Although i spent much of 1988 - my 12th year - crushing on Tiffany it didn't distract my attention from the rest of the hit parade. The House music craze continued its assault on the Top 40, with huge hits and chart toppers from Coldcut, Yazz, Bomb The Bass, Inner City, Simon Harris, and S-Express, the latter of whom had a number 1 at the end of April with the timeless Theme From S-Express. That track, along with Beat Dis, Good Life, Doctorin' The House, The Only Way Is Up, and Bass (How Low Can You Go) regularly turn up on "old skool" or "dance classics" compilations to this day.
One of the years' biggest hits would come from a less likely source. Variously described as "art terrorists" and "situationist pranksters", former band manager and A&R man Bill Drummond and musician Jimmy Cauty had decided to collaborate at the beginning of 1987, calling themselves The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu (or The JAMMS for short), self-releasing three singles and an album of unauthorized samples from - among others -The Beatles, ABBA, Whitney Houston, gaining them notoriety in the music press and attracting the attention of copyright lawyers. After being forced to withdraw their first album, they set about trying to create a guaranteed number 1 hit. Mashing together the Doctor Who theme tune, Blockbuster and Rock And Roll (Part Two) by seventies glam rock stars Sweet and Gary Glitter, they then renamed themselves The Timelords. Claiming that the record was actually by Cautys' 1968 Ford Galaxie american police car - Ford Timelord - they released it upon an unsuspecting world. The critics hated it, but the record buying public spoke with their pockets and by that summer it was everywhere, including the top spot in the singles chart. It is a gloriously dumb pop record, but Drummond and Cauty succeeded in their plan. They even released a book: The Manual (How To Have A Number One The Easy Way), detailing how to have a hit with no money or talent. Given the number of self-produced and self-released novelty hits over the last thirty years, i'd say the books influence was far and wide!
Over the next few years Drummond and Cauty would continue their assault on the charts under the KLF brand, culminating in a notorious performance at the BRITS awards. But that is a tale for another time.....
