Top of the Pops on BBC Four

[AndyB2008]

The bias towards indie was another of the issues of the Cowie era in my opinion. TOTP really shouldn't have been showing bias towards any kinds of music in my opinion. Though admittedly I am one of those people who could never understand why so many people treated indie as some sort of second coming in the mid-late 90s. This idea some people have of what's "real music" and what isn't and is somehow more credible and worthy has always infuriated me.

Blaxill had it too - see his pushing of the likes of These Animal Men, S*M*A*S*H, and Bis as exclusives when they weren't in the charts or signed to a major label - although the more fast-paced nature of his shows meant that more genres did get on. Often heavily truncated, mind; on one of the weeks Firestarter was #1 they just ran it under the credits for less than one minute.

Funnily enough, most of the indie acts given the leg-up by Blaxill aren't exactly highly thought of or even remembered at all by most people now, so if little else it will be interesting to see the reactions to them if/when they turn up on the repeats. And I suppose a bias towards indie is at least better than one for legacy acts, as we'll see in the Appel era...

Menswear were one of the acts promoted by Blaxill on TOTP, and although they are not exactly remembered now, their drummer Matt Everitt did well for himself.