Top of the Pops 29 November 1990

 Words: Chris Arnsby

Nicky Campbell: “Good evening. John Major, or no John Major, as music shows go this is the nation's premier. Top. Of. The. Pops. Remember if you make it to number ten here, it's good but it could be better. Here are the Dream Warriors, their definition of a boombastic jazz style.”

 [13] DREAM WARRIORS: My Definition Of A Boombastic Jazz Style. You see, yesterday (1990 Zone) Margaret Thatcher resigned and was replaced by John Major. What you don't get from the text up above are the terrible pauses used by Nicky Campbell for verbal punctuation to emphasise the cleverness of the links he has drawn between UK politics and Top of the Pops.

Deleted several lines of abuse directed at Nicky Campbell.

The Dream Warriors are rapping live on the Main Stage. It's impressive and they do some good crowd work. I still don't much like them. Sorry about that.

Wicked: For Good review

 

Those familiar with the Wicked musical will know that the second half is the flipside of the peppy first act navigating the story towards darker places while lacking in show stopping songs. This sequel follows suit doubling down on the grimmer side of this tale while weaving in familiar Wizard of Oz iconography in what can sometimes prove an awkward storytelling choice. Nonetheless what it does have are the always impressive performances of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo to lift it higher.

 

Top of the Pops 22 November 1990

 Words: Chris Arnsby

 Anthea Turner: “Hello there! Nice to have you with us! For another edition of Top of the Pops! And a special welcome if you are joining us via the airwaves of Radio 1! In FM Stereo! On tonights show we've got! The Proclaimers! 808 State! But we're going to start off with EMF at number five!”

 [5] EMF: Unbelievable. Check out the way James Atkin treats his microphone. It's been a while since we've seen BBC property so disrespected. The stand is dragged around and the microphone gets frequent slaps as part of the hand gesture punctuation used by James Atkin.

The Ballad of Wallis Island review

 

In 2007 Tom Basden and Tim Key wrote and starred in a short film called The One and Only Herb McGuyer plays Wallis Island directed by James Griffiths in which a reclusive lottery winner Charles Heath pays folk singer Herby McGuyer half a million pounds to play a gig at his remote island home.  Eighteen years later the concept has been adapted by the same team into a full length film with the additional storyline in which Herb had been part of a duo who had split personally and professionally. Both are invited to the island without knowing the other will be present opening up their shared past and present situations. The film is a delight, a whimsical time spend on a mostly wet, windy island that nonetheless will warm your heart.

 

The Running Man review

 

Writing as Richard Bachman, Stephen King’s original novel was actually set in 2025 so it seems appropriate for a new adaptation to emerge this year. The tale envisages a dystopian future in which media is used a means to distract people and is not always as true as it seems– as if that could happen! The lowest strata of society are eager to compete on a whole range of game shows ranging from the cheesy to the lethal which are uncannily recognisable. The biggest show is Running Man in which three carefully selected people try to survive for thirty days while being hunted down by six trained assassins. If they can survive, they win a billion dollars. It may have seemed completely far fetched in 1982  yet in the real 2025 there is actually a programme in which people are hunted across the country. Admittedly they are not summarily executed upon being found but the idea is there. Meanwhile the fact that film or photo footage can be manipulated to devious ends is not alien to us at all. So The Running Man feels not so much of a sci-fi tale but a story of now.

You might run into spoilers after the break

Top of the Pops 15 November 1990

Words: Chris Arnsby

Bruno Brookes: “Hello and welcome to the wonderful world of Top of the Pops. A great studio audience and a lot of fun on tonight's show, that's guaranteed. Now we start off with a song, it was originally a hit back in 1978 for Earth Wind and Fire and got to number fourteen. Now in 1990, Black Box take it to five. Here is, Fantasy.”

 [5] BLACK BOX: Fantasy. BBC VT. A repeat from the 01/11/1990 edition. It's almost unheard of to start the programme with a repeat and there's another one coming up at the end of the show. What's going on?

A lot of songs are going down the chart this week. The ones going up were mostly featured last week; EMF, Del Amitri, The La's, Jimmy Somerville, 808 State, Gazza and Lindisfarne. All the songs used tonight are the remaining climbers and new entries. With one exception. At [38], NWA's 100 Miles And Runnin' is not mentioned. You'd struggle to edit that down to even a 20 second clip for the Breakers with its frequent use of f*ck, sh*t, d*ck, a*s, etc.
With Black Box and Kim Appleby unavailable, Top of the Pops is faced with using repeats for 50% of its studio performances. I have no idea why Black Box get pole position. It might be because Kim Appleby's performance opened the 01/11/1990 programme. It might have been a coin flip. The last time the show started with a repeat performance was also in November. Yazz and Stand Up For Your Love Rights, 17/11/1988.

Batman Films 1989 - 97

 It feels as if Batman is everywhere now but there was a time when he’d been all but forgotten by the mainstream, his eternal development limited to the comic book fraternity. In 1989 however Warner Bros revived the character and started us on a road that arguably has led to the superhero movie era in which we now live. So I thought I’d take a look back at the quartet of Batman movies made in the late Eighties and Nineties. Often forgotten since the Chrstopher Nolan trilogy these four films offered some interesting takes on the legend.

Batman (1989) started it all off, a pivotal movie in changing our perspective on comic book adaptations. Before it was released the character of Batman was viewed differently depending on your media of choice. For comic strip fans the character had been reinvented with darker themes by the likes of The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke yet for the wider public perception was rooted in the camp Sixties tv series with its colourful aesthetic and over the top POW! WHAM! dialogue. In a lot of ways Tim Burton’s 1989 film never quite reconciles these two approaches. Its literally and thematically dark- so much so that the action is sometimes obscured by shadows and smoke – yet it also contains some larger than life performances and a certain garishness associated with the Joker. The most popular theme of more recent iterations- the duality between Bruce Wayne and Batman – is not really explored here. We see Bruce brooding in his bat cave of course but Michael Keaton’s performance is lighter in touch than the sort of Bruce Wayne we’re more familiar with nowadays.

Top of the Pops - 8 November 1990

 Words: Chris Arnsby

Gary Davies: “Hello, a very good evening to you. Welcome to Top of the Pops. A special good evening if you're listening to Top of the Pops in stereo on Radio 1FM. Busy show. In the studio we've got the La's, EMF, and Jimmy Somerville, but we start off at number twenty two in the charts. I'm Doing Fine, Jason Donovan.

 [22] JASON DONOVAN: I'm doing Fine. Jason Donovan has rethought his wardrobe. The nasty trousers are concealed by a jacket, which looks a lot better. I'm not keen on his metallic polo-neck shirt. It has a zip up the front, which makes it look like a coat. A jacket on top of a coat is overkill.

Photo Post- Liverpool River of Light 2025

Some pictures taken at the annual Liverpool light display which took place last week, this year's theme being the Science of Light.  Alot of these look better in live footage and there's some video clips on my Instagram page, johnconnors100 (unfortunately Blogger no longer enables film only photos)

Top of the Pops 1 November 1990

 Words: Chris Arnsby

Simon Mayo: “Hi. Good evening. This is Top of the Pops. Only seven more before Christmas, believe it or not. Before seven thirty we've got some great artists, almost all of them wearing kinky boots. We've got a new Number One and a great return performance at number sixteen. Will you welcome back please, this is great, Kim Appleby. Yeah.”

[16] KIM APPLEBY: Don't Worry. Simon Mayo's kinky boots comment refers to the 1964 single by Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman which he was constantly playing on the Breakfast Show around this time. It's going to get a release at the end of the month and make its way into the charts, so we've got that to look forwards to.