- Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers: Swing the Mood
- Kylie Minogue: Wouldn't Change a Thing
- Sonia: You'll Never Stop Me from Loving You
- Bros: Too Much
- Lil' Louis: French Kiss
- Gloria Estefan: Don't Wanna Lose You
- Bobby Brown: On Our Own
- London Boys: London Nights
- Rufus & Chaka Khan: Ain't Nobody '89
- Bette Midler: Wind Beneath My Wings
- Soul II Soul: Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)
- Kirsty MacColl: Days
- Alice Cooper: Poison
- Karyn White: Superwoman
- Simple Minds: Kick It In
- Inner City: Do You Love What You Feel
- Simply Red: A New Flame
- Gladys Knight: Licence to Kill
- Transvision Vamp: Landslide of Love
- A Guy Called Gerald: Voodoo Ray
- Pet Shop Boys: It's Alright
- Blow Monkeys featuring Sylvia Tella: Choice
- Prince: Batdance
- The Primitives: Sick of It
- Waterfront: Cry
- Shakespears Sister: You're History
- Martika: Toy Soldiers
- De La Soul: Say No Go
- Monie Love: Grandpa's Party
- Paul McCartney: This One
- Michael Jackson: Liberian Girl
- The Lightning Seeds: Pure
- Gun: Better Days
- Wendy & Lisa: Satisfaction
- Dogs d'Amour: Satellite Kid
- Redhead Kingpin & The FBI: Do the Right Thing
- The Beautiful South: Song for Whoever
- Eartha Kitt & Bronski Beat: Cha Cha Heels
- Danny Wilson: The Second Summer of Love
- Aswad: On and On
~~~~~
This final UK Top 40 bears little resemblance to the first listing I posted last August. Just four acts manage to pull off appearing on both: Gloria Estefan, Michael Jackson, Kylie Minogue and Transvision Vamp. While Wacko Jacko - and, to be sure, his record label - continued to be content to scrape the varnish off the bottom of the Bad barrel (Dirty Diana was the fifth single released off the album that was already a year old by that point; Liberian Girl was the ninth), the others were busy pushing on with new material. Along with Bros and Prince - both appearing here but in a between-single lull a year earlier - they churned out commercially released product at a rate you simply don't see anymore. Isn't anyone prolific in this day and age?
One clear similarity between the two charts is Kylie's residence at number two. I hadn't been particularly crazy about her previous hit, Hand on Your Heart, but Wouldn't Change a Thing had me right back in her corner. Opening with that already ubiquitous drum machine pattern, it is admittedly a bit by-numbers for both her and the Stock Aitken Waterman group and the sentiments are cliched and clunky ("I've had my doubts, up and down on the merry-go-round"? I guess SAW couldn't thing of an adequate rhyme for 'ferris wheel') but Kylie provides it with a certain zest that a lot of better vocalists might struggle to add. I suppose it's the sort of tune a lot of people would label a guilty pleasure and, while I dislike the terms overall, they're not wrong in this instance. Besides the charming vocal and the trick of having the chorus repeat itself three times near the end (something I've always been a sucker for - a trait it shares with last week's She Bangs the Drums by The Stone Roses), I can't think of a single rational reason why I loved this song then and still feel somewhat fond of it today. That's pop for you.
We were now back from our coach tour of Europe and just days away from our flight home. My mum couldn't have been happier, although you would have been forgiven for not noticing give how she had become so preoccupied by packing. Wisely knowing that I was in absolutely no hurry to get my things together, she promptly began packing on my behalf while chucking away some stuff without bothering to consult me. The bulk of my copies of Smash Hits got tossed in the bin as did the giant goodbye card that my classmates had all signed. I was furious to discover that these cherished items had all been tossed but, in her defense, I probably left them all in a great big disorderly pile by my bed and she made a hasty decision just to chuck it all away. I guess the adult in me understands much more than the boy who wanted to keep everything.
Mum's spree of packing and tossing was probably done while the rest of us were spending our second to last day in Britain having a final poke around London. Though we enjoyed the British Museum the real highlight of this day trip was the acquisition of long sought after posters. At some point back in September or October I happened to notice a giant London Underground map in a tourist information centre and I immediately had my heart set on buying one. Happily, it was something I kept encountering and it wasn't hard for us to track one down this time. (Something in my subsequent travels that I've often found difficult to emulate: I seem to have a knack for spotting a souvenir that I just have to have, deciding that I'll get it another time and then never finding it again)
Saying goodbye to London was one thing but having to bid farewell to friends was the most difficult part of our last few days in England. Our year had begun by enjoying luncheons and days out with people we would end up having very little contact with but now we were having meals with close friends that I wasn't sure if I'd see again. One night we drove into Billericay for dinner with Mum's friend Sherry and her family. I haven't written much about them so far which is a shame since her children John and Rachel loved music as much as I did. Rachel and I spent some time on her swing set in the backyard as she caught me up on the week of music I'd missed while we were in Europe. Later, I listened intently as John told me about seeing the Pet Shop Boys in London a could weeks earlier, occasionally wistfully expressing how much I would've wanted to be there too. (Little was I to know that thirteen years to the day of this night I would be attending a PSB gig of my own) Sherry capped off the evening with a cake, lovingly decorated with maps of Britain and Alberta and an airplane suspended en route from the former to the latter. I was impressed but my mum was moved to tears.
It was also my good friend Neil's birthday just prior to our departure and a small party at his place would be a final chance to see some school chums. (There was always something rather bittersweet about going to Neil's: their place was cozy and inviting, they had a nice backyard and their neighbourhood was attractive. It was, in short, all the things our place in Laindon wasn't. Still, as I drifted off to sleep later that night I began to think about the roomy, welcoming house that was awaiting us back in Calgary and, suddenly, fleetingly, I was looking forward to heading home) It was a lovely day as we enjoyed a delicious lunch and kicked around a football for a while. Neil and I pledged to try to meet up in four years time and I immediately began to look forward to eventually seeing him again. Neil was that kind of friend you only find so often.
Neil's birthday should have been one last time for our school foursome to hang out together but we were reduced to a trio of the two of us and Richard. Sean was having a problem with his feet and he had to pass. I was very disappointed not to be seeing him but my dad offered to drive me over to his place in Wickford so that we could say our goodbyes and I could give him some gifts from our trip to Europe. We chatted for a few minutes in his living room but we had to be heading back. We were less than twenty-four hours from our departure.
That night was a Thursday and I glumly tuned into one last episode of Top of the Pops. My friends were all at home and, to them, it was as I was already gone. Rather unexpectedly the doorbell rang. It was my sister's friend Katrina who'd popped by to say her goodbyes. I envied Julie at that point but I also knew that she didn't get to have the nice farewell moments with her pals as I did with mine.
"I'm not ready for this," I said to myself as I got ready for bed. But I guess I was going to have to be.
~~~~~
young Paul's favourite: Wouldn't Change a Thing
older Paul's retro pick: Pure
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