80stastic

TOTP 16 JAN 1998

It’s the middle of January 1998 and two days before this TOTP aired on the BBC, Channel 4 broadcast the 2000th edition of their soap opera Brookside. I don’t think I was still watching it by this point but, in a cards on the table moment, I can reveal that I have been watching the repeats being shown on STV. From the very start in 1982. We’re up to 1988 now (that’s nearly 650 episodes) and yes, like you, I am asking myself “What am I doing with my life?”. Still, there’s worse things you could do than watch some episodes of a now defunct soap. Or indeed, spend years watching repeats of old pop music shows and then even longer writing up reviews of each one. Oh God – what am I doing with my life?! Oh well, it is what it is and what this TOTP is (or was) we need to find out…

Jayne ‘The Smirk’ Middlemiss is our host and we start with a band who were meant to lead us out of the Britpop years and into…well, a post-Britpop era I guess. Rialto were formed from the ashes of indie rockers Kinky Machine. Retaining their record label (EastWest Records) but not their name and adding some new members, the new look band courted the favour and patronage of the music press and were predicted a hugely successful future by Melody Maker for their epic, soundscape songs that were dripping with atmosphere. Somehow it didn’t quite turn out like that though. Being dropped by their record label shortly before their much anticipated debut album was about to be released can’t have been good for confidence in the band either internally or externally. According to vocalist Louis Eliot, it was just a case of being in the wrong place at the time. EastWest had a change of personnel and sacked their A&R man which led to the band being let go. Their album was released by China Records (home of Art Of Noise, Morcheeba and The Levellers) but in an extraordinary stroke of bad luck, China were bought out by EastWest and Rialto were dropped again.

I’m getting ahead of myself though. Reactions to the album were generally positive but in that ‘build ‘em up, knock ‘em down’ attitude so prevalent in the UK press, some reviewers decided to bury the hatchet right between the band’s collective shoulder blades. It made a reasonable stab at the charts though peaking at No 21 no doubt helped by the respectable performance of this single “Untouchable” (No 20). A sweeping, cinematic track that had echoes of a John Barry TV or movie theme (The Persuaders comes to mind), this was a favourite of mine and my wife’s and a purchase was duly made. We were so taken with the band that we had tickets to see them at The Manchester Academy but I was ill on the night of the gig and we missed them. Their success in the UK was dwarfed by that in South Korea where they even outsold Celine Dion and their album went to No 1 but a trip to South East Asia to catch them live seemed a bit over the top (and I’d been to China for just seven days the year before!). A second album arrived in 2001 but by then the writing was in the wall and Rialto split. Eliot pursued a brief solo career but is currently a permanent member of Grace Jones’s touring band. And then, out of the blue, Rialto were back in 2023 playing festivals and with a new album released on the legendary indie label Fierce Panda in April this year. Maybe I’ll get to see them play live after all.

Next is Robbie Williams whose song “Angels” is continuing its undulating chart journey and is back up to No 6 this week. It would alternate between rising and falling for ten of the twelve weeks it remained inside the Top 10. Quite extraordinary. Perhaps in order to build Robbie some credibility and for him to be seen as a serious artist, this time he’s doing the song live and acoustic (or ‘unplugged’ as we said in the 90s). Whether this gave him that credibility is not for me to surmise but it certainly imbued him with some confidence – you can see it all over his face. It could be his famous bravado of course.

P.S. Why was Louis Theroux playing guitar in this performance?

In many ways, KC And The Sunshine Band’s UK legacy is in complete contrast to its US counterpart. In America, they racked up five No 1s and two No 2s whereas over here, their only chart topper was the sickeningly upbeat “Give It Up” which curiously only made No 18 over the water. Of those American No 1s, only two translated into massive hits over here. “Please Don’t Go” was a No 3 in the UK whilst “That’s The Way (I Like It)” made it to No 4. Of those other massive US hits, none got higher than No 21 over here. There must have been something about those two transatlantic hits as both would become huge all over again in the 80s and 90s. KWS took “Please Don’t Go” all the way to No 1 in 1992 whilst Dead Or Alive’s first hit wasn’t “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)” but their Hi-NRG version of “That’s The Way (I Like It)” from 1984. And then there’s this cover of it by Clock. Just…just…WHY?! Well, for the money obviously as it can’t have been for reasons of artistic integrity can it?! I think this lot were possibly the most shameful and shameless of all those 90s dance acts, stealing a living by pinching other people’s songs and putting a nasty dance backing track to them. The Four Seasons, Hot Chocolate, Tag Team and even Harold Faltermeyer had received the Clock treatment and now even KC And The Sunshine Band weren’t safe from Clock’s hands. This one though didn’t even seem to have that nasty 90s sheen to it as it was a fairly straight run through of the original.

The only good news is that time was ticking on Clock. They would only have two more UK chart hits before their spring was sprung one of which was yet another cover – this time of The Jacksons’ “Blame It On The Boogie” which itself had already been covered by heinous boy band Big Fun in 1989. None of this nonsense was the way I liked it.

It’s the Lighthouse Family up next with another performance of their hit “High”. I can’t think of a single thing to say about this one having only just commented on it in the previous post. However…having watched their appearance back, there’s something odd going on with the studio audience or more specifically one member of it. If you go to 3:20 in on the clip YouTube clip below, look at the young girl in a patterned top in the forefront of the screen. She seems to be distracted by something or someone out of shot and the look on her face is one of bewilderment with perhaps a hint of disgust. What was going on there? It wasn’t a reaction I’d have expected whilst watching the blandly inoffensive Lighthouse Family!

Early 1998 saw an Oasis milestone occur that was actually more like a line drawn in the sand in terms of the band’s history. “All Around The World” wasn’t just the third single released from the “Be Here Now” album nor the fourth of eight No 1s that they clocked up. No, it was their last release on Creation Records and the last to feature founding members Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs and Paul ‘Guigsy’ McGuigan. It was the end of an era and some might say that things were never the same again. Bonehead and Guigsy would both leave the band within two weeks of each other in the Summer of 1999 after completing preliminary recording sessions for fourth album “Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants”. Said album would appear in 2000 on the band’s own label Big Brother after the dissolution of Creation by Alan McGee in December of 1999.

As for “All Around The World”, this was a track written by Noel Gallagher in the band’s very early pre-record deal days which he infamously said he would leave recording until the third Oasis album. He was true to his word and it was the tenth track on “Be Here Now” clocking in at a mighty 9:20 in length making it the longest track the band had ever recorded. I was always bemused that given its size and stature, it wasn’t the last track in the album with it being trailed by “It’s Gettin’ Better (Man!!)” but there is a two minute instrumental reprise of “All Around The World” to close the album in fairness. It also marks the point at which the band were most open about vaunting their Beatles influences. Not content to try and rewrite “Hey Jude”, the video that went with it was an obvious steal from the Fab Four’s Yellow Submarine film. We don’t get to see that here though and nor do we get a studio performance but, as the personal VT message from the band says, a clip of them playing it live at the old GMEX venue in Manchester as part of the Be Here Now tour which had taken the band to America for its next leg hence their absence tonight. The live version sounds more powerful than the single release and, of course, there’s Liam’s obligatory over pronunciation of the word ‘shine’ as ‘she-iiiiine’. It got me wondering how many of their song has lyrics which feature that word. A quick search of the internet found this lot:

Rock N Roll Star – “I live my life for the stars that shine”

Cigarettes’ and Alcohol – “You could wait for a lifetime to spend your days in the sunshine”

Slide Away – “Let me be the one who shines with you”

Up in the Sky – “I heard that the shine’s gone out of your life.”

Some Might Say – “Some might say that sunshine follows thunder” / “Go and tell it to the man who cannot shine”

Hello – “Cos the sun don’t shine”

All Around the World – “These are crazy days but they make me shine”

Acquiesce – “I only wanna see the light that shines behind your eyes”

Magic Pie – “My star will shine”

Who Feels Love – “Thank you for the sun, the one that shines on every one who feels love”

The Hindu Times – “You’re my sunshine you’re my rain” / “There’s a light that shines on, shines on me”

Stop Crying Your Heart Out – “May your smile shine on”

She is Love – “When the sunshine beckons to ya”

Born on a Different Cloud – “You’re my sun and you’re gonna shine”

The Importance of Being Idle – “As long as there’s a bed beneath the stars that shine”

A Bell Will Ring – “The sun will shine on you again”

Bag It Up – “Gold and silver and sunshine is rising up”

Soldier On – “Shine a light for me tonight”

Boy with the Blues – “Remember to shine”

Cloudburst – “Downtown the moon is shining”

One Way Road – “And are we gonna see the heavens shine”

Round Are Way – “Round are way the sun shines bright”

Flashbax – “There shines a light, like dynamite”

Idler’s Dream – “The light that’s shining through your eyes of gold”

Shout It Out Loud – “I hope the light shines on we as one”

“Shiiiiiine on”!

They’ve finally done it! It’s taken nine weeks of which two saw them going down the charts and three as a non-mover but All Saints are at No 1 with “Never Ever”. They’re in the studio to celebrate their achievement which includes a fairly inane chat with Jayne Middlemiss before they deliver what seems to be a live vocal performance judging by the a cappella bit at the end.

Listening to those spoken word lyrics, some of them don’t seem to make any sense. For example:

“A few questions that I need to know”

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Shaznay Lewis / Robert Jazayeri / Sean Prescott Mather
Never Ever lyrics © Mca Music Ltd., Stl Songs Limited, Rickidy Raw Prod., Inc.

Surely that should be answers not ‘questions’? Then there’s this:

“I need to know what I’ve done wrong and how long it’s been going on”

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Shaznay Lewis / Robert Jazayeri / Sean Prescott Mather
Never Ever lyrics © Mca Music Ltd., Stl Songs Limited, Rickidy Raw Prod., Inc.

That doesn’t quite ring true. Shouldn’t it be “I need to know what you’ve done wrong”?

Then there’s the whole confusion over how to pronounce the letter ‘Z’ – is it ‘zee’ or ‘zed’ as both are used here. All very bewildering. Also bewildering is how many times the band have been on the show to perform “Never Ever”. If you think this must be the last as this was the song’s only week at No 1, you’re wrong. They’re on again in a couple of repeats!

After weeks of finishing the show with the No 1 record, suddenly we’ve reverted to having a play out hit. Was this a temporary thing or will it be here to stay? Anyway, there was clearly a KC And The Sunshine Band mini revival going on in January 1998 as after Clock earlier, here’s another hit based on one of their tunes. For “That’s The Way (I Like It)” read “Get Down Tonight” but with a 90s house beat applied to it and a new title – “Bamboogie”. Who was responsible for this crud? A producer called Andrew Livingstone who created the vehicle Bamboo to peddle this crap. I’m guessing it’s high chart entry at No 2 was taking advantage of the post Christmas sales slump. Thank God for those people who bought the 557 extra copies of “Never Ever” to keep “Bamboogie” from being No 1! A slender but important victory. You just knew this was going to be awful by its vintage cartoon video which stank of “this’ll do”. See also Jive Bunny And The Mastermixers and the Outhere Brothers.

I’m guessing that KC And The Sunshine Band’s record label will have taken advantage of this renewed interest in their artist and released a Best Of album?

*checks KC’s discography*

Yes they did and it sold enough copies to be granted silver status. I should think so too. In any case, if I wanted a song with “Bamboogie” in the title then I would certainly choose this one over that Bamboo shite.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Rialto	Untouchable	YES!!!
2	Robbie Williams	Angels	No but I had a promo copy of the album
3	Clock	That’s The Way ( I Like It)”	Of course not
4	Lighthouse Family	High	Nah
5	Oasis	All AroundThe World	No, I’d stopped buying their singles by this point
6	All Saints	Never Ever	I didn’t
7	Bamboo	Bamboogie	Never

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/m002dfcd/top-of-the-pops-16011998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 09 JAN 1998

Posted on June 18 by 80stastic

Here we go then with another year of BBC4’s TOTP repeats. Do I have high hopes for 1998? Not really but I am willing and hopeful to be proved wrong. The first show since the Christmas Day broadcast has a mixture of hits we’ve seen before and some brand new ones plus something of a chart rarity concerning the No 1 record. Our host is regular presenter Jo Whiley and we kick off with the Lighthouse Family and their latest single “High” which is an apt title as the band were at the highest point of their popularity and success. Sensibly held back from the December release schedules to avoid being lost in the rush, it would peak at No 4 becoming their joint biggest single alongside “Lifted”. Taken from their four times platinum, sophomore album “Postcards From Heaven”, it couldn’t have been more easy listening playlist if it had been fiendishly crafted by Dr. Easy Listening in the laboratory for producing Easy Listening songs. And yet…if I had to, at gunpoint, take one Lighthouse Family song with me throughout my life, it would be this one as it’s so life-affirmingly positive.

Having said that, it’s a good job it wasn’t recorded in the 60s. The lyric “one day we’re gonna get so high” wouldn’t have got past the network censors on the Ed Sullivan Show and somehow I can’t imagine singer Tunde Baiyewu pulling a Jim Morrison. That reminds me – I was at a wedding recently and at the sit down meal at the reception found myself talking to a perfectly pleasant young man to my right who was planning a holiday to Paris. When asked by him if I’d ever been, I replied in the affirmative and started listing the attractions he might want to visit including the Père Lachaise cemetery but I gave warning of all the drugs paraphernalia directing people to the grave of Jim Morrison. The young man’s reply? “Who?”! He didn’t know Morrison or The Doors though he thought he might have heard the song “Riders On The Storm”. I’m so old.

“Jiggle your bits to this!” says Jo Whiley. Jiggle your bits? Were you allowed to say that back in the day before the watershed? In the age of lad culture you probably were sadly. Anyway, although this was our first glimpse of Steps on TOTP, their debut hit “5,6,7,8” had actually been around for weeks by this point. Eight of them in fact having ricocheted between the Nos 23 to 17 before finally peaking at No 14 prompting this appearance. It would then spend a further four consecutive weeks inside the Top 20 before finally bowing out of the Top 40 in its 15th week since release. Although one of the group’s lowest charting singles, it’s their third biggest hit thanks to subsequent streams of over nearly 38 million by 2021.

I think it’s fair to say that this track is not typical* of the rest of their back catalogue and I’m guessing that maybe they were only put together on a one single deal written to take advantage of the line dancing phenomenon that was sweeping the nation at the time. Responding to an advertisement in trade publication The Stage, the quintet surely didn’t expect the success and longevity that they have enjoyed.

*Of course, they’re not alone in having their debut hit sound nothing like subsequent releases. Some of the biggest names in pop music history could tell a similar tale. Look at the difference between “Love Me Do” and, say, “Strawberry Fields Forever” or between those early Beach Boys surfing hits and “God Only Knows”. Not that I’m putting Steps in the same bracket as Brian Wilson (RIP) nor Lennon & McCartney obviously.

Look at some of these numbers:

22 million records sold worldwide
5 million album sales in the UK
4.8 million singles sales in the UK
13 consecutive Top 5 singles in the UK including two No 1s

Not bad for an act that was put together to sell a one-off, line dancing hit. Ah yes, that hit. It really is atrocious. As if we hadn’t been tormented enough with “Cotton Eye Joe” by Rednex a few years before. Nobody should have been surprised to discover that Pete Waterman was involved in this mess with the group signed to his EBUL label in partnership with Jive Records and the man himself acting as co-producer. I think it’s fair to say that he ultimately saw Steps as a second chance to launch the British ABBA after his initial attempt with Bananarama in the early 90s had failed to ignite the charts. Sure, “5,6,7,8” sounded nothing like the Swedish pop superstars but their follow up “Last Thing On My Mind”* certainly did as did their third single “One For Sorrow”. Steps would ultimately transcend that idea (if not ABBA’s sales) to establish themselves in the premier league of late 90s pop groups.

*That track was released as a single by Bananarama in 1992 but failed to chart.

Despite having two separate periods of hiatus that amounted to the group being inactive for a total of 15 years, their story is still not fully told as the jukebox musical Here & Now featuring the hits of Steps opened last year and is set to tour the UK from August this year until May next.

P.S. As I was writing this, I turned on the TV and on BBC1 was Ian ‘H’ Watkins giving an interview about his small music festival in the town of Cowbridge where he lives that had been forced by the US Coachella festival to change its name from Cowchella to Moo-La-La. Rather than be disappointed, H was delighted with the publicity the story had generated for his festival. Boot scootin’ indeed.

It’s a re-showing of a previous Janet Jackson appearance next as we see that dress-down Friday performance of “Together Again”…erm…again. Supposedly, Janet’s inspiration to write the track came from the 1996 Nuyorican Soul hit “Runaway” which had been huge in the US clubs. However, it wasn’t contemporary clubs that had been at the forefront of Janet’s mind in writing the song but perhaps the most famous club of all time – New York’s Studio 54. Apparently, “Runaway” reminded her of being in there as a child. What the hell was she doing in Studio 54 as a child?! The club was notorious for its open drug use and sexual activity by its patrons. There’s a famous photo of Canadian First Lady Margaret Trudeau at Studio 54 without any underwear on! And Janet was in there as a minor! I think I’ll leave that story there.

After becoming bona fide pop stars in 1996 with some quirky hits straight out of left field like “Female Of The Species” and “Neighbourhood”, Space weren’t about to rest on their laurels and released sophomore album “Tin Planet” just 18 months after debut “Spiders”. The lead single from it was “Avenging Angels” which seemed to me to pursue a more mainstream sound than some of its predecessors. I mean, it still wasn’t your standard rock/pop song – it still had that spooky, twangy guitar sound in the mix – but the chorus was more conventionally melodic it seemed to me. They did retain that retro sound though – in fact, listening back to it now it could be the theme tune to a 60s sci-fi show or maybe I’m just fixating on the ‘angels’ part of the song and conjuring up images of the female fighter pilots from Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons. There’s two other parts of the song that needs some discussion. Firstly, I could never get along with the “kick ass angels” lyric of the chorus – it always really jarred with me for some reason. Secondly, that megaphone sung middle eight part. Apparently, Radio 1 said they wouldn’t play the single unless its length was cut in half. It duly was and “Avenging Angels” became a No 6 hit, the band’s biggest ever to that point.

It’s yet another appearance by All Saints again next as their uber-hit “Never Ever” continues its lengthy yet inevitable rise to the top of the chart. After witnessing the dance extravaganza that was Steps earlier in the show, I have to say that despite all the bells and whistles of that Steps performance, I find the All Saints…erm…steps more effective. Yes, all the thumbs down the waistbands, the twirling, the handclaps, the sidestepping, the lassoing and gun toting moves I found less memorable than All Saints stepping around in a circle shrugging their shoulders. Less really is more sometimes.

Now here’s a genuinely intriguing collaboration and yet I have zero recall of it. Absolutely nothing at all so listening to it now was quite illuminating. We’d already seen the worlds of rock and pop and classical collide on hits such as The Farm’s “All Together Now” and rap and a classical come together on Coolio’s “C U When U Get There” both of which were heavily based on Johann Pachelbel’s “Cannon”. However, had we seen rap and opera combined before? The people to thank for this (if ‘thank’ is indeed the right word) were West Coast rapper Warren G and Norwegian soprano Sissel Kyrkjebø who together went by the name of The Rapsody (see what they did there?) and gave us the track “Prince Igor”. Inspired by the “Polovtsian Dances” of Alexander Borodin’s opera “Prince Igor”, it topped the charts in Norway and Iceland and was a respectable No 15 hit in the UK. It was the lead single from a whole album of opera/hip hop mash ups entitled “The Rapsody Overture: Hip Hop Meets Classic” and I thought I would unreservedly hate it but it has something to it that engaged me. I think it’s the aria part sung by Sissel rather than Warren G’s rapping to be fair. Oh and remember my Captain Scarlet reference earlier when commenting on Space? What was one of the Angels pilots call signs? Yep, Rhapsody (spelt correctly this time). The others were Symphony, Harmony, Destiny and Melody if you were wondering.

Now if you thought “5,6,7,8” was a novelty hit, get a load of this! What on earth was going on here?! Just like All Saints, there were four members of Vanilla and two of them were sisters but that is undoubtedly where the comparisons end. Quite what this said about the contempt that EMI who released this tripe had for the record buying public can’t be articulated. The whole sorry episode also spoke volumes of those poor gullible fools that bought what is surely one of the worst singles of the decade. LBC Radio presenter James O’Brien has a phrase he uses in respect to the Brexit debate which is ‘Compassion for the conned, contempt for the conmen’ but I would struggle with the first part of it when it came to anyone who spent their money on “No Way, No Way”. Based on “Mah Nà Mah Nà” by Italian composer Piero Umiliani which became internationally recognised for its usage on The Muppets and The Benny Hill Show, it almost registers zero brain activity in its conception and execution. Apparently, when they were offered the chance to record it, the group weren’t sure as they wanted to pursue an R&B style but were convinced by the argument that “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls was as essentially a novelty hit so ‘what the hell’. Yes, it brought them instant yet brief fame of sorts but did they really think they could build a career off the back of it?!

Of course, they couldn’t. After getting to No 14 with “No Way, No Way”, the follow up single “True To Us” only made No 36 despite conducting a number of appearances at schools and being on the Disney Channel UK 1998 tour. In 2011 the inevitable happened when one of the group appeared in the Identity Parade section of Never Mind The Buzzcocks…

Despite the ridicule the group received, they seemed like good sports appearing multiple times on The Big Breakfast in a feature called ‘Vanilla’s Thrillers’.

Thankfully, if I think of The Muppets, the association in my head isn’t Vanilla but this from Alan Partridge’s Mid Morning Matters series…

So to that rare chart event surrounding the No 1 record as “Perfect Day” by Various Artists returns to the top some five weeks after it initially wore the crown. Now it wasn’t a unique occurrence for a single to return to No 1 after being temporarily deposed by another hit but it was the length of the gap between being the best selling song of the week that was surprising. Having been released at the end of November and being at No 1 for two weeks, it the spent a fortnight at No 3 over Christmas. Traditionally, the first No 1s of the New Year around this time could be snatched by a less mainstream hit with careful/cynical release timing when singles sales slumped dramatically after Christmas. Think Iron Maiden in 1991 and Tori Amos in 1997. However, for a single to regain the top spot after it seemed to have peaked was unusual though as I said earlier not unique. The Lightning Seeds achieved a return to No 1 in the Summer of 1996 after a four week gap but that phenomenon was fuelled by the Euros ‘96 football tournament. What was propelling sales of “Perfect Day” all over again? It would hang around the Top 40 for another six weeks before finally going home when it got dark.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it ?
1	Lighthouse Family	High	Only with a gun held to my head
2	Steps	5,6,7,8	Never
3	Janet Jackson	Together Again	No
4	Space	Avenging Angels	Nah
5	All Saints	Never Ever	Nope
6	Warren G and Sissel Kyrkjebø	Prince Igor	I did not
7	Vanilla	No Way, No Way	Hell No!
8	Various Artists	Perfect Day	And no

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002dfcb/top-of-the-pops-09011998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 1998 – the prologue

Posted on June 13 by 80stastic

Just as in 1997, there were some seismic events in 1998 none more so than the signing of The Good Friday Agreement that put an end to most of the violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland that had blighted the country since the 60s. Meanwhile, in technology, the DVD format was released into the UK market for the first time. It was seen as revolutionary which it was compared to the good old *VHS tape that we’d all been making do with for years. Funny to think that even that format is pretty much now redundant.

*Remember having to set the timer for a few minutes before and a few minutes after the programme you wanted to record to make sure you got all of it?!

Whilst peace was on the agenda in Northern Ireland, it seemed that violence and bad behaviour was dominating the headlines in the music world. Chumbawamba’s Danbert Nobacon poured a bucket of ice over Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott at the 1998 BRIT Awards in February whilst in March, in the space of a week, Liam Gallagher was charged with assault for breaking a fan’s nose in Australia before he was banned from Cathay Pacific airline for allegedly abusing passengers on the flight home to the UK. Also in March, Mark Morrison was sentenced to jail for paying a lookalike to do his community service. The following month, The Fall’s Mark E. Smith got into a fight with band mates whilst performing a gig in New York and he was arrested and charged with assaulting band member Julia Nagle the next day. Within 24 hours, George Michael was arrested after being caught in a “lewd act” by an undercover officer in a sting operation. The incident would lead to Michael coming out re: his sexuality within days of the event. Finally, in October, Ian Brown of the Stone Roses was jailed for threatening behaviour towards a stewardess on a British Airways flight. He served two months of a four month sentence in Strangeways prison, Manchester leaving to a graffiti campaign proclaiming ‘Ian Brown is innocent’.

Meanwhile, on a mad day in May, two huge news stories broke. Geri Halliwell announced she was leaving the Spice Girls whilst Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne was left out of the England World Cup squad. 1998 saw a number of bands split up including Menswear, Salad and Sleeper (Britpop really was over!) but those still going strong were All Saints with three No 1 singles and the Spice Girls who would record their third consecutive Christmas No 1. Also boarding the all female success train were sibling trio Cleopatra and Irish lassies B*Witched who matched All Saints tally of three chart toppers. Perhaps the biggest female star of them all also returned this year when Madonna released her “Ray Of Light” album. As for the boys, Robbie Williams went from strength to strength having saved his career with “Angels” whilst Boyzone were still churning out the hits with two No 1s and Five scored themselves a No 1 album.

As for me, I was still working for Our Price in the Stockport branch but things were starting to go south with my mental health and I would end up finishing the year in a different place geographically and mentally. This year might just be the toughest I’ve had to review so far.

TOTP 1997 – the epilogue

Posted on June 13 by 80stastic

So there goes 1997 – and what a seismic year it was. Labour won the General Election to form a government for the first time in 18 years whilst the end of the British Empire was finally signalled by the return of Hong Kong’s sovereignty to the People’s Republic of China. In other UK news, we got a new terrestrial TV channel for the first time since 1982 when Channel 5 launched. Just beating that event in the time elapsed stakes was the United Kingdom’s victory at the Eurovision Song Contest making us the winners for the first time in sixteen years. Trumping them all though in terms of time past was my beloved Chelsea winning a major trophy for the first time in twenty-six years when they beat Middlesbrough 2-0 in the FA Cup final.

However, one news story would overshadow just about every other as the Summer drew to a close – the death of Princess Diana in a car crash in Paris. Its reverberations were felt in every corner of the planet – one of those global events where you can remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news. It would, of course, have an historic impact on the pop charts as well in the form of the Elton John single “Candle In The Wind 1997 / “Something About The Way You Look Tonight” both the fastest and best selling single of all time in the UK overtaking Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” in the process.

Of course, there was more to the world of pop music in this year than that one single (no matter how many copies it sold). What else happened in the charts? Who were the movers and shakers and which musical trends were in the ascendancy? Well, there is a school of thought that says the Britpop movement officially came to an end this year with the release of the third Oasis album “Be Here Now”. Music critic Jon Savage certainly made that claim citing the weight of expectation crushing both the album and any lingering momentum Britpop may have been clinging on to. The decision of Noel Gallagher to attend a drinks reception at Downing Street at the invitation of newly installed Prime Minister Tony Blair may have also been a final nail in the coffin for what had ostensibly been seen as a working class movement previously.

So if Britpop was fizzling out, what was catching fire? Well, it’s time for a look at those year-end charts again to see if we can make head or tail of them. Here’s the list of the 50 best selling singles of the year:

No.	Title	Artist	Peak position	Sales^[5]
1	“Candle in the Wind 1997“/”Something About the Way You Look Tonight“	Elton John	1	4,770,000
2	“Barbie Girl“	Aqua	1	1,500,000
3	“I’ll Be Missing You“	Puff Daddy & Faith Evansfeaturing 112	1
4	“Perfect Day“	Various Artists	1	1,000,000+
5	“Teletubbies Say Eh-Oh!“	Teletubbies	1
6	“Men in Black“	Will Smith	1
7	“Don’t Speak“	No Doubt	1
8	“Torn“	Natalie Imbruglia	2	813,000
9	“Tubthumping“	Chumbawamba	2
10	“Spice Up Your Life“	Spice Girls	1
11	“MMMBop“	Hanson	1
12	“D’You Know What I Mean?“	Oasis	1
13	“Never Ever“	All Saints	3^[a]
14	“I Believe I Can Fly“	R. Kelly	1
15	“Mama“/”Who Do You Think You Are“	Spice Girls	1
16	“I Wanna Be the Only One“	Eternal featuring BeBe Winans	1	600,000+
17	“Freed from Desire“	Gala	2
18	“Where Do You Go“	No Mercy	2
19	“Sunchyme“	Dario G	2
20	“Free“	Ultra Naté	4
21	“Encore Une Fois“	Sash!	2
22	“Too Much“	Spice Girls	1
23	“Time to Say Goodbye (Con Te Partirò)“	Sarah Brightman & Andrea Bocelli	2
24	“Bellissima“	DJ Quicksilver	4
25	“As Long as You Love Me“	Backstreet Boys	3
26	“Baby Can I Hold You“/”Shooting Star”	Boyzone	2
27	“Ecuador“	Sash! featuring Rodriguez	2
28	“Wind Beneath My Wings“	Steven Houghton	3
29	“Don’t Let Go (Love)“	En Vogue	5
30	“Stay“	Sash! featuring La Trec	2
31	“Lovefool“	The Cardigans	2
32	“The Drugs Don’t Work“	The Verve	1
33	“Tell Him“	Barbra Streisand & Celine Dion	3
34	“Together Again“	Janet Jackson	4
35	“2 Become 1“	Spice Girls	1
36	“You Might Need Somebody“	Shola Ama	4
37	“You’re Not Alone“	Olive	1
38	“Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)“	Backstreet Boys	3
39	“Angels“	Robbie Williams	5^[b]
40	“C U When U Get There“	Coolio featuring 40 Thevz	3
41	“Your Woman“	White Town	1
42	“Never Gonna Let You Go“	Tina Moore	7
43	“Bitter Sweet Symphony“	The Verve	2
44	“Remember Me“	Blue Boy	8
45	“Closer than Close“	Rosie Gaines	4
46	“Stand by Me“	Oasis	2
47	“Professional Widow (It’s Got to Be Big)“	Tori Amos	1
48	“Picture of You“	Boyzone	2
49	“Say What You Want“	Texas	3
50	“I’ll Be There for You“	The Rembrandts	5^[c]

Well, as ever, it’s hard to draw any cast iron conclusions from that about what on earth was going on in the charts in that particular year. My first observation is that the Spice Girls only had one entry in the Top 10 but I think that was a scheduling issue with “2 Become 1” and “Too Much” suffering from having sales over two calendar years as Christmas No 1s. It certainly didn’t mean the UK were bored of them yet – they had two albums in the Top 5 best selling albums of the year. However, 1998 would be a difficult year for the group with the departure of Geri Halliwell and negative reviews of their Spice World film.

Looking more closely at the make up of the Top 10, I think they break down like this:

two charity records in “Candle In The Wind 1997” and “Perfect Day”
a novelty record (the Teletubbies) which could be two if you include “Barbie Girl” in that category which I think I do
a hit from a successful film (“Men In Black”)
a rap tribute track that was based around a No 1 from a 1983 No 1 hit (Puff Daddy)
a debut single from another Australian soap actor turned pop star (Natalie Imbruglia)
a ska-punk/ new wave band who turned up a mainstream crossover monster (No Doubt)
a most unlikely drinking anthem courtesy of an anarcho-punk band who’s been around for 15 years by this point (“Tubthumping”)

I would argue that the two most unexpected artists in that list are Chumbawamba and No Doubt in terms of ‘who saw them coming?’. The rest of the Top 50 includes over a dozen hits by artists whom I would qualify as being dance acts which seems to accurately reflect the weekly content of the charts. Special mention should go to Sash! for having three entries in the Top 50. As for Britpop, it is noted only by its absence. Oasis have two entries (“D’You Know What I Mean?” at No 12 and “Stand By Me” at No 46) whilst the only other artist that could possibly be put in that bracket (however much they may not have wanted to be) was The Verve who also had two songs on the list in “Bitter Sweet Symphony” (No 43) and “The Drugs Don’t Work” (No 32). In more general terms, sales of the single format remained healthy with each No 1 single in every week from late June onwards selling at least 100,000 copies per week. There were also 24 different No 1s, the same as the previous year and twice the amount in 1992 and that’s allowing for the fact that Puff Daddy was at the top for six weeks (over two separate periods), Elton John for five weeks, Aqua for four and Will Smith for four.

If we examine the best selling albums chart, you’d be forgiven for discounting everything I said about Britpop being over as Oasis and The Verve took the top two positions. It didn’t feel like that though. The former’s “Be Here Now” numbers seemed like the final hurrah of a sales phenomenon – certainly the album’s legacy doesn’t match its commercial performance. As for The Verve’s “Urban Hymns”, the presence of two of the most iconic singles of the decade in its track listing caused a massive crossover into the mainstream that few would have foreseen based on their previous back catalogue.

The rest of the Top 10 seemed more predictable on first glance but actually wasn’t. Sure, both the Spice Girls albums are in there but who saw such a successful return by Texas coming? The same can’t be said for Celine Dion for whom the services of a crystal ball were not required but both The Prodigy and Radiohead (the latter with one of the most revered albums of all time) were most definitely not conventional chart stars. The final two places went to the only Greatest Hits albums in the Top 10 courtesy of Eternal (presumably helped by the popularity of their No 1 single “I Wanna Be The Only One”) and, in a retro style, Wham! despite the fact that they split up eleven years prior. Elsewhere in the list, it was all very as you were with established artists like M People, Jamiroquai, The Beautiful South, Madonna and Enya all featuring via their latest album. A mention in dispatches for the Lighthouse Family who had two albums between Nos 11 and 14. Rubbing salt in Blur’s wound was the fact that, after being crushed by the sales of “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?” in the war with Oasis, their eponymous fifth album could only manage a year end position of No 29 (despite having topped the charts on release) whilst “Be Here Now” was the best seller of 1997 with 1.5 million units shifted.

And what of TOTP? Well, 1997 saw a change of Executive Producer with Ric Blaxill departing after three years at the helm to be replaced by Chris Cowey who had made his name at Channel 4 working on The Tube and The White Room. A new name at the top meant a new approach and Cowey would ditch the ‘golden mic’ celebrity presenters in favour of a rotating roster of fixed presenters pulled from the BBC’s youth entertainment show The O–Zone. Enter Jayne Middlemiss and Jamie Theakston to join the retained Radio 1 DJs Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball. Further changes would be made in 1998 with more new presenters, a revitalised theme tune plus a 60s inspired logo and title sequence but that’s all for another time.

Hits That Never Were

Not as many entries in this section as in past years. Not sure if that is significant or not.

Edward Ball – “The Mill Hill Self Hate Club”

Released: Apr ’97

Chart Peak: Did not chart but peaked at No 57 on first release in ’96

Not to be confused with Ed Balls the ex-politician, TV presenter and initiator of ‘Ed Balls Day’ via an erroneous tweet, Edward Ball was the overlooked man of Creation Records. Whilst an infatuated UK couldn’t get enough of Oasis, Edward was quietly releasing some quality tunes that were shamefully ignored by the public. I include myself in that category as I have only discovered his music in the past couple of years but it was worth the wait.

“The Mill Hill Self Hate Club” was initially released in 1996 when it made it to No 57 in the charts but was given a rerelease in 1997 hence its presence here. A marvellously tuneful pop romp that should have been perfect for daytime radio in the style of Dodgy but somehow it never happened. The video features a number of well known faces including Creation founder Alan McGee, Hurricane #1 guitarist and future Oasis member Andy Bell, *Chelsea footballer and indie music enthusiast Graeme Le Saux and – hallelujah – the greatest living Englishman Nick Heyward who was signed to Creation at the time. As if that wasn’t enough, the wonderful Anna Friel makes a cameo at the video’s beginning and end!

*I’m wondering if Edward is a fan of my beloved Chelsea FC as the video features a picture on the wall of their 1970 FA Cup win plus the presence of Le Saux of course. In addition to that, Nick Heyward has a song on his “Apple Bed” album called “The Chelsea Sky” and Edward’s single before this was called “Love Is Blue”.

Nick Heyward – “Today”

Released: Jun ’97

Chart Peak: Did not chart

So, it’s time for the usual check-in with the aforementioned Nick Heyward to see what he’d been up to this year. Well, he hadn’t been testing on his laurels. After releasing his second album of the 90s in 1995 with “Tangled” (which had given him his first UK Top 40 single for twelve years in “Rollerblade”), he left Epic Records and signed to Creation (hence his appearance in the Edward Ball video presumably). Surely being on the coolest label, the label that helped Oasis achieve so much success, would mean Nick would regain his rightful place in the hearts and charts of the UK. Not a bit of it. He released two singles in this year to trail his wonderful “Apple Bed” album and they both sank without trace.

“Today” was the first of those, a blistering power-pop track complete with wah-wah guitar solo in the instrumental break – it was a bold statement. That it floundered completely says everything about the record buying public and nothing about Nick’s songwriting. How he failed to find commercial success with any of his three 90s albums in the age of Britpop is staggering especially with the last of those released on the ultimate Britpop label. Nick continues to tour constantly both as a solo act and as part of the reactivated Haircut 100 but has only released three albums in the last 27 years with the most recent being 2017’s “Woodland Echoes”.

ABC – “Skyscraping”

Released: May ’97

Chart Peak: No 93

By 1997, ABC hadn’t released an album for six years and were now down to just one original member of the classic line up – lead singer Martin Fry after Mark White had left the band to pursue interests outside of the music industry. Teaming up with Heaven 17’s Glenn Gregory, Fry came back with the album “Skyscraping” which was a critical success but a commercial flop. I’m not sure why as the three singles lifted from it were all good, solid, proper pop tunes. The title track gets the nod for this section as it’s a typically grandiose ABC number with sweeping strings and a poised vocal from Martin. I have to say that Fry doesn’t maybe get the credit he deserves sometimes. He’s still out there touring constantly and has even found time to revisit the classic “Lexicon Of Love” album to produce a second volume. In spite of all this, his voice still sounds on point unlike some of his contemporaries. I caught him on tour around this time at the Manchester Academy and he was great with this song a highlight. Good on you Martin!

Goldblade – “Strictly Hardcore”

Released: Mar ’97

Chart Peak: No 64

This one made the cut not because I was a particular fan but because I was working at the time with the sister of one of the band members so I heard a lot about them. Goldblade were/are a hardcore art punk band from Manchester formed in 1995 by John Robb, once of The Membranes and now a respected and published author and journalist. He also makes occasional appearances as a music commentator in the media – I say ‘occasional’ but he seems to be the resident go to talking head on these retrospective music list shows that are normally on Channel 5. He’s always on – it’s become a standing joke in our house. I find him a bit annoying if I’m honest and his book about The Stone Roses was repetitive and not well edited in my opinion. However, he is credited with coining the phrase ‘Britpop’. Or was that Stuart Maconie?

Anyway, back in 1997, Rob’s band Goldblade featured Jay Taylor on guitar whose sister Beth I worked with at the Our Price in Stockport. Beth had her own band Dumb who were regulars on the live music scene in Manchester in the 90s whose sound was compared to that of US hardcore band Fugazi. I think Jay may have even been a floating member of Dumb as well. They released a few singles and a couple of albums and did a session for John Peel too. I saw them live once and although the music wasn’t really my bag, they were exhilarating to watch.

Goldblade had two UK chart entries the highest peaking of which was “Strictly Hardcore” which, in fairness, is actually a great song. Octane-fuelled and relentless of pace, it belts along cracking the whip as it goes. There’s even some Dexy’s style horns at the end. They are still an on-off entity, occasionally playing live gigs though they have gone on the back burner whilst Robb reactivated the Membranes.

Hits We Missed

We missed loads of TOTP repeats for this year due to the Puff Daddy/R Kelly issue and consequently lots of performances so I’m going to have to be selective about which ones feature in this section else I’ll never get this post finished. Some of the hits we missed were some of the most prominent of the decade like Blur’s “Song 2” and “Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve but so much has been written about them already that I’m not going to add my insignificant tuppence worth. Instead I’ve picked out five, four of which we didn’t see because they didn’t warrant a TOTP appearance as opposed to the show not being repeated.

Candyskins – “Monday Morning”

Released: Feb ’97

Chart Peak: No 34

Just as Edward Ball was the overlooked man of Creation Records, so The Candyskins were the almost forgotten men of the ‘Oxford scene’ that brought us Radiohead and Supergrass. By 1997, despite being hailed by the music press as one of the seminal bands of the early stages of Britpop, The Candyskins had already released two albums to limited interest from the record buying public. After leaving record label Geffen due to a dispute over royalties, their album “Sunday Morning Fever” was released on Ultimate and gave the band their only UK Top 40 single “Monday Morning”. As with Edward Ball, this should have been massive on the radio but I don’t remember hearing it much back then. A breezy, guitar driven track with a jaunty chorus, it could certainly have lived with “Alright” by the aforementioned Supergrass.

Bizarrely, the title “Monday Morning” seemed to be a flame to the moths of Britpop. Not only did The Candyskins write a song of that name but Rialto had a minor hit in this year also called “Monday Morning 5.19”. And we’re still not done. There’s a track on Pulp’s “Different Class” album called “Monday Morning” too.

Lamb – “Gorecki”

Released: Mar ’97

Chart Peak: No 30

If you think of the trip-hop movement, where and who comes to mind first? Bristol and Portishead? Tricky? I bet it’s not Lamb and Manchester but they definitely deserve a name check. OK, I m not sure that they would want to be definitively defined as a trip-hop artist per se as there were elements of jazz and drum and bass in their work but if you listen to their biggest hit “Górecki” you can understand why they are categorised as such. Inspired by Henryk Górecki’s “Third Symphony”, check out some of the comments on YouTube about it. Superlative after superlative – ‘timeless’, ‘perfection’, ‘incredible’, ‘beautiful’, ‘unparalleled’, ‘masterpiece’…my wife was one of those using such descriptions as she bought the single (well, I did for her on my staff discount). It is certainly an affecting track and one that you can hear being a left field ‘our tune’ for the want of a better phrase.

And yet…what I remember most about this track is punters asking for that song ‘Goreki’ as opposed to ‘Goretski’. And yes I realise how snobby that sounds! The track would go on to be used in various TV shows, movies and video games including Torchwood, Moulin Rouge and Tomb Raider. Lamb spilt in 2004 before reconvening five years later. Three studio albums later, they are currently inactive.

Travis – “Happy”

Released: Oct ’97

Chart Peak: No 38

It’s my understanding that in 1999, Scottish band Travis almost single-handedly kept record shop chain Our Price (for whom I was working) from going to the wall with the sales of their sophomore album “The Man Who”. So perilous were the company’s finances that the cash injection supplied by the phenomenal success of the album was crucial in keeping the wolf from the door. Of course, that could all just be a myth but it’s what I heard. If it seems a like an unlikely tale then so is the rise of Travis from Britpop also-ran to multi platinum selling band within two years.

Back in 1997, they’d just released their debut album to mixed reviews and inconsistent sales. Their first four singles had peaked at Nos 39, 40, 30 and 38. It was hardly ground breaking stuff. “Happy” was the last of those and is a robust and at times soaring rock/pop track that maybe fell between the gaps when it came to airplay. Too rocky for daytime but not rock enough for the specialist stations. We had a promo sampler of the album to be played in store which I nabbed and would lead me to purchase the proper album eventually. It’s a far harder sound than the one which they conquered the UK with on their follow up but I think I actually prefer it (although I did like “The Man Who” as well).

I’m pretty sure I caught them live before they made it big supporting Nick Heyward at the Manchester Academy but I definitely saw them just as they were taking off at the same venue which must have been a couple of years later. Nowadays, they’ve become a byword for naff which seems unfair as Fran Healy is a decent songwriter although he did nick the chords from “Wonderwall” for the hit “Writing To Reach You” albeit that he does acknowledge that with a reference to the Oasis classic in the lyrics.

Ben Folds Five – “Battle Of Who Could Care Less”

Released: Mar ’97

Chart Peak: No 26

In 2004, much was made of Keane’s debut album “Hopes And Fears” and quite rightly too as it’s a fine album full of swooping, epic pop songs. However, what people mostly seemed to be talking about was the fact that the music was very heavily piano-led leading to the band being dubbed ‘the band with no guitars’. It seemed to me that this approach was being described as revolutionary and yet they weren’t the first band to adopt such a style. Ben Folds Five were from Chapel Hill, North Carolina and opted to exclude lead guitars from their music to focus on piano, bass and drums. This, allied to their quirky humour (there were only three members of Ben Folds Five for example), clever arrangements and vocal harmonies, made them standout in the 90s alt-rock scene. They crossed over into mainstream success with second album “Whatever And Ever Amen” which featured lead single “Battle Of Who Could Care Less”. I was immediately drawn to the song’s unusual title and was rewarded for my interest by a clever, biting yet melodic track which sounded like nothing else in the charts. It shouldn’t really have been a hit given its polarity to its contemporaries but thankfully it was. The band have split and reformed numerous times with Folds pursuing a solo career in between.

Echo & The Bunnymen – “Nothing Lasts Forever”

Released: Jun ’97

Chart Peak: No 8

Finally, we end this section with a hit we should have see as it made it onto TOTP but were denied due to the Puff Daddy/R Kelly issue. As with Texas this year, the revitalisation of Echo & The Bunnymen was surely not on anyone’s 90s bingo card. After Ian McCulloch left the band in 1988, the three remaining members had committed to carrying on but having recruited a replacement singer (as if McCulloch could ever be replaced) their plans were destroyed by the death of drummer Pete de Freitas in an RTA aged just 27. A psychedelic tinged album called “Reverberation” was released in 1990 to apathy from the fanbase and just about zero sales. As guitarist Will Sergeant observed, it seemed that the world wasn’t interested in Echo & The Bunnymen without Mac there and the band duly split.

McCulloch would record two well received though equally poor selling solo albums before reuniting with Sergeant to record new material under the name Electrafixion but it would take bassist Les Pattinson’s decision to rejoin the fold to prompt the return of Echo & The Bunnymen and what a return it was with the album “Evergreen” going Top 10 as did lead single “Nothing Lasts Forever”. This was one of those songs that felt like an instant classic the very first time you heard it. An indie rock anthem with a hint of melancholy about it, this was such a strong comeback. Its poignancy was confirmed by the fact that both Janice Long and Christian O’Connell played it as the final song in their last ever shows for Radio 2 and Absolute Radio respectively. Not that it needed it but the presence on backing vocals of Noel Gallagher probably added to its appeal for some. The band have released six albums since then and remain a big pull on the live circuit.

Their Season In The Sun

Hanson

A classic case of ‘the only way is down’ after their first single went to No 1 around the world. “MMMBop” was one of the catchiest hits of the decade but all anybody wanted to really talk about was how young the trio of brothers were. Two more hits followed before the year was out but nothing they released could top their debut. The band are still together though and in 2023 collaborated with Busted on their cover of that song which was retitled “MMMBop 2.0”. It isn’t the only cover in existence – as of 2016 there were 93,000 versions of it on YouTube.

No Mercy

Not as controversial nor as successful as German producer Frank Farian’s other group projects Boney M and Milli Vanilli, this American trio briefly found fame in 1997 when they combined flamenco guitars with a Eurodance beat which saw their song “Where Do You Go” become a hit in the UK, the US and Europe. We especially couldn’t get enough of it and bought enough copies for it to spend nine consecutive weeks inside the Top 10. Two more charting singles followed before the craze burnt out and the hits dried up.

Chumbawamba

It seems unfair to include these anarcho-punks in this section but the truth is that their 30 year career can be condensed into just one hit for the vast majority of people. “Tubthumping”was everywhere in the late Summer and Autumn of 1997 and even its lyric about being ‘knocked down’ set against the backdrop of the death of Princess Diana in a car crash couldn’t dent its popularity. In truth, there were a couple more hits including a World Cup song meaning they weren’t a one hit wonder but really their legacy to everyone outside of their fanbase is that No 2 hit. Indeed, it is so well known that the far right have attempted to hijack it for their political campaigns (Trump in 2016 and New Zealand’s Winston Peters in 2024) resulting in cease and desist letters being sent from the band. Quite right too.

White Town

Now this lot definitely were a one hit wonder and a definitive example of it at that- a solitary smash that was a No 1 and then absolutely nothing. I say ‘this lot’ but it was really just Jyoti Prakash Mishra who gave the world “Your Woman”, a distinctive dance number that didn’t sound like anything you’d ever heard before despite sampling British bandleader Lew Stone’s treatment of the 1932 song “My Woman” featuring vocals by Al Bowlly – not that many who bought it would have been familiar with a 65 year old song. The gender identity swapping lyrics allied to its insanely catchy hooks caused a brief sensation but a follow up single failed to make the Top 40 and White Town’s fame was over almost before it had begun. However, “Your Woman”’s legacy was given a boost in 2020 when Dua Lipa sampled the same trumpet hook featured in it in her song “Love Again”

The Supernaturals

Some of the finest power pop melodies of the year were provided by this Glasgow outfit who scored three Top 40 hits and a Top 10 album in this year. Sadly, they couldn’t consolidate on that success and it was a case of diminishing returns from there on in and they split in 2002. However, since reforming in 2012 they have continued to be active on the festival scene and have supported the likes of Sleeper and Embrace. Their two most well known songs “The Day Before Yesterday’s Man” and “Smile” have outlived their initial chart lives by being used to soundtrack banking TV adverts and appeared in TV series like Teachers and Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights and the film Shooting Fish.

Last Words

So, 1997 – we are done with you but you were quite the year. On a personal level, it was pretty significant. I went to China (!), I was the manager of a record shop (albeit for a few months as a stand in until somebody else was appointed permanently) and I finally witnessed my beloved Chelsea win a major trophy. It wasn’t all good though. This was the year my mental health started to dip and it would turn into a full blown crisis in 1998…

TOTP 19 DEC 1997

Posted on June 10 by 80stastic

Christmas is nearly upon us in the world of BBC4’s TOTP repeats and, unlike nowadays, there is much talk of who will be this year’s festive No 1. Some of the contenders in the race were:

The Teletubbies – “Teletubbies Say ‘Eh-Oh’”
Various Artists – “Perfect Day”
Spice Girls – “Too Much”
Robbie Williams – “Angels”
Chicken Shed Theatre Company – “I Am In Love With The World”

If you can’t remember who clinched the title then here’s a clue – they had silly names and there was a lot of controversy surrounding them. No, not the Teletubbies! It was the Spice Girls though I’m willing to bet a few of them had handbags to rival Tinky Winky’s!

Anyway, we’re not there yet. We still have one last show for the great and the good of the class of 1997’s pop cohort to promote their Christmas wares and we start with Natalie Imbruglia who is still in the Top 10 despite having spent the last two months in residence there. Although this was the era of singles debuting high and crashing out of the Top 40 completely within a fortnight due to record company first week of release discounting, there were still plenty of examples of hits that bucked that trend. Off the top of my head, just in 1997, there’s No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak”, “Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba, No Mercy’s “Where Do You Go”, All Saints’ “Never Ever” and “Encore Une Fois” by Sash! “Torn” was another such song. Look at these chart stats:

2 – 2 – 2 – 4 – 5 – 9 – 8 – 8 – 8 – 9 – 10

This week’s TOTP appearance was for one of those No 8 positions so presumably because it had gone back up the charts or was holding steady. In the week before Christmas, it seems a bit odd to be opening the show with a months old hit which would also feature in the Christmas Day show but there you go. Would there have been a discussion at her label RCA about deleting it to make way for the follow up single “Big Mistake”? If there was, it was clearly poo-pooed in favour of ensuring it wasn’t swallowed up in the festive rush and was held back for the much slower post Christmas sales period. Nearly thirty years on though, it all see seems a bit academic as despite a triple platinum selling debut album and ten UK Top 40 singles to her name, I’m willing to bet the vast majority of people could only name “Torn” when it comes to Natalie Imbruglia hits.

Here’s another of those songs that took up long term residency in the charts – “Angels” by Robbie Williams. This one spent twelve consecutive weeks inside the Top 10 whilst never going higher than No 4 thus undermining the faith that some of the bookies had in it to be the Christmas chart topper. Maybe some of that belief was based on the fact that:

It was a ballad – always a winner at Christmas
There appeared to be some sleigh bells somewhere in the mix in the intro
There was an extra track on the CD single called “Walk This Sleigh”

History tells us, of course, that this was the single that saved Robbie’s career which got me thinking if there were other examples of this. The first that came to mind was “Instinction” by Spandau Ballet. After scoring their biggest ever hit with “Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On)” in the Summer of 1981, their next two singles released for the “Diamond” album were chart failures. “Paint Me Down” only managed a humble peak of No 30 whilst “She Loved Like Diamond” was a sales disaster failing to make the Top 40 at all. Suddenly, the pressure was on and the band were in desperate need of a hit to resurrect their career. Enter Trevor Horn whose remix of the album track “Instinction” took them back to the Top 10 before the band became global superstars with “True”.

Then there’s the case of Culture Club. Having had demos rejected by EMI, the band finally signed with Virgin Records but after their first two singles had less longevity to them than TACO Trump’s tariff charges, there must have been concern within the record label that their charges were a dud. A last throw of the dice in third single “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me” saw the track receive support from David Hamilton on Radio 2 (which wasn’t the popular music playing station it is today back then) and a last minute TOTP appearance after Shakin’ Stevens cried off saw the world introduced to Boy George. Cue tabloid hysteria but also massive sales and pop superstardom.

Bringing it back to Robbie Williams, Take That struggled to find chart success in their early days with their first three singles getting no further than No 38. After all the promotional groundwork the band had done in clubs and schools, it was scant reward. A fourth single was given the go ahead but only with the safety net of it being a cover version. Their version of the old Tavares hit “It Only Takes A Minute” took them into the Top 10 and Take That are still with us 33 years later (albeit now as a trio).

Now I remember there was a Bryan Adams MTV Unplugged album because I recognise the cover but I couldn’t have told you that the lead single from it was called “Back To You”. However, I do know the song. How come? Because it was a staple of the early guitar classes I attended back in about 2009 as it turns out the chords to it are pretty basic. We used to start with this one to get us warmed up. Does that mean I liked it? It’s an OK track but it doesn’t come near to the power of “Run To You”. It actually sounds a bit twee in comparison. Still, those chords won’t learn themselves and a part of me will always be reminded of sitting in a circle and strumming along to its backing track whenever I hear it. Bryan’s original would make No 18 in the UK but was a No 1, rather predictably, in his native Canada.

I’m not sure if the bookmakers had this one down as a potential Christmas No 1 but then, in fairness to Ladbrokes, William Hill and the rest, the chart journey of “Never Ever” by All Saints was hard to have predicted. In at No 3 in its first week, it then fell for two consecutive charts before reversing the trend to spend three weeks at No 4 of which this TOTP appearance was one. It would finally top the charts for a solitary week in early 1998. Quite extraordinary really.

P.S. I like host Jayne Middlemiss’ intro where she really lets her Geordie accent come through when she says “Mel. Shaz, Nicki and Nat are gonna sing for wuh”. Lovely stuff.

What’s not so lovely though is the link to the next song which comes from one of the band themselves. Yes, introducing “If God Will Send His Angels” by U2 is Bono himself. What was this all about? A demonstration that the show’s profile was still so powerful that it could get superstars to record exclusives for it? Bono’s Christmas message includes him banging on about his kids wanting him to have a bath after returning from being on tour (how festive) before apologising for not being there with us (by which I presume he means in the studio) and therefore we get the promo for the single which was the fifth and last taken from “Pop”. I had totally forgotten about this one probably because it’s totally unmemorable. Even the by now over used record-at-slow-speed-and-then-sped-up video technique employed on the promo seemed old hat. It really is a bit of a dirge but it managed a chart peak of No 12 nonetheless. You could doubt the wisdom of releasing a fifth track from an album at the height of the Christmas singles rush – what did record label Island think was going to happen? The reasoning behind it seems to be the fact that due to the deadline of a pre-booked tour, the “Pop” album was rushed to market in what the group felt was an unfinished state. As such the band either remixed or completely remade the tracks taken from it for single release making them seem like more essential than usual purchases for the die-hards in the fanbase.

“If God Will Send His Angels” would also end up on the soundtrack album for the film City Of Angels (the clue to the reason why is in both titles!). I’ve never seen it but it starred Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan and was about an angel falling in love with a mortal woman. The film was a commercial success as was the soundtrack which also featured songs by Alanis Morissette and Goo Goo Dolls both of whom were managed by Rob Cavallo who was the album’s executive producer. Funny that. Morissette had the follow up album to global smash “Jagged Little Pill” due out whilst Goo Goo Dolls also had an album forthcoming. Again, funny that. The latter’s track contributed to the film was “Iris” which would top airplay charts around the world when released as a single the following year, be nominated for a Grammy and is still a staple of pop/rock radio station playlists to this day and you can’t say that about “If God Will Send His Angels”,

And so to another of those potential contenders for the Christmas No 1 according to the bookies. “I Am In Love With The World” by Chicken Shed Theatre Company was originally included on the “Diana Princess Of Wales: Tribute” charity album due to her patronage of the theatre company that literally started in an old chicken shed and was released as a single from it in time for Christmas. Presumably the bookmakers were predicting another Elton John style flood of sales. It never transpired with “I Am In Love With The World” (why was it ‘I am’ and not ‘I’m’) peaking at a relatively lowly No 15. Maybe its inclusion on an album that went double platinum in the UK reduced its chances or maybe the nation had taken enough time by this point to shake off its collective malaise that Diana’s death had brought on. Or maybe, and I don’t wish to wield harsh criticism against a charity record, it was just terrible. Because it really was.

Say what you like about Celine Dion (and many of us have) but she worked with some of the biggest names in music. Her previous single to this (which was still in the Top 40) was a duet with Barbra Streisand and the follow up – “The Reason” – was co-written by Carole King. My wife introduced me to Carole’s “Tapestry” LP when we first met back in 1986 so it has a special place in my heart but this track was like a paper doily compared to the songs woven into that classic album. A power ballad (of course it was) but it wasn’t a Jim Steinman type powerhouse like “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” which she’d had a hit with the previous year. It sounded like a Eurovision* entry or possibly an X Factor winner’s song.

*Celine had, of course, won that particular song contest for Switzerland in 1988.

Tellingly, that duet with Barbra Streisand (“Tell Him”) would endure much better than “The Reason”. It peaked at No 3, spent four weeks inside the Top Ten 10 and a further four inside the Top 20 whereas “The Reason” peaked at No 11 and spent just three weeks in total in the Top 20. In the week of the Christmas chart, “Tell Him” held at No 13 whilst “The Reason” dropped to No 16.

Christmas wasn’t just about selling singles though. Albums was where the real money was and what type of album did record companies love to put out at Christmas time? A Best Of compilation of course! Yes, the reliable old staple of festive release schedules was a Greatest Hits/Best Of/Collection (delete as appropriate) and around this time a new strain of the format appeared – a retrospective of a solo artist and their former band on the same album. Although there had already been a Sting Greatest Hits (“Fields Of Gold: The Best Of Sting 1984-1994”) and two collections from The Police (1986’s “Every Breath You Take: The Singles” and 1992’s “Greatest Hits”), record label A&M reckoned they could still squeeze some more readies out of the back catalogue of both their artists by combining them into one album. Was this a genius move or a hateful idea – you’ll have your own opinion but it didn’t sit well with me. I like my retrospectives to be definitive which this surely couldn’t be. Not everything by two artists could be contained in one album. Surely a box set was needed?

Anyway, in 1997 came “The Very Best Of Sting & The Police” (note the use of the word ‘Very’ to signify that this was something different even though it wasn’t). Featuring fifteen tracks (seven from Sting and eight by The Police), it went four times platinum in the UK either matching or beating the sales of those aforementioned previous collections. So which songs didn’t make the cut?

The Police:

“So Lonely”
“De Do Do Do De Da Da Da” (though it was included in subsequent reissues of the album)
“Invisible Sun”
“Spirits In The Material World”
“Wrapped Around Your Finger”
“Synchronicity II”
“King Of Pain”

Sting:

“Spread A Little Happiness”
“All This Time”
“It’s Probably Me”
“Nothing ‘Bout Me”
“All For Love” (with Rod Stewart and Bryan Adams)
“Love Is The Seventh Wave”
“Seven Days”

And those lists aren’t completely exhaustive! Bah!

To promote the album, a single was required and so The Police’s first UK Top 40 hit “Roxanne” was recommissioned for the job. However, it wasn’t the original version but a horrible remix by Puff Daddy who probably reckoned he owed Sting one for “I’ll Be Missing You”. What he came up with featured samples and a horrible rap and was retitled as “Roxanne ‘97” and was just a dreadful mess. Thankfully, we don’t get that version here but a rather affecting acoustic take on it. Although Sting might rival Bono in the holier-than-thou arse stakes, you can’t deny that “Roxanne” is a great tune (Puff Daddy remix aside).

I’m guessing that the bookies didn’t want to get burned by a Christmas No 1 they hadn’t seen coming as happened in 1993 when firm favourites Take That were bounced out of the top spot by Mr Blobby and so didn’t underestimate the Teletubbies. Thankfully, history didn’t repeat itself. It seems the joke was wearing thin by this point as we only get 30 seconds of “Teletubbies Say ‘Eh-Oh!’” as the credits roll. I never thought I’d say this but thank God for the Spice Girls.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Natalie Imbruglia	Torn	No
2	Robbie Williams	Angels	No but I had a promo copy of the album
3	Bryan Adams	Back to You	Nope
4	All Saints	Never Ever	Negative
5	U2	If God Will Send His Angels	I did not
6	Chicken Shed Theatre Company	I Am In Love With The World	Hell No!
7	Celine Dion	The Reason	Never
8	The Police / Sting	Roxanne ’97	Nah
9	Teletubbies	Teletubbies Say ‘Eh-Oh!’	Of course 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/m002chnq/top-of-the-pops-19121997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 12 DEC 1997

Posted on June 3 by 80stastic

I’ve said before in this blog that I’m not and have never been a massive James Bond fan. The character is just too slick and confident – two things that I’ve never been. I just can’t relate to him. Having said that, I did quite enjoy the films from the Daniel Craig era. As for the rest of the actors who have taken on the role, obviously I have seen some of the Sean Connery and Roger Moore movies but I don’t think I’ve caught any of the Timothy Dalton nor Pierce Brosnan stories and that includes Tomorrow Never Dies which opened in the UK on the day this TOTP aired. Although it grossed $339.5 million worldwide, it was ultimately eclipsed by the juggernaut that was Titanic which was in cinemas at the same time. Also eclipsed by Titanic was the theme song for Tomorrow Never Dies which couldn’t complete with that gargantuan hit by Celine Dion but more of that later.

Our host tonight is Jo Whiley whom I’m increasingly beginning to suspect wasn’t totally enjoying introducing songs by the likes of Aqua and the Teletubbies. Anyway, we start with a superstar (I think that’s a fair description of the artist concerned) in Janet Jackson who is at No 4 with “Together Again”, the second single taken from her album “The Velvet Rope”. You may remember her last trip to the TOTP studio to promote her Joni Mitchell sampling “Got ‘Til It’s Gone” single was a very pompous performance involving Ms Jackson on a throne and a stage full of would be courtiers. Thankfully, this time around, she’s gone for a much more informal and much less po-faced vibe. Apart from her heavily stylised corkscrew hairstyle, it’s all very relaxed with a ‘dress-down-Friday’ feel to what everyone on stage is wearing. As for the song itself, it’s a light, pleasant, upbeat track that actually had a more sombre source material being written about a close friend of Janet’s who died from AIDS. It’s very listenable but for me, her most interesting material came in her “Rhythm Nation 1814” era.

One up her nose and two up her jumper is how Janet rolls according to Jo Whiley (she talking about rings and therefore Ms Jackson’s rack I would assume which is a bit risqué for before the watershed) before our host tells us firmly where she stands musically which is with the next artist The Seahorses apparently. “Next a band who don’t need fancy dances – they have damned great tunes…” she trills except I’m not convinced that “You Can Talk To Me” is that great. After coming out of the traps fast with glorious debut hit “Love Is The Law”, the quality of their output had diminished in consistent increments it seemed to me before plateauing with this standalone single. Presumably released to bridge the gap between debut and follow up albums, it was rendered redundant somewhat as that sophomore collection of songs would never actually appear as the band broke up in 1999. In James Bond terms, The Seahorses were George Lazenby. Maybe it was just as well if this was an example of the direction in which they were going. “You Can Talk To Me” feels like it should be a tremendous track but for me, it’s all surface and no depth, like it was knocked out in about half an hour one afternoon. Or to put it in modern parlance, it’s as if AI had been asked to produce a song by The Seahorses if “You Can Talk To Me” had never existed.

As with Janet Jackson earlier, this appearance was vastly different to their last visit to the TOTP studio when they delivered a bizarre performance that involved all but lead singer Chris Helme seated alongside some random people also on stage looking bored and presenter Mark Lamarr rubbing John Squire’s knee. This time they’ve gone for a much more conventional set up which with their rather conventional song makes me yearn for some of those arbitrary strangers up there with the band again. Finally, if I want to hear a song with a ‘you can talk to me’ chorus, I think I’d rather listen to this:

Sometimes during these TOTP repeats you come across a song that it’s hard to remember that there was a time when you didn’t know it, that is, before it was released and before it became part of our cultural fabric. “Angels” by Robbie Williams is one of those songs. The story of how it single-handedly saved the ex-Take That star’s career and propelled him into superstardom is so well documented that even that narrative is taken for granted but it is an astonishing tale of a truly remarkable comeback. With his debut album “Life Thru A Lens” stalling and the singles from it achieving diminishing chart peaks, the word from the wise was that Williams was all washed up and unwanted by the record buying public. Although I had a promo copy of the album and had therefore heard “Angels” before its release as a single, I can’t lay claim to any great insight that if only Williams would release it, all his problems would be solved. I did think it was a decent song though and, as Jo Whiley says in her intro, the standout track from the album.

So, had “Angels” not been released what would have happened? Would Williams have been dropped by his label Chrysalis? Would pop music history have played out differently? Was this a sliding doors moment? I guess we’ll never know. What we do know is that “Angels” was a sales phenomenon. Twelve consecutive weeks inside the Top 10, sixty-eight on the Top 100 over ten separate occasions spanning seventeen years. Somehow though, it never got higher than No 4 despite shifting 1.16 million copies by 2014. The song’s legacy wasn’t just about its sales though. Its ubiquity was widespread and deep. In 2022, Alex Petridis wrote in The Guardian:

“Throughout the late 90s and 00s, it wasn’t so much a song as an unavoidable fact of daily life”

Petridis, Alexis (25 August 2022). “Robbie Williams’ 20 greatest songs – ranked!”. The Guardian.

In 2005, a Music Choice survey of 45,000 Britons chose “Angels” as the song that they would most like played at their funeral. In that same year’s BRIT Awards, the public voted it the best song of the last 25 years whilst a 2004 VH1 survey saw it voted as the best single never to have got to No 1. Say what you like about Williams but “Angels” certainly left its mark and for many remains his defining moment despite everything that followed including a No 1 less than 12 months later that interpolated the Nancy Sinatra song to the Bond movie You Only Live Twice. I love a post with a theme…

…and it’s the theme that keeps on giving as we arrive at the official track to the 1997 James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies courtesy of Sheryl Crow. Jo Whiley effuses about a new Bond theme being a “big deal” and that “this time they’ve got it right” which implies that they haven’t in the past. Which song could she be talking about? “Goldeneye” by Tina Turner? Yeah, that one was definitely underwhelming. Surely not Duran Duran, A-ha nor Gladys Knight the latter of which is the last great 007 theme to my ears. By its very nature, that last sentence therefore excludes “Tomorrow Never Dies” which I have to admit I don’t remember at all. Having listened to it back, I stand by my earlier statement. My reaction to it reminded me of a Daily Mirror article from when I was young that would be seen as sexist by today’s standards but was presumably acceptable back then. It was a piece where they tried to build a composite image of the ‘perfect’ woman by taking various elements of the most beautiful women in the world (hair, smile, legs etc). The result was less than flattering. Similarly, Sheryl’s song seems to have all the best parts of previous Bond themes but they don’t quite all sit together comfortably. There’s the cinematic orchestral strings, iconic kettle drum, dramatic pauses and twangy guitar refrain in the chorus whilst Sheryl does her best Shirley Bassey impression but it never quite gets there for me. It was nominated for a Golden Globe and a Grammy but lost out on both to the aforementioned “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion.

There were other songs in the running to be the official theme tune that were invited to be considered including this from Pulp which someone has helpfully put over the top of the opening titles. It would end up being a B-side for the band and retitled “Tomorrow Never Lies”…

Hmm. Not sure that they quite nailed it. Not sure at all. There’s this from Saint Etienne…

That’s more like it but then the band’s Bob Stanley does have a second career producing film soundtracks and films themselves as well as curating film seasons for various art institutions. If I had to be critical, I’m not sure that Sarah Cracknell’s vocals are quite big enough for a Bond theme.

We have a winner! Check this out from k.d. Lang! This is perfect! It was used over the end credits in the movie but surely it should have outranked Sheryl Crow’s track?

Before she introduces the next act, Jo Whiley dashes on stage to give Sheryl an award commemorating her album going three times platinum. Fair enough but why do we not get to hear Sheryl speak? What was all that about? The effect is just odd and talking of odd, here comes a most bizarre Beatles cover version from Blackstreet. Now, music history is littered with terrible takes of the Fab Four’s material and this is certainly not the worst but I’m still left asking the question why did they do it? Did the world really need a slowed down R&B version of their 1964 No 1 “Can’t Buy Me Love”? I know there is a school of thought that says there is only any point in a doing a cover if it’s substantially different from the original and I subscribe to that view. However, although Blackstreet clearly also did, I just don’t think that “Can’t Buy Me Love” in its original form lends itself to such a drastically different treatment. Those early Beatles hits were high octane, thrill inducing pop romps. It wasn’t in their DNA to be slowed down like that. Maybe it’s my fault for having a closed mind but I just can’t reconcile myself to Blackstreet’s version and why was it retitled as “(Money Can’t) Buy Me Love”? Was it something to do with the licensing of the track?

I said in the last post that Boyzone wouldn’t be having it all their own way in the boy band stakes as Westlife would be appearing on the horizon soon. However, even before those lovely lads from Sligo and Dublin turned up, there was Five. Or was it 5ive? Anyway, whereas Take That and East 17 had been depicted by the press as polar opposites, Five seems to combine elements of both. Pretty boys that were also ‘street’. It seemed like a plan.

Put together by the same father and son duo who had the idea for the Spice Girls, Bob and Chris Herbert thought the same could be achieved with an all male group. An audition process attended by 3,000 hopefuls resulted in a line up of Abz Love (real name Richard Breen), Jason ‘J’ Brown, Sean Conlon, Ritchie Neville and Scott Robinson (not to be confused with the Neighbours character played by Jason Donovan). Signed by Simin Cowell (him again) to BMG/RCA, the group embarked on months of rehearsals and promotional work before they’d even released a note of music so that their name was already well known by the time debut single “Slam Dunk (Da Funk)” was available in the shops. The hard work paid off when it landed at No 10 in the charts in its first week of release. I have to say as boy bands go, I didn’t mind them. “Slam Dunk (Da Funk)” was daft but it was fun and their Joan Jett sampling hit “Everybody Get Up” was great. Some of their stuff was routine boy band guff though as well. Someone who really did like them though was a person that my wife used to work with in a past job who was a difficult character who took offence at the unlikeliest of things. One such thing he hated was work colleagues who had pictures of their loved ones on their desks. Being a gay man, he staged his own protest by bringing a framed picture to work of J from Five which took pride of place on his own desk.

Five shone brightly for a three year period which included a trio of No 1 singles before splitting up in 2001. A planned reunion in 2006 came to nothing but they did get together again in 2013 via the ITV show The Big Reunion which resulted in a tour although J Brown declined to be part of it. Abz Love left the band after the tour meaning that a second reunion in 2019 featured just three members despite the fact that they retained the name of Five. However, a UK arena tour has been scheduled for October this year featuring all five members.

During late 1997 and early 1998, it was never, ever not time for All Saints – this was their third TOTP appearance out of nine (NINE!) promoting their second single. This must be some sort of record for a song that spent just a solitary week at No 1. How did Executive Producer Chris Cowey justify all these slots in the running order? Well, I guess if you look at these chart positions over nearly four (FOUR!) months inside the Top 10, you could make a case for at least half a dozen by my reckoning if your criteria is a hit going (back) up the charts or holding firm in the same place:

3 – 5 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 4 – 2 – 1 – 2 – 2 – 4 – 5 – 3 -7

They are spectacular numbers you have to say. Well, I’ve got another six appearances featuring “Never Ever” to write about so I’m going to leave it there for this one for this week.

The Teletubbies are at No 1 with “Teletubbies Say ‘Eh-Oh’”. Of course they are – this was the UK record buying public at work after all (never the most reliable arbiter of taste) and they were especially wayward in their shopping habits at Christmas. For a kids TV show aimed at a pre-school audience, Teletubbies seemed to attract an awful lot of controversy with perhaps the biggest of the lot centred around the character of Tinky Winky. The biggest and oldest (supposedly) of the Teletubbies, he caught the attention of US televangelist Jerry Falwell who proclaimed that Tinky Winky was promoting homosexuality due to his red handbag, his purple colour (purple being the gay pride colour) and his antenna being shaped like a triangle (a gay pride symbol). The BBC released an official response saying Tinky Winky was simply a “sweet technological baby with a magic bag”. Then there was the controversy over the sacking of actor Dave Thompson who originally played Tinky Winky but was fired after receiving a letter from production company Ragdoll saying his “interpretation of the role was not accepted”. Ha!

I’m sure there was also a media furore when a photo of Tinky Winky was circulated without his costume head on. My friend Bev was something to do with the publicity for the show at the time and had to field loads of press enquiries about what the BBC were going to do about allowing the shattering of the illusion of the Teletubbies for its millions of viewers. The truth is that those costumes were incredibly hot and the actors would sweat bucket loads and stink after their 11 hour filming stints in them. No wonder Tinky Winky took his head off! They may have been shot at, chased, punched or had the threat of a laser going up their jacksy but no James Bond actor had to deal with the inferno that was a Teletubbies costume.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Janet Jackson	Together Again	I did not
2	The Seahorses	You Can Talk To Me	Negative
3	Robbie Williams	Angels	No but I had a promo copy of the album
4	Sheryl Crow	Tomorrow Never Dies	No
5	Blackstreet	(Money Can’t) Buy Me Love	Nope
6	Five	Slam Dunk (Da Funk)	Nah
7	All Saints	Never Ever	Liked it, didn’t buy it
8	Teletubbies	Teletubbies Say ‘Eh-Oh’	What do you 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/m002chnn/top-of-the-pops-12121997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 05 DEC 1997

Posted on May 28 by 80stastic

We’ve entered December of 1997 with these TOTP repeats which can only mean one thing – Christmas is coming! By this point, with me working in the Our Price store in Stockport, I would have been in full-on hectic work mode with Christmas temps, queues of customers and long days of trading the norm. And what were the great British public buying their loved ones for Christmas? Well, the record companies had long since shuffled their pack of cards and got their dominoes in order (not sure where I’m going with this metaphor) to finalise their release schedules for optimum festive sales. A quick scan of the December album charts shows that, unsurprisingly, the Spice Girls were at No 1 with their sophomore album “Spiceworld” with Celine Dion showing strong sales of her “Let’s Talk About Love” album just behind. So far, so mainstream. The rest of the Top 10 is made up of four Best Ofs from Eternal, Enya, Lightning Seeds and, in a blast from the past, Wham! All Saints were on the climb with their recently released eponymous debut album whilst one of the year’s consistent big sellers – “White On Blonde” by Texas – was still shifting major numbers despite 44 weeks on the chart already. Grimly, the Backstreet Boys were in there but perhaps the biggest surprise and certainly the least mainstream artist inside the Top 10 were The Verve whose “Urban Hymns” album would ultimately go eleven times platinum in the UK but more of them later.

Jayne ‘pouty mouth’ Middlemiss is our host for tonight and we start with M People and their single “Fantasy Island”. Nothing to do with the TV series starring Ricardo Montalban and Hervé Villechaize (“De plane! De plane!”) nor (thankfully) the 1982 Top 5 hit for Tight Fit, this was the second track take from the band’s “Fresco” album. I don’t recall this one at all but that’s probably because it only spent one week on the Top 40 peaking at a lowly No 33 making it quite the outlier in the band’s discography. Not since “Someday” five years earlier had they experienced such a low charting single.

So what happened here? The other two singles from the album both peaked at No 8 either side of “Fantasy Island” so what was it about that track that should have caused such a fluctuation. I don’t believe it was a sudden drop in the band’s popularity. Although they weren’t quite hitting the heights of their commercial heyday when “Elegant Slumming” and “Bizarre Fruit” sold 2.5 million copies between them in the UK alone, “Fresco” was still a platinum selling album. So was there a dip in quality for this particular song? Well, musical taste is subjective of course so I can’t really make any definitive judgement on that score but “Fantasy Island” seemed to hark back to the template of those earlier hits so was the formula becoming a bit tired. It couldn’t have been the Samson-effect surely that saw Heather Small’s vocal power reduced by the removal of her usual towering hairdo? No, of course not. Possibly it was just that it got caught up in the Christmas rush (15 of the Top 40 songs that week were new releases) – that seems the most plausible explanation. What was sure was that the time of M People was coming to an end. The only albums released since “Fresco” have been Best Of compilations and box set retrospectives as Heather Small launched her solo career and Mike Pickering pursued a career in A&R.

Also experiencing some commercial difficulties around this time was Kylie Minogue. Her first single in nearly two years – “Some Kind Of Bliss” – had been her first ever release not to make the UK Top 20 (all of her previous 23 singles up to that point had achieved this). Presumably spooked by this, her record label Deconstruction delayed the release of its parent album. Originally scheduled to be called “Impossible Princess”, it had already been postponed once and when Princess Diana died at the end of August, the reason given for its second shelving was issues of sensitivity surrounding its title. On reflection, that seems quite a convenient smoke screen. A second single was lined up to test the waters further in an attempt to divine public opinion about Kylie’s new direction. “Did It Again” was heavily promoted (including a CD-Rom of the promo video on some versions of the single) and it duly improved upon its predecessors chart position by peaking at No 14.

However, it was a temporary and not altogether substantial reprieve. When the album did finally come out, it underperformed. A third single from it could only replicate the chart high of “Did It Again” creating a hat-trick of singles that didn’t make the Top 10. Additionally, the British press seemed to have fallen out of love with Kylie around this time. Accusations of anorexia and a belittling of her ‘IndieKylie’ persona (that itself was a creation by the media and not something encouraged by Kylie herself) dogged her whilst the three year gap between albums and a perceived lack of promotion from Deconstruction were seen as contributing factors to a downturn in her popularity. By the time the 90s had ended, Kylie seemed like she was a chart dinosaur but somehow survived pop music extinction to capture the hearts of the public and a No 1 record with “Spinning Around” in 2000. She’s not really looked back since.

As for “Did It Again”, her vocals here are a bit ropey and I’m not sure that the drag queens on stage with her really add anything to the performance ( yes, I get that they are recreations of the various Kylie personas from the video) but it’s OK. Also, is it in my imagination or does it sound a bit like Garbage (the band!) at the start? After that though, there is no complication as it displays a definite eastern vibe before there is no hesitation as it propels headlong into a catchy chorus. Maybe Kylie should consider herself so unlucky that it wasn’t a bigger hit. Ahem.

Next up, a song that may not be the most well known or highest charting of this particular band’s career but has been singled out by the man behind it as the favourite of his that he’s ever written (so far). That man is Richard Ashcroft, the band is The Verve and the song is “Lucky Man”. The third single released from their aforementioned classic “Urban Hymns” album, it’s a widescreen, epic sonic soundscape of a track though it’s actually got a very basic chord structure that even a lazy strummer like me could handle. Maybe that’s the secret to its power and allure – its simplicity. Of course, the recorded version that we all know is multi layered so that it sounds almost sprawling but as with its chords, it has a simple and pure message in its lyrics – that of the “raw nature of yourselves”, as Ashcroft himself puts it, that is allowed to be displayed between a couple in a committed relationship and the beauty within that ease of being. Yes, it’s anthemic but there’s no bombast to it. I think it’s probably my favourite song by The Verve as well Mr. Ashcroft.

As Jayne Middlemiss says in her intro, this performance was taken from the band’s appearance on Later…with Jools Holland which was broadcast on 10th November 1997 and the orchestral string backing really elevates it to a higher plane sonically. The other artists on that particular show were Rickie Lee Jones, UB40, Roni Size and Jewel. With respect to those names, I consider myself to be a lucky man not to be reviewing that show as well.

Sometimes I really cannot dredge up anything from the recesses of my poor, overworked brain to comment on about a past hit relived on these TOTP repeats. It may be because I can’t recall it at all or that it’s from a genre of music that didn’t speak to me and therefore I have nothing to say about it. In the case of “It’s Over Love” by Todd Terry it’s both. Obviously I do know the name Todd Terry and that he’s a house music legend but apart from that I couldn’t tell you much about his canon of work other than his involvement in the remix of Everything But The Girl’s “Missing”. His discography lists two other UK Top 10 hits that he had with Martha Wash and Jocelyn Brown in 1996 and 1997 and I can’t even remember them! Did I review them for this blog?!

My blushes are spared though by the featured vocalist in this track who is Shannon whom I definitely do recall. Back in 1984 she had three bona fide chart hits in “Sweet Somebody”, “Give Me Tonight” and the biggest of the lot “Let The Music Play”. Thirteen years later and she was back in the TOTP studio and she doesn’t look that much older to me. Am I misremembering? Make your own minds up…

By 1997, I’d started to lose sight of Paul Weller’s solo career. After he’d re-emerged from the wilderness with his 1992 eponymous album, he cemented his position as a respected elder statesman of British guitar rock (even though he was only 35 at the time) with the following year’s “Wild Wood”. By the time that 1995’s “Stanley Road” had gone four times platinum, Weller was the ‘The Modfather’, or even ‘The Godfather of Britpop’ (along with a few other candidates for the title). However, just as Britpop couldn’t and didn’t sustain, neither did Weller’s solo career sales. His fourth solo album ”Heavy Soul” arrived two years on from “Stanley Road” and though a healthy seller, it didn’t come anywhere near the numbers of its predecessor. It felt like he was appealing to his (admittedly large) fanbase still but that crossover into a larger audience that we saw with “Stanley Road” was no longer there.

I think I must have been one of those that fell by the wayside. Both “Wild Wood” and “Stanley Road” CDs were to be found in our flat in Manchester but “Heavy Soul” was noticeably absent. Its lead single “Peacock Suit” was OK but beyond that, I hadn’t felt the need to investigate further. As such, I don’t really remember the fourth and final single lifted from the album called “Mermaids”. Having watched this performance back, it’s a decent tune though a bit Weller-by-numbers. The “sha-la-la-la” hook has me wondering if Mr Weller had been listening to “Sha-La-La-La-Lee” by the Small Faces or even “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison. Whatever the truth, there seemed to be a trend for records using that lyrical refrain in 1997. Remember “What Do You Want From Me?” by Monaco?

P.S. That tank top Paul! Dearie me!

Somebody who was never going to be found in the Top 10 of the album chart I talked about at the start of the post is Gala. Not in the UK at least. In the rest of Europe she shifted a fair few copies of her album “Cone Into My Life” (nothing to do with the Joyce Sims hit of the same name) but over here she was a singles artist. In fact, she was known for one single in particular and it wasn’t this one. Whilst “Freed From Desire” continues to have a life of its own thanks to its adoption as a football chant, does anybody remember “Let A Boy Cry”? Well, you might if you’re Italian, Belgian, Spanish or French as it went to No 1 in all those countries but one week at No 11 was all it could muster in the UK. To my ears, it sounds very similar to its predecessor but…well…just not as good. Its subject matter about encouraging male sensitivity and emotional intelligence is laudable but it’s just not that memorable. Gala’s shaky vocals in this performance didn’t help its chances. A third UK Top 40 hit would arrive in the form of the album’s title track the following August but a high of No 38 was hardly likely to add longevity of her pop career. The longevity of “Freed From Desire” on the other hand…

With Take That now out of the way and despite the increasing claims of the Backstreet Boys, Boyzone continued to be the premier boy band of this era of the 90s. Their cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Baby Can I Hold You” was the group’s tenth consecutive UK hit of which only one didn’t at least make the Top 3. Of those though, a whopping 40% were cover versions. Hmm. Is that cynical or clever song selection at work? As with their other covers, this was another ballad but unlike its predecessors, it was brutally ignored despite the high profile it enjoys to this day when originally released in 1988 when it made No 94 on the UK chart. No 94! It’s not the only example of this phenomenon. Off the top of my head there’s “Summer Of ‘69” by Bryan Adams (No 42 in the UK) and “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac (a UK No 46). They’ll be many more I’m sure. There would also be many more actual hits for Boyzone (another 10 to be precise including four No 1s) but beware lads as you won’t have it all your own way in the boy band stakes for too much longer – Westlife will be racking up the chart toppers as well before the decade is out.

It’s another cover version still riding high at the top of the charts as “Perfect Day” by Various Artists resists the challenge of *Boyzone to remain at No 1.

*Ronan and co do, of course, feature on “Perfect Day” as does M People’s Heather Small who opened the show thus top and tailing it nicely.

Watching the video back, I’m struck by how many of the contributing artists are no longer with us. Look at this list…

David Bowie
Stephen Gately (Boyzone)
Tammy Wynette
Shane MacGowan
Dr. John
Andrew Davis (conductor)
And, of course, Lou Reed himself

I suppose it’s to be expected that not every artist would still be alive 28 years later but still.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it ?
1	M People	Fantasy Island	No
2	Kylie Minogue	Did It Again	Negative
3	The Verve	Lucky Man	No but I had the Urban Hymns album
4	Todd Terry featuring Shannon	It’s Over Love	Not my bag at all
5	Paul Weller	Mermaids	Nope
6	Gala	Let A Boy Cry	Nah
7	Boyzone	Baby Can I Hold You	I did not
8	Various Artists	Perfect Day	And no

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002c5fq/top-of-the-pops-05121997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 28 NOV 1997

Posted on May 22 by 80stastic

The end is approaching for these 1997 TOTP repeats as we arrive at the last show of November. It was also the last show for Mark Lamarr who was presenting the final of his four episodes. This left a roster of four regular hosts – Jayne Middlemiss, Zoe Ball, Jamie Theakston and Jo Whiley – a line up that would stay unchanged until July 1998. I can’t say I’m too upset about Lamarr’s departure – I liked him on The Word and Never Mind The Buzzcocks but his comic approach didn’t quite fit with TOTP – something about it I found jarring like he was trying too hard to take the piss out of everything and everyone. He starts this show with an eyepatch and claiming he’s Snake Plissken who is the fictional character from the films Escape From New York and Escape From L.A. as portrayed by Kurt Russell. The reason behind this ‘escapes’ me but then I’ve never watched either film so maybe there’s some weird connection between them and the BBC’s premier pop music programme. If anyone reading this is in the know, please leave a comment.

We begin with Louise who, after leaving Eternal, has fashioned a very respectable pop career for herself. I use the word ‘pop’ deliberately as her previous band mates were pursuing a much more R&B direction. Maybe a parting of the ways would have been inevitable regardless. Anyway, “Let’s Go Round Again” was Louise’s sixth Top 10 hit out of seven single releases – like I said, not too shabby. However, was the fact that she’d got to the cover version stage so early a sign that her time as a solo artist was already going stale?

Originally a No 12 hit for the Average White Band in 1980, on the one hand it was a sensible choice of cover in line with her positioning as a mainstream dance/pop act. It was light and catchy and a shoo-in for Radio 1’s daytime playlists. On the other hand, it was just too safe and a definite step away from her rebranding as a sex symbol and sultry performer of songs like “Naked”. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle of these two views but ultimately it just seemed all a little pointless to me. Mind you, not as pointless as this No 78 hit from 1990 by Yell!…

After the rather surprising collaboration of hard rock heroes Metallica and English singer and actress Marianne Faithfull in the previous show, this week we get another unusual combination – ‘dream house’ pin up boy Robert Miles and one quarter of disco legends Sister Sledge, Kathy Sledge. I’m not sure how this came about and I care less but presumably Miles wanted a female vocalist for his tune “Freedom” much as he had done with Maria Nayler on his previous hit “One And One”. Kathy’s last appearance on the show would have been nearly five years before as part of Sister Sledge to promote yet another rerelease of “Lost In Music” and in the meantime she’s changed her hairstyle to what I can only describe as a Deirdre Barlow perm! She seems to be up there on her own with no sign of Robert Miles. Maybe he was washing his hair that night? Actually, Kathy’s not quite alone. Check out the studio audience member in the grey shirt who’s ‘’avin’ it large’ with his flailing arm movements. Despite most of the rest of the audience not being in the spotlight, he’s managed to keep finding a position where the studio lights keep picking him up. Not sure if that’s deliberate or lucky. As for the song, it’s fairly standard Miles fare – a twinkling piano intro and dream house beats but doesn’t really go anywhere for me. Put it like this – I wasn’t lost in the music.

Now, she may be the ‘Queen of Hip-Hop Soul’ but this single by Mary J. Blige sounds common and ignoble to my, admittedly soul-less, ears. “Missing You” is a right old dirge. Once more, it was written by legendary producer Babyface (it felt like half the Top 40 was down to him around this time) and he seems to have re-written 10cc’s “I’m Not In Love”. Certainly the opening lines have clear parallels with the 1975 chart topper. Witness:

I’m not in love, it’s just some kind of thing I’m goin’ through

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Kenneth Edmonds
Missing You lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

And…

I’m not in love, so don’t forget it, it’s just a silly phase I’m going through

Writer/s: Eric Michael Stewart, Graham Keith Gouldman
Publisher: MUSIC SALES CORPORATION
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Busted! Apparently, Shanice is on backing vocals. Remember her? “I Love Your Smile”? You couldn’t get a song so diametrically opposed to “Missing You” as that sunny, breezy, upbeat track.

Oh brilliant! Another TV actor trying his arm at a career in music. Back in the late 80s and early 90s, that seemed to be the preserve of soap stars but by 1997, one man had opened the door for anyone in a drama series to become a resident of the charts. That man was, of course, Simon Cowell. The charge sheet of this guy’s crimes against music is huge! Not happy with inflicting Robson & Jerome on us he also paved the way for Steven Houghton to play at being a pop star but this time, for Soldier Soldier read London’s Burning. The show about the lives of Blue Watch of the London Fire Brigade had already spawned one wannabe pop singer in John Alford who had three hit singles in 1996 (all cover versions* obviously) all of which were so bad he was given the nickname Jon Awful in the Our Price where I was working.

*Including “If” that had been a No 1 in the UK for yet another actor in 1975 – Telly Savalas. Talk about the phenomenon eating itself!

I’m not sure if Cowell had anything to do with that abomination (I wouldn’t be surprised if he did though) but he definitely had his mucky fingers over Steven Houghton’s cover of “Wind Beneath My Wings” as he knew the actor’s agent and encouraged him to secure a commercial release of the song. Why did the public keep falling for this practice? The set up for the single was a carbon copy of that of the aforementioned Robson & Jerome. Houghton’s character performs the song as part of the plot of one episode and…well, that was all that was required for the general public to hot foot it down to their local record store to ask for that record by the TV fireman. Look, I get that it’s a heady cocktail of promotion – a song on your favourite TV show beamed directly into your living room would be worth more than a thousand adverts in the music press and yes, I know it wasn’t an original concept. EastEnders had given us Nick Berry in 1986 singing a song that had initially been featured on the soap but this was all getting a bit much. Thankfully both Alford and Houghton’s pop careers were mercifully short lived but we aren’t out of the woods yet. We’ve still got Adam Rickitt, Martine McCutcheon and Will Mellor to come before these 90s TOTP repeats are done with us. At least we didn’t have to suffer the Bill Tarmey version of “Wind Beneath My Wings” as mentioned by Mark Lamarr. Small mercies and all that.

You know Simon Cowell’s charge sheet of crimes against music I mentioned before? Add this nonsense to it! Yes, Mr High-Waisted-Trousers also brought us this massive hutch full of rabbit shit that was “Teletubbies Say ‘Eh-Oh’ “ by the Teletubbies. Good Lord! Was there no end to this sadist’s desire to fling musical excrement at the general public. Ah, the general public. Perhaps they/we should be taking a lot of the blame for this? After all, Cowell didn’t buy all 1.3 million copies it sold himself did he? I wouldn’t put it past him to have engaged in some chart manipulation though.

Teletubbies was a TV phenomenon. A BBC children’s show aimed at a pre-school audience that first aired in March of this year, its characters Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po would become household names. The secret of the show’s success was that the Teletubbies were designed to resemble toddlers and that the way they communicated was via a language that was pure gibberish. Of course, when I was a child, our supply of gibberish came courtesy of The Flowerpot Men but they weren’t half as cute as the Teletubbies.

Cuteness wasn’t the only thing that The Flowerpot Men didn’t have – there was also the marketing strategies that existed in the 90s. Given the success of the show, the Teletubbies were always going to generate commercial spin offs and consequently Teletubbies dolls were the biggest selling toy of Christmas 1997. There was also a game released for Microsoft Windows and then there was the dreaded single. Basically just the theme tune to the show with some added bits, it would storm to the top of the charts and be the bookies favourite for the Christmas No 1. Well, if Mr. Blobby could bag the festive top seller why couldn’t the Teletubbies? In all fairness, if Simon Cowell hadn’t released the single, someone else would have. Indeed, when he got news that another label wanted to sign the Teletubbies, he got the BBC in his office and offered them £500,000 in advance to do a deal so sure was he of the single’s ability to sell. But who was buying it? I can only assume parents for their toddlers. Surely it wasn’t pop music fans?! In the end, it would be another act with young child appeal that would grab the Christmas No 1 at the last to deny the Teletubbies but that’s for a future post. In the meantime, we will be seeing Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po again in these TOTP repeats I’m afraid. At least they were a one hit wonder and were spared a follow up single.

After two stinkers comes a sweet smelling quality tune in “Never Ever” by All Saints. It certainly provides some fragrant relief from the nasty stench of Steven Houghton and the Teletubbies. However, I’ve a feeling even its bouquet might start to go stale as – get this – it’s on TOTP nine times over a thirteen week period! NINE! This was the second of those nine appearances and already the group’s shoulder shrugging dance move is becoming firmly established. A couple of things leapt to my attention. Firstly, that the only person not to get a solo part in the song is Natalie Appleton. Is this significant? She was originally going to be the group’s manager but became a performing member once she’d sorted child care arrangements for her daughter. Secondly, in the lyrics, the phrase ‘A to Z’ is used twice but the first time ‘Z’ is sung using the American pronunciation of ‘zee’ but the second time it’s the English version of ‘zed’. Make your minds up girls!

In the last post, I noted upon the identity crisis surrounding the rerelease of “You Sexy Thing” in the wake of the success of the film The Full Monty. All of the online evidence I could find points to it being under the name of Hot Chocolate which is how it should be given that the group had already had a hit with it twice. However, TOTP billed it as being by the singer Errol Brown and they’ve done so again this week. What was going on here? Errol did have a brief solo career in the late 80s but it only gave him one UK Top 40 hit in 1987 called “Personal Touch”. Or was it two as the officialcharts.com archive says that the follow up to the 1997 rerelease of “You Sexy Thing” was “It Started With A Kiss” which was under the name of Hot Chocolate featuring Errol Brown. It was all very confusing. Even Errol himself needed clarification when he sang in that follow up “you don’t remember me do you?”…

And so to the new No 1. Although this was a charity record for this year’s Children In Need appeal, it didn’t start out with that intention. 1997 was the 75th anniversary of the BBC which prompted the Beeb to undertake a corporate redesign and a series of promotional campaigns to highlight the services it offered the public. One such campaign was a trailer put together over an 18 month period to promote the wide range of music offered by the BBC. It took the form of various music artists from all genres singing a line of “Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day”. I’m not going to list all the participants but some of the names appearing included heavyweights like Bono, David Bowie and Elton John but also some left field people like Sky from Morcheeba, Laurie Anderson and Robert Cray. Country music was represented by Emmylou Harris and Tammy Wynette whilst opera was championed by Lesley Garrett and Thomas Allen. Indie had Brett Anderson and Evan Dando but perhaps the one person who everyone remembers but whose name many didn’t know was Dr. John for his pronunciation of ‘perfect’ as “poi-fect”.

The trailer proved hugely popular with the public and demand to be able to buy this version led to a single release that was tied in with the Children In Need appeal. A couple of points of interest to note here. Firstly, there can’t have been too many UK chart hits under the name of Various Artists. Off the top of my head, there was a dance medley single released to tie in with the BRIT Awards in 1990 which made No 2 I think but surely this was the first ‘Various Artists’ chart topper. Secondly, “Perfect Day” had an unusual chart journey. Having debuted at No 1 and staying there for a further week, it then spent two weeks at No 2 and two weeks at No 3 before leaping back to the top of the charts a whole month after its initial spell there. You just keep me hangin’ on indeed.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Louise	Let’s Go Round Again	Nope
2	Robert Miles featuring Kathy Sledge	Freedom	Nah
3	Mary J. Blige	Missing You	No
4	Steven Houghton	Wind Beneath My Wings	Never
5	Teletubbies	Teletubbies Say ‘Eh-Oh’	What do you think?!
6	All Saints	Never Ever	Liked it, didn’t buy it
7	Hot Chocolate	You Sexy Thing	I did not
8	Various Artists	Perfect Day	No but I had Lou Reed’s Transformer album

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/m002c5fm/top-of-the-pops-28111997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 21 NOV 1997

Posted on May 20 by 80stastic

The day after this TOTP aired, news broke of the death of INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence. It was a shocking moment. He was a huge international name and had been for a decade or so. He was only 37 years old which was maybe getting on a bit for a rock star but, in terms of life expectancy, it was no age at all. As details of his demise emerged, the dreadful realisation that he had taken his own life took hold. He had been devastated by the news that legal action taken by Bob Geldof would prevent his partner (and Geldof’s ex-wife) Paula Yates from visiting him on tour with INXS and bringing their daughter Tiger and her three children with Geldof. In the time that followed, it was suggested by Yates that Hutchence may have died from autoerotic asphyxiation though the coroner’s report said the official reason was suicide whilst depressed and under the influence of alcohol and other drugs. When faced with processing such hugely tragic news, the brain can often short circuit and lead you down neural pathways that are not really appropriate to the event. Such an experience happened to me with my first thought on hearing the news being that the radio could never play “Suicide Blonde” again. I was wrong about that too. With that sombre and sobering start to this post, let’s see if this show had anything on it to bring the mood up. Our host is Jo Whiley whose reference to the show being on BBC2 was because BBC1 was hosting Children In Need on this particular evening.

We start with a very well known song that had already been a hit twice for the artist concerned but who was that artist as there seemed to be some confusion about their identity. Quite why there is though I’m not sure – ask any person with even a passing interest in music who had a hit with “You Sexy Thing” and they’d come back immediately with Hot Chocolate and they’d be right of course. And not just once. It was a No 2 in 1975 and No 10 when rereleased in 1987 to promote a Best Of album that topped the UK charts.

So where’s the confusion with this? Well, because of the TOTP caption which tells us that this version is not by Hot Chocolate but by Errol Brown, their lead singer. To be fair, he is up there on his own without a band behind him and just some dancers but would we have noticed the rest of the band on screen with him anyway? Being a member of Hot Chocolate that wasn’t Errol must have felt like you were invisible anyway. That doesn’t change the facts though which are, as far as I can establish them, that this was not an Errol Brown solo release so why did TOTP try and bill it as if it was? The single’s cover definitely says ‘Hot Chocolate’ (with an additional reference to the film The Full Monty which was the reason for its rerelease). I think there’s no doubt about it (ahem), there’s been a cock up here. The story didn’t end there though. A rerelease of “It Started With A Kiss” followed in 1998 and that was billed as being by Hot Chocolate featuring Errol Brown. I’ve also found a reference to a Greatest Hits collection called “Platinum, The Very Best Of Hot Chocolate featuring Errol Brown”. Why was Errol separated out from the band? Somebody ought to put them together again (once more, ahem).

When it comes to Ocean Colour Scene, for me, they’re one of those bands where I actually know more of their songs than I thought. Before they appeared in these TOTP repeats, I would have said I knew a couple of their hits but it turns out that’s not true. This track, “Better Day”, is a case in point. I definitely remember it once heard. Maybe it’s because I saw them live last year that it’s familiar. Or maybe it’s just that it’s deceptively catchy with a brooding intensity.

Either way, it would become the band’s sixth consecutive Top 10 hit when it made it to No 9. This really was the peak of their commercial powers. However, that peak also meant that the next logical step was going down the other side of the hill – “Better Day” would prove to be the band’s last ever Top 10 single. It wasn’t like falling off a cliff though – more like a slow amble down a winding path down to the beach. The No 4, gold selling album “One From The Modern” followed in 1999 but it was definitely a case of diminishing returns. “Marchin’ Already” and “Moseley Shoals” had both been platinum selling collections but their first two albums of the new millennium were certified silver. After that it seemed like they were only really appealing to their existing hardcore fanbase. At some point I’m guessing that the band made the decision to become a touring only entity as they seem to be constantly playing live gigs and haven’t released a studio album since 2013.

Clearly Hanson (or their record label) had been reading the pop music manual called ‘How to promote a new group’ as they are following the blueprint to the letter by making their third single a ballad after their first two hits had been fast ones. It’s a well used strategy – score a debut hit with a catchy pop track, consolidate with a follow up that conforms to the same format then show the depth of your talent and sensitivity with a slow paced love song. Said love song for the brothers Hanson was “I Will Come To You” and it wasn’t bad actually. No, really. After “MMMBop”, how many of us would have believed that they were capable of such maturity. Again, I say “no really”. Admittedly, they were helped to write it by the established husband and wife songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and Taylor Hanson’s vocals are maybe slightly too young sounding but it stands up OK. It really reminds me of something that I can’t quite put my finger on. Oh well. Maybe, paraphrasing the song’s title, it will come to me…*

*It still hasn’t yet

Jo Whiley goes all ageist in her intro to the next artist who are Pulp with their single “Help The Aged”. After informing us that they would shortly be sitting in for John Peel on Radio 1, she then says “This week they have a different cause – rattling tins for wrinklies on TOTP”. Wrinklies Jo? Really? She was only 32 when this show was broadcast. She’ll be 60 in a few weeks. I wonder how she feels about that intro now? As for Pulp, like Ocean Colour Scene before them, this would prove to be their final Top 10 hit. Unlike the Birmingham rockers who have been a constant since their formation in 1989, Jarvis and co split in 2002 before a reunion in 2011 that lasted two years. Another nine would pass before they came together again and a new album, their first since 2001 is due later this year.

Some blue-eyed soul next from a geezer (as Jo Whiley refers to him) for whom great things were predicted but which never quite panned out. Conner Reeves (whose name conjures up images of a Premier League midfielder) was a double threat – he had a smooth soul voice and the songwriting chops to go with it (I’m not sure about his dance moves hence double and not triple threat) but somehow the record buying public never quite took to him enough to give him the commercial success to sustain a chart career. Correction – a chart career as a performer under his own name. He would go on write hits for the likes of Westlife and X Factor winner Matt Cardle. However, this single – “Earthbound” – was actually written by Graham Lyle of Gallagher and Lyle fame despite the fact that, ironically, it has a whiff of Westlife about it. Why did his own career never take off in the way it was expected to? I blame his choice of hat here. Did we really need a Gilbert O’Sullivan for the 90s?

Some proper hard rock now courtesy of Metallica and rather unexpectedly Marianne Faithfull. Yes, you read that right but we’ll get to her in a bit. The LA rockers were in prolific form around this time. Having not released an album for five years, they then came out with two in 18 months! However, in reality, it was actually a double album that had a staggered release. “Load” had hit the shops in June 1996 and the band had amassed enough for it to have been twice its size but had decided not to go the double album route as they hadn’t wanted to be in the studio recording for such a prolonged period. They’d also feared a deluge of new material would lead to some of the tracks being lost in the rush. It sounds like sensible logic but Guns N’ Roses had achieved incredible sales when they released “Use Your Illusion I” and “Use Your Illusion II” simultaneously in 1991. Maybe Metallica hadn’t wanted to be accused of being copycats?

Come 1997 “Reload” was released and its lead single was “The Memory Remains”. Now, that collaboration with Marianne Faithfull – how did that come about? Apparently the bit in the song with the “La, La, La” bit was just because vocalist James Hetfield didn’t have any lyrics but the band’s engineer liked it how it was. Hetfield eventually agreed but thought it needed an older woman’s voice to sing that part. Said engineer recommended Marianne whom Hetfield was not familiar with but, having listened to one of her albums, agreed and the band sought her out. She recorded her parts for the track in Dublin whilst resisting Metallica’s pleas for stories of the Rolling Stones’ early days and the rest is history. It was the first time that Metallica had a guest artist feature on any of their songs. Marianne’s presence didn’t turn me on to Metallica though. Not my bag really this though I was quite intrigued by its subject matter of a faded artist who goes insane from losing her fame. Are there echoes of the fate of Michael Hutchence in there? Not the losing their fame bit but being tormented to the point of suicide? Look at some of the lyrics and see what you think…

While the Hollywood sun sets behind your back

And can’t the band play on

Just listen, they play my song

Ash to ash, dust to dust, fade to black

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: James Alan Hetfield / Lars Ulrich
The Memory Remains lyrics © Creeping Death Music

Huge selling single incoming! “Never Ever” was a less of a marker in the sand and more of a beach long billboard that All Saints were no short term Spice Girls wannabes (sorry!). The group’s first No 1 (of five) and their biggest selling single with sales of 1.6 million in the UK. It is the third best selling single by a girl group in the UK ever behind “Wannabe” and “Shout Out To My Ex” by Little Mix and holds the record for the most sales ever (770,000 units shifted) before actually going to the top of the charts which it did on its ninth week. It spent 15 consecutive weeks inside the Top 10 and 20 on the Top 40. It was a monster. I think we’ll be seeing this one again and again and again in these TOTP repeats so I’ll think I’ll leave it there for now.

It’s the final week at No 1 for Aqua with “Barbie Girl” but don’t think they’re going away anytime soon. No, not only did we in the UK fall for the charms of their must famous song but we found ourselves unable to resist giving them a further two chart toppers. Two! Remember “Doctor Jones” and “Turn Back Time”? Yep, they’ll be along shortly. As for “Barbie Girl”, it would spend the following four weeks inside the Top 3 and a further three on top of that on the Top 10. It would be the third biggest selling single of the year in the UK. Life in plastic really was fantastic for Aqua.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Hot Chocolate	You Sexy Thing	I did not
2	Ocean Colour Scene	Better Day	No
3	Hanson	I Will Come To You	Another no
4	Pulp	Help The Aged	Negative
5	Conner Reeves	Earthbound	Nah
6	Metallica	The Memory Remains	Not my bag at all
7	All Saints	Never Ever	Nope
8	Aqua	Barbie Girl	Never

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/m002bx6d/top-of-the-pops-21111997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 14 NOV 1997

Posted on May 14 by 80stastic

With a couple of notable exceptions, this episode of TOTP has a definite mainstream flavour to it. Nothing wrong with that necessarily – it’s just an observation. Our host is Jayne ‘knowing smirk’ Middlemiss and we begin with a second consecutive appearance from Natalie Imbruglia performing her hit “Torn”. This would definitely fall into the category of ‘mainstream’ in my book as well as being a very decent tune. However, the version we all know wasn’t how it sounded in earlier incarnations. Check out its back story – it has more chapters to it than War And Peace. This is the Danish language version by Lis Sørensen which went under the title of “Brændt” (“Burnt” in English)…

Then there’s this – the ‘grunge’ version by US rock band Ednaswap that featured two of the song’s writers in its line up – Scott Cutler and Anne Preven. Discussing “Torn” in an interview with theringer.com, Sophie B. Hawkins said that she would like to have Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones administer her with the Men In Black memory eraser treatment so that she didn’t know the Natalie Imbruglia version allowing her to see if she could spot the potential of the Ednaswap version to be such huge pop smash.

Would she have? Would any of us? Who knows? What I do know is that after Ednaswap and Lis Sørensen and before we got to Natalie there was a stop off in Norway where singer Trine Rein had a hit with it there…

Finally, the definitive version came about when third co-writer Phil Thornalley was put together with Natalie Imbruglia by his manager and new music publisher and one time Haircut 100 member Marc Fox. It was Fox who convinced them that they should give “Torn” another shot and so they worked the track up between them for days on end until they had what they believed was the perfect pop take on it. It was a heaven sent pairing – Thornalley’s reputation for working with some of the 80s biggest names was now so far in the rear mirror as to be imperceptible to the naked eye and he was desperate to relive his past glories whilst Imbruglia wanted to throw everything she had at pursuing a pop career. They were both prepared to do the hard yards and it paid off handsomely. “Torn” tore up the charts globally going Top 5 just about everywhere whilst her album “Left Of The Middle” went multi platinum. What I remember about that album is that they changed the artwork on it. Initially, it had a rather arty four column design with different images of Natalie in each. However, subsequent reorders were fulfilled by a new design that was just a portrait of her face that accentuated her striking eyes. I always assumed that was a deliberate and blatant marketing strategy on behalf of her label. I could be wrong.

Now, these reviews take some time to put together (I’ve spent literally weeks of my life doing this for the past nine years) so when a chance for a shortcut comes along, I’m going to take it. And here is one such opportunity. “Open Road” by Gary Barlow was on the 6th June edition of the show when Gazza performed it to celebrate the release of his debut solo album of the same name. Back then, I commented on how many people he’d brought to the studio with him that day. I don’t think it’s quite as many this time though it’s a pretty large band of musicians up there with him. Also different this time is that he’s plonked behind some keyboards for this performance whereas he was wandering up and down a walkway (the titular “Open Road” maybe?) before. Anyway, to see what else I wrote about this one, just click on the link to my previous post below:

TOTP 06 JUN 1997

Now, I said earlier there were a couple of exceptions to the wall to wall mainstream running order and this next artist is one of those I was thinking of. However, did Moby sit outside of that mainstream world? Within two years, he would have a UK No 1 and a worldwide 12 million selling album that spawned eight singles so could he be considered ‘alternative’ for want of a better word? I think he’d certainly begun his career out in the left field with his techno rave hit “Go” sampling the theme from cult, surrealist horror drama Twin Peaks but here he was in 1997 doing a dance version of perhaps one of the most recognisable theme tunes in movie history. It’s a conundrum for sure.

So quite why was he turning his hand to the “James Bond Theme”? Well, it was all to do with the new Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies which was released in the UK in December. The second movie starring Pierce Brosnan as 007, it followed 1995’s Goldeneye. I’ve never been a huge Bond fan I have to say. He’s just too slick and cool a character for me to get on board with – to quote Morrissey, he “says nothing to me about my life”. Anyway, back to Moby and his ‘re-version’ (as it was officially titled) of that famous tune. It was part of the soundtrack album to Tomorrow Never Dies the theme tune of which was recorded by Sheryl Crow. I have to say that his version doesn’t do much for me and is certainly no improvement on or indeed interesting take on the original to my ears. Even Moby himself rather distances himself from his recording by apparently saying that the original is miles better than the version he did. Whilst the go to image in our minds eye of Moby might be of him behind a keyboard and not wielding a guitar, here’s @TOTPFacts to add some context to what we saw here on our TV screens:

It's not THAT strange that Moby's playing a guitar – he previously played with 4AD indie rock band Ultra Vivid Scene. #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) May 9, 2025

Oh blimey! Here’s a duet that, depending on your tastes, was either made in Heaven or came directly from the bowels of Hell. The backstory to this pairing of Barbra Streisand (note spelling of first name!) and Celine Dion is that at the 1997 Oscars show, Celine became the first artist ever to perform twice on the same show. One of the songs she sang was “I Finally Found Someone” from The Mirror Has Two Faces movie (that had been a hit for Streisand and Bryan Adams) after Babs declined to perform it. Originally, Natalie Cole was scheduled to replace Streisand but when she pulled out at short notice, Celine was asked to step into the breach. So pleased was Barbra with Dion’s treatment of her song that she suggested they record a duet together. The result was “Tell Him” which I assumed was also from a film soundtrack but wasn’t. Listening to it, I could more imagine it being used in a stage musical – a bad one mind you. “Tell Him” is less a song and more an emoting contest with Céline and Babs dukin’ it out for top billing. Apparently, Barbra (watch that spelling again!) is one of Celine’s idols so maybe it was subconscious on the latter’s part but Streisand is so lost in the business of show that it must have been instinctive. With those two names involved, it couldn’t help but be a hit and it was peaking at No 3 in the UK. That made two consecutive Top 10 hits for Barbra in the UK for the first time since the late 70s/early 80s whilst Celine would go down the soundtrack route to devastating effect (and I used that world deliberately) before 1997 was out with “My Heart Will Go On”.

I was talking to someone at work the other day who is 30 years younger than me and it transpired that she’d never seen Trainspotting. Not only that but she’d never heard of it and thought it would be a film about nerdy people with an obsession about trains. It’s moments like these that make me realise how old I really am. Anyway, that rather clunky reference is my segue into the next artist who are PF Project featuring Ewan McGregor and their hit “Choose Life” based on a speech given by McGregor’s character Mark ‘Rentboy’ Renton. This would be the second of my non-mainstream hits on the show this evening but again, given the popularity of Trainspotting and the reach of the film, did it actually reside in the left field? Well, sonically I think so as it reminds me of that dance track which used to give me the fear – “Higher State Of Consciousness” by Josh Wink.

As for the that speech it was based around, well, clearly that had to be and was sanitised for commercial consumption with the offending swear words removed so a case could be made that the track had been modified for mainstream acceptability and tastes. As for the performance here, it was the usual dance hit set up with anonymous blokes behind keyboards but with McGregor’s part shown on a big screen behind them. However, as with Moby earlier, there was a guitarist on stage which must have been some sort of record for two dance track studio performances to feature that instrument on the same show.

Some acoustic action now from Jon Bon Jovi with his third solo hit of 1997 all taken from his album “Destination Anywhere”. Host Jayne Middlemiss tells us that it was written about a row with his wife in Amsterdam though he’s applied some creative licence as his wife’s name is Dorothea not Janie as in “Janie, Don’t Take Your Love To Town”. Someone commented on Twitter that Mr Jovi had clearly written this with the help of an Oasis chord book and you can kind of hear what they meant. It has that ‘busker’ quality to it that so many Noel Gallagher songs have. It’s not an unpleasant sound though and in any case, Jon must also have taken some inspiration from Kenny Rogers who, of course, had a massive hit with “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town” with his group First Edition in 1969. As of 2025 though, Jon Bon Jovi is yet to resume his solo career.

What a time 1997 had been for Texas. After eight years of trying to follow up on the success of debut album “Southside” (spearheaded by the slide guitar propelled hit “I Don’t Want A Lover”), they finally cracked it big time with their fourth studio album “White On Blonde”. A chart topping, multi-platinum selling monster, it furnished the band with four hit singles all of which went Top 10. The final one of these was “Put Your Arms Around Me” and I have to say it was by far the weakest. For me, it’s just not substantial enough and I’m surprised that it was chosen for single release. Sharleen Spiteri’s vocals are as poignant as ever but there’s just not enough to it to make it truly memorable. It’s an album filler and no more and certainly not single material.

What’s even more bemusing is that they had a glorious track closing the album called “Breathless” that would have made a fine choice as the final single release. What do I know though?

Aqua remain at No 1 for a third week of four. Although often derided and despite appearing regularly in ‘The Worst Songs Of All Time’ lists, “Barbie Girl” has quite the cultural reach, impact and legacy. Fancy hearing a South Park version? Here you go…

Or a Family Guy version? No problem…

What? You want the original? Surely not? Oh well…

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Natalie Imbruglia	Torn	Liked it, didn’t buy it
2	Gary Barlow	Open Road	Never happening
3	Moby	James Bond Theme	I did not
4	Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion	Tell Him	Never
5	PF Project featuring Ewan McGregor	Choose Life	Nah
6	Jon Bon Jovi	Janie, Don’t Take Your Love To Town	Nope
7	Texas	Put Your Arms Around Me	No but I had a promo copy of the album
8	Aqua	Barbie Girl	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/m002bx6b/top-of-the-pops-14111997?seriesId=unsliced