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.

Hmm. This doesn’t feel as punchy as the last performance. There’s more of a reliance on sweeping pans from the camera cranes which always seem to lack the immediacy of handheld camera shots. Possibly because the cranes have to be set back behind the crowd round the stage. This is good but the performance on the 22/08/1991 show was great.

Also, what happens on the opening pan as the camera moves out from under the studio bridge? A male voice briefly cuts over the audio, but I can’t quite work out what it says; something like “don’t look” or “[something] hook”. I can only guess it’s to do with the camera lumbering along behind the audience.

[3] THE PRODIGY: CHARLY. Promo VT and charts from [40] to [2].

[24] SONIA: BE YOUNG, BE FOOLISH, BE HAPPY. It seems kind of unreasonable for Jakki Brambles describes the forthcoming Sonia album as “containing a few self-penned tunes,” when the singer is just about to launch into a cover version. I don’t think it’s meant as a dig.

Sonia’s band needs more rehearsal time. There’s a shot of the line up early on where everyone is doing a swaying step-to-the-left-step-to-the-right move, except the two people closest to the camera. These two do get with the routine eventually. To be fair to them, if I tried to dance and play the saxophone/trumpet at the same time something terrible would happen.

The big question raised by this performance, why is there a black trunk with BBC TV stencilled on it next to the drums? Is it for packing away the rostrum used for the drums? Typically falling BBC standards, put it behind the scenery.

[13] SALT-N-PEPPA: LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX. Promo VT.

[6] ZOE: SUNSHINE ON A RAINY DAY. A nice opening crane shot which starts by looking at Zoe framed in the distance through the pillars of the Stonehenge Stage.

[9] MARTIKA: LOVE… THY WILL BE DONE. Promo VT.

[14] UTAH SAINTS: WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR ME. All through this performance, Stanley Appel keeps cutting to the video. Normally this is a bad sign, an indication the performers are not expected to keep the interest of the audience. I’m not sure that’s the case here. Utah Saints isn’t a couple of stunned looking blokes with turntables; one of them has a guitar, there’s a DJ at the back, another person on the keyboard, and a drummer who is really going for it. There’s more than enough happening. I think Stanley Appel might be cutting to the video to distinguish this performance from Oceanic’s.

One small mystery. In long shots from the front of the stage, the DJ standing at the back is in darkness. Sometimes he is barely visible. You only get a good look at him in close ups. It seems odd that Martin Kisner wouldn’t light him.

I think this might be the result of a technical compromise. The DJ is standing between two banks of monitors where, if he was lit from the front, the light would wash out the screens. Instead, a handheld camera operator has been assigned to stand at the back of the stage and his job is just to get a right profile shot of the DJ as part of the view looking out to the audience. The DJ is perfectly lit from this camera angle which makes me think the darkness from the front is intentional.

[18] KYLIE MINOGUE: WORD IS OUT. A quick note, this edition of Top of the Pops was broadcast at 7.30pm on a Friday. It was displaced from Thursday by Hospital Watch a programme running live four times a day through the week from Hammersmith Hospital. Note the name, next year is the year of Ghost Watch and who were two of the hosts of Hospital Watch? Mike Smith and Sarah Greene.

BREAKERS

[32] MOTLEY CRUE: PRIMAL SCREAM

[31] SABRINA JOHNSON: PEACE

[29] CRYSTAL WATERS: MAKIN’ HAPPY

[26] ROXETTE: THE BIG L

[1] BRYAN ADAMS: EVERYTHING I DO (I DO IT FOR YOU). Promo VT.

[25] RUNRIG: HEARTHAMMER.  Promo VT. “Well. I’m off to the Derby and Joan Club now.” Says Jakki Brambles at the end of the video. This could be a reference to her being on the way out because of Year Zero or it could be a call back to her comment earlier about how much time has passed since Bryan Adams first took residence at Number One. Simon Mayo next week.

 Countdown to Year Zero revamp: 4

 Ratings: Not listed in the Top 30, which means Top of the Pops was watched by fewer than the 7.48 million who saw one of the editions of Hospital Watch; The Stage doesn’t specify which. Top of the Pops also failed to reach the Top 30 this week in 1990 so it had an audience smaller than the 7.76 million who saw In Sickness and In Health.

 Performance of the week: Utah Saints, What Can You Do For Me.