19 March 1988
My first memory of listening to the week’s new Irish singles chart was when the mighty Larry Gogan on 2FM counted them down on this week in March 1988 and revealed the new Irish number one to be ‘Feet On The Ground’ by the Hothouse Flowers. I remember its stompy beat and shouty chorus, which obviously didn’t make much of an impression on me as I literally have not listened to the song again until now. It’s dreadful.
That stompy beat is really all there is to ‘Feet On The Ground’. It’s the same three blues-rock chords played over and over, with Liam Ó Maonlaí first giving a rambling introduction and then barking out short phrases. The title is repeated a few times so that must be the chorus. My hopes were raised towards the end when Ó Maonlaí mentions fighter planes flying overhead; would this be a diss of U2 and ‘Bullet The Blue Sky’? No, nothing as interesting as that; he’s just riffing off the same idea. ‘Don’t Go’ had been a sprightly, charming number two hit in Ireland the previous year, and would go on to be a UK top twenty hit following its use as the interval song in Eurovision ’88 staged in Dublin, so the Hothouse Flowers clearly had a fanbase mobilised enough to buy ‘Feet On The Ground’ all the way to number one. But honestly, the worst Stock, Aitken and Waterman chart-topper isn’t as dumb and dispiriting as this.
