Words: Chris Arnsby
24/01/1991
Simon Mayo: “Hello. Good evening. Here we go again. Another Top of the Pops. We’ve got a slightly shorter than normal programme tonight so we’ve got some... slightly shorter than normal pop stars. We’ve got Rick Astley, we’ve got The Simpsons on, Queen at the end of the programme, and Robert Palmer as well. We start at number twenty six with Tongue ‘N’ Cheek and Forget Me Nots.”
The start times for Eastenders, Neighbours and the news were the only fixed points in the BBC1 schedule which gives you some idea of their priorities in 1991. (Jonathan Powell, I shake my fist at you.) For some reason, the listings in the Evening Standard claim Gloria Estefan is on tonight. She isn’t, but she will be on the 07/02/1991 edition.
CHARTS: 40 TO 31
[9]
ROBERT PALMER: MERCY MERCY ME/I WANT YOU. BBC VT, repeated from 10/01/1991.
[6]
2 IN A ROOM: WIGGLE IT. Promo VT.
CHARTS:
30 to 11
[11]
THE SIMPSONS: DO THE BARTMAN. Promo VT. Unless you had access to Sky One, this was
likely to be your only exposure to The Simpsons for years. BBC1 showed
their first episode, Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire, on 21/12/1996 a
mere seven years after it premiered on Fox, 17/12/1989.
There
was a range of VHS tapes but the internet is hazy about the dates of the first
wave of releases. The BBFC website gives a classification date of 30/10/1991 to
four episodes; Bart the Genius, There’s No Disgrace Like Home, Bart the
General, and Call of the Simpsons. This suggests there were two
tapes on sale by Christmas 1991 at £9.99 for two 22 episodes per tape, at a
price of £9.99 this represented possibly the worst value in the WH Smith
audiovisual department.
[7] OFF-SHORE: I CAN’T TAKE THE POWER. Paul Ciani does everything he can to make Off-Shore interesting. He runs clips from the video. He uses Quantel effects. He gives us a lovely long tracking shot across the studio. Nothing helps. (John- So did they copy Tongue N Cheek's single sleeve design style or vice versa?)
[18]
A TRIBE CALLED QUEST. CAN I KICK IT? Promo VT
[14]
RICK ASTLEY: CRY FOR HELP. This has been an undistinguished evening for acts in the studio as
you might have been able to guess by the fact I’ve talked instead about
coverage of the Gulf War and The Simpsons.
TOP
10
[1]
QUEEN: INNUENDO. Promo VT. I’d forgotten 1991 was the year Freddy Mercury died. I
remember there being a buzz about the new Queen album, also called Innuendo, so
it wasn’t a surprise when the single went straight in at Number One a couple of
weeks before the album was released. What was a surprise was that the single
didn’t have the legs to stay there for a second week.
I
don’t think the presentation here does the song a lot of favours. Granted, the
single is a Top of the Pops unfriendly 6 minutes long. And granted the
video itself is a bit dull* but starting playback during the lengthy flamenco
bit must have left a lot of people wondering what the heck this was. I don’t
have any better ideas except to suggest playing the video in full. Yes, even in
a show that’s shorter than normal. Simon Mayo goes out of his way to note that
Queen “haven’t been around for ages,” so make a big deal of it. Shave what time
you can from the rest of the programme and show the whole video. Later on in
the year, Top of the Pops would clear 11 minutes to play the Black Or
White video in full** but that would be under a different producer.
*I
realise there were limits on what could be made because Freddy Mercury was
seriously ill.
**
with a few edits for imitable violence during the car smashing scene.
Countdown
to Year Zero revamp: 37
Performance
of the week:
All the studio acts were rotten. A Tribe Called Quest, Can I Kick It?
Performance
of the last week: KLF, 3AM Eternal.
31/01/1991
Also
back, and in full effect, is Paul Ciani’s neon tube structure which went
missing from it’s spot at the end of the neon tube stage during the week of
12/01/1990. Its been refurbished and is properly illuminated so it was clearly
sent away for repair. Actually, it was back for the 19/01/1991 show but I
forgot to mention it at the time.
Keep
an eye on the bloke in red, on the turntables at the back of the stage
(possibly Gareth Milford, who went by the unfortunate stage name of DJ Milf).
He produces a drumstick during the musical break and uses it to tap away on the
table, his record deck, and the nearby cymbals. It turns out drumsticks are
trickier to control than you might think and he ends up dropping the thing at
least twice. His clumsiness wouldn’t be nearly so noticeable if he wasn’t
wearing the bright red top.
[18]
RALPH TRESVANT: SENSITIVITY. Promo VT.
CHARTS: 40 TO 31
[14]
NOMAD with MIKEE FREEDOM: DEVOTION. One of the dry ice tubes has been carefully set up for the fog to
cascade down the curved film strip element of the Film Strip stage. It looks
good.
[19]
PRAISE: Only You. There’s a Style Guide breach when the song title accidentally
falls into lower case.
“Well
if you don’t already know! When you hear this next single you’re going to be
wracking your brains thinking ‘where have I heard it before?’! I’m not going to
tell you but I’ll give you a clue! Think of little Italian cars!”
Alas, Anthea is too giddy and excited to tell us the answer but 35 years later I can reveal it is the music from a Fiat Tempra advert. Rod Litherland has got hold hold of two of the biggest glitterballs he can find and pointed an exciting selection of lights at them. One looms over the Triangle stage, painted a shimmering angry red. It looks amazing. Like an evil planet.
CHARTS:
30 to 11
[11]
KYLIE MINOGUE: WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO. Promo VT. Quite a few places online claim Kylie recorded a studio
performance for this song. Unfortunately she was wearing a top with a CND
symbol on it and peace is out of fashion.
[8]
SOHO: HIPPY CHICK. There’s a terrific shot of the giant glitterball. This time it’s
coloured blue and shot at an angle which makes it dominate the stage.
TOP
10
[1]
THE KLF: 3 a.m. Eternal. The captions slip back into lowercase. Who is driving that thing?
This
is pretty much a point for point repeat performance of the one from the
19/01/1991 show; including oboe man. This is not a problem because that
performance was great. The main difference is, Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty
both get to wear crowns, reflecting their new status as kings of the charts,
and everyone is wearing red robes. Anthea Turner burbles, “congratulations to
KLF for a Number One and looking like the ku klux klan!” Ouch. Not cool Anthea.
[17]
VANILLA ICE: PLAY THE FUNKY MUSIC. Promo VT. Bruno Brookes next week.
Ratings:
One of the
reasons given for the Year Zero project was a fall in viewers so I’ve been
hunting around to see what ratings information I can find. It turns out THE
STAGE printed a weekly Top 30. To bring us up to date, these were the January
ratings.
The
03/01/1991 show placed at 25 with 8.42 million. Then THE STAGE didn’t print
ratings for the following week. Top of the Pops was not in the top
thirty for the 19/01/1991 show (so the move to Saturday caused by the Gulf War
didn’t help) or for 24/01/1991. Finally, because I am a silly sausage, I forgot
to look up the ratings for this week’s edition so I’ll pick that up next time.
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