Martine McCuthcheon

TOTP 07 MAY 1999

It’s early May 1999 here at TOTP Rewind and that can only mean one thing – the culmination of the football season! Despite only losing three games all season, my beloved Chelsea have blown the league by drawing too many matches and would finish third to a Man United team on their way to an historic treble. However, it was in League Division Three where all the drama was the day after this TOTP aired. Specifically, at Brunton Park, Carlisle where a near legendary game would play out. Carlisle United were fighting a dire relegation battle which, if lost, would condemn them to demotion to non-league football. It would be either them or Scarborough who would fall through the trap door. Carlisle needed a win but with time running out, the score in their game was locked at 1-1. Scarborough’s match had finished and they were safe as things stood but a Carlisle goal would reverse that situation and relegate Scarborough. With just 10 seconds left on the clock, the home team won a corner and Carlisle’s goalkeeper, one Jimmy Glass, was given the signal from his manager to go up the pitch to join in one last attack. Glass was only playing after being loaned from Swindon Town after a Carlisle goalkeeping emergency and this would be the last of three games he ever played for them. As the corner came in, this happened…

…pure, chaotic drama with a fairytale ending (for Carlisle at least). It’s the stuff of legend. However, for Glass, this wouldn’t be the fillip to his career that some might have assumed. There was no big money move to an elite club following his heroics; in fact, Carlisle United didn’t even sign him permanently and he only played a handful of professional games for a couple of clubs before drifting into non-league football and ultimately retiring from the game aged just 27. I wonder if any Glass related parallels can be drawn with the acts on this episode of TOTP?

Our host is Kate Thornton, and just as Jimmy Glass’s time at Carlisle United was coming to an end, this would be her final TOTP appearance. She only got to present ten shows which is a shame I think as she seemed a fairly safe pair of hands. Her first duty on her valedictory programme is to introduce Phats & Small on their fourth appearance on the show with “Turn Around”. There really can’t be anything else to say about this one can there? Well, it was back on TOTP as it had risen from No 8 to No 7 having already peaked at No 2. Yeah, that’s not exactly riveting reading material is it? I did notice that Phats & Small (the blokes on the decks as opposed to the singer) were wearing Skint Records T-shirts despite not being on that label – they were on Multiply, the people who brought us Sash! Skint was the home of Fatboy Slim and was based in Brighton which is where Phats & Small were from hence the connection I’m guessing? Russell Small is a big Brighton fan and they were in the same division as Carlisle United in 1998/99 finishing 17th out of 24, with only seven more points than bottom club Scarborough.

Jimmy Glass moment: You can’t get a bigger ‘turnaround’ moment than a last ditch winner to save your team from relegation can you?

It’s four consecutive appearances for Martine McCutcheon on the show but two of them were while “Perfect Moment” was at No 1 so I can’t argue with that. She was still in the Top 5 by the time of this final outing. Even so, it seems a little bit like overkill to me but then I wasn’t writing a TOTP blog back in 1999 and not watching two shows back to back as per the BBC4 schedule of repeats in 2026 so maybe I wouldn’t have noticed back then. As with Phats & Small, I’m struggling to find anything else to say about this one. Let me trawl the internet for a minute…

*blogger trawls internet*

Oh this is brilliant! No, really. Martine once went on a date with Mick Hucknall. She was very nervous, was drinking continually, hadn’t eaten anything and when she got in a car with him and the engine turned over she spewed all over him! Just fabulous work!

Jimmy Glass moment: Is there a more ‘perfect moment’ in football than Jimmy’s last minute winner?

If any of us thought that The Offspring’s chart topper “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)” was destined to be a one-off, well we were right and wrong. The US pop-punk rockers never did have another UK No 1 but they came within a whisker of bagging another when follow up “Why Don’t You Get A Job?” debuted at No 2 meaning that they certainly weren’t one-hit wonders. However, avoiding that status didn’t come without criticism. Nobody with even a perfunctory knowledge of The Beatles could listen to “Why Don’t You Get A Job?” and not immediately think “Hang on, that’s “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”!”. And it was although the lyrics were very different to the Fab Four’s original, detailing two miserable sounding relationships from the point of view of both a man and a woman complaining about the laziness of their partners and their lack of any discernible income. The opening two lines include the word “bitch” which the BBC censors decided to muffle for this TOTP appearance. I don’t think they did that when Meredith Brooks was on the show but then I think the gender of the singer was pivotal there. Given the song that it was based on, “Why Don’t You Get A Job?” was always going to be a catchy tune which certainly didn’t harm its chart chances though Bryan ‘Dexter’ Holland’s strained live vocals in this performance might have adversely affected them. He really couldn’t hit those higher notes. It’s a very scratchy affair altogether.

Of course, Scottish band Marmalade beat The Offspring to it by over 30 years with an actual cover of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”!” which went to No 1 in the UK though this little known pop song from the 80s always makes me think that Owen Paul had been listening to The Beatles’ original when he recorded it.

Jimmy Glass moment: When Jimmy’s football career ended, he needed to go and get a conventional job and worked as both an IT salesman and a taxi driver.

With another airing for “No Scrubs” by TLC, it means that three of the first four hits on this show were clocking up their fourth TOTP appearance. Come on Cowey! Sort it out! And no, I don’t care that TLC were up to No 3, their highest position in six weeks. However, the chart trajectory of this single is interesting. A debut at No 7 followed by an immediate drop out of the Top 10 to No 13. An expected descent down the Top 40 failed to materialise as “No Scrubs” lurched back into the Top 10 where it would remain for seven weeks. Even within that time period it moved up and down before finally reaching its peak of No 3 having fallen as low as No 9 the week before. How to explain this? It may be something to do with the delayed release of the its accompanying video. An MTV Award winning, sci-fi themed promo featuring the group in different coloured space suits, was its eventual delivery to video channels linked to its rise up the charts? If so, TOTP clearly didn’t get the memo/video as they stuck to showing that same satellite performance for every one of its four appearances on the show. Am I overstating the importance of this video? Maybe but there is some context to this situation, specifically that the group weren’t allowed into Europe for promotional duties possibly due to Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez’s criminal record following an incident in 1994 when she set fire to her boyfriend’s trainers which led to their mansion burning down.

One more thing, the intro to this one from Kate Thornton is a bit inappropriate. “Now going up the charts, those bad girls from Atlanta. No scrubs, no scrubbers – it’s TLC!”. No scrubbers Kate? And I thought she was a safe pair of hands!

Jimmy Glass moment: “No Scrubs” is from an album called “Fanmail” and I’m sure that Jimmy Glass got some fan mail after his last minute heroics in 1999.

Well, this is a damn shame. Of the three singles released from the sophomore album “100% Colombian” by Fun Lovin’ Criminals, the one which I bought – “Big Night Out” – is the only one that failed to warrant a TOTP appearance. Boo! Not that the two that did make it were worthless – they weren’t – but..you know. Anyway, the third of those releases was “Korean Bodega” which does sound pretty cool compared to most of its chart contemporaries but also very familiar. It’s something about that guitar riff that runs through it. I can’t place which song it reminds me of but it’s certainly recognisable.

Despite it happening in 2021, I’m not sure that I was aware that Huey Morgan had left the band. They are still an ongoing entity but it’s kind of hard to imagine them without their charismatic frontman. The band have released one album since Huey’s departure but continue to perform live.

Jimmy Glass moment: There is a track on the “100% Colombian” album called “All My Time Is Gone” which was so nearly true for Carlisle United that day in 1999 until Jimmy Glass strode forward into the box with ten seconds to go…

It’s the return of Cast next whom we had not seen in the Top 40 for 18 months. Indeed, it had been two years since their last album “Mother Nature Calls” which, though a commercial success, had divided critics. Third album “Magic Hour” therefore had a lot riding on it. The lead single from it was “Beat Mama”, a relentlessly upbeat track with a looped guitar riff and sparse, almost non-specific lyrics. Maybe the latter didn’t matter though as it was all about the feel. I liked it I have to say.

However, when I think about “Beat Mama”, its sound isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Let me explain. The week that it came out, the shop stereo in the Our Price store I was working in suddenly stopped working one morning. That’s pretty much a disaster for a record shop. As a last resort, we brought down to the shop floor the only thing we had that could play music – a tiny, portable CD player/radio that was in the stock room that staff working in there could listen to. It sounded tinny and pathetic as we opened the doors to the public. The first CD that we put on to play through it? “Beat Mama”. We couldn’t spend the whole day with this as the output for our in-store music so I decided to try and fix the shop stereo’s misfiring speakers. Quite why I thought I had the knowledge to do this I don’t know. Somehow I did get them working again though – it must have been something simple like a loose connection. However, at one point I had the speakers wired up so that two different songs were playing out of them at the same time. How did I manage that? To this day I’m wary of doing anything technical in our house beyond changing a light bulb on account of this.

Jimmy Glass moment: Cast hail from Liverpool. In May 2021, Liverpool FC’s goalkeeper Alisson scored a 95th minute winning goal versus WBA with a header prompting immediate comparisons with Jimmy Glass.

Despite this being its second time on the show, you still couldn’t actually buy “Look At Me” by Geri Halliwell in the shops as it wasn’t released until the Monday after this TOTP aired. The promotion on this one was huge but then it was always going to be. The first official solo single by an (ex-) Spice Girl was big news. After being served up the official promo video on its last outing, we get an exclusive performance of the song this time, again introduced by Geri herself. It’s all very over the top with Halliwell backed by four male dancers on a set that includes an elaborate staircase and chaise longue as props. It all seems a bit forced to me, trying a bit too hard to make it look like Geri was this kooky, zany character that we hadn’t really been aware of before. In the end, all that promotion couldn’t quite deliver the expected and presumably desperately wanted No 1 with “Look At Me” debuting in second place.

*Mel B’s “I Want You Back” had featured Missy Elliott whilst Melanie C had duetted with Bryan Adams on “When You’re Gone” before “Look At Me”.

Jimmy Glass moment: After his legendary winning goal, the whole world was looking at Jimmy.

Westlife remains at No 1 with “Swear It Again” and if that wasn’t annoying enough, for this performance, they’ve ditched the stools I said they always sat on therefore making me look like a lier! Apart from one of them, they’re all dressed in white which was another affectation of theirs but no doubt the next time they’re on, they’ll be dressed as goths just to spite me again! I swear it!

Jimmy Glass moment: Westlife had a No 1 with a cover of ABBA’s “I Have A Dream” and there was no more dream like moment in football than Jimmy Glass’s last second winner.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Phats & Small	Turn Around	I did not
2	Martine McCutcheon	Perfect Moment	No
3	The Offspring	Why Don’t You Get A Job?	Nah
4	TLC	No Scrubs	Nope
5	Fun Lovin’ Criminals	Korean Bodega	Not this one but the one before it
6	Cast	Beat Mama	Good song but no
7	Geri Halliwell	Look At Me	No thanks
8	Westlife	Swear It Again	Never

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002rxqk/top-of-the-pops-07051999

TOTP 30 APR 1999

Posted on March 5 by 80stastic

The day after this TOTP aired, Andrew Motion was announced as the next Poet Laureate in succession to previous incumbent Ted Hughes. His term would last ten years until he handed the baton to Carol Ann Duffy whilst the current Poet Laureate is Simon Armitage. You know what’s coming now…I wonder if the artists on tonight’s show have any connection with that role or poetry in general?

Our host is Jamie Theakston and we begin with last week’s No 1 (of course we do) which has been deposed and is currently No 3 in the charts. There was clearly a lot of belief, willingness and capacity from the management people behind Martine McCutcheon when it came to ensuring her transition from soap darling to pop star. From signing a significant record deal with Virgin, being given the song “Perfect Moment” as her debut single (a song A&R person Cheryl Robson had been sat on for three years) to having an hour-long television documentary about her journey from EastEnders actress to a singer, all the stops were being pulled out to make sure the project was a success. And a success it was. A No 2, platinum selling album, the 14th best selling single of the year and a pair of No 6 hits to follow.

It couldn’t sustain though. Two more albums quickly followed but failed to match the achievements of its predecessor. It seemed that appetite for Marine as a chart frequenter had been satiated. Why? For me, the cause of her commercial decline was that the initial burst of sales came off the back of her association with her EastEnders persona Tiffany. It’s as if people were in some sort of mourning for the death of that character and needed something to buy as a souvenir or keepsake. Then, the strength of her debut hit spilled over into sales for her album and before you knew it, momentum was created and away she went. However, the larger the distance of time that separated Martine from Tiffany, the less the connection between her and the public. That momentum waned until she was just another pop singer. Maybe she should have reactivated her pop career after her star turn in Love Actually when the public fell in love with another of her character portrayals. That didn’t happen and the last album she released came in 2017 which made a respectable No 17 in the charts but there has been nothing from her since…apart from this of course….

Poet Laureate link: “Perfect Moment” was written by Wendy Page and one J. Marr. In his podcast The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed, Simon Armitage spoke to Johnny Marr about his life as a musician. OK, the J. Marr that co-wrote “Perfect Moment” wasn’t the ex-Smiths guitarist but give me a break!

Just like Suede on last week’s show, Texas were also making a bit of a comeback after being away for a couple of years and also like Brett and the boys, they had to make a decision about which musical direction should be part of their return route. Unlike Suede, it seemed to me that they decided to basically just replicate their previous album which had brought them into the mainstream and delivered all that commercial success associated with such a transition. I’m sure the band themselves would be able to point to all sorts of details that spelt out the differential nuances between “White On Blonde” and “The Hush” but to your average pop music consumer, it surely felt like more of the same. Certainly, lead single “In Our Lifetime” retained that radio friendly polish that we’d come to expect from the second coming of the band. What was different though was the fact that this was the first time that the band had not employed an external producer for an album, preferring instead to keep it in house with guitarist Johnny McElhone twiddling the knobs on the mixing desk.

The chart performance of “In Our Lifetime” suggested that the record buying public were more than happy with a healthy helping of what they’d been served up before as its peak of No 4 maintained the band’s run of Top 10 singles by becoming their sixth on the trot. And why not? It’s a perfectly decent rock/pop tune with its strident yet melodic looped guitar hook and ‘wickedy-wick’ sound effect that introduces the chorus plus, of course, Sharleen Spiteri’s smooth vocals. For the moment, Texas were still in the ascendancy and doing nothing wrong at all.

Poet Laureate link: The state of Texas has its own Poet Laureate designation scheme, appointing a new incumbent every one to two years to promote poetry and recognize the literary contributions of Texans.

Fancy a bit of Busta Rhymes? No, me neither but executive producer Chris Cowey did and to be fair, the rapper was at No 5 with his single “What’s It Gonna Be?!” so…At the risk of sounding like my Dad commenting on my musical preferences as a teenager, this was just noise and a horrible one at that. “The mightiest and fastest rapper” ever to appear on the show is how Jamie Theakston describes Rhymes. Well, he perhaps he was but that doesn’t mean he could make a record that was listenable and he didn’t with this track. Even the presence of Janet Jackson couldn’t save it though I’m not sure I could even hear her contribution over all that shouting which seems to be about making his baby’s body wet. Eeuuww! Cowey could at least have shown the video in full (rather than on a big screen in the background) seeing as it was one of the most expensive ever produced at a cost of $2 million. The sound mix was much better on the promo as well with Busta’s rantings toned down more than in this studio performance. Not for me thank you.

Poet Laureate link: Poetry? Busta Rhymes? Yeah, that’s all I’ve got for this one.

Some blatant and shameless self promotion next as the Beeb uses its historic, flagship music show to advertise another of its programmes. If Miami 7 doesn’t ring any bells then the collective noun for its stars certainly will. S Club 7 were put together by pop impresario Simon Fuller when he was left at a loose end after the Spice Girls gave him the boot as their manager and his first action was to put together another pop group but this time he’d recruit more compliant people who he perceived wouldn’t tell him where to get off as his previous charges had.

Despite the fact that the Spice Girls project had turned into a global marketing operation encompassing different media and more merchandising than anyone could possibly want or house, Fuller reckoned there were yet more promotional opportunities to be explored. He envisioned a brand that was cross-media marketable, that could conquer both the music charts and TV ratings. Teaming up with his brother Kim (who wrote the Spice World movie story), they devised the TV show Miami 7 which the BBC picked up and broadcast on their CBBC channel. It was only a month into its run at the point of this TOTP broadcast and so, with show still on our screens, the Beeb indulged in some cross channel promotion and we got to meet the show’s stars in the TOTP backstage area. Although the first S Club 7 single – “Bring It All Back” which also acted as the Miami 7 theme tune – was still a whole five weeks away from release, that didn’t stop us from being given a preview of the video for it which, quelle surprise, also included some clips from the show.

Of course, this whole pop group/TV show wasn’t an original Fuller idea. The Monkees project from the 60s famously got there first but even in the 90s it had been tried with the show No Sweat following the adventures of boy band North & South who would have four Top 40 hits between ‘97 and ‘98. That didn’t stop Miami 7 being a hit though and it would run for four seasons albeit under a different title for each series. Its success is widely acknowledged as being the motivation for bringing the world shows like High School Musical and Glee.

As for “Bring It All Back”, it would top the charts when finally released. An insanely catchy slice of bubblegum pop which inevitably and obviously generated comparisons with The Jackson 5, it also contained one of the greatest key changes in all of pop music history. As we’ll be seeing it another three times in these TOTP repeats I’ll leave it there for now but suffice to say that the S Club story would run for years involving success, heartbreak, solo careers, controversy, a juniors version spin off, splits, reunions and ultimately tragedy. Someone really should make a TV show or movie about it.

Poet Laureate link: Not really though there was a literary club known as Authors‘ Club whose membership included three Poets Laureate – Alfred Austin, John Masefield, and John Betjeman.

From a request to ‘Bring It All Back’ to a plea to “Bring My Family Back” courtesy of Faithless. They did make some dark records didn’t they and this one is no different with Maxi Jazz recounting the tale of a man who grew up in a broken family, whose wife left him with the kids after his infidelity with a work colleague and who slips through the cracks and end up living in a derelict slum and regretting his life decisions. At least, I think that’s what it’s about. Although I wouldn’t describe myself as a fan, I did quite like this. It’s kind of got an hypnotic quality to it which means you can’t help listening despite the grimness and misery of the lyrics. Someone who is a fan is a friend of mine who will become an octogenarian this month proving yet again that age can be just a number when it comes to musical taste.

Poet Laureate link: A genuine connection! Caleb Femi, who was named London’s first Young Poet Laureate (2016–2017), features on the 2020 Faithless album “All Blessed”. He delivers a rap/spoken-word performance on the track “I Need Someone”. The band’s Sister Bliss commented on the collaboration that for the album, they wanted to work with “thoughtful fresh talent” like Femi to honor the high lyrical bar set by their late frontman, Maxi Jazz.

Right what was going on here then? Watching this back without any prior knowledge/information, it looked like an attempt by TOTP executive producer Chris Cowey to really shake the format up which it was I guess but he couldn’t really lay claim to a totally original idea here. So, the dance music continued with the next two hits also coming firmly from that genre but there was a deliberate decision to tie the two together as Jamie Theakston gives them a combined intro – “This is Armand Van Helden versus Fatboy Slim”. We then get a studio performance by the former (featuring guest vocalist Roland Clark up front) and the video for the latter’s latest hit but the two are interspersed with clips of both of them entering a boxing ring. What gives?

Well, I didn’t have a clue so I looked it up and it turns out that Armand van Helden and Fatboy Slim were connected by their 1999 “A Date With Destiny” DJ battles. These high-profile, head-to-head gigs featured them competing in a boxing ring at venues like Brixton Academy. Ah, so that’s where that boxing imagery footage comes from! Basically Cowey just got permission to use it rather than it being anything that he set up himself. The boxing match theme is backed up by the fact that Van Helden’s last hit “You Don’t Know” knocked Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You” off the top spot. There was a rematch when their follow ups (“Flowerz” for Van Helden and “Right Here, Right Now” by Fatboy Slim) were released in the same week. This time it was a knockout victory for the Fatboy with his single landing at No 2 whilst “Flowerz” couldn’t punch its weight and was left floundering at No 18. That’s a pretty decisive result despite Theakston saying in his segue that “Fortunately, there were no judges to pick a winner in this particular heavyweight contest so judge for yourselves”. Well, I think the record buying public were the judges Jamie and they made it very clear who their winner was. To be fair, it was a mismatch as “Flowerz” didn’t pack the same punch as its predecessor and never really gets itself off the canvas and into any sort of rhythm. There was no long lasting grudge held though as the duo reunited for performances at The Warehouse Project in Manchester and Drumsheds in London in November 2024.

Poet Laureate link: Ian Henery, the first ever Poet Laureate for Walsall, hosts a radio show on Black Country Xtra and has specifically named Armand Van Helden as a personal favourite from the golden era of house music.

OK, so. This is actually interesting as we just about see a DJ style fade from the Armand Van Helden tune into the video to “Right Here, Right Now” by Fatboy Slim. Fair play to Chris Cowey whom I’ve given a lot of stick to in this blog but the presentation on these two hits has been clever and effective. This was the fourth single lifted from the album “You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby” and it was yet another banger – Norman Cook really was in the groove here. It’s got the usual samples in it from sources I haven’t a clue about but it also has a sense of foreboding, imbuing the listener with the feeling that they’re about to hear something monumental. Then the Big Beats kick in and you’re off on an aural journey signposted by the creativity of Cook’s imagination.

The video hooks into that idea of a journey by depicting the course of human evolution from a single celled amoeba via a jellyfish, an amphibian, a primate an homo erectus before finally becoming a human. It was supposedly inspired by the 70s French animated educational television series Once Upon A Time…Man which I remember from reruns in the 80s, typically shown mid morning during the Summer holidays. It was a clever way of engaging kids in history and tracked the development of humans from the creation of the Earth through to a prediction up to the year 2150. I liked it as I recall though I’m not sure that I caught all 26 episodes.

Anyway, not long before the end of the “Right Here, Right Now” video, Cook himself pops up in a burger van with a message apologising for not being on the show in person before we return to the promo. I get that Cowey wouldn’t have turned down the chance of using such a piece of VT but it does come across as incongruous and doesn’t really add anything which is a shame. The final transformation sees the now fully developed human being turn into the kid on the cover of the “You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby” album but it must be a lookalike or CGI as Cook was never able to track that person down to pay him some royalties for the use of his image.

Poet Laureate link: As a member of The Housemartins, Cook had a connection to the city of Hull (where I have lived for the past 22 years). The poet Philip Larkin was the Librarian at the University of Hull and he was offered the position of Poet Laureate in 1984 which he declined.

Some things in life are just inexplicable. The Bermuda Triangle, the Great Pyramids of Giza, the England football team’s inability to win a trophy since 1966…and the appeal and success of Westlife. Yes, we’ve arrived at that point I’m afraid. The point where somehow the UK decided that far from having had enough of boy bands littering the charts throughout the 90s, that despite the sea change to the popularity of girl groups in the second half of the decade, and never minding that we’d already had years of one Irish boy band dominating everything…we needed another one! Why for chrissakes? WHY?! I just didn’t get it with this lot. They were so dull and, it seemed to me, inherently a one trick pony. How could anyone distinguish between one overwrought, schmaltzy ballad from another?! They all sounded the same! And not just that, they were all performed the same with those grinning berks sat in a line on stools, sometimes getting up if they had a solo. And yet, they were successful. Incredibly so, breaking chart records at will whilst racking up No 1 after No 1. They had four just in 1999 despite the first one “Swear It Again” – coming with four months of the year gone already. They weren’t even that good looking were they? Given the amount of times they will no doubt appear in these TOTP repeats, I’m leaving it here. For now.

Poet Laureate link: W.B. Yeats who was a Nobel Laureate (an Irish equivalent of a poet laureate) and Westlife share a connection with Sligo with the former famously associated with the town and its landscapes and the latter having grown up there (well, three of them anyway). Because of this shared hometown, Sligo’s tourism and cultural boards often promote the “poetry of Yeats and the music of Westlife”!

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Martine McCutcheon	Perfect Moment	No
2	Texas	In Our Lifetime	Nope
3	Busta Rhymes / Janet Jackson	What’s It Gonna Be?!	Never
4	S Club 7	Bring It All Back	Not likely
5	Faithless	Bring My Family Back	I did not
6	Armand van Helden	Flowerz	Nah
7	Fatboy Slim	Right Here, Right Now	No but I had the album
8	Westlife	Swear It Again	No – I swear!

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/m002rxqf/top-of-the-pops-30041999

TOTP 23 APR 1999

Posted on March 2 by 80stastic

Of the eight songs in this TOTP, four of them have been on the show before, some of them many times previously. The running order has the four ‘new’ hits sandwiched together in the middle, bookended by two repeated performances at either end of it. Was this some sort of shit sandwich in reverse technique being employed by executive producer Chris Cowey? Let’s see…

Disclaimer: I’m not saying that if a song had been on the show before it was necessarily shit in terms of its quality but rather that Cowey was shitting all over our expectations of being fed some new hits rather than those we were very familiar with.

Our host is Gail Porter and we start with…and this is truly ridiculous…Whitney Houston with “It’s Not Right But It’s OK”. Just..why Cowey? WHY?! Look, these are the facts about this one:

TOTP appearances: Five
No of repeats of original studio performance: Four
Date of first appearance: 26 Feb 1999
Weeks in Top 40: Twelve
In every week but one after debuting at No 3, it moved down the charts.

Why was it on the show so often? Was it part of the contract between Whitney and her people and the BBC that if she did an in person performance that TOTP had to show it a certain amount of times like five maybe?

Right, let’s have a look at Phats & Small and their hit “Turn Around”. Here are their facts:

Total TOTP appearances: Four (this was the third)
No of consecutive appearances: Three (four over a five week period)
Weeks in Top 10: Seven
Chart run: 3 – 4 – 2 – 8 – 7 – 8 – 7

So three of those four appearances coincided with the single going back up the chart which seems justified but four times in five shows still seems like overkill to me. Maybe though I was/am just a dinosaur, a relic of a past time having been brought up on the Top 40 of the 80s which was much more sluggish and intransient, when songs would take weeks to move up the charts and instant, week one Top 3 hits were rare to non-existent. Record company practices had changed by the end of the 90s and maybe TOTP was just reacting accordingly to a new way of the charts operating. I’m not sure how regular a viewer of the show I was by 1999 so cannot recall being as frustrated as I am now with all these repeat performances but I wasn’t doing a write up of each show back then either. Oh it’s all relative isn’t it?

From two artists with prolific TOTP appearance stats to one whom I would have thought had a much better record but then, I could have sworn that Electronic had actually released more music than their discography tells me they have. From their debut in 1989, they released a total of eight singles and three albums. Is that a decent amount of material over a 10 year period? I’m not sure. Certainly that singles figure seems a tad on the low side and resulted in just six TOTP appearances over the course of their career. Back in 1991, not long after I’d started working at the Our Price store in Market Street, Manchester, the duo of Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr had released their eponymous debut album to critical appreciation and commercial success (it made No 2 in the album charts and sold a million copies worldwide). I recall their being such a buzz about the album which was magnified in Manchester obviously given the background of its two protagonists. There was even a demand for the import version of the album which included the single “Getting Away With It” which the UK version did not.

However, a gap of five years until the next album proved to be too long for that momentum to be maintained and sophomore effort “Raise The Pressure” was nowhere near as well received, neither commercially nor critically. By 1999, were they seen as, if not irrelevant, then as an anachronism? Too harsh? Maybe but the truth was that third album “Twisted Tenderness” spent just two weeks inside the Top 40 chart. Its lead single “Vivid” was…well…OK and that seems a damning description when you consider the quality of the cannon of work of Sumner and Marr. Was their heart not really in it anymore? That didn’t seem to be the case watching this performance and more specifically Sumner’s energetic-pogoing, arms-flailing, air-punching, woo hoo-ing antics. Maybe a decision to dissolve the project had already been made and he wanted to go out with a flourish? If so, we couldn’t have known that at the time but retrospectively we got the message.

Fancy a flamenco guitar themed dance anthem? No, nor do I but I haven’t got any choice as the author of this blog so you’re coming with me! According to Wikipedia, Ruff Driverz had six Top 40 hits. Six! I couldn’t have named one of them without looking at their discography but “La Musica” was the fifth of them and the second highest charting peaking at No 13. It was officially credited to Ruff Driverz presents Arrola but who was Arrola? Well, she was Katherine Ellis who came from a very performing arts background. Look at this from her Wikipedia page:

“…her mother Elizabeth was trained as an actress at the Royal Academy for dramatic art, her grandmother Joy was a violinist and pianist, and her great grandmother Elizabeth Haslam was a opera singer who won a competition at the Royal Albert Hall in 1893.”

Blimey! Katherine continued that lineage by becoming one of the go to vocalists in the UK house scene, working with the likes of Freemasons, Soul Avengerz and Cherrone. As for “La Musica”, I’m sure it was popular in the clubs but its repetitive “Di-O-Lo-Le-La” line didn’t make for a very engaging TOTP performance, even allowing for the distraction of the troupe of backing dancers. As for the ‘Arrola’ moniker, whoever thought it up was only one letter away from making a tit of themselves.

Before the Sugababes and their revolving door recruitment policy, there was Honeyz who set the mould for girl groups and continually changing line ups. However, I’ve talked about that story in all its detail before so I don’t propose to go through it all again. Suffice to say that, as Gail Porter comments, this was the first time for most of us seeing new member Mariama Goodman who had recently replaced Heavenli Abdi. The timing of Abdi’s departure was really off though coming as they were preparing to embark on a promotional campaign for the release of their third single “Love Of A Lifetime”. The original trio had already shot the video for the track including scenes with Abdi but her decision to quit after that shoot and before a promotional trip to Australia meant that the promo was now effectively redundant and so would have to be reshot. A temporary, second cut saw Heavenli heavily edited out of the video before a third was produced with shots of Goodman included. I wonder if the Honeyz management billed Abdi for all that re-shooting?

“Love Of A Lifetime” was more of the slick R&B/ pop sound we’d come to expect and duly returned another sizeable hit when it peaked at No 9. As far as I can ascertain, Abdi’s original vocals remained on the track and it wasn’t until follow up “Never Let You Down” that Goodman’s own singing featured. A fifth single from their album “Wonder No 8” appeared in early 2000 at which point Goodman promptly left the group to be replaced by a returning Abdi and the line up shenanigans began in earnest. Honeyz are still a going concern today operating as a trio of Célena Cherry, her sister Candace and Abdi (now known as Heavenli Roberts). In conclusion, I can’t say if they finally found the perfect line up and share a love of a lifetime or if the end of the line might still be in sight.

We’ve arrived at the final ‘new’ single of the show and it’s from Suede who we hadn’t seen nor heard of since August 1997 when “Filmstar” was released as the final single from their “Coming Up” album. In the interim time, Brett Anderson had developed a serious drug problem whilst keyboardist Neil Codling’s health was affected by chronic fatigue syndrome. As such, the environment for writing and recording a new album wasn’t ideal. Plus, there was a decision to be made about which direction the band should head musically. After divisive sophomore album “Dog Man Star” had drawn acclaim as a work of genius and criticism as one of the most pretentious albums ever recorded, a more mainstream sound was pursued with the glam-pop of “Coming Up” that furnished the band with five Top 10 singles. That run was continued by “Electricity”, the lead track from fourth album “Head Music”. However, subsequent singles released from it would form a picture of diminishing returns and indeed, Suede have not returned to the Top 10 since.

“Head Music” would top the charts but would spend just two weeks inside the Top 20 suggesting large early sales due to a sizeable fan base but a lack of crossover appeal. In terms of its sonic properties, it had a more electronic sound with producer Steve Osborne, who had worked with the Happy Mondays, imbuing it with a dance music vibe. As for “Electricity”, it sounded a bit more raw/garage-like to me than anything on “Coming Up” though some reviews heard a connection to “Trash”. It didn’t grab me I have to say and, as with Electronic earlier, left me a little underwhelmed but compared to some of the other rubbish in the charts, it was…well…electric but just on a lower wattage than before. Definitely not displaying low wattage was the visual effect of an electric charge coming from Brett’s microphone. Maybe it looked clever back in 1999 but it looks a bit naff in 2026.

Right, that confirms it. The fact that Westlife are clearly seen in the backstage area next to Gail Porter during the next segue and they haven’t even had a hit yet and won’t perform on the show for the very first time for another seven days is definitive proof that some of these performances were definitely not recorded the same week that the show was broadcast. This explains why the host is sometimes not seen in shot when doing the link and we just get a cutaway instead. Finally!

Right, rant over. We’re back to the repeated performances and we get TLC with “No Scrubs” again. Here are the details for this one:

Total TOTP appearances: Four (this was the third)
No of consecutive appearances: Two
Weeks in Top 10: Eight
Chart run: 7- 13 – 8 – 6 – 9 – 3 – 5 – 5 – 9

OK so, having cross-referenced its chart positions with the group’s TOTP performances, there does seem to be some clear, logical correlation with each appearance synchronised with a corresponding rise up the chart. That’s all fine but why did we have to have this satellite performance video every single time? Couldn’t we have had the promo video one time at least? After all, it did win the MTV Video Music Award For Best Group Video at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards.

Right, I can’t really complain about this repeat performance seeing as it is actually the No 1 single for the second week running. Yes, this week’s highest new entry from Suede (No 5) proved to be no serious competition in the end for Martine McCutcheon and her hit “Perfect Moment”. With a No 1 straight off the bat, the only way was down for Martine and she would never have that level of success again but that chart topper can never be taken away from her (even if it was a cover version).

One thing that was taken off her though was any potential return to EastEnders. Supposedly, Martine was not happy with her character Tiffany Mitchell being killed off by the writers to allow her to pursue her pop star ambitions as she would have liked the chance to return once her music-orientated spleen had been vented but they used to call that having your cake and eating it didn’t they?

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Whitney Houston	It’s Not Right But It’s OK	No
2	Phats & Small	Turn Around	No thanks
3	Electronic	Vivid	I did not
4	Ruff Driverz presents Arrola	La Musica	Never
5	Honeyz	Love Of A Lifetime	Nah
6	Suede	Electricity	Negative
7	TLC	No Scrubs	Nope
8	Martine McCutcheon	Perfect Moment	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 agre

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002rlpg/top-of-the-pops-23041999

TOTP 16 APR 1999

Posted on February 26 by 80stastic

In the previous show, Jamie Theakston made a reference to Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs in his intro to Catatonia as the Welsh international had scored an important equaliser for his club in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final versus Juventus. His goal scoring form continued into another huge game – the FA Cup semi-final replay against title rivals Arsenal two days before this TOTP aired. Whilst the goal itself was pretty special, it was his celebration of it that remains uppermost in the memory. Removing his shirt and twirling it around his head, the full extent of the hairiness of the Giggs chest was revealed. Many gagging reflexes were put into operation at the sight. I think it was the shock factor more than anything else. Fancy that lath-thin, whippet-like Ryan Giggs having a big, manly, hairy chest like that. I wonder if any of tonight’s acts had hairy chests or failing that a connection to hair (other than the obvious one on their heads)?

Our host is Jayne Middlemiss (pretty sure she didn’t have a hairy chest) and the first artist on tonight is Phats & Small with their dance anthem hit “Turn Around”. This was only just on the previous show so I’m struggling to find anything else to say about it. I’ve said about vocalist Ben Ofoedu being engaged to TV broadcaster Vanessa Feltz, I’ve referenced their amusingly named album “Now Phats What I Small Music”…what else is there? Oh, the track itself. Well, yeah there is that I suppose. Well, I can hear why it was a success. It was a very accessible tune which crossed over from the dance floor to daytime radio which presumably helped prolong its chart life which clocked in at seven consecutive weeks inside the Top 10. Its legacy includes being voted in at No 38 in MTV Dance’s 2011 list of ‘The 100 Biggest 90’s Dance Anthems of All Time’. That do?

Hairy connection: DHT (a byproduct of testosterone) causes body hair to grow and head hair to shrink sometimes leading to the paradox of hairy men being bald on their heads. Testosterone is sometimes nicknamed ‘phat’.

Meatloaf was still having hits in 1999?! I know the 90s had been a renaissance decade for him what with “Bat Out Of Hell II” being a humongous sales phenomenon but that had been back in 1993. What’s that? He also had a big seller with the follow up “Welcome To The Neighbourhood” two years later? Well, yes he did and yes it delivered him three hit singles including the No 2 hit “I’d Lie For You (And That’s The Truth)” but that was still years prior. By the end of the 90s, he (or his record company) had resorted to yet another Best Of album (the 13th of 20 according to his discography) which was released the previous November just in time for the Christmas sales rush. How convenient/cynical. Ah, so that’s where this song comes from. The practice of releasing a Greatest Hits album but trailing it with a new track was well established by this point and Meatloaf wasn’t going to buck the trend. “Is Nothing Sacred” had originally been recorded for the “Welcome To The Neighbourhood” album but hadn’t made the cut at the time. It was recycled though for “The Very Best Of Meatloaf” when it was re-recorded as a duet with his go to female singer Patti Russo. It was, in fact, not originally scheduled for that role though as there was another song on that Greatest Hits album that was earmarked for that job which was “A Kiss Is A Terrible Thing To Waste” which had been The Loaf’s contribution to the Jim Steinman penned Whistle Down The Wind soundtrack. Indeed, Meat had been rumoured to be locked in as the artist to record “No Matter What” but that particular golden egg landed up in Boyzone’s laps. Had it gone the other way, I wouldn’t have been asking the question I posed at the start of this paragraph.

As for “Is Nothing Sacred”, despite its place in that Greatest Hits album, it certainly wasn’t one of his very best, being a piss poor imitation of some of those classic hits. There would be a few more charting singles into the new millennium but Meatloaf’s death in 2022 aged 74 meant that 2016’s “Braver Than We Are” would be his last ever album and there would be no more and that’s the truth.

Hairy connection: Well, apart from the obvious long hair he sported in the “Bat Out Of Hell” era, Meatloaf also appeared in the musical Hair on and off Broadway.

It’s a repeat of that satellite performance by TLC of “No Scrubs” next. This was another of those remarkably hardy hits that enjoyed an extended chart life, spending two months inside the Top 10 eventually peaking at No 3. However, looking in more detail at its chart stats, there was a moment when things might have panned out differently. After debuting at No 7 it actually dropped to No 13 the following week and at that point you would have been forgiven for thinking that it would continue to spiral down the charts. Not so though as a third week reversal of fortunes saw it climb back into the Top 10 where it would remain for seven consecutive weeks. Even then, there were undulations within that period with the single moving to No 6 then dropping to No 9 before vaulting back to No 3 and spending two weeks at No 5. What was all that about? Well, it would be featured on TOTP twice more so maybe that exposure helped propel it up the charts? I’m not sure but what I do know is that I’m going to have to find something to write about it at least twice more in this blog for which my creativity might require some tender loving care.

Hairy connection: The follow up hit to “No Scrubs” was “Unpretty” which featured a lyric about hair extensions – “You can buy your hair if it won’t grow”.

In the three years since they’d last released an album, The Cranberries had found themselves rather usurped in the rock band fronted by a charismatic female lead singer with a strong, Celtic influenced accent stakes. Catatonia had ripped up the charts with hits like “Mulder And Scully” and “Road Rage” going Top 5, eclipsing the highest peaking singles of their Irish contemporaries who rather unbelievably and certainly unjustly would never have a Top 10 hit. Come 1999, after Dolores O’Riordan had given birth to her first child, The Cranberries were back with fourth album “Bury The Hatchet” preceded by lead single “Promises”. It was a strong, aggressive sounding comeback (though there was a lot of reliance on lyrics like “Oh-woah, oh, oh” and “Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo”) but the truth was that five years on from their commercial heyday, the band’s sales were in decline. “Bury The Hatchet” sold a tenth of the copies which debut “Everybody Else Is Doing It, Why Can’t We?” did. The album’s cover artwork probably didn’t help. Whilst the first three featured standard but effective poses of the band, their fourth went in an altogether more arty direction. It was designed by Storm Thorgerson who was school mates with most of Pink Floyd and would go on to design the iconic cover for their legendary “The Dark Side Of The Moon” album. However, “Bury The Hatchet” would not garner such an illustrious reputation. You could see glimpses of Thorgerson’s work on, for example, “Wish You Were Here” in the concept but a naked man being observed by a suspended giant eye against a desert background looked outlandish rather than creative.

A fifth album followed within two years but its perceived lack of promotion by their record label pushed the band to split from MCA and ushered in an eight year hiatus. Three more albums would arrive (one posthumously) but the death of O’Riordan in 2018 brought a permanent end to the band’s story.

Hairy connection: Consuming dried cranberries is associated with promoting hair growth due to their vitamin C and antioxidant content.

Now I remember the name Glamma Kid but can I tell you anything about the artist behind that name? No I can’t. Not without the aid of the internet anyway.

*checks internet*

OK, well that’s not his real name obviously. That would be Iyael Lyases Tafari Constable…yeah, not as snappy as Glamma Kid is it? Anyway, he was/is a toaster – of the musical kind obviously not a relative of the artificially intelligent electric bread toaster variety that was a recurring character in Red Dwarf with an obsession with making small talk exclusively about toast. Of course not. Hailing from Hackney, he initially made a name for himself by appearing on Tim Westwood’s Radio 1 rap show in 1996. By the following year, he was being awarded a MOBO Award for Best Reggae Act and by 1999 he had two Top 10 hits. The first of those was “Taboo” which interpolated the 1985 Sade hit “The Sweetest Taboo” and was a duet (of sorts) with Shola Ama.

I was never the biggest fan of the original but what they’ve done to it with this treatment is nothing short of criminal and when I say they I mean Glamma Kid. What is he doing here? Bent down on his haunches, stalking the stage in an all white suit? I think he was going for a Mark Morrison vibe but he actually looks like Vic Reeves during one of his rubbing his thighs, over excited by a female guest episodes of Shooting Stars. Then there’s the noise that he’s making. It’s just horrible caterwauling! It’s even worse than Shaggy! Who could possibly want to listen to it more than once or am I missing something?! You know what, I don’t think I am.

Hairy connection: Glamma is presumably short for ‘glamour’ which conjures up images of luxuriously coiffured hair plus Glamma Kid featured on a 1998 remix of David Bowie’s “Fashion” which again has connections with hairstyles.

Yay! It’s the New Radicals again! This was the third time in the show for Gregg Alexander’s band and their hit “You Get What You Give” but you won’t find me moaning about repeat performances in the Chris Cowey era as I have done for month after month, post after post as I’m a complete hypocrite and I liked this one so the more the merrier for me!

However, it does leave me with the problem of what else I’m going to say about it. Well, this appears to be a live vocal performance as Gregg does seem to be straining somewhat with his singing in places. Actually, there also appear to be some technical issues as well with echoing vocals and a definite bit of feedback towards the end of the song. We just about have time for the infamous “Fashion shoots with Beck and Hanson, Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson” line but not for the word “ass” right at the death though I think the BBC censors might have blanked it out. Hard to tell.

Hairy connection: Although Gregg Alexander wore his trademark hat to cover his face to hide the fact that he was not enjoying promoting a hit record via the rules of the music industry, it also concealed the fact that he was bald that was only revealed in the video that accompanied the song.

Talk about creating a buzz about a forthcoming release! There was always going to be great deal of interest in the debut solo single by ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell but the promotion around “Look At Me” really went into overdrive. Look at this TOTP exclusive showing of its promo video a whole month before it was actually released! And that was just part of the marketing story. Halliwell embarked on a short promotional tour in support of the single visiting cities such as Rio de Janeiro, New York, Tokyo, Sydney and Milan. Remember, she only had the one song at this point that you could actually buy (even the extra tracks on the CD single were just remixes of “Look At Me”) yet she was straddling the globe to sell it! Was it all worth it? Yes and no. A No 2 hit is nothing to be sneered at but surely after all that promotion a chart topping debut would have been expected. In the end, Geri was beaten by Boyzone doing yet another cover version. That must have stung a bit.

So what about her actual song – was it any good? Well, I give Geri credit for not doing an obvious big ballad (I’m not sure she had the vocal chops for that anyway) or indeed, going the Boyzone route and releasing a cover version. However, “Look At Me” was accused of sounding very similar to another late 90s hit – “History Repeating” by Propellerheads featuring Shirley Bassey and you can hear why though I’m not sure I made that connection myself at the time. The structure of “Look At Me” does work with as opposed to against Geri’s rather limited vocals enabling her to sing in snatches or phrases rather than seamlessly not that there’s anything wrong with that but then what the hell was that middle eight breakdown?! Were the Spice Girls fanbase ready for that or was Geri looking for a new, more mature audience?

I guess I should comment on the video. First off, the fact that it’s nearly all shot in black and white was a bold move from someone who once sang “Colours of the world, Spice up your life”. Again, was that designed to show she was now a serious artist in search of a new type of fan? If that wasn’t a clue then the funeral scene killing of her ‘Ginger Spice’ persona couldn’t be see as anything but a desire to leave behind her former group. This was backed up by the caption at the start of the promo asking “Who is…Geri Halliwell?” suggesting that we perhaps had not seen the real version of her yet. The rest of the video has Halliwell playing around with female stereotypes which she nominated as vamp, bitch, virgin and sister. I’m not quite sure if she succeeded in her observations of said stereotypes nor indeed what those observations might have been.

Whatever you thought of her debut single, and on reflection my judgement would be ‘could’ve been worse’ or even “not without merit”, it paved the way for a run of four consecutive No 1 hits three of which came from her debut album “Schizophonic” and that could in no way be seen as a disappointing return.

Hairy connection: You mean apart from the whole ‘Ginger Spice’ persona being based on her red hair colour and apart from Geri referring to her look as “hair power” and apart from her hair being considered to have altered the course of 1990s beauty history, with fans often emulating her look? Nah, nothing really.

You’d have thought that as the new millennium dawned, we’d have gotten a bit bored with the whole soap star to pop star schtick but here was Tiffany from EastEnders to prove that we still had room for more. I think it’s fair to say that Martine McCuthcheon has moved on from that role not in the least part because of her much loved turn in Love Actually but back then she was Tiffany so big and well liked had her character become. Only a few short months prior, Tiffany Mitchell was written out of the soap when she was killed off on New Year’s Eve after being knocked down by a car driven by Frank Butcher (hence Jayne Middlemiss’s quip about her not being very good at road safety). Twenty-two million people watched that episode and a book about the character of Tiffany was a bestseller!

Given all of that, it’s perhaps no surprise that McCutcheon’s debut single went to No 1. What people did seem to be surprised about though was shown in their reaction to “Perfect Moment” which went along the lines of “It’s quite good innit”. I guess it was a similar response to that which another soap star’s debut single had received not so long before – “Torn” by Natalie Imbruglia. However, whereas the ex-Neighbours star had gone for a shimmering piece of pop perfection, Martine gave us the full, dramatic big ballad treatment. Just as Geri Halliwell surprised us with her almost jazz-pop first solo song, perhaps we might have expected a bit of pop fluff from Martine or a cover version like previous EastEnders star Sophie Lawrence had and Sid Owen would go on to do. Not a bit of it…or rather a little bit of it as “Perfect Moment” was a cover but I’m pretty sure most people were completely unaware of the original. Recorded in 1997 by Polish singer Edyta Górniak, that version was little known outside of Poland and so, again as with Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn”, most of us thought it was, if not Martine’s song, then it had been written specifically for her. It starts off sounding a bit like “A Different Corner” by George Michael with a some serene strings being plucked before Martine delivers a perfectly adequate vocal. There’s no doubting that she could sing a bit but then she had been in little known, mid 90s girl group Milan who spent one week at No 82 with a single called “Lead Me On” – I did say they were little known! Anyway, “Perfect Moment” came over as quite a classy tune in the style of Barbra Streisand or at least Celine Dion and great things were predicted for Martine McCutcheon the pop star. A No 2 album duly followed and a pair of No 6 singles but by 2000, diminishing returns kicked in and her next two albums didn’t produce anywhere near the same numbers. Then came a return to acting and the role of Natalie in Love Actually though I have to say I can’t think of much else I e seen her in recently and Love Actually is now 23 years old.

*checks her filmography*

Martine’s most recent TV appearances have been as herself in shows like Loose Women, Celebrity Gogglebox and The Masked Singer in which she came 10th dressed as a swan. Probably not her perfect moment then.

Hairy connection: Martine has openly discussed her struggles with scalp sensitivity and dandruff endorsing Polytar medicinal shampoo to treat these issues and has become a scalp health advocate using her platform to discuss the impact of stress and health issues on her hair.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Phats & Small	Turn Around	Negative
2	Meatloaf	Is Nothing Sacred	I did not
3	TLC	No Scrubs	Nah
4	The Cranberries	Promises	Nope
5	Glamma Kid / Shola Ama	Taboo	No chance
6	New Radicals	You Get What You Give	YES!
7	Geri Halliwell	Look At Me	I did not
8	Martine McCuthcheon	Perfect Moment	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 agre

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002rlpd/top-of-the-pops-16041999

TOTP Rewind – the 90s

My memories of 90s chart music

TOTP 07 MAY 1999

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TOTP 30 APR 1999

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TOTP 23 APR 1999

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TOTP 16 APR 1999

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