Author: 80stastic

TOTP 05 JUN 1998

Posted on by 80stastic

I’m nearly 30! Back in 1998 that is. I’m pushing 60 now. Where did all the time go? I’ll tell you where all the time goes these days – on writing this blog! Two TOTP repeats a week is hard work. I’m sure BBC4 only used to air one show every seven days when I first started doing this back in 2017. Much more manageable. Anyway, it’s my choice so I’ll just have to quit my bellyaching and get on with it. So, back in 1998, this particular TOTP was broadcast the day before my 30th birthday and to mark the milestone my wife and I went to Edinburgh for the weekend. Having looked at the running order for this one, I can see English, Irish and Welsh artists but nobody Scottish. As ever then, I was out of step with the musical tastes of the British record buying public!

Our host is Jo Whiley (who seems to be trying out Björk’s hairstyle for size) and we start with an Australian in the diminutive form of Natalie Imbruglia who is experiencing a form of diminishing returns as her third single “Wishing I Was There” peaks at its debut position of No 19. “Torn” and “Big Mistake” had both been No 2 hits with the former especially being a huge commercial and airplay success. This one, however, couldn’t replicate said success and watching this performance, I can see and hear why. There’s a lot of posturing, growling and attitude from Natalie but there’s not much of an actual song to hang it all onto. The overall effect is that of an overly eager Alanis Morissette wannabe. The rock guitar ending seems especially over the top. Bizarrely, a fourth single released from her “Left Of The Middle” album called “Smoke” would return her to the Top 5. You tell me.

The Irish contingent is represented next by Boyzone. Now this track. – “All That I Need” – was No 1 ages ago (the show dated 1st May to be exact) and was not even in the Top 20 at this point so what was it doing back on the show? Well, this seems to be a case of more performance recycling from executive producer Chris Cowey. He’s shoehorned this one in under the guise of the lads’ latest album “Where We Belong” being No 1 on the album chart but that’s seems like a flimsy bit of reasoning. An album chart section wasn’t a regular feature (I think it was back in the ‘year zero’ revamp era) so why bring it back now? Will we see it in every show from now on? Nah, I’m not buying it (the album chart grift not this Boyzone single though obviously I didn’t buy that either).

Here come the Welsh! Yes, it’s those alt rockers, those power poppers, those neo-psychedelics (I’ve no idea what I’m talking about!) the Super Furry Animals with the title track of an EP no less called “Ice Hockey Hair”. To quote Chris Tarrant, this is what the kids wanted! Something to make them think, to question the established norms and to fuck with their heads! Not that bland nonsense Boyzone were pedalling! And for once, maybe the kids were listening as this became The Furries highest charting single to date when it debuted at No 12 after their last five hits had all peaked between Nos 27 and 22. This was also a favourite of the inkies music press with Melody Maker naming it the tenth best single of the year and the NME proclaiming it the second. And why not? It’s a glorious mix of styles with some reviews detecting Queen, ELO, Pavement and Wings combined with what the NME termed “mad, techno squalling”. But what was “Ice Hockey Hair”? Well, it was another term for the mullet hairstyle that the band picked up from a conversation with a Swedish football player (as you do).

The EP’s opening track was a little ditty called “Smokin’” which was used to soundtrack a Channel 4 series about the Seven Deadly Sins and, in particular, the episode about ‘Sloth’ presented by Howard Marks. Yes, that Howard Marks so you can guess what the track was about. It should be of no surprise though as the Super Furry Animals weren’t afraid to push the boundaries. In fact, the band didn’t give a fuck. Ahem.

This next song represents the countries of Turkey, Germany and England – this is “Horny ‘98” by Mousse T versus Hot ‘n’ Juicy. Now depending on your point of view, this was either a cheeky, cheesy dance floor banger or utter filth which was corrupting the pure minds of the young generation. Actually, there’s a third option which was to find it, like me, just plain annoying. Mousse T is Mustafo Gündoğdu, a German-Turkish DJ and producer whose CV includes the accolade of being one of Germany’s first producers of house music and, by way of contrast, a stint as a judge on the German version of Pop Idol. Hot ‘n’ Juicy were Emma Lanford and Nadine Richardson who lived in a tower block in the former Lee Bank estate of Birmingham. There doesn’t seem an obvious connection between the two camps but at some point their paths crossed and “Horny ‘98” was the result. Listening to the track today, it seems quite repetitive (if catchy) but maybe that was requisite to be a club anthem? I don’t know. I was nearly 30 so I don’t think I was frequenting that many nightclubs at the time. I can imagine though that women up and down the country were receiving unsolicited attention from many a drunken male reveller whose opening line was “I’m horny, horny, horny, horny”. The whole thing was just awful.

What’s happening here? A performance of a song that wouldn’t be released as a single for six weeks and which host Jo Whiley says we weren’t meant to see until July? Ah but…there’s some headline-making, mitigating circumstances at play here which my last post was based around – Geri Halliwell leaving the Spice Girls. Right, so there’s a lot to unpack here starting with the insight from Whiley that some TOTP performances were filmed way ahead of release schedules. “Viva Forever” would not be in the record shops until 20th July yet here it was on TOTP on the 5th June! Was this standard practice? Certainly you can tell from some of the presenter links in these shows that the artists are not in the studio with the host at the same time. In the case of the Spice Girls though, there were some very specific circumstances peculiar to this single. The release schedule for “Viva Forever” was a mess. Originally reported as being out as a double A-side with the track “Never Give Up On The Good Times” on May 25th, it never appeared presumably because the group were on their Spiceworld tour and not available to do promotional duties. I’m guessing that this TOTP appearance was squeezed in to be kept until “Viva Forever” was in the charts before its broadcast. Then came the ‘Geri’s leaving’ bombshell but the tour had to continue and so the single’s release date was shifted three times in July before its ultimate appearance.

Given the seismic waves felt by the Halliwell departure, did Chris Cowey realise the footage that he had on his hands with the five piece performing together for possibly the last time was golden and so put it out there as almost an historical document? Then there’s the performance itself. Geri is hardly in it! She has no close ups and is it me or does she seem to be standing slightly away from the rest of the group, isolating herself? Was this how it was originally shot or had some heavy editing taken place post the news of her leaving breaking? If so, why? And if that was how it was originally recorded, also…why? Jo Whiley seems to take great delight in the splintering of the Spice Girls making wisecracks about them performing through gritted teeth. What about the song itself (and that video) though? Well look, it will be No 1 and for two weeks within a few repeats so I’ll keep my powder dry until then but for the record, I thought it was actually OK.

Widening this international array of artists on tonight’s show even further is Cuban-American superstar Gloria Estefan who has been away for a couple of years but was back with new single “Heaven’s What I Feel”. And when I say ‘widening this international array’, I mean stretching it like an elastic band as Gloria’s song was also recorded in Spanish as “Corazón Prohibdo” and French as “Amour Infini”. It received generally positive reviews with plaudits for it being a pop/dance crossover hit and for the fact that Estefan hadn’t resorted to a big ballad as she had done for so many of her hits previously. It sounds to me though like a song from a musical, moving a Romeo and Juliet style plot along but with enough beats to keep the audience tapping their feet. Actually, has there been a Gloria Estefan jukebox musical?

*checks internet*

Yes, there has. I thought there was and it’s called On Your Feet! and guess what? “Heaven’s What I Feel” is not one of the numbers featured in it. Missed a trick there Gloria.

We’re back in dear old Blighty next with “four young ladies who are widely tipped to be the next big thing” according to Jo Whiley. Wow! Who can she be talking about? No, she can’t mean N–Tyce can she?! The All Saints wannabes (check out their carbon copy cargo pants) who’d been around for a year, released three singles of which none got higher than No 12 and whose album peaked at No 44?! That N-Tyce? Couldn’t Whiley have come up with a more suitable intro? It’s almost sarcastic in its tone. “Boom Boom” was the fourth and final of those singles and it really is lowest common denominator stuff. The lyrics to the chorus are:

“Ooh it’s boom boom, hey it’s boom boom, yeah it’s boom boom, ooh it’s boom boom”

It’s not Radiohead is it? Apologies to Ario, Chantal, Donna and Michelle (yes I obviously had to look their names up) and they could, of course say “who are you to judge us and our four medium sized hits? Where’s your hits?” and that would be absolutely valid but ‘the next big thing’? No chance.

Our international tour finishes back in Ireland where we find, according to Jo Whiley in her intro, the youngest ever all girl group to have a No 1 record. Not only that but they’ve gone straight in week one at the top which not even the Spice Girls nor All Saints could lay claim to. Now surely these girls were the act that you should have been referring to as ‘the next big thing’ Jo? Two of the four piece act are the sisters of Boyzone’s Shane Lynch, a connection which actually works against my global theme rather. Three people not just from the same country but from the same family across two different acts. It’s all a bit parochial.

B*Witched appeared fully formed seemingly from nowhere and went straight to the top with their debut release “C’est La Vie”. Every year during the late 90s there seemed to be a single that would cause a selling sensation – “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt, “MMMBop” by Hanson, “Killing Me Softly” by The Fugees and now this one. The very definition of joyful, this bubbly (if cheesy) pop confection bounced around your head almost as energetically as the girls bounced around the TOTP studio stage whilst performing it. Seriously, the whole thing was just exhausting. In some ways, it was preposterous. The Irish dancing breakdown section is sonically and visually ludicrous and the “Fight like me Da as well” line cranks up the cringe factor but somehow it all hangs together and just works. Indeed, the bridge into the chorus is almost pop perfection.

“C’est La Vie” would kickstart a period of undiluted and outright commercial success for the group with their first four singles all going to No 1 whilst their debut eponymous album went double platinum. That level of popularity proved hard to maintain and, almost inevitably, there was a downturn in sales come the release of second album “Awake And Breathe” and its attendant singles. By the time it came to recording a third album, the jig was up and they were dropped by their label Sony leading to the group splitting in 2002. Their management’s decision to base the vocals and focal point around Edele Lynch probably didn’t help build career longevity with the resentment it caused amongst the other group members. Those tensions were brought out into the open again when a spot on ITV reality show The Big Reunion in 2012 reactivated the B*Witched name but they were resolved enough that they could tour again and release new material in the form of two EPs.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1Natalie ImbrugliaWishing I Was ThereI did not
2BoyzoneAll That I NeedNever
3Super Furry AnimalsIce Hockey HairLiked it, didn’t buy it
4Mousse T versus Hot ‘n’ JuicyHorny ’98Definitely not
5Spice GirlsViva ForeverNope
6Gloria EstefanHeaven’s What I FeelNah
7N-TyceBoom BoomNo
8B*WitchedC’est La VieNo but it was a favourite of my wife’s

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002j9qq/top-of-the-pops-05061998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 29 MAY 1998

Posted on by 80stastic

It’s the end of May and, in international terms, there a lot going on. Civil unrest and riots in Indonesia, nuclear weapon testing being conducted by India and in America, there’s a tornadoes outbreak hitting places such as South Dakota and New York. However, in the UK, there were only two stories making the headlines and they pretty much broke at the same time sending the tabloids into a frenzy – Geri Halliwell announced that she was leaving the Spice Girls and national team manager Glenn Hoddle left Paul Gascoigne out of the England World Cup squad. All leave must have been cancelled within the offices of the nation’s newspapers as they scrambled to get the lowdown and inside story on these two huge events. And they were huge events despite my attempt to add some perspective to proceedings at the top of the post. The Spice Girls were a global phenomenon so losing perhaps their most prominent member was massive. Rumours had been circulating after Halliwell failed to appear with her band mates on an appearance on the National Lottery Show on the Wednesday before this TOTP was broadcast and then, four days later, a short statement was read out by her solicitor outside the offices of the group’s representatives Lee & Thompson in central London confirming that Geri had left the Spice Girls because of “differences between us” and with a cryptic P.S. added saying she’d “be back” which she was almost a year later with her debut solo single “Look At Me”. The remaining Spice Girls vowed to carry on which they did and, on the surface, with their success unaffected as their next three singles topped the charts. However, it was a fragile holding position and come the end of the decade, the group seems to be splintering with solo careers pursued and a hiatus called in December 2000…

Then there was Gazza. Despite coming towards the end of his career, he was still seen as the national team’s talisman and few would have seen his omission coming. The preliminary squad comprised 30 players of which eight needed to be discarded but when two declared themselves unfit and reduced the number to six, Gazza not making the cut seemed even more unlikely. Manager Hoddle wanted to go a different way though and two days after this TOTP aired, Gazza was given the bad news. It didn’t go down well and Gascoigne reportedly started to destroy Hoddle’s office with lamps broken and tables smashed. Was Glenn right all along though? It had been eight years since Italia ‘90 and Gaza’s tears and two years since his Indian Summer at Euro ‘96 and that goal versus Scotland. He was now plying his trade with Middlesbrough in the old first division and although they had won promotion to the Premier League, Gazza had made just seven appearances for them by this point. Internationally, England’s bright new hope was 18 year old Michael Owen and at 31, Gazza had to prove to his manager he was fit. In the end he didn’t and never played for England again. I bet he would have scored that penalty in the shootout against Argentina that David Batty missed though.

Inspiring Gazza-level of fury in me is Chris Cowey and his insistence on featuring the same songs on TOTP week after week. In this show, only three of the eight songs on view have not been on before. This is getting tedious. Our host is Zoe Ball who seems to have some insider knowledge on the whole Geri Halliwell story and is auditioning to be her replacement in her Union Jack design top. We start with The Corrs who have gone back up the charts with “Dreams” from No 10 to No 8 having fallen from its debut at No 6 which is more than enough justification for Cowey to have them on the running order again. To be fair, three consecutive weeks inside the Top 10 does rather indicate a strong, consistent seller so maybe Cowey gets away with this one. Despite being the focal point, Andrea Corr is actually the youngest of the group. I guess it’s a bit like The Osmonds where Donny was the poster boy. What? What about Little Jimmy Osmond? Oh…just forget I wrote that last bit!

Gazza/Ginger Spice connection: In 1999, Andrea Corr dated Robbie Williams briefly whilst in 2000, Geri Halliwell was in a romantic relationship with him which goes to show celebrities inhabit just as small a world as the rest of us.

Less justifiable for a place on the show for a second consecutive week is the rise of one place from No 13 to No 12 for “Kung Fu Fighting” by Bus Stop featuring Carl Douglas. Really? A rise of a solitary position but that still doesn’t crack the Top 10? My perception is that this wouldn’t have happened back in the day though no doubt there would be examples to disprove my theory if I could be bothered to trawl back through the archives (which I can’t). Watching this back, the little bow all those on stage do before the performance starts – it’s actually called Bao Quan Li with an open left palm against a clenched right fist – reminds me of when I saw Morrissey at the Hull Ice Arena a few years back when, as I recall, Moz and his band came on in kimonos and bowed at each other before starting. Bao Quan Lah signifies respect, humility and gratitude so that would make sense as a way to instil a team ethic before kicking off a show. It’s also very theatrical so perfect for Morrissey. Apparently, when Geri Halliwell was in a relationship with Russel Brand back in 2013, the comedian’s cat was called Morrissey and the animal took an instant dislike to Geri’s dog and began attacking it when they first met. Miaow!

Gazza/Ginger Spice connection: There’s no connection between Geri and Kung-Fu that I can find. Now if it had been Mel C and Kung-Fu…all those high kicks she used to do would have gone down a treat in this performance. As for Gazza, he once commandeered a bus (not sure if it was stationary at a stop) when he was stuck in a taxi in traffic and then rode it to a media awards ceremony he wasn’t invited to whilst conducting a sing sing with the passengers which sounds typical of Gazza.

Beverley Knight is one of those artists who seems to have been around for ages and whom you know something about (British R&B trailblazer with huge voice) and yet, how many of her songs could you actually name? I don’t think I could come up with one and certainly not this one – “Made It Back”. This was actually her second Top 40 hit and featured US rapper Redman though heaven only knows what his contribution to the track is as there previous little evidence of him in this performance. Maybe he was more heavily involved in a remix or extra track on the CD single? As for the song, it’s all a bit repetitive and seems more like a vocal exercise to demonstrate the power of Beverley’s voice than a song. Just my opinion of course. “Made It Back” was rereleased a year later as “Made It Back ‘99” where it peaked at No 19, two places higher than the original.

Gazza/Ginger Spice connection: Beverley is a huge Wolverhampton Wanderers fan and in 2003, Paul Gascoigne trained with Wolves in an attempt to regain enough fitness to be able to resume his top flight football career. After three games for their reserve team, no contract was forthcoming and Gazza had to accept the inevitable.

There have been loads of female singers who go by a single name. Cher, Adele, Madonna, Shakira, Enya, Beyoncé…How long though would it take before you got to Robyn in that list? If I hadn’t been doing this blog, I’m not sure I would have ever come up with her name to be honest. I don’t remember any of her three 90s hits and by the time of her 2007 No 1 “With Every Heartbeat”, I’d long since stopped following the charts. For what it’s worth, my take on this one – “Do You Really Want Me (Show Respect)” – has an almost nursery rhyme style chorus that is actually quite grating which I can’t really get past. In fact, it’s like a primary school playground taunt or something Horrible Henry might have said to his nemesis Moody Margaret – “ner ner ne ner nerr!”. It’s not for me. However, having read up on Robyn, there seems to be much more to her than my churlish comments would suggest and she has become quite the influence on modern day artists such as Charli XCX, Lorde and Ariana Grande as well as being the inspiration for the term ‘sad banger’ (which is an actual thing apparently) after the release of her song “Dancing On My Own”.

Gazza/Ginger Spice connection: None, not even one I can tenuously manufacture.

What the…? What is this?! Who were N.Y.C.C. and why were they in the charts with an horrific Beastie Boys cover?! Well, they were a German hip hop act who blatantly sought to cash in on the success of 1998’s uber chart topper “It’s Like That” by pinching its backbeat and laying it over “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)” which introduced us to the Beastie Boys back in 1987. Renaming it “Fight For Your Right (To Party)”, these berks somehow managed to take it to No 14 in the UK chart. Now potentially I suppose, there may have been punters who bought it who were too young to remember the original and so got off on its lyrics about teenage revolt (even though they were an ironic attack on such values) but even so. How could anyone have fallen for this horse shit?! It’s no shock, given that the sound of their hit has ripped off “It’s Like That”, that the staging of this performance lends from the Run-D.M.C. promo video with the two break dancers twirling about on a black and white surface the design of which makes it all look like the worst game ever of Twister but in monochrome.

Thankfully, this whole dirty episode seems to have been removed from our collective memory banks. I certainly didn’t remember N.Y.C.C. and they don’t have much of an online presence. If you google NYCC the top result is North Yorkshire County Council followed by New York Comic Con which is apt as N.Y.C.C. the group were absurdly comical. As for the real thing, the Beastie Boys would be back in our charts within a couple of weeks for the first time in four years with their biggest ever hit “Intergalactic” which made No 5.

Gazza/Ginger Spice connection: Well, there is this…

Ah damn! It’s The Mavericks again and, once more, it’s just a repeat of the same performance as every time so far. What else is there to say about “Dance The Night Away”? Well, it’s up to No 4 which would be its highest chart position after five weeks inside the Top 10 and it would spend a further three there before a slow descent of the Top 40 that would take just over two months before they exited for good. A quick search online for content inspiration sadly shows that lead singer Raul Malo is currently undergoing hernia surgery to address complications from previous cancer surgery treatment and, as such, the band are having to withdraw from touring commitments. Let’s hope all goes well for Raul in his recovery.

Gazza/Ginger Spice connection: There’s an obvious one and a tenuous one (of course there is!). Firstly, Gazza? Maverick? Come on – he was the very definition of a footballing maverick bringing back memories of those great 70s free spirits like Rodney Marsh, Stan Bowles, Tony Currie and Alan Hudson. The tenuous connection involves Raul Malo whose name is very nearly identical to someone who loomed large in one of the weirdest chapters in Gazza’s personal story…

You really don’t get many people called Lutricia do you? Apart from Lutricia McNeal who is back on the show with her single “Stranded”, I can only find one other ‘celebrity’ with that first name who is one Lutricia Norris who is an actor and producer who has been in the ITV show Bad Girls and The Importance Of Being Earnest alongside Rupert Everett and Colin Firth. She’s also worked on the music video for “Dancing Is Healing” by Rudimental apparently. As insignificant the above information is in relation to this blog, it’s still more interesting and relevant than “Stranded”.

Gazza/Ginger Spice connection: This one’s a hoot. In 2008, Geri Halliwell was stuck in a lift at the Lakeside shopping centre in Essex delaying her book signing appearance by an hour while firefighters worked to free her. Yes, she was literally stranded.

It’s taken six weeks but “Feel It” by The Tamperer featuring Maya has made it to No 1. Now admittedly it’s not the epic four months journey to the top that Celine Dion experienced with “Think Twice” in 1994/95 nor the nine weeks that it took All Saints to scale the heights with “Never Ever” but it was still not the norm in 1998. It sort of feels like it got there by default though what with no big, week one releases gatecrashing the charts (there were no new entries into the Top 10) and with last week’s No 1 by All Saints having already been at the top twice in non consecutive weeks. Unfair? Possibly but it only just made the Top 20 of the year’s biggest sellers. They would have two further big hits over the next six months so let’s not worry about them too much.

Gazza/Ginger Spice connection: “Feel It”, of course, borrowed heavily from “ Can You Feel It” by The Jackson 5 and there was a bloke in Lindisfarne with whom Gazza had a hit with his version of “Fog On The Tyne” called Ray Jackson. Too tenuous? OK, how about this? There was an American comedy series on Hulu called Pen15 which featured its two main characters dressing up as the Spice Girls in one episode and one of the characters was called Maya. No, you’re right. I’m not feeling it either.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it ?
1The CorrsDreamsN
2Bus Stop featuring Carl DouglasKung Fu FightingNot likely
3Beverley KnightMade It BackNot for me
4RobynDo You Really Want Me (Show Respect)Nope
5N.Y.C.C.Fight For Your Right (To Party)Lord no!
6The MavericksDance The Night AwayNegative
7Lutricia McNealStrandedNah
8The Tamperer featuring MayaFeel ItI didn’t

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002j9qn/top-of-the-pops-29051998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 22 MAY 1998

Posted on by 80stastic

It might just be because I’m getting fed up of having to write something different about the same songs that keep appearing in these TOTP repeats every week but I’m starting to really dislike the Chris Cowey era of the show. Take this episode for example. It features nine songs of which only three haven’t been on before and this new practice of having the host list the names of the artists appearing on each show in their introduction isn’t convincing me. Was the landslide of names meant to distract the watching TV audience hoping they wouldn’t notice it was the same acts each week? It’s clever in a way – dazzling us with a cavalcade of names but which were blatantly the same ones each week. Talk about hiding in plain sight. Tonight’s list-reader (literally – the placard is shown on camera at one point) is the increasingly prevalent Jamie Theakston and we start with The Mavericks and their hit “Dance The Night Away”. Judging by the cutaway shots, this seems to be a reshowing of their previous performance on the show which got me thinking about just how many artists were actually in the studio with an audience on a weekly basis under Cowey? Was the show under budgetary restrictions meaning performances had to be recycled whatever their respective chart positions may be? Anyway, I think The Mavericks had a genuine case for being back on the show having risen to No 8after falling to No 10 the week before. It would rise to a peak of No 4 when the next chart was published and you know what that means…yes, they’ll be featuring in the next repeat as well. Here’s a thing though, whilst “Dance The Night Away” is undoubtedly their best known song over here, in America it seems it might be one of their least known if chart positions have any sway. Of their 15 entries on the US Country chart, only two have placed lower than “Dance The Night Away”. What does this mean? Does it, in fact, mean anything? I think I’m past caring.

OK so this next performance isn’t just a rerun of a previous one. You can tell by the camera shot that travels from Jamie Theakston positioned high up on a gantry down to the studio floor where we find Steps. Again. I think this is the third time they’ve been on performing “Last Thing On My Mind” but, as with The Mavericks before them, have a legitimate spot on the show having risen from No 9 to No 7 in the charts after falling two weeks prior. You can tell also that it’s a new performance as the group have changed their outfits to be dressed in all white. Was this to project an image of virtue and wholesomeness? To be fair, I can’t recall many Steps controversies in the press. Have there been any?

*checks internet*

Hmm. Well, there was the time Lee Latchford-Evans made some comments in an interview in 2000 that were perceived as racist that required an apology from the group’s representatives. Then there’s the upset caused by the announcement of their split on Boxing Day 2001 that some of their fan base felt was a betrayal. However, my favourite controversy is the disclosure by Lisa Scott-Lee that on the group’s 1999 US tour, Ian ‘H’ Watkins upset the other members by travelling for three months on the private jet of one Britney Spears whilst the rest of them slummed it on a tour bus. Ha!

It’s the third hit on tonight’s show in a row that we have already seen now as Imaani gets to enjoy the last few seconds of her 15 minutes of fame. She was, of course, the UK’s 1998 Eurovision entry but with the contest having been and gone nearly two weeks ago, interest in her and her song “Where Are You?” was starting to wane. That being said, she had moved up 17 places in this week’s chart which was the biggest leap of the year to that point but her position of No 15 would be where her trajectory stopped. Had she won instead of losing by a mere six points would things have turned out differently for Imaani? I’m not so sure. I just don’t think her song was that memorable. Gina G didn’t come anywhere near to winning two years before yet “Ooh Aah…Just A Little Bit” was a huge seller going all way to No 1 precisely because it was memorable whether you liked it or not. Instead, Imaani became the first UK Eurovision artist not to make the Top 10 since Frances Rufelle in 1994.

A new song! Finally! Yeah, but it’s that remake of “Kung Fu Fighting” so careful what you wish for…Officially credited to Bus Stop featuring Carl Douglas as it featured samples of the latter’s original No 1 from 1974, this was another example of that heinous trend for taking songs from the past and ‘updating’ them with the addition of a nasty Eurodance backbeat and a rap, the lyrics of which, read as if they were literally being made up freeform, on the hoof (see also Clock). Daz Sampson was the main guy behind Bus Stop who would go on to represent the UK at Eurovision in 2006 coming 19th out of 24 acts.

The original 1974 hit capitalised on the popularity of the martial arts films of Bruce Lee in the early to mid 70s and the TV series Kung Fu starring David Carradine and included prominently the ‘Oriental Riff’*, a Western trope to represent the setting of East or Southeast Asia. It’s also used in Aneka’s “Japanese Boy” and “Turning Japanese” by The Vapors. Is it in Iggy Pop’s “China Girl” as covered by David Bowie as well? Not sure.

*I believe the use of the word ‘oriental’ is not considered racist as long as it isn’t referring to a person.

It’s sometimes concluded by the sound of a gong. Off the top of my head, I can think of two songs that utilise that – “Big In Japan” by Alphaville and “Burning Sky” by The Jam but there must be more. Anyway, back to “Kung Fu Fighting” and it has twice been voted the No 1 One Hit Wonder in Channel 4 polls even though Carl Douglas had two other minor hits and despite the fact that the 1998 remake made it a hit all over again when it reached No 8. As for Bus Stop, they forged themselves a small pop career with two further remakes of songs that were hits way back when from Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Van Halen before doing us all a favour and knocking it on the head. I did quite enjoy the high kicking by the backing singer in this performance though, plus I noticed her doing that arm roll move that the Steps routine was based around. Was that a thing back then? Bizarrely, this was the second Kung Fu themed hit in this month after 187 Lockdown’s No 9 hit “Kung Fu”. However, my favourite song featuring “Kung Fu” in the title would be this…

It’s taken a while but Lutricia McNeal has finally released her follow up to “Ain’t That Just The Way” that debuted on the chart back in November 1997. I’m guessing that the reason for the delay was the chart longevity of that single which stayed inside the Top 40 for nigh on four months. Her management had to wait for the sales to subside so as not to affect those of any follow up. “Stranded” was said follow up and it was more of the same, radio friendly R&B/pop hybrid that was beloved of daytime radio controllers. I mean, it’s pleasant enough chugging away on a radio in the background but it was never going to grab my ears and make me want to turn the volume up LOUD! What’s more interesting to me than her song is the lighting on this performance. It seems to be in black and white except for some pools of spotlight of a blue-ish/purple hue. Was that Cowey trying to be all arty? Or is my TV on the blink?

It’s a third time on the show for The Tamperer featuring Maya with “Feel It” which, like the Bus Stop hit before it, was heavily based around a hit from a previous era – “Can You Feel It” by The Jacksons. Didn’t anyone have any original ideas in 1998? OK, that’s not really a fair comment. The notion of combining The Jacksons with a little known track by a little known outfit in Urban Discharge and creating one of the most unlikely but memorable hooks of the decade with the line “What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her?” was creative inspiration in action. After two more hits though, Maya went missing in action and left the project. Well, she wasn’t exactly missing in action. She actually went to join the cast of Rent on Broadway and when her contract with her record label was up, it wasn’t renewed. Mystery solved. Maya Days would continue her acting career with roles in Jesus Christ Superstar and Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida. As far as I can tell, she has yet to play a character that involved wearing a chimney.

Now I thought my knowledge of Shed Seven hits was pretty good – not infallible but not bad at all. However, I find myself undone by this one – “The Heroes”. Nothing to do with Bowie’s classic track – the addition of a definite article in the title makes that clear and in any case, if they were tempted to do a cover version then Oasis had already beaten them to it – this was actually the third single taken from their third studio album “Let It Ride”. In my defence, it lasted only two weeks on the Top 40 suggesting that it was just the completists in their fan base buying it. It doesn’t sound strong enough to be a single to me – much more of an album track. It’s… well… a bit downbeat and glum. Maybe they should have released a cover of “Heroes” after all.

Eh? All Saints have gone back to No 1 after being deposed by Aqua last week? Looking at the rest of the Top 10, I’m thinking it wasn’t the biggest week for new releases with the highest being Lutricia McNeal at No 5 which might have accounted for this. To mark the occasion, we get both songs of their double A-Side single “Under The Bridge / Lady Marmalade”. Who did All Saints think they were? Oasis? The Jam? It’s just the previous appearances on the show spliced together though rather than a new exclusive performance.

In a couple of weeks, another all girl group will be at No 1 and it’s not the Spice Girls. Que Será Será or should that be C’est La Vie?

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1The MavericksDance The Night AwayI did not
2StepsLast Thing On My MindNever happening
3ImaaniWhere Are You?Negative
4Bus Stop featuring Carl DouglasKung Fu FightingNope
5Lutricia McNealStrandedNot for me thanks
6The Tamperer featuring MayFeel ItNah
7Shed SevenThe HeroesNo
8All SaintsUnder The Bridge / Lady MarmaladeNo but my wife had the album I think

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002j0xt/top-of-the-pops-22051998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 15 MAY 1998

Posted on by 80stastic

It’s mid May 1998 and my beloved Chelsea FC have just won another cup! Having won a major trophy for the first time in 26 years the previous season when they lifted the FA Cup, they followed it up with two more in 1998. The League Cup was secured in March and now a European trophy as the Cup Winners’ Cup came back to Stamford Bridge after we beat Stuttgart in the final 1-0 two days before this TOTP aired. I couldn’t believe it! Three trophies in two seasons! My whole youth had had seen us in just one semi-final (which we lost) and then, as I was approaching 30, we were suddenly good! I wonder if any of the artists in this show were experiencing a renaissance period after a significant amount of time being shit?

Tonight’s host is Jo Whiley whom I thought for years was a bit shit but I’ve begrudgingly come round to in later years. The opening act are All Saints who I don’t think went through a crap phase, not commercially anyway, at least in their first incarnation. After two performances of “Under The Bridge”, their third consecutive appearance on the show sees them get to grips with the other A-side of their hit – Labelle’s “Lady Marmalade”. Now, if you judge this by just the chorus, and let’s face it that’s how we judge most songs, it’s a pretty faithful interpretation. However, the lyrics in the verses have been completely rewritten with Shaznay Lewis performing them as a rap. It works OK I’d say – better than their cover of “Under The Bridge” anyway. The girls are still wedded to their cargo pants look which has served them well to be fair in terms of their band image. I will comment though that executive producer Chris Cowey clearly had a great affection for them – All Saints I mean not their cargo pants. After their multiple appearances on the show for the seemingly never ending chart run of “Never Ever”, here they were top and tailing two shows having been the final artist on last week’s show as the No 1 and the first on this week’s despite having dropped a place. And there’s more…next week they return to the top spot and perform both tracks of the single on TOTP!

As Jo Whiley says, we have two songs from the 70s starting the show off as, after “Lady Marmalade” (a UK No 17 hit in 1975), we have Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”. One of the many standout tracks from the legendary “Rumours” album, it made No 24 in 1977. However, that one statistic doesn’t tell the whole tale of its chart history as it has been more successful in the digital age via streaming platforms generating weeks and weeks back in the UK charts. Indeed, it is at No 52 in this week’s chart as I write this post in September 2025! It wasn’t the Fleetwood Mac version that saw it in the charts of 1998 though – we have arrived at the era of The Corrs. Now just as Chelsea weren’t pulling up any trees in the early 80s trundling along in the old Division 2, this family band from Dundalk, Ireland also struggled to make an impression early on in their career, in the UK charts at least.

Beginning their career playing in their Auntie’s bar, they quickly gained recognition via their cameo appearances in The Commitments movie and then via performances on a global stage at the 1994 World Cup, 1996 Summer Olympics and a support slot on the Celine Dion tour. Their debut album “Forgiven, Not Forgotten” sold well in their native Ireland plus Canada, Australia and Japan. However, success in the US and UK remained slight. Follow up album “Talk On Corners” would change all that and then some but not until it was rereleased with the track “Dreams” added to it which the group had recorded for a Fleetwood Mac tribute album and performed live at the Royal Albert Hall alongside Mick Fleetwood. The reaction to that performance convinced the band and their label to release it as a single but with a Tin Tin Out remix to make it more palatable for the dance market. “Dreams” easily became their biggest hit to that point when it peaked at No 6 – none of their previous seven singles had got any higher than No 43. The “Talk On Corners” album would go nine times platinum in the UK alone and become the best selling album of 1998 aided by the release of a ‘special edition’ that included five extra tracks.

Much was made of the group’s image with special attention being given to lead singer Andrea. Now a band’s front person receiving the most press was not unheard of – indeed it was an inevitable occurrence, almost natural especially when you looked like Andrea Corr. However, with her two sisters Sharon and Caroline hardly looking like “a bag of spanners” (as Terry Wogan ironically used to refer to them), it meant that brother Jim would somehow be seen as the weak link, letting the side down as it were which was patently ridiculous but took such a hold in the nation’s collective mind that it led to sketches like the one below. We’ll be seeing lots more of The Corrs in future TOTP repeats. Beautiful!

Ah now, if you ask my mate Robin whether there have been times when Simply Red suffered from, let’s say… ‘not being at the top of their game’, he would probably reply “Yes, of course. Everything they’ve ever released is absolute shit” and many would agree with him. From a purely commercial perspective though, come the end of the 90s, though they were hardly battling relegation to Division 3 as Chelsea did in 1983, they weren’t the title favourites that they used to be either. Gone were the 12 times platinum days of “Stars”. Their 1998 album “Blue” only sold 600,000 copies compared to even previous album “Life”’s 1.5 million and by the time of decade closer “Love And The Russian Winter”, sales were halved again. Now when I used the word ‘only’, it’s relative. Those are still big numbers but Hucknall clearly couldn’t command the sales that he used to. When it comes to singles, Simply Red were never been a big hitter. Out of 26 singles released up to this point, only six had made the Top 10 (although that did include one No 1). Seven didn’t even make the Top 40 at all. Set against those figures, “Say You Love Me” making No 7 was akin to Chelsea having a cup run in the bad old days of my teenage years. Their lead single from the aforementioned “Blue” album, it was hardly anything groundbreaking but it was a perfect daytime playlist track that Hucknall could sell in his sleep. However, he would follow it up with a horrible cover of the old Hollies hit “The Air That I Breathe” and for that alone he should never be forgiven regardless of all his other musical misdemeanours that Robin could list.

It’s LeAnn Rimes next…again. I think this the third time she’s been on the show already with “How Do I Live?”. What else can I say about this one? Well, have I already talked about the fact that two different versions of the song were released on the same day – one by Rimes and another by Trisha Yearwood and that both versions were nominated for Best Female Country Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards which was the first time such an occurrence had ever happened? Only one version could be performed at the event and LeAnn was chosen. She belted out the song in a career best turn apparently. As soon as she left the stage though, the award in her category was made and they gave it to Trisha Yearwood! Talk about awkward! It’s the football equivalent of Bayern Munich completely outplaying Chelsea in the 2012 Champions League final played at the German team’s own ground and being beaten on penalties. Get In!

P.S. What extremely tenuous connection is there between “How Do I Live?” to this week’s No 1? All will be revealed later.

The links are writing themselves for Jo Whiley tonight. Firstly, she can highlight the connection between two 70s songs opening the show in “Lady Marmalade” and “Dreams” and now she can segue from one teenage singer in LeAnn Rimes to a whole group of them in Cleopatra. Having made No 4 with their debut hit “Cleopatra’s Theme”, they repeated the trick with follow up “Life Ain’t Easy”. It’s a bit smoother on the ear than its predecessor, less jarring somehow though the vocals do have a tendency to grate and why does one of them have a rucksack on their back 3T style? To highlight that they were still school age? Was that good idea? Surely not. Jo Whiley’s comment about “Madonna’s Mancunian mavericks” was a reference to the fact that the group were signed to her label Maverick in America. Just two singles into their career and they had Madonna as a mentor? Maybe life was easy after all…

Next a song I always confuse with “C U When U Get There” by Coolio for no other reason than that they’re both by rappers and the song titles suggest journeys conducted over a period of time. I’m easily confused is my only excuse. “Gone Till November” was the third and joint biggest solo hit by ex-Fugee Wyclef Jean. It starts off all calm and melodic but then when the rapping starts, chaos ensues and it becomes almost unlistenable especially in this performance in which Wyclef’s vocals aren’t the strongest. Maybe the recorded version is better though this single edit is the ‘pop’ version so presumably more mainstream than the album track? Like “The Show” by Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew over a decade earlier, it features an awful interpolation of “Michelle” by The Beatles. Compared to his Fugees output, I would say his solo stuff is the equivalent of Chelsea’s 1978/79 team which finished bottom of the league with just five wins out of 42 games. I really suffered for my team in my childhood!

I still haven’t provided the answer to my previous teaser (it’s really not worth waiting for either) but here’s another one. What links Wyclef Jean with the next act on the show who is Adam Garcia? The Bee Gees of course. Wyclef’s debut solo single was “We Trying To Stay Alive” which sampled the disco classic “Stayin’ Alive” whilst Adam Garcia is on the show to perform “Night Fever” from the soundtrack of the jukebox musical Saturday Night Fever based on the 1977 film of the same name. Garcia was starring as Tony Manero, the character played by John Travolta in the movie during the musical’s run at the London Palladium. He’s clearly got those iconic dance moves down pat judging by this performance but as ever with these jukebox musicals, the question remains of why would you want the soundtrack to the show when you could just have the original tracks in their full glory? That’s especially true with Saturday Night Fever with the show following the film’s plot (albeit with the darker elements removed) as opposed to a completely new story that features the songs of a particular artist.

Ooh, here’s another connections teaser – what’s the link between Adam Garcia and LeAnn Rimes? The 2000 film Coyote Ugly which starred Garcia and the soundtrack of which featured four songs by Rimes including the UK No 1 “Can’t Fight The Moonlight”. I love it when a post comes together!

We have yet another new No 1 and I’m not saying anything perceptive nor insightful by stating that nobody saw this song coming from this artist. Yes, Aqua are back at the head of the pack with their third consecutive chart topper “Turn Back Time”. Now, achieving that feat might well have been seen as completely beyond the Danish group based on the cartoon pop of their first (and admittedly) mega hit “Barbie Girl”. Even when copycat follow up “Dr Jones” replicated that position, many must have believed that a third No 1 was surely beyond them? Well, had they stuck to the formula of those first two hits, maybe the UK record buying public wouldn’t have fallen for it a third time but the truth is that Aqua released a song I certainly didn’t know they were capable of. “Turn Back Time” was nothing like its predecessors. A proper ballad with proper singing from vocalist Lene Nystrøm rather than those squeaky noises we’d come to expect. True, there is a weird, incongruous breakdown near the end but I think we can overlook that. Also (thankfully) overlooked was that bald bloke who’d supplied the unsettling “Come on Barbie, let’s go party” line in “Barbie Girl”. Is he even on stage in this performance? Oh, is that him sat on a stool holding a tambourine with a hoodie and glasses disguising his striking look? Might be. A fourth No 1 was a step too far and Aqua would only return to the Top 10 twice more after this and one of those was a remake of “Barbie Girl” in light of the success of the 2023 Barbie film. Still, “Turn Back Time” allowed Aqua to always be able to say that there was more to them than just that song.

Oh, the link between LeAnn Rimes and Aqua? “How Do I Live?” was written by songwriting legend Dianne Warren who also penned “If I Could Turn Back Time” for Cher and if I really could turn back time, I wouldn’t have tried to make such a tenuous link in the first place.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1All SaintsUnder The Bridge / Lady MarmaladeNo but I think my wife had the album
2The CorrsDreamsIt’s a no
3Simply RedSay You Love MeNever happening
4LeAnn RimesHow Do I Live?Negative
5CleopatraLife Ain’t EasyNah
6Wyclef Jean Gone Till NovemberI did not
7Adam GarciaNight FeverNope
8AquaTurn Back TimeNo

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.

TOTP 08 MAY 1998

Posted on by 80stastic

It’s that time of the year again in 1998 when, as a nation, we outwardly cringed in embarrassment at the very idea of it but, on the night itself, found ourselves at home watching it on our TVs anyway. Yes, it can only be the Eurovision Song Contest and in 1998, the UK was the host nation having won the thing the year before courtesy of Katrina And The Waves. The National Indoor Centre in Birmingham was the chosen venue and our hosts for the evening were Sir Terry Wogan (of course) and Ulrika Jonsson who was very familiar with the location for the contest as it was where she filmed the ITV show Gladiators. She was also one of the resident captains on surreal panel show Shooting Stars with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer so her profile was suitably in the ascendancy to be the go to co-host for such an event. Sadly, just one month later, she was in the headlines again having been assaulted by her then boyfriend, footballer Stan Collymore in a Paris bar during the 1998 World Cup. Let’s concentrate on much lighter events though and some would argue none is more lightweight than Eurovision. However, one person taking it seriously was my record shop colleague Stephen who was so confident in the UK entry that he bet me a fiver that it would win. I didn’t share his faith and took the bet. Who won Eurovision and therefore the bet as well? That’s all to come but for now let’s get back to the charts and TOTP where we find Jamie Theakston on presenting duties for a second consecutive week. Presumably executive producer Chris Cowey must have liked what he saw from Theakston though he didn’t seem to bring anything extra to the show for me.

Talking of not bringing anything extra to the show, despite the new theme tune and titles, Cowey has only brought us three new tunes for this week with five of the eight hits having already been on before including opener “Feel It” by The Tamperer featuring Maya. This one was featured on the show before last and will be on a further two times subsequently. As such, I don’t know what to write about it as I pretty much said it all previously. However, as it’s very heavily based on the 1981 hit “Can You Feel It” by The Jacksons, I did look up whether there were any cover versions of it out there and there are including one by a group I’ve never heard of before. V anyone? I guess I wasn’t really their target audience seeing as they were a boy band and I was 36 years old when this hit was in 2004. Plus, it was four years after I’d left my time in record shops behind me. Anyway, it’s a fairly routine cover that adds literally nothing to the original but got to No 5 as a double A-side with a track called “Hip To Hip”.

Easily beating V in the entertainment stakes though is this version of The Tamperer track by the aforementioned Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer as their Mulligan and O’Hare characters:

Eurovision credentials: None but the Bosnia and Herzegovina entry in 2012 was by an artist called Maya Sar. She finished 18th.

Now for that performance by Boyzone that the band were unable to do last week due to the death of Ronan Keating’s mother. In the intervening seven days, the lads have dropped from No 1 to No 4 but an exclusive performance is an exclusive performance so here they are with “All That I Need”. This must be one of the most forgettable chart toppers of the decade but then, let’s be fair, most of their well known songs are cover versions anyway. I’m thinking “Love Me For A Reason” (The Osmonds), “Father And Son” (Cat Stevens), “Words” (Bee Gees) and “When The Going Gets Tough” (Billy Ocean). Oh, and perhaps their best known song was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber. I think that says a lot if not everything. Nothing else to see here.

Eurovision credentials: Just 12 months prior to this, Ronan Keating had been the co-host for the contest which took place in Dublin. Boyzone were the interval act performing a song called “Let The Message Run Free”.

Now this next one is interesting on a number of fronts. Firstly, hands up who remembered/knew that Freak Power had more than one hit? Not me for sure but here it is – a No 29 hit called “No Way”. Thankfully nothing to do with that awful novelty hit “No Way, No Way” by Vanilla from earlier in the year, on initial hearing I thought it sounded very similar to their huge hit “Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out” but by the end of the track I’d decided it sounded like something else – this from the multi-talented and much missed Kirsty MacColl…

Of further interest is the staging for this one which shows a sudden burst of creativity that had been missing for a while from the show. The setting of a house party with vocalist Ashley Slater positioned next door and banging against the partition wall as Norman Cook and a host of party goers live it up was…well… interesting as I say. Given that Freak Power seemed to have run their course after the aforementioned “Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out” had been a hit three years prior to “No Way” and that the material they released in between hadn’t generated any hits and that he’d had more commercial success with another vehicle Pizzaman, I wonder why he returned to the Freak Power moniker for this one? Whatever the reason, this would be the last we would hear from Freak Power which is a shame.

Eurovision credentials: Ashley Slater provided the original vocals for the 2015 UK entry “Still In Love With You”. He didn’t want to be involved in promoting it though so he withdrew from the project and duo Electro Velvet fronted the song. It placed 24th out of 27 with just five points.

Next come an act that many would consider perfect for Eurovision. In May 1998, Steps were only at the beginning of a career whose longevity very few of us would have predicted with “Last Thing On My Mind” being just their second single release. After the almost novelty debut single ”5,6,7,8” which had jumped on the bandwagon of the line dancing craze that was sweeping the country, the follow up couldn’t have sounded more like Eurovision giants ABBA if it tried. Actually, it was written to try to sound like the Swedish megastars as part of Pete Waterman’s plan to revive Bananarama’s career by pursuing project ‘ABBA-Banana’. Anyway, listening back to it now, if it had been our Eurovision entry in 1998, it would have been a shoo-in to triumph at the contest and I would not have taken that bet with my work colleague Stephen. They even had a Bucks Fizz style gimmmick with that arm roll move. In fact, given the tacky nature of the contest, it wouldn’t have been beyond the realms of possibility for “5,6,7,8” to have gone close to winning the thing. Apparently, there have been discussions within the group about participating but, although Ian ‘H’ Watkins would do it in a heartbeat, some of the other members aren’t as keen or convinced. I’m sure though that if they could be persuaded, the UK would have its best chance of winning in years.

Eurovision credentials: Apart from everything already mentioned, they won the OGAE Song Contest – Organisation Générale des Amateurs de l’Eurovision or General Organisation of Eurovision Fans – in 2018 with their single “Scared Of The Dark”.

Some hip-hop now courtesy of the Jungle Brothers. You know me, I’m a pop kid at heart so my knowledge of this lot is the equivalent of what Nigel Farage knows about being a decent human being – nothing. Thankfully Wikipedia is there to tell me all about them. They’re from New York and are acknowledged as pioneers of the fusion of the hip-hop, house and jazz genres (oh, so they’re not just hip-hop then – told you I knew nothing about them). They paved the way for A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and founded the Native Tongues collective of hip-hop artists that included Monie Love, Queen Latifah and Busta Rhymes in its membership. Their biggest UK hit up to this point had been 1988’s “I’ll House You” but that was superseded by “Jungle Brother (Urban Takeover Mix)” which made No 18. I have to say it sounds like a lot of shouting to me but the breakdancers supporting them were impressive. They didn’t fall over or go Boom Bang a Bang once.

Eurovision credentials: Absolutely none whatsoever.

“How Do I Live” by LeAnn Rimes was yet another of those songs that lingered on the charts for literally months around this time. I wrote in a recent post how the aforementioned “5,6,7,8” by Steps was, at the time, the biggest selling single in the UK never to make the Top 10. Well, “How Do I Live” has a similar accolade – despite never getting any higher than No 7, its solid 30 (THIRTY!) weeks inside the Top 40 meant that it was the 6th best selling single of 1998 in the UK. It’s quite hard to get your head around – it ranked higher in the end of year chart than at any point during its Top 40 life. I think we must have got caught out by its longevity in the Our Price where I worked a few times thinking its chart run would have to be over soon and therefore running down stock only for it to reverse its sales and go back up the charts which it did on NINE occasions! It seems that the record buying public weren’t any good at making their collective mind up about whether they could live without that particular track.

Eurovision connection: None but LeAnn has appeared on a singing contest – both the Australian and UK versions of The Voice.

So we arrive at the act with genuine Eurovision credentials given that she was the UK’s actual entry this year but who was Imaani? Well, she hailed from Nottingham, her birth name was Melonie Crosdale and she got into the music industry via a chance encounter with a record producer on a train journey. After contributing some vocals to an album by acid jazzers Incognito, she became the UK’s Eurovision entry after a protracted selection process that started in early February and involved a semi final broadcast on Radio 2, appearances by the finalists on The National Lottery Draw and a tele-vote on The Great British Song Contest* broadcast on BBC1 in March.

*Ooh, now here’s a nice little tie-in. The song that came third in that final was by a group called Sapphire (who’d changed their name from Kitt halfway through the process). The singer in Sapphire was one Kate Cameron who worked with Norman Cook under his Pizzaman name and is a backing singer with Freak Power. This really should have gone in the Eurovision credentials section for Freak Power as well.

Imaani’s winning song was “Where Are You?” and she duly embarked on the usual circus of promotional duties including appearances on Blue Peter, Live & Kicking and Fully Booked. In fact, the release of her song as a single came as early as the 21st of March but it spent six weeks bouncing around the very bottom end of the charts between Nos 99 and 76 before the exposure it gained as the contest itself loomed ever closer pushed it into the Top 40 where it would peak at No 15. So, about the song itself. Well, I couldn’t remember how it went but listening to it back, Imaani does a decent impression of Toni Braxton. However, and this is why I didn’t share my colleague Stephen’s faith in it and took his bet, it didn’t sound very Eurovision. Now, I have no idea what the Eurovision sound is anymore with the contest having transcended its legacy definitions and morphed out into all sorts of musical directions but back in 1998, it just didn’t seem to fit the bill to me.

So how did Imaani do on the big night and did I win the bet? Yes I did but only just with “Where Are You?” coming in second to the winner by just six points. By today’s standards, that was a stellar performance but after winning it the year before, was it possibly seen as a disappointment? Surely not. And the winner? Well, this caused many headlines and not all positive as Israel’s Dana International took the crown with the track “Diva” and, in the process, became the first transgender participant in the contest and its first LGBTQ+ winning artist. Twenty-seven years later and the world is still tying itself up in knots over everything transgender. As for Imaani, she returned to working with Incognito and supplied lead vocals on a garage cover of Adina Howard’s “Freak Like Me” by Tru Faith and Dub Conspiracy which made No 12 in 2000. She released her first and so far only solo album in 2014 (some 16 years after her Eurovision moment) and as recently as 2023, was part of the Revival Collective that recorded a version of “Best Of My Love” by The Emotions.

Eurovision credentials: I think we’ve covered these in sufficient detail above.

As predicted by Jamie Theakston last week, All Saints are No 1 with “Under The Bridge” / “Lady Marmalade”. We get the former track again this week but it’s a different performance as the group aren’t high up in a gantry like last time but back on Terra Firma. I must say, although I’m not the biggest fan of their treatment of the Red Hot Chili Peppers classic, I am quite taken with how they managed to get maximum impact out of minimal movement in the dance routine they put together for it. Minor hip shakes and small scale footsteps show that sometimes less really is more.

Eurovision credentials: None but the phrase ‘never ever’ is a key lyric in the track “No No Never” by German entry Texas Lightning which came 14th in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1The Tamperer featuring MayaFeel ItI did not
2BoyzoneAll That I NeedNo Way
3Freak PowerNo WayGood song but no
4StepsLast Thing On My MindNope
5Jungle BrothersJungle Brother (Urban Takeover Mix)No
6LeAnn RimesHow Do I Live?Nah
7ImaaniWhere Are You?No but thanks for the fiver
8All SaintsUnder The Bridge / Lady MarmaladeNo but my wife had the album I think

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002hqxx/top-of-the-pops-08051998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 01 MAY 1998

Posted on by 80stastic

We’ve reached a TOTP milestone – no, nothing to do with my blog (though my 400th post for the 90s shows happened recently). This was all about executive producer Chris Cowey who has taken the decision to change the show’s theme tune and titles. Graphics wise, gone are the flaming torsos and gold medal style logo to be replaced by a more back to basics flurry of primary colours, stripes, circles and lines that morphed into a 60s themed, almost pop art styled motif with bold font. The theme tune was even more retro bring a drum ‘n’ bass-ified take on “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin, an instrumental version of which by CCS was used on the show from 1970 to 1977. The new opening music was the work of Bad Man Bad (aka Ben Chapman) and I’m guessing was meant to be an obvious homage to the show’s past but with a current vibe to ensure it remained contemporary and relevant. Cowey had taken nearly a year to bring in these changes, taking his time and experimenting with not having a theme tune at all (Vince Clarke’s “Red Hot Pop” had been phased out during 1997/98 having been in place since 1995). I think I prefer the changes as opposed to nothing at all which had led to a lack of show identity.

The first presenter in this new era was Jamie Theakston and the first artist was All Saints who, having spent months (literally) in the charts with their second single and first No 1 “Never Ever”, are back with…a cover version?! Yes, just three singles into their career and they’ve already hit the cover version button by recording “Under The Bridge” by Red Hot Chili Peppers. Now, as we have seen many, many times over the course of these TOTP repeats, the recording of a cover version can be a break-in-case-of-emergency strategy to save a dwindling pop career but this can’t have been the case with All Saints as they were riding the crest of a commercial wave. So what gives? Were some of the other tracks on their eponymous debut album not considered strong enough to maintain their momentum? That particular theory might have held more sway if the single after this one – “Bootie Call” – had bombed but it didn’t. In fact, it was a third, consecutive No 1 for the group. As such, I am at a loss as to why they went with a cover version so early on in their career but they were so sold on the idea that they doubled down on it by releasing two covers when they made the single a double A-side with the other track being their take on Labelle’s “Lady Marmalade”. Gitchie, gitchie ya-ya, da-da!

Whilst I quite like the staging of this performance with the group positioned on a gantry above the studio audience, I wasn’t that keen on their rendition of “Under The Bridge”. They changed the intonation of both the verse and chorus thereby affecting the melody which made it quite jarring to my ears. Yes, they at least attempted to do something different with it and yes, a change of phrasing can prove a winning tweak (see Paul Young’s take on “Every Time You Go Away” by Hall & Oates) but it just didn’t work for me. Maybe I was too familiar with the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ original. All Saints do a good job of selling it though (even if I wasn’t buying) with a nice little shimmy movement worked out for the distinctive guitar opening which was actually sampled from the original. They’ve also gone heavy again on the cargo pants with all four members sporting them. Their fashion influence has even spread to our host Theakston who’s wearing a camouflage design example of them.

The next song would spend two whole months inside the Top 10 peaking at No 4 and thereby providing another example that disproves my memory that all hits around this time were in and out of the charts within a fortnight. Admitting to liking “Dance The Night Away” by The Mavericks was never going to win you any credibility points but some people must have had a real thing for this rock/pop/country/Latin influenced tune though I can honestly say I was not one of them (my Dad has a fondness for it however). I could never really hear the appeal of what, for me, was a very sleight composition – even the guy who wrote it, lead singer Raul Malo, admits that it came together as a “happy accident” and that it just about wrote itself. So why was it such a big success? Well, my guess is that it was a crossover hit at just the right time. Whilst the UK had been a receptacle for country hits before from the old guard of the like of Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers and Don Williams, when it came to the 90s and the emergence of ‘new country’, we hadn’t exactly welcomed the movement with open arms. Its biggest exponent Garth Brooks was a superstar in the States but he’d had solid but not widespread success over here. Fast forward five years and we were ready to embrace country music again so long as it had a pop flavour to it. 1998 saw both LeAnne Rimes and especially Shania Twain hit huge numbers sales wise and so the door was open for a track like “Dance The Night Away” to walk through and into our charts. I’m guessing it got a lot of play in Radio 2 back then when it wasn’t the catch-all station for the middle-aged as it is now. It was one of those record that people who wouldn’t be seen anyway near a record shop except with a present list at Christmas would venture into their local emporium to buy. Parent album “Trampoline” also sold well making the UK Top 10 but they would not sustain their commercial appeal. They are still together and touring with Raul Malo on vocals. I wonder if they ever get fed up of having to play their biggest hit though?

Now, as follow ups to a No 1 single go, Usher only making No 24 with “Nice & Slow” after previous hit “You Make Me Wanna…” topped the chart isn’t the worse example of how to consolidate on that success*. However, it can’t have been what the R&B superstar would have been expecting or hoping for. After all, the song gave him another Billboard chart topper across the pond.

*Bee Gees followed up No 1 “You Win Again” with “E.S.P.” which peaked at No 51 whilst Nena’s next single after “99 Red Balloons” was “Just A Dream” which struggled to a high of No 70.

However, its inability to achieve the same level of success as its predecessor certainly wasn’t anything to do with a lack of confidence on Usher’s part to sell the song. Look at him in this performance – he has the studio audience of young girls literally trying to paw him. The man in the hat is actively encouraging the near fever pitch crowd though – what is that finger movement near his crotch area when he sings “I got plans to put my hands in places…”? Well, I think we all know what it is but before the watershed BBC? He follows this up by making thrusting motions with his groin after he’s thrown the hat off Michael Jackson style. In case the audience can’t contain themselves, in what must be a first in TOTP history, Usher has a bodyguard stood at the side of the stage. Surely this must have been for effect? Another Chris Cowey innovation maybe? Or was he an actual bodyguard primed for action? What was going on?!

Was there a more intriguing artist in the 90s than Tori Amos? Now don’t all come at me at once with your own, much more deserving (in your opinion) nominations for such a question – I had to start the paragraph with something to introduce her and, in any case, she is intriguing I think, both musically and culturally. Sure, there were the inevitable Kate Bush comparisons early in her career but to dismiss her as some sort of tribute act was pure folly. Sonically, her compositions could make your senses tingle or alternatively make you think “what on earth is this?” so genre-fluid is her work. At once eerie and haunting but also aggressive and deeply emotional with lyrics that address subjects such as sexual assault, religion and gender politics. This track – “Spark” – dealt with her own experience of suffering a miscarriage. It’s hardly ‘I love you, you love me’ stuff.

In her personal life, Tori is a spokesperson for Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) and has a deep connection with Native American culture due to her ancestors on her Mother’s side being of Cherokee descent. Some of the artists she is reported to have influenced include Alanis Morissette, Olivia Rodrigo and Olly Alexander of Years & Years. Her songs have appeared in multiple TV series including Dawson’s Creek, Yellowjackets, Charmed and Beavis and Butt–Head. She’s undoubtedly a complex and multi-layered character which, as I say, makes her an intriguing artist. As a performer, she’s visually arresting too. Look at this TOTP appearance in which she employs both keyboards and a piano. I also admire the way she looks like she’s come to the studio straight from having a shower with wet hair. It’s an unconventional approach. Having said all of this, “Spark” would prove to be her final Top 40 hit of her career so did her idiosyncratic ways prove ultimately to be to impenetrable for mainstream success? I think probably it was just a case of shifting tastes and anyway, Tori retains a loyal and sizeable fan base to this day.

Is this a case of the sublime to the ridiculous? I think it might be. Having created an unusual piece of pop history for themselves with their first single “5,6,7,8” which, at the time, became the biggest selling single never to make the Top 10, Steps were back to prove that they were never destined to be a one-hit wonder and a novelty one at that. Now, if I said some of the Kate Bush comparisons with Tori Amos were inevitable (and unjustified) then the parallels being drawn between “Last Thing On My Mind” and ABBA were inescapable and totally justified. The back story of this track is that it was originally recorded and released by Bananarama in 1992 as Keren and Sara began the second phase of their career as a duo with Mike Stock and Pete Waterman as producers. It was the latter whose idea for working with the Nanas on the album “Please Yourself” was encapsulated by the phrase ‘ABBA-Banana’. In the end, only the singles released from it stuck to the plan of which “Last Thing On My Mind” was the second. It turned out that the world wasn’t ready to accept this hybrid in the early 90s and the single bombed.

Waterman must have ruefully filed the idea in a drawer marked ‘Do not open until 1998’ as it was recycled for his latest project Steps. Spending a fortnight at No 6 not only justified Waterman’s faith but also ensured that Steps would carry on (and on and on) beyond one hit. It’s as sugary as golden syrup and as substantial as a politician’s promise but at least they didn’t just do a remake of their line dancing debut. Watching this performance, it strikes me that Ian ‘H’ Watkins and Lee Latchford-Evans, though I’m sure that they’re lovely people, are also two of the luckiest pop stars going based on their contribution to this which consists of some tightly rehearsed but limited dance moves. Maybe they’ll come into their own the bigger the hits become.

Out of the way! Here come Catatonia and they’re mad with “Road Rage”! Yes, confirming their status as one of the hottest bands of 1998, Cerys and co follow up “Mulder And Scully” with an absolute banger. Some songs are defined by a singular detail – that ringing guitar chord in “She Sells Sanctuary” by The Cult comes immediately to mind – and so it is with this one but said detail in this case is Cerys’ ability to roll her Rs in the chorus which became the USP of the track. Despite its rather gruesome inspiration being the real life event of the murder of Lee Harvey by his girlfriend Tracie Andrews in 1996 (Andrews falsely claimed to the police Harvey was killed by a man during a road rage confrontation), the track has a glorious, singalong chorus that helped it peak at No 5 in the charts. That position, following the No 3 hit that was its predecessor, meant Catatonia were finally big news after a few early releases that failed to land.

However, was it the band that were building their profile or Cerys Matthews who was generating the headlines? It seemed to me to be the latter and that they were following in the footsteps of Blondie, No Doubt and Sleeper. Press coverage of Cerys reportedly storming out of the Ivor Novello Awards after “Road Rage” was beaten to the Best Contemporary Song gong by Tin Tin Out only fuelled the perception. In her defence, at least her band wrote their song whilst Tin Tin Out’s was a cover of a track by The Sundays. Maybe her rage was justified?

Nearly two years on from their breakthrough hit “Tattva”, Kula Shaker were still experiencing huge commercial success but this single – “Sound Of Drums” – would mark the beginning of the end of their time as chart stars. Whilst it’s true that it went straight in at No 3, it would be their last ever visit to the Top 10. So what went wrong? Well, a lot of factors contributed to their decline I think not least the bad press lead singer Crispian Mills had generated with some decidedly dodgy comments he made to the NME about the symbolism behind the swastika for which he later apologised. In today’s world, he’d have probably been cancelled immediately but back in the late 90s, the slump was more gradual. The press also applied that well worn convention of building up our heroes only to knock them down which played a part in their downfall with Mills’ acting dynasty background that once marked him out as unusual now saw him as part of some elite to be criticised. Then there’s the band’s own inertia when it came to releasing new material. Between “Govinda” in November 1996 and “Mystical Machine Gun” in the March of 1999, the only Kula Shaker tracks made available in the shops were the singles “Hush” and “Sound Of Drums” and one of those was a cover version! The latter was officially the lead single from their second album “Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts” but said album didn’t arrive until ten months later. All these gaps between releases meant that the band’s momentum inevitably waned and their place amongst the rock/pop A-list was destabilised.

What about the music though? Well, despite having a title that sounded like an Audie Murphy Western, it was talked up in the music press as being an attempt to sonically resemble The Doors though I’m not sure I can hear it. They were still definitely playing that mystical, psychedelic rock card in their image though. Check out the trippy backdrop in this performance and The Beatles referencing helter skelter prop. I have to say that having liked their debut album “K” enormously, they were starting to lose me at this point but then maybe I was just paying too much attention to the dissenting voices.

We finally have a new No 1 but be careful what you wish for as replacing Run-D.M.C. versus Jason Nevins are Boyzone. Now despite this being a chart topper, I have zero recall of it. An actual No 1 that I can’t remember at all despite working in record shop at the time! It doesn’t say much for the song in question which is “All That I Need”. A ‘mature’ ballad is no doubt how the band would have described it whereas I would have gone with a dreary non-entity of nothingness. For the record, the thing that Ronan Keating was struggling with that meant the band didn’t perform in the studio was that his mother had recently passed away. The interview with three of the other four band members means we get less than a minute of the promo but it maybe demonstrates as well that executive producer Chris Cowey really couldn’t stand featuring videos on the show but don’t panic as they are in the studio the following week despite having dropped down the charts from No 1 to No 4. Also, why was Stephen Gately the only one to speak during the interview? What was the point of the other two being there?

It’s taken me the whole post but I’ve finally realised what the new opening title graphics remind me of and it features one of the greatest drum fills of all time…

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it ?
1All SaintsUnder The Bridge / Lady MarmaladeNope
2The MavericksDance The Night AwayNah
3UsherNice & SlowNegative
4Tori AmosSparkIntriguing as she was, it’s a no
5StepsLast Thing On My MindNever
6CatatoniaRoad RageGreat track but no
7Kula ShakerSound Of DrumsNo
8BoyzoneAll That I NeedWhatever I needed, it wasn’t this

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002hqxv/top-of-the-pops-01051998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 24 APR 1998

Posted on by 80stastic

Ah – and I thought last week’s show was the nadir. Looking at this week’s running order, I am genuinely not inspired to even bother writing this post. If it wasn’t for the completist in me, I might well have given up at this point but nine years of writing the blog which is into its sixteenth TOTP year does cut deep and I can’t quite let it go just yet. I might have to get through this one in double quick time though and with the briefest of commentaries in places.

Jayne Middlemiss is once again our host and we begin with a hit that was on the show as recently as last week but is given some more exposure due to it holding firm in the Top 10 at No 6. Although we just get a repeat of last week’s performance of “Found A Cure” by Ultra Naté, there was also a video made went to promote the single which was directed by one Charles Stone III. Who? Well, he was the director for many a music promo by the likes of Living Colour, A Tribe Called Quest and Neneh Cherry before moving on to feature films like Paid In Full. Still no clue? Well, he was also responsible for this notorious advert which in turn was responsible for men everywhere believing they were suddenly the funniest person alive by dint of saying just one word…

The first comment under the video on YouTube for this is possibly the saddest thing I’ve read in a while:

“This ad made me really excited to have friends when I got older. Sadly that never happened. I drink a lot of beer though.”

@YesOkayButWhy; 2021

As for Ultra Naté, after finding a cure, she seemingly pursued a career in pharmacy – her next single was called “New Kind Of Medicine” and in 2006 she released the song “Love’s The Only Drug”.

Savage Garden are back on the show with “Truly Madly Deeply” – again. What was the deal with this one? It spent five consecutive weeks in the Top 10 being completely ignored by TOTP Executive Producer Chris Cowey but has now been on the show in three out of the last four episodes courtesy of it spending three weeks at No 5. I’m wondering if it was to do with a desire by Cowey to make the show almost completely studio performance based. As with Ultra Naté earlier, the song’s video is never shown but instead we get the same in studio appearance recycled three times. Were the Australian duo ignored initially because they weren’t available to appear in person and Cowey refused to show the video instead? According to the excellent @TOTPFacts, after the early May ‘98 shows, not one video was shown until the end of June when they would appear occasionally.

The word ‘mighty’ has been used a fair few times in the world of entertainment. There’s The Mighty Wah, one of the many pseudonyms of one of my heroes Pete Wylie. How about “The Mighty Quinn”, a 1968 No 1 single for Manfred Mann? Then there’s Wolverhampton indie rockers The Mighty Lemon Drops and, from the world of comedy, The Mighty Boosh. However, I’d completely forgotten about this lot. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones were a ska-punk band from Boston (geddit?) whose only UK chart entry was “The Impression That I Get”. It was an unusual title for an unusual hit. A raucous rampage of ska beat, parping brass and the rip-your-throat-to-shreds vocals of lead singer Dicky Barrett. With this being a live performance, I had to check if the recorded version of the song sounded the same and they pretty much do with Barrett sounding like he’s swallowed a razor blade even on record. Barrett is a supporter of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the outspoken anti-vaxxer who is somehow the current United States secretary of Health and Human Services in the Trump government. Something tells me that Barrett might not be the best judge of character. His song though sounds pretty good and he sells it to the studio audience even though some of them, I get the impression (ahem), maybe don’t know who him and his band are or how to dance to the sound they are making. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones only called it a day in 2022 with Barrett’s views on COVID-19 vaccines given as the reason for this.

From a hit I’d forgotten about to one I do remember (everyone remembers this one surely?!) but it had slipped my memory quite how big a hit it was – anybody else forget that “Feel It” by The Tamperer featuring Maya was a No 1? It was for just a solitary week but a chart topper is a chart topper. So who were they? They were a bunch of Italian record producers who sampled the old Jacksons hit “Can You Feel It” to create a monster dance anthem with a model-looking woman out front to sell it. So basically another Black Box then.

Anyway, although the Jacksons sample completely dominated the track, what was even more distinctive about it were the lyrics which included the infamous line “What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her?”. Like many people, I was left scratching my head on first hearing and saying to myself “Did she just sing about having a chimney on her? Surely not”. On second hearing, after the lyrics were confirmed, my fingers were still scraping my skull but this time my question to myself was “What on earth does she mean?”. Well, I didn’t know this back then as a fledgling internet wasn’t widely accessible to all but it turns out the lyrics were nicked from little known track “Wanna Drop A House (On That Bitch)” by Urban Discharge and suddenly the whole mystery is cleared up.

So successful was “Feel It” that The Tamperer featuring Maya would repeat the formula to create two further hits by sampling Madonna and ABBA but that’s all for a future post. For now, let’s marvel at the sight of two consecutive artists on the show having prominent brass sections and in the knowledge that back in 1998, pissed up clubbers would have been winding their way home in the early hours chanting “What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her?”.

It’s not getting any better (for me at least). This next hit, and this is going to make me sound like a right reactionary old fart, is literally just a lot of shouting. No, correction – a lot of shouting over the theme tune to 80s TV show Knight Rider. This is Busta Rhymes with “Turn It Up (Remix) / Fire It Up”. The third single from his “When Disaster Strikes…” album, it’s apparently radically different from the album version which sampled Al Green’s “Love And Happiness” but I’m not tempted to find out how different. It would spend two weeks at No 2 in the UK chart in its remixed format so I was clearly out of sync (yet again) with the record buying public. I stand by my original assessment though – this was just shouting as this performance evidences. Ah yes, this performance. It’s introduced by Mr Rhymes himself on the now established show prop “the big telly owa there” as Jayne Middlemiss describes it and guess what? He and his mate (no I don’t know who he is) just barks some words at the screen, banging on about No 1. Erm…Busta? You’re not No 1 fella. And what was the idea with the Knight Rider sample? It was a terrible theme tune and a terrible show with a terrible actor as the lead. Ah, I’m done with this. NEXT!

What. On. Earth? Having swiped left on Busta Rhymes, I’ve ended up with what is technically known, I believe, as ‘some right weird shit’. OK, that’s not right. Technically speaking, 187 Lockdown were a speed garage artist but I reserve the right to my original, personal qualification. I dislike pretty much everything about this – the track, the staging… everything. I get they’ve tried to add an Eastern vibe to their sound but it’s just that usual, sub-genre defining, sped-up, skittering backbeat with an culturally appropriated melody and some random spoken word samples dropped into it. As for the performance, quite what is the guy dressed in black meant to be doing? There some half hearted “Kung-Fu” styled movements, some facial grimacing, what looks like some Marcel Marceau trapped-in-a-box miming and…is that a praying mantis yoga stance? Then there’s the two female dancers who start the performance in full kimonos but end it stripped down to bras and knickers. It’s all a bit ‘lads mag’ and also a possible case of cultural stereotyping.

After the popularity of speed garage faltered, 187 Lockdown was shut down while its prime movers Danny Harrison and Julian Jonah continued to release music under the alias of M Factor and remix for artists as mainstream as Robbie Williams and Atomic Kitten. However, there was a renewed interest in the 2010s in their 187 Lockdown material thanks to the popularity of BBC TV series People Just Do Nothing and its characters that made up Kurupt FM. I can’t say I’ve ever watched it but one show I did watch religiously as a kid was Kung Fu starring David Carradine. Now, if 187 Lockdown had remixed that TV theme and had Master Po and ‘grasshopper’ performing on stage…now that I would have been there for.

Now, when I saw this on the running order, I wrongly assumed it was just another entry on the list of dance tracks that was essentially this TOTP and that, of course, I would hate it. However, “Sounds Of Wickedness” by Tzant is rather good. A track comprising some breathless rapping and some breakneck breakbeats with a funky bass line courtesy of Reuben Wilson’s “Orange Peel” (though it sounds like Dee-Lite’s “Groove Is In The Heart” to me), it fair pelts along giving the listener quite the head rush. Apparently, Tzant were the same people behind the PF Project who brought us the Trainspotting themed hit “Choose Life” in 1997 and the rapper is the same guy from all those awful cover versions by Clock. “Sounds Of Wickedness” was nothing like either of those though. In fact, it reminded me of another early 90s hit by Definition of Sound…

Maybe Tzant’s track is a bit more hard-hitting but you get my drift. They would have one more minor hit under that moniker but would score another Top 20 entry in 1999 under the name of Mirrorball and go onto mix the first volume of the “Euphoria” dance compilation albums that were huge sellers at the end of the 90s and early 2000s.

It’s the final week of six at No 1 for Run-D.M.C. versus Jason Nevins with “It’s Like That” so I suppose I should finally comment on the video we’ve been watching for all these shows. There’s not much to it really though – an unconvincing male vs female breakdance-off set in a disused building interspersed with the odd shot of the Run-D.M.C. lads doing their trademark arms folded pose and some of Jason Nevins in yellow tinted glasses which are his trademark apparently. It’s not a patch on their iconic promo with Aerosmith for “Walk This Way” but then they were always going to miss a showman like Steven Tyler.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1Ultra NatéFound A CureNo
2Savage GardenTruly Madly DeeplyI did not
3The Mighty Mighty BosstonesThe Impression That I GetNah
4The Tamperer featuring MayaFeel ItI wasn’t feeling this one – no
5Busta RhymesTurn It Up (Remix) / Fire It UpBig NO
6187 LockdownKung-FuNegative
7TzantSounds Of Wickedness‘Fraid not
8Run-D.M.C. versus Jason NevinsIt’s Like ThatAnd no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002hf79/top-of-the-pops-24041998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 17 APR 1998

Posted on by 80stastic

Dearie me! This doesn’t look like the strongest TOTP line up I have to say. In fact it looks completely uninspiring to be frank. As such, my motivation is not at the levels it should be. The 1998 repeats have always been a bit of a slog so far to be honest and running orders like this are not helping. Well, I guess I’ve got to just get through it. Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more…

Our host is Jo Whiley who would hail someone farting “The Birdie Song” as a musical genius if it kept her on TV. Thankfully the acts tonight aren’t quite that bad. We start with Billie Myers who was only just on last week (of course she was in the Chris Cowey era) performing her hit “Kiss The Rain”. I mentioned last time how she was sort of ‘the other’ Billie of 1998 next to Billie Piper and it got me thinking about how many famous Billies there were/had been. Here’s what I came up with:

  • Billie Eilish
  • Billie Holiday
  • Billie Jo Spears
  • Billie Joe Armstrong
  • Billie Whitelaw
  • Billie Jean King
  • Billie from Here Come the Double Deckers!

OK, the last ones a bit of a cheat but the first four are all singers so if you add Billie Piper and Billie Myers to that list that’s six which seems a fair few music artists especially when you consider I haven’t included those whose name is spelt Billy. As for Billie Myers, where does she rank in that list for you?

Sticking with the name game theme, the next artist has quite the moniker. Ultra Naté whose real name is…erm…Ultra Naté – no really, that’s her actual name – Ultra Naté Wyche – is back with a follow up to her massive hit single “Free”. It’s taken almost a year for it to be released but to be fair to her record label AM:PM, “Free” was such a monster spending three and a half months inside the Top 40 that I guess they had to let the momentum of that single finally run out of steam so as not to deflect sales from any new material. Plus, AM:PM released a “Free (The Mixes)” single in the January just to make sure they completely squeezed any remaining sales potential out of the track. With all that saturation, it probably made sense to wait a while before releasing a follow-up and, resisting the temptation to rinse and repeat, it wasn’t just a carbon copy of its predecessor. Sure, it’s still a dance track but, as we have discovered in this long, long journey through 90s music, dance music could be many different things and come in many different colours. Whilst not as immediate as “Free” nor as big a hit, “Found A Cure” still found a market spending two consecutive weeks at No 6.

Next in this unappealing running order is/are Mase (or is it Ma$e?) featuring Total with a rap track called “What You Want”. I can’t say I know much about Mase nor his music but even I, unaccustomed as I am to the rap genre, can tell that the start of this performance is hackneyed and lazy. Did he really just run on stage and shout “Everybody throw your hands in the air and wave ‘em like you just don’t care”?! This is followed up by encouraging the studio audience to chant “Oh yeah” and then, focussing on “all the ladies”, gets them to “scream!”. Really?! There’s then a lot of rapping about Mase’s girl and his money and…shopping? I’m not really sure though he mentions enchiladas and giving her carats until she feels a rabbit. Is that a reference to buying a fur stole? I’m so confused and so as Mase ultimately as he couldn’t decide between a career as a rapper or dedicating his life to God as he retired from the music industry to become a pastor before returning in 2004 with an album called “Welcome Back”. It’s an unusual though not unique choice of career paths (didn’t MC Hammer also become an ordained minister?). It reminded me of my mate Robin who once took a carers advice exercise the result of which was that his optimum careers were either being a social worker or a comedian.

What are the chances?! Two acts on the same show with the name Ultra?! That’s where the similarities end though. I must have deliberately obliterated this lot from my memory banks as there is nothing familiar about them at all apart from them appearing to be a prototype version of Busted. No, wait – Busted playing the music of S Club 7. Their hit “Say You Do” is so annoyingly catchy that it’s…well…annoying. The usual route of support slots on tours by major artists (Boyzone and Louise in this case) helped establish a fan base (they were huge in South East Asia and Italy apparently) but that old music industry banana skin of record company restructuring saw the A&R team who signed them leave and they were released from their contract. Three of the four members continued as Rider who released a football record for the 2002 World Cup featuring Terry ‘El Tel’ Venables but it failed to chart. Conversely, they might have been better off keeping their original band name or at least adapting it to ‘The Ultras’. If you know, you know.

Right, who are these two? K–Ci & JoJo? Sounds like a TV show on the Disney Channel in the 90s. Apparently, they were half of the US R&B group Jodeci who were on a hiatus meaning that the group members could pursue other projects. K-Ci & JoJo were brothers Cedric and Joel Hailey who took the ball and ran with it all the way to No 1 in America with this single “All My Life”. For three weeks it reigned atop the Billboard Hot 100 but over here it had to make do with one week at No 8. It did, however, spend ten weeks inside the Top 40 descending gradually but consistently in an unusual chart journey. Clearly, there were some live vocals going on in this performance but they did seem to lack a bit of control – there was definitely some very elongated ‘ooh ooh-ing’ going on which I have to say caused my dog to howl uncontrollably when I watched this TOTP episode (no really – he did!).

The ‘all my life’ chorus sounded familiar but I couldn’t place what it reminded me of for ages until it finally clicked. Now, they’re nothing like each other in every other respect but the phrasing and intonation on those three words are almost exactly the same.

After some very unstimulating turns so far, we finally get to a song that inspires a tiny bit of excitement (for me anyway). If Ultra were an early version of Busted, then could a case be made that Ben Folds Five were the blueprint for Keane? I know, I know. Putting music into neatly labelled boxes probably isn’t the smartest nor fairest practice (and I’ve no doubt been guilty of it many, many times during the course of this blog). What I will say is that the “Battle Of Who Could Care Less” hitmakers were at the very least out of the ordinary with their acidic, piano driven, power pop tunes.

However, they risked alienating their fan base with this, their biggest hit “Brick” which was a much more subdued and earnest sound telling the story, as it did, of the abortion that Folds and his high school girlfriend went through. There is a beautiful intensity to the track though which can’t be denied. What wasn’t especially beautiful though was its title and it got me thinking of other songs that have titles that don’t seem to match their sound and I came up with this which is surely the ultimate example of the phenomenon…

The rebirth, rejuvenation and resurrection of Robbie Williams is complete! After looking down and out as the end of 1997 came into sight, he was now back at the very top as his debut album “Life Thru A Lens” has finally made it to the top of the charts six months after it was initially released. To celebrate the achievement, he’s been invited onto the show to perform a track from it. “Killing Me” was the one chosen for the appearance. It’s a brave choice in a way what with the dark song title but presumably Robbie wanted something that he believed would show people his depth as an artist. Certainly, “Killing Me” is a world away from his cover of George Michael’s “Freedom” which seemed a lazy and uninspired decision to launch his solo career with. I guess he could have gone with the more uptempo title track but on reflection, I think he made the right choice.

Run-D.M.C. vs Jason Nevins remain at No 1 for a fifth straight week with “It’s Like That”.

Despite all its sales and all its plaudits, is there any better way of demonstrating the legacy of this track than it being used to soundtrack an Australian McDonalds advert in 2025?!

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1Billie MyersKiss The RainNo
2 Ultra Naté Found A CureNope
3Mase featuring TotalWhat You WantNever happening
4UltraSay You DoOf course not
5K-Ci & JoJoAll My LifeNah
6Ben Folds FiveBrickLiked it, didn’t buy it
7Robbie WilliamsKilling MeNot available to purchase as a single
8Run-D.M.C. vs Jason NevinsIt’s Like ThatAnd no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002hf77/top-of-the-pops-17041998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 10 APR 1998

Posted on by 80stastic

Back in 1998, this TOTP was broadcast two days before my wife’s 30th birthday and as such, we were in our way to New York (baby!) to celebrate. Joined by our friends Robin and Susan, we would be in the Big Apple for a long weekend and so would not have seen this TOTP. So, as I haven’t dipped into my personal life in these posts for a while, I’ll try and interweave some of what happened in New York with my comments about the songs in this particular show. Self indulgent? Possibly but it’s my blog so…OK, before we even got to New York, two huge news stories broke. Firstly, The Good Friday Agreement was signed between the UK and Irish governments that would bring an end to most of the violence of The Troubles. Secondly, George Michael was arrested in a park in Beverly Hills for being caught in “a lewd act” by an undercover police officer operating a sting operation. This would lead to George coming out about his sexuality soon afterwards. I can remember following both stories on the TV screens at Manchester Airport as we waited to board our plane and again when we had a stopover in Dublin to do US customs. Hours later when we arrived in New York’s JFK Airport, they were still dominating the headlines.

Making headlines of his own at this time was the rejuvenated Robbie Williams who is back on the show to promote his single “Let Me Entertain You”. I say back on the show but I think this is just a re-showing of the performance from the other week. In fact, I think hardly any of the artists on the show tonight are actually in the studio with the presenter who is Jayne Middlemiss this week. More of that later.

As such though, I’m going to talk about the video for this one and not what we got to see on TOTP. You know the one, where Robbie does his best Kiss impression? Or is it his best impression of The Prodigy’s Keith Flint doing his best impression of Kiss? In fact, there’s a load of sending up of rock stars (and their cliches) in the video. There’s Robbie pretending to take a bite out of a dove Ozzy Osbourne style, Robbie flying above the stage on wires and a harness like Jon Bon Jovi in the “Livin’ On A Prayer” promo and, of course, the aforementioned Kiss make up. It’s a memorable watch and whoever made the decision to have it all in black and white take a bow – I think it might have been too much in full on Technicolor.

So back in New York, I’d started the holiday by going down with a heavy cold. Brilliant! I could feel myself getting progressively more and more ill as we travelled in the taxi from the airport to Manhattan. I perhaps became germ-infected in the enclosed space of the long flight over. Fortunately our friend Robin had a bottle of Jack Daniels with him and I dosed myself up on that using the only mixer we had available to us at the time – dandelion and burdock. ‘Jack Dandy’ was the name we gave to our newly created concoction I believe. Fortified by Mr JD and Mr DB, we ventured out into New York…

Back in Blighty in the TOTP studio, we find Savage Garden but, once again, as with the Robbie Williams performance, it seems to be just another re-showing of their previous appearance judging by the abrupt cut away from Jayne Middlemiss’s intro. They’d only just been on the week before with their hit “Truly Madly Deeply” but maybe Executive Producer Chris Cowey was making up for lost time on their behalf as they’d been a constant in the Top 10 for weeks but this was only their second appearance on the show.

The band took their name from a phrase in the Anne Rice series of gothic novels The Vampire Chronicles – the character Lestat says that “Beauty was a savage garden” when describing the world as primitive, dangerous and lawless. I didn’t see any savage gardens in New York but we did make a pilgrimage to the garden of peace that is Strawberry Fields in Central Park which was opened in 1985 to commemorate the life of John Lennon five years after his murder. There’s a picture of me somewhere trying to look all sombre and respectful at the Imagine mosaic. Despite the size of their hit, perhaps unsurprisingly there is no memorial to the band Savage Garden. However, the Mark Mills novel Savage Garden is set in a memorial garden in Florence, Italy and in Auckland, New Zealand there is an actual memorial dedicated to the country’s first Labour prime minister Michael Joseph Savage.

Sometimes I think I’m misremembering how the charts worked around this time. In my head, it was all singles in and out of the charts within a fortnight due to heavy week one discounting by the record companies. Clearly there was some of that going on but we’re also encountering plenty of hits that seemed to sell consistently week after week thus maintaining healthy chart positions for prolonged periods. Just this episode we had the example of Savage Garden’s “Truly Madly Deeply” and then the very next song on is another long term chart resident. “How Do I Live” may not have hit any higher than No 7 but it would spend 30 weeks inside the Top 40. THIRTY! That’s about seven and a half months! The first 18 of those saw it never leave the Top 20! This song didn’t just have legs – it was a centipede of a hit!

Strangely, its longevity wasn’t the biggest story behind the track though. Back in the 50s and 60s, the simultaneous release of the same song by different artists, if not commonplace, certainly wasn’t a rarity. By the late 90s, it never seemed to happen. However, in 1998 came the chart battle between 15 year old LeAnn Rimes and established country artist Trisha Yearwood who both recorded and released (on the same day) their own versions of “How Do I Live”. How did this come about? It was all to do with the film Con Air starring Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and John Malkovich. This dumb but fun action thriller is one of those films that I always have to watch if I stumble upon it whilst channel surfing (see also Bridesmaids). The film’s production company Touchstone Pictures wanted a big ballad to end the movie with and Diane Warren’s “How Do I Live” was given the job. Touchstone wanted LeAnn Rimes to record it which she duly did but they weren’t sure about her version deciding it lacked maturity and was too pop sounding. As such, they turned to Yearwood who was twice LeAnn’s age and she provided what Touchstone were looking for and it was her version that featured in Con Air. Now I’ve listened to both takes on the song back to back and there’s not a great deal of difference to my ears. Yes, Trisha’s voice has slightly more depth to it and there’s more instrumentation in the backing including a more prevalent sax sound but to delineate one version as pop and the other as country seems to be splitting hairs to me.

Despite not making the Con Air cut, Rimes’s version was released anyway and would prove to be the ultimate winner spending five weeks at No 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (Yearwood peaked at No 23) and was the fifth best selling song in America in 1998. In the UK, astoundingly given it never got higher than No 7, LeAnn’s version was the sixth best selling song of the year (every song above it had been a chart topper). Trisha’s version never even made our Top 40. In fairness though, Trisha did win a Grammy with her version for Best Female Country Vocal Performance so maybe I was wrong about that pop/country differentiation. Just to make us all feel old. I can confirm that LeAnn will be 43 on the 28th of this month.

As huge a hit as “How Do I Live” was in America, I don’t recall hearing it whilst we were in New York but then we weren’t exactly going out of our way to listen for it. No, we were far too busy having a good time doing all the things you’re meant to when in the Big Apple like a helicopter ride over Manhattan, a dash up the Empire State Building (where a young American child spent the whole time shouting at his parents “I’m freaking! I’m freaking!”) and taking in Grand Central Station. One afternoon, me and my friend Robin got it into our heads that we would go looking for the legendary music venue CBGB which my wife and our friend Susan didn’t fancy doing so our group split up. Being two clueless Brits abroad, Robin and I couldn’t find CBGB. However, we did come across a film crew and a huge audience of people on a sidewalk (sidewalk – maybe we weren’t that clueless after all!) and wondering what was going on we walked over to the amassed throng…just in time to be on the live outside broadcast of the 1000th edition of The Ricky Lake Show! Yes, somewhere out there exists the footage of me and Robin (probably with our faces obscured) at the back of that audience. When we met up with my wife and Susan, they said they had a tale to tell us that we wouldn’t believe. We said we’d had an interesting experience as well but let them go first. They’d been walking past Trump Tower and Donald Trump had walked out! We then told them our story and we all agreed that ours…well…trumped theirs. I’m not sure it still does though.

Enough of that though, back in the TOTP studio we find Sash! performing “La Primavera” again. Actually, we don’t because it’s yet another re-showing of their previous performance and they’re not actually there for a second time. What was going on this week? As this one was also featured in the last post, I’ve little to say about it so, in keeping with this week’s post, I’ve looked for a connection with New York. All I can find is that Sash! the dance act have an Instagram account with the handle SashNY which is not to be confused with S A S H | N Y who are a clothing brand in Brooklyn who sell and rent couture gowns. Gowns with sashes presumably.

Seriously though, what was going on with the studio set up this week. As far as I can tell, so far we’ve had three repeats of previous studio performances and a promo video. None of the artists featured so far seem to have been in the studio at the same time as presenter Jayne Middlemiss nor a studio audience. Now, just a head shot of Jayne appears against a white back drop to introduce the next artist who is Billie Myers. Then there’s a white out fade from Jayne to Billie who is in the studio with an audience! So was Jayne not there? Was her performance recorded separately or was Middlemiss just running late and had to do her links solo and in silo as it were?

Anyway, who was this Billie Myers? On the face of it she seemed to be yet another of those 90s female artists who had one big hit and then not much else at all. I’m thinking Donna Lewis, Paula Cole, Meredith Brooks…and Billie Myers whose big hit was “Kiss The Rain”. However, I always assumed that Billie was an American but she’s actually from Coventry but her song was just about as far from that city’s legendary 2-Tone sound as you could get. A huge, sweeping soft rock ballad with an arresting chorus even if the lyrics don’t make much sense (how does one kiss the rain exactly?), it was a hit both here and in the US. Everything after that was a case of diminishing returns though. Follow up “Tell Me” was a minor hit and her album “Growing Pains” sold modestly. She’s released just the two albums since and has been active in The Mindfull Initiative supporting young people with mental health issues. In many ways, she is the forgotten ‘Billie’ of 1998 as the second half of the year would see the rise of 15 year old Billie Piper (what was it with 1998 and 15 year old female singers?!) who would have two No 1 singles. Both were actually nominated for a BRIT award for Best British Female Solo artist in 1999 though neither won (it went to Des’ree if you’re interested).

For a New York connection, Billie Myers was a featured artist at NYC Pride in 2006. We didn’t see the NYC Pride March whilst we were there though we did attend the Easter Parade which was rather undermined by some disgruntled native New Yorker pushing through the crowds yelling “Europeans – get back to where you came from!”. Oh dear.

OK so Jayne Middlemiss is now within a studio audience for her next link but, yet again, the performance she introduces is another recycled one from the other week. It’s all very confusing. Said performance is from Tin Tin Out featuring Shelley Nelson and their cover of “Here’s Where The Story Ends” by The Sundays. On the Sunday that we were in New York, after we’d done the aforementioned helicopter ride, we spent what seems like hours traipsing up and down the blocks of Manhattan looking for somewhere to eat some lunch. Now you wouldn’t think this would have been such a hard task in New York what with its diners and restaurants and you’d be right but then you haven’t tried to do so with our friend Robin who had some very exacting demands about where he might be OK eating. After multiple suggestions were turned down for various reasons by Robin and with our feet aching and our bellies rumbling, we eventually found a lovely place with a menu to suit all our tastes. We were just about to go in when Robin cocked an ear and stopped us in our tracks stating “We can’t go in there, they’re playing jazz!”. Aaaggghhh!

As for Tin Tin Out, what links them with Duran Duran? As well as remixing tracks for the Brummie New Romantics turned pop megastars, Tin Tin was the name used at various points in his career by the wonderful Stephen Duffy who was their singer in an early incarnation of the band. You all knew that though right?

Next, a seismic event if you were a heavy rock fan back in 1998 – it’s the return of Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, four years on from their original reunion which gave the world “No Quarter”, their live acoustic album of new material and reworking of selected Led Zeppelin tracks. As I never got the boat travelling to Led Zep island, this happening didn’t really register with me though I do recognise the cover art of their second album (and reason for their return) “Walking Into Clarksdale”. However, I have zero recall of its lead single “Most High” which I was expecting to dislike but actually found quite engaging. Despite the size of the Led Zeppelin fanbase though, it wasn’t a huge hit peaking at No 26 though famously, the band were not known for single releases. Jayne Middlemiss makes a jibe about giving your Mam and Dad a shout to come and watch the performance which does seem rather ageist and condescending and also undermines the decision to have Robert and Jimmy on the show which is meant to be representative of the most happening chart sounds around (yes, I know that past line sounds wanky). Plus, they were responsible for the TOTP theme tune back in the day courtesy of CCS’s version of “Whole Lotta Love” so you’d think that there would have been a bit more respect shown.

The cover of the second Led Zeppelin album “Physical Graffiti” shows two four story buildings which were based on a photo of two actual five story buildings located at 96 and 98 St. Mark’s Place in NYC. Now, I certainly didn’t make any pilgrimage to witness that location like I did with Strawberry Fields but not far from there is the wonderful bar McSorley’s Old Ale House which we did visit. A real spit and sawdust place where the only drinks available were McSorley’s light ale or McSorley’s dark ale. Marvellous!

It’s a fourth of six weeks at the top for “It’s Like That” by Run–D.M.C. versus Jason Nevins. This really was becoming quite the phenomenon. I’m still not completely sure why it was so popular. It’s a hard-hitting, ultra-pounding, dance floor-filling track for sure but I’m still kind of surprised that it crossed over into daytime radio play and the mainstream pop charts in such a big way. Was it a lack of competition that enabled its long run at No 1? Celine Dion was right there pretty much all the time waiting in the shadows and I would maybe have expected her to pip them to the top spot at least once in the that six week run. After all, she’d already dropped from the peak once and then retuned there later in her chart run. Of course, Run-D.M.C. couldn’t be more New York – or rather more Queens. A visit to the Hollis neighbourhood of that borough was never going to be on our to do list though I’m afraid.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1Robbie WilliamsLet Me Entertain YouNo but I had a promo copy of the album
2Savage GardenTruly Madly DeeplyDidn’t happen
3LeAnn RimesHow Do I Live?Without this record? Quite easily.
4Sash!La PrimaveraNope
5Billie MyersKiss The RainNegative
6Tin Tin Out featuring Shelley NelsonHere’s Where The Story EndsNah
7Jimmy Page & Robert PlantMost HighNo
8Run-D.M.C. versus Jason NevinsIt’s Like ThatI did not

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002h46h/top-of-the-pops-10041998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 03 APR 1998

Posted on by 80stastic

On this day in pop music history, we lost Rob Pilatus. If that name doesn’t mean anything to you then how about Milli Vanilli? Yes, Rob was one part of the infamous duo who were completely discredited after it was discovered that they hadn’t sung on any of their hit records and subsequently returned their Grammy Award. Despite a few attempts at a comeback, there was no way back for Milli Vanilli and Rob spent time both in prison and drug rehabilitation centres before he was ultimately found dead in a German hotel room from an alcohol and prescription drug overdose on the eve of yet another attempted comeback. It’s a tragic tale certainly but I wonder if any of the artists on this TOTP were accused of not singing or playing on any of their records?

Our host is Zoe Ball – is it fair to make an accusation of ‘cheating’ against her in that her career had a leg up due to the show business connections of her national treasure status father Johnny and that she is, in fact, a nepo baby? Some people might think that, I couldn’t possibly comment. Anyway, we start with a new act from Australia by the name of Savage Garden. I say new but they weren’t really although I think this is their first time on TOTP. They’d already had a hit in the UK the previous year when “I Want You” debuted at No 11 but it didn’t get picked up for a slot on the show and tumbled down and out of the charts within three weeks. The follow up “To The Moon And Back” missed the Top 50 altogether (though it would make the Top 3 when rereleased) but they’re finally on the show with their third single “Truly Madly Deeply”. However, despite that song entering the charts at No 4 and spending the next five weeks inside the Top 10, this was the first time it had featured on the show. So ‘new’ they weren’t and yet again I put this to the show’s executive producer…“Chris Cowey, explain yourself!”.

Anyway, as well as sharing its title with the rather wonderful 1991 film starring Alan Rickman and Juliet Stevenson (which is never on TV or streaming platforms by the way), “Truly Madly Deeply” is one of those soppy love songs that ultimately gets under your skin becoming an itch you can’t scratch, a track you desperately don’t want to like but can’t stop humming – well, that’s how it made me feel. Enough people clearly did like it as it would spend another five weeks knocking about the Top 10 making a total residency of just under three months. It was a phenomenally consistent seller evidenced by three consecutive weeks at a No 5 and its No 10 position in the UK year-end chart for 1998. The track would spearhead a period of mega-success for the duo of Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones with two triple platinum selling albums in the UK within three years whilst they were an even bigger deal in America where they achieved two No 1 singles and their debut eponymous album sold seven million copies. However, by 2001 they were gone with vocalist Hayes pursuing a solo career. My abiding memory of the duo though came from the year before. In 2000, I’d left my job working in record shops and relocated from Manchester to York to become a civil servant. One of my new colleagues had tickets to see Savage Garden play but he could no longer go and was looking to get rid of the tickets – he couldn’t give them away. Nobody seemed to even be slightly interested in the band let alone love them truly, madly and deeply.

Did they play/sing on their records? Yes although as a duo, they also employed some session musicians to perform the bass, percussion and drums parts on tracks.

A proper music legend now but the fact that he is only on the show because of a jeans advert belies his legacy somewhat. Zoe Ball’s intro claiming that without this man there’s no ska and no Madness (nor jeans commercial) tries to do justice to his name but I’m not sure it’s entirely convincing. We are talking about Prince Buster who helped shape the history of Jamaican music in its various forms with his influence on reggae, ska and the rocksteady genres. Said influence extended to these shores with the late 70s ska revival movement spearheaded by the 2-Tone label direct beneficiaries. Madness called their first single “The Prince” after him and named themselves after his song “Madness” which was its b-side. Their second single was another cover of one of his songs – “One Step Beyond” – so Zoe was right about that I guess but she could also have mentioned The Specials and The Beat who both recorded versions of Prince Buster songs or borrowed parts of them to shape their own ‘original’ tunes. One of those tunes was “Whine And Grine” which The Beat incorporated into their anti-Thatcher anthem “Stand Down Margaret”. Eighteen years later “Whine And Grine” was back having been used to soundtrack the latest Levi’s ad campaign and it would give Prince Buster only his second ever UK Top 40 hit when it peaked at No 21.

It’s a great track and Prince Buster (real name Cecil Bustamente Campbell) looks effortlessly cool in this performance. Looking at the age of the studio audience, you can only wonder if they knew they were in the presence of a music legend and hope that they didn’t go away saying they’d seen the man who did the song from that Levi’s advert. Prince Buster died from heart problems in 2016.

Did he play/sing on his records? Are you kidding?! A true original.

Zoe Ball’s on the…well…ball again by stating that Janet Jackson has been a regular on the show. In the 90s alone, she racked up 20 UK chart hits – that’s two a year every year. It’s not a bad record. What was a bad record though (to my ears) was “I Get Lonely” which was the third single from “The Velvet Rope” album. On this one, Janet tipped the balance between R&B and pop which had characterised a lot of her hits well in favour of the former and as a pop kid at heart, it was never going to get me longing for its company.

As she couldn’t be in the studio in person, she’s sent a video message introducing her video which seems to be distracting us to the lack of any tune in the song by showcasing Janet’s cleavage. Indeed, it was nominated for the ‘Sexiest Music Video of the Year’ at the VH1 Video Music Awards. It’s all a bit obvious, showy and in your face (literally). By the way, that’s the group Blackstreet up there with Janet who were on the “TNT Remix” produced for the single release and when she rips open her top to reveal a lacy bra and that bosom again, they possibly experienced a Westlife/Mariah Carey moment from the “Against All Odds” video.

Did she sing/play on her records? Yes she did although there were those bizarre rumours that said Janet was really brother Michael in drag in which case she didn’t if you believe them.

If it’s Sash! (and it is) then their single must be at No 2 in the charts no? Erm…no actually. Yes, all their previous three dance hits had all gone to one place off the summit but “La Primavera” (the lead single from their second album) was at No 3 and would get no higher. Shock horror! Fear not though as they would be back at No 2 with their next hit “Mysterious Times” and would collect one more as the new millennium dawned to give them the record of being the act with the most No 2s without ever getting to No 1 in chart history. No sniggering at the back!

So what did “La Primavera” sound like? Well, the apple didn’t stray too far from the tree I think it’s fair to say although was it a bit less frantic than its predecessors? More like the dream trance that Robert Miles was peddling? Oh, I don’t know do I? Nor do I know why the dancers they’ve got in to promote the track look like they’re doing aqua aerobics without the water nor who the Betty Boo lookalike out front was. Life’s too short people.

Did they sing/play on their records? Clearly they didn’t sing on the records as they got a series of guest vocalists in.

As I approach the end of blogging about TOTP (I’m stopping after the 1999 repeats have finished), I’m increasingly encountering the scenario of it being the last time that I have to comment on a particular artist. Such is the case here as I believe this is the final chart hit for Louise in the 90s. The thing about the ex-Eternal member’s solo career it strikes me is that it was consistent without ever being spectacular. She has amassed twelve chart hits (eight between 1995 and 1998) of which six went Top 5 but how many of them were songs that really made a mark on the general public’s consciousness? Obviously her fan base (which is pretty loyal) could name them all but how many could your average punter reel off? I could only come up with “Naked” with certainty and I’ve reviewed most of them. “All That Matters” is a a case in point. A perfectly pleasant, radio friendly pop number if a little derivative of something I can’t quite put my finger on but it doesn’t linger in the memory for long. Still, that loyal fan base of hers sent her latest album “Confessions” into the Top 10 this year and that’s surely all that matters.

Did she sing on her records? Yes, which actually worked against her in her Eternal days when trying to break America where a white woman in the line up was seen as problematic for procuring airplay on R&B radio stations.

At this point in 1998, Ian Brown was awaiting trial for allegedly using threatening behaviour towards an air hostess on a British Airways flight in February. I seem to remember seeing lots of graffiti around Manchester where I was living at the time proclaiming Brown’s innocence. In the end, he went down for four months though actually served just two in jail due to parole.

For the moment though, he was free to perform his latest single “Corpses In Their Mouths” in the TOTP studio. Now that song’s title was pinched from a quote in Belgian situationist Raoul Vaneigem’s 1967 book The Revolution Of Everyday Life. However, that’s not where I know it from. My introduction to it came courtesy of the marvellous Pete Wylie track “The Story Of The Blues Part Two (Talkin’ Blues)”.

As for Brown’s track, it was the follow up to “My Star” which I remembered but this one? Nothing. I’m not surprised as it’s a pretty flat tune with Brown’s deadpan vocals not helping to up the ante. And what was with that miserable harmonica playing? It’s an all round grim performance but then he did have other things on his mind I guess.

Did he sing on his records? Depends what your definition of ‘singing’ is.

A quick word now on the staging of this particular show but not the performances of the artists but the positioning of Zoe Ball. Chris Cowey was obviously in an arty mood this week as he has our Zoe making use of unorthodox parts of the studio. Right from the start, she appears to walk on from off stage to do her intro which is echoey signifying she’s coming from behind the scenes. Then, when introducing Sasha!, she’s contorted herself to fit into the middle of what could be a giant polo but I’m guessing is the letter ‘O’ from the TOTP logo? Finally, she’s sprawled out on top of a piano and shot from above with the camera angle rotating madly as she introduces 911. Was Cowey trying out some new ideas or was he just trying to distract us from the very average quality of the music on the show (Prince Buster excepted)?

So 911. This trio had built themselves quite the career from small beginnings. “All I Want Is You” was their sixth consecutive Top 10 hit but like Louise earlier, could you actually name many of them? I’m going “Bodyshakin’” and didn’t they do a Dr. Hook cover at some point? The rest? I’ve probably written about them but retained any sense of what they were called or how they went I haven’t. Zoe tells us that this is a live performance from the group – is it? Well, lead singer Lee Brennan could be doing a live vocal but the other two up there with him? Well, they’re live in the respect that they’re living and breathing but that’s about their only contribution aside from some “oohing” in the background. The track itself is, again like Louise and her song earlier, a mid-tempo pop song that does a job but is pretty insubstantial. A bit like 911 really.

Did they sing on their records? As noted before, I could believe that Lee did but his two band mates? I’d need to see actual footage from the recording studio and a sworn declaration from the engineer that it was them.

As Zoe Ball says in her intro (before she attempts some embarrassing…well, how would you describe it? Jive talk? Street slang? Urban speak?), “It’s Like That” by Run–D.M.C. vs Jason Nevins is the first single of 1998 to last more than two weeks at No 1. In total it would clock up six weeks on the throne and become the third biggest selling single of the year in the UK. Somehow, despite the fact that I must have sold loads of it whilst working in the Our Price in Stockport, I’d forgotten quite how big a hit this was. Damn getting old and my failing memory. “It’s like that”? It may have been but I can’t quite remember it.

Did they rap on their records? You bet!

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1Savage GardenTruly Madly DeeplyI did not
2Prince BusterWhine And GrineLiked it, didn’t buy it
3Janet JacksonI Get LonelyNo
4Sash!La PrimaveraNope
5LouiseAll That MattersNegative
6Ian BrownCorpses In Their MouthsNah
7911All I Want Is YouNever happening
8Run-D.M.C. vs Jason NevinsIt’s Like ThatAnd no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002h46f/top-of-the-pops-03041998?seriesId=unsliced