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

[non capisco]

By the way, I agree with Norton Canes, Sinead looked utterly gorgeous. Sadly that doesn't stop it being a limp and soulless version of a great little Prince track.

It's the definitive version for me and I'm a huge Prince fan. I think she sells the shit out of that song. Vulnerability hand in hand with defiance. It just annoys me that TOTP always cut it before the "All the flowers that you planted, mama.." verse. That's where she really gets you.

The "scary" closeups of Jet Black in the Stranglers performance cracked me up. Happy Hallow'een MWOOOHAHAHAHA! Also 1990 Jean-Jacques Burnel is the double of Moe from The Simpsons. I wouldn't want either them or Guru Josh to make me a sandwich.

Vivid memory of my dad cracking up at David Gedge, probably accompanied by his occasional gleeful TOTP catchphrase "He's getting away with murder!" (see also :- Jimmy Nail, 'Ain't No Doubt', 1992)

[kalowski]

It's the definitive version for me and I'm a huge Prince fan. I think she sells the shit out of that song. Vulnerability hand in hand with defiance. It just annoys me that TOTP always cut it before the "All the flowers that you planted, mama.." verse. That's where she really gets you.

Nah, she has no soul. That "No^thing compares..." really fucks me off.

[non capisco]

Nah, she has no soul. That "No^thing compares..." really fucks me off.

Subjectivity and all that but what do you mean by 'no soul'? She seems affected/infested by that song to me every time I see her sing it, even if it's a mimed performance. It's not Sybil singing 'Walk On By'.

[buzby]

2 February 1990: Presenter: Bruno Brookes

(9)   |  LONNIE GORDON – Happenin' All Over Again

Gordon's first Top 40 hit. She had been recording session vocals anonymously since 1987, including Offshore's All Work And No Play and Quartzlock's No Regrets in 1988, both for the Hi-NRG label Reception Records. Her first 'featuring credit was on Simon Harris' cover of I've Got Your Pleasure Control in 1989 (which I bought on cassingle). This stalled at #60 in June 1989, but did well in the clubs and got her a deal with Supreme Records.

Her first single for Supreme was It's not Over 9Let No Man Pull Asunder) which again was a club hit (especially the Fon Force remix) but failed to dent the Top 40. Supreme then decided to send her to Pete Waterman (Supreme had some the same thing with Princess a few years previously). As mentioned previously, this was a cast-off from the Another Place And Time album that SAW had produced for Donna Summer in 1989. After giving her the S/A/W treatment, the track was given an Italo house refit (i.e. it totally rips off Ride On Time)  by 'Mixmaster' Phil Harding.

(20) |  AND WHY NOT? – The Face

This sounds for all the world like Bros. One Bros was enough, thanks.

(19) |  SYBIL – Walk On By

<Drops monocle>
A decent, if rather unnecessary cover of a classic. The performance, however is marked by a triumph of undergarment engineering of a level not seen since Howard Hughes' costume designs for Jane Russell in The Outlaw.

(22) |  HOUSE OF LOVE – Shine On

Guy Chadwick and the lads finally break the Top 40 - their previous 2 singles had both stalled tantalisingly at #41. Don't get too comfortable though, lads! There's definite proto-shoegaze element to this, and it's no surprise that the likes of Ride and Slowdive were fans of the band,

This was actually a re-recording of their 1987 debut single, when they were signed to Creation. After their debut album reached #1 in the indie charts, they decided to leave Creation and sign to Phonogram sublabel Fontana with a £400,000 advance (which they would later regard as the worst decision of their careers - they were coerced into it by Alan McGee, who got a fat payoff out of it). The rerecording features Terry Bickers on guitar, though he had been kicked out of the band by Chadwick in late 1989 after he had burned a tenner in the tourbus and chanted 'breadhead' at him over the decision to leave Creation. His replacement Simon Walker is present instead.

(25) |  CHER – Just Like Jesse James  (video)

Country-lite toss.

(3)   |  TECHNOTRONIC feat. YA KID K – Get Up (Before The Night Is Over)

Recycled (Pump Up The) Jam.

[kalowski]

Subjectivity and all that but what do you mean by 'no soul'? She seems affected/infested by that song to me every time I see her sing it, even if it's a mimed performance. It's not Sybil singing 'Walk On By'.

I don't mean that particular performance, but the song. She does an "uncool" version, has no syncopation. The line I quote highlights it. She seems to be trying to recreate a soulful leap but she can't, so it comes out robotic.

[Icehaven]

I was working in a chart return shop during this period

When I met you.

[Captain Z]

The name "Renegade Soundwave" made me chuckle for the sheer 90s-ness of it (and possibly because it put me in mind of "Renegade Chipshop" from the Blue Jam chart), but then the title "Probably A Robbery" was the icing on the cake.

[Better Midlands]

The name "Renegade Soundwave" made me chuckle for the sheer 90s-ness of it (and possibly because it put me in mind of "Renegade Chipshop" from the Blue Jam chart), but then the title "Probably A Robbery" was the icing on the cake.

Renegade Soundwave In Dub got as much play as Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld & Screamadelica from me in the early 90's, seriously underrated.

Ozone Breakdown & The Phantom were almost as big as What Time Is Love in '89.

[Captain Z]

I saw that when I googled them after making that post. Gonna track down a copy.

[buzby]

8 February 1990: Presenter: Gary Davies

(10) |  YELL – Instant Replay

The dead hand of Simon Cowell's New Face was responsible for this shite, presumably going after Big Fun's gay disco fanbase. The group consisted of former kids TV presenter/actor Daniel James (he acted under the alias of Colin Heywood)  and Paul Varney. It was produced by cash-in medley specialist Nigel Wright (most recently responsible for Jack Mix and Mirage), and was then remixed by PWL's 'Mixmaster' Phil Hammond. This was their only Top 40 hit - both their attempts at following it peaked in the lower reaches of the Top 100. They had more success in Asia and released an album in Japan the following year, but after that they disbanded.

One difference they had from other boy bands at the time is that Daniel James was a songwriter - he wrote the B-sides of tier singles and 3 tracks on the album. After the split he recorded a solo album that failed to chart and then went back to acting. Paul Varney signed with PWL and put out a few vocal house singles that didn't chart. He moved into songwriting and production, working with girl band Precious, for who he wrote the Top 10 hit Say It Again in 1999 and two singles for Dutch singer Sita Vermuelen (one of winners of their Popstars-style talent show Starmaker, who went on to be part of the group K-Otic) in 2002 and other talent show winners on the continent. In 2016 Varney met DJ/Producer Jason Orriss and started recording his own songs again,

(27) |  JANET JACKSON – Come Back To Me  (video)

Bit of a bog standard soul ballad this. It's not the sort of thig you would expect of Jam & Lewis.

(15) |  BEATS INTERNATIONAL feat. LINDY LAYTON – Dub Be Good To Me

Hmm, I've never really been a fan of this, mostly because the use of the samples is so transparent. It's not cutting and pasting from all over the place or transforming or doing anything interesting with them like say M/A/R/R/s, Coldcut, S Express etc, It 's just the same two loops constantly repeating. It was also a bit sharp of Cook not to clear the Guns Of Brixton sample or include Simonon in the writers credits too (especially when the writers of Just Be Good To Me, Jam & Lewis, were credited alongside Cook), which needed the involvement of lawyers to put right (his initial settlement offer to Simonon was a paltry £3000 and no writing credit).

It had originally started out as the instrumental Invasion Of The Estate Agents, the B-side to his earlier For Spacious Lies single (and was included as the B-side to the current release).

(19) |  LISA STANSFIELD – Live Together  (video)

Another rather bland Sophisti-Pop/soul ballad, though it does have an unusual structure - chorus-verse-prechorus-chorus-bridge-chorus. Like the rest for the tracks on her debut album, it was co-written and produced with her schoolfriends and former Blue Zone bandmates Andy Morris and Ian Devaney (who was by this time also her husband). The video was shot at Taplow station in Buckinghamshire.

(24) |  THE BELOVED – Hello

Check out this pair of bellends. Jon Marsh is an embarrassment, frankly - he looks like a stereotypical indie rock lad who spent last summer off his face on E. The song is literally nothing too - a dashed off list of whoever came into his head, presumably while sat in his flat on a comedown. At least in the new 'clipshow' TOTP format we don't have to put up with it for long.

(29) |  EURYTHMICS – The King And Queen Of America  (video and credits)

I admire the sentiment of the song, but it's a bit meh overall - not a patch on their early to mid 80s peak. . They look like they had a laugh making the video at least.

[edon]

Bit of a bog standard soul ballad this. It's not the sort of thig you would expect of Jam & Lewis.

It's as if she ordered them to repeat the brief bit of success they had with the Human League, but just couldn't be arsed to come up with something too different to Human. A bit of a shame as besides this I don't mind Rhythm Nation 1814 as an album - it and Control are of course far superior to the Jacko albums they're succeeded by

[buzby]

Nah that can Shakin' Fuck Off. I've waxed lyrical about D Mob before, but their album has a glut of really solidly produced hits on it, and I think this is one of the stand-outs.

I'm guessing it's the gleeful ascending bassline you find a step too far (overriding the more cautious one from Put Our Heads Together by the O'Jays*). But I think this stands nicely alongside some of the other infectiously upful chart dance hits from around this time (stuff like Rockin' Over The Beat and Wiggle It).

This predates Summertime anyway, which I'm assuming is what you're alluding to.


^{* and not Put Your Hands Together by the O'Jays, something which tripped me up years ago when I was trying to find a copy of the original track sampled in this}

It's not the music so much that inspired the Fresh Prince analogy (and I agree that Dancin' Danny D is a great producer), it's Nuff Juice's lyrical style and delivery seems to be a carbon copy of WIll Smith's. It's not like DJJJ&TFP were unknowns in the UK at this point either (though they hadn't had much chart action since Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble in 1986) and their second album had been recorded over here in 1988 with Pete Harris producing.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

The name "Renegade Soundwave" made me chuckle for the sheer 90s-ness of it (and possibly because it put me in mind of "Renegade Chipshop" from the Blue Jam chart), but then the title "Probably A Robbery" was the icing on the cake.

I distinctly remember meself and my friend/ flatmate of the time being amused by RS's singer's resemblance to Rik Mayall.

[buzby]

Oh, I managed to miss this episode, but there's only a couple of things worth mentioning that don't come up on other weeks:

26 January 1990: Presenters: Simon Mayo & Jakki Brambles

(18) |  PUBLIC ENEMY – Welcome To The Terrordome (video)

Absolute BANGER. This is peak PE for me, Clive.

(12) |  ADAMSKI – N-R-G WATCH

Adamski brings along his entire setup of the Ensoniq SQ80 workstation and TR909 drum machine. The whole of Liveanddirect was made with these two pieces of gear. Also along for the ride is his flatmate and MC/dancer, Daddy Chester (who didn't feature on the records). I bought this on 12" at the time, which was actually a 4-track EP with NRG as the lead track on side A. The sleeve got him into hot water with SmithKline Beecham, who would later use 'NRG' as a teen-oriented Lucozade sub-brand between 1995 and 1999.

While Adamski would go on greater success with Seal and then carry on in his various guises, Daddy Chester ended up homeless. One of his old childhood friends started a GoFundMe campaign in 2015 to try and help him get off the streets.

[A Hat Like That]

(19) |  CLIFF RICHARD – Stronger Than That  (video)

Lost for words.

There was a LOT going on in that video.

[Norton Canes]

Yeah it was pretty intense.

[Johnboy]

That wedding present performance really rubbed me up the wrong way

I mean, if you're not going to be david gedge out of the wedding present why did you turn up in the first place? pathetic

I've never paid much attention to them because I never liked them but wow are they most grooveless racket i've ever heard

[buzby]

15 February 1990: Presenter: Anthea Turner

Oh Christ no. The prime example of how enthusiam is no substitute for talent.

( 5 ) |  BLACK BOX – I Don't Know Anybody Else

Milking the formula dry after the success of Ride On TIme. To paraphrase Eric Morecambe, 'all the same notes, just not necessarily in the same order'. The way they carried on using Katrin Quinol  after the Martha Wash lawsuit had gone public was frankly bizarre.

(25) |  ERIC CLAPTON – Bad Love  (video)

Fuck off, Enoch.

(24) |  THE WEDDING PRESENT – Brassneck

The band's second Top 40 hit, and first appearance on TOTP. The 'performance' was actually a joke.  It started off as a reference to the promo video, where the band were filmed performing motionless compared to the interpretive dancers performing around them. When they got the call to do TOTP, Gedge though it would be a laugh in the rehersals to try and recreate it:

I wasn't pissed off and I was just following an old tradition established by some of my heroes... those punk bands who didn't take Top Of The Pops seriously and who took the mickey out of the whole 'miming' thing. I started doing it during the TV rehearsals, fully expecting a producer or director to tell me to stop messing about but no one did. So with each run-through it became a little more... extreme. The Brassneck video was the inspiration for the Top Of The Pops performance, actually, with the band looking bored and oblivious to the frantic, theatrical performance art going on around us. The two things aren't that dissimilar

The song had been re-recorded for the single release. Gedge wasn't happy with the production of the version on the Bizarro album, feeling  it lacked the intensity of the live performances, and had long been a fan of Steve Albini. He decided to see if the band could re-record the track for the single with Albini producing as a way of testing out the waters for him producing their next album. The band recorded 3 other songs with Albini, including a cover of Pavement's Box Elder and they were issued as a 12" EP with Brassneck as the lead track. It was also slimmed down to a 2-track 7", including a 3000-off limited edition that featured sleeves hand painted by the band:

I think this is cracking song, it fair romps along. The Albini re-recording is much better and more powerful than the album version.

(21) |  ROD STEWART – Downtown Train  (video)

Rod using the video as an excuse to do a bit of trainspotting - I bet when the cameras weren't rolling he had his notebook out, taking the numbers of the passing rolling stock.

(17) |  DEPECHE MODE – Enjoy The Silence

I think Norton has covered this well enough. Suffice to say, it's a prime example of what Alan Wilder brought to the band. The band were not happy with Anton Corbijn's proposed video treatment (based on the theme of The Little Prince) and wanted a more conventional promo. They eventually accepted the proposal (no doubt due to Andy Fletcher's view that for everybody except Gahan it would only mean an hour's work) and Gahan was unwillingly dispatched to the Scottish Highlands, the Algarve and the Swiss Alps with Corbijn. When they got to Switzerland, Gahan had enough of 'feeling like an idiot', and after being asked to walk through deep snow at 3000m wearing the cape and dragging the deckchair he flounced back to the hotel, so the video's producer Richard Bell was used as a stand-in.

(22) |  MICHAEL BOLTON – How Am I Supposed To Live Without You (video)

Tedious MOR dirge.

(31) |  THE STRANGLERS – 96 Tears

Ah, the return of Jet Black! I love his hamming up to the cameras. JJ Burnel appears to have been replaced by a young Rich Hall. The organ line on this makes it sound very much like an Inspiral Carpets tune - The Stranglers go Baggy? (the Inspirals had actually recorded a cover of the song on their 1989 demo tape)

It was the lead single to promote their new album 10, and another 60s cover had been chosen to capitalise on the success of their 1988 top 10 hit Kinks. The second single from the album, Sweet Smell of Success, only reached #65 in April, and Epic then cancelled the release of the third single Man Of The Earth. This would therefore be the last appearance of the band on TOTP. They were booked on a 40-date European tour between February and August to promote the album, and the day after the final gig at Ally Pally following rising tensions between Cornwell and Burnel and being unsuccessful in booking a US tour Cornwell abruptly left the band to go solo.

[buzby]

Just as an exercise, I decided to try and map the route of the girl in Rod's Downtown Train video to see if it made any sense.

She enters the BMT Line Court Street Station in Brooklyn. The station entrance is actually integrated into the exterior of the St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church on Montague Street:

She's then shot going down the stairs at 51st Street/Lexington Ave/53rd Street station in Midtown Manhattan to the Downtown IRT Line platform (going towards Lower Manhattan), stands on the platform and boards a Bombardier R62A train where she flirts with a Wahlberg-looking greaser.
There is a brief shot of 28th Street station platform (on the same line, and going Downtown)
She gets off at Borough Hall Station, which is in Brooklyn and means she must have got on the 4 train and in effect would have just looped back if she had 'got on' at Court Street).
There's then a shot of her back in Manhattan going down the stairs at 53rd and Lexington again (with it's sloped glass canopy - back in 1990 the F train still stopped there) after she knocks off work:

and a brief shot of her stood on the 53rd and Lexington IND Line platform for the E/F train.
She then gets out at Court Street again (which the E or F train don't go to) to find the greaser who she flirted with earlier waiting for her.

[steveh]

The band were not happy with Anton Corbijn's proposed video treatment (based on the theme of The Little Prince) and wanted a more conventional promo.

Enjoy the Silence always reminds me of the early days of The Box music video channel when it was a PC and a Laserdisc multichanger at each cable company and the live version of it always seemed to be on high rotation. Wonder if the band's dislike of the original video was why the live one got used instead.

[Jockice]

It was the lead single to promote their new album 10, and another 60s cover had been chosen to capitalise on the success of their 1988 top 10 hit Kinks.

i had to actually check that. Kinks is a very Stranglers song title. Turns out it was a version of All Day And All Of The Night that I have absolutely no recollection of, despite having friends who were Stranglers fanatics.

Because of this I only ever bought one of their singles (Nuclear Device) because I could always rely on a mate to record their stuff for me. So I'm to blame for them not making enough money and killing their career. No wonder Hugh hung up on me.

[grainger]

"I've taped all your hits off the radio! Can I have your autograph?"

[Jockice]

"I've taped all your hits off the radio! Can I have your autograph?"

I killed music. And it was illegal.

[boki]

The name "Renegade Soundwave" made me chuckle for the sheer 90s-ness of it

You've gotta feel for them - consider their shout-out in PWEI's Can U Dig It?:

We dig Marvel & DC,
We dig Run DMC,
We dig Renegade Soundwave,
And AC/DC

They're the only ones out of that lot that aren't propping up high street stores with T-shirt sales.  They should get on the blower to Primark just in case.

[phantom_power]

Soundclash and In Dub are both great albums and the early singles Cocaine Sex and Kray Twins are great as well. They were pretty ahead of their time and a lot of their stuff has aged better than Probably a Robbery

[Better Midlands]

You've gotta feel for them - consider their shout-out in PWEI's Can U Dig It?:

RSW did an excellent remix of of PWEI - Touched by the Hand of Cicciolina

The Turntable Scratch mix of Probably A Robbery is a banger

[buzby]

It's going to be two parts, this one...

22 February 1990: Presenter: Mark Goodier

Hooray! The Voice Of The Charts steps in to show the rest of these dickheads how to do it.

- - - - - - - - - - - (Breakers) - - - - - - - - - - - -
(32) |  THUNDER – Dirty Love  (video)

More of this shite FM rock

(33) |  ELECTRIBE 101 – Talking With Myself  (video)

BANGER. This had been the band's first single, released in November 1988 on Phonogram's dance label Club. It had been a club hit, but not troubled the Top 100 (though I can remember hearing it on John Peel's show). Martin's guest vocals on S Express' Hey Music Lover in February 1989 had got her some publicity and the band were promoted to the Mercury label as a result . Mercury lined up Lipstick On My Lover as a follow-up and promos were sent out in May 1989, but the full release was cancelled.

It wouldn't be until October 1989 when their next single Tell Me When The Fever Ended would be released, which made the Top 40 and Peel being a fan of the band asked them to record a session for his show that was broadcast at the end of the month. Rather than capitalising on this, they had to wait until the New Year for thie next single, a remix of ther debut (by Frankie Knuckles for the 7" and radio edit, but there were also new mixes by the band themselves and Blacksmith), to make it into Mercury's release schedule. In a contemprary interview, Martin expressed frustration at this, saying that if they had signed to an Indie label they would have had 3 singles out by this time.

The band were signed as support as a one-off at the Milton Keynes Bowl date of Erasure's Wild! tour and for the European leg of Depeche Mode's World Violation Tour in September-November 1990 which didn't go well, with the Mode's lovely, tolerant fans bottling and booing them off on occasion. Their next single, You're Walking, and album, Electribal Memories were held back until September tyo coincide with these live dates, but the single stalled at #50. The last single from the album, a cover of Odyssey's Inside Out was released in November but only reached #77.

The band recorded their second album in early 1991 but disagreements with Mercury and thier manager Tom Watkins (also the manager of the PSBs) over thier musical direction led to it not being released, and the band split in early 1992. Martin started a solo career and the rest of the band carried on under the name Groove Corporation (which they had used previously when doing remixes for other artists) as remixers and eventually releasing their first album on Network offshoot 6x6 in 1994.

(36) |  JAMIE J. MORGAN – Walk On The Wild Side  (video)

This is shite.
Morgan was a photographer and director who was part of Ray Petri's fashion/photography/music Buffalo Collective (which also featured Neneh Cherry and her partner Cameron 'Booga Bear' McVey) who were the inspiration for Neneh Cherry's lyrics on Buffalo Stance. That track had actually originated as the B-side of Morgan's previous effort at music, the S/A/W-produced Looking Good Diving which was released as part of a duo with McVey in 1987.

He had signed to Tabu Records and this single was released to promote his album Shotgun. A further single Rocksteady would be released which limped to #97 and he thankfully wouldn't be heard of again until 1992, when his final single Why was released and failed to chart.

[steveh]

The Phantom and Ozone Breakdown were massive on the pirates at the time and for a while Renegade Soundwave ran their own station too. In Dub was such an influential album on later producers. Still seem to be sporadic remixes appearing under the name.

[Norton Canes]

I missed the Renegade Soundwave bandwagon at the time - shame, I probably would have been well into them, I loved the dancier incarnations of The Shamen and PWEI.

[kalowski]

I think I saw Electribe 101 at the Sheffield Leadmill in 1990/91.