The Fresh Prince is the cover star of this week’s edition of Smash Hits, but you may now know him as Will Smith.
Smash Hits visits the premiere of Much Ado About Nothing, which was attended by Nick Berry, Kenneth Brannagh, Ian Wright, Chris Evans and Dani Behr.
There is a full page feature on budding TV Presenter Justin Orange, who gets mobbed by female fans everywhere he goes, due to being mistaken for his twin brother Jason from Take That.
Talking of Boy Bands, Smash Hits goes on tour to America with East 17.
Will Smith gets a double page interview, while Eastenders star Sean Maguire gets asked some moral quandaries.
In posters, you could get a poster of the band James alongside one of Howard Donald.
In reviews, Single Of The Week went to Radiohead with Creep.
We begin this week, by jumping straight into Madness, as Chris Foreman turned 58 this week.
Randomly, they once did a song with Feargal Sharkey. Amazingly, Sharkey wasn’t the only one on stage to grow up in Northern Ireland, as Chas Smash spent a year as a teenager living in Coleraine.
Now, quite literally, a criminal record.
East 17, innit?
There are some people, who erroniously think Justin Timberlake is the most talented member of N*Sync
This week’s sad bit, Whitney Houston would have been 51 this week. (And yes, I know this is from the German version of the show, but they used clips from the UK show)
Joe Jackson turned 60 this week. His solo career never scaled the heights of his bother Michael. (WARING : Second clip introduced by Jimmy Savile)
And now Sparks, featuring the classic line-up of Adolf Hitler and Kevin Keegan.
…… which nicely links us into another band featuring brothers, Dire Straits.
It would have been brilliant if they did a studio appearance for “Money For Nothing”, as you just know the props department would have had a Microwave Oven, a Refrigerator and some Colour TV lying around the stage.
He made an appearance on earlier with Madness, but Feargal Sharkey turned 56 this week, so it would be rude not to include.
I could be lazy and play “Teenage Kicks” but it’s not The Undertones best song. It’s not. And i’m not even going to apologise for saying it.
(WARNING : First clip features Jimmy Savile at the end)
Now for some Sarah Brightman. It’s almost, but not quite, time to say goodbye.
Hello and welcome to this week’s look back at 50 years of Top Of The Pops (Or, to be pedantic, 42 years and 8 years worth of Christmas specials)
This week’s first birthday of note is Guy Chadwick, lead singer of House Of Love. Unfortunately, we don’t have a clip of them performing ‘Shine On’, but we do have East 17 performing ‘House Of Love’, a song not about the early 90s band of the same name.
East 17 of course, were named after their local postcode. If they came from East Belfast, they would have been called BT4, BT5 or BT6, depending on whereabouts in East Belfast they came from.
Also celebrating this week is Sarah Jane Morris of The Communards. This, is an epic tune. BAAYYYYYBAAYYYY!!!!!
and … Jonas Berggren from Ace Of Base. I once got lost en route to an Ace Of Base concert trying to find the venue ………. then, I, saw the sign.
And from Sweden, we head to Canada, for a bit of Sum 41.
And from Canada, to Liverpool, for Pete Wylie’s birthday.
And now, to chill the mood a bit, with a bit of Beverley Knight.
Our globetrotting adventures now take us to the suavest man in Glasgow. If you really need to be told, Marti Pellow of Wet Wet Wet, who spent the whole of 1994 at Number One. How exactly, was a Sweet Little Mystery. I know you’ll love these next few clips. Why? I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes.
Our birthday travels this week take us now to the Mockney King (from Colchester) …… Damon Albarn (And yes, I am aware he doesn’t sing on the first song)
And now ……. we go to Germany for one of the best songs of the 1980s. A woman who wouldn’t make a good Financial Advisor as she spent all her money on a bag of balloons. Since you ask, I counted, there were 78 balloons in the studio when this was filmed. BBC Cutbacks.
And from Germany, we go to German based West Indians …….. singing a song about The Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Ironically, Bobby Farrell of Boney M had the most Belfasty name in pop.
39 this week was Mel Blatt from All Saints. Here she is as a solo artist.
Milestone time now, and Diana Ross was born 70 years ago this week. So, as a tribute, here’s Steps covering ‘Chain Reaction’
Wee treat for you for Tony Banks of Genesis birthday (the one who isn’t Phil Collins or the guy from Mike and the Mechanics) …. a studio appearance from 1992
With all these births, unfortunately, we have a death anniversary. Ian Dury died 14 years ago today.
And finally, Elton John *whispers* turned 67 this week.
This, is his best song, performed nearly 20 years after it came out on a TOTP Special.
I used to think the chorus went “Coco Heart” when I was younger.
And, if you don’t know already, he didn’t play on this song, just mimed on TOTP.
January 1997 is the subject of the latest Magazine Archive, set during the peak years of Britpop, and featuring Oasis on the cover, focusing on the Q Awards, which had just been recently staged.
It was a period when Q was mourning one of their main writers, John Bauldie, who was a passenger in the helicopter crash which killed then Chelsea Chairman Matthew Harding, which is commemorated in the obituaries section.
A whopping fifteen pages are dedicated to the Q Awards, with the first page of the feature having a double paged photo of various guests on stage, engaging in small talk.
Eagle eyed readers will have noticed Dermot Morgan and Ruud Gullit in conversation. It is worth clarifying that Ruud Gullit wasn’t sat on a shed, possibly because it wasn’t Christmas.
1996 was the year that saw Q celebrate it’s 10th anniversary, and the awards ceremony saw various celebrities record video messages of congratulations.
Amongst them, was Tony Blair, then Leader Of The Opposition, recorded one saying “Ten years in power with no opposition – Sounds good to me”. It was almost prophetic.
Ian Brodie was riding on the crest of a wave in 1996 on the back of “Three Lions” and gets five pages looking at his career to date, with minimal mentions of Baddiel and Skinner.
That month, Lightning Seeds were 11 in the Album Chart, being kept out of the Top Ten by Robson and Jerome, Spice Girls, East 17, Simply Red, The Smurfs, Boyzone and Rod Stewart.
Analogue Boy In A Digital World 