richie

Heh heh, that's exactly it. Urusuei Yatsura were my favourite band when I was a student in Glasgow. I remember they sneaked into the chart at no.40 in 1997 (I think) which really wasn't expected!

Wahey, thought I was going to be disappointed by the reshuffle, but the top 3 is fabulous and - wow! - a 29 place climb for Feargal and the boys. Thanks loads for running this AHGold - the 90s will be good for me too. Looking forward to some interesting indie acts in the 31-40 range. Here's an early plea for everyone to vote for Glasgow's finest Urusei Yatsura at #40 with Hello Tiger!

Great write-up there about UCC. I remember when 'Pressin' On' came out and I thought, firstly, what a bloody awful name and, secondly, they'll never amount to anything. But this one track did make their name. I remember hearing Hell's Party and really loving the riff, then I heard this while out one night and thought it was a really odd remix. In a way it's a shame they went on to have the big hit with that riff as it's the only part of the tune that's any good - the vocals are teeth-clenchingly irritating. Practically every big-lunged female vox dance hit of the mid 90s would have been better as an instrumental (Set You Free by N-Trance is a good example).

Boo, not the best Clash song by any means but definitely not the worst song in the 41!

Aha, didn't realise TOTP was back on. I shall get me to the iPlayer. Amazing Ottawan fact: producer Daniel Vangarde is the father of Daft Punk's Thomas Bangalter.

I always thought Haddaway was part of a Geordie rap duo? The other chap was a bit unfortunately named.

Excellent idea - you should need to enter your card details at the start of the one month free trial just like you do with Netflix. It's such good value anyway, the free version is a bit rubbish as you can only listen to a song five times before its frozen out (is that still the case?) and the app only seems to allow you to randomly shuffle an artist's tracks.

Me too. The first time I did it was in 1999. I think it took about two hours to burn on a 2x speed writer. When it finished and I put it into my regular CD player, I couldn't believe it had worked. I used to burn everything to CD for playback but I can't remember the last time I did now. With regards to the original question - I go to gigs and buy records direct from the artists there. The money goes directly to them that way. But for ease of access, streaming is best for me. Since I moved to Spotify Premium I haven't downloaded a single illegal MP3 either! Ahem, not that I did........

Yes, 1993 was the year I went off dance music too with a couple of notable exceptions in The Orb re-releases and Leftfield's collaboration with John Lydon towards the end of the year. Rave completely ate itself and I just couldn't get into drum 'n' bass when jungle morphed into it. I was getting hugely into the bands who would be clumsily gathered together to form the nascent 'Britpop' scene soon after - Pulp, The Auteurs, Sleeper, Elastica, Suede, Blur - and some of those still hanging on from the previous "scene" - Kingmaker, Levellers, Carter USM, Pop Will Eat Itself etc. and a few other oddities that didn't fit in anywhere - Senser, Cornershop, Back to the Planet, Credit to the Nation and possibly some other bands with "to the" in their name.

I've just listened to Plastic (on Spotify too!) again and I really like it...but I hate the ending of it. I wonder if it's supposed to be ironic as it's clear whatever Barney was trying to sing, he couldn't and it's a huge mess of computer trickery giving the exact opposite message of what he's singing. No problem with the melody as such. The rhythm, bassline and La Roux's backing vox really make it.

Ha ha! True that. I really should load my iPhone with the few tracks I can't get on Spotify. Those that are deleted or very rare mostly...I don't tend to bother with anyone who's that up themselves they have their music exclusively with one provider.

Heh, ok. I've pretty much given up on MP3s now - just Spotify for me, dodgy versions or not.

Well, not sure the #1 will be getting reshuffled - 152 out of a possible 160 :o

I noticed that too - hope they keep up the standard. A bit annoying that Channel 4 have lost it / didn't recommission as I don't have Netflix and don't intend too.

Ha ha, excellent. Will it be on Spotify?

Fair enough I suppose, I'm really not a fan of their sound at that time. At the moment I'd say Music Complete is good enough to stand up with the 20th century New Order stuff but nothing else is.

I wasn't a massive fan of 'Ain't no Use' at the time as I thought it was a disappointing departure from Space Face but I really do quite like it now. A welcome change from rubbish europop at the top of the dance chart! Think a few people were surprised to learn that Doves were Sub Sub in an earlier guise, but it makes sense when you examine the Doves records as waveforms (not that I suggest anyone do this - I was making a long mix using their song 'Pounding' once on the computer!) and realise that they are perfectly quantised (beat-mapped) and ready to mix into dance records.

Not too difficult really :D +40 Donna Summer - I Feel Love +39 Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) +38 T-Rex - 20th Century Boy +37 Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The UK +36 Undertones - Teenage Kicks +35 Sparks - This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us +34 David Bowie - Starman +33 X Ray Spex - The Day The World Turned Dayglo +32 Plastic Bertrand - Ca Plane Pour Moi +31 Carpenters - Superstar/For All We Know +30 Blondie - Union City Blue +29 Staple Singers - I'll Take You There +28 Sly & The Family Stone - Family Affair +27 The Clash - Clash City Rockers +26 Jeff Wayne's The War Of The Worlds - Eve Of The War +25 Blondie - Hanging On The Telephone +24 David Bowie - Heroes +23 Stevie Wonder - Superstition +22 B-52s - Rock Lobster +21 Undertones - Here Comes The Summer +20 The Jam - In The City +19 Roxy Music - Virginia Plain +18 Carpenters - (They Long To Be) Close To You +17 Jackie Wilson - (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher +16 Temptations - Papa Was A Rollin' Stone +15 Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear The Reaper +14 Martha & The Vandellas - Jimmy Mack +13 Evelyn 'Champagne' King - Shame +12 Stevie Wonder - Higher Ground +11 Sister Sledge - Lost In Music +10 Commodores - Machine Gun +09 Wings - Live And Let Die +08 Al Green - Let's Stay Together +07 Carpenters - We've Only Just Begun +06 Jackson 5 - Never Can Say Goodbye +05 Aretha Franklin - Until You Come Back To Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do) +04 Lene Lovich - Say When +03 Marianne Faithfull - The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan +02 Natalie Cole - This Will Be +01 Boston - More Than A Feeling 000 Barbra Streisand - Stoney End

Two and a half listens in and I really like it. Restless is the weakest song on the record. Can't agree with you on Get Ready I'm afraid, it's the worst New Order record for me. Siren's Call next worst.

I think Q described it as their best album since Technique. Mind you, that's not saying a great deal. Definitely enjoying it - Plastic, Tutti Frutti and People on the High Line all sound like the band having a great time. I think I'd have bunged Restless somewhere in the middle of the album rather than at the start, Singularity makes much more sense as an opener.

Nope, I'm still none the wiser and I spent a while thinking about it! Sybil - cheesy and best ignored but, yeah, inoffensive is fair enough. No, I don't think I've heard No Limit in 20 years either except maybe in the odd parody version that no longer hits the mark.

Out today - already on my Spotify playlist for this morning.......

A bit flaccid really - oh well.

Can't work out what that would be - will sit tight and wait :)

I suspect there might be challenges from the Vengaboys, Outhere Brothers and, way way off, Eiffel 65. Hmm...what did the Europeans ever do for us?