Top of the Pops 11th July 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

Bruno Brookes: “Good evening. Welcome to another sizzling Top of the Pops. All hot stuff on the show tonight. Later on we’ve got Bryan Adams for you. INXS, Billy Bragg, and Bros to name a few. First of all at number twenty eight is D.J.H. featuring Stefy. You need it. And you love it!”

 [28] D.J.H. featuring STEFY: I LIKE IT. The shape of the new-look Top of the Pops is being assembled in the background. We’ve had Michael Hurll’s changes to the way the charts are presented. And, as a side effect of this, the interstitial graphics for the Top 40, Top 10, and Breakers have been retired. Oh, and the Top 5 Albums countdown has been quietly dropped as well. There’s also the green screen and separating the host from the audience.

Relegating the audience to the background has clearly made them redundant, frequently little more than a few bobbing heads in silhouette. I wonder if the dancing shots we see here are an attempt to bring them into the programme a little more. Stanley Appel has instructed the Floor Manager to assemble a group of six to eight people on the Film Strip stage and make them dance as if their very lives hung in the balance. Two of the group dance with their backs to the crowd on the studio floor, framing Stefy in the distance. That looks good. The rest of the group are dancing en mass and it doesn’t quite work. They are just… there. Clearly having fun but looking a bit self conscious. I like the idea of bringing the audience into the programme more but it requires further thought. Let’s see if it continues next week.

What happens to the pitch of the song during the final camera pull back? For a second it sounds like the tape is going to snap.

[7] PAULA ABDUL: RUSH RUSH. Promo VT and charts from [40] to [2].

[26] OMD: PANDORA’S BOX. While Bruno Brookes introduces OMD, in the background the studio crew can be seen reconfiguring the Main Stage for another group to use.

[18] C & C MUSIC FACTORY featuring F. WILLIAMS: THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM…. Promo VT.

The green screen background behind Bruno Brookes shows the Main Stage now includes a rostrum with a drum kit and piano. Who can possibly be coming in to use those?

[3]  GUNS N’ ROSES: YOU COULD BE MINE. Promo VT.

[27] BILLY BRAGG: SEXUALITY. Billy Bragg is clearly having more fun than he did last time, 19/05/1988, with his uncertain live performance of She’s Leaving Home.

[30] INXS: BITTER TEARS. Promo VT.

[12] BROS: ARE YOU MINE? The intensive preparation work on the Main Stage was for the benefit of Bros and not as you might think the band who will be performing the new Number One song; they’ve been relegated to the Neon Stage.
Something about the staging of this song reminds me of the equal billing technique which had to be used on The Towering Inferno to make sure that neither Steve McQueen or Paul Newman could be regarded as being credited first. (Basically, the names were staggered so if you read from top to bottom Paul Newman came first and Steve McQueen got first billing if you read left to right).

Singer Bros and Drummer Bros appear to have demanded an equal number of camera shots. So if Singer Bros is in the front of frame then Drummer Bros must be in the background and vice versa. If Singer Bros gets a shot to himself then it will be followed by a single of Drummer Bros. A close up of one must develop into a two shot of both via a camera move or pull back. Thus is Bros equality ensured. There are four other people on stage with Bros. Do they get any close ups? Do they bobbins. Three of them share a single medium shot lasting all of two seconds.

[31] LISA LISA & CULT JAM: LET THE BEAT HIT ‘EM. Promo VT.

[1] BRYAN ADAMS: EVERYTHING I DO (I DO  IT FOR YOU). It begins.

Bryan Adams is joined on stage by a bank of three monitors; two showing clips from the video and one showing a studio camera feed. I don’t think I’ve seen a prop like that since the late eighties.

Not only is Bryan Adams downgraded to the Neon Stage, he is given staging which suggests Stanley Appel has doubts about his ability to deliver an interesting performance. Stanley Appel keeps cutting to the video. Okay, I understand the desire to use the super FX shot of the arrow whizzing towards a tree but apart from that maybe favour the bloke who has gone to the trouble of flying in from [Subs, please check where Bryan Adams lives]. Instead, Stanley Appel can’t wait to cut to the video except ironically when it would be most useful. When the guitar break comes we get to see Bryan Adams standing around doing nothing much for a sustained period. Oh, and when the performance ends the single is barely halfway done. It’s clear Stanley Appel expects Bros to be Number One next week.

[36] CHER: LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING. Promo VT. Jakki Brambles next week and don’t forget to listen to the Summer XS concert on Radio 1 on Saturday from 2-10.30pm. Jellyfish, Roachford, Jesus Jones, Deborah Harry, Hothouse Flowers, and finally INXS.

 Countdown to Year Zero revamp: 12

 Ratings: An audience of 5.94 million pushed Top of the Pops to [25] in the BBC1 Top Thirty programmes. Much better than 1990 when the equivalent week was watched by fewer than the 5.88 million who tuned in to 'Allo 'Allo.

The ratings were better than those for the 04/07/1991 edition (which I failed to have to hand last week). The show failed to chart with an audience of less than the 5.59 million who watched part two of something called Come In Spinner. (“A two-part drama, being shown for the first time on network television and based on the bestselling novel by Dymphna Cusack and Florence James.”) The ratings for the 05/07/1990 show were really strong 7.02 million viewers for [25]. Maybe BBC1 was getting a World Cup and Wimbledon boost that week.