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.

Dry ice pours out of the Top of the Pops logo in the middle of the right wing of the Main Stage. It looks really good. The same thing should be happening on the left wing but the the logo there isn't playing ball. There's some sort of blockage and the mist is just going everywhere.

[22] SOUL II SOUL Featuring KYM MAZELLE: Missing You. Promo VT.

[16] MEGABASS: Time To Make The Floor Burn. Promo VT.

CHARTS: 40 TO 31

[14] HONOR BLACKMAN & PATRICK MACNEE: Kinky Boots. Promo VT. The chart caption is in a slightly different format with the text backed by a dark grey box with a light green border. I guess it's been done to make the caption stand out from the video, which is also mostly black and white footage from The Avengers.

[21] DIMPLES D: Sucker DJ. Behind Dimples D, on the front of the mixing desk of the DJ* is written DMC. As in Run-DMC? Is Dimples D somehow connected with them?

Goes off to check Wikipedia. That didn't help. I now know that Sucker DJ was what the kids call an answer track to Run-DMC's Sucker M.C.'s (Krush-Groove 1) but I can't account for the DMC text.

*is he, the sucker DJ?

[24] CHRIS ISAAK: Wicked Game. BBC VT because this is clearly prerecorded. Two weeks ago (1990 Zone again), Chris Isaak appeared on Tonight With Jonathan Ross; 6.30pm 14/11/1990 Channel 4. Thus Watson, I deduce this Top of the Pops performance was recorded during the studio session for the 15/11/1990 edition and also that the Emerald Crown of the Aztecs never left the hotel room of the dead man!

It's worth comparing this to last week's performance of Falling by Julee Cruise (which confusingly for my purposes was shown before but recorded after Wicked Game). Wicked Game is kind of... flat. It's fine but the song is not supported by the lighting and direction in the way that Falling was. I can't help wondering if the presentation of Falling was informed by the production team looking at Wicked Game and wondering what could have been done to make it more atmospheric.

CHARTS: 30 to 11

[20] PET SHOP BOYS: Being Boring. Third verse skipped. Too boring presumably.

In the background there's something odd going on with the colour screen. It starts out taking the feed from the camera, I noticed it when Paul Ciani used a lovely hand held camera shot with Neil Tennant duplicated on the screen in the background and then, something goes awry.

The screen no longer shows studio footage. It's showing a video but not the video for Being Boring. It looks more like a montage of short clips. At first I thought someone might be rapidly spooling through the Promo VT insert tape for tonight's show but it doesn't realy look like any of those.

With a little help I realised a few individual stills stood out. There's a shot of a woman wearing a black crop top, that's from the video for the extended version of So Hard. Right at the end of the song the camera is positioned so we get a good long look at the screen; there's a quick still of Chris Lowe, then a Warhol-esque montage of head shots of Neil Tennant, which could come from the opening of West End Girls; among others.

It all seems to be Pet Shop Boys related material. I could believe someone in the studio gallery was reviewing a package for a show like Going Live! and had accidentally put the feed on to the screen. Although why they'd be doing this in the middle of a recording, I have no idea.

[18] BOMBALURINA Featuring Timmy Mallet: Seven Little Girls. Promo VT.

TOP 10

[1] VANILLA ICE: Ice Ice Baby. Promo VT.

[25] DEE-LITE: Power Of Love. Promo VT. Mark Goodier next week.

 Not the end. There's a pause after Power of Love comes to an end and the next item on the mastertape recording is Insert Roll B, Bombalurina, followed by the Top 10. Then under a blank screen Nicky Campbell quickly says “We've got Run-DMC.”

Run-DMC? Are they here with Dimples D? That question is never answered. The picture flicks into life showing a very long shot of the Film Strip stage lit up like a circus tent, all red and yellow lighting. Very un-Chris Kempton. He likes his blues and purples. The studio sound system is playing It's A Shame (My Sister) by Monie Love as Run-DMC wander around on the stage. Visible at the far left of the picture are two blokes distinctively dressed all in red, Dimples D's dancers have come to watch Run-DMC. Maybe they do all know each other.

Run-DMC do a great performance of What's It All About, which joins the pile of unused Top of the Pops performances because the single never got higher than [48].

Run-DMC had been over in the UK for a couple of weeks. They appeared on The Word on Friday 23/11/1990, the same night you could see them live at Kiss FM's Ton-Up Club at the Brixton Academy. Then on Monday 03/12/1990 they and the Dream Warriors were on DEF-II for Dance Energy, with Normski and the Dance Squad.

 Countdown to Year Zero revamp: 44

Performance of the week:  Chris Isaak, Wicked Game BUT ALSO Run-DMC, What's It All About.