Old TOTP (BBC4)

If Shania had recorded a segment, that is admittedly more baffling it didn't air. I can only put it down to competition. She was only the sixth highest entry that week, and it wouldn't have taken much pressure from a yoof-obsessed producer for them to cave for a Steps re-run instead.


Some of the flops on that list are baffling, even accounting for the busy period. Not so much the Whigfields or N-Trances who had realistically already been pushing their luck. Seal stands out though - lead single coming off the back of two mega-selling albums, and the track itself was just his usual style if remixed by a Morcheeba or Massive Attack.
 
Sonique going in at #24 there... obviously that'll be back in two years.

Can't imagine what shoppers found off-putting about that Seal album...

1766331746223.png
 
SilVoR Bells said:
In this era? They all have cringe moments, kind of inevitable given the nature of the job, but of the regular faces, Jayne Middlemas, Jamie Theakston and Sarah Cawood are generally fine.

It really is just those two. Whiley is an obnoxious music snob and Thornton just comes off as kind of a moron.
Click to expand...
Surprised at your verdict on Whiley - I found her unbearable as a DJ in the 2000s so have been surprised to find her very tolerable here. Theakston is the one who comes off a snobby twat the most imo.
 
Delighted by the recent ONE-TWO PUNCH of Sash! ft. Shannon - Move Mania and Ruff Driverz ft. Arrola - Dreaming.
 
SilVoR Bells said:
Maya of The Tamperer featuring Maya giving another iconic perf on the 98 Christmas special. :disco: We really were robbed of a brief, gay interest only solo career.

Loving the random drunk-looking woman in a Kimono giving it her all in the background too. :D
Click to expand...
In other where the HELL are they these days news, I found the lead singer from Touch & Go surprisingly dripping in charisma and vox despite the one-note song. Didn't mind at all that they showed a repeat the following week, it was great!
 
  • Like
Reactions: VoR
Shame after Ruff Riderz presented Arrola that she didn't have slew of follow-ups to scare the shit out of Margarita Pracatan.
 
I know it could apply to pretty much every 90s dance tune, but the Ruff Driverz presenting Arrola track really felt badly served not being dished up in a July. Fabulous.
 
Shoat said:
I know it could apply to pretty much every 90s dance tune, but the Ruff Driverz presenting Arrola track really felt badly served not being dished up in a July. Fabulous.
Click to expand...
It also came about five weeks after a previous Ruff Driverz single!

Poor Christian Fry not getting anywhere

I always find the November/ December charts interesting to see who lost out - I guess there were only so many oops and some just lost out.

1999 now. I HATED and still do that Fatboy Slim track and video. Oh but it’s so cool said all the straight lads at school. No Ruff Driverz were cool.

Ultra doing great promo for their album with Thornton shoving the microphone in his face and all he can say is a startled “good”. I do like that song.

How did Justin become a popstar? I felt there was some story to his launch. His voice is a bit paper thin here.

Queen Alda actually getting a slot for Girls Night Out. I’d assumed going in Christmas week would have prevented that but hurrah for the post Xmas week chart bounce!
 
I vaguely recall Justin being massively plugged by CBBC - some kind of talent contest?

Ultra finally snatched that top 10 after a few failed attempts, and then just GAVE UP and disappeared. I didn't hate Rescue Me though - far more listenable than the Boyzone and Five dirges that were floating around at the time.
 
Shoat said:
I vaguely recall Justin being massively plugged by CBBC - some kind of talent contest?

Ultra finally snatched that top 10 after a few failed attempts, and then just GAVE UP and disappeared. I didn't hate Rescue Me though - far more listenable than the Boyzone and Five dirges that were floating around at the time.
Click to expand...
I think by this point the album had already been out elsewhere. I guess when it tanked the label couldn’t even be bothered releasing the single that Europe had got instead of The Right Time
 
Agneeta said:
Is this the official JUSTICE FOR RUFF DRIVERZ thread?
Click to expand...
Well actually on that point and having seen a video on insta of Sugababes winning best dance act at the Brits in 2003, it did get me thinking.

Were any of the nominees/ winners of that award ever actually on a dance label like Positiva, Multipky, Inferno, MoS (Data/ Rulin), Xtravaganza, Manifesto, AM:PM etc?

I know most of the stuff those labels were licenced in but there was some UK talent on them which released multiple singles and an album? It always felt like musical snobbery at the time.
 
That episode with the DOUBLE HELPING of MELNY C's CATERWAULING :zombie:

Also she looks a FRIGHT
 
I quite liked most of the 60s revivals that charted in the late 90s, but Walk Like a Panther does very little for me.
 
A bit of Donna Summer is never wholly unwelcome, but Juliet Roberts half-heartedly running through Bad Girls feels like the epitome of a paycheck gig.
 
Ooh Emmie's More Than This! Finally something to justify sitting through this episode.

Quite distractingly brittle-looking hair on Emmie. It looks like it'd crumble to the touch.
 
Pop music's equivalent to the recurrent throat infection that plagued my Christmas, 911 finally squeak in an early January #1 before the antibiotics kick in and they disappear from pop music forever. (It's possibly I lost control of that analogy...)

A suitably limp end to a skippable episode.
 
I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I really have a lot of time for Walk Like A Panther.

It had that very faint spacey alien sound, like it could have been from a Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode.
 
I know there will always be the odd duff episode but Christ the second one today was appalling.

I hated the ISNT THIS COOL mentality of Tequila, All Seeing I and Fatboy Slim.

Gay Dad looking like Michael Fabricabt with Emma Watson’s pixie haircut on guitar. Then 911 shoving everyone on stage. Boo to sebolah appearing with a number 30 hit. I was watching with a friend and we both went awwwww when we saw that Humate and Three Drives didn’t appear - that kind of stuff would by year end.

First episode with the lovely Emmie (the hair though) and Juliet Roberts with her pedestrian cover of Bad Girls was fun.
 
VoR said:
Pop music's equivalent to the recurrent throat infection that plagued my Christmas, 911 finally squeak in an early January #1 before the antibiotics kick in and they disappear from pop music forever. (It's possibly I lost control of that analogy...)

A suitably limp end to a skippable episode.
Click to expand...
This was the peak of my chart watcher years & 911 came very close to missing the top spot, beating Another Level by a handful of copies. It was, I think, the closest race to number 1 since Deee-Lite missed out to the Steve Miller Band by around 13 copies in 1990. I much prefer the Another Level song to 911's limp cover.

Hope the quinsy has cleared up fully for you.
 
  • Care
Reactions: VoR
VoR said:
A bit of Donna Summer is never wholly unwelcome, but Juliet Roberts half-heartedly running through Bad Girls feels like the epitome of a paycheck gig.
Click to expand...
Bad Girls is such a bop that it'd be hard to ruin it, & OUR JULES has the vocal chops to take a decent stab at it, but it does feel a bit like the record company pushing her towards an obvious try at a hit. It's a shame Juliet never got the sort of breakout smash that Ultra Nate did with Free, I always liked her, she had some good singles but was always a bit second tier.
 
I unashamedly LOVE the epic sweep of Beautiful Day by 3 Colours Red. It needed to soundtrack the end of some hugely romantic scene in an Oscar winner. Number 11 was a robbery.
 
The "Bad Girls" cover was AWFUL LAZY DERIVATIVE nonsense, and poorly served Juliet Roberts by making an otherwise good vocalist a bit of a pastiche. It's definitely the ISN'T THIS COOL that wins for me today :(

(I would though also have preferred Humate)
 
Gay Dad were briefly hyped as the NEXT BIG THING with this single. I bought it the week of release along with the Cassius single, rinsed them both for 7 days & then got bored of both forever.
 
Sardonicus said:
Pop Toilet fave Leilani! Madness Thing & her music career in general might be the most bonkers thing to come from the late 90s.

"When the nun has just been SHORN
Don't you just hate the madness of it all"

SORRY WHAT NOW LOVE

:CraggyShock:
Click to expand...
She posted on here once!
 
Quite partial to A+ mixing classical & rap on Enjoy Yourself. Reminds me of perusing the CD racks at the old HMV Liverpool back in 1999. Those really were THE DAYS :(
 
Last edited:
Can't Get Enough by Soulsearcher kicking off one of the best years for dance music there's ever been. Many will be making an appearance on Ag's top 500 I'm sure.
 
I know it's probably SACRILEGE

But as much as I love the original Good Life, I think I really do love the Buena Vida remix even more. One of the most uplifting TITS OUT dance anthems of all time.

As with previous Garbage performances, I adore When I Grow Up but the TOTP stage does NOTHING for them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top Bottom