Top of the Pops BBC4

Booers

Booers

idratherjack said:
I "enjoyed" the iconic Cappella performance for all the wrong reasons. I always preferred the Move singles to the U Got 2 singles. Poor Kelly O, that has to be the worst vocal ever heard on TOTP.

Shame we didn't get a studio performance of Sail Away, it's Urban Cookie Collective's best song and so much better than The Key, The Secret.
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True, but it's not better than Feels Like Heaven, that's the ultimate UCC bop!

I remember liking The Big Beat by Cappella - that had a different sound for them (and didn't begin with "U (Got 2)" or "Move", as was quite common for them as already pointed out!).
 
AcerBenII

AcerBenII

idratherjack said:
I "enjoyed" the iconic Cappella performance for all the wrong reasons. I always preferred the Move singles to the U Got 2 singles. Poor Kelly O, that has to be the worst vocal ever heard on TOTP.

Shame we didn't get a studio performance of Sail Away, it's Urban Cookie Collective's best song and so much better than The Key, The Secret.
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Enjoy these performances from the CBBC show Hangar 17!







Quite impressive production values actually. The Cappella one in particular looks as if it could be TOTP.
 
Booers

Booers

idratherjack said:
Tell Me The Way was an absolute banger from Cappella too, and Allison Jordan a much better vocalist than poor old Kelly O

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I'd moved on baby by this point so don't recall this one. Their Official Charts page shows they had an album of the same name, but it's not listed on Discogs - however there is an album in 1995 called War In Heaven. Is this the same thing but UK got a different title maybe?

Also, U Got 2 Know album has such lame artwork. I always thought that at the time. And UCC's High On A Happy Vibe. Those CD booklets were very disappointing!
 
AcerBenII

AcerBenII

Booers said:
I'd moved on baby by this point so don't recall this one. Their Official Charts page shows they had an album of the same name, but it's not listed on Discogs - however there is an album in 1995 called War In Heaven. Is this the same thing but UK got a different title maybe?

Also, U Got 2 Know album has such lame artwork. I always thought that at the time. And UCC's High On A Happy Vibe. Those CD booklets were very disappointing!
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Never seen that before! It's not an album - wonder if it's the 2 x 12" vinyl package that wouldn't be eligible for the singles chart.

I quite liked the Scandinavian issue of U Got 2 Know - it's the one I used to rent from the library

https://www.discogs.com/release/107461-Cappella-U-Got-2-Know
 
AcerBenII

AcerBenII

Ahh I posted that performance on Kelly's FB and she said

ok so if I a remember correctly, hangar 17 was a Saturday morning show in the UK? Nope, don’t remember the performance and the guys are a bit random
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Good to see though, haven’t seen it before, thank you
 
Servalan

Servalan

WhatKindOfKylie? said:
I think she looked rather lovely in the studio performance of Without You.
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I love that performance of 'Without You' – much more of a gospel vibe than the single/album track and MC totally on point with her vocal.

One TOTP commentator on Twitter (who rather seems to like the sound of their own voice …) has been slagging off Mariah's cover – for me, it's the definitive version. *ducks for cover*
 
Servalan

Servalan

Booers said:
Yes it’s not racist or sexist but snobbery. Dina Carroll, Cece Peniston, Mariah Carey and Wendy Moten - all non white women who have given great performances on recent repeats. Most of these dance acts had divas with belting live vocals - just not Capella!
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I don't disagree but I get what @Vasilios is circling: from the rise of synth pop and hip hop as commercial forces in the early 80s and even more so with house in the mid 80s, there was always a snobbery from the old school music establishment – which would also have manifested itself at the BBC under the likes of fuddy duddies like Stan Appel – that acts couldn't be taken seriously if they didn't play their own instruments (which would have to include guitars). It's the same mindset that made Live Aid such a smug fest, and prompted much sneering at Five Star when they won Best British Group at the 1987 Brits.

Those people looking down their noses at music in that way were the same ones who dismissed Kraftwerk as weirdos and kranks in the 70s – and look how badly wrong they got that …
 
Booers

Booers

Servalan said:
I don't disagree but I get what @Vasilios is circling: from the rise of synth pop and hip hop as commercial forces in the early 80s and even more so with house in the mid 80s, there was always a snobbery from the old school music establishment – which would also have manifested itself at the BBC under the likes of fuddy duddies like Stan Appel – that acts couldn't be taken seriously if they didn't play their own instruments (which would have to include guitars). It's the same mindset that made Live Aid such a smug fest, and prompted much sneering at Five Star when they won Best British Group at the 1987 Brits.

Those people looking down their noses at music in that way were the same ones who dismissed Kraftwerk as weirdos and kranks in the 70s – and look how badly wrong they got that …
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Yes, I am just saying it's not racism or sexism - just snobbery. They were probably trying to show that these DJ feat. sampled diva acts couldn't perform live. If Black Box had been upfront from the start and used Martha Wash/Loleatta Holloway/Heather Small as their appointed credited vocalist, then I doubt there'd ever have been this snobbery because any of them would have belted out Ride On Time/Everybody Everybody/I Don't Know Anybody Else and shown the world that dance music can work live. Interestingly, the biggest and most well-known fuck up with the miming came from 'real' musicians with All About Eve.
 
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Servalan

Servalan

Booers said:
Yes, I am just saying it's not racism or sexism - just snobbery. They were probably trying to show that these DJ feat. sampled diva acts couldn't perform live. If Black Box had been up from from the start and used Martha Wash/Loleatta Holloway/Heather Small as their appointed credited vocalist, then I doubt there'd ever have been this snobbery because either of them would have belted out Ride On Time/Everybody Everybody/I Don't Know Anybody Else and shown the world that dance music can work live. Interestingly, the biggest and most well-known fuck up with the miming came from 'real' musicians with All About Eve.
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There are countless instances in pop of the person who sings the lead vocal on a track not being the person who seems to be performing it on TOTP – 'Sugar Baby Love' and 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' immediately spring to mind – but what Black Box did with Loleatta Holloway took what M|A|R|R|S, Bomb The Bass and co did to a whole other level: deliberately passing off a vocal from a known singer, cut and pasted, as someone else's. Quite why they thought they would rip off Martha Wash after that is beyond my comprehension – or was it just about having a skinny front woman?
 
heartmightmelt

heartmightmelt

Vasilios said:
The 'no miming' rule was frankly sexist, classist, snobbery on full effect and racist let's be honest. The only genre not affected? Straight white men w. guitars.
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Guess which demographic complains the most about miming or singing over the instrumental on any YouTube video of any act performing on TOTP/CD:UK/Pepsi Chart Show/any European pop music show where there is clearly no space or budget in the TV set for a backline set up.
 
Vasilios

Vasilios

Booers said:
Yes, I am just saying it's not racism or sexism - just snobbery. They were probably trying to show that these DJ feat. sampled diva acts couldn't perform live. If Black Box had been upfront from the start and used Martha Wash/Loleatta Holloway/Heather Small as their appointed credited vocalist, then I doubt there'd ever have been this snobbery because any of them would have belted out Ride On Time/Everybody Everybody/I Don't Know Anybody Else and shown the world that dance music can work live. Interestingly, the biggest and most well-known fuck up with the miming came from 'real' musicians with All About Eve.
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Looking down on Five Star for winning best group is not just snobbery, let's NOT simplify please. Looking down on housey stuff from the gay clubs picking up traction and thinking 'let's put more guitars on TV instead' isn't just snobbery. Trying to keep techno stuff from Europe isn't just snobbery it's a bit xenophobic too. Why are we excusing any moves that were intended to keep certain kinds of music off TV. It wasn't right, and had lots of phobias underneath.
 
heartmightmelt

heartmightmelt

Vasilios said:
Trying to keep techno stuff from Europe isn't just snobbery it's a bit xenophobic too.
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UK radio always had resistance to anything big in Europe. I remember seeing the very disparate music being broadcast on MTV Europe in the pre-1997 days (when MTV UK launched) compared to what was blanketing UK radio. If anything got through it had to be released in September so that UK holidaymakers would remember it from their holidays, or have crossed over to the USA first. Xenophobia of Europe is simply baked into UK boomer culture, conditioned into the generation that are convinced that they personally fought in a war that ended before they were born.
 
Vasilios

Vasilios

UK labels when Haddaway kept having hit after hit: - Pah those immigrants taking our jobs! Stan Jimmy Nail instead! Leave 2Unlimited alone, we have Two 3hirds! Robin S? Here's Kelly Llorena my loves.
 
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