Boyz II Men

TOTP 19 SEP 1997

Posted on by 80stastic

I haven’t done this for a while but I should probably check in with what I was doing back in 1997. I know, I know but I’ve spent loads of posts banging on about TOTP and the changes under Chris Cowey and then the whole Princess Diana funeral (which won’t be going away anytime soon thanks to the Elton John single) so I’m giving myself some time off to talk about what I know best – myself. This year was turning out to be pretty eventful – I’d been to China, my beloved Chelsea had finally won something and there were big changes at work. Our manager, the legendary Pete Garner, had left and, as assistant manager, I’d been left in temporary charge of the Our Price store in Stockport. Not only that but I had to oversee its conversion to a ‘live’ stock inventory system and it had all started to take a toll on me. I’d applied for the manager’s position because the staff wanted me to but I was glad not to have got it in the end as I was feeling pretty stressed anyway. The person who got the job was a lovely woman called Lisa who wound have been in post by now. I got on great with Lisa but she only stayed for one Christmas before moving on and then things really went downhill but that’s all for another time. For now, things were starting to stabilise after a few rocky months so let’s see what songs I would have been selling to the punters back then. *SPOILER ALERT* – it was mainly just one specific song!

It’s from ‘rocky’ to ‘Ricky’ as we get our first glimpse of the Puerto Rican hip swiveller Ricky Martin. Now, most of us (me at least) just know him for his No 1 song “Livin’ La Vida Loca” but that wasn’t his only hit. No, before that came “(Un Dos Tres) Maria”. I don’t remember this at all but then I hadn’t been holidaying in the Balearic Islands that Summer and so hadn’t heard it being played constantly in the clubs and bars there. Conforming to the tradition of British holidaymakers wanting to buy that song* that had soundtracked their time away, the British public duly sent it to No 6 in the UK charts.

*A tradition which stretched back as far as 1974 and “Y Viva Espana” and took in Ryan Paris, Baltimora, Sabrina and the execrable MC Miker and DJ Sven.

The track is widely recognised as igniting the whole Latin / dance crossover craze of the 90s (personally, I thought it was Gloria Estefan who did that…or was it the “Macarena”?) it seems to consist of a lot of counting to three in Spanish and that backbeat that was popularised by The Goodmen’s hit “Give It Up” and pinched by Simply Red for “Fairground”. Despite its success – it topped the chart in most South American countries as well as Australia and much of Europe – his record company weren’t keen on it initially as he’d made his name recording ballads. It would become the biggest selling Latin pop song of all time when it was remixed by the aforementioned Gloria Estefan producer Pablo Flores. Didn’t those record company executives know that any song called “Maria” was a guaranteed winner? Just ask Blondie, P. J. Proby, Santana, Tony Christie….

After witnessing her little sister Dannii return to the charts recently after a gap of three years, big sister Kylie Minogue was ready to make her own comeback. In truth, she’d been chomping at the bit for a while. Her own three years absence had only been punctuated by her unlikely murder ballad hit with Nick Cave (my own guitar class version of “Where The Wild Roses Grow” remains pretty special!) so by 1997 she was set to deliver her new sound to the world. Sadly for Kylie, there were a number of impediments stopping her from doing that. Firstly, her record label Deconstruction postponed her album’s planned release from the January to May. It was postponed again with a new date of September scheduled. With the death of Princess Diana in late August, the album’s proposed title of “Impossible Princess” caused Deconstruction to panic that it might be seen as in bad taste and so it was delayed for a further three months. Kylie herself agreed for it to be retitled eponymously to enable its release in Europe eventually in March 1998. Once finally out, it divided fans and press alike. Whilst some appreciated her attempt to reinvent herself with an album of diverse musical styles ranging from electronica to trip hop to rock, others weren’t able to accept Kylie as musical chameleon and even accused her of being a fraud. Seemingly, this was the preserve of the likes of David Bowie.

As host Jayne Middlemiss states, lead single “Some Kind Of Bliss” was written with James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore of the Manic Street Preachers which led the music press to dub this latest incarnation of her career ‘Indie Kylie’. It was a lazy term given the disparate nature of the album but it stuck which fed the belief that Kylie was jumping (albeit belatedly) on the Britpop bandwagon – well, it had worked (sort of) for Robbie Williams after all. As for me, I liked it, certainly more than her SAW produced bubblegum pop hits of the late 80s. However, it didn’t cut much ice nor indeed through with the record buying public with its chart peak of No 22 meaning it was the first time she’d missed making the UK Top 20. There were mitigating circumstances though. It was released at the same time as Elton John’s “Candle In The Wind ‘97” which accounted for 75% of all sales that week so it was hard for any new release to make an impression. Retrospectively, this era of Kylie and its associated album has been more favourably recognised and is a favourite for a niche part of her fanbase despite its poor commercial performance. She would storm back to the top of the charts come the new millennium with No 1 hit “Spinning Around” and those hot pants but back in 1997, her future was more pants than hot.

The No 1 that never was next. In any other week in pop history, “You Have Been Loved” by George Michael would surely have topped the charts but the events in Paris on 31st August and the subsequent outpouring of grief by the nation and the release of the aforementioned Elton John single meant it was never to be. Don’t take my word for it, even Jayne Middlemiss says so in her intro. This week’s chart would break all sorts of sales records but it also provided an unusual chart quirk with the top two positions occupied in week one of sales by two artists who had also duetted on a No 1 record of their own – 1991’s “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”.

Now this is quite strange. A band making their debut TOTP appearance nine years after they formed and seven since their debut album went Top 5. Like Garbage and Skunk Anansie, I should really know more about The Sundays and make an effort to explore their back catalogue further. I know some people who swear by them (including comedian David Baddiel who is best friends with guitarist David Gavurin) but somehow, once again, I didn’t get the memo. Formed in 1988 after Gavurin met vocalist Harriet Wheeler at Bristol University, the couple initially started writing songs for their own enjoyment rather than as a route to a career in music. However, augmented by bassist Paul Brindley and drummer Patrick Hannan, they sent out some demo tapes and became the subject of a record label bidding war, finally signing to Rough Trade. Their debut single “Can’t Be Sure” topped the indie charts and, in direct contrast to the title of their single, were assured acclaim from the music press inkies. The album “Reading, Writing And Arithmetic” followed in 1990 peaking at an impressive No 4. However, no other singles were released from it due to the collapse of Rough Trade though “Here’s Where The Story Ends” topped the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in America. Tin Tin Out would take a dance cover of it to No 7 in 1998. The album’s jangly guitar pop sound and Wheeler’s distinctive, quirky vocals and the fact that it was unavailable following Rough Trade’s demise for years helped create a myth around the band. That and their devotion to musical perfection and a low public profile. They eventually reappeared in 1992 with sophomore album “Blind” (having signed to Parlophone Records) and were rewarded with a No 15 chart peak and more sold out shows though it wasn’t received as well as their debut in the music press. Yet again, singles weren’t forthcoming – only minor hit “Goodbye” appeared in the UK. I’m beginning to understand why they’d never been on TOTP before now.

Gavurin and Wheeler stepped back from music following “Blind” to start a family before resurfacing in 1997 with their third and so far final album “Static & Silence”. It would continue their run of success by going Top 10. I had a promo copy of it but I’m not sure I ever played it (call myself a music fan?!). The album supplied “Summertime”, their highest ever charting single which finally secured them a place on the running order of the BBC’s prime time music show. The perfect soundtrack to the last moments of Summer and the beginning of Autumn, it was written about Gavurin and Wheeler’s perception of some of their friends joining dating services. I’m not sure that something like today’s Tinder could inspire such a whimsical piece of music.

The band have been on hiatus for nigh on 30 years since though apparently they have continued to write songs throughout though whether anyone will ever get to hear them is anybody’s guess. Still, I’ve got at least three albums to check out in the meantime. Now, where’s that promo copy of “Static & Silence”?

All I knew of Sly & Robbie before this point was their reputation as reggae and dub producers and their 1987 hit single “Boops (Here To Go)”. Of their collaborators here Simply Red, I (regretfully) knew much more. Finally, despite a discography of nearly 80 studio albums, I pretty much was only familiar with one Gregory Isaacs song, that being this one, “Night Nurse”. Supposedly, this was an updated take on the reggae classic but I can’t understand why you wouldn’t just seek out the original. However, back in 1997, that wouldn’t have been an easy ask. You couldn’t just say “Alexa, play “Night Nurse” by Gregory Isaacs” – no, you’d have had to do some research and possibly order a whole album from your local record store just to get that one song so maybe it was easier just to buy the single that was available. Indeed, maybe some punters weren’t aware of the original and its creator – I barely knew Gregory Isaacs and I worked in a record shop! Whatever the truth behind its success, this version of “Night Nurse” made No 13 on the UK charts.

Boyz II Men had 12 UK Top 40 hits according to officialcharts.com but could anyone name more than three? A superfan maybe? Or their Mums perhaps? I thought I was doing well with two – “End Of The Road” and “I’ll Make Love To You” (though they’re basically the same song so is that only one really?). “4 Seasons Of Loneliness” was their tenth and guess what? It was a ballad. Or was it? It sounds more like a voice exercise than a song. Their sweet harmonies prowess is all very well but you still need a proper tune to wrap them around. I work in a theatre these days and often witness the actors in pre-show mode and I can honestly say I’ve heard vocal warmups that are more tuneful than “4 Seasons Of Loneliness”. I’m also willing to bet that there was a floor manager out of shot holding up ‘scream now’ signs to the studio audience when each of the four band members gets to their solo parts. Not many people seemed to agree with my assessment though – it went to No 10 over here and No 1 in America.

Oh gawd! Guess who’s back? Yes, it’s Mark Morrison and, rather predictably, he’s still going on about the bloody ‘Mack’! His recent three month spell at Her Majesty’s pleasure for attempting to take a firearm on a plane (daringly hinted at in her intro by Jayne Middlemiss) doesn’t seem to have made him reflect on his life choices much. He’s just reliving the past glories of his previous hits and most obviously “Return Of The Mack” by calling this track “Who’s The Mack!”. Morrison clearly didn’t take any educational programmes in prison otherwise he would have known to put a question mark and not an exclamation mark at the end of that song title. His track is more of the same nonsense as before so I was more interested in the staging of the performance and the backdrop of words behind him which resembled the set of Have I Got News For You. Were they the song’s lyrics? I don’t know but apparently a few people wanted to know about this ‘Mack’ bloke – there are at least two other songs called “Who’s The Mack” by Ralph Tresvant and Ice Cube.

And so we’re finally at the chart moment not just of the year but of all time – maybe. Depending on how you want to look at it, “Candle In The Wind 1997” is either the best selling or the second best selling single worldwide of all time. What?! Yes, it’s a sentence that needs explanation. The only other contender for that title is “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby but it was released in 1942 before the advent of formalised UK and US charts so it’s harder to confirm its sales. In 2007, Guinness World Records adjudged that “White Christmas” had sold 50 million copies whereas “Candle In The Wind 1997” had shifted 33 million making the former the biggest seller. However, in 2009, a further clarification said that Elton’s single was the best-selling single since UK and US singles charts began in the 1950s. What’s not in doubt is that the tribute to Princess Diana is the fastest selling single of all time in the UK with 650,000 copies snapped up within 24 hours. At its peak, it sold six copies per second. Needless to say, it was No 1 in just about every country in the world.

In my ten years of working in record shops, the only other event that came anywhere near to the profile (though not sales) that “Candle In The Wind 1997” held was the Oasis v Blur chart battle in 1995. The difference was that I enjoyed being a part of that, literally on the shop floor. I felt almost privileged to be working within the record industry when that happened. Its a clumsy and perhaps even insensitive comparison but with the Elton John phenomenon, it felt like record shop staff were somehow aid workers trying to support the public through their outpouring of grief by supplying the medication of that single. The difference I guess is that we hadn’t volunteered for the role, we were just caught up in the frenzy. I have definite memories of punters grabbing the single out of our hands as we tried to refill the shelves. For some people, conventions of social niceties went out of the front door as fast as the single. I know it was our job but it really felt like hard work at that time. If this all sounds like offensive hyperbole then I apologise – I’m just trying to describe the unique nature of what happened back then as I experienced it. I’m sure everyone has their own story to tell /perspective on this moment in time.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1Ricky Martin(Un Dos Tres) MariaNo
2Kylie MinogueSome Kind Of BlissLiked it, didn’t buy it
3George MichaelYou Have Been LovedNah
4The SundaysSummertimeNo but I had that promo copy of the album
5Sly & Robbie / Simply RedNight NurseNegative
6Boyz II Men4 Seasons Of LonelinessNope
7Mark MorrisonWho’s The Mack!Never
8Elton JohnCandle In The Wind 1997No, I was not part of the madness

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/m0029lyr/top-of-the-pops-19091997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 01 SEP 1994

Posted on by 80stastic

OK, before we get into the music, there’s a bit of housekeeping to take care of. Firstly, we’ve missed a whole episode which hasn’t happened for quite some time. Nothing to do with Operation Yewtree nor presenters who hadn’t signed the waiver for BBC4 to broadcast the repeats they featured in – no this was a matter of a technical nature. The tapes for the TOTP shown on 25 August 1994 held in the BBC archive were deemed to be not of broadcast quality and so we miss out on what was surely one of the more interesting guest presenters in Malcolm MacLaren. Despite being a bit of an arse I’m sure, I’ve always had a soft spot for Malcolm and could listen to his drivel for hours. At least he led an interesting life. I’ve checked the running order for that show and I don’t think we missed much. Many acts we’d already seen before including Red Dragon, Shampoo and unbelievably Let Loose again! We did however miss Dinosaur Jnr which might have been distracting at least plus the return of Kylie Minogue with her first new material since leaving PWL as she entered her ‘Dance Kylie’ phase. Oh well.

The other bit of housekeeping is regarding tonight’s host who we haven’t seen before. So who was / is Claire Sturgess? Well, she’s a voice over artist and DJ currently working on Absolute Radio where she’s been since 2015. Back in 1994 though, she was a Radio 1 DJ presenting the rock show on Sunday evenings. She would stay at the BBC until 1997 but only hosted TOTP one more time before being replaced by Lisa I’Anson.

Right, on with the tunes and we start with one that perhaps more than any other (with the possible exception of “Common People” by Pulp) has come to be associated (rightly or wrongly) with the Britpop movement. Think of “Parklife” (the song) by Blur and what comes to mind? Phil Daniels? Of course. The “vorsprung durch technik’ line? Yep. The iconic video with Damon in that tracksuit top camping it up whilst an ice cream van drives by. Without doubt. They’re all woven into the fabric of the time but sometimes I think we forget what a strange song “Parklife” really is. A track where all the verses are spoken in a cockney accent, a chorus that you could imagine Dick Van Dyke singing in one of those musicals he starred in and lyrics about brewer’s droop, dirty pigeons and habitual voyeurs. And yet it all hangs together perfectly to the point that we didn’t bat an eyelid when it was released but instead accepted it as another example of Blur’s pursuit to celebrate ‘Englishness’. Except it wasn’t. Here’s Graham Coxon courtesy of @TOTPFacts:

In this performance, Daniels is word perfect and Damon, relieved of the stress of doing all the heavy lifting vocals wise, seems to be enjoying his freedom to ham it up on stage more than usual. My personal memory of this song though would come three months later at Christmas. I was asked to co-coordinate the works Christmas do for all the Our Price shops in the area. I found a venue and we got one of the staff at the Piccadilly, Manchester store to do the DJ-ing (if you worked in a record shop there was always someone who was either in a band or a DJ on the staff). The manager I organised the shindig with (Rick) was a bit nervous on the actual night about whether people were having a good time or not and especially about the music being played. Our DJ put on “Girls & Boys” which seemed a safe choice but which only served to agitate Rick into shouting at him “Give ‘em Parklife Will, give ‘em Parklife!”. Such was the influence of Blur and that song in particular in 1994.

P.S. I think Will did indeed give ‘em “Parklife” at some point in the evening.

Oh great! Another soap star turned pop star. This time the actor is from EastEnders reviving bad memories of Nick ‘Wicksy’ Berry and Anita ‘Angie’ Dobson. Sean Maguire’s stay in the soap had been short (January to December 1993) but he had been a big hit with the audience (especially the teenage female section of it). It was almost inevitable then that he’d give the old pop star lark a go and here he was, eight months after leaving EastEnders, back on our screens on the BBC’s premier music show. Unbelievably, despite not being able to shift any meaningful amount of units of either of his two albums, he would rack up eight Top 40 singles over a three year period. The first of those was “Someone To Love” and it’s a decent slice of late summer pop which seems to have pinched a bit from Kool And The Gang’s “Celebration”. Maguire sells it well enough and there’s been less likely pop stars (Stefan Dennis anyone?) but I’m guessing that his record label couldn’t have envisaged another six hits after this one. They were all pretty consistent as well. Look at these chart positions:

14 – 27 – 18 – 22 – 16 – 12 – 14 – 27

They’re not too shabby for a soap actor turned pop star. Maguire played Irish wannabe footballer Aidan Brosnan in EastEnders. Hmm. A footballer called Maguire who went onto have a career as a singer. Man Utd’s Harry Maguire as a pop star anyone?

I referenced this record the other week but it wasn’t really pre-planned – it just sort of played out that way. I’m talking about “Endless Love” by Mariah Carey and Luther Vandross. I mentioned their version as the record that knocked Boyz II Men off the No 1 spot in New Zealand but I’d already referred to the Lionel Richie / Diana Ross 1981 original when stating that I hadn’t heard a song basically regurgitated as a different track as I believed Boyz II Men had done with “End Of The Road” and “I’ll Make Love To You” since Lionel Richie rewrote “Endless Love” as “Truly”. I’d actually forgotten that this duet existed until these TOTP repeats aired but exist it does so I’ll have to discuss it. It came from a whole album of covers recorded by Luther called, rather blandly, “Songs” which already had a Lionel Richie song on the track listing in “Hello” but Sony president Tommy Mottola and his then wife Mariah decided that they could boost the album’s chances of success by having her appear on it and so the cover of “Endless Love” came to be. It was a sound business strategy – Mariah was perhaps at the very peak of her popularity with her latest album “Music Box” achieving huge global sales and indeed her contribution helped “Songs” to platinum sales and a No 1 chart position in the UK alone. The single also performed well going to No 2 in America and No 3 here. For me though, it’s a very faithful reproduction and rather pointless and anodyne. I suppose there was a gap of 13 years between the release of the original and the cover so maybe it’s possible there were people out there who didn’t know the Richie / Ross version and so came to it as a brand new song? Or perhaps people did know it and were reminded how much they’d liked the original but in those days before streaming and Spotify, they couldn’t just get access to the song and so bought what was available, the Vandross / Carey remake? I don’t know. I’ve given up trying to work out how some of these songs managed to be hits – and I wrote a dissertation about it whilst a student at Poly.

Next we find Terrorvision having a very steady year of consolidating their success and building their fanbase as they are back on TOTP performing their fourth Top 40 hit of the year “Pretend Best Friend”. And when I say steady, I mean incredibly consistent. Look at these chart peaks for those four singles:

29 – 21 – 25 – 25

A fifth single was released before 1994 was out and it made it to No 24. Their first single of the following year peaked at No 22. Like I say, incredibly consistent. As for the song itself, I don’t recall it but it kind of sounds how I expected it to with Tony Wright launching into a high speed rap that is vaguely reminiscent of “Ant Rap” before the almost shouted chorus. There’s also a bit where it all slows down and Tony wields a megaphone which is all rather incongruous. Good song title though.

After the exclusive of a double live by satellite section in the show last week, head producer Ric Blaxill has gone in hard on the idea by repeating the ‘satellite segue’ (as they’ve named it) for this week. We start off in Philadelphia with a curiously dull performance by the aforementioned Boyz II Men of “I’ll Make Love To You”. Now, my knowledge of the geography of Philadelphia is mostly limited to the scene in Rocky where Sylvester Stallone runs up the 72 steps leading to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the iconic training scene. Luckily for me, I think that’s near to where this performance takes place with the mini stage erected in the Benjamin Franklin Parkway right in front of the Washington Monument. The whole set up seems to be adhering to Blaxill’s stated desire to get the live by satellite slots to feature well known landmarks that have nothing to do with the music per se but which are a step up from the performances in empty theatre halls we have seen previously. It’s all a bit odd though. The parkway has people wandering through it minding their own business or joggers doing their own version of the Rocky training regimen whilst four guys are singing “I’ll Make Love To You” whilst they pass by. Shouldn’t be allowed really.

The second part of the satellite segue stays in America but transports us to New York and specifically to The Bottom Line club in Greenwich Village where we find Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories. Now it might not be recognisable as a landmark like the Washington Monument before it but this venue was legendary in its own right. Owners Allan Pepper and Stanley Snadowsky put on a huge amount of musical talent in the 30 years the club was open including the likes of Prince, The Police, Benatar, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Miles Davis, Dolly Parton….and in the fall of 1994 Lisa Loeb. But who was she?

Well, for someone who is a one hit wonder in the UK (she managed a few more hits in the US), Lisa has quite the biography and discography – her Wikipedia entry is sizeable to say the least. She had been recording music and performing live since the late 80s but it was a friendship with neighbour and actor Ethan Hawke that gave Lisa her lucky break. Having met through the NYC theatre community, Hawke gave Loeb’s song “Stay (I Missed You)” to Ben Stiller who was directing the film Reality Bites that Hawke was starring in and he made the decision to use it over the end credits. The rest really is history. The track’s pretty, folk-infused pop melody proved irresistible to the American public who sent it to No 1 making Lisa and her band the first ever artist to top the chart there without being signed to a label.

Lisa looked a bit like Nana Mouskouri’s hipper younger sister but there was more to her than her trademark glasses. As well as being a musician, she also runs a number of businesses including one for fair trade coffee and, making use of that glasses association, the Lisa Loeb Eyewear Collection with each frame being named after one of her song titles. She’s also written children’s books and done some acting though one of her credits is for one of the worst films of all time – Hot Tub Time Machine 2. If you haven’t seen it and stumble across it whilst channel flipping then heed my advice – Don’t stay (you’ll be glad you missed it).

One of last week’s satellite segue acts are in the TOTP studio this week as Youssou N’Dour and Neneh Cherry move up to No 3 with “7 Seconds”. The staging of this one starts out simple yet effective with a single spotlight centred on first Youssou and then Neneh as each takes the vocal lead in turn. However, the production team can’t have been totally won over by the idea as by the time the first chorus comes around, they’re both floodlit and there’s a multi screen video installation behind them showing the official promo film that accompanied the single. Shame. I thought a more paired back, minimalist setting would work best for this particular track but the show disagreed and went for Youssou N’More.

https://youtu.be/GUua-NUYlsg

It would take a braver man than me to start a political rant about this government’s despicable deportation to Rwanda scheme in a pop music blog but I am inevitably put in mind of it by the next song which is “Love Can Build A Bridge” by Children For Rwanda which was a charity single to raise money for Save The Children. If this all sounds familiar but not quite how you remember it then it’s quite possible you’re thinking of the version by Cher, Chrissie Hynde and the aforementioned Neneh Cherry that was released for Comic Relief just 6 months on from this and which went to No 1 for a week. Sadly for the Children For Rwanda single, it failed to sell nearly as well and peaked outside the Top 40.

We’ve reached week 14 of 15 (we missed week 13 due to the broadcast quality issue discussed earlier) for Wet Wet Wet’s reign at No 1 with “Love Is All Around” and whilst I’m really struggling to say anything of interest about it after so many appearances on the show, it seems like Ric Blaxill might be finding it difficult to keep us all interested as well. To shake things up a bit, he’s doubled down on the live by satellite feature and has the band beaming in from LA. This definitely falls into the category of performing in front of a world famous landmark with the Hollywood sign prominent in the background. The end is coming though. There’s only one more week and the story behind it’s demise will be discussed in the next post.

The play out song is “We Are The Pigs” by Suede. 1994 was a year of massive upheaval for the band most notably due to the departure of guitarist Bernard Butler who formally left their ranks on 8th July following tensions whilst recording sophomore album “Dog Man Star”. As if that wasn’t enough, difficult second album syndrome raised its ugly head. Not that the band didn’t make the album they wanted to; they did, but the direction they took confused critics and some of the fans after their electrifying eponymous debut. Many saw its grandiose soundscapes as pretentious and although it sold well enough, it was seen as a bit of a step backwards commercially in comparison to its predecessor. History has been kind to the album though and revisionism has it hailed as an under appreciated and misunderstood at the time classic. When the band played five nights at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 2003 with each night dedicated to one of their studio albums, it was the tickets for the Dog Man Star show that sold the quickest.

As for its lead single, “We Are The Pigs” is certainly dark in nature and tone but it’s still a huge tune. There’s even a bit in it which sounds like that reverb sound in “Peter Gunn” by Diane Eddy and subsequently The Art Of Noise. Do you think that’s totally innocent or knowingly inserted?

The almost post apocalyptic video with burning crosses, cars afire and masked gangs roaming the streets puts me in mind of the climax of The Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes, the ending of which had to be reshot as audience reaction at test screenings deemed it to violent and pessimistic. Similarly, the promo for Suede’s single got little airplay due to it being banned for being too violent. This may have contributed to the track only making it to No 18 in the UK Top 40.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1BlurParklifeNot the single but I had the album obviously
2Sean MaguireSomeone To LoveNo
3Mariah Carey and Luther VandrossEndless LoveNever happening
4TerrorvisionPretend Best FriendNope
5Boyz II MenI’ll Make Love To YouNah
6Lisa Loeb & Nine StoriesStay (I Missed You)Nice song but no
7Youssou N’Dour and Neneh Cherry7 SecondsI did not
8Children For RwandaLove Can Build A BridgeNegative
9Wet Wet WetLove Is All AroundAnother no
10SuedeWe Are The PigsCould have done but 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/m001ln6m/top-of-the-pops-01091994

TOTP 18 AUG 1994

Posted on by 80stastic

We’re still in the long, hot Summer of 1994 and despite the singles chart feeling like it’s been stagnating for a while with a number of records hanging around for weeks on end, this particular TOTP only features three songs that have been on previously. It also has not one but two live by satellite performances. Well, there’s only so many times you can have Let Loose in the studio before you have to shake things up a bit! Having said all of that, we start with a tune that has definitely been on the show a couple of times before. China Black were at their chart peak this week with the rerelease of “Searching” finding its natural high of No 4.

Seeing as this was their biggest ever hit, I guess you could say that they were at the apex of their career arc. Or were they? Maybe a bigger achievement was being nominated for a Brit Award for Best British Single in 1995? Or being invited by Princess Diana to perform at one of her Aids Trust concerts at Wembley Stadium? It surely wasn’t losing to Hue and Cry in their heat of the ITV entertainment show Hit Me Baby One More Time in 2005? You remember that show which brought back former pop stars from the 70s, 80s and 90s to compete in essentially a talent contest? Sure you do. China Black performed “Searching” (obviously) and their cover version (each act had to do a cover version in addition to their own track) was “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” by The Darkness. They were up against the aforementioned Kane brothers, Sinitta, The Real Thing and Hazel O’Connor with Hue and Cry progressing to the final which was won by Shakin’ Stevens. I’m not selling it to you am I?

And this was the point when I relented and gave in to the inevitable. When it came to Oasis, I was officially ‘avin’ it. I’d dillied, dallied and wavered over their first two singles, unsure about whether to get on board or not but the first time I heard “Live Forever”, I knew any further resistance was futile. History would show that not everything they did was of the same standard and that their best by date had probably expired long before they did but in 1994 and in every year since, “Live Forever” was a tune. There was just something joyous and joyful about its melody whilst the lyrics, though minimal and basically just repeated throughout, sounded so positive. Maybe (perhaps even definitely) it was just what I needed to hear as I was having a difficult time at work, still struggling to adapt to the culture and clientele of the Our Price store in Piccadilly, Manchester. On reflection, it was the sound of a band showing what they were really capable of, what their one time nemesis and later pal Robbie Williams would sing as letting their wings unfold. Famously written by Noel as a f**k that retort to Nirvana’s song “I Hate Myself And Want To Die”, the line ‘we see things they’ll never see’ has almost become a part of the national lexicon though it was actually intended as a very personal lyric about laughing at an in joke with a friend.

I only recently discovered that Noel Gallagher based the song’s structure around the chord progression in “Shine A Light” by The Rolling Stones whilst listening to their “Exile On Main Street” album and yeah, I guess I can hear the similarities though the two tunes are hardly identical.

As for the performance here, some things have changed and some things have remained the same since the last time they were on the show. The presenter scheduling gods have allowed for them to be introduced by Bruno Brookes again (hopefully they got on better than the last time when he insisted on calling them an indie band) but this time drummer Tony McCarroll has been shifted to the much more traditional position at the back of the stage with Liam Gallagher replacing him up front and centre. Talking of McCarroll, the symbolic removing of him from the front of the stage wasn’t the only clue to his future fate associated with “Live Forever”. The UK promo video includes a scene where the rest of the band are burying him alive. Within eight months of this TOTP appearance he would be sacked from the band and replaced by Alan White. He was still in the band though when next single “Cigarettes And Alcohol” was released in the October. The fourth single from the “Definitely Maybe” album, it would be their biggest hit to date when it made No 7 eclipsing “Live Forever” which peaked at No 10. And it was at that point that there was no looking back for the band nor the rest of us. Strap in, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Next a song that I don’t remember at all but which is very familiar on listening to it now. How is that possible? Well, the basis of this No 9 hit dance track “Eighteen Strings” is clearly the riff from “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana (a second song on the show inspired by the Seattle rockers following Oasis directly before them). However, it’s not an actual sample but more a very close approximation presumably because the artist – Tinman – didn’t have copyright clearance. This was the second dance track in a matter of weeks to be based on the grunge classic following Abigail’s take on it. I think I prefer the Tinman interpretation though I’m not a fan of either really. It turns out that the guy behind the project – one Paul Dakeyne – is from Hull where I have been living these last 20 years. As with his hit single from nearly 30 ago though, I’m not familiar with him.

Eternal are next who are still churning out the hits one year into their pop career. “So Good” was their fourth chart single on the spin but unlike its three predecessors, it failed to make the Top 10 peaking at No 13. There’s a reason for that I believe which is that, despite its title, it’s actually not that good. A distinctly average R&B pop song, it’s got an annoying sound effect squeak like air being pushed out of a small space that runs throughout it which tips it into the bracket of annoying for me. I’ve got a pair of shoes that make a similar noise every time I wear them. Curiously, Boyzone also released a single called “So Good” at a similar stage of their career and it was also a low point. Fortunately for both camps, both songs are largely forgotten with the perspective of nearly 30 years distance.

Louise Nurding would famously leave the group in 1995 bringing back memories of when Siobhan Fahey left Bananarama in 1988. In previous posts on my 80s TOTP blog, I’ve posited a theory that you could see signs of a split between Siobhan and Sarah/Keren in terms of the outfits she wore and her willingness to deviate from the group’s dance routines (loose as they were). However, I can’t see any such clues from Louise. They’re all on message with identical outfits and the dance steps are synchronised to the hilt. I’ll keep a watching brief on future performances though.

Time for that live by satellite segue now starting in the University of New Orleans where we find Soundgarden performing the only song of theirs that I could have named before, “Black Hole Sun”. Taken from their multi platinum album “Superunknown”, this would prove to be the band’s biggest ever UK hit when it peaked at No 13. I’m struck watching this in concert performance by the crowd surfing going on in the audience. I’ve never quite understood the appeal of this practice – it looks likely to cause personal injury and the thought of being upside down in a big crowd seems as scary as hell. Reading up on it though, it seems it can be used as the fastest way to transport gig goers in need of medical attention through the throng. My only experience of the phenomenon came in 1996 when I went to one of the Oasis concerts at Maine Road. Not that there were people crowd surfing but passing plastic glasses backwards over people’s heads was the best way of getting the crowd’s dinks to them from the bar.

Clearly wanting to make the most of having two satellite link up performances on the same show, Bruno Brookes does a voiceover segue in the style of an astronaut communicating with Mission Control. I’m not sure it works that well to be honest. Anyway, it leads us to New York where we join Youssou N’Dour and Neneh Cherry for a performance of their single “7 Seconds”. The single is finally into the Top 10 after being on the charts for 9 weeks on its way to a high of No 3. In total, it would spend a whopping 27 weeks inside the Top 75.

Youssou and Neneh perform against a set backdrop which has been made up to look like a New York street and it is giving me a mix of vibes including Singin’ In The Rain, the Skid Row neighbourhood from Little Shop of Horrors and Hoagy’s Alley from the Top Cat cartoon. As the caption says, the song is sung in three different languages – English, French and Wolof which is a language of Senegal, Mauritania and the Gambia though, to maintain the Hanna-Barbera cartoon link, sounds like how Penelope Pitstop used to pronounce “wolf”.

https://youtu.be/VXcRmIdUnVU

Just to hammer home the space satellite link up theme, Bruno Brookes appears in a spaceman outfit before introducing the next artist. Overkill much? Anyway, I (along with many others I would expect) had Sophie B. Hawkins down at the time as a one hit wonder. A damned catchy pop single in “Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover” in 1992 and then nothing Top 40 wise. Two years on and she was one of the last people I expected to see back in our charts but here she was with “Right Beside You”, the lead single from her second album “Whaler”. Neither that album nor her previous one “Tongues And Tails” pulled up any trees sales wise over here (both peaked at No 46) but her singles were a bit more durable. DIWIWYL looks like a mid table football team’s form guide when written like that but it stayed on our charts for 9 weeks peaking at No 14 whilst RBY did even better staying for 12 weeks and peaking at No 13.

Many a critic drew parallels with Madonna on hearing “Right Beside You” and whilst I can see similarities with the beach set black and white promo and Madge’s “Cherish” video, it sounds more like Belinda Carlisle to me – maybe a combination of “Mad About You” and “Circle In The Sand”? Sophie would only have two more minor hit singles though she is still a live draw and released her most recent album this year.

What are the chances? One R&B harmony group is in the charts all Summer and just as they appear to be running out of steam, the group that many compared them to in the first place return with a song that not only sounds similar to their chart peers but also the own massive No 1 from two years prior. I refer to Boyz II Men whose “End Of The Road” single spent 13 weeks at the top of the US charts in 1992 (and was also a No 1 here) and All 4 One whose “I Swear” also topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for 11 weeks (and spent 7 weeks at No 2 in the UK). With that single just starting to drop down our charts, Boyz II Men decide to reintroduce themselves with “I’ll Make Love To You”. I’d not heard an artist just decide to make the same record all over again quite so obviously since Lionel Richie rewrote “Endless Love” as “Truly”. Not only did it sound the same as “End Of The Road” but it replicated its chart success by going to No 1 in America for 14 weeks* (it topped out at No 5 over here).

*They would break their own record when their collaboration with Mariah Carey “One Sweet Day” was atop the US charts for 16 weeks! Talking of Mariah, it was another of her collaborations (this time with Luther Vandross) that knocked “I’ll Make Love To You” off the No 1 position in the New Zealand charts with their cover of…yep…the aforementioned “Endless Love”. Oh what a tangled web we weave.

This concept of a new artist making a genre of music that was popularised by another act shortly before them before the original protagonist returned to the charts puts me in mind if that time that sophisti-pop was represented in the Top 40 by Curiosity Killed The Cat with “Down To Earth” before The Blow Monkeys – who had hit 12 months before with “Digging Your Scene” – returned to the charts alongside Curiosity with “It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way”. And there endeth the lesson on recurring musical genres.

And talking of records being at the top of the charts for months, here’s our very own version Wet Wet Wet who have now been at No 1 for 12 weeks. I mean, what else can I say about “Love Is All Around”? It’s too early in its run to talk about how its demise came about so where does that leave me? How about what the band themselves made of the record’s success? Here’s Marti Pellow from an interview in The Guardian in 2021:

“I was in a cinema and the trailer came up for Four Weddings and a Funeral, and they played a bit of the song and a guy behind me went: ‘Ah, not that song again,’ and I turned round to him and said: ‘Imagine how I feel!’”

Simon Hattenstone: The G2 Interview Music, The Guardian, 29 March 2021

After not being one for a couple of weeks, we have the return of the play out song in the form of “Warriors” by Aswad. The follow up to Top 5 hit “Shine”, it would be their penultimate Top 40 entry when it peaked at No 33. Sadly, founding member Drummie Zeb died aged 62 in September 2022. Also in the obituaries is Stanley Appel who died this week and who was the producer responsible for the ‘Year Zero’ revamp of TOTP in 1991. RIP.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1China BlackSearchingNo
2OasisLive ForeverNot the single but I bought Definitely Maybe – didn’t we all?
3TinmanEighteen StringsNah
4EternalSo GoodNope
5SoundgardenBlack Hole SunNegative
6Youssou N’Dour and Neneh Cherry7 SecondsI did not
7Sophie B. HawkinsRight Beside YouNot for me
8Boyz II MenI’ll Make Love To YouOoh no!
9Wet Wet WetLove Is All AroundAnother no
10AswadWarriorsAnd 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/m001ln6k/top-of-the-pops-18081994

TOTP 12 NOV 1992

Posted on by 80stastic

It’s the 1,500th edition of TOTP and you know what, it feels like I’ve reviewed most of them in this blog! OK, obviously I haven’t but I have done every BBC4 repeat from 1983 to 1992 and counting. That’s a whole 10 years, about 400 shows and over 1 million words written! I must be mad!

Anyway, I’m carrying on for now so its time to clear my head and free my mind…with opening act En Vogue! They’re in the studio after being on video as a Breaker last week and deliver a pumped up, provocative performance in keeping with the importance of the message in their song “Free Your Mind”. Written in response to the Rodney King riots in LA, it borrows lyrically from Funkadelic’s “Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow”. The energy that the group bring to their performance here is matched by their collective spirit that sees each of the four members taking centre stage in turn. That’s how you open a show!

Sadly, that group unity wasn’t to last and in subsequent years the band’s line up went through so many comings and goings they made Sugababes look like U2. Then there were the lawsuits and legal challenges to the use of the name En Vogue that rivalled the ridiculous Bucks Fizz name saga. Seriously, just check out the History section of their Wikipedia entry. It’s exhausting!

“Free Your Mind” peaked at No 16.

So given this is a huge anniversary for TOTP, surely this edition will be a massive celebration of the show. Well, maybe but so far there’s a very forlorn looking balloon with 1500 on it behind presenter Mark Franklin who’s opening gambit to put us in a party mood is to give us some fairly basic TOTP trivia (who needed to know or was wowed by there having been 57 presenters up to this point?!). It reminds me of those The Apprentice candidates during the task where they have to put on a corporate away day event at Silverstone or at a brewery and act as tour guides.

Anyway, Franklin has some music to get us partying in the form of the nostalgia section and for the big day the producers have chosen “Baby Love” by The Supremes. As iconic songs go, this one is right up there with it being a concurrent UK and US No 1 and therefore making The Supremes the first Motown group to achieve a chart topping record in the former territory. It’s surely one of the most well known songs in the Motown catalogue.

The group were on tour in the UK at the time of this TOTP recording therefore allowing them to appear. The black and white film somehow lends it more credence as an historic tune. The towering beehive hairdos on display are quite something. Indeed, Diana Ross’s slight frame looks hardly capable of withstanding the weight of it. Although Ross was the one who would end up as the biggest star out of the group, the lives of other founding members Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard are also major stories in themselves. Indeed, they were paid tribute to in the play and film adaptation Dreamgirls with the characters of Effie White and Lorrell Robinson being based on Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson respectively.

Bringing the party mood down a few notches is Michael Bolton who is performing his version of “To Love Somebody” to promote his “Timeless: The Classics” album. I know it’s an obvious comment but the Bollers hair really was monstrous wasn’t it? If you’re going to have long hair, at least keep it in good condition. His has the texture of straw and looks like it’s been dragged through a hedge backwards.

Michael is up there on his lonesome with just the dry ice machine for company. There’s some sort of pool structure in the middle of the stage that makes the dry ice look like it’s flooding over. It’s like that scene with the three witches from Macbeth and a cauldron. Maybe Bolton was trying to cook up a spell for some hair conditioner.

“To Love Somebody” peaked at No 16.

The camera swings and we leave Michael Bolton and his bubbling cauldron to focus on Vanessa Paradis who is back in the studio to perform “Be My Baby”. After her lacklustre showing the other week, will she be able to give a more lively turn this time? It is a party after all. Well, Vanessa has clearly tried to jazz up her outfit for the occasion but it looks like Martin Fry caught her raiding his wardrobe halfway through and she’s only managed to snaffle his trousers. She does try to move about a bit more this time but she’s still left looking like she’s only just learned the song lyrics that afternoon and therefore hadn’t had time to work out any dance moves to go with the singing.

Despite continuing to record and release music until as recently as 2019, she never had another UK Top 40 hit. I wonder if her stage presence ever got any better?

Now here’s a band to light up a party! Admittedly not any party I’d want to attend but at least they’re in the right ball park. After converting Gerry Rafferty’s soft rock classic “Baker Street” into a dance anthem for those whose only dance steps were the nerd shuffle, Undercover have turned their attention to another daytime radio staple in Andrew Gold’s “Never Let Her Slip Away”. Now I have to admit to having quite the soft spot for Andrew. “Lonely Boy” is a fab song and “Thank You For Being A Friend” reminds me of watching Golden Girls in our tiny first flat in Manchester. Plus, he was in Wax with 10cc’s Graham Gouldman who had a couple of nifty pop tunes that I liked.

As for “Never Let Her Slip Away”, it had originally been a No 5 hit for Gold in 1978 and had been described by Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters no less as “the most beautiful piece of music ever written”. Wow! As for Undercover’s version, it’s in exactly the same style as their treatment of “Baker Street” which had found a level of popularity back then so I can’t really call them out for sticking to the formula but it was as lifeless as a Vanessa Paradis gig. That didn’t stop it equalling Gold’s chart peak of No 5 though.

Of course, if you are looking for a cover version of “Never Let Her Slip Away” then there’s always this:

Ah come on! A joke’s a joke but nobody’s laughing anymore. Is this the third time on the show for Ambassadors Of Funk and “Supermarioland”? This made Undercover look like Muse. How could the producers have put this on the 1,500th show?! Away with you!

We’ve finally got there. It felt at times like a journey with no end and it’s taken four years worth of TOTP repeats but we’ve reached Jason Donovan’s final UK Top 40 hit. It’s not quite his final appearance on the show as he’s on again in a couple of weeks but “As Time Goes By” was his last chart entry. Yes, it’s that “As Time Goes By” from the classic film Casablanca. A couple of things to say about this one straight off the bat. Firstly, why was Jason Donovan covering this iconic tune? Secondly, how on earth was this a suitable tune for such a milestone show?

Well, it came from Jason’s difficult third album “All Around The World” which was his first since leaving Stock, Aitken and Waterman and came out on Polydor. So little faith did the label have in their new charge that they licensed six of his old hits to add to the track listing to drum up some interest. Donovan was not impressed supposedly but then the public weren’t impressed by the album which was a commercial failure and would be his last studio album for 15 years. OK but why cover “As Time Goes By”? There’s a theory that it could be a shameless case of opportunism as there was a successful TV series of the same name on our screens at the time starring Dame Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer that used the song as its theme tune but that could just be coincidence.

As for it being an odd choice for the 1,500th TOTP, well, as host Mark Franklin says, he was about to tour at the time so maybe there was some negotiation between Polydor and the producers to get him on the show to promote that. Also, he had been a very regular artist on the show over the past four years so maybe he was seen as a deserving choice as one of TOTP’s most prolific guests.

Clearly his new label were trying to restyle him away from his SAW puppet past and mould him into a modern day crooner. Their dastardly plan failed but perhaps watching on was a certain Simon Cowell who may just have thought that their was mileage in this idea. Two years later he would persuade actors Robson Green and Jerome Flynn to cash in in their successful roles in ITV drama Soldier Soldier and record a version of “Unchained Melody” on his S Records label via BMG. It would become the biggest selling UK single of 1995. If only Jason Donovan had remained in Neighbours and not left in 1989 he might have pulled the crooner trick off. Oh hang on. Aren’t he and Kylie making an appearance in the forthcoming last ever episode of the Aussie soap? I don’t think I could stomach a second Jason Donovan pop career.

“As Time Goes By” peaked at No 26.

The camera pans once more this time ensuring that there’s a shot of a chandelier suspended from the studio ceiling in view. Has that been there every week or had it been rapidly erected especially for the 1,500th show? Anyway, as we move away from the chandelier the focus falls on the other stage where Charles And Eddie await their cue to perform “Would I Lie To You?”. As part of his introduction, Mark Franklin gives us some rudimentary maths to work out that over the years, TOTP has delivered over 900 hours of music from acts in the studio. Hmm. The script writers not doing Mark any favours there. He’s coming across like one of those office party bores you desperately don’t want to get stuck talking to.

Meanwhile, Charles And Eddie have gone from being a Breaker last week straight to No 2. A chart topping record now seemed inevitable. Although often referred to as one hit wonders, the duo did actually have a further three UK Top 40 chart entries though none got any higher than No 29 so that misconception is understandable. I have to admit that, probably like many other people, I was confused as to which one was which. Whichever one it was with the long hair had a very distinctive look; sort of like Lou Diamond Phillips in Young Guns as Chavez y Chavez the Mexican-American outlaw. Or possibly “I Got You Babe” era Cher.

Are Charles And Eddie still with us?

*checks Wikipedia*

Well, sadly Charles Pettigrew (who was the black guy) died of cancer in 2001 aged just 37. Eddie Chacon is still alive though and after working as a photographer after the duo split, returned to making music in 2020 with the ridiculously titled song “My Mind Is Out Of Its Mind”.

Now if you’re going to have a celebration to mark the 1,500th show and have been building up to the moment for weeks with nostalgia clips from the archive, then nothing screams “PAAARTY!” like Neil Diamond singing “Morning Has Broken” I always say! God almighty what were they thinking?! Look, I don’t mind a bit of Diamond. I own his Best Of that came out in 1992. Hell, I’ve even seen him live at the KC Stadium in Hull a few years back but this?! This is excruciating! It’s brutal. It’s…just vile.

I didn’t think the producers could have made a worse choice to celebrate their anniversary than Jason Donovan but somehow they managed it. The whole thing is just wrong in every possible way. Why “Morning Has Broken”? It was taken from his “The Christmas Album” so let’s just look at that a moment. That was the best title he could come up with for a Christmas album? “The Christmas Album”?! Come on! And is “Morning Has Broken” even a Christmas song?! It’s a Christian hymn that is often sung at funeral services! What else was on this Christmas album? “Angels” by Robbie Williams? OK, having checked the rest of the tracks were Christmas songs but I stand by my point.

Then there’s Neil himself. He’s wearing an orange open neck shirt with brown slacks! For the love of God! When the camera pans over the studio audience it alights on some faces that don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Some look genuinely distressed at what is unfolding in front of their eyes.

The track was eventually released as a single and somehow made the charts peaking at No 36. It was Neil’s only UK Top 40 hit of the whole decade. It should never, ever have been allowed to happen. Ever.

In a completely underwhelming 1,500th edition of the show, it’s somehow befitting that it ends with “End Of The Road” by Boyz II Men. Where were all the party tunes?

This was the last week at No 1 for the group but by the time the record finally disappeared it would have spent 26 weeks (exactly half a year) on the charts. I had to check that figure three times to be sure. It ended 1992 as the 6th best selling single in the UK.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1En VogueFree Your MindNo, liked it though
2The SupremesBaby LoveSure I have it on a Motown collection somewhere
3Michael BoltonTo Love SomebodyNot you though Bollers – no
4Vanessa ParadisBe My BabyYes this is in the singles box though I think my wife actually bought it
5UndercoverNever Let Her Slip AwayNah
6Ambassadors Of FunkSupermariolandHell no!
7Jason DonovanAs Time Goes ByAnd pigs might fly – Never!
8Charles And EddieWould I Lie To You?Nope
9Neil DiamondMorning Has BrokenOf course not
10Boyz II MenEnd Of The RoadNo

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/m0016spn/top-of-the-pops-12111992

TOTP 05 NOV 1992

Posted on by 80stastic

It’s Bonfire Night in 1992 which that year happened to be a Thursday so there’s a TOTP on TV as well. I wonder if the show was a festival of fireworks or a sad, lonely sparkler?

OK, getting the party started are Little Angels who are about to enter the most commercially successful period of their career. Having already lit the fuse on some Roman Candles in the shape of a string of minor Top 40 hits, they would light the blue touch paper on a rocket of a third album called “Jam” that would fly all the way to No 1. That album would appear in January of the following year but was trailed by lead single “Too Much Too Young” which was nothing to do with The Specials but was a punchy, brass section animated rock romp that leapt out at you from the radio. Not that their previous hits hadn’t had any hooks but this felt like a definite decision to go for the commercial jugular. No messing about with the gentle whooshing of a fountain firework, this was a firecracker!

I think I’ve mentioned this before but I caught the band doing a small set in a PA at the Manchester HMV megastore to promote the album and they were pretty good. The album wasn’t bad either and I took home the promo copy of it that we got in the Our Price store I was working in.

Although I’ve droned on and on in this blog about how the UK charts were dominated by dance music at this time, there was also a vibrant British rock scene in the early 90s. Besides Little Angels scoring a No 1 album, their pals Thunder took “Laughing On Judgement Day” to No 2 this year whilst The Quireboys also had a No 2 album with “A Bit Of What You Fancy” in 1990.

Lead singer Toby Jepson’s live vocal in this performance is convincingly strong though I’m not sure what those sidebar graphics were meant to be adding just before the guitar solo halfway through. I can’t find the TOTP clip on YouTube though so the official promo will have to suffice.

“Too Much Too Young” peaked at No 22.

The nostalgia section is still with us and this week is filled by one of the biggest rock bands of all time. Yes, it’s The Rolling Stones with one of their most iconic songs “Honky Tonk Women”. Iconic and pivotal. It remains their last No 1 single in the UK and the recording sessions that were part of its gestation (when it went by the title of “Country Honk”) would be Brian Jones’s last with the band before his death. The final version that we all know was actually released on the day after he died. It also marked the first appearance on a Stones recording of his replacement on guitar Mick Taylor who also featured in this clip.

An unlikely choice of Rolling Stones album from my Dad

“Honky Tonk Women” was released as a stand alone single initially although a version called “Country Honk” made it onto their “Let It Bleed” album. It has been included on many a Best Of album and this was how I initially thought I first heard it as a child as my Dad had a Stones album called “Rock ‘N’ Rolling Stones”. However,Wikipedia tells me that it’s not on the track listing so I’m guessing my Dad must have had the single as well. That album in his collection was an odd one. It was released in 1972 by Decca post contract as the band had left them to form their own label.

Essentially it was Decca squeezing what they could out of the band’s recordings that they owned. It features five Chuck Berry covers and the only Jagger/Richards composition on it is “19th Nervous Breakdown”. One for the completists I think which my Dad certainly isn’t so I’m not sure how he came to possess a copy.

1992 really was an extraordinary year for Shakespear’s Sister. A Top 3 album in “Hormonally Yours”, an eight week run at No 1 with “Stay” and a further three Top 40 hits all in a packed twelve months. The final of these was “Hello (Turn Your Radio On)”. I have to say I’m not sure I could have told you how this one went before hearing it again but it’s quite a tune. The very last track on the “Hormonally Yours”, it’s clearly meant to be a towering finale to the album and it just about achieves it. Clocking in at just under four and a half minutes, it was a bold choice for a single. Would that have been too long for daytime radio playlists? Or maybe they were just relying on that old adage that DJs generally couldn’t resist playing a record with the word ‘radio’ in the title?

You can tell that we’re meant to understand this is a tune with gravitas as opposed to the poppier end of their catalogue like say “You’re History” as Marcella and Siobhan are sat down for the entire performance. Yet again the latter’s live vocals aren’t quite up to it though they obviously sound OK on the studio recording. Listening to the lyrics it’s a sort of existential, meaning of life ballad that I could imagine on a film soundtrack. It hasn’t been yet though it has been covered by both a German girl group and German punk band. The original made No 14 in the UK charts.

Another band having an annus mirabilis in 1992 were The Shamen. If anything they outperformed Shakespear’s Sister as they also had a No 1 in “Ebeneezer Goode” plus they had three Top 10 singles. The second of these was also the title track off their fifth and most successful album “Boss Drum”. Released in September, it made No 3 on the charts securing their place as one of the year’s top acts. I’m not convinced though that time has been kind (or possibly fair) to this era of The Shamen. Firstly, there is the theory that mainstream success somehow diluted the creativity of the band and made them less worthy. It’s not an original idea of course – off the top of my head Simple Minds have come under similar scrutiny – but is it true? Well, possibly though it’s easy and maybe lazy to draw a line between band eras based around the death of Will Sinnott. I’m probably guilty of that myself though I stand by the opinion that “En-tact” is much more interesting than “Boss Drum”.

Secondly, there’s peer comparison. Released almost simultaneously with “Boss Drum” was “Experience” by The Prodigy which seems to have aged much better whilst The KLF’s “White Room” has also received some retrospective love. The Shamen’s “Boss Drum” though? Not so much. Maybe it suffers from the length of the shadow cast by the all encompassing “Ebeneezer Goode”. Maybe.

“Boss Drum” the song though deserves better. Far more accomplished than its headline grabbing, masses baiting predecessor, it’s much the better track to my ears. It came close to emulating “Ebeneezer Goode” but in the end settled at a high of No 4.

What on earth was this? Well, the short answer is that it was a charity record but that doesn’t really cover it. It was the brainchild / fault of Heavenly indie label bosses Martin Kelly and Jeff Barrett who got three of their acts to record versions of the Right Said Fred singles released to that point. Calling it the “The Fred EP”, it featured Saint Etienne taking on “I’m Too Sexy”, Flowered Up putting “Don’t Talk Just Kiss” through its paces and this one; The Rockingbirds doing “Deeply Dippy”. Maybe they got the idea after the recent “Ruby Trax” album of covers to celebrate the NME’s 40 year anniversary. After all, it featured one of their previous artists Manic Street Preachers whose first two singles had been released on Heavenly. Or maybe the stimulus was of a different nature altogether. Here’s Jeff Barrett courtesy of @TOTPFacts:

That might explain it. Drugs or no, they’ve gone full commitment on the idea even getting in Liam from Flowered Up (who seems to still be suffering the effects of that original idea conversation) and Sarah from Saint Etienne onto TOTP to introduce The Rockingbirds. Quite why did they go with them and not either of the other two artists to promote the record? Presumably to raise the profile of their charges whilst also rising some cash for the Terrence Higgins Trust. Here’s Rockingbirds guitarist Andy Hackett:

It’s not a great performance it has to be said. More deeply drippy than dippy. The whole thing puts me in mind of this:

Never realised before that was Nicola Walker of Unforgotten and The Split fame up there. Talking of which, The Rockingbirds never did recover from this and did in fact split in 1995 though they did reform in 2008.

“The Fred EP” peaked at No 26.

Four Breakers this week one of which went onto be a No 1 record but we start with Metallica who are still releasing singles from their eponymous ‘black’ album that came out 15 months earlier! “Wherever I May Roam” was the fourth single lifted from it but still there was one other to be released after it a whole 18 months after the album. Metallica – the heavy metal Michael Jackson. The track gave its name to the Wherever We May Roam tour in support of the album, a mega 224 shows whopper which began on the first day of August 1991 and didn’t finish until the week before Xmas the following year. Given that, I suppose the band (or record company) were always going to carry on releasing singles off the album in a reciprocal support of the tour.

“Wherever I May Roam” peaked at No 25.

What a song this next Breaker was! Possibly my favourite of theirs, “Free Your Mind” by En Vogue was taken from their “Funky Divas” album and combined hard rock guitars to their R’n’B harmonies to come up with an anti prejudice anthem that still resonates today. After the spoken word intro which was adapted from US sketch comedy show In Living Color, it’s straight in with a crash, bang and wallop to a tune with definite attitude. I guess R’n’B / Rock hybrids had been done before by the likes of Janet Jackson on her “Rhythm Nation 1814” album but that didn’t detract from what En Vogue achieved here. It peaked at No 16 in the UK. It should have been Top 10 at least.

From one extreme to the other. I always hated Charles And Eddie though I’m not entirely sure why. I mean their song was a fairly inoffensive number that fused modern production with a retro soul sound and a dash of Motown pastiche but I absolutely loathed it from the get go. I think I believed the duo to be talentless chancers though I knew nothing of their musical backgrounds. Fortunately @TOTPFacts has the lowdown on that and it has an unexpected link to another of this week’s Breakers:

Hmm. Who knew? Anyway, back to me and maybe it was the pathetic name they went by which sounded like something you would hear at the X Factor open auditions. Even Jedward changed from their original moniker of John And Edward to something slightly more interesting. See, someone was even tweeting about it the other day:

I have a friend who called her two dogs Charles and Eddie which is kind of appropriate as I thought the “Would I Lie To You” hitmakers were proper dogshit. This pair wil be at No 1 soon so I’ll leave it at that for now.

The final Breaker is “Who Needs Love (Like That)” by Erasure. This was the 1992 Hamburg remix of their debut single from 1985 rereleased to promote their first Best Of album “Pop: The First 20 Hits”. As far as I can tell the video shown is the original 1985 promo or at least I can’t find a separate one for the 1992 remix but I could be wrong.

The album went to No 1 (their fourth consecutive chart topper at that point) and was the 11th best selling album in the UK for 1992 even though it wasn’t released until mid November and yet my abiding memory of that Xmas working in the Our Price in Rochdale is that we didn’t sell as many as I expected. Maybe we just ordered too many copies and I was therefore looking at a major overstock for the whole of the festive period and it’s skewed my memory of how many we did actually sell. I do recall thinking it would fly out and it just didn’t feel like it did. Again, I could be wrong.

Meanwhile, something definitely selling well is “People Everyday” by Arrested Development which is up to No 2. Like Charles And Eddie, this record was distributed through EMI and the cassette version of both singles had those annoying cardboard slipcase covers rather than a proper moulded cassette case. These were a real pain as you had to put them in cassette cases anyway to display them. This could well be another reason for my dislike of “Would I Lie To You?” but then I didn’t mind “People Everyday” so that kind of debunks that theory. Oh look, I just didn’t like it OK?!

It’s time for the finale of the fireworks display, even if it is one song too early. Taking the role of the sky rocket and making their TOTP studio debut are INXS with “Taste It”. Seems crazy that in the five years that the band had been having UK Top 40 hits, they’d never been on the show previously.

I’ve said before that their “Welcome To Wherever You Are” album was one of my favourites of 1992 and this was a solid track from it. Not the best but solid. Straying from their usual rock sound ever so slightly, “Taste It” channels a more soulful vein but is still unmistakably INXS.

Michael Hutchence looks like he hasn’t slept nor washed for a week in this performance but then when did he ever look any different? A fourth and final single was released from the album in the UK early the following year in the shape of “Beautiful Girl” (the bewitching “Not Enough Time” was only released in the US and Japan territories) before the band went straight into recording their next album, the not altogether well received “Full Moon, Dirty Hearts”.

Sadly, as with Little Angels, I can’t find a clip of their performance on the show so here’s the official promo instead.

Bonfire night ends on a bit of a damp squib. I think this is maybe the fourth appearance on the show for “End Of The Road” by Boyz II Men and it feels like it really has outstayed its welcome now. I mean in the real world back in 1992 it hadn’t outstayed its welcome as it was still selling enough copies a week to top the charts but on these TOTP repeats it’s a bit much. It’s such a slow and laboured sound as well. Hardly the equivalent of the final flourish to a firework spectacular.

Two years on from this, Boyz II Men would return with an exact replica of “End Of The Road” called “I’ll Make Love To You” and had a massive hit all over again. There’s a reason why fireworks have to have safety instructions all over them as some people just won’t listen. Or rather they do instead of standing well back.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1Little AngelsToo Much Too YoungNo but I had a promo copy of the album
2The Rolling StonesHonky Tonk WomenNot in 1969 when I was one but it’s on my Hot Rocks compilation
3Shakespear’s SisterHello (Turn Your Radio On)No but it’s a decent tune
4The ShamenBoss DrumNope
5The RockingbirdsThe Fred EPNah
6MetallicaWherever I May RoamNo
7En VogueFree Your MindNo but maybe should have
8Charles And EddieWould I Lie To You?Hell no!
9ErasureWho Needs Love (Like That)No but I had Pop: The First 20 Hits with it on
10Arrested Development People EverydayNo but my wife had the LP
11INXSTaste ItNo but I bought the album
12Boyz II MenEnd Of The RoadAnd 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/m0016spl/top-of-the-pops-05111992