TOTP Rewind – the 90s | My memories of 90s chart music

TOTP 05 OCT 1995

Posted on March 13, 2024 by 80stastic

We’ve entered October with these TOTP repeats and three days before this show aired, an album hit the shops that would prove to be a landmark release in UK music history. “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?” by Oasis would shift 345,000 copies in its first week and spend 10 weeks at No 1 on the album chart in total. It would eventually go 17 x platinum in the UK alone and win a Brit award for Best British Album. It even broke through in America going to No 4 over there selling 4 million copies in the process. It spawned two chart topping singles and two No 2s. In short, it was a monster, a phenomenon even. After the Battle of Britpop in the Summer that had put record shops at the heart of the national news, this album was a slam dunk off the back of it for the takings of stores across the country. It sold and sold and sold and then it sold some more. It sold more than any other album in the entire decade that was the 90s. Whether you liked it or not, you couldn’t ignore it.

Something else that you couldn’t ignore but it would be hard to like are the comedy characters dished up for our entertainment by tonight’s ‘golden mic’ hosts Hale & Pace. So, I have questions. To start with, why were these two on the show in the first place? Well, the eighth* series of their TV comedy series was just about to air but that was on ITV so it can’t have been seen as an opportunity to plug one of the Beeb’s shows.

*I know! Eight! They even did a couple more before it came to an end in 1998.

Was it just that they had these characters Jed & Dave who were like the stoned rocker versions of Smashie & Nicey and so executive producer Ric Blaxill took a lazy decision to get them in as guest presenters? It certainly wasn’t anything to do with Comic Relief as we’d already had that in March. Whatever the reason, they were in the TOTP studio and were ready to annoy!

There may not be any of the aforementioned Oasis on tonight’s show but there is certainly some Britpop. We start with Sleeper who are just getting into their stride with their third and biggest hit of 1995 with “What Do I Do Now?”. The lead single from their second album “The It Girl” which would be released the following May, it built on the success and sound of previous chart entries “Inbetweener” and “Vegas” but if anything was even more radio friendly. With that sophomore album not making an appearance until well into the following year, its subsequent success would mean that Sleeper were never as big as they were in 1996. “The It Girl” would go Top 5 and sell 300,000 copies in the UK spawning four Top 20 hits including two No 10s.

The performance here seems to me to cement Louise Wener’s position as one of the faces of Britpop and what a face! Wide eyed innocence, wrapped up in knowing coyness and a smile that you knew meant she’d be the best person to have a laugh with down the pub. I caught Sleeper live at the Manchester Academy in 1996 and they were pretty good as I remember. I went with my mate Steve and I have a clear memory of him grooving away to “What Do I Do Now?” which was way more entertaining than anything Hale & Pace served up on this TOTP.

Oh come on! How many times is this now that Smokie and Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown have been on the show? I think this is the third already. The success of “Who The F**k Is Alice?” was absolutely baffling to me. Were there really people up and down the country whom, having bought the single, took it home, put it on their stereo system, pressed play and then listened to it waiting for the chance to shout out “Alice? Who the f**k is Alice?!” at the top of the voices and then chuckling to themselves?! I guess there were mobile DJs who bought it and would play it at a birthday do they’d been booked for. That might account for some sales but this single stank out the charts for a total of 14 weeks on the Top 40 including 8 within the Top 10. It spent 9 consecutive weeks without once going down the charts. Surely wedding DJs can’t have accounted for all those sales?! And where was the outcry from the press about this record ?! Sure, it couldn’t be played on the radio unless it was a bleeped version but I don’t recall the papers in a meltdown about this youth corrupting filth. No, they were too busy getting their knickers in a twist about another chart hit but more of that later.

By the way, Hale & Pace’s intro with one of them (I never did know which one was which) getting lifted in the air on a wire really wasn’t worth setting up as the punchline for a limp play on words. Give me Cheryl Baker instead any day…

Some West Coast hip-hop next from Cypress Hill. As a pop kid, this lot were never really going to be my bag though I did quite like their previous hits “Insane In The Brain” and “I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That”. This one – “Throw Your Set In The Air” – was the lead single from their third album “III: Temples Of Boom” but I have to say I don’t remember it. Cypress Hill were one of those ‘parental advisory explicit lyrics’ sticker artists which meant we weren’t supposed to play them on the shop stereo in the Our Price store I was working in at the time. Consequently, I was never that familiar with their work. I knew the album covers of such artists better than their songs due to the fact that the CD and cassette inlays were so nickable that we would keep them behind the counter and put a temporary, generic inlay out on the shop racks. This was in the days before the stock was security tagged and out on the shop floor live as it were. Rather pathetically, the hip-hop/rap artists would most likely be pinched by middle class white kids pretending they were from the hood (or something).

Another contrived yet duff intro from Hale & Pace about going metric and rhyming ‘a litre’ with Oleta ushers in the return of Oleta Adams. Yes, I was surprised to see her on the show again too. In my head, she had one massive hit single in the early 90s with her version of Brenda Russell’s “Get Here” (the success of which also catapulted her album “Circle Of One” to the top of the charts) and then nothing. This was plainly not the case though. Exhibit A, m’lud – “Never Knew Love”. The lead single from her “Moving On” album, its sound was nothing like the balladeering of “Get Here” but rather a competent if unremarkable R&B track – Oleta had indeed ‘moved on’.

Of course, I should have remembered earlier that in addition to “Get Here”, Oleta had added her considerable voice to the Tears For Fears hit “Woman In Chains” back in late 1989. By a pleasing quirk of fate, TFF were back in the UK Top 40 nine places below Oleta this week with their single “Raoul And The Kings Of Spain”. However, by this point, Curt Smith had left the band and it was essentially a Roland Orzabal solo track. By the way, I’m pretty sure that’s Shirley Lewis on backing vocals in this performance who was married to Luke Goss of Bros fame for 23 years before splitting in 2017. She clearly did “Drop The Boy” though I have no idea if there is any truth that Luke said of the divorce settlement “I Owe You Nothing”. I know – I’m looking for my coat as I type.

After their first appearance in the TOTP studio since 1980 the other week, Iron Maiden are back on the show again though clearly the experience scarred them as they have put a distance of approximately 3,000 miles between them and London for this second performance of “Falling Down”. Obviously, that’s not the reason – they’d played a gig in Jerusalem and then travelled to the ancient fortification of Masada to record this footage. It’s a stunning backdrop and is another example of the show’s executive producer Ric Blaxill’s vision of taking the satellite performances away from empty concert halls and giving them landmark locations instead.

However, I’m not sure that the helicopter views aid the song. It just makes the band seem small, inconsequential and rather silly against such a massive vista. I’ll leave the final word on this though to a Twitter user who posted this rather sage observation:

All that vibration can’t have been good for the ruins
— Conal (@Fazbo97) March 8, 2024

Robbie Williams wasn’t the only high profile departure from a successful five piece group in 1995. Louise Nurding left Eternal amid unsubstantiated rumours that a prominent US radio station dedicated to music made by black artists wouldn’t promote an interracial group. Rather obviously, a solo career beckoned and after a small rebrand (Nurding possibly wasn’t the best name for a pop star), Louise emerged with her debut single “Light Of My Life”. Now, I remember this as being a huge ballad but hearing it back, it’s quite a slight thing really. Written by Simon Climie of Climie Fisher fame, it never really gets going despite all those strings in the mix trying to beef it up. More 40 watt bulb than incandescent theatre spotlight. Watching this performance, Louise’s miming doesn’t seem very convincing somehow. Not that she’s out of sync or forgets the words or anything like that but just it all seems a little artificial – most strange.

Louise would go onto have a procession of hits including nine Top Tenners and two platinum selling albums. I know, I wouldn’t have believed it either if I hadn’t read it for myself. She would shed the girl next door image and then some by the time of her hit “Naked” but that’s for a future post. Let’s not get to that point too quickly (ahem).

And so to the hit that the British press couldn’t turn a blind eye to as they seemed to be able to with “Who The F**k Is Alice?”. Pulp’s double A-side single “Mis-Shapes / Sorted For E’s And Whizz” had careered into the UK charts at No 2 – we’d seen the band perform “Mis-shapes” on TOTP two weeks earlier as an exclusive preview. However, it was the second song that had caused controversy. Now, clearly its title contained some rather in your face drug’s references but that didn’t seem to bother the BBC as Jarvis Cocker is allowed to sing the lyrics without any censure* in this show.

*I think they may have shortened the title to just “Sorted” for the caption on that performance of “Mis-Shapes” though it is restored to its full, corrupting glory here.

And why would he have? If you listen to the lyrics, Jarvis isn’t pro recreational drugs but rather he’s pointing out what a hollow experience it ultimately is; that it’s just an artificially induced high and that the comedown can be brutal. He was writing from personal experience of attending raves and taking Ecstasy but at no point does he condone drug taking. The actual song title had come from something a girl he knew had said about going to see the Stone Roses at Spike Island in 1990. All she could recall of it was loads of dodgy looking geezers going around asking people if they were sorted for E’s and Whizz. Talking of the Roses, Pulp stood in for them at that year’s Glastonbury at the last minute whilst I myself was working in the Our Price store in Stockport alongside the late and very great Pete Garner who was their original bass player. I distinctly recall Pete saying that he couldn’t believe that Pulp had got away with releasing a single called “Sorted For E’s And Whizz”.

However, one newspaper in particular was determined to publish a story of outrage about the song and so turned their attention to the CD single’s cover which included an illustration of how to fold a speed wrap (though it doesn’t mention anything about it being used for that purpose in the text). The Daily Mirror went all in on this “sick stunt” as they called it with the article being written by one Kate Thornton later of X Factor fame. Here’s @TOTPFacts with the details:

Thanks to its cover (which featured a magazine page folded into a speed wrap) and a diagram in the CD booklet which showed you how to fold one, "Sorted For E's And Wizz" prompted a Daily Mirror front page headlined “BAN THIS SICK STUNT”. #TOTP pic.twitter.com/f7RvNre5Ms
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 8, 2024

DJ Neil Fox jumped on the bandwagon and refused to play it on his show and in the end, the band pulled the artwork and replaced it with something non controversial. With echoes of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Relax”, all the press attention just increased sales of the single. Jarvis used both these TOTP appearances to make wry observations on all the fuss. In the “Mis-Shapes” performance, he channels his inner Bob Geldof and reads a copy of the Daily Mirror with that front cover during the middle eight and in this one, he finishes the song by producing an origami bird sculpture. Nicely done Jarvis.

One of the most interesting hits of the year now as we get Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave with “Where The Wild Roses Grow”. Everybody at the time was talking about how had this duet come about, so unlikely was the pairing – Cave, the gothic Prince of doomy art rock with the intimidatingly deep voice and Kylie, the Princess of Pop. Really though, there was no great story behind it. They were both Aussies and Nick really liked Kylie and so he wrote a song for her. Well, I say ‘liked’ but in his own words Cave described himself as having:

“…a quiet obsession with her for about six years.”
Jenkins, Jeff; Meldrum, Ian (2007). Molly Meldrum presents 50 Years of Rock in Australia. Melbourne, Vic: Wilkinson Publishing. p. 227. ISBN 978-1-921332-11-1.

Hmm. Doesn’t sound like the best starting point for a friendship but still. The song he came up with after a few ‘inappropriate” (his words again not mine) attempts was a murder ballad, that dark sub genre of the ballad form that told the narrative of a crime and (usually) gruesome death. I suppose that wasn’t your typical subject matter for a chart hit in 1995. However, it was quite brilliant – haunting, disturbing and yet beautifully melodic with both singers telling their version of the story superbly in tandem. It wasn’t just their differing musical backgrounds that made the duet so curious (though Kylie was well into her first career transformation from perceived SAW puppet to dance diva by this point) but their physical appearance. Cave has naturally…erm…striking (?) looks whilst Kylie has those fine, beautiful features but then there’s also the height difference – it really shouldn’t have worked but it absolutely did.

Around fifteen years after this TOTP performance, I did my own version of “Where The Wild Roses Grow” in a guitar class I was attending at the time, as a duet with a fellow student called Lisa. It even got recorded by the teacher. If only I could work out how to get it embedded into this post…

Simply Red are No 1 again with “Fairground” and this is already the third time in four weeks that it’s featured on the show. Mick Hucknall is, by all accounts, a massive…wait for it…Man United fan (you thought I was going to say something different then didn’t you?!) so no doubt he would have been delighted that his beloved team beat Liverpool in the FA Cup quarter final on Sunday just gone. Somebody who wasn’t impressed was my Hucknall despising mate Robin who texted me at the final whistle to say that United’s victory was the “footballing equivalent of a new Simply Red album”. I was just glad the result stopped Liverpool’s pursuit of a quadruple and thereby putting a spoke in the wheel of the media’s Jürgen Klopp love in. Jürgen Klopp…now he really is a “bleep” to quote Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown!

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Sleeper	What Do I Do Now	Liked it, didn’t buy it
2	Smokie and Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown	Who The F**k Is Alice?	Away with you!
3	Cypress Hill	Throw Your Set In The Air	I did not
4	Oleta Adams	Never Knew Love	Nah
5	Iron Maiden	Falling Down	Nope
6	Louise	Light Of My Life	No
7	Pulp	Mis-Shapes / Sorted For E’s And Whizz	No but I had the album Different Class with them on
8	Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue	Where The Wild Roses Grow	No but I sang it!
9	Simply Red	Fairground	Never!

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001wsmh/top-of-the-pops-05101995?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 28 SEP 1995

Posted on March 8, 2024 by 80stastic

The last couple of shows have been very poor quality-wise for me – too many anonymous or fly-by-night dance acts and, in the case of one particular standards drop (on many levels) a loathsome novelty record. Well, tonight’s episode sees a definite upturn in the calibre of tunes but…there’s also a tendency for very established acts and mainly those of a rock persuasion. Bon Jovi, Def Leppard and Meatloaf are all on the show tonight as are Wet Wet Wet and Simply Red. Was this what the kids wanted from the UK’s most watched music programme? Or did they want to see and hear more from the Britpop scene that was dominating the musical landscape? Well, it would seem that the TOTP producers were aware of the need to strike a balance. The show had always been structured around the Top 40 singles chart so that needed to be reflected and so, in the case of Simply Red for example, they were always going to be featured as this week’s No 1 record. However, there are also what could be considered Britpop artists on tonight so you can’t say that the genre wasn’t represented.

In a further effort to promote TOTP as being on trend, the chosen presenters this week are Steve Lamacq and Jo Whiley. The pair presented The Evening Session on Radio 1 together from 1993 to 1997 with its emphasis on indie and non mainstream music. Indeed, Lamacq seemed to me like the natural successor in waiting to John Peel whilst Whiley…hmm…well, I never really warmed to Jo Whiley. I didn’t think she had much credibility somehow. She seemed to me like she’d just found herself in the right place at the right time and got to where she was rather fortuitously. That’s probably completely unfair of me and I find myself on very dangerous ground by highlighting my misgivings about the female member of the presenting duo but I can assure you I have no such agenda. I just didn’t buy into Jo’s “I love all of this music” persona. In later years, she moved to Radio 2 and seemed as comfortable introducing the likes of Billy Joel as Billy Joe Armstrong (of Green Day fame). I’ve never found her convincing when she’s hosted at the Glastonbury Festival either. However, her work highlighting the struggles of her sister Frances, who has learning difficulties and diabetes, during the COVID pandemic and the need for her and anybody of a similar status to be a priority to be vaccinated led to the shaping of government policy. I had to reassess my opinion on Jo and I find myself being much more disposed to her these days.

Anyway, we start with one of those Britpoppers in Cast. I quite liked this lot, having seen John Power’s original band The La’s live twice, I guess I was always going to. I dutifully bought their debut single “Finetime” and I’m surprised I didn’t buy the follow up “Alright” which was just as good. Jangly, 60s influenced pop with a 90s twist – yep, sign me up. Although it only reached No 13 in the charts, it was enough of a hit to maintain the band’s momentum and ushered in a run of six successive Top 10 singles. As with Supergrass before them, clearly being a Britpop band and having a hit called “Alright” was a more than ‘alright’ strategy for continuing success.

I love the energy and style of drummer Keith O’Neill in this performance which I don’t think we’d seen the like of in the TOTP studio since Talk Talk’s Lee Harriss powered his way through “Life’s What You Make It” a decade earlier. One final thing, I’m pretty sure the lads in Cast didn’t pronounce their band name as ‘Carst’ Jo Whiley!

A marked strand of the whole Britpop movement was the concept of a band that was fronted by a distinctive female singer. I’m thinking Sleeper, Elastica and Echobelly. Add to that list Garbage. The TOTP caption said that the singer was from Edinburgh with the rest of the band from Madison, US. Whilst that is factually correct, to me it illustrated a laziness on the part of the researchers. That singer was Shirley Manson who had started her musical career as backing vocalist and keyboard player in the marvellous but mostly ignored Scottish rockers Goodbye Mr Mackenzie. The band’s label decided that Shirley had star quality and wanted to launch her as a solo artist. A side project under the name of Angelfish fronted by Manson was put into action and one of their videos came to the attention of the three members of Garbage (one of whom was Butch Vig who had produced Nirvana’s iconic “Nevermind” album). An invitation was sent by Garbage to audition for their band and despite initial reactions not being especially positive, Shirley got the gig. Debut single “Vow” received airplay from the aforementioned John Peel and tonight’s co-host Steve Lamacq (which explains why he introduced them as “the excellent Garbage”). The limited release of “Vow” meant that it wasn’t a big commercial hit but by the time of third single “Only Happy When It Rains”, the momentum of and buzz about the band was enough to propel it into the UK Top 40.

Whilst I liked and appreciated those other indie bands that had women lead singers, Garbage’s sound was much more rock and somehow bigger than their contemporaries to me. I guess that was always going to be the case bearing in mind that Nirvana connection. This track was a great example of the band’s style which would bring them huge success and a long career. Their debut eponymous album would sell 4 million copies worldwide and go double platinum here in the UK propelled by subsequent hit singles “Queer”, “Stupid Girl” and “Milk”. The pink, feather boa adorned Mike stand in this performance is presumably a nod to the album’s cover artwork. The band are still going strong with their most recent album released in 2021 whilst they also announced their first tour for five years with dates confirmed for later this year.

The most interesting thing about this next song by Wet Wet Wet is what Jo Whiley points out in her intro – that its video shows us that Marti Pellow has had his hair radically recut. Gone are the luscious long locks that he’s been sporting since about 1992 and that were certainly still in place for previous single “Don’t Want To Forgive Me Now”, replaced by a much shorter (some might say sensible) style. And once you’ve taken that on board, you can effectively switch off watching the rest of the video as the song is soporific. “Somewhere Somehow” sounds to me like a slowed down version of their 1988 hit “Temptation” with a country tinge added to it. Pellow adds a “Love Is All Around” -esque ‘Hey!’ shout into it during the middle eight to try and liven it up but nothing could shake awake this snore fest. Not sure what the woman wandering around with Angel wings attached to her was all about but it probably wasn’t the best idea for her to be walking near a cliff edge – what if a gust of wind had got under those wings!

Was this a new section on the show? The ‘Acoustic Exclusive’ slot or had it just been made up for The Pretenders? After the success of their last studio album “Last Of The Independents” which had given the band their first UK Top 10 single for eight years in “Stand By You”, their record company Warners clearly wanted to keep the band’s profile raised. Rather than waiting for the next studio album to be delivered (which wouldn’t be for another five years), a live, televised performance showcasing the band in acoustic mode formed their next release. Recorded at the Jacob Street Studios in London and accompanied by the Duke Quartet, “The Isle Of View” album was clearly based on the MTV Unplugged concept which was popular in the 90s and featured artists such as Eric Clapton and Nirvana. Its title was a pun on the words ‘I Love You’, a practice no doubt inspired by the film This Is Spinal Tap. You know that bit where the band claim they once played a jazz/blues festival on the Isle Of Lucy? No such place existed and it was a play on words of the title of the US 1950s sitcom I Love Lucy starring Lucille Ball. Apparently, fans of the film didn’t initially pick up on the joke and I didn’t pick up on the reference when my mate Robin bought me a T-shirt with ‘Isle Of Lucy’ emblazoned on it and I love that film! Bah!

Chrissie Hynde performs “Kid” for this TOTP which would end up being released as a single retitled as “Kid ‘95 live” though it would only make No 73 in the charts. The acoustic version is a revelation which lays bare how amazing Chrissie’s voice is (as if it needed pointing out any further). The verse almost sounds like “Unchained Melody” done in this way. Not sure what her red evening gloves were all about though.

It wasn’t the first time that “Kid” had been performed in a stripped back style though. Check out this from Everything But The Girl from 1985…

The pursuit of ever more unusual locations for Bon Jovi to perform on TOTP continues. After Niagara Falls for “Always” and an American Football stadium for “Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night”, we get a runway at an airport in Dallas for “Something For The Pain”. I’m not sure I’m buying Jo Whiley’s explanation as to how this came about – they were just about to get on a plane when the phone call came in from TOTP – as this looks very staged to me – they’ve even got TOTP logos handy for display.

However, watching this back, it wasn’t the location that struck me as odd as much as the very un -Bon Jovi looking bass player they had performing with them. Who the heck was that guy?! Well, I think his name is Hugh McDonald and he was the replacement for Alec John Such who left the band in 1994 after not taking too kindly to his bass playing being criticised by Jon Bon Jovi supposedly. McDonald would tour and record with the band for 21 years before finally being made an official member in 2016. That’s quite the probationary period! Such sadly died in 2022 from a heart attack aged 70. As for the song, it was a pretty standard Jovi composition – a jaunty, little rock number that they probably could have knocked out waiting for that plane to take off.

Is this another new slot? An ‘exclusive performance’? Not just an ‘exclusive’ and certainly not a ‘satellite performance’ but an ‘exclusive performance’. What gives? Well, it appears to be something created bespoke for the next artist who are TLC. According to Jo Whiley, the TOTP family had been waiting for a long time to get the trio on the show (was this their first time in the studio then?) and fortunately they must have been in the country. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a hit single that was rising in the charts to justify an appearance according to TOTP law, so the show producers shoehorned them in anyway, I’m guessing. To give TLC something to perform, a “Hits Medley” was dreamed up comprising “Creep” / “Waterfalls” / “Diggin’ On You” the last of which hadn’t actually been released and wouldn’t be until October. This makes me wonder why they didn’t just perform the final track as an ‘exclusive’ preview of said single? Why the need for a medley? It all seems a bit odd. Nothing wrong with the tracks or performance of course, just that the thinking behind them didn’t seem in alignment with the show’s traditional concept of reflecting what was popular in the UK singles charts. I guess though that the show had changed over the years (and we’d seen plenty in the 90s what with the ‘year zero’ reset and the replacement of Stanley Appel with Ric Blaxill as the show’s executive producer). Maybe this was just another one.

In the whole cannon of Britpop bands, there was perhaps none more Britpop than Menswear. For those who denigrated the movement, they were such an easy target. “They’re not a real band are they?” or “They’re a music press construct” or ultimately “Who do they think they are?”. I get all that and yet I still liked them and this single – “Stardust” – is a banger!

In some ways, they were like the Britpop equivalent of Spandau Ballet. A band who emerged out of a short lived, uniquely British music movement and who were the pin up boys and face of said movement. Gary Kemp is on record as saying that the New Romantics needed a group to rally around that were theirs rather than clinging to Bowie and Roxy Music and Spandau were in the right place at the right time. Menswear kind of performed a similar role – where Spandau were talked about because of their cultish wardrobe in their early days (all kilts, highland sashes and deer stalker hats) so Menswear took inspiration from their name and went for an image influenced by the classic mod look. Melody Maker ran a cover story that labelled them as “the best-dressed new band in Britain”. Indeed, check out Jo Whiley’s sartorial comments in her intro.

Then there’s the bidding war parallels. Spandau became hugely sought after by record labels after a highly publicised early gig aboard the cruiser HMS Belfast. Fifteen years later, Menswear played their debut gig at a club called Smashing on Regent Street which kick started a ruck amongst labels desperate to sign the next big thing. They eventually signed with London Records on an unheard of contract offering the band 18.5% gross revenues. They then signed a publishing deal worth £500,000 despite only having a repertoire of seven songs at the time. However, where the two bands diverge is that Spandau managed to adapt and outgrow the New Romantic scene once it had run out of steam to become bona fide, mainstream pop stars whereas Menswear couldn’t escape the Britpop tag after that movement petered out and they imploded with band infighting and a second album that was only released in Japan. They literally just came to a full stop.

Back in 1995 though, they were where it was at for all the groovy, young Britpoppers. I wasn’t particularly young at the time (I was 27) and had never been groovy but I could still appreciate “Stardust” for the tune it was. It fair gallops along driven by Matt Everett’s on point drumming with Johnny Dean’s affected vocals being punctuated by lots of “ba, ba baaas’ backing vocals. Yes, the piano outro could be accused of plagiarism from “Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones but I didn’t care. The aforementioned Dean trod a thin line between swagger and being a dick in this performance with his dramatic, angular posing but I think he just gets away with it. Even The Who-like set destroying nonsense at the end didn’t put me off nor Dean’s silly styling out of having to omit the word ‘fucker’ from the lyrics – at least it gave Jo Whiley a nice line in her intro describing them as “groovy little muckers”. I’m definitely warming to her you know.

From groovy muckers to legends of rock (Steve Lamacq’s words not mine). Def Leppard seemed to be following in the career footsteps of Bon Jovi who were on earlier. The New Jersey outfit had come to a crossroads and decided a new direction was needed. Drawing a line under what had gone before, (including sacking their bass player) they released a Best Of album in 1994 called “Crossroads” (geddit?) before releasing an album that was supposedly darker in its themes than what had gone before but which was critically acclaimed in “These Days”.

Def Leppard were similarly assessing their options. Without an album of new material since “Adrenalize” in 1992, they found themselves in a dark place. Divorce, ill health, arrests for spousal abuse and assault and the death of guitarist Steve Clark meant the band were intent on writing some songs that were more from personal experience and mature than their standard “Let’s Get Rocked” rubbish. Also like The Jovi, they had a line up change following Clark’s passing with the addition of new guitarist Vivian Campbell. Perhaps more significantly though, sixth studio album “Slang” would be the first since 1980 without the involvement of producer Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange.

Before that though, they put down their own marker to delineate their career in Greatest Hits collection “Vault”. To promote it was a new song, a rock ballad called “When Love And Hate Collide”. Possibly not renowned for their slow songs, they had a hit with at least one to my knowledge – “Love Bites” in 1988. However, this new track seemed more epic. It sounds like it was written to order for a blockbuster movie. In fact, it sounds like a template for Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” which was written for the sci-if disaster film Armageddon.

I always quite liked the name of that Best Of – “Vault” sort of implied that there were sacred treasures inside though whether that meaning should apply to Def Leppard’s back catalogue rather depends on your opinion of the band I guess. My mate Steve who’s from Bolton swears that they were huge there in the 80s. Hmm. There’s a show on Sky Arts called Guy Garvey: From The Vaults which is a veritable treasure trove of fabulous musical clips taken from the archives of shows like The Tube, Razzmatazz, So It Goes and Tiswas. Based around a specific year and curated by Garvey, it’s a little gem of a programme and if the word ‘vault’ is good enough for Guy Garvey, it’s good enough for me.

Simply Red are this week’s new No 1 with “Fairground” which knocks Shaggy off the top spot after just one week. It remains the band’s only chart topping single to date. My first impressions on hearing it went along the lines of “Hang on, he’s just nicked that beat from “Give It Up” by The Goodmen. What a swizz!” OK, I maybe didn’t say ‘swizz’ but my point remains. It seemed to me like Hucknall was just jumping on the dance bandwagon in an attempt to remain relevant. After all, it had been four years since the last album, the all conquering “Stars”. However, lots of people didn’t seem to mind the sample and bought it in enough quantities for it to spend four weeks at the chart summit. At least we don’t get that clip with him wearing his PVC outfit like we got last week. Whoever advised him to don that costume really weren’t ’good men’ and should have told him to ‘give it up’.

The play out video is “I’d Lie For You (And That’s The Truth)” by Meatloaf. After the gargantuan success of the “Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell” album and “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” single, delivering a follow up was always going to be an almost impossible task. “Welcome To The Neighbourhood” was no flop but it couldn’t hope to match the sales of its predecessor. Like Def Leppard before him, the Meat also had a change of producer and some may argue that was the reason for not being able to replicate the success of “Bat Out Of Hell II”. Meatloaf without Jim Steinman was like Ant without Dec (or the other way round as happened in 2018) – it just wasn’t right.

Having said all that, “I’d Lie For You (And That’s The Truth)” sounded right out of the Steinman playbook. Epic sounding rock ballad, huge production, paradoxical title – all the ingredients associated with the legendary writer and producer were there. And yet, it didn’t perform as well commercially. I mean, a UK No 2 was damn good going for a guy who had been nowhere near the top of the charts for years pre- “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” but in America it only got to No 13. A sizeable hit sure but nowhere near being a No 1 record. It was a similar story with the album. Big sales but dwarfed by those of its predecessor.

In an unlikely turn of events I’m going to reference Spandau Ballet again in a post about pop music in 1995. Having made a connection between them and Menswear earlier, I’m jumping the shark now and relating them to Meatloaf. Gary Kemp said in a 2000 BBC documentary about the band that nobody else could play their songs and that you could get a new guitarist or singer even but really people just wanted to see the five original members performing on stage. Maybe it was a similar theme with Meatloaf and Steinman? That the former’s audience mostly wanted him and Steinman together?

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Cast	Alright	No but easily could have
2	Garbage	Only Happy When It Rains	See 1 above
3	Wet Wet Wet	Somewhere Somehow	No
4	The Pretenders	Kid ‘95 live	Nope
5	Bon Jovi	Something For The Pain	I did not
6	TLC	Hits Medley	N/A
7	Menswear	Stardust	Call the police! Where’s my copy of this?!
8	Def Leppard	When Love And Hate Collide	Nah
9	Simply Red	Fairground	Never
10	Meatloaf	I’d Lie For You (And That’s The Truth)	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/m001wkgl/top-of-the-pops-28091995?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 21 SEP 1995

Posted on March 4, 2024 by 80stastic

What Edward Woodward said! A reader of the blog tipped me off that this TOTP show was near and that I should be scared. I am and so should you be. Nothing to do with the music (though nearly all of it is frightening enough itself). No, the reason for my terror is that this is the Simon Mayo rhyming links episode! I’ve said many times when reviewing these TOTP repeats how I can’t abide the smug git and this week he seems to be deliberately trying to tip me over the edge. I don’t think we’ve seen him for a while as there have been a number of ‘golden mic’ presenters of late but now he was back and more annoying than ever. Before Mayo gets started on his inane practice of rhyming segues, we get the direct to camera piece at the top of the show which this week comes from Iron Maiden who are introducing their new lead singer Blaze Bayley after original vocalist Bruce Dickinson left in 1993.

More of them later though. We start, unfortunately, with Mayo who is to be known for tonight as ‘Rhymin’ Simon’ according to the TOTP caption. OK, well first of all, that doesn’t rhyme properly does it?! I think what I’ll do is give marks for each of his rhymes at the end of each act. That OK with you? Good.

Ah there’s lovely. It’s those two smashing, wholesome guys The Outhere Brothers! Veritable pillars of society that pair. Only kidding – the dirty mouthed duo more like. After, two consecutive UK No 1s (how?!!), the purveyors of filth are back with a third hit in “La La La Hey Hey”. It’s as insubstantial as its title hints at. Yet another call and response track, this one resorts to the lowest common denominator with its ‘lyrics’. They might have well have just grunted.

As with their previous hits, the version performed here appears to be the radio edit with any offending words removed. The full track includes a rap which bangs on about keeping “the pressure on the pecker”, “slapping her with a 1-2 checker” and of course a fairly gratuitous “mother f****r”. Just for good measure they slip in the line “Honeys shake ya booty all around”. I say once again, there’s lovely. “La La La Hey Hey” failed to make it a hat trick of chart toppers when it peaked at No 7. One more thing, why have they got the cast of Fame on stage with them?

Mayo’s Meter: “Hello, good evening, better lock up your mothers cos we’re kicking off with The Outhere Brothers

Verdict: Surely the phrase is ‘lock up your daughters’? Poor – 5/10

Right what’s this? Well, it’s another dance tune of course. I intentionally asked “what’s this?” rather than “who’s this?” as the name of the artist for such 90s hits wasn’t really relevant a lot of the time. The ‘artist’ was usually a producer, remixer or DJ who just needed a pseudonym to use for promotional purposes. That was the case with Umboza who were actually house duo Stuart Crichton and Michael Kilkie. Based entirely around the hook from Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long”, it’s basically that sample with a house beat added over the top. That’s it. The paucity of the track and the lack of a proper artist was always a problem for TOTP when it came to a performance on the show which was warranted by its chart position. Here, it’s just four dancers who could be anybody. There aren’t even the anonymous DJ types in the background on a keyboard, there’s just some bloke on a congo drum. There also seem to be some peripheral dancers to the side of the stage one of whom looks suspiciously like a pre-fame Claire from Steps. I can’t work out if these people are part of the act or the studio audience. The only thing that separates this from being a performance by Pan’s People or Legs & Co from the 70s and 80s is when one of the dancers emerges from the throng with a microphone to mumble something or other.

The track is called “Cry India” which is initially confusing given the African sounding Lionel Richie sample its based around. However, those ‘African’ lyrics below were just made up gibberish according to Lionel so they could be as much Indian as African.

Tam bo li de say de moi ya

Hey Jambo Jumbo
Songwriters: Lionel B. Jr. Richie
All Night Long (All Night) lyrics © Chyna Baby Music, Brockman Music, Yfn Lucci Llc, Tig7 Publishing Llc

“Cry India” was a No 19 hit and was followed by “Sunshine” which was based on “Bamboléo” by Gipsy Kings. Bah! Umboza? I’d rather have Umbongo!

Mayo’s Meter: “I’ll be rhyming my links for the rest of the show, there’s Pulp and Iron Maiden raring to go. There’s Mariah and Janet and Vince the composer but new at 19, all dancing Umboza!”

Verdict: He manages to give some teasers for who’s on the show tonight but ‘Vince the composer’?! He means Vince Clarke from Erasure – he does realise they’re a duo doesn’t he? Where’s Andy Bell in that link? And a composer? Songwriter surely is a better description? Very weak – 4/10

The first video of the night is one we’ve already seen before. “Runaway” by Janet Jackson was one of two songs recorded to promote her Best Of album “Design Of A Decade: 1986-1996”. Interestingly, although she’d left her original label A&M in 1991 and signed for Virgin releasing the multi million selling “Janet” with them, she was open to working with her former label to take her first compilation album to market. So reciprocal was the relationship that “Design Of A Decade” included two of the singles from that Virgin album.

“Runaway” though was a new track which had originally been identified as a potential duet with brother Michael but in the end the two decided to unite on “Scream” instead which was the lead single from the “HIStory: Past, Present And Future, Book 1” collection. The promo for the song is pure fantasy nonsense with Janet taking a global trip and appearing next to some of the world’s most recognisable landmarks. At one point, she and her entourage perform a choreographed dance routine on the wing of a plane. Perhaps the most striking image from the whole thing though is Janet’s nose ring and chain which is attached to her braided hair. For all the controversy over Michael’s image throughout his career, even he never went for that particular look.

Mayo’s Meter: “There was an old woman called Janet, went hopping all over the planet. Her brother, she didn’t tell, which was just as well, cos if Michael was in the vid, we’d ban it”.

Verdict: Another nonsensical link. An ‘old woman’? Janet was 29 years old when this single was released! Also, what is this about banning the video if Michael was in it? Sure, the first child abuse accusations had been made against the singer by this point but that hadn’t stopped the BBC from showing his videos. Indeed, Jacko had been No 1 for the last two weeks during which the show played his promo. Make it make sense. Either that or get Mayo to stop. Please! 3/10

Had there ever been a worst opening three acts in the TOTP studio than this?! The Outhere Brothers, Umbozo and now Smokie featuring Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown!

Novelty (s)hit “Living Next Door To Alice (Who The F**k Is Alice?)” is now in the Top 10 proving yet again that you just couldn’t trust the record buying public to make sensible decisions. In this case, they even doubled down on its stupidity by not just buying this version of the bastardised song but also the original* of it by Dutch band Gompie. Twice over! Yes, Gompie initially got there first and had a hit in Europe including the UK with “Alice (Who The X Is Alice?) in June of 1995 peaking at No 34 and then, after the success of the Smokie / Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown version, re-entered the chart reaching No 17. Again, I refer you to Edward Woodward.

*Not the ‘original’ original obviously – I know that was the non-sweary version by Smokie which got to No 5 in 1977.

Mayo’s Meter: “From the dark mists of time an old band called Smokie with Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown who’s a bit of a blokie. Now, they’re singing about this woman called Alice, they’re not going down unlike Crystal Palace”

Verdict: Where do I start?! How about with ‘blokie’. Come on! It’s a terrible rhyme and rather underplays Brown’s offensive act. I’m know it was the era of lads culture but still. Then there’s the ‘going down’ comment. Was that Mayo getting away with something he shouldn’t have by deflecting with a football reference? And what about that reference – was it accurate even? Well, it’s true that Pslace were relegated from the Premier League in 1994/95 but this show was in September when the new season had started. Palace finished third in the First division (now Championship) and were promoted. Try again Mayo – 2/10

At last! Some decent music! After finally securing that elusive massive hit in “Common People” earlier in the year, expectations were now ludicrously high for a Pulp follow up. Jarvis and co didn’t disappoint. Indeed, not only did they meet those expectations but exceeded them with not one but two new songs by releasing a double A-side single. “Mis-Shapes / Sorted For E’s & Wizz” was a brilliant precursor for the band’s iconic “Different Class” album which appeared in the shops at the end of October. Now there was always going to be some outrage about one of those songs given its title but I can see from the BBC4 schedule that Pulp are due back on TOTP in a couple of shows time to perform that track so this week I can just talk about “Mis-Shapes”.

A Cocker-declared anthem for the social outcasts, it was written from very personal experience – Jarvis talked openly about fearing a beating from the ‘townies and beer monsters’ to be found in Sheffield city centre on a Saturday night just because they didn’t like his jacket/trousers/haircut. The lyrics are a call to arms for those demonised as weird and made to feel like a misfit with the title a chocolate themed metaphor. And it works. Lyrics that tell a relatable story combined with a stomping chorus that really gallops along…what’s not to like? Well, Jarvis had some objections and has gone a bit cold on the song subsequently – indeed, it wasn’t included on their 2002 “Hits” collection. I’m sure he wasn’t complaining when the single entered the charts at No 2 though, matching the peak of “Common People”.

Mayo’s Meter: “And now it’s the time we’re going to get to an exclusive, about this band, ooh, we get all effusive. They’re gonna make you swallow, they’re gonna make you gulp, would you welcome please…Pulp”

Verdict: Well, ‘exclusive’ and “effusive’ is a decent rhyme and I guess there aren’t too many words that rhyme with Pulp but it’s Mayo so I can only give him so much credit – 5/10

Two hits on the trot now that we’ve seen before starting with “Fantasy” by Mariah Carey. We may have we seen it before but that doesn’t stop the TOTP producers just giving us the same satellite performance clip that we got first time around. As if that wasn’t enough, they try to kid us that this is still some sort of big deal by emblazoning the caption ‘via satellite’ all over it at the start of the song. Come on! We’re not that daft!

Mayo’s Meter: “I wondered lonely as a cloud, I saw a woman all beautiful and hairy; I said ‘Hang on, I know you, you’re that popular Mariah Carey”

Verdict: This is just awful. Who describes a woman with long hair as hairy?! Worse than that though, he brings Wordsworth into his nonsense! 2/10

And so we arrive at that well known synth pop duo ‘Vince the composer’ and the other guy (i.e. Erasure) who are back in the TOTP studio for a second time to perform their single “Stay With Me”. Taken from their eponymously titled seventh album, this was the point when their commercial fortunes started to tail off. Of those previous six studio albums, the last four had all topped the charts as did their first Best Of, 1992’s “Pop! The First 20 Hits”. “Erasure” (the album) would peak at No 14 with neither of the singles released from it making the Top 10. Maybe Andy and Vince had had enough of churning out the hits and wanted to experiment with their sound a bit. Certainly that’s what the press reviews seemed to make of the album – experimental and contemplative. Apart from the opening intro, all of the tracks were over five and a half minutes in length – the longest clicked in at a towering 10:01! Three minute pop songs? Pah! The album version of “Stay With Me” is nearly seven minutes long but clearly we get the shortened single edit here. Truncated or not, it’s still a decent song.

Mayo’s Meter: “Now a former exclusive as I’m sure that you know, a band who are lauded wherever they go. In Europe, America and of course Asia, err…get your rubbers out and welcome Erasure!”

Verdict: Woeful. Who welcomes anybody with a rubber (yes I get the pun!) unless you are a rubber/eraser salesman attending an industry conference and you are greeted with a welcome pack of them. Maybe. Of course, when I was at school, a ‘rubber’ was short for something else which I’m sure Vince and Andy wouldn’t have wanted to be welcomed by! 3/10

Here’s the band that did the to camera piece at the top of the show. Iron Maiden hadn’t released any new material since 1992’s “Fear Of The Dark” album and in the intervening years had lost their lead singer Bruce Dickinson who left in 1993 to pursue a solo career. After a lengthy audition process, Blaze Bayley was recruited from fellow heavy metallers Wolfsbane – Bayley co-wrote this single “Man On The Edge”. Inspired by the excellent Michael Douglas film Falling Down, it sounds like standard Iron Maiden fare to my admittedly non-fan ears despite the presence of the newbie. Is it just me or does he look a bit like comedian Ross Noble with that long hair and sideburns? Bayley would stay with the band until 1999 at which point Dickinson rejoined.

Mayo’s Meter: “Now this lot haven’t been on since the year ‘81, they’re good heavy rockers, just here to have fun. They’re called Iron Maiden with new man Blaze Bayley, so why not annoy the neighbours and play it twice daily”

Verdict: Is that factually accurate? Iron Maiden hadn’t been on the show since 1981? Of course not (they had a No 1 in 1991 so they must have featured at least once) but I guess Mayo means in the actual TOTP studio rather than a promo video. However, according to the TOTP archive website, Mayo is still wrong as their last such appearance was in 1980 not 1981. 5/10 (points docked for inaccuracy)

It’s a new No 1 and a second UK chart topper of his career for Shaggy. Cards on the table, I’ve never liked anything this guy has done and “Boombastic” wasn’t anything like an exception. I hated all his ‘Mr Lover Lover’ / bump ‘n’ grind bullshit and we’d already seen the use of the made up word ‘Boombastic’ by Dream Warriors in “My Definition Of A Boombastic Jazz Style” years earlier. It all felt so uninspired and shoddy.

The success of Shaggy’s song was no doubt aided by its use in the latest Levi’s advert that was airing at the time. By reaching the pinnacle of the charts he followed in the footsteps of Ben E. King, Steve Miller Band, The Clash and Stiltskin all of who were Levi’s fuelled No 1 singles. The good news is that Shaggy only lasted one week at the top (hurray!); bad news is that he will be replaced by Simply Red (boo!).

Mayo’s Meter: “Now if you like your jeans loose and all baggy, there’s some new ones down the shops. And you know that bloke that promotes them, Shaggy…well guess what? He’s Top of the Pops”.

Verdict: Undeniably awful. Doesn’t scan at all and the rhymes are shoe horned in. Just shite – 1/10

The play out video is another plug for the returning TOTP2 series and is, for me, easily the best thing shown on this programme – Roxy Music with “Dance Away”. I’m not reviewing that though as it’s an outlier with the rest of the show. There is still time for one last chance for Rhymin’ Simon to impress me…

Mayo’s Meter: “Next week exclusives from Def Leppard and TLC and it’s fortunately presented by Steve Lamacq and Jo Whi-ley. Which is very good. Have a nice night, I think you might. Don’t fight, it’s not right.”

Verdict: Oh just f**k off Mayo!

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	The Outhere Brothers	La La La Hey Hey	As if
2	Umboza	Cry India	Didn’t happen
3	Janet Jackson	Runaway	Nah
4	Smokie featuring Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown	Living Next Door To Alice (Who The F**k Is Alice?)	Never!
5	Pulp	Mis-Shapes / Sorted For E’s & Wizz	No but I had their Different Class album
6	Mariah Carey	Fantasy	Nope
7	Erasure	Stay With Me	I did not
8	Iron Maiden	Man On The Edge	No
9	Shaggy	Boombastic	I did but only for a friend who liked it so they could use my shop discount. Honest!

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/m001wkgj/top-of-the-pops-21091995?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 14 SEP 1995

Posted on February 29, 2024 by 80stastic

After last week’s nadir of content, things aren’t much better this week I have to say with a couple of honourable exceptions. It’s another ‘golden mic’ presenter slot again though unlike last week, I’m not expecting much. The double act of Jo Brand and Mark Lamarr were two of my favourite holders of the chalice but the bar is seriously lowered as this time it’s Robbie Williams. Not long departed from Take That, the cheeky Stoke-on-Trent lad probably seemed like a decent shout for the role given that he was headline news even before his solo career had begun* due to the fall out from the Take That split.

*He wouldn’t release his first solo single until July 1996

However, he must also have been a considerable risk given his appearance at that year’s Glastonbury Festival when he was clearly under the influence of…something. He was a loose cannon. He jokes early on that he’d even stayed sober for the show. Well, let’s see if he can live up to one of his song titles and entertain us…

We start tonight with D:Ream who were starting to run out of steam (and sales) some eighteen months after their No 1 song “Things Can Only Get Better”. Having taken the opportunity afforded by such a big hit and run with it by releasing a flurry of further singles to almost constant diminishing returns, the party was entering the past-midnight-talking-shite phase. Take “Party Up The World” for example. The second single from sophomore album “World”, it sounds like it was written to order to supply a middling sized hit with an equivalent sized amount of quality. The song is not aided by Peter Cunnah’s live vocal here – he definitely hits a bum note early on. “Party Up The World” would give D:Ream a No 20 hit but after that it was a case of reliving the glories of “Things Can Only Get Better” which was most famously utilised by the Labour Party for their 1997 General Election campaign. I wonder if Howard Jones ever sits at home and in a quiet moment of reflection thinks “What was wrong with my song?”

Oh, one last thing. The chorus from “Party Up The World” is surely ever so slightly influenced by this Erasure tune which is ironic as D:Ream also released a single called “Star” which didn’t sound anything like the synth pop duo’s track…

Some Eurodance next courtesy of Cappella who have changed their singer since the last time we saw them. After Kelly Overett departed, a replacement was found in the form of Alison Jordan who was initially discovered via the Search For A Star competition on BBC’s That’s Life show in 1992.

After their last few hits all had titles that were variations of the usage of the word ‘move’ and the letter ‘U’ (meaning ‘you’), the group returned to an earlier hit for the inspiration for this latest one. In 1992, they made it to No 25 in our Top 40 with “Take Me Away” and in 1995, they achieved their final UK hit with “Tell Me The Way” – it’s clever stuff no? No, not really and neither was this tune. It sounds like they’d cut and pasted the most obvious and shittiest riffs and beats from every Eurodance hit ever and just glued them altogether – the musical equivalent of a patchwork quilt but one covered in excrement.

Capella never had another UK Top 40 hit but the project is still a going concern albeit with a totally different line up and they performed on the 90s nostalgia circuit. They even released a single as recently as 2023 called “Happy Phonk” but nobody really noticed.

Unable to resist the lure of tomfoolery any longer, the previously staid and sensible persona Robbie Williams had adopted tonight until now goes out of the window as he goes into skit mode. The premise of said skit is that he’s going to reveal the truth behind what Take That are really like but the only rehearsed line he gets out before an extra dressed as a security guard drags him off camera is that they drink camomile tea. Are you entertained yet? As comedy routines go, it’s hardly up there with the “Don’t tell him, Pike!” scene from Dad’s Army is it?

The first video of the night comes from Foo Fighters for their second ever single “I’ll Stick Around”. It’s another pretty nifty, driving rock tune though not as strong a track as their debut single “This Is A Call” to my ears. Dave Grohl looks so young here but then I guess we all did 29 years ago. I used to work with a guy called Dave at Our Price who looked a bit like Grohl though on reflection I’m wondering if the lookie-likie claims were purely based on the fact that Dave had long rock hair and his name was…well…Dave.

And suddenly, from out of nowhere, a man who hadn’t had a UK Top 40 hit since 1988 and hadn’t been on TOTP for a decade. That appearance had been as part of Lloyd Cole and The Commotions performing their single “Lost Weekend”. If you’d told the 17 year old me back then that Lloyd wouldn’t be on the show for another 10 years, I would have dismissed you as a crackpot completely divorced from musical reality and yet that is exactly what happened. But how did it pan out like this? Well, after “Lost Weekend”, things quietened down for Lloyd and the Commotions. Follow up single “Cut Me Down” barely scraped into the Top 40 and then the band disappeared for nigh on two years recording their difficult third album “Mainstream”. When it did finally come out, it seemed that the world had moved on from their crafted, intelligent jangle pop and despite achieving gold status, the three singles from it could only muster these chart peaks:

46 – 31 – 59

The writing was on the wall and the band read it. They split in 1989 leaving Lloyd to pursue a solo career that somehow never seemed to chime with commercial trends. Three albums were released in quick succession in the early 90s but to limited sales. Not one of them produced a Top 40 single. And then, something finally stuck with public opinion. “Like Lovers Do”, the lead single from fourth album “Love Story” made No 24 in the charts and a TOTP appearance was warranted. I don’t know why the stars aligned between Lloyd and the record buying public on this particular single and no other – maybe it was just good marketing and promotion but it’s a nice enough song I guess.

I always liked Lloyd right from “Perfect Skin” though I can’t say I followed his solo career in too much detail. However, I saw him and the Commotions on the “Mainstream” tour when he failed to say more than two words to the audience and years later on his own in New Mills when he wouldn’t stop talking. His opening line in the latter gig to the crowd was “I know you’re all sat there thinking Lloyd Cole has let himself go a bit. Well, you should have a look in the mirror”. Excellent!

Next a song that I do remember but which I don’t recall so much fuss being made about it at the time as seems to have been written about it online since. “Fantasy” was the lead single from Mariah Carey’s fifth studio album “Daydream”. Her previous one “Music Box”* had been a monster selling 28 million copies worldwide.

*Technically her third album but I’m disregarding her 1994 Christmas collection

So how do you follow that? You just churn out a copycat album don’t you? Based purely on lead single “Fantasy”, it sounded to me like she’d done just that – it didn’t seem a whole lot different to something like “Dreamlover”. But then, I hadn’t heard the Bad Boy remix by Puff Daddy. This was the evidence of Mariah’s new direction. Featuring rapping from Wu-Tang Clan’s Ol’ Dirty Bastard, it was seen as a milestone recording by many for the fusion of urban/hip hop with mainstream pop with an emphasis on rap as a featuring act. Alongside “I’ll Be There For You / All I Need To Get By” Method Man and Mary J. Blige, it was designated as an early recording of the “Thug-Love” sub genre.

Apparently, the rest of the album was of a more R&B flavour which caused much concern and consternation at her label Columbia who really didn’t want to mess with the formula that had brought her and them so much success. The head of Sony Music (and Mariah’s husband at the time) Tommy Mottola was especially vexed. Mariah knew best however and the album was another huge seller shifting 20 million copies worldwide with “Fantasy” going to No 1 in the US and No 4 over here.

I’m not sure that this live by satellite performance from New York was worth the effort though. Is that the official video playing on the huge tv screens behind Mariah? Wouldn’t they have been better off just showing that?

Inevitably, Robbie Williams has gone there and resorted to chatting up a female audience member for his next link. Obviously, it’s all staged (he puts on a silly fake American accent) but it’s still not a good look especially 29 years on.

OK, so back with the music and it’s another showing of the studio appearance by The Rembrandts from the other week. Watching it back, I’ve noticed that in the version of “I’ll Be There For You” the band perform here, the iconic handclaps at the end of the first line seem very low in the mix and nowhere near as prominent as in the opening credits for Friends. That seem a little odd as although the addition of them wasn’t the band’s idea and they didn’t actually record them (they were done by the show’s creators who wanted to be on the record in some way), supposedly The Rembrandts thought the clapping was the best part of the song. There’s only four claps after that first line (though it sounds like more) but apparently it took loads of takes to record as the aforementioned show’s creators just couldn’t get the hang of it. I wonder if their mothers warned them that there’d be days like these?

There’s two ways to consider the next hit on the show – either it’s a clever updating (by 1995 standards) of a classic disco track or…it’s an heinous abomination of an idea that should have been dismissed as soon as it crystallised in the originator’s brain. I think, rather predictably, I’m of the latter opinion. N–Trance had started the year with one of the biggest dance anthems of the decade in “Set You Free”. Featuring vocals from Kelly Llorenna, it was a genuine, credible Hi-NRG, rave track. I, for one, didn’t see them following it up by going the tacky cover version route.

“Stayin’ Alive”, of course, was originally by the Bee Gees and was part of the soundtrack to the movie and indeed cultural phenomenon that was Saturday Night Fever. A huge global hit, it was an American No 1 song and UK No 4 in 1978. Fast forward 17 years and it was given the rap treatment by Ricardo da Force whose previous credits included some of The KLF’s biggest hits. Now, given those credentials, I would have hoped for a better outcome than what N-Trance served up which seemed to me to be calculated and cynical to appeal to the cattle market disco crowd.

The performance here goes big on all the 70s disco motifs including the obligatory geezer in the white John Travolta suit. It all seems a bit naff. However, the part where he removes his jacket and twirls it around and throws it into the audience before it is slung back landing on his arm is choreographed quite well. And that’s as positive as I can be about this one. Nasty stuff.

Despite being trailed as the play out track on last week’s show and still not to be released for another four days, Simply Red are back on the show to perform their new single “Fairground”. Not wishing to be outdone by Capella’s costumes earlier, Hucknall has turned up in his own full PVC outfit. For the love of God man! Why?! This was clearly his full on, decadent pop star phase. Check out his overflowing ginger locks as well!

I’m reminded of my own Mick story which I’ve told before but which seems appropriate here. When I first worked in Manchester at the Our Price store in Market Street as a Christmas temp, there was a young woman on the staff called Natalie who was very attractive (I think she’d done done some modelling). One morning she came into work and told us that Mick Hucknall had chatted her up in a bar and wanted to see her again but she wasn’t sure what to do about it. A bit later that day, I answered the work phone and the person on the other end asked to speak to Natalie. When I asked who was calling he simply replied “Mick”. It was Hucknall! In the end, Natalie told him she wasn’t interested I think. That’s not quite the end of the story though. One morning, Natalie turned up to work in a skin tight, black catsuit. I’m not sure she’d been home from another night out. She turned to me and said, “Do you think my outfit is a bit much?”. I didn’t know where to look! Fast forward five years though and I certainly didn’t want to look at Mick Hucknall in his own version of a catsuit!

What’s that?! What about the song? Oh look, “Fairground” will be No 1 soon enough and for 4 weeks so there’ll be plenty of time to discuss it in a future post!

Michael Jackson is No 1 with “You Are Not Alone” for the second and final week. Jackson, like Mariah Carey, recorded for Sony and just as the Songbird Supreme’s (© The Guinness Book of World Records) relationship with the company’s CEO Tommy Mottola deteriorated to the point of divorce, so The King of Pop (© erm…Michael Jackson?) also had issues with him. Big issues. In a 2002 press conference, he called him a racist and held up a picture of Mottola depicted as the devil. Sony refuted the claims and refused to renew Jackson’s contract. In 2020, Kanye West even suggested that Mottola had something to do with Jackson’s death in 2009 in a since deleted tweet though I’m not sure Kanye is the most reliable source of information.

The play out track is “Let’s Spend The Night Together” by the Rolling Stones which was played to advertise the return of TOTP2 as highlighted by Robbie Williams in his final piece to camera but I’m not spending the night or any other time reviewing that one.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	D:Ream	Party Up The World	Nope
2	Cappella	Tell Me The Way	Never
3	Foo Fighters	I’ll Stick Around	I did not
4	Lloyd Cole	Like Lovers Do	I didn’t as it goes
5	Mariah Carey	Fantasy	Nah
6	The Rembrandts	I’ll Be There For You	Yes for my wife but she gave it away to our Friends obsessed goddaughter
7	N-Trance	Stayin’ Alive	As if
8	Simply Red	Fairground	Its a definite no
9	Michael Jackson	You Are Not Alone	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/m001wc3t/top-of-the-pops-14091995?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 07 SEP 1995

Posted on February 25, 2024 by 80stastic

I’m into my eighth year of doing this TOTP blog and sometimes it’s not always easy to find the time or inclination to write up these BBC4 repeats. Occasionally, I get a bit behind (being in bed with flu for six days straight in 2019 didn’t help the cause) but I’ve always just about managed to keep it all ticking over. However, after all this time, I’ve finally come up against a show the running order of which is seriously making me contemplate jacking it all in. Honestly, I look at the artists on this particular episode and it’s so demoralising and demotivating. With one (possibly two) exception(s), the rest of them are totally uninspiring. It’s a low point and that’s for sure.

Thankfully there is a sliver of redemption in the ‘golden mic’ hosts Jo Brand and Mark Lamarr who provide some comedic distraction from the musical garbage. I always liked Brand – she seemed to offer something different at a time where apart from French and Saunders, I don’t recall there being many female comedians having a high profile. Jo’s was in the ascendancy via her Jo Brand Through the Cakehole series on Channel 4. Lamarr was about to (but not quite yet) become a panel show regular via his stints on Shooting Stars and Never Mind The Buzzcocks both of which would air shortly. At the time of this TOTP appearance though, he was best known as the outside roving reporter on The Big Breakfast and as the presenter who took Shabba Ranks to task for his homophobic comments on The Word. Lamarr has said that his time on that programme and also Shooting Stars was no fun whatsoever. If he didn’t like those two shows, God knows what he’ll make of this TOTP!

We get off to a hideous start with the to camera piece at the top of the show coming from ‘comedian’ Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown who for some reason says he’s Sharon Stone before correcting himself. More of him (unfortunately) later though. Next, we’re into the studio with our guest presenters and it’s Jo Brand who gets the first line and in a show of self depreciation refers to herself as “an old trout” whilst Lamarr remains silent, acting bewildered by looking into the studio lights. His fish out of water act will last the whole show.

The first performer tonight is Nightcrawlers featuring John Reid with “Don’t Let The Feeling Go”. This was the third consecutive hit for this lot in 1995 and it would peak at No 13. God knows how though as it is as dull as my beloved Chelsea’s attack. Add to this that its resemblance to its predecessors is almost indistinguishable (to my ears at least) and I can’t make any case to explain its success. It certainly can’t have been down to John Reid who fronted this nonsense. Look at the state of him. He looks like a third rate magician who believes he can mesmerise his audience with a flick of his locks. He’d probably be called Mysterio or something. Just dreadful.

Aside from their tunes all sounding the same, Nightcrawlers also extended their strategy of duplication to their song titles. Look at this lot:

Don’t Let The Feeling Go
Push The Feeling On
Let’s Push It
Keep Pushing Our Love
Should I Ever (Fall In Love)
Never Knew Love

Mate, there’s more words ‘in the English language than just ‘feeling’, ‘push(ing)’ and ‘love’. They’re not rationed – although that will probably be the next target for austerity for this government (ooh, bit of politics there as Ben Elton said back in the day).

Mark Lamarr gets to speak for the first time in the next link and goes with an impression of an annoying punter harassing the DJ at a club to play thejr request. I love the fact that he chooses to ask for experimental industrial music pioneers Throbbing Gristle and avant garde multi instrumentalist and visual artist Captain Beefheart as his picks. When Jo Brand replies in the negative to both, he rounds the gag off perfectly by asking for 70s soft rockers Smokie* and gets a ‘yes’ from his co-host thereby highlighting the bonkers make up of the UK Top 40.

*He’ll be sorry he asked though.

The next artist up is Whigfield who, after three fluffy, pop-dance hits (including the beyond irritating ear worm that was “Saturday Night”), has released a ballad as her next single. No, really! “Close To You” wasn’t even a cover version of The Carpenters classic (that was actually called “(They Long To Be) Close To You” anyway). This was an original song and it’s actually a decent stab at writing a ballad. Drenched with strings and an endearing melody, the problem with it is the vocals. Sannie Charlotte Carlson (Whigfield was the name of the act not the singer) just didn’t have the pipes to deliver it. I mean, she gives it her best shot and she nearly gets there but she’s never quite nails it – those on point notes are as elusive as a squirming Tory politician who just won’t give a straight answer (ooh, another bit of politics!). Whigfield would turn to another ballad for their Christmas single with a woeful and ill judged cover of Wham!’s “Last Christmas” giving them their final UK Top 40 hit.

Mark Lamarr is back to giving us the silent treatment in the next segue so he’s brought a sign to do the talking first him. And what does he want to say? “Where are The Butthole Surfers?”. Excellent! The riotous American noise rockers with the weird album titles like “Rembrandt Pussyhorse” and “Locust Abortion Technician” were hardly TOTP material. Indeed, I’m surprised Lamarr got away with his sign – many media outlets refused to call the band by their full name instead referring to them as ‘The BH Surfers’. After his Throbbing Gristle and Captain Beefheart comments earlier, I make that Mark Lamarr 3 BBC 0.

Now, the one truly bright light in this festival of crud. “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer is not only one of the most recognisable songs in musical history but also perhaps one of the most influential. Sounding ahead of its time when first released in 1977 it retained its freshness and doesn’t seem to have dated even decades later. Widely acknowledged as a pioneer of electronic dance music, its legacy can be heard in the many forms of the genre from house to trance to techno. That claim is evidenced by its own longevity – it has been a hit four times in the UK alone.

The 1995 incarnation was to launch a new sub label of Polygram called Manifeste and was remixed by Rollo and Sister Bliss from Faithless. Polygram had already had some success with the disco Queen’s back catalogue with their “Endless Summers: Donna Summer’s Greatest Hits” compilation from 1994 so it probably seemed like a decent commercial strategy. Berri’s concurrent hit “The Sunshine After The Rain” might have had something to do with it as well with its interpolation of “I Feel Love”. The clip shown on this TOTP isn’t that remix though. As the caption says, this was the ‘original promo VT’ from 1977. So why was that? Wasn’t there a video for the ‘95 remix?

*checks YouTube*

Yes, there was but having watched it, I’m guessing that the BBC censors may have felt it was too erotic. Maybe. The ‘95 remix made No 8 returning her to the UK Top 10 for the first time since her Stock, Aitken and Waterman era of the late 80s. Its success would lead to another Donna classic “State Of Independence” getting the remix and rerelease treatment the following year when it peaked at No 13.

Wait? What?! Michael Bolton again?! He was only on last week and yet he’s back again for a second consecutive studio appearance. Why?! Was it that damned practice of the ‘exclusive’ performance followed by another for it entering the charts? I think so but why was Bollers still in the country? Was he on tour here? Not according to the setlist.fm website. Maybe he was just doing promotional work for the single? Could be but his Greatest Hits album wouldn’t be released for another two weeks. Whatever the reason, “Can I Touch You…There?” benefitted from this appearance by sliding up the charts to a peak of No 6 and, having reviewed this awful song once already, that’s all I have to say about it. Obviously though, Lamarr and Brand weren’t going to let an opportunity to take the piss out of the shaggy haired one pass and got in a line about a “dodgy barnet”.

This is all very curious. Or perhaps it isn’t. The presence in the UK Top 40 of a hit sung completely in a foreign language had always been a rarity. There was “Je T’Aime…Moi Non Plus” by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg which topped the charts in 1969 despite being banned for its sexual lyrical content. The 80s contributed a few examples of the genre. In 1987, Los Lobos went to the top of our charts with the all Spanish track “La Bamba” from the film of the same name and a year later, singer Desireless took “Voyage Voyage” into the UK Top 5 with another French language only track. In 1989, the lambada craze gave Kaoma a hit song in Portuguese. There were also near but not quite all foreign language hits for Falco with “Rock Me Amadeus” and Manhattan Transfer (“Chanson D’Amour”) but both included a spattering of words in English as well as German and French respectively. There have been others since but the percentage of foreign language records making up our charts historically is tiny.

Then in 1995 came Celine Dion. Fresh from the elongated success of her long running No 1 single “Think Twice” and similarly chart topping parent album “The Colour Of My Love”, surely the wisest career move would have been to keep on churning out the power ballads? Instead, Celine’s next project was the French language album “D’eux” and I return to my original thought of “this was all very curious or was it?” because “D’eux” was actually Celine’s tenth album sung entirely in French. She didn’t record her first English language album until “Unison” in 1990 but she’d been releasing French sung albums since 1981. After all, she was born in Canada to parents of French descent and won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1988 with a song sung in that language representing Switzerland. Despite all the above, the decision to return to singing in French post “Think Twice” didn’t seem an obvious one although “D’eux” was always going to be huge in certain European territories. It sold well enough in the UK though nothing like the numbers that “The Colour Of My Love” did. The lead single from it was “Pour Que Tu M’Aimes Encore” and we get Celine performing it by satellite from New York on this TOTP. The French language strategy was ditched after the “D’eux” project with Dion’s next album “Falling Into You” returning to power ballad territory.

Jo Brand’s comment about Celine being thin in the intro hasn’t aged well given all the eating disorder rumours that Celine has been subject to over the years (all of which she has denied). In Jo’s defence though, she was clearly being self deprecating about her own size.

A video exclusive from Janet Jackson next and like Michael Bolton earlier and indeed her brother Michael later in the show, the track it’s for is to promote a Greatest Hits album. “Runaway” was taken from “Design Of A Decade: 1986 – 1996” which would sell 600,000 copies in the UK alone. I guess after ten years of hits, a compilation album was in order especially as Janet seemed intent on releasing nearly every song from her studio albums as singles. Indeed, “Design Of A Decade” had 18 tracks on it.

Again like her brother, the video for “Runaway” looks like it could be a Jacko promo with huge swathes of imagery and backdrops including some major cities from around the world like Paris, Sydney and for the second time in the show following Celine Dion’s turn earlier, the Manhattan skyline. At times, it looks like Disney’s 2019 live action adaptation of Aladdin with shots of deserts and elephants.

The song itself is a jolly if unsubstantial little number but, in a final similarity to brother Michael, the little bridge into the chorus contains a a vocal inflection that sounds just like “Man In The Mirror”. Well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery Oscar Wilde once said.

And so we arrive at the nadir of this particular TOTP. Oh God! How did we get here?! Well, it was all the fault of the Dutch apparently, or more specifically a Dutch club DJ who came up with the jolly wheeze of playing 70s band Smokie’s “Living Next Door To Alice”, stopping the record at the chorus and getting the assembled throng to chant “Alice?! Who the f**k is Alice?!”. This craze took off for some unfathomable reason and a single was released to capitalise on it made by an act called Gompie. It was a hit all round Europe and made a brief appearance in our charts at No 34 in May of this year.

Come the Summer and the British holidaymakers abroad became exposed to Gompie’s song and created further demand for it back in Blighty. Meanwhile, Smokie (who had never stopped touring despite the hits drying up once the 80s dawned) got a whiff of the phenomenon and decided to get in on the act by recording their own ‘blue’ version of the song and roped in their mate, the comedian Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown who had made a career for himself off the back of his outspoken and indeed offensive style of humour. “Living Next Door To Alice (Who The F**k Is Alice?)” would become a huge sleeper success spending 13 weeks inside the Top 40 including 7 within the Top 10. It was still on the Top 100 as Christmas approached! Given the fact that the record couldn’t be played on the radio unless it was an edited version with the ‘F’ word bleeped, presumably punters had to buy the damned thing to hear it in its full, intended form. And who wanted to do that?! Why was it funny?! I just didn’t get it. The TOTP performance here is just ludicrous with Brown having to actually say “bleep” instead of the ‘F’ word.

Ah yes, Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown. I have questions which could probably be condensed to just one word (not that one!) -WHY?! My mate Robin asked himself the same question when he ended up rather unwillingly at a Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown gig. Apparently, it was all the fault of his pal Al whose Christmas work outing involved attending the gig and Robin tagged along as he was given a freebie ticket. I’m not sure if he knew what type of comedian Brown was beforehand but after the first gag, he got with it and thought “Oh no, what have I done?”. He lasted 10 minutes out of politeness to Al for getting him the ticket and then walked out. Brown spotted him leaving and started to have a go at him but Robin (who was the worse for wear) and to his eternal credit turned around, told Brown to “f**k off!” and flicked him the rods! Excellent work sir!

After the Smokie / Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown abomination, Jo Brand remarks upon what a strange combination those two acts were. Mark Lamarr however informs us that Jo herself had been part of an unlikely coupling having made a record with Alvin Stardust. What?! Was this a joke or for real? Sadly, it’s the latter as Brand and Stardust teamed up to do a version of Alvin’s 1973 No 2 hit “My Coo Ca Choo”! You’ll be pleased to know that I can’t find a clip of said record online.

Like Janet Jackson earlier, Erasure had also been around for 10 years by 1995 and seemed to be unaffected by the shifting musical trends by continuing to have hits. “Stay With Me” was their 23rd and the lead single from their eponymous seventh studio album. I’ve said before that despite being a fan throughout the 80s, I lost sight of Andy and Vince after about 1992 so I don’t know this one at all. However, it’s a well constructed, plaintive synth ballad (no jumping on the Britpop bandwagon for these two) with a strong melody which suits Andy’s voice perfectly – it’s one of his best vocals I think. It possibly should have got higher in the charts than No 15.

Lamarr sends up the No 1 which is from Michael Jackson by donning a blouse and lipstick as per Jacko’s look in the video for “You Are Not Alone”. I’m not sure that it’s the winning visual gag that they must have thought it was in rehearsal. This was Jackson’s first UK No 1 single since “Black Or White” in 1991 and he would follow it with a second consecutive chart topper in “Earth Song” which was also the Christmas No 1. 1995 eh? What a time to be alive!

Sometime back in 2022 when I was writing up the 1992 TOTP repeats I said something along the lines of “and that’s the last we’ll see of Simply Red for quite some time. Enjoy the break”. That break is now over as the ginger haired one is back. Back in 1995 that is. After the mega success of their last album “Stars” which sold 9 million copies worldwide, it was always going to be a tall order to replicate those numbers. Hucknall and co gave it a decent go though with follow up album “Life” despite it inevitably falling short of its predecessor’s milestone.

The lead single from it was “Fairground” which would give the band their only UK No 1 single. You’ll notice that the play out video used here isn’t the official promo but rather a bunch of clips of Hucknall performing with the track added over the top. I’m assuming that’s because the single would not be released for another eleven days and presumably the video for it was still being edited? Which leads us to the question “why is the track on TOTP so early?”. Well, in order to create a buzz around the single, it was made available to radio stations a month prior to release so by the time it came out, it was already the most played song on the airwaves. Quite an achievement and huge justification of record company marketing strategy. At the end of this TOTP, Hucknall pops up on screen to say that he’ll be performing “Fairground” on next week’s show. Given that the single went to No 1 and stayed there for a month, that’s another five forthcoming appearances on these BBC4 repeats and so I think I’ll leave Mick hanging for now.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Nightcrawlers	Don’t Let The Feeling Go	No
2	Whigfield	Close Tol You	Negative
3	Donna Summer	I Feel Love	Not the remix but I must have it on something surely?
4	Michael Bolton	Can I Touch You…There?	Never happening
5	Celine Dion	Pour Que Tu M’Aimes Encore	Never
6	Janet Jackson	Runaway	Nope
7	Smokie / Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown	Living Next Door To Alice (Who The F**k Is Alice?)	Did I f**k!
8	Erasure	Stay With Me	No
9	Michael Jackson	You Are Not Alone	As if
10	Simply Red	Fairground	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/m001wc34/top-of-the-pops-07091995

TOTP 31 AUG 1995

Posted on February 15, 2024 by 80stastic

OK, so given the news about the passing of Steve Wright recently and that this blog is based around a show that he was synonymous with, I think I should spend a bit of time talking about the late DJ. First of all, I should own the fact that I haven’t always had the kindest words to say about Steve in these TOTP reviews. I didn’t always feel this way. Growing up as a rather cautious teenager and unsure of myself, I’d spend hours on my own listening to Radio 1 in the mid 80s. Steve Wright’s afternoon show was definitely a part of that and my still as yet undefined sense of humour latched on to the characters he created such as Dave Doubledecks and Mr Angry from Purley. Wright’s show was the boiling point in the day’s schedule which the previous programming had been steadily creeping towards on the entertainment thermometer. After Steve’s stint, the content would reflect a calmer tone via Peter Powell’s drive time show and then Janice Long in the evenings both of whom were clearly more about the music. I liked them all for different reasons.

Wright was a permanent presence for all of my youth – even after I’d stopped listening to him I knew he was still there if required. I have a distinct memory of being in the Sunderland Polytechnic library one day and overhearing a fellow student saying to his mate that he’d done enough studying for one day and was off home to listen to Steve Wright. Sure this was the pre-digital late 80s and there weren’t the multiple choices of entertainment available as there are in this day and age but I can’t imagine a student in 2024 being susceptible to the pull of appointment radio (if such a thing still exists). Steve Wright in the Afternoon (in its original incarnation) ran until 1993 at which point new station controller Matthew Bannister switched Wright unsuccessfully to the breakfast show slot. He left Radio 1 in 1995.

Steve started to lose his appeal for me during his time at Radio 2. I was coming to the end of my 20s when he joined and I guess I just couldn’t make him relevant to my life anymore. As we moved into the new millennium I found his Sunday Love Songs show repetitive and lazy – I think I even sent an email into the show expressing my views. I know! I clearly had too much time on my hands. Rightly, I didn’t receive a reply. My dissatisfaction carried on though, disproportionately. If I ever caught any of his daily Radio 2 show, it sounded to me like he was phoning it in, relying on and recycling his past glories. When I started writing this blog, I found fault in his appearances in the BBC 4 TOTP repeats (he hosted 56 times between 1980 and 1989) – he seemed all over the place and I outrageously suggested he might have spent too much time in the Green Room pre-recording. More likely he was just not as comfortable with being on TV – his talent and affinity was for the medium of radio. Given his profile and longevity of career, we might have expected him to crossover into television like Terry Wogan but as far as I can tell his only other on screen* excursion was the very short lived Steve Wright’s People Show that lasted four episodes in the mid 90s.

*He was the off screen narrator for TOTP2 for twelve years.

In the days following his death, the accolades from those that knew him told of how he forged the shape of UK radio by bringing the ‘zoo format’ to our shores. More than that though, he seemed like a genuinely lovely fella. BBC4 changed their TOTP repeats schedule to pay tribute to him by showing four** shows in which he featured as presenter. RIP Steve Wright.

** They included one which was originally missed from being repeated (the 13 December 1984 edition). I considered writing a review for that show but decided that it would ruin the chronology of my TOTP 80s blog and in any case, I’m too lazy.

With a twist of tragic coincidence, it so happens that in tonight’s ‘golden mic’ slot is someone who also died far too early. Dale Winton was just 62 when he died in 2018. I liked Dale. His Supermarket Sweep show was marvellously silly, knock about fun and his contempt for Lulu was always going to endear him to me. I also appreciate that despite being on a pop music show aimed at a youth audience, he’s still in his standard suit and tie apparel.

OK, so the first act tonight looks and sounds familiar and no wonder – this was a Top 40 hit just 10 months prior. Except…the artist name has been changed and not to protect the innocent either. Back in November 1994, “The Sunshine After The Rain” was a hit for the mouthful that was New Atlantic/U4EA featuring Berri and they even appeared on TOTP which means…I’ll have reviewed it in this blog. Wonder what I said?

*checks blog archive*

Well, that hasn’t helped much. I just wrote about how I was always confusing it with “Sunshine On A Rainy Day” by Zoë from earlier in the decade and guess what? I’m still suffering from that conflation even though I wrote a post detailing said conflation fairly recently. OK, for the second time, this is not that song but a dance cover of the song Elkie Brooks had a Top 10 hit with in 1977. Seventeen years later, a No 26 hit for the aforementioned New Atlantic/U4EA wasn’t deemed a big enough success and was reissued but just under the slimmed down banner of a solo Berri. Why? I dunno – did Berri sign to a different record label who wanted to repromote their new artist but with a tried and tested hit? I really can’t be bothered to do any more research than that which has revealed Berri’s real name of Rebecca Sleight so if you’re still wanting an answer, do your own Google searches.

Did the two releases sound any different from each other? Well, I’ve watched back both TOTP appearances so you don’t have to and can report back that they are both the bloody same! Berri has changed her image a bit in the intervening months so that she looks even more like a prototype Sophie Ellis Bextor but that’s about it. Both have that interpolation of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” as their backing and both have that annoying scratch effect around the line “I wanna” towards the end. Really, what was the point?! Well, obviously it was to sell some records and make some money and so it did going to No 4 and selling 200,000 copies in the UK. Berri would have one further hit and still performs on the UK festival circuit.

You know me, dance isn’t really my thing which probably explains why in the bpm obsessed mid-90s, lots of tunes that were hits passed me by despite the fact that I was working in a record shop at the time and so had more access to them than many. I thought “Hideaway” by De’Lacy would be another such track but I did actually remember this one once I’d watched this TOTP repeat back. A huge slice of US garage in the same vein as Robin S or Rosie Gaines, it topped the UK dance chart and peaked at No 9 in the Top 40. What I didn’t remember (if indeed I ever knew in the first place) was that De’Lacy wasn’t the singer (who was one Rainie Lassiter) but the name of the band like Toyah or Nena. De’Lacy was though named after one of the people in the band – De’Lacy Davis who was the percussionist.

As with many of these dance hits, there were multiple remixes of the track but the one that spearheaded the commercial release on deConstruction records was the Deep Dish radio edit. Apparently the label was miffed that a slew of imports via an Italian licensee hit specialist dance shops before the deConstruction imprint was available claiming that this impinged on the sales of their release. Rumour has it that they wanted those imports to be withdrawn from sale – that’s right; they wanted them hidden away. I’ll get me coat.

A record breaking track now. “You Are Not Alone” by Michael Jackson was the first ever single to go straight in at No 1 in the US Billboard Hot 100. This seems incredible given that chart had been going since 1958 and also that this phenomenon was hardly a rare event in the UK. The Beatles did it in 1969 with “Get Back” whilst Slade took over the baton in the 70s with “Cum On Feel The Noize”. In 1982, The Jam achieved this feat with “Town Called Malice” and by the mid 90s, going straight in at No 1 was becoming de rigueur with the likes of Take That, Blur and Oasis all having done so. So why did it take so long in America? Not being a US charts expert, I don’t know the answer to that. I do know that the Billboard Hot 100 was a ratio of sales and airplay so maybe that had something to do with it? I’m sure someone out there will have a better explanation.

What I do know is that “You Are Not Alone” was also Jackson’s final US No 1 single and was taken from the “HIStory: Past, Present And Future Book 1” album. Although it was written by the now completely unpalatable R. Kelly who also sings backing vocals on it, the convicted sex offender was deemed far enough removed from the track for it not to need to be omitted from these BBC4 TOTP repeats.

Inevitably, the single was accompanied by a big budget video though the special effects in this one are toned down a bit compared to previous promos for the likes of “Black Or White” and “Scream”. There are however some sick inducing scenes with his then wife Lisa Marie Presley including the pair of them appearing semi nude against a temple backdrop. Their marriage ended the following year with Lisa Marie claiming coercive behaviour from Jackson and that he orchestrated their public appearances, the aforementioned scene in “You Are Not Alone” being just one example. As for the song itself, for me it’s one big, drippy ballad that’s so wet as to be unlistenable – its paucity of passion makes the song beyond redemption. Most of the UK failed to share my opinion once again and would ensure that our American cousins were (ahem) not alone in their love of the track by also sending it to No 1.

With the passing of Matthew Perry last year (what is it with this post and celebrity deaths?), the Friends story was ultimately put to bed. I really can’t imagine that there would be any appetite amongst fans or the cast for a revisiting of the show without Chandler. Back in 1995 though, the US sitcom was in its infancy. It premiered in the US in September 1994 but wasn’t broadcast in the UK until April the following year after Channel 4, who had a good track record for bringing American sitcoms to our shores, bought up the rights. Airing at 9.30 on a Friday evening, my wife was an early adopter and soon had me watching as well. By the end of its first season run on Channel 4 in September 1995, it was a resounding success. Inevitably, there was demand for the catchy theme tune that accompanied the credits. The tale behind “I’ll Be There For You” is a remarkably short one in reality though it wasn’t the original choice of song by the studio Warner Bros. Television. Look at this…

When REM turned down the request to use their song, the studio turned to the only band who were signed to Warner Bros. Records Inc. (the music division of the studio). Danny Wilde and Phil Solem, who had been in bands together since 1981 and had scored a decent sized hit as The Rembrandts in 1990 with “Just The Way It Is, Baby”, had achieved little commercial success thereafter. However, Friends producer Kevin S. Bright hadn’t forgotten the band and called their manager with a view to them recording the theme tune. Within a week of an initial meeting the song was written, laid down in the studio and airing on US television as Friends launched on 22nd September 1994.

Initially unavailable in America as a single (the band only recorded a one minute version of the song specifically for the credits), a Nashville DJ made a loop of that version thereby extending its length to three minutes and played it continuously. The clamour for a full length version caused the band to re-record it and it finally got a full release.

As with Deep Blue Something who would claim a UK No 1 with “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” in 1996, I don’t think the performance here by the band actually aids the record that much. They’re fairly unmemorable (sorry guys). Wasn’t there a video which included the cast members made that could have been shown instead?

*checks YouTube*

Yes, here it is…although…was this made in 1995 or was it put together for the 1997 rerelease. Yes, as Friends became a global phenomenon, the merchandising for the show went into overdrive. Mugs, calendars, T-shirts etc were all licensed and when the first series was released on VHS (remember them), they flew off the shelves. As such, it was a perfect time for the theme tune to be made available once more and it became a hit all over again. For statistics sake, “I’ll Be There For You” peaked at No 3 in 1995 and No 5 two years later disproving the lyric that it wasn’t their day, week, month or even their year.

Next, another of those pesky album chart slots which features a single that will eventually be released as a single anyway further down the line. Filling the spot this week are Boyzone who give us their version of “Father And Son” by Cat Stevens which is not only a track from their No 1 album “Said And Done” but will also become their next single when released in the November. After breaking through with a cover of a 70s ballad in “Love Me For A Reason” by The Osmonds a year previously, the group clearly thought it was worth another go using that same blueprint. And they were right; “Father And Son” would go all the way to No 2 selling 600,000 copies in the process and becoming not just the 13th best selling single of the year in the UK but surely one of Boyzone’s best known hits.

Talking of blueprints, the performance here with the five lads all sat on stools was surely the model for subsequent Irish boyband Westlife who seemed to spend their whole career sat on their arses singing indistinguishable love songs. Back to Boyzone though and this is really all about Ronan Keating who does all the heavy lifting vocals wise while the rest of them bill and coo around him. Stephen Gately* does attempt some harmonising at one point but the rest of them are stuck on “ooh” mode. In the middle of the song, Ronan addresses the studio audience by saying “Boyzone live on Top of the Pops” before exhaling in a ‘who’d have believed it’ kind of gesture. Do you think that was spontaneous on Ronan’s part or a deliberate, prearranged move to try and build the group some credibility?

*Stephen was another who died tragically young at the age of just 33. What is it with this post and death?

I can’t hear the Boyzone version of “Father And Son” without this scene from Max and Paddy’s Road To Nowhere coming to mind…

Heres some ropey old shit and no mistake! A second hit for Montell Jordan (who knew?). After “This Is How We Do It” was a US No 1, a follow up was required and so he gave us “Somethin’ 4 Da Honeyz”, a little tale he wrote about picking up women. How nice. This is nasty with Jordan informing us that if he sees a female worth his while (!) he knows that he can get ‘it’ and he’ll “hit it if she’s wit it”. He follows this up by saying if a woman is ugly, fat or skinny, it doesn’t matter as long as she likes to shoop (shoop shoop). Bloody hell! What a bellend! At one point he name drops soul singer Aaron Neville but, as someone remarked on Twitter, it sounds like he’s singing “could very well be the next Gary Neville”. Ha!

Jordan is now a born-again Christian and has become a worship leader and ordained minister at the Victory World Church in Atlanta, Georgia so presumably has learned his lesson and has a better attitude towards women.

Oh this is more like it! Echobelly had some excellent songs – in fact, their trio of singles that were “Insomniac”, “King Of The Kerb” and this one “Great Things” stand up alongside anything else that was labelled ‘Britpop’ at this time. Coming on like a more exotic Sleeper, at the height of their fame, they notched up two Top 10 albums and five Top 40 singles, their fast track to success certainly not hindered by lead singer Sonya Madam’s image. With so much attention being paid to Madan, comparisons with Blondie were always likely (something also experienced by No Doubt later in the decade and played up to in their “Don’t Speak” video).

Watching this performance back though, it’s not Debbie Harry I’m put in mind of but rather Britney Spears. A whole three years before the ‘Princess of Pop’ exploded around the world with “…Baby One More Time” and that video with the schoolgirl uniform, here was Sonya beating her to it. Not quite as provocative as Britney’s outfit maybe but still causing a stir, apparently Madan hadn’t anticipated all the fuss and saw her school clothes look as more Grange Hill than St.Trinians. Hmm. Anyway, Echobelly’s popularity dwindled as the decade progressed and by 2004, a protracted hiatus took place. They reconvened in 2009 and last released an album of new material in 2017.

Oh dear lord. What the f**k is going on here?! Michael Bolton hadn’t had a Top 10 hit in this country since 1991 when his version of “When A Man Loves A Woman” made No 8. So what do you do when your career needs reviving? Well, in Michael’s case a TV advertised Best Of was deemed the best plan of action and as was the emerging trend for such a collection back then, a new track was required to promote it. “Can I Touch You…There?” was co written and produced by Robert ‘Mutt’ Lange whose charge sheet of criminal songs includes tracks by Celine Dion, Bryan Adams and Billy Ray Cyrus. This one was right up there with any of those though. I’m guessing Bolton was searching for a new sound because this is a complete hotchpotch of a song. It’s as if Ace Of Base have taken the melody from Carly Simon’s “Why” and then roped in old Bollers to sing some double entendre lyrics over the top. It even goes a bit panpipes at the end! Who thought all of that was a good idea?! Well, plenty of people judging by its chart peak of No 6 meaning Michael got one final Top 10 hit after all. By the way, have you ever seen a woman with a bigger sax than the one on stage here has? Well if Bolton can be risqué…

It’s a second week at the top for Blur with “Country House” which has beaten “Roll With It” by Oasis into second place again. I don’t recall there being anywhere near the media frenzy that existed for the first week though. Blur would achieve another chart topper 18 months later when “Beetlebum” returned them to pole position. As for Oasis, they would go to No 1 a further seven times (making eight in total) with their final one being 2005’s “The Importance Of Being Idle”.

The play out video is “Scatman’s World” by Scatman John. The follow up to his novelty hit “Scatman (Ski Ba Bop Ba Dop Bop)” which combined jazz scatting, rapping and a dance beat, this was, regrettably, more of the same. And this is the question – did we really need any more of the same? I have the answer – NO!

Scatman John (real name John Paul Larkin) died at the age of 57 from lung cancer and he brings to an end one of the most haunted by death posts I’ve ever written.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Berri	The Sunshine After The Rain	I did not
2	De’Lacy	Hideaway	Not for me
3	Michael Jackson	You Are Not Alone	Never happening
4	The Rembrandts	I’ll Be There For You	YES! I bought it for my wife but we ended up passing it onto our Friends obsessed Goddaughter
5	Boyzone	Father And Son	Nope
6	Montell Jordan	Somethin’ 4 Da Honeyz	NO!
7	Echobelly	Great Things	No but I had a Best Of CD with it on
8	Michael Bolton	Can I Touch You…There?	Never!
9	Blur	Country House	Not the single but I had The Great Escape album with it on
10	Scatman John	Scatman’s World	As if

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001w2m5/top-of-the-pops-31081995

TOTP 24 AUG 1995

Posted on February 12, 2024 by 80stastic

And the winner is…The Battle of Britpop has been fought and the outcome declared. On the Sunday before this TOTP aired, Mark Goodier announced the Top 40 chart on Radio 1 and that Blur had come out on top of this epic tussle that had captured the attention of the media and the public alike. As I recall, he did the usual rundown one place early so that he could make a big deal of who was No 2 and, by extension, reveal the No 1 at the same time.

Whether by accident or design, the host of the TOTP that reflected this particular chart was Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker in a ‘golden mic’ guest slot. Whatever the circumstances behind it, there seemed to be something satisfying and fitting about his presence on the show; his dry sense of humour somehow deflating the media constructed frenzy around the Oasis / Blur rivalry.

Before we‘re given a glimpse of Jarvis though, we get perhaps the most well remembered (by me at least) of the top of the show direct-to-camera pieces – Blur riding a milk float into camera shot and bassist Alex James declaring that they were No 1 and would be camping it up on Top of the Pops later on before doing an exaggerated “ooh matron” gesture. I wonder who’s idea that was? There was a milk float in the video for the single so I guess there was a valid connection there but you couldn’t imagine Oasis pulling such a stunt. Maybe that was the point though – to differentiate themselves from their Northern rivals. “We’re nothing like them you know!”.

To start the show though we have…yep…a dance track. Of course we do. It is 1995 after all. This one comes courtesy of Clock who had hit upon the cheesy but successful formula of recording Eurodance flavoured versions of old hits. They’d already taken versions of Harold Faltermeyer’s “Axel F” and Tag Team’s “Whoomph! (There It Is)” into the Top 10 and would accelerate their output throughout the decade with covers from the catalogue of artists such as The Four Seasons, The Jacksons, KC and the Sunshine Band and Hot Chocolate. However, this one – “Everybody” – they wrote themselves…sort of. There’s a sample of “Let’s Start The Dance” by disco artist Bohannon in there as well as a vocal sound from Norman Cook’s sample library collection “Skip To My Loops”. However, the lyrics (if you can call them that) were the work of Clock members Stu Allan and Pete Pritchard.

It sounds like a poor man’s 2 Unlimited to me but the one thing that did stand out was that elongated cry of “Everybody!”. Surely that was influenced by this…

Someone noted on social media after this TOTP repeat aired that the winner of The Battle of Britpop should have been neither Blur nor Oasis but The Charlatans. They had a point. “Just When You’re Thinkin’ Things Over” is better than either “Country House” or “Roll With It” to my ears. Indeed, it was the NME’s Single of the Week over either of those two more celebrated releases.

I’d not really been into Tim Burgess and co when they first broke through as part of the whole “baggie” scene at the start of the 90s but they were really getting into their stride by this point and I was swayed. From “Can’t Get Out Of Bed” to the end of the decade was their imperial phase in my book. I wasn’t the only person of this opinion. The eponymous album this single came from topped the chart as did their next “Tellin’ Stories”. Just typing that has made me realise how many of the band’s songs and albums have a ‘g’ missing from their titles. Aside from the two above, there’s also “Crashin’ In” and “Just Lookin’”. Not that it’s a big deal. Just sayin’.

Tim Burgess is on record as saying that “Just When You’re Thinkin’ Things Over” was the band trying to sound like “Ramble On” by Led Zeppelin. Well, I never got the boat going to Led Zepp island (I know, sacrilege and all that) so I couldn’t comment on that but there is another song that I’ve become aware of fairly recently that it has a resemblance to. At the start of 2022, I made a New Year resolution to try and listen to a song that I didn’t know every day for 12 months. It didn’t have to be a ‘new’ song per se, just ‘new to me’. I didn’t quite hit my target but I still managed to amass a playlist with over 10 hours of songs on it. One of them was this 1973 John Lennon track from the album “Mind Games”:

If you go online and search for “Human Nature” by Madonna, you’ll find lots of articles about the meaning behind the song and of course plenty about that video. I myself added a few words on the subject in a previous post the first time the promo was shown on TOTP. There’s lots of opinion about the song being a retort to those who criticised her for being overtly sexual in her Sex book and “Erotica” album and agreeing with Madge for rightly pointing out that she wouldn’t have got such a hard time for exploring sexuality if she were a man. However, I quite like Jarvis Cocker’s succinct summing up of it all in his intro as he whispers:

“Express yourself, don’t repress yourself”

Then in his down to earth Sheffield drawl he says:

“According to Madonna’s new video that involves kind of perving around in a giant ice cube tray. Anyway, have a look for yourselves while we count down numbers 40 to 11 inclusive.”

He pretty much nails it I think. I love the way he adds the word ‘inclusive’ at the end. There’s no need for him to do that and most presenters wouldn’t have but it’s a good example of Jarvis’s idiosyncrasy.

There’s more wonderful celebrity piercing wit from Cocker next as we get the rather obtrusive and unnecessary video piece from Diana Ross. In a flat, monotone and off screen voice we hear Jarvis say simply “There now follows an important message” before we cut to Ross sat on the bonnet of a car who informs us that she’s in Detroit at the Motown Sound Exhibition and will be performing on TOTP tonight. And that’s it. Did we really need that clip shoe horning into the show? “Cheers Di” lampoons Jarvis before his next intro. “Wow. What can I tell you about this next act. Not a lot really as I don’t know anything about them” he advises. Genius comic delivery!

In truth though, Jarvis should have had better knowledge of “Move Your Body” by Xpansions 95 not least because it had already been a substantial hit previously. Yes, it’s time for another reactivated dance hit, a practice that dominated the charts in 1995. Just like hits from JX, Felix and The Original which had all been on the show in recent weeks, this was yet another dance track getting a second chart life. Initially a No 7 hit in 1991 as “Elevation (Move Your Body)”, it would peak at No 14 four years later. Xpansions was a vehicle for producer Phil Drummond whose real name, unbelievably was Phillip Phillips – no wonder he changed it. Together with actress and singer Sally Anne Marsh – wait, didn’t she play Truly Scrumptious in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?!

*checks internet*

My bad. That was Sally Ann Howes. I thought the person on stage looked remarkably young in 1995 to have starred in a film that came out in 1968! Anyway Phil and Sally Anne Marsh proved a prosperous partnership. The latter had pop music form having been in the early 90s girl group Faith Hope & Charity alongside The Word presenter Dani Behr and she would add her vocals to Deconstruction label dance act Ariel as well as carving out a successful acting and voice over artist. The track itself followed a formula of the title lyric being repeated continuously over a piano house riff and did nothing for me but, as Jarvis said, went down a storm in the clubs. Is it just me or does Sally Anne have a look of “Immaculate Collection” era Madonna about her? Incidentally, Phil Drummond also went under the pseudonym of Marradonna.

With the cat out of the bag four days earlier, there seemed little point in TOTP trying to eek out any morsel of tension surrounding who was No 1 (hence the Blur piece at the top of the show) so we get Oasis slap bang in the middle of the show at No 2 with “Roll With It”. Diplomatically, Jarvis doesn’t take any sides declaring the record buying public the winner having access to so much great music. Obviously the Manc lads weren’t going to drag themselves into the studio for another performance after they’d lost out to Blur who were there in person so we get a replay of their turn from last week.

“Roll With It” would hold at No 2 for a second week and spend a further two within the Top 10. Like all the band’s other singles, it would have a protracted chart life spending 49 weeks within the Top 100. Not bad for a song who the person who wrote it once described as “shit”.

Taking the show in another direction completely now is Björk who is the first of three consecutive female solo artists on the show though that’s about all they have in common with each other. To be fair, is anybody else similar to Björk? Take this single “Isobel” for example. It’s been described by critics as a modern fairy tale, a fable and by Simon Williams in the NME as:

“Where tribal rhythms spiral into enormous swathes of galloping pop fluffiness”
Williams, Simon (10 June 1995) “Long Play” NME .p.46.

Well, quite. I haven’t got the words to rival Mr Williams so I’ll just say that this one was too divorced from the mainstream for me and that I’m surprised that Björk was given a slot on the show two weeks running, especially as it only made No 23 in the UK charts.

Think of the BRITS 1996 and inevitably the Jarvis Cocker / Michael Jackson incident comes to mind. Jarvis protesting at Jackson’s Christ mimicking performance of “Earth Song” by running across the stage and wafting his fully clothed bottom in Jacko’s direction followed by a complete overreaction from his security team and Cocker being questioned by police before being released. What I hadn’t clocked before rewatching this TOTP was the jibe that Jarvis makes about the King of Pop before introducing a satellite exclusive performance by Diana Ross saying that she’d influenced a lot of people including “Michael Jackson’s plastic surgeon for one”. Ooh! Is it possible that Jacko was aware of this remark and took revenge via his security detail on Cocker at the BRITS six months later? Nah. Surely not.

Jarvis does accord Ross some respect by referring to her as Miss Diana Ross (the Miss is obligatory). Her song though deserves zero acclaim as it’s a right old stinker. Ross’s back catalogue features some stone cold classics but “Take Me Higher” is certainly not one of them. It sounds like such a desperate attempt to stay relevant in the dance obsessed 90s, as if her management had shown her a video of Lisa Stansfield and told her to do her best impersonation of her. She does her best to sell the song in this performance with her engaging, face wide smile but it doesn’t win me over. She should have stuck to the big ballads that brought her success in the early 90s like “When You Tell Me That You Love Me” and “One Shining Moment”. “Take Me Higher” peaked at No 32.

OK so when I said earlier they there was nothing in common between Björk and the two female solo artists that followed her, I forgot about the acting. The Icelandic singer has featured in a number of movies perhaps most famously Lars Bon Trier’s Dancer In The Dark whilst (Miss) Diana Ross won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Sings The Blues as well as starring in Mahogany and The Wiz. Then there’s Michelle Gayle who’s on the show with her fifth consecutive Top 40 hit “Happy Just To Be With You”. Michelle, of course, was in Grange Hill (as part of rap duo Fresh ‘n’ Fly no less) and as Hattie Tavernier in EastEnders. Her later career included stage roles in Beauty and the Beast, the Dusty Springfield musical Son of a Preacher Man and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Back in 1995 though, music was Michelle’s priority and she was pretty successful at it too. Six of her seven UK chart entries went Top 20 including two Top Tenners.

“Happy Just To Be With You” borrows heavily from the bassline of “Good Times” by Chic but it’s not on its own – the whosampled.com website says that it’s been sampled in 227 songs although Michelle’s single interpolates rather than samples it. It’s a pretty competent R&B / pop song I have to say and Michelle does a good job of promoting it.

In the end it wasn’t even that close. Blur won ‘The Battle of Britpop’ with their “Country House” single with room to spare selling 274,000 copies to the 216,000 units shifted by “Roll With It”. However, it’s generally perceived that Oasis may have lost the battle but won the war. The numbers back up that view. “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?” would go 17 x platinum in the UK whilst Blur’s “The Great Escape” would achieve 3 x platinum sales. In February 1996, there was almost a repeat of The Battle of Britpop when the two bands released singles from their albums within a week of each other (presumably both camps were wise enough not to put themselves through it all again). Oasis’s track was the iconic “Don’t Look Back In Anger” whilst Blur released “Stereotypes”. At the Our Price in Stockport where I was working we sold 279 copies of Oasis in week one. And Blur? We sold 13. That’s thirteen. Rumour has it that Damon Albarn fled to Iceland to get away from the onslaught of Oasis’s album which he heard everywhere he went.

But how are their legacies viewed now? Both bands would achieve further No 1 singles and albums (although I believe Oasis had more). For me, and I was more Oasis than Blur, the former went on longer than they should have and possibly made an anachronism of themselves. Despite all predictions to the contrary, if anything Liam’s post Oasis output has been more interesting than Noel’s (I’ve never really been into his High Flying Birds). Indeed, Liam’s recent collaboration with ex-Stone Roses guitarist John Squire is meant to be excellent. As for Blur, Damon’s virtual band project Gorillaz has produced some brilliant material and shows much more imagination than cranking out rock songs for an ageing audience à la Noel. Meanwhile, Blur guitarist Graham Coxon’s solo career has produced some really interesting albums leading Noel Gallagher no less to describe him as

“One of the most talented guitarists of his generation”
Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Britpop. Bonus interviews

Oh and Alex James wearing an Oasis t-shirt in this performance – was that an olive branch extended towards their rivals or a dig at them?

The play out video is “Warped” by Red Hot Chili Peppers and guess what? I don’t remember this one either! For the record, this was the lead single from the band’s “One Hot Minute” album and made No 31 on the UK Top 40.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Clock	Everybody	Never!
2	The Charlatans	Just When You’re Thinkin’ Things Over	No but I have their Melting Pot Best Of
3	Madonna	Human Nature	Nah
4	Xpansions 95	Move Your Body	Nope
5	Oasis	Roll With It	YES!
6	Björk	Isobel	I did not
7	Diana Ross	Take Me Higher	As if
8	Michelle Gayle	Happy Just To Be With You	No
9	Blur	Country House	No but I had the Great Escape album
10	Red Hot Chilli Peppers	Warped	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/m001w2m3/top-of-the-pops-24081995

TOTP 17 AUG 1995

Posted on February 7, 2024 by 80stastic

Let battle commence! Yes, the historic Battle of Britpop is in full swing with both the Blur and Oasis singles having been released three days before this TOTP was broadcast. The battlefields of record shops up and down the land were swarming with punters pledging loyalty to one side or the other (though in all likelihood many had a foot in both camps). The covers of the singles were their flags of allegiance and they flew boldly in displays at the front of many a store. As I’ve said before, working in a record shop at this time was exciting and as fortune would have it, I found myself covering for the singles buyer this week of all weeks at the Our Price in Stockport. As such, I was constantly checking the sales figures for both titles and if memory serves, across the chain Blur were always just ahead of Oasis all week.

So why did Blur win the battle? Well, I always thought that Oasis were at a disadvantage for the simple reason that their rivals released two CD singles, the standard one but also a second featuring four live tracks (including “Country House”). Oasis never went in for that two versions business – all their singles were released as a solitary CD format. Maybe it was a working class thing of not wanting to fleece the fans? Anyway, surely Blur having two options for people to buy must have increased their chances? Recently changed chart rules only allowed for three formats to count towards official sales of a single so whilst Blur’s were spread across two CDs (the dominant format of the time) and a cassette, Oasis’s were aggregated over one CD, the cassette and a 7” (and who was buying those in 1995?). Both bands did release a fourth format (Blur a 7” and Oasis a 12”) but those pesky chart regulations meant that the sales for those had to be allocated a chart position independent of the main release. A curious footnote to the whole story and not one that I’m convinced made much sense but there you go. There was also a rumour that the barcodes of the Oasis single weren’t reading properly on the initial copies but I can’t recall if that was actually the case.

Both singles are featured on tonight’s show (the second time for Blur though it is only the video in the play out slot) but looking at the rest of the show’s running order, I’m struck by how many of the artists are dance acts and completely at odds with the Blur/Oasis contest. It’s interesting to revisit these moments in time because just focusing on the Battle of Britpop rather skews the view of the wider musical landscape.

Having said all of that we start the show with a rock band. I’d forgotten all about – if I ever knew about them in the first place – Moist (terrible, terrible name). This lot were Canadians from the same place as Bryan Adams though I can’t imagine ‘The Groover from Vancouver’ recording a song like “Push”. Listening to it now it’s better than I would have imagined; something about the guitar sound puts me in mind of Suede albeit a grungier version of them. There’s a decent tune in there I think which may explain why it was a hit twice – No 35 in 1994 and No 20 when rereleased here. However, they would prove to be Moist’s only UK chart entries. The band took a decade long hiatus as the millennium began but have reformed since and released an album as recently as 2022.

Lead singer David Usher also has a solo career and is the founder of an artificial intelligence creative studio. On one of his solo albums he did a version of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” which was in the news recently when Tracy performed it at The Grammy Awards alongside country star Luke Combs. Public reaction to this catapulted the 1988 original to the top of the iTunes chart. Given all this attention to “Fast Car”, do you want to hear David’s version? Course you do…

The first of the dance tracks is up next and guess what? Yep, it had already been a minor hit before being rereleased and becoming a massive one. This trend for reissued tracks mainly seemed to afflict dance acts but as we saw with Moist earlier, it was not exclusive to that genre. Anyway, “I Luv You Baby” by The Original was originally a No 31 hit at the start of 1995 but its continued plays in clubs the breadth of the country warranted a second spin and this time it hit the jackpot going all the way to No 2.

I didn’t really get its success at all. It was relentlessly repetitive with the song’s title being sung on a loop over a heard-it-all-before piano house backing. Listening to it now, it puts me in mind of “Love Can’t Turn Around” by Farley Jackmaster Funk, another track I couldn’t stand. Maybe it’s just that they share identical syllable count in their choruses?

The singer here is one Everett Bradley who doesn’t really strike me as one of the most natural of pop stars. Maybe it’s his suit and shirt combo or his glasses. Or maybe it’s his dance moves. In the instrumental break he goes a bit David Brent…

It’s another dance artist now but this one’s story involves real life tragedy. Yet again my memory has failed me when it comes to recalling Shiva but they were a band that were signed to the ultra successful FFRR dance label and they had already had a minor hit with “Work It Out” earlier in the year. With powerful voiced singer Louise Dean also having a very marketable image, they seemed destined for bigger things. All their ambitions were swept away on 18th June 1995 when Dean was killed in a hit and run incident near her home in Huddersfield. With new single “Freedom” due out, FFRR pulled it from the release schedules as a mark of respect but Dean’s family asked for that decision to reversed as a tribute to her. The track duly became a No 18 hit.

In the last post, I suggested that Mary Kiani’s “When I Call Your Name” could pass for an M People song and I return to that opinion again for Shiva. Louise Dean’s voice bears more than a passing resemblance to Heather Small’s and you can easily imagine the latter belting out “Freedom”. I guess these comparisons just go to show how popular and ubiquitous the M People sound was back in the 90s. I’m assuming that Shiva split after Dean’s death as there seems to be little information about them post “Freedom”. Another tragic case of what might have been.

This next one is disconcerting bordering on bizarre and yet somehow intriguing…and those are three descriptors I never thought I’d use when discussing Deuce. This lot were the stuff of throwaway, candy floss dance- pop weren’t they? A two boy, two girl quartet whose quality level was literally that of sub-Eurovision (their second single “I Need You” was entered into A Song For Europe but came third). And yet this song – “On The Bible” – has taken me by surprise rather. For a start they’ve got a seven strong gospel choir backing them in this performance and on the chorus which gives the whole thing a sliver of credibility. Said chorus is not only catchy but also solemn somehow. However, undermining all that is the group themselves who it’s impossible to take seriously. Why are the two women dressed in some sort of naughty bride outfits? The blonde one’s heavy eye make up makes her look a bit crazed – a hint of Bette Davis in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? even. What the deuce was going on here?! As I said, disconcerting, bizarre yet intriguing.

“On The Bible” peaked at No 13 and was the band’s penultimate hit. They split in 1997 and if you’re wondering whatever happened to Deuce, Lisa Armstrong married (and divorced Ant of Ant & Dec) before becoming a make up artist for shows such as X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. Craig Robert Young became a successful actor performing in such plays as Noël Coward’s The Vortex and as Charlie Chaplin in the Oscar winning film Mank alongside Gary Oldman.

Right, who’s up next? Guru featuring Chaka Khan? Nope, yet again I have zero recall of this one. How is it possible that so many of these tunes have escaped my long term memory banks given that I was working in a record shop at the time? I must have sodding sold many of them to the public. Maybe the answer lies in the fact that the shop stereo, contrary to popular opinion and certainly that of many of my colleagues, was meant to be a promotional tool to highlight chart and new release singles and albums which we had lots of and not to play whatever whoever was on the counter felt like playing regardless of how obscure or not it was. Our Price even had specially put together instore CDs narrated by Mark Goodier that highlighted new releases but it was hard work getting the staff to play them. Saturday afternoon? Busiest time of the week in the shop? A perfect time for some experimental ambient music courtesy of Autechre! Maybe this was the explanation – I just never heard some of these songs because we never played them in the store.

Talking of experimental music, Guru was a bit of a pioneer himself. Having been one half of hip hop duo Gang Starr, his solo work centred around the “Jazzmatazz” project which sought to create a new genre by combining jazz musicians, hip-hop productions and rap. The first volume had been a sleeper hit selling enough copies to convince Guru and his record label that there should be further instalments. “Jazzmatazz, Volume II (The New Reality)” duly followed and “Watch What You Say” was its lead single. As with the previous album, Guru asked various singers to add their vocal talents to the songs including Mica Paris, Shara Nelson, Jay Kay and Chaka Khan on this particular track. Ch-Ch-Chaka (you have to make at least one reference to “I Feel For You” when discussing Chaka Khan, it’s the law) hadn’t been anywhere near the UK Top 40 since 1989 so her TOTP appearance here probably wasn’t the seismic event it might have been back in the 80s. Did the kids even know who she was? As I said, I didn’t remember “Watch What You Say” at all and listening to it now, it’s OK but not really my cup of tea. It peaked at No 28. Guru sadly died in 2010 aged 48 from cardiac arrest after surgery.

At the top of the show we had a rare double message to camera; one from Björk who is in New York and will perform live by satellite from her gig there and one from Take That who will do a similar thing from Manchester. Björk’s song is “Isobel” which was the second single to be lifted from her “Post” album. As stated before, I used to dismiss Björk as not being able to sing but came to the conclusion that she can sing but that I don’t like her voice…most of the time. Some songs featured in these TOTP repeats I’ve surprised myself by appreciating – “Isobel” isn’t one of them. It’s all too ethereal and otherworldly for me. Maybe my tastes are just too mainstream as, like many others, I really liked her next release – her cover of Betty Hutton’s 1951 hit “It’s Oh So Quiet”. That single was so much more commercial than its predecessor.

Here’s something about “Isobel” that I find interesting though courtesy of @TOTPFacts:

The strings on “Isobel” were arranged by Eumir Deodato de Almeida (aka Deodato), perhaps best known for his jazz funk version of "Also Sprach Zarathustra”, a number seven hit in 1973. #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) February 2, 2024

Why am I intrigued by this? Well, the name Deodato appears in the lyrics to “Up On The Catwalk” by Simple Minds which was the third and final single taken from their “Sparkle In The Rain” album. Said album has just passed the 40th anniversary of its release and that makes me feel very old as I bought it back in 1984 (on white vinyl no less!). However, having looked Deodato up, there appears to be multiple individuals of that name deemed worthy of a Wikipedia entry so I’m not sure which one the band were referring to. In addition to Eumir Deodato there’s Ruggero Deodato the Italian film director, Deodato Orlandi a 13th century Italian artist, Deodato Guinaccia an Italian Renaissance painter, Claudio Deodato a Brazilian footballer…phew! That’s a lot of Deodatos. Bizarrely, Eumir’s granddaughter is married to Justin Bieber! No, really.

And another dance track! I remember the song title and name of the artist but I couldn’t have told you how it went. I probably should have better recall of it though as it was a hit twice within 16 months. Yes, “Son Of A Gun” by JX was another of those singles like “I Luv You Baby” by The Original earlier that had already been a hit but would be rereleased a short time later going on to be an even bigger chart success the second time around.

Having listened to it back at a distance of nearly 30 years though, the hook of the line “A man just on the run, you dirty son of a gun” does ring a few bells. Not surprising really as apart from the words ‘oh’ and ‘yeah’ and a couple of derivatives from them, they are the only lyrics in the whole track.

“Son Of A Gun” would make No 6 in the charts in 1995 having peaked at No 13 in 1994. Later in the decade, we would see the emergence of superstar rapper Jay-Z. As far as I’m aware, we are yet to witness a JY or indeed Jay-Y having a hit record.

Finally the show addresses the elephant in the room – Blur vs Oasis, the Battle of Britpop. Before we get to the performance of “Roll With It” by Oasis, there’s an interloper in the studio. For some reason, Robbie Williams pops up next to host Wendy Lloyd to do the intro for the Manc lads describing them as “the band of the people”. Why was he there? Well, I guess he was trying to reinvent himself as a rock ‘n’ roll star as opposed to an ex-boyband member. Infamously, he’d started this process by hanging out with Oasis at Glastonbury that year sporting a peroxide blonde barnet and appearing to be under the influence of either drugs, booze or both. It all seemed very deliberate and calculated.

Anyway, back to Liam, Noel, Bonehead, Guigsy and Whitey. Yes, this was the first time we’d seen new drummer Alan White in situ after he’d usurped the sacked Tony McCarroll earlier in the year. He would stay with the band for nine years before being replaced by Ringo Starr’s lad Zak. This is the performance when Liam and Noel swapped places with the former donning a guitar and the latter taking centre stage on vocals. Obviously they were miming which I’m guessing is the reason for the switch, to highlight / send up the practice. Whilst Liam does his best Bonehead impression, Noel hams it up by poking his tongue out at one point and wearing shades throughout.

And so to the song. You don’t need me to tell you that “Roll With It” wasn’t Oasis’s best song by a country mile. In fact, it’s possibly one of their worst. Pedestrian and lumpen, it was so lacking in energy and creativity that it would prompt cries of “”Oasis Quo” from the Blur camp, referencing the famous three chord specialists. Either of the original extra tracks on the CD single (“It’s Better People” and “Rockin’ Chair”) would have made better choices as the lead track. They made a similar misstep with previous single “Some Might Say” – “Acquiesce” was an infinitely superior song. None of these opinions stopped me from buying it though. I was becoming rather committed to the cause by this point.

Unsurprisingly, there’s no sign of Robbie Williams when it comes to introducing his ex-band mates from Take That who are No 1 for a third and final week with “Never Forget”. This time, as previewed at the top of the show, we get a live performance of the track from the Manchester Arena date of their Nobody Else tour. Having checked their set list, “Never Forget” was the final number to end the show. The travelators prop is a nice touch, allowing the other three to literally take a step backwards to allow Howard Donald to take centre stage for the track on which he is lead vocalist. He does a decent job I think, even coming up with a falsetto at one point.

“Never Forget” would be the band’s penultimate hit in its first incarnation. We won’t see them again until 1996 when they released their cover of “How Deep Is Your Love” to promote a valedictory greatest hits album. However, that won’t be the last we see of Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and, yes, that man Robbie Williams in these BBC4 TOTP repeats as they all went on to solo careers (of varying degrees of success) post Take That. Talking of Williams, maybe we do get to see him in this performance after all. Towards the finale, the camera picks out one of the backing entourage and it’s a bloke with a peroxide blonde, spiky hairdo. It couldn’t be could it?

In the spirit of equity, the play out video is “Country House” by Blur. Of course, it is. Even host Wendy Lloyd acknowledges the inevitability of the situation in her intro of “We better play out with these guys I guess”. The promo is pretty memorable but maybe not for all the right reasons. The premise of the band transported into the board game they are playing is intriguing but the presence of all the glamour models and the Benny Hill style sequence of Matt Lucas chasing them was probably more palatable 30 years ago during the era of lads mags. Then there’s the treatment of that poor pig!

One of the aforementioned models is Jo Guest who was quite the star in the mid 90s appearing in The Sun as a Page 3 girl and various ‘top shelf’ publications. If you’re wondering what happened to her, it’s a sad story I’m afraid. Her health deteriorated and she was eventually diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a rheumatic and neurological condition. It devastated her life leaving her depressed, permanently exhausted and suicidal. Happily, after reaching out to the Samaritans, her health has improved and she is still with us.

Also taking a starring role in the video as the “city dweller, successful fella” of the lyrics is actor and presenter Keith Allen, five years on from featuring in the video for New Order’s “World In Motion” and three years away from the whole Fat Les project. An interesting character to say the least, if you ever get the chance, his autobiography is an entertaining read.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Moist	Push	We start with a no
2	The Original	I Luv U Baby	But I don’t love you - no
3	Shiva	Freedom	I did not
4	Deuce	On The Bible	A curiosity but of course not
5	Guru featuring Chaka Khan	Watch What You Say	It’s another no
6	Björk	Isobel	Nah
7	JX	Son Of A Gun	Nope
8	Oasis	Roll With It	YES!
9	Take That	Never Forget	No
10	Blur	Country House	No but I had the Great Escape album with it on

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/m001vvzf/top-of-the-pops-17081995

TOTP 10 AUG 1995

Posted on February 4, 2024 by 80stastic

The BBC4 commemorative shows celebrating the 60th anniversary of TOTP are finally over meaning a return to the schedule of the 1995 repeats. If you recall, we’d just entered August of that year with the Blur v Oasis Battle of Britpop rapidly coming into view. However you feel about that time now with nearly 30 years perspective, it was a heady experience for me personally, feeling right at the centre of it working in a record shop in Greater Manchester. However, neither band are on this TOTP with both their singles being released the Monday after it aired. Blur performed “Country House” in an exclusive slot the week before – “Roll With It” will get one in next week’s show.

Anyway, tonight’s host is Lisa I’Anson and we start with…who? Mary Kiani? Well, I should show a little humility after bigging up my record shop credentials earlier as Mary clocked up four solo UK Top 40 hits in the 90s plus three (including a Top Tenner) as the vocalist for dance project The Time Frequency. That’s not a bad career. In comparison, how many chart hits have I ever had? None obviously though my rendition of Nick Cave and Kylie’s “Where The Roses Grow” in guitar class back in the day was pretty special. Back to Mary though and her journey to the UK Top 40 wasn’t via your usual route. As a session singer, she toured with the credibility sapping Donny Osmond. Mary clearly didn’t care about any of that though. Post chart success, she would contribute her vocals to “The Simpsons’ Yellow Album”.

Yet in 1995, she was riding the dance tidal wave. This single – “When I Call Your Name” – went to No 1 in the UK Dance charts. I don’t remember it at all but listening to it now, it’s a pleasant enough ditty which wouldn’t sound out of place on an M People album. That’s either a compliment or an insult depending on your opinion of M People I guess. I’m not sure about the ‘white out’ special effects in this performance though – all a bit too Dr Who in the 70s.

Kiani has continued to release material sporadically over the years but remains a big draw on the gay club circuit and in Australia where she now lives.

Yes! This is what the kids want! Music played by a bunch of teenagers for teenagers! Ash were indeed teenagers having started the band back in 1992 when lead singer Tim Wheeler was only 15 years old. This performance of their first Top 40 hit “Girl From Mars” came just four weeks after the band had sat their final ‘A’ Level exams! Imagine that! I’d love to think that the band sat around saying “What shall we do in the Summer while we’re waiting for our exam results?” and one of them pipes up “Well, we could take a single to No 11 in the charts and appear on TOTP. Anyone fancy that? Or we could get a job fruit picking or even just bum around doing nothing. I’m easy”. Of course, Ash were much more involved in the music industry than that scenario suggests by this point. They’d already released a mini album called “Trailer” on indie label Infectious Records and three singles from it. In March 1995, they put out “Kung Fu”, the lead single from their full debut album “1977” which just missed the Top 40. Momentum was building and with the championing of them by Radio 1’s Steve Lamacq and the station giving major airplay to “Girl From Mars”, the inevitable big hit ensued. And quite right too. It’s a great tune, one of many the band would record. “1977” would go to No 1 but in many ways they are the perfect singles band. Indeed, in 2009/2010, they took The Wedding Present idea of releasing a single every month but upped the ante by making the cycle every two weeks. Over those two years, they released 27 singles.

I caught them live in 2011 in Manchester on the anniversary tour for their “Free All Angels” album (also a No 1) and they were great. However, my abiding association with “Girl From Mars” belongs to someone I was working with at the time. Cara was/is one of the nicest people you could meet but she had a reputation for being…erm…in a world of her own at times I think is the best way to put it. This state of being caused her to be known on the lunch rota as ‘Cara – on loan from Mars’. The description stuck rather and when she left after getting a job with Head Office, we bought her the single as a leaving present. I am always reminded of Cara whenever I hear “Girl From Mars” to this day.

It’s a second outing for the award winning video for “Waterfalls” by TLC next. The song was nominated in two categories at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards in 1996. As I type this, we’ve just had this year’s – the 66th – and there are a couple of parallels between the 1996 and 2024 shows. Both featured performances by Annie Lennox (and both songs she sang were cover versions) and both had Celine Dion presenting an award. Whatever you think of her music (and it all sounds hateful to me), it was a good news story to see her in public after all the reporting of her recent health problems.

Although “Waterfalls” didn’t win the gong for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, they did walk away that year with the award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (blimey what a mouthful!) for “Creep”.

It’s a second song that has been on the show before next and perhaps rather surprisingly it’s another studio outing for Julian Cope with his single “Try Try Try”. Surprisingly? Well, the single only spent three weeks on the chart and only one of those (this week when it debuted at No 24) inside the Top 40. So how did it come to be on the show twice? Well, Julian was afforded an ‘exclusive’ slot a couple of weeks before the single was released. Although that explains the maths of it, a second studio appearance did seem a bit like overkill – Julian was hardly a mainstream pop star in 1995. Indeed, was he ever a mainstream anything? Apart from a brief spell in 1986/87 when Island Records tried to promote him as a more traditional rock star for the “Saint Julian” / “World Shut Your Mouth” era, Cope has always chosen a path less travelled. Conversely, maybe that was why the TOTP producers wanted him back on their show; as an antidote to the more generic, manufactured pop acts of the time. I mean just look at him here! Utterly bonkers with his Gandalf style hat and oversized hi-vis jacket with leopard print lining. Maybe it was just a case of counting though. A chart entry of No 24 was probably a big enough number to justify another go on the show.

A bigger mystery than the appearance of Julian himself on the show though is the person in the studio audience with the giant paper mache head that looks like the Mekon from the 2000 AD and Eagle comics. What was that all about?! Fortunately, @TOTPFacts is here with the answer:

That's Julian Cope's seven-foot alter-ego Sqwubbsy. #TOTP (thanks to @wadeywade for the memory prompt) https://t.co/RXq3TR0xaW
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) February 2, 2024

Breaking free from the chains of being a potential one hit wonder comes Tina Arena who clocks up a second Top 40 entry with “Heaven Help My Heart”. Whereas her debut hit was intense and brooding, this one was a paint-by-numbers country ballad that, unlike Julian Cope, went straight down the middle of the road. Indeed, so bland was it that when Radio 1 DJ Chris Evans played it, he took it off air after a minute or so declaring it too easy listening for his zeitgeist riding, lad culture fawning, Britpop following show and despatched a (presumably all too willing) lackey to hand deliver it to Terry Wogan over at Radio 2. What a prick! Evans that is, not Terry. Ironically, within a couple of years, ballads like “Heaven Help My Heart” would become big chart hits in the UK from the likes of Shania Twain and LeeAnn Rimes as the last vestiges of Britpop played out.

Tina’s next single also featured the word ‘heaven’ in the title as she released a cover of Maria McKee’s “Show Me Heaven”. Gulp! Heaven help us all.

There have been some terrible cover versions to besmirch the charts over the years. More specifically, there have been some terrible Beatles covers. I’m thinking “Strawberry Fields Forever” by Candy Flip, Tiffany’s approximation “I Saw Him Standing There” and, of course, Bananarama and Lananeeneenoonoo’s take on “Help!” (no I don’t care that it was for charity, it’s shit). Despite the dreadful stink caused by all of these, this version of “I’m Only Sleeping” by Suggs also reeks to high heaven. Taken from his first solo album “The Lone Ranger”, it somehow went Top 10. As shown in the examples above, covering The Beatles isn’t for everyone and to my ears, Suggs makes a porcine one of it here. Did he really think he could just add his usual layer of ska pop over the original and get away with it. He doubles down on the error in the performance by doing his Suggs shtick of juddery movements (even doing a staged fall at one point) just to make sure we all knew that we were residents of Suggsworld for three minutes.

Incredibly, he managed to out-shite himself with another cover taken from the album the following year when he took on “Cecilia” by Simon & Garfunkel which led to the infamous Chris Eubank intro but that’s for a future post.

Another year and another controversial Madonna video. After the press backlash she received following the release of her “Erotica” album and coffee-table book Sex, in 1992 when she was deemed by some to have gone too far with her sexual explicit material, Madge seems initially to have decided to tone things down a bit. “I’ll Remember” was an unthreatening big ballad from the film With Honors with a more classic looking and dare I say it tasteful video. Her next studio album “Bedtime Stories” addressed subjects that were more about love than sex but then came the fourth and final single to be released from it. “Human Nature” was a direct response to the criticism she had received for “Erotica” and Sex – an answer song, a musical middle finger. Look at some of these lyrics:

“Oops, I didn’t know I couldn’t talk about sex…You punished me for telling you my fantasies…I’m not your bitch, don’t hang your shit on me”

Songwriters: Dave Hall / Madonna Ciccone / Kevin Harold Mc Kenzie / Shawn Mc Kenzie / Michael Deering
Human Nature lyrics © Wb Music Corp., Emi April Music Inc., Webo Girl Publishing Inc., Stone Jam Music, Wize Men Music Publishing, Webo Girl Publishing, In

Blimey! Then there’s the aforementioned video with Madonna and her dancers decked out in S&M gear (hell, even her pet chihuahua is dressed in leather!) and cavorting in small boxes which on reflection looks like a kinky version of Celebrity Squares! Clearly it’s about Madonna retaking control of the narrative but hadn’t we seen all this before and in a more provocative way? Remember the X-rated promo for “Justify My Love”? Talking of that track, the intro of “Human Nature” seems to mirror it with its hypnotic trip-hop beat opening with Madonna repeating the line “Express yourself, don’t repress yourself” over and over. All in all, I found the whole thing rather tiresome but what did I know? The single still made No 8 in the UK though it was notably not a big hit in America.

A week before the Battle of Britpop, we had another contest of the charts though not with the same levels of rivalry nor media attention. The Battle of the Boybands (which nobody called it at the time) saw the pretenders to the throne Boyzone on the same show as current kings Take That though I don’t think the latter were in the studio together as the clip is just a previous appearance re-shown. First up though are those nice Irish lads with their third hit single “So Good” which is up to No 3. Whilst Take That’s “Never Forget” lived up to its name as being one of the group’s most memorable songs even being performed at the Coronation Concert for King Charles III, “So Good” really didn’t fulfil the claim of its title being one of the band’s least remembered hits – in short, it’s so bad.

And so to the boyband winners. Take That are at No 1 for a second week with “Never Forget”. Although Boyzone would eventually amass a comparable amount of chart topping singles themselves, to my mind they always came up short when in a straight competition with Gary, Mark, Howard, Jason (and never forgetting Robbie of course!) for the title as the nation’s favourite 90s boyband. Maybe not the gulf in popularity that we saw in the 80s between Bros and Brother Beyond but a clear distance nonetheless. Just my personal view of course. Other opinions are available. What’s that? What about those other Irish lads Westlife? Oh feck off!

The play out track is “Don’t You Want Me” by Felix and if it sounds familiar then that’s probably because it was a hit three times in the UK during the 90s. This was its second incarnation making No 10. The original release was a No 6 hit in 1992 and in 1996 it returned to the charts peaking at No 17. Obviously, each release had a different mix but this practice of recycling dance tracks that had already been a chart success before was really prevalent around this time. “Don’t You Want Me” was on the Deconstruction Records label but given its release history, Reconstruction Records might have been a more apt name (chortle).

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Mary Kiani	When I Call Your Name	Nope
2	Ash	Girl From Mars	No but I have theirBest Of album Intergalactic Sonic 7″s with it on
3	TLC	Waterfalls	I did not
4	Julian Cope	Try Try Try	No No No
5	Tina Arena	Heaven Help My Heart	Nah
6	Suggs	I’m Only Sleeping	Dear me no
7	Madonna	Human Nature	Negative
8	Boyzone	So Good	So bad – no
9	Take That	Never Forget	It’s a no
10	Felix	Don’t You Want Me	No I don’t

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/m001vvzc/top-of-the-pops-10081995

TOTP 03 AUG 1995

Posted on January 9, 2024 by 80stastic

Back in August 1995, our lives were about to change. Well, for those of us who were partial to a pint or two. You see, the Sunday after this TOTP aired, public houses in the UK were permitted to remain open throughout Sunday afternoons for the first time ever. Wa-hey! Get the beers in! I have to say it’s hard to recall the effect that this may have had on the nation given our current all day licensing laws but I assume it was quite the seismic cultural shift. I wonder if I can get some alcohol references into all of the artists on this TOTP? Anyone fancy a pint?

We start with my nemesis Therapy? Now, it’s not that I can’t stand them but rather that they kind of passed me by at the time and I never really know what to say about them when they appear on these TOTP repeats which feels like it’s all the time. It makes sense chart-wise –“Loose” was the band’s ninth UK Top 40 hit in under three years but even given how prolific they were at releasing hit singles, I kind of get the impression executive show producer Ric Blaxill must have been a fan for them to have been invited on the show so regularly. Anyway, here they are but they don’t sound like I was expecting. “Loose” – to my ears at least – seems almost…well, like a Busted tune. OK, I’m exaggerating – call it artistic licence – but it’s certainly more Green Day than Nirvana but then Therapy?, according to my online research, forged a career of longevity out of adapting their sound to challenge their fanbase and indeed themselves so maybe nobody should have been surprised.

Perhaps what did take people by surprise though was lead singer Andy Cairn’s appearance. Quite the change from his previous trip to the TOTP studios – he’s gone full on rocker complete with greased back barnet, facial hair and sideburns. It’s a look that is used as the cover art of their album “Infernal Love” so a change in image that was presumably part of a bigger promotional rebrand. I’m probably reading far too much into it – he probably just got bored of his old look. We’ve all experimented with different styles haven’t we? I tried growing a goatee beard myself around this time. When I tired of it, I booked myself an appointment with a hairdresser to shave it off. When I got to the salon, I was greeted by hoots of derision by the guy who was going to do it. He pointed at my face and exclaimed “That’s not a beard!”. I never felt so emasculated!

Alcohol association: Well’ ‘loose’ can be slang for being inebriated can’t it?

It seems to me that Italian Eurodance project Corona managed to amass more UK chart hits than they had any right to. “The Rhythm Of The Night” was a decent example of the genre but did we really need subsequent watered down facsimiles of it that got weaker with each release? No, no we didn’t and yet the hits kept coming. “Baby Baby” made No 5 whilst this one – “Try Me Out” – would peak at No 6.

“The Rhythm Of The Night”, of course, shared its title (save for a definite article) with a famous hit from the 80s. DeBarge took their song to No 4 in the UK but unlike Corona, had the decency to be one hit wonders (over here at least). As well as a link to the 80s, the group also share a connection with the 00s. Do you remember the ITV show Popstars that gave us Hear’Say? Yes? OK, do you recall the five hopefuls that fell at the final hurdle but decided to form their own group anyway (or more likely at the prompting of a rival record label) called Liberty? Still with me? Good. So Liberty had to change their name to Liberty X as there was already a band called Liberty who objected. So what has any of this to do with Corona? Well, they amended their moniker in 2001 to…yep, Corona X. It’s not a great anecdote I admit but then Corona weren’t a great act so it’s all they deserve in my book.

Alcoholic association: Has to be the Mexican beer called Corona.

Next, the first of two tracks on the show that were originally recorded in the 80s. The life and times of “Blue Monday” by New Order is quite the tale. We all know the track but here’s some facts and stats behind it:

Originally released March 1983 on 12” only peaking at No 12
Returned to the chart in August 1983 surpassing its previous chart high by making No 9
Remixed by Arthur Baker in 1988 and released in UK in 7” format for first time. Peaks at No 3
Remixed by Hardfloor and released in 1995. Peaks at No 17
Spent 89 weeks on Top 100 chart over three releases spanning 12 years selling 1.16 million copies
Best selling 12” record of all time

This 1995 release was, rather unimaginatively, officially titled “Blue Monday–95” and was released as a single to promote “The Rest Of New Order” compilation. The band themselves were on a hiatus following the difficult recording of the 1993 album “Republic” and were showing no signs of wishing to work together again anytime soon. Their new record label London clearly wouldn’t have been too jazzed about the lack of any new material from their artist so turned to the back catalogue that they brought with them. We’d already had “The Best Of New Order” album in 1994 which had been a big seller so London wasted no time in trying to repeat the trick with an album of remixes. Having used “True Faith” and “1963” to promote the first compilation, it made sense that they would look to their best known track to advertise the follow up. What a horrible incarnation of an iconic song this remix was though. Maybe that sound was where it was at in 1995 but for me, this version strips away all the power and intrigue of the original replacing it with fuzzy bleeps and beats and turns Bernard Sumner’s vocal into a disembodied, distant ghost of itself. As I write this, we’ve just had the other ‘Blue Monday’, the third Monday in January which has come to be known as the most miserable day of the year but even that day has nothing on the misery of the 1995 remix of New Order’s classic song.

Alcohol association: In 2016, New Order launched their own brand of beer called Stray Dog after a track on their album “Music Complete”.

Black Grape are back with their second single “In The Name Of The Father”. The follow up to their debut “Reverend Black Grape”, this was very much more of the same which was no bad thing in my book. Some funky grooves and nonsensical lyrics (Neil Armstrong having bigger balls than King Kong indeed!)? Yes please!

Kermit’s crutch (he’d broken his ankle at the T in the Park festival) puts me in mind of the infamous Extreme Noise Terror / The KLF BRIT Awards performance…but without the machine gun fire at the end obviously.

Just as I was writing this whilst listening to Radio 2 (no, you do one! I’m 55!), Shaun Ryder appeared as a guest on the Dermot O’Leary show and they were talking about this incident on TFI Friday from back in the day. God, I miss being young(er).

Alcohol association: Black Grape? Wine? Cabernet Sauvignon? Yeah, that’ll do.

Something out of leftfield now from…well…Leftfield. Despite having a No 3 album in debut “Leftism”, huge single success had eluded the electronic duo of Neil Barnes and Paul Daley. “Afro–Left” couldn’t change that though it was pretty interesting. Featuring gibberish, African sounding spoken vocals and a trippy, hypnotic backbeat, it wasn’t your average chart entry. The supplier of those vocals was listed on the record as Djum Djum. In my first draft of this review – and I swear this is true – I referred to Djum Djum as the African Stanley Unwin, the comic actor who was famous for creating ‘Unwinese’ (essentially a gobbledygook version of English). I deleted the comparison though thinking it might be too niche but on researching Djum Djum further, I came across a piece which suggested that he was, in fact, the son of Stanley Unwin! Other ‘facts’ about him was that he also went by the name of Neil Cole and that he was the originator of Jum Jum which is the sound you make whilst chewing an elastic band! I’m not sure I’m having any of this though. I mean, come on! Jum Jum? I should Coco!

Alcohol association: I thought I might struggle with this one but it turns out that there is not only a Left Field Beer company but also a Leftfield vineyard and a Left-Field whiskey distillery.

Next, the second of those songs that were recorded in the 80s. Originally released as the B-side to their 1986 hit “Suburbia”, I first became aware of this Pet Shop Boys track around 1987 when my girlfriend (now wife) bought me a cassette of their remix album “Disco”. “Paninaro” was the fourth of just six songs on said album but always stood out even against the remixes of all the singles from their debut long player “Please”. Starting off with a drum sound that is reminiscent of the J. Arthur Rank gong, it then takes off with an excoriating synth sound before the almost unique happens – a Pet Shop Boys vocal by Chris Lowe. OK, he’s speaking rather than singing but it works perfectly as the normally motionless one of the duo recites just eight words on a loop that speak of the very essence of the human experience interspersed with name checks for Italian designers like Armani and Versace. How so? It turns out that the ‘paninari’ were a 1980s Italian youth subculture who were into designer clothing, pop music and hanging out in fast food restaurants (‘panino’ is Italian for sandwich). Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe identified with the movement which inspired the song.

All very interesting but why was it put out again in 1995 you might well ask? Well, “Paninaro ‘95” was a bunch of remixes including one by Tin Tin Out that was used to promote the B-sides compilation album “Alternative” that was released the Monday after this TOTP aired. Very much like New Order before them I guess.

The performance here is obviously memorable for the role reversal which sees Neil behind the keyboards and Chris up front and centre. The latter clearly isn’t used to the spotlight and looks like he doesn’t know where to put himself even turning his back on the studio audience at one point. To make up for Chris’s shortcomings as the focal point, there’s some serious overcompensating going on with the two oiled up male dancers behind him. Was that really necessary? They could have done with some more clothes on them and talking of clothes, that “Alternative” album that I mentioned earlier featured the track “In The Night” which was adopted as the theme tune to the old BBC fashion programme The Clothes Show…

Alcohol association: Tricky one this…the only thing I’ve got is that in the book Literally which documents the duo’s first ever tour in 1989, there’s plenty of references to the consumption of alcohol with champagne being a favourite tipple.

Talking of tricky…in 1995, trip-hop was a big deal spearheaded by the holy trinity of Massive Attack, Portishead and, yep, Tricky. Having been an early member of Massive Attack but not fancying the idea of fame and fortune, Tricky (real name Adrian Thaws) branched out on his own and found…fame and fortune. His seminal debut album “Maxinquaye” went gold and made No 3 in the charts. The music press lavished it with praise and it topped many a publication’s album of the year poll. It received a Mercury Music Prize nomination losing out to, you guessed it, Portishead’s “Dummy”. As a consequence of this success, Tricky’s face adorned the covers of magazines like…erm…The Face and Wire but he was never comfortable with his celebrity though he did rather court publicity by dating Björk. He also had a relationship with the vocalist on “Maxinquaye” Marina Topley-Bird.

This song- “Hell Is Around The Corner” – was taken from “The Hell E.P.” which was a collaboration with US hip-hop group Gravediggaz though they didn’t contribute to this particular track. It would prove to be Tricky’s biggest ever hit peaking at No 12. The man himself stated that he didn’t like the term ‘trip-hop’ and shied away from claims that he invented the genre. His stance was reinforced by him releasing a song that sounded very similar to Portishead’s “Glory Box” that was released six months earlier. The fact was though that both artists had sampled the same track – Isaac Hayes’s “Ike’s Rap II” – though who actually recorded their song first (as opposed to releasing it) is disputed.

Alcohol association: There is a dessert cocktail called The Grave Digger which is a coffee liqueur comprising brandy, Grand Marnier and is topped with crushed Oreo biscuits on whipped cream with a tiny shovel accessory to signify a freshly dug grave. Tricky stuff.

And suddenly it is upon us. When people talk about the pop music story of 1995, one event dominates. Not just the biggest story of the year but possibly the whole decade. We have arrived at a defining moment in time – the ‘Battle of Britpop’ is here! Now I don’t intend to rehash this story in detail – so much has been written about it already that it’s all out there and easily accessible from just a basic search of the internet. However, I was working in a record shop at the time (Our Price in Stockport) and during that week in the middle of August that saw the dual release of “Country House” by Blur and “Roll With It” by Oasis, I stood in for the singles buyer who was on leave which brought a certain amount of pressure – to run out of either release would have been unforgivable. I was checking stocks of both on what seemed like an hourly basis.

It was though an unbelievably exciting time to be working in record retail with news crews dispatched to shops (not ours sadly) to film pieces that would make headlines on the national evening news. Such was the intense media speculation that the story transformed from the tale of two singles to a class war with Oasis cast as working class northerners and Blur as arty, southern softies. The narrative constructed was that you were either on the side of one or the other and your choice of which single to buy was akin to casting a vote with record shops remodelled as polling stations. The truth is, of course, that plenty of people bought both though not necessarily in the same purchase. I worked with someone who bought one in the first week of release and the other in the second – she liked both tunes but had a preference for one to be No 1 over the other. I can’t recall which way round it was but I guess this was the record shop equivalent of tactical voting.

Anyway, it’s Blur we’re concerned with in this show who have the ‘exclusive’ performance slot to promote the lead single from their new album “The Great Escape”. Now the TOTP caption says that “Country House” was to be released on 14th August which was also the date that “Roll With It” was due in the shops. As such, the decision by Blur (mainly Damon from what I can ascertain) to go head to head with their rivals had already been taken. Reportedly wrong footed by Creation pushing forward the Oasis release date by weeks and fearing that they would trail in the wake of a second successive No 1 for the Mancs, the battle was set up by “Country House” having its own release date shifted to 14th August as well. I’m guessing I would have been aware of all this what with working in a record shop and all but it’s hard to recall at a distance of nearly twenty-nine years.

So what of the actual song itself? Received opinion is that “Country House” is not actually very good and certainly is not a good representation of the band’s canon. Whilst there is some credence to that conventional wisdom, I think history has shown that there was more to the tune than it being what Liam Gallagher described as ‘chimney sweep music’. Yes, the band themselves seemed to disown the song, refusing to play it live for many years but accusations of it being a throwaway pop song are wide of the mark I feel. There’s a sense of unruliness to it but it also has layers. The knockabout fun coexists with some standout melancholy moments like the “blow, blow me out, I am so sad I don’t know why” line when the song pauses for breath. Whether it can ever escape the connotations of that time or not I don’t know but it’s probably better than it is remembered as. We’ll get the whole denouement of the ‘Battle of Britpop’ soon enough but then we all know who won don’t we?

Alcohol association: Bassist Alex James developed more than a liking for champagne to supplement his cheese obsession and he did call his autobiography “Bit Of A Blur”.

Take That are No 1 this week with “Never Forget”. I went into all the Robbie Williams leaving the group stuff the last time I wrote about this one so I’m not going to go over all that again. Suffice to say, due to a clause in his Take That contract, he wasn’t allowed to release any solo material until six months after the band was officially dissolved meaning that the first Robbie Williams single – a rather weak cover of George Michael’s “Freedom” – didn’t see the light of day until the end of July 1996. That will either be a relief or totally infuriating to viewers of these BBC4 TOTP repeats depending on your inclination. I will say though that I recall catching Williams appearing on a breakfast TV show (possibly The Big Breakfast) not long after he had left the group where he was his usual bullish self (no sign of any regret or self reflection) where he kept going on about how brilliant his little bit of singing was on “Never Forget”. What a class act!

Alcohol association: Gary Barlow launched his own range of organic wine in 2021.

The play out video is “Waterfalls” by TLC. I don’t think I ever quite realised quite how much of a big deal this trio was until I checked their discography. Four American No 1 records! Wow! Their level of success over here was a bit more tempered but they still racked up four Top 10 hits including this one which made No 4. A groundbreaking track in many respects, its lyrics made reference to drugs related violence and HIV/AIDS which was one of the very first mainstream chart songs to do so. It’s hard not to fall for the sonic charms of “Waterfalls”. It’s the very definition of ‘slinky’ with a smooth beat that oozes class aligned with some gorgeous vocal stylings and a killer rap from Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes. Those attributes earned it two Grammy nominations for Record of the Year and Best Vocal Performance and a Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B / Soul single.

If the song itself wasn’t enough to tempt you to dive right into it, then there was the video. A combination of literal retelling of the lyrics visually and special effects, it would win four gongs at the MTV Video Music Awards. If the image of the trio performing whilst seemingly standing on water in an ocean wasn’t striking enough then their liquefied, ‘water sprite’ forms dancing in front of a waterfall couldn’t help but make an impression. This seemed like cutting-edge stuff in 1995.

Lopes would tragically die in a car crash just seven years on from “Waterfalls”. The lyrics of her rap from it were engraved on her casket.

Alcohol association: There is a sobriety support group called The Luckiest Club who use the abbreviation TLC as part of their identity. There’s also a non-alcohol beer company called Tropical Lager Coral’ation.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Therapy?	Loose	No
2	Corona	Try Me Out	As if
3	New Order	Blue Monday – 95	I did not
4	Black Grape	In The Name Of The Father	No but I had the album
5	Leftfield	Afro-Left	It’s a no from me
6	Pet Shop Boys	Paninaro ‘95	Nope
7	Tricky	The Hell E.P.	Nah
8	Blur	Country House	See 4 above
9	Take That	Never Forget	Negative
10	TLC	Waterfalls	Liked it, didn’t buy it

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