Shane MacGowan And The Popes

TOTP 13 APR 1995

Posted on by 80stastic

After Bruno Brookes’ valedictory TOTP appearance last week, we’re back to the ‘golden mic’ slot and this time it’s given to Phill Jupitus. Now quite how big a name Phill was at the time I’m not sure. Wikipedia tells me that he didn’t start his stint as a team captain on Never Mind The Buzzcocks until 1996 but that he had his own radio show on BBC GLR. In the pre-digital world, I’m not sure that the latter post would have cut through that much but I’m wondering if I would have been aware of him thanks to my Weller super fan elder brother and the fact that Phill had been involved with the Red Wedge movement of the mid 80s. Possibly. Anyway, Phill would go onto have a very successful career as a stand up, actor, radio host, performance poet and podcaster. However, Wikipedia informs me that Phill has now retired and is studying art at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee.

Back to 1995 though and Phill is doing his best to look excited at the thought of introducing this year’s Eurovision entry which, though the artist didn’t do the business on the night of the contest finishing 10th, is one of the more memorable acts to have represented the UK. Now it may not seem like a big deal to our sophisticated 2023 ears with the hindsight of twenty-nine contests informing our perspective but having a rap / hip-hop group as the Eurovision entry was almost revolutionary. Love City Groove were that group and, as I remember, much was expected of them if not to actually win it then to at least shake the whole competition up a bit. Their 10th place finish wasn’t very glorious but was in line with recent UK form in the competition. Frances Ruffelle had also finished 10th the previous year as had Samantha Janus in 1991. Sure, only Coco in 1978 and Rikki in 1987 had secured a poorer position in the years since the competition’s inception, but given the horrors that were to come for the UK, 10th place would certainly come to be seen as not bad at all. However, Eurovision stalwart Terry Wogan wasn’t that impressed. As the voting played out on the big night and it became apparent that the losing streak that we’d been on since Bucks Fizz were the last UK winners in 1981 was going to continue, Terry grimly stated that “the experiment has failed”.

They may not have brought the bacon home for the UK but “Love City Groove” the single was more successful in winning over the UK record buying public. Its peak of No 7 meant that it was the highest charting UK Eurovision song since Bardo made No 2 in 1982. Indeed, no Eurovision song (UK or otherwise) had made our Top 10 since Johnny Logan’s “Hold Me Now” in 1987.

Watching their performance here, it all looks rather unconvincing like it’s actually a present day parody, sending up mid 90s sounds and styles; even their name sounds like a spoof. I guess that opinion can only exist with 28 years of hindsight though. I’m predicting this won’t be the last time we see Love City Groove on TOTP as Eurovision night was still a month away at this point.

Next an artist who is pretty much known as a one hit wonder over here (although that’s not statistically correct) but is a huge deal in her own country. Tina Arena (not quite her real name but close enough – Filippina Arena isn’t quite as snappy I guess) is an Australian singer-songwriter, musical theatre actress and producer who has sold 10 million records worldwide but how many people in the UK know her just for “Chains”?

A slow building, brooding power ballad with a memorable chorus performed by a strong vocalist with a soprano range, it was always going to do well commercially. And so it did. Going double platinum in Australia, it also crossed over in the UK selling 200,000 copies but then, we’d always been suckers for power ballads. Meatloaf had the biggest selling single of 1993 with “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” and more recently Celine Dion’s “Think Twice” had been our No 1 single for seven weeks. “Chains” didn’t quite match the feats of those two records but a No 6 hit was highly respectable.

Tina did have four more UK chart entries but none made the Top 20. Her final hit was called “Whistle Down The Wind” from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of the same name based on the Hayley Mills film. I thought at the time she must have covered the greatest living Englishman Nick Heyward’s debut solo hit but thankfully she hadn’t. A quick thought on the staging of the performance here. What was the deal with having the backing singers positioned on a separate stage away from Tina? There was plenty of space behind her which Phill Jupitus occupies when he walks on behind her to do the next intro. Odd.

I saw a post on Twitter (I refuse to call it X) on a #TOTP thread the other day saying that everyone had lost interest in REM by 1995. I’m not sure that’s true as most of their post ‘95 albums went to No 1 both here and in the US but I have to admit personally to not following their output as closely from “Monster” onwards. I think a case could be made that those four albums “Green”, “Out Of Time”, “Automatic For The People” and the aforementioned “Monster” represented their imperial phase. “Strange Currencies” was the third single to be lifted from that album but it could easily have been called “Everybody Hurts 2.0” so close is its sound to that previous 1993 hit. It doesn’t mean it isn’t a good song (it is) but I guess maybe I expected more from a band like REM than song recycling.

The video features Norman Reedus who would go on to play Daryl Dixon in The Walking Dead franchise but it’s another US TV show that has a more current link to “Strange Currencies”. If you haven’t caught FX’s The Bear (you can watch it on Disney Plus in the UK), you’ve missed out. A comedy drama about an award winning chef who returns to his hometown of Chicago to run his dead brother’s sandwich shop…yeah, I know that description isn’t really selling it but trust me, it’s great. Anyway, the show has a fine soundtrack featuring the likes of Wilco, Radiohead, The Breeders, Van Morrison and “Strange Currencies”. Such was the show’s impact that a second video for the song was released in June of this year featuring footage of REM’s documentary Road Movie and clips from The Bear.

It’s another outing for the latest incarnation of Snap! now with their hit “The First The Last Eternity (Till The End)”. I haven’t got much else on this one seeing as this is its second studio appearance recently other than to say the staging of it looks very simplistic with just vocalist Summer and two backing dancers for company. I know there was always an issue with presenting dance acts on the show effectively but this does seem overly sparse.

Also looking on the scant side were the band’s album sales. Generating big numbers from a dance act’s albums as opposed to their singles was always a difficult trick to pull off but Snap! had been one of the more successful proponents of the art. Debut album “World Power” went Top 10 and achieved gold status as did the 1992 follow up “The Madman’s Return” but their third effort “Welcome To Tomorrow” bombed out at No 69. To be fair, it didn’t feature a No 1 single like its predecessors did (“The Power” and “Rhythm Is A Dancer” respectively). That kind of makes sense but then how do you explain how 1996’s Greatest Hits collection “Snap! Attack: The Best Of Snap!” could only make a high of No 47? Ah, the vagaries of public approval.

Next, it’s another of those previous ‘exclusive’ performances being wheeled out again once said single has entered the charts. This time it’s for “Doll Parts” by Hole. Did I tell my Hole / Nirvana T-shirt story last time? I think I did meaning I’m struggling for content yet again. Erm…well there’s the influence that Courtney Love has had on inspiring subsequent female performers to embark on a career in rock music but there’s plenty been written about that much better than I could do in my irreverent blog. Instead, here’s an insight to that TOTP appearance from the other week courtesy of @TOTPFacts when Ant & Dec were the hosts:

Wait. What? Another Bruce Springsteen track from his “Greatest Hits” album?! We had “Murder Incorporated” the other week and now we get the second of four new tracks on the collection “Secret Garden”. His label Columbia must have been hitting the phones hard to get him exposure like this. Or maybe The Boss was such a big name that he told TOTP when he would be on the show.

“Murder Incorporated” was never released as a single in the UK but “Secret Garden” was. However, despite the strength of the track, it only made No 44 originally. What do I mean by originally? Well, it was reactivated two years later by its inclusion on the soundtrack to Jerry Maguire which is possibly why it sounds so familiar to me. Either that or the fact that it could be mistaken for “The Big Ones Get Away” by Buffy Sainte-Marie. The 1997 release of “Secret Garden” would make No 17 whilst the “Greatest Hits” album topped the charts just about everywhere on the planet.

And another dance tune that’s back for another TOTP appearance that I’m not sure I have the stamina to comment on. Strike are up to No 4 with “U Sure Do” which is where they will peak. Will that do? No? OK, how about the contrast in performance between them and Snap! earlier? A vocalist and two backing singers on a bare looking stage was all Snap! had but Strike have two keyboard players, two twirling dancers and two backing singers on their own podiums. I get that there’s a difference in tempo between the respective tracks which may have influenced the set ups but it hardly seems fair does it?

The exclusive performance this week features two controversial and irrepressible characters and a song that has a back story that has a connection to one of tonight’s artists that was on earlier. Shane MacGowan (and the Popes) and Sinéad O’Connor were an unlikely duet or were they? In terms of their voices maybe. Sinéad with her pure, angelic vocal and Shane with his drunken growl but in terms of their background and profiles, perhaps their collaboration was inevitable. The track they chose to record together was an old Pogues song called “Haunted” that had originally been on the soundtrack to the Sid Vicious biopic Sid And Nancy which is where the connection with another act on tonight’s show comes in. Courtney Love had a bit part in that film as a friend of Nancy Spungen. “Haunted” failed to make the Top 40 on its original release in 1986 but its re-recording in 1995 and inclusion on the soundtrack to another film (Two If By Sea / Stolen Hearts) propelled it to a high of No 30.

I quite like it I have to say even if the contrast in Shane and Sinéad’s voices is a bit jarring to say the least. The latter, of course, died in July this year at the tragically young age of 56. Back in 1995, I don’t think any of us would have predicted that MacGowan would live longer out of the two of them.

Take That are still secure in top spot with “Back For Good” for a second week. It would eventually sell over a million copies and is the biggest selling single by a boyband ever in the UK.

Such is its influence that it has been used in The Office as the love theme between Tim and Dawn but I think even that is eclipsed by its use in Channel 4 sit com Spaced which also managed to reference the rather wonderful John Cusack film Say Anything.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1Love City GrooveLove City GrooveNot likely
2Tina ArenaChainsNot for me
3REMStrange CurrenciesNeative
4Snap!The First The Last Eternity (Till The End)I did not
5HioleDoll PartsNo thanks
6Bruce SpringsteenSecret GardenNah
7StrikeU Sure DoNope
8Shane MacGowan and the Popes / Sinéad O’ConnorHauntedNo
9Take ThatBack For GoodNo but my wife did

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/m001rk7c/top-of-the-pops-13041995

TOTP 29 SEP 1994

Posted on by 80stastic

I haven’t revisited what was going on with me personally back then in these posts for a while so (and I know this is of minuscule interest to anybody but me) let’s correct that. Two days after this TOTP aired we moved flat. Me and my wife had been in our tiny South Manchester flat for nearly four years and had been happy there. So why move? Well, our landlord let it be known that he had a bigger flat becoming available and we thought we could do with a bit more space and best of all, it was only two doors down! Yes, we were moving from Flat 4, No 47 to Flat 2, No 43 on the same street! This was great as it meant there was no need to incur removal van costs. However, it didn’t eliminate the need to put everything in boxes the same as any other move and that’s a job nobody looks forward to. We asked some friends from out of town to come to stay in the new place meaning that they could also help with carrying the boxes. My mate Robin’s taxi turned up just as the last box went in. Brilliant timing! We weren’t the only ones moving on around this time. On the same day this TOTP went out, Chris Evans presented The Big Breakfast for the very last time after two years. The times they were a-changin’…

…unless you were 2 Unlimited of course. Three years on from their debut hit, they were still clogging up the charts with their brand of repetitive Eurodance beats. The standard criticism of the Dutch duo was that all their material sounded the same and that you would feel like you’d heard it all before. Well, in the case of “No One” that was literally true. It had already been on TOTP back in the Summer on the show that was broadcast on 16th June. Back then it was featured within the album chart slot as their album “Real Things” had just been released and gone to No 1. So what did I say about it in my review of that show?

*checks TOTP Rewind archive*

Well, I referred to the frightening prospect of it being on the show again as I mentioned that it would be released as a single eventually and lo and behold, my prediction came true. I also said that, despite all my earlier talk of their sound never deviating from their original concept, this one did sound slightly different, not quite having the usual 2 Unlimited ‘bpm urgency’. Which it doesn’t. Was that an improvement then? Not really. I stand by my earlier review. Every word of it.

Huge tune incoming though not necessarily a big seller in the UK. After the lilting melodies of “Linger” and the perfectly crafted, jangly pop of “Dreams”, I was completely wrong footed by The Cranberries’ next release “Zombie”. A densely heavy slice of grunge rock that wasn’t a million miles away from “Creep” by Radiohead, it included an almost pained vocal from Dolores O’Riordan. ‘Pained’ is probably an apt word as the song was written as a visceral outpouring from Dolores in reaction to the tragic events of the IRA bombings in Warrington in 1993. The band’s record label Island got cold feet about releasing the track as a single fearing a song about The Troubles would be too controversial and that would affect airplay and its chances of commercial success. However, it had gone down well with audiences when played live in its early form as “In Your Head” and Dolores would not be deterred. She was right too. Although it would only make No 14 over here, it was huge around the rest of the world going to No 1 in seven countries. The album it came from – “No Need To Argue” – was huge too racking up 17 million sales worldwide. The Cranberries were officially a big deal.

A future chart topper now as the trend for reggae-fied versions of classic oldies continues apace. “Baby Come Back” was originally a No 1 hit in 1968 for the ethnically diverse group The Equals who included a young Eddy Grant in their ranks. A cover version of it 26 years later came courtesy of Pato Banton who I’d never heard of but who’d worked with The Beat in the early 80s and had guested on the 1985 UB40 album “Baggariddim”. Oh yes, there was a connection with UB40 just as there had been for Bitty McLean and his chart career. That connection became even more apparent when Ali and Robin Campbell performed on “Baby Come Back” alongside Banton. They even had a credit on the single’s cover.

By the way, Pato was nothing to do with another, much more objectionable Banton – the Jamaican Dancehall artist Buju – who held some vile homophobic views in the 90s that he aired in his song “Boom Bye Bye”. It turns out that the name ‘Banton’ is a Jamaican slang term for someone who is a respected storyteller.

Anyway returning to “Baby Come Back”, the combination of the Campbell brothers vocals on the chorus and Pato’s toasted verses proved irresistible to record buyers and the single would go to No 1 for 4 weeks ending the year as the UK’s fourth best selling single of the year. As we’ll be seeing it plenty more in future episodes I’ll leave it there for now.

After the real thing earlier, here come an act whom I saw recently online described as the ‘2 Unlimited of ragga’ which seemed pretty on the money. Reel 2 Real featuring The Mad Stuntman (they even had a figure 2 in their name like Ray and Anita!) were onto their third hit of a very thin source material in “Can You Feel It?”. This wasn’t just money for old rope but money for pieces of string too short to be useful. Basically a man (The Mad Stuntman presumably) toasting while a woman occasionally sings “Can you feel it baby?”. Just awful. Total crud. Somehow it managed to scramble up the charts to No 13. What was wrong with people back in 1994?!

Now here’s a curious thing. A performance on TOTP that on the face of it seems to be not instigated by the need to promote something. “You Really Got Me” was The Kinks’ first hit and first No 1 in 1964. So why were the band performing the song on TOTP in 1994? Well, the official line was to commemorate the song’s 30th anniversary and that was it. How often though had this sort of event happened though? Never that I can recall. The Kinks (well, Ray and Dave Davies essentially) just appear slap bang in the middle of the show – there isn’t even any caption allocated to them about career sales or anything. Ray did do the message to camera bit at the top of the show but he just told us how TOTP was going to rock us to the bone. Checking their discography, they’d had a Greatest Hits album out in 1993 (“The Definitive Collection”) which was rereleased in 1996 with a TV ad campaign but this TOTP appearance falls between these two releases so it can’t be that can it?

*checks discography again*

Oh hang on. They released a live album four days after this TOTP aired and it was called “To The Bone”. That’s what Ray was referring to in his rather cryptic message at the start of the show! And…published two weeks before this appearance was Ray’s autobiography called X–Ray which explains his off script lines during the performance about having “seen the X-Ray”. And….hadn’t the BBC just launched TOTP2 featuring clips from the archive so maybe this performance was to (indirectly) push that show? All makes a bit more sense now.

The performance is half in black and white presumably to try and create a feeling of 1964 before it reverts to colour during Dave’s guitar solo. Not sure it works really to be honest. However, I do like the way that Ray treats it as a proper live gig by encouraging some audience participation with his goading question “Are you listening to me?”.

Right, what’s this? Well, it’s Eurodance behemoth Snap! but you’d be forgiven for not recognising them. Firstly, they’ve got a new singer called Summer (real name Paula Brown) but then they had previous in that department having already been through vocalists Penny Ford, Thea Austin and Niki Haris by this point. Rapper Turbo B was long gone by this stage. Secondly, and perhaps more to the point, their new single “Welcome To Tomorrow (Are You Ready?)” didn’t sound like them. It’s a much poppier almost lilting sound than something like “The Power” or “Rhythm Is A Dancer” which made their names on the club dancefloors before crossing over massively into the mainstream charts. This felt like they had purposely made a record that could just go straight to daytime radio.

The space age sci-fi video that we see here apparently took three months to make. Some of the spacecraft in it look a bit Blake’s 7 to me but then that’s probably unfair as I’m looking at it through 2023 eyes. Back in 1994, this probably looked, if not mind blowing, then very impressive. “Welcome To Tomorrow (Are You Ready?)” would peak at No 6 but they would only have one more UK Top 40 hit subsequently.

East 17 were never as big as they were in 1994. A double platinum album and four hit singles including the Christmas No 1? Nice work if you can get it! “Steam”, despite being the title track of said album, was the smallest of those hits but the fact that it peaked at No 7 shows how big the others were. After the lighter sound of previous single “Around The World”, this was a return to the sound that made their name – pop/rap with a bit of streetwise savvy heavy in the mix. Watching this performance back though, it all seems faintly ludicrous. They’ve all had skinhead haircuts (presumably to big up those street credentials) but the outfits they’ve got on kind of work against that. What exactly are they wearing? A leather hoody with leather baggy trousers and boots? Sorry lads, you just look silly. At least the staging of the performance was easy. A song called “Steam”? Just have a few jets of the stuff going off behind them occasionally. My old history teacher Mr Cooper who used to overly emphasise the word ‘steam’ when talking about steam power would have approved. STEAM power lads!

Now to a man who is surely only behind Keith Richards in the ‘How is he not dead yet?’ stakes. I remember the Shane MacGowan And The Popes era of the ex-Pogues frontman’s career but I couldn’t tell you about any of their material. And I certainly don’t recall the Johnny Depp connection! Listening to “This Woman’s Got Me Drinking” though, it’s as if Shane was attempting his version of Motörhead’s “Ace Of Spades”. It’s all snarled vocals aside a strident, propelling one chord riff but doesn’t quite pull it off for me. Would it have been a coup to get Johnny Depp in the studio at this time? Well, he’d been in films like Cry–Baby, Edward Scissorhands and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape by this point in his career so he was certainly a name but surely wasn’t as notorious and divisive a figure as he is today. I must admit to not really thinking of him as a musician but he’s contributed to works by the likes of Oasis, Iggy Pop, Aerosmith and Jeff Beck as well as Shane MacGowan.

It’s another week at the top for Whigfield, Now would you categorise “Saturday Night” as a novelty record? I think I could almost be persuaded. It’s the dance that went with it that’s tipping me over. Like “Macarena” by Los Del Río or “Gangnam Style” by PSY. Or maybe I’m being too harsh. After all, Whigfield did have more hits than just this one hit – five in all including a further couple of Top 10s so they were more of a pop act than just a song. Their final hit was an almost unforgivable cover of Wham!’s “Last Christmas” though so I think any credit they may have had is completely wiped out.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
12 UnlimitedNo OneNever
2The CranberriesZombieNo
3Pat Banton with Ali and Robin CampbellBaby Come BackNegative
4Reel 2 Real featuring The Mad StuntmanCan You Feel It?As if
5The KinksYou Really Got MeNot released as a single in 1994 but I must have it on something
6Snap!Welcome To Tomorrow (Are You Ready?)Nah
7East 17 SteamNo but I had t a promo copy of the album from work. Sadly it had talky bits in between the tracks from Mark Goodier
8Shane MacGowan And The PopesThis Woman’s Got Me DrinkingI did not
9WhigfieldSaturday NightAnd 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/m001m15z/top-of-the-pops-29091994