Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 04:56:55 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Chart Music Podcast 2 (Man Sound) - ITS PIPOU TIME!

Started by dr beat, August 11, 2020, 09:55:15 PM

Previous topic - Next topic
They're a great singles band at the very least.

non capisco

'Telegraph' off Dazzle Ships is a belter. I love 'Souvenir' as well, even though the main thing it reminds me of is that scene in Spaced with Tony Way. 'Oh, go on then, I'll have a half.' 'It's a mint.' 'Yeah, I'll have...half a mint.' I have a soft spot for 'Talking Loud And Clear' as well, once correctly identified by someone on here from my vocaroo impression when I was trying to figure out what it was.

I do concede it's better when you're just listening to them and you can't see Andy McLuskey's antics, though.

Seedsy

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on April 12, 2021, 04:44:43 PM
They're a great singles band at the very least.

Absolutely, not listened to the podcast, but fuck me I thought enola gay would hit the gangs sweet spot.
I think their early singles are up there.
Do you think it's maybe because they all love the human league, and are big fans of Phil oakey, and he has always had a bit of an axe to grind with OMD that's where the hostility is coming from.
I was only born in 1981. I just love both bands. HL have a bit more substance, and a classic album in Dare. But still. Bit disappointed if OMD get a kicking ha

We probably just got the combination of contributors who would be most likely to give OMD a kicking. I'd imagine that Pricey, and maybe Sarah, would have defended them had they been on this episode.

Campbell Soupe

Yeah, I was surprised...and yes, a little disappointed by the slating OMD got.  Their early run of singles were great.  Admittedly they took a turn for the bland after being stung by the failure of Dazzle Ships and started chasing the American buck.  Yes, they were pretentious and never remotely"cool", but having a go at McClusky's dancing is very fish/barrel.  It's hard to fault their knack of crafting catchy, haunting, weird pop songs.  Their recent stuff isn't half bad either, and a bit of a return to early form...

Seedsy

I've alway thought dazzle ships was the 80s "kid A" or much discussed CaB band mansuns "six" 

non capisco

Quote from: Seedsy on April 12, 2021, 08:20:19 PM
I've alway thought dazzle ships was the 80s "kid A" or much discussed CaB band mansuns "six"

Yeah, listened to it again today and Dazzle Ships is pretty fuckin ace. Genetic Engineering is up there with the best career suicide lead off singles. They also let Martha Ladly name two of their albums and she seemed like the coolest woman on the planet to me when I was watching the 1982 TOTP repeats.

jamiefairlie

early OMD's image of themselves was always out of kilter with the public's expectations. They saw themselves as art post-punks more akin to Joy Division or Cabaret Voltaire, whereas the public saw them as Depeche Mode. His dancing is no more silly than Ian Curtis but the lens it's viewed through is diametrically opposite.

Everything they did up to and including Dazzle Ships has really great moments, afterwards though....grim.

Chicory

There are some gems from their extra uncool period. 'Pandora's Box' is fun sophisto-disco and 'Forever Live And Die' is a lovely bit of proto dream pop.

DrGreggles

Dazzle Ships is decent, and they had a few good singles before that, but there's something about OMD that I can't get on board with - even though I love so much Eighventies electronic music.

Not sure McCluskey's dancing is comparable to Curtis' though.
Curtis looked more like he'd been taken over by the song and, like Sister Sledge, was lost in the music.
McCluskey looked like a man who can't dance trying to dance.

Seedsy

I really hope Taylor is okay as well. Surely after the exposure of chart music, someone will pay him to write a book on whatever subject he wants to write about.
The guy is a genuine maverick.

shiftwork2

Who doesn't like Enola Gay?  Now they're just being silly.

Enola Gay is one of the defining songs of the early 80s. Absolute banger.

Campbell Soupe


Rizla

Come on, that song's so boring and uncool it should be called Enola Straight.

bigfatheart

All I know is I've had Enola Gay in my head since Saturday, and every time it leaves I come back to this thread and it plunges, unbidden, like DLT's hand plunging around the waist of a reluctant audience member, back into my psyche. I'm boycotting this thread until it's safe to return.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

I would just like to add my voice to the chorus of approval for Enola Gay and imperial phase OMD in general. They really were a great singles band. Al and Taylor's blanket dismissal of them was surprising, but that's part of the fun of Chart Music - you just never know what those crazy cats are going to come out with next.

And I agree that OMD would've been more warmly received if Pricey, and possibly Neil or Sarah too, had been on that episode.

buzby

Quote from: Campbell Soupe on April 12, 2021, 08:02:07 PM
Yeah, I was surprised...and yes, a little disappointed by the slating OMD got.  Their early run of singles were great.  Admittedly they took a turn for the bland after being stung by the failure of Dazzle Ships and started chasing the American buck.
I've only heard the first part (and the slating Hazel O'Connor got in the NME Singles Review column irked me, especially when they were pushing fucking Toyah in the same issue), but McCluskey has said that when DinDisc folded after the success of Architecture & Morality and they were moved onto Virgin, they were asked how they worked and basically said, 'we'll contact you when we are ready to record to tell you what studio and engineer we want, you pay for it we'll deliver the album and it will sell millions'. Their new A&R manager said to them  'Come on guys, are you Stockhausen or ABBA?', to which their answer was  'Can't we be both?'.

They then delivered Dazzle Ships, and after the critical mauling it got and it's commercial failure,  Virgin decided some changes were in order and kept them on a shorter leash. The band themsleves also got scared, and decided 'Let's abandon Stockhausen for a bit and become ABBA', which worked  and got them back in the charts, but it was very much a personal and commercial compromise for them.

It also needs to be remembered that they had signed a notoriously poor contract with DinDisc in the first place - a royalty rate of 4% in Europe and 6% elsewhere, and the producer got a 4% royalty that came out of the band's share. They then had to pay back recording costs, advances, tour support, the rest of the band's wages out of their remaining point(s) - they are quoted as saying 'For every £1 Virgin gave us, they took back £3'. They were still living with their parents and couldn't afford mortgages after Architecture & Morality had sold over 3 million copies.

Virgin did exactly the same thing to The Human League with Crash, which was a Jam & Lewis album that they had very little input on, which they were strongarmed into releasing against their will.

badaids

Quote from: Seedsy on April 13, 2021, 06:37:25 PM
I really hope Taylor is okay as well. Surely after the exposure of chart music, someone will pay him to write a book on whatever subject he wants to write about.
The guy is a genuine maverick.

I've been thinking recently, not for the first time, that I'd like to email Taylor and ask him what book he wants to write :  I'll sort out the crowdfunder for him. But i wonder if there's some issue or blockage which has stopped him from doing it already...  He's often, generically, mentioned his mental health issues, and is the most closed on his (present) private life. When the rest of the gang plug their own books, or club nights or podcasts, Taylor is always quiet, or, worse, bitter. Podcasting it seems is the perfect channel for his talents, but the worst paying and most prostitutional for him. Regarding himself he's a closed book is Taylor.

As for this episode I've seen its got Army Dreamers in it, which I totally love, and I'm a bit afraid that they'll give Kate Bush a good kicking. So im putting off listening as its stressing me a smidge. So ill finish my 5th listen through of all the episodes first.

But basically Chart Music is the best thing ever isn't it ?  My life, genuinely, would be a lot worse without it.

I'm about halfway through now and I have had to mute all the DLT interactions with laydeez as they're so teeth grindingly awful that I just can't listen.

shiftwork2

The Hairy Cuntflake is knocking it out of the park on this ep.  Foetid.

Camp Tramp

Quote from: badaids on April 14, 2021, 04:39:38 PM
I've been thinking recently, not for the first time, that I'd like to email Taylor and ask him what book he wants to write :  I'll sort out the crowdfunder for him. But i wonder if there's some issue or blockage which has stopped him from doing it already...  He's often, generically, mentioned his mental health issues, and is the most closed on his (present) private life. When the rest of the gang plug their own books, or club nights or podcasts, Taylor is always quiet, or, worse, bitter. Podcasting it seems is the perfect channel for his talents, but the worst paying and most prostitutional for him. Regarding himself he's a closed book is Taylor.

As for this episode I've seen its got Army Dreamers in it, which I totally love, and I'm a bit afraid that they'll give Kate Bush a good kicking. So im putting off listening as its stressing me a smidge. So ill finish my 5th listen through of all the episodes first.

But basically Chart Music is the best thing ever isn't it ?  My life, genuinely, would be a lot worse without it.

Taylor doesn't seem to have much of an online presence.

Maybe get in touch with Al on Facebook and Twitter to ask if Taylor is receptive to the idea? Al is normally very approachable. I'd like to see Taylor write something about British television.

jamiefairlie

Quote from: Camp Tramp on April 14, 2021, 07:23:08 PM
Taylor doesn't seem to have much of an online presence.

Maybe get in touch with Al on Facebook and Twitter to ask if Taylor is receptive to the idea? Al is normally very approachable. I'd like to see Taylor write something about British television.

I'd love to see him write about the evolution of British culture from the 60s through to the present day.

Crabwalk

Quote from: Camp Tramp on April 14, 2021, 07:23:08 PM
Taylor doesn't seem to have much of an online presence.

Maybe get in touch with Al on Facebook and Twitter to ask if Taylor is receptive to the idea? Al is normally very approachable. I'd like to see Taylor write something about British television.

Taylor's active on Facebook too, for the record.

non capisco

For anyone who hasn't read it Taylor's ace Quietus piece about series 1 of The Professionals . I'd definitely shell out for a Patreon of more of that kind of thing.

dr beat

If/when I become Controller of Radio 4, I am absolutely inviting Taylor to read out the Wikipedia entries for Terry and June episodes.  With a tolling bell in the background.  Who needs A Book At Bedtime?

Neomod

That's the second time Taylor's used the Freddie and the Dreamers burn.

Fucking hack.

[winking emoji]

Egyptian Feast

Great episode, despite OMD wrongness.

I really hope Taylor is present when a Nicky Campbell episode is finally covered. That unearned smugness is long overdue a DLT-style evisceration. Many of the recent 1990 repeats would be rich pickings for the CM crew. They haven't  covered Anthea Turner yet either, have they?

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: non capisco on April 14, 2021, 11:48:32 PM
For anyone who hasn't read it Taylor's ace Quietus piece about series 1 of The Professionals . I'd definitely shell out for a Patreon of more of that kind of thing.

Ta, I've never read that before. Brilliant stuff, as always.

Spoiler alert
"Since they couldn't yet afford to shoot on location in central London, things keep kicking off in leafy corners of the Home Counties: Amersham, Rickmansworth, Burnham Beeches. You can barely move on the mean streets of Marlow for left-wing extremists with fluttering accents, hanging out the side of Cortinas, pumping bullets into startled golfers."
[close]

I'd gladly punt a few quid his way for some more of this stuff too. Just imagine it, an epic sociopolitical post-war history of Britain shot through the prism of Patrick Mower and Rula Lenska.

bigfatheart

Quote from: Egyptian Feast on April 17, 2021, 08:16:04 PM
I really hope Taylor is present when a Nicky Campbell episode is finally covered. That unearned smugness is long overdue a DLT-style evisceration. Many of the recent 1990 repeats would be rich pickings for the CM crew. They haven't  covered Anthea Turner yet either, have they?

Nope - here's a list of presenters who did 10 or more episodes that they haven't covered:

  • Sir Jingle Jangle
  • Pete Murray, David Jacobs and Stuart Henry (pretty much all wiped)
  • Ed Stewart (not a huge amount surviving, but there are some out there)
  • Nicky Campbell, Anthea Turner, Bruno Brookes, Andy Crane and Dixie Peach (all from the second half of the 80s or the very early 90s, they've covered some but not a huge amount of this era)
  • Tony Dortie, Mark Franklin, Claudia Simon, Adrian Rose and Femi Oke (the 91-94 revamp is completely untouched - wonder if they might wait until BBC4 gets there)
  • Fearne Cotton, Reggie Yates, Jamie Theakston, Tim Kash, Gail Porter, Sarah Cawood, Richard Bacon, Richard Blackwood, Rufus Hound, Liz Bonnin, Lisa Snowdon, Zoe Ball, Edith Bowman and Kate Thornton (all well outside their comfort zone - wouldn't have a problem with some later episodes getting covered but won't be holding my breath)