Julia Fordham

TOTP 19 MAY 1994

Posted on by 80stastic

Right, after banging on about football in what’s supposed to be a retro music blog last time out, I promise there’s nothing about the beautiful game in this post. It’s straight to the music and the direct to camera message at the top of the show this week comes from a snake. No really. An actual snake but it’s no ordinary snake. Not only does it talk but it’s owner is ‘The Godfather of Shock Rock’ himself Alice Cooper who is on the show as both performer and host tonight. Blimey! Iggy Pop last week and Alice Cooper the next. There’s two ways of looking at this. Either new producer Ric Blaxill was trying to restore some credibility to TOTP by demonstrating that the show was still a pull for some of the most iconic names in music or he was totally misreading the room and not giving the kids what they wanted at all. Alice Cooper was 46 at the time this show aired and his biggest hit “School’s Out” had been No 1 22 years prior. Or was their a third view? Was he trying to reel back in those disaffected viewers who thought that they had outgrown the show? All I know is that was two ‘Godfathers’ on the show in consecutive weeks after ‘The Godfather of Punk’ Iggy Pop seven days before. It surely wasn’t just coincidence was it?

To completely blow my theorising above out of the water, we start with an act that surely couldn’t have existed and been successful at any other time other than the early to mid 90s. 2 Unlimited must have been one of the most prolific artists to appear on the show in this period. “The Real Thing” was their 10th consecutive UK chart hit of which only two didn’t make the Top 10. Unlike most of their previous offerings, Ray actually gets to do some prolonged rapping in this one rather than having to settle for shouting out “Techno, techno techno techno” every now and then.

The track reminds me of another song that I can’t quite put my finger on…

No, @TOTPFacts, not that (although clearly, that as well). Got it! It’s this…

Just me then. Oh well. By my reckoning there’s at least a couple more occasions when Ray and Anita will be on TOTP so we’re not quite done yet but the end is coming.

While the end of 2 Unlimited is nigh, we’re just at the start of something very lengthy and for some interminable and intolerable. Yes, Wet Wet Wet are here for the first time with (gulp) “Love Is All Around”. Yes, just three years since Bryan Adams spent 16 weeks at the top of the charts, the UK was about to embark on another splurge of record buying that would create another long term resident at No 1, Chart Street. How could we have let this happen again so quickly?! Well, like “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You”, Wet Wet Wet’s single was also from a popular, mainstream film but for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves read Four Weddings and a Funeral. Richard Curtis’s rom-com was a runaway success topping the box office’s chart for 9 weeks and making it the second highest grossing film ever in the UK at the time. Although the song only features over the end credits (a version is sung by the hippy looking couple at the first wedding in the main body of the film), such exposure and promotion was always going to make it a big hit. Did any of us envision 15 weeks at No 1 though? I’ll need to keep something back for that lengthy a run on the show so for the moment, here’s some stats:

  • It was the best selling single in the UK for 1994 (obviously)
  • It went double platinum in the UK
  • It was No 1 in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Holland, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden
  • It has the joint third longest reign at the top of the UK chart only behind Bryan Adams and Frankie Laine
  • It spent 26 weeks in the UK Top 40 of which 20 were in the Top 10

In short, it was a monster with teeth. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Right, who’s this? Bad Boys Inc? They were still a thing in mid 1994? If that seems unbelievable, guess how many hits these stinkers had? Two? Three at a push? Uh-uh. Six. SIX! How? Why? What the hell was going on? “More To This World” was the fourth and biggest of them giving the group their only Top 10 hit. Filling the gap as an alternative to Take That for the teen market until Boyzone turned up a few months later, this lot were the template of how to be a second rate boy band. A frontman with a passable voice at best backed by some grinning no marks whose only contribution to the project was cheekbones, styled hair and dancing. Dreadful stuff from every body involved. We shall detain ourselves no longer with this shallow nonsense.

Proving just how bonkers the charts of 1994 were, we move from a lower league boy and to ambient world music in the blink of an eye. Well, not quite a blink but it’s a pretty short segue featuring occasional host Bruno Brookes and tonight’s superstar Alice Cooper. Oh, and that snake as well. It actually works quite well. Brookes keeps a straight face and Alice delivers his line effectively. And not a gold disc presentation on sight. Please take note Simon Mayo.

Back to that ambient world music though. Its two main protagonists, in the charts at least, were Enigma and Deep Forest and by happy chance they are next to each other in the Top 40 this week. The former is at No 21 with “The Eyes Of Truth” whilst the latter is in the No 20 position with their eponymous track “Deep Forest”. It doesn’t quite have the charm of its predecessor “Sweet Lullaby” but was still an exponent of the growth of World Music that had come to mainstream attention via Paul Simon’s “Graceland”, Peter Gabriel’s Real World label and experiments in the genre via Brian Eno and David Byrne. Deep Forest (and Enigma) seemed to me to create their own strand of it though by adding electronica sounds to the most unlikely of samples – Gregorian chants in the case of Enigma and field recordings of the indigenous peoples of Polynesia by Michel Sanchez and Eric Mouquet of Deep Forest. Nearly 30 years on, maybe the depth of the impression their material made upon the mainstream public has diminished but it really felt quite out there at the time. And mainstream it certainly was. Deep Forest’s debut album sold nearly four million copies worldwide and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Global Music in 1994 but lost out to Ry Cooder. It might not have been to everyone’s taste but when you consider that the UK No 1 in this particular chart was by a football team and was based on a horrible Status Quo track, maybe everyone’s taste wasn’t always the best barometer.

It’s the return of Seal next with his first new material since his massive selling debut album stormed the charts in 1991. His second album (also just called “Seal” or sometimes referred to as “Seal II”) is the album that “Kiss From A Rose” is from right?

*checks Seal’s discography

Thought so. That track was huge after featuring in the Batman Forever film but it wasn’t the album’s lead single. That honour went to “Prayer For The Dying” which has become a bit of a lost Seal track. Ask most people to name one of his songs and I’m betting the titles offered up would be either the aforementioned “Kiss From A Rose” or “Crazy” or “Killer”. “Prayer For The Dying” though? Not so much. I couldn’t have dragged it out of my memory banks unaided. It’s actually a very smooth and accomplished track though and did make No 14 in the charts but it lacks the edginess of something like “Killer” or “Crazy”. Trevor Horn was still at the mixing desk so of course it was well produced but it sounds like it’s been crafted to appeal to multiple US genre radio stations and spreads itself bit too thin. I mean, compared to 2 Unlimited or Bad Boys Inc, it’s a towering colossus of musical quality but somehow it’s not one of his best or indeed best remembered tunes.

The album sold well though, topping the chart as its predecessor had done and it went four times platinum in the US thanks to “Kiss From A Rose” being a No 1 record over there. I recall the initial scale out of it for the Our Price store I was working in not being that big (a poor decision by the buying dept it would seem) and the Area Manager telling us to hunt stem the advanced promo copy we had to add to stock. Funny the things you remember.

An occasional feature now with something from the album chart. Presumably these sections weren’t weekly because of the changing nature of artist availability? If the show could be populated by artists promoting a single did they take priority? The album chart slot started with Stanley Appel’s ‘year zero’ revamp but it seems subsequent show producer Ric Blaxill hasn’t ditched it yet. Maybe he does down the line – I can’t remember off the top off my head.

Anyway, the occupant of the slot this week is Julia Fordham who seems a rather obscure choice given that her album “Falling Forward” never hit any higher than No 21. In fact, as much as I quite like Julia Fordham, she’s never pulled many trees up chart wise. Two hit singles (Nos 19 and 27) and her best placing in the album chart was No 13 for sophomore collection “Porcelain”. She really should have had more hits given her talent. She remains a live draw and has toured with Beverley Craven and Judie Tzuke as part of the “Woman To Woman” project. This track, “I Can’t Help Myself”, was released as a single in the July making No 62.

Bruno Brookes is back to present the next act but he looks like he’s been smeared with shit since he’s been gone. The explanation for his appearance is that he’s been in an off screen fight with Alice Cooper’s snake. OK, the joke is wearing thin now and I think they’ve overcooked it. There’s no snakes anywhere near the next act who are East 17 though they did seem to shed band members as regularly as a snake sheds it skin after the hits dried up. Look at this timeline:

  • 1997 Brian Harvey sacked (drugs comments)
  • 1997 Tony Mortimer leaves (creative differences)
  • 1998 Brian Harvey reinstated and group renamed as E17
  • 1999 Band splits
  • 2006 Original line up reforms for reunion gig
  • 2006 Tony Mortimer leaves (after altercation with Brian Harvey)
  • 2010 Tony Mortimer returns for a second time
  • 2010 Brian Harvey leaves for second time (commitment to band questioned)
  • 2011 Blair Dreelan joins band
  • 2011 Blair Dreelan leaves band (contractual obligation)
  • 2013 Tony Mortimer leaves band for third time
  • 2014 Robbie Craig joins band
  • 2018 Original member John Hendy leaves (personal reasons)
  • 2018 Terry John joins band
  • 2019 Terry John leaves band
  • 2019 Jake Livermore joins band

Blimey! There’s so much coming and going in that lot that they should have been called E20 (the fictional postcode for EastEnders location Walford). “All Around The World” peaked at No 3.

It’s finally time for Alice Cooper to be onstage as a performer rather than to the side of it as a presenter. He’s here, of course, to promote his latest single which is “Lost In America” from his concept album “The Last Temptation” album. I’m not much of an Alice aficionado I have to say. I know his real name is Vince Furnier without looking it up and that he’s a golf fanatic. Musically, I’m familiar with “School’s Out” and “Elected” from his 70s era and “Poison” and “Hey Stoopid” from his late 80s early 90s revival but not a lot else and that includes this track.

Ah crap! I promised there’d be nothing about football in this post after last week’s was hijacked by my talking about the 1994 FA Cup final but the No 1 is “Come On You Reds” by The Manchester United Football Squad so what can I do? Five days on from their demolition of my beloved Chelsea in said final, they have moved to being the best selling single of the week in the UK. It would stay there for two weeks. This achievement was quite remarkable given the fact that it’s a football record. Sure, this niche genre has had big hits before – Liverpool FC got to No3 with “Anfield Rap” in 1988 and the England World Cup squad (in conjunction with New Order) also got to No 1 in 1990. Hell, my beloved Chelsea got to No 5 in 1972 with “Blue Is The Colour” – but No 1 for two weeks?! With that song?! As cup finalists, Chelsea also released their own single – “No One Can Stop Us Now” (oh the irony!) – which made No 23. I believe it was quite unusual for both teams to have cup final songs in the Top 40 simultaneously. Obviously it was dreadful as well but I bought it as a souvenir of the day thinking we might never get to the final again (how wrong I was).

The play out song is “Absolutely Fabulous” by Pet Shop Boys. Or is it? I think officially it’s credited to just Absolutely Fabulous and is produced by Pet Shop Boys but we all know it’s them really. This was the 1994 Comic Relief single and as much as I didn’t like the track, it was an upgrade on the likes of “The Stonk” by Hale & Pace and “Stick It Out” by Right Said Fred. There is, of course, a link to Alice Cooper here with the 1992 Comic Relief single being a cover of their (Alice Cooper was the band’s name at this point) 1972 hit, the aforementioned “Elected” by Mr Bean and Smear Campaign. “Absolutely Fabulous” made No 6 and was the second time that Jennifer Saunders had featured on a Comic Relief single after 1989’s “Help” as part of Lananeeneenoonoo alongside Bananarama.

Order of appearance ArtistTitleDid I but it?
12 UnlimitedThe Real ThingNo
2Wet Wet WetLove Is All AroundI did not
3Bad Boys IncMore To This WorldAs if
4Deep ForestDeep ForestNah
5SealPrayer For The DyingNope
6Julia FordhamI Can’t Help MyselfIt’s a no
7East 17All Around The WorldAnother No
8Alice CooperLost In AmericaSorry Alice – no
9The Manchester United Football Squad Come On You RedsAre you kidding?!
10Pet Shop BoysAbsolutely FabulousAnd a final 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

TOTP 20 FEB 1992

Posted on by 80stastic

One of the more pleasing by products of reviewing all of these TOTP repeats is that I get to reminisce about what I was doing back then. OK most of it is pretty dull and of no significance nor entertainment to anyone but myself but there are some that can be a shared experience. TV shows that I was watching at the time for example. Four days prior to the broadcast of this particular TOTP, a new US TV series premiered (that’s what we say now isn’t it? I’d have said started back in 1992) that was a brilliantly quirky comedy drama that pulled myself and my wife in hook, line and sinker. Anyone else remember Northern Exposure on Channel 4?

It was a fish out of water tale of newly qualified NY doctor Joel Fleischman being assigned as GP to the tiny town of Cicely to repay the state of Alaska for underwriting his medical education. There he struggles to adapt to his new surroundings as he encounters some marvellously eccentric characters like his receptionist Marilyn Whirlwind, aspiring movie director Ed Chigliak and millionaire business man Maurice Minnifield. It seemed ground breaking at the time and yet you hardly hear it mentioned these days and I have not seen it repeated since its original run from 1992 to 1995.

It also had an interesting soundtrack which I bought my wife for her birthday including tracks by Etta James, Booker T And The MGs and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Well that’s enough TV nostalgia. Back to the music and proving that grunge wasn’t the only musical movement going on in the 90s, here are one of the major players in the acid jazz genre. Now I thought that The Brand New Heavies were indeed ‘brand new’ bursting into the charts with their “Dream Come True” single. However, it turned out that they’d actually been in existence since the mid 80s and released the track “Got To Give” on the Cooltempo label. As the clock clicked over into the new decade, they signed to the Acid Jazz label and released “Dream Come True” but not the version we saw on this TOTP. No, the original release featured a completely different singer called Jaye Ella-Ruth. It failed to chart and Jaye was destined to become the Pete Best of the acid jazz scene, being replaced by N’dea Davenport. A re-recorded version of the track featuring N’dea was put back out and bingo! A No 24 chart hit and a slot on TOTP. This would be the first of twenty-five Top 40 hits and two Top 5 albums during the 90s.

I wasn’t a convert to acid jazz I have to say though my wife was quite into it buying two consecutive Brand New Heavies album releases. What exactly was acid jazz though? According to Wikipedia it combined funk, soul, hip hop, jazz and disco and was characterised by danceable grooves and long, repetitive compositions. What?! What sort of description is that?! Maybe a list of its exponents might help. Well, there were BNH label mates Corduroy, Mother Earth and James Taylor Quartet whilst over on Talkin’ Loud the roster of acts included Galliano, Incognito and Young Disciples. Does that make things clearer? I’m not sure. It must have been a broad church because acts like Jamiroquai, Stereo MCS and Us3 are also mentioned under the same umbrella. I think I’ll just use Brand New Heavies as my default definition of acid jazz. Seems easier.

https://youtu.be/lrdqkifAVPM

The ‘year zero’ revamp had gone against the show’s history and ditched a Top 40 rundown in favour of a brief run through of just the Top 10 but there’s a change to that this week in the form of scrolling graphics across the bottom of the screen detailing that week’s new chart entries. What was the point of that? Was it some lip service response to negative viewer feedback? Never mind not hearing the tracks, we don’t don’t even get the title of the hit, just the name of the artist and a chart number. Utterly pointless. It’s like travelling all the way to the Grand Canyon and not being able to see the view because of fog. Actually, I know people that happened to. Can you imagine the disappointment?

Now I thought the pronunciation of the next artist’s name was not up for debate. Everybody said Rozalla as Ro-zar-la but Tony Dortie goes for a different approach with Ro-za-la. It reminded me of my late father-in-law who insisted on referring to Paul Gascogne as Gar-za rather than Gaz-za. Anyway, however you pronounced it, the “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)” hitmaker was back with her latest single “Are You Ready To Fly”. Now she’s certainly not the first artist to stick to a winning formula but this really was just a rehash of her biggest hit just as her second single “Faith (In The Power Of Love)” had been. Talk about playing it safe. A hat trick of hits that were all basically the same song! Bah!

“Are You Ready To Fly” peaked at No 14.

https://youtu.be/SBSTQeYO9gM

It’s time for the weekly TOTP Macaulay Culkin spot! Well, at least it feels like he’s in permanent residence on the show at least. He’s on our screens again due to his featuring in the video for “My Girl” by The Temptations which has been re-released due to the film of the same name he’s starring in.

I never caught that flick and indeed, don’t think I’d ever seen any of the Home Alone films all the way through until the Xmas just gone when my son wanted to watch them. Consequently, I never understood what all the fuss was about Culkin. He just seemed really, really annoying. His brother Kieran on the other hand is currently flooring everyone with his character Roman Roy in HBO sensation Succession. Oh oh! I’ve strayed back in the world of TV drama but to be fair, I have nothing else left to say about The Temptations anyway. Job done.

I wrote quite a lot about Julia Fordham when she was a Breaker the other week as I wasn’t expecting her to actually make it into the TOTP studio but here she is meaning I’ve gone too early – damn it! OK, well you can’t fault her live vocal here as she sings “Love Moves (In Mysterious Ways)”. Faultless. However, I have to say that it’s a bit of a dirge ain’t it? I mean, the backing singers can’t even be arsed to get off their stools at the back of the stage and do all their vocals while remaining seated. Julia could have taught them a thing or two about the art of the backing singer on TOTP from her days as a Wilsation supporting the beehived one herself Mari Wilson. Much more fun.

To be fair to Julia, she didn’t write the song so I don’t think I’m really dissing her by lamenting its soporific sound. It did manage to rise to No 19 in the charts. Not bad but it was a far cry from presenter Mark Franklin’s prediction that it would go Top 10.

https://youtu.be/uDOAH0bSLf0

Oh come on! This was a video ‘exclusive’ just last week wasn’t it and it’s on again already?! I talk of course of Bryan Adams and his single “Thought I’d Died And Gone To Heaven”. This was the fourth of six singles released from his “Waking up The Neighbours” album and the only one (apart from “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” obviously) to make the UK Top 10. After his 16 week run at No 1 the previous year, did his record label A&M really think that amount of Adams material being foisted upon the public was justified? Had they never heard of the expression ‘less is more’?! Apparently not as the next release from Bry was 1993’s 14 track Greatest Hits package “So Far So Good”. Curiously, “Thought I’d Died And Gone To Heaven” wasn’t included on it but then, like Julia Fordham’s before him, the song was a bit of a duffer.

Talking of curious things, what a curiosity this next song was! Now I’m not being wise after the event but I genuinely did know the original 1983 single that this track was based around. “It’s A Fine Day” by Jane was an otherworldly sounding indie chart hit (it didn’t make the mainstream Top 40) and was basically an a capella delivery of a poem written by eccentric Manchester poet and musician Edward Barton. How did I know it? I’m not sure. I got my new music solely from Radio 1 back in 1983 so I must have heard it on there but who would have been playing it? Surely not the likes of Steve Wright? Peter Powell maybe? Or possibly the much missed Janice Long? Well, I heard it via someone and whilst I was never so avant garde at that age to buy it, its hypnotic weirdness was intriguing.

Fast forward nine years and probably not having given it a thought once in the intervening years, suddenly everyone was talking about it, or rather Opus III’s danceified version of it. Yes, inevitably, as it was the early 90s after all, somebody got hold of that 1983 leftfield outlier track, added a dance beat to it and shoved it out to the rave masses for consumption. Was nothing sacred? On reflection it puts me in mind of the film Reality Bites and the scene where Winona Ryder’s character has her documentary about her friends that she has spent so long crafting to portray them with integrity turned into some nasty, commercialised media soundbite by opportunistic new boyfriend Ben Stiller for his MTV-like cable channel. All of her original film’s soul is ripped out and replaced with flavour of the month bullshit designed to appeal to those riding the current zeitgeist.

https://youtu.be/R-U1cbX-y1E

So it was with Opus III though hats off to vocalist Kirsty Hawkshaw for her memorable delivery of the track. She struck a startling sight with her Mohawk hair topped off with…well whatever that was adorning her forehead. The touch of genius though was to get her to perform whilst rotating those…were they stress balls?… in her right hand giving the whole thing a mystical look which I guess was some sort of homage to the original track’s ethereal nature. I wasn’t a fan but at least it stood out against the rest of the dance anthems of the time peaking at No 5.

https://youtu.be/Xy-gkytR4Og

Oh do one Hucknall won’t you?! Simply Red again?! It was impossible to avoid the ginger one in 1991/92. His “Stars” album topped the best seller chart for both those years and daytime radio was all over him. “For Your Babies” was the third of five singles released from the album. That means just two more singles to go (and associated TOTP appearances) and we’ll be free of Mick for years as Simply Red won’t have any new material out until 1995. Come on! We can do this!

One of the more memorable songs of 1992 next and certainly the most relentlessly cheery. As Mark Franklin advises us, “I Love Your Smile” by Shanice came out the year before but nobody noticed (I didn’t). However, a remix by producer de jour Drizabone initiated another shot at the charts and this time it hit gold going all the way to No 2 in the UK Top 40. I’m not sure how different the versions were. Hang on. I’ll check…

*checks out Spotify*

Well, unless I haven’t actually been listening to the ‘91 original then I can’t hear too much difference. The album version does have a rap in it which the single version doesn’t but the song’s whole charm is that almost scat like ‘de de de de, do do do’ hook which dominates both the original and the remix.

“I Love Your Smile“ was manna from heaven for mainstream daytime radio, perfect for trying to put a lift in the listener’s day and a spring in their step. There was an album it came from called “Inner Child” but none of the other singles taken from it came anywhere near the Top 40. Was “I Love Your Smile” just too hard to follow up? Was it so perfectly radio shaped that any attempt to repeat the trick was doomed to fail?

As Tony Dortie says at the song’s end, Shanice was a Motown artist but he uses that reference to name check another Motown act that he tips for the top – Boyz II Men. He was certainly better at chart predictions than his mate Mark Franklin.

https://youtu.be/TMmKKp9dcBg

It’s those pesky Breakers next which make loads of work for me out of minimal screen time. I’m really starting to hate this feature. I wouldn’t mind but the TOTP producers’ choices for inclusion in it don’t stack up. Many of them are never seen/heard on the show again presumably because their subsequent chart placings didn’t justify further appearances. By logical extension they can’t have been much of a ‘happening tune’ (their words not mine) in the first place.

Exhibit 1 m’lud. “Steel Bars” by Michael Bolton. This was the fifth and final single from his “Time, Love & Tenderness” album and was co-written by Bob Dylan. This unlikely collaboration stinks of cynicism to me. Was this purely about the money for Dylan? Was his own stuff not selling too well at this point so he teamed up with an artist who was shifting millions of units? I mean, the song is pretty cruddy and surely not one that Bob would be that proud of. Look at this lyric for example:

Steel bars wrapped all around me, I’ve been your prisoner since the day you found me

What a stinker! So much of a stinker in fact that this was one of those Breakers that never made it back onto the show. And rightly so.

So what were Madness doing back in the charts? Their cover of Labbi Siffre’s “It Must Be Love” had been a No 4 hit in 1981 so why it’s reappearance in 1992? Well, it was to promote a Greatest Hits album of course. “Divine Madness” was that album and a very successful one, going to the very top of the charts. The huge public reaction to the album convinced the band to reform for a live gig promoted as Madstock. The decibels and vibrations at that gig were so loud that they caused nearby tower blocks to shake.

Of the 42 Madness singles, this one has stood the test of time better than most I would suggest. Not because it’s their best track (to my ears there are loads more worthy of that accolade) but something about it still resonates to the point that it must be one of their most played on the radio. Back in 1992, it was a welcome distraction to all those dance anthems. Talking of which…

…it’s another one of those ubiquitous dance anthems (and also one of those Breakers we never saw again). N-Joi had already had one major hit with ‘91’s reissue of…erm…”Anthem” but they were back for more in ‘92 with “Live In Manchester (Parts 1 + 2)”. Yeah, sorry but this is all bells and whistles rave nonsense and did nothing for me then or now. Horrid. Wikipedia tells me that one of N-Joi’s members was called Mark Franklin. Hang on a minute. Surely not?

No it can’t be that Mark Franklin as he says of the Breakers that his money is in Michael Bolton and not N-Joi. Mark Franklin showing off his chart prediction skills there again. Here’s the chart peaks of those Breakers:

  • Madness: No 6
  • N-Joi: No 12
  • Bollers : No 17

And so to the new No 1 and it was a song that would be one of the biggest sellers off the year. “Stay” was of course written for Shakespear’s Sister by Siobahn Fahey’s then husband Dave Stewart of Eurythmics. Want to hear his version. No? Tough. Here it is…

Quite different really. More of a gospel track than the haunting and haunted goth spectacle that was Shakespear’s Sister’s version. It’s worth checking out “The Dave Stewart Songbook” album. Some interesting stuff on there. I especially liked his original of “Ordinary Miracle”. Vastly superior to the version by Sarah McLachlan (there’s that surname again) that was used in the film Charlotte’s Web.

We’ve got weeks of “Stay” at No 1 so that’ll do (as the farmer said in that other famous pig flick Babe) for now apart from adding that it’s still hard to watch this performance and not be bowled over by the difference in vocal quality between Marcella Detroit and Siobahn Fahey.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1The Brand New HeaviesDream Come TrueNo but my wife had the album
2RozallaAre You Ready To FlyI wasn’t, no
3The TemptationsMy GirlNah
4Julia FordhamLove Moves (In Mysterious Ways)Nope
5Bryan AdamsThought I’d Died And Gone To HeavenI did not
6Opus IIIIt’s A Fine DayNo – give the original any day
7Simply RedFor Your BabiesNever!
8ShaniceI Love Your SmileJust too perky for me
9Michael BoltonSteel BarsSee 7 above
10MadnessIt Must Be LoveNo but I have that Divine Madness Best Of
11N-JoiLive In Manchester (Parts 1 + 2)On yer bike!
12Shakespear’s SisterStayNo

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/m0013mbs/top-of-the-pops-20021992

TOTP 30 JAN 1992

Posted on by 80stastic

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“The Bouncer” peaked at No 7.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5JE7InPMSw

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

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

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

“Born Of Frustration” peaked at No 13.

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

*checks Wikipedia*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

OK. A few points to note:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1The PasdenasI’m Doing Fine NowNope
2Kicks Like A MuleThe BouncerI’d rather have been kung fu kicked by Eric Cantona
3JamesBorn Of FrustrationNo but I have it on a Best Of CD of theirs
4The Wonder StuffWelcome To The Cheap SeatsI did not
5Dream FrequencyFeel So RealOf course not
6Julia Fordham(Love Moves In) Mysterious WaysNo but I think my wife may have a Best Of CD with it on
7The BlessingHighway 5 ’92Nah
8CiceroLove Is EverywhereBut not here for this song – no
9Manic Street PreachersYou Love UsNo
10DNA featuring Sharon ReddCan You Handle itI couldn’t – no
11Wet Wet Wet Goodnight GirlNo but my wife had the album

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0013cfk/top-of-the-pops-30011992