The Chart Show Top Ten (11th February 1989)

The Chart Show Top Ten in the 80's and a matter in fact including the 90's had the good, bad and the very very bad. The bad included Mike and the Mechanics, the very very bad included Yazz and the good included Morrissey. But amongst the surprising good tunes in this Top Ten was Holly Johnson's Love Train. When I told people, I thought the Love Train was a really great tune, peoples reacted as if I told them I was kidnapped by creatures from planet zog.

I am always open to different types of music and never prejudice pop music because its not alternative or extreme. In fact Love Train was the only few top ten hits of Holly Johnson in the 80's. In the 90's, he didn't fare that well, even a cover of his Power of Love from his Frankie days didn't bring any power of hitting the charts. There was also the re-release of Power of Love during one of the 90's Christmas season. The majority of his solo material were generally forgotten apart from Love Train and Americanos, which I thought was a disappointing tune.

The Frankie days had much more success than his solo materials. Relax and Two Tribes were one of the biggest selling singles of 1984. However after the mid 80's, the band's music were going downhill and the group decided to split up. Frankie Goes to Hollywood had the image of an all gay band, although in fact, only 2 members out of 6 were openly gay (Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherford). The rest of the members just melted away, although they did had some couple of reunions. However it didn't really last that long anyway.

Holly Johnson at the moment is a painter and I've seen his art of work on his website. Its quite good, not exactly Leonardo da Vinci, but its certainly beats David Bowie's paintings, which are quite grim. I guess he must have had a bad day at his record company to produce some pretty grim paintings. His 1995 painting of Present Future Accepted looked like the bottom half was done by a chimpanzee and the top half painted by a psycho killer. It wouldn't look out of place in a mental hospital, although I do worry what was David Bowie's mind like when he painted this awful piece of trash !!!

ITV Chart Show Indie Chart (1990 Special)

This is the year when Madchester ruled Britain. From the chart above, we can see Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets and The Charlatans dominating the scene. There was also others, such as Ride, who started to become more popular as years went by in the 90's. One scene that was present in this chart was the shoegazing scene, which bands like Ride, My Bloody Valentine and others came from.

Ride were pretty good band in the early 90's with their loud guitars and mellow vocals. I always thought they were so much better than My Bloody Valentine, but then again the valentines did make some good songs as well such as "You Made Me Realise" and "Feed Me With Your Kiss".

Unfortunately the shoegazing scene really didn't last that long. Alot of critics didn't like the scene, because many of the bands from the shoegazing scene were very ordinary middle class rock stars, who you would never see throwing TV's out of hotels or giving two fingers to journalists. Also live appearances from shoegazing bands was basically bands not doing much on stage, hence the name shoegazing, looking down at your shoes while playing music.

I think shoegazing started to decline when Britpop and Grunge started to become more popular and people stopped looking at their own shoes !!!! However shoegazing still lives on in a different format with bands like Sigur Ros, who I consider a nu-gazing band. I know not everyone thinks Sigur Ros is their cup of tea, but they still beat bands such as Razorlight and Scouting for Girls, whose music are very dull and unimaginative.

ITV Chart Show Rock Chart (20th February 1993)

One of the most unusual names you can ever give for a band, is the name Corrosion of Conformity. Not exactly a pop-oriented band, but a heavy metal band with the friendly message of their song "vote with a bullet". Oh yes, I can see American heavy metal bands giving out pro-democracy views !!!!

Corrosion of Conformity were not like the Bon Jovi's of this world, but a hard heavier metal band, who were quite similar to another band in this chart called Pantera. Ironically both Pantera and Corrosion of Conformity are linked together by the band called Down, who have members that came from both groups. Corrosion of Conformity didn't seem to be popular in the UK compared to Pantera, who had a more larger fanbase and also had a top ten album hit.

Pantera's singer (Phil Anselmo) didn't fit in the stereotypical image of a heavy metal singer. First, he didn't have long hair, but instead had a skinhead cut. Because of his skinhead image, many people thought he was an extreme right winger. It also didn't help that he started talking about white pride, which led many non-white fans of Pantera to be put of by the group. Phil Anselmo later on in an tv interview denied that he was a racist and mentioned that whites should have pride in their culture.

Pantera disbanded in 2003 when the Abbot brothers (Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell) had a fight with Phil Anselmo, which basically led the brothers to form another band called Damageplan. Unfortunately for that band, damage tragically happened when a deranged fan shot dead Dimebag Darrell in 2004 in a concert in America. Effectively Damageplan disbanded after Dimebag's death. Vinnie Paul and Phil Anselmo still don't get along with each other and the Abbot family even prevented Phil Anselmo attending Dimebag Darrell's funeral. Both Phil Anselmo and Vinnie Paul are still making heavy rock music in different bands, but I can safely say there won't be any Pantera reunion in the near future !!!

The Chart Show Rock Chart (14th January 1989)

Its hard to believe that this episode was broadcast over 20 years ago. Although poodle bands were dominating the rock scene, they did make some great songs. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of Bon Jovi, but their song "Born To Be My Baby" was probably one of their best tracks, even though it doesn't get much airplay on Virgin or any other middle-age radio station or digital tv.

The track was one of those up-lifting tunes that would not have had any problem in being used in a Rocky film. It was one of those tracks that I could play in the gym on my i-pod, if I wanted to run several miles on the treadmill. The song was basically like red-bull being injected in your body. It made you feel that you could do anything. Although too much of it, just like Bon Jovi, could probably cause serious harm to your health !!!

A group in this chart that pioneered a genre of metal was Helloween. Many people consider Helloween as the inventors of power metal, a music that combined keyboard symphony with speed metal. I didn't really hear much of Helloween until the mid-90's on a pirate rock radio station, which played "I Want Out". When I first heard it, I thought wow this really rocks. I've also heard other Helloween music, but unfortunately none of it really matched "I Want Out".

Helloween were basically a German group, who weren't really big in the UK. I doubt if they were big in their native Germany either. However their music was generally niche and weren't really suited for mainstream pop listeners. However they did pioneered Power Metal, which influenced many later bands such as Nightwish.

Looking at this chart, its amazing this was the first rock chart ever on the ITV Chart Show. The ghost train with the loud guitars was such a favourite chart show graphic of mine that I was really disappointed when the chart show replaced it with a robotic pinball in late 1991. It got worse when in 1996 they replaced it with a falling rock. Unfortunately for the chart show, it didn't last long, as the show was axed in 1998.

The Chart Show Top Ten (6th May 1989)

Early-Mid 1989, the ITV Chart Show would only play 2 songs in the top ten including the number one. This time they chosen London Boys and the obvious number 1 from Kylie Minogue. I used to think that the London Boys were a gay pop act, due to their music being very camp. In fact, they were never gay, but two straight blokes from London, who were living in Hamburg.

Sadly for the London Boys, they both tragically died in a car crash in Austria in 1996. To be honest their music tried to be very euro-beat. Although I found out that they weren't big in Europe, as everyone said they were. They were more popular in Switzerland and the UK than they were in Germany or in most places. Nevertheless, they did sound very PWL-esque, despite Stock Aitken Waterman never producing their music.

London Boys only had a couple of hits in the UK and split up in 1992 when the record company dropped them. Their music was very similar to Modern Talking, and many people associated London Boys as a German act rather than British, due to their records being produced by a German producer called Ralf Maue.

After London Boys split, Rauf Maue continued to produce records for Sam Fox and other euro acts, who didn't really match London Boys success in the UK market. Will there ever be another London Boys in the future. I really doubt it, as euro-dance music was never that popular in the UK. The nationality of the London Boys may have helped in the UK records market, but if they were from another country, I doubt they would have had some success in the UK.

ITV Chart Show Rock Chart (24th November 1990)

This chart was the last episode to use the spotted fonts, which was replaced by non-spotted fonts. Anyway apart from talking about fonts, this chart had prog metal, hard rock, glam, adult oriented rock and finally funk metal.

Electric Boys were one of those funk metal acts that originated in Sweden and to be honest I wasn't really a fan of this type of music. Ironically the lead singer later on appeared in a whiskey advertisement, although I have not seen it. The Electric Boys had a couple of singles that didn't lit the charts, but another funk metal act, which did have some minor success was Dan Reed Network.

Dan Reed Network produced the classic "Rainbow Child", which I still listen to even now. I first saw this group on the ITV Chart Show's Rock Chart in 1990. It probably was the only funk metal song in that year which I really liked. A year later in 1991, another funk metal act called Extreme made a big hit with "Get the Funk Out". Surprisingly that song gets rarely played on cable TV, let alone radio. The only music I ever hear from Extreme on radio or TV is "More Than Words", which to be honest I get so bored listening to.

Funk Metal didn't really last that long in the 1990's. It probably died out before the mid-90's, but another group in this chart which I really liked was Queensryche. Even listening to 30 seconds of "Empire" on the rock chart, I still remembered as a 15 year old, that I had to hear the full version of this song. I remembered waiting for Radio 1's Alan Freeman's Rock Show during Friday night and hoping he would play the track. Thankfully he did and I just fell in love with the song. It was pure prog, which was heavier and more intense.

Their follow up 1991 single was even more brillant, the classic "Silent Lucidity". It was so good, that the record companies in the UK re-released it a year later. I think it was probably due to Alan Freeman's Rock Show, which encouraged fans to demand a re-release. Fortunately the re-released went into the UK Top 20, whereas the 1991 release only crept into the Top 40.

And finally as many fans would say, a rock chart without AC/DC is like spaghetti without a sauce. AC/DC's moneytalks is probably their best track of the 1990's. I still prefer many of their 80's tracks such as "Back in Black", "Who Made Who" and "You Shook Me All Night Long", but moneytalks gets me playing air guitar everytime I listen to it. "Come on come on listen to the moneytalks" !!!!!!!

The Chart Show Indie Chart (11th November 1995)

Through the mists of britpop invading the indie charts, there was an American band from Boston (no its not the pixies !!!) who were the east coast version of Dinosaur Jr. Buffalo Tom named after Buffalo Springfield and the drummer of the band, were quite big in the indie scene in the UK early 90's.

I first heard of them on a pirate indie radio station in 1990, and their music was very different from the Madchester scene that was dominating the UK. Surprisingly Buffalo Tom were never big in the United States, let alone in the UK. Yes they did get to perform on the David Letterman show, but for chartwise, they never really broke the ice.

I really started liking them in 1992 with the song "Taillight Fades", which I thought was such a brillant song. I don't think they've ever made a better song than that, although "Tangerine" is a fantastic tune as well. Never really understood Buffalo Tom's lyrics, but I never really paid much attention to them, it was just the music that really counted.

Buffalo Tom are still together and haven't done a Verve or Blur reunion. I'm afraid I haven't really heard much of Buffalo Tom's recent albums, but I can safely say they were the band in the early 90's raising the flag against trends such as Madchester and Britpop, which many people in the UK blindly followed.