Digging for nuggets from the dusty old storerooms of pop.
Well, I said I'd be back with something soon. And how has that turned out? Have I come up with something that you want? I hope so. My new blog " Everybody's Number One To Someone " focuses on all the tracks which reached number one in the NME indie charts, from 1981 onwards. It's over here, comes with complete Spotify playlists (of absolutely everything that charted within their Top 30 each year).…
I was sifting through the "Left and to the Back" Facebook mail the other day, and was reminded that somebody once sent me a message with the subject line "Never Quit". They're not going to like this blog entry... Because unfortunately, I am quitting. I have taken the decision to draw a line under this blog and there will be no further new entries. We'll come on to the reason why in a minute, but…
Label: Pye Year of Release: 1975 A huge number of metamorphoses occurred in the seventies as everyone jumped aboard the glam rock juggernaut. It saw everyone from old rock and rollers to balladeers to Denmark Street desk jobbers suddenly wearing make up and trilling and pouting to a trucker's beat. As such, very few stylistic jumps from the period are especially surprising, but nonetheless, the…
Label: Beacon Year of Release: 1969 "Happy sounds are really happening and Red Rover Red Rover is right in today's idiom, a stomping "bubblegum" number with driving bassline and a catchy sing-a-long chorus. Of course, the heart of the "bubblegum movement" is in New York and that's where The Bunch come from. They're a talented foursome who generate a great feel both on record and in live…
Label: Decca Year of Release: 1973 The fact that the John Carter and Geoff Stephens penned "My World Fell Down" failed to chart when issued by The Ivy League is probably one of the great injustices of the sixties. Seldom has one song approximated the West Coast sound so faithfully and so well, and with such a sumptuous melody, only to fall by the wayside. It was improved upon further in 1967 by…
Label: None Year of Release: not issued Acetates are an expensive folly in the average record collector's life. If you see one in a second hand record shop or on Discogs or eBay, the price is usually ratcheted sky-high, the seller knowing that the scarcity and uniqueness of the offering is going to make it very enticing. Yet when you do purchase one, what you usually get is a songwriter warbling…
Label: Decca Year of Release: 1971 Say hello to the only group (to the best of my knowledge) ever to emerge from the Ford manufacturing line - unless, of course, we're counting Ford Timelord of The Timelords. Back in the sixties, Ford were seemingly keen to make their cars seem sexy, zingy and a little bit more rock and roll; less "any colour you want, so long as it's black", and more "all the…
Label: Gale Year of Release: 1980 Paul Carman was an unlucky chap, recording a lot of music in the seventies under the "Dolphin" moniker ( we covered his rocksteady version of "Hey Joe" some time ago ) which tended to take existing hit singles and tear them apart, forcing them into new shapes and guises. When it worked, it worked unbelievably well. His smooth FM take on " Goin' Back ", for…
Sophisticated but well-written mid-seventies pop from ex-White Plains boys Label: Dawn Year of Release: 1975 Dawn was a perplexing label. Started by its parent label Pye as a home to more progressive and hippy-friendly artists (akin to EMI's Harvest or Decca's Deram) it started off on-spec with huge hits from the hairy festival jugband act Mungo Jerry and lesser-selling pieces of wonderfulness…
Label: Rushton Records Year of Release: Who knows? Followers of my Twitter feed will know this record has been driving me up the wall for weeks now - not due to its musical content, but purely because I'm sure I read about its existence or heard about it on a podcast at some point in the last couple of years; however, I can find no evidence anywhere, either in my house, on my hard drive or online.…
Label: CBS Year of Release: 1968 Televised talent shows are unforgiving affairs - they enable club acts or even aspiring bedroom singers to give a mass audience their best shot, but if they lose (and especially if they lose ignobly) they are likely to forever be considered damaged goods. A performer who didn't impress either a panel of judges or a television audience of several million people may…
Label: Air-Edel Year of Release: 1978 "By the way, if anyone in here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourself" - so grumbled Bill Hicks to a live audience on his CD "Rant In E Minor", adding "do a commercial, you're off the artistic roll call" . He certainly wasn't the first to complain about creative people selling out with adverts, and the idea that engaging with advertising is evil, even…
Label: Page One Year of Release: 1968 Anything I write about the progression of "Mighty Quinn (Quinn The Eskimo)" from a "Great White Wonder" Dylan bootleg track to a major hit for Manfed Mann is probably going to be a bit of a waste of energy - everyone knows the story, after all. Dylan's songbook was continually plundered throughout the late sixties (and indeed beyond) by bands desperate for…
Label: RCA Year of Release: 1968 For a songwriter who experienced such huge success with Sandie Shaw, and a reasonable run of hits in his own right as a solo artist, it's surprising how many of Chris Andrews' compositions failed for other people. What should have been a guaranteed badge of hit status and press attention sometimes slipped unhelpfully under the radar. In this case, the oddly named…
Label: Deram Year of Release: 1970 Unlike most of the artists who get featured on this blog, The Fantastics were arguably proper pop stars. They produced a hit single in 1971 in the form of "Something Old, Something New", which despite only getting to number 9 feels like a deathless disc - never far away from an advertising campaign or a mid-afternoon oldies playlist. Prior to their run in the top…
Label: Bradleys Year of Release: 1973 A strange one, this. Bradleys were the recorded music arm of Associated Television (ATV), but unlike BBC Records and Tapes didn't solely specialise in output related to their programmes. The formation of this sister company was largely due to the creation of ATV Music, which began as a publishing house for TV themes but quickly wriggled its tentacles into all…
Label: President Year of Release: 1975 Given that singles released by radio DJs are normally either super-whacky novelty items or embarrassing attempts by fading names to gain a future on the cabaret circuit, I expected the worst here. Shockingly though, "Merry Christmas Mr. Christmas" is a bit of a festive corker released in a decade that wasn't short of them. Pleasingly arranged with an…
Label: Philips Year of Release: 1971 Giorgio Moroder's "Looky Looky" was a million-seller in Europe in 1969, an unashamedly bubblegum smash overloaded with Beach Boys-esque harmonies and that unusual braying and mooing the stripy topped surfing lads loved to do. For whatever reason, British audiences really didn't take to it, though, and it remains largely unplayed and unloved on UK airwaves.…
Label: Bumble Year of Release: 1972 Bumble was a short-lived and rather strange label in the seventies, issuing all manner of styles and genres, from bubblegum to middle-of-the-road pop to - most bafflingly - a live album by the Flying Burrito Brothers. Its incoherent identity was pronounced enough that it was even gently criticised in the trade press, and may have been one small reason the label…
Label: Oriole Year of Release: 1965 While other labels splashed slogans like "Where The Stars Are!" or "The Place The Hits Happen!" across their company sleeves, Oriole were arguably an early example of a label taking the outsider indie approach, opting instead for "Young - New - Exciting". With no exclamation marks, a daring surfeit of hyphens, and a simple statement of fact, Oriole's company…
Label: Rocket Year of Release: 1975 Well, here's a bizarre old release. Consisting entirely of Moog and Theremin twiddling versions of two Christmas carol classics, it's hard to understand how anyone thought it would be in-demand. Analogue synths were deeply exciting and increasingly commercial news in the mid-seventies, but the leading proponents tended to be German groups such as Neu! and…
Label: Crystal Year of Release: 1972 It's extremely rare to find an old record which is still accompanied by its original press release. While record company hype often means that they should be treated with a grain of salt as accurate sources - back in my old days of student journalism, I got tired of indie bands falsely claiming they'd "even managed to get in the…
Label: Piccadilly Year of Release: 1965 Only truly lucky famous people get to choose what they're famous for. Talent doesn't always help - even the very talented usually only have one breakthrough moment which resonates with the public and defines them forevermore. Ted Rogers was a man of many light entertainment skills, performing on the Billy Cotton Band Show, hosting Sunday Night At The London…
Label: Verve Forecast Year of Release: 1969 The Paupers were not exactly a blessed Canadian band. Formed in Toronto in 1964, they prided themselves on a (possibly exaggerated) work ethic and heavily hyped "live tightness", offering audiences in the area a dependable experience for the price of their gig tickets. What they sadly lacked was a steady line-up. Between their debut single "Never Send…
Label: [acetate] Year of Release: [n/a] Acetates, particularly ones of unreleased songs, spark huge excitement in me. It doesn't necessarily matter if the song isn't a lost gem - I've been getting my knees dirty digging in plastic crates for long enough now to know that's a very rare occurrence - it's just interesting to get hold of a polished recording which never made it past the private studio…