Simple Minds

TOTP 13 MAR 1998

We’re in mid March 1998 and on the same day this TOTP was broadcast, there was a lunar eclipse which was visible over much of Western Europe. There may well have been a load of stars on this show but were any of them bathed in moonlight? Let’s find out…

Our host is Jayne Middlemiss who has no obvious lunar connections other than when she spent the Summer of 2005 mooning after ex-footballer Lee Sharpe after appearing with him on Celebrity Love Island. Anyway, we’re under way with Natalie Imbruglia who has the unenviable task of coming up with a follow up to her massive debut hit single “Torn”. It’s a familiar quandary faced by many before her and since. Do you play it safe and stick to the winning formula with something so similar to its predecessor that you get accused of being a one trick pony or…do you take a chance and change direction hoping your newly found fan base will go with you?

In the case of Natalie, I would argue she came up with a hybrid of the two strategies – “Big Mistake” is nothing like “Torn” but it did ape the sound of another successful artist of the time Alanis Morissette. By its nature a much harder sound than the ultimate example of a radio friendly song that was its predecessor, it couldn’t hope to emulate its popularity and sales. And it didn’t – whilst it matched the chart high of “Torn” when it debuted at No 2, its commercial longevity just wasn’t there. Look at this stat – “Torn” was the 8th best selling song of 1997 in the UK. “Big Mistake” was the 91st in 1998. Still, she did co-write it which was probably brought a much needed dash of credibility after the discovery that “Torn” was actually a cover. It would take seven years before Natalie would fashion another hit that could even resemble the reach of “Torn” – 2005’s “Shiver” from No 1 album “Counting Down The Days” was the most played song of that year in the UK.

Moon moment: Natalie recorded a song called “Stuck On the Moon” for 2007’s Best Of album “Glorious”.

By 1998, the fortunes of Simple Minds were on a definite downwards trend. Though the decade had started well enough with the platinum selling, No 2 album “Real Life”, there followed a hiatus of four years punctuated only by the release of Best Of album “Glittering Prize 81/92” and which saw the band officially become a duo of Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill. 1995 album “Good News From The Next World”, whilst by no means a commercial disaster, would sell a third of the amount of copies of its predecessor. It was also their last release on Virgin Records who dropped the band having been their label since 1981.

Picked up by Chrysalis, work began on eleventh studio album “Néapolis”. Such a change ignited a need within Kerr and Burchill to reinvent themselves and they did this by…erm…getting the old band back together! Well, sort of. They recruited original bassist Derek Forbes and drummer Brian McGee on a rehearsal only basis (though Forbes would eventually rejoin the line up on a permanent basis) and sought out a sound that moved away from their stadium rock and that was more aligned with their early electronic material. The result was underwhelming. Lead single “Glitterball” is Simple Minds by numbers, meandering along with no direction, a track in search of a tune, or a glitter ball in search of a disco if you prefer (which I do). The album pretty much tanked and Chrysalis refused to release it in the US citing the ultimate insult – a lack of interest. Having lost faith in the album, the label also lost faith in their charges and the band were dropped by Chrysalis in 1999 after just one album. I don’t think we’ll be seeing them again in these 90s TOTP repeats. It’s a sorry way to bow out but fret not – Jim and Charlie are still together, still touring and receding new music with the last studio album arriving in 2022.

Moon moment: Does the title “Glitterball” count? How about “‘C’ Moon Cry Like A Baby” from their “Sparkle In The Rain” album then?

Another act attempting to follow up on their debut hit are Five but unlike Natalie Imbruglia, they haven’t deviated too much from the original plan. Having gone Top 10 (just) with their first single “Slam Dunk (Da Funk)”, the lads double downed on the formula by releasing another slice of uptempo, hip-hop pop (I think I just made that up) in “When The Lights Go Out”. Like a rocket launch, the band’s trajectory was straight up as this track eclipsed their debut effort by landing on the charts at No 4 and get this, even made the Top 10 in the US. Who knew? Not me for sure. So successful was “When The Lights Go Out” that, in some territories, it was considered to actually be the band’s first single. I have to say though that it sounded a weaker effort to my ears than the punchy “Slam Dunk (Da Funk)”. Five’s third single would be the distinctly poppy “Got The Feelin’” which again passed me by. However, fourth single “Everybody Get Up” was an absolute banger. I’m getting ahead of myself though. For the time being, Five were doing just fine without my approval.

Moon moment: Lunar eclipse? When the lights go out? Come on! This shizzle writes itself!

Some bump ‘n’ grind R&B now from someone that Jayne Middlemiss describes in her intro as a “real man”. Hmm. She’s talking about Ginuwine who is onto his fourth consecutive hit with a track called “Holler”. Not surprisingly, this guy did nothing for me but then I’m pretty sure he wasn’t meant to with lyrics like this…

“You make me wanna holler Ginuwine like the leather tickling my fancy tryna get my kitty wetter…And when you’re through puffin’ you can butter up my muffin“

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Timothy Mosley / Elgin B. Lumpkin / Lushone Nikcole Feliet Siplin
Holler lyrics © Wb Music C

Pure filth! All that horrible male posturing was presumably to over compensate for the fact that his real name is Elgin Baylor Lumpkin meaning that Ginuwine was not genuine about his real name.

Moon moment: His song “Gin And Wine” does mention the moon and the tide but then again, he also mentions something about his baby being his bitch or something so, you know, Wordsworth he isn’t.

So it seems that the British public had learned nothing from the 1995/96 Robson & Jerome fiasco when two actors became the biggest pop stars in the land with some ropey old cover versions just because they’d been on the TV in a series whose characters were required to sing a song for a plot line. In their wake came John Alford and Steven Houghton from London’s Burning and in 1998 came a whole troupe of people in the form of the Cast From Casualty with a cover of the old Love Affair hit “Everlasting Love”.

Now, I’ve never been an ardent watcher of Casualty so looking at this lot on stage, I couldn’t really tell you who were the actors and who were the jobbing session musicians (though one was Steve Ellis from Love Affair as Jayne Middlemiss helpfully informs us) so I had to google it. The woman doing the singing is Rebecca Wheatley who played receptionist Amy and I think one of the backing singers is Julia Watson who was Barbara ‘Baz’ Wilder. Her character was one of the principal protagonists of the two part episode ‘Everlasting Love’ which revolved around her impending marriage to regular character Charlie Fairhead. I’m guessing that there was some emergency/ accident/incident that delayed the wedding somehow? I can’t even be bothered to find out to be honest. Anyway, one look at that episode title should reveal why this particular track was chosen for covering but it should also be noted that it was the Children In Need record. Having said that, charity or not, this was hopeless stuff. Was this TV actor to pop star business a purely British phenomenon? I don’t recall the cast of Dallas for example releasing records – or maybe they did and no, I’m really not going to look that up.

Moon moment: Apparently there was an episode in 2005 entitled ‘Paper Moon’. That’ll have to do.

OK- I’m calling it early but this next tune is the best of this show’s crop in my humble opinion. We hadn’t seen Shed Seven at all in 1997 as they spent the year recording their third album “Let It Ride” which was released in the June of 1998. Bizarrely though, the lead single for the album – “Chasing Rainbows” – had come a good 18 months ahead of the album. So long was the gap that it made it seem like second single – “She Left Me On Friday” – was actually the first from it. Perhaps not as classy sounding as its predecessor, it still did what it was meant to do which was make some noise in announcing the re-emergence of the band courtesy of a shouty but memorable chorus. The wah-wah guitar middle eight sounds slightly incongruous but not so much as to cause any lasting damage to the song’s merits. There was some debate amongst the TOTP online community about Shed Seven being better than Oasis. I’m not sure about that but it’s interesting to note how Rick Witter doesn’t over pronounce the word ‘shine’ in the lyrics as Liam Gallagher undoubtedly would have.

Moon moment: The word ‘moon’ is used twice in the lyrics to “Going For Gold” which is another song in which Witter doesn’t pronounce ‘shine’ as ‘she-iiiiiine’.

Yet again I am undone in my musical knowledge as I have got nothing on Lionrock so have had to rely on the internet again for this one. Apparently, they were record producer Justin Robertson, MC Buzz B and recording engineer Roger Lyons whilst their biggest hit “Rude Boy Rock” heavily sampled “Nimrod” by The Skatelites.

So, the guy with the megaphone in this performance got me wondering. What other examples of megaphone usage are there in the rock/pop world? I couldn’t really think of any. I had a vague image of Bill Drummond of The KLF using one in a performance but I could be making that up. So, once again, I had to resort to the World Wide Web for some help (where has my own creativity gone?!). It gave me the following examples:

“Orange Crush” by REM
“Mr Brightside” by The Killers
“Crackerman” by Stone Tempe Pilots
“Winchester Cathedral” by New Vaudeville Band
1930s crooner Rudy Vallée

Any more?

Moon moment: Erm…there’s a quite famous picture of the moon rising over a prominent rock formation in Japan called Shishi-Iwa which is shaped like a lion’s head and literally means Lion Rock. Tenuous link but it’s all I’ve got.

After waiting patiently at No 2 for a fortnight, Celine Dion is back on the top of the charts with “My Heart Will Go On”. Presumably sales were buoyed by the success of the Titanic film but clearly there was also something about the song that connected with the public. Was it the Celtic flute motif that permeated the film as well? Or perhaps the gigantic key change at the song’s climax? Was it the purity of Celine’s vocals (she did it in one take apparently)? Whatever it was, the song has become indelibly embedded into popular culture and for many is the standard against which all power ballads should be measured. And yes, as ever, I still hate it.

Moon moment: Celine recorded a song called “Water From The Moon” but there are two better connections. Firstly, in the film, the depiction of the night sky in terms of the position of the moon and stars was inaccurate. Director James Cameron acknowledged the error and corrected it for the 3D rerelease of the movie. Secondly, there is a documentary featuring Cameron and astronaut Buzz Aldrin which deals with their perspectives on exploration in the deep ocean and space using footage of the Titanic and rare NASA footage from Apollo 11.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Natalie Imbruglia	Big Mistake	I did not
2	Simple Minds	Glitterball	Nah
3	Five	When The Lights Go Out	Nope
4	Ginuwine	Holler	Negative
5	Cast From Casualty	Everlasting Love	Are you kidding?
6	Shed Seven	She Left Me On Friday	No but I had it on a Best Of album I think
7	Lionrock	Rude Boy Rock	No
8	Celine Dion	My Heart Will Go On	Of course 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/m002gk6n/top-of-the-pops-13031998?seriesId=unsliced

06 APR 1995

Posted on October 25, 2023 by 80stastic

We’ve arrived in April of 1995 here at TOTP Rewind and back then, the day before this TOTP was broadcast, came some seismic music news. The NME published a statement announcing that Stone Roses drummer Reni had left the band. Now maybe a drummer leaving any band wouldn’t normally be such a big deal but I guess the Roses weren’t just any band and Reni wasn’t just any drummer. He cut a legendary figure as part of the four musketeers of the classic line up with his wicked talent and trademark bucket hat. His departure was the removal of the foundation stone that would see the band disintegrate by 1996. It would be another seventeen years before he played with them again.

By a strange quirk of fate, Reni wouldn’t be the only drummer to leave a huge Manchester band this month. On the last day of April, Tony McCarroll was sacked from Oasis thereby definitely making him the Pete Best of the 90s. Maybe. This TOTP doesn’t feature The Stone Roses, Oasis nor The Beatles though amazingly we only missed all three by a whisker. The Stone Roses had been in the Top 40 in March with “Ten Storey Love Song”, Oasis were a month away from their first No 1 “Some Might Say” and The Beatles were actually in the charts again with the track “Baby It’s You” from the “Live At The BBC” album. So if they’re some of the artists not on the show, who were the acts that were?

We start with a dance outfit (of course we do) but who was Grace? Well, she wasn’t the woman front and centre doing the vocals for “Not Over Yet” in this performance. Her name is Patti Low. Neither was it the singer who replaced her after this single – she’s Dominique Atkins. In fact, Grace wasn’t a woman at all. Grace was a group formed by superstar DJs Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne and originally named State Of Grace until they realised that an American band had nabbed the name first. Oakenfold had already been in the charts this year with a different vehicle for his material in the form of Perfecto Allstarz but presumably that moniker wasn’t deemed suitable to promote “Not Over Yet”. A different type of dance track required a different artist name right? Anyway, Grace would go onto have a total of six Top 40 hits but none were bigger than “Not Over Yet” which peaked at No 6.

I thought I didn’t know this one but as soon as that chorus kicked in, it all came flooding back. How could I have forgotten that driving hook that persistently hammers at your brain until it’s stuck in there. As dance tunes go, and you know I’m not a big fan, I’d have to say it’s one of the best examples of trance/disco out there. Indeed, so good was it that it was a hit all over again when re-released four years later under yet another pseudonym- this time Planet Perfecto – when it made No 16. That made it three releases in total for the track if you include its original 1993 outing when it failed to chart and four if you count the 2007 cover version by Klaxons. Who knows, it may even get a future release. It still might be not over yet for this particular tune. Ahem.

I should say that the host tonight is Bruno Brookes in his last ever appearance on the show. He’d had a good run though stretching all the way back to 1984. Obviously there was a three year break during the ‘year zero’ revamp but even so. After getting permanently annoyed by him as the years rolled by, I actually thought he did a decent job when he returned in 1994 but for some reason he’s started the last show in bizarre fashion. Dressed in clergyman garb and calling himself Reverend Rock ‘n’ Roll, it all seems to be just so he can get in a cheap quip about ‘saying grace’ as he introduces opening act…yep…Grace. Not exactly dis-grace-ful but certainly lame.

And talking of lame…here come Ultimate Kaos with a really wimpy ballad called “Show A Little Love”. I could never understand the appeal of this lot or indeed quite what the deal was with them at all. A bunch of barely teenage boys and a lead singer who was only nine when they started out eliciting screams from the young girls in the studio audience? I know I wasn’t the target demographic even back then but the whole thing was decidedly icky. I suppose Michael Jackson wasn’t much older when The Jackson 5 started having hits and although that’s an obvious comparison to make, surely that’s the template that Simon Cowell was following when he put Ultimate Kaos together. “Show A Little Love” was also of an identikit nature being a sickly, bubblegum-pop-by-numbers ballad aimed directly at the hearts of teenage girls. At least it wasn’t as inappropriate as their previous hit “Hoochie Booty” but its No 23 peak meant it wouldn’t last long in the memory and rightly so.

We’re back in the world of dance with the next hit which is “The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall Into My Mind)” by Bucketheads. It’s the video for this one again which was directed by Guy Ritchie and Alex De Rakoff, both at the very start of their careers. The former would go on to direct The Calcium Kid whilst the latter would find fame with Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and by marrying Madonna.

There’s a scene in the video where the male protagonist walks into a record shop, picks a 12” from the racks (by Bucketheads obviously) and proceeds to nip behind the counter, put the record on the shop turntable and start dancing around with the guy working there. I can honestly say that scene never happened to me once and I worked in record shops for the whole of the 90s pretty much. The only punters who made it behind the counter were those who had been caught on the rob by the security guard and were waiting in the staff kitchen for the police to arrive. Their defence? “These sounds fell into my bag by accident. Honest.”

https://youtu.be/fWb2LJez4bc?si=9O7p2h-LFQ7r-sXJ

You’d think spending eight hours a day, five days a week working in a record shop that you’d hear just about every new album that was released wouldn’t you? Wrong! There’s loads of albums that I recognise the cover of but have no idea what it sounded like. Terence Trent D’Arby’s fourth album is a prime example. The cover was striking with TTD sporting a peroxide blonde short haircut and a pair of wings – quite the angelic image. Now I thought it was called “Vibrator” but according to Wikipedia its full title is “Terence Trent D’Arby’s Vibrator* (*Batteries Included)”. Ooerr.

The lead single from it was “Holding Onto You” and I have to say that I was expecting more from it. It’s a bluesy/soul number that sort of meanders along but never really convinces. I keep waiting for the song to get started but it never does. TTD’s distinctive voice is to the fore and seems to have got deeper over the years but even that can’t save it. I’m surprised it got as high as No 20. This would prove to be the last ever UK Top 40 hit for the man who now signs his name as Sananda Maitreya and wasn’t exactly going out on a high. A far cry from the dizzy heights and expectations that met his arrival on the music scene eight years before. Shame really.

What the chuff am I supposed to write about this one seeing as “Baby Baby” by Corona sounds exactly like their previous hit “Rhythm Of The Night”? I know this was common practice around this time but why didn’t the punters see through it and not buy it?! Was it all just about the bpm on the dance floors?

Vocalist Olga Maria de Souza has gone all Bladerunner for this performance with her sartorial choices; specifically the transparent mac that the replicant Zhora is wearing as she flees from Deckard. Thankfully she hasn’t got a snake like Zhora had too. There would have been letters sent to Points Of View, I’m telling you.

Just as the ‘exclusive’ performance from Prince and NPG was recycled the other week, so is this recent appearance by Simple Minds which was also labelled as ‘exclusive’. It’s all very well repeating these clips but where does that leave me eh? I’ve already written about this one in a previous post and they’re just in the studio not at a world famous landmark like the Eiffel Tower as they were when promoting previous single “She’s A River” on the show. Follow up single “Hypnotise” wasn’t anywhere near as strong to my ears so they probably should have reversed the songs and their settings. “Hypnotise” would have benefited from the distraction of the Eiffel Tower whereas “She’s A River” was probably muscular enough to stand up to a session in the TOTP studio as it were.

“Hypnotise” would end up being the band’s penultimate UK Top 40 hit. A lack of chart success didn’t deter them though and they are now in their 47th year of existence (albeit with only Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill remaining from the original lineup) and have released 21 studio albums with the most recent being 2022’s “Direction Of The Heart”.

Nope, no memory of this one at all. Pato Banton did a single with Ranking Roger of The Beat? Pato only had that one (albeit massive) hit didn’t he? His execrable version of “Baby Come Back”. Well no, actually. He had four (or five if you count his guest rap on Sting’s “This Cowboy Song” for which he received a credit) but none of his other hits got anywhere near the success of his chart topper. This one – “Bubbling Hot” -only managed a peak of No 15. He liked a collaboration though did old Pato. As well as Ranking Roger and Sting (with whom he also had a minor hit with a cover of The Police’s “Spirits In The Material World”), “Baby Come Back” also featured Ali and Robin Campbell of UB40. In fact, that means every one of his hits was with in conjunction with other artists.

“Bubbling Hot” kind of sounds like a reggae version of Arrow’s soca classic “Hot Hot Hot” to my untutored ears which is not necessarily a bad thing but overall there doesn’t seem to be much to the track really. Still, it’s nice to see the sadly departed Ranking Roger who died of cancer in 2019 again.

If it’s the 90s and Bryan Adams then it must be a big ballad and his latest release is…kind of. “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?” certainly was a ballad but it was not quite of the same flavour of some of his other love songs of the decade. Tracks like “Please Forgive Me”, “All For Love” (with Rod Stewart and that king of collaborations Sting), “Do I Have To Say The Words” and of course “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” were very much soft rock ballads but this one was slightly different. How? It had a flamenco guitar in it courtesy of Paco de Lucia as name checked by Bruno Brookes in his intro.

I have to admit to dismissing this song completely at the time, very possibly due to its inclusion of said guitar. Written for the soundtrack to the film Don Juan DeMarco, it peaked at No 4 showing the power that Bryan still wielded when it came to mainstream balladeering. The fact that (yet again) the song was part of a film soundtrack probably helped its success though I don’t think Don Juan De Marco cut through quite as much as something like Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves. I for one didn’t catch it at the time and have never watched it ever. One person who did was my friend Susan. Whilst waiting in the queue to buy her ticket, she heard the guy in front of her ask for his by putting an extraordinary emphasis on the word ‘Juan’. It went something like this: “Two for Don WHOOAHN De Marco please”. For the record, Susan didn’t believe that the guy was Spanish either.

Rejoice for The Outhere Brothers are Top of the Pops no more. They probably were still selling enough records to have stayed at No 1 for a few weeks yet but they were no match for the unit shifting phenomenon that took their place. We have arrived at the commercial and creative peak of Take That. In some ways it was, if not unexpected, then not guaranteed given that their last two singles hadn’t quite performed as expected. “Love Ain’t Here Anymore” had broken a run of four consecutive chart toppers by only making it to No 3 whilst “Sure”, though making it to No 1, only stayed there for one week despite Gary Barlow’s belief that it was the best thing the band had ever done. I (and millions of others) would beg to disagree Gary. It’s hard to see past “Back For Good” when it comes to that accolade. The song had been unveiled in a performance at the BRIT Awards in February creating a demand for it that saw it made available to the media six weeks before you could buy it in the shops and resulting in the single’s official release being brought forward. It would sell close on 400,000 copies in its first week meaning it had sold more in seven days than any single since Band Aid in 1984. It wasn’t hard to understand why. “Back For Good” was a shimmering pop masterpiece. It’s full of melody and nicely crafted lyrics about lipstick marks and coffee cups – this one though is excellent:

In the twist of separation, you excelled at being free
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Gary Barlow
Back for Good lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

I think though it’s the harmonies of the backing vocals that seeks the deal. Such was the song’s quality that it even gave them a hit in America which had been impervious to their success at home before.

Not everything was rosy in the Take That garden though. Within three months Robbie Williams would be gone, asked to leave by at least two of his bandmates over his attitude and commitment. Are there signs of him feeling the stress here with his shaved hair which has been died a hue of red/purple? “Back For Good” will be No 1 for four weeks so the boys (including Robbie) will be back soon enough. Sadly for Bruno Brookes, well, he was gone for good.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Grace	Not Over Yet	No
2	Ultimate Kaos	Show A Little Love	Never
3	Bucketheads	The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall Into My Mind)	Negative
4	Terence Trent D’Arby	Holding Onto You	Nah
5	Corona	Baby Baby	I did not
6	Simple Minds	Hypnotise	Its a no from me
7	Pato Banton and Ranking Roger	Bubbling Hot	Not I
8	Bryan Adams	Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?	Nope
9	Take That	Back For Good	No but my wife did – on 7″ no less

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/m001rk79/top-of-the-pops-06041995

TOTP 23 MAR 1995

Posted on October 17, 2023 by 80stastic

Ah crap! It’s been a good run but it’s finally come to an end. Simon ‘Smug’ Mayo is back hosting TOTP! He says later in this show that he hasn’t been on presenting duties since the previous October. I haven’t checked to see if that’s true but regardless, I’d have gladly never seen the w****r anchoring the show again. He always seemed to me to treat it as his own personal promotional vehicle, making it all about him with his annoying, cryptic one liners and ridiculous tailoring.

He starts off by saying that there’s no public flogging on tonight’s show. What?! Was this something to do with the sentencing of Eric Cantona for his kung fu style assault of a Crystal Palace fan which took place on the very same day this TOTP went out? Eric got 14 days in prison pending an appeal which he subsequently won and saw his sentence reduced to 120 hours of community service. So, not exactly a public flogging then Simon.

With the first example of Mayo’s inane drivel dispensed with, it’s time for the opening act who is Sean Maguire. He was the ex-EastEnders and Grange Hill actor who had decided that he was wasting his time with all that TV work and what the world really needed was to bear witness to his singing talents while he ‘testified’* on stage. So far, he’d made a decent stab at the transformation with a couple of middling sized hits the previous year and now he was back with his third single “Suddenly”. Nothing to do with the Billy Ocean hit of the same name, this was just more pop-by-numbers stuff designed to appeal to the teen market with an instrumental break written in to allow for the obligatory dance routine to be included. I mean, it’s a catchy little ditty but it’s hardly a pop music masterpiece. Even so, it had more longevity than Sean’s fashion gimmick which saw him with a top tied around his waist even though he was wearing a jacket over his singlet. Why did he need the jacket if he was too warm to wear the top? This didn’t make any sense at all. Maybe it was de rigueur fashion accessorising in 1995? We’ll certainly see more examples of it later on in the show.

Mayo really is a prick. In his second intro, he makes a reference to Peter Tatchell, the human and gay rights campaigner when announcing Tin Tin Out as the next artist. Why? Well, I think that he was referring to a current news story about Tatchell’s involvement with the direct action group OutRage! who ran a campaign to out 20 MPs who publicly supported anti-gay legislation whilst secretly living gay personal lives. One such MP was Sir James Kilfedder who died of a heart attack three days before this TOTP was broadcast just as the Belfast Telegraph ran a story that he was one of the politicians targeted. A sensitive story you would think. Not to Mayo. That’s source material for a cheap line while he presents a pop music programme. Tin Tin Out? Geddit? Like I said, a prick.

Anyway, back to the music and Tin Tin Out were an electronic music duo who mixed hits for some of the biggest names like Erasure and Pet Shop Boys but they also had a sideline in hits under their own name. “Always (Something There To Remind Me)” was their second such hit peaking at No 14. A version of the Bacharach and David song that Sandie Shaw took to the top of the charts in 1964, it was a cover in the loosest sense of the word. Basically they took the song’s distinctive melody, added a house beat to it and roped in vocalist Vanessa Contenay-Quinones of the duo Espiritu to sing (rather badly here I would add) the song’s title repeatedly. It sounds horrible to my ears. Perhaps to offset this infernal racket, there are four half naked backing dancers (with their tops tied around their waists as per Sean Maguire) making the female members of the audience react as if it were The Chippendales they were watching.

Tin Tin Out would find further success later in the decade with covers of The Sundays (“Here’s Where The Story Ends”) and Edie Brickell (“What I Am”). The latter was with ex-Spice Girl Emma Bunton which was released on the same day as Gerri Halliwell’s “Lift Me Up” causing a chart battle to see who would be No 1. In the end, Ginger won out over Baby.

By the way, if I wanted a cover of “Always (Something There To Remind Me)” – which I did apparently in 1983 as I bought this single – then there’s always this…

I may have succumbed to some ropey old synth pop version of a 60s classic in 1983 but there was no way I was falling for this next load of old tosh twelve years later. I know we’ve seen many an act bag themselves a huge hit and basically just repeat the song with a few tweaks for the follow up over the years but this by Rednex really was scandalous. After the horror that was their No 1 single “Cotton Eye Joe”, they almost literally put out the same record again for their next one. As a result, “Old Pop In An Oak” was every bit as dreadful as its predecessor. Despite not making the Top 10, enough poor saps bought it in sufficient quantities to send it to No 12. What the hell happened people?!

In 1993, Duran Duran pulled off the seemingly impossible by escaping the from the box the public had put them in labelled ‘They used to be famous in the 80s’ and coming up with a hit single that put them back into the Top 10 for the first time in four years with “Ordinary World”. Not only that but its parent album was a million seller in the US and went gold in the UK. They were back and had momentum on their side. What they did with that momentum was tantamount to commercial and artistic suicide. Whose idea was it to record an album of cover versions? Or perhaps the question should be ‘whose idea was it to record an album of those cover versions?’.

Take the lead single from the “Thank You” album for example. Wasn’t Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” seen as sacrosanct at the time? What were they boys thinking? However, the phrase ‘at the time’ really should have been in italics for it has been covered by many an artist since and I don’t remember the same amount of cries of heresy as were reserved for the Duran boys? Indeed, just three months after this, Kirsty MacColl released her own version with Evan Dando of The Lemonheads to promote her Best Of album “Galore” and I’m pretty sure there weren’t any cries of “Heresy!” from anyone. By 1997, just about every big name in the music business had covered it (sort of). A BBC promotional video to showcase their musical diversity featuring the likes of David Bowie, Elton John, Bono, Heather Small, Brett Anderson of Suede, Tom Jones, Gabrielle, Evan Dando (again!) and perhaps most memorably Dr John (“such a poyfick day”) was absolutely fêted by the public; so much so that it was released as a single and went to No 1 for three weeks. All of this leads me to believe that it was more about who was doing the cover version and it was a case of everybody else = good, Duran Duran = bad.

Or maybe it wasn’t even about this track? After all, Lou Reed is on record as saying the Duran version was the best recording of any of his songs. Was it the other covers on “Thank You” that offended so? Taking on songs by Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello and Iggy Pop was ill judged but to navigate “White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It)” by Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel and Public Enemy’s “911 Is A Joke” was clinically insane. The readers of Q magazine were so incensed that in a 2006 poll, they voted “Thank You” the worst album of all time. So was it that bad? Well, I’ve often found myself on the wrong side of popular opinion and I did buy a couple of Duran Duran albums in the 80s but on the whole, even I would say it was a not a clever career move. As so it proved. After the critical backlash “Thank You” received, the band floundered. Follow up album “Medazzaland” didn’t even get released in Europe with the record buying public seemingly only interested in their past glories – a Best Of collection called “Greatest” made No 4 when released in 1998. It would take a reunion of the classic line up in 2004 to return them towards the top of the charts when the “Astronaut” album made No 3.

Talking of the classic line up, that’s Roger Taylor on drums in this TOTP performance which took me by surprise as he hadn’t had anything to do with the band since leaving in 1986. Apparently he played on three tracks for the “Thank You” album and appeared in the video for “Perfect Day”. Meanwhile, bassist John Taylor seems to have taken leave of his fashion senses – a checked shirt matched with stripey trousers?!

Next a band who in many ways replaced Duran Duran in the affections of the teen market as the boys from Birmingham’s popularity dwindled in the late 80s. Wet Wet Wet were on a commercial high come the mid 90s. They’d had that single in 1994 at No 1 for fifteen weeks and now were back with a new hit in the Top 10. Of course, also like Duran Duran, they’d suffered their own decline in approval around 1989-1991 but that was all behind them now.

Following the biggest selling single of the year though was no easy task and “Julia Says” predictably couldn’t get anywhere near the sales of “Love Is All Around”. A high of No 3 was nothing to be sniffed at though even if the track itself wasn’t their strongest by a mile and it did help propel parent album “Picture This” to No 1 and a million sales. The hits kept coming until the end of the decade when Marti Pellow left the band to deal with his addiction issues. Wet Wet Wet are still a going concern but only just. Graeme Clark is the only remaining member of the original four piece line up though they have just announced a co-headlining tour with perennials of the nostalgia circuit Go West.

A case next of an appearance on TOTP not helping the sales of a single. “Original” by Leftfield featuring Tony Halliday was a new entry on the chart this week at No 18 but it would fall to No 35 seven days later despite the exposure of this performance. To be fair, the sound of the track didn’t exactly lend itself to a turn on TV. Its dark, dubby rhythms allied to Halliday’s almost deadpan vocals weren’t a perfect match for the medium of TV. Not that it isn’t a good track – it is but it acts almost as a visual downer in amongst the scream-inducing likes of Sean Maguire and Wet Wet Wet. Yes, there are some shrieks from the studio audience at times during “Original” but I get the impression they were falsely manufactured by the prompting of a floor manager.

Leftfield were, of course, influential production team Neil Barnes and Paul Daley who’d already had a hit under their own steam when they collaborated with John Lydon on the hypnotic “Open Up” in 1994. Toni Halliday was the lead singer with shoe gazing / dance beat hybrid Curve who’d had a handful of minor hit singles and two moderately successful albums to this point but whose legacy was to open the doors for the likes of Garbage to stride through. The album “Original” came from was the Mercury Prize nominated “Leftism” which is widely regarded as a milestone moment in dance music. Listening to this track now, it sounds very like Portishead to me whose album “Dummy” beat “Leftism” to the aforementioned Mercury Prize in 1995.

Next another band who like Wet Wet Wet are trying to follow up the biggest hit of their career. East 17 may not have had the best selling single of the year like the Wets but they did have the Christmas No 1 with all the sales that brings with it. Surely they couldn’t bag another chart topper with their next release? The short answer is no they couldn’t but they did keep their record of consecutive Top 10 hits going with “Let It Rain” taking the tally to five.

After the balladry of “Stay Another Day”, it was back to the sound on which they made their name – a hard-hitting, quick house beats dance floor-filler with a shouty yet catchy chorus. Its intro has Tony Mortimer going all Prince-like in “Let’s Go Crazy” mode, preaching from the pulpit before the beats hit about corridors of creation and colliding comets. Actually, he sounds a bit like Gary Clail of On-U Sound fame.

I’d have to say that apart from that intro, it’s not one of their most memorable tunes, not quite the banger it wants to be. Talking of which, Terry Coldwell (the bloke in the singlet on the left in this performance and only remaining original member still with the group) was in the news recently when he participated in a Counties Radio competition where presenter Justin Dealey would ask people in the street to sing a song and if he judged it good enough, he would buy them a hot dog as a reward. Snappily entitled ‘Sing a banger for a banger’, Coldwell rocked up and sang “Stay Another Day” but was denied his prize on account of sounding too authentic!

Mayo’s back with his crappy jokes now as he name checks the boxer Chris Eubank. As far as I understand it, by saying that Chris’s favourite song was “Hypnotised” by Simple Minds, he was referring to the fact that Eubank had recently lost his WBO super middleweight title to Steve Collins who had employed a guru to help him prepare mentally for the fight leading the press to believe that Collins was hypnotised for the bout. As Eubanks entered the ring before the fight, Collins sat in his corner motionless with headphones on, giving more credence to the rumour. None of this backstory makes Mayo’s quip funny though. Look mate, you’re just there to introduce the acts not perform a stand up routine. Just do your job.

Anyway, this was the second and last single from the “Good News From The Next World” album and it wasn’t very good. Not only was it completely soporific but I’m sure they’d used that bridge part before in a previous hit. In short, poor on quality and lethargic of effort. Must do better.

By the way, what was going on with guitarist Charlie Burchill?! Back in 1984, I’d desperately coveted his look but he just looks weird here. Horrible hair and a jacket that looks like he’d borrowed it from a pearly king. And I thought John Taylor’s wardrobe was suss.

The Comic Relief single “Love Can Build A Bridge” by Cher, Neneh Cherry, Chrissie Hynde and Eric Clapton has, rather predictably, brought an end to Celine Dion’s run at No 1 and to quote Captain Sensible’s 1982 hit “Wot”, ain’t I glad. Beware though. This respite will only last a week before a new menace takes residence in the top spot…

Just before the credits roll, there’s a plug for the BBC’s A Song for Europe show to pick this year’s UK Eurovision entry. It seemed quite an elongated process. There was a Top of the Pops Song for Europe Special show that Mayo mentions where each of the competing songs was showcased but that wasn’t the point where the winner was chosen. No, there was another programme a week later where that decision was made by a public vote. Each artist also had a celebrity champion advocating for them. Some of the entrants were well known – Londonbeat for example (who sounded dreadful in the clip at the end of this TOTP) plus recent chart stars Deuce and Samantha Fox fronting Sox. The rest of them I have no idea about except the actual winner of course who were Love City Groove who trounced everybody with over 140,000 votes. The artist placed second got 81,000 by comparison. Things didn’t work out for Love City Groove on the big day but that’s a story for another post.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Sean Maguire	Suddenly	As if
2	Tin Tin Out featuring Espiritu	Always (Something There To Remind Me)	No
3	Rednex	Old Pop In An Oak	Hell no!
4	Duran Duran	Perfect Day	Nope
5	Wet Wet Wet	Julia Says	Nah
6	Leftfield featuring Tony Halliday	Original	No but my wife might have had the album I think
7	East 17	Let It Rain	Negative
8	Simple Minds	Hypnotised	I did not
9	Cher, Neneh Cherry, Chrissie Hynde and Eric Clapton	Love Can Build A Bridge	Not even for charity

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/m001rb00/top-of-the-pops-23031995

TOTP 26 JAN 1995

Posted on September 19, 2023 by 80stastic

You know in the last post I said that thinking about time too much can seriously mess with your head? I should have taken my own advice. How can it be that one of the most controversial and talked about moments in the history of football is now nearly twenty-nine years old?! The Eric Cantona Kung Fu kick incident was a monumental, seismic event. It was all anyone was talking about back then. The images in the clip below are now scorched into our collective memories but at the time, before I’d seen the footage, I recall thinking it can’t be that bad and then I saw it and it was so much worse. Of course, we now know that the Crystal Palace ‘fan’ he assaulted – one Matthew Simmons – turned out to be a right scrote (he assaulted the prosecutor immediately after he himself was found guilty of offensive behaviour) and somehow Cantona’s popularity, if anything, increased following the incident. His “When the seagulls follow the trawler…” statement at a press conference called later became almost as famous as the Kung Fu kick itself.

Anyway, it all happened the day before this TOTP aired though I doubt it’s referred to in the show as they tended to be recorded on a Wednesday so it probably hadn’t even occurred as the cameras were rolling. I also think guest the presenters were probably far too nice to mention it. Yes, it was time for another golden mic slot and this time it fell to all girl group Eternal to fill the role. By this point in their career, they had a four times platinum album and six hit singles under their belts so they were a fairly big deal. They also had still had Louise Nurding in their ranks but she would leave the group to pursue a solo career well before the year was up. And yes, she was Louise Nurding and not Redknapp in 1995 – she didn’t marry footballer Jamie until three years later. Although he was a part of that group of Liverpool players dubbed ‘The Spice Boys’ in the press, the biggest crime Redknapp ever committed was wearing that cream Armani suit for the 1996 FA Cup final. Mind you, some might say that was a bigger offence than Cantona’s Kung Fu kick.

The first act that Eternal have to introduce tonight are MC Sar & The Real McCoy and “Run Away”. Yes, it may be 1995 – the year of Britpop – but the honking nonsense (in my own humble opinion) that was Eurodance was still lingering about our charts like the shadow of Liz ‘lettuce’ Truss over UK politics. However, there seemed to be a fair bit of love around for this track online after the BBC4 repeat went out and it appears in many a Best Dance Tune of the 90s poll. It was well liked at the time as well, even going to No 3 in the US (and No 6 over here). I mean, it’s not that it isn’t catchy it’s just that I’m surprised about the extended life expectancy of a formula of a male rapper / female vocalist over a generic dance beat. I mean, 2 Unlimited had been playing that particular hand for years by this point. Never mind The Real McCoy, I would have preferred Star Trek’s Dr McCoy turning to Captain Kirk and advising him on the health of Eurodance “It’s dead Jim”.

Right who the deuce is this? Oh, it is…erm…Deuce in fact. Yes, coming on like a prototype Steps were this boy/girl combo peddling a Abba-infused, high octane Eurodance number. “Call It Love” would be the first of four UK Top 40 hits for the group who briefly looked like they could be a force in the world of pop – ‘New UK Talent’ was how the TOTP caption introduced them. Hmm. Despite that run of hits, their career also took in the rather embarrassing episodes of failing to better Love City Groove in the battle to be the UK’s Eurovision entry and singing on a Coronation Street anniversary album with actress Sherrie Hewson. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the band was dealt a further blow when lead vocalist Kelly O’Keefe left and they were dropped by London Records. They resurfaced on Mike Stock’s Love This label for one final hit but by 1997, and following more line up changes, time was called on the project and Deuce were no more.

Possibly the biggest legacy that Deuce left us with was that one of their number – Lisa Armstrong – would end up marrying (and divorcing) Ant McPartlin of Ant & Dec fame. Now, I know a story about them because an old friend from college ended up sharing a flat in London with someone who worked for Smash Hits and Lisa Armstrong herself. Sadly, my wife says I’m not allowed to tell it though but I will say it involves dirty bed sheets!

Next, we have another look at Simple Minds playing their latest single “She’s A River” at the top of the Eiffel Tower. This was an exclusive performance a couple of shows previously but so spectacular was its setting that it’s been given a repeat airing. Either that or the band themselves weren’t available for an in studio appearance. I’m guessing it’s the former though – in a similar move the Bon Jovi performance at Niagara Falls was repeated at least once.

“She’s A River” was the lead single from their “Good News From The Next World” album and would be the band’s final Top 10 hit when it peaked at No 9.

Of course, Simple Minds weren’t the first band to arse about on the Eiffel Tower to promote themselves. “The name’s Bon…Simon Le Bon”.

It’s yet another dance act in the TOTP studio – the third one of this particular show but this was easily the biggest of the three sales wise. “Set You Free” by N–Trance would go all the way to No 2, sell over a million copies and be the 17th best selling single in the UK in 1995.

However, for me personally, I’d rather see the video for this one. Why? Well, because (and I didn’t know this at the time and even if I had it wouldn’t have meant anything to me) but part of the video was shot in front of Cliffords Tower in York. So what you may ask and it would be a reasonable question. Well, five years after “Set You Free” was a hit, I left Our Price after working for the company since 1990 and took a job in the civil service in York. My wife and I lived right in the centre of the city and would often walk past Cliffords Tower, the ruined keep of a medieval Norman castle. Up until now, I had no idea about the scenes in the video that were shot in front of it but now I’m intrigued. Talk amongst yourselves a moment while I check it out on YouTube…

Yep, definitely Clifford’s Tower. OK, it’s maybe not quite as well known as its French counterpart Eiffel but still impressive. Meanwhile, back in the TOTP studio, N-Trance have brought their dancer mate with them again. Whilst the temptation to make the comparison with Bez is strong, I’m drawn to this guy from 90s sit com Spaced. Ladies and gentleman, I give you… Tyres….

Boy bands dominated the 90s with the likes of Take That, Boyzone and Westlife probably in the Premier League of that musical genre whilst Five, 911 and East 17 were probably more Championship level. Once you start dropping even further down the leagues you encounter OTT, Upside Down and Worlds Apart. So where would we find Let Loose? I’m saying mid table mediocrity in League 1. Yes, they had seven hit singles including three Top 10s but they’re only really remembered for “Crazy” aren’t they? Take this hit – “One Night Stand” – for example. Catchy? Yep. Memorable? Hardly.

However, it seems not everyone thinks this way. A recent article in the Metro newspaper about a Let Loose relaunch was positively rapturous about the news despite it being one of the worst ideas ever conceived. Too harsh? Well, consider this. They’re not reforming with lead singer Richie Wermerling but a bloke from the bottom of League 2 in terms of boy bands – Bad Boys Inc! Really?! There’s a demand for this?! Well, according to that Metro piece this Bad Boy Stinker – one Matthew Pateman – is, in their words, a “music icon”! I mean, please! The plan is for a new record and London gig by the end of the year and then a whole tour in 2024. I’m sorry but I can’t imagine their being thousands of people poised at their keyboards for when those tickets go on sale. It’s hardly a Taylor Swift tour is it? Still, they’ve achieved more in terms of a music career than I ever could dream of so I should maybe shut up*

* My version of “Where The Wild Roses Grow” by Nick Cave and Kylie in guitar class back in 2010 was a triumph though.

Right, this, for me, is easily the best song on the show tonight and yet it pretty much passed me by at the time. I knew there was this band called Green Day and that they had an album called “Dookie”. I even knew what the album cover looked like what with working in a record shop and all and that there was a track called “Basket Case” on it as it had one of those “includes the single…” stickers on it. However, what I didn’t know was what it/they sounded like. Yes, that does seem unlikely given the whole record shop thing but then that perception that we spent all our days leaning on the counter, drinking coffee and listening to the latest tunes was never, ever true. Sometimes the days were so busy that I couldn’t have told you the names of any CDs that had been played on the shop’s stereo.

Anyway, the bottom line was that Green Day weren’t massively on my radar. It seems though that they had come to the attention of Kéllé and Vernie from Eternal judging by their rather gushing intro (most of it directed at lead singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong). I used to work with someone in York who was similarly enamoured by BJ though I could never see it. At some point in the intervening 28 years though, I did come to know and love “Basket Case”. Supposedly it’s a seminal track in the pop-punk movement, inspiring a generation of subsequent bands; it may well be but all I know is that it’s a great track full of energy and a driving rhythm. On that, I would never have made the connection but said rhythm and chord progression is based on Pachelbel’s Cannon. I think there’s a more obvious example in “All Together Now” by The Farm but if you need convincing, here’s a mash up video:

What I did notice is that the BBC censors failed to pick up on the word ‘whore’ in the lyrics. Or maybe it was that new TOTP executive producer Ric Blaxill was aware of it but didn’t make a fuss as it fitted in with his ethos of trying to make the show more edgy. However, I’m not sure this ‘exclusive’ performance from San Francisco fits that bill. We’re back to a (probably) empty concert hall for this one – the Eiffel Tower it is not.

By the way, as well as “Where The Wild Roses Grow”, my guitar prowess also extends to finger picking Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)”. Eric Clapton? Pah!

Next another band who, similar to Green Day, I was aware of but had little idea what they sounded like. The Wildhearts were a rock band who, unsurprisingly given the title of the song they perform here, hailed from Newcastle. Having listened to “Geordie In Wonderland”, my impression is that they wouldn’t be out of place mixing in the same social circles as the likes of The Quireboys, Little Angels and Dogs D’Amour. Indeed, The Wildhearts formed when lead singer Ginger was sacked from The Quireboys and at one point they had the drummer from Dogs D’Amour in their ranks. However, there’s also something of The Pogues about this particular track as well – it’s got that drunken sing-a-long quality to it. Unlike Green Day’s use of the word ‘whore’ in their lyrics slipping past the censors, Ginger has to fudge singing the word ‘shit’ from the line “some of the shit has sprouted in roses” presumably at the behest of some BBC suits.

I have to say I don’t mind the song – it’s sort of like a lairy version of “Run For Home” by fellow Geordies Lindisfarne. Unsurprisingly, given the band member in full football kit and the Toon Army banner on display, the song was offered to then Newcastle United manager Kevin Keegan as a potential club anthem but Kev wasn’t ‘head over heels in love’ with the idea and politely declined.

As for The Wildhearts, they reached a commercial peak four months on from this performance when their album “P.H.U.Q” made No 6 in the charts. Years of drug problems and record company wrangling though meant that they were never able to maintain that high. The band have been on and off for years but released their last album as recently as 2021.

In a show that’s already had it’s fair share of distinctly average at best dance acts, the TOTP producers have left the worst till last and indeed second last. I got some grief off a reader the last time I discussed Nicki French who objected to my description of her cover of Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” as one of the worst records of the 90s. Apparently, said reader knew Nicki personally and therefore took criticism of her personally as well. OK look, I’m sure Nicki is a lovely person and the five million global sales of TEOTH (it was a No 2 in the US) are certainly not to be sniffed at plus the fact that she has maintained a career in music all these years should be respected but…I just think it’s an awful cover and a dreadful record. I refer anyone who disagrees to my disclaimer at the bottom of the post.

And so to the No 1 and it’s the final week at the top for “Cotton Eye Joe” by Rednex. Dear oh dear. Quite how did this happen? Well, it wasn’t just the UK that couldn’t resist this techno/hoedown hybrid – it went to No 1 in eleven different countries globally. I guess the success of Rednex was the logical peak of a very niche musical sub genre that flared up briefly in the mid 90s. Back in ‘94 we had “Swamp Thing” by The Grid with its banjo-picking house beats and the square dance disco of “Everybody Gonfi-Gon” by Two Cowboys which were both big hits. Maybe the only way to burst this particularly pustular chart pimple was to let it go full term and wait for it to pop by itself. A No 1 record was surely the apex of the arc and there would be nowhere else for it to go? Well, nearly. There was a mini revival in 1997 when Steps took “5,6,7,8” boot scootin’ up the charts but even they ditched that idea after one single to pursue a career of pop cheese.

Rednex themselves didn’t give up the ghost though. A follow up hit called “Old Pop In An Oak” followed but couldn’t match its predecessor’s sales. An album called “Sex And Violins” (heh) did nothing at all. It was as if we all understood that this was a one-trick pony. The b(r)and name is still going though and in 2018 they started a live stream channel on Twitch. What a time to be alive!

Dgjm

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	MC Sar & The Real McCoy	Run Away	No
2	Deuce	Call It Love	Alternatively, call it crap – no
3	Simple Minds	She’s A River	I did not
4	N-Trance	Set You Free	Nope
5	Let Loose	One Night Stand	Nah
6	Green Day	Basket Case	Not at the time but I must have it on something
7	The Wildhearts	Geordie In Wonderland	Why Aye Man! Actually, no
8	Nicki French	Total Eclipse Of The Heart	Hell no!
9	Rednex	Cotton Eye Joe	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/m001qgbm/top-of-the-pops-26011995

TOTP 12 JAN 1995

Posted on July 25, 2023 by 80stastic

Christmas and New Year have disappeared from view and we are well into January 1995 with the Top 40 singles chart ringing the changes. The bloat which saw festive hits lingering like left over turkey has dissipated as some brand new hits appear. I say brand new but the first song on tonight was onto its third attempt at chart glory. N–Trance were sound engineering students Kevin O’Toole and Dale Longworth who met at Oldham college and teamed up with a then 16 year old Kelly Llorenna on vocals to record “Set You Free” in 1992. It failed to make the Top 40 when released the following year but a second go saw it secure a chart peak of No 39 in 1994. That still wasn’t deemed satisfactory so a third release was commissioned with a shiny new remix and it would finally power up the charts all the way to No 2. I think it would probably be described as a ‘dance floor banger’ by those knowledgeable about such things but it sounds a bit like “Insanity” by Oceanic to me and I sometimes conflate the two. Despite both having euphoric, anthemic choruses though, “Set You Free” also features a break beat which is reminiscent of early Prodigy material.

I’m guessing the obligatory two anonymous blokes on keyboards here are O’Toole and Longworth but they also have a Bez type geezer dancing in the background in a boiler suit and sporting an oh so mid 90s curtains haircut. Excellent! One of the keyboard guys comes to the front of the stage to mess about with a guitar near the end of the performance but it’s not very convincing. Maybe he was setting his inner axe hero persona free.

I didn’t catch that much of Glastonbury 2023, just the headline acts each night and this year’s festival winner Rick Astley mainly. One band I did seek out though were The Lightning Seeds. I’ve always been a sucker for well crafted pop songs and Ian Broudie certainly knows his way around a good tune. I first became aware of his songwriting in 1983 via the nearly-hit single “Flaming Sword” by one of his early bands Care (though I didn’t actually know that Broudie was one of the band members). Then when “Pure” came out in 1989 by his new vehicle The Lightning Seeds, it shone out of the darkness of the late 80s house dominated charts like a lighthouse to me – a cracking pop single. By 1992, Broudie had teamed up with Terry Hall for the “Sense” album and single whilst “Life Of Riley” (written for his son) would become synonymous with Match Of The Day in the 90s when it was used to soundtrack the ‘Goal of the Month’ section.

However, it would be the band’s third studio album “Jollification” that would see them become chart regulars producing four Top 40 hit singles. However, the album got off to a faltering start with lead single “Lucky You” failing to make the Top 40 in the August of 1994 (it would peak at No 15 when rereleased in 1995). As such, there must have been a lot riding on the album’s second single “Change”. As it turned out, it would prove to be the band’s biggest hit (at the time) when it progressed to No 13. I think record label Epic pushed it (and the album) hard promotionally – there were strawberry scented promo copies of “Jollification” sent out as I recall. That success lit the blue touch paper on the band’s career heralding a run of nine consecutive Top 40 hits including a No 1.

Ah yes, that No 1 single. Both a huge money spinner if we’re being cynical (it’s been a hit four times) and the killer blow of any credibility the band might have had for many but there’s no denying the cultural impact of “Three Lions”. Originally released for the 1996 Euros, it’s resurfaced for just about every subsequent football tournament England have competed in since – it returned to No 1 in 1998 and 2018. Its appeal might just be on the wane finally though having seemingly been usurped by Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” for some unfathomable reason. With that huge commercial success though came accusations of sellout and naffness similar to the fate that befell Level 42 (maybe there was a curse for bands whose name began with an ‘L’?). Some of the people I worked with at Our Price hated The Lightning Seeds for being too mainstream and the default safe choice of artist for the shop stereo. I could see their point but I still quite liked the songs.

That’s all to come though. Back in early 1995, “Change” was charging up the charts and although not really part of the scene, the band were probably helped in their commercial fortunes by the parallel emergence of Britpop. Fast forward 28 years and the aforementioned Riley Broudie is now a member of the band playing on a stage at Glastonbury alongside his Dad. However, ultimately I was a bit disappointed with their set. Maybe those catchy pop tunes didn’t really suit a massive outdoor music festival. Still, they seemed to be having a jolly old time of it, one might even say they were living the life of Riley (ahem).

So after my claim about the show being littered with new hits at the top of the post, here’s a song that had been on the nation’s collective consciousness for nearly 9 months. To be fair to me, it was a new ‘hit’ if not a new ‘track’. The interval during the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest had unwittingly unleashed a cultural phenomenon upon an unsuspecting global audience. The spectacular that was “Riverdance” combining Irish folk music with modern dance and featuring principal dancers Jean Butler and Michael Flatley had wowed the watching TV hordes and would totally eclipse the winning song that year (it was “Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids” by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan for Ireland once more for all you pedants out there).

The song from the performance by composer Bill Whelan was rush released in Ireland due to the public response and would top the charts there for 18 weeks (keeping Wet Wet Wet off No 1). It was a different story in the UK where it loitered around the edges of the Top 100 for months until it was reactivated by an appearance at the Royal Variety Performance sending it crashing into the Top 10 where it would peak at No 9. By this point, the whole phenomenon had been turned into a stage show opening in February 1995 with a soundtrack album from it also released. The show has visited over 450 venues and been seen by over 25 million people since its opening. In retrospect, its success rather makes host Mar Goodier’s comment in his intro “just watch the footwork” seem rather trite and silly.

The whole Riverdance happening didn’t really make my feet tap though. Indeed, if we’re talking Irish interval acts at Eurovision then there’s only one for me…

I used the words ‘totally eclipse’ earlier whilst discussing Riverdance and if I’m using them again about a song title then that can only mean one thing…Bonnie Tyler. Well, actually it doesn’t but it does mean “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” or rather the nastiest cover version of it you could ever imagine. Everything about this is wrong. The idea in the first place, its execution, the TOTP performance – this is just pure karaoke nonsense. A hi-NRG version of a Jim Steinman power ballad? What?! How?! Why?! It wasn’t even a totally new concept – Rage had produced a danced up take of “Run To You” by Bryan Adams which went Top 3 in 1992. Hadn’t we all realised what a terrible, useless mistake that mess had been by 1995?! The vocalist tasked with bringing the record into being was one Nicki French who had previously been a cruise ship singer just four years before. This sounds really awful but her performance here has definite cruise cabaret vibes. You can almost see the look of disbelief and melancholy on the faces of her band that their careers as musicians had come to this.

As with N-Trance earlier, Nicki’s single had been out before in 1993 and had peaked at No 54 but the rerelease would take her all the way to No 5. In a bizarre turn of events both Nicki and Bonnie Tyler would end up representing the UK at Eurovision – Nicki in 2000 and Bonnie in 2013. Neither won obviously.

Some proper music at last! Contrary to popular opinion (including my own probably), Britpop wasn’t the only game in town in 1995. There was also the emergence of trip hop. The name was first coined in an article in Mixmag magazine in 1994 about DJ Shadow (an artist my aforementioned Our Price colleagues did love) but its origins lay at the start of the decade in Bristol. Fusing hip hop with electronica into a downbeat yet affecting sound, the main protagonists of the genre were Tricky, Massive Attack and of course Portishead, according to the music press anyway. “Glory Box” was the latter’s third single and second chart hit after “Sour Times” the Summer before and it was, let’s be fair, a tune. Haunting, shimmering, hypnotic we’re just some of the descriptors used to give expression to its sound. Singer Beth Gibbons unique voice was a main ingredient in the recipe I think. Their debut album “Dummy” which housed all three singles would go to No 2 and three times platinum in the UK and would win the Mercury Music Prize in 1995 beating the likes of Britpop heavyweights Oasis and Supergrass.

My ever more fashionable wife was into Portishead from the get go and bought the album whilst I didn’t even know quite how to pronounce their name thinking initially it was ‘Porti-shed’. Clearly geography hadn’t been my strongest subject at school as the band took their name from a North Somerset town 8 miles to the west of Bristol. This from a guy who was working in a mainstream record shop at the time! The band were never devotees of fame and celebrity though and took 3 years to follow up “Dummy” with their eponymous second album which performed well but nowhere near the numbers of its predecessor. To date, the band have still only released three albums with the last coming in 2008. Theor active status has been on and off since 1999 but they are currently an ongoing entity and performed a benefit concert in 2022 for refugees and children affected by the war in Ukraine.

Who the hell are this lot? Well, they might not have registered on my radar but The Almighty were briefly a big deal. Scottish heavy rockers from a punk background, their third album “”Powertrippin’” made No 5 on the UK charts in 1993. This track “Jonestown Mind” was from the follow up “Crank” and would be their highest charting single when it peaked at No 26.

It’s not really my thing at all so I haven’t got much to say about The Almighty other than the band’s name puts me in mind of this clip from Life Of Brian:

And the title of the song of this from Alan Partridge’s Mid Morning Matters series:

Go to 3:00

Now if we’re talking Scottish rockers, here’s a band who I feel much more qualified to comment on. Like many I’m guessing, I first became aware of Simple Minds in 1982 with their breakthrough chart hit “Promised You A Miracle” – I’d been blissfully unaware of their first four studio albums – and by 1984 was impressed enough to buy their “Sparkle In The Rain” album (on white vinyl no less!). I also didn’t mind their much maligned ‘stadium rock’ era and even bought “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”. They ended the 80s with a No 1 single and album in “Belfast Child” and “Street Fighting Years” respectively. The 90s though were more of a struggle. 1991’s “Real Life” sold well enough but was poorly received by the critics and a rethink was required with a gap of four years to the next album filled by an albeit very successful retread of past glories in Best Of “Glittering Prize 81/92”. 1995 saw the release of “Good News From The Next World” and lead single “She’s A River” and guess what? It sounded just like Simple Minds. As I say, no bad thing in my book but it was hardly a new direction to reignite their career. Still, maybe they didn’t need to do that and this new material was flame enough to keep the home fires burning a little longer yet. After all, the single did make the Top 10. However, it would be the last time the band were ever so high in the charts. A second single from the album called “Hypnotised” made the Top 20 but the writing was on the wall for their commercial fortunes. They continue to record and tour however and the nucleus of Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill remains in place.

Now about this live by satellite performance. A few weeks back Jamiroquai played from a building from which you could see the Eiffel Tower in the background. Enter Simple Minds to run with that concept but take it up 1000 notches. Never mind seeing one of the planet’s most recognisable landmarks in the background, we want to play at the top of the damn thing! It makes for quite a vista and is certainly up there with Bon Jovi’s Niagara Falls performance. It also brings to mind the video for Duran Duran’s James Bond song “A View To A Kill” which was filmed at the Eiffel Tower. Thankfully there’s no repeat of that video’s ending here. No, I don’t mean the Eiffel Tower blowing up but rather that there’s no awful breaking of the fourth wall moment when a fan approaches Simon Le Bon and asks “Excuse me…aren’t you?” to which the singer replies “Bon. Simon Le Bon”. I suppose “Kerr. Jim Kerr” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it anyway.

Before the new No 1, host Mark Goodier introduces us to new Radio 1 DJ Lisa I’Anson who had taken over the station’s weekday lunchtime show and I’m pretty sure would go on to present a few TOTPs.

As to said No 1 by Rednex, I asked a Facebook group recently if “Cotton Eye Joe” was the worst song of the 90s? I was roundly scolded in the replies with respondents quoting the likes of Mr Blobby, Teletubbies, Flat Eric, Spice Girls, Westlife and even The Fugees at me. Fair enough I guess though my favourite reply came from someone who simply asked me “Are you on drugs?”.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	N-Trance	Set You Free	Nope
2	The Lightning Seeds	Change	I thought I had the Jollification album but can’t find it
3	Bill Whelan	Riverdance	No
4	Nicki French	Total Eclipse Of The Heart	As if
5	Portishead	Glory Box	No but my wife had the album
6	The Almighty	Jonestown Mind	Nah
7	Simple Minds	She’s A River	Think I might have it on a Best of somewhere
8	Rednex	Cotton Eye Joe	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/m001nq1p/top-of-the-pops-12011995

TOTP 08 OCT 1992

Posted on April 9, 2022 by 80stastic

By 1992, TOTP was into its 29th year. The very first show had been broadcast on New Year’s Day 1964 and was produced in Dickenson Road Studio in Manchester which was just a short walk from where I was living in 1992. Anyway, whilst the show could boast an enduring longevity a new music vehicle debuted on this very day. Yes, a few hours after this TOTP had finished, the very first Later…with Jools Holland hit our screens. Whilst TOTP would eventually peter out and be deemed unwanted in 2006, Later… is still part of the BBC’s broadcasting schedule today albeit that it had undergone some changes of format, times of transmission and even some tinkering with its name in that time. Its remit was vastly different from TOTP in that it was not bound by charts or hit records (mind you those time honoured rules seem to have gone by the by in recent TOTP repeats as well). Showcasing a wide variety of musical genres, its circular arrangement of stages, jam sessions with the host and a studio audience of 300 meant that you couldn’t really mistake Later…for its older sibling. Musical guests on that first show were The Neville Brothers (Gary and Phil!), The Christians, Nu Colours and D’Influence – I’d have maybe been interested in The Christians but nothing else. Over the years it has received accolades and criticism alike both for its choice of artists and its host but whatever your opinion of it, you have to give credit to a show that has lasted that long. I wonder if any of the acts on TOTP tonight ever received an invite from Jools?

We start with M People. They must have been on Later…surely? I’m going to have to check the list of episodes for 59 series to be sure. Hmm. Not sure about this post’s theme all of a sudden.

*checks anyway*

Yes! They first appeared in series 4 nearly two years on from this TOTP broadcast alongside Nick Lowe and an all female Bulgarian state choir. By 1998, they were so successful that they qualified for their own Later…Special with the whole show dedicated to them. Back in 1992 though they were struggling to establish themselves as a consistently successful chart act. They had achieved three consecutive Top 40 hits but diminishing returns had set in and each one peaked at a lower chart position than the one before. Not wanting to leave anything to chance, the band returned to the studio to record two new tracks to not only reverse that trend but to add to their debut album “Northern Soul” for a re-release. One of those tracks was “Excited” which was put out as a single. It did what it was designed to do but only just when it peaked at No 29.

In his intro, host Tony Dortie (more on him ‘laterz’) encourages us to jump about to the song which is the exact opposite of what plays out as the band give the most static of performances with certainly no jumping going on. The track is all about the chorus which is perfect for Heather Small’s enormous, swooping vocals. The rest of it is a bit meh – yes, not the most articulate of critiques but then I’m writing 6,000 words a week on this blog so I’m allowing myself the odd bit of lazy writing OK?

The band should probably have just gone straight to Plan B which is what they ended up doing eventually anyway. In the February of the following year they rereleased “How Can I Love You More (Mixes)” which did what it said on the tin and remixed their debut single (including a mix by Sasha) and the combination of radio and club versions was enough to take then into the Top 10 for the first time. Then came the Mercury Music Prize winning “Elegant Slumming” and the rest was history.

It’s the mini chart rundown from 20 – 11 next over the video for “Sentinel” by Mike Oldfield. He’s a big name, he’s surely been on Later…Yes, of course he has on series 12 in 1998 appearing alongside Fun Lovin’ Criminals amongst others. He played the intro from “Tubular Bells” – of course he did. We’ve seen both the video for “Sentinel” and an ‘exclusive’ performance of the song before so do I have to comment on this one again? I do? Erm…well, obviously this was from “Tubular Bells II” and six years later Oldfield released “Tubular Bells III” and then a year later “The Millennium Bell”. It didn’t stop there though as he re-recorded the original album for its 30th anniversary in 2003. And I thought Later… had some longevity.

Next up are Ned’s Atomic Dustbin. Did they ever appear on Later…? What do you reckon? Well, they didn’t as far as I can tell. Their stock was pretty high in 1992 though. They’d headlined the NME stage at Glastonbury in the Summer and had toured extensively in the US where MTV had picked up some of their videos for heavy rotation. Indeed, this single “Not Sleeping Around” topped the Modern Rock / Alternative chart over there. The lead single for second studio album “Are You Normal?”, it peaked at No 19 in the UK making it their second biggest hit ever. Apparently Jools Holland wasn’t a fan though.

As for the song itself, I don’t remember this one but listening back to it now it has hints of EMF, The Wedding Present and Jocks Wa Hey. Who are the last name on that list you say? Only the greatest band that never existed! Still not sure? The Young Person’s Guide To Becoming A Rock Star? Channel 4? Late 90s? Here they are in all their glory…

What a time the next artist was having around now. Not only was Tasmin Archer on her way to No 1 with “Sleeping Satellite” but by the time it got to the top of the charts she was also appearing on the third ever edition of Later…and who was she sharing the bill with for that show? Only Motown legend Smokey Robinson! She must have been pinching herself. Nobody had ever heard of her six weeks before that.

Although her fame was fleeting, she isn’t the one hit wonder many may think. Her album “Great Expectations” provided her with a further three hit singles including the dark but powerful “In Your Care” which was written about child abuse and raised money for the Child Line charity. The song’s subject matter showed that Tasmin wasn’t one for shying away from issues and was a brave choice as a follow up single to a No 1 record.

Two years later she demonstrated her self belief by covering not one but four songs by one of the most respected songwriters of a generation when she released the “Shipbuilding EP” which included four Elvis Costello songs. It took some balls to record her version of the EP’s title track . Not only was it written by Costello but there was already a version in existence that was recognised as the definitive take on the song by Robert Wyatt. My wife is a big Costello fan and she liked Tasmin’s version enough to buy it. There really was more to Archer than just “Sleeping Satellite”.

Now a tricky one to predict for many reasons next but I’m specifically referring to whether they ever appeared on Later… Prince was certainly a big enough name to have done so but did his schedule ever allow it? It didn’t according to Wikipedia and Jools Holland never got to accompany the great man but there is this rather lovely tribute to him by Gregory Porter from the show:

The follow up to “Sexy MF” and the second single from the “Love Symbol” album, “My Name Is Prince” peaked at No 7 on the UK Top 40. Oh the irony of that song title given his battles with his nomenclature! The naming of the song was surely deliberate. It’s a typical, full on Prince funk out of a track and I quite liked it at the time but it’s not up there amongst the very best of his work on reflection. Apparently that is actually Prince in the video behind that chainmail face covering sending fans wild as he performs in an alleyway which is quite appropriate as the full video features Cheers actress Kirstie Alley. I’m guessing that wasn’t deliberate though.

The next artist we last saw on the show as part of Quartz performing their dance version of Carol King’s “It’s Too Late” back in 1991. The following year she was back in her own right, striking out on her own as Dina Carroll (Dina bring short for Geraldine). She’d already clocked up one Top 40 single in 1992 called “Ain’t No Man” but it didn’t make it onto TOTP. She’s made the cut this time though with her second single “Special Kind Of Love”. This was a jaunty little number if a little generic. I could imagine Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey belting this one out – in fact it does sound a bit like the latter’s “Emotions” track come to think of it. There’s even a little bit of vocal dynamics Mariah style in the middle. Not unpleasant though. Dina would go supernova the following year with her Top 3 hit “Don’t Be A Stranger” propelling sales of her “So Close” album through the roof. Said album would eventually furnish Dina with six chart hits.

She looks ever so slightly uncomfortable in this performance up there on her own like she’s not entirely sure where to put herself. At one point she nearly misses her vocal cue and at another seems to look to the side of the stage as if hoping for someone behind the scenes to tell her where to stand. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have noticed anything at the time but writing a blog makes me look for the slightest details now.

As for her Later…credentials, she appeared on the very first Hootenanny in 1993 which would have coincided with the height of her success. Ah yes, Hootenanny, Jools’ annual New Year’s Eve shindig. My wife and I used to watch this religiously but our commitment has waned in recent years. I think it was when we found out it wasn’t live and was in fact recorded some time in October I think. You can’t trust anything or anyone these days can you?

“Special Kind Of Love” peaked at No 16.

Next a bloke who really should have been a none hit wonder rather than the one hit variety but here he is with a second Top 40 entry. Billy Ray Cyrus was responsible for one of the year’s cringiest songs in “Achy Breaky Heart” but here he was trying to prove that he was a proper artist really and not a novelty song singer. “Could’ve Been Me” was his follow up to that ~~turd~~ song and he’s doing his best Merle Haggard impression to convince us of his credibility. That ain’t working for me at all and neither is the fact that his performance is being broadcast live from Nashville, the home of country music. This guy was pure (Dwight) hokum surely?

Cyrus never had another UK hit despite releasing 53 singles and 16 studio albums during his career. The figure for his appearances on Later….? That would be a big, fat zero. Oh and a final quiz question before we’re done with Billy Ray. Can you name another artist who is only known really for one hugely successful song but who had a follow up hit that included the words ‘Could’ve Been’ in the title? Yep, it was the shopping mall princess herself, Tiffany.

Four Breakers this week two of which we’ve already seen in full before. Why did the producers keep doing this? It seems like such a waste especially when you consider that one of those two songs is by Status Quo!

Yes, we’re stuck with the Quo putting in a halfhearted shift at the money for old rope factory. Even Jools Holland couldn’t be doing with them and they were never invited on Later…The video for “Roadhouse Medley (Anniversary Waltz – Part 25)” seems mainly to just be the promo for their 1984 single “The Wanderer” which is one of the tracks in the medley intercut with some live gig footage but really, who gives a s**t?

The second artist who’s already performed in full on the show previously is Sade who, we must remember, are a band not a singer. At least the video for “No Ordinary Love” has singer Sade Adu costumed as a mermaid to…erm…retain our interest (as opposed to some blokes in denim arseing around on a bus as per Quo’s video). And Later…?What do you reckon? Yes, of course they’ve been on but not until November 2000 presumably to promote their “Lovers Rock” album.

Now here’s a real forgotten song – “Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough” by Patty Smyth and Don Henley. Hands up who remembers this? Well, if anyone is reading this in the US or Canada they might well have raised an arm as this was a No 2 record in America and the biggest selling single of the year in Canada. Over here though, it petered out at No 22.

So who is/was Patty Smyth? That’s Patty Smyth not Patti Smith the legendary US punk rock icon. Well, Patty was in a band called Scandal (never heard of them) who had one major hit in America in 1984 but it didn’t translate to the UK. By far her biggest hit was this one as discussed above but that shouldn’t define her career. She has written multiple songs for film soundtracks, worked with bands like The Hooters and – get this – she was invited by Eddie Van Halen to join the rock giants as a replacement for singer David Lee Roth but she declined as she was pregnant at the time with her first child. That was with her first husband Richard Hell of Richard Hell & The Voidoids fame. I only really know about this guy through my wife who’s elder brother listened to a lot of Hell’s music when they were growing up. As if that partner wasn’t interesting enough, guess who Patty is married to now? John McEnroe the tennis legend! I know! John is also a musician having been taught to play the guitar by his friend Eric Clapton. And I thought my guitar teacher was good.

Back to the music though and “Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough” is a nice enough country rock ballad that you could imagine The Eagles having recorded (no surprise given Henley’s involvement). I could also picture it being on the soundtrack to a romantic drama probably starring Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock.

Neither Don Henley nor Patty Smyth (nor John McEnroe!) have ever appeared on Later…though Patti Smith has.

The final Breaker comes from Simple Minds who are back in the charts but not with new material. Back in 1992, the band were at the start of a four year hiatus between albums. Record label Virgin wisely decided that now would therefore be a good time to raid the band’s back catalogue and release a Best Of album. “Glittering Prize 81/92” was that album but as it was a Virgin endeavour it precluded the inclusion of tracks from the band’s first three non-Virgin albums. Sadly this meant marvellous songs like “I Travel” were missing from the track listing. Still, you couldn’t say it wasn’t jam packed with hits. Sixteen of them were on the album and the appeal of that was enough to send it to No 1 and triple platinum.

To promote it, a double A-side single was released, that being “Love Song/Alive And Kicking” The former was a track from 1981 that had been a minor hit peaking outside of the Top 40 whilst the latter was that well known behemoth of a rock anthem that went to No 7 in 1985. Interesting that Virgin chose the lesser known “Love Song” to promote the album (it’s that song that TOTP play) though in my memory it was “Alive And Kicking” that picked up all the airplay.

We sold loads of this album in the Our Price in Rochdale where I was working whilst the single also sold well peaking at No 6. There’d already been an unofficial Greatest Hits album by the band in the form of live album “Live In The City Of Light” from 1987 – Phil Collins did a similar thing by releasing “Serious Hits Live” before a formal Greatest Hits – plus the “Themes” box sets from 1990. Subsequent years would see the band release multiple Best Of albums including an acoustic one in 2017.

Despite their status and longevity, Simple Minds have never been on Later… though Simply Red have. Where’s the justice?

And so we arrive at the moment that I realised that this Take That thing wasn’t going away anytime soon. Having achieved the status of genuine pop stars with bona fide hits, it was time to consolidate and how do you do that after your first two hits have been uptempo numbers? With a ballad of course and Gary Barlow had just the thing. Written when he was 15 and presumably when he knew little about the whole love thing, “A Million Love Songs” was perfect for cultivating the affection of thousands of teenage girls up and down the country. Tuneful yet simple, there was nothing very complicated going on here although the self referential use of the phrase ‘love songs’ did add an extra layer to it. Kind of like the innocent, wide eyed younger sibling to “Song For Whoever” by The Beautiful South.

It’s not often mentioned but the single wasn’t actually a single at all but an E.P (“The Love Songs E.P.” to be exact). The CD single and vinyl formats all contained three other songs in addition to “A Million Love Songs”. The cassette version only had a different mix of it. There was also a limited edition 7” that came with transfer tattoos that had the same track listing as the cassette. So what were the other songs on the E.P. and were they any good? They were “Still Can’t Get Over You”, “How Can It Be” and “Don’t Take Your Love”. As for their quality, I have no idea (nor wish to find out) as they lay largely redundant and attracted very little radio play. The group themselves can’t have been that enamoured with them as none made the cut for their debut album though one of them was included as a bonus track on a 2006 expanded edition.

This TOTP performance seemed designed to establish two things. One, that the band could do more than just dance about like pop puppets to some disco-lite tracks and two, that Gary Barlow was the talent here. I defy anybody watching this back then to have looked at the group and say that the guy second left in the hat doing backing vocals will have a bigger solo career than the bloke on the piano. The fact that he did also led to Robbie Williams appearing on Later…something that neither Gary Barlow nor Take That managed.

“A Million Love Songs” peaked at No 7.

Before we get to the No 1, a little more on presenter Tony Dortie. Tony has been revisiting his past and tweeting along with some of these TOTP repeats. He seems like a decent sort, quite self deprecating. Anyway, he announced that last week’s repeats would be the last he would engage with but promised to bow out with a story that couldn’t be shown on any of The Story Of…TOTP documentaries. He also promised to reveal the real reason why the much reviled Adrian Rose refused to give consent for his TOTP presenter shows to be aired again. There was much build up to Tony releasing this video and he prefaced it with an explanation that all the legals had been cleared and the story was ready to go. Wow! This was surely going to be explosive and blow the lid on the show’s secrets. Are you ready to hit that play button? Go for it!

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for the loss of 10 minutes and 35 seconds of your life that you won’t get back if you do.

Thanks for nothing Tony. Laterz!

It’s a final week at the top for The Shamen and “Ebeneezer Goode”. With the single deleted by the band to clear the release schedule for the next single, they would be back near the top of the charts again soon enough when “Boss Drum” went to No 4. A final trip to the Top 5 was squeezed in when “Phorever People” was released just before Xmas. The Shamen were never anywhere near as big again.

P.S. They never appeared on Later…either.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	M People	Excited	No but I think my wife bought the album
2	Mike Oldfield	Sentinel	Nah
3	Ned’s Atomic Dustbin	Not Sleeping Around	I did not
4	Tasmin Archer	Sleeping Satellite	Nope
5	Prince	My Name Is Prince	Didn’t mind it, didn’t buy it
6	Dina Carroll	Special Kind Of Love	No
7	Billy Ray Cyrus	Could’ve Been Me	Hell no!
8	Status Quo	Roadhouse Medley (Anniversary Waltz – Part 25)	Never!
9	Sade	No Ordinary Love	Nah
10	Patty Smyth and Don Henley	Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough	Negative
11	Simple Minds	Love Song/Alive And Kicking	No but I’ve got one pop those Best Of albums
12	Take That	A Million Love Songs	Never happening
13	The Shamen	Ebeneezer Goode	Don’t think I did

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/m001648s/top-of-the-pops-08101992

TOTP 24 OCT 1991

Posted on October 31, 2021 by 80stastic

So the week has finally arrived. One month into the revamped TOTP and its time has come, its race is run, it’s over. No, not Man Utd’s 13 match unbeaten run to the start of the 1991/92 football season (that would arrive two days later as they lost 3-2 to Sheffield Wednesday). No, it’s the 16th and last week of Bryan Adams being at No 1 with “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You”. 16 weeks! That’s four whole months, a third of a year, people who had got pregnant in the first of those 16 weeks were now nearly half way through their pregnancy. My own personal milestone was that our first wedding anniversary had just been and gone and we were just about to clock up one whole year of living and working in Manchester. Despite being skint a lot of the time, the year had gone pretty well and we felt settled there. I was working in the Our Price store in Market Street Manchester and gearing up for my second Xmas there. I think I may have graduated from ‘best seller’ CD orderer to being in charge of chart cassettes by this point. Chart cassettes! I’d only been trusted with TDK blank cassettes and accessories at the start of the year. It felt like a big deal. The store was probably starting to recruit for Xmas temps by now – most of their names and faces have long been unretrievable from my memory banks though one or two I can recall. I felt established amongst the permanent members of staff though my best mate there Steve had left at the start of the year. Fortunately, I have kept our friendship going these past 30 years.

We start this week with 2 Unlimited and “Get Ready For This” who are up to No 2 in the charts somehow. Why didn’t they call the track “Y’all Ready For This?” which is pretty much the only lyric in the whole sorry fair. Well, that or “Yeah!” I guess. Tony Dortie promises us “the busiest dancers around” in his intro. He can’t mean those people hanging around at the back of the stage surely? And by the way, exactly who were they? Clearly they’re not part of 2 Unlimited – are they really just some people out of the studio audience? If so, how did they get the gig? Did they have to audition their dance moves in front of the producers because all they seem to be doing to me is jumping up and down a bit?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyrROpMXf4Q

As this is a dance track though, the TOTP graphics team have added that green haze effect at certain points in the performance as they did the other week with Carl Cox. It reminds me of that old Dr Who story with the maggots…

After the godawful mess that is the Top 10 countdown, we’re straight into the album chart feature which this week is Kenny Thomas who was only just on the other week with his latest single “Best Of You”. The song he sings tonight though is an album track (well it is the album feature) called “Something Special” which starts off sounding a bit like Labi Siffre’s “(Something Inside) So Strong” but soon turns into a weedy soul ballad about telling his love that they are…erm…well…special.

By my reckoning, this is the sixth time that Thomas has been on TOTP in 1991 and as such, I’m all out of Kenny info and trivia. I can say that his album “Voices” went to No 3 in the charts which would be its peak and I recall selling plenty of it over the Xmas period meaning I had to place many an order of the cassette version with EMI to keep up with demand. He’s turned up at the TOTP studio for this one wearing something that resembles a 50’s drape jacket and with his hair slicked back like that, he could almost pass for a Teddy Boy. Well, not really but I’m filling furiously here so give me a break! Actually, this bloke Tom on Twitter has probably got the whole thing bang to rights…

Leg it Kenny Thomas, Mike Baldwin wants his coat back #totp
— Tom (@Tommy_1972) October 23, 2021

After the Monty Python performance of “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” last week, we get another memorable turn this week as Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff get together to do “Dizzy”. This version of Tommy Roe’s 1969 No 1 was the follow up to Vic’s first hit (also a cover version) “Born Free” from earlier in the year and would go onto replicate Roe’s chart peak by making it to No 1.

The performance here is full on Vic Reeves Big Night Out which is allowed in my book given that the series had only just finished screening in the April. The Whirlpool washing machine and microwave props were a carry over from the promo video and which were a nice play on the lyrics but for me, Bob Mortimer just about steals the show with his cavorting in the background with Miles Hunt which climaxes with his back slide through Vic’s legs halfway through. As it’s a live vocal, Vic’s voice is pretty exposed but he just about gets away with it although he is just shouting on occasion and also seems to forget the words at one point. Was something meant to happen when Vic goes to look inside one of the washing machines? The fact that nothing does seems to put him off a bit. Maybe it was a piece of staging that went wrong or maybe they were all just too drunk to remember what they were doing? There seems to be damning evidence that everybody concerned had spent far too oolong in the Green Room beforehand.

At the end of the performance Tony Dortie emerges from the studio audience throng to say “Absolutely unbelievable, I can’t keep a straight face”…whilst keeping a straight face.

It’s the Queen video for “The Show Must Go On” next whose screening the other week was billed as an ‘exclusive’ to TOTP. This week it’s in the chart at No 19 and whilst the official line for the promo consisting entirely of a montage of clips of previous Queen videos and live shows was that it was to promote the band’s imminent “Greatest Hits II” album, the lack of any new footage of Freddie Mercury stoked even more rumours already circulating around his health.

After his death on 24 November, there was the inevitable rush of Queen’s music made available in the marketplace. As well as that “Greatest Hits II” album, “Bohemian Rhapsody” was re-released (twinned as a double A-side with “These Are the Days Of Our Lives” from the “Innuendo” album) which would become the ’91 Xmas No 1. In between those releases came Brian May’s solo single “Driven By You” which would go Top 10 and indeed, “The Show Must Go On” itself would resurface in the charts despite having already peaked once at No 16. It all felt very reminiscent of John Lennon’s death 11 years earlier when his music flooded the charts although he was denied the Xmas No 1 by (unbelievably) “There’s No One Quite Like Grandma” by St Winifred’s School Choir.

As for Queen, they would patch together one last studio album from the remaining recordings Freddie had managed to lay down before his passing that weren’t included on “Innuendo” which comprised the “Made In Heaven” album of 1995. One month after its release, that symmetry with John Lennon was evident again when “Free As A Bird” was released being a demo that John had recorded in 1977 that the remaining Beatles added to in the studio and which went to No 2 in the charts.

It’s ‘the rugby song’ as Tony Dortie called it the other week next as Kiri Te Kanawa is in the studio to perform “Word In Union”. She looks for all the world like she’s just arrived off the set of Dynasty with her big 80s style hair, shoulder padded jacket and…is that a diamond encrusted brooch in the shape of a lizard on one of them?! It could be a Tuatara which are reptiles endemic to New Zealand and are regarded as a ‘taonga’ or a special treasure in Māori culture (Te Kanawa’s birth father was Māori). Whatever the reason for the brooch, it’s quite a thing and maybe the studio audience crowding around Dame Kiri in a circle are all transfixed by that rather than her performance.

“World In Union” would have a life beyond the 1991 Rugby World Cup and has been recorded by multiple artists for subsequent competitions. In 1999, a version was recorded as a duet by Shirley Bassey and Bryn Terfel whilst the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand was launched by soprano Hayley Westenra’s version of the song. Paloma Faith did it for the 2015 competition although her rendition didn’t go down well – one twitter user described it thus:

Paloma Faith absolutely murdered World in Union. My non-existent cat could of sung it better.

Meow! In 2019, ITV used a version recorded by Emeli Sandé for their 2019 World Cup coverage. In tandem with all those releases came various versions of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” which is associated specifically with the England team and was taken into the charts by Union featuring the England World Cup Squad (1991), China Black (1995), Russel Watson (1999) and UB40 (2003).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn19vBdpR_A

Talk about from one extreme to another! As the camera pans away from Dame Kiri at the end of her performance you can see the next act awaiting their cue on the other stage who are Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine! After their chart breakthrough earlier in the year with the re-release of “Sheriff Fatman” came “After the Watershed (Early Learning the Hard Way)” which was a non album single presumably to plug the gap until their next album “1992 – The Love Album” would be released in …erm…1992.

The contrast between Jim Bob / Fruitbat and Kiri Te Kananwa couldn’t be more pronounced with their raucous, in your face track and their non conformist, counterculture look (Boris Johnson would no doubt describe them as ‘crusties’). With it being the early 90s, nobody in team Carter USM thought to gain copyright clearance for the use of the “Ruby Tuesday” lyrics and they were subsequently sued by The Rolling Stones’ publisher. The resulting legal battle forced the song off the airwaves and was only resolved by the track being officially credited to Morrison, Carter, Richards and Jagger.

This wasn’t the only infamy that the single generated though. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, this was the song that Carter USM played at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party of 1991 when Fruitbat rugby tackled host Philip Schofield to the ground on live TV when he had attempted a pathetic put down of the band after they started smashing up their instruments after the performance. His exact words were:

“Blimey! That was original. “After the Watershed” from Jim Bob and a Fruitbat pushing back the frontiers of music otherwise known as Carter and I think they’re still smashing it up out the back somewhere. Now not only…OOOOMMMMFFFF!”

Good work lads! I can’t be doing with Schofield and I find it baffling that he was deemed worthy of a Smash Hits front cover in 1991. Unsurprisingly, given Schofield’s connection with them, the publication backed Phil in a review of the Poll Winners Party referring to Jim Bob and Fruitbat as Bobbins and Dingbat. How original.

“After the Watershed (Early Learning the Hard Way)” peaked at No 11.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxi4AywDU_k

Is this the first time we’ve seen this feature? The US Album chart? Tony Dortie’s intro doesn’t make any sense though as he says that Mariah Carey is No 1 in the American Hot 100 singles chart with “Emotions” and No 10 in the UK album chart. He definitely said UK and not US despite the on screen graphic saying ‘US chart’. I don’t get it. Anyway, Mariah is in the studio which means she must be doing a live vocal doesn’t it? We’ll see if she can do that famous four octave vocal range for real then won’t we?

*watches Mariah’s performance*

Well, yes she can but I still don’t like to listen to it. As she sings that last hight note, co-host Mark Franklin appears from within the studio audience to do the next link and has to wade through a gaggle of young men who somehow seem to have made sure that they were at the front of the stage to get a bird’s eye view of Mariah from up close. Funny that.

“Emotions” peaked at No 17 in the UK.

So to the Breakers and we start with Simple Minds and “Real Life”. This really was a case of a release too far. The title track from their latest album, it was the fourth single to be lifted from it and was subsequently the worst performing in the chart peaking at No 34. The album had already been out for six months by this point but I guess the record company wanted to give it another push for the Xmas market. Its chart performance wasn’t helped by it being promoted by yet another boring live performance video just as previous single “Stand By Love” had been. The band really weren’t putting much effort into their videos in 1991 as lead single “Let There Be Love” had just been a straight run through performance of the song as well (although it wasn’t taken from a gig) but had some added dry ice for effect. Poor, very poor as Vic Reeves might have said.

Possibly one of the most famous songs ever next as we get an old clip of Don McLean performing “American Pie”. So much has been written about this song – just google ‘Don Mclean American Pie and you’ll immediately get a flurry of results offering the ‘story behind the song’ or the ‘hidden meaning of…’ etc – so I’m not going to forensically dissect the song line by line partly because it’s too long and I can’t be arsed but more significantly because McLean himself fessed up to its true meaning in 2015. Why then? Well, the original manuscript for the song was put up for auction (it sold at $1.2 million) and McLean agreed to tell all about those lyrics. He basically said it was an allegorical tale describing how the world was heading in the wrong direction whilst also clearing up some of those hidden references. Clearly the famous “the day the music died” line referred to the death of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper in a plane crash in 1959 but he also confirmed that “the jester” was Bob Dylan and that the song built to a climax that referenced the death of Meredith Hunter at the Altamont Free Concert headlined by The Rolling Stones in 1969.

None of the above answers the question why this 1972 US No 1 and UK No 2 hit was back in the charts in 1991 of course but it’s a simple explanation – to plug a Don McLean Best Of album released for the Xmas rush. The re-release of “American Pie” reached No 12 in the UK but of much more acclaim is that in March 2017, it was designated an ‘aural treasure’ by the American Library of Congress and ‘worthy of preservation’ in the National Recording Registry ‘as part of America’s patrimony’. Yeah, that’s as maybe but he was wrong about ‘the day the music died’ – that was in 1987 when Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley went to No 1 with “Jack Your Body”.

The final Breaker sees Pet Shop Boys finally relent to the inevitable and release their very first Best Of album – “Discography: The Complete Singles Collection”. After 5 years of solid hits, a collection album was certainly warranted but, as was seeming to be the done thing back then, it was a new track that was released to promote the album. “Now I’m not suggesting that “DJ Culture” should be enshrined in any Halls of Fame for its cultural significance like “American Pie, but its message was prescient. According to Neil Tennant via Wikipedia it was about:

The insincerity of how President George H. W. Bush’s speeches at the time of the First Gulf War utilised Winston Churchill’s wartime rhetoric, in a manner similar to how artists sample music from other artists.

Fast forward 30 odd years and replace Bush with Boris Johnson and…where’s the difference? Johnson’s obsession with Churchill and his enablement by the right wing press and its obsession with the war and the ‘Blitz spirit’ and it’s not hard to see why we live in a country that has created a hostile environment for ‘outsiders’. We are a much poorer country for it. The parallels with Brexit also echo in the lyrics:

Imagine a war which everyone won
Permanent holiday in endless sun
Peace without wisdom, one steals to achieve
Relentlessly, pretending to believe

Let’s pretend we won a war
Like a football match, ten-nil the score
Anything’s possible, we’re on the same side
Or otherwise on trial for our lives

I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to imagine these words as a criticism of the leave campaign narrative of ‘sunlit uplands’ and ‘Brexit is good, you just have to believe in it enough’ – there’s even a reference later on about empty shelves! Tellingly there’s also the line “Wondering who’s your friend” which could speak of the divisions between families and friends that Brexit has caused. Actually, there’s a couple more Pet Shop Boys song titles that sum up the shitshow that is Brexit and this corrupt Tory government in a much more succinct way- I’m thinking “Was It Worth It?” and “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)”. Bit of politics there as Ben Elton might have said back in the day.

For all that, I didn’t actually rate “DJ Culture” that much. It was a bit too repetitive and lacking in melody for me. It peaked at No 13 in the UK Top 40 whilst the “Discography: The Complete Singles Collection” album went to No 3 and achieved platinum status sales.

This week’s ‘TOTP Exclusive’ performance is from David Bowie….HURRAY! Hang on. Let me finish. I was going to say David Bowie’s side project rock group Tin Machine….BOOOOO!!!. Hang on didn’t they do an exclusive performance for TOTP the other week? Yes they did when they appeared on the show to promote previous single “You Belong in Rock ‘n’ Roll”! You can’t claim this to be an exclusive if its the second time in a few weeks can you?

Enter new show producer Stanley Appel, stage left: “Ah, but that first exclusive was in the pre- year zero revamp era. This is a whole new show so yes, of course we can claim it as an exclusive.

Me (not having it): So definitely not flogging a dead horse then?

Stanley Appel: How dare you?!

Is dead horse unfair? I think when it comes to Tin Machine it’s justified. Of the five singles they released only one made the Top 40 (the aforementioned “You Belong in Rock ‘n’ Roll”) whilst all the others were flops including this track “Baby Universal”…or “Baby Unusual” as Tony Dortie announces it. Clearly Tony had got the jitters being in the presence of the legend that was Bowie as he seems to fluff his entire intro. He mispronounces the word ‘exclusive’ and then nearly forgets the name of their album which couldn’t have been much easier to remember being “Tin Machine II” and all.

As for the song itself, it’s all very urgent sounding filled with moments for Bowie to deliver his unique vocal stylings but it’s just not quite there for me. Actually, listening to it back, it reminds me of “The Cabaret” by Time UK who were the group that drummer Rick Buckler formed after The Jam broke up. Don’t know it? Have a listen…

Time UK there, only the band that Tin Machine could have been (ahem)….oh and that tattoo on the drummer’s knuckles that we get a shot of at the end of the song? it definitely says HUNT and not anything else as his name is Hunt Sales!

And finally Cyril….

…and finally Esther. FINALLY. After 16 (SIXTEEN!) long weeks, we get to the final time that Bryan Adams is No 1 with “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You”. Obviously no record should have been at the top of the charts for that long – it was a nonsense. Was it Bryan’s fault though? I can’t see how. He just wrote a song for a film and it got released as a single. I think he only did one TOTP studio performance and the rest of the time the show just broadcast the video with the the film clips montage. He wasn’t busting a gut to be in the studio every week to promote it. The way people moaned about how long it was No 1 for, you would have though that this sort of run could never happen again but just three years later Wet Wet Wet almost eclipsed it with their “Love Is All Around” single also taken from a film (Four Weddings And A Funeral). They probably would have done had the band not taken the decision to delete the single and so it fell just short at 15 weeks. Their chart buster was of course a cover version of The Troggs – at least Adams had the good grace (and financial sense) to write this own tune!

No artist got near that sort of feat until Drake in 2016 whose “One Dance” single was No 1 for 15 weeks in the UK. It occurs to me that I don’t even know how that one goes. I’m not inclined to find out.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	2 Unlimited	Get Ready For This	Get ready for what? No.
2	Kenny Thomas	Something Special	I did not nor have I ever bought any Kenny Thomas records
3	Vic Reeves and The Wonderstuff	Dizzy	Liked it, didn’t buy it
4	Queen	The Show Must Go On	It must but it did so without me
5	Kiri Te Kanawa	World In Union	No thanks
6	Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine	After the Watershed (Early Learning the Hard Way)	See 3 above
7	Mariah Carey	Emotions	Nope
8	Simple Minds	Real Life	No
9	Don McLean	American Pie	Nah
10	Pet Shop Boys	DJ Culture	Not the single but have it on their Pop Art Collection CD
11	Tin Machine	Baby Universal	Negative
12	Bryan Adams	(Everything I Do) I Do It For You	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/m0010rl6/top-of-the-pops-24101991

TOTP 29 AUG 1991

Posted on October 2, 2021 by 80stastic

The Summer of 1991 has nearly shed its last vestiges as we look towards the Autumn. And what happens in the Autumn? Yes, a new football season begins. Despite enduring years of disappointment, I still retained some small hope that 1991/92 might be the season when my beloved Chelsea actually win something. Back in the early 90s, we were a mid table side, we could beat the best one week and lose to the worst the next. We were consistently inconsistent. On the day this TOTP was broadcast, Chelsea signed a new player to help take us to the next level. There was just one problem. It was Vinnie Jones. The renowned hard man and one time member of Wimbledon’s ‘Crazy Gang’ was signed from Sheffield United for £575,000 and his main contribution that season was to break his own record for getting booked when he was cautioned for a tackle after just 3 seconds against his former club. Oh great.

Not only did Vinnie follow Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne so closely that he was infamously photographed grabbing him by the balls in 1988, he would also follow Gazza into a music career. For “Fog On The Tyne” read “Wooly Bully” which Jones recorded a version of in 1993. It failed to chart. Vinnie still thought he had a talent for singing though and in 2019 took part in The X Factor: Celebrity where he finished 6th out of 14 entries and performed covers of “I Fought The Law” and “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” by The Clash in Live Show 4 which is possibly the worst thing I have ever seen or heard…

Talking of ‘hard men’, this show starts off with someone who would make a name for himself as an actor playing some ‘tough guy’ roles along the way in flicks such as The Yards, Four Brothers and Shooter before branching out into lighter roles in Ted and Ted 2 and Instant Family. Back in 1991 though, he was more known as the brother of one of the guys in New Kids On The Block. It is of course Mark Wahlberg or as he was known in his pop career Marky Mark.

Having originally been involved in the NKOTB project but dropping out before they found fame, Wahlberg took his music career in a hip-hop direction with the creation of Marky Mark And The Funky Bunch and the decision brought immediate dividends with debut single “Good Vibrations” which was a huge global hit including being a US No 1 record. Nothing to do with the Beach Boys hit of the same name, this track instead based around “Love Sensation” by Loleatta Holloway which, of course, was famously sampled by Black Box for their mammoth No 1 “Ride On Time”. Had Wahlberg not heard that record before deciding to re-use its famous sample for his own track? He couldn’t have come up with something different? There was one difference between the records though and that was the acknowledgment of Loleatta Holloway who appears on stage here with Wahlberg. Presumably record label Interscope had taken note that Holloway had sued the heck out of Black Box for their uncredited use of her vocals and didn’t want to enter into litigation with such a formidable person.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6jDxmLxL78

The other thing that Wahlberg was known for back then was his pants or more precisely his Clavin Klein pants and his naked torso both on show in this performance. He would go onto star in Calvin Klein adverts the following year. Having watched them back, they really are quite repugnant.

“Good Vibrations” peaked at No 14 and was the only UK hit for Marky Mark And The Funky Bunch.

PM Dawn are next with “Set Adrift On Memory Bliss” having slotted snuggly into the No 3 spot behind Right Said Fred and Bryan Adams. I had high hopes that they would displace both on its surge to a triumphant No 1 but in the end they made no inroads on either as both stood firm against the onslaught of dreamy, Spandau Ballet infused R&B.

The video features a very brief cameo by Spandau’s Tony Hadley at its denouement. Well, his band were totally inactive at the time so why not earn some extra cash? The director of said video was a guy called Mark Pellington who sounds like he should have been playing centre midfield for Sheffield Wednesday but who actually went on to produce promos for the likes of U2, Pearl Jam, INXS, REM and Public Enemy amongst a host of others.

As for their album that host Mark Goodier plugs in his intro, “Of The Heart, Of The Soul And Of The Cross: The Utopian Experience” would go gold in the UK and platinum in the US off the back fo the success of “Set Adrift On Memory Bliss”.

Apparently, after the death of the band’s Prince Be, remaining member DJ Minutemix re-recorded all the vocals of the band’s catalogue to ensure he got more royalty money and for a while they were the versions of the duo’s output that you could hear on Spotify. Didn’t Squeeze do a similar thing to get around the issue of their record label owning the rights to their back catalogue?

Back in the studio we find EMF with their latest single “Lies”. I know they weren’t a one hit wonder as some seemed to believe and could name maybe four of their singles at a push but this one has clearly escaped my memory banks. Listening to it now, the formula was starting to wear a bit thin. This really did sound like all their other songs with the exception of “Unbelievable”. Apparently this was the track they issued as a follow up to that single in the US as they skipped the UK follow up “I Believe” thinking it wasn’t right for the US market. I’d have to day that my mind really isn’t tuned in to the finer nuances between those two songs to have made such a distinction other than “Lies” has a very slight Spaghetti Western feel to it. As for Mark Goodier’s claim the the band had sold a million albums in the US, I can’t find anything online to corroborate that but certainly they were a big deal over there with “Unbelievable” going to No 1.

As well as being commercially successful across the pond, they also attracted controversy and notoriety surrounding the track “Lies”. Initial pressings of “Schubert Dip” originally had the song beginning with 8 seconds of a sample of the voice of John Lennon’s assassin, Mark Chapman, reciting the first two lines of the lyrics to Lennon’s “Watching the Wheels”. Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, objected to its inclusion and as a result all subsequent pressings of the album have omitted the sample. Apparently pressings that include it are very rare and much sought after. Not up there with the A&M pressing of “God Save The Queen” by The Sex Pistols a mint copy of which sold for £13,000 in 2019 maybe but worth keeping an eye out for all the same.

EMF would return with their second album “Stigma” in 1992 but it seriously under performed – it was only on the charts for two weeks while its predecessor reached No. 3 and charted for 19 weeks. It would take a link up with Vic Reeves for a cover of “I’m A Believer” by The Monkees to take them into the Top 3 one last time in 1995.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tP1ZkqpFVY

Now I don’t think I would ever have described Prince as a ‘tough guy’ but he certainly didn’t flinch when it came to courting controversy. “Gett Off” was the first single to be released under the public billing of Prince And The New Power Generation and was the lead single from the “Diamonds And Pearls” album. It was also filthy. So filthy in fact that it had to undergo a drastic edit before it could be shown on TOTP. So, the first line of the chorus “Gett off, twenty three positions in a one night stand” was deleted for starters. Next, the lyric “Now move your big ass ’round this way, so I can work on that zipper, baby” hadn’t a hope of making the cut and finally the couplet “She said you told her a fantasy, that got her all wet (wet)” was included but had the word ‘wet’ drowned out by …a woman moaning?! How did that work?! In the immediately preceding lyrics, Prince used the word ‘jizz’ that also got past the BBC censor so maybe they weren’t on top of their game that week. Or maybe they just didn’t know what the word ‘jazz’ meant? I know I once worked with someone who’s never heard of it before.

As for the sound of the song, I wasn’t that impressed at the time much preferring subsequent singles off the album “Cream”, “Money Don’t Matter 2 Night” and the title track. However, listening to it in 2021, I can hear how it really was damn funky.

However, I can’t actually hear it without thinking of this sketch from The Fast Show...

Dear God no! Not Steve f*****g Wright with another of his ‘hilarious’ comedy records. FFS! There he is with the tin hat on miming with a guitar. Bellend! Of course he had previous for this sort of shit. As way back as 1982 he’d released a single called “I’m Alright” under the name Young Steve And The Afternoon Boys and follow it up a year later with “Get Some Therapy” as Steve Wright And The Sisters Of Soul. “The Gay Cavelieros” followed in 1984 (no, not at all offensive!) and finally in the 80s “I’m So Angry” by Mr Angry featuring Steve Wright. All were based around catchphrases or characters employed by Wright on Radio 1 afternoon show and they were all f*****g awful. Not content with having tortured us with this crud throughout the 80s, he decided we needed some more of his ‘humour’ in the 90s with “I’ll Be Back” by Arnee And The Terminaters. Obviously playing on the current popularity of the Terminator 2: Judgment Day film, this just stank the studio out. Not funny, no musical talent, it was idiotic and anyone who bought it must have been as well. Some f*****s did though as it went all the way to No 5. Completely and utterly inexplicable.

Simple Minds with a third single from their “Real Life” album next. This one was called “Stand By Love” and one generous soul tweeted while watching the BBC4 TOTP repeat that it was ‘The Most meaningless song ever written’. Ouch! To be fair, this was stadium rock by numbers by this point. All the ingredients for a Simple Minds song seemed to be there but it tasted as bland as the guy introducing it, Mark Goodier. Even the video is anonymous with it just being yet another in concert promo of the band.

“Stand By Love” was already at its peak of No 13.

The story of a band starting from humble indie beginnings before scoring a huge hit and bagging a major record deal is one that permeates the history of pop music. Yet for every James who switched to major Fontana from Rough Trade in the wake of “Sit Down” and set themselves up for a career of longevity and success, there is also the other side of the coin as exemplified by The Farm. Their 80s indie singles garnered them acclaim but no sales but when “Groovy Train” and “All Together Now” hit as the new decade broke, their popularity was enough to earn them a No 1 album in “Spartacus”.

Taking note of this success were Sony Records who signed the band and even gave them their own record label called End Product. With the backing of a major, what should have been a continuing tale of hits and fame turned into a footnote in the story of 90s music as the band struggled to re-establish themselves in the charts. Second album “Love See No Colour” bombed whilst the only Top 20 hit from it came from that ever desperate ploy of doing a cover version, this one being “Don’t You Want Me” by The Human League.

Before all of that though came “Mind”, the lead single from that sophomore album. It’s not that it’s a terrible record, it’s just that it’s not a very good one either. The chorus is pleasant enough but the rest of it is as sluggish as its progress up the Top 40 (where it petered out at a peak of No 31). And those shockingly awful lyrics like these:

Remember all the good times that we had
Some of them happy, some of them sad

Seriously though, what were they thinking?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7COZMoVjni4

A genuine rock legend now as David Bowie is back in the TOTP studio after what seemed like forever but this time with his new(ish) band Tin Machine. This appearance was part of a big publicity push to relaunch the project with the release of their second album due out on the following Monday. They had already done Wogan in the week. For me though, once you’d got past the fact this was yer actual Bowie up there, the music just didn’t cut it. “You Belong In Rock ‘n’ Roll” was dull, dull dull. It actually belonged in the bargain bin (which is probably where it ended up). I even preferred Bowie’s much maligned late 80s output to this. Then of course there was all that nonsense with the chocolate eclair being shredded by guitarist Reeves Gaberels. What was that all about? Well, here’s @TOTPFacts with the answer:

No, you didn't imagine that: Tin Machine guitarist Reeves Gabrels DID just shred a chocolate eclair against his guitar. That's nothing: during Tin Machine's appearance on Wogan, he played it with a vibrator. https://t.co/TVb9D8WTjA #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) September 24, 2021

Gabrels did actually use a vibrator – bought from a Sydney sex shop – on the record (after experimenting with an electric razor first). Top Of The Pops were having none of that, though. Hence the eclair. #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) September 24, 2021

Just ridiculous. What a load of jizz! Talking of which, how overexcited must the other acts in the studio that night have been to be appearing alongside David Bowie?! Let’s remind ourselves who they were again. Well, there was EMF (could be worse) The Farm (dreary), Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch (oh deary) and Steve Wright (Dear God!). Bowie must have felt like he’d stepped into a parallel universe. I hope he thought it was all worth it.

“You Belong In Rock’N’ Roll” peaked at No 33.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDV55U5UAps

Third time on the show for Right Said Fred and “I’m Too Sexy” but first time for their promo video. Had they been in the studio alongside Bowie*, Richard Fairbrass could have had a reunion with him as he worked with David as a session bassist in the mid 80s and appeared in the videos for “Blue Jean” and “Loving The Alien” alongside him.

As for the video for “I’m Too Sexy”, well, it’s all very knockabout fun made on a cheap budget by the looks with the scenes within it a direct correlation to the lyrics. There’s catwalks, shirts being pulled off, cars, images of Milan, New York and Japan, and of course a hat. According to IMDB database that bit where Fred Fairbrass pulls off his brother Richard’s hat as the three Freds walk down the street was improvised and Richard’s reaction of surprise is genuine. Oh come on! There’s a string attached to the back of the hat which Fred used to yank it off. Was Richard really not aware of that and not in on the joke?

“I’m Too Sexy” stayed at No 2 for six consecutive weeks.

*Late update:

According to Fred Fairbrass, David Bowie came up to them during the recording of a #TOTP and said "What the hell are you two doing here?". This was the only show I could find with both of them on. But it was a Right Said Fred video, not a performance… Odd.
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) September 24, 2021

There’s only time for two Breakers this week but they were both memorable for different reasons. “Let’s Talk About Sex” by Salt ‘N’ Pepa would be another of those records that peaked at No 2 behind Bryan Adams and would surely have been a No 1 if the UK record buying public weren’t behaving so bizarrely as to keep the same record at the top of the charts for 16 weeks.

With AIDS very much acting as its backdrop, this was basically an upfront discussion about the dangers of unprotected sex in the form of a pop/rap song. The track was originally released on the trio’s “Blacks’ Magic” album but in the UK, it is more well known as being on their “Greatest Hits” album that seemed to appear very rapidly in October, possibly rush released to cash in on the single’s success?

The lyrics included some memorable lines none more so than the three way conversation in the middle 8:

Yo, Pep, I don’t think they’re gonna play this on the radio
And why not? Everybody have sex
I mean, everybody should be makin’ love
Come on, how many guys you know make love?

The brilliance of the track was the dichotomy at the heart of it. Whilst the subject matter was decidedly heavy, it was addressed in such a playful manner and backed up with an insanely catchy sound. A very clever rerecord all round. A huge hit globally (though not especially in there native US), it went to No 1 in eight countries including Germany where it was the first original song by an American hip-hop act to achieve that feat.

The second Breaker was significant mainly because of who it was by. Dire Straits had not released an album since the all conquering “Brothers In Arms” in 1985, an album so massive that it is the eighth-best-selling album in UK chart history. More than its commercial feats though, it was its cultural influence that made its legend. It was the first album to be recorded entirely digitally which perfectly lent itself to CD and would promote sales of that format within the rock/pop genre like never before. Despite being around since 1982, CDs had mainly sold within classical music markets but “Brothers In Arms” changed everything and became the first album to sell a million copies in that format. It became the default demonstration disc used by shops to persuade customers to turn to CD players. So huge was its perceived connection to the CD technology that it almost became a well worn joke.

Up against that legacy, anything the band released next was on a hiding to nothing. “On Every Street” was the album they came up with and despite going to No 1 and achieving double platinum sales in the UK, it was still dwarfed by “Brothers In Arms” which had gone 14 times platinum in this country.

“Calling Elvis” was the lead single and I have to say I found it a particularly drab affair. The Gerry Anderson themed video is fun though and reminds me of the Team America: World Police film from the makers of South Park. Very bad taste but very funny as well. “Calling Elvis” the song on the other hand was just very bad. If I wanted a song about Elvis Presley then there are loads of other songs that are more worthy of attention. How about “Blue Moon Revisited (A Song For Elvis) by Cowboy Junkies or “Tupelo” by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds. Hell, I’d take “Walking In Memphis” by Marc Cohn over “Calling Elvis”! Mark Knopfler seemed very preoccupied by Elvis as he would write a song called “Back To Tupelo” as a solo artist.

Anyway, the single that announced the return of Dire Straits wasn’t a big hit peaking at No 21 but then I guess they weren’t really a singles band and the record company would have been more concerned about sales of the album. I was slightly more tolerant of the follow up single “Heavy Fuel” which was a very obvious but desperate attempt to rewrite “Money For Nothing” but that missed the Top 40 altogether. I did say they weren’t really a singles band.

We’ve reached the halfway point of its reign at the top as “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” by Bryan Adams racks up its 8th week at No 1. It’s hard to recall what the reaction of the press and media to this astonishing chart story that was unfolding was. I suppose by week 8 there must have been talk of and reference to Frankie Goes To Hollywood and “Two Tribes” which was No 1 for 9 consecutive weeks in the Summer of 1984. Once that milestone was passed, I’m guessing all bets were off.

Looking at the songs that have been No 1 for the longest (discounting anything this century like Drake and Ed Sheeran) then once Adams got into double digits then he really was out on his own. Queen had been No 1 for 9 weeks with “Bohemian Rhapsody” in 1975 and indeed spent another 5 weeks atop the UK charts on its re-release in 1991 after Freddie Mercury’s death but that was obviously not a consecutive run. Apart from that, Slim Whitman spent 11 weeks at No 1 with “Rose Marie” in 1955 but that was so long ago that any reference to it felt like talking about another universe. By the time Adams’ run was into the teens it felt like nothing would ever dislodge it.

Of course, rather than being a once in a lifetime event, the phenomenon of “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” started a mini trend. The following year, Whitney Houston took “I Will Always Love You” to the top for 10 weeks with yet another song from the soundtrack to a Kevin Costner film in The Bodyguard and two years after that Wet Wet Wet were No 1 for 16 weeks with “Love Is All Around” from Four Weddings And A Funeral. I believe they would have even eclipsed Bryan Adams had the band not asked for the single to be deleted so sick of it themselves were they. None of them though could match the feats of “I Believe” by Frankie Laine which spent 18 weeks at No 1. Initially at the top for nine weeks, after a week at No 2, he went back up to spend a further 6 at the top. He was then toppled by Mantovani before Frankie struck back by regaining the top spot for a further 3 weeks. Quite remarkable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpeEWfonhKA

The play out video is the re-released “20th Century Boy” by Marc Bolan & T.Rex. My favourite story about Marc is that he chose the surname Bolan (he was originally born Mark Feld) because he liked the name of a young actor that he was flat sharing with in Landale Road in Barnes – a certain James Bolam of The Likely Lads fame. Apparently James wasn’t too keen on the idea.

Marc had been going by the name of Toby Tyler before this which would have been great alteration for his act had he stuck with it (Toby Tyler & T.Rex). Mark became Marc after a trip to Paris and at one point he adopted an absurd affectation of adding an umlaut to the ‘o’ of his new surname making it Bölan. Thankfully it dropped off somewhere in the mists of time.

“20th Century Boy” (the 1991 version) peaked at No 13.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Marky Mark And The Funky Bunch	Good Vibrations	Nope
2	PM Dawn	Set Adrift On Memory Bliss	Yes on cassette single! No idea where it is now mind
3	EMF	Lies	I didn’t and that’s the truth
4	Prince And The New Power Generation	Gett Off	Negative
5	Arnee And The Terminaters	I’ll Be Back	Get to f**k!
6	Simple Minds	Stand By Love	Nah
7	The Farm	Mind	Thanks but no thanks
8	Tin Machine	You Belong In Rock ‘n’ Roll	Definitely not
9	Right Said Fred	I’m Too Sexy	No
10	Salt ‘N Pepa	Let’s Talk About Sex	Don’t think I did
11	Dire Straits	Calling Elvis	100% no
12	Bryan Adams	(Everything I Do) I Do It For You	It’s a no
13	Marc Bolan & T.Rex	20th Century Boy	Not the re-release but I have it on a Best Of CD

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/m000zwr1/top-of-the-pops-29081991

TOTP 23 MAY 1991

Posted on August 6, 2021 by 80stastic

To say we were still in the grip of dance music in mid 1991, this particular TOTP seems to be pretty conventional indeed featuring some very established acts, a couple of previously indie bands plotting a course for the mainstream with a more commercial sound and a new name but very much in the traditional singer-songwriter mould. There’s only two acts that would have qualified as dance music and one of them was Color Me Badd so I’m not sure they count.

Gary ‘Safe Pair of Hands’ Davies is the host and we start with a band desperately trying to convince us that they were still relevant in the new decade despite having made their fame and fortune very much as an 80s group. T’Pau hadn’t released an album for nearly three years by this point. Could they really roll back the clock and reclaim their former glories with a new one called “The Promise”? It seemed like a big ask at the time and so it would prove to be. The first taster of the songs they had been working on was lead single “Whenever You Need Me” and it offered very little in terms of a new musical direction. In short, they hadn’t developed their sound at all. Sure, it chugged along like a good ‘un in a power ballad by numbers fashion but it felt like the band had just decided to play it safe. They call it a ‘lay up’ shot in golf.

Reaction to the band’s return was mixed at best and awful at worst. Adam Sweeting of The Guardian had this to say about the album:

This melodramatic and syrupy concoction would comfortably have earned the band the Barbara Dickson slot on The Two Ronnies. Consider the first single, “Whenever You Need Me”, a Eurovision fourth-placer if ever there was one. Here, as elsewhere, Carol Decker’s masonry-toppling vocals are piled up in layers like a particularly indigestible aural lasagne

Ouch! Carol Decker still looked great and delivered the song as best she could but the rest of the band seemed to have decided that they were, in fact, serious rockers and not faded pop stars after all as they have all sprouted long hair. One of them really looks like ex- Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor. It isn’t but Andy’s shaggy locks look had clearly influenced him. I hope he had a good time up there on stage because I’m pretty sure this was T’Pau’s final ever TOTP appearance.

“Whenever You Need Me” peaked at No 16.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrRh6_ETtwM

OK, we might as well get this one out of the way early. As indicated earlier, Color Me Badd are on the show.

*sighs*

Quite how this lot got to become a record selling phenomenon in 1991 is beyond me. They had a shitty song and as poster boys for the new jack swing genre, they were totally unconvincing. They weren’t even that good looking. At least New Kids On The Block had that on their side (well some of them anyway).

Regardless, “I Wanna Sex You Up” is headed for the top and is up to No 7 already. Apparently, it had already been offered to and turned down by the likes of Bell Biv DeVoe and Keith Sweat. Not quite up there with Decca turning down The Beatles but still a big mistake on there behalves. The track went double platinum in the US and was the 10th best selling single of the year in the UK.

The band are still going to this day (sort of) although the line up has changed a few times. Original members Bryan Abrams and Mark Calderon were still giving it there all on stage as recently as 2018 but unfortunately Abrams gave it a bit too much at this performance in New York….

…I like the Wikipedia description of the incident:

Abrams allegedly screamed, “I’m motherfucking Color Me Badd!” as he pushed Calderon to the floor. Officers stated that alcohol may have been a factor.

‘Alcohol may have been a factor‘ – d’ya think?! Abrams tried to make it up to Calderon at a subsequent gig by apologising via the medium of a T-shirt….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPq0Twivg4Q

Dearie me. These are the actual guys from the band by the way and not a tribute act called Fuller Me Badd.

One of those established acts next as Simple Minds are back in the TOTP studio with latest single “See The Lights” which was the second single from their No 2 platinum selling album ‘Real Life”. Like T’Pau earlier, the band were hardly breaking new ground here. It felt like they were treading water to me. There had been a big line up change around this time as the album was made without keyboardist and original band member Mick MacNeil so maybe the band were trying to show their fans that the show would be going on as usual. More changes were a foot as drummer Mel Gaynor would also depart after this album when the band went on hiatus to reassess their options. The only album they released over the next four years was their first Best Of called “Glittering Prize 81/92”. These were uncertain times.

As with the Cher album “Love Hurts” that I talked about in a recent post, “Real Life” also swapped the cover art during its sales life. The album initially sported the minimalist and arty image on the left below before re-orders came with the shot of the band on the right which was actually the original rear cover – all very confusing. Maybe the band’s management wanted to reinforce the idea that tight were essentially a trio of permanent members now.

“See The Lights” peaked at No 20.

That singer-songwriter is up next and it can only be Beverley Craven of course with her rather affecting ballad “Promise Me”. I’m assuming her off white trouser suit and white piano in this performance are an homage to John Lennon and “Imagine”. I don’t know enough about pianos to be sure whether it is a Steinway like Lennon’s. Somebody who does know about musical instruments though is one of my wife’s best friends who is a classical musician and who, like us, was also living in Manchester in 1991 and around this time she got offered a place as part of the band for Beverley’s tour which I think included European dates. However, she turned the chance down as she had already booked a holiday with her then boyfriend and the dates overlapped. They finished not long after. I think she asked Beverley to “promise me you’ll wait for me” but she didn’t. Ahem. I’ll get my coat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u19v5j5j18

It’s that REM song next. “Shiny Happy People” may sound like a gloriously uplifting breath of fresh air pop breeze but supposedly the story behind it is a lot darker. Written about the Chinese propaganda machine spreading lies about what was really going on in the country post the Tiananmen Square uprising, Michael Stipe became concerned that rather than highlighting the propaganda, the song was actually modelling it with music fans accepting wholesale that it was just a happy, piece of bubble gum pop with no other levels to it. He may have been right.

Off the top of my head, other examples of songs where their sound is at odds with their subject matter would be “Luka” by Suzanne Vega and “Born In The USA” by Bruce Springsteen. I’m sure there are more.

“Shiny Happy People” peaked at No 6.

Impromptu gigs – they have quite the history don’t they. All the way back in the early 60s when those Cliff Richard films like Summer Holiday and The Young Ones always seemed to have a “let’s do the show right here” scene in them through to The Beatles unannounced concert from the rooftop of their Apple Corps headquarters at Savile Row in 1969 and into the 80s with U2 performing on the roof of a liquor store at the corner of 7th St and S. Main St, LA as part of the video shoot for “Where the Streets Have No Name”. Even in 1991, the practice was still alive and well as James played an impromptu gig on the roof of Manchester’s Piccadilly Hotel on 30 January. Add to that list The Wonder Stuff whose video for “Caught In My Shadow” was filmed in the grounds of St Philip’s Cathedral (otherwise known as Pigeon Park), Birmingham. Not quite a pure impromptu event though as the band had to get permission from the local council and the police had to be consulted so news of its happening had been leaked meaning that 200 indie pop kids turned up on 20 April to watch the band perform an acoustic gig.

It looked like it was great fun and that everybody had a good time (except maybe the guy in the orange top whose hands seemed surgically sewn into his pockets). The closest I ever got to an event like that was when I was on holiday in New York in 1998 and me and my mate Robin happened to stumble upon a live outside broadcast for the 1000th Ricki Lake show. I presume there’s some footage out there somewhere of me and Robin peering at the back of a crowd trying to see who everyone there was crowding round. My wife and another friend had gone off in another direction that day and saw Donald Trump coming out of Trump Tower. When we met up with them, they excitedly told us of their day and about Trump but Robin and I felt that we eclipsed then with our Ricki Lake story. I’m not sure we did given everything that has happened since.

“Caught In My Shadow” peaked at No 18.

Like T’Pau earlier, here are another band who made their name in the 80s returning with new material for the new decade. The only release that Deacon Blue had made in the 90s up to this point had been their “Four Bacharach & David Songs” EP and an album of B-sides and unreleased tracks called “Ooh Las Vegas” the previous year. “Your Swaying Arms” was their first new material since their album “When The World Knows Your Name” had, indeed, made their name and brought them huge commercial success.

Unfortunately for the band, the follow up album “Fellow Hoodlums” didn’t do anywhere near the same business as its predecessor (which had knocked Madonna off the top of the charts) and was generally seen as a mis-step. Yes, it did reach No 2 in the charts thanks to a sizeable loyal fanbase but I would wager that only second single “Twist And Shout” is remembered and indeed memorable from this era of the band. “Your Swaying Arms” was a case in point. A nice enough track that lilts along but it didn’t really go anywhere.

Ricky Ross had got himself an edgy, short haircut for this performance and the young man that I was at the time would have been always pleased to see Lorraine McIntosh strutting her stuff. Lorraine and Carol Decker on the same show! I was spoilt that week!

“Your Swaying Arms” peaked at No 23.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjioGexBj1s

After the “Innuendo” and “I’m Going Slightly Mad” singles, “Headlong” was much more of a traditional sounding Queen song. Very much in the style of something like “Hammer To Fall” or “One Vision” but not as accomplished. I don’t think lyrics like ‘Hoop-diddy-diddy, hoop-diddy-do’ did it any favours to be honest. The video was shot in November and December of 1990. Within 12 months Freddie Mercury would be dead having succumbed to AIDS.

His yellow top in the video here conjures up images of him in a similarly coloured jacket whipping up the crowd into a frenzy at Wembley stadium. Meanwhile, we can assume that Brian May, unlike most of the rest of us, did have access to The Simpsons TV show judging by his T-shirt.

“Headlong” peaked at No 14.

Acting as the cheerleader of the established acts on tonight’s show comes Cher who is still at No 1 with “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)”, now in its fourth week at the top. I guess it was one of those songs that maybe appealed to people who traditionally didn’t buy much music and maybe only found themselves in a record shop once or twice a year? In today’s political vocabulary, ‘it cut through’.

According to Wikipedia, her follow up single “Love And Understanding” was released this week back in 1991 even as she was still top of the pile with her previous one. Talk about striking while the iron’s hot!

Probably the only true dance act on this TOTP is the play out video. Technotronic had been having hits for a couple of year by this point but the game was nearly up come 1991. “Move That Body” was a Top 20 hit but it would be their final one and the album it was from “Body To Body” peaked at No 27 whilst debut album “Pump Up The Jam” had been a No 2 hit. Quite the contrast. I shan’t mourn their passing I have to say.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2jNjketgPE

For posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoLS1KXKxIw

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	T’Pau	Whenever You Need Me	Nah
2	Color Me Badd	I Wanna Sex You Up	Are you shitting me?!
3	Simple Minds	See The Lights	Nope
4	Beverley Craven	Promise Me	No but why wife’s friend who turned down the tour with Beverley bought the album just to torture herself some more
5	REM	Shiny Happy People	I did not
6	The Wonder Stuff	Caught In My Shadow	No
7	Deacon Blue	Your Swaying Arms	Negative
8	Queen	Headlong	Another no
9	Cher	The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)	Yes but it was all an honest mistake!
10	Technotronic	Move That Body	Do you have to ask?

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/m000y8wv/top-of-the-pops-23051991

TOTP 21 MAR 1991

Posted on July 6, 2021 by 80stastic

Talent. It’s just a six letter word but it can mean so many things. What does it conjure up in your mind’s eye? There’s the obvious meaning of an individual imbued with a natural aptitude or skill (e.g. Gazza was a footballer of great talent). Or, if you’re a fan of the wonderful Monty Python film Life Of Brian, you may think of it as a unit of currency used by the ancient Romans and Greeks. Back in the 80s, if you were a young, amorous male, you might have used the expression ‘sharking for talent’ meaning that you were looking for potential sexual partners. Do the current generation still use that expression? For tonight’s TOTP host Anthea Turner, it means musical artistry. How do we know this? Because she introduces the show by saying “Tonight, the emphasis is on talent” which strikes me as a peculiar thing to say as it implies that, on other shows, there is no particular emphasis on talent or rather that the emphasis of the BBC’s prime time music show could well be on something other than talent. Like what Anthea? Crapness? Judging by some of the acts we’ve seen that could well have been the case.

Well, let’s see if the acts on tonight all pass the talent test. I’m the judge by the way so it will all be fair and above board. Ahem. We start with a returning Boy George who has not been the Top 40 side of the chart boundary for nigh on four years. I say Boy George but it’s actually his band Jesus Loves You. An interesting, intermediary project between his successful but very brief solo star period in the late 80s (“Everything I Own” and all that) and his rebirth as a high profile club DJ, this collective had already released three singles before they finally got themselves a hit. I had never heard of them though before “Bow Down Mister”. This gloriously uplifting pop song was inspired by the experiences George had encountered whilst travelling through India and embracing the Hindu religion and specifically the Hare Krishna movement. When I was a kid growing up in Worcester, I would regularly see a small, chanting procession of Hare Krishna devotees slinking down the high street on a Saturday afternoon. People would point and laugh at the ‘Harrys’ as they were known and in my own youthful ignorance (I was probably only about 10 or so) I probably dismissed them in a similar fashion. Fast forward a decade or so and their movement is enshrined in popular music history courtesy of Boy George.

Supposedly George was interested in becoming a practicing Hare Krishna but it never quite happened. The most recent issue of Classic Pop magazine includes an interview with George to celebrate his recent 60th birthday and in it he states that:

When I released “Bow Down Mister” in the 90s, I thought, ‘Aha, I’ve got the elixir of truth!’ Then a thunder crash came out of nowhere and put paid to that idea”.

So what was that thunder crash? Could it be this explanation from X Ray Spex singer Poly Styrene via @TOTPFacts:

X Ray Spex singer Poly Styrene (a Krishna convert) recalled him visiting her at Bhaktivedanta Manor, the temple where she was living. “George never became a practising Hare Krishna. He was interested but they told him he couldn’t also be a practising homosexual." #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) June 25, 2021

"The International Society for Krishna Consciousness accepts gay people but they have to practise celibacy or get married to a woman and have Krishna-following children. I did see George afterwards and he was pretty upset…" #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) June 25, 2021

The Hare Krishna movement weren’t the only ones who had an issue with George as his US record label refused to release any material under the name Jesus Loves You. Presumably they were wary of a backlash from the Christian lobby and so instead they credited all their songs simply to Boy George. They also declined to release “Bow Down Mister” as a US single. Their loss. The UK release was on George’s own record label More Protein which he had founded to enable the release of “Everything Starts With an E” by E-Zee Possee (actually George, his old pal and one time Haysi Fantayzee member Jeremy Healy and rapper MC Kinky) when Virgin had refused to release it.

As for the tune itself, for me it was a brilliantly quirky and out there pop song and I loved the instrumentation in the middle eight bit complete with Asha Bhosle* vocals that elevated it into the Krishna chanting / gospel choir mash up coda. Inevitably there were comparisons with “My Sweet Lord” by that other musical George Mr Harrison but my reference point was probably “Ever So Lonely” by Monsoon from 1982.

The performance here is utterly joyful including the exuberant jumping up and down form George’s ‘devotees’ in the background one of whom looks a bit like Norman Pace of Hale & Pace. But if we’re talking doppelgängers, is that The Mission’s Wayne Hussey up there with George on guitar? I really hope so.

“Bow Down Mister” was a big favourite of an Our Price colleague at then time so I heard this a lot. It would peak at No 27 and a re-release fo “Generations of Love” as a follow up would give Jesus Loves You their second and final Top 40 hit when it peaked at No 35.

*Yes that Aha Bhosle who was name checked by Cornershop in the equally unlikely pop hit “Brimful Of Asha”.

From the kooky to the defiantly mainstream where we find Simple Minds treading very familiar ground with their “Let There Be Love” single. Since their double platinum No 1 album “Street Fighting Years” in 1989, they had spent the early stages of the new decade retreading their back catalogue with four volumes of a rolling Greatest Hits project entitled “Themes” covering the various eras of their career to that point.

By 1991 they had caught up with themselves so an album of new material was required which arrived in the form of ninth studio album “Real Life”. Lead single “Let There Be Love” did the job expected of it by becoming a Top 10 hit around Europe (No 6 in the UK and No 1 in Italy) whilst the album itself would be a No 2 chart smash. All well and good except that the new songs seemed so very safe and calculating to me. Yes, they were melodic but there wasn’t any new ground being broken. The band retained the Celtic feel of their unexpected No 1 single “Belfast Child” with the penny whistle melody line but if I had been a massive disciple of the band, I would have been disappointed I think. Even the video seems half hearted being basically the band doing a performance promo of the song with loads of dry ice billowing around them for effect. Talk about blowing smoke up your arse.

This single was the first without keyboardist and original band member Mick MacNeil who had left the group after the completion of their previous world tour in 1990. Was this a pivotal moment in the band’s career? Although drummer Mel Gaynor was still there, his 10 year tenure with the band would come to an end the following year leaving the group to basically become a duo comprising Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill. Still, for the moment, Simple Minds could still substantiate a claim to be a big name in the rock fraternity.

By the way, if you want a less bombastic take on the song, try Icehouse’s 1995 version from their covers album “The Berlin Tapes”…

From the well established in Simple Minds to a brand band next. Banderas evolved out of the break up of The Communards – Sally Herbert and Caroline Buckley had both played with Jimmy Somerville’s hitmakers – and “This Is Your Life” (nothing to do with The Blow Monkeys track of the same title) was their debut single. Pretty good it was too. And so it should have been given that it featured Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner on it as well as the aforementioned Somerville on backing vocals.

Around this time, a woman called Trina transferred across to the Our Price store I was working in and she loved Banderas. Consequently I got to hear quite a bit of their only album “Ripe” which was also sounded pretty good. Sadly for them, they were unable to repeat the success of “This Is Your Life” (follow up single “She Sells” peaked at that most unfortunate and unwanted chart position of No 41) and they were gone by the end of the year.

In my head I always equate them with Trina and chart contemporaries Soho, probably as they were both fronted by women with striking images, both only had one hit and both deserved a better fate.

P.S. A little shout out for whoever came up with the Eamon Andrews style red book graphic that introduced “This Is Your Life” which peaked at No 16. Genius!

Stop the clock! Ah, too late! It’s Quartz featuring Dina Carroll yet again and for the third time now on the show I think with …erm…“It’s Too Late”. It’s not even a new performance but just a re-showing of a previous appearance. What am I supposed to say about this that I haven’t already?!

Well I’m not going to say anything. Instead I offer you a different take on the Carole King classic courtesy of the rather lovely China Crisis who recorded it for a project called “80’s Re:Covered – Your Songs With The 80’s Sound”. Excellent! The album also features the likes of ABC taking on Radiohead and Wang Chung covering Blur. What’s not to like?

Incidentally, China Crisis have also recorded a song called “It’s Never Too Late” which was an extra track on the 12″ of their 1985 hit “Black Man Ray”. Make your minds up fellas!

Now, talking of cover versions…here’s Pet Shop Boys with two for the price of one! There’s an awful lot to unpack about “Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You)”. Firstly, why? Why did Neil and Chris do a mash up of a 1987 U2 song with that cheesy Boystown Gang disco hit. Yes, I know “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” was originally a hit by Frankie Valli but there’s no doubt that it was the 1982 cover that inspired the duo on this. Supposedly it was a swipe at the overly inflated egos of rock stars such as Bono and Sting. Here’s Tennant on this very subject via @TOTPFacts:

Neil Tennant: "There's an assumption that if you're writing pop music it's not an important kind of music, whereas rock music is perceived as being an important kind of music… I don't really like the idea of people projecting themselves as important humanitarian figures" #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) June 25, 2021

Just in case Bono didn’t get the joke, they made “Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You)” a double A-side with a track from their “Behaviour” album called “How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?”. Eventually, U2 issued a statement saying “What have we done to deserve this?” which was a pretty clever and semi-diplomatic response I think.

That double A-side re-promoted the “Behaviour” album but also caused headaches for record shop staff (like me) when customers came in wanting to buy the album with that disco U2 song on it when it wasn’t on the actual album. “No, it’s the other A-side that’s on the album not Where the Streets Have No Name” would be the explanation from behind the counter. “What other A-side?” would come the reply as let’s be fair, radio weren’t playing “How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?”. I don’t think the album was re-issued with it on at the time. Presumably it has subsequently been added as an extra track in a super deluxe reissue years later.

Neil and Chris were on slightly dodgy ground with all this rock star ego poking / cover version business. Back in 1987, as “It’s A Sin” became their first No 1, DJ Jonathan King accused them of pinching the melody from “Wild World” by Cat Stevens for their chart topper in his Sun newspaper column. He even released his own cover version of “Wild World” as a single constructed to sound very similar to “It’s a Sin” to prove his point. The duo sued King winning out-of-court damages which they donated to charity. OK, so I guess in a ‘who’s the dodgiest?’ contest between Pet Shop Boys and Jonathan King there’s only one winner and in fact charity was the real winner in this spat but even so, I think Bono’s response was a bit classier.

The double A-side “Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You)” / “How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?” peaked at No 4 and must also be one of the longest ever song titles to trouble the chart compilers albeit that it was double -barrelled.

Some Breakers next and we start with “Wear Your Love Like Heaven” by Definition Of Sound. Now, I had no idea about the original of this single’s song title until just now but apparently it was half inched from a track by 60s hippy folk rocker Donovan. It’s actually rather nice…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E9ZNI8-_bE

Anyway, Definition Of Sound’s single was nothing like that not being a cover version and all. No, their’s was a kick ass dance tune which put me in mind of “Groove Is In The Heart” by Deee-Lite a bit. But who were these guys anyway? Well, they were rappers Kevin Clark and Don Weekes from London (I’d always assumed they were American) who used a track called “Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)” by The Hombres who were an American 60s garage rock band to construct their biggest hit. Not only did they steal the riff but also the spoken word intro that goes:

I preach my dear friend
You’re about to receive Long John Barleycorn
Nicotine and the temptation of Eve….

The first time I heard that intro I had to do a double take to check that I hadn’t heard the ‘n’ word in there. Fortunately it was the word ‘nicotine’. By bizarre coincidence, the aforementioned Jonathan King had a hit with “Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)” in 1970 and I promise I won’t mention his name again.

Back to Definition Of Sound though and it seems that they stole the song title from one source and then nicked the riff and some lyrics from another. It doesn’t sound like a good defence of their own creativity but in fact what they came up with was brilliant. The rapping is on point and the chorus is irresistibly catchy. It probably should have been a bigger hit than its No 17 peak. They followed this up with a very similar sounding single called “Moira Jane’s Café” which I don’t recall but which just scraped into the UK Top 40 but was a bigger deal over the pond where it became the first UK Rap record to become number 1 on the Billboard Dance Charts.

They released three albums in total before Clark went on to work in A&R and music publishing whilst Weekes released a solo album before leaving the music industry altogether.

What is this?! Scritti Politti and Shabba Ranks? Together? As with Pet Shop Boys and their “Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You)” mash up single, the question that comes to mind is why? I guess I’m asking this question retrospectively though as I had no clue who Shabba Ranks was back in 1991. Indeed it would be another two years before he became a household name with a re-release of his “Mr Loverman” single when you couldn’t mention him without exclaiming ‘Shabba!’. Even so, it does seem an unlikely alliance Green Gartside’s voice is so fey that a pairing with a dancehall rapper really didn’t seem logical. And it doesn’t really work does it? The fact that they chose a Beatles song to desecrate doesn’t help their case for me – “She’s A Woman” was the B-side to the Fab Four’s 1964 chart topper “I Feel Fine”. Quite how it got to No 20 is a mystery to me. And what is Green wearing in the video?! This would prove to be Scritti Politti’s last ever Top 40 hit and also heralded an eight year hiatus for Gartside.

Despite having formed in 1985, I don’t think I know any song by Jane’s Addiction other than “Been Caught Stealing”. Although very much one of the first funk metal acts to gain mainstream exposure it was their fellow LA contemporaries Red Hot Chili Peppers that I would come to appreciate more.

“Been Caught Stealing” was from their “Ritual De Lo Habitual” which went platinum in the US and Gold in the UK but I have to admit that I knew its sleeve art more than its contents. I’m not sure what the clip is that TOTP were showing but it’s not the infamous official video for the single which won Best Alternative Video at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards and was voted No. 47 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Videos. Maybe it was deemed too controversial for pre-watershed audiences? All that shoplifting plus there is some twerking and a false arse also features.

This was the band’s first ever UK Top 40 hit peaking at No 34 and they wouldn’t have another for 12 years.

Anthea is back on her musical talent theme in the intro to the next act who you would not have predicted being in the charts around now. Not that he didn’t have any talent – he had one of the most unique and distinctive voices ever. It was just that he hadn’t been anywhere near the Top 40 for five whole years. Suddenly though, Feargal Sharkey was back! After the heady, chart topping days of “A Good Heart” and all that, Feargal’s career took a stumble when second album ‘Wish” was a commercial failure and critically panned.

Fast forward three years and here he was bagging himself a No 12 hit though “I’ve Got News For You” wasn’t really what any of us could have expected. A warm, smooth, slowly building ballad in a blues style? This was no “Teenage Kicks”. I could imagine it being used to soundtrack a particularly tender and poignant scene in a rom-com film. The parent album “Songs From The Mardi Gras” sold if not spectacularly then solidly and included a version of the traditional Irish folk song “She Moved Through the Fair”. And who else that appeared earlier in the show used that song to score themselves a No 1? Yep, Simple Minds whose “Belfast Child” incorporated its melody. I don’t just throw this blog together you know!

It also included a track by Maria McKee who had famously written “A Good Heart” for Feargal. This wasn’t written to request though; “To Miss Someone” was from her self-titled solo debut which Sharkey just chose to cover. “I’ve Got News For You” was to be his swansong however. He quit recording and performing after this to become a big name within the music industry as CEO of British Music Rights and head of UK Music.

Oh and yes, back in 1991, he still had that floppy hair as well as a few facial whiskers.

There’s an article in the current edition of Classic Pop magazine about all the artists to have come out of Scandinavia. There’s more than you might imagine. There’s A-ha , Röyksopp and Lene Marlin from Norway whilst Denmark are represented by…erm..”Barbie Girl” hitmakers Aqua. But it’s Sweden who are the region’s big hitters. Yes, obviously we could all name Abba but there’s also The Cardigans, Ace Of Base, Europe, Avicii and of course Roxette. How do they compare to all those other names? Well, nobody will ever oust Abba from the forefront of the world’s consciousness but Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle were phenomenally successful with a run of four US No 1 singles including “Joyride”.

That said, I don’t think it ever got any bigger or better for Roxette after this point in time. The “Joyride” LP sold 11 million copies worldwide but not one of their subsequent album releases got anywhere near that figure as that old enemy of the pop star diminishing returns set in. They remained a big deal in Europe throughout the rest of the decade but their US success disappeared quickly when interest in them dwindled. Here in the UK, the duo retained a fairly loyal fanbase for most fo the decade (both albums after “Joyride” also went Top 3 ) but by 1999’s “Have A Nice Day”, we had also moved on as it peaked at No 28. Their next three albums missed the Top 100 (that’s not a typo that’s one hundred!) altogether.

So, to return to Anthea Turner’s talent watch, did Roxette have talent? Absolutely. Did they always have the public’s ear? No. Were they ever fashionable? Never.

After last Friday’s Comic Relief Day event, it was inevitable that the official song by Hale & Pace would go to No 1. “The Stonk” really was dreadful though. It starts off a bit like the theme to Only Fools And Horses and then turns into a horribly naff Status Quo by numbers boogiewoogie track. Just vile.

I saw Norman Pace in Costa Coffee in Hull once learning his lines for a production at one of the theatres here as he supped on a cappuccino. He looked considerably older than he does here probably because he was considerably older. Therein ends my Hale & Pace anecdote. Also, they kind of undermine Anthea’s musical talent promise don’t you think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zeNuXsBQC8

The play out video is “Hangar 18” by Megadeth. Now all this trash metal nonsense normally leaves me cold but this one does at least have some relevance to the present day. How so? Well, it’s all about the conspiracy theory that alien bodies were taken to a facility called Hangar 18 in Dayton, Ohio when a UFO supposedly crashed in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. The remains were later taken to Area 51 in Nevada or so the theory goes. Fast forward 74 years and the Pentagon’s UFO report that was published in June this year which basically no longer rules out the possibility of alien spacecraft as a possible explanation for unexplained sightings. There was not a full committal to the idea either though. In fact, the only confirmation from the report was that the acronym UFO should no longer be used and we should instead call them UAPs instead which stands for ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena’. Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to fly (ahem).

“Hangar 18” peaked at No 26 and was taken from their Top 10 album “Rust In Peace”.

For the sake of posterity, I include the chart run down below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NggH6j_NHr4

Order of Appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Jesus Loves You	Bow Down Mister	No but my wife has it on a Culture Club / Boy George Best Of album
2	Simple Minds	Let There Be Love	No but again I have it on a Best Of I think
3	Banderas	This Is Your Life	No
4	Quartz featuring Dina Carroll	It’s Too Late	Nope
5	Pet Shop Boys	Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You)	No the single but it will be on their Pop Art Best Of that I have
6	Definition Of Sound	Where Your Love Like Heaven	Not at the time but I think I may have downloaded it from iTunes years later
7	Scritti Politti and Shabba Ranks	She’s A Woman	No – its was awful
8	Jane’s Addiction	Been Caught Stealing	I did not
9	Feargal Sharkey	I’ve Got News For You	Nice song but no
10	Roxette	Joyride	Nah
11	Hale & Pace	The Stonk	The Stink more like! No, not even for charity!
12	Megadeth	Hangar 18	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/m000x8pb/top-of-the-pops-21031991

TOTP Rewind – the 90s

My memories of 90s chart music

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