Chart Music: the Top Of The Pops Podcast - Chart Music #50: March 21st 1996 - The Movement That Wouldn't Feel The Benefit

Episode Date: May 18, 2020

Chart Music #50: March 21st 1996 - The Movement That Wouldn't Feel The BenefitThe latest episode of the podcast which asks the question: What was David Stubbs doing while the Rainforest was falling?It's our half-century. Pop-Crazed Youngsters, but we're not making a fuss about it, bar the raising of the bat and a nod to the stands before returning to the job of whacking at a random episode of Top Of The Pops. And oh dear: this particular slice of Thursday evenings past comes at us during the even more devastating Second Wave of Britpop, with Steve Lamacq and Jo Whiley playing the roles of Peelie and Janice. Musicwise, we're fully into the Ric Blaxill era, so expect a morbid carousel of Proper Music played on Proper Instruments, with a smattering of past-it Eighties sorts thrown in, and all mixed together with an offensive distain for the charts. Rick Witter may or may not be wearing a Tena underneath his Martin Fry suit. Lionel Richie's head is lowered into a Desperate Dan beard. Prince Naseem Hamed pitches up with Kaliphz to remind us that dance music was somehow still going in the mid-Nineties. Menswear bring along a string section. Oh God, it's Madonna again. Celine Dion wafts about a circus putting in no graft whatsoever. Take That offer up the most half-arsed swan song in musical history, and - finally - Oasis enter the Chart Music arena.Simon Price and Neil Kulkarni join Al Needham for a bit of Gay Exchange-advert-dancing upon the ashes of '96, veering off on such tangents as going into the off-licence in Napoleonic headjoy, stripping in front of someone off Coronation Street, being a Lion Bell-End, bum-rushing the Camden KFC, being made by a Manic Street Preacher to dance to the Ramadan No.1 of 1974, the Horseshoe Of Shame, and a rate and quality of swearing that times like this demand.  Video Playlist | Subscribe |  Facebook  | Twitter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, I'm Alex Lynch, and this is Out of Character, a podcast about sketch and character comedy. Oh, you're not a wizard. No, I am. I've got a beard. Oh, yeah, he's right. He does have a beard, actually. In this show, I chat to writers and performers from the world of sketch and character comedy. And I sort of couldn't believe what I was seeing. Like, I couldn't believe anything could be that good. That moment of self-hatred is your rehearsal. That's what...

You've been doing it your whole life. Out of character with me, Alex Lynch. The following podcast is a member of the Great Big Owl family. This will certainly have an adult theme and might well contain strong scenes of sex or violence, which could be quite graphic. It may also contain some very explicit language, which will frequently mean sexual swear words. What do you like to listen to? Um, chart music.

Chart music. It's Thursday night. It's about 18 minutes past seven. It's July the 3rd, 1983. The smell of late teas are wafting in through the open window the kids on the street are playing Kerber with World Cup 86 footballs that are on sale at the garage

for half price and this episode of Top of the Pops is interesting not brilliant possibly cat shit in places, but interesting nonetheless. Ey up, you pop craze youngsters.

My name's Al Needham. Welcome to the final part of Chart Music number 59. Me, Taylor Parks and Neil Kulkarni are going to bring this baby home. I don't know what it is about these Fox people, but they certainly go in for suggestive titles at 23. Sly Fox and Let's Go All The Way. Janice, on her own again, speculates on the overall foxiness of this week's chart and tells us that the next single sounds a bit fruity as well. It's Let's Go All The Way by Sly Fox.

Formed in New York in 1985, Sly Fox were an interracial duo consisting of Michael Camacho, a former acapella singer who'd been a member of the Main Ingredient in the early 80s and was currently being advised by David Bowie, and Gary Mudbone Cooper, a former member of Parliament Funkadelic who co-wrote I'd Rather Be With You and played drums on George Clinton's Atomic Dog. This is their debut single, which came out in May on both sides of the Atlantic. While it was doing fuck all over there, it entered our charts at number 79 and took a month to get up to number 39. It jumped nine places the week after that to number 30, and this week it's up another seven places to number 23. Reason enough for Capitol Records to shove them into a plane

and get them into the top of the pop studio. First thing I've got to do is correct Janice because the song's obviously not about shagging. It's essentially another way of saying go for it. Yeah, which I wouldn't take from most people. But Sly Fox, I'm listening. Yes, definitely. I mean, sometimes it can be a really trepidatious thing, Yeah, which I wouldn't take from most people. But Sly Fox, I'm listening. Yes. Definitely.

I mean, sometimes it can be a really trepidatious thing, revisiting songs that you know back in the day you loved on chart music because you're always worried that it's not going to stand up. And I remember when I saw that this was on this episode, I remembered that I was freaking obsessed with this song and was intensely gratified on playing this episode to realise that i was freaking obsessed with the song was intensely gratified on playing this episode to realize i still love it i mean whereas with most of the stuff on this episode my shitty laptop speakers were enough i did have to hook this up to my stereo and play it

loud and and its appeal in 86 i think is quite simple because to paraphrase q-tip all pop fans um they love their beats hard like two-day old shit as he said i love this at the time i suspect because partly it touches on a very specific contact high that pop and rock have sporadically touched on ever since the dawn of rock and roll really the power of a beat the beat here is kind of the hook. And in 86, when studio wizardry seemed mainly focused on kind of deodorizing drums to the point of this airy bigness, the beat in Let's Go All The Way, it hits you hard. It hits you in the chest. It hits with the same sort of startling heaviness

as other records from this period that also leapt out of the pile for me, like Janet's Nasty, or even Falco's Amadeus, as other records from this period that also leapt out of the pile for me like like janet's nasty or even falco's amadeus or art of noise is close to the idiot or cameo's word up or slime rob his boots we've said already in 86 a lot of us are sent backwards and we're listening to the meters and zeppelin and things like that and and if you're listening to drums like that and then listening to stuff in 86 you're not going to get pleased coming back to the present and just not feeling that anymore you search for it you're greedy for it wherever you find it you know pet shop boys west end girls it also tickled my my sort of big beat thirst if you like in a way that

pet shop boys subsequent work never would and in so many ways um you know what we see on this particular episode of top the pop seems so behind the times or at least is barely preparing us for a world in which, you know, within a year we're going to have Rebel without a pause and follow the leader in our ears. But this record, it had that mid-range snare hit, which punches you in the chest, combined with this real, I think Sly Fox, like all the best people at this period, were looking back. It's got a real 60s kind of psychedelic melody i can't have been the only kid at the time occasionally singing um semolina pilchard climbing up the eiffel tower to this you know it's got that i'm the warresting massively in these droning chords deliberately so

apparently oh right i see i mean much as prince was touching back on the 60s to re-inject contemporary pop with some oomph and oddness it seems like Fox were doing the same and it's quite a monomaniacal doomy record in a way it's like a pop version of Eno's Baby on Fire sometimes and when I checked the lyrics in Smash It I loved it even more the sort of lines I mean you've said Al that kind of let's go all the way could be interpreted as a kind of positive statement it's actually really quite a dark doomy record lyrically i think you know sitting with the thinker trying to work it out presidential party no one wants to dance and what a california dream is sinking in the sand there's an almost steely dan darkness to the words here which i think gives

real impetus to the message it's a a kind of apocalypse now, let's get fucking wild kind of message with no ambition or hope or trajectory to it. And, you know, I'm... Living in New York, like an apple core. Apple core. That's my favourite bit in the whole record when he goes, apple core. I would have been, yeah,

I mean, I would have been utterly delighted to have seen them on top of the pops because I think by this point, I'd have got tired of the kind of the amazing video, because I really liked the video for this song as well. But I remember feeling proud in a way that, you know, much as sort of it's weird, you can be proud to be British because Sparks made it. I was kind of proud that it was a big hit over here. And, you know, this performance, they seem pleased to be here.

Unlike the House Martins, there's no kind of residual snotiness towards the audience. big hit over here and and you know this performance they seem pleased to be here unlike the house martins there's no kind of residual snotiness towards the audience um and in all the flim flam and folder all involved in pop in 1986 there's something pure about the response to this just kids going mad for a beat i mean by 1986 standards the kids are going fucking berserk over this aren't they i mean at the slightest hint of a bit of dancing off them, they start screaming as if they're expecting them to, you know, they're going to start stripping at any moment. Much bigger names than Sly Fox get barely no reaction, you know, on this episode.

But Sly Fox are the absolute highlight of the show. They look great as well. I mean, it's only now, of course, you know, at the time, I wouldn't have known perhaps who gary mudbone cooper wasn't just how many fucking amazing records he appeared on you know he don't forget beyond all the p-funk and bootsy stuff that he was on he was also on sly and robbie's amazing rhythm killers album he was on digital underground the body hat syndrome you know i'd actually put him in a weird way alongside people like Bill Laswell and those kind of post-punk New York City funk artists.

And Michael Comancho looks great as well. He's like Roland Orsabelle's handsome twin brother. But I would totally eat the fuck out of a sandwich made by Sly Fox. I love this record. Oh, yeah. I actually shouted wicked when this came on when I was watching this episode for the first time.

Cheered almost as wildly as the top of the Pops audience, which I love the fact that they've still got the House Martins scarves on. So it's like, in your mind, you can imagine it's a load of House Martins fans who go, wait a minute, this is much better. Because it is. Especially at the start when Sly Fox are clapping their hands over their heads and they slowly turn around to face them.

Which surely... Getting the party started. That must have been a disappointment on at least one level. From the inside round. But no, no, here we go. Come on, lads. Take your coats off or you won't feel the benefits. And it's really weird how they've got all this bloody neon crap lying about

and, you know, them horrible lights and everything. And they've perched themselves right in the corner of the stage and they hardly move from it. Yeah. And this is the kind of song where you expect them to be just marching right across from one end of the stage to the other like rappers. But no, they hold their spot. Well, they're just commanding the stage with sheer force of personality

and simple charisma in it. If you can't take your eyes off it, mullet versus high-top fade in the world series of mid-80s hairstyles. I love this record so much. Partly just because it's such an incredibly unlikely flower to find growing in the filth of this appalling time and place you know what i mean but it's not the work of like brave outsiders forcing their way in do you know what i mean this seed has been planted in exactly the same soil as all

those mid-80s records that everyone hates you know and watered with cocaine piss in exactly the same way but it's come up big and bright and and beautifully nonsensical it sounds like the most unlikely hybrid of brutalist, gimmicky, mock futurist, 70s British bubblegum with sort of cokie, rolled sleeve, brain sludge of a is American major label bilge. And that, in a way, I mean, that's obviously not what it is it's not coming from that background but that's what it sounds like and the chance effect uh created by whatever they were trying to do is so fantastic i can't imagine anyone disliking this record it's one of those records i can't imagine anyone going oh no not this i know they exist but you know you know well i was one of them i'm afraid i'm sure for the crappiest reason ever right i listen to this now and i go yeah this is fucking properly good but i gave sly fox the shortest of shrift at

the time because this was round about the time i was absolutely frothing over slime the family stone and i'd see their name in the papers or whatever and just jump up and go oh it's them i'm even more fucked off nowadays about slime the family drone fuck those guys i've not heard one note by them but i fucking hate them it's like how fucking you? I refuse to go near them precisely for the same reasons, Al. But yes, you're right. The two biggest reactions we've had in this episode are this and Happy Hour, two completely different singles,

but it just demonstrates that in 1986, people are absolutely gagging for something that sounds new or at least different. Yeah, yeah. The thing is, there's obviously something about this record that smells slightly bad if you want to be cynical about it. I mean, you know that everyone involved with this had what they would have called careers in the music industry.

You know what I mean? It's not an outsider record. And, you know, for all the craziness, I mean, you can imagine how great this chorus must have sounded after freebasing. Yes. If you want to be really cynical, you could say that this record, ironically enough, is like an inverted mullet.

Like it's party up front, business at the back. It's not a field recording of wild men at large you know what i mean it's clearly come from a recognizable place which is america in 1986 where the 70s haven't so much ended as evolved yeah you know like so much british stuff from this time is still reacting against the 70s, even mainstream stuff. Even as 1990 is closer than 1979, it's still. Whereas Sly Fox, they're kind of as 80s as you can possibly get. Yeah.

But in a way, it's more like a slow, natural development out of the 70s you know um it's because the american music business was too big and sprawling for sharp handbrake turns and they never had an effective year zero you know like we pretended to do with punk so you still got dinosaurs but evolving into slightly different looking dinosaurs and occasionally that just seemed like an openness in the sense of doors being left unlocked. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. And things could get through.

So you take that and you combine it with what sounds like an attempt to assimilate and acknowledge hip-hop and sort of electro and, you know, Prince-type pop funk. Gary Mudbone cooper's funk credentials unquestionable um and you end up with this weird and glorious mess you know when you've got this this brutal simplification um you've got like a squeaking groaning w, heavy metal guitar, like the theme tune to Gazzetta Football Italia. Yes. And the preposterous lyrics and that boldness

and that gleeful lack of taste. And you end up with something that's absolutely fabulous. It's like steamy AOR that's genuinely a bit funky wrapped around pure bubblegum. Yeah, that lack of taste is key it kind of it gives you its joys generously this record you know and in 86 what we were looking for if you were in any way interested in good pop was what was because what we were being given was very measured polite and tasteful pop music in the main from the mainstream what we were looking for for our thrills i mean for starters we were looking for thrills that seemed to have been forgotten yeah

what we were looking for was things that were unslick in a way and that's why the house martins you know floated my boat in this period they were unslick what we were looking for in a sense was the immature um rather than you know that you know that if you put this record on now, I mean, I know most kids wouldn't know it, but they'd be stomping to it within about 30 seconds. I mean, little kids here. That's what we're after. That's what I was after, certainly, in 86.

Something unslick, something immature, rather than this kind of measured, polite, tasteful stuff that was being doled down to us by pop's bigger names, if you like. This is essentially the non-white american we will rock you isn't it well that's i mean and that's perhaps why on the on the 12 inch you know they interpolate bits of we will rock you into the remix um but yeah because i mean there's a there's a beat matching thing on there. But yeah, it is very much like that.

It's a record to stomp to. And whereas the vast majority of the charts seem to be, it seemed to be sort of trying to grow up a little bit and be mature and be good. And fuck that. That's always usually anathema to great pop happening. This is just, you know, in this episode in particular, remember when we were, me, Taylor and you, Al,

were doing this episode and Thin Lizzy came on after James Galway and it was like, yes! This is that moment in this episode, absolutely. They're quite lovable characters as well, don't you think? They're like a pair of buddy-buddy cops in a lightweight 80s comedy action thriller. They're like, you know, jilinski and cronk it's like hey cronk what's the matter with you dude we've already got 15 hours to stop mcfadden

and you're drinking a pink cocktail in ray bands and a hawaiian shirt yeah he says hey man there's always time to party car speeds off huey lewis track kicks in but i'm i'm glad that we got this studio performance rather than the video partly because it means we get to see them having the time of their lives you know doing kung fu moves and drops and leaps and overhead hand claps beckoning fingers and uh and massive genuine smiles because they're not dumb and they're making the most of this while it lasts uh but also because the video is a massive seizure risk which just would not be allowed on television anyway now it's flashing strobing effects all the way through you got these two kids who are obviously representations of Sly and Fox unloading a shopping trolley full of toy guns and tanks and fighter jets and smashing them all up with hammers, which I think might be trying to put across a message of some sort.

sort and then at the end having destroyed all these toy weapons the two little kids uh pick up a big globe and walk away with it which i think is trying to say that small children are thieves who take without giving and danger to the world yeah they want the fucking answers tanning yeah give them a spell on war orphan farm that'll them out. But I couldn't tell for sure because, yeah, I had my eyes covered for most of the video because it's like being trapped in mortar fire. I mean, it sort of suits the unhinged attack of the record. Yeah, it does. But it's impossible to look at,

and I really didn't want to lose consciousness, perhaps for the last time, with Michael Camacho and Gary Mudbone Cooper singed onto my retinas, much as I love them, you know. Wouldn't have been a privilege. We go mental for black Latino double acts, don't we? Because this is essentially Charles and Eddie, the long coat years. It's about time we had another one.

In fairness, I can see why sly fox will want it wonders because i went and listened to their album uh with its 1986 forever cover uh knowing full well that it was going to let me down you know but research is research and uh i mean it wouldn't be outrageously unfair to say that let's Go All The Way is the best track on the album. Or that the rest of it is to 1986 what the bleating of livestock and the low moans of plague victims was to 1351. But I will say it's better than that. And it's slightly better than i expected even though it's not substantially different from what i expected um it's a sort of a slick lightweight 80s pop

funk record it's like a pointer sister's album crushed in miami vice um but but i wish i hadn't bothered to find that out in a way in the same way that i've never like consciously never listened to any other song by that inexplicable 90s duo roy vedas other than fragments of life um because i know what would happen if i did you know uh but you can't blame sly fox for the immutable laws of pop you know and and and the album does reveal gary mudbone cooper as the undisputed creative engine room of sly fox he writes or co-writes uh six of the eight tracks including this one uh michael camacho supplies only the uh the the slightly mawkish won't let you go brackets a

wedding song and and the the the flop follow-up to this uh stay true which is just clearly a bone thrown in his direction in the interests of band politics which you know would prove a waste of time uh i mean as one hit wonder follow-ups go it's as predictable as this is surprising you know but not absolutely everything in life can be perfect even when sly fox are involved the thing is with camacho he's essentially there to be a looker i think he's got that same sort of beefy hunkiness as... I'm thinking of the opening titles to Cagney and Lacey and the cop that Sharon Glass

occasionally cops off with. He's got that similar look to him but with darker, longer hair. He's essentially there to be... Not eye candy as such, but not the star of the show, but Mudbone's amazing in this performance, I think. Yeah. Very not the star of the show but mud bone's amazing in this performance i think

um yeah you know very much reminds me of the film hollywood shuffle for some reason like he could have appeared in that i think what taylor's identified that's most important to the success of this record and why this performance is so nice is that sly fox are not careerist about this they know absolutely this is going to be perhaps a flash in the pan. And they are just having fun with it. There's not a hint of a future mapped out for them or anything like that. And they're just loving it. And that's what makes it the absolute highlight of this show.

If Lickling Lodge did Sly Fox, who would be who? This is going to be a benchmark question from here on in. They both love blacking up though, don't they? There's only one way to find out. Raise Eddie Large from the dead and ask him to get on with it. At the end of the day, whatever else anyone might say about Sly Fox,

you have to admit that they are humanity's greatest heroes. Or at the very least, that they were capable of doing something that would otherwise have seemed impossible. They looked at 1986 and they said, let's not escape this. Let's be in this and make it work. You know, it's like one of them is swinging by his fingers from the lower loop of the eight. And the other one is la fingers from the lower loop of the eight and the other one is is lazing in the upper loop like a showgirl reclining in a crescent moon they didn't want to be anywhere else

and luckily for them they never would be the following week let's go all the way soared 17 places to number six and a week later got to number 3, dropping one place to number 4 the week after, before nipping back up to 3 for one more week the week after that. Its success in Britain inspired the record company to put the single out again in America and this time it got to number 7. But their follow-up and subsequent releases all failed to chart and they never darkened the UK charts ever again, splitting up in 1988.

Cooper went on to work with Prince, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Roy Ayers, to name but a few, while Camacho is currently running a jazz bar in New York. Welcome to All Rather Mysterious, the podcast that aims to unlock the mysteries of the past with the key of fact. My name is John Rain. My name is Eleanor Morton. My name is David Reed. Please join us as we present to you mysteries that have baffled the world. You heard any noises?

What about a door creaking? No, you don't have to do it. That weird ka-dunk that lights going off makes for some reason in films. All rather mysterious. Why don't I ever get somebody like him on the dance floor? That's Sly Fox. Here are the charts. in on the dance floor. That's Sly Fox. Here are the charts.

And down to ten, it's Doctor and the Medics with Spirit in the Sky. And Anurama go up six to number nine with Venus. And staying at eight, New Beginning, it's Bucks Fizz. Down to seven, it's Hunting High and Low from Ahab. And Too Good to be Forgotten, it's Amazooloo down to six. Down to seven, it's Hunting High and Low from A-Ha. And too good to be forgotten, it's Amazooloo down to six.

Down to number five, I Can't Wait, it's New Shoes. And Owen Ball, with My Favourite Waste of Time, goes up three places to number four. Staying at three, it's The House Martins and Happy Hour. And Madonna, Papa Don't Preach, up 11 to number two. And Madonna, Papa Don't Preach, up 11 to number two. And number one for the second week, and here is the other A-side, especially recorded for Top of the Box,

it's Wine. And where do you want to go? Thank you. I spend my nights down on the wall In unlit alleyways By the church downtown. We're celebrating. Janice, bowing in the direction of Sly Fox and rueing the fact that the only person who ever dances with her at clubs is people like Simon Bates, runs down the top ten and then introduces Where Did Your Heart Go by Wham! Formed in Bushy from the ashes of The Executive,

a school ska band, Wham! are fucking wham! This is the culmination of their split-up, which was announced by George Michael on the LWT show Aspel and Company on March 1st, and part of a terminal splurge, which included the greatest hits LP The Final, which came out last week, a farewell gig at Wembley Stadium last Saturday,

and the kiss-off single The Edge of Heaven, which crashed into the charts at number one. This is the first radio ad you can smell. The new Cinnabon pull-apart only at Wendy's. into the chart at number two a fortnight ago and deposed Spirit in the Sky by Doctor and the Medics last week. This, however, is a recording of a performance they did last week in the Top of the Pop studio. It's a cover of the 1981 Was Not Was single, which failed to chart here, and is a track on the limited edition 7-inch double pack, which CBS has put out in one last attempt to grab some more money off George and Andrew.

Before we get stuck into Wham Chaps, the top ten, I've got to say, it's a joyous return of sorts to the shitty band pics of old, isn't it? The male half of Bucks Fizz are cropped out of shot, Mike Nolan completely, and the photo of new shoes looks rather like the cover of a video called Self-Defense Techniques Against

People Who Look Like Brian May. The only thing that comes to mind when I Can't Wait arises in the conversation is it's one of the few singles that my sister owned. She was just not into record owning she'd get tapes off boyfriends and stuff right i think her record collection

consists of the 12 inch version of i can't wait and a copy of um legend by bob molly and the whalers where she's written trade dash lobs uh that was her mate lorraine and she's written Trey-lobs. That was her mate, Lorraine. And she'd written blood clot underneath it. On Bob Marley's forehead, Trey-lobs blood clot. She started using that word a lot in her early teens. I remember one night she got into an argument with me dad about her smoking or staying out late. And she just said, shut up, Dad, you blood clot. But Dad didn't understand a fucking word she was saying.

So he picked her up and chucked her in the bath and turned the cold water tap on her. So why are Wham doing this? Well, yeah, Neil and I have both expressed our admiration for and appreciation of George Michael previously. Yes, very much so. That admiration and appreciation doesn't obscure the fact that over the years he did sing on an awful lot of slop.

It was just slop that made you think, yeah, I'm not into this one, rather than slop that made you think, you know, I'd like to boil this person. Yes. And although this isn't the A-side and it's just a courtesy from Top of the Pops to say, you know, hey, do a B-side too,

it's still a really strange situation, like Wham! bowing out on Top of the Pops with a woozy cover of a Was Not Was song. Yeah, it's mental, isn't it? Who needs that i mean no was not was are a bit of a blank space to me i just associate them with amusing song titles and sort of competent producer music you know and i wasn't really familiar with their moody quasi-Latin soul stuff. In fact, there's a clip on YouTube of Was Not Was doing this song live on MTV,

which is actually sort of really good, if you like that kind of thing. It's very well played, very well sung, very gritty and musical, but a bit self-consciously so in that 80s style it's not really somewhere i want to spend too much time just in case it's contagious but the thing is that that was so much better than this and wow deserve a better send-off than a second rate cover version you know it's just a real fizzling out in it it's it's yeah isn't wham it's splat i was scratching my

head about this and if i was a wham fan i'd be making that marge simpson growling sound this does not bode well for george michaels forthcoming solo career but it's slated to be the final wham single in america so this could be something they could get in the can and use in the future and it comes off as if Top of the Pops is expecting a really long run at number one for Edge of Heaven so they want to get something else in the can so they've done a bit of

a town called Malice Precious Double Shift it's really odd when you go back and dig through the charts and realise this only went straight into number two. Yeah. To doctor and the fucking medic. Yeah, that is mad.

That is mad. When you're a kid becoming a teenager, it plays odd tricks with time and your memory. I mean, in 86, it seemed an age ago when I had, you know, laughed at my sister and her friends doing routines to young guns and stuff in our living room. and her friends doing routines to young guns and stuff in our living room. And clearly by the looks of George and Andrew here, it's been a long road to this kind of fizzled out point. You could say George is sort of road testing his solo look here. Yes, he is.

He's a lot less orange, seemingly. He's a bit darker. Towards the kind of leather look that he does with Faith. He's got the same jacket on as he did with the rocker's revenge jacket with 10 years before his masterpiece fast love yeah but he's already going to start writing more interesting songs like a different corner i'm getting obsessed with that song but you can already tell in this performance and perhaps with this choice of song that he doesn't really care about sustaining wham anymore i mean even edge of for me, feels like a forced Wham number. Like, you know, the record company wanted another Wham hit.

And for George at this point, I just, you know, I think he's realising he cannot hit out like that, but he's not interested. Edge of Heaven doesn't have the joy of those early Wham singles. It seems like a more a by-wrote kind of thing, you know, that he churned out.

So, you know, this cover and this performance everyone on that stage looks like they're just going through the motions and everybody i mean even you know andrew can't convincingly seem part of this record and nor can george and nor can anybody even the session men that they're surrounded with. No. It all feels like a really damp fizzling out, which is shocking, because me and Juan were just so enormous. Yeah, I mean, this song sounds and looks, on this episode of Top of the Pops, like something you might see on Italian television

on a Saturday night, before the housewife strippers come back on again. Well, if you listen to this a few times you do sort of sink into the lushness of it a bit i mean pleasantly enough but to no great effect because it does seem very insubstantial i mean part of the problem this clip lasts three and a half minutes and it feels like it's over in a flash because a track like this only makes sense over the full five minutes because it's not pop in that sense. It's a slow boat out on the lake, you know. And after five minutes, you feel a bit like you've been somewhere with it.

But three minutes isn't long enough to establish the mood and get you used to it. So it's just like a cloud that passes over, you know, and then you forget it. This song does give George the chance to sing lines like, I spend my nights down on the wharf and we all share a rusty can of corn. But unfortunately, he just delivers them with the same unsmiling, moody intensity as everything else around this time.

One very valid criticism of George, I think, is his inflexibility and lack of subtlety as an interpreter of other people's songs. He never does a good job on any cover versions. And I do also have an instinctive aversion to British people singing down in Mexico. Because although Mexico is down from here, it's really, it's more across, isn't it?

Yes. You know. You're diagonally in Mexico. This is Andrew Ridgely's last performance on Top of the Pops. They could have built his part up a bit on this, I think. How? I don't know. Give him some maracas or something.

And a big leather Mexican hat. But this is as good an explanation as any of why Wham split up. Because it makes no sense. As a Wham performance, it's weakened by the presence of an entity called Wham. Like, far worse than if this was the same record but only George Michael. I mean, there's always that temptation. When the leader of a band splits the band up and says, well, I need to grow as an artist and all that stuff you know oh we should

bow out while we're at the top part of you always thinks really it's not just because you want the spotlight for yourself or more of the money you know but because lots of bands grow and develop and go through phases without the rest of the group being dumped on their ass you know and it's not like the beat Beatles split up in 1964. We think our fans should just be able to have the memory of I want to hold your hand. That was what we were really all about. It doesn't work like that.

But here, in a way, you can't help thinking, hang on, all you're doing here is jettisoning Ridgely, who doesn't do anything anyway, and he's your best mate. Is this really necessary? It's not like Paul Weller going, I want to play soul and funk music, but I've got a rhythm section that sounds like an umpire band. But it does make sense.

It was necessary. Yeah. Because Wham! really was about two very young lads leaping about. Yes. And having fun. And it should have been left to be just that. And it just feels right in a really big and unignorable way. And this feels wrong in a really big and unignorable way.

And ultimately, if you are Andrew Ridgely, you have to take what you're given. And you need to remember why you own a house and a car and accept that what you were part of was far bigger than you and when it's over so is the relevant portion of your life and i think he knew that everybody was aware yeah from a very early period in wham's career that you know one person was carrying the potatoes yeah oh yeah and then the clearest confirmation of this is how little there is to say about this performance you know like how poorly this kind of sophisticated seriousness

suits them and how the presence of of andy and the band really does detract from what George is going for, which is an intense, spotlit, one-on-one performance of the song, which not only doesn't need a goofy foil pretending to play the guitar, it's asking repeatedly not to have one there, you know. And although George was an admirably loyal and very decent man he was also sufficiently driven that he knows he's going to have to address this like it or not you know he's good enough and he's smart enough and he's in close enough contact with his own music and what it says it needs and doesn't need that he's going to listen so it's inescapable and sorry but it's time to take that baggy tartan suit to age concern and prop that black and white

strap up against the wall and remember that ultimately you are andrew ridgely i think in 86 were i a wham fan you know i'd have felt cheated somewhat by this performance this should be poignant you know i i keep thinking all about when when um i did the episode with sarah from 2000 and we were talking about the last sort of take that performance and no matter what you think about take that you know that was kind of moving you could tell that they knew it was going to be their last you know show together if you like on top of the pops and it was kind of moving and they did another crappy cover version as well yeah but there's none of that here this from start to finish just feels like contractual obligation that seems to be all that's going on here so what would have been

the perfect one farewell single then they should have done a mega mix medley of all the things yes george michael and andrew ridgely have done a round of interviews round about this time and you know george michael's made it clear that no andrew ridgely no wham so every bit of success and money that andrew ridgely's pulled down since 1982 has essentially been his finder's fee from George Michael, isn't it? Yeah, it is his finder's fee. You can't begrudge him. You can't begrudge him exactly. And, you know, although I felt as a kid

that loads of people were trying to foster a kind of hostility to Andrew Ridgely, you know, he's getting away with it. I never begrudged him anything. Wham were the look of those young blokes. You know, they were together. And the essential thing about Wham for me as a pop kid were the videos. And Andrew was a vital part of that, absolutely vital.

So, yeah, he might not have been the greatest musician or the contributor songwriter-wise, but I never begrudged him that. And I don't think many people did beyond the confines of the music press, to be honest with you. There isn't a lot more to say about this, because it's like, I think it's only fair to save the Big Wham discussion for the Big Wham single. And, you know, they'll be back.

They'll be back. This is a really sad fizzling out for one of the biggest bands of the 80s in the UK. Televisually, I mean, this recording was made three days before they filled Wembley Stadium. So, I mean, this recording was made three days before they filled Wembley Stadium. So,

you know, let's not feel too sorry for them. They obviously thought Edge of Heaven was going to be number one for ages

and no, didn't turn out that way, did it? The fact that Edge of Heaven is only number one for two weeks,

which, you know, for Wham! is comparatively not that long. I mean, it just reveals that,

yeah, they are now down to their fan base. They're not reeling anyone else in. And the sort of weight of popular will, if you like, isn't with them. The people who are going to Wembley Stadium get a good farewell to Wham! I guess. But for Wham! fans sat at home,

who might have loved them from the early 80s and might still love them, this is a pretty piss poor way to bow out and let's not forget that Top of the Pops is the thing that made Wham

yeah getting him in at the last minute when someone dropped out so they could do Young Guns Go For It well I mean I don't begrudge George

I can understand why George at this point is just fucking pig sick of the whole thing and wants done but yeah you know

I don't know why top of the pops are showing this if they knew this was going to be the last ever sort of thing that whereby that they'd have been better off um re-rotating the clip of them doing the a side even though the a side itself it's a simulacra of a wham single it's it's it's a simulation of what made them good it doesn't feel genuine it already feels at this point that everyone involved has simply moved on so the following week the edge of heaven dropped down to number two usurped from its place on the summit of pop mountain by popper don't preach by madonna or fucking hell lads we avoided madonna and over in America where did your heart go

only got to number 50 on the billboard chart after taking the rest of the year off releasing wise Michael roared back in January of 1987 when I knew you were waiting for me his duet with Aretha Franklin

entered the charts at number 2 and spent 2 weeks at number two and spent two weeks at number one and then scored a number three hit with I Want Your Sex and number two with Faith. While Ridgely had to wait until 1990 for his only bit

of chart success when Shake got to number 58 for two weeks in March of that year. And at least he can think to himself, well, I've got to see China. Yes. So the Land Boys are still at number one. Simon Bates is presenting next week's Top of the Box. This is Mark. It's his birthday.

Happy birthday to you. And we'll leave you with the Arse of Noise. We'll all say goodbye. Doodle-oo, bye. Bye. What am I doing? I can't do it myself. Look, I must have a star on my door. I better still.

A door? Sw door, a door. Swing doors, huh? Look, look, look, look, okay, doors. Swing. We cut back to Janice standing behind Claire and friends with House Martin scarves draped around their necks. She warns us that Pig Wanker General is in full control next week, before

informing us that one of the boys in a white baseball cap is called Mark and it's his birthday today before tickling him. Oh, bless. Aunty Janice. Yeah, it's sweet that moment, isn't it? Yeah, I'd love to have Janice Long as an auntie. She'd be fucking great.

Oh, Auntyie janice tell us about echo and the bunny men again yeah but that might mean that keith chegrim was your dad true that's not a price worth paying fucking anyone else tickling anybody on top of the pops yes no no it really wouldn't well she signs offanormia by Max Headroom with The Art of Noise. Born in front of a very early CGI background in April of 1985, Max Headroom was billed as the first computer-generated TV personality, although in actual fact he was the American-born actor Matt Frewer, caked in fiberglass and foam.

He was created by a team of directors who had already done animated videos for Accidents Will Happen by Elvis Costello and Genius of Love by the Tom Tom Club, one of whom was Chaz Janko's sister, and was the star of the Channel 4 TV movie Max Headroom 20 Minutes Into The Future, which was a precursor to his series where he introduced assorted pop videos of the near past and present. The show was such a success that it doubled Channel 4's viewing figures in that time slot. That was six people then. He was quickly picked up on by both the American cable station Cinemax and MTV, and a second and third series was commissioned by the Yanks,

with Aslock getting it six months later, leading him to become the face of the ill-fated New Coke on adverts in America at the beginning of the year. So, while we wait for Channel 4 to get round to broadcasting the second series later this month, this is his latest project, a collaboration with The Art of Noise, who were last in the charts when they linked up with Dwayne Ede for a remake of Peter Gunn, which got to number 8 this April. This single entered the top 40 at number 38 last week and this week it's up 12

places to number 26 and here is the video to take us out. How did you get on with Max Adroom chaps? Because you're a different age group. No. That joke got unfunny really quickly. As a

pop kid of course you're just hungry for any chance to watch videos music videos i mean didn't have mtv and and you know any show that had music videos in it even fucking you know no limits and stuff like that i'd end up watching yeah um but in i was only in it for the videos and in terms of that show i kind of my memory places it firmly in that sort of strand this channel four shows where where the technical oddity of it in a sense was the hook and once you've done that and seen it there's very little room for it to develop as such I mean I'm very much

reminded of Star Test and much later on Snog, Marry, Avoid but with those shows because the human component was part of it they remained watchable Max Headroom didn't really have that remained too cold and too much of a kind of demonstration of video technology was part of it. They remained watchable. Max Headroom didn't really have that. Remained too cold and too much of a kind of demonstration

of video technology rather than actual entertainment. In other words, he was a colossal disappointment. Well, that's it, isn't it? Once you've heard that once, they didn't exactly put any interesting spins on it.

Yeah, it was just a load of far tossing getting in the way of me watching pop videos yeah yeah i mean the only one good thing i ever saw on max headroom was when they played starvation which was the ethiopian famine song done by madness and members of ub40 and all that lot. And at the end, Max Headroom's just standing stock, still looking like he was disgusted by humanity, and then just snaps his head and looks away, and then it fades down. That was good. But that was it for me.

Well, yeah. I mean, look, in terms of weird things that you'd see on Channel 4 late at night, I've got far more affection for, I don't know, the Romeo cleaners from your max headroom you know um i mean this track actually this art of noise track isn't so bad it's kind of looking back like everything is but not to the 60s actually this has a big late 70s kind of talking heads vibe to it um that kind of fella coicuti influence uh running through it so the track's okay

but i would have just been aggravated by max by this point certainly um and yeah it was because i mean channel four i've got loads of fond memories of very early channel four but there there was a lot of london media wankery going on and and to my mind this is this is one of them this is the prime example yeah well to me max edwin was just one of those american things served up to us you know without explanation in the 80s which i never swallowed you know like american football and varsity jackets i loved american football still do i know but just you know like the breakfast club i mean i just thought it was some ntsc thing with no cultural relevance to me you know and lacking the mystery or inherent

qualities to seem interesting or exotic or or funny and i think I may be slightly resented is sudden presence everywhere. Yeah. You know, like satirizing TV conventions, which weren't in place. Yeah. While simultaneously acting like he was better than you. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Pseudo computerized. You know what I mean? So I haven't read anything else. I just, I don't like the buster's horrible face. You know what I mean?

He's got that sort of smug look. And he looks like one of those six foot four inch American guys called like Brad Svedberg. You know, he's like, I'm Swedish German. He's like, yeah, well, fuck your mum. You know what I mean? It's like a con. The only time I want to see Max Edru is bursting into a broadcast of Doctor Who.

Yes. Swinging Pepsi and being spanked on the arse with a fly swatter. Yes. I want to see Max Edrum. He's bursting into a broadcast of Doctor Who, swinging Pepsi, and being spanked on the arse with a fly swatter. Not on a tossed-off, annoyed track. Have you seen that, Neil? No, I don't think I have. Some scamps in America, in Chicago, they cut into, they jammed a signal or whatever,

and, yeah, one of them put on a max headroom mask and uh the other one wobbled some corrugated iron behind him and wanged on for a bit and then it cut to his bare ass being hit with a fly swatter oh i do love a good signal hijacking yeah right in the middle of doctor who horror of Fang Rock. Pretty like being watched by about 10 people. But yeah, it was great. But it's frustrating listening to this because with The Art of Noise, it's not like there's no talent there. No.

And even though it's 1986, there's no need to keep the brake on like this and be wry and slightly smug you know and not bother with tension or release or trying to be anything more than a musical representation of a 30 something face with one raised eyebrow you know it's like it's like the art and noise and max hedgerow kind of made for each other yes and it's it's what I've never liked about The Art and Noise. They thought they were just a little bit smarter. You know, and maybe they were, but you have to wear it lightly.

Yeah. Which they really, really didn't. You've got the novelty of those first few Art and Noise singles where it's all like dislocated vocal samples and that Fair light orchestra stab which is like the the wilhelm scream of mid-80s pop you know um but then it just tailed off to like years of stuff like this and it's incredibly hard to imagine anybody giving a shit about it because it doesn't move you it doesn't excite you um on any primitive level it doesn't stimulate

the brain and the actual sound of it is not particularly beautiful or atmospheric or exciting it's just an expensively made useless thing you know it's like the 80s that i never understood you know you can't really tell what it is or what it's meant to be and you know I mean that's good and bad it's good because it's always better to have something inexplicable than something predictable but bad because in practice there's a lot of very predictable things that are much better than this it It's a bit decent of Top of the Pops actually wanting this on and putting it on because, you know, this is like Top of the Pops having A. Shea Burra on in 1973

or Roy North in 1981. You know, this is the presenter of a rival pop show that's usually broadcast on the same night as Top of the Pops is. Yeah, that is a bit odd, isn't it? You would have thought that would exclude them. And it should have been fucking Roy north yeah that would have been brilliant i if you've not seen it i'm sure you have i direct all the pop craze youngsters towards the video playlist where roy north is doing his cover version of swords of a thousand men by temple tudor in a kind of jacket that a

maths teacher would wear to go out to the disco in yeah oh it's glorious his songs at the start of get it together were always the only response is I say Mr Roy you're a tuneless cunt anything else to say about this yeah I hate this record everything about this yeah i hate this record everything about this record the aesthetics of it and the spirit of it it makes me think it takes me back to sit in watching the late show on bbc2 you know that yeah smug arts magazine there's had a lot of good stuff on it but was never a good thing in itself it was just the domain of those sour mouth blokes in specs and red jackets you know bringing the the cold aesthetics of the posh ad agency to television arts coverage and they were always the sort of people who thought that the best rock and roll was the least rock and roll rock and roll yes

you know i mean it's like groucho club non-jokers. The sort of people who give critics a bad name, i.e. the name Critics. That was them. And I'll tell you what's better than fucking Paranoimia by The Art of Noise and Max Headroom, Pymania by Claire Sting-Clive and the Pymen. And if anybody doesn't know, if there is anybody listening who by some chance doesn't know what i'm talking about there's a game called pi mania for the zx spectrum

in the early 80s and it was like a freaky text adventure game which was very big at the time and when you bought the game on cassette course, as computer games were at the time, on the other side of the tape, there was a song on it called Pymania, credited to Claire Sinclair and the Pymens, which was obviously done in someone's bedroom on an old four-track and a Cassiano keyboard. Just like the game was. Yeah, and a load of sounds and snippets of dialogue.

I believe it's actually got Ian Jury on it as well, which is at least unexpected. I think he might have known. Because everyone's going, is that Ian Jury's voice? Is that Ian Jury? No, it can't be. And then Ian Jury turned up on one of the later games by the same company doing a voiceover,

suggesting actually, yes, that was Ian Drury on the record and frankly it's a lesson to the art of noise in how to make a piece of abstract electronic music sound like a tiny adventure in a baffling world um and all for 75p you know rather than a ruinously expensive trip up somebody else's backside, which is basically what this is. So the following week, Paranormia jumped up 12 places again to number 14, and a week later it got to number 12, its highest position. There was a Max Headroom follow-up,

Merry Christmas, Santa Claus, you're a lovely guy, but it failed to chart. Meanwhile, the Art of No're a lovely guy, but it failed to chart. Meanwhile, The Art of Noise's follow-up, Legacy, only got to number 95 in November, and they'd have to wait until 1988 for their next hit, Kiss, with Tom Jones, which got to number five in November of that year.

I fucking hate that. That is one of my least favourite records of all time. The Art of Noise would have two stabs at a Maxless paranoia. Firstly in 1989 with a Ben Lebron remix and then a Carl Cox one in 1992. As for Max, he got binned off by the American TV companies in September of 1987, making a brief comeback over here 20 years later

to promote Channel 4 switching to digital. And that, Pop Craze Youngsters, closes the book on this episode of Top of the Pops. It would be nearly four years before they let another woman present Top of the Pops on her own, Anthea Turner, in February of 1990. And that was followed by Jackie Brambles in March of that year, and then Claire Sturgis in September of 1994.

But by the mid-90s, a slew of women were allowed in. You ready for this, chaps? Yeah. Naina Chere. Cool. Kylie Minogue. Cool. Kylie Minogue. Cool. Wigfield. Cool. Lisa

Ianson. Michelle Gale. Oh, cool. Brenda Gilhooly as Gale Tuesday. Oh, it's true, though. Page three girls are thick. What a funny act that was. Louise Redknapp. In her eternal days, I wonder.

Lulu. Justine Frischmann. Bright pop. Louise Wenner. Fucking Tory. Bear Van Beers. Hey. Skin.

Right. Julia Carling. Twice. Well, of course. Gina G. Oh, right alright Rona Cameron Joe Wiley for fuck's sake

Zoe Ball likewise Danny Manogue Kathy Dennis hey Jane Middlemiss Mary Ann Hobbs right

Denise Van Alten Sarah Kaywood she took my gossip editor job off me kate thornton katie hill gail porter emma leddon sarah cox josie darby sophie ellis baxter lisa snowden Lisa Snowden, Mel B, Lisa Bonin and Fern Cotton. Oh man, that just basically sounds like a list of loaded magazine front cover stars. Yes. In that period. There was a 10 week run in mid 1997 where all the presenters were women.

But Janice did it first and Janice did it best. The other female DJs in the 80s, you know... Ranking Miss P, where's she? Well, I think, you know, serious DJs, weren't they? And Annie Nightingale as well. And kind of... They probably just considered it a little bit beneath them. But I wonder whether ranking Miss P was even asked.

No, of course she wasn't. You know, and we have to wait until Skin and Michelle Gayle for a black woman to present. It's a very telling list, that. It's a very sort of, it's a list of, yeah, it does remind me of being part of the music press in the 90s in a big, big way. And not just because, yeah, Sarah Kay would,

actually, she did my job at Waybet Nighted. She actually gave a fuck about parties in London. So she's actually a pretty good gossip editor a little bit easier on the eye as well Neil if you don't mind you're on the cover of Loaded with your hand down your knickers that didn't sell shit that issue

so moving away very quickly from that image what's on telly afterwards well BBC One kicks on with EastEnders where the police make inquiries into the burglary of the surgery and Sue finds out that she isn't pregnant. What a twinkle.

That's followed by Graham Gordon and some other doctors who weren't in the goodies looking at coughing and breathing in body matters. After Les and Dustin's laughter show with special guest Russell Harter, it's the nine o'clock news. Then Alf Garnett uses his next-door neighbour's phone

to call Rita in Liverpool in sickness and in health. That's followed by highlights from Wimbledon, and they finish off the night with Barry Manilow in Japan. BBC Two eventually gets round to The First Citizen, a documentary about the Mayor of Bradford who's the first Asian Lord Mayor in the country followed by Paul Heine and Cathy Rochford in The Travel Show and then Maddy conspires to fuck over the accountant who made her bankrupt

while Bruce Willis stares in the back looking at the camera and raising his eyebrow again in moonlighting after the short film mr prebble gets rid of his wife they finish off with news night highlights from the cricket and a bit of open university itv has just started the richard o'sullivan single dad me and my girl and that's followed by falconrest. Then it's Troubles and Strife, the sitcom about a dishy young vicar and all the housewives of the area who want to give him a scene too. After that, TVI looks at the Church of England's current mither about female priests. Then it's News at Ten, regional news in your area, a regional politics in your area show then it's highlights from the royal show and close down

at five past midnight i went to the royal show of 1986 oh and nothing else to report why you it's not the kind of thing i don't expect a young taylor poggs to be um up for no i'm i'm thinking maybe i didn't i'm thinking am i am I thinking of something else? Wait a minute, the Royal Show, what is that again? Remind me. Yeah, remind me so I'll know if I'm thinking of something. The Royal Agricultural Show. Yeah, I think it was more like a sort of a three counties fair. Yes, that's exactly what it is.

It was always out near us, actually, near Cobb. It was in our kind of Arden, Mercia area. I believe, actually, 86 was the year in which my wife got a foot trod on by a shire horse um oh not fondly obviously she didn't hold it against horses afterwards but ships in the night taylor maybe i was there as well i'm pretty sure i went there with the skull and i just got uptight the Velvet Underground story out of the library and I had that with me and I was reading that rather than looking at anything. Channel 4 is still running Channel 4 News,

then it's the final episode of Too Hot to Handle where William Woolard looks at nuclear power and asks if radiation is really all that bad. This is three months after fucking Chernobyl. After Hannah Gordon shows you how to keep your plants alive really all that bad that this is three months after fucking chernobyl after hannah gordon shows you how to keep your plants alive while you're on holiday in gardener's corner it's the first episode of the drama series what if it's raining about a divorced couple bringing a baby up and they round off with the wobblies a documentary film about the industrial workers

of the world union and today's highlights from the House of Lords. 86 is a definite year where a very, very recurrent moment for me is staying up after nine for the first kind of time in my life in terms of watching telly with my parents that was post-Watershed. And, you know, that hot, burning shame of watching something a bit saucy with my parents. So it's definitely the year of, you know, Life and Loves of a She-Devil. And also Singing Detectives this year as well, I think.

Yes. Yeah. Many embarrassing moments, but mind-blowing moments as well, you know. So, dear boys, what are we talking about in the playground tomorrow? Sly Fox being ace. That eight and a half record being rubbish, and possibly in private with very, very close friends, talking about the fact that I slightly fancied Janice Long. I think in real life, by this point,

we were already such grizzled veterans at top of the tops that we were left untouched by creepy ghost children from the 1920s and you know the whole sam fox phenomenon so probably at 14 it would have been the housemarth yes and how enthusiastically the audience responded to this real music. Yeah, proper instruments. Yeah, and oh, what could be achieved if only those poor people were given the chance to hear the shop assistant and Big Flame, you know, revolution by Christmas.

Because it's only a matter of what's dropped into that row of gaping mouths held open obediently for spoon feeding? Because everyone's a thick, remote-controlled cunt with no agency, no valid thoughts of their own apart from me and possibly you. I'm not sure yet. What's your opinion of weedy-sounding indie music? And if the answer is bad, all I have to say to you is false consciousness.

What are we buying on Saturday? Sly Fox. I think that might be all as far as my current self is concerned. I mean, this episode's definitely more fun and more interesting to talk about than watch. I did buy Sly Fox on 12. I think

I'll probably buy house martins as well you didn't buy the clear russia 12 inch jack mix and what does this episode tell us about july of 1986 it's actually uh it's actually really revealing this episode of that shift that so many of us felt away from the charts into the past but also that even in a period where pop seemed to be passing out of the hands of sort of big bands and scenes and into the hands of a sort of general committee of what pop should sound like there were still thrills to be had but it's thin pickings isn't it i i think that's the main theme that emerges it's not as if there's dozens of great records in this chart

that I wish had been on. It's not like I'm really agonized over loads of songs that could have been on. So inevitably, as a teenager, as someone seeking an identity, you start looking elsewhere, whether that's the library or underground black pop again. But certainly, it tells us about 86.

As far as i'm concerned it tells me absolutely nothing about any of the music that i'm going to get into as 87 88 89 happens that's a different world not remotely suggested by this yeah what i take from this is a sense of everything's happening at once but by everything i mean basically nothing or you know nothing good i think what with charts like this and my romantic calamities um i think 1986 was probably my least favorite year of the 80s while it was happening and whatever else this episode tells us about 1986 it doesn't tell me that i was wrong and that brings us to the end of this episode of chart music all that remains for me to do now is use your promotional flange www.chart-music.co.uk facebook.com slash chartmusic

reach out to us on twitter at chartmusic t-o-t-p money down the g-string patreon.com slash chartmusic thank you Neil Kulkarni thanks a lot Al

go fuck yourself Taylor Park sweet memories my name's Al Needham please don't touch your fan air. Chart music. GreatBigOwl.com We've accepted to

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