I have started to update the Festive 50’s and will post the links here when the updates are complete. I will also update the FF 50′ of the 1990’s to run, as per requests, towards the number one rather than the opposite as the person who compiled the original playlists has done. The original post is here.
I will also indicate the number of tracks available. If you notice any additional tracks after the update has been posted please let me know in the comments.
I know nothing about this band but have literally been blown away by this single. It’s so damn good and I have been playing it quite a bit these past few days.
Wikipedia states that the band “are best known for their contemporary arrangements of traditional Scottish and English folk songs” and “are a British folk rock band, formed in London, England by multi instrumentalist Simon Tong (formerly of The Verve / Blur / The Good, the Bad & the Queen), Orcadian folk guitarist and singer Gawain Erland Cooper and Drummer/Engineer David Nock (The Orb / The Cult / The Fireman).”
The Shop Assistants, like the Mighty Lemon Drops, were snapped up by Blue Guitar who were looking for the bands to repeat their indie success commercially. Neither did but who cares especially when both have left a legacy that is still revered today especially in The Shoppies case. They released just the one single and album on Blue Guitar but blimey what efforts!
Here is the first of a new idea I thought I would try out by attempting to revive classic 7″ and 12″ single via Spotify by taking them from albums, compilations or whatever else I can find!
First up is the debut single from The Mighty Lemon Drops. It was released on Dan Treacy’s (Television Personalities) in 1985 and topped the indie charts for a few weeks. On the strength of this single the band were chased by majors from all over the UK and they eventually signed to a subsidiary of Chrysalis Records, Blue Guitar. I wrote more about the bands early years here.
Cinerama were the band Wedding present frontman Dave Gedge formed with his then partner Sally Murrell in 1997. two years after the then last Wedding present album Saturnalia. They released three studio albums including 2002’s Torino plus numerous Peel sessions and live recordings. Cinerama came to a halt when Gedge and Murrell split with Gedge then renaming the band The Wedding Present in 2005 for the Take Fountain album. This recording comes from the bands New York gig on 28th June 2003.
A live album from 2003 and recorded in their home town from one of John Peels all time faves (and mine!), The Wedding Present. Hopefully this will herald the onslaught of more Wedding Present live and other releases on Spotify via their own Scopitones label.
Here is a video from the band playing Leeds in 1990.
It’s Blue Monday today – the most depressing day of the year. Read why here. So before you reach for the anti depressants here is the biggest selling 12″ in history to cheer you up! Mind you you may need them if you play the cover versions by Orgy and Flunk.
And here are the band playing live which was unheard of on Top Of The Pops.
There were a number of tribute albums and compilations released after John Peels death in his memory. One of many was a 19 track comp called Classics From John Peels All Time Festive Fifty which, like many of the others, doesn’t appear on Spotify. I have assembled 18 of the 19 tracks with Bob Dylan’s Visions Of Johanna missing. However you can listen to it via the video below.
This will be the first in a series of assembling compilation albums that are missing from Spotify. I did something similar with the two volumes of Trainspotting a few months back.
New Order are certainly one of my favourite bands of all time so when I heard a brief snippet on Radio Five Live this morning stating “……………… was the new New Order” I was intrigued. The band they were talking about was Delphic who funny enough also hail from Manchester. Digging deeper I found out they were formed from the ashes of Snowfight In The City Centre (I wondered what had happened to them!) and that after singles on R&S and Kitsune they have signed to Polydor. The single Doubt was released on Monday with the album Acolyte due to follow next week.
The new New Order? I will let you judge but on their best single to date Counterpoint they do sound like a poppier version of the manc legends mixed with Way Out West.
Well the ones on Spotify anyway. I am sure I will add more as I remember them.
Young Adult Friction by The Pains Of being Pure At Heart No contest for the single of the year. 4 minutes of pure indie pop with a closing chorus to mosh along too. A tale of unrequited love in the library. As the Americans say, awesome!
Disco by Navvy. A close second from the band named after a Pere Ubu song with a song that sounds like the start of the Fire Engines revival actually getting started properly after Franz Ferdinands’ pee poor efforts in recent years.
