Top of the Pops 18th April 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

 Jakki Brambles: “Hello, good evening, and welcome along to Top of the Pops on BBC1 and of course we are live in stereo on Radio 1FM. We’ve got a right good rollocking show for you tonight, it’s a pleasure to be here. Will you welcome our first band of the night, with Sit Down, live on stage on Top of the Pops, it’s James.”

 [2] JAMES: SIT DOWN. If you haven’t watched it, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWZHPUGPxfo and have a look at the behind the scenes report from the 8.15 From Manchester, 20/04/1991 edition. Michael Hurll is interviewed around 4 minutes in and says: “The producer Paul Ciani at the moment unfortunately is in hospital and they asked me to just pop in and do it. I haven’t done it for four years.”

It would be really interesting to find out when Michael Hurll stepped in to the production cycle. Who took the initiative for the redesign of the Film Strip stage? The big central circular element has been left in the scenery store. A huge grey cyclorama has been hung behind the stage and on it Graham Rimmington is projecting big colourful moving flower shapes. It looks really good. It makes the stage look massive, especially in comparison to the normal look which is designed to create an enclosed, performance space. This is a wide open blasted heath that King Lear could really dig.

During the report, presenter Charlotte Hindle grabs short interviews with various guests, including Tim from James who is asked for his earliest memories of Top of the Pops: “I must have been about four and The Beatles were on. One sister said, ‘that’s my band’. The Rolling Stones came on and the other sister said, ‘that’s my band’. And I think my granny turned the telly off and said, ‘you’re not to watch that band’.”

POP STAR FACT CHECK: Tim from James was born in 1960, so he would have been four when Top of the Pops began and The Beatles and The Rolling Stones appeared on the same edition several times in 1964. Tim from James gets a tick for the accuracy of his Top of the Pops memories.

[23] CHER: THE SHOOP SHOOP SONG (IT’S IN HIS KISS). Promo VT.

[19] O.M.D. : SAILING ON THE SEVEN SEAS. Charlotte Hindle also interviews Andy McCluskey who “thinks” this is his sixteenth time on the show.

POP STAR FACT CHECK: O.M.D have appeared on Top of the Pops 15 time (including this one) so Andy McCluskey gets half a tick for his nearly accurate Top of the Pops memories. Unless, of course, there is an unused performance lurking in the archives in which case Andy McCluskey’s Top of the Pops memories would be upgraded to a full tick.

CHARTS FROM 40 TO 11

[16] BLACK BOX: STRIKE IT UP. Black Box feature in the 8.15 From Manchester report but it wouldn’t be fair to quiz them on their memories of Top of the Pops because they are Italian. Charlotte Hindle could however have asked them questions about Discoring on RAI Television, so that’s an opportunity missed.

[15] THE CLASH: ROCK THE CASBAH. Promo VT. (Filmed in Austen, Texas, not the Casbah).

[18] THE MOCK TURTLES: CAN YOU DIG IT? Charlotte Hindle also interviews crane camera operator Peter Goldring who reveals Top of the Pops uses three handheld cameras and three cranes. Three cranes seems excessive but presumably it helps keep the recorded as live momentum going. Two can be recording the band, while the third is setting up to pan to the host.

Finally we get a chat with Jakki Brambles who talks about how noisy the studio is: “When they herd all the audience in and they turn the volume up on the speakers, you can’t hear a word. You literally can’t hear yourself.” There’s also a nice clip of her rehearsing her introduction on the main stage with no audience, but somehow through the magic of television there is still cheering in the background. (John- Another obligatory fact here, the Mock Turtles included Martin Coogan, older brother of Steve.)

BREAKERS

[37] ZZ TOP: MY HEAD’S IN MISSISSIPPI

[34] GLORIA ESTEFAN: SEAL OUR FATE

[33] SILVER BULLET: UNDER ANARCHIST

[30] TRANSVISION VAMP: (I JUST WANNA) B WITH U

[28] PETE WYLIE / THE FARM: SINFUL

[22] ZUCCHERO / PAUL YOUNG: SENZA UNA DONA (WITHOUT A WOMAN). Sorry Zucchero. I’ve got nothing. What’s your earliest memory of Discoring?

Zuch and Paul. Incredible snail dancing just out of shot.

TOP 10

[1] CHESNEY HAWKES: THE ONE AND ONLY. Promo VT. (John- Pop Fact! This song was written by Nik Kershaw!)

[7] THE SIMPSONS: DEEP DEEP TROUBLE. Promo VT. Nicky Campbell next week. Top of the Pops ended and BBC1 went straight into a trailer for 8.15 From Manchester introduced by Charlotte Hindle from the Top of the Pops Main Stage. You can see it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-U_3HN8hhY

 Countdown to Year Zero revamp: 25

Ratings: Top of the Pops stays in the Top 30. The 6.59 million people who watched got the show to [27]. That compares to 1990 when the 22/04/1990 edition reached [24] with an audience of 7.87 million.

 Performance of the week: James, Sit Down.