Freaky Trigger
Est. 2000
Est. 2000
Tom Ewing's Popular
Reviewing every UK #1BLAZIN’ SQUAD – “Crossroads”
Related Posts
- 2017 Albums I Like Part 1 1 Apr 2017 Thanks to the Unheard Album Project (March mix on its way!) I am finally in a position where I can ACTUALLY DO a list of the records I've enjoyed most…
- Popular ’95 2 Aug 2013 Year poll time! I give every No.1 a mark out of 10. In this poll, you can tick any that you would give 6 or more to. My highest marks…
- Unheard Album Project: March 2017 18 Apr 2017 The (much delayed) third playlist for this project, covering the 31 records I listened to for the first time in March. Delayed partly because it was a lot harder to…
- The Annual Between Christmas And New Year Pub Crawl 2011: The City Road FTSE Index 21 Dec 2011 I am not in the business of wishing Christmas away already, but there is one festive highlight which is still not done to death by the BBC, namely the annual…
- “Last night I was on a podium, waving my shirt around my head and a sudden… 3 Jul 2013 1.02 million 16-24 year olds are unemployed and not in full-time education in Britain currently. 17.35 million are unemployed in the US, slightly over a quarter of the potentially employed…
- The FT Top 100 Songs of All Time #4: Madonna -“Like A Prayer” 25 Jan 2014 Tom wrote about this on Popular here: so here is a project ending couple of thoughts. “Life is a mystery”. But Madonna doesn’t mean a mystery like the kind Sherlock…
- BOYZONE – “Words” 16 Jan 2014 Boyzone began life as an advert for an “Irish Take That”, and their first number one is a Bee Gees song, like Take That’s last. Those are the facts –…
- USHER – “You Make Me Wanna…” 21 Apr 2014 Another piece of the present slots into place: if you leave out charity records, this is the first artist we’ve met to also have a Number One in the 2010s.…
About the Author
Tom invented Freaky Trigger on a bus journey in the mid-90s. A page about what he's up to can be found hereFeatured Posts
ELTON JOHN – “Candle In The Wind ’97” / “Something About The Way You Look Tonight”
27 Mar 2014 #774, 20th September 1997 Every Popular entry starts with the same question: why this record? This time it’s especially loud. “Candle In The Wind ‘97” is the highest-selling single of all time in the UK, almost 2 million clear of its nearest competitor. This is as big as pop gets. But “why?” might strike you […]Popular ’76
21 May 2008 I give marks out of 10 to every song – based on whatever criteria you like, here’s your opportunity to say what you’d have given more than 6 to from 1976. Tick as many as you like. And use the comments to discuss the year as a whole, if you like.LOW – Christmas
24 Dec 1999 Low’s Christmas tree is a simple one, with eight plain wooden baubles. The band write four tracks themselves, offer interpretations of two carols and crooners’ favourite “Blue Christmas”, and nobody’s bothered to take credit for “Taking Down The Tree” (but it sounds like one of Low’s own). The record is packaged – beautifully – like […]Films about films (no-one has seen)
20 Jun 2005 Last week saw the release of not one, but two films about previous films. And I don’t mean Batman Begins (which should be retitled Batman Starts for Essex). Inside Deep Throat, a documentary about the making of and the effect of notorious porn film Deep Throat. And Baadasssss!, Mario Van Peebles film about the making […]THE VERVE – “The Drugs Don’t Work”
23 Mar 2014 #773, 13th September 1997 “Whenever we played that live there would be rows of grown men crying. It was almost like these guys couldn’t cry when they needed to cry, but that song operated like a pressure valve for them and it was okay for them to cry at a big rock concert.” – Richard […]PROPER LONDON: Saint Etienne – “Foxbase Alpha”
30 Apr 2000 April 2000, Piccadilly The sun comes out over London and the Summer starts: everywhere you look you see people in love, snogging on the tubes and holding hands on the escalators so you can’t get past them. Baggy shorts and halter tops all over the place, kids sitting together on Eros and choking on the […]Friday Poll Special – The Great Britpop Sorting Hat!
28 Jun 2013 We are now firmly into the BRITPOP YEARS on Popular, oh yes, so it’s time to consider its musical legacy in the only language we truly understand, viz. a ticky-box poll. We have selected 32 bands who someone, somewhere, might possibly have once described as Britpop. Tick all the ones you like and by science […]Weedy Eighties White People Singing About Soul Stars #3: China Crisis – “Black Man Ray”
26 Jan 2004 “Black Man Ray” is Ray Charles, who China Crisis apparently believe in. Now Ray Charles’ blackness is not a secret, so why did China Crisis see fit to remind us of it on their incomprehensibly awful single? My theories: i) They were talking about the photographer Man Ray, and asserting that he was black. Which […]FreakyTrigger on
