After last week’s post where I once again expressed my incredulity at the popularity of James Brown, I added my blog to a Facebook group asking the question ‘Does anybody else not get James Brown?’. Somebody replied ‘Morrissey probably’. After chucking to myself, I began to examine my own musical preferences in much more detail and suddenly realised that I didn’t own much music made by black artists at all. Shit! What was that all about and how had it happened? I basically seemed to like skinny white boys playing guitar music. Was I that shallow or worse was I kidding myself about my perceived liberalities? After a while I began to realise the truth that my friend Robin once enlightened me with when I tried to tell him that he couldn’t just dismiss the whole of Elton John’s back catalogue as crap which was ‘Yes I can – musical taste is subjective – I thought you knew that’.
With Robin’s words ringing in my ears, I nervously review this TOTP. The presenters are Bruno Brookes who seems to have caught the eye of the programme’s producers and is getting a lot more gigs than he used to. His partner by comparison is an absolute novice. Adrian John?! I remember the name but not his show which was probably because it was the very early morning pre-breakfast show – as an old hand at this student lark by this time, I was not used to rising from my pit before 10.00 am unless I really had to.
The first act tonight is Joyce Sims with “Walk Away”. I didn’t like this record much at all but that is no reflection on any lack of political correctness as previously established. I just found it a bit dull and repetitive. Joyce would scrape into the UK Top 40 just one more time in 1989 with a song called “Looking for a Love” which I cannot recall at all but she continues to make club appearances to this day. By comparison, I haven’t been in a nightclub this century. Fair play to you Joyce.
Next a song that had not only been a hit before but was (and still is I think) the biggest selling 12′ single in the UK ever. Everybody knows New Order‘s “Blue Monday” so why was it re-released just five years after its initial introduction to the world as “Blue Monday ’88”? Was it to promote their “Substance” Best Of album? Maybe but that was released in August ’87 some nine months or so previous and the ’88 remix isn’t on it so that theory doesn’t really hold water. This version was produced by Quincy Jones and apparently the group were signed to his Qwest Records label by this point so maybe he just wanted a hit single out of his new charges.
I do remember it being back in the charts but I wouldn’t have guessed that it was such a big hit making No 3 (as opposed to its original No 9 peak). Those in the know attribute its success to the fact that it was commercially available in 7″ format for the first time unlike its ’83 counterpart which makes sense I guess. The video looks a bit like a 6th form art group project to me and nowhere near as visually arresting as the iconic “True Faith” promo.
The nerves have got the better of Adrian John as he introduces soft rockers Magnum‘s hit single “Start Talking Love” as ‘Sweet Talkin’ Love’. He tries to style it out but we can all see what’s happened. So who were Magnum? Apparently they had been in existence for 14 (FOURTEEN!) years before they started to ingratiate themselves with the UK record buying public enough to score some Top 40 action. They were the house band at the legendary Birmingham nightclub The Rum Runner whilst later residents Duran Duran were still running around in shorts. Would it be unfair to say that their back story goes a long way to explaining why they didn’t look that fresh faced in 1988?
They’d already had a minor Top 40 hit earlier in the year with “Days Of No Trust” before this one became their biggest ever single peaking at No 22. Wikipedia tells me that the album it was taken from (“Wings Of Heaven)”) was a top 5 album which only goes to show how big a market there was for this type of stuff back in the day. I’m sure that Magnum would have been a staple of the soft rock show on local North East radio station Metro at this time which I would sometimes find myself listening to as I attempted to do some work as a student at Sunderland Polytechnic.
Here’s the Breakers and we start with a novelty record from Harry Enfield whose Loadsamoney character was a huge hit on Channel 4’s Friday Live programme. I loved this comedy concoction back then and would seem to spend many a Friday night in front of a TV screen awaiting his arrival. Such was his cultural impact it was inevitable that a cash-in single would be released (similar to the “Chicken Song” and Spitting Image two years previously) and “Loadsamoney (Doin’ Up The House)” was the result. Playing on the populist vote it went for a sound that sampled the big dance tunes of the time with the likes of Bomb The Bass and M/A/R/R/S all getting the Enfield treatment. Was it funny? I thought so at the time but watching it back now, I would like to think that my funny bone has grown a bit since this.
“Loadsamoney (Doin’ Up the House)” went all the way to No 4 in the UK Top 40.
A great, great record from a great, great band next. I first encountered The Adventures in 1984 when they released two fine singles in “Another Silent Day” and “Send My Heart” neither of which troubled the chart compilers. I was so impressed though that I bought their debut album “Theodore and Friends”. Unfortunately for this bunch of Belfast guys (and girl) nobody else did the same. By the time 1988 rolled around, it seemed like they had been completely forgotten. Suddenly though, “Broken Land” was being played on the radio everywhere and the band finally had that Top 40 hit they so richly deserved. Indeed, it was on the airwaves so much that it became the most played song on Radio 1 in 1988.
A change of label to Elektra had seemingly done the trick and a song about The Troubles in their home country proved the unlikely source for a pop hit. Many a comparison was made between the song’s melody and that of “Wouldn’t It Be Good” by Nik Kershaw (Alan “Night Owl” Robson on late night Metro radio certainly said so a few times) which I can hear but which didn’t diminish the song’s appeal at all for me.
Despite all that airplay, “Broken Land” only made it to No 20. It was backed up by a great album called “The Sea Of Love” but the band never made a Top 40 appearance again despite two more albums over the next five years – a fact that anyone who ignored their talents should be ashamed of.
Narada Michael Walden (just Narada to his mates) had previously been the drummer in jazz fusion (there’s a term to strike terror into my heart) bands such as Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra* before becoming a producer of much more mainstream artists like Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Lionel Richie.
In 1988 he tried his luck as an artist with the single “Divine Emotions” which was a Top 10 hit in the UK. To me it sounded like it belonged in 1985 though with the likes of Steve Arrington.
* In my early Our Price career I worked briefly with a guy who liked weird shit like Mahavishnu Orchestra which he would play whilst on processing duty (ex employees will know what I mean). It was horrible. Even worse, he then mentioned to the manager that I had been playing some Alison Moyet one day and that he had been appalled. Cheeky git!
For all his musical genius, Prince‘s UK chart positions were pretty random and inconsistent. For every “Purple Rain” (No 6) there was an “I Would Die 4 U” (No 58), and for every “Kiss” (No 6) there was a “Mountains” (No 45). This pattern continued with the release of “Alphabet Street” from his “Lovesexy” album which was a No 9 hit but subsequent singles from the album reached No 29 (“Glam Slam”) and No 24 (“I Wish U Heaven”). My personal theory is that Prince was too prolific. Nobody could release that amount of work without there being some slips in quality surely?
I always liked “Alphabet Street” (there you go, I was over thinking this black artists thing). It’s as funky as hell and has some great bits in its structure where Prince breaks it all down with some pregnant pauses (‘I would like to…watch’) and a nice Beatles tribute with its ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah’ motif.
“Lovesexy” was one of those albums that would always turn up as sale stock or in the special purchase sections during my Our Price days, presumably because the album never sold as well as predicted. It was released in place of the infamous “Black Album” that was intended as the follow up to “Sign O’ The Times” but was pulled after Prince decided it was evil (so it says on Wikipedia). It was finally released in November 1994.
As was the trend around this time, here’s another act going for the record number of tracks taken from an album and released as singles. The Christians had already released four singles from their self titled debut album before “Born Again” made its entry into the world. Presumably they wanted to give the album one last sales push and extended its sales life. If so, the title of their fifth single was most apt. Presumably the choice of that title was very deliberate to tie in with the band’s name (Born Again Christian?) and the lyrics certainly seem to be a tale of redemption with the protagonist being saved from the blight of some sort of addiction by a loving relationship.
Despite this TOTP appearance, “Born Again” would only go up one place to a peak of No 25 adding weight to the theory that five singles from one album is pushing it just a little too much unless your name was Michael Jackson.
Ooh some jangly indie pop! The Primitives followed up Top 5 hit “Crash” with “Out Of Reach” which couldn’t live up to its predecessor’s success and, similar to The Christians before them, would not benefit much from this TOTP appearance as it failed to rise above this No 25 peak.
The band were on tour in the UK around this time and played at Sunderland Polytechnic where I duly covered the gig for the music section of the student newspaper. I have no recollection of what I wrote about the gig and don’t have a copy of the paper but I do remember taking some photos of the band (most of which were unusable) which I kept for many years but sadly cannot find now.
I quite liked “Out Of Reach” with its breakneck pace hurtling towards a very abrupt conclusion. Tracy Tracy looks great here too. They probably should have been bigger than they were and stuck around the charts for longer than they did but longevity in the music business is a very hard trick to pull off it seems otherwise we’d all still be listening to the same acts now as we were 30 years ago.
Top 10
10. New Order – “Blue Monday ’88”
9. George Michael – “One More Try”
8. Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5 – “I Want You Back ’88 Remix”
7. Pet Shop Boys – “Heart”
6. Natalie Cole – “Pink Cadillac”
5. Bananrama – “I Want You Back”
4. Hazell Dean – “Who’s Leaving Who”
3. Danny Wilson – “Mary’s Prayer”
2. Fairground Attraction – “Perfect”
1. S’Express – “Theme From S’Express”: Another week at No 1 and another TOTP appearance. After the all out 70s fashion onslaught the last time they were on the show, they’ve toned it down a little bit this time despite what Adrian John says at the song’s end. Mind you, he’s right about the guy on keyboards who seems to have taken Starsky and Hutch‘s Huggy Bear as the inspiration for his look.
Hell’s teeth I’d nearly forgotten all about this! “Pump Up The Bitter” by Star Turn on 45 pints. Parodying the ‘Stars on 45’ early 80s medley phenomenon, this North East trio updated that craze by covering (almost) “Pump Up The Volume” by M/A/R/R/S. Based around the premise of a club singer (Star Turn) in a fictional North East working men’s club, compere Albert Charlton would also interject with announcements and a spot of spoon playing. It’s dreadful of course but as I was a student in Sunderland at the time, the accents resonated with me and my Poly mates and I actually found it not just tolerable but almost amusing.
Subsequent releases failed to have the same effect on me or anybody else but original member J Vincent Edwards (Charlton) continued releasing parodies into the 90s and beyond covering the likes of Blur, Whitney Houston and (God help us) Franz Ferdinand.
“Pump Up The Bitter” made No 12 on the UK charts.
| Order of appearance | Artist | Song | Did I Buy it? |
|
1 |
Joyce Sims | Walk Away | I did…walk away…no |
|
2 |
New Order | Blue Monday ‘88 | Not this version but I have the original on my Substance CD |
|
3 |
Magnum | Start Talking Love | Nah |
|
4 |
Harry Enfield | Loadsamoney (Doin’ Up The House) | I liked Loadsamoney but not enough to buy this single |
|
5 |
The Adventures | Broken Land | No but I have the album “The Sea Of Love” |
|
6 |
Narada Michael Walden | Divine Emotions | No |
|
7 |
Prince | Alphabet Street | Sure I’ve got it on something |
|
8 |
The Christians | Born Again | No but I have the album |
|
9 |
The Primitives | Out Of Reach | Negative |
|
10 |
S’Express | Theme From S’Express | No but my wife had their album ‘Original Soundtrack’ |
|
11 |
Star Turn On 45 Pints | Pump Up The Bitter | Amusing but no |
Disclaimer
OK – here’s the thing – the TOTP episodes are only available on iPlayer for a limited amount of time so the link to the programme below only works for about another month so you’ll have to work fast if you want to catch the whole show as I can’t find the full programme on YouTube.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0007f4t/top-of-the-pops-05051988
I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).
All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.
Some bed time reading?
http://likepunkneverhappened.blogspot.com/2018/05/may-4-17-1988.html
TOTP Rewind - the 80s 