Top 10 Artists BANNED From Top of the Pops

In 1988 the Acid House subgenre was facing a lot of heat from the press because of its ties to drug use. So it wasn’t really good for optics when a song named “we call it acieed” was presented to the Top of the Pops audience by a host wearing a shirt with a smiley face on it - a symbol which was often associated with tabs of acid. That would be the last time the song was featured on the show, as the BBC swiftly banned it. Surprisingly, the song’s musician Danny D actually claimed there was no relation between the song and drug-use - expressing that he himself was not a drug user and was just celebrating the genre. But that wasn’t enough for the Beeb.

It seems almost impossible to dislike Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s breakout song. But it appears the band’s not-so-subtle eroticism made it hard for the suits at the BBC to relax. Funnily enough, it was actually the BBC’s fault that the song became such a megahit - it was floundering in the charts before the band performed it on Top of the Pops, at which point it exploded. But that’s when the stiffs noticed all the sexual-innuendos and called for the song to be banned from TOTP and all BBC radio stations. But the song was such an undeniable hit, and, by the end of the year, they were forced to lift the ban and allow Frankie to perform on the Christmas Day special episode.

This one’s another victim of a weird misinterpretation. In 1993, Britain was shocked by the murder of young James Bulger by two 10 year old boys. What does this have to do with Smashing Pumpkins’ standout record? Well very little, but that’s not how some BBC officials saw it. The song contains lyrics like “Cut that little child” and “ the killer in me is the killer in you”, which some thought were too closely tied to the horrific events involving Bulger. Despite the fact that these lyrics were actually more poetic and in reference to Billy Corgan’s fractured relationship with his parents, Top of the Pops insisted that this song be banned from the show.

It wasn’t always live performances that were banned on Top of the Pops. Often when a performer couldn’t, or didn’t want to appear on the show that week, they’d simply air their music video instead. This didn’t always work out for bands though. Take the Pogues for example with their song “a pair of brown eyes”, which had a music video that was highly critical of then prime minister Margret Thatcher. The music video portrays her treatment of Ireland akin to that of Big Brother from George Orwell’s 1984. To avoid any controversy, Top of the Pops decided to simply never broadcast this clip.

These days, ‘Creep’ stands as the most divisive song in Radiohead’s incredible library. Some fans love it, while others absolutely despise it. It seemed like the BBC fell into the latter camp back in 1992 when the song was released, as they absolutely refused to play it. The reason? Just a simple one it was allegedly too depressing. Oh yeah, and it contained an F-bomb. The band decided to combat this later in 1993, by re-releasing the song without the expletive in the lyrics and that seemed to be enough as far as the BBC was concerned - the band were finally allowed to play it on Top of the Pops.

Hitting number 8 in the charts is no easy feat, especially with a song as cheeky as this. Alongside “Golden Brown” and“No more heroes”, Peaches is among The Strangler’s most recognizable tracks - depicting the inner monologue of a pervy bloke going around the beaches and getting an eye-full of the ladies. It was a miracle that even the heavily censored version of the track was ever able to air on BBC radio. But Top of the Pops was a step too far in the eyes of the beeb, so when invited onto the show, they were instead asked to play the single’s B-Side track “Go Buddy Go”. What a shame, imagine what could’ve been.

In some cases, it wasn’t just one song that was blacklisted by Top of the Pops. The Prodigy were making waves in the late 90s in the EDM scene, but the world, or more so older audiences, weren’t ready for them yet. BBC believed that their number one record “Firestarter” would encourage people to commit arson around Britain, but reluctantly played it a couple of times on the show before pulling the plug. One song they would not budge on though was “Smack My Bitch Up”, which they labelled as sexist and potentially inciting violence against women. The song was never allowed to appear on the show despite its chart-topping success.

The first ever banned Number 1 track in the show’s history was back in 1969, when French artist Serge Gainsbourg lit the world on fire with his raunchy romance anthem. The song which translates to “I love you… me neither”, was seen as far too lewd for the BBC’s television show, including lyrics like “I go and I come, between your loins” …Though you’d have to actually be able to understand French to pick up on the lyrics. It also features a quivering segment that some believe to be the sounds of an orgasm - though that was debated by Gainsbourg. But he didn’t really have any say when it came to TOTP adding this to the blacklist.

Sex Pistols certainly didn’t make many friends back in 77 when they released this anti-authority track. Radio stations refused to play it, and even Woolworths refused to sell the record. Something about their critique towards the British monarchy didn’t sit right with big names in the music world, despite resonating with many of the working class. Famously, many claimed it was the BBC who blocked the track from reaching number 1 on the UK singles chart, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the track was also banned from Top of the Pops.

Happy Mondays lead Shaun Ryder has been quite vocal over the years about his feud with Top of the Pops. The bands music wasn’t exactly controversial, so you may be wondering how they managed to find themselves walloped by the ban hammer on the biggest musical show in Britain at the time. Well, it was more of a backstage issue. Happy Mondays appeared a few times on the show, and on one episode, an altercation backstage wherein one of the BBC big wigs scolded Shaun took place. Instead of bowing down and taking it, Shaun instead opted to tell him to quote, “F*ck off knobhead” As you can imagine… the pompous bloke didn’t like that. The band was banned from the show, but fortunately, it didn’t impede their success.