Two days before this TOTP was broadcast, the comedian and entertainer Rod Hull died in a tragic accident when trying to fix the TV aerial on his roof whilst watching a Manchester United match. A huge name in the 70s and early part of the 80s, he, along with his puppet partner Emu, were a massive part of the childhood of millions, mine included. His appearance on Parkinson in 1976 is part of TV folklore.

By the 90s though, his fame was in decline despite the odd TV commercial appearance and pantomime run. A brief revival of his name came via a regular sketch on Stewart Lee and Richard Herring’s comedy show Fist Of Fun:

When I first started working for Our Price in the early 90s, one of my colleagues used to run a ‘celebrity death list’ every new year asking his fellow co-workers for suggestions of famous people who might die in the next 12 months. It was a very macabre undertaking but we would all engage with it. One year, I suggested Rod Hull as I hadn’t see him on TV for a while and wondered if his health was maybe in decline. I was wrong at the time but a few years later my prediction would sadly come true. I wonder if there are any links to Rod in the acts featured in this particular TOTP?

Jamie Theakston is back as our host and we start with a new hit from Steps who were on a high from their recent No 1 “Tragedy” which remarkably after four and a half months, was still at No 20 in the charts as its follow up “Better Best Forgotten” debuted at No 2. I guess their record label Jive/EBUL couldn’t wait any longer before releasing the next single? Maybe they should have though as there’s never been a more aptly titled song. After distancing themselves from those ABBA comparisons with that Bee Gees cover, “Better Best Forgotten” landed them right back there. Maybe that was the plan though? I’m pretty sure that was mentor Pete Waterman’s strategy all along, to create an ABBA for the 90s.

Interestingly with this track, the lead vocals are shared out between Claire Richards, Faye Tozer and Lisa Scott-Lee on the verses. There was still no fear of H nor Lee Latchford-Evans of literally stepping up to the mike. Within a month, Steps would be back in the charts (“Better Best Forgotten” and unbelievably “Tragedy” were still also Top 40 residents) as part of the “Thank ABBA For The Music” medley featuring themselves, Tina Cousins, Cleopatra, B*Witched and Billie which did absolutely nothing to stem the tide of those ABBA comparisons.

Rod Hull connection: There’s only one and it’s going to sound slightly disrespectful – I’m assuming that there was a ladder with steps involved in the tragic accident that saw Rod fall from his roof trying to adjust his TV aerial. Sorry everyone – that comment really is better best forgotten.

The Beautiful South had been with us for a whole decade by 1999 and delivered not just six studio albums (and a hugely popular Best Of) but example after example of superbly crafted pop songs both lyrically and sonically. They would carry on for another eight years but their journeys up the charts would be much smaller in length from this point on. Indeed, “How Long’s A Tear Take To Dry?” would be their final Top 20 single. The third track lifted from their “Quench” album, it was one of those jaunty, nifty, exuberant pop songs but with a lyrical sting in the tail that they did so well in the tradition of “We Are Each Other”, “Don’t Marry Her” and “Perfect 10”. How can you not enjoy lines that reference Dr. Who’s TARDIS and rhyme ‘tonight’ with ‘shite’?*

*I’m sure Jacqui Abbott does actually sing the ‘s’ word in this performance despite the fact that the subtitles list that lyric as “not on your life”

Although we only get to see it on a screen in the background, the video for this one deserves a mention as it features the band as cartoon character versions of themselves in the style of Hanna-Barbera. Indeed, Paul Heaton is on record as saying that it was produced by the American animation studio. I especially liked the Hull (my home for the last 22 years) references incorporated into it such as The Grafton pub (Heaton lived at No 70 Grafton Street when he moved to Hull in 1983 to form The Housemartins and that was his local) and the iconic Hollywood sign becoming ‘Hullywood’.

Rod Hull connection: This one writes itself – it’s those Heaton/Hull links again.

Just like The Beautiful South, Roxette had been having hits in the UK since 1989 but also like The Beautiful South their commercial power was on the wane. The Swedish duo hadn’t had a Top 10 in this country since 1993’s “Almost Unreal” from the Super Mario Bros. soundtrack and of their last five singles released, only two had even made the Top 40. It was therefore a sizeable surprise when they returned in 1999 with a No 11 hit in “Wish I Could Fly”. The lead track from their “Have A Nice Day” album, it’s a huge, sweeping ballad with an orchestral backing but, just for the shits and giggles presumably, Per Gessle shoved a drum loop* into the mix.

*Actually, it was to see if the two elements could be combined effectively.

You know what, they kind of did mix with “Wish I Could Fly” being a half interesting listen (listen to your half I should maybe have said). It would prove to be Roxette’s last UK Top 40 hit – their joyride around the British charts was over.

Rod Hull connection: I think there’s another bad taste quip to be had here but I won’t go there. Instead, how about that the title of this hit is giving me very strong vibes about another 70s/80s entertainer with a puppet who is no longer with us…

In my mind, a part of 1999 will always belong to Travis who emerged from being just another run of the mill post-Britpop outfit to become one of the biggest bands in the country. How do they accomplish this feat? By releasing their second album “The Man Who” and the UK record buying public being powerless to resist its charms. OK, it wasn’t quite as simple as that but certainly the reaction to that sophomore album couldn’t have been predicted by the reception that their debut collection of songs that was “Good Feeling” had received. That’s not to say it didn’t sell. It did – ultimately achieving platinum status for 300,000 units shifted. It’s just that “The Man Who” saw that number and said “Hold my beer…”. Nine times platinum worth of sales later and having spent 134 weeks on the charts including 43 in the Top 10 and nine at No 1…well, you don’t need to be a maths genius to be able to see the difference.

Now, without wishing to adopt a sixth former / ‘I used to like them before they were big’ attitude, I think I do actually prefer their first album which I bought. That’s not to say I didn’t appreciate what came after it – there’s some cracking songs on “The Man Who” like “Turn”, “Driftwood” and this one “Writing To Reach You”. The album was released in June and built steadily on the back of its two trailing hit singles before exploding in the second half of the year and cleaning up at Christmas and spending five consecutive weeks at No 1 at the start of the new millennium. It was that festive sales period though that I’ll always remember. So fast was the album selling that the Our Price chain I was working for was struggling to keep up with demand. I can’t recall what the issue was, whether it was a pressing plant problem or something else but I have a memory of the buying department pulling out all the stops to get stocks of the album into the stores and back on the shelves. When the stock did arrive, I seem to remember that it had some odd promotional stickers on it as if it had been sourced from abroad. Whatever, it was gratefully received and made no difference to the punters wanting to buy it. I can’t recall who I heard this from (maybe an Area Manager) but I was definitely told that the chain had been three days from going to the wall over Christmas and much of its survival was down to the performance of “The Man Who”. I don’t know how true that last bit was but it has stuck with me all these years.

Enough talk of sales certifications and stock sourcing issues, what about the actual music? Lead singer and songwriter Fran Healy has publicly acknowledged that he stole the chords for “Writing To Reach You” from “Wonderwall” by Oasis – indeed, he references the track in his song’s lyrics and you can’t get much more public than that. 18 months after writing the song, Travis were supporting Oasis on tour and Noel Gallagher said to Healy as they came off stage “Nice chords mate”. For me, the plagiarism doesn’t detract from the quality of the tune though which is earnest yet melodic, yearning but knowing, familiar and intriguing. I wasn’t aware of this before writing this post but apparently this is one of the greatest ‘mash-ups’ of all time…

Healy looks so youthful in this performance with a twinkle in his eye and a look of Roddy Frame about him. He’s a lot more gnarled looking these days and why shouldn’t he be 27 years later.

Rod Hull connection: In 1982, DJ Dave Lee Travis won the ‘Pipe Smoker of the Year’ award. Rod Hull won it in 1993. Ahem.

It’s time for a medical update on Britney Spears and her knee is still causing her problems that are preventing her from being in the TOTP studio in person. As such, we’ll have to make do with another showing of that video for “…Baby One More Time”. In this personal message, she takes the opportunity to plug not just her single but new album of the same name which had just been released in the UK (it had already been available in America for a couple of months). It would do big business over here going four times platinum though it never quite made No 1. It would reside in the Top 20 for just under a year though only a third of that time was spent inside the Top 10. Its Wikipedia entry depicts two different album covers – one for the US release and the other being the international edition. The contrast between them is quite striking. The version we were all used to seeing in our record shops has Britney in a solemn pose with her clasped hands raised to her lips almost in prayer. Meanwhile, the US edition has her kneeling against an all pink background in which she looks much younger and seems to me to be an attempt to appeal to a teeny (maybe even weeny) bopper audience, building on that connection from her The All-New Mickey Mouse Club days. If so, the video for the single “…Baby One More Time” would blow any such association out of the water. The Britney Spears global promotion machine was moving through the gears and would bring her fame and fortune on an unprecedented scale for one so young but at what cost…?

Rod Hull connection: Emu had a track record of hitting people more than one time as Michael Parkinson famously found out.

There have been plenty of times when I’ve complained about the running orders on some of these TOTP repeats but so have you say this one features some pretty decent bands. We’ve already had Travis and The Beautiful South and in a while we’ll be seeing Manic Street Preachers but before them come REM. I’d long since failed to have any sort of focus on their output by this point and consequently must have let this single – “At My Most Beautiful” pass me by which is a shame as it’s really rather good. A piano led ballad that was written as an homage to the Beach Boys and presented as a gift to his “Pet Sounds” loving band mates, it’s widely regarded as the first straightforward REM love song. I think the sentiment behind that comment was that it wasn’t…well…’sentimental’ but a genuine expression of feelings. Certainly Michael Stipe took his time in writing “At My Most Beautiful” – he spent a year coming up with the verse so if longevity is any indicator of authenticity then that description of the song was valid. For his part, Stipe is on record as saying that he was fed up of writing ironic love songs by this point.

The single wasn’t quite the last release by REM for the 90s (there was a track from the Andy Kaufman biopic Man On The Moon starring Jim Carrey right at the end of 1999) but it’s peak of No 10 was a nice way to usher in the end of a decade which saw the band release five studio albums and cross from indie favourites into the mainstream and all the spotlight and expectation which came with that.

Rod Hull connection: None really other than a shared liking of acronyms. For REM read EBC – Emu’s Broadcasting Company which was on our TV screens from 1975 to 1980.

Just like REM, the Manic Street Preachers had also released five albums throughout the course of the 90s. The final of those was “This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours” which would provide them with four hit singles. “You Stole The Sun From My Heart” was the third of those and would give the band their seventh Top 10 hit of their career up to that point. When you consider that six of those came from their previous seven releases starting with “A Design For Life” in 1996 and that they’d only had one between 1991 and 1995 (and that was a cover version), it gives you some idea of how their career had transformed over the course of the decade. In many ways it mirrored REM in that they’d also made the switch (by design or not) to being a mainstream artist with the success of the “Everything Must Go” album after years of developing a fiercely loyal but contained fanbase. However, whereas REM seemed to have peaked commercially and be coming down the other side as the 90s were coming to an end, the Manics seemed to be entering their imperial phase. “This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours” gave them their first No 1 album and single and in the first few days of the new millennium, the standalone track “Masses Against The Classes” would provide a second No 1 single. Both bands have so far recorded 15 studio albums but whereas REM called it a day in 2011 and have yet to reverse that decision, the Manics are still going strong with their most recent album release being 2025’s “Critical Thinking”.

Rod Hull connection: Deeply tenuous this but in December 1998, whilst plugging their Fist Of Fun* live show at the Shepherds Bush Empire during an interview on Capital Radio with Chris Moyles, they said that they were better than the Lightning Seeds but not as good as the Manic Street Preachers.

*Fist Of Fun featured a Rod Hull imposter character remember.

Boyzone have matched the achievement of Britney Spears by staying at No 1 for more than a week with “When The Going Gets Tough”. Presumably the fact that it was the official Comic Relief song for 1999 and that the charity’s telethon event happened on the Friday before the chart was compiled cemented their position. Someone commented on line about this performance that, by this point, you could really tell that the guys in the band were struggling to cope with with what it meant to be a part of the Boyzone project. I can see what they meant. Look at the dead eyes on display. Shane Lynch would rather be anywhere in the world than in the TOTP studio performing a Billy Ocean cover, charity record or not. I said in the previous post that everyone except Ronan Keating and Stephen Gately seems to do very little on stage but maybe they had good reason – that they were miserable and couldn’t be arsed to put the effort in. We’ve all felt like that about our jobs at some point surely? What did they have to be pissed off about though ? They were wildly successful pin up pop stars after all. Well, I haven’t watched the documentary Boyzone: No Matter What but from the reviews that I have read about it, the revelations within it about how they were manipulated by manager Louis Walsh and his lack of loyalty towards his charges is shocking but not unexpected. I’ve always hated this bloke and the description of his portrayal in the film only serve to confirm my beliefs. He’s a total tosser – a disgraceful person. Look at this from The Guardian review of the documentary about his reaction to Stephen Gately coming out to the press apparently against his will:

“When he was 23, Gately came out as a gay man in the pages of the Sun – a massive deal, at that time, for a pop star who was adored and lusted after by millions of female fans. There is a sense that it was not his choice, and one of the most poignant, and telling, scenes in the whole documentary sees Keating, Walsh and Michelle Gately look at the front page splash that revealed the “news”. Even now, Keating is angry and upset about what happened, while Gately’s sister is clearly distressed. And Walsh? “I love it,” he says. “He got the front page.” The tabloids’ coverage of Gately’s death, meanwhile, just 15 years ago, was soaked in homophobic assumptions. It remains disgraceful today.”

Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian, 02 Feb 2025

Walsh’s comment sums up his character – where’s his humanity? Given his actions and attitude, maybe the Boyzone lads did have genuine grievances.

Rod Hull connection: None but I wish Emu had given Louis Walsh the same treatment he subjected Michael Parkinson to.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Steps	Better Best Forgotten	Never
2	The Beautiful South	How Long’s A Tear Take To Dry?	Negative
3	Roxette	Wish I Could Fly	Nah
4	Travis	Writing To Reach You	No but I had the album I think
5	Britney Spears	…Baby One More Time	No
6	REM	At My Most Beautiful	I did not
7	Manic Street Preachers	You Stole The Sun From My Heart	Nope
8	Boyzone	When The Going Get’s Tough	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/m002qx5k/top-of-the-pops-19031999