Millie Week 14

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Oh dear - we're into early 90's musical reference overload here.

Millie's choices are extremely mainstream.

Bros was just coming to the end of its reign as the teeny boppers fave rave of choice. They were two brothers (and a spare bloke) who had been picked up by the Pet Shop Boys former manager and who were propelled to instant stardom with their rather good song 'When will I be famous?'. They followed that up with a few more singles that were alternately catchy and then tuneless. Maybe if they'd been given better songs they would have lasted longer. Not even their rabid fan base, the fearsome Brosettes, could save them from the slow inexorable decline into the dumper. One of them ended up in the West End, playing Danny in Grease. I have no idea what happened to the others.

Wet Wet Wet. They do exactly what it says on the tin. Responsible for 'Love is all around' being at number one for what felt like eight years. No, I won't link to them.

The Humphrey Shovel does not exist. But it should do.

Most of the bands mentioned in frame four are invented as well apart from Crispy Ambulance and Gnomefumbler. Crispy Ambulance were a Manchester act from the late 70s that I just liked the name of - I have no idea what they sound like. Gnomefumbler were the band I was in when I was at school. I say band, what I actually mean is four teenagers with more ideas than musical ability improvising in front of a cassette recorder, a strange mix of prog rock, silliness and musique concrete.

And then it all goes horribly uncool for Gemma. Bucks Fizz were the Eurovision winning song troupe constructed according to the Abba template of two girls and two boys. Desperately uncool, but also peerless early 80's pop of the kind that came smothered in very loud compressed drums. For example...

Dollar were very similar, produced by Trevor Horn (Frankie, Seal etc). They sang sugary sweet songs that turned out to be adaptations of J G Ballard short stories, like Videotheque.

Barry Manilow needs no introduction. Despite not writing "I write the songs" I have a lot of time for him.

James Last is one of those baffling phenomena that I can't explain. He's a German big band leader who produced an endless series of easy listening albums with names like Non Stop Dancing, Beachparty 3, Polka Party II, Non Stop Dancing 1973 and Super Non-Stop Dancing (all from 1972). He produced what he liked to call 'happy music', and it sounds exactly like you'd imagine.