Remembering 1996: December

December is a bit of a strange month when it comes to music. You have Christmas and inevitably the Christmas music that comes with it. There's also novelty tunes and music from people who don't normally make music and the 2 aren't mutually exclusive. Then there's the build up to New Years Eve which spills over into New Years Day. Aside from that not much really happens.

One of my memories of 1996 was that by December in music terms we were already into 1997. Compilations with 1997 or 97 in their name were already in the shops. The January 1997 editions of music magazines were already on the shelves.

There were also songs that were setting themselves in the future. "Cosmic Girl" by Jamiroquai charted in Dec 1996 and opens with a line about something than happened on a Saturday in 1999. That sounded so far into the future at the time. Now I see this year and 2029 merging into the same thing when I look back in the future.

There was the Top 40 debut from Chicane with "Offshore" and he would go on to be the most prolific trance artist chart wise in terms of number of hits. 

My memory has this down as being earlier on in the year but clearly wasn't, it was the month the World Dance compilation mixed by DJ Hype and Ellis Dee was released and I bought it.

In the inlay was an interview with both DJs and the real eye opener for me was finding out DJ Hype started DJing in 1982 and Ellis Dee in 1987. In my mind the music hadn't existed long enough for them to be DJing that early and I always imagined the DJs to be around 18 once they made a name for themselves.

I had the theory they must have been only 14 when they started DJing and it turns out that was the case with DJ Hype. Not with Ellis Dee though, he was comfortably in his 30s at the time of this compilation.

World Dance themselves held their new year event at Wembley Conference Centre. Despite the separation of hardcore and drum & bass with World Dance going down the latter route there would still be some hardcore DJs on the line up such as Force & Styles.

Meanwhile Helter Skelter held their first new year event at The Sanctuary. It had previously been Dreamscape holding events there at new year but they didn't put one on this time around. The Helter Skelter event became the first of theirs where the hardcore and drum & bass tape packs were all separate.

Remembering 1996: November

The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Radio 1 is arguably the best remembered Radio 1 Breakfast Show of the 90s and yet it didn't even last 2 years. 1996 was the only full calendar year it was on for.

One of his team on the show was Danny who I'm pretty sure they used to call Danny Boy. After much was made about how long he'd been with his girlfriend he proposed to her live on air and this happened in Nov 96. The reason I'm able to pinpoint this was they played "Place Your Hands" by Reef which was a new song at the time and put wedding bells over it.

Few people probably remember that but many will remember the bigger reason Chris Evans made "Place Your Hands" by Reef famous. On TFI Friday a new segment called "It's Your Letters" was introduced and Reef played a reworded version of "Place Your Hands" singing "It's Your Letters" instead.

We had the first of many posthumous hits from 2Pac in Nov 96 which was "I Ain't Mad At Cha". Incidentally the singer of the chorus on this is called Danny Boy but a different person to the one who was on the Chris Evans show.

Another artist having a posthumous hit this month was Wildchild. It had been a year since he passed away shortly after making a name for himself with "Renegade Master". His posthumous hit was "Jump To My Beat" which is the better of the 2 records in my opinion.

It had been a low key year for Dreamscape followeing the death of it's promoter Murray Beetson earlier on in the year. In November Dreamscape 23 was held which was just the 2nd and final Dreamscape of the year. It would carry on beyond 1996 but even by this point Helter Skelter was seen as the biggest rave promoter.

The Prodigy followed up "Firestarter" which another chart topper with "Breathe". Whilst it followed a similar formula as it's predecessor being a dance/rock crossover with vocals by Keith I actually like this one and bought the single. Perhaps the additional vocals from Maxim helped.

The Fine Young Cannibals made a comeback in 1996 with "The Flame". It was their first Top 40 hit since the 80s but by the time it made it onto The Chart Show lead singer Roland Gift had left the band, so it was a very brief comeback.

Remembering 1996: October

At the start of 1996 Oasis had become just about the biggest band out there. In the summer I went to what I believe was my last village hall disco for teenagers before deciding I was too old for them. At that disco people were chanting for Oasis after every song. I didn't get it, they were too slow and boring for a disco in my opinion. Had you told me at that disco that Noel Gallagher would feature on one of the best number ones of the year I wouldn't of believed you.

That's exactly what did happen when he provided vocals for "Setting Sun" by the Chemical Brothers. It couldn't sound any more different than Oasis. That said it did have it's similarities in that both this record and many Oasis records were heavily inspired by The Beatles. In the case of this record it came from "Tomorrow Never Knows".

I felt I had bragging rights in a way because I'd been singing the praises of the Chemical Brothers for a year or so at this point and now they'd hit the big time with a chart topper. I was a fan before they reached these heights.

However I couldn't claim the same thing for the commercial dance record that had the biggest impact on me in Oct 96. On an episode of Top of the Pops I was introduced to "Insomnia" by Faithless. I'd never heard anything quite like it and bought the single the following week. However it had previously reached number 27 in the Top 40 the previous year and this was a rerelease.

Now for some future bragging rights. Scooter were well known within the rave scene for being German cheesers. The had 4 Top 40 hits that made the lower reaches in the mid-90s and the final one of these was "I'm Raving", their take on the Shut Up & Dance record. They wouldn't return until 2002 with "The Logical Song" where the mainstream public assumed them to be a new act but I'd refer to "I'm Raving" as and example of them being around for several years.

One of the big rave anthems of the early 90s was "Don't Go" by Awesome 3. It never made the Top 40 though until 1996 when a remixed version featuring Julie McDermott on vocals made the charts. It didn't end there though because another version by Third Dimension which also featured Julie McDermott on vocals charted. My advice though is stick to the original.

I would occasionally listen to Trevor Nelson on a Sunday afternoon on Radio 1, a show that had started earlier on in the year. It made me start to appreciate R&B and the music he played was more of an urban variety.

One such record was "No Diggity" by Blackstreet. My previous reservation about R&B was that it seemed a bit sappy, but this was anything but. It was hip hop with singing as opposed to rapping, though it did have rapping on it courtesy of the opening rap by Dr Dre and a later rap by Queen Pen. One might assuming the presence of Dr Dre meant it was produced by him but it wasn't. It was produced by Blackstreet member Teddy Riley who'd produced for Michael Jackson amongst others.

In the last weekend of October when we had the Helter Skelter Odyssey event at The Sanctuary in Milton Keynes. This was the last event where they release a drum & bass 4 pack, hardcore 6 pack and and 8 pack that was a mixture of hardcore & drum & bass. Following this it was either a hardcore 12 pack or drum & bass 8 pack. The music had now split to the point they could no longer be mixed.

We were however seeing early signs of a split in hardcore. Although the Billy Bunter set was still a happy hardcore set it had a more mature sound than the other sets and the signs were there on what would evolve into trancecore.

Remembering 1996: September

Some say that trance music originated in September 1996 when "Seven Days And One Week" by BBE was released. Obviously that's nonsense, trance had been around for several years by this point. It was the first trance record to make the Top 3 though and there's no doubting it's a good record.

Is it my favourite trance record of the year? no it's not even my favourite trance record of September. That honour goes to Way Out West with "The Gift". I've talked about this record on this blog before but what makes it stand out to me is the breakbeats.

Saint Etienne were a music act I'd taken a liking to when they released "He's On The Phone" in late 1995. In September 1996 I got the impression they'd split up because their vocalist Sarah Cracknell released the solo record "Anymore". This was simply a side project for Sarah Cracknell and Saint Etienne hadn't split up and are still together at the time of writing, though not for much longer.

There was a new music TV show, "The Noise" which was on ITV on Saturdays before The Chart Show. The first episode was Aug 31st but it felt more appropriate to include it in September because that's when it began getting panned by critics.

It was presented by Andi Peters and I understood the criticism. It was a no frills all about the music sort of show which was going to struggle to get mainstream appeal. However as a music person I liked that aspect and enjoyed watching the show.

It was the month The Fugees topped the charts with "Ready Or Not" which was the better one of their chart toppers in my opinion. It wasn't just impacting the pop world or rap world though. There was a drum & bass version called "Fugees Or Not" which was played in many DJ sets. It was said to be the work of DJ Hype but it was in fact DJ Zinc. There was also a happy hardcore version but the less said about that the better.

One of my favourite happy hardcore tunes of 1996 was "Santa Maria" by Jimmy J & Cru-L-T. In September the tune of the same name that it sampled made the Top 40. It was by Tatyana who became the first act from Croatia to have a Top 40 hit since Ivo Robic in 1959.

Helter Skelter held their 2nd and final event at Club Kinetic on September 20th. Not many more events were held at Club Kinetic because the club closed down at the beginning of 1997.

A week later in the middle of the night on ITV was a show called Helter Skelter which I saw in the TV listings. I thought this must be coverage of the Helter Skelter just gone so decided to watch it. Unfortunately it had nothing to do with Helter Skelter the rave, it was a music show that had a bunch of unknown rock bands playing on it. This was the biggest music disappointment for me since hearing "Spaceman" in full.

A bit earlier in the month I happened to be listening to the Radio 1 Rap Show in the middle of the night, not something I'd usually do at the time. It was during this I heard about the shooting and subsequent death of 2Pac. It was a name I'd only just become familiar with, he'd only had 2 UK Top 40 hits to this point but would have many more to come.

Remembering 1996: August

The sporting event of 1996 that always gets talked about is Euro 96 but there was another big sporting event in 1996 that played second fiddle this time around, the Olympics.

The official song for the Olympics was "Reach" by Gloria Estefan but that had already been in and out of the Top 40 by the time the Olympics began. In August she was onto her next Top 40 hit "You'll Be Mine (Party Time)".

The only record that made the Top 40 as a result of the Olympics was "Tara's Theme" by Spiro & Wix which was the music the BBC used for their coverage.

It was the month where Alisha's Attic made their Top 40 debut with "I Am I Feel". Musically it sounded quite similar to "Head Over Feet" by Alanis Morissette which also charted this month but lyrically they couldn't be any more different. It was the Alisha's Attic record that grabbed my attention more though, what started as an enjoyable listen on the radio evolved into me buying almost their entire discography followed by me questioning why I did that.

E'Voke had a Top 40 hit in 1995 with "Runaway" and in Aug 96 they were back with a 2nd and final Top 40 hit with "Arms Of Loren".  I first heard it myself when they played it on The Bigger Breakfast which was an extended version of The Big Breakfast for the summer holidays.

It was the month that PJ & Duncan started using their real names Ant & Dec instead. The first single they released after this change was "Better Watch Out" and is the only single of theirs I actually like in a guilty pleasure sort of way.

I don't know when it started or ended or what it was called but in Aug 96 I discovered there was a 5 minute slot in the evening on Channel 4 where they would play a new music video and I remember "Better Watch Out" being one of those.

It was the month that gave us the comeback of New Edition with their comeback single being "Hit Me Off". Although a 5 piece in the 80s with Johnny Gill replacing Bobby Brown when he left, this time there was 6 of them with Bobby Brown and Johnny Gill both being part of the reunion. 

Speaking of 80s groups there was one final hit for OMD with "Walking On The Milky Way". By this point OMD was just Andy McCluskey who called time shortly afterwards. It's quite possibly the best OMD single.

The Pet Shop Boys also released what's possibly their best single of the 90s "Se A Vide (That's The Way Life Is)". This is a go to song for me having a nostalgic look at summers of the past.

Helter Skelter held their Energy 96 event in Aug, the first of their Energy events which wouldn't occur annually in Aug for the remainder of the 90s.

Remembering 1996: July

Some will say you can't really talk about July 1996 without talking about girl power so I'll get this out of the way. It was of course the month Shampoo had their final Top 40 hit with "Girl Power".

A month after Crowded House announced to the world they were breaking up there was a new music act from New Zealand ready to take their place. OMC made their Top 40 debut with "How Bizarre". A big hit no doubt and I like it too, but they didn't exactly fill the gap left by Crowded House because they had no further Top 40 hits.

It was the month "Born Slippy" by Underworld from the Trainspotting soundtrack entered the Top 40. It was the record that brought Underworld to the general public's attention, but they'd been around for some time and already had a significant following.

Elsewhere in the dance music world we saw future Radio 1 DJ Judge Jules in the Top 40 for the first time. The record was "Outrageous" which was a collaboration with fellow DJ John Kelly under the name Stix 'N' Stoned.

Patrick Prins is a name you may not be familiar with. He's a Dutch producer who has quite a lengthy number of aliases and in Jul 96 he released "Le Voie Le Soleil" under the name Subliminal Cuts. He'd previously had a Top 40 hit the previous year with "To The Beat Of The Drum (La Luna)" under the name Ethics.

Dreamscape returned in Jul 96 with the rescheduled Dreamscape 22 which was their first event since the tragic death of promoter Murray Beetson. It was now in the hands of Red Alert & Mike Slammer who were the same people who ran Slammin Vinyl.

There was also a Slammin Vinyl event at Bagleys in London in conjunction with Dream FM. It included a Jimmy J & Vinyltrixta back to back set with MC Ruff which is quite possibly my favourite happy hardcore set ever. At the time I thought they were the ones who ran Slammin Vinyl but they infact ran the record shop of the same name in Kingston.

July saw the launch of arguably the biggest happy hardcore album series, Bonkers. It was mixed by Hixxy & Sharkey who had given us "Toytown" the previous year. However they were going in different directions musically, Hixxy was a cheesefest including "Toytown" whereas Sharkey was going in a more mature direction which would evolve into Freeform.

Remembering 2026: June

As we're halfway through the Remembering 1996 posts and halfway through the year I thought I'd make a post for reading back in 30 years time that captures music of the moment.

Most of the new entries in the Top 40 in Jun 96 didn't get a mention because there were 68 of them. In Jun 26 there were just 10 which seems few enough to look at all of them.

The month began with Ariana Grande going straight in at number one with "Hate That I Made You Love Me". Incidentally it's composer Max Martin made his UK Top 40 debut as a songwriter in Jun 96 with the Backstreet Boys debut "Get Down (You're The One For Me)". The artists have changed but behind the scenes it's still the same.

The only other new entry that week was "Noble" by F3miii. He's a Nigerian-Irish singer-songwriter on TikTok who released it on Boxing Day 2025, it first charted at 81 in April and gradually climbed into the Top 40. Whether he'll be a one hit wonder or the next Ed Sheeran remains to be seen.

The following week Taylor Swift went straight in at number one with "I Knew It I Knew You". It was from the film "Toy Story 5", in 1996 we'd only had one Toy Story film. The question is in 30 years time how many Top 40 hits will Taylor Swift have had and what Toy Story number will we be on.

Taylor Swift very much feels like a modern artist but it's now 17 years since she made her Top 40 debut. To draw comparisons in Jun 96 Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen from U2 charted with "Theme From Mission Impossible". U2 were still popular but at the time but they were also seen as old. Taylor Swift is 36, the same age Adam Clayton was in Jun 96 whilst Larry Mullen was 34. U2 were 15 years into their Top 40 career at that point.

Alex Warren had his 9th Top 40 hit with "Passenger". He'd had his big hit "Ordinary" the previous year which spent 13 non-consecutive weeks at number one which at this point was the longest run at number one in the 2020s.

18 year old Alyssa Grace made her Top 40 debut with "Bloodstream". Will she still be having hits at 48 or will she quickly disappear? She's that new at the moment that she doesn't even have a Wikipedia page.

Mac Miller died in 2018 but never had a Top 40 hit until Jun 26 when "Cinderella" in collaboration with Ty Dolla Sign charted. It was a 10 year old song that became part of some TikTok trend.

In Jun 96 most of the new entries came from British artists but Maxi Priest was the only Brit to make the Top 40 with said record in America. In Jun 26 only 1 of the new entries in the UK Top 40 came from a British artist. This Silva Bumpa making his debut with "On 2nite". He's yet to have a Wikipedia page.

Onto week 3 and the highest new entry came from Olivia Rodrigo with "Stupid Song" which entered at number 2. She had other songs at numbers 3 and 5 whilst the number 4 was by someone named Oliva too.

Then there was the song "Iconic By Mistake" which was a collaboration between 3 girl groups, Le Sserafim, Illit and Katseye. There were more individuals on that record than the remaining new entries combined.

Finally there was the official World Cup song "Dai Dai" by Shakira & Burna Boy. It's the only one of these new entries I've actually heard at the time of writing and that's because I've been watching the World Cup.

Shakira is now 49 which is older than Freddie Mercury ever was and had he still been alive in Jun 96 when Queen charted with "Let Me Live" then that's how old he would have been.

Onto the final week of Jun 26 and there were no new entries in the Top 40. What did happen though was "Reign Me In" by Sam Fender & Oliva Dean climbed back to number one making it 14 non-consecutive weeks at number one and therefore overtaking Alex Warren for most weeks in the 2020s.

How much longer can it go?