Friller
17/08/89 (Nicky Campbell & Anthea Turner)
Black Box – “Ride On Time” (11)
Getting tonight's show off to a blockbusting start with what will soon become their only number one and first of three top ten hits and aslo the biggest selling single of 1989.
Jody Watley with Eric B & Rakim – “Friends” (31) (video)
Peaked at number 21.
Martika – “Toy Soldiers” (5)
Making her studio debut to perform her first of three top ten hits but it went up no further.
Alice Cooper – “Poison” (4) (video)
Went up two more places.
Starlight – “Numero Uno” (39) (breaker)
His only hit and it peaked at number 9.
Alyson Williams – “I Need Your Lovin’” (40) (breaker)
Became her only top ten hit when it peaked at number 8.
Then Jerico – “Sugar Box” (38) (breaker)
Their final hit and it peaked at number 22.
Fuzzbox – “Self” (24)
Another mouthwatering studio performance but this would be their fourth and final top 40 hit and it got no higher.
Neneh Cherry – “Kisses On The Wind” (23)
Looks like she's just dragged her mate out the the gym to lend her a hand in the studio tonight and the song went up three more places.
Queen – “The Invisible Man” (26) (video)
This third single from their number one album The Miracle peaked at number 12.
Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers – “Swing The Mood” (1) (video)
Third of five weeks at number one. But at least we get to see the other half of the video.
Adeva – “Warning” (36) (video/credits)
Her third of nine top 40 hits and it peaked at number 17.
24th August is next.
This show had notably lots of pretty girls performing, so I give some sugar candy kisses for the first three performers:
ReplyDeleteSugar - lead singer of Black Box
Candy - Jody Watley, formerly lead singer of Shalamar
Kisses - Martika
.....not to mention more hotties later in the show, like the ones in the Alice Cooper video, and then Fuzzbox.
Great to see the Breakers slot back in the show after having been lost for a while, and the second half of the Jive Bunny video, picking up where the video left off last week. The only disappointment was the interfering studio dancing imposed on top of the video, preventing full enjoyment of the video.
Anyway, what prompted TOTP to bring back the studio dancing this week on the No.1, and for the first time since early 1986 when it was the weekly playout tune that featured the traditional studio audience dancing?
Queen still going in the charts considering that their chart competitors like Martika, Fuzzbox, Betty Boo were half their age and the next generation. Good Lord!
Starlight and Black Box are the same group.
ReplyDeleteHow do you know?
DeleteWell I've always known. But Black Box Wikipedia page confirms it.
Delete"Sugar Candy Kisses"? Mac and Katie Kissoon, hmm, isnt it?
DeleteI only started listening to the charts in the summer of 1978, so the Kissoons (aptly named for sugar candy kisses) were a bit before my chart-viewing time, as it seems they were charting around 1975-76.
DeleteBlack Box comprised three Italian studio musicians (Daniele Davoli, Mirko Limoni and Valerio Semplici), collectively known as Groove Groove Melody.
DeleteThe Groove Groove Melody team were also behind the production of Starlight's "Numero Uno". Under seven or more pseudonyms, they turned out numerous further records including Mixmaster with "Grand Piano", also coming up in 89
There were also a couple of near misses for the Groove Groove Melody team, including Magic Atto II which was credited to DJ Lelewel.
DeletePerhaps my expectations were just super-low, but Campbell and Anthea were both a lot less annoying than I feared - he was less of a smartarse than normal (except when trying to impress us with the fact he knew Alice Cooper's real name), and she seemed a bit more natural and a little less shouty. Fair play to Anthea as well for correctly predicting the enormous success of the opening track, even if it was already knocking on the door of the Top 10. I know it is not too popular on this forum, but this is one dance record I really do like, and it still sounds fresh now. Admittedly they treated Loleatta Holloway shabbily - as a naïve 9-year-old at the time, I assumed the "singer" in this performance was the real vocalist - but she got her recompense and recognition in the end.
ReplyDeleteIf Campbell is right and Jody Watley really was in the frame for Catwoman, all I can say is I'm glad it didn't happen, as Michelle Pfeiffer is fab in Batman Returns. Jody looks to be in her own fashion show in this video, but her bit of the song is mediocre, and when Eric B & Rakim take over it just becomes a crashing bore - at least TOTP pulled the plug at that point. Martika makes it to the studio, and reminds me quite a lot of how Sharleen Spiteri looked when she was on the show a few months earlier. After the breakers, it's time to say farewell to Fuzzbox, who treat us to some more hotpants but an overall greater diversity of outfits. The song sounded a bit more rocky than previous efforts, but failed to stand out as much as the band's image.
Next up, Neneh Cherry with a very much forgotten hit that I don't remember at all. No rap this time, despite the scratcher lurking in the background, and it's a decent enough little pop song but feels less distinctive than the first two hits. I'm not sure Neneh's "mate" added much to the performance, she just ended up stealing some of main woman's thunder. I have recently rediscovered on YouTube the BBC's 1984 adaptation of The Invisible Man, which terrified me when I was very young and actually holds up surprisingly well now. It has certainly aged much better than this third rate offering from Queen, which sounds turgid in the extreme. I suppose the video is quite fun and inventive, though notably lacking much in the way of invisibility, but would a young boy in 1989 really have had a poster of Queen on his bedroom wall? I certainly didn't...
We get the second half of the Jive Bunny promo, which makes for a welcome change. I hadn't heard the original versions of the Elvis songs back then, so was completely unaware that the snippets featured here were inauthentic. Adeva plays us out, dancing among some stylish neon tubes and putting on a very deep voice over a pleasant, bouncy tune that definitely ranks as one of the better efforts on another patchy show.
If this was indeed the last time we see Fuzzbox, it has been a whirlwind romance. Well I suppose they can be proud to come from the same city as ELO and UB40, good company indeed.
DeleteOn the next show I think we also see the last of The Beatmasters, although they had a longer career in the charts than Fuzzbox, going back to Rock Da House when they 'featured' The Cookie Crew.
BBC4 have intergrated its uninteruppted run from 1989 even further with August episodes, but some people said that the channel might be closing at the end of the year, but there was supposed to be a TOTP documentary and 1991 repeats happening on the 8th of January 2021, so that might be happening.
ReplyDeleteThe TOTP 1990 repeats will be starting through mid-June with the documentary and Big Hits happening, I don't think the 1990 Xmas special won't be the last to be shown on BBC Four at Christmas, as we nearing its 30th anniversary year into that re-run period and it'll be the first time that we do have to repeat uninteruppted full archive episodes from the 90s until late December 1994 as with they'd cross to edit Rolf Harris out in a January 1993 episode as its a major interruption and we have Michael's sister Janet making her TOTP debut in the studio on the 9th of November 1989 episode with 'Rhythm Nation'.
Black Box can't be arsed to buy a plane ticket for Loleatta Holloway to mime to her vocal samples, so hire this unknown model to mime instead, and have to keep up the subterfuge for the next few months. That's how this went, I think.
ReplyDeleteWas Jody's single the first hit ever to use what would soon become a cliché, the R&B singer who allows a rapper to interrupt them two-thirds of the way through? As heard most famously on Beyonce's Crazy in Love when her hubby sticks his oar in. Did Jody know what she was starting?!
Martika makes it to the studio for an impassioned performance of her heroin abuse ballad, even knocking over the mic stand so we know she means every word.
The Alice Cooper vid AGAIN?! Literal-minded video, too: Alice mentions chains in the chorus, so we get chains in the video (and maybe on his bike).
The Breakers were on an hour later, so instead we bid farewell to Fuzzbox with Vix even less dressed and more enthusiastically grinding her hips than ever. Weird thing is, the record went down the charts the next week! Maybe everyone was as taken aback as Nicky and Anthea obviously were. The song is an accusatory rocker, not bad but lacked the novelty value of their previous two.
Neneh Cherry, you do sometimes hear this now, though not as often as Buffalo Stance alas, but it's a poppy, aggressive tune about a girl who sounds like she's growing up too fast, with amusing interjections in a Spanish accent. Shouldn't it have been in Swedish?
Queen's Invisible Man video, which I did not find as terrifying as David McCallum in the 70s when I was a toddler. Although maybe I should have: four grown men hiding in a young boy's bedroom? Wouldn't have gotten away with that today. As for the song, sounds like they came up with the title first, it's pretty weak.
The second half of the unfunny bunny video, where it REALLY goes Pinky and Perky/Chipmunks/Smurfs because they didn't understand what a pitch shifter was.
Adeva with one of her 17 with a bullet hits, but we see more of this next episode...
I made the effort to watch the Queen video in full on UTube, and it was quite back-breaking, as the whole four-and-a-half minutes of it was repetitive, and they could have had the same messages in one minute of it. The one thing I did like was the opening shot of the house from outside, which reminded me of the opening shot of the Ghostbusters video by Ray Parker Junior some 5 years earlier in 1984:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe93CLbHjxQ
I also remember the David McCallum series The Invisible Man in the 1970s, but if I am correct, he was a goodie for the course of justice to seek out baddies and criminals, but he certainly made it terrifying for children watching, as this phenomenon of being invisible was probably believed by kids to be possible, and they would wonder if such beings existed.
David McCallum was a goodie in that show, true, but when you're three years old seeing a man taking his face off is pure nightmare material, not to mention the thought that someone invisible might be in your bedroom as you try to get to sleep.
DeleteI used to watch that in 1975. It was quite good. Check out David's 'pudding basin' haricut for 'The Invisible Man' here !
Deletehttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072515/mediaviewer/rm509768704
"illya kuryakin" was probably the only guy who looked cool with a pudding basin haircut! there were plenty of them in my year at school around that time, and i remember my mother insisting that a woman who lived on our estate (still) used an actual pudding bowl to cut her sons' hair in that style!
Deletei also remember watching that show and enjoying it at the time. sadly though it appears the dvd release was very limited, and as such they are as hard to find as the invisible man himself
A bit of a mixed bag tonight despite our enthusiastic hosts seemingly liking the lot.
ReplyDeleteBlack Box – Ride on time – Oh my word, this is even worse torture than when I last heard it. Hasty fast forward.
Jody and Eric – Friends – Now I prefer ‘Friends’ by the Police to this….and that’s saying something!
Martika – Toy Soldiers – Impressive. Love the way she slams the mic stand down!
Alice Cooper – Poison – Now is it just me or is that the lovely Paula Ann Bland standing behind Nicky as he introduces this? Better known as the very sensible Claire Scott from Grange Hill. Wow! If it’s not Paula then an uncanny likeness. Anyway I liked Alice’s Whitesnake flavoured video and song.
Breakers – Nothing really caught my attention…
Fuzzbox – Self – Novelty wearing off methinks. After the whacky ‘International Rescue’ I must have missed them performing ‘Pink Sunshine’ as I took a break from watching for a few weeks and still haven’t watched those May 1989 shows. This is quite tepid despite the crawling on the floor and gold hotpants.
Neneh Cherry – Kisses on the Wind – Nope, just don’t like any of Neneh’s output.
Queen – The Invisible Man – One of those songs that namechecks the band members like ‘Float On’ and ‘The Man in the Middle’. It’s Ok I suppose but not classic Queen. Freddie’s strange green specs appeared on the cover of the next single ‘Scandal’.
Jive Bunny and the Master Mixers – Swing the Mood – Ah-ha! What we’ve been crying out for on this forum, the second part of the song and video and what a joy it is to hear the final Glenn Miller flourish. Inserting the audience dancing was a nice touch too but I couldn’t see if anyone got to dance with ‘Paula-Ann’.
Adeva – Warning – Another one to skip, so a swift end to the show.
NB – Lil Louis now No2 (sigh!) – in the same league as the likes of ‘Vienna’ or ‘The Air that I Breathe’ ? nope, more like that risible effort from ‘Full Metal Jacket’.
It's good that you have not given up after not watching these for a few weeks. I must say that there is now becoming more of the new generation on the show, i.e., those born in the 60's and 70's SAW-inspired 'packaged' generation, than there is of the ones born in the 40's and 50's like Queen, Alice Cooper, Paul McCartney where they could influence their own music, and so predictably people are beginning to loose interest in watching these shows.
DeleteI will most likely continue watching up to the end of 1995 because there were still the last remnants of the creative music generation like Genesis, Elton John, Meat Loaf, when by then it was like finding a needle in a haystack.
Black Box bounce onto our screens. I liked this at the time, and I still,like it. One of the few dance tracks that has stood the test of time from this period. Great advert for the Wonder Bra.
ReplyDeleteJody Watley - don’t remember this, but it was ok (dated by the obligatory rap on the middle)
Breakers - starlight: throwaway dance track; alison williams: drearily slow; then jerico: dull - doesn’t bode well for next week
Fuzzbox - another band that churned them out. Bit like a rocked up Kim Wilde track. Singer worked hard to sell it. Nice, if short, guitar solo.
Charts - the annoying comma has disappeared from the Beatmasters song...
Neneh Cherry - pleasant enough. Wasn’t she pregnant last time we saw her? Back to work quickly...
Queen - big fan of Queen, track from The Miracle, but this is the invisible single. Ok, but I think it would be a great Pointless answer...
Adeva - pleasant enough, though standard late 80s track.
The Fuzzbox guitar solo was by Brian May!
DeleteWell I never knew that! Good job I liked it :-)
DeleteCharlie, Neneh was last on with "Manchild" by which time she'd had her, erm, girl child!
DeleteLate August 89 and I was with the family in south-east France so this is the first time I've seen this show and I think it's the best one of the year so far.
ReplyDeleteI will make myself quickly unpopular here by saying I though the Nicky & Anthea pairing brought out the best in both of them and they were a lot of fun tonight! Great chemistry.
Enter Italian House music. Mixmaster, Starlight and of course Black Box all from the same production stable. “Ride On Time” or "Rip Off Lolletta" as we shall call it. Let's play a game - what week will be change to the Heather Small version...
Bit of Starlight in the background there...
Did Jody Watley ever to get to become Catwoman (wasn't it Michelle Pfeiffer). "Friends" is a decent song and you don't get to hear it anymore. Maybe the Eric B & Rakim rap buts DJs off but even that is quite good and works well within the song.
TOTP of old would NEVER have let Martika get away with this performance without backing singers dressed as “Toy Soldiers”. A very striking and attractive lady with a great voice and earrings you could use as basketball hoops. Unusual but brilliant song as well.
Alice Cooper – still one of the best tunes of the year! Just before the chains part of the “Poison” video I swear I saw the 90s TOTP logo...go on, have a look!
Breakers:
Starlight – Still one of my “Numero Uno” dance records ever. Absolutely love the 12" version of this.
Alyson Williams – Was she not available for the video? “I Need Your Lovin’” is a nice soulful tune. Video is shit.
Then Jerico – really like “Sugar Box”. Never hear it now, but 15 year old me was a fan of this one.
Sad times, a tear in my eye...it's so long Fuzzbox. Thanks girls for everything you did for teenage Morgie in 1989. “Self” is the highlight of the album for me. Had a poster of the band in gold on my bedroom wall (not sure if it came with the single?).
Neneh Cherry really was a breath of fresh air in 89. “Kisses On The Wind” another quality tune with serious attitude. Could have done without her mate shouting over the last chrorus but worked well in the other parts of the song. Not such a big hit for her which is a shame.
Queen really did return to form in 89 didn't they. Three great songs in a row and “The Invisible Man” possibly the best of the 3. Great video as well, they were the masters of their craft weren't they.
Oh look - it's the rest if the Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers video. Audience clearly “SwINg The Mood” for this one. Missed a trick not using this as the playout with the studio dancing whilst this was number one. Would have worked much better.
Adeva – “Warning” Nice song. Nice video. let's hope we see more of this.
Was that a SAW free show....I believe it was...come on Pete, your slacking....
It was very clear Alyson wasn't performing the song we were hearing in that video. Pretty shoddy.
DeleteWas this the Fuzzbox poster Morgie? Did you get a pre-signed edition?
Deletehttps://www.45cat.com/record/yz408w
That could be it if it came with the single. Maybe I'm mis-remembering. Been a while...
DeleteIn terms of hosts, for once two wrongs making a right – no, not a Steve Wright! Nicky and Anthea worked together very well and were on top form, which surprised me.
ReplyDeleteAn excellent intro prediction by Anthea for Black Box. Right, Vix, see if you can trump this outfit, then.
Jody Watley auditioning for Black Box in that garb. Was this the first time someone had managed a ‘solo’ hit with a different song but the same title as a hit they’d had in a previous group? Much preferred Shalamar’s song to this unremarkable track complete with identikit boring rap.
Oh dear, Anthea. Should have kept to just the one forecast. Martika (with re-healed ring holes on the left of her nose?) obviously miming as we didn’t hear the clunk of the mic hitting the floor after her Miss Piggy chop.
From a song about drug addiction to poison running through Alice’s veins. I see what they did there. Great track, never tire of this part of the video.
They must have spent Lire on that Starlight track and video. Is Anthea really right about this sort of thing being the future? Ulp.
Zebra Hat’s back with an attempt at a slow, slinky groove. Didn’t quite work.
Anyone else in Then Jerico apart from Mark Sahw? They might improve this ‘meh’ effort if there were.
Oy oy! Vix ups her game again but doesn’t quite ride on time. Even Mags has glammed up tonight, and what a great guitar! Shame the song was a bit too moody, broody and melancholy, but thanks for everything, Fuzzbox. I’ll miss you.
Neneh Cherry there with a Janet Jackson sounding track complete with weird raps and a sassy Hispanic collague.
PacMan rock with Queen. When the video showed seven Brian Mays (Anita Dobson’s fantasy?) all I could see was hair.
FF the chart topper for the return of Adeva with her booming shoulders, a booming voice and a booming backing track. Booming awful!
the guitarist from then jericho died recently, according to wiki. but wthout looking again, i have no idea what his name was
Deletebtw does anyone have an explanation for their silly name?
I seem to recall that it was a quote from the bible, but google doesn’t say...
DeleteIt is the 'Walls Of Jericho' that is the famous bible expression. Why they would use 'Then Jericho' as their pop group name is a bit puzzling.
DeleteIt wasn't even Then Jericho, it was Then Jerico, without the H, so possibly not Biblical at all and a reference to someone's name.
Delete@Wilberforce, that's right, the guitarist died of a brain tumour last month, which is pretty sad.
Didn't realsie that, otherwise I wouldn't have made the jokey comment. Sorry about that.
DeleteHappy birthday Martika, 51 today! If the repeats continue we'll hear her Prince collaborations.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Happy Birthday to her. Martika is of Cuban parents apparently, and one of those forgotten pop stars, since her cute 20-year old looks on Toy Soldiers and last chart music in 1991 or so on these shores.
DeleteBlack Box - Well, I still love it. And as Heather Small amply demonstrated, it's all very well saying 'LOLEATTA WOZ ROBBED!' but there is no way this song would work without sampling. And take a look at the number of songs she WAS credited on after this was a hit!
ReplyDeleteJody Watley - Oh good, Shop's Own Janet Jackson returns. Pretty sure this is just Rakim she's with though, isn't it?
Missed opportunity with the Breakers not to include 'Mental' by Manic MCs & Sara Carlson - it was expected to be a huge hit but had its thunder stolen somewhat by 'Ride On Time'.
Fuzzbox - It's alright, but not a patch on the first 2 singles. 'Walking On Thin Ice' was an even more baffling choice for release when 'Fast Forward Futurama' and 'Versatile For Discos And Parties' were brilliant album tracks that would've worked better.
Neneh Cherry - I suspect that it isn't, but could the other lady be Neneh's sister Titiyo? She had a couple of almost hits later on. I really like this one, maybe because it's rarely heard these days.
Queen - Possibly the worst thing they ever released, it sounds hideously dated.
Adeva - If this lady is warning you, then you'd better listen, given how scary she looks! This is really good stuff, possibly her best song.
Was going to post that the young girl who briefly appeared in the Queen video looked like a young Daniella Westbrook when her nose was still intact but google reveals it was actually her.
ReplyDelete