Topic: Top of the Pops on BBC Four - Thread Two.

[Better Midlands]

Maybe it's because Boney M. had a wall of non-stop bangers and great pop tunes, and Milli Vanilli were boring.

Love it or hate it Girl You Know It's True is a great pop tune.

Maybe you might prefer the original.

[grainger]

And they'd only been around, like, a year, and had one proper hit. It's not like it had come out that Bruce Springsteen had spent his entire career miming

Exactly!

[monkfromhavana]

In relation to the earning power of Adamski, I'm pretty sure that he lives in Venezuela now and is still pushing, to no discernable interest whatsoever, his house/waltz crossover stuff.

I expect that, like most people of that time, he bought a few houses on the cheap in London, then sold them off and lives somewhere cheap so he can live off them and a few royalties.

[buzby]

In relation to the earning power of Adamski, I'm pretty sure that he lives in Venezuela now and is still pushing, to no discernable interest whatsoever, his house/waltz crossover stuff.

I expect that, like most people of that time, he bought a few houses on the cheap in London, then sold them off and lives somewhere cheap so he can live off them and a few royalties.

He did't live in Venezuela, he was travelling around the Caribbean by the sounds of it. He's left the Future Waltz thing behind now and instead performs 'Cyberbilly' under the alias Sonny Eriksson now alongside his DJ gigs and this year has released Free To Kill Again, an album of reinterpretations of Killer with other artists to celebrate it's 30th anniversary (he did the same last year for NRG).

According to the data on his company Tinnitus Trax he is a UK resident. He lives in Ramsgate (alongside the likes of Tony Thorpe, Skip Mcdonald, Adrian Sherwood and Graham Coxon) having moved there in 2009 (he lived in Berlin before that), and most of his gigs are round the South East. He also played a DJ set from the pink yacht parked in the XR blockade in Oxford Circus at the protests last year, and doesn't really seem the type to be living off a property portfolio.

Note that in the picture on the cover of the Ramsgate Recorder from last winter he hasn't got the ''X' tattoo on his scalp, so it must be fairly recent thing or a temporary one.

[Pauline Walnuts]

Is that a Straight-Edge X?

^{I don't know why I'm asking.}

[daf]

Forgot to mention that they're showing two today - starting at . . . 10 minutes ago!

[edon]

Apparently the 26/01 and 02/02 shows are 35 minutes long as well (you can thank 1990 Commonwealth Games coverage moving them to a Friday slot for that), so we may well end up only getting the full episodes aired at midnight like the pre-1985 ones were.

The hangover from 1989 was very bad by the looks of those running orders, might give the second one a flick through on iPlayer just for Mantronix and Halo James but there isn't much else going on.

[Billy]

Having just turned one at the time, much of the dance music of this era reminds me of 2003-4, when the 14-15 year old me bored by the dross in the then-charts started watching the "old skool" segments of MTV Dance and it was like a revelation. KLF, Prodigy etc absolutely blew my mind, and when Activ8 started playing I genuinely thought for a minute that the telly had been hacked and I was watching some home video of some teenage kids down the road who'd made a song. Similar sensation happened when the video for Sueno Latino played really early in the morning one night and I watched it in both fascination and mild terror - something about the fact that it was actually filmed on videotape (not apparent in the 25p Youtube upload) gave it such an odd otherworldly feeling, connected with the music.

Back to January 1990 and I'd never heard that Silver Bullet '20 Seconds to Comply' track before - it's pretty ahead of its time, isn't it? On one hand a typical bit of early hip-hop but it's got the beginnings of the drum & bass/garage stuff you'd still hear on pirate radio into the noughties. I was wondering how long it would take for the first song on the show to sound like it's from the 1990s and it turns out to be something already out in 1989.

Chuckles at the video for 'Touch Me' featuring someone awkwardly miming to a load of samples, and the FPI Project playout with the audience brilliantly singing along to the "Woo! Yeah!" sample, which has to be up there in a list of The Most 1990 Thing Ever contenders.

[Egyptian Feast]

Back to January 1990 and I'd never heard that Silver Bullet '20 Seconds to Comply' track before - it's pretty ahead of its time, isn't it? On one hand a typical bit of early hip-hop but it's got the beginnings of the drum & bass/garage stuff you'd still hear on pirate radio into the noughties. I was wondering how long it would take for the first song on the show to sound like it's from the 1990s and it turns out to be something already out in 1989.

Chuckles at the video for 'Touch Me' featuring someone awkwardly miming to a load of samples

The two highlights of the episode for me. I don't remember Silver Bullet from the time, but I loved it. More of that sort of thing.

'Touch Me' was huge in Ireland, but I don't remember that video. I liked how they covered up her miming to the most obvious bits with rubbish graphics and editing. Also when TOTP copied the pyramid effect thing at the end, "We've got that effect too, see!"

[A Hat Like That]

Having just turned one at the time, much of the dance music of this era reminds me of 2003-4, when the 14-15 year old me bored by the dross in the then-charts started watching the "old skool" segments of MTV Dance and it was like a revelation. KLF, Prodigy etc absolutely blew my mind, and when Activ8 started playing I genuinely thought for a minute that the telly had been hacked and I was watching some home video of some teenage kids down the road who'd made a song. Similar sensation happened when the video for Sueno Latino played really early in the morning one night and I watched it in both fascination and mild terror - something about the fact that it was actually filmed on videotape (not apparent in the 25p Youtube upload) gave it such an odd otherworldly feeling, connected with the music.

Back to January 1990 and I'd never heard that Silver Bullet '20 Seconds to Comply' track before - it's pretty ahead of its time, isn't it? On one hand a typical bit of early hip-hop but it's got the beginnings of the drum & bass/garage stuff you'd still hear on pirate radio into the noughties. I was wondering how long it would take for the first song on the show to sound like it's from the 1990s and it turns out to be something already out in 1989.

Chuckles at the video for 'Touch Me' featuring someone awkwardly miming to a load of samples, and the FPI Project playout with the audience brilliantly singing along to the "Woo! Yeah!" sample, which has to be up there in a list of The Most 1990 Thing Ever contenders.

They also cut the intro :(

Quireboys are just post-Ginger there, right?

Personally I was impressed to see the return of the Megamix single.

[daf]

4 January 1990: Presenter: Gary Davies (Live)

(24)  |  THE QUIREBOYS – Hey You



(5)   |  MADONNA – Dear Jessie (video)
(18)  |  SILVER BULLET – 20 Seconds To Comply (video)
(12)  |  LATINO RAVE – Deep Heat '89 (video)
(20) |  SONIA – Listen To Your Heart
(8)   |  DE LA SOUL – The Magic Number (video)
(23) |  49ers – Touch Me (video)
(9)   |  NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK – Hangin' Tough (video)
(11)  |  ROB 'N' RAZ feat. LEILA K – Got To Get (video)
(1)   |  BAND AID II – Do They Know It's Christmas? (video)
(25) |  F.P.I. PROJECT feat. SHARON DEE CLARKE – Going Back To My Roots (and credits)

[Better Midlands]

The two highlights of the episode for me. I don't remember Silver Bullet from the time, but I loved it. More of that sort of thing.

Silver Bullet "20 Seconds To Comply" and "Bring Forth The Guillotone" were both big club tunes and they were definately a huge influence on the UK rave scene (especially Liam Howlett) a few years later. MC Duke - I'm Riffin', Hardnoise - Untitled & Hijack - Hold No Hostage are in a similar uptempo vein.

Entering Nosleep territory here.

[Norton Canes]

That Jan 4th episode was the equivalent of a big Boxing Day shit, dumping all the excrement from Christmas. With extra Quireboys.

Weird going to the trouble of having a live episode with only two performances. Was it worth the effort?

[Norton Canes]

4 January 1990: Presenter: Gary Davies (Live)

(24)  |  THE QUIREBOYS – Hey You



(5)   |  MADONNA – Dear Jessie (video)
(18) |  SILVER BULLET – 20 Seconds To Comply (video)
(12) |  LATINO RAVE – Deep Heat '89 (video)
(20) |  SONIA – Listen To Your Heart
(8)   |  DE LA SOUL – The Magic Number (video)
(23) |  49ers – Touch Me (video)
(9)   |  NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK – Hangin' Tough (video)
(11) |  ROB 'N' RAZ feat. LEILA K – Got To Get (video)
(1)   |  BAND AID II – Do They Know It's Christmas? (video)
(25) |  F.P.I. PROJECT feat. SHARON DEE CLARKE – Going Back To My Roots (and credits)

daf, I was looking forward to some different fonts...

[daf]

Oops yes, I forgot - just done a quick edit.

[Uncle TechTip]

How bad was the Quireboys song. All that crap about rock chicks standing by their man. Eww the chills, bringing back memories of mates into all this at the time, there's a lot of it to come.

[Norton Canes]

Oops yes, I forgot - just done a quick edit

Nice.

[Satchmo Distel]

(8)   |  DE LA SOUL – The Magic Number (video)
...
(25) |  F.P.I. PROJECT feat. SHARON DEE CLARKE – Going Back To My Roots

These are both fantastic and clearly from a far better planet than the rest of the episode. Love this remix of the latter (written by Lamont Dozier no less):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7JXC4CfehM&list=PLH_8ZaO2Jz5SPCw9VRA22qiYmsgTv8OEa&ab_channel=FPIProject

Richie Havens version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puDtxG9FBLQ&ab_channel=dertaubedj

Odyssey:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8b5gzm7SOQ&ab_channel=Odyssey-Topic

[daf]

Fun fact : Sharon Dee Clark later played the part of Grace (Ryan's Gran) in Doctor Who - series 11.

[Satchmo Distel]

She's just a month older than me. Her real middle name is Dolores (Wiki) or Deon (imdb). She is married to Susie McKenna.

[DrGreggles]

Looking forward to Faith No More's appearance in March/April.
Patton's superbly childish response to being told he had to mime supposedly led to a lifetime ban, but they were eventually allowed back on 5 years later.

[edon]

I don't think that Silver Bullet track is amazing or anything, but it's certainly more forward looking than anything else on that episode. Looking back on the sound of some UK rap from this period you can easily tell how things were gonna go later on in the decade.

Fun fact : Sharon Dee Clark later played the part of Grace (Ryan's Gran) in Doctor Who - series 11.

And we'll be seeing her again with Nomad once we get to 1991, of course.

[non capisco]

Some laughably blatant 'pervy cameraman' angles in that second FPI Project performance. Zoom lens privileges revoked for a month and say sorry to that dancer.

Is it just me or does early 90s Ricky Ross from Deacon Blue facially resemble '00s/contemporary Mani from the Stone Roses?

'Hangin' Tough' by New Kids On The Block is absolutely risible and I'm going to re-use my hoary old observation that it sounds like another phrase for the turtle's head. Always imagine someone banging on a toilet door pleading "Hurry up in there! I'm hanging tough!"

[Billy]

And we'll be seeing her again with Nomad once we get to 1991, of course.

Hoping the audience whoop and cheer at the line "Maggie came and now she's SLAUGHTERED!!" but maybe that's wishful thinking.

[daf]

11 January 1990: Presenter: Simon Mayo

(14) |  F.P.I. PROJECT feat. SHARON DEE CLARKE – Going Back To My Roots
(24) |  JIMMY SOMERVILLE – You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)  (video)
(16) |  D-MOB feat. NUFF JUICE – Put Your Hands Together
(12) |  MANTRONIX feat. WONDRESS – Got To Have Your Love  (video)
(25) |  FISH – Big Wedge
(17) |  THE MISSION – Butterfly On A Wheel



(21) |  DEACON BLUE – Queen Of The New Year
(1)   |  NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK – Hangin' Tough  (video)
(30) |  HALO JAMES – Could Have Told You So  (video and credits)

[Better Midlands]

(12) |  MANTRONIX feat. WONDRESS – Got To Have Your Love  (video)

I watched an interview with Kurtis Mantronik and I was surprised that this wasn't also a hit in America where it only reached #82, it got to #4 in the UK and seemed to hang around for a while. It only scraped briefly into the top 20 in Netherlands/Germany too.

[DrGreggles]

JIMMY SOMERVILLE – You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)

I've got a really good 12" remix of that somewhere.
Sounds like a Moroder/Hi-NRG hybrid.

[kaprisky]

Big Wedge by Fish has visual similarities with America by Killing Joke. And that was from two years prior as well.

[Pauline Walnuts]

Big Wedge by Fish has visual similarities with America by Killing Joke. And that was from two years prior as well.

Well spotted!

[gilbertharding]

How bad was the Quireboys song. All that crap about rock chicks standing by their man. Eww the chills, bringing back memories of mates into all this at the time, there's a lot of it to come.

I couldn't get over how bad that Fish song was. Muddy, tuneless bollocks with a bald man in a stupid hat bellowing lyrics which, from the way he kept pointing meaningfully at you, the air, himself, were presumably highly intelligent and challenging, but were unfortunately completely unintelligible.

That episode had quite a bit of baldness on it actually. Fish, and several of his bandmates. The bassist from The Mission. Old Matey from Deacon Blue. Jimmy 'Tattyhead' Somerville...