13 December 1990
In the early ’90s The Den was appointment viewing for teens, college students, grown-ups and perhaps even children too. Much as The Saw Doctors and Scrap Saturday did, Zig and Zag’s brand of cheeky energy flourished in feel-good post-Italia ’90 Ireland. The show was an essential promo stop for any Irish band, plus it showed at least two music videos a day, giving those of us who were pop fans in two-channel land extra reason to watch. Mary Robinson even appeared on The Den as part of her successful presidential campaign. So, Christmas merchandise seemed an obvious step.
How come we don’t hear Zig and Zag’s ‘Christmas No. 1’ among the other festive hits every Christmas? Well, the title gives a clue: confident, certainly, but meagre and unimaginative. Of what little this track contains, Ray’s Rave was a regular feature on the show, where then-host Ray D’Arcy would spin a house track for kids of all ages to jump around. It’s interesting to see Dustin before his accent became harsher and before he became tiring, unfunny and chronically overused by RTÉ, as was their way. (RTÉ election coverage has finally let go of those news interviews with Dustin as a candidate. For a while it looked like that gag was going to run forever.) New Kids On The Block get dissed. This track kept Cliff Richard off the Irish number one spot that Christmas, so it merits some of our good will. Still, the above makes for mighty slim pickings from a Christmas number one.
This last Irish number one of 1990 is a typical chart-topper of that year: yet another pop culture selfie rather than a pop music snapshot, just as in the UK and US. All well and good in its immediate context, but the number one single, pop music’s most potent signifier, was now just becoming a plaything of film, TV and advertising, a means to an end, a glorified roadside billboard. If you suspect that this was going to have a detrimental effect on the quality of mainstream pop music for the rest of the ’90s, you’re right. Things get better in 1999 and the ’00s with the rise of Cheiron and Xenomania as the production powerhouses behind a new golden age of chart pop, but there’s a whole decade to wade through first and I must warn you that it’s not going to be pretty.
