TOTP 31 MAY 1990
As we get to the last day of May in 1990 in TOTP Rewind world, I’m just going to have a quick check-in with myself about what I was up to personally before getting into the music. After five whole months of unemployment since I left my temporary Xmas job, I think it was at this point that finally something happened to rouse me from my stupor. I got a call out of the blue about a job! On my last visit up to Hull to visit my girlfriend I had registered my details with an employment agency not expecting anything to come of it. My ‘details’ (such as they were) weren’t up to much. I had very little employment history and very few abilities (the term ‘skills set’ had yet to be invented). And yet, I was deemed viable by the agency to go and work at Kingston Communications in Hull on a temporary contract helping on some project to convert a whole load of info currently residing on paper into a computer format – yes, VDU input in other words. I got the call mid morning and was on the train up North by lunchtime such was my desire to make a change to my husk of a life. This was fantastic – not only would I be earning money but I would be living at my girlfriend’s parents’ home so would get to see her all the time as well. I arrived early evening in Hull and was to start my temporary job the next day. I wonder what tunes were doing the chart rounds to send me on my way…
…hmm. Well, it’s not a great start. Despite it being well over six months since Black Box took the UK charts by storm with No 1 and best selling single of 1989 “Ride On Time”, it seemed that they still had some pull on the nation’s tastes as they are back in the Top 40 with a third consecutive hit single from their “Dreamland” album. This one was called “Everybody, Everybody” and on the contrary to it being so good they named it twice, I found this a rather drab affair.
Proving themselves to be shameless in the pulling a fast one stakes, they are still persisting with having French model Katrin Quinol front the act despite the fact that this was the third single to feature someone else entirely doing the singing. I’m pretty sure that particular cat had been out of the bag for some time as well but it didn’t seem to matter a jot to Black Box. This single (as had the previous single “I Don’t Know Anybody Else”) featured the vocals talents of ex-Weather Girl Martha Wash without proper credit (Loleatta Holloway was the singer wronged for “Ride On Time”). Weren’t we bothered about this sort of thing back then? There was outrage when it turned out that The Monkees hadn’t played on their early 60s hits and similar furore was unleashed when it became known that the Bay City Rollers were found to be less than completely present on their recordings. And what about the Milli Vanilli miming scandal? All hell broke loose when that story found its way into the press. The great Black Box hoax though – not so much, at least not enough to make any difference to their continuing success.
“Everybody, Everybody” would peak at No 16 but we haven’t seen the last of Black Box in 1990 yet I fear.
As the Italia ’90 World Cup is only a few days away from starting, presenter Simon Mayo has jumped on the football bandwagon and is doing tonight’s show in a whirl of ever changing football shirts to highlight the different countries involved. Why does he call them ‘outfits’ to begin with though. ‘Kit’ is the word you’re looking for Simon. I’m pretty sure Mayo is a Spurs fan – I’ll leave that there without further comment. He then makes a pathetically lame line about Ireland manager Jack Charlton’s favourite band being Talk Talk to shoe horn in a link to the next song. Woeful Mayo. Woeful.
Nothing woeful about “It’s My Life” though. Re-released and now a deserved bona fide chart hit, we established in the last post that this 1984 track was promoting the band’s “Natural History: The Very Best of Talk Talk” album, although they wanted nothing to do with the whole campaign.
In truth, they had long since moved on from the sound of “It’s My Life” when they released 1988″s “Spirt Of Eden” which has been described by the music press as ‘ambient’, ‘minimalist’ and as veering towards ‘free-form jazz’ (!!). Crucially, it was defined by their record company EMI as not being ‘commercially satisfactory’ and was the precursor to a legal dispute that would see Talk Talk depart EMI to sign with Polydor. Only one final album called “Laughing Stock” was released on their new label which was regarded as even more musically extreme than “Spirt Of Eden” and the band spilt after that. I’ve never delved into “Spirt Of Eden” nor “Laughing Stock”. Some of the reviews that basically describe them as taking music into another dimension feel like they should be worthy of investigation but I have to admit that the free-form jazz description has put me off big time. Furthermore, I’ve been stung before on a similar theme when I watched the Scott Walker: 30th Century Man documentary. Now I love Scott’s voice and his 60s catalogue of work but boy did he lose the plot big time in later life. Here he is deciding that a dead pig would be the best form of percussion instrument for the ‘song’ he was working on:
In fairness, to Scott, as mad as it looks, it’s a better use of a dead pig than David Cameron came up with in his infamous extra curricular activities.
Back to Talk Talk, and it struck me that the band’s two biggest hits have a very definite existential fixation – “It’s My Life” and “Life’s What You Make It”. As statements about why we are all here and what to do with our time on the planet, I guess they are better song titles than ’42’. There was a cover version of “It’s My Life” in 2003 by US Ska Punk band No Doubt to (coincidentally) promote their own Best Of album but it always sounded like a poor man’s version of the original to me.
Sadly, Mark Hollis dies in February 2019 aged just 64.
Well I didn’t expect to see Sam Brown on TOTP again but a move of just one place up the charts from No 24 to No 23 for her single “Kissing Gate” this week was enough to get her on the show again. I say again but I think it’s just a re-showing of her initial appearance.
It struck me given the time of year (Xmas 2020 if you are reading this way down the line) that Sam Brown’s musical trajectory is a little like that of the late, great Kirsty Maccoll. Both had recording artists as fathers (Joe Brown and Ewan Maccoll), both had great voices, both probably didn’t get the recognition they deserved (certainly at the time) and both had their singing careers cut short – Kirtsy was tragically killed in a powerboat incident in Mexico in December 2000 whilst Sam lost her singing voice in 2007 explaining in a 2013 interview that “I can’t get vocal cord closure and achieve the proper pitch simultaneously. It feels like there are some muscles that aren’t working.”
I wondered if their similarities extended to them ever working together but the closest connection I could find was them being on the same bill together at a Children In Need charity gig in November 1991.
Make the most of this Erasure single “Star”as it’s the last time we’ll be seeing Andy and Vince on TOTP for a whole year. This was the fourth and last single to be released from the duo’s “Wild!” album and its final chart resting place of No 11 shows how strong a fan base they had at that time. No 11 for a fourth single from an album that’s already been out for seven months? Those are pretty respectable numbers.
For me this was the poppiest of all four of those singles and was a throw back to that sound that broke them with “Sometimes” back in ’86. The lyric ‘From Moscow to Mars’ would supply the title of their 13 disc 2016 box set retrospective whilst the song also contains references to ‘pretty in pink’ and ‘satellite of love’.
Erasure would return in 1991 with their third consecutive No 1 album “Chorus”.
OK 1990 – you’ve got me again. Who on earth was Jane Child? Not only do I not remember Jane nor her single “Don’t Wanna Fall In Love” but I’m struggling to see why she made the charts in 1990 at all. She sounds sooo 80s! It’s as if the chart compilers found this track left alone in a locked cupboard marked 1986 and had no idea what to do with it. “Just smuggle it into this week’s charts; nobody will notice” you can imagine them saying to each other. Just to hammer home the point, Jane’s wearing a Sigue Sigue Sputnik ‘Rambo Child’ T-shirt in the video whilst her hairstyle wouldn’t have been out of place on the noggin of one of the members of the aforementioned “Love Missile F1-11” hit makers.
Due to my lack of Jane Child knowledge, I’ve had to rely on Wikipedia to fill in the gaps for me. It turns out she is Canadian, that control of her musical style was very important to her (leading to the press labelling her ‘the female Prince’) and that she refused to appear on TOTP considering the show a “sell out”! That decision backfired on Jane however. After her promo video was shown instead, the single only moved from No 25 to No 22 where it would peak. Jane never had another UK chart hit again.
Time to ‘Get Wicked!’ next with Chad Jackson and his one and only hit “Hear The Drummer (Get Wicked)”. The first time I heard this it sounded instantly familiar and I assumed it must be a reworking of some old standard but no – it was just packed full of samples instead. The ‘deedle eedle eedle eee eee eee’ bit (as Smash Hits described it) sampled 60s soul sister Marva Whitney’s recording “Unwind Yourself”. No I didn’t know it either but here it is in all its glory…
There were loads of other samples on the record from the likes of Kool And The Gang, The O’Jays and even Soul II Soul. Here’s @TOTPFacts with the story behind some of the sampled vocal parts that the guy doing the Bob Dylan “Subterranean Homesick Blues” impression signposts in the performance:
The writing on Bob’s sign looks very reminiscent of De La Soul’s “3 Feet High And Rising” album typography but then as Simon Mayo says, Chad Jackson had worked with the American hip hop trio (on “Three Is The Magic Number” to be specific) previously. Oh yes, Chad himself – who was he exactly. As Mayo* stated, he was a Manchester DJ (real name Mark Chadwick) who had won the annual Disco Mix Club (DMC) DJ World Championships competition in 1987. According to Smash Hits, he’d also previously worked with Public Enemy (presumably hence the Chuck D sample). Like chart peer Stevie V (of “Dirty Cash” fame), he now teaches music technology. His single would peak at No 3.
*Interesting how Mayo introduces the track as ‘Hear The Drummer’ and not “Hear The Drummer (Get Wicked)”. I bet he thought he was above saying ‘Get Wicked’ and considered it naff.
From getting wicked to “Doin’ The Do” now as we get Betty Boo‘s video again.
Just like Chad Jackson before her, Betty had worked with Public Enemy before becoming a chart star when she was in an all female hip-hop outfit called the She-Rockers. After a chance meeting at McDonalds in Shepherd’s Bush with Professor Griff, Betty and her mates ended up having their debut single produced by the Prof and touring with Public Enemy!
Can you imagine that? You just nip into McDonalds for an egg McMuffin and end up touring with the biggest rap act on the planet?! I realise there must be plenty of ‘sliding door’ moments in pop history but as chance encounters go, that’s right up there. Off the top of my head I can think of Paul Heaton meeting Jacqui Abbott at a house party and her going on to replace Briana Corrigan in the Beautiful South and then reuniting with Paul years later as a recording double act. I suppose the ultimate chance rock meeting occurred on July 6, 1957 at a church fete at St. Peter’s Church in Liverpool when Paul McCartney met John Lennon for the first time. However, the technology to record the event hadn’t been invented and, in Betty’s moment in history, she reckons that afterwards she bumped into LL Cool J in the kebab house so for the purposes of this blog, Betty steals it!
Such was the impact of her sound and image that when the Spice Girls were being put together in the mid 90s, the casting advert for the group stated that it was looking for ‘five Betty Boos’. Despite all of this though, if you put ‘Betty Boo’ into Google it will always default to ‘Betty Boop’ so she’ll never be more famous than a 1930’s cartoon character.
“Doin’ The Do” peaked at No 7.
One of the song’s of the Summer next as we get to the climax of Simon Mayo’s football shirt campaign with the first view of the official England 1990 World Cup song. Surely there is no debate that this is the best football song ever is there? I mean, I know “Three Lions” holds a place in the nation’s hearts and you can chant it at actual games but in terms of musicality, nothing beats “World In Motion” by New Order does it? To put how good it was into context, here’s the previous England World Cup campaign song from 1986…
Or how about the one before that from 1982…
and now compare them to “World In Motion”…
It’s a completely different…erm…ball game. The reaction to it initially I seem to recall was pretty much WTF?! People couldn’t get their heads around it. A legitimate band with some heavy gravitas being associated with a football song – why had they done it? It’ll ruin their career. And then when people heard it their reaction changed to something like ‘But this is a pretty good tune – this can’t be the official England song can it?’
Famously, only six squad members turned up to the recording of the song but fortunately one was John Barnes whose once heard never to be forgotten rap in the middle of it is something he continues to dine out on to this very day. Never mind being asked about playing for Liverpool or that goal against Brazil, it’s always a case of ‘Do the rap Barnesy!’. Supposedly Gazza was given a go at doing the rap but it was a complete disaster probably because he was absolutely plastered on champagne at the recording session.
I always felt that the video lets the song down a bit. Not the bits with Keith Allen or New Order in them but the montage of football action clips. They look like they are all taken from an England v Brazil friendly from March earlier in the year and there all fairly nondescript – you don’t even get to see the game’s only goal scored by Gary Lineker, just the fairly muted celebrations afterwards and Brazil are playing in blue instead of their iconic yellow shirts. There is quite a lot of footage of Chris Waddle’s magnificent mullet though.
There’s loads more to say about this song but fortunately there’s plenty more tome to do so as it will be No 1 in next week’s show.
Meanwhile, this week’s No 1 is still Adamski featuring Seal with “Killer”. After four weeks at the top and six TOTP appearances, I’ve very little left to say about this. OK, what about what happened next? Well, we all know that Seal went onto have a lengthy and successful solo career that continues to this day but what about Adamski? Well, he did go on to have another Top 10 single in “Space Jungle” and a Top 10 album with the rather unwieldy title of “Doctor Adamski’s Musical Pharmacy” but despite continuing to release new music into the new millennium and beyond, he has never returned to the UK charts.
Along with “World In Motion” though, “Killer” remains synonymous with the Summer of 1990 for me.
After The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Inspiral Carpets had all been in the Top 40 recently, The Charlatans also scored a chart hit with “The Only One I Know” at this time. Although widely associated with the Madchester movement, the origins of the band actually lay in the West Midlands where they were formed by bassist Martin Blunt. So how did the Manchester link happen? It was after the band recruited new singer Tim Burgess who was from Northwich in Cheshire and then relocated to Burgess’s hometown. Burgess had been born in Salford but lived in Northwich from an early age. I went to Northwich once to see my hometown football team Worcester City play Northwich Victoria in the FA Trophy quarter final. We lost 2-1. It was a very long journey home during which I learned the Mary Hopkin song “Those Were The Days” whose lyrics we reconfigured to be about drinking pints. I had no idea what I was singing about being 13 at the time but just as that memory has stuck with me, so did the Madchester tag to The Charlatans and it didn’t do them any harm it has to be said. “The Only One I Know”, with its swirling Hammond organ sound and Burgess’s 60s zeitgeist nailing vocals, went Top 10 while parent album “Some Friendly” was a No 1 record. Despite struggling to reach such heights with their immediate follow up material, the band really hit their stride in the mid to late 90s (my favourite era of theirs) with two consecutive No 1 albums and some stonking singles like “Can’t Get Out of Bed”, “Just When You’re Thinkin’ Things Over”, “One to Another” and “North Country Boy”.
However, I wasn’t sure about “The Only One I Know” to begin with – I think I was still struggling to come to terms with a fast changing pop world and they seemed like one new act too many for me at the time. I think it’s great now of course.
During the shit show that has been 2020, Tim Burgess has emerged as one of the year’s heroes with his Tim’s Twitter Listening Party project helping to keep us all entertained and sane. He better get some recognition in the Queen’s New Year Honours list 2021 – that’s all I’m saying.
For posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:
| Order of appearance | Artist | Song | Did I Buy it? |
| 1 | Black Box | Everybody Everybody | Nah |
| 2 | Talk Talk | It’s My Life | No but I have it on a compilation CD of theirs (not Natural History though) |
| 3 | Sam Brown | Kissing Gate | It’s a no |
| 4 | Erasure | Star | No but I’m guessing it’s on their Pop! The First 20 HIts CD that I have |
| 5 | Jane Child | Don’t Wanna Fall In Love | And I didn’t with this |
| 6 | Chad Jackson | Hear TheDrummer (Get Wicked) | No but my wife had it on a Smash Hits Rave album |
| 7 | Betty Boo | Doin’ The Do | See 6 above |
| 8 | New Order | World In Motion | Call the cops! There’s been a robbery. This isn’t in my singles box! |
| 9 | Adamski | Killer | No but I had the Seal album with his version of it on |
| 10 | The Charlatans | The Only One I Know | No but it’s on their Best Of Melting Pot CD that I have |
Disclaimer
OK – here’s the thing – the TOTP episodes are only available on iPlayer for a limited amount of time so the link to the programme below only works for about another month so you’ll have to work fast if you want to catch the whole show.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000qcx4/top-of-the-pops-31051990
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.
Some bedtime reading?
https://michaelmouse1967.wixsite.com/smashhits-remembered/1990-issues
TOTP Rewind - the 90s 