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

TOTP 20 MAR 1998

And just like that we appear to have reached a ‘jumping the shark’ moment in the history of TOTP. I ranted a bit in the last post about the Cast of Casualty having a hit record and their continuation of the soul-destroying trend for actors becoming pop stars off the back of their TV series characters performing a song in the show. That was bad enough but just seven days later we have the unedifying spectacle of the resurrection of another TV show inspired hit machine that made little sense back in the mid 70s and even less in the late 90s. We’ll get to that presently but some admin first in that we should acknowledge the fact that Jo Whiley is tonight’s presenter and I may have words to say about her later as well.

We begin though with the Spice Girls who have entered the charts at No 2 with their latest single “Stop”. Normally, a No 2 hit wouldn’t be anything to be sniffed at but in this case, well…it was seen as quite the seismic disappointment seeing as it halted the run of every one of the group’s singles having gone to the top of the charts. Despite Jo Whiley saying in her link that she didn’t think it meant the end of ‘girl power’, the Battle of Britpop aside, I don’t think there’d been as much discussion of a song not getting to No 1 since “Welcome To The Pleasuredome” halted Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s run of chart toppers in the mid 80s. I discussed the potential reasons for “Stop”…well…stopping their imperial run in the last post so I’m not going over all that again but suffice to say that in a way Jo Whiley was right – a No 2 instead of a No 1 single wasn’t the end of ‘girl power’ but the departure of Geri Halliwell a couple of months later possibly was.

We’re at the ‘jumping the shark’ moment already. Now don’t get me wrong. I like The Wombles as much as the next person of my generation who grew up with them in that final, five minute children’s TV slot before the boring old news came on. Everyone child of the 70s knew the names Great Uncle Bulgaria, Tobermory, Madame Cholet, Wellington, Bungo, Tomsk and, of course, Orinoco. I think a very young me had a poster of Wellington on my bedroom wall. That stop-motion animation and the playful voice of Bernard Cribbins was magical stuff. However, the idea to turn them into a pop group…I’m not sure I was ever on board with that even as a small child. Back in the 70s though they were huge. The brainchild of Mike Batt who wrote not just their hits but the TV show theme tune as well, according to Wikipedia they were the most successful music act of 1974 in the UK with more weeks on the singles chart than any other artist. Is that true? My God. It probably is though. In 1977 – the year of punk – David Soul was the UK’s best selling artist so…

Those 1974 hits included “Remember You’re A Womble” (No 3), “Banana Rock” (don’t recall that one but it made No 9), “Minuetto Allegretto” (No 16) and, of course, “Wombling Merry Christmas” (No 2). Back then, there were no Gorillaz-style computer graphics nor holograms to depict The Wombles but people in cumbersome, furry costumes which did actually look like their television counterparts but had no moving mouth parts which kind of undermined the whole idea of them performing.

Back to the late 90s though and why were The Wombles suddenly back on TOTP? Well, they are back in the charts with a rerelease of “Remember You’re A Womble” which would peak at No 13. Again though I ask why? Why did we need to be reminded of this – how to be diplomatic about this? – song that was of its time? Apparently it was part of campaign to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the show first appearing on our TV screens. A good enough reason you might say? No and I’ll tell you for why. Firstly, The Wombles were back on our TV screens anyway as a new series of episodes were made after Canadian company Cinar Films acquired the rights from original production company FilmFair. These were shown in the UK by ITV. Secondly, the songs were awful and we really didn’t need them back in our lives and indeed our ears.

At the song’s end, Jo Whiley ponders whether it could be The Verve underneath those Wombles costumes. A facetious remark obviously but it got me thinking about who did occupy those furry suits? Back in the mid-70s, some of the names of those who were in the band as it were included Mike Batt (obviously), session guitarist Chris Spedding who produced the first Sex Pistols demos and had his own hit called “Motor Bikin’”, legendary session drummer Clem Cattini who worked with everyone including pioneering producer Joe Meek and was one of The Tornadoes on mega hit “Telstar” and Robin Le Mesurier (son of the beloved Dad’s Army actor). As for the 90s version, the internet is not giving up much. Apparently whoever were in those costumes didn’t want to remember they’d been a Womble!

Some proper music now with the return of James who have reached that point in their career where a Best Of album is not only due but justifiable and credible. Taking the singles from their four albums on Fontana/Mercury (not including jam sessions album “Wah Wah”), plus two new songs and an track from early EP “James II”, it would go to No 1 and three times platinum. I was one of those who bought it and a good choice it was too but playing the whole album in one session, I had to admit to myself that some of the tracks did tend to merge into each other. I know – that’s fighting talk to some people but I can only call it as I hear it. Maybe that’s just an inevitable consequence of their sound being so distinctive and idiosyncratic.

Anyway, as was the established practice by this point, a new song was released to promote the Best Of which was “Destiny Callling”. Now, you know what I said about their songs merging into each other? Well, band member Saul Davies described the writing process for “Destiny Calling” as “whacking on a capo and playing “She’s A Star” at twice the speed”. Look, I’m not trying to find fault here, I’m just reporting the details. For what it’s worth, I liked it – a fairly obvious dig at the mechanics of the music industry, it was a perfect appetiser for the retrospective of their work…OK, of their chart successful work. What’s great about James though is that they’ve never rested on their laurels. Within 18 months they’d released their eighth studio album and have gone onto produce another ten in the following 25 years. I like Tim Booth’s Ian Curtis type wig out as the performance reaches its climax. Thankfully, nobody in the studio audience shouted at him to “Sit Down!”. Ahem.

I have no idea who this is or what her hit sounded like so I’m going in with no preconceived notions…

*three minutes later *

…well, what did I expect from a song called “Uh La La La”? This is lowest common denominator Eurodance rubbish that wasn’t even original. Alexia (for that is her who were talking about) clearly ripped off 1995 hit “I Luv U Baby” by The Original for the final line of the chorus (not the words which are clearly not unique but the intonation of the delivery). And what about that title? Clearly pinched from Kool And The Gang’s “Let’s Go Dancin’ (Ooh La,La, La)” but with the ‘Ooh’ adapted to ‘Uh’ to try and disguise the theft even though she’s clearly singing “Ooh”. Was this an attempt to become 1998’s version of Whigfield? I say 1998 but the single had been a hit all around Europe in 1997 but via lots of different record labels so the swines at Sony music ordered a unifying re-edit, remix and rerelease on Almighty Records to launch Alexia in the UK and so we had to suffer like the rest of the continent. A couple more minor hits later and Alexia was gone from our charts forever though she’s still recording music to this day amassing 19 (!) album releases to date including a Christmas album in 2022.

At the end of Alexia’s performance, Jo Whiley makes a remark that “Uh La La La” is about Alexia’s inner feelings but that “it could so easily be about the sex appeal of a Teletubby”. In a recent post, I commented on Jo’s intro for The Lilys who were the latest act to record a song for a Levi’s ad campaign following in the footsteps of Stiltskin, Babylon Zoo and Freakpower. When mentioning those names, she noticeably grimaced and I remarked this was a bit rich coming from a woman who would argue in favour of the musical significance of The Teletubbies if it kept her on TV. Ha! I wasn’t so far away with my assessment!

We’ve arrived at the final hit of the 90s for Kylie Minogue and although not one of her most well known tracks it might well be one of the most underrated. “Breathe” was the third and final single released in the UK from her “Impossible Princess” album. I think I’ve discussed the problematic gestation ofthat album before but briefly, it took two years to record due to changes of musical direction, various different collaborations and a quest for pure perfection from everyone involved in it. As such, its release was postponed multiple times and then its title was deemed dubious after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in August 1997. It was finally made available in the UK in late March of 1998 having been renamed to simply “Kylie Minogue” (the third eponymous album of her career) meaning that all three singles from it were released before the parent album which was unusual to say the least.

“Breathe” is actually very engaging – slinky but not without substance and almost hypnotic with its lyrics about internal contemplation. It could be a prototype for “Pure Shores” by All Saints which is a compliment by the way. It probably deserved better than its chart high of No 14. The 90s had started with a No 1 for Kylie with “Tears On My Pillow” but by the decade’s end, her sound, exemplified by the likes of “Breathe”, was almost unrecognisable from that. Whilst her creativity was in the ascendancy, her commerciality was on the wane but she would get the latter back in spades come the new millennium with “Spinning Around” and those hot pants. Sadly, I won’t be reviewing those TOTP repeats as I’m stopping at the end of 1999 so fare thee well Kylie and thanks for all the content.

Bryan Adams is up next with another track from his “Unplugged” album. Unlike the first single taken from it though, “I’m Ready” was not a new song but nearly two decades old which Adams first recorded in 1983 for his album “Cuts Like A Knife”. Back then it was an out and out rock song but in 1998 it metamorphosed into an acoustic ballad complete with a low whistle played by Irish folk legend Davy Spillane which seems like an attempt to jump on the bandwagon of the Celtic flute sound to be found on “My Heart Will Go On”. I definitely prefer the rockier version of “I’m Ready” though it’s hardly one of his best efforts. Still, compared to The Wombles, this was high art indeed. By the end of the decade, Adams would have released another studio album, a second Greatest Hits collection, teamed up with a Spice Girl and even had a dance hit (courtesy of a remix by Chicane) that had gone down a storm in Ibiza!

By March 1998, “White On Blonde”, the fourth Texas album, had been out for over a year and delivered the band four Top 10 singles. So how do you convince your fanbase to buy a fifth? Easy. Team up with a couple of rappers and re-record the first of those four hits and release it as a double A-side with another track from the album. That sounds overly cynical but that is what happened – the release details at least. I may be being presumptuous about the intentions behind them. However, with follow up album “The Hush” still 14 months away from being available in the shops, it was a way of both maintaining the band’s profile and keeping them in the charts.

The rappers concerned were Method Man and RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan so big names (not quite sure how they knew Sharleen and the gang though) and the track they collaborated on was “Say What You Want” which they retitled “Say What You Want (All Day, Every Day)”. It was performed at that year’s BRIT Awards and presumably audience reaction was positive enough for a proper release to be considered (maybe that was the real reason behind it being made commercially available). As this version wasn’t on the album, the track on its own wasn’t going to squeeze any more sales out of it so it was doubled up with “Insane” which was on the album. So, starting with “Say What You Want (All Day, Every Day)” and I have to say I didn’t get it. I’ve read comments online saying how it “just worked” but I couldn’t/still can’t hear it. The rap bits don’t blend with the pop song – they just sound really incongruous next to each other. Then there’s that layer of strings introduced to the chorus that wasn’t in the original which sounds discordant or even out of tune. Am I missing something?

As for “Insane”, I’m not convinced that it’s quite strong enough to have been a single but it’s a moody number that has something going for it. The smouldering brass parts remind me of Portishead (or is it Groove Armada?) and Sharleen’s vocals are as on point as ever but it’s maybe just a bit too downbeat? I think it probably makes more sense in the context of the album.

We have a new No 1 and it’s from Run D.M.C. vs Jason Nevins. The track “It’s Like That” had actually been the rap trio’s debut single all the way back in 1983 but had largely been overlooked in favour of its B-side “Sucker M.C.’s”. Fast forward 14 years and, with Run D.M.C’s legacy as one of the most influential hip-hop artists ever assured, the track was revisited by producer and remixer Jason Nevins and became a massive international hit, going to No 1 in multiple countries. I seem to remember that it had been available in other territories way before an official release was secured in the UK meaning that imports of the single made their way into record shops over here first. I think we may have had a few copies in the Our Price in Stockport where I worked. Its phenomenal (and maybe unexpected) success would lead it to spend six weeks at No 1 and become the third best selling single of 1998 in the UK. As well be seeing plenty more of this one, I’ll leave it there for now.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Spice Girls	Stop	Nah
2	The Wombles	Remember You’re A Womble	What do you think?!
3	James	Destiny Calling	No but I had the Best Of album
4	Alexia	Uh La La La	Definitely not
5	Kylie Minogue	Breathe	Negative
6	Bryan Adams	I’m Ready	Nope
7	Texas / Wu-Tang Clan	Say What You Want (All Day, Every Day) / Insane	No but I had a promo copy of the album
8	Run D.M.C. vs Jason Nevins	It’s Like That	And no

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002gv57/top-of-the-pops-20031998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 13 MAR 1998

Posted on August 13 by 80stastic

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Any more?

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

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

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

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

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002gk6n/top-of-the-pops-13031998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 06 MAR 1998

Posted on August 9 by 80stastic

We’ve entered March in these 1998 TOTP repeats and on the day this show was broadcast, Liam Gallagher was charged with assault after allegedly breaking a fan’s nose in Brisbane, Australia. He followed this up by getting himself banned from Cathay-Pacific airline for allegedly abusing passengers and staff on the flight home to the UK. Oh dear. He wasn’t the only pop star in this year to get themselves in bother as Mark Morrison, Mark E. Smith and Ian Brown all fell foul of the law. I wonder if any of the acts on this show have some misdemeanours in their pasts…

Our host is Jamie Theakston who certainly does have some proverbial skeletons in his closet, namely his visit to a Mayfair brothel in 2002 which was leaked in the press despite Theakston’s attempt to prevent publication of the story via an injunction. Back in 1998 though he was the squeaky clean host of kids Saturday morning TV show Live & Kicking as well as being part of the roster of presenters for TOTP and his first job on tonight’s show is to do the outro for the opening act who are Cornershop. Wait…what?! But they were the final act we saw in the last TOTP as they were at No 1! Yes, but this meant nothing in the era of the show’s executive producer Chris Cowey where chart positions and downward movement within the Top 40 were insignificant. For example, “Brimful Of Asha” was down from No 1 to No 3 this week but as a hit that was still selling lots of copies, it warranted a slot in the running order. Maybe Cowey was right – in a world of first week of release discounted prices, was this how TOTP countered that practice manipulating the charts? After all, otherwise you had the prospect of a big hit only being featured once on the show* because of it peaking high and then constantly dropping as the full price point kicked in. Even so, this particular segue across two shows and seven days does jar.

*We’ll come back to this at the end of the show

Anyway, as I indicated in my last post, I bought “Brimful Of Asha” and actually enjoyed both versions of the track on the single so much so that I caught them live at Manchester Academy. However, it wasn’t the best gig I ever attended. They didn’t say a word to the audience all night which always irks me. A live gig should be just that – a live experience not just recreating the sound of the records however accurate that might be. Cornershop would have a couple more minor Top 40 hits but are still a together having last released an album in 2020.

Controversial moment: There was that time in 1992 when they burnt posters of Morrissey outside the offices of EMI to protest about his perceived overtly racist behaviour having draped a Union Jack flag around him during a set at the Madstock festival in Finsbury Park.

Finley Quaye was still riding high at this point in his career. His debut album “Maverick A Strike” had gone gold in just three weeks and he’d recently won the Best British Male award at the 1998 BRITS. He was also a regular on TOTP with “Your Love Gets Sweeter” his fourth consecutive Top 40 hit. It’s another reggae-tinged, soulful, melodic number but there’s something in its tune that reminds me of this…

Just me then. Anyway, where did it all go wrong for Finley? From what I have read, there seems to have been a certain element of self-destruction surrounding Quayle’s erratic behaviour and unreliability. He also had a reputation for uncooperativeness and not playing the music industry’s games. You can perhaps see an example of this in his appearance here with a less than energetic performance and his decision to turn up in attire as if it was dress down Friday. I’ve never heard any of his material since “Maverick A Strike” so I can’t comment on its quality but maybe it was just a case of musical tastes moving on? Certainly his private life was problematic involving assault charges, unpaid debts and being declared bankrupt in 2012. Attempts at a comeback were undermined by Quaye not turning up for gigs and, in one desperate case, being physically manhandled off stage by the venue owner for a shambolic performance. All of this led to a lack of trust in him within whatever was left of his dwindling fanbase. Whether he’ll be able to overcome his demons and return to a successful music career, who knows?

Controversial moment: Despite all the issues detailed above, perhaps Finley’s most stand out incident was when Prince Harry (himself no stranger to controversy) admitted in an interview in 2023 with Stephen Colbert (another controversial figure!) that if he could only listen to one song for the rest of his life then he would choose “Your Love Gets Sweeter”.

Like “Brimful Of Asha”, here was another song that had already peaked at No 1 and dropped down from the top spot but which was still an incredibly strong seller and so is featured on the show again. “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion was in its second week at No 2 and it would rise back to the chart summit the following week. It is, however, a chart curiosity that despite being the second best selling single in the UK for 1998, it spent only two weeks at No 1. That shouldn’t diminish its sales reputation though. Look at these chart positions:

1 – 2 – 2 – 1 – 3 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 3 – 4

Not too shabby and definite evidence that even in the fast moving chart currents of 1998, certain singles could swim against the tide or at least tread water. Of course, “My Heart Will Go On” had an enormous advantage of most of its chart competitors in that it was from a massive, massive film – Titanic was the highest grossing film of all time, a record it held for twelve years – and that can’t be ignored in the final totting up but it remains an iconic song and yes, I hate it.

Controversial moment: Celine? Surely not though there is a comical claim by an American priest that her stereotype-free children’s clothing line was promoting satanism!

WHO?! Hinda Hicks anyone? Success wise she was the solo artist equivalent of N-Tyce who were on last week’s show. Four middling sized Top 40 singles (of which “If You Want Me” was the first) and an album that peaked at No 20. Her music was an R&B infused pop/soul sound (yawn – wasn’t it always?) and in Hinda’s defence she did get three MOBO Award nominations (plus two BRIT Awards ones). So why don’t I remember her given that I had the added advantage of working in a record shop at the time? Maybe the market for that genre was over flooded? Possibly. She did also suffer from record company machinations when Island Records and Universal Records merged causing the promotion for her second album to be non existent and that was that for her career as a chart artist. Her Wikipedia page doesn’t list any further activity by Hinda post 2008. However, her name resurfaced in 2011…

Controversial moment: Not really controversial but her name was appropriated by Lilly Allen in the tweet ‘Toni Braxton Hinda Hicks’ which was a reference to the phrase ‘Braxton Hicks’ which is a nickname for false labour pains during pregnancy.

It strikes me that it would be easy to dismiss this next artist as yet another forgotten hitmaker of the 90s whose hits were synth-heavy but gravitas-lite songs and she was just the pop puppet fronting them. However, having done some background reading on her, there’s more than meets the eye to Robyn. Firstly, she writes her own stuff so that preconceived notion of mine of her being all image and no substance is immediately dispelled. Secondly, the reaction to her songs has created quite the fan base, especially amongst the LGBTQ+ community. In an interview with vice.com, she posited the theory that this is because she is a Swedish woman and that feminist debate is very mainstream there and has been for years so there is an easier connection between the gay community and her because of her upbringing.

Robyn’s career could have gone a very different way. She declined to sign with Jive Records who then turned their attention to another young female artist called Britney Spears who Jive called “An American Robyn” and who, as it panned out, would prove to be much more easier to control than Robyn would have been. Despite not having the same levels of fame as Britney, Robyn’s influence on pop music has been widely acknowledged by the likes of Lorde, Charli XCX, Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen and Andy McCluskey (the writing force behind Atomic Kitten). Her work is seen as contributing to the ideological school of thought that is ‘poptimism’ which argues that pop music is as worthy of professional critique and interest as rock music. Blimey! Having said all of this, “Show Me Love” didn’t hold my interest for long, pleasant enough a pop tune as it is though. Plus, did she not think when she wrote it that a track called “Show Me Love” by an artist called Robyn might cause confusion with the dance anthem of the same name by Robin S?

Controversial moment: Her 1999 album “My Truth” included songs about abortion. Her US label RCA asked her to re-record or edit out these tracks deeming them too controversial for American markets. Robyn refused and the album was not released in the US.

I’m pretty sure that I dismissed this next song as being almost a novelty hit at the time. Have I changed my tune since? Maybe. We have arrived at the moment in the career of Space when those scouse scamps were never bigger. “The Ballad Of Tom Jones” would be their highest charting single ever when it peaked at No 4. Essentially a duet between Tommy Scott and Cerys Matthews of Catatonia, it tells the story of two warring partners in a chaotic relationship who are saved from inflicting physical damage to each other by stumbling across the songs of Tom Jones on the radio as their row reached boiling point. So why didn’t I think much of it at the time? I think it was that the chorus was underwhelming and the lines about knickers and not coming from Wales grated. Also, the counterpoint repeating of ‘Tom Jones, Tom Jones’ didn’t work for me. And yet…it is creepily endearing. A curiosity sure but with some musicality to it that perhaps I’d previously ignored. Whilst Space were at their pinnacle, Cerys and her band were only just beginning their run of hits having recently pierced the Top 3 with “Mulder And Scully”. They would have a further seven Top 40 hits including two Top 10 entries. Both Space and Cerys would end up contributing to tracks on an album by the actual Tom Jones in 1999 when he released his covers project “Reloaded”.

P.S. Unlike with the aforementioned Dexys performance of 16 years prior, there were no shenanigans with the picture on the backdrop screen here which features Sir Tom himself. How I would have loved it to have been Howard.

Controversial moment: Nothing much for Space but in 2020 Cerys played a song that included a racial slur in its lyrics on her radio show which BBC Radio 6 Music had to apologise for. She also engaged in a relationship with EastEnders actor Marc Bannerman whilst taking part in I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here in 2011 making the front pages of the tabloids as Bannerman had a partner back home.

From Space to Spice next as we reach a line in the sand moment in the Spice Girls story by encountering both their first hit not to go to No 1 and their last single release whilst Geri Halliwell was still officially a member of the group (the first time around anyway). For the record, “Stop” was their seventh single out of eleven in total and one of only two not to top the charts. Is there any reasonable theory that explains this? Yes, parent album “Spiceworld” had been out for four months by this point so maybe punters didn’t feel the need to own the single and the album? Maybe but then how do you explain the fourth single lifted from it – “Viva Forever”- going to No 1 after “Stop”? Perhaps it was just a slow decline in their popularity 21 months into a career that had constantly been in our faces? Or was it the strength of the song that kept it off the top spot which was…

*checks the online chart archives*

…”It’s Like That” by Run-D.M.C. versus Jason Nevins. Possibly. It was the UK’s third best selling single of 1998. Or maybe “Stop” was just a weak track? It’s a jolly enough, upbeat, Motown-aping song but certainly not as strong as something like “Say You’ll Be There” or as explosive and attention demanding as “Wannabe”. I guess we’ll never know the true reason. What we do know is that Geri would be gone within three months of this performance and things would never quite be the same again in Spiceworld.

Controversial moment: Are you kidding? Far too many to list here.

There a new No 1 and it signalled the comeback of Madonna. Hang on, had she actually been away? Not really though she had been busy becoming a mother and filming the Evita film meaning she hadn’t released a studio album of new material since 1994’s “Bedtime Stories”. Although singles wise, she’d maintained a presence in our charts throughout that period, “Frozen” was her first single release in a year since “Another Suitcase In Another Hall” from the aforementioned Evita soundtrack. The lead track from her “Ray Of Light” album, it would debut at No 1 giving Madge a UK chart topper for the first time since “Vogue” in 1990. Despite this feat, this solitary week at the top was the only time it featured on TOTP. Now, as discussed earlier, a song dropping down the charts wasn’t a barrier to repeat appearances under executive producer Chris Cowey (even from No 1 – I give you Cornershop) so what happened here? Something to do with broadcasting restrictions imposed by Madonna herself?

Anyway, critical reaction to both the single and album were overwhelmingly positive and seen as a real return to form. Me personally? I wasn’t that enamoured – it just didn’t grab me and I wasn’t swayed by the whole Eastern mysticism angle nor the slightly odd video with Madonna as a shape-shifting witch figure prowling across a desert. However, I did quite like the rest of the album which my wife bought especially the title track. A collaboration with legendary producer William Orbit, it incorporated electronica, trip-hop and new age styles. Nearly 30 years in and it has become a touchstone album for creativity with it being credited as a huge influence for the likes of FKA Twigs, Addison Rae and Erika de Casier (I’ve no idea!) making “Ray Of Light” 2025’s hottest album according to some headlines. Ex-Little Mix member Jade Thirwell has even recorded her own version of “Frozen” whilst Madonna herself is revisiting the album with a remix version entitled “Veronica Electronica”.

Controversial moment: I’d be here all day listing them but how about this for a “Frozen” specific one? In 2005, a Belgian judge ruled that the track plagiarised the song “Ma Vie Fout Le Camp” by Fabrice Prevost and for eight years it could not be played nor sold in Belgium.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Cornershop	Brimful Of Asha	YES!
2	Finley Quaye	Your Love Gets Sweeter	No but my wife had his album
3	Celine Dion	My Heart Will Go On	Never
4	Hinda Hicks	If You Want Me	Nope
5	Robyn	Show Me Love	Nah
6	Space / Cerys Matthews	The Ballad Of Tom Jones	No
7	Spice Girls	Stop	I did not
8	Madonna	Frozen	See 2 above

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002gk6l/top-of-the-pops-06031998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 27 FEB 1998

Posted on August 6 by 80stastic

It’s late February 1998 and Sir Elton John has just become…well…Sir Elton John after he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to music and for raising money for AIDS charities. Apparently, when the Lord Chamberlain announced Elton, he called him “Sir John Elton”. He surely wasn’t having a little joke at Elton’s expense? Not in the presence of Her Majesty? What about etiquette and decorum and all those sort of things? Im being facetious of course. It would have been brilliant if it had been deliberate but I’m beyond doubt that it was a genuine mistake and not a constructed gag along lines of Dexys performing “Jackie Wilson Said” on TOTP beneath a huge backdrop of the Scottish darts player Jocky Wilson*

*In a recent Dexys at the BBC programme, Kevin Rowland admitted that was a deliberate prank on the band’s behalf and not the mistake of some musically miseducated BBC employee.

Still, what’s in a name anyway? Let’s see if any of this show’s acts have interesting nomenclature related stories…

Opening the show are a trio who are all about their name to the point that their debut single is named after them. Cleopatra had debuted on the charts with “Cleopatra’s Theme” two weeks prior to this appearance at No 3 but had descended to No 13 by the time they were awarded another go on the show prompting the obvious question of ‘why?’ Blame Chris Cowey again for his policy of showcasing songs they were going down the charts, and in this case, opening the show! It just didn’t seem right to me. I guess it must have been getting lots of airplay maybe but even so. After naming their first hit after themselves, conversely, Cleo Higgins would reject it totally in 2012 to take part in The Voice UK via the show’s blind audition process. She would end up getting through to the semi-finals before getting knocked out. Oh and one more thing about names, the opening lines of the first verse of “Cleopatra’s Theme” are:

“Get a pen and paper, write down our name”

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: David Paich / Kenny Hayes / Zainham Higgins / Yonah Lynvest / Cleopatra Lynvest / William Scaggs / Timothy Scrafton
Cleopatra’s Theme lyrics © Boz Scaggs Music, Hudmar Publ Co Inc, Hudmar Publishing Co Inc

That might have been good advice for the Lord Chamberlain!

Apparently Ocean Colour Scene struck upon their name by choosing random words they liked the sound of after looking through books in a library. Well, it’s as good a way as any I suppose. For their single “It’s A Beautiful Thing”, they were joined by legendary soul P. P. Arnold (real name Patricia Ann Cole – her stage name was suggested by photographer Gered Mankowitz) just as they had been for their single before last “Travellers Tune” but she was given a proper credit on this one seeing as her vocals are very much to the forefront. The fourth and final single taken from their album “Marchin’ Already”, it’s a mood heavy piece that full of depth and substance but in my final reckoning, it does seem to go on rather and there’s a fair bit of over-emoting from Simon Fowler and P. P. Maybe that’s the problem – the double vocalist model is overkill?

For the record, “It’s A Beautiful Thing” was the first single release in seven not to make the Top 10 for the band. They have not returned there since. Not that that means too much anymore. They’re just the facts (ma’am).

Oh blimey! We haven’t reached this lot already have we? Another Level – an R&B boy band – were never going to appeal to me but they did seem remarkably dull in spite of my in-built prejudices. Put together by Nick Raphael and Christian Tattersfield for their record label Northwestside Records, the groups name was a rather telegraphed reference to the ambition of the label and the desire to elevate the band’s music to new heights (yawn). The idea behind their signing was to plug into the urban music movement that was getting loads of traction in the UK. A label tie-in with Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records meant the emerging rap superstar would guest on Another Level’s debut single “Be Alone No More” presumably giving them the credibility that other urban artist hopefuls would have coveted.

As I said, they were never going to pique my interest and maybe my ears were pre-programmed to not hear any quality in their music but my god their song was boring. One paced and devoid of any attention grabbing hooks, its popularity bemused me. And yet they were really successful. Their next single went to No 1 and their eponymous debut album achieved platinum level sales in the UK. Another level indeed. Somehow though, defeat was grabbed from the jaws of victory as they were gone within two years having haemorrhaged half the band line up amid solo career ambitions.

Dane Bowers would somehow eke out a career that kept him on the fringes of the celebrity world via reality TV shows like The Big Reunion, Totally Boyband, Celebrity Big Brother and Celebrity Come Dine With Me. Well, it’s a living (sort of) I suppose. Music-wise, his biggest accomplishment post-Another Level was being the loser in the chart battle of August 2000 (‘The Battle of the Posh Girls’) when his involvement with True Steppers and Victoria Beckham’s record “Out Of Your Mind” couldn’t prevent Spiller and Sophie Ellis-Bextor claiming the No 1 with “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)”. Should have taken it to another level bruv.

Oh no! If I was concerned because we’d reached the time of Another Level, I’m in full blown panic that the era of the next artist is upon us. There’s a lot to talk about here and, sticking with this post’s nomenclature theme, we start with said artist’s name. Presenter Jayne Middlemiss takes a stab at explaining its origins to us in her intro by saying “Her father was a Native Indian hence the funny name – Shania Twain”. OK, so first off, that sounds a fairly un-PC statement Jayne. Interestingly, the show’s subtitles say “Native American” and not “Native Indian”. Secondly, it’s not strictly true. The name she was given at birth was Eilleen Regina Edwards – the Twain surname comes from her stepfather who adopted her and her two sisters. As for the Shania bit, at the request of her record company, she chose a name that supposedly she took from a biracial wardrobe mistress whose mother was Native American whilst her father was white because it had such a hopeful ring to it. It’s been rumoured that Shania is actually an Ojibwa word meaning ‘on my way’ though this has been disputed by one of her biographers.

Anyway, enough of that. Despite having been a recording artist for five years, none of her previously released material has made any impact on us in the UK until “You’re Still The One” took her into the Top 10. A country pop ballad written as an ‘up yours’ to those doubting the authenticity and validity of her marriage* to her producer ‘Mutt’ Lange (who also co-wrote it with her), it was a huge crossover moment not just for Shania but for country music itself. Previous attempts to blend the two worlds of country and pop by the likes of Garth Brooks had never really taken off in the UK (though he’d enjoyed tremendous success in America) but Shania would change all of that with her third album “Come On Over” from which “You’re Still The One” was taken. Bluntly put, it was a monster with teeth. Selling enough copies in the UK to go twelve times platinum, it also topped our album chart for eleven weeks and was our best selling album of 1999. Note the year of that last fact – 1999 not 1998. Yes, the breakout success of “You’re Still The One” looked like being an outlier for a while and I, for one, dismissed Twain’s bankability. The album sold steadily but not spectacularly for the whole of 1998, spending 13 weeks inside the Top 40 between No 36 and No 15. Two more singles were released from it that were both decent sized but not huge hits. Then, some 14 months after its release, came “That Don’t Impress Me Much” with its line about Brad Pitt and the UK record buying public went crazy for it. Ten consecutive weeks inside the Top 10 reignited sales of its parent album and when “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” followed it into the Top 3, Shania’s superstar status was assured. I hate those songs with their horrible, clunky hooks but that’s for future posts.

*Shania and Lange would divorce in 2010 after he had an affair with her best friend. Six months after their divorce was finalised, Shania married the former husband of said best friend. Make of that what you will.

As for “You’re Still The One”, it’s a passable, inoffensive ballad which gave no glimpse of the musical horrors to come. I even learned its chords as it was one of the songs we had to play as part of a guitar class I joined around 2009. Some 15 years later and I’m working as a theatre usher. One of the shows I worked was a Shania Twain tribute act. Oh..My…God. It was the longest night of my life! Literally – she played well over her allotted time, mainly because she wouldn’t stop talking to the audience and getting them up on stage with her. Ah yes, the audience. I’ve never seen so many cowboy hats in a confined space in my life. Then there were the superfans who’d spent thousands on following their idol. One man had been to Las Vegas for a meet and greet with the real thing and then did it again three moths later. And he spent a small fortune buying one of Shania’s guitars that had her name emblazoned on it. That still wasn’t enough for him though and so he was following the Shania tribute around the country on her tour going to as many gigs as he could. Look, I get the appeal of tribute acts. It’s your chance to see a favourite artist that doesn’t tour anymore or band who have long since split up. Or it might just be that you can’t afford to see the real thing – look at the Oasis reunion ticket prices. Despite all this though, the audience for the Shania tribute was more like a cult. I was begging for the next song to be the last but they kept on coming. She was still on stage 45 minutes after the show was advertised to have finished. Now that, that didn’t impress me much. At all.

Now we have the next chapter in the strange and short story of N–Tyce. Strange and short? Well, yes. Undeniably short in that they were only around for about a year, four singles and one album. And strange ? Yes, in that, despite being around in a time when all female bands were in the ascendancy with the likes of Spice Girls, All Saints and Eternal all being mega successful, N-Tyce never had a bigger hit than No 12 and their one and only album flopped meaning they’ve become almost forgotten. Said No 12 hit was “We Come To Party” and the follow up was this – “Telefunkin” – which peaked at No 16. It seems to be extolling the delights of phoning an x-rated chat line even quoting a number – 0589 – which, according to AI, could be a postal code for Oslo, a specific product code for Anchor Freccia 6 yarn or the Armenian Full Stop Unicode character. Hmm. Guess they just made it up then. As for their band name, they kind of got undermined by Justin Timberlake featuring American boy band NSYNC who were around at the same time.

Next an exercise in cold, hard, cynical musical exploitation. I’ve no idea who Rest Assured were and I have no desire to find out but their only hit – “Treat Infamy” – was all about that string part in The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony” which is recycled here to create a very different type of track. Starting off with some rapid bpm it reaches a crescendo before there’s a breakdown halfway through and those familiar strings emerge into the mix. Jayne Middlemiss attempted to explain the history behind the strings part in her intro but to clarify, The Verve recreated (not sampled) the strings from an orchestral version of “The Last Time” by the Rolling Stones performed by their producer Andrew Loog Oldham’s orchestra on a 1965 LP. As the song’s publisher’s proved source of origin for The Verve track, a writing credit had to given to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and it also meant that the band didn’t own that part of their best known song meaning that it could be sampled by any old Tom, Dick or Harry like Rest Assured.

Now that’s out of the way, back to “Treat Infamy” and after the jolt of the mid-track breakdown came the shock and horror of one of the people on stage bursting into song. Well, speaking is a more accurate description. Speaking in time maybe? I certainly wouldn’t call it rapping. And what does he say? Nothing of any consequence. Something about his life being incomplete, a knowing reference to the Rolling Stones and then a weak play on words that he possibly stole from Carry On Cleo…patra comin’ atcha!

By the late 90s, the idea of soap opera actors becoming pop stars was nothing new. Indeed, it was almost expected. In 1998 though, we at least had someone try it from a soap that had yet to dip its toe in the warm waters of the charts. Chester-based show Hollyoaks was still relatively new by soap standards having only been around for two and a half years and I have to admit to having watched it on and off in that time. One of its original characters was Jambo played by Will Mellor. A mixture of Jack-the-lad and unconventional romantic, he’s gone down well with the show’s fledgling audience and, bolstered by that reaction, Mellor made the decision to quit Hollyoaks and make a bid for pop stardom. Inevitably, he (or his label) chose a cover version with which to launch him settling on Leo Sayer’s 1977 No 1 “When I Need You”. It was both a sensible and uninspiring choice.

Perhaps surprisingly, Mellor crashed into the charts at No 5 earning himself this TOTP appearance in the process. He gives it the whole pained, tortured artist turn with a vocal that’s maybe just the wrong side of nasally but he didn’t look totally out of place on the BBC’s flagship pop music show. Now, Will seems like a decent sort from what I’ve seen of him but back in 1998 he was definitely on my personal black list. Why? Because the weekend following the release of his single, he decided that, as a Stockport lad, he’d have a stroll into the town’s shopping centre Merseyway…where I worked at the Our Price store. And yes, he decided to pop in for a browse of the racks. Dressed every inch like the pop star he thought himself to be including shades on indoors, he proceeded to cause quite the stir as Stockport’s teenage female population realised who he was. I’m pretty damned sure this was all deliberate on Will’s part and frankly, I could have done without it on a busy Saturday afternoon. Didn’t he have proper promotional duties to perform? On reflection though, Will was only 21 at the time and who wouldn’t have been tempted to stroll out in your local town as a newly anointed pop star if you had the chance. His music career lasted just one more minor hit single before he returned to acting in hit series Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps and more recently as sub-postmaster Lee Castleton in Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

Celine Dion has been toppled after just one week at the head of the charts and her vanquisher was one of the most unlikely of all the decades No 1 artists. Cornershop were formed in Leicester in 1991 by Tjinder Singh and drew inspiration for their sound from Singh’s experience as a British-born Sikh, fusing Punjabi music with British indie rock. After two albums and a clutch of singles and EPs were released to critical acclaim but lame sales, third album “When I Was Born For The 7th Time” appeared headed by lead single “Brimful Of Asha”. Despite achieving their highest chart position yet of No 60 and topping John Peel’s Festive 50 chart when initially released in 1997, this was hardly the limousine life of global pop stars stuff. Enter Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim whose Big Beat remix of the track made it an instant dance floor classic with its increased bpm and mix of samples (including one from The Monkees I’ve learned subsequently).

So what was “Brimful Of Asha” all about? We all know the answer to this one by now don’t we? OK, for those arriving late and cramming in at the back, the title refers to Asha Bhosle, the legendary playback singer of Indian film culture who would pre-record the vocals for song and dance numbers for the actors to lip sync to. She has recorded over 12,000 songs making her the most recorded artist in music history as acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records. Her title of ‘Sadi Rani’ (Punjabi for ‘Our Queen’) is also referenced in the lyrics alongside other playback singers, some record labels and the name of a T-Rex compilation album which presumably all had some significance for Tjinder Singh.

So, the other question that looms large is why were the band not performing the Norman Cook remix version of the track on this TOTP? After all, that’s the version that was being played in the clubs and on the radio that made it a hit second time around? Was it that they didn’t know what to do with themselves in the studio with a speeded up bpm? Whatever the reason, it seems odd to pass up the opportunity to promote the song on what was still a sizeable platform despite all the show’s then difficulties. Oh, and the band’s name? That came from the perceived stereotype of South Asians owning corner shops which puts me in mind of the classic Goodness Gracious Me sketch where they brilliantly subverted the ‘going for a curry’ stereotype…

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Cleopatra	Cleopatra’s Theme	Nah
2	Ocean Colour Scene / P.P. Arnold	It’s A Beautiful Thing	Nope
3	Another Level	Be Alone No More	Never
4	Shania Twain	You’re Still The One	Double Never
5	N-Tyce	Telefunkin	Negative
6	Rest Assured	Treat Infamy	Not my thing at all
7	Will Mellor	When I Need You	As if
8	Cornershop	Brimful Of Asha	YES!

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/m002g807/top-of-the-pops-27021998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 20 FEB 1998

Posted on July 31 by 80stastic

There seems to have been a clear decision by Executive Producer Chris Cowey to big up the recent BRIT Awards for this show, presumably to promote a connection between TOTP and what was then a huge brand. Indeed, the BRITS was enjoying a massive media presence in the mid to late 90s with controversy after controversy occurring. 1996 saw the Jarvis Cocker/Michael Jackson incident whilst 1997 gave us Geri Halliwell’s iconic Union Jack dress and her wardrobe malfunction. 1998 delivered another huge moment when Chumbawamba’s Danbert Nobacon poured a jug of water over Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott who was in the audience. Cowey didn’t seem to what to distance himself from such behaviour though and so the first three acts on tonight’s show are all BRIT winners. Our host is Jo Whiley and we start with the person named the best British Female Solo Artist gong Shola Ama. In all honesty and with the greatest respect to those nominated, it wasn’t packed with stellar names that year (I’m possibly doing Lisa Stansfield a disservice here) but you can only beat who’s in front of you as the saying goes. I never really understood all the fuss about Shola who undoubtedly could sing pretty well but was that enough? The fact that her most famous hit was a cover version which was pretty faithful to the original also undermined her credibility for me. Still, here she was with the title track of her debut album which was her fourth hit on the trot. “Much Love” was a competent R&B/soul number but I would have thought that you might need somebody who had a little more to them than that to be declared ‘The Best’. Sorry Shola. Much love and all that.

Our next BRIT winner are Stereophonics who collected the award for Best British Breakthrough Act beating the likes of All Saints (themselves two times winners on the night) and my personal faves Embrace. The award was presented by Jo Whiley (and actor Max Beesley) so there’s a nice sense of continuity with her introducing them on this TOTP. After three Top 40 hits in 1997, a rerelease of their debut single to cash in on their BRIT award success was always likely and so “Local Boy In The Photograph” would become the band’s then highest charting song when it peaked at No 14 having initially stalled at No 51. A fan favourite to this day, you can hear why as this is a mighty tune. Perfectly showcasing Kelly Jones’s knack for creating vignettes of small town life – this one with a tragic twist chronicling the suicide of a teenager from his youth – it’s powerful guitar sound supplies a driving intensity that is the perfect complement to its lyrics. Jones’s capacity for storytelling shouldn’t have been a surprise as he had pursued a parallel career as a scriptwriter, even sending off some of his creations to the BBC who recognised his potential by paying him enough to purchase his first computer. However, music was always Jones’s first love and when the band were signed there was no turning back. Word had got around about the Stereophonics.

Oh this is just silly now and clearly a case of opportunism. Having won BRIT Awards for British Single and British Video of the year for “Never Ever”, Chris Cowey couldn’t resist sneaking in one final appearance of All Saints performing the ubiquitous track to further that link between TOTP and the BRITS. What number was this now? Nine? I’ve lost count and have certainly lost my words to say anything more about this one other than it’s so shoehorned into the running order here that it doesn’t get an intro from Whiley (and just the briefest of mentions in the outro) and it’s just a re-showing of one of those other eight or so previous performances. What a swizz!

That’s the BRITS winners done with and so we move onto another new(ish) guitar band that appeared in the post-Britpop era. Hurricane #1 had their origins in shoegaze outfit Ride whose Andy Bell (yes, that Andy Bell, the latterly Oasis bass player) was the driving force behind them. Similar to Stereophonics, they’d also had a trio of minor hits the previous year but would begin 1998 with their biggest hit to date. “Only The Strongest Will Survive” was the title track of their second album and is a nifty little tune that puts me in mind of another lost 90s band The Lemon Trees. It’s actually a softer sound than I remembered them as having – maybe their band name was playing tricks with my mind. As I recall, they were tipped for great things but it never quite happened for them (despite being signed to Creation) after said second album failed to sell in any meaningful way and the band split up. They did reform in 2014 without Bell and have been prolific in releasing new material with four albums made in just eight years. As for Bell, after being in Oasis for ten years he followed Liam Gallagher into Beady Eye before concentrating on a solo career and doing soundtrack work. Then came that announcement on 24 August 2024…

There seemed to be something going on with TOTP and male guitar bands this week. After Stereophonics and Hurricane # 1 earlier, here comes another one and it doesn’t stop with The Lilys either but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Yes, you read that right – The Lilys and no, I don’t remember them either. Despite having been around since 1988 and having a list of past band members to rival The Fall and The Waterboys, this No 16 hit “A Nanny In Manhattan” seems to be their only 15 minutes of fame in nigh on 40 years.

Within the show’s predilection for guitar bands this week, there appears to be a sub genre which is ‘guitar bands who had a song used in an advert’. What am I talking about? Well, Hurricane # 1 had “Only The Strongest Will Survive” used in an ad campaign for The Sun newspaper and The Lilys were the 1998 recipients of the Levi’s Jeans advert golden chalice although it proved to be more of the poisoned variety. The Washington DC band must have thought that the good times had arrived when their song was chosen to soundtrack the latest Levi’s advert directed by Roman Coppola but they couldn’t replicate the success of the likes of Stiltskin, Babylon Zoo and Freak Power*.

*Did you notice Jo Whiley pull a face when she name checked those bands in her intro? This from the woman who would present a show on the musical significance of The Teletubbies if it kept her on TV!

Listening to “A Nanny In Manhattan”, I’m not surprised. What a racket! I know I’m a very middle aged man now but even 27 years ago I would have hated this if I’d been aware of it. Their Wikipedia page says that they earned a reputation for copying the styles of other artists down the years but I’m not sure who they were trying to sound like here. A shite version of The Strokes three years before they were a thing? Frontman Kurt Heasley seems to think he’s in The Byrds whilst the bass player has cultivated the type of facial hair that was last seen on Mr. Claypole in Rentaghost. I think I’d rather watch Dobbin the pantomime horse curl one out on stage. Gadzooks!

French electronic music was a bit of a thing around this time. First we had Daft Punk and before the end of the decade Cassius arrived. In between them came Air. The duo of Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin delivered their ‘Best Albums of the 90s’ list featuring “Moon Safari” collection three weeks before they’d even released a single from it which was surely the wrong way round in terms of promotion. Or maybe it wasn’t as “Sexy Boy” gave them a No 13 hit straight off the bat and what a classy track it was. All slinky rhythms and vocoder vocals, it brought sensual dance music to the charts. The problem here though was how to promote it as Dunckel and Godin, by their own admissions, weren’t classic pin up material (see box out below) but, in a bold move, they resisted the temptation to get some male models in to be the titular “sexy boys” and just fronted it out themselves with a pair of keyboards and a band of slacker dudes behind them. Bravo chaps!

“The song was about who we wanted to be; we weren’t handsome when we were younger; our friends always had more success with girls.” #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) July 25, 2025

“Moon Safari” would be a huge hit in the UK going double platinum with 600,000 sales (one of which was to my wife) whilst Air would enjoy a career of success, critical acclaim and longevity. How though, did I manage to think they were singing “sexy body” for years?

It’s time for that final male guitar band on the show and is it just me or is Jo Whiley’s intro to them a bit odd? She refers to The Bluetones as “one of our brightest hopes for ‘98”. What’s wrong with that you might ask? Well, on the one hand…nothing. Having been one of the breakout stars of 1996 with platinum selling, No 1 album “Expecting To Fly”, much would have been anticipated of their sophomore album “Return To The Last Chance Saloon”. And yet…the phrase “brightest hopes for…” suggests a brand new artist doesn’t it? Not one that is pretty well established already no? Well, semantics aside, sadly for the band, Jo’s hopes were dashed and their album title proved to be prophetic as it underperformed significantly compared to its predecessor and although lead single “Solomon Bites The Worm” would debut at No 10, it would be the last of their four consecutive Top 10 hits and indeed last ever. Although on first hearing it advances at you all robust and angular with that twangy guitar rift, it seems to be all posturing and no substance to me. There’s not much to it although Wikipedia informs me it is based upon the English nursery rhyme “Solomon Grundy” which reads:

Solomon Grundy,
Born on a Monday,
Christened on Tuesday,
Married on Wednesday,
Took ill on Thursday,
Worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday,
Buried on Sunday.
This is the end
Of Solomon Grundy

James Orchard Halliwell, 1842

“Solomon Bites The Worm” apes those words and structure about the cradle to the grave concept but to be honest, there’s another song that does that much better…

The Bluetones would release two more singles from the album to diminishing returns but would return in 2000 with perhaps their best song “Keep The Home Fires Burning” and are still a touring entity to this day.

Right, what on earth was going on here. Why was a song that had been in the charts solidly for three months including seven weeks in the Top 20 only just appearing on TOTP when it had peaked and was going down the charts? Seriously, what happened here? Was this actually the first time that Lutricia McNeal had been on the show? Why was she not on in late November/early December ‘97 when “Ain’t That Just The Way” debuted inside the Top 10? Even if Lutricia wasn’t available in person (it was a hit all over Europe so she may have been on promotional duties) why wasn’t the video shown? Explain yourself Chris Cowey!*

*I’m not counting the fact that it was used to soundtrack the Top 20 countdown for a minute or so one week

Anyway, “Ain’t That Just The Way” was originally a 1975 B-side to Barbi Benton’s single “The Reverend Bob” (and featured in an episode of TV series McCloud!) but it was reactivated by Lutricia two decades later to launch her solo career after being the singer with Swedish rap duo Rob’n’Raz. It transcends both the dance and pop markets with its beats and singalong chorus which might explain its wide appeal and ability to hang around the charts for so long. Or maybe I’m just talking crap. Lutricia will be back in the charts again in a few weeks with another hit “Stranded” which, like its predecessor, would also hang around for months. Wonder if Chris Cowey will allow that one on the show?

We have arrived at one of the biggest selling hits of the decade – “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion which, of course, was from the film Titanic. What to say about this monster hit? Well, it was a No 1 in just about every country in every territory and sold 18 million copies worldwide. It’s racked up 728 million streams in the US. It won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, four Grammys…like the song itself, it goes on and on. However, the comment I’d most like to make about it is that it’s dreadful. Awful. Horrible. The only saving grace in all these facts about its commercial success is that it wasn’t actually the best selling single of 1998 in the UK. That was…well, we’ll come to that in a future post. That and the fact that somehow it was only No 1 over here for two non-consecutive weeks although it did spend nine weeks on the trot inside the Top 3. And that’s all I’m saying about it at this time. Unlike Celine’s heart, I won’t go on.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Shola Ama	Much Love	Negative
2	Stereophonics	Local Boy In The Photograph	No but I had the album
3	All Saints	Never Ever	No
4	Hurricane #1	Only The Strongest Will Survive	Nah
5	The Lilys	A Nanny In Manhattan	Hell no
6	Air	Sexy Boy	No but my wife had the album
7	The Bluetones	Solomon Bites The Worm	I did not
8	Lutricia McNeal	Ain’t That Just The Way	Nope
9	Celine Dion	My Heart Will Go On	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/m002g805/top-of-the-pops-20021998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 13 FEB 1998

Posted on July 30 by 80stastic

It’s mid February 1998 and my beloved Chelsea have just sacked our manager Ruud Gullit! What?! The guy that just took us to our first major trophy win in 26 years and he’s been got rid of just nine months later?! What the hell was going on?! Well, much was speculated back then and since but my take is that Ruud wanted two contracts – one as a player and one as a manager which chairman Ken Bates balked at. When discussing how much said contracts would be worth, Gullit talked in net figures as opposed to gross (“I always talk netto” he famously quipped) which further put Uncle Ken’s nose out of joint. Add to these issues the idea that Bates just thought Ruud was too flash and disliked him and the legendary Dutchman was out on his ear. It was a huge story when it broke which although it shocked and saddened me, also made me realise that Chelsea were a big deal again after years in the shadows. Indeed, they were second in the league and in the quarter finals of two cup competitions at the point that Gullit got the bullet. My anguish was assuaged by the appointment of another footballing legend as his replacement – Gianluca Vialli -who would ironically become player-manager and deliver four trophies in his two and a half year tenure. I wonder if any of the acts on this episode of TOTP deserved the boot because it just wasn’t working out?

Nobody would want to get rid of the guy opening the show would they? Errol Brown, the front man of Hot Chocolate and the singer of all those classic hits? He always seemed so…well…nice. Nice he may have been but he’d also left Hot Chocolate over a decade before and whilst his former band members carried on without him (I know – without Errol, what was the point?), Brown was fronting his own version of Hot Chocolate for the nostalgia circuit. Maybe there was some tension there which might explain the confusion over the latest of the band’s revivals. After racking up their final UK Top 40 hit fourteen years prior (they were the only band to have a hit in every year between 1970 and 1984), there had been a relaunch of the band and a Greatest Hits package in 1987, 1993 and 1997. They’d been based around their hits “You Sexy Thing” and “It Started With A Kiss” and it’s that song which got another rerelease in 1998.

That last revival had seen the aforementioned “You Sexy Thing” become a No 6 hit in the November of 1997 and TOTP mysteriously billed it as being a solo single by Errol Brown when he appeared on the show even though it was officially (and correctly) by Hot Chocolate. However, the 1998 release of “It Started With A Kiss” was credited to Hot Chocolate featuring Errol Brown so what was going on there? Some contractual/naming rights shenanigans? Who knows? What is clear is that this performance saw Errol give a stripped back, almost acoustic version of the song which loses that lush, smooth production of the original for me. Also, the studio audience sat round him in a semi circle clapping along is giving me Blue Peter vibes which can’t be right on TOTP surely? My lasting memory of “It Started With A Kiss” though is of hearing it played on Radio 1 back in 1982 when it was first a hit and when Errol sang “You don’t remember me do you?”, Steve Wright chiming in with “Yeah, Errol, bald head, does a bit of singing now and again. I remember you” or words to that effect. How I laughed.

Hire or Fire? It has to be hire for Errol

Look out! It’s Cleopatra comin’ atcha! Yes, we have arrived at the time when three teenage sisters from Manchester were going to be the next big thing. However, a flurry of initial success lasted less time than the milk in the their Egyptian namesake’s bath before going sour. Hailing from the infamous Moss Side area, Cleo, Yonah and Zainam Higgins burst into our lives with that catchphrase and a No 3 debut single in “Cleopatra’s Theme”. Early labelling in the press as a UK, female Hanson was as lazy as it was obvious but three Top 5 hits in 1998 earned them BRIT and MOBO Awards nominations. Not only that but they were signed to Madonna’s Maverick label in the US where exposure on the Nickelodeon and Disney channels gave them a sizeable hit single and an album that sold 300,000 copies. They even toured with the Spice Girls and performed at the Vatican Christmas Carol Concert at the request of the Pope! What?! They had their own sitcom TV series on CITV! Maybe they were a big deal. Somehow though, none of this could sustain the group. A record company restructure resulted in a lack of promotion for their first single of the new millennium and a second album went unreleased in the UK. The group’s death knell came not by the bite of an asp but by Warner wanting to promote Cleo as a solo star and Cleopatra were no more. They did appear in ITV’s 2005 Hit Me, Baby, One More Time TV series but they couldn’t best Chesney Hawkes and didn’t make the final. Similarly, Cleo appeared on the second series of The Voice UK but bowed out in the semi-finals.

So why didn’t Cleopatra become global superstars with some longevity? Over exposure maybe? The appeal of their act had a built in time limit? Or perhaps their songs weren’t good enough? Watching them perform on this TOTP, I was expecting their hit to be…well…better but it doesn’t really go anywhere for me. The hooks don’t quite bite – not compared to the aforementioned Hanson’s “MMMBop” certainly – and all that spelling out their name letter by letter I found tedious. Another person who found Cleopatra tedious was the mother at the centre of a tale an ex-work colleague once told me. On a Saturday afternoon in Hull on the infamous Hessle Road, she overheard said mother say to her daughter who was unbelievably called Cleopatra, “Oi Cleopatra! Pack it in or I’ll twat ya!”. Only in Hull.

Hire or Fire? Sorry girls – it’s P45 time.

OK – just what is going on with presenter Jayne Middlemiss’s hair? It started off fairly coiffured and styled but just two songs in, it’s become loose and out of place as if she’s been head-banging down the front of the stage to…who? Cleopatra? Errol Brown? Can’t be surely? If that sounds a bit sexist, commenting on a woman’s look, I didn’t intend that obviously. It’s just that it had noticeably changed in a short space of time and piqued my attention.

Erm…on with the music I think. Who remembers Headswim? No, not me though looking at the cover of their second album “Despite Yourself”, that rang a few bells but I couldn’t have told you what they sounded like. Well, what they did sound like was Radiohead wannabes it transpires if their only hit “Tourniquet” was anything to go by. Radiohead but just not as good. Radiotails maybe. It’s all very angsty and doom laden with searing guitars and tortured vocals but it doesn’t really take me with it somehow.

That second album was recorded after the death of the brother of the band’s Daniel and Tom Glendining so maybe its sound is understandable but it still doesn’t make it any more listenable. The album failed to sell in any significant way and the band were dropped by label Epic. The members of Headswim pursued new musical ambitions with various other projects and even played a one off gig in 2022 to promote the rerelease of debut album “Flood” but there has been nothing from the band since.

Hire or Fire? I think Epic had the right idea

P.S. If I wanted a song that mentioned tourniquets in it, then I’d go for this:

Remember in the late 80s and early 90s when there was a trend for classic hits from the 70s to be reactivated by inserting a nasty, clunky backbeat into the mix and making them palatable to the club generation? I’m thinking of Quartz covering Carole King’s “It’s Too Late”, Black Box taking on Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Fantasy”, Snap!’s revisiting of the Gap Band with “Oops Up” and Fresh 4 (featuring Liz E) hijacking Rose Royce’s “Wishing On A Star”. Well, that final track was raided again in 1998 by rising-star-soon-to-be-legend Jay–Z. Admittedly, he didn’t come up with a horrible dance version but rather he remade it with a hip-hop/ rap twist AND, in a boost of credibility, he persuaded original vocalist Gwen Dickey to do the singing on it for him. However, despite being named in the intro by Jayne Middlemiss, when she declares “here’s Jay-Z…” and the camera pans to Gwen with no sign of the rapper, it looks odd. Eventually, we get a glimpse of him via the three giant screens behind Gwen which feature him rapping his sections thus reuniting the two but it doesn’t quite pull it off visually for me.

As for the track it’s basically Gwen doing a retread through the chorus of her old hit with Jay-Z rapping the verses when he references missing his homies, getting his shit together and, in an unexpected twist, about being interrupted by a chicken he used to cluck with. I presume he means a female acquaintance he used to hang out with? It would peak at No 13 but “Wishing On A Star” would continue to be covered by the likes of Jay-Z’s partner Beyoncé, Seal, Paul Weller and even The X Factor 2011 finalists featuring One Direction and JLS.

Hire or Fire? The original is great but I can live without a hip-hop version thanks

I know I say this all the time in this blog but this next hit I genuinely do not remember. No, it’s not just that I can’t recall it from the dusty recesses of my mind but rather that there is just nothing there at all – as if it never existed. Seriously, it’s like watching it for the very first time but 27 years after the event. Wes was Wes Madiko, a Cameroonian musician who’d worked with French ambient artists Deep Forest and who toured the globe with his brand of world music whilst also highlighting the plight of suffering children. He was a stand-up guy basically. His hit “Alane” was an exuberant and joyful blast of African chants in the Duala language of Cameroon set to an infectious dance beat which puts me in mind of The Lion King. And guess what, Wes contributed a track to the soundtrack of The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride. “Alane” would be his only UK hit and he would sadly die in 2021 aged just 57.

Hire or Fire? I’m saying hire on this one. I might not have know it before but it was a pleasant surprise

After Headswim earlier, here was another band who were hardly your cheesy, TOTP charts stars of yore. I was pretty slow on the uptake when it came to Spiritualized. Although my groovy record shop colleagues were definitely into this lot, all I knew about them was that they had an album out that came in really annoying and impractical packaging that was a nightmare to display in the store. Initial copies of the band’s third album “Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space” came in a box designed to resemble prescription medicine with a booklet containing dosage advice and the CD housed in foil blister packaging! I don’t think I could get past that literally nor metaphorically to get to the actual music. As such, I missed out on the NME’s album of 1997 (as referenced by Jayne Middlemiss in her intro) and its attendant singles the second of which was “I Think I’m In Love”. This earthy, organic, almost hypnotic track wasn’t your standard late 90s chart hit and thank heavens for that. Despite it essentially being just a list of clever word play, it had an authenticity to it that I couldn’t detect in Headswim which sounds mad given that they were writing about personal experience of death. Ah the vagaries of subjectivity when it comes to musical choice.

Anyway, I finally cottoned onto Spiritualized when they released the marvellous “Stop Your Crying” in 2001 after I’d left record shops behind me and become a civil servant*. Parent album “Let It Come Down” was purchased off the back of it as were tickets to see them live in York where I was then living and they made a huge sound as I recall. The band are still together (though I think front man Jason Pierce is the only constant member) and they released their ninth studio album in 2022.

*That was a culture shock and I clearly won’t be writing a blog about that!

Hire or Fire? Definitely a job offer being made to this lot

Ah shite. It’s the Backstreet Boys again with their piss weak ballad “All I Have To Give”. We saw this a few weeks back as a pre-release exclusive I think and it’s gone into the charts at No 2 this week and so is back on again. It’s just a reshowing of that first performance which means they’re all sat down on directors chairs. Presumably Louis Walsh was watching at home and used this appearance as a blueprint for every performance by Westlife. Ever.

Hire or Fire? I’m firing all five of their asses!

The Middlemiss bonce has lurched from sleek to slack during the show but it’s back under control again as she introduces the No 1 song this week – “Doctor Jones” by Aqua. Not a lot else to say about this one other than that the contrast in voices between singer Lene Nystrøm and her bald male counterpart René Dif is the most striking on the show since Marcella Detroit and Siobhan Fahey took to the stage as Shakespears Sister. Also, the name Jones does seem to turn up in a fair few songs. Apart from “Doctor Jones”, there’s this lot for starters off the top of my head:

“Mr. Jones” – Counting Crows
“Me and Mrs. Jones” – Billy Paul
“Jones Vs. Jones” – Kool And The Gang
“Janie Jones” – The Clash

Any others?

Hire or Fire? It’s the old tin tack for Aqua

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Hot Chocolate featuring Errol Brown	It Started With A Kiss	Didn’t happen
2	Cleopatra	Cleopatra’s Theme	Not for me
3	Headswim	Tourniquet	Nah
4	Jay-Z / Gwen Dickey	Wishing On A Star	Negative
5	Wes	Alane	Nope
6	Spiritualized	I Think I’m In Love	I did not
7	Backstreet Boys	All I Have To Give	As if
8	Aqua	Doctor Jones	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/m002fzcb/top-of-the-pops-13021998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 06 FEB 1998

Posted on July 24 by 80stastic

After a few weeks hiatus due to the BBC’s coverage of Glastonbury and Wimbledon, we’re back with the 1998 TOTP repeats again. I can’t say I missed them which might sound a perverse thing to say from someone who has devoted over eight years of their life to blogging about them but hear me out. Firstly, after publishing over 700 posts in that time, I welcome any break from the relentless writing. Secondly, I have the feeling that 1998 wasn’t a vintage year for the UK charts and that we might be about to endure some hits of dubious quality at best (i.e. some right old shite). Let’s see if my fears are realised in this episode…

Tonight’s host is Zoe Ball who I’m not the biggest fan of but she seems like a safe pair of hands here. Someone who wasn’t exhibiting safe hands was Executive Producer Chris Cowey who has brought back that crap idea again of featuring the song that was last week’s No 1 as the first song of tonight’s show meaning that effectively the same hit is played back to back seven days apart. I might have fallen for what Cowey no doubt thought was a clever ruse back then but watching these repeats nearly 30 years on it seems plain daft. The fortunate recipient of this additional exposure this time is Usher whose “You Make Me Wanna” track lasted just a solitary week at No 1 before being deposed by…well, we’ll get to that in due time.

As for Usher, he’s determined to take off as many clothes as the BBC censors will allow pre-watershed although he maybe should have practiced a bit more first as he struggles to remove his silver padded jacket which he then flings to the floor. What happened to said jacket as it’s nowhere to be seen as the performance progresses – presumably it was snaffled away by a studio audience member. Did they get to keep it or did security make them return it to Usher. I mean, they didn’t even ask for it nicely with one of those annoying ‘Can I have your shirt?’ placards that are ubiquitous at elite football matches these days. By the end of the performance, Usher is naked from the waist up although, as Joe Cocker and, indeed, Tom Jones nearly sang, he did keep his hat on. That’s alright then.

Some proper music from a proper singer next. Much was made back in the day of Carleen Anderson’s musical family heritage* (Zoe Ball even makes a reference to it here) but Carleen’s own personal musical career took in many a familiar name. She’s worked with Omar, on Guru’s “Jazzmatazz: Volume 1” album, Incognito, Brand New Heavies, Jocelyn Brown and yes Zoe, Paul Weller. Of course, she came to prominence with acid jazz pioneers Young Disciples in 1991 with their Mercury Prize nominated album “Road To Freedom” before striking out in her own with solo album “True Spirit” which sold 60,000 copies in the UK and supplied her with four Top 40 singles.

*Carleen’s family tree included:

Her Mum was Vicky Anderson, a singer with the James Brown Revue.
Her stepfather was Bobby Byrd, the R&B, soul/ funk legend and James Brown band mate.
The ‘Godfather of Soul’ himself was Carleen’s actual godfather

Leading the way for her second album was a cover of Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed” which I hadn’t realised until now had never been released as a Macca single (though a live version by Wings was a minor hit in 1977). This is a fantastic track, perhaps one of McCartney’s best, and Carleen does it justice with her version complete with soaring vocal (is it live in this performance?). However, on reflection, it doesn’t have the feel of a single in 1998 somehow. A highlight of Later with…Jools Holland yes, or even his New Year’s Hootenanny show but just not a Top 40 single. The trippy graphics behind Carleen give it the feel of a performance on Channel 4’s notorious late night show The Word but surely Carleen was too classy to have appeared on that (I haven’t checked by the way).

This would prove to be Carleen’s final UK hit and she now has followed a different direction pioneering a new cultural form called “Opus Griot”, a blend of singing, poetry, storytelling and the use of MI.MU Gloves, a new gesture-controlled digital instrument developed by Imogen Heap. As for “Maybe I’m Amazed”, it continues to be covered by artists such as Marc Cohn, Thomas Lang and Billy Joel. Oh and if you play it backwards, you’ll hear a recipe for a really ripping lentil soup…

How does one describe Saint Etienne? It’s a legitimate question I feel as they certainly embraced the eclectic ethic more than most. It’s also a question that will be revisited this year I’m guessing as the band have announced that their forthcoming album “International” will be their last. No doubt this will usher (no, not him!) in retrospective articles in the music press reassessing their career. Indeed, there is one in the latest edition of the excellent Classic Pop magazine which has an interview with the trio at its heart.

My own personal experience of the band started…well, at the start I guess with their dance version of Neil Young’s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” which was perfect for coming-down play lists with its aching sorrowfulness. It wasn’t a massive hit (No 39) but many of my hipper Our Price colleagues at the time loved it and it was heavily played on the shop stereo. Indeed, my wife liked it so much she bought the band’s debut album “Foxbase Alpha”. The natural progression from this was to see them live which we did in Manchester Academy but it wasn’t a fulfilling experience. Heavily reliant on backing tapes, they played for just 43 minutes and left the stage with Sarah Cracknell delivering the line “We’re not a rock band. We don’t do encores” and they were, indeed, gone. It wasn’t all bad though – the support band were Pulp who were excellent.

As the 90s progressed, Saint Etienne were almost prolific in their output which the stat of four albums in seven years attests to. They’d even accrued enough material for a Best Of album by the midpoint of the decade. Although some of their best known songs seem to be infused with an overt pop sensibility (“You’re In A Bad Way”, “He’s On The Phone”), they truly did span the musical genres. 1994’s “Tiger Bay” explored folk electronica whilst last year’s “The Night” was all about the understated and ambient. Then there’s their actual soundtrack albums. It really is wide ranging stuff. By 1998, they were back in that pop groove with the album “Good Humor” albeit of a more acoustic variety. Lead single “Sylvie” returned them to that classic Saint Etienne sound though – a stylish and catchy tale of sibling love rivalry. Some of its lyrics were a bit trite though rhyming ‘September’ with ‘remember’ and ‘person’ with ‘flirtin’. It would peak at No 12 thus maintaining their record of never having had a Top 10 hit. That run would remain unbroken*, something that Sarah Cracknell admits in that Classic Pop magazine interview remains a regret.

*I’m not counting 1991 No 8 hit “7 Ways To Love” under the guise of Cola Boy nor 2000’a collaboration with Paul van Dyk on “Tell Me Why (The Riddle)”

That last album should arrive in September this year and features guest appearances from the likes of Vince Clarke and the Greatest Living Englishman Nick Heyward so it should be well worth checking out.

By the end of the 90s, it felt like Will Smith was permanently in the charts with a succession of catchy, dance/rap numbers that were based on samples of classic hits from back in the day. Starting with “Men In Black” in 1997 (and omitting the outlier minor hit “Just Cruisin’”), he had a run of six singles that peaked at either No 1, No 2 or No 3. “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” was the second in that run and was primarily based around Sister Sledge’s 70s disco classic “He’s The Greatest Dancer”. The lyrics, which, incidentally, some people believe were written by rapper Nas and not Smith, include the line:

“Met Ali he told me I’m the greatest”

Written by: Bernard Edwards / Joe Robinson / Nile Rodgers / Samuel Barnes / Will Smith.

How prescient. Smith would play the boxing legend in the 2001 biopic Ali. Anyway, “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” was a perfect example of the successful formula that Smith had hit upon and he would run with it for all it was worth. However, what did it actually mean to ‘get jiggy with it’? I presumed it was a euphemism for the sexual act but according to Wikipedia, the term was originally a description of sexy fashion or style that was expanded to include dancing skills. As for Smith himself, he saw the use of ‘jiggy’ in the lyrics as an opportunity for racial empowerment as he associated it with the ethnic slur ‘jigaboo’ which popularised the folk-myth of an innate sense of rhythm in people of colour. In essence, it was claiming the phrase back.

The video was suitably grandiose being filmed at various Las Vegas hotels with scenes including Ancient Egypt imagery, volcanoes and ultimately a Statue of Liberty replica. The money and effort put into the promo was rewarded with an MTV award for Best Rap video. We’ll be seeing a lot more of Mr. Smith before these 90s TOTP repeats are through.

I’m totally out of my comfort zone on this next one as TOTP goes freestyle…literally. Freestylers are a British electronic group whose sound is so eclectic it makes Saint Etienne seem like fuddy duddy, dyed-in-the-wool traditionalists. Encompassing elements of breakbeat, big beat, trip hop, acid house and electro house, they are the trio Matt Cantor, Aston Harvey and MC SirReal. Looking at that list of sub genres of dance music, you may understand my comment about being out of my pop/rock comfort zone. I wasn’t the only one though. Zoe Ball was as well although she tries to convince us that she knows what she’s talking about in her intro where she refers to them as the “freesty-laaas”. That faux patois is undermined though by her pronunciation of the word “dancing” as “darncing”. And I thought you were a safe pair of hands Zoe!

Anyway, back to the Freestylers who are joined on this their debut hit “B-Boy Stance” by Tenor Fly who brings some ragga stylings to the mic (or something). It’s all very frenetic with the three breakdancers on stage twirling around on their arses adding to the spectacle/ looking ridiculous (delete as appropriate). To me, it seems very retro even in 1998 with the scratching of records and those “Brrrrrrrrrr” noises from Mr T. Fly. I love the fact though that the pasty, ginger haired bass player looks as un-hip-hop as it’s possible to be.

As with Will Smith’s earlier hit, the track’s title raised the question of what it actually meant (for me anyway). Apparently, it’s that arms-crossed, feet apart pose employed by breakdancers at the end of a routine which represents strength, defiance and the legacy of hip-hop (according to AI Overview anyway). “B-Boy Stance” would peak at No 23 but did it pave the way for an enormous hit later in the year that would become the UK’s third biggest selling single of 1998? I refer, of course, to “It’s Like That” by Run-D.M.C. vs Jason Nevins.

From out of my comfort zone to totally confused now as we get The Rolling Stones and their hit “Saint Of Me”. Before we get to my confusion though, a couple of points of order. What’s the deal with the little message to camera from Mick Jagger apologising for not being in the TOTP studio in person? Did anyone really expect them to be? Seems a bit unnecessary. Maybe it was part of the ‘Still No 1’ campaign whose tagline the hosts were made to trot out each week – “see, we can get names like Mick Jagger to do stuff for us because we’re still, you know, No 1”. Secondly, what was with the shot of the studio audience watching the promo video on a big screen? How did that help the watching millions at home have a better experience or indeed the song’s chances of increasing its sales?

Anyway, to my confused state of mind. I don’t recall this single though I remember the album it came from “Bridges To Babylon” – its cover at least. Consequently, I’ve had to rely on the internet for some info about it and everything I’ve found seems to suggest that this track was remixed by dance remix duo Deep Dish. This seems possible as the first single from the album – “Anybody Seen My Baby” – had been given the remix treatment by Armand Van Helden. Listening to it though, it doesn’t sound very dance influenced at all. Presumably there was a remix of it as an extra track on a CD single or the 12” format? This can’t be it surely? As for the song itself, it’s pleasant enough blues rock, the kind of which the Stones made their legend on with lots of religious imagery in the lyrics – a companion piece to “Sympathy For The Devil” maybe? To be honest though, it sounds like they were doing their best “Give Out But Don’t Give Up” era Primal Scream impression. Or was it the other way round? Ahem.

Wait…what?! Why are OTT back in the show?! I thought we’d done with this lot for the final time the other week? What? They’ve climbed one place from No 20 to No 19 with “The Story Of Love” after debuting at No 11 in its first week? That was enough to warrant another appearance? Damn you Chris Cowey!

Hands up who thought Aqua would be a one hit wonder?

*Blogger sheepishly raises his hand*

It was a fair assumption though. “Barbie Girl” was just about a novelty song so how could a career be carved out from that beginning? How wrong we all were. Not only did they have more hits but they completed a hat-trick of consecutive No1s. The second of those was “Doctor Jones”, another insanely catchy bubblegum pop track. The whole boy/girl cutesy thing was starting to get really annoying second time around and the “Ah-yippie-yi-ooh, ah-yippie-yi -yeah” lyric was brain rotting. Sadly, we would fall for it hook, line and sinker just as we had done for its predecessor. The UK record buying public was sick. Somebody should have called the doctor. Wake up now!

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Usher	You Make Me Wanna	I did not
2	Carleen Anderson	Maybe I’m Amazed	Negative
3	Saint Etienne	Sylvie	No
4	Will Smith	Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It	Nope
5	Freestylers	B-Boy Stance	Not my bag at all
6	The Rolling Stones	Saint Of Me	Nah
7	OTT	The Story Of Love	Of course not
8	Aqua	Doctor Jones	Away with you!

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/m002fzc7/top-of-the-pops-06021998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 30 JAN 1998

Posted on July 15 by 80stastic

It’s late January 1998 and Bill Clinton, the President of the United States of America, isn’t having a good week. Four days before this TOTP aired, he’d made his infamous “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” denial on TV to the world in the hope of quelling rumours of a sex scandal involving himself and White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

It would turn out that Bill’s definition of ‘sexual relations’ was different to the rest of the planet’s when he was impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Despite admitting months later that he had engaged in an “improper physical relationship” with Lewinsky, Clinton’s insisted that he had not given misleading evidence because he understood the definition of ‘sexual relations’ as given by the Independent Counsel’s Office to include giving oral sex but not receiving oral sex and therefore he had not engaged in sexual relations. Talk about splitting (pubic) hairs!* Somehow he got off the charges of impeachment and stayed in office but he did receive a fine for giving misleading testimony.

*Sorry!

Given that there is now a convicted felon in the White House (for the second time) who seems to be intent on declaring himself ‘King of America’, Clinton-Lewinsky-gate may have loss some of its scandalous reputation when seen through 2025 eyes but I guess that just shows how far the acceptable behaviour bar has been lowered by Trump. None of this has anything to do with good old, wholesome TOTP of course…or does it? I wonder if I can find some incredibly tenuous links…

Our host is Jayne Middlemiss and we start with…oh my God…not again! It can’t be “Never Ever” by All Saints again surely?! This is their eighth appearance on the show (including the Christmas Day episode) and they still have one more to go! Their first performance of “Never Ever” came on the 21 November 1997 and the last will be on 20 February 1998. That’s a time span of almost exactly three months. Three months! If that sounds ludicrous then there does seem to be an explanation which is that their hit spent 15 weeks inside the Top 10 of which only six were occasions when the record went down the chart. It was, in short, an absolute monster! Did it never occur to their record label London to delete the single so as to clear the way for their next release à la Dinah Carroll’s “Don’t Be A Stranger” or just so we could all move on with the rest of our lives as happened with Wet Wet Wet’s “Love Is All Around”? As it turned out, London and All Saints had their cake and ate it as follow up single “Under The Bridge/ Lady Marmalade” went to No 1 (on two separate occasions) anyway.

Clinton-Lewinsky connection: He “never, ever” had sexual relations with that woman (except he did)

Talking of follow ups to huge hit singles that hung around the charts for ages, here’s Chumbawamba trying to consolidate on the unexpected runaway success of “Tubthumping” with their next release “Amnesia”. I couldn’t have told you how this one went before re-hearing it but as soon as that “Do you suffer from long term memory loss?” line appeared in the hook, the sinker dropped and it all came flooding back. No amnesia for me! Although featuring another catchy chorus (delivered this time by Alice Nutter), it didn’t have the same immediate impact as its predecessor. It just didn’t have the same explosive energy – in fact, the verses were quite pedestrian. It was still commercial enough though to score the band a No 10 hit which was still quite remarkable for an anarcho-punk band formed in 1982.

“Amnesia” was written in response to the disparity between the promises of politicians and their actions once voted into power and the repeated lack of discernment of the electorate who put them there with particular inspiration coming from the band’s reaction to Tony Blair’s New Labour. Ten days after this TOTP was broadcast, there was a very visible and infamous rejection of New Labour when the band’s Danbert Nobacon poured a bucket of iced water over then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott at the BRIT Awards show. Ah, 1998 when the BRITS were still worth watching.

Clinton-Lewinsky connection: Oh brilliant! Check this out from the band’s Boff Whalley about “Amnesia”:

“People forget that what Bill Clinton before he gets elected is not what Bill Clinton will do when he’s in office and that’s not just about Bill Clinton, that’s about all politicians”

“Chumbawamba Talks About Political “Amnesia””. MTV. Viacom.

Still with those hits that had legs comes “Angels” by Robbie Williams which was in its eight week inside the Top 10 four of which had been spent at No 7 where it found itself again this week. Despite all that time in the chart and subsequent TOTP appearances, I don’t think I’ve yet addressed the issue of authorship surrounding this one. Now, we all know that Robbie’s early material was co-written with Guy Chambers who was originally in the criminally underrated and overlooked band The Lemon Trees before meeting Williams and, indeed, “Angels” is one of the songs that they wrote together – theirs are the names that are listed in the credits on the single and parent album. However, enter Irish singer-songwriter Ray Heffernan whom Robbie met in a short visit to Dublin in 1996 before the launch of his solo career. At the time, both men were heavy drinkers and, after a session in a bar, recorded a rough and incomplete version of a song Heffernan had played to Williams called “Angels Instead”.

On returning home, Robbie would take up with Guy Chambers and presented what he had of the early version of “Angels” and they worked it up into the song we know today. Heffernan took legal representation out to protect his claims on the track (whatever they actually were) and in the end settled for a one off payment of £7,500 to basically go away. Forever. “Angels” would become a modern day standard and earn millions in royalties and an Ivor Novello award. You may think this would have destroyed Heffernan and he was certainly angry for a while but on reflection is glad not to have earned all those royalties as he believes it would have only enabled his destructive drug use of the time. All he really wants is proper recognition of his input into the song from Williams. Having watched the video below chronicling the story as to whether Robbie is right or wrong, I think I’m believing Ray instead.

Clinton-Lewinsky connection: I did not have musical relations with that man

Right, it’s all songs we haven’t seen before in these BBC4 repeats from here on in starting with the first appearance on the show for Catatonia. For a while back in the late 90s, this lot were big news. Arriving as part of the ‘cool Cymru’ movement alongside Manic Street Preachers, Super Furry Animals, Stereophonics and Feeder – “Mulder And Scully” was the track to catapult them to superstardom. Obviously influenced by the main characters from hit sci-fi TV show The X–Files, it also allowed singer Cerys Matthews a platform for her distinctive voice or as host Jayne Middlemiss commented, her regional accent. Such vocal stylings were not unique – The Proclaimers were infamous for singing in their Scottish brogue and Chas & Dave made a career out of recording using their cockney dialect – but it wasn’t as simple as that with Cerys. There was also the over pronunciation of words such as “Scull-eee” and the rolling ‘R’s in follow up hit “Road Rage”. Even this wasn’t entirely new though – Liam Gallagher’s extraordinary extended articulation of the word “shine” as “she-iiiiiiine” for example. And yet, you couldn’t ignore Matthews. She was a force of nature with many a tale of legendary drinking escapades to her name. Because of her presence in the line up, it would be easy to lump them in with all those other bands of the period who were fronted by a charismatic female singer like Elastica, Sleeper, Echobelly and Skunk Anansie but all those bands had their own sound and that included Catatonia.

I think I’d first come across them when their single “I Am The Mob” lightly scraped the Top 40 in the Autumn of 1997 though they’d been around for a lot longer than that. Having formed in 1992 and been though various line up changes and independent releases, they’d finally came to market via a major label with 1996’s “Way Beyond Blue” album which I somehow managed to miss completely despite working in a record shop. When “Mulder And Scully” debuted at No 3 though, we all had to take notice. Had it been a deliberate ploy to write a song that referenced an incredibly successful current TV show or was it just that Cerys was plugging into the popular culture zeitgeist? I choose to believe the latter as it’s not really a song about The X–Files as such but rather a metaphor. Having said that, I did find the use of the show’s protagonists’ names in the chorus slightly jarring. Reading all that back, I seem to be rather conflicted about Catatonia don’t I? What I am sure about is that they continued to have hits to the end of the 90s and into the new millennium. Sophomore album “International Velvet” went three times platinum but by the time of their fourth, the band seemed to be an anachronism and they split in 2001.

Cerys Matthews would go on to be an award winning author and broadcaster with shows on BBC Radios 2 and 4 and 6 Music and founded The Good Life Experience festival. In 2007, she appeared on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here causing a stir in the tabloids when she began a relationship with fellow camp mate and EastEnders actor Marc Bannerman. What I remember most about her post Catatonia career though is that she used to write a column in The Guardian under the pseudonym of Dr Crotchety who was an agony aunt for music fans giving people who wrote in suggestions to liven up their listening habits which I found patronising in the extreme. She gave the impression of loving every single type of musical genre which I just couldn’t get on board with.

Clinton-Lewinsky connection: Well, this is fortunate. Cerys Matthews serenaded Bill Clinton at the Haye-On-Wye Literature Festival in 2001 even laying her head on his chest!

After something so memorable comes a totally forgettable hit which guess what?…I’d forgotten about it. “So Good” by Juliet Roberts anyone? She’d had a medium sized hit in 1994 with a remix of “Caught In The Middle” but sure enough, I don’t recall that either despite the fact that I must have reviewed it in this blog. This one was a double A-side with another remix of a previous hit “Free Love”. She was big on rereleases and remixes was Juliet. She also was fond of a collaboration. As far back as 1983, she was the vocalist for the Funk Masters on their Top 10 hit “It’s Over” and in 2001 had a US Dance chart No 1 with big shot DJ, producer and remixer David Morales on the track “Needin U II”.

Clinton-Lewinsky connection: Nothing for Juliet Roberts. Julia Roberts on the other hand appeared on the final week of The David Letterman Show alongside Bill Clinton and also appeared in a Broadway fund raiser in support of Hilary Clinton in 2016.

A case now of when one of a band’s most well known songs divides their fan base*. Green Day had made their name playing fast, power chord-heavy pop-punk tunes but here they were in reflective mood with an acoustic ballad. The track “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” had actually been around for years before it was recorded for the band’s “Nimrod” album, having been considered unsuitable for inclusion on their previous two major label releases.

*See also “More Than Words” by Extreme

It’s a deceptive song – on the one hand very simple – even a basic strummer like me can manage the chord sequence – and yet it has a depth to it. Just look at its title for a start; it’s almost paradoxical but allows the listener to take their preferred meaning away from it. For example, it has become a staple of DJ set lists at US Prom dances as a symbol of celebration for surviving High School. Conversely, when a senior manager left one of my previous workplaces and the staff were asked to contribute a song to a playlist they created for him, I chose “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” for the first two words of the title. Ah but what were those two words? Well, ‘good’ and ‘riddance’ obviously except…in some territories it was released as “Time Of Your (Good Riddance)”! What was that all about? To make it more easily identifiable to the casual listener as opposed to a Green Day devotee? Maybe it’s an American thing – the exact same scenario happened with the Icicle Works single “Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)” which was released in the US as “Whisper To A Scream (Birds Fly)”.

Anyway, this new direction for Green Day seemed to confuse some of their fanbase and even in some cases left them feeling betrayed. This wasn’t the band they’d grown up loving. They couldn’t…gulp…be looking for a more mainstream audience could they? Thankfully, the band hadn’t sold their soul for a hit and would release perhaps their defining album in 2004 – the punk concept album “American Idiot”. As for “Good Riddance”, it has become accepted as a Green Day standard and is usually played as the last song by the band at their gigs.

Clinton-Lewinsky connection: The band’s song “Holiday” from the aforementioned “American Idiot” album includes the lyrics “I declare I don’t care about the president” and “I don’t care about the latest scandal” which are reportedly about Clinton-Lewinsky-gate.

There are some songs that just won’t be left alone. “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” is one of them. Originally a hit for Sylvester in 1978, it was reactivated in 1990 by Jimmy Somerville who took it into the Top 5. Just eight years later, here was Byron Stingily making it a hat trick of chart appearances for the track. Having first experienced success as part of Ten City in 1989 with “That’s The Way Love Is”, Byron’s solo career finally kicked off in 1997 with the US Dance Chart No 1 hit “Get Up (Everybody)” which also made No 14 in the UK. He followed that up with this curiously hollow and empty sounding version of a disco classic. It really adds nothing to the original and is inferior to the Jimmy Somerville cover to my ears. Stingily would only have one more hit which saw him return to past glories with his solo treatment of that Ten City single. As for “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”, it’s also been covered by Adam Lambert, Lewis Taylor and Sandra Bernhard.

Clinton-Lewinsky connection: This is unbelievable! Stingily’s version of Sylvester’s best known song was featured on a Spanish dance compilation album called “Ahora ‘98” the front cover of which was a parody of Bill and Hilary Clinton with actors pretending to be them at a desk in the Oval Office with a pair of legs protruding underneath it meant to be Monica Lewinsky who is…well…in a compromising position to say the least!

There’s a new No 1 from someone who would become a global superstar though the only connection he would make with me is that his name is my current job title. Usher has gone on to be known as the ‘King of R&B’ with a multi platinum selling back catalogue including nine No 1 US singles. Curiously though, this track – “You Make Me Wanna…” wasn’t one of them despite topping our charts when it peaked at No 2 over the pond. With its acoustic guitar hook, it crossed over into the mainstream big time winning a host of awards as it went and yet I hardly remember it at all. I guess I’m just not an R&B kinda guy.

Clinton-Lewinsky connection: This post has written itself! In 2010, Usher hosted a Senate fundraiser for candidate Michelle Nunn with Bill Clinton as the guest of honour. A year later, Usher performed at the ‘Decade of Difference’ concert celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the William J. Clinton foundation and also Bill Clinton’s 65th birthday. During Usher’s performance, this happened…

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	All Saints	Never Ever	Nope
2	Chumbawamba	Amnesia	I did not
3	Robbie Williams	Angels	No but I had a promo of his album
4	Catatonia	Mulder And Scully	It’s a no from me
5	Juliet Roberts	So Good	No, it wasn’t
6	Green Day	Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)	Great song but it seems I didn’t
7	Byron Stingily	You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)	Nah
8	Usher	You Make Me Wanna…	Not my bag

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/m002dt20/top-of-the-pops-30011998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 23 JAN 1998

Posted on June 30 by 80stastic

Constantly writing reviews of these BBC4 repeats of TOTP for the past eight years has been quite a drain on the old creative juices. I mean, nobody would be interested in a list of songs with me denoting whether I liked them or not would they? I try to give each show some context about what else was happening in the world at the time of its broadcast or perhaps something from my own personal life (if I can remember!). On other occasions, I’ll try and hang the whole past around a theme (however tenuous it might be). Sometimes it’ll work and sometimes it can feel like I’m shoehorning stuff in that really has no place being there. And sometimes…well, sometimes everything just sort of dovetails together by delightful happenstance. This post is one of those. This is how it unfolds. The day after this TOTP aired, a brand new BBC sit com aired called Unfinished Business. Now, I never watched this nor have I even any memory of it but having read its Wikipedia entry, it didn’t sound like it was a laugh-fest. Anyway, what’s that got to do with TOTP? Well, apart from both shows being on the BBC and being broadcast within a day of each other, nothing. Except…our host tonight is Jamie Theakston who I was delighted to find out (when I was looking for a theme for this post) has presented a reality show on Netflix called Cheat: Unfinished Business with Amanda Holden. Is that it I hear you ask? No, one of the artists on this TOTP released an album in 1998 which was called “Unfinished Monkey Business”. And there’s more. The band who had the No 1 record this week, I would argue, are a perfect example of having unfinished business but more of that later.

We begin with half man, half washboard Peter Andre who I’m amazed to find was still having hits as late as 1998. “All Night, All Right”, as Jamie Theakston says, was based around a sample of 1978 hit “Boogie Oogie Oogie” which is familiar from my youth but if I’d been pushed to name who it was by, I would have come up with Earth, Wind & Fire rather than the correct answer of A Taste Of Honey. None of this affects the truth that Andre should have given up on his pop star notions long since. He did after one more hit in the 90s for a whole six years but, deciding he had unfinished business with the charts, relaunched himself after appearing on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here with the wretched “Insania”.

According to Wikipedia, “All Night, All Right” was a collaboration with Coolio on the album version of the track but with Warren G on the single release. Unless I’m missing something, there’s no sign of either rapper in this performance. What gives?*

*Oh, there’s Warren G! Two places below Andre at No 18 in the charts with “Prince Igor”!

It’s a hat-trick of consecutive appearances for the Lighthouse Family! Yes, the duo (they were a duo despite it all being about singer Tunde Baiyewu) have been on every TOTP of this new year so far with their hit “High”. In an attempt to keep things fresh though, executive producer Chris Cowey has come up with the idea of a stripped back, acoustic performance (witness Robbie Williams doing the same last week on his own third time on the show doing “Angels”). It was a decent shout I guess but maybe the better solution would have been to not have the same songs on every week? Certainly the TOTP community seemed to have had enough of this one judging by their online comments or were said comments triggered by who the artist was rather than how many times they’d been on the show? The usual accusations of being ‘bland’ and ‘vacuous’ were made – an almost obligatory event when discussing the Lighthouse Family it seems. I have to say that I certainly wasn’t a fan but would I have gone as far as to call them the Shitehouse Family? I don’t think so (even though I just did).

We have reached, what is for me, the point of peak Radiohead also known as the moment before they disappeared up their own arses musically speaking. If you are a Radiohead devotee and that offends you then I refer you to my disclaimer at the bottom of this post. Let’s not dwell on the negative though – “No Surprises” is possibly one of the most affecting songs on its first hearing you could ever imagine. Not many* tracks have that inherent emotive power that stirs something within you immediately but that’s how it was for me.

*And certainly not many featuring a glockenspiel!

The third single taken from the “OK Computer” album, it would also be the band’s final commercial release of the 90s and what a way to end their decade. Maybe that’s part of the reason why I couldn’t follow their musical path from this point onwards – I’d already drawn a line under my interest in them subconsciously prompted by the arrival of the new millennium.

Anyway, “No Surprises” was just magnificent – a simple lullaby on the one hand the melody of which was at complete odds with its lyrics that were a caustic indictment of modern life. It had a sense of distress about it, as if it was recorded under duress. Both these extremes of the song were portrayed visually. The lullaby narrative was turned into comedy gold by this scene from The Royle Family…

When “no surprises” by @radiohead plays on @XSManchester it reminds me of this from the royle family 💙 pic.twitter.com/yGpn0hExgp
— RACH / ♡ 🐝 (@rach_griff) December 30, 2019

Meanwhile, that theme of duress was captured by its striking video. Directed by Grant Gee, it depicted Thom Yorke in an astronaut type helmet that slowly filled with water as he sang the song’s lyrics that scrolled upwards, reflected in the helmet. Yorke has to lift his head above the water level to sing until he is fully submerged and then stays motionless for over a minute before the water is released and he completes the song. It was genuinely unnerving and took multiple takes before Yorke could complete it to everyone’s satisfaction.

Apparently, Gee was influenced in his vision for the video by the old Gerry Anderson science-fiction series UFO which featured aliens whose spacesuits had a helmet that was filled with a green liquid that they breathed rather than oxygen. That show scared the crap out of me as a very young kid.

As I write this, it’s Glastonbury weekend of which I’ve watched the following artists:

Shed Seven – not bad but Rick Witter introducing them as a 90s band rather dates them
Alanis Morissette – good vocal but she was clearly very nervous
The 1975 – just insufferable
Pulp – reliably excellent
Noah Kahan – a favourite of my teenage son and fast becoming one of mine too
Olivia Rodrigo – better than expected

However, I don’t think anything I’ve seen this weekend can rival Radiohead’s 1997 Glastonbury set which featured “No Surprises”…

Now, here’s some business that is definitely being finished – the dreadful business of OTT that is, who are on to their final UK chart hit and I’m guessing (please!) their last ever TOTP appearance. Their valedictory song is – surprise, surprise – not another cover version but a serviceable pop ditty aimed squarely at capturing the hearts of teenage girls across the land called “The Story Of Love”. Two of their previous three hits had been with other people’s material but this one could easily have been a Boyzone single. Well, they did seem to be copying their fellow Irish lads at every turn so I guess it makes sense to have a hit that was indiscernible from one of theirs. OTT really were second rate in the boy band stakes though. Apparently Asia went mad for them but over here, they never once even made the Top 10. The story of love? Nah, this was more a tale of tosh. Utter guff. OTT were over and OUT!

And now to that artist whose album featured the words ‘unfinished business’ in its title. Since the messy demise of the Stone Roses in 1996, we’d seen John Squire rise from the ashes with The Seahorses, Mani join Primal Scream and not much else. Suddenly though, frontman Ian Brown was back and throwing his hat into the solo career ring. His debut album was titled “Unfinished Monkey Business” and its lead single was “My Star”. Basically a Brown tirade against the expenditure on and reasoning behind the space race, the Mission Control type voices and sound effects put me in mind not of space exploration though but of CB Radios and trucking and that song “Convoy” from the mid 70s by C.W. McCall. Funny how the mind works isn’t it? I recall quite liking this at the time but on reflection, there doesn’t seem to be much to it other than more than a passing resemblance to this rather good track by The Jam…

Anyway, I guess we’d better address the elephant in the room…what was going on with all those eggs?! There’s a man playing a set of them like they’re a percussion instrument and then Brown himself lobs some at the image of him at the back of the stage. The only explanation I can find is that Brown wanted an organic sound effect for the production on the track and so the sound of an egg being cracked into a frying pan was inserted into the mix. Truth or myth? Who knows? What I do know is that it was quite the comeback given the place Brown found himself in after the Roses imploded after a catastrophic performance at Glastonbury in 1996. It was the very antithesis of the aforementioned appearance by Radiohead at the festival a year later. Having said that, given his ex-band’s fanbase, perhaps a hit was almost guaranteed regardless of its quality but its lo-fi sound had some appeal I guess. It was certainly a far cry from the huge expense of the production on the last Stone Roses album “Second Coming” – apparently Brown financed the recording of “Unfinished Monkey Business” himself and it was partly recorded at his home studio.

Looking at Brown’s discography, I’m slightly taken aback at how many hits he’s had under his own steam although he was part of the reformed classic Stone Roses line up in 2011 proving that the four members had some unfinished business with each other. Said business seems to have finally been dealt with as in September 2019, John Squire confirmed in an interview with The Guardian that the Stone Roses had disbanded.

It’s the world’s favourite boy band according to host Jamie Theakston next – Backstreet Boys. Oh dear Lord. I’m not sure I have anything nor want to say anything about this lot at this juncture. They were just so dull and grim. Look, here are the facts…”All I Have To Give” was their eighth consecutive UK hit of which six went Top 5. It was another wimpy ballad that was written and produced by Full Force who collaborated with Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam back in 1985 on “I Wonder If I Take You Home” (I’m sure they’re famous for much more but that’s all I know of them). Apparently the track allowed Backstreet Boy Howie D to do some lead vocals as his voice wasn’t suited to the more pop orientated hits they’d had up to this point. I wonder if Howie had threatened to take his ball home if he wasn’t given his chance? OK, enough of this! My puns are almost as bad as their song!

Oasis are No 1 with “All Around The World” and just like Radiohead before them, this would be their last release of the 90s. Also like Radiohead, it could be seen as a watershed moment. Not only was it the final release on Creation before the label folded but was the last to feature original members Bonehead and Guigsy. This week there’s another intro courtesy of Noel explaining that the band are still in America touring so we get the video rather than a studio appearance. If anyone was in any doubt as to the influence of The Beatles on Oasis and Noel in particular then one watch of this promo surely resolved that. The Yellow Submarine vibe is not so much prevalent as a direct steal.

Now, as fortune would have it, I write this as we enter the week of the first Oasis reunion gigs – yes, the much heralded concerts are nearly here and it will be interesting to see/hear what shape the band are in after sixteen years away. After all the hype, anticipation and negative publicity surrounding dynamic ticket pricing, it’s surely the music that matters right? Well, there is no new music of course – the much speculated and indeed leaked set list won’t have anything we haven’t heard before in it but is that what the hordes would have wanted anyway? I’m not part of the horde by the way. I didn’t feel the need to spend hours virtually queuing for tickets – I saw them in 1996 when they played Maine Road, Manchester when they were at the height of their powers and popularity and felt no pull to revisit the band nearly 30 years later. The band (or more pertinently Noel) clearly don’t feel the same and so we get to the ‘unfinished business’ bit. The reasons behind the Oasis reunion tour have been widely speculated. Did Noel and Liam genuinely want to rebuild their tattered relationship? Was it all about nostalgia and reliving that feeling of when the band could do no wrong? Or is it purely about the money? I think I’m plumping for the last option.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Peter Andre	All Night, All Right	As if
2	Lighthouse Family	High	No
3	Radiohead	No Surprises	No but I had OK Computer
4	OTT	The Story Of Love	Nah
5	Ian Brown	My Star	Nope
6	Backstreet Boys	All I Have To Give	Never
7	Oasis	All Around The World	No but I had a promo of the Be Here Now album

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/m002dt1y/top-of-the-pops-23011998?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 16 JAN 1998

Posted on June 20 by 80stastic

It’s the middle of January 1998 and two days before this TOTP aired on the BBC, Channel 4 broadcast the 2000th edition of their soap opera Brookside. I don’t think I was still watching it by this point but, in a cards on the table moment, I can reveal that I have been watching the repeats being shown on STV. From the very start in 1982. We’re up to 1988 now (that’s nearly 650 episodes) and yes, like you, I am asking myself “What am I doing with my life?”. Still, there’s worse things you could do than watch some episodes of a now defunct soap. Or indeed, spend years watching repeats of old pop music shows and then even longer writing up reviews of each one. Oh God – what am I doing with my life?! Oh well, it is what it is and what this TOTP is (or was) we need to find out…

Jayne ‘The Smirk’ Middlemiss is our host and we start with a band who were meant to lead us out of the Britpop years and into…well, a post-Britpop era I guess. Rialto were formed from the ashes of indie rockers Kinky Machine. Retaining their record label (EastWest Records) but not their name and adding some new members, the new look band courted the favour and patronage of the music press and were predicted a hugely successful future by Melody Maker for their epic, soundscape songs that were dripping with atmosphere. Somehow it didn’t quite turn out like that though. Being dropped by their record label shortly before their much anticipated debut album was about to be released can’t have been good for confidence in the band either internally or externally. According to vocalist Louis Eliot, it was just a case of being in the wrong place at the time. EastWest had a change of personnel and sacked their A&R man which led to the band being let go. Their album was released by China Records (home of Art Of Noise, Morcheeba and The Levellers) but in an extraordinary stroke of bad luck, China were bought out by EastWest and Rialto were dropped again.

I’m getting ahead of myself though. Reactions to the album were generally positive but in that ‘build ‘em up, knock ‘em down’ attitude so prevalent in the UK press, some reviewers decided to bury the hatchet right between the band’s collective shoulder blades. It made a reasonable stab at the charts though peaking at No 21 no doubt helped by the respectable performance of this single “Untouchable” (No 20). A sweeping, cinematic track that had echoes of a John Barry TV or movie theme (The Persuaders comes to mind), this was a favourite of mine and my wife’s and a purchase was duly made. We were so taken with the band that we had tickets to see them at The Manchester Academy but I was ill on the night of the gig and we missed them. Their success in the UK was dwarfed by that in South Korea where they even outsold Celine Dion and their album went to No 1 but a trip to South East Asia to catch them live seemed a bit over the top (and I’d been to China for just seven days the year before!). A second album arrived in 2001 but by then the writing was in the wall and Rialto split. Eliot pursued a brief solo career but is currently a permanent member of Grace Jones’s touring band. And then, out of the blue, Rialto were back in 2023 playing festivals and with a new album released on the legendary indie label Fierce Panda in April this year. Maybe I’ll get to see them play live after all.

Next is Robbie Williams whose song “Angels” is continuing its undulating chart journey and is back up to No 6 this week. It would alternate between rising and falling for ten of the twelve weeks it remained inside the Top 10. Quite extraordinary. Perhaps in order to build Robbie some credibility and for him to be seen as a serious artist, this time he’s doing the song live and acoustic (or ‘unplugged’ as we said in the 90s). Whether this gave him that credibility is not for me to surmise but it certainly imbued him with some confidence – you can see it all over his face. It could be his famous bravado of course.

P.S. Why was Louis Theroux playing guitar in this performance?

In many ways, KC And The Sunshine Band’s UK legacy is in complete contrast to its US counterpart. In America, they racked up five No 1s and two No 2s whereas over here, their only chart topper was the sickeningly upbeat “Give It Up” which curiously only made No 18 over the water. Of those American No 1s, only two translated into massive hits over here. “Please Don’t Go” was a No 3 in the UK whilst “That’s The Way (I Like It)” made it to No 4. Of those other massive US hits, none got higher than No 21 over here. There must have been something about those two transatlantic hits as both would become huge all over again in the 80s and 90s. KWS took “Please Don’t Go” all the way to No 1 in 1992 whilst Dead Or Alive’s first hit wasn’t “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)” but their Hi-NRG version of “That’s The Way (I Like It)” from 1984. And then there’s this cover of it by Clock. Just…just…WHY?! Well, for the money obviously as it can’t have been for reasons of artistic integrity can it?! I think this lot were possibly the most shameful and shameless of all those 90s dance acts, stealing a living by pinching other people’s songs and putting a nasty dance backing track to them. The Four Seasons, Hot Chocolate, Tag Team and even Harold Faltermeyer had received the Clock treatment and now even KC And The Sunshine Band weren’t safe from Clock’s hands. This one though didn’t even seem to have that nasty 90s sheen to it as it was a fairly straight run through of the original.

The only good news is that time was ticking on Clock. They would only have two more UK chart hits before their spring was sprung one of which was yet another cover – this time of The Jacksons’ “Blame It On The Boogie” which itself had already been covered by heinous boy band Big Fun in 1989. None of this nonsense was the way I liked it.

It’s the Lighthouse Family up next with another performance of their hit “High”. I can’t think of a single thing to say about this one having only just commented on it in the previous post. However…having watched their appearance back, there’s something odd going on with the studio audience or more specifically one member of it. If you go to 3:20 in on the clip YouTube clip below, look at the young girl in a patterned top in the forefront of the screen. She seems to be distracted by something or someone out of shot and the look on her face is one of bewilderment with perhaps a hint of disgust. What was going on there? It wasn’t a reaction I’d have expected whilst watching the blandly inoffensive Lighthouse Family!

Early 1998 saw an Oasis milestone occur that was actually more like a line drawn in the sand in terms of the band’s history. “All Around The World” wasn’t just the third single released from the “Be Here Now” album nor the fourth of eight No 1s that they clocked up. No, it was their last release on Creation Records and the last to feature founding members Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs and Paul ‘Guigsy’ McGuigan. It was the end of an era and some might say that things were never the same again. Bonehead and Guigsy would both leave the band within two weeks of each other in the Summer of 1999 after completing preliminary recording sessions for fourth album “Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants”. Said album would appear in 2000 on the band’s own label Big Brother after the dissolution of Creation by Alan McGee in December of 1999.

As for “All Around The World”, this was a track written by Noel Gallagher in the band’s very early pre-record deal days which he infamously said he would leave recording until the third Oasis album. He was true to his word and it was the tenth track on “Be Here Now” clocking in at a mighty 9:20 in length making it the longest track the band had ever recorded. I was always bemused that given its size and stature, it wasn’t the last track in the album with it being trailed by “It’s Gettin’ Better (Man!!)” but there is a two minute instrumental reprise of “All Around The World” to close the album in fairness. It also marks the point at which the band were most open about vaunting their Beatles influences. Not content to try and rewrite “Hey Jude”, the video that went with it was an obvious steal from the Fab Four’s Yellow Submarine film. We don’t get to see that here though and nor do we get a studio performance but, as the personal VT message from the band says, a clip of them playing it live at the old GMEX venue in Manchester as part of the Be Here Now tour which had taken the band to America for its next leg hence their absence tonight. The live version sounds more powerful than the single release and, of course, there’s Liam’s obligatory over pronunciation of the word ‘shine’ as ‘she-iiiiine’. It got me wondering how many of their song has lyrics which feature that word. A quick search of the internet found this lot:

Rock N Roll Star – “I live my life for the stars that shine”

Cigarettes’ and Alcohol – “You could wait for a lifetime to spend your days in the sunshine”

Slide Away – “Let me be the one who shines with you”

Up in the Sky – “I heard that the shine’s gone out of your life.”

Some Might Say – “Some might say that sunshine follows thunder” / “Go and tell it to the man who cannot shine”

Hello – “Cos the sun don’t shine”

All Around the World – “These are crazy days but they make me shine”

Acquiesce – “I only wanna see the light that shines behind your eyes”

Magic Pie – “My star will shine”

Who Feels Love – “Thank you for the sun, the one that shines on every one who feels love”

The Hindu Times – “You’re my sunshine you’re my rain” / “There’s a light that shines on, shines on me”

Stop Crying Your Heart Out – “May your smile shine on”

She is Love – “When the sunshine beckons to ya”

Born on a Different Cloud – “You’re my sun and you’re gonna shine”

The Importance of Being Idle – “As long as there’s a bed beneath the stars that shine”

A Bell Will Ring – “The sun will shine on you again”

Bag It Up – “Gold and silver and sunshine is rising up”

Soldier On – “Shine a light for me tonight”

Boy with the Blues – “Remember to shine”

Cloudburst – “Downtown the moon is shining”

One Way Road – “And are we gonna see the heavens shine”

Round Are Way – “Round are way the sun shines bright”

Flashbax – “There shines a light, like dynamite”

Idler’s Dream – “The light that’s shining through your eyes of gold”

Shout It Out Loud – “I hope the light shines on we as one”

“Shiiiiiine on”!

They’ve finally done it! It’s taken nine weeks of which two saw them going down the charts and three as a non-mover but All Saints are at No 1 with “Never Ever”. They’re in the studio to celebrate their achievement which includes a fairly inane chat with Jayne Middlemiss before they deliver what seems to be a live vocal performance judging by the a cappella bit at the end.

Listening to those spoken word lyrics, some of them don’t seem to make any sense. For example:

“A few questions that I need to know”

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Shaznay Lewis / Robert Jazayeri / Sean Prescott Mather
Never Ever lyrics © Mca Music Ltd., Stl Songs Limited, Rickidy Raw Prod., Inc.

Surely that should be answers not ‘questions’? Then there’s this:

“I need to know what I’ve done wrong and how long it’s been going on”

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Shaznay Lewis / Robert Jazayeri / Sean Prescott Mather
Never Ever lyrics © Mca Music Ltd., Stl Songs Limited, Rickidy Raw Prod., Inc.

That doesn’t quite ring true. Shouldn’t it be “I need to know what you’ve done wrong”?

Then there’s the whole confusion over how to pronounce the letter ‘Z’ – is it ‘zee’ or ‘zed’ as both are used here. All very bewildering. Also bewildering is how many times the band have been on the show to perform “Never Ever”. If you think this must be the last as this was the song’s only week at No 1, you’re wrong. They’re on again in a couple of repeats!

After weeks of finishing the show with the No 1 record, suddenly we’ve reverted to having a play out hit. Was this a temporary thing or will it be here to stay? Anyway, there was clearly a KC And The Sunshine Band mini revival going on in January 1998 as after Clock earlier, here’s another hit based on one of their tunes. For “That’s The Way (I Like It)” read “Get Down Tonight” but with a 90s house beat applied to it and a new title – “Bamboogie”. Who was responsible for this crud? A producer called Andrew Livingstone who created the vehicle Bamboo to peddle this crap. I’m guessing it’s high chart entry at No 2 was taking advantage of the post Christmas sales slump. Thank God for those people who bought the 557 extra copies of “Never Ever” to keep “Bamboogie” from being No 1! A slender but important victory. You just knew this was going to be awful by its vintage cartoon video which stank of “this’ll do”. See also Jive Bunny And The Mastermixers and the Outhere Brothers.

I’m guessing that KC And The Sunshine Band’s record label will have taken advantage of this renewed interest in their artist and released a Best Of album?

*checks KC’s discography*

Yes they did and it sold enough copies to be granted silver status. I should think so too. In any case, if I wanted a song with “Bamboogie” in the title then I would certainly choose this one over that Bamboo shite.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Rialto	Untouchable	YES!!!
2	Robbie Williams	Angels	No but I had a promo copy of the album
3	Clock	That’s The Way ( I Like It)”	Of course not
4	Lighthouse Family	High	Nah
5	Oasis	All AroundThe World	No, I’d stopped buying their singles by this point
6	All Saints	Never Ever	I didn’t
7	Bamboo	Bamboogie	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/m002dfcd/top-of-the-pops-16011998?seriesId=unsliced