Why waste your time, you know you're gonna be the 1st of October 1992 edition of Top of the Pops!
Gamegirls
1-10-92: Presenters: Mark Franklin & Claudia Simon
(After presenting 17 editions, this is Claudia Simon's final appearance.)
(18) STEREO M.C.’S – Connected
Getting the show underway with their first of five top 40 hits but this one got no higher.
(24) CROWDED HOUSE – It’s Only Natural
Perfoming live but the song got no higher.
(NEW) CHAOS - Farewell My Summer Love (and charts)
Their only chart song and it peaked at number 55.
(22) DR. SPIN – Tetris
In the studio with their only hit and it peaked at number 6.
(27) THE SUNDAYS – Goodbye (video) (Breakers)
Got no higher.
(23) NENEH CHERRY – Money Love (video) (Breakers)
Got no higher.
(16) MIKE OLDFIELD – Sentinel (video) (Breakers)
Went up six more places.
(14) REM – Drive (video) (Breakers)
Went up three more places.
(2) DR. ALBAN – It’s My Life
A second time in the studio but the song was at its peak.
(5) BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS – Iron Lion Zion (video)
At its peak.
(17) BIZARRE INC. feat. ANGIE BROWN – I’m Gonna Get You
Performing what became their second of two top ten hits when it peaked at number 3.
(NEW) STATUS QUO – Roadhouse Medley (via satellite)
This tune of hits from Amsterdam peaked at number 21.
(1) THE SHAMEN – Ebeneezer Goode (video)
Third of four weeks at number one.
8th of October is next.
DLT making his first appearance on the Top Of The Pops reruns in 10 years introducing with the other Radio 1 DJ's present Status Quo.
ReplyDeleteActually it's 8 years since DLT last presented TOTP, as his last show was in October 1984. I think that clip of the DJs is outside the BBC building on Regent Street near Oxford Circus that is the London studios used present-day, and where The One Show is broadcast on weekdays.
DeleteIt's amazing that despite so many of those Radio DJs in that video clip having been rested from TOTP presenter duties in the 80s were still going strong in 1992 on Radio 1, for example DLT, Tommy Vance, John Peel and Janice Long, and the clip also included 60s TOTP presenter Alan Fluff Freeman still presenting on Radio 1 in the 90s!
Stereo MC's, you couldn't get away from these guys for about a year and then, pfft, they couldn't get arrested. This is certainly a better performance from a dance act than many we've seen, they'd obviously taken the time to rehearse, and the results are pretty good.
ReplyDeleteCrowded House with their cryptic topical messages that nobody gets now, and the song is their usual midtempo, ho-hum sophisti-pop that's difficult to get enthusiastic about. What happened to the other two?
I may be wrong, but Chaos sound like the fag end of the SAW phenomenon, tinny and past it.
Dr Spin, well, there's poor timing, does anyone have the stomach for Russian pop in 2022? Plus their costumes are disintegrating. Do you think they were miming?
Even shorter bursts of the Breakers than last time, I'd forgotten The Sundays made a comeback... and now nobody knows where they are...
Dr Alban much as before, then a rarity, a remix that sounded all right, the Bob Marley revival with Courtney Pine tootling on it. Nice and catchy, don't know if he would have approved but the kids liked it.
Bizarre Inc and Ange, singing the samples, miming the keyboards, mates in to dance at the side, you know the drill.
Preferable to Status Quo's transformation into a Stars on 45 covers band, mind you, inadvertently showing how far out of touch Radio 1 were if they thought this was representative of their broadcasts.
And the Shamen vid again. Claudia gives us a poignant "Bye" at the end. They should have kept you on, Claudia! Guess she's on a shopping channel now or something.
There doesn't seem to be anything online about Claudia Simon since leaving presenting duties on TOTP thirty years ago in 1992, and she must be around 50 now, and we have no idea what she is doing nowadays. Career, family, kids? She's certainly as likeable as Jenny Powell presenting TOTP in 1989/90 who was also a TOTP lovely in those days.
DeleteAt least Claudia goes out in style this week with a dashing red dress and embrace with Mark Franklin at the end, which was the 1-year anniversary of TOTP at the new Elstree studios as Franklin pointed out at the start of the show.
I had a quick Google for Claudia, and while there are no recent photos, there's a bit of info - she went to the US and worked as a sports reporter on Fox (uh-oh), but now she's freelance and does sport and music journalism.
DeleteClaudia's living her best life in Ibiza as a furniture designer.
DeleteAre you just joking or is it true, as on Google it says she moved to America to work in sports and journalism as THX mentions?
DeleteSounds like Totp92 has insider knowledge! Let's leave it at that and wish Claudia the best.
DeleteChaos were under Simon Cowell's wing
ReplyDeleteNever met a concept he couldn't rip off, huh?
DeleteThese last two editions have shown that when '92 gets its act together it is really flaming good. Not as good as the previous one but still much more diversity. And just a little more charts. And......the end for Claudia. Will miss her. She looks very stylish in her clothes and makeup, dressed for a farewell. I must admit I never quite took to her voice which seemed less like someone welcoming you to the delights of Kicks Like a Mule, more like someone grilling you on where you'd been the previous evening but that smile! The show will be about 90% less exciting in the presenter department.
ReplyDeleteOh. She doesn't get to start it then.
Stereo MCs with an early '90s belter to start with. Apparently incredible live at their peak and they do a lot to prove that here. Rob Birch was a front Man / vibe merchant par excellence and 'Connected' is performed brilliantly. A fantastic start.
Crowded House with their opening track from 'Woodface' which has a silly start but a wonderful guitar figure and it's another fine tune. Performed with good humour in front of a set comprising of pieces of white cardboard. Ok.
Paul Hester doing Tim Finn's parts. Are there any TV appearances with the Neil and Tim House line up? As always with them there's some muttering going on but I couldn't make out what it was. Claudia can't wait for their next album. I wish she could've stayed around to introduce some singles from it.
The video with the 20 to 11 chart has another week which is an improvement but it really makes it no more than an extended breaker. The chart rolls just long enough for us to hear that it's a cover. High of 55. No OMD 'Messages' is it.
Dr. Spin; Looks stupid, sounds only slightly less stupid and I never played computer games.
Breakers; The Sundays with a little bit of a sweet tune with a title that may have been a little hard for Claudia.
Neneh Cherry; Ho hum.
Mike Oldfield takes us on a trip through a tubular bell I think. All very serious. Reminded of how huge a thing that sequel album briefly was.
R.E.M with a great video for 'Drive'. Surely the lead single from the most anticipated album of 1992 would've had more than 10 seconds on the programme.
Peter Buck evidently making some bid here to be the sleaziest looking man in pop. His expressions to camera are hilarious.
Dr. Alban with a single that I've enjoyed far more now than I did then and then Bob Marley with a song that I think was a lost recording until '92. Not sure but I remember Simon Bates being very excited about it. Perfectly fine, Bob Marley never being anything less, but far from his best. The video a pleasing mix of clips of the man on stage and in informal moments and animation very like the trippy sunrise sequence that would start off 'TV AM' every morning.
Bizarre Inc with Angie Brown and another brilliant dance tune. I'm Gonna Get You' is really infectious, maybe their best. Lots of ponytails on display and more white paper background but the work experience pupils hired have managed to put the group's name at the top.
Mark declares that it is 25 years of Radio 1 and an assortment of 1fm DJs gather as others did in '67 on the steps of All Souls Church, Langham Place to offer a greeting. Which they must be thrilled to do having been soundly shut out of the programme for the previous 12 months. I could only make out Tommy Vance in the crowd in that brief clip. Anyway where there's a celebration there has to be Status Quo. By satellite they do another long (oh God long!!) medley. Still, good to hear 'Something Bout You Baby I Like' and Rick keeps respectfully away from the drums during the 'Margarita Time' section.
No. 1 again for The Shamen and I've forgotten what a great video it is. Also how much of it features Jerry Sadowitz.
Claudia has some nice closing banter with Mark and bids us a sweet goodbye. So it will be the Franklin and Dortie show for quite some time.
Was a bit confused as to how we had Sentinel as a Breaker this week at No.16, following the previous week's show where Oldfield performed Tubular Bells in the TOTP studio. Which new single was he promoting then in this 1992 comeback?
DeleteDid you not see the other Radio 1 DJs in that clip? I mean Steve Wright, Dave Lee Travis, Alan 'Fluff' Freeman, Janice Long, Gary Davies, John Peel, Paul Gambaccini, to name but a few? Yep, on the Steps of Langham Place which is still the BBC London studios to this day and where The One Show and Sunday Morning are filmed every week.
Mike Oldfield didn't perform Tubular Bells, he performed Sentinel, which sounds a lot like Tubular Bells but not as good.
DeleteI'll have to have a look back on YouTube to identify the djs. I assumed they were all there. A nice thing to show. Pity it couldn't have been a little longer. Perhaps 3 mins and zero Status Quo though of course in 1992 that would've been unthinkable!
DeleteBye Claudia! Probably the best of the 'new' presenters
DeleteWould that 'new' group include Dortie and Franklin, or just the three that were dropped, namely Rose, Oke, and Simon?
DeleteDory - Sentinel was the opening sequence of the Tubular Bells II album, basically a reworking of the famous opening of the original album which was used in The Exorcist. Tubular Bells III came along in 1998, though somewhat inexpicably the single extracted from it, Man in the Rain, sounded just like Moonlight Shadow...
DeleteThanks for the clarification. Oldfield in his various guises and eras can be quite confusing, but yeah, he did a series of new videos in the 90s for his new work and album at around this time I think.
DeleteFour songs at peak position outside the Top 40 this week from previous chart regulars, with no TOTP for them this time round:
ReplyDeleteNo.42 The Black Crowes - Sting Me
They generally didn't have huge chart success, but had a few singles by now on the outer regions of the Top 40, although their last single Remedy which got to No.24 in May 1992 I don't think got onto TOTP at all, but their finest moment I would say was the classic Hard To Handle which got to No.39 as a re-issue in 1991.
No.45 Eric Clapton - Layla (Unplugged)
At this stage in the early 90s, MTV had a regular TV slot called Unplugged, which I think invited classic 70s artists to perform some of their past singles in new acoustic versions for the 90s, and I remember this Unplugged record played a lot in 1992, despite not breaking into the Top 40 as a new single in its own right.
No.46 - The Beautiful South - 36D
Follow-up to the more successful Bell Bottomed Tear which got to No.16 in June and which was the last single with Briana in it, so by now with this new single, it was only Heaton and Hemmingway left standing in terms of lead vocals, and was the last single from The Beautiful South until 1994 it seems to re-assess and reboot the group, and I got no clue what the line-up will be then!
No.58 - Jimmy Nail - Laura
How do you follow up your first two Top 3 singles in 1985 and 1992? Well a peak of No.58 for your third ever single, and this flop called Laura was no way expected at all, and not sure why it did so badly considering that Nail was top of the charts for three weeks only recently in the summer of 1992.
Don't remember that Nail song at all! The British public are very fickle in their tastes in this year, clearly! Hadn't realised 36D was such a flop. I still hope one day there'll be a BS reunion with both Brianna and Jacqui because I love both. It'll probably never happen as Brianna fell out with them big time, and given Paul and Jacqui have recorded together under their names rather than the BS brand, I'm guessing Dave and the other ones also had some sort of falling out?
DeleteThe Beautiful South notably called it a day in the noughties, humourously citing "musical similarities"...
DeleteBriana left The Beautiful South as she disliked the lyrics and attitude of "36D" and a couple of other tracks like "Mini-Correct".
DeleteAs for "Laura", which has Jimmy Nail singing in a high pitch, almost too high for his vocal range, a strange choice of follow-up.
Stereo MCs a clear highlight here. Great track that has lasted the test if time and a perfect way to open.
ReplyDeleteCrowded House - they have better singles than this, but it's alright.
Chaos - what the hell is this? I have no memory of it and no idea what it's doing on TOTP. Be away with you, budget Kriss Kross.
Dr Spin - We are deep in the novelty dance records craze. Kudos to the dancers I'd forgotten the 'Tetris, tetris' bit in the middle, it would have been better without. I was very good at Tetris back then, even beat the top 'heart' level. #90sachievement
Breakers - love the Sundass. I also like Neneh and REM but these singles less so. And Mike Oldfield is a nope for me.
It's My Life is a huge hit for good reason, as annoying as it became at the time.
More Bob Marley reissues ahead of next year's reggae/ragga chart explosion.
A good track from Bizarre Inc with nice vocals from Angie Brown.
Status Quo exclusives? In the bin with that please.
Can we stop with exclusives soon please? 99% of them have been terrible and about half of them have been chart flops.
And I cursed the Shamen with my comment on last episode cos we have a video again. Still in awe of Mr C's speed rapping of those lyrics, which are actually pretty clever.
Wow, that line up of radio one DJs is about to change dramatically (for the better, IMO, ratings be damned, as it became the perfect soundtrack to my teens, the duration of which perfectly matched the Britpop era). Happy 55th birthday later this year, R1!
Chaos will be back as Ultimate Kaos in 1994.
DeleteOh,I vaguely remember that branding. I aso vaguely remember them being just as awful.
DeleteThe '93 compilation this evening was fantastic. Can't wait for that year to commence. The decor for the show looks brilliant too. Always loved 'Ordinary World', 'Sweat (A La La La Long)' great fun and 'Venus As A Boy' a complete delight. I bet the combined clothes for Jamiroquai absolutely reeked!
ReplyDeleteNot keen on rap or dancehall and I can't stand Heather Small's voice (it's down there for me with that bloke from The Lighthouse Family), so 1993 could be a bit of a bind for these ears.
DeleteLiked the Story of 1993 as well (apart from the caterwauling Radiohead intro), they do seem to get interviewees keen to reminisce. Must admit I would not have recognised Anita from 2 Unlimited, but then she said she was a three times cancer survivor and I felt a bit guilty. Gabrielle, on the other hand...
DeleteAnyway, Ray from 2U still rocking the same hairstyle he had in '93! Apache Indian seemed like a lovely bloke, but Boom Shak a lak is basically Shaggy's Oh Carolina sped up, isn't it?!
The highlight of The Story Of 1993 for me was the return of New Order with their new video recorded on the studio set of Baywatch in LA, as a live by satellite for TOTP but also doubling up as the 'video'. The story of how New Order integrated with David Hasselhof on that sunny day on the beach set was very interesting.
DeleteThey said on the Story of 93 that we got the return of the Radio 1 djs in 1993, but looking through popscene it's exclusively Franklin and Dortie the enire year.
DeleteEr Angelo, no, they said at the end of this 1993 story Of, that the radio 1 dj's return in 1994 in a whats-to-come in The Story of 1994 as they finished up the Story of 1993. Watch the end of the show again and see.
DeleteI enjoyed The Story of 93 and thought 2 Unlimited came across really well, it was interesting to hear their take on No Limits. I'm in two minds about getting all these now. On the one hand, I'm glad we're getting them all because when 91 didn't emerge I thought they were done for, but on the other I like them getting us ready for the year to come. I guess there's nothing to stop them repeating them just before each year's TOTP though.
DeleteFully agree, I mean tonight BBC2 is showing The Story of 1994 and Big Hits 1994, but I don't feel ready for it either, cos we're still in 1992 on the BBC4 repeats, and I also got accustomed to 'The Story Of' being shown for the first time as a prelude to the new TOTP repeat year about to start.
DeleteMore like “Peak of the Pops” tonight with six non-movers on the show.
ReplyDeleteStereo MC’s sounding as fresh now as it did then. I remember some music mag doing a spoof comic strip about Rob’s kung fu shapes.
Crowded House not so crowded as they seem to have lost a member. Still, one of their bright uptempo tracks here. Not sure what the “24 hours, 35,000 feet” et cetera waffle near the end was about, though.
Chaos? Chaos??? Don’t make me laugh!
Dr. Spin, stage space invaders. See what I did there?
Always liked The Sundays. Could have done with more.
Not “Monie Love” then, Neneh.
Tubular Balls or Yawn II next.
REM with a video eight times faster than the track. To think one TOTP edition was banned due to new and quickly ditched strobe lighting (the Nik Kershaw “Wide Boy” era) and now we’re more or less getting torches shone in our faces each show.
Dr. All Bran again. Wardrobe by Right Said Fred.
Reggae disco with a jazz sax solo? Somehow it appears to work.
Oo! Suspended keyboards for Bizarre Inc.’s floor filler.
I counted five of the seven ditched TOTP hosts on those steps (I couldn’t see Anthea Turnoff or Jakki Brambles), plus the show’s best ever host in John Peel, and Adrian Juste, star of the Post-Bannister Radio 1 documentary “Blood On the Carpet”.
4-and-three-quarter minutes of a Status Quo medley. Christ. We missed The Sundays for this?
Yes, Mark, we get that you like Tamsin Archer’s single.
Mark getting up close and personal at the end there with an arm on Claudia’s waist. Oy oy! Bye and thanks, Claudia. Shame we lost you and kept Dorky.
Anthea Turner was never a Radio 1 DJ (if she was, would she have needed a microphone?), but maybe Jakki Brambles had left for her much publicised (by herself) move to America by then.
DeleteOh, and Dr Spin - waste of space invaders?
So, one year of year zero. With Status Quo playing, and almost back to 'pure Dortie-Franklin', we've come full circle.
ReplyDelete'Connected', surprised it only made #18, such is its durability. I recall Stereo MCs will have at least one higher-charting hit.
That Radio 1 line up with John Peel at the bottom right, of course a nod to the original 1967 line up photo, I recall they did a similar photo op for the 30th anniversary with all of the surviving R1-launch DJs. There was then another, more recent one, but with a depressingly lower turnout.
Interesting to see at #33 during the roll of New Entries a return of last year's classics (if I say so myself) Gypsy Woman and Peace, both remixes, curiously combined into one release.
Perhaps given (the repeatedly-used phrase) 'controversies' The Shamen did not return for a further live rendition of E.Goode, and anyway they were busying themselves with an imminent release of the follow-up single, but not before a more imminent deletion of the aforementioned current chart-topper..
It stings that we won't see Claudia anymore, or Femi for that matter, both seemed like a good balance to Mark 'n' Tony on the roster. Is it too late to bring them back for next week's episodes!?
October! October! Well we've certainly got the weather for it. And poor Claudia's last show as well. She will be missed.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great start for the anniversary show.. I can safely say I know absolutely nothing about this band but I really loved them at the time and this is a fantastic tune. Great vocals from the ladies as well.
Crowded House with another of their tunes that all sound the same but are all still brilliant. Go figure! Did they forget to dress the set?
Chaos? Who? New Editon 90s style. Minus the talent of course.
First Dr of the night. Are you game boy? Hmm.
Madness and not in a good way. Think I'll block this from my memory. I'm not sure this sounds anything like the record does it?
Breakers:
The Sundays: quaint
Neneh Cherry: funky
Mike Oldfield: yawn
REM: Wonderful tune. Wonderful album
The Doctor has regenerated from Spin into Alban and one of the sounds of the 90s dance floor. My foot is tapping accordingly. Did he cycle to the studio?
The best Bob Marley tune in my humble opinion. I'm prepared to be on my own with that statement.
A really catchy tune from Bizarre Inc and Angie Brown. Floating keyboards as well. Snazzy. Liked this a lot in 92 and 30 years on it still sounds great.
Happy Birthday Radio One. So many ex-presenters. Did someone say anniversary? No the Quo will turn up…too late..they have a medley! I think they are probably still playing now..
No move in the Top 3 and the Shamen video again. Still a cracking tune and video.
Don't let her go Mark…
In all honesty, Iron Lion Zion is also my favourite Bob Marley tune, so you're certainly not on your own on that! I never had much time for Marley through his vast catalogue of hits, but this one was the only exception, as it has something about it that really pulsates the heartstrings.
Delete