Mr. Mondo

I think they were put out of production at the end of the 1990s. I have not seen them in the shops for years, which is a pity as I used to love those bars and ‘Rum & Raisin Cornettos’ from the ‘Ice-Cream Man’ as well.

On CD as well or are they on vinyl?

Was ‘Poolside’ to do with the album before? As an alternative ‘Sony’ replacement for the ‘Creation’ label?

‘CHANNEL 4’ TELEVISION SHOWS OF THE 1980’s TELEVISION MEMORIES 4 At 4:45pm on November 2nd 2007 it will be exactly twenty-five years since the United Kingdom’s forth terrestrial television service started broadcasting to the nation. In light of this anniversary, Channel 4’s digital television service ‘More4’ will be showing a selection of shows from the early days of ‘Channel 4’ including many programmes from the first day of transmission. Whereby the first week in this retro season will give repeat showings to ‘The Comic Strip Presents…’ the excellent ‘Porterhouse Blue’ and the first regular non-YTV episode of ‘Countdown’, the following weeks will most likely see the re-emergence of ‘The Tube’, ‘Drop The Dead Donkey’ and ‘Saturday Night Live’. However as the last three programmes are only my predictions rather than actual fact, it could also be likely that a compilation of material could be broadcast instead, with genres covering anything from music shows from ‘Wired to ‘The White Room and comedy from sketch shows like ‘the Paul Hogan Show’ to series such as ‘Chelmsford 123’. If you had access to Channel 4’s programme archives which shows from the 1980s (an early 1990s) would you like to see again?

Maybe you are thinking about their ‘Chuckle Hounds’ show instead. As a child, twenty years ago, I was too old to be bothered about ‘the Chuckle Brothers’. However as a student in the 1990s, they became one of those acts that you became ‘obsessed with’ as one of your on-going student in-jokes. I think this could be seen as the Northern manifestation of the whole ‘Grand Royale’ / ‘Beastie Boys’ / ‘mullet-spotting’ concept from that period in time. I remember that one night we all went to see a show at the ‘Davenport Theatre’ in Stockport. I cannot remember exactly what the show was, it could have been local theatre or it could have been ‘Bottom Live’, but afterwards we took a great deal of posters such as ‘the Chuckle Brothers’ and ‘Mike Fab Gear’, to be put up as a student ‘novelty’ and used for graffiti and as a pin board.

I think the album was called ‘Poolside’, though this might be the record label instead.

Were they your teachers from school?

My copy is actually on a CD single and I think it is in a pile with ‘Isotonik’, ‘Electroset’ and ‘Skin Up’s’, “…a juicy red apple is nice, but, not every apple is red”.

I did not like the ‘Eurythmics’ album ‘Sweet Dreams (Are made of this)’ when it was first released. I remember I took that record back to the record shop for a refund, not so long after playing it. As I still do not own a copy, I might by the video album on DVD, now it has been re-issued, I have seen a copy for £5.99 in my local Newsagent.

It was a pity it was not a ‘Dusty Bin’ figure, like the bully in ‘Bullseye’. I would have liked to have won one of those.

The ‘Garbage Pail Kids’? I collected loads of those, but never liked the gum inside the pack.

Was it just a compilation before that album?

Chocolate, Crisps and Sweets from the newsagent 1960 - 1990 Recently there was a campaign to re-launch the 1980s chocolate bar called the ‘Wispa’, which reminded of another chocolate bar that I used to like eating in the 1980s called the ‘Gambit’. This was marketed as a special bar as it was a mixture of both milk and dark chocolate all formulated into one small block. Unfortunately for me, most customers thought this bar was pointless and so production stopped not so long after being introduced. What other chocolates, crisps and sweets were there back then that you wished were available now?

And ‘Fidelfatti’, what was his song?

I could never say that I was an avid viewer of the show ‘3-2-1’ in the 1980s, though I have seen it on numerous occasions. ‘3-2-1’ was legendary in those days for being complete nonsense, so much so that I remember popular comedians of the day joking about the randomness of the clues. I think it was a comedian such as Jasper Carrott or Ben Elton who had a ‘skit’ on the clue process. In this, he would give a riddle such as “A ‘Mini Metro’ is not slow, in this transport you must go” that made the contestants think they had won a car, when actually, it was word ‘go’ that was the important aspect of the riddle and the clue they were looking for. The word ‘go’ was extended into the word ‘gone’, which then formed the basis of the phrase ‘bin and gone’ resulting in the joke’s couple winning a bin. I think the show was Spanish or Italian in origin, which would not surprise me as Italian television gave the world ‘Man O Man’ and also what I remember from their stations, such as ‘RAI Uno’, is that they seem to be fond of scheduling five hour nightly versions of these type of ‘3-2-1’ shows that combine ‘Variety’, ‘Comedy’, ‘Chat’ and ‘Quizzes’ into one show, all topped off with an ancient host and loads of glamour girls. Of all the adult quiz and game shows broadcast in the 1980s I remember that I liked to watch shows such as ‘Blankety Blank’ and ‘Ultra Quiz’, as well as children’s games show series such as ‘Cheggers Plays Pop’, ‘Mouse Trap’ and ‘Knock Your Block Off’. In addition to these shows, I always enjoyed watching ‘Endurance’ when the clips were shown on ‘Clive James on Television’, even though in these days that ‘Endurance’ footage may seem tame if I were to see it again.

Are ‘Teenage Fanclub’ still recording together?

Yes, a great ‘before they were famous’ moment, which always makes me smile.

25 YEARS OF RECORD COLLECTING: MUSICAL MEMORIES 1982 - 2007 9. Clubhouse Yet another hit making act from Italy’s ‘Media Records’ studio complex put together and masterminded by label boss/’Cappella’ producer Gianfranco Bortolotti. This ‘Italiohouse’ dance group actually started life in the disco era and similar to Dutch DJ Jaan Egermount’s (sp?) project ‘Starsound’ (aka Stars on 45), they hit the charts with a number of reworked medleys of popular hits, such as ‘Billy Jean’ and Steely Dan’s ‘Do It Again’. This approach continued throughout the 1980s right up to a medley featuring the classic More Kante song ‘Ye Ke Ye ke’. By now, Media’s rivals GGM (‘Groove Groove Melody’) had hit not only the dance charts but the pop charts with ‘Piano/Italiohouse’ classics such as Mixmaster’s ‘Grand Piano’, Wood Allen’s ‘Airport 89’ and of course those massive ‘Black Box’ tunes too. However in the new decade, ‘Media Records’ would eclipse all the achievements of ‘GGM’ and become the premier pop dance label in Italy, if not in Europe. One of the great dance tunes of this early 90s house music period was ‘Deep In My heart’, a song which had a soulful house groove not too dissimilar to Double Dee and Danny’s classic ‘Found Love’. I doubt many people will remember this classic favourite of mine, however I guess that anyone with an interest in mid 90s ‘boybands’ will no doubt know of their next chart entry, ‘Light My Fire’, as it is now famous for being the record a newly put together ‘Boyzone’ had to dance to on Gay Burn’s ‘Late Late Show’ in Ireland. Bubbling around the bottom of the Top 75 for what seemed like (in those days) ages, ‘Light My Fire’ was one of those brilliant club tunes that was in danger of not joining the equally commercial ‘Cappella’, ‘Haddaway’ and ‘Snap!’ in the higher reaches of the pop charts. Thankfully one remix later and Clubhouse (now including feature vocalist Carl) sprinted into the top ten ‘Light My Fire’ and soon followed that hit up with another great dance track ‘Living In The Sunshine’. Unfortunately for Clubhouse and Cappella, Media Records pushed so hard their ‘Commercial Pop dance sound’ that the charts became monopolised with this type of Eurodisco and became so ubiquitous that by the late 1990s interest waned in the UK and their dance scene was killed of. Whilst pop fans had moved onto Britpop like ‘Blur’ and ‘Pulp’, clubbers turned their attention to harder sounds of garage and trance, whilst ‘Media Records UK’, in an attempt to distance themselves from commercial pop acts like Stu Allen’s ‘Clock’ rebranded itself as ‘Nukleuz Records’ instead. 25 YEARS OF RECORD COLLECTING: MUSICAL MEMORIES 1982 - 2007

25 YEARS OF RECORD COLLECTING: MUSICAL MEMORIES 1982 - 2007 8. Utah Saints “I still think of you, I still think you” Do you remember this great Leeds duo Tim and Jez, who sampled and blended a collection of 80s pop heroes into some great dance floor classics, but faltered when they went indie-dance and stated using their own vocals? Well they are back, Back, BACK! and can be seen in residence at a number of clubs around the North of England. However cast your mind back to the early 1990s when they were one of the first true ‘Stadium Techno’ bands (this is obviously if you take the opinion that Cauty and Drummond’s self-branding lark of ‘Stadium House’ was a not too serious art-music prank said with too much irony in a way similar to that ‘Klaxons’ Nu-rave genre) and those great singles that stormed into the top ten. The first one was ‘What Can You Do For Me’ which was built around a short refrain from Annie Lennox’s vocal in ‘There must be an Angel’ along with a sample from someone like Aretha Franklin (of this latter vocal part I’m not 100% sure of the sample, I could be thinking of ‘DJH & Stefy’ at this moment when it comes to Aretha and getting it mixed up with ‘Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves’). Nevertheless it was a great record and one which the duo actually managed to better with their second and third chart hits ‘Something Good’ and ‘Believe in Me’. Moving on from Annie Lennox to another of Britain’s ‘national treasures’, Kate Bush, ‘Something Good’ moulded a sample from the chorus of the song ‘Cloudbusting’ that warped syllables and Kate’s unique voice, truncating lines from “…and every time it rains, you’re here in my heart, like the sun coming out, I know that something good is going to happen” and making it into a brilliant dancefloor classic. Another personal favourite of mine was the next single release ‘Believe in Me’, instead of sampling a female voice, this time they went for one of the most distinctive male baritones of the 1980s – Philip Oakey of ‘the Human League’. Unlike Jarvis Cocker and ‘the All Seeing I’ from down the road in Sheffield, Phil did not vocalise his part as a guest person, with the Utah Saints turning instead to that early 1980s classic from the Dare LP called ‘Love Action’ for their vox. Whilst George Michael was happy to sample the clattering electrobeat for his political statement that was ‘shoot the dog’ many years later, the Utah Saints took the middle eight vocal stab of the song and welded it to the woo-hoos of the 1970s disco-funk classic ‘Do You Wanna’ by the Crown Heights Affair and their own techno beat. It shouldn’t have worked but it did most perfectly. The next couple of singles did not follow the same template, the same hit formula and so did not reach the heights in the charts as their previous singles. However I still think that songs such as ‘I still think of you’ and ‘I want you’ are not to be forgotten, as they too have their charms and seeing that the Utah Saints re-appearances are almost ‘Blue Nile’-a-like (reappearing with a second album in 2000 which featured the late great Edwin Starr) I guess that they will be sticking to club residences rather than the charts for the time being. 25 YEARS OF RECORD COLLECTING: MUSICAL MEMORIES 1982 - 2007

Is this thread is supposed to be about ‘non-hit wonders’ rather than one hit wonders or similar to Casey Kasem’s ‘Should’ve Been Top Ten Hits’ feature on late night television? May I suggest some of the following: ‘Habit – Lucy’ 'Associates - Breakfast' ‘When In Rome – The Promise’ ‘The Indian Givers – Fake I.D.’ ‘The Indian Givers – Hatcheck Girl’ ‘Lightning Seeds – Joy’ ‘Horse – You Should Be Forgiven’ ‘The 4 of Us – Mary’ ‘The 4 of Us – Drag My Bad Name Down’ ‘The Proclaimers – Throw the R Away’ ‘Prefab Sprout – Nightingales’ ‘Care – Flaming Swords’ ‘Black – Paradise’ Re: Spagna Which video did they play on the television? Was it ‘Call Me’ or ‘Every Girl and Boy’ (‘Enjoy Making Love’)? Both are ‘Eurobeat’ classics. I actually thought she released quite a few good records in the early 1990s under the remix skills of GGM’s ‘Black Box’ production team, such as the single ‘Love At First Sight’ which I think was out on ‘Epic Records’ in 1992 or 1994. I also think she was involved with the writing for the Brazilian/Italian act ‘Corona’ with the group’s master producer, Francesco Bontempi (I think it was this producer though it could have been ‘Fidelfatti’).

This is quite a hard task to do within three choices, as there are a huge list of great albums and a great number of wonderful bands that I would like to see nominated. It is hard to know whether your choices would be the ones that other people will nominate in subsequent postings, and due to this factor my choices will not include albums by ‘The The’, ‘Black’ or ‘Aztec Camera’, as I think that at least ‘Infected’, ‘Wonderful Life’ and ‘Love’ will be popular enough to be nominated by other members. I would have liked to have seen David Sylvian’s haunting album ‘Secrets Of The Beehive’ on the list, especially for the tracks ‘The Devil’s Own’ and ‘September’ (“The ticking of the clock Inexorably goes on The howling of the stray souls of heaven”), but if the idea is to get a flavour of all the great 1980s acts, maybe there is enough of Mr Batt to provide that already to’ non-believers’. The same goes for ‘Pet Shop Boys’ and ‘Introspective’, one of the best dance LPs of the early house period. Another album I was thinking of submitting was the eponymous album by ‘The Bible’. However, as this album is an amalgamation of a previous release with a few earlier singles attached, maybe it is better to think in terms of the projects that Boo, Neil and the band had in mind rather than what was decided within ‘Ensign/Chrysalis Records’ at the time. In the light of this, I will keep this record in mind for a best ever ‘retro compilation’ thread if ever one is initiated. It is good to see that somebody else on ‘Buzz-Jack’ likes ‘the Human League’ LP called ‘Crash’ and has submitted that for ‘Greatest Album’ status, especially since most of the tracks written by ‘the Human League’ were hated at the time. What the album does have going for it, apart from an interesting back-story of disaster and multiple TV watching, is some great examples of mid-1980s ‘R&B’ written by those masters of ‘Minneapolis Funk’, Jam & Lewis: the sublime ‘Human’ and my personal favourite ‘Love Is All That Matters’. Actually I like ‘I Need Your Loving’ too, though in the ‘Smash Hits’ singles review of ’86, the reviewer could not believe that such a record (with lyrics that were approximately 1.5 lines long), could have be written, especially by six people, none who were ‘the Human League’. Here I would have liked to submit another ‘Greatest Hits’ LP to the list, as then you would have avoided ‘Swang’ but would have all the great ‘Hysteria’ singles in the list. Morrissey’s ‘Bona Drag’ is another compilation of singles which I would have liked to see on the list, primarily because Mark E. Nevin is an under-rated collaborator, especially when viewed next to Johnny Marr. Only because I think this album is an early 1990 release is keeping it off the list, whilst to submit ‘Viva Hate’ would not be true to my personal preference when regarding these two albums. I was thinking of putting one of the albums that Dr. Robert recorded with ‘the Blow Monkeys’ on the list, even though my favourite’ Blow Monkeys’ album is the house music album ‘Springtime For The World’ from 1990. Even though his band made some brilliant 60’s ‘R&B’ and soul influenced pop music in the 1980s, and worked with greats such as Curtis Mayfield, in the end ‘Cheb Khaled’, ‘Margaret Thatcher’ and those Balearic beats of ‘La Passionara’ sway the vote against his 1980s works. ‘The B-52s’ album ‘Cosmic Thing’ was another album that was released on the cusp of the new decade. It is a great album with songs such as ‘Channel Z’ and ‘Deadbeat Club’, though I cannot remember if the album was released in the United Kingdom in 1989 or 1990. It may have been released in America in 1989 and come over to the UK a year later like some American releases seem to do. I remember that ‘Love Shack’ was 1990 as that was kept off the ‘Number One Spot’ by ‘Snap!’ vaulting from number twelve to number one, with their single ‘The Power’. In light of all that my choices are: ‘The Blue Nile – Hats’ ‘Its Immaterial– Life’s Hard and Then You Die’ ‘Red Box – The Circle and the Square’ ‘Hats’ is one of my favourite ‘late night’ albums, the type of album that is great when you listen to it in the dark at 3am in the morning whilst looking at the cityscape through your bedroom window. The recording is even better if it has rained earlier in the night so the lights reflect and shimmer in the puddles on the street, creating a real gorgeous mood in sync to the production. The album is seven tracks of perfection, the type of album that has had a lot of thought put into its conception by all whom were involved, and an album of the up most quality, through and through. ‘Its Immaterial’ might be only remembered for one song by the majority of people but that is a shame as ‘Ed’s Funky Diner’ and ‘Rope’ are just as great and need to be discovered by a larger amount of people. Finally ‘Red Box’ go on the list as one of my choices. I wanted to think of an album that I have whereby the singles would be not the first tracks I would choose to listen to once I have the record in my hands. Even with acts like ‘The Cure’, ‘Madness’, ‘Deacon Blue’ and ‘The Smiths’ I would tend to overplay the singles rather that replay album tracks and whilst this may be a sign of a great singles band, maybe it is not too great to be thinking of an album just in singles terms. The ‘Red Box’ album fits the bill perfectly as their top ten singles are actually weaker tracks than songs such as ‘Living In Domes’ and ‘Billy’s Line’. In these days of bands like ‘the Arcade Fire’ and ‘the Polyphonic Spree’ I think it would be those tracks that would be promoted rather than the more throw-away pop sounds of ‘Lean On Me’ or ‘For America’. Abba - The Visitors ABC - The Lexicon Of Love The Associates - Sulk Eric B and Rakim - Paid In Full Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique Big Audio Dynamite - This Is Big Audio Dynamite ‘The Blue Nile – Hats’ David Bowie - Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) Kate Bush - The Dreaming Kate Bush - The Hounds of Love Kate Bush - The Sensual World Butthole Surfers - Hairway to Steven Cocteau Twins - Treasure The Cult - Love The Cult - Electric The Cure - Seventeen Seconds The Cure - The Head On The Door Depeche Mode - Black Celebration Dexy's Midnight Runners - Searching For The Young Soul Rebels Duran Duran - Rio Echo and the Bunnymen - Crocodiles Eurythmics - Savage Brian Eno - Apollo: Atmospheres And Soundtracks Brian Eno / David Byrne - My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts Frida - Something's Going On Peter Gabriel - So Philip Glass - Koyaanisqatsi Heaven 17 - How Men Are Human League - Dare Human League – Crash ‘Its Immaterial– Life’s Hard and Then You Die’ Janet Jackson - Control Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking Japan - Tin Drum Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy Joy Division - Closer Justified Ancients of Mu Mu - 1987 (What the f***'s Going On?) Kraftwerk - Computer world Level 42 - World Machine Madonna - Like a Prayer Metallica - Master of Puppets New Order - Low-Life New Order – Technique Hazel O'Connor - Breaking Glass Pet Shop Boys - Please Pet Shop Boys - Actually Pixies - Doolittle Prefab Sprout - Swoon Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen Primal Scream - Sonic Flower Groove Prince - Parade Prince - Sign O' The Times Ramones - End Of The Century ‘Red Box – The Circle and the Square’ Redd Kross - Neurotica Roxy Music - Avalon Scritti Politti - Cupid and Psyche 85 Paul Simon - Graceland Siouxsie and the Banshees - Peepshow Sisters of Mercy - First and Last and Always The Smiths - Meat is Murder The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead Soft Cell - Non Stop Erotic Cabaret Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden Teardrop Explodes - Kilimanjaro Tears For Fears - Songs From The Big Chair This Mortal Coil - It'll End In Tears Simple Minds - New Gold Dream The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses David Sylvian - Brilliant Trees David Sylvian - Gone to Earth U2 - The Joshua Tree U2 - The Unforgettable Fire Various - Lonely is an eyesore Various - NME C86 Visage - The Anvil Yazoo - Upstairs at Eric's

Sorry, but is that opinion to be taken sarcastically? I am unsure to whether you mean in the joking manner of ‘O.M.D.’ or in the true manner of ‘Sting’.

Some great news for fans of ‘Celtic Soul’. One of Britain’s premier soul voices and purveyor of ‘adult orientated pop’ sounds, Marti Pellow, has a new album coming out with his band, ‘Wet Wet Wet’, in November. The album is called ‘Timeless’, which suggests that the band could be releasing a covers album of classic tracks like ‘Maggie Pie’ or another ‘Memphis Soul’ album in the style of Marti’s last solo LP and ‘The Memphis Sessions’. Unfortunately, I do not have any more information to the contents of this LP nor do I know whether this album will be released on ‘Mercury Records’ or on ‘DMG TV’. Maybe somebody here on ‘Buzz-Jack’ will help provide these details? Some great news for fans of ‘Celtic Soul’. One of Britain’s premier soul voices and purveyor of ‘adult orientated pop’ sounds, Marti Pellow, has a new album coming out with his band, ‘Wet Wet Wet’, in November. The album is called ‘Timeless’, which suggests that the band could be releasing a covers album of classic tracks like ‘Maggie Pie’ or another ‘Memphis Soul’ album in the style of Marti’s last solo LP and ‘The Memphis Sessions’. Unfortunately, I do not have any more information to the contents of this LP nor do I know whether this album will be released on ‘Mercury Records’ or on ‘DMG TV’. Maybe somebody here on ‘Buzz-Jack’ will help provide these details?

She is great, one of the best artists of the 1980s and it is good to see she is still going strong.

The title is rather long. I would not like to ask for that record in the shop.