The day before this TOTP aired, Chris Evans resigned from Radio 1 leaving his former employer with a huge breakfast show sized hole in their schedule. The tipping point for Evans was station controller Matthew Bannister’s refusal to grant him Fridays off from hosting the show so he could prepare for his Channel 4 programme TFI Friday. Bannister had already turned a blind eye to multiple misdemeanours pulled by Evans during the course of his tenure including turning up late for work, going on a 17 hour bender that only ended two hours before he was due on air and broadcasting tasteless, innuendo-laden jokes. Bannister had already doubled Evans’ holiday entitlement but his star’s continued demands couldn’t be met indefinitely and he finally refused. Evans ego was so out of control at this point that he couldn’t handle someone saying ‘no’ to him and flounced off in a strop being replaced by Mark and Lard. I wonder if there are any huge egos on tonight’s show?
Tonight’s host is Scottish comedian Rhona Cameron whom I’m guessing won’t have had any ideas above her station as she was very early on in her career and was probably very grateful for the opportunity of prime time TV exposure. In fact, if I think of Rhona Cameron, I think of her ‘Sometimes’ speech in the first ever series of I’mACelebrity…Get Me Out Of Here which was in 2002. I’m surprised then that she was on our screens as early as 1997. Her first job is to introduce the LightningSeeds who open the show with their latest single “Sugar Coated Icebergs”. Now, I do remember this one due to its peculiar title but I wasn’t sure how it went until I realised it was the same as all the other ones! Too harsh? Yes, of course it is and as I’ve said before in this blog, I don’t mind the Lightning Seeds at all but Ian Broudie (who always comes across as an unassuming guy and the polar opposite of Chris Evans) sure didn’t mind ploughing the same furrow over and over.
As the caption says, this one was written with Stephen Jones of Babybird and speculation was rife that it was about drugs. The lyrics about ‘sinking deep’ and ‘going under’ do kind of support that notion but the song’s bouncing, uplifting sound undermines that idea for me. One thing I did notice about it though was that its structure did seem to be changed to accommodate the lyrics rather. For example, in the first verse, the tempo is modified to allow the words ‘pointless’ and ‘coated’ to be worked in as the lines they are in don’t scan otherwise. Maybe that was Broudie’s way of trying to shake up the formula ever so slightly? “Sugar Coated Icebergs” would debut at its peak position of No 12 meaning that, excluding “Three Lions”, the Lightning Seeds still hadn’t ever had a Top 10 single despite having had double figures Top 40 hits. When it did come with their next single release which made No 8, it was with a cover version – “You Showed Me” by The Turtles. Still, “Three Lions” did go to No 1 three times in total and not many artists have that on their CV.
Now then, whether this was a case of egos out of control à la Chris Evans or not, what is true is that, just like the recently departed Radio 1 DJ, East17 were attracting plenty of press that wasn’t positive. Let’s try and get the timeline of events correct here. This TOTP was broadcast on Friday 17 January but the shows were traditionally recorded on the Wednesday so that would have been the 15th. Lead singer Brian Harvey did a radio interview on the Thursday morning (16th) in which he advocated the use of recreational drugs and divulged details of his own intake. All hell broke loose as the media got hold of the story and Harvey was roundly criticised – it was even brought up at Prime Minister’s Questions on the lunchtime when John Major condemned Harvey’s words. By the end of Thursday, with the controversy still raging, the rest of the band distanced themselves from Harvey’s comments and he, himself, apologised for what he had said. Come Friday, the other three members of the group effectively sacked Harvey for unacceptable behaviour and threatened to sue him for loss of potential earnings.
All of this occurred just hours after this TOTP performance so I wonder if we can pick up on any tension between the four guys on stage. Remember that there had been doubts about Harvey’s commitment in the weeks before this incident – he’d actually quit the band before Christmas before quickly changing his mind. Rhona Cameron adds to the strained relations by pondering whether the group would split up in her intro. Watching the appearance back, I notice that Harvey is kept well away from Tony Mortimer with whom he had a difficult relationship – I don’t think they look at each other once. Harvey, for his part, looks uneasy with his hands in his pockets for some of the time. There’s also a lot going on in the background with a multitude of other people on the stage including a guy with a weird percussion contraption. It’s as if they were deliberately placed there to deflect attention from the group. Ultimately it would be Mortimer who would leave the band with Harvey reinstated as they attempted a comeback as a rebranded E-17.
What’s that? The song? Oh yeah, almost forgot about that. It was called “Hey Child” and was taken from their “Around The World: The Journey So Far” Best Of album. I don’t remember it at all and listening to it now, it seems like a slight, pure pop ballad that wasn’t very representative of their sound. I guess you could say the same thing about their most famous song “Stay Another Day” but “Hey Child” seems especially twee whereas their Christmas No 1 has a bit more gravitas. It would fall from its debut at No 3 to No 15 the following week. Was that drop off typical of the life cycle of singles back then or was it linked to the furore the band found themselves enveloped in? I’m not sure but I think this may well be the last TOTP appearance of the original line up of East 17.
Following quickly in the footsteps of this week’s No 1 comes another dance remix of an earlier track this time from Lisa Stansfield. Having first appeared in the charts back in 1989 as guest vocalist on the Coldcut hit “People Hold On”, Rochdale’s second most famous resident had gone on to bag herself a stellar career as a solo artist complete with multi platinum selling albums and a No 1 single. Despite all her success, Lisa always struck me as a down to earth sort – more Gracie Fields than airs and graces and certainly no Chris Evans character.
By 1997, she was about to release her fourth album so as a precursor to that, a remix of that first hit was released as “People Hold On (The Bootleg Mixes)”. Behind the remix were Dan Bewick and Matt Frost known as the DirtyRotten Scoundrels whose treatment of the track took it to No 4 beating Coldcut’s chart peak by seven places. Unlike the Tori Amos remix though which totally restructured the original, this one just sounded like a poor man’s version of the 1989 hit to me. Even the video just features some recycled clips of promos for previous Stansfield hits rather than a brand new recording. It’s as if Lisa didn’t want anything to do with it. Whether she did or didn’t, her label Arista included it in that fourth album when it was released in the March as a bonus track. I guess it was just business at the end of the day and the music industry certainly had its share of dirty rotten scoundrels.
The 90s brought us some truly awful dance artists and tracks and this lot certainly fall into that category. Anybody remember NoMercy? They were a Latin American trio who were discovered by Frank Farian, the man who gave us 70s disco- cheesemakers Boney M and 80s pop blaggers Milli Vanilli. And now he was back with an act for the 90s, whether we wanted them or not. I was definitely of the latter opinion but enough people were of the former to send their hit “Where Do You Go” to No 2 in the UK. Yet again, the British record buying public had showed us that they could not be trusted with the nation’s reputation.
The song was built around the drumbeat from the Todd Terry remix of Everything But The Girl’s “Missing” (which they had already covered for their first single) but with some Spanish guitar flourishes, a line from that 60s hit by Peter Sarstedt and a shout-a-long chorus that wouldn’t have been out of place on an Outhere Brothers hit. What a remarkably talented bunch this lot were – and I thought Milli Vanilli were chancers! Like a floater that won’t flush away, the single lingered around the Top 40 for 14 weeks, 9 of them inside the Top 10 stinking the place out. No Mercy? NO! MERCY! FOR PITY’S SAKE MERCY!
Next to one of the most surprising comebacks of the decade. Hands up who had Texas down for scoring the fifth best selling album of the year?
*scans virtual room*
No you bloody didn’t! This was a band who’d only ever had one Top 10 hit eight years before and who last two albums had been, if not totally ignored, then studiously avoided. Nobody had them down for a Top 3 hit single at the start of 1997. So how did they do it? Well, they softened their sound it seemed to me. There was a big difference between the slide guitar licks and pounding backbeat of “I Don’t Want A Lover” and the smooth, radio friendly sound of “Say What You Want”. Their second biggest hit to this point had been a cover of Al Green’s “Tired Of Being Alone” so maybe they took inspiration from that when it came to writing songs for their fourth studio album “White On Blonde” although clearly its title was influenced by Bob Dylan’s “Blonde On Blonde”. Its lead single though was more Marvin Gaye than Zimmerman.
There was another factor in its chart success other than the way it sounded and it was to do with that man Chris Evans again. One of the last things he did before leaving Radio 1 was to champion “Say What You Want”. Given his reach at time via his breakfast show and TFIFriday, this was no small endorsement. However, I don’t think that lead singer and face of the band Sharleen Spiteri is similar to Evans in the ego stakes. Indeed, I once heard her say in an interview that she never has the lyrics to the band’s songs including in the sleeve notes as she encourages people to hear what they want to hear even if that means misinterpreting the actual words. That doesn’t sound like someone who has a ‘me, me, me‘ attitude. Texas would become one of the biggest selling artists of the late 90s and beyond. “White On Blonde” alone would shift 4 million units and generate five hit singles. Say what you want about the band but they had remarkable staying power and commitment to never give up.
Here’s someone with an ego that outdoes even Chris Evans. To be fair to Madonna, how could you not when you were* one of the most famous people on the planet? Was recording “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” on her bucket list do you think? I’m pretty sure playing the role of Eva Peron in Evita was a lifetime ambition. We’d all been waiting for this song to be released from the soundtrack to the 1996 film after a new composition written specifically for it (“You Must Love Me”) had been the lead single. Maybe it was held back for the Christmas market with her record company thinking it had a shot at being the festive chart topper? When it did finally arrive, it debuted at No 3 before slipping down the charts but it’s on this TOTP as it had gone back up the charts from No 10 to No 5 presumably due to the film being released to UK cinemas.
*the use of ‘were’ was deliberate
There was another reason though and that was the release of the dance remix of the track. A dance remix you say? Of “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina”? Who knew? Well, not me and I was working in a record shop at the time so either I never sold a copy of it or I’ve completely forgotten about it. Either is possible. Want to hear it? Yeah you do…
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I just didn’t get why the Backstreet Boys were so popular. I accept that I was in the minority in this opinion; their huge sales here and in America can’t be argued with and even the press had a lot of nice things to say about them but I thought they were tosh. Were they good looking (surely a pre-requisite for a boy band)? Not so you’d notice apart from maybe the blonde one. Were their songs any good? Look, I know the answer to that is going to be subjective but they sounded so pedestrian to me. Take “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)” for example. It’s just a constant, one paced backbeat throughout that never goes anywhere. And why the need for the brackets in the title? Look, I know they didn’t write the song so they had no input into that particular decision but not writing your own material isn’t a tick in the plus column. Maybe they’ll liven up a bit when we get to their later hits. I won’t hold my breath though.
Now here’s a great song from a band who enjoyed massive success in the latter part of the decade but this track – “Nancy Boy” – is the only one of theirs that is permanently deposited in my brain bank. Placebo had already released four singles up to this point but their only Top 40 success thus far had been No 30 hit “Teenage Angst”. However, they had come to the attention of one David Bowie who invited the band to open for him on some live dates in 1996 and subsequently to perform at his 50th birthday celebration at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The endorsement of such a legendary figure couldn’t help but raise their profile and “Nancy Boy” duly became a No 4 smash when released in early 1997.
A jagged, brooding and bruising song, it was also very sexual in its nature and according to lead singer Brian Molko, had been written to “capture a kind of drug induced sexual rush”. Perhaps not the standard message behind a big hit when the charts were populated by the likes of Backstreet Boys, No Mercy and Madonna singing Andrew Lloyd Webber songs. I guess though that Placebo weren’t your average band. Molko’s androgynous image in particular (which was similar to Jas Mann’s from Babylon Zoo) attracted attention (not all of it welcome) as they sort to rebel against the laddishness of Britpop culture. Talking of which, I always assumed Placebo were a US band but they formed in London and Molko was born in Belgium though his father was American.
In an interesting parallel with the storm engulfing East 17 at the time, Molko would give an interview to Kerrang magazine in this year where he said the only drug on the planet he hadn’t tried was heroin before later admitting he’d had that too. I don’t recall nationwide outrage to that confession like Harvey’s interview generated but then maybe the two incidents aren’t comparable. East 17, for all their ‘street’ claims were still a boy band and boy bands weren’t meant to behave in the way Harvey had admitted to. Molko was openly bisexual and had a counter culture image. Was it a case of dismissing him as ‘other’ and therefore anything he did or said would be perceived within those preconceptions? Whatever the truth, we’ll be seeing much more of Placebo in future TOTP repeats.
Tori Amos is No 1 with “Professional Widow (It’s Got To Be Big)” although really all the plaudits should have gone to Armand van Helden as the remixer responsible for this creation. Interestingly, the other dance remix in the charts featured on this show earlier does give equal billing to the remix team and the original artist as “People Hold On” is credited to Lisa Stansfield versus the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Was this a case of record label interference or that theme that we started the post with – artist ego?
Order of appearance
Artist
Title
Did I buy it?
1
Lightning Seeds
Sugar Coated Icebergs
Nope
2
East 17
Hey Child
I did not
3
Lisa Stansfield versus the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
People Hold On
Nah
4
No Mercy
Where Do You Go
Hell no
5
Texas
Say What You Want
No but I had a promo copy of the album
6
Madonna
Don’t Cry For Me Argentina
Negative
7
Backstreet Boys
Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)
Never
8
Placebo
Nancy Boy
No but I think I had it on one of those Best Album Ever compilations
9
Tori Amos
Professional Widow (It’s Got To Be Big)
Liked it, didn’t buy it
Disclaimer
I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).
All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.
You don’t hear much about him these days but for a while there as the 80s turned into the 90s, Nigel Kennedy was quite the big deal. Tearing up the classical music manual with his appearance, style and attitude, he challenged the predominant perception of what that art form was and who it was for and found himself catapulted into the mainstream by the success of his “Vivaldi: The Four Seasons” album which topped the classical music chart for over a year selling three million copies in the process. What with Kennedy and the extraordinary popularity of The Three Tenors off the back of Italia ‘90, classical music was suddenly accessible to the masses. Our Nige wasn’t to everyone’s taste though. In 1991, he was denounced by the then Controller of BBC Radio 3 John Drummond as being “a Liberace for the nineties”* who went on to criticise his “ludicrous”* clothes and mocked his accent as being “self invented”*. Kennedy responded calling Drummond “pompous”* and of “encouraging exclusivity”* within classical music.
*All quotes taken from Paul Kelso article: Kennedyhitsbackatartselitism, The Guardian, Wed 30 August 2000
Whichever side of the argument you find yourself on, none of it explains what Kennedy was doing on our screens in 1996 presenting TOTP does it? Was his profile still so high a good five years on from his “Four Seasons” heyday? His Wikipedia page says that in 1992, he’d announced that he was leaving classical music and he made an album with the marvellous Stephen Duffy called “Music In Colours” which was interesting though I found Nigel’s bits fairly unlistenable. However, by the middle of the decade he’d returned to the work of international classical concerts and just a few months after this TOTP appearance, he received an award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music at the BRITS so maybe he was in the ascendancy again? Anyway, let’s see how he does in the role of presenter…
Straight off the bat, Kennedy (who just introduces himself as ‘Nigel’) weirds us all out with his hair. What. The. F**k.? He has an enormous, towering Mohican fin protruding from the top of his head! Is it real?! If it is, how much product did it take to get it to stand on end like that?! Back in my youth in the 80s, I had ‘big’ hair (didn’t we all?) and would get through cans of Cossack hairspray in the pursuit of trying to get my bonce to look like Morten Harket’s coiffured locks but this was next level stuff. Pure madness and that’s also a phrase that could describe what was happening with the opening act TheBooRadleys at this time. Having broken through to the mainstream with hit single “Wake Up Boo!” and No 1 album “Wake Up!”, the band allegedly decided that all this pop star stuff wasn’t really for them and so made a follow up album that would alienate all those Johnny-come-lately fans (of whom I was one) in the form of “C’mon Kids”. At least, that’s how the story goes but it’s been denied by lead singer Sice that the band deliberately recorded new material designed to kill their previous pop vibe.
I’d bought and been a big fan of the “Wake Up” album but somehow my interest in The Boo Radleys had waned by the time “C’mon Kids” came out and the only songs from it I know are the singles “What’s In The Box (See Whatcha Got)” and the title track. Those who had listened to it included the music press and they were mainly lukewarm in their reaction, with the main takeaway being that the band had committed commercial suicide. Certainly it didn’t sell any where near as much as its predecessor peaking at No 20 but I quite like the singles from it so maybe I should give it a chance nearly 30 years on from its release. After all, it does have some fans within the music industry – Nicky Wire of the Manic Street Preachers said he listened to little else for a year whilst Tom White of The Electric Soft Parade names it as his favourite album ever. Perhaps its greatest accolade though is that supposedly Radiohead went back to the drawing board after hearing it during the “OK Computer” sessions.
“C’mon Kids” the song is nothing like their most well known tune being much more of a harder sound with fuzzy, squalling guitars and an almost shouted vocal from Sice. Jangly, bouncing pop it wasn’t but then why should the band have been expected to come up with “Wale Up Boo! (Part II)”?! They would stay together for another album before the 90s were up before disbanding though some of the members reformed in 2020 and have released two albums of new material since.
I’ve got to comment on a Montell Jordan song that isn’t “This Is How We Do It”? Who knew he even had any other hits? Well, he did and this one is called “I Like” and was the third of five he had in the UK. Watching this back, I’m struck by how lacking in substance it is. There’s hardly anything to it at all which is not helping me in my struggle to find something to say about it. I guess I could mention the lyrics that are so hackneyed that Montell might as well have just called the song ‘Black Cab’ and be done with it. Hackneyed? Hackney? Hackney carriage? Oh please yourselves! Anyway, the lyrics are terrible – ‘lips’ are rhymed with ‘hips’ , ‘walk’ with ‘talk’ and Montell even says “You’re so sexy” at one point. Couldn’t he have just been happy with having the one hit that sustained? After all, “This Is How We Do It” has endured to the point that it’s currently being used to soundtrack a Deliveroo advert.
Kennedy fluffs his lines a bit next as he plugs TOTP2 by saying “By the way, you’ve got to check out this amazing unforeseen…unseen footage of the Stones on Top of the Pops 2”. Probably hard to check out something unforeseen but I’m being harsh on poor Nige, he was just nervous no doubt. And so he should have been, so we all should have been for Mark Morrison has returned with his third hit of the year “Trippin’” and if The Mack is back then that means only one thing – he’ll have his handcuffs with him! I could never understand the appeal of this guy – neither his music nor his image and judging by all his run ins with the law, he was hardly a stand up guy. In the lyrics to “Trippin’”, he starts referring to himself in the third person and there is no bigger indicator of being a massive prick than that! He would crank out another hit before the end of the calendar year called “Horny” and follow it up in 1997 with one called “Moan & Groan”. Delightful.
There follows a really strange segue where immediately after Mark Morrison finishes we just get the voice of Nigel Kennedy (he’s not seen at all) saying “And here is Celine…*big pause*…Dion” before the screen fades and the video for “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” starts playing. Why wasn’t he in shot and why the large pause? Maybe the camera couldn’t accommodate his huge Mohican hairstyle. Anyway, it is Celine Dion and unlike the other week when we got six minutes worth of the promo, mercifully we only get half that amount this time around. In an interview with the director Nigel Dick, he effused about what a hard worker Celine is and mentioned that he made her run across gravel barefoot for a scene five times until he was happy with the shot. Celine didn’t complain but came to the shoot the next day with her feet in bandages. Fair play to her though I would do the same just to never have to watch this video again.
Nigel is back with us visually now and asking the question why we’ve never seen the next artist on TV before despite them having sold 20 million records. Who is he talking about? It’s Bally Sagoo who I must admit to not being aware of despite this hit “Dil Cheez (My Heart…)” and despite working in a record shop at the time it was in the charts. Having read up on him, my embarrassment of not knowing who he is has multiplied as he really is a big deal. In his early days he was a DJ in Birmingham but he wasn’t spinning the latest chart sounds. No, he was creating his own mixtapes fusing together elements of Western music and hip hop with Indian music. He signed with local record label Oriental Star Agencies as an in house producer collaborating with the likes of Qawwali superstar Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan before signing to Sony Records in his own right. His reworking of an Asha Bhosle song would be played on Radio 1 making him the first Indian artist to achieve national mainstream radio airplay. He then released the album “Rising From The East” which would spend a week in the UK album chart and furnish two Top 40 singles including “Dil Cheez (My Heart)”. Having broken through the glass ceiling, he went stratospheric in terms of exposure by supporting Michael Jackson on the HIStory World Tour. From there he launched his own record label showcasing both his material and other new artists and in 2003 was honoured at the UK Asian Awards with the inaugural trophy for outstanding achievement (presented to him by the Spice Girls no less). His music can be found in films like BendItLikeBeckham and MonsoonWedding and he has diversified into areas such as film production, artist promotion and management, fashion and technology. Like I said, he’s quite the mover and shaker.
Back to Nigel’s original question about why we’d never seen Bally Sagoo on TV before, I guess it was because there had traditionally been so few UK hit singles that had an Asian influence and sound to them and if they weren’t chart hits the they wouldn’t have been on TOTP. There’s a few exceptions like “Ever So Lonely” by Monsoon in 1982 and are we counting “Im Nin’alu” by Israeli singer Ofra Haza from 1988? By the 90s things were starting to change with the likes of Apache Indian bringing Bhangramuffin to the Top 40 and in 1998, Cornershop took “Brimful Of Asha” to No 1. In these TOTP repeats, we’re not far off from Kula Shaker having a hit with a song sung entirely in Sanskrit in “Govinda”. More recently, there has been the rise of K-pop (which I know barely anything about) and of course the global phenomenon that was “Gangnam Style” by Psy. From the world of film, “Jai Ho” won an Oscar for Best Original Song after soundtracking that memorable dance sequence in Slumdog Millionaire. Finally, in 2023, Diljit Dosanjh became the first Punjabi artist to perform at the Coachella music festival. And I haven’t even mentioned Bollywood…
Nigel’s Mohican is starting to wilt under those studio lights and has flopped on one side. Also suffering a malfunction is the show’s running order as we don’t get to see the advertised ‘Flashback’ feature which was John Travolta and Olivia Newton John doing “Summer Nights” from Grease. Presumably it was cut for reasons of timing to fit in with BBC4’s Friday night schedule. So do I have to review this or not? Look, we all know this song and the film it comes from. I don’t need to make anymore comment on it do I? No I don’t.
Next up is a song that I definitely know but I may have struggled to name the artist behind it. Without looking it up or watching this TOTP repeat, I might have come up with Another Level but I think I would have been confusing “Freak Me” with this song which is “No Diggity” by Blackstreet. Oh, hang on. The album it was taken from was called “Another Level”? Ah well, then my mistake is perhaps forgivable. Perhaps not though as this track was an American No 1 and was the single that knocked “Macarena” off the top of the charts after it had been there for nine weeks. It’s yet another R&B number on this particular show following Montell Jordan and Mark Morrison earlier and also features Dr.Dre (nearly forgot about him) and Queen Pen. It’s come to be recognised as perhaps the definitive New Jack Swing song thanks to the creative input of Blackstreet founder member and lead vocalist Teddy Riley, the man credited with creating the genre. Did I like it? Not really though its title and hook have remained with me all these years. Apparently ‘no diggity’ means ‘no doubt’ but sadly for Nigel Kennedy, he fluffs his lines again and repeats the word ‘diggity’ for no reason and is left with ‘no dignity’.
After the huge success of “Three Lions” with Baddiel and Skinner over the Summer of football, it was back to the day job for Ian Broudie and the LightningSeeds with another knockabout bit of pop fluff to promote. It may have seemed like an age ago but their last non-football related single had been “Ready Or Not” which had been released way back in February. It was the lead track from the “Dizzy Heights” album but that would not appear until the November after the recording of it was delayed to allow Broudie to concentrate on the “Three Lions” project so effectively “What If” became the lead single.
I have to say it’s not one of their strongest songs (despite being co-written by the wonderful and much missed Terry Hall) and the performance of it here demonstrates that Broudie is not the owner of the most powerful voice in pop. It actually reminds me of something else which I think is this by Sean Maguire and that’s not a good thing by the way…
By strange pop coincidence, there was actually a Lightning Seeds song in the Top 40 in this very week which went under the radar. The cover of “All I Want” from their first album by Susanna Hoffs is actually rather lovely and was at No 32 in the UK Top 40 at the time of this Lightning Seeds performance.
Having not heard it in ages, I’d forgotten what a good song “6 Underground” by SneakerPimps is. Pigeonholed in the music press as a cross between Portishead and Garbage, they looked to have the world at their feet but they never seems to be able to go beyond that first flush of success with their debut album “Becoming X”. Maybe it was all the remixes that the band had done of “6 Underground” that seemed to keep them anchored in those initial recordings (there was even an official remix album released called “Becoming Remixed” as a companion piece to their debut). Or maybe it was that the track “6 Underground” wouldn’t go away. After its 1996 chart run, it was rereleased the following year off the back of being included on the soundtrack to TheSaint film and peaked at No 9, six places higher then its first foray into the Top 40. That second strata of success and that of follow up “Spin Spin Sugar” was enough evidence for a rerelease of the album which included new artwork and the inclusion of what many saw as the definitive version of “6 Underground” by Nellee Hooper. Then there was the two years of touring in support of the album when they opened for Blur and Neneh Cherry and played with Tricky and Lamb securing the perception of them as a trip hop band. All of this delayed the release of second album “Splinter” until 1999 when musical tastes had moved on and momentum was lost.
However, the biggest event that determined the band’s path was surely when lead singer Kelli Ali was told by fellow band members Chris Corner and Liam Howe that her vocals would not suit their new direction and she was fired from the line up before the recording of “Splinter”. This led to them being dropped by their label Virgin and they would never recapture the level of those early glories. They would go on a decade long hiatus before rebooting the band in 2016 and last released an album in 2021.
After the demise of Take That earlier in the year, the positioning of Boyzone as the UK’s next premier boyband was a foregone conclusion. They’d already spent two years coming up on the rails with a collection of hits that had peaked at Nos 2, 3 and 4 but their first chart topper had proved elusive. With those cheeky Manc scamps out of the way, there was no stopping them. Add to that the fact that they’d returned to the trusted strategy of releasing a cover version and the deal was not so much as sealed as cemented shut. “Words” by the Bee Gees was the song to do it for them and I recall it selling and selling and then selling some more in the Our Price store where I worked. We may have even come perilously close to selling out of it (an unspeakable crime for a record shop). When they released the follow up “A Different Beat”, I was determined not to be in that situation again so ordered in a load of the single. Despite also going to No 1, it failed to sell in anywhere near the quantities of “Words” and we were left with massive overstock. The fickle gods of pop music had farted in my face once again.
Order of appearance
Artist
Title
Did I buy it?
1
The Boo Radleys
C’Mon Kids
Negative
2
Montell Jordan
I Like
I disliked
3
Mark Morrison
Trippin’
Nah
4
Celine Dion
It’s All Coming Back To Me Now
As if
5
Bally Sagoo
Dil Cheez (My Heart…)
Nope
6
John Travolta and Olivia Newton John
Summer Nights
No
7
Blackstreet
No Diggity
I did not
8
Lightning Seeds
What If
Nah
9
Sneaker Pimps
6 Underground
Liked it, didn’t buy it
10
Boyzone
Words
Never
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.
Those sneaky BBC4 schedulers have done me dirty by suddenly announcing with a day’s notice that the 1996 TOTP repeats are back. I thought I had at least another week to knock out this last remaining episode for review before they’d start again! Serves me right for dragging my feet I guess. Sadly, as well as being my favourite word, procrastination is also my middle name.
Before I crack on with this particular show, I should address the fact that we’ve missed one. The 23rd May episode was not repeated with the general consensus being that it was for reasons of sensitivity. One of the artists featured was the actor John Alford who is best known for his roles in Grange Hill and London’sBurning. Alford was giving this soap star turned pop star malarkey a go – well, it had worked for loads of others before him including another ex GrangeHill pupil in Sean Maguire who, by massive coincidence, was also on the same show. Alford managed three UK chart hits in 1996 (all cover versions obviously) but subsequently disappeared after his only album tanked when peaking at No 171. In later years he has had several run ins with the law and is currently awaiting trial for alleged sex offences involving a girl aged under 16 hence the decision not to air the show he featured on presumably. I’ve had a look at the rest of the running order for that particular episode and there is little chance of FOMO raising its head in my personal opinion. In addition to the aforementioned Alford and Maguire, most of the other hits on that week we’d already seen before including those by Robert Miles, Black Grape, Tony Rich Project, Gina G and, unbelievably, Mark Morrison (again!). We did miss out on SWV and Dodgy but I can live with that.
Tonight’s hosts are funny men Jack Dee and the late Jeremy Hardy who do the whole show as if they were BBC presenters from the 50s which is fairly amusing for most of the time. We open with, I read to my astonishment when researching them, the best-selling boy band ofalltime!! What?! The Backstreet Boys?! That’s what Wikipedia tells me, yes. It also says that they are the first group since Led Zeppelin to have their first ten albums reach the Top 10 on the US charts. OK, so there are a couple of things to unpack here before we go any further. Firstly, the Backstreet Boys have made ten albums?! Surely not! I’m checking their discography. Wait there…
…they have! Although, one of them is a Christmas album and didn’t make the Top 10 in America. Maybe that claim included Greatest Hits compilations? Secondly, the biggest selling boy band of all time? What about New Kids On The Block or Take That or One Direction? Or even one of those K-pop groups? And what criteria are we using to define boy band? Were The Beatles* a boy band or The Jackson 5? If they qualify the. Surely they outsold Backstreet Boys?
*Obviously they weren’t but I’m playing Devil’s Advocate here
Whatever the truth behind the claim, their sales certainly didn’t start out like that. Not in the UK anyway. Their first two singles releases failed to make the Top 40 over here (though both were subsequently rereleased and became hits). Somehow the UK were initially impervious to the five piece’s charms but we finally caved when third single “Get Down (You’re The One For Me)” made it to No 14. Quite why though remains a mystery to me as it’s awful, useless, just no good. Based around that annoying swing beat riff that was prevalent about a year before and used on hits by the likes of MN8 and Montell Jordan with hackneyed, pseudo sexual lyrics, it truly stank the place out. They weren’t even that good looking were they? Maybe the pretty boy one with blonde hair but the rest? What did I know though. Their next thirteen singles went Top 10 in the UK including a No 1, two No 2s and four No 3s. It seemed that we really were getting down with the Backstreet Boys and they were indeed the ones for us.
From a boy band to a collaboration that was rather more out of left field albeit that one of the collaborators was about to become so successful that a crossover into the mainstream would be inevitable. Jamiroquai were an established chart act by this point with two hit albums and a readily identifiable sound to their name. They also had Jay Kay as their frontman who was providing the gossip columns with material as he embraced the pop star lifestyle. In 1996, their third album “Travelling Without Moving” was released and would go on to sell eight million copies worldwide, four times more than the sales of their first two combined. It also generated their three highest charting singles to date in “Virtual Insanity” (No 3), “Cosmic Girl” (No 6) and “Alright” (No 6). Before all of those though came “Do U Know Where You’re Coming From”. This was a joint project with jungle pioneer M–Beat and you might be forgiven for thinking that this was a revamp of the similarly titled Diana Ross hit “Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To)” given that M-Beat’s last hit had been a cover of another female soul singer – Anita Baker’s “Sweet Love”. It wasn’t (thank God!). What it was though, to my ears, was a track that was trying to tick too many musical boxes but ended up being a confused, mess of a song. I think there might be a decent tune in there somewhere but all those shuffling, jungle breakbeats just kept fracturing any cohesiveness it might have had.
The single did get to No 12 and was included as an extra track on “Travelling Without Moving” (albeit with a very slight title change). M-Beat (aka Marlon Hart) would not have any further UK chart hits though he did produce remixes for Soul II Soul and Roy Davis Jr. who would have minor hits with them in the late 90s. Hart himself would become homeless not long after this TOTP appearance before taking IT consultancy positions for McLaren F1 and Lloyds Bank and finally returning to music in 2022. So he did know where he was coming from after all!
Well, this is shaping up to be a show of extremes. We move from a jungle/acid jazz-funk mash up to some hard rock courtesy of Metallica. A Top 10 hit pretty much everywhere, “Until It Sleeps” was the lead single from new album “Load”. It’ll come as no surprise to anyone who’s taken even a passing interest in my blog previously that I‘m not the biggest Metallica fan. I can acknowledge the power of “Enter Sandman” but that’s the extent of my appreciation. Consequently, this track didn’t and doesn’t make my musical radar bleep.
Its video is more interesting to me though. It looks like the set of a horror movie or perhaps the darker moments of StrangerThings most of the time but its imagery is apparently inspired by the work of 15th century Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch, specifically TheGardenOfEarthlyDelights, Haywain and EcceHomo. I can’t say that I’m that familiar with Bosch’s work but here’s @TOTPFacts with the visual evidence:
The video for “Until It Sleeps” was inspired by the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. This bit has a basic similarity to “Ecce Homo”, for example. #TOTPpic.twitter.com/ySF60N1qPw
From high art to a rancid fart of a song. That dreadful moment of the 90s is upon us – it’s time for Peter Andre and “Mysterious Girl”. Brace yourselves everyone, we’re going in! It seems an odd concept to grasp now but there was a time when Peter Andre wasn’t a part of our lives, always there in the cultural milieu, grifting away at his latest cash grab and attempting to give himself a sheen of relevance and currency. So embedded is he in our society that in the 2007 British comedy film GrowYourOwn starring Eddie Marsan, at one point in its story about locals on an allotment reacting angrily when some refugees are given plots on it, one character announces “You know who I blame? Peter Andre!”.
Back in 1996 though, he was only known for one minor hit single in the UK called…erm… “Only One”. A concerted media campaign targeting teen magazines though raised his profile enough to put out a follow up. “Mysterious Girl” was actually a rerelease having peaked at No 53 in September 1995. We all dodged a bullet then but when the gun was reloaded for a second time we were hit right between the eyes with both barrels. This horrible, cod reggae, Inner Circle rip off would spend eleven consecutive weeks in the UK Top 10 mainly skittering between Nos 2 and 3. Thankfully it never made it to the top of the charts though even that silver lining would become a black cloud burst in 2004 when it got to No 1 after a concerted campaign by DJ Chris Moyles. Gee, thanks Chris. I was working in the Our Price store in Stockport in 1996 and we sold this single over and over and over again. When we’d finished doing that, we sold it some more and every time I did, the questions running around my head were “What am I doing with my life? How did it come to this?”. I’d had similar thoughts when I’d been the stand in Father Christmas in Debenhams seven years earlier whilst sat in Santa’s Grotto surrounded by soft toy reindeers and nodding penguins. Peter Andre – so much to blame him for.
It’s an Antipodean double whammy as we go from an Australian dope in Peter Andre to a song called “Australia” that’s pretty dope – I believe that can also mean ‘good’ in the modern vernacular*.
*God, I sound like the two stuffy characters Jeremy Hardy and Jack Dee are using to present the show!
Occupants of the revived ‘album’ slot are Manic StreetPreachers and a track from their “Everything Must Go” album that would also turn out to be the fourth and final single released from it when it made No 7 in the charts in the December of 1996. The album had only been out for ten days at this point and with it going straight in at No 2, a place on the BBC’s flagship music show was not only deemed appropriate but also assured and deserved. Interestingly, the band shunned the chance to preview their next single, the album’s title track, that would hit the shops in July and instead opted for this song that was written as a metaphor for getting as far away from the UK and its tabloid press as possible in the wake of band member Richey Edwards’ disappearance the previous year. Also of note in this performance is the nerdy look of James Dean Bradfield including spectacles and a neat and tidy haircut. Quite the change from those early “Generation Terrorists” era TOTP appearances.
I’d seen the Manics support Oasis* at their Maine Road gigs a month before this show aired and would see them headline their own show about a year afterwards. I also had the album – I was becoming quite the fan though what I was not a fan of was the cardboard sleeves they insisted releasing their singles in at this time. Working in a record shop as I was, they were a pain to display.
*No, I didn’t get involved in the frankly shameful Oasis reunion gigs tickets fiasco. I saw them when they were at the top of their game and relevant – I have no desire to revisit the money grabbing so and so’s they seem to have become nearly thirty years later.
If it’s time for CelineDion then it must also be time for a big, heart string pulling ballad and we do indeed get both these outcomes with “Because You Loved Me”. Released as the second single from her “Falling Into You” album, it was also included on the soundtrack to the film UpCloseAndPersonal starring Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer. I’ve never seen this film before but reading the plot synopsis on Wikipedia, I don’t think I’ll be seeking it out for a viewing anytime soon. A rather stodgy sounding news drama/romance that bore no resemblance to the book on which it was based? No, I’m alright thanks. Pfeiffer was making a habit though of starring in films that had a huge big hit single featured in them. Just a few months before, Coolio had conquered the globe with his Stevie Wonder channeling “Gangsta Paradise” from DangerousMinds.
As for “Because You Loved Me”, it’s all pretty laboured and predictable to my ears but was clearly aural nectar for lots of other people’s lugholes as it went to No 1 in America and won a Grammy and was nominated for an Academy Award. And to think we’re still 18 months away from her even bigger film ballad “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic. Gulp!
Having finally scored themselves a massive hit by rereleasing their debut single “Lifted”, the LighthouseFamily have shone their spotlight onto another earlier release to secure themselves a follow up. As well, as being the title track of their debut album, “Ocean Drive” was also their second ever single and their first ever Top 40 hit when it peaked at No 34 in October ‘95. Could the old rerelease strategy work for a second time? Of course it could and not even the fact that “Ocean Drive” was almost identical to “Lifted” would stop people buying it for a second time. Harsh? Possibly but almost certainly accurate. Yes, this was more of that radio friendly, lilting groove, smooth vocal, easy listening soul/pop that they made their name on. And why not? You didn’t have to buy or listen to it if it didn’t float your boat did you eh?
So where is Ocean Drive? Well, there’s a mile long road in the South Beach neighbourhood of Miami Beach, Florida which bears that name and is famous for its Art Deco hotels, restaurants and bars. So, that must be what inspired the song then? Well, according to Wikipedia, it wasn’t as it’s about a road in the UK. A quick search of the internet reveals that there is indeed an Ocean Drive and it’s not that far from me in Hull being located in a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire called Newport. There might not be any Art Deco buildings there but google maps shows me that there is a pub called the Crown & Anchor, one called The Jolly Sailor Inn and a fish and chip shop called Johnny Haddocks so Ocean Drive kind of fits the nautical theme. Mr and Mrs Lighthouse (as name checked by Dee and Hardy in their intro) would fit right in.
After being on the show as an ‘exclusive’ two weeks prior, Bryan Adams is back again as his single “The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You” has blasted into the charts at No 6. There’s something different about this second performance though that I can’t quite put my finger on…oh yeah, that’s it…Bry’s missing a member from his band. Where’s the guitarist that was standing on his left from the last time? In an attempt to fill the space, they’ve moved the keyboard player to the front of the stage but he’s no substitute for standing back to back with Bryan and rocking out like his guitarist did. Also, the drummer looks very different. On the first appearance the guy behind the kit had huge Afro hair but that’s all gone this time around. Is it the same guy? Was he just wearing a wig the first time? If it was the latter, he clearly decided to ignore the advice of the title of the track he was drumming on and ditched it.
Listening back to this, is it me or is there a slight whiff of U2 about some of the guitar work as it comes out of the chorus? No? Nothing like The Edge? How about Bry’s bass player then? If you squint your eyes does he look a bit like Adam Clayton? OK, you got me. All this talk of drummers, Adam Clayton and U2 is me trying to tee up the show’s play out tune but more of that later. First, we have a new No 1 to deal with…
And so after weeks of anticipation and a flurry of football songs in the charts that weren’t that football song, it’s finally here and it’s gone straight in at No 1. As with Peter Andre, it’s hard to recall now that there was a time when “Three Lions (It’s Coming Home)” wasn’t a part of the national psyche, wasn’t trotted out every time England played in a football tournament and wasn’t sung on the terraces. A time when the subject of a song about the England football team would instantly bring to mind New Order’s “World In Motion” or possibly “Back Home” from 1970. All of this was trampled into the turf by Baddiel, SkinnerandtheLightningSeeds in 1996. Now bearing in mind that Euro 96 hadn’t even started by this point, the promotion surrounding the release of the single must have been pretty extensive to have propelled it straight to the top of the charts on week one. Despite working in a record shop at the time, I can’t recall if there was a massive buzz around the song before a ball had been kicked in anger but we must have sold loads of it in that first week. After debuting at the very top of the charts, the following month saw it mostly at No 2 with a solitary week at No 4 before returning to No 1, with sales no doubt fuelled by the England team progressing to the semi-finals. We all know what fate befell them there sadly. That month gap between the two occasions that “Three Lions” was the UK’s best selling single saw “Killing Me Softly” by Fugees at No 1. It dropped a place as Euro 96 came to its climax and then leapfrogged back to the top for another week after it had finished. This meant that these two singles spent seven weeks swapping the No 1 position between them. There’s another less talked about twist of trivia that bonded the two together acts together and it really is quite bizarre – the single that the Lightning Seeds released before “Three Lions” was a song called “Ready Or Not” whilst the single that the Fugees released after “Killing Me Softly” was a song called…yep…”Ready Or Not”. What are the chances eh?
Quite why the FA approached Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds to write a song for the tournament I’m not sure but Broudie’s decision to get Frank Skinner and David Baddiel involved made perfect sense (ooh, see what I did there? ‘Perfect’ and ‘Sense’? Oh never mind!) what with the duo having recently finished the third and final series of Fantasy Football League for the BBC. Both comedians were by now also synonymous with the beautiful game with Skinner professing his love of WBA and Baddiel a fellow fan of my beloved Chelsea.
Like everybody in the country it seemed, I got caught up with the feel good factor that the football was bringing and “Three Lions” seemed a perfectly good soundtrack to that period. However, its repeated appearance at every football tournament since has made it almost unlistenable now. They really did flog it to death. An updated version with changed lyrics went to No 1 two years later for the 1998 World Cup and it topped the charts again as England reached the semi final in 2018 in the same competition. As far as I can tell, the only tournaments that England qualified for since the song was originally released when “Three Lions” hasn’t featured in the charts were the 2000 and 2004 Euros. My research tells me that Fat Les’s “Jerusalem” and a version of “All Together Now” were the predominant England songs for those years respectively.
The play out track is “Theme From Mission: Impossible” by Adam ClaytonandLarry Mullen Jnr. Yes, here’s the reason for my cack handed referencing of the two members of the aforementioned U2 earlier in the post. The very first movie of the Mission: Impossible franchise was released this year and nearly 30 years later it is still going, still with Tom Cruise as the star and with the most recent outing MissionImpossible: DeadReckoningPartOne (the seventh film so far) having been released in 2023. I caught the first film at the cinema in Stockport as the Our Price store there where I was working had an arrangement with the local cinema to supply them with CDs to play in the foyer. It might even have been a special preview screening that I attended as I seem to remember coming out with a press pack of still photos etc. I think I enjoyed it but I’m not sure that I’ve watched any of the sequels in their entirety. I recall watching the original 60s TV series as a small child and being confused by Leonard Nimoy being in it but not being dressed as Mr Spock!
I’m guessing that Adam and Larry were approached to record the movie’s theme tune off the back of U2’s wildly successful contribution to the previous year’s BatmanForever film. They don’t muck about with it too much though they’ve clearly danced it up a bit and explore that further with a number of remixes on the 12” and extra tracks on the CD single. At the end of the day though, it all pales in comparison to the iconic original which kind of negates the whole thing. Competing with its composer Lalo Schifrin really did prove to be an impossible mission.
Order of appearance
Artist
Title
Did I buy it?
1
Backstreet Boys
Get Down (You’re The One For Me)
As if
2
Jamiroquai / M-Beat
Do U Know Where You’re Coming From
No
3
Metallica
Until It Sleeps
I did not
4
Peter Andre
Mysterious Girl
Sir! You insult me with your impertinence!
5
Manic Street Preachers
Australia
No but I had the album
6
Celine Dion
Because You Loved Me
Never
7
Lighthouse Family
Ocean Drive
Nope
8
Bryan Adams
The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You
Negative
9
Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds
Three Lions (It’s Coming Home)
Nah
10
Theme From Mission: Impossible”
Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jnr
Another 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.
After Justine Frischmann the other week, now we get the other of the two biggest female names of the Britpop movement in the TOTP ‘golden mic’ slot. Louise Werner was/is, of course, the lead singer of Sleeper and as such the connection to and similarities with her Elastica counterpart were always going to be highlighted by a lazy music press. In March 1996, Sleeper were just about to reach the peak of their popularity with the release of sophomore album “The It Girl” just two months away. Said album would go platinum in the UK and harbour four hit singles. I caught Sleeper around this time at the Manchester Academy and they were pretty good as I remember. I always preferred Louise to Justine as she seemed the less intimidating of the two and, if I’m brutally honest, I fancied her more. There, I said it. Neither though seemed particularly at ease with the role of TOTP host and both came across as a bit awkward. Well, you can’t be good at everything I suppose (says the man who isn’t good at anything). As well as being singers in successful bands, both Justine and Louise had subsequent creative careers as an artist and author respectively.
Anyway, ready or not, it’s time for the music and we begin with a song called…erm…”Ready Or Not” by TheLightningSeeds. This was the lead single from their fourth album “Dizzy Heights” and was very much in the same vein as pretty much everything else they’d ever done – a jaunty, catchy, uplifting pop tune high on hooks but low on substance. Don’t get me wrong, I’m quite partial to the odd Lightning Seeds tune but even Ian Broudie would surely admit that his band were hardly Radiohead. This one though is perhaps a bit more lightweight than usual with lots of “La la la la’s” thrown into the mix including the whole of the outro. That’s maybe appropriate though given that the band’s drummer Chris Sharrock once played with The La’s as well as The Icicle Works and later Robbie Williams, Beady Eye and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
The song would share its title with a No 1 hit by The Fugees from later in the year but that’s not the only link between the two. As Euro 96 fever took hold of the country and “Three Lions” topped the charts, it traded places at No 1 that Summer with The Fugees’ cover of “Killing Me Softly” with both songs reaching the top of the charts on two separate occasions. Oh yes…”Three Lions”. I’m afraid it’s coming soon to these TOTP repeats. Oh, and the lyric in “Ready Or Not” that goes “It’s like the tipper most topper most high”? It was surely inspired by this John Lennon line:
Who are these people and what on earth are they doing? Well, the artist was Sasha &Maria but they’re not the two berks making tits of themselves messing around with what looks like a bedsheet. I think this tweet sums up my thoughts on the matter:
Sasha was the Welsh DJ and record producer of Sasha and John Digweed fame whilst Maria was Maria Nayler who was a member of Ultraviolet in the early 90s and who would go on to guest on the Robert Miles hit “One And One” later in 1996. Here though, she was supplying the vocals for this, the similarly titled “Be As One”. Apparently, the track had been flooded into record shops via unlicensed white labels which led to Deconstruction Records contacting the BPI anti-piracy unit and taking out full page ads in the trade press to warn people off the illegal copies. Obviously, the track did/does nothing for me and watching it now it’s giving off strong Eurovision vibes but was clearly big in the clubs and made No 17 on the UK singles chart.
Louise Werner tries to loosen up a bit with an amusing reference in her next intro about Sleeper producer Stephen Street being called Jon Bum Bogey on account of his once big hair. OK, amusing might be pushing it but at least she’s trying. I’ve said it before but Bon Jovi were on a commercial role in this country in the mid 90s. Between 1993 and 1996 they racked up thirteen Top 40 hits including nine Top 10 entries. “These Days” was the penultimate of these and the title track of their 1995 album. A long way from the bluster of their poodle rock era, this was definitely showcasing their melancholy side – more “Save A Prayer” than “Livin’ On A Prayer” you might say. After one more hit, the band would take a pre-agreed four year hiatus before returning in 2000 with the “Crush” album. Whilst still a big name, I wonder though if the youth will know Jon as the father-in-law of Millie Bobby Brown rather than being the singer of one of the most successful rock bands of all time?
Next, we have one of those pointless hits. I don’t mean ‘pointless’ as in “what was the point of releasing that?” but rather Pointless as in the TV show. Asked to name an obscure Eternal single, an answer of “Good Thing” would definitely impress Alexander Armstrong. The third single from second album “Power Of A Woman”, it maybe wasn’t what we’d come to expect from the group. This was more of an – dare I use the word? – urban style rather than the slick, R&B/pop hybrid they’d been so successful with. Was it conceivable that the members of All Saints were set at home watching this performance and thought “Aye aye, we could do that but in cargo pants and crop tops”?
An interesting side plot to this hit is that the following week, ex-member Louise would release her second solo single “In Walked Love” which would peak at No 17 whereas “Good Thing” got to No 8. Chalk one up to Eternal but who was the ultimate winner in this battle do you reckon?
I’m getting really bogged down in all these dance tunes that have been on the show of late. Here’s another one. GatDecor were, according to Wikipedia, one of the earliest exponents of ‘progressive house’ music. I’ve neither the time nor inclination to investigate what that particular strand of dance music was all about but having watched this performance of “Passion”, my uneducated view is that it’s yet another tune that resembles “Show Me Love” by Robin S. As for the track’s personal history, as Louise Werner says, it was originally a minor hit in 1992 as an instrumental but it was mashed up with “Do You Want It Right Now “ by Degrees Of Motion by an East London DJ who put out some DJ only copies of it turning it into an underground club sensation. Properly licensed and with vocals sung by Beverley Skeete, this 1996 version would peak at No 6.
After the bedsheet debacle of Sasha & Maria earlier, the now ubiquitous staging distraction for this dance hit was a guy behind Beverley giving off some strong LiveAndLetDie vibes.
Our host really tries to liven things up in her next intro which would no doubt be seen as inappropriate at the very least and possibly as racist now. Teeing up Boyzone who are live by satellite link from Korea, Louise says “I hope they’re not eating puppies or anything”. Gulp! Well, the lads definitely aren’t doing that as they’re too busy performing an especially lame song called “Coming Home Now”. This was their only single to be written solely by the five of them without any input from outside co-writers and it shows. There’s nothing really to this wisp of pop fluff that drifts aimlessly along to destination nowhere. It would be their only hit not to make the UK Top 3 in the first part of their career before their initial split in 2000. Interesting to note that Shane Lynch and Keith Duffy are only allowed to do the short, spoken word parts rather than a spotlight vocal like Ronan Keating and Stephen Gately get to do. As for poor old Mikey Graham, he’s not allowed to do anything except be in the background which was pretty much his only contribution to Boyzone ever. Talking of splits, they must have been thinking “we’re in here” when the news of Take That’s forthcoming break up hit the headlines. Indeed they were as their next two singles of 1996 would both go to No 1. The King is dead, long live The King!
The Women of Britpop theme continues now with Louise Werner introducing Camden drinking buddies Lush who are in the studio to perform their single “Ladykillers”. Probably the band’s most well known song, it was deliberately written by lead singer Miki Berenyi to be a hit with her admitting it was her attempt to give the press what they wanted, an affirmation of the band’s Britpop credentials. This may explain why it sounds like “Waking Up” by Elastica which itself lent heavily from “No More Heroes” by The Stranglers. The song has been taken up as a feminist statement due to its lyrics that lampoon the sexual bravado of men towards women. A few months later the Spice Girls would take up the baton and go global with their ‘Girl Power’ slogan. I suspect that Lush would have preferred another drink down the Good Mixer, Camden Town than all that world domination business though.
It’s Britpop overload as the next act on are Supergrass with their “Going Out” hit. When they performed this as an ‘exclusive’ the other week, did they have the brass trio with them? I’m sure I would have remembered three guys who looked like Tom Petty, Bill Bailey and Mike Barson from Madness (it isn’t him is it?). I saw Supergrass live in York in the early 2000s and they refused to play “Alright”. That’s the last time I spend an evening ‘going out’ with them.
Take That have predictably gone straight in at No 1 with their ‘final’ single “How Deep Is Your Love”. Their run of success was quite remarkable with eight of their last nine singles topping the chart. In my head, they absolutely were a singles band with their albums not as successful but a quick check of their discography shows that the three albums of the first part of their career all sold well with the biggest being “Everything Changes” which shifted 1.3 million copies in the UK alone. I think it was the fact that they’d released more videos than albums (six to three) by this point that made me undervalue them. A few years later I was living in York and hosted a pub quiz as the regular guy was on holiday. I included a question about Take That and made the mistake of making a derisive comment about them (this was before their wildly successful comeback in 2006) and was perhaps rightfully rounded on by the assembled throng of quizzers. Take that indeed!
Order of appearance
Artist
Title
Did I buy it?
1
The Lightning Seeds
Ready Or Not
Not
2
Sasha & Maria
Be As One
No chance
3
Bon Jovi
These Days
Nah
4
Eternal
Good Thing
No
5
Gat Decor
Passion
As if
6
Boyzone
Coming Home Now
Never
7
Lush
Ladykillers
Nope
8
Supergrass
Going Out
I did not
9
Take That
How Deep Is Your Love
No but my wife had their Greatest Hits CD
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.
After four consecutive shows of not having to suffer the frankly insufferable Simon Mayo as host, the smug one is back and this time he’s brought his mates with him. Yes, lingering around the studio for this TOTP is Chris Evans and his breakfast show crew but more of them later. The last time he was on, Mayo did that whole ‘Rhymin’ Simon’ schtick which was just intolerable. We don’t have that this time at least but he does start with some line that relates to a news story about a supermarket sandwich not being fresh. What that news story was actually about I have no idea but if you asked Mayo today what it was about I bet he would know. He’s the sort of bloke who’d have a spreadsheet of all the times he was on the show, what his links were and a laughter rating system as to how funny he was.
Anyway, let’s get to it with the music. 1995 was the year of rereleases with those afforded another chance becoming a much bigger hit second time around. However, the recipients of this exercise were generally dance tracks – TheLightningSeeds were most definitely and defiantly pop and none more so than the tracks on their “Jollification” album. This one – “Lucky You” – was initially the lead single from the album when released in August of 1994 but somehow missed the Top 40 when it peaked at No 43. Three hit singles and 14 months later it was made available again and this time made it all the way to No 15 becoming the album’s second highest charting single in the process. “Lucky You” is such a model example of a pop song that you would think it had been created in a laboratory. Crafted and perfected to within an inch of its life, it was ideal for daytime radio. The Lightning Seeds were my go to band on a Saturday afternoon in the Our Price store I worked in at the time if we needed to shove something on in a hurry as the last CD had finished playing. As a consequence, many of my colleagues hated The Lightning Seeds with a passion.
Ian Broudie has always maintained pretty much the same look throughout his career – mop(top) of hair, goatee beard and shades permanently attached. Only the flecks of grey these days indicate the passing of any time. As much as he knows how to write a good pop tune, I’ve never been overly convinced about his voice which isn’t the biggest you’ve ever heard. He wrote “Lucky You” with Terry Hall and it would suit the sadly deceased singer’s voice better I think. I much prefer Hall’s version of “Sense” which he also co-wrote with Broudie.
In direct contrast to Ian Broudie comes Meatloaf and his massive voice. In this week’s chart, he found himself in a four way tussle for the coveted No 1 spot. His new single “I’d Lie For You (And That’s The Truth)” was up against another new release from Coolio whilst the previous week’s No1 and No 2 from Simply Red and Def Leppard respectively were both performing well. In the final sales count, Meatloaf would just fall short of repeating the feat of “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” by entering the Top 40 at No 2. It was still quite the achievement though for an artist who had only had one UK Top 10 hit prior to the biggest selling single of 1993 and confirmed how much the success of the “Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell” project had done to revive Meatloaf’s career and profile.
Oof! What on earth is this? Well, obviously it’s a horrible remix of one of the classic pop singles of all time. The more pertinent question is why? After TheHumanLeague made a successful if rather unexpected return to the charts earlier in 1995 with the album “Octopus” and its hit singles “Tell Me When” and “One Man In My Heart”, their previous record label Virgin decided to cash in on their ex-artist by rereleasing their first Greatest Hits album from 1988 which had gone double platinum in the UK. In a clever piece of negotiation with the band’s new label East West, they managed to licence the aforementioned “Tell Me When” and a new song entitled “Stay With Me Tonight” to be included on the album’s track listing thereby ensuring it lent it a veneer of authority and comprehensiveness.
A third track was added to the album which was a remix of “Don’t You Want Me (Remixes)” by Snap! and it was this abomination that was chucked out into the shops to promote the collection. Maybe it’s just that people of a certain age who were around at the time of its original 1981 release (like me) have an emotional attachment to it (especially as it was also that year’s Christmas No 1) that we find it hard to accept any deviation from its true form. Or, perhaps more obviously, the 1995 remix was a just piece of worthless shit and that’s why we hate it. There was certainly no love for it on social media when this TOTP repeat aired on BBC4 recently. The 1995 remix somehow got to No 16 in the charts but as for who was buying it, I can only assume completist super fans or the tone deaf.
Next we have perhaps the ultimate rerelease of the whole decade let alone 1995. I say rerelease but it’s actually a remix of a 1994 single that originally only made No 69 on the chart. By 1995, despite critical acclaim and being eight albums into their career, Everything But The Girl had only ever had three Top 40 singles of which two were cover versions. All that changed with “Missing”. Originally a lo-fi electronic dance single from their “Amplified Heart” album, the duo’s American record label suggested that it be reworked by the legendary remixer Todd Terry to be played in New York clubs. His beefed up house beats treatment of the track combined with Tracey Thorn’s enchanting, ethereal vocals and the killer line “like the deserts miss the rain” propelled the song into becoming a monster hit of epic proportions all around the world. In the UK it peaked at No 3 but even more impressively, it spent 14 (!) weeks inside the Top 10. Look at these chart positions:
How’s that for consistency?! It would sell over a million copies here whilst in America it got all the way to No 2 after a 28 weeks climb to get there. It would spend a then record breaking 55 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. These were unbelievable stats – this is Everything But The Girl we’re talking about! They were hardly a gargantuan unit shifting monster. As much as I’d always liked them, I would never have predicted that they could sell this many records but then “Missing” was no ordinary song. It had that much sought after but rarely achieved quality of being able to crossover into lots of different markets. Punters who would never have listened to a dance track let alone buy one were queuing up at the local record shop to purchase a copy. The track transcended its supposed status as a song of the pop charts to become a part of the cultural tapestry. Tracey Thorn herself has said that “Missing” has been played at funerals and memorial services. Given its chart run detailed above and that we’ll likely be seeing EBTG a fair few times over the forthcoming repeats, I think I’ll leave it there for now.
Watching this next video, I’ve realised that I really don’t know that much about TheSmashingPumpkins. Sure, I know the titles of their first three albums and I could recognise their covers from having sold them to punters whilst working in record stores throughout the 90s. What they actually sounded like though? I wouldn’t be so sure. I know their hit “Tonight, Tonight” which I like but that’s pretty much the extent of my knowledge of their back catalogue. Take this single for example. “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” was the lead single from third album “Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness” and reached No 20 on the UK Top 40 and yet I’m not sure I’ve ever heard it before. How is this possible if I worked in a record shop you ask? Sadly, the stereotype of leaning on the counter all day, brew in hand listening to all the cool and groovy new sounds and being rude to any customers who attempted to ask you anything wasn’t true at all. Sometimes you were so busy that if I’d been asked at gunpoint to tell you what had been played on the shop sound system that day, I couldn’t have.
So now I’ve heard “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”, what is my considered opinion of it? Well, it’s OK I guess. An interesting chorus but it seems to take forever to get to it with the verses being as dull as. I wasn’t that keen on Billy Corgan’s voice either. Give me this instead by the Mock Turtles for a song about butterfly wings any day of the week…
“Ain’t Nobody” by Rufus and Chaka Khan is such an enduring song. 40 years old now and it is still a staple of radio playlists whether you’re Radio 2 or Retro Soul Radio. It’s a remarkable legacy for a song that was a big hit but not one of the biggest sellers of all time. It made the UK Top 10 in 1984 and No 22 in the US though it did top the R&B charts over there as well. Its long lasting nature is perhaps partly due to how many times it has been covered by other artists. “Ain’t Nobody” has been recorded by Jaki Graham, LL Cool J, Mary J. Blige, Natasha Bedingfield and as an interpolation with the Human League’s “Being Boiled” by Richard X vs Liberty X as “Being Nobody”.
And then there’s this version by Diana King. Needing a follow up to her mega selling hit “Shy Guy”, she (or her record label possibly) went for that tried and trusted strategy of releasing a cover version of a well known song. And it worked – sort of. It reached No 13 in the UK and made No 4 on the US Dance Club Play chart but it was nowhere near the seller that “Shy Guy” was. Perhaps deservedly so in my opinion. It seems fairly ordinary to my ears despite Diana trying to put a ragga tweak in there early on by randomly shouting out “Have Mercy!” in the intro. There then follows a fairly faithful rendition of the original but with a horrible, tinny sounding backing which loses all the smooth groove of the original. The whole performance is not helped by the location for this satellite exclusive which appears to have been filmed in the car park of Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Yep, a car park. Diana is joined by two guys in flasher macks one of whom looks like he’s going to have a piss in a flower bed when he turns his back to the camera. At one point there’s a shot which is a close up of a tree because it has a small street sign which says ‘Top Of The Pops’ on it. A close up of a tree! This was a real low for these satellite performances. Bon Jovi at Niagara Falls this was not! Sadly, I can’t find the clip on YouTube though. Diana would have one more UK hit two years later with another cover version (this time of ”I Say A Little Prayer”) before the hits ran out completely.
The aforementioned Chris Evans finally appears on camera for this next link though mercifully he says nothing choosing instead to eat from a packet of crisps. Instead, Simon Mayo ignores Evans (presumably this was cooked up by the pair beforehand) and instead introduces the Radio 1 Breakfast Show newsreader Tina Ritchie to do the link. Ritchie does her job well enough despite Mayo doing a gyrating movement opposite her while she speaks. He seems to lower himself down her body while she speaks (though that may be the camera angle) as if he’s lap dancing for her. It’s a truly sickening sight. Why was he allowed to do it?! Horrible man.
UB40 is the act that Tina Ritchie introduces with a song I have zero recollection of. “Until My Dying Day” was released to promote the band’s second Best Of album snappily titled “The Best Of UB40 – Volume Two” which collected all their hits from 1988 to 1995. The first volume had gone six times platinum in the UK but its follow up did nowhere near the same business despite including their 1993 No 1 “(I Can’t Help) Falling In Love With You”. Its sales can’t have been helped by “Until My Dying Day” which, dearie me, is dreary to the point of being soporific. @TOTPFacts says that the track was originally written for the soundtrack of the James Bond film Goldeneye. That can’t be right can it? Goldeneye? UB40’s song is more like Jap’s Eye!
Wait, wasn’t Cher on the show and in the studio last week? She bloody was you know! As if to distinguish between the two appearances, she’s come in fancy dress as Elvis this week seeing as her hit – “Walking In Memphis” – is all about him (sort of).
It’s an attempt to do something different I guess but she doesn’t really look like Elvis, rather a tired stereotype of a 50s Teddy Boy. It’s all a bit silly and Cher’s dance moves don’t add any authenticity at all. Maybe I’m missing the point and should just accept it as a bit of fun but I can’t get past the fact that Annie Lennox beat Cher to this look by a good 12 years and did it so much better…
And so to another new No 1 and this one has gone straight into pole position in week one making it the ninth single to do so up to this point in 1995 and the third on the bounce following Shaggy and Simply Red before it. Coolio was the winner of that aforementioned four way chart tussle with his “Gangsta’s Paradise” song. I say Coolio but I should also give props to his oppo LV who was also formerly credited on the track. This was an absolute monster of a record and similar to “Missing” earlier in the post, stayed on the UK Top 40 for what seemed like an eternity. Two weeks at No 1 but then three at No 2, two at No 3 and a further five inside the Top 10 on top of that.
Famously interpolated (there’s that word again) with Stevie Wonder’s “Pastime Paradise”, it was also featured heavily in the hit film DangerousMinds starring Michelle Pfeiffer. Also like “Missing”, it was a huge crossover hit with record buyers who wouldn’t normally listen to rap music purchasing the single. It also garnered airplay support from radio stations that wouldn’t normally touch rap with a barge pole. In a 2020 poll by digital publication ThePudding, “Gangsta’s Paradise” was one of the most recognisable 90s songs amongst Millennials and Generation Z’ers.
I’m wondering now if our appetite for the song hadn’t been whetted by the film Pulp Fiction. The opening line “As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death” from Psalm 23:4 is very reminiscent off this scene courtesy of Samuel L. Jackson whilst the whole film, like the song, is about gangsters…
Order of appearance
Artist
Title
Did I buy it?
1
The Lightning Seeds
Lucky You
Not the single but I think I may have had the Jollification album at some point
2
Meatloaf
I’d Lie For You (And That’s The Truth)
Definitely not
3
The Human League
Don’t You Want Me (Remixes)
Love the original but not that remixed shite!
4
Everything But The Girl
Missing
No but I must have it on something surely?
5
The Smashing Pumpkins
Bullet With Butterfly Wings
Negative
6
Diana King
Ain’t Nobody
Nah
7
UB40
Until My Dying Day
Nope
8
Cher
Walking In Memphis
I did not
9
Coolio / LV
Gangsta’s Paradise
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.
Right, that’s Christmas and New Year celebrations well and truly over with for another year and a return to normality beckons. However, that isn’t on the cards for these BBC4 TOTP repeats. As far as I can tell, we won’t be returning to these 1995 shows until late January at the earliest as the 60th anniversary commemorations of the show via a series of retro programmes focusing on performances from the 60s, 70s and 80s continue. So, after being behind with my reviews for weeks, I now have ample opportunity to catch up. Hurray!
Tonight’s episode is hosted by Craig McLachlan, probably still best known at this time as Henry from Neighbours though he had carved out a brief career for himself as a pop star at the turn of the decade with his No 2 UK hit “Mona”. Quite why he was perceived to be a big enough name to host TOTP in July 1995 though is a question that’s not immediately obvious to answer to me. He’d left Ramsey Street long ago and his last chart hit in this country – a version of “You’re The One That I Want” with Debbie Gibson as part of the cast of Grease – had been two years prior. However, he had just finished starring in the BBC crime drama series Bugs so that could be the reason behind his appearance here. I never watched that show so maybe that’s why I didn’t quite understand the height of his profile. Whatever the reason for his ‘golden mic’ slot, he turns in a pretty lacklustre performance. Giving a pretence of what you perceive to be cool and actually being cool are two very different things though why he thought he could pull off an all-in-one leather singlet outfit with shades accessories, only he will know. Maybe he was trying on a future look for size as there’s something a bit Frank-N-Furter about it, a role that McLachlan would play more than once in productions of TheRockyHorrorPictureShow.
Looking remarkably ordinary in comparison (thank goodness) are opening act TheBooRadleys who have clocked up a third consecutive Top 40 hit. After the ubiquitous airplay hit that was “Wake Up Boo!” at the start of the year, the band had followed it up with what I believed was an infinitely better tune in “Find The Answer Within” but once again I was in the lower percentile of the record buying public when it peaked at No 37. Undeterred, a third single from the “Wake Up!” album was released and “It’s Lulu” would fall between two stools, peaking a whole 12 places higher than its immediate predecessor but nowhere near the Top 10 position of the (almost) title track.
As much as I liked it, I believed there were better tracks on the album (which I’d bought) and had hoped “Twinside” or the beautiful ballad “Wilder” would have been chosen as the third and final single from it. Sadly it was not to be and the perfectly decent but rather obvious “It’s Lulu” was given the shout (ahem). I’m guessing it wasn’t actually about the diminutive Scottish singer as the lyrics seem to tell the story of a teenage girl who feels the angst of her age group admitting that she can’t buy any clothes that fit, gets her facts from SmashHits and is only understood by the posters on her walls. OK, they’re a bit clunky but they beat the pants off Lulu shouting endlessly about not very much.
Now it’s never occurred to me before but is there something in the verses to “It’s Lulu” that’s reminiscent of a certain cult classic advert from the early 80s?…
OK, this was just getting silly now; silly and confusing. “Stuck On U” was the sixth consecutive Top 40 hit for those cheeky scamps PJ&Duncan including one inside the Top 10 and four registering respectable chart peaks of either No 15 or No 12. Quite how they were mining these hits from a very narrow vein of pop/rap material…well…I can only assume that the people buying their records were actually buying into their likeable personalities as the music was formulaic at best. But was it their personalities or their characters because – and this was where the confusion came in – the lines between the real duo (as in Ant & Dec) and their BykerGrove constructs were really blurred around this time. You see despite still continuing to release records as PJ & Duncan (a trend that would carry on until 1996), they were doing a side hustle as TV presenters (having left BykerGrove well behind them) under their own names. Indeed, just three months before this TOTP aired, the first episode of their own show entitled TheAnt&DecShow (!) was broadcast on CBBC. Identity crisis at all?
To add to the confusion, “Stuck On U” was the lead track from their second album “Top Katz” (an awful, dreadful title) which Wikipedia informs me only made it to No 46 in the charts despite containing four hit singles and yet it went gold selling 100,000 copies. No 46 but it sold 100,000 copies? That can’t be right can it? This is a case of advanced orders from record shops masquerading as actual customers sales isn’t it?
Next, what would be called a collaboration these days but back in 1995 it was probably…what? A duet? Maybe not. Anyway, whatever it was, it featured…oh that was probably it wasn’t it? One of the artists featuring the other.
*checks cover of single*
Yes! Officially, it was Method Man featuring MaryJ.Blige. Method Man was one of those rap artists that definitely required a temporary insert in place of the actual CD sleeve when on display in any of the Our Price stores I worked in along with Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang Clan, 2 Pac, NWA etc. This single “I’ll BeThere For You / You’re All I Need To Get By”, released on the legendary Def Jam label, was supposedly one of the first examples of the ‘Thug-Love’ genre which I wasn’t aware of at the time but which I understand now to be the combination of a rapper doing the verses and an R&B soul singer doing the chorus (I think). Said chorus plunders heavily the melody from Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s hit 1968 hit “You’re All I Need To Get By” which is the only bit which appeals to me I have to say. The track did appeal in its entirety to a lot of people though going to No 3 in the US and Top 10 in the UK. Was it from a film as that might have had an influence on its success?
*checks Wikipedia*
It doesn’t seem so but it was the biggest hit for either artist at the time. Mary J. Blige is one of those names which I know and who have been extraordinarily successful even earning the moniker of the ‘Queen of R&B’ but whom I’m not sure I could name even three of her songs. The same without doubt applies to Method Man. That clearly says more about my musical tastes than either’s profile.
We’re only three songs in and already Craig McLachlan is becoming insufferable in his role as host. In his link to the next act he says “Yo! Top of the Poppers!” Oh dear. I tried out that greeting affectation once when I was a student at Sunderland Poly. My wife (then girlfriend) was with me at the time and nearly dumped me on the spot. I’ve never used it since. McLachlan then goes on to say that people are always asking him what his favourite type of music is. There’s a couple of things about both this revelation and his answer that don’t ring true to me. Firstly, that anyone would be that interested in his musical preferences in the first place and secondly that he would reply with TheLightningSeeds. Yes, I know it was just a lame line, a construct to segue between artists but couldn’t the scriptwriters have done better here?
Anyway, this was the point where Lightning Seeds really got into gear as a chart hit making machine with “Perfect” being their third Top 40 single of 1995, all of them from their “Jollification” album which would achieve platinum sales by the end of the year. Unlike its high speed predecessors “Change” and “Marvellous”, “Perfect” was a much slower, reflective tune, some may even say melancholy. In fact, listening back to it now, it strikes me that perhaps this was actually Ian Broudie’s attempt at writing his own version of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day”. Now I’m not suggesting that his song is on a par with the classic track from the iconic “Transformer” album – of course not – but it does have a feel of it, possibly.
As for the performance here, the TOTP producers obviously felt that, despite ex-Icicle Works drummer Chris Sharrock doing his best Keith Moon impression, Ian Broudie sat at a keyboard wasn’t the most interesting spectacle. As such, they came up with a special effect that saw his head, detached and blown up in size dangling over the stage like some pop music version of the Wizard Of Oz (before we got to see the real Oz behind the curtain).
A rerelease of “Lucky You” would see Lightning Seeds clock up four hit singles in 1995 before returning in 1996 with the enduring football anthem “Three Lions” the following year and there was nothing cowardly about that song.
Craig McLachlan does some awful Guinness referencing intro for the next act who are, of course, Irish boyband Boyzone. Unlike the Lightning Seeds who followed up two uptempo hits with a slower song, the pretenders to Take That’s crown did the reverse, releasing a pop tune that bounces along after two consecutive ballads. I made the point previously that the group’s second hit “Key To My Life” was surely a forgotten Boyzone hit. Well, if that one is forgotten then “So Good” must be consigned to oblivion. It’s basically just a chorus with some other bits thrown in as an afterthought. Now, I can’t help noticing the dancing on display here (because the music is hardly captivating is it?) and it occurred to me that though there is definite progress from this…
…most of their moves involve wiggling a leg around Riverdance style and generally just jumping on the spot. Yes, at least they do it in time and their matching outfits lend the whole thing a sense of synchronicity but it’s not that slick is it? Still, maybe it was better that they weren’t super tight. I always admired Bananarama for their amateurish dance steps (earlier in their career at least) and couldn’t stand the synchronised swimming precision of some of the boy bands that emerged later in the decade.
After two hits that they’d had a hand in writing themselves, Boyzone would return with a cover in Cat Stevens’ “Father And Son” that would give them another enormous festive hit just as their version of “Love Me For A Reason” by The Osmonds had done the previous Christmas.
Now I could have sworn that I didn’t know this song by REM but having watched the video for “Tongue”, it does ring a fair few bells and so it should as it has a very distinctive sound. The fifth and final single from the “Monster” album, Michael Stipe sings the whole song in falsetto and it seems to my ears that there’s very little instrumentation to the track save for the sustaining sound of a dominant organ. It’s quite striking so how it seems to have escaped my accessible memory banks is bemusing.
Something else that seemed to have slipped my mind (if I ever knew it in the first place) was the song’s subject matter. Michael Stipe is on record as saying that it is about cunnilingus. Off the top of my head, I can only think of “Turning Japanese” by The Vapours as a pop song that is inspired by a particular sexual act though I’m sure there will be more. I wonder if host Craig McLachlan knew the story behind the song. It would certainly have made his intro take on a complete different tone. Replace every mention of Rapid Eye Movement here with the word ‘cunnilingus’ and see what difference it makes:
“Let me talk to you about Rapid Eye Movement . Do you know what that is? Rapid Eye Movement – have you experienced it? You’re about to…R…E..M!”.
It’s time for another appearance by Seal as his single “Kiss From A Rose” is up to No 5. Somewhat surprisingly, despite his profile, Seal would only have another two UK Top 40 hits under his own name. In fact, his chart success fell away pretty spectacularly. Despite his first two albums going to No 1, his third, 1998’s “Human Being”, only made it to No 44 selling 10x less than its predecessor. He did have more of a return to form with “Seal IV” making No 4 appropriately in 2003 but he has not had another Top 10 album since. We won’t see him in the UK singles chart again for nearly 18 months when another song from a film – his cover of Steve Miller Band’s “Fly Like An Eagle” from SpaceJam returned him to the Top 20.
It’s the album chart slot now which means a chance for Supergrass to plug their debut album “I Should Coco” which has risen to the top of the charts off the back of the success of their No 2 single “Alright”. To celebrate the achievement, the band are live by satellite from Vancouver performing “Caught By The Fuzz” which was their first ever single which failed to make the Top 40 on its release in the autumn of 1994.
Wikipedia tells me that a mugshot of Hugh Grant – who had been caught by the fuzz (and indeed his short and curlys) receiving oral sex from prostitute Divine Brown on Sunset Boulevard exactly a month before this TOTP aired – was intended to be the artwork for the sleeve of the US release of the single. However, Grant’s lawyers complained and the idea was dropped. Not completely it would seem though as bassist Mick Quinn is wearing a T-shirt in this performance with that infamous Grant mugshot emblazoned all over it. I wonder if Hugh’s lawyers were watching?
As for the song itself, I’m slightly surprised that it never got a rerelease off the back of the band’s subsequent success. Maybe they thought they’d plundered the album enough by this point and wanted to avoid over exposure seeing as “Alright” had been all over radio and TV. Good tune though.
Oh dear. Inevitably, Craig McLachlan has got a guitar out and is singing the next intro (and I thought Mike Read was bad back in the day). Quite who the two blokes with him are or why they are dressed as Arabs I’m not sure. Could the disguised duo be any of the artists that were in the studio that day? Well, having inspected the footage, it’s clearly not PJ & Duncan / Ant & Dec nor any of Boyzone – could it be any of the Lightning Seeds or The Boo Radleys? I’d like to think they wouldn’t have lowered themselves.
Anyway, said intro is for JulianCope who is enjoying his first UK Top 40 hit since the rather lovely “Beautiful Love” from 1991. “Try Try Try” was the lead single from his twelfth solo studio album “20 Mothers” – wait, his twelfth was in 1995?! So how many has he done in total?
*checks his discography*
My God! He’s up to 36 now! Like him or loath him (and I very much like him), you have to admire the prolific frequency of his output. Listening back to “Try Try Try” now, I’m struck by how conventional a sound it is which is at odds with his outlandish appearance (he does look like a knacker in that druid hat). It sort of reminds me of The Who in places, something about the melody perhaps? I’d sort of lost track of Julian by this point having kind of drawn a line under him when buying his 1992 compilation “Floored Genius” though I’m sure I went to an exhibition he curated at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester around this time.
There’s an episode of RockFamilyTrees about the post-punk scene in Liverpool in the early 70s where Pete Wylie talks about Cope having been in the short lived but near legendary Crucial Three with him alongside Ian McCulloch. His relationship with Julian has been antagonistic over the years and he describes him as being this rather unwanted, weirdo type figure tutting “Here comes Julian” whenever Cope arrived. My wife and I still use this phrase today usually when our cat is pissing us off referring to him as Julian even though his name is Peter Pan.
TheOuthere Brothers are still at No 1 with “Boom Boom Boom”. Fear not though as their four week reign at the top will be ended in the next show by *SPOILER ALERT* Take That who also ended the run of their other chart topper “Don’t Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)”. This, in some way, almost makes up for the fact that they couldn’t depose Mr. Blobby as the Christmas No 1 in 1993. Almost.
The play out video is “Violet” by Hole. Apparently the lyrics relate to Courtney Love’s past relationship with Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan and it got me thinking about how many other songs are about relationships that have gone bad. Off the top of my head there’s “A Good Heart” by Feargal Sharkey which was written by Maria McKee about the end of her relationship with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench. Then there’s the follow up single “You Little Thief” which is written by Tench and is supposedly his response to McKee’s song. Perhaps the most famous example though is Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain”. For years there was speculation about who the song was about but Carly has finally admitted that it was about ex-lover Warren Beatty – well, the second verse at least if not the whole song. There must be many more out there though surely?
Order of appearance
Artist
Title
Did I buy it?
1
The Boo Radleys
It’s Lulu
No but I had the album
2
PJ & Duncan
Stuck On U
As if
3
Method Man featuring Mary J. Blige
I’ll BeThere For You / You’re All I Need To Get By
No
4
The Lightning Seeds
Perfect
Nope
5
Boyzone
So Good
Never happening
6
REM
Tongue
Nah
7
Seal
Kiss From A Rose
I did not
8
Supergrass
Caught By The Fuzz
See 1 above
9
Julian Cope
Try Try Try
Sorry Julian but no
10
The Outhere Brothers
Boom Boom Boom
Hell no!
11
Hole
Violet
Not for me thanks
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
Christmas and New Year have disappeared from view and we are well into January 1995 with the Top 40 singles chart ringing the changes. The bloat which saw festive hits lingering like left over turkey has dissipated as some brand new hits appear. I say brand new but the first song on tonight was onto its third attempt at chart glory. N–Trance were sound engineering students Kevin O’Toole and Dale Longworth who met at Oldham college and teamed up with a then 16 year old Kelly Llorenna on vocals to record “Set You Free” in 1992. It failed to make the Top 40 when released the following year but a second go saw it secure a chart peak of No 39 in 1994. That still wasn’t deemed satisfactory so a third release was commissioned with a shiny new remix and it would finally power up the charts all the way to No 2. I think it would probably be described as a ‘dance floor banger’ by those knowledgeable about such things but it sounds a bit like “Insanity” by Oceanic to me and I sometimes conflate the two. Despite both having euphoric, anthemic choruses though, “Set You Free” also features a break beat which is reminiscent of early Prodigy material.
I’m guessing the obligatory two anonymous blokes on keyboards here are O’Toole and Longworth but they also have a Bez type geezer dancing in the background in a boiler suit and sporting an oh so mid 90s curtains haircut. Excellent! One of the keyboard guys comes to the front of the stage to mess about with a guitar near the end of the performance but it’s not very convincing. Maybe he was setting his inner axe hero persona free.
I didn’t catch that much of Glastonbury 2023, just the headline acts each night and this year’s festival winner Rick Astley mainly. One band I did seek out though were TheLightningSeeds. I’ve always been a sucker for well crafted pop songs and Ian Broudie certainly knows his way around a good tune. I first became aware of his songwriting in 1983 via the nearly-hit single “Flaming Sword” by one of his early bands Care (though I didn’t actually know that Broudie was one of the band members). Then when “Pure” came out in 1989 by his new vehicle The Lightning Seeds, it shone out of the darkness of the late 80s house dominated charts like a lighthouse to me – a cracking pop single. By 1992, Broudie had teamed up with Terry Hall for the “Sense” album and single whilst “Life Of Riley” (written for his son) would become synonymous with MatchOfTheDay in the 90s when it was used to soundtrack the ‘Goal of the Month’ section.
However, it would be the band’s third studio album “Jollification” that would see them become chart regulars producing four Top 40 hit singles. However, the album got off to a faltering start with lead single “Lucky You” failing to make the Top 40 in the August of 1994 (it would peak at No 15 when rereleased in 1995). As such, there must have been a lot riding on the album’s second single “Change”. As it turned out, it would prove to be the band’s biggest hit (at the time) when it progressed to No 13. I think record label Epic pushed it (and the album) hard promotionally – there were strawberry scented promo copies of “Jollification” sent out as I recall. That success lit the blue touch paper on the band’s career heralding a run of nine consecutive Top 40 hits including a No 1.
Ah yes, that No 1 single. Both a huge money spinner if we’re being cynical (it’s been a hit four times) and the killer blow of any credibility the band might have had for many but there’s no denying the cultural impact of “Three Lions”. Originally released for the 1996 Euros, it’s resurfaced for just about every subsequent football tournament England have competed in since – it returned to No 1 in 1998 and 2018. Its appeal might just be on the wane finally though having seemingly been usurped by Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” for some unfathomable reason. With that huge commercial success though came accusations of sellout and naffness similar to the fate that befell Level 42 (maybe there was a curse for bands whose name began with an ‘L’?). Some of the people I worked with at Our Price hated The Lightning Seeds for being too mainstream and the default safe choice of artist for the shop stereo. I could see their point but I still quite liked the songs.
That’s all to come though. Back in early 1995, “Change” was charging up the charts and although not really part of the scene, the band were probably helped in their commercial fortunes by the parallel emergence of Britpop. Fast forward 28 years and the aforementioned Riley Broudie is now a member of the band playing on a stage at Glastonbury alongside his Dad. However, ultimately I was a bit disappointed with their set. Maybe those catchy pop tunes didn’t really suit a massive outdoor music festival. Still, they seemed to be having a jolly old time of it, one might even say they were living the life of Riley (ahem).
So after my claim about the show being littered with new hits at the top of the post, here’s a song that had been on the nation’s collective consciousness for nearly 9 months. To be fair to me, it was a new ‘hit’ if not a new ‘track’. The interval during the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest had unwittingly unleashed a cultural phenomenon upon an unsuspecting global audience. The spectacular that was “Riverdance” combining Irish folk music with modern dance and featuring principal dancers Jean Butler and Michael Flatley had wowed the watching TV hordes and would totally eclipse the winning song that year (it was “Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids” by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan for Ireland once more for all you pedants out there).
The song from the performance by composer Bill Whelan was rush released in Ireland due to the public response and would top the charts there for 18 weeks (keeping Wet Wet Wet off No 1). It was a different story in the UK where it loitered around the edges of the Top 100 for months until it was reactivated by an appearance at the RoyalVarietyPerformance sending it crashing into the Top 10 where it would peak at No 9. By this point, the whole phenomenon had been turned into a stage show opening in February 1995 with a soundtrack album from it also released. The show has visited over 450 venues and been seen by over 25 million people since its opening. In retrospect, its success rather makes host Mar Goodier’s comment in his intro “just watch the footwork” seem rather trite and silly.
The whole Riverdance happening didn’t really make my feet tap though. Indeed, if we’re talking Irish interval acts at Eurovision then there’s only one for me…
I used the words ‘totally eclipse’ earlier whilst discussing Riverdance and if I’m using them again about a song title then that can only mean one thing…Bonnie Tyler. Well, actually it doesn’t but it does mean “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” or rather the nastiest cover version of it you could ever imagine. Everything about this is wrong. The idea in the first place, its execution, the TOTP performance – this is just pure karaoke nonsense. A hi-NRG version of a Jim Steinman power ballad? What?! How?! Why?! It wasn’t even a totally new concept – Rage had produced a danced up take of “Run To You” by Bryan Adams which went Top 3 in 1992. Hadn’t we all realised what a terrible, useless mistake that mess had been by 1995?! The vocalist tasked with bringing the record into being was one NickiFrench who had previously been a cruise ship singer just four years before. This sounds really awful but her performance here has definite cruise cabaret vibes. You can almost see the look of disbelief and melancholy on the faces of her band that their careers as musicians had come to this.
As with N-Trance earlier, Nicki’s single had been out before in 1993 and had peaked at No 54 but the rerelease would take her all the way to No 5. In a bizarre turn of events both Nicki and Bonnie Tyler would end up representing the UK at Eurovision – Nicki in 2000 and Bonnie in 2013. Neither won obviously.
Some proper music at last! Contrary to popular opinion (including my own probably), Britpop wasn’t the only game in town in 1995. There was also the emergence of trip hop. The name was first coined in an article in Mixmag magazine in 1994 about DJ Shadow (an artist my aforementioned Our Price colleagues did love) but its origins lay at the start of the decade in Bristol. Fusing hip hop with electronica into a downbeat yet affecting sound, the main protagonists of the genre were Tricky, Massive Attack and of course Portishead, according to the music press anyway. “Glory Box” was the latter’s third single and second chart hit after “Sour Times” the Summer before and it was, let’s be fair, a tune. Haunting, shimmering, hypnotic we’re just some of the descriptors used to give expression to its sound. Singer Beth Gibbons unique voice was a main ingredient in the recipe I think. Their debut album “Dummy” which housed all three singles would go to No 2 and three times platinum in the UK and would win the Mercury Music Prize in 1995 beating the likes of Britpop heavyweights Oasis and Supergrass.
My ever more fashionable wife was into Portishead from the get go and bought the album whilst I didn’t even know quite how to pronounce their name thinking initially it was ‘Porti-shed’. Clearly geography hadn’t been my strongest subject at school as the band took their name from a North Somerset town 8 miles to the west of Bristol. This from a guy who was working in a mainstream record shop at the time! The band were never devotees of fame and celebrity though and took 3 years to follow up “Dummy” with their eponymous second album which performed well but nowhere near the numbers of its predecessor. To date, the band have still only released three albums with the last coming in 2008. Theor active status has been on and off since 1999 but they are currently an ongoing entity and performed a benefit concert in 2022 for refugees and children affected by the war in Ukraine.
Who the hell are this lot? Well, they might not have registered on my radar but TheAlmighty were briefly a big deal. Scottish heavy rockers from a punk background, their third album “”Powertrippin’” made No 5 on the UK charts in 1993. This track “Jonestown Mind” was from the follow up “Crank” and would be their highest charting single when it peaked at No 26.
It’s not really my thing at all so I haven’t got much to say about The Almighty other than the band’s name puts me in mind of this clip from Life Of Brian:
And the title of the song of this from Alan Partridge’s Mid Morning Matters series:
Go to 3:00
Now if we’re talking Scottish rockers, here’s a band who I feel much more qualified to comment on. Like many I’m guessing, I first became aware of SimpleMinds in 1982 with their breakthrough chart hit “Promised You A Miracle” – I’d been blissfully unaware of their first four studio albums – and by 1984 was impressed enough to buy their “Sparkle In The Rain” album (on white vinyl no less!). I also didn’t mind their much maligned ‘stadium rock’ era and even bought “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”. They ended the 80s with a No 1 single and album in “Belfast Child” and “Street Fighting Years” respectively. The 90s though were more of a struggle. 1991’s “Real Life” sold well enough but was poorly received by the critics and a rethink was required with a gap of four years to the next album filled by an albeit very successful retread of past glories in Best Of “Glittering Prize 81/92”. 1995 saw the release of “Good News From The Next World” and lead single “She’s A River” and guess what? It sounded just like Simple Minds. As I say, no bad thing in my book but it was hardly a new direction to reignite their career. Still, maybe they didn’t need to do that and this new material was flame enough to keep the home fires burning a little longer yet. After all, the single did make the Top 10. However, it would be the last time the band were ever so high in the charts. A second single from the album called “Hypnotised” made the Top 20 but the writing was on the wall for their commercial fortunes. They continue to record and tour however and the nucleus of Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill remains in place.
Now about this live by satellite performance. A few weeks back Jamiroquai played from a building from which you could see the Eiffel Tower in the background. Enter Simple Minds to run with that concept but take it up 1000 notches. Never mind seeing one of the planet’s most recognisable landmarks in the background, we want to play at the top of the damn thing! It makes for quite a vista and is certainly up there with Bon Jovi’s Niagara Falls performance. It also brings to mind the video for Duran Duran’s James Bond song “A View To A Kill” which was filmed at the Eiffel Tower. Thankfully there’s no repeat of that video’s ending here. No, I don’t mean the Eiffel Tower blowing up but rather that there’s no awful breaking of the fourth wall moment when a fan approaches Simon Le Bon and asks “Excuse me…aren’t you?” to which the singer replies “Bon. Simon Le Bon”. I suppose “Kerr. Jim Kerr” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it anyway.
Before the new No 1, host Mark Goodier introduces us to new Radio 1 DJ Lisa I’Anson who had taken over the station’s weekday lunchtime show and I’m pretty sure would go on to present a few TOTPs.
As to said No 1 by Rednex, I asked a Facebook group recently if “Cotton Eye Joe” was the worst song of the 90s? I was roundly scolded in the replies with respondents quoting the likes of Mr Blobby, Teletubbies, Flat Eric, Spice Girls, Westlife and even The Fugees at me. Fair enough I guess though my favourite reply came from someone who simply asked me “Are you on drugs?”.
Order of appearance
Artist
Title
Did I buy it?
1
N-Trance
Set You Free
Nope
2
The Lightning Seeds
Change
I thought I had the Jollification album but can’t find it
3
Bill Whelan
Riverdance
No
4
Nicki French
Total Eclipse Of The Heart
As if
5
Portishead
Glory Box
No but my wife had the album
6
The Almighty
Jonestown Mind
Nah
7
Simple Minds
She’s A River
Think I might have it on a Best of somewhere
8
Rednex
Cotton Eye Joe
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
Look, there’s no way of putting a nice bow on this, 1992 was yet another crappy year. Nothing happened! Well, not literally obviously but it was like the UK was waiting for the next big thing to arrive any minute but whatever it was going to be, it hadn’t even done its packing by the end of the year let alone have any sort of ETA. Nothing sums this up more than this fact. The biggest selling album of the year was “Stars” by Simply Red which was also the biggest selling album of the previous year. Where was the influence of the much vaunted grunge rock movement? It was certainly conspicuous by its absence in terms of both the singles and albums charts. The singles market had a disastrous year with sales slumping dramatically. There were only 12 different No 1 songs, the smallest number for thirty years. I guess we should have a look at them….
Dearie me! Less than half of the twelve were by brand new artists and of that number only two were British. There were at least four big ballads in there (none bigger than Whitney Houston’s), three cover versions and the return of a man who hadn’t had a hit for seven years and he was better known as an actor than a singer! Three of the total of eight British acts in the list had made their name in the 80s whilst the hang over Xmas No 1 from 1991 was by Queen. The only vaguely interesting song on the list was “Ebeneezer Goode” by The Shamen. Even if you didn’t like it, at least it ruffled a few feathers. Of the twelve, I bought none at all although my wife did buy the Wet Wet Wet album with “Goodnight Girl” on it. There wasn’t quite a Bryan Adams event with Shakespear’s Sister coming the closest with an eight week run at the top. Whitney Houston would better that by two weeks but that run was spread over 1992 and 1993. There were some decent singles like…erm…give me a minute…it’ll come to me…Utah Saints? The Wedding Present “Hit Parade” project? There was an awful lot of shite though from the likes of Tetris, Ambassadors of Funk, The Chippendales and WWF Superstars. What the hell was going on?!
The best selling albums weren’t much cop either. Half of the Top 20 were Best Of / Collections with the highest placing studio albums coming from Michael Jackson, Genesis and Right Said Fred with only the latter being released in 1992 itself. The Top 50 reads like a register of rock/pop royalty. Elton John, Diana Ross, Bryan Adams, Queen, U2, Mike Oldfield, Madonna, Tina Turner, ABBA, Cher…Only the likes of REM and The Shamen (again) stand out as even vaguely interesting. Rock music was represented by some already well established names in Bon Jovi, Guns N’ Roses and Def Leppard. Even Nirvana (oh there’s grunge!) were hardly a new name come the end of 1992 and although their No 20 placing in the best sellers list with “Nevermind” was laudable, where were all the other bands following in their wake? Special mention should go to Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine who did score a No 1 album this year against the odds though it doesn’t appear in the best selling Top 50.
Hits We Missed
This section hasn’t been that busy in reviews of recent years because we haven’t missed any TOTP episodes due to issues surrounding presenters but that all changed again in 1992. I should be clear that the Adrian Rose repeats were not broadcast because he refused to sign the waiver and nothing to do with any unpalatable reasons. I haven’t checked exactly how many shows were missed but it was certainly double figures. Then there were songs that made the charts but somehow never made it onto the show, not even a few seconds in the Breakers. Maybe they could gave fitted a few more in if they hadn’t gone so heavy in all those live by satellite exclusive performances. Anyway, whatever the reason, here’s a few we missed.
Buffy Sainte Marie – The Big Ones Get Away
The name Buffy meant nothing to me in 1992. Not even in terms of vampire slayers as the Joss Whedon TV series* didn’t premiere until five years later. Buffy Sainte Marie certainly didn’t register but my store manager in the Our Price in Manchester knew her and was keen to listen to her first new album for sixteen years on the shop stereo. So it was that I came to hear “The Big Ones Get Away” which sounded like it came from a different time altogether and a million miles away from much of the dross that was populating the charts. No, not from a different time but timeless, shining like a beacon through the grey mists of contemporary trends. So understated yet powerful. Genuinely affecting.
*The original film was out this year but it passed me by.
I said earlier I’d never heard of the name Buffy Sainte Marie until 1992 though I had heard unknowingly one of her songs. She co-wrote the Oscar winning “Up Where We Belong” for AnOfficerAndAGentleman. Her legacy will be much more than that though. She is also an artist, pacifist and social activist campaigning to highlight the issues affecting the indigenous peoples of the Americas of which she is one having been born in a reserve in Saskatchewan, Canada to Cree parents.
Released: January1992
Chartpeak: No39
Daisy Chainsaw – Love Your Money
This lot were a riot (or should that be riot grrl?). Forging a reputation for anarchic live gigs with lead singer KatieJane Garside performing in soiled clothes and drinking from a baby’s bottle, these indie rockers gained an unlikely foothold in the actual Top 40 with their “Love Sick Pleasure” EP which featured the track “Love Your Money”. Their USP was Garside’s vocal stylings which ranged from childlike whispering to outright screaming. They hit the spot though on “Love Your Money” which made No 26 in the charts. Perhaps inevitably given Garside’s vocal techniques, the reason we never saw Daisy Chainsaw on TOTP was nothing to do with Adrian Rose nor that they just weren’t asked; they were but had to turn it down due to Garside having a throat infection!
Garside left the band in 1993 becoming a recluse until reappearing in 1999 with Queenadreena.
Released: February1992
Chartpeak: No26
Jah Wobble’s Invaders Of The Heart – Visions Of You
I just started watching Danny Boyle’s Pistol last night so including this next artist seems appropriate. Jah Wobble’s name is inextricably linked with John Lydon despite him leaving PiL after their first two albums. He formed Invaders Of The Heart in 1982 but it wasn’t until ten years later that they had a bona fide chart hit.
“Visions Of You” featured the vocals Sinéad O’Connor which perfectly suited this blissed out, vibes heavy track that appeared on the “Rising Above The Bedlam” album. This wasn’t the first time the charts had been home to such an Indian influenced song of course. There was The Beatles’ later work and some of George Harrison’s solo material in the 60s and 70s and Monsoon’s “Ever So Lonely” in 1982. It wasn’t the last either with Kula Shaker ploughing that furrow in 1996 with their “K” album and in particular the track “Govinda”. And yet “Visions Of You” seemed like a genuine outlier back in early 1992.
A colleague I worked with at Our Price in Manchester loved this track and it would get a regular airing in the shop stereo which is probably why I know it as I don’t recall hearing it on the radio much.
Released: February1992
Chartpeak: No35
The Lightning Seeds – Sense
The Lightning Seeds probably get a tougher rap than they deserve. Sure, “Three Lions” has become unlistenable due to it being reactivated every international football tournament that England are in and from “Jollification” onwards it all became a bit formulaic but for me, you can’t doubt that Ian Broudie is one talented guy. Just look at his past history and where he came from. He was a member of Big In Japan with Holly Johnson and Bill Drummond and also in John Peel favourites Original Mirrors. Then he formed Care with ex Wild Swans singer Paul Simpson who came up with one of the best singles of the 80s not to make the Top 40 in “Flaming Sword”. As that decade ended came The Lightning Seeds whose “Pure” single was a highlight of 1989. In between that and the band’s golden period surrounding “Jollification” and “Three Lions” came sophomore album “Sense”.
Remembered mainly for lead single “The Life Of Riley” and its use on MatchOfTheDay’s Goal Of The Month section, it was also home to title track “Sense”. Released as the album’s second single, this largely forgotten track was co written with the legendary Terry Hall and is a wonderful pop record. Hall recorded his own version of the song in 1994 for his album “Home” and it probably trumps Broudie’s vocals version for me but I can’t put it in a review of 1992!
I bought the single and was delighted to discover that “Flaming Sword” was the B-side! What’s not to love!
Released: May1992
Chartpeak: No31
Vegas – Possessed
Talking of Terry Hall…Mr Misery (I love Terry but he is quite dour!) was on a roll with collaborations this year. After Ian Broudie came Dave Stewart of Eurythmics. I think there were more than just the two of them in Vegas but all the publicity surrounding the project focussed on them (I think it was a Tears For Fears or OMD type arrangement). The fusion of creative minds generated one album and three singles but the only one to garner even a sniff of chart action was the lead single “Possessed”. This really does come under the title of ‘lost gem’. Literally lost as the album has long since been deleted and has never appeared on streaming services.
In the most recent issue of ClassicPop magazine within an article on Dave Stewart, there is a little box out on Vegas. In it, Stewart texts the head of a music investment firm whilst being interviewed to ask them to investigate making the album available again (fingers crossed!). He also says record company BMG gave them some money to record a making of the album documentary but instead they spent it arseing about in a disused hotel casino in France remaking sections of The Shining. Apparently that footage is in the faults somewhere but I don’t think there is the same clamour for that to be made available as there is for the album!
The single is almost pop perfection with Terry’s downbeat vocals aligning somehow perfectly with an uplifting chorus that speaks of recovery and rejuvenation. There’s a line in there that speaks probably to many of us but certainly to me – “I even like myself again”. A nice trick if you can pull it off.
Released: September1992
Chartpeak: No32
The Beautiful South – Old Red Eyes Is Back
One of my favourite albums of 1992 was The Beautiful South’s “0898” which contained four great singles including this which was the first to be released. Technically it came out in 1991 (30 Dec) but it was on an Adrian Rose TOTP in the January so I think I’m OK to include it here.
With its clever Sinatra reference in the title, “Old Red Eyes Is Back” was a very literal yet heart wrenching depiction of alcoholism and also a nifty little tune to boot. Despite not making the Top 20, it’s become one of the band’s best remembered tunes I think. Maybe it’s the subject matter that speaks to so many. A sad indictment indeed.
This was actually an EP entitled “Dixie-Narco” rather than a regular single release though “Movin’ On Up” was the track that got all the airplay and indeed was the only track on it that came from their seminal “Screamadelica” album. The other tracks on the EP were “Stone My Soul”, a cover of “Carry Me Home” written by Dennis Wilson for the Beach Boys’ “Holland” album (though never included) and “Screamadelica” which had been recorded at the time for its namesake album but which only made it onto the 20th anniversary Limited Collectors Edition.
The opening song on”Screamadelica”, “Movin On Up” was surely destined to always be released as a single (of sorts as it turns out). Who could resist its uplifting, gospel tinged vibe and the sadly departed Denise Johnson‘s vocals? I couldn’t and the EP duly rests in my singles box.
The performance we missed seems fairly restrained for Bobby Gillespie though he does seem to have a case of restless leg in his right one which involuntarily keeps…ahem…movin’ on up.
TOTPshowfeaturedon: 6February1992
Chartpeak:No11
Everything But The Girl – Love Is Strange
Another EP! Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt have made some great records but the truth is that until the Todd Terry mix of “Missing” went stratospheric, their biggest hits were cover versions. The last time we had seen the couple on TOTP was four years prior to this when their cover of “I Don’t Want To Talk About It” went Top 3. Two albums and no hit singles later, they returned to covers and released an EP of them called…erm…”Covers EP”. The track listing was eclectic rather than obscure featuring “Tougher Than The Rest” by Bruce Springsteen, “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper, “Alison” by Elvis Costello and this one, Mickey and Sylvia’s “Love Is Strange”. Originally released in 1956, its use in the film DirtyDancing brought it to the attention of a whole new generation. Ben and Tracey’s take on it erred towards sweet and gentle but I didn’t mind that at all. Twee did someone say? How dare you?!
Although this was a stand-alone release in the UK, a whole album was cobbled together for the US. Called “Acoustic” it comprised the “Covers EP”, a version of Tom Waits’ “Downtown Train” (that’s how you cover that song Rod Stewart!) and six acoustic versions of EBTG songs. I seem to recall that their record label rereleased their 1991 album “Worldwide”, which had underperformed commercially, with the “Covers EP” tacked onto it in the wake of its success. I could be wrong though.
Damn! We missed a Kim Wilde episode! Oh…erm….yes, anyway…in 1992, after a total of zero chart hits in the decade so far, Kim Wilde set upon a course of reinventing herself as Belinda Carlisle. OK, it wasn’t quite as literal as that but the resemblance of “Love Is Holy” to something like “Heaven On Earth” can’t be ignored. There was good reason why though. It was written by one Rick Nowels who had written some of Belinda’s previous hits. The plan worked with the single returning Kim to the Top 40 for the first time since 1989.
It was only a temporary reprieve though. The album “Love Is…” was a moderate seller and failed to produce any further hit singles. A final chart hurrah arrived the following year when Kim took a cover of Yvonne Elliman’s “If I Can’t Have You” to No 12 to promote her “Singles Collection 1981-1993” album.
Kim is still a massive live draw and her 2018 album “Here Come The Aliens” charted at No 21, her best position since the aforementioned “Love Is…” thirty years ago.
My first impression of Tori Amos was that she was an American Kate Bush. Now that might be seen as a compliment by many but there was much more to Tori than my initial crude assessment. She’s a classically trained pianist with a mezzo-soprano vocal range for a start. A child prodigy, she was admitted to the Peabody Institute, John Hopkins University aged just five. She briefly fronted synth pop band Y Kant Tori Read who failed dismally, the demise of whom inspired Tori to write material for herself. One of them was “Crucify” which would become her second consecutive UK Top 40 hit after “Winter” made No 25 in March. Both were taken from her debut album “Little Earthquakes” which was well received by critics and fans alike.
With a title like “Crucify”, the song was bound to cause some controversy and it was duly banned in the US Bible Belt for being sacrilegious and blasphemous. Conversely, the aforementioned Kate Bush changed the title of her single “Running Up That Hill” from its original name of “A Deal With God” so as to avoid such a reaction in certain territories. Admittedly she was under record company pressure to do so but a difference between her and Amos all the same.
Tori’s performance on TOTP couldn’t have been more different from the ‘91 vintage of female singer songwriter sat at a piano as personified by Beverley Craven. She looks like she can barely keep her bum on the seat and that at any moment she’ll cock a leg onto the piano Little Richard style.
Tori Amos returned in 1994 with a huge hit in “Cornflake Girl” and even bagged a surprise No 1 in 1997 when an Armand van Helden remix of “Professional Widow (It’s Got To Be Big”) topped the charts.
Having started life as buskers on Dublin’s Grafton Street, The Pale eventually came to widespread public attention with the release of their major label debut single “Dogs With No Tails”. As I recall, the track was picked up on by Radio 1 breakfast DJ Simon Mayo who gave it substantial airplay on his show. I’m pretty sure that will be where I heard it first. He had a habit of trying to break records that he had stumbled on as well as being responsible for the resurrection of songs like “Donald Where’s Your Troosers”, “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” and “Kinky Boots” for no discernible reason. He often came across as full of his own importance to me.
“Dogs With No Tails” sounded completely out of sync with the dominant music movements of the time coming on like an Irish Les Négresses Vertes (“Zobi La Mouche” and all that). Maybe that was its appeal. Something to remind us that music didn’t have to be formulaic and homogeneous.
Despite that Mayo endorsement, it just failed to make the Top 40. My wife was one of those who tried to make it a hit and it duly resides in our singles box to this day. Undeterred, the band changed tack, left A&M and released a number of critically well received albums independently. They are still an ongoing entity touring extensively and with their last album being as recent as 2019.
Released: June1992
Chartpeak: No51
NaturalLife – NaturalLife
Seemingly now just a footnote in pop history to inform us that this was Shovell from M People’s first band, there was a bit more to this lot than that. They were the only London band to appear on the bill for the two day CitiesInThePark mini festival to commemorate the recently deceased legendary producer Martin Hannett in 1991.
More exposure came from Radio 1 who’s listeners voted their debut single “Strange World” as their Record of the Week. Despite not charting, there was enough of a buzz about the band got a second tilt at the Top 40 in the shape of the band’s eponymously titled second single. This was again voted Record of the Week and got decent airplay. I was sure this one would be a hit and I duly bought it. I loved its rock guitar / dance percussion hybrid and memorable lyrics (“Business man you’re 21, said you carry your pen like a soldier’s gun”). Sometimes though airplay doesn’t translate to sales and it fell short once more by just seven places. Had the promised land of the Top 40 been reached, maybe a TOTP appearance would have followed and then who knows what. Sadly, that’s a tale for a parallel universe.
Released: Feb 1992
Chartpeak: No47
XTC – TheBalladOfPeterPumpkinhead
XTC really are a criminally underrated band. How can the genius of their work correlate to the lack of commercial success they have received. By 1992, they hadn’t had a Top 40 hit for ten years, the last being the incredible “Senses Working Overtime”. Maybe it didn’t matter to Andy Partridge and co by that point. They had a loyal fanbase and had arguably produced some of their best work in the intervening time.
Then, out of the blue, came another chart entry via the wonderful “Disappointed” which made the giddy heights of No 33. I could have gone with that track for the Hits We Missed section as it didn’t warrant a TOTP appearance. However, I’ve gone with the follow up “The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead” as despite missing the Top 40, is probably better known via its association with the film Dumb And Dumber courtesy of the cover of it by Crash Test Dummies in 1995.
It’s a cracking song (oops! Went a bit Wallace And Gromit there or is it Dominic Raab?) which pulls you in right from the deceptively slow intro which then explodes into life via a harmonica riff and keeps you locked in for the next four minutes helter skelter ride. The Crash Test Dummies version is almost identical apart from featuring a female lead vocalist (Ellen Reid) instead of the distinctive bass-baritone of Brad Roberts. Had the Canadian band already got permission from XTC to record it prior to the film coming out or was it specifically recorded for the soundtrack? If the latter, why didn’t the film makers just ask to use the original? The Crash Test Dummies did what XTC couldn’t and took the song into the charts where it peaked at No 30.
I bought the XTC version and the “Disappointed” single which both came from the band’s “Nonsuch” album.
Released: May 1992
Chartpeak: No71
Spinal Tap – TheMajestyOfRock
How many times have I watched ThisIsSpinal Tap? I’ve lost count but every time I do catch it, I find another little detail of brilliant comedy. And oh please let the rumour that has recently surfaced about a sequel actually happening be true. Back in 1992, the main protagonists of the project had already reconvened but not for a follow up film. No, they had recorded an album – the pun-tastic “Break Like The Wind” – and even did some live dates to promote it. For me, that blurring of the lines between fiction and reality that helped add layers of intertextuality is what’s made the project endure all these years.
The marketing campaign for the album included the brilliant tool of getting the Our Price chain to amend their weekly instore charts to include “Break Like The Wind” going in straight at No 0. Positioned above that weeks No 1 album, it was all too much for one customer I served who came to the counter looking for an explanation as to what on earth had happened to the chart. “But you can’t have position zero” he argued. I tried to explain it was just a promotional joke on behalf of the record company but he wasn’t satisfied with my explanation and wandered off muttering the words “number zero” and “pah”!
The album’s actual chart position was a peak of No 51 and it included two singles – “Bitch School” which was a minor Top 40 hit and this one, “The Majesty Of Rock” which missed the chart altogether. The lyrics are gloriously ridiculous:
To the majesty of rock, the pageantry of roll
The crowing of the cock, the running of the foal
And that’s the majesty of rock, the mystery of roll
The darning if the sock, the scoring of the goal
Lovely stuff. My mate Robin caught the band at the Albert Hall on the tour. Here he is attempting to get some skin off the band…
Released: May1992
Chartpeak: No61
Tom Cochrane – LifeIsAHighway
This was a Top 10 hit in the US which never translated to the UK. I’d never heard of Tom Cochrane before and I never heard anything about him after this track but apparently he was the the leader of Canadian 80s rockers Red Rider. During the Summer of ‘92, my Our Price colleague Knoxy spent a few weeks on holiday in America and when he came back said that he’d heard this song everywhere he went. Based on that, I thoroughly expected it to be huge over here but it just didn’t happen. Maybe it was too formulaic US rock for a a UK population who were enamoured with KWS at that point!
Years later, a version of it by an outfit called Rascal Flatts covered the song and it was used in the soundtrack to the Walt Disney/Pixar animation Cars. See what they did there?
Released: June1992
Chartpeak:No 62
A House – Endless Art
Now I have to admit that I didn’t know of this tune at the time but it definitely is of 1992 vintage. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered it randomly on Spotify (randomly in terms of I wasn’t looking for it anyway. I know the algorithms make pure randomness impossible). Like The Pale earlier, this lot were from Dublin and just like “Dogs With No Tails”, “Endless Art” was not your typical indie rock song. Yes, the idea of a ‘list’ song wasn’t original (think “We Didn’t Start The Fire” by Billy Joel, “Nothing Ever Happens by Del Amitri etc) but the way they executed it made it stand out for me. Maybe it’s just Dave Couse’s Irish accent that brings it to life. The list of artists from various fields and eras is remarkable easy on the ear with a couple of rhyming names placed in close proximity to aid the song’s flow. I think my favourite is “Johann Strauss, Richard Strauss, Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse RIP”. The innovative stop-motion video for the single drew lots of praise but even that wasn’t enough to propel it into the Top 40. They finally creeped in two years later with “Here Come the Good Times (Part 1)” but the band split a couple of years after that.
Their legacy far outstripped their commercial achievements with the Irish Times rock critics voting their “I Am The Greatest” album the third best Irish long player of all time behind only “Loveless” by My Bloody Valentine and “Achtung Baby” by U2. Indeed, some have argued that they were more important than Bono et al.
A House. RIP.
Released: June 1992
Chart peak: No 46
Martin Stephenson And The Daintees – Big Sky New Light
I’d known about Martin Stephenson since the mid 80s when The Daintees (as they just were back then) released “Trouble Town”, a marvellous, uplifting little pop tune on Kitchenware Records. Then came the switch to major label London Records, a repositioning of the band as Martin Stephenson And The Daintees and the “Boat To Bolivia” album which attracted superlative praise from the critics but not much in the way of sales. “Gladsome, Humour & Blue” became their highest charting album in 1988 and then just as I was leaving the bubble of being a student came “Salutation Road” which is just a great album.
Their final album for London was “A Boy’s Heart” and “Big Sky New Light” was the lead single from it. Not my favourite Stephenson tune by any means but in a year that saw Mr Big and Nick Berry very nearly top the charts, I wasn’t going to miss out this little bit of quality to balance the equation. A gently driven yet solid song, it saw Martin enliven it with some shouted vocals and even the odd ‘yeah!’. I bought the single though I have to say it was from the bargain bin.
Martin went onto a prolific solo career beginning with the following year’s “High Bells Ring Thin” album and he has also reactivated the Daintees to re-record all four of their albums on the 30th anniversary of their release.
Released: June 1992
Chart peak: No 71
Pele – Megalomania
Hailing from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire (I once knew a girl from Ellesmere Port – that’s it, that’s the story. Not great is it?) this lot built up a strong live following and were quickly picked up by M&G Records and set to work recording their debut album “Fireworks”. When it finally came out it was a Recommended Release in the Our Price chain and hopes were high that it would accrue some steady sales but ultimately it didn’t really light up the sky. It did however feature three very good singles that received decent airplay but which all failed to chart.
The middle one of those was “Megalomania” which was a bright and breezy pop tune that was perfect for daytime playlists. All the singles were to be fair. Listening back to them now, they’re kind of like a poppier version of Pale Fountains who I loved. Despite being ignored by the UK record buying public, “Megalomania” was a No 1 in South Africa and the band toured with the likes of Del Amitri and The Pogues. A record company dispute caused the band to split but main man Ian Prowse carved out a successful music career forming Amsterdam and striking up a working relationship with Elvis Costello.
Released: February1992
Chartpeak: No73
Their Season In The Sun
Charles And Eddie
They arrived out of nowhere with a retro sounding yet broad church appealing song that would conquer the charts. Not quite the classic definition one hit wonder of one huge song then nothing – they had three further UK hits though none made it any higher than No 29 – but it was damn close. Certainly Charles And Eddie (terrible name) were never bigger than they were in the Autumn of 1992.
Curtis Stigers
An unlikely pop star, Curtis came from a jazz club background but emerged with the backing of major label Arista as some sort of rock ‘n’ soul artist, Daryl Hall and John Oates style. Amazingly it worked and Curtis racked up two consecutive Top 10 hits in the first half of the year. Suddenly the spell was broken and his biggest hit after that would be a No 28 five years later.
Curtis returned to his jazz roots recording multiple albums for the Concord Jazz label and if his Twitter account is anything to go by, remains a thoroughly decent chap which is all that matters to me.
KWS
The biggest band to come out of Nottingham since Paper Lace. It’s quite an accolade (don’t tell Tindersticks I said it though). Similar to Charles And Eddie, they weren’t quite the one hit wonders people might suspect they are. They actually accrued five UK Top 40 singles including a follow up Top 10 hit but it’s their cover of KC And The Sunshine Band’s “Please Don’t Go” that they will forever be associated with.
This really sounded like lowest common denominator stuff – never mind the quality, feel the sales. They were the soul brother to Undercover’s poppier take on the genre (more of them later). Inevitably, their story ended as all such short lived encounters with fame do – with one of them appearing on the Identity Parade round on Never Mind The Buzzcocks.
The Shamen
It seems a bit unfair to include The Shamen in this section as they existed long before 1992 and for many years after too. This 12 month period though brought them commercial success like no other before or since. A Top 3 album and four Top 10 singles including the controversy raking No 1 “Ebeneezer Goode”. It was a level of profile that they would never reach again. Maybe they took too long (three years) to release their next album “Axis Mutatis” or maybe they were undone by the rise of Britpop? Either way, The Shamen will always have 1992 to remind them how big they once were.
Shanice
Finally the classic one hit wonder! One enormous single and then no further Top 40 entries ever – not under her own name at least. “I Love Your Smile” bounded to No 2 propelled by that infectious ‘de der dup dup der der der’ vocal hook but then nothing. Zip. Nada. Shanice paid the bills by doing backing vocals for the likes of Toni Braxton and Usher whilst also branching out into acting and even reality TV with her show with her husband Flex And Shanice. Flex?!
Tasmin Archer
An intriguing marketing campaign (‘Who is Tasmin Archer?’) helped launch this breakthrough artist into the stratosphere but in reality it was the strength of her debut single “Sleeping Satellite” that achieved success which she couldn’t have conceived of in her wildest dreams. So radio friendly was it that it was surely cooked up in the hit song laboratory. It soared to No 1 and hinted at huge things for Tasmin but those “Great Expectations” were never really fulfilled. Her album went Top 10 and three more singles from it were hits though none bigger than No 16. Even an EP of Elvis Costello covers couldn’t reactivate her career. By the time of her second album in 1996, she’d been mostly forgotten leaving people to ask ‘Who is Tasmin Archer?’ all over again.
Undercover
This lot’s short lived success was almost inexplicable. Lame dance versions of rock/ pop standards fronted by a guy who looked like he’d turned up after his other job as a bingo caller? Come on! Seriously? Two big and one smaller hit was the extent of their success before obscurity beckoned. For a short while though they were Top of the Shop Pops.
Last Words
And it’s done. Another TOTP year reviewed and another stinker. A completely directionless 12 months with the charts full of all sorts of crap. In the non music world, there was another General Election win for The Tories (BOO!) and my beloved Chelsea were still awful and five years away from actually winning anything. Personally, there was a big change for me work wise with an unexpected promotion and move to a different shop which I loved. TOTP itself was still finding its way after the sweeping changes of the ‘year zero’ revamp. For my money, those changes hadn’t worked in that the show wasn’t substantially any better than the complacent dinosaur it had become. The endless ‘exclusives’ were tedious and the four Breakers in under two minutes supremely annoying. By the end of the year, most of the new presenters had gone leaving a hardcore of just Tony Dortie and Mark Franklin. Clearly it wasn’t working for new executive producer Stanley Appel either. And so 1993 beckons. In my head , this year was one of the worst of the whole decade. Please, please let me be wrong…
Disclaimer
I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).
All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.
TOTP Rewind - the 90s 