Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Chart Music

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Up to and including New Gold Dream they're a different band in my mind to what comes afterwards. I view them as two separate entities which is probably folly.

    Comment


      Originally posted by Lang Spoon View Post
      Rise is a good piece of 80s anthemic bombast though, and maybe Lydon’s last moment of being not shit. (I don’t like the Leftfield track). Production is tons better than shit like Tears For Fears as well. The drums aren’t quite as wrong.
      Rise can't be placed in a specific time frame unlike so much of this other stuff. Yes it's 80's but if you didn't know what year....whereas Songs From The Big Chair could only have come from 84-86 and it'sounds like it. Lydon's a repellent arsehole anyway.

      Comment


        Oh aye, but Metal Box is great (probably cos it’s a genuine collaboration between three fucked up bastards playing against each other, rather than Lydon and compliant session musos).
        Last edited by Lang Spoon; 05-04-2018, 20:01.

        Comment


          Another thing, does this ''Live Aid saw the rebirth of the old duffers'' trope stand up to proper scrutiny? Lets take a look:

          McCartney - Ceases to be a regular top 10 singles artist around this period. No More Lonely Nights and We All Stand Together from the previous year and that's pretty much him done except for something from 87 I've never knowingly heard and charity shindigs/collaborations. Had hardly spent years in the wilderness prior to Live Aid. Nobody could fucking hear him anyway.

          Queen - Consistent top 10 singles act before (three in the UK in the eighteen months prior) and after up to Mercury's death. One of those acts that couldn't not write major hit singles no matter how bad their albums became. The idea that nobody gave a shit about them anymore beforehand (and yes I've heard it said from TV talking heads) is clearly nonsense.

          Elton John - Undoubtedly in reduced circumstances compared to the previous decade but four top 10 UK singles in the previous two years. No major uptick afterwards bar Nikita, but does get his first solo UK No.1 FIVE years later. Arguably best known during the second half of the decade for performing live in a Donald Duck outfit. Like McCartney has to rely on collaborations come the 90's...except for you know what.

          David Bowie - Just two years after the Let's Dance singles. Immediately Post-Live Aid we get that turd with Jagger and Absolute Beginners (UK No.2) and that's pretty much him done as a major singles artists. Playing stadiums on the Glass Spider tour is a big deal but years beckon where all but his core fanbase stopped giving a fuck.

          Status Quo - There for years before hand - there for a few years yet afterwards like cockroaches despite nuclear carnage for everybody else.

          Dire Straits - I can't be arsed to discuss this bunch.

          There are others with similar career trajectories who start falling off around this period. Most of them just shifted to becoming heritage acts. It was a natural progression - they were getting older and their audience was too. Then there is the arrival of CD and whole back catalogues getting reissued on the new format. All of which would have happened regardless of Live Aid taking place or not.

          As for the so called good guys of Post Punk. Well that lot had just ran out of steam hadn't they - running on fumes by 84, practically dead by 85. It's telling that the most commercially viable of it's disparate strands (and the one they chose to display at Wembley) was the New Romantics who were for the most part a bunch of inner-M25 clothes horses hopelessly out of their depth in a place that size. Thank fuck Robert Elms and his poetry wasn't there as well.
          Last edited by George; 05-04-2018, 22:09.

          Comment


            Best of albums definitely churned out x10 post Live Aid. Though that might also be CD Revolution connected. Always thought it was those Tax Efficient Scumballs U2 who really benefited and jumped into the stratosphere post Bono’s debut stadium messiah performance.

            Comment


              Did you know Island didn't have the cash to sign off their big post-Joshua Tree royalty cheque? So instead McGuinness negotiated with Blackwell for the band to gain a percentage ownership of the label which years later when Island was sold ended up earning them many millions more than the royalties they would have originally pocketed. Landed on their fucking feet every time that lot.

              Comment


                Dire Straits and Phil Collins increased their album sales post Live Aid, no question. I think it made record companies more conservative - don't sign these if they can't shift a ton of CDs to Tory voters.

                As for Macca and Elton, point taken sales wise but in the culture generally it gave them a golden halo, paving the way for Sir Elton, Sir Thumbsaloft. The values of pompous rock came back and did the Devil's handshake with Thatcherist consumerism.

                Comment


                  Queen had morphed into a cabaret act well before Live Aid, which merely lifted them the rest of the way to the echelons of (aptly) pop royalty in the abysmal judgment of mid-eighties record-buyers. It was all about more and more ridiculous and indulgent lyrics/videos for them thereafter. (I think I checked out after A Night at the Opera - although should probably have done so at least one album earlier.)

                  Seem to recall that Adam had the bright idea of performing his latest single (Vive le Rock) at Live Aid - which subsequently stiffed at #50, making him just about the only act there to witness a sales downturn immediately thereafter.

                  Comment


                    Tomorrow. Oh yes.

                    Comment


                      Comment


                        New one up: Oct 6, 1977: Parkes, Kulkarni, popcorn, weekend sorted.

                        Comment


                          Oh, fucking brilliant. I watched that episode just a couple of weeks ago. They better say nothing nasty about Baccara. And lots of nasty things about Noel Edmonds.

                          Comment


                            It's getting some female subscribers now too.

                            Comment


                              Haven't got to the Baccara bit, but there's plenty about Edmunds.

                              Comment


                                Excellent, a Midlands heavy episode.

                                Comment


                                  Bummer Dog* and the dog with with the bra hanging out of its arse are the highlights so far.

                                  *Surely an OTF username in the making?

                                  Comment


                                    Bollocks dog with no name in the Good Samaritan y-fronts cracked me up but.

                                    Comment


                                      Fuckin hell that that espanish prog outfit shouldn’t have stopped with the Pistols. I’d like to hear their Post punk mangling.

                                      Comment


                                        Originally posted by Lang Spoon View Post
                                        Excellent, a Midlands heavy episode.
                                        Yay! Inevitably, therefore, the swap shop v tiswas question is considered. I have to say I was more of a swap shop boy although that was mostly because we were a BBC household, like pricey.

                                        Haven't finished yet but taylor's prog rock rant is amazing. Spot on and worth the price of admission itself.

                                        Comment


                                          In 1977 Jon? I am old, but... well, I just googled that, and TISWAS started in 1974. Swap Shop 2 years later.

                                          (Someone has been fucking with Google. I do not recall that at all. Admittedly, I was playing football non-stop on a Saturday, then off to a game after... yes, 8 years old. The one good thing my (Rangers supporting) mum did for me, was take me to see Celtic. At Parkhead. She had her wee bag at her feet, in the Rangers end, natch, and when it all got a bit hectic, she would grab my hand (dragging me from the eddys of the piss lake at my feet), and shout, stop. There is a child here.

                                          OK, she was a bit of a c*nt, but in other ways, I had a really cool mum. She took me to the Jungle when Booby Murdoch scored the 6000th goal against... Partick Thistle (so the jungle was quiet, and we drew 1-1.)

                                          I digress.

                                          Must listen to this now. BONG.

                                          Comment


                                            Quick question, and this is pertinent, but why is there a picture of Mani of the Stone Roses, advertising 1977 Top of the Pops (incidentally, I remember this one. Day after my 11th birthday. I got my first bike... home-made, with a fixed wheel.)

                                            Comment


                                              TISWAS was not shown in Scotland until 1977-78. Only shown in Midlands in 1974-76.

                                              Looking at it history on Wiki, I think my sister and I switched from Swap Shop to TISWAS in November 1979, when it came back after a long ITV strike. But also, as Neil mentions, we also tended to flick back and forth because there were lulls in both shows and TISWAS had adverts, obviously.

                                              IIRC Swap Shop also had the advantage of starting earlier in the morning so you'd give Swap Shop a go at the start then turn over when it switched to Cheggars poncing about.
                                              Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 14-04-2018, 10:37.

                                              Comment


                                                Glad to know that "Black Is Black" got a good review from our panel. And I'm rather with Neil on Smokie, though "Needles And Pins" also reminds me of the time when I truly became an obsessed pop-crazed youngster, so its sound transports me back to the autumn of 1977.

                                                Taylor points out that the band, especially singer Chris Norman, seem to be a bit condescending towards having to do this TOTP lark. I reckon he's spot on. Smokie did that same larking about on German TV's Disco. "Might as well have some fun while doing this shit," they seem to say. Fucking respect the people watching the show, you wankers.

                                                Comment


                                                  Smokie seem to mysteriously still make a good living touring Germany. In fact they're on tour later this year.

                                                  (Note to self: Check the time of the last train to Munich from Augsburg.)

                                                  Comment


                                                    They are doing a poll for Patreon types, to vote on which episode should be covered by the next-but-one show.

                                                    I've voted for 1973/Kenny Everett - would like some more episodes from 1989 but we had a Simon Mayo one quite recently.

                                                    Comment

                                                    Working...
                                                    X