Best number one single from the 1989 UK indie charts

Were the Butthole Surfers really that popular in the UK?

s'express

That's a rather good list. 'Personal Jesus'.

it's the indie chart. butthole surfers have never appeared in the lamestream top 40.

xpost

That's a rather good list.

87 and 88 are good too, 87 helped by the reissue of Nina Simone's 'My Baby Just Cares For Me'.

MONKEY GONE TO HEAVEN-PIXIES

I don't know what I'd vote for, there's about 7 or 8 I'm tempted by. May go for Rebel MC as I suspect no one else will

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo_AOoeV6uM&feature=related

the first and last songs are the best.

"Here Comes Your Man," with some competition from "Getting Away With It."

'Street Tuff' FTW

part of me wants to vote personal jesus but another more dark sinister part of me wants to vote Drama! - Erasure

went with dark & sinister

Can someone explain how Kylie is "indie"?

i seem to recall that PWL records (ie. Kylies label at the time) was an independant set up.

my vote : betty boo.

"Can't Be Sure" for me, but I had dark & sinister thoughts as well actually

Can someone explain how Kylie is "indie"?

― jaymc, Tuesday, July 13, 2010 4:10 PM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark

I think like 60-70% of 'pop' music was still on independent labels in the 80s

The indie chart was for record companies who used independent distributors, and I think counted only sales from independent record stores. One of the distributors was called 'The Cartel' but I can't remember the others. The #1 lists look quite cool because certain pop labels like mute, pwl or (I think) xl had such an arrangement, but lower down amateurism flourished.

I don't actually know what the benefit of these arrangements was supposed to be - the thing was mainstream music press by the time I got interested around 1991 - but it kind of ghettoised what came to be known as 'indie' music because bands had to aim to sign to indie labels to get any credibility, and then often got happy just to aim for that paltry level of success. The likes of Factory or 4AD following unique paths were the exception rather than the rule is my recollection - in fact a lot of the labels were just major label fronts iirc.

iirc vital/chain with no name was another

i never got at what point an indie label (eg island? mute? virgin?) becomes, like, a label

Love that Spacemen 3 single.

I love at least four of these but I think I need to go with She Bangs the Drums.

xxpost http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Indie_Chart

i never got at what point an indie label (eg island? mute? virgin?) becomes, like, a label

Always seemed a bit of an arbritary term, "indie". I suppose Island and Virgin were indie till they were taken over by or entered into some sort of partnership with a major label?

move

I understand why, but just lol @ Paul McCartney ever appearing on an "indie" anything list.

Can't decide between Sugarcubes, De La, and Lightning Seeds

i really want to vote for the surfers, but i think i'm going to have to go with here comes your man...

o look lots of my favourite records from being 15/16. Sundays, from a very strong field. It's only really the PWL stuff & Depeche Mode I don't care for there.

DRAMA! by Erasure. What an amazing, structurally insane pop hit it us

IS!

Guilty!

Haha that drawn-out neveeeeeeeerrrrrr...

'Not as good as 'Drama!'' was catchphrase for friends and me for a while back then. Started w/ Erasure singles, extended it to most stuff.

The answer is obviously Fool's Gold / What The World Is Waiting For, but for some reason I felt compelled to vote for Personal Jesus.

fuck me what a list of records. i can't choose just yet. there's only a half dozen tracks there that aren't classics

based on what i still listen to on the reg it's between drama!, can't be sure and run 2

kind of surprised there's no out-and-out dance (ie house) tracks

or, how is 'groove groove melody' not an indie label?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ride_on_Time

.. it will come to me later.

(xp)

Looks like the hit release came out on BMG Arista?
http://www.discogs.com/Black-Box-Ride-On-Time/master/117300

I was ready to vote for "Monkey Gone to Heaven," but wow--"Eye Know" and "Getting Away with It" on the same chart. I guess the second.

this is way, way too hard to choose

On the 'why no dance?' (because Soul II Soul & Li'l Louis are missing and maybe eligible?), my best guess: the sales figures were skewed by its being largely based on trad indie record shops with an indie clientele, ie, unlike HMV they'd sell three Cuds for every two Soul II Souls (because you couldn't buy the NME's Single of the Week anywhere else in yr provincial town). But then with something gigantic like Kylie/Jason, lots of non-regulars would buy a single that was technically indie. Rise of the dance specialist shop in mid-sized/university towns comes after this maybe?

soul II soul / lil louis both major distro iirc

Ah, makes sense - list doesn't really fit my hypothesis - Rebel MC, Beatmasters, etc neither indie pop nor PWL Juggernauts, so it is registering chart/dance crossover sellers I guess.

Sample 1989 indie chart.

pixies fans be buyin records

I know it won't win but "Hey Music Lover" is crazy wonderful.

It's between S'Express and the Rebel MC for me.

"Street Tuff" - fun raps, awesome electro beat, picked this one without a second thought.

Rebel MC, Beatmasters, etc neither indie pop

Street Tuff was pretty popular amongst grebo/crusty acquaintances iirc

I think I remember arguments in the early 90s music press about pwl and dance music crowding out the proper indie, and then an 'alternative' chart being set up instead so the likes of Five Thirty could qualify. Lot of fun in those days.

"Can't Be Sure" vs "Monkey Gone To Heaven" (maybe this has been worn out a little by repeated plays) vs "Street Tuff" (can't claim this one has the personal resonance of the other two, but if the question is "which of these do you most want to hear right now" then it takes it)

Read somewhere that you were allowed in the indie charts if you were no more than 51% owned by a major, so in the 90s there was a proliferation of major label boutique sublabels and former real-indies who were exactly 51% owned by a major (whatever "owned" means)

Wd listen to all these. And complain about the Stone Roses and Jason Donovan while secretly enjoying them.

The indie bands on this list are all genuine indie canon, eh? All except the Inspirals, who seemed like total clunkers even back then, but ushered in a long, dark era of t-shirt indie.

were the lightning seeds seen as indie?

Nah, not really. Ian Broudie had produced Icicle Works, Pale Fountains etc, so he was recognised at the time iirc as coming from that world of major label melodic jangle (despite connections with greater nme credibility - Bunnymen, The Fall, & Drummond).

I saw "Can't Be Sure," and I thought, "Why even look at the rest of the list"?

only just noticed this but the guitar solo (kinda) on 'pure' is a str8 new order rip

off of temptation i think

It's a steal from Love Vigilantes iirc

yeah that's it

Street Tuff = all of the awesome. FTW!

The indie bands on this list are all genuine indie canon, eh? All except the Inspirals, who seemed like total clunkers even back then, but ushered in a long, dark era of t-shirt indie.

― WOOD! GOBLINS! (NickB), Wednesday, July 14, 2010 6:41 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

What's t-shirt indie?

indie music you don't like

I kind of made it up and haven't decided quite what it means yet, but somewhere around 1989 you started seeing indie kids all in exactly the same t-shirt at a level that I never really noticed before e.g this one...

http://michaelgreenwell.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/getimagephp.gif

or this one...

http://firebrand.sandbag.uk.com/Content/2016.jpg

or this one...

http://www.rocknrollstuff.co.uk/t-shirts/carter_layered_longsleeve_red_tan.jpg

and whether that was due to indie bands starting to play at massive festivals or whether it was just baggy aesthetics or whether it was the bands upping their marketing efforts or what I dunno but all of a sudden it was blatantly obvious that you were surrounded by people with terrible taste. So basically what nrq said.

"t-shirt indie" was definitely a thing. it made the inspiral carpets famous coz theirs had a swear on it.

and yeah every fucker had a james t-shirt. ride were t-shirt hot too, irrc.

they just figured out that you could make 'mad bank' by selling t-shirts at gigs

nothing more complicated than that

it made the inspiral carpets famous coz theirs had a swear on it.

Some lad even got arrested for wearing a Cool As Fuck shirt iirc, so you kind of had to wear one if you wanted to be a rebel like everyone else.

This evil poll puts two of my biggest obsessions pitched right up against one another and this is a hard choice, to choose Boom or Barneywaves.

But Run was a shitty single, and Hypnotised was one of the best things Spacemen 3 ever did. I did twinge a little at not picking Getting Away With It but hey.

A toughie but had to go with "Can't Be Sure" in the end. But, yeah, this is stuffed with gold. The only duds as far as I can see are:

Too Many Broken Hearts - Jason Donovan
Ferry Cross the Mersey - The Christians, Holly Johnson, Paul McCartney, Gerry Marsden & Stock Aitken Waterman
Sealed with a Kiss - Jason Donovan
Find Out Why - Inspiral Carpets
Widowermaker - Butthole Surfers
Move - Inspiral Carpets

I did have that Inspiral Carpets t-shirt though.

...then an 'alternative' chart being set up instead so the likes of Five Thirty could qualify

Ah, Five Thirty. There's a group that actually suffered from being on a major label at the tail end of the period when anyone gave a fuck about that. If they'd turned up in 1994 instead of 1990 they could have been massive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwk2dcIPbS8

i was conflicted until i came to the second to last thing posted. "Fools Gold / What the World Is Waiting For" is almost perfect. it seemed to tower over everything else that was out at the time. that being said this list is pretty damn good and i have a hard time picking the second best song.

Vital Distribution was another label that contributed; my brother worked for them.

I'd love to say something challopy like Kylie, but really I'm such a Fools Gold stan that I have to be honest and vote for that.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Yes!

Even if only alphabetically.

sad that run 2 is so unloved, but at least i backed the winner for once

I love Run 2. Think I actually prefer the album version but love them all really. Did you get the Run 2 demos that leaked? Instrumentals etc.? Really cool. I bought 2 copies of the 12" on the same day last year. Never saw it turn up then found two in one day. What are the odds?

i never got at what point an indie label (eg island? mute? virgin?) becomes, like, a label

I believe Virgin or Island records would never appear in the indie charts. I guess they might have if indie charts existed in the early 70s.

Getting Away with It - Electronic 11
Eye Know - De La Soul 3

jesus fucking christ ilm

this dude > electronic dude

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV7jMZkBOcQ