Old TOTP (BBC4)

Oh, Queen. I remember the speculation was really getting going at this time...this video being cut from all their other videos was interpreted as a sign that all was not well. Little did we know. :(
 
Status Quo were still bafflingly popular in 1990 - they had that big Anniversary Waltz single and a big double greatest hits before this new album they were on TOTP for in 91. But having them (and Stevie Wonder) on definitely felt like the BBC was trying to not entirely scare off the older demographic.
 
"Too Many Walls" - such a great song, terrible production. The stripped down version on the b-side was the one.
 
lolly said:
Status Quo were still bafflingly popular in 1990 - they had that big Anniversary Waltz single and a big double greatest hits before this new album they were on TOTP for in 91. But having them (and Stevie Wonder) on definitely felt like the BBC was trying to not entirely scare off the older demographic.
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Quite true. Putting Quo on off the back of a number 10 album was really shoehorning them in.
 
Anne Dudley on piano...pretty sure she wrote the string arrangement for Too Many Walls.
 
Now, Simply Red on off the back of a #1 album, I can take. That makes sense. I mean, awful song but it makes sense.
 
Immediately, 2 Unlimited making the whole thing look ridiculous. It's an instrumental with the occasional shout. But the shouts must be live!!! Pissdribble.
 
Now, how come Quo looked like a total joke but here's Slade looking like the own the place. And with a record that does not sit alongside their best too. Proper legends.
 
I always got the impression that at various points in the 90s they had deals with record companies to promote their artists in return for availability.

I know it was much later on, but I seem to recall Gary Barlow being on three weeks on the trot with one of his drivel solo singles. Despite one of those weeks being when he dropped 1-6.
 
Ag said:
I always got the impression that at various points in the 90s they had deals with record companies to promote their artists in return for availability.

I know it was much later on, but I seem to recall Gary Barlow being on three weeks on the trot with one of his drivel solo singles. Despite one of those weeks being when he dropped 1-6.
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Once they dropped the charts as being the core of the programme and opened themselves up to 'exclusives', it immediately became like that. Horse trading. "Yer, I can get you Dag Nabbit And The Testes but you'll need to have this Dierdre O'Stain song on".
 
Noted that Enya got away with telling them to knob off on the live vocals thing but we are mere weeks away from them telling some bunch of smelly yanks on their first hit to sing up or piss off.
 
The overreaction to "The Fly" was quite something. The phrase "commercial suicide" was bandied about as if it were nought. You'd have thought they'd come out with a Sonic Youth style wall of noise rather than an above-par piece of electric guitar pop/rock with some quirky vocal production.
 
Don't remember this Dannii track at all. Not trolling, my memory is remaining resolutely unjogged.
 
Thing on this: I had always assumed that my teenage indie kid cynicism was responsible for me hating the 91 reboot but, actually, I was right. It has no idea what it wants to be - a couple of children's TV presenters, patching the singles charts to have what we would probably now call 'heritage acts' on the show and the live vocals thing made a mockery within weeks. IIRC, the show has an uplift in the mid 90s when they have guest presenters and Britpop bleeds into Spicemania but we'll see if my memory is holding up.
 
From this week's Popbitch:

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>> Budgie smuggler <<​
Adrian flies under the radar
​
Those watching vintage Top Of The Pops re-runs on BBC4 might have noticed that there's been a few missing episodes recently; those hosted by a little remembered DJ called Adrian Rose (aka Adrian Woolfe).

The Beeb attributes the missing episodes to vague 'legal rights issues', but as Adrian went on to become a big player behind the scenes on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, it seems he isn't keen to remind viewers of his youthful attempts in front of the camera. It's a shame, because it'll also mean missing out on early performances by the Manics, Primal Scream, Shakespears Sister, The Shamen and that legendary performance from Nirvana where Kurt croaked his way through Smells Like Teen Spirit an octave lower than normal.​

Not again...
 
So he’s big “behind the scenes” of a game show that was really big 20 years ago, so doesn’t want his ex-colleagues seeing him on TV from 30 years ago despite being arguably the least remembered TOTP presenter ever? What a prick.
 
Apparently he presented 15 episodes between Nov 91 and Sept 92.
 
So we're losing the famous Smells Like Teen Spirit performance because of some nobody's ego.
 
That's absolute arse. At least Mike Smith was dead. Can't believe we'll lose that classic Nirvana appearance, their only one.
 
Ultimately, it is the BBC's own fault because they didn't include repeats in their contracts for TOTP, having assumed that no-one would want to repeat a programme that was about the charts in the same way that no-one would want to repeat the 6 o' clock news from 12th April 1975.
 
Weird shit, these programmes...from Kiri Te Kanawa straight to Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine's very dark song about child abuse and then to Mariah Carey. At least this is following the charts tho'.
 
I do delight in twitter's reaction whenever Right Said Fred are on.

I think my favourites so far are Alt-Right Said Fred and Reich Said Fred :D
 
Presenter gets the name of Tin Machine's song wrong. One of the few tolerable Tin Machine songs at that. No wonder Bowie gave Nile Rodgers a call after the tour was over.
 
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This club number with a singer wailing away with a treble clef on her head is hideous. No wonder I'd driven it from my mind. Also - Zoe had a follow up single?
 
What was behind the Kylie Minogue and Keith Washington song? It's really weak...was it to boost her in the US?
 
"The North Will Rise Again" is a reference to The Fall's "The NWRA" - The KLF briefly rebranded themselves The FALL (standing for "The Forever Ancient Liberation Loophole" and declared themselves to have become The Fall on their 1988 album "Who Killed The JAMs?".
 
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