Living in a voice box
26/10/89 (Bruno Brookes)
Rebel MC & Double Trouble – “Street Tuff” (3)
In the studio again to get the show underway but the song was now at its peak.
Queen – “Scandal” (25) (video)
At its peak.
Belinda Carlisle – “Leave A Light On” (4) (video)
Also at its peak.
Chris Rea – “The Road To Hell” (12)
A second time in the studio and the song went up two more places.
Lisa Stansfield – “All Around The World” (13) (video)
Will be number one in two weeks time.
Living In A Box – “Room In Your Heart” (7)
Back in the studio with a somewhat more enthusiastic performance of their final hit than last time and the song went up two more places.
De La Soul – “Eye Know” (16) (video)
Also went up two more places.
Adeva – “I Thank You” (17)
In the studio but this was another song now at its peak.
Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers – “That’s What I Like” (1) (video)
Second of three weeks at number one.
Milli Vanilli – “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You” (2) (video/credits)
At its peak.
November 2nd is next.
OK, so two weeks ago was a great show and some of those great songs get another airing tonight, so quite enjoyed most of this.
ReplyDeleteRebel MC - Street tuff – er, this wasn’t one of them.
Chris Rea – The Road to Hell Part 2 – Love the interspersed bits of driving with Chris’s studio outing. Just great stuff.
Queen – Scandal – Not one of their best, and the video looks cheap too. Must have spent a fortune filming on the Nene Valley Railway for ‘Breakthru’ so settled for less on this one.
Belinda Carlisle – Leave a light on – Belinda’s videos are a bit like Ultravox’s with soaring windy landscapes but this is a great song and production that one never tires of. No chance of George’s solo in this chopped showing!
Lisa Standsfield – All around the world – ELO? The Jam? I think ELO wins for me. Not that Lisa’s is bad, just not a particular favourite of mine. Number one hit, hmmm.
De la Soul – Eye know - FF
Adeva – I thank you – Loads of chart singles…none made the top10.
Living in a Box – Room in your Heart – The lead singer looks a little more confident on this outing but maybe that’s because he only gets to sing one of the main verses and chorus’s but we get a lot of the soaring climax.
Jive Bunny and the Master Mixers – That’s what I like – Almost a facsimile showing to last week! It’s as if the Beeb’s copy runs out at this point. A bit like them never showing the intro to ‘Papa don’t preach’. I have to say, on reflection some of the images are really inappropriate.
Milli Vanilli – Girl I’m gonna miss you – Nice mellow way to close the show. Enjoyed hearing this again.
The ELO song was called All Over The World, so not quite the same title as Stansfield here.
DeleteJive Bunny video for 4 weeks in a row on TOTP, first as a new entry at No.4, and then 3 weeks at No.1, only showed the first half of the video. Pathetic really that they couldn't show the second half of the video on at least one of those showings.
Knowing Jive Bunny's twisted sense of humour, TOTP didn't show the rest of the video because it probably had graphic car crash footage in it.
DeleteIt's only really the last five seconds of the video with any such footage with the final scene with the bunny twisted sense of humour, so what about the first 3 minutes 55 seconds of the video? I liked the segment with the original footage of Runaround Sue with Dion himself, but we never got to see it on TOTP over the last four shows.
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DeleteOuch, yes....ELO's song was indeed 'All over the World'. My mistake. I have recalled another 'All around the World' song though; a nine minute repetitive dirge from Oasis off the disappointing 'Be here now' album that somehow got to no1 in January 1998. I believe it may have been the longest no1 ever.
DeleteBy 1998 I was long finished with following the charts, let alone knowing who was No.1. I stopped following the charts at around the end of 1995, which by then was enough. Just as well, cos The Spice Girls came along in 1996, so good timing!
Delete@Dory: I was just joking about Jive Bunny including a serious car accident in their video, so checked out what you said and good grief! They actually did! Was that a clip of someone getting killed?! As if I couldn't detest them more.
DeleteBruno gives a professional turn, but lacks warmth and likeability. As has already been mentioned, when originally shown this was cut off brutally during Bruno's final link in order to get BBC1's schedule back on track after Nigel Lawson resigned as Chancellor - you can see that on YouTube. We therefore get to see the playout and end credits here for I presume the first time ever, so a pity that it's a video we have already seen!
ReplyDeleteThere is actually little new this week in terms of the music on offer. Double Trouble and Rebel MC offer up an energetic new performance to start proceedings, with Rebel testing his street cred by apparently wearing denim dungarees. The Queen song isn't bad, their best song in a long while as far as I'm concerned, and the studio set made out of headlines is fun. I am guessing this was a pop at the tabloids in response to their increasingly prurient interest in Freddie's health, though the fact they called one of their 70s albums News of the World does suggest a long-standing fascination with the press.
Belinda's hair looks very red indeed in her video, and she must set something of a record here for the number of costume changes that she manages to cram in. Chris is in the studio again, but the director has clearly decided it would be too dull to just show him perform, so we get clip of the suitably dark, dystopian-looking video too.
Gracie next, with a mediocre song I have never liked, and could never understand why it proved so popular. The "I I I" bit really gets on my nerves, as do Gracie's high notes. The white face and Betty Boop curls look, now in full flow and in prominent close-up in the video, is also distinctly unappealing. Living in a Box are back for their final studio appearance, and Richard does seem a bit more engaged with the audience this time, though still can't resist staring at his guitar for significant periods.
De La Soul look like they are presenting a kids' TV show with those brightly coloured backdrops. More of the same from them, but the samples, including contributions from Otis Redding, Lee Dorsey and Steely Dan, are cleverly put together. A formidable-looking Adeva and her dancing minions put on a good show back in the studio, and this isn't a bad effort from her, though it still sounds like a bit of a generic soul-dance-pop number. The rest we have seen before.
Gracie Fields' real name was Grace Stansfield, was she any relation to Lisa?
DeleteNot that I'm aware of, but as they were both Rochdale lasses comparisons were made between them. I remember Lisa giving a rather snooty response when asked about Gracie once, basically saying how she hated her music and was embarrassed to be associated with her, hence why I am calling her Gracie at every opportunity in my comments...
DeleteI would have thought Lisa was too young to remember Gracie buggering off for Hollywood when World War 2 started. Guess some people hold onto their grudges like grim death...
DeleteMaybe her parents inculcated an undying hatred of Gracie in her...
DeleteMebbes aye, mebbes naw, you can joke but a lot of people never forgave Fields. Must have been in the air in Rochdale for years.
DeleteI was only half-joking, and the resentment went wider than Rochdale. I remember my parents being rather disparaging about Gracie when she came up in conversation once, and as they were post-war babies I would imagine they inherited the disdain from their parents. It didn't help Gracie's cause that she had married an Italian citizen three months before Mussolini declared war on the Allies, and went to the States in part so that he could escape internment in Britain. However, it seems that Churchill also encouraged her to go, in order to help build sympathy for Britain in the States - however, I don't suppose this was ever admitted publicly at the time, so her "sin" was never mitigated in the eyes of the public.
DeleteThe highlights of the episode, i'm looking forward 2 watching my recording of this later tonight as follows.
ReplyDeleteDouble Trouble & Rebel MC - Great song, 'No i'm a Yankee, I am a Londoner' in which he does say in the lyric of the song, this would have been Rebel MC & Double Trouble's last time together in the studio, they separated in 1990 as we'll be seeing him in his solo career this coming September on BBC Four and the other, notably Double Trouble did cover a Rose Royce classic which is coming up this November on BBC Four.
Queen - The song isn't about the Profumo affair or the series with Kerry Washington in the 2010s, the song is about the tabloids of the press, as its the fourth of the fifth to be taken from 'The Miracle' album, you can see some of their album tracks on newspaper billings ever to be in a music video.
Belinda Carlisle - First (and only) appearance of the promo video where Belinda is walking around a desert...
Lisa Stansfield - She will make it to the studio on the same episode where Janet Jackson makes her TOTP live debut, but this is the second of her solo tracks to be taken from the 'Together' album where is she's on her way to kick Jive Bunny out in two weeks time, this was the second of her songs not to feature Coldcut and the lyric 'I'm never giving up on my baby'.
De La Soul - We get 2 minute video which has the Otis Redding/Steely Dan sample and their third song taken from the '3 Feet and Rising' album, their next song would reach the top ten by the end of the year.
Adeva - Her last studio appearance, the next single shortly after, 'Beautiful Love' failed to reach the top 40, we won't be seeing her on the TOTP repeats until another five years we get to 'In and Out of My Life' by Onephatdeeva, where it is based on that sample of her original recording song, a bit of Fatboy Slim/James Gang instrumental was mixed into it.
Living in a Box - Their last top ten hit is a ballad, he's the one behind with the backing vocal musicians to the chorus, this was an alright choice for them.
Jive Bunny - The second week at number one with the 'C'mon everybody, everybody' and we get more 50s songs and the Hawaii Five 0 theme is from the 60s.
Milli Vanilli - First time in over 31 years, we get the playout track and the closing link as well, the episode ends with a ballad that was held off by Jive Bunny, with the lyric 'Your itty bitty finger' and we had a female backing musician saying 'I'm just sitting here and wasting my time' is the most definitive part of the song. In its original broadcast, the episode was cut to a news report, probably it was a political segment.
Janet Jackson appeared in the TOTP studio in 1987 for 'Let's Wait Awhile'. It wasn't shown on BBC4 as it was hosted by Mike Smith.
DeleteFun fact: Rebel MC named himself after the dog from Champion the Wonder Horse (he didn't). Anyway, this is still a bit of fun, but like almost everything this episode, we have seen it before.
ReplyDelete50c for a newspaper? Will Queen be doing the math? Saying "ain't" instead "isn't"? Betting their bottom dollar? Anyway, they're showing the strain here, Freddie throws himself into the video like it was the old days, but you can tell all is not well. Not my favourite single from this album.
American video directors go to the desert, Brit video directors go to the beach. Still a great pop song from Belinda, but this is the third time it's been on and the second for the video.
Why bother inviting Chris Rea to the studio if you're going to spend his performance showing his video instead?
Ay ay ay caramba, it's Lisa Stansfield with her unlikely tribute to Barry White (that one is true). Perfectly decent and miles above some of this year's number ones, but a bit tepid overall.
Living in a Box and Rich still looks out of sorts, though he warms up by the end, he has no choice because the edit can't wait to get to the shuddering climax.
Architecture's loss was music's gain as this bunch of students De La Soul raided their parents' record collections and applied their own rhymes. "May it be filled with the pleasure principle in circumference to my voice" is such a great lyric, in fact lyrically they didn't put a foot wrong across the whole Three Feet High and Rising album. Britain is the main reason it was a success, it was huge here, bigger than in their native USA.
Adeva with her unlikely tribute to Arthur Askey, at least she gives us a smile this time, seems to be enjoying herself. Musically, eh, I've heard worse, but the no.17 hits fell away after this. As indeed did anything higher.
What was it about Jive Bunny that they found aviation accidents hilarious? Sick bastards.
Wow, we get to see Bruno's final link at last, and that Milli Vanilli video that, er, we've seen before, and um, is on the next show too. Bit of an anticlimax.
If only Adeva had released a 12-inch mix of Arthur Askey's 'busy busy bee' song as a follow-up! Okay, maybe not.
DeleteGracie Fields, Arthur Askey... where's George Formby now we need him?
DeleteTOTP introduced by Leonard Sachs!
DeleteNothing new this week. I actually started thinking it was a repeat!
ReplyDeleteLisa Stansfield was new! Bruno was new! Er, that's it.
DeleteI‘m really stuck for stuff to say about this show, but here goes.
ReplyDeleteRebel MC decides to impersonate Katrin’s dungarees look. A good start to the show but Trev nixed it with his forecast of a chart topper.
Queen with a right old plod, and Fred beginning to start the downward slope healthwise.
Turn a light on, Trev? Wrong title for another Belinda video with a backdrop on a large sheet behind her. Vibrant hair colour, okayish song.
I agree, the continual chopping from studio to video during Chris Rea was annoying. A dark stage to disguise a less than photogenic band, perhaps?
Oh dear. “I’ve been around the world and I can’t find my luggage”. Tries too hard to sound like Soul II Soul and backfires.
Boxy bloke looking at the camera more and smiling. That’s better.
From mellow MOR to mellow rap, De La Soul with a cheap backdrop but even more vibrant than Belinda’s hair.
Next it’s the ever imposing Patricia Daniels, who appears to have nicked Alyson Williams’ hat and sewn it into her jacket. Would I want to hear “I Thank You” again? No, thanks.
A swift FF to see the last link at last. To think that poor girl missed her moment of fame in Trev’s jacket.
Could you imagine if the final chopped video had actually been the only ever TOTP outing for a different act? They’d have loved that.
Finally got around to this one, only to skip most of it given all the repeated songs!
ReplyDeleteQueen - They really were milking 'The Miracle' dry at this point, not that it was a great album to start with. This one isn't as annoying as 'The Invisible Man', merely average.
Lisa Stansfield - I never really liked this much. Unfortunately the success of it meant that she mostly sang ballads afterwards, with the odd upbeat hit in-between.
De La Soul - Best song on the show, my favourite single from the excellent '3 Feet High & Rising' album.
Adeva - Not as good as her earlier singles but for once she seems quite happy in the performance rather than just scary. For those who want more remixes than you can possibly imagine, her debut album is reissued this week in 4 disc form!
I always thought that Stansfield's finest moment was the duet with Goerge Michael on the Queen tribute concert in 1992, of course covering one of Queen's classics, but her solo career beforehand, starting here in 1989 was not as good.
DeleteRebel MC & Double Trouble back in the studio for the funky “Street Tuff”. One of my faves of 89 this.
ReplyDeleteQueen on video next with a great set and video for an average song, Only a 1 place climb for this - it's a “Scandal”
Turn a light on it's Belinda Carlisle with “Leave A Light On” BB cannot get this one right can he. Great song. Nice video.
Part video, part studio for Chris Rea tonight, Looks like a really good video as well. “The Road To Hell” a lovely tune. Some real quality on the show.
Lisa Stansfield heading “All Around The World” to look for her umbrella. She can't find it though.
Top video. Top tune. Future Number One.
A much cheerier Richard has found “Room In "His" Heart” for the audience and the camera this week.
Nice edited 3 minute version of the tune as well.
De La Soul up next. “Eye Know” this isn't one of their best but still tapping my feet along to this. Who else could rap "In circumference to my voice" with a straight face.
Adeva has one scary mouth on her and she uses it to over-mime to full effect. Wonder if the audience member said “I Thank You” for the sunglasses? Another decent but not life-changing tune.
Same again from the Bunny followed by The Vanilli with a song that's actually growing on me! HELP!