80stastic

TOTP 14 NOV 1991

Posted on November 18, 2021 by 80stastic

Mid November 1991 – what were you doing? Me? I was gearing up for a second consecutive retail Christmas with Our Price having been working for the company for just over a year now. I didn’t know it then but it was probably one of the more stable years of my working life. A permanent job working with an exciting ‘product’ (I’d take music over baked beans any day) and I’d even been given some ordering responsibility in the form of being the chart cassettes buyer. Yes, there was that time earlier in the year when it looked like the shop would be sold off and some of us might lose our jobs (gulp!) but that likelihood had withered and withdrawn and things were back on course. For TOTP though, things were not quite as smooth. The show was six weeks into a new format courtesy of new producer Stanley Appel and it was still finding its feet. The new presenting duo of Tony Dortie and Mark Franklin seemed functional rather than flourishing and the live vocal policy was definitely catching some artists out. More seismic changes were afoot in the football world as on the day of this broadcast, the Football Association confirmed that the Premier League would start next season with 22 clubs. What would that mean for all us footy fans? Was it a good thing? Would we get to see more matches on TV? Like the new TOTP revamp, it was uncharted waters.

What we needed was some faith and happily for us, it was provided by tonight’s opening act Rozalla with her latest single “Faith (In the Power of Love)”. Having hit big with her previous single “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”, Rozalla clearly felt the the best thing she could do to maintain her momentum was to stick to the exact same formula that had brought her initial success. Consequently, “Faith (In the Power of Love)” sounds very like its predecessor and even mimics its inclusion of brackets in the song title. I’ve never really understood the need for brackets in song titles. Does their presence really add anything to the song title or are they just an affectation to add an element of perceived depth and mystery to the song? Anyway, Rozalla has decided to come dressed as…well..what has she come dressed as? It’s like some sort of mash up of Princess Leia from Star Wars and the red Power Ranger. Were people dressing like that back in 1991? Maybe it was just to distract us all from the fact that (as with a few before her), Rozalla’s singing wasn’t quite on point. Not far off but not actually on it. “Faith (In the Power of Love)” peaked at No 11.

As Tony Dortie emerges seemingly from nowhere out of the throng of the studio audience (he seems to do that a lot – he was the TOTP equivalent of the shopkeeper from Mr Benn), he says something that I’ve had to rewind three times before I’ve understood what it was. I think it was that Rozalla wanted to do a duet with Seal. The first two times I heard it as wanting to do a duet with Cyril but Seal makes more sense (especially as he’s on the show next). Before that though we have the Top 10 rundown or as Dortie says, “Let’s check those crisp biscuits which are slamming in style inside this week’s Top 10 boiii like this…” Did he really say that?! He’s such a mumbler it’s hard to tell but I think those were his actual words. Crisp biscuits? Was that slang for something? I checked it out on the urban dictionary. It’s either a very thin reefer or… something else entirely which you’ll have to look up yourself to find out. Either definition was surely not what Dortie meant. And what was the ‘boiii’ thing about? I’m guessing that was also an urban along thing but the only time I’ve heard it used is by those white posh boy twats on Made In Chelsea. Anyway, Dortie then does an actual voice over for the Top 10 countdown which we haven’t had in this new era before when it’s just been the new theme tune payed in the background. Head producer Stanley Appel must have reacted to feedback that the countdown had become an abomination and tried to restore some tradition to it. Even though it was now mid November, “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” by Bryan Adams is still in there at No 6 despite being released back in June.

As with last week’s show, we get a new disembodied voice doing the next intro. Last week it was Elayne Smith and this week we get another new presenter in the form of Claudia Simon. We don’t actually get to see Claudia’s ‘form’ though until two whole performances later. I didn’t really get what the TOTP producers were hoping to do with this voice first policy for its new presenters. Build tension? I don’t think we were that bothered about the presenters, it was the music we were after! The act that Claudia introduces is Seal (definitely not Cyril) who has released this own solo version of the hit that announced him to the pop world the year before when he and Adamski took “Killer” to No 1. To try and convince record buyers to purchase it all over again, record label ZTT have wisely made it into the “Killer EP” with a William Orbit remix of the track added alongside some live versions. Does Seal’s re-recording of the song sound that different to the original? Not to my ears I have to say. To try and emphasise the point that it is a different version, Seal is wearing (and occasionally strumming) a guitar which I’m pretty sure he never did back in 1990. Maybe the whole exercise was all about claiming some justice for Seal who was not actually officially credited alongside Adamski on the original. It’s still a great track but I don’t think the re-release in his own name was really warranted. Case dismissed.

In any other week, Tina Turner would no doubt have been bigged up in the ‘exclusive’ feature of the show but this wasn’t any other week. There is a huge exclusive coming up (no spoilers) so Tina has to make do with being…what is this section? The US chart? There’s an American flag graphic next to her name so I’m guessing so. She’s singing a song called “Way Of The World” which is a new track added to promote her first greatest hits compilation “Simply The Best” (which is what the TOTP title graphic goes with rather than the name of the single which is a bit confusing). We’d already had a horrible 90s reworking of “Nutbush City Limits” to help sell the album recently so surely anything released after that would be an improvement? Well, just about I guess. “Way Of The World” directly pinches the intro from Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” (which, of course, Tina herself covered back in ’83 to relaunch her singing career) but then just sort of meanders off into an unexceptional mid tempo soul ballad. Hardly living up to the “Simply The Best” tagline it was meant to promote. In the end, the album would do pretty well anyway going 8 (EIGHT) time platinum in the UK! For some reason, there’s no backing band up there behind Tina so when the sax solo arrives in the middle eight she has to improvise and rely on her famous legs and her new shaggy hairdo to compensate. Tina’s nothing if not an old hand at this sort of thing and does a professional job of filling. “Way Of The World” peaked at No 13.

There she is! Yes, we finally get to see Claudia Simon as she awaits her cue to do the next link. She literally is waiting, tensed like a cheetah ready to pounce at the optimum moment. Is it just me or does she come across like the female version of Pat Sharp here? I think it’s the hair. So who was Claudia? Like Tony Dortie, she had a background in children’s TV having worked for CBBC and after her stint on TOTP she moved into the world of sports with Sky TV. She moved to the US and was a Fox Sports anchor until the early ’00s but there’s little else about what she’s up to now on the internet. She seems a bit over eager to please here and ends up shouting a lot of her links, the first of which is into Altern-8. These Staffordshire ravers had already had a Top 40 hit earlier in the year with “Infiltrate 202” but it was this single “Activ 8 (Come with Me)” that really made their name. Infamous for wearing face masks (with an A imprinted on them) and Hazmat suits, they also had a penchant for including the number 8 in their song titles (they would release a further three singles with this theme).

On reflection, “Activ 8 (Come with Me)” seems very much to be jumping on the bandwagon that the The Prodigy had set rolling with their “Charly” single and its samples of the 1970s BBC Public Information Film Charley Says. The Altern-8 boys bypassed any copyright restrictions by getting the three year old daughter of the boss of their record label Network to record the ‘top one, nice one. get sorted’ bit which would prove to be the track’s hook. Were people already using those phrases in real life? By people I guess I mean ravers. Certainly the phrase ‘top one’ was in everyday use in Manchester where I was living at the time. Also, was this the point where the phrase ‘hardcore, you know the score’ came into being as per the legend emblazoned above the stage for this performance or was it already in existence? I’m pretty sure that the major labels pickled up on it and ran with it as a tagline to advertise various rave/dance compilation albums at this time. OK, so I guess we have to address the live vocal again here. Without wishing to be harsh, I think it’s fair to say that the female singer here doesn’t give her very best performance though having to follow Tina Turner probably didn’t help her nerves. “Activ 8 (Come with Me)” peaked at No 3.

I’m not sure what the mumbler supreme Tony Dortie says at the end of Altern-8’s performance but it’s something about ragga or rave pressure or …oh God knows. Anyway, it’s the Breakers now starting with Sonia and her version of The Real Thing’s “You To Me Are Everything”. You have to hand it to Sonia, this was her ninth consecutive Top 40 hit in just over two years, all but one of which made the Top 20. None of them came anywhere near replicating the success of her debut single “You’ll Never Stop Me Loving You” though which went to No 1 in 1989 of course. Still, it’s an impressive run all the same. On closer inspection though, three of the last four hits (including this one) had been cover versions which suggested that she was running out of steam and her record label out of ideas. Her next single would also be a cover; Heatwave’s “Boogie Nights”. “You To Me Are Everything” was the third and final single to be released from her eponymous sophomore album and would peak at No 13. She would have to resort to the Eurovision Song Contest to secure one final chart hit in 1993 with “Better The Devil You Know” (not the Kylie Song) in 1993.

The next Breaker was basically record company Warners reminding us that their artist REM had one of the most successful albums of the year in “Out Of Time” and that if we hadn’t already bought it then Christmas is just around the corner you know? To that end, they saw fit to release a fourth single from it in “Radio Song”. This must have been one of the songs that I heard most in 1991 as it was the opening track on “Out Of Time” meaning that even when we’d all got tired of it being played in the Our Price store I was working in and somebody finally pulled it off the shop stereo, this track probably would have had a spin in full. It’s OK but certainly not up there with some of my personal favourites from the band. Even after all those plays, I’d still somehow forgotten about the closing rap from KRS-One of Boogie Down Productions.

A fourth release of the album proved one too far and the song peaked at a lowly No 28 but I guess sales of the single came second in priority for Warners after the album which no doubt benefited from the extra exposure. Unbelievably, ‘Radio Song” wasn’t the last REM single of 1991 as “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” was re-released in December by former label I.R.S. to cash in on their “The Best Of R.E.M.” album that had been released in September, itself a cash in on the success of “Out Of Time”.

Can a single be classed as a Breaker when it’s already inside the Top 10? Well, that’s what happened here with “Is There Anybody Out There?” by Bassheads. Following near geographical neighbours Oceanic into the charts, this Wirral-based house duo went to No 5 with this dance tune. I don’t remember thinking it at the time but there’s definitely some steals from Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” and The Osmonds’ “Crazy Horses” although they weren’t sampled as they weren’t copyright cleared by the original artist and were in fact recreated by session players. There’s also a bit of Afrika Bambaataa’s “Just Get Up and Dance” in there for which he received 25% of the publishing as a result.

It all sounds like a strange brew that should be interesting but then that familiar Italia house piano riff kicks in and it reverts to sounding like all those other dance ‘anthems’ to me. The track’s title is just about a mash up of two Duran Duran songs – “Anyone Out There” and “Is There Something I Should Know?”. I think I’d rather have the Brummie lads to be honest.

And so we arrive at the moment the whole show has been building up to…so much so that we even had a mini advert for it at the start before we’d even had the first act on. I suppose some context is required here. Michael Jackson hadn’t had an album out for four year since 1987’s ‘Bad” which was a lifetime in pop and hadn’t even had a single in the charts since 1989. Therefore any new Jacko material was bound to cause a stir in the music industry. And so it did. “Black And White” was the lead single from his ‘Dangerous” album and the anticipation for the much heralded video for it was heightened by the simultaneous worldwide broadcast of it across international platforms. So whilst Tony Dortie’s claim that the video hadn’t been shown anywhere before was true, I’m not sure the ‘exclusive’ tag that he adds to it holds water. TOTP weren’t the only broadcaster in the world showing it. The promo actually premiered simultaneously in 27 countries with an audience of 500 million viewers. Maybe he just meant in the UK then.

So, what was the new video going to show us. There’s a lot to unpack here so for starters it was directed by John Landis who also made the “Thriller” video so no doubt big things were expected of it. Could that ground breaking promo be topped in terms of its legacy? It starts with a heavy rock guitar solo soundtrack before locating the action in the home of one Macaulay Culkin who’s loud playing of said music on his stereo has upset his Dad who is Norm from Cheers (who knew?). After a rebuke from Norm, Caulkin’s character sets up some gigantic speakers in the room where his parents are watching TV, hooks them up to an amplifier, turns the volume up to the setting ‘Are You Nuts?’ (no really – that’s what it says – I guess the ‘this one goes to 11’ joke had already been done by Spinal Tap), utters the words “Eat this” and blows his Dad (still in his chair) into orbit with one play of a power chord. It’s quite an opening but on reflection, it’s also all a bit silly. I recall a lot being made of the fact that Caulkin was in the video. He’d been in the film Uncle Buck with John Candy and then had achieved superstardom via Home Alone in 1990. Around that time he became friends with Jackson and would get caught up in the child sex abuse trial that engulfed the singer in 2005, testifying that he had slept in a bed with Jackson but that no molestation had ever taken place and dismissed the allegations as “absolutely ridiculous”.

Meanwhile back in the video, Norm and his chair have landed in Africa where the song proper starts and we see Jackson at last who begins performing surrounded by African warriors. From there, the action moves quickly through multiple scenes with Jacko dancing with people of various nationalities and cultures. After alighting on an image of a black baby and a white baby sitting on a representation of planet earth, Jackson re-emerges through a scene of flames before we get to the rap part of the song which Culkin returns to lip sync. The part of the video that everyone remembers is up now, the face morphing. The collective reaction of the audience to the faces of people of different nationalities and skin colour changing seamlessly into each other before our eyes was one of dumbstruck awe. One big huge wow! It was certainly impressive but hadn’t it been done before by Godley and Creme for their 1985 video fro ‘Cry”? Had people forgotten that already? Yes, the effects in “Black And White” were far superior but the idea was surely stolen by Landis.

For many of us I’m guessing this is the point that our memory tells us that the video ended but in its full, original form, it didn’t. A black panther emerges from the set and morphs into Jackson who pulls out all of his moves before embarking on a dancing rampage of destruction smashing windows, destroying a car and causing a building to explode whilst all the time grabbing his crotch repeatedly. He then morphs back into the panther before the video is finally drawn a close by Bart and Homer Simpson when the latter turns off the TV. These final four minutes caused great controversy with accusations made against Jackson that he was promoting violence and vandalism. Subsequently, this footage was removed from the video to make it more palatable for younger audiences but as this was the global premiere, it’s shown in full here.

Phew! All in all, the video was allocated approximately 10 and a half minutes of the TOTP running time which seems extraordinary but I guess this really was a big deal and the type of event TV that the show’s new producer Stanley Appel would have been looking for. Watching it back in its entirety 30 years on, it all seems like one big mess to me. Very little cohesion and with anything that was culturally popular at the time (Culkin, The Simpsons) thrown in for good measure. “Thriller” is by far the better promo and blows “Black And White” out of the water. Yes, it has some noble intentions but what was all that stuff at the end about? Well, that was the video but what about the song? Ah, it’ll be No 1 next week. I’ll deal with the music then.

Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff hold on to the No 1 spot for a second and final week with “Dizzy”. It’s the video again and for all “Black And White”‘s special effects and drama, I’d rather watch Vic and Bob arseing around to be honest. Supposedly, Vic had approached Mark E. Smith to ask if The Fall would do the record with him initially but the band weren’t sure and so The Wonder Stuff got the gig. That really would have been a collaboration worth seeing and hearing. Vic would achieve one final Top 40 hit when he teamed up with EMF for a cover of “I’m A Believer” by The Monkees which went to No 3 in 1995.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Rozalla	Faith (In the Power of Love)	Nah
2	Seal	Killer EP	No but I had the album
3	Tina Turner	Way Of The World	Nope
4	Altern-8	Activ 8 (Come with Me)	Not my bag
5	Sonia	You To Me Are Everything	Oh dear Lord no
6	REM	Radio Song	No and I’d heard the album so may times in store I didn’t even buy that either
7	Bassheads	Is There Anybody Out There?	See 4 above
8	Michael Jackson	Black And White	No
9	Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff	Dizzy	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/m0011f4t/top-of-the-pops-14111991

TOTP 07 NOV 1991

Posted on November 15, 2021 by 80stastic

After last week’s Halloween themed show, the TOTP producers have passed on celebrating Bonfire night as well (it was two days before this programme aired to be fair) but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any fireworks on offer. Not literally of course (Health & Safety and all that) but metaphorically beginning with a performance kicking off the show that must be up there as one of the weirdest in TOTP history. The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu (aka The KLF aka The Timelords aka Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty) are ripping up the rule book here (year zero revamp or not). The performance is certainly inextricably linked to the nature of the track “It’s Grim Up North” it’s true. A Scotsman reading out a list of towns and cities in the North of England against a backdrop of a pulsating industrial techno beat was hardly your standard Top 40 material so you could argue that inevitably any promotional appearance to support it would end up being unconventional at the very least. I think Drummond and Cauty delivered in spades though with a pragmatic reading of the lyrics juxtaposed with that most bizarre yet intrinsically English of art forms Morris dancing. What f****d up psyche devised this?

After giving the new format down the banks almost relentlessly these past few weeks, credit where it’s due – this was challenging in both a sensory and aesthetic manner. I can’t imagine the old guard of the likes of Steve Wright introducing this. Actually, who is that doing the disembodied voice over? It turns out that it’s one Elayne Smith. Who? Well, like Mark Franklin before her with his BBC local radio background, Elayne was plucked from the relative obscurity of pirate radio where she presented the breakfast show on the station London Weekend Radio. The internet suggests that she only made one more TOTP appearance after this debut. She doesn’t seem to get a fair crack of the whip from the start. It takes three performances and 10 mins 30 seconds before we actually see Elayne on screen and she gets a name check.

Back to The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu though and that performance. The Morris dancing – what point were they trying to make here? In my own, ill informed mind, I think of Morris dancing as a very Southern thing so my initial analysis was that it was a juxtaposition of North vs South imagery but that’s actually incorrect. The North West of England has a long history of Morris Dancing so it can’t be that. Was it a nod to the May Day celebration in legendary folk horror film The Wicker Man? That was set on a remote Hebridean island called Summerisle and Drummond and Cauty did infamously burn £1 million on the Scottish island of Jura in 1994 (or did they?) Anyway, as a jarring spectacle it’s up there with the likes of Pete Wylie and those nuns in 1986 for his performance of “Sinful”. Talking of whom, “It’s Grim Up North” was originally released as a limited edition “Club Mix” in December 1990 with Wylie on vocals and it was planned to be a prominent track on the JAM’s album “The Black Room” (a parallel follow up to The KLF’s “The White Room”) but the album was never completed.

Nevertheless, this 1991 version was put out into the market place due to The KLF’s huge success (as Elayne said in her intro, nobody had sold more singles than them in 1991). As for the towns and cities that are referenced in its lyrics, it’s very North West based (there’s no mention of Newcastle, Sunderland, Middlesbrough etc) and Cumbria is only represented by Barrow-in-Furness. The city where I live Hull creeps in but the rest of North Yorkshire is poorly represented. In fact, the cities and towns read out by Drummond reads like a list of Our Price stores in the North West area (I worked in a couple of them) mentioning as it does places like Accrington, Bolton, Burnley, Nelson and Rochdale. If Drummond wanted to have really courted controversy he should have included my mate Robin’s Cumbrian hometown…Cockermouth. When we were at Poly together, Robin was asked by a lecturer during a linguistic seminar to tell him where he was from for an example of a word he could break down into its component parts. Cockermouth came Robin’s reply prompting the lecturer to write this on his board…

Cock – er – mouth

Hilarity ensued.

Anyway, “It’s Grim Up North” finishes with a fully orchestrated arrangement of William Blake’s Jerusalem which was set to music by Sir Hubert Parry in 1916. I’m guessing this was to make use of the famous ‘dark Satanic Mills’ line and it connection to the Industrial Revolution? Somehow it works when it really shouldn’t. “It’s Grim Up North” peaked at No 10 and The KLF would tie up 1991 with the release of their collaboration with Tammy Wynette on “Justified & Ancient” which prompted many a customer to come into the Our Price I was working in to ask for that song about ‘an ice cream van’.

Now, new producer Stanley Appel’s live vocal policy has been the undoing of many a turn on the revamped show so far but here we have an example of how it can actually give the TV audience a better viewing experience – the ad lib. Second act on tonight are Crowded House for whom a live vocal was as natural as breathing and Neil Finn does a great job here but he was also able to indulge in a slight bit of off script free styling when he announces into the microphone ahead of beginning to sing latest single “Fall At Your Feet”, “It’s grim down South”. Not the funniest ad lib ever but at least it gave expression to some of the character behind the performer.

At this point, Crowded House were a one hit wonder in the UK having announced themselves in 1987 with “Don’t Dream It’s Over” (coincidentally also in the charts at this time courtesy of Paul Young’s cover version) before failing to chart with any of their subsequent (and rather excellent) single releases. Even this track from third album “Woodface” had been preceded by a flop in lead single “Chocolate Cake” (chart peak No 69) but finally the UK saw sense and bought “Fall At Your Feet” in enough quantities to send it to No 17. “Woodface” would prove to be their commercial breakthrough peaking at No 6 in the UK album chart and providing a further three Top 40 hits including Top Tenner “Weather With You”. That song would prove to be their biggest ever hit over here and helped the album to a slew of sales in 1992. I always saw that period of the band as portraying them as that year’s REM who had broken through in a big way commercially themselves in ’91 with their “Out Of Time” album.

Just to clarify co-presenter Mark Franklin’s announcement that they were an Australian band – I had to check as I wasn’t sure that was strictly true. Weren’t they from New Zealand? Both myself and Franklin were right (and wrong). The band formed in Melbourne, Australia in 1985 but Neil Finn is actually a Kiwi and was of course in New Zealand art rockers Split Enz before Crowded House. Plus at this point, Neil’s brother Tim was also in the band making it an equal Antipodean split (drummer Paul Hester and bass player Nick Seymour were Aussies).

I saw Crowded House play live at The Manchester Academy around this time and it still ranks as one of my favourite gigs ever. They’d done a PA at the HMV megastore earlier in the day when I’d got my copy of “Woodface” signed by the band and then caught them live in the evening where Nick Seymour did his infamous chocolate cake party piece. I saw them later on at the much bigger Manchester Apollo but it wasn’t as good a gig as that more intimate one in the Academy.

Like Brothers In Rhythm who were on the show a few weeks earlier, I’d kind of forgotten that the next act were actual chart stars in their own right rather than the ace face of remixers that they came to be known for in the 90s. K-Klass would go onto work with acts as major as Bobby Brown, Janet Jackson & Luther Vandross, New Order, Rihanna, Whitney Houston…the list goes on. Moreover, their remix of “Baby Come On Over” by Samantha Mumba was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2002 in the Best Remix category. And yet they started off in 1991 as another of those dance acts on the seemingly endless conveyor belt of artists who stuck rigidly to the template of anonymous blokes stood in the background fiddling around on decks of keyboards whilst a female singer belted out some sub-soul vocals front of stage. It wasn’t my bag at all but I didn’t actually mind “Rhythm Is A Mystery”. I think it was that rolling Italian House piano riff that made it tolerable.

So who were K-Klass? Well, the singer was the exotically named Bobbi Depasois and the other four blokes were …well…were literally just some blokes with regular jobs that happened to have a hit record. Russell Morgan (I went to school with a kid called Russell Morgan but it’s not him!) was a postman, Paul Roberts worked for BT, Andy Williams was a lab technician and Carl Thomas delivered fish in a fish van. Basically K-Klass were the musical equivalent of a non-league football team that have somehow got to the 3rd round of the FA Cup and drawn Man Utd generating newspaper articles about how the players are all part -time and the their ‘real’ jobs are being a plumber, electrician etc. “Rhythm Is A Mystery” peaked at No 3 after only making it to No 61 on its initial release just six months earlier.

In the ‘exclusive’ slot this week is Belinda Carlisle who, having been in the studio for the very first show in the ‘year zero’ revamp era just a month prior with her “Live Your Life Be Free” single, is back with follow up “Do You Feel Like I Feel”. This was almost an exact duplicate of its predecessor only not as good. The Our Price where I was working at the time were sent a sampler cassette for the album to plug ahead of the official release and I think (cringe!) that I may have signed that promo out for myself. It had four tracks on it including this one plus a track called “I Plead Insanity” which should have been a single but never was. “Do You Feel Like I Feel” would prove to be Belinda’s last ever US Billboard Hot 100 hit though she would keep going strong in the UK for a fair few years after that.

Oh and that first ‘year zero’ performance for “Live Your Life Be Free” which had Mark Franklin pointlessly ‘interviewing’ Belinda afterwards for about 30 seconds? Here’s Mark himself on that:

Can I please add to this. During my first show, Live Your Life Be Free. I was quite ill with food positioning. Belinda thought she had food poisoning too. By the time we met again for this episode, turns out I was ill but she was actually pregnant with @JamesDukeMason
— Mark Franklin (@MarkFranklin123) November 5, 2021

No wonder he kept the chat so short – he had to nip off camera to find the crapper pronto!

It’s that INXS video for “Shining Star” next. This was a Breaker last week and I didn’t have much to say about it then so quite what I’m expected to say about it this time I’m not sure. Well, what actually happens in the video? It’s a basic band performance set in a private club venue alongside a sub plot of some grotesque male characters being disposed of or humiliated by their female consorts. So we get a guy leaving down a chute after a lever is pulled, another fella being sent skywards on a see-saw plank and a geezer being sprayed with a bottle of bubbly as if it were a fire extinguisher. It’s all pretty daft and uninspired fare. It was directed by music video go to guy David Mallet who is responsible for some of the most iconic music promos of the 80s including David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” and “China Girl”, “I Don’t Like Mondays” by The Boomtown Rats and “Radio Ga Ga” and “I Want To Break Free” by Queen. Not sure what happened here though as he really phoned it in. “Shining Star” peaked at No 27.

Not fair! They’ve only gone and done it to me again! Two on the trot! I could hardly muster 50 words about this lot when they were a Breaker last week and now here they are in the studio. What can I say about Control and “Dance With Me (I’m Your Ecstasy)”? I’ve pretty much got nishters. OK, I guess I have to try so yet again we have a dance act conforming to the tried and tested model of having some faceless blokes on assorted keyboards etc at the back of the stage fronted by a female singer (just like K-Klass earlier in the show) but… that poor woman doing the vocals! She looks and sounds like she just happened to be wandering past the TOTP studio on her way home on a cold November evening and was asked by the producers to literally come in off the street and perform this track. The singing is definitely ropey and why has she got a Winter coat on?! Supposedly, the original 12″ release of this had the lyrics “dance with me I’m on ecstasy” which was changed to “dance with me I’m your ecstasy” for the full release. Ah, the gnarly old head of potential media outrage is raised once more

“Dance With Me (I’m Your Ecstasy)” peaked at No 17 and was Control’s one and only Top 40 hit. That enough for you? Yeah, I think that’ll more than do.

Right, there’s a grand total of four Breakers tonight but none them would ever be played in full on the show. We start with Metallica and ‘The Unforgiven”. The follow up to their seminal single “Enter Sandman”, yet again this isn’t one that sparks any synapses of recognition in my brain but, having listened to it properly, it’s actually quite interesting. Having decided that they wanted to mess around with traditional song structures to see what happened, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Lars Ulrich hit upon the idea of reversing the template of a standard verse leading into a huge, bellowing chorus and instead had strident verses and a softer sounding chorus. It doesn’t sound like it should work but it kind of does. So pleased with themselves were they that the band would record not one but two sequels in the form of “The Unforgiven II” from the album “Reload” and “The Unforgiven III” from the album “Death Magnetic” – heavy metal recycling; it might catch on. “The Unforgiven” peaked at No 15.

There’s more than one Chris Rea Christmas song?! There’s three actually but this one, “Winter Song”, doesn’t specifically make mention of the ‘c’ word in its title nor its lyrics. Even so, it was no doubt released at this time of year in the hope of being a hit at Christmas. Chris (or possibly his record label) had quite the cynical streak – his last single, released in June, had been called “Looking For The Summer”. Hmm.

“Winter Song” doesn’t sound a million miles way from the ubiquitous festive favourite “Driving Home For Christmas” especially the original 1986 version which is a bit more sombre than the sprightly re-recording that gets plated every Yuleltide. The lyrics seem to be about keeping his lover warm from the cold of Winter (he should have borrowed that woman from Control’s overcoat!) but then missed a Christmas trick with the video which seems to be based around rivalries between the various factions of Rea’s tour crew. So not Christmassy at all.

“Winter Song” made a respectable No 27 in a crammed Christmas singles market. Oh, that third Chris Rea festive song? He released something called “Joys of Christmas” in 1987 (“Driving Home For Christmas” was on the B-side). No, I’ve never heard of it before either.

Ooh – bit of a moment here. Is this the very first time that Manic Street Preachers appeared on TOTP? Although double A -side “Love’s Sweet Exile/Repeat” was already the band’s third single release of 1991, I must admit that I wasn’t really aware of these Welsh rockers until the following year when I couldn’t ignore “You Love Us” and “Motorcycle Emptiness”. I’ll rephrase that. I was aware of the name Manic Street Preachers at this time not least because of the Steve Lamacq / Richey Edwards incident in May when Edwards carved the words ‘4 REAL’ into his forearm with a razor blade when asked by the NME journalist how serious he was about the band, their music and ideals. However, I’m not really sure that I knew what they actually sounded like. Somehow I must have missed “Stay Beautiful” and this single despite the fact that they both made the Top 40 (their earlier non Columbia singles that were either self released or on indie label Heavenly hadn’t charted).

The band’s iconic debut album “Generation Terrorists” was released in early ’92 and would spawn six singles and achieve gold status for 100,000 sales. Its length (73 minutes and 18 tracks long) led to accusations of a lack of quality control and the band maybe regretted in retrospect their decision to make outlandish claims that it would sell 16 million copies and that they would split up after its release. However, its reputation remains intact nearly 30 years later and is celebrated and cherished by fans.

Oh and that video with Nicky Wire, Richey Edwards and James Dean Bradfield all supposedly naked and quite happy to be in close proximity to each other was probably deemed a bit too controversial for a before the watershed screening by the BBC hence it only belong on screen for less than 30 seconds. “Love’s Sweet Exile/Repeat” peaked at No 26.

We finish with yet another single that I managed to let pass me by despite my working five days a week in a record shop at the time. “Me. In Time” was a non album single for The Charlatans released between their debut LP “Some Friendly” (’90) and follow up “Between 10th And 11th” (’92) and was the third not to feature on an album in a row after “Over Rising” and a re-release of early single “Indian Rope”. Presumably this was a deliberate strategy on behalf of record label Situation Two to ensure their boys didn’t disappear from view and people’s minds as the Madchester phenomenon waned as 1991 came to an end.

Now I’ve listened to it properly 30 years after the event, I conclude that it’s not bad at all if a little lightweight. It seems to be a genuinely forgotten single of theirs as well with it not being on any of the band’s Best Of albums (as far as I can tell) and the only version on Spotify is from a live gig and not the studio single release. Also, what was with the errant punctuation in the song’s title? Weird(o).

And talking of weird….what the Hell was happening here?! Neil Sedaka on TOTP?! In 1991?! Look, I know he is a legendary singer, pianist, composer and record producer (I’m pretty sure my parents had one of his albums when I was growing up) but really?! He’s been squeezed in to the show courtesy of the album chart feature as he had a Greatest Hits album to promote called “Timeless – The Very Best Of Neil Sedaka”. Not sure why the world needed one as there must have been pushing about 20 Best Of / Greatest Hits / Collection Neil Sedaka albums by this point (and there have been many more since – check out his discography) but I do remember this one coming out. It was on the PolyGram TV label and therefore received its own TV ad campaign to promote it. Presumably the marketing team at Polygram TV had negotiated a spot for Neil on TOTP because how else do you explain Sedaka’s appearance here? It’s as confounding as a sudoko puzzle. Some of the acts on tonight only emphasise how incongruous he seemed – sadly Manic Street Preachers and Metallica were only on video but I would like to imagine that Sedaka met up with Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty in the BBC bar afterwards and spent a while shooting the breeze over a few beers. Maybe not.

However, I do know of one person who caught up with Sedaka in a bar once. It was at the Midland Hotel (I think) in Manchester city centre. Neil was staying there as he was playing a show (Sedaka ‘plays shows’ rather than ‘does gigs’ don’t you think?) and my Our Price manager Pete (the original bass player with the Stone Roses) happened to be in there having a few drinks on a night out. On spying the great man himself, Pete (emboldened by a few ales) lumbered over to Sedka and expressed his gratitude to him for writing “Solitaire” as if he hadn’t, Karen Carpenter would never have sang it and Pete would never have heard it. Apparently, Sedaka’s reaction to his approach suggested that Pete had scared the bejeezus out of him.

Anyway, back to his TOTP performance and did Elayne Smith really describe Neil as being ‘back in full effect’? Or was she referring to The Charlatans? He gives us “Miracle Song” which was actually released as a single despite being promoted here as an album track. It sank without trace. Surely he would have been better suited to a spot on Wogan or Des O’Connor than TOTP? For all I’ve derided him a bit here, I don’t mind a bit of Sedaka and he has written some great songs – just ask my old boss Pete.

After 16 weeks of the same song at No 1, we now have two different chart toppers in consecutive weeks. With U2 only lasting seven days in pole position, they give way to Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff with “Dizzy”. They’re not in the studio though (shame – I would love to have known what Neil Sedaka made of Vic and Bob) so it’s the promo video which is basically a carbon copy of what they did when they were in the studio last time (including Bob sliding through Vic’s legs at one point). Apparently this single was a huge favourite down at nightclubs on a student night. I can imagine. Had I been born just a couple of years later I’m sure I would have been throwing myself around the dance floor at Rascals, my club of choice in Sunderland where I was a student in the 80s. I was once stood near to Vic Reeves in a queue for the Eurostar at Paris Gare du Nord. He was with his wife Nancy Sorrell. That’s as interesting as the story gets I’m afraid.

As a follow up to ‘Dizzy’, Vic released a dance version of the hymn “Abide With Me” which is traditionally sung at the FA Cup Final before kick-off. It’s was a bizarre way to follow up a No 1 record and it duly flopped when it peaked at No 47. Maybe that was what Vic wanted all along – maybe it was some sort of satirical comment on pop music and manipulating the charts. He should have joined in with that fictional chat between Bill Drummond, Jimmy Cauty and Neil Sedaka as the former two knew a thing about how to send up the music industry.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu	It’s Grim Up North	It’s not actually and I didn’t
2	Crowded House	Fall At Your Feet	Not the single but I had the album (signed by the band!)
3	K-Klass	Rhythm Is A Mystery	I did not
4	Belinda Carlisle	Do You Feel Like I Feel	No but I had that promo album sampler thing with it on – for shame!
5	INXS	Shining Star	Not the single but I have it on a Best Of CD of theirs
6	Control	Dance With Me (I’m Your Ecstasy)	No
7	Metallica	The Unforgiven	Nope
8	Chris Rea	Winter Song	No thanks
9	Manic Street Preachers	Love’s Sweet Exile/Repeat	I’m ashamed to say I didn’t but I do own a couple of their albums and have seen them live twice
10	The Charlatans	Me. In Time	Negative
11	Neil Sedaka	Miracle Song	Of course not
12	Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff	Dizzy	I didn’t

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/m00116fn/top-of-the-pops-07111991

TOTP 31 OCT 1991

Posted on November 10, 2021 by 80stastic

When did Halloween become such a big event in the UK? My take on it would be that this is a fairly recent change within say the last 5-10 years when it has overtaken Bonfire night in the cultural calendar. Certainly when I was a kid, there was no suggestion that we would be dressing up and going around the local streets expecting residents to be handing out sweets willy nilly. We might have done a spot of apple bobbing on occasion but that was it. Bonfire night was always the much bigger deal. Back in 1991, I was 23 and living in Manchester and we certainly didn’t have any trick or treating going on in the street where we lived. Fireworks being lobbed at you as you went about your business by the local youth possibly (you had to keep your wits about you at all times) but no kids dressed up as ghouls or werewolves etc although…we did once see a man down our street who from a distance looked like Freddie Kruger doing something suspicious with a rake – never did get the bottom of what that was all about. Anyway, the TOTP producers have decided that since they have a show falling exactly on the witching date of 31st October that they were going to play up to Halloween theme. To that end, we have a carved pumpkin graphic following the titles sequence and presenter Mark Franklin describes this edition of the show as being ‘spooky’!

I don’t know about spooky but the opening act is certainly shocking. Shockingly bad that is. SL2 were, as Mark Franklin advises, DJs Slipmatt and Lime (the S and L of SL2) while the rapper is Jason ‘Jay-J’ James (see what the did there?!) and “DJs Take Control” was the first of four hits for them. I don ‘t remember this at all though. What was the big one that they had?

*checks wikipedia*

“On A Ragga Tip”! That was it. No 2 in 1992 apparently. That one sounded a bit like The Prodigy and I could just about stomach it. “DJs Take Control” is just garbage though. I mean, I’ve never been a massive dance head but there’s literally nothing to it. The rapping is so pedestrian and repetitive whilst the track itself is just some basic breakbeats and shuffled drum machine patterns slung together. The energetic windmilling actions of the two dancers up front seem to be a bit at odds with the track to me. It’s just …I don’t get it (then or now).

As an act to open the show it seems an odd choice as well. I guess the producers were still courting the rave market that they didn’t seem to really understand and which the format of the show (despite its revamp) couldn’t really accommodate. It just looks …well…jarring. Not going too well this new era of the show so far is it?

Oh this is just ridiculous now. From hardcore rave to…Don McLean?! How? Why? The juxtaposition is made even more striking by the fact that, like SL2, Don is actually in the TOTP studio! He’s literally on the other stage next to SL2 patiently awaiting his cue to begin. Said cue comes from presenter Tony Dortie moving through the assembled audience who look like they’re just realising that they’ve come to the shittest rave ever and literally have no idea who this old duffer on the other stage is. Even when Dortie introduces him, I bet they’re none the wiser. I’m not criticising them rather pointing out the utter absurdity of the show’s run-in order. It’s barking mad! If this had been the 70s, it would have been like the Sex Pistols segueing to Val Doonican or Des O’Connor.

Obviously, McLean is here to sing “American Pie” to promote his Greatest Hits album but even more obviously it’s a truncated version clocking in at just 3 minutes in length (the original album version is 8 and half minutes long!). Don himself seems in a hurry to sing it as if there was a TOTP producer stood in the wings pointing to a big stopwatch. Sartorially, he looks like a Tory MP in his casual gear for a Sunday stroll. It’s just all too much to take in. Interestingly, on the subject of song timings, another act later in the show are given far more screen time to perform a full length version of their latest hit which actually cuts down the amount of acts on tonight’s show to just 10. More of that later but I wonder what Don thought about that?

After the latest egregious Top 10 rundown complete with a witch’s hat graphic at the end (Halloween and all that), we go straight into…well…what fresh hell is this?! It seems to be a woman with a giant treble clef on her head singing very, very badly. This is in fact Congress featuring Lucinda Sieger (Mrs Treble Clef herself) with “40 Miles”. As with SL2 at the top of the show, these were basically two nerdy DJ types (both called Danny coincidentally) plus vocalist -used in the loosest definition of the word- Lucinda. Right, the immediate problem here (apart from the ludicrous treble clef adornment) is that Lucinda was not a very good singer. In fact, her live vocal (as per TOTP ‘year zero’ policy) is diabolically bad. There’s just no getting around that and her performance certainly provoked the ire of many a viewer on Twitter. I think my favourite was courtesy of this gentleman…

This is dogshit on every level
— Marcus Aurelius (@Aurelius) November 5, 2021

Apparently the track uses a fair few samples taken from songs which I don’t know so I’m going straight onto the business of that treble clef. Just….why?!! To distract us from her terrible singing is the only thing I can think of. A dead cat on the table in musical form (literally) if you will. If she was a politician, Lucinda would surely be Boris Johnson. Oh hang on, my research tells me that Lucinda is a former Alternative Miss World runner-up. The Alternative Miss World? I didn’t know there was such a thing. Come to that, is the regular Miss World still a thing even? Anyway, apparently Alternative Miss World has been going (irregularly) since 1972 and was last held in 2018. According to the official website, it was established by the artist Andrew Logan and anyone can enter and everyone is judged on the same criteria as the dogs at Crufts: poise, personality and originality. Past guests, hosts and competitors including everyone from Derek Jarman, David Hockney and Zandra Rhodes to Grayson Perry, Divine, Leigh Bowery and the stars of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Now I can’t find conformation of when Lucinda took part or an image of what she wore but just google Alternative Miss World, click on images and you’ll see that actually, Lucinda (like Don McLean earlier) had dressed quite casually by comparison for her TOTP appearance.

From one horrifically bad vocal performance to…well…another. Sorry Zoë but there are definitely some bum notes in your performance of “Lightning”. To be honest, this is the third (of four) songs that I don’t remember from this show already (and I was working in a record shop for a living at the time!). In my defence, “Lightning” isn’t that memorable. Very much in the same vein as “Sunshine On A Rainy Day” but without the same hooky chorus, it didn’t get anywhere near the same success as its predecessor whose No 4 chart high was 33 paces higher than that which “Lightning” achieved. Wikipedia’s description of it as ‘another moderately popular song’ seems very generous. As for her album “Scarlet Red And Blue” that Tony Dortie bigs up here, well that only got as high as No 67 in the charts. Has a pop star ever projected their future in a song quite as clearly as Zoë does here?

“Lightning never strikes twice, maybe take some advice…”

A couple of Breakers next starting with yet another dance act that I don’t recall at all in Control with “Dance With Me (I’m Your Ecstasy)”. It’s hardly surprising as so forgettable was the whole shebang that there is very little trace of Control and their hit on the internet. I did find something on puredjs.com the said that this track (and I quote) “had the whole world buzzing”. Really?! It didn’t even make the Top 10 in the UK (peaking at No 17). Maybe it was a club thing – I wouldn’t have known as I was skint at the time and certainly had no extra cash for cutting any rug at Manchester’s hottest nightspots. Apparently it was remixed and re-released in 2006 and Control are still a going concern and appear at (again I’m quoting) “festivals, clubs, raves, parties, etc…”. And that’s your lot. God, I hope they’re not on any future TOTP repeats – I’ve nothing else to say about this at all.

*checks BBC4 TOTP repeat schedule*

Oh great, they’re on the next show. Marvellous.

One of those Pointless songs next. Not that there wasn’t any point to it you understand, just that it would possibly score you zero points if you were ever a contestant on that game show starring Richard Osman and Alexander Armstrong. “Shining Star” by INXS anyone? We’d all be forgiven for forgetting this one. A stand alone single to promote their concert album “Live Baby Live” despite the fact that it was a studio recording and not a live cut. Never quite got my head around that concept.

The track itself is very much INXS by numbers and derivative of a lot of their other material from around this period. Accordingly, it only made it to No 27 in the UK charts. The band would return the following year with possibly my favourite album of theirs, “Welcome To Wherever You Are”. For now though, they very much seemed to be treading water,

Meanwhile back in the studio, it’s that funny little bald American bloke Moby whom most of us had never actually seen before…except, he wasn’t actually bald back then and instead has what passes for (almost) a full head of hair. Yes, hard as it is to imagine, there was a time when Moby wasn’t just a cranium. Like most of us probably, the mental image that come to my mind when I think of him is of that “Play” era Moby with him shaven headed on the album’s front cover jumping about with his hairy (oh the cruel irony) chest exposed through his oversized white shirt. Maybe the emergence of comedian Harry Hill has conflated (to quote the word being used by just about every Tory MP in defence of Owen Paterson at the moment) the two. Here he is though with his first ever chart hit “Go” not looking follicly challenged.

None of this hirsute business is helping the TOTP production team manage to showcase a dance act any more effectively than they were ever able to though. For Moby, they’ve dispensed with any backing dancers and instead are reliant on the man himself just jumping around on his keyboard and shouting …erm…’Go!’ to meet the new live vocal criteria. There’s the usual deployment of the Dr Who ‘Green Death’ story visual effect as well of course (well it is a dance track) and not much else apart from the ‘Yeaaaah’ vocal sample which is courtesy of the ubiquitous Jocelyn Brown. Studio performances of dance tracks on TOTP in 1991 are still not working for me.

“Go” peaked at No 10.

As we have a humongously long song coming up soon, the schedule will only allow for about 90 seconds of the next video which is Kylie Minogue and Keith Washington with “If You Were With Me Now”. This was a curious thing, a song written by Mike Stock and Pete Waterman for their PWL label that sounded like a genuine soul standard. Not only that, it was a duet but this was no “Especially For You” (Keith could actually sing unlike Jason for one thing). I should add that Kylie herself gets a writing credit on this as well – it was her first hit single to feature her as a co-writer.

The single would reach a very respectable high of No 4 (much higher than I remembered) despite being from her “Let’s Get To It” album which is surely one of her least memorable and underperformed commercially. Apparently the vocals were recorded separately (see also Michael McDonald and Patti LaBelle’s “On My Own”) and although they were on the set together for the recording of the video, you wouldn’t actually know it as the director chose to not include any scenes of them together. It must have been an artistic licence thing. Or an oversight maybe.

Finally we arrive at this week’s ‘Exclusive’ performance and it’s that song that is massive… in length rather than stature though. Genesis are back everyone!

*everyone groans*

Phil and co hadn’t realised an album since 1986’s “Invisible Touch” before they returned in 1991 with the “We Can’t Dance” LP. That’s not to say we’d all been given five years off from Mr Collins who had been ~~torturing~~ ‘entertaining’ us in the meantime with his mahoosively successful 1989 album “…But Seriously”.

“No Son Of Mine” was the lead single from “We Can’t Dance” and it weighs in at length of 6:41 on the album version. For some reason, presumably to big it up as an exclusive, the TOTP producers allowed them just about all of that time for this performance. Was it worth it? Well, it was for the band with both the single and the album selling exceptionally well, with the former going Top 10 (No 6) – the first Genesis single to do so in the UK since 1983’s “Mama” – and the latter going to No 1 and achieving platinum sales five times over. For the credibility of TOTP though, was this really what the rave crazy kids wanted? Unbelievably Phil Collins was only 40 here (13 years younger than I am now) but he looks ancient. As for Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks…they always looked middle aged didn’t they?

Performance wise, it seems odd to have a drummer up there who isn’t Collins but apparently that’s what crowds will see when they see Genesis play live on their current tour – Phil is doing the vocals sat down out front as he is no longer able to play the drums due to nerve problems for which he underwent an operation on his spine in 2016.

Some awful intro work finally from hosts Dortie and Franklin as they segue into the No 1 song. U2 have finally brought the 16 weeks reign of Bryan Adams to an end with “The Fly” but they get introduced as ‘The posse from Dublin’ and ‘The U2 boys‘. Dearie me. Given the enormous chart feat that they executed by toppling the groover from Vancouver, the reaction on Twitter to this significant moment was quite surprising with many a viewer tweeting their displeasure at Bono and co including some who wanted to see Adams back! Surely that was tongue in cheek? As well as knocking Adams off his perch, “The Fly” also prevented Right Said Fred getting to No 1 in Australia with “I’m Too Sexy” so double bubble and all that.

Whilst not their best tune by a long way in my book, it was a statement I guess of their intent coming into the new decade. They weren’t going to be churning out “The Joshua Tree” parts II, III and IV into the 90s – they were leaving U2 of the 80s firmly in their past.

U2 would only last for one week at the top as the single was deleted after three weeks to ensure the schedules weren’t clogged up Adams style thereby hindering the release of subsequent singles from the album “Achtung Baby”. Quite the different approach from their label Island as opposed to Adams’s label A&M despite them both being part of the same parent company Universal Music.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	SL2	DJs Take Control	No chance
2	Don McLean	American Pie	Nope
3	Congress featuring Lucinda Sieger	40 Miles	40 piles of shite more like
4	Zoë	Lightning	Nah
5	Control	Dance With Me (I’m Your Ecstasy)	Negative
6	INXS	Shining Star	Not the single but I have it on their Definitive INXS Best Of CD
7	Moby	Go	No
8	Kylie Minogue and Keith Washington	If You Were With Me Now	But I wasn’t – no
9	Genesis	No Son Of Mine	No purchase of mine either
10	U2	The Fly	Singles box says yes though I don’t remember doing so

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/m00116fl/top-of-the-pops-31101991

TOTP 24 OCT 1991

Posted on October 31, 2021 by 80stastic

So the week has finally arrived. One month into the revamped TOTP and its time has come, its race is run, it’s over. No, not Man Utd’s 13 match unbeaten run to the start of the 1991/92 football season (that would arrive two days later as they lost 3-2 to Sheffield Wednesday). No, it’s the 16th and last week of Bryan Adams being at No 1 with “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You”. 16 weeks! That’s four whole months, a third of a year, people who had got pregnant in the first of those 16 weeks were now nearly half way through their pregnancy. My own personal milestone was that our first wedding anniversary had just been and gone and we were just about to clock up one whole year of living and working in Manchester. Despite being skint a lot of the time, the year had gone pretty well and we felt settled there. I was working in the Our Price store in Market Street Manchester and gearing up for my second Xmas there. I think I may have graduated from ‘best seller’ CD orderer to being in charge of chart cassettes by this point. Chart cassettes! I’d only been trusted with TDK blank cassettes and accessories at the start of the year. It felt like a big deal. The store was probably starting to recruit for Xmas temps by now – most of their names and faces have long been unretrievable from my memory banks though one or two I can recall. I felt established amongst the permanent members of staff though my best mate there Steve had left at the start of the year. Fortunately, I have kept our friendship going these past 30 years.

We start this week with 2 Unlimited and “Get Ready For This” who are up to No 2 in the charts somehow. Why didn’t they call the track “Y’all Ready For This?” which is pretty much the only lyric in the whole sorry fair. Well, that or “Yeah!” I guess. Tony Dortie promises us “the busiest dancers around” in his intro. He can’t mean those people hanging around at the back of the stage surely? And by the way, exactly who were they? Clearly they’re not part of 2 Unlimited – are they really just some people out of the studio audience? If so, how did they get the gig? Did they have to audition their dance moves in front of the producers because all they seem to be doing to me is jumping up and down a bit?!

As this is a dance track though, the TOTP graphics team have added that green haze effect at certain points in the performance as they did the other week with Carl Cox. It reminds me of that old Dr Who story with the maggots…

After the godawful mess that is the Top 10 countdown, we’re straight into the album chart feature which this week is Kenny Thomas who was only just on the other week with his latest single “Best Of You”. The song he sings tonight though is an album track (well it is the album feature) called “Something Special” which starts off sounding a bit like Labi Siffre’s “(Something Inside) So Strong” but soon turns into a weedy soul ballad about telling his love that they are…erm…well…special.

By my reckoning, this is the sixth time that Thomas has been on TOTP in 1991 and as such, I’m all out of Kenny info and trivia. I can say that his album “Voices” went to No 3 in the charts which would be its peak and I recall selling plenty of it over the Xmas period meaning I had to place many an order of the cassette version with EMI to keep up with demand. He’s turned up at the TOTP studio for this one wearing something that resembles a 50’s drape jacket and with his hair slicked back like that, he could almost pass for a Teddy Boy. Well, not really but I’m filling furiously here so give me a break! Actually, this bloke Tom on Twitter has probably got the whole thing bang to rights…

Leg it Kenny Thomas, Mike Baldwin wants his coat back #totp
— Tom (@Tommy_1972) October 23, 2021

After the Monty Python performance of “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” last week, we get another memorable turn this week as Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff get together to do “Dizzy”. This version of Tommy Roe’s 1969 No 1 was the follow up to Vic’s first hit (also a cover version) “Born Free” from earlier in the year and would go onto replicate Roe’s chart peak by making it to No 1.

The performance here is full on Vic Reeves Big Night Out which is allowed in my book given that the series had only just finished screening in the April. The Whirlpool washing machine and microwave props were a carry over from the promo video and which were a nice play on the lyrics but for me, Bob Mortimer just about steals the show with his cavorting in the background with Miles Hunt which climaxes with his back slide through Vic’s legs halfway through. As it’s a live vocal, Vic’s voice is pretty exposed but he just about gets away with it although he is just shouting on occasion and also seems to forget the words at one point. Was something meant to happen when Vic goes to look inside one of the washing machines? The fact that nothing does seems to put him off a bit. Maybe it was a piece of staging that went wrong or maybe they were all just too drunk to remember what they were doing? There seems to be damning evidence that everybody concerned had spent far too oolong in the Green Room beforehand.

At the end of the performance Tony Dortie emerges from the studio audience throng to say “Absolutely unbelievable, I can’t keep a straight face”…whilst keeping a straight face.

It’s the Queen video for “The Show Must Go On” next whose screening the other week was billed as an ‘exclusive’ to TOTP. This week it’s in the chart at No 19 and whilst the official line for the promo consisting entirely of a montage of clips of previous Queen videos and live shows was that it was to promote the band’s imminent “Greatest Hits II” album, the lack of any new footage of Freddie Mercury stoked even more rumours already circulating around his health.

After his death on 24 November, there was the inevitable rush of Queen’s music made available in the marketplace. As well as that “Greatest Hits II” album, “Bohemian Rhapsody” was re-released (twinned as a double A-side with “These Are the Days Of Our Lives” from the “Innuendo” album) which would become the ’91 Xmas No 1. In between those releases came Brian May’s solo single “Driven By You” which would go Top 10 and indeed, “The Show Must Go On” itself would resurface in the charts despite having already peaked once at No 16. It all felt very reminiscent of John Lennon’s death 11 years earlier when his music flooded the charts although he was denied the Xmas No 1 by (unbelievably) “There’s No One Quite Like Grandma” by St Winifred’s School Choir.

As for Queen, they would patch together one last studio album from the remaining recordings Freddie had managed to lay down before his passing that weren’t included on “Innuendo” which comprised the “Made In Heaven” album of 1995. One month after its release, that symmetry with John Lennon was evident again when “Free As A Bird” was released being a demo that John had recorded in 1977 that the remaining Beatles added to in the studio and which went to No 2 in the charts.

It’s ‘the rugby song’ as Tony Dortie called it the other week next as Kiri Te Kanawa is in the studio to perform “Word In Union”. She looks for all the world like she’s just arrived off the set of Dynasty with her big 80s style hair, shoulder padded jacket and…is that a diamond encrusted brooch in the shape of a lizard on one of them?! It could be a Tuatara which are reptiles endemic to New Zealand and are regarded as a ‘taonga’ or a special treasure in Māori culture (Te Kanawa’s birth father was Māori). Whatever the reason for the brooch, it’s quite a thing and maybe the studio audience crowding around Dame Kiri in a circle are all transfixed by that rather than her performance.

“World In Union” would have a life beyond the 1991 Rugby World Cup and has been recorded by multiple artists for subsequent competitions. In 1999, a version was recorded as a duet by Shirley Bassey and Bryn Terfel whilst the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand was launched by soprano Hayley Westenra’s version of the song. Paloma Faith did it for the 2015 competition although her rendition didn’t go down well – one twitter user described it thus:

Paloma Faith absolutely murdered World in Union. My non-existent cat could of sung it better.

Meow! In 2019, ITV used a version recorded by Emeli Sandé for their 2019 World Cup coverage. In tandem with all those releases came various versions of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” which is associated specifically with the England team and was taken into the charts by Union featuring the England World Cup Squad (1991), China Black (1995), Russel Watson (1999) and UB40 (2003).

Talk about from one extreme to another! As the camera pans away from Dame Kiri at the end of her performance you can see the next act awaiting their cue on the other stage who are Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine! After their chart breakthrough earlier in the year with the re-release of “Sheriff Fatman” came “After the Watershed (Early Learning the Hard Way)” which was a non album single presumably to plug the gap until their next album “1992 – The Love Album” would be released in …erm…1992.

The contrast between Jim Bob / Fruitbat and Kiri Te Kananwa couldn’t be more pronounced with their raucous, in your face track and their non conformist, counterculture look (Boris Johnson would no doubt describe them as ‘crusties’). With it being the early 90s, nobody in team Carter USM thought to gain copyright clearance for the use of the “Ruby Tuesday” lyrics and they were subsequently sued by The Rolling Stones’ publisher. The resulting legal battle forced the song off the airwaves and was only resolved by the track being officially credited to Morrison, Carter, Richards and Jagger.

This wasn’t the only infamy that the single generated though. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, this was the song that Carter USM played at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party of 1991 when Fruitbat rugby tackled host Philip Schofield to the ground on live TV when he had attempted a pathetic put down of the band after they started smashing up their instruments after the performance. His exact words were:

“Blimey! That was original. “After the Watershed” from Jim Bob and a Fruitbat pushing back the frontiers of music otherwise known as Carter and I think they’re still smashing it up out the back somewhere. Now not only…OOOOMMMMFFFF!”

Good work lads! I can’t be doing with Schofield and I find it baffling that he was deemed worthy of a Smash Hits front cover in 1991. Unsurprisingly, given Schofield’s connection with them, the publication backed Phil in a review of the Poll Winners Party referring to Jim Bob and Fruitbat as Bobbins and Dingbat. How original.

“After the Watershed (Early Learning the Hard Way)” peaked at No 11.

Is this the first time we’ve seen this feature? The US Album chart? Tony Dortie’s intro doesn’t make any sense though as he says that Mariah Carey is No 1 in the American Hot 100 singles chart with “Emotions” and No 10 in the UK album chart. He definitely said UK and not US despite the on screen graphic saying ‘US chart’. I don’t get it. Anyway, Mariah is in the studio which means she must be doing a live vocal doesn’t it? We’ll see if she can do that famous four octave vocal range for real then won’t we?

*watches Mariah’s performance*

Well, yes she can but I still don’t like to listen to it. As she sings that last hight note, co-host Mark Franklin appears from within the studio audience to do the next link and has to wade through a gaggle of young men who somehow seem to have made sure that they were at the front of the stage to get a bird’s eye view of Mariah from up close. Funny that.

“Emotions” peaked at No 17 in the UK.

So to the Breakers and we start with Simple Minds and “Real Life”. This really was a case of a release too far. The title track from their latest album, it was the fourth single to be lifted from it and was subsequently the worst performing in the chart peaking at No 34. The album had already been out for six months by this point but I guess the record company wanted to give it another push for the Xmas market. Its chart performance wasn’t helped by it being promoted by yet another boring live performance video just as previous single “Stand By Love” had been. The band really weren’t putting much effort into their videos in 1991 as lead single “Let There Be Love” had just been a straight run through performance of the song as well (although it wasn’t taken from a gig) but had some added dry ice for effect. Poor, very poor as Vic Reeves might have said.

Possibly one of the most famous songs ever next as we get an old clip of Don McLean performing “American Pie”. So much has been written about this song – just google ‘Don Mclean American Pie and you’ll immediately get a flurry of results offering the ‘story behind the song’ or the ‘hidden meaning of…’ etc – so I’m not going to forensically dissect the song line by line partly because it’s too long and I can’t be arsed but more significantly because McLean himself fessed up to its true meaning in 2015. Why then? Well, the original manuscript for the song was put up for auction (it sold at $1.2 million) and McLean agreed to tell all about those lyrics. He basically said it was an allegorical tale describing how the world was heading in the wrong direction whilst also clearing up some of those hidden references. Clearly the famous “the day the music died” line referred to the death of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper in a plane crash in 1959 but he also confirmed that “the jester” was Bob Dylan and that the song built to a climax that referenced the death of Meredith Hunter at the Altamont Free Concert headlined by The Rolling Stones in 1969.

None of the above answers the question why this 1972 US No 1 and UK No 2 hit was back in the charts in 1991 of course but it’s a simple explanation – to plug a Don McLean Best Of album released for the Xmas rush. The re-release of “American Pie” reached No 12 in the UK but of much more acclaim is that in March 2017, it was designated an ‘aural treasure’ by the American Library of Congress and ‘worthy of preservation’ in the National Recording Registry ‘as part of America’s patrimony’. Yeah, that’s as maybe but he was wrong about ‘the day the music died’ – that was in 1987 when Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley went to No 1 with “Jack Your Body”.

The final Breaker sees Pet Shop Boys finally relent to the inevitable and release their very first Best Of album – “Discography: The Complete Singles Collection”. After 5 years of solid hits, a collection album was certainly warranted but, as was seeming to be the done thing back then, it was a new track that was released to promote the album. “Now I’m not suggesting that “DJ Culture” should be enshrined in any Halls of Fame for its cultural significance like “American Pie, but its message was prescient. According to Neil Tennant via Wikipedia it was about:

The insincerity of how President George H. W. Bush’s speeches at the time of the First Gulf War utilised Winston Churchill’s wartime rhetoric, in a manner similar to how artists sample music from other artists.

Fast forward 30 odd years and replace Bush with Boris Johnson and…where’s the difference? Johnson’s obsession with Churchill and his enablement by the right wing press and its obsession with the war and the ‘Blitz spirit’ and it’s not hard to see why we live in a country that has created a hostile environment for ‘outsiders’. We are a much poorer country for it. The parallels with Brexit also echo in the lyrics:

Imagine a war which everyone won
Permanent holiday in endless sun
Peace without wisdom, one steals to achieve
Relentlessly, pretending to believe

Let’s pretend we won a war
Like a football match, ten-nil the score
Anything’s possible, we’re on the same side
Or otherwise on trial for our lives

I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to imagine these words as a criticism of the leave campaign narrative of ‘sunlit uplands’ and ‘Brexit is good, you just have to believe in it enough’ – there’s even a reference later on about empty shelves! Tellingly there’s also the line “Wondering who’s your friend” which could speak of the divisions between families and friends that Brexit has caused. Actually, there’s a couple more Pet Shop Boys song titles that sum up the shitshow that is Brexit and this corrupt Tory government in a much more succinct way- I’m thinking “Was It Worth It?” and “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)”. Bit of politics there as Ben Elton might have said back in the day.

For all that, I didn’t actually rate “DJ Culture” that much. It was a bit too repetitive and lacking in melody for me. It peaked at No 13 in the UK Top 40 whilst the “Discography: The Complete Singles Collection” album went to No 3 and achieved platinum status sales.

This week’s ‘TOTP Exclusive’ performance is from David Bowie….HURRAY! Hang on. Let me finish. I was going to say David Bowie’s side project rock group Tin Machine….BOOOOO!!!. Hang on didn’t they do an exclusive performance for TOTP the other week? Yes they did when they appeared on the show to promote previous single “You Belong in Rock ‘n’ Roll”! You can’t claim this to be an exclusive if its the second time in a few weeks can you?

Enter new show producer Stanley Appel, stage left: “Ah, but that first exclusive was in the pre- year zero revamp era. This is a whole new show so yes, of course we can claim it as an exclusive.

Me (not having it): So definitely not flogging a dead horse then?

Stanley Appel: How dare you?!

Is dead horse unfair? I think when it comes to Tin Machine it’s justified. Of the five singles they released only one made the Top 40 (the aforementioned “You Belong in Rock ‘n’ Roll”) whilst all the others were flops including this track “Baby Universal”…or “Baby Unusual” as Tony Dortie announces it. Clearly Tony had got the jitters being in the presence of the legend that was Bowie as he seems to fluff his entire intro. He mispronounces the word ‘exclusive’ and then nearly forgets the name of their album which couldn’t have been much easier to remember being “Tin Machine II” and all.

As for the song itself, it’s all very urgent sounding filled with moments for Bowie to deliver his unique vocal stylings but it’s just not quite there for me. Actually, listening to it back, it reminds me of “The Cabaret” by Time UK who were the group that drummer Rick Buckler formed after The Jam broke up. Don’t know it? Have a listen…

Time UK there, only the band that Tin Machine could have been (ahem)….oh and that tattoo on the drummer’s knuckles that we get a shot of at the end of the song? it definitely says HUNT and not anything else as his name is Hunt Sales!

And finally Cyril….

…and finally Esther. FINALLY. After 16 (SIXTEEN!) long weeks, we get to the final time that Bryan Adams is No 1 with “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You”. Obviously no record should have been at the top of the charts for that long – it was a nonsense. Was it Bryan’s fault though? I can’t see how. He just wrote a song for a film and it got released as a single. I think he only did one TOTP studio performance and the rest of the time the show just broadcast the video with the the film clips montage. He wasn’t busting a gut to be in the studio every week to promote it. The way people moaned about how long it was No 1 for, you would have though that this sort of run could never happen again but just three years later Wet Wet Wet almost eclipsed it with their “Love Is All Around” single also taken from a film (Four Weddings And A Funeral). They probably would have done had the band not taken the decision to delete the single and so it fell just short at 15 weeks. Their chart buster was of course a cover version of The Troggs – at least Adams had the good grace (and financial sense) to write this own tune!

No artist got near that sort of feat until Drake in 2016 whose “One Dance” single was No 1 for 15 weeks in the UK. It occurs to me that I don’t even know how that one goes. I’m not inclined to find out.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	2 Unlimited	Get Ready For This	Get ready for what? No.
2	Kenny Thomas	Something Special	I did not nor have I ever bought any Kenny Thomas records
3	Vic Reeves and The Wonderstuff	Dizzy	Liked it, didn’t buy it
4	Queen	The Show Must Go On	It must but it did so without me
5	Kiri Te Kanawa	World In Union	No thanks
6	Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine	After the Watershed (Early Learning the Hard Way)	See 3 above
7	Mariah Carey	Emotions	Nope
8	Simple Minds	Real Life	No
9	Don McLean	American Pie	Nah
10	Pet Shop Boys	DJ Culture	Not the single but have it on their Pop Art Collection CD
11	Tin Machine	Baby Universal	Negative
12	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/m0010rl6/top-of-the-pops-24101991

TOTP 17 OCT 1991

Posted on October 27, 2021 by 80stastic

It’s mid October 1991 and therefore week three of the new TOTP format – had we all got used to it yet? I recall some of these performances so I must have carried on watching it whether I liked the show’s new style or not (pretty sure it was the latter). I would have been 23 by this point – was that too old to have been watching TOTP? In my defence, I was working in a record shop (Our Price) for a living so I could make a case that it was work related. Looking back, I didn’t feel too old to still be a TOTP viewer but as I say, I was working in a mainstream, chart led record shop so it kind of felt the obvious thing to do.

Now if I was too old to be watching the show, tonight’s opening act were surely too old to have been performing on it?! Presenter Tony Dortie correctly advises us that even back in 1991, it was 20 years since Slade had scored their first No 1 single (“Coz I Luv You”) and in 1991 the youngest member of the band was Jim Lea at a sprightly 42 while the rest of the band were all 45. That makes them 8 year younger than I am now and I would like to think I’m not an old man yet but mid 40s for being on a pop music show that had recently gone through a revamp to show it was still ‘hip for the kids’? Clearly new producer Stanley Appel hadn’t learned his lesson from two weeks ago when one of the bands booked for the first show under his tutelage were Status Quo!

So why exactly were these gods of glam rock in the charts and on TOTP in 1991? Well, after their resurrection in the mid 80s due to hits like “My Oh My” and “Run Runaway”, the band’s chart fortunes had once again been on the slide and they’d descended into a world of greatest hits packages for the Xmas market and endless re-releases of that festive single (8 separate occasions in the 80s). However, 1991 racked up a quartet of a century of the band’s existence (in one form or another) and the Slade fan club-organised a 25th anniversary party to celebrate. Wanting to cash in on the renewed interest in the band, their record label Polydor floated the idea of yet another Greatest Hits compilation album but backed with a TV advertising campaign and two new singles to add interest for the fanbase. “Radio Wall of Sound“was the first of those two singles and it’s a right old stomper and no mistake but why is bassist Jim Lea doing most of the singing and not Noddy Holder? Well, it was written by Lea for a solo project and when the band came to record it, they found that it was not in Noddy’s key and so Lea did most of the vocals with the Nodster just joining in on the chorus. Around this time, Noddy had come into the Our Price where I was working and I ended up serving him. I can’t recall what he bought but I was delighted to note that his credit card was emblazoned with the legend N Holder on it. However, my joy was cut short when I realised that his real name is Neville and so the ‘N’ of course referred to that and not ‘Noddy’.

Back to “Radio Wall of Sound” though and despite it definitely sounding like a Slade record, for me it also displayed another influence. The radio DJ voice-over bits were undeniably channelling Starship’s “We Built This City”. Apparently, the DJ in question is Mike Read who had presumably taken time off from writing the theme tune for BBC horse racing drama Trainer and had also had to miss a UKIP fund raiser dinner party to record his lines.

To be fair to Stanley Appel and his production team, they’ve gone in hard straight away to create a buzz with some pyrotechnic explosions behind the band before they even start singing. Happily, they haven’t reverted to that practice during their mid 80s revival of handing out nasty, cheap looking and probably highly flammable Slade scarves to the studio audience to wave around.

“Radio Wall of Sound” achieved a decent chart high of No 21 but was undone by, according to Noddy Holder, a lack of TV slots to promote it. Apparently they’d tried to do Wogan but couldn’t get on the show. I checked the listings for the week that this TOTP was broadcast and the two musical guests on Wogan were Alison Moyet and Texas both of who performed their latest singles – Alison’s track “This House” peaked at No 40 and The Texas single “In My Heart” stalled at No 74. Neither were pulling in huge hits in the early 90s so it seems odd that a space couldn’t be found for Slade (especially Texas who at this point had only scored one hit single in 1989 and were six years away from their commercial peak of the “White On Blonde” album). The second of those new Slade singles was called “Universe” and was released as the follow up to “Radio Wall of Sound” in the December but got lost in the Xmas market and failed to chart. As such, Polydor went cold on the idea of the band recording any new material and they broke up in 1992 with Lea and Holder leaving whilst Dave Hill and Don Powell carried on under the banner of Slade II.

As Tony Dortie walks up the gantry steps at the end of the song to do the link into the Top 10 countdown, you can hear what I assume can only be Noddy Holder making some guttural noises that sound like an alarm going off. Maybe he was making it up to the studio audience for his lack of vocal participation on “Radio Wall of Sound”?

Oh crikey, Enya‘s back! Yes, she of the No 1 song “Orinoco Flow” that everyone went overboard about back in 1988 for being so dreamlike and haunting and blissful and all those other epithets that the press and media bestowed up on her. The single propelled her to international stardom and the album it was taken from (‘Watermark”) sold 11 million copies worldwide. Well, it took her three years to record the follow up which was an album called “Shepherd Moons” of which “Caribbean Blue” was the lead single. I remember that the album was expected to shift a huge number of units over Xmas in the Our Price store I was working in and therefore a huge amount of units were ordered in. It didn’t disappoint going to No 1 with 13 million copies purchased world-wide. All this sales were achieved without the massive promotional pull of a No1 single that its predecessor “Watermark” had benefitted from. “Caribbean Blue” went to No 13 in the UK but was not a huge hit globally only making the Top 10 in her native Ireland.

For this studio performance, the stage has a back drop that seems to be some sort of lost temple in an overgrown jungle but which fortunately still has functioning dry ice machines. Enya herself sits statically at the piano but unlike with Julian Lennon’s keyboard performance the other week, new TOTP producer Stanley Appel resisted the urge to beef up the performance with clips of the official promo video (even though it featured future Eastenders star Martine McCutcheon).

The intro to the song by presenter Mark Franklin is a bit sycophantic…

“She’s live in the studio tonight playing the unique sound of Enya…”

What sound did you expect her to play Mark? She is Enya after all so she was hardly likely to come out and do a tribute to Liberace was she?!

Moving on and it’s another studio performance by another returning female solo star in Lisa Stansfield. Like Enya before her, Lisa had also scored a massive No 1 back in the late 80s with “All Around the World” but hadn’t been seen in the charts for a good 18 months by this point. “Change” was the lead single from her second solo album called “Real Love” and that album would help to establish Lisa as one of the UK’s most prominent soul singers by going double platinum over here and reaching No 3 in the charts. It housed four UK Top 40 singles including one of her most well known songs in “All Woman” though the track I would have liked to have seen released was “Soul Deep” that remained an album track.

Lisa’s grown her hair a bit since the days of “All Around the World” and that short cut and kiss curl look. She still looks fabulous. I worked in Our Price Rochdale (Lisa’s hometown) for a whole year between ’92 and ’93 and the only time she came into the shop, I was on my day off. Damn it!

Luckier than me was presenter Mark Franklin who gets to interview Lisa at the end of her performance for one of those embarrassing interviews in which he asks Lisa about her forthcoming tour and we find out that she is going on tour (surprise surprise), that it begins in February and is going pretty much everywhere on the planet. Quality in depth interviewing there. He reminds me of Lady One Question from early noughties Channel 4 comedy gambling game show Banzai…

So after Stevie Wonder and Queen in weeks one and two of the show’s new format, week three brings us another big hitter in the ‘video exclusive’ section as we get U2‘s latest promo for their new single “The Fly”. Their first release of the 90s, this was the lead single from their multi-platinum “Achtung Baby” album. Very much seen as a change of style at the time with its multi layered guitars and distorted effects on Bono’s vocal, it was certainly no “With Or Without You”. Indeed, Bono is on record as describing the song as “The sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree”. For me though it sounded like U2 doing their best INXS impression but that wasn’t a bad thing in my book although I was surprised to find a copy of the 7″ in my singles box as I don’t recall buying it. I would also end up buying the album on which there are much better tracks than “The Fly” for me.

The song would also announce Bono’s ‘The Fly’ character which was meant to send up the stereotype of an egomaniacal rock star. Sadly for Bono, I’m not sure everyone got the joke and his wearing of large wrap-around sunglasses backfired on him in many ways. Attending press conferences in ‘The Fly’ persona was probably not the best idea Bono ever had either and didn’t help his cause.

Whatever any of us thought about the song, it created itself a space in chart history as the single that eventually toppled Bryan Adams’ 16 week run at the top of the charts. Ironically, although it went straight in at No 1, “The Fly” was only made available for three weeks before the band’s record label Island deleted it so that they could clear the release schedules for further singles to be pulled from the album. How many music fans wished that Bryan’s record label A&M had done a similar thing with “(Everything I Do) I Did It For You”?

Dannii Minogue‘s annus mirabilis continues a pace with her fourth hit single of 1991 “Baby Love”. Not a cover of the Diana Ross & The Supremes number but a cover version all the same as this track was originally recorded by one hit wonder Regina and was a US No 10 hit in 1986. Dannii would have been better off going for the Motown track in my opinion as the Regina song doesn’t seem to have much going for it to my ears. Interesting to note that now the acts have to sing live on the show, Dannii’s dance moves are considerably curtailed – in fact she hardly moves at all leaving all the “nifty dance moves” (as promised by Tony Dortie in his intro) to her trio of backing dancers. To be fair to her, you couldn’t have expected anything but an out of breath vocal if she’d also attempted all the dancing we saw for her performance of previous hit “Jump To The Beat”.

The film that she is starring in that will be released the following year that Tony Dortie references, I hadn’t realised I’d seen until I researched it for this post. Success (also known as One Crazy Night) tells the story of four Beatles obsessed fans (plus an Elvis fan who can’t stand them) who find themselves locked in the basement of the hotel that the moptops are staying in whilst in Australia during their touring years period. While waiting to be rescued, they start to share their deepest secrets with each other. Often compared (unfavourably) to The Breakfast Club, it attracted criticism for the use of Beatles songs that didn’t belong in the time period the film was set. The plot takes place in 1964 but some of the songs used are from much later albums like “Abbey Road” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” which does seem unforgivable. However, the fact that I even remembered the film at all suggests it must have done something right to stay in my memory banks although I’d certainly forgotten that Dannii Minogue was in it.

“Baby Love” peaked at No 14.

The video for “Wind Of Change” by Scorpions is next. As Tony Dortie says, it was giving Bryan Adams a run for his money by occupying the No 2 spot in the charts this week although I have no idea how many copies it was actually selling and whether it was indeed anywhere near to knocking the Canadian off his throne.

The song was the subject of an eight part podcast in 2020 which raised the possibility that the song was written by or connected to the CIA. What?! The premise goes that the CIA may have wanted to engender anti Soviet Union sentiment by utilising pop culture and the result was the writing of this people unifying, Cold War busting anthem. I haven’t heard the podcast but it’s an interesting theory and all. However, I get the impression it involves lots of internet rabbit holes and reminds me of all those conspiracy theorists out there who believe that Paul McCartney was killed in a car crash in 1966 and replaced with a lookalike as the Beatles obsessed nation couldn’t have handled the truth. I’m not buying either story.

This week the album chart feature is fulfilled by Paul Young whose Best Of collection “From Time to Time – The Singles Collection” is at No 5 this week. I’m guessing that neither Paul nor his record label Columbia could have foreseen the album going straight in at No 1 and being certified triple platinum but that’s exactly what happened. To be fair to Paul, it was a quality package filled with substantial hits from 1983 to the present (i.e. 1991) plus four newly recorded tracks one of which was this cover of Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over“. I’d bought the original back in 1987 and although Paul’s version is inferior, he does a decent job of it all the same.

The performance here is interesting with Paul sat down for the duration and strumming a guitar! Don’t think I’d ever seen him do that before or indeed knew he could play. And isn’t that Paul Carrack on keyboards once of Ace, Squeeze and Mike + The Mechanics? It is you know. Bizarrely, Carrack had shared lead vocal duties with another Paul Young whilst in Mike Rutherford’s Genesis offshoot project but this one was the ex lead singer of Sad Café who passed away in 2000 rather than the singer of such hits as “Love of the Common People”, “Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home)” and “Everytime You Go Away”.

Paul’s version of “Don’t Dream It’s Over” peaked at No 20.

Mark Franklin goes in for another interview about tour dates when he grills Paul Young about his forthcoming Xmas tour and then we’re into the Breakers starting with Ce Ce Peniston and “Finally”. Hang on – I thought this was in the charts much later than this and after she’d had already had a hit with a track called “We Got a Love Thang”

*checks officialcharts.com*

Yes I was right…and wrong. It was a much bigger hit (No 2) when re-released in March of ’92 after “We Got A Love Thang” had been a Top 10 hit at the start of the year. I had completely forgotten that “Finally” was also a No 26 hit in ’91. The track has routinely featured in various publications and music stations polls usually called something like The Biggest 90’s Dance Anthems of All Time etc and was also a huge smash in the US where it peaked at No 5. There was also a parent album called “Finally” which also performed well in the UK peaking at No 10.

I always quite liked it and much preferred it to “We Got a Love Thang”. It was kept off the top spot in ’92 by another long running No 1 song – Shakespears Sister’s “Stay”.

The second Breaker comes from Moby with “Go”. As with Ce Ce Peniston, I get a little confused over the chart history of this one. Various sources say that it was either released in March ’91 or July of that year – either way, it took a long time then for it to get into the Top 40. Maybe it was a sleeper hit, big in the clubs but not being played on mainstream radio?

The track was originally the B-side to Moby’s debut single from the previous year “Mobility” but was remixed with added samples from the obligatory Jocelyn Brown (the ‘yeah’ bit) and David Lynch’s mystery-horror TV series Twin Peaks and it would eventually (ahem) go Top 10. It wasn’t really my cup of tea although I would end up working with someone at Our Price who adored Moby well before his record-busting “Play” album of 1999 (which I did succumb to buying).

The clip that we see on TOTP of the kaleidoscopic video for the track was pretty standard dance tune fare and gave no idea to the identity of Moby who would turn out to be a little bald headed American bloke (although he does feature if you watch the whole promo).

Oh, it’s one of those TOTP performances that get talked up as memorable but was it actually any good? I refer to Monty Python and “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life”. I say Monty Python but it’s really just Eric Idle surrounded by what seemed to be a cast of thousands but was in fact a few blokes in Python-esque housewife fancy dress and a fake band. I guess it’s quite well choreographed with various explosions, instruments being broken and parts of the set falling down (hopefully the Health & Safety risk assessment was rigorous) and Idle does a good job of leading us all through it (and the studio audience through the set) but was it that funny?! That walk through the studio reminded me of similar performances by Adam Ant for “Goody Two Shoes” and that time Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes To Hollywood took a stroll to relieve the boredom of miming to “Two Tribes” on the show for the ninth (?) time. In all honesty, I preferred Adam and Holly’s excursions. The taxi at the end to whisk Idle away brought to mind Blur in that milk float at the start of the TOTP in the week of the legendary Blur v Oasis chart battle.

“Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” went all the way to No 3 whilst the re-release of the “Monty Python Sings” album off the back of it peaked at No 62.

And it’s STILL there at No 1 – Bryan Adams records a 15th consecutive week at the top of the charts with “(Everything I Do ) I Do It For You”. Bryan must have got a taste for doing songs for film soundtracks as he would record three more before the decade was out – “All for Love” (with Rod Stewart and Sting) reached No 2 in the UK charts in 1994 from the film The Three Musketeers whilst “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?” a year later from Don Juan DeMarco peaked at No 4. A final soundtrack song was recorded with Barbara Streisand in 1996 called “I Finally Found Someone” from her The Mirror Has Two Faces movie. Into the new millennium, he recorded “Here I Am” for the DreamWorks animation film Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron. I don’t think I liked any of them.

Just before the closing credits, Eric Idle returns to pie presenters Mark Franklin and Tony Dortie in the face. A watching nation cheered him on.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Slade	Radio Wall Of Sound	Nope
2	Enya	Caribbean Blue	No
3	Lisa Stansfield	Change	Yes! Well, it’s in my singles box but I think my wife bought it actually.
4	U2	The Fly	Yes! Two on the trot! When was the last time that happened?
5	Dannii Minogue	Baby Love	This was never going to complete a hat-trick of purchases – no
6	Scorpions	Wind Of Change	Nah
7	Paul Young	Don’t Dream It’s Over	No but I bought his Best Of album with it on
8	Ce Ce Pensiton	Finally	I did not
9	Moby	Go	Go? No.
10	Monty Python	Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life	Never happening
11	Bryan Adams	(Everything I Do ) I Do It For You”	Negative

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/m0010rl4/top-of-the-pops-17101991

TOTP 10 OCT 1991

Posted on October 22, 2021 by 80stastic

Welcome to the brave new world of the ‘year zero’ TOTP revamp where we are into the second show of this new era. My take on the first show was that it was a right shambles and that the new features didn’t really work at all. The presenters Tony Dortie and Mark Franklin were enthusiastic but yet to find their feet and cement their personalities on the show whilst the chart rundown was an abomination. As D-Ream would say two years on from here (and indeed Howard Jones six years before), things can only get better.

An acid test of the new format arrives in the very first act on tonight as we see if the changes introduced by new producer Stanley Appel allow dance tunes to be showcased any more effectively. The person in the test drive seat is DJ Carl Cox with “I Want You (Forever)”. Once again we open the show without seeing a host at all as we get the disembodied voice of Dortie who really is shaping a reputation for himself as a mumbler. What’s he saying? “Everyone is live and firing interaction from Brighton”? What?! Take a breath man – you’re running your sentences together! As for the staging of the performance, I have to say I don’t see anything much different from how dance acts were presented previously. The main man is once again in the background on the decks whilst the singer is up front with some dancers. So far, so same as before. Yes, the vocal is live this time as per keeping with the new edict about artists appearing on the show and there’s a bit of graphic trickery when some trippy colourisation effects are laid over the top for the non-singing parts of the track but apart from that? OK, there’s maybe some more camera angles than usual in an attempt to dazzle us into thinking that there’s more going on here than our brains can take in but I’m not sure it works. They even resort to that old strategy of slipping in some bits of the promo video to try and liven up proceedings. Nah, not for me.

Oh, hang on. That’s new! As DJ Carl Cox finishes, the camera tracks to a bank of six TV screens and Mark Franklin appears stretched out over all of them to form one big collage of his face. Ooh! Swanky! I take it all back – the whole revamp was worth it just for that moment! Franklin introduces the Top 10 countdown and – oh no – disregard my previous comment as this new countdown is just atrocious. Unforgivable.

Talking of unforgivable, here’s Morrissey! OK, a touch unfair on the 1991 version of Morrissey maybe but some of his more recent comments are truly unpalatable. Here he is a with a fairly downbeat (if not downright miserable) tune called “My Love Life” which was the fourth and final hit single that he had in the calendar year of 1991 none of which got any higher than No 25. It was also the second of two consecutive non-album singles (following “Pregnant For The Last Time”) before he would return the following year with a proper album in “Your Arsenal”.

Mozza’s backing band are now full on rockabilly rebels with quiff-tastic hair which is not a surprise as this was around the time that Boz Boorer, founder of new wave rockabilly group The Polecats, would enter into a permanent working relationship with Morrissey as his co-writer and guitarist. “My Love Life” though wasn’t a Boorer / Morrissey composition but was written with Mark Nevin who used to be in “Perfect” hitmakers Fairground Attraction.

Coincidentally, I recently read the autobiography* of another Nevin, one of my all time football heroes Pat Nevin who himself was a big Smiths fan and indeed, he devoted an entire chapter of his book (entitled This Charming Man) to the time he went round to Morrissey’s house. Pat went to Morrissey’s gaff with his friend Vini Reilly from The Durutti Column and found his host to be overly guarded on first meeting (or “defensive preciousness” as Pat called it). To try and warm him up a bit, Nevin asked Morrissey if he had ever been interested in football to which he replied:

“I can’t say I have ever really thought about it. My mind and my thoughts have never ventured towards that area, my soul was otherwise engaged“.

A typical lah-di-dah Morrissey answer you could be forgiven for thinking. However, there was a sting in the tail. Pat was playing for Everton by this point and one of his fellow players, ex-Man Utd legend Norman Whiteside, lived on the same road as Morrissey it turned out. Nevin followed up by saying:

“I only ask because another player from our team was going to pop round with me tonight, his name is Norman and he lives not far from here.”

Quick as a flash Mozza replied:

“You mean Norman Whiteside who used to play for United and moved to Everton last year?”

You little tinker Morrissey!

Nevin replied:

“Not bad knowledge for a guy whose soul is engaged elsewhere”

The ice was broken and they got along famously for the rest of the evening. They never met again but Morrissey sent Pat a postcard inscribed with ‘From one dribbler to another’ which as Pat says, could have been a perfect Smiths song title.

*All quotes in italics are from Pat Nevin, the accidental footballer published by Monoray, 2021.

Next one of those songs that got so much airplay that you end up convinced that it was a bigger hit than hit actually was. “Walking In Memphis” by Marc Cohn had already been released once in 1991 when it peaked at No 66 in June. I’m guessing it was still being played on the radio enough to warrant a re-release just a few months later and this time it would become a UK Top 40 hit. Where do you reckon it go to though? Top 10? Top 5? Nope, it didn’t even go Top 20 peaking just outside at No 22.

I think it’s the lyrics that made the song memorable with those references to Elvis, The King and Graceland but it’s not really a tribute to Presley but rather concerns Cohn’s “spiritual awakening” as he puts it himself. Cohn had come to a realisation at the age of 28 that he didn’t actually like the songs he had so far written so he took a trip to Memphis to try and clear his writer’s block. The lyrics are almost entirely autobiographical, outlining his experiences whilst there like attending the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church on a Sunday morning to hear the Reverend Al Green preach (‘They’ve got gospel in the air, and Reverend Green be glad to see you, when you haven’t got a prayer’). The words also reference visiting the Hollywood Café in Robinsonville, Mississippi to see Muriel Davis Wilkins, a retired schoolteacher who performed at the cafe (‘Now Muriel plays piano, every Friday at the Hollywood’). Cohn also references blues legend W.C. Handy, Carl Perkins who originally recorded “Blue Suede Shoes” whilst that line about the ‘ghost of Elvis’ that security didn’t see is supposedly about a story that Bruce Springsteen once successfully scaled the wall at Graceland, trying to deliver a song he wrote to Elvis but The King wasn’t at home.

Inevitably Cohn drew comparisons with the likes of Billy Joel and Elton John but unlike those two, Cohn’s career was defined by that one song which won him a Grammy in 1992 for Best New Artist. As with so many albums in 1991, the surprise success of the single created a demand for his debut eponymous album which had been released in February but which was now withdrawn by Warners (it always seemed to be Warners) before being re-released meaning that those of us working in record stores had to explain what an album being withdrawn meant to confused customers wanting the album by ‘that bloke who sings the song about Elvis’.

Interesting to note that just like Carl Cox earlier, the TOTP production team felt the need to beef up the studio performance with some clips of the video. So that was dance acts and blokes sat at pianos that the show struggled to accommodate.

For the sake of completists everywhere I should mention the following:

Cher recorded a version of this in 1995 for her “It’s A Man’s World” album and it outperformed Cohn’s version when it peaked at No 11 despite being f*****g horrible.
In 1992, jungle pioneers Shut Up And Dance released a bastardised version of “Walking In Memphis” with the lyrics and song title changed to “Raving I’m Raving”. However, as they hadn’t obtained song clearance from Cohn, he took out an injunction to stop them from making any more copies of the record. The original version had sent the song to No 2 in the UK charts but it dropped like a stone when the shops couldn’t get any more stock. A re-recorded version was then released which sounded nothing like Cohn’s song and which nobody wanted and it fell out of the charts within two weeks.
German happy hardcore ravers Scooter released a version of it entitled “I’m Raving”in 1996 but seriously, let’s not go there.

After last week’s Exclusive feature showed a song that wasn’t even a hit in the UK (“Fun Day” by Steve Wonder), this time it’s a better choice as the video for Queen‘s latest single is showcased. Possibly one fo the most poignant song titles ever, “The Show Must Go On” was the last Queen single to be released in Freddie Mercury’s lifetime. Despite no official statement from the band, rumours were now rife that Freddie was very ill by the end of November, he had gone.

Despite being the last track on the band’s final album with Freddie “Innuendo”, it was released as a single to promote their “Greatest Hits II” album that was released at the end of October. It sounds strange to say it now as the album went to No 1 and 12 x platinum in the UK but I recall that we hadn’t sold as many as expected in the Our Price I was working in (we’d got shed loads of it in). I clearly remember the store manager saying to me that we could do with Freddie dying to shift some more units. It wasn’t his finest hour to be honest.

The video is basically just an advert for “Greatest Hits II” being a montage of clips from some of their singles included in the retrospective including “I Want to Break Free”, “Radio Ga Ga” and “Breakthru” as well as some shots of the band’s legendary The Magic tour dates at Wembley Stadium.

Last week, I referenced a poll that stated that by 2014, Monty Python’s “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” was the most requested funeral song by us Brits. However, in 2005, a poll by digital TV channel Music Choice asked 45,000 adults across Europe which song they would like played at their funeral – “The Show Must Go On” came out on top.

The single peaked at No 16 initially but after Freddie’s death, it re-entered the Top 75 spending as many weeks there as it had done on its original chart run.

Tony Dortie’s at it again next with his urban jargon when he introduces the next act Cathy Dennis as “whipping up a storm and creating a flavour all over the world?” Creating a flavour? Actually, I bet he spelt it ‘flava’. Was that really a phrase back in ’91? Anyway, our Cathy is adopting that well worn record company strategy of following two fast hits with a slow one with the release of her ballad “Too Many Walls”. Previous singles “Touch Me (All Night Long)” and “Just Another Dream” had made a star of Cathy (although she was formally introduced to us on D Mob’s 1989 hit “C’mon and Get My Love”) so now was the time to consolidate on her success by demonstrating her diversity and that there was more to her than some sprightly dance/pop tunes. You can tell there has been some restyling of her image to support this new direction as Cathy is wearing a classy looking (albeit day- glo coloured) jacket and roll neck sweater outfit as opposed to the slinky catsuit of her “Touch Me (All Night Long)” appearance on the show and the Betty Boo style space cadet outfit for “Just Another Dream”.

“Too Many Walls” was a decent attempt at a ballad even if the final result is a little underwhelming. I was surprised to discover that it was co-written by Cathy with Anne Dudley of pioneering sound explorers Art of Noise as the song resides squarely in the safer parts of the pop world.

Despite her UK success, Cathy was still a bigger star in the US than over here at this point with this single peaking inside the Billboard Top 10 at No 8 whilst it got no further than No 17 here.

After the disastrous decision in last weeks’ TOTP of getting Status Quo to launch the new album chart feature, this week we get Simply Red. Whether this is a better choice or not is open to debate. On the plus side, they were probably seen as more contemporary and they were undeniably popular as “Stars” would become the biggest selling album of the year in the UK. On the downside, it means having to stomach Mick Hucknall. The track they perform here is “For Your Babies” which you would have been forgiven for thinking must be the second single released from the album but that wasn’t the case. The title track would take that slot when it was released a month on for this performance. Maybe new TOTP producer Stanley Appel was fastidious in the details of the show and insisted that an artist must perform a non-single album track if featured in the album chart section rather than just the latest single? As it was, “For Your Babies” was released as the third single in early 1992 and would make No 9 in the charts.

Whatever you say about Hucknall, I would imagine that this new policy of making artists sing live on the show wouldn’t have fazed him in the slightest and he gives a controlled, quality vocal here on what for me, was one of the tracks on the album that I could actually stand. Mind you, by the time the album had been played to death in the Our Price I was working in all over Xmas, I could quite happily never had heard it or Mick Hucknall ever again. We get another of those ill advised interviews at the end of the song as Dortie climbs onto the stage to have a rather obsequious word with the ginger one for no apparent reason other than to plug his forthcoming tour and namecheck the new members of the band. Clearly no lessons were learned from the sphincter clenching embarrassment of an interview with Belinda Carlisle last week.

The Breakers are back to pre-‘year zero’ revamp levels with four of them crammed into 1 minute and 35 seconds. Dortie makes a bit of a mess of introducing them as he refers to “The rugby song” by Kiri Te Kanawa (you couldn’t remember “World In Motion” Tony?) and mispronouncing Public Enemy as Public Enery reviving memories of Sir Henry ‘Enery’ Cooper and this advert:

Anyway, the Breakers start with Oleta Adams doing a version of Elton John’s “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”. This was taken from the Elton John / Bernie Taupin tribute album “Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin” which included covers of their songs by some huge names such as Kate Bush, Tina Turner, Hall & Oates, The Beach Boys, Eric Clapton and Sting. Despite scoring a huge global breakthrough hit with “Get Here” earlier in the year, maybe one of those aforementioned artists would have been expected to be picked as the single to promote the album but Oleta it was who got the nod and I personally think she does a decent job of one of my favourite Elton tunes. I think her take on it got patchy reviews as did the album as a whole despite its platinum sales in this country.

Also on the album was George Michael doing a song called “Tonight” from Elton’s 1976 “Blue Moves” album and yet it is George’s cover of “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” that is far better known than Oleta’s. Elton and George first performed it together at Live Aid in 1985 with Michael including it in his set list for his Cover to Cover tour of 1991 with Elton being introduced on stage at Wembley Arena for the final show to reprise it. That performance was recorded and released as a single in November and would go to No 1 raising money for ten different charities all of which makes you wonder why George’s version wasn’t used for the “Two Rooms” album.

Oleta’s cover reached No 33 in the UK charts.

Back in 1991, the UK pretty much only knew Mariah Carey for her big ballad “Vision Of Love” from the previous year which went Top 10. Subsequent singles were only very minor hits and we could have been forgiven for thinking that Mariah might have had her day over here already. So when “Emotions” came out, those of us who had been of that opinion had to eat some humble pie. Not only was the single a Top 20 hit but the album of the same name went platinum in the UK alone. Furthermore, the single was a completely different sound and tempo to “Vision Of Love”, being an R’n’B disco stomper. Ah yes, that disco influence. Did it sound ever so slightly like the 1977 No 1 disco hit “Best Of My Love” by (ahem) The Emotions? Yes, yes it did and it didn’t go unnoticed by one of its songwriters, none other than Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire who took legal action and received a settlement. “Emotions” was co-written and produced by producers du jour Robert Clivillés, and David Cole of C+C Music Factory and according to one of their touring party, Carl Sturken, this is the story behind the song as he told it in an interview with songfacts.com:

“I am absolutely one thousand percent certain that when they wrote that groove, they labeled it ‘Emotions’ because it’s The Emotions’ groove. Then when Mariah Carey comes in to write over it, she sees ‘Emotions’ written as the name of the groove, so she writes a song called ‘You’ve Got Me Feeling Emotions.'”

Yeah, a likely story.

Was “Emotions’ the song where we really became aware of Mariah’s infeasibly wide vocal range? When she performed it at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards, she reportedly sounded a G-sharp three and a half octaves above middle C. This was one of the highest notes produced by a human voice in the history of recorded music! I know we’re supposed to be impressed and all but listen to this compilation of her highest notes and tell me if it sounds nice!

~~Public Enery~~ Public Enemy now with their tribute to the newly appointed Foreign Secretary of Boris Johnson’s government Liz Truss. “Can’t Truss It”was the lead single from their “Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black” album and was the follow up to seminal long player “Fear Of A Black Planet”. I say follow up but how did you follow up such a seismic album when it included such tracks as “911 Is A Joke” and “Fight The Power” the latter of which has come to be regarded as one of the most influential songs in hip hop history and which regularly appears in polls that try to quantify the best /most important songs of all time. “Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black” certainly attempted the impossible performing well commercially but some reviews of it described it as good rather than classic.

As well as the much sampled James Brown and Sly & the Family Stone, “Can’t Truss It” features the more left field sample of “Im Nin’Alu” by Ofra Haza and peaked at No 22 on the UK Top 40.

And so we get to “The Rugby Song”. The1991 Rugby World Cup was only the second time the tournament had been held and this time host countries were England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France with the final taking place at Twickenham Stadium, London. To celebrate this event, an official Rugby World Cup song was recorded and released by New Zealand opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. “World In Union” was its title and it was based on “Thaxted” from the middle section of “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity”, a movement from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” though most of us knew the melody as being from the hymn, “I Vow to Thee, My Country”. It was hardly “World In Motion” by New Order but it proved to be surprisingly (at least to me) popular earning itself a chart high of No 4.

As for the tournament itself, it kind of passed me by. I had to look up that England actually made the final (losing to Australia 12-6) though when I checked the names of the team that day, I certainly recognised the likes of Will Carling, Rory Underwood, Rob Andrew and Jeremy Guscott. Maybe I even watched the final on TV but I can’t recall. There seemed to be a much bigger fuss about the 2003 final probably because we won it (Johnny Wilkinson and all that) and I definitely remember watching that match.

Just as the era of “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” is coming to an end, we enter another that defies explanation – the time of 2 Unlimited is upon us. This lot were formed by Belgian producers Jean-Paul De Coster and Phil Wilde but those aren’t the people that we associate with 2 Unlimited. No, they would be Dutch rapper Ray Slijngaard and vocalist Anita Doth who fronted the act. “Get Ready for This” for this was their debut hit and it was just dreadful. Totally annoying and basically just a keyboard riff played over and over again. Apparently the UK release was different to the version the the rest of Europe got served up which featured a rap from Ray but all we got was the line ‘Ya’ll ready for this?’ repeated four times plus the occasional ‘yeah!’ thrown in for good measure. Oh and an 808 State-lite middle eight. This was just an awful nonsense.

Foolishly I consoled myself with the thought that this would just be another one off Eurodance hit and we would never hear from 2 Unlimited again. How wrong I was as they would clocked up 14 UK Top 40 hits over the course of the decade including their only No 1 “No Limits:” in 1993. My God! What were people doing in the 90s?!

“Get Ready For This” closes with Dortie dancing on stage with 2 Unlimited (Gary Davies would never have done such a thing!) and we get the aforementioned “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” by Bryan Adams now into its 14th of 16 weeks at the top to close the show. By this point, I think the papers were seriously talking it up as the Xmas No 1! I’ve really got nothing left to say about this other than the parent album “Waking Up The Neighbours” had been released about three weeks before and had gone to No 1 as well. If it’s any consolation to those all Bryan’d out, he would not record another studio album for five years and once he had stopped releasing singles from “Waking Up The Neighbours” in early 1992, he would only release three singles in that time two of which were from film soundtracks and one was a stand alone to promote 1993’s Best Of album “So Far, So Good”. The end is in sight…

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	DJ Carl Cox	I Want You (Forever)	Nah
2	Morrissey	My Love Life	No thanks
3	Marc Cohn	Walking In Memphis	I wasn’t tempted
4	Queen	The Show Must Go On	But I didn’t buy a ticket for it – no
5	Cathy Dennis	Too Many Walls	Nope
6	Simply Red	For Your Babies	NO!
7	Oleta Adams	Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me	I did not
8	Mariah Carey	Emotions	Negative
9	Public Enemy	Can’t Truss It	And I didn’t – no
10	Kiri Te Kanawa	World In Union	Nothing here for me
11	2 Unlimited	Get Ready For This	Away with you!
12	Bryan Adams	(Everything I Do) I Do It for You	It’s a final 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/m0010k2r/top-of-the-pops-10101991

TOTP 03 OCT 1991

Posted on October 20, 2021 by 80stastic

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 26 SEP 1991

Posted on October 15, 2021 by 80stastic

And now, the end is near
And so I face the final curtain

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase ‘end of an era’? Alex Ferguson finally retiring as manger of Manchester United? The Beatles splitting? Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts sadly passing away the other week? How about the character of Mike Baldwin being killed off in Coronation Street? Or…the ‘Year Zero’ revamp of that great pop music institution TOTP? I think tonight’s host Gary Davies has justification for describing the 26 Sep 1991 show as the end of an era. This was the final show (until the changes were reversed in 1994) of that grand old programme being presented by Radio 1 DJs. They were replaced by a group of younger unknowns by incoming executive producer Stanley Appel who was hoping to bring about a new youthful feel to a show that had struggled to accommodate the new trends in popular music surrounding dance / house / rave genres. There were more cosmetic changes in a brand new theme tune (“Now Get Out of That”), title sequence and logo and, as Gary Davies advises at the end of the show, the entire programme was moved from BBC Television Centre in London to BBC Elstree Centre in Borehamwood.

I do feel a twinge of sympathy for Davies. He’d been hosting TOTP since about 1983 I think (not long after he joined Radio 1 anyway) and had always been a safe pair of hands* and must have thought he had a shot at stardom across the pond in the US in October 1987 when the CBS television network decided to try an American version of the show. There were link ups with the UK version which were always hosted by Davies. Sadly for Gary, the experiment was short-lived and the US TOTP was cancelled. By the time the old guard of presenters were reinstalled in 1994, Davies had moved to Virgin Radio meaning this is his very last regular TOTP show.

*Except for the Dixie Peach suntan comment of course

Well, enough of the sentiment and on with the show and we start with …who the hell is this? P.J.B. featuring Hannah And Her Sisters? I have literally never heard this in my life before and thank the Lord I hadn’t because now I’ve had their version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” inflicted on my ears, life in this wretched country at this horrible period of history just got even worse. This is vile – beastly even. Just 100% crapola. Who’s idea was it to do a dance version of the Simon & Garfunkel classic? Well, it turns out it was a bloke called Peter John Bellotte (the titular P.J.B.) who actually had quite an impressive CV. Most notably, he’d worked with Giorgio Moroder producing the peak era Donna Summer sound of “I Feel Love”, “Love to Love You Baby” and “Hot Stuff”. He went on to work with the likes of Janet Jackson, Cliff Richard, Shalamar and Tina Turner and in 2004 was honoured at the Dance Music Hall of Fame ceremony where he was inducted for his many outstanding achievements and contributions as producer and songwriter.

Back in 1991 though, he was responsible for this shit. As for Hannah and Her Sisters, as wells being the name of Woody Allen’s 1986 comedy drama flick, they did actually feature a Hannah who was Hannah Jones who would achieve some hits on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart at the end of the 90s. This dreadful nonsense however peaked at No 21 and whoever bought it should conduct their own root and branch investigation into exactly what occurred here.

Could there be a more appropriate song to help bring the curtain down on this era of TOTP? It can only be “Wind Of Change” by The Scorpions. Of course, it was a curtain of a different kind (the iron one) that was the behind the origin of the song. Written during a visit to Moscow in 1989, these German rockers were amazed at how different the political and cultural climate felt just 12 months on from their previous visit there. The opening lines:

I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change

were a literal running commentary of a boat trip that the band took down the Moskva river that runs through Moscow, passing the sights like Gorky Park which sits on the shore of the Moskva and witnessing first hand those changes occurring. Lead singer Klaus Meine started whistling that melody and the rest of the song came quickly. Apparently, the band’s record label weren’t keen on that infamous whistling intro and the band tried to record the song without it by reverting to a traditional heavy rock intro akin to the band’s reputation but when that wasn’t working they returned to the original song opening. I seem to recall the song getting a bit of stick for that intro, that it somehow undermined it. I’m not sure why as their are loads of examples of songs with whistling in them that are credible. There’s even a direct rock comparison in the form of “Patience” by Guns N’ Roses and then there’s the classic “Dock Of The Bay” by Otis Redding. Maybe their label were concerned it might take the song in more of an almost novelty direction like Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” or “Walk Like An Egyptian” by The Bangles.

Whatever their reasoning, between them and the band, they arrived at the correct decision commercially speaking as the song went on to sell 14 million copies worldwide. More than the sales though and whatever you think about the sound of the song, its legacy was its cultural and political significance becoming a clarion call for freedom and a message of hope.

As for me, I don’t think I knew anything about The Scorpions before “Wind Of Change” despite them having been around since the mid 60s. Did I like the song? About as much as liked the nasty scorpion spider graphic that the TOTP producers shoved over the start of the video. Let’s hope that sort of nonsense disappeared in the ‘year zero’ revamp.

It’s the tiny person with a massive voice and an even bigger hit next as we get a live vocal from Rozalla on “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”. So ubiquitous was this tune that I could have sworn it was a much bigger hit than its actual No 6 peak. Maybe my confusion is because it hung around the charts for so long – ten weeks in total on the Top 40 and four consecutive weeks inside the Top 10. Eight years later, it did become a bigger hit of sorts when it was slowed down and sampled by Australian film director Baz Luhrmann on his Number 1 hit “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”.

After starting a trend for female vocalists fronting rave anthems to remove their tops in her last performance that was copied by Jorinde Williams of Oceanic, Rozalla tweaks the routine this week by suggesting her outer garment is about to come off but then keeping it on for the duration of the song. Maybe the stuffy TOTP producers had warned her off that type of thing!

REM are next with “The One I Love“. When it comes to misunderstood songs, this one must be up there with the best. If you didn’t know this song, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s a heartfelt love letter to a loved one judging by its title but one listen or perusal of the lyrics would tell a different story of manipulating people.

Any discussion of misunderstood songs must include “Born In The USA” by Bruce Springsteen and “Every Breath You Take” by The Police of course. The Boss’s song is often misconstrued as an anthem of patriotism when it’s actually telling the story of the difficulties and marginalisation Vietnam veterans felt when returning from the war. The song’s fist pumping sound led to many a politician asking if they could use the song to soundtrack an election campaign starting with Ronald Reagan in 1984. Bruce refused. Had Reagan heard this version of the song, maybe even his little brain would have realised it wasn’t really an appropriate song choice:

As for “Every Breath You Take”, my favourite misunderstanding of this song is the time when dumb as mud X Factor judge Louis Walsh told some hopeful after they had performed it on one of the live shows that they had ‘made it their own’. It’s a song about stalking you imbecile!

REM would release one final single (“Radio Song”) from their “Out Of Time” album before 1991 was up returning just a year later with the stunning “Automatic For The People” album.

Poor Gary Davies is having to introduce some right old shit on his valedictory TOTP appearance. After the car crash of the “Bridge Over Troubled Water” cover version at the top of the show, here’s that dreadful danced up remix of “Nutbush City Limits” by Tina Turner. Released as “Nutbush City Limits (The 90s Version)”, even the song’s new title grates.Why did it need the word version in there? Surely ’91 remix’ is what it should have been called? Also, the video is so lazy as well. Some old footage of Tina performing the song back in the day intercut with her jigging about to the track in the present day. Throw in some shots of lorries driving about (on their way to the city limits perchance?) and that was all the video director thought was needed.!

“Nutbush City Limits (The 90s Version)” peaked at No 23.

Back on a dance tip now with Bizarre Inc who are ‘avin’ it large with their hit “Such A Feeling”. By ‘avin’ it large, obviously I mean having two dancers at the front of the stage doing some arm-waving whilst the three guys in the band mime playing keyboards. Literally that’s all the performance is. Fine if you’re off on one in a club but a bit ridiculous looking for a prime time TV music show. I wonder if Davies was secretly relieved not have to present this type of thing anymore. Leave it for the kids and all that. He himself was approaching 34 by this point. which seems very young to the 53 year old me looking back but he might have been pushing it a bit as a purveyor of what the youth were into. I think I went to a nightclub just once after I turned 30.

“Such A Feeling” peaked at No 13.

Now here was an antidote to all that pesky dance music doing the rounds. Since his surprise No 1 single “Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart” with Gene Pitney at the end of the 80s, Marc Almond had not been a frequent visitor to the UK Top 40. He’d only racked up one No 29 hit (“A Lover Spurned”) from his “Enchanted” album in 1990 since then. So what do you do if you need a comeback hit single? You record a cover version of course! Being Marc Almond though, this was no ordinary cover. “Jacky” was a Jacques Brel song originally recorded by the Belgian singer-songwriter as “La chanson de Jacky” in 1965 and Marc was a massive Brel fan having already released an album of covers of his songs back in 1989 (although curiously it didn’t feature “Jacky”). The version that was more known to UK audiences though was the English translated one by Scott Walker who released it as his first solo single in 1967.

Marc’s version is definitely more Walker than Brel albeit with an obtrusive backbeat stapled onto it and a synthesised choir effect tagged on the end. It’s gloriously ridiculous and rather splendid for it. The lyrics are exquisitely bonkers and therefore wholly memorable. For example:

I’d have to get drunk every night
And talk about virility
With some old grandmother
That might be decked out like a Christmas tree
And no pink elephant I’d see
Though I’d be drunk as I could be

Excellent! Then of course, there is the killer hook in the chorus of Cute in a stupid ass way or rather Cute (pause for dramatic effect) in a stupid ass way. I’m sure this caused a trend amongst some young men to wear very skinny T-shirts with the legend ‘Cute in a stupid ass way’ emblazoned across them. The only thing that disappoints me about Almond’s version is that he doesn’t do the Scott Walker phrasing of ‘Jacky’ where he softens the ‘J’ which I always found very affecting.

“Jacky” peaked at No 17 and was the lead single from his first and only album for Warner Brothers “Tenement Symphony” which would implausibly spawn another hit single the following year with another cover version, this time “The Days of Pearly Spencer” which was originally recorded by David McWilliams. Despite including those hits, the album was not a big seller peaking at No 39.

A third TOTP appearance for Sabrina Johnston and “Peace” next. Interesting to note the difference in her performance here and that of Rozalla earlier. Sabrina’s backed by four dancers behind her whilst Rozalla was up there all on her tod.

With the greatest respect to Sabrina, maybe she needed to be helped out in the dance moves department as she comes across like Tina Turner meets Mrs Overall from Acorn Antiques when she’s wigging out.

Not only was she outdone by Rozalla’s much more impressive dancing, Sabrina also lost out to her in the chart positions as “Peace” peaked two places lower than “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”at No 8.

Three Breakers next and we start with Fish. I never fail to be amazed about just how many solo hits this guy had and also how few of them I recall. “Internal Exile” was his fourth and, like all his others, it must have passed me by at the time. Taken from the album of the same name, it had a very obviously Celtic folk feel to it and was about his desire for Scottish independence (still relevant as a subject today of course). The album included a version of “Something In The Air” by Thunderclap Newman. Want to hear it? Nah, nor me.

Another very tall man who used to front a rock band next as we see Ozzy Osbourne back in the charts for the first time in five years. He’s also released the title track from his new album as a single in “No More Tears”. Apparently, Ozzy considers this song to be ‘a gift from God’. Really?! Hell’s teeth! There really was nothing here for me though I do remember the Our Price Store I was working in getting the album in early on import and the only way you could distinguish it from the UK release was that the cover had a slightly different colour tint to it. I think I was (ahem) ‘paranoid’ about selling the wrong version.

It’s a trio of new album title tracks released as singles on the Breakers as Belinda Carlisle returns with “Live Your Life Be Free“. The hits had dried up in her native US by this point in Belinda’s career but here in the UK we were still happy to consume some more of her pleasant if formulaic soft rock. “Live Your Life Be Free” certainly fell into both of these categories and was hardly anything much different from what she had served up on her last two albums “Heaven On Earth” and “Runaway Horses” to my ears but it was eminently listenable. The album would spawn four Top 40 hits (of which the title track was the biggest) and would achieve gold status but it was a definite tailing off of sales compared to its two predecessors.

The video sees Belinda dressed up to look like Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolitte from My Fair Lady or possibly Julia Roberts as Vivian Ward for Pretty Woman (same film basically) at the races. All together now…”Come on, Dover, move yer bloomin’ arse!”

For 36 years Slim Whitman’s chart topping statistics were unrivalled but they’ve finally been brought down by the ‘Groover from Vancouver’ as “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” by Bryan Adams clocks up a twelfth consecutive week at No 1! I think when we’d reached this point and a 36 year chart record had been broken, maybe we were all believing that the spell it held over the UK public would also have been broken. Surely now it had beaten everything else in chart history, that would have been enough, job done or as Roy Castle would have said “You’re a record breaker!”. Alas no, Bryan was good for another four weeks after this meaning his single was responsible for the following chart feats courtesy of officialcharts.com:

With 16 consecutive weeks at the summit, “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” scored the longest ever run at No 1 in UK chart history, a record which still hasn’t been bettered. Just one song has more total weeks at No 1 – Frankie Laine’s “I Believe” which enjoyed 18 weeks at the top across 3 different stints.

“(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” is the UK’s 15th best-selling single of all time with over 1.87 million paid-for sales to date including 340,000 on digital download.
Even in 2021, nine people have picked up a physical copy of the song!
To date it’s clocked up over 55 million streams in the UK since chart records began – including 10 million in the first 6 months of 2021 alone
It was the best-seller of 1991 earning 1.43 million sales that year alone. It even outsold the second biggest (Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” which was re-released following Freddie Mercury’s death) by more than twice as many copies in that year.

The play out video this week is “Try” by Bros and I guess it’s a fitting end to both the current format of the show and Gary Davies’s time as a presenter that they both finish with a song that was also the final ever chart entry for the Goss twins. Bros would split the following year with Matt Goss forging a solo career before making a name for himself in the US where he had his own Vegas Residency at The Palms, Caesars Palace and The Mirage singing the swing classics. As for Luke, he briefly formed a group called Band of Thieves who released a pretty good single called “Sweeter Than The Midnight Rain” before embarking on an acting career that would see him land roles in such films as Blade II and Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

As for Gary Davies, he bows out with a fairly unemotional goodbye although he does give an extra long stare right down the lens before the Bros video kicks in. I wonder who’s benefit that was for?

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	P.J.B. featuring Hannah And Her Sisters	Bridge Over Troubled Water	Never going to happen
2	The Scorpions	Wind Of Change	Nope
3	Rozalla	Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)	Nah
4	REM	The One I Love	Not the single but I must have it on something
5	Tina Turner	Nutbush City Limits (The 90s Version)	See 1 above
6	Bizarre Inc	Such A Feeling	No
7	Marc Almond	Jacky	Liked it, didn’t buy it
8	Sabrina Johnston	Peace	See 7 above
9	Fish	Internal Exile	Negative
10	Ozzy Osbourne	No More Tears	Nothing here for me
11	Belinda Carlisle	Live Your Life Be Free	I did not
12	Bryan Adams	(Everything I Do) I Do It For You	It’s another no
13	Bros	Try	And a final 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/m0010b3m/top-of-the-pops-26091991

TOTP 19 SEP 1991

Posted on October 14, 2021 by 80stastic

Over the course of nearly 5 years of writing reviews of these BBC4 TOTP repeats covering the years 1983-1991, I’ve now written 380 posts. 380! That’s a lot of words and a lot of songs to have found something to write about. Maybe 380 is my limit as I think I may have hit a wall. I feel spent, done. My creative juice is more like arse juice and the only place it’s flowing is into my pants. Talking of backsides, the very first episode of Bottom starring Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall aired on BBC2 just two days before this TOTP went out and “the only place it’s flowing is into my pants” sounds like a line Mayall’s Lord Flashheart character in Blackadder II might have said.

Also looking and sounding like he’s hit a metaphorical wall is tonight’s presenter Nicky Campbell, who, like his fellow hosts in recent weeks, is making his final appearance before he will be axed in the ‘year zero’ revamp and won’t be seen on the show again for two and a half years. They all must have known by this point and Campbell turns in a can’t-be-arsed performance that screams ‘oh what’s the point any more?’. His usual waspish remarks are missing, replaced instead by some very functional intros and segues. Let’s at least hope he doesn’t hit any bum notes before he has to shift his backside out of it. That decision to get rid of the Radio 1 DJs from the show really messed with their profiles and careers – it could have even wrecked ’em – geddit? – wrecked ’em – no? Too many bum/arse/bottom references already? You’re probably right, this blog is going right down the pan.

Last week, the show opened with a dance tune called “Such A Feeling” by Bizarre Inc. Fast forward seven days and its opened with another dance track called “Such A Good Feeling”, this time by Brothers In Rhythm. Not helping refute accusations of the charts in 1991 being a bit samey were they?

I have to admit that I’d forgotten that Brothers In Rhythm were an actual chart act in their own right as my first thought of them is as remixers/producers for other artists. They’ve worked with such stellar names as Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, U2, Heaven 17 and many more. The suffix (Brothers in Rhythm Remix) featured so regularly as to almost be seen as part of the track’s official song title. However, back in ’91’ they seemed to just be part of the plethora of incognito acts peddling dance floor anthems like the aforementioned Bizarre Inc, Utah Saints, Altern 8 etc. Talking of incognito, the track samples Charvoni’s 1989 single “Always There” which itself was a cover of US jazz funkers Side Effect’s 1976 original and which of course, the UK’s own acid jazzers Incognito scored a hit with earlier in the Summer of ’91. Got all that? Good.

Photo Cr: startrek.com
https://shar.es/aWCUQp

To be fair, I might have thought this was Incognito performing “Such A Good Feeling” if I hadn’t seen the performance here which is giving me every strong Cruella de Vil vibes or perhaps even this guy opposite…

“Such A Good Feeling” peaked at No 14 and was the only hit they had under their name as a recording artist.

More evidence next of Nicky Campbell playing it straight for what he must have thought was his final TOTP appearance with a serious statement about there being a tendency for rap music to stereotype women but here were Salt ‘N Pepa to buck the trend. Maybe it was a surreptitious audition for those serious presenter roles he went on to for shows such as Central Weekend and Watchdog?

The video for “Let’s Talk About Sex” was directed by Millicent Shelton who’s next music promo was for a song called “Rump Shaker” by US hip-hop act Wreckx-n-Effect. The video was criticised for its alleged exploitation of women in bikinis and banned from MTV. That’s quite a leap from her work on a song with safe sex as one of its messages. I wonder how Salt ‘N Pepa reacted to that news? Or indeed, as Nicky Campbell correctly advises, the song’s writer Hurby Luv Bug? Didn’t he have a brother called Starski?

“Let’s Talk About Sex” peaked at No 2.

Utah Saints, U-U-U-Utah Saints now with their debut hit “What Can You Do For Me”. As with Brothers In Rhythm at the top of the show, this lot would possibly become more famous for their work remixing other artists including Blondie, The Human League, Simple Minds, James, and Annie Lennox than as chart stars themselves though they did score three consecutive Top 10 hits between ’91 and ’93. Hang on, it says here (wikipedia) that they also remixed The Osmonds? The Osmonds? I noted in a previous post that their name was nothing to do with the toothy 70s boy band who hailed from Ogden, Utah but was inspired by the Coen Brothers film Raising Arizona. However, now it seems there was a connection after all. Look:

My God! I also mentioned “Crazy Horses” the other week when talking about Julian Lennon’s “Salt-water” as other songs that had an eco-message. Weird how seemingly random things just fall into place t providing connections and continuity sometimes. And talking of continuity and connections, a nice little segue from Campbell when he says at the end of the track “Oh yes, and I’ll tell you that’s just a sample of what they can do”. See what he did there?

Prince is the next act but wait a minute….it’s with his single “Cream”. What happened to “Gett Off”?

*checks chart rundown*

It’s still at No 11! He was literally on the show just three weeks ago promoting one single and now he’s already onto the next release! Prince has done a Bryan Adams!

I have to say that I much preferred “Cream” to “Gett Off ” at the time. It was funky, slinky and of course, with it being Prince, had an element of smut about it in the lyrics (‘You got the horn so why don’t you blow it’). What I hadn’t noticed until now but having read up on it, this is true – it’s an homage to “Get It On” by T-Rex. Not just the sound of it but also in the little messages he puts in the words like using the phrase ‘filthy-cute’ bringing to mind Bolan’s ‘dirty-sweet’ lyric. “Gett Off” as a song title would surely have been a better tribute to “Get It On” though although in the US it was renamed as “Bang a Gong (Get It On)”. The title he used (“Cream”) sounds like he’s channelling Grease rather than Bolan:

Greased lightnin’, go, greased lightnin’
You are supreme, the chicks’ll cream, for greased lightnin’

Three weeks after “Cream” was released, the “Diamonds And Pearls” album came out which was the first under the new moniker of Prince And The New Power Generation. Initial copies of the album came with a holographic cover which prompted a rush from fans to procure a copy as reorders came with a much more standard cover. I recall that the HMV shop across the road from the Our Price in Manchester where I was working at the time always seemed to be able to get more copies of the holographic cover than us leading to a few lost sales. Bah!

“Cream” peaked at No 15 in the UK but was a No 1 song (Prince’s final one) in the US.

Oceanic are still riding high in the charts with “Insanity” having now made it to No 4 – the clue to their chart position is in the tops the band are wearing! Talking of which, clearly in 1991 if you were a female vocalist fronting a huge dance anthem, the thing to do when performing on TOTP was to take your top off. After Rozalla pulled off (literally) this trick the other week, Oceanic singer Jorinde Williams does the very same here to much applause from the studio audience (and presumably much internal cheering from the TOTP camera man that week). Not sure if that sort of carry on would be acceptable these days!

It’s the inescapable Bryan Adams next but it’s not that single. No, it’s the follow up “Can’t Stop That Thing We’ve Started” whose five weeks on the Top 40 would come and go while “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” was still at No 1. Quite extraordinary. Incredibly, the follow up to the follow up (a single called “There Will Never Be Another Tonight” being the third single from Adams’ “Waking Up The Neighbours” album) was released whilst EIDIDIFY was still in the charts!

As well as being a better song than its predecessor, the video for “Can’t Stop That Thing We’ve Started” was also infinitely better despite not having access to all those clips from a Hollywood blockbuster movie. I particularly liked the bucking bronco in the shape of a guitar scene. Not sure what that says about me to be honest but there you go.

“Can’t Stop That Thing We’ve Started” peaked at No 12.

Aha! Some clear evidence of thinking having gone into the running order from the TOTP producers here as we go from “Can’t Stop That Thing We’ve Started” to “Something Got Me Started” which was the new single from Simply Red who we haven’t seen on the show this decade until now. However, Hucknall and co would make up for lost time in a gigantic way with the release of their fourth album “Stars” from which “Something Got Me Started” was the lead single. As Nicky Campbell correctly pointed out, their last album “A New Flame” sold 6 million copies worldwide but “Stars” would top even that by selling NINE million copies around the world (most of which it felt like I personally sold to punters in Xmas 1991 in the Market Street, Manchester Our Price store).

Despite his undeniable global appeal, Mick Hucknall remains more divisive than Brexit when it comes to music fans opinions of him. My friend Robin hates him so much that in a game of ‘if you could change history, who would you go back and eliminate so they’d never been born?” down the pub one night, poor old Mick was second only to Hitler I think for Robin. Indeed, look at these tweets from when this BBC4 TOTP repeat aired the other week as to how he splits opinion:

I couldn’t stand “Something Got Me Started” at the time but listening now, I seem to have mellowed to it a bit (where’s that thermometer? I must have a fever!). I recall sitting in my work colleague Knoxy’s car just before the release of “Stars” waiting for him to finish his Sunday morning football match before he was driving us off to another game we were playing in for an Our Price team against a team of record company reps at Preston North End’s ground. Whilst I waited for Knoxy, I was listening to Radio 1 in the car and Hucknall was on (presumably doing the promotion rounds for the album’s release) and they were doing a phone in with him. One guy called in and said he’d just bought “Something Got Me Started” the day before. The single was going down the charts by then and the album was out the next day and I recall thinking why didn’t you just wait two days and buy the album. My next thought was ‘if you were that much of a fan to be bothered to ring in into speak to Hucknall, why hadn’t you already bought the single when it was first released?’ Simply Red fans, not up there with Numanoids, but a strange breed all the same.

Making a drama out of a pop song (to paraphrase Nicky Campbell’s intro) come Erasure with “Love To Hate You”. Vince and Andy could do no wrong at this point it seemed. The second single to be released from their forthcoming album “Chorus” that would go to No 1, this single would peak at No 4 after the title track lead single had gone to No 3. These were big numbers (well they’re not they’re small but you know what I mean) and within nine months they would have their first (and only) No 1 single with the “Abba-esque” EP.

“Love To Hate You” would display the duo’s love of another huge 70s star as it borrows heavily from Gloria Gaynor’s disco classic “I Will Survive”. The video for it also owes a debt to another artist it seems to me with a performance of the song to a captivated crowd doing overhead claps and Andy in leather trousers and a red skin tight top mirroring Queen’s “Radio Ga Ga” and Freddie Mercury (sort of).

Nine years on from this, another huge star would base a song around “I Will Survive”. Here’s Robbie Williams…

Yet another single from this era that I can’t remember – the curse of never being one of the cool kids working on the singles counter in the basement of my Our Price store strikes again. Possibly the least successful of the trinity of Stourbridge indie bands after The Wonder Stuff and Pop Will Eat Itself, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin nevertheless had a loyal fanbase and showed the power of having a major label and distribution behind them when, after failing to make the Top 40 whilst on indie label Chapter 22 Records, suddenly scored two chart hits on the bounce in 1991 after signing to Sony.

“Trust” was the second of those hits and this must have passed me by completely as I’m sure I would have remembered a video based around the set of The Banana Splits. I loved that show growing up. Basically the Monkees but with the four bands members dressed in animal character costumes and added cartoons, what was not to love? My favourite was Drooper who was the Mike Nesmith of the gang (he was my fave Monkee too) whilst my fave cartoon was probably Arabian Knights. Then of course, there was the show’s theme song “The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)” which The Dickies took into the UK Top 10 in 1978.

Just like The Monkees, The Banana Splits also released proper records some of which were quite out there. Here’s “I’m Gonna Find A Cave” which sounds like Spencer Davis Group or The Animals to me but was actually an old 60s soul song originally recorded by Charlie Starr but which has been covered many times since.

What? The ‘Neds? Oh, well “Trust” became a No 21 hit for them but it sounds very Wedding Present to me.

Three Breakers this week starting with Bros….really? Three years after they were a teen sensation stopping traffic in London with their PAs, they could still muster a Top 40 hit? Apparently so although “Try” would be their last ever visit to our charts. The second single from their third album “Changing Faces” album, it’s actually very far removed from the likes of “When Will I Be Famous?”. There’s a definite Michael Jackson “Bad” era vibe to it with a gospel tinge thrown in for good measure. If they were going for a more mature sound and audience, then it worked. They didn’t appear on the front cover of Smash Hits once in 1991 (when even the likes of Philip Schofield managed it) and having already been dethroned in the teen hero stakes by New Kids On The Block, the deadly threat of Take That was on the move, lurking in the shadows of the lower reaches of the charts. Their day was done…until that 2018 documentary of course.

A quite horrible dance remix of a 70s classic now but instead of being by some faceless DJ hidden behind a mix desk, it’s actually by the original artists (well sort of). “Nutbush City Limits” had been a hit for Ike and Tina Turner in 1973 reaching No 4 but it was recycled as being a solo Tina Turner track for her “Simply The Best” collection as “Nutbush City Limits (The 90s Version)”. Produced by Chris “C. J.” Mackintosh and Dave Dorrell, this danced up version was horrendous, totally ruining the raw energy of the original. However, it did its job of promoting “Simply The Best” which went eight times platinum in the UK alone peaking at No 2. Mind you, this was Tina’s first official Best Of album so it was probably going to be a big seller anyway without the farce that was “Nutbush City Limits (The 90s Version)”.

Nutbush was of course Tina’s hometown in Haywood County, Tennessee. Apparently, it does not have official city limits; rather, its general boundaries are described by signs reading “Nutbush, Unincorporated” on account of it being an unincorporated rural community. “Nutbush Unincorporated” sounds stupid as a song title though with the only song that I can think of coming anywhere near to shoe-horning ‘unincorporated’ into a song lyric being the theme tune to Laverne And Shirley. Altogether now “Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!”…

From one old single prompting a Greatest Hits Collection to another. 1991 had seen REM go truly global with the success of the “Out Of Time” album, their second for Warner Bros and seventh overall. Just like any on the ball record company will always do, their previous label I.R.S. Records decided to cash in on the band’s early catalogue which they owned by re-releasing tracks under the umbrella of a collection album called unimaginatively “The Best Of R.E.M.”. The track listing included three songs from each of the band’s first five studio albums and one song from “Chronic Town”, their first EP, making a total of sixteen. One of these was “The One I Love” from fifth album “Document” which had originally been released in 1987 becoming a Top 10 hit in the US but not making the Top 40 over here. However, it was chosen to spearhead the promotional campaign for “The Best Of R.E.M.” and did a decent job when it peaked at No 16 whilst the album went gold in the UK.

A truly great track, it’s not the love song though that many might have taken it for judging by its title with it actually being about using people. I guess the giveaway is the line ‘A simple prop to occupy my time’.

It’s week 11 of 16 for Bryan Adams and “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You”. There’s a bit in the video where a clip from the film has Maid Marian screaming “Robin!!” as Mr Hood risks his life in some daring deed and every time (and I mean every time!) I have ever seen it, it always makes me think of my friend, the aforementioned Robin. More precisely it makes me think “what is she screaming over Robin for?”. Weird how your brain works sometimes.

And so it’s Nicky Campbell’s turn to bow out from presenting TOTP for at least a couple of years. He ends with a simple “I’ll see you very, very soon” and a final quip about how much closing act Julian Lennon looks like his father John when he pretends to get them mixed up (so not a fluffing of lines at all).

As for Julian, “Saltwater” is at No 29 on its way to an eventual high of No 6. Around this time, he did an instore PA at the HMV on Market St, Manchester, just up the road from where I was working at Our Price. It was to promote the single and the release of its parent album “Help Yourself”. As it coincided with my lunch hour, I decided to have a mooch up there and spy a glimpse of the son of a Beatle thinking 30 mins for an instore PA performance would leave me a good half an hour to eat my lunch. Julian turned up so late that it took up all my allotted break and I went back to work hungry. This exchange at the end of A Hard Day’s Night between Norman Rossington who payed The Beatles manager Norm and John Lennon pretty much sums up my feelings that lunch hour:

Norm: Now listen, I’ve got one thing I’m gonna say to you Lennon!

John: What’s that?

Norm: [in a Liverpudlian accent] You’re a swine

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Brothers In Rhythm	Such A Good Feeling	Nah
2	Salt ‘N Pepa	Let’s Talk About Sex	I didn’t – neither buy it nor talk about sex
3	Utah Saints	What Can You Do For Me	Liked it, didn’t buy it
4	Prince	Cream	No but I must have it on something
5	Oceanic	Insanity	See 3 above
6	Bryan Adams	Can’t Stop That Thing We’ve Started	I did not
7	Simply Red	Something Got Me Started	…but it wasn’t this song – no
8	Erasure	Love To Hate You	Not the single but I bought their 1992 Best Of with it on
9	Ned’s Atomic Dustbin	Trust	No
10	Bros	Try	Negative
11	Tina Turner	Nutbush City Limits (The 90s Version)	Hell no
12	REM	The One I Love	See 4 above
13	Bryan Adams	(Everything I Do) I Do It for You	Nope
14	Julian Lennon	Saltwater	After the instore PA farce? Not likely!

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/m0010b3k/top-of-the-pops-19091991

TOTP 12 SEP 1991

Posted on October 10, 2021 by 80stastic

After last week’s massive rave up of a show, surely the TOTP studio wouldn’t be taken over by mad ravers ‘avin’ it large again this week? Well, yes and no. Dance music is definitely represented by the artists in the actual building again but when you add in the videos chosen by the producers to be shown this week, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were back in the 70s or at The Royal Variety Performance. No seriously, two of the artists on this TOTP had either already been on Her Majesty’s favourite night out of the year or would appear on it in the near future, those acts being Cliff Richard (13 times!) and Right Said Fred (once in 1992). The mainstream acts didn’t stop with just those two though. No, also on TOTP tonight were Bryan Adams (twice!), Roxette and Julian Lennon who’s Dad John had also appeared at The Royal Variety Performance as part of The Beatles with his infamous “just rattle your jewellery” remark in 1963. Oh, and despite having only released one new song in the 90s so far, The Stone Roses are suddenly back on the show with a re-release of a track from their 1989 debut album for some reason. This has all the makings of a curate’s egg of a programme.

Before all that though, what’s the rather cryptic announcement from host Simon Mayo at the top of the show all about? “If you got your tickets for tonight’s show through Keith Prowse, you can watch through to 7.30 but cheer and applaud louder because you are watching for free. Seems fair enough to me.” Eh? What was the story there then? Some dispute between the BBC and the legendary ticket agency and music publisher Keith Prowse? Was Mayo legally obliged to say that? It just seems so utterly incongruous and bizarre.

Talking of bizarre, the opening act tonight are Bizarre Inc with “Such A Feeling” and these guys were definitely ‘avin’ it. In an attempt to stand out from the rest of the rave crowd, they have employed a couple of podium dancers to give a visual form to their track. Watching it back, it remains me of the time that I was working in the Our Price in Rochdale and on a night out found myself in the town’s Xanadu nightclub having become detached from my colleagues. My God! The sights I saw – including podium dancers! I loved working at that store but the delights of a night out in Rochdale I was not prepared for.

Bizarre Inc were from Stafford and at one point included a band member who would find their way into Altern-8 who were also having mainstream chart hits at this time. It all sounds a bit incestuous to me.

“Such A Feeling” peaked at No 13 but Bizarre Inc would return before the end of the year with a Top 5 hit in the re-released “Playing with Knives”.

“20th Century Boy” by Marc Bolan & T. Rex is next having been re-released off the back of a Levi’s advert. The marketing guys at Levi’s had struck a rich vein of 70s tunes to help promote their jeans at this time, having worked through a load of 60s songs at the back end of the 80s. They’d already turned to The Steve Miller Band and Bad Company in their pursuit of soundtracks to their iconic advertising campaign but suddenly they had struck on the idea that some glam rock was now what was required. I guess you can’t knock their choice; T.Rex had lit up the charts with some huge tunes that had turned Marc Bolan into a superstar. Between 1970 and 1973 the chart peaks of their singles read:

2 – 1 – 1 – 2 – 1 – 1 – 2 – 2 – 3 – 4

with the No 3 in the list being the original release of “20th Century Boy”. Come 1974 though, the spell appeared to be broken. The release of the “Zinc Alloy And The Hidden Riders Of Tomorrow” album met with a downturn of sales and a critical backlash. The return to all those complex song titles from the band’s psychedelic folk era when they were known as Tyrannosaurus Rex maybe wasn’t the best idea – as well as the album’s title, the tracks on it included “Painless Persuasion v. The Meathawk Immaculate” and “The Leopards Featuring Gardenia & the Mighty Slug”. The album wasn’t even released in the US and the band were dropped from their label. Bolan split from producer Tony Visconti and the group splintered.

Subsequent albums releases fared even worse but the explosion of the punk movement in ’76 seemed to re-energise Bolan and he even toured with The Damned as well as reinstating his public profile with his own TV show Marc. I was too young to experience those early hits in real time being aged just 2 when “Ride A White Swan” bestrode the charts in ’70 but I have faint memories of that TV show and I think my elder brother had a pin badge with Bolan’s image on it.

Of course, tragedy was just around the corner (or more specifically a small humpback bridge near Gipsy Lane on Queens Ride Barnes, southwest London) when Marc was killed in a car accident when his girlfriend Gloria Jones lost control of the mini they were travelling in. His legacy lives on though with names like Johnny Marr and Siouxsie and the Banshees crediting him as being a major influence with the latter recording their own version of “20th Century Boy” as the B-side to the single “The Staircase (Mystery)” single in 1979.

Simon Mayo’s having a nightmare here. After the weirdness of the Keith Prowse comment he’s started going on about Paddy Ashdown now. Was Ashdown in the news back then? Was this when all the ‘Paddy Pantsdown’ stuff was happening?

*checks internet*

No that scandal blew up in the run up to the ’92 election. I can’t find a Paddy Ashdown story for Sep ’91 so I’m not sure what Mayo is going on about. Surely he wasn’t using the show as a platform for his own political views?

Anyway, the act he is introducing via this political lay-by is Roxette with “The Big L.” The circus themed video for this one includes a scene where there’s five greased up body builder types huddled together on a small circular platform all playing mouth organ. What was that all about?! Maybe the video director had been influenced by the recent bare-chested antics of Marky Mark and his Funky Bunch or maybe even the “Do What U Like” video by Take That (the one with the bare arse cheeks and a ton of jelly) which had been creating waves of controversy around this time? With it being a Roxette video though, it just comes across as a bit safe and lame rather than daring.

“The Big L.” peaked at No 21.

Is it me or is there a bit of an echo in the studio tonight? I thought I’d noticed one in a couple of Simon Mayo’s links before but it seems to have spread to the performers now. There’s a distinct trace of reverb on Sabrina Johnston‘s live vocals on “Peace”. Or was that a deliberate sound effect? Sound quality issues aside, this was up there with Oceanic’s Insanity” in the bangin’ tunes stakes. Sadly for Sabrina, she also followed the same career path as Oceanic in that she could never really follow up on the success of “Peace’ . An album was released and two further singles from it but none of them managed to indent the charts. Indeed, Sabrina’s only other chart entry was when a remix of “Peace” made No 35 as part of a double A-side with Crystal Waters to promote the HIV/AIDS charity album “Red Hot + Dance” (the one with George Michael’s “Too Funky” on it). In later years though, she did go onto appear as a backing vocalist on Lauryn Hill’s album “The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill”.

More Paddy Ashdown quips from Simon Mayo next. Give it up mate! “I Wanna Be Adored” by The Stone Roses is the the prompt for him to get in another Paddy joke (as it were). Had Ashdown done a particular poorly received press conference or something back then?

“I Wanna Be Adored” was the opening track on the band’s iconic eponymous debut album from ’89. So why was it being released as a single two and a half years later? Well, I think it was to do with the legal battle with their then-record label Silvertone. The band wished to terminate their five-year contract with Silvertone whose owners Zomba Records took out an injunction against the Roses in September 1990 to prevent them from recording with any other label. The courts ruled in favour of the band in May 1991 but Silvertone appealed the decision thereby delaying the release of any new material from the band further. I guess Silvertone wanted to make as much dough out of the band as they could before they were their act no longer and so released a number of tracks from that debut album that had never previously been released (or indeed intended for release) as stand alone singles. “I Wanna Be Adored” was followed by “Waterfall”, ‘I Am The Resurrection” and a re-release of “Fool’s Gold” in ’92. Bit naughty that.

“I Wanna Be Adored” was also one of the tracks that my one time Our Price manager Pete played on as the band’s original bass player. The Martin Hannett produced album that Pete featured on never saw the light of day as the band weren’t happy with it until it was released as “Garage Flower” in 1996 against the wishes of everyone involved in the original recordings.

I said in the last post that I didn’t think we’d be seeing this act until her next hit in about three years time. I was wrong. Following her appearance in the Breakers Crystal Waters has moved up the charts sufficiently to qualify for another appearance this week with her “Makin’ Happy” single. The single edit of this was remixed by Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley who I very much see as one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse bringing death to music with his “Jack Your Body” No 1 single in 1987.

The video is a typical dance track promo with Crystal’s face superimposed over a background of abstract, dancing figure images and some very literal interpretations of the song’s lyrics – some Rocky Horror Picture Show style lips for ‘She screams Ah ooh’ and a camera for ‘Now picture you with me’. To be fair, most of the lyrics seem to be comprised of ‘ooh-wee ooh ooh-wee ooh ooh-wee ooh-wee ooh-wee’. It’s hardly Proust is it?

“Makin’ Happy” peaked at No 18.

Having gone after Paddy Ashdown for a cheap laugh, Mayo now sets his sights on pop royalty in Cliff Richard. Asking the audience the question who has appeared on TOTP most across its then 27 year history, he mimes us a clue of who it is. For some reason he thinks giving a double thumbs up and waving his arms about as if protecting himself from some falling debris is a dead ringer of an impression of Cliff! Surely the thumbs up gesture would be more likely to be Paul ‘Whacky Thumbs Aloft’ McCartney and although Cliff has been known to do some very odd arm movements whilst performing, Mayo’s interpretation seems very wide of the mark.

As for the song Cliff is singing, I have no memory whatsoever of “More To Life” but then I didn’t watch the TV show Trainer which it was the theme tune for. Apparently Trainer was a follow up (of sorts) to mid 80s yachting drama Howard’s Way but was set in the word of horse racing. As with Howard’s Way, Simon May (not Mayo) wrote the instrumental theme tune for the opening credits but lyrics were added for the version over the closing credits which were supplied by Mike Read (yes, the Radio 1 DJ). In later years of course, Read would pen “UKIP Calypso” for a UKIP dinner that he was attending and, with the endorsement of Nigel Farage, it was released as a single. It was widely panned as being racist for Reads’s mock Caribbean accent and the lyrics ‘The leaders committed a cardinal sin / Open the borders let them all come in / Illegal immigrants in every town / Stand up and be counted Blair and Brown’. That’s Mike Read there, friend of Nigel Farage and writer of racist songs. Arsehole. Read of course was very matey with Cliff as I recall and often did impressions of him. There really was no end to his talents was there?

“More To Life” the song is just bland, Cliff-by-numbers pop and the whole story saga should be condemned to the rubbish tip of terrible cultural ideas.

Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch are up next with “Good Vibrations”. Now I’ve always quite liked Mark Wahlberg as an actor. I know some of the films he’s been in have had bad reviews like Planet Of The Apes and The Happening and he’s certainly no De Niro or Pacino but even so, like I said, I quite like him.

However, I didn’t know until now when I’ve read up on him that he did some terrible things as a teenager like racially aggravated assault for which he was sentenced to two years in jail but served only forty-five days of his sentence. Eighteen years later he apologised to his victim in person who stated publicly that he had forgiven Wahlberg. Now knowing this information and reading an interview back with him in Smash Hits magazine as Marky Mark, he clearly was a prick back then. In said interview he refers to women as ‘bitches’ and the Smash Hits writer describes his conversation as “…the blokiest tirade you ever did hear this side of an Eddie Murphy Live video…” – like I said, a prick.

He followed this up a year later in December ’92, while performing on the cult late night Channel 4 show The Word, by praising fellow guest Shabba Ranks who had stated gay people should be crucified for which both he and Ranks were widely condemned and criticised (not least by The Word presenter Mark Lamarr on the show). Supposedly Wahlberg doesn’t like to be reminded or asked about his music career these days. It’s not hard to see why.

The huge dance anthems just keep on coming as Rozalla enters the game with “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”. Having been massively popular on the dance floors of the clubs in Ibiza in the Summer, it was no surprise that it became a huge hit in the UK charts when the returning hordes went searching for a memento of their holidays in the nation’s record shops. Well, at least we’d moved on from those foreign holiday hits like Ryan Paris from back in the day.

Rozalla was born in Zambia though moved to Zimbabwe aged 18 where she scored five No 1 singles. She relocated again in 1988, this time to London where she worked with production duo Nigel Swanston and Tim Cox and the collaboration bore fruit in the form of “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”. Looking at her performance here, you wouldn’t have imagined that such a huge sound could have come from such a diminutive and slight looking person. She absolutely bosses it though and has the crowd in the palm of her hand when she takes her very sparkly jacket. She would go on to have a eight UK Top 40 hits in total including a re-release of this track re-titled as “Everybody’s Free (Ca$ino Mix)” in 1996.

Moving the Breakers to just before the No 1 is really starting to piss me off now. It’s lulling me into a false sense of security before hitting me with the realisation that there are at least three more songs to review even though the show is nearly over. We start with a man not seen in the Top 40 for seven years but who topped all the Best Newcomer and Most Promising New Act polls at the time of that success. Julian Lennon had already released three albums by ’91 but they had spiralled into a pattern of diminishing returns since the success of debut “Valotte”. Subsequently, his return to the Top 40 with “Saltwater” was quite the surprise. Tackling the issues of environmental conservation and world poverty in a pop song wasn’t unique but neither was it a regular occurrence back then. Obviously there was the whole Bad Aid project to address famine in Ethiopia and wasn’t “Crazy Horses” by The Osmonds about pollution? Then of course there was “Save The Whale” by …erm…Nik Kershaw. I’m sure there are plenty more examples but my point is that unlike sewers and non disposable wipes, the charts weren’t clogged up with them.

Enter Julian with a rather drippy yet heartfelt take on it all with his 6th form poetry-esque lyrics bemoaning man’s capability to land on the moon but not be able to stop children starving back on earth. Musically, it inevitably drew comparisons with his Dad especially the “Strawberry Fields Forever” beginning whilst the Beatles connection was continued by the guitar part that was written but not performed by George Harrison. I quite liked it and its themes seem more relevant today than ever. Like his debut single “Too Late For Goodbyes”, it peaked at No 6 whilst his only other Top 40 entry was his cover of Dave Clark Five’s “Because” for the 1986 musical Time soundtrack winch literally crept in at No 40.

What?! Shabba Ranks was in the charts?! The Shabba Ranks that was discussed earlier for his vile homophobic comments on The Word? Yep, the very same but this was a year before that controversial moment broke so presumably, in ’91, he wasn’t courting the condemnation that followed. Here he’s teamed up with Maxi Priest for a single called “Housecall” which sounds horrific to my ears and which thankfully passed me by at the time. Fortunately we only get 18 seconds of it in the Breakers, a feature which now seems to be a totally pointless exercise in boosting the amount of songs featured in the show (we’ve gone up from 13 to 14 in recent weeks). Julian Lennon only got 24 seconds and the final Breaker Bryan Adams gets 17 seconds! This was ridiculous and presumably just a ploy to be able to say it was keeping up with ITV competition The Chart Show. Utter nonsense (as was Shabba and Maix’s collaboration).

Hang on! Did I just say Bryan Adams was in the Breakers? But *spoiler* he’s still at No 1 isn’t he? Yes, but both statements are true because he’d been at No 1 so long now that his next single was due for release. “Can’t Stop This Thing We’ve Started” chart life would would come and go within a mere five weeks peaking at No 12 whilst “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” was still riding high in the Top 40. This was the time when it really started to get nuts I think. His new (and infinitely better in my opinion) song had been rejected in favour of a record buying public continuing to purchase his previous single that had been No 1 for over three months. This was just bonkers!

In the US, it would peak at No 2 but you know what they put on the B-side of the US release? Yes, “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You”! It had been No 1 in America for seven weeks! Why make it at the B-side?! In the UK the flip was a live version of his duet with Tina Tuner “It’s Only Love”. I quite liked the speeded up stop animation in the video which enlivened an otherwise straight performance promo.

So it’s a 10th week for good ol’ Bry with that Robin Hood song. The video for “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” was directed by Julien Temple which I don’t think I knew before. Bit of a contrast to his punk origins of the Sex Pistols film The Great Rock And Roll Swindle. Apparently it was shot in Sheffield. You’d have thought that he would have chosen Nottingham as his location wouldn’t you? I mean, it’s only about 30 odd miles from Sheffield anyway. And, the day it was being shot, Nottingham Forest were playing in the FA Cup final against Spurs. All the omens and references surely pointed to Nottingham not Sheffield? I wonder which football team Bryan Adams supports? Oh he must have a team. Look at Sylvester Stallone (Everton), Tom Hanks (Aston Villa) and Kevin Costner (Arsenal). Then you’ve got Robert Plant being a Wolves fan and Dave Grohl supports West Ham.

*checks internet*

I knew it! Bryan is a fan of….my beloved Chelsea! Who said he had/was bad taste?

It’s Right Said Fred and “I’m Too Sexy” to play us out but before that, Simon Mayo ends his last show before the ‘year zero’ revamp by signing off with “I’ll see you sometime”. He definitely knew didn’t he?

Back to the Freds and there’s a link between them and the aforementioned Julien Temple as the latter directed the Jazzin’ For Blue Jean short film for David Bowie to promote his 1984 “Blue Jean” single which starred none other than Richard Fairbrass as one of the band for fictional pop star Screaming Lord Byron. As toe curlingly awful as Jazzin’ For Blue Jean is (and I’ve watched it) it still knocks the promo for “I’m Too Sexy” into a cocked hat. What do you think about that Fairbrass?

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Bizarre Inc	Such A Feeling	Bizarre Inc? Godawful stink more like! No
2	Marc Bolan & T. Rex	20th Century Boy	No but I have a Best Of CD with it on
3	Roxette	The Big L.	No
4	Sabrina Johnston	Peace	Liked it, didn’t buy it
5	The Stone Roses	I Wanna Be Adored	No but I’ve got the album
6	Crystal Waters	Makin’ Happy	It didn’t make me happy – no
7	Cliff Richard	More To Life	God no!
8	Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch	Good Vibrations	Nah
9	Rozalla	“Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”	I did not
10	Julian Lennon	Saltwater	No but I didn’t mind it actually
11	Shabba Ranks/ Maxi Priest	Housecall	NO!
12	Bryan Adams	Can’t Stop This Thing We’ve Started	Negative
13	Bryan Adams	(Everything I Do) I Do It for You	Double negative
14	Right Said Fred	I’m Too Sexy	It’s a final 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/m00103fx/top-of-the-pops-12091991

TOTP Rewind – the 90s

My memories of 90s chart music

Author: 80stastic

TOTP 14 NOV 1991

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TOTP 07 NOV 1991

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TOTP 31 OCT 1991

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TOTP 24 OCT 1991

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TOTP 17 OCT 1991

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TOTP 10 OCT 1991

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TOTP 03 OCT 1991

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TOTP 26 SEP 1991

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TOTP 19 SEP 1991

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TOTP 12 SEP 1991

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