As Blur once sang, it’s the end of the century – well, nearly. We still have one year left of TOTP repeats to go before the new millennium and rather neatly, this will also be my final year of reviewing them. Nearly 10 years of writing this blog is is my limit and finishing in this year almost dovetails with my leaving working in record shops (again after nigh on 10 years) so it just feels like the time is right. Before I get to that point though, there are all of 1999’s shows to be watched, dissected and pronounced upon. So what can we expect from the final year of the 90s?

Well, away from music, 1999 saw the launch of the Euro currency. 27 years on, the UK is still sticking to its initial decision to remain with pound sterling. Just like in 2016, there were a spate of deaths of people from the world of showbiz. Dusty Springfield, Stanley Kubrick, Rod Hull and Ernie Wise all died within three weeks of each other in March. TV presenter Jill Dando was murdered on her doorstep the following month. On 30 December, George Harrison was stabbed by an intruder in his mansion home in Henley-on-Thames. He survived but within two years would be dead from lung cancer which had spread to his brain. In happier news, there’s a royal wedding as Prince Edward married Sophie Rhys-Jones but does anyone really remember it or care? Tracey Emin’s infamous My Bed sculpture was exhibited in the Tate Gallery. 15 years later it was sold at auction by Christie’s for £2.5 million.

In sport, Manchester United won the treble in May in dramatic fashion beating Bayern Munich in the Champions League final with two goals in injury time. A month later, they announced that they would not compete in the following season’s FA Cup competition in order to concentrate on the FIFA Club World Championship. The profile and stature of the FA Cup has been in decline ever since. As the year draws to an end, fears that the Y2K bug would bring about the end of the world surfaced but it all turnedout alright in the end as no planes fell out of the sky and traffic lights continued to function. Finally, Millennium celebrations were held across the country including the official opening of the Millennium Dome and the unveiling of the London Eye. The New Year’s Eve fireworks display were a bit of a damp squib though.

And so to musical trends. The time of the dominance of girl groups over boy bands seemed to be coming to an end with the latter reasserting their grip on the charts with American acts like Backstreet Boys and NSYNC battling it out with the UK’s Boyzone, Five and most terrifyingly of all, an emerging Westlife. By contrast, neither the Spice Girls nor All Saints even released a single in 1999. However, four of the original Spice Girls line up did have solo hits this year with Geri Halliwell having the most success with two No 1 singles closely followed by Mel C who scored a pair of No 4 hits. The new breed of instrument playing girl groups like Hepburn and Thunderbugs failed to fully gain support of the record buying public though.

Dance music was still about and this year, that ubiquity translated into some of the biggest selling singles of 1999 with the likes of Eiffel 65, ATB, Shanks And Bigfoot and Mr Oizo all securing places in the year end Top 10. Albums wise, it was all very safe yet again with Shania Twain, ABBA and The Corrs all having huge success. Only the likes of Fatboy Slim, Lauryn Hill and The Chemical Brothers seemed to put up much resistance to the tidal way of the mainstream.

As for me, I had a steady-ish year, staying put in the same record store for the whole 12 months (albeit with another change of manager) but as the new millennium approached, I was hatching plans to turn my back on all that and even Manchester which had been my home for nearly the whole decade…

Just as in 1997, there were some seismic events in 1998 none more so than the signing of The Good Friday Agreement that put an end to most of the violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland that had blighted the country since the 60s. Meanwhile, in technology, the DVD format was released into the UK market for the first time. It was seen as revolutionary which it was compared to the good old *VHS tape that we’d all been making do with for years. Funny to think that even that format is pretty much now redundant.

*Remember having to set the timer for a few minutes before and a few minutes after the programme you wanted to record to make sure you got all of it?!

Whilst peace was on the agenda in Northern Ireland, it seemed that violence and bad behaviour was dominating the headlines in the music world. Chumbawamba’s Danbert Nobacon poured a bucket of ice over Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott at the 1998 BRIT Awards in February whilst in March, in the space of a week, Liam Gallagher was charged with assault for breaking a fan’s nose in Australia before he was banned from Cathay Pacific airline for allegedly abusing passengers on the flight home to the UK. Also in March, Mark Morrison was sentenced to jail for paying a lookalike to do his community service. The following month, The Fall’s Mark E. Smith got into a fight with band mates whilst performing a gig in New York and he was arrested and charged with assaulting band member Julia Nagle the next day. Within 24 hours, George Michael was arrested after being caught in a “lewd act” by an undercover officer in a sting operation. The incident would lead to Michael coming out re: his sexuality within days of the event. Finally, in October, Ian Brown of the Stone Roses was jailed for threatening behaviour towards a stewardess on a British Airways flight. He served two months of a four month sentence in Strangeways prison, Manchester leaving to a graffiti campaign proclaiming ‘Ian Brown is innocent’.

Meanwhile, on a mad day in May, two huge news stories broke. Geri Halliwell announced she was leaving the Spice Girls whilst Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne was left out of the England World Cup squad. 1998 saw a number of bands split up including Menswear, Salad and Sleeper (Britpop really was over!) but those still going strong were All Saints with three No 1 singles and the Spice Girls who would record their third consecutive Christmas No 1. Also boarding the all female success train were sibling trio Cleopatra and Irish lassies B*Witched who matched All Saints tally of three chart toppers. Perhaps the biggest female star of them all also returned this year when Madonna released her “Ray Of Light” album. As for the boys, Robbie Williams went from strength to strength having saved his career with “Angels” whilst Boyzone were still churning out the hits with two No 1s and Five scored themselves a No 1 album.

As for me, I was still working for Our Price in the Stockport branch but things were starting to go south with my mental health and I would end up finishing the year in a different place geographically and mentally. This year might just be the toughest I’ve had to review so far.

1997 was quite the year on reflection. Look at this lot:

• We had a General Election which ushered in a new government after 18 years of Tory rule (that was a good day!).
• We had a new terrestrial television channel (the first new one since the launch of Channel 4 in November 1982) unimaginatively named Channel 5.
• The UK transferred sovereignty over Hong Kong, the largest remaining British colony, to the People’s Republic of China as the 99 years lease on the territory had formally ended (I was in China just weeks before the event).
• The first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was published.

Overshadowing all of this though was the death of Diana, Princess of Wales which caused many of the UK (and indeed the worlds) population to temporarily lose their minds in grief over a person most had never met. That event would have consequences for the world of music with Elton John’s reworking of “Candle In The Wind” which was sung at Diane’s funeral becoming the biggest selling UK single ever and shifting 33 million copies worldwide when it was released. It continues to hold that record to this day.

There was another event that would impact the music industry though not in such a sombre way. This was the year that The Teletubbies first aired and would become a ratings sensation. The success of the show triggered multiple merchandising lines to be made available to cash in on its popularity one of which was the Teletubbies single “Teletubbies Say Eh-Oh!” much would become the fifth biggest selling hit of the year! Did we learn nothing for the Mr Blobby fiasco of 1993?!

Talking of singles, it was another bumper year for the sales of the format – from the 22nd of June right through to the end of the year, every single No 1 record sold at least 100,000 copies a week. As with the previous year, 24 singles topped the chart, double the amount we saw just five years prior in 1992. As for albums, there was stellar anticipation of the release of Oasis’s third album “Be Here Now”. Despite its initial sales and being the best selling album of the year in the UK, it would ultimately sell around a third of the units of “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?” and its legacy and reputation is of a lumpen creation that killed the legend of Oasis. Yeah, that’s definitely it…maybe. If Noel and Liam were at a crossroads career wise, the Spice Girls were motoring on in top gear with two albums in the year end Top 5. One of the most critically revered albums of the decade (and perhaps of all time) was released this year as “OK Computer” by Radiohead came into our lives. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the year was the renaissance of Texas who would eclipse all their previous success with the album “White On Blonde”. Elsewhere in music, just one day after Labour’s General Election victory was confirmed, the UK won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time since 1981. Yes, the winning artist was led by an American singer but that was no reason not to celebrate the achievement.

As for me, 1997 would also be a memorable year. My beloved Chelsea would finally win something capturing the FA Cup in the May which was also the month I went to China to see my mate Rob who was living out there. It was quite a time! It wasn’t all excitement though. Work-wise, there was an unsettling period of disruption at the Our Price store where I was employed when our manager Pete left and on a personal level, I started to experience some mental health issues that would see me ultimately leave the Stockport branch forever but that’s all to come in the future…erm…the past. Oh, you know what I mean!

1996? Same as 1995 wasn’t it? Britpop was still a thing, The Beatles ‘Anthology’ project gave us another single, Take That at No 1…same old same old. Well yes…and no. By February, Take That weren’t a thing anymore (and wouldn’t be for another ten years) after announcing their break up with a Greatest Hits album and final single “How Deep Is Your Love”. Britpop was still about but a new force in pop music was to emerge during the Summer that would subvert the traditional teenage girl market – yes, the Spice Girls are coming! Gulp! ‘Girl Power’ wasn’t the only term in town though as the Summer also brought us Euro ‘96 and that football single by Lightning Seeds and Baddiel & Skinner – “Three Lions”.

Controversy came courtesy of Jarvis Cocker wafting his arse in the direction of Michael Jackson at the BRIT Awards leading to his arrest and Shaun Ryder whose expletive laden appearance on TFI Friday with Black Grape led to his ban from live broadcasting and the show to have to be recorded rather than going out live on air. Oasis continued their stratospheric rise with a second No 1 single and by playing some historic gigs – two nights at Manchester City’s then ground Maine Road (I was at the second) and two at Knebworth House which saw the biggest ever demand for concert tickets in British history. In complete contrast, former Manchester heroes the Stone Roses had a dreadful year with founding guitarist John Squire leaving the group who then performed a very poorly received gig at the Reading Festival which saw the press (and fans) pour scorn on Ian Brown’s vocals in particular.

The best selling single of the year would come from a hip hop version of an old Roberta Flack song which broke the record at the time for the most radio plays in a single week. Meanwhile, the album that shifted the most units in 1996 was by a most unlikely artist who seemed to have already peaked during the previous year having had two minor hits and spending twenty weeks in the UK Top 40 albums chart but never getting higher than No 12. In an almighty turnaround, by the end of the year, that album would have been No 1 for eleven weeks (seven of them consecutively) and spent forty-one on the spin inside the Top 10. Alanis Morissette, your time has come.

In the wider world, there were two royal divorces, a Doctor Who feature film with Paul McGann in the title role (that split opinion as I recall), a cloned sheep called Dolly and Glenn Hoddle announced he was leaving my beloved Chelsea to become the next England manager. Independence Day was the biggest grossing film of a year which also saw the release of the film adaptation of Irvine Walsh’s Trainspotting whose soundtrack would go three times platinum in the UK. My own personal year saw me stay in the Our Price store in Stockport and enjoy a holiday in Barcelona…until I had the worst case of the runs I’ve ever had. Let’s hope the TOTP repeats of 1996 don’t similarly stink the place out.

So, to 1995 then and if I’m just relying on my memory then presumably this is going to be one long procession of Britpop acts. Now that prospect may fill you with joy or dread depending on your musical persuasion but statistically that can’t be the case so what else was happening? Well, it’s a bit like 1977 when punk was meant to be at its peak but in fact the biggest selling records of the year were all by decidedly mainstream artists like Wings, David Soul and Leo Sayer. Fast forward to 1995 and for those three artists read the likes of Celine Dion, Michael Jackson and pissing Robson & Jerome! For all the talk of Britpop, only one artist from that movement had a single in the Top 10 sellers of the year – Oasis with “Wonderwall”. Those two singles at the heart of The Battle of Britpop? They trail in 12th and 20th. So was it all just a media concoction? You can’t deny the sales that Oasis generated – “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?” went 16 x platinum in the UK, sold 22 million copies worldwide and as of October 2018 was the 5th best selling album of all time in this country. And yet…it wasn’t the best selling album of 1995 being beaten to that accolade by…yep, those guys again…Robson & Jerome. The other big sellers of the year album wise are more rock and pop royalty in the form of Queen, Michael Jackson and Simply Red though sneaking in at No 10 were Pulp who became massive in 1995, the 18th year of their existence.

However, there were some seismic events in the world of music in this year. Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards disappeared in February never to return and has been legally dead since 2008 though many a sighting has been reported in the intervening years. There was a drummer exodus of Manchester bands with Reni quitting The Stone Roses in March and Tony McCarroll being sacked from Oasis in the April. Not to be outdone, Robbie Williams left Take That in July causing such a meltdown in the country’s population of teenage girls that a helpline was set up to help them deal with what had happened (supposedly). The Summer also witnessed that chart battle with the story infamously being reported on the BBC’s main evening news programme. For all the band members who left or disappeared in 1995, the year ended with a massive return as The Beatles released a ‘new’ single for the first time since they split in 1970. “Free As A Bird” was a 1977 John Lennon demo reworked by the three remaining Beatles as part of the Anthology project.

As for TOTP and Radio 1, the BBC continued to wield its axe. In January it was announced by controller Matthew Bannister that ‘old’ music (i.e. anything pre-1990) would no longer be played on its flagship pop music radio station. This was followed in February by the announcement that Bruno Brookes’ contract would not be renewed when it expired in the April meaning he would leave Radio 1 after 11 years. Another line up change saw Chris Evans replace Steve Wright as the Breakfast Show host. Meanwhile, over at TOTP, Head Producer Ric Blaxill continued to ring the changes with a new set, theme tune, logo and title sequence introduced in February.

In the wider world, 1995 saw Eric ‘Kung Fu’ Cantona assault a spectator after being sent off for Manchester United against Crystal Palace in January (though it did nothing to affect his popularity as it turned out the fan was a right scrote). Cliff Richard became Sir Cliff Richard and Princess Diana did that interview with Martin Bashir when she famously said that there were three people in her marriage. The entertainment world lost a whole host of people this year with the deaths of Larry Grayson, Peter Cook, Kenny Everett, Marti Caine, Paul Eddington and Arthur Mullard.

As for me, I remained working in record shops for Our Price, starting the year in Manchester but moving back to Stockport in the February after the Market Street store finally shut down after years of being under threat of closure. In many ways, 1995 was the busiest time to be working in a record shop with the Oasis sales phenomenon and the national spotlight that The Battle of Britpop bought – I recall being paranoid about potentially running out of either the Oasis or Blur single that week. It was possibly the most enjoyable though for the same reason. This might prove to be one of the best years for revisiting in quite some time.

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

Aah, 1993…or should that be ‘aargh’ 1993? I don’t know why but numbers ending in a ‘3’ always jar in my mind. Whether it’s because it’s an odd number or a prime number I’m not sure but I’ve never trusted them. The same can apply to years ending in ‘3’. 1983, for example, was the year my beloved Chelsea finished in their lowest ever league position and nearly got relegated to the old third division. And 1993? Well, Chelsea had another terrible season flirting with relegation before finally securing a mid table finish. On a national level, the England team had a year to forget managing to lose to the USA (a result that was seen as a disgrace in the press) before following it up by failing to qualify for the 1994 World Cup. Manager Graham Taylor resigned as a consequence. Sticking with sport, disaster befell the Grand National and caused heartache for bookmakers as it was cancelled after a false start!

In the world of entertainment, Carry On film stalwarts Bernard Bresslaw and Kenneth Connor shuffled off this mortal coil as did comedian Les Dawson. Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer had a busy year with two new BBC shows starting in The Smell Of Reeves And Mortimer and Shooting Stars. ITV had a ratings winner on their hands with crime drama Cracker starring Robbie Coltrane whilst Channel 4 hosted the debut of late night cult TV show Eurotrash. Shopping channel QVC appeared on our screens for the first time. In the literary world Irvine Welsh’s iconic novel Trainspotting was published whilst A Clockwork Orange author Anthony Burgess passed away.

But this is a music blog isn’t it so what was happening on the pop landscape? In my head, the charts of 1993 were populated by some tunes that stank them out but could I be mistaken? A quick glance at the Top 10 best selling singles of the year is as grim and lacking in sense as a Nadine Dorries interview. It’s mostly nasty Eurodance anthems punctuated by a couple of cover versions and a song by a blubbery, intensely irritating figure whose name began with ‘M’. No, not Meatloaf; I’m referring to Mr Blobby of course…or am I? Elsewhere, before the Blur vs Oasis chart battle of 1995 came East 17 and Take That duking it out for the title of top teen sensation whilst reggae fusion / dancehall briefly dominated the charts courtesy of the unholy ‘S’ trinity of Snow, Shaggy and Shabba Ranks. Oh God, I’m having flashbacks!

Work wise for me, 1993 was a year of much change. By the end of it, I would have worked in four different Our Price stores. Some of it I really enjoyed, some of it I really, really didn’t. So, I don’t think I’ve made myself feel any better about the prospects for 1993 in that little preamble. I’m going to go down that road in spite of myself though. Are you gonna go my way?

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/m00165cm/top-of-the-pops-the-story-of-1993

What did 1992 ever do for us eh? Oh God it seems so long ago that I’m not sure what happened to be honest. OK, think. Well, it was the Queen’s ‘annus horribilis’ with the Royal Family beset by a series of bad news stories including one divorce, two separations, a fire, the publication of a tell all book about Princess Diana oh and pictures of Sarah, Duchess of York (Fergie to us) in the tabloids sunbathing with her tits out.

What else? The world of politics was just as awful as it is now with a depressing fourth consecutive General Election win for the Conservative party. There were loads of riots all over the place, ‘Black Wednesday’ and probably worst of all, the scandal that was David Mellor and his affair with actress Antonia de Sancha which led to revelations that he liked to have sex with her dressed in a Chelsea FC football kit. That was an especially hard one (no sniggering at the back) for Chelsea fans like me to take.

Talking of Chelsea, I genuinely thought we might be on the cusp of finally winning something this year as we got to the quarter finals of the FA Cup for the first time in a decade only to be dumped out by lower league Sunderland after a replay. Curses! 1992 also saw the inaugural season of the Premier League though the advert below featuring images of Vinnie Jones, Andy Ritchie and a moustachioed John Wark in the shower didn’t seem a premier league idea to advertise its coming.

In entertainment news, comedy legends Frankie Howerd and Benny Hill died within a day of each other but we also saw the first episodes of two comedies that would become part of the UK’s TV scheduling for years to come in Absolutely Fabulous and Men Behaving Badly. Meanwhile, god awful BBC soap Eldorado began its mercifully short run contrasting with Later… with Jools Holland which started its 30 years (and still going) place at the heart of music television. We can also all wake up to Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast for the first time this year introducing us to the horror that is Chris Evans.

As for music, 1992 seemed to be year where not much happened at all. Simply Red had not only the biggest selling album of 1991 in “Stars” but it also shifted the most units in 1992 as well. Looking at the 25 or so different albums that topped the chart this year, I would say only three of them were by an artist that didn’t fit into the category of established or mainstream or whatever you want to define the prevailing musical norm as. If I discount REM (which is probably unfair but still), those three would be The Orb, Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine and perennial non conformists The Cure. The majority of No 1 acts were almost rock royalty – Genesis, Abba, Cher, Neil Diamond, Lionel Richie and those that weren’t like The Smiths tended to be at the mercy of records companies hawking Greatest Hits collections (10 of this year’s chart topping long players fell into this category).

In the singles charts, a cover of a Dolly Parton song was the year’s best seller whilst other No 1s of the year included some not particularly fondly remembered dance tunes from K.W.S., Snap! and the Shamen. Erasure finally bagged themselves a No 1 single but then so did the odious Charles And Eddie which kind of devalued the achievement.

As for me, I trundled along fairly happily for the first half of the year until an offer of promotion turned up. I’d never pursued the idea of advancement at work and so when it was stuck in front of me, I asked for some time to think about it. Apparently this was not the standard reply when working for Our Price back then – any chance of stepping up a rung on the management ladder was snatched at. In the end, I decided to do it and spent a great year hanging out in Rochdale before the managerial merry go round forced me into a series of moves most of which I didn’t really enjoy that much.

1992 then. I’m not holding out too many hopes that this will be a review full of joyous surprises to contradict my admittedly pessimistic preview but to quote three of the biggest selling singles of that year, “Stay…”Please Don’t Go” and stay with me until the “End Of The Road”.

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.

It’s 1990 at last – the beginning of a new decade and unlike the beginning of the current new decade (which less face it couldn’t have gone much worse), the world isn’t looking in too bad a shape. The divisive Berlin Wall has tumbled, the Cold War was coming to an end and in a few short weeks Nelson Mandela would be released from incarceration after 27 years. It’s not all good news though as on New Year’s Day the character of Mr Bean makes his TV debut.

Musically, the charts were still being infiltrated by various strands of European house music from acts such as Technotronic (Belgium), Snap (Germany) and Twenty 4 Seven (Holland). These new kids on the block were joined by erm…New Kids On The Block who racked up seven Top 10 singles including a No 1 plus a No 1 album. Sheesh! There was also room for some golden oldies with Phil Collins having the best selling album of the year closely followed by Madonna and Elton John who both had greatest hits albums out. The list of No 1 singles for the year mercifully had some half decent stuff in it for once (The Beautiful South, Sinéad O’Connor, Beats International) plus of course the best football song ever (ever!) from New Order. Sadly it also included some enormous turds from Bombalurina. Partners In Kryme and Vanilla Ice and that’s not even mentioning the Xmas turkey that was the festive chart topper from Cliff Richard. A mixed bag indeed then.

And me? Alas- oh shit I sound like Boris Johnson – erm…sadly, I was unemployed (again) as 1990 broke having finished my temporary stint as sales assistant / stand in Santa in Debenhams over Xmas. I was back in my parents house with no money, no job and separated geographically from my girlfriend once more. It wasn’t a great start to the year nor decade to be fair. My period of unemployment would last five months until I was reunited not only with the world of work but also my girlfriend as I secured a temporary position at Kingston Communications back in Hull. By the time that had finished as the Summer turned to Autumn, we had decided to get married and relocate to Manchester where neither of us had ever lived before nor had a permanent job. A bold move I guess but we were young and fearless and all those other things that middle aged has robbed me of so…. off we went to Manc land where I had got myself a temporary job over Xmas at Our Price Music. They would be my employer for the rest of the decade….

Disclaimer

OK – here’s the thing – the TOTP episodes are only available on iPlayer for a limited amount of time so the link to the programme below only works for about another month so you’ll have to work fast if you want to see what the BBC made of 1990.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000n18n/top-of-the-pops-the-story-of-1990

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC.