It’s the ultimate pairing of nice but dull co-hosts for this episode of TOTP. Mark Goodier and Simon Parkin – not a shred of personality between them. One of the things I have noticed from reviewing nearly 7 years worth of TOTP 80s repeats is just how appalling the presenters were. From those who thought the show was all about them and whose egos could hardly be contained within the studio like Simon Bates, Steve Wright and serial offender Mike Read through to the sickeningly over enthusiastic like Anthea Turner and onto the thoroughly dull like this pair. And I’m not sure there is one of them that hasn’t cocked up a link somewhere along the line. Look, I’m not saying I could have done it any better (I would have been hopeless) but it was kind of their job wasn’t it, presenting, broadcasting and all that? I’m a bit sick of the lot of them after three and a half years of writing this blog.

Also “Sick Of It” were the night’s opening act The Primitives (see what I did there? Maybe I could have done the links in between acts after all!). Yes, proving that there was way more to them than just “Crash”, this was the band’s fourth and final visit to the Top 40. What has happened to Tracy’s hair though? Where have her peroxide blonde locks gone? Helpfully, here’s @TOTPFacts with the answer…

“Sick Of It” was pretty standard Primitives fare I thought but that’s not a criticism. Listening back to it now, it could easily have been a massive BritPop anthem by the likes of Echobelly (again not a bad thing at all – I loved Echobelly). As it was, in 1989, it peaked at No 24.

Here’s Gloria Estefan with her latest hit “Don’t Wanna Lose You”. Taken from her “Cuts Both Ways” album, its ten tracks were split between the only two types of song that Gloria ever produced – the huge ballad and the Latin influenced uptempo dance number. “Don’t Wanna Lose You” was definitely in the former category. Estefan earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance with this track but lost out to Bonnie Raitt’s “Nick of Time.” You can make up your own minds whether the judges made the right decision. Bonnie….

Or Gloria…

There then follows a very weird link shot of Goodier and Parkin from the legs up (nobody needed to see that) before going into the first part of the chart rundown before Parkin gets the title of Inner City‘s latest hit single wrong. What did I say about there’s always a cocked uplink somewhere in the show?! For the record Simon, it was called “Do You Love What You Feel” and Not “Do You Love The Way You Feel”. I’m not surprised he couldn’t recall the title though as the song is instantly forgettable. I certainly didn’t remember this one either.

Wikipedia advises me that another of this week’s chart acts also released a song called “Do You Love What You Feel” namely Rufus and Chaka Khan but I don’t know their song either.

Inner City peaked at No 16 with this one.

There’s a woman stood next to Mark Goodier in the next link into Kirsty MacColl who seems to  have been the inspiration for the Kathy Burke character in Gimme Gimme Gimme. I really shouldn’t be making such comments about looks but it really is a striking image that the lady in question went for. Anyway, back to Kirsty and her Kinks cover “Days”. Seeing her perform in the TOTP studio reminds me how infrequently she was actually on the show. Yes there are the evergreen performances of “A Fairytale Of New York” with The Pogues and memorable cameos with the likes of Happy Mondays and Jona Lewie but performances in her own right? Not that many I would suggest. Her voice sounds brilliant here and the track was a canny choice of cover version fitting in with her own cannon of caustic, melody heavy songs.

Kirsty was a long time sufferer of stage fright and tried many different solutions to combat it including hypnotism but the best remedy she found? Touring with Shane Magowan and the lads!

“Days” peaked at No 12.

It’s the Breakers now and I have realised something truly shocking. There was a choice to be made here about the acts featured in this section that was seismic and I got it wrong. I made a bogus decision. I could have nailed my colours to the flag post of a band that would become iconic in terms of the impact that they had on the UK music scene with a legacy that would still be discussed some 30 years later. And me? I plumped for the wrong act entirely. Given the choice of Gun or The Stone Roses, it seems to me that I chose the former. Jesus what was I thinking?! In my mind’s eye, The Stone Roses were a phenomenon that occurred much later in 1989 but here we are in late July and they are on the BBC’ s flagship music show. It should have been my moment. I’d already chosen to ignore The Smiths some 6 years earlier but here was my shot at redemption. The Stone Roses! I was ripe for their influence. This was their time. This was my time but no. I chose to overlook them in favour of Gun, some Glasgow rockers whose fame was as fleeting as their band name was ordinary.

And yet “Better Days” sounded like a quality song to me. Smash Hits (albeit rather tongue-in -cheek) described them as ‘new rock sensations’. They even toured with the  The Rolling Stones! These guys could be big I thought.

Their sound was definitely rock with strident guitars and heavy drums aplenty but there was a lot of melody in there as well. The lead singer’s vocals sounded authentic and seemed perfectly matched to the music (it turns out that his cousin is Sharleen Spiteri of Texas so singing was in the family genes). Somehow though it didn’t really happen for them. “Better Days” was a Top 40 hit (peaking at No 33) and did its job as a calling card for the band but subsequent single releases from their album “Taking On The World” failed to really consolidate on that initial success. The band drifted on for a bit before scoring a surprise comeback Top 10 hit in 1994 with a hard rock cover of (seemingly every artist’s favourite go to song when in search of a hit cover) “Cameo’s “Word Up!”.

Despite numerous line up changes along the way, the band celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2019 with a new best-of album titled “R3L0ADED”. 

In the middle of my Gun v The Stone Roses sandwich comes Paul McCartney who was then enjoying a late 80s renaissance after some pretty poor output earlier in the decade with the critically well received album “Flowers In The Dirt”. The second single to be lifted from it, “This One” was OK and I preferred it to the rather more urgent sounding “My Brave Face” but it’s fairly unremarkable as well. I mean its got a nice, lilting melody and flows over you with a nice feel to it but….it’s that word nice that’s the problem here I think. McCartney will always (perhaps unfairly) lose out in the John Lennon comparisons with accusations that he was comfortable and erm…nice compared to Lennon’s edgy rock spirit.

The video is quite fun though with Macca’s simple yet effective painted on eyes trick. Do you think it was a gentle retaliation against his portrayal by Spitting Image?

I fell like I’ve already written about this one (and I don’t mean McCartney!) but I guess I haven’t really – not fully anyway. Where do you start with The Stone Roses? So much has been written about them over the last 30 or so years that what insight could I possibly have to add to the discussion? I didn’t even ‘get them’ initially for heaven’s sake! Well, all of that is true but I have certainly come to appreciate them much more in the intervening three decades to the point of even owning their albums – well the only two that really matter anyway (i.e the two studio albums). More than that though, I’m going to wheel out my personal Stone Roses story early doors and probably keep referring to it every time they are on TOTP from now on…back in the 90s, I used to work alongside the band’s original bass player. An absolutely top bloke called Pete who was my manager for a couple of years during my Our Price days. Pete wasn’t keen on talking about his time with the band that much but every now and then (usually on a staff night out) he would let slip some little snippets….

…anyway, as for the music, “She Bangs The Drums” was the band’s first ever Top 40 hit peaking at No 36 but was re-released early the following year as part of the Madchester explosion which the band were firmly at the forefront of topping out just two places higher. It was never really about chart placings with them though was it?

Still enjoying a successful year are Simple Minds with their third Top 40 hit of the calendar year with “Kick It In”. The track was also their third release from their album “Street Fighting Years” after “This Is Your Land” and surprise No 1 single “Belfast Child”. It’s not a great song though to be fair. It’s all a bit half hearted and sounds like something they cooked up at a loose jamming session or in a soundcheck before a show. It was reviewed in Smash Hits magazine at the time by all three members of Danny Wilson and they didn’t like it either….

Gary: That’s the weirdest record I’ve ever heard in my life – that weird jerky rhythm.

Kit: It actually sounds like it was jumping all the way through. I would take it back to the shop if I’d bought that.

Ged: I used to love Simple Minds but this…er…

Gary: It sounded like a Billy Idol record that somebody had spilt their tea on.

Ged: That record makes me feel uncomfortable.

OK – so they really didn’t like it. So what? Well, the Ged responsible for the above comments is Ged Grimes who is currently ,and has been for the last 10 years, the bass player for Simple Minds! Ha! I wonder if Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill are aware of Ged’s opinion of “Kick It In”? Do the band still perform it in their live sets? If so, does Ged have to grit his teeth while playing it?

“Kick It In” peaked at No 15.

The teen sensation of 1988 finally reappear in 1989 but Bros were a very different beast from the last time that we saw them. At Christmas they were coming to the end of a wild year which had seen them become the biggest pop band in the UK and possibly Europe. Then the rumours about bassist Craig’s health started to circulate and finally a statement from the band’s management company stating that he no longer wishes to be in the band was issued. Was it as big a deal as Robbie Williams leaving Take That? Well, I don’t remember there being any dedicated telephone lines being set up to counsel bereft teenage girls for Craig’s departure, put it that way.

The statement described Logan’s demands as unreasonable and the whole thing went down pretty acrimoniously with Luke Goss stating that “You can take it from us that Craig will never be in Bros again”. Ouch! He continued that Logan didn’t have the sufficient stamina to be a pop star and that “I think Matt and I have always had this in our blood but Craig really was going to be something like a bank clerk. That’s what he would have been if he hadn’t been in Bros”. Just vicious.

Anyway, Craig disappeared to become a songwriter and ultimately set up an artist management company (so not a bank clerk) whilst the Goss twins continued on with new single “Too Much” their first post Craig offering. Would the fans accept the duo as a well…duo? Would the new music be the same as before or would it seer the twins branch out in another direction? I guess the answer to both questions would be ‘sort of’. Yes, they continued to have chart success (“Too Much” itself was a No 2 record) and in August of ’89 they played to 77,000 people (including my wife!) at Wembley stadium at the Bros in 2 Summer concert. But the hits became smaller and smaller and by 1991 their third album only made No 18 in the charts. The game was up.

As for the sound of their new material, I guess “Too Much” had a harder feel to it than their previous releases. Matt Goss described their new direction as ‘FRP’ meaning Funk, Rop, Pop whilst labelling the old stuff as just pop but, for me, they hadn’t re-invented themselves that much. It was hardly a Bowie-esque transformation. That guitar solo sounds suspiciously like Nik Kershaw but that definitely isn’t Nik up there on stage in this TOTP performance!

A weird take on chart positions next from Simon Parkin as he introduces Simply Red. Making reference to the band’s previous hit “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” which peaked at No 2, Parkin reckons that follow up single “A New Flame” is ‘hurtling towards that position’. Eh? It went up three places to No 17 Simon! No 17! That’s 15 away from No 2! And going up 3 places does not count as hurtling in anybody’s book! And guess what! “A New Flame” didn’t even get any higher than this week’s No 17 peak! In fact it was also the band’s last chart hit of the decade (they did release one last single from the album but it failed to make the Top 40). They would reappear two years on though with the commercial zenith that was the “Stars” album.

Top 10

10. Lil Louis – “French Kiss”

9. Soul II Soul – “Back To Life”

8. Bette Midler – “Wind Beneath My Wings”

7. Rufus and Chaka Khan – “Ain’t Nobody”

6. Glori Estefan – “Don’t Wanna Lose You”

5. Bobby Brown – “On Our Own”

4. London Boys – “London Nights”

3. Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers – “Swing The Mood”

2. Bros – “Too Much”

1. Sonia – “You’ll Never Stop Me From Loving You”: A second week at No 1 for our Sonia but watching this performance back, was she really tiny or is her male dancer a giant? I think its probably the former.

After her Eurovision exploits and a spell in a stage production of Grease, Sonia was tempted back into the limelight by the ITV show Reborn In The USA in 2003. This was a British reality television show in which ten British pop acts from the past toured the US where they were supposedly unknown in the hope of revitalising their music career. One of the show’s most memorable moments was the feud between Sonia and Dollar…

…all pretty pathetic stuff but if you’re not sure whose side to be on, just remember that David Van Day had previous for feuding given his part in the Bucks Fizz legal wrangles at the turn of the decade and he did dump his girlfriend live on air on the The Wright Stuff...

1989 wasn’t just about sample heavy house music and Stock, Aitken and Waterman though. It also saw some very surprising comebacks from a batch of iconic names from music history. We’d already seen Roy Orbison (posthumously) and Gene Pitney score huge hits earlier in the year and now here was Alice Cooper having a monster smash with “Poison”, his first UK chart entry since 1973.

I didn’t know much about Alice Cooper other than his youth freedom anthem “School’s Out” but suddenly here he was with a pretty decent impression of 80s pop metal that wouldn’t have been out of place being sung by Bon Jovi. In fact, it could be argued that the main motif of the song was just a retread of the Jovi’s recent hit “Bad Medicine”. None of these comparisons are made idly though as “Poison” was written by Desmond Child who also penned “You Give Love A Bad Name” and “Livin’ On A Prayer” for the New Jersey rockers.

Did I like it? Not that much. I never really caught the boat going to Alice Cooper island although I’ve always found his interviews very watchable. Both “Poison” and its parent album “Trash” reached No 2 on the UK charts.

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/m000hjm1/top-of-the-pops-27071989

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/2019/07/july-26-august-8-1989.html