Terrorvision

TOTP 29 FEB 1996

1996 must have been a leap year as we’ve got a TOTP on the 29th February. The day after this show aired, Status Quo took Radio 1 to the High Court over its refusal to playlist the band’s latest single, a cover of “Fun Fun Fun” by The Beach Boys who also feature on the record. Status Quo lost their legal action with the BBC successfully claiming that the group did not fit the demographic audience the station was trying to reach. In a musical landscape dominated by Britpop and dance music, they had a point. Or did they? The album the single came from – “Don’t Stop” – went to No 2 and sold 100,000 copies so wasn’t it Radio 1’s obligation to reflect what was popular? For what it’s worth, I think they made the right decision. The album was entirely made up of cover versions including (and I’ve only just discovered this) their takes on “Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats and “The Future’s So Bright (I Gotta Wear Shades)” by Timbuk 3. I know! What on earth?! I’m almost curious enough to investigate what they sound like but not quite.

The following day, Melody Maker praised Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker for his protest at the BRIT awards two weeks earlier against Michael Jackson’s performance of “Earth Song” suggesting he should be knighted. Although Jarvis got arrested for his part in the incident (with Bob Mortimer famously attending the police station to represent him legally), I think we all know who ultimately came off better out of the episode. Pulp were probably as famous as they ever would be at that point with the controversy taking Jarvis to the front pages of the daily newspapers rather than just the music press. It hadn’t always been like that of course with the band having spent the 80s on the peripheries of indiedom before the move to Island Records and becoming bona fide chart stars. And how did they do that? Via “Perseverance” of course which incidentally is the name of the first song on the show tonight.

Yes, Terrorvision have blasted their way into the Top 5 with this, the lead single from third album “Regular Urban Survivors”, and it’s a stonking tune. Breaking the conventions of standard rock with brass parts and a vocal from Tony Wright that’s ragged and raw sounding but by no means without melody and hooks aplenty, it’s a great way to start the show and marks a welcome departure from all those dance acts and their repetitive beats. A regular reader of this blog assures me that Tony has a very nice cafe in Otley and he can often be seen behind the counter serving cups of tea and slices of Victoria sponge to the local residents or perhaps those rock fans who have gone on a pilgrimage to find one of their 90s heroes. Tony has framed pictures of his lyrics on the wall if you want to get a selfie with some rock memorabilia. Maybe he even has one that includes the infamous line in “Perseverance” about the ‘whales and dolphins’?

Ah! Here’s the dance act with repetitive beats. I knew it would only be a matter of time. Gusto were nothing to do with Chelsea right back Malo but was instead New Jersey producer Edward Greene whose hit “Disco’s Revenge” was built around a loop of a sample of a track called “Groovin’ You” by former Herbie Hancock drummer Harvey Mason. The title “Disco’s Revenge” was taken from a quote by legendary ‘Godfather of House Music’ Frankie Knuckles who described the style of music developed in his club in Detroit thus. If you’re familiar with this blog, you’ll know that, by writing the above, I’ve wandered into an area where I’ve no right in being, namely house music. I’m clearly out of my depth when discussing such matters so I’ll extricate myself quickly.

As for “Disco’s Revenge”, I’d rather have “Rocker’s Revenge and their 1982 smash hit “Walking On Sunshine”.

Whether you like her or not, the dominance of the charts by Celine Dion was in full swing by the mid 90s. With one huge No 1 to her name already in the form of “Think Twice”, she would then settle into a pattern of churning out the hits on a regular basis before exploding again with that song from the Titanic movie in 1997. Within the calendar year of 1996, she would rack up four Top 10 UK hits. No artist would have more than that. So popular was she that one Christmas around this time, the police had to be called to an Our Price store in the region (thankfully not the one where I worked) to settle a dispute between two customers who were locked in battle (literally) over the last Celine Dion CD in the shop with both refusing to let go of it! “Falling Into You” was the title track from Celine’s fourteenth studio album and saw some rather restrained vocals for once from the ‘Queen of Power Ballads’. If only those two shoppers had showed the same restraint.

Next the return of Gabrielle whom we haven’t seen on the show or in the charts for a whole two years. The curse of having your debut single go to No 1 (the only way from there is down) had afflicted Gabrielle since “Dreams” had topped the charts in 1993. Her three subsequent single releases had peaked at Nos 9, 26 and 24. However, she would spectacularly lift that hoodoo with “Give Me A Little More Time”. Just a ‘Just’ away from sharing the same title as the old Chairman Of The Board hit from the 70s (and also for Kylie in the 90s) and ‘a little’ too much to be the name of Whitesnake’s 1984 minor hit, Gabrielle’s song was actually a classy slice of soul/pop with a retro 60s feel. Perfect for daytime radio playlists, it reversed her trend of diminishing chart returns and then some by peaking at No 5.

While she’s been away, Gabrielle has had a change of image with a new hairstyle that also acts as a replacement for her trademark eye patch. She has ptosis, a condition which causes the drooping of one eyelid and has always covered it using hats, sunglasses, her hair and, of course, the eye patch. Did she ever wear it again after this point? If this wasn’t a watershed moment for the eye patch, it definitely was for Gabrielle’s career as this hit would usher in a period of sustained success. Two more mid-sized hits followed “Give Me A Little More Time” before a No 2 turned up after she joined forces with East 17 on “If You Ever”. Two more Top Tenners followed in its wake before “Rise” gave her a second No 1 some seven years after her first. She still wasn’t done as “Out Of Reach” went to No 4 on the back of its inclusion on the soundtrack to Bridget Jones’s Diary.

Next a run of three huge music legends on the bounce starting with Sting who’s beaming in to the show from that well used TOTP satellite location under Brooklyn Bridge, New York. How many times was this setting featured?! I get that the backdrop is an arresting image of the Manhattan skyline but it kind of dwarfs the artist and makes them seem incongruous. Sting’s appearance here isn’t helped by the fact that he’s doing a dance version of “Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot”. Why?! As it’s a designated dance version, there has to be a troop of backing dancers cavorting behind him but this just adds to the feeling of absurdity. Sadly I can’t find a clip of this performance on YouTube. Maybe that’s for the best.

Meanwhile, back in the studio is Tina Turner with the lead single from her latest album “Wildest Dreams”. Remarkably, this was her first studio album for seven years though it didn’t feel like Tina had been away at all thanks to a Best Of collection in 1991, her biopic film What’s Love Got To Do With It and accompanying soundtrack in 1993 and her recording of the theme tune for the James Bond flick Goldeneye in 1995. Listening to “Whatever You Want”, it sounds like it could also have been recorded for a 007 film with some heavy “Licence To Kill” vibes permeating through. Tina does her usual Tina shtick here but as with Sting before her, the backing dancers seem unnecessary. No doubt Tina and record label Parlophone would have been wanting (and perhaps expecting) a bigger hit with the track than the No 23 high it produced but I fear she may have been ever so slightly out of sync with UK chart tastes at the time.

We’d only just bid farewell to Babylon Zoo’s “Spaceman” at the top of the charts but now we were literally saying “Hallo Spaceboy” to David Bowie and the Pet Shop Boys. It seems to be generally accepted that Bowie was not at his best in the 80s. Despite the success of “Let’s Dance” (both the album and the single), pretty much all of his output that decade did not meet with the approval of the fans. However, and I’m not counting myself as a Bowie superfan but I did see him live once, I struggled with his 90s material. “Black Tie White Noise” passed me by with its lack of obvious singles, “Earthling” was never going to win me over with its exploration into the drum and bass phenomenon and then there was “Outside”. Influenced by Twin Peaks, this was a concept album that followed a narrative of a detective investigating the murder of a 14 year old girl in a fictional New Jersey town. Reviews were mixed with some labelling it as his finest work since “Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)” whilst others derided it as pretentious shit. I was probably somewhere in the middle of those two extremes of opinion but even I was definite that “Hallo Spaceboy” was a good single. How much of that is down to the involvement of the Pet Shop Boys more than Bowie I’m not sure but their influence couldn’t be denied. An almost hi-NRG backing allied to Bowie’s unique phrasing and Neil Tennant’s deadpan vocals, the decision to reference “Space Oddity” and Major Tom in the lyrics was perhaps cynical but also a clincher.

Despite looking like a vicar with a stiletto fetish, Bowie is still effortlessly cool in this performance with Neil and Chris happy to literally stand to one side to let the people see the master at work. “Hallo Spaceboy” peaked at No 12 making it Bowie’s second highest charting single as a solo artist of the whole of the 90s.

On February 13th 1996, Take That announced that they were splitting up. It’s hard to recall nearly 30 years on how much of a big deal this was especially as ten years later they came back and have stayed back for a further 18 years and counting but a big deal it was. Infamously, telephone helplines were set up by the government to support those teenage fans that were left distraught and with feelings so big that they didn’t know what to do with them. They had been together for six years or so but only three and a half of those were as chart stars. Was that a long time for a teen-oriented pop group to be around or had they called time on themselves too early? I’m pretty sure that they could have carried on for another album and a few hit singles but by that point they would have been pushing 30 which may have been at the older end of the pop star age bracket. By disappearing for 10 years, they probably gave people the chance to miss them before picking up where they left off and giving themselves a second career. Did they feel the pressure of the presence of Boyzone in the charts as a rival to their popularity? I think they possibly could have ridden that out. After the departure of Robbie Williams the year before, maybe the writing had been on the wall although there still seemed to be an appetite for the group.

To draw a line under what would turn out to be the first part of their career, a Greatest Hits album was released with a new single to promote it which was a cover of the Bee Gees 1977 hit “How Deep Is Your Love”. Was it a lazy move to bow out with a cover? Well, there was a certain amount of symmetry to the release as their breakthrough hit in 1992 had been a cover – “It Only Takes A Minute” by Tavares. The That lads give a decent take on the track with Gary Barlow’s lead vocal a passable Gibb brother impression. Whilst he and Jason Orange have sensible, mid 90s haircuts, Howard Donald has what can only be described as dread bunches whilst Mark Owen has a hairstyle I might have had in junior school! After this single, the talk turned to solo careers with Gary Barlow everyone’s favourite to be the most successful. Little did we know. One person who did seem to be in the know was host Nicky Campbell who correctly predicted a “reunion tour in the next century” in his outro.

Oasis are straight in at No 1 with “Don’t Look Back In Anger”. Of course they are. What’s maybe surprising is that despite all the fuss around the band and Britpop, this was only their second chart topper at the time after “Some Might Say” the year before. Of course they’d had some near misses. I was convinced they would be the Christmas No 1 in 1994 with “Whatever” but they lost out to East 17. Then there was the Battle of Britpop when they were beaten into second place by Blur and of course, their last single “Wonderwall” had sold and sold and sold but not at the right time to displace Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song”. This time, however, there was no stopping them even though it would only be for one week due to the hysteria surrounding Take That’s swansong.

Is there a more Britpop moment than Noel Gallagher and his Union Jack Epiphone Supernova guitar in this performance? What’s that? The Select magazine cover from April 1993 with Suede’s Brett Anderson set against a Union Jack backdrop? Or Liam Gallagher and Patsy Kensit on the cover of Vanity Fair in a bed with Union Jack pillow cases and bedspread? Nah, it’s Liam and that guitar for me. Perhaps an even bigger moment associated with this song in my opinion though is its use in the wonderful BBC drama Our Friends In The North. The final episode of the decades spanning show aired eleven days after this TOTP was broadcast. The final scene showed the character Geordie played by Daniel Craig striding across the Tyne Bridge (and out of our lives it felt like) after an emotional reunion with the show’s other three main protagonists. It was quite a moment for the watching millions at home. When “Don’t Look Back In Anger” came on to soundtrack this scene, it felt almost perfect. Timing wise, with the last episode being set in 1995 and the song at the top of the charts, it felt like the zeitgeist hadn’t been followed so much as tracked and hunted down. It really was sublime stuff.

Oasis themselves wouldn’t release anything after “Don’t Look Back In Anger” for nigh on 18 months as they retreated to record the difficult third album “Be Here Now” by which point Britpop was on its way out making this TOTP performance an even more defining moment in time. As Martin Tyler said of Liam and Noel’s beloved Man City winning the Premier League so dramatically in 2012, “I swear you’ll never see anything like this ever again so watch it, drink it in…”.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Terrorvision	Perseverance	Good tune but no
2	Gusto	Disco’s Revenge	As if
3	Celine Dion	Falling Into You	Never
4	Gabrielle	Give Me A Little More Time	No
5	Sting	Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot	Nah
6	Tina Turner	Whatever You Want	Nope
7	David Bowie featuring Pet Shop Boys	Hallo Spaceboy	No but I did like it
8	Take That	How Deep Is Your Love	No but my wife had that Best Of album
9	Oasis	Don’t Look Back In Anger	YES!

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/m001zqts/top-of-the-pops-29021996?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 08 FEB 1996

Posted on May 29 by 80stastic

OK so the ‘golden mic’ host thing, I get it. An attempt by TOTP executive producer Ric Blaxill to inject an element of glamour to the proceedings, to shake up the traditional format, to maybe spring a surprise on the millions watching at home. So we had various members of Take That and Boyzone for the swoon factor, PJ and Duncan honing their presenting skills for their future careers, a number of comedians including Jack Dee, Phill Jupitus, Jo Brand and Mark Lamarr to add some humour to the links and some names that defied explanation based on performance (Craig McLachlan was truly awful). However, one of the oddest incumbents of the ‘golden mic’ slot was surely the host of this particular show – Julian Cope. Quite why the head shaman of rock ‘n’ roll, the too cool for school arch-drude, a guy so out there that he lives not just in the left field but on the extreme peripheries of it, would be seen as a good fit for a mainstream pop music show is strange indeed.

Now, let me be clear – I like Julian and some of his music is mighty fine (not that I claim to know all his canon of work). I’ve read his double autobiography Head–On / Repossessed and I’ve even attended one of his megalithic exhibitions though sadly it wasn’t the one in the British Museum where he arrived in five inch platform boots and doused in so much hairspray that he set the fire alarms off causing the building to be evacuated. That’s how you walk into a room! He’s also one of the world’s first bloggers dating back to 1997 and has written an ‘Album of the Month’ review since May 2000 and hasn’t ever missed a month. As a blogger who has been reviewing TOTP repeats these past eight years, I utterly respect his commitment to the cause. And yet…was he really a sensible choice for hosting the grand old show? For a start, would the watching youth even know who he was? Yes, he’d performed on the programme some six months previously promoting his “Try, Try, Try” single but he was hardly a chart regular. Then there was his propensity for protest. Hadn’t Ric Blaxill figured out that Julian would use this prime time exposure to further causes that were close to his heart and wouldn’t that cause a problem in compromising the BBC’s impartiality? Predictably, Cope does exploit his half hour in the spotlight to promote his objection to the building of the Newbury bypass in a series of sloganed T-shirts. OK, well let’s see how this turns out…

The opening act, like it so often was, is a dance act and also as was often the case, their single had already been a hit. “Loving You More” by BT had got to No 28 in September 1995 but made No 14 when rereleased the following year. Obviously, I don’t remember this one as I wouldn’t have been interested in it back then. What do I think of it now? Well, it’s still not my bag but I’ve heard much, much worse in the course of these 90s TOTP repeats. It’s actually quite a smooth sound and vocalist Vincent Covello has a decent set of pipes as well as looking like a swarthy version of Marti Pellow. As for the guys at the front of the stage, they look like they’ve just wondered in from a Fast Show sketch. Most odd.

Talking of odd, let’s check in on host Julian Cope and see how he’s holding up. Well, he’s brought his mascot Sqwubbsy with him for moral support. You may recognise Sqwubbsy as he’s been on the show before dancing in the studio audience as Julian performed the aforementioned “Try Try Try” and he also made an appearance at the Poll Tax riots of 1990 (hence his pin badge here). Again, I’m surprised he got away with flouting such political credentials on TOTP. Anyway, Cope manages not to fluff his intro for second act Joan Osborne and her single “One Of Us”. Nothing to do with the ABBA song of the same name, this was an example of a curious trend in the 90s of American female solo artists having one big hit over here and then disappearing almost as soon as they had arrived. Starting as the decade began with Alannah Myles and “Black Velvet”, there followed the likes of Lisa Loeb and her only hit “Stay (I Missed You)”, Paula Cole with “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?”, Meredith Brooks (“Bitch”) and Jennifer Paige (“Crush”).

Joan wasn’t quite the one hit wonder as she had one other solitary UK Top 40 entry but “One Of Us” is undoubtedly her best known song. Imagining God arriving on Earth being a regular person dealing with the trials and tribulations of everyday life like riding on the bus, it was written by founding member of The Hooters (of “Satellite” fame) Eric Bazilian. Its memorable lyrics helped propel it to success but also landed Joan in hot water in some territories who objected to the lines:

What if God was one of us, just a slob like one of us

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Eric M. Bazilian
One of Us lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

Now when I was listening back to this, another song immediately sprang to mind, a connection that I hadn’t thought of at the time. Anybody else getting a hint of “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” by Crash Test Dummies? Well, that connection it seems was deliberate as Bazilian admits that as he sat down to record the song’s demo, he had a voice in his head, that of Brad Roberts of the Canadian folk rockers and that the verses of “One Of Us” share a similar melody to that of “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm”. Hmm (hmm hmm hmm).

The first video of the night comes from The Smashing Pumpkins who are onto their fourth UK hit single in “1979”. Another one of those bands that I probably should know much more about than I do, the bits that I do know, I quite like including this track. The video for it won the MTV Music Video Award for Best Alternative Video in 1996. What’s the significance of the year 1979? Well, songwriter and lead singer Billy Corgan says the song is about the transition from youth to adulthood and that feeling like you are on the cusp of things in your life changing and a new chapter about to happen. That’s all fine but Corgan was born in 1967 so he would have been just 12 years old in 1979, not even a teenager let alone nearly an adult so that doesn’t really work does it? By that logic, the song should have been called “1984” but then that title had already been taken by George Orwell I suppose and Eurythmics who wrote “Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)” for the soundtrack of the film of said novel.

Writing all of this got me thinking about other songs whose titles are just years. Off the top of my head there’s “1999” by Prince, “1963” by New Order but the one I’m plumping for is this whose lyrics include the marvellous lines:

She rocked out to Wham, not a big Limo Bizkit fan

Thought she’d get her hand on a member of Duran Duran

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Jaret Ray Reddick / John Lowe Kenneth Allen / Mitchell Allan Scherr
1985 lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

“We’re sailing high over the Mother Earth tonight. We’re clearly out of our trees” trills our host before introducing a band that would receive more flack and accusations of blandness than anyone since Level 42 were in their heyday. Lighthouse Family were Tunde Baiyewu and Paul Tucker who met at Newcastle University and began writing songs together one of which, “Ocean Drive”, brought them to the attention of record label Polydor. However, not impressed by the calibre of the rest of their material, the duo needed to come up with a surefire hit or risk being dropped. Enter “Lifted”, a feel good soul song that almost drifted into easy listening territory. Backed by a bundle of airplay, much was expected of the single but it stiffed at No 61 on initial release in 1995. Fortunately for the band, they still had the aforementioned “Ocean Drive” track which breached the Top 40 a few months after the failure of “Lifted” making them a bona fide chart act. With that foothold secured, a rerelease of “Lifted” seemed a sensible career move and it duly went straight into the chart at No 4 before spending a further three weeks inside the Top 10. “Ocean Drive” also received the rerelease treatment going to No 11 before the album of the same name became a huge success going on to sell 1.8 million copies in the UK.

So where did all the cries of them being bland come from and did they deserve the criticism? Well, they didn’t do much for me but there has always been a space for lowest common denominator music that appeals across the board but which offends those who consider themselves as ‘serious’ or ‘true’ music fans. I’m thinking Simply Red, Dido, Savage Garden, James Blunt etc. Certainly Lighthouse Family were never going to get high praise from the ‘inkies’ music press who were in thrall to Britpop. Even today, a quick search of the internet unearths online forum comments such as ‘Shitehouse Family’ and ‘offensively inoffensive’. Is that fair? Look, I refer you to my mate Robin who, in response to me saying to him that he couldn’t just state that he hates every single song Elton John has ever recorded, replied “Yes I can. I thought you knew that music taste is subjective”. It’s a fair point. If you like Lighthouse Family then good luck to you.

East 17 were a hit making factory to rival Stock Aitken & Waterman in the mid 90s. “Do U Still?” was their 13th consecutive UK chart hit of which nine went Top 10. They had a formula and it worked for quite some time. ‘If it wasn’t broken, why fix it?’ was their motto to the point that by 1996, they were just rewriting previous hits. This one was almost a replica of their 1993 hit “Deep” which was a great record but three years in, shouldn’t the band have been doing more than just retreading the same water? Well, the record buying public disagreed with me as they often did and sent it to No 7. They still had another four UK chart hits in them of which three went Top 3 so clearly the band weren’t quite done yet but was there more gravitas than we realised at the time to their lyrics to this one of “Do you still love me…do you still need me…do you still want me?”.

With the then current No 1 being propelled by a TV advert, was there room for another such generated hit? Well, yes there was as the Levi’s campaign wasn’t the only one to employ a song that would capture the public’s imagination. The Coca Cola TV advertisements had been hugely successful in not just promoting their brand but making hit records of the music that soundtracked them stretching back to 1971 when the New Seekers took “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing”* to No 1.

* A Britpop obsessed UK would make a hit out of this song when covered by Oasis cover band No Way Sis in 1996.

Seventeen years later, the unknown Robin Beck also hit the top spot with “First Time” after providing the music for a Coca Cola campaign. Come 1996 and it was a revitalised song from the 60s that slinked its way up the charts in the form of “I Just Want To Make Love To You” by soul singer Etta James. I, for one, didn’t know anything about Etta but I’d certainly seen the advert her song soundtracked. The construction worker who takes his shirt off while having a diet coke break under the gaze of the swooning female office staff? Sure you know it. This one…

Anyway, the success of the song meant an appearance on the UK’s premier music show was required so we get a satellite link from San Diego where Etta and her band are ready to go with an idyllic setting of the ocean behind them. Unfortunately, the wind that day was pretty strong and it makes for an uncomfortable experience for the performers and watching TV audience. You can actually hear the wind swirling about them and see the fringes on their leather jackets tossing around. Just when you’re thinking that this is all a bit odd, the cringe factor is turned up to ten when two guys in sailor outfits stroll onto the set in a blatant attempt to recreate the vibe of the Cola advert. Gulp!

Doubling down on the awful satellite performances, 3T (as opposed to BT earlier) are up next from Malibu Beach to mime their hit “Anything”. Presumably they’d closed down a part of the beach to film this as it appears deserted which gives the whole thing an eerie feel. It’s not helped by the weird camera angles focussing on the driftwood. In fact, it puts me in mind of the iconic finale of the original Planet Of The Apes film when astronaut Taylor sees the Statue of Liberty and realises he’s been on Earth the whole time. All that’s missing is for one of 3T to drop to his knees and scream “You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you! God damn you all to Hell!”. The closest they get is when the one with the backpack (maybe he’s got their packed lunches in there) flings it to the ground at the song’s climax. I hope he didn’t have any cans of coke in there; they’ll make a right mess when he opens them.

After what seems like a lifetime spent away from the studio after those back to back satellite performances, we’re within its confines again with, for me, easily the best song on the show tonight. After a run of six consecutive chart hits that all peaked tantalising just outside the Top 20, Terrorvision would break their huge hit duck and how when “Perseverance” careered into the Top 5 in week one. I think it’s fair to say that these West Yorkshire guys weren’t your standard rock outfit with brass parts and almost doo wop vocals incorporated into their songs. After trialling their style in their early work, “Perseverance” was when it properly all came together for me (a bit like with Shed Seven the other week). Some great hooks allied with that memorable lyric about the ‘whales and dolphins’ made this their best tune yet and would also be their biggest hit until “Tequila” made it to No 2 three years later. The fact that it was in and out of the Top 40 inside three weeks just reflected the changing chart life of new release singles and how big the band’s fan base had become. Indeed, the album the “Perseverance” trailed – “Regular Urban Survivors” – would become their highest charting collection when it peaked at No 8 and it would provide the band with a further three hit singles during the calendar year. We might well be seeing more of Terrorvision in these 1996 TOTP repeats.

It kind of seems appropriate that Julian Cope finishes his hosting stint by introducing a song called “Spaceman” at No 1. As the man himself says “It is cosmically correct that this is No 1 so I get to introduce it”. Yep, it’s another week at the top for Babylon Zoo. Despite being seen very much as a one hit wonder (which they’re not), it’s overlooked that their album “The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes” actually sold pretty well placing at No 6 in the charts and shifting 100,000 copies in the UK alone. Some (though not all) of its reviews in the music press were even favourable but history has not been kind with it routinely turning up in lists of the worst albums ever made. If punters were disappointed when they heard “Spaceman” in full for the first time, what were the reactions like of people that bought the album on the strength of the single? The only albums that fall into a similar category that I can think of are “Laughing At The Pieces” by Doctor And The Medics which promised much with the success of “Spirit In The Sky” but delivered very little and Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s “Flaunt It” which arrived in a blaze of publicity following the “Love Missile F1-11” single and was meant to be the future of rock ‘n’ roll but very much wasn’t. Unlike the Sputniks, at least Babylon Zoo had some self knowledge by calling their 1999 comeback single “All The Money’s Gone”.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	BT	Loving You More	Of course not
2	Joan Osborne	One Of Us	Negative
3	The Smashing Pumpkins	1979	I did not
4	Lighthouse Family	Lifted	No
5	East 17	Do U Still?	Nope
6	Etta James	I Just Want To Make Love To You	Nah
7	3T	Anything	Never
8	Terrorvison	Perseverance	Liked it, didn’t buy it
9	Babylon Zoo	Spaceman	I am going to admit to buying it but not for me for a friend who was obsessed with it so she could use my staff discount – honest!

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/m001z96z/top-of-the-pops-08021996?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 16 MAR 1995

Posted on October 14 by 80stastic

I can’t remember if I watched this particular TOTP but if I did then I’m pretty sure that I would have had my mind on something else. Immediately after it finished, my beloved Chelsea were playing a European Cup Winners Cup quarter-final. Trailing 1-0 from the first leg, they were attempting to reach a European semi-final for the first time in 24 years. It may not seem it to the club’s younger fanbase who have been used to continuous success but this was a big deal. So big that I recall turning the TV off with minutes still to play and Chelsea winning 2-0 for fear of a late away goal that would knock us out. My nerves couldn’t take it. I turned the TV back on to the sight of a celebrating Chelsea crowd and realised we were through. It would all end in failure (as it always did back then) when we lost the semi-final to eventual winners Real Zaragoza.

I’m not sure that there’s a musical equivalent of that sort of experience. Having said that, just eleven days after this TOTP broadcast, a single was released that used to almost give me palpitations. Josh Wink’s “Higher State Of Consciousness” would set my nerves right on edge when it played on the shop stereo of the Our Price store I was working in. It literally could almost send me into a panic attack. Here’s hoping the tunes on tonight’s show aren’t as triggering.

By the way, tonight’s host is Lenny Henry as it’s Comic Relief the following day and so TOTP has been hijacked to help with the promotion. Lenny’s links are not especially funny but it’s hard not to warm to him.

Well, there’s nothing to make me nervous about the first artist on tonight. Alex Party are on to their third TOTP appearance I think with “Don’t Give Me Your Life”. If anything, I’m completely bored of this track. However, there is one thing that’s peaked my interest in this performance and that’s the presence of a drummer in amongst all the backing dancers leaping about. A drummer? On a Eurodance hit?! Obviously, they’ve got the obligatory two nerdy guys on keyboards in there but a drummer wasn’t usually in the mix surely? Has he always been there?

*quickly checks previous shows to feature Alex Party*

Well, he wasn’t there in the first appearance but then neither were the keyboard players but they were all on stage in the second appearance; I just can’t have noticed them. I wonder why there was the change of line up? Surely they weren’t looking for musicianship credibility?!

Next up is a group which was never going to raise my anxiety levels but this particular performance was a jolt to the system. A single by The Human League where Phil Oakey doesn’t do the lead vocals? This was out of the ordinary to sat the least. In fact it was more than out of the ordinary, it was the first time Susanne Sulley had been lead vocalist on one of the band’s singles. “One Man In My Heart” was the follow up to comeback hit “Tell Me When” which had rather surprisingly gone Top 10 at the start of the year. It also did pretty well chart wise achieving a respectable No 13 peak.

On first hearing, it sounds like a very one dimensional synth ballad but its simplicity is also its strength. An unfussy vocal from Susanne allied to a winning melody elevates it to something above the ordinary. Even the hackneyed ‘Ooh La La La’ backing from Phil and Joanne can’t bring it down. Sadly though, the only subsequent occasions that a Human League single would make the Top 20 would be rereleases of “Don’t You Want Me”. Having said that, the band don’t seem weighed down by their illustrious early 80s history but rather embrace it. They are almost constantly on tour it seems churning out the hits and have only released two albums of new material in the 28 years since “Octopus” (parent album of “One Man In My Heart”) came out. One last thing, what is that contraption that Phil is ‘playing’?

And so to the song that is the whole point of Sir Lenny Henry being on the show tonight – the Comic Relief single. This year it was no novelty song à la “The Stonk” or “Stick It Out” but a proper composition – “Love Can Build A Bridge”, a big country ballad by mother and daughter duo The Judds. It seems rather unfair but I’m guessing that Comic Relief were canny enough to know that The Judds weren’t a big enough name to promote the single (even though it’s their own song) and so roped in four mega star names to do the job. Cher, Chrissie Hynde, Neneh Cherry and Eric Clapton met the brief and indeed would carry it all the way to No 1.

In his intro, Lenny implores the watching TV audience that whatever we do on Comic Relief day, not to do nothing and that we could at least by the single. Well, I didn’t I have to admit but I would hope that I made a donation. They would have involved picking up the (landline) phone, ringing in to the dedicated number and actually speaking to someone. Cast your mind back even further to Live Aid and Bob Geldof was telling us to go to the post office to get a postal order mailed out. It’s so much easier these days. Just text a message on your mobile to a number and you’re done. Try explaining that to the kids today. Though I’m glad to have lived through the eras I did, there’s no denying technology does have some benefits.

Apart from the fear that I may not have made a donation to Comic Relief, there was nothing about the last song to make me anxious. However, my calmness is under threat immediately from the next act. Be afraid. Be very afraid. The time of The Outhere Brothers is upon us. For reasons unclear, these two berks racked up four UK Top 10 hits this year including two (TWO!) No 1s. Quite why the British record buying public had a vulnerability for unequivocally crap records remains inexplicable to me. There must be a thesis or at least a dissertation in it for somebody.

The first of those two chart toppers was “Don’t Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)” which gained notoriety for its sexually explicit lyrics (I looked them up, they are very explicit). Now of course, the version performed on TOTP was the radio edit (or clean version) with the offending lyrics removed which pretty much just left a moronic chant of the single’s title. However, the CD single included the explicit version as part of the extra tracks meaning many a young record buyer ended up with access to innocence corrupting material. Such was the outrage that it even promoted a question in Parliament (raised by the MP from my hometown of Worcester as it happens). Perhaps nobody should have been surprised given the titles of the duo’s first two singles – “Pass The Toilet Paper” and the delightfully named “Fuk U In The Ass”. Its notoriety probably helped propel it to the chart summit. I know from working in record shops for years that we never sold those clean versions of records by the likes of Eminem. The youth all wanted to hear the cussing.

The performance here is deeply unimpressive. Malik and Hula (they weren’t really brothers I don’t think) are wearing basketball outfits for no discernible reason and there are the obligatory scantily clad women dancing behind them. I can feel my anxiety levels rising. Not because of any potentially explicit lyrics but because with this crap going to No 1, we’re going to have to endure it at least once more.

Next a band whose name sounds like it should strike a note of trepidation and indeed they were named after a 1986 horror film but, in truth, Terrorvision weren’t that scary. However, they did have a rather spooky chart statistic which was that their last five singles had peaked between No 29 and 21. This next release – “Some People Say” – would make that six when it got to a high of No 22. The fifth and last single taken from their “How To Make Friends And Influence People” album, I can’t say I remember it at all. Maybe it was unfortunate to have been around at the same time as a similarly entitled single – “Some Might Say” by Oasis was released the following month and would become their first No 1. Terrorvision never had their own chart topper though they came close with “Tequila” in 1999 which peaked at No 2.

Clearly taking a leaf out of her brother’s book of ‘How many singles is too many to release from one album?’*, Janet Jackson is back with the seventh from her 1993 “Janet” album. Yes, you read that right; 1993. Janet was still releasing singles from an album that came out eighteen months previously.

*Answer: There is no limit if your surname is Jackson

“Whoops Now” was a double A-side with “What’ll I Do” and was a hidden track on the album but was deemed commercial enough for a single release. It’s a fairly unremarkable Motown pastiche to my ears; a bit too cute for its own good. The performance here is an ‘exclusive’ live performance from Oslo and to be honest, Janet’s exhortations to the audience to want to hear them make some noise (or words to that effect) whilst singing a song so slight is almost comical.

“Whoops Now” made No 9 on the UK Top 40 but it wouldn’t be long before Janet was back. Just two months later, her duet with brother Michael entitled “Scream” would go all the way to No 2.

Right, if you’re confused as I was about Lenny Henry’s intro for this next track, it’s because we had forgotten about this Levi’s 501 advert. Maybe watch this before proceeding further and it should clear that mystery up…

…all done? Up to speed now? Great! Yes, after a Levi’s advert turned an unknown song by a fabricated band the previous year (“Inside” by Stiltskin) into a No 1 record, the marketing machine rolled on into 1995 and yet again made a huge hit out of a relatively obscure track. The lucky recipients of the Levi’s magic dust this time though were the latest project of a man who was no stranger to chart hits.

It had been seven years since the The Housemartins had called it a day and in that time, whilst Paul Heaton found mass appeal with the wry pop melodies of The Beautiful South, Norman Cook had turned his attention to the world of dance music. Success came early and in some style with Cook’s group Beats International securing a 1990 No 1 with “Dub Be Good To Me”. There was only one way to to go after that though and that particular project withered away. The ever inventive Cook was soon back in the saddle with his next vehicle Freak Power whose 1993 debut single “Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out” was a minor chart hit when it made No 29. Somebody at Levi’s (or the advertising agency working for them) must have noticed the track as just under eighteen months later it was chosen to soundtrack the next 501 campaign. You can hear why. A super slick soul groove with a touch of funk that saw the bass guitar supplying the hooky riff, it sounded familiar the first time you heard it with Gill Scott-Heron springing to mind. It turns out though that the bass line was appropriated from a tune called “Flo” by Red Holt from the 70s. Though that name means nothing to me, I’m sure Norman would have had a copy of said track in his extensive vinyl collection.

The reach of the advert ensured that “Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out” would become a major hit second time around peaking at No 3 though, if pressed, I would have guessed that it made it to the top of the charts like Stiltskin did a year before. I like the fact that lead singer Ashley Slater pulls out a trombone during this performance but then he had been a member of jazz big band/orchestra Loose Tubes in the 80s. In terms of my nerves with regards to this hit, the only thing concerning me was the potential for an unfortunate typo when it came to the name of Loose Tubes.

Lenny Henry might be experiencing some nerves of his own as he introduces the next artist on the show but they’re the good type rather than the anxiety inducing variety. It’s only his all time hero Prince. Sadly for Lenny, the Purple One was in the middle of his dispute with Warners and so what we get here is Prince pretending he’s not really there. As a way of releasing material outside of his existing contract, Prince used his backing band since 1990 New Power Generation to vent his creative spleen. “Get Wild” was the lead single from the band’s second album “Exodus” and, in line with their earlier output, it’s a supercool funk work out in the style of Parliament. For this performance, Prince has assumed one of his multiple alter egos, in this case, Tora Tora and appears on stage in a gauze scarf totally obscuring his face. If you peer closely, I think you can determine that it is Prince but I can’t help thinking it kind of diluted the experience of him appearing on the show.

In the Top 40 at the same time as “Get Wild” was something called “Purple Medley” which, as it says in the title, was a mashup of Prince hits and well known tracks either re-recorded or sampled. Released by Warners, it might appear as if this was the record company trying to squeeze every last drop of revenue from their artist’s back catalogue but it was actually Prince who was behind the single in an attempt to fulfil his contractual obligations with Warners. No doubt he would have raised a wry smile when “Get Wild” peaked at No 19 and “Purple Medley” spluttered to a high of No 33.

Finally! It’s the last of seven weeks at the top of the charts for Celine Dion with “Think Twice”. There was no rapid descent of the charts for the single though as it would spend another two weeks inside the Top 5 and a further four after that within the Top 40. In total it would spend thirty-one weeks on the UK Top 100. My nerves were officially frazzled.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Alex Party	Don’t Give Me Your Life	No
2	The Human League	One Man In My Heart	Don’t think I did
3	Cher / Chrissie Hynde / Neneh Cherry / Eric Clapton	Love Can Build A Bridge	I did not
4	The Outhere Brothers	Don’t Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)	Hell no
5	Terrorvision	Some People Say	Nope
6	Janet Jackson	Whoops Now	Negative
7	Freak Power	Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out	Nah
8	New Power Generation	Get Wild	It’s a no from me
9	Celine Dion	Think Twice	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/m001r3g8/top-of-the-pops-16031995

TOTP 01 SEP 1994

Posted on May 18, 2023 by 80stastic

OK, before we get into the music, there’s a bit of housekeeping to take care of. Firstly, we’ve missed a whole episode which hasn’t happened for quite some time. Nothing to do with Operation Yewtree nor presenters who hadn’t signed the waiver for BBC4 to broadcast the repeats they featured in – no this was a matter of a technical nature. The tapes for the TOTP shown on 25 August 1994 held in the BBC archive were deemed to be not of broadcast quality and so we miss out on what was surely one of the more interesting guest presenters in Malcolm MacLaren. Despite being a bit of an arse I’m sure, I’ve always had a soft spot for Malcolm and could listen to his drivel for hours. At least he led an interesting life. I’ve checked the running order for that show and I don’t think we missed much. Many acts we’d already seen before including Red Dragon, Shampoo and unbelievably Let Loose again! We did however miss Dinosaur Jnr which might have been distracting at least plus the return of Kylie Minogue with her first new material since leaving PWL as she entered her ‘Dance Kylie’ phase. Oh well.

The other bit of housekeeping is regarding tonight’s host who we haven’t seen before. So who was / is Claire Sturgess? Well, she’s a voice over artist and DJ currently working on Absolute Radio where she’s been since 2015. Back in 1994 though, she was a Radio 1 DJ presenting the rock show on Sunday evenings. She would stay at the BBC until 1997 but only hosted TOTP one more time before being replaced by Lisa I’Anson.

Right, on with the tunes and we start with one that perhaps more than any other (with the possible exception of “Common People” by Pulp) has come to be associated (rightly or wrongly) with the Britpop movement. Think of “Parklife” (the song) by Blur and what comes to mind? Phil Daniels? Of course. The “vorsprung durch technik’ line? Yep. The iconic video with Damon in that tracksuit top camping it up whilst an ice cream van drives by. Without doubt. They’re all woven into the fabric of the time but sometimes I think we forget what a strange song “Parklife” really is. A track where all the verses are spoken in a cockney accent, a chorus that you could imagine Dick Van Dyke singing in one of those musicals he starred in and lyrics about brewer’s droop, dirty pigeons and habitual voyeurs. And yet it all hangs together perfectly to the point that we didn’t bat an eyelid when it was released but instead accepted it as another example of Blur’s pursuit to celebrate ‘Englishness’. Except it wasn’t. Here’s Graham Coxon courtesy of @TOTPFacts:

Graham Coxon on "Parklife": "A lot of people thought it was a celebration of Englishness, but it was actually very sarcastic. [It] wasn't about the working class, it was about the park class: dustbin men, pigeons, joggers – things we saw every day on the way to the studio." #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) May 5, 2023

In this performance, Daniels is word perfect and Damon, relieved of the stress of doing all the heavy lifting vocals wise, seems to be enjoying his freedom to ham it up on stage more than usual. My personal memory of this song though would come three months later at Christmas. I was asked to co-coordinate the works Christmas do for all the Our Price shops in the area. I found a venue and we got one of the staff at the Piccadilly, Manchester store to do the DJ-ing (if you worked in a record shop there was always someone who was either in a band or a DJ on the staff). The manager I organised the shindig with (Rick) was a bit nervous on the actual night about whether people were having a good time or not and especially about the music being played. Our DJ put on “Girls & Boys” which seemed a safe choice but which only served to agitate Rick into shouting at him “Give ‘em Parklife Will, give ‘em Parklife!”. Such was the influence of Blur and that song in particular in 1994.

P.S. I think Will did indeed give ‘em “Parklife” at some point in the evening.

Oh great! Another soap star turned pop star. This time the actor is from EastEnders reviving bad memories of Nick ‘Wicksy’ Berry and Anita ‘Angie’ Dobson. Sean Maguire’s stay in the soap had been short (January to December 1993) but he had been a big hit with the audience (especially the teenage female section of it). It was almost inevitable then that he’d give the old pop star lark a go and here he was, eight months after leaving EastEnders, back on our screens on the BBC’s premier music show. Unbelievably, despite not being able to shift any meaningful amount of units of either of his two albums, he would rack up eight Top 40 singles over a three year period. The first of those was “Someone To Love” and it’s a decent slice of late summer pop which seems to have pinched a bit from Kool And The Gang’s “Celebration”. Maguire sells it well enough and there’s been less likely pop stars (Stefan Dennis anyone?) but I’m guessing that his record label couldn’t have envisaged another six hits after this one. They were all pretty consistent as well. Look at these chart positions:

14 – 27 – 18 – 22 – 16 – 12 – 14 – 27

They’re not too shabby for a soap actor turned pop star. Maguire played Irish wannabe footballer Aidan Brosnan in EastEnders. Hmm. A footballer called Maguire who went onto have a career as a singer. Man Utd’s Harry Maguire as a pop star anyone?

I referenced this record the other week but it wasn’t really pre-planned – it just sort of played out that way. I’m talking about “Endless Love” by Mariah Carey and Luther Vandross. I mentioned their version as the record that knocked Boyz II Men off the No 1 spot in New Zealand but I’d already referred to the Lionel Richie / Diana Ross 1981 original when stating that I hadn’t heard a song basically regurgitated as a different track as I believed Boyz II Men had done with “End Of The Road” and “I’ll Make Love To You” since Lionel Richie rewrote “Endless Love” as “Truly”. I’d actually forgotten that this duet existed until these TOTP repeats aired but exist it does so I’ll have to discuss it. It came from a whole album of covers recorded by Luther called, rather blandly, “Songs” which already had a Lionel Richie song on the track listing in “Hello” but Sony president Tommy Mottola and his then wife Mariah decided that they could boost the album’s chances of success by having her appear on it and so the cover of “Endless Love” came to be. It was a sound business strategy – Mariah was perhaps at the very peak of her popularity with her latest album “Music Box” achieving huge global sales and indeed her contribution helped “Songs” to platinum sales and a No 1 chart position in the UK alone. The single also performed well going to No 2 in America and No 3 here. For me though, it’s a very faithful reproduction and rather pointless and anodyne. I suppose there was a gap of 13 years between the release of the original and the cover so maybe it’s possible there were people out there who didn’t know the Richie / Ross version and so came to it as a brand new song? Or perhaps people did know it and were reminded how much they’d liked the original but in those days before streaming and Spotify, they couldn’t just get access to the song and so bought what was available, the Vandross / Carey remake? I don’t know. I’ve given up trying to work out how some of these songs managed to be hits – and I wrote a dissertation about it whilst a student at Poly.

Next we find Terrorvision having a very steady year of consolidating their success and building their fanbase as they are back on TOTP performing their fourth Top 40 hit of the year “Pretend Best Friend”. And when I say steady, I mean incredibly consistent. Look at these chart peaks for those four singles:

29 – 21 – 25 – 25

A fifth single was released before 1994 was out and it made it to No 24. Their first single of the following year peaked at No 22. Like I say, incredibly consistent. As for the song itself, I don’t recall it but it kind of sounds how I expected it to with Tony Wright launching into a high speed rap that is vaguely reminiscent of “Ant Rap” before the almost shouted chorus. There’s also a bit where it all slows down and Tony wields a megaphone which is all rather incongruous. Good song title though.

After the exclusive of a double live by satellite section in the show last week, head producer Ric Blaxill has gone in hard on the idea by repeating the ‘satellite segue’ (as they’ve named it) for this week. We start off in Philadelphia with a curiously dull performance by the aforementioned Boyz II Men of “I’ll Make Love To You”. Now, my knowledge of the geography of Philadelphia is mostly limited to the scene in Rocky where Sylvester Stallone runs up the 72 steps leading to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the iconic training scene. Luckily for me, I think that’s near to where this performance takes place with the mini stage erected in the Benjamin Franklin Parkway right in front of the Washington Monument. The whole set up seems to be adhering to Blaxill’s stated desire to get the live by satellite slots to feature well known landmarks that have nothing to do with the music per se but which are a step up from the performances in empty theatre halls we have seen previously. It’s all a bit odd though. The parkway has people wandering through it minding their own business or joggers doing their own version of the Rocky training regimen whilst four guys are singing “I’ll Make Love To You” whilst they pass by. Shouldn’t be allowed really.

The second part of the satellite segue stays in America but transports us to New York and specifically to The Bottom Line club in Greenwich Village where we find Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories. Now it might not be recognisable as a landmark like the Washington Monument before it but this venue was legendary in its own right. Owners Allan Pepper and Stanley Snadowsky put on a huge amount of musical talent in the 30 years the club was open including the likes of Prince, The Police, Benatar, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Miles Davis, Dolly Parton….and in the fall of 1994 Lisa Loeb. But who was she?

Well, for someone who is a one hit wonder in the UK (she managed a few more hits in the US), Lisa has quite the biography and discography – her Wikipedia entry is sizeable to say the least. She had been recording music and performing live since the late 80s but it was a friendship with neighbour and actor Ethan Hawke that gave Lisa her lucky break. Having met through the NYC theatre community, Hawke gave Loeb’s song “Stay (I Missed You)” to Ben Stiller who was directing the film Reality Bites that Hawke was starring in and he made the decision to use it over the end credits. The rest really is history. The track’s pretty, folk-infused pop melody proved irresistible to the American public who sent it to No 1 making Lisa and her band the first ever artist to top the chart there without being signed to a label.

Lisa looked a bit like Nana Mouskouri’s hipper younger sister but there was more to her than her trademark glasses. As well as being a musician, she also runs a number of businesses including one for fair trade coffee and, making use of that glasses association, the Lisa Loeb Eyewear Collection with each frame being named after one of her song titles. She’s also written children’s books and done some acting though one of her credits is for one of the worst films of all time – Hot Tub Time Machine 2. If you haven’t seen it and stumble across it whilst channel flipping then heed my advice – Don’t stay (you’ll be glad you missed it).

One of last week’s satellite segue acts are in the TOTP studio this week as Youssou N’Dour and Neneh Cherry move up to No 3 with “7 Seconds”. The staging of this one starts out simple yet effective with a single spotlight centred on first Youssou and then Neneh as each takes the vocal lead in turn. However, the production team can’t have been totally won over by the idea as by the time the first chorus comes around, they’re both floodlit and there’s a multi screen video installation behind them showing the official promo film that accompanied the single. Shame. I thought a more paired back, minimalist setting would work best for this particular track but the show disagreed and went for Youssou N’More.

It would take a braver man than me to start a political rant about this government’s despicable deportation to Rwanda scheme in a pop music blog but I am inevitably put in mind of it by the next song which is “Love Can Build A Bridge” by Children For Rwanda which was a charity single to raise money for Save The Children. If this all sounds familiar but not quite how you remember it then it’s quite possible you’re thinking of the version by Cher, Chrissie Hynde and the aforementioned Neneh Cherry that was released for Comic Relief just 6 months on from this and which went to No 1 for a week. Sadly for the Children For Rwanda single, it failed to sell nearly as well and peaked outside the Top 40.

We’ve reached week 14 of 15 (we missed week 13 due to the broadcast quality issue discussed earlier) for Wet Wet Wet’s reign at No 1 with “Love Is All Around” and whilst I’m really struggling to say anything of interest about it after so many appearances on the show, it seems like Ric Blaxill might be finding it difficult to keep us all interested as well. To shake things up a bit, he’s doubled down on the live by satellite feature and has the band beaming in from LA. This definitely falls into the category of performing in front of a world famous landmark with the Hollywood sign prominent in the background. The end is coming though. There’s only one more week and the story behind it’s demise will be discussed in the next post.

The play out song is “We Are The Pigs” by Suede. 1994 was a year of massive upheaval for the band most notably due to the departure of guitarist Bernard Butler who formally left their ranks on 8th July following tensions whilst recording sophomore album “Dog Man Star”. As if that wasn’t enough, difficult second album syndrome raised its ugly head. Not that the band didn’t make the album they wanted to; they did, but the direction they took confused critics and some of the fans after their electrifying eponymous debut. Many saw its grandiose soundscapes as pretentious and although it sold well enough, it was seen as a bit of a step backwards commercially in comparison to its predecessor. History has been kind to the album though and revisionism has it hailed as an under appreciated and misunderstood at the time classic. When the band played five nights at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 2003 with each night dedicated to one of their studio albums, it was the tickets for the Dog Man Star show that sold the quickest.

As for its lead single, “We Are The Pigs” is certainly dark in nature and tone but it’s still a huge tune. There’s even a bit in it which sounds like that reverb sound in “Peter Gunn” by Diane Eddy and subsequently The Art Of Noise. Do you think that’s totally innocent or knowingly inserted?

The almost post apocalyptic video with burning crosses, cars afire and masked gangs roaming the streets puts me in mind of the climax of The Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes, the ending of which had to be reshot as audience reaction at test screenings deemed it to violent and pessimistic. Similarly, the promo for Suede’s single got little airplay due to it being banned for being too violent. This may have contributed to the track only making it to No 18 in the UK Top 40.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Blur	Parklife	Not the single but I had the album obviously
2	Sean Maguire	Someone To Love	No
3	Mariah Carey and Luther Vandross	Endless Love	Never happening
4	Terrorvision	Pretend Best Friend	Nope
5	Boyz II Men	I’ll Make Love To You	Nah
6	Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories	Stay (I Missed You)	Nice song but no
7	Youssou N’Dour and Neneh Cherry	7 Seconds	I did not
8	Children For Rwanda	Love Can Build A Bridge	Negative
9	Wet Wet Wet	Love Is All Around	Another no
10	Suede	We Are The Pigs	Could have done but 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/m001ln6m/top-of-the-pops-01091994

TOTP 14 APR 1994

Posted on March 10, 2023 by 80stastic

Well, it’s finally happened and it’s only taken just over six years. Yes, this post is my 500th if you combine both my 80s and 90s TOTP blogs. 500! I stopped looking at the word count after I passed the 1 million mark some time ago but it’s big. I started writing when the TOTP repeats got to 1983 which was the year my interest in pop music went into overdrive and the BBC’s flagship music show became unmissable viewing for me. After reviewing that year I really thought I might leave it at that as it was taking up a lot of my time but I persevered and somehow made it to the end of the decade. At that point I had another decision to make. Should I bother with the 90s repeats or leave it there? In the end I carried on mainly based upon the premise that as I’d spent most of that decade working in record shops, I’d surely be familiar with many of the tracks featured on the shows and they might trigger some memories for me. That theory hasn’t always worked out I have to say. Anyway, I seem to be stuck with this what…? Labour of love? Yeah, I guess so. I do love to write but sometimes the relentless schedule of the BBC4 repeats means I get behind and if I get too far behind, I fear I might give up. So I write and I write. Usually between five and six thousand words a week. The number of people reading my posts have grown to a amount I could never have imagined and I thank everyone of you who has ever taken the time to read any of my ramblings. Back in the early days I was getting as few as 17 views a month. I’m now averaging 1,500. From tiny acorns and all that.

Anyway, the TOTP gods have, by happy coincidence, got a rock star guest presenter in for the show that marks my milestone post. Meatloaf was enjoying a massive career rejuvenation following his mega hit album “Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell” and its single “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” so it made sense I guess for him to be asked to host the show. Plus, of course, he dominated the screen with his dramatic persona and physicality and knew how to deliver a line. His first job is to introduce opening act Terrorvision with their single “Oblivion”. Was this their debut TOTP appearance? I think it may have been. They were on as a Breaker for their previous hit “My House” earlier in the year I think. “Oblivion” was the lead single from their album “How To Make Friends And Influence People” which was a Top 20 hit and helped raise the band’s status from also rans to (perhaps unlikely) bona fide chart stars. They were always a curious beast though. What sort of band were they exactly? How would you describe the music they made? Yes, clearly they fall under the umbrella of rock music but that’s a broad church. Take “Oblivion” for example. It’s got an almost doo-wop chorus in it! It didn’t stop them winning the Kerrang! Award for Best Newcomer in 1994 though and you can’t get more rock than Kerrang! Then there’s the way they’re set up on stage with the drummer up front and vocalist Tony Wright on a raised platform at the rear. Sure Genesis had the same arrangement but it was hardly the classic band set up. Despite being at the back here, Wright would very much be the public face of the band even making appearances on the panel show Never Mind The Buzzcocks. With a twinkle in his eye and a cheeky grin, he was sort of like the rock version of Take That’s Mark Owen.

“How To Make Friends And Influence People” would generate five hit singles for the band, all peaking in the charts between Nos 25 and 21. I’m guessing we’ll be seeing more of Terrorvision in these TOTP repeats.

Next a record whose run on the charts feels comparable to the length of time I’ve been writing about these TOTP repeats for. Reel 2 Real (featuring The Mad Stuntman of course) spent a total of 17 weeks inside the UK Top 40 with “I Like To Move It”. Of those, 11 were inside The Top 10! Its presence in the charts started in Feb and carried on until June! Even in 1994, such longevity was becoming a rare event. By the end of the decade it was almost unheard of. You have to admire such durability even if you didn’t like the song (and I certainly didn’t). However, lots of people did and such was its popularity and accessibility that it was licensed for use in multiple adverts. Look at some of those brands that have made use of it:

Chewits – “I like to chew it, chew it”
McDonalds
Durex – “I like to do it, do it”
Toyota
United States Postal Service

Then there’s its presence in the cinematic world most obviously in the Madagascar franchise and of course it has also featured in many a dance themed video game plus it was adopted as a dance emote* in Fortnite in 2022.

* Clearly I only know about this because of my game playing son

Despite the song’s extensive run on the chart, I think this was Reel 2 Real’s first time in the TOTP studio. It’s a bit of a mess, all backing dancer arses and a ludicrous cane being wielded by I presume The Mad Stuntman. Apparently his stage name was inspired by the TV series The Fall Guy, the theme tune of which was a song called “The Unknown Stuntman” sung by its star Lee Majors. Wanna hear it again? Sure you do!

It’s time for another look at that groundbreaking video by Pet Shop Boys next. We saw a bit of the promo for “Liberation” last week when Neil and Chris performed in the TOTP studio with the video running in the background. It takes centre stage this time though and watching it through 2023 eyes it is rather underwhelming. I’m sure 29 years ago though it was quite the event but now it’s like the director was showing off with a new bit of software. That’s not his nor the available technology’s fault of course but inevitably we’ve grown accustomed to ever more mind blowing visuals both on the big screen and in the comfort of our own homes.

The director in question is Howard Greenhalgh who was responsible for loads of pop videos back in the 90s working with Spice Girls, Placebo, Ash, OMD, Elton John etc on multiple occasions. He especially seemed to love working with Pet Shop Boys having directed a dozen or so of their videos over the years. He would also end up directing the promos for the first two singles from Meatloaf’s 1995 album “Welcome To The Neighbourhood”. I wonder if our host tonight clocked the “Liberation” video and liked the idea of working with its director in the future?

It’s just over two weeks to the Eurovision Song Contest 1994 so there’s room in the TOTP schedule for another viewing of the UK’s entry “Lonely Symphony (We Will Be Free)” from Frances Ruffelle. She’s toned down the patriotism this time after she wore Union Jack underwear for her debut performance on the show. Maybe there’d been a lot of stern letters of complaint written to Anne Robinson at Points Of View? They’d probably be letters of congratulations in these current post-Brexit, flag shagging days.

Frances would come a lowly tenth in the contest (though that would have been seen as very respectable in recent years until our 2022 resurrection via Sam Ryder). The winners for a record third consecutive year were Ireland with an entry called “Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids” by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan. However, they quickly became the lost Eurovision winners as the memory that stayed with the watching millions was the interval act. Ladies and gentlemen…Riverdance!

Yes, 1994 was the first time the world witnessed what would become a stage phenomenon that has been performed in 450 venues across the world to 25 million people and made a superstar of principal dancer Michael Flatley. It also, of course, got widely parodied by the likes of Michael Myers and Stavros Flatley but I think this one is my personal favourite:

One of those tracks that I have zero recall of now. “Let The Music (Lift You Up)” by Loveland vs Darlene Lewis anyone? Or is it Loveland featuring Rachel MacFarlane as the single’s cover proclaims? Certainly Meatloaf gives Rachel a name check in his intro. I was never a fan of all these acts that included a ‘vs’ in their title. All very confusing. There seemed to be a glut of them around the Millennium.

Anyway, as far as I can tell, Rachel released records as part of The Family Foundation, Loveland, as a solo artist and most famously LMC who took their Whitney Houston sampling hit “Take Me To The Clouds Above” to No 1 in 2004. As for Darlene Lewis, she was an American soul singer who performed the original version of “Let The Music (Lift You Up)”. Loveland (who were affiliated to the achingly trendy Manchester record shop/ label Eastern Bloc) released their own version of the track without copyright clearance and so, to avoid expensive litigation, both parties agreed to release a version together. Oh, so that’s where the ‘vs’ thing comes from! You live and learn. Despite all that back story though, the track does nothing for me now that I’ve listened to it. Oh well.

It’s not quite the aforementioned Riverdance but there’s quite a crowd up there on stage with the next artist and there is definitely some fiddle playing at one point. The ‘Garth Brooks into the UK’ marketing campaign was in full swing in 1994. After securing a first Top 20 hit earlier in the year with “The Red Strokes”, here he was actually in the country for a TOTP appearance promoting follow up single “Standing Outside The Fire”.

As with Terrorvision earlier, Brooks’s music was quite hard to pin down. Sure he was a country artist but he was no Din Williams. So what was he? Country rock? Country pop? New country? This song has an almost calypso style breakdown in the middle eight for chrissakes! Whatever he was, it was working slowly but surely in the UK. With “Standing Outside The Fire” securing a chart peak of No 28, this was two consecutive Top 40 hits for him. However, this would be the extent of his penetration of the UK Top 40 and he would never again return. His albums continued to sell throughout the 90s but they all suffered from a case of diminishing returns after the pinnacle of the gold selling “In Pieces”. The misjudged Chris Gaines alter ego project was the final nail in his commercial coffin over here. Still, he looked like he was enjoying himself up there on stage in his hideous half blue, half red shirt back in 1994. Maybe he should have stuck with that Chris Gaines moody rock star look after all.

It’s time for the live by satellite performance now and it comes this week from Toni Braxton who also did the direct to camera message at the top of the show this time around. In a continuing theme, there’s yet another gold disc presentation to an artist, this time for Toni’s eponymous debut album. We then get a performance of her new single “Another Sad Love Song”. I say new but it’s actually a rerelease of her first single which got no further than No 51 in 1993 in the UK but which has been shoved out again following the success of “Breathe Again”. It’s all very accomplished and sultry but it doesn’t have the ebb and flow appeal of its predecessor and only made No 15 second time around.

Yet again there seems little point to this satellite performance from LA given it’s just a stage in an empty theatre. Yes, there’s a bit that’s made up to look like a backstage dressing room but so what? I wondered if all the lights in the auditorium were an audience holding up lighters initially but I think they’re just strategically placed lights. The disembodied arms of a drummer in silhouette is mildly distracting (or do I mean disturbing?) but the whole thing is as dull as Toni’s song. Her choice of title for the track was unfortunate given that it left it open to ridicule if you interpreted ‘sad’ as meaning pathetically inadequate rather than unhappy or feeling sorrow. I know my rather indiscreet manager at the Our Price store I was working at favoured the former definition as he told me gleefully “this is truly sad” whilst serving a customer with the single. Oh dear.

Ooh! There’s some new Top 10 countdown graphics! There seem to be in the style of those old fashioned movie countdown images which makes sense but seems a little unimaginative. Anyway, the No 1 this week is “Everything Changes” by Take That which means we get to see the actual Mark Owen as opposed to the rock version supplied by Terrorvision’s Tony Wright at the top of the show. Is it me or does Robbie Williams have a look of Jim Carrey in this performance? Maybe, it’s just the camera angle or his pencil thin sideburns?

“Everything Changes” was the band’s fourth No 1 single on the bounce though that run would be ended by “Love Ain’t Here Anymore” which peaked at No 3. It restarted with “Sure” which beckoned in another succession of six chart toppers which stretched into their second era as a band with 2006’s “Patience” and 2007’s “Shine”.

There’s no play out music this week as inevitably our host gets to perform his latest single. Now, according to your musical reasoning, this is either one of the greatest power ballads of all time and Meatloaf clearly endorses that view with his intro in which he states that Jim Steinman believes it to be the best song he ever wrote; or…it’s an overblown, over long, ridiculously titled Bruce Springsteen wannabe song that should never be spoken of nor listened to again. Or maybe somewhere in the middle. For me, it’s certainly not one of Meatloaf’s best and it does go on rather clocking in at 10:16 on the album and 5:55 in the single edit. And, of course, there is that title. As of 2007, “Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are” is the chart hit with the longest un-bracketed song title at 52 characters.

This sprawling epic supposedly outlines a middle aged man reminiscing about his lost youth via a three pronged narrative using the metaphors of the seasons of Spring, Summer and Winter. Not sure what happened to Autumn. Surely ‘the Autumn of My Life’ is an established phrase? It’s certainly a song by Bobby Goldsboro. Meatloaf would return in 1995 with the similarly ludicrously entitled song “I’d Lie For You (And That’s The Truth)”.

And that’s it! Post No 500 done and dusted. For the record Post No 1 from January 1983 included some panpipe music from Incantation, some utter drivel from Keith Harris and Orville, the theme tune from ET and Phil Collins. Maybe 1994 wasn’t so bad.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Terrorvision	Oblivion	No
2	Reel 2 Real featuring The Mad Stuntman	I Like To Move It	I didn’t
3	Pet Shop Boys	Liberation	No but I think I have it on their Pop Art Best Of
4	Frances Ruffelle	Lonely Symphony (We Will Be Free)	Nah
5	Loveland vs Darlene Lewis	Let The Music (Lift You Up)	Nope
6	Garth Brooks	Standing Outside The Fire	Negative
7	Toni Braxton	Another Sad Love Song	Another no
8	Take That	Everything Changes	Never happening
9	Meatloaf	Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are	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/m001jn46/top-of-the-pops-14041994

TOTP 06 JAN 1994

Posted on January 16, 2023 by 80stastic

1993 has finally done one and we are into a new year at last! After that previous 12 months, things can only get better (ahem). Or not. By my reckoning, just about now back then, I’d have been having a rather heated discussion with my Area Manager at Our Price about me being moved yet again for the third time in four months. I wasn’t best pleased. I’d not enjoyed the transfer to a bigger store at Stockport and was relieved to end up being shifted to the much smaller unit in Altrincham for Christmas. I’d liked it so much there that my wife and I had even started looking at flats there for a potential move from our base of the previous three years in South Manchester. Sadly, we we’re getting way ahead of ourselves. As soon as New Year was over, I was informed that I was to be transferred over to the Market Street store in Manchester where I’d started as a Christmas temp just over three years before. I had reservations about going back as there were still some people working there from my previous incarnation and I suppose I wondered how I would be received returning in a management position. That and the fact that I felt like I’d had my fair share of moves recently and this was just taking the piss. Despite my protestations I had to go, not least because it was in my contract that I could be made to so that was that. What was that about things could only get better…?

So after at least two fairly lame attempts by myself to tee this up in my intro, here’s the first act on TOTP of 1994…with a song from 1993! Yes, it probably gets forgotten due to how big a hit “Things Can Only Get Better” by D:Ream was this time around but it had already been a middling sized hit exactly twelve months before when it peaked at No 24. So why the re-release? Well, D:Ream had bagged themselves quite the support slot for a tour by the biggest boy band in the country meaning their exposure to the record buying public was massively enhanced. A Take That endorsement was certainly a ringing one when it came to the cash tills. The 1994 re-release would go on to sell 600,000 copies.

It wasn’t just a re-release though as it was also a remix. The original release didn’t include the gospel style a cappella intro that was reinstated for the 1994 version which had much more of a pop feel to it as opposed to the more club orientated original. Suddenly there was a buzz about the song again. Perhaps the timing of the release date was a factor with it being New Year and that renewed hope that people have that this will be a better year than the one before, new year resolutions and all that. Whatever it was, the timing, the sound, the record company marketing, it became one of those records that we were all told would be a huge hit and so it duly was. It went straight in at No 10, then No 2 and then topped the charts for four weeks. It spent nine weeks inside the Top 10 and fourteen in the Top 40 altogether. It was a monster.

Whatever its legacy – and the revisionists seem to have decided it was cheesy probably not helped by its 1997 General Election connections – you can’t deny its positivity. Peter Cunnah gives a decent vocal and does a good job of selling it (despite his horrible checked suits) though I never liked its M People style, sax parping middle eight which always seemed a bit incongruous. We’ll be seeing and hearing plenty more of this tune in future TOTP repeats so I’ll leave it there for now.

Dinah Carroll is next starting the year as she finished the last – with a huge hit record. “The Perfect Year” is up to No 5, possibly benefiting, like D:Ream before it, from New Year good vibes given its title and lyrics. As the single is at its peak this week, I’m guessing this could be the last we’ll see of Dina for over two and a half years as she would not release any new material until late September 1996. I feel almost bereft after all the times she’s appeared in the show in the previous twelve months! 1993 really was her (ahem) perfect year with four hit singles and a huge selling album in “So Close”.

Not that 1994 didn’t have any highlights for Dina. She was named Best Female Artist at the BRIT Awards in February whilst her album continued to sell steadily throughout the year and was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize. She also played a sell out tour in December. Then…nothing. She took some time out after suffering from burnout and then record label contract wrangles delayed the release of her new album. By the time it came out, Britpop had happened and the musical landscape had changed. “Only Human” sold well enough but Dina was never as big as she was during her initial flush of success.

Just like “The Perfect Year”, here’s another record that had been around the charts for a while by this point and was also inside the Top 5. Whereas Dina Carroll was never as successful again as she was in 1993, you could make a similar claim for East 17 in 1994. Not only did “It’s Alright” reach No 3 ultimately to become their highest charting hit at that time, not only did they follow it up with another No 3 single and a No 7, not only did they release double platinum selling sophomore album “Steam” but they also notched up their first and only chart topping single which was also the year’s Christmas No 1. Phew! Breathe it in boys!

Now there’s a few things to be said about this TOTP performance not in the least Brian Harvey’s hat which was presumably the inspiration for the 1998 hit by The Tamperer featuring Mya with its lyrics “What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her?”. Secondly, what on earth was it that Terry Coldwell (geezer to the immediate left of Brian Harvey) was bringing to the party here? He just stands there sort of shuffling about. He’s shown up by everyone else on stage – Harvey as lead vocalist obviously, Tony Mortimer on piano and with his rap half way through and even the fourth guy who just noodles about on his bass guitar. Terry, it’s really not alright mate.

What’s going on here then? Why were The Mission in the charts in 1994 with a single that had already been a No 12 hit in 1988? There’s no great mystery really. It was to promote a Best Of album called “Sum And Substance” with the single in question being “Tower Of Strength”. I once spent an afternoon wandering around the record shops of York with my friend Robin who was looking for a Best Of album by The Mission (it may have even been “Sum And Substance”). Why did it take a whole afternoon? Because Robin wasn’t prepared to pay more than £5 for it. He was probably right to be so exacting on reflection.

Anyway, just like D:Ream earlier, this was not just a rerelease but a remix done by producer de jour Youth though fat lot of good that did the band as it stalled at No 33. Perhaps trying to rewrite Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” wasn’t the best career move after all.

P.S. I’m not sure what Tony ‘Friend of East 17” Dortie was on about in his intro exhorting us to listen to the bass sound on “Tower Of Strength”. What bass?

It may be a new year but the Breakers are still with us starting with “Whoomp! (There It Is)” by Tag Team. I could have sworn this was a hit later in the decade than this?

*checks Tag Team discography

Well, that didn’t take long as “Whoomp! (There It Is)” is pretty much their only claim to fame. However, the story of the track is a long one. So, do I need to do a deep dive for a Breaker that we’ll never see in full and only made No 34 on the UK Top 40? I do? You’re all cruel and heartless! OK, to answer my earlier question. This was its only appearance in our charts so it wasn’t a hit in subsequent years via a rerelease or something so that was just my memory playing tricks on me. In my defence though, the song has a life well beyond it chart stats having been used multiple times in TV adverts and on film soundtracks – it was actually remade as “Addams Family (Whoomp!)” for Addams Family Values.

Let’s begin at the beginning though. It started out as a very raunchy rap by an act called 95 South and was entitled “Whoot! There It Is” which led to accusations that they were subsequently ripped off by Tag Team. The latter’s story via DC The Brain Supreme (real name Cecil Glenn! No – really) is that he came up with it while DJing in a strip club in Atlanta with the phrase “Whoomp! There it is” referring to a stripper’s…ahem…derrière. The reaction to the track in the club was off the scale and so DC and his partner Steve Rolln set about getting themselves a record deal. Having signed up to the Bellmark label, a sanitised version which played down the sexual references was released and, appealing to a more mainstream audience than a strip club’s clientele, it went nuclear rising to No 2 in the US Billboard Hot 100. Tag Team were an overnight sensation but they hadn’t cleared the sampled they used in the track by Italian electro/disco group Kano who sued the label’s asses causing them to go bankrupt. The track lived on though being used at baseball games to soundtrack a home run leading to the duo doing half time shows (in my naivety, I originally thought the song was something to do with WWF Wrestling rather than strip clubs – maybe I was just ahead of my time). However, they couldn’t replicate the success of “Whoomp! (There It Is)” and they fell on hard times. DC went back to DJing in clubs whilst Rolln did time for drug offences.

And still their track refused to die and resurfaced in the 2003 film Elf and 2004’s Shark Tale. Sadly for Tag Team, they’d signed their publishing rights away with the Bellmark deal and so only got a writer’s credit. And yet still the song wouldn’t go away. It was used in an AT&T / iPhone advert, an ice cream campaign (“Scoop! There It is”) and a nappy commercial (“Poop! There It Is”). It was even parodied by Beavis and Butt-head (“Whoomp! There’s My Butt”). So, quite the story. You wanted it, whoomp….there it is!

From a song with, as Limahl once sang, a never ending story to one which hardly got past page one. “Time Of Our Lives” by Alison Limerick anyone? I have to admit to only being able to name one of Alison’s songs and it isn’t this one. Surely most people’s go to Limerick tune is “Where Love Lives”? I mean, it was released four times in total being a hit twice (No 27 in 1991 and No 9 in 1996). This one though was taken from her second album “With A Twist” and could only make No 36. Possibly because the record label we’re after a bigger hit than that, Alison followed it up with a cover of “Love Come Down” by Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King. That also peaked at No 36. Oh.

There was a young singer called Limerick

Who tried many times to have a hit

Sadly for her, there’s only one that was heard

It was the four times released “Where Love Lives”

The first hit now for a band who were embarking on a run of twelve consecutive Top 40 hits throughout the course of the decade. Despite spending the whole of the 90s working in record shops, I had no idea they had that many. I’m talking about West Yorkshire rockers Terrorvision who I never quite got to grips with but had a few decent tunes and deserve a better legacy than just that “Tequila” song.

“My House” was actually a rerelease of the second single to be taken from their debut album “Formaldehyde” and the scheduling of it was curious. Why? Well, it was reissued just a few weeks before the lead single from their second album came out. Surely their record company would have wanted to clear the calendar for new material or did they think the band needed a bona fide chart hit behind them before releasing anything else? Either way, it seemed to work. The rerelease of “My House” made No 29 and second album “How To Make Friends And Influence People” was a Top 20 hit (by contrast, “Formaldehyde” had only just scratched the Top 75). That album would generate five Top 40 singles whose chart position’s demonstrated the consistency of the band’s material and their growing fanbase. Check these figures out:

21 – 25 – 25 – 24 – 22

This solid foundation paved the way for ever bigger singles including a No 10 (“Bad Actress”) and a No 5 (“Perseverance”) before the ultimate high of a No 2 with “Tequila”. In my book, this added them to the list of artists who’s biggest hit is far from their best (see also The Boo Radleys, The Stranglers, Suzanne Vega and fellow West Yorkshire rockers Embrace). Lead singer Tony Wright became a bit of a celebrity durging the band’s heyday appearing several times on Never Mind The Buzzcocks and even guest presenting an episode of TOTP.

WHO?! DJ Duke?! Never heard of him! Apparently this guy’s real name is Ken Duke and he had DJ’d in some of the world’s biggest clubs before releasing his own music. His biggest crossover hit was this one “Blow Your Whistle” which seems essentially to be a house beat, a vocal sample saying ‘Blow your whistle’ and indeed some whistles being blown. Apparently Duke went on to work with such names as Junior Vasquez and Felix Da Housecat whilst also going by a slew of other monikers himself such as Roxy Breaks and Underground Attorney. Talking of names, I had art teacher by the name of Kenny Dukes and I would rather be back in his art class aged 11 than have to listen to “Blow Your Whistle” again which somehow made No 15 in the charts.

Next up are Wet Wet Wet but don’t panic as it’s not that single that they released in 1994. “Cold, Cold Heart” (not a cover of Midge Ure’s 1991 hit) was the second new track recorded for their first ever Best Of album “End Of Part One: Their Greatest Hits” which had been a big seller over Christmas. The song features on an uncredited French speaking female as demonstrated visually by the inclusion of a scantily clad woman from the promo video at the start of this performance. Her spoken word intro puts me in mind of “Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus” – Wet Wet Wet do Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg the latter of whom was responsible for one of the most excruciating moments in the history of TV…

Ahem. Anyway, back to Wet Wet Wet and their song which is the wrong side of tedious for me. It never gets goings and even if it did, it wouldn’t know where it wanted to go. No wonder the TOTP producers tried to liven it up with the inclusion of the French lady. Her appearance certainly prompted some reaction on Twitter leading to a rather unfortunate mishearing of one of the song’s lyrics by a user by the name of J.A.Y…

More to the point, why is Marti Pellow singing about "the rectum torn apart"? pic.twitter.com/cSCGciorf0
— J.A.Y. (@DronedLove) January 13, 2023

“Cold, Cold Heart” peaked at No 20 but their next hit was just a tad more successful…

Well this is weird! As part of the celebrations that were taking place in this year to commemorate TOTP’s 30th anniversary, the producers were raiding the archive for some classic clips. So what have they chosen for this first show of the year? Bowie with his arm around Mick Ronson’s shoulder for “Starman”? Mud and that “Tiger Feet” dance? Boy George’s’ gender bending first TOTP appearance? No, they’ve gone for Pan’s People dancing to “Mama’s Pearl” by Jackson 5, a No 25 hit from 1971! Never mind one for the Dads, it must have been one for the Grandads by 1994!

Now, those of us of a certain age will remember Pan’s People, the all female dance troupe that performed routines to hits of the day from 1968 to 1976. Watching them back today, their choreography seems not exactly innocent but…loose? Loose as in not tight and not anything to do with sexual innuendo. Basically, not highly synchronised like we would see today with every individual’s move in precise time with everybody else’s. The classic Pan’s People line up would become celebrities in their own right with the likes of Babs, Cherry, Dee Dee etc becoming household names. I’m sure there’s a scene in an episode of Porridge where Fletch name checks Babs. Eventually the troupe would splinter and be replaced by Ruby Slipper, then Legs and Co and finally Zoo before the whole concept of a specific slot for dancers was ditched in 1983.

We have a new No 1 for the start of a new year and it’s knocked Mr. Blobby off the top spot for which it deserves our thanks. It also holds the distinction of being the 700th No 1 record since the charts started being compiled. For context, the 600th came in 1987 and was “China In Your Hand” by T’Pau. On a personal level though, I didn’t like the Chaka Demus And Pliers version of “Twist And Shout” at all and it seemed to me that it was only at No 1 as it took advantage of the traditional post Christmas sales slump to jump to the top of the charts. That said, it did manage to cling on to its crown the following week before succumbing to D:Ream. It was all down hill commercially for Chaka Demus And Pliers after this. They did manage three more UK Top 40 hits though none got any higher than No 19. Their final two single releases were also cover versions – Robert Palmer’s “Every Kinda People” and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” by The Police. Good grief!

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	D:Ream	Things Can Only Get Better	I did not
2	Dina Carroll	The Perfect Year	Nope
3	East 17	It’s Alright	I did! I did!
4	The Mission	Tower Of Strength	No but my friend Robin bought their Best Of
5	Tag Team	Whoomp! (There It Is)	Nah
6	Alison Limerick	Time Of Our Lives	No
7	Terrorvision	My House	It’s a no
8	DJ Duke	Blow Your Whistle	You can stick your whistle up your arse mate!
9	Wet Wet Wet	Cold, Cold Heart	Negative
10	Jackson 5 / Pan’s People	Mama’s Pearl	N/A
11	Chaka Demus And Pliers	Twist & Shout	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/m001h025/top-of-the-pops-06011994

TOTP Rewind – the 90s

My memories of 90s chart music

TOTP 29 FEB 1996

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TOTP 08 FEB 1996

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TOTP 16 MAR 1995

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TOTP 01 SEP 1994

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TOTP 14 APR 1994

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TOTP 06 JAN 1994

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