Chart Music

[Gerontophile]

So where the fuck is it???

[Lang Spoon]

Aye. Pure gantin for it

[Lang Spoon]

Half ten ken. This going to sneak up on us at 23.59 and make me late for work?

[Lang Spoon]

Stood up again.

[G-Man]

I'm confused. What is everybody waiting for? Are there supposed to be two episodes at once? The 1970 one and something else?

[Gerontophile]

G, if you are talking about "Tony Blackburn's World-Famous Kneecap-Warmers", that was episode 10.

[Satchmo Distel]

Must be technical issues.

[G-Man]

So there was a episode I missed? Ah well, so I'm up on the deal.

[Furtho]

Episode #19, June 15th 1989 – Remember Double Trouble’s Shirts? They Were Really Stylish is here.

[Gerontophile]

Your link is fine, but the download link is broken, on their website.

Ignore that: it worked on refresh.

Oh, and YAY.

[Lang Spoon]

Well. There’s a few comments in the last third that might have to have been run before the beaks I’d say. Maybe that’s why the delay. Or else Carter Fuck will come knocking and this cast will be pulled.

[Gerontophile]

I really enjoyed this. And I really liked the memories from Sarah about Fuzzbox. And, I don't know whether I am proving her point, or not, but I have that song on my phone shuffle, and it keeps coming up.

And the line "When it's good, it's wicked at the same time" fucks me off so much.

And it reminds me of the Belle Stars.

[Snake Plissken]

Oooh, they're mentioning "Pink Sunshine"? Right, I'm in.

I'm beginning to "get" the podcast, IYKWIM, but given the length of the thing vs my commute, I limit it to episodes containing music I'm interested in. The 80s, then.

[Satchmo Distel]

That chart as a whole is pretty good, certainly far better than the ones from 1984-1987 that have featured on earlier podcasts. I was prepared to write off any chart that had Jason Donovan at #1 and Cliff Richard at #2 but there was plenty of quality across the Top 40.

Unfortunately TOTP was on the slide, most obviously (as noted) the anonymous presenters.

I'm surprised they overlooked "Simon Parkin's always larkin'" from John Kettley Is A Weatherman. Simon is still working: https://twitter.com/SimonParkinTV

[Hot Pepsi]

As I mentioned on the facebook page, I don't think I remember Fuzzbox, and yet it seems like they'd have been massive on MTV and easy to sell in the US as the UK's answer to the Go-Gos (not that they are, but that would be an easy hook.)

[Jah Womble]

Fuzzbox were around (initially as We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It!) for some years before their 'hit' period (1989) - which lasted six months tops.

[Snake Plissken]

International Rescue, Pink Sunshine, Fast Forward Futurama and Self is one hell of a good six months.

Hot Pepsi - They were big here just before MTV really got traction in Europe, so it was a case of bad timing. When listening to the podcast and someone mentioned the Spice Girls, a line that popped into my was "Fuzzbox are everything the Spice Girls thought they themselves were". Which I quite like.

[Jah Womble]

Did the Spice Girls actually care what they were? The 'girl power' thing (a line that had been used two years earlier by Shampoo anyway) was about as nebulous a catchphrase/tagline as there's ever been. None of which mattered, of course.

I wasn't meaning to sound disparaging about Fuzzbox's limited time in the spotlight - they were fine at what they did, although covering Yoko's Walking On Thin Ice probably wasn't the smartest commercial move. (NB Fast Forward Futurama wasn't issued as a single.)

[Snake Plissken]

It was more of a thought that the Spice Girls image was "look at us independent women, doing our own music and making a stand for women and having a laugh and not caring" when they were a manufactured band, singing manufactured songs to sell lunchboxes, TV channels and cereals. (A pop group, in other words.) Whereas Fuzzbox clearly were "Oh, this seems like a fun ride to go on" and had a much more genuine feel to them and a proper devil-may-care attitude. I'm probably explaining this badly. I'm just saying that Fuzzbox were interesting because they were real. If it all ended then they seemed happy to just go off and do their own thing, whereas any of the Spice Girls would do pretty much anything to stay in the spotlight.

Re: FFF - I'm thinking of the tracklisting on "Look at the hits on that!" where they run close together.

[Jah Womble]

Sure, Fuzzbox started out as a rough 'n' ready indie-punk outfit who - by their own admission - couldn't really play, but they were a proper band in that sense, yes. There was still plenty of energy about them by the time they arrived in the Top 20, if rather label-managed by then.

I think that the Spices were encouraged simply to jump all over a zeitgeist-y (if largely meaningless) phrase that, as you suggest, provided a useful addition to their grinning faces on lunchbox designs, etc. It worked - and it worked bloody well.

[Lang Spoon]

<taps fingers>

[Satchmo Distel]

"Have recorded the next one, but it requires a MASSIVE edit job, due to microphone-related mither. Sit tight, Pop-Crazed Youngsters..."

[Satchmo Distel]

New episode tomorrow

[Lang Spoon]

Praise be.

[Lang Spoon]

It’s here!! 1979, you pop crazed youngsters.