Our group declare to be true"Sexy Cinderella" - Lynden David Hall
Won the MOBO award for Best Newcomer, a quiet and unassuming young talent.
Made three albums, appeared in "Love Actually", but died of cancer in 2006 aged just 31.
Evening all. Missed Culture Club, repeats from The Beautiful South and The Cardigans.
"The sweetest thing" - U2
Bono sings about how he wants to get the Nobel prize, shop at Ikea, eat lingonberry jam from a smorgasbord, catch a flying Blahåj, listen to ABBA.
Just some Swedish things.
"Little bit of lovin'" - Kele Le Roc
First of two number 8 singles for the Hackney soul singer.
She had the worst luck in her career: split from the record company after just one album because she didn't want to be pigeon-holed.
Since then, Kele has starred in musicals, gave education in Mali, and continues to perform.
"Thank u" - Alanis Morissette
Lead single from her fourth album, and it's not going to be "Jagged Little Pill" redux. There's no anger, none of the rage that made her famous.
It's the sound of someone who stops, considers their life, and breathes in the moment. Strip away all the mundane, get down to the inner soul.
The album will turn out to be inspired by Alanis's trip to India last year.
"Believe" - Cher
Amazing what they can do with computers these days. The effect on her voice is "auto-tune", which converts any sort of bad singing into the right melody by shifting the notes electronically.
It's meant to be used gradually and imperceptably; this "zero setting" just chops the voice up and makes it sound like a robot.
Cher's voice falls to pieces, then re-integrates. French disco has been doing this for a year, but never with a great singer like Cher.
These episodes of Top of the Pops went out in the weeks when Ron Davies resigned after being caught on Clapham Common; in the ensuing brew-ha-ha Peter Mandelson was outed as a homosexual.
Poet Ted Hughes died, and Albert Square was rocked to its foundations when Frank and Roy set up a used car business! Together!
"Thank u" - Alanis Morissette
The album "Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie" was too long, 17 tracks sprawl over the CD like schoolchildren on a coach.
It contains a lot of musical adventure, more than Alanis has done before or since. "That i would be good" is uplifting, "So pure" a lost dance floor filler, and "Would not come" feels like a Dawson's Creek script set to trip-hop.
Also contains "Unsent", which reduces me to a blubbering wreck.
You lot are probably watching Ickle Billie Piper and Aerosmith on #TOTP. I'm off getting meatballs for @girlabtvillage .
Oh, hai corner shop. Got any meatballs in?
You've stopped selling them?
The local kids tied strings to them and used them as conker-smashers? And that was *after* they were defrosted?
Er, thanks. (edges away slowly)
Look! A flying picnic table!
(scarpers to the next shop)
"Would you..?" - Touch and Go
The brainchild of composer David Lowe, it's got a massive trumpet hook and some sterling beats; the lyric is nothing to write home about, but delivered with passion.
"Would you..?" was used as the theme to E4's drama "As If"; more on that when we reach 2004.
David went on to write the BBC's news theme, and re-used ideas from this song when he composed the theme to "The One Show".
"Blue angels" - Pras Michel
Sounds like an original song, actually samples the theme to the 1978 film "Grease" starring Floyd And Co.
"Guess i was a fool" - Another Level
Sounds like a 1970s cover, is actually an original song.
"Testify" - M People
The token new song for the group's Greatest Hits album, so it's mostly Heather Small being soulful and a bit shouty.
They spent £750,000 on the video for this, with Heather in an arctic wasteland they've built in a London studio.
Radio airplay was lukewarm, with Radio 2 liking it more than Radio 1. Are the M People becoming (gasp) a Heritage Act? Is that Ver Dumper a'beckoning?
"Believe" - Cher
The song's written by Brian Higgins, who we'll meet again through Xenomania. Lots of people worked on the verses, the chorus was an instant smash.
Label boss Rob Dickens wanted to take out the auto-tune and put out Cher's original vocals: "over my dead body" replied the star.
The song's become a proper dancefloor classic: here's a cover by Charli XCX.
Charli XCX - Believe
*I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE MUSIC POSTED*
Our first Mystery Year comes from the week when Concorde went into service to New York, scientists invented TCP/IP and hence the internets.
ITV announced adult numeracy programme "Make It Count" with Fred Harris leaping about on a giant calculator.
The host is David "Kid" Jensen, Esq.
While the great meatball hunt continues, here's my thread from two years ago.
Weaver (@[email protected])
The Carvelles perform "The L A run". If only they'd called it "I'm gonna ride my skateboard now", we might remember it. Great sunny Pacific coast pop. Paul Fab Macca Whacky Thumbs Aloft!!! McCartney and Wings with the video to "Mull of Kintyre". #TOTP
No, i do not have a nectar card. Where are you lot up to?
"Mull of Kintyre" - Wings
HRH Sir Lord Paul Fab Macca Whacky Thumbs Aloft!!! McCartney of Kintyre, his wife Lady Linda Fab Macca Whacky Thumbs Aloft!!! McCartney, and their third wheel Denny Laine.
Every song is new at some time, and this is yet to become an utter behemoth.
Cripes, the local louts are out on my way back. How can i sneak past them with my cargo of meatballs?
Incapacitate the louts with Darts Bunny and the Master Blasters? Naah, not that desperate.
Pour out a few meatballs so they get under the baddies feet and they fall over like on Home Alone? Only works in the movies.
Hide in the back of a pantomime camel, like Flick of the Wrist demonstrated? An excellent idea!
"The name of the game" - ABBA
Hurrah! Made it back in one piece.
As requested by @girlabtvillage, Swedish-recipe meatballs, and a Swedish group. Eat that, Bono.
Our first Mystery Year was 1977. Another one follows on #TOTP.
In our second #TOTP Mystery Year, archbishop Desmond Tutu called for the west to boycott apartheid South Africa, and animal rights extremists claimed to have poisoned Mars bars.
There was crowd unrest at the world chess championships; the 15th draw between Karpov and Kasparov was agreed after just 17 moves, spectators didn't feel that they'd got value for their tickets, and *hummed* in frustration.
John Peel tries to find chemistry with The Dark Lord Thomas of Vanceford.
"Warning sign" - Nick Heyward
Very sharp shot direction here, makes Nick and his red-suited backing singers pop out of the foggy background.
The song? Eh, that's a bit below his best, too much anti-drugs message and not enough song. Would suggest one compare it with "White lines", but TOTP never played it.
Liked the double rap break near the end, Nick could have done more with that.
"Hard habit to break" - Chicago
The band play in half-light and in cross-faded close-up, intercut with footage of the band's neigbours, young enough to be their sons and daughters.
There's smoking and drinking, there's wanton violence against a house of cards, and there's a classic soft rock song in the background, complete with sax solo.
Yacht rock at its most yachty.
"Respect yourself" - The Kane Gang
The Kane Gang made one enduring contribution to culture. This is not it.
Sure, it's got PP Arnold on backing vocals, but that's the highlight of an over-staffed song and a pedestrian (some may say pointless) cover version.
The group's career highlight? Flop single "Smalltown creed". Gave us both the theme to "Byker Grove" *and* a jingle for Lord Gary Davies.
The Kane Gang Smalltown Creed
"Louise" - The Human League
So, what happened when the protagonists of "Don't you want me" went their separate ways?
We find out, as narrowboat-pilot Phil tracks down trenchcoat Suzanne, and finds that he still has feelings for her. She still thinks he's talking cack.
"Caribbean queen" - Billy Ocean
Sharp suit, the little podium stage is perfect for a solo performer.
He sings, he dances, and by golly he connects with the camera!
Billy wasn't the most consistent of hitmakers, but when he resonated with the public, he was rewarded and remembered.
"One night in Bangkok" - Murray Head
Another Swedish thing, the teaser song from Benny Anderson / Björn Ulvaeus / Tim Rice's concept musical Chess.
Murray delivers the vocal line live, though his two backing singers are miming to the usual track. The narrator - almost rapper - wears a grey suit, and has a camera up his nose for much of the song.
It's a very different way of filming a very different song. Enough to make a hard man crumble.
"Teardrops" - Shakin' Stevens
Baron Shakesford gyrates in a sea of dry ice, while his sparking suit is lit by pink spotlights.
There's a country twang to the song, perhaps a sniff of "Hey Paula" from the 1960s, but Shakey buries it beneath his usual syrup. A shame: there's a great song we're not hearing.
"I feel for you" - Chaka Khan
A song written by Prince, rapping by Melle Mel, and a harmonica part played by Stevie Wonder.
Chaka never came into the studio, so we only ever got to see the video. It's the one with Chaka and her chums being mean and moody in a graffitti-strewn industrial zone, jumping around, throwing hankies in the air, and doing the moonwalk.
"Never ending story" - Limahl, and dance out.
Memo to cheerleaders: do not fall off your podium, it will embarrass you four decades later.
Our second #TOTP Mystery Year was 1984.
Christmas 1995 next, with Björk and Jack Dee going from N-Trance to the Mike Flowers Pops via TOO MUCH (i.e. some) ROBSON AND JEROME. Here's my thread from an earlier airing.
Weaver (@[email protected])
Oh, put some clothes on, N-Trance, you'll catch your deaths of cold. "Set you free" remains a marvellous four-to-the-floor thumper. Other #TOTP hits from January: Hacker T Dog's fave, Phil Oakey in The Line Up, and Boyzone.
Boxing on BBC2 tomorrow, with Christmas music from 10pm.
#TOTP is all over the place next Friday, it's curtailed by bloody men's football, which displaces House of Games, which displaces snooker, which displaces us. Goodness alone knows when the late edition will go out.
I'll be back with you in a fortnight, unless i'm tripped over by a pantomime camel dropping meatballs behind it.
Whatever you're doing, have a great one!
Stephen Borrill
Dan Hatton
Girl about village@daweaver haha yes!
@daweaver would that be Rob-Dickens-at-the-wheel, to give him his full name?