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Top of the Pops

1990 on BBC Four (January 2018)

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JA
james-2001
A quick look actually does show that All Seeing I track did crack the top 75- it actually hit number 11.
SW
Steve Williams
A quick look actually does show that All Seeing I track did crack the top 75- it actually hit number 11.


Yes, I'm surprised nobody seems to remember it, it was a big hit at the time and played constantly on the radio. And Britney Spears covered it too on one of her albums, which was actually produced by All Seeing I.

The Pops performance is definitely my favourite performance of the Cowey era, incredibly distinctive, although annoyingly it doesn't appear to be on YouTube at the moment. It is really clever, though, and brilliantly directed. I thought it was fantastic when it was first shown and in the days before YouTube I was desperate to see it again.

TOTP did put some strange things on during the Cowey era that didn't get near the top 40. I know a fair amount of low & non-charting stuff went out during the late repeats but not the original screening too (as well as controversial stuff like Eminem, and the full Rock DJ video- one of the rare times Cowey showed a video), presumably wanting to use some of the performances they'd pre-recorded (there must be loads of unscreened ones from the Cowey era, I know some have turned up on TOTP2 down the years).


Yes, there were some funny ideas during that era, although in terms of the actual show itself they probably had the greatest concentration of Top 40 hits because there were no exclusives or anything and they repeated many performances quite a lot. But as you say, sometimes they would show different things on the late repeat - I remember one show in 2000 when they only showed two performances on the late one because they'd only entered the charts low down in the Top 40 and presumably decided they weren't worth showing on the primetime one. As you say, at that point they were also expressly recording performances exclusively for TOTP2 as well.
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BA
bilky asko
A quick look actually does show that All Seeing I track did crack the top 75- it actually hit number 11.


Yes, I'm surprised nobody seems to remember it, it was a big hit at the time and played constantly on the radio. And Britney Spears covered it too on one of her albums, which was actually produced by All Seeing I.


I remembered it as soon as I heard it, though I would never have got the tune from the name or the artist. I'm sure it's one of those songs that made it onto an advert or two.
BU
buster


* Mr Oizo's 'Flat Beat' reaching #1 and it being linked by some odd sequence of the presenter "driving" to Flat Eric's "office" (the yellow puppet character in the video) and the video playing.



Scott Mills - then about 6 months into his Radio 1 career - and a pretty rare appearance hosting TOTP (although he did become the regular host of the TOTP Radio 1 show, and TOTP @ Play).
Another instance of Cowey trying to put his own stamp on a situation where he had no choice to play a video.
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JA
james-2001
I really don't like Chris Cowey's virtual lack of videos. You ended up with a mish mash of performances recorded at completely different times, which took away a lot of atmosphere, and some big hits never got shown at all (Ray of Light being a prime example), you often got songs going down the chart when they could have put a video of a new entry in instead, and sometimes you saw the same performance repeatedly when showing videos at least once or twice would have produced variety.

Quite interesting though that for a large chunk of Cowie's reign, even though he resisted playing videos, they often played the video on the screen in the studio.
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SW
Steve Williams
Scott Mills - then about 6 months into his Radio 1 career - and a pretty rare appearance hosting TOTP (although he did become the regular host of the TOTP Radio 1 show, and TOTP @ Play).


I remember they said at the time that Cowey had looked at all the Radio 1 DJs when he took over and didn't like the look of any of them, hence why at this point virtually none of them appeared. But he thought Scott Mills was vaguely tolerable to look at, hence why he presented a number of episodes during 1999.
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BH
BillyH Founding member
The All Seeing I track is definitely the one I was thinking of! Shame the TOTP performance isn't online, odd that out of all the songs from that era one of the few I remember on the show is a #11 peaking song. As mentioned the performance must have been a memorable one.

Seem to recall there was an edition in early 1999 which featured a lot of indie/alternative acts which got a lot of attention at the time, including a very low top-40 charting song from a band who only made the one appearance on the show.
JA
james-2001
I've looked at Popscene for when it was shown, and I have a copy of that episode, I can upload the performance here later today if someone wants.
SW
Steve Williams
Seem to recall there was an edition in early 1999 which featured a lot of indie/alternative acts which got a lot of attention at the time, including a very low top-40 charting song from a band who only made the one appearance on the show.


I reckon it must be this one...



Some top tracks on this one, including our old pals The All Seeing I. Sebadoh were also on it at number 30, and at the time I remember making a note of the lowest-placed record that made it onto the regular TOTP over the year, this was 1999's winner. Funnily enough I remember in 2000 it wasn't an obscure indie band who achieved that feat but Lionel Richie, as they pre-recorded a performance by him and it only made it to number 36.

Of course, when we get to 1987 we'll have the memorable performance of Let's Work by Mick Jagger, which they pre-recorded expecting it to soar up the charts only to plod up them and after sitting on it for weeks they eventually gave up and showed it while it was at number 41.
JA
james-2001
There was that time in 1984 where they put Gary Glitter on even though he wasn't in the top 40. And his placement at the start of the show (along with the following OMD video having a technical fault) made it hard for BBC4 to edit out and we lost the episode...
VM
VMPhil
Of course, when we get to 1987 we'll have the memorable performance of Let's Work by Mick Jagger, which they pre-recorded expecting it to soar up the charts only to plod up them and after sitting on it for weeks they eventually gave up and showed it while it was at number 41.

They also pre-recorded a performance of David Bowie’s ‘Time Will Crawl’ only to never show it as it fell down the chart.
JA
james-2001
Yes, I'm surprised nobody seems to remember it, it was a big hit at the time and played constantly on the radio. And Britney Spears covered it too on one of her albums, which was actually produced by All Seeing I.


It's interesting sometimes what gets remembered and what doesn't. Some songs are hugely popular at the time but then fade into obscurity and get forgotten, whereas some stuff that didn't chart highly or get much attention at the time become all time classics.
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