It is pretty amazing.

 

It's a bit odd to see all those names and not see Mansun, Blur, Radiohead and the Manics sprinkled in there too.

 

Yep, James and Shed Seven are two others who would probably have had a few weeks.

 

I'm a little unsure about some of the inclusions as I don't think Heavenly remained Indie for all that long and were eventually part of London. Beggar's Banquet and Play It Again Sam too. But, without all the facts, I had to just go on judgement sometimes!

 

Thanks for the replies, folks. I don't think I could have sustained doing a full rundown.

THE SHAMEN - LSI 1 AUGUST 1992 (5)

THE SHAMEN - EBENEZER GOODE 5 SEPTEMBER 1992 (8)

THE FARM - DON'T YOU WANT ME 31 OCTOBER 1992 (1)

THE SHAMEN - BOSS DRUM 7 NOVEMBER 1992 (6)

THE SHAMEN - PHOREVER PEOPLE 19 DECEMBER 1992 (8)

 

If only the Farm hadn't done that cover versoin for NME the Shamen could have had domination for 28 straight weeks. :D

 

Yep, The Shamen are actually a surprise absentee from Ruby Trax given that practically every big band going were on it. Maybe if they'd covered the Human League it would have sounded better!

I actually only found out yestersay that the Farm cover was on Ruby Trax while I was browsing 1992 compilations on Wikipedia.

Ruby Trax is a great compilation. I was so excited about it when it came out and still cherish my triple CD.

A lot of stone cold classics in here! Would make a great Spotify playlist. B-)

 

https://open.spotify.com/user/nowthats/play...fWYsP0yC5ec8DLE

 

UPDATE: Now reaches to the end of 1999 though there are a few gaps: KLF obviously, Pop Will Eat Itself, Espiritu, theaudience [though they play for me because I have the album] and probably a couple of others I forgot. Some may not be exactly the right versions.

Edited July 8, 201510 yr by The Hit Parade

Excellent, thanks! That's my morning's listening sorted.

Ok, I don't think I've got the time to run fully through this list but I'll post it up in full here and you can comment away.

 

Note: I've included Junior Boy's Own, Skint and Wall of Sound as indie labels but not certain they actually are. JBO for instance might have been going out through Virgin?

Were you counting the Chemical Brothers as JBO? They were going through Virgin by the time of their hits but I think that was an exclusive deal - Underworld were on JBO and they were definitely indie throughout this period. Skint was an indie in the 90s, although 'Bentley's Going To Sort You Out' was released on Parlophone. Heavenly was distributed by majors from 1992-2009, but Beggars Banquet stayed indie and I think Beggars Group is now the biggest UK indie.

Then there's the whole grey area of acts like Soup Dragons and the Bluetones who were backed entirely by major labels but deliberately set up with independent distribution deals to make them eligible for the indie chart: Hut Records was originally set up on this basis but they later reverted to in-house EMI.

 

As a pedant, these are the ones I'd probably have to drop (though I love nearly all of them so they're on the playlist)

 

CARTER USM - SHERIFF FATMAN 22 JUNE 1991 (1)

This was the Chrysalis re-release.

 

THE FARM - DON'T YOU WANT ME 31 OCTOBER 1992 (1)

On Sony - good news for the Shamen

 

SMASHING PUMPKINS - CHERUB ROCK 3 JULY 1993 (1)

Hut/Virgin

 

FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON - LIFEFORMS 13 AUGUST 1994 (1)

Virgin

 

MCALMONT AND BUTLER - YES 27 MAY 1995 (3)

Hut

 

MENSWEAR - STARDUST 30 SEPTEMBER 1995 (1)

Laurel was part of London (then Polygram)

 

SMASHING PUMPKINS - BULLET WITH BUTTERFLY WINGS 28 OCTOBER 1995 (1)

MCALMONT & BUTLER - YOU DO 4 NOVEMBER 1995 (1)

Both Hut

 

SMASHING PUMPKINS - TONIGHT TONIGHT 18 MAY 1996 (3)

Hut

 

THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS - SETTING SUN 12 OCTOBER 1996 (2)

Virgin

 

THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS - BLOCK ROCKIN' BEATS 5 APRIL 1997 (1)

Virgin

 

ORBITAL - THE SAINT 19 APRIL 1997 (2)

ffrr was part of London

 

THE CARDIGANS - LOVEFOOL 3 MAY 1997 (6)

Stockholm was part of Polygram (I think it was just the Swedish division of Polydor or something)

 

THE VERVE - BITTER SWEET SYMPHONY 28 JUNE 1997 (3)

Hut

 

BENTLEY RHYTHM ACE - BENTLEY'S GONNA SORT YOU OUT 6 SEPTEMBER 1997 (1)

THE VERVE - THE DRUGS DON'T WORK 13 SEPTEMBER 1997 (3), 15 NOVEMBER 97 (1)

 

PROPELLERHEADS / DAVID ARNOLD - OHMSS 18 OCTOBER 1997 (1)

Issued by Eastwest (David Arnold's label)

 

EMBRACE - ALL YOU GOOD GOOD PEOPLE EP 8 NOVEMBER 1997 (1), 22 NOVEMBER 97 (1)

THE VERVE - LUCKY MAN 6 DECEMBER 1997 (2), 27 DECEMBER 97 (2)

 

THEAUDIENCE - A PESSIMIST IS NEVER DISAPPOINTED 23 MAY 1998 (1)

Released/distributed by Mercury

 

EMBRACE - COME BACK TO WHAT YOU KNOW 6 JUNE 1998 (2)

 

THEAUDIENCE - I KNOW ENOUGH (I DON'T GET ENOUGH) 1 AUGUST 1998 (1)

 

 

EMBRACE - MY WEAKNESS IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS 15 AUGUST 1998 (1)

GOMEZ - WHIPPIN' PICCADILLY 5 SEPTEMBER 1998 (1)

Hut

 

 

THE CARDIGANS - MY FAVOURITE GAME 7 NOVEMBER 1998 (3), 19 DECEMBER 1998 (3)

 

THE CARDIGANS - ERASE / REWIND 27 FEBRUARY 1999 (1)

 

ORBITAL - STYLE 13 MARCH 1999 (1)

 

THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS - HEY BOY HEY GIRL 5 JUNE 1999 (3), 10 JULY 1999

 

GOMEZ - BRING IT ON 3 JULY 1999 (1)

THE CARDIGANS - HANGING AROUND 17 JULY 1999 (2)

 

THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS - LET FOREVER BE 7 AUGUST 1999 (1)

 

LEFTFIELD / AFRIKA BAMBAATAA - AFRIKA SHOX 11 SEPTEMBER 1999 (1)

Sony

 

THE CHARLATANS - FOREVER 9 OCTOBER 1999 (1)

Their first single for Universal

 

LEFTFIELD / ROOTS MANUVA - DUSTED 4 DECEMBER 1999 (1)

THE CHARLATANS - MY BEAUTIFUL FRIEND 11 DECEMBER 1999 (3)

 

But I don't mean that as a criticism, that's an excellent set of songs (apart from The Farm and Embrace) so I like this list as it is.

Yeah, this is where it gets hard. As I said, I was using "ITV Chart Show" rules and, as I used to tape the rundowns in the early 90s, I know some of them are correct. Smashing Pumpkins' "Cherub Rock" was definitely featured on that chart but I couldn't remember if some of the others were. Hut was always a "fake" indie label, just like Suede's label "Nude" but they did feature in the indie charts early on, just not sure if they still did when Verve etc. had their bigger success.

 

Strangely enough, I thought The Orb wouldn't qualify as wasn't sure if Big Life put out the top ten versions of Little Fluffy Clouds and Perpetual Dawn on their own.

 

The Carter re-release is also odd...the labels still said Big Cat and I'm not sure if Chrysalis re-pressed the sleeve or labels. Anyway, I put that in as it's a fantastic song.

 

With only top 75s to work from, I'd have had trouble doing this for some weeks and, if anything, it serves as an interesting set of stats on how "indie" stopped being indie completely over the course of the decade.