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Your Wednesday Night In...

Your Wednesday Night In… February 1990


Wednesday, 21st February 1990

PICK OF THE DAY

10.35pm THE GOLDEN BREAK ADVERTISING AWARDS, ITV
Wafer-sponsored Saturday Night Takeaway-anticipating one-off televisual presentation of gongs being dished out to the ‘suits’ who came up with the bits in the middle of the programmes, doled out by Jonathan Ross and described by TV Times as “the advertising industry’s equivalent of the Oscars.” One of the categories was apparently Best Performance By An Animal, so we’re hoping that Harry The Spider walked it for the seventh year running.

ALSO SHOWING:

6.00pm DEF II, BBC2
Late 1980s yoof-skewed programming in excelsis with the up-to-the-minute line-up of The Cult, The Hooters and Everything But The Girl on Rapido, Magenta DeVine sticking resolutely to The Clothes Show’s idea of ‘cool’ in the face of hooded tops and Guru Josh on Reportage, and repeats of ‘cult classic’ in nobody else’s mind apart from BBC2 schedulers, The Invaders. A nation’s teenagers sniggered into their Candy Flip 12″s, and somewhere, someone was hastily pressing Dance Energy into service.

7.30pm PEEL AT THE BRITS, RADIO 1
Grousing over the lack of nominations for Ozric Tentacles a-go-go as Peel casts a wry Walters-assisted eye over the previous Sunday’s industry bash – still in its awkward Cathy McGowan-fronted qualllidy-applauding phase – where the boards were swept by the hip and happening sounds of Queen, Phil Collins, U2 and Dave Stewart, without the merest whiff of acknowledgement for The Stone Roses, Inner City or The Quireboys. None of whom Peel especially liked anyway, but that’s by the by. Disarmingly mutually appreciative chats with Jason Donovan and bemusement at a random passing Gypsy King were no doubt the order of the day here.

10 Comments

10 Comments

  1. THX 1139

    February 21, 2018 at 11:17 am

    Was the bloke saying “Rap-Rap-Rapido!” on Rapido’s titles Boris Blank from Yello? Looked an awful lot like him.

  2. Richard16378

    February 21, 2018 at 2:00 pm

    I was just a bit too young for DEF II, but occasionally dipped in, & being confused where some programmes ended & the next one began at times.

    The brainchild of Janet Street-Porter IIRC, like most “Yoof” TV of this era.

  3. Glenn Aylett

    February 24, 2018 at 2:22 pm

    John Peel reviewing The Brits sounds a bit like Tommy Vance reviewing a concert by Kylie Minogue, an odd choice, considering Peel wouldn’t have liked much of the music on offer, but Radio 1 in the last few years before Bannisterisation was an odd place to be. In 1992, at the height of rave culture and grunge music, their highlight on a Saturday night was a 1974 concert by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, a band most people under 20 would never have heard of and probably would run a mile from. Then you had the old guard like DLT and Simon Bates moaning about rave music, which to be fair wasn’t particularly suited to their shows, and younger listeners deserting the station to Atlantic 252 and pirate stations in the cities, In a way Bannisterisation was desperately needed to give Radio 1 a new image.

    • Sidney Balmoral James

      November 9, 2020 at 8:16 pm

      Just seen this – Did Radio 1 really broadcast an Emerson, Lake and Palmer concert in 1992? And if so, was it really one from 1974, or one from their 1992 comeback world tour, which is more likely, although equally indefensible (and that’s coming from a massive ELP fan!)

      • Richardpd

        November 9, 2020 at 11:03 pm

        One problem Radio 1 had was being unable to shunt off their older DJs to Radio 2 as the controller there seemed to be paranoid about appealing to people old enough to have done National Service.

        By the Bannisterisation happened there was almost a decade’s worth of DJs who otherwise would have been given shows on Radio 2.

        While Candyflip was a daring name their music & on stage demeaner was Hit Factory soft compared to some of the rowdier Madchester groups.

      • Glenn Aylett

        November 11, 2020 at 6:24 pm

        I’m sure the ELP concert from 1974 was broadcast on a Saturday night in the summer of 1992. I suppose there would have been an audience for it, but odd all the same as they were very much an acquired taste even in 1974.

  4. Glenn Aylett

    February 25, 2018 at 12:12 pm

    Like the reference to Candyflip 12 inches, this being a male duo who did a dance cover of Strawberry Fields Forever and sounded like another popular male duo of the time, The Beloved. Were they the same group as both featured two men in baggy clothes with centre parted lank hair( the so called acid boy/ rave haircut)?

    • THX 1139

      February 25, 2018 at 1:09 pm

      I wouldn’t have mistaken Candy Flip (ooh, daring name!) for The Beloved, ver Flip had short blond ‘dos and ver ‘Loved had dark hair, a bit longer.

      • Glenn Aylett

        March 3, 2018 at 3:41 pm

        @ THX 1139, Candyflip and The Beloved wore similar clothes, baggy tops and big jeans, but their hairstyles were different on checking Google. Candyflip went for bubble perms, while The Beloved went more for the lank centre parted look that was popular in the early nineties rave scene. Both sounded similar, they had these strange, some would say camp, sounding voices and were totally electronic. Of the two, while Candyflip were more or less one hit wonders, The Beloved enjoyed more success in the 1989-93 period and Sweet Harmony still pops up on the radio.

  5. Droogie

    November 13, 2020 at 1:35 am

    I remember Candyflip appearing on the Jools Holland version of Juke Box Jury in 1990 with their unsuccessful follow-up single . One of the guest judges was Babs Windsor who had a bit of a thing for the singer, saying something like “ Ooh! He reminds me of a young Peter Noone!” which probably didn’t help his career much.

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