And there you have it – 1990 all done and dusted. As with many of these years that I have reviewed retrospectively, it was quite the disappointment. Very much touted as the year of ‘Madchester’ in the press at the time, if you actually examine the artists that were successful and the songs that were hits in this year, it was very mainstream and very old guard. It reminds me of the year 1977 – the year that punk was everywhere – and yet one of the biggest selling artists of the year was one half of Starsky And Hutch in David Soul. The Top 10 selling albums list was filled by the likes of ABBA, The Shadows, Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles. Fast forward 13 years and we see a similar story – the Top 10 albums are represented by Phil Collins (twice!), Elton John (twice!), The Carpenters, Pavarotti (twice!) and bloody Michael Bolton! 

As for singles, these were the No 1 records of the year:

18 songs had travelled to the summit of the charts. Of them, I would say they broke down like this:

• 4 x established stars (Kylie, Madonna, New Order and Beautiful South) 
• 3 x brand new artists we had not seen before (Snap!, Adamski and Vanilla Ice) 
• 3 x artists having their breakthrough moment in the sun (Beats International, Sinéad O’Connor and Maria McKee) 
• 3 x film / TV Advert tie ins (Partners In Kryme, The Righteous Brothers and Steve Miller Band)
• 2 x old fogeys  (Elton John and Cliff Richard) 
• 1 x charity record (Band Aid II)
• 1 x latest teeny bop sensation (NKOTB)
• 1 x novelty record shite (Bombalurina) 

I bought exactly zero of them. How many of them were halfway decent songs? 6 or 7? The run from July through to October was particularly bad. Where were The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and the Inspiral Carpets? These were the bands the kids wanted weren’t they? Although all these acts had chart hits this year, none of them got higher than No 4 in the charts. Maybe ‘Madchester’ wasn’t about chart positions though – it was a statement of rejecting the old and embracing the new indie-dance hybrid, of fashion, of belonging. Or maybe it wasn’t. I don’t know. 

The charts were certainly influenced by film and TV this year. Levis continued its campaign of resurrecting old pop hits to sell some jeans and scored a No 1 with “The Joker”, Pretty Woman spawned numerous hits for the likes of Roxette and Go West, Days Of Thunder produced an unlikely No 1 for Maria Mckee and the best selling single of the year was from the film Ghost courtesy of The Righteous Brothers. Hell, even film hits from previous years were massive all over again (“Take My Breath Away” by Berlin). We were all so easily manipulated it seemed. 

Euro dance hits were all the rage this year as well. The charts were full of hits from the likes of 49ers, Rob ‘n’ Raz featuring Leila K, Technotronic, Twenty Four Seven featuring Captain Hollywood, Ya Kid K and of course Snap! who bagged themselves a No 1 record with “The Power”. None of it did anything for me really. It all seemed like a very nasty, homogenised form of dance music and couldn’t hold a light to authentic dance anthems by Deee-Lite, 808 State and The KLF. Were punters really dancing to this cheesy nonsense in the clubs? I wouldn’t have known as my clubbing days declined steeply this year after its high point of the last three years of being a student; mainly because I was skint for most of the year. 

Talking of myself, as with previous years, most of my purchases (of singles) seemed to come from outside of the Top 40 (see Hits That Never Were further on in the post). Was I trying to prove some sort of point that I couldn’t be bought or swayed by the forces of film / TV and media promotion? Or was it just that non hits could be found much cheaper in the record shop bargain bins than their Top 40 counterparts? As I said, I did spent most of the year financially embarrassed. I bought the occasional chart hit (The Beloved, Gun, The Soup Dragons, World Party) but they weren’t many, not even when I ended the year working in an actual record shop. Despite being a very memorable 12 months for me personally in which I got married, moved to Manchester and began a 10 year career in record retail, it wasn’t a vintage year musically. 

Hits We Missed

During these reviews of the year in my other blog TOTP Rewind – the 80s, a lot of the entries in this section were songs and artists that had made it onto the show but those shows were not repeated by the BBC for reasons of taste surrounding hosts that were totally unpalatable today or in the case of Mike Smith because of legal restrictions. This was not the case in 1990. Every TOTP of that year has been re-shown on BBC4 so any chart hits we missed seeing was because they never actually featured on any episode. Exhibit A m’lud…

James –  “How Was It For You?” / “Come Home” / “Lose Control” 

James must have seriously offended the TOTP producers in some way in 1990. How else do you explain them having three Top 40 hits and still not getting to appear on the show? OK, they weren’t massive hits (that wouldn’t happen until the following year when a re-release of “Sit Down” hit No 2 and the TOTP bosses could no longer ignore the band) but still. 

I have to admit to not really being aware of James before this point despite them being in existence since 1982. Early albums like “Stutter” and “Strip-mine” hadn’t registered at all and neither had they with the majority of the UK record buying public. Sure, they were big hitters in the indie charts but mainstream success eluded them. When 1989 singles “Sit Down” (the original version) and “Come Home” peaked at Nos 77 and 84 respectively, the band made the decision to shift labels from legendary independents Rough Trade to Phonogram sub-label Fontana Records. 

That move brought immediate dividends with the band’s first Top 40 hit in “How Was It For You?” released in May of 1990. Backed up by some heavy promotion in the press from their new label and a tour in June which included festival dates at WOMAD and Glastonbury, it entered the charts at No 35 before peaking at No 32 the following week. Some sharp (some may say manipulative) record company tactics saw the band release the single in five different formats with new and live tracks split across them all meaning that completist fans would have to shell out multiple times to acquire every bit of the band’s previously unavailable material.  

It turns out that the band did manage to shoot themselves in the foot rather when it came to appearing on TOTP. The promo video that they shot featured Tim Booth singing underwater but also some overly suggestive fruit eating and snogging action that was deemed unsuitable for primetime TV and whoops… there went the crucial TOTP exposure that could have made “How Was It For You?” a major rather than minor hit. Had the video been shown in the show’s Breakers section maybe that would have led to a studio performance and then….ah well. On reflection maybe it was the song’s lyrics that did for it. There was that title for a start and then lines like ‘I’m so possessed by sex I could destroy my health’ surely didn’t help?

• Released: 12 May 1990
• Peak Chart Position: 32
• Weeks On Top 40: 2

Still, a hit was a hit and “How Was It For You?” provided a solid base for the release of parent album “Gold Mother” in June. The album sold well peaking at No 16 (in its original format) and a follow up single was required. It was decided that a re-release of “Come Home” was in order and Flood (who had produced Erasure’s “The Circus” album) was called in to do a remix. To be fair, it doesn’t sound that different to the original to me although it was reduced in length presumably to make it more radio-friendly. The original release of the song had been plagued with issues – pluggers weren’t sent copies and record shops were left without any or with insufficient copies of the single. There was even an error in the charts at Music Week that meant it wasn’t listed in its second week of release. All of these problems led to a stand off between Rough Trade and the band which would ultimately lead to them decamping to Fontana. 

A second Top 40 hit was good consolidation for the band but it still didn’t tempt the TOTP bosses to invite them onto the show. Maybe it was all those naked chests and pant daubing antics in the video that put them off. Despite a second consecutive Top 40 entry, I was still somehow managing to avoid James altogether. Maybe it was the distraction of the World Cup. I didn’t really become aware of “Come Home” until later in the year and after I had started working at Our Price. The track was included on a compilation called “Happy Daze” which got hammered on the shop stereo. Compiled by Gary Crowley, it showcased the year’s breakout indie artists with a heavy (though not exclusive) slant on the dance rock crossover sound from artists like Primal Scream, Jesus Jones and The Shamen. Riding on the ‘Madchester’ zeitgeist (although by no means were all the artists from Manchester or even part of that movement), it had assumed legendary status amongst music fans of that genre and time. Having just moved to Manchester myself, it felt the perfect soundtrack to those days and “Come Home” by James was certainly a part of that. 

• Released: Jun 1990
• Peak Chart Position: 32
• Weeks On Top 40: 2

And so to the last of this trio of TOTP ignored hits. “Lose Control” was originally released as a stand alone single between albums to coincide with and help promote the band’s short UK tour. Not included on the original release of “Gold Mother”, it would appear on the 1991 re-release alongside “Sit Down” with the tracks “Hang On” and “Crescendo” jettisoned to make way for them. Our Price did a promotion whereby fans that had bought the original album could effectively trade it in for the updated version no questions asked – a “Gold Mother” amnesty if you like. I remember one day a colleague called Paul taking back a customer’s vinyl format of the album and swapping it for the new as per the offer but when he looked at the traded in copy it was in a terrible condition. Showing it to the store manager in a ‘check this out’ type of way, poor Paul received short shrift from the boss for agreeing to swap it. It seemed harsh on Paul at best. 

I must admit to “Lose Control” passing me by back then – released close to Xmas and only appearing in the bottom reaches of the Top 40 for one week though are I think mitigating circumstances for which I can be forgiven. 

And so there it is, the curious tale of the chart career of James during 1990. Finally a Top 40 hit and not one but three (waiting for a bus and all that) and yet zero TOTP appearances. However, they now had a much enlarged national platform from which they would leap the following year via the “Sit Down” re-release to spawn a flurry of hit albums and singles throughout the decade, not to mention creating that T-shirt phenomenon that no self respecting, teenage indie kid would leave the house without.

• Released: 08 Dec 1990
• Peak Chart Position: 38
• Weeks On Top 40: 1

The Stone Roses – “Made Of Stone” / “Elephant Stone” 

James were not the only Manchester band in 1990 experiencing multiple hits after years of being ignored by the record buying public and mainstream media. As the new decade unfolded, The Stone Roses star went super nova as they blazed a trail as the de facto leaders of the ‘Madchester’ movement. Having gatecrashed the Top 40 back in 1989 with “She Bangs The Drums” in the Summer of ’89 and then residing in the actual Top 10 with “Fool’s Gold / What The World Is Waiting For” as the 80s gave way to the 90s, there was a sudden rush on to get more Roses product out there to satiate demand. First to try and cash in on the band’s popularity were previous label Revolver (they of the infamous paint incident) who re-released early single “Sally Cinnamon” against the band’s wishes. Although it stalled at No 46, it remained on the Top 100 for 7 weeks. Not bad for a single originally released in 1987 that failed to chart at all. 

Current label Silvertone weren’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth and so they took the step of re-releasing two singles within the same month. “Made Of Stone” was taken from their iconic debut album and had originally been released in March of ’89 peaking at No 90. Exactly 12 months later wit the world at their feet, it was made available again and went straight in at No 20 where it would peak. Many more worthy of commenting on this song than I have already waxed lyrical of its power but it’s my blog so…

…as I’ve said before I didn’t get The Stone Roses initially. My elder brother was in a full on Manchester United match going obsession by this point and so he was more into them than I was as their songs were the soundtrack to many a coach journey up to Old Trafford. I just wasn’t sure though. I didn’t think the lead singer could actually, you know, sing and I wasn’t into the fashion that they were popularising – I’d had my fill of flares growing up in the 70s. And why did all their dongs have to include the word ‘stone’ in the title? On reflection I was wrong. Massively so. “Made Of Stone” is great, a hugely evocative track whose lyrics paint some very full on images (‘When the streets are cold and lonely and the cars, they burn below me’). It should have been a much bigger hit than it was either time. 

• Released: Mar 1990
• Peak Chart Position: 20
• Weeks On Top 40: 2

Released exactly the same month as “Made Of Stone” came “Elephant Stone” (seriously though, what was it with the word ‘stone’?). They’d call it doubling down now. This one had originally been released in 1988 but had failed to register on the national chart. Come 1990, it was prime for a second outing. Debuting inside the Top 10 was a demonstration of the band’s pull and profile and it’s another great track with that searing, scythe of a guitar refrain opening leading into an irresistible, propelling rhythm. The original doesn’t have the same intro but rather has a much less explosive cymbal entrance segueing into a rather laboured drum and bass. The 1990 version is definitive I think.  

And what was an Elephant Stone? Wikipedia suggests it was a reference to one William George Keith Elphinstone, an officer of the British Army during the 19th century. His legacy is one of incompetence as his entire command was massacred during the British retreat from Kabul in January 1842 during the First Anglo-Afghan War. Not your average source of inspiration for a song then. There’s an alternative rock band from Canada who go by the name of Elephant Stone who formed in 2009. Surely not a coincidence – they must be massive Roses fans. 

So why were neither of these singles shown on TOTP? What was more important to feature on the show at this time? Well, according to my research the producers felt that Bros (by now in steep decline) were more relevant to the UK audience and they featured on the show around now alongside Guru Josh and Gloria Estefan. Hmm. The following week’s broadcast featured both Primal Scream and Inspiral Carpets. Surely Ian Brown and co would have been perfect for that particular episode? Had they been banned alongside Happy Mondays in that legendary TOTP back in late ’89? 

Not on the original 1989 track listing of their debut album, “Elephant Stone” has been included on subsequent pressings. 

• Released: Mar 1990
• Peak Chart Position: 8
• Weeks On Top 40: 4

World Party – “Put The Message In The Box” 

• Released: 09 Jun 1990
• Peak Chart Position: 39
• Weeks On Top 40: 1

In that parallel pop universe where acts that deserved commercial success actually got it, World Party would have racked up multiple chart hits. Instead, back in the reality that exists, they amounted to just four Top 40 entries of which only one actually made the Top 20. One of those chart interlopers was “Put The Message In The Box” which was the lead single from their critically acclaimed (Q Magazine‘s album of the year) but criminally under bought “Goodbye Jumbo” album.

Released at the start of the Summer when the UK record buying public were in thrall to “Nessun Dorma” and unfeasibly Elton John’s most turgid of tunes, “Put The Message In The Box” sounded somehow both fresh and completely retro. The guitar work was undeniably Beatles-esque (“Rubber Soul” era maybe?) while Karl Wallinger’s vocals could have qualified him as a member of The Travelling Wilburys. The false ending when the final guitar ring explodes out of the ether is also rather marvellous. I thought this was great and duly bought the cassette single, the B-side of which was a lovely 50s style ballad called “Nature Girl”.  

That parallel universe finally materialised three years on from this when their third album “Bang!” unexpectedly went all the way to No 2 but the momentum of that release wasn’t realised and it remains a commercial high point and anomaly in the band’s fortunes. A fourth album “Egyptology” returned the band to the land of disappointing record sales although it did include the ballad “She’s The One” later recorded and taken to No 1 by Robbie Williams. I’m pretty sure that none of Robbie’s adoring fans knew nor cared that the song with that ice skating video was actually written by Karl Wallinger though. Indeed, Williams himself would introduce the song when performing it live as one of the best songs he’s ever written prompting much ire and fury within Wallinger who was not reticent in declaring his opinion of Williams (the ‘c’ bomb was used!). Justice finally prevailed in this 2019 advert for Williams’ album “The Christmas Present”. 

And yes that is Chris Sharrock on drums in the video formerly of the Icicle Works and later drummer for, yes, Robbie Williams. 

House Of Love – “The Beatles And The Stones” 

• Released: 07 Apr 1990
• Peak Chart Position: 36
• Weeks On Top 40: 14

Having finally secured a bona fide Top 40 hit in a re-recording of debut single “Shine On” a few weeks earlier, House Of Love were getting the hang of this pop star business by claiming another one immediately with follow up single “The Beatles And The Stones”. Essentially their version of a ballad, it’s a gentle, melodic sound and much more laid back than its frenetic and urgent predecessor. There’s even some “A Day In The Life” strings shoved in the mix. What was it about? Going by the lyrics, I’m guessing it was something to do with The Beatles relationship with the press which turned sour after John Lennon’s ‘more popular than Jesus’ quote and how they were then pursued for their political views on subjects such as Vietnam. 

It probably should have been a much bigger hit than its No 36 peak but this being 1990, that was probably never going to happen. Sadly for the band, it would prove to be their last ever chart hit. 

Hits That Never Were

The Blue Aeroplanes – “…And Stones” 

• Release date: 26 may 1990
• Peak Chart Position: 63
• Weeks On Chart: 2

From “The Beatles And The Stones” to “…And Stones”. I always thought that I should have really been into The Blue Aeroplanes in a big way but somehow it never really happened for me although I did like this single. These Bristolian art rockers had been around for nearly a decade by this point albeit with a revolving door policy on band line ups (Wikipedia lists 88* names as either a primary or supporting member over the years) but the mainstays were Gerard Langley, brother John Langley, and dancer Wojtek Dmochowski  – yes, a dancer was one of the group members who stayed for thew whole duration. To put it in context, that would be like mime artist Jed ‘Mental Chains’ Hoyle having been on every single Howard Jones performance from 1983 onwards. Or just being Bez I suppose. 

By 1990, the band had reached a critical peak with the release of their album “Swagger” from which “…And Stones” was taken. The single had a…erm…swagger to it with a driving, rocking beat that also would have appealed to dance heads and Gerard Langley spoken word style vocals setting it apart. Was it not quite radio friendly enough for day time audiences? Their loss. Ultimately they had to settle for being influential rather than commercially successful (that old chestnut)  – you can hear their style in bands like Flowered Up and A House I think – but they could have been as big as Happy Mondays in another world. 

The band are still together and released an album as recently as 2017.

*Is that more than The Fall?!

Power Of Dreams – “100 Ways To Kill A Love” 

• Release date: 02 Jun 1990
• Peak Chart Position: 94
• Weeks On Chart: 1

I bought this! I have no recollection of how I came to know about it but presumably I must have heard it on Radio 1 – I’m guessing Mark Goodier’s drive time show as this would have been the sort of stuff he liked to champion. I’m also guessing I picked it up cheap in the bargain bin of whichever record store I got it in but we shouldn’t judge it purely on its historical monetary value. It’s quite an urgent, rock sound that has a hint of The Wedding Present about it in terms of its incessant, jangly guitar back bone.

Not sure that I knew much about Power Of Dreams at the time but thankfully the internet was invented in the intervening 30 years and I can now rest easy in the knowledge that they were from Dublin and were nominated by the NME no less as one of the ‘stars of tomorrow’ in late ’89 alongside Cater USM and The Charlatans. Unlike their peers though, Power Of Dreams never managed to achieve a UK Top 40 hit despite releasing numerous singles and five albums before they spilt in 1995. The band reformed in 2009 and have gigged sporadically since. 

The Shamen  – “Make It Mine” 

• Release date: 22 Sep 1990
• Peak Chart Position: 42 * 3 straight weeks at No 42
• Weeks On Chart: 5

Do The Shamen get the credit they deserve? Indeed, do they deserve any credit at all? Whatever your answer to those questions, nobody can deny that theirs is an engaging story featuring tragedy, critical acclaim and ultimately accusations of being a sell out as commercial success came their way. I first became aware of the band in 1990 (although they had been around since 1985) when I heard “Pro-Gen”. I wasn’t a massive dance music fan and yet despite undeniably being a dance anthem, the track also had a great pop tune lurking under the layers of production and endless remixes which appealed to me. The single would miss the Top 40 but, as it was re-released the following year as “Move Any Mountain” and became a Top 5 hit, I’ve chosen another single from their “En-Tact” album that should have been a hit in 1990. 

“Make It Mine” was the follow up to “Pro-Gen” and was of a similar flavour combining an industrial strength guitar riff hook with an infectious rhythm to great effect. It missed out on being the band’s first bona fide chart hit by the tiniest of margins. Indeed, you could make a case that it was the unluckiest record ever to not make the Top 40 when it remained at its peak of No 42 for three consecutive weeks! That close encounter was followed by definite chart contact when “Hyperreal” (the fourth single from the album) made No 29 in early 1991 and then a full on visitation with “Move Any Mountain”.

That moment of chart success though was engulfed by the tragedy of the death of the band’s bass player/keyboardist and songwriter Will Sinnott when he drowned off the coast of La Gomera, in the Canary Islands, while the band were shooting the video for “Move Any Mountain”. Deciding to carry on the band in tribute to his former band mate, Colin Angus recruited rapper Mr C as a permanent full time member and in 1992 they would achieve a platinum selling album in “Boss Drum” and a controversial No 1 single in “Ebeneezer Goode”…and that’s where it all went a bit naughty, naughty, very naughty… 

However, despite releasing a further four singles from the album, none of them pierced the Top 40 even. I didn’t own “Storm Front” but seemed to afford the singles released from it an inordinate amount of attention. “Leningrad” was the follow up to “We Didn’t Start the Fire” written about a clown whom he met while touring the Soviet Union in 1987 (there’s surely  joke in that sentence somewhere) while “The Downeaster ‘Alexa'” depicted the plight of an impoverished fisherman off Long Island struggling to make ends meet against the depletion of fish stocks and restricting environmental regulations. Fast forward 31 years and it could be an allegorical tale of the woes of Brex-shit. The final single to be released was “That’s Not Her Style” which was sort of a sequel to “Uptown Girl” in that it again it was written about/for Christie Brinkley although it was infinitely better than that piece of crud widely recognised as Joel’s worst ever song.

The one I have highlighted here though is “I Go To Extremes” which was the third single from “Storm Front”. There was something about the way the rolling piano drove the song forward that appealed. Apparently written from the point of view of a manic depression sufferer, it certainly made an impression on troubled actress Linday Lohan who allegedly has its lyrics ‘clear as a crystal, sharp as a knife I feel like I’m in the prime of my life’ from this song tattooed on her rib cage. I wasn’t that affected by the song though I did buy it (yes I actually bought it!) and I stand by my actions. It’s a good song. Bloody music snobs! 

Back to Age Of Chance though and this lot started out as a Leeds based industrial rock/ dance hybrid and like most people, I only first knew of them via their striking cover of Prince’s “Kiss” in 1986. Favourites of John Peel, they even contributed a track of the now legendary NME C86 cassette compilation (described by writer and broadcaster Andrew Collins as “the most indie thing to have ever existed”). They played a gig at Sunderland Poly whilst I was studying there but I failed to attend for some reason. A move to major label Virgin followed but, almost inevitably, that seemed to be the point where things started to change. Debut album “One Thousand Years Of Trouble” was a critical success but failed to deliver the required commercial sales.

By the time that second album “Mecca” was being recorded, founding member and vocalist Steven Elvidge had had enough and jumped ship leading the rest of the band to recruit a replacement  – gospel voiced soul singer Charles Hutchinson was chosen. The result meant that “Mecca” was much more of a polished effort but crucially wildly different from the band’s previous sound. Being the pop kid that I am/was though, I liked this incarnation better and thought lead single “Higher Than Heaven” was almost the perfect pop song and felt compelled to buy the single. Hutchinson could have been a star as big as Seal (but he was beaten to it by…erm..Seal) and their sound was reminiscent of the similarly criminally overlooked Ellis, Beggs And Howard from a couple of years before. Despite being voted Record of the week by BBC Radio 1’s breakfast show listeners, the single failed to make the Top 40 and the band would ultimately spilt in 1991. Shame really. 

You can’t do a Hits That Never Were section without an entry from Icicle Works. They’ve been in multiple reviews of the year that I’ve done. 1990’s representative was “Motorcycle RIder” – however, this was a very different Icicle Works to the outfit who had gone so close to chart glory before.

After 1988’s “Blind” album had taken the band’s commercial fortunes backwards and nullified the small gains made by preceding long player “If You Want to Defeat Your Enemy Sing His Song” and with tensions within the band on the rise, the original line up disintegrated. Drummer Chris Sharrock decamped initially to The La’s before embarking on a career as an in demand musician working with the likes of The Lightning Seeds, Robbie Williams, Del Amitri, Oasis and Beady Eye. He is currently the drummer for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. In addition, bassist Chris Layhe also departed finding an alternative career as events organiser in Liverpool and teaching guitar at the Manchester Adult Education Service. No disrespect to the guitar teacher I had in Hull when I finally tried to master the instrument who was great but I would have loved to have been taught by Mr Layhe! I believe he still does some live gig work – somebody I used to work with in Our Price knows him and by all accounts he is a top bloke.

In the light of these departures, the band’s were dropped by their label Beggars Banquet and their future looked uncertain to say the least. Remaining founder member, Ian McNabb kept the name going though and recruited a new line up (including Zak Starkey for a period) and released their final album “Permanent Damage” on Epic. “Motorcycle RIder” was the lead single and though I liked it (it was a bit like “Evangeline” part II), I’d kind of lost track of the band by this point and took little interest in discovering the rest of the album’s material. When the single stumbled its way to No 73 and the album failed to chart at all, the game was up and the band broke up officially in 1991.

McNabb would continue to write, record and perform his solo material to this day and even achieved a Mercury Music Prize nomination for 1994 solo album “Head Like A Rock”. He has reactivated the Icicle Works name a few times in the intervening years without Sharrock and Layhe – I caught them/him live in Manchester around 2006/7 but it wasn’t the same. Sometimes you really can’t go back but a part of me will always have real affection for the original Icicle Works. 

The Lilac Time – “All For Love And Love For All” 

• Release date: 28 Apr 1990
• Peak Chart Position: 77
• Weeks On Chart: 2

My allegiance to Stephen Duffy would have been five years old by this point dating back to “Kiss Me”, “Icing On The Cake” and the vastly underrated “The Ups And Downs” album. However, much like with Icicle Works, I was starting to lose track of him as an artist. Having ditched both his ‘Tin Tin’* and ‘A.J.’ affectations and with his commercial fortunes waning to the point of being dropped by his label, he switched his attention to new, folk-rock project the The Lilac Time. I’d liked their debut single, the very hummable “Return To Yesterday” but they’d disappeared from my view by the end of the decade – they’d recorded and released two whole albums by this point but I hadn’t invested in purchasing them and radio didn’t seem that interested in playing them so I had little clue what their sound was. 

Come the new decade though, come two new producers in XTX’s Andy Partridge and the man at the helm of The Stone Roses’ mixing desk John Leckie. The result was a more beefed up, polished production on third album “& Love for All”. Almost title track “All for Love And Love for All” was the lead single and it seemed to be a definite attempt to court that missing airplay that could give them a chart hit. Unusually it begins with its catchy chorus, hammering its hooks into your brain from the off. Deriving its title from a word play on the Three Musketeers motto, it undoubtedly borrows its sound a little from “Magical Mystery Tour” but at least Duffy acknowledges his influences with a lyrical reference to early Beatles incarnations The Quarrymen and Johnny & the Moondogs whilst sonically there’s the inclusion of the harmonica riff from “I Should Have Known Better”. As ever with Duffy compositions, this was well crafted, perfect pop and yet also as ever with Duffy compositions, nobody seemed interested. The single failed to make the Top 75 and the album bombed completely.

*’Blistering barnacles!’ indeed!

The Trash Can Sinatras – “Obscurity Knocks EP” 

• Release date: 24 Feb 1990
• Peak Chart Position: 86
• Weeks On Chart: 4

A bit like The Lilac Time, this lot seemed to be peddling a genre of music that was an anomaly in 1990. Drawing comparisons from the music press with The Smiths and Aztec Camera, their brand of melodic, jangly guitar driven pop tunes seemed out of kilter with the Eurodance dominated Top 40 charts of the year. Hell, even Aztec Camera didn’t sound like Aztec Camera in 1990! As I recall though, their was a definite buzz around them. Hailing from Irvine, Scotland, they were signed to the Go! Discs label whose other artists like Billy Bragg and The Beautiful South gave them some credibility by association. 

Also like The Lilac Time, their single carried a title that was nice word play on an established phrase which was continued in the lyrics with lines like ‘Looking at my watch and I’m half-past caring’. On reflection, their sound was derivative but they definitely had musical ability and knew their way around a decent tune. Parent album “Cake” only made No 74 in the charts and despite having some success stateside (especially on the Billboard Modern Rock chart) the band never managed to hit it big in the UK. They are still a going concern to this day last releasing an album in 2018.

Del Amitri – “Kiss This Thing Goodbye” 

• Release date: 24 Mar 1990 *
• Peak Chart Position: 43
• Weeks On Chart: 4

*Originally released 12 Aug 1989 and peaked at No 59

You would be forgiven for thinking that this one didn’t belong in a section called Hits That Never Were at all. This wasn’t a hit?! What even with all that radio play it got?! Yes, taking its place alongside the likes of “Summer Of ’69” by Bryan Adams and “I Would Die 4 U” by Prince, “Kiss This Thing Goodbye” was not a Top 40 hit for Del Amitri despite being released twice! It originally chanced its arm in the singles market in 1989 to no avail but was shoved back out again in the wake of breakthrough hit “Nothing Ever Happens” but still the UK record buying public said ‘nothing doing’. Bizarrely, it was though the first song by the band to break the US Top 40, reaching No 35. 

Quite why it failed to chart in the UK is not easily explained. Perfect for daytime radio with its rousing chorus, it seemed much better placed than the much more unusual sounding “Nothing Ever Happens” which would have been an outside bet at best. Maybe it was the banjo picking that put people off? It didn’t matter too much in the end as, far from kissing goodbye to chart stardom, the band would notch up 11 consecutive Top 40 entries after the failure of “Kiss This Thing Goodbye” between 1990 and 1997. Sometimes UK music fans had to be given a bit of a run up before taking an artist to their hearts it seems. 

The Blow Monkeys -“Springtime For The World” 

• Release date: 26 May 1990
• Peak Chart Position: 69
• Weeks On Chart: 2

And what were The Blow Monkeys up to in 1990? I’m glad you asked because not many were enquiring after their health back then. Having finally achieved proper mainstream success with 1987’s Top 5 hit “It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way”, they’d seemed to reject the sophisti-pop sound that had made them pop stars by pursuing a distinctly dance-orientated direction with the release of their next album “Whoops! There Goes The Neighbourhood”. Dr. Robert had doubled down on that decision when he collaborated with ‘The First Lady of House Music’ Kym Mazelle on Top 10 single “Wait”. That success apart, their new sound wasn’t as popular with the fans (me included) and the album peaked at a lowly No 46. Record label RCA panicked and released a Best Of album entitled “Choices – The Singles Collection” which was a big seller peaking at No 5 and becoming the band’s highest-charting record. But if that Best Of album was meant to be a reminder to the band of the formula for more chart success, they didn’t heed it. Standing at a cross roads as the new decade dawned, they chose to follow the signpost pointing to dance world.

Their first (and it turned out only) album of the 90s saw them continue with their dalliance with that genre when they released “Springtime For The World”. The lead single was the title track and though I hadn’t been expecting much, I honestly thought it was OK. There was more of a tune in it than on the material I’d heard from “Whoops! There Goes The Neighbourhood” like “This Is Your Life” and it had some interesting elements to it like the jagged sounding strings and the repeated crash of the Rank Organisation style gong. Dr Robert (with his new smart mod haircut) sounded in good voice backed by some lush gospel backing vocals and the while thing had a nice vibe to it. ‘Yeah, this could work and be a hit’ I thought at the time. I was wrong, crushingly so. The single stalled at No 69 and the album failed to chart at all. The band would split shortly after its release and would not reconvene for another 17 years. Since reforming though, they have been very active recording five studio albums and performing live gigs. You can’t keep the good doctor down it seems. 

Energy Orchard – “Belfast” 

• Release date: 27 Jan 1990
• Peak Chart Position: 52
• Weeks On Chart: 4

Following a rock band from Dublin in Power Of Dreams, we return to Ireland but the northern part of it. Energy Orchard hailed from Belfast and were led by singer-songwriter Bap Kennedy who would go on to work with such musical heavyweights as Steve Earle, Van Morrison, Shane MacGowan and Mark Knopfler. Their debut single “Belfast” was also their highest charting just missing out on the Top 40.

Their sound was more folk-rock in nature than their indie inclined, post -punk peers Power Of Dreams, more U2 than Undertones. They maybe suffered from coming across as too earnest at a time when the UK was still under the influence of dance music, club culture and having a good time. It did however feature on Eastenders apparently. I’m guessing it was on the Queen Vic’s juke box? Sting’s “Love Is The Seventh Wave” was similarly featured back in ’85. 

Energy Orchard carried on until 1996 with Kennedy forging a successful solo career until his death in 2016. 

Their Season In The Sun

• Bombalurina– Why oh why oh why oh why oh why…?

• Deee-Lite – They came, they brought us a gigantic and wonderful dance hit that should have been No 1, they left. 

• Guru Josh – 1990 was indeed time for the guru but it was definitely a time limited offer.

• Halo James – “Right, first item on the music genre agenda. Can I just confirm that we are all done with the sophisto-pop movement? Any objections? What’s that Halo James? You haven’t had your turn yet? Oh alright but just one hit and that’s it. Agreed? Motion passed.” 

• New Kids On The Block – Filling the gap between Bros and Take That, this bunch of pretty boys had some terrible tunes. Thankfully, the collective insanity that gripped the nations teenage girls only lasted 12 months. 

• The Soup Dragons – It looked for a while like these Scottish groovers would become major stars. They had the right sound at the right time. “I’m Free” and “Mother Universe” were great singles. And then, one minor hit and the inevitable band break up. What a waste. 

• Vanilla Ice – To quote the character of Porter Lee Austin played by Larry Hagman in one of my favourite ever films Stardust:  “He was a monster, I’m telling you, a monster! We couldn’t ship enough of that mother’s records he was so big. You know, at one time, both Capitol and Columbia had plants over in Detroit and Cleveland pressing for us. He was that big, that big. Like King Kong, he was, for a time. And then the branch broke. After that…no kind of hype in the world was going to get him back up on his perch. Ooh! You couldn’t give that mother away!” 

Last Words

In many ways,1990 has been one of the most disappointing of these TOTP years that I have reviewed. So much excitement and anticipation for a new decade but the charts were a massive let down, full of generic Euro dance, pop and rock ‘royalty’ that refused to abdicate and a stack of movie and TV generated hits. It was different outside of the Top 40 and TOTP though wasn’t it? ‘Madchester’ had become a vibrant movement, uniting the youth who wanted something other than Mutant Ninja Turtles and Elton John. Yet it would quickly dissipate as its two prime movers The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays struggled to create new material leaving a gap that would be filled by…well…we’ll have to wait for those 1991 BBC4 repeats won’t we…