BBC HomeExplore the BBC
This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving.

29 October 2014
top of the Pops 2 top of the Pops 2

BBC Homepage
Entertainment
»TOTP2
PLAY
  Video Quiz
  Decades Quiz
PHOTOS
  Wallpaper
  Flick Books
  Postcards
  Fancy Dress
MUSIC
  Show Clips
  Classic Shows
ARTISTS
  Interviews
  Top 5s
  School Reports
  Where Are They?
TV SHOW
  Lineup
  Performances
  Show History
  Presenters
  Titles & Themes
  Logos
  Annuals
  Pan's People
  Ruby Flipper
  Legs & Co
LINKS
  Contact Us
  BBC Music
  BBC News
  Radio 2
  6 Music


TOTP Online
 

Contact Us



Do you think this urban flavour is something you're going to focus on for a while?
Tom: It's the fact that it's soulful. Wyclef told me I was a soul singer but we've got to do soul 2002, not soul 1965. I want to do well-produced records that are being produced today. I want the songs to sound modern. I don't know what the next one will be. Maybe I'll do another with Wyclef.

  You've been in the business for years and you've done all these amazing things.  I've read that one of your crowning moments was Elvis singing one of your songs to you but what would you have preferred him to sing?
Tom: At the time, I couldn't have asked for better. I didn't know he knew what I was doing as well as he did. He told me that he had my records and I was prepared to tell him how much he had influenced me. I love all kinds of Elvis Presley songs, like 'Mystery Train', which was the first one I was aware of. Then 'Heartbreak Hotel' which was fantastic.

Your career spans all this time with all these amazing achievements. Do you feel there is anything left for you to do before you retire?
Tom: Yes. There's plenty for me to do. There are more albums. I'll record as long as I can and as long as my voice works as well as it does now and for as long as people want to hear me.

Are you worried that you voice will let you down at all?
Tom: Only when I get older. I know my voice won't work as well. Hopefully, I'll have the sense to stop because if I can't be as good as I am now then I don't want to do it.

  Simply Red  
  "That's a bit supermarket, isn't it. I'm not making that many bottles. "  
  Robin Gibb  
  "There's been great moments both as a songwriter and as a performer."  
  Paul Roberts - The Stranglers  
  "We certainly weren't going to call ourselves The Bay City Rollers."  
  Lisa Stansfield  
  "I just thought, how many times do I have to sing this song?"  
  Soft Cell  
  "I think it's the only time that a banjo's been played in the Ministry of Sound."  
  Erasure  
  "Agnetha said she liked it. If I met them I would curtsey."  
  INXS  
  "We really surprised lots of people by simply hanging in there."  
  Kim Wilde  
  "I used to be really jealous of Claire Grogan...I thought she was gorgeous."  
  Dollar  
  "Failure was not an option, we were materialistic and greed was good."  
  Human League  
  "We did a US tour with Culture Club and Howard Jones...solely for the cash."  
  Altered Images  
  "Women were treated as a bit of a novelty in the music business in 1981."  
  Belle Stars  
  "The pop music lark just seems like a lifetime away now."  
  Steve Strange  
  "Look, you’re playing me like a bitchy queen and I’m not like that."  
  Five Star  
  "We all grew up wanting to be famous and we lived our dream..."  
  Phillip from Ruby Flipper  
  "At my age, I'd find it difficult to get my legs where they used to go..."  
  Glen Campbell  
  "I got to work with literally everyone in the business; Nat King Cole, Sinatra..."  
  David Gray  
  "Lots of tension in the camp. We're battling Gareth Gates for the No.1 spot"  
  Robert Palmer  
  "There's this homegenised force feeding of what is hip."  
  Marilyn  
  "I think George manipulated our relationship for publicity"  
  Tom Jones  
  "I'm pulling all my old jewellery out now and comparing my rings with Wyclef"  
  Ruth From Pan's People  
  "I could show you dozens of times I forgot the moves..."  
  Badly Drawn Boy  
  "Everybody has to do what everybody else does in order to have a hit single"  
  John Otway  
  "I think the music business is probably not happy with what we've done..."  
  Jimmy Cliff  
  "I look at someone like Ms Dynamite, I come away with a positive feeling."  
  Human League  
  "We wouldn't trust anyone that didn't wear eyeliner."  
  Status Quo  
  "I probably went about four or five years with a pair of stage jeans"  
  Gary Numan  
  "There are so many things in my past that you could make fun of."  
  McAlmont and Butler  
  "We were big enough to get over any-thing that may have been exchanged."  
  Primal Scream  
  "The producer at the time told us we'd never work again."  
  Oasis  
  "I prefer miming, I prefer if we weren’t playing live."  


About the BBC | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy