TOTP 17 SEP 1999
Four days before this TOTP was broadcast was a very significant date if you were a fan of science fiction and of one show in particular. You see, 13 September 1999 is the date that a thermonuclear explosion caused the moon to blast out of Earth’s orbit and into deep space. Well, it did in Gerry Anderson’s Space:1999 anyway. I loved this show when I was a kid though I probably didn’t understand a lot of the heavy, complex plots in Series One that dealt with metaphysical themes. Series (Year) Two was much more action-orientated, awash with monsters with each episode pretty much ending in a bug hunt which was probably more alluring for the eight years old me. 50 years on, I can appreciate that the first series was infinitely superior. I haven’t done a theme post for a while so let’s see if I can make some very tenuous connections between the artists on this TOTP and Space:1999…
Before we get to all that though, who’s this not-seen-before host for this show? Emma Ledden? It’s a new name on me. Well, she’s an Irish author, presenter, model and writer who at the time of this broadcast was about to take over the reins of presenting Saturday morning children’s TV show Live & Kicking after Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston had left so I guess this was a bit of cross promotion by the BBC. That certainly seems to be the case as this was the only TOTP she ever presented. She now runs a communications company and is a published children’s author. Oh and by the way, we’re still in TOTP On Tour mode with this show coming from Club Wow in Sheffield. We start with the only song this week that has featured on a previous show – “Moving” by Supergrass. As such, I’ve already reviewed this one. Here’s what I had to say about it:
Can I just leave it at that? No? OK, well checking it out online I found a comment that said that the intro to “Moving” is just like that of the track “Dogs” by Pink Floyd. Now, never having caught the boat going to Floyd island, I’m not in a position to make any comparison without listening first so…
…Wow! It’s just like it! Was that deliberate on the part of Supergrass or subconscious?
Space:1999 connection: The video for “Pumping On Your Stereo” features Supergrass as animatronic puppets with human heads, a visual style that pays homage to the “Supermarionation” technique pioneered by Gerry Anderson, the creator of Space 1999.
After their ubiquitous Summer hit “Kiss Me” had finally dropped out of the charts, Sixpence None The Richer made a bold, unexpected decision for the follow up single. For many, “There She Goes” by The La’s was seen as untouchable when it came to covering it and yet that’s just what the Christian alternative rock band did. Why would it have been seen as musical blasphemy? I think perhaps it’s because of the almost myth-like status that has been built up around The La’s over time. In an alternate universe, they would not have split after just one album and would have given us a wealth of material over a long career and it’s that missed opportunity on which their legend has been built. The story that never got to be told. The paucity of La’s recordings* means that the ones that exist are upheld as almost religious artefacts so to dare to cover their most well known and perhaps treasured song…well, it was…daring. That might all sound a bit over the top and yes, I could be open to accusations of hyperbole but I think I prefer to call it artistic licence.
*They reformed briefly in the mid-1990s, 2005 and 2011 but no new recordings were released.
Anyway, was the Sixpence None The Richer version of “There She Goes” any good? Actually, after all that hyperbole artistic licence above about The La’s original, it’s a pretty respectful take on it. Sort of reminds me of the Cowboy Junkies but poppier. Its peak of No 14, though nowhere near as high as that of “Kiss Me”, suggests that the record buying public didn’t reject it out of hand as sacrilegious. Of course, it’s possible that the pop kids of 1999 weren’t aware of the 1990 incarnation and took it on its own merits and liked it enough and I guess that’s where I’ll leave this one. It was an adequate cover – good enough.
Space:1999 connection: Sixpence None The Richer’s name was inspired by a passage from C.S.Lewis’s book Mere Christianity. Lewis also wrote a Space Trilogy including the title Out of the Silent Planet which explored the idea of Earth as a ‘Silent Planet’ quarantined from the rest of the cosmos whereas Space: 1999 depicts humanity forced out of that quarantine due to a disaster. Put that in your rocket and ignite it!
It’s Hepburn’s nemesis next – the blink-and-you’ll-miss-‘em Thunderbugs. Yes, the other big player in the ‘all girl groups playing their own instruments’ mini movement at the end of the 90s make their TOTP bow with their debut single “Friends Forever”. Unlike Hepburn though who all hailed from England, Thunderbugs had an international flavour to them with members from France and Germany in their line up. So, who came first or should that be who copied who? Perhaps neither question holds water as both groups appear to have met organically rather than being recruited for a specific project akin to the Spice Girls. Admittedly, Hepburn got their product to market first but only by a few weeks. Should the question then be were there any differences between the two? On the surface the answer is no as both consisted of four members who all played their own instruments and both were pedalling a rock/pop sound. Digging a little deeper, I would say that Thunderbugs were actually more pure pop in that “Friends Forever” sounds like something from High School Musical but I might be splitting hairs. What is true is that both bands couldn’t sustain. Thunderbugs released a follow up that flopped, failing to make the Top 40 in a packed Christmas market and their album wasn’t even released in the UK (though it is now available on Spotify). So much for Emma Ledden’s comment about this being the first of many TOTP appearances for them – this was their one and only. Hepburn, meanwhile, managed three mid-sized hits (including one called “Bugs” bizarrely) and a Top 30 album before being dropped in the Summer of 2000.
Space:1999 connection: Emma Ledden did my job for me in her intro “Thunderbugs are go” obviously referring to Gerry Anderson’s puppet series masterpiece Thunderbirds.
Well, this is fortunate. A new entry into the charts that is steeped in Sheffield music history whilst the show is being broadcast this week from a club in, yep, Sheffield. I wonder if that was in the thinking behind showcasing a hit at No 28 whilst ignoring a smash at No 7 by Leftfield/Afrika Bambatta. Anyway, it’s The All Seeing I featuring Phil Oakey who we get making a South Yorkshire double whammy for their single “1st Man In Space”. Written by yet another Sheffielder in Jarvis Cocker (supposedly a collaboration sparked by Pulp being on the same TOTP show as The All Seeing I in 1998), its lyrics inevitably drew comparisons with David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and “Rocket Man” by Elton John. However, it sounds more like early B-52s to me, maybe with a lick of New Order in the mix. That’s a good thing by the way with Oakey’s low register vocals a perfect compliment to that sound. It was probably a little too left field (no, not them) to be as big as their previous two hits “Walk Like A Panther” (made with another South Yorkshire man Tony Christie) and “Beat Goes On” and indeed, that aforementioned chart position of No 28 was its peak. Still, in a year of awful music, it provided a nice little pushback against the tide of tat. It was also The All Seeing I’s final UK hit.
Space:1999 connection: Space:1999? “1st Man In Space”? This shizzle writes itself.
And so to another cover version reactivating a hit years after it was originally in the charts but I’m guessing that this one would not have raised the same eyebrows that “There She Goes” did. Perhaps the defining anthem of bubblegum pop, “Mickey” started out life as “Kitty” on “Some Girls” hitmakers Racey’s debut album but was remodelled by Toni Basil with a name and gender change which propelled her to the top of the US charts and to No 2 in the UK in 1982. Basil’s pop career was basically just that one song and she returned to her more successful career as a choreographer working with some of the biggest names in music and showbiz. “Mickey” though would prove to be a remarkably hardy song, regularly topping ‘one hit wonder’ polls and becoming a staple of wedding disco playlists. I guess it was inevitable that somebody would cover it eventually and so it was that Lolly took it back into the charts in 1999. Who you may well ask? Born Anna Shantha Kumble, in Sutton Coldfield (and I’d always assumed she was American), Lolly had already had one hit with her debut single “Viva La Radio” which we missed in these TOTP repeats because of the Gouryella issue but she was back with her version of “Mickey” which would become her biggest hit of five when it peaked at No 4. Given Lolly’s image, it was an almost perfect choice of track and she gives a pretty faithful rendition of it (albeit with some clunky synths to the fore) even down to recreating the cheerleader motif. Her squeaky voice is almost unspeakable though.
Now there was some controversy surrounding these lyrics:
“So come on and give it to me any way you can
Any way you wanna do it, I’ll take it like a man”Writer/s: Michael Donald Chapman, Nicholas Barry Chinn
Publisher: Downtown Music Publishing
Why? Well, a music critic called Robert Christgau suggested that the lines referred to anal sex (!) but Toni Basil adamantly denied that and indeed, neither Lolly nor her management felt the need not to include the lyrics in her version despite her teeny bop appeal. After her short lived music career was over (she had a couple more hits with cover versions of Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper tracks), Lolly diversified into TV presenting, stage roles (she’s a veteran of pantomimes) and even returned to music in 2018 with a single called “Stay Young And Beautiful” though I’m not sure anyone really noticed.
Space:1999 connection: Yasuko Nagazumi played Yasko in Space:1999 and her daughter was the lead singer of shoegaze band Lush – Miki Berenyi
WHOOOO?! LFO? They were an electronic dance duo from Leeds (Low Frequency Oscillations for all you pedants) who specialised in the bleep techno sound weren’t they? Well, yes they were but they were also an American pop-rap group who had a handful of hits around the turn of the century. LFO (or Lyte Funky Ones to give them their full title) have quite the tragic element to their story despite my not knowing who they were/are. Although clearly a trio here, their timeline of members consists of four people – three of them are now dead including two of those featured in this performance. That’s quite a death percentage. Their early releases included a cover of “Step By Step” by New Kids On The Block (more of them later) before going into the stratosphere with “Summer Girls” which made No 3 in the US and No 16 over here. Listening to it in 2026, I have to say its success seems inexplicable. It’s truly awful with some random lyrics supposedly inspired by memories of previous summers like these that put me in mind of “The Chicken Song” by Spitting Image:
“New Kids On The Block had a bunch of hits
Chinese food makes me sick…When you take a sip, you buzz like a hornet
Billy Shakespeare wrote a whole bunch of sonnets…”Songwriters: Bradley Young / Dow Brain / Rich Cronin; Summer Girls lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Well, there’s the New Kids On The Block reference but even worse is Billy Shakespeare. BIILY SHAKESPEARE?! REALLY?! The whole thing sounds dreadful, like they’d been given just 20 minutes to come up with a rap and this was the best that they could do. Maybe it’s just their name but they’re giving me EYC (Express Yourself Clearly) vibes when they should have been more EMF (Epsom Mad Funkers). Despite now numbering just one, their name is being kept alive by surviving member Brad Fischetti who has toured with reality TV boyband O-Town.
Space:1999 connection: Space:1999 was put into development after Gerry Anderson’s first live action sci-fi series UFO wasn’t commissioned for a second series. LFO…UFO? Ah, it’s close enough.
Ooh! Here’s a nice little link from Lolly whom we saw earlier to the next act courtesy of the ever reliable @TOTPFacts:
Excellent! Now, there was a third single from Suede’s “Head Music”? There was a third and fourth actually but “Everything Will Flow” was the third and it has the band on a very laid back vibe, with an almost cosmic sound. Suede go all hippy? Maybe that’s a stretch but it’s certainly less urgent than some of their back catalogue and I’m afraid to say that’s not necessarily a good thing. It’s all a bit meandering and, dare I say it, dreary. Its high of No 24 was their worst chart position since their debut single “The Drowners” failed to make the Top 40. These were difficult times for the band with Brett Anderson’s addiction problems to the fore and their commercial fortunes on the wane. Everything was flowing and the band were drowning.
Space:1999 connection: Suede released a B-sides compilation album in 1997 called “Sci-Fi Lullabies”.
Just when I think that 1999 can’t have any more musical nadirs left to negotiate, up pops another abyss devoid of taste and creativity. How the hell did the UK put “We’re Going To Ibiza” by Vengaboys at No 1? Look, I get that the hordes of Brits holidaying on the Spanish island in the Summer meant that some of the tunes that they heard out there in the clubs would create a demand for them back in the UK but this wasn’t an Ibiza anthem was it? It was almost a novelty song based on the 1975 No 1 “Barbados” by Typically Tropical. It was crud, pure, irredeemable crud and yet the record buying public found it irresistible. Was it the way that they pronounced “Ibiza” as “I-bitz-a” (a common pronunciation in their home country of Holland) that people fell for? Is that all it took?! Never mind going to Ibiza, we were all going to Hell in a handcart.
Space:1999 connection: In 2021, Vengaboys released a single called “1999 (I Wanna Go Back)”.
| Order of appearance | Artist | Title | Did I buy it? |
| 1 | Supergrass | Moving | No but I had the album |
| 2 | Sixpence None The Rich | There She Goes | Nah |
| 3 | Thunderbugs | Friends Forever | Nope |
| 4 | The All Seeing Eye / Phil Oakey | 1st Man In Space | Decent but no |
| 5 | Lolly | Mickey | No thanks |
| 6 | Lyte Funky Ones | Summer Girls | Of course not |
| 7 | Suede | Everything Will Flow | No |
| 8 | Vengaboys | We’re Going To Ibiza | Hell 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/m002v4qp/top-of-the-pops-17091999
TOTP Rewind - the 90s 