The Rolling "Top of the Pops" BBC4 Revival thread.

(I had a poke around campus on Google the other day - much of it has changed, and some of it (which must have been there in the early '90s) didn't seem familiar. Students Union doesn't look how I remember it at all).

Get out of town Xpansions is a banger, Railways Children so boring.

The Chart Show played the video for "Swallow"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSR0-X6nwpA

it's odd when you think how there were only four TV channels and a very limited amount of music programmes at this point, that this got the playout over something more conventional

And on a Saturday lunchtime too.

Living Colour - what happened to them? I only remember this one song
N-Joi - woo!
Neds Atomic Dustbin - they look bad and it's a totally forgettable song. I saw them about a month after this in Kilburn (because my best friend was a big fan of them), but they never really did it for me (though I will confess to buying Kill Your Television)

NAD always one of those bands where the name was far more memorable than the music.

'The One And Only' written by Nik Kershaw apparently as 'one of those songs he had to get out of his system'.

Why did they miss number 11 out of the chart run down? Some kind of Gulf War censorship (like 'Massive' instead of 'Massive Attack')? Anyone know what it was?

Anyway, Ride and the Happy Mondays. I'm keeping this one.

It's 'All Right Now' by Free.
https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-chart/19910310/7501/

That's weird. They'd played it in three previous weeks and then decided to pretend it didn't exist.

if it’s the week where Ride’s “Unfamiliar” was at 14 and Happy Mondays’ “Loose Fit” at 25, it was the remix of The Free’s “All Right Now” at 11.

ha

I really could have happily lived the rest of my life without being reminded of Hale & Pace doing the Stonk.

they were only listing the new entries and climbers in the charts for some reason

28/03/1991 - With Dannii Minogue, James and Chesney Hawkes.

04/04/1991 - With Inspiral Carpets, N-Joi and Chesney Hawkes.

I'd forgotten how Chesney Hawkes was fucking everywhere for a few months in 1991.

[insert obvious joke]

number one for 5 weeks, wasn't it?

In late 1991 I was reading a review in a computer magazine of a particular high end laptop. The reviewer was really enthusiastic and said that if they had the money they'd buy one straight away. However they then talked themselves out of it because 'in six months it'll be just another Chesney Hawkes amoung computers'.

It would be the one and only?

Rolling Stones doing a strong entry in the "vague protest songs that are about nothing really" subgenre I discussed above.

The Wonderstuff's 'Size Of A Cow' - guaranteed to cause chaos on the dancefloor of the twice weekly student night in your nearest town's 'free entry with student ID all drinks 50p all night' toilet club.

I’d totally forgotten Lana Pillay was on this Gary Clail track! A small highlight.

cheesy wotsit

two more very skippable shows. but the charts are strangely full of things they still play - losing my religion, sit down (never liked this), whole of the moon...

hate the holes in the chart rundown though

Why holes?

they are only reading out the new entries and climbers

Oh right, ta

Nicky Campbell just read out ZZ Top which was a non mover this particular week.

still not doing fallers though

You forget Blur were new on when Delasoul were up to “Ring ring ring” and the KLF were on the Train to Trancentral etc

Oh Propaganda are on!

(Sky arts)

Hah, just caught “Duel”… Claudia Brucken seemed a bit nervous and unsure, but still a delight to stumble across.

whilst also single handedly destroying the ozone layer

(lol 80s hair)

psycho candy era Mary chain too, from the tube. nice matt black guitar Jim has, unplayed.

some talk from Ian Mac, and now the cocteaus...

is that one of fuzzbox playing with klf? and Harold from the Halifax?

That's Cressdia who was married to Jimmy Cauty at the time.

Haha, wow, that Frances Nero song - I was totally convinced it was a cover of Sister Sledge Thinking of You to begin with. A bigger rip-off you could not find.

gosh yes! it's that song with 90s naffcore production and a load of 60s motown elements (strings, horns, backing vox). i do vaguely like it, but it is kind of awful. don't thing i've ever seen a bargain bin without a copy?

Frances Nero's line "Faith hope and charity, love is the greatest of the three" had the distinction of being quoted in Private Eye's "Colemanballs" column!

It's an Ian Levine production, by the way, hence the tinniness (he was known for it).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Levine

his wikipedia is peak "wrote their own page" material

Was that horrible Eurovision song Samantha Janus' first glimpse of fame?

think so. aged 11 I did not grasp quite how crass and stupid it was but it's shocking now

I have no memory of it from the time.

Yeah, let's rewrite a Phil Collins song, but not as good.

Thanks to the link to the Ian Levine wiki for alerting me to the existence of the single 'Doctor in Distress'. 😱

When I started buying second gand Hi-NRG records a few years ago, Ian Levine was the first producer I would recognise to be very careful to listen to before buying the records. Not to say he didn’t do a few good ones, but…

*second hand

"High Energy" and "So Many Men So Little Time" are great singles but it's not because of the production

"Senza Una Donna" is a divorcecore classic. Zucchero whispering "even doing my own cooking" like it's taking all he has to admit he has been reduced to such a shameful condition is chef's kiss.