We arrive at the fag end of October 1989. If I am remembering correctly, my temporary job as an insurance clerk came to an end the day after this TOTP aired and I was once more returned to the ranks of the unemployed. Once again I would be directionless and skint. It wasn’t the best of times. Hope there were some decent tunes to send me off to work on my last day….
….well, I didn’t mind “Street Tuff” by Double Trouble And The Rebel MC to be fair. In many ways it was a surprise hit given the state of the charts at this time. With its reggae rhythms and house beats hybrid attached to those catchy as hell toasted lyrics that burnt their way into your brain, it seemed to be massively at odds with its chart peers.
Rebel MC was actually one Michael West who would go onto be a big name in jungle music in the 90s (under the new pseudonym of Natty Dread) and is actually often referred to as the guy who coined the phrase ‘jungle music’ after adopting the chant ‘all the junglists’ from a Jamaican sound system tape. Ah right; so is that the source of the ‘jungle ist massive’ slogan that seemed to be adopted as a brand when the genre went mainstream and the majors got hold of it? Well, if you google it, “Jungle Is Massive” is a song by ragga deejay General Levy so maybe it was a combination of the two?
West himself (now known as Mikail Tafari after converting to Rastafarianism in the mid 90s) says of jungle music in a 2013 Guardian interview that “It was about breakbeat, reggae, rap and soul all coming into one” and expanded further to say that “Black and white, they should be taken out of the dictionary, in regards to people”. Wise words that have never been more important than in today’s current climate of racism.
As for me, as a dyed in the wool pop kid, jungle wasn’t something that I understood at all so in an effort to improve my appreciaton of it, I went to a jungle night the Hacienda hosted by drum and bass legend LTJ Bukem with some of my Our Price colleagues and had a great time. It all made so much more sense in a nightclub environment than being blasted out of the shop speakers on a cold, wet Tuesday afternoon to a handful of shoppers in Stockport’s Merseyway centre.
“Street Tuff” peaked at No 3.
From an exciting new sound to some total pish by hoary old rockers Queen. OK, a little harsh maybe but “Scandal” really is sub standard. Nothing dynamic or interesting going on here at all. I’m surprised it even got a run out on the show seeing as it had climbed just one place on the chart that week to a peak of No 25.
The video is so laboured as well. Yes we get the paparazzi theme guys! Even the song’s writer Brian May wasn’t sure about it. In 2003 he said this:
“I don’t think it’s totally successful, this video, as a portrayal of what’s in the song. It’s a kind of brave attempt, but it’s a little cold, and you don’t really see the band interacting as a band. It’s a bit stagey. But at least it makes you think of what the song’s really about.”
Hardly a ringing endorsement. I think Roger Taylor sums it up best by saying:
“I think we were going through the motions here.”
Agreed Roger, agreed.
Any chance of finally getting through one of these shows without one of the presenters cocking up somewhere along the line? Bruno Brookes is this week’s guilty party when he refers to Belinda Carlisle’s latest hit single as ‘Turn a light on’ and not just once but twice. Leave A Light On! It’s “Leave A Light On” you dumbo! Sheesh!
Whilst researching this post, I found out that there is another song called “Leave A Light On” which was released by somebody called Tom Walker in 2007. 2007! Blimey, that’s very nearly contemporary in my book! My wife’s always telling me to get out of the 80s and listen to something new so forgive me while I do so….
…hmm…yeah it’s OK. I wouldn’t go overboard about it though. According to Wikipedia, Tom was born in Kilsyth in Scotland but moved to Knutsford in Cheshire aged three. My mate Robin also moved to Knutsford aged 53 and he can’t stand the place. What has any of this got to do with Belinda Carlisle? Err nothing really. Oh, hang on my mate Robin is from Cumbria originally and supports Carlisle United! There you go! I wonder if Belinda has ever been to Carlisle herself?
*checks internet*
It’s a no. Nor Knutsford. I’ll stop now. “Leave A Light On” was at it’s No 4 peak.
Yet another song that we have already seen before in these TOTP repeats. This time it’s Chris Rea with “Road To Hell (Part 2)”. As with his previous outing, Chris is in the studio but unlike his original appearance, bits of the video for the single have been woven into his performance. Why was this done? It couldn’t be that Chris isn’t actually that riveting a watch just stood there on his guitar with his lockdown hair (31 years before lockdown hair was a thing) could it? Yes, I think it could be.
To improve the knowledge of their readership, Smash Hits magazine ran an article that was a guide to the difference between Chris Rea and Chris De Burgh who were obviously lumped together on the basis that they were both old fogeys so what were they doing in the pop charts. In a 1988 interview with Q Magazine whilst on tour in Germany, Rea was asked why he spoke no German to the audience, even though he’s spent so much time out here. He replied:
“You know, you start the tour, you try to be nice to the Dutch, then the Belgians, then it’s the French. In the end you just think, ah, fuck it. I understand Chris de Burgh speaks very good German. Chris De Burgh. Annoying little bastard…”.
The interview went onto say that comparisons to Chris de Burgh baffled and appalled Rea as he regarded the Irish troubador with the scorn accorded to a teacher’s pet. Well, there you have it. The difference between the two was that one one was a gruff, belligerent man from Middlesborough and the other was an annoying little bastard.
“Road To Hell (Part 2)” peaked at No 10 thereby becoming his biggest hit single ever.
Finally a brand new track! Well, brand new in 1989 obviously. Today it is a probably Lisa Stansfield‘s best known song. “All Around The World” would of course go on to be a No 1 record and it didn’t really come as much of a surprise I have to say. The momentum behind Lisa’s career had been building all year since her collaboration with Coldcut on “People Hold On”. Once she broke out in her own right on “This Is The Right Time” the writing was on the wall. Neither of these singles had been Top 10 hits but there was something about her down to earthiness allied with her star quality that made massive commercial success seem inevitable (to me anyway).
Having said all of that, I wasn’t much of a fan of “All Around The World” with its homage to Barry White and nonsensical lyrics (“Been around the world and I, I, I, I can’t find my baby”) but you know, given the choice of this or Sonia or (heaven forbid) Jive Bunny at No 1, I’m Team Lisa every time.
Well, that’s the one and only new track on tonight’s show over with so it’s back to the more familiar hits beginning with “Room In Your Heart” by Living In A Box. A change of tactics from the Sheffield band for this appearance as lead singer Richard Darbyshire elects to be standing for the duration of the song after spending the whole of his last visit to the TOTP studio sat on a stool. Do you think they watched it back X Factor style and analysed what went wrong and what could be improved for the next time?
You know, I don’t mind “Room In Your Heart” at all. The word I would use is accomplished. Yes, a very accomplished ballad. After the band split, Darbyshire pursued a solo career which never quite came off. An album called “How Many Angels” was eventually released in 1994 but didn’t pull up any trees and of his four listed solo singles, the highest charting peaked at No 50. Was one of them used on that coffee advert? You know, the one with the annoying ‘will they won’t they?’ couple (the bloke was in Buffy The Vampire Slayer)? Or am I making that up?
Anyway, in later years Darbyshire became an in demand songwriter penning songs for artists including The Temptations, Level 42 and the preceding act on tonight’s show Lisa Stansfield.
De La Soul are back now with another showing of the video for “Eye Know”. Neither this track nor its follow up “The Magic Number” were released as singles in the US which, seeing as they were No 14 and No 7 hits over here, seems curious to say the least.
Both the song and the video make heavy references to the D.A.I.S.Y. Age (‘da inner sound, y’all’) as does the cover of parent album “3 Feet High And Rising” which features fluorescent flowers in its design. By the time of second album “De La Soul Is Dead” in 1991, the trio had rejected the D.A.I.S.Y. Age concept and produced a more mature body of work with the artwork of a broken flower pot and wilted contents hammering the message home.
I loved their performance at Glastonbury in 2014 where they refused to carry on with their set unless everyone present raised their hands in celebration including the stage security team. One lone member of security (242) refused to join in…
From “Eye Know” to “I Thank You” now as we see Adeva back in the TOTP studio once more. It wasn’t really my thing at all but you can’t deny Adeva’s powerful voice or those pumpin’ basslines. Apparently the track was re-released seven years later as the entirely unoriginal “I Thank You ’96” as part of an “Ultimate Adeva” compilation album . I don’t remember that at all but then it did only make No 37 on the chart.
Top 10
10. Sydney Youngblood – “If Only I Could”
9. Billy Joel – “We Didn’t Start The Fire”
8. Technotronic – “Pump Up The Jam”
7. Living In A Box – “Room In Your Heart”
6. Cher – “If I Could Turn Back Time”
5. Black Box – “Ride On Time”
4. Belinda Carlisle – “Leave A Light On”
3. Double Trouble And The Rebel MC – “Street Tuff”
2. Milli Vanilli – “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You”
1. Jive Bunny And The Mastermixers – “That’s What I Like”: I looked up the Jive Bunny CD on Amazon* to check out the customer reviews on it to try and understand what the appeal of this phenomenon was. I was amazed to find that of 186 ratings, 82% of them were 5 star! Most of the comments seem to suggest that it was a great party CD – if you were at a party and this came on, what would be your reaction?!
* Shit! I’ll get loads of recommendations based around Jive Bunny now won’t I?!
The play out video is those Milli Vanilli boys again with “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You”. What a truly awful song this was. Best thing they could have done would have been to somehow get away with not playing it at all.
Nigel Lawson: Hold My Beer…
| Order of appearance | Artist | Song | Did I Buy it? |
| 1 | Double Trouble and the Rebel MC | Street Tuff | Nah |
| 2 | Queen | Scandal | No it was rubbish |
| 3 | Belinda Carlisle | Leave A Light On | Another no |
| 4 | Chris Rea | Road To Hell (Part 2) | I did not |
| 5 | Lisa Stansfield | All Around The World | Nope |
| 6 | Living In A Box | Room In Your Heart | Negative |
| 7 | De La Soul | Eye Know | No but my much hipper wife had the album 3 Feet High And Rising |
| 8 | Adeva | I Thank You | It’s a no |
| 9 | Jive Bunny And The Mastermixers | That’s What I Like | But not what I do – massive NO |
| 10 | Milli Vanilli | Girl I’m Gonna Miss You | Huge 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.
Whole Show
Since we’ve all been on lockdown, there are people out there with time on their hands some of whom have recorded the whole TOTP show from the BBC4 repeat and made it available on YouTube. So if you did want to watch the whole thing over…
Some bed time reading?
http://likepunkneverhappened.blogspot.com/2019/10/october-18-31-1989.html
TOTP Rewind - the 80s 