Our Alternative Best Of Britpop

Don't despair Jarvis, we have an alternative!

Recently the NME had a Britpop issue and selected the 100 Greatest Britpop songs. The songs were all good, I've played most of them on the show, but to be honest it was all a bit predictable.  So I asked our followers on Facebook and Twitter for what they considered to be the best of Britpop, but avoiding the behemoths.  Yes, we could still have Blur, Pulp, Oasis, Suede etc. but no Wonderwall, Common People, Parklife - you get the picture.

And did they respond?  Oh yes - hundreds of songs were suggested.  Plenty of them were hits in their own right but some unexpected songs from well known bands (Last Day Of The Miners Strike by Pulp for example) and even some bands I'd not heard of; The High, Headswim & Nancy Boy!

As it happened our monthly Phonic FM show was coming up and that seemed like the perfect opportunity to play some of these songs in our own highly subjective Alternative Best Of Britpop!

Now I'm normally very prepared for our monthly live Britpop Revival Show.  I have most stuff laid out on my laptop in advance, with a back up on my phone just in case and finally in reserve a big bag chock full of assorted Britpop CDs.  I load a couple of CDs into the players in the studio just in case, but not this week.  No, the laptop always worked so why bother?

I get everything plugged in, settle down, say hello to the listeners, "and we'll kick off with this from McAlmont & Butler"!

S   I   L   E   N   C   E

Dead air, the cardinal sin - even at this level.

I start pressing buttons, more in hope than expectation. Okay, time to switch to CDs - the Alternative Best of Britpop idea going out the window, I just need to play something.  Why didn't I pre-load a couple?  Where is my big bag of CDs?  Of course the ones on top are my recent purchases, stuff I haven't even listened to yet; Warm Jets, Smaller, Geneva's much ignored 2nd album.  I dig deeper and pull out Symposium's Farewell To Twilight, I've played it not long ago but it'll do.  I cram it into CD drive 2, apologise to the listeners, fade up and relax.  But no, still silence and now I get the feeling that I am doomed.  Fortunately Spencer, the presenter of the previous show, is still in the studio and calmly points out that I've simply selected the wrong CD drive.  Fade up, music plays and offer many, many thanks to Spence whilst we finally get the laptop working.

Phonic is a community station, run on a shoestring by volunteers.  There are no engineers or producers (well not for most of the shows) and when things go pear-shaped you realise how little you know about how the studio works.  So my objective now is to get to grips with all this gear properly.

After all that the rest of the show went smoothly enough, apart from cutting short Oasis' Slide Away with some bongos.  The joy of live radio.

Thanks to everyone who suggested tracks or who got in touch on twitter during the show.

Track Listing:

1. Farewell To Twilight - Symposium
2. Yes - McAlmont & Butler
3. History - The Verve
4. You're Always Right - These Animal Men
5. Sale Of The Century - Sleeper
6. She Said - Longpigs
7. Here Comes A Soul Saver - The Charlatans
8. Twisterella - Ride
9. Dragging Me Down - Inspiral Carpets
10. Olympian - Gene
11. Tourniquet - Headswim
12. Tranqillizer - Geneva
13. Dolphin - Shed Seven
14. Window Pane - The Real People
15. Slide Away - Oasis
16. Being Brave - Menswear
17. This Feeling - Puressence
18. The Wild Ones - Suede
19. End Of A Century - Blur
20. I'm So Lonely - Cast
21. Box Set Go - The High
22. Last Day Of The Miners Strike - Pulp
23. Cocaine Socialism - Pulp
24. Step Into My Word - Hurricane #1
25. Untouchable - Rialto
26. Sleep - Marion
27. Love Is The Law - The Seahorses

The Britpop Revival Show broadcasts on the 3rd Sunday of the month, 2pm to 4pm, on Phonic FM (106.8FM in the Exeter area or online at www.phonic.fm)

However you can hear our weekly Vapour Trails show every Monday 3pm EST (8pm UK time) on Strangeways Radio, www.strangewaysradio.com

Track Listing from April Britpop Revival Show

Owing to a variety of reasons, some planned and some unplanned, there had not been a Britpop Revival Radio Show for a couple of months.  So to make it up to people I decided to make this show a 'Hit' special.

Being a monthly live show on a local FM station, BRRS is usually more mainstream than Vapour Trails, our weekly, specialist show.  However for this edition I decided that every song would be a Top 40 hit from a different artist.  (Well, there was one song that only made it to 41 - got to break the rules somewhere!)

This is the playlist:

1. Blur - Parklife
2. Elastica - Waking Up
3. The Bluetones - Slight Return
4. Manic Street Preachers - La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh)
5. The Chemical Brothers (ft Noel Gallagher) - Setting Sun
6. Kula Shaker - Hey Dude
7. Oasis - Supersonic
8. 60 Ft. Dolls - Talk To Me
9. Gay Dad - To Earth With Love
10. Radiohead - Karma Police
11. Gene - We Could Be Kings
12. Supergrass - Pumping On Your Stereo
13. The Candyskins - Monday Morning
14. Cast - Alright
15. Cataonia - Mulder and Scully
16. The Boo Radleys - Wake Up Boo!
17. The Seahorses - Love Me and Leave Me
18. The Charlatans - Tellin' Stories
19. Echobelly - Insomniac
20. Dodgy - Staying Out For The Summer
21. James - Runaground
22. The Auteurs - Lenny Valentino
23. Suede - Beautiful Ones
24. The Supernaturals - Smile
25. Sleeper - Nice Guy Eddie
26. Ash - Burn Baby Burn
27. Pulp - Common People
28. Shed Seven - Getting Better
29. The Verve - Sonnet

That is a lot of quality tunes!

Don't forget that every song we ever play gets added to our Spotify Playlist.  Please subscribe and share.

The Britpop Revival Radio Show is on Phonic FM 2pm to 4pm on the 3rd Sunday of the month. You can listen online at www.phonic.fm, at www.tunein.com or via the TuneIn app.

SULK Interview

So this basically a blog posting just linking to another blog posting!

SULK are one of my favourite new bands.  I've always been a sucker for a jangly guitar and they have them in spades.  Their debut album Graceless has just been released and is already a contender for my album of the year. Yes, there are comparisons to be made with the Stone Roses but there is plenty that is original here and I strongly recommend giving them a listen.

I had lead singer Jon on the Vapour Trails show recently and you can read my interview with him on the Strangeways Radio blog.

It starts and ends with Suede

Suede at The Alexandra Palace, 30.03.13

There is something in the timing of this event.  20 years to the day (well, almost) since the release of their eponymous decade defining debut and just a month after they put out their first new album in 11 years, this feels like a key moment.

There is a lot of money to be made on the nostalgia circuit and the 20th anniversary of a classic album would be reason enough for many bands to hit the road one more time.  However with Bloodsports sitting in the top 10 of the albums chart and garnering glowing reviews, this could not be more different.  Suede have always had an arrogance and a swagger to them and with the new album on display they have both in abundance.  The scene is set, not for the 90s or even just a gig, but, given that we are in a palace, for a coronation.

When Fred Macpherson of Spector, ends his band’s support set by saying “And let us not forget that we are gathered here this Easter to witness the resurrection of our lord... Brett Anderson”, he is joking but also assessing the mood of the sold out crowd.  This needs to be good, no it needs to be glorious.  Nothing less will do.  

The PA incongruously blasts out Sabbath and then the Pistols, an amalgam of album artwork backdrop illuminates the stage with an unknown (to me) classical surge of violins that lasts for what seems like ages but is probably only a minute.  Then they take to the stage, all dressed in Sleeperbloke black apart of course from Anderson.  Still skinnier than any other 45 year old I know, still moving like Jagger, he and the band have aged well.  I’ve seen other 90s bands where the years have left them looking, well like many fortysomethings, with retreating hairlines and expanding waistlines.  Still good bands but looking... old.  Suede just look like Suede.

They tear straight into Barriers the opening track from Bloodsports and the crowd reacts as if it was their biggest hit.  The first three songs are from the new album, all driving intensity such that when they follow them with Animal Nitrate and Metal Mickey, the big hits from that debut, it just fits.  An incredible opening salvo of 5 songs that are 20 years apart but are equals in candour and fervour.  Even the back of the hanger-like Ally Pally is bouncing like they are down at the barriers.

Brett spent quite a bit of time down by the barriers himself, disappearing for entire songs at a time into the front rows, wanting to be part of it.  I half expected to see him crowdsurfing his way to the back.  It must have been a great experience for those at the front, for the rest of us it left us watching what felt like an empty stage until his return.  

White shirted in the spotlight, striking messianic poses or windmilling his mic with a ferocity that would make a health and safety inspector cry, he commands your attention.  There is no ‘banter’ but plenty of communication and an hour and a half has already passed before we realise that Trash and Beautiful Ones can only mean the end of the set.  “Sing along with this one.  You know the words and if you don’t know the words then why are you here?” he asks.  Everyone knows the words.

Thank you and goodnight!

All The Fun Of The Fair

If you've read the last few posts you'll see that I've quickly been changing my tune on vinyl, record shops and the like. So when I spotted a flyer in town for the Exeter Record Fair, well I just had to have a snoop around.

I've got to say that yes, it was a bit geeky but... it was great.  I only went in there to try and find Doolittle by The Pixies but it soon became apparent that a trawl through miles of vinyl was not on the cards, not with my 10 year old daughter in tow.

I popped over to the Phonic FM stand (well, got to support my own station) which was selling CDs donated by the DJs to raise funds and found hundreds of CD singles, all for 10p each!  What's more there was loads of 90s stuff in amongst it and I picked up a couple of dozen singles for a shade over £2.

10p each? Bargain!

I hadn't thought about CD singles before but from my perspective they are ideal.  Of course I've got the big albums of Britpop (and Spotify helps to fill in a lot of gaps) but I'm always looking for something a bit different to play on my shows, something that the listener might not have heard before. And that is where the CD single comes in, not for the single itself but for the B-sides and the remixes.  And because the value is so low now its hardly worth buying them through Amazon/Zoverstocks as you would a second hand CD album, which is why the record fair is the perfect environment to find them.

This is the haul from my trip and I'll be playing a selection of them on my show this Sunday on Phonic FM, 2pm to 4pm.

Vinyl Revival

You know it's not long ago that I was writing about how music consumption had moved on and who in their right mind would pay £18.50 for an album.

Well as I write this I am listening to the excellent Defenestration of St Martin by Martin Rossiter on L.P., for which I payed £17.86.  I joked on Twitter that the last time I received an L.P. through the post it was from Britannia Music Club but I think that it may actually be true.

So am I a hypocrite? Probably yes, but let me explain how it happened...

It's my own fault really for posting that clip from High Fidelity.  It planted the idea in my head so that when I saw the film on Netflix I felt compelled to watch it.  It felt good.  Just the idea of vinyl felt good.  But it was okay, I could resist.

And then there was Rutherford Chang.  Who?  Well I read this article about a guy who was collecting and recording White Albums for an art installation.  And that reminded me that when I car-booted all my old vinyl a decade or more ago I kept one record.  The White Album by The Beatles (okay The Beatles by The Beatles if you're going to be pedantic).  I'd kept it because my mum had bought it before I was even born so it wasn't my record to sell really.  And after reading that I article I really wanted to listen to it.  I wanted to listen to that physical copy of the album that had sat in the cupboard undisturbed for years.

The only problem was that I didn't have a turntable.  I visited a high end audio store in town which only confirmed my opinion of high end audio stores! Snooty staff, ridiculously priced kit (£3000 for a turntable - really? My car is not worth that.) and an intimidating experience.  

I turned to the Internet and there seemed to be a couple of decent entry-level options for around £200.  Even this was too much though, I only wanted to play one record.  

So ultimately I turned to ebay and picked up a Bush MTT1 for £20.  Job done.  It was a bit of a Heath Robinson affair but by connecting a cheap turntable to an old ghetto-blaster which in turn was connected to my iPod dock we had something that just about worked.

I listen to music every day but, other than in the car, it is almost always through a computer and nine times out of ten through headphones.  So straight away this felt different.  There really is something about the physicality of a record and probably a fair dollop of sentimentality in playing a 45 year old record that belonged to my mum too.  Somehow I seemed to listen to the album rather than just the music and yes I am aware of how pretentious that sounds.

So have I caught the vinyl bug?  Yes, I fear so.  I've spent an entire afternoon scouring the charity shops only to learn that there are an awful lot of James Last records that people don't want!  And to complete my High Fidelity cliche I've even found our local Championship Vinyl in Rooster Records.

I still listen to most of my music through the PC and shan't be cancelling my Spotify subscription any time soon.  I will though continue to make select purchases on vinyl but it will only be for a certain kind of record.  So only one question remains, can you lend me £3000 to buy a decent turntable?

Blur's best sellers

I was browsing the Internet, as you do, looking for some information about Blur. Specifically I was looking to see if Under The Westway (No 34) was their lowest charting UK single - it wasn't by the way, She's So High only reached number 48.

So I stumbled upon some figures for Blur album sales and it was a bit of surprise. When you think Blur, you think Parklife don't you? I think most people do. Yet Parklife is not their biggest selling album worldwide, it's not even second!  So what are the sales?

	UK	USA	Worldwide
Blur	599,000	500,000	3,000,000
The Great Escape	1,050,000	122,000	2,540,000
Parklife	1,250,000	150,000	2,500,000
13	499,000	233,000	1,550,000
Think Tank	240,000	100,000	1,500,000
Leisure	150,000	100,000	950,000
Modern Life Is Rubbish	150,000	55,000	750,000

In one way of course it doesn't really matter, sales are only numbers (and the source behind these is hardly scientific) and the albums stand on their own merits. Having said that, it does make me want to go back and re-listen to them again. I don't think that the sales ranking would reflect my personal ordering but maybe after a fresh listen I'll update my opinion!

Photo from musicinsanity.wordpress.com 

Update:
Several people have quite correctly pointed out that sales of Blur would have been significantly boosted by the success of 'that woohoo song' in the States.  So I thought I'd update the table to show the UK and USA sales figures to demonstrate.