We’ve made it all the way to March 1989 in this journey through the TOTP archives. I’m a 20 year old student at Sunderland Polytechnic approaching the final few months of my time there and in complete denial that my three years in the higher education bubble was coming to an end. I had no idea what I would do once it all finished; I had no career plan, no temporary job lined up even and as it stood, I would be returning to my parental home in Worcester once my student house contract was up.
Never mind though, I’m still with my girlfriend of the last two years and I’m actually quite busy writing my final year dissertation which is all about the mechanics of the music industry and trying to identify the criteria that makes a pop song commercially successful. All that other grown up stuff can wait for now. Given my pressing dissertation deadline, I would probably have been taking a very keen interest in the pop charts at this time and no doubt TOTP would have been a part of that. Wonder if any of these acts made it into my final draft…
Tonight’s presenters are old pro Gary ‘Safe Hands’ Davies and the increasingly excitable Anthea ‘Line Fluffer’ Turner. Bet she can’t make it through the show without messing something up. There’s no errors in the intro to the first act though who are Living in A Box with “Blow The House Down”. When they first burst onto the pop scene I’m sure they used to wear suits but they’ve relaxed the dress code here with some absolutely horrible togs. The jackets they are all wearing aren’t quite as revolting as Bruno Brookes’ catastrophic creation of last week but they’re pretty nasty all the same.
Not that I gave it much thought at the time but lead singer Richard Darbyshire really had quite the voice. On the band’s official website, they describe him as ‘one of the greatest blue-eyed soul voices of all time’ – I assume they mean Darbyshire and not his replacement and current vocalist Kenny Thomas who I thought was dreadful – which may be overstating the case rather but there’s no denying the strength of his voice nor his range. Later in the year they released their big ballad “Room In Your Heart” which was a Top 5 hit and demonstrated that Darbyshire wasn’t all about stomping uptempo pop tunes but could also handle the slower stuff as well.
The band are still on the nostalgia circuit (sans Darbyshire) playing those 80s package tours where each artists gets three songs long slots and I’m guessing that their set list writes itself and is pretty much the same for every gig. Start with a bang with “Blow The House Down”, bring the mood down with the aforementioned “Room In Your Heart” and end with their biggest and most well known hit, the titular “Living In A Box”. Job done! If that sounds reductive and dismissive, it’s not meant to be. At least they have three big hits to play and a paying audience still.
“Blow The House Down” peaked at No 10.
Some studio trickery next as Gary Davies introduces Sam Brown performing “Stop!”. “At No 4 in the charts, over there …” he advises us as he points over his shoulder but I’m pretty sure this is just the same clip from the other week and that Sam is in fact not in the studio at all. The cut away from Davies to her gives it away rather as there is no long tracking shot from presenter to performer. Why did the TOTP producers feel the need to do that? To create the impression that every artists was desperate to appear on the show and would drop everything to do so? Maybe but we all know that wasn’t true.
I saw Sam Brown live a few years at legendary Hull venue The Adelphi as part of her group Homespun whom she formed with ex-Beautiful South guitarist Dave Rotheray and they were great. Of the two Browns in this week’s Top 10, I certainly preferred Sam. And how’s this for a musical peculiarity – the titles of all of her six solo studio albums so far partly spell out her surname:
- Stop!
- April Moon
- (43) Minutes…
- Box
- ReBoot
- Of the Moment
Sam says it was unintentional but vowed to continue the trend but has not released an album since 2007’s “Of The Moment”.
And there it is! Just two songs in and Anthea Turner makes her first cock up as she introduces Jason Donovan singing “Too Many Lonely Hearts”. Err, that’s “Too Many Broken Hearts” actually Anthea.
Ah yes, the moment we all knew was unavoidably coming has arrived. Jason Donovan, high on his Neighbours profile and that duet with Kylie, becomes a fully fledged pop star. Yes he’d already had one solo hit with “Nothing Can Divide Us” (originally earmarked for Rick Astley fact fans) but it was “Too Many Broken Hearts” that sealed the kiss deal. As with Kylie’s “I Should Be So Lucky”, the first time you heard this song you just knew it would be massive. That ridiculously catchy Stock, Aitken and Waterman sound meant that once heard, it was injected straight into your brain where it would remain as an ear worm for the rest of eternity whether you liked it or not. Resistance was futile.
My wife has always had a problem with the video for this one, specifically the part where Jase wanders around outside with that epic looking backdrop of mountain range and valley casually strumming a clearly unplugged electric guitar! Now whether he could actually play the damn thing or not is another matter entirely but who did the video director think they were kidding by making him mime with an electric guitar not plugged into an amp?!
“Too Many Broken Hearts” would not only go to No 1 but also end up as the fourth best selling UK single of 1989.
Anthea finally gets the song title right as we move into the next segue and we also see some rather unnecessarily insistent display of heterosexuality from Gary Davies in this exchange:
AT: “Too Many Broken Hearts” for Jason Donovan. Don’t you think he’s looking really hunky?
GD: I’m glad you think so, I don’t
Alright Gary! ! We get the picture! Look, I don’t know anything about Davies’ sexuality but thankfully, we now live in a world where TV presenters can out themselves on national TV and get masses of support from the public.
Before we get to the Breakers, if you were wondering what might have been on the other channels on this night back in 1989, you may well have seen this advert…
Yes it was just an advert for Madonna’s new single “Like A Prayer” but this was a very big deal at the time with a release being globally advertised before its actual release – the first time something like this had been done in the music industry. The Pepsi tie in was due to the fact that they were sponsoring her next world tour. An estimated 250 million people around the world viewed the commercial. The day after its premiere, Madonna released the actual music video for “Like a Prayer” and then the shit really hit the fan but that’s for another post…
Back to the Breakers and first up are Depeche Mode with a live version of their 1983 hit “Everything Counts”. How so? It was to promote the release of their live album “101” with the actual recording having been made at a gig at the Pasadena Rose Bowl as part of the Music for the Masses Tour in ’88. Whilst I recall there being a live album, I don’t really remember this version of “Everything Counts” being in the charts to be honest. Maybe it didn’t get that much airplay? It’s a great track though and I bought the studio version on its initial release when it made No 6. The live version didn’t sell as well peaking at No 22 in this country and it wasn’t a massive seller in the rest of Europe either although the album was.
I like the fact that played live, the band added some extras to the song like Alan Wilder, Martin Gore and Fletch interjecting ‘the graph’ and ‘the handshake’ backing vocals to counterpoint Gahan’s delivery. I think these were included on the original 12″ mix of the track six years previous. The huge crowd carrying on singing the song (which closed the set) long after the music has finished is really quite affecting.
Another Anthea gaffe next as she mispronounces “Wages Day” by Deacon Blue as “Wage Day”. One job Anthea, you had one job. Anyway, I much preferred this one to the band’s previous hit “Real Gone Kid”. It always sounded like a good, solid, proper record to me without all the distracting ‘ooo ooo’s of its predecessor. Although it only peaked at No 18, it paved the way for the release of No 1 album “When the World Knows Your Name” the following month which of course is what it was meant to do. I have a distinct memory of Annie Nightingale playing it as the first track on one of her Sunday night shows after the Top 40 chart rundown. The first song on her show was always a bit more mainstream than the rest of the playlist as I recall.
The special edition of the single included the band’s take on Julian Cope’s “Trampolene” which always seemed an odd choice to me but which works quite well I think.
Some more SAW treatment now as they turn their attention to disco diva Donna Summer. There’s a long standing perception that Mr Waterman and his mates resuscitated Donna’s career but in truth, the 80s hadn’t been a total washout for her. She’d had five UK Top 40 hits by this point in the decade one of which “She Works Hard For The Money”) had been also been a US Top 3 hit. However it is true that none of her hits in this country had gone Top 10. Enter SAW who not only wrote and produced “This Time I Know It’s For Real” for her but also all ten tracks on her album “Another Place And Time” (although Summer did have three co-writing credits as well).
As with “Too Many Broken Hearts”, you couldn’t get away from this song as it was played to death on radio. To me though, it was so safe and comfy compared to some of her groundbreaking material from earlier in her career like “I Feel Love” and “State Of Independence” that it did nothing for me. Revisionism has been kind to the SAW / Summer project though with Classic Pop magazine describing the album in 2018 as “a pop masterpiece”. Yeah, thanks but I’ll stick with her non Hit Factory (hot) stuff thanks.
“This Time I Know It’s For Real” peaked at No 3.
Not this lot again! Why were TOTP so keen to keep plugging god awful thrash rockers W.A.S.P.? They’ve definitely been on the show previously with one of their other singles (no I don’t remember which one and I don’t want to). This track is “Mean Man” and I’m sure that if I could be bothered to look it up, it sounded exactly the same as that previous hit.
What a weird intro from Anthea though! “Do you know a mean man?” she trills. WTF? Oh and is that the right pronunciation of the band name?
The final five songs have all been on before starting with Tyree featuring Kool Rock Steady and “Turn Up The Bass”. If you think that ‘boyeeee’ sample sounds familiar, it’s not just because you’ve heard it on reality TV soap Made In Chelsea where every annoying male cast member seems to say it constantly. No, it’s because, oh look here’s @TOTPFacts with the reason why…
“And you have just met the man who employs Mike Tyson’s hairdresser” advises Anthea at the track’s end. Cue Gary Davies trying his arm at comedy with a “Know what I mean Tyree” in a Frank Bruno accent. Did I say he was a safe pair of hands at the top of this post? He’s causing me to revise my opinion on that one. Yes, you could say he was trying to be topical as the famous Bruno v Tyson fight (the first one) had only just taken place five days prior to this broadcast against a backdrop of monumental media hype but it’s just not funny.
Some more studio sleight of hand next as Anthea introduces Gloria Estefan singing “Can’t Stay Away From You” (live no less) and points to her left but again it’s just a repeat of the performance she did the other week.
In 1992 Gloria released her first Best Of collection which proved to be a big seller at Xmas in the Our Price store in Rochdale where I was working at the time. So much so that we ran out of the cassette version on the day before Xmas Eve; a cardinal sin in the world of record retail. However, we knew we had some on order and we put our faith in Warren our Securicor delivery guy to deliver the goods…literally. Warren, who was a massive rock fan from Oldham (he probably liked W.A.S.P. actually) came through for us on Xmas Eve morning with the delivery we’d been hoping for. We were saved and the good people of Rochdale would not go Gloria-less that Xmas. Except…the bastards at Sony were out of stock so we got nishters from them. My manager Ian was stoical about it saying “Well, they won’t get it anywhere else in Rochdale today”. He was right as we turned away customer after customer in search of Gloria telling us that no retailer in the town had it.
If I felt any shard of sympathy for those disappointed souls it was knocked out of me by the end of trading as we got absolutely slaughtered by our customers who had clearly been sent insane by the pressure of Xmas and lost not just any semblance of manners but also their own sense of humanity as they cussed, swore and insulted all of our staff from start to finish. Peace and good will to all? What a load of bollocks!
Clearly the TOTP producers were putting a lot of faith in the attraction of artists performing live on the show around this time as here’s another one from Texas with “I Don’t Want A Lover”. If you watch closely you can see Sharleen Spiteri take a big intake of breath to compose herself before she launches into her vocal. She needn’t have worried as she nails it with this performance.
That “Southside” album that Gary Davies refers to in his intro would enter the charts at No 3 when released and achieve gold status sales but “I Don’t Want A lover” was the only hit single to come from it. Though not as strong as it’s lead single, I always quite liked “Everyday Now” which was the third single from it but peaked outside the Top 40 at No 44.
Anthea is still not finished with this awful example of presenting when she blunders in all over Davies’ link to lead us into the Top 10 countdown. To his credit, Gary just stops talking and tries to style it out but that look of surprise on his face gives him away,
Top 10
10. Gloria Estefan – “Can’t Stay Away From You”
9. Jason Donovan – “Too Many Broken Hearts”
8. Texas – ” I Don’t Want A Lover”
7. Bobby Brown – “My Prerogative”
6. S’Xpress – “Hey Music Lover”
5. Bananarama with Lalaneeneenoonoo – “Help”
4. Sam Brown – “Stop!”
3. Michael Ball – “Love Changes Everything”
2. Michael Jackson – “Leave Me Alone”
1. Simple Minds – “Belfast Child”: After affording them just two and a half minutes worth of airtime last week, the TOTP producers have given them the standard three minutes this time. When I was younger, as well as wanting to look like the obvious pop star candidates like Simon Le Bon (slim chance) George Michael (no chance) and Morten Harket (who the fuck was I kidding?!), I also had a more left field choice of pop star look that I would like to have achieved and that was Simple Minds guitarist Charlie Burchill. I know, I know but I still think he looks pretty cool in this video.
How many times has this one been on now? Three? For a song that peaked at No 13, that seems a bit like overkill.
Is there anything left to say about “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” by Poison? I got nothin’ (but a good time?) so I ‘ll leave it to Bill and Ted…
| Order of appearance | Artist | Song | Did I Buy it? |
|
1 |
Living In A Box | Blow The House Down | Don’t think so |
|
2 |
Sam Brown | Stop! | No! |
|
3 |
Jason Donovan | Too Many Broken Hearts | No but my younger sister had his album |
|
4 |
Depeche Mode | Everything Counts (Live) | No – I bought the original version in ’83 though |
|
5 |
Deacon Blue | Wages Day | Not the single but I bought the album |
|
6 |
Donna Summer | This Time I Know It’s For Real | Nope |
|
7 |
W.A.S.P. | Mean Man | Oh please! |
|
8 |
Tyree featuring Kool Rock Steady | Turn Up The Bass | No chance |
|
9 |
Gloria Estefan | Can’t Stay Away From You | But I could stay away from you Gloria – no |
|
10 |
Texas | I Don’t Want A Lover | Don’t think I did |
|
11 |
Simple Minds | Belfast Child | Not the single but I have it on one of their collection CDs |
|
12 |
Poison | Every Rose Has Its Thorn | Not for me |
Disclaimer
OK – here’s the thing – the TOTP episodes are only available on iPlayer for a limited amount of time so the link to the programme below only works for about another month so you’ll have to work fast if you want to catch the whole show.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000f1lv/top-of-the-pops-02031989
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/2019/02/february-22-march-7-1989.html
TOTP Rewind - the 80s 