Sash!

TOTP 27 NOV 1998

After featuring nine songs in the last TOTP, we’re down to seven this time though six of them are new to charts (sort of). Our host is Jayne Middlemiss and we start with that ‘start of’ hit which is from Steps. The reason for it’s unclear categorisation is that whilst “Heartbeat” hasn’t been on the show previously, it wasn’t actually a new chart hit being the other track to their double A-side single alongside their cover of “Tragedy” which we saw on the previous programme. Now, I said in the last post that I didn’t think that I’d ever heard “Heartbeat” before such was the ubiquity of “Tragedy” and I stand by that statement having listened to it today. There’s no bells ringing (even though it’s Christmas time) and I’m rather glad there aren’t as it’s a sickly, saccharine pop ballad that cloys but leaves no cultural nor sonic sustenance whatsoever. It’s literally like a musical form of candy floss. Surely punters weren’t buying the single for this track but purely for “Tragedy”?

“Cor! It’s the Corrs!” or so Jayne Middlemiss in her intro would have us believe that’s what the male population would be saying at this point. Bit sexist that isn’t it Jayne? Well, it was the time of lad culture and Jayne herself had spent time as a glamour model early in her career so maybe all that informed her comments. Or maybe she was just reading the lines written in a script (presumably by a man). Let’s not tie ourselves up in knots about all that. On with the music and “So Young” was the third hit on the trot for The Corrs this year. Written by violinist Sharon about her parents and the notion that no matter how old they got, they seemed to her to be forever young in spirit and outlook. All this talk of ageing and youth got me thinking about who are the eldest and youngest Corrs and the order of the ages in the middle. So how about a festive game of ‘Guess the age of the Corrs’? I’ll start. I’m going:

Jim – eldest
Sharon
Andrea
Caroline – youngest

How did I do?

*checks Wikipedia*

Ooh! Almost! These are their actual ages:

Jim – 61
Sharon – 55
Caroline – 52
Andrea – 51

This, of course, means that even “the beautiful Corrs” (© Ant and Dec) are all now in their 50s.* Time waits for no man…or woman.

*Before you all accuse me of ageism and misogyny, I’m sure they are all still beautiful and absolutely agree that age should have no bearing on perceptions of attractiveness. I was trying to make a point about the passing of youth and how time marches on but I’m regretting saying any of it now. Let’s move on quickly…

…to the Vengaboys! NOOO!!! We can’t have reached that time already. 1998 you really have been a pile of steaming shite and this is the little twist on the turd after it’s been curled out. Too graphic? I care not a jot when it comes to this lot. Which despicable people were responsible for this utter crapola? I’ll tell you who – a couple of Dutch producers who went by the aliases Danski (real name Dennis van den Driesschen) and Delmundo (Wessel Dietrich van Diepen) who threw (according to the official Vengaboys website) impromptu and illegal beach parties from their worn out school bus in the early 90s. Deciding to grow their operation, they recruited some singers and dancers to spice up their DJ sets and then took it a massive step further by deciding to form a record label and produce records. With that concept established, the task of fronting said records would fall to those dancers and singers they had already recruited. After a couple of minor hits in their own country, they went truly international with the release of “Up & Down” which was a Top 10 hit all around Europe and topped the US Dance Club Play chart.

This whole thing has given me some strong 2 Unlimited vibes. The Dutch duo began their run of hits with the track “Get Ready For This”, the single edit of which was essentially an instrumental with the occasional shout out thrown in which many (me included) thought would make them one hit wonders. They made mugs of us though by proceeding to have a run of 14 Top 40 singles including that No 1. Similarly, the Vengaboys, for all the world, looked like being a one-off, almost novelty act with “Up & Down” the lyrics of which consisted of the words ‘up’, ‘and’, ‘down’, and ‘woo!’. Just like 2 Unlimited though, they would follow it with a string of hit singles (including two No 1s) between 1998 and 2001. All of which means we’ve only just scratched the surface of the crust of the Vengaboys planet of which we will all become inhabitants (willing or not) until the end of the 90s.

Ah that explains it! Here’s @TOTPFacts with the reason why there’s only seven songs on this repeat:

Edited out here: the Celine Dion and R Kelly duet “I’m Your Angel”, which was at its number 3 peak. #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) December 12, 2025

Moving on very quickly we find Sash! with yet another hit in “Move Mania”. This was the trio’s* sixth consecutive UK hit but the first not to debut at either No 2 or No 3 when it made its chart entry at No 8.

*Yes, Jayne Middlemiss, Sash was a three man production team not a single person and certainly not an “international man of mystery” as you describe them in your intro.

In their continual conveyer belt of guest vocalists, for this release they have teamed up with Shannon who had a couple of hits in the mid 80s notably with “Let The Music Play” though she also featured on Todd Terry’s 1997 Top 20 hit “It’s Over Love”. Maybe it’s the Shannon effect but “Move Mania” sounds very retro to me by which I mean retro even in 1998. It’s all very frantic, frenetic and furious – dare I say like an 80s Hi-NRG track? Maybe I’m reaching a bit there but it didn’t have the same feel as some of the other Sash! hits to this point. Although the hits certainly didn’t dry up after this slight downturn in chart fortunes for “Move Mania”, they didn’t sustain at that previous high level either with only one of their subsequent six UK entries making it to No 2, the mention of which allows me to trot out this well worn fact about Sash! – they remain the act with the most No 2 hits (five) without ever having a No 1. In the dark times that we currently live in, this bit of pop trivia somehow gives me the slightest slither of hope for the world.

And that slither of hope is extinguished immediately by this next hit. Not another Latin flavoured dance track! How many times have we seen this sort of thing during these late 90s TOTP repeats? Here’s just a few I can think of:

Dario G – “Carnaval De Paris”
Echobeatz – “Mas Que Nada”
Ricky Martin – “(Un Dos Tres) Maria”
Bellini – “Samba De Janeiro”

That’s was surely more than enough of that kind of thing no? No, it wasn’t apparently as here were Ruff Driverz and their flamenco inspired track “Dreaming”. Officially, this was credited as being ‘Ruff Driverz Presents Arrola’ who was the vocalist who has worked with loads of dance acts (sometimes under her real name of Katherine Ellis) including 4-2 The Floor, Eruption and Utah Saints amongst many others. Similar to Sash! and the Vengaboys earlier, the people behind the hit were a DJ/Production team who in this case consisted of Brad Carter and Chris Brown whom for some reason thought that it what the charts needed, as Christmas approached mind, was a flamenco themed hit that surely would have been more suited to a Summer release. As ever though, what did I know as it debuted at No 10 becoming, in the process, the seventh new hit to chart inside the Top 10 that week. What a time to be alive!

After coming up with a true banger with their last single “Everybody Get Up”, Five have resorted to the usual marketing trick of releasing a slushy ballad just in time for Christmas. “Until The Time Is Through” is almost mechanical in its construction, adhering to the accepted boy band blueprint at every turn. Perhaps in an attempt to mix things up a bit, they’ve settled on a rather odd performance for this TOTP appearance. As Jayne Middlemiss says in her intro, the vocals on this one are handled by Richie and Scott presumably because it was their turn with Abz and J having taken the lead on rapping duties on “Everybody Get Up” – poor old Sean never seems to get a go in the spotlight.

Anyway, with those two situated at the front of the stage, the other three are sat right at the back on chairs. I’m sure it sounded like a good idea on paper but the optics of it look a bit odd. They never move once from their seated position which created the impression that they’re rather disinterested in what was happening in front of them. There’s something a bit ‘three wise monkeys’ about them with Abz sat with his chair back to front, J with it the right way around and Sean with his angled to one side. Was that deliberate? You know what would have livened things up? If they’d played a game of musical chairs whilst performing. That would have been a first and created a talking point! As it is, the only talking that happens is right at the very end when J turns to Sean and appears to say something to him. I wonder what he said? “Thank God that’s over”? “I could have sung that better than those two”? “Last one to the BBC bar gets the drinks in”?

It’s a fifth week at the top for Cher and “Believe”. What else is there to say about this one? I’ve covered its chart and sales data, the auto tuned vocals, its awards…what else is there? OK, how about who wrote it? Originally it was a demo worked up by Brian Higgins in 1990 who would gain fame via his Xenomania production team who wrote hits for Sugababes, S Club 7, Girls Aloud and The Saturdays. Higgins couldn’t get any interest in the track (apparently Saint Etienne were one of the artists offered it who turned it down) but he submitted it to Warners chairman Rob Dickins after a chance meeting. Dickins thought it was terrible but had a great chorus and so he employed two more songwriters (Steve Torch and Paul Barry) to work on it. Cher herself added some lyrics but did not get a writing credit though three other names did alongside Higgins, Torch and Barry. Cher admitted in 2023 that she regretted not asking for a songwriter’s credit. With worldwide sales of 11 million, I’m not surprised.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Steps	Heartbeat / Tragedy	No
2	The Corrs	So Young	Nope
3	Vengaboys	Up & Down	NOOOO!
4	Sash! / Shannon	Move Mania	I did not
5	Ruff Driverz	Dreaming	Nah
6	Five	Until The Time Is Through	Never
7	Cher	Believe	Negative

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/m002nd35/top-of-the-pops-27111998

TOTP 21 AUG 1998

Posted on November 3 by 80stastic

Right, a small explanation as to why I’m so behind with my posts on this blog which has seen me fall of the pace of the BBC4 TOTP repeats schedule. I was on holiday last week and out of the country for a few days during which time I only intermittently managed to write anything and as such I have ended up with four shows to review this week if I’m to catch up. I hate being behind but a family holiday is more important than banging on about the Top 40 from 28 years ago so it is what it is. Right, a bit of housekeeping before we get into it fully. Jamie Theakston is our host and his intro about it being 6.55 and TOTP being on BBC2 was due to BBC1’s coverage of the European Athletics Championships as opposed to some deliberate move to sideline the show. It had, of course, been channel moved before during Euro 96 for example but it wouldn’t take up permanent residence on BBC2 until 2005, a year or so before its ultimate axing.

So to the music and we start with a great song. I used my words carefully there – ‘song’, not ‘single’ and definitely not ‘artist’. “The Air That I Breathe” was one of the first songs I ever knew as a small child as my Dad bought the hit version by The Hollies that made No 2 in 1974 and what a song with which to begin my musical life! A huge, epic track with that massive, soaring guitar and strings in the middle eight – it made a huge impression on the young me and ignited in me a love of The Hollies. This, however, is not that version of the Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood penned song. No, this was the Simply Red version (gulp).

Here’s the kicker though, it’s not as bad as I remembered it. I mean, it’s nowhere near the quality of what is surely the definitive version by The Hollies but Hucknall doesn’t completely butcher it either to my ears. So what gives? Well, apparently there were two versions recorded by Simply Red which is the root of my confusion. There’s this one and another one with the suffix “Reprise” added to it which is a different take on it, sung to a different tune and which, very unwisely and completely inexplicably, incorporates the riff from “Jack And Diane” by John Cougar. That must have been the one I was thinking of.

Both versions were unusually included on parent album “Blue” with the ‘non-reprise’ take also being used in an advert for Sky TV at the time (not sure why Roy Hattersley and his dog were in it!).

They say the mark of a good song is how many times it has been covered and in how many different styles. If that is true, then “Air That I Breathe” is up there in the greatness stakes with it having been recorded by the likes of Olivia Newton John, Julio Iglesias, Semisonic, k.d. lang, Phil Everly and The Mavericks. And that’s not even counting “Creep” by Radiohead the chord sequence of which was so similar that Hammond and Hazlewood had to be given writers credits. Proving its longevity, there’s even a version from as recently as this year by Belinda Carlisle from her “Once Upon A Time In California” album. “The Air That I Breathe”, a song with huge lungs.

From one ‘air’ song to another, sort of. Pop hits based around classical pieces of music were nothing new. Way back in 1967, Procul Harem had a worldwide smash with “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” which used Johann Sebastian Bach’s Air On A G String movement from his Orchestral Suite No 3 In D Major as its basis. In 1985, Sting gave us “Russians” based on Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé and in 1990, The Farm’s “All Together Now” made unashamed use of Pachelbel’s Canon In D Major.

None of those though seemed quite as obvious as the Sweetbox hit “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright”. This German outfit who had plied their trade in the shallow waters of Eurodance previously, decided to switch to hitching their wagon to classical music with a topping of rap. It really was as simple a format as that. The aforementioned Air On A G String was the blueprint for the hit which the non classical music buffs among us would know from the long running series of Hamlet cigar adverts, my favourite of which would be this Columbus themed one featuring Blake 7 actor Paul Darrow…

According to their Wikipedia page, Sweetbox has burned through seven lead singers since forming which must be a record surely? The person on stage here is Tina Harris who was the third of the group’s vocalists (this is starting to get a bit Henry VIII!) and started her music career via her her cousin who is Snap!’s rapper Turbo B (there’s a stroke of luck). He chose Tina’s sister Jackie to mime on promotional activities for their hit “The Power” and that connection earned Tina a place as a dancer in Snap!’s tour and videos. After leaving the Snap! family and spending some time in a couple of Eurodance outfits, Harris was contacted by Sweetbox prime mover Roberto ‘Geo’ Rosan to become their singer and she lent her vocals to their debut eponymous album which became a huge success in Japan. However, in a contractual dispute that made George Michael v Sony look like a playground tiff, Tina tried to renegotiate her contract for the band’s second album with their record label. However, they decided to ditch Harris and replace her with another singer. Not only that but the contract she had signed prevented her from releasing music for eight years! In the end though, everything was alright as she did release her debut album “Sunshine” in 2007. As for Sweetbox, they are still an ongoing entity apparently though they haven’t released anything since 2020.

Two of the first three songs on this show are cover versions as we get Cleopatra comin’ at us with their take on “I Want You Back” by The Jackson 5. It turns out though that their take is almost identical to the original 1970 hit save for Cleo Higgins telling us that it’s 1998 just before the end. Like we didn’t know Cleo. This seemed like a pretty cynical choice of song to record to me and the fact that the girls hardly deviated from the original only convinces me more. Perhaps they were relying on an assumption that their fanbase (whom I’m guessing were very young) wouldn’t know the Jackson 5 original and believe it was the girls’ own work? Even allowing for the fact that it had also been a hit in 1988* as well as 1970, that was still 10 years before the Cleopatra version so maybe?

*A remix titled “I Want You Back ‘88” credited to Michael Jackson with The Jackson 5 peaked at No 8

If it was designed to keep the group’s success rolling, it worked with the single going to No 4. However, aside from their contribution to the ABBA tribute single “Thank ABBA For The Music” the following year, they would never return to the Top 10. Inevitably given the age of the group and their fanbase, the clock was ticking on Cleopatra’s salad days…

P.S. I’ve never seen moves like that on a Twister mat before

Next up are Savage Garden with a textbook display of an established music industry practice. No, not doing a cover version (we’ve had enough of those in this show already) but that of the rerelease. It’s a familiar tale – artist’s early single doesn’t chart but subsequent releases do so said early single is revisited, remixed (sometimes), repackaged and rereleased and becomes much bigger hit second time around. “To The Moon And Back” was originally released in 1997 but stalled at No 55 in the UK. Following the global success of “Truly Madly Deeply” though, it was ripe for another go and debuted at No 3 to become the band’s highest charting single in this country.

Still mining that 80s retro synth pop sound, it didn’t quite have the smooth flow of its predecessor and sounded a bit more laboured to my ears. No, not laboured but like it had spent too long fermenting in the pop song laboratory if that makes sense. Slightly overcooked. What I did like in this performance of the song though was the guy who played electric and Spanish guitar. I’ve seen double fretted guitars before but can’t recall someone playing one guitar whilst having a second one draped around his neck. It’s quite the look.

Now here’s a classic case of an artist being so known for just one hit that it overshadows everything else they ever did, regardless of the quality of those releases. “We’re a band not a song” said 4 Non Blondes singer Linda Perry when it happened to her band but you wouldn’t have blamed Stephen Jones for saying the same thing about Babybird. Back in 1996, “You’re Gorgeous” was everywhere, riding high in the charts and at saturation point on daytime radio. Two years on and despite three follow up, Top 40 charting singles, it felt like it was still the primary association with the band. Those other hits had only achieved relatively minor chart positions which was a shame as they deserved better. It was a similar story with “If You’ll Be Mine”. Spending just two weeks inside the Top 40 and peaking at No 28, no wonder it was quickly forgotten. This acoustic performance displaying its spare and brittle nature should have propelled it up the charts, but no, the record buying public were more interested in homogeneous dance music and so it promptly disappeared. Talking of this performance, I’m not sure why there needed to be the four of them up there on stage. Apart from Stephen Jones on vocals and the guy finger picking on the guitar (who some viewers remarked online that he looked like Eric Bristow) what are the other two blokes doing? The second guitarist hardly seems to play anything whilst the maracas man is surely surplus to requirements?

Sash! didn’t half like what the youth would now call a ‘collab’* didn’t they? Just about everything listed in their singles discography featured another artist ranging from Dr. Alban to Boy George to Boney M and even Sarah Brightman. This hit though – “Mysterious Times” – featured Tina Cousins whom the German DJ/production team would work with again in 2000 on Top 10 hit “Just Around The Hill”.

*Apparently collab is now listed in the Oxford English Dictionary. Is nothing sacred anymore?!

Like Cleopatra earlier, Cousins would feature on that ABBA tribute single and would also have a few hits of her own including “Pray” (No 20) and “Killin’ Time” (No 15). One that didn’t make the Top 40 was “Forever” which peaked at No 46 but, according to Wikipedia, in a chart recount it was shown that it should have been No 38. What?! Back in the day that could have been the difference between a successful career or not. A Top 40 position may have meant a TOTP appearance and in any case would certainly have raised the artist’s profile. Scandalous stuff!

Now when I referred to homogeneous dance music before, I surely wasn’t meaning this next track which would become one of the biggest hits of the year. Stardust was nothing to do with one of my favourite ever films starring David Essex but would turn out to be a one off project involving a member of Daft Punk, a directionless DJ and his mate from boarding school. Having dropped out of university and completed a year of military conscription, Alan Braxe decided to pursue a career in music and a chance meeting with Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk in a nightclub led to Braxe giving his new acquaintance a demo of a track he had been working on called “Vertigo” which Bangalter released on his own record label. Whilst rehearsing for a performance in a Paris club with a line up completed by Braxe’s friend Benjamin Diamond on vocals, the trio worked up another track called “Music Sounds Better With You” using a looped sample of an old Chaka Khan track called “Fate”. Having recorded the track in Bangalter’s home studio in just six days, it was released (again on his own record label) with demand for it on the continent and especially Ibiza crossing over to the UK resulting in enough sales of the import to qualify for a chart placing of No 55. When eventually licensed to Virgin for an official release, it spent two weeks at No 2 and nearly four months inside the Top 40. After the single’s success, Virgin offered the trio $3 million to record an album but after producing some demos, they gave up on the idea and the Stardust project was at an end leaving a legacy of one track that has consistently polled as one of the greatest dance tunes of all time.

Well, that’s the history of the song but was it really that great? I thought so at the time but listening to it 27 years later, it does seem very repetitive. Very repetitive. Maybe that didn’t matter on the dance floor though. Indeed, was it those recurrent beats that made it such a club classic? The ‘performance’ here is very unusual. Theakston informs us that there was no artist nor video to show so they dressed somebody up in 70s disco garb and superimposed her over the top of what looks like some old footage of TOTP studio audiences from that decade. It’s an odd concoction but at least it was better than ignoring a huge hit. Subsequently, a video was produced by Michel Gondry who would go on to direct the rather excellent if confusing film Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.

Boyzone remain at No 1 with “No Matter What” despite stiff competition from Stardust who had led the boyband in the midweeks. Significantly, this was the first of their chart toppers to spend more than one week at the pinnacle which many took as a sign of the quality of the song and that it was appealing to more than just their usual fanbase. Crossing over in other words. Yeah, you could perceive it like that or you could, like me, hold firm with the opinion that it was schmaltzy shite. I stand by that, no matter what.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Simply Red	The Air That I Breathe	It’s a no
2	Sweetbox	Everything’s Gonna Be Alright”	No thanks
3	Cleopatra	I Want You Back	Didn’t happen
4	Savage Garden	To The Moon And Back	Negative
5	Babybird	If You’ll Be Mine	No
6	Sash! featuring Tina Cousins	Mysterious Times	Nah
7	Stardust	Music Sounds Better With You	Nope
8	Boyzone	No Matter What	I did not

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/m002l6rv/top-of-the-pops-21081998

TOTP 14 AUG 1998

Posted on October 31 by 80stastic

There’s a whole swathe of hits in this TOTP show that we hadn’t seen before back in 1998…and I don’t think I could have told you how any of them went without watching this BBC4 repeat back. Let’s see if that is actually the case. Our host is Jayne Middlemiss but we actually start with a song that bar the No 1 record was the last hit we saw in the previous show – “Lost In Space” by Apollo Four Forty. Yes, despite having dropped two places from its debut position of No 4, it was still considered a big enough seller by executive producer Chris Cowey to be featured again just seven days later. In fairness to Cowey, all but one of the other hits (including the No 1 record) on this show are new entries so maybe I’ll let him have this one. This is just a repeat of that initial performance so clock up another one for Cowey’s recycling policy. So successful was this venture into contributing songs for film soundtracks (“Lost In Space” was their biggest ever hit) that Apollo Four Forty would go there again two years later when they reworked the Charlie’s Angels theme for the 2000 reboot starring Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu which also featured Matt Le Blanc in a smaller role than he commanded in Lost In Space. How you doin’ Matt the film star? Not so good apparently.

Just like Karen Ramirez from a few shows ago, we are faced with a solo female artist who prompts the question “whatever happened to…?”. In this case it’s Hinda Hicks who was briefly talked about as the next big name in UK R&B but who would ultimately drift away to the ultimate status of ‘current whereabouts unknown’. After her debut album “Hinda” went Top 20, she received three MOBO and two BRIT award nominations (the later of which The Guardian unkindly dismissed as just ‘making up the numbers’). This single – “I Wanna Be Your Lady” – was actually a rerelease of her debut single that initially peaked at No 89 but made No 14 second time around to become Hinda’s highest charting hit possibly helped by her support slots on tours with Boyzone and 911. However, that old chestnut of record label mergers meant that promotion of her new material for the second album was undercooked and she would not return to the Top 40 again with that sophomore album never receiving a full commercial release. She would make a third album available via R&B label Shout Our Records in 2004 but it failed to chart and a fourth album announced in 2007 remains unreleased. As of 2015, Hinda has been missing in action from her social media channels and the story of Hinda Hicks has gone cold with the only notable mention of her coming from Lilly Allen tweeting that she was experiencing ‘Toni Braxton Hinda Hicks’ about the pregnancy of her daughter in 2011 referring to the condition of ‘Braxton Hicks’ or practice contractions. As of 2025, we are still awaiting the rebirth of the career of Hinda Hicks.

As Jayne Middlemiss says in her intro, this next bloke seems to have a “different lass” with him every time he appears on the show. Sash! though, was actually three blokes, what with them being a German DJ/production team who racked up a string of massive hits in the late 90s/early 00s. Famously, they achieved the most No 2 hits without ever getting to the top of the charts.

“Mysterious Times” was their fourth hit of five to miss being No 1 by one place (the other made No 3) and no, I don’t remember it on the account of it being totally forgettable. This is despite it featuring another new vocalist, this time the UK’s Tina Cousins who would go on to carve out a small solo career of her own but it didn’t last too long with her biggest hit actually being part of the conglomerate that included Steps, Cleopatra, B*Witched and Billie Piper who recorded the medley “Thank ABBA For The Music”. Rather inevitably, she ended up on the ‘Identity Parade’ section of Never Mind The Buzzcocks though I did enjoy her giving host Simon Amstell the finger…

By this point in the 90s, had the whole concept of girl groups not been done to death in the same way that boy bands had in the earlier part of the decade? I know subsequently the format would spawn super successful names like Girls Aloud and The Saturdays but at this particular time of the summer of 1998, hadn’t we had our fill of them? The Spice Girls, All Saints, Eternal, B*Witched, Cleopatra, N-Tyce had all had success ranging from global domination to a few medium sized chart hits with styles of music encompassing either all out pop or an R&B/pop hybrid. Did we need anymore? Well, apparently we did. The very end of the 90s saw no let up in the girl group phenomenon with the likes of Honeyz, Hepburn and Precious all chart regulars. In between came Solid HarmoniE (no capital ‘E’, no points). Conceived as the male counterpart to the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC by Lou Pearlman, the man behind those two boy bands and a very shady character indeed*, they would have three Top 20 hits that all started with the word ‘I’. This one – “I Wanna Love You” – was the last of those three and it’s a nice enough pop song but it was never going to set the world alight or ignite a global sensation like “Wannabe” did for example.

*I’d never heard of him before now but reading up on him, he had his fingers in all sorts of business pies and would end up being sentenced to 25 years in prison for conspiracy and money laundering. He died incarcerated after serving just two. There’s probably a film to be made about him though

One of their number – Mariama Goodman – would leave the band, rejoin, leave again and throw her hat in with the aforementioned Honeyz before giving it all up and retraining as a midwife…and then joining up with her ex-band mates for the ITV2 series The Big Reunion in 2013. After that series finished, I presume she went back to being a midwife. As with Hinda Hicks, there are no further signs of her pop career being reborn.

There seems to be a theme of rebirth/renewal emerging within this post which certainly wasn’t planned but I guess the title of this next hit kind of plays into that? “Pure Morning” was the lead single from Placebo’s second album “Without You I’m Nothing” but was actually a last minute addition to the album, having emerged during a B-side session after the rest of the album ahead been recorded. I have to say that the idea of a ‘B-sides session’ doesn’t sit well with me like they’d sat down to write some songs they didn’t want to be as worthy as their A-sides. Is that how the creative process works for some artists? That they can deliberately write songs that they know will never reach the widest audience? It all sounds very cynical. I’m put in mind of the story about Creation Records founder Alan McGee telling Noel Gallagher that “Acquiesce” was too good a song to be just an extra track on the “Some Might Say” single to which Noel replied “I don’t write shit songs”. McGee, of course, was right about “Acquiesce” in the same way that Brian Molko was right to make “Pure Morning” an A-side and not a B-side. Created around a repeated guitar loop, it sounds kind of like a demo version of “Nancy Boy” which is possibly due to it being produced by Phil Vinall, the guy behind their first hit. I thought that I didn’t remember it but the opening lyrics of “A friend in need’s a friend indeed” was instantly recognisable. Molko gives a performance here in an observed, dispassionate state which lends itself well to the song which would become the band’s joint biggest hit single ever.

It’s another showing next of that ‘exclusive’ performance we’ve already seen from two weeks ago by Will Smith with his hit “Just The Two Of Us”. Maintaining the (re)birth theme, the video (which presumably we didn’t see because of Chris Cowey’s reluctance to include promos on the show) features Smith’s wife Jada who was pregnant with their first child Jaden. A reworking of the Grover Washington Jnr/Bill Withers classic with Smith taking on the mantle of a father trying to be a good role model for his young son, the admirable intentions of the lyrics were rather undermined by the events of March 27, 2022 when Smith left his seat at the 94th Academy Awards, walked across the stage and slapped comedian Chris Rock across the face during his presentation for Best Documentary Feature. Smith’s image as an upstanding family man of firm moral fibre and virtue were certainly put into doubt by the incident despite his aforementioned son Jaden tweeting support of his Dad “And that’s how we do it!”.

It’s the return of the Fun Lovin’ Criminals next with a brand new track – “Love Unlimited”. Having broken the UK (if not America) with their first album “Come Find Yourself”, Huey, ‘Fast’ and Steve Borgovini looked to consolidate on their success with sophomore collection “100% Colombian”. I recall there being quite a buzz around its release what with them being one of the hippest bands around with their Quentin Tarantino sampling hits and effortlessly charismatic front man Huey Morgan. But then…they came back with a song about Barry White! Now, I don’t have any objections to ‘The Walrus Of Love’ but neither am I much of a fan. I can appreciate his unique voice and the fact that he was also a songwriter, record producer and keyboard player. However, I didn’t really appreciate “Love Unlimited” that wanted to pay tribute to him on account of it being as dull as yet another old character being resurfaced on EastEnders. It really is so very pedestrian and one paced with the call and response chorus just being banal. I wonder how many of the youth in the TOTP audience shouting White’s name even knew who he was. Maybe they thought he was an EastEnders character; after all, his name sounded like one (“Awright Baz, fancy a pint in the Queen Vic?”). As poor as “Love Unlimited” was (and yes, I get the reference in its title), follow up single “Big Night Out” was brilliant and I duly bought it. Hope we get to see that one on these TOTP repeats.

Boyzone are No 1 for the second time in 1998 but this time it’s with a track written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman no less. Yes, it’s time for that song from the Whistle Down The Wind musical. Is it fair to say that “No Matter What” is the band’s best known hit? I think it might be given that it shifted 1.4 million copies and was the fourth best selling single in the UK in 1998. This was one of those songs that was always destined to be No 1 if for no other reason than the promotion and fuss around it demanded it. Look at the way it’s presented here with both Steinman and Lloyd Webber in the TOTP studio to give it that extra push and imbue it with a sense that this was no ordinary chart topper. Except that it was…ordinary that is, to my ears at least. I could never hear why it was supposed to be so great. If I thought “Love Unlimited” before it was pedestrian then “No Matter What” was like walking my dog when he really can’t be arsed – painfully slow and with a good chance of featuring shit along the way. Apart from vocalists Stephen Gately and Roman Keating, the other three really might as well not be there. They are given almost zero to do on stage except shuffle from foot to foot with their arms behind their back, make some “ooh” and “aah” backing noises and occasionally click their fingers. Ah yer bollix ye.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Apollo Four Forty	Lost In Space	No
2	Hinda Hicks	I Wanna BeYour Lady	Nah
3	Sash! featuring Tina Cousins	Mysterious Times	Negative
4	Solid HarmoniE	I Wanna Love You	Nope
5	Placebo	Pure Morning	OK song but no
6	Will Smith	Just The Two Of Us	I did not
7	Fun Lovin’ Criminals	Love Unlimited	No but I bought the follow up
8	Boyzone	Non Matter What	Never

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002kx4x/top-of-the-pops-14081998

TOTP 10 APR 1998

Posted on August 25 by 80stastic

Back in 1998, this TOTP was broadcast two days before my wife’s 30th birthday and as such, we were in our way to New York (baby!) to celebrate. Joined by our friends Robin and Susan, we would be in the Big Apple for a long weekend and so would not have seen this TOTP. So, as I haven’t dipped into my personal life in these posts for a while, I’ll try and interweave some of what happened in New York with my comments about the songs in this particular show. Self indulgent? Possibly but it’s my blog so…OK, before we even got to New York, two huge news stories broke. Firstly, The Good Friday Agreement was signed between the UK and Irish governments that would bring an end to most of the violence of The Troubles. Secondly, George Michael was arrested in a park in Beverly Hills for being caught in “a lewd act” by an undercover police officer operating a sting operation. This would lead to George coming out about his sexuality soon afterwards. I can remember following both stories on the TV screens at Manchester Airport as we waited to board our plane and again when we had a stopover in Dublin to do US customs. Hours later when we arrived in New York’s JFK Airport, they were still dominating the headlines.

Making headlines of his own at this time was the rejuvenated Robbie Williams who is back on the show to promote his single “Let Me Entertain You”. I say back on the show but I think this is just a re-showing of the performance from the other week. In fact, I think hardly any of the artists on the show tonight are actually in the studio with the presenter who is Jayne Middlemiss this week. More of that later.

As such though, I’m going to talk about the video for this one and not what we got to see on TOTP. You know the one, where Robbie does his best Kiss impression? Or is it his best impression of The Prodigy’s Keith Flint doing his best impression of Kiss? In fact, there’s a load of sending up of rock stars (and their cliches) in the video. There’s Robbie pretending to take a bite out of a dove Ozzy Osbourne style, Robbie flying above the stage on wires and a harness like Jon Bon Jovi in the “Livin’ On A Prayer” promo and, of course, the aforementioned Kiss make up. It’s a memorable watch and whoever made the decision to have it all in black and white take a bow – I think it might have been too much in full on Technicolor.

So back in New York, I’d started the holiday by going down with a heavy cold. Brilliant! I could feel myself getting progressively more and more ill as we travelled in the taxi from the airport to Manhattan. I perhaps became germ-infected in the enclosed space of the long flight over. Fortunately our friend Robin had a bottle of Jack Daniels with him and I dosed myself up on that using the only mixer we had available to us at the time – dandelion and burdock. ‘Jack Dandy’ was the name we gave to our newly created concoction I believe. Fortified by Mr JD and Mr DB, we ventured out into New York…

Back in Blighty in the TOTP studio, we find Savage Garden but, once again, as with the Robbie Williams performance, it seems to be just another re-showing of their previous appearance judging by the abrupt cut away from Jayne Middlemiss’s intro. They’d only just been on the week before with their hit “Truly Madly Deeply” but maybe Executive Producer Chris Cowey was making up for lost time on their behalf as they’d been a constant in the Top 10 for weeks but this was only their second appearance on the show.

The band took their name from a phrase in the Anne Rice series of gothic novels The Vampire Chronicles – the character Lestat says that “Beauty was a savage garden” when describing the world as primitive, dangerous and lawless. I didn’t see any savage gardens in New York but we did make a pilgrimage to the garden of peace that is Strawberry Fields in Central Park which was opened in 1985 to commemorate the life of John Lennon five years after his murder. There’s a picture of me somewhere trying to look all sombre and respectful at the Imagine mosaic. Despite the size of their hit, perhaps unsurprisingly there is no memorial to the band Savage Garden. However, the Mark Mills novel Savage Garden is set in a memorial garden in Florence, Italy and in Auckland, New Zealand there is an actual memorial dedicated to the country’s first Labour prime minister Michael Joseph Savage.

Sometimes I think I’m misremembering how the charts worked around this time. In my head, it was all singles in and out of the charts within a fortnight due to heavy week one discounting by the record companies. Clearly there was some of that going on but we’re also encountering plenty of hits that seemed to sell consistently week after week thus maintaining healthy chart positions for prolonged periods. Just this episode we had the example of Savage Garden’s “Truly Madly Deeply” and then the very next song on is another long term chart resident. “How Do I Live” may not have hit any higher than No 7 but it would spend 30 weeks inside the Top 40. THIRTY! That’s about seven and a half months! The first 18 of those saw it never leave the Top 20! This song didn’t just have legs – it was a centipede of a hit!

Strangely, its longevity wasn’t the biggest story behind the track though. Back in the 50s and 60s, the simultaneous release of the same song by different artists, if not commonplace, certainly wasn’t a rarity. By the late 90s, it never seemed to happen. However, in 1998 came the chart battle between 15 year old LeAnn Rimes and established country artist Trisha Yearwood who both recorded and released (on the same day) their own versions of “How Do I Live”. How did this come about? It was all to do with the film Con Air starring Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and John Malkovich. This dumb but fun action thriller is one of those films that I always have to watch if I stumble upon it whilst channel surfing (see also Bridesmaids). The film’s production company Touchstone Pictures wanted a big ballad to end the movie with and Diane Warren’s “How Do I Live” was given the job. Touchstone wanted LeAnn Rimes to record it which she duly did but they weren’t sure about her version deciding it lacked maturity and was too pop sounding. As such, they turned to Yearwood who was twice LeAnn’s age and she provided what Touchstone were looking for and it was her version that featured in Con Air. Now I’ve listened to both takes on the song back to back and there’s not a great deal of difference to my ears. Yes, Trisha’s voice has slightly more depth to it and there’s more instrumentation in the backing including a more prevalent sax sound but to delineate one version as pop and the other as country seems to be splitting hairs to me.

Despite not making the Con Air cut, Rimes’s version was released anyway and would prove to be the ultimate winner spending five weeks at No 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (Yearwood peaked at No 23) and was the fifth best selling song in America in 1998. In the UK, astoundingly given it never got higher than No 7, LeAnn’s version was the sixth best selling song of the year (every song above it had been a chart topper). Trisha’s version never even made our Top 40. In fairness though, Trisha did win a Grammy with her version for Best Female Country Vocal Performance so maybe I was wrong about that pop/country differentiation. Just to make us all feel old. I can confirm that LeAnn will be 43 on the 28th of this month.

As huge a hit as “How Do I Live” was in America, I don’t recall hearing it whilst we were in New York but then we weren’t exactly going out of our way to listen for it. No, we were far too busy having a good time doing all the things you’re meant to when in the Big Apple like a helicopter ride over Manhattan, a dash up the Empire State Building (where a young American child spent the whole time shouting at his parents “I’m freaking! I’m freaking!”) and taking in Grand Central Station. One afternoon, me and my friend Robin got it into our heads that we would go looking for the legendary music venue CBGB which my wife and our friend Susan didn’t fancy doing so our group split up. Being two clueless Brits abroad, Robin and I couldn’t find CBGB. However, we did come across a film crew and a huge audience of people on a sidewalk (sidewalk – maybe we weren’t that clueless after all!) and wondering what was going on we walked over to the amassed throng…just in time to be on the live outside broadcast of the 1000th edition of The Ricky Lake Show! Yes, somewhere out there exists the footage of me and Robin (probably with our faces obscured) at the back of that audience. When we met up with my wife and Susan, they said they had a tale to tell us that we wouldn’t believe. We said we’d had an interesting experience as well but let them go first. They’d been walking past Trump Tower and Donald Trump had walked out! We then told them our story and we all agreed that ours…well…trumped theirs. I’m not sure it still does though.

Enough of that though, back in the TOTP studio we find Sash! performing “La Primavera” again. Actually, we don’t because it’s yet another re-showing of their previous performance and they’re not actually there for a second time. What was going on this week? As this one was also featured in the last post, I’ve little to say about it so, in keeping with this week’s post, I’ve looked for a connection with New York. All I can find is that Sash! the dance act have an Instagram account with the handle SashNY which is not to be confused with S A S H | N Y who are a clothing brand in Brooklyn who sell and rent couture gowns. Gowns with sashes presumably.

Seriously though, what was going on with the studio set up this week. As far as I can tell, so far we’ve had three repeats of previous studio performances and a promo video. None of the artists featured so far seem to have been in the studio at the same time as presenter Jayne Middlemiss nor a studio audience. Now, just a head shot of Jayne appears against a white back drop to introduce the next artist who is Billie Myers. Then there’s a white out fade from Jayne to Billie who is in the studio with an audience! So was Jayne not there? Was her performance recorded separately or was Middlemiss just running late and had to do her links solo and in silo as it were?

Anyway, who was this Billie Myers? On the face of it she seemed to be yet another of those 90s female artists who had one big hit and then not much else at all. I’m thinking Donna Lewis, Paula Cole, Meredith Brooks…and Billie Myers whose big hit was “Kiss The Rain”. However, I always assumed that Billie was an American but she’s actually from Coventry but her song was just about as far from that city’s legendary 2-Tone sound as you could get. A huge, sweeping soft rock ballad with an arresting chorus even if the lyrics don’t make much sense (how does one kiss the rain exactly?), it was a hit both here and in the US. Everything after that was a case of diminishing returns though. Follow up “Tell Me” was a minor hit and her album “Growing Pains” sold modestly. She’s released just the two albums since and has been active in The Mindfull Initiative supporting young people with mental health issues. In many ways, she is the forgotten ‘Billie’ of 1998 as the second half of the year would see the rise of 15 year old Billie Piper (what was it with 1998 and 15 year old female singers?!) who would have two No 1 singles. Both were actually nominated for a BRIT award for Best British Female Solo artist in 1999 though neither won (it went to Des’ree if you’re interested).

For a New York connection, Billie Myers was a featured artist at NYC Pride in 2006. We didn’t see the NYC Pride March whilst we were there though we did attend the Easter Parade which was rather undermined by some disgruntled native New Yorker pushing through the crowds yelling “Europeans – get back to where you came from!”. Oh dear.

OK so Jayne Middlemiss is now within a studio audience for her next link but, yet again, the performance she introduces is another recycled one from the other week. It’s all very confusing. Said performance is from Tin Tin Out featuring Shelley Nelson and their cover of “Here’s Where The Story Ends” by The Sundays. On the Sunday that we were in New York, after we’d done the aforementioned helicopter ride, we spent what seems like hours traipsing up and down the blocks of Manhattan looking for somewhere to eat some lunch. Now you wouldn’t think this would have been such a hard task in New York what with its diners and restaurants and you’d be right but then you haven’t tried to do so with our friend Robin who had some very exacting demands about where he might be OK eating. After multiple suggestions were turned down for various reasons by Robin and with our feet aching and our bellies rumbling, we eventually found a lovely place with a menu to suit all our tastes. We were just about to go in when Robin cocked an ear and stopped us in our tracks stating “We can’t go in there, they’re playing jazz!”. Aaaggghhh!

As for Tin Tin Out, what links them with Duran Duran? As well as remixing tracks for the Brummie New Romantics turned pop megastars, Tin Tin was the name used at various points in his career by the wonderful Stephen Duffy who was their singer in an early incarnation of the band. You all knew that though right?

Next, a seismic event if you were a heavy rock fan back in 1998 – it’s the return of Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, four years on from their original reunion which gave the world “No Quarter”, their live acoustic album of new material and reworking of selected Led Zeppelin tracks. As I never got the boat travelling to Led Zep island, this happening didn’t really register with me though I do recognise the cover art of their second album (and reason for their return) “Walking Into Clarksdale”. However, I have zero recall of its lead single “Most High” which I was expecting to dislike but actually found quite engaging. Despite the size of the Led Zeppelin fanbase though, it wasn’t a huge hit peaking at No 26 though famously, the band were not known for single releases. Jayne Middlemiss makes a jibe about giving your Mam and Dad a shout to come and watch the performance which does seem rather ageist and condescending and also undermines the decision to have Robert and Jimmy on the show which is meant to be representative of the most happening chart sounds around (yes, I know that past line sounds wanky). Plus, they were responsible for the TOTP theme tune back in the day courtesy of CCS’s version of “Whole Lotta Love” so you’d think that there would have been a bit more respect shown.

The cover of the second Led Zeppelin album “Physical Graffiti” shows two four story buildings which were based on a photo of two actual five story buildings located at 96 and 98 St. Mark’s Place in NYC. Now, I certainly didn’t make any pilgrimage to witness that location like I did with Strawberry Fields but not far from there is the wonderful bar McSorley’s Old Ale House which we did visit. A real spit and sawdust place where the only drinks available were McSorley’s light ale or McSorley’s dark ale. Marvellous!

It’s a fourth of six weeks at the top for “It’s Like That” by Run–D.M.C. versus Jason Nevins. This really was becoming quite the phenomenon. I’m still not completely sure why it was so popular. It’s a hard-hitting, ultra-pounding, dance floor-filling track for sure but I’m still kind of surprised that it crossed over into daytime radio play and the mainstream pop charts in such a big way. Was it a lack of competition that enabled its long run at No 1? Celine Dion was right there pretty much all the time waiting in the shadows and I would maybe have expected her to pip them to the top spot at least once in the that six week run. After all, she’d already dropped from the peak once and then retuned there later in her chart run. Of course, Run-D.M.C. couldn’t be more New York – or rather more Queens. A visit to the Hollis neighbourhood of that borough was never going to be on our to do list though I’m afraid.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Robbie Williams	Let Me Entertain You	No but I had a promo copy of the album
2	Savage Garden	Truly Madly Deeply	Didn’t happen
3	LeAnn Rimes	How Do I Live?	Without this record? Quite easily.
4	Sash!	La Primavera	Nope
5	Billie Myers	Kiss The Rain	Negative
6	Tin Tin Out featuring Shelley Nelson	Here’s Where The Story Ends	Nah
7	Jimmy Page & Robert Plant	Most High	No
8	Run-D.M.C. versus Jason Nevins	It’s Like That	I did not

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/m002h46h/top-of-the-pops-10041998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 03 APR 1998

Posted on August 22 by 80stastic

On this day in pop music history, we lost Rob Pilatus. If that name doesn’t mean anything to you then how about Milli Vanilli? Yes, Rob was one part of the infamous duo who were completely discredited after it was discovered that they hadn’t sung on any of their hit records and subsequently returned their Grammy Award. Despite a few attempts at a comeback, there was no way back for Milli Vanilli and Rob spent time both in prison and drug rehabilitation centres before he was ultimately found dead in a German hotel room from an alcohol and prescription drug overdose on the eve of yet another attempted comeback. It’s a tragic tale certainly but I wonder if any of the artists on this TOTP were accused of not singing or playing on any of their records?

Our host is Zoe Ball – is it fair to make an accusation of ‘cheating’ against her in that her career had a leg up due to the show business connections of her national treasure status father Johnny and that she is, in fact, a nepo baby? Some people might think that, I couldn’t possibly comment. Anyway, we start with a new act from Australia by the name of Savage Garden. I say new but they weren’t really although I think this is their first time on TOTP. They’d already had a hit in the UK the previous year when “I Want You” debuted at No 11 but it didn’t get picked up for a slot on the show and tumbled down and out of the charts within three weeks. The follow up “To The Moon And Back” missed the Top 50 altogether (though it would make the Top 3 when rereleased) but they’re finally on the show with their third single “Truly Madly Deeply”. However, despite that song entering the charts at No 4 and spending the next five weeks inside the Top 10, this was the first time it had featured on the show. So ‘new’ they weren’t and yet again I put this to the show’s executive producer…“Chris Cowey, explain yourself!”.

Anyway, as well as sharing its title with the rather wonderful 1991 film starring Alan Rickman and Juliet Stevenson (which is never on TV or streaming platforms by the way), “Truly Madly Deeply” is one of those soppy love songs that ultimately gets under your skin becoming an itch you can’t scratch, a track you desperately don’t want to like but can’t stop humming – well, that’s how it made me feel. Enough people clearly did like it as it would spend another five weeks knocking about the Top 10 making a total residency of just under three months. It was a phenomenally consistent seller evidenced by three consecutive weeks at a No 5 and its No 10 position in the UK year-end chart for 1998. The track would spearhead a period of mega-success for the duo of Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones with two triple platinum selling albums in the UK within three years whilst they were an even bigger deal in America where they achieved two No 1 singles and their debut eponymous album sold seven million copies. However, by 2001 they were gone with vocalist Hayes pursuing a solo career. My abiding memory of the duo though came from the year before. In 2000, I’d left my job working in record shops and relocated from Manchester to York to become a civil servant. One of my new colleagues had tickets to see Savage Garden play but he could no longer go and was looking to get rid of the tickets – he couldn’t give them away. Nobody seemed to even be slightly interested in the band let alone love them truly, madly and deeply.

Did they play/sing on their records? Yes although as a duo, they also employed some session musicians to perform the bass, percussion and drums parts on tracks.

A proper music legend now but the fact that he is only on the show because of a jeans advert belies his legacy somewhat. Zoe Ball’s intro claiming that without this man there’s no ska and no Madness (nor jeans commercial) tries to do justice to his name but I’m not sure it’s entirely convincing. We are talking about Prince Buster who helped shape the history of Jamaican music in its various forms with his influence on reggae, ska and the rocksteady genres. Said influence extended to these shores with the late 70s ska revival movement spearheaded by the 2-Tone label direct beneficiaries. Madness called their first single “The Prince” after him and named themselves after his song “Madness” which was its b-side. Their second single was another cover of one of his songs – “One Step Beyond” – so Zoe was right about that I guess but she could also have mentioned The Specials and The Beat who both recorded versions of Prince Buster songs or borrowed parts of them to shape their own ‘original’ tunes. One of those tunes was “Whine And Grine” which The Beat incorporated into their anti-Thatcher anthem “Stand Down Margaret”. Eighteen years later “Whine And Grine” was back having been used to soundtrack the latest Levi’s ad campaign and it would give Prince Buster only his second ever UK Top 40 hit when it peaked at No 21.

It’s a great track and Prince Buster (real name Cecil Bustamente Campbell) looks effortlessly cool in this performance. Looking at the age of the studio audience, you can only wonder if they knew they were in the presence of a music legend and hope that they didn’t go away saying they’d seen the man who did the song from that Levi’s advert. Prince Buster died from heart problems in 2016.

Did he play/sing on his records? Are you kidding?! A true original.

Zoe Ball’s on the…well…ball again by stating that Janet Jackson has been a regular on the show. In the 90s alone, she racked up 20 UK chart hits – that’s two a year every year. It’s not a bad record. What was a bad record though (to my ears) was “I Get Lonely” which was the third single from “The Velvet Rope” album. On this one, Janet tipped the balance between R&B and pop which had characterised a lot of her hits well in favour of the former and as a pop kid at heart, it was never going to get me longing for its company.

As she couldn’t be in the studio in person, she’s sent a video message introducing her video which seems to be distracting us to the lack of any tune in the song by showcasing Janet’s cleavage. Indeed, it was nominated for the ‘Sexiest Music Video of the Year’ at the VH1 Video Music Awards. It’s all a bit obvious, showy and in your face (literally). By the way, that’s the group Blackstreet up there with Janet who were on the “TNT Remix” produced for the single release and when she rips open her top to reveal a lacy bra and that bosom again, they possibly experienced a Westlife/Mariah Carey moment from the “Against All Odds” video.

Did she sing/play on her records? Yes she did although there were those bizarre rumours that said Janet was really brother Michael in drag in which case she didn’t if you believe them.

If it’s Sash! (and it is) then their single must be at No 2 in the charts no? Erm…no actually. Yes, all their previous three dance hits had all gone to one place off the summit but “La Primavera” (the lead single from their second album) was at No 3 and would get no higher. Shock horror! Fear not though as they would be back at No 2 with their next hit “Mysterious Times” and would collect one more as the new millennium dawned to give them the record of being the act with the most No 2s without ever getting to No 1 in chart history. No sniggering at the back!

So what did “La Primavera” sound like? Well, the apple didn’t stray too far from the tree I think it’s fair to say although was it a bit less frantic than its predecessors? More like the dream trance that Robert Miles was peddling? Oh, I don’t know do I? Nor do I know why the dancers they’ve got in to promote the track look like they’re doing aqua aerobics without the water nor who the Betty Boo lookalike out front was. Life’s too short people.

Did they sing/play on their records? Clearly they didn’t sing on the records as they got a series of guest vocalists in.

As I approach the end of blogging about TOTP (I’m stopping after the 1999 repeats have finished), I’m increasingly encountering the scenario of it being the last time that I have to comment on a particular artist. Such is the case here as I believe this is the final chart hit for Louise in the 90s. The thing about the ex-Eternal member’s solo career it strikes me is that it was consistent without ever being spectacular. She has amassed twelve chart hits (eight between 1995 and 1998) of which six went Top 5 but how many of them were songs that really made a mark on the general public’s consciousness? Obviously her fan base (which is pretty loyal) could name them all but how many could your average punter reel off? I could only come up with “Naked” with certainty and I’ve reviewed most of them. “All That Matters” is a a case in point. A perfectly pleasant, radio friendly pop number if a little derivative of something I can’t quite put my finger on but it doesn’t linger in the memory for long. Still, that loyal fan base of hers sent her latest album “Confessions” into the Top 10 this year and that’s surely all that matters.

Did she sing on her records? Yes, which actually worked against her in her Eternal days when trying to break America where a white woman in the line up was seen as problematic for procuring airplay on R&B radio stations.

At this point in 1998, Ian Brown was awaiting trial for allegedly using threatening behaviour towards an air hostess on a British Airways flight in February. I seem to remember seeing lots of graffiti around Manchester where I was living at the time proclaiming Brown’s innocence. In the end, he went down for four months though actually served just two in jail due to parole.

For the moment though, he was free to perform his latest single “Corpses In Their Mouths” in the TOTP studio. Now that song’s title was pinched from a quote in Belgian situationist Raoul Vaneigem’s 1967 book The Revolution Of Everyday Life. However, that’s not where I know it from. My introduction to it came courtesy of the marvellous Pete Wylie track “The Story Of The Blues Part Two (Talkin’ Blues)”.

As for Brown’s track, it was the follow up to “My Star” which I remembered but this one? Nothing. I’m not surprised as it’s a pretty flat tune with Brown’s deadpan vocals not helping to up the ante. And what was with that miserable harmonica playing? It’s an all round grim performance but then he did have other things on his mind I guess.

Did he sing on his records? Depends what your definition of ‘singing’ is.

A quick word now on the staging of this particular show but not the performances of the artists but the positioning of Zoe Ball. Chris Cowey was obviously in an arty mood this week as he has our Zoe making use of unorthodox parts of the studio. Right from the start, she appears to walk on from off stage to do her intro which is echoey signifying she’s coming from behind the scenes. Then, when introducing Sasha!, she’s contorted herself to fit into the middle of what could be a giant polo but I’m guessing is the letter ‘O’ from the TOTP logo? Finally, she’s sprawled out on top of a piano and shot from above with the camera angle rotating madly as she introduces 911. Was Cowey trying out some new ideas or was he just trying to distract us from the very average quality of the music on the show (Prince Buster excepted)?

So 911. This trio had built themselves quite the career from small beginnings. “All I Want Is You” was their sixth consecutive Top 10 hit but like Louise earlier, could you actually name many of them? I’m going “Bodyshakin’” and didn’t they do a Dr. Hook cover at some point? The rest? I’ve probably written about them but retained any sense of what they were called or how they went I haven’t. Zoe tells us that this is a live performance from the group – is it? Well, lead singer Lee Brennan could be doing a live vocal but the other two up there with him? Well, they’re live in the respect that they’re living and breathing but that’s about their only contribution aside from some “oohing” in the background. The track itself is, again like Louise and her song earlier, a mid-tempo pop song that does a job but is pretty insubstantial. A bit like 911 really.

Did they sing on their records? As noted before, I could believe that Lee did but his two band mates? I’d need to see actual footage from the recording studio and a sworn declaration from the engineer that it was them.

As Zoe Ball says in her intro (before she attempts some embarrassing…well, how would you describe it? Jive talk? Street slang? Urban speak?), “It’s Like That” by Run–D.M.C. vs Jason Nevins is the first single of 1998 to last more than two weeks at No 1. In total it would clock up six weeks on the throne and become the third biggest selling single of the year in the UK. Somehow, despite the fact that I must have sold loads of it whilst working in the Our Price in Stockport, I’d forgotten quite how big a hit this was. Damn getting old and my failing memory. “It’s like that”? It may have been but I can’t quite remember it.

Did they rap on their records? You bet!

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Savage Garden	Truly Madly Deeply	I did not
2	Prince Buster	Whine And Grine	Liked it, didn’t buy it
3	Janet Jackson	I Get Lonely	No
4	Sash!	La Primavera	Nope
5	Louise	All That Matters	Negative
6	Ian Brown	Corpses In Their Mouths	Nah
7	911	All I Want Is You	Never happening
8	Run-D.M.C. vs Jason Nevins	It’s Like That	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/m002h46f/top-of-the-pops-03041998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 17 OCT 1997

Posted on April 29 by 80stastic

The volatility of the Top 40 around this time – the advent of first week discounting meaning high chart debuts followed by a sharp decline in sales – must have been an issue for the Beeb’s grand old pop music show. Except for a few anomalies, the days of hits taking weeks to slowly climb the charts allowing for multiple TOTP appearances on the way were a thing of the past. In my teenage years, No 1s would stay at the top for at least three weeks but by 1997 we were at the stage where we were experiencing six different chart toppers in the same amount of weeks. Executive producer Chris Cowey tried to address this by allowing repeat performances of hits that had peaked and were either descending the charts slowly or remaining in the Top 10 as a non-mover. This resulted in creating a platform for songs that were still popular to feature on the show but also meant that singles entering the lower parts of the Top 40 didn’t get a look in. Another strategy was to have an ‘exclusive’ performance of a song the week before its release and then a second appearance when it actually entered the charts the following week. Neither of these measures were ever going to restore the show to its past glories and the peak viewing figures it experienced in the 70s and 80s but at least Cowey was trying.

Having said all of that, we start with a song that didn’t fall into either category I have just outlined above. “U Sexy Thing” by Clock was on the show’s running order as a new entry at No 12 and would feature again the following week after climbing one place to No 11. Morrissey once said in Smash Hits when reviewing the week’s singles releases “There are indeed worse groups than Modern Romance but can anyone seriously think of one?”. Lord knows what Mozza must have made of Clock then who make Modern Romance sound like peak REM.

I don’t remember this but apparently they started out as a typical Eurodance outfit with a sound similar to Cappella according to Wikipedia. However, around the middle of the decade, they took the decision to go overtly commercial with an out and out pop sound by doing hideously trashy cover versions. Tracks by Harold Faltermeyer and Tag Team were followed by more mainstream songs like “December 1963 (Oh What A Night)” and this – “You Sexy Thing”. Irritatingly, they would slightly rename the song titles giving the impression that they weren’t just cover versions but brand new tracks so the Four Seasons classic became simply “Oh What A Night” whilst Hot Chocolate’s well loved hit was “U Sexy Thing”. Just nasty. Actually, not just nasty but cynical too in the case of the latter. The choice to cover that particular track was surely influenced by its resurgence in popularity thanks to its use in the box office smash The Full Monty. In their defence, they weren’t the only people to have that idea – another tacky version was released at the same time by a duo called T-Shirt but it lost out to Clock when it failed to make the UK Top 40. In the end, the Hot Chocolate original was rereleased and beat both the updated takes on it by riding to No 6 in the charts. This made it the third time it had been a hit – it was a No 2 in 1975 and made it to No 10 when rereleased for the first time in 1987. As for Clock, they would continue to mine the rich seam of cover versions by having hits with KC And The Sunshine Band’s “That’s The Way (I Like It)” and “Blame it On The Boogie” by The Jacksons before having the decency to pack it all in by the end of the decade.

Next up is another hit that doesn’t conform to the appearance policy I described in the intro to this post – I’m beginning to think I might have got this all wrong! Anyway, the hit concerned is “Closed For Business” by Mansun and it’s on the show as it’s gone straight into the charts at No 10 which clearly justifies its place in tonight’s running order. However, a band like Mansun presented a different sort of consideration for Chris Cowey. A large and devoted fanbase meant large sales in week one but a quick drop off thereafter. “Closed For Business” (the lead track from the “Seven EP”) spent just a fortnight inside the Top 40 dropping a whopping 27 places in its second week. I guess Cowey’s dilemma here was balancing reflecting what was popular in that particular week without pandering to a specific section of the record buying public. Was there also an issue of scheduling in terms of being able to get the band in the TOTP studio at that exact point of optimum popularity of their single? Remember, Cowey didn’t seem keen on showing videos unless he really had to.

Enough of that though, what about the music? Well, this was one of those bridging-the-gap releases between albums that we’ve seen many times before. Debut album “Attack Of The Grey Lantern” had come out in the February of 1997 and follow up “Six” would not appear until 18 months later so some interim material was required to maintain Mansun’s profile presumably. As with their earlier work, “Closed For Business” had that wide screen feel to it that overwhelmed your senses without suffocating them. It was gloriously epic. I’d really liked that first album and yet, somehow, I’d lost interest by the time their sophomore effort arrived. As with Garbage, Roachford and Skunk Anansie before them, I really should check out their later work. However, I don’t think I’ll be venturing as far as their other release called “Closed For Business” – a 25 disc box set retrospective. Twenty-five!

P.S. The sleeves to the CD singles of “Closed For Business” featured paintings by artist and early Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe whose story I’m always fascinated by. In fact, the whole narrative of those involved in the history of The Beatles but who didn’t end up as who we know as the ‘Fab Four’ does. Sutcliffe, Pete Best, Jimmie Nicol…all people whose lives could have been so so different.

Wait…Siedah Garrett was in the Brand New Heavies? When did that happen? Well, 1997 obviously but how did it happen and where’s N’Dea Davenport? Well, apparently she’d been gone a couple of years by this point having left the band due to that old chestnut ‘irreconcilable differences’ (I have no info on whether there were of the musical variety) with Garrett replacing her. She’s an interesting character Siedah – I think I only knew her as duetting with Michael Jackson on “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” but there’s so much more to her than that. As Jayne Middlemiss hints at in her intro, she had a hit in 1984 with Dennis Edwards with “Don’t Look Any Further” (which was later covered by the Kane Gang and M People) and she also co-wrote Jackson’s hit “Man In The Mirror”. She toured with both Jacko and Madonna and wrote a Grammy award winning single for the Dreamgirls film. She co-wrote a number of tracks on Quincy Jones’ seven Grammy Awards winning album “Back On The Block” and has even presented America’s Top 10 deputising for the legend that was Casey Kasem (the original voice of Shaggy from Scooby Doo!).

Back to the Brand New Heavies though and despite them having the reputation of being pioneers of the acid jazz movement built upon two platinum selling albums, when it came to huge hit singles, there weren’t that many. Of their fifteen releases that made the Top 40, only one went Top 10 and that was this one – a cover version of Carol King’s “You’ve Got A Friend”. It seems kind of odd that a cover would be their biggest hit, as if it somehow invalidates their other work though, of course, they had already gone down that route when their version of Maria Muldaur’s “Midnight At The Oasis” went to No 13 in 1994. For what it’s worth, I don’t think they added anything much to the original – indeed, I would argue that it stripped it of its lush, warm feel. It’s not a terrible version just…unnecessary. Not even the (rather over the top) twenty strong gospel choir employed here could make it into something special.

Given that it was the fourth and final single from their “In It For The Money” album, perhaps not surprisingly, “Late In The Day” failed to maintain a run of five previous Top 10 hits for Supergrass when it peaked at No 18. For me, it’s not one of their best though it was probably better than many of its contemporary chart peers. Am I alone in thinking Gaz Coombes looked pretty cool despite his mutton chop sideburns?

Finally we have a hit that conforms to one of the appearance policies I described at the start of this post. Eternal were on the show last week with their single “Angel Of Mine” which had debuted on the chart at No 4. Despite falling a place to No 5 seven days later, it was still deemed popular enough to warrant a repeat of that performance on this show. When it comes to conversations about UK girl groups, I’m not sure that Eternal would be the first name on everyone’s lips. Girls Aloud, the Spice Girls, Little Mix and even Bananarama are more likely to be mentioned before them it seems to me and yet they had 15 consecutive hit singles and three platinum selling studio albums and one Best Of compilation. Was it that they didn’t crack America* that has lessened their legacy? Certainly the Spice Girls crossed over the Atlantic though I’m not sure if any of those other names above did although Bananarama had sporadic yet spectacular success including a US No 1 in “Venus”. Was it that they kept haemorrhaging group members that has dinted their reputation? Presumably not as pretty much all those aforementioned artists similarly shed original members from their line ups along the way. Does it just come down to the memorability of their tunes then? Despite the number of hits, how many could the average person name do you reckon? I’m guessing it would be less than almost every other name in that list depending on who you asked obviously. One last thing, is any of the above fair to Eternal? Don’t ask me, I’m just filling here for a lack of anything else to say which itself possibly does say a lot.

*Monica did have a US No 1 with her version of “Angel Of Mine”

It’s time for Sash! again (or should I say ‘encore une fois’?) who are back with their third consecutive No 2 hit called “Stay”. Now apparently this lot hold some sort of record for having the most No 2 hits (five in total) without ever having a chart topper or something. All those No 2s…insert your own (obvious) joke here *———-*. All three hits so far featured another artist – Sabine Ohmes, Rodriguez and now someone called La Trec as vocalist. To me, it was much the same as its predecessors albeit with more added vocals than usual. I’m sure it all made sense if you were frugging out on the dance floor but I could never understand anybody wanting to listen to it in their bedroom at home. How wrong was I though as not only did Sash! sell lots of singles but, unusually for a dance act, they shifted lots of units of their album as well. Their debut offering “It’s My Life” went platinum in the UK selling 300,000 copies and making it to No 6 in the charts.

It’s that weirdly over the top performance by Janet Jackson of “Got Till It’s Gone” again now which is being repeated as the single has gone back up the charts from No 9 to No 8 having peaked at No 6 in its debut week on the charts. Now, what links the aforementioned Supergrass to Janet Jackson (apart from being on the same show)? Well, apparently the former’s hit “Late In The Day” was inspired by a track from Graham Nash’s “Songs For Beginners” album. Nash, of course, was a founding member of The Hollies but left in 1968 to form the folk rock group Crosby, Stills and Nash (CSN) and subsequently Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSNY). He would write one of their best known songs “Our House” about a simple domestic event that occurred when he was living with his then partner in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles. The name of that partner? Joni Mitchell. I don’t need to join the dots on this one any further do I?

It’s the fifth and final week at the top for “Candle In The Wind ‘97” / “Something About The Way You Look Tonight” by Elton John but clearly a decision was taken weeks ago to play the latter track as this is the third week on the spin we have got the promo for that one and not the cobbled together video for the former. Was it a decision based on taste? Was a fortnight of “Candle In The Wind ‘97” deemed a respectable amount of time for national mourning? Would any more have been seen as shoving it down the throats of the public? I don’t know the answer but what I am sure about is that these BBC4 TOTP repeats will have almost certainly been the first time we will have heard “Candle In the Wind ‘97” since they were originally broadcast. You never hear it on the radio. Like Ever.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Clock	U Sexy Thing	Never
2	Mansun	Closed For Business	No – missed this one
3	Brand New Heavies	You’ve Got A Friend	No – give me the original every time
4	Supergrass	Late In The Day	Negative
5	Eternal	Angel Of Mine	Nope
6	Sash!	Stay	No
7	Janet Jackson	Got Till It’s Gone	Nah
8	Elton John	Candle In The Wind’97 / Something About The Way You Look Tonight	I did not

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/m002b250/top-of-the-pops-17101997?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 28 FEB 1997

Posted on January 31 by 80stastic

It’s the last day of February in 1997 and we’ve just had the BRIT Awards show which featured that Union Jack mini dress worn by Geri Halliwell when the Spice Girls performed at the event. It has come to be seen as an iconic moment in UK music history. At the 2010 BRIT Awards, it was voted the most memorable performance of the last 30 years. The dress itself was auctioned in 1998 at Sotheby’s with the winning bid of £41,320 becoming a Guinness World Record as the most money paid for an item of pop star clothing at auction. The design has been copied by many a fan attending various Pride events or Spice Girls concert. Let’s see if we can spot its influence on any of the artists in this particular episode of TOTP…

By the way, tonight’s host is footballer Ian Wright who is cutting his teeth on TOTP for his staggeringly long and full media career which he built for himself after he finally stopped kicking a ball for a living. The first act he introduces are the Bee Gees who may not be wearing any Union Jack dresses but they did pick up an Outstanding Contribution Award at the BRITS earlier in the week. Whatever you thought of their music, you couldn’t deny their longevity and said award was deserved. Having released their first single in 1963, they scored their first UK hit in 1967 racking up a further eight hits (including two No 1s) before the decade ended. It would be the 70s though that would be their golden era and the period of their career that they are most remembered for with the disco explosion and Saturday Night Fever phenomenon. The 80s were a different story and one of complete extremes – they only released eight singles in total all of which except one failed to make the UK Top 40 but the one that did? Yep, it was a No 1.

And so to the 90s and although it certainly wasn’t up there with the 70s, the Gibb brothers were pretty consistent. Nine chart entries including four Top 5 hits of which “Alone” was the third. That’s not even counting the two cover versions in 1996 by Take That and Boyzone of “How Deep Is Your Love” and “Words” respectively that both went to No 1. Having blown smoke up their collective arses for a few sentences, I have to say that “Alone” tested my patience in terms of its listenability. It’s all a bit predictable and, dare I say it, indistinguishable from their other 90s hits. Even when they tried to shake things up by inserting some bagpipes into the track, it just really dated it. John Farnham* had done that 10 years before on “You’re The Voice”. The Bee Gees final UK Top 5 hit would follow in 1998 when they joined forces with Celine Dion on “Immortality”. Oh deep joy.

*Yes I also mentioned him in another recent post and no, I’m not obsessed with him!

A-ha! The first signs of the influence of the Union Jack dress are in evidence in this next performance by Republica as lead singer Saffron (real name Samantha Sprackling) chooses a Saint George’s Cross T-shirt to wear under her suit jacket. Republica were one of those curious cases where they definitely were not a one hit wonder and in any case, that hit wasn’t even the highest charting of their career but they were destined to be defined by it. “Ready To Go” is the track in question and it was originally released a year before this when it failed to make the Top 40. The 1996 version (often referred to as the Original UK Mix’) was vastly different to the one we would all grow to know with more of a dance sound to it. A piano motif existed where the hit version had guitars and it just had a lighter touch to it in general. The version that peaked at No 13 in our charts was a US remix that would ultimately become the one that was released to Europe second time around which had a much heavier sound and faster tempo making it more like a rock track than a dance anthem though I’m sure many did cut some rug to it. In fact, I bet it went down a storm in the indie discos of the time with much jumping up and down on the dance floor – I don’t think I would have been involved in this myself you understand; being 29 this year I was probably aging out of the club market.

The high octane thrill ride that was “Ready To Go” would lend itself to being the perfect soundtrack to the start of sports events. I believe Sunderland AFC used to run out to this track at their home matches back in the day. As for Republica, they looked like they might be the next big thing for a while with Saffron’s cheekbones and looks allied to a very commercial sound – a UK No Doubt possibly. However it wouldn’t last. Their final UK hit came in 1998 with the band’s fortunes being undone by a poorly received second album and record label Deconstruction going bust. They kind of remind me of a 90s version of Westworld of “Sonic Boom Boy” fame who similarly burnt brightly but briefly though Republica reformed in 2008 and are still a going concern today.

The two highest chart entries of the week are both huge dance tunes and we get both of them back to back starting with “Encore Une Fois” by Sash! This was all very confusing. The track’s title was French for “One more time” yet Sash! are a German DJ/production team. Not only that but it sounded very similar to “Insomnia” by Faithless so much so that Rollo considered his legal options for a while. A trance floor filler, it is almost entirely an instrumental track aside from the title being repeated by vocalist Sabine Ohmes plus her spoken word intro “Mesdames, Messieurs Le disc-jockey Sash! est de retour” which translates to “Ladies and gentlemen, DJ Sash! is back here”. Due to the lack of lyrics, if you watch the performance with the subtitles on, the following words flash on screen:

“Band plays an ambient house beat”

and…

“He plays a phrase again and again”

Bizarrely, that’s almost exactly what I was going to write as my review of the track!

As Ian Wright says, viewers might have had the second highest chart entry of the week in their collection already. “You Got The Love” by The Source featuring Candi Staton was originally a huge hit back in 1991 but was rereleased in 1997 as the ‘New Voyager Mix’ and was a hit all over again peaking one place higher than its 1991 counterpart at No 3. For what it’s worth I much prefer the original but I haven’t got the time nor the inclination to write about this one all over again so this is what I had to say about it when I reviewed the 1991 TOTP repeats in which it featured which numbered three – coincidentally, almost the same amount of times it was released:

TOTP 07 FEB 1991

TOTP 14 FEB 1991

TOTP 28 FEB 1991

Not wearing a Union Jack dress but definitely wearing her British influences on her sleeve was Cathy Dennis who is back in the charts with a cover of perhaps the quintessential English song – “Waterloo Sunset”. With The Kinks very much being talked about at the time as ‘The Godfathers of Britpop’, it must have seemed a sensible choice for Cathy to move away from the dance diva image that had made her name and remodel herself as a singer-songwriter, paying homage to the great Ray Davies and riding the zeitgeist at the same time. Or was it a much more cynical move? Cathy’s career was teetering on the edge and she needed a hit to revive it? We’ve seen that move so many times. Well, it’s true that the hits, whilst not having dried up completely, had certainly shrivelled in size. After debut album “Move To This” had achieved gold status, follow up “Into The Skyline” had not sustained after initial success and none of its singles had got any higher in the charts than No 23. Fast forward five years and third album “Am I The Kinda Girl?” would fail and flail its way to a lowly chart peak of No 78. Cathy’s cover of “Waterloo Sunset” did give her a No 11 hit (her highest position since 1991) but it was a temporary reprieve with the follow up single missing the Top 40 altogether. At this point, Cathy gave up on being a star in her own right and forged a hugely successful career writing songs for other people. A bit ironic then that her final hit was with a composition that wasn’t one of hers.

Cathy does a decent job of selling us “Waterloo Sunset” with this performance and, let’s be fair, convincing people they needed a version of this iconic song that wasn’t by The Kinks was not an easy sell. Her feather boa is a nice nod to the 60s as is her coy, daydreaming looks to the camera. Having her play a guitar gives me Sheryl Crow vibes which perhaps was intentional for her singer-songwriter ambitions.

And yet more evidence of the influence of that Geri Halliwell dress as Bush lead singer Gavin Rossdale is wearing a top with a Union Jack design on it. His British grunge band have finally bagged themselves a UK hit after breaking the US first as “Swallowed” has landed inside the Top 10. Rossdale, of course, was in a relationship with No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani at this point but they won’t have had a chance to spend any time together on this show as they weren’t in the studio simultaneously – the No Doubt performance we will see later is just a repeat of the one from last week. If they had met up, they could have worked on a mash up of their two hits – an ode to not talking whilst you’re eating called “Don’t Speak…Swallow”. I’ll get me coat.

Although he was about to enter that part of his career when he couldn’t guarantee himself a UK Top 40 hit with every release, having Prince (or The Artist as he was known back then) on TOTP in person would still have been a big deal. It certainly was for host Ian Wright for whom he was his idol as he gushed in his intro. Although he hadn’t won anything at the BRITS (he’d been nominated for Best International Male Solo Artist), Prince/The Artist had performed the title track from his latest album “Emancipation” at the show. Whilst he was still in the country, he popped by the BBC’s flagship music show for a performance of his latest single “The Holy River”. Seeing as he didn’t play this one at the BRITS, I’m guessing that this TOTP appearance was very much scheduled – he knew he didn’t have to promote his latest single at the awards show as he had another UK TV slot already booked. We didn’t know it at the time but excluding the rerelease of “1999” in 1998, this single would be Prince’s final UK Top 40 hit in his lifetime. As such, I wish I had something nicer to say about it but it’s all style over substance. It’s a much more toned down, traditional pop/rock song than some of his more funk driven output but it never really goes anywhere – does it even have a chorus? He can call himself The Artistall he liked but it didn’t stop him from going all Prince-like at the end where he gives us a “Purple Rain”-esque guitar solo just for good measure. Ah, well. Thanks for all the memories Mr Nelson.

And this is where we came in as we return to the protagonist of the Union Jack dress story though Geri Halliwell doesn’t have it on tonight. In fact, she’s distinctly covered up this time leaving Victoria/Posh to wear a revealing outfit with an awful lot of décolletage on show. Yes, it’s time for an exclusive performance of their new single from the Spice Girls. As with Prince before them, they’d already done a turn at the BRITS though they were given a two song slot as we got “Wannabe” and “Who Do You Think You Are”. The latter formed a double A-side with the song on the show tonight – “Mama” – which would be the Comic Relief single for 1997. In a remarkably fortunate falling of dates (hmm…), Comic Relief day and Mothering Sunday were within five days of each other this year so with that double whammy of events, there was no way that this fourth Spice Girls single wasn’t going to No 1 and when it did, the group set a new record of all of their first four releases topping the chart. Have that Gerry and the Pacemakers, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Jivebunny and Robson & Jerome!

I have to admit that “Mama” always seemed a bit of a weak effort to me, sweet to the point of being sickly despite its noble sentiments (basically the girls admitting what cows they were to their Mums when they were growing up). I much preferred the sassy, uptempo “Who Do You Think You Are”. The Spice Girls juggernaut would roll on in 1997 albeit there would be a six month gap where they didn’t release anything before they were back with a new single and album, a second Christmas No 1 and even a film. Spice Girls overload is coming!

Even Ian Wright has picked up on the constant revolving door sequence of a new No 1 becoming a weekly event, so much so that he articulates his surprise that “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt has managed a second week at the top of the charts in 1997. To me, it did have that feel of having gravitas to it that would enable more longevity than something like, I don’t know, Tori Amos or LL Cool J. If you examine the sales figures for those records in the week they were No 1, that view is kind of borne out. “Professional Widow (It’s Got To Be Big)” and “Ain’t Nobody” both sold 80,000 copies in their first weeks which was enough to secure top spot for them both. “Don’t Speak” sold 195,000 copies in week one and followed that up with 140,000 copies in week two – both these figures were more than any No 1 single had sold since Christmas. Even in its third week, it sold 85,000 copies to hold on at No 1 – again more than Tori Amos and LL Cool J. However, it couldn’t stand up to the g-force of the Spice Girls single when that was released in March.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Bee Gees	Alone	I didn’t
2	Republica	Ready To Go	Liked it, didn’t buy it
3	Sash!	Encore Une Fois	Never
4	The Source featuring Candi Staton	You Got The Love	Negative
5	Cathy Dennis	Waterloo Sunset	No
6	Bush	Swallowed	No but I had it on one of those Best Album Ever compilations
7	Prince aka The Artist	The Holy River	Nope
8	Spice Girls	Mama / Who Do You Think You Are	Nah
9	No Doubt	Don’t Speak	See 2 above

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/p00fsvld/top-of-the-pops-28021997?seriesId=unsliced

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