Top of the Pops Triple April 1990 Megamix!

3 Editions- words: Chris Arnsby

 05/04/1990 

Anthea Turner: “Hello! Good evening! And welcome to Top of the Pops! On BBC1 and Radio 1! Tonight in the studio we've got Jason Donovan, our Song For Europe sung by Emma and Snap! But we're gonna start off tonight's show with a brand new entry at number sixteen! It's Happy Mondays! Step On!”

[16] HAPPY MONDAYS: STEP ON. Paul Ciani is unsure of the status of Bez. Everyone else gets at least one close up but not Bez. He is just there. The camera constantly glides past him to focus on Shaun Ryder, Paul Ryder, Rowetta, whoever, but Paul Ciani relegates Bez to Andrew Ridgeley status.
Bez does not care.

 

[4] MADONA: VOGUE: Promo VT.

CHARTS: 40 TO 31. Pause to admire the cleverness of the Quantel transition coming out of the charts. The slide for (yuk) Jive Bunny, falls away to leave a rectangular hole in the charts through which the Top of the Pops studio can be glimpsed. Then the whole chart slide falls forwards to reveal Anthea Turner in the Crows Nest.

[6] THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS: BIRDHOUSE IN YOUR SOUL. BBC VT. Repeated from 22/03/1990. A chance for you to do your homework and compare the configuration of the Triangle Stage to what comes later.

[14] QUEEN LATIFAH & DE LA SOUL: MAMMA GAVE BIRTH TO THE SOUL CHILDREN: Promo VT.

[SONG FOR EUROPE 1990] EMMA: GIVE A LITTLE LOVE BACK TO THE WORLD.

Anthea Turner occasionally delivers surprisingly neat epitaphs for performances, when all she's actually trying to do is keep the programme moving along with some jolly hockey sticks enthusiasm. She accidentally buried The Wedding Present, at the end of Brassneck (15/02/1990), with: “Wedding Present! [wink to camera] Anyone want a toaster!?”

Well, once again she unintentionally comes up with le phrase juste at the end of Give A Little Love Back To The World. She's trying to link from the song into the charts and does this by asking a random member of the audience how they think the song will do. The random member of the audience bellows “brilliant,” and Anthea Turner follows this up with: “Great! Let's hope at least it makes the chart!”

Let's hope at least it makes the chart. Ouch. The death was announced today of Give A Love Back To The World. The song was buried with faint praise.

(John- It came sixth in Eurovision which these days would be a cause for celebration.)

CHARTS: 30 to 11. E-Zee Possee down to [22]. The nation's moral guardians breath small a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, the Rebel MC is up to [20] and his single still hasn't been played on Top of the Pops. This is odd. Presumably he wasn't available for the studio and unfortunately he's accidentally made a video too political to be played. There's a chorus line of dancers in Margaret Thatcher masks and on the line “destroy and erase all the badness” Rebel MC points over his shoulder at them. Then later, someone is waving an “AXE THE POLL TAX” sign. Outrageous. (John- He is a rebel after all)

[11] UB40: KINGSTON TOWN. Promo VT.

[9] JASON DONOVAN: HOLD ON TO YOUR LOVE. It's all change for the Triangle stage again. The dangling Christmas tree thing has been put back where it used to be. The starburst-shaped element is now stage right, and the elongated pyramid, which has previously always sat stage right, is now on the left. Do the stage hands just make this stuff up? Or is there a long consultation with Paul Ciani at the start of the day: “I think we should put this thing... here!”

Keep an eye on the background of shots that show the Neon Tube Stage opposite. You can spot Snap's dancers in their white shirts waiting for their turn. Apparently they've... come out early to watch Jason Donovan?

Jason Donovan's song is rubbish, obviously. The most notable thing about the performance is the little heart-shaped Quantel transition which gets used a few times.

TOP 10

[1] SNAP: THE POWER. Turbo B has forgotten his podium. He has to use a weedy single standard issue microphone, the rap equivalent of doing PE in your pants. Jackie Harris (I think, apologies if I've got the wrong singer) has been stood at the back in the corner. Unfortunately she's wearing a red jacket against a red coloured panel and is nearly invisible at times.

There are some terrific handheld camera shots looking from behind Snap into the studio, Geoff Beech is on Lighting and he keeps the lights on across the studio so you get a chance to see the full space.

The `lyrical Jesse James` about to attack. And we don't want that. Give him your Tesco Clubcard then.

[17] ALANNAH MYLES: BLACK VELVET. Jason Donovan returns the compliment and sticks around to watch Snap.Then Anthea Turner gets him to introduce the last video. He's a bit skittish and overexcited so he makes a bit of a hash of it. Mark Goodier next week. Alannah Myles is Promo VT.

 Performance of the week: Happy Mondays, Step On.

12/04/1990

Mark Goodier: “Good evening. Welcome to Britain's favourite radio and TV hit music show. It's Top of the Pops and later Britain's brand new number one but first a band who were one of the first Western bands to play Romania after it was liberated. Jesus Jones with the brilliant Real Real Real. Like this.”

 [23] JESUS JONES: REAL REAL REAL. I don't think liberated is quite the right way to describe the fall of the Ceauşescu dictatorship. It leaves the impression that as the eighth army advanced on Bucharest, Jesus Jones were hot on their heels like an alternative rock ENSA party. That aside, Mark Goodier's POP FACT is 100% verified. Jesus Jones, along with bands Crazyhead, and Skin Games did a three city tour of Romania in February 1990; Timişoara, Bucharest, and Braşov.

The band are on fine bonkers form here. I don't know what the keyboard player is up to but he's running around like a loony. By the end of the performance he's manhandling the keyboard around his bit of the stage. He's certainly full of... energy?

[18] JANET JACKSON: ESCAPADE. Promo VT

CHARTS: 40 TO 31

[15] TECHNOTRONIC featuring MC ERIC: THIS BEAT IS TECHNOTRONIC. Hold everything, the Christmas Tree is back on the stage left side and the Starburst shaped thing and Triangle are back on the right. All I ask, Mr Ciani, is that you make a decision and stick to it please.

A word of praise to Geoff Beech for the Lighting. The Triangle Stage is a riot of colour, blue, purple, red, yellow. All the colours (except green). The lights have been angled to make the perspex scenery appear illuminated from inside. It really does look great.

[11] HEART: ALL I WANT TO DO IS MAKE LOVE TO YOU. Promo VT.

BREAKERS:

[28] DAVID BOWIE: FAME 90

[30] SONIA: COUNTING EVERY MINUTE

[31] THE BLUES BROTHERS

[7] BIZZ NIZZ: DON'T MISS THE PARTY LINE. BBC VT, from 29/03/1990.

[17] PAULA ABDUL: OPPOSITES ATTRACT. Promo VT.

CHARTS: 30 to 11. E-Zee Possee refuse to go quickly, they are still hanging on in the Top 30. Rebel MC is also on the way down, at [21].

[24] THE CURE: PICTURES OF YOU. Robert Smith is an old hand at Top of the Pops by now and he knows how to curate the right image. Not too weird or political to frighten the Sixth Floor bigwigs but clearly different enough to stand out from everyone else. He's got  camera technique and knows how to use his eyes to good effect. Here, he often keeps his heavily shadowed eyes closed until the camera is close and then he briefly opens them. This makes the whites of his eyes stand out vividly.

There's a brilliant shot of the studio, looking over the drums, which is unfortunately quickly covered with a couple of Quantel overlays. This is one of those rare occasions when I think Paul Ciani misplays his hand. I would have just left that long shot on screen, there's plenty of visual interest with the drums in the foreground and Robert Smith ambling around behind, and the stillness of the image works well with the song.

TOP 10

[1] MADONNA: VOGUE: Promo VT.

[26] THE QUIREBOYS: I DON'T LOVE YOU ANYMORE. Promo VT, Jakki Brambles next week.

 Performance of the week: The Cure, Pictures of You.

19/04/1990

Jakki Brambles: “Hello, good evening, and welcome to the nation's top music show, Top of the Pops, and you can hear us loud and proud in stereo on Radio 1FM. We've got a great show lined up for you tonight, we've got five live acts in the studio and we're starting off tonight's show with number twenty one, here's Sonia.”  

 [21] SONIA: COUNTING EVERY MINUTE. Clearly I need to invent a time machine and use it to travel back in time to have a word with Paul Ciani. The Triangle Stage has been moved round again. It's set to the same configuration used on 05/04/1990. How will it look next week? Let's wait and see.

Sonia makes for a poor start to the programme. You know that “woo yeah” sample has reached peak ubiquity when it's being used in a Sonia single. My advice, mute her and get your exercise by proxy, watching her backing dancers gyrate frantically for three minutes (or however long the benighted song lasts).

[25] THE QUIREBOYS: I DON'T LOVE YOU ANYMORE. Promo VT.

CHARTS: 40 TO 31. E-Zee Possee still hanging on in the Top 40, at [33].

[20] ADAMSKI: KILLER. A round of applause for David Ward's Cypher Graphic caption. The number 20 and Killer are shaped into a blade hacking letters off Adamski's name, in a way that almost certainly wouldn't be tolerated today.

Praise also for Chris Kempton's lighting. The king of Purple and Blue is back and to re-mark his territory he lights the Neon stage in harsh purple, blue, and white, to match the colours of the neon tubes that make up the stage. It works astonishingly well because Admanski, Seal, and the dancer they've bought along to provide clockwork-ballerina style dancing, are all wearing white. Their clothes instantly take on the colours of the lighting and appear to glow. It's a really striking image and looks like something out of one of the classier science-fiction films.

[18] THE BLUES BROTHERS: EVERYBODY NEEDS SOMEBODY TO LOVE. Promo VT

[2] ALANNAH MYLES: BLACK VELVET. What is Alannah Myles sitting on? It looks like a couple of BBC standard issue tea chests covered in black drapes.

More good, simple, stark lighting from Chris Kempton. Purple and light blue with all the band members picked out in orange, except for the drummer who is not allowed an orange light.

CHARTS: 40 TO 31

[28] ADVENTURES OF STEVIE V: DIRTY CASH. More energetic backing dancers but this time with parachute pants.

[30] FAITH NO MORE: FROM OUT OF NOWHERE. I don't think lead singer Mike Patton is taking this very seriously.

Chris Kempton suddenly takes a completely different approach to the lighting. Previously its all been very moody and still with patches of spot colour. Now it's all flashing lights and excitement. This is much more appropriate to the song but you wouldn't notice if it wasn't such a contrast to what's gone before.

(POP FACT: Mike Patton's grandfather was General George S Patton of World War II) 

TOP 10

[1] MADONNA: VOGUE: Promo VT. At the end of the video, clever use of Quantel allows the insert of Jakki Brambles to start out in black and white and slowly fade to colour. Nice one, either Robin Lobb on Video Effects or Vision Mixer Hilary West.

[12] THE FAMILY STAND: GHETTO HEAVEN. Promo VT. Bruno Brookes hosts next week.

 Performance of the week: Faith No More, From Out of Nowhere.