Bobby Brown

TOTP 23 NOV 1989

Posted on July 10, 2020 by 80stastic

And so we arrive at one of those ‘legendary’ TOTP shows. You know like the one where New Order perform “Blue Monday:” live and its sounded awful. Or that one where All About Eve can’t hear the playback and just sit there motionless for the first minute and a half of “Martha’s Harbour”. Or the one where Culture Club made their first appearance and the whole world went into meltdown about whether Boy George was actually Girl George. And who could forget the infamous ‘Jocky Wilson’ episode when a backdrop of the grinning Scottish darts player as Dexys Midnight Runners performed “Jackie Wilson Said” below it. Or…well…there’s been a few down the years and 23rd November 1989 was another for that was the night that not one but two of the most influential UK bands of the 90s brought their previously underground talents directly into the mainstream via the great British public’s front rooms.

The presenters for this monumental broadcast were Jakki Brambles and Jenny Powell (if only the latter had spelt her name the 80s way like Jakki then they could have been Jakki and Jenni and sound like some awful, cheesy pop duo).

You wouldn’t have guessed how ground breaking this show was from the act opening it. Yes, it’s those dancing clowns Big Fun with their second hit single “Can’t Shake The Feeling”. I mean just look at these arse -wiggling simpletons! Simpletons? Is that fair? Well, in a Smash Hits magazine interview in which they were asked ‘serious’ questions about ‘proper’ issues, they revealed that they never vote and that they read The Sun. So yeah, simpletons.

I’ve seen comments on Twitter saying that “Can’t Shake The Feeling” is potentially the best Stock, Aitken and Waterman tune ever. WTF?! Talk about gaslighting! Somehow this unforgivable scrotum scratch of a song went Top 10 but after just two more Top 40 hits, Big Fun were gone and the world was a better place overnight.

If New Edition were a just a copy cat version of the Jackson 5, then it follows that Bobby Brown was their Michael Jackson in that he broke out from the group to become a superstar in his own right. That might be a stretch too far for some but Brown certainly followed in Jackson’s footsteps when it came to releasing multiple tracks off an album as singles. “Roni” was a fifth and final single from his “Don’t Be Cruel” album and although I’m finding it hard to locate any trace of this song in my memory banks, it is credited with popularising the phrase ‘tenderoni’ and establishing it as part of hip-hop lexicon. Indeed, Big Daddy Kane referenced Brown himself when he rapped on his 1990 track “I Get the Job Done”:

‘I’m Browner than Bobby so won’t you be my tenderoni’

But what did it actually mean? From the songfacts.com website, here’s R&B songwriter/producer and Bobby Brown collaborator Daryl Simmons regaling a story about his songwriting partner Kenneth ‘Babyface’ Edmonds:

“Kenny wrote this song called ‘Roni,’ about this girl we met in Florida that loved Kenny… she loved Babyface, but she was too young. We were saying, ‘She’s a Roni. Man, she’s a Tender Roni, you can’t mess with her.”

Tenderoni was also a brand of macaroni that was popular in the 1950s and discontinued in 1981. Eddie Kendricks released a song in 1976 called “Sweet Tenderoni” about a girl he was infatuated by whilst Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” also uses the term in its lyrics.

Who would have thought that this nothing song would have had such a cultural impact?! “Roni” peaked at No 21 in the UK

I’m pretty sure the next performance is a valedictory one as we wave goodbye to Fine Young Cannibals. Having first graced our TV screens in 1985, they would give us a marvellous collection of pop tunes with a a twist (the twist mainly being Roland Gift’s extraordinary vocals and the bendy leg antics of David Steele and Andy Cox) but “I’m Not The Man I Used To Be” would be their last of the decade. Always more about quality than quantity – there was a three year gap between their debut album and follow up “The Raw & The Cooked” – they were never able to give us a third album. That really wasn’t in their record company’s plans who decided that, to plug the gap, they would release a remix album called “The Raw & The Remix” (awful, awful title) in late 1990.

I remember this album as I had not long stared work at Our Price and I was surprised to find out whilst researching this post that it was a commercial flop. I could have sworn that it received plenty of in-store promotion but maybe I’m wrong (at a distance of 30 years it’s very feasible). The album was basically a collection of the band’s 12′ remixes of their last album’s songs (plus a couple of earlier tracks) including two different versions of “I’m Not The Man I Used To Be” – one was a remix by trip hoppers Smith & Mighty and the other was by Nellie Hooper and Jazzie B (of Soul II Soul). The collection was a flop commercially speaking only reaching No 61 on the album charts. It was a sad end to a career that burnt brightly yet briefly. The band would return to the Top 20 one final time seven years later with brand new composition ‘The Flame” to support their first official Greatest Hits package “The Finest”.

So what was the deal with this one? Why was “The Eve Of The War” from the 1978 album “Jeff Wayne‘s Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds” being released as a single in 1989? And why was it remixed by Dutch producer Ben Liebrand? I do not have the answer as I don’t recall being aware that it was even in the charts at the time. I can only assume that as Liebrand was in demand at this point – he had turned his hand to revitalising both “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers and “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins into being Top 5 hits all over again in ’88 – he thought he would turn his attention to a more left field project. It seemed that his midas touch was unbeatable as “The Eve Of The War” was a bigger hit even than either of those peaking at No 3.

During my whole 10 years at Our Price, “Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds” was always one of those albums that turned over steady sales throughout. Whether it was classified as ‘core stock’ or ‘bestseller’, it could always be relied upon to be bought by some punter at some point. The two-disc album, featuring the likes of Richard Burton, Justin Hayward, Phil Lynott and David Essex has sold 15 million copies worldwide. In 2018, it was named the 32nd best-selling studio album of all time in the UK.

OK, so we arrive at the first of the two performances that make this particular broadcast so memorable. Having appeared for one week in the Breakers section back in the Summer with “She Bangs The Drums”, The Stone Roses were now on the show in person with latest double A-side single “Fools Gold / What the World Is Waiting For“. Originally, the latter track was planned as the only A-side but the group’s label Silvertone wanted the former as the main track. A compromise was reached with that double A-side release though I have to admit that on the radio stations I was listening to at the time, “Fools Gold” got the lion’s share of the airplay. Very much seen as the standard bearer for the emerging new music genre hybrid of indie dance, “Fools Gold” introduced the rest of the country to the ‘Madchester” movement and overarching subculture of ‘baggy’.

The band’s performance here with Ian Brown’s Sgt Pepper-esque military get up and lo-fi vocals allied with the rest of the band’s effortless cool was a strident image to behold. Except, I have no memory of watching this show at all. What the hell was I doing that was so important at the time? As with The Smiths, I was to miss out on the rise of The Stone Roses for no discernible reason that I can fathom.

Despite this being the band’s mainstream breakthrough, neither “Fools Gold” nor “What the World Is Waiting For” were on their seminal debut album’s track listing of its 1989 UK release. Such was the strength of the single though that, after its original peak of No 8, it re-charted the following year reaching a high of No 22 whilst further remixes of it charted at No 25 in 1995 and 1999.

Apparently the band were not keen on miming on the show and nearly boycotted it but the promise of some amps convinced them to stay. And so they performed on the same show as Happy Mondays….

…or Happy Monday in the singular as Jenny Powell introduces Shaun, Bez and the boys. In the TOTP – the story of 1989 programme, even to this day, Jenny berates herself for cocking the intro up but hey, she’s Jenny Powell so I can forgive her that. Their performance of “Hallelujah” from the “Madchester Rave On” EP sealed the deal – ‘Madchester’ was here to stay and The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays were the official poster boys.

The appearance of Kirsty MacColl with the band on backing vocals (her then husband producer Steve Lillywhite had done one of the “Hallelujah” remixes) lent the shambolic, shuffling performance an ounce of professionalism – certainly she came over as the only adult on stage. However, I’m sure ‘professional’ was not the word that leapt to mind for the majority of the watching millions on their very first introduction to Bez.

I have a distinct memory of dancing to “Hallelujah” in a Worcester nightclub about six months later during a phase of unemployment and feeling a very real sense of release. As I say, this was six months on and during that intervening period I hadn’t really gotten on board with Madchester scene at all. Bizarrely my elder Weller obsessed brother seemed more in tune with it than me. Fast forward another six months and I was living in Manchester and working in a record shop (albeit the very mainstream Our Price) but I always felt like I had arrived too late to experience the crest of the ‘baggy’ wave. I certainly had no money to be frequenting its unofficial HQ The Hacienda nightclub.

Nearly 30 years later I did see Happy Mondays live at the wonderfully named Zebedee’s Yard outdoor venue in Hull. It wasn’t great experience though mainly due to the dickhead crowd of coked up, pissed up middle aged blokes who were trying to reclaim their youth.

Not this pair again! Once more for your delectation come Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville with “Don’t Know Much”. This seems to be a repeat of their live vocal performance from the other week and having watched it then, my mate Robin pointed out to me the unfortunate opening line that Aaron Neville sings. “Look at this face” he warbles so Robin did and from that moment on, he was completely distracted by the birth mark that Aaron has above his right eye. He also has a tattoo of a cross on his left cheek that he got when he was 16 years old but the TOTP make up team seem to have airbrushed that out of the performance.

“Don’t Know Much” peaked at No 2.

Top 10

10. The Mixmaster – “Grand Piano”

9. Martika – “I Feel The Earth Move”

8. Milli Vanilli -“Girl I’m Gonna Miss You”

7. UB40 – “Homely Girl”

6. Iron Maiden – “Infinite Dreams”

5. Kylie Minogue – “Never Too Late”

4. Phil Collins – “Another Day In Paradise”

3. Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville – “Don’t Know Much”

2. Lisa Stansfield – “All Around The World”

1. New Kids On The Block – “You Got It (The Right Stuff)”: Oh blimey! This didn’t take very long did it? T’KNOB are No 1 already and the UK’s population of teenage girls have new poster materials for their bedroom walls. By comparison, last year’s pin ups Bros’s latest single (“Sister”) would struggle to just about make The Top 10. “You Got It (The Right Stuff)” would usher in a slew of New Kids On The Block releases come the new year which would total seven Top 10 singles for the band by the end of 1990 including a further No 1 plus No 2, No 3 and No 4 placed records. Matt and Luke Goss you say? Who are they?

The play out track is “The Arms Of Orion” by Prince featuring Sheena Easton. I’m amazed that this got a second airing given that it was only at No 31 in the charts and even with this exposure would only peak at No 27. I can’t find the video that is used on TOTP I’m afraid but it’s pretty dull stuff anyway just like the song.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Big Fun	Can’t Shake The Feeling	God awful shite -no
2	Bobby Brown	Roni	No
3	Fine Young Cannibals	I’m Not The Man I Used To Be	No but my wife had their album
4	Jeff Wayne	The Eve Of The War (Ben Liebrand remix)	Nah
5	The Stone Roses	Fool’s Gold / What The World Is Waiting For	Shamefully it’s a no
6	Happy Mondays	Hallelujah	See 5 above
7	Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville	Don’t Know Much	…but I know I wasn’t buying this tripe
8	New Kids On The Block	You Got It (The Right Stuff)	Hell no!
9	Prince featuring Sheena Easton	The Arms Of Orion	It’s no again

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?

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TOTP 20 JUL 1989

Posted on April 24, 2020 by 80stastic

Back to a solo presenter for this TOTP and it’s old pro Gary Davies who decides to enlist the help of various studio audience members to help him out with the links in the absence of a co-host…including Sonia’s actual sisters one of whom seems to be a Dolly Parton tribute act. The first of those links is to introduce London Boys who are riding high in the charts with “London Nights”. I’m guessing their record pluggers didn’t have to work hard to secure their clients a slot on the programme as those guys were a mini show in themselves. No run of the mill lip syncing for these two as flamboyant dance moves, a strip routine and acrobatics are all featured. None of that could really disguise the fact that the song was shite though. What did I know though as “London Nights” peaked at No 2. As a Smash Hits review of their album remarked ‘London Boys, they’re so crap they’re brilliant!’. No, they really were just crap.

Now here’s a curious collaboration. Bronski Beat had not been in the charts for over three years and since that last hit (“C’mon C’mon”) had lost singer John Foster who himself had been a replacement for the departing Jimmy Somerville. They’d also been dropped by their record label London Records. Despite extensive touring in Europe, they seemed to have been forgotten by their home country which was in the middle of an obsession with all things Stock, Aitken and Waterman so to reverse that trend they released “Cha Cha Heels” with the indomitable legend that was Eartha Kitt. It was an odd choice of partner if the ultimate goal of the project was to secure a chart hit as Eartha’s track record was sparse to say the least with just two UK Top 40 hits to her name the last of which had been five years previous. And yet it worked (sort of) with “Cha Cha Heels” peaking at No 32.

It’s a pretty frantic Hi-NRG run through beefed up with Eartha’s trademark growls and distinctive vocals which was probably a big hit in the gay clubs I’m guessing. Also, that really sounds like Jimmy Somerville on backing vocals but he seems to be uncredited.

Sadly Eartha Kitt died in 2008 whilst Bronski Beat’s Larry Steinbachek passed away in 2017 both from cancer.

Seriously? Again with this one? I think I’m right in saying this is a third time on the show for Monie Love with “Grandpa’s Party” though I think this clip is just a repeat of her previous studio appearance. As such, I thought I didn’t have much else to say about this one but when I googled her debut album called “Down To Earth’, the sleeve looked decidedly familiar and it turns out it was released just as I embarked upon my 10 year career with Our Price so no wonder I recognised it.

When the album was reviewed on Amazon, one fan commented:

“Yo Monie is so dope she can rhyme herself out the Middle Fly”

Well, quite.

Ah shit. Look, I knew this was coming, you knew this was coming but it still feels genuinely shocking that in 1989 the British public could have fallen for this piece of crap in such large numbers. Yes, it’s time for that fucking rabbit…the era of Jive Bunny And The Mastermixers is upon us. Quite how you explain this collective dereliction of senses on such a widespread scale is still beyond me. Who the fuck was buying this shit?! Apparently this was the ‘work’ of a couple of Rotherham local DJs but I’m not going to name them as they don’t deserve even the tiny amount of recognition that my blog would give them.

Mixing together a load of (mainly) old rock ‘n’ roll standards around a Glenn Miller motif and using a crappy graphic of a rabbit to front the project, “Swing With Mood” inexplicably went to No 1 for five (!) weeks in the Summer of ’89 and was the second best selling single of the whole year. The UK fell for this cheap garbage not just once, not even twice but three times before the end of the year delivering Jive Bunny and his mates three No 1 records! Even the US market fell for it making it a No 11 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Just barmy.

We’re going to have weeks of this stinking turd so you’d better get used to it….

Quick! We need a decent tune to provide an antidote to Jive Bunny…ah, this will do nicely. We couldn’t be in better hands than with a doctor and here’s Dr. Robert with his Blow Monkeys and “Choice?”. The last time we saw the good doctor on TOTP was earlier in the year with the single “Wait” featuring soul singer Kym Mazelle. I was confused at the time why it had been promoted as a solo single by Dr Robert and not a Blow Monkeys release. This was another collaboration with a featured vocalist in Sylvia Tella and yet this single was officially credited to The Blow Monkeys. All very baffling.

“Choice?” was a previously unreleased track that was put out to promote the band’s first greatest hits collection called “Choices” and it did a good enough job I guess by peaking at No 22 though it isn’t one of my favourites by the band. By this point in their career, they had embraced the the new dance revolution and I wasn’t that keen on their new direction. They would explore that route further in the following year’s “Springtime for the World” album before splitting. They would reunite in 2007 and are still together to this day.

Bobby Brown up now with his Ghostbusters II track “On Our Own”. Brown’s profile at the time made him an obvious choice to contribute to the film’s soundtrack and he was invited to the movie set where he met the cast and the crew. The film’s music supervisor, Kathy Nelson, suggested he record this song for the movie. Brown agreed to record a song as long as he got a small part in the film. Here it is in all its 20 seconds worth of glory….

…real blink and you miss it stuff. “On Our Own” peaked at No 4 in the UK charts but he wouldn’t return to such exalted heights for another six years when “Two Can Play That Game” made No 3.

Who? Doug Lazy anybody? No idea at all about this one. Wikipedia tells me that his track “Let It Roll” was a big deal on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart but I couldn’t really care less. This sounds horrible. Next!

Another airing for “Ain’t Nobody” again now. When this was originally a hit in 1984 for Rufus and Chaka Khan I had no idea who or what Rufus was. Wasn’t there a rufus character in The Dukes Of Hazzard? Rufus the Dufus or something? I could be wrong. Of course, Rufus was actually the name of the funk band that Chaka fronted.

Fast forward three decades and “Ain’t Nobody” has been adopted as a football chant by supporters of many different clubs. No really. Look…

And another….

Somebody even went and recorded a whole song for this Aston Villa player…

Top 10

10. Gladys Knight – “Licence To Kill”

9. Gloria Estefan – “Don’t Wanna Lose You”

8. The Beautiful South – “Song For Whoever”

7. Pet Shop Boys – “It’s Alright”

6. Chaka Khan – “Ain’t Nobody”

5. Bette Midler – Wind Beneath My Wings”

4. Bobby Brown – “On Our Own”

3. Soul II Soul – “Back To Life”

2. London Boys -“London Nights”

1. Sonia – “You’ll Never Stop Me From Loving You”: Is it time to tell my ever so tenuous Sonia story? Yes, I think it is. So, four years on from this moment, Sonia was trying to revive her career via the bottom of the barrel route more commonly known as the ‘UK Eurovision Song Contest entrant’. Singing a track called “Better The Devil You Know” (not the Kylie song) she did a pretty good job too coming in second place. It would almost certainly be described as a tide turning moment set against our current dismal record in the contest. And how does any of this relate to me? The song was co-written by one Dean Collinson from Hull where my wife grew up and where I now live. Not just that though, my wife actually knew the bloke back in the day. That’s nearly up there with my ‘I was once in the same room as Chesney Hawkes’ drummer’ story.

This is a cracking tune to play out with. “Edie (Ciao Baby)” by The Cult was inspired by the American socialite, actress, fashion model and Andy Warhol’s muse Edie Sedgwick. The ‘Ciao Baby’ part of the song’s title refers to Ciao Manhattan one of Warhol’s films in which Sedgwick starred. I had no idea about any of that at the time though. I just loved its stirring string build up and grandiose, wide screen epic chorus. Not quite my favourite song by the band (that will always be “She Sells Sanctuary”) but its definitely in the Top 2. It deserved a much higher chart placing than its No 32 peak in my opinion.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	London Boys	London Nights	Hell no
2	Bronski Beat with Eartha Kitt	Cha Cha Heels	Nah
3	Monie Love	Grandpa’s Party	I didn’t RSVP for this one – no
4	Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers	Swing The Mood	Christ no!
5	The Blow Monkeys with Sylvia Tella	Choice?	No but I have their Greatest Hits CD
6	Bobby Brown	On Our Own	Nope
7	Doug Lazy	Let It Roll	Let it roll? Toilet roll more like. In fact I wouldn’t wipe my arse on it. Just to clarify, that’s a no
8	Chaka Khan and Rufus	Ain’t Nobody	No
9	Sonia	You’ll Never Stop Me From Loving You	Of course not
10	The Cult	Edie (Ciao Baby)	No but its on my Cult Best Of album

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/m000hbdz/top-of-the-pops-20071989

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?

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TOTP 13 JUL 1989

Posted on April 22, 2020 by 80stastic

It’s mid July in the long, hot Summer of 1989 and TOTP has a new co-host making her debut on the show. Jakki Brambles had actually been a Radio 1 DJ for a whole year before she got her shot on TOTP having presented the weekday early evening show initially before progressing to the drivetime show and finally replacing Gary Davies in the lunchtime slot. I also have definite memories of her working with Simon Mayo on his breakfast show after replacing Sybil Ruscoe as the weather and travel reporter.

I wasn’t a fan possibly due to her conscious decision to brand herself as Jakki with two ‘k’s and an ‘i’. Could she have been any more 80s?! At the end of her time at Radio 1, she relocated to San Francisco to try her hand at American broadcasting and decided to adopt the rather more mature and professional looking Jackie spelling of her name. Following a move to Los Angeles, she became GMTV’s showbiz reporter and eventually returned to these shores to become one of the Loose Women.

She’s been paired with Bruno Brookes for her TOTP debut, let’s see how it went….

…ah, the lesser spotted Danny Wilson are in the studio. Probably very much seen as being of the same ilk as The Kane Gang, Love & Money and Deacon Blue (sometimes rather lazily labelled as ‘sophisti-pop’), the Dannys also had a bit of quirkiness about them I always thought which ensured that they didn’t take themselves too seriously. Take for example “The Second Summer Of Love”, written on a short break between promotional interviews by Gary Clark as a joke after some friends of his had gotten into the acid house rave scene that the press had given the label the second summer of love. Originally just a-minute-and-a-half long, the band’s US label bosses heard something in it that they thought would make an airplay hit and asked the trio to expand it. A bridge and harmonica solo were added and suddenly they were back in the charts (though not in the US where ironically it was never released as a single). My point remains though that the track wasn’t consciously composed as a hit single, they were a bit more organic than that.

I stated in my last post that parent album “BeBop Moptop” was most likely to be found in charity shops these days but I’ve just checked and it is now on Spotify (it wasn’t until very recently) so fill your boots. All it requires now is the deluxe re-issue treatment on Cherry Red Records…

As for their performance here, I’m not sure why the other two guys (Kit Clark and Ged Grimes) were instrument less and wearing white gloves but, not for the first time in this blog, it reminded me of this…

Some weird segue shit from Bruno Brookes next as he thanks the audience at home for staying in to watch their ‘favourite rock show and all that’….’favourite rock show’ Bruno? I’m pretty sure to was a pop music show – the clue’s in the title. Yes you could sometimes get rock acts on like Guns N’ Roses and Bon Jovi but the premise of the show was that it was based around the national charts that were a broad church to say the least and certainly not just rock orientated. Ok, well let’s test Bruno’s theory and see how many genuine rock acts are featured on the show then starting with…

…Bette Midler with “Wind Beneath My Wings”! Well, you can’t get much more rock chick than Bette can you?! Apparently ‘The Divine Miss M’ wasn’t too jazzed about the song initially. In a Times interview from 2009 she said:

“It’s really grown on me. When I first heard it, I said, ‘I’m not singing that song,’ but the friend who gave it to me said, ‘If you don’t sing it I’ll never speak to you again’, so of course I had to sing the damned song. Whatever reservations I might have had I certainly don’t have any more.”

Not surprising really as it gave her a US No 1 record and the country’s 7th best selling single of the whole year.

Eighteen years later, some tosser from London’s Burning jumped on the Robson and Jerome bandwagon, released his own version of the song and bagged himself a no 3 hit…

OK, eyes down for a Bruno Brookes rock act….and we have No 22 which is De La Soul with “Say No Go”. Hmm, I’m not sure a hip hop trio who were a driving force behind the jazz rap movement could really be described as rockers do you Bruno? Oh and look at him gurning and saying “Real funkyyyy!” behind Jakki Brambles as she introduces them. Dickhead.

Parent album “3 Feet High and Rising”, with its fluorescent flowers artwork and cartoony text, introduced the world to the group’s concept of ‘D.A.I.S.Y. Age’ which was meant to symbolise a withdrawal from the prevalent gangsta rap image of the times. And what did ‘D.A.I.S.Y. ‘ stand for? According to Wikipedia it was an acronym standing for “da inner sound, y’all” which sounds far more hip than Bruno Brookes’ “Real funkyyyy!” description.

“Say No Go” peaked at No 18.

This is a really bizarre video and probably the wrong side of creepy as well. Unbelievably, Michael Jackson was still releasing tracks from his “Bad” album as singles some two years after it first came out! Indeed, “Liberian Girl” was the ninth to be pulled from it (although it wasn’t released in the US). For me, it was an absolutely nothing song, devoid of any substance or interest. Even the Swahili phrase at the song’s beginning is a load of baloney as Swahili is not spoken in Liberia. The star studded video only substantiated my opinion as, for me, it was just one almighty distraction from what was basically a substandard song.

I’m not going to list all the celebrities included in the video (I’m sure you’ll be able to name most of them yourselves) but there is something distinctly unsettling about the fact that Jacko essentially cast himself in the role of voyeur, especially given everything we now know about him subsequent to 1989. I hate all the sycophantic applauding and “Michael , we love you!” shouts from the ensemble as he reveals himself (as it were) at the denouement. Just excruciating.

“Liberian Girl” was Jackson’s final single of the 80s and peaked at No 13 in the UK.

My friend Robin described the next act to me recently as a ‘quintessential 80s coffee table wankfest’. I make him right on this one. Waterfront were just paint-by-numbers pop pap weren’t they? “Cry” was their only UK chart hit (it was a much bigger deal in the US as Jakki advises in her intro) but thankfully for all our sakes, despite releasing a string of other singles, none of them got anywhere near the Top 40.

Oh and doesn’t the lead singer look like the flashy, male chauvinist Kirk St Moritz character from 80s sitcom Dear John? See him at 0.45 seconds into the clip below and judge for yourself…

The never ending saga of Gloria Estefan’s nomenclature trundles on until the very end of the decade it seems. I’ve written many times about the convoluted tale of quite when and how Gloria lost her Miami Sound Machine without ever really getting to the bottom of it and now another twist. Apparently “Don’t Wanna Lose You” was the first official solo release by Gloria being the lead single from her also debut solo album “Cuts Both Ways”. I’m sure some of her previous recent releases didn’t have the Miami Sound Machine brand attached to them though. Certainly when she performed “Can’t Stay Away From You” on TOTP she did so entirely solo and without backing. Oh whatever. All I do know is that there is no way that Gloria could be considered a rock act therefore denying any grist to Bruno Brookes and his rock mill nonsense.

“Don’t Wanna Lose You” is a nice enough ballad I suppose but for me it didn’t stray too far from the original blueprint of Gloria’s catalogue of romantic love songs. Previous hits “Anything For You” and “Can’t Stay Away From You” sounded just the same to me. They even all included ‘you’ as the last word in the title! Talk about formulaic! Her fans around the world didn’t seem to mind though. “Don’t Wanna Lose You” was a No1 song in the US and a Top 10 hit over here with the album going platinum in both territories.

So we all knew what Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway had been doing since the demise of The Housemartins due to The Beautiful South’s immediate impact on the charts with “Song For Whoever” but what about Norman Cook? The cheeky faced bassist reappeared with one MC Wildski (not to be confused – as I did – with Janet Street Porter’s ex-boyfriend Normski) and a very danceable tune called “Blame It On The Bassline”.

Norman was taking his new career in a totally different direction to his old bandmates with samples a plenty woven into the basic premise of “Blame It On The Boogie” by The Jacksons. For me, it worked pretty well but could any of us have foreseen the career in dance music that would take off for Cook at this point? He would of course go onto huge success under an army of aliases and band names including Beats International, Freak Power and most famously Fatboy Slim. Indeed, it was reported in 2008 that he held the Guinness World Record for the most Top 40 hits under different names! Makes the whole Gloria Estefan / Miami Sound Machine saga look like very small fry indeed. “Blame It On The Bassline” was the only release to be promoted under his own name and yet confusingly, it turned up on the debut album by his collective Beats International called “Let Them Eat Bingo”. It peaked at No 29.

The video was a bit of knockabout fun with some very random famous faces in it including Janice Long, Tom ‘Lofty’ Watt and most bizarrely Arsenal footballer Paul Davis.

Despite her wonderful, critically regarded legacy, Kirsty MacColl only ever had seven Top 40 hits …and three of those were “Fairytale of New York”! “Days” was the fourth of those and was of course a cover of The Kinks 1968 track. I remember being surprised that this was a hit at the time, not because it wasn’t any good (it certainly was) but because, ignoring her Xmas renaissance moment with The Pogues, she hadn’t been anywhere near the charts for over four years. Her lack of commercial success is absolutely criminal – so many good songs, so few sales.

The video is very Mary Poppins but kind of suits her wistful treatment of the song. “Days” peaked at No 12, exactly the same position that the original achieved. A Smash Hits article of the time led with the headline ‘So who is this woman who looks like Madge from Neighbours?!?’. It’s not the first time that the publication had been less than reverential to a huge talent but this really did show a lack of knowledge, if not by the editorial team but at least on behalf of their readership. Not a headline that has aged well.

Right, a check on how Jakki B’s TOTP debut is going. Is it me or does that not seem to be an awful lot of chemistry between her and Bruno? The Kinks reference at the end of Kirsty’s video seems a bit frosty to me. Onwards though and from Jakki B to Jazzi P who is the featured artist on the new LA Mix single“Get Loose”. I’ve got very little to say about this one, mainly because I can’t remember it. Not my thing at all but I did learn the other day that apparently the ‘LA’ part of the act’s name is nothing to do with Los Angeles and is actually the initials of founding member Les Adams. You can see why they didn’t go with Les Adams Mix which sounds like the resident DJ at a working men’s club disco night.

A non sensical intro from Bruno Brookes next….

“All this running around we’re doing here like nobody’s business but there’s a very good reason for it now because we’ve got the best view of the new entry at number 33, here comes Simply Red‘. OK, I’ll go with it Bruno…yet instead of cutting to Hucknall et al in the studio, we get the official video! Eh? Why would you need to run about in the studio to get to the gantry to watch a pre recorded video? Yes, it is essentially a basic performance of the song on a stage but it’s not the TOTP stage. Weird.

“A New Flame” was indeed the title track of the band’s latest album as Jakki Brambles informs us and of all the singles released from it, I thought this was the best for what it’s worth. When I say ‘best’ I of course mean ‘least objectionable’.

I have a distinct memory of this song which involves the first job I finally managed to get having left Polytechnic a few weeks earlier. Having dejectedly gone to the Job Centre one Friday morning expecting very little, there was a job as an insurance clerk for AA Insurance Services going. I asked for details and was told to get myself to their office that afternoon for an interview. To my amazement I got it and was told to start the following Monday. Some time later as I was walking to work one day, my boss pulled up and gave me a lift to the office. The song that he was playing on his tape deck? “A New Flame” of course. In fact he had the whole album as I could see the cassette case on his dashboard. I knew then that a career with the firm was not for me.

“A New Flame” the single peaked at No 17 but the album was a massive success going 7 x platinum in the UK and being the second best selling album of the whole year.

Top 10

10. Prince – “Batdance”

9. Bette Midler – “Wind Beneath My Wings”

8. Bobby Brown – “On Our Own”

7. Gladys Knight – “Licence To Kill”

6. Chaka Khan – “Ain’t Nobody”

5. Pet Shop Boys – “It’s Alright”

4. The Beautiful South – “Song For Whoever”

2. London Boys – “London Nights”

2. Sonia – “You’ll Never Stop Me From Loving You”.

1. Soul II Soul – “Back To Life”: A fourth and final week at the top for Jazzie B (any relation to Jazzi P?) and the gang. It tuns out that my aforementioned friend Robin (the Waterfront hater) used to know one of the women dancing in the video. They worked together at the BBC. The one in the red top in the jungle setting maybe? That’s nothing though. I was once in the same room as Chesney Hawkes’ drummer.

The play out video is Bobby Brown‘s fourth consecutive hit of the year. “On Our Own” was taken from the soundtrack to Ghostbusters II and was a No 2 smash in the US and a No 4 hit over here. I’ve been very uncomplimentary about Mr Brown in this blog in the past but I have to say I didn’t actually mind this one. I always quite liked the opening lyric ‘Too hot to handle, too cold to hold’.

As with the Michael Jackson and Norman Cook videos earlier, the promo for “On Our Own” features several guest appearances by celebrities including Donald Trump alongside scenes from the movie and of course it means a second appearance on the same show for Dan Ackroyd. Its his third TOTP outing in total though as he was on the USA For Africa “We Are The World” video in 1985. I spent three years at Polytechnic being called ‘Dan’ due to my resemblance to Mr Ackroyd at the time. I can think of worse people to look like I suppose, like Mick Hucknall for example.

P.S. That final count on rock acts on tonight’s TOTP? I’m saying zero.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Danny Wilson	The Second Summer Of Love	No but I bought the album Bebop Moptop
2	Bette Midler	Wind Beneath My Wings	Nope
3	De La Soul	Say No Go	No but my wife had the album 3 Feet High And Rising
4	Michael Jackson	Liberian Girl	A big no
5	Waterfront	Cry	No but I think it was on some Radio 1 Mark Goddier compilation album that I had.
6	Gloria Estefan	Don’t Wanna Lose You	Nah
7	Norman Cook and MC Wildski	Blame It On The Bassline	I didn’t but it I had the Beats International album it’s on
8	Kirsty MacColl	Days	No but its on my Best Of compilation of hers called Galore
9	LA Mix featuring Jazzi P	Get Loose	Get real more like. No
10	Simply Red	A New Flame	It’s a no from me
11	Soul II Soul	Back To Life	No but I think my wife had their album
12	Bobby Brown	On Our Own	No

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000hbdw/top-of-the-pops-13071989

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/2019/10/july-12-25-1989.html

TOTP 18 MAY 1989

Posted on March 27, 2020 by 80stastic

We’re finally back to the two presenter format this week and it’s Mark Goodier and Anthea Turner. Aren’t we lucky? The word vacuous barely covers it. Anyway, we’re up and running with Shakin’ Stevens and “Love Attack”. This is all kinds of wrong. Firstly, why on earth was this man still having Top 40 hits as late as 1989?! Who was buying his stuff?! Secondly, the song itself – as far as I can tell this wasn’t written by Shaky himself but it is still utter garbage. It sounds like a cross between an Alvin Stardust B-side and a Status Quo album filler. Then there’s the decidedly dodgy lyrics:

“So much love inside, no way I can stand the tide

Don’t go holding back, I’m ready for a love attack”

Yikes! Do you think when Shaky sings about love he really means jizz?

Finally, there’s Mark Goodier’s intro when he proclaims that this is Shaky’s 31st hit. I’ve checked his discography and counted them up three times and “Love Attack” was his 28th. That’s 28 Goodier not 31. Why would you bother going to the trouble of trying to comment on this stuff if you’re going to get it wrong?! Even if you count releases that didn’t make the Top 40 (surely not the definition of a ‘hit’?) then 31 would still be the wrong number!

By the way, why does Shaky’s backing band seem to include former Wimbledon manager Dave ‘Harry’ Bassett and Radio 1 DJ Mike Read in their number?

After Shaky has done his thing (i.e. the same old cobblers he’s been peddling since 1981), we get another knacker in Bobby Brown who returns to the chart with his third consecutive Top 40 UK hit “Every Little Step”. Another cut from his “Don’t Be Cruel” album, I thought that this one at least had some melody to it. That said, it’s still a right load of old bollocks with Brown busting (is that the right word?) some ridiculous rhymes like “I’m rockin’ it steady, and when I’m on the mic don’t you dare call me Freddy”. Freddy? It wasn’t Freddy you should have been worried about but former New Edition band mate Ralph Tresvant who rumour has it actually did the vocals on this track as Brown was off his tits on drugs at the time of recording,

The video showcases Brown’s dance moves (it all looks a bit MC Hammer lite to me) and his signature haircut (it’s called a high-top fade apparently). This piece of New Jack rap (or something) made No 6 on our charts and No 3 in the US.

Unbelievable as it seems, for a very short while Roxette were almost hip (that’s a big almost by the way). Think about it though. They were not, at this time, encumbered with a legacy of catchy rock/pop tunes that positioned them the wrong side of the naff boundary with “The Look” being their only song that the UK knew – indeed nobody really knew that much about them at all outside of their native Sweden so they were almost no preconceptions about them. In a Classic Pop magazine interview, the band’s Per Gessle said:

“I think one of the reasons Roxette was successful was that we weren’t American or British, so we didn’t sound like anything else on the charts at the time.”

Plus they were an unusual group in terms of their line up. One man and one woman who both play guitar and both sing. Can’t think of many similar successful group structures. Everything But The Girl maybe but without the guitars?

Back in 1994 I was working in the Market Street Manchester branch of Our Price and whilst the chart CD buyer was on holiday I covered for them. For some reason best known to myself, I decided that the most likely biggest seller of the week that we would need loads of copies of was “Crash! Boom! Bang!” by Roxette. I ordered in the CD in copious amounts the vast majority of which sat there in the filing not just for that week but for the album’s whole chart life until we mercifully got a recall instruction from Head Office to send back our excess. What was I thinking?! Maybe I had been hoodwinked by their “Joyride ” album of three years previous that went twice platinum in the UK with sales of 600,000 copies. “Crash! Boom! Bang!” sold just a sixth of that amount. If you’re reading this Daryl (my manager at the time), I’m truly sorry.

The return to the two presenter format also means the reappearance of the Breakers section and that starts with Alyson Williams following up her recent “Sleep Talk” hit with a track called “My Love Is So Raw” featuring somebody called Nikki D whom Wikipedia tells me is credited as being the first female rapper signed to the legendary Def Jam Records label. Apparently Alyson started her career doing backing vocals for a number of artists including the aforementioned Bobby Brown and was renowned for her love of towering hats. She should have got one that said dunce on it as this is just awful.

Another female artist following up a previous hit is Sam Brown who has released a cover of “Can I Get A Witness” to consolidate the success of “Stop!”. Originally recorded by Marvin Gaye and covered by the likes of The Rolling Stones and Dusty Springfield, Sam’s version certainly doesn’t seem out of place in that exulted company – indeed Jools Holland describes her as “without question, one of the greatest singers I ever worked with”. She probably doesn’t get the recognition that she deserves in that most people know her for “Stop!” and nothing else. This hasn’t been helped by the fact that she has been unable to sing (and therefore record new material) since 2007 due to vocal chords and cyst issues which are yet to be resolved.

“Can I Get A Witness” peaked at No 15 and was her final hit of the 80s.

The final Breaker this week is Diana Ross with “Workin’ Overtime”. I might be wrong but I don’t think we had seen Ms Ross in our charts since her unexpected No 1 “Chain reaction” in 1986. Probably not surprising as she had not released any new material since 1987 as she had been kind of busy giving birth to one son and becoming pregnant with another. By 1989, feeling the call of music once more, Diana wanted to return to the studio to do a contemporary album after being inspired by watching TV and seeing, in her own words, “the kids doing the hip-hop and so on… and, you know, I’m a risk taker”. The hip-hop?! From the moment she made that statement, her new album was doomed and so it turned out as “Workin’ Overtime” peaked at number 116 in the US charts thereby becoming the lowest charting studio album of her entire solo career.

Somehow the title track single managed to squeeze into the UK charts at No 32 despite being, you know, just awful. It sounds like a very poor Janet Jackson tribute act. Diana would return to our charts somewhat more triumphantly in 1991 with another unexpected hit in the No 2 song “When You Tell Me That You Love Me”.

“Paul McCartney‘s new album will be out on June the 5th” Mark Goodier informs us next. “It’s a critical album” he goes on. Hang on! What?! It’s a critical album?! What the fuck does that mean? That entire countries’ economies were reliant upon it? That the planet’s very future was dependent upon its release? I’m assuming Goodier mean that it has been critically well received in the music press reviews. And what was this ‘critical’ album? Well it was “Flowers In The Dirt” which while being seen as a return to form for Macca after his panned “Press To Play” long player and being a No 1 album, could hardly be described as essential.

Lead single “My Brave Face” was written with Elvis Costello and therefore completes the circle of creativity which saw the pair co-write the Costello hit “Veronica” from his “Spike” album. I always thought it was a pleasant sounding little ditty, very much in the type of upbeat, shiny, perfectly formed three minute pop song that McCartney specializes in. I think I preferred the more languid feel of follow up single “This One” though.

“My Brave Face” peaked at No 18 in the UK and No 25 in the US being McCartney’s final hit over there and marks a watershed moment by also being the last Billboard Top 40 hit with any former Beatle in the lead credit. He has not performed the song live since 1991 apparently.

Anthea Turner’s turn for some odd commentary now as she introduces Neneh Cherry performing her latest single “Manchild”:

“The last time Neneh Cherry was on TOTP she had a bump, she was 7 months pregnant. She’s back now she’s looking slim, she’s looking beautiful…” chirps our host. Why not just say she’s had the baby Anthea? In fact, why say anything at all? It’s completely obvious to every viewer what has happened in those intervening two months.

Anyway, back to “Manchild” which I think was the song that confirmed Neneh Cherry as a genuine popular recording artist. That sounds ever so slightly pretentious but it can’t be denied that “Manchild” wasn’t just a “Buffalo Stance” 2.0 which we might have expected. Rather it was a much more reflective and mature sound of which Neneh herself says:

“I think ‘Manchild’ was the song where I kinda found my style. I think that song, the style of the song, the feeling and the spirit of the song, has reappeared along the way in other songs that I’ve written. Therefore, it became the most significant song that I ever wrote.”

At the time I was kind of disappointed by the song after the infectious silliness of “Buffalo Stance” but over the years I have come to appreciate it much more than I once did. It was also a brilliant promotional tool for the concurrently released debut album “Raw Like Sushi” in that it became a No 5 hit meaning that its parent long player now had two Top 5 smashes to its name making Neneh was one of the biggest break out stars of the year.

Oh shit! It’s Stefan Dennis again with his (thankfully) only Top 40 hit “Don’t It Make You Feel Good”. I can only assume that Neighbours mania had temporarily rendered the UK population tone deaf – how else can you explain this atrocity becoming a hit?! Either that or it was our desperation to own anything Neighbours related or, more likely, some very focused charts manipulation by the record label at foot. His vocals are just weird and the track is completely weighed down in late 80s sound effect gimmicks. How did we fall for this nonsense?

BBC Radio 6 Music DJ Shaun Keaveny used to use the chorus as a jingle on his breakfast show to highlight some usually nondescript occurrence that was a highlight of his listeners humdrum lives. Shaun would have been maybe 15 years of age at the time of the record being in the charts and would totally have seen it as the definition of uncool to someone of his age back then I’m guessing. I’m hoping this is the last time we ever have to discuss Stefan Dennis and”Don’t It Make You Feel Good”.

Hot on the heels of their last single comes “Fergus Sings The Blues” from Deacon Blue. The third single to be released from their “When The World Knows Your Name” album, it was yet again perfect Radio 1 daytime playlist material and helped fuel sales of the album to the extent that they knocked Madonna’s “Like A Prayer” off the top spot. Quite a feat for a little Scottish rock / pop outfit.

Due to my long lasting obsession with male pop stars hairstyles, I would no doubt have noticed that since their last appearance on the show Ricky Ross has had a rather drastic haircut with his long locks shorn off to reveal a very prominent short back and sides effect. On reflection, I would probably been more interested in Ricky’s partner and fellow band member Lorraine McIntosh who was fast becoming one of my favourite people on the planet at the time.

I always wondered who James and Bobby Purify were, as in the song’s lyrics “Tell me why, James & Bobby Purify”. Finally looked them up. Turns out they did that “I’m Your Puppet” song.

“Fergus Sings The Blues” peaked at No 14 on the UK singles chart making it the second biggest hit from the album after “Real Gone Kid”.

Top 10

10. Roxette – “The Look”

9. Midnight Oil – “Beds Are Burning”

8. Chaka Khan – “I’m Every Woman”

7. The Bangles – “Eternal Flame”

6. Edelweiss – “Bring Me Edelweiss”

5. Queen – “I Want It All”

4. London Boys – “Requiem”

3. Natalie Cole – “Miss You Like Crazy”

2. Kylie Minogue – “Hand On Your Heart”

1. The Christians, Holly Johnson, Paul McCartney and Gerry Marsden – “Ferry Across The Mersey”: Kylie’s reign at the top is over after just one week but it’s for a very good reason. This version of “Ferry Across The Mersey” was of course released in response to the awful Hillsborough tragedy of the previous month. Originally a hit for Gerry and the Pacemakers (though not one of their No 1s), Marsden and his old pal McCartney are appropriately on this version alongside fellow and then current Liverpool artists Holly Johnson and The Christians. Johnson had already committed a version of the song to vinyl as a track on the “Welcome To The Pleasure Dome” album by his former band Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

The track was produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman who would be at the mixing desk for another charity record before the year was up with the second coming of Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas”.

Having witnessed the scenes unfolding at Hillsborough on TV, I, alongside millions of others, found myself deeply affected by the tragedy and I felt compelled to purchase the single. On reflection, it was possibly to help make sense of what had happened as well as the obvious consequence of the money from the record going to help those families affected by Hillsborough.

Two days after this TOTP aired, the all Merseyside FA Cup final between Liverpool and Everton took place with the reds prevailing 3-2. I watched the game in my student house with a few mates and a load of Ace Lager*. At the end of the game we all went out to play footie at the local park to recreate the final as if we were still 10 years old.

*This was a spectacularly cheap lager that was also exceptionally piss weak. It could be found in vast quantities in the Sunderland area where I was a student as it was manufactured at the Dunston Brewery in Gateshead. It was immortalized in the Viz comic character 8 Ace.

The play out video is “Helyom Halib” by Capella. I don’t remember this track at all but the name Capella rang a bell. When I checked it was of course the Italian house act who were responsible for some hateful dance hits in the 90s which I will have sold in bucket loads to the great unwashed of Stockport when I was working at the Our Price store there.

Still can’t place them? here’s there biggest ~~shit~~ hit from 1993…

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I buy it?
1	Shakin’ Stevens	Love Attack	Seriously?!
2	Bobby Brown	Every Little Step	Totally not
3	Roxette	The Look	Nope
4	Alyson Williams	My Love Is So Raw	Huge no
5	Sam Brown	Can I Get A Witness	I did not
6	Diana Ross	Workin’ Overtime	No
7	Paul McCartney	My Brave Face	Nah
8	Neneh Cherry	Manchild	No but I think my wife had the album
9	Stefan Dennis	Don’t It Make You Feel Good	No Stefan it really doesn’t! NO!
10	Deacon Blue	Fergus Sings The Blues	Not the single but I bought the album
11	The Christians, Holly Johnson, Paul McCartney and Gerry Marsden	Ferry Cross The Mersey	I did! Finally a single that I bought!
12	Capella	Helyom Halib	Negative

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000gg2n/top-of-the-pops-18051989

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/2019/05/may-17-30-1989.html

TOTP 23 MAR 1989

Posted on February 21, 2020 by 80stastic

It’s Maundy Thursday 1989 and as it’s Thursday it means that we have another TOTP show. The impending Easter celebrations can mean only one thing in the studio – rabbits! The production team have assembled some fairly crappy looking rabbit decorations in the style of those concertina lanterns / bells. Presenter Mark Goodier feels the need to draw our attention to them and no I don’t like your Easter bunnies Mark.

But before all of this comes The Reynolds Girls. They’re back for a second studio appearance and in matching outfits, identical even except for the red handkerchief that the blonde one has hanging out of the back pocket of her cut off jeans. That can’t be so we can tell them apart surely?! Err… the clothes are identical not the sisters whoever styled them. Maybe it’s a Morrissey gladioli style affectation.

Goodier describes their song “I’d Rather Jack” as ‘brilliant pop music’. Hmm. Not sure about that. It’s almost like one of those tribute songs that name checks other artists (like “Nightshift” by The Commodores) but in reverse. Also, I know the nation was still enthralled by house music at this time but did people still ‘jack’ by this point? After all, “Jack Your Body” by Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley had been No 1 a whole two years before (presumably The Reynolds Girls were still in school then). Whatever. I’m guessing this is the last time we’ll see the girls on the show – wherever they are now – a 2013 national search for them to take part in a PWL 25th anniversary concert in Hyde Park failed to find them – let’s hope they’re happy.

Blimey! Alyson Williams absolutely belts out the opening lines of her single “Sleep Talk” next. She gives a very energetic performance, working the studio audience hard all the while wearing a hat that wouldn’t look out of place in Grace Jones’ wardrobe.

Despite Alyson’s obvious talents the song though does very little for me. I can’t really be doing with the jumpy, clunky R’n’B backing track and the lyrics about a lover betraying himself and his infidelity by talking in his sleep. Leaves me cold I’m afraid.

Another outing for the video for Donna Summer‘s “This Time I Know It’s For Real” single again next. I was listening to Gary Davies on Radio 2 earlier (yes I’m at that age where I find Radio 1 unlistenable) and he played “State Of Independence”. Compared to that towering, ground breaking song, “This Time I Know It’s For Real” sounds so twee and lame. From the very start of it when that familiar, formulaic SAW backing track kicks in its fate is sealed and even Donna’s vocals can’t save it from itself. I mean, compared to “I’d Rather Jack” it’s sheer poetry but then so is the massive dump I’ve just taken on a writing break. Even the video is hopeless. It should have come with a warning about flashing lights at least.

“This Time I Know It’s For Real” peaked at No 3.

One of the stories of 1989 next. I knew who Lisa Stansfield was before her collaboration with Coldcut on “People Hold On” due to her stint as a presenter on ITV’s music show Razzmatazz but I didn’t know of her as a singer. I certainly didn’t know about her band Blue Zone who had been releasing material for about five years up to this point but with no commercial breakthrough.

A chance encounter with electronic dance samplers Coldcut was the big break that she needed. The success of the single led to Arista Records signing her on a solo deal and the rest is history. With the endorsement of Coldcut, who were rivaling SAW as star makers by this point after having done a similar job for Yazz in ’88, Lisa became a huge star and would have a No 1 single and best selling album by the end of the year.

She looks like she can’t quite believe she’s on TOTP at the start of this performance but by the end of it her star quality is shining through. I always quite liked this one. It had a strong melody and hooky chorus and it all just sat together really well.

Oh and I’m a bit late to the party on this but that sample in the middle of the song? Guess who…

Apparently that repeated high-pitched wail in “People Hold On” is a speeded-up sample of Jimi Somerville from "Why?" by Bronski Beat. #TOTP

— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) February 14, 2020

“People Hold On” peaked at No 11.

Some Breakers now and we start with Pat And Mick‘s version of “I Haven’t Stopped Dancing Yet”. Now never mind that this is a heinous crime against music. Never mind Pat Sharp’s hair. What I want to know is how they decided whose name would come first in the act’s name? Did Pat have a bigger profile (as well as bigger hair) than Mick? On the first release “Let’s All Chant” the B-side was credited to ‘Mick and Pat’ so maybe Mick had not been comfortable with second billing and had to be appeased with a top ranking on the B-side. Was it then meant to alternate on future releases? As with all their singles around this time, the royalties went to Capital FM’s ‘Help A London Child’ charity and their cover of Gonzalez’s “I Haven’t Stopped Dancing Yet” actually went Top 10 so presumably earned them a few quid. Charity’s gain was pop music’s burden.

See, there is more to Roachford than just “Cuddly Toy”. Follow up single “Family Man” was also a hit (albeit quite a modest one) peaking at No 25. Like its predecessor, this was also a re-release and for me didn’t have the same instantaneous likability as “Cuddly Toy”. It was a bit of a grower though with its very mature bluesy feel.

When Andrew Roachford appeared on TOTP sporting a satchel as an accessory, I claimed that he may have invented the man bag. He (or rather the actor at the start of the video checking himself out in the shop window) is at it again here pioneering the Peaky Blinders look some 24 years before the TV show aired.

One of the most well remembered hits of the entire decade next – it’s The Bangles with “Eternal Flame”. Just about as removed from their usual kooky, psychedelic pop sound as possible, this ballad would become a pop standard and a global hit. Apparently inspired by the eternal flame at the grave of Elvis Presley in Graceland, it was one of those songs that was destined to be a No 1 – it just had that feel about it. Besides, my housemate Ian had confidently predicted it would be – after such an endorsement it was a foregone conclusion!

Composed by the band’s Susanna Hoffs with songwriters Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, it is unusual in that it doesn’t really have a chorus as such although it feels like it does. Steinberg attributes the structure to its Beatles influence referencing “We Can Work It Out” as being in a similar vein. The song’s sonic properties are also very Beatles-esque.

I’m guessing that this must be the band’s most played song in their back catalogue as it remains a staple of playlists for the likes of Magic FM to this day. It was covered and taken back to No 1 in 2001 by Atomic Kitten but thankfully their version with its horrible added back beat rarely gets an airing.

From Alyson with a ‘y’ (Williams) to Kym with one! Emboldened by the success of her collaboration with Dr Robert of The Blow Monkeys on recent Top 10 hit “Wait”, Kym Mazelle is out there on her own this time with her single “Got To Get You Back”. As with a few singles that were in the charts around this time, I don’t recall this one at all. Apparently it got to No 29 and although it can’t have come to my attention, it may have been picked up on by Jazzie B as Kym would join Soul II Soul in 1990 replacing the departing Caron Wheeler.

And from Kym with a ‘y’ to Kim with an ‘i’! I’m guessing that this would have been Kim Wilde‘s last TOTP appearance of the 80s what with “Love In The Natural Way” being her last hit of the decade and all. So this blog bids farewell to perhaps the biggest crush of my teenage life. Thanks for everything Kim. Sniff.

“You really should see this again” advises Mark Goodier about the next performance, trying to justify the fact that this is just a repeat of the same clip of Paul Abdul doing “Straight Up” as we have already seen on the show the other week. In a Smash Hits interview, Paula said “I guess someday I’d like to marry a film director or songwriter. Someone who can understand this currazy business I’m in”. And she did. Kind of. She married actor Emilio Estevez in 1992 but they divorced just two years later. Around this time, Emilio was riding high on the back of his performance as ‘Billy The Kid’ in Young Guns and it was also around this time that my friend from Poly Emma asked the question ‘Is Emilio Estevez Gloria’s brother?’

Top 10

10. The Reynolds Girls – I’d Rather Jack”

9. Sam Brown – “Stop!”

8. Guns N’ Roses – “Paradise City”

7. Gloria ~~Estevez~~ Estefan – “Cant Stay Away From You”

6. Bananarama and Lalaneeneenoonoo – “Help”

5. Soul II Soul – “Keep On Movin”

4. Paula Abdul – “Straight Up”

3. Donna Summer – “This Time I Know It’s For Real”

2. Jason Donovan – “Too Many Broken Hearts”

1. Madonna – “Like A Prayer”: With the video deemed far too controversial to be shown in its entirety by the BBC, we get to only see it from about half way in for a duration of less than two minutes with all of the images with potential to offend conveniently removed. As for the song itself, it always sounded to me like it had an awful lot going on in it. There’s the innuendo and mystery of the lyrics, the gospel choir, its very danceable rhythm – hell, there’s even a tiny bit of a guitar solo by Prince in there right at the start of the song. It really is everything but the kitchen sink pop. And it works. Unlike some of her material (girl), “Like A Prayer” still stands up today I think.

After just about every single act on tonight’s TOTP featured female vocalists, here’s a male to end the show. It’s Bobby Brown though. I’d rather have continued the female theme and gone with Sam Brown. I’m not sure that there is one single Bobby Brown track that I have ever really liked and “Don’t Be Cruel” certainly doesn’t make me think otherwise. The follow up to “My Prerogative” and also the title track to his album, it would peak at No 13 in the UK though I think it may have been released before this and not made the charts.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I buy it?
1	The Reynolds Girls	I’d Rather Jack	I’d rather not if it’s all the same – no
2	Alyson Williams	Sleep Talk	Yawn – no
3	Donna Summer	This Time I Know It’s For Real	I think it’s on my Best Of CD of hers but I never play that track
4	Coldcut and Lisa Stansfield	People Hold On	Nope
5	Pat And Mick	I Haven’t Stopped Dancing Yet	Do you have to ask?
6	Roachford	Family Man	No
7	The Bangles	Eternal Flame	It must be on their Best Of CD that I have
8	Kym Mazelle	Got To Get You Back	But you never had me in the first place kym – no
9	Kim Wilde	Love In The Natural Way	Nah
10	Paula Abdul	Straight Up	Straight up? No
11	Madonna	Like A Prayer	No but it’s on my Immaculate Collection CD
12	Bobby Brown	Don’t Be Cruel	Sorry Bobby but I am cruel – this was horrible – no

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000f8x9/top-of-the-pops-23031989

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/2019/03/march-22-april-4-1989.html

TOTP 09 FEB 1989

Posted on February 3, 2020 by 80stastic

We start this particular TOTP repeat with some good news – this was the last of 62 regular appearances for Mike Read! As Alan Partridge – the character whose creation Read seemed to have inspired – might have said, ‘Back of the net!’. No more diabolical jokes or seedy segues! No more blatant self promotion! No more awful impressions! No more dreadful singing! And no more wearing sunglasses indoors! He’s been teamed up with newbie Sybil Ruscoe for his final stint – lucky her!

First up tonight is Samantha Fox with her mockery of a sham version of “I Only Wanna Be With You”. Talking of mockeries of shams, this performance (as her pink hair indicates) came only four days before her presenting role in the chaos that was the BRITS 1989 show alongside Mick Fleetwood. The live broadcast of that BRITS was a big deal back then in the days before we all had access to dedicated music channels and the like and I distinctly remember, as one of the watching millions, witnessing the pandemonium unfold. Apart from all the fluffed lines, broken auto-cues and wrongly introduced stars, the whole thing looked ridiculous from the start due to the enormous height difference between Fox (5’1″) and Fleetwood (6’5″). The ensuing shitshow meant that the BRITS were pre-recorded for the next 18 years.

As for Sam’s TOTP appearance, there seems to be an awful lot of non-scripted shouting coming from the studio audience giving the whole thing an edge of impending catastrophe. Was it a forewarning of the BRITS disaster or were they just over excited as the news that Mike Read would no longer be on TOTP had leaked out?

Ah yes, Mr Read. He couldn’t resist one last excruciating link and this one for next act Rick Astley was a real stinker. Not only was it totally humorless but it seemed to perplex everyone else in the studio…

“…Newton Le Wiillows presents the internationally famous and good looking Les Nemes playboys with their featured vocalist…”.

Cue tumbleweed. There is a definite moment before the applause for Rick kicks in where everyone there goes “What the fuck is Read talking about?”. Well, the bassist in Astley’s backing band was one Les Nemes, formerly of top pop outfit Haircut 100. Clearly Read knew Les and decided to name drop him into the intro in a ‘look how much I know about pop music’ type way. Unfortunately, he’s completely misjudged it as with all due respect to Les, I’m pretty sure most Rick Astley / pop fans didn’t have a clue who he was in 1989. In trying to be clever, Read just looks weird. I bet even Rick was thinking ‘prick’ in his head as the camera cuts to him. Les’ hair is great though and outdoes even the Astley quiff.

As for the song, “Hold Me In Your Arms” was the title track from his second album and would make No 10 on the charts. My housemate Ian loved this one. I did say previously that he had very mainstream taste!

Sybil Rusoce’s intro for the next act goes a bit awry as she can’t seem to stop saying the word ‘week’. Three times she says it in a 10 second link. Who has got her so flustered? It’s Yazz with her latest single “Fine Time”. She gives a performance that is designed to be all sultry and seductive but I have to say I am far too distracted by the clarinet player who comes in during the instrumental break to notice her as he looks remarkably like German football manager Joachim Löw!

At the song’s end, Mike Read is the latest in a long line of TOTP presenters to make a chart prediction that is completely wayward. Far from being a future No 1, “Fine Time” would peak at No 9.

A live vocal performance next from Hue And Cry who are in the charts with “Looking For Linda” and Pat Kane does a pretty good job in my opinion. I used to work with a guy called Scott in my Our Price days who had been obsessed with Hue And Cry in his teenage years as they had been the first band he ever saw live. On the back of this he customized his leather jacket with a Hue And Cry design to show his love of the band.

This would be the peak of the band’s popularity as the 90s saw a downturn in commercial fortunes (even Scott had ditched them). Interest in the band was re-ignited though in 2005 when they appeared on the ITV show Hit Me Baby One More Time which showcased former pop acts from back in the day to perform one of their big hits plus a cover version. A phone vote determined which act was the most popular. The brothers Kane chose to perform Beyonce’s “Crazy In Love” and it proved a hit with viewers as they won their heat but lost in the final to Shakin’ Stevens. Yes, Shaky! FFS!

“Looking For Linda” peaked at No 15 in the UK Top 40.

Here’s the Breakers…

Even in an era when releasing multiple tracks off the same album as singles was almost industry standard (Michael Jackson, Madonna etc), Def Leppard were taking the piss with this one. “Rocket” was the sixth single to be released from their “Hysteria” album in the UK (seventh in the US!), an album that had been released in the Summer of ’87! Yes, some 18 months on and the band were still flogging the shit out of it! Such was their popularity at the time – my mate Steve from Bolton assures me that the band were huge in his hometown – that “Rocket” was still the third biggest hit from the album when it peaked at No 15.

I’ve never paid that much attention to it but a quick trawl of the internet shows there has been an awful lot written about this track and I found out some stuff that I never knew before. For a start, I’d never realized it was a tribute song. Clearly I hadn’t seen the video previously as that makes it perfectly clear but somehow I’d not noticed all the rock star references that feature. And I never knew that what Joe Elliott was singing after ‘Rocket!’ was ‘Satellite Of Love’ as in the Lou Reed song – in my defence his annunciation is appalling. There’s also backwards messages and Burundi drums in there.

And what’s this weird B-side that Mike Read refers to? Well it’s a cover of Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Release Me” and for once Read is telling the truth. It’s definitely weird….

Some more poodle rock next, this time from Poison with their power ballad “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”. All I knew about Poison before this point was their single “Nothin’ But A Good Time” which had been a small hit in the UK in ’88 (No 35) but I’d missed it at the time. My introduction to it and Poison came via my aforementioned housemate Ian who had worked in a US Summer camp for kids and had brought back a tape of all the songs that he’d listened to whilst out there. On that tape was “Nothin’ But A Good Time”. That raucous, glam metal anthem gave no hint as to the stripped back, dare I say it almost delicate, ballad that is “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”. Indeed, so genre busting was it that it was first picked up for airplay by a Dallas country music station before the rock stations caught on to it. When it went to No 1 in the US Billboard Top 100 and the US Rock chart, it meant that the song was simultaneously a mainstream, rock and country hit single.

Despite all of this, I wasn’t very enamoured with it at all. It always seemed very pedestrian to me and just a little bit cynical with its appropriation of the famous proverb. Maybe they were onto something though as the track has been used widely in film and TV ever since from Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey to The Simpsons.

“Every Rose Has Its Thorn” peaked at No 13 in the UK.

Mike Read gets all creepy introducing the next breaker when he says that “I Don’t Want A Lover” by Texas is Sybil Ruscoe’s theme song! Quite odd to consider that Texas were actually around in the 80s in a way as so much of their success came in the latter part of the 90s but here they were with their debut single that would be a Top 10 hit.

I liked it I have to say and thought it stood out from the rest of the charts with its slide guitar intro and riff before the pulsating back beat kicks in. Lead singer Sharleen Spiteri had a good vocal style and with ex Altered Images and Hipsway member Johnny McElhone in their ranks, they would surely know their way around some good tunes. One of my other housemates Dave liked this one as it got him in the mood for a night out sharkin’ for women as he rather delightfully put it!

Parent album “Southside” was also a hit but the band were unable to follow up on this initial success and the next two albums underperformed dramatically. They rose Lazarus style though in 1997 after an endorsement from Chris Evans who was very much seen then as what we would call an influencer today I guess. Comeback single “Say What You Want” went Top 3 and paved the way for two back to back No 1 albums.

One for my Mum next. Apparently Michael Ball got his first big break when he won a part in The Pirates Of Penzance via an X Factor style open audition when he was selected from about 600 applicants. In a different life, instead of a long lasting theatre, acting and recording career, he could have had a Xmas No 1 and then seen his fame crash and burn as his audience moved onto the next series of X Factor before returning to our screens years later on Celebrity Coach Trip.

“Love Changes Everything” almost got that No 1 anyway as it peaked agonisingly one place lower.

It’s that Bobby Brown video again next. This is the third time it’s been on in these TOTP repeats and I’ve got very little left to say about it (especially as I’ve never even liked “My Prerogative”). I didn’t get his appeal at the time and his lurid personal life details and misdemeanors haven’t led me to rethinking my opinion.

I always thought Bel Biv DeVoe (his fellow band mates from New Edition) were more interesting. Unfortunately for me, I think we will be seeing a lot more of Bobby Brown before these 1989 TOTP repeats are through,

Good God! The Smiths have reformed! Well not quite but they’re only missing Johnny Marr in this Morrissey performance. They’ve even got the ‘indiscussable’ Craig Gannon in the line up. “Last Of The Famous International Playboys” was Mozza’s third solo single and peaked at No 6 which was the position it debuted at suggesting a sizeable and very loyal fan base but not much broader appeal.

Infamously referencing The Kray twins in its lyrics, the single was re-released in 2013 and in a curious further link to Rick Astley following Mike Read’s lame intro earlier in the show where he obviously took the title of Morrissey’s single as his inspiration, that re-release featured a photo of Rick and Mozza together on the sleeve! And it was taken back stage at the recording of this very show! All very spooky. Admittedly it was only used as the original intended photo of Morrissey and David Bowie together was denied use by the latter but still.

These seemed like much simpler and happy days for Moz before all the ill advised views that he has made public in recent times. He even high fives some of the studio audience at the song’s end. What happened fella?

Top 10

10. Fine Young Cannibals – “She Drives Me Crazy”

9. Bobby Brown – “My Prerogative”

8. Ten City – “That’s The Way Love Is”

7. Robert Howard and Kym Mazzelle – “Wait”

6. Morrissey – “Last Of The Famous International Playboys”

5. Roachford – “Cuddly Toy”

4. Holly Johnson – “Love Train”

3. Roy Orbison – “You Got It”

2. Mike And The Mechanics – “The Living Years”

1. Marc Almond and Gene Pitney – “Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart”: In a recent Classic Pop magazine interview, Marc admitted that he was studying to be a druid. No, I didn’t know you could do that either. How do you go about such an endeavour? Here’s Marc:

” I started reading about druidism online and sent off for the book and CD about how to go about it. A scroll arrived saying you could become a druid.”

Simples! Might be worth giving Julian Cope a call though Marc. Just a thought.

Blimey! TOTP loved Yazz! Here she is again with her own personal spotlight, cuddling up to Mike Read as the show comes to an end. She’d done this before when “The Only Way Is Up” went to No 1. I can’t recall too many pop stars being given similar treatment on the show.

The play out video is Mike And The Mechanics who must have hated Marc Almond and Gene Pitney’s single as it is still keeping their own offering “The Living Years” off the top spot. They stayed at No 2 for three consecutive weeks but never managed to go that crucial one place higher.

But never mind all that. In what seems to be a never ending all roads lead to Morrissey post, it turns out that Mechanics singer Paul Carrack played piano on “Reel Around the Fountain”, “You’ve Got Everything Now” and “I Don’t Owe You Anything” on the first Smiths album! What in the name of Moz is going on?!

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Samantha Fox	I Only Wanna Be With You	Jesus no!
2	Rick Astley	Hold Me In Your Arms	That would be a no
3	Yazz	Fine Time	Nah
4	Hue And Cry	Looking For Linda	No but my wife had the album
5	Def Leppard	Rocket	I certainly did not
6	Poison	Every Rose Has Its Thorn	Not for me
7	Texas	I Don’t Want A Lover	Don’t think I did
8	Michael Ball	Love Changes Everything	Not a prayer
9	Bobby Brown	My Prerogative	No
10	Morrissey	Last Of The Famous International Playboys	Liked it but didn’t buy it
11	Marc Almond and Gene Pitney	Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart	But it wasn’t this record – no
12	Mike and the Mechanics	The Living Years	Negative

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000dl2j/top-of-the-pops-09021989

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-8-21-1989.html

TOTP 02 FEB 1989

Posted on January 31, 2020 by 80stastic

We’ve reached February ’89 in these BBC4 TOTP repeats and already we’ve witnessed some changes to the show in terms of presentation and indeed presenters with a whole raft of new faces replacing some of the old guard Radio 1 DJs of yesteryear. Unfortunately, one of them has slipped through the net though and is still inanely grinning his way onto our screens. That person is, of course, the abominable Steve Wright. He’s paired up with Simon Mayo for this one so hold onto your hats, pathetically weak humour incoming….

Talking of hats, check out Holly Johnson‘s! Well, I suppose it’s a crown rather than a hat but you get the point. Simon Mayo does and uses it to make…guess what? Yes, a pathetically weak joke about checking out the hat parade. Hat parade / hit parade – geddit? Awful.

Anyway, Holly’s back to promote his debut single “Love Train” which is turning out to be a very sizeable success indeed. Up to No 5 already (it would peak one place higher), I wonder if Holly and his new label MCA had anticipated such a hit straight off the bat? After all it had been five years since Frankie Goes To Hollywood owned the charts after which their appeal fell away pretty quickly so I’m guessing that nobody was expecting a guaranteed hit. Sensibly I think, Holly decided to go in a different direction from that of his previous band with this all out pop tune as opposed to the cutting edge Frankie sound that cut a swath though the chart fodder in ’84. Of course he didn’t have Trevor Horn at the mixing desk for his solo stuff so it was always going to be a different beast I guess.

There’s some very odd camera work in this performance. As the song goes into the guitar solo in the middle and the guitarist readies herself for her moment in the spotlight, instead of focusing on her, the camera pans away and takes us for a trip around the back of Holly and shows us the rest of the band including the drummer and keyboard player. The close up of the white be-gloved hands of the keyboard player reminded me of this…

Some more issues with the new staging changes next as Simon Mayo appears at the side of the stage in amongst the studio audience to do the next link. Unfortunately for Simon, some yuppie looking herbert has managed to get himself a prime spot right behind Mayo as he starts his intro and as the camera focuses on the presenter it makes them look like, as Mick Convey on Twitter remarked, some sort of terrible pop duo. He’s behind you Simon!

If this was a group, even without hearing their music, you’d know it would be terrible. #totp pic.twitter.com/x6DvtaSs3b

— Mick Convey (@nalaknip) January 24, 2020

Back to the music and it’s Roy Orbison again! He seemed to be on every week back in ’89 with “You Got It”. Whilst Roy has retained his classic look, the rest of his band could not have ever existed in any time period other than the 80s with mullets aplenty. It makes for a quite a jarring visual image as if Roy has time travelled from the 60s and been deposited on stage as the lead singer of a contemporary 80s band.

This footage was actually shot just a few days before the Big O sadly passed away.

Someone who definitely does not have a mullet is Robert Howard (aka Dr Robert of The Blow Monkeys) whose had a very smart short back ‘n’ sides cut that wouldn’t look out of place today. He’s joined by Kym Mazelle for their duet “Wait” which was a bigger hit it seems than I remember. Maybe I’m confusing it with another Dr Robert collaboration with lovers rock singer Sylvia Tella called “Choice?” w hwas included on their first singles collection album. That track only made No 22 whilst “Wait” peaked at No 7.

I like the fact that the good doctor chose to do perform the song sat at a piano the whole time despite it being a dance track. What with his hair and pristine suit and a feather boa prop, it somehow puts me in mind of a performance from a much earlier era as if they were having a good old sing song around the old Joanna as TV hadn’t been invented yet. Kym’s shelf stacking dance moves do rather ruin that image though.

Here comes Sheena Easton with a backing band so large it can hardly fit on the stage. I’m sorry two keytar players on the same stage? There is surely safeguarding legislation in place to stop this sort of thing happening nowadays.

At this point in her career, Sheena still had some of her native Scottish accent intact. See her interview on the Tonight Show from 1989…

…now listen to her interview on This Morning from 2017…

I guess that’s what a two year stint in a Las Vegas residency does to you. None of this though can distract from the fact that “The Lover In Me” was beyond dreary.

Here come the Breakers starting with Michael Ball and “Love Changes Everything”. Not a cover of the Climie Fisher hit but in fact taken from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Aspects Of Love, I hated this. What had this got to do with pop music? Also my Mum loved it and Michael Ball which only strengthened my resolve to despise it. For those like my Mum who may have been expecting a Michael Ball album, it took another three years for it to come out on the back of his turn as the 1992 UK Eurovision entry which included both that song (“One Step Out Of Time” ) and “Love Changes Everything”.

I’ve softened towards Michael Ball in the intervening years – not about his singing but he was good in the TV adaptation of the Victoria Wood musical That Day We Sang and his Radio 2 Sunday show is actually reasonably listenable.

“Love Changes Everything” peaked at No 2 on the UK Top 40.

So there was more to Yazz than just “The Only Way Is Up” it seems. Indeed, there was more to her than “The Only Way Is Up” and its follow up “Stand Up For Your Love Rights” for here was a third hit single (not including her Coldcut collaboration) in “Fine Time”. Perhaps wisely, she deviated from the dance anthem formula of those two previous hits and went for a ballad with a reggae lilt – you know, to show her versatility like.

The video is all arty black and white footage of Yazz walking around London intercut with her performing the song in colour in some sort of jazz club setting. Again, I think it must have been to try and establish her as a credible artist and not a one trick pony. For me though, none of that mattered as the song was interminably dull and I lost interest in it immediately.

“Fine Time” peaked at No 9.

Right, so what exactly did Steve Wright mean by his comment “the new heroes of bedsit land” when introducing Hue and Cry? That they were a student band? I’ve never thought of them as that. I’m really not sure what he means but then the guy seems to know very little about music for someone who was a national DJ so why am I surprised.

That “Looking For Linda” was a hit kind of bucked the band’s trend and was slightly unexpected. Since their breakthrough hit “Labour Of Love” in ’87, they’s released a further three single all of which had stalled outside the Top 40 including the lead single from their new album “Remote” which must have been a concern. Undaunted, a second single was out out into the market place and this time it did the trick peaking at No 15.

Why did “Looking For Linda” make it and not the others? Maybe there was something intriguing in the title. Who was Linda and why was she being looked for? The answer was just about in the lyrics which seemed to tell the tale of a woman fleeing an abusive relationship by saying she was nipping out for a packet of fags and then jumping on the first available train out of town. Yes, it was one of those story songs like “Come Dancing” by The Kinks or “Disco 2000” by Pulp or (gasp) “Copacabana” by Barry Manilow.

I liked it (still do) – it was tuneful with a great chorus and a serious message. Perfect for my student tastes. Oh shit! Maybe Steve Wright was ..err..right about Hue And Cry!

Some three years after her debut single “Touch Me (I Want Your Body)”, somehow, and this defies all known logic and parameters of taste, Samantha Fox was still having hit records. However, the game was nearly up and her cover of the Dusty Springfield classic “I Only Want To Be With You” was her last of the decade and the last of her entire career bar a one off comeback single in 1998 that made No 31 called “Santa Maria” – I’ve no idea.

For some reason, Fox’s version was re-titled “I Only Wanna Be With You” – one in the eye for linguists everywhere. It’s a thoroughly weedy rendition and the Stock, Aitken and Waterman production does it no favours whatsoever. In any case, the definitive cover version had already been made some 10 years previous by The Tourists.

“I Only Wanna Be With You” peaked at No 16 at a stroke becoming Fox’s biggest hit for two years.

Next, the return of Mick Hucknall. Wait! Come back! It’ll be over soon! I think this may have been the point when Simply Red went big league. Yes, they’d had some major chart success before this point (“Holding Back The Years” had been a No 2 hit and their first two albums had been platinum sellers) but this had been tempered with some moderate chart success single releases and even some that flopped altogether.

With the release of third album “A New Flame” – from which “It’s Only Love” was the lead single – it felt like they had moved onto a higher level. For a start, “A New Flame” was their first UK No 1 album and it would eventually go seven times platinum paving the way for the peak of their popularity with the 1991 album “Stars” which eclipsed even that figure by being an incredible twelve times platinum seller.

To my ears though, “It’s Only Love” sounded incredibly dull. One paced and with some distinctly seedy lyrics, it felt like a stinker to me. It turns out (and I never knew this) that it’s actually a cover of a Barry White song (originally titled “It’s Only Love Doing Its Thing”) which kind of explains the sleazy sounding lyrics I guess. Look Mick, the walrus of love can get away with lines like “Don’t be afraid to touch me babe” but you mate, nah. Especially not in that shirt.

“It’s Only Love” peaked at No 13.

Another man making a fashion statement is Roachford who seems to have single handedly invented the ‘man bag’ a good ten years before the rest of the world caught on. Check out what he’s got draped over his right arm in this performance of “Cuddly Toy”. This may have been a southern thing as there definitely were not loads of young men in Sunderland where I was a student at the time sauntering around the Crowtree Leisure Centre with a man bag accessory.

Seven years on from this and possibly inspired by Roachford, one of those dreary 3T lads took it a stage further by wearing a proper back pack for this performance…

Absolutely ludicrous. Another dreaded Steve Wright moment arrives when he can’t resist whooping it up at the end of Roachford’s performance. He looks and sounds like a twat to be blunt.

The Top 10…

10. Robert Howard and Kym Mazelle – “Wait”

9. Erasure – “Crackers International EP”

8. Ten City – “That’s The Way Love Is”

7. Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan – “Especially For You”

6. Fine Young Cannibals – “She Drives Me Crazy”

5. Holly Johnson – “Love Train”

4. Roachford – “Cuddly Toy”

3. Roy Orbison – “You Got It”

2. Mike And The Mechanics – “The Living Years”

1. Marc Almond and Gene Pitney – “Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart”: God I’m bored of this already. Let’s see if the video was any more interesting that their TOTP performance…

…hmm well, I suppose it was a nice concept to film it in the Neon Junkyard in Las Vegas to create an unusual backdrop of discarded neon signs but then Marc and Gene just stroll around the set doing a straight performance of the song. There’s very little narrative or plot and it all seems very underwhelming to me.

The play out video is “My Prerogative” by Bobby Brown. The inclusion of a word like ‘prerogative’ in the lyrics of a pop song was probably pretty out there but there have been a few other examples of unlikely words that have been used similarly. For example we have the wonderful “Juxtaposed with U” by Super Furry Animals. However, you’d have to go a long way to find a more bizarre use of words than in Faith Hill’s “That Kiss” which manages to get ‘centrifugal motion’ in the chorus.

“My Prerogative”peaked at No 6 in the UK charts.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Holly Johnson	Love Train	No but my wife bought his album
2	Roy Orbison	You Got It	Actually I didn’t get it
3	Robert Howard and Kym Mazelle	Wait	Not the single but I have it on a CD I think
4	Sheena Easton	The Lover In Me	Nope
5	Michael Ball	Love Changes Everything	Not a prayer
6	Yazz	Fine Time	Nah
7	Hue And Cry	Looking For Linda	No but again my wife had the album
8	Samantha Fox	I Only Wanna Be With You	Jesus no!
9	Simply Red	It’s Only Love	It’s only crud more like – no
10	Roachford	Cuddly Toy	No but I think my wife may have. She should probably be writing this blog not me!
11	Marc Almond and Gene Pitney	Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart	But it wasn’t this record – no
12	Bobby Brown	My Prerogative	No

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000dl2d/top-of-the-pops-02021989

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/2019/01/january-25-february-7-1989.html

TOTP 26 JAN 1989

Posted on January 27, 2020 by 80stastic

“It’s a new look, fast moving TOTP” presenter Gary Davies informs us on this broadcast from late January 1989 and indeed it does have a different feel to it in terms of its staging and the positioning of the hosts. Did it improve the show? Let’s have a look see…

Davies is joined by the intensely annoying Anthea Turner with her mane of permed hair and she gets us under way by introducing Then Jericho as the first act. Then Jericho you say? Yep, after looking like the next big thing back in 1987 with their hit “The Motive”, they promptly vanished only to return two years later with the “Big Area” single and album. Actually the single was called “Big Area” but the album was entitled “The Big Area”. Bit odd that. Not as odd though as the life and times of lead singer Mark Shaw. In an article in Quietus.com, he regaled the interviewer with the various and multiple injuries, operations and trips to hospital that he had incurred during his career. The list includes:

Broken jaw (twice)
Shattering both his heels after falling 20 feet of a stack of speakers mid gig
Being thrown down an airplane’s steps by an aggressive bodyguard
Gashing his leg open to the bone mid gig
Being assaulted by a gang after an Alabama 3 gig
Being knocked to the ground by a gang on an escalator on The Tube

According to Shaw, a witch doctor in Portugal predicted major career problems and a ‘life changing accident’ back in 1990. Just bizarre.

As for “Big Area”, I liked it. It was melodic enough to appeal to me but also had some crashing guitars and a rock bite to it. It would turn out to be their biggest hit peaking at No 13 whilst the album made it all the way to No 4. It seemed that they had successfully relaunched themselves and that the two years away had been well spent. However, they split just a year later with Shaw pursuing an ultimately unsuccessful solo career.

Early on in my Our Price career , I was left alone to cover the ground floor counter one morning and I decided to put “The Big Area” album on. Why? I dunno. It probably wasn’t the coolest thing to do but I think I was sick to death of hearing REM’s “Out Of Time” album which was the default setting for the shop stereo it seemed. As a small queue formed I buzzed for some more help to come down from the Processing Room upstairs where people were merrily smoking, drinking coffee and chatting whilst under the pretence of actually working. Coming to my aid was one Dave Cordwell who was known as ‘coffee Cordwell’ due to his enormous daily intake of coffee. The words “Fancy a brew?” were never far from Dave’s lips. After he had helped clear the queue, Dave suddenly became aware of what was playing in the shop. Turning to me, he gently said “You’re not really listening to this are you?” and took the CD off! It was more a statement than a question. Dave was a smashing lad and he said it in such a way that I couldn’t object. It was like I was an elderly relative who was at that stage of life where I needed more support with things than I had before and Dave was just helping me. I always think of Dave and that moment if I ever hear “Big Area” now.

The band’s other legacy for me is this. There is a Mediterranean fast food place near where I live that is called Jericho. Whenever my wife and I fancy a takeaway from there, we always refer to ‘having a Then Jericho’. Well, at least they’re not totally forgotten.

We get to see some of that new look to the show that Gary Davies mentioned earlier in his link between Then Jericho and the next artist as he wanders into shot up some steps at the side of the stage whilst Mark Shaw is still twirling his mike stand around. A simple staging idea but it certainly looked different. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite cut it for me. Davies looks too self conscious and the little whoop he lets out at the start sounds incongruous and forced.

So who was that next artist? It was Adeva with “Respect”. It’s taken me 31 years to have a light bulb moment about her name which is clearly a play on the words ‘ a diva’ but for some reason I’ve never made that connection until now. Adeva (real name Patricia Daniels) hailed from the US and for a period was seen as quite a mover and shaker in the world of house music. Choosing to do a housed up version of one of Aretha Franklin’s most famous and err…respected hits was a brave move for which I give her credit. What I don’t give her credit for is that it was bloody horrible.

She followed this success up with a platinum selling album called “Adeva!” (no exclamation mark, no points) which furnished her with a further three Top 40 singles. Of course, any self respecting 80s music fan can’t refer to Adeva without mentioning this little pop curiosity…

The first of nine UK top 40 hits for Adeva, “Respect” was also the first of three of her singles in 1989 to all peak at number 17! #TOTP

— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) January 17, 2020

Adeva’s career limped on into the 90s but dwindling commercial returns meant she disappeared from view and has only collaborated on one single release since 1997.

We get a small chart rundown next and within it, Anthea Turner decides to try on an American accent for size as she pronounces Samantha Fox as Samantha Faarx. To compound this nonsense, she gets the name of the next act wrong when she introduces Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock as Rob Base and DJ EZ Beat.

This is a third outing for their hit “Get On The Dance Floor” which makes it all the more surprising that I don’t really remember it that much. The previous two appearances were the official promo video but they are in the studio in person this time.

Are the camera angles looking up at the two female dancers’ crotches part of the show’s new staging? Talk about money shot! And were those huge gold medallions meant to be ironic or were Rob and his mate for real?

We stay in the studio for the next act who are Mica Paris and Will Downing who have teamed up for a cover of “Where Is The Love”. They seem to spend the whole performance gazing into each other’s eyes and close dancing in an attempt to look authentic about what they are singing. However, there seems to be a bit of a needle between the two of them when there is a ‘whose got the best set of pipes?’ sing off as the pair go for it vocally at one stage. Will has come in his best Alexander O’Neal soul man suit whilst Mica has turned in her very own superhero outfit.

The new staging arrangement employed by the show seems to be having teething problems after Mica and Will are finishing as the camera seems to track across the studio for an incongruously long amount of time before it finds the hosts. Gary Davies has even started speaking before we actually see him on our screens.

Some Breakers now and we start with a man who is as well known for his personal life as his musical career. It’s hard to recall now that there once was a time when Bobby Brown wasn’t the tabloid headline making public enemy No 1 figure that he was to later become. No, there was a time when he was just that young kid that used to be in “Candy Girl” hit makers New Edition. And that time was early ’89.

That’s not to say that Brown hadn’t been pursuing a solo career before this point. He’d already released one solo album back in ’86 but to little commercial success. By the time of his second album “Don’t Be Cruel” he’d changed producers to the hit making duo of Babyface and L.A. Reid and his career went into overdrive.

“My Prerogative” was actually the second single from that album and was a massive hit making No 1 in the US where it was also the second biggest selling single of the year. In the UK though, it was pretty much our first introduction to Bobby Brown solo artist. The album’s title track had been the first single issued and had been a hit in the US but not in the UK (it made the charts on re-release off the back of the success of “My Prerogative”).

So, having made formal acquaintance with Mr. Brown, what did I make of him and his song? I didn’t care for it that much at all. It all sounded a bit overly produced with the shuddering, constant back beat and that synthesized horn sound honking away all the time. Brown’s whiny vocals going on about not needing permission to make his own decisions and doing just what he feels didn’t help either. Spoiled brat.

Seven months on, Brown was invited to Whitney Houston’s 26th birthday party and then the madness really started…

By this point in their career, whilst the hits hadn’t exactly dried up for Level 42 they were certainly starting to shrivel in size. “Tracie” was the third and final single to be lifted from their “Staring At The Sun” album and peaked at No 25 meaning that none of the album’s singles made the Top 10. The days of big hits like “Lessons In Love” and “Running In The Family” seemed a long time ago. To be fair, “Tracie” really didn’t deserve to get any higher than it did and if anything, it over achieved chart wise.

There was one final 80s Level 42 single when “Take Care Of Yourself” was released to promote their first Greatest Hits collection “Level Best” but it barely made the Top 40 peaking at No 39. Their imperial phase was well and truly over.

The 80s had been an extraordinary decade for Sheena Easton. She began it as a young Scottish girl with ambitions of being a pop star and achieved that by featuring in one of the first ever reality TV series. She went on to be a hugely successful recording artist in the US and also branched out into acting with her recurring role as Sonny Crockett’s wife in one of the biggest TV shows of the decade Miami Vice. And yet in her native UK, she hadn’t had a solo Top 20 hit since her Bond theme “For Your Eyes Only” in ’81. Yes, she had been on Prince’s No 11 song “U Got The Look” in ’87 but she was largely uncredited on that. It wasn’t until “The Lover In Me” made No 15 in the decade’s final year that she eventually returned to the charts’ upper echelons.

I had to look all of those facts and figures up as Sheena would not be my first choice of Mastermind specialist subject and I certainly do not remember “The Lover In Me”. Listening to it now, she’d clearly decided to run with that lowdown and dirty funky sound that Prince had introduced her to but the end result sounds like filler for a Janet Jackson album to me. As with the rest of her musical career, the track was much more successful in the US where it got all the way to No 2 but she was kept off the top spot by all American girl-next-door Debbie Gibson. I guess low down and dirty wasn’t always what people wanted.

Anthea Turner is back with some more fluffed lines in her next link as she declares of Sheena Easton that “It’s great to see her back in the city. Anyway, here now at No 17 is Ten City”. Great to see her back in the city Anthea? Methinks you may have run the last act into the next with that link as Sheena is followed by, yes of course, Ten City with “That’s The Way Love Is”.

The sound of this track seemed to be a precursor for the Italian House genre with that distinctive keyboard riff which would dominate the late ’80s and early ’90s charts with the likes of Black Box, Starlight and the 49ers all using it to the fore.

What the Hell is the dancer in the middle doing at the song’s end?! He looks like he’s having a fit. If I’d have attempted those sorts of moves on the dance floor of Rascals nightclub in Sunderland back then I would have been escorted off the premises by the bouncers and quite right too.

In the intro to the next act which Gary Davies does, Anthea decides that the best way she can contribute to the link is to say nothing, bob her head a bit, pull some facial expressions that range from wide eyed wonder to open mouthed excitement and finally jump around with an arm in the air. Who could be the cause of such a reaction? It turns out it’s sub standard pop pin ups Brother Beyond who are back in the charts with “Be My Twin”.

I have to say that this is some of the worst mining I have ever seen on TOTP. Not so much the lead singer but the other blokes in the band are hopeless at it. Check out the guitarist – his strumming hand is nowhere near the strings and the keyboard player seems to spend most of the performance playing with just one hand as he is using the other to constantly punch the air. Meanwhile the drummer sleepwalks through the whole thing. And who was the sax guy who comes on at the end?! This was TOTP man! You could have made more of an effort with your outfit! He’s dressed for a lazy Sunday morning round his flat after a big sesh the night before. Actually, looking at him more closely, that’s not Peel’s producer John Walters is it?

Oh and Anthea’s prediction that the ‘yond would go Top 10 next week was wrong (of course it was) as they went up just one place to No 14 where it peaked.

Top 10:

10. Holly Johnson – “Love Train”

9. Will To Power- “Baby, I Love Your Way/Freebird Medley (Free Baby)”

8. Neneh Cherry – “Buffalo Stance”

7. Roachford – “Cuddly Toy”

6. Erasure – “Crackers International EP”

5. Fine Young Cannibals – “She Drives Me Crazy”

4. Roy Orbison – “You Got It”

3. Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan – “Especially For You”

2. Mike And The Mechanics – “The Living Years”

1. Marc Almond and Gene Pitney – “Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart”: Well that escalated quickly. After just three weeks on the charts, Marc and Gene are No 1 where they will stay for four weeks. 31 years later and I still can’t get on board with this song. It just leaves me cold despite the effort the two of them put into their performance. Sorry.

A rather less convincing performance occurred when poor old Gene was appearing on This Morning singing “Your’e The Reason” around this time, presumably on the back of the success of “Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart”. Gene misses his cue and comes in painfully late…

The play out video is by another artist who famously had some miming issues. “Baby Don’t Forget My Number” was Milli Vanilli‘s second hit single on the bounce and yet again those two berks up there on the screen had nothing to do with the singing on the track. The actual song itself is so insubstantial that it’s hardly there at all but that didn’t stop it going to No 1 in the US and No 16 over here.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Then Jericho	Big Area	Don’t think I did
2	Adeva	Respect	Nah
3	Rob Base and DJ E Z Rock	Get On The Dance Floor	Nope
4	Mica Paris and Will Downing	Where Is The Love	Not for me thanks
5	Bobby Brown	My Prerogative	And no
6	Level 42	Tracie	Negative
7	Sheena Easton	The Lover In Me	That would be no
8	Ten City	That’s The Way Love Is	Another no
9	Brother Beyond	Be My Twin	Hell no!
10	Marc Almond and Gene Pitney	Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart	But it wasn’t this record – no
11	Milli Vanilli	Baby Don’t Forget My Number	Oof no!

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000db8f/top-of-the-pops-26011989

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/2019/01/january-25-february-7-1989.html

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