Sometimes this is too easy.
Running for 30 years, Grange Hill was one of the world’s
longest-running kid’s TV shows as well as one of the longest-running dramas on
British television. Set in the (fictional) eponymous school, Grange Hill was
conceived by writer Phil “Brookside” Redmond in 1975, although the first
episode did not air until 1978.
From the start the series caused controversy for its
gritty portrayal of school life, a million miles away from the more idealistic
and anodyne school dramas that preceded it. This reached its zenith in the
mid-1980s with the show’s infamous storyline about the character Zammo McGuire
and his addiction to heroin. The story led to the cast recording an anti-drug
single, Just Say No (and an accompanying, hysterically awful video) – a cover
of a LaToya Jackson’s US single released to promote then-First Lady Nancy
Reagan’s own anti-drug programme – and an album. The originally-titled Grange
Hill – The Album was released to celebrate the show’s 10th
anniversary and to capitalise on the success of the single, which sold over
250,000 copies, reached the top five and raised £150,000 for anti-drug
charities. The cast were whisked off to the White House to meet Mrs Reagan and
to promote the anti-drugs message, however the credibility of the campaign was
somewhat tarnished when several years later Erkan Mustafa, who played Roland
Browning, claimed that many in the cast were on drugs themselves.
But back to the album: and what a corker of an album it
is. As well as containing the obligatory hit single it also includes its
follow-up, the dire You Know The Teacher (Smash Head) with its sub-John Barnes rap, a handful of
newly-written but soppy and badly sung songs about teenage angst and a whole
side of terrible cover versions of singalong favourites including Fleetwood
Mac’s Don’t Stop (sung by Zammo, Roland and various other cast members), the
Who’s My Generation and, naturally, the Boomtown Rats’ ode to angry school
children I Don’t Like Mondays. It’s horrific and, to prove the point, here for
your enjoyment are what are undoubtedly the two worst tracks on this hideous
release – the second single You Know The Teacher (Smash Head) which, unlike its
predecessor failed to chart and the album’s closing track, an out-of-tune
medley of The Greatest Love of All and That’s What Friends Are For.
Enjoy!
There was also a group within the show itself, pupils doing gigs as a storyline circa 30 yrs ago IIRC. Dreadful.
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