Top of the Pops 6th September 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

Jakki Brambles: “Hello, good evening, and welcome along to Top of the Pops. The nation’s finest music show. Tonight we’re checking out the Top Forty Breakers looking at what’s heading up the charts. Also, we have five acts in the studio. The first of which are at number eight. They’re from Liverpool, will you please welcome in the studio Oceanic.”

 [8] OCEANIC: INSANITY. Barely two weeks ago I suggested that Oceanic would have made a better opening act than Midge Ure. Nice of Stanley Appel to take my advice. Let’s see what he does with them.

Top of the Pops 29th August 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

Mark Goodier: “Hi. Good evening and welcome to Top of the Pops. We have an essential show tonight with some performances by EMF, and the Farm, and Arnee and the Terminaters. And we start with a live rap by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch with Loletta Holloway. This is a new entry Good Vibrations.”

 [29] MARKY MARK & THE FUNKY BUNCH Featuring LOLETTA HOLLOWAY: GOOD VIBRATIONS. I’m over 50. Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch are basically precision engineered to make me hate them. Stupid hat. Check. Stupid trousers. Stupid jacket. Check. Shakes walking stick at the screen. Boo! Get these kids off my TV set.

Coyote vs. Acme review

 

The endless attempts made by the perpetually hungry Wile E Coyote to catch a speedy Road Runner entertained generations in classic cartoons with each of the former’s schemes foiled one way or another proving perhaps that he wasn’t as wily as his name suggested. Or was it someone else’s fault? Often his failed attempts came as a result of misfiring equipment, always bought from a generic company named Acme and this film runs with the tremendous idea of him suing that company over these malfunctions. Gleefully incorporating countless cartoon moments mixed with live action, the results are impressive and funny.

 

Top of the Pops 22nd August 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

Bruno Brookes: “Good evening and welcome to Top of the Pops. On the show tonight, Jason Donovan, Martika, Zoe, and also this fellow who’s locked himself away in a studio for the last couple of years making a terrific album and also sporting a hit single. Here in the Top of the Pops studio the one and only Midge Ure.”

 [19] MIDGE URE: COLD, COLD HEART. Three drummers? Do you think maybe that’s too much percussion? Midge Ure doesn’t. During the drum break, a handheld camera operator runs down the line of drummers to make sure we get a good look at them. Then the picture cuts to a Bodhrán being held by Midge Ure, and then the camera pulls back to reveal the guitarist standing next to Midge Ure also has a Bodhrán, and the keyboard player has a Bodhrán. Bodhráns for everyone!

The End of Oak Street review

 

In the Eighties, when this movie is set, there was a phrase that said: “don’t bore us, get to the chorus” referring to those songs with short verses and memorable choruses and it is this sort of philosophy that The End of Oak Street follows. With as little a preamble as you need- though one that contains quite a lot of material - David Robert Mitchell’s film soon cuts to the chases and offers exciting set pieces and plenty of nerve-jangling action. Yes, it does share some dino DNA with the likes of successive Jurassic World films and also the tv show Primeval but has enough ingredients of its own to provide memorable moments and rekindle that feeling you would get watching a film as a kid. Come on, its dinosaurs running wild in Eighties America! How can you not enjoy that?

Raaarrrrghh. Spoilers lurk in this review...

 

Our Hero, Balthazar review

This film has had quite a strong online promotional presence and like many when I first saw one of the Bboy Malone videos pop up on YouTube I thought it was real; some kid literally crying about the state of the world and its not as unlikely a sight as you’d think. It was only when they kept appearing and its subject seemed equally distressed about all kinds of things that I twigged it was for the film. These videos and clips have got crazier – Balthazar is the first ethical feminist to become pregnant! – yet in terms of the film they may be giving a slightly misleading impression. As a campaign it worked though as it led me to the film itself yet while Our Hero, Balthazar has some dark humour it’s an intriguing look at characters that society- whether at the top or near the bottom- overlooks.

Top of the Pops 15th August 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

Gary Davies: “Hello. Very good evening to you. Welcome to a hot summer night’s edition of Top of the Pops and of course we are in stereo on Radio 1FM. In the studio tonight we have Right Said Fred, and Sophie Lawrence, and PM Dawn, and we start off with the second highest new entry in the charts. At seventeen, Level 42, Guaranteed.”

 [17] LEVEL 42: GUARANTEED. Level 42 have been away. They last appeared briefly on Top of the Pops in 1989 when their song Tracie was a breaker on the 26/01/1989 edition. When did they last see the inside of the Top of the Pops studio? That would be 01/09/1988 when they performed Heaven In Your Hands and even on that occasion Mark Goodier described how they “have been away for a long time”.

Grand Designs!

 

I wanted to recommend two artists whose work now features prominently in my house which I’ve recently been having redecorated room by room. One of the aspects I really wanted to freshen up were the wall hanging pictures. Previously there was an assortment of various images of different vintages whereas I wanted to have something more in line with the new furnishings. And that’s how I found two artists whose work I think is excellent and wanted to do a little to promote it in case you, too, were pondering over what art to put on your walls.