An Alternative History of "Pop" Music: Part 2, 1982 -

[Brundle-Fly]

Ha! The New FADS was going to be my next one right down to the song choice. I thought I better get it done quick because somebody will sub-consciously make the floral word association and nominate them first.

Another mob for the good band, terrible band name thread.

[Better Midlands]

Ha! The New FADS was going to be my next one right down to the song choice. I thought I better get it done quick because somebody will sub-consciously make the floral word association and nominate them first.

You're right, it was the Paris Angels/Moonflowers 1-2 that triggered me.

[Norton Canes]

Nitzer Ebb - Lightning Man

Released 5^th February 1990





Alternative pop history: Highest chart position 5 | Weeks on chart 7 | Top of the Pops studio performance 15^th February 1990 | Little and Large studio performance 10^th February 1990 (cut short after Eddie almost kills Syd with a faulty Tesla coil)

[Corduroy Castle]

Gag - The Corner Hot Dog Stand




There have been a few bands called Gag, but this was a one-and-done project courtesy of the mysterious Sue Donim aka Russ Forster who ran the tiny Bob label in the late 80s/early 90s. Bob Records released a few singles all in the same silvery fake foil looking sleeves, and were tangentially connected to the burgeoning Chicago No Wave scene, I believe. Bobby Conn features on a couple of them, anyway.

Readers of a certain age and memory recall capabilities might remember John Peel playing a cover of Dancing Queen by Cheeze TM, which was also on this label.

I love this song.

[Corduroy Castle]

Beat Happening - Nancy Sin

Calvin and his 2 Live Krew get wet n sexy on a crate of burst blackberries.
Please make my yo-yo walk the dog you home-haircut adonis...

[Corduroy Castle]

The Flaming Lips - Lucifer Rising



Oh My Gawd... The Flaming Lips... Wayne Coyne's traveling midlife crisis circus... zorbs full of glitter, jelly skulls, 48-hour long songs released on a flashdrive embedded in a prairie dog's anus... shite songs about death and duets with Miley Cyrus...

As far as I'm concerned The Flaming Lips ENDED with The Soft Bulletin in 1999. After that, they're not the same band, at all. They should've changed their name really. From 1986 - 1995 they were a great crazy mad psychedelic noise band and this song, a B-side to the EP they released after In A Priest Driven Ambulance, is NOIZEY AS FUCK, thanks mainly to Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donahue who briefly joined the band and brought the FUZZ.

[daf]

Bobby Valentino  - The Man Who Invented Jazz



Released in 1990 - did not chart

Robert James Beckingham was born in Chatham, Kent, he adopted the stage name Bobby Valentino in 1975. Valentino's first success was as a founding member of The Fabulous Poodles.



After leaving the Fabulous Poodles in the early 1980s, Valentino was a member of the Electric Bluebirds before joining Hank Wangford and the Hank Wangford Band (feat. Hank Wangford) at the beginning of 1984. He has contributed to many recordings by the British folk punk band The Men They Couldn't Hang as well as frequently appearing with them on stage. His own most recent band, Los Pistoleros, sees him teamed up once again with former Hank Wangford bandmates B. J. Cole and Martin Belmont. Valentino is lead singer and guitarist in addition to playing the violin.

 

'The Man Who Invented Jazz' was the opening track to his first solo album, 'You're in the Groove, Jackson', which was recorded during 1990 in Livingstone Studios in Wood Green and GibsonWood Studios in Deptford and was released on Big Life Records.

[jamiefairlie]

Chapterhouse - Something More

https://youtu.be/3o-DdV2d3SU



Formed in 1987 in Reading by Andrew Sherriff and Stephen Patman. This is the lead track from their second EP, "Sunburst". They released two albums before splitting in 1994.

[jamiefairlie]

Galaxie 500 - Hearing Voices

https://youtu.be/iP0z959D5t8



Formed in New York in 1987 by Guitarist Dean Wareham, drummer Damon Krukowski and bassist Naomi Yang. This is taken from their third and last album, "This Is Our Music".  They split in early 1991 when Wareham quit the band after a lengthy American tour.

[Brundle-Fly]

The Storm - World Of Twist  Released on Circa in 1990.



Never once did they even have a sniff of chart action, so another footnote in the '90s are the '60s upside down and inside out or 'the future is in our history' bands from that era.

The original line-up of World Of Twist consisted of James Fry (vocals), Andrew Hobson (bass guitar), Gordon King (guitar), Tony Ogden (drums), Rory Conolly (saxophone), Nick Phillips (organ) and Andy Robbins (synthesiser). This version soon disintegrated, and some years later a new line-up emerged, this time, based in Manchester.The 1989 version of World Of Twist featured Tony Ogden (now vocalist and co-songwriter), King (guitar and co-songwriter), and Hobson (synthesisers) joined by Alan Frost (visual effects, synthesisers), Julia aka M.C. Shells (swirls and sea noises) and Angela Reilly (visual effects). Nick Sanderson (drums) joined some time later.

NB: Jamie Fry and Nick Sanderson went on to form the magnificent Earl Brutus.

Their appearance on C4's The Word in 1968 , I mean 1990.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l5bVIvOvlI

[Corduroy Castle]

Freakwater - War Pigs

Gorgeous. B-side to the debut single Your Goddamn Mouth.

Freakwater is an American alternative country band from Kentucky. In 1989, Catherine Irwin and Janet Beveridge Bean (of rock band Eleventh Dream Day) founded the band, and they have been supported by several musicians since then, including members of Califone (2005 Thinking of You tour).

[Corduroy Castle]

Daniel Johnston & Yo La Tengo - Speeding Motorcycle

Everyone's favourite outsider Beatles obsessive Daniel Johnston (RIP) collaborating with Yo La Tengo live on a show on WFMU. The band were in the studio whilst Daniel howled his vocals over the phone.

[Norton Canes]

Depeche Mode - Sea of Sin

Released 2^nd September 1990





Alternative pop history: Originally slated as a bonus track for World In My Eyes, Mute Records boss Daniel Miller persuaded the band to hold Sea of Sin for a release in its own right. His faith was repaid, the song becoming their fourth UK number one single with a week at the top of the charts in January 1991.

[Johnny Yesno]

Depeche Mode - Sea of Sin

Released 2^nd September 1990





Alternative pop history: Originally slated as a bonus track for World In My Eyes, Mute Records boss Daniel Miller persuaded the band to hold Sea of Sin for a release in its own right. His faith was repaid, the song becoming their fourth UK number one single with a week at the top of the charts in January 1991.

Hang on. We're having no. 1 singles in this alternative history of pop thread now?

[jamiefairlie]

I think that's the 'counterfactual history' reading of it.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The Lemonheads - Different Drum



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XipsuDA89-g

Their second single was a cover of this Michael Nesmith country-pop classic, which was originally a big hit for Linda Ronstadt & The Stone Poneys in 1967*. This version didn't chart at all.

_{* Nesmith actually offered it to The Monkees before Ronstadt recorded it, but bizarrely the producers turned him down.}

[Johnny Yesno]

I think that's the 'counterfactual history' reading of it.

Oh, I see. Sorry Norton, I am an idiot.

[daf]

Nick Lowe - Shtink-Shtank



Featured on the album 'Party of One' produced by his old Rockpile mucker Dave Edmunds - released in 1990.

[jamiefairlie]

Half Man Half Biscuit - Let's Not

https://youtu.be/XFwg1ithvxw



Triumphant return single following their split in 1986, including the following wide-ranging cultural references:
Caravan holidays, the Highway Code, Norfolk, Godzilla, Jack Kerouac's On the Road, folk song "One man went to mow", Carla Lane, grindcore, Vanburn Holder (cricketer), Jesus, Grant Baynham, (occasional contributor to That's Life!).

[famethrowa]

The Lemonheads - Different Drum

_{* Nesmith actually offered it to The Monkees before Ronstadt recorded it, but bizarrely the producers turned him down.}

Great song. But I think they were right, when a bloke sings it it's a bit smug and "hey don't tie me down, girl"... but when Linda sings it it becomes a soaring feminist anthem.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Great song. But I think they were right, when a bloke sings it it's a bit smug and "hey don't tie me down, girl"... but when Linda sings it it becomes a soaring feminist anthem.

That's true, I agree. Mind you, The Monkees recorded this on their debut album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCnlyMXt6Zw

A pretty melody, but such horrible lyrics. The dodginess of Different Drum, when sung by a man, sounds positively progressive by comparison. Ghastly.

It was presumably knocked back due to Nesmith already having two songwriting credits on that first album, and they didn't want to pay him any more royalties. It wouldn't have been a moral decision.

[Brundle-Fly]

My Book - The Beautiful South. Released on Go! Discs in 1990.





So, they had A Little Time a little time at No. 1 and followed up with this jaunty little affair that failed to make the top forty. TBS also got their financial knuckles severely rapped by an uncharacteristically mean-spirited Jazzy B for their cheeky nod to Back To Life.

...And it was all going so well.

The Beautiful South were an English alternative rock group formed at the end of the 1980s by two former members of Hull group The Housemartins. The group broke up in January 2007 because of 'artistic
similarities'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J2yS8lPtE0

[jamiefairlie]

Pacific - Barnoon Hill

https://youtu.be/GZ7C68YJrds



Formed in Brighton in 1987 by dennis wheatley, vanessa norwood, nick wilson, simon forest and rachel norwood. This is taken from their only album, "Inference" (really a compilation of their two previously issued EPs). A lovely little gem of a song not dissimilar to the likes of Frazier Chorus,. They released one more single in 1991 before disappearing.

[Jockice]

The Storm - World Of Twist  Released on Circa in 1990.



Never once did they even have a sniff of chart action, so another footnote in the '90s are the '60s upside down and inside out or 'the future is in our history' bands from that era.

The original line-up of World Of Twist consisted of James Fry (vocals), Andrew Hobson (bass guitar), Gordon King (guitar), Tony Ogden (drums), Rory Conolly (saxophone), Nick Phillips (organ) and Andy Robbins (synthesiser). This version soon disintegrated, and some years later a new line-up emerged, this time, based in Manchester.The 1989 version of World Of Twist featured Tony Ogden (now vocalist and co-songwriter), King (guitar and co-songwriter), and Hobson (synthesisers) joined by Alan Frost (visual effects, synthesisers), Julia aka M.C. Shells (swirls and sea noises) and Angela Reilly (visual effects). Nick Sanderson (drums) joined some time later.

NB: Jamie Fry and Nick Sanderson went on to form the magnificent Earl Brutus.

Their appearance on C4's The Word in 1968 , I mean 1990.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l5bVIvOvlI

Pulp hated this lot. They were originally based in Sheffield and Cocker's gang thought they were just second-rate rip-off merchants. But when WoT got bigger, Pulp ended up supporting them twice. Which must have hurt.

A mate of mine still says that their Quality Street LP is one of the greatest albums ever made. I mean from what I remember, it was okay, but...

[Norton Canes]

Oh, I see. Sorry Norton, I am an idiot

Not at all, my fault for going off-grid. I've just being trying to fulfil the 'Alternative History' remit of the thread title

[Brundle-Fly]

Pulp hated this lot. They were originally based in Sheffield and Cocker's gang thought they were just second-rate rip-off merchants. But when WoT got bigger, Pulp ended up supporting them twice. Which must have hurt.

A mate of mine still says that their Quality Street LP is one of the greatest albums ever made. I mean from what I remember, it was okay, but...

It's quite good.

RE: Pulp. I suspect Jarvis's feelings on WOT became more clement after Tony Ogden passed away ten years ago, age 44.

[Brundle-Fly]

Radio Babylon - Meat Beat Manifesto. Released on Play It Again Sam in 1990.



First discovered MBM through XTC's Andy Partridge producing one of Jack Dangers early singles when he was Perennial Divide You'd think they were Californian, not Swindonian. Radio Babylon sounds as fresh today as it did 31 years ago.

Meat Beat Manifesto are an Industrial, Electronic, Experimental music act started by John Stephen Corrigan aka Jack Dangers and Jonny Stephens in 1987, Swindon, United Kingdom. Jack Dangers has led the group and been the only permanent member, collaborating with other members along the way. Meat Beat Manifesto's earlier work is widely credited with influencing trip hop, drum & bass and big beat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBi-IR3nXWI

[Johnny Yesno]

Not at all, my fault for going off-grid. I've just being trying to fulfil the 'Alternative History' remit of the thread title

No, no, that's a really good idea. It puts my title-sleeve-link-single line comment efforts to shame.

[daf]

The Shamen ‎– Human Energy + Omega Amigo (Radio 1 session version)



Recorded live in session on 28 January 1990 and broadcast on Richard Skinner's Radio 1 show.

[jamiefairlie]

Popguns - Landslide

https://youtu.be/u4CgFPHAUyY



Formed in Brighton in 1986 by vocalist Wendy Morgan, guitarists Simon Pickles and Greg Dixon plus bassist Pat Walkington. This is their second single and it reached number 46 in the Festive Fifty. They released two albums before going their separate ways in 1996.