Album Of The Year & 2014 Review

It's that time of year again and we're looking back over the 12 months of 2014. We've enjoyed a good year as we moved to hosting the show weekly on Phonic FM, which has meant more output than ever before.  And of course as well as bucketloads of quality tunes from the nineties there has been a steady stream of great new music from both established names and new artists alike.

We promoted our first ever gig (former Geneva singer, Andrew Montgomery) which was a fantastic night.  As well as Andrew I've been fortunate enough to attend gigs by a number of Britpop bands including Suede, Dodgy and former Bluetone Mark Morriss and the Gene re-issue launch party but the undoubted highlight for me was seeing Speedy perform live for the first time in 17 years as their debut album finally got its release.

It's also been a pleasure to interview so many people this year for the show, from new unsigned bands to the legend that is Sir Bernard Butler.  

These are just some of the people we had on the show in 2014:

• Nigel Powell (ex The Unbelievable Truth)
• Richard McNevin-Duff of The Space Monkeys
• Jason Applin (ex Bennet)
• Speedy
• Johnny Dean of Menswear
• Mike Heaton from Embrace
• Jake Shillingford of My Life Story
• Matt James (ex Gene)
• Andrew Montgomery (ex Geneva)
• Simon Eugene (ex Out Of My Hair)
• Sonya Madan of Echobelly
• Nigel Clark of Dodgy
• Rick Witter of Shed Seven
• Will from CUD
• Bernard Butler (ex Suede, McAlmont & Butler, The Tears)
• Andy Watts (ex The Seahorses)
• Mark Morriss (ex The Bluetones)

I'm already drawing up the a list of potential names for 2015!

One of the bands I want to get onto the show is our New Band Of The Year... Superfood.  A fantastic new band with a sound that owes a clear debt to the nineties without sounding like a pastiche. Their debut album Don't Say That was released in October to rave reviews and they've been nominated for Best New Band at the NME awards (though they'll undoubtedly be more chuffed with getting the nod from us!)

And now to our Album Of The Year. Last year it was Suede's magnificiant comeback, Bloodsports but with none of Britpop's big names in the studio this year, what will take the honours?

Album Of The Year - 2014

1. Speedy - News From Nowhere

2. Manic Street Preachers - Futurology

3. Superfood - Don't Say That

4. Mark Morriss - A Flash Of Darkness

5. Andrew Montgomery - Ruled By Dreams

Yes,  perhaps no surprise this one given the fact that we played this album before anyone else and played a (very minor) part in helping to get it finally released.  A time capsule of classic 90s indie-pop from a band who were always on the edge of something big but never quite made that final step, News From Nowhere is the missing piece of your Britpop record collection.

Album Of The Year... Speedy - News From Nowhere

You can listen to our review show here:

Britpop Revival Show #94 Christmas 2014 by Britpop Revival on Mixcloud

The Mark Morriss Interview

When Tim, landlord of the Rose and Crown in Calverleigh, sent me an email to say that Mark Morriss was coming to play in his skittle alley, I knew that we had to get along to interview him.

The Rose and Crown is a great country pub and had hosted a fantastic Dodgy gig in their beer garden back in the summer.  And now the former Bluetones frontman would be performing in the skittle alley.  What's next?  I'm half expecting that the first Ride reunion gig will be in their beer cellar!

Mark Morriss live in a skittle alley near you

I'd sort of met Mark a couple of times.  He was due to be a live guest on one of our very first shows until a monumental cock-up on my part put pay to that. Then we'd chatted briefly at a Shed Seven gig where he was supporting and he'd promised to get back on the show sometime. Plus he's an active Twitterer (@thequill) and will often comment when we play his songs. So we asked and he said yes and we had chat about his old stuff and his new stuff and you can listen to it all below.

The gig itself was a delight. Old songs and new songs, plus a couple of bizarre covers, lots of chat (I'm avoiding using the word banter) and a wonderfully engaging evening in a skittle alley in a pub in rural Devon.  He even played Life Without Friction for me, which he says he doesn't normally play live acoustic as it's a bit tricky, because I said it was my favourite song on his latest album.

I enjoyed the interview and the gig and the next time he is playing round your way I strongly suggest that you go and see him.  More info at www.markmorrissmusic.co.uk

The Mark Morriss Interview: Full and Unedited by Britpop Revival on Mixcloud

2nd Anniversary Request Show

Yes, incredible as it may seem it has already been 2 years since our very first show on Phonic FM.  So to celebrate we decided to host a request show. Thanks to everyone who got in touch via Twitter, Facebook or Email before and during show with their requests.  As we would should know by now with you lot, your requests were awesome.

What was really nice was realising how international we have become with requests from the USA, Portugal, the Netherlands, Finland and all over the UK, even Exeter!

Here is what you chose:

1. Popscene - Blur
2. Razzmatazz - Pulp
3. Wide Open Space - Mansun
4. Trash - Suede
5. International Bright Young Thing - Jesus Jones
6. Twisterella - Ride
7. The Day We Caught The Train - Ocean Colour Scene
8. What Do I Do Now - Sleeper
9. Town - Northern Uproar
10. Time For You - Speedy
11. Babies - Pulp
12. Lucky Man - The Verve
13. After All - The Frank And Walters
14. Live The Dream - Cast
15. Slight Return - The Bluetones
16. Monday Morning - The Candyskins
17. For The Dead - Gene
18. Monday Morning 5:19 - Rialto
19. Dimstar - Gay Dad
20. Disco Down - Shed Seven
21. Never Here - Elastica
22. Six - Mansun
23. The Wild Ones - Suede
24. Sleep Well Tonight - Gene
25. I'll See You Around - Silver Sun
26. Punka - Kenickie

and not a single request for Oasis!

Britpop Revival Show #90 2nd Anniversary Request Show by Britpop Revival on Mixcloud

The Bernard Butler Interview

We love having guests on The Britpop Revival Show but being tucked away down here in Devon it does mean that most of our interviews are on the phone. So when we learned that Bernard Butler would be playing as part of the Ben Watt Trio in the Phoenix Centre where we broadcast from, we knew that we had to try and get him into the studio. 

Bernard was a real gent and very generous with his time. He made it clear that he didn't want the interview to be about Suede and Dog Man Star's 20th anniversary. However he did talk freely about his entire career, including his ongoing working relationships with Brett Anderson and David McAlmont, his new band Trans, his production work and his sheer love of music.

He reveals that he will be working with Brett again at some point, that the Union Chapel gigs with David McAlmont this year were his best ever, that when he and Brett formed the The Tears there was strong pressure to call the band Suede and that his Top 10 hit Refugees was originally written for Sophie Ellis-Bextor!  You'll just have to give it a listen really...

This interview was recorded live in the Phonic FM studios in Exeter on 23rd October 2014. An edited version of this interview was broadcast on our show on 29th October.

The Bernard Butler Interview: Full and Unedited by Britpop Revival on Mixcloud

The Scottish Indie Special

It was night before the Scottish Independence Referendum but we steered well clear of politics and instead enjoyed two hours of choice Scottish Indie cuts.  Plenty from bands you'll know but some from ones that might have passed you by, like the frankly excellent The Gyres.

We were also delighted to be joined by Andrew Montgomery, formerly of Geneva, to discuss their LP Further which was our featured album as well as newcomers Colin's Godson.

This is probably one of my favourite shows and thanks to our awesome listeners for all their Scottish suggestions.

Britpop Revival Show #83 Scottish Indie Special 17th Sept 2014 by Britpop Revival on Mixcloud

Interview with Sonya Madan of Echobelly

We were recently delighted to be joined on the show by Sonya Madan from Echobelly, talking about the re-release of their first two albums.

BR: On and Everyone's Got One have recently been re-released. How did that come about?

SM: We got a call from 3Loop, the company that specialise in this sort of thing, who had done a deal with Sony who own the albums to re-release them, asking if we wanted to be involved or not.  They were going to do it regardless so we decided to get involved.

BR: Were you involved in putting the package together at all because there are loads of extras and live tracks etc.

SM: We got out the old boxes of photographs and rummaged through things that had never been heard before.  Every artist has got a box full of extra stuff lying around somewhere haven't they?

BR: There are a few previously unreleased tracks on there and we've been playing a few on the show today.  We've just played Car Fiction in French! Did you do many songs in French?

SM: No, that was a one-off. It was hilarious actually because I didn't know what I was saying.  We did it because we had such a good following in France and they were so supportive so it was just a bit of a thank you really.

BR: It's only the first 2 albums, your most commercially successful work, that is being re-released but I think that people have to look at Echobelly across all of your music rather than just the big hits.

SM: It's understandable that if you release something yourself [as they did for their later albums] it's not going to get the exposure and be that well known.  As an artist sometimes your favourite stuff is not the most commercial anyway.

BR: You're now playing with Calm of Zero, can you tell us a little about that?

SM: Calm of Zero is Glen the guitarist and myself, we wrote the songs [in Echobelly]. After Echobelly everybody went their seperate ways, settled down, had children, disappeared to live in strange countries but Glen and I never lost the passion for writing I suppose. We thought we'd do something together and that's Calm of Zero.

BR: As well as Calm of Zero haven't you and Glen also toured acoustically recently as Echobelly?

SM: We did, yeah. This was before the re-releases were even in the air and we thought it would be good to just air some of those songs again because they were hidden in our memories. We did it as a light-hearted sort of thing and just did a few shows around the country.  It was quite hard to play some of our songs acoustically so we had to choose them quite carefully.

BR: We've got a question from one of our listeners here.  What was your best memory of the 90s?

SM: You can't say one memory because the best times were probably those where you were so off your head you've forgotten! They were amazing times and the whole experience was amazing for a lot of people and is something that should be celebrated really.  It was a wonderful honing in of the experience of British music and its one of the things that this nation is really good at and is seen by the rest of the world as having a special energy for.

BR: It was a special time when bands just seemed to explode onto the scene and Echobelly were a band like that. You didn't flog the circuit for 5 years before getting a break...

SM: Not at all. I'd never been in a band before so it was all weird and wonderful for me. I think at our third gig it was just rammed full of A&R people. We didn't have that transit van experience. We did a bit but compared to most of the people I've spoken to it happened very quickly for us.

BR: Didn't you once do a gig though with no audience?

SM: It was hilarious. It was Braintree in Essex and we had a didgerydoo player that night! It was one of our first ever gigs and there was just nobody. We played anyway, just had fun and did it as a rehearsal really.

BR: Are we going to see you out on the road any time soon?

SM: Probably not. We're not planning any gigs but never say never.

BR: We're going to play something from those re-releases now, Dark Therapy. It's probably the song of yours that we get requested the most.

SM: I think it's aged really well. It seems to have a universal element to it.

BR: This is a live recording from Wetlands, New York City September 1995. DO you remember that gig?

SM: I think we broke the bar record - heavy drinking was going on that's for sure!

BR: Thank you so much for joining us, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on the show and those re-releases are out now on 3Loop music.

SM: Thanks to everyone for their response, it's really been great for us.

Or listen to the interview - starts at 01:27:30

Britpop Revival Show #77 ft. Sonya Madan of Echobelly interview 30th July 2014 by Britpop Revival on Mixcloud

Going For Silver: Streaming brings more Britpop success

It may be a few years since you last sat waiting eagerly for the Radio 1 Top 40 show, fingers eagerly hovering over play and record, so you'll be forgiven for not noticing a subtle change to how the chart is now being compiled.  From this month the chart now consists not only of the music that people buy but also the music that people listen to online, with one hundred online plays on sites like Spotify and YouTube being the equivalent to one purchase.

That seems fair enough to me. Lots of people consume plenty of music perfectly legally without every buying any and it's a logical progression that the chart now reflects that.  In fact they have started counting downloads since the 1st January and this has acted as a little fillip for a couple of Britpop tunes.

According to the BPI, Road Rage by Catatonia has now gone silver.  My guess is that the single sales of this have long sat just below the threshold for a silver disc, but add in half a year's streaming stats and Cerys is breaking open the bubbly.

Also of interest is the fact that Champagne Supernova by Oasis has gone silver. What's curious here is that the song was never released as a single in the UK (though it was in Australia, France & NZ). So presumably there was no sales base to start from. If 100 streams = 1 sale and Silver Status represents selling 200,000 songs, does that mean that Champagne Supernova has been streamed 20,000,000 times since 1st January? That can't be right.

However they work it out though, it's always good to see some recognition being given to a song that has become a classic.