THE CHART SHOW (1986-1998)

The Chart Show Top Ten (11th February 1989)

2009-04-17T12:16:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-04-09T15:42:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-04-02T16:04:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-03-24T13:59:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-03-17T15:52:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-03-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-03-03T12:27:00.000-08:00

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.

The Chart Show Rock Chart (16th August 1997)

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What a wonderful noise !!!! The number 1 song called ironically "Anthem" by the ever unpredictable The Wildhearts. The band were from Newcastle and mixed hard rock, punk and melodic pop. The group never really achieved much success in terms of having a top ten hit, but they did make some really catchy tunes such as "I Wanna Go Where The People Go" and the infamous video of "Red Light Green Light".

The video to "Red Light Green Light" was basically a light bulb flashing only red and green lights. Not exactly the most thrilling thing to see - it was basically like watching paint dry !!! Nevertheless the songs compensated the dreadful videos !!!!

The Wildhearts will probably never be the same as they were in the mid-90's, but they certainly made better music than another artist on this chart called "Fish". I really loathed his solo music and worse of all, he was still making it throughout most of the 90's. His cover version of Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air" mixed with electronic beats was so awful, even the Cheeky Girls could have made a better cover version !!!! Thankfully it seems now that Fish has retired from the music scene and hopefully won't make any dreadful songs !!!!

ITV Chart Show Dance Chart (18th April 1992)

2009-02-24T11:00:00.000-08:00

The Chart Show was probably credited as the only show where they could get away with duplicate numbers on the charts, poor spellings (Praga Kahn ??? Should be Praga Khan !!!), censoring naughty acts (Digital O.... Answer: Digital Orgasm) and writing bizarre facts on their info-boxes. One of the bizarre facts was Paul McCartney liking SL2's On a Ragga Tip. I can't imagine the Ex-Beatle dancing to SL2, but then I couldn't imagine seeing on TV today of a 71 year old man ice skating in the middle of a shopping centre in Scotland !!!

SL2 sampled On a Ragga Tip from two reggae records. Record number 1 was Jah Screechie's Walk and Skank, which you can hear on YouTube and also record number 2 Slim Smith's Never Let Go, which is also on the same website. Both records vary considerably, which is no surprise, because the latter was made in the 1960's and the other was made in the 1980's. Both originals are quite good and its an achievement that SL2 used both records to make a great dance track. Never thought that reggae and rave music would mix together, but it certainly worked.

As with many rave acts in the early 90's, they slowly faded away, but they certainly influenced and created more dance genres. Praga Khan (real name Maurice Engelen) was one of them, he later on influenced the hard house scene and his song "injected with a poison" still gets played in some "trendy" clubs every year. Whether people will get bored with it, will remain to see, but personally early 90's music made some great dance tracks, which are not that common in the 21st century.

The Chart Show Indie Chart (9th April 1994)

2009-02-21T14:06:00.000-08:00

Four days after Kurt Cobain's death, the Chart Show played Hole's Miss World. Surprisingly or maybe not, the chart show never mentions Kurt's death on his wife's video. Courtney Love was the co-founder of Hole and was previously a member of Babes in Toyland. Both bands were part of the riot grrl movement, with almost female bands that played loud punk rock tunes. I still remember in 1991, Hole's first appearance on the Chart Show and boy were they loud and noisy, although the chart show censored their single title by calling it teenage .... (in fact, the real title was called teenage whore !!!).

I really started liking Hole's music around 1993, when they released the single "My Beautiful Son". It was basically a song about Kurt Cobain dressing up in womens clothes. I'm not too sure whether Courtney liked Kurt wearing female items, but she certainly made a great rock tune out of it. It had the punk and the melody, which sounded very Nirvana-ish.

Hole were never as big as Nirvana, but they did make some decent tunes. After Hole split up, Courtney decided to make a solo career with a disasterous album in 2004, which to be honest did not make the critics say wow. It was a very riot grrl kind of music, which by this time, was very out of date. Since then, she has made a second album, which will be released in March 2009. Whether the sound will be similar to the riot grrl or totally different, we'll have to wait and see.

ITV Chart Show Indie Chart (11th November 1989)

2009-02-20T11:47:00.000-08:00

I still remember this chart, especially the Nirvana track. This was the first time Nirvana appeared on the Chart Show and what a sound it was. During 1989, the ITV Chart Show used to display the Top 20 specialist charts on Teletext. I remembered one week before this chart, I went on Teletext and looked up the indie chart and saw a name called Nirvana below the Top Ten. I was intrigued about what the sound of Nirvana would be like. When I heard their music, it definitely wasn't "enlightenment", it was in fact very punk and noisy. Although the song was only played for 6 seconds on the indie chart, I never really heard the full version until 10 years later.

Another act that was also influenced by Nirvana was Mudhoney. The band was also from Seattle and were very good friends with Sonic Youth. Both bands made very punk and noisy music, but it was the right kind of noise. Nirvana on the other hand in 1989 didn't really reach their full potential until around 1991, when they released the single "sliver" and later on their famous album "Nevermind", which is still a classic.

Butthole Surfers as with Nirvana and Mudhoney were from America, but not from Seattle. They were in fact from Texas. I really couldn't understand their music. It was so disorganised, even listening to this number 1, I always felt, who in the hell buys their records. I certainly wasn't one of them. Surprisingly they seem to get away with chart show censors, when their name "butthole" was openly displayed on the chart show. Fortunately they didn't show their real butthole, which certainly wouldn't please little tommy with his mum and dad !!!

The Chart Show Indie Chart (15th November 1997)

2009-02-20T10:55:00.000-08:00

Well the info boxes on the Stereophonics say "its a top indie chart this week". Well I couldn't agree more. Its one of the very few specialist chart of post 1996 that I enjoy listening to. At that time Stereophonics and Embrace made some really fantastic tunes, which unfortunately they don't do now. Stereophonics are from Wales and Embrace were from the not so picturesque city of Hull !!!

Many critics called Embrace a copycat of Oasis, especially the common linkage of two brothers in a band with Irish descent and also the similarities of the music. I remembered when I first heard Embrace, I thought it was Noel Gallagher singing. Thats how similar their music was. Although Noel wasn't a fan of the band and I think Embrace and Oasis never really got along with each other.

Embrace's album "The Good Will Out" is a fantastic mix of melody and shouting vocals with Oasis type of guitars. Personally I found the album so much better than Oasis's "Be Here Now", which was released in the same year (1997). Embrace's second album was such a disappointment, it was completely different from their first album in terms of sound and the songs fell flat. Not surprisingly the album didn't do that well in the charts. That was the last time I ever bought an Embrace album, although I did buy their 2004 album Out of Nothing which wasn't that bad I have to admit !!!

ITV Chart Show Dance Chart (7th October 1989)

2009-02-18T15:50:00.000-08:00

Alot of Dance acts in 1989 came from Italy and produced alot of house music, but there was always exceptions. In this example, it was the group Fresh Four, who did a cover version of Rose Royce's "Wishing on a star". The original version was nice and smooth, but it felt like it needed some beats to it. Fresh Four did the honours and added some hip-hop beats with haunting vocals from another singer, who I haven't got a clue about. Nevertheless, it was a classic and even went in the UK Top Ten Singles Chart.

Fresh Four never released a follow up, but the guys behind it, later on developed the drum 'n' bass scene. I was never a fan of drum 'n' bass, but even hearing Fresh Four, you can understand the influence the group gave to the scene.

Raul Orellana on the other hand was a Spanish house producer, who oddly mixed spanish guitar music with house. At that time, it was a very odd mixture, which surprisingly worked. It worked for me, because I felt like playing air guitar with this tune. Normally air guitar works with rock music, but this was different. Never really heard Raul since then. I'm sure he's in Ibiza playing his guitar all day long !!!!

ITV Chart Show - Indie Chart (21st December 1991)

2009-02-17T14:15:00.000-08:00

As always near Christmas, there is a slump in record sales, especially for this indie chart, where there wasn't many artists who had videos. The Top 3 consisted of acts that didn't have videos, although Daisy Chainsaw later had a video for "Love Your Money".

Curve's singer Toni Halliday was the pin-up girl in many indie teenagers bedrooms, but apart from the glamour, there was also the horror. Dr Phibes was not also a 1971 horror film with Vincent Price, but a psychedelic rock group, whose singer was compared to Jimi Hendrix, in the sense of him being black and able to play guitar in a free form style.

Although the band appeared in the Glastonbury festival in 1992, they never really achieved success, maybe because grunge was becoming popular and people were listening to that. However according to the Sunday Mirror in 1997, the horror unfolded, when Howard King Jr, the lead singer of Dr Phibes, was guilty in court for murdering his mother. A tragic end for the band, but a double tragedy for the relatives of the singer, including his deceased mother !!!

The murder was never really reported in the national press, but only in the local press. Apart from wikipedia, there hasn't been any independent source confirming the story. I just hope it isn't someone playing a sick joke, by editing Wikipedia to suggest that the ex-singer murdered his mother. If the murder is true, its even more terrible !!!!

ITV Chart Show - Top Ten (24th November 1990)

2009-02-16T14:00:00.000-08:00

I was never a fan of David Lynch's Twin Peaks, maybe it was abit too weird for me. However the soundtrack was fantastic, especially Julee Cruise's "Falling". Julee Cruise was only known for singing in David Lynch's films, but when Twin Peaks came on British TV, she had a massive hit with the theme song. The song was so atmospheric and very dreamy. Not alot of songs like that become hits, but this was the exception.

Since Twin Peaks, Julee Cruise has done her own songs and albums, but has never really reached the success of "Falling". David Lynch on the other hand still makes weird films, which are not for everyone's taste. I do remember an episode of One Foot in the Grave, when Victor Meldrew and his wife saw a missing foot and told the forensic team, "What is this, David Lynch's version of Cinderella". That perfectly describes David Lynch's movies !!!!

As noticed on this chart, there was alot of awful tunes !!! Gazza's Fog on the Tyne certainly wasn't ear pleasing. Vanilla's Ice Ice Baby was even worse. Overall 1990 personally wasn't a great year for music, compared to other years.

ITV Chart Show - Rock Chart (16th March 1991)

2009-02-15T06:46:00.000-08:00

What a contrast this rock chart had. It had metal bands from Brazil (Sepultura) and Germany (Helloween) and not so metal bands like Vixen and Warrant. Warrant decided to re-released Cherry Pie in this March 1991 chart after their original UK release in November 1990 did not do that well. Why did they bother re-releasing it, it was bad enough anyway !!!

Vixen on the other hand were hot chicks, who seemed to make worser music than Warrant. They kinda reminded me of a cartoon series of a teenage girl rock band that was shown on UK TV in the 80's and 90's.

Megadeth as always were the heavy side of the metal genre. Obviously not as heavy as Death Metal, but their music surprisingly was quite good in the late 80's/early 90's. I guess I was a teenage metal fan, who really didn't like listening to mainstream music. Megadeth was formed after Dave Mustaine was sacked from Metallica in the early 80's. There have always been competition between Metallica and Megadeth, but Metallica in my opinion was much better, because they had melody and the heavy side of metal. They also had brillant albums, which Megadeth really didn't have.

In the Metallica documentary shown in 2004, Dave Mustaine even admitted Megadeth were always a second behind Metallica in everything. I suspected Dave didn't want those comments to be edited in the documentary. He probably was expecting that it would have been edited out. Oh how wrong he was. Although I did felt sorry for him !!

The Chart Show - Indie Chart (19th August 1988)

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Well before the days of "Tubthumping", Chumbawumba were signed to an indie label, singing about anarchist causes. On this chart, they sang about Clause 28, which was a law in the UK at that time, which prohibited teaching of homosexuality to children. Their famous act was pouring cold water on John Prescott, who was the UK Deputy Prime Minister who came to the Brits Awards in 1998. Since then, Chumbawumba have become a near forgotten species. Alot of people considered them hypocrites when they signed to EMI, even though the band were supposed to be anti-corporation. Although that didn't stop them spouting out their causes, while signed to a capitalist organisation.

In the old days of rock and alternative music, many people looked down on those who sampled other peoples records. MARRS were the early pioneers of using samples that broke into the charts. Other bands were using samples and guitars, but one band that really stood out was Pop Will Eat Itself. Pop Will Eat Itself was unique in terms of using samples and guitars mixed together. Their best track which is in this chart was "Def Con One". I never really understood what it meant, but nonetheless, it did surprisingly introduced me to listen more of hip-hop. Now that can't be wrong !!!!

House of Love, who had 2 songs in this chart, lasted for so long in the indie chart, that they were even found in the early 1989 indie charts with "Destroy the Heart". The other song "Christine" didn't stretch that far into 1989, but I personally found it abit better than "Destroy the Heart". By the way my favourite House of Love track is surprise surprise House of Love. Now that is a tune !!!!

My Bloody Valentine on the other hand were an early shoegazing act, that slowly became popular in the indie charts. I found their 80's music much better than their 90's effort. I think it was because MBV had abit more heavy guitars in their songs. My Bloody Valentine was soon dropped by Creation Records in the 90's, although their was rumours that their album "Loveless" nearly bankrupted Creation. Even then, it seemed like Alan McGee and Kevin Shields (lead singer of MBV) never really got along with each other in the first place.

However My Bloody Valentine are recording a new album. Would be interesting to know what it would sound like. Hopefully abit more heavy guitars involved !!!

The Chart Show - Top Ten (5th February 1988)

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A very unusual intro to this Top Ten, as the Chart Show usually used something else. But anyway in this chart, Elton John decides to release again Candle in the Wind. However this time, it was a live version from Down Under. The studio version rarely gets played on radio stations. Everytime they play Candle in the Wind, its always the live version, which was released as a single in 1988. I think Elton loved the song so much, he decided it to re-release it again in 1997, but this time with slightly different lyrics. Obviously the different lyrics referred to Princess Diana, who died in a car crash, which Elton John sang at her funeral. Remarkably its still the biggest selling single of all time in the UK.

Before the likes of Miley Cyrus and other awful kiddie-pop artists, there was a young lady, who I had the hots for as a teenager, who produced, wrote and sang for her first album. Yes you got it, it was Debbie Gibson, who probably had more hits in America than the UK. In the 90's, she appeared in Grease, the musical version, with Craig McClachlan. Thankfully she didn't sing "Mona" or any of Craig's past catelogue !!!! In 2005 she appeared naked in Playboy magazine, which I'm sure is available on the internet somewhere, but since then, she has kind of disappeared from the music scene.

Her music was very teeny-pop as you may noticed, but at that time, I was quite a fan. Looking back, it does bring back memories, but I certainly wouldn't be playing it on my i-pod.

(Edit: I forgot to mention that Candle in the Wind was originally released in 1974)

The Chart Show - Indie Chart (17th July 1987)

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In the early 90's, Madchester were ruling the nests, but in the 80's, it was goth music that was lingering in the indies. There were many goth acts as noticed in this chart - James Ray, Fields of the Nephilim and All About Eve. But out of those goth acts, the one that really stood out for me, was of course, All About Eve. Not many people liked them, but I was always fond of female vocals in a goth record. It made it more haunting and appealing, just like The Cranes did in the 90's.

When I first saw this chart, I immediately fell in love with All About Eve's Flowers in our Hair, it was one of those tracks that you fall for straight away. It had the reminiscence of early U2 and the haunting vocals from Julianne Regan. All About Eve did nationally well in the charts, but I was always fond of their early indie goth sounds, that competed against the likes of The Mission and Sisters of Mercy.

Apart from goth, there was also the first in roads of industrial music appearing in the indie scene. Big Black was one of them, although in this chart, they didn't have a video. Big Black's main founder was Steve Albini, who later on became a successful music producer for The Pixies, Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Bush and many others. I found Big Black's music very noisy as expected, but for some reason, their music never really made me move any parts of my body. I just found their music just a bunch of screaming and disorganised guitars, which wasn't going anywhere. So it was obvious, I wasn't a fan of theirs. I guess their music isn't really going to be everybody's cups of tea, but at least in this chart, I discovered music that wasn't going to be played elsewhere.

The Chart Show - Heavy Metal Chart (25th September 1987)

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This chart is special, in terms of new artists coming in the chart, who later on became massive worldwide (Guns 'n' Roses and Metallica). Guns 'n' Roses previously had a single before Welcome to the Jungle called It's so Easy. Well it wasn't easy because it didn't hit the UK Top 40, but their second single (Welcome to the Jungle) did slightly better, although not hitting the top 40. By the way Guns 'n' Roses first Top 40 hit was Sweet Child 'o' Mine in 1988. It went into the Top 30 and then they decided to re-release it in 1989 and it went straight into the Top Ten. Axel in this video, looks like he put abit too much make-up. I think in later videos, they avoided putting it on, to avoid critics mixing them up with the Glam Metal bands.

Metallica on the other hand had their $5.98 EP straight into the Top 40, reaching no.27. Their $5.98 EP was basically cover versions of New Wave Metal and Hardcore Punk acts. I've heard some of them and really was disappointed with them. I guess I might be too harsh, because after all they were cover versions of bands who I'm not a fan of. Metallica in their early days were never fans of making videos. They thought it was abit too uncool. It only really changed in 1988, when they made their first video to "One", which was released in 1989.

The early Metallica albums such as "Master of Puppets" and "Ride the Lightning" opened up Thrash Metal to the general public, by introducing variety such as mellow tracks. Previously thrash metal bands only made music that sounded like bang-bang and no melody. But albums such as Master of Puppets really opened up audiences to thrash metal. It opened me up to this genre, because it was an album which fitted all moods (happy, sad and anything in the middle !!!).

Another group which I would say certainly surprised the Rock Charts was the group Bad News. Bad News were basically a spoof rock group, starring Rik Mayall and his other Young Ones companions. They made an appearance on the Comic Strip series that was broadcast on Channel 4 in the 80's. Their cover version of Bohemanian Rhapsody was so awful, it reached nearly laughing point. I do wondered who bought this crap, but I guess it was so bad, that they thought lets try and make this record into the Top 40. Incidentally it only made no.44 in the UK Singles Chart.

Bad News's album, which was also called Bad News was produced by Brian May, the Queen guitarist legend. The man himself also produced Anita Dobson's album, which was worse than any music that Bad News ever made !!! Ironically Anita Dobson's single from the album was voted the worst video of 1987 by The Chart Show. Oh how true it was !!!!

The Chart Show - Rock Chart (20th May 1989)

2009-02-13T16:04:00.000-08:00

Many people are surprise about It Bites in the Rock Charts. Afterall, at the start they were more of a pop-alternative band. However they've always were influenced by prog-rock and started to use more of that music in their later albums. I was never a big fan of It Bites, although their track "Still Too Young To Remember" was a good record.

Lita Ford was another Rock Chick, more famous for her skimpy outfit rather than her music. She managed to collaborate with Ozzy Osbourne for the track "If I Close My Eyes Forever", due to her manager, the infamous Sharon Osbourne, convincing her husband to do a duo track. The song is surprisingly very good, although Ozzy's music in the late 80's was very Glam Metal. So much Glam Metal, that Ozzy was even starting to look like a woman.

Ozzy later on went bigger things, by appearing in a dreadful TV reality show with his family. Lita surprisingly didn't appear naked on Playboy magazine, as her hits dried up in the 1990's. The last time I saw a picture of Lita, which was taken last year, she looked hot as she was in the 80's. Now I'm not saying I'm into older women, but if you got it, flaunt it !!!!

ITV Chart Show - Dance Chart (22nd June 1991)

2009-02-13T15:11:00.000-08:00

The Chart Show normally plays 2 songs in a specialist chart, but on rare occasions, it sometimes only plays 1 song. There was one occasion, where they didn't play a single song, just only a countdown (It was from the September 1986 Indie Chart, which I've mentioned on earlier blogs).

However at least they've played the right song, the classic Cubic 22's Night in Motion. This track was probably one of the early rave tunes, which hit the Top 40 (In fact the song reached the top 20 in the UK Singles Chart), before the likes of Prodigy and others started to dominate the charts.

Cubic 22 were a Belgium act and this small tiny country has produced quite a considerable amount of dance acts such as Technotronic and Ian Van Dahl. Interestingtly alot of Belgium acts move outside their country to establish bases across into Holland or Germany. I guess its because the market is not that big in their own country.

Even so, Cubic 22 was only a cover name for Belgian producers Peter Ramson and Danny Van Wauwe, who later on used different pseudonyms to make more dance tracks, which didn't really hit the Top 40 UK Singles Chart.

After Cubic 22, it was the Prodigy's turn and then finally Bizarre Inc's moment in 1991. Since then, Prodigy is the only survivor in terms of longevity in the music business. It shows that with every music genre, there is always survivors. Although it doesn't mean they still make great music (Prodigy, I'm looking at you !!!)

The Chart Show - Indie Chart (6th December 1997)

2009-02-12T15:08:00.000-08:00

Well folks, this was the first time in history that the chart show had to put up a statement why they could not play the music or the video at number 1 or any other number. According to the statement on the video, The Chart Show had a dispute with Jazz Summers, the Verve's manager about Jazz wanting The Chart Show to redesign their show for The Verve.

Obviously the Chart Show refused to do that and gave a 2 finger insult to the Verve. In the past, the Chart Show had promoted alot of the Verve's music, while they were an obscure band in the early 90's. However this episode led to The Chart Show disowning The Verve. Well it didn't make much of a difference, because ITV axed the Chart Show 8 months later, due to PJ and Duncan (whoops I meant Ant and Dec !!!) wanting a music show for themselves.

Its virtually impossible to find out what was the true facts of the controversial number 1 statement on the show. For instance, we never really heard Jazz's version of the story and The Chart Show never publicised the controversy in the newspapers or media. Did Jazz went over the top in wanting the chart show to play 1 hour of The Verve's discography? We will probably never know, because both sides have gone into bigger things - Jazz is a successful records manager and the remnants of the ITV Chart Show went into the field of satellite tv by owning several music channels.

By the way their music channels are dreadful, as they can never get their act together to play the Classic Chart Shows. They even tried to do a revamped Chart Show for the 21st century, which I say no more, because its graphics and fast forward were so awful, that now the channel has abandoned the new revamp.

ITV Chart Show - Dance Chart (14th July 1990)

2009-02-10T14:21:00.000-08:00

Well I couldn't believe out of all the people in the world, MC Parker with his Thunderbirds Are Go would enter the Dance Charts. I can't imagine people in the clubs dancing to it, unless they were dancing like puppets as in the TV series. Another entry in this chart was a lady called Joanna Law, who later on sang some Trance tunes for the Space Brothers, who I have to admit made some pretty good tunes in the late 90's.

The number 1 slot goes to LFO, who thankfully weren't the American boy band, who had a hit in the late 90's. No, this group was a Techno act, whose self title track, surprise surprise, called LFO hit the clubs in 1990. LFO were a duo who met in Leeds while studying. Initially they gave the track LFO to Nightmare on Wax, another electronic group who really didn't thought it was that great.

Oh how wrong they were, LFO started to gain popularity and the song reached no.12 in the UK Singles Chart. The track LFO was very simple and kind of reminded me of the Aphex Twins, before they started doing heavy Prodigy sound. As with dance acts, they just split up and half of the duo later on produced Bjork's and Depeche Mode's album and the other formed the group called Feedback. Well I don't think they've got enough Feedback, because nothing much has been really heard from them.

LFO were also later on found in the Top 10 Dance Chart of 1990, but this time the ITV Chart Show screwed up the countdown and embarrassingly placed LFO at number 3, rather than number 2. They basically counted no.4 twice in the charts and ignored the number 2. Even Top of the Pops never made that mistake, unless I'm completely wrong !!!!

ITV Chart Show - Dance Chart (12th September 1992)

2009-02-09T14:46:00.000-08:00

Now you don't get many Euro-dance acts at number 1 on the Dance Charts, which is not surprisingly, because most of them suck. But there were always exceptions, especially with the track "Its my Life", which was a massive top ten hit around Europe. This track had the best dance beats with not exactly the best rapper in the world, but that really didn't make a difference.

Dr Alban was a Nigerian, who settled in Sweden and studied Dentistry. While studying, he made music to earn some money and met a record producer, who then produced an album in 1991, which didn't really lit the charts. However his second album became more popular with the catchy "Its My Life". That song went straight to number 1 in several European countries and later on became a top ten hit in the UK.

The follow up, "Sing Hallelujah", was of a poor standard, although it did hit the top 20 in the UK. Many euro-dance acts don't tend to really last that long. Maybe because alot of them sound too much alike, and there is no room in diversity. The doctor (well not too sure whether he completed his phD) still makes music, but he's one of the guys who does these retro early 90's euro-dance tours around Europe, which Kim Wilde and others in Britain do for the retro-80's tour.

Britain seems to be the only place, where they've not produced Euro-dance acts that have been successful. Some people considered Steps as a Euro-Dance act, but to me, they were just a bad Butlins pop group, who made awful records, that made me cringe. Many of their solo acts were so bad, that all of them were forced into Reality TV retirement !!!

ITV Chart Show - Dance Chart (7th December 1991)

2009-02-08T16:04:00.000-08:00

This chart is unique for the new graphics shown on the info-boxes, which really didn't last that long (I'm not surprised, I loathed it, because it was too kiddie like !!) Anyway 1991 had some great dance music, including stuff from Bizarre Inc. But one of my all time fav dance tracks was a song, which didn't even have a video. This song was "Ride like a wind", which in this chart had the photograph of the group East Side Beat.

The original version of Ride Like a Wind was done by Christopher Cross in 1980. Saxon also did a cover version of the song in 1988. A great cover version is when they transform an ordinary or boring song to a fantastic brillant cover. East Side Beat just totally changed the song from a boring tune to a great dance song that people could dance to. It was also a massive UK top ten hit in 1991.

East Side Beat were an Italian dance act, who seem to have only had one hit, the ride like a wind song. Never really heard any other materials from them. There have been dance remixes of ride like a wind in the 21st century, but no way beats East Side Beat's version.

The Chart Show - Rock Chart (1st July 1995)

2009-02-08T15:04:00.001-08:00

I couldn't believe when I first saw this chart. I expected something rocky, but got instead bloody Mike and the Mechanics !!! I mean they could have played Foo Fighters who were at number 1. It also didn't help that they played Ugly Kid Joe's Milkman Son. Ugly Kid Joe were at this time becoming irrelevant in their music since their days of waynes world and cats in the cradle.

Apart from the Foo Fighters, there wasn't anything decent on the Rock Chart. Although I did like Skunk Anansie's I Can Dream, which unfortunately on this chart was going down, so playing it was out of the question according to chart show rules.

If I had my way, I would have broken the rules and played Reef's Naked and the Foo Fighters. The Foo Fighters video, even though they played it for 10 seconds, looked like if someone had just illegally entered a press oonference and secretly filmed them singing, while press people were taking pictures. Would be interested to know who was behind this video, as officially the Foo Fighters never made a video for This is a Call.

ITV Chart Show - Rock Chart (7th August 1993)

2009-02-08T06:24:00.000-08:00

As 1993 was becoming full of grunge records pouring in the Rock Charts, a band called My Little Funhouse produced a brillant track called "Wishing Well". That song was abit like Deep Purple mixed with Led Zeppelen. It was a fantastic song with haunting vocals and great guitar playing.

My Little Funhouse were in fact Irish, although I sometimes thought they were from the same neck of woods as Robert Plant !!! Even then, the band just disappeared and the drummer (Graham Hopkins) moved onto Therapy in 1996. Therapy in 1996 were going downhill in terms of their quality of music and sales, but Graham who has already left Therapy, is still drumming away in peoples albums, including acts such as Snow Patrol, who brought him as a replacement for one of their drummer on tour.

There hasn't been any British/Irish hard rock bands since My Little Funhouse, who have really made an impact. Oh well, have to wait for another Zeppelen reunion !!!

ITV Chart Show - Rock Chart (16th December 1989)

2009-02-08T05:47:00.000-08:00

Three weeks earlier before this Rock Chart, I remembered Whitesnake and Iron Maiden being played on the Rock Chart. Whitesnake were an OK band for me. They kinda were abit glam, but they did produce some very good pop-rock tunes with the help of Stevie Vai. The only thing I remembered about Whitesnake was the pretty girls in their videos. Although in this video, Fool For Your Loving, lacked some female flesh.

Iron Maiden's Infinite Dreams to be me was amongst their weakest tracks through out their career. It was not exciting as "wasted years" or "hallowed be thy name", but very boring, despite Brucie trying to waves his arms around !!!

Another band on this chart, which I liked was Skid Row. Skid Row's Youth Gone Wild didn't really hit the Top 40, but 3 years later, the song was re-released and nearly went in the Top 20. The first song I ever heard from Skid Row was the famous "18 and Life", which blew me away with the unique vocals and brillant guitar playing. That song was played on an American Chart Show programme on Capital FM, presented by the infamous David Jensen, who is basically Canadian.

Youth Gone Wild when first heard, disappointed me, but after hearing it 3 years later in 1992, I started to love it. Thanks to the re-released in 1992, Youth Gone Wild is still a classic song. Skid Row never made fantastic albums, but when they made ballads and some hard rock songs, they were well above average and not a standard bog down C grade !!!

The Chart Show - Rock Chart (8th April 1989)

2009-02-08T04:51:00.000-08:00

An interesting note with this chart was the band Wrathchild. Wrathchild were one of the very few UK Glam Metal bands and apparently one of the very few pioneers of the Glam Metal scene, well before the likes of Motley Crue and their American counterparts.

Bruce Dickinson, singer of Iron Maiden, was a fan of theirs. So much so, that he directed the video of their song in this chart. He also makes an appearance in this video as an old lady.

Wrathchild as with many UK Glam Metal bands didn't achieve success compared to their American counterparts. However when the band split up, the bass player later co-founded Bang Bang Machine, which produced the excellent "Geek Love", which I have mentioned on an earlier blog.

Wrathchild were basically one single wonders. They didn't have a hit with their nukklear rokket song, but I still remember the scene of their video when Brucie whacks a member of the band with a sign post. Hmmmmm many records could use abit of a whack on the head with a sign post !!!!

ITV Chart Show - Indie Chart (28th September 1991)

2009-02-08T04:09:00.000-08:00

I remembered seeing this chart as a teenager and the number 1 song appeared written HOLE - Teenage ... It was probably the first time I've ever heard a woman screaming in a song. My first thoughts was what a load of noise and then my second thoughts was why did the chart show call it "Teenage ..."

I predicted the song might have been called Teenage Shit or Teenage Fuck or something like that. At the end, although it took me a year to find out (years before the internet was in peoples homes !!!), the song was called "Teenage Whore". I thought "ohh, its not that bad", but then I realise this show was shown on a Saturday morning, where kids would watch. Can you imagine, little tommy asking mummy what is a whore !!!!

The Chart Show - Heavy Metal Chart (1987 Special)

2009-02-08T03:55:00.000-08:00

I thought the name Heavy Metal was so inappropriate in the chart show. For example in this chart, Beastie Boys and Heart, ain't exactly headbanging music. Yes the Beastie Boys did use some rock music in their records, but I still wouldn't call it Heavy Metal. Its abit like saying Christina Aguilera is Rock, because she used guitars in one of her songs (sorry I can't remember which one !!!).

Heart on the other hand, were very Adult Oriented Rock. Not a slight heavy metal in them. Fortunately when the Chart Show was brought to ITV, they got rid of the name Heavy Metal and used the proper name - The Rock Chart !!!!

The Chart Show - Network Albums Chart (1986 Special)

2009-02-08T03:43:00.000-08:00

In the 80's, the Network Album charts included compilation albums. As a result of this, albums such as "Now Thats What I Called" and "Hits" started to pollute the Network Charts. It became so ridiculous, that basically you might as well create a seperate compilation album chart. Later on years, they did that and the official album charts removed the compilations.

The Network Album Chart in my opinion didn't really do much in terms of peoples interest. I do remember radio 1 in the past tried to have a 2 hour programme of the Album Charts. It flopped, despite people buying more albums than singles.

I guess why people wanted to hear more of the Singles Chart than the Albums Chart, was that they probably wanted to see their favourite songs appearing on Top of the Pops, which at that time was the only regular music programme on TV during the early-mid 80's.

I'm sure there were many other music TV programmes, but Top of the Pops was the main popular programme. Personally I wasn't a fan of Top of the Pops. It just had annoying presenters (except John Peel, who was brillant at making sarcastic comments when presenting).

I think John Peel got bored of presenting Top of the Pops and preferred listening to his own alternative record collection, rather than the Duran Durans and George Michaels of the world.

The Chart Show - Dance Chart (22nd August 1998)

2009-02-07T16:55:00.000-08:00

Finally the last ever episode of the Chart Show. The Chart Show at this time was to be honest really at a demise state. Not only Formula 1 racing shorten the chart show by removing the specialist charts, but also The Chart Show lost its magic, when the graphics were changed in 1996. It felt like it wasn't the chart show that I was brought up with.

Sooner or late, the Chart Show was one day going to disappear. Even during 1998, satelitte and cable TV were becoming popular and made the existant of The Chart Show and Top of the Pops more vulnerable. This proved right when in August 1998, ITV decided to get rid of the show.

I personally didn't really watch many of the shows during 1996-98 period, because it just lost its magic and also the interventions of Formula 1 made such an impact, that I really didn't care about seeing the next episode. Ultimately the founders of the chart show later had success in the satelitte and cable tv world with several channels owned by them.

They did bring the repeats back on one of their channels, but due to cock-ups in transmission and low viewing ratings, they finally at the end got rid of it. Even they also tried to have a revamped version for 2008, which basically was worse than the 1996-98 version !!! Finally it seems the 2008 version has disappeared, as there hasn't been any new episodes from 2009.

All I can say about the chart show was that it was good when it started, but as with human life, it starts to blossom and then in old age, it decays and finally rots away. Even then, I still have fond memories of the show.

The Chart Show - Dance Chart (1st November 1997)

2009-02-07T16:47:00.000-08:00

1997 was the year when Speed Garage music started to appear more on the Dance Chart. But there was also other cheesy acts that weren't speed garage who had big hits on the dance and nationals. Amongst them was N-Trance, who in the early days produced rave music, but then later on used cheesy samples from the 1970's to make pretty awful records to be honest. They had the rapping vocals of Ricardo da Force, who was formerly the rapper with the KLF. He himself tried to forge a solo career, but that fell flat like a pancake !!!!

N-Trance still makes music, but more of a trance type, rather than cheesy samples from the 70's or 80's.

The Chart Show - Dance Chart (22nd June 1996)

2009-02-07T16:38:00.000-08:00

I didn't quite understand why there were so many RNB acts in the Dance Chart. Yes I know they had remixes, but I'm sure not many dance fans would buy RNB remixes. But anyway the big hit in this chart, is Pianoman's Blurred, which was basically a sample from Blur's cross-dressing theme single.

I love when the Chart Show information box mentions that you might see Damon Albarn dancing to his own dance remix. Yeah right, I have more chances of seeing Gordon Brown in a kilt and thats not a pleasant sight to see !!!!

The Chart Show - Top Ten (27th May 1995)

2009-02-07T16:22:00.000-08:00

This is when Pulp made it big and I'm not talking about Pulp Fiction !!!!! Pulp were founded in 1978 by Jarvis Cocker and it took Jarvis over a decade for his group to hit the Top 40. Obviously plenty of patience is needed to get a hit, but to take a over a decade to achieve it, deserves a knighthood !!!

Jarvis has been recently quiet and Pulp is still in hiatus. Unfortunately most of the songs in this top 10 aren't in the hiatus scene. It was bad enough that Robson and Jerome stopped Pulp reaching number 1, but why on earth did Rob and Jer had to make awful records is beyond me !!!! Blame Simon Cowell !!!!

The Chart Show - Indie Chart (19th March 1994)

2009-02-07T16:10:00.000-08:00

Well they say people with orange hairs have bright futures - well the future is bright, the future is orange !!! That person with the orange hair in Compulsion later on produced tracks for Bloc Party and many other acts from the 21st century. Compulsion were basically an Irish punk group, whose only song I can remember, was the one in this chart. That song definitely rocked, but I really never heard anything else from them.

Senser in the meantime was still dominating the indie scene of 1994. I found their music very repetitive and quite boring to be honest !!! They soon slowly vanished. Uhmmmm I wonder why !!!!

ITV Chart Show - Indie Chart (12th June 1993)

2009-02-07T15:54:00.000-08:00

This chart has one of my all time favourite songs (BANG BANG MACHINE - Geek Love). This song vocally is quite similar to the Cranes, but more guitarish, if there is ever a word !!! When I first heard this song, I immediately fell in love with it. I thought this group is going to be big. Sadly that wasn't the case, because their follow up really didn't match up with Geek Love. In fact, they kinda just disappeared after a couple of singles, which was probably the most case with indie acts in the early 90's.

Geek Love was also released in 1992 but didn't make it any difference in 1993, because both times never hit the Top 40. Even then, early 90's songs that never hit the Top 40 were more better than those that were already in the charts. To be honest, early 90's mainstream music really sucked and the specialist charts especially the Rock and Indie on The Chart Show certainly brighten up the dire status of music.

ITV Chart Show - Indie Chart (25th July 1992)

2009-02-07T15:42:00.000-08:00

This chart brought back memories when seeing the band Drop Nineteens. This band was quite unique in that they were an American Shoegazing band. Many shoegazing bands were British, but by 1992, many were slowly fading away.

The Drop Nineteens were mainly bigger in the UK than in America. Shoegazing music didn't really wake America, mainly because America was being swamped by grunge music, which started to crush the shoegazing scene in the UK.

Winona was a brillant track, but later singles didn't really match Winona and the Drop Nineteens never became that successful. Another band on the chart that later had minor Top 40 hits was Pavement, who had brillant names of EP's (Watery Domestic EP - Who could ever name an EP like that !!!) and also songs that are still played on my i-pod !!!

ITV Chart Show - Rock Chart (23rd November 1991)

2009-02-07T15:26:00.000-08:00

This has to be my all time favourite chart. Not only because of the diversity of industrial rock, grunge and hard rock, but the quality of the music was pretty good.

When I first saw this chart, I was surprised why Nirvana was in the Rock Chart. Nirvana were previously in the indie charts in 1989 and 1991 and were considered an alternative band. Even bands such as Nine Inch Nails were also considered as alternative. I was also surprised when N.I.N first appeared in the rock chart in the summer of 1991.

1991 was the year when Jane's Addiction, Nine Inch Nails and finally Nirvana started to puncture the Rock Chart with their alternative sounds. Previously the Rock Charts were dominated by glam metal music. Suddenly their domination was being at risked and ultimately in a few years time, they started to fade away.

When I first heard Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, I really didn't feel it was that great compared to an earlier song released in january 1991 called "sliver". That song in my opinion at that time was million times better than smells like. After a few plays, I started to like Smells Like Teen Spirit and ultimately bought their Nevermind album, which to me is still one of the greatest albums ever made.

It shows you that classics are not meant to be like for the first time !!!

ITV Chart Show - Dance Chart (1990 Special)

2009-02-07T15:16:00.000-08:00

One of the many typical characteristics of many Chart Show episodes, were getting the numbers wrong in the chart positions. In this chart, they've completely messed up with the figures - two number 4's and thats not the end of it !!!! Then the number 2 song becomes a number 3 and the only thing they got correct was the number 1 being number 1 !!! Obviously they had a numeric dyslexic (if there is any suitable name !!!) person running the dance department.

Apart from the error, to be honest the only song in this chart I liked was the KLF What Time is Love. The 1992 version wasn't that good compared to this 1990 version, but it wasn't that horrored either.

THE CHART SHOW - Rock Chart (12th August 1989)

2009-02-07T14:41:00.000-08:00

I always loved the ghost train to the Rock Chart. Not only because of the graphics, but the sound of the guitars of the intro suited the introduction to the rock genre of the late 80's. Apart from the Glam Metal bands that were dominating the scene, there were also thrash metal bands such as Metallica popping up.

The shock of seeing Slaughter's Welcome to Dying soundtrack with the picture of It Bites, didn't really go down with thrash metal fans. I could guess that the chart show couldn't find a picture of the band Slaughter, although Slaughter did have a video appearance on the Rock Chart in mid-1989.

I know the Chart Show always made mistakes, but surely they could have had the right picture of the band, even if they didn't have a video. But even then, this rock chart is still one of my favs, with great music from Guns n Roses, Alice Cooper, Dare, The Cult, FM and even Slaughter. Although Slaughter's track lasts for nearly 10 minutes !!!

THE CHART SHOW - Chart File Update (5th August 1989)

2009-02-07T14:32:00.000-08:00

I really missed the Chart File Update when it was gone. It was basically an update of the Rock, Indie, Dance and Album Chart. In this Chart File Update, they completely cocked up the Album Chart, when they played a Guns 'n' Roses track called Patience, that never came from the Appetite for Destruction album. It actually came from GNR Lies Album.

Apart from this cock-up, the chart file update was a unique way in peering down on the ups and downs of the specialist charts. It made me interested in finding out acts and hearing their music. There will never be any type of chart file update on British Television nor on the satelitte channels, but I certainly had fond memories of them !!!

THE CHART SHOW - Dance Chart (7th January 1989)

2009-02-07T14:21:00.000-08:00

This chart comes from the first ever episode of the ITV Chart Show. I have to confess I prefer the ITV version of the chart show. It was more to do with the graphics, especially the fairground theme. Even then they still cocked up this chart, when The Chart Show showed Inner City at number 1 as a non-mover, they played the song and showed the song as going up, rather than being at the same position.

Inner City definitely dominated the dance scene in the late 80's. Where are they now ? No idea, but interestingly no one has written an article on them in wikipedia !!! I wonder what that can mean !!!

THE CHART SHOW - Indie Chart (1988 Special)

2009-02-07T14:11:00.000-08:00

What a chart !!! Not a single one I would consider musically "indie" apart from New Order, which I would let off !!! Back in the 80's, Indie meant acts that were signed to independent record labels. Unfortunately Pete Waterman acts such as Kylie and Jason were "indie" acts and obviously dominated the indie and national charts.

Before I ever seen this episode, I expected the indie chart in this special edition would consist of the wedding present, sugarcubes, timelords etc.... To my horror, it had Kylie, Jason and worse of all Yazz. Thankfully a year later, The Chart Show got rid of these acts and made it a real indie chart from 1989 until its demise in 1998.

THE CHART SHOW - Indie Chart (11th September 1987)

2009-02-07T13:53:00.000-08:00

This is an interesting chart, because the act at number 6 (JUSTIFIED ANCIENTS OF MU MU - Whitney Joins the Jams) made this video due to the request from The Chart Show to have a video of their single, which was in the top ten indie charts. The story as follows, Wikipedia explains it perfectly, although you can't rely on Wikipedia 100% !!!:

The JAMs obliged, hiring a video camera and getting a friend to film them driving to "The Chart Show" studio in Jimmy Cauty's repainted Ford Galaxie American police car. According to Bill Drummond, "When we got there, we took out the cassette, handed it in at the gate and said 'that's your video'! The next day it was on national TV. It cost us £19.96". Flippantly, he concluded "Most record companies spend up to 100 grand on their vids and almost as much on lunches trying to get people to screen them

People wanting to know who Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty was. Well Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty a year later had a number 1 hit in the UK Singles Chart under the name The Timelords with their massive hit "Doctorin the Tardis". Another couple years later, the Timelords underneath the name KLF hit the Top Ten and the rest is history as they say !!!!

Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty in the past did some crazy things such as burning a million pounds of their own money on an Scottish island, but they could have used the money for good causes. One of them would have been giving the money to me !!!!

THE CHART SHOW - Indie Chart (12th September 1986)

2009-02-07T13:43:00.000-08:00

This is the only time I have seen a basic rundown of a chart, without the REWIND, FORWARD, let alone PLAY display. Why they only did a rundown, is a billion pound question. I persume the chart show may have been given so many exclusive music videos by record companies, that they really didn't have time to play a normal indie chart.

Also they certainly had plenty of videos in the chart to play. Although there was only 2 videos they could play, because they were non-movers. The rest either were going down or didn't have any videos.

I wished this basic rundown was used in the last years of the chart show, when most of the times they had to shorten their programmes, due to Formula 1 racing taking place on the same channel.

THE CHART SHOW - Music Videos Chart (22nd August 1986)

2009-02-07T13:22:00.000-08:00

Another chart that also didn't last long. I've read somewhere that on the internet, the chart show had many different charts, including Euro Chart and Music Videos Chart. Later on years, they restricted the charts to Rock, Indie, Dance and Top Ten.

In this particular chart, Wham is the number 1 in the music videos chart. Interestingly enough at the end of the video, there is a chart show competition. Obviously even at that time, they didn't follow the scandal of high premium rate calls and fake winners for competitions !!!

Who knows I might be wrong, they may have had fake winners, but we would never know !!!

THE CHART SHOW - Reggae Chart (22nd August 1986)

2009-02-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

A complete rare chart that only was introduced to the Chart Show in 1986. Didn't last that long for obvious reasons, because many of the songs in this chart didn't have any videos !!!

The only exception was Boris Gardiner, who had a massive no.1 hit in the UK with the song in this chart. Following singles didn't really hit the flames of the chart. His last (maybe not) song in the Top 75 was called "The meaning of Christmas", which certainly didn't have any meaning for most UK record buyers, because that song only made No.69 in the UK Singles Chart in 1986.

Oh well I wonder whats Boris is upto ? I'm sure he is sitting on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean drinking a glass of rum !!!