TOTP Rewind – the 90s…the epilogue
*In the voice of Ron Manager* “Ah the 90s. What a decade! Marvellous wasn’t it? Britpop! Blur! Oasis! Boybands! Girl Power! Cool Britannia wasn’t it? Eh?” Actually, as I’ve discovered by reviewing every 90s TOTP repeat broadcast by BBC4, it wasn’t all that. I mean, yes it was all those things but the nostalgia I…
TOTP 1999 – the epilogue
As with seemingly every year, 1999 brought us the usual bad news stories – war and conflict, earthquakes, political turmoil etc but let’s not dwell on all that – the state of the world is shocking enough in 2026 without reminding ourselves that it was ever thus. In popular culture, the Pokémon phenomenon took over…
TOTP 17 DEC 1999
So here it is…no, not Merry Christmas – though we are nearly there in these 1999 repeats – but my final review of a TOTP show. Yes, after nine and a half years of writing this blog, I’ve finally arrived at my last episode. Not my last post mind – I’ll still have a couple…
TOTP 10 DEC 1999
To say that Christmas was only two weeks away, the charts in December 1999 seemed very full of dance records. Where were all the cloying big ballads and sentimental schmalz that traditionally made an appearance at this time of year? Apart from the No 1, the rest of the Top 5 was wall to wall…
TOTP 03 DEC 1999
And the 1999 TOTP repeats disappoint yet again. The running order for this show looks uninspiring at best and downright dreadful at worst. Were there no other hits in this week’s chart that executive producer Chris Cowey could have slotted in instead? *checks the official charts website* Oh god. Not really. Of the seven acts…
TOTP 26 NOV 1999
As the last embers of the 90s lose their glow, we have arrived at the show that first featured perhaps the most controversial and divisive hit of the decade. Where the 60s had “Je t’aime… moi non plus”, the 70s turned up “God Save The Queen” and the 80s gave us “Relax”, the 90s delivered…well…all…
TOTP 19 NOV 1999
This particular TOTP was broadcast on a very unusual date. Written as 19-11-1999, all the numbers are odd. The next all odd numbers day will be 1-1-3111 assuming quantified time still exists then. Just to even things up as it were, there was an even numbers day on 2-2-2000 which was the first one since…
TOTP 12 NOV 1999
“England versus Scotland – the biggest clash since…ooh…Geri Versus Emma” proclaims host Jayne Middlemiss at the start of this particular TOTP thereby neatly summing up what was happening in the worlds of both sport and music in mid November 1999. The day after this show aired, the first leg of a play off between the…
TOTP 05 NOV 1999
What a strange beast TOTP had become by the end of the 90s. Just look at the running order for this show. It’s all over the place. A boyband, a Latin superstar, an American post-grunge band but perhaps most startlingly, two undeniably huge names yet whom, let’s be honest, it was a shock that they…
TOTP 29 OCT 1999
This is yet another episode where the running order looks like it’s going to be a struggle to get through. Again. However, it could have been worse than it already is but more of that later. Our host is Jamie Theakston (again) and as it’s two days before Halloween, expect him to roll out a…
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TOTP Rewind - the 90s 