As with last week’s show, all the songs on tonight are ones we haven’t seen in these TOTP repeats previously bar the No 1. All the congestion in the bowels of the Xmas charts has been evacuated and there are new entries galore in the Top 40. Talking of new entries, the world of football was days away from a player making an explosive entrance into the English league who’s legacy is still remembered to this day and not always for how well he could play the beautiful game. I talk, of course, of Eric Cantona.

The day after this TOTP aired, King Eric rejected the offer of a contract at Sheffield Wednesday and 24 hours later signed for Leeds United instead. His galvanising arrival and goals helped power them to the final 1st Division title before the Premier League began and the first for Leeds since 1974. A move to Manchester United followed where he would become a legitimate legend. Then came the 25th January 1995 and the ‘kung fu’ incident where he launched a kick at Crystal Palace ‘fan’ Matthew Simmons leading to a lengthy ban and that “when the seagulls follow the trawler” press conference. His rehabilitation into an Old Trafford idol was astonishing. All of that though was still to come. For now, I, like most football fans, had no idea who he was.

Unfortunately, I did know who the first group on the show tonight were. The Pasadenas burst onto the UK music scene back in 1988 with their Top 5 hit “Tribute (Right On)” and Top 3 album “To Whom It May Concern”. Briefly they were going to be the next big thing in UK R&B though they did absolutely nothing for me. In their TOTP performances, they seemed more interested in doing back flips than singing – they were the JLS of their day in that respect – and so I wasn’t arsed in the slightest when they seemed to have disappeared completely by the end of the 80s.

A change of musical direction however saw them return to the charts for a short stay with 1990’s “Love Thing” but when the follow up single stiffed and their second album’s release was delayed for a year, I really thought it was the end for The Pasadenas.

However, if we have learned one thing from these TOTP repeats it’s that when an act is in need of a career rejuvenating hit, just record a cover version. So what did this lot do? No, they didn’t record a cover version, they made a whole album of covers! “Yours Sincerely” included their takes on songs by such legendary names as Bob Marley, The Beatles, Marvin Gaye and…erm…Steve Arrington. Oh and “I’m Doing Fine Now” by 70s US R&B group New York City. I mean it was a canny choice in terms of getting them played on the radio and by logical extension back in the charts but if they’d played it any safer they might as well have called themselves Steve Davis and be done with it.

To be fair to them, they’ve cut down on the dance moves for this performance and concentrated on their harmonies – presumably the TOTP live vocal policy had forced a rethink on back flips!

“I’m Doing Fine” lived up to its name by becoming the group’s biggest hit reaching No 4. Three more Top 40 hits followed but by the mid 90s, their story had reached the final chapter. The epilogue came in 2005 when they appeared on ITV show Hit Me Baby One More Time. They lost to T’Pau’s Carol Decker. Pop careers eh? Like china in your hand.

By the way, the presenters tonight are Tony Dortie and Claudia Simon who are literally serving up the most banal, hackneyed and embarrassing gibberish in their segues. For example:

TD: We are cool rockin’ down here with just an unbelievable collection of happening tunes

CS: We are gonna be movin’ and groovin’ live down here bringing some hot sounds to your ears

Was this stuff scripted or was this how they really spoke in normal life?! Claudia compounds the crime by shouting every line as loud as she can.

Now when I mentioned Eric Cantona earlier it wasn’t with one eye on an act that was on the show that would make a nice little link with him however fortuitous it may seem. Still, Cantona’s taking out of Matthew Simmons could have easily been described as him being someone who Kicks Like A Mule and no mistake.

So who were these guys? Apparently they were Richard Russell and Nick Halkes who both worked at the XL Recordings label who were responsible for recent successes by The Prodigy and SL2. The label would become a huge player in the dance scene but would also diversify to sign artists like Badly Drawn Boy, Super Furry Animals and Electric Six. Having said all of that, their single “The Bouncer” wasn’t on XL Recordings but came out on Rebel MC’s independent Tribal Bass label. Talk about contrary!

This sounded like so much peripheral nonsense to me – almost a novelty record of the ragga genre with all that ‘Your name’s not down, you’re not coming in’ bullshit. There was meant to be an album of this stuff but thankfully it never materialised. They have continued as an occasional project though, their most recent incarnation as K.L.A.M. supported The Prodigy on a 2010 tour. In their day jobs, Russell is still the owner of XL Recordings whilst Halkes left to form the Positiva label that brought us Reel 2 Reel, Bucketheads and The Vengaboys. Yeah, cheers for that mate. Halkes also goes in for a spot of lecturing on the music industry at University of Westminster. I don’t think any of my lecturers at Sunderland Poly were ever that cool.

“The Bouncer” peaked at No 7.

Some proper music now courtesy of James who are back in the charts with their new single “Born Of Frustration”. Having finally become bona fide chart stars when a re-recording of “Sit Down” went to No 2 the year before, the band followed up on that success with a Top 10 hit in “Sound” (which we didn’t get to see due to the Adrian Rose issue) in the November. “Born Of Frustration” followed soon after with both tracks being forerunners of new album “Seven” which was released two weeks after this TOTP appearance.

Now if you google ‘James Born Of Frustration’, one of the things you’ll find out about the song which I never knew until now was the criticism it attracted in the music press for sounding like Simple Minds, specifically “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”. I’d never made that connection in my life before but now I know of it, I can’t unhear it. It’s the ‘la, la, la, la, la’ refrain. God, it is the same isn’t it?! Tim Booth swears down that he’d never heard “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” before writing the song (really?!) so any influence must have been unconscious. This didn’t satisfy the press though with the inkies accusing the band of selling out after becoming commercially successful after years of being indie darlings. For me, it wasn’t that it sounded like Jim Kerr at all but that it sounded like…well…James in that it sounded a bit too like “Sound”. When “Ring The Bells” came out in the March, that sounded like its predecessors as well. I did like what I was hearing but was it all becoming a bit too samey?

Regardless of all of those accusations, their performance here is still pretty convincing. I’ve always thought of Tim Booth as a UK Michael Stipe somehow and seeing him in his youth here is quite startling with his fresh facedness and hair. He looks like a Bond villain these days. It’s a similar story with Stipe if you see images of him in REM’s early days with all his hirsuteness. I also like the guy who’s come in his nightshirt (or is it a dress) on trumpet.

“Born Of Frustration” peaked at No 13.

The first video of the night is from The Wonder Stuff with “Welcome To The Cheap Seats” Now as I recall, this was an EP wasn’t it?

*checks Wikipedia*

Yes it was. In fact it was two EPs, one of which featured this rather straight version of The Jam’s “That’s Entertainment”:

As for the title track of both EPs, it was another song lifted from their “Never Loved Elvis” album and of course featured the wonderful Kirsty MacColl on backing vocals. I’m guessing that its release stemmed from a rather cynical decision by record label Polydor to cash in on the success of their recent No 1 collaboration with Vic Reeves on “Dizzy”. The album had been out for eight months by this point and the last single from it called “Sleep Alone” had been released in the August of ‘91 and hadn’t even made the Top 40. Surely they weren’t thinking of plucking another track from it for release as a single until “Dizzy” happened? And weren’t Polydor The Jam’s record label which would explain the “That’s Entertainment” cover. The whole cynical operation is being exposed. It did the trick though as “Welcome To The Cheap Seats” went Top 10 peaking at No 8.

I was listening to Magic radio today (don’t judge, I’m 53!) and the DJ was playing “Come On Eileen” (for the eighth time this week probably) and she started going on about what a floor filler it was at wedding discos. She then tried to name other such tunes and came out with (and I swear to God this is true) “Size Of A Cow” by Dizzy! Excellent product knowledge! Not sure I’ll listen again.

Did someone mention Steve Arrington before? Well, yes that was me obviously and it was on purpose as I needed the “Feel So Real” hitmaker for a nice link into the next act who are Dream Frequency with their single…yes of course…”Feel So Real”. Despite their vocalist Debbie Sharp being an American, the rest of the combo were actually from Preston, Lancashire. Founding member Ian Bland (chortle) had this to say about writing the track:

So influenced by the Sylvester song was Ian that he would eventually record a cover version of it as a subsequent single in ‘94 but it failed to chart. As for “Feel So Real”, it would be Dream Frequency’s biggest hit when it peaked at No 23 but for me it was just another house track on the endless conveyor belt of house tracks with nothing to distinguish it from any of its peers.

The Breakers are back this week starting with an artist who only has two Top 40 hits to her name but that statistic doesn’t tell anywhere near her whole story. Back in 1988, Julia Fordham was going to be the next big UK female singer-songwriter off the back of a gold selling debut album and hit single “Happy Ever After”. She’d even been on Wogan, a sure fire sign of having made it back in the 80s. Sophomore album “Porcelain” came just a year later and consolidated her profile with sales of 60,000 units despite the lack of any hit singles.

1991 would deliver her second and final hit single “(Love Moves In) Mysterious Ways”. Nothing to do with the recent, similarly titled U2 single, it was actually from the soundtrack to a film which I can’t remember at all called The Butcher’s Wife starring Demi Moore. The film was a flop but Fordham’s song sustained. In a twist of irony for an artist who has 18 albums to her name, her biggest ever hit (it peaked at No 19) wasn’t actually written by Julia. Its success led to her third album, 1991’s “Swept”, being re-released in 1992 with the track cobbled onto it. Even with that re-promotion, the album struggled to a high of No 33.

Julia continued to release albums throughout the 90s to diminishing returns but has continued to record material to this day and is a popular live draw having toured with Judie Tzuke and Beverley Craven under the Woman To Woman banner.

I just about remember this next lot, their band name anyway, though what they sounded like I’m not sure. The Blessing released an album called “Prince Of The Deep Water” as their debut long player and such must have been the buzz around them that it was promoted as a Recommended Release in the Our Price chain where I was earning a living at the time. It featured guest musicians such as Toto’s Jeff Porcaro, Ricki Lee Jones and Bruce Hornsby. OK, I’m getting a feel for how it might have sounded now. Let me have a listen to the single “Highway 5 ‘92” and I’ll come back to you. Talk amongst yourselves….

OK. A few points to note:

• As the No 92 in the single’s title implies, this was a re-release. It originally came out in ‘91 and peaked at No 42. I’m not convinced that addition was really necessary.
• It did finally ring a few bells with me. I wouldn’t have been able to tell you who it was though if I’d stumbled across it in the radio without resorting to Shazam.
• The initial vocal sounds like Chris Rea. The verses sound like “Ain’t No Doubt” by Jimmy Nail.
• I thought it was unspectacular but OK. Presumably that was the judgement most people came to as it only got as far as No 30 despite being remixed and repromoted.

The album sold 125,000 according to Wikipedia. We’re they a bigger deal in the US? Their sound was very American though the band actually hailed from London. The cost of that album and restructuring at record label MCA, The Blessing we’re considered commercially unviable and disbanded soon after.

Right. Who’s this bloke then? Well it’s Cicero and against all odds, it turns out that was actually his real name and not some pretentious affectation involving the Roman philosopher. David John Cicero was born in Long Island, New York but relocated to Livingston, Scotland in his youth. A big Pet Shop Boys fan, he got to live out his dreams when, after seeing them live and giving a demo tape to their personal assistant, found himself being offered management and a recording contract by Chris and Neil themselves!

His debut single on their Spaghetti label failed to find an audience despite his idols patronage but second single “Love Is Everywhere” did the trick taking Cicero into the Top 20. This one must have passed me by completely at the time as I’m sure I would have remembered that distinctive Scottish brogue in the spoken verses followed by the uplifting chorus. If The Proclaimers were ever to record a song inspired by “I Beg Your Pardon” by Kon Kan (unlikely I know), it might sound like “Love Is Everywhere”. It also conjures up images of Ewan McGregor and Trainspotting. Maybe it should have been on the soundtrack.

Sadly for Cicero, it never got any better for him than early ‘92. Subsequent singles failed to crack the Top 40 and even a Pet Shop Boys produced album and a support slot on a Take That tour couldn’t save him from the ignominy of appearing in the identity parade on Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

Now, is this the debut studio appearance on TOTP by Manic Street Preachers? I think it is. It’s quite a thing even 30 years on. James Dean Bradfield stripped to the waste with “You Love Us” emblazoned across his naked chest, Nicky Wire with an intimidating black stripe painted across his eyes and Richey Edwards with his Andy Warhol / Marilyn Monroe print T-shirt making a statement that they weren’t just some dumb rock band but that they had a whole creative agenda to push (probably). I’m guessing the incongruous use of a bubble machine was not the band’s idea though maybe the controlled explosions later were.

As with The Blessing before them, the single had actually already been out once before in May ‘91 on the Heavenly label but had been re-recorded for Columbia and released as the third single from debut album “Generation Terrorists” after “Stay Beautiful” and “Love’s Sweet Exile/Repeat”. It would end up achieving the highest chart placing of all six singles released from the album (a peak of No 16) and became an anthem uniting the band and their fan base.

And me? What did I make of it all? Well, I’m afraid my reliable instinct for dodging the zeitgeist when it came steaming down the road that had already seen me fail to fall in life with The Smiths and The Stone Roses was at it again. I knew there was a band out there called Manic Street Preachers and that the music press was getting very excited about them but I seemed to ignore them. It wasn’t until “Motorcycle Emptiness” was released six months later that I finally cottoned on. I even bought their next album “Gold Against The Soul” (generally considered to be their weakest amongst the fans) and have seen them live twice (albeit that one was supporting Oasis at Maine Road) though I don’t think I have bought an album of theirs for myself since “Everything Must Go”. I did listen to their latest “The Ultra Livid Lament” on Spotify the other week and liked it if that’s any form of redemption. I even watched a documentary about them the other day. And enjoyed it.

DNA? They were the people who did they remix of Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner” weren’t they? Yes they were and here they are again, this time teaming up with soul star Sharon Redd for a remix of her minor 1980 hit “Can You Handle It”.

I’m not sure I understand the criteria for the differentiation between those tracks they just remixed and were credited for by the application of the does-what-it-says-on-the-tin suffix ‘DNA remix’ (e.g. Kylie’s “Shocked”) and those that they released with themselves as the artist like this one. Oh well.

Sharon has come dressed as a cross between a zebra and Jay Kay from Jamiroquai (or is it the Mad Hatter). Nice. As for the tune, if asked before this TOTP repeat aired, I would have said this was by somebody like Incognito or The Brand New Heavies. Clearly I would have been wrong.

“Can You Handle It” – the DNA version – peaked at No 17.

Wet Wet Wet are No 1 again with “Goodnight Girl”. On the surface this seems to be a fairly straightforward love song but there is plenty of intrigue online as to what the lyrics mean. Some think it’s a tale of forbidden love, some about a man who can’t express his true feelings whilst at least two people thought it was about prostitution! I’m not sure but I do know that although my wife really liked this song and I bought the album for her off the back of it, she had (and still has) an issue with the line “It doesn’t matter how sad I made you” because…well, in a relationship, it does. Wise words from my better half.

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/m0013cfk/top-of-the-pops-30011992