25 Years Since....October 1993

Time to go back 25 years once again. This time I struggled to narrow it down to 5 records I was enjoying at the time:

INXS - The Gift

INXS were my second favourite band earlier on in 1993 to Guns n Roses. By the summer they'd gone down to third place and by October I think they'd fallen even further down the rankings.

I'm pretty sure they were still in my Top 10 though and I remember liking this record when it came out. That said it's nowhere near their best record, I much preferred "Beautiful Girl" earlier on in the year.

It would be another year before we'd see them in the charts again and they would only have two more Top 40 hits before the death of Michael Hutchence in 1997.

Bon Jovi - I Believe

The reason why INXS fell to third place in my list of favourite bands in the summer of 1993 was because Bon Jovi replaced them in second place. However I believe (excuse the pun!) they had also fell down the rankings by October.

One year on from the "Keep the Faith" album being released they were still releasing singles from it, this one being the 5th, and they weren't done yet. I'd known this song for some time by the time it was released and is the opening track on the album.

Whilst INXS would quietly slide down my rankings of favourite bands, Bon Jovi would eventually jump straight to my list of worst bands for not being heavy enough. This hadn't happened yet though.

Lemonheads - Into Your Arms

Lemonheads were one of those bands who probably made it big because of the popularity of Grunge without actually being a Grunge band themselves. On that basis it meant this song was acceptable to like despite being a bit on the soft side.

That said, I like this song so much at the time that I'd have secretly liked it if it wasn't acceptable. It's also one of the easiest songs to play on the guitar which meant I played it on the guitar a lot.

Despite the Lemonheads being a cool band though, I think people did still consider them to be a band that catered to more than just the Rock crowd. I recall doing a mini group play we made up ourselves in a lesson at school which consisted of some young people and an old man (played by me) which revolved around music. Each character had their favourite band and it was decided the old mans favourite band should be the Lemonheads because they were the cool band least likely to offend old people. Ironically it was only a few months earlier that I considered their cover of "Mrs Robinson" being a bit of a fuck you to the older generations.

Blur - Sunday Sunday

Proof that Blur actually made music between "There's No Other Way" and the "Parklife" album. At the time I remember thinking they were called Blair rather than Blur. I also didn't know they were the band who did "There's No Other Way" so in my mind this was the first time I'd heard them.

This was the final and most successful single to be taken from their "Modern Life Is Rubbish" album, an album that was rubbish according to a Blur fan I knew a year or so later. I can't speak for the album but I like this song.

It reached number 26 and was the 5th single of theirs not to reach the Top 20 since their debut. The following year though as we all know their fortunes would change.

Cypress Hill - When the Shit Goes Down

Me and a classmate would constantly argue about this record, I said it's called "When the Shit Goes Down" and they said no it's "When the Ship Goes Down". Then on the Top of the Pops countdown it would say "When the S*** Goes Down" to which I said why would they do that if it was Ship.

Turns out we were both right as the clean version had been renamed to "When the Ship Goes Down".

I did use what I thought were misheard lyrics to my advantage though as I could sing it in front of people who would normally bollock me for swearing knowing they probably thought I was saying Ship rather than Shit and that did seem to work.

Top of the Pops: 25/10/2018

What's this all about?

Top 40 Countdown

Number of eligible records: 11
⬆ (30) Dj Snake ft Selena Gomez, Cardi B & Ozuna - Taki Taki
⬆ (17) MK ft Jonas Blue & Becky Hill - Back & Forth
⬆ (4) Lady Gaga ft Bradley Cooper - Shallow
New (5) Little Mix ft Nicki Minaj - Woman Like Me
New (11) Kodak Black ft Scott & Offset - Zeze
New (13) Bad Bunny ft Drake - Mia
New (24) Jess Glynne - Thursday
New (40) Cadet ft Deno Driz - Advice
⬆ (1) Calvin Harris ft Sam Smith - Promises

Missing Out
⬆ (31) Lady Gaga - Always Remember Me This Way
⬆ (19) French Montana ft Drake - No Stylist

Underground Music

Back in the early 90s when Guns n Roses were my favourite band I told a fellow Guns n Roses fan who was a few years older than me that I too was a Guns n Roses fan. This prompted him to ask me if I liked any of the other bands he listed. The first band he said was Metallica, but after that my response to every band he listed was "never heard of them".

This was perhaps my first realisation that listening to bands nobody else has heard of is cool. Around this time my school mates were also getting into Guns n Roses and other Rock/Metal bands that I was being introduced to. A few months later I had another conversation with the fellow Guns n Roses fan and once again he started listing off other bands he liked asking whether I liked them. This time I'd heard of pretty much all of them. I felt like I was now a man in the know.

However one day I went into WH Smith and started to read the latest British Hit Singles book which went up to 1992 (I owned the one which went up to 1990). I thought I'd look at the bands who were now in my music collection and to my horror found that pretty much all of them had Top 40 hits to their name. The only exceptions as I recall were Pantera who had just a number 73 single at the time and Sepultura who hadn't had any, but they would both have Top 40 hits beyond 1992. It seemed this so called underground music I was listening to wasn't very underground at all.

When I got into Rave it definitely seemed more underground. Although you got the odd compilation in Our Price or HMV, the main way to acquire music was to send a cheque to the promoter to buy the latest tapepack. The DJs were just names on tapes, I didn't know anything about them apart from the music. Even the music was a bit of an unknown entity at times as the tapepacks had no track listings. Virtually none of it reached the Top 40 either and most people I knew hadn't heard any of the people I listened to.

Then one day in 1998 I was at the counter in Our Price where they had a list of the Top 75 and on there I saw a new entry from Force & Styles with "Heart of Gold" at number 55. I wasn't happy seeing a tune only me and my fellow ravers knew in the charts.

The reality is though it wasn't as obscure as I'd like to have thought. Several of the Happy Hardcore DJs/Producers have had some chart success at some point. Slipmatt had been in SL2, Seduction had a couple of Top 40 hits in 1992, Eruption was in Ruff Dirverz, Ham had a Top 40 hit as part of Powerhouse, Luna C and Bang! were part of the Smart E's, Scott Brown was part of Q-Tex. Beyond the 90s, UK Garage act Trick or Treat were Happy Hardcore DJs SY and Unknown, Styles and Breeze had Top 40 hits.

Also in 1998 I picked up a flyer for a Hysteria event which had Underground Garage in the 2nd room. The DJs included EZ who is perhaps the best known UK Garage DJ ever and Pied Piper who went on to have a number one single in 2001. Maybe it was underground then, but by 2000 most Underground Garage had become commercial.

On the flip side I used to detest the likes of Pete Tong and Judge Jules back in the 90s for being so commercial with their Radio 1 shows. However when I got over it and started listening to their shows I found a lot of the music they'd play was music I'd never heard before so I guess on that basis it was just as underground as the Helter Skelter tapes I listened to. Some of it would end up in the charts, some of it wouldn't.

I've since come across several people who have the attitude of only listening to underground music and hating everything commercial. I briefly knew a big Metal fan who absolutely hated Limp Bizkit, Slipknot and Papa Roach for being so commercial, calling them "Wannabe Goths". At the same time she always (and I mean always) wore a Korn top and her favourite band was Rammstein, both of whom have had Top 40 hits. In fact of all of those bands Korn are the ones with the most Top 40s.

Another person I once knew was a Hip Hop fan, but not any of the Hip Hop acts who got into the Top 40. His favourite act was the Wu Tang Clan who made the Top 40 in 1998 collaborating with Texas.

Then you have the bands themselves who claim to be underground despite the fact most people have heard of them. For example you have NOFX who wanted MTV to stop showing their videos because being on MTV isn't cool. Bearing in mind this was pre YouTube days my question to that would be why make music videos in the first place if you don't want music channels to show them?

Overall though the question is what exactly is underground music? is there a limit to the number of units you sell? or number of people to play to? or number of people who have heard of you?

Maybe it's a question of whether you cater to fans of your genre or not. As a Dance Music fan I like Mylo and can see how even the more underground crowd could like him. Then you have Cascada who I think are rubbish and can't imagine too many Dance Music fans liking them either. Those into completely different genres may not see the distinction, in the same way I never understood why so many Indie Music fans hated the Stereophonics when to me they sounded just like the bands they listened to.

I do still like the thought of listening to someone I discovered that nobody else has heard of, but the end of the day music is music, you like what you like, a given tune will be the same if only a handful of people have heard it as it would be if the whole world has heard it.

Top of the Pops: 18/10/2018

What's this all about?

Top 40 Countdown

Number of eligible records: 13
⬆ (17) LSD ft Sia, Diplo & Labrinth - Thunderclouds
New (35) Lady Gaga ft Bradley Cooper - I'll Never Love Again
New (34) 6ix9ine ft Bobby Shmurda
New (28) Lil Baby ft Gunna - Drip Too Hard
New (24) Halsey - Without Me
⬆ (15) Sigala ft Ella Eyre, Meghan Trainor & French Montana - Just Got Paid
New (16) Eminem - Venom
⬆ (5) Rita Ora - Let You Love Me
New (1) Dave ft Fredo - Funky Friday

Missing Out
⬆ (20) Khalid - Better
⬆ (26) Jason Derulo ft David Guetta, Nicki Minaj & Willy William - Goodbye
⬆ (32) Lizzy ft Fredo, Young T & Bugsey - Ay Caramba
New (39) Lady Gaga - Always Remember Me This Way

Record of the Year 2006: Solu Music featuring Kimblee - Fade

One of the inevitable difficulties I'm going to have picking my record of the year as we get more modern is finding a record I actually like. My memories of chart music in 2006 was that most of it was poor and by the time Top of the Pops ended I'd discovered YouTube and found myself listening to older music most of the time.

Fortunately there were still a handful of decent tunes in the charts in 2006 and I've picked one which was originally recorded in 2001, quite appropriate in a funny way.

It was actually the Grant Nelson remix that hit the charts reaching number 18. Many people who liked the original hated this remix but I actually like it. It's one of those tunes you can dance to in the club to and chill out at home too. From a Dance music perspective I was favouring the more soulful sounding records at the time and this fit perfectly.

Solu Music are an American duo who are Howie Caspe and Dano Nathanson and this was their first single in 2001. Their last single came out in 2006 but according to their website their back in 2018 after an extended break.

UK Singles Chart: 2006

2006 was the year Top of the Pops finished. The interest in the UK Singles Chart was already in decline as was the interest in Top of the Pops, hence it's cancelation. However for many of those who stuck with Top of the Pops until the end this is quite possibly where their interest in the UK Single Chart ended too.

For myself personally I was still watching the music channels regularly, some of the records this year bring back memories of "The Galaxy Chart" on MTV Dance for example. There were also other tunes I remember being played on the music channels a lot at the time that didn't chart and there were also big hits I have no recollection of existing.

Joining the 30+ UK Top 40 hits club this year is Morrissey and having their final hit this year is Janet Jackson:

	Artist	No of Hits	New Hits
1	Elvis Presley	123
2	Cliff Richard	121	21st Century Christmas / Move It
3	Elton John	68
4	Madonna	62	Sorry, Get Together, Jump
5	David Bowie	57
6	Status Quo	55
7	Queen	51	Another One Bites The Dust
8	Michael Jackson	48
9	Paul McCartney	46
10	Rod Stewart	45
11	Diana Ross	43
=	Rolling Stones	43
13	Depeche Mode	42	Suffer Well, John The Revelator / Lilian, Martyr
14	Stevie Wonder	41
15	UB40	40
=	Pet Shop Boys	40	I'm With Stupid, Minimal, Numb
17	Kylie Minogue	39
18	Prince	38
=	U2	38	One, The Saints Are Coming
20	Janet Jackson	37	Call On Me
21	Tom Jones	35	Stoned In Love
=	Mariah Carey	35	Say Somethin'
23	Bon Jovi	34	Welcome To Wherever You Are, Who Says You Can't Go Home
24	Frank Sinatra	33
=	Shakin Stevens	33
=	R Kelly	33	That's That
=	George Michael	33	An Easier Affair, This Is Not Real Love
28	Erasure	32
29	Roy Orbison	31
=	Bee Gees	31
=	Whitney Houston	31
=	Iron Maiden	31
=	REM	31
34	Lonnie Donegan	30
=	Beatles	30
=	Tina Turner	30
=	Duran Duran	30
=	Manic Street Preachers	30
=	Simply Red	30
=	Morrissey	30	You Have Killed Me, The Youngest Was The Most Loved, In The Future When All's Well, I Just Want To See The Boy Happy

Westlife join equal Cliff Richards 14 number ones, and scoring their 5th and 6th number ones are McFly who were the only act to score more than one number one this year:

	Artist	No of #1s	New #1s
1	Elvis Presley	21
2	Beatles	17
3	Cliff Richard	14
=	Westlife	14	The Rose
5	Madonna	12	Sorry
6	Abba	9
=	Spice Girls	9
=	Take That	9	Patience
9	Rolling Stones	8
=	Oasis	8
11	George Michael	7
=	Michael Jackson	7
=	Kylie Minogue	7
=	U2	7
=	Elton John	7
=	Eminem	7	Smack That
17	Slade	6
=	Rod Stewart	6
=	Boyzone	6
=	Blondie	6
=	Queen	6
=	Robbie Williams	6
=	McFly	6	Don't Stop Me Now / Please Please, Star Girl

R Kelly continues his streak of hits every year since 1994 and we have 9 acts who have had a hit every year in the decade to date:

	Artist	Hits Every Year Since
1	R Kelly	1994
2	Robbie Williams	1996
3	Missy Elliott	1997
=	Basement Jaxx	1999
=	Jennifer Lopez	1999
=	Westlife	1999
7	Snoop Dogg	2000
=	Nelly	2000
=	Sugababes	2000

Having scored the previous years Christmas number one, X Factor 2 winner Shayne Ward scored a number two with his follow up single "No Promises". His third single "Stand By Me" however failed to reach the top ten, but this wouldn't be the last we'd see of him in the charts.

X Factor 2 runner up Andy Abraham had his only hit this year, collaborating with Michael Underwood with "December Brings Me Back To You" which made number 18. X Factor 2 contestant Chico scored a number one with "It's Chico Time" but only made number 24 with his follow up "D.I.S.C.O." which would be his final hit. We also had the only hit from contestant Maria Lawson with "Sleepwalking" which made number 20.

X Factor 3 happened later on in the year and winner Leona Lewis had the Christmas number one with "A Moment Like This". She would be the only contestant from X Factor 3 to have a UK Top 40 hit.

The X Factor wasn't the only TV show giving us new chart acts, though the acts to come from these other shows were less successful. There was "Totally Frank" which gave us a Girl Group called Frank who reached number 40 with their only hit "I'm Not Shy".

Then there was "Big In America" which brought us the Boyband US5 who made number 38 with their only hit "Maria". We also had "Totally Boyband" which gave us the Boyband Upper Street which consisted of Dane Bowers of Another Level, Jimmy Constable of 911, Bradley McIntosh of S Club 7 and Danny Wood of New Kids on the Block and they made number 35 with their only hit with "The One".

More successful though was the return of Take That after 10 years away who reached number one with their comeback single "Patience". We also had the return of All Saints after 5 years away who reached number three with their comeback single "Rocksteady". This would be the final UK Top 40 single for All Saints, but Take That would be back.

Post-Busted bands Fightstar and Son of Dork both had their final hits this year with "Waste A Moment" and "Eddies Song" respectively. Remaining Busted member Matt Willis then started his solo career with the number seven "Up All Night". He followed up with "Hey Kid" and "Don't Let It Go To Waste" which both failed to reach the top ten.

Post-Blazin Squad group Friday Hill had their second and final hit this year with "One More Night Alone". All former Blue members had solo hits this year, with Antony Costa debuting with his only hit "Do You Ever Think Of Me" and Duncan James having his second and final hit with "Sooner Or Later". Lee Ryan had a hit with "When I Think Of You" and Simon Webbe had hits with "After All This Time" and "Coming Around Again". Both would have one more hit beyond this year.

Emma Bunton had her final solo hit this year with "Downtown" which was done for Children In Need and made number three. This would leave Mel C as the only Spice Girl who's solo UK Top 40 career was yet to finish.

We had the only solo hit from an Atomic Kitten member with Liz McClarnon reaching number 5 with "Woman In Love / I Get The Sweetest Feeling".

The end of 2005 saw Mutya Buena leave the Sugababes and in 2006 she had her debut solo hit collaborating with George Michael on "This Is Not Real Love". The Sugababes had two top ten hits with "Red Dress" and "Easy", but also scored their lowest charting single with "Follow Me Home" only reaching number 32.

The Pussycat Dolls were the most successful Girl Group of the year reaching number two with "Beep", number three with "Buttons" and number seven with "I Don't Need A Man". Nearly as successful was Girls Aloud who had a number three with "Something Kinda Ooooh", number four with "I Think We're Alone Now" and number six with "Whole Lotta History".

Icelandic Girl Group Nylon debuted with their only hit "Losing a Friend". We also had the only two hits from so called Indie Girl Group the Pipettes with "Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me" and "Pull Shapes".

Indie Music was arguably the biggest it had ever been from a chart perspective in 2006. The year began with the Arctic Monkeys scoring their second number one with their second hit "When The Sun Goes Down". Later on in the year we had a number one from Razorlight with "America".

Notable debutants from the Indie world included The Feeling with "Sewn", Klaxons with "Magick", Fratellis with "Henrietta" and Automatic with "Raoul".

Other notable Indie hits this year included "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol and "Valerie" by the Zutons. It was the sheer quantity of Indie in the charts though which made it a strong year for Indie, with easily far more records then any other specific genre. Other Indie acts having hits this year included Hard-Fi, Kooks, Starsailor, Maximo Park, Embrace, Keane, Kasabian, Feeder, Ordinary Boys, Editors and Franz Ferdinand amongst others.

From the Punk world we had the debut of Fall Out Boy with "Sugar We're Goin Down". We also had the final hits from Alkaline Trio with "Burn" and Towers Of London with "Air Guitar". There was also a Punk number one from My Chemical Romance with "Welcome to the Black Parade".

Green Day collaborated this year with U2 with their cover of "The Saints Are Coming". Former Blink 182 member Tom Delonge had his only hit with his new band Angels & Airwaves with "The Adventure".

The end of the Glam Metal revival looked to have come this year with the Darkness having their final hit with "Girlfriend". The music that allegedly killed it, Grunge was also looking like it's revival was ending with just Nickelback scoring a number 40 with "Far Away". We did however have a solo record from former Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell had a hit this year with "You Know My Name" but that wasn't really Grunge.

R&B singer Ne-Yo scored a number one with his debut hit "So Sick". This was knocked off number one by another R&B debutant, Gnarls Barkley with "Crazy". This was the first single to reach number one on downloads alone with the physical format being released the following week. This stayed at number one for 9 weeks, the longest time a record had been at number one since Wet Wet Wet had 15 weeks in 1994.

Both Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake returned with Timbaland produced albums this year and each scored their first number one singles, Nelly Furtado with "Maneater" and Justin Timberlake with "Sexyback".

Beyoncé had her second number one which again was collaborating with Jay-Z on Deja Vu. She also had a number three with "Check On It" and a number four with "Irreplaceable". Fellow former Destiny's Child member Letoya had her only solo record this year with "Torn".

There were chart debuts from Chris Brown with "Run It", T-Pain with "I'm Sprung" and "Taio Cruz I Just Wanna Know". There were also the only two hit for Cassie with "Me And U" and "Long Way 2 Go" and former Misteeq member Alesha Dixon made her solo debut with "Lipstick".

After 2Pac had scored his first posthumous number one the previous year, this year was the turn of Notorious BIG who had a number one with "Nasty Girl". Having his final hit this year was LL Cool J with "Control Myself" which was his second collaboration with Jennifer Lopez and like his first collaboration with her it made number two.

The Black Eyed Peas had two top ten hits with "Pump It" and "Mas Que Nada" before a 3 year absence from the charts. We saw the start of the solo careers of Black Eyed Peas member Will I Am, who collaborated with the Pussycat Dolls on "Beep" and Fergie who scored a number three with her debut "London Bridge".

We also had a couple of top tens from Busta Rhymes with "Touch It" and "I Love My Chick" and from P Diddy with "Come To Me" and "Tell Me". Chamillionaire scored a number two with his debut "Ridin'" which was a collaboration with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony member Krayzie Bone. He scored a number 35 with his follow up "Grown And Sexy" which would be his final hit. Overall it was a quiet year for Hip Hop compared to recent years.

It was also a quiet year for Dance music, but we did have a couple of Dance number ones. They were "Thunder In My Heart Again" by Meck featuring Leo Sayer and "Put Your Hands Up For Detroit" by Fedde Le Grand.

Most notable though was the lack of Trance music in the charts having been arguably the biggest Dance genre in the charts earlier in the decade. The only Trance records to chart this year were "Elysium (I Go Crazy)" by Ultrabeat vs Scott Brown which made number 35 and "Fire" by Ferry Corsten which made number 40.

We had the debut of German Eurodance act Cascada with the number two hit "Everytime We Touch". They followed this up with "Truly Madly Deeply" which made number four. There was also the only two hits for Micky Modelle vs Jessy with "Dancing In Dark" and "Over You". We had the final hits for Crazy Frog with "We Are the Champions" and "Last Christmas".

Naughty Boy made his chart debut with "Phat Beach (I'll Be Ready)" which was a Dance version of the Baywatch theme tune. This made number 36, but there was a more popular Dance version of the Baywatch theme tune in the charts at the same time from Sunblock with "I'll Be Ready" which made number four.

David Guetta was back in the charts with the vocals from his tune "Love Don't Let Me Go" mashed up with "Walking Away" by The Egg which was appropriately titled "Love Don't Let Me Go (Walking Away)" by David Guetta vs The Egg. It was also the year "We Are Your Friends" by Justice vs Simian charted which would be the only chart appearance for both acts.

Scissor Sisters scored their only number one this year with "I Don't Feel Like Dancing". This would also be their final top ten single with follow up "Land Of A Thousand Words" only reaching number 19.

We had the final hit for Massive Attack with "Live With Me" marking the end of a 15 year chart career where they were the first Trip Hop act to have a hit and we possibly the last.

Lily Allen made her chart debut this year with the number one hit "Smile". She also had a top ten hit with "LDN". She was one of the acts who broke through from the popularity of her MySpace account which was the big social network of the time.

The mid-00s is probably best remembered for having lots of Indie Music in the charts and so far this year illustrates it the best. Will the popularity of Indie Music continue into 2007?