30 October 1988: She Thinks with Her Chin Up

1. Enya: Orinoco Flow
2. Kylie Minogue: Je ne sais pas pourquoi
3. Milli Vanilli: Girl You Know It's True
4. Yazz: Stand Up for Your Love Rights
5. The Art of Noise featuring Tom Jones: Kiss
6. Whitney Houston: One Moment in Time
7. D Mob featuring Gary Haisman: We Call It Acieed
8. Robert Palmer: She Makes My Day
9. Wee Papa Girl Rappers: Wee Rule
10. Erasure: A Little Respect
11. The Christians: Harvest for the World
12. Bobby McFerrin: Don't Worry Be Happy
13. Kim Wilde: Never Trust a Stranger
14. Royal House: Can You Party
15. Deacon Blue: Real Gone Kid
16. The Beatmasters with P.P. Arnold: Burn It Up
17. Robin Beck: First Time
18. Phil Collins: Groovy Kind of Love
19. Womack & Womack: Teardrops
20. Rick Astley: She Wants to Dance with Me
21. Jason Donovan: Nothing Can Divide Us
22. Inner City: Big Fun
23. Jolly Roger: Acid Man
24. Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine: 1-2-3
25. Guns N' Roses: Welcome to the Jungle / Nightrain
26. Tanita Tikaram: Twist in My Sobriety
27. The Jungle Brothers: I'll House You
28. Bryan Ferry: Let's Stick Together '88
29. Kraze: The Party
30. Brother Beyond: He Ain't No Competition
31. Prince: I Wish U Heaven
32. Level 42: Take a Look
33. Sinitta: I Don't Believe in Miracles
34. The Pasadenas: Riding on a Train
35. T'Pau: Secret Garden
36. The Hollies: He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
37. U2: Desire
38. Sabrina: All of My (Boy Oh Boy)
39. Chris de Burgh: Missing You
40. Simon Harris: Here Comes That Sound

~~~~~

Sunday marked the end of our nine-day trip to Scotland. That morning we checked out of The Buchan to not a small amount of disappointment; tears began to well up as our cab left for Waverley station. The train from the Scottish capital back to London was equally sad. While I hadn't paid much attention to the scenery on the way up a week earlier, I spent much of the trip glancing out the window and wishing I'd chosen to do so on the way up: as the Scottish Lowlands turned into the north of England and then into the Midlands and down into the London periphery, it became clear I was experiencing all this in reverse aesthetic geographical order. To then return to our cold, uninviting abode in Laindon was just the natural conclusion to one of those dreaded end of vacation days.

We got home and I was able to catch most of the Radio 1 Top 40 rundown with Bruno Brookes. Having had my hopes dashed a week earlier, I was certain that Kylie would dethrone Enya. But, just to finish off a day of disappointment, there was no change in the Top 2. It hardly mattered that I was already beginning to tire of Je ne sais pas pourquoi (I was really starting to get into Robert Palmer's She Makes My Day instead); it was the tune I was backing and I wasn't about to give up.

The Top 3 was rounded out this week by Milli Vanilli's Girl You Know It's True, one of the year's most memorable and infamous hits. It would be two years before revelations that they didn't sing on this and other records came to light but it's interesting looking back now at their early success and trying to foresee what would happen. There was nothing about them that seemed remarkable, they had a catchy but disposable hit and it didn't seem like they'd amount to much afterwards. They wouldn't enjoy another hit for a few months and it was much more middling and derivative. And they seemed like the sort of act that would be destined to be a British - or European - curio. Sometimes a promising group or singer prematurely comes a cropper and sometimes the least likely to succeed manages to go far. Somehow or other, Milli Vanilli ended up being both.

I was sitting at the kitchen table doing my homework. It may have been the pathetically sad sketch of a sunflower I did for Mrs Templeton's art class ("What lovely paper" was the only nice thing she had to say about it; indeed, the sketchbook I received from our family friend Judy as a going away present was nice but I think it succeeded in making my efforts only look more laughable than they already were; old Templeton seemed offended that I'd deface such a beautiful book with my clumsy attempts at art) or the private creed I had to pen for religious studies (I believe this to be the worst class in the history of the universe). In any case, as I sat the doorbell rang. My dad answered.

"Trick or treat!" a group of three or four kids hollered. Oh yeah, it's Halloween, I thought to myself. (Actually, this part doesn't feel quite right. I'm sure that it hadn't occured to me through most of the day but it feels like I must have thought about it at some point. The hosts of Blue Peter may have brought it up but it wasn't the focal point of the show: according to the BBC TV archives, the late Caron Keating was swimming with sharks that day. Nevertheless, Halloween was an afterthought for us) The last day of October had come and almost completely passed without us noticing. Mayflower didn't mark the occasion by allowing us to dress up (unless, of course, all two thousand of us decided to wear our school uniforms as our costume) and I didn't even think about going out.

Of all the things I missed from back home - my grandparents, having a bedroom to myself, Slurpees, the spectacularly good season the Calgary Flames were having, kindly teachers who weren't constantly pissed off - down at the absolute bottom of the list would have been Halloween. While I liked candy as much as any kid, I hated wandering around asking for it, never possessed any kind of imagination for costumes, resented greedy high school students who felt they still had the right to go trick-or-treating (we had a no going door-to-door after the age of twelve rule in my family) and never liked the miniaturized versions of my favourite chocolate bars. (Seriously, how can they be called 'fun-sized'? I'd have much more fun eating a normal size Mars bar or box of Smarties) It was never as fun as billed and it was never one of those days I looked forward to, unlike the last day of school or Christmas Eve.

"I'm sorry", Dad said regretfully, "We didn't know anyone went out on Halloween here."

"You American?" one boy inquired.

"Yeah", my dad replied as if he was fed up with hearing that question and had become resigned to just going along with it. I looked up from my homework. "Well, actually we're from Canada." Maybe he knew one of us was right about to correct him as to our nationality. He apologised to the kids again then shut the door. He and Mum talked about giving something like 50p to any other urchins who came knocking. None did. It was nice to be in a country with as apathetic an attitude to Halloween as we did.

~~~~~

young Paul's favourite: Je ne sais pas pourquoi

older Paul's retro pick: Real Gone Kid