Old TOTP (BBC4) (7 Viewers)

Chris Lowe's reaction to his hat being removed in the Absolutely Fabulous video is about as expressive as he gets.
 
You know I enjoyed Maxx and Gloworm, but a Bruce Dickinson solo single? All-4-One's insipid whining? And whoever Galliano were? Never mind a football single at number one. Rough episode.
 
Kym Mazelle - big hair, Jocelyn Brown - bigger voice.

EDIT - She's overcooking it a tad now though.
 
There really was SO MUCH reggae in 1994!

Obviously Dawn Penn was the peak of the genre. I remember her being a proper wizened old crone though, agog (and slightly haunted) that she was only 42!
 
To The End is always gorgeous.

That doesn't look like N'dea Davenport with the Brand New Heavies.
 
The show really had lost its way now, hadn't it? Guest presenters pulling far too much focus from the acts and multiple album tracks in one episode. It's a bit of a slog before you even get to Wet Wet Wet. Thank goodness we didn't know it still had over three months left at #1.
 
Crazy For You was an inescapable hit that left very little footprint, wasn’t it?

Also who on earth were These Animal Men? The random slot despite no hits is screaming ’related to someone high up’.
 
Marti Pellow trying to break the tedium of doing Love Is All Around every week by obnoxiously over-singing every other note. :zombie:
 
Even as late as 1994, a British rock band could chart high enough to get TOTP - Little Angels, The Wildhearts, Skin...and Stiltskin's advert-induced #1 too. Still plenty of reggae too. Now both complete strangers to the charts.

(Edit - actually "smattering" was wrong..it's all over the place)
 
Still annoying when you see Killing Joke at 34 and Richard Marx at 32 on the programme when Sonic Youth were in at 24 and got hee-haw.
 
Wondering why I remember absolutely nothing at all about these episodes and realising they're the ones that were broadcast while I was doing my finals.

29 years ago. :zombie:
 
lolly said:
The show really had lost its way now, hadn't it? Guest presenters pulling far too much focus from the acts and multiple album tracks in one episode. It's a bit of a slog before you even get to Wet Wet Wet. Thank goodness we didn't know it still had over three months left at #1.
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I feel like the commonly accepted narrative (at least from the accompanying documentaries) is that this was when the show was starting to turn around and improve!
 
VoR said:
Also who on earth were These Animal Men? The random slot despite no hits is screaming ’related to someone high up’.
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They were part of the "New Wave Of New Wave" that was being heavily pushed at the time through the music press. The other main band was S*M*A*S*H who also got a TOTP slot for nothing. They were both on fake indies that were just EMI or Virgin using a different distributor.
 
Yes, obviously they weren't my thing, but I remember them being hyped in the music press at the time, far beyond what their commercial success suggested they deserved.

I wonder if it was the label only allowing TOTP to have bigger acts if they agreed to push them?
 
I think a combination of that and wanting to seem like they were providing what "the kids" wanted - as it turned out Britpop just flattened the NWONW before it really gained any traction.
 
In general, I think the further TOTP drifted from the charts, the worse it got. Eventually, it started to drown under weight of "exclusives" because the chart moved so fast that a record was old news and stale buns before it would be eligible for TOTP. I like watching an episode that goes from Barbra Streisand to Ride, especially as they were both in the charts rather than being shoehorned in.
 
Like, why am I watching an album track from Julia Fordham when the chart has about 14 new entries?...and Alice Cooper doing a piece of generic rawk slugde?
 
Not directly TOTP related, but we’re closing in on the notorious Kate Thornton era of Smash Hits magazine, aren’t we?

There are some fairly scathing comments about her tenure from colleagues in this book. Apparently she frequently vetoed putting pure pop acts on the cover because she felt kids should be more into bands like The Bluetones. :zombie:
 
Pulp's first TOTP feels auspicious in retrospect. Especially with Jarvis having his I Hate Wet Wet Wet sign.
 
Fucking YES - the Manics doing 'Faster', one of the best records ever made by anyone ever. Record number of complaints for this too.
 
15 weeks of Wet Wet Wet at #1 feels like heaven after having the same of the likes of Drake.
 
Ask me again in a month or so, but despite Marti Pellow I don't think I hate Love Is All Around that much. The thought of something like All-4-One being number one for so long :zombie:
 
Cutting from possible homophobe Dawn Penn to Vic and Bob being knows is deeply disrespectful.

Also the FACT for No No No was FROM JAMAICA
 
Level 42 are one of those weird blank spots for me. I’ve always known the name, couldn’t hum a single tune.

Based on the drippy shite they were flogging on this week’s episode, I doubt that’s going to change anytime soon…
 
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