On the street tonight an old man plays the 4th of September 1998 edition of Top of the Pops!
All white on the night
4-9-98: Presenter: Kate Thornton
(3) BOYZONE – No Matter What
Last week's number one gets the 1800th edition of Top of the Pops underway.
(2) STEPS – One For Sorrow
Performing their first of five number two hits.
(13) MANSUN – Being A Girl
Here tonight but got no higher.
(5) HONEYZ – Finally Found
Making their studio debut with their first of five top ten hits, this was the biggest and it went up one more place.
(6) FAITHLESS – God Is A D.J.
In the studio but got no higher.
(7) THE CORRS – What Can I Do
A second studio performance but the song had already peaked at number 3.
(10) MADONNA – Drowned World (video)
At its peak.
(1) MANIC STREET PREACHERS – If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (and credits)
Here with their first of two number one hits, and it stayed at the top for one week.
A couple of new entries at peak, further down the chart by some 80s old timers:
ReplyDeleteNo.55 Rod Stewart - Rocks
Second of two singles in 1998, with the first one called Ooh La La getting to No.16 earlier in the year with no TOTP play as far as I recall.
No.99 Julian Lennon - I Don't Wanna Know
Also second of two singles in 1998 for this Lennon, with the first one called Day After Day getting to No.66 earlier in the year.
Show 1800 was aM really good one once you got past Boyzone and Steps (Lisa excepted). A brilliant run starting off with Mansun and one of their best singles then a girl group that history seems to have forgotten but had two gorgeous singles. Honeyz dressed like late Diana Ross era Supremes and the set goes similarly gold for their turn. Any act that encourages the Cowey TOTP to do something with its dreary set is a winner with me.
ReplyDeleteThe live vocals are initially a little shaky but 'Finally Found' is such a touching song that any rendition is welcome and they get the performance together quickly enough. Maybe they didn't have the necessary personality to have a long hit career and according to Wikipedia they were sold as a UK answer to Destiny's Child which meant they were probably never going to stand a chance once that group took over the charts. There is a girl group documentary soon to air on BBC4 and I hope Honeyz get featured. They left, for me, two treasurable singles.
Faithless then serve up one of the best studio performances I've seen for ages, either ongoing repeats or the re-repeats. 'God Is a DJ' is a classic and they go through all manner of frenetic changes before Maxi opens his mouth. He intones, the crowd scream (as they do for Steps but never mind) and that pulsating riff is still fabulous. Performance of the year for me.
The Corrs are wistful and playful and the 'What I Am' guitar style adds much. Lovely song.
Video for 'Drowned World' and Kate Thornton only needs to say Madge by this point. When did she first become known as Madge? I can't remember. Glossy, arty video but the songs is rather repetitive.
'If You Tolerate This.. ' is rather ho hum to me and they look rather bored in front of a screen showing the video where they look rather bored. Clever thoughtful lyrics which no-one else in that chart would've ever conceived of putting into a single and they never turned down a Totp appearance. I like the jagged techno sounds on this.
Overall a strong edition and Kate Thornton is probably my new favourite presenter.