What kind of love do you think I want, the plain Jane type or the 11th of April 1991 edition of Top of the Pops!
Tartan of the pops
11-4-91: Presenter: Anthea Turner
(6) THE WONDERSTUFF – The Size Of A Cow
Getting tonight's show underway with their first of four top ten hits and it went up one more place.
(4) MADONNA – Rescue Me (video)
Peaked at number 3.
(29) ALISON LIMERICK – Where Love Lives
In the studio with her first of six top 40 hits and it peaked at number 27.
(12) GARY CLAIL ON-U SOUND SYSTEM – Human Nature
A repeat shwoing and it went up two more places.
(27) MONIE LOVE versus ADEVA – Ring My Bell (video)
Peaked at number 20.
(23) MIKE & THE MECHANICS – Word Of Mouth
In the studio to perform what became their third of seven top 40 hits when it peaked at number 13.
(5) BLONDIE – Heart Of Glass (video) (Album Chart)
From the number 3 album The Complete Picture
(4) REM – Losing My Religion (video) (Album Chart)
From the number one album Out of Time.
(3) THE FARM – All Together Now (video) (Album Chart)
From the number one album Spartacus.
(2) CHRIS REA – Auberge (video) (Album Chart)
The title track from the number one album.
(1) EURYTHMICS – Love Is A Stranger (video) (Album Chart)
From their number one album Greatest Hits.
(10) DANNII MINOGUE – Love And Kisses
In the studio for a second time and the song went up two more places.
(1) CHESNEY HAWKES – The One And Only (video)
Third of five weeks at number one.
(30) THE SHAMEN – Hyperreal (video) (and credits)
Went up one more place.
April 18th is next.
Monie Love vs Adeva - I thought this was quite good, and wondering why they weren't in the TOTP studio to perform this, as they did have Alison Limerick in the studio, two places lower at No.29?? The Adeva/Monie Love video included some classic 30s and 40s colour cartoon clips which was an overspill of the video style of the late 80s house videos, and I always wondered how pop music artists and record labels had the rights to use these cartoon clips on their pop videos.
ReplyDeleteChart rundown - Morrissey at No.33 this week, and for the third single in a row in the TOTP chart rundown not to get a full play, breakers, or playout, despite being comfortably in the Top 40. Picadilly Palare (No.18), Our Frank (No.26), and now Sing Your Life (No.33) got cold-shouldered by TOTP in the space of 6 months, so Morrissey was having no luck here.
Album Chart - with the Eurythmics at No.1 in this chart, it seems to explain why they released Love Is A Stranger in 1991, to coincide with this Greatest Hits album. The single peaked at No.46 in the singles chart at the time of the Greatest Hits album being at No.1.
The Shamen - best tune on the show for me, and our first exposure to The Shamen now in 1991 with their first recognised hit, as their first two singles released in 1990, Pro-Gen and Make It Mine failed to break the Top40, although with this new third single HyperReal, we only got to see them on video on the playout. I wonder who the girl was on this, the one singing ooh ooh oh oh yeh yeh hyperreal........
I'd imagine all those vintage cartoon clips you saw in the videos around this era were public domain, so they got them free.
DeleteThe girl singing with the Shamen was Plavka. She also collaborated with Jam and Spoon, most memorably on Right in the Night.
DeleteThe Wonderstuff, with that grumpy git Miles doing his best Johnny Rotten impersonation. Also shows the tricky business of your piano player and violin player being the same person. But a really strong, catchy tune, sorry for themselves lyrics contrasted with jolly melodies makes for a good combination.
ReplyDeleteAnother shoddy, will this do? video for a Madonna single, there couldn't be another version where she was getting her kit of to this one, could there? Surely not. Anyway, not as catchy as Fontella Bass, the mumbled rap was a misstep, not much of a tune - I suppose she was so famous she couldn't avoid going Top 10, though.
Alison Limerick, I'm sure there was an earlier version of this that was better, but I'll be darned if I can find it. But this is a muscular bit of pop that probably should have gone higher - and it did, five years later in a remix.
Repeat of Gaz and then Monie Love actually persuading Adeva to smile with their collaboration. Boxing themed video is fun, though as far as we saw here they just sat in their corners and didn't duke it out. The tune is just OK, mind you.
After the video last week, Mike and co in the studio with what they evidently hoped would be a hands in the air crowdpleaser, and to an extent that succeeds. Forgot how tall Mike Rutherford is, a giant of a man, or he looks it here.
Album chart down to two compilations, the marketing folks must be slipping, then Dannii's back with a different outfit but exactly the same dance routine. Still can't remember how this goes.
Ches gets a new video that erases Buddy's Song from history, Stalinist-style, then to end on The Shamen with some quasi-mystical nonsense miles away from their Number 1, packed with horrible 1991 cheapo special effects.
Two cracking editions this week, the first presented by Anthea nattering away cheerfully as usual. I'll miss her when she goes which for some reason is a bit before all the other current presenters.
ReplyDeleteI'm probably a lone voice saying this but I have really loved the editions of this year. Yes I was 15 at this point but '91 has had such an entertaining mix of styles and ideas and so much of it with a positive feeling. It's just a refreshing watch and it's already joined 1979 as my favourite repeats year.
The Wonderstuff; Is it Paul King with less styled hair? No it's Miles Hunt with his gang to do one of the year's bigguns. Must admit I always found his inebriated country squire routine a little tiresome but this is still a really fun single. Nice to see it open the show because this stood at No. 20 in the chart from my last week in 5th year. Still love the fairground organ instrumental.
Madonna; Madge on imperious form with a new single to promote 'The Immaculate Collection'. A great, huge sounding record that for me perhaps tops 'Vogue'. The rather distant video with images from the 'Blonde Ambition' tour and some other things really adds to it. The end of her era of unassailable dominance.
Alison Limerick; A real dance classic up next, one that's the equal of the very best disco. This sounds as thrilling now as it did then. The dance routine not quite as thrilling with the aerobics / performing archery moves. Still what a single. Great to see on the show. Should've been much higher and today certainly would be.
Gary Clail On U Sound System; Loadsaphilosophy and his pal gets a repeat showing so let the carnival proceed on to....
Monie Love versus Adeva; Not in the same class as the Anita Ward number of course but good to see Monie Love back. Adeva I always found a little harsh on the ears but together they make a decent sound. Good hook to that one. Video more ugly than funny.
Mike and the Mechanics: In the studio with a big, big message though I'm still not too sure what the message is. Paul Young looks far more grizzled than he did when he last appeared. Did anyone else think that on his appearance with Sad Cafe he was the absolute spitting image of Chris Morris? Nice rousing tune that I could clap my hands above my head to but I won't.
Here come dem album charts! Actually it was worth it this time. No more Phil, Elton, operatic fellas. Blondie; always good to see that again. R.E.M; bought 'Out of Time' but after 'Shiny Happy People' rather than this single. The Farm; oh, don't think I've ever seen that video before. Nice surprise. Was the lady also from 'Brookside' like the bloke in the theme park. Chris Rea; Good to see the silly video, a fond memory from 'The Chart Show'. Eurythmics; usually found them a bit take or leave but this one is pretty menacing. One of the very first pop things we ever videoed at home had this bit of video on it. 'The Brits' in I guess, 1984.
Dannii Minogue; Nobody can deliver this song title like Anthea Turner. Plenty of teenage girls can sing this song like Dannii Minogue. The dancer's extraordinarily high trousers and belt buckle in the wrong place was a look that I don't recall catching on.
Chesney Hawkes; Still at No.1 and finally one of the two videos. It's the lank haired pups and their uncle suddenly being famous one instead of the film clips version. I wonder if there were any Totp staff that were there from back when Roger Daltrey was a co-presenter. That's what you get Rog! Still loving this. The scene where each one walks in slow motion down the stairs was a complete hole in time back to Spring 1991.
The Shamen; A first glimpse of an act who will be major names for the next couple of years. Poignant to see Will Sinnott here who of course tragically lost his life soon after filming the next vid. 'Phorever People' my favourite one of theirs.
Thought Anthea was weirdly gravelly in places this episode!
DeleteBest bit of The Stuffies' Cow fairground organ is the bizarre clip of a bunch of little kids cheering.
I don't think the Paul Young in Sad Cafe is the same Paul Young on Senza Una Donna with Zucchero.
DeleteLooking at The Shamen's singles catalogue, there were four other singles released after HyperReal before Phorever People was released at the end of 1992!
Correct, Dory. Funny how we got both Paul Youngs in consecutive editions.
DeleteI looked at Wicki and saw that 'L.S.I' was the first single from 'Boss Drum' and not 'Ebeneezer Goode'. I thought Ebeneezer would've been an automatic choice for 1st release from the album especially with all the noise about the Castle Morton rave going on at the same time. They were a real hit machine for a while with a run of really strong tunes. Any of their singles played at the club that I went to while at Uni in the mid '90s was a guaranteed floor filler.
DeleteI enjoyed this episode a lot overall
ReplyDelete- Wonderstuff - always had a soft spot for them and this is a great performance. Miles always gave good TOTP.
- Madge - never liked the chorus of Rescue Me much but the verses remind me of Lullaby which is my fave Cure track. It does sound like it was recorded in a bucket though, and the less said about the video, the better.
Alison L - this one still seems to be played all the time. Good tune but she does look like someone's mum here.
Gary Clail - One of those tracks that always gives me the spooks, but despite the cheesy rap I do quite like that it felt a bit different.
Monie/Adeva - They do well in the video to show some character in their performance, especially as they're very clearly not in the same studio as each other.
- Mike and the Mechanics. So dated that it made me chortle when he criticises those living in the past, and yet I can't help but sing along. Darn you Mike!
- Albums - some faves here.
- Dannii - Dannii is a great reality judge but a fairly forgettable pop star, whereas Kylie is the exact opposite.
- Chesney - We've probably said all that we can about him now. Well, except that I'm a Man Not a Boy is rubbish so no wonder everyone forgot about it, but we'll get to that soon enough.
Shamen - it's OK but Move Any Mountain is always my favourite of theirs.
Anyone know why the chart rundown omitted 40? Was it just because of all the new entries being a 'thing'? (Some of which we'll definitely be hearing more of)
The Chart Rundown was revamped to only include records that were going up, or new entries. Supposedly to make the show a bit more exciting. Small beer compared to the revamp in a few months, though!
DeleteI think the turning point came in a January episode where the old-style rundown had about 10 consecutive singles falling and between 31-21 in the charts, so whoever was the presenter on that show had to call out so many singles in a row as dropping down, that someone must have said, Good Lord this is a chore isn't it? and then the next show saw the new style rundown showing only the climbers. Funny that!
DeleteAnthea back on hyper duties - a couple of eye watering new entries on the way soon.
ReplyDeleteWonderstuff – The Size of a Cow – This of course is the Vic Reeves band who helped him murder Tommy Roe’s classic ‘Beatles interrupter at no1 from 1969’ song. The lead singer here must be Scottish as he reminds me of Derek Dick. Song not much to write home about musically and lyrically.
Madonna – Rescue Me – This is the infamous song that made it on ‘The Immaculate Collection’ instead of the far superior ‘True Blue’. One of her lesser efforts certainly.
Alison Limerick – Where love lives – Pretty ordinary and I soon reached for FF
Gary Clail – Human Nature – Not the one from ‘Thriller’ thank goodness, but marginally better.
Monie Love vs Adeva – Ring my Bell – With that title things were not looking good and sure enough it was pretty awful.
Mike & the Mechanics – Word of Mouth – The highlight of the show. A real rousing singalong anthem to get the crowd on their feet with the late, charismatic Paul Young at the helm on vocals. If anyone read my very late comments on the previous show they’ll see that I observe its nearly 21 years ago to the day since Paul sadly succumbed to a fatal heart attack at only 53.
On another note, around this time my wife was knitting me a rather splendid jumper from this book
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353420925223?hash=item5249875927:g:WF8AAOSwQndgT41Z
where the celebrity models were Marie Helvin, BA Robertson, Paul Nicholas, Imran, Kim Wilde, Elizabeth Hurley, Michael Palin, Susan George, Mandy Smith, Caron Keating, Rula Lenska and…duh-duh….the Rutherford Family! On p4 you can see how Mike towers over his wife Angie and (obviously) their three young children.
Albums – Nice top 5 with Debbie starting us off and reminding us of the class act that Blondie were in the late 70s. REM’s classic ‘Losing my Religion’ gets a brief snatch as well before we get what I assume is the remixed ‘Love is a Stranger’ in the no1 slot.
Dannii Minogue – Love and kisses – Very lightweight but Dannii’s outfit again grabs the attention and this time she’s resplendent in sparkly trousers.
Chesney Hawkes – The one and only – Nice to see the video which repeats the ‘live performance’ feel of so many Iron Maiden videos.
The Shamen – Hyperreal – So Dr Who has been off the air now for nearly two years since McCoy’s last season and here we see some suggestions for some new monsters if ever the series were to return. When it did, Russell T Davies gave us Autons and Daleks thank goodness rather than some of these surreal apparitions.
Two singles peaking outside the Top 40 this week from 80s icons trying in the 90s to no avail:
ReplyDeleteNo.50 Alison Moyet - It Won't Be Long
Does she mean until she calls it a day stops singing for good? A quick peak at her singles catalogue shows that she actually continued on until 1995 with little success, with only one more Top 20 hit in 1994, and the rest getting no higher than No.40.
No.51 - The Alarm - Raw
The last ever single release by The Alarm, as the curtain falls on a group that released new singles every year between 1983-1991, with their 1983 debut hit 68 Guns being the most successful single getting to No.17. It was clearly all downhill from the start, and here in April 1991 it was to be their last call.
Alison picked up a nice little MBE recently in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to music. Not bad for someone who started off in a duo at the height of the 80s synth pop era.
DeleteAlison Moyet suffered badly from agoraphobia for a few years, which explains why she dropped out of sight. She seems to have recovered, though, and was releasing new material and performing a few years ago, before the pandemic hit.
DeleteYes, and I think she has slimmed down dramatically that you would hardly recognise her nowadays.
DeleteAnthea screechier than usual, worse luck. Had it been up to me regarding the revamp, I’d have retained four of the ‘current’ hosts and chucked Turnoff, Soupy and Trevor.
ReplyDeleteCertainly not a load of bull from The Wonder Stuff. Was it Friesian in there for Miles to wear a coat at first? He could have put a Jersey on. Harumph.
Madonna with another corned beef hash of a video, a sub-“Vogue” rap and the nearest she’s got at this point to testcard music.
Alison Limerick sadly doesn’t give us an actual limerick. Instead we get this week’s workout routine to a club-by-numbers track.
Monie and Adeva not boxing clever in my opinion. Lightweight.
Looking at Mike Rutherford next to Paul Carrack reminded me of Mick Fleetwood and Sam Fox at The Brits. Paul Young’s no shorty either, and he had strong pipes too.
Time for the boring monthly album review, complete with Michael Stipe looking a knob again. The only good bit for me was the re-run of Chris Rea’s tune and vid snippet.
Madozza’s back with an attempt to match Paula Abdul – close but not quite – and her sister – sorry, love, no chance.
What an inspired, original video for Chesney Hawkes.
We finish with The Shamen’s attempt at Space Invaders music. Didn’t reach level 2 for me.
As pointed out on TV Cream, this was the last edition of TOTP produced and directed by Paul Ciani, who fell very ill and passed away at the end of the year.
Yes, poor old Paul died of AIDS. I actually thought he had packed it in before this, but this does appear to be his final credit. Not the greatest producer they ever had, but he kept it ticking over in a tricky era.
DeleteWell I never knew that about Paul Ciani. So sad.
DeleteWonder Stuff - fine song, but the wobbly camera work was making me sea sick…
ReplyDeleteMadonna - very energetic live performances. Another fine sing.
Alison Limerick - nothing special.any idea why it charted a year after release.
Monie Love - bog standard rap dance track (I would actually have preferred a remake of Anita Bell)
Mike and the Mechanics - don’t remember this, but it was actually a fair enough foot stomper.
Albums:
Don’t recall the blondie compilation album…
Shamen - bit dull. Their best is yet to come..l
As an aside, has anyone been watching the Guy Garvey From The Vaults show on Sky Arts? - some excellent archive footage, although there is a bit too much chat over some of them
I thought the '77 edition had some incredibly exciting clips. Especially The Jam on 'Marc' and The Dammed's 1st TV appearance on I think 'Revolver'. Yes I found Guy Garvey's interjections pretty annoying but what he didn't talk over was stunning to watch. I still haven't seen 1984 which has Talk Talk doing 'It's My Life' on a Saturday morning show.
ReplyDeleteIf you've not come across it yet Charlie I recommend you check out 'TV Pop Diaries' website. Info on every pop feature on TV throughout a given year. The amount of content in one month is staggering.
Mic, I will check it out
DeleteTurn-Off back again. Watching about 10 episodes in a week really brings home we needed a few more hosts.
ReplyDeleteTHE WONDERSTUFF – The Size Of A Cow
Just an amazing tune this. Real feel good anthem. Always sing along to this one and occasionally dance around the kitchen as well. Love the suit! He looks like a womble. Come on TOTP the song only had about 8 seconds left, you could of let it finish.
MADONNA – Rescue Me
Dull concert video. Fairly decent tune from Madge. Gets rather lost amongst all her other big hits. Why does she do a tune as Sue Pollard?
ALISON LIMERICK – Where Love Lives
Come on in it's a stomping dance tune that I always kinda liked but never loved. It's a real quality tune and a great performance as well. Sounds really fresh as well. Enjoyed that.
GARY CLAIL ON-A REPEAT and then MONIE LOVE versus ADEVA with Ring My Bell. Why versus? Was there a competition for the royalties? Only one way to decide this one..Fight! I see the video has gone the same way with a Boxing theme. Not a bad tune actually.
MIKE & THE MECHANICS – Word Of Mouth
Sharp suited Supergroup with their hand waving concert tune. Audience participation compulsory.
EURYTHMICS – Love Is A Stranger managed to make Number 46 a few weeks ago so nice to see a bit of it here.
DANNII MINOGUE – Love And Kisses
The Dancing Danny 7" version with obligatory rap and still sounding like a Cathy Dennis album track. Wonder how the charming personality and wonderful looking actress Danni felt about being patronised by Anthea? Seriously sparkly trousers.
CHESNEY HAWKES – The One And Only
Video time. Which is a crap concert video. There is definitely a film version of this video which I remember. Maybe it was on the ITV chart show.
THE SHAMEN – Hyperreal
I was a real fan of the Shamen and was really hoping they'd break into the charts. So happy this one did. Bigger hits to come of course but I love these early tunes. I'd already picked up Make It Mine the previous year but it stalled at Number 42 for 3 weeks!
On the subject of Monie Love VERSUS Adeva, it reminded me of Prince in 1987 with U Got The Look, with the famous whisper during the intro and just before the first main lyrics at the start of the song........."here we are folks, a dream we all dream of, boy VERSUS girl in the world series of love........".
DeleteHowever, I think the Adeva versus Monie Love concept was probably inspired by the recent Rocky V Theme that got to No.20 in the charts a few weeks earlier, as well as the 1990-1991 period being Britain's golden years of homegrown boxing stars doing well on the world scene, i.e. Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank and Michael Watson.