Top of the Pops on BBC Four - Thread Three

[Sebastian Cobb]

That bolton track is plops eh

[Sebastian Cobb]

Betty Boo - Doin' the Do is a banger.

Do we ever get Monie Love on TOTP?

[edon]

Not a bad couple of episodes in all honesty, better than last week's blandathon.

Roam is indeed a boss song. Hear The Drummer Get Wicked is as well. Erasure's video for Star also pretty much proved Mute pissed all of their budget on the Mode with Corbijn, but at least Vince and Andy had fun with what they had by the looks of things.

Just what was Jane Child all about though? Never heard of her beforehand and sounds like she's some sort of Shakin' female Prince who ended up lost to time, at least according to her Wiki page. The page for her one hit also claims (albeit with a [citation needed]):

In the UK, the single stalled at number 22 after Child refused to appear on the popular British TV program Top of the Pops while the single was climbing the charts, considering the program to be a "sellout".

Thought I recognised it at first but don't know if I'm just confusing it with a bunch of other similar records.

[edon]

Do we ever get Monie Love on TOTP?

She was definitely on in 89 with Grandpa's Party, pretty sure there's a performance or two of It's A Shame to come as well

[A Hat Like That]

I'm liking the shirt changes ... :d

[Gulftastic]

A couple of rather good eps last night, I thought. Plenty of top notch stuff.

[Bobby Treetops]

I suspect 'World In Motion' might get a bit of a slagging on here but I'm fond of this record and I feel nostalgic thinking how I watched most of Italia 90 in my parent's house (they had no interest in football so I was banished to the watch it on the TV in the box room) with my mate Alkesh (who had four sister's and one TV in his house, so we had no chance getting to watch any football around his).

Peter Beardsley mug suddenly appearing on the screen was a bit of a shock for a Saturday morning. causing me to involuntary spit out coffee in alarm.

I'd never noticed how awkward Steve and Gillian look in this video, with Peter Hook showing off his tattooed muscularly arms, cause he's a bloke. And Keith Allen being a attention seeking prick as normal. Barney just looks hungover.

I know the John Barnes rap work for word, how sad am I.

[Jockice]

I know the John Barnes rap work for word, how sad am I.

I can remember the NME saying at the time that if he hadn't been a footballer he could have made it as a rapper. Could he fuck. Still to this day probably the most ridiculous thing I've ever read.

[kaprisky]

Killer followed by Papa. I wonder whether George Michael was watching that first episode back in 1990!

That cover of Venus had me thinking: "that's a bit of a long lead-in to the song", before twigging that there were no vocals bar "Venus" being whispered. A waste.

[Sebastian Cobb]

She was definitely on in 89 with Grandpa's Party, pretty sure there's a performance or two of It's A Shame to come as well

Monie in the Middle is the banger imo.

[non capisco]

Peter Beardsley mug suddenly appearing on the screen was a bit of a shock for a Saturday morning. causing me to involuntary spit out coffee in alarm.

It made me, and probably every other viewer who regularly listens to Athletico Mince, burst out laughing. "Pe'er! What the fuck do you think you're doing on Top Of The Pops? Get back in the kitchen and make me some poachies, ya spooky fuck-en doil."
Certainly a cold visual shower after Betty Boo in leather hotpants.

Can't argue with a pair of episodes that had Roam (I kind of hope they weren't even on tour and Fred Schneider had to fly all the way over for that) and It's My Life (Replies From View's ostrich, there) on them.

[daf]

31 May 1990: Presenter: Simon Mayo

(22) | BLACK BOX – Everybody Everybody
(20) | TALK TALK – It's My Life (video)
(23) | SAM BROWN – Kissing Gate
(19) | ERASURE – Star (video)
(25) | JANE CHILD – Don't Wanna Fall In Love (video)
(12) | CHAD JACKSON – Hear The Drummer (Get Wicked)
(15) | BETTY BOO – Doin' The Do (video)
( 2 ) | ENGLAND/NEW ORDER – World In Motion (video)
( 1 ) | ADAMSKI – Killer



(24) | THE CHARLATANS – The Only One I Know (video and credits)

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[ElTwopo]

Betty Boo still mesmerizes me 30 years later.

[ElTwopo]

Betty Boo though

[daf]

Might be worth taping the 1995 Christmas show (on again later tonight) - as apparently they showed Mike Flowers as number 1, when the original broadcast version had Earthsong.

The race to the top was so close that they recorded two versions just incase - and the Mike Flowers Christmas performance of Wonderwall was never shown . . . until tonight!

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

It made me, and probably every other viewer who regularly listens to Athletico Mince, burst out laughing. "Pe'er! What the fuck do you think you're doing on Top Of The Pops? Get back in the kitchen and make me some poachies, ya spooky fuck-en doil."
Certainly a cold visual shower after Betty Boo in leather hotpants.

Can't argue with a pair of episodes that had Roam (I kind of hope they weren't even on tour and Fred Schneider had to fly all the way over for that) and It's My Life (Replies From View's ostrich, there) on them.

Just watched that performance of " Roam", what an absolute fucking banger of a choon. Also, it *is* genuinely amusing to see ol' Kenneth Williams Features just standing there with his tambourine, contributing Bez- like levels of nothing to the song.

[Jackson K Pollock]

31 May 1990: Presenter: Simon Mayo

(22) | BLACK BOX – Everybody Everybody
(20) | TALK TALK – It's My Life (video)
(23) | SAM BROWN – Kissing Gate
(19) | ERASURE – Star (video)
(25) | JANE CHILD – Don't Wanna Fall In Love (video)
(12) | CHAD JACKSON – Hear The Drummer (Get Wicked)
(15) | BETTY BOO – Doin' The Do (video)
( 2 ) | ENGLAND/NEW ORDER – World In Motion (video)
( 1 ) | ADAMSKI – Killer



(24) | THE CHARLATANS – The Only One I Know (video and credits)

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Thank you so much for posting this! Do you by any chance have the rest of that B-52's interview, please?

[daf]

Here you go (with some bonus Guru Josh) :

 

I've put a link in the Smash Hits cover image, so if you click that it should take you to the magazine. There's loads more - I just pick out a few pages that tickle my fancy.

[Jackson K Pollock]

Thanks a million, that's awesome!

[Norton Canes]

24 May 1990: Presenter: Anthea Turner

Unintelligible half the time, just garbled syllables delivered at high volume

(20) | THE B52'S – Roam

Not much to add really, a ton better than Loveshack

( 5 ) | EN VOGUE – Hold On

Never know quite what to think about En Vogue. On one hand - strong women, positive image, fantastic songs. On the other, they were put together by producerblokes. It's almost like, inna final analysis, it doesn't really matter what gender anyone is, as long as they get together and make great music, huh?

( 9 ) | BEATS INTERNATIONAL – Won't Talk About It

The dullest single Norman Cook ever put his name to? Discuss

(12) | DON PABLO'S ANIMALS– Venus

Sake. As I (very vaguely) remembered this, at least they bothered to record some vocals. Even the dancers seem to get bored by the end.

31 May 1990: Presenter: Simon Mayo

Nice shirts. No Germany?

(22) | BLACK BOX – Everybody Everybody

Shame, when they had so many screamin' soul vocals so sample, that the ones they used post Ride On Time were so dull.

(19) | ERASURE – Star (video)

An album track, and not an especially great one at that. Although Wild! features some great songs its production sounded way more mainstream than that of previous Erasure albums, and I was glad when Vince Clarke reverted to his extensive collection of analogue synths to record their subsequent LP, Chorus.

(12) | CHAD JACKSON – Hear The Drummer (Get Wicked)

Half decent, I guess, I just have bad memories from this being played at uni and everyone doing a jump-a-quarter-turn-round-after-each-bar type novelty dance to it.

( 2 ) | ENGLAND/NEW ORDER – World In Motion (video)

Speaking of uni discos, did I ever mention I was the first person to play this at a disco? Taped it off the radio when Janice Long gave it a first-time exclusive, and played it later that evening. Of course I can't verify I was definitely the first person to do this, but I'm claiming it.

(24) | THE CHARLATANS – The Only One I Know (video and credits)

Saw them play on their first tour after a paragraph in the NME hyped them up. Didn't know what to expect, and they came on to The Age of Aquarius, just as Vic Reeves had recently done on an episode of his Big Night Out. Assumed therefore that they were a comedy act.

[Billy]

Speaking of uni discos, did I ever mention I was the first person to play this at a disco? Taped it off the radio when Janice Long gave it a first-time exclusive, and played it later that evening. Of course I can't verify I was definitely the first person to do this, but I'm claiming it.

I think this for me about Mark Ronson's 'Uptown Funk', in late 2014 before it was released as a single and only available on YouTube - I copied the audio from the "video" (just a still picture of the single cover), played it that evening and everyone looked a bit confused but bopped along to it anyway. One bloke walked up to me halfway through and asked "Is this James Brown?".

Hear The Drummer Get Wicked is one of those odd tracks with more than one version and I'm not sure which one is the "proper" release, I'm presuming there's an original mix and a remix for the 7" as was common at the time. Although for me I associate it in the form of two other versions, DJ Kool's Let Me Clear My Throat from a few years later and a parody version of that about the smoking ban called 'Let Me Smoke My Pipe' which some posh-spoken rapper chap performed at some trendy Shoreditch bar I was at about a decade ago.

Might be worth taping the 1995 Christmas show (on again later tonight) - as apparently they showed Mike Flowers as number 1, when the original broadcast version had Earthsong.

The race to the top was so close that they recorded two versions just incase - and the Mike Flowers Christmas performance of Wonderwall was never shown . . . until tonight!

I find this stuff fascinating, there's murmurs it's because the actual Jacko version had some tape damage so they dug the alternate one out instead. I wonder if there's more around - another version of Xmas 1991 with the festive #1 being The KLF's Justified and Ancient?

[edon]

TBH after Freddie's death I think it would've been a foregone conclusion that a Queen tune would've ended up being number one, and the song was stuck at #3 in the weeks leading up to the Christmas chart anyway

In any case, Drummond and Cauty originally planned to turn up with Extreme Noise Terror for TOTP that year to just do 3am Eternal, but of course things didn't turn out that way in the end either.

[Norton Canes]

Meant to say, caught this fantastic performance of Phorever People by The Shamen, originally on the 1992 Christmas show, on one of the BBC repeats the other day. Full Alice in Wonderland dressing up box stuff, with Mr C looking just like the evil guy from Shrek

59 minutes in on the iPlayer | YouTube version

[edon]

Not a huge fan of Boss Drum-era Shamen but they really are going for it in that performance. Love it.

[buzby]

I've skipped a few weeks as there was fuck all to talk about in them

10 May 1990: Presenter: Gary Davies

Ah, good old 'dependable' - he might be a bit long in the tooth now, but at least he's not Anthea Turner.

( 5 ) | KYLIE MINOGUE – Better The Devil You Know

So ,this is the first appearance of SexKylie then? i can't say I think much of the song - it's not that much of an improvement on the dross that had been lumped on Sonia, and the Infernal Machine is still working overtime. The choreography is a bit cheesy too, but part of that is because Kylie has never been much of a dancer - I remember watching a behind the scenes thing on one of her later videos and the choreographer said as much - she concentrated on dances that had lots of arm movement as she wasn't so good at moving her feet.

(20) | THE WONDERSTUFF – Circlesquare (video)

Fucking boring fiddle-de-dee shite.

(19) | MANTRONIX feat. WONDRESS – Take Your Time

Not as good as Got To Have Your Love, and it's got the whiff of 'we've had one hit, so how about makng some more chart friendly stuff?' from the record company about it. Nice to see Kurtis in a sharp suit behind the Emulator III.

( 8 ) | NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK – Cover Girl (video)

Lovely image of Donnie hitting on an 8-year-old. Different times.

(18) | BEATS INTERNATIONAL – Won't Talk About It

The 'difficult second single' - not as easy to come up with a big hit when you are'ntsampling wholesale, is it Norm? It had originated as a collaboration with Billy Bragg (on vocals and featuring a sample of the guitar from his track Levi Stubb's Tears) and was released as the B-side to Norman Cook's Blame It On The Bassline single in 1989. It had been given a refresh and The Ballad Of Barking was replaced by Lindy Layton for Beats International's second single.

For Dub Be Good To Me we got vintage Prophets and a MiniMoog. For this performance we get Norman Cook's Emulator Unlimited Orchestra - two Emulator IIs, a II+ (with double the RAM) and presumably the III that Kurtis Mantronik was using earlier. By this time even the EIII was considered old hat so they would have got a discount rate from Octave Hire for them.

(25) | THUNDER – Backstreet Symphony (video and credits)

Who was buying this honking FM Rock shite? The third single and title track off their debut album (which suprrised me, as they sound like they have been around since at least the early 80s), which was produced by ex-Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor.

[buzby]

18 May 1990: Presenter: Nicky Campbell

Oh fuck off you cunt.

(31) | HOTHOUSE FLOWERS – Give It Up

Did his tremulous, reedy voice deserve to be heard live? NO.

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- (25) | LISA STANSFIELD – What Did I Do To You (video) -
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This wasn't in the version on iPlayer at least, daf

(16) | THE CHIMES – I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Absolute shite. They have managed to make a terrible U2 song even worse.

(27) | EURYTHMICS – Angel  (video)

I bought the remix 12" of this and have never listened to the extended version that is on the A-side. I bough it because of the B-side - the Nightmare Mix of Sweet Dreams. London pirate radio DJ (and Monie Love's older brother) Dave Angel had knocked up a bootleg remix of Sweet Dreams in his bedroom using 2 turntables, 2 tape decks and a kid's Casio keyboard. He borrowed £500 from Steve Janvier, owner of the shop Black Market Records to have 500 copies of it pressed, took a copy of the addresses of the record shops in London from the Yellow Pages and went round them with 100 copies at a time in his mum's shopping trolley.

Eventually the Eurythmics label RCA got wind of it and threatened to sue him - his response was 'What are you going to do, take my record collection as that's all I've got?'

Dave Dorrell met Angel in Berwick Street market one afternoon and mentioned he had made this bootleg. Dorrell heard it and via his record company contacts he got in touch with the RCA who liked it, but said they couldn't put it out. He then managed to get in touch with Dave Stewart who also liked it, particularly as it had been made in a bedroom as they had recorded the Sweet Dreams album on an 8-track in their house. He asked RCa to call Angel in for a meeting and OKed the release as long as it got professionally re-recorded.

Unfortunately they couldn't find the original multitrack of Sweet Dreams (which would have been the 8-track tape from their basement studio) so Dorrell booked Angel into a studio to recreate the mix the same way he had done it in his bedroom, from the records, except using a bit more technology than a couple of cassete decks and turntables..  They formed a working relationship from that experience, and Dorrell signed Angel to his Love Records label and became his manager.

Around the same time, Shut Up And Dance also released Lamborghini, a track that was basically a bootleg remix of Sweet Dreams that remained thoroughly unofficiall, and they would be sued by RCA when the record companies started going though their back catalogue after the publicity of the Raving I'm Raving case.

(29) | SAM BROWN – Kissing Gate

Yes, it's a bit bland compared to Stop but I have a bit of a soft spot for Sam's voice. Mum Vicki is on backing vocals here as usual. The live version from Aussie TV with Sam on the piano is much better than the version on the record.

(21) | PAUL YOUNG – Softly Whispering I Love You

The Royal Family and FWTs seem a long time ago.

(28) | DEPECHE MODE – Policy Of Truth  (video and credits)

Corbijn has well and truly been put back n his box for this video - no arseing about in the Scottish Highlands and Swiss Alps. this time. Shot in New York again, like the hurried alternate 'World Trade Centre' clip for Enjoy The Silence.

My main interest in this was the Limited Edition 12" remix release that had the Trancentral Mix on it - it captures Jimmy Cauty in the transitional phase between the ambient era of Chill Out/The Orb/Space and before the Stadium House phase kicked in.

[daf]

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- (25) | LISA STANSFIELD – What Did I Do To You (video) -
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This wasn't in the version on iPlayer at least, daf

Oops yes, I forgot to explain this listing at the time. It was in the edition originally shown in 1990, but was cut from the recent BBC4 version (which is why it's in red) - due to a Cyril Smith reference in the intro :

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Nicky Campbell : "And a live vocal there as well, Excellent stuff . . . Ah yes, Rochdale. Gracie Fields, Cyril Smith and Lisa Stansfield, who can sing better than Gracie, and she's going to be bigger than Cyril."
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Full unedited 1990 show here :
https://wobbly.wetransfer.com/downloads/f8c70e29eaa470bc38648239b2cd24be20201211215330/0d2405

[buzby]

24 May 1990: Presenter: Anthea Turner

A bit too much of the 'mood enhancer' before the show perhaps? Practically incomprehensible at times.

(20) | THE B52'S – Roam

A fantastic follow-up to Love Shack, which should have really been a bigger hit. There's not much better than Kate and Cindy's vocals intertwining. This was one of the tracks from Cosmic Thing that was produced by Nile Rodgers (he produced half the album, with don Was producing the other half, which included Love shack). A good performance too, with Fred knowing to stay out of the ladies' limelight. Cindy does look a little subdued compared to Kate - no glam outfit or outrageous hairdo. I think it took her a lot longer to come to terms with being in the band without her brother.

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(32) | MOVEMENT 98 feat. CARROLL THOMPSON – Joy And Heartbreak  (video)

Movement 98 was Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne branching out as artists as well as producers, with songs written by Rob 'yes, the bloke from Mud' Davis. They took their name from the Balearic scene for tunes that were around 98bpm. Oakenfold wasn't happy with House music's transition to rave in 1990 and decided to move downtempo (the Oakenfold and Osbornre remix of the Mondays' Hallelujah was also 98 bpm). The intro to the song is shamelessly nicked from  Erik Satie's Gymnopedie 1 (though it does get credited). It probably sounded great as the sun came up in Cafe Del Mar, but it's a rather bland and never really seems to get out of the starting blocks.

(35) | TALK TALK – It's My Life  (video)

The first in a series of reissues of their previous singles to promote the Natural History: The Very Best Of Talk Talk compilation album, which EMI had put out in spite after the band and their manager had successfully taken the label to court to get out of a particularly restrictive contract. EMI then counter-sued bu the case was thrwon out of court, and as a result decided to rinse the back catalogue for all it was worth now that Hollis couldn't say no (a similar situation to what happened when Radiohead refused to re-sign with EMI after their contract expired).

(12) | DON PABLO'S ANIMALS– Venus

The BHF team pull out another lump of rancid cheese after the awful Moments In Soul. It looks like as penance for using the sample of the original song they agreed to do a full remix of the Shocking Blue version, which is even worse than their instrumental. It was released a month later and spent 2 weeks in the chart, peaking at #75 in it's first week.

[The Culture Bunker]

The first in a series of reissues of their previous singles to promote the Natural History: The Very Best Of Talk Talk compilation album, which EMI had put out in spite after the band and their manager had successfully taken the label to court to get out of a particularly restrictive contract. EMI then counter-sued bu the case was thrwon out of court, and as a result decided to rinse the back catalogue for all it was worth now that Hollis couldn't say no (a similar situation to what happened when Radiohead refused to re-sign with EMI after their contract expired).

Didn't EMI get bit on the arse a bit when they put out that "History Revisited" remix album, that the band/Hollis sued to have removed from sale? I don't think I've heard a note from that, unless they appeared on one of the other couple of Talk Talk compilations I have.

[buzby]

Didn't EMI get bit on the arse a bit when they put out that "History Revisited" remix album, that the band/Hollis sued to have removed from sale? I don't think I've heard a note from that, unless they appeared on one of the other couple of Talk Talk compilations I have.

That album came from the remixes included on the B-sides of the 1990 12" reissues - It's My Life had the Tropical Rainforest Mix by Dominic Woosey and also a terrible Talk Talk Recycled megamix by the Jive Bunny bastards Andy Pickles and Ian Morgan. Life's What You Make It had remixes by BBG, Fluke and Dominic Woosey again. Such A Shame had a Gary Miller/4 2 The Floor remix (he also did one for Talk Talk as well, which wasn't' put out at the time as diminishing returns had set in and it didn't chart).

These were bundled together for the History Revisited album the following year along with a few others from Julian Mendelsohn, Justin Robertson and  a dub mix of Happiness Is Easy by Talk Talk members Lee Harris and Paul Webb that had been made in 1986. Hollis got wind of it and wrote to EMI to ask them to scrap the album but they ignored the request and it was released in April 1991. In November the band and their manager sued EMI over the album for unpaid royalties and for releasing material under the name Talk Talk that the band had not been a part of. They won their case the following year and EMI had to delete the album and destroy any remaining stock, but it had been on sale for almost a year by that point.