No Mercy

TOTP 1997 – the epilogue

So there goes 1997 – and what a seismic year it was. Labour won the General Election to form a government for the first time in 18 years whilst the end of the British Empire was finally signalled by the return of Hong Kong’s sovereignty to the People’s Republic of China. In other UK news, we got a new terrestrial TV channel for the first time since 1982 when Channel 5 launched. Just beating that event in the time elapsed stakes was the United Kingdom’s victory at the Eurovision Song Contest making us the winners for the first time in sixteen years. Trumping them all though in terms of time past was my beloved Chelsea winning a major trophy for the first time in twenty-six years when they beat Middlesbrough 2-0 in the FA Cup final.

However, one news story would overshadow just about every other as the Summer drew to a close – the death of Princess Diana in a car crash in Paris. Its reverberations were felt in every corner of the planet – one of those global events where you can remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news. It would, of course, have an historic impact on the pop charts as well in the form of the Elton John single “Candle In The Wind 1997 / “Something About The Way You Look Tonight” both the fastest and best selling single of all time in the UK overtaking Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” in the process.

Of course, there was more to the world of pop music in this year than that one single (no matter how many copies it sold). What else happened in the charts? Who were the movers and shakers and which musical trends were in the ascendancy? Well, there is a school of thought that says the Britpop movement officially came to an end this year with the release of the third Oasis album “Be Here Now”. Music critic Jon Savage certainly made that claim citing the weight of expectation crushing both the album and any lingering momentum Britpop may have been clinging on to. The decision of Noel Gallagher to attend a drinks reception at Downing Street at the invitation of newly installed Prime Minister Tony Blair may have also been a final nail in the coffin for what had ostensibly been seen as a working class movement previously.

So if Britpop was fizzling out, what was catching fire? Well, it’s time for a look at those year-end charts again to see if we can make head or tail of them. Here’s the list of the 50 best selling singles of the year:

No.	Title	Artist	Peak position	Sales^[5]
1	“Candle in the Wind 1997“/”Something About the Way You Look Tonight“	Elton John	1	4,770,000
2	“Barbie Girl“	Aqua	1	1,500,000
3	“I’ll Be Missing You“	Puff Daddy & Faith Evansfeaturing 112	1
4	“Perfect Day“	Various Artists	1	1,000,000+
5	“Teletubbies Say Eh-Oh!“	Teletubbies	1
6	“Men in Black“	Will Smith	1
7	“Don’t Speak“	No Doubt	1
8	“Torn“	Natalie Imbruglia	2	813,000
9	“Tubthumping“	Chumbawamba	2
10	“Spice Up Your Life“	Spice Girls	1
11	“MMMBop“	Hanson	1
12	“D’You Know What I Mean?“	Oasis	1
13	“Never Ever“	All Saints	3^[a]
14	“I Believe I Can Fly“	R. Kelly	1
15	“Mama“/”Who Do You Think You Are“	Spice Girls	1
16	“I Wanna Be the Only One“	Eternal featuring BeBe Winans	1	600,000+
17	“Freed from Desire“	Gala	2
18	“Where Do You Go“	No Mercy	2
19	“Sunchyme“	Dario G	2
20	“Free“	Ultra Naté	4
21	“Encore Une Fois“	Sash!	2
22	“Too Much“	Spice Girls	1
23	“Time to Say Goodbye (Con Te Partirò)“	Sarah Brightman & Andrea Bocelli	2
24	“Bellissima“	DJ Quicksilver	4
25	“As Long as You Love Me“	Backstreet Boys	3
26	“Baby Can I Hold You“/”Shooting Star”	Boyzone	2
27	“Ecuador“	Sash! featuring Rodriguez	2
28	“Wind Beneath My Wings“	Steven Houghton	3
29	“Don’t Let Go (Love)“	En Vogue	5
30	“Stay“	Sash! featuring La Trec	2
31	“Lovefool“	The Cardigans	2
32	“The Drugs Don’t Work“	The Verve	1
33	“Tell Him“	Barbra Streisand & Celine Dion	3
34	“Together Again“	Janet Jackson	4
35	“2 Become 1“	Spice Girls	1
36	“You Might Need Somebody“	Shola Ama	4
37	“You’re Not Alone“	Olive	1
38	“Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)“	Backstreet Boys	3
39	“Angels“	Robbie Williams	5^[b]
40	“C U When U Get There“	Coolio featuring 40 Thevz	3
41	“Your Woman“	White Town	1
42	“Never Gonna Let You Go“	Tina Moore	7
43	“Bitter Sweet Symphony“	The Verve	2
44	“Remember Me“	Blue Boy	8
45	“Closer than Close“	Rosie Gaines	4
46	“Stand by Me“	Oasis	2
47	“Professional Widow (It’s Got to Be Big)“	Tori Amos	1
48	“Picture of You“	Boyzone	2
49	“Say What You Want“	Texas	3
50	“I’ll Be There for You“	The Rembrandts	5^[c]

Well, as ever, it’s hard to draw any cast iron conclusions from that about what on earth was going on in the charts in that particular year. My first observation is that the Spice Girls only had one entry in the Top 10 but I think that was a scheduling issue with “2 Become 1” and “Too Much” suffering from having sales over two calendar years as Christmas No 1s. It certainly didn’t mean the UK were bored of them yet – they had two albums in the Top 5 best selling albums of the year. However, 1998 would be a difficult year for the group with the departure of Geri Halliwell and negative reviews of their Spice World film.

Looking more closely at the make up of the Top 10, I think they break down like this:

two charity records in “Candle In The Wind 1997” and “Perfect Day”
a novelty record (the Teletubbies) which could be two if you include “Barbie Girl” in that category which I think I do
a hit from a successful film (“Men In Black”)
a rap tribute track that was based around a No 1 from a 1983 No 1 hit (Puff Daddy)
a debut single from another Australian soap actor turned pop star (Natalie Imbruglia)
a ska-punk/ new wave band who turned up a mainstream crossover monster (No Doubt)
a most unlikely drinking anthem courtesy of an anarcho-punk band who’s been around for 15 years by this point (“Tubthumping”)

I would argue that the two most unexpected artists in that list are Chumbawamba and No Doubt in terms of ‘who saw them coming?’. The rest of the Top 50 includes over a dozen hits by artists whom I would qualify as being dance acts which seems to accurately reflect the weekly content of the charts. Special mention should go to Sash! for having three entries in the Top 50. As for Britpop, it is noted only by its absence. Oasis have two entries (“D’You Know What I Mean?” at No 12 and “Stand By Me” at No 46) whilst the only other artist that could possibly be put in that bracket (however much they may not have wanted to be) was The Verve who also had two songs on the list in “Bitter Sweet Symphony” (No 43) and “The Drugs Don’t Work” (No 32). In more general terms, sales of the single format remained healthy with each No 1 single in every week from late June onwards selling at least 100,000 copies per week. There were also 24 different No 1s, the same as the previous year and twice the amount in 1992 and that’s allowing for the fact that Puff Daddy was at the top for six weeks (over two separate periods), Elton John for five weeks, Aqua for four and Will Smith for four.

If we examine the best selling albums chart, you’d be forgiven for discounting everything I said about Britpop being over as Oasis and The Verve took the top two positions. It didn’t feel like that though. The former’s “Be Here Now” numbers seemed like the final hurrah of a sales phenomenon – certainly the album’s legacy doesn’t match its commercial performance. As for The Verve’s “Urban Hymns”, the presence of two of the most iconic singles of the decade in its track listing caused a massive crossover into the mainstream that few would have foreseen based on their previous back catalogue.

The rest of the Top 10 seemed more predictable on first glance but actually wasn’t. Sure, both the Spice Girls albums are in there but who saw such a successful return by Texas coming? The same can’t be said for Celine Dion for whom the services of a crystal ball were not required but both The Prodigy and Radiohead (the latter with one of the most revered albums of all time) were most definitely not conventional chart stars. The final two places went to the only Greatest Hits albums in the Top 10 courtesy of Eternal (presumably helped by the popularity of their No 1 single “I Wanna Be The Only One”) and, in a retro style, Wham! despite the fact that they split up eleven years prior. Elsewhere in the list, it was all very as you were with established artists like M People, Jamiroquai, The Beautiful South, Madonna and Enya all featuring via their latest album. A mention in dispatches for the Lighthouse Family who had two albums between Nos 11 and 14. Rubbing salt in Blur’s wound was the fact that, after being crushed by the sales of “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?” in the war with Oasis, their eponymous fifth album could only manage a year end position of No 29 (despite having topped the charts on release) whilst “Be Here Now” was the best seller of 1997 with 1.5 million units shifted.

And what of TOTP? Well, 1997 saw a change of Executive Producer with Ric Blaxill departing after three years at the helm to be replaced by Chris Cowey who had made his name at Channel 4 working on The Tube and The White Room. A new name at the top meant a new approach and Cowey would ditch the ‘golden mic’ celebrity presenters in favour of a rotating roster of fixed presenters pulled from the BBC’s youth entertainment show The O–Zone. Enter Jayne Middlemiss and Jamie Theakston to join the retained Radio 1 DJs Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball. Further changes would be made in 1998 with more new presenters, a revitalised theme tune plus a 60s inspired logo and title sequence but that’s all for another time.

Hits That Never Were

Not as many entries in this section as in past years. Not sure if that is significant or not.

Edward Ball – “The Mill Hill Self Hate Club”

Released: Apr ’97

Chart Peak: Did not chart but peaked at No 57 on first release in ’96

Not to be confused with Ed Balls the ex-politician, TV presenter and initiator of ‘Ed Balls Day’ via an erroneous tweet, Edward Ball was the overlooked man of Creation Records. Whilst an infatuated UK couldn’t get enough of Oasis, Edward was quietly releasing some quality tunes that were shamefully ignored by the public. I include myself in that category as I have only discovered his music in the past couple of years but it was worth the wait.

“The Mill Hill Self Hate Club” was initially released in 1996 when it made it to No 57 in the charts but was given a rerelease in 1997 hence its presence here. A marvellously tuneful pop romp that should have been perfect for daytime radio in the style of Dodgy but somehow it never happened. The video features a number of well known faces including Creation founder Alan McGee, Hurricane #1 guitarist and future Oasis member Andy Bell, *Chelsea footballer and indie music enthusiast Graeme Le Saux and – hallelujah – the greatest living Englishman Nick Heyward who was signed to Creation at the time. As if that wasn’t enough, the wonderful Anna Friel makes a cameo at the video’s beginning and end!

*I’m wondering if Edward is a fan of my beloved Chelsea FC as the video features a picture on the wall of their 1970 FA Cup win plus the presence of Le Saux of course. In addition to that, Nick Heyward has a song on his “Apple Bed” album called “The Chelsea Sky” and Edward’s single before this was called “Love Is Blue”.

Nick Heyward – “Today”

Released: Jun ’97

Chart Peak: Did not chart

So, it’s time for the usual check-in with the aforementioned Nick Heyward to see what he’d been up to this year. Well, he hadn’t been testing on his laurels. After releasing his second album of the 90s in 1995 with “Tangled” (which had given him his first UK Top 40 single for twelve years in “Rollerblade”), he left Epic Records and signed to Creation (hence his appearance in the Edward Ball video presumably). Surely being on the coolest label, the label that helped Oasis achieve so much success, would mean Nick would regain his rightful place in the hearts and charts of the UK. Not a bit of it. He released two singles in this year to trail his wonderful “Apple Bed” album and they both sank without trace.

“Today” was the first of those, a blistering power-pop track complete with wah-wah guitar solo in the instrumental break – it was a bold statement. That it floundered completely says everything about the record buying public and nothing about Nick’s songwriting. How he failed to find commercial success with any of his three 90s albums in the age of Britpop is staggering especially with the last of those released on the ultimate Britpop label. Nick continues to tour constantly both as a solo act and as part of the reactivated Haircut 100 but has only released three albums in the last 27 years with the most recent being 2017’s “Woodland Echoes”.

ABC – “Skyscraping”

Released: May ’97

Chart Peak: No 93

By 1997, ABC hadn’t released an album for six years and were now down to just one original member of the classic line up – lead singer Martin Fry after Mark White had left the band to pursue interests outside of the music industry. Teaming up with Heaven 17’s Glenn Gregory, Fry came back with the album “Skyscraping” which was a critical success but a commercial flop. I’m not sure why as the three singles lifted from it were all good, solid, proper pop tunes. The title track gets the nod for this section as it’s a typically grandiose ABC number with sweeping strings and a poised vocal from Martin. I have to say that Fry doesn’t maybe get the credit he deserves sometimes. He’s still out there touring constantly and has even found time to revisit the classic “Lexicon Of Love” album to produce a second volume. In spite of all this, his voice still sounds on point unlike some of his contemporaries. I caught him on tour around this time at the Manchester Academy and he was great with this song a highlight. Good on you Martin!

Goldblade – “Strictly Hardcore”

Released: Mar ’97

Chart Peak: No 64

This one made the cut not because I was a particular fan but because I was working at the time with the sister of one of the band members so I heard a lot about them. Goldblade were/are a hardcore art punk band from Manchester formed in 1995 by John Robb, once of The Membranes and now a respected and published author and journalist. He also makes occasional appearances as a music commentator in the media – I say ‘occasional’ but he seems to be the resident go to talking head on these retrospective music list shows that are normally on Channel 5. He’s always on – it’s become a standing joke in our house. I find him a bit annoying if I’m honest and his book about The Stone Roses was repetitive and not well edited in my opinion. However, he is credited with coining the phrase ‘Britpop’. Or was that Stuart Maconie?

Anyway, back in 1997, Rob’s band Goldblade featured Jay Taylor on guitar whose sister Beth I worked with at the Our Price in Stockport. Beth had her own band Dumb who were regulars on the live music scene in Manchester in the 90s whose sound was compared to that of US hardcore band Fugazi. I think Jay may have even been a floating member of Dumb as well. They released a few singles and a couple of albums and did a session for John Peel too. I saw them live once and although the music wasn’t really my bag, they were exhilarating to watch.

Goldblade had two UK chart entries the highest peaking of which was “Strictly Hardcore” which, in fairness, is actually a great song. Octane-fuelled and relentless of pace, it belts along cracking the whip as it goes. There’s even some Dexy’s style horns at the end. They are still an on-off entity, occasionally playing live gigs though they have gone on the back burner whilst Robb reactivated the Membranes.

Hits We Missed

We missed loads of TOTP repeats for this year due to the Puff Daddy/R Kelly issue and consequently lots of performances so I’m going to have to be selective about which ones feature in this section else I’ll never get this post finished. Some of the hits we missed were some of the most prominent of the decade like Blur’s “Song 2” and “Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve but so much has been written about them already that I’m not going to add my insignificant tuppence worth. Instead I’ve picked out five, four of which we didn’t see because they didn’t warrant a TOTP appearance as opposed to the show not being repeated.

Candyskins – “Monday Morning”

Released: Feb ’97

Chart Peak: No 34

Just as Edward Ball was the overlooked man of Creation Records, so The Candyskins were the almost forgotten men of the ‘Oxford scene’ that brought us Radiohead and Supergrass. By 1997, despite being hailed by the music press as one of the seminal bands of the early stages of Britpop, The Candyskins had already released two albums to limited interest from the record buying public. After leaving record label Geffen due to a dispute over royalties, their album “Sunday Morning Fever” was released on Ultimate and gave the band their only UK Top 40 single “Monday Morning”. As with Edward Ball, this should have been massive on the radio but I don’t remember hearing it much back then. A breezy, guitar driven track with a jaunty chorus, it could certainly have lived with “Alright” by the aforementioned Supergrass.

Bizarrely, the title “Monday Morning” seemed to be a flame to the moths of Britpop. Not only did The Candyskins write a song of that name but Rialto had a minor hit in this year also called “Monday Morning 5.19”. And we’re still not done. There’s a track on Pulp’s “Different Class” album called “Monday Morning” too.

Lamb – “Gorecki”

Released: Mar ’97

Chart Peak: No 30

If you think of the trip-hop movement, where and who comes to mind first? Bristol and Portishead? Tricky? I bet it’s not Lamb and Manchester but they definitely deserve a name check. OK, I m not sure that they would want to be definitively defined as a trip-hop artist per se as there were elements of jazz and drum and bass in their work but if you listen to their biggest hit “Górecki” you can understand why they are categorised as such. Inspired by Henryk Górecki’s “Third Symphony”, check out some of the comments on YouTube about it. Superlative after superlative – ‘timeless’, ‘perfection’, ‘incredible’, ‘beautiful’, ‘unparalleled’, ‘masterpiece’…my wife was one of those using such descriptions as she bought the single (well, I did for her on my staff discount). It is certainly an affecting track and one that you can hear being a left field ‘our tune’ for the want of a better phrase.

And yet…what I remember most about this track is punters asking for that song ‘Goreki’ as opposed to ‘Goretski’. And yes I realise how snobby that sounds! The track would go on to be used in various TV shows, movies and video games including Torchwood, Moulin Rouge and Tomb Raider. Lamb spilt in 2004 before reconvening five years later. Three studio albums later, they are currently inactive.

Travis – “Happy”

Released: Oct ’97

Chart Peak: No 38

It’s my understanding that in 1999, Scottish band Travis almost single-handedly kept record shop chain Our Price (for whom I was working) from going to the wall with the sales of their sophomore album “The Man Who”. So perilous were the company’s finances that the cash injection supplied by the phenomenal success of the album was crucial in keeping the wolf from the door. Of course, that could all just be a myth but it’s what I heard. If it seems a like an unlikely tale then so is the rise of Travis from Britpop also-ran to multi platinum selling band within two years.

Back in 1997, they’d just released their debut album to mixed reviews and inconsistent sales. Their first four singles had peaked at Nos 39, 40, 30 and 38. It was hardly ground breaking stuff. “Happy” was the last of those and is a robust and at times soaring rock/pop track that maybe fell between the gaps when it came to airplay. Too rocky for daytime but not rock enough for the specialist stations. We had a promo sampler of the album to be played in store which I nabbed and would lead me to purchase the proper album eventually. It’s a far harder sound than the one which they conquered the UK with on their follow up but I think I actually prefer it (although I did like “The Man Who” as well).

I’m pretty sure I caught them live before they made it big supporting Nick Heyward at the Manchester Academy but I definitely saw them just as they were taking off at the same venue which must have been a couple of years later. Nowadays, they’ve become a byword for naff which seems unfair as Fran Healy is a decent songwriter although he did nick the chords from “Wonderwall” for the hit “Writing To Reach You” albeit that he does acknowledge that with a reference to the Oasis classic in the lyrics.

Ben Folds Five – “Battle Of Who Could Care Less”

Released: Mar ’97

Chart Peak: No 26

In 2004, much was made of Keane’s debut album “Hopes And Fears” and quite rightly too as it’s a fine album full of swooping, epic pop songs. However, what people mostly seemed to be talking about was the fact that the music was very heavily piano-led leading to the band being dubbed ‘the band with no guitars’. It seemed to me that this approach was being described as revolutionary and yet they weren’t the first band to adopt such a style. Ben Folds Five were from Chapel Hill, North Carolina and opted to exclude lead guitars from their music to focus on piano, bass and drums. This, allied to their quirky humour (there were only three members of Ben Folds Five for example), clever arrangements and vocal harmonies, made them standout in the 90s alt-rock scene. They crossed over into mainstream success with second album “Whatever And Ever Amen” which featured lead single “Battle Of Who Could Care Less”. I was immediately drawn to the song’s unusual title and was rewarded for my interest by a clever, biting yet melodic track which sounded like nothing else in the charts. It shouldn’t really have been a hit given its polarity to its contemporaries but thankfully it was. The band have split and reformed numerous times with Folds pursuing a solo career in between.

Echo & The Bunnymen – “Nothing Lasts Forever”

Released: Jun ’97

Chart Peak: No 8

Finally, we end this section with a hit we should have see as it made it onto TOTP but were denied due to the Puff Daddy/R Kelly issue. As with Texas this year, the revitalisation of Echo & The Bunnymen was surely not on anyone’s 90s bingo card. After Ian McCulloch left the band in 1988, the three remaining members had committed to carrying on but having recruited a replacement singer (as if McCulloch could ever be replaced) their plans were destroyed by the death of drummer Pete de Freitas in an RTA aged just 27. A psychedelic tinged album called “Reverberation” was released in 1990 to apathy from the fanbase and just about zero sales. As guitarist Will Sergeant observed, it seemed that the world wasn’t interested in Echo & The Bunnymen without Mac there and the band duly split.

McCulloch would record two well received though equally poor selling solo albums before reuniting with Sergeant to record new material under the name Electrafixion but it would take bassist Les Pattinson’s decision to rejoin the fold to prompt the return of Echo & The Bunnymen and what a return it was with the album “Evergreen” going Top 10 as did lead single “Nothing Lasts Forever”. This was one of those songs that felt like an instant classic the very first time you heard it. An indie rock anthem with a hint of melancholy about it, this was such a strong comeback. Its poignancy was confirmed by the fact that both Janice Long and Christian O’Connell played it as the final song in their last ever shows for Radio 2 and Absolute Radio respectively. Not that it needed it but the presence on backing vocals of Noel Gallagher probably added to its appeal for some. The band have released six albums since then and remain a big pull on the live circuit.

Their Season In The Sun

Hanson

A classic case of ‘the only way is down’ after their first single went to No 1 around the world. “MMMBop” was one of the catchiest hits of the decade but all anybody wanted to really talk about was how young the trio of brothers were. Two more hits followed before the year was out but nothing they released could top their debut. The band are still together though and in 2023 collaborated with Busted on their cover of that song which was retitled “MMMBop 2.0”. It isn’t the only cover in existence – as of 2016 there were 93,000 versions of it on YouTube.

Not as controversial nor as successful as German producer Frank Farian’s other group projects Boney M and Milli Vanilli, this American trio briefly found fame in 1997 when they combined flamenco guitars with a Eurodance beat which saw their song “Where Do You Go” become a hit in the UK, the US and Europe. We especially couldn’t get enough of it and bought enough copies for it to spend nine consecutive weeks inside the Top 10. Two more charting singles followed before the craze burnt out and the hits dried up.

Chumbawamba

It seems unfair to include these anarcho-punks in this section but the truth is that their 30 year career can be condensed into just one hit for the vast majority of people. “Tubthumping”was everywhere in the late Summer and Autumn of 1997 and even its lyric about being ‘knocked down’ set against the backdrop of the death of Princess Diana in a car crash couldn’t dent its popularity. In truth, there were a couple more hits including a World Cup song meaning they weren’t a one hit wonder but really their legacy to everyone outside of their fanbase is that No 2 hit. Indeed, it is so well known that the far right have attempted to hijack it for their political campaigns (Trump in 2016 and New Zealand’s Winston Peters in 2024) resulting in cease and desist letters being sent from the band. Quite right too.

White Town

Now this lot definitely were a one hit wonder and a definitive example of it at that- a solitary smash that was a No 1 and then absolutely nothing. I say ‘this lot’ but it was really just Jyoti Prakash Mishra who gave the world “Your Woman”, a distinctive dance number that didn’t sound like anything you’d ever heard before despite sampling British bandleader Lew Stone’s treatment of the 1932 song “My Woman” featuring vocals by Al Bowlly – not that many who bought it would have been familiar with a 65 year old song. The gender identity swapping lyrics allied to its insanely catchy hooks caused a brief sensation but a follow up single failed to make the Top 40 and White Town’s fame was over almost before it had begun. However, “Your Woman”’s legacy was given a boost in 2020 when Dua Lipa sampled the same trumpet hook featured in it in her song “Love Again”

The Supernaturals

Some of the finest power pop melodies of the year were provided by this Glasgow outfit who scored three Top 40 hits and a Top 10 album in this year. Sadly, they couldn’t consolidate on that success and it was a case of diminishing returns from there on in and they split in 2002. However, since reforming in 2012 they have continued to be active on the festival scene and have supported the likes of Sleeper and Embrace. Their two most well known songs “The Day Before Yesterday’s Man” and “Smile” have outlived their initial chart lives by being used to soundtrack banking TV adverts and appeared in TV series like Teachers and Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights and the film Shooting Fish.

Last Words

So, 1997 – we are done with you but you were quite the year. On a personal level, it was pretty significant. I went to China (!), I was the manager of a record shop (albeit for a few months as a stand in until somebody else was appointed permanently) and I finally witnessed my beloved Chelsea win a major trophy. It wasn’t all good though. This was the year my mental health started to dip and it would turn into a full blown crisis in 1998…

TOTP 23 MAY 1997

Posted on March 3 by 80stastic

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

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

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

RIP Rick Buckler

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

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

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

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

TOTP 31 AUG 1995

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

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

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

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

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

*They actually divorced in 1990

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

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

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

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0028620/top-of-the-pops-23051997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 14 MAR 1997

Posted on February 7 by 80stastic

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

14 – 12 – 12 – 12 – 13

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0027fvz/top-of-the-pops-14031997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 14 FEB 1997

Posted on January 26 by 80stastic

It’s Valentine’s Day in 1997 so no doubt the charts (and therefore the TOTP running order) will be full of romantic love songs. Erm…no. Of the nine songs on tonight’s show, I’d say only one is an out and out slushy ballad. The rest…well, some are almost anti-love songs but we’ll get to them soon enough. The host tonight is doubtless the target of many a young girl’s romantic intentions in Peter Andre who, the last time he was the presenter, did a pretty good job it pains me to say. As for me, what was my Valentine’s Day like? Well, according to my diary, I was stressed out at work and my wife was away for the weekend in London so I spent it on my own in front of the TV which seems apt for this most unromantic of shows.

So, kicking us off are Mansun with the lead track from their “Five EP” called “She Makes My Nose Bleed”. Yeah, it’s not the most loved up song title ever and neither is its sound and thank god for that. Taken from their brilliant No 1 album “Attack Of The Grey Lantern”, this was 90s indie rock at its very best. They always sounded like they had such sonic power but that they hadn’t even got out of second gear yet and there was so much more under the bonnet. The day after this TOTP aired, I saw them on that tour with Suede that Peter Andre mentioned in Blackburn with my mate Steve. Given that their single was in the Top 10 at the time, I’m surprised that they were the support act. Presumably the tour had been booked loads earlier when their profile wasn’t as big but they were now contractually bound to complete it in the support slot? Later in this year I convinced another mate called Pete to buy “Attack Of The Grey Lantern” even though he wasn’t familiar with it promising him that it might take a little while to get into but that the pay off when he did would be worth it. He never did tell me if he liked it or not.

Now here’s a nice heartthrob singer for Valentine’s Day but his song isn’t a big ballad either. Mark Owen was possibly actively trying to shed that teen pin up status he’d acquired as part of Take That and be seen as a serious artist – he had written all but two tracks on his debut album “Green Man” after all. “Clementine” was the second single taken from that album and would peak at No 3, just as his debut single “Child” (which had been a big ballad) had done.

I recall that we sold out of the single in the Our Price I was working in during that first week of release. I don’t think it had been our fault per se – I think the initial quantities (the so called ‘scale out’) ordered in for us by the buying department at Head Office hadn’t been big enough. Maybe they’d been deceived by the poor sales performance of “Green Man” which had struggled to a chart peak of No 33. Consequently, perhaps they’d not banked on a second single taken from it charting so high. In fairness to the company buyers, they’d would prove to be ultimately right as Owen’s third single “I Am What I Am” (not that one) would flop when it peaked at No 29 – they’d just gone one single too early. Mark would subsequently be dropped by his label RCA. He wouldn’t reappear as a solo artist until 2003 when the aptly titled sophomore album “In Your Own Time” was released. I’d liked “Child” but “Clementine” seems a bit one dimensional – it was just all about that elongated chorus with the rest of it a bit pedestrian. More ‘Oh my, disappointing’ than ‘oh my darling’ Clementine.

Definitely not a slushy love song for Valentine’s Day was “Remember Me” by Blue Boy. I’m wondering if punters referred to it as “That song that goes ‘ging, gi-gi-gi-gi-ging’” when asking for it in their local record shops. I can’t recall if I was asked for it like that in the Our Price in Stockport but it’s quite possible. Other songs that people asked for not by their title would be “Gypsy Woman” by Crystal Waters (“that one that goes ‘la da dee, la da da’”) and “Song 2” by Blur (“it has a bit in it that goes ‘woo hoo!’”).

Ah, here’s the one and only slushy ballad on the show despite it being broadcast on Valentine’s Day. This was just shameless! OTT (not to be confused with the early 80s late night version of Tiswas) were another Irish boyband who clearly were modelled on Boyzone so much so that their debut hit was an Osmonds cover just as their predecessors’ had been. Talk about obvious! Whilst Ronan et al had taken on “Love Me For A Reason” which had been a chart topper in 1974, OTT went with “Let Me In”, a No 2 hit in the UK in 1973. You can’t tell me this wasn’t just cynically following a boy band blueprint step by step, detail by detail! Oh and look, they’re kitted out in that boyband cliché of all white outfits! They weren’t even that good looking were they? There’s one who seems to have modelled his hairstyle to match that of tonight’s host Peter Andre with those horrible greasy strands hanging down. How did their record label Epic think anyone would fall for this but they did! “Let Me In” would go to No 12 in the UK charts after being a No 2 hit in Ireland. This was the first of four hits they would manage over the next 12 months before Epic lost faith and dropped them. There’s five of them in this performance but one of them left the band at some point as there’s a line up of four on their album cover. Two of them did have interesting names – Niall O’Neill and Alan Mates who really should have had the nickname ‘Billy No’ but was known as ‘Adam’ within the band. They couldn’t sent even get nicknames right!

Next up is a track that fuses a hard rock guitar riff (courtesy of Van Halen), drum ‘n’ bass breakbeats, some reggae dub flourishes and a sample from a 1971 sci-fi film (The Andromeda Strain) – yep, to quote Bon Jovi, this ain’t a love song either. Apollo Four Forty’s biggest hit to this point had been the No 23 placing “Krupa” but “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Dub” would seem them crack the Top 10 for the first time. Now, this was never going to be my cup of tea but I can appreciate it for being experimental, pioneering and pushing the boundaries of dance music composition.

Unlike Orbital the other week, the track lent itself more to a ‘traditional’ performance if that’s the right word. I guess it is in that there a vocalist (of sorts) and a guitarist and a drummer (two drummers actually – very Adam and the Ants). Apparently, the guy on the mike is the frontman for 80s ‘grebo’ band Gaye Bikers On Acid but he’s giving me Alex Mann vibes in his Fluminense football shirt. Who’s Alex Mann? This guy of course…

We’ve seen three of the last four hits before on the show so I might have to skip through these without too much comment. What I will say is that two of the artists have amazing longevity. The first of those is Depeche Mode who when you consider had already been having hits for 16 years back in 1997 and are still going today in 2025…well, you don’t have to be a maths genius to work out how long they’ve been around for. Not bad for a band that started out as teen, synth pop stars in frilly shirts. However, if I hear the phrase “Barrel Of A Gun”, the song that comes to my mind isn’t from Depeche Mode but this…

I can’t help it, I’m a product of my era and the songs that we grew up with are the ones that stick in our heads. No, really. There’s been scientific studies conducted into it – it’s called the ‘reminiscence bump’ so it’s not my fault. Look it up if you don’t believe me. I’m not consciously choosing John Farnham over (this era of) Depeche Mode, it’s been psychologically engineered within me.

No! Mercy please! Not this lot again! Not a third time! What am I supposed to say about this Spanish guitar influenced Eurodance trash? No Mercy were the creation of Frank Farian who gave us Boney M and if you were a child growing up in the 70s then they were a huge presence in your fledgling years (it’s that ‘reminiscence bump’ again). However, he also gave us Milli Vanilli and their lip-syncing, deceiving ways and then this trio of berks and their single “Where Do You Go” so his strike rate wasn’t the best. What I wasn’t aware of before now was that a biopic of the Milli Vanilli story was made in 2023 called Girl You Know It’s True but I guess it’s quite the story to be told – success followed by scandal followed by tragedy. I can’t imagine a film about the No Mercy story being made anytime soon.

There’s a lot to unpack with this next hit starting with who does the lead singer remind me of? I refer to Mark Oliver Everett aka ‘E’ who’d released two albums as a solo artist under that pseudonym in the early 90s before putting together the band Eels. It’ll come to me. Anyway, “Novocaine For The Soul” was the lead single from the band’s debut album “Beautiful Freak” and made the Top 10 in the UK straight off the bat. A great, quirky alt-rock song in the vein of Beck or Presidents Of The USA, it was a perfect antidote to all that generic dance crap in the charts at the time. What should have been a time of great excitement due to this success was tempered though by personal tragedy in Everett’s life. Having already suffered the trauma of finding his father, a prominent quantum physicist, dead at home when he was just 19, he then lost his sister to suicide and his mother to cancer between 1996 and 1998. Three years later, his flight attendant cousin was killed during the terrorist attacks in the US in 2001 when on the plane that was flown at the Pentagon. Everett seemed to process all this tragedy by writing songs – to date the Eels have released 17 studio albums!

Although the band’s line up has fluctuated over the years, Everett has remained the one constant presence, much like Mike Scott in The Waterboys or Matt Johnson in The The. Some of the names (or rather nicknames) of those other band members deserve some recognition. Look at these:

The Chet
Koool G Murder
P-Boo
Knuckles
Big/Krazy/Tiny/Honest/Upright/Royal Al
Butch

Take note OTT. That’s how you do nicknames! As for this performance, what was all that with the toy instruments all about? Apparently, they hadn’t told anyone they were going to smash them up at the end – was it meant to be a send up of The Who or someone like that? It wasn’t really working for me until they all did the little bow at the end which turned it from childish to comic.

Got it! ‘E’ reminds me of this guy. It’s E for Epithemiou!

U2 are, along with Depeche Mode, that other band with amazing longevity and this week, rather predictably what with being the biggest band in the world and all, at No 1. “Discothèque” is the song they gave them their third chart topper after “Desire” in 1988 and “The Fly” in 1991. It may have been the band’s third hit to get to the pinnacle but for the record buying public it was the sixth different No 1 single in as many weeks. Was it devaluing that achievement? It felt like it to me but then I was working from inside the trend in a record shop so was looking at it from a business perspective. Kind of sums up this Valentine’s Day show – all very business like with little romance in the air.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Mansun	She Makes My Nose Bleed	No but I had their album
2	Mark Owen	Clementine	Nah
3	Blue Boy	Remember Me	Yes – I bought the 12″ for my wife
4	OTT	Let Me In	No chance
5	Apollo Four Forty	Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Dub	Nope
6	Depeche Mode	Barrel Of A Gun	I did not
7	No Mercy	Where Do You Go	Never
8	Eels	Novocaine For The Soul	No but I had it on one of those Best Album Ever compilations
9	U2	Discothèque	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/m0026zt9/top-of-the-pops-14021997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 31 JAN 1997

Posted on January 21 by 80stastic

I’ve referred back to my diary again for inspiration for this post. You may remember that I rediscovered my 1996 one a while back but it carries on into 1997 and up to the month of May when I finally got fed up of it. It turns out that the day after this TOTP aired, we had a stocktake at the Our Price in Stockport where I was working. When I first joined the record retailer back in 1990, stocktakes were events that were talked about in legendary terms as to how long they took with tales of them going on well into the early hours of the morning. I would come to realise that this was the more experienced members of staff winding us newbies up. That’s not to say that they didn’t go on and on sometimes. This particular one wasn’t finished until 9.00 on a Saturday night. However, Stockport was a big store over two floors – one of the smaller shops in the area wouldn’t have taken half as long. There was a rumour once that one store completed its stocktake before it had even closed its doors and stopped trading for the day which seemed to undermine the point of the exercise to me. There were two different types of stocktake as I recall – a financial one and a unit count one. By 1997, the stock inventory had been computerised and so we had little mobile scanners to read the barcode and tell us exactly what we had in the store rather than just a number of CDs for example. These then had to be uploaded to the system once an area of the shop had been counted before they could be recalibrated and put to counting again. Someone had to be nominated to do that stock controller job who was normally a member of management so it could well have been me as Assistant Manager on this occasion. My diary tells me that we all trooped off to the pub once the stocktake was done as was tradition. Presumably all of the songs on this episode of TOTP will have been counted in that stocktake.

Tonight’s guest host is Slade legend Noddy Holder who had left the band five years previously and started on a radio and TV career – within two years he would be starring in ITV comedy/drama series The Grimleys. I served Noddy once in my early Our Price days and I was delighted that his credit card has the name N Holder emblazoned on it thinking that the ‘N’ referred to Noddy when in fact it was the initial of his actual name Neville. Doh! I’m guessing that apart from maybe a Greatest Hits CD, we wouldn’t have had any Slade albums in store to count at the stocktake.

We start tonight with Placebo and their hit “Nancy Boy”. During the course of my research on this one (I do do research – I can’t rely on my fading memory to come up with anecdotes constantly), I came across a rather sad story about the boy who was on the cover of Placebo’s debut album. His name is David Fox and he was just 12 years old when his cousin took a photo of him pulling a face one day. The next thing he knew, said cousin had licensed the photos to Placebo’s record label Virgin and his picture adorned the cover of the album, billboards, the sides of buses etc. Cool eh? Well no, actually. David suffered from bullying at school as a result of his fame and ended up being ostracised by his former mates. He eventually went through a number of different schools, didn’t take his GCSEs and ended up being unemployed. In 2012, it was reported that he was intending to sue the band for ruining his life and unpaid royalties. I’m not sure what the outcome was but a year later, he did appear on the ‘Identity Parade’ section of Never Mind The Buzzcocks pulling that same face so I’m guessing he didn’t feel as litigious as he once had. I hope he got an appearance fee at least.

Next up is perhaps the laziest and most obvious choice of single of the decade. Now I’m not a particular fan of Gabrielle but I can admire her longevity and the career that she has built off the back of what could have been one hit wonder status. After her debut hit “Dreams” shot to No 1 in 1993, there was a school of thought that said the only way from that peak was down but Gabrielle refused to conform to that stereotype and followed it with a clutch of charting singles and a Top 10 album in “Find Your Way”. An eponymous, sophomore album followed in 1996 which was certified platinum in the UK and the end of that year saw her rise to No 2 with her duet with East 17 of the Shai track “If You Ever”. Big props to her.

However, the decision by her (or more likely her record label) to then release a cover version of “Walk On By” lacked any integrity or creativity but was surely financially driven. I’m not sure if Noddy was right in what he said in his intro – that the song had been covered over 200 times – but it is surely one of the best known tunes of all time and it is certainly true that it had already been a hit a number of times before Gabrielle got to it. The original version of the Bacharach and David classic was recorded by Dionne Warwick in 1963 but since then it had been covered by Gloria Gaynor, The Stranglers, Average White Band and D-Train. Then, as recently as 1990, it had been a No 6 hit for American singer Sybil. Given all of this, did we really need another version of it courtesy of Gabrielle? This was a cynical, money for old rope move. Supposedly, the idea for her to record it came about when she’d performed it in an episode of TFI Friday on which she was a guest and which Bacharach was in the audience for. His seal of approval of Gabrielle’s version convinced record label Go!Beat to milk the cash cow that had been presented before them and wallop! It was back in the Top 10 again. Such was their desire to fleece the record buying public that it was added as an extra track (along with “If You Ever”) to her album which was rereleased. Money grabbing swines! It’s such an ordinary version of the song as well which added nothing to it at all to my ears. At least The Stranglers did something different with it.

Despite the expense of the recent festive period, January 1997 must have been a busy time for the country’s nightclubs if the UK Top 40 was any sort of gauge. The upper end of the chart was jam packed with dance tunes. Tori Amos and White Town had both been at No 1 whilst Lisa Stansfield and remix team The Dirty Rotten Scoundrels had taken the old Coldcut hit “People Hold On” to No 4. And the there was this – “Remember Me” by Blue Boy otherwise known as the ‘Ging Ginner’ song. Blue Boy was British DJ Alexis ‘Lex’ Blackmore who took a sample of a track called “Woman Of The Ghetto” by American jazz, blues and soul singer Marlena Shaw and ‘funked’ it up for want of a better word to create a memorable dance floor filler. A scat version of that sample of the original track formed the distinctive ‘ging gi-gi-gi-gi-ging’ hook. In my head, this got as high as those other dance hits I mentioned earlier but Wikipedia tells me that it peaked at No 8. Told you I had to do research and not rely on my memory!

My rediscovery of Skunk Anansie continues at pace. “Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good)” was their fifth hit single in a twelve month period and I’ve pretty much liked them all despite only recalling “Weak” before rewatching the TOTP repeats that featured them. If the band could be said to have a gentler side then this was it. A less abrasive sound than some of their other songs albeit that Skin’s powerful vocals are still to the forefront and there’s a bit of wah-wah guitar in the middle eight.

Inevitably when you have such a striking looking female lead singer, she was always going to attract the most attention, a scenario we have seen numerous times in music history with bands such as Blondie, Toyah and No Doubt. However, in an interview with Kerrang! magazine in 2020, Skin made it clear that the reason that Skunk Anansie split in 2001 wasn’t because of any jealousy directed towards her by other members or that she felt that she had outgrown or become bigger than the band. No, she felt it was because she believed that they were about to make a bad album and that it would be harder to come back from a bad album than a break up so they chose the latter. She was proved to be right as they reformed in 2008 and are still together to this day though they have only released a few singles since their last full album in 2016 but they are touring in March and April this year.

No Mercy are back in the studio and having reviewed them and their hit “Where Do You Go” once already, I genuinely can’t think of anything else to say about them. Erm…erm…No Mercy…didn’t The Stranglers (who I mentioned earlier) have a hit called “No Mercy”?

*checks their discography *

Yes they did in 1984 – it reached No 37. Will that do? No, it won’t will it. Erm…well, the lead singer is called Marty Cintron who sounds like a character from This Is Spinal Tap. Why was I talking about Spinal Tap the other day? Oh yes, here we go. This’ll do. I currently work as a front of house usher in a theatre and me and a colleague had to take some rubbish out after a show the other day but had to use a different route to the one we normally use to get to the bins as the foyer was unusually busy. Consequently, we had to get to them via the backstage area (you know where this is going don’t you?) and, not used to this part of the theatre, we got lost. We kept wandering around corridors that led us nowhere and at one point opened a door that had us on the pavement outside (but crucially with no access to the bin area). At this point, I said to my colleague (who is much, much younger than me – he’s just started University) “This is like that scene from Spinal Tap where they can’t find the stage at a gig and they wander backstage hopelessly lost. Obviously my colleague had no idea what I was talking about so I had to explain to him the concept of Spinal Tap. I’m so old! He probably doesn’t know who No Mercy are/were either but that’s understandable given that they were a bunch of no marks anyway.

The TOTP caption for the next video informs us that the artist concerned has not appeared live on the show for 11 years. Seeing as the artist is George Michael, and that this repeat is from 1997, does that mean that George hadn’t been on the show since his Wham! days? Possibly. Anyway, this promo is for the fourth single and the title track from his “Older” album. As the first two tracks lifted from it had both been No 1s and the third a No 2, was it conceivable that the No 3 peak of this one was seen as a disappointment? Surely not. The album had been out for eight months by this point and this was the fourth single to come from it so all in all, not a bad result I would have thought.

As for the song, it’s the sort of track that had become synonymous with George by this point in his career. The sort of track that could only be described by the word ‘mature’. George’s vocals are on point as ever, but for me, it’s all just a tad dull. Apparently the trumpet part in it was played by one Steve Sidwell – I’m assuming that isn’t the ex-Reading, Chelsea and Fulham midfielder. It was released as a double A-side with the Bonnie Raitt track ”I Can’t Make You Love Me” which I think I prefer as a song (especially Bonnie’s version). George didn’t stop at four singles being released from “Older” and a further two were put out with the final one – “You Have Been Loved” – hitting the shops a good 15 months after the album did. This matched the amount of singles released from his “Faith” album.

Rivalling George in the ‘not seen round these parts for a while’ stakes were Depeche Mode who Noddy Holder informs us hadn’t been live on TOTP since 1987! They were back now but a lot had happened in the intervening 10 years. Back then, the band had not long drawn a line under their synth pop era and gone all dark with the “Black Celebration” album and had continued in that vein with subsequent albums “Violator” and “Songs Of Faith And Devotion”. Both had been massively successful commercially with “Violator” in particular being seen as the band at the peak of their creative powers too. However, it was not all good news. The mammoth Devotional Tour had taken its toll on the whole group. Martin Gore had become a borderline alcoholic, Andy Fletcher (RIP) had a mental breakdown, Alan Wilder decided to leave the band after years of feeling unappreciated and then there was Dave Gahan. Battling a serious drug addiction and after a near fatal overdose when his heart stopped beating for two minutes, Gahan went into rehab. Struggling to get their lead singer to record any new material, Martin Gore had considered breaking up the band but relented and the resulting album “Ultra” would go to No 1 in the UK selling four million copies worldwide.

The lead single was “Barrel Of A Gun” which was another slab of industrial rock the likes of which they had forged the second part of their career on and conquered America with. It’s kind of odd seeing Martin Gore up there wielding a guitar rather than behind keyboards, a drummer on stage with them and, of course, no Alan Wilder anymore. I don’t remember this one though it would furnish the band with their highest chart position since “People Are People” in 1984 when it peaked at No 4.

Listening to it now, it puts me in mind of the soundtrack to late 90s Channel 4 comedy/drama series The Young Person’s Guide To Becoming A Rock Star. That might sound like heresy to the Depeche Mode faithful but have a listen to this…

Ok, the tempo’s much faster and the tune not as industrial sounding but the structure’s similar no? Just me then.

Blur are No 1 with “Beetlebum” but as was the way at this point in the decade, it would only be for one week until the next hyped, discounted single was released that would debut at the top of the charts. Although it was the only No 1 to come from their eponymous, fifth album, I’m willing to bet that it’s not the most well known track on the album. That would be the second single taken from it, the aptly named “Song 2” (it was given its name as a working title based on its position in the album’s running order and stuck). Its memorable “woo-hoo” refrain would strike a chord with the general public and lead to it being used in many a sports stadium and computer game soundtrack. We’ll no doubt be seeing “Song 2” on a future TOTP repeat in the not too distant future. And with that, the stocktake is complete – I’ve taken stock of everything.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Placebo	Nancy Boy	No but I had it on one of those Best Album Ever compilations
2	Gabrielle	Walk On By	No, I walked on by it
3	Blue Boy	Remember Me	Yes on 12″ for my wife
4	Skunk Anansie	Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good)	No but it is good
5	No Mercy	Where Do You Go	Never
6	George Michael	Older / I Can’t Make You Love Me	Nope
7	Depeche Mode	Barrel Of A Gun	No
8	Blur	Beetlebum	No but I had the album it came from

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/m0026qwm/top-of-the-pops-31011997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 17 JAN 1997

Posted on January 16 by 80stastic

The day before this TOTP aired, Chris Evans resigned from Radio 1 leaving his former employer with a huge breakfast show sized hole in their schedule. The tipping point for Evans was station controller Matthew Bannister’s refusal to grant him Fridays off from hosting the show so he could prepare for his Channel 4 programme TFI Friday. Bannister had already turned a blind eye to multiple misdemeanours pulled by Evans during the course of his tenure including turning up late for work, going on a 17 hour bender that only ended two hours before he was due on air and broadcasting tasteless, innuendo-laden jokes. Bannister had already doubled Evans’ holiday entitlement but his star’s continued demands couldn’t be met indefinitely and he finally refused. Evans ego was so out of control at this point that he couldn’t handle someone saying ‘no’ to him and flounced off in a strop being replaced by Mark and Lard. I wonder if there are any huge egos on tonight’s show?

Tonight’s host is Scottish comedian Rhona Cameron whom I’m guessing won’t have had any ideas above her station as she was very early on in her career and was probably very grateful for the opportunity of prime time TV exposure. In fact, if I think of Rhona Cameron, I think of her ‘Sometimes’ speech in the first ever series of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here which was in 2002. I’m surprised then that she was on our screens as early as 1997. Her first job is to introduce the Lightning Seeds who open the show with their latest single “Sugar Coated Icebergs”. Now, I do remember this one due to its peculiar title but I wasn’t sure how it went until I realised it was the same as all the other ones! Too harsh? Yes, of course it is and as I’ve said before in this blog, I don’t mind the Lightning Seeds at all but Ian Broudie (who always comes across as an unassuming guy and the polar opposite of Chris Evans) sure didn’t mind ploughing the same furrow over and over.

As the caption says, this one was written with Stephen Jones of Babybird and speculation was rife that it was about drugs. The lyrics about ‘sinking deep’ and ‘going under’ do kind of support that notion but the song’s bouncing, uplifting sound undermines that idea for me. One thing I did notice about it though was that its structure did seem to be changed to accommodate the lyrics rather. For example, in the first verse, the tempo is modified to allow the words ‘pointless’ and ‘coated’ to be worked in as the lines they are in don’t scan otherwise. Maybe that was Broudie’s way of trying to shake up the formula ever so slightly? “Sugar Coated Icebergs” would debut at its peak position of No 12 meaning that, excluding “Three Lions”, the Lightning Seeds still hadn’t ever had a Top 10 single despite having had double figures Top 40 hits. When it did come with their next single release which made No 8, it was with a cover version – “You Showed Me” by The Turtles. Still, “Three Lions” did go to No 1 three times in total and not many artists have that on their CV.

Now then, whether this was a case of egos out of control à la Chris Evans or not, what is true is that, just like the recently departed Radio 1 DJ, East 17 were attracting plenty of press that wasn’t positive. Let’s try and get the timeline of events correct here. This TOTP was broadcast on Friday 17 January but the shows were traditionally recorded on the Wednesday so that would have been the 15th. Lead singer Brian Harvey did a radio interview on the Thursday morning (16th) in which he advocated the use of recreational drugs and divulged details of his own intake. All hell broke loose as the media got hold of the story and Harvey was roundly criticised – it was even brought up at Prime Minister’s Questions on the lunchtime when John Major condemned Harvey’s words. By the end of Thursday, with the controversy still raging, the rest of the band distanced themselves from Harvey’s comments and he, himself, apologised for what he had said. Come Friday, the other three members of the group effectively sacked Harvey for unacceptable behaviour and threatened to sue him for loss of potential earnings.

All of this occurred just hours after this TOTP performance so I wonder if we can pick up on any tension between the four guys on stage. Remember that there had been doubts about Harvey’s commitment in the weeks before this incident – he’d actually quit the band before Christmas before quickly changing his mind. Rhona Cameron adds to the strained relations by pondering whether the group would split up in her intro. Watching the appearance back, I notice that Harvey is kept well away from Tony Mortimer with whom he had a difficult relationship – I don’t think they look at each other once. Harvey, for his part, looks uneasy with his hands in his pockets for some of the time. There’s also a lot going on in the background with a multitude of other people on the stage including a guy with a weird percussion contraption. It’s as if they were deliberately placed there to deflect attention from the group. Ultimately it would be Mortimer who would leave the band with Harvey reinstated as they attempted a comeback as a rebranded E-17.

What’s that? The song? Oh yeah, almost forgot about that. It was called “Hey Child” and was taken from their “Around The World: The Journey So Far” Best Of album. I don’t remember it at all and listening to it now, it seems like a slight, pure pop ballad that wasn’t very representative of their sound. I guess you could say the same thing about their most famous song “Stay Another Day” but “Hey Child” seems especially twee whereas their Christmas No 1 has a bit more gravitas. It would fall from its debut at No 3 to No 15 the following week. Was that drop off typical of the life cycle of singles back then or was it linked to the furore the band found themselves enveloped in? I’m not sure but I think this may well be the last TOTP appearance of the original line up of East 17.

Following quickly in the footsteps of this week’s No 1 comes another dance remix of an earlier track this time from Lisa Stansfield. Having first appeared in the charts back in 1989 as guest vocalist on the Coldcut hit “People Hold On”, Rochdale’s second most famous resident had gone on to bag herself a stellar career as a solo artist complete with multi platinum selling albums and a No 1 single. Despite all her success, Lisa always struck me as a down to earth sort – more Gracie Fields than airs and graces and certainly no Chris Evans character.

By 1997, she was about to release her fourth album so as a precursor to that, a remix of that first hit was released as “People Hold On (The Bootleg Mixes)”. Behind the remix were Dan Bewick and Matt Frost known as the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels whose treatment of the track took it to No 4 beating Coldcut’s chart peak by seven places. Unlike the Tori Amos remix though which totally restructured the original, this one just sounded like a poor man’s version of the 1989 hit to me. Even the video just features some recycled clips of promos for previous Stansfield hits rather than a brand new recording. It’s as if Lisa didn’t want anything to do with it. Whether she did or didn’t, her label Arista included it in that fourth album when it was released in the March as a bonus track. I guess it was just business at the end of the day and the music industry certainly had its share of dirty rotten scoundrels.

The 90s brought us some truly awful dance artists and tracks and this lot certainly fall into that category. Anybody remember No Mercy? They were a Latin American trio who were discovered by Frank Farian, the man who gave us 70s disco- cheesemakers Boney M and 80s pop blaggers Milli Vanilli. And now he was back with an act for the 90s, whether we wanted them or not. I was definitely of the latter opinion but enough people were of the former to send their hit “Where Do You Go” to No 2 in the UK. Yet again, the British record buying public had showed us that they could not be trusted with the nation’s reputation.

The song was built around the drumbeat from the Todd Terry remix of Everything But The Girl’s “Missing” (which they had already covered for their first single) but with some Spanish guitar flourishes, a line from that 60s hit by Peter Sarstedt and a shout-a-long chorus that wouldn’t have been out of place on an Outhere Brothers hit. What a remarkably talented bunch this lot were – and I thought Milli Vanilli were chancers! Like a floater that won’t flush away, the single lingered around the Top 40 for 14 weeks, 9 of them inside the Top 10 stinking the place out. No Mercy? NO! MERCY! FOR PITY’S SAKE MERCY!

Next to one of the most surprising comebacks of the decade. Hands up who had Texas down for scoring the fifth best selling album of the year?

*scans virtual room*

No you bloody didn’t! This was a band who’d only ever had one Top 10 hit eight years before and who last two albums had been, if not totally ignored, then studiously avoided. Nobody had them down for a Top 3 hit single at the start of 1997. So how did they do it? Well, they softened their sound it seemed to me. There was a big difference between the slide guitar licks and pounding backbeat of “I Don’t Want A Lover” and the smooth, radio friendly sound of “Say What You Want”. Their second biggest hit to this point had been a cover of Al Green’s “Tired Of Being Alone” so maybe they took inspiration from that when it came to writing songs for their fourth studio album “White On Blonde” although clearly its title was influenced by Bob Dylan’s “Blonde On Blonde”. Its lead single though was more Marvin Gaye than Zimmerman.

There was another factor in its chart success other than the way it sounded and it was to do with that man Chris Evans again. One of the last things he did before leaving Radio 1 was to champion “Say What You Want”. Given his reach at time via his breakfast show and TFI Friday, this was no small endorsement. However, I don’t think that lead singer and face of the band Sharleen Spiteri is similar to Evans in the ego stakes. Indeed, I once heard her say in an interview that she never has the lyrics to the band’s songs including in the sleeve notes as she encourages people to hear what they want to hear even if that means misinterpreting the actual words. That doesn’t sound like someone who has a ‘me, me, me‘ attitude. Texas would become one of the biggest selling artists of the late 90s and beyond. “White On Blonde” alone would shift 4 million units and generate five hit singles. Say what you want about the band but they had remarkable staying power and commitment to never give up.

Here’s someone with an ego that outdoes even Chris Evans. To be fair to Madonna, how could you not when you were* one of the most famous people on the planet? Was recording “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” on her bucket list do you think? I’m pretty sure playing the role of Eva Peron in Evita was a lifetime ambition. We’d all been waiting for this song to be released from the soundtrack to the 1996 film after a new composition written specifically for it (“You Must Love Me”) had been the lead single. Maybe it was held back for the Christmas market with her record company thinking it had a shot at being the festive chart topper? When it did finally arrive, it debuted at No 3 before slipping down the charts but it’s on this TOTP as it had gone back up the charts from No 10 to No 5 presumably due to the film being released to UK cinemas.

*the use of ‘were’ was deliberate

There was another reason though and that was the release of the dance remix of the track. A dance remix you say? Of “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina”? Who knew? Well, not me and I was working in a record shop at the time so either I never sold a copy of it or I’ve completely forgotten about it. Either is possible. Want to hear it? Yeah you do…

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I just didn’t get why the Backstreet Boys were so popular. I accept that I was in the minority in this opinion; their huge sales here and in America can’t be argued with and even the press had a lot of nice things to say about them but I thought they were tosh. Were they good looking (surely a pre-requisite for a boy band)? Not so you’d notice apart from maybe the blonde one. Were their songs any good? Look, I know the answer to that is going to be subjective but they sounded so pedestrian to me. Take “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)” for example. It’s just a constant, one paced backbeat throughout that never goes anywhere. And why the need for the brackets in the title? Look, I know they didn’t write the song so they had no input into that particular decision but not writing your own material isn’t a tick in the plus column. Maybe they’ll liven up a bit when we get to their later hits. I won’t hold my breath though.

Now here’s a great song from a band who enjoyed massive success in the latter part of the decade but this track – “Nancy Boy” – is the only one of theirs that is permanently deposited in my brain bank. Placebo had already released four singles up to this point but their only Top 40 success thus far had been No 30 hit “Teenage Angst”. However, they had come to the attention of one David Bowie who invited the band to open for him on some live dates in 1996 and subsequently to perform at his 50th birthday celebration at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The endorsement of such a legendary figure couldn’t help but raise their profile and “Nancy Boy” duly became a No 4 smash when released in early 1997.

A jagged, brooding and bruising song, it was also very sexual in its nature and according to lead singer Brian Molko, had been written to “capture a kind of drug induced sexual rush”. Perhaps not the standard message behind a big hit when the charts were populated by the likes of Backstreet Boys, No Mercy and Madonna singing Andrew Lloyd Webber songs. I guess though that Placebo weren’t your average band. Molko’s androgynous image in particular (which was similar to Jas Mann’s from Babylon Zoo) attracted attention (not all of it welcome) as they sort to rebel against the laddishness of Britpop culture. Talking of which, I always assumed Placebo were a US band but they formed in London and Molko was born in Belgium though his father was American.

In an interesting parallel with the storm engulfing East 17 at the time, Molko would give an interview to Kerrang magazine in this year where he said the only drug on the planet he hadn’t tried was heroin before later admitting he’d had that too. I don’t recall nationwide outrage to that confession like Harvey’s interview generated but then maybe the two incidents aren’t comparable. East 17, for all their ‘street’ claims were still a boy band and boy bands weren’t meant to behave in the way Harvey had admitted to. Molko was openly bisexual and had a counter culture image. Was it a case of dismissing him as ‘other’ and therefore anything he did or said would be perceived within those preconceptions? Whatever the truth, we’ll be seeing much more of Placebo in future TOTP repeats.

Tori Amos is No 1 with “Professional Widow (It’s Got To Be Big)” although really all the plaudits should have gone to Armand van Helden as the remixer responsible for this creation. Interestingly, the other dance remix in the charts featured on this show earlier does give equal billing to the remix team and the original artist as “People Hold On” is credited to Lisa Stansfield versus the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Was this a case of record label interference or that theme that we started the post with – artist ego?

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Lightning Seeds	Sugar Coated Icebergs	Nope
2	East 17	Hey Child	I did not
3	Lisa Stansfield versus the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels	People Hold On	Nah
4	No Mercy	Where Do You Go	Hell no
5	Texas	Say What You Want	No but I had a promo copy of the album
6	Madonna	Don’t Cry For Me Argentina	Negative
7	Backstreet Boys	Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)	Never
8	Placebo	Nancy Boy	No but I think I had it on one of those Best Album Ever compilations
9	Tori Amos	Professional Widow (It’s Got To Be Big)	Liked it, didn’t 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/p00fsvjy/top-of-the-pops-17011997?seriesId=unsliced