All the great tracks they COULD play from one of my favourite eras (Ghetto Heaven!) and they play Micheal Bolton and NKOTB. That Beats International track is the worst follow up to a great single i've ever heard; genuinely phoned-in lousiness, and it seemed to kill them off forever.
― piscesx, Friday, 11 December 2020 20:26 (three years ago) link
'How Can We Be Lovers' shoots its bolt(on) in the first few seconds by frontloading the chorus and leaves Michael nowhere to go for three minutes.
― Being cheap is expensive (snoball), Friday, 11 December 2020 20:27 (three years ago) link
I can't believe ANYone was still writing those Rocky IV soundtrack type anthems so late in the day!
Gary Davies is ace ..
― piscesx, Friday, 11 December 2020 20:29 (three years ago) link
xxp I don't even remember that Beats International song. I don't think they were expecting 'Dub Be Good TO Me' to be a huge hit and didn't have a follow-up planned? Meanwhile this Thunder song is hard rock by numbers but I don't hate it as they avoid most of the hair metal excesses and cliches that were totally worn out by this point.
― Being cheap is expensive (snoball), Friday, 11 December 2020 20:30 (three years ago) link
Would have gone over a lot better in 1986 though.
― Being cheap is expensive (snoball), Friday, 11 December 2020 20:32 (three years ago) link
record company exec: "So can you guys come up with a single that sounds like that hit you had two years ago? Don't worry if you can't come up with any lyrics, just throw in some Van Morrison street observations and muble the rest."
― Being cheap is expensive (snoball), Friday, 11 December 2020 20:36 (three years ago) link
Bloody hell was 1990 the year of shit singles from acts who'd had a couple of hits at the end of the 80s or something? Sam Brown followed immediately by Paul Young (PS Paul if you're not going to play that guitar why bother with it? Also is that a George Michael wig?).
― Being cheap is expensive (snoball), Friday, 11 December 2020 20:53 (three years ago) link
yeah, charts do seem to be pretty dire at the mo.
looking for more evidence that it WAS a good year for music and my claim above that every week there was something worth buying here are 4ad's releases for 1990
https://4ad.com/releases/filtered/all/1990
and i bought literally all of those (and continued to for about 5 years).
sarah?
Sarah 024 The Field Mice, "The Autumn Store part 1", 1990Sarah 025 The Field Mice, "The Autumn Store part 2", 1990Sarah 026 Gentle Despite, "Darkest Blue", 1990Sarah 027 Brighter, "Noah's Ark", 1990Sarah 028 Action Painting!, "These Things Happen", 1990Sarah 029 The Orchids, "Something For The Longing", 1990Sarah 030 Heavenly, "I Fell In Love Last Night", 1990Sarah 031 Eternal, "Breathe", 1990Sarah 032 "Sunstroke" (fanzine), 1990Sarah 033 The Sea Urchins, "A Morning Odyssey", 1990Sarah 034 St. Christopher, "Antoinette", 1990Sarah 035 Another Sunny Day, "Rio", 1990Sarah 036 The Sweetest Ache, "If I Could Shine", 1990Sarah 037 Even As We Speak, "Nothing Ever Happens", 1990Sarah 038 The Field Mice, "So Said Kay", 1990Sarah 039 The Sweetest Ache, "Tell Me How It Feels", 1990Sarah 403 St. Christopher, Bacharach, 1990Sarah 601 The Field Mice, Skywriting, 1990Sarah 602 The Wake, Make It Loud, 1990Sarah 376 Temple Cloud, 1990Sarah 545 Air Balloon Road, 1990
i have all those too.
― koogs, Friday, 11 December 2020 21:17 (three years ago) link
Jesus Heartstopping Christ that NKOTB video.
― Being cheap is expensive (snoball)
That girl was NOT enjoying herself.
― chap, Saturday, 12 December 2020 19:11 (three years ago) link
I guess the aim was to pick a girl out of the audience who was so young that there was no possibility at all of NKOTB being accused of creeping on their audience, but given all the shit with Glitter, Savile and others in the intervening years it immediately set the alarm bells ringing.
― Being cheap is expensive (snoball), Saturday, 12 December 2020 19:16 (three years ago) link
there was a lot of crap on the second show especially, however we are also in one of the best run of #1 singles everSinéad O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 UBeats International - Dub Be Good to MeSnap! - The PowerMadonna - VogueAdamski - KillerEngland New Order - World in MotionI made a joke about Nicky Campbell on twitter during this show and he started a conversation with me, which was a bit unexpected.
― Gary Sambrook eats substantial meals (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Saturday, 12 December 2020 19:28 (three years ago) link
I made a joke about Nicky Campbell on twitter during this show and he started a conversation with me, which was a bit unexpected.
Hah! Amicable? Reminds me of the time I had a twitter row about Brexit with Terry Christian...
― chap, Saturday, 12 December 2020 19:59 (three years ago) link
Well, as you ask, here is the entire interaction
https://i.imgur.com/AYJeON3.png
Bearing in mind that
* I essentially know nothing about Nicky Campbell except he is a TV presenter* But looking into it he is apparently one of the top-paid BBC presenters and has 1.2 million Twitter followers* I was made redundant at the end of last month and feel like my family are really on the verge of disaster, can barely sleep TBH* Despite 1000+ downloads per episode and lots of nice media coverage, I still only get less than $200 p/m on Patreon* A minor gig at the BBC would basically save me & my family* I have absolutely nothing at all in the way of networking skills
What do you reckon I should do here?
― Gary Sambrook eats substantial meals (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Saturday, 12 December 2020 21:10 (three years ago) link
I think at least asking if he'd do a tweet about your stuff would be entirely appropriate. I just followed you!
― chap, Saturday, 12 December 2020 22:13 (three years ago) link
90 minute chrsitmas special opened with genuinely spooky rooling stones video, 2000 light years from home.
but the only other thing worth watching was the Specials doing nothing in their christmas jumpers. everything else was the usual suspects.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b086trr9/top-of-the-pops-christmas-hits
(stones at beginning, specials at 15:40)
oh, i suppose The Shamen get an A for effort at 59:00, given that it's christmas.
― koogs, Thursday, 17 December 2020 10:07 (three years ago) link
a few weeks behind and catching up over the past few days on iPlayer:
- Candy Flip having a maracas player and a tambourine player on stage side-by-side was cracking me up- what was going on that "Lily Was Here" was such an enduring presence in the chart?- Jimmy Sommervile might not have the best songs but what an endearingly fun, likeable, charismatic star- "The Power" is a great single, but in the context of 1990 it sounds even greater - so stark and ominous, so well-assembled and cavernous, even with Turbo B and his two pals mooching around an imaginary triangle outline
I think I've mentioned this before but I think of 1990 as my own "Year Zero" for pop - I was only two years old but a lot of the big stuff from this period is the sound of pop when I was growing up, things like "Love Shack" and "Black Velvet" seem just as essential to me as historical significance as The Beatles and Elvis, and it's great to see them in the context of being contemporary rather than established hits.
― boxedjoy, Thursday, 17 December 2020 11:31 (three years ago) link
> what was going on that "Lily Was Here" was such an enduring presence in the chart?
the answer to this is generally "Radio 2 audience"
― koogs, Thursday, 17 December 2020 12:04 (three years ago) link
John Barnes' rap in 'World In Motion' is somehow always worse than I remember.
― Being cheap is expensive (snoball), Friday, 18 December 2020 20:56 (three years ago) link
― Eggbreak Hotel (Tom D.), Friday, 18 December 2020 20:58 (three years ago) link
John Barnes's rap in World In Motion is brilliant, what are you talking about?
― ٩(͡๏̯͡๏)۶ (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 18 December 2020 21:12 (three years ago) link
definitely more brilliant than Keith Allen posing about in the video
― CP Radio Gorgeous (Colonel Poo), Friday, 18 December 2020 21:15 (three years ago) link
Yeah, that's the only sour note for me in the whole project. Fuck off Keith.
― ٩(͡๏̯͡๏)۶ (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 18 December 2020 21:21 (three years ago) link
Keith wrote the rap, you have to accept one if you love the other
and it was meant to be a mix of all the team's individual takes, but Barnes' was the only slightly competent one
xxp I don't even remember that Beats International song. I don't think they were expecting 'Dub Be Good TO Me' to be a huge hit and didn't have a follow-up planned?
dunno what the song was in this instance, but Beats International's second single was a cover of Norman Cook's first solo single, which had originally featured Sir William Of Bragg on vocals
― huge rant (sic), Friday, 18 December 2020 22:52 (three years ago) link
I've always found World In Motion and New Order in general aside from Blue Monday obviously to be wildly overrated.
― chap, Friday, 18 December 2020 23:44 (three years ago) link
Keith Allen is actually Welsh too.
― Eggbreak Hotel (Tom D.), Friday, 18 December 2020 23:50 (three years ago) link
bun de witch
― huge rant (sic), Saturday, 19 December 2020 00:25 (three years ago) link
1995 looks like another world, compared to 90.
Jack Dee and Bjork are one for the photos of people you don't expect to see together thread.
Lol at scatman John.
― koogs, Saturday, 19 December 2020 20:57 (three years ago) link
And o_O at Michael j's Christmas message video. So pale he looked 2d.
― koogs, Saturday, 19 December 2020 21:07 (three years ago) link
Barnes' was the only slightly competent one
His timing is so off it's like he's reading the words off a card next to the camera.
Jack Dee and Bjork
Somehow the most 1995 combination of presenters.
― Being cheap is expensive (snoball), Saturday, 19 December 2020 21:16 (three years ago) link
Britpop year. Mike Flowers Pops Christmas number one with a comedy oasis cover.
Whole show very glitzy somehow, like camera or lighting technology had evolved.
― koogs, Saturday, 19 December 2020 21:21 (three years ago) link
the World In Motion B-side contains a snippet of the best edited-together version they could manage (timed link)
― huge rant (sic), Saturday, 19 December 2020 21:29 (three years ago) link
I had completely and utterly forgotten the existence of Mike Flowers.
― that's a hard e-no from me (Matt #2), Saturday, 19 December 2020 22:06 (three years ago) link
Lucky you.
― Being cheap is expensive (snoball), Saturday, 19 December 2020 22:14 (three years ago) link
― obsessed with quality over quantity or the need to produce tracks (breastcrawl), Saturday, 19 December 2020 22:29 (three years ago) link
The previous world Cup, I saw the http://i.imgur.com/QbYzHTH.jpg during their residency at the MeanFiddler. They had a comedy night, Keith Allen was basically slagging off England as a football team (Atilla the Stockbroker disagreed and they had a bet on)
Anyway, four years later Keith is writing the song that bigs up the national team. Funny that.
― Mark G, Saturday, 19 December 2020 23:29 (three years ago) link
Oh, is the cat still depping for the Red skins?
OK
― Mark G, Saturday, 19 December 2020 23:31 (three years ago) link
How many of the players were still in the team?
― huge rant (sic), Sunday, 20 December 2020 00:34 (three years ago) link
What's this 1995 business?
― chap, Sunday, 20 December 2020 01:09 (three years ago) link
Keith also had a hand on Vindaloo iirc
(It was 1995 night on bbc4 and they showed Xmas totp)
― koogs, Sunday, 20 December 2020 01:10 (three years ago) link
Could've sworn he said MFP was Christmas number one, they closed the show with it (unless they'd already played the real #1)
― koogs, Sunday, 20 December 2020 01:12 (three years ago) link
They had played MJ twice, both with his sister and solo (and played the aforementioned creepy video message), so maybe they back-announced that as the Xmas number one and then rounded off with wonder wall. Wasn't paying too much attention at that point tbh.
― koogs, Sunday, 20 December 2020 01:17 (three years ago) link
He was 1/3 of the band and the lead singer on three of their four singles. He also co-wrote and sang on Black Grape's football record England's Irie, which led to Joe Strummer's only appearance on Top Of The Pops, still drunk/etc from going out after rehearsal the night before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXmCZoYASxc
― huge rant (sic), Sunday, 20 December 2020 03:13 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Jx0v9Look
Mike Flowers cover of Don't Cry For Me Argentina complete with a Macarena interpolation was even worse, obviously I love it
― boxedjoy, Sunday, 20 December 2020 11:51 (three years ago) link
'84 christmas was full of bangers (and jim diamond), with each act introducing the next. lots of repetition though - frankie on 3 times, durans twice, wham twice (iirc) and a live "do they know it's christmas?" with pretty much everybody as a finale
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09jc3k1
― koogs, Thursday, 24 December 2020 22:11 (three years ago) link
Elton's first #1. Also Chris Lowe would like his hat back.
― Being cheap is expensive (snoball), Friday, 15 January 2021 19:36 (three years ago) link
wtf bob geldof?
― koogs, Friday, 15 January 2021 20:47 (three years ago) link
yes, that Geldof song was so shit, ot a good couple of shows at all.
― ٩(͡๏̯͡๏)۶ (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 15 January 2021 20:58 (three years ago) link
Elton's first solo number one, I should pedantically point out.
― ٩(͡๏̯͡๏)۶ (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 15 January 2021 20:59 (three years ago) link
"Don't go breaking my duck"
― Mark G, Friday, 15 January 2021 22:21 (three years ago) link
the evidence against geldof. you won't thank me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1wbsKergpk
― koogs, Friday, 15 January 2021 22:29 (three years ago) link