Chart Music Podcast

[Golden E. Pump]

I guess we may coat him down, but he's still been on Chart Music more than us.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I'm going to stick up for Stubbsy here.

He was in his mid-20s when this episode aired - of course he thought it was shit!
EVERYONE thinks TOTP is shit when they're in their mid-20s and, in 1987, he'd generally be correct.

Just as Sarah would have been about 10 at the time - of course she thought it was great!
Those memories of pop music from that era will stay with you, good or bad.

Stubbsy's dry style counters the other CMP contributors well and, for me anyway, I think it's a positive.

Yeah, you're right. And to be fair, he did admit that, in hindsight, the Pet Shop Boys were better than he gave them credit for at the time. Also, most of the music they covered in this episode was shit, with the honourable exceptions of PSB, The Pogues and Belinda Carlisle. Oh, and Nat King Cole, obviously.

I guess we may coat him down, but he's still been on Chart Music more than us.

Exactly!

[Dusty Substance]

David Stubbs doesn't like Heaven Is A Place On Earth. David Stubbs is dead to me.

[DrGreggles]

David Stubbs doesn't like Heaven Is A Place On Earth.

Nor do I - it's shit.
I did rather fancy Belinda Carlisle though.

[Johnboy]

i did find Stubbs' attitude to the Pogues a bit annoying

but also was quite interested in everything he had to say about this episode ditto Sarah B

Belinda Carlisle's song is worth ten AOMM IMHO

[shiftwork2]

David Stubbs doesn't like Heaven Is A Place On Earth. David Stubbs is dead to me.

I think he was having a grump.  Has to be.  Pure pop.

[Pauline Walnuts]

One thing being broken up into segments highlighted for me was that the first hour was mostly taken up by Stubbsy talking about how great Melody Maker was in the mid-80s.

Wot? Again?

Also, I always get the Young Gods confused with the Young Marble Giants.

Oddly enough the one that sounds like it's from 1980 are the Young Gods.

[EOLAN]

Reading this thread before I listened. Feared a real downer dull episode. Actually quite enjoyed it. And like the flow.

The top of the pops episode itself did have a big contrast in quality of songs in first half which were total dirge and the second half. Especially as an almost lifetime Belinda Carlisle ( well her one song) fan.

[Satchmo Distel]

How will future episodes be selected? I don't think it's ever been random, despite his claims in the intros.

[DrGreggles]

I think they're pretty much randomly chosen.
They have mentioned it when they have been specifically selected.

[Rizla]

How will future episodes be selected? I don't think it's ever been random, despite his claims in the intros.

I bet Al's got hard drives full of full-length episodes, plus people (eg Paul Putner) occasionally send them in, and for CMP gold it's just a matter of finding ones pre-Live Aid but that don't have Savile as presenter. There's bound to be a good number of juicy eps that he's got saved up, plus they've shyly mentioned the prospect of covering other TV shows.

[non capisco]

If there hadn't been at least some kind of random selection rule he's set for himself I firmly believe Al wouldn't have been able to resist covering the Joy Sarney episode by now! Maybe he'll change it now they're on an actual podcast network and we're this many eps in.

[buzby]

Got as far as the section that features Fairytale of NY so far. Lots of point-missing citing various definitions of the slurs during the defence of their use in it's lyrics - it's obviously written 'in character' of two Irish-Americans from New York arguing, where the use of 'Faggot' and 'slut' would be very much in character for the time (for example, see someone like Andrew Dice Clay's act).

Mark Knopfler had exactly the same problems with the same word in Money For Nothing, written in the same era also 'in character' of a delivery man he overheard in a New York electrical store who was watching MTV on the shop's display TVs between jobs (some of the lyrics were direct quotes that Knopfler wrote down at the the time). The Dire Straits song has also had a chequered history of being censored too, for the same reasons. I wonder if the same contributors would be as quick to defend the word's use in that song....

On the adverts front ,the other podcasts in Big Owl's portfolio sound like utter shite - a wry commentary of a watchalong of episodes of The One Show, anyone?

[DrGreggles]

On the adverts front ,the other podcasts in Big Owl's portfolio sound like utter shite

I've only really heard Rule of Three, but I like that a lot.

[non capisco]

Festive new one's just appeared. Taylor and Neil as guests, get the fuck in!

[Satchmo Distel]

Not reached my inbox yet, or the site. Can you let us know the year?

[Satchmo Distel]

Got as far as the section that features Fairytale of NY so far. Lots of point-missing citing various definitions of the slurs during the defence of their use in it's lyrics - it's obviously written 'in character' of two Irish-Americans from New York arguing, where the use of 'Faggot' and 'slut' would be very much in character for the time (for example, see someone like Andrew Dice Clay's act).

Mark Knopfler had exactly the same problems with the same word in Money For Nothing, written in the same era also 'in character' of a delivery man he overheard in a New York electrical store who was watching MTV on the shop's display TVs between jobs (some of the lyrics were direct quotes that Knopfler wrote down at the the time). The Dire Straits song has also had a chequered history of being censored too, for the same reasons. I wonder if the same contributors would be as quick to defend the word's use in that song....

On the adverts front ,the other podcasts in Big Owl's portfolio sound like utter shite - a wry commentary of a watchalong of episodes of The One Show, anyone?

To be fair, Sarah is ambivalent about the slur and does not oppose censoring it, on the grounds that that priority has to be given to the feelings of people who are made vulnerable to violence and exclusion by the word.

I would add that it was even more problematic to me at the time as this was the height of AIDS being used as a pretext for homophobia.

The word being spoken in character is fine artistically but not sufficient to justify it being inflicted on someone as background music in a restaurant or supermarket, which inevitably happens with Xmas songs being on a loop.

[non capisco]

Not reached my inbox yet, or the site. Can you let us know the year?

Christmas Day 1977.

[Epic Bisto]

HERE. COMES. JISM.

[Panbaams]

On the adverts front ,the other podcasts in Big Owl's portfolio sound like utter shite - a wry commentary of a watchalong of episodes of The One Show, anyone?

The Barry from Watford/Angelos Epithimiou one is worth a listen.

There is a thing on BBC4 at the moment about Fairytale Of New York (which I've never been particularly a fan of, or The Pogues in general) and when talking about them being beaten to the Christmas Number One he described the PSBs as 'two queers and a drum machine'. Charming.

Maybe Shane MacGowan actually is a terrible person.

[Satchmo Distel]

Christmas Day 1977.

16 performances over 4 hours 36 mins so going to be a cracker.

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

15 minutes in and I'm already enjoying it way more than the last. It's probably because I'm an infantile teenage boy at heart and Al's story  about his TV appearance made me snigger muchly.

[shiftwork2]

Festive new one's just appeared. Taylor and Neil as guests, get the fuck in!

Superb news for my 3h drive.  Taylor, Neil, 1977.  Heaven.

Thanks Al!

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

15 minutes in and I'm already enjoying it way more than the last. It's probably because I'm an infantile teenage boy at heart and Al's story  about his TV appearance made me snigger muchly.

Looking forward to seeing Al on The Story of 1989! Unless they cut him out...

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I can't decide whether Showaddywaddy all watching a clip of one of them shagging his wife is more desolate than Status Quo having a polish. Different shades of bleak, I suppose.

[Epic Bisto]

I can't decide whether Showaddywaddy all watching a clip of one of them shagging his wife is more desolate than Status Quo having a polish. Different shades of bleak, I suppose.

If one of them started singing "Remember, remember-member, remember, remember-member..." it might not be as bleak.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Taylor's disproportionately scathing coat-down of The Brighouse & Rastrick Brass Band is a great CM moment, especially when contrasted with Neil's sweetly uncritical enthusiasm for that 'Flumpish' tune: "What about the natural exuberance of bandleader David Beaumont?!"

What a splendid Christmas treat.

If one of them started singing "Remember, remember-member, remember, remember-member..." it might not be as bleak.

It might be worse? Impossible to say for certain.

[Beep Cleep Chimney]

3 hours in so far and this Christmas episode is already in my Top 5 best ever episodes. 
Too many highlights to list here, but this latest one really is an absolute belter.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Absolutely, it's peak Chart Music. Their glowing tribute to Errol Brown and Hot Chocolate sums up the appeal of this podcast. Yes, the coat-downs are hilarious, but it's so touching and inspiring whenever they talk about something they genuinely love.

[DrGreggles]

Taylor's disproportionately scathing coat-down of The Brighouse & Rastrick Brass Band is a great CM moment, especially when contrasted with Neil's sweetly uncritical enthusiasm for that 'Flumpish' tune: "What about the natural exuberance of bandleader David Beaumont?!"

A fantastic moment - one of CM's best.