We all remember Pepsi, don’t we? You know. The black one that used to stand at the back of Wham! gigs, that isn’t married to Martin Kemp off of sofas fame? What? This article isn’t about Helen “Pepsi” Demacque (born 10 December 1958, in Paddington, London)? But the soft drink? Ohhh. Shame really, I wanted to mention her appearing in the 1993 revival of Hair, alongside John Barrowman and Sinitta….oh well.

Today sees the anniversary of the fateful date that a North Carolina pharmacist called Caleb D. Bradham renamed his newly-created carbonated soft drink “Pepsi-Cola” in 1898. So to celebrate the gaseous black liquid we all choose if there’s nothing else available (I’m a Dr Pepper, man myself), here’s ten random Pepsi facts. It’s the real thing! Oh wait, that was Coke. Never mind…

1. The aforementioned Mr Bradham (pictured above) invented the drink in question in his drug store in New Bern (snappily titled “The Bradham Drug Company“) where he mixed a blend of kola nut extract, vanilla, and worryingly titled “rare oils”. Initially titled “Brad’s Drink”, this was renamed to Pepsi-Cola.

2. There’s no official line on where the name came from, although the smart money seems to be on a combination of the terms “pepsin”, derived from the pepsin enzyme, which predominantly aids digestion although doesn’t actually appear in the drink itself and “cola” from the phrase “Hey That Coca-Cola’s selling well. Let’s make some of that.”

3. “Pepsi-Cola” is an anagram for “Episcopal” and wouldn’t you adam and believe it? One such large church happened to be sited across the street from Bradham’s drugstore. There is a plaque at the site of the original store documenting this, though the company itself has always denied this theory.

4. In 1974, Pepsi became the first foreign consumer product to be sold in the Soviet Union. It wouldn’t be advertised on Soviet TV however until 1988. Dig those crazy Yankee blue jeans!

5. A frequently appearing legend on the internet involves a Pepsi advertising campaign in China in which the slogan ‘Pepsi gives you life’ was mistranslated as either “Come alive out of the grave”, “Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the grave” or “Bring dead ancestors back from heaven”. The bizarre thing about this is that whilst vehement internet scam-cutters Snopes have it as “unverified”, yet the ever-legal Pepsi have never denied it. So who knows? Get some down to the graveyard today! QUICK!

6. Bewildering real Pepsi variants over the years have included Crystal Pepsi - a see through caffeine-free version, Pepsi Samba - “Tropical Flavoured Cola” containing Mango & Tamarind which was only distributed to Australia in 2005 and ridiculously unpopular, Pepsi Blue – Pepsi that’s…erm blue. Its flavour? Just “berry”, Pepsi Holiday Spice – a Christmas themed Pepsi with added Cinnamon, and the painfully titled Pepsi Raw which was made from all, like, natural ingredients, man. TATP’s favourite though must surely be the Japan-only “Pepsi Ice Cucumber” from 2007 – a limited edition green variant with added cucumber flavourings. No…really.

7. An unusual conspiracy theory in Middle East countries claim PEPSI is in fact an acronym for “Pay Every Pence to Save Israel” due the company being a secret Zionist operation raising money for Israel. Claims that COKE stands for “Come On! Kill Emirates!” have not as yet been established…KILL THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR

8. One of the things Pepsi is best known for is permanently scarring one of pop’s most enduring icons – one Mr Michael Jackson, who famously “caught fire” thanks to faulty pyrotechnics filming a promotion for the brand in 1984. However this wasn’t the first time Jacko had taken the hard, throbbing PepsiCo. dollar, indeed he was the first international singer to become a spokesperson for the drink, along with the rest of The Jackson 5. He later did a further spot for which he shamelessly rewrote “Billie Jean” [as visible here] with the less than classic lines “You’re the Pepsi Generation / Guzzle down and /Taste the thrill of the day / And feel the Pepsi way”. Oh Michael, the child molesting I could handle…

9. Other Pepsi shills include The Spice Girls who offered up two songs for their trouble – “Spiceworld” album track “Move Over” and the brazenly exclusive “Step To Me“, which was only released as a promotional single in the UK right at the start of the summer holidays on Monday 28th July 1997, following an overwhelming ad campaign. The only way the rabid fans could get hold of a copy was by collecting 20 ring pulls or tokens from varied Pepsi products. Remember that the next time one of them crops up on a healthy eating campaign…

10. Pepsi has of course long been in a heated rivalry with Coca Cola (which launched in 1886, 12 years before its upstart rival), with the latter invariably winning on both sales and market share. However, in terms of body count it remains one apiece as this rather troublesome 1981 TIME Magazine article revealed. Its only pop, lads!

So there you go! 10 facts you may or may not have known about the fizzy favourite on this anniversary date. Next week Ill be starting part one of my eighteen part look at Kia-Ora and its vicious battles with the Ribena berries, not too mention the blackbird-related lawsuits that led to its famous disclaimer…

Ben Baker is most definately not the choice of a new generation.

Never let it be said that we dont celebrate a good anniversary here at TATP and with yesterday being the 51st birthday of nineties tampon-hawking “Its My Life” star Dr Alban, what better time then to launch the first TATP Weekly Quiz, with a look back at some of the musical acts that touched upon us, however briefly. 

So, join your inaugral quizmaster Justin Lewis for a skip down memory lane (just off Whatsisface Drive and Wasnt That Rick Astley Way) and try and guess who the following ten One Hit Wonders were and the songs they were famous for. Answers are at the bottom of the post! You have been warned!

1966
Folk trio whose tenth single and only hit, a cover of a song on Rubber Soul, went all the way to the number one spot.

1969
Regularly played before home games at three English football clubs – Wolves, West Bromwich Albion, Chelsea – this had its bassline recycled for the Staple Singers’ 1972 American number one, “I’ll Take You There”.

1975
Many-octaved Chicago-born singer who having provided sterling backing vocals for Stevie Wonder’s mid-70s LPs, had the favour returned when he produced her only hit 45 on both sides of the Atlantic. Substantially sampled by The Orb on a 20-minute single.

1979
As the Oyster Band, ten years later they would give New Order’s “Love Vigilantes” a folky rebirth, but a visit to the town of Rhyl inspired their unseasonal Yuletide hit to end the 1970s.

1981
Alison Duvet? Den Perry’s sister? Paul’s second cousin? Surprise, Surprise!

1983
Canadians with a Brian Cant soundalike of a lead singer, who were obliged to change their original name from ‘Heaven 17’ due to the BEF’s alter ego.

1986
“Everybody’s yelling/About you and yours and how I’d have the answer if only I’d open up up up and let you in”

1987
A rare example of the same song becoming a one-hit wonder for two different groups, this Antipodean lot scored with a soft-rock version of a 1980 disco classic.

1991
Fronted by future Steve Wright posse irritant Janey Lee Grace, and produced by Saint Etienne.

1998
Married to Costello and Raitt producer Mitchell Froom since 2004, she was responsible for all those musical interludes on that Emmy-Award winning thing Channel 4 used to show. Did this really make the top ten?

And now its time for you PRESS REVEAL (none of that red button nonsense for us of the Bamboozle generation) as we’re about to share the answers, so if you dont want to know just yet - look away NOW!

(Oh and if you’re still bewildered, click the song names to be whisked off to a YouTube representation of some description from Top Of The Pops appearances to some bloke filming his turntable. Its like the future happening today!!!)

1966 - The Overlanders – “Michelle”
1969 - Harry J All-Stars – “Liquidator”
1975 - Minnie Riperton – “Loving You”
1979 - Fiddler’s Dram – “Day Trip to Bangor”
1981 - Kate Robbins – “More Than In Love”
1983 - Men Without Hats – “The Safety Dance”
1986 - Furniture – “Brilliant Mind”
1987 - Pseudo Echo – “Funky Town”
1991 - Cola Boy – “7 Ways to Love”
1998 - Vonda Shepard – “Searchin’ My Soul”

Justin Lewis can dance. He can dance, he can dance, Everybody takin’ the cha-a-a-ance.

Picture the scene: It’s 1989 and your TATP comic geek writer has somehow managed to avoid the veritable funk and pop sandwich that is the artist currrently known as Prince. He has also missed out on The Smiths and blames his parents’ Daily Mail views for both omissions. Cue a Tim Burton film’s arrival and a certain purple-loving diminutive funkster providing the soundtack, changing his musical tastes (and expanding his record collection) forever…

1. The bulk of the songs for Prince’s Batman soundtrack were recorded in February and March 1989 but some previously-recorded songs (Scandalous, Electric Chair and Vicki Waiting) had been finished a year before and weren’t written with bats in mind. Vicki Waiting’s non-newness contradicting its titular relevance for the soundtrack can be explained away by it originally being called Anna Waiting. Director Tim Burton didn’t like all of the original batch of songs: Still Would Stand All Time was replaced with Scandalous as the main love theme of the soundtrack so Prince put it to one side for his next album. 200 Balloons was replaced by Trust but turned up on the b-side to Batdance, which in turn replaced a song called Dance With The Devil that was deemed too dark (too dark? For a dark brooding Tim Burton film?). Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic was also rejected (replaced by Partyman) and rematerialised as the title track to Prince’s 1999 (the year, not the song) album. So well done for the ‘waste not, want not’ approach to song management, shorty.

2. Unlike previous projects, this was almost totally solo Prince. The few siginificant musical others included Eric Leeds (from classic era Prince band The Revolution and spin-off project The Family) supplied his usual horns, The Sounds Of Blackness choir (who would later have their own album project produced by one-time Prince cohorts Jam & Lewis) provided the choir bits, and Anna Fantastic (aka Anna Garcia) who contributed a vocal to Partyman. She was allegedly Prince’s girlfriend during the recording but he seems to have had a lot of them around this time. Her favourite drink was said to have been Lemon Crush, which spookily turned out to be the title of a song on this very soundtrack album thing. What are the chances?

3. The most famous collaborator on the album is Sheena Easton, who duets with Prince on The Arms Of Orion. Her links with the purple one began in 1984 when he wrote her the infamous Sugar Walls, which got all the right people hot and bothered with lyrics like “Come spend the night inside my sugar walls.” What could it have meant? Easton had previously dueted with the tiny funk machine (I am running out euphemisms now) for the 1987 single U Got The Look, and the look in question involved an overload of mascara and some fancy frilly outfits. She was also rumoured to have dated him, the saucy minx.

4. Kim Bassinger played Vicki Vale in the film and turns up in movie dialogue samples throughout the album, immortalised in that “Stop the press, who is that? Vicki Vale. She is great, isn’t she?” bit that nerds like to quote. She was dating Prince for a while, allegedly (well who hasn’t?), and contributed vocals for the superlong extended versions of Scandalous that appeared on the Scandalous Sex Suite 12″ single, although they were mostly ’sexy’ grunts and naughtiness. Samples of Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as The Joker were also used but not in a sexual manner, thank God.

Prince, dressed up as his character Gemini (representing duality) for the Batdance video.

5. Only six of the nine tracks on the album appear in the film  itself. The Future is used near the beginning in the Batman-defining parental shooting alleyway scene, Electric Chair and Vicki Waiting appear in the party scene, Partyman soundtracks The Joker’s visit to the museum, Trust can be heard in the parade scene and Scandalous is the love theme and appears in the end credits. That leaves Batdance, Lemon Crush and The Arms Of Orion as the non-celluloid tracks.

6. First single Batdance was a bit Stars On 45 as it featured snippets of the Prince songs 200 Balloons, We Got The Power, House In Order, Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic, The Future and Electric Chair, and of course elements of Neal Hefti’s 1966 Batman theme from the television series. Of those songs, only The Future and Electric Chair actually made it to the final soundtrack, which is why you probably didn’t know how much of a medley it really was.

7. The album only featured nine tracks but they are complemented by the b-sides: 200 Balloons (from Batdance) was rejected from main soundtrack album, Feel You Up (from Partyman) was an unused Camille (Prince in his uber-smutty high voice alter-ego phase) track, as was Sex (from Scandalous). When 2 R In Love (also from Scandalous) had already appeared on previous album Lovesexy and I Love U In Me (from The Arms Of Orion)’s origins are a mystery to me.

8. Remixes of Batdance, The Future and Electric Chair were created by Mark Moore (a DJ known for pretty much being S-Express at the time) and new boy William Orbit (who went onto much greater things with his Strange Cargo and Madonna work). Apart from Batdance they were only released in Europe, which was a bit odd.

9. There are licensing complications with the Batman songs meaning that they have not appeared on any Prince compilations. Batman seems to bring out complicated rights issues like the ones that have prevented the 1960s Batman TV series appearing on DVD.

10. The album was released on June 20th 1989 and ended up with worldwide sales of 4.4 million. Which was nice, and beat all the albums Prince had released since Purple Rain. This success was not soundtrack-related, as seen by Batman’s 1990 follow-up Graffiti Bridge which had only half the sales. Well it was from a truly stinky film, which would not have helped!

Dan Hollingsworth is unsure about the rumours that the soundtrack was originally meant to be split between Prince and Michael Jackson are true but it sounds like musical fanwank to him.

Groovy! Swingtrousers! Deptford Draylons! What Time Is The Grimleys On? - Just some of the words there used everyday back in the era we like to call the 1970’s, which is extremely fortunate as it just happens to be the first port of call for TATP’s exciting (read: visible) new feature in which your trusty TATP voting panel will be attempting to choose the definitive ten Number One UK Hit Singles for a specific decade, starting with the seventies.

Bubbling under were classics like Dave & Ansil Collins‘ “Double Barrel“, The Sweet with “Blockbuster” and Althea and Donna’s robbed ”Up Town Top Ranking”, so as for what made the cut, well I’m excited already and I voted in the bloody thing! So put on your best static cardigan, down a Watney’s Party Seven and get down and get with it to the fabulous, far out sounds of…The Greatest 1970s Number One Hits Ever….EVER! This week anyway…

Number One
The Buggles - “Video Killed the Radio Star”

When a song is covered by such varied artists as Ben Folds Five, The Presidents Of The United States Of America, The Feeling, Erasure and um…Len, you know its got longevity and its this no doubt which saw The Buggles‘ one and only chart topper also rise to the top of our own with ease. Otherwise known as super-producer Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes (who met Horn when both played in the backing group for another 70s UK chart topper Tina Charles of “I Love To Love” fame) and Bruce Woolley, although the latter claims that despite having a co-write credit was never a full-time member of The Buggles, merely “on the design team”. The wirelessly murderous video of their own was directed by future Highlander director Russell Mulcahy and famously was the first to be shown by fledgling American cable channel MTV on 1st August 1981, not to mention a million rubbish talking-head One Hit Wonder programmes, despite the fact the follow up “The Plastic Age” reached a very respectable No.16 in the UK charts. Whatever you think of it, “Video Killed The Radio Star” remains an utterly perfect piece of power pop and still lives on today in people’s hearts and minds. Oh and in the video game spin-off of “Alvin And The Chipmunks”. Ah well, any publicity, right…?

Number Two
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - “The Tears of a Clown”

Smacky Robertson and His Miraclees, Ben? But there were a sixties act, surely? Well, yes and no. This timeless Motown hit has originally been recorded in 1967 on the album “Make It Happen”. It was later released in lieu of any new material in the UK, where the group were very popular, as a single in September 1970, hitting the top for one week. Written by bandleader Robinson, with music from no less than Stevie Wonder (who apparently presented it to Robinson as an instrumental at the 1966 Motown Christmas Party - cor, can you imagine going to that?) and his then-regular producer Henry “Hank” Cosby. A cover of the song by Birmingham ska favourites The Beat came close to repeating the trick reaching No.6 in 1979 as a double A-side with “Ranking Non Stop”. As for Robinson, he still tours regularly and bizarrely served as a guest judge for American Idol during 2003’s “Billy Joel Week“. Now that’s something to bring tears to your eyes…

Number Three
Kate Bush - “Wuthering Heights”

Amazingly the first woman to both write and perform a UK Number one, Kate Bush’s debut single from 1978 set the stall out with aplomb. Based of course on another unique woman’s work (Emily Bronte in 1847 to be exact, with whom Bush shares a birth date – July 30th), the over-blown and intense “Wuthering Heights” hit the top when Kate was just 19 years old after she was discovered - via a much hawked and rejected demo tape - by Dave Gilmour from off of The Pink Floyd Group (he was 28, she was 16) and signed by EMI. The song stayed at the top of the charts for a month before being knocked off by the similarly off-kilter “Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs” by Brian and Michael.

Number Four
10cc - “Rubber Bullets”

From 10cc’s self-titled debut album, released by Jonathan King’s label UK Records, this would be the first of three number ones for the group when it jemmied its way to the increasingly glam top spot in 1973 between Suzi Quatro’s “Can The Can” and Slade’s “Skweeze Me Pleeze Me“. It recently became the theme tune to a new Adult Swim cartoon in the US called “Superjail!”, which like most Adult Swim cartoons will no doubt be frigging awful and involve a one legged bear dressed as Fred Flintstone and shagging a bloodied stump or some such…I’ve not seen it.
    
Number Five
Ian Dury & the Blockheads - “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick”

The first number one for Stiff Records and an unusual blend of funk, punk and a frail, hobbling front man with polio who could seemingly invoke the devil every time he opened his mouth to sing. This had been released in November 1978 but failed to take its rightful place at the top of the charts until the following January, following an all-out chart assault by Christ-fans Boney M (“Mary’s Boy Child”) and The Village People with the unfortunate student classic “YMCA”. Still a work of utter joy and radio staple today despite a deafening wireless-unfriendly jazz break played on two saxophones in the middle, it even had a seminal B-side thanks to the superb “There Ain’t Half Been Some Clever Bastards“.  Put simply, erm…its quite good.

And the rest…

In sixth place, and attacking the votes with four – from a potential six - similarly chart topping different songs, only “Coz I Luv You” by SLADE made the ultimate list in the end but what could be more fitting than their first ever No.1 from November 1971. It was knocked off the top by none other than the brilliant yet bewildering ”Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West)” by Benny Hill which would hold the position right through the end of the year, becoming ‘71’s festive number one. Slade would have to wait another two years before pulling the same trick… At seven, CHICORY TIP’s endlessly jaunty “Son of My Father” takes centre stage and deserves credit for being one of the first Number Ones to feature a moog synthesizer, influenced slightly by its original co-author in Italian, electronic pioneer and future Phil Oakey-botherer Giorgio Moroder, who released it as “Tu Sei Mio Padre”. It would later bastardised again by fey heroin-fans Denim for their tribute “On A Chicory Tip” from 1997’s “Novelty Rock”.

At eight, a reissue but just as powerful since its first release in 1969, where it reached #5 just in time for the Apollo 11 moon landings, DAVID BOWIE’s “Space Oddity” was first re-released in January 1973 for the American market and again - in slightly longer form - November 1975, giving The Thin White David Bowie his first of five No.1 singles. It wouldn’t stay there though and the following week it was knocked off the top slot by another novelty hit, this time “D.I.V.O.R.C.E.” by Billy Connolly. GEORGE McCRAE’s superb 1974 proto-disco shuffle “Rock Your Baby” comes next at nine although due to its high pitch it was nearly instead offered to George’s then-missis Gwen McCrae. Good job too as the track would go on to top both the US Billboard and UK charts – even Rolling Stone Magazine voted it the #1 song of the year. Finally, at ten its BLONDIE with “Sunday Girl” – another act that made several pronged attacks on our voting list (indeed “Heart Of Glass” is placed just out of the chart at No.11) with this being no less than the fourth single to be plundered from the seminal “Parallel Lines” and spending three weeks at the top of the chart for good measure. It would later be re-recorded in French for a release there, before having both versions combined for 1981’s “The Best Of Blondie” and most subsequent compilations. And then there’s whatever the hell this is…

Ben Baker thinks “Grandad” by Clive Dunn wuz robbed. Also: he is a known liar.

To stop itself having a mental breakdown, Talk About The Passion is off on holiday for a week. Why not check out the archives in the meantime? Its cheaper than a fine. See you on the 25th!

# Holiday! / Celebrate! / It can be so nice / If we took a holiday / I’d hammer in the morning / I’d hammer in the evening / Stop Hammer Time / the sunny funny one / they call Um Bongo / call me anytime / call me / Valerie / call me / And thats the Holiday sooooooooooong….

Can it really be five days since we began our epic video trek around the world’s most factually exciting places? Well, no its four, being as this is day five and everything, but you get the general idea of what I was going for there. Its been an fascinating adventure so far - we’ve lazed in Leicester, grooved in Guernsey, tiptoed through Te Kuiti and erm…walked through a woman’s bum. So where can we possibly end up for this final installment of the TATP Summer Roadshow?

You dont really care, do you? Sigh. Oh well, here’s the last one anyway…

# Didn’t we have a love-er-ly time / the day we went to Bangor / beautiful day / we had sex on the way / and the dish ran away with the spoon / ba-bum….

Yeeeeeeesssss! Its Day Four of the TATP Summer Roadshow and looking at the video hits, you’re all off at other roadshows. Its those bastards at Chiltern FM isnt it? You shameless hussies. Oh God, I’m so sorry, come back - we can change. Honest. We can play that Coldplay song seventeen times in an hour, I swear! No? Oh well, you cant say we havent tried and as far as today’s roadshow location goes, there’s not much further your ever-present hosts Ben and Darrell *could* have gone.

“Where is it?”, you cry. Well, um…maybe you should just watch the video for yourself….

Of course, I can remember when this seemed like a good idea…oh hello and welcome to the third day of Ben and Darrell’s increasingly-unwatched video visits to some of the World’s most interesting places, with facts a plenty and more than a little bit of unfortunate shouting. Incidentally, if any of you want any hospital DJ style shout-outs within the video, then please do say in the comment box below. Darrell’s already got his comedy horn out in anticipation. Not to mention his penis.

Back to the excitements of today and the boys have got rather worringly further afield than Guernsey yesterday. And yet oddly, somewhat similar….

# Ohhhhh I do like to be beside / the seaside / Oh I do like to be / beside the sea / consider yourself one of the family /  I dont want to start any blasphemous rumours / wild boys / wild boys / songs of joy and tears of laughter / are all we need / to lift our / lift our / hearts / Sexbomb…..

Ah, we at TATP love a good summer singalong and when better to do it then on day two of our globetrotting trek around the big bad beautiful world in order to bring you another exciting edition of THE TATP SUMMER ROADSHOW!

Yesterday’s trip to Leicester has already been an unparalled success, with comments coming in thick and fast such as “Why dont you [EXPLETIVE DELETED] [EXPLETIVE DELETED]s go back to your [EXPLETIVE DELETED] own town and stop [EXPLETIVE DELETED] ing up ours? You pair of cunts.” And thats from Mo, Leicester. At least I think thats what he said…. Anyway, no time to hang around for us as we’re off to bring fact, fable and free falafels (first 9 customers only) to yet another of our fine Nation’ seaside towns. But where you cry? Why its Guernsey of course!

And not the exact same place Ben and Darrell were last time. Honest…

Good summertime to you! Yes its the middle of August and here at TATP that can mean only one thing - Phil dressing up as Optimus Prime and dancing in a child’s swimming pool full of crisps. But elsewhere in the TATP offices there is an eerie silence, where normally there is shouting and a Northern man saying “bot”, because….the Talk About The Passion Summer Roadshow is on the loose! Possibly the greatest roadshow of the year! (NOTE TO SELF: Are there any other roadshows these days? Check with those bastards at Chiltern FM)

But, what does it all mean? Well, for the next five days join your genial hosts Ben and Darrell as they go off exploring some of the most interesting places in the country and providing some hopefully fascinating trivia on the subject, as well as some rude gifs, laughing at children’s artwork and saying the word “bot” in a Northern accent.

So join us for day one as the TATP team descend upon the exciting East Midlands powerhouse that is….

…LEICESTER!