Mr.Big

TOTP 28 MAY 1992

Posted on by 80stastic

When dance music transitioned from the clubs to the mainstream / Top 40 in a major way towards the end of the 80s, it presented TOTP with a major challenge in terms of how to feature these acts that weren’t your traditional pop stars. Mostly they weren’t up to the challenge. Then came the ‘year zero’ revamp under the stewardship of Stanley Appel. Would the new format be better suited to these problematic hits? Well, after a fair few attempts during the first eight months of the new era, the true test had arrived. The first three acts in the studio tonight are all peddling dance tunes. Given the responsibility of landing this tricky manoeuvre safely are presenters Mark Franklin and Femi Oke.

It’s straight in at the deep end with the opening act Future Sound Of London and their track “Papua New Guinea”. It turns out that there wasn’t just one person called Cobain who was making a name for himself in the early 90s musical landscape. Gary Cobain (doesn’t quite have the same ring as Kurt does it?) and Brian Dougans met as students in Manchester in their 80s with the latter pointing heavily towards what might be to come when he wrote and produced the ground breaking “Stakker Humanoid” single which was described by The Guardian as “the first truly credible UK acid techno record to break into the mainstream”. With Cobain contributing to the resulting album project, it led to the duo releasing material under various aliases until following “Stakker Humanoid” into the charts as Future Sound Of London (often abbreviated OMD like to FSOL).

Despite the fawning in the music press inkies, there was nothing for me in “Papa New Guinea”. The just didn’t get it. Apparently ot samples both Aussie art rockers Dead Can Dance and industrial electronic knob twiddlers Meat Beat Manifesto so the source material didn’t speak to me either. I did work with someone who was into Meat Beat Manifesto but she was never going to convince me of their charms.

So how did TOTP deal with the vexatious issue of showcasing an unfamiliar dance act? With a load of strobe lights and that grainy coloured overlay effect again of course. As a staging technique I thought it was weak I have to say. Oh and that blue with the stupid hat- what was that all about. @TOTPFacts sums my feelings up perfectly:

So, Future Sound Of London didn’t work for me on any level. “Papua New Guinea”? Give me “Aikea-Guinea” by Cocteau Twins any day. By the way, I can’t find a clip of the TOTP performance so the official promo video will have to do.

Next to “Friday I’m In Love” by The Cure which according to a Rolling Stone magazine article is a song that has caused Robert Smith many “Wild Mood Swings” it comes to his relationship with it. At times he has hated it for the level of fame and attention it attracted even disowning it and those who like it denouncing them as not being fans of The Cure. Conversely, he has also listed it as being one of his three favourite singles by the band ever.

It’s a well worn concept; the idea that the commercial success that the artist has craved is ultimately unsatisfying when it arrives and that what really matters is their ‘art’. There must be loads of examples of this throughout rock history. Off the top of my head, The Monkees famously rejected being chart puppets to fulfil their desire to make their own music on their own terms. When it comes to disowning your biggest hits, I saw Supergrass live around the early 2000s and they didn’t play “Alright” which seemed a bit childish. Oh and REM and “Shiny Happy People” for sure.

In the light of everything above, I was surprised to learn that “Friday I’m In Love” isn’t actually the band’s highest charting single. It peaked at No 6 but three years earlier “Lullaby” had made it to No 5.

We’re back on a dance tip now with the curious case of “Raving I’m Raving”. The Wedding Present spent 1992 entering the higher end of the Top 40 before crashing out immediately due to the limited amount of copies of each single that were pressed as part of their “Hit Parade” project. Shut Up And Dance had a similar chart arc but for a very different reason.

Formed in 1988, this electronic dance duo had released a series of idiosyncratically titled singles such as “Dance Before The Police Come” and “Autobiography Of A Crackhead” before hitting on the idea of basing their next release on Marc Cohn’s “Walking In Memphis”. Keeping the melody but replacing some of the original’s lyrics with the word raving (“put on my raving shoes” and of course the single’s title), it created a huge amount of interest and initial sales were enough to send it straight into the charts at No 2. Genius! Or was it?

Sadly for Shut Up And Dance founders PJ and Smiley (who heard Duncan when reading that last word?) they had failed to get copyright clearance from Cohn who soon got his lawyers on the case. Despite offers to give any royalties to charity, Cohn wasn’t having any of it and insisted that no further pressings of the single were made meaning that it was essentially deleted as soon as it came out. With no more copies available, the single dropped like a stone even to No 15 and then out of the chart altogether. The whole thing was over in three short but eventful weeks.

This TOTP performance was ultimately pointless in terms of increasing sales of the single as there were no more copies left to sell. That and the fact that Cohn wouldn’t even let them perform the track on TV hence we get a completely different song without the original melody or reworked Cohn lyrics. It’s just a different song altogether. Madness! For me, it wasn’t that the whole legal issue made the project a non starter – I didn’t get why it was seen as such a great idea in the first place. It almost seemed like a novelty song to my ears.

As for how TOTP dealt with the band’s appearance on the show, the smoke machines were put in full whack, there’s a lot of arm waving from both the studio audience and the artist (whose vocalist is doing his best Seal impression) and a computer graphic effect whereby the female singer has her head size reduced in ever decreasing frames. It’s all a bit rubbish really….like the song itself. Interestingly, they do try and address the fact that the ring featured isn’t the one that people went out and bought by having presenter Femi Oke describe it as the “TOTP remix”. That wasn’t fooling anybody though.

Yay! It’s Kriss Kross with “Jump” next! The heavy emphasis on the guys ;plus video extras) you know…jumping…with the associated jerky camera angle puts me in mind of “Jump Around” by House Of Pain but performed by Musical Youth perhaps.

What is it that they are actually rapping about? Apart from jumping obviously. Well the lyrics include lines like ‘bull crap is what I’m dumpin’ (ooer!) and ‘I love when a girl is like jockin’ which seems to mean a number of things from obsessing over someone with intense affection to copying the likeness of. I’m guessing it’s the latter here with Mack Daddy or indeed Daddy Mack liking it when girls copy their rapping… or dance moves…or even wearing their jeans back to front of course.

“Jump” peaked at No 2.

Meanwhile back in the studio we find…yes, another dance act. This time it’s Bassheads back again to follow up their Top 5 hit “Is There Anybody Out There?”. This time they’ve gone “Back To The Old School” but shouldn’t that be “Back To The Old Skool”? I found some reviews of the track online that describe it as having ‘massive old skool (yes spelt like that) break house beats’and being a ‘proper killer tune’. Like Ted on The Fast Show, I wouldn’t know anything about that sir – this sort of stuff really want my favourite subject at skool.

As for the staging of the performance, there’s loads more dry ice, a close up of a DJ type fella shouting “How’s everybody feelin’ out there?“ and at one the band are clearly asked to move about in slow motion so some visual effects can be added to make it look like they are leaving some kind of vapour trail behind each movement. It may have looked impressive in 1992 I guess but it looks plain dreadful today.

“Back To The Old School” peaked at No 12.

https://youtu.be/DJjubfaayA8

If I knew anything about the UK soul/ R’n’B scene of the early 90s then I would know all about this next artist. However, I didn’t and don’t and so have relied upon Wikipedia for this one. Don–E was actually Donald McLean (nothing to do with the “American Pie” hitmaker obvs) and he was quite the all rounder writing, producing and playing on his debut album “Unbreakable” from which this single “Love Makes The World Go Round” was taken.

One of the reasons I don’t know anything about this guy is because I don’t remember him at all. Nothing. Zip. Listening to him now, he’s got a definite Stevie Wonder flavour to him and puts me in mind a bit of Omar of “There’s Nothing Like This” fame. Ah now then. I’ve just got to the hit in his bio on Wikipedia that says he duetted with Omar on a track on his 2005 album “Try This”. I swear down I hadn’t read that before my earlier Omar reference.

That 2005 release was his first album for 10 years as his solo career had stalled after his initial success with “Love Makes The World Go Round” and he’d focussed instead on writing for and producing other artists. He seems to combine those duties and releasing his own material these days.

Three Breakers this week none of which would be seen in the show again. What a nonsense this feature has become. We start with Cud. I know at least one person who swears by these Leeds indie rockers but I only really know this single (“Rich And Strange”) I must admit. I did like it though. Just that right balance of leftfield yet tuneful with a driving guitar riff that reminds me of The Pixies.

It was taken from their third album “Asquarius” which was actually their first album for major label A&M having released their previous material on indie Imaginary Records. Wikipedia tells me that they referred to their sound as something called ‘Lion Pop’ which is a new genre on me. It seems to have been some sort of precursor to Britpop as far as I can make out though I don’t recall Cud being mentioned in that now much maligned bracket probably because they split in 1995. They reformed in 2006 and apparently Embrace (whom I love) keyboard player Mickey Dale is an occasional member of their line up. The things you learn from Wikipedia.

“Rich And Strange” peaked at No 24.

Mr. Big had more than one hit over here? I would have bet money on “To Be With You” being their only chart entry but here they are with something called “Just Take My Heart”. Obviously it’s terrible. In fact, is there a case to be made that at this very point in rock history that Mr. Big were the worst band in the world? Judging by this and their previous hit, they were certainly the most boring. Just look at some of the lyrics to this one:

‘I can’t imagine living my life after you’ve gone; wondering why so many questions have no answers’

My God! A love lorn teenager would be embarrassed by that and yet it was deemed good enough to be recorded as an actual song that would get played on the radio! Even their videos were terminally tedious. Just the band performing the song on black and white film. Mr.Big? Mr.Big Log more like.

“Just Take My Heart” peaked at Number No 26. They were never to be seen on the UK Top 40 again.

And now for something completely different…and far more interesting. For all the talk of the rise of grunge rock in the early 90s, we haven’t actually seen that much of it in TOTP. Look at this show for example – it’s like a bloody rave is going down in the studio! To rebalance that, here comes an all female band that were definitely and defiantly here to play some grimy, kick ass, heavy punk rock.

Although not actually from Seattle (they were from LA in fact) L7 seemed to be inextricably linked to grunge possibly because some of their early material was released on legendary label Subpop home of grunge protagonists Soundgarden, Mudhoney and of course Nirvana. That link was strengthened by the fact that their third album “Bricks Are Heavy” was produced by Bitch Vig, the man nicknamed ‘the never mind man’ for his work on Nirvana’s stellar second studio album.

From that album came this single “Everglade” a high speed riot of their brand of punk infused heavy metal. To think that within four years, the concept of all female band would have morphed into the template that allowed the Spice Girls to dominate planet pop.

Of course, along with their music there was an uncompromising attitude and approach that would lead to a number of unforgettable controversies. I was among the disbelieving TV audience that Friday night watching anarchic Channel 4 TV show The Word when lead vocalist Donita Sparks whipped down her jeans and knickers to finish performing “Pretend We’re Dead” nude from the waist down. This incident occurred on the same show that they had a secret camera in Oliver Reed’s dressing room which Donita thought was pretty shitty so she thought she’d add her own brand of f****d up anarchy to the chaos. Watching it back I felt sorry for the bass player who thinks she’s stealing the show by mounting the drum rider only to trim around and see Sparks with her fanny out! As one of the user comments in the clip below just so succinctly puts it – ‘Gash!’ How nice.

This week’s ‘exclusive’ performance comes from Lisa Stansfield who’s flown in from Berlin to be on the show according to presenter Mark Franklin. I’m not sure it was worth the flight. Lisa has a fine voice but this single (“Set Your Loving Free”) didn’t have a lot going for it to my ears. I’ve only just watched Lisa’s performance of it and already I’ve forgotten how it goes. Bland doesn’t cover it. No it really doesn’t- I’m going to have to find another word. Dreary? No. Lacklustre? Nope. Vapid? Yes, vapid is the word.

It was the fourth single taken from her “Real Love” album. If you’re going to release four tracks from an album, by the time you get to the fourth it needs to be a memorable tune I say. Unfortunately “Set Your Loving Free” wasn’t. The daft thing is that there was a great song on the album that went unreleased…

“Set Your Loving Free” only made it to No 28 but Lisa returned at the end of the year with a track that must have made her a fair wad over the years; not because it was a chart topper…ahem…all around the world (it peaked at No 10 in the UK) but due to the fact that it was included on the best selling soundtrack of all time. I refer to The Bodyguard of course with Lisa’s contribution being “Someday (I’m Coming Back)”. Nice work if you can get it.

And so to the No 1 which again is a dance tune of sorts though nothing to do with that mad ‘raving’ nonsense. KWS are into their fourth week at the top with their cover of KC And The Sunshine Band’s “Please Don’t Go”.

I said in a recent post that there was some legal controversy over this record and so there was. A very similar version had been recorded by German dance act Double You who had big hit with it all over Europe. Wanting to get a slice of the action, indie label Network Records sought distribution rights for the single in the UK but failed to secure them. Their solution was to get an act of their own to record it and put that out instead. Enter KWS. It proved to be a winning move with a UK No 1 disc and US Top Tenner. Pushing their luck, it was released in Germany and went to No 7 before legal action from Double You forced it to be withdrawn from sale. It fell out of the charts the following week making it the single with the highest position to drop out of the national charts ever. Does any of this sound familiar? For Double You read Marc Cohn and for KWS read Shut Up And Dance. 1992 was a good year to be a lawyer in the music industry.

Ghjj

Order of appearance ArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1Future Sound Of LondonPapua New GuineaCertainly not
2The CureFriday I’m In LoveNot the single but I have it on a Greatest Hits CD of theirs
3Shut Up And Dance Raving I’m RavingHell no
4Kris KrossJumpIt was fun but not a purchase
5BassheadsBack To The Old SchoolI literally rather would have gone back to school – no
6Don-ELove Makes The World Go RoundNah
7CudRich And StrangeLiked it, didn’t ‘t buy it
8Mr. BigJust Take My HeartNo no no….
9L7EvergladeSee 7 above
10Lisa StansfieldSet Your Loving FreeNo chance
11KWSPlease Don’t GoAnd 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/m0014j5w/top-of-the-pops-28051992

TOTP 12 MAR 1992

Posted on by 80stastic

In recent years the calling of a general election has been a relentlessly regular occurrence. Between 2015 and 2019 the country had to go through this process three times. Back in 1992, we hadn’t had one for five years but the day before this TOTP aired, sitting Prime Minister John Major announced that there would be a General Election in April.

Whilst I would no doubt have taken notice of this statement, I would have been more focussed on my imminent trip down to London. Yes, despite being permanently skint living in Manchester on a record shop worker’s wages, I had somehow managed to squirrel away enough money for a trip to the capital.

I was staying with my friend Robin and he’d got us tickets to go and see my beloved Chelsea play. See, there’s the proof above. As ever with Chelsea in those days I came away disappointed:

Those Chelsea tickets weren’t the only tickets Robin got for us that weekend. His sister is an actress and was appearing in a play that weekend so along we popped. I can’t remember exactly what it was about but my main recollection was that it was decidedly weird. When Robin reminded me of this event recently we had a strange WhatsApp conversation which went like this:

Robin: Remember seeing The Fall with Right Said Fred?

Me (incredulous): Absolutely nothing. The Fall supported by Right Said Fred?!

Robin: No we watched a play called “ The Fall”, only 8 people were in the audience and one was the ‘Freddie with porn star hair.

So there you have it. A weekend of footballing disappointment and a close encounter with a genuine pop star (sort of). Right Said Fred aren’t on this particular TOTP but are on in two week’s time. Damn the gods of synchronicity!

Suppose I’d better get in with the music then and tonight’s opening act are Gun with “Steal Your Fire”. In keeping with the major political announcement of the day before, presenter Tony Dortie keeps it topical with a reference to the contents of Norman Lamont’s briefcase. I’m guessing as Lamont was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, this would have been to do with interest rates (I’m certainly not going anywhere near that Julian Clary reference!) though I doubt at the time I was following the Exchange Rate Mechanism that closely. Now I’d quite liked this lot with their hits “Better Days” and “Shame On You”, the latter of which I’d even bought. By 1992 though, I’d completely lost track of them. I remember second album “Gallus” coming out and the cover of it but I’m not sure it was ever played in the Our Price I worked in (there wasn’t much of a rock fraternity amongst the staff) so I’m not familiar with it at all, not even this single. Having listened to it back though, it seems that Gun were, like Margaret Thatcher before them, ‘not for turning’ when it came to their musical direction. “Steal Your Fire” stuck rigidly to the formula.

The single peaked at No 24 which at that point was the band’s biggest chart hit but their peak would come in the Summer of ‘94 when they took their cover of Cameo’s “Word Up” into the Top 10.

One of the stories of the 1992 Top 40 was the blatant (and amusing) attempt by The Wedding Present to manipulate them. Yes, decades before the charts were hijacked by the X Factor and social media galvanised campaigns to artificially create hits, David Gedge and co were already at it.

Their cunning plan was to match Elvis Presley’s chart record of having twelve Top 30 hits in one calendar year, something The King had achieved in 1957. To do this, they released a limited edition single every single month in 1992. The limited stock quantities (only 10,000 were pressed for the UK and 5,000 for the rest of the world) created a frenzy amongst their fan base and crucially a brief but significant sales spike each month propelling every single into the Top 30 for one week before dropping like a stone once copies were exhausted. A genius ruse from Gedge! Meanwhile back in the record shops it was causing carnage as desperate fans tried to ensure they didn’t miss out. Even our shop which was a two trading floor city centre store would only get a handful of the singles which fans wanted to pre-order. That’s fine but woe betide the staff on release day if the system went wrong and all copies were sold before those pre-orders were picked up. Like I said, carnage.

The TOTP appearances that this practice created for the band – they were on the show four times in 1992 – only added to the chaos. Here’s Gedge himself courtesy of @TOTPFacts:

For the record, “Three” was neatly the third of these monthly single releases despite Gedge’s confusing jumper with the number four on it (oh you little scampi Dave!). They weren’t just called ‘One’ to ‘Twelve’ though. “Three” peaked at No 14.

Tony Dortie’s nicked one of my phrases! I’m sure I referred to a ‘rave conveyor belt’ in a recent post. Tony is using it in reference to the next act who are Toxic Two performing their one and only hit “Rave Generator”. Now I know I say this a lot and in my defence we are talking about tunes from 30 years ago but I genuinely did not know of the existence of this until just this moment. It seems to be a mash up of “French Kiss” by Lil Louis and “Pacific State” by 808 State.

As there are hardly any lyrics in it (there’s a sample of someone saying ‘How do you feel now?’) the show has the perennial problem of how to stage the performance of it. They’ve gone for some zoom in zoom out camera trickery, some overlaid special effects and a panoramic view of the studio audience to try and create the impression that we are witnessing a rave in full flow. Oh and those dancers in leotards who look like they’re doing a yoga class on speed. Were people really dancing like that in clubs around this time?

There’s a noise in “Rave Generator” that reminds me of the blast sound from a Blake’s 7 ray gun. Maybe it was the same sound. After all, the aforementioned 808 State used sound library clips. Here’s @TOTPFacts again:

“Rave Generator” peaked at No 13.

The grunge bandwagon rolls in with Nirvana’s follow up to “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. Now it’s never occurred to me before and so I must have missed this story at the time but there was some controversy around “Come As You Are” and it wasn’t to do with Kurt Cobain’s lyrics about guns. No, it was to do with the fact that the song bore very strong similarities to the track “Eighties” by Killing Joke. And it does. Now I’ve made the connection I can’t unhear it. Apparently Killing Joke considered legal action against Nirvana but sacked it off as a bad idea after Cobain’s suicide in 1994. Or maybe it was because there’s a case to be made that Killing Joke weren’t innocent of plagiarism themselves and that they based their song on a Damned track called “Life Goes On”. Maybe they didn’t want to draw too much attention to that with a high profile law suit.

At the time though, if I’d have been asked about similarities between “Come As You Are” and another song I’d have replied ‘Yes, it sounds like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” only less frenetic’.

Cobain’s hometown was a place called Aberdeen, Washington but the story I draw your attention to isn’t that there’s somewhere with the same name as Scotland’s Granite City in America but that the sign welcoming you to Aberdeen includes the line ‘Come As You Are’.

“Come As You Are” peaked at No 9.

Who’s next? Clivilles & Cole? Who were they then? Well, they were the guys behind C+C Music Factory of course ( C+C geddit?) but for some reason they felt the need to release this single – “A Deeper Love” – under their own names. I’m not sure what the criteria was for that decision. Was it because “A Deeper Love” was a change in musical direction and therefore wouldn’t have sat comfortably under the C+C Music Factory name? My dance head credentials are really good enough to make that assessment. Sure, I can tell that “Things That Make you Go Hmmm…” was of a much more popper flavour than “A Deeper Love” but was it really that different from “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)”? I’m sure someone out there could tell me ‘Of course it is and here’s why…’. Anyway Clivilles & Cole it was (although co-host Claudia Simon confusingly refers to them as just C+C) and singer Deborah Cooper was chosen to front it. The only other track that Clivilles & Cole released under their own names was this cover of U2’s “Pride (In The Name Of Love)” who was the flipside to “A Deeper Love”.

The performance here includes the return of the bubble machine that we saw when Manic Street Preachers were on the show the other week. There you have it then. In the world of TOTP 1992, there was seemingly little difference between house anthems and alternative rock.

“A Deeper Love” peaked at No 15.

It’s the video for Eric Clapton‘s “Tears In Heaven” next. I went into the back story of this one in the last post so I don’t propose to go through it all again now not least because it’s already well known to most people.

However, what I didn’t say was that the track was co-written with one Will Jennings who also wrote “Up Where We Belong” for the soundtrack to An Officer And A Gentleman which was sung by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes. Joe of course was in the Breakers section last week alongside Clapton. Yeah, this little bit of pop trivia really should have gone in last week’s post shouldn’t it. Once again I curse the gods of synchronicity! Jennings also wrote “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic which gave Celine Dion a huge No 1 hit. Maybe any more references to Will Jennings are best left alone then.

“Tears In Heaven” peaked at No 5 in the Uk and No 2 in the US.

The Exclusive performance this week comes from Annie Lennox who is embarking on a solo career after her and Dave Stewart decided to put Eurythmics on an indefinite hiatus. Striking out on her own would prove to be a very successful decision for Annie with debut album “Diva” going four times platinum in the UK. In hindsight it seems ridiculous to imagine anything other than further success for Lennox but I can’t recall whether that was the general perception at the time. Surely Annie herself must have experienced some self doubt given that she had spent the last 15 years working with Dave Stewart? If she did have any nerves about being on stage alone, Annie certainly conquers them in this performance. The closing “You don’t know how I feel” line is delivered with real conviction.

If she did then the chart performance of debut single “Why” must have settled her nerves. A soulful ballad with a hint of gospel with existential dilemma lyrics, it was a hit all around Europe including the UK where it peaked at No 5. Some critics described it as her attempt to write her own version of “My Way”. I’m not sure about that though the first person lyrics give it a very personal touch.

Annie would score a total of eight hit singles throughout the 90s including four Top Tenners.

The Breakers are a bit weird this week. There’s only two of them and they’ve both already been on the show as performances via satellite. U2 were on the 27 Feb show that we missed due to the Adrian Rose issue whilst Mr. Big were only on last week. Were they not actually in the Top 40 when we saw those satellite performances and therefore they’ve been allocated as Breakers because now they are? Seems a bit rum to me.

Anyway, it’s Mr. Big up first with their drippy ballad “To Be With You”. This is the official promo video as opposed to that satellite performance and it’s as dreary as the song. It’s just the band sat around in a railroad car performing the track. Halfway through it changes from black and white to colour. That’s it. Now when I was a student at Poly, we had to make a video as part of one of the course’s modules and one of the visual effects that we used was switching from black and white to colour. It may have even been my idea. However, we were just a bunch of clueless 18 year olds messing about not a professional video director. Surely whoever was for this promo could have come up with something better than this? Very poor.

And so to the twice aforementioned U2. Now there seems to be three different videos for “One”. TOTP shows the version directed by Mark Pellington which has a buffalo running in a field (an image that would be reused for the cover of their second greatest hits album “Best Of 1990 – 2000”). A second video directed by the band’s long time official photographer Anton Corbijn depicted the band in drag and featured Bono’s father Robert Hewson. The video was pulled after the band announced that royalties from the single would go to AIDS charities and they were worried that the drag theme might link AIDS to the gay community in a negative way. Finally a third video was shot by Rattle And Hum director Phil Joanou which was basically Bono sat at a table in a club smoking and drinking interspersed with footage of the gang performing the song.

I have to say that “One” is up there as one of my favourite U2 songs and is certainly my fave from the “Achtung Baby” album. I even performed my own version of it at my guitar class many years ago. Thankfully I don’t think any recordings of it exist. The lyrics resonate with the line ‘We’re one but we’re not the same’ pithily conveying the notion that humanity has to get along for the world to survive. It should surely have been a bigger hit than its No 7 chart peak. Its legacy though has outlasted that commercial peak and it regularly features in various ‘the greatest song of all time’ polls.

Shakespear’s Sister remain at No 1 with “Stay” and this week we get to see its famous video. Inspired by the 50s American independent sci fi film Cat-Women Of The Moon, it depicts Marcella Detroit at the bedside of her comatose lover willing him to regain consciousness before Siobahn Fahey appears as some sort of grim reaper/ angel of death figure come to take him to the after life. A physical fight between Detroit and Fahey ensues (a metaphor for the man’s struggle between life and death presumably) in which the former wins out and her lover awakes. I think it’s the demonic look on Fahey’s face that makes the video so memorable.

As with the video for “November Rain” by Gun N’ Roses last week, this promo was also lampooned by French and Saunders, just as Baddiel and Newman had done.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1GunSteal Your FireNah
2The Wedding PresentThreeEven working in a record shop couldn’t secure me a copy
3Toxic TwoRave GeneratorHell no!
4NirvanaCome As You AreNo
5Clivilles & ColeA Deeper LoveNot for me thanks
6Eric ClaptonTears In HeavenNope
7Annie LennoxWhyNo but my wife had the album
8Mr. BigTo Be With YouNegative
9U2OneNo but I had the album
10Shakespear’s SisterStayI didn’t

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/m0013vgd/top-of-the-pops-12031992

TOTP 05 MAR 1992

Posted on by 80stastic

We’ve missed another Adrian Rose episode and find ourselves in March of 1992 already. That means we missed Everything But The Girl doing “Love Is Strange” from their “Covers EP” which is a downer but never mind as the ‘92 version of me is awaiting my beloved Chelsea playing in an an FA Cup quarter final for the first time in 10 years. The game took place four days after this TOTP was broadcast. It didn’t end well. I had been telling my Our Price colleague Justin all week that our name was on the cup this year. The morning after we lost the replay to Sunderland, he showed me the back page of the paper he was reading that was emblazoned with the headline ‘C-Hell-sea’ and said “name’s not on the cup now”. There was no argument from me. We had proven ourselves to be charlatans once again, coming on like potential cup winners only to be undone by unassuming lower league opponents. And talking of charlatans (ahem)…

After a couple of stand alone singles after the release of debut album “Some Friendly”, The Charlatans were back with a new track as a forerunner of sophomore album “Between 10th And 11th”. That track was lead single “Weirdo”. I didn’t think that much of it at the time but it’s aged pretty well over the intervening 30 years I think. For me this was a period of the band’s career that was all about the consolidation of their breakthrough success and building the foundations for their golden era that was ‘94 to ‘97.

Watching this performance back, their visuals are very Stone Roses whilst their sound comes quite close to Inspiral Carpets with that distinctive organ sound to the fore. Tim Burgess looks positively angelic up there and whilst it’s grossly unfair to compare that look to his present day image (I know I would come up short under such a comparison), I can’t help thinking that his blonde Andy Warhol hairdo is maybe not the route to go. These days of course, Tim is approaching (indie) national treasure status with his Twitter Listening Party endeavours to get us all through lockdown – I got a rather lovely hardback book for Xmas chronicling the best ones.

“Weirdo” peaked at No 19.

When Extreme scored a massive hit in the Summer of ‘91 with acoustic ballad “More Than Words”, it seemed to re-popularise acoustic / stripped back rock songs. In its wake would come “Everybody Hurts” by REM, “Wonderwall” by Oasis, “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” by Green Day and…well…this one. Now I always thought that Mr Big were a hoary old rock band from the 70s who happened to strike it lucky in the early 90s with acoustic soft rock ballad “To Be With You”. It turns out that they’d only formed in 1988 and by the time of their biggest hit had only actually released two albums.

This mega hit came from the second of those called “Lean Into It” (the one with a picture of the 1895 Montparnasse train incident on its cover) but it wasn’t really representative of their usual musical output. They’d made their name as a metal band but so all encompassingly successful was “To Be With You” that you’d be forgiven for thinking they were a one hit wonder. It was No 1 in the US for three weeks and also topped the charts in fifteen other countries (but only No 3 over here). I thought it stank though, its place in the shithouse confirmed by the fact that it was covered by Westlife. Mr Big? I’d rather have Mr Benn thanks.

Ah it’s that “It’s A Fine Day” record by Opus III again. The last time she was on, vocalist Kirsty Hawkshaw entertained us with her ball skills (no sniggering at the back). This time she’s gone all Crazy World Of Arthur Brown and brought us FIRE! For those still unable to let go of the balls though, there’s a graphic homage to their swirlingness displayed on two monitors behind Kirsty. It’s all smoke and mirrors (or balls and fire if you prefer) as this homogenised dance hit wasn’t a patch in the spooky ‘83 original by (simply) Jane.

“It’s A Fine Day” peaked at No 5.

We transition from Opus III to The KLF via a segue made by Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond themselves on Mount Fuji in Japan. As such, they can’t be in the TOTP studio to perform their latest single “America: What Time Is Love?”.

Now Cauty and Drummond can justifiably be criticised for burning a million pounds for the sake of art but they were certainly early adopters of recycling. Sadly their brand of it was never going to help the save the planet as it was their music that they were into reusing. This single was a reworking of their 1990 Top 5 hit “What Time Is Love?” which itself was a remix of its original 1988 acid house version. It would also be their last UK Top 40 hit as The KLF. This wasn’t unexpected though with their retirement from the music business having been spectacularly announced the month before with a violently controversial valedictory performance at The BRITS alongside Extreme Noise Terror.

I think I prefer this more hard rock take on the track to the version that formed part of the ‘Stadium House Trilogy’ with its “Ace Of Spades” riff. The video has the band performing under duress in a storm lashed ship (if it’s meant to be referencing the pilgrims and The Mayflower it looks more like a Viking longboat) with Cauty and Drummond (I assume it’s them under the costumes) looking like Count Binface. Truly bonkers to the very end.

“America: What Time Is Love?” peaked at No 4.

Hear that? It’s the sound of a band breaking through into the mainstream. Crowded House had been in existence for seven years before people’s awareness of them and therefore their popularity mushroomed with the release of the single “Weather With You”. The third single taken from their third studio album “Woodface” was a hit all around Europe but crucially it went Top 10 in the UK where it remains their biggest ever hit. It’s also surely in the top two of their best known songs alongside “Don’t Dream It’s Over”. When the band released their Best Of album “Recurring Dream” in 1996 with the advertising slogan ‘you know more Crowded House songs than you think’, “Weather With You” was the first track on the running order. Surely a deliberate move by their record company.

The track features some distinctive and memorable lyrics including a reference to the address 57 Mount Pleasant Street. Apparently Neil Finn’s sister used to live on Mount Pleasant Road in Auckland, New Zealand though not at No 57. I’m sure I read somewhere that the band tracked down all the residents of the various 57 Mount Pleasant Streets around the world and invited them to a Crowded House gig. Presumably it was a publicity stunt though I can’t find any mention of it online.

Someone said on Twitter that the last time the band appeared on TOTP they had followed The KLF then too. I’m not sure if anything could or should be read into that but it did tickle my curiosity. I like their brief soft shoe shuffle / The Shadows impression at the song’s intro. I wonder if that was premeditated or organic?

Ah, it’s that sunny song by Shanice now. Was “I Love Your Smile” a jolly, bouncy, happy anthem or an insanely annoying piece of pop fluff? It’s a fine line. There’s a rap in the bridge section that wasn’t retained for the radio version (it’s in the video below if you’re interested). Apparently this was standard practice in the US back then to try and broaden a song’s appeal to the various musical genre specific radio stations. The rap was strategically positioned in the song’s structure at the bridge so it could be easily edited out for pop stations but left in for the R&B ones. Further examples include Shanice’s peers like Kym Sims and Ce Ce Peniston. Having listened to the rap, I can see why most radio stations didn’t play the version with it in. It’s pretty cringeworthy and feels very incongruous.

Shanice came to pop fame off the back of a TV career as a child. She was on the show Kids Incorporated and also on a talent show called Star Search. This route to adult celebrity was a well trodden one. The above named shows also helped launch the careers of Britney Spears and Fergie from Black Eyed Peas whilst The Mickey Mouse Club brought the world its first glimpses of Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake as well as the aforementioned Spears. Is there a UK equivalent of this junior star conveyor belt? Yes, we had X Factor and Pop Idol but they had a minimum age requirement that excluded children. The only thing I can come up with is the whole S Club 7 phenomenon which begat S Club Juniors and that doesn’t bear thinking about.

“I Love Your Smile” peaked at No 2.

Four Breakers this week? Gee thanks TOTP producers! And what’s that? Three of them we’ll never see again? FFS! What’s the point then?! What’s that? Just skip them then? If only I could but the completist in me won’t allow that! Better get on with it then. First up is the only Breaker we will see again. It’s also a song with one of the most well known back stories ever.

In March 1991, Eric Clapton’s four year old son Conor died after falling from a window of a 53rd floor New York apartment. Understandably, the tragedy turned Clapton into a recluse for a while and when he did re-emerge it was to score the soundtrack of the film Rush. As part of the creative (and presumably grieving) process, the song “Tears In Heaven” came about. Initially written just to help stop Clapton being engulfed by grief, he eventually agreed to its inclusion in the film on the basis they it might help others going through similar mourning. The track would become one of his biggest ever hits peaking at No 2 in America and No 5 over here. It sold nearly three million physical copies in the US alone and won three Grammys for Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a male artist. The song was a big deal.

Before this TOTP repeat, if asked I would have said that it was the live version he performed for MTV Unplugged that was the single version that was a hit but I’m wrong. The single released to promote his Unplugged album was actually the version of “Layla” that he performed on the show but “Tears In Heaven” was in the B-side which maybe explains my confusion.

Clapton has rightfully received some harsh criticism recently over some of his political views both historical and current but it’s hard not to feel his pain at the circumstances behind this song.

From Eric Clapton to Joe Cocker. The Breakers this week were hardly full of young, hip, happening acts were they? Joe Cocker? What was he doing in the charts? All I really knew about The Cocker at the time was that he was from Sheffield, he was the guy with the growling voice and jerky arm movements who sang on “Up Where We Belong” and that his most famous song was a Beatles cover. I know a bit more now but not much. This track “(All I Know) Feels Like Forever” was from a film called The Cutting Edge which I don’t know at all but that Wikipedia tells me was a romantic comedy about ice skating directed by Paul Michael Glaser aka Starsky from Starsky And Hutch. As well as Joe Cocker, its soundtrack also featured Johnny Winter, Dan Reed Network and bizarrely “Ride On Time” by Black Box. The whole thing sounds a bit niche to me.

The single was a middling hit (No 25) but it rekindled enough interest in Joe to warrant a Best Of album release backed by a TV ad campaign and another hit single in his version of “Unchain My Heart”.

Joe Cocker would die of lung cancer in 2014.

Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker and now Barbara Streisand? Come on now! Look I know Babs is showbiz royalty but this surely is not what the Breakers section was created for?! As with Clapton and Cocker before her, her single “Places That Belong To You” was from a soundtrack the film of which starred Barbara herself. The Prince Of Tides was a romantic drama which saw Streisand star opposite Nick Nolte. I do recall the film being out though I have never seen it and consequently don’t know this song which was her first UK Top 40 entry since her duet with Miami Vice’s Don Johnson on “Till I Loved You” in 1988. One of my wife’s best friends has seen Babs in concert but the tickets are like gold dust apparently and can cost a fortune. Bloody ticket prices eh? Enough is enough I say (ahem).

“Places That Belong To You” peaked at No 17.

Finally! An act that isn’t some old timer flogging a song from a soundtrack! Let’s hear it for Curve! These rather spooky goth rockers are the first of two acts on the show tonight that owe their existence to Dave Stewart of Eurythmics who introduced vocalist Tony Halliday (nothing to do with Spandau Ballet’s lead singer!) to guitarist Dean Garcia. Despite limited commercial success – this single “Fait Accompli” was their biggest hit when it peaked at No 22 – the band did inspire a loyal following and can credibly say that they laid the foundations of success for the likes of Garbage later in the decade.

Curve went in a two year hiatus in 1995 before returning towards the end of the 90s and finally calling it a day in 2005. Both Halliday and Garcia continue to work on music projects.

After the name check for TOTP repeats denier Adrian Rose (Boo! Hiss!) at the top of the post, we arrive at another A.Rose and guess what?! Just like with Adrian, we are once again denied a full 1992 nostalgia experience. Where’s the proper video for “November Rain”?! It’s one of the most expensive music videos ever made and we just get this clip of Axl Rose sitting at a piano?! WTF?! Granted the official promo does have some footage of the band performing the song in a concert setting but this TOTP clip isn’t that.

This was the third single to be released by Guns N’ Roses from their “Use Your Illusion I” album and is just the pinnacle of overblown, overwrought, epic, wide screen panoramic view heavy rock power balladry. Just immense and a personal guilty pleasure. But the video man! It’s nearly as famous as the song. The huge pomposity of the track counter balanced against the sparseness of the desert backdrop and the TARDIS like chapel that appears tiny on the outside but can house a multitude of guests inside. Then the most famous scene of Slash striding outside to let rip that classic rock riff whilst being buffeted by a prairie wind. Quite why he would leave the ceremony directly after performing the Best Man duty of handing over the wedding rings though doesn’t really make any sense but who cares?! The second movement of the song with the strings and the Omen like chants then kicks in to coincide with the bride’s death and funeral. Brilliantly bonkers! Clocking in at 8:57 minutes long, it’s surely one of the longest ever chart hits though it wasn’t even the longest song on the album being beaten to that honour by the 10:14 of “Coma”.

Of course, the absurdity of the whole piece did leave it open to ridicule and ridiculed it was by French and Saunders….

And so we arrive at the second act that came about because of Dave Stewart. It was the hirsute Eurythmic who suggested that Marcella Detroit and his then wife Siobahn Fahey should come together as a band rather than Shakespear’s Sister being a Fahey solo project after witnessing the chemistry between the two in the recording studio. He also co-wrote “Stay” with the pair of course.

Aside from the link between Shakespear’s Sister and Curve there’s also a link between them and another of tonight’s acts as Marcella Detroit also co-wrote and sang on “Lay Down Sally” which was a minor hit for Eric Clapton in 1978. And that will do it for this week’s Shakespear’s Sister entry. Only another five weeks to go! Maybe Adrian Rose will swoop in and take care of at least one of those weeks?

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1The CharlatansWeirdoNo but it’s on my Melting Pot Best Of album of theirs
2Mr BigTo Be With YouAway with you more like! No
3Opus IIIIt’s A Fine DayNope
4The KLFAmerica: What Time Is Love?I did not
5Crowded HouseWeather With YouNo but I had the Woodface album
6ShaniceI Love Your SmileNah
7Eric ClaptonTears In HeavenNo
8Joe Cocker(All I Know) Feels Like ForeverNegative
9Barbara StreisandPlaces That Belong To YouI didn’t even remember it let alone buy it
10CurveFait AccompliIt’s a no
11Guns N’ RosesNovember RainNo but it’s on their Best Of album I have
12Shakespear’s SisterStayThought it was OK but not enough to buy it

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/m0013mbv/top-of-the-pops-05031992