Chart Music Podcast

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

Didn't like this episode that much. Too much talking about Al's seedy porn career and too much utterly shite music, I don't think there was a good tune to be had in the whole episode.

[Schnapple]

I don't mind Al's porn stuff at all, perhaps because I myself used to work on the fringe of that particular industry, and he does a good job of showcasing the bleak, nineties nature of it all. Saying that, the sugarcubes story in this was possibly a little too over the grot line for the show.

Al is a bit of a lad, but I think that's alright, really. As has been suggested in this thread before, Chart Music is great because it's witty and self-aware, even progressive, but not hopelessly academic or earnest.

[Uncle TechTip]

Stay tuned -

Are you the "some bloke"?

[daf]

No - I'm the mysterious figure in The Shadows* lurking behind "some bloke".

I was contacted by . . . let's call him 'Private Walker' . . . who got in touch to ask if I had any 90s editions of TOTP (having heard that Chart Music were struggling to find many 90s shows to feature)

I dug out all the copies I had, and he's the one that passed them on to Al.

(The 'stay tuned' was because I've recently got in contact directly with Al, and sent him a few more shows that he was missing from years that Chart Music hadn't covered yet.)


- - - - - - - -
*  Playing the kazoo between Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch

[daf]

So years still left to be covered, 1971, 1972, 1988, 1990-1993, anything post 1995

Also 1967, 1968 & 1969 : six editions exist ('67 = 1, '68 = 2, '69 = 3)

[SteveDave]

Sara Bee "They're so wholesome"
Al "Arsehole-some"

[Satchmo Distel]

[buzby]

It's not going to get far without a hard-on.

[Neomod]

Pricey was spot on about Echobelly. I remember seeing them on the same bill as Gene and Marion at the Powerhaus.

Mediocre, the lot of em.

[phantom_power]

I tend to agree with Sarah Bee on that one. They were harmless fluff who wrote a few decent tunes. There was no substance to them but there doesn't always have to be.

[Satchmo Distel]

Not as bad as Sleeper.

Will we get some 1971 soon? That's a huge year to miss. The Bowie Starman episode is also one they surely have to do. And a proper T Rex discussion.

[Satchmo Distel]

It's not going to get far without a hard-on.

I assume Al self-censored that to avoid going over the taste line, or animal porn line.

[gmoney]

I tend to agree with Sarah Bee on that one. They were harmless fluff who wrote a few decent tunes. There was no substance to them but there doesn't always have to be.

Agreed. Pricey is too close to it, clouded as he is by music journo hyperbole. I think that's the problem with the 90s episodes. It wasn't as bad this time, but the other ep featured a terribly long bit where were talking about beheading Ned's Atomic Dustbin or something. They sounded like schoolkids. 

[DrGreggles]

Wasn't it the Ned's article/review that was submitted as a joke and then somehow published?

[gmoney]

Aye, that was the story. They were still chuckling about it as if it was the funniest thing ever, and not slightly pathetic.

[DrGreggles]

I think it was pretty funny.

[DrGreggles]

Just started a re-listen of these, and it really does hit its stride very early.
Episode 1 was a bit off, a bit too polite and the format was still a WiP.
But episode 2 is excellent, with only the audio quality a bit dodgy.
CM is in full flow by episodes 3 and 4.

I might make a compilation of Al's "AY UP!"s from each episode...

[phantom_power]

Agreed. Pricey is too close to it, clouded as he is by music journo hyperbole. I think that's the problem with the 90s episodes. It wasn't as bad this time, but the other ep featured a terribly long bit where were talking about beheading Ned's Atomic Dustbin or something. They sounded like schoolkids. 

Yeah. I quite liked NAD and loved the Wonderstuff, even at the same time as liking Happy Mondays and more NME/MM friendly acts. Journalists sometimes fail to see beyond the narrative they created at the time, and are always better disposed towards bands that they could get good stories out of or have more fun with, or had some hand in making famous.

[Neomod]

Not as bad as Sleeper.

Nah, Sleeper were also indie carbon paper but had more tunes than the lovely Sonya and her merry band.

It would be interesting to see which genre some of the britpop lot were plowing before they hit paydirt with 60's/new wave revivalism.

[DrGreggles]

Sleeper were better than Echobelly.
But then I fancied Louise more than I fancied Sonya, so that may have clouded my judgement...

Nah, 'Vegas' was a great song.
Sleeper wins!

[Brundle-Fly]

Salad forlornly leave thread.

[Vodka Margarine]

I love that Echobelly song and the goofy, wide-eyed and hopelessly naive idealism of youth it conjures up. Perhaps it's the relative age similarity (ie teens in the 90s) but I haven't found myself disagreeing with anything Sarah Bee has said so far. It's nice to have a bit of a break from the relentless Midlands miserablist triumvirate of Needham, Parkes and Kulkarni. That said, I thought the usually excellent Pricey's attack on Sonya Madan's class was a bit of a misfire because I've never subscribed to that whole "can't rock if you're posh" argument, even if the blazers 'n' boaters brigade have become a bit too over represented in the arts and media these days.

Apart from 'It Was Not Natural' by Wye Oak, the Chart Music podcast is the best thing to happen to my ears in 2018. I understand the whole thing kicked off being fashioned around a nucleus of ex-MM pals but sometimes I just wish it could be a little less same-eh and clique-eh.

[gilbertharding]

Sleeper were better than Echobelly.
But then I fancied Louise more than I fancied Sonya, so that may have clouded my judgement...

Nah, 'Vegas' was a great song.
Sleeper wins!

She's got her knockers, to be sure.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/rock-why-sleeper-should-dump-louise-wener-1147622.html Bizarre - she's the most talented one!

This (about Echobelly) is an amazing sign of the times... https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/look-boys-cut-it-out-1601118.html

(I was trying to find a live review of Sleeper I remember from the NME where the writer noted that all the girls in the audience were wearing the same top as Louise Wener - but that she, unlike them, was without a bra).

[DrGreggles]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bummer_and_Lazarus

[Beagle 2]

Didn't do much for me this one. Too much time spent on the grim details of Al's career working for Desmond, and Bee's defence of Jackson was a bit contradictory (we have to have sympathy for people who were abused, but Michael was innocent) and had a touch of the 'Leave Michael Alone!' about it. Price's assessment of 'we will never know' is a bit more realistic.

Listening now and just heard the Bee bit about Jacko - that was really odd. I had kind of come to regard her as a grounded voice of reason without as much of an agenda as the other contributors, but she sounded like she was going to burst into tears at the prospect of any criticism of her hero.

Who the fuck is Al anyway?? How come some bloke from Nottingham who used to work in the porn industry knows loads of music journalists?

[Satchmo Distel]

IIRC they bonded on Facebook, maybe over a shared love for the Chris Needham documentary that is sampled on the Intro.

Needham and Parkes both have articles on the World Cup in the new 'When Saturday Comes', a magazine to which they have been contributing for as a long as I can remember. They have also posted on the WSC/OTF forum (as have Price, Stubbs and Kulkarni).

[Nelson]

Listening now and just heard the Bee bit about Jacko - that was really odd. I had kind of come to regard her as a grounded voice of reason without as much of an agenda as the other contributors, but she sounded like she was going to burst into tears at the prospect of any criticism of her hero.

Who the fuck is Al anyway?? How come some bloke from Nottingham who used to work in the porn industry knows loads of music journalists?

I just thought she was uncomfortable about getting into the murky area of precisely what,  if anything, MJ was guilty of, in a frivolous pop music podcast. Which is fair enough, but also fair of Al to insist that they didn't just ignore what Jacko was alleged to have been getting up to in the 90s.

[gmoney]

Speaking of ignoring paedo allegations, will they ever do a Saville episode, d'you reckon?

[DrGreggles]

Speaking of ignoring paedo allegations, will they ever do a Saville episode, d'you reckon?

Depends what's in Al's collection, I suppose.
They had Gary Glitter on an episode, so I doubt they'd avoid Savile for those reasons.

Anyway, isn't the difference with Jacko that he wasn't actually (officially) guilty of anything? Commenting on allegations is slightly different to sticking the boot in on proven nonces, I'd say.

[gilbertharding]

Depends what's in Al's collection, I suppose.
They had Gary Glitter on an episode, so I doubt they'd avoid Savile for those reasons.

Anyway, isn't the difference with Jacko that he wasn't actually (officially) guilty of anything? Commenting on allegations is slightly different to sticking the boot in on proven nonces, I'd say.

Also if Jackson was a perpetrator - wasn't he also a victim? Not that that helps his victims (if he had any)... but I think you can see his entire life as being blighted by the influence of his father. Does that make it more complicated? Dunno.