Robson & Jerome | TOTP Rewind – the 90s

TOTP 01 JUN 1995

Posted on November 22, 2023 by 80stastic

It’s June 1995 and I’ll be 27 years old in five days time. Where does the time go? Well, I’ve been writing this blog for the last 8 years for a start! Seriously though, time and the passing of it can really bend your head if you think about it for too long. Do you reckon these BBC4 TOTP repeats have a similar effect on the acts who actually appeared on the show? Being reminded of your glory days that have now faded and of a time when you were young and beautiful as opposed to the person ravaged by middle age that they are now?

Take opening act Reef for example. I wonder if lead singer Gary Stringer still has all that hair?

*googles Gary Stringer*

Yes he does! It has gone grey though and he’s grown a huge beard but still. Not a bad effort. I tried convincing myself a few years back that I didn’t look much different from when I was in my 20s. It was complete tosh of course and I was clearly lying to myself.

Anyway, Reef. This lot were pretty big for a while in the mid 90s, somehow benefitting from the rise of Britpop even though they weren’t your archetypal Britpop band. Nothing of the sort really. I think it may have had something to do with them doing a jingle for TFI Friday. Remember “It’s your letters” based around their biggest hit “Place Your Hands”? Somehow Britpop, lad culture and Chris Evans all seemed to mesh with each other, in my mind anyway. I’m getting ahead of myself though. That’s all a year or so away. Back in 1995, “Naked” was the band’s second Top 40 hit from their debut album “Replenish”. It’s not bad either. Hardly revolutionary and highly derivative but a pretty good blues rock work out. I’m sure that descending guitar riff is nicked off something else but I can’t put my finger on what. Somebody else who was having trouble putting his fingers somewhere was Reef’s bass player – what was the deal with those loose strings flapping all over the place. Tighten your tuning heads man! One last thing about this performance – was the stage invasion by members of the studio audience pre-arranged or impulsive do you think? Can’t make my mind up.

Next a man who I was convinced only had two hits (both back in 1992) but here he is again three years later with another one. Curtis Stigers is said man and helpfully he has joined in with my ‘time’ intro by releasing a single called “This Time” from an album called “Time Was”. Nicely timed Curtis. And talking of the passing of time, in those intervening three years since his last hit, he’s lost his flowing locks that he had when he was in the charts with “You’re All That Matters To Me” and “I Wonder Why”. In fact, if you take Reef’s Gary Stringer with all his hair and stood him next to Curtis, it would be like a ‘before and after’ picture. As for the song itself, it’s a radio friendly little ditty but it doesn’t live long in the memory as was illustrated by its No 28 chart peak.

https://youtu.be/2dO_mDKnWlM?si=-eNSO_-8IAMYbhYq

Another song with the word ‘time’ in the title now. Baby D scored a No 1 in late 1994 with “Let Me Be Your Fantasy” but it took them six months to come up with a follow up and when they did it was just yet another dance version of a classic pop song. “(Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime) I Need Your Loving” was basically a straight cover version of The Korgis’ 1980 Top 5 hit but with a skittering jungle dance beat added to it. As if that wasn’t enough to differentiate it from the original, they messed around with the song title by adding a line from the lyrics and putting the original title in brackets. What was all that about? I couldn’t get onboard with this at all. It just seemed lazy and pointless to me. As ever, the record buying public disagreed with me and sent it to No 3. Ah, what did they know eh?

Next a band that I always find hard to write about; not because I don’t like them – it would be easy to crank out a few derogatory words accusing an act of being the shittiest of the shitty – but because I don’t actually have any feelings about them one way or the other. I think my state of mind concerning Therapy? is partly due to the fact that they mostly passed me by at the time. I mean, I knew of them – I worked in a record shop for heaven’s sake – it’s just that my knowledge of them pretty much ended with what their album covers looked like. Somehow I never really heard how they sounded. Or maybe I did hear them but it made no impression on me and so I didn’t retain them in my head? Either way, needless to say, I don’t remember this hit “Stories” at all. Listening to it now, it’s more of their brand of driving rock but this one has a sax thrown in for good measure. Singer Andy Cairns is a supporter of my beloved Chelsea and I’ve heard him interviewed on the Chelsea fancast that I listen to and he seems like a lovely guy but somehow his music just hasn’t cut through to me. Sorry Andy.

Two huge songs of this era coming up now starting with “Fake Plastic Trees” by Radiohead. What a tune this is!*

*Makes that awful T-shaped hand signal*

For me, this could be their best ever song though to be honest my knowledge of their material past “OK Computer” is nearly nonexistent so if you’re a Radiohead super fan reading this and snorting in derision at my suggestion then obviously you have more material to pick from than me. The third single to be released from “The Bends”, it’s a slowly building banger dripping with aura and imagery and Thom Yorke’s vocal that almost sounds like it was recorded under duress, it’s almost unignorable (if that’s a word). Maybe ‘striking’ would be a better one. I think it was probably this track that convinced me that I must own a copy of “The Bends”.

Others weren’t quite as convinced albeit the most famous example was a fictional character in a movie. Alicia Silverstone played Cher in Clueless who describes “Fake Plastic Trees” which features in the film as “crybaby music”. Asked if he was bothered about that line, Yorke said in an interview in Vox magazine that the character of Cher wasn’t the type of person he’d want to like Radiohead anyway as she was a two dimensional Beverly Hills kid and he was all about 3D people. Fair comment I think and it put me in mind of another music artist who felt the need to publicly distance himself from someone famous. In 2006, former Prime Minister and renowned dead pig f****r David Cameron appeared on Desert Island Discs and chose as one of his songs “This Charming Man” by The Smiths. When Johnny Marr became aware of this, he issued a statement that said Cameron was banned from liking The Smiths and rightly so. Also on Cameron’s list of songs? Yep, “Fake Plastic Trees”. Cameron also famously declared that one of his favourite songs ever was “Eton Rifles” by The Jam. In response, Paul Weller said “Which bit didn’t you get?”. David Cameron ladies and gentlemen…a complete bellend of the highest order.

That second huge song now and it’s another appearance by Pulp to perform “Common People”. This was a genuinely a career pivoting time for the band. After being together for sixteen years (most of them in obscurity) the stars were now aligning and fame and fortune beckoned. Not only had “Common People” crashed into the charts at No 2 (NO 2!) but this month they would also headline the aforementioned Reef’s hometown of Glastonbury after the Stone Roses pulled out following John Squires suffering a broken collarbone in a mountain biking accident. Success was now definitely coming at Pulp and fast.

Apparently the band learned of that chart position whilst appearing at a Radio 1 Roadshow in Birmingham. As the chart rundown was announced, the various acts at the event were paraded on the back of an articulated lorry as their chart position was called. By the end, there was only Pulp left to learn their fate and, by now, Jarvis Cocker was pissed. Taking to the stage, he slipped and fell leaving bass player Steve Mackey to observe the irony of finally getting to where you wanted to be after years of trying only to end up on your arse in the rain in Birmingham at the moment of triumph. Just perfect.

What’s this? A rugby song?! Yes, we’d only just suffered the trauma of two football songs in the chart thanks to FA Cup finalists Everton and Manchester United and now we had another sporting related hit. The 1995 Rugby Union World Cup was only the third time the competition had taken place since its inaugural event in 1987 but already we were starting to get used to it being commemorated / promoted by the medium of song. More specifically two songs in particular. The 1991 World Cup had brought us “World In Union” by Dame Kiri te Kanawa based on Holst’s “Jupiter” or “I Vow To Thee My Country” as it is more commonly known. That year also saw the England Rugby Squad release a version of the African-American spiritual song and subsequent Christian hymn “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” which had been sung by rugby crowds as early as the 60s though it was adopted as an anthem by the England team supporters around 1988. The song has been recorded on multiple occasions for the Rugby World Cup by the likes of Russel Watson, UB40 and Blake.

In 1995, it was the turn of the unlikely pairing of “Searching” hitmakers China Black and South African male choral group Ladysmith Black Mamboza. Quite how this pairing came about I’m not sure but I guess it was advantageous to both artists. China Black had failed to build on the success of “Searching” and so “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” provided them with another vehicle to the charts. Ladysmith Black Mamboza were prolific album makers but had never had a UK Top 40 single to this point. Their famous collaboration with Paul Simon on “Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes” from the celebrated “Graceland” album inexplicably peaked at No 77 though they would team up with B*Witched in 1999 for No 13 hit “I Shall Be There”. Ladysmith Black Mamboza were one of those artists that would get a regular airing when Our Price did their specialist music mornings where the shop would only play music from a particular genre that wasn’t rock/pop. Easy Listening morning meant you were guaranteed to hear The Carpenters Greatest Hits whilst Ladysmith Black Mamboza would get a spin on the store stereo when it was the turn of World Music.

This version of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” is not impressive I have to say. The addition of that ubiquitous, nasty dance beat pretty much ruins it for me. It was nice though to see some of England’s Rugby stars of yesteryear in the video like Rob Andrew, Will Carling, Rory Underwood and Jeremy Guscott. China Black would never return to the UK Top 40 singles chart whilst Ladysmith Black Mamboza would achieve a No 2 placing in our album chart for 1998’s Best Of collection.

I said earlier about there being two huge songs of this era being on the show tonight in “Fake Plastic Trees” and “Common People” but how could I have forgotten about this one?! They’re not everyone’s cup of tea but I loved Black Grape. Rising from the ashes of Happy Mondays and the Ruthless Rap Assassins, I remember there being a huge buzz about this second coming of Madchester. OK, it wasn’t really quite like that but I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to indulge in some Manchester related hyperbole. “Reverend Black Grape” was their debut single and calling card and what a fabulous shake up of the charts it was. Sample heavy and funky, big beats-tastic, this was Shaun Ryder back to his twisted genius best after the demise of the Happy Mondays and the nadir of their 1992 album “Yes Please!”. Ably aided by Kermit, it would crash straight into the Top 10 at No 9. What? Bez? Oh yeah, he was there as well doing his usual Bez schtick. The “Talking bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit” lyric is obviously edited out for this TOTP performance but like “Yes” by McAlmont & Butler, “Reverend Black Grape” would become one of my go to songs I would play on my way to work if I really didn’t fancy it that day.

The band’s debut album “It’s Great When You’re Straight…Yeah” would top the charts for two weeks and achieve platinum sales. Packed with great tunes like “Tramazi Parti”, “Shake Your Money” and “Kelly’s Heroes”, it became an essential purchase for me. Sadly, their success would fail off dramatically. Second album “Stupid Stupid Stupid” would underperform commercially and attract criticism in the US for its golliwog and google eyes cover art. It was one of those albums that the buying department at Our Price Head Office had invested heavily in but which failed to sell. We had massive overstocks of it. The band would dissolve in 1998 after Shaun fired the rest of its members. They reformed to release a third album in 2017 called “Pop Voodoo” which I quite liked but which received mixed reviews.

It’s a third week at the top for Robson & Jerome with their double A-side “Unchained Melody” / “(There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs Of Dover”. My amazement at what happened here has not diluted in the 28 years since. What was going on? Why did these two actors appeal so much? It wasn’t just a one off either. They had three No 1 singles and two No 1 albums over a period of 18 months despite the fact that all they ever did was cover versions. I bet Simon Cowell who convinced the pair to record material couldn’t believe his luck. Ladies and gentlemen…Simon Cowell the David Cameron of the music world.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Reef	Naked	No
2	Curtis Stigers	This Time	Nah
3	Baby D	(Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime) I Need Your Loving	I did not
4	Therapy?	Stories	Nope
5	Radiohead	Fake Plastic Trees	No but I bought the album The Bends
6	Pulp	Common People	No but I had the album Different Class
7	China Black with Ladysmith Black Mamboza	Swing Low, Sweet Chariot	Negative
8	Black Grape	Reverend Black Grape	No but I had the album It’s Great When You’re Straight…Yeah
9	Robson & Jerome	Unchained Melody” / “(There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs Of Dover	As if

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/m001sfvr/top-of-the-pops-01061995

TOTP 25 MAY 1995

Posted on November 18, 2023 by 80stastic

With one notable exception, the line up for this TOTP is one of the most underwhelming and uninspiring I’ve seen for a while. An horrendous No 1 and a load of dance tunes I don’t remember and probably wouldn’t like if I did. At least it’s a ‘golden mic’ presenter slot with an interesting choice of host(s) this week. Stewart Lee and Richard Herring were a comedy duo who met at Oxford University and were contemporaries of the likes of Emma Kennedy. After writing for Chris Morris’ Radio 4 comedy vehicle On The Hour, they switched to Radio 1 writing and starring in Fist Of Fun which would eventually transfer to TV via BBC2. The first series had only just finished by the time of this TOTP so Lee and Herring’s profile was presumably pretty high and bestowed upon them a shot at presenting the network’s flagship music show. I’m not sure that the pair were on my comedy radar at this time though I have seen Stewart Lee live subsequently and he was very funny. The double act seems to be based on Lee being sarcastic and cutting and Herring being frivolous and silly. He strays into something a bit more uncomfortable though at the top of the show by asking if he might be in heaven as he’s surrounded by sweaty, teenage girls. Such a remark possibly wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow back then but in these post Operation Yewtree times, it doesn’t sit well.

Anyway, we start with Incognito who I had forgotten were still having hits as late as 1995. To be fair to myself, my knowledge of them only extends to “Always There” from 1991 and their cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing” in 1992. However, there is much more to them than that starting with the fact that they had been in existence since 1979 and have a roster of members past and present (they are still a going concern) they could rival The Fall and The Waterboys. Talking of Incognito members, I had to do a double take but my suspicions were confirmed by @TOTPFacts that the guy on bongos would go on to be pretty famous for something else…

Does Incognito’s white-vest-wearing percussionist look familiar? It should – it’s Max Beesley, future star of TV shows like The History Of Tom Jones, Hotel Babylon and Survivors. #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) November 10, 2023

Max Beesley studied percussion and classical piano at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and toured with/played for the likes of Brand New Heavies, Jamiroquai, Take That and Paul Weller. #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) November 10, 2023

Well there you go. Professor Brian Cox wasn’t the only celebrity to play in a 90s band before becoming famous in a different profession. As for Incognito’s tune, “Everyday” is actually quite pleasant as far as it goes but it does smack of being a rewrite of “Always There” which wasn’t even their song in the first place.

After Lee and Herring have a discussion about Jon Bon Jovi’s unusual pronunciation of Milan as ‘Milarn’ from his to camera piece at the top of the show, we move onto a dance tune I certainly wouldn’t have liked back in 1995 (I don’t actually remember it) and definitely don’t like 28 years later. Nightcrawlers were coming off the back of a huge hit in “Push The Feeling On” – you might know it as the “Just Sold My Car” song for the We Buy Any Car ad – and “Surrender Your Love” was more of the same though a bit watered down and (clearly in my case) not as memorable.

Despite or maybe because of his rather extreme look of long blond hair and shades which ages him terribly – he was 31 at the time of this broadcast – the TOTP cameras seem to deliberately avoid having vocalist John Reid on screen for longer than a couple of seconds at a time preferring to focus on the multitude of dancers on stage. It really is quite noticeable. Maybe the show’s producers were trying to recreate the feel of a nightclub where this track would have no doubt gone down well with mid 90s house music fiends. “Surrender Your Love” peaked at No 7.

Next an exclusive live by satellite performance of “This Is How We Do It” by Montell Jordan but, as with many of these ‘exclusives’, it fails to live up to its title. Coming in direct from Los Angeles, you might have thought the location would be the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, the TCL Chinese Theatre, Venice or Santa Monica beach or at least somewhere with the Hollywood sign in the background wouldn’t you? What we get is an outdoor basketball court that could be anywhere. Montell doesn’t even have a cordless microphone so he can’t move around much and it’s left to his three backing dancers to try and liven things up a bit – they don’t. Honestly not sure what executive producer Ric Blaxill was thinking here.

Some more comments from Lee and Herring that have not aged well next. Describing Scatman John as “an old, stuttering man” (Herring) who “didn’t let age or his inability to speak get in the way of having a No 3 hit” (Lee) before introducing him with a stutter (Herring again) might get you cancelled these days or as Lee might say in his stand up shows, “you can get put in jail these days just for presenting Top Of The Pops”. Or something. “Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)” was indeed up to No 3 but it would go no further. Nonsensical novelty hit or genre bending innovation? You decide.

Lee and Herring indulge in a bit of sexual innuendo now reminding the watching audience that if it hurts, you’re not doing it right before introducing “Hurts So Good” by Jimmy Somerville. As with Incognito earlier, I’d totally forgotten that Jimmy was still having hits as late as this. In my head, his chart bothering days pretty much ended with his very successful singles collection album over Christmas 1990. I wasn’t too far off to be fair but I’d forgotten about “Dare To Love” which became his first album released since then when it appeared in 1995. “Hurts So Good” was the second single from it and was a cover of a song made famous by Susan Cadogan who had a No 4 hit with it in 1975. I don’t know Susan’s version and I don’t remember Jimmy’s but I have to say I don’t feel like I missed out on much. Somerville had form for doing reggae-fied covers. He did one of the Bee Gees song “To Love Somebody” to promote that singles collection and “Hurts So Good” falls into the sane category for me. I just don’t think Jimmy’s high falsetto voice suits reggae. For me, he’s always been better on a barnstorming Hi-NRG type track. This would prove to be his final UK Top 40 entry with his first coming back in 1984 with “Smalltown Boy” as part of Bronski Beat.

It’s time for the second live by satellite exclusive performance on the show tonight as Bon Jovi perform “This Ain’t A Love Song” live from Milan (or is it Milarn?). Lee and Herring cue it up for us by the former declaring that he hates Bon Jovi and I, for one, believe him. A simple search of ‘What music does Stewart Lee like’ on Google gives loads of results including a list of his favourite 13 albums. Some of them, I’ve never even heard of the artist let alone the album but the ones I did know include REM (despite him saying how much they’ve disappointed him and are awful), Miles Davis, Madness and The Byrds. He’s also a lifelong fan of The Fall but can no longer listen to Morrissey despite his attachment to The Smiths. I don’t see any room in there at all for Bon Jovi’s brand of rock.

As for said brand, the band were at a bit of a crossroads as to what direction to take after the mega selling “Keep The Faith” album that they’d toured and promoted for two years. That album had seen them develop a more mature sound and lay off the hair metal histrionics of “Slippery When Wet” and “New Jersey”. The change hadn’t affected their commercial appeal with sales of 8 million worldwide so which direction should they go in now? Some early demos were trashed by Jon Bon Jovi as not being up to scratch and the gap where a new album should have been was filled by a Best Of called “Crossroads” (oh I get that title now) and a couple of new songs. A rethink was required which led the band to a darker album entitled “These Days”. Yet again, a new sound didn’t result in a downturn in sales with the album selling even more than “Keep The Faith” worldwide. It also achieved critical acclaim being ranked No 2 by Q Magazine in their “Top 50 albums of 1995” list. Lead single “This Ain’t A Love Song” would be the first of four consecutive Top 10 singles in the UK taken from the album when it peaked at No 6. It’s an accomplished rock ballad though its verses remind me of their 1987 forgotten hit “Never Say Goodbye”. A word on this TOTP appearance. What’s so exclusive about performing to an empty venue regardless of it being in Milan/Milarn?

Ah, some more dodgy rhetoric from Lee and Herring about following Michelle Gayle around and restraining orders. It sounds awful now but again, was it deemed acceptable back then? Maybe these TOTP repeats should come with those sensitivity warnings that say ‘this programme is from *insert the year* and features themes and attitudes from the time”.

Anyway, Michelle is back with her fourth chart hit “Freedom” though I don’t recall this one either. Nothing to do with George Michael (though Robbie Williams was just a year or so away from a cover version of that particular song), it’s a pleasant if insubstantial pop ditty which Michelle sells enthusiastically even impressively high kicking her way through it at one point. Her all woman set up of two keyboard players and two backing dancers could almost have been designed to flick the V’s at the hosts and their misogyny. I was rather distracted though by the singalong ‘Okay’ bit towards the end which put me in mind of Lenny Henry’s unfortunate early ‘comedy’ character Algernon Razmatazz and his ‘Ooookaaaay’ catchphrase. My god, reviewing these TOTP repeats is a culturally sensitive minefield.

Yes! The notable exception to tonight’s underwhelming running order is here. After being an ‘exclusive’ last week, McAlmont & Butler have crashed into the charts at No 10 with…ahem…”Yes”. There was some debate online about whether Richard Herring calls his co-host a ‘wanker’ or a ‘wassock’ in the intro to this one after this repeat aired but he clearly says the latter. The man himself took to Twitter/X to confirm:

Important correction. #TOTP https://t.co/Kz80NCr52Z
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) November 10, 2023

This brilliant song has helped me through some difficult times at work in the past and remains a permanent in my life. I was meant to see Bernard Butler live in Manchester around 1998 when he was touring his fine debut solo album “People Move On” but he cancelled at the last minute. Years later though I did catch David McAlmont live in Hull when he did a show of Prince songs. An engaging storyteller, he did a fab version of “Raspberry Beret” restyled as “Guyanan Beret“ – his mother was from Guyana. Sadly I can’t find any clips of it online.

Aargh! I’d forgotten that Robson & Jerome’s No 1 was a double A-side! Not content with hacking their way through “Unchained Melody” they’ve also taken the musical equivalent of a dull spoon to “(There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs Of Dover”. The song recorded by ‘Forces’ Sweetheart’ Dame Vera Lynn in 1942 and one of the songs most associated with WWII has also been covered by the likes of Connie Francis, Bing Crosby, Jim Reeves, Acker Bilk and Steeleye Span. It was also recorded by The Righteous Brothers and was a hit for them in the UK in 1966. Was that the reason why Robson & Jerome laid down a version of it? Because it dovetailed neatly with “Unchained Melody” which Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield also famously recorded? Or is that just me trying to add some synchronicity that isn’t there? It’s just that it seems an odd choice of song – or was it? Was this just more cynical positioning from Simon Cowell. Did he look at the Soldier Soldier audience and work out that an album and single by two of its characters might be most likely to be purchased by an older demographic who maybe wouldn’t normally buy anything that was in the charts and so a version of “(There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs Of Dover” would be the perfect track to reel them in?

We end with one of the weirdest song titles of the year, no any year. “The Far-Out Son Of Lung And The Ramblings Of A Madman” was the latest of EP by The Future Sound Of London. As a pop kid, none of their stuff ever made any sense to me. This one is no different. It sounds like the incidental music to Blakes 7 put through a high spin washing cycle. Thankfully we only get a few seconds of this as the credits kick in.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Incognito	Everyday	I did not
2	Nightcrawlers	Surrender Your Love	No
3	Montell Jordan	This Is How We Do It	Nope
4	Scatman John	Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)	Never happening
5	Jimmy Somerville	Hurts So Good	Nah
6	Bon Jovi	This Ain’t A Love Song	Negative
7	Michelle Gayle	Freedom	It’s another no
8	McAlmont & Butler	Yes	YES!
9	Robson & Jerome	Unchained Melody / (There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs Of Dover	What do you think?!
10	The Future Sound Of London	The Far-Out Son Of Lung And The Ramblings Of A Madman	As if

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/m001s8tj/top-of-the-pops-25051995

TOTP 18 MAY 1995

Posted on November 15, 2023 by 80stastic

We have a new presenter tonight as Lisa I’Anson makes her TOTP debut. Lisa was the new weekday host of Radio 1’s lunchtime show and presumably was given an opportunity on the BBC’s flagship music programme to raise her profile and promote her appointment. Lisa stayed in that slot until 1996 when she shifted to the weekend lunchtime show. However, her tenure at Radio 1 came to an end in the aftermath of a no show for her…erm…show in August 1998 after a night out in Ibiza where Radio 1 had decamped to for its annual Summer jaunt. The writing was on the wall and she left the station six months later. After the shenanigans Chris Evans had put the Radio 1 management through just a few years earlier including demands for extra holiday and Fridays off and a 17 hour bender that only ended 2 hours before he was due on air, they were always going to come down hard on subsequent misdemeanours. It was a different story over at Talksport though where Breakfast Show presenter Alan Brazil was sacked in 2004 for missing a show only to be reinstated three weeks later.

For now though, Lisa was a fully paid up part of the Radio 1 gang and loving her first TOTP appearance even allowing herself a quick “Hello Mum” to camera before she introduces tonight’s opening artist who is Billie Ray Martin with “Your Loving Arms”. When I first started working for Our Price in the Autumn of 1990, all the hipper members of staff loved Electribe 101. Their album “Electribal Memories” could always be found near the store’s CD player so often was it played. I was never really onboard with the whole thing though probably because I wasn’t one of the hipper members of staff. Anyway, Electribe 101 drifted towards a break up but singer Billie Ray Martin’s vocal talents meant she was never going to just be allowed to disappear without trace and so at the very end of October 1994, her debut solo single “Your Loving Arms” was released. Hang on…October 1994 you say? But we’re in May 1995…what gives? Well, it’s yet another case of a minor dance hit single being rereleased a few months later and becoming a major one. This was all the rage around about now. Think Strike’s “U Sure Do” and “Dreamer” by Livin’ Joy and now this one. Its original chart peak of No 38 was completely eclipsed second time around when it went to No 6. How and why did this keep happening? Were the rereleases remixed by happening DJs or was it just a case of there being a lot of money sloshing around in record labels marketing budgets so giving a record another go was always an option? I’m not sure but “Your Loving Arms” was sleek, stylish and fronted by an artist who was also both of those things so it shouldn’t have been a surprise to us that it became a big hit eventually. Sadly for Billie, she would never have such success again though she did manage two No 29 follow ups from her album “Deadline For My Memories” though the album itself failed to shift in huge quantities.

Now this performance here, what were the angels all about? I’ve checked the lyrics to the track out and can’t see any tie in. Admittedly, their wings are impressive but it all seems rather disconnected and over the top. Billie herself is rather static due to the length of the train her dress has. All a bit odd but I probably accepted it as completely normal back then. Billie Ray Martin’s career choice meant that she continued the timeline of singers called Billie. Before her came Billie Holiday, Billie Jo Spears and she was followed by Billie Eilish and…erm…well Billie!

Celine Dion is back in the studio for another crack at propelling “Only One Road” up the charts “Think Twice” style. It’s yet another power ballad (of course it is, did she ever record anything that wasn’t?) but I would wager that it’s not one that is easily remembered compared to “My Heart Will Go On”, the aforementioned “Think Twice” or even her cover of Jennifer Rush’s “The Power Of Love”. It sounds like it could be from a Disney film which was indeed a road Celine had traveled before when she recorded the theme song to Beauty And The Beast with Peabo Bryson. Whatever you think of her music (and that’s not much in my book), let’s wish her well battling against the neurological condition stiff-person syndrome that she was diagnosed with last year.

Wait, what?! Ali Campbell had a solo career? Yes he did and irony of ironies, he did it whilst he was still a member of UB40 so presumably with the band’s blessing? Given what happened between the two parties subsequently, it strikes me now as a peculiar state of affairs. Was it an authorised project to fill the four year gap between the UB40 albums “Promises And Lies” and “Guns In The Ghetto”? Whatever the reasons behind the endeavour, Ali found himself riding high in the charts with a song called “That Look In Your Eye” and an album called “Big Love”. I don’t remember the single at all which seems quite a slight thing with some very reedy singing on it from both Ali and his duet partner, one Pamela Starks who very little seems to be known about. I can find reference to a Pamela Starks who is a casting director and worked on the Prince film Sign ‘o’ the Times but they can’t be the same people can they? From casting for a music legend to singing a twee little number with the bloke from UB40? It seems an unlikely journey.

Campbell would squeeze out two further solo hit singles, both of which were covers – a version of “Let Your Yeah Be Yeah” by Jimmy Cliff and another duet, this time with his daughter Kibibi on “Somethin’ Stupid” as made famous by Frank and Nancy Sinatra. Blimey! Come back Ozzy and Kelly Osbourne – all is forgiven.

Next, the first of two iconic songs in the show beginning with “Yes” by McAlmont & Butler. What a track this is! An instant stone cold classic. The huge Phil Spector-esque wall of sound, the joyously uplifting chorus, Bernard’s immense guitar work and David’s stunning vocals. Not just one of the songs of the year but of the decade too. If there were any doubts about the ex-Suede guitarist’s career potential, they were surely blown away by this track. As for McAlmont, I’d certainly had no idea who he was before this but once you’d heard that voice, you would never forget him.

Despite working in a record shop and selling loads of this single during the week, remarkably, I hadn’t actually heard “Yes” once. This was corrected in some style when I met up with some old Polytechnic friends in Chester at the weekend. My friend Robin had bought “Yes” and brought it with him and insisted on playing it to the group continuously on the first night. When the track had finished and the next track on the CD single began, Robin would shake his head, say “uh-uh” and restart “Yes”. This went on for some time but although people in the group were getting a bit fed up, it certainly resolved my issue of not having heard the track up to that point.

As good as this TOTP performance is, you really have to see their appearance on Later…with Jools Holland to appreciate the true majesty of the song. Bernard wigging out with his guitar, David and his extraordinary vocal range and even more extraordinarily long fingers that gave him an otherworldly quality; it’s quite astonishing and a clip I keep returning to after all these years. The duo will return to the TOTP studio on the next show so I’ll have more to say about them then.

It’s that song from the Guinness advert next. “Guaglione” by Perez ‘Prez’ Prado was the music that soundtracked said advert called Anticipation which you may remember as featuring the guy doing weird dancing whilst waiting for his pint to settle. What you may not be aware of (as I wasn’t until now) is that the campaign started a lawsuit battle. British director Mehdi Norowzian launched the litigation against advertising agency Arks claiming that the company had based Anticipation on a short film called Joy that he had presented to Arks as part of a show reel whilst trying to secure employment with them. Arks did offer Norowzian a job, that of directing an advert for their client Guinness based around Joy and its distinctive jump editing sequence. When Norowzian turned them down as he wanted to do something completely different, Arks went ahead and made the advert without him. Norowzian lost his legal battle and had to pay £200,000 in legal costs. Here are both Anticipation and Joy so you can compare them. I definitely prefer Joy.

wait for it…

The guy in the advert is called Joe McKinney and he spent two years making personal appearances around Europe promoting Guinness. Sound like a dream job? Not for Joe. That lifestyle became too much for him and he gave up alcohol in 1997. He did go on to have a successful acting career but he did not take part in the Guinness 250th anniversary celebrations in 2009.

Next a man who’s singing a song that sounds like it could be Elton John’s latest single followed by…yep Elton John and his latest single. Joshua Kadison is the young pretender in this scenario with his single “Jessie” which has been stuck at No 20 for three weeks (this appearance would push it up to a peak of No 15).

It’s a nice enough song I guess though it does try to be Elton’s “Daniel” a bit too much I think. The irony here is that Kadison sounds more like Elton here than Elton does himself these days…

And so to the man himself. Elton John wasn’t quite as prolific in the 90s as he had been in the 70s and 80s but he was still churning out albums on a pretty regular basis. After 1992’s “The One”, “1993’s “Duets” and 1994’s “The Lion King” soundtrack came “Made In England”. When I think of Elton’s output this decade, what comes to mind first are ballads, mostly of the mawkish variety. The title track of this, his 24th studio album, was nothing of the kind though being a jaunty, upbeat, classic pop song with a singalong chorus.

By the end of 1996 though, it was back to the ballads with a collection called simply “Love Songs”. It included two tracks from the “Made In England” album the song titles of which were all just one word apart from the title track. This performance was from the British ambassador’s residence in Paris. I guess Elton was trying to be humorous.

Time for that second iconic song of the evening. There can’t be many people who aren’t aware of “Common People” by Pulp. Instantly recognisable and perhaps one of the songs most linked with Britpop (whether they liked it or not), it remains the band’s calling card. After years of swimming in the shallow waters of indie-dom followed by breakthrough bona fide chart hits from their “His ‘n’ Hers” album, with “Common People”, their success and fame exploded. Jarvis assumed national treasure status (only increased by his Michael Jackson protest at the BRITS) and sales of their “Different Class” album went through the roof (four times platinum in the UK). In the end it just took one song to cut through to the masses to enable all of this and “Common People” was the perfect vehicle even down to its title.

Written about a real life encounter Cocker had with a Greek art student at Saint Martins College who wanted to move to Hackney and rough it with ‘the common people’, it has become completely entrenched in the national consciousness even transcending the world of pop music to wider cultural realms. Look at this for example…

Such is the song’s legend that it even warranted an hour long BBC3 documentary in 2006. Sadly the film makers failed to locate the Greek art student who inspired the track though the Athens Voice newspaper suggested the wife of a former finance minister and daughter of a wealthy Greek businessman. In 2012, in true Lambert Simnel style, a woman called Katerina Kana came forward stating that the song is about her though Jarvis has not commented on her claim. “Common People” was voted the nation’s favourite Britpop song in a BBC Radio 6 Music poll in 2014 whilst that accolade was repeated the following year in a Rolling Stone magazine poll.

From the sublime to the ridiculous. Never reluctant to shoot itself in its collective foot, the good old British public decided that it really couldn’t live without a shonky cover version of a song so well known it had been No 1 in our charts just five years earlier. It’s not quite the national leave of senses that Mr. Blobby was but it’s up there.

I’ve never watched the TV series Soldier Soldier that made pop stars out of actors Robson Green and Jerome Flynn but enough people did that when their characters performed a version of “Unchained Melody” in an episode broadcast in November 1994, it started a desire amongst the show’s fans to own a copy of it that only one man could satiate. Step forward the scourge of the charts Simon Cowell to give us Robson & Jerome. Never one to miss out on a sales opportunity regardless of its artistic merit, Cowell pursued the two actors to record an official release of “Unchained Melody” to such an extent that Green threatened him with legal action to stop the harassment. He eventually relented though and the single was released on May 8th.

What happened next was nothing short of a phenomenon. First week sales of 300,000 easily took it to the No 1 position but incredibly it outstripped even that the following week with 470,000 units shifted; the biggest one week sales of a record since Band Aid in 1984. At one point it was selling 10 times more than the No 2 record “Guaglione” by Perez ‘Prez’ Prado and more than the rest of the Top 10 combined. It would become the UK’s biggest selling single of 1995. I distinctly recall the beginnings of its sales story. The morning it was released, we kept being asked for it in the Our Price store I was working in but so under the radar had it been that the buying team at Head Office hadn’t bought in any copies for the chain initially meaning none of the company’s shops had it in stock. Trying to be proactive, we placed our own order for some copies just to meet local demand before Head Office cottoned on to what was happening and placed a massive order for the whole chain. All of this proved that retailers should never underestimate how suggestible the public are to the power of a popular TV show.

Right, I’m nearly done. Just the play out track to go and it may not be an iconic song but it’s certainly by a legendary artist. Despite being dead for 14 years by this point, Bob Marley’s back catalogue kept being raided for ever more releases and chart entries. “Keep On Moving” came from a compilation album called “Natural Mystic: The Legend Lives On” which was kind of a continuation of the 1984 Best Of “Legend”. I don’t recall this single at all but it did make No 17 in the UK charts. Right, I’m out. See ya!

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Billie Ray Martin	Your Loving Arms	No
2	Celine Dion	Only One Road	Negative
3	Ali Campbell	That Look In Your Eye	I did not
4	McAlmont & Butler	Yes	YES!!!
5	Perez ‘Prez’ Prado	Guaglione	Nah
6	Joshua Kadison	Jessie	Nope
7	Elton John	Made In England	It’s a no
8	Pulp	Common People	Not but I had the ‘Different Class’ album
9	Robson & Jerome	Unchained Melody	Are you kidding?!
10	Bob Marley	Keep On Moving	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/m001s8tg/top-of-the-pops-18051995