan Hawke who was also the reason that the song ended up in the film Reality Bites after he made it available to director Ben Stiller, it’s simple to the point of boring but yet somehow effective. Lisa just singing direct to camera as she wanders around a sparse New York apartment in an almost confessional way with just a cat for company (that belonged to Hawke by the way) shouldn’t really work but kind of does. It was even chosen by Spin magazine as their video of the year.
Ever wondered what was the reason behind the naming of her band? The single is officially credited to Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories after all. Well, apparently Nine Stories was taken from the collection of short stories by J.D.Salinger one of which was called The Laughing Man. Hmm. No doubt Simon Mayo would have taken that as a nickname. Psst. Simon. We’re laughing at you not with you.
Wicked! Wicked! Junglist Massive! Oh God. The era of ‘jungle’ is upon us. As a pop kid, I was never going to get on board with this and listening to it now, I feel the same as when I first heard it – what a racket! It fell upon M–Beat featuring General Levy to bring jungle to the masses via their twice released track “Incredible” (it was originally out earlier in the year when it made No 39 before this rerelease took it into the Top 10). Now I always thought that the General was shouting “Jungle Ist Massive” rather than “Junglist massive” though neither really make much sense but apparently ‘Junglist’ originally referred to a person living in an area of West Kingston, Jamaica called Jungle but which was later hijacked to mean a dedicated enthusiast of jungle music with the ‘Massive’ part being the community.
Another element to this that I found confusing was the difference between jungle and drum ‘n’ bass. I’m still not sure what it is or if it even exists. At some point as the movement gathered pace, they seemed to become interchangeable. Despite my perplexity and reticence, I was convinced by my fellow Our Price colleagues to explore the jungle by going to an appearance at the legendary Hacienda club by drum ‘n’ bass heavyweight LTJ Bukem. And you know what? I had a good night. I could hear and feel how the music made sense in that setting. Did I want to listen to drum ‘n’ bass on my stereo at home? No chance.
Apparently, the success of “Incredible” went to General Levy’s head and he made a statement in an interview in The Face magazine that he was “runnin’ jungle” which led to a backlash from the rest of the scene and a campaign against the song with some pirate radio stations refusing to play it. Eight years later it would feature in the film Ali G Indahouse which gave the world Ali G and Shaggy’s track “Me Julie”. Hmm.
What’s that? Simon Mayo’s intro? Oh it was some bollocks about Roy Wood’s beard being a jungle. Tosser.
Having already tried physical comedy and word play, Mayo now attempts what Ben Elton used to call “a bit of politics” when introducing REM. With their new single being called “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?”, Mayo makes reference to the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke saying the real question should be “what’s the interest rate going to be Kenneth?”. Hysterical I’m sure you’ll agree.
The lead track from hotly anticipated new album “Monster”, “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?” didn’t disappoint. Built around a huge, reverberating guitar sound, it was, to quote Madness, a “heavy, heavy monster sound”. I recall that we sold out of the CD single on the day of release in the Our Price I was working in though we had plenty of the cassette version left. This seemed to me more evidence (if any were needed) that they were now a long way from their early beginnings as indie darlings and had transitioned into rock behemoths, selling CDs Dire Straits style as quickly as they could be pressed. The album was another huge unit shifter selling 9 million copies worldwide but that was only around half of what its predecessor “Automatic For The People” sold.
Ever wondered what the song title was all about? Well, it’s not the most pleasant story. Here’s @TOTPFacts:
At least Mayo didn’t try to make a joke out of that.
An exclusive performance from Sinéad O’Connor next to plug her latest album “Universal Mother”. After 1992’s covers album “Am I Not Your Girl?” received a lukewarm reception from critics and a controversy courting promotional appearance on Saturday Night Live in which she tore up a photo of the Pope, I’m guessing her record company needed a solid outing for her next collection of songs. However, what they got was an album that once again divided opinion. Featuring songs that dealt with family trauma, it wasn’t an easy listen. Here’s Sinéad herself commenting on it:
“That album was the first attempt to try to expose what was really underneath a lot of the anger of the other records. George Michael told me he loved that record, but could only listen to it once because it was so painful. He had to hide it.”
Doyle, Tom (October 2005). “The Mojo interview”. Mojo. No. 143. p. 43.
The track performed here – “Fire On Babylon” was released as the second single from the album but didn’t chart in the UK though lead single “Thank You For Hearing Me” made No 13. Sinéad unleashes her usual transcendental vocal on top of a mesmerising backbeat but it’s a bit too intense for my ears. By the way, Simon Mayo makes no attempt at any humour whilst introducing Sinéad – probably scared of her.
Something from the album chart now. Elvis Presley had been dead for 17 years by this point (as Mayo delights in telling us in his intro) but that didn’t stop his vast back catalogue from being raided and repackaged. “Elvis -The Essential Collection” was a 28 track compilation album released by RCA that featured just about everything the casual fan would want to hear in one handy album. Not that there hadn’t been such Best Of packages before. I’m pretty sure there was a double album released in 1987 that had been a big seller and according to his discography on Wikipedia, there exists 115 posthumous compilations.
The track chosen by TOTP for an outing is “Return To Sender” which was the UK’s Christmas No 1 of 1962. It featured in the film Girls! Girls! Girls! which was one of those mostly dreadful Elvis musical comedies that he did (a lot). The plot (such as it is) according to Wikipedia is that Elvis plays a Hawaiian based fisherman who dreams of owning the boat he built with his father. Oh, and he’s caught up in a love triangle and has to choose between two women (obviously). I just wish we could have returned Simon Mayo to sender.
My wish is granted! Well, in a staged hijacking kind of way but I’ll take it. Just as Mayo begins his intro for Mariah Carey and Luther Vandross, last week’s presenters Tony and Brian from East 17 gatecrash proceedings and bundle the Radio 1 DJ off screen so that they can do it instead. Nice one lads! Whatever Mayo would have said, it wouldn’t have been as amusing as hearing Brian pronounce Luther’s surname as ‘Van – de – Ross’. Mind you, that’s better than a late night North East local radio DJ doing a love songs show that my mate Robin once heard introduce in a seductive manner as “Luther…V…D”. Erm…
Mariah and Luther are in the studio to perform their cover of the Lionel Richie / Diana Ross (sorry – Miss Diana Ross) sing “Endless Love”. There’s a curious bit right at the start where the producers seem to cock up who the camera should be on. As Mariah draws breath between her first and second lines, the camera suddenly reverts to Luther for a nano second for no reason. Maybe Tony and Brian hijacker’s the TV gantry as well.
After 15 long (some may say torturous) weeks, we finally have a new No 1. Whigfield is her name or rather it wasn’t. Her actual name is Sannie Carlson and the name of the act was Whigfield (see Blondie and Toyah also). To add to the confusion, the act originated from Italy via producer Larry Pignagnoli but Sannie herself was / is Danish. Anyway, “Saturday Night” was another of those Summer time hits imported from Europe that always charted just as we entered Autumn as the holiday making herd returned home and wanted a copy of that record they kept dancing to in the clubs of the continent. Ah yes, the dance. “Saturday Night” came with its own dance just as “Superman” and “Agadoo” by Black Lace had back in the mid 80s and like “Macarena” by Los Del Rio would have a few years later. I can’t recall exactly how it went but I think there was some laying of hands on shoulders and hips and jumping forward with your feet together. Apparently, Sannie never did the dance herself and wasn’t keen on promoting it. Nobody is sure who came up with it but the best guess is a gym instructor used the song to soundtrack a fitness class and the moves were taken from there and repeated in the clubs. Or something. Whigfield will be at No 1 for 4 weeks in total. Oh dear.
There’s a change of format at the death as the play out song over a montage of clips from the show we’d just watched is ditched. Let’s be fair, it was a crap idea that never worked. In its place is a plug for the brand new retro show TOTP2. A retread of the show’s archives narrated initially by Johnnie Walker, the programme would be trailed at the end of the regular show by showing a clip of a song that would be featured that week. I’m not going to start reviewing those as part of the blog as it kind of disrupts the timeline and makes an outlier of the track chosen. In any case, if it’s something from 1983 onwards, I’ll have reviewed it anyway.
| Order of appearance | Artist | Title | Did I buy it? |
| 1 | Sophie B. Hawkins | Right Beside You | Nope |
| 2 | The Grid | Rollercoaster | I did not |
| 3 | Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories | Stay (I Missed You) | No |
| 4 | M-Beat featuring General Levy | Incredible | Never happening |
| 5 | REM | What’s The Frequency, Kenneth? | Liked it, didn’t buy it |
| 6 | Sinéad O’Connor | Fire On Babylon | Nah |
| 7 | Elvis Presley | Return To Sender | My Mum is a huge fan but no |
| 8 | Mariah Carey and Luther Vandross | Endless Love | Negative |
| 9 | Whigfield | Saturday Night | And no |
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/m001lst6/top-of-the-pops-15091994
TOTP Rewind - the 90s 