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    Originally posted by Vicarious Thrillseeker View Post
    I like 'Fanfare for the Common Man' by ELP. There, I said it.
    Me too.

    Aaron Copland liked it as well.

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      Originally posted by Diable Rouge View Post
      Billy Eilish will sing the new Bond theme - fairly decent body of work to date, so should at least be more on the Chris Cornell end of the Craig spectrum than Sam Smith.
      'Billie' - she's very definitely a woman. Heard something of hers the other day which wasn't too bad: I'll concede I was expecting Avril Lavigne-levels of ersatz-punque. (It's still a bit 'designer' for my taste, but there's talent there.)

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        Our friends were a bit harsh on Wet Wet Wet in the December 1987 episode, I thought. I doubt the production of their music was the band's fault. Remember, they recorded first with Willie Mitchell. Listen to the Memphis Sessions to hear the sound the group aimed for. And Mitchell -- who had no reputation for his tendcency towards diplomacy -- had good things to say about the then still completely unknown band. Their relationship with soul music seems to have been a bit more evolved than our pundits seemed to give credit for.

        By all means, slam the production, and Pellow's vocals, hair and grin (and, certainly, the crap lyrics of Angel Eyes), but I thought the piling-on was a bit lazy.

        And I was reminded again of how much I loathe Simply Red's version of "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye". The elongated phrasing and overall dreariness are insufferable. Even the rather good ending can't save it.

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          Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
          'Billie' - she's very definitely a woman. Heard something of hers the other day which wasn't too bad: I'll concede I was expecting Avril Lavigne-levels of ersatz-punque. (It's still a bit 'designer' for my taste, but there's talent there.)
          Barely a woman. I think I just read that she’s 17.

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            She turned 18 not long ago. There were a couple of those creepy countdown things on Twitter before she did, similar to when a renowned shoddy tabloid did a countdown for Charlotte Church's 16th birthday.

            I'm not one for most modern music, but I caught a couple of her songs last year and thought they were very good.

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              My daughter's off to see her live in concert in Amsterdam in July.

              Carry on....

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                Originally posted by Vicarious Thrillseeker View Post
                My daughter's off to see her live in concert in Amsterdam in July.

                Carry on....
                I watched part of her set at Leeds fest last year, in what was reputedly the biggest crowd ever for an act there (and certainly biggest for any non headline act). I only watched part because I wanted to see Bleached in one of the tents, not least to get some shade from the unusually hot Yorkshire sun. Bleached played to a crowd approx 0.5% the size of that for Billie Eilish, but still gave it a good go. She's also playing a festival I'm going to this year, whether I see any more or less of her this time again depends on who is up against her. I'd expect the relative crowd figures will be similar, she is mahoosive, as the kids may or may not say.

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                  Originally posted by Furtho View Post
                  Chart Music is joining forces with Great Big Owl, which I understand uses Spotify, so could be reasonably soon.
                  I've been meaning to listen to a Chart Music podcast ever since they started (I think I posted in this thread fairly near the start), but the ever-increasing length of the episodes only suggested that there'd be countless hours of cliquey Melody Maker impenetrable in-jokery and probably shitloads of snideness about bands I like. So I'd never actually got around to it despite having one episode downloaded for about a year now via my phone's Podcast Addict app – I forget what, but it had a young Mark Owen as the thumbnail. I finally had another look at the blurb for that one a couple of weeks back and couldn't remember why I'd cherry-picked it in the first place, so deleted it again unheard after all that. However, I downloaded the recent one for Christmas 1987, though again it had sat there untouched since at around 4 1/2 hours or so long.

                  Strange thing though was that the other day my brother told me about 'Box of Delights', a podcast started up last year talking about bits of TV history and so forth, which in contrast is very bite-sized and so I listened to a dozen or more in a couple of days while painting a friend's living room. They're a Great Big Owl production, and by some odd coincidence they've recently elected to publicise another of their roster of podcasts by putting an hour-long slice of that very same Chart Music podcast for Christmas 1987 out as a Box of Delights episode – I think it must be one of the four individual CM episodes for that edition of TotP, subsequently reissued as the 4-hour supercut that I already had downloaded. So I've now listened to that hour as my belated first taster of CM, at long last, and enjoyed it – I think it probably helps that it lacks one or two of the more 'dominant' voices and allows Sarah Bee in particular a good share of the conversation and the chance to be an occasional dissenting voice from the easy consensus.
                  It only went from Wet Wet Wet to Simply Red, i.e. just three performances on that TotP as I recall, so I'll have to listen to the remaining 3 and a half hours separately now to get the rest of their coverage of that edition.

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                    Message from Nishlord:

                    Pop-Crazed Youngsters,

                    A brief heads-up to apologise for no new Chart Music action this month, due to technical issues and being blindsided with ridiculous amounts of other work and other assorted mither on the part of your host.

                    The good news is that the next episode is being edited over the weekend and the episode after that has already been lined up, so we're looking at two new episodes in Feb, along with finally getting round to sorting out the David Q&A. And we're looking into work-arounds so you can stream the full, ad-free episodes instead of having to download them.

                    Ta for your patience.

                    Stay Pop-Crazed,
                    Al

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                      Is it now only available streamed from that podcast site?

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                        Is it just the one new episode so far this year? Any insiders know what's going on in Chart Music world?

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                          There has been only the one in February, but this was after two in December.

                          It looks like Al only updated the website last week for the February show stating it's "been a BASTARD of a month". He did retweet something 18 hours ago, so hopefully all's ok.

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                            Message from Nishlord:

                            AYYYYYUP, you Pop-Crazed Youngsters,

                            Again, apologies for leaving you hanging, but rest assured that;

                            1) We're all good

                            2) We're watching Stranglers videos, to ensure we're washing our hands on a regular basis

                            3) The next episode has been recorded and is currently being edited

                            4) We're having a think about what we can do to KICK THE TRUTH TO THE POP-CRAZED YOUTH while we're all on lockdown and can't do our usual jobs of work

                            5) We're really, really, REALLY appreciating your patronage right about now.

                            Sit tight and listen keenly, while we drop you a brand new musical commentary biscuit.

                            - Al

                            PS: https://youtu.be/SSjWbO89d6o

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                              Good news, been going cold turkey here.

                              Re. the video, I accidentally saw that lot live when emerging from the underground station at Leopoldplatz where they were playing an uncalled-for free concert. There was a time when it was impossible to avoid them. They were like the Dooleys and the Nolans crossed with the Osmonds and distilled to unsafe levels of industrial strength.

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                                I've always kept the mp3 files of the old episodes, thinking that when I get time I'll listen again while watching the associated TOTP episode. I think that time is arriving soon.

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                                  New episode appeared over the weekend, with a shout out to willie1foot of this parish. I've got through it already, and particularly enjoyed the lengthy appreciation for Dead Ringer for Love.

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                                    This week's TOTP on BBC 4 is a Chart Music reviewed one - Chart Music 19. It was actually one of the first Chart Music's I listened to.

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                                      I quite liked Shakatak

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                                        Originally posted by Vicarious Thrillseeker View Post
                                        I quite liked Shakatak
                                        So did I, went to see them live at the height of their fame, great gig and brilliant musicians.

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                                          My sister had that Night Birds album of theirs that was everywhere in 1982.

                                          Never really saw the appeal myself. With so much better stuff about at the time, it just sounded like elevator music to me.

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                                            The Night Birds album is quite good, at least as far as musicianship goes. It's great if you dig fusion. But I've always found it lacking in soul.They had a nice Matt Bianco-ish number called "City Rhythm", and a fine up-beat collaboration with Al Jarreau called "Day By Day".

                                            The latter track reminds me how I went to the Keith Prowse booking agency branch in in Shaftesbury Avenue, days after I arrived in London in November 1984. I managed to book a ticket for the Style Council at the Royal Albert Hall in early December, and I wanted to buy a ticket for the Al Jarrreau gig at the Wembley Arena. But as that was sold out, I took a ticket for Shakatak at the Hammersmith Odeon instead. Both, the Jarreau and Shakatak gigs, were turned into live albums. I bought only the Jarreau one.

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                                              Chester in 1981/2 had three nightclubs: Cinderellas, Angels and Maxwells. Cinderellas was the stag night/Nolans type of place, and you needed a tie to get in; Angels was more new wave-y and new romantic-y. Maxwells had a dance and jazz-funk-y vibe. I was more an Angels person, but occasionally went with mates to Maxwells - and through the haze of nearly forty years, I recall them playing non-stop Shakatak, 'Southern Freeez' and the occasional track off 'Off The Wall'. The musical version of Stockholm Syndrome kicks in after a while, you know

                                              While we're still on #49 - Human League top 5 (in no order):

                                              Being Boiled
                                              Empire State Human
                                              Seconds
                                              The Dignity of Labour (Part 1)
                                              The Sound of the Crowd

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                                                I'll go to Maxwell's in Chester if they keep playing Southern Freeez.

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                                                  Vote for the Chart Music podcast in the Listeners' Awards:

                                                  https://www.britishpodcastawards.com/vote

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                                                    Episode #51 has dropped for subscribers: 5 hours 31 minutes; Taylor and wingco; March 20th 1975.

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