80stastic

TOTP 13 JUN 1997

There seems to be some uncertainty about quite when Chris Cowey’s tenure in charge of TOTP started. I thought it was from last week’s show (I took that info from the TOTP Archive website) but a reader of my blog has informed me that it was officially from this week. In my defence, I’ve never suggested that I’m some sort of authority on the show, curating its history as it were – just someone who used to watch it and who’s writing about it and the songs it featured but for what it’s worth, apologies if I get some dates wrong. Anyway, Cowey is playing around with the format a bit already, trying a few new tweaks out to see if they might have some legs to them. That’s ‘legs’ literally in the case of the first tweak which comes right at the start of this show as he has presenter Jo Whiley, the ‘Queen of Cool herself’ according to last weeks host Jayne Middlemiss (yeah, I’m really not sure about that either), dramatically kick over a huge No 1 figure and proclaim that TOTP is still Number One. I get that it’s a gesture, a statement of intent maybe to reassure us all that there’s still life in the old show yet and had it been one of the Spice Girls then it might have been spectacular but a high kicking Jo Whiley? Hmm. I’m not convinced but sadly there’s more ‘action’ to come from Jo later in the show…

We start with Rosie Gaines who is onto her third consecutive appearance on the show promoting her hit “Closer Than Close”. To try and shake up the format, this is a live performance and I have to say that Rosie gives one of the most memorable live vocals I’ve ever witnessed on TOTP. However, it lives in the memory for all the wrong reasons as it’s completely horrible. I mean ‘why didn’t someone stop her’ horrible as she is goes way over the top. There’s some Cleo Laine style jazz scatting to start with before she encourages the studio audience to chant the song back to her. After that she settles down a bit and does some actual singing before she suddenly breaks out into an impression of Shaggy (the (the Jamaican-American singer not Scooby Doo’s mate) in a deep register. She follows this with some more free styling again giving the subtitles guy a hell of a task to decipher what she’s banging on about before delivering the dubious lyric “funk it off on me”. And then….and then she just starts screaming mid-song; literally wailing like a banshee. It’s an horrific noise. We’re then back to scatting before inviting the studio audience to get in on this nonsense again by shouting the word ‘close’ over and over. Finally, she indulges in what appears to be primal scream therapy and mercifully brings the performance’ to an end with some grunting sounds. It’s unspeakably bad. Jo Whiley describes Rosie as “hugely talented” afterwards. You’re not even (closer than) close to the truth there Jo.

Sticking with Jo, she follows up her high kicking action with something a bit more sedate though she warns us to brace ourselves for it anyway. Quite why hitting a symbol with a drumstick of the drum kit of Wet Wet Wet’s Tommy Cunningham was deemed worthy of a warning I don’t know. It’s all very underwhelming, not unlike “Strange”, the latest hit by Clydebank’s favourite sons. This one was only on a couple of weeks back as an ‘exclusive’ and it’s back on the show again as it has entered the charts, only at No 13 though which would be its peak. As I said about it previously, I think their sound was getting a bit tired by this point and they were starting to run out of steam. To be fair to them, they had long since outlasted some of the other bands that had made their chart debuts in 1987 alongside them like Johnny Hates Jazz, Curiosity Killed The Cat and Living In A Box.

Marti Pellow still has his peroxide blonde hair which I suggested previously might be a cry for help similar to when Robbie Williams infamously went into meltdown mode when attending Glastonbury after leaving Take That. The Wets vocalist would leave the band within two years to deal with his own alcohol and drug addictions and he does seem to be sweating a lot in this performance. It could be the heat of the studio lights of course but it is quite noticeable…

I’m starting to think a lot of these performances weren’t all filmed at the same time with Jo Whiley in the studio. Clearly the Wet Wet Wet one was because of her interaction with their drummer but the others are prefaced by abrupt cutaways and post faced by cutbacks to Jo rather than a long, corridor shot back to our host. Was this new or had it been happening for a while? We see it in operation for the next artist who is En Vogue and their single “Whatever”. Jo says in her intro that “it’s the return after maternity leave of the ‘funky divas’ themselves” so presumably one of the group had just given birth but what’s noticeable isn’t an addition to the group family but the fact they’d lost a member since their last hit “Don’t Let Go (Love)” as Dawn Robinson had left the band in the April. The remaining trio re-recorded some of the tracks from parent album “EV3” but Robinson’s backing vocals remained on “Whatever”.

I’ve said many times that R&B isn’t really my bag but that when it comes down to it, En Vogue would be my group of choice for that genre. “Whatever” wouldn’t be my go to song from them but it’s still a strong track with a “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)” vibe. The hits would dry up eventually as the new millennium arrived but En Vogue are still an ongoing entity, currently back up to the full complement of four members though Dawn Robinson, despite rejoining a couple of times over the years, is not back in the fold.

Next to a song that was previously on the show as an exclusive three weeks prior but was now back on the show having finally been released and having entered the charts at No 11. Yet again though, the artist in question – Skunk Anansie – are not in the studio with Jo Whiley as we just get a rerun of that initial appearance. It’s worth another look though as “Brazen (Weep)” is a great rock track that has contains enough idiosyncrasies of the band’s sound to make my description of it as merely ‘rock’ look inadequate. It would become Skunk Anansie’s highest peaking chart hit when it debuted at No 11.

Whiley name checks the band individually at the end of the clip including, of course, vocalist Skin (real name Deborah Dyer). Despite being an unusual nickname (given to her on account of her skinny frame), it’s not unique as there is another singer from a band called Skin though the reason why he’s called that is rather obvious. Does the name Grahame Skinner ring any bells? No? Maybe watch this then…

Chris Cowey is trying his best to pull the wool over our eyes about what is actually going on here. In the next link, he has our host positioned in the middle of a studio audience who have been instructed to face one way as if towards an off camera stage awaiting the next artist whilst Whiley looks directly into an overhead camera to introduce said artist. Guess what though? The next act aren’t in the studio and it’s just another recycled clip from a previous performance. What a swizz! Doubling down on the swizz is the fact that it’s Eternal and Bebe Winans with “I Wanna Be The Only One” again for the third consecutive week! The ex-chart topper was holding at No 2 to justify another appearance and *spoiler alert* it would get a fourth and final outing in the following week’s show! As such, I’m leaving it there for this one.

Now, whilst I know there was a second Jon Bon Jovi solo album following his soundtrack to the film Young Guns II, I could not have told you when it was released nor what it sounded like. The answer to both my queries is supplied on this TOTP as Millie Bobby Brown’s father-in-law (as I believe he’s known these days) is here with the lead single from said sophomore album. “Midnight In Chelsea” was co-written by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics who accompanies Jon on stage here and was taken from “Destination Anywhere” both of which were sizeable hits in the UK peaking at Nos 4 and 2 in our charts respectively. Conversely, although he was busy writing big hits for other artists like Shakespears Sister, Texas and Jon Bon Jovi post Eurythmics, Stewart’s own projects like The Spiritual Cowboys and his solo album “Greetings From The Gutter” failed to light up the charts.

Having read up on “Midnight In Chelsea” before re-listening to it, I’m a little bit underwhelmed as I was expecting something quite different to the sound he and his band made their name on (literally). Some critics described it as being funk/rock and having shuffling, hip-hop drum loops in it. However, it doesn’t sound like he’d strayed too far from the tree sonically to me. I think I can hear said drum loops but in the end I don’t think he would have been converting any fans of Roni Size or someone of that ilk with it. That’s not to say it wasn’t without merit. It’s got a nice ‘sha-la-la-la’ hook ( maybe Jon or Dave had been listening to Monaco’s “What Do You Want From Me” when writing it) but of more interest to me is the lyric “Ah, maybe it was just a dream, Manchester nil, Chelsea three, football fans and players scream”. What?! I’ve checked and can’t find those lines in the official lyrics anywhere online so was Jon ad-libbing about my beloved Chelsea? We had just won the FA Cup the month before but we didn’t beat either City or United in the final and this was the a close season so no other games would have been played at this time. I wonder what prompted him to sing those lines?

I find that infinitely more intriguing than wondering why Jo Whiley was banging on about Jon having waxed his chest in her intro. Was that a story in the news back then? ‘Hairy rock star waxes chest’? Maybe men waxing and shaving every bit of body hair wasn’t so ubiquitous as it seems to be today when you can now buy specific shavers for very specific body areas if you know what I mean. Body hair sculpting I believe it’s called. Erm…anyway, I reckon that was another performance that could have been recorded separately as it’s yet more cutaway and cutback shots to and from the presenter. Maybe the artists were all there and it was Jo who was absent and recorded her segues in isolation? But then there’s the Wet Wet Wet interaction…oh I don’t know!

Now this is a funk rock act! The first and only video of the show now (which allows for a rolling chart rundown of the Nos 20 – 11) comes from Red Hot Chili Peppers and their version of “Love Rollercoaster” by Ohio Players. A US No 1 in 1976, it was covered by The Peppers to be included on the soundtrack to the film Beavis And Butt–Head Do America. You may recall that this animated pair had a hit with Cher a couple of years previous to this when “I Got You Babe” was released from their comedy album “The Beavis And Butt-Head Experience”. I’ve never seen their film and, if I’m honest, could only take their TV series in very small doses viewing it as vastly inferior to the likes of The Simpsons or Family Guy.

The video depicts the band as cartoon characters on, yep, a rollercoaster alongside clips from the film. I don’t find that or the track very engaging I have to say though it would end up being their second biggest UK hit after “By The Way” and “Dani California”.

Cowey’s ‘Operation Hoodwink’ is still going on and, indeed, is upping its game as the false shot gets even tighter as he tries to create the impression that Hanson are really in the studio when in fact it’s just another previous performance recycled. By my reckoning, Jo Whiley was only in the same studio at the same time with one band. Was this a scheduling issue or a budget cut or what? Anyway, this week’s (and last week’s) chart topper…

One of my abiding memories of this song was that our then six year old goddaughter loved “MMMBop” and so we bought it for her along with a Barbie Walkman for her to play it on that she’s been wanting for ages. Plugged in with the brothers Hanson in her ears, she would wander round her house shouting “PARDON?” every time anyone tried to talk to her. Although six was possibly the average age of people who bought the record and I couldn’t stand it aged 29 back then, in retrospect, it is a marvellously constructed pop song in that traditional way that say “The One And Only” by Chesney Hawkes is. Don’t tell anyone I said that though. Oh.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Rosie Gaines	Closer Than Close	No
2	Wet Wet Wet	Strange	Nah
3	En Vogue	Whatever	Nope
4	Skunk Anansie	Brazen (Weep)	No but it’s good
5	Eternal and Bebe Winan	I Wanna Be The Only One	Yes for my wife
6	Jon Bon Jovi	Midnight In Chelsea	I did not
7	Red Hot Chili Peppers	Love Rollercoaster	Negative
8	Hanson	MMMBop	Yes for my goddaughter

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/m0028nyg/top-of-the-pops-13061997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 06 JUN 1997

Posted on March 9 by 80stastic

So here we go with the Chris Cowey era. Yes, the new executive producer is finally in post after a few weeks of the position being covered by some temporary names and he’s rung some changes already as we are introduced to new presenter Jayne Middlemiss. Jayne would be one of the names in the roster of regular hosts alongside the likes of Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston. These three were recruited from BBC mini-music show The O–Zone but were promoted to the corporation’s flagship pop programme by Cowey as he got rid of the ‘golden mic’ slot. On reflection, was this anything different to the infamous ‘year zero’ revamp when a load of bright, young things were brought in to replace the ousted and ageing Radio 1 DJs? We didn’t know who any of those guys were and that break in familiarity was one of the criticisms thrown at the new regime but did we really know any of this lot much better at the time? It’s hard to recall I guess but I’m not sure I was that aware of Jayne Middlemiss before this point but she was certainly engaging with her winning North East accent – let’s see how she did…

We don’t get to see her immediately as Cowey is sticking with the start to the show which launches straight into the first song with no presenter intro. I can live with that but what I’m not sure about is this weirdness of opening the show with last week’s No 1 which is no longer No 1! Not only does it go against TOTP history of not featuring hits going down the charts but it also means we closed last week’s show and opened this week’s with the same song! In this case it’s “I Wanna Be The Only One” by Eternal and Bebe Winans. Maybe it’s me who’s got it all wrong though. Clearly this single was still selling in huge quantities as it was at No 2 in the charts so why not show a hit that was still popular with the masses? Was that not giving the people what they wanted more than featuring a new hit that’s entered the charts much lower down? Adding weight to the argument is this whole phenomenon of first week discounting of singles which was manipulating the charts at this time. We’d already seem eight songs spend just one week at the top this year and Eternal were now the ninth. Under the old appearance rules, we’d have only seen “I Wanna Be The Only One” once on the show. Was that fair on the sixteenth best selling single of the year? I don’t know – I’m just playing Devil’s Advocate I guess.

OK, so Jayne’s on our screens finally and she seems (understandably) nervous. She doesn’t fluff any lines but there’s a lot of clearly pre-rehearsed posturing and thrusting of her microphone purposefully. Amid all of that, she introduces Gina G who is in the studio to promote her fourth hit “Ti Amo”. Laudably, she’s tried to deviate from her winning Eurodance formula of her first three hits but her plan for doing so seems to have been to plagiarise Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita” from ten years earlier. It’s all flamenco guitars, castanets and Latin rhythms. The music press pointed out the obvious Madge influence but were generally favourable in their assessment. Maybe it wasn’t Madonna who had been the source of inspiration though – hadn’t Eurodance outfit No Mercy brought flamenco guitars back into the charts this year? Whatever the truth, on reflection, “Ti Amo” does seem to provide the missing link between “La Isla Bonita” and Geri Halliwell’s 1999 No 1 “Mi Chico Latino”.

Here’s another song that was only on last week though to be fair, it was an ‘exclusive’ then and is a chart new entry this so it can just about be explained. Jayne Middlemiss is struggling to control her nerves in the intro to it. Again, she’s word perfect but is speaking so quickly it’s almost garbled. Said song is “Waltz Away Dreaming” by Toby Bourke and George Michael and unlike last week, George isn’t in the studio in person to introduce it. Well, twice in two weeks after a gap of eleven years would have been pushing it. Irishman Toby Bourke would never trouble the chart compilers again with this being his only UK hit. Indeed, he didn’t even have a hit in his own country as “Waltz Away Dreaming” wasn’t released there which seems a bit odd.

And another! That’s three of the first four songs on tonight that were only on the show seven days ago! We might as well have been watching MTV with its heavy rotation playlists! Jayne Middlemiss even seems to be proudly advertising this as she informs us that it’s two weeks running on the show for Rosie Gaines and “Closer Than Close”. This successive appearances policy is really testing my creative writing to its limits – what am I supposed to say about this one that I haven’t already said. It’s not as if I can simply effuse all over it – I didn’t like it at all. I know, check her Wikipedia entry; there must be some kernel of inspiration in that.

*scans Rosie Gaines Wikipedia details*

Erm…well, her first band back in the 80s were called The Oasis. You can see why they weren’t successful – if only they’d dropped that ‘The’!

Now what’s going on? What’s Ronan Keating doing on the show? Well, he seems to be plugging the next Boyzone single (from the Mr Bean movie) which wouldn’t be released for another six weeks! Apart from that he mentions that the band are playing Wembley that night and saying “Please God” a lot. It’s all a bit unnecessary and neither Ronan nor Jayne come out of it very well.

Back to the music and the good news is that we’ve alighted on a new song finally. The bad news is that it’s from Gary Barlow in solo artist mode. He’s been shoehorned into the running order to celebrate his album “Open Road” going to No 1 in the charts and so we get the title track even though it wouldn’t be released as a single for another five months! Makes Boyzone seem quite tardy in their promotional activities doesn’t he? Anyway, his song is a mid-tempo story of…self discovery?…Gary keeps banging on about talking to a man who it turns out is him so maybe getting in touch with your inner feelings? I don’t really know nor care much. Supposedly, there a sample of Mr. Mister’s “Kyrie” in there somewhere but I can’t hear it. However, it does kind of remind me of Marc Cohn’s “Walking In Memphis”. I guess “Open Road” was an improvement on the insipid “Love Won’t Wait” but not by much. If this was the best Barlow could do then his solo career was in trouble and that’s exactly how events would play out with his second album “Twelve Months, Eleven Days” a commercial disaster and he was swept away by a deluge of Robbie Williams hits.

There seem to be more people than necessary up there on stage with him all of whom he seems intent on cosying up to. Maybe, like Ronan Keating expressed earlier, they thought that “TOTP is such a cool show”, they’d come down. On mass.

And so we arrive at the point where Radiohead set the tone not just for their own personal direction as a band but also for the future of UK rock music. Too much? Maybe but it’s no exaggeration to say that their third album “OK Computer” routinely ranks highly in the ‘Greatest Albums of All Time’ polls and has retrospectively been seen as the emerging sound as Britpop dwindled into mere vestiges of a once dominant movement. I don’t want to go into too much detail about this – there’s plenty been written about it by those more erudite than me. However, my own personal view is that whilst I owned and enjoyed “OK Computer” to an extent, I actually preferred “The Bends”. That seems to go against received wisdom and all those poll placings but, as ever, music taste is subjective and you like what you like.

The lead single from the album was “Paranoid Android” and if you created a Word Cloud from the reviews of it in the music press, I’m guessing the big word in the middle would be ‘EPIC’. Clocking in at 6:23, it dwarfed nearly everything else that they’d recorded up to that point. Jayne Middlemiss even describes the clip that we see as an ‘extract’ from a performance on Later…with Jools Holland. Composed in four distinct sections, it inevitably drew comparisons with “Bohemian Rhapsody” though a more pertinent analogy might be “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” by The Beatles. It really is a sprawling, mammoth track that took me a few listens to get into but I did get to the place called ‘Appreciation’ eventually. Not everyone did – some felt it and its parent album self indulgent including Henry Yates of the NME who said of “OK Computer” that it was the moment Radiohead stopped being ‘good’ and started being ‘important’.

Its title obviously referenced the character Marvin the Paranoid Android from The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I’d watched the 1981 BBC TV series and enjoyed it but what I hadn’t realised as that two singles had been released by the character voiced by actor Stephen Moore including the one in the clip below. Take note Henry Yates, at least Radiohead didn’t release this…

We’re nearly at the No 1 song but first, after the Top 10 rundown, Jayne gathers all the artists who have been in the studio tonight (including Ronan Keating who didn’t even perform) around her to ask if they’ve had a good time. I’m not sure why or what it brought to the show but at a guess was it Chris Cowey trying to promote the idea that TOTP was still the music programme that all the stars loved and wanted to be on?

So, it’s a new chart topper and it arrives fully formed from Hanson – yes, it’s time for “MMMBop”. This was another of those hits like “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt that there had been so much buzz about that there was zero chance it wouldn’t just go straight to No 1 first week in. It would make international stars of the three Hanson brothers Isaac, Taylor and Zac who were only 16, 14 and 11 years old respectively at the time. As such, comparisons with The Osmonds and The Jackson 5 abounded, egged on by the incredibly catchy, bubble gum-pop sound of their song. However, it was a rumoured connection to a contemporary artist that was doing the rounds at the time that, although completely without any substance, seemed to be accepted without question – Hanson were related to Beck. Erm, no they weren’t/aren’t and yet even the fact that the spelling of their surnames was different (Beck Hansen with an ‘e’) didn’t dispel the myth. There was, however, a tie between the two but it wasn’t a family one. Hanson were signed to Mercury Records on the strength of an early demo which included a different, much slower version of “MMMBop” but the potential of the song prompted the label’s head of A&R to call on the production duo The Dust Brothers to sprinkle some magic over it. They had previously helped produce “Paul’s Boutique” by the Beastie Boys but it was their collaboration with another artist that would cause work on “MMMBop” to be delayed. The album was “Odelay” by, of course, Beck. And that’s the only connection between Hanson and Beck Hansen that I’m aware of. Eventually, The Dust Brothers would get back to “MMMBop” and when finished, it was unleashed on the world to devastating effect – No 1 in the US and the UK and just about everywhere in Europe besides. The three brothers will be our chart topper for another two weeks so I’ll leave their story there for now.

So, what did we make of the new era of TOTP? There were a few changes – the incongruous interview with a random pop star who wasn’t even performing on the show, the little get together of all the stars that appeared just before the end, a new presenter (hopefully she’ll get over her nerves and be better in future shows) and when did the rolling, on screen chart rundown start at No 20 and not No 40? Overarching all of this was the fact there were only seven hits on the show which surely must be the least for a while. The jury’s out for now…

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Eternal featuring Bebe Winans	I Wanna Be The Only One	Yes for my wife
2	Gina G	Ti Amo	Nah
3	George Michael and Toby Bourke	Waltz Away Dreaming	Nope
4	Rosie Gaines	Closer Than Close	Definitely not
5	Gary Barlow	Open Road	No
6	Radiohead	Paranoid Android	No but I had the album
7	Hanson	MMMbop	Yes but for my goddaughter who was six at the time

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/m0028dz1/top-of-the-pops-06061997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 30 MAY 1997

Posted on March 7 by 80stastic

We have arrived at a metaphorical line in the sand episode with these TOTP repeats as we say goodbye to the ‘golden mic’ slot whereby hosting duties were undertaken not by Radio 1 DJs but by pop stars and celebrities from the worlds of comedy, sport and showbiz. Introduced by new executive producer Ric Blaxill in March 1994, the very first incumbents were Take That’s Robbie Williams and Mark Owen heralding in a huge list of non-traditional presenters from Suggs to Skunk Anansie’s Skin and from Dennis Pennis to Gina G. Some choices really worked like the cast of The Fast Show, some really didn’t – Keith Allen as alter ego ‘Keithski’ was just plain annoying. Whether you liked it or not, at least it was an attempt to shake the format up after the ultimate failure of the ‘Year Zero’ revamp. The final ‘golden mic’ hosts are the Spice Girls which, given their profile at this time, was definitely a case of going out at the top. I have to say that, on balance, I was a fan of this particular invention and I’m not convinced that the regular roster of hosts, introduced by incoming executive producer Chris Cowey, that followed (including Jamie Theakston, Zoe Ball and Kate Thornton) will be any sort of improvement but maybe I’ll be proved wrong.

Anyway, we start with Wet Wet Wet and the time of their first incarnation was nearly at an end. It had been a good run – their debut single and hit “Wishing I Was Lucky” had been released just over ten years prior to this point and their subsequent run of 23 Top 40 singles included three No 1s. Even when their career was supposedly in the doldrums – that period between the second and third albums with the 90s in its infancy – they still only had one single that could be considered a flop (“Put The Light On” stalled at No 56 in 1991). Even then, their next release was “Goodnight Girl” which topped the charts. Having said all that, the signs were there that their conveyor belt of success was starting to slow down – three of their last four singles (including this one “Strange”) failed to go Top 10. For me, their sound had become just too safe by this point. “Strange” was perfect daytime radio fodder with its easy on the ear sound and prominent brass parts but ‘fodder’ was the significant word in that description; it was ‘filler’ not ‘killer’.

As well as sonic stagnation, the band was facing internal struggles. After the tour to support the “10” album, drummer Tommy Cunningham left over a dispute about songwriting royalties feeling he was frozen out of what had always been a four way split. Meanwhile, Marti Pellow was in the middle of fighting his alcohol and drug addictions and would also leave the band in 1999. I wonder if his peroxide blonde haircut seen in this performance was a cry for help similar to the style Robbie Williams sported at Glastonbury after leaving Take That where he was clearly under the influence of something stronger than a few light ales. As for the Wets, there was one final hit in the 90s – a cover of “Yesterday” for some reason – and that would be it for seven years until they reunited for a Greatest Hits album. They are currently touring but with bassist Graeme Clark the only* original member in the line up.

*Guitarist Graeme Duffin is also still with the band having been a touring member since the early days. He was previously reluctant to do any promotional work with the other four members partly on account of his suffering from a stammer.

Next a band who were following a similar career trajectory to our opening act but that’s about all they had in common – I’m clearly not saying Faith No More were anything like Wet Wet Wet! However, both bands were approaching hiatuses that would last for years, both were experiencing line up changes (guitarist Dean Menta had recently been fired and replaced by Jon Hudson) and both had recently released albums which seemed to demonstrate a downturn in creativity. In the case of the San Francisco rockers, their optimistically titled “Album Of The Year” proved to be anything but with reviews in the press ranging from lukewarm at best to downright caustic (if funny). Look at this:

“ ‘Album Of The Year’ leaves one feeling like waking up and finding last night’s used condom – sure, the ride was fun while it lasted but what remains is just plain icky. And you definitely don’t want it in your CD player.”

Stomberg, Jeremy. “Faith No More: Album of the Year: Pitchfork Review”. Pitchfork.

Heh and indeed eeeyeww! Anyway, the one track that did get a bit of love from the critics was lead single “Ashes To Ashes”. Absolutely nothing to do with the Bowie classic, it was a described as a “moody rocker” though I think I’d probably go with ‘doom-laden’ rather than ‘moody’. Apparently, the rumour from Ground Control was that this was more like the classic Faith No More sound but as I could only name you three of their tracks (and one of them isn’t actually theirs), I don’t feel qualified to make any sort of judgement.

As Mrs Merton would say, “It’s Hooky and the boys!”. Yes, I’d forgotten this but Monaco, Peter Hook’s side project band away from New Order, had a second hit besides the excellent “What Do You Want From Me” called “Sweet Lips” which made a respectable No 18 in the charts. However, it wasn’t Hooky and the boys in this performance but Pottsy and the boys with Hooky nowhere to be seen. Nobody seems to know why he wasn’t there but I liked the response on X from @DonOftheDead80 who said “He was playing Hooky”. Heh. Anyway, to counter his absence, we get Hooky’s parts in the song covered by the promo video which is intercut with my old Our Price colleague Pottsy doing his thing in the studio. It’s a clunky device but I guess it just about works. As for the song, it’s got much more of a dance vibe to it than its predecessor so did it counter the criticism that the band were just a pop version of New Order? Maybe but for me, it’s nowhere near as strong a single as their debut though it pisses over most of its Top 40 peers which was just as well as it was also the band’s final Top 40 hit. A third single from their debut album “Music For Pleasure” was released but it peaked at No 55. A second album just called “Monaco” was rejected by Polydor though it was eventually released on Papillon Records but lead single “I’ve Got A Feeling” was withdrawn due to sample clearance issues and a second track “See-Saw” only received a limited 12” single release. Relations between Pottsy and Hooky deteriorated to the point of the band splitting but the duo are together again performing as Peter Hook & The Light.

Right, who’s this? Oh, it’s that Rosie Gaines. Who? Yeah, I’d forgotten about her as well but she was a member of Prince’s New Power Generation and duetted with the diminutive one on “Diamonds And Pearls”. Her solo hit “Closer Than Close” is widely regarded by those who know as a club classic and an absolute banger in the cannon of house music. It goes without saying that I’m not one of those in the know. The title track of her album that was released in 1995 became a No 4 hit two years later when it was remixed after bootlegs circulating in the club scene had created an underground buzz. An official release on Big Bang Records saw it crossover into the mainstream. Wikipedia tells me that it got categorised as part of the ‘speed garage’ scene to which my response was “the what?”. Wikipedia, of course, can answer my question and tells me that the genre was characterised by a four-to-the-floor rhythm, breakbeats, warped bass lines and time-stretched vocals. Yeah, I’m still clueless. All I know is that “Closer Than Close” does next to nothing for me and I particularly did not enjoy it when Rosie does some scatting at the end.

It’s “Time To Say Goodbye” – no, not literally – it isn’t a very short, truncated episode of the show but Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman with their No 2 hit. With the crossover appeal it had (non-traditional record shop visitors were buying it), a prolonged stay on the chart was inevitable and it duly spent five weeks inside the Top 10 and eleven on the Top 40 aided by some heavy airplay on Radio 2.

The cover of the single includes the tagline ‘A Tribute To Henry Maske’ which I didn’t notice at the time I would have been selling it in the Our Price store in Stockport so who was/is Henry Maske? Well, he was a five times German boxing champion and one of the country’s most popular sporting figures. Fair enough but what did he have to do with “Time To Say Goodbye”? Good question. The track was performed by Andrea and Sarah at the start of Maske’s last professional fight in 1996 (Brightman had already performed another song at one of Maske’s earlier fights) and it was also played at the end to mark Maske’s exit. The track didn’t bring him any luck as he lost that final bout – the only loss of his professional career. I guess it would have at least been a poignant soundtrack for the boxer much as it was when played at the end of my hometown football club Worcester City’s final match at their St George’s Lane ground that I mentioned in my last post. Of course, there is another goodbye song that can still bring tears to the eyes if the comments on YouTube about this clip are anything to go by. Seriously, check them out…

Now, here’s a thing. This is yer actual George Michael actually in the TOTP studio for the first time since 1986 when he performed “Where Did Your Heart Go?” as part of Wham! Bizarrely though, he isn’t performing but rather has a little stilted chat with Geri Halliwell before introducing the video for “Waltz Away Dreaming”, a track written by himself and one Toby Bourke and performed by the pair as a duet. This must be one of the least remembered George Michael hits not least because it didn’t feature on any of his albums (it eventually made it onto his “Ladies & Gentlemen” Best Of but inexplicably just the cassette version). I can barely recall it and I worked in a record shop and I still couldn’t have told you how it went. As for Toby Bourke, he was/is an Irish songwriter and the first artist signed to the independent record label Aegean that George founded after his split from Sony. Their track was dedicated to George’s Mum who had died in the February of 1997. Right, that’s all the facts out of the way – I’d better listen to the thing now…

…hmm…well, the video is giving me Narnia vibes which I don’t think suits the tone of the song which is meant to be a beautiful ballad but I found it meandering and rather soporific. It just doesn’t go anywhere rather like George’s record label which folded soon after and whose roster of artists included Trigger, Primitiva and Bassey Walker. Anyone? No, me neither. However, it was the first European record label to adopt the Liquid Audio secure electronic music delivery system which allowed music streaming and music downloads. Have that Spotify!

Although extensively used in classical music, there aren’t many pop songs that feature the word ‘waltz’ in its title. “Tom Traubert’s Blues (Waltzing Matilda)”? Does that count? Oh, hang on. Hers another by that rascal Malcolm McLaren…

After nearly four years and five Top 5 placings, Eternal are finally No 1 in the singles chart with “I Wanna Be The Only One”. It was a prophetic song title as it was the group’s only chart topper and it was only in pole position for a solitary week. Still, a No 1 record is a No 1 record and not every artist can claim to have had one. This gospel-inflected, joyous pop/soul track was always more likely to do the trick for the girls than one of their more melancholy efforts like previous single “Don’t You Love Me” or their mid-tempo dance tracks like “Save Our Love” as it was another one of those songs that would cut a swathe through people’s perceptions and reach the mainstream. It was and remains a fun track. Aided on vocals by BeBe Winans (of the extended musical Winans family) it was perfect for Summer playlists and was in step with the upbeat, good feeling that the General Election result had ushered in.

I’m pretty sure that I witnessed the announcement that Eternal were No 1 in person as it was made in Albert Square, Manchester where a mini Radio 1 Roadshow was taking place. It was on a Sunday and I think that as the chart countdown got to the No 1 position, Eternal were introduced on stage to perform their hit. Yes, I’m sure that happened and I haven’t made it up. Sadly, I’d given up on my diary a few weeks before so there isn’t any confirmation of events written down. This commercial peak for Eternal was over pretty quickly. Parent album “Before The Rain” had only been out for six months before a Greatest Hits package was released for the Christmas sales rush which seemed a bit odd. Maybe it was a contractual obligation thing. Said album was a hit but within two years, their last eponymously titled album made just as a duo by the Bennett sisters was a flop. The group split soon with the inevitable reunion rumours resurfacing most recently in 2023 with the four members from the original line up but Louise Redknapp and Kéllé Bryan pulled out over the Bennetts’ refusal to appear at LGBTQ Pride events.

The play out video is “I Have Peace” by Strike. Unsurprisingly, I don’t recall this one at all – my only memory of this lot is their 1995 No 4 hit “U Sure Do” though apparently they did have three minor hits after that and before this one. Wikipedia tells me that “I Have Peace” contains a sample of Level 42’s “Leaving Me Now”. Really? Let me have a listen…

…oh yeah – there’s it is. That tinkling piano part. It’s not an obvious steal for a dance track but it just about works. Despite it being their last UK chart hit, they would continue for another ten years supporting the likes of the Backstreet Boys, Jocelyn Brown and in a nice, full circle ending to the show, the Spice Girls.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Wet Wet Wet	Strange	Nah
2	Faith No More	Ashes To Ashes	I did not
3	Monaco	Sweet Lips	I bough their first single but not this one
4	Rosie Gaines	Closer Than Close	No
5	Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman	Time To Say Goodbye	Nope
6	George Michael and Toby Bourke	Waltz Away Dreaming	Negative
7	Eternal featuring BeBe Winans	I Wanna Be The Only One	I did but for my wife who liked it
8	Strike	I Have Peace	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/m0028dyz/top-of-the-pops-30051997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 23 MAY 1997

Posted on March 3 by 80stastic

It’s the 23rd May 1997 and Channel 4 game show Countdown is celebrating its 2000th edition. Wow! 2000 shows and it only took 14 and a half years! By comparison, this episode of TOTP broadcast on the same day was its 1,773rd show and had been going for over 33 years by this point. To be fair though, Countdown was/is on daily whereas TOTP was only broadcast once a week. Where it does beat the first ever show broadcast on Channel 4 is in its number of presenters – the latter has only ever had seven main presenters (not counting guest presenters nor Carol Vorderman, Rachel Riley or Susie Dent) whilst TOTP had…oh I don’t know and I’m not counting but it must have been more than seven (even excluding the ‘golden mike’ hosts).

And talking of presenters, tonight’s are Mark and Lard again for the second of just two times that they hosted together. Given the chemistry of their double act, you might have expected that they would have done many more than that – they were the breakfast show hosts at this time so their profile was high. On the other hand, they were taken off that slot within five months of this broadcast so maybe their star was in decline? Or maybe they just didn’t like doing it and looking at some of the artists on the show, who could blame them? I mean, introducing opening act No Mercy can’t have been much of a thrill for them. After terrorising us with their first hit “Where Do You Go” which had exactly double the amount of weeks inside the Top 40 as Countdown has had presenters, they had not only the appetite to do it all again but also the audacity to do so with a song that was nearly identical to their first. “Please Don’t Go” was a carbon copy – they must have thought we were as stupid as mud to fall for the same trick again….and so we were having our faces dirtied and our trousers pulled down by buying enough copies to send it to No 4. Thankfully, in Countdown parlance, it was a case of ‘two big ones and one small one’ when it came to hits for the trio as they would only have one more chart entry which peaked at No 16.

After securing a huge hit with previous single “Nancy Boy”, Placebo consolidated on that success by re-releasing their debut single “Bruise Pristine”. I say ‘re-releasing’ but in truth it was a radical re-recording of the track that originally came out on the Fierce Panda label. Singer Brian Molko admits he sounds like Mickey Mouse on the original version and that tonight’s co-host Mark Radcliffe put it on at the wrong speed of 33rpm on its very first radio play because he couldn’t believe that it was meant to sound so fast. The single edit released by Virgin still raced along and to me it made it less accessible than “Nancy Boy”. It also made me wonder if Molko had been listening to this track by The Jam when writing it…

RIP Rick Buckler

Although Placebo would return with higher charting singles the following year, I’m not sure I could tell you how any of them sound – maybe I’ll recognise them if they appear in future TOTP repeats. As for “Bruise Pristine”, I did remember that one if only for its unusual title. You don’t get many songs with the word ‘pristine’ in them – even Countdown’s Dictionary Corner would be impressed by that!

Skunk Anansie were amazingly consistent during the mid to late 90s, not only in terms of their prolific release schedule of singles, nor just in the constancy of their chart positions (seven Top 20 hits between 1995 and 1999) but mostly in the quality of their output. I’ve said it many times during the course of this blog that before rewatching these TOTP episodes, I could only really remember “Weak” from the band’s catalogue of work but with each appearance I’ve liked them more and more. “Brazen (Weep)” keeps my admiration going and my interest piqued. Another epic sounding rock track that soars and swoops with Skin’s immaculate vocals always on point, it would prove to be the highest charting single of Skunk Anansie’s career when it debuted at No 11. Interestingly, it was their third single in a row which featured brackets in its title after “Twisted (Everyday Hurts)” and “Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good)” before it. I don’t think you get anything for the use of brackets in Countdown but if I was hosting a pop quiz (and I did do a couple of times when I lived in York), it would be a case of ‘no brackets, no points’.

The new TOTP appearance policy is entering the realms of madness with Katrina And The Waves being on the show for the fourth week in a row and none of the performances being just a previous week’s repeated – four times they been in the studio in person! Even allowing for their Eurovision win and the subsequent rise up the charts of “Love Shine A Light”, this was surely overkill. Even Katrina herself looks bored with the whole thing as she lurks in camera view over Mark and Lard’s shoulders waiting for them to finish their intro. There’s not a flicker of expression on her face even when the hosting duo are being irreverent about her in her presence. I’ve seen more excitement over the Countdown conundrum!

The Rembrandts are back in the charts with “I’ll Be There For You” nearly two years after it was a hit the first time around. Despite going all the way to No 3 back then, it would rise to No 5 this time around. Why was it back in the charts? Because the third season of the US sitcom Friends to which this was the theme tune was due to be broadcast on Channel 4 that Summer and it was time to cash-in again. I say again as the shops had already been flooded with various Friends related merchandise whilst the recently released first two seasons on VHS were flying off the shelves (they’ll all be in landfill now). Anyway, I can’t be bothered to review it all over again so here’s what I said about it as part of the 1995 TOTP repeats:

TOTP 31 AUG 1995

With the show’s only video out of the way (that must have been a directorial decision to go for more in person performances), we’re back in the studio with Damage and their version of Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight”. For such a well known song, there don’t appear to have been that many covers of the track down the years. Wikipedia lists two by country and western singers David Kersh and Butch Baker whilst I found a version by country legend Kenny Rogers on Spotify. This suggests to me two things – that the song was structured in such a way that naturally lent itself to the country genre and that Damage’s choice to record it as an R&B group was, if not unusual, then certainly not obvious. This could be the last time we see them on TOTP in these 90s repeats as they only had one more minor hit before the end of the decade though they would return in the new millennium with four hit singles and a second album before splitting. They reformed in 2013 and have performed sporadic gigs since but no new material has been forthcoming.

Olive are No 1 for a second week with “You’re Not Alone”. Which dance genre does it belong to? I don’t know do I but if I had to guess I would say it has a trip-hop backing but with a melody that sounds a bit like Everything But The Girl’s output at this time. That’s the best I can do as a pop kid though Wikipedia defines it as ‘breakbeat’ (whatever that is) and who am I to dispute that.

All I know for sure is that if I want to listen to a song called “You’re Not Alone” then this is the one I would choose every time…

Like Placebo earlier, Embrace’s first releases were on the Fierce Panda label

We end with one of those hits that fall into the “Nessun Dorma” category, a song performed by two classical voices with an orchestral backing that nevertheless would crossover massively into the pop charts. “Time To Say Goodbye” by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman was originally not a duet but performed and recorded solo by blind Italian tenor Bocelli as “Con te partirò” or “With You I Shall Depart” where it became one of the best selling singles of all time in France though curiously was received much less rapturously in Bocelli’s own country. A second, English titled version of the track saw Sarah Brightman come on board and it was a huge hit all over Europe including Germany where it became their biggest selling single ever. In the UK, it would rise to No 2 selling 200,000 copies. You could understand why once viewed through the “Nessun Dorma” filter with members of the public who wouldn’t normally have been near a record shop all year until Christmas being pulled in to buy that ‘lovely song by the blind singer and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s wife*’ (including my own Mum I shouldn’t wonder).

*They actually divorced in 1990

Brightman, of course, had her own chart history starting in 1978 with the gloriously over the top, Star Wars influenced hit “I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper” with Hot Gossip. Everything after that was more classical or stage musical based. 1985 saw her teamed with boy soprano Paul Miles-Kingston on “Pie Jesu” which went to No 3 and she followed that with three hits from her husband’s The Phantom Of The Opera show – two were duets with Steve Harley and Cliff Richard respectively and a split double A-side with Michael Crawford giving her three Top 10 hits.

My own personal memory of “Time To Say Goodbye” came in 2013 when my hometown football club Worcester City played their final ever game at their old St George’s Lane ground which had been their home for 108 years before it was sold to property developers. I’d stopped going to see the team around 1984 having been an ever present since 1977 but made the pilgrimage to the old ground for one last time. The music played after the final whistle and as we all filed out of the ground was, of course, “Time To Say Goodbye”. At the final tally, St George’s Lane had hosted 2545 matches in those 108 years. Though Countdown only took just under 15 years to get to a similar number, it couldn’t beat my hometown club for emotional pull – you can only get so attached to a game show about solving word and number puzzles.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	No Mercy	Please Don’t Go	As if
2	Placebo	Bruise Pristine	No
3	Skunk Anansie	Brazen (Weep)	Negative
4	Katrina And The Waves	Love Shine A Light	I did not
5	The Rembrandts	I’ll Be There For You	I did back in 1995 for my wife
6	Damage	Wonderful Tonight	Nope
7	Olive	You’re Not Alone	Nah
8	Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman	Time To Say Goodbye	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/m0028620/top-of-the-pops-23051997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 16 MAY 1997

Posted on February 26 by 80stastic

It’s 16th May 1997 and I’m waking up in London after travelling back from my trip to China and stopping over with a friend having missed my last train home the night before. China was mind blowing and at times I struggled with the culture shock but it was also something I’ll never forget. I saw some amazing sights (including The Great Wall of China) and experienced a different way of life I never would have otherwise. I couldn’t get used to locals wanting to have their picture taken with me because I was a Westerner though like I was a tourist attraction! I’d gone to see my mate Rob who was living and studying there and travelled with his brother Chris who stayed on in Beijing after I’d left for the UK. Why didn’t I stay longer? I had an important date with my TV at 3pm on Saturday 17th as my beloved Chelsea were in the FA Cup final for only the second time in my living memory. It sounds kind of sad that I gave up more potential time on a trip of a lifetime for a football match but I couldn’t be sure I would have found anywhere in Beijing showing it and in any case, neither Rob nor Chris were big football fans. However, I did try and convert some Chinese friends of Rob’s in a bar by getting them to chant “Chelsea, Chelsea” (Chris went down the political route and got them to chant “Tony Blair, Tony Blair”). Anyway, I was back home in time to watch the match and it’s a good job I wasn’t scrabbling around trying to find somewhere in Beijing to watch it as we scored after 43 seconds and eventually triumphed 2-0 to win our first major trophy in 26 years. Hurray! My diary entry for that day just says ‘We Won!’ and then stops forever so they’ll be no more posts inspired by that time going forward. Enough of my personal life though. This is meant to be a music blog so hopefully you’re still with me as we dive into what was showing on TOTP way back when….

Dannii Minogue is our host following in the footsteps of sister Kylie (wasn’t it always thus) who presented the show a few weeks back. The first act on tonight is a throwback to The Monkees (or was it an S Club 7 prototype) as North & South make their TOTP debut. These four lads were put together by ‘Pop Svengali’© Tom Watkins who was responsible for East 17 and had managed Pet Shop Boys and Bros. However, this wasn’t just a plain old charge at the pop charts – no, this time it was a double pronged strategy with a TV show starring the boys as well. Named No Sweat, it had the group playing characters rather than themselves (though they reverted to their own names for the second series) who form a band at school and try to make it big. I can’t say I ever saw it but it doesn’t stop me making (potentially) lazy comparisons with The Monkees (that’s twice now). With the show a hit (initially at least), there needed to be some product to sell and so “I’m A Man Not A Boy” was released as their debut single. Now given what I said about who their mentor was, it’s hardly surprising that there’s a whiff of Bros about this one and not just because they had a similar sounding hit in “Drop The Boy”. I mean, at least it wasn’t yet another cover of a 70s ballad by the Bee Gees or The Osmonds which was the go to song choice for boy bands at the time. It chugs along with enough hooks and slots for the screams and sighs of the female teenage audience that they were so clearly put together to woo.

The single would go in at No 7 but that would be the height of their appeal despite the band touring. Three subsequent singles charted lower than the one before, the second series of No Sweat didn’t pull in the same amount of viewers as Series 1 and their album remained unreleased. Within two years, that other ‘Pop Svengali’© Simon Fuller would return to the idea and put together S Club 7 who similarly rose to fame via TV show Miami 7. Oh and by the way, “I’m A Man Not A Boy” was nothing to do with Chesney Hawkes’ other hit of the same name (yes he did have another one chart fact fans). See, listen for yourselves..,

Brownstone are up next in the studio. My knowledge of Brownstone, despite working in record shops for the whole of the 90s, was/is meagre at best…

They were (and still are apparently) an all female R&B group
Erm…that’s it

Consequently, I haven’t much to say about them or their song “5 Miles To Empty” (which obviously I don’t remember). I couldn’t have even told you how many members were in the group before watching this performance back. Oh yeah, members. Some American all female R&B groups in the 90s seemed to operate a revolving door policy when it came to group line ups. Wikipedia informs me that just like En Vogue, Brownstone had a few members come and go from the original starting line up. In total seven singers have worn the Brownstone shirt over the years and they’re only a trio! And I thought the Sugababes were the queens of members coming and going!

Dannii Minogue describes both the artist and her song as “beautiful” in her next intro and she spot on with both assessments. Sinéad O’Connor was beautiful – she had that timeless beauty like Audrey Hepburn, something that sometimes gets lost in all the controversy that surrounded her, not that she would have considered herself so nor that it was in the least bit important to her I would imagine. As for her song “This Is To Mother You”, it’s an exquisitely beautiful composition taken from a four track EP called “Gospel Oak” that would peak at No 28 in the UK charts. Nobody did affecting vocals like Sinéad and they are what makes this song so haunting, that and its simplicity. So strong is its message and emotional pull that it was remade in 2009 as a duet with Mary J.Blige as part of the Girls Are Not For Sale campaign to bring awareness to the issue of child sex trafficking.

And another studio appearance! Hang on…

*checks running order*

Yes, they’re all studio appearances in this episode (albeit the last artist is just a repeat from a previous show). There are no promo videos featured at all. I wonder what the thinking behind that was? Anyway, Damage are the next act appearing in person and after their last two hits both went Top 10, they reach their commercial peak with this single which is an unlikely cover of Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight”. I say unlikely as it’s not an obvious choice for an R&B group but they just about make it work, keeping their rendition fairly faithful but injecting it with some subtle soul inflections. Damage’s version would debut at No 3 which was loads higher than Clapton’s original mainly on account of the fact that it was never released as a single in the UK – well, not until a live version came out in 1991 and made No 30 anyway. Now, “Wonderful Tonight” was one of the songs that I learned to play at one of my early guitar classes, largely due to its chords actually being quite basic despite it being an Eric ‘God’ Clapton song. I got pretty good at picking that one.

P.S. After Pottsy with Monaco the other week, this TOTP featured another person that I knew (well, I’d met before at least) – the nearest violinist on the left hand side of the screen was the friend and colleague of one of my wife’s best friends who herself is a classical musician.

Here come Katrina And The Waves now with their third TOTP appearance – clearly the buzz about them winning Eurovision hadn’t dissipated yet. Alternatively, you could say that they were milking their rise from pop’s ashes for all that they were worth. In fairness to them, they had just moved up the charts from No 50 to No 13 so another trip to the TOTP studio could certainly be justified.

Now, is it just me or does “Love Shine A Light” have a faint whiff of “Let The River Run” about it. I’ve listened to both back to back and I still can’t decide if they are similar or I’m just overreaching massively because both choruses feature the word ‘let’ heavily. What do you think?

After mentioning Mary J. Blige earlier, here she is on her first ever appearance on TOTP in person – I love it when a post comes together. Hang on, you don’t suppose this could have been when Mary and Sinéad O’Connor met for the first time which led to a friendship resulting in that collaboration years later on “This Is To Mother You” do you? Or am I overreaching again?

Anyway, the ‘Queen of Hip-Hop Soul’ was in the studio to perform her latest single “Love Is All We Need” making her the third R&B artist on the show tonight following Brownstone and Damage earlier. My word, the running order is testing the limits of my limited knowledge of the genre this week! I do know that she has legendary status in that world and a string of awards to her name but I would struggle to name any of her songs. “What’s The 411?”? Was that one? Or was that the title of one of her albums? Look, I’m trying my best, OK? Listening to this one, it sounds a bit Mariah Carey-ish to me or maybe Janet Jackson-esque but then it was produced by the latter’s long time collaborators Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis so maybe that’s not surprising. It was taken from the album “Share My World” which marked the parting of the ways between Mary and her producer, manager and mentor Sean Combs aka Puff Daddy/P Diddy/Diddy which, with what we now know about him was surely a good move. This led to Mary working instead with the likes of the aforementioned Jam and Lewis, Babyface and…ah…R Kelly…oh dear. I think I’ll just retreat from this one without any further comment.

We have a new No 1 and it’s one of those records that seemed to come out of nowhere but, of course, it had its background story like every other hit. “You’re Not Alone” by Olive had originally been released in August of 1996 when it peaked just outside of the Top 40 at No 42 (they would make a habit of this – follow up “Miracle” peaked at No 41). Despite missing out on mainstream success, it was a hit in the clubs and was given a remix and rereleased and debuted at the very top of the charts staying there for two weeks. It reminds me of the Baby D hit “Let Me Be Your Fantasy” from late 1994, another dance track fronted by a female singer that came from out of left field and which similarly went to the pinnacle of the charts despite the act behind it having had no previous Top 40 hits. These were the crazy 90s where such chart feats were possible.

Olive were put together by someone from trip-hop entity Nightmares On Wax (which made sense) and a fella who used to be in Simply Red (which really didn’t). Vocalist Ruth-Ann Boyle had done some vocal samples for Vini Reilly’s The Durutti Column and once the Simply Red guy heard them and contacted Boyle, Olive were formed. “You Are Not Alone” with its skittering, trip-hop backing, melancholy feel and Boyle’s warm, smooth vocals proved irresistible to record buyers second time around and they would follow it with a No 14 hit in “Outlaw” and a Top 30 album in “Extra Virgin” (see what they did there?). However, that would be the extent of their chart career. A third single – a rerelease of “Miracle” – peaked again at No 41 making it surely one of the most unlucky releases ever. By the way, doesn’t Ruth-Ann Boyle look like Natalie Casey from BBC sitcom Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps?

Natalie, of course, has her own pop star claim to fame story…

Right, this nonsense has gone too far now! I’m talking about this new policy of featuring hits on the show that are going down the charts. Look at this – we end with last week’s No 1 which has fallen five places to No 6! WTF?! I’m not sure who was ultimately responsible for this daft decision, be it producer Mark Wells, executive producer Trevor Dann or show director John L. Spencer but it was baffling. It’s as if they were deliberately trying to run the programme down, making it less and less attractive to its audience and hence causing declining viewing figures. Say what you like about recently departed executive producer Ric Blaxill but he never pulled any shit like this. The lucky recipient of this undeserved exposure this time is Gary Barlow with his single “Love Won’t Wait” but he’ll get his comeuppance soon enough when the Robbie Williams factor kicks in.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	North & South	I’m A Man Not A Boy	Nope
2	Brownstone	5 Miles To Empty	Nah
3	Sinéad O’Connor	This Is To Mother You	I did not
4	Damage	Wonderful Tonight	No
5	Katrina And The Waves	Love Shine A Light	Negative
6	Mary J. Blige	Love Is All We Need	Didn’t happen
7	Olive	You’re Not Alone	Not for me
8	Gary Barlow	Love Won’t Wait	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/m002861w/top-of-the-pops-16051997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 09 MAY 1997

Posted on February 23 by 80stastic

It’s the 9th May 1997 and I’m in China! Yes, Beijing to be exact visiting my old school pal Rob who is living and studying out there. According to my diary, this date was our second day there (I’d travelled with Rob’s brother Chris) and we’d so far been to Tiananmen Square, Ritan Park and spent a mad night in a karaoke bar. However, one of my abiding memories is that on our plane there had been a French youth orchestra who were going to play some concerts in China and as we flew over rice fields on the approach to Beijing airport, one of their number looked out of the window and exclaimed “Ah, le chinois!”. With my location confirmed, I can categorically say that I would not have watched this episode of TOTP. I wonder what I missed…

…not much if the opening act is anything to go by as it’s the same one that closed the last episode! I guess it’s understandable as Katrina And The Waves had won Eurovision for the UK the weekend before for the first time in 16 years so they probably deserved their moment in the limelight. “Love Shine A Light” was the track that brought the trophy home and although it was a deserved winner on the night, it didn’t live long in the memory. Katrina (Leskanich) herself has explained that the reason the band had never recorded it before was due to the fact that it was “too cheesy, too ABBA, too Eurovision”. Even the guy who wrote it, guitarist Kimberley Rew, didn’t want anything to do with it and Eurovision and didn’t join his band mates for their performance of it on the big night. According to Katrina, the song (and subsequently the band) didn’t endure because they didn’t have a gimmick like Bucks Fizz. What it did have though was an anthemic quality and a feel good vibe that clearly won the voters over at least temporarily. In 2020, it created its own legacy of sorts as its title was used as the inspiration for a show called Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light which was a live, two hour show arranged to replace the full Eurovision Song Contest which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Love Shine A Light” was performed by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra before also being reprised at the show’s finale by all the artists meant to have been in the official show with Katrina herself joining those on stage.

I should have said that Jo Whiley is tonight’s presenter and she’s positively effusive about the next artist who have a great track to be fair to them. There was always going to be in huge interest in what the members of the Stone Roses did next after the band was dissolved in October 1996. Mani* would join Primal Scream, Ian Brown embarked on a solo career to varying degrees of success and Reni went into hiatus hibernation.

*He came into the Our Price in Stockport where I worked one day and bought our entire stock of Primal Scream albums to learn the bass parts.

As for John Squire, he was first out of the traps with a new project in the form of The Seahorses. Unlike the Roses who couldn’t have been more Manc, Squire’s band were York-centric with lead singer Chris Helme having been infamously recruited after being spotted busking outside the city’s Woolworths store. Another feature of The Seahorses story that was being played out in the music press was that the band’s name was an anagram of ‘He Hates Roses’ or alternatively ‘The Rose Ashes’. Squire denied this as pure coincidence and speculation.

Anyway, their debut single was “Love Is The Law” and it was a banger. Recorded with Bowie and T-Rex producer Tony Visconti and naturally featuring Squire’s immense guitar work to the fore, it was an exuberant, indie rock song that had an immediacy that made it sound familiar from the get go. The lyrics though – well, they seemed to go under the censor radar…

“She was a rum old slapper and we always tried to get her pants off when she phoned…

Strap-on Sally chased us down the alley, we feared for our behinds”

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: John Squire
Love Is the Law lyrics © Polygram Music Publishing Ltd. Gb

Hmm. Anyway, in this performance, Squire has decided to come as a member of Mansun whilst Chris Helme looks like a cross between 60s era David Essex and Danny Macnamara from Embrace. The Seahorses would go on to have three further hit singles and a No 2 album in “Do It Yourself” but would split in 1999 after increasing tensions between Squire and Helme (who wished to pursue a solo career in tandem with the band) boiled over. Squire would eventually release two solo albums before the Stone Roses second coming in 2011 and just last year had a No 1 album with Liam Gallagher called…erm…”Liam Gallagher John Squire”. I don’t think that’s an anagram of anything but according to one user on Twitter, said album contains the track “Just Another Rainbow” which is an anagram of ‘Just to hear Ian Brown’!

Four days short of the one year anniversary of the release of his “Older” album, George Michael was still releasing tracks from it as singles. “Star People ‘97” was the fifth of those (and there would even be one more after that) and it kept up the remarkable record of them all peaking within the Top 3 chart positions when it debuted at No 2. And people talked about all the singles released from “Faith”!

This one was re-recorded (hence the ‘97 suffix) from the original album track to make it a bit more funked up and danceable. I’m guessing this performance was from the MTV Unplugged set that was recorded in 1996 where he also did a version of Wham!’s “Everything She Wants” which was released as an extra track on the “Star People ‘97” single. Want to hear it? Yeah you do…

In May ‘97, Mansun were still at the top of their game with “Taxloss” (or “Taxlo$$” as it’s stylised on the single’s cover) being their fourth consecutive Top 20 hit with all of them taken from debut No 1 album “Attack Of The Grey Lantern”. There was something different about this one though – not sonically as it was still that guitar-driven, epic soundscape that characterised the album. No, it was in its naming. All their other releases had been titled sequentially as EPs – hence “One EP”, “Two EP” etc with the last having been “Five EP” (though each was headlined by a lead track). However, for “Taxloss” it was just called…well…”Taxloss”. No reason has ever been forthcoming.

I said earlier that John Squire had turned up looking like a member of Mansun and blow me down, one song later here was the real thing and singer Paul Draper (bless him) confirms my observation by wearing his Army Surplus Store outfit front and centre. Something else about this TOTP performance was that, for a moment, I thought that The Seahorses drummer and the guy on the sticks for Mansun were the same person. I think though it’s just that they both had a goaty beard. I think. Oh and that video that Jo Whiley mentions, that really did happen. Not quite up there with The KLF burning a million quid but still…

As Jo Whiley says in her intro, it’s time to throw your pants at the screen as 911 get another outing for their single “Bodyshakin’” even though it’s dropped from No 3 to No 10 this week – I just can’t get along with these new TOTP appearance rules.

I’ve nothing else to say about this one except what was the deal with those tops they were wearing?! I’m no fashionista but they’re gross. As bad as they are though, nothing beats the legendary Carlisle United away kit from the mid 90s that was labelled ‘the deckchair’ due to its garishness. Why am I randomly talking about Carlisle United? Because it’s not random – 911 lead singer Lee Brennan was born in Carlisle and captained their football clubs under-14 and under-16 teams but was turned down for a professional contract on account of him being too short. A career as a pop star clothes horse awaited…

Jo Whiley goes all Blue Peter presenter in her next intro as she says that Jay Kay of Jamiroquai can’t be in the studio as his band are on tour “so here’s something they prepared earlier” as we get the video for “Alright”. That old cliche could also be applied to Jamiroquai as this track was almost an identikit replica of all their other hits it seemed to my uncultured ears. People who knew more about it (basically the music press so that might be a misnomer) reckoned it was the best track on parent album “Travelling Without Moving” with one Sam Taylor of The Observer commenting on its “effortless swank”. Yeah, he could have lost an ‘s’ there for me. “Alright” peaked at No 6.

Wait…Blackstreet had more hits than just “No Diggity”? Yes, yes they did including a further three Top 10 hits one of which was this – “Don’t Leave Me”. Now, if it sounds a bit like a 2Pac song that’s because it features the same sample used in the rap legend’s track “I Ain’t Mad Atcha” but said sample is from an unlikely source – DeBarge. The “Rhythm Of The Night” hitmakers from the mid 80s? The very same though the track in question is called “A Dream” from 1983. How do I know all this? I looked it up obviously. My R&B/rap knowledge doesn’t extend to those levels of detail. As such, it’s no surprise then that this song means very little to me and in fact, my apathy turned to displeasure when one of the group introduced it by saying “This song goes out to all the ladies in the house tonight”. Eeeww!

Gary Barlow has this week’s No 1 record with a song that wasn’t even his. “Love Won’t Wait” came out of the writing sessions for Madonna’s “Bedtime Stories” album and was a collaboration between Madge and prolific producer and songwriter Shep Pettibone. After all the flak I gave Robbie Williams initially for starting his solo career with a cover version (George Michael’s “Freedom’90”), blow me if Barlow’s second release under his own name wasn’t even one of his own compositions but a Madonna reject! You can hear why it didn’t make the cut – it’s a perfectly serviceable but oh so unremarkable dance/pop tune that isn’t as good as some of Take That’s best work which raises the question of why did Barlow record it? Was he having doubts about his ability to be a solo artist? After all, it had been over nine months since his debut single “Forever Love” which suggests that he didn’t have confidence in the songs he had already got together. Despite my questioning attitude, Gary still had a fanbase large enough to send him to No 1 for the second successive time in his solo career. As the performance starts you can clearly hear someone in the audience screaming “Gaaarrry!”. However, the writing was on the wall as follow up single “So Help Me Girl” would fail to make the Top 10 and within a year he wouldn’t be able to give his records away as Robbie Williams cemented his place as Barlow’s personal nemesis. Still, it all worked out pretty well for Gary in the end didn’t it?

The play out video is “Lovefool” by The Cardigans who spend a second week at No 4. Looking at the singles ahead of them at No 1 on those occasions – by Michael Jackson and Gary Barlow – it does seem somewhat of a travesty that “Lovefool” couldn’t quite get to the top (it peaked at No 2). Being up against new release singles that would have been heavily discounted when your’s had reverted to full price maybe had a part to play. Hits by the likes of No Doubt, R Kelly and Puff Daddy all had extended stays at the top of the charts which would seem to debunk that theory but what is true is that there had been five different hits at No 1 in five weeks earlier in 1997.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Katrina And The Waves	Love Shine A Light	Nope
2	The Seahorses	Love Is The Law	Thought I might have but its not in the singles box
3	George Michael	Star People ’97	Nah
4	Mansun	Taxloss	No but I had the album
5	911	Bodyshakin’	As if
6	Jamiroquai	Alright	All wrong – no
7	Blackstreet	Don’t Leave Me Now	No
8	Gary Barlow	Love Won’t Wait	Three guesses?
9	The Cardigans	Lovefool	No but my wife had the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack with it on

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/m0027xn2/top-of-the-pops-09051997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 02 MAY 1997

Posted on February 20 by 80stastic

We’ve skipped a month due to the R Kelly issue and find ourselves at the start of May and what a time it was to be alive! Labour have won the 1997 General Election and the Tories have been booted out of power after 18 long years. Hurray! I was on holiday so I could stay up watching the election results come in and I remember waking up in the morning feeling that there was finally some good news and that hope had returned. As I walked into town, I recall that it was a beautifully sunny morning and contemplated that everything had aligned including the weather. Obviously, with the hindsight of 28 years, the promise of New Labour didn’t completely pan out but I hadn’t known anything but Conservative rule for my entire adult life and I was nearly 29 by this point so I was allowed to let myself get carried away a little. It was an exciting time and not just politically – in four days time I would be embarking on a visit to China to see my old mate Rob who was studying out there. I had arranged for someone to cover me at the Our Price store where I worked (we still didn’t have a new manager in place so I was effectively the acting manager) and I would be off for a couple of weeks. I was excited and desperate for a break but a little daunted at such a big trip.

For now though, it was time to kick back and enjoy the good vibes. This TOTP was broadcast at the earlier time of 6.25 and on BBC2 as, understandably, BBC1 was concentrating its content on the General Election aftermath. Whether I would have watched the latest chart tunes or the news coverage I’m not sure but probably the latter not that you could get away for the politics by watching TOTP as we start with D:Ream and “Things Can Only Get Better”. Now you don’t need me to tell you why this was back in the charts but I’m going to anyway. The Labour Party had co-opted it to spearhead their campaign for the election and if the landslide victory was anything to go by then it certainly had a positive impact. It presumably had a positive impact on D:Ream’s career as well which was pretty much in the dirt by 1997. Their 1995 album “World” had sold only a fifth of their debut “D:Ream On Vol. 1” and their last single had peaked at No 40. Step forward Tony Blair and suddenly they were back in the charts, back on TV and with a Best Of album released. Main man Peter Cunnah has lost the yellow and black checked suit this time around and also Professor Brian Cox who was presumably off doing something with the Large Hadron Collider or something. Cunnah also seems to have a little bit less hair. The band’s time back in the spotlight was fleeting though. The rerelease of “Things Can Only Get Better” only made No 19 this time around and their Best Of album flopped and the band split up. They reformed in 2008 and have released new material subsequently but it’s surely this song that they will always be synonymous with. I wonder if Howard Jones ever thinks “if only” when he sees Tony Blair in the news?

I should say that tonight’s host is Cathy Dennis who seems an unlikely choice in retrospect given her profile at this time. Yes, she’s had a hit with her cover of “Waterloo Sunset” this year but her next single released a month or so after this TOTP failed to make the Top 40 which effectively brought the curtain down on her career as a pop star before she became hugely successful writing hits for other people in the new millennium. Anyway, she introduces Robbie Williams as the next act despite the fact that he’s only just been on the previous week and had now dropped down the charts from No 2 to No 8 with “Old Before I Die”. That didn’t matter in this post Ric Blaxill TOTP universe though when songs sliding down the charts were still afforded exposure on the show. Cathy Dennis is given and gives us a line about it being Robbie’s second week inside the Top 10 as a reason for his successive appearance.

As for the song itself, although perhaps not his most celebrated or well known tune, for me it was the one that made me think perhaps Williams might just make a go of being a solo star. Now, the success of “Angels” is widely regarded as being that moment but “Old Before I Die” beat it to it in terms of being a decent rock/pop song. Sure, it drew accusations of being a rip off of his best new mates Oasis but importantly it wasn’t a cover version which his first single “Freedom” had been. That and the fact that one of the extra tracks on his debut as a solo artist had been an interview led me to ask the question “where are your songs mate?” but he answered me with “Old Before I Die”. I liked the play on words inspired by The Who classic “My Generation” and even the rather clunky and childish lyric about the pope getting high. It all hung together quite cohesively. Follow up singles “Lazy Days” and “South Of The Border” would prove to be missteps before “Angels” swooped in and saved the day and Robbie’s career. For now though, he seemed to be doing fine.

Another defining pop career moment next as this was the point when I realised “Shit! This lot aren’t going away!” as a mercifully short chart life is what I had predicted for 911. Alas, “Bodyshakin’” became their then biggest hit when it rattled its way into No 3. My underestimating of their hit potential clearly spilled over into my work life as I’m sure we sold out of this single in its first week of release – a heinous crime for a mainstream record shop but who knew that a Declan Donnelly lookalike, two dancers from The Hitman And Her and a song that recycled that ‘ner nah nah naaa ner nah nah’ riff could be such a big success. Not me clearly. Still, they were very good at synchronised dancing – I’ll give them that.

Next up is a song that has been described as pure pop perfection and who’s to say that’s not 100% true? Not me certainly. “Lovefool” by The Cardigans was originally a medium sized hit in September of 1996 peaking at No 21 but its inclusion on the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann’s treatment of William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet movie and the success of that film warranted a second stab at the charts and this time it rose all the way to No 2 – I’d forgotten it had peaked so high to be honest. I shouldn’t have been surprised though as it is a brilliant pop song. I must have also not remembered how big a success Romeo + Juliet was and, by association, its soundtrack. I saw the film and enjoyed it and years later, my son would watch it at school as a way of making Shakespeare more accessible to children studying the Bard. As for the soundtrack, my wife liked the music in the film so much she bought the CD which, as well as The Cardigans, featured such artists as Garbage, Radiohead, Des’ree and Kym Mazelle doing a cover of Candi Staton’s “Young Hearts Run Free”. It went to No 3 in the UK charts selling 300,000 copies and affording it gold status. It was even bigger in America and Australia where it sold over 3 million copies in the former and was the second bestselling album of the year in the latter. A choral version of Rozalla’s “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)” which was also on the soundtrack would form the basis of a rather bizarre UK No 1 two years later when Baz Luhrmann himself released a single titled “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)” which was essentially a spoken word track voiced by actor Lee Perry of an article published in the Chicago Tribune by columnist Mary Schmich on how to live a happier life. As I said, all rather bizarre.

Anyway, back to The Cardigans and “Lovefool”. The success of the single with its shimmering, seamless pop production full of hooks but with a nod to disco helped parent album “First Band On The Moon” to gold status in the UK. The band were tipped to be on the verge of greatness with the impossibly beautiful Nina Persson dominating their public image (much in the same way Gwen Stefani was for fellow chart stars No Doubt). Someone I worked with was so taken with them that she bought up their earlier back catalogue as well. “First Band On The Moon” wouldn’t provide any further massive hit singles but did pave the way for 1998’s “Gran Turismo” which contained the hits “My Favourite Game”, “Erase/Rewind” and “Hanging Around” helping the album to achieve platinum sales status in the UK and 3 million copies being sold worldwide. The Cardigans split in 2006 but reunited in 2012 as a touring entity only.

“It’s been a great few weeks for DJ Quicksilver. He’s replaced Sasha’s “Encore Une Fois” as the club floor filler that won’t go away. Here he is at No 5 with “Bellissima”

So says Cathy Dennis in her intro to the next act and you know what, that will do for this blogger’s comments about this one because I can assure you that anything else I would say would not be as kind as that.

Next to a young artist who was very much touted as being the next new UK R&B superstar and she won a BRIT and two MOBO awards to back that claim up. Shola Ama was just 18 years old when she burst into the charts with her cover of the Randy Crawford hit “You Might Need Somebody” and it would be another of those singles that defied the ‘debut very high, exit very quickly’ trend of many a chart hit at this time by spending seven weeks inside the Top 10 with five of them at lucky No 7. How did Shola do this? Well, the song that was chosen for her to cover was very radio friendly and also old enough for some young music fans to possibly be unaware of Randy Crawford’s hit with it from 1981. I myself only knew it because my wife had Randy’s “Secret Combination” album that it was taken from. Of course, appearing on TOTP three weeks on the trot probably didn’t hinder the single’s chances (although we missed the first two due to the R Kelly issue). Apparently Shola got so fed up of people not believing that she was singing live on the show that in the third appearance she missed a bit out to prove it was real. Having watched this third appearance back, I’m not sure I can spot this though I think there’s a moment when she appears to go towards the microphone but doesn’t sing. Is that it? Personally, I couldn’t hear what all the fuss was about and that she would disappear once “You Might Need Somebody” finally dropped out of the charts. She didn’t – her debut album “Much Love” made No 6 selling 100,000 copies and included three more hit singles. However, second album syndrome struck despite her working with a host of producers and writers including D-Influence and Babyface and Shola’s time in the spotlight was over within two years. She has carried on recording and has collaborated with artists such as Miss Dynamite and Frisco.

To say they only had four Top 40 hits of which none got higher than No 24, Kenickie’s strike rate for appearing on TOTP was pretty good. This was their second time on the show and I’d forgotten that not all of their songs featured lead vocals from Lauren Laverne. This one – “Nightlife” – sees Marie du Santiago doing the singing heavy lifting and I think I prefer her voice to Lauren’s. This track is a spiky little number that strides along wearing its attitude on its sleeve with pride like a hickey from a certain Grease character. You know, I probably should check out their back catalogue in more detail than I currently possess. After all it’s only two albums deep, coincidentally the same amount of Grease films that there are which reminds me that I used to work with someone who prefers Grease 2 to the original! I know! How do you even begin to explain that?!

I have to say that Cathy Dennis is not very good at this presenting lark – very lacking in any presence but then why should she have been any good at it? She’s made her mark as a pop star then as a songwriter – two successful careers is more than most of us manage. Anyway, Republica are on next with their biggest ever hit “Drop Dead Gorgeous”. Watching it back, I’m struck by what a strange song this is, especially in the verses where Saffron almost speaks the abrupt lyrics which are often just two words at the start. Eventually the chorus kicks in and that point, it sounds like it could have been a hit for Toyah back in the day. It can’t be just me surely? Something in the inflections in Saffron’s phrasing as she almost yelps the words out? No?

Anyway, at this point it seemed, as with No Doubt and The Cardigans, that Republica with their photogenic lead singer were set to conquer the world. What happened next was a complete collapse of their momentum. Second album “Speed Ballads” underperformed so much to the extent that most people didn’t realise that it had been released – indeed it wasn’t in the US after their label Deconstruction Records folded. The band would go into a state of stasis and split in 2001 before reuniting in 2008. Their first album since “Speed Ballads” 27 years ago is due for release in the Spring of 2025.

I know I was busy with preparations for my China trip and distracted by the General Election but how did I not notice what was No 1 this week? I did work in a record shop after all. I have zero recollection of this chart topper from Michael Jackson but maybe that’s a good thing as “Blood On The Dance Floor” is a stinker of the foulest stench. Taken from the remix album “Blood On The Dance Floor: HIStory In The Mix”, it’s just a funky backbeat that goes nowhere and is fleshed out by the usual Jacko yelps and screams as he bangs on about some woman called Susie. Apparently it was initially recorded for the 1991 “Dangerous” album but never made the cut which speaks volumes for its quality. Even the usually impeccable production on Jackson’s output is not up to scratch it seems to me as his vocals are really low in the mix at some points meaning you can’t actually hear him much. Perhaps that was intentional but either way, maybe we should just be grateful for small mercies.

Wikipedia tells me that the album went to No 1 in the UK, achieved platinum status and is the biggest selling remix album in the world EVER! Hmm. When I looked at the front cover of the album, it did bring back one memory which was of massive stocks of the album that we couldn’t give away so its sales figures are surprising to say the least. In conclusion, I say “Blood On The Dance Floor”? Nah, give me “Murder On The Dance Floor” any day. The director of Saltburn agrees with me at least.

We end with a plug for the UK entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest which this year was Katrina And The Waves. I know! Who’d have thought it! Well, Katrina And The Waves presumably as they submitted their entry “Love Shine A Light” (plus a £250 fee) to The Great British Song Contest which was the selection process that year to determine the UK entry. There are also rumours though that Jonathan King contacted the band to see if they had a song that was appropriate so take your pick. Predominantly known for the marvellously upbeat hit “Walking On Sunshine”, the band hadn’t been anywhere near the charts since 1986 when “Sun Street” rather unexpectedly made No 22. Pretty much nothing had been heard of them since but suddenly they were back!…albeit via the much maligned Eurovision Song Contest. I recall thinking that they were bound to win, somehow linking it with the General Election and the new government – if the Tories could be toppled after 18 years of rule, surely the UK could break our 16 year hoodoo and win Eurovision for the first time since Bucks Fizz. In reality, my confidence was probably down to hearing the bookies and media saying all week how Katrina And The Waves were odds on to win. And win they did and like the Labour Party two days earlier, it was by a landslide. Predictably, new Prime Minister Tony Blair was quick to congratulate the band on their victory as he sought to keep the good feeling vibe going. What was New Labour’s legacy ultimately? I’ll leave that for your own private thoughts – this is a music blog after all. As for Katrina And The Waves, “Love Shine A Light” surged to No 3 in the charts off the back of Eurovision though was nowhere near as durable as Gina G’s effort from a year earlier despite it coming nowhere in the contest.

I recall Katrina saying in an interview years later that once they had a hit again, she’d assumed that their career was sorted and they’d no need to worry about that anymore but they were unable to produce a successful follow up and they would split acrimoniously after their credibility as a rock band was tainted by their brush with Eurovision. Katrina herself has maintained ties with the competition though appearing in anniversary shows and even participating in the Swedish national final in 2005.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	D:Ream	Things Can Only Get Better	Not in 1994 and not this time either
2	Robbie Williams	Old Before I Die	No but I had a promo copy of his Life Thru A Lens album
3	911	Bodyshakin’	Of course not
4	The Cardigans	Lovefool	No but my wife had there Romeo + Juliet soundtrack
5	DJ Quicksilver	Bellissima	No
6	Shola Ama	You Might Need Somebody	Nope
7	Kenickie	Nightlife	Negative
8	Republica	Drop Dead Gorgeous	Nah
9	Michael Jackson	Blood On The Dance Floor	Never
10	Katrina And The Waves	Love Shine A Light	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/m0027xn0/top-of-the-pops-02051997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 04 APR 1997

Posted on February 16 by 80stastic

As widely predicted and discussed within the TOTP online community, BBC4’s repeats for 1997 are facing more disruption than the London Underground during a tube strike due to the various misdemeanours of some of the artists who had big hits this year. The first of these came at the end of March when the show that aired on the 28th of that month featured the video for R Kelly’s hit “I Believe I Can Fly”. The R&B singer is currently serving a 31 year sentence for racketeering and child pornography. Having checked the running order for that episode, my opinion is that we didn’t miss much with only the Pet Shop Boys and The Beautiful South being of potential interest to this blogger.

We’ll be jumping around for a while though as “I Believe I Can Fly” went to No 1 for three weeks and later in the year we have Puff Daddy/P Diddy/Sean Combs who spent six weeks on top of the UK charts with “I’ll Be Missing You” and who is currently facing charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. I’m assuming all shows that feature either R Kelly or Puff Daddy will be pulled and not re shown. For this episode though we are on safe ground with a load of dance tunes and those nice Spice Girls featuring. Our hosts are the irreverent pair Mark and Lard who had recently taken over the reigns of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show following the departure of Chris Evans.

We’re straight in – literally straight in as there’s no to camera piece from a featured artist nor even a presenter intro in these strange, new times – with the latest hit from Cast called “Free Me”. The lead single from sophomore album “Mother Nature Calls”, it was more of that so called ‘Britpop’ sound that had seen them become chart stars over the previous 18 months though possibly a bit more of an earthy sound and not quite as melodic. It was a decent tune – definitely not ‘filler’ but by no means ‘killer’ either. When reviewing their last hit, the standalone single “Flying”, I criticised the track’s lyrics for being basic and superficial. I have to say that this was also the case with “Free Me”. So simple are they that if they were a boy in a nursery rhyme, they’d definitely be called Simon. I mean, look at these:

Give me some time to be me, give me the space that I need

Give me a reason to be, give me some time to be

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Russell Glyn Ballard
Free Me lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

What? I wouldn’t have submitted that as an 11 year old if I’d been asked to write some poetry in an English lesson. Come on John Power – you were better than that! By the way, I’m not sure about your hat either. Must do better.

After Mark and Lard have reinforced their northern roots by insisting that you pronounce Cast as “Cast” and not “Carst” (they’re right of course), they introduce 3T who, unbelievably, were still having hits two years after their first. Happily, “Gotta Be You” would be the fifth and final time they would feature in the UK charts. Their discography informs me that this one featured a Herbie Critchlow who Wikipedia informs me is a producer and songwriter who has penned songs for the likes of Backstreet Boys, Rita Ora and…erm…Andy Abrahams. Is he the guy that comes on in the middle of this performance and raps something truly dodgy about zombie nymphomaniacs or something? Anyway, even he gets bored of the whole thing and exits stage left before the end of the song and he co-wrote the bloody thing! To paraphrase Morrissey when reviewing a Modern Romance single in Smash Hits, “there may well very well be a worse group than 3T but can anybody really think of one?”.

Next we have…what the actual f**k?! No Doubt?! AGAIN?! After venting my spleen in the last post that “Don’t Speak” had been shown in the 21 March show despite no longer being at No 1 and dropping down the charts, here they are once more. To quote from the extraordinary film Blazing Saddles, “What in the wide, wide world of sports is a-goin’ on here?” OK, the single had gone back up from No 4 to No 3 so in theory it was a chart climber, but this was the sixth time it had been on the show already and only three of those had been as the No 1 record. Sixth you say? YES! SIX! I’ve done my research and it was even on the 28 March show that we didn’t get to see meaning it was in three consecutive weeks after falling from the top of the charts. And it doesn’t even stop there as it was also on the 18 April show (which we similarly won’t get to see) meaning it was given a slot on the running order more often than when it was the actual No 1! This was just ludicrous! Who was the director during these shows?

*Checks internet*

It was that John L Spencer character again! Well, all I can say is never mind The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, this was The John L Spencer Bullshit Explosion!

When Mark and Lard looked at which acts would be featured in the show they would be presenting, what do you reckon they thought? I’m betting that when their fingers descended the list and alighted on N–Trance their reaction wasn’t “Brilliant! We’ve got N-Trance on the show and even better than that, they’re doing a cover of that old Ottawan hit!”. The descent of the people who gave us the dance floor classic “Set You Free” into a naff 70s tribute act was indeed a bizarre career move. It all seems to be down to the recruitment of rapper Ricardo da Force to their ranks who had previously featured on those huge hits by The KLF in the early 90s. He was at the forefront of N-Trance’s reworking of the Bee Gees classic “Stayin’ Alive” which had stunk the charts out in the Autumn of 1995 when it did a hit No 2.

Throwing out credibility for commercial success, they repeated the trick with “D.I.S.C.O.”. The original was gruesome enough but the 1997 version was just vulgar and the performance here, complete with 70s disco wigs and outfits (obviously) turned up the tacky-o-meter to 11. In case you’re not convinced by my argument, then here’s all the proof you need – it was covered by the King of Cheese himself Chico. It’s Chico time!….

What? There’s a counter argument? Which is?

*The guy who wrote and produced “D.I.S.C.O.” – Daniel Vangarde – is the father of Thomas Bangalter, one half of achingly hip dance outfit Daft Punk*

Daft Punk? Seriously? No, I don’t care. N-Trance can, to quote Norman Stanley Fletcher from Porridge, “Naff off!”.

Ah this is better – “North Country Boy” by The Charlatans. I recall that a record company rep turned up at the Our Price shop where I worked a couple of weeks before this all excited and carrying a pre-release copy of this single saying how it was really special and the best thing the band had ever done. Was he right? Well, music taste is totally subjective but he might have been in with a shout with that claim though it’s not my own personal favourite (which I think is “Just Lookin’”, today anyway). It’s probably one of their best known songs though, peaking at No 4 and coming from the album “Tellin’ Stories” which ushered in a period of great chart success for the band. The album itself went to No 1 while furnishing the band with four hit singles that achieved the following peaks:

3 – 4 – 6 – 16

I’m pretty sure that Mark and Lard liked this one – they even did their own version of it (sort of) under the guise of their alter ego spoof band project The Shirehorses. This is The Charley Twins…

This show really is dance heavy. After N-Trance earlier, we now get three more tracks from that (admittedly wide-ranging) genre back to back starting with DJ Quicksilver and “Bellissima”. Anybody whose stage name includes the letters ‘DJ’ in it immediately raises red flags for me and my pop sensibilities and in the case of Mr Quicksilver, I wasn’t wrong. His real name is Orhan Terzi which sounds like he’s Hull City’s latest Turkish midfield signing and I wish he had pursued a career in football rather than dance music. I can only assume that my brain can’t be wired the same way as the dance-heads that bought this single (it sold 600,000 copies- 600,000!) as I can hear nothing in the track that would have compelled me to shell out good money to buy it. It’s just the same beats all the way through with some strings sounds laid over the top of it. Repetitive, monotonous and moronic. I guess if you were tripping off your tits in a club it might make more sense but how could you listen to it in the privacy of your own home? The ballerina type dancer was a novel way to visually stage the track I guess but then she’s usurped by the usual women in PVC trousers and one in suspenders no less. Quicksilver himself gets a brief close up when he gurns down the camera lens and gives a thumbs up. Prat! It’s a massive thumbs down from me.

The second dance act on the show is that rare beast that had achieved a No 1 single. Back in 1995, Livin’ Joy rather surprisingly topped the charts with a rerelease of their No 18 hit “Dreamer” from the year before. They’d followed that up with two further Top Tenners but ultimately they would submit to the trend of diminishing returns.

This fourth single “Where Can I Find Love” would peak outside the Top 10 at No 12 and final chart entry “Deep In You” even lower at No 17. This one sounds a little too frantic for me, too much going on in the mix but who cares about that? What was going on with singer Tameko Star’s hat?! It’s enormous – I haven’t seen one that big since this fella was on our TV screens…

Did I say that dance acts having a No 1 hit were a rare beast? I was clearly talking out of my arse as here’s The Chemical Brothers with their second consecutive chart topper “Block Rockin’ Beats”. I think this might just have taken me by surprise at the time as it’s possible that I dismissed previous No 1 “Setting Sun” as having had an Oasis flavoured boost via the vocal contributions of Noel Gallagher. However, I must have underestimated the appeal of the Manchester duo as here they were again as the kings of the Top 40. Or had I? There was a lot of discussion at the time about how quickly the sales of “Block Rockin’ Beats” fell away in its second week of release as it slipped to No 8 just seven days after topping the charts. At the time, it was the ninth biggest fall from the pinnacle since charts were compiled. Was this down to the nature of it being a dance track with a lack of crossover appeal (say compared to something like “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt) or was it just more evidence of how the charts were being manipulated by record companies and their first week price discounting strategies.? Or perhaps a bit of both? I mean, they weren’t alone – both Blur and U2 had experienced similar chart slippage with their last two singles (though not quite as big as The Chemical Brothers). Did I just say ‘lack of crossover appeal’? Yet again, I seem to be spouting nonsense as when parent album “Dig Your Own Hole” came out a few weeks later, it went to No 1 and chalked up platinum sales. What was it Frank Zappa said? Writing about music is like dancing about architecture?

For the record, I quite enjoyed “Block Rockin’ Beats” and in a completely contrary stance to what I’d just said about Livin’ Joy, I liked that it sounded chaotic and all over the place. Musical opinion eh? Whatcha gonna do? The video features Perry Fenwick a year before he made his EastEnders debut as Billy Mitchell. I met his ex-partner and fellow actor Angie Lonsdale once when she was sharing a house with my mate Robin when he lived in London. She was nice. Yeah, it’s not a great story is it?

The play out video is “Mama” by the Spice Girls despite the fact that they have slipped from No 1 to the runners up spot this week. Yes, following in the footsteps of No Doubt and the nonsensical decision of temporary TOTP director John L. Spencer to show songs going down the charts, we get this one again. There were surely other hits in the Top 40 that could have been shown instead?

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Cast	Free Me	Nah
2	3T	Gotta Be You	No
3	No Doubt	Don’t Speak	Nope
4	N-Trance	D.I.S.C.O.	F...K. O.F.F.
5	The Charlatans	North Country Boy	No but I had the Melting Pot Best Of with it on
6	DJ Quicksilver	Bellissima	Never
7	Livin’ Joy	Where Can I Find Love	I did not
8	The Chemical Brothers	Block Rockin’ Beats	Liked it, didn’t buy it
9	Mama / Who Do You Think You Are	Spice Girls	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/m0027pnq/top-of-the-pops-04041997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 21 MAR 1997

Posted on February 12 by 80stastic

How was your life going in March 1997 (assuming you’re old enough to have any memories of 28 years ago)? If you were Tony Blair, you’d just received an endorsement as the next leader of the country by none other than traditional Tory supporters The Sun. Surely sitting Prime Minister John Major must have known the game was up then. If you were me (and I was), then you were stressed out at work and planning a trip to China. Those two things weren’t related – I was stressed at work as the manager of the Our Price where I worked had left a few weeks before and I was effectively acting manager by default whilst the recruitment process for a replacement was taking an age. I’d reluctantly agreed to put my hat in the ring at the behest of my colleagues (better the devil you know and all that) and we were about to introduce a new electronic stock control system which required a lot of preparation work. On top of that we had a new member of staff who was ruffling a few feathers in the team and apparently, according to my diary, one day a member of the public got stabbed in the shopping precinct where the store was located and I had to ring an ambulance, the police and try and patch him up. I have no recall of this at all so I’m either a complete fantasist or I’ve blocked out the memory of it.

That wasn’t the end of my stress though. One Saturday after work, a few of us went for a drink at a local pub and I took the pack of weekly memos with me as I planned to read them on the Sunday at home as I hadn’t had time at work. The memos were delivered to every store in a blue plastic pouch (‘the blue bag’) containing all the relevant information we needed for the next week including stock prices, charts and promotion details. As I sat down in the pub, I put them on the ledge above a radiator behind me so that they were in view of everyone and wouldn’t be forgotten at the end of the evening. What I hadn’t accounted for was the fact that there was a gap behind the radiator and between the seating and the blue bag slipped down the gap seamlessly once I let go of it. Disaster! Try as we might, we couldn’t retrieve it (and we spent the whole evening trying!) despite fashioning various apparatus using string and hooks (maybe even a coat hanger at one point) to pick it up. Either we gave up or the pub closed and I left memo less. I had to send someone to the Manchester store on Monday morning to photocopy theirs (this was the pre-digital age). As far as I knew, the memos would stay there until the pub had a refit, a time capsule from 1997. Almost 20 years later and long after I’d left Our Price, I went back to the pub and it had indeed had a refit so the memos would have been found (and binned) presumably. I resisted the temptation to ask the bar staff if they could check their lost and found for them!

As for China, my old school friend and best man at my wedding Rob was living and studying in Beijing so I’d arranged with his brother to fly out to visit him in the May. I had to get visas and inoculations and all that sort of thing sorted so there was a lot going on around this time. I’m sure I’ll get onto what went down in China in the next few posts.

Anyway, back to the month of March and if you were Kylie Minogue at that time, then you were hosting this edition of TOTP and had invested in a rather unflattering new, messy, plum coloured hairstyle. I think this was her ‘indie Kylie’ phase when she would collaborate with the likes of James Dean Bradfield of the Manics (he co-wrote her “Some Kind Of Bliss” single of this year) so I’m guessing that a new phase meant a new image. Definitely not having a style remodel was opening act Lisa Stansfield who was still very much attached to her brand of smooth R&B soul/dance that she’d made her name on. By 1997, she was onto her fourth solo album but after releasing the previous three in a four year period, it had been four years since album number three “So Natural”. Lisa had carved out a nice little sideline for herself though in recording songs for soundtrack albums – her contributions to The Bodyguard and Indecent Proposal had given her two Top 10 hits. In addition to that, she’d been back there earlier this year when remix team the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels looked to Lisa’s back catalogue to come up with “People Hold On (The Bootleg Mixes)”. However, taking a holistic approach to Lisa’s career up to this point, it’s surprisingly yet undeniably a case of diminishing returns as sales of her albums from “Affection” onwards decreased. Of course, that’s a very statistical approach – Lisa’s albums were still selling well but the UK figures were as follows:

Affection – 900,000 (triple platinum)
Real Love – 600,000 (double platinum)
So Natural – 300,000 (platinum)
Lisa Stansfield – 100,000 (gold)

It’s a definite downwards trend but I guess it’s all relative. Anyway, “The Real Thing” was the lead single from that last eponymous album and, for me, was typical Lisa fare which was fair enough but didn’t show much musical progression. On the other hand, if it ain’t broke and all that. It would return Stansfield to the Top 10 with a song that wasn’t from a film for the first time since 1991’s “Change” though she did feature on the “Five Live EP” alongside Queen and George Michael that would make No 1 off the back of the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. However, “The Real Thing” would also be the last time a single of hers would be so high in the charts. I sometimes wonder if Lisa gets the credit she deserves though. You rarely hear her referred to when it comes to naming the UK’s most renowned female singers do you?

Ooh now, might this be a bit awkward? Kylie has to introduce one of her exes as INXS are the second artist on tonight. Ah, it was probably alright – Kylie and Michael Hutchence stopped seeing each other in 1991 so I’m guessing both parties might have moved on. Hutchence certainly had – by 1997 he was two years into a relationship with Paula Yates and they had had a daughter together. However, the relationship was intense and played out under a media spotlight and against a bitter custody battle with Yates’s ex-husband Bob Geldof over the three daughters they had together. Within eight months of this TOTP appearance, Hutchence would be dead, having committed suicide in a Sydney hotel room aged just 37. I remember thinking on hearing the news that “Suicide Blonde” would surely never be played on the radio ever again though it subsequently was resurrected after an appropriate amount of time had passed. One song that was cut in the wake of the news was “So Long Suicide” from the Duran Duran set of the gig they played on the night of Hutchence’s death. The band had already recorded a track about their friend called “Michael, You’ve Got A Lot To Answer For” that featured on their “Medazzaland” album that was released a month before his death.

As for INXS, they would carry on intermittently for the next 15 years with various guest singers including Terence Trent D’Arby at one point and then a permanent vocalist in J.D. Fortune who was recruited via reality television show Rock Star: INXS. Returning to this TOTP performance, I think this would have been their last time on the show in person not only because of Hutchence’s subsequent death but also because “Elegantly Wasted” was their final UK Top 40 hit. The title track of their tenth studio album, it sounded much like everything else they’d ever recorded since the “Kick” album. The winning formula of that record had helped the band become global success and saw Hutchence depicted as a rock god. Fast forward a decade and it was a sound that was starting to feel, if not worn out, then definitely not fresh. As with Lisa Stansfield earlier, it had been a case of diminishing returns for sales of INXS albums since the high point of “Kick” and “Elegantly Wasted” wasn’t about to reverse that trend. It was a sad end to the band’s glory days which had coincided with my time as a student at Sunderland Poly and my early years of marriage and living in Manchester. Thanks for the memories. RIP Michael.

Sometimes I look down the running order for these TOTP repeats and think to myself “what on earth do I have to say about this one?” – “Love Guaranteed” by Damage undoubtedly falls into that category. Needless to say I don’t remember it at all and listening to it in the present day, it made as much impression on me as a feather on a set of scales. It was just more of that one-paced, pedestrian R&B /pop hybrid that was popular back then. What’s that? What about Christopher Lee in the video? What about him? Plot wise, I think he’s meant to be in control of some sort of time portal but he looks as bored with the whole thing as I feel about it. Other than that, he does bugger all except stand around and stare down the lens of the camera. What? It’s the way that he stares though? Ah well, you’ve got me there.

As Kylie says in her intro to the next artist, the Aussies had taken over this particular episode of TOTP what with INXS, Kylie herself of course and now Gina G. Yes, lest we forget, the UK’s 1996 Eurovision entrant was actually Australian*. Despite trailing in eight place on the big night, “Ooh Aah…Just A Little Bit” had gone on to become a No 1 single. More surprising than that though was that Gina managed to sustain a pop career for another year or so and rack up four more hits. “Fresh” was the third of those and also the title track from her debut album. I don’t remember the song at all (for the record it was another ridiculously catchy, disco inflected Eurodance number) but I do recall the album – not for its music but for its dreadful cover art. It looked so amateurish and like it had been designed on the back of a beer mat down the pub. Gina is covered in chocolate icing (hmm…) holding a microphone attached to a stand with the microphone plugged into a socket on a wall. The room it’s set in is all in purple for some reason and Gina’s name and the album title look like they’ve been chucked on randomly at an angle rather than positioned with any resemblance of judgement. Then there’s Gina’s hair which looks like Crystal Tipps from 70s cartoon Crystal Tipps And Alistair. Is that some sort of air blower in the foreground (that might explain Gina’s hair) or is it an amp? You can’t tell because the whole thing has some sort of grainy tint to it that makes it look out of focus. The whole thing is an ugly mess. It was shot by renowned and award winning photographer David LaChapelle whose style has been described as “hyper-real and slyly subversive” – yeah, whatever. Regardless of what it looked like, the album continued her run of success by peaking at No 12 and achieving silver status in the UK in recognition of 60,000 sales.

*This theme was continued in 1997 as the UK entrant was Katrina And The Waves whose lead singer was Katrina Leskanich, an American but well be seeing them in these TOTP repeats soon enough.

Now, this is the song of the night so far for me. The Divine Comedy are probably not everybody’s cup of tea – was ‘wimp rock’ the term that some hack came up with to label them with? – but I’ve always quite liked them. After becoming genuine pop stars with chart hits the previous year, the band didn’t rest on their laurels and released their fifth album “A Short Album About Love” just nine months after their last “Casanova”. Despite containing three hit singles, it hadn’t sold that well so a change of tack was required. Rather than a complete change of sound, a different approach was deemed necessary and that was to record their next album at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire with an orchestra (but no audience). The plan worked in that the album made No 13 in the charts though I think I’m right in saying it was sold at a reduced price on account of only consisting of seven tracks so that may have helped its sales. It also produced another hit single in “Everybody Knows (Except You)” which was another ballad (of sorts) following on from previous hit “Frog Princess” though it was a much more…what’s the word?…agile?…unconventional?…love song but tuneful as hell. As for the performance, there was a lot of talk online about main man Neil Hannon’s cheek bones and beard. They are quite impressive though never really having had cheekbones or been able to grow a beard properly myself, I’m no expert.

By 1997, Wet Wet Wet had been having hits for a whole decade and to commemorate that anniversary, they released an album called “10”. Ironically, they wouldn’t release an album at all in the next ten years after their band splintered due to disputes over royalty payments and Marti Pellow’s hiatus to address his drugs and alcohol addictions. For the moment though, it seemed like business as usual as the band continued to churn out the hits. The phrase ‘business as usual’ could not only be applied to the band’s chart consistency but also to their sound. Lead single “If I Never See You Again” was yet more of their sophisti-pop, blue eyed soul style that they had honed over the years. I’d enjoyed their early hits but ten years in and – a bit like INXS earlier – it had all become a bit stale and predictable. Proving my point, the band’s final hit of the 90s would be with the most predictable cover version they could have chosen, the most covered song in history – “Yesterday” by The Beatles. With that and the whole “Love Is All Around” extended episode, “If I Never See You Again” might well have been the words on the lips of many a disgruntled music fan in 1997.

What’s that? Do I fancy a quick win? What do you mean? “Isn’t It A Wonder” by Boyzone has been on TOTP before on the 8 November 1996 show when it was premiered as an album track from their “A Different Beat” album? So I could just add a link to my review of that episode and I wouldn’t have to listen to/think about/ comment on it a second time? Right then…

TOTP 08 NOV 1996

The Spice Girls are holding at No 1 with the double A-side single “Mama / Who Do You Think You Are” off the back of Comic Relief day that happened the previous week. This time we get a performance of “Mama” and the girls have got some kids on stage with them to make the song even more sickly than it already was. I wonder who the kids were? Competition winners? They’ll be in their mid-30s now – you feel old now don’t you? I’m not sure that Mel B’s outfit was appropriate with her sitting next to that young lad. Still, it’ll have given him a good story to tell for the rest of his life.

The play out video is…wait…what? “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt?! But…but…they weren’t No 1 anymore and were at No 4 in the charts this week. They’d already been on three weeks in the trot whilst they’d topped the charts and yet they were back on again? Why? Well, this was all to do with the new appearance rules that had been brought in following the departure of Ric Blaxill as executive producer when songs no longer had to be new entries nor climbing the charts to be given a slot on the show. If you were going down the Top 40 you might yet get the call to appear one more time. Kylie says that “Don’t Speak” was the biggest selling single of the year to this point in an attempt to legitimise its video being given another showing but it seems a bit of a hollow reason to me. If this was the show’s new direction, I wasn’t sure about where we were heading.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Lisa Stansfield	The Real Thing	Negative
2	INXS	Elegantly Wasted	Nah
3	Damage	Love Guaranteed	As if
4	Gina G	Fresh	Nope
5	The Divine Comedy	Everybody Knows (Except You)	No but I had their Best Of with it on
6	Wet Wet Wet	If I Never See You Again	No
7	Boyzone	Isn’t It A Wonder	Never
8	Spice Girls	Mama / Who Do You Think You Are	I did not
9	No Doubt	Don’t Speak	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/m0027pnn/top-of-the-pops-21031997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 14 MAR 1997

Posted on February 7 by 80stastic

The era of Chris Cowey as TOTP executive producer may not have properly got underway yet but there have been some changes made already. Whether it’s down to this John L. Spencer guy who’s listed in the credits as the show’s director for some of this period or from higher above I’m not sure but what I do know is that the direct to camera piece at the start of the show by a featuring act has disappeared and the vintage clip advertising the TOTP2 brand at its end has also gone. I think I prefer it like this. The top and tail approach always seemed a bit clunky. Tonight’s host is Ian Broudie from the Lightning Seeds who’s got the gig for a second time in a short period – somebody on the show clearly really liked him but he’s not the most effervescent of presenters is he?

Anyway, we start with an absolute banger! I have a personal (albeit a bit tenuous) connection to this one – it’s “What Do You Want From Me” by Monaco. With New Order on hiatus following the release and promotion of the “Republic” album, the band members pursued side projects to give formation to their creativity. Whilst couple Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert worked together on their The Other Two material, Bernard Sumner always had the Electronic collective to fall back on. As for Peter Hook, thoughts that he might reactivate his late 80s/early 90s band Revenge were way off the mark as he came up with a new entity altogether in Monaco. I say new but his partner in this endeavour was David Potts who had been a part of Revenge but you get my drift. “What Do You Want From Me” was their first and biggest hit when it peaked at No 11. Accusations of being New Order-lite were as inevitable as they were obvious but none of that detracted from the general consensus that it was a great tune. Hooky’s distinctive bass playing style was allied to a catchy as hell ‘sha-la-la’ chorus that was both suitable for daytime radio and to maintain a lofty position in the credibility stakes.

So then. This personal connection story. Well, there was a lot of excitement about the release of this single at the Our Price in Stockport where I was working as David Potts had been one of us not so long before. Yes, the guy up there on our TV screens opening TOTP? We knew him! Now admittedly some of my colleagues knew ‘Pottsy’ better than me but I had worked with him for a brief period of a few months in the Manchester Piccadilly branch a couple of years before and his then girlfriend worked on a Saturday at the Stockport store at this time. As such, we were very aware of Monaco and were desperate for their single to be a big hit. I guess it was – No 11 was not to be sniffed at. Obviously we all bought “What Do You Want From Me” and aside from that track there’s also a fabulous song as the B-side called “Bicycle Thieves” presumably inspired by the 1948 Italian film of the same name. The CD single also featured an instrumental version of the title track and there’s a hidden bit that kicks in at the end after the track has finished which is basically a man laughing almost maniacally over a what sounds like a Wurlitzer organ. The guy doing the laughing was someone I’ve mentioned before in this blog, a larger than life character who was well known in Manchester as ‘Mirror Man’ on account of the way that he would talk to you through a hand held mirror. His real name was Ray and he used to wear a bus driver’s uniform despite the fact that he didn’t work on the buses and he would come into the shop where I worked and refer to all the staff by pop star names (I was Billy Idol for some reason). Anyway, Ray had this amazing, enormous, fill-the-room laugh and somehow he made it into the end of that Monaco track. RIP Ray.

As for Monaco, that initial success only sustained for one more single though their album “Music For Pleasure” matched the chart high of “What Do you Want From Me” and sold 500,000 copies worldwide. They split in 2000 but have come together again as part of Peter Hook and the Light playing New Order and Joy Division songs to live audiences. I caught them a few years back supporting Happy Mondays at an outdoor gig in Hull. I wasn’t anywhere near the front so there was no chance of Pottsy seeing me but even if he had I doubt he would have remembered me. It was all a long time ago after all.

We’re coming to the end of the era of Ant & Dec as pop stars but we’re not quite there yet. “Shout” was their twelfth consecutive Top 40 hit though only the third to make the Top 10. Sadly, it was not a cover of the Tears For Fears hit (though Wikipedia tells me that the lyrics of the chorus were influenced by it) but thankfully neither was it the duo’s take on that Lulu song. What it was though was quite a change of pace to those preceding hits. A slowed down number that verges on melancholy, one definite influence on it was the bass line from Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side”.

I recall being almost impressed by their ability to change direction but on reflection, just as with Eternal’s “Don’t You Love Me” in the last post, I think I may have exaggerated its quality. Firstly, there’s the sixth form ‘state of the nation’ lyrics and then there’s the image of Dec on the guitar. Really?! Can he actually play the instrument? I’m no virtuoso but I have had a few lessons down the years and having looked at the chord shapes his left hand is making, they might be correct but his strumming action is not convincing at all. With this change of pace and public face (Ant on solo lead vocals and Dec sat down with a guitar), what then didn’t make sense to me was the fact that they’d ditched the pop star career by the end of the year*. Why try out a new sound if you had no intention of carrying on? I’m sure, given the longevity of their TV careers, that they would argue it was clearly the correct decision and to be fair to them, they’d be right.

*I’m ignoring the 2002 World Cup song “We’re On The Ball”.

A bit of admin for Ian Broudie next as he explains why Kula Shaker weren’t on the show last week despite going straight into the charts at No 2 with their cover of “Hush”. Well, they were meant to be on but singer Crispian Mills had a sore throat and so was tucked up in bed with his actor Mum Hayley looking after him. OK, that makes sense except why have they just shown the video this time. Why wouldn’t they have just done that last week when it was at its chart peak rather than when it had slipped four places down the chart? The way the charts were back then, John L. Spencer or whoever must have known there was a chance the single would slip after its first week position. Ah well, the thing was that with Ric Blaxill gone some of the appearance rules with regard to chart positions seemed to be…well…disregarded. Songs would be featured on consecutive weeks which historically would only happen if it was the No 1 single. Also, those going down the charts would be featured, again in contravention of previous norms and conventions. To disguise this practice, the artist/title/chart position captions have been removed from the start of the performance and added in right at the end. Sneaky.

Anyway, Kula Shaker and “Hush”. I’m guessing this was the classic standalone single to bridge the gap between albums tactic. Debut “K” came out in September 1996 whilst follow up “Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts” didn’t arrive until March of 1999. So long was the wait that the lead single for the latter – “Mystical Machine Gun” – was released nearly twelve months before the parent album. Now, being a pop kid, Deep Purple who had recorded “Hush” in 1968 had never interested me so I’m not sure if I even knew the song before this but when I did finally hear it, I liked it. My research tells me that the Deep Purple version itself was a cover with the original song recorded by country singer Billy Joe Royal and was written by Joe South who also wrote “Rose Garden” that became a hit for Lynn Anderson which I think my parents had. So I’m guessing that “Hush” wasn’t an out and out heavy rock song which may explain why I was open to the charms of the Kula Shaker version? Hush my mouth!

Here’s another band whose name I remember but I couldn’t tell you how one of their songs went. 3 Colours Red (their name came from putting a pin in London listing magazine Time Out and landing on an advert for the final film of the Three Colours trilogy) would rack up six UK chart hits before the end of the 90s. This one – “Sixty Mile Smile” – courted some controversy when rumours circulated that it was about lead singer Pete Vučković’s hospitalisation after a bad ecstasy trip. This sort of thing did not go down well in the media back then – just ask Brian Harvey.

The majority of the band’s hits would peak between Nos 30 and 20 except 1999’s “Beautiful Day” which was their biggest reaching No 11. There seemed to be a few bands in this period like 3 Colours Red that had a big enough fanbase to ensure that every single they released would be a medium sized hit which would then fall away dramatically – I’m thinking Gene, Therapy? and Terrorvision (apart from that “Tequila” hit of course). Having listened to “Sixty Mile Smile” in the present day, my opinion would be that it’s a decent sound without being anywhere near exceptional. 6/10 is about right in my book.

Like “Hush” before it, here’s another hit that had already reached its peak position and was on its way down the charts though this one was at least holding in the same position for two weeks running. “Encore Une Fois” by Sash! would actually prove to be a very hardy and resilient track taking another month after this before it even departed the Top 10 and spending twelve weeks in the Top 40 altogether. Apparently this German DJ/production team hold the record for the most amount of No 2 hits (five in total) without ever having a chart topper. That’s a lot of No 2s! You can make your own jokes up…

Talking of artists who had a run of hits that peaked at the same chart position each time, check out Alisha’s Attic’s chart stats for their first five singles:

14 – 12 – 12 – 12 – 13

Now that’s consistency. “Indestructible” came bang in the middle of that run and was the third track to be released from the sister duo’s debut album “Alisha Rules The World”. I remember this as being better than it was listening back to it now. It’s all very pleasant and has a dreamy quality but ultimately it comes off as a bit insubstantial. Perhaps the CGI video that was probably cutting edge at the time isn’t helping by dating it rather so probably not indestructible after all.

Right, this messing around with the TOTP appearance rules has got out of hand now. Why the hell are No Mercy on again?! Their hit “Where Do You Go” has been on the show at least three times now and this is the fourth week in a row that it has gone down the charts! Make it make sense! I’ve also noticed that as well as shifting the artist/title/chart position graphic to the end of the performance, there’s no longer an arrow indicating that a song was climbing the charts. That used to be a thing didn’t it? Surely the chart countdown graphic had something like that which it doesn’t appear to anymore. It all stinks a bit of hoodwinking the TV audience to me.

Ian Broudie refers to the next artist as his showbiz mates and I don’t think he’s making it up as he did produce their debut album and one of them clearly says “Thanks Ian” as the camera pans from him to the band. Our host was talking about Dodgy whom he also refers to as “probably the best group in the country”. Hmm. It’s a bold claim. Whilst I did quite like them, I don’t think I’d have gone that far. They’re in the studio to perform their latest hit “Found You” which was the fourth and final track lifted from their “Free Peace Sweet” album. Looking at their discography, this could be the last time we see them on TOTP as they only had one more Top 40 hit in 1998 and that only made No 32. What is their legacy? As I said, I quite liked their jaunty, melodic brand of Britpop (if that’s what they were) but sadly if you type the word ‘dodgy’ into a search engine, you more likely to be prompted to look for ‘dodgy fire stick’ than the band.

The Spice Girls are No 1 (of course they are) with double A-side “Mama/Who Do You Think You Are”. We get the latter song this week and it really is a great pop track. An instant floor filler – contemporary sounding but with a retro disco style flavour (I think they called it nu-disco). Despite not having her own solo part on any of the verses, it’s Melanie C’s vocals that stand out and hold it all together with her counterpoint harmonies. In a glorious bit of symmetry, she would appear in 2024 in Series 21 of the genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are, the only Spice Girl to do so up to now.

As mentioned previously, the plug for TOTP2 has gone and is replaced by a play out video of a current song. This week we get “Rumble In The Jungle” by the Fugees featuring A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes and John Forté. Taken from the soundtrack to the documentary When We Were Kings about the Muhammad Ali /George Foreman boxing match that took place in the former Zaire in 1974, it famously features the bass line from ABBA’s “The Name Of The Game” and the melody from “Angel Of The Morning” made famous by Juice Newton. Now apparently, the Fugees’ record label Columbia had planned to rerelease “Fu-Gee-La” as the group’s next single and had even sent out promo copies to radio stations to plug the track. However, in America, Mercury Records released the When We Were Kings soundtrack and “Rumble In The Jungle” to promote it which led to canny record dealers in the UK getting hold of import copies of the single and selling them over here thus undermining any potential sales for “Fu-Gee-La”. In the end, Columbia relented and the planned rerelease never happened leaving the way clear for an official release for “Rumble In The Jungle” which made No 3. As with Dodgy, I think this might be our last glimpse of the Fugees on TOTP. For a group of such influence, the small size of their discography seems like a contradiction.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen the documentary all the way through which I should probably correct one day. I do know that Ali won the fight and was massively popular in Zaire where he won over the locals with his charm. Of course, the Fugees song wasn’t the first to use the Rumble In The Jungle as its subject matter. There is also this…

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Monaco	What Do You Want From Me	YES!
2	Ant & Dec	Shout	NO!
3	Kula Shaker	Hush	Negative
4	3 Colours Red	Sixty Mile Smile	Nah
5	Sash!	Encore Une Fois	Never
6	Alisha’s Attic	Indestructible	Nope
7	No Mercy	Where Do You Go	As if
8	Dodgy	Found You	No but my wife had the album
9	Spice Girls	Mama/Who Do You Think You Are	I did not
10	Fugees	Rumble In The Jungle	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/m0027fvz/top-of-the-pops-14031997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP Rewind – the 90s

My memories of 90s chart music

Author: 80stastic

TOTP 13 JUN 1997

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TOTP 06 JUN 1997

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TOTP 30 MAY 1997

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TOTP 23 MAY 1997

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TOTP 16 MAY 1997

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TOTP 09 MAY 1997

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TOTP 02 MAY 1997

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TOTP 04 APR 1997

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TOTP 21 MAR 1997

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TOTP 14 MAR 1997

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