Let Loose

TOTP 21 JUN 1996

Posted on September 25, 2024 by 80stastic

Here’s a blast from the past. Anyone remember Julia Carling? I have to admit I’d forgotten all about her but here she is presenting TOTP in 1996. OK, the show was maybe not commanding the same profile as in its 70s and 80s heyday but it was still the BBC’s flagship music programme. So who was/is Julia Carling and how did she get this gig? Well, she was a TV presenter (obviously) who’d started as a VJ on VH-1 and guested on Channel 4’s Big Breakfast before her spot here. She was also the wife of England rugby player Will Carling though Wikipedia informs me that the couple divorced in this year. Will was rumoured in the tabloids to be romantically linked with Diana Princess of Wales something that must have passed me by at the time. As for Julia, she spent some time on This Morning before disappearing from our screens to concentrate on a career in journalism and writing a book.

Before we get to Julia though there’s the return of the direct to camera message from a featured artist that was curiously replaced by a highlights montage the other week. Not sure what all that was about but there’s no ignoring its reappearance as we get Black Grape in the slot this week but it’s Keith Allen not Shaun Ryder taking centre stage as he’s joined them for their Euro 96 single “England’s Irie”. Unfortunately, Allen is there as his alter-ego, the never-not-annoying Keithski banging on about the football so let’s move on quickly to opening act Longpigs. Although more often than not categorised as Britpop, they never seem to get talked about as much as some of the movement’s other luminaries. In fact, the most frequent comment about the band always see seems to be that their guitarist was Richard Hawley who, of course, went on to forge a career as a solo artist in the new millennium. Longpigs had some decent tunes though of which this one – “She Said” – is probably my favourite. Despite sounded like the band are performing it under duress, it also has a power and menace of its own. Part of that menace comes from the repeated lyric “you better hit her”. I’m not quite sure what songwriter and singer Crispin Hunt was getting at when he wrote it but, certainly taken in isolation, the line is dubious. That apart, I do think the track stands up with that piano scale leading into the chorus simple yet very effective. Back to Crispin though and his name must be up there as the most posh boy moniker in all of Britpop. What? How about Crispian Mills of Kula Shaker? Oh hush!

Gabrielle’s career is a curious mixture of massive hits and middling, blink-and-you’ll-miss-‘em chart entries. For every “Dreams”, “Rise” and “Out Of Reach”, there was a “Because Of You”, “I Wish” or this one – “Forget About The World”. The second single from her eponymous sophomore album, it would peak at No 23 whilst spending just three weeks on the Top 40. As such, I don’t recall this one at all but *whisper it* it’s actually quite good. A nice tune, perfect for Summer with a polished but not ostentatious production, I much prefer it to some of those aforementioned bigger hits. One thing that does let it down though, and this applies to nearly all of Gabrielle’s work, is her lack of diction. I had to have subtitles permanently on to be able to understand what she was singing about. Annunciate Gabrielle annunciate! Never mind forget about the world, she forgot about the words!

Another female solo artist now as we get the latest single from Mariah Carey who, after a slowish start to her UK chart career, was on a hot streak of Top 10 hits by the mid 90s. “Always Be My Baby” was the eleventh in a row to achieve such a chart peak over here. Of course, in the US, it had always been huge smash after huge smash right from the start with eight of her first ten hits going to No 1.

This track was the fourth and final to be lifted from her “Daydream” album and would go straight in at No 3 (it was a chart topper in America obvs). It would stay within the Top 40 for eight weeks, quite the feat of endurance in a chart era of singles debuting high then falling away rapidly. Contrast that with the stats for Gabrielle’s single – two comparable hits with wildly fluctuating chart performances. Why was that exactly? I’ve been writing this blog long enough to know that question is largely unanswerable. I even wrote a dissertation on it as a student and couldn’t get to the bottom of it. If I had to guess, I’d say that maybe Mariah had more airplay behind it than Gabrielle? Could be as I thought I didn’t know “Always Be My Baby” but the “doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-dum” hook sounded very familiar. Maybe though I was thinking of this 1992 hit from Betty Boo…

If it looks, sounds and has the whiff of an act of desperation, then it surely is an act of desperation. It had been two years since Let Loose had a huge hit single with “Crazy For You” that had transformed them briefly into contenders for the next teenage heartthrob band. By 1996 though, despite having a clutch of medium sized hits to their name, nothing had replicated the success of their breakthrough song and their album had sold moderately. Enough to warrant a follow up but a chart high of No 20 wasn’t going to give Boyzone sleepless nights.

The alarm bells must have truly started ringing though when the lead single from their second album – “Everybody Say, Everybody Do” – could only scramble to No 29 in the charts at the back end of 1995. Seven months would pass before the band reappeared. Presumably, in that time, the decision was made to break the pop music emergency glass and execute the standard, fall back contingency plan which was – altogether everyone – RELEASE A COVER VERSION! Yes, of course. When in need of a career reviving hit, that was the obvious move. In the case of Let Loose, their safe word song was the old Bread hit “Make It With You”. Now OK, it’s a nice ballad and it certainly did the job (albeit a stop gap one) when it returned the band to the Top 10 but that particular track had already been used for a similar purpose by The Pasadenas* only four years previously when their version peaked at No 20. Stealing ideas from the “Tribute (Right On)” hit makers was surely a low. Despite the cover’s chart success, the band still ended up going down the pan when second album “Rollercoaster” hit the skids and then disappeared without trace taking Let Loose with it. Ah, the ups and downs of life as a 90s boy band.

*The Pasadenas had done a whole album of covers in an attempt to rebuild their career.

And so to a band who had just announced that they were splitting up according to Julia Carling and she was right as Crowded House (initially) called it a day in 1996 after having been around for about a decade. Was she right about it being their last time on TOTP though? Having done a little research, I think she might have been. 1-0 to Julia. Anyway, Crowded House were going out with a bang in that they released their first Greatest Hits album called “Recurring Dream” which would go on to sell over a million copies in the UK twice as many as their previous bestselling studio album “Woodface”. It included three new songs of which “Instinct” was one. Taking of things recurring, thus was yet another track that I thought I didn’t remember until I listened to it and it was hidden deep in my memory banks, presumably buried behind a heap of recollections of drunken nights out or the name of that kid from school that I can never recall. Anyway, it’s a very Crowded House tune which seems a lazy but accurate way to describe it. Another way would be that it was a typical example of their thoughtful, well crafted melodic rock/pop which I’ve always been a sucker for. In fact, perhaps one of my favourite gigs ever was seeing them play The Academy in Manchester around 1991 when bassist Nick Seymour did his infamous ‘chocolate cake’ party trick. Is “Instinct” one of the band’s best tunes? No, I wouldn’t say so but it’s a decent tune and at least they used the correct word for its title and didn’t make one up just so it scanned better. Yes, I’m talking about you Gary Kemp!

A second new track called “Not The Girl You Think You Are” was released as a follow up which I do remember as it sounded so much like The Beatles which was apparently deliberate as Neil Finn has described it as an homage to the Fab Four. It would help propel “Recurring Dream” to the top of the charts. It was also assisted in achieving that chart feat by an advertising campaign that featured a tag line that went something like “you know more Crowded House songs than you think you do” which I remember thinking was quite clever at the time. Its sales performance felt similar to that of The Beautiful South’s “Carry On Up The Charts” Best Of from a couple of years prior. Not shed loads of massive hits but enough familiar songs that it felt like a soundtrack to your life and therefore something you would need to own to represent it.

Crowded House would reconvene in 2007 and release the “Time On Earth” album though without founding member and drummer Paul Hester who tragically committed suicide in 2005 after battling with depression. The band’s latest album “Gravity Stairs” was released just four months ago in May of this year.

Oh shite! It’s that dreadful Simply Red song that was appropriated as the official Euro 96 anthem. “We’re In This Together” should have been made available on the NHS for insomniacs – talk about soporific! I mentioned the last time this tripe was on that my reaction to it was in line with a Joe Pasquale heckler who threw his crutches away whilst shouting “I’d rather fall over than listen to this shit!” on the way down. Following on from that, I’ve remembered another extreme reaction that was in response to actually hearing a Simply Red track. When at polytechnic, a friend was in the student bar and not in a particularly good mood. Whatever was troubling him was not helped by Hucknall and co coming on the bar jukebox. His response to this was to set fire to his hair! Talk about “A New Flame”!

By this point in his career, Maxi Priest had been having chart hits for a decade beginning with “Strollin’ On” in 1986. Although there were a many a single that missed the Top 40 along the way, there were also plenty of major successes. Look at his 1990 hit “Close To You” which combined New Jack Swing and soul so well that it went to No 1 in America making him one of only two reggae artists (alongside UB40) to ever achieve a US chart topper.

However, to some uneducated ears (and I include my own in that description), it might seem that Maxi has become an enduring figure predominantly off the back of doing some reggae covers of already well known songs like “Some Guys Have All The Luck” and “Wide World” but that perhaps doesn’t tell the whole story. Maxi established himself by being able to adapt his natural reggae tendencies to align with the predominant musical trends of the day. His Wikipedia page lists his own musical genres as being Roots Reggae, R&B, Lovers Rock, Dancehall and Reggae Fusion. He’s worked with artists as diverse as Jazzie B, Roberta Flack, Lee Ritenour and Apache Indian. His choice of collaborator hasn’t always been spot on though. His willingness to follow the zeitgeist meant teaming up with two of the three S’s* of 1993’s ragga phenomenon. “Housecall” saw him join forces with the despicable Shabba Ranks before this track – “That Girl” – had him in partnership with the laughable Shaggy. Sampling “Green Onions” by Booker T. & the M.G.’s, I’m convinced that this would be so much better if Shaggy had not been involved. He’s turned up and done his usual nonsense in that low growl of his so we get random interjections like “Gangsta kinda lover”, “Fancy kinda lover” and, inevitably, “Sexy kinda lover” before he just resorts to making grunt noises. Come on Maxi! You were better than that!

*A Maxi Priest / Snow duet has yet to happen thankfully

It’s time for this week’s ’exclusive’ performance from Black Grape with their contribution to the “Beautiful Game” compilation album (which also featured “Three Lions”) entitled “England’s Irie”. I never really got this one perhaps because, like Simply Red’s awful “We’re In this Together”, it doesn’t seem to have that much to do with football. Sure, there’s a few stock phrases in there like “Cross into the box”, “A perfect pass” and “It’s a football thing” that clearly anchor it as a football song but some of the lyrics are tenuous at best. “Dribble around my socks”? “Check my shirt and drink my shots”? “Squeeze me in box”? I suppose that last one could relate to the infamous photo of Vinnie Jones grabbing Gazza by his nuts but still. Maybe Shaun Ryder’s lack of a connection to football might explain it. Here’s @TOTPFacts:

Shaun Ryder on “England’s Irie”: “I know fuck all about football. I was born at the back of Old Trafford and I’m a red by birth, but I don’t do football. It means absolutely nothing to me.” #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) September 20, 2024

Hmm. Shaun was aided in this track by Keith Allen and Joe Strummer who, as Julia Carling states in her intro vowed never to appear on TOTP with The Clash (2-0 to Julia). The fact that he broke that vow to perform on this track, well…I think this sums it up:

Of all the songs Strummer could have performed on TOTP THIS is the one 😠😫
— Simon Davies (@dinodonkey83) September 21, 2024

Keith Allen, of course, was carving out a nice little side career for himself with football songs. As well as this one, there’s “World In Motion” with New Order and he would go on to release three further football ‘songs’ under the Fat Les banner. Cheers for that Keith. Apart from the lyrics, there are other things about “England’s Irie” that confuse me. For a start, what has the word ‘Irie’ got to do with the England football team? Here’s @TOTPFacts again:

(Explaining to a judge) “Irie” is Jamaican slang that originated in the Rastafari movement. Anything that makes you feel “alright” – that’s cool, enjoyable, or positive – can be described as irie. #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) September 20, 2024

Secondly, apart from Strummer, nobody seems to be wearing an England football shirt. Shaun’s looks more like an England rugby top, Keith Allen is wearing orange as if he’s Dutch but also a kilt as if he’s Scottish. The drummer’s wearing an Argentina shirt for Chrissakes! It’s all a bit of a mess but then this is Black Grape we’re talking about so…

Before the No 1 record, Julia announces the first winner of the TOTP meet and greet competition and it’s David Howe from Chingford in Essex! I wonder what David thought of his prize – a chance to hang out with Shampoo as they shoot an ‘exclusive’ performance for the show in Madrid. A trip to the Spanish capital would have been nice but Shampoo? They were hardly the biggest of names were they? At least it wasn’t Peter Andre though!

The Fugees are No 1 for a third week with “Killing Me Softly”. This was one of those singles that flew off the shelves. There were a few of them in the 90s where anticipation for a song’s release created phenomenal demand. “Mmm Bop” by Hanson (no really!) was another along with “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt and “…Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears. Nothing though can touch the clamour for Elton John’s “Candle In The Wind 1997” after Princess Diana died but that’s a whole other story for a future post.

The play out track is “Where It’s At” by Beck. This was a track taken from his “Odelay” album (the one with the shaggy dog jumping over a hurdle on the cover) and was only his second UK hit when it peaked at No 35. Everyone I ever worked with at Our Price seemed to love Beck as he was perceived as being super hip. My view? Yeah, I quite liked him though not as much as my wife who bought “Odelay”. “Where It’s At” was typically edgy and alternative with samples a plenty and a whiff of 60s psychedelica. It would win Beck a Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance though, for me, it wasn’t as memorable as follow up “Devil’s Haircut”. Still, what did I know.

P.S. In a link more tenuous than an “England’s Irie” lyric, there’s a connection between Julia Carling and Beck…Jeff Beck the rock guitarist with whom she lived for six years from the age of 18.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Longpigs	She Said	No but I had their album I think
2	Gabrielle	Forget About The World	No
3	Mariah Carey	Always Be My Baby	Nope
4	Let Loose	Make It With You	As if
5	Crowded House	Instinct	No but I had the Best Of album with it on
6	Simply Red	We’re In This Together	Never!
7	Maxi Priest / Shaggy	That Girl	Nope
8	Black Grape / Keith Allen / Joe Strummer	England’s Irie	Nah
9	Fugees	Killing Me Softly	No but my wife had the album
10	Beck	Where It’s At	See 9 above

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00233yy/top-of-the-pops-21061996?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 27 APR 1995

Posted on November 7, 2023 by 80stastic

This post is dedicated in its entirety to Pete Garner who passed away recently. Known to many as the original bass player with The Stone Roses, I got to know Pete in the mid 90s when I worked with him at Our Price the record retailer. He was the sweetest, soundest, funniest person you could ever hope to meet. I learned so much about life from him. RIP Pete.

In my review of the previous show, I spent some time discussing the rise of Chris Evans as he was about to start his two year stint on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show. In order to promote their new boy, the BBC have got him in to host TOTP straight off the bat. Evans wasn’t the only debut happening around this time. Three days before this show broadcast, Channel 4 aired the first episode of one of the best sit coms ever in Father Ted. A week later, the channel was at it again but this time with a show from across the pond with the ratings sensation Friends. It’s a sobering realisation that two of the stars from those shows are no longer with us. Father Ted himself Dermot Morgan would pass away less than three years on from here whilst Matthew Perry who played Chandler Bing in Friends sadly died just a week or so ago. Back in 1995 though, I’m guessing that Chris Evans would be full to the brim of brio as he brings his presenting style to TOTP. Let’s see how he did…

He starts off in a fairly uncontroversial manner with a lame set up about the studio lights not working before a short intro for opening act MN8. After just missing out on the top spot with debut single “I’ve Got A Little Something For You”, this lot of R&B wannabes were hot news. They consolidated on that success with follow up “If You Only Let Me In” which was a No 6 hit. Quite different in style from its predecessor, it had a much more pure pop boyband vibe that would become ubiquitous as the decade progressed and the throng of such acts became ever larger. I mean, it’s actually one of the better examples of that sound; well constructed with plenty of hooks though it also seems to have been written with one eye on accommodating the obligatory dance moves for the three guys in the band playing second fiddle to the singer. Still, it was probably a sensible choice at that point in their career; a catchy tune to maintain their chart presence and guarantee airplay. For the moment, MN8 were playing the game well.

Whilst MN8 were in the ascendancy, another boyband were desperately trying to stay afloat in some choppy teenage audience waters. Let Loose were trying to do exactly the opposite of what their band name suggested; they didn’t want to be let loose in a sea of faded boybands but rather wanted to be tied steadfastly to the chart dock. This single – “Best Of Me” – did indeed act as a decent life belt giving them a Top 10 hit though I can’t work out why as it’s as dull as dishwasher. The verses sound like a Bread song (they would record an actual Bread song in “Make It With You” the following year) whilst the chorus goes a bit “See The Day” by Dee C. Lee complete with added string section. And why on earth is there a double necked guitar on show here? Let Loose? More like obtuse.

If MN8 were playing the R&B pop stars game well, then here’s Bobby Brown to show them that “Two Can Play That Game”. In the segue into this one, Chris Evans starts reverting to type and his ‘lads mags’ persona by banging on about a naked Pamela Anderson and Liz Hurley bouncing up and down on a space hopper. What? Bobby Brown, of course, had a few image problems of his own with a list of charges against him including drink driving, defaulting on child care payments and battery of his wife Whitney Houston. If his personal life was chaotic and full of misdemeanours, in 1995 his career was at a high point. “Two Can Play That Game” gave him his biggest ever UK hit when it peaked at No 3.

Evans completely lays bare his ‘lad culture’ credentials once more by referring to an upcoming performance by Oasis as being his “personal heroes”. Before that though we have yet another appearance for our Eurovision entry Love City Groove. I make this their third time on the show with the song contest still two weeks away. What with plugging the BBC’s coverage of Eurovision and the showcasing of Radio 1’s Breakfast Show host, TOTP was in danger of becoming just a promotional tool for the corporation’s output rather than a platform for the most popular music of the day.

As for “Love City Groove”, it still stands up and out I think in the long history of UK Eurovision acts. It didn’t completely convince the watching panels on the night of the contest finishing 10th out of 23 countries receiving 76 points, almost half the amount the winners Secret Garden from Norway did with their song “Nocturne”. That victory seemed to give credence to the idea that Eurovision was ready for a different musical genre to take centre stage over the more traditional acts witnessed down the years. Sadly for the UK, that genre was haunting, violin led and almost instrumental rather than sing -a-long rap. Bugger!

It’s time for “the best song around” now as endorsed by Chris Evans in his intro for Oasis. On reflection, it wasn’t even the best song on the CD single – that honour goes to “Acquiesce” in my opinion. However, “Some Might Say” was certainly better than most residents of the Top 40 and, as expected, gave the band their first of eight No 1 singles. At the time, I was in agreement with Evans and loved this though I’m not sure it stands up as well through the perspective of 28 years distance. Back then though, I didn’t care that, just as “Cigarettes And Alcohol” had done, it had more than a whiff of a T-Rex riff about it. Nor did I care that the lyrics weren’t the best (rhyming ‘fishes’ with ‘dirty dishes’ indeed!). I didn’t even mind Liam’s pronunciation of ‘Shine’ as “Sh-i-iiine”. To me it sounded…well…powerful I guess. Powerful and hopeful that something different might be about to happen.

This was pretty much the last public appearance of drummer Tony McCarroll with the band. The next time they appeared on TOTP, his replacement Alan White was on the drummer’s stool. McCarroll being buried alive by the rest of the band in the “Live Forever” video probably should have given us all a big clue as to his impending fate.

Creation boss Alan McGee had wanted to release the track as a double A-side with the aforementioned “Acquiesce” but Noel Gallagher stood firm saying the latter was the B-side. Legend has it that the conversation went something like this:

McGee: “Acquiesce” is too good. Knock something average out for the B-side.

Noel: Sorry Alan but I don’t write shit songs.

As for the performance here, Liam seems to have perfected his motionless, thousand yard stare act by this point while the rest of the band (Noel excepted) look like they can’t quite comprehend how they got here from where they started. By the way, Liam’s Manchester City coat would not have been seen as bandwagon jumping. At the time City were not the winning machine they are today; that would have been their rivals United.

The third boyband on tonight now and the second trying to follow up a No 2 hit single. Like MN8 before them, Boyzone had gone as close as possible to a chart topper without actually getting one with previous single “Love Me For A Reason” but, despite that success, a lot must have been riding on their next release in terms of their potential longevity. A bunch of pretty Irish boys getting a Christmas hit with a cover of a well known sloppy ballad was one thing but repeating the trick with a composition of their own? Well, that was another matter.

As it turned out, “Key To My Life” was also the key to the band’s consolidation. A very encouraging chart peak of No 3 would surely have given the group confidence that they could compete with Take That (especially when, a few weeks later, the departure of Robbie Williams would cause the future of the band to be put in doubt). A saccharine drenched ballad, it seems to me that “Key To My Life” is a largely forgotten Boyzone single despite its strategic importance to their career.

Watching this performance back, I’m struck by how washed out the group look with all those grey colours and pastel shades on display in their outfits. Their stylist should have been given the keys to a better wardrobe.

It’s another studio appearance by Tina Arena performing her hit “Chains” now. Her song was universally seen as being about being trapped in a relationship that was no longer working though Tina herself attributes its meaning to her trying to escape from her past as a child star when she was dubbed ‘Tiny Tina” aged 8 on a talent show. Fast forward over 40 years and a modern day restriction that Tina struggled with was the whole issue of ‘selfies’. In 2019 she made the decision not to allow people to take ‘selfies’ as she felt trapped by them and instead would rather have a good old chat with the person. That revelation somehow put me in mind of that famous Boy George quote who, when at the height of his fame, was asked about the act of sex. “I’d rather have a nice cup of tea” he replied though I’m pretty sure he had his fingers crossed when he said it.

It’s that band again whose name I remember but whose music I don’t. Chris Evans does his best to create some buzz around them by bigging them up in his intro but even the man of the moment’s endorsement didn’t cut through with me. I refer to The Wildhearts who we last saw on the show doing their minor hit “Geordie In Wonderland”. They’re back with the lead single from their second album “P.H.U.Q” called “I Wanna Go Where The People Go”.

Listening to it now, it’s not bad though even if I’d cottoned on to it back in 1995, I’m not sure I’d have been bowled over by its sound. I’m sure they had and still have a hardcore fanbase but for me, they blur into one a bit with all those other early 90s UK blues rock revival bands like The Dogs D’Amour and The Quireboys though that’s not surprising as main Wildheart Ginger used to be a member of the latter.

It’s the fourth and final week at No 1 for Take That with “Back For Good”. It’s often said (including by me) that the mark of a good song is how often it’s covered by other artists and especially if it’s done in a completely different style and it still works. Well, here are just a few varied takes on “Back For Good”. Firstly, a slinky, muscular version courtesy of McAlmont & Butler from 2002 for the War Child charity album in association with the NME:

Here it’s turned into an indie classic by The Wedding Present on their “How The West Was Won” album:

How about a lo-fi anthem from Swedish band The Concretes on covers compilation album “Guilt By Association”:

And finally a punk rendering courtesy of Robbie Williams himself; a live version included as an extra track on his “Angels” single:

The “wash it off” ad lib line has its origins in an adopted reaction from Take That fans when the song was performed live. When Gary Barlow would sing “Got your lipstick mark still in my cup”, the crowd would apparently sing back to him “Ooh wash it off!”. So now you know.

Punk covers of your own songs were all the rage back then. Here’s Duran Duran on The Word from 1995 doing “Hungry Like The Wolf”:

The play out track is back after disappearing for a while and tonight’s is a goodie from Weezer. This power pop, pop-punk, geek rock (call it what you will) anthem named after rock ‘n’ roll legend “Buddy Holly” would make it all the way to No 12. If the song wasn’t memorable enough, you can’t forget the video once seen, especially if , like me, you grew up in the 70s. Back then, the US sitcom Happy Days was huge with its main character Fonzie assuming almost legendary status with his cool persona and catch phrases “Ayyyy” and “Sit On It”. I remember they’re being some TV awards show on when Happy Days was at its peak and it somehow losing out to Blue Peter in one category. Even the wide eyed innocent child that I was thought that was a fix.

Anyway, the idea to incorporate footage from Happy Days with Weezer performing “Buddy Holly” in Arnold’s Drive-In was inspired. Director Spike Jonze did an incredible job. The actor who played drive-in owner Al did a cameo to introduce the band and a lookalike did the Fonzie dance scene but apparently the rest was all done without computer graphics and instead used clever editing. It looked amazing in 1995 and still looks great today I think.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	MN8	If You Let Me In	No
2	Let Loose	Best Of Me	Definitely not
3	Bobby Brown	Two Can Play That Game	Nope
4	Love City Groove	Love City Groove	I did not
5	Oasis	Some Might Say	YES!
6	Boyzone	Key To My Life	Never happening
7	Tina Arena	Chains	Negative
8	The Wildhearts	I Wanna Go Where The People Go	Nah
9	Take That	Back For Good	No but my wife did
10	Weezer	Buddy Holly	Liked it, didn’t buy it

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001rrzv/top-of-the-pops-27041995

TOTP 26 JAN 1995

Posted on September 19, 2023 by 80stastic

You know in the last post I said that thinking about time too much can seriously mess with your head? I should have taken my own advice. How can it be that one of the most controversial and talked about moments in the history of football is now nearly twenty-nine years old?! The Eric Cantona Kung Fu kick incident was a monumental, seismic event. It was all anyone was talking about back then. The images in the clip below are now scorched into our collective memories but at the time, before I’d seen the footage, I recall thinking it can’t be that bad and then I saw it and it was so much worse. Of course, we now know that the Crystal Palace ‘fan’ he assaulted – one Matthew Simmons – turned out to be a right scrote (he assaulted the prosecutor immediately after he himself was found guilty of offensive behaviour) and somehow Cantona’s popularity, if anything, increased following the incident. His “When the seagulls follow the trawler…” statement at a press conference called later became almost as famous as the Kung Fu kick itself.

Anyway, it all happened the day before this TOTP aired though I doubt it’s referred to in the show as they tended to be recorded on a Wednesday so it probably hadn’t even occurred as the cameras were rolling. I also think guest the presenters were probably far too nice to mention it. Yes, it was time for another golden mic slot and this time it fell to all girl group Eternal to fill the role. By this point in their career, they had a four times platinum album and six hit singles under their belts so they were a fairly big deal. They also had still had Louise Nurding in their ranks but she would leave the group to pursue a solo career well before the year was up. And yes, she was Louise Nurding and not Redknapp in 1995 – she didn’t marry footballer Jamie until three years later. Although he was a part of that group of Liverpool players dubbed ‘The Spice Boys’ in the press, the biggest crime Redknapp ever committed was wearing that cream Armani suit for the 1996 FA Cup final. Mind you, some might say that was a bigger offence than Cantona’s Kung Fu kick.

The first act that Eternal have to introduce tonight are MC Sar & The Real McCoy and “Run Away”. Yes, it may be 1995 – the year of Britpop – but the honking nonsense (in my own humble opinion) that was Eurodance was still lingering about our charts like the shadow of Liz ‘lettuce’ Truss over UK politics. However, there seemed to be a fair bit of love around for this track online after the BBC4 repeat went out and it appears in many a Best Dance Tune of the 90s poll. It was well liked at the time as well, even going to No 3 in the US (and No 6 over here). I mean, it’s not that it isn’t catchy it’s just that I’m surprised about the extended life expectancy of a formula of a male rapper / female vocalist over a generic dance beat. I mean, 2 Unlimited had been playing that particular hand for years by this point. Never mind The Real McCoy, I would have preferred Star Trek’s Dr McCoy turning to Captain Kirk and advising him on the health of Eurodance “It’s dead Jim”.

Right who the deuce is this? Oh, it is…erm…Deuce in fact. Yes, coming on like a prototype Steps were this boy/girl combo peddling a Abba-infused, high octane Eurodance number. “Call It Love” would be the first of four UK Top 40 hits for the group who briefly looked like they could be a force in the world of pop – ‘New UK Talent’ was how the TOTP caption introduced them. Hmm. Despite that run of hits, their career also took in the rather embarrassing episodes of failing to better Love City Groove in the battle to be the UK’s Eurovision entry and singing on a Coronation Street anniversary album with actress Sherrie Hewson. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the band was dealt a further blow when lead vocalist Kelly O’Keefe left and they were dropped by London Records. They resurfaced on Mike Stock’s Love This label for one final hit but by 1997, and following more line up changes, time was called on the project and Deuce were no more.

Possibly the biggest legacy that Deuce left us with was that one of their number – Lisa Armstrong – would end up marrying (and divorcing) Ant McPartlin of Ant & Dec fame. Now, I know a story about them because an old friend from college ended up sharing a flat in London with someone who worked for Smash Hits and Lisa Armstrong herself. Sadly, my wife says I’m not allowed to tell it though but I will say it involves dirty bed sheets!

Next, we have another look at Simple Minds playing their latest single “She’s A River” at the top of the Eiffel Tower. This was an exclusive performance a couple of shows previously but so spectacular was its setting that it’s been given a repeat airing. Either that or the band themselves weren’t available for an in studio appearance. I’m guessing it’s the former though – in a similar move the Bon Jovi performance at Niagara Falls was repeated at least once.

“She’s A River” was the lead single from their “Good News From The Next World” album and would be the band’s final Top 10 hit when it peaked at No 9.

Of course, Simple Minds weren’t the first band to arse about on the Eiffel Tower to promote themselves. “The name’s Bon…Simon Le Bon”.

It’s yet another dance act in the TOTP studio – the third one of this particular show but this was easily the biggest of the three sales wise. “Set You Free” by N–Trance would go all the way to No 2, sell over a million copies and be the 17th best selling single in the UK in 1995.

However, for me personally, I’d rather see the video for this one. Why? Well, because (and I didn’t know this at the time and even if I had it wouldn’t have meant anything to me) but part of the video was shot in front of Cliffords Tower in York. So what you may ask and it would be a reasonable question. Well, five years after “Set You Free” was a hit, I left Our Price after working for the company since 1990 and took a job in the civil service in York. My wife and I lived right in the centre of the city and would often walk past Cliffords Tower, the ruined keep of a medieval Norman castle. Up until now, I had no idea about the scenes in the video that were shot in front of it but now I’m intrigued. Talk amongst yourselves a moment while I check it out on YouTube…

Yep, definitely Clifford’s Tower. OK, it’s maybe not quite as well known as its French counterpart Eiffel but still impressive. Meanwhile, back in the TOTP studio, N-Trance have brought their dancer mate with them again. Whilst the temptation to make the comparison with Bez is strong, I’m drawn to this guy from 90s sit com Spaced. Ladies and gentleman, I give you… Tyres….

Boy bands dominated the 90s with the likes of Take That, Boyzone and Westlife probably in the Premier League of that musical genre whilst Five, 911 and East 17 were probably more Championship level. Once you start dropping even further down the leagues you encounter OTT, Upside Down and Worlds Apart. So where would we find Let Loose? I’m saying mid table mediocrity in League 1. Yes, they had seven hit singles including three Top 10s but they’re only really remembered for “Crazy” aren’t they? Take this hit – “One Night Stand” – for example. Catchy? Yep. Memorable? Hardly.

However, it seems not everyone thinks this way. A recent article in the Metro newspaper about a Let Loose relaunch was positively rapturous about the news despite it being one of the worst ideas ever conceived. Too harsh? Well, consider this. They’re not reforming with lead singer Richie Wermerling but a bloke from the bottom of League 2 in terms of boy bands – Bad Boys Inc! Really?! There’s a demand for this?! Well, according to that Metro piece this Bad Boy Stinker – one Matthew Pateman – is, in their words, a “music icon”! I mean, please! The plan is for a new record and London gig by the end of the year and then a whole tour in 2024. I’m sorry but I can’t imagine their being thousands of people poised at their keyboards for when those tickets go on sale. It’s hardly a Taylor Swift tour is it? Still, they’ve achieved more in terms of a music career than I ever could dream of so I should maybe shut up*

* My version of “Where The Wild Roses Grow” by Nick Cave and Kylie in guitar class back in 2010 was a triumph though.

Right, this, for me, is easily the best song on the show tonight and yet it pretty much passed me by at the time. I knew there was this band called Green Day and that they had an album called “Dookie”. I even knew what the album cover looked like what with working in a record shop and all and that there was a track called “Basket Case” on it as it had one of those “includes the single…” stickers on it. However, what I didn’t know was what it/they sounded like. Yes, that does seem unlikely given the whole record shop thing but then that perception that we spent all our days leaning on the counter, drinking coffee and listening to the latest tunes was never, ever true. Sometimes the days were so busy that I couldn’t have told you the names of any CDs that had been played on the shop’s stereo.

Anyway, the bottom line was that Green Day weren’t massively on my radar. It seems though that they had come to the attention of Kéllé and Vernie from Eternal judging by their rather gushing intro (most of it directed at lead singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong). I used to work with someone in York who was similarly enamoured by BJ though I could never see it. At some point in the intervening 28 years though, I did come to know and love “Basket Case”. Supposedly it’s a seminal track in the pop-punk movement, inspiring a generation of subsequent bands; it may well be but all I know is that it’s a great track full of energy and a driving rhythm. On that, I would never have made the connection but said rhythm and chord progression is based on Pachelbel’s Cannon. I think there’s a more obvious example in “All Together Now” by The Farm but if you need convincing, here’s a mash up video:

What I did notice is that the BBC censors failed to pick up on the word ‘whore’ in the lyrics. Or maybe it was that new TOTP executive producer Ric Blaxill was aware of it but didn’t make a fuss as it fitted in with his ethos of trying to make the show more edgy. However, I’m not sure this ‘exclusive’ performance from San Francisco fits that bill. We’re back to a (probably) empty concert hall for this one – the Eiffel Tower it is not.

By the way, as well as “Where The Wild Roses Grow”, my guitar prowess also extends to finger picking Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)”. Eric Clapton? Pah!

Next another band who, similar to Green Day, I was aware of but had little idea what they sounded like. The Wildhearts were a rock band who, unsurprisingly given the title of the song they perform here, hailed from Newcastle. Having listened to “Geordie In Wonderland”, my impression is that they wouldn’t be out of place mixing in the same social circles as the likes of The Quireboys, Little Angels and Dogs D’Amour. Indeed, The Wildhearts formed when lead singer Ginger was sacked from The Quireboys and at one point they had the drummer from Dogs D’Amour in their ranks. However, there’s also something of The Pogues about this particular track as well – it’s got that drunken sing-a-long quality to it. Unlike Green Day’s use of the word ‘whore’ in their lyrics slipping past the censors, Ginger has to fudge singing the word ‘shit’ from the line “some of the shit has sprouted in roses” presumably at the behest of some BBC suits.

I have to say I don’t mind the song – it’s sort of like a lairy version of “Run For Home” by fellow Geordies Lindisfarne. Unsurprisingly, given the band member in full football kit and the Toon Army banner on display, the song was offered to then Newcastle United manager Kevin Keegan as a potential club anthem but Kev wasn’t ‘head over heels in love’ with the idea and politely declined.

As for The Wildhearts, they reached a commercial peak four months on from this performance when their album “P.H.U.Q” made No 6 in the charts. Years of drug problems and record company wrangling though meant that they were never able to maintain that high. The band have been on and off for years but released their last album as recently as 2021.

In a show that’s already had it’s fair share of distinctly average at best dance acts, the TOTP producers have left the worst till last and indeed second last. I got some grief off a reader the last time I discussed Nicki French who objected to my description of her cover of Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” as one of the worst records of the 90s. Apparently, said reader knew Nicki personally and therefore took criticism of her personally as well. OK look, I’m sure Nicki is a lovely person and the five million global sales of TEOTH (it was a No 2 in the US) are certainly not to be sniffed at plus the fact that she has maintained a career in music all these years should be respected but…I just think it’s an awful cover and a dreadful record. I refer anyone who disagrees to my disclaimer at the bottom of the post.

And so to the No 1 and it’s the final week at the top for “Cotton Eye Joe” by Rednex. Dear oh dear. Quite how did this happen? Well, it wasn’t just the UK that couldn’t resist this techno/hoedown hybrid – it went to No 1 in eleven different countries globally. I guess the success of Rednex was the logical peak of a very niche musical sub genre that flared up briefly in the mid 90s. Back in ‘94 we had “Swamp Thing” by The Grid with its banjo-picking house beats and the square dance disco of “Everybody Gonfi-Gon” by Two Cowboys which were both big hits. Maybe the only way to burst this particularly pustular chart pimple was to let it go full term and wait for it to pop by itself. A No 1 record was surely the apex of the arc and there would be nowhere else for it to go? Well, nearly. There was a mini revival in 1997 when Steps took “5,6,7,8” boot scootin’ up the charts but even they ditched that idea after one single to pursue a career of pop cheese.

Rednex themselves didn’t give up the ghost though. A follow up hit called “Old Pop In An Oak” followed but couldn’t match its predecessor’s sales. An album called “Sex And Violins” (heh) did nothing at all. It was as if we all understood that this was a one-trick pony. The b(r)and name is still going though and in 2018 they started a live stream channel on Twitch. What a time to be alive!

Dgjm

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	MC Sar & The Real McCoy	Run Away	No
2	Deuce	Call It Love	Alternatively, call it crap – no
3	Simple Minds	She’s A River	I did not
4	N-Trance	Set You Free	Nope
5	Let Loose	One Night Stand	Nah
6	Green Day	Basket Case	Not at the time but I must have it on something
7	The Wildhearts	Geordie In Wonderland	Why Aye Man! Actually, no
8	Nicki French	Total Eclipse Of The Heart	Hell no!
9	Rednex	Cotton Eye Joe	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/m001qgbm/top-of-the-pops-26011995

TOTP 20 OCT 1994

Posted on June 9, 2023 by 80stastic

Ah, now this one should write itself. The ‘golden mic’ host this week is the idiosyncratic Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker. He’ll give me plenty of material to comment on surely? Thinking back now though, just how big a name was Jarvis in the Autumn of 1994 and therefore how big a coup was it for TOTP to have lured him on to present the show? Well, I would suggest this was before Jarvis and his band went into the stratosphere off the back of the “Different Class” album and the “Common People” single which both appeared the following year and indeed it was 14 months before his bum wafting protest in the direction of Michael Jackson at the 1996 BRIT Awards but Pulp were certainly more famous than they had ever been in their career which was already into its 16th year by then. They’d finally gotten themselves two Top 40 hits and their 1994 album “His ‘n’ Hers” had gone Top 10 and been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. So maybe not a household name but certainly well known enough to music fans and seeing as TOTP was the BBC’s flagship music show then it was an understandable if a bit of a leftfield choice.

P.S. After all of my musings above about how Jarvis came to be tonight’s host, here’s the ever reliable @TOTPFacts with the true story that I’ve just found. Why do I bother?!

This was the first of two #TOTP editions presented by Jarvis Cocker – his other being the "big Britpop battle" showdown between Blur and Oasis on 24 Aug 1995. Producer Ric Blaxill had been impressed by Jarvis' performance on Pop Quiz, broadcast on 2 July. https://t.co/41IsqnCBL4
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) June 2, 2023

Jarvis does seem ever so slightly nervous as he introduces himself (for the uninitiated) describing himself as lead singer of The Pulp. The Pulp Jarvis? You may have finally proved yourself to be the real deal but you didn’t need a definite article to do so. He also seems to be a little scared of timings and leaving any dead air lingering as he introduces the first act tonight Michelle Gayle and slips in an unnecessary “Here we go” at the last second. Nerves I guess. Anyway, Michelle’s record “Sweetness” is inside the Top 10 on its way to a peak of No 4 and she’s selling it well in this energetic performance. Michelle was married to footballer Mark Bright for 12 years making her one of a long line of pop stars who had relationships with players of the beautiful game. Going back as far as the 1950s you had England captain Billy Wright who was married to Joy Beverley of The Beverley Sisters pop group. Fast forward to the 90s and we saw Louise marry Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp though their love proved not to be eternal with the couple divorcing in 2017. Perhaps though there is no bigger pop/football fusion than the ultimate 90s power couple David and Victoria Beckham. A Manchester United pin up and a Spice Girl? The papers and the magazines couldn’t get enough of them and despite rumours of an affair by Becks, they are still together four children and over 20 years later. Into the new millennium there was Shakira and Gerard Piqué, Ashley and Cheryl Cole and Perrie Edwards and Alex Oxlade- Chamberlain. Sadly only one of those couples are still together. Less sweetness, more sweet…well…less then.

Jarvis gets himself into a bit of a muddle with his next intro for Let Loose and their single “Seventeen”. The follow up to the surprisingly enduring “Crazy For You”, it didn’t have the same pop credentials of its predecessor and, on reflection, is quite an unremarkable pop song despite being written by Nik Kershaw who knew his way around a decent tune. Never mind all that though, what was Jarvis banging on about? Firstly, he introduces the watching audience to the show – wouldn’t he have been better doing that at the very top of the show rather than one song in? Then he tries to illicit some humour from the fact that Let Loose have gone straight into the charts at No 15 despite their song being called “Seventeen” before feigning confusion and then saying “Who’s Let Loose? Them!”. Sorry, where was the punchline in all that or have I missed something? For the record, “Seventeen” peaked at No 11 and was a rerelease having originally peaked at No 44 when first out earlier in the year.

Reacting to the title of the next song in the show, Jarvis starts on a “Don’t do drugs kids” warning with his tongue firmly inserted in his cheek. Within a year Pulp would release the single “Sorted For E’s & Wizz” which would cause all sorts of undeserved outrage in the tabloids. For now though, it was all about the booze and fags. “Cigarettes And Alcohol” was the fourth hit of 1994 for Oasis and their biggest so far peaking at No 7.

I once watched this interview below with Liam and Noel where the latter talked about how he’d not been sure initially about releasing a fourth single from debut album “Definitely Maybe” but when it placed higher in the charts than any of the others, he knew that the band were on to something big. It’s worth a watch. Noel talks about the accusations thrown at him about pinching the song’s guitar riff from “Get It On” by T-Rex (he didn’t give a shit unsurprisingly) and there’s also a nice insight into the way the band interacted with each other behind the scenes with Noel’s ‘Bonehead was a tutter’ tale. There was a time when I could have listened to Noel talk for ages but he seems to have turned into a reactionary, right-wing leaning arse of late. Who’d have thought it would be Liam that would turn out to be the more likeable one? By the way, Liam’s “Where’s the monkey?” comment was a reference to Michael Jackson’s chimp Bubbles. The talk of a fourth single off the album sounded too much to them like Jacko territory and his nine singles off “Thriller” or whatever it was and if they were going down that route then maybe they deserved a chimpanzee as a pet.

As for my opinion of “Cigarettes And Alcohol” as a song, yeah of course there’s the T-Rex similarity but I couldn’t ignore its power and I was in deep by then anyway. This seemed to be the point when the famous Liam Gallagher pronunciation of lyrics really kicked in with emphasis on words like ‘shine’ as ‘she-iiine’ and ‘aggravation’ as “aggra-vay -sheon’ which would lead to many a parody and impression

By the way, it strikes me that Noel wasn’t the first to borrow that guitar riff anyway (although he did recycle it again for the “Some Might Say” single). Nevertheless, Marc Bolan himself seemed to have been listening to “Little Queenie” by Chuck Berry when he wrote “Get It On”. Then there’s the likes of Thunder with “Dirty Love”, Robbie Williams with “Old Before I Die” and this by ex-Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor:

We had a support band on TOTP the other week who found fame (albeit it fleetingly) under their own steam in the shape of 2wo Third3 who had toured with East 17. Well, there’s another one tonight as it’s a case of anything East 17 can do, Take That can do better. Ultimate KAOS (as with 2wo Third3, another awful, awful name) had toured with the Manc boyband superstars and lo and behold found themselves in the charts themselves with their single “Some Girls” riding to No 9. This lot germinated in the mind of the ultimate arbiter on shit music Simon Cowell or rather he saw the seed of an idea that could be grown. You see, Ultimate KAOS started life as Chaos and they released a cover of Michael Jackson’s “Farewell My Summer Love” in 1992. When it flopped they were dropped by their record label but came to the attention of Cowell who picked them up, dusted them down, gave them a horrible new name and shoved them on tour with Take That.

Their debut single as Ultimate KAOS was “Some Girls” and it would prove to be their biggest of six UK Top 40 hits. It was clearly meant to sound like a 90s version of The Jackson 5 but it’s really not very good. Their song isn’t the biggest problem I have with them though. It’s the fact that their average age at the time of this TOTP performance was 14 with lead singer Haydon Eshun being just 9 and seeing them being screamed at by the studio audience which made for uncomfortable viewing. It wasn’t helped by Jarvis’s comment about them playing doctors and nurses in his intro. Eeeuuwww. Eshun would go onto appear on the West End in the Michael Jackson musical Thriller–Live and was also in Reborn In The USA as I mentioned in a recent post when discussing the aforementioned Michelle Gayle.

Now apparently the next act’s lead singer was greatly offended by Jarvis Cocker and his intro to his band, so much so that the latter had to reshoot it. In his first take he referred to INXS as ‘Inks’ – cheeky boy – but the version that went out still included him talking to a young lady in the studio audience and saying “Oh, so you prefer older men do you? Well, you might like the singer of this next group we’ve got coming on then…”. Ouch! At the time of the broadcast, Michael Hutchence was 34 whilst Jarvis himself was 31 so the latter’s comment about older men seem a bit barbed and uncalled for. He then compounds it by listing his most recent relationships in public – “he’s snogged Kylie and he’s now going out with the woman from the Brut advert” (Helena Christensen). All a bit intrusive no?

Anyway, it’s a second appearance by the Aussie rockers to perform “The Strangest Party (These Are The Times)”, a track to promote their first Best Of album. So what was the deal with the two people on four stilts that looked like human flies? Very odd especially the tongue action. A strange party indeed.

There’s only eight acts on tonight’s repeat as the BBC have edited out R. Kelly with his “She’s Got That Vibe” single (which would have followed INXS) after his conviction in 2022 for child pornography charges and three counts of enticing a minor. Needless to say, I won’t be discussing him any further than that.

If there was a female equivalent of the Oasis / Blur battle of Britpop, would it have been between Elastica and Sleeper? That’s probably a completely unfair, uninformed and oversimplified comparison (and there was probably no beef between them anyway) that I’ve drawn just because both bands had a high profile female lead singer but it’s out there now so I’m going with it. In my made up battle, I would have been in Sleeper’s corner I think. They appealed more to my pop sensibilities (I even saw them live) and, if I’m completely honest, I fancied Louise Werner more than Justine Frischmann. I know, I know; that doesn’t sound great but there it is. Not that I didn’t like Elastica at all – this song “Connection” (surely their best known is a tune alright) – but they always seemed a bit too…what? Intellectual? Intimidating? Something else beginning with ‘I’? Maybe it was as arbitrary a thing as me not happening to hear their album that much (despite me working in a record shop I should say so that’s a poor excuse really). Who knows? Clearly not me. Maybe I should revise my loyalties as they give a pretty good performance here and aren’t even put off by the fact that you can clearly see the stage set up for tonight’s headline act in one shot – a big blue neon sign spelling out his name seems slightly disrespectful to everyone else.

And so to that headline act. After all the success and fame in the 60s and early 70s, the hits dried up for Tom Jones. Not that he wasn’t busy. He played Las Vegas, had his own TV show This Is Tom Jones and toured extensively but maybe all that diversifying meant he took his eye off the ball when it came to chart success. He tried his luck with country music but the truth is that from 1972 to 1987, he only had three UK Top 40 hits which peaked at Nos 31, 36 and 40. And then from out of nowhere came…ahem…”The Boy From Nowhere”. Recorded for a concept album called “Matador” that would become a musical, it placed at No 2 on the charts and led to a revival of interest in Jones which culminated in a rerelease of “It’s Not Unusual” and a collaboration with the Art Of Noise on a version of Prince’s “Kiss”. Tom was suddenly hip. The spike in his commercial fortunes petered out though as the 80s ended. The first few years of the new decade saw just a couple of charity single cover versions as his only visits to the Top 40. By the end of the 90s though, another resurgence in popularity saw him top the album charts with his “Reload” project, a collection of cover versions recorded in collaboration with contemporary artists including Robbie Williams, The Cardigans and Stereophonics.

But before all that came a rather overlooked period in his career I feel which was “The Lead And How To Swing It” album and its hit single “If I Only Knew”. Although the former failed to shift huge units, the single was quite the banger but I never knew until now that it’s yet another cover. Originally recorded by experimental US rap group Rise Robots Rise, Sir Tom’s version was produced by the legend that is Trevor Horn and includes a melody that Jones came up with himself.

My wife loved Tom’s version and duly bought it and helped send it rather unexpectedly to No 11 though you rarely hear it on the radio these days. Clearly it was a precursor to the aforementioned “Reload” album and a definite indication that Tom wanted to try and remain current and valid rather than be known just for all those 60s hits. For that alone, he should be admired. Jones retains a huge presence and profile to this day. A coach on TV show The Voice UK, he released his last album “Surrounded By Time” in 2021 which topped the charts.

As for Jarvis’s input to Tom’s appearance here, I could have done without the staged handing back of a pair of knickers to a female member of the studio audience if I’m honest.

So who got the loudest screams? Tom Jones or Take That? What a show to have been in the audience for! The latter are there to perform their chart topper “Sure” and they do what is expected of them, whipping the crowd up into a frenzy by prancing and hopping around the stage. For some reason, Jason and Howard seem to be wearing their jackets inside out with the lining exposed whilst Gary is marked out as the leader of the gang with a leather jacket. This was the second of two weeks at No 1 so I’m guessing this will be the last we’ll see of them in these 1994 repeats. Not quite the stellar year for the band that 1993 was. They only released three singles and one of them somehow didn’t get to No 1. Still though, nice work if you could get it.

So how did Jarvis Cocker do on his debut as a presenter? I think I was a little disappointed on balance although I probably thought he was brilliant back in 1994. Yes, I’d rather him than Goodier or Mayo but I was expecting a little bit more. I’m probably very unfairly bringing 30 years perspective to my opinion that didn’t exist back then but if I had to grade him it would be could do better – C+.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Michelle Gayle	Sweetness	Nope
2	Let Loose	Seventeen	I did not
3	Oasis	Cigarettes And Alcohol	Not the single but I had the album. Didn’t we all?
4	Ultimate KAOS	Some Girls	Never happening
5	INXS	The Strangest Party (These Are The Times)	No
6	Elastica	Connection	Nah
7	Tom Jones	If I Only Knew	No but my wife did
8	Take That	Sure	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/m001mffj/top-of-the-pops-20101994

TOTP 10 AUG 1994

Posted on May 12, 2023 by 80stastic

This TOTP aired on a Wednesday rather than the normal Thursday due to the BBC’s coverage of the European Athletics Championships taking place in Helsinki. A couple of years later, the show was permanently shifted from a Thursday to a Friday night initially in a 7pm time slot before some idiot made the decision to move it to a 7.30 start time thereby putting it up against Coronation Street. What on earth was the thinking behind that decision? It’s as if someone was deliberately trying to kill the show off. Hmm. This was also a ‘live’ episode so be on alert because, as Commander Shore said on Stingray, “Anything can happen in the next half hour…”

Simon ‘Smug’ Mayo is tonight’s host and the first act he introduces are Red Dragon featuring Brian and Tony Gold with their hit single “Compliments On Your Kiss”. I went into the back story of this one the last time it was on the show so I don’t propose to go onto that all over again. Instead, I’d quite like to talk about this performance and more specifically the staging of it.

I can understand the naff, cardboard cut out palm trees as it’s a lilting, summery tune that conjures up images of sunny beaches and obviously the neon lips do tie in with the song title but is that meant to be a smouldering volcano in the background? What’s that all about? Oh, is it meant to be a dragon as in Red Dragon? It’s hard to see because of the dry ice pouring out of it but I really can’t detect much of a dragon shape in there. They really should have blown the props budget on something like this from Star Trek…

Now, here’s an immediate chance for the TOTP producers to redeem themselves props wise as The Brand New Heavies perform “Midnight At The Oasis”. So the clue is in the song title guys. What image comes to mind when you think of an oasis (that’s an oasis not Oasis as in the Gallagher brothers whose band were hardly household names at this point anyway)? Palm trees? A natural water source like a spring or well? That’s the classic take on it when people see mirages in the desert no? Easy. So we do have some palm trees or at least some vegetation (whether it’s fake or not) which is an upgrade on the cardboard version that Red Dragon got. There’s no water to be seen though but I guess Health & Safety would have put a stop to any of that with all those electrics about. However, what is not understandable is the pyramid towering large at the stage at the back. Why is that there? The pyramids have nothing to do with an oasis do they? That’s just really lazy.

As for the song, I would suggest that this is the band’s most well known (though not biggest) hit what with it being a cover of a song that had already been a hit in the UK. The original was by Maria Muldaur and peaked at No 21 in the UK in 1974. The Brand New Heavies’ version is a pretty faithful to its predecessor and was perfect daytime radio playlist fodder for that long, hot summer of 1994.

If it’s Simon Mayo in the presenter seat then we are bound to get an awful attempt at comedy from him at some point and it comes in his intro for Future Sound Of London – “which is almost certainly coughing, gasping and wheezing” he quips – what a card! Anyway, I remember there being a certain amount of fuss about these electronic dance pioneers and I definitely remember the rather striking artwork on the cover of their “Lifeforms” album though I couldn’t have told you what it sounded like at all. Listening back to the title track that was released as a single, there’s an awful lot going on in there; some trip-hop beats, some ambient stylings and an otherworldly vocal from Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins. All a bit too overwhelming for my pop ear* though with the whole thing not helped by the visually overstimulating computer graphics video that seemed to be all the rage in this year (didn’t we see a similar type of thing from Pet Shop Boys for their “Liberation” single recently?). “Lifeforms” (the single) peaked at No 14 whilst its album counterpart made it to No 6.

*Sounds like Popeye’s long, lost cousin

Now I did attempt some humour in a recent post about the name of the next act but that doesn’t excuse Simon Mayo from doing the same here with his reference to Head & Shoulders. Away with you! Shampoo (for it is they) are on the show again to promote their single “Trouble” and I’m drawn to the fact that for the second time, their performance hardly involves any movement by the duo at all. They just sort of stand there, slightly crouched leaning into other for the duration. Were they not confident dancers or can’t you actually dance to their track? Judging by the efforts of the studio audience, it might be the latter.

The last time they were on, I talked about how they somehow carved out a little footnote for themselves in pop history despite only having a smattering of hit singles (of which this was the biggest). What I didn’t mention was that they invented ‘Girl Power’ before the Spice Girls took all the credit for it. Well, invented is probably a stretch but their final hit was called “Girl Power” and it charted one week before Sporty, Baby, Scary, Posh and Ginger’s debut “Wannabe”. To be fair though, although Geri Halliwell admitted in a 2016 interview that she pinched the phrase from Shampoo, Jacqui and Carrie themselves probably weren’t the original originators as Martin Fry once sang. Here’s @TOTPFacts with the details:

"Girl Power" was previously the title of a 1991 zine by US riot grrrl band Bikini Kill, which is presumably where Shampoo saw the phrase. Mel C: "It was very much in existence already. It was then Geri who shouted it during an early television interview and it stuck." #TOTP pic.twitter.com/MGeGawG3pU
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) April 21, 2023

“Trouble” was covered by Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine as the B-side to their 1995 single “The Young Offender’s Mum”.

Of the many sub genres of dance music that did the rounds in the 90s, surely one of the nastiest was Eurodance covers of rock and pop songs. We’d already had the likes of East Side Beat desecrating Christopher Cross’s “Ride Like The Wind” and Rage do a similar hatchet job on “Run To You” by Bryan Adams but by 1994 the timeline between the original track and the naff dance treatment was shortening. In the case of DJ Miko, the time elapsed was just one year from 4 Non Blondes taking “What’s Up” to No 2 and them releasing their vile version. What a truly awful record this was. A tacky, happy hardcore backing applied to an unconvincing rock vocal and…well, that was it really. DJ Miko wasn’t really a DJ nor in fact an actual person but an umbrella term for an Italian dance collective fronted by keyboardist Monier Quartararo Gagliardo featuring a number of studio vocalists with the whole thing going managed by Milan based record company Dig It International. The latter had quite an appropriate name as the whole sorry enterprise should have been buried at the conception stage with a clear instruction for the soil never to be disturbed.

Right, what’s Mayo on about now? Woodstock 2? When did that happen? Well, turns out he was right as this follow up festival to its legendary predecessor took place in Saugerties, New York (70 miles from the site of the 1969 original) on the weekend following this TOTP. I suppose he had to get that right as he was plugging Radio 1’s coverage of it. Anyway, billed as 2 More Days of Peace and Music, it was, by all accounts, poorly managed with the size of the crowd (estimates had it at 350,000) meaning security rules and policies surrounding alcohol etc were unenforceable. Tragically, three people died whilst attending the festival. As it was a three day event, the number of artists appearing was colossal including Metallica, Aerosmith, Green Day, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel…I could go on but won’t. Look it all up for yourself on Wikipedia like I had to.

For a festival promoted as being about peace, there were certainly a lot of incidents that didn’t fit the vibe. The lead singer of Jackyl, under the influence of alcohol and drugs, took a chainsaw to a stool and fired a rifle in the air. Meanwhile, the large volume of rainfall created a huge mud bath on the site that resulted in the break out of mud fights between both Green Day and Primus and their audiences. Nine Inch Nails admitted to playing the festival purely for the appearance fee to offset the cost of their current tour – so much for peace and music then. A number of artists that had performed at the original Woodstock reappeared for the 1994 version including The Band, Santana, Crosby, Stills & Nash and the next artist on this TOTP – Joe Cocker.

Now my knowledge of Joe is limited to say the least. I know he was from Sheffield, that he had a very gravelly voice, that he had a No 1 with a cover of The Beatles’ “With A Little Help From My Friends” that was used as the theme tune to The Wonder Years, that he duetted with Jennifer Warnes on that song from An Officer And A Gentleman and…well, that he’s dead I suppose. I certainly don’t know about this song – “The Simple Things” – without looking it up online. It was taken from an album called “Have A Little Faith” and would reach No 17 but it seems very lacklustre to me and entirely forgettable. Sadly, Joe would die of lung cancer in 2014 having smoked 40 cigarettes a day until he quit in 1991.

The early to mid 90s saw a host of female soul singers* come to the fore. Juliet Roberts, Shara Nelson, Dina Carroll, N’Dea Davenport who we saw with The Brand New Heavies earlier…add to that list Carleen Anderson who, having found initial success with Young Disciples, carved out a solo career for herself. “True Spirit” was not only the title track from her album but the third hit single on the spin for her in 1994. It doesn’t do a lot for me though. Clearly she has a great voice but the track itself seems so sluggish and a bit to caught up in trying to display its soul credentials. I think that for each of those singles, Carleen has appeared on TOTP and every time, the show’s caption person has noted that she is the goddaughter of James Brown. Give it a rest! Despite what I said about all those female soul singers, anybody would think it’s a man’s man’s man’s world.

* Is that Caron Wheeler of Soul II Soul fame up there with Carleen on stage doing backing vocals? Yet another soul singer that came to prominence in the 90s!

No! It can’t be! Not again! Is this the fourth time Let Loose have been on the show performing “Crazy For You”?! What more am I supposed to say about this lot and their song? Look, here’s some stats for you OK? 16 weeks on the Top 40, 9 consecutive weeks inside the Top 10 and the 8th best selling single of the year. Enough? No? Well, despite all that success, they never really consolidated on it to become the next big teen group did they? Sure, six hit singles followed it including two further Top Tenners but could you name any of them? Well, I looked them up and I do recall the follow up “Seventeen” but of the rest of them, the only title I recognise is a cover of Bread’s “Make It With You”, a blatant attempt at career-reviving if ever I saw one. Still, to be remembered for one massive hit song is no mean achievement. How many of us out there can boast the same?

Well, if I was struggling for words for Let Loose, what more is there to be said about Wet Wet Wet and “Love Is All Around” after an 11th week at the top of the charts? Well, I’m not going to say anything but instead refer back to Simon Mayo’s intro for it in which he says that when it first went to No 1 “Jürgen Klinsmann was just a cheating German”. I knew it! I knew he wouldn’t be able to resist making a comment about how the striker had signed for his beloved Spurs! I said so in the last post when I made mention that he’d signed for them on the day that TOTP aired and that it was a good job it was Mark Goodier as that week’s host and not Mayo as the latter would definitely have gone on about it and here he is a week later doing just that. Not just smug but predictable as well then.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Red Dragon featuring Brian and Tony Gold	Compliments On Your Kiss	No
2	The Brand New Heavies	Midnight At The Oasis	No. but my wife had the album
3	Future Sound Of London	Lifeforms	Not for me thanks
4	Shampoo	Trouble	Nope
5	DJ Miko	What’s Up	Hell no!
6	Joe Cocker	The Simple Things	Nah
7	Carleen Anderson	True Spirit	Negative
8	Let Loose	Crazy For You	No but my wife did
9	Wet Wet Wet	Love Is All Around	I did not

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001ldp8/top-of-the-pops-10081994

TOTP 28 JUL 1994

Posted on May 3, 2023 by 80stastic

It’s back to the regular presenters this week after the distraction of Julian Clary last time out and it’s the revitalised Bruno Brookes in the chair who I’m starting to have a sneaking regard for second time around. I couldn’t stand the bloke in the 80s but 90s Bruno seems more likeable somehow. Maybe it’s just that he isn’t Simon ‘Smug’ Mayo who has been more irritating than dandruff in these TOTP repeats. Maybe I should take the advice of that Hammerstein and Rodgers tune and “Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair”. Well, I’ve got just the thing in the first act on tonight – it’s Shampoo! Don’t worry, I’ll be getting me coat later.

Anyway, I said in the last post I’d take a deeper dive into the story of Jacqui Blake and Carrie Askew so here goes…Like most of us I’m guessing, I wasn’t aware of Shampoo until this hit “Trouble” made the charts but they had already released two singles before that which had received encouraging reviews in the music press but didn’t…ahem…’trouble’ the chart compilers. I found them both on YouTube (they don’t seem to be on Spotify) and they’re definitely spiky of attitude but low on production values. Wikipedia describes them as being typical of the ‘riot grrrl’ movement – I’m not sure I know enough about that particular subculture to make any judgement on that statement but I always thought that bands associated with that scene were a bit more hardcore than our two girls from Plumstead.

Regardless, “Blisters And Bruises” and “Bouffant Headbutt” brought them to the attention of Blur’s record label Food and resulted in the release of the much more radio friendly “Trouble”. The tale of two party girls who’d stayed out too late and missed the night bus home, it was, depending on your point of view, a breath of fresh air to liven up a stagnant chart or just plain dumb. I think I was in the former camp. On reflection though, hadn’t we seen this all before. Whilst there were comparisons made with the bubblegum rock of Transvision Vamp and even the post-punk of The Slits, the most glaringly obvious example was Fuzzbox. An all-girl band with a punk look who released some edgy material on an independent label before being picked up by a major who polished up their sound, image and even their name and turning them into bona fide pop stars. It’s a valid comparison I think.

“Trouble” would rise to No 11 and saw Jacqui and Carrie on the front cover of Smash Hits. Somehow they seemed to have successfully trodden a path between credibility and commerciality. An album (“We Are Shampoo”) duly followed but that’s where the spell appeared to break. Despite doing well in Japan, it stiffed in the UK only making No 45 on the charts. It did furnish two more minor hit singles but “Trouble” would be their defining song, its profile raised by being included on the soundtrack to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers film causing the single to be re-released in 1995 (it made No 36).

Jacqui and Carrie do a pretty good job of selling the song in this performance with the former pioneering the schoolgirl look well before Britney Spears came along. I watched this TOTP with my wife in the room and she said “Trouble” sounded like something from Horrid Henry. She might have a point.

It’s those EYC berks again next. How was it possible that these US boy band lightweights managed to get six UK Top 40 hits? I’ll tell you how – because the charts were completely bonkers when it came to any sort of identity. Just in this week alone you had the following artists all rubbing shoulders with each other:

The Prodigy
Mariah Carey
Michael Ball
PJ & Duncan
Galliano
The Three Tenors
The Jesus and Mary Chain
Kate Bush and Larry Adler

Pick the bones out of that lot! Not included on that list were our own boy bands in the shape of Take That and Bad Boys Inc which you might have thought fulfilled the boy band quota for one week but no, there was still room for one more and so EYC gladly took that spot. “Black Book” was the fourth of those aforementioned six hits and also the biggest when it peaked at No 13. EYC stood for ‘Express Yourself Clearly’ but with this track, they expressed themselves as clearly wanting to sound like Michael Jackson. Actually, let me express myself more clearly – a third rate, piss poor Michael Jackson impersonator more like. It’s bad to quote the King of Pop himself.

Not this lot again! The problem with having a stagnant chart with lots of records hanging around for ages was that it meant they warranted multiple repeat appearances on TOTP. How many times is this for All 4 One now? Three? Four? They’re showing that live by satellite performance of them walking along the beach while singing “I Swear” this week. The track stayed at No 2 for seven consecutive weeks and would end the year as the UK’s fifth best selling single outperforming a host of No 1 records by the likes of Mariah Carey, Tony Di Bart, Take That and Prince.

The track was originally recorded by country singer Jon Michael Montgomery and it actually makes more sense when done in that style to me. More of a solid song somehow as opposed to the drippy, harmonies-fest that All 4 One turn it into.

And here’s another of those songs that hung around the charts like a particularly eggy fart. Just like All 4 One before them, this must be the third or fourth time on the show for Let Loose. Also just like All 4 One, their single (“Crazy For You”) would end up in the Top 10 of the best selling singles in the UK for 1994 despite never getting to No 1 clocking in at No 8. Their guitarist seemed to still have Chesney Hawkes hair three years on. Even Chezza had given it up as a bad idea by then. Meanwhile, the drummer seemed intent on showing the watching millions that he really had perfected that trick of twirling one drumstick in the air whilst carrying on playing. And the lead singer? He looks like that annoying best looking guy at school who always had girls flirting with him whilst the rest of us spotty herberts looked on enviously. Git.

If it’s 1994 (or indeed 1993), there must be at least one reggae-infused song on the show every week (I think it was the law) so here’s one we haven’t seen before. “Compliments On Your Kiss” by Red Dragon with Brian and Tony Gold was a mouthful to say but it didn’t stop punters going up to the counter of their record shop of choice and asking for it as it would sell enough copies to go all the way to No 2.

So who were these hitmakers? Well, Red Dragon was Leroy May, a Jamaican DJ who played with a number of sound systems and recorded for King Tubby in the 80s before founding his own label and moving into production. As the 90s rolled around, he returned to recording and collaborated with Sly and Robbie who co-wrote and produced “Compliments On Your Kiss”. As for Brian and Tony Gold, they weren’t actually brothers (real names Brian Thompson and Tony Morrison) who had been working together since competing in Jamaican talent contests in the mid 80s.

Enough of their biographies though, what about the song? Well, on reflection, it sounds like it belongs to another era altogether with its gentle, lilting melody…until Mr Red Dragon himself (I’m assuming that’s him up there on stage) starts toasting and drags it into the 90s. He bangs on about some woman having a sexy body and driving him crazy (how predictable) and even gets in that “number one girl in the world” line that was so prevalent around this time. For some reason it reminds me of that song “Hello Darling” by Tippa Irie from the 80s. Similar vibe. Leroy May died in 2015 aged just 49. “Compliments On Your Kiss” was his only UK chart hit.

It’s The Three Tenors time again who are in the charts with the double A-side single “Libiamo / La Donna E Mobile”. This was of course José Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti but it always seemed that the former two were in the latter’s shadow (no size jokes please). Even Bruno Brookes refers to them as Pavarotti and pals. I guess he was a dominating figure with his frame and beard but I wonder if ‘the other two’ ever felt slighted? They look like they’re all getting on in this performance taken from the 1994 World Cup concert and was that French actor Alain Delon that the camera picks out in the audience at one point?

Oh, what a surprise a reggae/pop crossover song. After Red Dragon earlier, here’s another one from China Black. Maybe it was a legal requirement back then! Is it just me or does “Searching” sound a bit like “Don’t Turn Around” by Aswad and a cover of which was back in the charts at this time courtesy of Ace Of Base? Anyway, as the TOTP caption says, Errol was still working as a town planner while “Searching” was in the charts which got me thinking about how many other pop stars were still holding down ‘normal’ jobs simultaneously? It’s quite a hard category to pin down. There’s plenty of pop stars who had regular jobs before they were famous and also a big list of ex-chart acts who went onto to more mundane careers after the hits dried up but actually holding down a 9-5er whilst in the charts at the same time? Not so easy. One I do know of though is Haircut 100 percussionist Marc Fox who was still working as a German teacher whilst playing with the band and left some exam papers on a British Midland plane whilst flying back from a gig in Scotland.

Which duo’s had more Top 10 hits than The Everly Brothers and Pet Shop Boys? Well, Erasure according to Bruno Brookes in his intro. Was that true? Let’s do a quick bit of counting…

*Checks discographies*

No it bloody isn’t by my adding up! “Run To The Sun” was Erasure’s 14th Top 10 hit up to this point in time. The Everly Brothers had 13 but Pet Shop Boys had 15 – that’s if we’re going on UK Top 10 singles (I haven’t counted hits in every country). I hate it when the TOTP presenters make claims that are best disputed and worst just wrong. As for the song itself, I’d lost touch with Erasure by 1994 and don’t remember this one at all. but then it’s not that memorable. All a bit basic and too linear. All the typical Erasure components are there but it was starting to sound a bit too familiar by then – to me anyway. Sorry guys.

It’s nine weeks at No 1 for Wet Wet Wet and “Love Is All Around”. I’m nearly out of things to say and there’s another six weeks to go after this!

OK, how about a reference to the version that appears in Love Actually courtesy of Billy Nighy. What was Richard Curtis thinking?! Well, presumably he thought it worked for me in Four Weddings And A Funeral so I’ll just use it again except this time, as it’s a festive film, I’ll add the word ‘Christmas’ into it. Correct me if I’m wrong but plot wise, isn’t it meant to be an awful rendition of the song and therefore, the fact that it ends up as the Christmas No 1 is a comment on the nation’s bizarre buying habits come December? Mr. Blobby anyone? In that case, why was it released as an actual single in the real world? Was it to construct a perfect example of life imitating art as it did when the single made the Top 30? Or was it just an observation that the good old British public would buy any old shite if it meant getting to see some bloke waving his dick about on telly? For those who haven’t seen the film and who are confused by that last comment, the Bill Nighy character Billy Mack is a fading rock ‘n’ roll star who tries to revive his career with a Christmas record and promises in an interview with Michael Parkinson that if it gets to No 1, he’ll go naked on TV. And that’s me done for this week’s instalment of ‘Finding something to say about Love Is All Around’. Join me next week where I’ll cobble together some more…well…cobblers to say about it.

As has been the case most weeks, it seems head TOTP producer Ric Blaxill was still struggling to know what to do with the play out song section of the show as he searched for a permanent identity for it. He’d already tried showcasing newly released singles that would ultimately end up not making the Top 40 and also doing away with the section altogether by just letting the No 1 play over the credits. This week was another new idea as we got a track from an album that wasn’t released as a single. The album was “The Glory Of Gershwin” which was a tribute album featuring various artists to celebrate the 80th birthday of American harmonica player Larry Adler who was a lifelong friend of George and Ira Gershwin. The album was a massive seller going to No 2 in the charts and included contributions from perhaps what could be described as the usual suspects like Sting, Elton John and the aforementioned Kate Bush whose take on “The Man I Love” was released as a single. However, that isn’t the track that TOTP chose to go with. No, that honour went to “I Got Rhythm” by Robert Palmer even though it was never released as a single. I think Blaxill must have been a bit of a Robert fan as the super smooth singer was on the show earlier in the year with “Girl U Want” which only got as far as No 57. No complaints from me as I like a bit of Palmer now and then but his inclusion here doesn’t seem to help establish the identity of the show.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Shampoo	Trouble	No
2	EYC	Black book	As if
3	All 4 One	I Swear	Nope
4	Let Loose	Crazy For You	No but my wife did
5	Red Dragon with Brian and Tony Gold	Compliments On Your Kiss	I did not
6	The Three Tenors	Libiamo / La Donna E Mobile	Negative
7	China Black	Searching	Nah
8	Erasure	Run To The Sun	It’s a no from me
9	Wet Wet Wet	Love Is All Around	Didn’t happen
10	Robert Palmer	I Got Rhythm	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/m001l56l/top-of-the-pops-28071994

TOTP 14 JUL 1994

Posted on April 26, 2023 by 80stastic

Following this TOTP, the BBC broadcast the 1000th episode of EastEnders. Earlier in the day they aired the 2000th edition of Neighbours. It was quite a day of milestones at the Beeb. I’m not sure what number of TOTP shows we were up to here but it was north of 1,500 as that particular landmark occurred in the Autumn of 1992. What I do know is that the presenter is that berk Simon ‘Smug’ Mayo again. In the dark corners of my mind dwelled this feeling that I once knew someone who was friendly with Mayo so I checked with my wife and she explained that one of her ex-work colleagues did indeed have a friend who knew him. It turns out she even went to his wedding and get this – there was some sort of two tier system for guests; one for celebrities and one for regular folk so that the former wouldn’t get bothered by the latter! Dear oh dear.

Anyway, I’m afraid he’s back again tonight and according to some comments on Twitter, in an edgy mood. Heaven help us! The running order for this edition is a bit out there I have to say and not what I would have expected in the Summer of 1994. It starts with a band that were certainly uncompromising and making an unlikely return to the UK charts for the first time in nine years. This was actually the second TOTP appearance of 1994 for Killing Joke following one for their single “Millennium” a few weeks earlier. The follow up was “Pandemonium” (confusingly known as “The Pandemonium Single on the cover of the sleeve). I don’t recall this at all but it’s better than I was expecting, full of crashing, crunching metal guitars and a memorable chorus. Jaz Coleman’s delivery in the verses puts me in mind of Ian Dury (no bad thing in my book) and, of course, his full repertoire of disturbing facial expressions and bulging eyeballs are to the fore. He really could have had a side career as the go to actor for playing vampires. What’s that? He played a fictional version of himself in a 2002 mockumentary film called Rok ďábla (Year Of The Devil)? Well, there you go then. “Pandemonium” made No 28 in our charts.

Mayo goes all Ben Elton in his next segue with a little bit of politics mentioning the Labour leadership contest by referring to Tony Blair, John Prescott and Margaret Beckett as the “the short one, the fat one and the tall one”. Simon, of course, is the hilarious one (but only in his mind). Back to the music though and the next artist on the show are a band I don’t remember at all maybe because they only had one hit. Unlike their contemporaries SWV, Jade and En Vogue, BlackGirl only troubled the UK chart compilers once with this single “90’s Girl”. It doesn’t really do anything for me but I’m sure it’s a very competent example of the genre.

Not competent though is Simon Mayo’s comments about the silhouette figures on the backdrop scenery behind BlackGirl. Blake’s 7 extras? Surely they’re more reminiscent of the titles to Tales Of The Unexpected?

Right, why is this on again? Surely Mariah Carey’s single “Anytime You Need A Friend” peaked a few weeks ago? A quick check of the official charts database shows that it did indeed reach its chart high of No 8 a few shows back and had dropped down the charts on two consecutive occasions since. However, a climb of just one place from No 22 to No 21 this week was enough cause for TOTP producer Ric Blaxill to have it back on the show. It seems a bit of a flimsy reason to me. Weren’t there any other records climbing the Top 40 that week that could have had that slot? Helpfully, Mariah’s video is used to soundtrack the chart countdown from 40 to 11 so let’s have a quick gander and check…

Well, there were a lot of singles going down the charts but there were either climbers or new entries from the likes of Diana Ross, DJ Duke and Crash Test Dummies – wouldn’t one have them done (especially the latter who were following up on a huge hit single in “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm”)?

OK. This appearance is deserved as it’s a new entry at No 17 for a new artist. “Searching” by China Black was yet another of those Summer of 1994 songs that hung around the charts for ages. Thirteen weeks in the Top 40 of which seven were in the Top 10, it certainly had legs. The single was actually a rerelease. It originally came out in 1992 on independent label Big One and although it topped the reggae charts, it failed to crossover into the mainstream, not being helped by the label going bust. Interest in the track remained though and it was picked up by major Polydor and put out again but this time with the reggae influences toned down and the soul-o-meter turned up to make it more radio friendly.

It always sounded like a strange concoction to me. The slick intro that made it feel like something huge was about to emerge from the radio gives way to a jaunty, reggae-pop melody. It’s almost like it’s two different songs stuck together. That switchover is repeated when the bridge leads into the chorus. The lead singer’s high voice exposes the join even more. Seamless it was not. Neither was Simon Mayo’s link in which he crow bars in the lamest line taking a swipe at the band’s logo that hangs behind them during this performance saying it was painted by his 3 year old. What a snarky git!

China Black were unable to replicate the success of “Searching” though they did knock out a couple of medium sized follow ups and also collaborated with Ladysmith Bkack Mambazo on England World Cup song “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” in 1995. One last thing, I wonder why they chose to call their song “Searching” and not “Searchin’” without a ‘g’? Presumably to make it clear they were not Hazell (two ‘l’s) Dean I guess.

Unless you’re a massive fan, I’m guessing most of us could only name one House Of Pain track with that being “Jump Around” of course. They did, however, have five UK Top 40 hits in total though of which this one, “On Point”, was the third when it peaked at No 19. So apparently, this was the band’s very first time on British TV which Mayo tries to big up but to be honest, it’s all a bit of a letdown as “On Point” sounds like a poor man’s “Jump Around” to me.

The lyrics aren’t what you’d call beautiful poetry either. I mean look at this:

Don’t start me up like a rolling stone
Or I’ll leave ya sulking like Maculay Culkin in home alone
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Erik Schrody / Larry Muggerud
On Point lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc

The Rolling Stones (more of them later) and Macaulay Culkin aren’t the only people name checked. There are also (not so) honourable mentions for Calvin Klein, Steven Tyler and Ronnie Dio but for me, no one betters this as a track that features Dio in the lyrics:

Mayo continues with his attempt to become Ben Elton in his next link as he references the Neil Hamilton cash-for-questions scandal as he introduces The Three Tenors performing “The Brindisi”. Tenors? Tenners? Get it? Yeah, it’s up there with the ‘sick squid’ joke isn’t it? Why did he bother? To nobody’s surprise, this was all to do with The World Cup and was to promote the concert by Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras which was to be broadcast live on BBC2 from Los Angeles the night before the World Cup final. I didn’t see it as I was down in my hometown of Worcester for my sister’s 21st birthday but I’m guessing my wife’s parents did as they’d loved the Italia ‘90 one (“Nessun Dorma” and all that). They’d taped it off the TV onto a VHS (this was 33 years ago remember) but somehow my mother-in-law had taped EastEnders over it at some point and was desperate that my father-in-law didn’t find out. Every time he asked about watching it again, he was told that the tape couldn’t be found until the concert was officially released commercially and a replacement was purchased.

As for The ‘94 World Cup final between Brazil and Italy, it was an awful match, ended 0-0 and was decided on penalties for the first time ever meaning the competition that started with Diana Ross missing a penalty in the opening ceremony then ended with Roberto Baggio doing the same on the final.

It’s Let Loose again with another one of those hits that seemed to be around the charts for the whole of the Summer. “Crazy For You” would end up selling 400,000 copies. Now, I was under the impression that this lot were a trio but there’s five of them up there on stage with the two unknown extras being the keyboard player and the bass guitarist. So what gives? Well, there are cases of ‘unofficial’ band members that seem to litter pop history. When Andy Taylor left Duran Duran for the second time in 2006, he was replaced by Dom Brown who continues to be the band’s guitarist to this day but who never appears in any promotional material and is not considered a full member. Similarly, Wet Wet Wet’s lead guitarist Graeme Duffin has been with the band since 1983 but has never featured in official photographs nor interviews. And then there’s the A-ha bass player who appears in the background for the video for “The Sun Always Shines On TV”. If you’ve never seen comedian Greg Davies’s routine about this guy, please do search it out.

And now for something completely different…he may not be to everyone’s taste but I’ve always liked Julian Cope though I have to say I haven’t kept up to date with anything he’s done in over 30 years. Whatever your opinion of him, you can’t deny his prolific output. He must be part of a very select club that has released more albums than singles (35 to 24) with most of them being on his own Head Heritage label. And that’s not even counting his time with The Teardrop Explodes!

I think the first solo material of his that I was aware of was his brilliant 1984 single “The Greatness And Perfection Of Love” which should have been a big hit but which failed to make the Top 40. Then came the pop star era of ‘86-‘87 when Julian had his most commercial success with the “World Shut Your Mouth” single and the silver selling “Saint Julian” album. The next few years saw him occasionally pop up in the lower end of the singles chart with under appreciated tracks like “Charlotte Anne” and “Beautiful Love” before releasing his first compilation album in 1992 “Floored Genius” which I bought. By 1994, Cope had been dropped by his record label Island after their relationship disintegrated – the material he was supplying wasn’t what they thought they had signed him for (presumably they wanted endless retreads of “World Shut Your Mouth”). In order to get his songs out there, he signed a one album deal with Def Jam subsidiary American Recordings for the “Autogeddon” album from which the track he performs on TOTP – “I Gotta Walk” – was taken. Even allowing for the fact that the album had entered the charts at No 16, it seems a strange decision to have invited him on the show. What did the youth in the studio audience make of him? Did they know who he was? Two Top 40 singles in seven years meant he was hardly a household name at this point. And then there’s his image. Never one to comply with fashionable trends, Julian is way out there in this performance. The Mohawk hairstyle, the Wee Willie Winkie nightshirt and that’s before we get into his vocal. This really is Vic Reeves club singer territory. At the end, Julian starts flexing his body which really puts me in mind of the Spike character in Notting Hill…

Julian remains a character who operates outside of the mainstream. An enthusiast of and author on Neolithic culture with an interest in paganism and occultism, he’s also a political activist (he took a prominent role in the Poll Tax demonstrations) and counter-culturalist. The arch Druid some have labelled him. Above all though, he is interesting. If you get a chance, give his two volume autobiography Head–On / Repossessed a go. It’s a fascinating read.

At the end of Julian Cope’s performance, Simin Mayo finally comes up with a line worthy of the name. “I know what your Dad’s thinking…and he’s wrong”. And then he goes and spoils it all with some pathetic gag about Reg Presley raking it in and crop circles. Really weak. As for Reg’s song, “Love Is All Around” has reached the halfway point (almost) of its tenure at No 1 as we arrive at week seven. What can I say about this record that I haven’t already said? How about what Wet Wet Wet did next?

Well, even after deleting the single, there were still enough copies in record shops to ensure it stayed in the Top 10 for another three weeks and then another four within the Top 40 after that before it eventually dropped out of the charts. We didn’t see the band again until March the following year (probably wise to have left it a bit after their over exposure in ‘94 – the musical equivalent of “I’d give it five minutes if I were you”) when they released the No 3 single “Julia Says” and parent album “Picture This” in April. Despite the album going to No 1, selling 900,000 copies and being well received by the critics, the band couldn’t seem to escape the shadow of “Love Is All Around” and they only recorded two more albums as the original line up. After a few exits and returns, Marti Pellow left the band for good in 2017 and was replaced by ex-Libery X singer Kevin Simm and the band recorded an album with him and continued to tour. However, in 2022, founder members Tommy Cunningham and Neil Mitchell both left the band leaving bass player Graeme Clark as the only original member.

The play out song is by the aforementioned The Rolling Stones who are back with an album of new material, their first for five years since “Steel Wheels”. The only thing I really remember about “Voodoo Lounge” is the distinctive artwork on the cover. That and the massive marketing campaign that accompanied it courtesy of the band’s new label Virgin. I guess the campaign worked as it did go to No 1 in the UK and sold reasonably well but the press reviews were mixed with it being seen as inconsistent and a rather calculated attempt to recreate the classic Stones sound. Lead single “Love Is Strong” was not a massive hit though, peaking at No 14 over here and a lowly No 91 in the US albeit that it made No 2 in Canada. Interesting that we get the actual promo video shown here rather than the usual montage of clips from the show we’d just watched. Presumably, that’s the power of being rock legends at work.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Killing Joke	Pandemonium	No
2	BlackGirl	90’s Girl	I did not
3	Mariah Carey	Anytime You Need A Friend	Nope
4	China Black	Searching	Nah
5	House Of Pain	On Point	Negative
6	The Three Tenors	The Brindisi	Not for me
7	Let Loose	Crazy For You	No but my wife succumbed to its charms
8	Julian Cope	I Gotta Walk	Bless him but no
9	Wet Wet Wet	Love Is All Around	It’s a no
10	The Rolling Stones	Love Is Strong	And one last 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/m001kyvt/top-of-the-pops-14071994

TOTP 30 JUN 1994

Posted on April 19, 2023 by 80stastic

Despite my recent outrage at the omnipresence of Eurodance in the UK charts in the mid 90s (and therefore also on TOTP), I’m sure if I did some proper statistical analysis of the musical genres represented on the show, it would tell me that the mix of categories was eclectic. No, not eclectic but mad, bonkers, all over the place. Tonight’s show is a prime example. Yes, there are plenty of dance tunes (of varying quality) but there’s also some out and out pop, an exponent of the New Wave of New Wave (whatever that was), the debut of a rock ‘n’ roll band (definitely not indie…erm…maybe) who would dominate the 90s, a mega selling cover of an old 60s tune and hell, even a memorable No 1 from 1979! What a basket case of a show! The host is Bruno Brookes who I have to say I have warmed to since his return to the programme after the ‘year zero’ revamp era. I couldn’t be doing with him during his 80s pomp but compared to Simon ‘Smug’ Mayo, I’m finding his matey presenting style a bit more acceptable.

First up is a tune that I reviewed as part of the TOTP that was broadcast on 29 July 1993. Back then, “Caught In The Middle” by Juliet Roberts was a Breaker but as that section doesn’t exist anymore, she’s opening this show with a performance in the studio. In that first review, I drew some comparisons with Shara Nelson who was also on that day but there’s no Shara this time round so I’ll have to think of something else to say. Well, back in 1993, the single made No 24 and was produced by Danny D (of D-Mob fame) and remixed by Roger Sanchez. However, a David Morales remix that lit up the dance floors of clubs in 1994 demanded a release of its own and so it was that it was put out again, this time peaking at No 14. What are the differences between the two versions? I’m afraid my lack of dance music knowledge embarrasses me here but the Morales remix does seem to have a faster bpm which requires some controlled breathing and singing techniques from Juliet to get through it. This would prove to be Juliet’s biggest ever hit and she has not released any material since 2002 though she remains in demand as a backing singer.

That pure pop record next as Let Loose are finally given free rein to showcase themselves to the UK at large. I say ‘finally’ as they’d actually been around Take That style for over a year before this appearance and their single – “Crazy” – had originally been released back in April of 1993. It had just missed the Top 40 then but their record label Mercury obviously believed in the song and so it was re-released with a big promotional push and a chart entry at No 24 was achieved. There then followed a climb that was becoming most atypical within the UK Top 40 around this time whereby the single rose in small increments five weeks on the trot to get a foothold on the No 4 position. The story didn’t end there though. It stayed within the Top 10 for a further six weeks including two at No 2 when only the extraordinary sales of Wet Wet Wet kept it off the top spot. In total, it spent sixteen weeks inside the Top 40 and nine inside the Top 10. Perhaps most remarkable of all was that it would become the UK’s eighth best selling single of 1994, shifting more copies than D:Ream’s “Things Can Only Get Better” which spent four weeks at No 1 at the start of the year.

How can all this be explained? Well, it was supremely radio friendly becoming a staple of daytime playlists to the point that the band’s lead singer himself – Richie Wermerling – had this to say of the song (courtesy of @TOTPFacts):

Let Loose lead singer Richie Wermerling wrote "Crazy For You": "It was around for months and even I had to turn off the radio after a while. It used to come on everywhere I was – sometimes I'd have to hide behind counters in supermarkets." #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) April 7, 2023

The single’s success led to the re-release of another early single (“Seventeen”) which though nowhere near the sales phenomenon of its predecessor made a respectable No 11. Despite being pin up material and playing catchy pop music, Let Loose were never going to seriously worry Take That as the nation’s favourite boy band. The position of contender for that role would be filled by Boyzone come the end of the year. However, they did notch up seven Top 40 hits over two years before disbanding.

And here it is. The inevitable appearance of some nasty dance music in the form of Reel 2 Real featuring The Mad Stuntman. After the gravity defying chart run of “I Like To Move It” that remained aloft in the Top 40 for seventeen weeks, there were no surprises for guessing how main man Erick Morillo would follow it up. Just chuck out something that sounds exactly the same! What to call it? Something with the word ‘move’ in the title will do again. No need to overthink it. Just shameless. The ‘lyrics’ to “Go On Move” bang on about women shaking their bodies and then there’s some nonsensical scatting at the start. Look at this:

Bibidy, bom bi bom, mek, house go mad
Bibidy, bom bi bom, mek, jazz go mad
Bibidy, bom bi bom, mek, house go mad
Bibidy, bom bi bom, mek, jazz go mad
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Erick A. Morillo / Mark H. Quashie / Peter Tulloch
Go on Move lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc

The use of the word ‘Bibidy’ isn’t inspired by the “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo” song from Disney’s Cinderella animation but, according to my research, a Jamaican term for men’s underwear. Nice. In trade publication Music Week, reviewer James Hamilton described it as:

“Gruff ragga ‘g’wan move’ shouting and ‘blippily bebop’ scatting drily percussive ‘I Like To Move It’ type bogie shuffler”
Hamilton, James (June 25, 1994). “Dj directory” (PDF). Music Week, in Record Mirror (Dance Update Supplemental Insert). p. 5. Retrieved April 18, 2021.

That just about sums up this whole shoddy affair. Somehow, the good old British public bought enough copies to send it to No 7. Thanks for that.

It’s that No 1 from 1979 next. Surely one of the most memorable chart toppers ever, “I Don’t Like Mondays” was the second consecutive No 1 single for The Boomtown Rats after “Rat Trap” the year before. They were the biggest band in the UK. I was only 11 at the time and not exactly in tune with current chart trends but even I knew this song and The Boomtown Rats. The elder brother of a kid I knew up the street was a big fan. Not that I knew it at the time but so was my wife who asked her parents for their “Tonic For The Troops” album for Christmas ‘78 (they bought her “Nightflight To Venus” by Boney M instead).

By 1981 though, the hits had started to dry up. The New Romantics movement was in ascendancy with blousy young heroes like Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran capturing the nation’s imagination and The Rats were seen as old hat. By 1984 they were completely washed up. And then came that news report from Ethiopia that Bob Geldof couldn’t ignore leading to the Band Aid record and the Live Aid concert and that moment when he sings the line “And the lesson today is how to die”…

Go to 3:08 for that moment

The origins of the lyrics of the whole song are well documented of course. The school shooting in San Diego by 16 year old Brenda Spencer who fired at children in a school playground because, by her own words, “I don’t like Mondays. This livens the day up” is pretty bleak source material. Geldof couldn’t have known that just a few years later it would provide an iconic moment in rock history as part of an effort to use the power of music for the good of humanity.

* For my full review of Live Aid, follow the link below:

https://80spop.wordpress.com/2018/04/04/live-aid-13-jul-1985/(opens in a new tab)

None of the above explains why “I Don’t Like Mondays” was back in the charts in 1994 though. It was a pretty obvious reason in truth. A Boomtown Rats / Bob Geldof retrospective Best Of album entitled “Loudmouth” had been released and the track was re-released to promote it. The album made the Top 10 though the single only made No 38 so I’m a little surprised that it warranted a whole slot to itself. It would have been a Breaker under the old regime no doubt.

The moment has finally arrived. It wouldn’t be 1994 – the year Britpop took off according to many – without them. Stand by (me) for the time has arrived for the TOTP debut of Oasis! Working in a record shop in the centre of Manchester at the time, it was kind of hard to avoid Liam, Noel and co but I have to say I’d not got on board immediately. Whilst some of my work colleagues were all over debut single “Supersonic”, I was picking fault in their rhyming of Elsa with Alka-Seltzer in the lyrics. Second single “Shakermaker” didn’t quite do it for me either but by the time third release “Live Forever” came along, I could resist no longer and was all in. I’m pretty sure that I could tell that something big was brewing and I didn’t want to miss out. Record breaking debut album “Definitely Maybe” was duly purchased and eighteen months later I was at the second of their first outdoor headline gigs at Maine Road.

Back in the Summer of 1994 though, why wasn’t I immediately swept up in the Oasis tsunami? Admittedly, I had some previous when it came to ignoring huge Manchester bands just as they were breaking. The Smiths? No thanks, not poppy enough for me. The Stone Roses? Erm no. I rather like the look of Scottish rockers Gun instead. And so to Oasis. Why didn’t I watch this TOTP performance and think “Sign me up. I’m totally here for this”? Was I put off by the Genesis apeing practice of having drummer Tony McCarroll centre stage? It’s interesting to note that the focal point of the group Liam and Noel are furthest away from the stage here. Presumably that was deliberate but it seems out of character. Rather more predictably, poor old Bonehead and Guigsy hardly get a look in.

“Shakermaker” would peak at No 11, considerably higher than “Supersonic” (No 31) so we should have all been on alert at this point to the rise of the band. Although it would continue to sell throughout the next few years along with the band’s other singles (we were still regularly ordering copies of all of them for years), it remains the band’s only single released from their first two albums not to be certified gold.

Another dance tune now but I didn’t expect this one to sound like it does. Crystal Waters burst into the charts in 1991 with the hypnotic house sound of “Gypsy Woman” (“La da dee, la dee da”) but this single “Ghetto Day” (a double A- side with “What I Need”) sounds like something off Betty Boo’s second album. Seriously, it sounds like “Let Me Take You There” doesn’t it? She even seems to have changed her hair to a Boo style bob. It turned out though that the record buying public weren’t too keen on the Betty Boo version of Crystal Waters and, despite this appearance, the single got no higher than this week’s chart position of No 40. To be fair, the record buying public hadn’t been too keen on this Betty Boo version of Betty Boo so Crystal had no chance.

The New Wave of New Wave was a terrible name for a musical movement but then so was Britpop I guess. Unlike the latter, it didn’t live long in the memory either. So what was it and who was in it? Well, it pretty much did what it said on the tin. Bands that played guitar driven rock music that had post punk and new wave influences. And its exponents? Well, one of the main bands of the movement were These Animal Men whose name I remember but whose sound I do not. I’m guessing though that it was similar to S*M*A*S*H who were the first band of that sub genre to appear on TOTP the other week. Initially, there were other names associated with the New Wave of New Wave but as that scene petered out and Britpop became the dominant force, it was the latter that they became known for. I’m talking about Sleeper, Echobellly, Shed Seven and Elastica amongst others.

The only thing I can recall of These Animal Men was that they released an EP called “Taxi For These Animal Men”. So was a taxi required? Let’s have a listen to “Speeed King” then…

As I thought, they sound like S*M*A*S*H with maybe a bit of Menswear thrown in though I think they had a bit more to them than this These Animal Men who seemed to peddle a very specific (dare I say one trick pony) style of music. Host Bruno Brookes introduces them as being the ‘TOTP showcase’ which seems to have been another way of saying “this lot don’t have any hits but we’ve shoved them on the show to prove how hip we are”. “Speeed King” got no higher than No 95 and These Animal Men were done and dusted by 1998 when they split.

The Grid again? Is this the third outing for “Swamp Thing”? Despite this being a brand new performance, it’s basically exactly the same as they did the last time they were on including the rather odd set up for the banjo player. This single was one of a number that just sold and sold that Summer alongside Let Loose, Aswad and of course Wet Wet Wet. I must have sold hundreds of copies of those titles to the punters in the Manchester Piccadilly Our Price store where I was working at the time. One day I served a guy who asked if he could have discount on what he was buying. As there was no valid reason for his request I replied in the negative. He then came back with “I’m asking you politely for discount” to which I again replied “No”. My customer then advised me that he knew people who would come and kneecap me if I didn’t do as he wanted. It was that kind of place. A swamp thing? More like a cesspit of humanity. For the record, I still didn’t give him any discount and nobody did turn up to kneecap me.

Wet Wet Wet remain steadfastly secure in the No 1 spot with “Love Is All Around”. To try and mix things up a bit, TOTP have got hold of a piece of footage from a concert the band did at Wembley that week and show that instead of another studio performance or the video.

In the clip, Marti Pellow has a curious affectation where he twirls around making a welcoming gesture which put me in mind of Stephen Rea’s turn in Interview With A Vampire:

I’d have to say that Marti has a better smile than a vampire though.

The play out song is “Living In The Sunshine” by Clubhouse. The follow up to “Light My Fire”, ah…really though…who cares? Certainly not me.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Juliet Roberts	Caught In The Middle	Nope
2	Let Loose	Crazy	No but I think my wife succumbed to its charms
3	Reel 2 Real featuring The Mad Stuntman	Go On Move	Never!
4	The Boomtown Rats	I Don’t Like Mondays	No but I must have it on something surely?
5	Oasis	Shakermaker	Not the single but I bought there album. Didn’t we all?
6	Crystal Waters	Ghetto Day / What I Need	Nah
7	These Animal Men	Speeed King	No
8	The Grid	Swamp Thing	I did not
9	Wet Wet Wet	Love Is All Around	And no
10	Clubhouse	Living In The Sunshine	As if

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001krcc/top-of-the-pops-30061994

TOTP Rewind – the 90s

My memories of 90s chart music

TOTP 21 JUN 1996

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TOTP 27 APR 1995

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TOTP 26 JAN 1995

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TOTP 20 OCT 1994

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TOTP 10 AUG 1994

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TOTP 28 JUL 1994

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TOTP 14 JUL 1994

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TOTP 30 JUN 1994

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