Sounding our biannual Comic Relief charity record warning klaxon…
Spirit in the Sky, by Gareth Gates (his 4th and final #1) with special guests ‘The Kumars’
2 weeks, 16th – 30th March 2003
Yes, every two years (or more often, if Children In Need also get in on the act) we have to suspend taste and decency in the name of charity. Recent efforts have been a bit more ‘straight’ – Boyzone, Westlife, S Club – but for the 2003 telethon, the Comic Relief producers went back to their roots…
And as with all charity #1s, I’ll try not to be too down on it because it was for a good cause and blah blah blah. I do like the Indian touches – the sitars, the backing vocals – and I do like ‘Spirit in the Sky’ as a song. The previous chart-topping versions – Norman Greenbaum’s original and Doctor & the Medics’ eighties reboot – are a lot better, mind you. Still, it remains a good song.
Unfortunately, Gareth Gates’ voice sounds at its reediest here. He did okay on his earlier chart-topping ballads, but this suffers from the same problems as his ‘Suspicious Minds’ cover. He just doesn’t have a rock voice – sounding too boyish – which means, along with the goofy production, this starts to sound like something you’d hear at Butlins.
Also unfortunately, the comic asides from the Kumars are not very funny. It’s hard to be funny in song. Very few #1 singles could be described as ‘funny’. The Kumars are in character, from their comedy chat show of the time, but their contributions are largely asinine. I thought we got reincarnated… Is it driving distance…? Maybe the fear of mocking both Christianity and Hinduism restricted them, but the only genuinely funny line is when one of them replies to the Gotta have a friend in Jesus… with Or Vishna! Oh, and the creepy I want to come back as Gareth’s hair gel…
This maybe could have been more of a moment, as one of the few appearances for British Indians at the top of the pop charts. Except that gets lost in the unfunny gloop. Which means this record is more memorable for being the final chart-topper of Gareth Gates’ whirlwind post-‘Pop Idol’ year. (He had two further Top 10 singles, before moving into musical theatre and television. Nowadays he is part of a stripping troupe known as ‘Boyband in the Buff’…)
This was also notable for being ‘Spirit in the Sky’s third chart-topping appearance, as mentioned earlier, tying it with ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ and pulling it one behind four-time ‘Unchained Melody’. It’s probably telling that Gareth Gates had a hand in two of those three, and that lack of originality isn’t helpful if you want to have a long career in pop.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Butlins 🙂 Spirit In The Sky is a great song, but this version isn’t. It’s OK at best, though I did have a soft spot for The Kumars, especially the Going For An English sketch. Or in the words of Sanjeev’s catchphrase “cheque please”. Dame Meera must now be the only Dame to have topped the UK charts! Dame Vera Lynn having done it in the USA. Handy pub quiz question for the future, what are the first names of the Dames to top the charts in the UK and USA? Vera and Meera. 🙂 I’m assuming Gareth isnt the one almost in the buff, but he did go topless back in the day as Joseph in the musical (which I saw, yawn, not the best musical ever)
I really liked Goodness Gracious Me, but the Kumars always felt a bit like they’d lost their edge and were playing it safe. I had no idea that Meera had just been made a dame! But Vera Lynn does also have one UK chart-topper (years before damehood, obviously). And of course Dame Shirley!
How could I forget Dame Shirley got on top!? Not to mention Dame Vera, so we’ve had a hat-trick of Dames – still a good pub quiz pop question! 🙂 Goodness Gracious Me was the show I was thinking of, the spin-off not quite so many giggles. And I still love the Peter Sellers/Sophia Loren record they were rightly taking the piss out of with the title 🙂
Plus Olivia Newton-John!
Was she?? I had no idea that she was a Dame, or that she was British for that matter.
Olivia Newton-John was born in Cambridge and was indeed made a dame (in 2020).
ooh yes forgot Olivia too, though she never made a song n dance about it. So her final duet with cliff would have been a Sir and a Dame, must be one of the most betitled line-ups – ignoring retro line-ups like half the Beatles.
I kinda vaguely remember the Kumars TV show as a kid in the 2000s. It was broadcast here in Australia. I’m Indian-Australian so having a Western TV show with a principal cast of Indians was somewhat of a big deal within the Indian-Australian community (back then, now, no one would really care), but I don’t think it was that popular here.
Man, the UK, you guys really, really, really love “Spirit in the Sky”, huh? It’s a good song, but not the type of song I’d expect to have three separate versions be chart-toppers.
I actually don’t mind this version. It’s very lightweight and lacks any edge or grit (it’s basically bubblegum pop), but I dunno, it’s pretty charming and cute. I do like the Indian touches here and there.
I hadn’t thought the Kumars would have made it to Australia! Did you get ‘Goodness Gracious Me’? That was the sketch show that launched the careers of the Kumars, and I thought it was much funnier. I don’t know how it would translate to non-British Indians, but it was quite a cultural moment in the UK in the 90s.
I have no idea lol. I wad born at the very end of the 90s so if we did, I can’t remember if we got Goodness Gracious Me. I definitely do remember watching The Kumars on TV, in between commercials for Neighbours and Home & Away.
What I like about that is how the UK and Australia can just borrow and enjoy one another’s TV shows, unlike the US which has to bloody remake everything…