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Top of the Pops on BBC Four - Thread Three

Started by daf, November 05, 2020, 08:25:18 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Norton Canes

Quote from: daf on January 15, 2021, 11:33:38 PM
22 June 1990: Presenter: Jakki Brambles

Pffft. Not much to talk about here. Yazz has obviously given up on having any more hits. And if Stock, Aitken and Waterman thought the future of pop was four people sitting on chairs singing syrupy ballads, then... hmm.

Ten on ten to Jakki for the sweatshirt though.


Quote from: daf on January 16, 2021, 05:06:39 PM
28 June 1990: Presenter: Gary Davies (Live)

There's only one thing worth talking about in this show and I'm sorry Maureen, it ain't you...

Quote
(25) | BOB GELDOF – The Great Song Of Indifference

What was he thinking? This is grand ex-frontman folly on a scale not seen since Mick Jagger annexed the entire studio with the equally execrable Let's Work. Bob, mate - when the record company said "OK, but make sure it's not as bad as This Is The Word Calling, you know they mean they wanted something better? Love the hilarious shamaraderie on display when Geldof heaves one of his session musos away from the mic. I bet the guy loved that 'spontaneous' bit of horseplay happening at exactly the same point every single night they were on tour.

OK, fair play to Geldof for trying to introduce Riverdance to the world four years before its Eurodebut, but otherwise this is a hideous crock of shit.

edon

If that Geldof performance got covered on Chart Music he would have at least one new arsehole torn. Definitely wouldn't be good for them to do an episode where there's absolutely zero redeeming qualities, but I kind of want to hear Taylor sadistically take down The Great Song of Indifference now.

22 and 28 June were up there as some of the recent  worst but I found them engaging little curios.

I don't think I'd want Chart Music to cover any 1990 episode. A dire year. But then I don't want them to do any episode post-Live Aid, really. The dross to quality ratio is overwhelming.

edon

I do think they should, as they've done their fair share of episodes from before 85 which have also been pretty crap (the recent ones from 75 and 82 are definite cases in point), but moving forward, the whole random episode thing should probably be ditched whenever they do decide to go for the late 80s or 90s again

However terrible much of them are, there's usually always a few shows each year which are either culturally significant in some way (like the Madchester and Britpop ones they've already done) or at the very least half decent - the one from April with Faith No More, Adamski, Stevie V, and Family Stand etc comes to mind.

buzby

Quote from: daf on January 08, 2021, 09:48:31 PM
7 June 1990: Presenter: Mark Goodier
The Voice Of The Chart is back!
Quote
(28) | POP WILL EAT ITSELF – Touched By The Hand Of Cicciolina
The Poppies jump on the Italia '90 bandwagon. It was conceived while the band were on tour in Australia. Graham Crabb had written an Italo House piano tune while on tour, but apart from that they had nothing to work with so their next album was going to be a long way off but RCA wanted to keep up their momentum by putting out a single. The band had the idea to turn Graham's piano idea a World Cup-related tune.

They were booked into a studio in London with Flood as producer, and the idea came to reference Cicciolina via a petition to FIFA to get her to present the World Cup to the winners of the tournament. Graham also included a reference to Steve Bull in the lyrics to keep Wolves fans Clint Mansell and Adam Mole happy. The tune itself was built around the drum break from Funkadelic's Good Old Music, with some extra drums and bleeps judiciously sampled from Bowie's Sound And Vision and the Human League's Being Boiled. On top were layered various samples of commemorators, football crowds and opera singers, much of it being put together by Flood due to the band's paucity of ideas. It was notable that they hadn't actually thought of contacting Ilona Staller herself prior to release, so the video features a generic blonde model who if you really squint might look a bit like her. A copy of the petition form to FIFA was included in the sleeve of the 12" single.

Around the time the song was released the band flew out to Rome, with a Sounds journo and photographer in tow, to try and get an audience with Staller herself. They managed ot get a brief meeting with her, Sounds got a cover photo out of it and they used one of the photos from the meeting as the sleeve for the CD single and 'Replay' remix 12" releases


One of the remixes was by Renegade Soundwave, who basically binned the whole track in favour of some minimal dub.

The stunt worked, as they got some coverage in the national press, into the Top 40 and this TOTP appearance. As well as the future Mrs. Vanian miming to the opera samples, they also had the drummer form Ned's Atomic Dustvin, and Richard March's best man Eddie (who looks like he's wearing the wedding suit)was invited along as he had once owned a trumpet.

Cicciolina would have another brush with the charts next year...
Quote
(32) | THE MISSION – Into The Blue (video)
Old Mr Potato Head still persisting with his Bono tribute act. The song is basically a bad photocopy of a Sisters track from the era they were in the band - it's all a bit pixie boots and snakebite.
Quote
(23) | WILSON PHILLIPS – Hold On (video)
I always felt a bit sorry for Carnie Wilson, as the clothes they were dressed in for the video just seemed designed to make her stand out more from the other two. You would think she would have got a bit of solidarity from her sister at least.
Quote
(31) | M.C. TUNES versus 808 STATE – The Only Rhyme That Bites
MC Tunes (a.k.a Nicky Lockett) was a kid from Moss Side who was well-known on the scene around Martin Price's Eastern Bloc record shop, and had been involved with members of 808 state before the band existed (he was originally an MC in the Scratch Beat Masters with Gerald Simpson, and they had been thrown out of the DMC Championships in 1988 when he brought a samurai sword onstage). Price got the people in the Manchester hip hop/house scene to form the Hit Squad MCR collective to put on gigs and put ot records on his Creed label. In 1988 the collective recorded the sampler EP Wax On The Melt, which included Tunes' first appearance on record, the Scratch Beat Masters' Back To Attack

By 1989 Hip house had become a thing in the UK charts, and in July before Pacific State broke into the charts, 808 State went into the studio with Tunes to record the original version of Dance Yourself To Death , which got featured on Snub TV (it would later be reworked for Tunes' debut album) and got ZTT interested in signing both acts.

the week that Pacific State entered the Top 40 in November 1989 they went back into their 'home' Spirit Studios to record a demo for his next track, which was in a very different form. The version that was eventually released was recorded in January 1990, and had originally started out as an 808 State track (including the Big Country sample) which they were working on when Tunes dropped into Spirit to get out of the rain and see what they were up to. He liked the sound of it, and asked if he could have a go at putting the rap from the demo over it. Everyone agreed that it worked, so it was taken down to Trevor Horn's Sarm studios in London to polish it up for release.

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Tunes' work with 808 state. Even though by this time hip house was already becoming old hat (though in serious rap circles it had never even been new hat) it kind of gels. Musically, apart form the reference to Pacific in the intro, you can hear it's 808 State moving on from the '90' era sound towards the Cubik/Olympic sound (which they were working on at the same time as the North At It's Heights follow up album to this single).

They haven't brought any of their gear with them for this performance, relying on a hired Korg M1 and Roland D50 (curiously with the Roland logo taped over - the Korg one isn't) and the venerable Simmons kit
Quote
( 1 ) | ENGLAND/NEW ORDER – World In Motion (video)
Well, they finally got a Number One single. Sadly the circumstances of the team being in Italy and the band themselves barely being on speaking terms meant there was never going to be a hope of a studio performance.

Gulftastic

Flip me, the amount of shit cover versions in 1990 is ridiculous.

Sebastian Cobb

The best thing about the Anthea episode was the Technotronic vid at the end.

buzby

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on January 22, 2021, 09:05:07 PM
The best thing about the Anthea episode was the Technotronic vid at the end.
Yep, some very cheeky CSO overlays stolen from 2001 and Star Wars as well.

phantom_power

The Top of the Pops Facts Twitter feed is good for stuff about these TOTP repeats. They mentioned that Technotronic got their name from Robert Fripp's Frippertronics. I love those little moments where the mainstream meets the underground or avent garde

Icehaven

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on January 22, 2021, 09:05:07 PM
The best thing about the Anthea episode was the Technotronic vid at the end.

Yes, and it seemed to go on for longer than the end videos usually do too, maybe someone in the studio agreed.

ElTwopo

I like the Nessun Dorma video that's been on recently, which is interspersed with footage/stills of Bobby Moore, Beckenbauer, Lineker, Maradona etc. But who do they choose to appear just as Pavarotti reaches the climax? Steve Bull.

Brilliant.



daf

5 July 1990: Presenter: Nicky Campbell

(30) | INSPIRAL CARPETS – She Comes In The Fall
(29) | JANET JACKSON – Alright  (video)
(17) | POISON – Unskinny Bop  (video)
(25) | DOUBLE TROUBLE – Love Don't Live Here Anymore
(10) | M.C. TUNES versus 808 STATE – The Only Rhyme That Bites  (video)
- - - - - - - - - - (Album Chart) - - - - - - - - - - -
( 5 ) | NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK – Step By Step  (video)
( 4 ) | TALK TALK – Life's What You Make It  (video)
( 3 ) | JASON DONOVAN – Another Night  (video)
( 2 ) | SOUL II SOUL – A Dream's A Dream  (video)
( 1 ) | LUCIANO PAVAROTTI – Nessun Dorma  (video)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(12) | F.A.B. feat. M.C. PARKER – Thunderbirds Are Go  (video)



( 4 ) | CRAIG McLACHLAN & CHECK 1-2 – Mona  (video)
(27) | MASSIVO feat. TRACY – Loving You
( 9 ) | M.C. HAMMER – U Can't Touch This  (video)
( 1 ) | ELTON JOHN – Sacrifice  (video)
(21) | GLENN MEDEIROS feat. BOBBY BROWN – She Ain't Worth It  (video and credits)

(12) | F.A.B. feat. M.C. PARKER – Thunderbirds Are Go  (video)

Amazing.

edon

The dance-pop cover shiteness has definitely come to a head, and it's gone full circle as well, since apparently that Tracy with Massivo fronted a bunch of the Stars On 45 imitators back in 81. The more things change, the more they stay the same and all that I suppose.

Not a fan of TOTP deciding the Top 5 albums is something to care about again either, total waste of time and an excuse for them to just bung on more video clips (of which there's been a noticeable reliance on recently - half arsed producers or the show's clout at an all time low?).

Gulftastic

Quote from: A Hat Like That on January 22, 2021, 11:20:00 PM
(12) | F.A.B. feat. M.C. PARKER – Thunderbirds Are Go  (video)

Their Prisoner mash up is even better.

Amazing.

monkfromhavana

Have no fear dance music fans, there was apparently a bit of a dearth of Ecstacy around the start of 1990, before it picked up again later the year.

Jockice

Quote from: edon on January 23, 2021, 12:26:43 AM
The dance-pop cover shiteness has definitely come to a head, and it's gone full circle as well, since apparently that Tracy with Massivo fronted a bunch of the Stars On 45 imitators back in 81. The more things change, the more they stay the same and all that I suppose.

And there was me thinking it was Massive Attack with Tracey Thorn on vocals. Really, I did.

daf

12 July 1990: Presenter: Anthea "Cocaine" Turner

(35) | GUN – Shame On You
(27) | RIVER CITY PEOPLE – California Dreamin'
(34) | BLUE PEARL – Naked In The Rain
(13) | GLENN MEDEIROS feat. BOBBY BROWN – She Ain't Worth It (video)
(38) | THUNDER– Gimme Some Lovin'
(28) | THE SOUP DRAGONS feat. JUNIOR REID – I'm Free
( 4 ) | THE STONE ROSES – One Love (video)



( 1 ) | ELTON JOHN – Sacrifice
(26) | TECHNOTRONIC feat. YA KID K – Rockin' Over The Beat (video and credits)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 




monkfromhavana

Rockin' Over The Beat is an absolute belter of a tune and I'll not hear a word said against it.

Norton Canes

Quote from: daf on January 22, 2021, 09:49:46 PM
5 July 1990: Presenter: Nicky Campbell

Originally transmitted the day after West Germany had eliminated England from the World Cup, which perhaps explains why Nicky Campbell is being even more irritatingly upbeat than usual [edit: unless this was recorded of course]

Quote
(30) | INSPIRAL CARPETS – She Comes In The Fall

Quality follow-up to This Is How It Feels. Shame they didn't get the Haverettes on stage with them, would've made for an even better show-opener. I mean who doesn't love a good paradiddle?

Quote
(12) | F.A.B. feat. M.C. PARKER – Thunderbirds Are Go  (video)

What was the deal with shit like this? Was pressure from record companies a significant factor in which artists got a performance/video slot each week, or did the production people just honestly think it was a great idea to have it on?

Quote
(27) | MASSIVO feat. TRACY – Loving You

Oof. She just about gets there.


Quote from: daf on January 23, 2021, 04:41:39 PM
12 July 1990: Presenter: Anthea "Cocaine" Turner

Jesus. Apart from her chronic inability to back off the mic, what gets me is the little tilt of the head and cheeky wink thing she does practically every time she introduces an act.

Quote
(35) | GUN – Shame On You

I know a lot of bands on the repeats recently have been aping Joshua Tree stadium-era U2 but there's something very Achtung Baby-esque about this, or the first minute or so at least.

Quote
(27) | RIVER CITY PEOPLE – California Dreamin'

Hmm. They haven't worked that hard to get here Anthea, otherwise they'd have written their own song

Quote
(34) | BLUE PEARL – Naked In The Rain

Good to see the year's de rigueur fashion accessory, the chain loop belt, on prominent display here. Nice bit of slick industrial heft to this in the vein of Adamski's Killer - shame it didn't top the chart too

Quote
(38) | THUNDER– Gimme Some Lovin'

You've flown in all the way from LA to be in the studio tonight? Thanks, Thunder. Thunder.

Quote
(28) | THE SOUP DRAGONS feat. JUNIOR REID – I'm Free

See this was the one baggy anthem I was never really on board with at the time. It seemed like the epitome of "There's always been a dance element to our music...", it was nowhere near as good as Mother Universe, the Dragons' previous (and subsequent, re-released) single, and it was a reminder that the whiff of hoary old Britpop hung around a lot of the 'Madchester' stuff. But sticking Junior Reid on there was a smart move and piggybacking on Richards/Jagger at least leant it an ersatz grittiness. Looking back it's stood the test of time a whole lot better then...

Quote
( 4 ) | THE STONE ROSES – One Love (video)

...this piece of utterly hopeless flub.

DrGreggles

Quote from: Norton Canes on January 23, 2021, 11:03:47 PM
...this piece of utterly hopeless flub.

I don't mind the long version of that, as there's 4 and a half minutes of good stuff after Brown stops 'singing'.

Quote from: Norton Canes on January 23, 2021, 11:03:47 PM
Soup Dragons - I'm Free

See this was the one baggy anthem I was never really on board with at the time. It seemed like the epitome of "There's always been a dance element to our music..."

It was literally this song that I associated with the phrase. Interestingly enough Sean Dickson has done pretty well after coming out and reinventing himself as a credible house DJ/producer under the name of Hifi Sean - it's good stuff.

DrGreggles

At the time it seemed a case of The Soupies jumping on the indie/dance bandwagon, but the first version of Mother Universe being in late 1988 suggests that they were ahead of the game, but slow to capitalise on it.

Norton Canes

Quote from: buzby on January 20, 2021, 11:54:34 PM
One of the remixes was by Renegade Soundwave, who basically binned the whole track in favour of some minimal dub

That's really nice, but totally one of those "Oh shit, that remix was supposed to be done by today, quick - grab one of the backing track demos we didn't use" type 'remixes'

Jockice

Quote from: DrGreggles on January 24, 2021, 11:17:04 AM
At the time it seemed a case of The Soupies jumping on the indie/dance bandwagon, but the first version of Mother Universe being in late 1988 suggests that they were ahead of the game, but slow to capitalise on it.

The first version of Mother Universe was brilliant but when they put out I'm Free followed by the shit new version that was the end for me. And I was a big Soup Dragons fan previously. I think I'd bought everything they'd recorded up to that point but I didn't buy anything else by them and even stopped listening to the old stuff.

A bit childish maybe but I was still in my 20s at the time (when music actually meant something to me) and I'm Free seemed to me like the worst bit of cashing in on a craze possible. I still don't like it but I've warmed a bit to Sean, Sushil and Jim's later stuff since then and occasionally listen to pre-I'm Free Soup Dragons' stuff as well. Still never listened to their last two albums though and doubt if I ever will.

Incidentally the Teenage Superstars film was on Sky Arts last night, so I've spent most of the morning listening to stuff from that era.  It brings it all back. My favourite period of music ever. I just wished I'd still lived in Scotland at the time so I could interview and be besties with those bands instead of having to talk to losers like Pulp and Richard Hawley.

Much later but this is a great cover version by Sean. Pisses all over Nouvelle Vague. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWx7U5HDdVc



buzby

Quote from: daf on January 22, 2021, 09:49:46 PM
5 July 1990: Presenter: Nicky Campbell
Hmmph! Cuntbell, more like...
Quote
(30) | INSPIRAL CARPETS – She Comes In The Fall
As stated by Norton, a decent follow-up to This Is How it Feels, and it doesn't suffer from the previous single's over-repetition of the lyrics. Tom's miming goes a little wayward at the end, seemingly forgetting where his microphone is.
Quote
(17) | POISON – Unskinny Bop  (video)
This can just fuck off.
Quote
(25) | DOUBLE TROUBLE – Love Don't Live Here Anymore
The Rebel MC has buggered off on his solo career now, so Double Trouble have decided to jump on that 'Movement 98' slow covers bandwagon. It's no Street Tuff.
Quote
- - - - - - - - - - (Album Chart) - - - - - - - - - - -
( 1 ) | LUCIANO PAVAROTTI – Nessun Dorma  (video)
Rushed out after the BBC used it as the soundtrack for their Italia '90 coverage, the video is laughably awful - it looks like a 'My first Quantel' project.I wonder if the inexplicable addition of Steve Bull was another sop to the Wolves-supporting half of PWEI too?
Quote
(12) | F.A.B. feat. M.C. PARKER – Thunderbirds Are Go  (video)
The brainchild of TV producer Gary Shoefield, who amongst his many credits was involved in trying to distribute the fake Roswell 'alien autopsy' footage (he was portrayed by Ant McPartlin in the terrible 'comedy' film). He had worked in children's TV and had secured the rights to a number of ITC shows. With the advent of sample collage House hits and DJ megamixes, he came up with a new way of exploiting these licences (which predated the 'Toytown House' boom of 1992). He approached the production team 3 To The Power (Carl Ward, Colin Peter and Nick Titchener - the latter pair having been stalwarts of the mid-80s Hi-NRG scene) to assemble a track based on the licences he had, an got a deal with Telstar (home of the Deep Heat dance mix albums, alongside all those terrible TV advertised compilations) to put it out.

The success of this single led to the Power Themes 90 album of mixes based on ITC shows, for which he also managed to get the licence to use material from The Avengers from Weintraub Entertainment. This would spawn further singles, which I expect we will get to in time.
Quote
(27) | MASSIVO feat. TRACY – Loving You
Another one of these terrible 'Movement 98' covers, though the choice of song in this case was almost certainly influenced by The Orb's debut single, A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld, which had been released in October 1989 and featured samples of the original Minnie Riperton version.

The single was released on cheapo cash-in dance label Debut Edge, home of the later releases of 'Stars On 45' house cover mixers from Mirage (the label was closely associated with Nigel Wright and Nigel Stock, the producers behind Mirage) and the Madonna covers mix This Year's Blonde. Massivo were soul DJ Darren Pearce and Steve 'Son Of Les' McCutcheon (Les being another associate of Nigel Wright), who was responsible for the aforementioned mixes on the label. Tracy was Tracy Ackerman, veteran session singer (she sang backing vocals with Tessa Niles on Enoch Clapton's 1988 comeback album) and the singer in Debut Edge's studio team (it was her singing on This Year's Blonde) after having an unsuccessful solo career singing Hi-NRG tracks (mostly written and produced by the same people behind Mirage) in the mid-to-late 80s.

It's the usual dull, slow, unnecessary cover, and although she tries, Ms. Ackerman is no Minnie Riperton. It comes off as a bit cruise ship/club singer.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: buzby on January 26, 2021, 09:24:10 PM
Rushed out after the BBC used it as the soundtrack for their Italia '90 coverage, the video is laughably awful - it looks like a 'My first Quantel' project.I wonder if the inexplicable addition of Steve Bull was another sop to the Wolves-supporting half of PWEI too?

There's an amazingly shoddy bit where they try and superimpose him onto another background and there's a giant halo of the original background leaking out around him. Dunno if it's electronic or not, but it looks like someone had cut a matte too big, like a child who can't keep within the lines when cutting someone out of a magazine.

edon

There could be a proper name made up for all of that cover crap, like the whole "white pyjama music" thing that some of the Chart Music contributors go on about involving China Crisis, Fiction Factory, etc, as it was clearly a definite thing that went on around this time

buzby

#389
Quote from: edon on January 27, 2021, 12:29:30 AM
There could be a proper name made up for all of that cover crap, like the whole "white pyjama music" thing that some of the Chart Music contributors go on about involving China Crisis, Fiction Factory, etc, as it was clearly a definite thing that went on around this time
I was a Record Mirror reader at that time and they called it 'Movement 98' as Oakenfold & Osborne were the main driving force behind the scene, with everybody else jumping on the bandwagon. Oakenfold briefly ran a club night at Heaven with under that name after Spectrum was forced to close, but it didn't last that long and he concentrated on the more popular Rage and Land Of Oz nights. 

I think most people just put them in with the Balearic Beat scene at the time (due to it's roots in Ibiza), though later on it would be called Downtempo.