As I gradually learned more about music history it became apparent that there were a bunch of American bands who had enjoyed long careers in the 70s but who were close to invisible here. It seems to me that Britain has never really had an equivalent to the rock radio formats on which Chicago, among others, built a fanbase: individual DJs were left to promote adult-oriented and classic rock, which didn’t give dues-paying rock bands the space they had to build large audiences back home. Of course, I didn’t listen to radio in the 70s, so I’m happy to be corrected on this.Anyway the upshot is that the career of Chicago seemed (and seems) bizarre to me: literally dozens of albums, most of them doubles (or more!), reduced as far as I was concerned to a single soppy hit which I knew better from karaoke than from ever actually hearing the band’s version. And apparently “If You Leave Me Now” is hardly typical of the band’s work (to the extent that its success caused serious rifts). In Popular terms, though, it’s the first of a bunch of limpidly sincere records we’ll be meeting as the British public went ballad crazy. (more…)

in the meanwhile we may just allow a blitheness to unsettle our hearts and carry us away to someplace Else. for a space. but before THAT there’s the concluding episode of the slug of time radioshow, airing this tuesday on resonance FM at 10pm but quite possibly available as a sneak peek here first, as a thank you to our listener(s).

bon voyage, bon vivants!

A few years ago, Channel 4 did a rundown of the Top 100 Best Selling Singles. My friends and I settled down to watch, cheer, shout at Kate Thornton, &c. And there, first up at No.100, was “Mississippi”, bringing a mighty collective WTF?? from everyone in the room - none of whom, I should add, were older than me. None of us had heard, or heard of, this song, which turned out to be the biggest-selling (in Britain) single to have made no mark whatsoever on pop history - at least as understood by us callow youngsters. To be honest we thought it might be a put-on. (more…)

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AS IF! Not that I feel the re-re-brand is anything other than a deeply cynical move but it’s a well-timed one and likely to succeed in the short-term without damaging the brand in the long term. The cohort of consumers who identified with Marathon are now getting beyond the age where they buy countline confectionery - how better to get them to at least re-try the product? Nostalgia - especially for a cheaper age - works well in times of economic difficulty - and so does the parochialism which Mars is tapping into by jettisoning its ‘global’ Snickers brand. It’s a bit of free publicity in a sector where headline-making innovation is thin on the ground. And it’s sufficiently long after the Marathon brand was dropped originally for the move not to look like any kind of admission of error by Mars.

Next - “Build Up Logically” by Howard Schoenfeld

Well yes. That’s why it is good. Great even. But SO GOOD? That reason is John Peel. Bear in mind that as the eclectic, all over the place, music loving DJ persona that really crystalised in the 80’s, he would constantly be asked a number of questions about his musical taste. And it is odd that we all know his favourite single and favourite album and that NEVER CHANGED in almost twenty years. Trout Mask Replica, and Teenage Kicks. Which perhaps in 1982 as a pairing would have shown considerable pop/rock breadth, but by 2002 could be from the same album (indeed I am sure you can get a Peel sanctioned comp with Kicks and some Beefheart on it). (more…)

In my teens I read a science fiction novel with a startlingly elegant twist. (I won’t mention the book’s name in case you come across it yourself.) It was about a brilliant scientist who vanishes: the book’s protagonist goes looking for clues to what happened, and becomes close to the scientist’s wife. And at a crucial juncture in the plot, the narration shifts, mid-paragraph, from third person to first: the scientist’s “vanishing” was literal, and with a thrill of horror you realise he’s been observing the action all along.

What on earth does this have to do with “Dancing Queen”? The song turns on a similar effect. Of all ABBA’s twenty or so hit singles this is the only one with no first-person content - none of the “I” or “me” or “us” that populate almost all their records. Of course on one level this is coincidence - but the apparent lack of personal perspective is very unusual for ABBA. They’re a band who like to ground their songs in experience and who pay close attention to a lyric’s perspective; even a character song like “Head Over Heels” makes sure to establish its subject’s relationship to the singer, right in the first line. “Dancing Queen” is entirely in the second-person - the song is directly addressed to a girl, but its narrator has, like the scientist in the novel, become invisible. (more…)

How to vote: Pick the track you prefer from each pairing and vote - these polls close next Monday. You will need to click “submit” separately on each one. If you download the tracks please also vote! (We’re getting around twice as many downloads as votes currently).

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll. (more…)

The intro to this is a masterclass: the strings and piano curling around the bass and drums in what amounts to a trailer for the song, teasing its hooks for you. It’s a suitably flirty intro for a duet, so it’s a shame the performers don’t really catch fire. Or the performer - Kiki Dee doesn’t do much wrong (though it’s annoying how her lines sometimes just trail off), it’s just unfortunate that she’s partnered with the fearful pop heffalump that is Elton John. (more…)

I chose Addicted To Curry on title alone. Here is what it’s about: a schoolgirl has been left in charge of her father’s curry house, which is failing because she can’t cook. She saves a dying man in the street who turns out to be an amazing young chef and an old friend of her father’s. Together they work to make the curry house a success! Every episode features: (more…)

(Special note: I have been unable to find a copy of all four tracks on the EP, so this review is written without having ever heard “So Dreamy”. So the mark out of ten is - unusually - subject to change. Though frankly I doubt it will.)

In a wayward year of odd Number Ones, this is one of the rummest. It isn’t the sort of thing I’d want to listen to very often, if at all, and if it was typical of the kind of records that top the charts, well, we wouldn’t be here. But there are enough intriguing touches on The Roussos Phenomenon to not dismiss it as wholly ridiculous. You are occasionally reminded that yes, this Demis Roussos is the same D.R. who released 666, a prog triple concept album about the Book of Revelation, the year before recording most of this…. slightly more accessible material. (more…)

The plot is pretty simple, though: a gifted high school student finds the Death Note, a notebook with the power to kill at a distance anyone whose real name the user writes in it. He starts using it to kill criminals, which attracts the attention of the police, who call in the world’s greatest detective, whose real name is - aha - unknown. Here’s why Death Note is good: (more…)

How to vote: Just tick the one you like best (even if you don’t like it much!). This poll closes next Thursday, 15th March.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll. (more…)

The Real Thing do everything right - pleading soul vocals, springy piano line, big-impact chorus - without ever threatening the spectacular. They’re using a blueprint - tuneful underdog disco - which Hot Chocolate would have huge success with, but without the next-level abjection and paranoia Erol Brown sometimes brought to it. So the Real Thing deliver a solid good time rather than anything more striking (or commentable). Solidity can get you a long way, though - “You To Me Are Everything” has become a wedding dance staple, and for simple welcoming catchiness it deserves that ubiquity.

KFC, listen to your core chicken constituency. KFC AM only makes sense if you mean ONE AM and what you mean is some kind of gravy bucket dirty chicken deal. I can only think that the indie sector has you rattled in this new chicken 2.0 era of the long tail (”Long tail? Stick it in the chicken popcorn maker.”) At this rate SF and HF will be making you a laughing (chicken) stock.

Next - “The Tactful Saboteur” by Frank Herbert

How to vote: Listen to the tracks and just tick the one you liked more. This poll closes on May 12th (next Monday - so you only get 6 days to vote).

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll. (more…)

Much like “No Charge”, this wears an idea too thin: but at least it’s a good idea. Spotting the potential for Wurzelisation in the ramshackle whimsy of Melanie’s “Brand New Key” was a stroke of pop genius that deserved the reward of a No.1. “Combine Harvester” kicks off with surely the best (or maybe worst) innuendo to grace a chart-topping record and rides a wave of sheer goodwill until at least its third verse.

The Wurzels had only turned to this kind of pop adaptation because original Wurzel Adge Cutler had died - his original comic folk songs had made the band a West Country hit and with no songwriters to replace him, “Combine Harvester” was the beginning of a new and narrower remit for the band. Given a national stage, the bumbling yokel humour the group trade in as much reinforced stereotypes as mocked or indulged them, but that shouldn’t detract from the fact that “Combine Harvester” is one of the more thoroughly enjoyable comedy records we’ll be meeting.

My glow-in-the-dark alarm clock was usually set for 6.45am on Saturday mornings, earlier than on a weekday. Sleep matters not to a seven year old, especially where television is concerned*. I would sneak downstairs without waking up my parents and hover round the telly in the kitchen for several hours, sometimes managing a continuous run up until The Chart Show at lunchtime. (more…)

I was aware of this song long before I heard it - as a young boy it was quoted at me by my Dad should I ever object to tidying my room. Since my room was rarely tidy, I became very familiar with the central notion of “No Charge”. Like my Dad, I can find immense amusement and pleasure in this style of song - talking country with a sentimental edge - but this is far from a great example.

You might think, at first, that the style stands or falls on the strength of its concepts: not so. (more…)