Old TOTP (BBC4)

DJ Play Ag Christmas Song (39) said:
Astonishing how many of these are dead... Wright, Peel, Long, Burns, Baltimora, Abrams, Houston, Sledge, Michael, Sledge & Sledge, which coincidentally is the name of solicitors.

I guess it was 40 years ago.
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...yet I;m just picking up what's left of 1996 and first up is Robert Miles who died at the age of only 47.
 
1996 hasn't been so much fun to rewatch but One And One is actually not bad. I had forgotten about it but it came right back to me in that way that happens sometimes when a random old tune comes on the radio.

Could have done without the four wankers doing Tai Chi in the background.
 
Watching the 1989 Christmas special, I know she was young, but Sonia must have been fucking knackered after every performance. I'm exhausted just watching her.
 
Someone I worked with in 1996 thought himself a comedy genius for referring to The Backstreet Boys as The Backdoor Girls. Oh how we laughed...:manson:
 
The Woolpackers, good God. Absolutely atrocious. But, consider this a butterfly flapping its wings - without the line dancing craze that this song helped to create, would we have had "5,6,7,8." and therefore the entire career of Steps?
 
Trying to recast Mark Owen as Indie Take That might have worked better if they hadn't started with a slowie that made him sound like the missing Bee Gee.
 
When do Ant & Dec finally give up making records, this is absolute gecko testes.
 
"Chasing Rainbows" is allegedly still a showstopper when Shed Seven play live. I can only assume that's a literal showstopper because every bugger in the audience falls asleep...
 
I remember seeing Kula Shaker performing Govinda on some TV show with a sitar player and an additional vocalist, both of whom were, at minimum, of Indian heritage, and were also placed high in the mix. It actually sounded great. This version with just the 4 while lads and the rest on tape in the background is just awful. Music for people who The Greatful Dead are underrated.
 
"No Woman No Cry" did not need covered. Especially not for a performance where Lauren Hill looks like she'd rather be drinking her own piss than being on stage.
 
"Breathe" - magnificent. Still sounds absolutely vital to this day. Their best single? Maxim looks proper scary with those contact lenses.
 
I assume someone at TOTP at the time was a big fan of Skunk Anansie. Like The Wildhearts, they seemed to get on the show in the mid 20s or even lower where other bands might not get the nod.
 
Sardonicus said:
I loved "Milk" - thought it was one of their best singles

Any reason why the 1996 Xmas special appears to have been skipped? I thought it was long past the days of Savile et al by this point
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Shaun Ryder presented one of the Xmas programmes in a blond wig referring to himself as "Junior Jimmy". Another episode was binned because Gary Glitter presented by that wasn't the actual Xmas day episode.

Also, I like 'Milk', it just wasn't a single. I have a 7" of it with a lenticular cover insert and Tricky mumbling occasionally.
 
octophone said:
Shaun Ryder presented one of the Xmas programmes in a blond wig referring to himself as "Junior Jimmy". Another episode was binned because Gary Glitter presented by that wasn't the actual Xmas day episode.

Also, I like 'Milk', it just wasn't a single. I have a 7" of it with a lenticular cover insert and Tricky mumbling occasionally.
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I can't believe episodes in the mid 90s are still being skipped due to Glitter etc... and surely they could have cut out the Ryder bits?

Thanks for the info on the 96 special, I'll give it a watch.

I think "Milk" might have stayed album only if "Stupid Girl" hadn't been such a big hit, this was the era of milking (no pun intended) albums for any possible follow up hits. This is what I liked about this era, though, when something odd & uncommercial could sneak into the top 10.
 
Milk was actually my introduction to Garbage as it goes. Love it. It was on some trip-hop compilation. Ended up buying the album on the back of it.
 
1971 Xmas special starts strongly with "Get It On" by T-Rex. I suspect there's going to be some absolute piffle to follow on though.

Fun fact - 1971 & 1992 are the only chart years without a number 1 that only lasted 1 week in the top position.
 
I'd forgotten how bad that version of "Knocking On Heaven's Door" was but I think the truth is that it genuinely didn't matter. It was one of those occasions where it didn't need to 'good', it just needed to make its point. Which it did.
 
Manics - Australia. Not as fond of this one - it's a bit calculated. Nice Super Furry Animals t-shirt on Nicky Wire tho'...the Manics even acknowledging that another band might be Any Good at All was seen as a major thawing of their previous rhetoric.
 
Challenge - name a member of Damage other than the one Emma Bunton pulled.
 
I wouldn't have picked Snoop Dogg to have had longevity but there you go. "Snoop's Up Side Your Head" sounds more like a threat than a party banger.
 
I wonder what the value of the Christmas Day TOTP was to someone like Babylon Zoo? The ship has sailed, the album sunk, the follow-ups bombed. The sheer size of the audience being a value in itself?
 
"Bob Kilometre"! Amazing how Robert Miles got so many musicians onto a stage and it's still boring as fuck.
 
Nah, not in the mood. I;ll see if I can be arsed with the rest of this come the weekend.
 
Best of the 80s compilation from December 1989 has popped up & I never realised till now just how much Nick Heyward from Haircut 100 looks like a young pre- mullet Pat Sharp.
 
1996 turned out to be more of a Britpop slog than I’d anticipated, but I have high hopes now that we’re into 1997 :disco:

Lovely start with Kenickie. Shambolic but great fun. YEEAH YEEAH YEEAH YEAAAH YEAH!
 
Bless little Kavana. I suppose he’s done well to stick around to the extent that he has given his career peaked with a #8 hit in January. :D
 
Were Runrig a bit like Lemonescent in that 100% of their chart sales came out of one dodgy record store in Renfrew?
 
Beetlebum is such a Pointless answer of a UK #1.

I do miss the old days when random shit like this could sneak in on the strength of 20,000 sales and a completely blank release schedule though.
 
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