80stastic

TOTP 27 SEP 1990

Posted on March 12, 2021 by 80stastic

Hello there – if it’s some (very) early 90s musical nostalgia you’re after, you have arrived at your destination. We are just about three quarters of the way through these TOTP repeats from 1990 and we see out September in the company of host Anthea Turner. Wait! Come back! I won’t mention her again…except for this. In the week where Piers Morgan stormed off the set of GMB and ultimately left the show, let us remember that Anthea also had an ITV breakfast show incident. No, not Piers slamming her for breaching lockdown rules; hers occurred back in the mid 90s when she was co-hosting GMTV with Eamon Holmes. So bad was their working relationship that Holmes issued an ‘its me or her’ ultimatum to GMTV management which resulted in Anthea being sacked. I can’t stand either of them to be honest so enough of all that and on with the music….

…and we start with Monie Love and her single “It’s A Shame (My Sister)”. A Breaker last week, Monie has made sufficient strides up the charts this week to merit a studio performance this time around and she’s invited everybody she knows to get up on stage with her. I’m guessing that’s actually R’n’B vocal outfit True Image who are credited on the record alongside Monie. It’s not all those people on screen that’s caught my attention though but the top that Monie is wearing or more specifically the logo on it. What is that? My best guess is that it’s the badge of American basketball team the Chicago Bulls. Whilst trying to confirm it, I came upon this little nugget online:

If you turn the Chicago bulls logo upside down it’s a robot having sex with a crab pic.twitter.com/KGfsqyr3Ml
— Chaos Agent 1 June 2nd! (@DenizCamp) September 14, 2019

OH. MY. GOD.

Monie’s debut album “Down To Earth” included a track called “Swiney Swiney” which was a protest against the eating of pork and included the lyrics ‘High blood pressure, blame it on the swine’. As far as I can tell she has never written a song highlighting the fate of that poor crab.

Back on less carnal and more sensible ground now as we get the latest Depeche Mode single “World In My Eyes”. This was the fourth and final single to be lifted from the “Violator” album and you have to say that alongside “Personal Jesus”, “Enjoy The Silence” and “Policy Of Truth”, that quartet of tracks must be one of the best group of singles taken from one album, quality and consistency wise.

Did I say ‘less carnal’? It seems I was wrong as when researching the meaning behind the song, the theories I found online were overwhelmingly of the opinion that it was about the sexual act. Here are just a few of the more printable ones:

‘Very erotic song, and it moves me in more ways than one.’

‘It’s a sex song.’

‘This really is one of the most erotic songs out there. It’s so addicting.’

And finally…

‘I always thought it was about showing someone your “world” eg, your outlook on life, your personality, everything, by having sex with them….in a good way.’

Well…erm…ahem. “World In My Eyes” ~~climaxed~~…PEAKED I meant peaked at No 17.

Right, please can we move away from all the salacious stuff?! Who’s next? Londonbeat? They’re pretty safe and inoffensive surely?! “I’ve Been Thinking About You” is on its way to a high of No 2. Many of the music press reviews of the song stated that they detected a Fine Young Cannibals influence in its sound production. I can hear that but it was no real surprise as band members Jimmy Helms, George Chandler & Jimmy Chambers all sang backing vocals on the FYC tracks “Good Thing”, “Tell Me What” and “It’s OK (It’s Alright)” from their “The Raw and the Cooked” album. In a bizarre coincidence there is a song in this TOTP that was produced by Andy Cox and David Steele of FYC but it wasn’t this one. No, they handled production duties for “It’s A Shame (My Sister) by Monie Love at the top of the show.

Oh OK, I’d been waiting for this one to come up (and see me). Why? Well, this is the performance where back in 1990 I could have sworn that was me up there fronting The Wedding Present. I seem to have one of those faces you see. I spent three years at polytechnic being called Dan after my resemblance to the actor Dan Ackroyd. In current times, rather more unfortunately, I have been likened to football manager Sam Allardyce. Back in the early 90s though, I did look like David Gedge and the lookalike factor is no more on display than it is in this clip. I swear that people who had never made the connection before, when seeing this footage, have said ‘but…that was you up there wasn’t it?’. There was just something about the way Gedge smiled and his dark floppy hair that once seen by people who knew me could not be unseen. Nowadays of course, never mind me not looking like Gedge anymore, Gedge himself no longer looks like Gedge. He’s more ‘gadge’ than Gedge. I once spent an uncomfortable evening in a pub in Manchester with Mark E Smith’s sister saying how much I looked like Gedge, what a sex god (her words not mine) he was and asking me to sing some Wedding Present tunes for her.

Watching this clip back is reminding me how old I’ve become – it’s a bit depressing. Anyway, back to the music and “Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)” was one one of the tracks on their “3 Songs EP”* which would make No 25 in the UK charts. I’m guessing it was a ploy by their new record label RCA to maintain the band’s profile in between the album releases of “Bizarro” in 1989 and “Seamonsters” in 1991. Come 1992 and you wouldn’t be able to move for Wedding Present product as they embarked upon their project of releasing 12 x 7″ singles in one year. Each single was limited to a pressing of 10,000 copies which all reached the Top 30 thereby equalling Elvis Presley’s record for the most UK Top 30 hits in one year – those dastardly major labels with their cynical marketing strategies!

I love this performance and not just for the lookalike reasons. The false ending is great, Gedge’s knowing smile is a winner and this, which was spotted by an eagle-eyed viewer:

Oh https://t.co/A6iEFZ9bjr
— David Gedge (@weddingpresent) March 5, 2021

*What was it with the functional titles of EPs back in 1990? Deacon Blue were also in the charts at the same time as The Wedding Present with their “Four Bacharach & David Songs EP”.

Whatever you think of The Cure, you can’t deny their longevity nor how prolific they are/were. By this point in their career, they had already recorded 8 studio albums in 10 years and this single, “Never Enough” was already their 15th Top 40 hit. This one though wasn’t from a studio album but a remix album called rather obviously “Mixed Up” and featured extended mixes of some of their previous hits. I really remember this track being played a lot in store when I started with Our Price the following month. I really liked “Never Enough” and its creeping, unnerving sound and Robert Smith’s manic, tortured, imploring vocals.

The video does rather seem to be a retread of the claustrophobia theme of their promo for 1985 single “Close To Me” though which would duplicate “Never Enough”s No 13 chart peak when released as the follow up single in remix form.

Status Quo had released some right old crap during the 80s. I’m thinking “In The Army Now”, “Burning Bridges (On and Off and On Again)” and an excruciating cover of the Dion standard “The Wanderer”. If we thought that was bad though, stand back as here’s 90s Quo declaring ‘Hold my pint’. Yes, to mark the 25th anniversary of the meeting of Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi at a Butlins holiday camp (it’s hardly when Lennon met McCartney is it?), they decided to release “The Anniversary Waltz – Part One” which was basically their take on the whole Jive Bunny phenomenon. Within the medley of old 50s hits shoe horned together were Chuck Berry’s “No Particular Place To Go”, Dave Edmund’s “I Hear You Knocking” and unbelievably, “The Wanderer” by Dion – again. This embarrassing crud-fest somehow convinced enough punters to buy it that it rose all the way to No 2 in the charts! Not satisfied with fleecing people once, the band followed it up with “The Anniversary Waltz – Part Two”. Talk about money for old rope. Just unforgivable.

By the mid 90s, they had defaulted to releasing cover versions as their modus operandi most notably Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop” and The Beach Boys’ “Fun, Fun, Fun”. Even Radio 1 decided enough was enough and refused to playlist “Fun, Fun, Fun” leading to a public and rancorous dispute with the band. All of this and I haven’t even got started with “Come On You Reds”, their 1994 No 1 single with Manchester United. Bah!

From some right old tosh to something bang up to date (in 1990) with the dance hit “Fascinating Rhythm” by Bass-O-Matic. I’ve always found this track very intriguing – it just has that something ‘other’ about it which made it stand out from the rest of the dance tunes that took residence in the Top 40 throughout 1990. However, by most accounts, the album it came from, “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Bass”, wasn’t anything like the single and a bit of a let down if you were a punter expecting an album full of similar blinding anthems.

“Fascinating Rhythm” peaked at No 9 and was their only Top 40 hit. Founding member WIlliam Orbit would of course go on to be a legendary producer working with everyone from All Saints to U2 but most famously with Madonna on her “Ray Of Light” album.

After just two weeks at the top, Steve Miller Band has been toppled by the almighty power ballad that was “Show Me Heaven” by Maria McKee. Despite only achieving two chart hits in her varied music career (the other came in 1993 courtesy of the No 35 hit “I’m Gonna Soothe You”), Maria still has had quite an impact on the UK charts. How so? Well, she wrote Feargal Sharkey’s 1985 No 1 “A Good Heart” and was also the subject matter of his follow up single “You Little Thief” which was written by her former lover Benmont Tench as a riposte to “A Good Heart”. Not only that, she was also the inspiration behind Deacon Blue’s Top 10 hit of 1988 “Real Gone Kid” which was penned by Ricky Ross after seeing McKee’s wild, on stage antics during a gig with her former band Lone Justice.

The play out video is “Taste” by Ride. Yes, after some proper indie heroes earlier in the show in the form of The Wedding Present, we got another lot before the half hour was up. Ride were from Oxford and were associated with the ‘shoegazing’ scene that was characterised by guitar distortion, feedback, ethereal vocals and the gig etiquette of the bands who stood motionless during live performances in a detached, introspective state with their heads down and not acknowledging the audience.

“Taste” was one of four tracks on the “Fall EP” (what another EP?!) and is actually pretty melodic to my ears rather than harsh and distorted as befitting the scene. The band’s profile and success escalated quickly and tours of Japan, Australia and America widened their appeal. This led to their commercial zenith in 1992 when their single “Leave Them All Behind” made the Top 10 whilst parent album “Going Blank Again” went Top 5. My favourite tune of theirs also came from that album; the sublime “”Twisterella”.

Sadly for Ride, they found themselves out of step with the cultural shift that BritPop brought and they split in 1996 before reforming in 2014. Oh and just when I thought I had gotten away without any more filth in this post, @TOTPFacts reminded us all of this lovely image*:

If you have trouble telling 1990-period Mark Gardener and Tim Burgess apart: Mark is on the left in this photo and Tim is on the right. Or is it the other way round? #TOTP pic.twitter.com/kaYA7r5HAf
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 5, 2021

*That’s a stick of rock by the way!

For posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Monie Love	It’s A Shame (My Sister)	Nope
2	Depeche Mode	World In My Eyes	I did not
3	Londonbeat	I’ve Been Thinking About You	But I didn’t think about buying this
4	The Wedding Present	Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)	No but I should have
5	The Cure	Never Enough	No but I’ve got it on a Greatest Hits CD of theirs
6	Status Quo	The Anniversary Waltz (Part One)	Sod off
7	Bass-O-Matic	Fascinating Rhythm	Could have but didn’t
8	Maria McKee	Show Me Heaven	Nah
9	Ride	Taste	No

Disclaimer

OK – here’s the thing – the TOTP episodes are only available on iPlayer for a limited amount of time so the link to the programme below only works for about another month so you’ll have to work fast if you want to catch the whole show.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000st49/top-of-the-pops-27091990

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.

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 20 SEP 1990

Posted on March 10, 2021 by 80stastic

We’re pushing on through 1990 now and find ourselves entering the final third of September. The year has brought us a dramatic World Cup, a Summer heatwave and a seemingly endless conveyor belt of awful, awful records in the Top 40…but all of those things would pale into insignificance for me as I was exactly one month away from getting married! Yes, my girlfriend and I had been reunited over the Summer when I secured some temporary employment in her hometown of Hull and now we had decided that we weren’t going to be separated again. We were only 22 by this point and none of our friends and peers had got married or were even talking about such a happening that I was aware of but we were determined and confident in each other and our relationship.

We had decided we would move to Manchester. We had very little connection to the city other than we both knew one person each who lived there. To this end, I had applied for jobs in record shops there to have some employment set up for our arrival. Why record shops? I loved music and thought that I would be working in a field that engaged me. I also figured that somehow it would be a springboard into some sort of career in the music business, that I would be headhunted to some record company position and end up running a record label or some such other fantasy. In my defence of this folly, I was very young, just starting out in life and I didn’t have a f*****g clue! The first record shop that I heard back from was the Our Price chain and they invited me to interview for a temporary Xmas sales assistant position. So it came to pass that in this very week of September 1990, I travelled over to Manchester and rocked up at the offices above the Manchester Piccadilly store where I was interviewed by a very pleasant guy (whose name I forget), sat a music quiz and was told that I would be a suitable person to work for Our Price. I remember him asking me if I though the money they were paying was enough (£100 a week as I recall) and I said absolutely! I wasn’t going to talk myself out of the opportunity before I’d even begun. Success!

My other brief whilst I was over in Manchester was to try and find some accommodation for us to live in once we’d moved across the Pennines. On this point I was less successful and I returned to Hull with nothing in place on that subject. Still, one out of two wasn’t bad. I had a start date for late October agreed and had familiarised myself with Manchester a little at least whilst I was staying with one of the two people we knew there for a couple of days. I recall travelling back to her flat on the bus on the Saturday afternoon and wondering how my beloved Chelsea had got on that day. This was before the days of mobile phones, live score apps and the rest. I was unsure about outing myself as a Chelsea fan on public transport in the centre of Manchester but fortunately they had been playing Man City that afternoon so I simply asked somebody on the bus who had a pink ‘un (remember them) sports paper the City result*. Bingo! I was already getting used to this living in Manchester lark!

*It was a 1-1 draw by the way.

As a consequence of all this grown up stuff, I had taken my eye off the ball as to the pop charts and am pretty sure I didn’t even watch this particular TOTP. Let’s see what I missed….

….we start with one of those awful, awful records I referred to earlier. Twenty 4 Seven featuring Captain Hollywood were one of those Eurodance outfits that we’d seen so much of in this year like 49ers and Bizz Nizz. The Captain himself was a guy called Tony Dawson-Harrison who earned his nickname when stationed with the US Army in Germany. Hang on! Wasn’t that the same back story as Turbo B from Snap!?

*checks Wikipedia*

Yes, it was! And didn’t Sydney Youngblood of “If Only I Could” fame follow the same route to chart glory?

*checks Wikipedia again*

Yes! What the hell was the deal with American army soldiers based in Germany becoming pop stars in the early 90s?! Anyway, he was joined by vocalist Nancy “Nance” Coolen (not hard to work out where her nickname came from) and a couple of dancers and hey presto! A massive hit called “I Can’t Stand It”. After that single hit big, Captain Hollywood left to pursue a solo career (he had a couple of minor hit singles in the UK in the mid 90s but was a much bigger deal in the rest of Europe) and was replaced by Stacey “Stay-C” Seedorf (they really needed to work on those nicknames a bit more!). From that point on it became a carousel of band members and line up that would put The Fall to shame (well, The Sugababes at least). Apparently they are still a going concern to this day. As for me, I couldn’t stand “I Can’t Stand It” which peaked at No 7 over here.

Wait a minute! What’s going on here? The Stone Roses in the charts with “Fools Gold”? Again? It had already spent 14 weeks in the Top 100 between Nov 1989 and Feb 1990 – why was it re-released so quickly afterwards? Well, after the band’s commercial breakthrough in 1989 with “Made Of Stone”, “She Bangs The Drums” and of course “Fools Gold”, there was a rush to get more of their product out into the marketplace, not all of it with the endorsement of the band. Early single “Sally Cinnamon” on their ex-label Revolver came out again with a video that the band hated. They tried to stop the release and when they couldn’t, it led to the legendary office trashing incident when the band, on route to the recording studio, stopped by the FM Revolver headquarters and trashed the offices by hurling paint all over them and former manager Paul Birch. The inevitable court case followed with the band fined £3,600 each.

After “Elephant Stone” was also released from their iconic debut album came the much heralded single “One Love”. Tipped to be No 1, the band’s mythical aura had slipped after the debacle of the Spike Island concert and it stalled at No 4, unable to dislodge Elton John or indeed get the better of Craig McClachlan! Given its relative failure, was “Fools Gold” re-issued to remind us of their former glories? Its original release had seen it double A-sided with “What The World Is Waiting For” but was it just a standard A -side this time? Or was it just the original release propelled back into the charts by demand? I’m not sure. he waters are muddied further by the fact that it has been re-released at least a further two times since. I’m pretty sure that the debut album was re-released with “Fools Gold” included as an extra track at some point in the early 90s as well.

The 1990 release made it to No 22 in the charts whilst the 1989 original release made it all the way to No 8. I have to say it’s not my favourite Stone Roses tune by some distance, whilst Ian Brown seems to be making quite the fool himself these days without any recourse to gold.

I had to jinx it by mentioning Snap! before didn’t I? Here’s Turbo B and co with their third hit of 1990 “Cult Of Snap”. After “The Power” and “Ooops Up”, this one at least had a differential to it in the form of the African sounding drumbeats and chanting. Indeed, it proved to be popular in that territory as it peaked at No 2 in Zimbabwe. When this TOTP repeat aired, a few social media commentators said that it reminded them of that “In Zaire” song by Johnny Wakelin which I just about remember from my childhood. Let’s see if they had a point then…

…ooh yeah, maybe. Anyway, back to “Cult Of Snap” and I found this one a little less irritating than their previous efforts (maybe it was Johnny Wakelin subconsciously drawing me in from the 70s). It turns out though that Snap! didn’t have the very first release of this track. Here’s @TOTPFacts:

Although "Cult Of Snap" was a Snap! composition, this wasn't the track's first release. An Italian outfit called Hi Power rushed out a version, which charted as high as no 73, before Snap! got theirs out. https://t.co/9FBOyfjPCp #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 5, 2021

The ever generous Turbo B (who had already been involved in a homophobic instigated nightclub incident by this point) declared of Hi Power’s version in a Smash Hits interview:

“These people, they’re ridiculous. If he was a good rapper, it would be OK but he was a shit rapper, he has no timing. “

What a pleasant man! It’s a bit rich anyway given that “The Power” included the unauthorised sampling of vocals by Jocelyn Brown which led her to commence legal action. The legally complex world of sampling eh?

“Cult Of Snap” peaked at No 8 in the UK.

One of the constants of this blog throughout the 80s and now the 90s has been the persistent existence of hard rock acts within the UK Top 40 whatever the current musical milieu dictated. House music? Not a problem? Overblown ballads from film soundtracks? Out of our way, we’re coming through! Boys bands and teeny bop idols? We give zero f***s! We’re here to play loud rock music and nobody will stop us! The likes of Megadeth, Skid Row and Whitesnake had steadfastly refused to budge from the Top 40, presumably propelled their in the first pace by a sizeable, loyal fan base. Another such act were AC/DC for whom “Thunderstruck” was already their 14th UK Top 40 hit and followed the likes of “Who Made Who” and “Heatseeker” into the Top 20. As I’ve said many time previously, I never got the boat going to AC/DC island and this did nothing for me. I can’t be doing with their song titles for one thing – they all seem to just constant variants on the whole ‘power’ theme.

The song inspired a whole movie called Thunderstruck which was released in 2004 and was a comedy about five guys who go to an AC/DC show in 1991 and agree to bury the first one who dies next to Bon Scott. No really. Look, here’s the trailer….

…yeah. It looks well shit doesn’t it?

Some Breakers next and we start with the return of S’Express. Despite cornering the market as the commercial face of house music when arriving with a bang back in 1988 with the No 1 single “Theme from S-Express”, Mark Moore and co had suffered from a case of diminishing returns ever since with each subsequent single release peaking lower than its immediate predecessor. Their fortunes were not helped by a two year gap between album releases with sophomore long player “Intercourse” not arriving until a whole three years after the bomb that was “Theme from S-Express” had exploded into the charts.

“Nothing To Lose” was actually the second single to be lifted from “Intercourse”, the first had been “Mantra For A State Of Mind” nearly a year before – see what I mean about them not being fussed about maintaining momentum with regular release schedules? Indeed, the four singles that were released from the album covered a period of three years!

I have to say that I didn’t mind “Nothing To Lose” though and my wife liked it so much she bought the 12″. However, their appeal was definitely on the wane. It peaked at No 32 and became their last ever Top 40 hit until a remix of “Theme from S-Express” retitled as “Theme from S’Express – The Return Trip” made the Top 20 in 1996.

Is this the same DNA who were just in the charts with Suzanne Vega with that remix of “Tom’s Diner”? It is apparently. I had no idea they had more than one hit. A quick check of their discography shows that they had five Top 40 entries although this one, “La Serenissima”, seems to be the only one in their own right. Including “Tom’s Diner”, all the other ones were with additional artists with the most successful and famous being Kylie Minogue whom they remixed “Shocked ” for as “Shocked (DNA Remix)” (it did what it said on the tin) in 1991 which peaked at No 6.

Featuring that ubiquitous James Brown “Funky Drummer” sample, “La Serenissima” was actually a cover of a piece by Rondò Veneziano who Wikipedia tells me are ‘an Italian chamber orchestra, specialising in Baroque music, playing original instruments but incorporating a rock-style rhythm section of synthesiser, bass guitar and drums’. That sounds…erm…like an Italian version of ‘Hooked On Classics’?

“La Serenissima” – the Byzantine title for Venice if you’re asking – peaked at No 34.

Who’s up for some Monie Love? Last seen in the charts at the back end of 1989 with her Top 20 single “Grandpa’s Party”, she was back there again with “It’s a Shame (My Sister)” which was her hip-hop take on “It’s a Shame”, the old 70s hit by The Spinners. Is it my imagination or was Monie Love briefly tipped to be the next hip-hop superstar? Well, there’s still a lot of love for Monie online where she is routinely referred to as a hip-hop icon. Interviewed by http://www.pbs.org and asked what her greatest contribution was to hip-hop, she replied:

“Oh, wow, that’s easy for me. My greatest contribution to Hip-Hop was allowing the United States of America to know and understand exactly how far they reach, and how influential they are to children in completely different countries because I am the import. I’m one of the first successful imports on the Hip-Hop tree of life.”

Import? Ah, you see Monie was born Simone Johnson in Battersea in 1970 before relocating to the US permanently where she carved out a successful career in radio. Oh, and I’ve no idea who True Image are/were who are also credited on the record. Sounds like one of Louis Walsh’s X Factor boy bands to me.

After The Stone Roses earlier in the show, we get another of those acts closely associated with the baggy sound of Manchester (although they were actually from a combination of the West Midlands and Northwich in Cheshire). The Charlatans were bona fide pop stars by this point but this was actually their debut appearance on TOTP never actually having made it on the show for previous single “The Only One I Know” despite it going Top 10 (the promo video had to suffice instead). “Then” was a worthy follow up and very nearly made it two Top Tenners on the bounce, peaking just outside at No 12.

Lead singer and now near National Treasure Tim Burgess has obviously been to the barbers with his bowl cut look replaced with something altogether more sharp. The decision to lop off his locks was made because Tim felt that too many people trying to copy his floppy fringe look apparently. These days of course, he has adopted a hairstyle that seems to be a mash up of Andy Warhol and Purdey from The New Avengers. Haircuts aside, he remains a rather wonderful human being.

If this TOTP was a football match, it would be between the indie/dance baggie sound and heavy rock and this would be the match report:

“After The Baggies (no, not WBA!) went 1-0 up early doors via a strike from The Stone Roses, Heavy Rock equalised via the ever reliable AC/DC. Shortly after the break(ers) however, The Baggies were back in front via a good follow up from The Charlatans. Not to be out done, Heavy Rock fired a second equaliser from veterans Iron Maiden.”

Yes, just like AC/DC earlier, Iron Maiden were still rampaging up the charts as the 80s became the 90s. We could have been forgiven for thinking they were on a sabbatical given the solo career of Bruce Dickinson earlier in the year but they were back with new single “Holy Smoke” which was the lead single from their “No Prayer For The Dying” album. By this point, the band’s fan base was so big that they could guarantee a high chart placing for anything they released as demonstrated by “Holy Smoke” which entered the charts at No 3. The band (or possibly their record label) saw a way to exploit this to the max with their next single “Bring Your Daughter… to the Slaughter” which was released in the week after Xmas when there was traditionally a lull in sales after the Xmas rush. This meant that far fewer copies need to be sold to have a massive hit and so it came to pass that Iron Maiden would score their first and only No 1 single as 1991 dawned.

I don’t really recall “Holy Smoke” at all and on hearing it on this TOTP repeat iI did wonder if it was an instrumental. It isn’t but the reason for my confusion was that the show’s producers started the playback of the track from the point of a guitar solo which I’m guessing was a strategic move to omit some of the song’s more profane lyrics which occur early on such as ‘Flies around shit/bees around honey’ and ‘I’ve lived in filth/I’ve lived in sin/and I still smell cleaner than the shit you’re in’. Ooh, they were scary rebels weren’t they Iron Maiden?

Breaking News! There’s a last gasp winner in The Baggies v Heavy Rock match as the former seal the win with a goal from late substitute The Farm. Hang on, it’s gone to VAR! There’s a debate about whether the goal should stand as Stockley Park look at evidence that The Farm were not actually a baggie band and therefore they should be disqualified from playing. According to a Smash Hits interview with Tim Burgess of The Charlatans, he had this to say about the “Groovy Train” hitmakers:

“I saw them live five years ago and they were a crap R’n’ B band.”

Damning stuff. The decision is in though and the goal stands on the basis of this angle from @TOTPFacts:

A few weeks after this, Happy Mondays released their single "Kinky Afro". The track was originally titled "Groovy Afro", but the Mondays changed the title after finding out about "Groovy Train". #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 5, 2021

If holy trinity indie /dance member Happy Mondays were concerned about The Farm, then they must have been baggy! However, I’m pretty sure that I saw an Expedia advert on the TV the other day that used “Groovy Train” as the soundtrack to it which kind of undermines its indie credentials a bit in my book. Apparently, Duran Duran have turned down multiple lucrative requests over the years from various food outlets asking to use “Hungry Like The Wolf” in an advertising campaign but they have always refused. So there you have it – Duran Duran have more credibility than The Farm. Maybe.

Steve Miller Band are still at No 1 with ‘The Joker” holding off Deee-Lite’s tilt at the top for a second week. The previous week of course had raised the whole chart controversy of the two acts being tied for the No 1 position. Using a clearly unfair ruling, “The Joker” was given the number one as its sales had increased more from the previous week. To diffuse chart rigging accusations, the compilers Gallup subsequently announced that “The Joker” had actually sold 8 (EIGHT!) copies more than “Groove Is In The Heart”. How convenient. Did someone have to look for those 8 sales a bit like Donald Trump going looking for missing votes in the US presidential election?

Wanna hear Homer Simpson singing “The Joker”? Of course you do…

Confirming that he wasn’t a one hit wonder, the play out video is “Tunes Splits The Atom” by MC Tunes and 808 State. This track also confirms, Geoff Hurst in the final minute style, the victory for The Baggies over Heavy Rock with both MC Tunes and 808 State hailing from ‘Madchester’. As if that wasn’t enough, “Tunes Splits The Atom” samples a bass riff from “I Am The Resurrection” by The Stone Roses. Done and indeed dusted.

For posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:

eqwrt

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Twenty 4 Seven featuring Captain Hollywood	I Can’t Stand It	…and therefore I didn’t buy it
2	The Stone Roses	Fools Gold	No but I must have it on something
3	Snap!	The Cult Of Snap	I was not a member of this cult
4	AC/DC	Thunderstruck	Clusterfuck more like! No
5	S’Express	Nothing To Lose	No but my wife bough the 12”
6	DNA	La Serenissima	Nah
7	Monie Love	It’s A Shame (My Sister)	Nope
8	The Charlatans	Then	No but it’s on my Melting Pot Best Of CD of theirs
9	Iron Maiden	Holy Smoke	They could blow their smoke out of their arses for all I cared -no
10	The Farm	Groovy Train	No but I easily could have
11	Steve Miller Band	The Joker	It’s a no
12	MC Tunes / 808 State	Tunes Splits The Atom	No

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000st47/top-of-the-pops-20091990

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.

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 13 SEP 1990

Posted on March 5, 2021 by 80stastic

September 1990 was a big month for the BBC. After banging on about the bringing back of The Generation Game in my last post, Auntie Beeb had another big happening for the second week running as on the very day this TOTP was broadcast, it showed the 1000th episode of Neighbours! Yes, the Aussie soap that had the nation fascinated by the goings on in Ramsey Street and that made household names (and pop stars) out of Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue (more of whom later) had reached this massive milestone in what seemed to be a short amount of time. In fact, it had been on the BBC since October 1986 so just under four years but that still doesn’t seem like much time for 1000 episodes. What’s that, 250 per year? So nearly four shows a week? How many episodes of Coronation Street and Eastenders were on our screens per week back then? Anyway, for what it’s worth, the 1000th episode concerned the engagement party of Des and Jane (or ‘Plain Jane Super Brain’ to give her full title) which is gatecrashed by Jane’s old squeeze Mike who’s not too keen on the whole idea of them getting hitched. And yes, I had to look all of that up – I’d long since stopped watching the show by 1990.

Appropriately for Mike’s dramatic entrance to confront Des and Jane, the first song of the night is entitled “I’ve Been Thinking About You” by Londonbeat. You all remember this lot right? They’d had a Top 20 hit back in 1988 with an almost a cappella song called “9 A.M. (The Comfort Zone)” but had been absent from the Top 40 since despite a nice enough follow up single called “Failing in Love Again” which I’d quite liked. “I’ve Been Thinking About You” however was nothing like either of those two tracks. This was…well…danceable but with a pop sensibility (that’s what the music journalists say isn’t it?). It also had that lodge-in-your-brain guitar riff running through it that people found hard to resist. The result? By far the band’s biggest ever hit. It was even a No 1 in the US (although it peaked just short of that at No 2 in the UK) and was a hit pretty much everywhere else. This was all fairly surprising stuff for a band who had a pretty small track record of success. To come back out of nowhere with a No 2 single was as impressive as it was unexpected. Apparently the song had been recorded in demo form as way back as 1987 but the band’s record label advised them to hold it back for release until they were more established. Seems they knew what they were talking about.

I’m not sure I made this connection at the time but two of the vocalists in the group had been the backing singers with Paul Young on his “Secret Of Association” album and tour and had also appeared with him at Live Aid. However, it’s not them that catch the eye in this performance. It’s hard not to keep staring at guitarist Willy M (real name William Henshall). I think it’s a combination of his stage presence and image. That floppy blonde hair and shades was an unusual look back then and I don’t think it’s any less unusual now. He’s also pretty tall and gangly and seems to love the attention this affords him. His twangy guitar solo allows him to take centre stage which he milks for all it’s worth. He’s now a neuroscience based technologist/inventor (according to his Twitter bio) living in LA.

As for me, I wasn’t overly enamoured by “I’ve Been Thinking About You” and actually preferred their follow up single “A Better Love” but I have to admit, there were a lot worse records in the charts at that time.

It’s back to back appearances for Janet Jackson and her latest single “Black Cat“. Obviously it’s the video again which is basically footage of Janet performing the song in concert. Dressed in a white top and black trousers and with her dark hair at that length, if you squint you could almost believe that was her brother Michael up there on stage – pretty sure one of his latter stage looks was very similar plus you could really imagine him singing “Black Cat”. It’s not a million miles away from the likes of “Dirty Diana”.

Supposedly “Black Cat” was very influential on Alanis Morissette in terms of the transition from her early pop career to the edgy rock sound of the “Jagged Little Pill” album whilst it has been covered by the likes of Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears. Indeed, Alanis herself performed it while part of Canadian band The New York Fries. As for Janet, she would release a seventh and final single from her “Rhythm Nation 1814” album before disappearing to record the multi platinum selling follow up “Janet” which would see the light of day in 1993.

Tonight’s presenter is Gary Davies who finally has a sensible haircut after all those mullets in the 80s but being shorn of some locks hasn’t reduced his Samson like power for patronising, casual sexism. While introducing Sonia he describes her and her record -breaking single “End Of The World” thus:

“She’s the only British girl to have her first five singles go into the Top 20”.

Girl Gary? You couldn’t have said ‘woman’ or even ‘female singer’.? I know you she was only 19 at the time but that’s still very much adulthood isn’t it? Am I being too PC, too easily offended on Sonia’s behalf? Maybe nobody batted an eyelid back then but it just jarred a bit whilst watching this back in 2021.

I have to admit I’m not sure I was aware that Sonia was a record breaker. They should have got her on Record Breakers with Roy Castle. Was it still on in 1990? In my mind’s eye it’s a 70s TV show. Those of us who can recall it will surely remember the theme tune with its ‘if you’re the fattest, the thinnest’ lyric. Now that really was politically incorrect. Makes Gary Davies look positively broad minded.

The return of INXS next. After the massive commercial success of their sixth album “Kick” towards the end of the 80s, the band had taken a sabbatical to work on other projects. Michael Hutchence threw his energies into the mystifying Max Q project whilst other band members took time out to work on side projects such as producing other artists. By the start of the new decade, they had reconvened to set about recording a follow up to “Kick” and the expectation to repeat the trick after their global commercial breakthrough must have been immense. “X” (named to commemorate the 10th year of the band’s existence) saw them pretty much pull it off. Despite selling only half of what its predecessor did, it still shifted 10 million units worldwide and contained a clutch of hit singles. “Suicide Blonde” was the first of those and despite the blues harp intro on the track, it didn’t sound too different to their “Kick” era to me.

And what was it all about? Well here’s @TOTPFacts with the answer and making good on my earlier promise of more Kylie:

"Suicide Blonde" was inspired by Michael Hutchence's then-girlfriend, Kylie Minogue. Kylie: "[It] came from me talking about my character in The Delinquents – we met just after that. My hairdresser called the wig I had to wear 'suicide blonde'." #TOTP pic.twitter.com/WoK3QmSoig
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) February 26, 2021

Hutchence and Kylie had gone public about their relationship in November 1989 and were still a couple at this point I think. How Kylie’s ex Jason Donovan felt about it all I’m not sure – maybe he pulled a Mike from Neighbours style confrontation with the pair at Hutchence’s 30th birthday party bash back in January of that year. Maybe not.

I must admit that I thought that following Hutchence’s tragic demise in November 1997 that we would never hear “Suicide Blonde” played on the radio ever again but I was wrong. Not only does it continue to be played but INXS themselves continued to perform the song in concert after Michael’s death. This next bit is spooky though – “Suicide Blonde” was the last song that he performed live. It was the closing number at the final INXS show before his death at a concert in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania on September 27, 1997.

“Suicide Blonde” peaked at No 11.

Despite me not being the biggest dance music fan in the world, I always liked this next track. In fact, to say that 1990 seems to have been full of cruddy, half-baked dance tunes, we’ve seen a few very creditable examples of the genre in recent weeks. Deee-Lite, The Soup Dragons and now this lot…Bass-O-Matic with “Fascinating Rhythm”. These genuine one-hit wonders, like every act producing dance music in 1990 it seemed, came from Sheffield and included producer legend William Orbit in their ranks.

I don’t know what it was about this tune but it just really appealed to me. It seemed quite melodic I guess for an out and out dance track and it had some hook laden samples in there as well. I’m not sure if it was still in the charts by the time I started in Our Price in Manchester a few weeks after this but “Fascinating Rhythm” always reminds me of that time. Happy days.

There’s just time for Gary Davies to fluff his outro for Bass-O-Matic (“That’s gone up…err.. a lot this week” he states clearly forgetting his basic chart numbers) before we’re onto The KLF . For a band who wanted to expose the cynical workings of the music industry, they sure seemed happy to play the game when it came to TOTP. I think this is the third time they’ve been on with with “What Time Is Love” isn’t it? Or maybe their appearances were proving some sort of point that I’m not quite getting. To be fair to them, I think this is just a reshowing of a previous performance rather than an actual new studio appearance.

The band made headlines again in 2021 despite leaving the music business nearly 30 years ago when they finally relented to letting their back catalogue be made officially available on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. During my Our Price years, one of the most sought after import CD was that of their “White Room” album which was deleted along with all their other output back in 1992. Said import was bloody expensive too as I recall. I guess that was them having the final laugh in their grand plan to expose the music industry. So why the sudden Tory-esque U-turn? The band’s official YouTube page put out this statement:

“KLF have appropriated the work done between 1 January 1987 and 31 December 1991 by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords [and] The KLF. This appropriation was in order to tell a story in five chapters using the medium of streaming. The name of the story is Samplecity Thru Transcentral. If you need to know more about the work done by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords or The KLF, you can find truths, rumours and half-truths scattered across the internet. From these truths, rumours and half-truths, you can form your own opinions. The actual facts were washed down a storm drain in Brixton some time in the late 20th Century.”

Future No 1 incoming! One of the year’s most unlikely chart toppers came from Maria McKee. I suppose her rise to the top was similar to that of Sinéad O’Connor in the unexpected stakes. Maria was, of course, the lead singer of country rockers Lone Justice until they split in 1987. I’d always quite liked their sound and my wife had even been to seem them live (at Newcastle’s Riverside venue I think). However, her solo career had not been a success and her 1989 debut self titled album had tanked commercially. Suddenly, from out of nowhere seemingly, she was back in the charts with a powerful yet tender ballad called “Show Me Heaven”. How had this happened? Well, it was all down to film soundtracks again. Yes, after having already seen the effect Pretty Woman and it soundtrack had on generating hit singles and revitalising the careers of seemingly forgotten pop acts, the UK public saw that commercial force unleashed once more. This time it was due to the Tom Cruise flick Days Of Thunder, the soundtrack of which included “Show Me Heaven”.

Maria’s live performance here was very affecting and no doubt helped to propel the song up the charts. Maria herself thought so anyway:

Maria McKee: "I remember getting very carried away with being on Top Of The Pops and very excited and really doing one of my best vocal performances on live TV for that… I really believe that my live performance on #TOTP helped to push it up to number one."
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) February 26, 2021

Inevitably, following the success of ‘Show Me Heaven”, McKee’s debut album was re-released but crucially it did not contain that song. Cue a queue of disgruntled punters wanting their money back in record shops across the land. At the Our Price store in Market Street, Manchester where I started, there was a huge promotional poster for that album on the wall in the staff kitchen. Some wag on the staff wrote ‘she’s got such amazing grace’ on it.

It’s a new No 1! Yes! Mallett has been toppled and is gone, banished to the nightmares of those of us who lived through his time. In his place is…oh…the Steve Miller Band. Well, perhaps not the most exciting act and song but I’d have accepted pretty much anything instead of Bombalurina at this point. “The Joker” was of course back in the charts due to its inclusion in a Levi’s ad. So popular were the adverts that a compilation album of all the songs used in them was put together and released in 1991 featuring the likes of The Clash, Percy Sledge, Ben E King and of course Steve Miller Band. It was called “The Levi’s 501 Hits (Originals Stand The Test Of Time)” and it sold well enough to spawn a second volume. Like The KLF’s back catalogue (until this year) it is now very much deleted.

The play out video is “Epic” by Faith No More. I think this was the first song of theirs which really made me sit up and take note of them a bit more seriously. The chorus on it is a monster (you might even say ‘epic’ but obviously I wouldn’t be so…erm…obvious). I was never going to fully commit myself to funk metal (or whatever it was) but this certainly made me think twice. There’s even a gentle piano outro at the end just to add to the intrigue. Sadly for Faith No More, they are probably best known in the UK by non fans as that band who did a completely straight cover of “Easy” by The Commodores for no discenible reason.

“Epic” peaked at No 25.

Fo posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:

If you really want to watch the whole show over, somebody has helpfully added it in its entirety to YouTube. Fill your boots!

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Londonbeat	I’ve Been Thinking About You	But I didn’t think about buying this
2	Janet Jackson	Black Cat	Don’t think I did
3	Sonia	End Of The World	No
4	INXS	Suicide Blonde	No but I’ve got it on their Best Of
5	Bass-O-Matic	Fascinating Rhythm	Could have but didn’t
6	The KLF	What Time Is Love (Live At Trancentral”	Nope
7	Maria McKee	Show Me Heaven	Nah
8	Steve Miller Band	The Joker	It’s a no
9	Faith No More	Epic	I was intrigued but not committed – 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.

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 06 SEP 1990

Posted on March 3, 2021 by 80stastic

We’ve finally left the long, hot Summer of 1990 behind (well almost) as we move into September of that year here at TOTP Rewind. However, the BBC were probably not fully focussed on their flagship popular music show this particular week as the day after this TOTP aired, we saw the return to our screens of one of Auntie Beeb’s jewel-in-the-crown shows from back in the day. The Generation Game had been off TV for nearly the whole of the 80s before it was revitalised in the new decade for a run of series between 1990 and 1994. Our family had been avid watchers back in the 70s when I was growing up and Saturdays would be a regular diet of the football scores on Grandstand followed by hiding behind the sofa with Dr Who and then Brucie Forsyth in that once hallowed early evening light entertainment slot with Anthea Redfearn giving us a twirl before a cuddly toy on the conveyor belt at the show’s climax. Even when Brucie left, the show continued to flourish under the stewardship of new host Larry Grayson who pulled in an audience of 25 million on one occasion. By the early 80s though, ITV had upped its game and The Generation Game was being whopped by Game For A Laugh (which I never really got on board with) and was axed after Grayson decided to leave the show.

What has all this got to do with the charts of September 1990? I would love to be able to say that “Cuddly Toy” by Roachford was in the charts but that occurrence had already happened back in early ’89. How about there being a Bruce in the Top 40 courtesy of Mr Springsteen? Sadly no. However, as with the comeback of The Generation Game, this TOTP also sees the return of two acts that were mostly synonymous with a different era of music – OK it was only the recently departed 80s but that was still in the past yeah?

And talking of the return of a golden oldie, we start with Adamski and his latest hit “The Space jungle”. What? Adamski? He was one of the hottest stars of dance music on the planet back in 1990 wasn’t he? He’d just had a massive No 1 in “Killer” and his latest single has a groovy, futuristic title? How on earth does he qualify as a golden oldie? Alright, calm down. It wasn’t Admaski I was referring to per se but his new single. Despite its title, it was actually just a cover version of the old Elvis hit “All Shook Up”. Admittedly, it was a bit out there with the added house piano motifs and rapping courtesy of Ricardo da Force but a cover version of an old 50s rock ‘n’ roll number none the less. As I said, a golden oldie.

So the obvious question about this release was why? When quizzed about it in a Smash Hits interview, Adamski (real name Adam Tinley) said that the track had started life as an instrumental but when performing it at Glastonbury he just started singing “All Shook Up”. ‘I think it must have been a message from Elvis from the grave’ he quipped.

I wasn’t taken by this track at all I’m afraid. The juxtaposition of Elvis and house music was too much for me to process but plenty of punters bought the single sending it to No 7. However, it would be Adamski’s final ever Top 40 hit. Of course, this wasn’t to be the last we saw of an Elvis song receiving the dance-it-up treatment. In 2002, Dutch musician Tom Holkenborg aka Junkie XL or JXL took a version of “A Little Less Conversation” all the way to No 1. And that, Adamski, is how you do a remix of Elvis.

“Now Mariah Carey is a 20 year old singer songwriter from New York City” states tonight’s host Jakki Brambles and it’s interesting to note that she has to advise the watching millions at home who she is – Mariah that is not herself. Yes, there was a time when we didn’t know all about Ms.Carey and that time was 1990. To be fair, “Vision Of Love” was her debut single so we didn’t have much to go on. She would of course become one of the biggest singers on the planet in due course. What is also interesting about that intro is the description of Mariah as a songwriter which I think probably gets overlooked – I’m pretty sure I haven’t given it much thought before now. As far as I can tell though, she writes all her own lyrics and contributes to the music on every track of her albums and yet I’m betting that songwriter isn’t the first thing we think about when we hear the name Mariah Carey. There’s her voice and vocal range to start with, then there’s the diva reputation, her sex symbol status, her gay icon standing….does songwriter come behind all of these things? Seems a bit unfair. I’m sure if you’re a huge Mariah fan (do they have a collective noun?) then you would maybe have her ability to craft songs higher up the list.

“Vision Of Love” peaked at No 9 in the UK but was the first of four consecutive No 1 records all taken from her debut album in the US.

Not sure if a hit from four years previous counts as being an ‘oldie’ but this next tune was certainly golden. Talk Talk were back in the Top 40 for a second time in 1990 due to the commercial success of their “Natural History: The Very Best of Talk Talk” album. After “It’s My Life” earlier in the year, it was the turn of “Life’s What You Make It” to get the re-issue treatment this time. The difference between the two was that the former had never been a Top 40 hit in its initial release but the latter had already made No 16 when first in the charts back in 1986. Whilst not quite scaling those heights a second time around, its No 23 placing wasn’t bad going. The Best Of album itself was a huge success rising to No 3 in the charts which for a band that never even had a solitary Top 10 single was remarkable. EMI would try and repeat their “It’s My Life” trick of making a hit out of an initial flop record when they re-released yet another single to promote the album in “Such a Shame” which is a great song but it was a release too far and it stalled at No 78, a whopping 29 places further down the charts than its 1984 initial outing.

Within two years and after one final very experimental album, Talk Talk would disband. Lead singer Mark Hollis would pretty much retire from the music business, releasing just one solo album in 1998. Sadly, he died just over two years ago at the age of 64. Talk Talk, however, remain one of the most influential groups of their era.

Ooh now, in contrast to all this golden oldie stuff, here comes a brand new group! Except that…. they weren’t brand new as The Farm had been around since 1983, releasing numerous independent singles before hooking up with Suggs from Madness who produced their next single, a cover of “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone”, the old hit by The Monkees. This brought them national attention when it peaked at No 58 in the charts. Wearing their Liverpudlian credentials on their sleeves, the band were very much associated with a ‘lads’ culture of music and football and were often referred to as a ‘scally’ band, a term they rejected in favour of something they called ‘urchin rock’ (I don’t think that ever took off as a genre did it?).

The release of “Groovy Train” saw them go mainstream with the single gatecrashing the Top 10 before peaking at No 6. Its musical style was very much in line with the sound of the year – that baggy/indie dance movement – and would pave the way for their next and biggest single “All Together Now” which would go Top 3 later in the year. The buzz around their debut album on a major label (“Spartacus”) was enormous by this point. I can clearly recall that the two pre-release albums we got asked most about when I joined Our Price in late 1990 were “Doubt” by Jesus Jones and “Spartacus” both of which would top the charts when released in 1991.

Liverpool set soap Brookside played a part in the band’s fortunes. The guy who played grumpy old git Harry Cross in the show starred in the promo video for “Groovy Train” but I’m sure that the character of Sammy Rogers wore a “Groovy Train” t-shirt in one episode as well.

As it’s the first show of the new month, we get that weird Top 5 albums feature again. For the record, the best selling albums of August 1990 were:

1. Elton John – “Sleeping With The Past”

2. New Kids On The Block – “Step By Step”

3. Phil Collins – “…But Seriously”

4. Luciano Pavarotti – “The Essential Luciano Pavarotti”

5. Madonna – “I’m Breathless”

None of this is very interesting except for the footnote maybe of TOTP actually playing a single that didn’t ever make it into the Top 40. Yes, the video used to promote Elton John’s “Sleeping With The Past” album was for his current single “Club At The End Of The Street” which peaked at No 47. Had that ever happened before or since?

Right who’s next? Well it’s Caron Wheeler with “Livin’ in the Light“. Caron, of course, was the voice and very much the public face on two of Soul II Soul’s biggest hits in “Keep on Movin'” and “Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)”. So why the solo career move? Here’s Caron herself in a Smash Hits interview on that subject:

“Soul II Soul was always really a collective but I was always a featured artist. A lot of people misconceived it as being my group. Within themselves, it’s like a family with certain key members who were always there but I was never really part of that family.”

Oh OK, so a bit like Beats International then. In fact, you could say Caron was the Lindy Layton of Soul II Soul…or should that be Lindy Layton was the Caron Wheeler of Beats International? Anyway, as Jakki Brambles rightly says, “Livin’ in the Light” was Caron’s debut hit single and taken from her album “UK Blak”. To my uncultured ears it didn’t sound that different to that Soul II Soul sound she had left behind or was that just because she was the singer on those songs so it was always going to be a little bit reminiscent of her past? Great things were predicted for Caron and although the album sold well enough, she only returned to the Top 40 singles chart once more (literally at No 40) with the album’s title track. She seemed to spend the next 30 odd years rejoining and then subsequently leaving the Soul II Soul family at various intervals. I’m sure she’s done lots of other things but if you check her Wikipedia entry, that’s the impression you get.

“Livin’ in the Light” peaked at No 14.

“Just deee-lovely and delicious”…yes it’s Deee-Lite (three ‘e’s in the spelling or no points) with their dance floor banger “Groove Is In The Heart”. Is it fair that they are still very much seen (in this country at least) as one hit wonders? Let’s examine the evidence:

Exhibit A (m’lud): They actually had another Top 40 hit in this country in “Power of Love” / “Build The Bridge” which was the follow up to “Groove Is In The Heart” and peaked at No 25.

Judge: Erm..I see. Well, case closed then.

Except that doesn’t really tell the whole story of what happened to Deee-Lite. Why didn’t they go on to dominate the dance music landscape for years with their brand of innovative yet supremely infectious sound? Was it internal strife within the band? Or the emergence of grunge perhaps? Something else altogether or both of these things? Well, their album “World Clique” sold steadily, eventually securing gold sales of 100,000 units but the two subsequent albums released over the next four years shifted vastly reduced quantities. Apparently group member Towa Tei wasn’t into the touring aspect of the band at all causing divisions within the trio whilst his musical interests moved away from the Deee-Lite manifesto. Meanwhile, Lady Miss Kier and DJ Dmitry’s relationship finished around 1994 which maybe had something to do with the group’s demise. Whatever the reasons behind their story, a little bit of 1990 (nay the whole decade) will always belong to Deee-Lite and their calling card “Groove Is In The Heart”.

Definitely back on the golden oldie theme now as we welcome back an act who we haven’t heard from for five years according to Jakki Brambles. Except that isn’t strictly true. What Jakki should have said is that Loose Ends hadn’t been on TOTP in the last five years. They had actually been making and releasing music in the interim period, it was just that their commercial fortunes had dipped a bit. Back in 1985, Loose Ends were the darlings of the UK R&B scene with hits like “Hangin’ on a String (Contemplating)” and “Magic Touch”. However, of the seven singles released after these hits, only one breached the UK Top 40 (and presumably wasn’t chose by the TOTP producers to appear on the show). Their 1988 album “The Real Chuckeeboo” only made it to No 52 in the charts. It was a different story across the pond though where they continued to chalk up hits on the US R’n’B charts. Over here though it was a case of out of sight, out of mind.

Good old musical differences took hold and members Steve Nichol and Jane Eugene left leaving Carl McIntosh as the only original member (Jakki was on the money with that info). Undeterred, he returned with a new line up and new album called “Look How Long” of which “Don’t Be A Fool” was its lead single supposedly about his previous band mates (see also “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)” by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel). The single restored their chart fortunes but it proved to also be a final hurrah with “Look How Long” being the last studio album released under the Loose Ends name. Mackintosh would go onto produce many an artist including …yes…Caron Wheeler. I love it when a post comes together like that! Talk about tying up loose ends!

It’s a third week at No 1 for Bombalurina and “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini“. When will this nightmare be over? Please let this be the last week of this nonsense. This time we get the hitherto unseen promo video on the show. Ok, let’s see what that was like then. I’m not expecting much….

…well, unsurprisingly it’s basically a young woman in a skimpy yellow polka dot bikini. She’s joined on the fake beach scene by those ever present two blonde dancers throwing some shapes whilst Timmy Mallett lounges around on a hammock. It’s shockingly bad, redeemed only slightly by Mallett falling off said hammock in the final freeze frame.

The awfulness of the video should have been the fart pebble on the top of this particular shitcake but there’s a side story that even steals that crap-olade. So bad were Mallett’s vocals that they had to get someone else in to record them. Look at this:

In 2008, teacher Everton Barnes (a budding R&B singer back in 1990) claimed that he sang on "Itsy Bitsy…", not Timmy Mallett. "When they got him into the studio, his voice was as flat as a pancake. I sang the whole vocal track and Timmy's was shunted into the background." #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) February 26, 2021

1990 – hang your head in shame.

The play out video is “Black Cat” by Janet Jackson. This was the sixth of an incredible seven singles lifted from her “Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814” album and for my money, this was the best one. Very much in an all out rock vein as opposed to her more urban dance pop numbers, it was also the highest charting of those seven singles in the UK. It was Janet’s third No 1 hit from the album in the US making her the first solo artist to achieve two No 1 hits over there in the 1990s. Further accolades came in the shape of a Grammy Award nomination in the category of Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Although losing out to Alannah Myles for “Black Velvet”, Janet became the first artist to earn nominations across all five categories of Pop, Dance, Rock, Rap,and R&B for the same song.

However, the first thing that I think of every time I hear “Black Cat” is nothing to do with awards and laurels but relates to my early days at Our Price. There was a guy working in the Manchester store that I started in called Mark who put this on the shop stereo and spent a good few minutes just playing the panther growl sound effect at the very start of the track and skipping back to it constantly so that all anyone in the shop could hear was this repeated loop of a panther snarling. Pretty much cleared the shop which was the whole point as it was nearly closing time and we all wanted to go home.

For posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:

If you really want to watch the whole show over, somebody has helpfully added it in its entirety to YouTube. Fill your boots!

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Adamski	The Space Jungle	Nah
2	Mariah Carey	Vision Of Love	Nope
3	Talk Talk	Life’s What You Make It	Not the single but I have it on a Best Of of theirs somewhere I think
4	The Farm	Groovy Train	No but I easily could have
5	Caron Wheeler	Livin’ In The Light	Not my bag at all
6	Deee-Lite	Groove Is In The Heart	Where’s my copy of this?! I must have bought this surely?!
7	Loose Ends	Don’t Be A Fool	See 5 above
8	Bombalurina	Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini	How does f**k off sound as an answer?
9	Janet Jackson	Black Cat	Don’t think I did

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.

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 30 AUG 1990

Posted on February 26, 2021 by 80stastic

Right, I’m against the clock a bit for this post so it’s going to have to be a speedy run through and a low word count. Helpfully, six of the nine acts have already been on the show and therefore already commented on. So who’s up first? Aswad? No! They weren’t still having hits by this point were they? It feels like I am literally listening to “Next To You” for the very first time as I have zero memory of the track. Wikipedia tells me this was the lead single from an album called “Too Wicked” (terrible, terrible title) and its seems to be their usual bouncy, reggae infused summery tune (well they are ‘always the sound of sunshine’ according to host Mark Goodier) until there’s some sort of break down near the song’s end when they attempt a rap – it all sounds very incongruous. And talking of incongruous, three keytars?! Really?!

Last week I mentioned that Cliff Richard was in the charts with a live track recorded at his 1989 The Event concert held at Wembley Stadium. Now apparently, Aswad were part of the concert’s supporting cast (not sure why) and Cliff joined them on stage for a song called “Share A Dream”. Nothing especially interesting about this (unless you are a massive Aswad or Cliff fan I guess) except…what is Cliff wearing for his stage costume in this clip of them performing together? It looks like something his Mum might have crocheted for him. Just bizarre.

“Next To You” peaked at No 24 but they would return to the Top 5 four years later with surprise hit “Shine”.

“There’s a lady over there who always smiles when she’s performing. I’ve never ever seen her doing anything but smile…” says Mark Goodier in his intro for the next act. “… and she has a new hit called “End Of The World” he continues. Talk about an incongruous (it’s that word again) juxtaposition of themes! Still smiling even though it’s the end of the word is she Mark? The lady in question is of course Sonia who’s in the studio this week after being a Breaker video on the last show. She gives a very un-Sonia like performance though. I guess jumping around and doing those shoulder roll dance moves of hers wasn’t going to cut it for a song which is the musical equivalent of W.H. Auden’s ‘Funeral Blues’ poem (‘Stop all the clocks etc). Despite the attempts at solemn looks and moody pouts she does look like she is constantly struggling to suppress that beaming smile that Goodier talked of before declaring “Hiya chuck. It’s me Sonia! I’m dead made up to be in the charts again!”.

Sonia’s version of “End Of The World” peaked at No 18.

Goodier goes into full on cringe mode next. “Well, we’ve had some bright pop from Aswad and what a lovely ballad from Sonia, now let”s rave it up with The KLF, this is a massive record, it’s called “What Time Is Love”. Rave it up?! Dearie me. He compounds the embarrassment by referring to the track as “a seriously happening record” at the end of the performance. Am I being harsh on Goodier? Were we all saying things like ‘rave it up’ back then? Were records ‘happening’? It sounds so dated to me now but maybe it was perfectly acceptable in 1990 and nobody would have batted an eyelid?

What was hard to ignore was the power of The KLF’s sound – now that doesn’t sound dated to me even today. The performance is an oddity though. They appear to have half inched a couple of keytars from Aswad whilst there appears to be an Ood from Doctor Who on the mixing desk at the back in the It’s Grim Up North T-shirt. Meanwhile all the air punching for the ‘Mu Mu’ chanting reminds me of their performance of “Doctorin’ The Tardis” by their previous incarnation The Timelords.

About a year prior to “What Time Is Love” being a chart hit, a compilation album called “The “What Time Is Love?” Story” featuring six different mixes of the track was released, all supposedly by different artists. However, rumours abound that it was all the work, in fact, of The KLF themselves. You wouldn’t put it past them, would you?

“Now It doesn’t matter why this record is back in the charts, it’s good that it is…” announces Goodier in his next link. He is of course referring to “The Joker” by the Steve Miller Band. Sounds like Goodier’s protesting a bit too much to me. Anyway, we all know why it was back in the charts, it was because of this advert…

…yes it was all down to jeans again. Levi’s had been making golden oldie songs hits all over again via their clever advertising campaigns since the mid 80s, revitalising the chart careers for the likes of Marvin Gaye, Percy Sledge, Ben E.King, Eddie Cochran and now Steve Miller. Unlike his posthumous predecessors, Steve was still alive (as he is to this day) to experience his resurgence in popularity.

“The Joker’ would be a No 1 record (just!) but Levi’s weren’t prepared to quit at the top. The 90s would see their adverts send multiple songs to the top spot including The Clash, Stiltskin and (god forbid) Babylon Zoo!

Goodier boldly announces that the next act is about to be a big star in America. I have to admit I don’t know if she ever was.

*checks internet*

Well, I’m not sure that Betty Boo did fulfil Goodier’s prediction. As far as I can see, none of her albums did anything across the pond and the only Billboard Hot 100 hit she had (“Doin’ The Do”) peaked at No 90. Maybe Goodier was basing his forecast on the fact that she did score a US Dance chart No1 (“Doin’ The Do” again) or maybe he was just told to say that by Betty’s record label?

In fairness to Goodier, Betty was never as big commercially as she was at this very point. “Where Are You Baby” was her biggest ever hit whilst her debut album (“Boomania”) released eleven days after this broadcast went to No 4. Betty succumbed to second album syndrome after that though and her follow up “Grrr! It’s Betty Boo” stalled at No 62 despite including some insanely catchy singles.

Special mention must go to Betty’s backing band here – were they called The Boosters? – for some stirling ‘arm dancing’ that Jo and Susan Ann of The Human League would have been proud of.

Still with New Kids On The Block?! Look, I know 1990 was their annus mirabilis but even so! It feels like they’ve been on the show every week since January. “Tonight” is up to No 3 now with its Beatles sounding steals but it’s not the the Liverpool legends that I’m noticing as their influences this week. Did the previously seen Steve Miller Band also have an impact on the writing of “Tonight”. How so? Well, in “The Joker”, Miller references a few songs that he has recorded himself like “Space Cowboy” from his “Brave New World” album and “Enter Maurice” from “Recall The Beginning…A Journey From Eden”. So? OK, in “Tonight”, past NKOTB hits are name checked:

Remember when we said “Girl, please don’t go”
And how I’d be loving you forever
Taught you ’bout hanging tough
As long as you’ve got the right stuff

See? Oh suit yourselves.

I actually paid some attention to the video this time around and by far the most close ups went to Jordan Knight and Joey McIntyre. Presumably they sold the most T-shirts at their concerts. The rest of them didn’t get much of a look in. In fact, I’m not sure I even spotted Donnie Wahlberg at all! It reminded me of Duran Duran videos back in the day when it was easier to pinpoint Wally in the Where’s Wally series of puzzle books than to spot guitarist Andy Taylor.

After two acts at the peak of their popularity in Betty Boo and New Kids On The Block, we move to someone who is definitely on the slide. I don’t care what Mark Goodier says about his UK tour being sold out nor do I attach much significance to the screams coming from the TOTP studio audience (no doubt teased out of them by over enthusiastic floor staff), Jason Donovan‘s pop career had hit the skids. Only one of the singles released from his second album “Between The Lines” had gone Top 5; indeed his last hit had only just made the Top 20. Given his changing fortunes, a plan was needed to halt the downward trend. And that plan was….release a cover version of course. When in need of a hit, release a cover is something that is as irrefutable as death and taxes being the only sure things in life. “Rhythm Of The Rain” was originally a hit for The Cascades in 1963 and to be fair to Donovan’s record label PWL, it did arrest his plummeting chart fortunes by returning him to the Top 10 but it was a plaster to heal a gaping wound in truth.

Jase’s version is sugary and sickly sweet – really nasty actually but to be fair to him, the chords he mimes on the guitar in this performance appear to be legitimate. His bob haircut however is completely bogus.

As with Donovan’s 60s cover version, this week’s No 1 is also a cover of a song from that decade. “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini” was originally a hit for Brian Hyland in 1960. Thirty years later it was fiendishly brought back to life by the monstrous Timmy Mallett and Bombalurina although the real culprit was Andrew Lloyd Webber who had the original idea to re-record it.

The almost identical looking peroxide blonde dancers behind Mallett made the whole thing look like a comedy sketch parodying 1982 “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” hitmakers Tight Fit but unfortunately this wasn’t a joke but a genuine chart record. Those two dancers incidentally included Dawn Andrews who would go on to marry Take That’s Gary Barlow.

The play out video is “Now You’re Gone” by Whitesnake and as with Aswad at the top of the show, I don’t remember this at all. We hadn’t seen much of David Coverdale and co in the Top 40 since they peaked with “Is This Love” and “Here I Go Again” both going Top 10 back in 1987. In fact, they would only make the Top 40 once more after this when a re-issue of “Is This Love” to promote a Best Of album made No 25 in 1994. Can’t say I have missed them much.

For posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Aswad	Next To You	There was next to no chance of me buying this
2	Sonia	End Of The World	If this was the last record in the world, I wouldn’t have bought it
3	The KLF	What Time Is Love (Live At Trancentral”	Nope
4	Steve Miller Band	The Joker	It’s a no
5	Betty Boo	Where Are You Baby	No
6	New Kids On The Block	Tonight	No but I think my friend Rachel did
7	Jason Donovan	Rhythm Of The Rain	Certainly not
8	Bombalurina	Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini	How does f**k off sound as an answer?
9	Whitesnake	Now You’re Gone	Nah

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000scg0/top-of-the-pops-30081990

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.

Some bedtime reading?

https://michaelmouse1967.wixsite.com/smashhits-remembered/1990-issues

TOTP 23 AUG 1990

Posted on February 25, 2021 by 80stastic

It’s late August in 1990 and the new football season is to kick off two days after this TOTP was broadcast. After a rousing performance by the England team at Italia ’90, the country seems to have fallen back in the love with the national game which is experiencing a surge in popularity as it rises phoenix like from the ashes of its nadir in the mid 80s. The same description could be applied to tonight’s opening act who are The Human League. After massive commercial success at the start of the previous decade with the “Dare” album, Phil, Suzanne, Jo and co struggled to replicate that commercial peak and 1984 follow up “Hysteria” was a big disappointment. Licking their wounds, they decamped to the US and hooked up with legendary R’n’B producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for the 1986 “Human” single which was an American No 1 and retuned the band to the Top 10 in the UK. However, their resurrection proved to be a false dawn and by the end of the 80s, they were in massive decline. The dawn of the 90s saw the band regroup with a new line up and intentions to re-establish themselves in the pop hierarchy. “Heart Like A Wheel” was the lead single from new album “Romantic?” and whilst it did gain them entry back into the Top 40, it was hardly a glorious return to form. The single peaked at No 29 whilst the album struggled to a high of No 24. Its perceived failure led to their long time record label Virgin unceremoniously cancelling their recording contract and the band were out in the wilderness for five years before being picked up by EastWest Records and launching the most unlikely of comebacks just as Britpop was taking hold with the hit single “Tell Me When” and parent album “Octopus”.

Watching this performance back, the band do seem to be in the midst of an identity crisis. Apart from the fact that there were two new band members on view, the core trio of Oakey, Catherall and Sulley appear to be on very different pages image wise. Phil, in the days when he still had hair, has resorted to his early 80s shoulder length cut albeit without the lopsided bit on one side whilst Susan Ann has gone all rock chic with her golden, cascading tresses. Joanne has her hair up but part from that looks pretty much like she always did. Not a lot of cohesion going on there I would argue.

What? Oh the song? Well, to me it doesn’t sound that different to “Tell Me When” which would return them to the Top 10 in 1995. Clearly the 1990 record buying public wasn’t quite ready to embrace The Human League back into their lives at that point in history but give it five years guys. Nowadays of course, the group are stalwarts of the live circuit and indeed, I caught them in concert back in 2019 at an open air gig in Hull where they performed “Heart Like A Wheel” plus just about every other song you could have wished for from their back catalogue. The band were on good form but the crowd were seemingly more interested in getting annihilated on booze and other substances which kind of made for a bad atmosphere. It did strike me though that Joanne and Susan Ann had made a career from basically ‘arm-dancing’ for nearly 40 years – you know, all that rhythmic arm waving they do. It’s a living I suppose.

Move over Whitney Houston – you’ve got competition! Yes, there was a new kid on the block (not not them!) in the huge, pop/soul ballad stakes come 1990 when Mariah Carey appeared seemingly from nowhere with her debut single “Vision Of Love”. Little did we know then that this 20 year old would become one of the biggest selling artists of the whole decade. Not only did this track become her breakthrough commercial moment but it also provided Mariah with her first husband in Tommy Mottola, the then head of Columbia Records who signed her after he had heard the demo of “Vision Of Love” at a record company bash. Has anybody ever punched above their weight in the relationship/looks stakes more than Tommy Mottola?

Anyway, “Vision Of Love” was a huge hit (No 1 in the US and No 9 over here) and introduced us to Mariah’s legendary five-octave vocal range. Ah yes, that voice. The technical terms for her vocal stylings are ‘whistle register’ and ‘melisma’ otherwise known to some of us as screeching. Too harsh?! Ok, how about ‘warbling’? Look you know what I’m referring to – the Mariah Carey effect that influenced a generation of would be singing stars to over emphasise notes and prolong them just that bit too long. I’m not saying she can’t sing – clearly she can – but I always found that element to her vocals to be the wrong side of grating.

Despite the success of “Vision Of Love”, it took Mariah a while to establish herself in the UK. Follow up singles “Love Takes Time” and “Someday” barely made the Top 40 here whilst they were No 1 records in the US. Yes, the album sold well in the UK (300,000 units) but nowhere near what it did in the US where 9 million copies were sold. It wasn’t really until her 1993 album “Music Box” did she really start shifting massive numbers over here when the album went to No 1, went five times platinum and included the No 1 single “Without You”. Incidentally, if there was any fierce rivalry between Mariah and Whitney, there was a show of unity in 1998 when the pair duetted on the single “When You Believe” from the animated feature The Prince of Egypt.

OK, I’ve got nothing in the memory banks for this one. “Look Me In The Heart” by Tina Turner anyone? Apparently this was the fourth single to be released from her “Foreign Affair” album which was pushing it a bit considering the album was initially released just under 12 months previously. Unsurprisingly it didn’t do anywhere near as well as its predecessor singles peaking at No 31. Incredibly, record label Capitol didn’t think even that was enough fleecing of the public for one album and released a fifth single (“Be Tender with Me Baby”) in October.

As for “Look Me In The Heart” itself, apart from being completely banal it also has an embarrassingly awful title. Can you imagine two people being in the midst of an emotional discussion about the state of their relationship and one of them saying ‘Look me in the heart and say that’? I can’t – nobody would come out with that would they? They’d say ‘Look me in the eye…’ surely? Oh well, artistic licence and all that – maybe I’m missing the point. Sadly, Tina was not finished in the cringe stakes for 1990. By the end of the year she was back in the Top 5 duetting with Rod Stewart (!) on a version of “It Takes Two”. Come on Tina. You’re better than that. Look me in the heart* and tell me that wasn’t just money for old rope?

*Oh

My God! I’ve just realised that this particular TOTP includes two of the most heinous crimes against popular music on the same show! Not only do we have a complete git at No 1 (Timmy Mallett /Bombalurina) but incredibly, some 12 months after their first musical misdemeanour, it seemed that the UK record buying public still hadn’t had enough of Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers! You could possibly excuse one novelty record becoming a hit by blaming it on some sort fever that induced a national loss of taste but this was their fifth hit on the trot! What was happening to us? I can only assume that the success of “Can Can You Party” was the result of some illegal chart tactics that involved a massive buying in operation by unscrupulous record company reps.

The monsters behind Jive Bunny didn’t even see the need to tinker with the formula at all. It’s still just a load of hits of yesteryear cut and pasted together and then supported by a video featuring nonsensical and unrelated black and white footage with that f*****g horribly animated rabbit superimposed over the top. And talking of “It Takes Two” as we were before re: Tina Turner and Rod Stewart, if I thought that was bad, Jive Bunny declared ‘hold my beer’ and were involved in a version that featured Radio 1 DJs Liz Kershaw and Bruno Brookes! Thankfully that one didn’t make the charts unlike “Can Can You Party” which peaked at No 8.

Some Breakers now and we start with the Steve Miller Band. The only thing I knew about Mr Miller (and indeed his band) at the time was that song “Abracadabra” from 1982 which I hadn’t even liked that much. So what was this “The Joker” song and why was it in our charts? Well, it had been a No 1 record for the band in the US in 1974 but had never been a hit over here. Cue its strategically well placed use in a Levis advert and…I don’t ned to write anything else do I?

Much was made of the song’s lyrics and in particular the phrase ‘the pompatus of love’. What was that when it was home? Here’s @TOTPFacts with the answer…

What the hell is "the pompatus of love"? Miller heard this nonsense word in "The Letter" by doo-wop band The Medallions, which includes the lyric, "Let me whisper sweet words of dismortality and discuss the pompatus of love". https://t.co/FfdpU92eoX #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) February 19, 2021

Oh, OK – thanks. Anyway, some of the other lyrics, referenced songs including Miller’s own “Space Cowboy” (nothing to do with Jamiroquai then) and The Clovers’ 1954 song “Lovey Dovey” whilst I’m guessing we all knew what he meant by being a ‘midnight toker’.

“The Joker” would go onto become involved in one of the most controversial chart battles ever when it went up against Deee-Lite (more of whom later) and their “Groove Is In The Heart” single for the No 1 spot. Supposedly sales for each single were so tight that a dead heat was called and using a rule that had never been instigated previously, “The Joker” was instilled a the No 1 song that week on account of its sales having increased most from the previous week. This ruling was disputed by Deee-Lite’s record company WEA and it was subsequently scrapped. Chart compilers Gallup later released data that showed that the Steve Miller Band had sold a mere 8 (EIGHT) copies more than Deee-Lite and so were the rightfully crowned chart toppers. All seemed a bit of a rum do to me. Jive Bunny probably had something to do with it as well!

Right, after all that controversy, we need something relaxing to calm us down and here’s a track that fits that particular bill well. “Release Me” by Wilson Phillips was their follow up to smash hit “Hold On” and it sounded like it. It was almost exactly the same song! OK, its got a slightly slower bpm to it and they all seem to sing the whole song in harmony unlike its predecessor which I think had separate vocal parts but its pretty damn similar. For once the record buying public were too aware than to fall for the ‘buying the same song twice’ trick again and it only made No 36 on the UK Top 40. Our American counterparts however had no such discernment and sent it to No 1 for the second consecutive chart topper after “Hold On”.

Look out! It’s “The End of the World”! Not literally of course but this version of the old Skeeter Davis song by Sonia did signify the end of something – this was her last ever single with Stock, Aitken and Waterman. It was also the last single released from her “Everybody Knows” album and after four high tempo, poppy hits before this point, a slowie was well overdue. Sonia had dipped her toe in the ballad market recently with her collaboration with Big Fun on the Childline charity single “You’ve Got a Friend” but this was her first time in that territory on her own. It’s a decent choice of song but Sonia’s version is hardly dripping with the emotion of the original and sounds more mechanical than melancholic in comparison.

I could have sworn that Cilla Black did a version of this (which would have made even more sense of the decision to get scouser Sonia to record it) but she didn’t. I think I was getting confused with “You’re My World”. My abiding memory of Sonia’s version is hearing it piped over the instore sound system in Debenhams in Hull some weeks later. I was back working there as a Xmas temp (after my legendary stint as stand in Father Christmas the year before!) but I knew I had a job at Our Price waiting for me to start in October so I wasn’t there long this time. And no I didn’t let on to Debenhams that I would be leaving as I needed a few weeks work before I could start at my record shop ‘career’ and deliberately misled them. If, by any remote chance, any management from Debenhams in Hull from circa 1990 are reading this, I am so sorry but let’s face it, it wasn’t the end of the world.

That time worn pop tradition of a singer leaving a band to court solo fame was still in evidence as the 90s began. After Nick Heyward leaving Haircut 100, Limahl departing Kajagoogoo and George Michael leaving Wham! behind in the 80s, here comes Lindy Layton ditching Beats International to pursue independence. To be fair, she wasn’t kicked out of the band like Heyward and Limahl were – it was much more amicable by all accounts (Norman Cook even helped produce her debut solo album “Pressure”) but jump ship she did after Cook et al had given her an initial pop platform. It seemed to be the right move when she scored an immediate hit with a cover of Janet Kay’s “Silly Games” teaming up with …erm…Janet Kay to do so. However, subsequent single releases from “Pressure” all failed to dent the Top 40 and by 1993 she did what many others previously had done to revive a career – came calling at Stock, Aitken and Waterman’s door (well, they did have a Sonia sized vacancy on their artists’ roster to fill). Two SAW singles failed to do much business chart-wise and Lindy had all but disappeared from the pop world by the mid 90s.

You can tell from this TOTP performance that this was meant to be a new start for Lindy – she’s got a new short hairstyle and changed her wardrobe dramatically from her Beats International appearance. Her version of “Silly Games” was pretty slick as well. She looked a good bet for a prolonged solo career at this point. Ah, the fickle nature of pop – silly old game innit?

In 1990, Cliff Richard was celebrating the 30th anniversary of his recording career and to commemorate this milestone, he released a live album called “From A Distance: The Event” which was recorded in June 1989 at his The Event concert, held at Wembley Stadium over two nights. Cliff’s version of “Silhouettes“, a No 3 hit for Herman’s Hermits in 1965, was plucked from said album to promote it. It reached No 10 in the UK Top 40. It is also, undeniably, horrible. Not content with inflicting this upon us, the album also contained his next Xmas No 1 in “Saviour’s Day”. Have you ever seen such cruelty?!

I’m guessing that the next tune was intended by the band’s record company as a stop gap release between albums to maintain their profile. It ended up becoming their biggest ever hit. Deacon Blue‘s only release this calendar year so far had been their New Year anthem “Queen Of The New Year” back in …erm…January as the fifth and final single from their “When The World Knows Your Name” album. With the rich seams of tunes having been exhausted from that album and the new one not to be released until June 1991, something was needed to ensure fickle pop fans didn’t forget about them in the meantime. The answer of course was a cover version (the answer is always a cover version) but Deacon Blue took things further by releasing an EP of four Burt Bacharach and Hal David songs called… well….the “Four Bacharach & David Songs” EP.

The track that got all the airplay though was “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again”. There was something about the crystal clean production and the vocals of Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh that bewitched UK pop fans to purchase it in enough quantities to send it all the way to No 2. I was one of them. This EP of cover versions idea obviously resonated with Everything But The Girl who released their own EP in 1992 featuring “Love Is Strange”, Bruce Springsteen’s “Tougher Than The Rest”, Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” and Elvis Costello’s “Alison”. I bought that as well.

As for Deacon Blue, although it would be harsh to say this was the pinnacle of their popularity, they would only have one more Top 10 single in their career although they continue to tour and record new material to this very day with their last album “Riding On The Tide Of Love” being released *performs some basic maths calculation* 20 days ago!

If Jive Bunny was the bread in this show’s shit sandwich, here comes the filling and it really reeks! Timmy Mallett / Bombalurina have leapt to No 1 with “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini” and consequently he’s been invited back on the show for another studio performance. What makes it all the worse is that Mallett seems to take it seriously in that he mimes the lines correctly and has learnt his little dance moves. If he’s done it all a bit more free form and tongue-in-cheek ,would it have been less odious? Nah, you’re right. Nothing could save this turd from stinking the place out.

The play out video is a huge tune. Sorry, that should be HUUUUGE TUUUUNE! Appearing fully formed from out of nowhere came Deee-Lite with the barnstorming dance floor legend that was and remains “Groove Is In The Heart”. I know this will make me sound like a knacker but the groove on this tune is immense! These self proclaimed ‘groovniks’ hailed from New York City and were composed of Lady Miss Kier, Supa DJ Dmitry and Jungle DJ Towa Tei and had an image as wild as their hit song. Dayglo colours, psychedelic patterns and huge 70s style platform shoes somehow seemed totally appropriate despite being at least two decades out of fashion.

That track though! Listed in in Gary Mulholland’s marvellous book This Is Uncool: The 500 Greatest Singles Since Punk And Disco as one of the tracks of the year, I think I’ll let Gary do the talking for me:

“If I was ever asked to play some crazy DJ version of Russian roulette, where you had one chance and one chance only to make a roomful of disparate people dance or you die – I would play ‘Groove Is In The Heart’ and book my cab home”.

Well said Gary.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	The Human League	Heart Like A Wheel	Nah
2	Mariah Carey	Vision Of Love	Nope
3	Tina Turner	Look Me In The Heart	As if
4	Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers	Can Can You Party	Can can you piss off please?
5	Steve Miller Band	The Joker	It’s a no
6	Wilson Phillips	Release Me	After “Hold On” you now want releasing? Make your mind up! No
7	Sonia	End Of The World	No
8	Lindy Layton and Janet Kay	Silly Games	Negative
9	Cliff Richard	Silhouettes	Silhouettes? It was enough to give me Tourettes! No
10	Deacon Blue	Four Bacharach And David Songs	Yes, yes I did
11	Bombalurina	Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini	How does f**k off sound as an answer?
12	Deee-Lite	Groove Is In The Heart	Where’s my copy of this?! I must have bought this surely?!

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.

Some bedtime reading?

https://michaelmouse1967.wixsite.com/smashhits-remembered/1990-issues

TOTP 16 AUG 1990

Posted on February 18, 2021 by 80stastic

Here we are once more at TOTP Rewind, still back in the hot Summer of 1990, with a load of UK Top 40 hits to review. Before we get to those though, a bit of context about what else was happening outside of the charts at this time. Four days after this TOTP aired, the final ever episode of Miami Vice was shown on BBC1. Yes, the cop show that popularised the now iconic 80s fashion of no socks, rolled up sleeves, Ray-Ban sunglasses and of course designer stubble was finally put out to pasture after a run of five years, five seasons and 112 episodes. I hadn’t watched the show in years but I do recall tuning in for this final episode (well the last 10 minutes or so anyway).

Back in 1985, it had been a complete phenomenon making stars of its two leads Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas but it was its cultural impact that was the show’s legacy. The Miami Vice ‘look’ of pastel coloured T-shirt under jacket, white linen trousers, slip-on sockless loafers accessorised with shades and stubble may be rolled out these days as a fancy dress costume for an 80s themed party but back in the mid 80s it was genuinely influential. Sales of Ray Bans sunglasses soared and Macy’s even opened a Miami Vice section in its young men’s department. Designers such as Gianni Versace and Hugo Boss were consulted on the show’s fashion choices.

Then of course there was the music used in the series. Not for this show was the usual made for TV incidental music; oh no, the rights to actual, original pop and rock songs were purchased so that bona fide artists were featured. The range of artists employed was diverse; from Devo to Dire Straits and from U2 to Underworld. In the case of some acts, their involvement in the show was not restricted to just the inclusion of their musical output; stars from James Brown to Phil Collins via Sheena Easton also had acting parts. The series spawned two hit singles for Jan Hammer and three volumes of soundtrack albums. However, by the end of the 80s, it was starting to look tired and ratings had dropped. It was time to bow out as the 90s dawned.

And talking of pop songs that have been used in TV and film, tonight’s opening act are best known in the US for just that practice. Go West had not been seen anywhere in the vicinity of the UK Top 40 in nigh on five years since their last visit there with “Don’t Look Down – The Sequel” in their breakthrough year of 1985. Their second album had come out in 1987 to a less than enthusiastic reaction from the record buying public (none of the singles taken from it were hits) and despite touring with Tina Turner, they had been officially listed as missing in action since. An elongated and legally messy changing of record label in the US hadn’t helped matters.

And then, out of nowhere and looking every inch the 80s throwback anachronism, they were back! “King Of Wishful Thinking” was taken from the Pretty Woman soundtrack which was proving to be a goldmine for any artist lucky enough to have found their way onto it. Go West joined Natalie Cole, David Bowie and of course Roxette as acts that had benefited from its all reaching pulling power. How a past their sell by date UK pop act came to be on that record seemed to be a case of luck of the label. EMI released it and as the band’s US label, their executives got to hear the song’s demo and asked for it to be included. It’s actually used quite prominently in the film in the opening scene and titles. Of course, it wasn’t the first time their music had been included on a hit film soundtrack. Back in late ’85 they had contributed a song called “One Way Street” to the Rocky IV soundtrack but it never got an official single release on account of it being as dull as a daily briefing hosted by George Eustace.

“King Of Wishful Thinking” though was a horse of a different colour altogether. With its jaunty rhythm bouncing along pleasantly and its upbeat chorus, it was perfect for daytime airplay. Added to this were Peter Cox’s soulful vocals (for all they were very much seen as disposable pop, Cox’s voice always stood out) and they are to the fore in this live performance. Not to be outdone, his band partner Richard Drummie has turned up not just with their trademark singlet on but also in a pair of cycling shorts! Cox looks a bit nervous to be back in the spotlight but Drummie whoops it up with handclaps (and armpits!) a plenty.

The single’s popularity (No 8 in the US and No 18 over here) would lead to a successful comeback album two years later with the appropriately entitled “Indian Summer”.

Right, it’s that Ben Liebrand remix of “Englishman In New York” by Sting next. Still not sure quite how this remix came about but it remains one of Mr Sumner’s most well known songs I’m guessing. Now, sticking with the pop music in film / TV theme, this track was actually used in a film but it must be one of the most obvious uses of a song in cinematic history. It features in the 2009 film An Englishman In New York which is chronicles the years gay English writer Quentin Crisp spent in New York City. Crisp of course, was the subject matter of the song in the first place. Sting has had a few songs that featured in movies that have become chart hits. Back in 1982 he scored with “Spread a Little Happiness” from Brimstone & Treacle before repeating the trick 10 years later with “It’s Probably Me” from Lethal Weapon 3. By this point he was getting a taste for the movie soundtrack hit and just 12 months later he went to No 2 with “All for Love” (alongside Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart) from The Three Musketeers.

Now I wasn’t aware of this until now but Sting wasn’t the first artist to come up with a song with this title. Godley & Creme recorded “An Englishman In New York” back in 1979 and if you thought Sting’s video was intriguing, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet….

Now then, 1990 just got a little bit more interesting. I haven’t got the space in this one post to do justice to the whole story of The KLF or to be more precise, Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty and there is loads more to their back story that predates this moment but for many (including me) “What Time Is Love? (Live at Trancentral)” was our starting point. I was aware that they were the guys behind The Timelords and their No 1 hit “Doctorin’ the Tardis” back in 1988 but my knowledge of their The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs) pseudonym was sketchy at best.

As presenter Anthea Turner notes in her intro, “What Time Is Love?” had been a dance floor hit previous Summer but it was a very different beast to the one we were about to hear in 1990. The original release even had a different name (sort of) – “What Time Is Love? (Pure Trance Original)” with the bracketed part of the title giving a clue to the very different sound that it had. Part of the Drummond and Cauty long term strategy though was the model of reworking tracks into different genres and so “What Time Is Love?” was re-shaped from a trance anthem to a more mainstream version that allowed the duo to the enter the nation’s consciousness. Vocal samples and a new bassline were added alongside a rap and house rhythm and the track became the first entry in the ‘Stadium House Trilogy’ that Drummond and Cauty had envisaged. “What Time Is Love? (Live at Trancentral)” would peak at No 5 and by the end of the year, The KLF were on their way to becoming a phenomenon, the like of which the UK charts hadn’t seen since Frankie Goes To Hollywood (probably).

You can be sure that we’ll be seeing plenty more of The KLF in these TOTP repeats over the next few months.

“Wow! They were raving!” exclaims Anthea at the end of The KLF’s performance which is possibly the most excruciating thing any one has ever said whilst presenting a popular music show. The next act on could be described as ‘excruciating’ for many a viewer back then but they were certainly ‘popular’. “Tonight” was the sixth of eight Top 10 hits that New Kids On The Block would have in 1990 alone. Such was their fame and appeal in this year that the likes of Smash Hits magazine could guarantee huge sales by merely planting them on the front cover whilst the story inside could be so insubstantial as to hardly warrant the title ‘feature’. The whole NKOTB phenomenon must have been manna from heaven for the pop press. Huge sales for very little journalistic effort.

As for their ‘music’, well… most of it was absolutely dire but then I wasn’t a teenage girl so I was not the target audience. Most you say? You mean some of it wasn’t utter crud? Surely not?! Look, at least “Tonight” had something a little bit different about it to their usual candy floss, lowest common denominator pop shit that they peddled. I mean, I hated it at the time but if I had to (like life depended on it scenario) pick one of their songs it would be this one. Please don’t judge me. “Tonight” peaked at No 3.

Right, what’s Anthea on about now? The Blackburn rave organisation? Who? What’s that to do with “Hardcore Uproar” by Together? Well, it appears that she was on the money with this one. Here’s @TOTPFacts:

Suddi Raval: "'Hardcore Uproar' was named after the Blackburn raves and features the sound of the crowds at the rave…" "Just after we finished recording, police raided it and started beating people." #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) February 12, 2021

Yes, it seems Anthea was well prepped for this link. According to Suddi Raval in an interview with http://www.theransomnote.com, he was against “Hardcore Uproar” as a title and was pushing for it to be called “Can You Feel The Beat” which sounds so lame in comparison. The track got its biggest promotion when Paul Oakenfold agreed to play it as part of his set as the warm up at the legendary Stone Roses Spike Island gig when a crowd of 30,000 people (including my elder brother) got to hear it.

As for me, it sounds like “Ebeneezer Goode” by The Shamen performed by Utah Saints. Maybe it had some influence on those two acts? Maybe. Raval’s partner in the band Jon Donaghy was tragically killed a year after “Hardcore Uproar” was a hit in a road accident in Ibiza on the way to perform at a festival.

One of 1990’s breakout stars is back on the show with her biggest ever hit -it can only be Betty Boo and “Where Are You Baby”. There was lots of love for Betty on display on Twitter when this TOTP repeat aired last week. In stark contrast, there was a massive negative backlash on social media against Anthea Turner after her ill-advised Twitter rant that was accused of fat-shaming and ableism. Silly cow. Anyway, back to Betty and this is peak period Boo (peak-a-boo if you will) when she really did seem to have the pop world at her feet. “Where Are You Baby” was her third Top 10 hit on the spin (if you include her 1989 collaboration with The Beatmasters) and would eventually rise to No 3. Although very similar to previous hit “Doin’ The Do”, this one had a bit more musicality about it to my ears with the chorus sounding much more melodic. Above everything else though, it was damn catchy. Betty really channels her inner Emma Peel in this performance whilst the promo video with its sci-fi space imagery sees her cast herself as a cartoon-like of version of Barbarella. I was fine with either look to be fair!

Right, what’s the name of the next act Anthea? Unfortunately for Anthea, two one syllable words that are phonically similar proved too much for her presenting abilities and she cocks up introducing Jon Bon Jovi when she gets ‘Jon’ and ‘Bon’ the wrong way round! Come on! This is basic stuff for a presenter surely?

“Blaze Of Glory” was a Breaker last week and is up to No 13 this week and for those of us with even a passing familiarity with the Bon Jovi canon of work (and yes I was one), it seemed to be a wholly predictable culmination of a good few years obsession with cowboys on Jon’s behalf. Starting with “Wanted Dead Or Alive” from the “Slippery When Wet” album (originally the song that Emilio Estevz requested to be used in Young Guns II), Jon couldn’t let go of his Cowboys and Westerns theme and carried it forward to the band’s next album “New Jersey”. That album included songs with titles like “Stick To Your Guns” (opening line ‘So you want to be a cowboy’) and this one…

…give it a rest Jon!

Anyway, I read recently that there are plans afoot for a third instalment of the Young Guns franchise with screenwriter of the first two films John Fusco plus their stars Emilio Estevz and Lou Diamond Phillips on board. I’m not quite sure which direction the plot could plausibly go in given that just about all the characters for the first two films were killed off and Estevez and Diamond Phillips are now well into their 50s. Not so much ‘young guns’ then as ‘antique firearms’.

Another of last week’s Breakers now as we get a studio performance from Roxette of “Listen To Your Heart”. Last year, the BMI confirmed that this song has now been played on US radio more than 60 million times! If those 60 million plays were back to back, it would have been played non-stop for 62 years!

As with Go West earlier, whatever you might think of their musical output, it cannot be denied that they had a great singer. Marie Fredriksson belts this one out and then some. After the re-release success of “Listen To Your Heart”, EMI repeated the trick for the duo’s next single when they shoved “Dressed For Success” back out into the market where it peaked at No 18, some 30 places higher than its initial release.

The final week of four at the top for Partners In Kryme and “Turtle Power”. Now before we all start jumping around, throwing our arms in the air and offering thanks to the gods of the pop charts, know this….*SPOILER ALERT*…next week’s No 1 is Bombalurina!

1990 really was the height of Turtlemania so much so that the four dudes even made an appearance (alongside Partners In Kryme) at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party that year. As far as I can tell, they didn’t actually win anything per se although they did come 5th in the Best Single category and 3rd in the Worst Single category. Go figure.

The comments about the clip above on YouTube are scary. Here’s someone called Blue Jones:

“Dude! I am one of the biggest TMNT fans on earth. I’ve spent thousands of dollars on original art, comics & toys & I even have the fearsome foursome tattooed on my arm. And yet, I’ve never seen this video before! Yowza! Thanks for uploading this gem!”

WTF?! He even gets a reply from someone called Zwoob Zwoob:

“Same here bruh. except that tattoo part. but i did actually buy this replica of one of the original masks from the 1990 movie. (raph’s head). And even though I was only 2 when this movie came out, it’s my favorite, lol, i can literally recited the whole movie line for line.”

OK, I’m proper getting the fear now. Let’s dial it down with a comment from this poor, uniformed gentleman called MagicalPuddinPops:

“It’s weird I always thought mc hammer performed this.”

Farewell Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…it’s been…awful actually.

Whilst 1990 hasn’t proved to be the antidote to the late 80s that I thought I remembered, bizarrely the play out song is the third single on this show to be featured in Gary Mulholland’s great book This Is Uncool: The 500 Greatest Singles Since Punk and Disco. Split into years, the section for 1990 features “Come Together” by Primal Scream along with The KLF and Betty Boo! The follow up to their breakthrough chart hit “Loaded”, this was very much cut from the same cloth albeit with a more conventional song structure than its predecessor. However….the album version on “Screamadelica” remixed by Andrew Weatherall was nothing like the Terry Farley 7″ mix. Clocking in at over 10 mins with Bobby Gillespie’ vocals completely omitted and replaced with samples of a speech by the Rev Jesse Jackson, it’s that version that was a huge hit in the clubs in Ibiza.

I actually own the CD single of this but I can’t claim that I bought it at the time. I got it as one of those import cut out titles from legendary Manchester record store Power Cuts. It’s got two versions of “Come Together” and three of “Loaded” on it plus “I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have” which was the original track that was remixed into “Loaded”. Not a bad little purchase.

In a Smash Hits feature that took a snoop around Bobby’s flat at the time, his record collection was spread across the floor and featured artists you could well have anticipated like The Rolling Stones, The Ramones, Sly and the Family Stone and Funkadelic. However, it also features “Hippychick” by Soho which wasn’t a hit in the UK until its re-release some six months after this article was published. Bobby Gillespie – a man all over trends before they’ve even happened. And his critics said he was just re-hashing The Rolling Stones. “Come Together” peaked at No 26.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Go West	King Of Wishful Thinking	I did not
2	Sting	Englishman In New York (Ben Liebrand remix)	Nah
3	The KLF	What Time Is Love (Live At Trancentral”	Nope
4	New Kids On The Block	Tonight	No but I think my friend Rachel did
5	Together	Hardcore Uproar	Harcore! You know the score! Erm…no
6	Betty Boo	Where Are You Baby	No
7	Jon Bon Jovi	Blaze Of Glory	No but it’s probably on my Bon Jovi collection CD
8	Roxette	Listen To Your Heart	I did and it said don’t buy this record
9	Partners In Kryme	Turtle Power	This as a crime…against music. No
10	Primal Scream	Come Together	Yes on CD single (but not at the time)

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000s4ql/top-of-the-pops-16081990

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.

Some bedtime reading?

https://michaelmouse1967.wixsite.com/smashhits-remembered/1990-issues

TOTP 09 AUG 1990

Posted on February 15, 2021 by 80stastic

It’s the height of Summer in 1990 here at TOTP Rewind so that can only mean one thing – nasty, tacky novelty records! Previous years had seen the charts flooded with some of the most brainless musical ditties ever committed to vinyl from the likes of Black Lace (“Agadoo”), The Tweets (“The Birdie Song”) and Spitting Image (“The Chicken Song”). Surely this sort of thing wouldn’t continue into the new decade? Oh yes it would (sorry went a bit pantomime there although that might actually be appropriate). I’ve been dreading this moment ever since I started posting about 1990. I knew it was there, waiting in the wings ready to ambush the nation – a heinous, wicked entity. Shield your eyes as we have arrived at the time of Bombalurina and “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini“!

In 1990, was there a more annoying choice to front a horrible novelty record than the guy who actually did? Timmy Mallett was known to most of us as that berk with the giant, pink foam mallet from children’s morning TV programme Wacaday and he was the most irritating twat that TV had seen for years. Everything about him was vexatious from his ‘bleugh!’ catchphrase to his boundless energy for leaping about on screen. And now here he was with stinking out the pop charts! Whose f*****g idea was this? Well, it was Andrew Lloyd Webber’s actually. Here’s @TOTPFacts:

Timmy Mallett: "[Andrew Lloyd Webber] invited me round to his house for tea although I'd never met him before, ever. He said, 'I've got this idea for doing a record – would you like to do it?' I said, 'Yeah, you bet!'" #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) February 5, 2021

Unbelievably, the Bombalurina project (named after a character from his musical Cats) wasn’t even the biggest crime on Lloyd Webber’s charge sheet. Twenty five years later he would outdo himself by flying into the country from abroad on his personal plane to vote in the House of Lords over proposed cuts to tax credits – he voted with the Government in favour of the plan. Wanker.

Back to Mallett though who was clearly having the time of his life playing at this pop star lark. In a Rick from The Young Ones moment he declared to Smash Hits magazine that:

“I’m going to be the most utterly, utterly famous pop star ever”

And yet, unimaginable as it may seem, Mallett did have a more credible music background than the utter embarrassment that Bombalurina was. I clearly recall him as a presenter on the Oxford Road Show pop music magazine show back in the mid 80s. Here he is trying to interview the ever evasive Terry Hall…

OK, he was fairly useless and unconvincing but still. Fast forward five years and all credibility has been flushed down the khazi – the performance here is like the pantomime from Hell. Excruciating doesn’t come anywhere near describing the horror on view. It sounded horrendous back in 1990 and yet, in an occurrence that seems to be against all auditory science, it sounds even worse today. I wonder if any of the ‘proper’ pop stars that he interviewed on Oxford Road Show caught this performance and thought to themselves “Yeah, not surprised. I always knew he was an arsehole”.

Mallett will be at No 1 soon enough. FFS!

Some proper music next…or is it? “Tom’s Diner” by DNA and Suzanne Vega sounded otherworldly to me back then and still unsettles me now. The lolloping Soul II Soul backbeat that Bath duo DNA added to the original a cappella song that Vega recorded for her 1997 album “Solitude Standing” sparked a mass of covers and re-interpretations of the song. So many were there that Vega’s record label compiled some on an album simply called “Tom’s Album” including a live version from Michael Stipe with Billy Bragg beatboxing and incorprating Madness’s “Baggy Trousers” and EMF’s “Unbelievable” into the mix…

More recently, Giorgio Moroder recorded a version of it for his 2015 album “Déjà Vu” featuring Britney Spears on vocal duties…

Back in 1990 though and DNA’s treatment of the track struck a massive chord with music fans who sent it to No 2 in the UK and No 5 in the US. The single’s B-side was Vega’s a cappella original – I wonder how many people who bought it actually listened to that version though? Someone who really did listen to it was one Karlheinz Brandenburg, a German electrical engineer, who developed the widespread MP3 method for audio data compression. Brandenburg used “Tom’s Diner” (the a cappella version) as a template for refining the sound quality of MP3 audio, a tale which has earned Vega the informal title “The Mother of the MP3”.

Not “Naked In The Rain” again? Is this the third time Blue Pearl have been on the show? I’ve covered all the Pink Floyd connections, the fact that legendary producer Youth was behind the project and the implausibility of singer Durga McBroom’s name – what else is there left to say? Well, apparently Durga’s favourite ever album is “Court And Spark” by Joni Mitchell. There – that’s it. That’s the comment. I’ve got nothing else.

Craig McLachlan And Check 1-2 were still in the Top 40 with “Mona” when their next single “Amanda” followed it into the charts. They were on a roll! I always thought this was a passable attempt at a soft rock ballad although you could argue that the world already had quite enough of that sort of thing courtesy of American rockers Boston. So who was the titular Amanda? Why, it was a girl called Rachel of course! Eh? Well, Rachel was actress Rachel Friend who McLachlan had met on the set of Aussie soap Neighbours when she played a character called Bronwyn Davies. Rachel? Bronwyn? Where the Hell does Amanda fit into all this?! Easy really – Amanda is Rachel Friend’s middle name and her and Craig were married in 1993. They were divorced in 1994. Ah. The break up shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise to the two of them though – they wrote a song together for the debut Craig McLachlan And Check 1-2 album called “Can’t Take It Any Longer”. Ahem.

By the way, Check 1-2 is a terrible name for a band isn’t it? Well, originally they were called The Y Frontz so I guess it was an upgrade on that. In 1996, in another act of predicting the future via song title, Craig released an album called “Craig McLachlan & The Culprits”. This was unfortunate as in 2018, he faced sexual harassment allegations from several actresses during his performing career. Craig was however acquitted of all charges in 2020.

Three Breakers next and for once, they are all from some very established artists. Roxette were riding the crest of their commercial wave having just scored a huge global hit with “It Must Have Been Love”. As that single had come from the soundtrack to Pretty Woman and the band were in between albums, EMI needed to revisit their back catalogue to unearth a follow up. “Listen To Your Heart” had been originally released back in October of 1989 from the”Look Sharp” album and although it had been a No 1 song in the US, it had failed to dent the Top 40 over here. Indeed, both it and “Dressed For Success” had failed to capitalise on the success of their UK breakthrough hit “The Look”. With Pretty Woman pulling in the crowds at the box office though and “It Must Have Been Love” receiving massive airplay, “Listen To Your Heart” couldn’t fail this time.

Much more of a traditional soft rock ballad than their previous more poppy output, the change of direction was entirely deliberate. In the liner notes of their 1995 greatest hits compilation “Don’t Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!”, Per Gessle described the song as:

“This is us trying to recreate that overblown American FM-rock sound to the point where it almost becomes absurd. We really wanted to see how far we could take it.”

They absolutely nailed that sound (absurd or not) – you could easily imagine that when listening to “Listen To Your Heart” you were actually listening to…erm…Heart. Following Elton John’s “Sacrifice / Healing Hands” lead, the single was actually a double A-side with the other track being something called ‘”Dangerous”. I have no idea how that one went though as daytime radio hammered the crap out of “Listen To Your Heart” and totally ignored ‘”Dangerous”.

The re-release of “Listen To Your Heart” peaked at No 6 in the UK.

Now then, I said these Breakers were all from established artists and they are but this second one is actually the debut single from the act in question. How so? Well, it’s a Jon Bon Jovi solo single of course. “Blaze Of Glory” was the title of both the lead single and parent album that included songs from and inspired by the movie Young Guns II. With Bon Jovi (the band) on hiatus after touring the world twice to promote the “Slippery When Wet” and “New Jersey” albums and with no firm plans for further recordings at that time, Jon was open to other projects. Star of Young Guns II Emilio Estevez had approached him about using Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead Or Alive” song for the film’s soundtrack. You can see why – its cowboys theme title a seemingly perfect fit for the second instalment of the Young Guns story that was breathing new life into the Western film genre. However, Jon didn’t think the track’s lyrics were fit for that type of usage – the cowboy stuff was all a metaphor to describe the life on the road of a touring rock band (‘steel horse’ = tour bus, geddit?). Instead he wrote Estevez and the film’s screenwriter John Fusco a brand new song. I say ‘brand new’ but I actually mean ripped off / just re-wrote “Wanted Dead Or Alive”. It’s basically the same song for heaven’s sake! And that was fine by me. Bon Jovi had been a guilty pleasure of mine for a few years by this point and “Blaze Of Glory” fitted in perfectly with their previous catalogue.

The video is absolutely epic with Bon Jovi strutting around atop thousand-foot cliffs outside Moab, Utah. I always liked the way he threw his guitar around when he was really going for it in the chorus. See Jason Donovan, if you’re going to wander about of cliff tops with a guitar, this is how you do it and not as you did with your shallow attempt in the “Too Many Broken Hearts” promo.

As for the film itself, Young Guns II never really lived up to the appeal of its predecessor for me. The new characters just weren’t that likeable whilst Alan Ruck’s Hendry William French seemed completely pointless. Without that same sense of camaraderie that was a feature of Young Guns, it just didn’t work for me. Whilst watching the first film as a student in Sunderland, somebody in the audience actually stood up and shouted “Charlie!” when Charlie Sheen’s character got shot.

“Blaze Of Glory” peaked at No 13 in the UK and was a No 1 in the US.

Definitely an established artist was Sting although he hadn’t had a Top 40 single since “Russians” in late 1985. His second solo album, 1987’s “…Nothing Like the Sun”, had though been a platinum selling No 1 record but none of the singles from it had been hits. One of those was “Englishman in New York” which had stalled at No 51 on its original release. Fast forward to 1990 and for some reason, Sting’s record label A&M allowed Dutch DJ and producer Ben Liebrand to remix the track and it finally became a chart hit peaking at No 15. I’m not sure what the reasoning behind this decision was other than to raise Sting’s profile ahead of the release of his third solo album, “The Soul Cages”, which hit the shops six months on from this.

I’m not entirely convinced that the 1990 remix is that different from the 1987 original to be honest but its an intriguing tune all the same. Famously written about eccentric and gay icon Quentin Crisp who features in the video, it’s possibly one of Sting’s most well known solo efforts I would suggest and even inspired this 1993 version by reggae singer Shinehead.

Enough with all these old fogeys though, what the kids wanted back in the Summer of 1990 was….a load of bleeps set to a heavy bass sound? WTF? Yes, for all 1990 is remembered for ‘Madchester’ and the baggy movement, there was also a significant invasion of the Top 40 by a genre called ‘Bleep ‘n’ Bass’ – or was it ‘Electro Bleep’? Look, I don’t know; it wasn’t my bag at all but I do know that there was a dance compilation series called ‘Breaks, Bass & Bleeps’ that showcased this sort of thing. And just as ‘Madchester’ had its holy trinity of The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Inspiral Carpets so ‘Bleep ‘n’ Bass’ had its trio of chart stars in LFO, Together (more of whom later) and this lot, Tricky Disco. Behind the name were husband and wife duo Michael Wells and Lee Newman who used a plethora of aliases to release their music the idea behind which was that the press would not write about so much material all coming from the same act but they would review releases by supposedly distinct artists with completely different names. Some of their other identities included GTO, John + Julie, Church of Extacy, Signs of Chaos, Salami Brothers, Killout Squad and Technohead the last of whom gave them their biggest ever hit with 1996’s “I Wanna Be a Hippy”.

To me though, the bleeps in “Tricky Disco” sounded like my Binatone video game from when I was about 11 and I couldn’t be doing with it. What? Binatone? It was a huge clunky piece of hardware that, when plugged into your TV, allowed you a choice of 10 game including football, hockey, tennis and something infuriating called gridball.

This was what passed for hi spec computer game graphics in the 70s kids

However, they were all based around very limited graphic capability so pretty much all you got on screen was a paddle and a dot for a ball…and I loved it…for a while but eventually all the fuss around setting it up on the TV (there were no separate monitors back in the 70s) kind of squeezed all the excitement out of it.

Anyway, the sound of the paddles continually hitting the dot ball back and forth was just like the bleep noises on “Tricky Disco” and the like and that wasn’t music to me. Sorry.

This was though! By my reckoning, this is the third time that “I’m Free” by The Soup Dragons featuring Junior Reid has been on the show but the first time we have seen the video. The promo is basically a straight band performance but set against spiralling, fluorescent psychedelic colours and was directed by someone called Matthew Amos who went onto work with artists as diverse as Blur, Elton John and erm…Slipknot.

It reminds me of the old 60s sci-fi series Time Tunnel or when late night Channel 4 magazine show The Word had live bands on. Look, like Stereo MC’s here…

So after Blue Pearl and The Soup Dragons earlier in the show, here’s yet another track which has been on TOTP multiple times now. I think this might be the fourth occasion for MC Hammer and “U Can’t Touch This” but to enable these repeat performances to be squeezed onto the show, their air time has been vastly reduced. The Soup Dragons got about 1minute 20 seconds on screen whilst MC Hammer came in at 1:10!

Such is the legacy of “U Can’t Touch This” that it has been parodied time and time again. The obvious suspects like lampooner-in-chief Weird Al Yankovic have gone there but it has also been sent up by NFL American football team the Miami Dolphins, in an episode of Family Guy and to promote social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Oh and this one as well…

We’ll be seeing more of MC Hammer before 1990 is done with I’m sure.

Finally a song we haven’t seen/heard before! Well, sort of. “I Can See Clearly Now” was well known to music fans from the Johnny Nash original which hit No 5 in 1972 but it was reactivated here by Irish rockers Hothouse Flowers. The second (and most successful) single to be taken from their album “Home”, was its release just and open and shut case of needing a cover version to secure them a hit? Possibly. Lead single from the album “Give It Up” had peaked at a lowly No 30 so it could have just been a cynical record company move. I have to say that they did a nice job of it, injecting some gospel vibes and before letting it rock out in the song’s finale. However, if they were hoping to break the Top 10 with it, they were to be disappointed as it struggled to No 23. A third and final single taken from the album called “Movies'” didn’t even make the Top 40 and we would not see the band for another three years when they returned with the “Songs From The Rain” album.

In November 2016, their version of the song was featured in the premiere episode of the Amazon Prime Video motoring show The Grand Tour which was the new (ahem) vehicle for massive bell end Jeremy Clarkson after he had been sacked by the BBC from his previous show Top Gear. The exposure for the song sent it to No 1 on the iTunes’s Top 40 UK Rock Song chart in late 2016.

It’s the third of four weeks at the top for Partners In Kryme with “Turtle Power“. So popular were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that they actually went on tour! A proper concert tour playing live gigs! The Coming Out of Their Shells tour premiered at Radio City Music Hall in August of 1990 and featured live-action turtles playing music as a band. In case you were wondering, this was the line up:

Michelangelo – guitar
Leonardo – bass guitar
Donatello – keyboards
Raphael – drums and saxophone

Like I said, a proper band! Never mind the story of The Monkees starting out as a fictional band and becoming real pop stars, this was next level stuff! To be fair, The Banana Splits had kind of beaten them to it with the performing as a band schtick by a good 20 years but I’m not sure if they ever went on tour! What I am sure about is that their tune was infinitely more funky than the one those turtles were playing…

That’s all my turtle trivia for another week. Spare a thought for me though as I’ve got another week of this nonsense to have to comment on!

So back to that bleeping ‘Bleep ‘n’ Bass’ stuff for the play out video which is the aforementioned Together with “Hardcore Uproar”. I have no recollection of this at all, so much so that I assumed that the name of the act was Hardcore Uproar and the song was called “Together” when I came to review it. I think I was getting confused with Stockport based indie imps Northern Uproar on reflection. Together on the other hand were a pair of Hacienda regulars whose white label recording of “Hardcore Uproar” was so popular that hit qualified for an official release and climbed to No 12 in the charts. Supposedly the tracks title was the inspiration for a series of compilations featuring house, techno and rave tunes released on the Dino Entertainment label. I do remember that compilation series from my time in Our Price if not the band Together.

For posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Bombalurina	Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini	How does f**k off sound as an answer?
2	Suzanne Vega featuring DNA	Tom’s Diner	No but my wife had the original version of the song on Suzanne’s Solitude Standing album
3	Blue Pearl	Naked In The Rain	It’s a no
4	Craig McLachlan and Check 1-2	Amanda	Nope
5	Roxette	Listen To Your Heart	I did and it said don’t buy this record
6	Jon Bon Jovi	Blaze Of Glory	No but it’s probably on my Bon Jovi collection CD
7	Sting	Englishman In New York	No
8	Tricky Disco	Tricky Disco	Tricky Disc-NO
9	The Soup Dragons featuring Junior Reid	I’m Free	Thought I did but singles box says no. I did however by the follow up single Mother Universe
10	MC Hammer	U Can’t Touch This	And I didn’t – no
11	Hothouse Flowers	I Can See Clearly Now	But I couldn’t see my way clear to buying this – no
12	Partners In Kryme	Turtle Power	This as a crime…against music. No
13	Together	Hardcore Uproar	Harcore! You know the score! Erm…no

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000rxpk/top-of-the-pops-09081990

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.

Some bedtime reading?

https://michaelmouse1967.wixsite.com/smashhits-remembered/1990-issues

TOTP 02 AUG 1990

Posted on February 10, 2021 by 80stastic

Like a former Brosette dumping the Goss brothers and transferring her affections onto New Kids On The Block, we have left behind July 1990 and moved into August…and it’s sweltering! The day after this TOTP aired, the UK Summer heat wave peaked with a temperature of 37.1 °C! Apparently immune to the heat though is tonight’s presenter Bruno Brookes who felt the need for a shirt and jacket combo – madman. He does, however, promise us some ‘hot hits’ so let’s see what the little fella has got in store for us…

…well, never mind the heatwave, it’s the UK rock wave of 1990 that’s in full flow. After Thunder were on the show the other week, now we get their doppelgängers Little Angels with their new hit “She’s A Little Angel”. As far as I can ascertain, this seemed to be a stand alone single released between their albums “Don’t Prey For Me” and “Young Gods” although I think it has turned up on the latter album in subsequent re-releases. It was definitely the band’s second chart hit after “Radical Your Lover” made it to No 34 back in May.

Lead singer Toby Jepson does seem to be trying out his best Robert Plant impression in this performance. Drummer Michael Lee would go one better though by actually touring and performing with Plant after Little Angels split in 1994. As well as the aforementioned Thunder, we also had Gun on the show recently who seemed to me to also be a part of this early 90s UK rock movement and it was Jepson who would link all three bands by supporting Thunder in 2006 as a solo artist and then becoming Gun’s lead singer from 2008 to 2010. They should have just gone the Busted/McFly route who joined forces in 2013 as McBusted. What would that have made them? ‘Little Gunder’ maybe? Or ‘Gunder Angels’ even?

Little Angels would have their own season in the sun when their 1993 “Jam” album went to No 1 on the charts. I was working in Our Price Rochdale when that album came out and I bagged the promo copy of it that their record company had sent out to all stores to promote. Somehow it got lost in transit over the years whilst moving cities. I also caught the band doing a PA in HMV Manchester at this time; that makes it sound like I apprehended them doing an illegal set – they were meant to be there doing a PA! They were pretty good as I recall.

“She’s A Little Angel” peaked at No 21.

Did somebody mention New Kids On The Block? Here are the pesky little blighters with their single “Tonight”. I’m not sure if the video below is the one that TOTP show which, as Bruno advises, seems to be clips of the group’s recent tour, but it is the official video. I know at least two people who like this song (my wife is one of them!) whilst I completely dismissed it as pop cack at the time. On listening to it 31 years later, I can at least hear what they were trying to do which is come up with a more mature sound than their previous efforts like “Hangin’ Tough” and “You Got It (The Right Stuff)”. They even reference their past chart life in the lyrics hoping to distance themselves from it by admitting its existence. Check these out:

Remember when we said “Girl, please don’t go”
And how I’d be loving you forever
Taught you ’bout hanging tough
As long as you’ve got the right stuff

And then they attempt to break with their past with the line:

Well I guess it’s a brand new day after all

Quite clever really – bit like breaking through a musical fourth wall. Well, sort of.

It wasn’t just the lyrics though, they were obviously trying out a new sound as well. I say ‘new’ sound but they were clearly borrowing heavily from a number of artists. The intro is pure “California Dreamin'” by The Mamas And The Papas, whilst there is more than a whiff of The Beatles circa “Magical Mystery Tour” and The Beach Boys “Pet Sounds” era. Too much? How dare I compare The Beatles and The Beach Boys with T’KNOB? OK – it’s pushing it but you see where I’m coming from? No? OK – you win.

“Tonight” peaked at No 3.

A run of three hits we’ve seen previously on the show next beginning with LFO and “LFO”. OK, this is just weird. Not the track (although it is a bit too out there for my tastes) but this bit of trivia that I found online. Despite the existence of LFO who were from Leeds, from 1995 there was also an American band called LFO. They must have got away with the duplicate name as it stands for ‘Lyte Funkie Ones’ whilst their UK counterparts acronym stood for ‘Low Frequency Oscillation’ apparently. That’s not the weird bit though. This is…the US LFO released a version of “Step By Step” by New Kids On The Block! Yes, that lot that were just on! In fact, “Step By Step” was the single before “Tonight” that we’ve just seen. Here it is….

Despite being released seven years apart, the sprites of pop trivia have discharged their unknown powers to create a tenuous but valid link between acts on this 1990 TOTP. Saves me having to come up with something about LFO anyway.

“LFO” by LFO (the UK one) peaked at No 12.

After being a Breaker in last week’s show, Bell Biv Devoe are in the studio tonight to perform “Poison”. Also known as BBD (enough with the acronyms! – grammar editor), I would have said that this was by far the trio’s biggest hit in the UK but I was wrong. Apparently (and I must have missed this completely at the time despite working in record shops by then), they also appeared on the single “The Best Things in Life Are Free” by Janet Jackson and Luther Vandross. And I don’t mean they were in the studio that day and happened to join in on the backing vocals, they get a proper credit. The single cover includes the legend ‘with special guest BBD and Ralph Tresvant’. Hang on…Ralph Tresvant? Wasn’t he in New Edition alongside Mr Bell, Mr Biv and Mr DeVoe? Indeed he was. And I thought Gun, Little Angels and Thunder were a tight little friendship group!

Anyway, “The Best Things in Life Are Free” was a hit twice for Janet/Luther/BBD/Mr Tresvant – a No 2 in 1992 and a No 7 in 1995 when it was remixed thereby easily outperforming “Poison” which peaked at No 19.

More weirdness now as it’s that incongruous best selling albums of the month feature again. For the record, these were the top sellers in July 1990:

1. Elton John – “Sleeping With The Past”

2. Luciano Pavarotti – “The Essential Pavarotti”

3. Rollings Stones – “Hot Rocks 1964–1971”

4. The Beach Boys – “Summer Dreams”

5. Madonna – “I’m Breathless”

Interesting that two of the Top 5 are essentially Best Ofs from legendary acts plus another one from a classical artist and that the other two albums are the latest offerings by established superstars. Where were all the new groups/bands/artists? Also, I note that TOTP finally play “Healing Hands” for the Elton clip after weeks of persisting with ‘Sacrifice”

And it’s one of those ‘established superstars’ that we stick with as we return to the singles chart as “Hanky Panky” by Madonna gets another spin. 1990 was not only the year that she starred in the Dick Tracy flick which this single was written for but she also embarked upon her Blonde Ambition World Tour. Said tour featured a Dick Tracy segment which, according to a Smash Hits review of the show, was the point at which most of the audience chose to nip out to the toilet. I’m kind of not surprised.

Despite its obvious and calculated attempt at outrage, “Hanky Panky” came across as too knowing and cartoon-ish to be truly pushing the barriers of decency for me. However, it did signpost the direction in which she would take her career from this point in. Her next single was “Justify My Love” with its sexually explicit promo video whilst her next studio album was the controversy courting “Erotica” and that coffee table book of adult content.

The first new single release of the decade from Prince next (well in the UK anyway) and it’s “Thieves In The Temple”. After his last project, the below par (it was to me at least) Batman soundtrack, Prince stays within the world of cinema with his next endeavour, the “Graffiti Bridge” project. Essentially a follow up to 1984’s Purple Rain, the film has been widely dissed since its release. I have to admit I’ve never seen it but given that it was nominated for five Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Prince), Worst Director (Prince), Worst Screenplay (Prince), and Worst New Star (Ingrid Chavez), I not in any hurry to seek it out. As for the film’s soundtrack album, it was critically well received but didn’t shift the units that he had in the past. It was often a title that would crop up in the Special Purchase section during my Our Price days – titles that there were massive overstocks of that specialist companies bought up cheap and then flogged back to record stores to sell at a discounted price. Actually, Prince’s last studio album “Lovesexy” was also a perennial Special Purchase title now I come to think of it.

“Thieves In The Temple” though was a pretty decent tune to my ears and was actually the final song recorded for the album and only added to the track listing at the last minute. I thought the metaphor of the title was clever and the chorus was catchy as opposed to “Batdance” which didn’t appear to have any sort of chorus at all. Although I didn’t buy the single, it was on the first Q Magazine album that I did purchase.

“Thieves In The Temple” peaked at No 7.

“It’s so hot” exclaims Bruno Brookes next as he insists on wearing his heavy looking jacket under studio lights. He subsequently describes the next act as “definitely the No 1 novelty record of the Summer so far”. Novelty record? Not sure about that to be honest. Was “Wash Your Face In My Sink” by Dream Warriors a novelty record? My friend Robin told me recently that when this was a hit, somebody he worked with down in that there London thought it was hysterical that there was a record in the charts whose title was innuendo for a specific sexual act! Robin was new in his job so didn’t know his colleague well and understandably didn’t want to explore the conversation any further so I have no idea which sexual act was being referred to. Every time I have since tried to imagine what it could be I have felt dirty and indeed in need of a wash in a sink.

In a Smash Hits article , King Lou of the band explained the song’s meaning as this:

“We took something as primitive as a washroom and we used the toilet being the dirty and the negative and the sink being the cleansed, the positive. Basically just picture the sink as being a rap book and the lyrics being the flow coming from the tap. It’s basically trying to say you can’t wash your negativity in my positivity. It goes really deep. It was originally to be called ‘Tablecloths and Napkins’.

I hope that clears it all up.

Well, well well. It’s the return of one of the biggest bands of the 80s next. Duran Duran had a hit in the 90s with a song that wasn’t “Ordinary World”? Yes they did. Their first hit of the new decade was something called “Violence Of Summer (Love’s Taking Over)” whatever that meant and was the lead single from their new album “Liberty”. The band had drawn a line under their first era by releasing Best Of album “Decade” at the end of ’89. If they’d envisioned that as a new start for the 90s, it didn’t begin well. They had a new line up for a start with guitarist Warren Cuccurullo and drummer Sterling Campbell having made the transition from session guys to fully blown band members. What would this change of dynamic do to the band? Secondly, did they still have any juice left in the creative tank to rebuild their career and do it all over again? Did they still have a market to appeal to? In short, were they still relevant?

Well, if I was any sort of measure, then the answer was no. Despite owning Duran Duran records in my days of early youth, “Violence Of Summer (Love’s Taking Over)” passed me by completely. A complete non-event. Could this have been because it didn’t actually receive that much airplay at the time? Not a good sign for a band on the comeback trail. Parent album “Liberty” debuted healthily enough inside the Top 10 but dropped out of the charts calamitously within a few short weeks. American magazine Trouser Press gave it this stinging review:

“The album is idiotic with lyrics that set new standards for pretensions gone out of bounds…”

Ouch! When I started at Our Price a few months later in 1990, I worked with a guy called Mark who had been a big Duran fan in his youth (well, he was a fellow Brummie) and he said that he’d bought “Liberty” out of band loyalty but never would do again so bad was it. He was done with them. Double ouch!

Retrospectively, even the band themselves slagged it off. Here’s Nick Rhodes in 2005 (from Steve Malins) Duran biography on “Violence Of Summer (Love’s Taking Over)”:

“It wasn’t right, I didn’t really like it as a single”

Triple ouch!

In subsequent years, the band have mellowed to the album and there has been talk of them revisiting some of the songs and demos that never made the track listing cut but that period of the band’s career will never be more than a depressing footnote.

Listening to “Violence Of Summer (Love’s Taking Over)” today, it sounds very poppy and pretty flimsy. There’s really not much to it at all. Follow up single “Serious” (once described by singer Simon Le Bon as the band’s finest moment) didn’t even make the Top 40. It would be three long years before they would return to the charts again.

Those turtles are still at No 1 this week, or rather Partners In Kryme are with their single “Turtle Power”. Whilst this TOTP repeat aired last Friday evening a debate broke out online about the identity of the first hip hop track to make it to No 1 in the UK. Unbelievably, the following claim was made:

The only UK top 40 hit for Partners In Kryme, “Turtle Power” was also the UK's first hip hop number one. (Thanks to @JonnyWelly for pointing this out!) #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) February 5, 2021

WTF?! That can’t be right can it?! I wasn’t the only one to dispute this statement as various contenders were nominated including Snap!, Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”, Chaka Khan’s “I Feel For You” and even a shout for “Under Pressure”. However, one track rang truer than all these with the watching public and after a quick poll, this was the official result:

Okay, let's sort this out democratically. First UK hip hop number one? VOTE NOW #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) February 5, 2021

Glad that’s sorted out then!

You wait all year for a dance act with an eponymously titled Top 40 hit to appear and then two turn up in the same show! After “LFO” by LFO earlier, here comes “Tricky Disco” by Tricky Disco. And as with LFO, Tricky Disco were also on the Sheffield record label Warp.

As you might have easily predicted, I wasn’t into this at all. Load of breaks, bass and bleeps nonsense. They added to their charge sheet with this piece of crap in 1995….

“Tricky Disco” by Tricky Disco peaked at No 14.

For posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Little Angels	She’s A Little Angel	Nope
2	New Kids On The Block	Tonight	No but I think my friend Rachel did
3	LFO	LFO	LF…NO
4	Bell, Biv Devoe	Poison	Negative
5	Madonna	Hanky Panky	Nah
6	Prince	Thieves In The Temple	No but it was on that Q Magazine compilation I bought
7	Dream Warriors	Wash Your Face In My Sink	Liked it but not enough to buy it
8	Duran Duran	Violence Of Summer (Love’s Taking Over)	Nah – I’d given up on them by this point
9	Partners In Kryme	Turtle Power	This is a crime…against music. No
10	Tricky Disco	Tricky Disco	Tricky Disc-NO

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000rxph/top-of-the-pops-02081990

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.

Some bedtime reading?

https://michaelmouse1967.wixsite.com/smashhits-remembered/1990-issues

TOTP 26 JUL 1990

Posted on February 5, 2021 by 80stastic

We are still in the middle of Summer here at TOTP Rewind, Summer 1990 that is. I haven’t dropped in on the 22 year old version of myself for a few posts so let me give him a bell and see if he’s there….oh yeah, affordable mobile phones are yet to flood the market so I didn’t have one in 1990 – indeed I spent most of the decade without one. Never mind, I know where he’ll be – working at Kingston Communications on that temporary VDU input contract. What’s that? The contract finished a couple of weeks ago? So where is he now then? Try Queen’s Gardens? OK, thanks. Not having any work again, the 1990 me used to often spend my time idling the hours away wandering around Queen’s Gardens in Hull, usually with my trusty Sony Walkman for company.

Queen’s Gardens, Hull – yes they do look nice don’t they?

I’m guessing my girlfriend / wife must have had a job at this time as I have no recollection of spending anytime with her shooting the breeze in the gardens in the sun. I think my period of free time didn’t last that long as Kingston Communications asked me to come back for a further couple of weeks work later on in the Summer so impressed were they by me as the master of VDU input. For now though, I’m busy doing nothing and listening to? What was I listening to on that Walkman? The only thing I can recall is that I had purchased the cassette single of the latest World Party single called “Put The Message In The Box” so I was probably playing that on repeat.

Enough of me though and back to TOTP. Tonight’s host is Jakki Brambles who appears to have undergone a dramatic image restyle with her hair now up but with some cascading ringlets framing her face. From cascading ringlets to cascading rain as we join opening act Blue Pearl who are still “Naked In The Rain”. As well as the unlikely named Durga McBroom on vocals, the band also featured Youth, the well known record producer and musician. His is an interesting story with notable career moments including being founding member and bass player in gothic rockers Killing Joke and going on to produce pretty much everyone from Art Of Noise to The Verve via Crowded House, James, Erasure and Bananarama (more of whom later). One of his less heralded projects but one which I always quite liked were funk pop-rockers Brilliant who included future KLF masterminds Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond as their keyboardist/guitarist and A&R manager respectively. Drummond didn’t share my like of the band though stating in an interview on Norwegian radio station NRK P2 that:

“I signed a band called Brilliant, who I worked with, we worked together, and it was complete failure. Artistically bankrupt project. And financially deaf. We spent £300,000 on making an album that was useless. Useless artistically, useless… commercially.”

Ouch! Well, I disagree Bill. What say you reader?

Back to Blue Pearl though and after “Naked In The Rain” peaked at No 4, the house duo seemed to be set to ride the dance wave into the early 90s and beyond but follow up track “Little Brother ” only made it to No 31 whilst the album “Naked” was caught with its pants down at a lowly No 58. The project was disbanded in 1993 but “Naked In The Rain” returned to the Top 40 in 1998 as…erm… “Naked In The Rain 98”.

Oh knackers! It’s going to be one of those dance dominated shows isn’t it? The second act tonight are Technotronic featuring Ya Kid K with “Rockin’ Over The Beat”. I really can’t think of anything else I want to say about this lot. C’mon man think! Ok, how about a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles connection? They’re all the rage aren’t they? Brilliant (no not them)! Here goes…Technotronic contributed the song “Spin That Wheel” to the soundtrack album of the film under the pseudonym of Hi Tek 3 and Ya Kid K ‘featured’ on that as well. n some territories it was released as “Spin That Wheel (Turtles Get Real)”. The track was released as a single twice in the UK, peaking at No 69 in January 1990 but making No 15 when re-released nine months later. That do you? No? Well, Ya Kid K seemingly couldn’t get enough of those turtles so she released her own solo single called “Awesome (You Are My Hero)” from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II soundtrack in 1991. Cow and indeed abunga!

OK, so the next one is another dance track but an interesting one for all that. I already knew of the song “Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega as it had been the opening track on Suzanne’s 1987 album “Solitude Standing” which my girlfriend/wife had bought. Being an a cappella song, it was quite striking on first hearing (and pretty much every one after that too). It had been released as a single but it was too out there for our tastes back in 1987 and it stalled at No 58.

The idea though that it could be converted into a dance track? Well, I for one never saw it coming. And DNA, who were they? They were a production duo from Bath who added a Soul II Soul backbeat to the original and released it as a bootleg. None of this was done with either Vega or her record label A&M ‘s approval and the former wasn’t initially keen on the idea. However, on hearing the DNA remix, artist and label decided not to sue but to get on board with the idea and give it an official release. The rest is history. Its rise to No 2 in the UK charts was still a surprise though, to me anyway. Could you actually dance to it in a club? It put me in mind more of Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman” more than a dance floor banger.

Seven years later, DJ and producer Armand van Helden pulled off a similar trick when he remixed American singer-songwriter and pianist Tori Amos’ “Professional Widow” track as “Professional Widow (It’s Got to Be Big)” and scored a No 1.

Oh good. Here come The Soup Dragons featuring Junior Reid with “I’m Free”. This still sounds good to me. Unfairly labelled as the polythene Primal Scream in some quarters – both bands had seemingly moved away from their jangly guitar roots to make indie-dance records come the new decade – somehow the moment for The Soup Dragons to become massive stars slipped through their grasp. Despite a marvellous follow up single in the re-issued “Mother Universe” and a critically well received Top 10 album in “Lovegod”, momentum was lost and by 1995 they had disbanded. Maybe chart success was never really the plan though. Singer Sean Dickson stated in a Smash Hits article that:

“I could bloody write a record to get in the charts tomorrow – I’m not that dumb. But it doesn’t appeal to me at all – that’s for nerds and assholes and idiots who want to ruin their lives.”

Well quite.

“I’m Free” peaked at No 5.

The Breakers are back! We start with Bell Biv DeVoe who were of course previously all members of “Candy Girl” hit makers New Edition. Once Bobby Brown left the band and embarked on a successful solo career, the other vocalists in the group wanted in – Ralph Tresvant will turn up in our charts again with his “Sensitivity” single soon enough whilst Johnny Gill scored big with his eponymous 1990 solo album before forming R’n’B supergroup Levert.Sweat.Gill. That left the other three guys (Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins and Ronnie DeVoe) who had pretty much always been the backing vocalists and weren’t sure what to do once New Edition splintered. Encouraged by producer Jimmy Jam, they joined forces and gained immediate success with their “Poison” single and album. The title track in particular, though only just scraping into the Top 20 over here, was huge in the US and has taken on a life of its own in the subsequent years being used extensively in film, TV and computer games soundtracks.

Unsurprisingly, it did sound very Bobby Brown to me which was like kryptonite to Superman for my pop sensibilities although I always thought that the elongated ‘poison’ hook was effective. At the song’s end, they give name checks to their ex New Editions band mates with these lyrics:

“Yo’, wassup to Ralph T and Johnny G
And I can’t forget about my boy, B. Brown
And the whole NE crew“

New Edition – the most amicable band break up ever.

Now is this the biggest ever gap between the release of a huge No 1 single and its follow up? Sinéad O’Connor‘s all conquering “Nothing Compares 2 U” was initially released on January 8th in 1990 before hitting the top of the charts in early February but its follow up, “The Emperor’s New Clothes“, wasn’t released until six months later! Why the big wait in between releases? No idea. Could it be that her record company hadn’t banked on the extraordinary success of “Nothing Compares 2 U” and the weight of expectation for more chart glory that it ushered in? Maybe they’d an original single release schedule but it was totally skewed by her rise to superstardom? Whatever the reason there certainly seemed to be some indecision before “The Emperor’s New Clothes” was plucked for single release. I don’t know parent album “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got” well enough to know if this was a wise choice of track or not but it was always going to suffer in comparison to its predecessor. It’s much more “Mandinka” than “Nothing Compares 2 U” and is a pretty solid effort but it was doomed from the start to fall short commercially. It duly peaked at No 31.

As the 80s ended, Bananarama could reflect on a decade that included 18 Top 40 hits (including 10 Top Tenners) and the status of being the UK’s most successful all girl group. As the 90s dawned though, the future looked less certain than their glorious past. Their fanbase was still coming to terms with the leaving of Siobhan Fahey and her replacement by Jacquie O’Sullivan whilst original and now principal group members Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin were contemplating which direction to go in next. Their fifth studio album “Pop Life” saw them lose faith with the Stock, Aitken and Waterman formula, go back to their beginnings with producers Steve Jolley and Tony Swain before finally settling on Sara’a ex-boyfriend Youth (him again!) to produce the album.

“Only Your Love” was the lead single and despite pinching ‘woo woo’ vocals from “Sympathy For The Devil” by The Rolling Stones, didn’t really tear up the charts and after gathering some moss along the way, came to a standstill at No 27. The video featured the usual rabble of half dressed male hunks for the girls to cavort around and the whole thing looked and sounded a bit half arsed to me. Bit ironic considering that they left SAW behind because they said that the tracks they offered to them showed a complete lack of progression with accusations from the Nanas that the production trio had stagnated and were spending all their time working on tunes for Kylie and Jason Donovan.

The album fared even worse peaking at No 42 but then the group were never really an album act were they? The harsh truth is that there are more Bananarama compilation albums in existence (16) than studio albums (11). Pretty telling I think.

At the end of the promotion for the album, Jacquie O’Sullivan jumped ship and swapped a ‘Pop Life’ for a career as a yoga teacher leaving Keren and Sara to carry on as a duo.

Back in the studio we find Paula Abdul and her latest single “Knocked Out”. In a totally predictable turn of events, Paula has taken to the TOTP stage backed by four dancers dressed as boxers. I’m guessing Ms Abdul came up with the routine herself – I thought she was meant to be an award winning choreographer? The boxing theme was surely too lame and obvious though? She must have been so preoccupied by the routine though that she forgot to include any sort of tune in her single which really is nothing more than some beats to soundtrack her dance moves rather than a piece of music in its own right.

“Knocked Out” peaked at No 21.

Jakki Brambles fluffs her lines in the intro to MC Hammer‘s “U Can’t Touch This” by announcing that his album is called “Please Hammer Hurt ‘Em” when in fact it was entitled “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em”. Come on Jakki – this is easy stuff surely? Pretty sure I would have been docked points for that answer when asked the name of MC Hammer’s album in my Our Price interview a few months on from this broadcast.

Famously sampling “Super Freak” by Rick James, unlike the aforementioned Suzanne Vega and DNA, Rick routinely turned down requests from rappers to sample his music but his lawyers authorised the “Super Freak” sample without his permission. Despite the royalties it brought in, James claimed he wouldn’t have done the deal had he been asked.

The video to “U Can’t Touch This” became the most-played of 1990 on MTV as well as winning a clutch of awards. It has been viewed 601 million times on YouTube which is mind blowing when you consider that it’s basically Hammer in some comedy oversized pants doing some cheesy dance steps. Somehow the single only made it to No 8 in the US Billboard Top 100 which seems rather implausible given its profile.

Hammer’s run of hit singles continued for a couple of years before his star started to wane. A relaunch with a harder, gangster rapper image was unsuccessful and by the late ’90s, he became a TV preacher.

A second studio performance for River City People next with their cover of “California Dreamin'”. This lot seemed such an anachronism in the charts of 1990 though not necessarily an unpleasant one. So did their hit spark a revival of The Mamas & the Papas music? It seems not. I was expecting their to have been a quickly put together, TV advertised Best Of album rushed out on the back of the River City People’s chart success but their discography doesn’t show one. There had been one in 1977 but there wasn’t another released until 1995. Do I own one? Not exactly though my wife bought the soundtrack to the film Beautiful Thing which was basically the same thing. If you’ve not seen the film, it’s worth a watch about two young lads coming to terms with their homosexuality and slowly building relationship. Kind of like an It’s A Sin for the 90s. Kind of.

“California Dreamin’ / Carry The Blame” peaked at No 13.

King Elton of John has been deposed and we have a new No 1. Unfortunately it’s “Turtle Power” by ~~Technotronic~~, ~~Hi Tek 3,~~ ~~Ya Kid K~~….Partners In Kryme. In my mind, this was only at the top of the heap for one solitary week but in actual fact it was there for four whole weeks! Oh joy!

Not wanting to miss any opportunities, the promotions team behind the phenomenon get two guys dressed in Turtle outfits to stand beside Jakki but I’m not sure starting to touch her inappropriately was in their brief. By the time we return to Jakki at the song’s end, she’s got them back under control and the whole show is rounded off with a resounding cry of ‘Cowabunga!’ although I think Jakki cocks that up too and says ‘Carrabunga!’ which sounds like some sort of bribery attempt involving Jamie Carragher.

There is still the ‘any other business moment’ of the play out video which is “LFO” by LFO. I was not frequenting any nightclubs at this time and so this passed me by completely. I do recall their ‘Frequencies” album coming out on the achingly hip Warp label about a year later as I was working in Our Price by that time and some of the dance heads at the shop got very excited about it.

“LFO” peaked at No 12.

For posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Blue Pearl	Naked In The Rain	It’s a no
2	Technotronic featuring Ya Kid K	Rockin’ Over The Beat	This beat is…shit. No
3	Suzanne Vega featuring DNA	Tom’s Diner	No but my wife had the original version of the song on Suzanne’s Solitude Standing album
4	The Soup Dragons featuring Junior Reid	I’m Free	Thought I did but singles box says no. I did however by the follow up single Mother Universe
5	Bell Biv Devoe	Poison	Nope
6	Sinead O’Connor	The Emperor’s New Clothes	Nah
7	Bananarama	Only Your Love	No
8	Paula Abdul	Knocked Out	Negative
9	MC Hammer	U Can’t Touch This	And I didn’t – no
10	River City People	California Dreamin’ / Carry The Blame	Nope
11	Partners In Kryme	Turtle Power	This as a crime…against music. No
12	LFO	LFO	LF…NO

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000rpmq/top-of-the-pops-26071990

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.

Some bedtime reading?

https://michaelmouse1967.wixsite.com/smashhits-remembered/1990-issues

TOTP Rewind – the 90s

My memories of 90s chart music

Author: 80stastic

TOTP 27 SEP 1990

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Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 20 SEP 1990

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TOTP 13 SEP 1990

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TOTP 06 SEP 1990

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TOTP 30 AUG 1990

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TOTP 23 AUG 1990

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TOTP 16 AUG 1990

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TOTP 09 AUG 1990

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TOTP 02 AUG 1990

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TOTP 26 JUL 1990

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