Zippy T Doodar

I think the problem I have with “Open Your Heart” is the sound of the synths. I remember when I was a boy, my father had many musical instruments around the house and this included a couple of Casio keyboards. Even though I was a fan of synthpop, I never wanted to learn how to play the keyboards as the sounds created by my dad’s machines never resembled the sounds that I heard on many of the synthpop records of the time. Even though I do not remember the sound of the Casio keyboard being as bad as that of the Bontempi organ [especially when the Bossa Nova setting was selected], I still found the sound produced to be ‘tinny’ and akin to a high pitched squeak. In regards to the recordings of The Human League, I always felt that with an upgrade to the next model in the Casio range, my father could have recreated “Open Your Heart” quite perfectly at home and this association would be another reason why I would tend to skip that track now. On the other hand, I thought “Don’t You Want Me” was great when I first heard it by The Human League but it is one of those songs that I do not think can be covered by another artist. I have never heard a good version of it, whether it would be by an act like Alcazar or a band like The Farm [i cannot remember the S/A/W version that they did for Mandy Smith, but I suppose anyone could have a very good guess to how it would have sounded]. In addition to these versions, I think it was that car advert from about five or six years ago [i think it was advertising a Fiat Punto] which turned me against that song as it was a very annoying advert, especially when it looked like it was being broadcast in every commercial break that I saw on TV. In addition to the tracks from “Dare” that were mentioned in an earlier correspondence and the ones produced by Jam & Lewis, I think many of the other Human League tracks that I select to play actually sound more like Heaven 17, even when Martyn Ware & Ian Craig-Marsh are not involved in their production [“Tell Me When”]. I do not know if anybody else has been watching the 1980s season on BBC 2 recently, but there were a couple of shows featuring Heaven 17 last week including a live session and another one where the duo [Gregory/Ware] went back to visit their old homes in Sheffield. I have not watched all of this show yet, but generally the show was about the recording of “Penthouse & Pavement”, an album which was performed in full during the previous live show broadcast on TV. Hopefully this weekend I will get chance to watch the Culture Club drama about Boy George and Jon Moss that was also recorded from the 1980s season. Before I leave for my lunch I would just like to say, in relation to the initial query posed at the start of this thread, does anybody else agree that “Karma Chameleon” should have not been their second Number One, with perhaps a further replacement for George’s solo Number One as well? Loz

In regards to that album, I would normally play "The Sound of the Crowd", "Love Action (I Believe in Love)” or “Things That Dreams Are Made Of" and would skip over “Don’t You Want Me” and "Open Your Heart". I do not know any of the other tracks on “Dare” as well as those which would be featured upon an album such as “Crash”, as I obtained “Dare” on CD many years after receiving “Crash” on vinyl. I remember that Christmas 1986, the year “Crash” was released, was the first time I received a substantial amount of albums for Christmas, because that was the year when I become more aware of the pop scene, as I started to get Smash Hits and Q saved at my local newsagent. Before then I would receive about two albums per year each Christmas, which were usually made up of an artist album on cassette like Madness or UB40 and a compilation on either the Ronco or K-tel label [though as these albums always came stuck together with a buy one get one free claim, maybe this was seen as giving three presents away for Christmas]. One of the earliest compilations that I have got in my collection is a ‘best of the year’ album from 1981, which was released by K-Tel, though unlike Ronco’s “Raiders Of The Pop Chart” or “Close Encounters Of The Chart Kind” I think the album was simply titled “Hits Of ‘81” . This album features “Open Your Heart” by The Human League on one of the tapes, but is surrounded by too many disco medleys such as “Stars On 45” and “Hooked On Classics”, as well a couple of versions of “The Birdy Song”. Due to this tracklisting I think I have formulated a very negative association when it comes to “Open Your Heart”, though I do not mind seeing “The Birdy Song” on TV these days, as I regard The Tweets as a funny act like the ones that you would find featured on ‘Eurotrash’ or on one of Clive James’s old TV shows. Loz

I would not say that Bolton is rubbish, even though he is not an artist that I particularly like. In fact, for many years, I would have likened him to a ‘honking gut-bucket’, though I would have come to this conclusion believing that a certain taste in music would have increased my social standing at school rather than knowing what would be regarded as a technically accomplished standard of singing. As I would guess that Bolton would be the kind of artist with many Grammy awards and nominations in his lifetime, I suppose he must have some talent and cannot be totally useless. In regards to his cultural status, I would say that when viewed from a UK perspective Bolton would be considered as ‘retro’ as it seems that his role in British culture has been now superseded by that of Chad Kroeger [that is a singer from North America with bad hair, of which many consumers in the United Kingdom seem to regard as being ‘unsophisticated’ entertainment that only the Americans could enjoy]. Loz

I have been a fan of the Human League for nearly 30 years and I would not say that they got to Number One with the wrong song. It was the right song for the time and a record that was my favourite for many years., however after all these years, I would normally play any other track by the band, as I have got tired of hearing it. Whilst I would want to hear the original rather than any cover version, I think that, if I had the choice, I would actually play a record like “Love See No Colour” by The Farm rather than “Don’t You Want Me” by The Human League [even though the latter was a favourite record of mine] as I have not played any records by ‘Peter Hooton & co.’ in years and I think it would be nice to find their CDs again. Loz

I was surprised that The White Stripes were overlooked [unless they were broadcast when I was in the kitchen] in addition to many of the videos from the 1990s that you can find on those ‘Palm Pictures Director Series’ DVDs. There were a few videos shown that were directed by Spike Jonze but I think it becomes laughable when the work of Anton Corbijn and Michel Gondry did not seem to be included. The problem is that it is hard to say what makes a good video. Is it the concept, the technical ability or the way that it influences culture? I suppose if we took all of these factors into consideration then perhaps Michel Gondry’s video for “Lucas With The Lid Off” should be the greatest video of all time. As Lucas was a Danish rapper who got to [approximately] Number 37 in 1994 with his one and only hit [though his previous single, “Wah Wah Wah” may have charted elsewhere] I do not think he will ever feature in one of these lists unlike Lady Gaga who was [bizarrely] in the Top 10. Whilst I do not want to dwell on that fact for too long as obviously Lady Gaga is a 21st Century recording artist who has millions of fans, I would just like to give a quick comment in regards to the video to her ‘current’ single [that is “Telephone” not the one that sounds like Ace Of Base]. Now, to be totally honest, I do not have a clue how “Telephone” goes [apart from that stuttering effect by Beyonce which is not as good as Mel & Kim’s ‘Ta-Ta Ta’ from “Respectable” which was sampled by PWEI] and therefore do not want to pass judgement on that song, as it is not the place to do so. What I do want to say is that I am quite saddened to see that the director Jonas Akerlund seems to be stuck in a rut and has not progressed on from when he made The Cardigans video for “My Favourite Game” back in the 1990s [on the show he was the ‘talking head’ in the hat, who was a bit like Latka from 1970s show ‘Taxi’]. Not only that, but the “Telephone” video blatantly uses the visual clues from Quentin Tarantino’s ‘cinematic love letters’ to the grindhouse cinema of the 1970s, which I think is a ‘homage’ too far. I remember when I was in art school, the class had a lecture from an art tutor who thought that the ‘art world’ should never be equated with that of ‘design’, because ‘art’ was a wonderful passionate medium and ‘design’ was just the by-product of a load of nasty corporations endlessly selling people stuff. Even though I would not want to be up to my elbows in clay and paint any more, it would be interesting to hear what this tutor would have thought of a Jonas Akerlund music video [i think he would definitely regard it as a nasty piece of “design”]. The videos of Jonas Akerlund may be as technically accomplished and as slick as all the modern pop videos that you will see on MTV, but recently a lot of his videos have started to look like they are all the deleted scenes from his 2002 film “Spun” [i do not think he has made another feature film since then]. I do not think I should be too critical of Akerlund as I feel that a lot of videos that have been made in the past few years all look the same and I suppose if my point is seen as a criticism about directors having a very specific ‘house style’ then Anton Corbijn should be singled out as well [though most videos that look like they have been made by Corbijn, will have been made by Corbijn]. Videos from the 1980s may look dated and ‘shoddy’ in comparison to many of the’ ‘slick’ videos produced in the 21st Century but that is only expected as technology changes. In relation to the actual video concepts, I think ideas were stronger back in the 20th Century [and from what I remember of modern art lectures, it seems that concepts are more important than the actual visual results e.g. Dada, Duchamp etc.] though this opinion may have been formulated due to seeing the videos VIVA usually shows as part of their playlist. I was surprised that many of the ‘seminal’ videos from the 1980s were ranked quite lowly in the chart, though I suppose this could be because they are videos to songs that would not be played a lot at any 1980s revival night [i would not know as when I was a student, 1970s nights were all the rage]. Even though I felt that Depeche Mode, Adam & The Ants or Madness should have been in the list, I thought the actual show was alright, much better than BBC 2’s Saturday night rock guitarist/drummer series that is currently showing. Whereas Channel 4’s show moved a long at quick pace [maybe too quick this time as there was not much time spent on each video in comparison to previous versions of this show] I have felt that the pace of the BBC 2 show has dragged at times and therefore it seems to last longer than the hour it is on for. Thankfully, unlike other “Clips & Quips” shows that you may find on Sky Three; Five or BBC Three, both shows seemed to be free of that type of ‘ironic’ comment that you usually found made on these shows by random people trying to be funny [most I have never seen before]. In the Channel 4 show I was expecting at least one person to say something like “I remember when the werewolf turned into Michael Jackson, now that was scary” though one criticism I would make with the ‘talking heads’ is that they did overuse the word ‘iconic’. By the way would anybody argue that, in regards to Channel 4’s list, the greatest music video of all time was actually whatever was at number 2, with “Thriller” being regarded as a short film by John Landis? Loz

What did everybody think of the show that was broadcast on Channel 4 last night at 10pm, especially when considering videos that were made in the 1980s and in regards to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”?

Following on from this point, I have noticed that the moderators have deleted a number of references from the 21st century that have appeared in another thread in this section. Having the area focused on acts and recordings that were made before the year 2000 is sensible as the Millennium provides a natural cut off point and therefore it is easy to remember, but at the other end of the spectrum, where would you start your retro genre? Would you start at 1960 when records become public domain, a few years earlier at the birth of ‘Rock N Roll’ or in 1952 when the NME first started publishing a chart that was based on record sales? Last night I was actually listening to a record that was recorded in 1949 and therefore you could probably argue that this recording would be ‘pre-retro’. Loz

I do not remember "Thehindutimes" or "Songbird" and in fact, I cannot remember how any of the tracks on their last album went, which might be saying something as I only listed to that particular album about 2 weeks ago. I do not know whether it should be taken as a criticism of that album’s track listing or an indication on the current state of my memory. In regards to my memory, please take the following an example. You may remember that Thomas Dolby released a single in the late 1980s called “My Brain Is Like a Sieve”. The track was from the “Aliens Ate my Buick” album and a follow up to the “Hot Sauce” single, a fact that I remember quite easily as I have owned that album for about 20 years now. You may also remember, from another thread on this site, that I have recently bought a number of Roxy Music albums and those CDs which were bought in batches rather than purchased all at once. Unfortunately when I went back to complete the collection I had a problem where I could not remember what Roxy Music CDs I had previously bought so ended up buying Avalon twice in two weeks. Due to this I would say that rather than being comparable to a sieve, my memory these days is more like a wastepaper basket that became full of information [rubbish] in the first two decades of my life and therefore cannot hold much more. Now I mention this because I have noticed a few posts where the moderator has deleted a few 21st Century pop references from the thread and whilst it has not got to the point where I feel that the last 10 years of my musical knowledge has been deleted from my brain, it does get me wondering [as I am a fan of films with that kind of SF concept], how I would feel about certain acts if this had actually happened. I do not want to dwell on this thought for too long [though if somebody else wants to develop the idea into another thread that is fine by me] but in regards to Oasis and Stereophonics, ten years ago I would definitely would not want to be identified as a fan. It was not until “Dakota” was released that I changed my opinion about The Stereophonics and started buying their records. Until that point I regarded them as being the purveyors of dull plodding ‘dadrock’ and were a band that I generally avoided in my 20s [alongside other people such as Heavy Stereo, Ocean Colour Scene et al]. Also if the last ten years of my memory had been completely wiped, I would probably still consider myself to be a fan of The Black Eye Peas, who were a post-Fugees trio back in the mid to late 1990s and who I regarded as being quite good [my, how times have changes]. Loz

Sorry, but it is an area of pop history that I am not too knowledgeable about. For about 30 years of my life I have generally ignored that era of music, only knowing an act like The Monkees from watching their shows on holiday morning TV [my father was never interested in watching American shows like The Monkees or Get Smart and would not want to be watching ‘Trashy American TV’ at 9am on a weekday morning, especially if he was off from work]. Even though I can not put those Sixties singer’s careers into full perspective, I do know certain songs by them and the fact that Cilla seemed to be the ‘KWS of the 1960s’, managing to re-record a number songs by some great American singers, before those people had a chance to get charted in the UK with their superior originals [though KWS produced an obvious blatant copy of the Double You recording]. In regards to Springfield, I do not regard her as being a ‘Light Entertainment Pop’ act even though it is likely that she had one of those shows, made by the BBC, at some point in her career [very likely indeed, as I have also got one by Kate Bush to watch on disc as well and I suppose if Kate has done a show then Dusty must have done one too]. This is because I have been a Pet Shop Boys fan for about 25 years and would have initially known her from her collaboration with the boys, in regards to the “Actually” album and “Scandal” film. From there my next point of reference would have been “Dusty In Memphis” and so I tend to regard her as a ‘blue-eyed soul’ artist, not only because of that record, but also because when I first discovered her, the charts of the time were full of acts like Wet Wet Wet and Simply Red [i also believe there is some kind of career redemption for Mr Hucknell in the current issue of ‘The Word’, after many years of negativity from the self-defined ‘cultural elite’ that is the ‘mainstream’ music press]. Loz

Hello, I have recently bought the Sandy Shaw singles collection as a 4 CD box-set. I have bought it because I have been a fan of Morrissey and Lloyd Cole since the 1980s; and wanted to get a copy of “Please Help The Cause Against Loneliness” on CD, a single that I have had on vinyl for 22 years. Whilst I have already played a number of tracks that were released in the 1980s from disc 4, I am in no hurry to listen to any of the tracks on the earlier discs, because I think that these recordings might be a bit too much ‘boom-a-bang-a-bang’ for my liking [though I think it was Lulu who recorded that particular Eurovision entry]. In addition to this, I think that I have a negative view of a lot of 1960s ‘light entertainment English pop’ because I feel that I am encroaching on my father’s territory and therefore I think that my opinion is influenced by in part, by that subconscious ‘fear’ where you ‘don’t want to turn into your parents’. When it comes to ‘throw-away light entertainment pop’ I think I would prefer to listen to S/A/W as their songs are at least part of the soundtrack to my upbringing, though I would not want to go out of my way, to listen to Big Fun or Sonia at any time. On the other hand, I would not put Shaw’s later work with Langer-Winstanley, Steven Street and Mark E Nevin in the ‘light entertainment pop’ category and I think that if I was compiling a minidisc compilation, I would feature her later work alongside Madness, The Pretenders, Siouxsie Sioux [especially because of “Interlude” and “This Wheel’s On Fire”] and Marc Almond [a track from “The Stars We Are” album, like “Your Kisses Burn” with Nico, rather than a Soft Cell synthpop track]. Loz

I do not know if production teams can ‘Jump The Shark’, but if they can then S/A/W surely did sometime in 1988. I see that the stated time period misses out on 1989, which seems to be the year everybody’s negative opinion in regards to S/A/W is based upon, as that was the year when their productions seemed to be omnipresent in the charts. Actually, I think the blame cannot be put on S/A/W for ruining the UK music scene, as some of their earlier Hi-NRG recordings were great. I think the blame should be put upon Reg Grundy instead as that would include Kylie, Jason, Gayle & Gillian alongside Stefan Dennis, Mark Stevens and Check 1-2 [who I think were originally called something like ‘The Fabulous Underpantz’ before they had a hit with “Mona”]. Loz

Hello, I have just come online to see what might be in the charts on Sunday and do not have the time to stay on for long, as I need to go home. As I was listening to Mark Radcliffe and Robin Hitchcock on Radio 2 around 8pm on Monday night, I only saw a few performances that were broadcast on TOTP2, towards the end of the show. I would not want to give a full review of the show until I have watched it all in full [i have it recorded onto disc], though I guess it would be very similar to any other TOTP2 show that has gone before. Now as you may have seen in the Kenny Everett thread, I used to listen to Steve Wright when I was younger [in the days of the Daleks, “Car Boot Sale” and those Pet Shop Boys parodies]. I have not listened to his show in years as that kind of ‘ker-ray-zee’ zoo format radio show annoys me now and, if I was at home around that time, would usually tune into Steve Lamacq’s show instead. I usually make a point of listening to Mark Radcliffe, as he is a broadcaster that I have enjoyed listening to ever since the days of “Out On Blue Six” and the old BBC Radio 5 station [which was more like 6 Music at night], when he used to he hide himself under his hood and glasses in promotional photos. Even though I enjoy his shows on the radio, I found myself wishing that Steve Wright had been rehired to voice TOTP2 once more. I thought that TOTP2 did not suit Radcliffe’s voiceover and on the few performances that I saw, I thought that it was annoying that his over-long scripted witticisms endlessly ‘crashed the vocals’. I do not bother watching Glastonbury on TV and I cannot remember a lot of The White Room, apart from the fact that it was on Channel 4 and was very much a rival version of ‘Later… with Jools Holland’, so I do not have much of his TV career to compare with his radio broadcasts. Radcliffe was also featured on the “Grumpy Guide To The 1980s”, but this was a show that I turned off within 15 minutes, as the format started to annoy me. I think those ‘Clips & Quips’ shows [also known in some broadcasting circles as ‘C & C’ shows] are very dated now and should be confined to a previous decade, especially after Charlie Brooker attacked the format in one of his Screenwipe shows [using his ‘Barry’ character]. I suppose it is laughable that “The Grumpy Guide” featured Huey Morgan criticising Adam & The Ants, when the last time the Fun Lovin’ Criminals had any credibility seemed to be in 1998. I do not know if you saw the papers today with a recent image of Adam Ant, but even with his continuing troubles, I suppose someone could say that Ant has never got to such a low point in his life where he has ended up presenting a dog show with Lisa Tarbuck on Sky 1 [a witticism that I would expect to turn up in the “The Grumpy Guide To The 1990s” sometime in the future.] As well as TOTP2, I have a couple of the Radio 1 shows still to watch. On Sunday night I watched the “Blood On The Carpet” episode about Trevor Dan and Mathew Bannister again and saw Johnny Hates Jazz on Wogan. I do not know if anybody else saw it, but I am sure that the guy on the bass playing with Johnny Hates Jazz, was the same guy who used to play with George Michael and Wham. I think his name is Don Etus and released a few solo singles in the 80s as well. I was surprised how dated the Wogan show looked now. It seemed to be even more dated than that Shirley Bassey light entertainment show, which was re-broadcast on BBC Four on Friday. I guess this is because Bassey’s show has at least some kind of kitsch appeal, whilst Wogan’s show did not have much visual appeal in the first place for me, back in the 1980s. Loz

I think at that time Everett was married to his [female] manager, though this period could have actually been slightly later in the 1980s rather than in the era you mention here. I have got a biography of Everett at home and I think it was actually written by this manager. I cannot be sure because I never got around to reading all of it, just a few pages whilst looking for names that were cross referenced from the index. I had a friend who was studying ‘Gender Politics’ at University and I remember being told a joke in regards to Everett’s marriage, during a discussion we were having about comedy. I cannot remember the whole joke though the pun used was a play on the Steve Martin film “The Man With Two Brains”, with Everett being ‘The Man With Two Beards’ instead. Once the joke was explained to me I found that it was quite a witty one, though I guess you would have to be on a gender study course to get the pun ‘straight’ off. In addition to this, I suppose you could say that Everett was a ‘wild and crazy guy’ and because of this, he may have been the nearest equivalent to Martin that England had at the time, though this might be stretching these comparisons too much. I also used to have a friend who was a born-again Christian Punk, though his style was that of an American Skate-Punk from the early 2000s rather than looking a cross between mid-1980s stars Matt Belgrano and the Rev. Richard Coles; and while they may have found some common ground discussing music, as the ‘Gender Study Guy’ liked Metal and Hard Rock as well [though his tastes were going more towards Glam and Goth than Punk], I think their opinions would have clashed when it came to any matters used discussed on that course. As you have already may have guessed from his style and taste in music, my Skate-Punk friend was younger than me and did not really have much interest in old comedians [though as Paul Merton and Wes Butters prove, when it comes to age and era this is not always the case]. He would generally favour the type of comedy that would be scheduled at around 11pm on the VIVA channel and therefore was more influenced by what was popular in America than anything else. On the other hand, the ‘Gender Study Guy’ was a fan of surreal comedy, being a massive fan of Eddie Izzard and Paul Merton, whilst liking camp comedians such as Julian Clary as well. Not surprisingly, Milligan and Everett would be people he would be aware of and would generally respect. Even though I respect aspects of both Milligan’s and Everett’s work, I would not like to say one is a genius and the other one is not, as I have not experienced enough of their output to come to a satisfactory conclusion. In regards to Everett, I do not think television was his natural medium and the work that I remember is most likely to be that which has been heavily ‘shaped’ by the writing of Barry Cryer. I have only ever listened to one show by Everett on the radio, one that was repeated on BBC Radio 2 a couple of years ago at Christmas. I suppose he was one of the first DJs in this country who would have that ‘zoo radio’ format and I would say that his style was definitely a precursor to many people that are on the radio now, whether it be Shaun Keaveny with his comedy sketches or Steve Wright and his posse. I think Wright’s show could be seen as direct successor to Everett’s, especially in the Radio 1 days, when Wright’s show featured all those comedy characters like ‘Arnie & The Terminators’; ‘The Daleks’ and that Pet Shop Boys parody which included a Neil Tennant character that sounded like Rik Mayall. Loz

Have you heard their Swedish Radio ‘popera’ about Ingmar Bergman yet? [i do not know if ‘popera’ would be the right term or whether it should be ‘operetta’, as I have just borrowed the phrase from an old Associates album]. I think the album was called “The Seduction Of Ingmar Bergman”, though I can not be sure as The Art Of Noise released an album in 1999 called “The Seduction Of Claude Debussy” and might be getting mixed up with that. Thankfully, the ‘popera’ was not just confined to Sweden and was broadcast by the BBC over Christmas on the radio. That was when the album was released in a number of special editions and to this day, I do not think you can buy the recording as a conventional CD, unless you live in Stockholm. Ingmar Bergman was originally mentioned as an example in the list that I provided but in the end, I deleted his name as I thought there were too many references in the brackets. Also, as I had already mentioned Honk Kong film maker Tsui Hark, I thought that one director in the list was enough. Now I come to think of it, Ingmar Bergman may have been a better example as I think that Tsui Hark is still making movies in China. I would not know what films he would have made recently, as these days, on the rare occasions when I actually have time to see a film, I normally end up watching those big Hollywood blockbusters on DVD. At home I have also got a Sparks concert DVD to watch, though this will have to wait until I have finished watching my Yazoo compilation, The Best of Big Country and a couple of Roxy Music discs that I have recently purchased. For many years I disregarded both Bryan Ferry’s solo and band work. This was because my first point of reference would have been “Jealous Guy” and “More Than This”, which made me come a conclusion, formulated over a number of years in the 1980s, that this was music for ‘slimy yuppie types’. Over the last few weeks I have bought a large selection from the back catalogue of Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music. I think my verdict was unfair as there are many tracks by Roxy Music that I have come to like and anyway, to keep up those type of ‘vendettas’ against acts is quite immature, especially now I am in my mid-30s and not a teenager anymore. Not only that, but I guess that they would have influenced many of the New Romantic acts that I like [i would say Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran, though maybe not Classix Nouveaux] as well as being contemporaries of a number of acts from the 1970s that I like as well. Actually, on a number of recordings by Sparks, I think that the vocal style of Russell Mael is very similar to that of Ferry. Obviously this would not be in the instances where Mael would ‘talk-sing’ or where his vocals would soar into falsetto. I think the best example of this could be in the song “Lighten Up, Morrissey”. I may have got the wrong song, but I remember that Sparks were guests on ‘Friday Night with Jonathan Ross’ and it was with one of the performances they gave that night, that I first thought of the similarities between the two singers. The album which Sparks were promoting at the time was called “Exotic Creatures Of The Deep”. I think this album was the 21st album that they have released during their career. I do not own that album or as it turns out, a large proportion of the others, even with the many albums by Sparks that I actually own. My collection comprises of many of their later works, rather than the albums that were released in the 1970s by Island Records. This is because my starting point with Sparks would have been “Singing In The Shower” [with Les Rita Mitsouko] and the ‘Music That You Can Dance To’ album in the 1980s. For many years, I knew them just as a typical synth-pop duo of ‘show-person’ and stationary synth player. I suppose it might be too simplistic to state that they were, at this point, just an ‘American Soft Cell’ [the first act of this type that I knew] as with their ‘Avant-garde’ leanings maybe an ‘American Yello’ would be nearer the truth. There are many tracks that I like by Sparks, but in regards to the last 10 years, I think my favourites would be “Perfume” and “My Baby’s Taking Me Home”. In the case of the last track, I did not understand the subtleties of that recording at first, as the song is essentially the phrase “My Baby’s Taking Me Home” repeated over and over again. Nevertheless after listening to the song a few times more [and after being given ‘pointers’ from a show on the radio] I can now say that the Maels did achieve the effect that they were going after. The track is like an ‘aural’ Magic Eye picture and it does seem that Russell is implying that ‘a girlfriend is taking him home in her car’ at the start which then changes to ‘Damn! the divorce has been finalised and she has got the keys to my home’ by the end. Loz

I do not know if anybody else has got this record or not, but as far as The KLF are concerned I think “Kylie Said To Jason” should be mentioned here, because even when it was first released, the record featured a number of retro references alongside lyrics about Kylie, Jason and the Todd Terry Project. I cannot remember all the lyrics to the song, but I remember that Bill Drummond was reminiscing back to a [fictional] time in his life where he was relaxing on the floor of a room listening to music, whilst being in the company of a number of celebrities. I do not know if this was supposed to be ‘The White Room’ or not, though I remember that footage from that abandoned film project was used for the single’s video. The video featured on one of the Snub TV compilations that were released onto VHS by Virgin Vision in the late 1980s, though I never got around to buying that particular release, only the Snub TV video, which featured “Hairstyle Of The Devil” by Momus. My copy of “Kylie Said To Jason” is on an old ‘Beachwood Indie Hits’ compilation CD [volume 8], alongside “Only Losers Take The Bus” by The Fatima Mansions. It has been so many years since I have listened to “Kylie Said To Jason” that lyrics in my mind have become merged with that of Red Box’s “Heart Of The Sun” single [which went “Contrasting ceremonies!, the circle and the square”]. I do not see why this record has become merged in my sub-consciousness with that of Red Box as “Kylie Said To Jason” was a record that sounded more like [fellow 1980s duo] Sparks, in the decade [starting circa 1985] when they were a synth/electro-pop act recording songs like “National Crime Awareness Week” and “When I Kiss You, I Hear Charlie Parker Playing”. Whereas a lot of references noted by Sparks in their songs seem to be of a high cultural calibre [jazz & classical music, foreign films, people like Charlie Parker and Tsui Hark] “Kylie Said To Jason” was very much to do with mass entertainment. In the song Drummond states that a number of television characters and personalities are in the vicinity of the room where he was, including many popular in the 1960s and 1970s. From Australia, Skippy The Bush Kangaroo was being ‘entertained’ by Rolf Harris who was playing “Sun Arise” on his didgeridoo, whilst Felicity Kendal and Richard Briers from The Good Life were also present, though Drummond could not remember if Briers was actually in the garden or not. I do not think Scooter have recorded a cover of “Kylie Said To Jason” yet or in fact, any records by The KLF, though I did read that they were very fond of Stump and have recently covered a track by that band. The magazine did not say what record it was, though if it was “Charlton Heston” it may be interesting to hear at least once. Loz

Sorry, but I fail to understand why you have made such a pious reference. You will have to explain this point of criticism to me as I cannot see what Christianity has to do with the discussion about Everett. I suppose if I was to ask any of the high street preachers [the kind that I normally try to avoid on my way back into work at lunchtime] what they think of Everett, they would probably give a negative view of his camp comedy and launch into a 10 minute tirade against the ‘sins he has committed’. Obviously, this viewpoint would be based on a 2010 perspective rather than that of 1981, where the full disclosure over his lifestyle and demise is now known. On the other hand, from reading many of the opinions expressed previously in other threads, I think it is likely that the majority of people here would have been socialised in their younger lives [whether by media, upbringing or the University system] to have very anti-Thatcherite feelings. In addition to this people will no doubt remember the footage from that election campaign rally where Everett came on with his big ‘Brother Lee’ hands and suggested that Michael Foot’s stick should be kicked away. Due to this I think it would have been better if you had taken a political rather than religious stance and had said that “they both created shows comprising of sketches, one did it brilliantly, the other was comedy for Conservatives”. [Please note, I would be happy to continue discussing Milligan if you prefer but not in regards to Curry & Chips] Loz

I think I will have to agree with you as well, as I also do not see a natural comparison to the style of Milligan either. I would guess most people would say that Milligan was a surreal comedian and would group his style of comedy with that of Monty Python, whilst Everett would be seen as being ‘rude’ [though not explicit like Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown] or ‘saucy’. I think there are probably more parallels between Rik Mayall & Ade Edmondson’s post-Young Ones brand of anarchic rudeness and Everett’s, though I would not like to compare Everett to The Young Ones outright, as that show was a complex mixture of styles. Whilst I cannot comment too much on the style of comedy used when Everett was employed by Thames, I think that, as far as his BBC 1 output went, you could also say that Everett was a ‘post-Carry On’ comedian that was part of a ‘saucy’ British comic linage that could be traced back further past Williams and Hawtrey, to music hall innuendo and those old seaside postcards. Loz

If anything, it will have less to do with an out-right ban, more to do with the advice given from the BBC Trust in regards to Radio 2’s programming. Generally the Trust is advising that Radio 2 should not be attempting to rival mainstream stations such as ‘Heart’ or ‘Magic’ by targeting those listeners in their 30s at the expense of people who would like the format to be more in keeping with Radio 2’s Light Programme origins [i decided to more diplomatic about their findings here rather than saying ‘Radio 2 should be targeting older people with more Light Entertainment’ which is generally what they seem to be saying]. In addition to this, the Trust’s report has also called for more jazz and live music programming on the station. Even though it sounded like a good idea at the time, this has resulted in Radcliffe & Maconie losing one of their weekly slots. Not only this, but Desmond Carrington, presenter of one of the few specialist shows that I can tolerate before Radcliffe & Maconie [as the show sometimes sounds like ‘Radio Tip Top’ ] has been moved to Fridays and replaced by Jamie Cullum. Now I do not want to be too disrespectful about Cullum as I have not listened to his jazz show. As my musical knowledge of Cullum is limited to his last single, which seemed to be a poor parody of “Step Into My Office, Baby” by Belle & Sebastian; and that footage of him stomping all over his piano on the Parkinson show, I do not want to give a final verdict about his appointment. Whilst I would expect him to be a very knowledgeable person on the subject of jazz, I fear that he will be just another annoying celebrity presenter hired by BBC Radio and therefore I doubt that Radio 2 have at last found the most suitable replacement for Humphrey Lyttelton. On the other hand, Dale Winton is a presenter who initially came to television from local radio and is one of the few that seems to have succeeded in keeping a constant primetime career. As his early career was in radio, I think he is one of the better presenters that Radio 2 have now and actually I prefer him to many of the Radio 1 DJs, from the early 1990s, that have now migrated to this station. In regards to the other ‘celebrity’ presenters on BBC stations, special praise has to given to Jarvis Cocker, who must have one of the best shows on the BBC network. I hope if 6 Music is saved or re-branded as Radio 2 Extra, that Cocker will be part of the schedule for many years to come. By the way, whilst I am on the subject of ‘celebrity’ presenters on the BBC, does anybody else remember when the Pet Shop Boys deputised for Simon Bates on Radio 1’s morning show? It was sometime in the late 1980 or early 1990s, and instead of using the normal playlist, they played a lot of dance records that you would normally only find on late night weekend music shows. I cannot remember if they did a ‘rave’ “Our Tune” as well, but I would like to find out by listening to the shows again. Hopefully, like the Halo James album, the cassettes that I recorded the show onto, will turn up again in a box one day. Loz

I may buy “Bostin’ Steve Austin” if I saw it for a few pounds in the local record store, but I would not go out my way to purchase it as I know I would probably only end up listening to it once. These days I do not have the time or patience to become overly familiar with a lot of ‘new’ albums, unless I have heard many of the tracks quite regularly before. It is most likely that “Bostin’ Steve Austin” will be a better album than “Big Bang”, but personally it means nothing to me, as for nostalgia purposes it is all about those big chart hits. I have not heard those records too many times in the last twenty years and therefore do not mind hearing them again. Some people may think that they are ‘cheesy’ but to me I would prefer to hear them instead of a record that I once thought was brilliant, but now has become annoying due to the over-familiarity of the tune. I would probably class “Vienna” by Ultravox as being annoying now, though I am not going to think too hard about what record would fit this description at this point in time [i have used another Midge Ure reference here, after the initial comparison between Fuzzbox and his daughter’s group, because I have just bought an updated ‘Best Of Ultravox’ record to finally get the ‘U-Vox’ singles onto a digital disc format]. For many years I did not bother playing the “Big Bang” album as it was a record that I very nearly dumped sometime in the mid 1990s. At this time I would have been at University and as you can imagine, I was going through an ‘alternative-indie’ phase and therefore had no time for many of the pop records that I had previously purchased in the late 1980s. Whilst I did not bother sorting out my cassettes or my vinyl collection, about a quarter of my CDs were given away. I could have taken the discs to the local second hand record shop but I did not bother, as I thought that most of the ones that I had selected to go, were now worthless [including a D:Ream album that was only a few months old, an album which would be interesting to have in my collection now, if only to see to what extent Professor Brian Cox was actually involved]. Whereas a number of albums that I had given away to my siblings have now found the way back to me, including the Halo James album “Wanted” which was definitely ‘not wanted’ by me and was found in a box by my father ten years after it was ‘dumped’, the Fuzzbox album was ‘saved’ because it was an American release housed in one of those cardboard long-boxes, that CDs used to come packaged in over there. I have still a lot of those American long-boxes in my collection, even though over the years they have been troublesome to file. My collection of long-box CDs includes many acts that a lot of people on here will have heard of before, such as Cud, Ride, That Petrol Emotion and Throwing Muses; and a lot of random pop acts like Norwegian singer Orup and a Warners signed act called Colours. Orup had a song out in about 1990 called “Earth Angel”, whilst the last act were a duo whose album I have not bothered with for so long, that I cannot remember if they were supposed to be like an American Wang Chung or an Austrian 2 Brave [2 Brave were also from Norway and were a duo from the late 1980s who were supposed to be the ‘new a-ha’]. In addition to my long-boxes, I have kept all of my old Smash Hits from the late 1980s, though some are not in the best condition now, as the ‘gift tape’ that held the ‘freebies’ in place has become ‘gluey’ resulting in some issues sticking together . I remember many of the Smash Hits names and to this day, still think of the drummer in Big Country as being called ‘Mark Unpronounceablename’. I think that Neil Tennant came up with a couple of the names whilst he was at Smash Hits including the one for Billy Idol [i think it was either ‘Sir Billium’ or ‘Sir William of Idol’]. I remember that Tennant was also initially responsible for adding ‘pur-leeeze’ to a lot of the text [which is also a reason why the debut Pet Shop Boys album was actually titled “Please”] but I do not know if he would have come up with ‘Swiiiiingalent’ or ‘back Back BACK!’ As for ‘Ken’ out of Bros, I saw a picture of Craig Logan in Music Week last month as he has set up a new ‘entertainment unit’ of Sony called 247/Logan Managed Entertainment. It will be one of these companies like Simon Cowell’s Syco, that will sign acts to one of those ‘360° deals’, which means that Logan’s sub-division will not only release records but will also be involved in their act’s merchandising and touring, perhaps developing TV shows as well [for example, a comedy show featuring The Hoosiers]. At first I did not recognise Logan and quickly rushed through the stories on that page to the main feature of the week. It was only when I went to read the magazine again that I noticed it was him. I remember reports of the time saying that Logan had been quite sickly and this was the reason given by him for leaving Bros [rather than his diagnosed illness of ‘exhaustion’, I guess the real reason could have been the opportunity to manage Kim Appleby]. I do not know why Smash Hits choose the name Ken for him and I do not think it was because he looked anything like Barbie’s boyfriend. I would guess that Ken was seen as being a ‘non-popstar’ name by the Smash Hits staff of the time and as he was always portrayed as being quite ‘weedy’, in comparison to the Goss twins, maybe the thought of somebody like Kenneth Williams had crossed their minds when this in-joke was started. I cannot be sure and to be honest, I can only think of Ken Bruce as being another famous ‘Ken’ of the ‘pop world’ who has not used another variation of Kenneth like ‘Kenny’ [Thomas, Everett and the band that did “The Bump”, whilst Ken Dodd might be stretching the definition of ‘pop-world’ far too much even with his hits]. Looking at the picture of Logan now, as the former head of RCA, I do not think that he fits the name ‘Craig’ let alone ‘Ken’, so maybe he should change his name, to ‘Simon’ perhaps?. Loz

Hello everybody, I hope you all have had a good Easter holiday period over the last couple of weeks. Mine was not too great as I was still getting over a funeral I had to go to the week before. Due to this factor, you may understand why I have not wanted to reminisce about any dead comedians until now. Nevertheless here are some of my thoughts about Kenny Everett. When I was a young I thought that Everett was the funniest comedian on television, so much so that I wished that he could be my father. As I was only 6 or 7 at time, little did I realise that he would be not be the kind of gentleman who would be bothered with that kind of family role, as this would probably prevent him from going to lots of fabulous parties at Freddie Mercury’s house [though I suppose there is always the vague possibility that he could have had children of his own, as in the case of Ricky Martin, Paul O’Grady and Billy Mackenzie]. I used to watch Everett’s show religiously on the television though by this time it would have been his [very standard sketch format] comedy show on the BBC, rather than the one on Thames that he is usually respected for. I also knew that Everett had a show on the radio and for many years I thought I was an avid listener of his show on Radio 1. Even though I knew he was a big star of the BBC, what I did not realise was that he had been sacked by the radio department many years previously and that I was actually listening to a sound-a-like called Adrian Juste. I think Everett may have actually been broadcasting many miles away on Capital Radio by this time, though he may have got sacked from there as well. Does anyone remember his quiz show as well? The show was called ‘Brainstorm’ and I think it was similar to that quiz show Tony Wilson used to present on Channel 4 where they would eliminate people from the competition after not too long. Whereas on Wilson’s show the audience would sing the chorus of the Ray Charles song “Hit The Road Jack” at the point of elimination, on Everett’s, the contestants were ‘ejected’ from the set, as they were sitting on moving chairs. If you remember that scene in the first Austin Powers film where Will Ferrell’s Mustafa character gets ejected from the table [at Dr Evil’s meeting] into the fire underneath the trapdoor, then this may remind you of the point of elimination on that Brainstorm quiz. Also coming along with ‘Cuddly Ken’ from his sketch show was Cleo Rocas. Even though she was part of the Brainstorm presenting team, I cannot remember what she actually did apart from being Cleo Rocas. I do not think she would have contributed as much as Isla St Clair would have done on Larry Grayson’s Generation Game. Now that I have mentioned Grayson, I think “Shut That Door” would have been just one of the many impersonations that many people my age tried to do when they were younger, along with Tommy Cooper’s “Just like that” and Everett’s “…in the best possible taste” line from his character Cupid Stunt. Unlike accident prone DIY man Reg Prescott, Cupid Stunt was never one of my favourite characters of his, though I did like Barry Cryer’s anecdote about renaming the character, as their intended name was deemed far ruder than Cupid Stunt by the powers that be at the BBC. Cupid Stunt’s catchphrase was also co-opted for use as an album title by Kingmaker in 1995, though this was just a regular artist album rather than their ‘Greatest Hits’ album. I think “…in the best possible taste” would have been a brilliant title for a Hits compilation album and I am hoping that EMI will get around to issuing a Kingmaker CD/DVD compilation like they have been doing with all their 1980s UK signed acts [blondie, Kajagoogoo, Thomas Dolby and Ultravox]. As I was a fan of Kingmaker at the time, I thought it was a pity that their “In The Best Possible Taste” album did not chart and that they seemed to be one of those post-baggy bands of the early 1990s that seemed to get lost in the Britpop ‘rush’ towards the middle of that decade. To be totally honest with you, it has been a few years since I last thought about Kingmaker or played their records [of which I had quite a good collection of releases]. I wished I had remembered them when I signed up for this site, as having the same first name as their singer, I think that using a pun on the name Kingmaker as my non de plume, may have been a better choice than one that I use now. Not only is my online name a bad pun, one that I do not think that even Barry Cryer would attempt to use, I now realise that it makes me sound like a character in Rainbow. I suppose if I wanted to sound like a character in Rainbow I could have used ‘Mr. Bungle’ for my online pseudonym, as at least there would be a link to band that I was fond of back in the 1990s [Faith No More/Mike Patton]. I cannot remember if any bands equivalent to Faith No More or Kingmaker would have come onto Kenny Everett’s BBC 1 television show in the 1980s. I think the acts booked may have been the kind of 1980s pop that would be more suitable for a light entertainment show format, though I guess slightly ‘cooler’ than the acts you would see on either Little & Large or The Two Ronnies. I cannot remember if acts like Madness or Motorhead would have been on Everett’s show, as I only remember them appearing on fellow ‘light entertainment’ show The Young Ones, bookings which turned out to be part a worthwhile ‘con’ to get more money for the team from the Beeb [i think Everett actually invented this term as well]. On the whole, I think that the musical guests that Everett would have on his show would be similar to the ones he spoofed, such as Rod Stewart and the Bee Gees. In the case of the latter act, my memories of Everett’s spoof sketch had, for many years, become merged with that of the KYTV cast’s “Meaningless Songs (In Very High Voices)” parody. It was not until a few years after Have I Got News For You had started to be broadcast, that I saw the old footage again of Angus Deayton performing this ‘Hee Bee Gee Bees’ routine on one of those ‘Before They Were Famous’ type of shows. I enjoyed KYTV when it was on, especially the pop quiz sketch, but overall I did not think the show was up to the standards of Absolutely or Naked Video. I do not know what I would think of all these shows if I saw them now, and would probably be disappointed that the humour was not as funny or as ‘edgy’ as the time when I first saw the shows new. I do not think that I would like to get into a discussion about ‘alternative’ comedy unless it is about simply remembering what shows I used to watch. Since many of the artists became assimilated into the mainstream it is hard to remember what shows were actually part of the alternative comedy boom unless they were fronted by people from the original Comedy Store footage that I have seen on TV. As I was a fan of his shows at the time, I think I would have included somebody like Jasper Carrott as being an ‘alternative comedian’ especially since his shows were of a satirical nature, broadcast post-watershed and featured people like Punt & Dennis. Obviously, we all now know him as the “Funky Moped” man from Goldenballs [which, I suppose in these days of TV scandals could be found out to be a ‘Numberwang-esque’ spoof all along] but as a child his comedy seemed very risqué and anti-establishment. I cannot remember there ever being any musical guest interludes on either Carrott’s Lib or Canned Carrrot, and I suppose this is another reason why I regarded Carrott’s shows as being ‘alternative’. By the time Carrott’s shows were being broadcast, many sketch shows were moving away from their light entertainment origins and therefore disregarded the musical guests, though French & Saunders did have Kirsty Maccoll in the music slot every week. As most shows in those days seemed to have a series run of six episodes, I cannot image Kirsty Maccoll getting the chance to showcase all of her songs from her ‘Kite’ album on the French & Saunders show. Now many comedy series seem to have extended runs, it is a pity more shows these days do not take this approach as it could be a great opportunity for an artist’s album launch and could give ‘Dave’ a natural advertisement break when they come to repeat the shows after the album campaign has ended. In regards to the appearances of Maccoll, I only seem to remember two songs being performed, which were “Don’t Come The Cowboy With Me Sonny Jim” and my personal “Kite” album favourite “15 Minutes”, though I would expect the Ray Davies song “Days” to have been performed as well. I cannot remember clearly any other songs being performed on any other comedy shows, so I guess the normal standard of guests must have either not been to my liking or not in the same league as Madness, Maccoll and Motorhead. I think that people like Elaine Paige and Barbra Dickinson would have been the usual musical relief, whilst “I Know Him So Well” is a recording that must have been spoofed by French & Saunders at some point in the past. As all the BBC Four compilations that I normally see are drawn from the usual archive of shows, such as TOTP or The Whistle Test and not from these ‘Light Entertainment’ comedy interludes, the only other act that I am sure I saw on a comedy show is ABC. I remember watching the mid 1980s line-up of ABC on Everett’s BBC 1 show, in a clip that I have tried to find with no luck on Youtube. This was the “Who Wants To Be A Zillionaire” version of the ‘band’ which included performance-only members Eden and David Yarritu. I cannot remember what song they were singing though I think it may have been “15 Story Halo” rather than one of the singles from the album. You may remember the style of the band at the time, as they looked like a cartoon version of The Age Of Chance, with bizarrely shaped instruments and giant quiffs. I guess that Titlow & Miller of Blue Mercedes may have been influenced by this period of the group rather more than ABC of “The Lexicon Of Love” era, as you could have easily replaced Mark White in the line-up with Duncan Miller with his quiff and large “weird keyboard thingy”. As for the recordings of Titlow & Miller, I think their Blue Mercedes song “Crunchy Love Affaire” could have easily fitted as a bonus track on “The Lexicon Of Love”. I thought that it was a pity that this was not released as a single, perhaps instead of “Love Is The Gun”, though with hindsight I think they would have had more chance of longevity in the charts if they had just started off sounding like Primal Scream in the first place [as in the case of their “Sweet Temptation” record released under the alias of Nixon in 1991]. Even though I think that “Crunchy Love Affaire” would have been a better single, I would like to have the video of “Love Is The Gun” on my collection of old VHS tapes. Since the Christmas edition in 1986 [which featured Fuzzbox at Number 10 in the ‘Best of Indie’ chart], I had recorded every episode of The [iTV] Chart Show onto VHS apart from one episode which featured that Blue Mercedes song. I remember that it was broadcast on a sunny day and I was out somewhere, though I cannot remember if I was just out for the day or on holiday for the week; or who had set the video or forgot to record it for me. I also cannot remember if it had moved to Saturday mornings by that time, as on the last VHS of old Chart Shows that I watched I had not recorded any of the opening titles or adverts. Thankfully, unlike some of my of old Polygram CDs, the VHS recordings from this period have not disintegrated to an extent where I cannot play the music, and I seem to have recorded most of the pop videos that I would want to watch again, so really I can not complain, I mustn’t grumble [to quickly paraphrase an infamously bad rhyming couplet]. Loz

Hello again, I had wanted to talk about this band earlier but unfortunately I have not felt like contributing to any discussions recently as my family has received some very sad news, which for me is saying something, as I was a big Fuzzbox fan back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I was such a fan of Fuzzbox back then, that I tried to buy any magazine that I could see them in, though as my local newsagent saved me a lot of music magazines anyway on a regular basis, this was not too hard for me to accomplish. I still have many of these magazines in my collection as well as my copy of “Big Bang” in that daft American long box case that CDs in the States used to come packaged in. I also have their DVD collection that came with their recent Hits album, though as it was more the stylised ‘pop version’ of the group that I liked, I was never bothered with “Bostin’ Steve Austin”. It is great that everybody has good feelings towards the group, as having read the S/A/W discussion I thought that people would be equally as negative towards Fuzzbox. I thought that people may only know this later hit making incarnation of the group and therefore would criticise them for being a cheesy manufactured pop group, as if they were the 1989 version of The Faders [though I guess credit had to be given to Molly of The Faders for not trading on the names of her parents, unlike most of the celebrity offspring that you see in the press these days]. Looking at the responses to many of the questions posed here in this retro section, I think that the majority of people would be more likely to identify Baby Turpentine or Big Stick in a pop quiz, rather than Botany 5 or The Big Bam Boo. The first two bands were typical [non-Gallup charting] ‘NME type’ acts that you would have probably seen in the mid-to-late 1980s if you were an avid reader of that paper. They are also the type of acts that I just about remember from that time, whilst the last two acts are artists which still feature in my album collection, even though most people forgot about them about 20 years ago [botany 5 were like a cross between The Beloved and The Blue Nile; and were named after the outfitter to the stars on TV’s "Bewitched", clothes firm Botany 500, a firm which was also referenced by The Wedding Present on their ‘Dick York’s Wardrobe’ release. As was the case with one-hit-wonder Owen Paul, I think Botany 5 also included somebody who had a brother in Simple Minds, though this time it was Jim Kerr rather than any of the other musicians. On the other hand, The Big Bam Boo were the self-styled Everly Brothers of 1980s, who must have been signed by MCA Records as a kind of rival to The Proclaimers. I think this duo was only known for looking like they had come straight from the 1950s and for having a vocalist-guitarist called Shark, whilst their singles included "Fell Off A Mountain" and "Shooting From My Heart"]. Nevertheless, after seeing what types of music people here seem to be interested in, I will suggest that a lot of people reading this page are at an age where they would have enjoyed, or at least known, Fuzzbox from their days on Vindaloo [even though the band came from Birmingham, I am not sure if their record label would also have been based there, though I think it would have been a very good name, as I think that the Chicken Tikka curry was actually invented there in that city]. I remember seeing a clip of Fuzzbox on the first series of The Chart Show, when the on-screen info was provided by a computer called ‘HUD’ [if you remember, that stood for ‘Head Up Display’ though the facts were so tiny that you could never read it properly]. I think the show was from Christmas 1986 and was a ‘best of the year’ compilation. Fuzzbox were listed at about number 10, though I cannot remember which song the video was for [even though I could go home and look on their DVD] but from what I remember I think that they were all riding on the back of a scooter at the time. At that age I thought that they were dreadful, but then again, I thought most of the artists that appeared in The Chart Show’s indie charts were awful, as to me most acts sounded like a ‘shambolic mess’ of ear-splitting punk noise. I avoided most acts on ‘proper’ Indie labels like Vindaloo, though there were exceptions. I liked all the singles by The Smiths but never bought any of their albums as I thought that being on Rough Trade records, the rest of the tracks might be too experimental for my tastes. I was actually happy that Morrissey signed to EMI Records as I thought that would be the sign of a good pop artist [though by the time he had released "Viva Hate" I was starting to like ‘proper indie’ music, as now I was in my early teenage years I was buying the NME every week]. In addition to The Smiths, I was fine with most of the artists that were on Mute Records [artists such as Erasure, Wire and Laibach] as to me, Mute was just a synth-pop label that I knew from the early 1980s. I do not know if other people here were aware of the differences between ‘Indie’ and ‘Major’ when they were 10, 11 or 12 or whether this knowledge would be something learned during your teenage years. I think it might be more to do with people’s teenage years, perhaps happening the most with '6th form' students [especially if the cliché about artistic students is to be believed, with music tastes usually operating hand-in-hand with interests in ‘bohemian poetry readings’], but whereas many people, especially those of a ‘student’ age, seem to become very ‘anti-major’, as a child it was the other way around for me. I would be wary of an album if it came out on an Indie record label such as Rough Trade or Factory, but generally records released on a ‘major’ label would be fine [an exception being Soul II Soul's "Club Classics Vol. One" which I guess was more in keeping with an album released on Mute & Martin Heath’s Rhythm King Records]. My favourite record labels at the time, the ones that I thought would always release quality recordings, would be ones like Circa Records and Virgin, labels which at that time, would be part of the AVL group. I thought that seeing a Virgin Records label on a sleeve was a sign of quality because I liked bands such as Scritti Politti and OMD. These acts had released a number of great albums in the 1980s, though at that age I did not know that these acts themselves were ex-Indie acts, coming from Rough Trade and Factory Records, respectively. Back in the 1980s record labels such as Chrysalis, Island and Virgin were releasing records by very mainstream acts and were always seemed to be regarded as ‘Minor-Major’ record labels by the press, with the more serious rock ‘inkies’ regarding them in a very negative way. Therefore, it was quite interesting to read the recent news about XL Records topping the charts in America with that Vampire Weekend album, as back in the 1980s Beggars Banquet [XL’s parent group] was usually seen as being as bad as the labels I mentioned at the start of this paragraph. XL was the first indie label in 20 years to have an album top the Billboard album chart and when you think how highly that label is regarded now, it is amazing to think back to the days when it was just an offshoot of another dance label owned by Beggars Banquet. That label in question, Citybeat, was one that I cannot ever remember being held in much regard by dance music fans and one which could probably be regarded as the 1980s version of AATW [but with jazz-funk band Freeze signed instead of N-Dubz], As Citybeat, a label not in the same league as Rhythm King, was only known for Freeze and a few other ‘faceless’ Piano-house/Italio-dance records, it is no wonder that XL Records was set up as their more credible dance label. From that point, I think it was great to see how XL became such a highly regarded Indie label and I suppose a lot of this ‘cross-over’ success has been due to The Prodigy, who were always popular at the Indie nights that I used to frequent back in the 1990s. As I do not remember Beggars Banquet having much credibility bestowed upon them by the music press in the late 1980s I can see why XL has to become more than just a ‘dance’ label. Whereas [sister label] 4AD had a very strong identity with great acts that would always get ‘raved’ about in the ‘serious rock press’, Beggars Banquet was mostly known for The Cult and Gary Numan, acts that did not always get the best press in the 1980s [i liked them even if nobody else did, and still own The Cult’s ‘RM’ flexi-disc and some Sharpe & Numan singles]. In regards to Numan, even though he is now seen as one of the great icons of electronic music, in those days he was regarded as being more akin to the ‘musical Boris Johnson of the skies’ rather than the ‘flying Elvis of synth-pop’ that is, and with reference to “Have I got News For You” rather than giving an overtly political statement, a figure of fun rather than a true musical pioneer [Metal fans may like to replace the Elvis reference with one of Bruce Dickinson, if you prefer to use him instead as an iconic figure]. At this stage, I do not want to discuss the merits of Numan or Ashbury too much as I am sure those artists could fuel a major discussion by themselves. Before I move on, I would like to say that it is good that opinions have changed in regards to Numan, so much so that I can imagine Numan being a good fit with the current artists of XL’s roster, in a way that Kraftwerk have ended up being issued by Mute. In fact, I thought that it would have been Mute Records who would have had the last indie Billboard Number One album. I was hoping that it would have been Depeche Mode’s “Violator” and when I found out that was not; I was very surprised to see what the actual album was. I think Americans did not have the same concept of indie music that we did back in the 1980s and I think that style of music was actually called ‘college rock’ back then by them, as the last Indie album to chart at the top was actually a Paula Abdul record released on Virgin, though on the other hand, I guess it could be the USA equivalent to all those Kylie songs in the Indie charts when it used to be featured on The Chart Show [in the days when it was on C4 as a replacement for The Tube]. 　 I think it was because all those ‘Minor-Majors’ were releasing a lot of mainstream records like “Opposites Attract” and “Straight Up” that they did not get the credit that they originally deserved, credit that has only been recently bestowed upon them [for example, in BBC Four documentaries, though I have not seen a Virgin Records show yet, I guess because of Branson's on-going celebrity as a kind of ‘bearded Boris Johnson’ of the business world]. In recent documentaries such as the one celebrating 50 years of Island Records, these ‘Minor-Major’ labels are now seen as the original Indies, with a lot of ‘bohemian’ signings from the Folk, Prog and Reggae scenes. In addition to these genres, most of the first generation punk and new wave acts seem to have been signed by them, artists whose music I think would be actually easier to listen than some of the artists signed to Virgin a few years before that. 　 I think Virgin Records signed a lot of Krautrock and Prog artists like Faust, Gong and King Crimson, as well as comedy records like 'Derek and Clive', in the early 1970s. I suppose if you were to compare the 1973 roster of the company to some ‘Landfill Indie’ labels of today, then they would probably be seen as being more indie and ‘weird’ than a lot of the labels of today, even with a figure such as Branson at the helm of the company. I cannot comment too much on Prog and Krautrock, as for most of my life I have avoided those genres and therefore would not know which acts have produced what records [well I suppose I could name a couple of records by Genesis as I was a Peter Gabriel fan in the mid 1980s]. I know slightly more about Punk and New Wave, though not enough to say I have a real passion for it and I guess only because many of the 'pop' artists in Smash Hits/RM that I liked in the mid to late 1980s, such as The Dammed, Siouxsie, PiL and XTC, would have been artists active with slightly different styles in the punk days [with the last two also being signed to Virgin]. Another ‘Alternative’ artist who ended up signing to Virgin in the late 1980s was Robert Lloyd. Unlike Microdisney, The Big Dish and The Indian Givers, I never got around to purchasing his album, though I nearly did about 20 years ago. I have heard his name mentioned many times in the music press usually in regards to his band called The Nightingales. I heard on 6Music the other week that ‘The Boy Lard’ had been playing an old Peel Session by The Nightingales, though I did not actually get to listen to the session myself as I had fallen asleep during the course of the programme and had only regained consciousness when I heard an old Orange Juice record being played ["Simply Thrilled Honey"]. It was a pity that I had fallen asleep before the session was played, as I do not think I have ever heard The Nightingales in full and wanted to know what they actually sounded like. I have never seen any cheap albums by them for sale in all my years of shopping, whilst iTunes generally annoys me for reasons that I will not go into now. The only song by The Nightingales that I have actually heard before is their ‘Vindaloo Summer Special’ collaboration with Fuzzbox that features on the DVD, but I guess this would not be the best indication towards the actual sound of the band. In addition to that, I think that "Rockin’ With Rita" is the only Vindaloo era record by Fuzzbox that I have ever played more than once since I got the Fuzzbox DVD. If The B-52s had been British, I think a record like "Wig" or “Channel Z” would have sounded very much like "Rockin’ With Rita", with Ted Chippington in the Fred Schneider role. Personally, I thought The B-52s were brilliant at the time, though I got fed up hearing "Love Shack" as it was one of those 'party tunes' you could not escape when I worked in a local pub. I heard "Roam" on 6Music, recently, and as there is an absence of Fred, it sounds more like The Voice Of The Beehive or Belinda Carlisle. Whereas the former act was a band I liked a lot and own a few albums by them, the latter was an act that I was never much keen on. I think this was because she was always seen by me as one of those big American acts, part of a culture of which I had a confirmed opinion about and therefore I would think that her releases would be no good, as ‘mainstream’ American pop would always be regarded as being inferior to the British pop I had grown up with. As the Beehive sisters, Tracy and Melissa, were signed to Food and had Woody from Madness in their group, I regarded them as if they were a British group. In addition to that, their band name had a link to the kitsch hairstyles of Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson, singers who unlike Carlisle, I always regarded as being part of an alternative pop scene [which would be a group different to a ‘Chart Show Shambolic Indie’ act such as Fuzzbox in 1986]. I suppose as Carlisle was a member of The Go-Gos, I may have unfairly viewed her career and at some point I will have to re-evaluate her recordings, if not solo then especially in regards to that of The Go-Gos. 　 Another act from America that I did not care too much for in the 1980s was The Bangles. I think I disregarded a lot of The Bangles work mainly due to the 'horror' of "Eternal Flame", though I liked "Manic Monday" as that was a song by Prince [though he was called Christopher or Alexander Nevermind at the time]. In addition to that, I came to regard "Walk Like An Egyptian" as being a daft pop record that was alright in small doses [for example when drunk at an 80s party night]. I was not bothered with the rest of their catalogue for a long time and I have only recently started re-evaluating their career after buying their Greatest Hits on CD. This was because I had been reading about the recent work of Susanna Hoffs that she had been doing with 1990s power-pop artist Mathew Sweet. I had not heard much about their work together, apart from a couple of songs they had recorded as Ming Tea in the Austin Powers films, but power-pop is a genre I think I would like to discover more about and I think their records together, being power-pop cover albums, might be a good starting point. On their recent album, Mathew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs have covered the songs of acts such as Nick Lowe and Big Star [an act, like Sparklehorse, no doubt I will pay my respects to at a later date]. Similar to Barry Manillow, Sweet & Hoffs are recording an album of covers per decade, though they started with the 1960s and I guess are unlikely to cover a Rick Astley tune any time soon. A proportion of The Bangles hits were also covers, and in addition to that aforementioned song by Prince, their songs were written by people like Kimberley Rew from The Soft Boys [also from Katrina and the Waves] and Jules Shear who also wrote Alison Moyet’s "Whispering Your Name" single. A lot of people may take a negative view of ‘covers’ especially when they are obvious song choices but in this case I do not think the originals would have been too wildly known and therefore I guess that these songs would be seen more like the ‘definitive’ versions, in the same way that “Torn” is usually identified with Natalie Imbruglia. I cannot state which Bangles singles the girls wrote themselves but I know that some were masterminded by the same producer/songwriter who had a hand in helping Fuzzbox get chart success [i think he was called Liam Steinberg]. I know that many pop acts have this kind of songwriting ‘hired help’ that is regularly brought in by record companies to guide them with co-writes, though with most acts you do not know to what extent a song is a proper collaboration or just a writing credit given out in a way similar to all those ‘Exec Producer’ credits on American TV. In regards to Fuzzbox, I remember a few people, writing in the 'grown-up inkie' music press, were criticising the band for selling out as they had signed to a major, but I suppose these people were never going to be satisfied unless they were on Vindaloo. In Smash Hits they were regarded as good popstars who would play up to the fact they were a band in the pop genre and were always thought of very fondly. Actually I have still got all my Smash Hits from that time, still in pristine condition, though I got rid of all the old copies of NME from that time, apart from a few featuring Fuzzbox in the pages. Does anybody remember the interview in Smash Hits where Fuzzbox stated what their ‘real names’ were? These ‘real names’ were according to the band rather than their real birth certificates and are an important occurrence in Pop Culture history, as this is where the editor of Top Of The Pops magazine is supposed to have got the idea to name the Spice Girls from [though everyone at the time joked they were rejects from the seven dwarfs]. I cannot remember the names exactly, but I remember the interview and think that Mags said her name was ‘Margargarita Durunddurunda’. It was something to that extent though I do not think the name was such a ‘mash up’ between the names of Margarita Pracakhan [the mad Cuban woman from The Clive James Show, not to be confused with rave act Praga Khan] and Duran Duran. You may have already thought of other links to Duran Duran at this point as they were also a band that came from Birmingham, whilst a further link to Fuzzbox would be Ade Edmondson, who played Barbarella’s Dr Durand Durand in the "International Rescue" video. Bizarrely, I think that out of all musicians I have seen live in concert, Ade Edmondson is the person I have seen ‘in concert’ the most, though this was in his former role as comedian rather that that of touring folk musician with daughter Ella and band The Bad Shepherds. In relation to his comedy career and Smash Hits does anybody else remember when he ‘killed’ Howard Jones on the cover of Smash Hits in 1986, bursting out from a blue background with a chainsaw? As he is a touring musician, it is amazing that he has not been selected as the host of Never Mind The Buzzcocks yet, though maybe he is now seen as being ‘too old’ and not ‘cutting edge’ anymore for this type of show by the powers that be. By the way, did anyone else see Vix [Vicky Perks] on Buzzcocks during the last series of Buzzcocks? Like when Roxy from Home and Away turned up in Heroes as the policeman’s wife, I was quite shocked to see how Vix had aged, especially since I used to have a massive crush on her as a teenager. Whilst watching that show I was thinking that she reminds me of a cross between Claudia Brucken from Propaganda and Maggie De Monde from Swansway, something I have never thought about before. I cannot remember if Maggie De Monde has been on Buzzcocks yet, but I can imagine that she would be a good booking for the line-up, especially if the comedian presenting makes a pun the name Scarlet Fantastic [her duo after Swansway] or joke about "No Memory". I think that the team could get a lot of ‘mileage’ out of that song title joking that they have ‘No Memory’ of her. In fact anything would be better than Vix’s appearance where she was under used and only briefly bothered with. I think the comedians could have made more of the fact that she was in a band called ‘We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Gonna Use It’ but then again maybe the comedians booked were not the type of people who would base their acts around innuendo and double entendre. Even though the band name sounds like it may have come from a rejected Talbot Rothwell script for a ‘Carry On Punk’ or ‘Riot Grrrl’ film, I think that their name is probably only the decent band name of this length, due to the ambiguity of that phrase when used in association with a female guitar group. 　 Due to this, I think that the artwork of their hits compilation album may have been more striking if it had a cover similar to that of PiL’s “This What Is Not” album, though as that CD’s inlay booklet has been turned around now so not to offend anybody in the shops, I suppose they were better off with the permitted amount of rudeness that Fuzzbox got away with on their CD. Loz

Hello, I am afraid you will have to tell me what song you have posted here, as I have turned off all the ‘interactivity’ due to all the computer use regulations in force here. On the other hand, if you have posted “Diamond Girl”, I may actually make a point of putting the Internet on at home tonight [i am a very infrequent user at home and as Metal Britannia starts tonight with a film about Iron Maiden, I think I will end up watching that instead when I get in tonight]. In regards to Wylie’s “Diamond Girl” I think it is about 24 years since I have last heard that record as I do not think that it was included on the “Sinful” album, a CD that I must have last played sometime in the late 1990s. If I remember correctly the “Diamond Girl” single was a duet with a vocalist called Josie Jones, and if my memory serves me well, I think she was billed on the single in a way akin to ‘The Magical’ or ‘The Marvellous’ Ms Josie Jones. As a follow up to the comments of a previous contributor who mentioned Edwyn Collins, people may like to know that a clip from a recent interview was played on 6Music News today, that featured Collins discussing his forthcoming recording plans. In addition to collaborating with one of the Jarman Brothers from The Cribs, Collins said that he had written a number of new songs intended for an album that is to be released later on in the year. It is great to hear that his speech is almost back to normal now, being greatly improved since last time I heard him speak and at one point in the future I hope to get Grace Maxwell’s book about his recovery. Also, in addition to the interview, “Blue Boy” was played on 6Music again, which along with King’s “Love and Pride” must be the retro track that I have heard most times on the radio in the last month, in fact, I think I have heard those records more times than the record that should be at Number One next week. May I ask if you are also a 6Music listener? If so, how do you feel about the recent proposals? On the other hand, if you would like to discuss old radio formats in general, whether it be about Radio Tip Top or The Goons, Adrian Juste or Kenny Everett, I will be only happy to contribute to your memories. Loz

I would not have known who he was in those days, as I did not start buying Smash Hits until 1986. I had the song on a Ronco compilation tape called “Hits Of 83” a few years before then, but I did not make the connection between Wah! and Wylie until a couple of years after “Sinful”. “Hits of 83” was one of those compilation albums where it was stated that if you bought one volume you got the other ‘free’, though in reality it was just a double album. At the time it was released I do not think the volumes could be purchased separately, though I can imagine many ‘orphaned’ parts turning up in charity shops across the land. I had “Hits of 83” stuck at the side of my bed for about 10 years, ever since I decided to stick the cases together so that I would not loose either parts. It is a pity that I finally moved it a few months back, as today I would have liked to have seen what else was on the tapes. This was because on 6Music this morning, they [Chris Hawkins and co.] were asking about what recordings listeners had on tape that should have been updated onto CD and whilst they were reading out various comments, they mentioned another Ronco album called “Raiders Of The Pop Charts”. Now “Raiders Of The Pop Charts” was one of the first compilation albums that I had in my collection, though my copy is on vinyl rather than cassette, and a tune from the album was actually played on the radio, which was Heaven 17’s “Let Me Go”, one of my personal favourites. Later on in the show, they were trying to remember if “Raiders Of The Pop Charts” was part of a series of albums like the worldwide “Now” franchise or if it was just a ‘one off’. Being another Ronco record I guess it could be seen as two separate albums in a series, as it was also released as a ‘buy one get one free’ offer. I am not too sure if it was part of a series or not, though I do have another album by Ronco called “Chart Encounters Of The Pop Kind” which featured the same man on the front [this time in a tracksuit holding an odd triangle shaped object, whereas before he was dressed as Indiana Jones] so many more Ronco albums may have been released, all with badly punning film spoof titles. Many of the other albums that listeners had on tape, such as Swing Out Sister and Blancmange, are ones that I own on CD, so I must have bought them about five years after they were first released. As well as playing songs that listeners had on cassette, Hawkins also played Underworld’s “Dark and Long” [between songs by Heaven 17 and Blancmange]. I do not know if you remember Underworld from back in the late 1980s, many years before “Born Slippy” and just a few years after they had evolved from that squiggle named band [‘Freur’], but in 1990 I nearly bought their album on cassette for 49p. In those days, Underworld were supposed to sound like a ‘funky rock’ version of The Thompson Twins or like an English version of INXS, acts that would have been great reference points for me in those days, but as I had only read about the band in the press, I decided at that time to buy an 49p album by Kon Kan instead. My plan was to go back a couple of weeks later to buy the Underworld album and a record by Limahl, though by the time I got around to going back, the store had closed completely. Whilst I am not too bothered about Limahl’s solo albums now [though I would like to get Kajagoogoo’s hits DVD], I wish I had bought that Underworld album, especially since I ended up buying many of their subsequent releases. The album may have been already re-issued because I know that the Freur albums have, though I have not seen any for sale. You may remember the album which I wanted, it was one that could be mistaken for a Sigue Sigue Sputnik record, as it featured a Tony James style shot of Karl Hyde in glasses and hat [i think he was the cover star though I cannot be certain]. By the way, the last record I heard on 6Music today was King’s “Love And Pride” [the parent album being a record that I actually have on cassette in my collection]. I mention this because in addition to the recent news about 6Music, you may like to know that VH1 has also been discontinued, though this time with a replacement MTV channel that will show hits mainly from the 1980s. Loz

I am surprised nobody has mentioned Living In A Box yet, the band that had a hit with “Living In A Box”. I would have thought that this was the most obvious choice to mention, as unlike “Renegade Soundwave”, I doubt anyone would have named their band Living In A Box, if they had not written a song with that title first. Around the time that Living In A Box were famous, there was an act in the charts who had their band name and song title mixed up, as they were a ‘faceless’ dance act who had released an instrumental. I cannot remember who it was, though it could have been 808 State with the song “State 808” being credited to the band ‘Pacific’. Actually, now I come to think of it, I think it was more likely to have been The Future Sound Of London with their “Stakker Humanoid” release, as I do not think 808 State were that ‘faceless’ at the time. When the “Stakker Humanoid” record was reissued in the early 1990s, after the success of “Papua New Guinea”, the record was credited to Humanoid, but I think they were originally billed as Stakker on the initial pressing of the record and on their ‘Videola’ release. I do not think anybody else here will have bothered to remember those ‘Videola’ releases, as they were never hugely popular and were normally seen as being too weird for mainstream tastes. I do not think I would have remembered them now if it was not for the releases being mentioned on the in-lay of a Johnny Hates Jazz video that I recently got out to look at. Actually, now I come to think of those productions, I may have seen part of a ‘Videola’ release before. I remember that I once saw some clips of a musical project by Godley & Crème on TV, where they had recorded, straight onto video, many different sounds made by various objects [such as shots of table tennis balls being thrown on piano wires]. These shots would then represent a note that would be edited together to make up a song, though usually the effect would just be just annoying, sounding like a lot of bells being dropped at the same time, rather than like the “Wedding Bells” single. It is no wonder why Lol Crème ended up in The Art Of Noise as that ‘Videola’ project was very much like a visual version of all the early experiments in sound sampling by that ZTT signed act. I do not know if you also remember The Art Of Noise videos for “Close To The Edit” and “Dragnet”, the latter which featured clips from the film being paused and then overlaid with the cast of the former video. At the time I thought this ‘bluescreen’ inter-action between cast and film was very clever, and much better than the usual film song promo where clips of the film would just be edited together with an unrelated performance from the pop star. Now the artist who directed these Art Of Noise videos was a Polish guy who was called Zbigniew. I cannot remember his second name, though you will probably have seen his video for the re-issue of “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots Of Money)”. This was the video shot against a black screen with many Pet Shop Boys overlaid on top of each other rather than the video with Neil Tennant in a hole, which was quite dreadful in comparison. Zbigniew was another person who released a ‘Videola’, though I cannot remember whom he collaborated with. Usually the ‘Videola’ releases were created between artist and musician, though I remember that Bomb The Bass just sound-tracked a skateboard video instead. I like Bomb The Bass and have a few albums by that act, including the one that was released about a year ago. I never bought the Bomb The Bass ‘Videola’ as in the 1980s I had all the singles already taped onto video [mainly from The Chart Show] and anyway, I think that most of the ‘Videola’ was just reused for the “Don’t Make Me Wait” video. Another act I liked in the 1980s was Madness, who not only got their name from an old Prince Buster song but also had another hit with a song called Madness, though as this was a double A-side, this is not normally remembered. They were one of the first bands I ever liked as a child though as someone will no doubt start a major Madness discussion soon, I will wait till then to fully reminisce about them. Another band that I have liked for about the same period of time, which must be nearly 30 years now, is Depeche Mode. Rather than being named after a song, this band were named after a French fashion magazine, though as the translation is something akin to “Fast Fashion”, it is likely that they will also share their name with a foreign-language pop hit, perhaps from the 1960s, as well as a boutique [there is also a Depeche Mode bar in Estonia but is a theme bar based upon the band]. So are Strangelove actually named after a Depeche Mode song? In the 1990s I was a fan of both bands and if that is true, that would be something that I did not know. I always thought that Strangelove had co-opted their name from that 1960s band called The Strangeloves, who I think were an old American Psych group [please do not take my word for it as I am no expert on that kind of music, though I think they may have been on the cover of Shindig recently and therefore active in the San Francisco/Bay Area around 1966]. In regards to the 1990s act, I thought that “Time for the Rest of Your Life” was an amazing single and one that was never bettered by the band. I had wanted to play that record about three weeks ago when I was having a ‘session’ playing a load of singles from the 1990s, but as I had organised my CD collection quite badly I could not [any group which started with letters listed toward the end of the alphabet were only accessible with a lot of time and effort, which as it was a Sunday evening, was time that I did not have]. Thankfully when I had last brought out my collection from this period I had put the middle section in back-to-front, and therefore it was easy to get out my old Pulp CDs, which was good as I had been listening to Jarvis earlier that day on 6Music. I ended up playing a lot of mid-1990s trip-hop singles and records that sounded quite ‘cinematic’, so this time I did not play either “Disco 2000” or “Common People” by Pulp. One of the other singles that I played was “She” by Angelpie. In fact, I played that record a few times as I had forgotten how good it was. You will probably not remember this act as they had no hits, though some dance fans may know the singer Marina Van-Rooy, who had some club hits on de/Construction records in the early 1990s [i think she may have recorded with Sasha but cannot be sure]. It was so long since I had played that record, not only had I forgotten about “She” but I had also forgot about their other single, “Tin Foil Valley”. The only fact I could remember about the group was that the singer was a bit like Saffron and had a few solo singles released before she had joined the group. For a while I did think that it could be Saffron or at least Sally-Ann Marsh from Xpansions, until I saw the picture of Van-Rooy on one of the CDs [in regards to Saffron, I have also got her solo 7inch single somewhere in my collection as well as some by N-joi and Republica]. If I have a week off from work, I may have time to fully re-assemble my 1990s CD collection, if not I will have to see if “Time for the Rest of Your Life” has been licensed for a compilation. I suppose if EMI Records ever got around to releasing a compilation called “101 Songs For A Gloomy Sunday”, I would expect that Strangelove would feature alongside Morrissey’s “Everyday Is Like Sunday” and that infamous “Gloomy Sunday” song, though I would rather have the Swansway recording of “Gloomy Sunday” listed instead of Billy Mackenzie’s version, so they can make room for Apollo 440’s “Pain In Any Other Language”. I see that you have also mentioned Dr. Feelgood, which I think was a reference to the nickname of an actual doctor in the 1920s who had an ‘under-the-counter’ trade in illegal drugs, before the term was adapted by people in the 60s who had ‘turned on, tuned in and dropped out’ as reference similar to that of “Brown Sugar”. In regards to the band, the only record that I know that was written by them, or at least either by Wilko Johnson or Lee Brillaux, is “Roxette” which I have seen on a BBC Four compilation of ‘Whistle Test’ performances. I did not know much about this band until recently though I did read before that their “Milk & Alcohol” hit was a song written courtesy of Nick Lowe [i actually did not know that Brillaux got his surname from his hair looking like Brillo pads, because I had always pronounced the ‘X’ in his name thinking it was a reference to a ‘Brilliant Auxiliary Lead’ that he had]. I do not know what the term “Roxette” relates to [maybe it is an old record player brand or a defunct cinema chain], though I think that the Swedish duo would have got their name from this song. Per Gessle is known in his home land for his 1970s styled solo Power-Pop recordings and therefore I think he may also have a side-line or at least interest in Pub Rock as well. I liked Roxette in the 1980s as they released a number of jolly pop tunes and looked just like The Thompson Twins [though this was from the “Close To The Bone” period rather than “Set”, a few years before Tom and Alannah re-styled themselves as a dance duo called Babble]. I remember thinking that it was a pity that Roxette were not Danish, as then someone could have used the headline “The Thomsen Twins” for an article about them [as in the surname of Tina Thomsen, the Danish actor from Home & Away] though I guess it would have only been useful in America where the Thompson Twins were still having Top 40 hits as a duo. I have not listened to a Roxette album for years and I do not know if I still own any of their albums anymore. I think I would like to listen to some of the tracks fronted by Gessle again and perhaps some of tracks from his power-pop albums, unless all the tracks are in the Swedish language. As for Thompson Twins, I am not too bothered about listening to their output recorded as a trio but I still like their dance tunes from the 1990s and would actually like to hear their first couple of albums, when they were supposed to have sounded more like Rip Rig & Panic or Pigbag. Loz

I do not know how ‘casual’ a listener is supposed to be or how you can properly assess ‘most people’ for definite, but it is also as likely that ‘most people’ will not actually know or care who Cope is, even if they have heard “Reward” at least once in their lifetime. In fact, ‘most people’ that I have spoken to [that is people who have identified themselves as music fans] do not know or remember who Collins, Cope or Mackenzie were/are, and in return, I have been equally none-the-wiser with any of the Afrobeat, Metal or Minimal Techno references that they have spoken to me about. In fact when it comes to music ‘most people’ have quite surprising and eclectic tastes. I suppose this is why I am discussing these artists here with you now and I have to say that it is good to find people with similar tastes, who probably have had similar life experiences, for example, in regards to childhood eras and University education. However, I would not want any of my reminiscing to turn into some kind of socio-political argument about what people should or should not know, as that sounds too much like hard work to me and I suppose it is not what the person, who posed the question in the first place, would want. However, at this point, I am reminded of a cultural critic, who once commented about the ‘battle’ of two television channels who were trying to get the highest ratings of one night with their ‘prestigious’ new show formats. I cannot remember the two shows in question, as it was not a recent event, nor the critic who made the point in the first place, though I think it happened around Christmas and perhaps said by somebody who was on one of Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe shows [maybe it was Brooker himself, as I enjoy his views a lot and think he should do a ‘pophitswipe’ or an ‘albumwipe’ spin-off next]. Due to this uncertainty, I will illustrate their point with two recent shows that I have recently seen the overnights for. The viewpoint was that if The Brit Awards got 5.8 million viewers and Holby City got 6.3 million viewers, it will be reported in the press that most people watched Holby City, though what this critic argued was that in a country of 60 million, most people could not be bothered with either shows and therefore doing better things instead, which is quite an unique way at looking at that particular ratings ‘clash’. By the way, whilst we are on the subject of different competing channels, though this time in regards to radio rather than television, you might be interested to know that Absolute played “Reward” as part of Leona’s 80s Hour on Saturday night, whilst yesterday morning at 7am, Shaun Keaveny played “Treason” on 6music. Even though these are Cope’s biggest hits [by chart positions] I wonder if a comment could be provided on the stations that played them ['Save 6music' perhaps?] and what would be expected of them, though to give Absolute credit, Leona did play Faith No More’s “We Care A Lot” a few hours later rather than “Epic”. I did not hear all of “Reward” on Saturday night as when I switched on the radio “Body Moving” by The Beastie Boys was playing on 6music. I listened to that for a short while but as it was not the Fatboy Slim remix and as I had remembered that the 80s Hour had already started on the other side, I decided not to wait till the end of the song and switched over instead. As in the case of The Teardrop Explodes, the Beastie Boys are another act that I was thinking of buying on CD in the last week, whereby a number of non-playlisted songs came on the radio within days of each other that would probably help my purchasing decision [rather than the case of XFM playing the last two Editors singles over-and-over again ad infinitum]. This morning another Beastie Boys record was played on 6music, this time by Andrew Collins on the breakfast show [as Shaun Keaveny is absent for the next two days]. The song in question was “Fight For Your Right (To Party)” which could be also a contender for this list, or at least any ‘Iconic Song’ list, especially as some people may only know the song in the hip-house/hard-house cover version, which was released by a German projection group some years ago. I think that the act in question were called ‘NYCCC’, though it would never have been a recording that my friends and I would have danced to, at places that we would have frequented, unlike the Beastie’s “Intergalactic”, which was always a song that we would get up to dance to at ‘student indie nights’, no matter how drunk we were. Loz