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

Started by jamiefairlie, January 20, 2021, 05:43:47 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Brundle-Fly

Nights Interlude - Nightmares On Wax  Released on Warp in 1991.





This Quincy Jones sampling track certainly pre-empted trip hop or downtempo by some years.

The longest serving artist on the Warp Records roster. Originally founded in 1988 by George "DJ E.A.S.E." Evelyn and Kevin "Boywonder" Harper. Harper left before the release of Smokers Delight. When playing live they were also joined by MC Toz 180 and guitarist Chris Dawkins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPvwDC0XyPQ&t=2s

Oz Oz Alice

Lydia Lunch and Rowland S Howard - Endless Fall

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

From 1991's Shotgun Wedding album, this is the highlight for me because as well as his obviously wonderful guitar playing this conjures the androgynous whirlwind of Lydia and Rowland both being both Lee and Nancy. One of the sexiest records ever made in my book with the pages stuck together. Hearing Rowland's voice rise in intensity as he sings "Together forever like never before" before one of those passages of guitar tumult quickens my pulse, it really does. Lydia's voice is obviously a thing of macabre beauty as always.

daf

Jim Bowen – Jim Bowen Rap



Released in 1991 - did not chart

QuoteJames Brown Whittaker was born in Heswall, Wirral, Cheshire, to an unmarried mother and was adopted at nine months from an orphanage in Wirral, by a working-class couple, Joe Whittaker, a World War I veteran and his wife, Annie Whittaker; who were both from Clayton-le-Moors, Lancashire. He was educated at Accrington Grammar School, but failed all but one of his O-levels and subsequently found work as a dustman for Nelson District Council in Burnley.

During his National Service, he was sent on a Physical Training course in Aldershot to become an instructor, and later became a school P. E. teacher specialising in gymnastics - eventually becoming a deputy headmaster of Caton Primary School near Lancaster. While teaching, Bowen became involved with the local dramatic society which kindled his interest in show business. In the 1960s, he worked part-time as a stand-up comedian on the northern club circuit, balancing his comedy career with his day job as a teacher.

After having become disillusioned with his teaching career, he was inspired to take up comedy full-time. He took his stage name from his wife's maiden name, Owen, adding the initial of his mother's, Brown. The advent of Granada TV's The Comedians gave him the opportunity to appear on national television which ultimately helped persuade him to become a full-time entertainer. In 1980 he released a comedy album 'Live In London's West End'.

 

In 1981, Bowen became the presenter of the ITV gameshow, Bullseye, which mixed general knowledge questions with darts. The show quickly became a popular feature of ITV's schedules on Sunday early evenings, achieving 15–20 million viewers and at times obtaining higher ratings than prime-time soap operas. It ran for fourteen years. Bowen was the presenter throughout, along with Tony Green as the darts commentator.

   

famethrowa

Me name's Jim Bowen, I'm the star of the show
and as you can hear, I've got fuck all flow

jamiefairlie

Billy Bragg - Tank Park Salute

https://youtu.be/O51StLHCTrU



We last heard from Sir Billiam in 1986, and before that 1983 (this is only his third entry),  and that characterizes my relationship with him, long periods of nothingness interspersed  by little gems of brilliance. This is from "Don't Try This at Home", his sixth album and the lyrics are especially poignant.

Kiss me goodnight and say my prayers
Leave the light on at the top of the stairs
Tell me the names of the stars up in the sky
A tree taps on the window pane
That feeling smothers me again
Daddy is it true that we all have to die

I closed my eyes and when I looked
Your name was in the memorial book
And what had become of all the things we planned
I accepted the commiserations
Of all your friends and your relations
But there's some things I still don't understand

You were so tall
How could you fall?

Some photographs of a summer's day
A little boy's lifetime away
Is all I've left of everything we've done
Like a pale moon in a sunny sky
Death gazes down as I pass by
To remind me that I'm but my father's son

jamiefairlie

Cakekitchen - Witness To Your Secrets

https://youtu.be/Wvv2gnrKMd0



Formed in New Zealand in the late 80s by Graeme Jefferies, Robert Key and Rachael King. This is from their debut album, "Time Flowing Backwards", and they have released over 10 albums since, the latest in 2020.

famethrowa

Quote from: jamiefairlie on April 27, 2021, 03:15:16 AM
Billy Bragg - Tank Park Salute

https://youtu.be/O51StLHCTrU




Oh god why are you doing this to me? I'm in pieces now. Even though I'm going to see my old dad tomorrow and my little boy is just down the road at school, it still cuts deep. I think of the title as meaning a childish little gesture, like a boy making a mock-solemn salute in front of an old bit of war machinery in a quiet park somewhere for a photo. It's not much, but it's the best you can do at the time.

I had to look up who played the lovely piano on the track, it was Cara Tivey. And so sayeth wikipedia:

Quote from:
Tivey is also the cousin of Stephen and Nick Duffy of The Lilac Time.

Can't get away from them!

Brundle-Fly

57th Minute Of The 23rd Hour - Galliano. Released on Talkin' Loud in 1991.



Potent and fearful jazz poem that has depressingly come to fruition thirty years on. Some people found the group a bit 'Hoxton' and yes, they were a bit earnest (it's odd to think the poet here, Rob Galliano, went on to become the humourous Earl Zinger) but they made two solid albums, IMO. Apologies to that Cabber who hates Galliano for inflicting this on you this morning.

Galliano was a London-based acid jazz group that was active between 1988 and 1997.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feDkzsnCFsI&t=2s

daf

Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians – So You Think You're In Love



Featured on the 1991 album 'Perspex Island', and released as a single in the UK in January 1992 - did not chart



bakabaka

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on April 26, 2021, 10:16:38 PM
Nights Interlude - Nightmares On Wax  Released on Warp in 1991.


Recorded in the basement studio of the house I live in now. One of the NOW albums I had no input in the design of, sadly.

Five or so years ago a club night started at Leeds University called Nightmares on Wax. They did well, became quite successful and then someone mentioned George's NOW, so they sued him for stealing their name.

They don't exist any more...

jamiefairlie

Quote from: famethrowa on April 27, 2021, 05:18:27 AM
Oh god why are you doing this to me? I'm in pieces now. Even though I'm going to see my old dad tomorrow and my little boy is just down the road at school, it still cuts deep. I think of the title as meaning a childish little gesture, like a boy making a mock-solemn salute in front of an old bit of war machinery in a quiet park somewhere for a photo. It's not much, but it's the best you can do at the time.


I know, it really hits at the heart :-(

jamiefairlie

Chapterhouse - Breather

https://youtu.be/5YtB4kxfQPs



We're deep in shoegazing territory now, this is the opening track of their debut album, "Whirlpool".

daf

POW Featuring Frankie Howerd ‎– Oh No Missus



Released in 1991 - did not chart

QuoteFrancis Alick Howard was born in York, England, in 1917. His first stage appearance was at age 13 but his early hopes of becoming a serious actor were dashed when he failed an audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He began to entertain during World War II service in the British Army. It was at this time that he adapted his surname to Howerd "to be different".  In 1944 he became a bombardier in Plymouth, was promoted to sergeant, and on 6 June 1944 was part of the D-Day effort but was stuck on a boat off Normandy. Despite suffering from stage fright, he continued to work after the war, beginning his professional career in the summer of 1946 in a touring show called For the Fun of It.

His act was soon heard on radio, when he made his debut, in early December 1946, on the BBC's Variety Bandbox programme with a number of other ex-servicemen. His profile rose in the immediate postwar period (aided with material written by Eric Sykes, Galton and Simpson and Johnny Speight). He then toured the Music Hall circuit, and became a regular in the 1950s editions of the weekly comic Film Fun.



In 1954 he made his screen debut opposite Petula Clark in The Runaway Bus, which had been written for his specific comic talent. He then experimented with different formats, including stage farces, Shakespearean comedy roles, and television sitcoms.

After suffering a nervous breakdown at the start of the 1960s, he began to recover his old popularity, initially with a season at Peter Cook's satirical Establishment Club in Soho in London. He was boosted further by success on That Was the Week That Was in 1963 and on stage with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which led into regular television work including the 'Forum' spin-off series 'Up Pompeii'.



His television work was characterised by direct addresses to camera and by his littering monologues with verbal tics such as "Oooh, no missus" and "Titter ye not". A later sale of his scripts, however, showed that the seemingly off-the-cuff remarks had all been meticulously planned.

Barry Cryer : "What he could do with a script was amazing, like all the great performers. He transformed something you'd just written – what you hoped was in a Frankie Howerd idiom – but when you heard him do it, my God, it was something else; – it was gossiping over the garden wall, the apparent waffle – he was like a tightrope walker, you thought he's going to fall off in a minute, you thought , 'Come on, Frank' , we're waiting for a laugh, and then, suddenly, Bang. He knew exactly what he was doing."

jamiefairlie

Disco Inferno - Waking Up

https://youtu.be/7ep7PJ5ihCA



Formed in 1989 in Essex by teenagers Ian Crause (guitars and vocals), Paul Willmott (bass), Daniel Gish (keyboards) and Rob Whatley (drums), although Gish soon quit the band to join Bark Psychosis. This is from their second single, the "Science" EP. They'd release three albums, splitting acrimoniously in 1995, prior to the release of their final album, Technicolour, which was released in July 1996.

And remember kids, "A sky without a god is a clear, clear sky"

Norton Canes

Nitzer Ebb - I Give To You

Released August 1991





Alternative pop history: Highest chart position 1 (2 weeks) | Weeks on chart 14 | Top of the Pops studio appearances 22nd August, 6th September 1991 | Royal Variety Performance, London Victoria Palace 19th November 1991 (introduced by Les Dawson, backed by The Dagenham Girl Pipers)

Brundle-Fly

Jesus Built My Hotrod - Ministry. Released on Sire in 1991.





We can't do alternative 1991 pop without including this mini-masterpiece of mayhem. Waaah -waaah - WAAAAAAAH!

Ministry is the brainchild of Al Jourgensen. Beginning in 1981 playing synth-pop with a strong disco influence, they released their first 12" on Wax Trax! Records, before being signed to Arista and releasing their debut "With Sympathy" They eventually became the industrial/ thrash act that most alternative music fans know them for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXCh9OhDiCI&t=3s

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: bakabaka on April 27, 2021, 08:08:56 PM
Recorded in the basement studio of the house I live in now. One of the NOW albums I had no input in the design of, sadly.

Five or so years ago a club night started at Leeds University called Nightmares on Wax. They did well, became quite successful and then someone mentioned George's NOW, so they sued him for stealing their name.

They don't exist any more...

That's a great claim to fame, which covers were yours? Didn't Luke Vibert design this one?

So, I'm confused, did this Leeds uni nightclub exist before the duo?

daf

Pizzicato Five – Twiggy Twiggy



Featured on the album 'This Year's Girl' (女性上位時代) - released in September 1991

QuotePizzicato V were formed in 1979 when Yasuharu Konishi and Keitarō Takanami were attending university. Ryō Kamomiya, Mamiko Sasaki, and Shigeo Miyata were soon recruited. Miyata left the group almost immediately but the four remaining members kept the name Pizzicato V. The band released its first single in 1985 on Haruomi Hosono's Non-Standard label (Teichiku Records), a 12-inch EP called 'Audrey Hepburn Complex'. They followed this with the Pizzicato V in Action EP, released in 1986.

   

In 1986, the band signed to Sony, changed their name to Pizzicato Five, and the following year released their first all-new album, Couples. It was a commercial failure, and the record company began pressuring the band to find a new lead singer. Kamomiya and Sasaki decided to quit. Takao Tajima, Original Love's frontman, joined the band as the new vocalist. With Tajima, the band released its second album, 'Belissima!' in 1988.

 

The next two albums, 1989's 'On Her Majesty's Request' and 1990's 'Soft Landing on the Moon' were also commercial failures. In 1990, Takao Tajima left to concentrate on his own band Original Love, and Maki Nomiya, who had previously released one solo album, joined as the third lead vocalist. In 1991, Pizzicato Five signed with Nippon Columbia/Seven Gods (later Triad Records).

 

Following three EPs showcasing Nomiya's vocals, Pizzicato Five released 'This Year's Girl'. Inspired by the advent of sampling, the group put together a sound which would help start the burgeoning Shibuya-kei scene. The album would spawn two of their best-known songs: "Twiggy Twiggy" and "Baby Love Child".

poodlefaker

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on April 25, 2021, 05:55:20 PM
Oh! Mr Songwriter was written by Vic (aka Jim Moir) and Steve McGuire. A James Brown-influenced funk version can be found on Vic's, to date, one and only album, I Will Cure You. This is clearly the definitive reading, though.

But the album version includes a fantastic sax solo by Evan Parker, who I guess became involved through the record's producer Steve Beresford. Among the other many artists Beresford worked with is Derek Bailey, who began his career as a guitarist in Morecambe and Wise's band.  It's like a free jazz/comedy circle.

daf

Gulf Aid – As Time Stood Still



Peaked at #100 in the UK chart in March 1991

QuoteThe "celebrities" taking part in this nebulous charity song included DJ Shat Parp, HI-NRG diva Hazell Dean, Scousers Sonia and Gerry Marsden, Shakin' ABBA copycats The Brotherhood of Man, wacky TV presenter Timmy Mallet, and Boxers Frank Bruno and John Conteh.

 

Gulf Aid is a mystery inside an enigma wrapped up in some old fish and chip paper. Organised by Tits-out tabloid "newspaper" The Sun, there's absolutely no info about who it was meant to benefit, or what they were going to do with the cash - possibly send out some tins of bully beef and a copy of Razzle to 'our brave boys'?

Gulf Aid also spawned a harrowing comedy gala night "for the troops" [the poor sods!] - featuring Bernie Clifton, John Inman, David Copperfield, Mike Yarwood and the inevitable Jim Davidson.

jamiefairlie

Lowlife - Big Fat Funky Whale

https://youtu.be/6nRbaQ3Q7XI



Taken from their fourth album, "San Antorium".

jamiefairlie

The Wedding Present - Heather

https://youtu.be/UH6wWzQc0c0



Included on their third album, "Seamonsters", but this is the Peel session version from the previous October.

Brundle-Fly

I'm Spartacus - Blammo! Released on Imaginary in 1991.





Daft Inspiral Carpets-esque indie single from the Sheffield combo who later became Speedy. The last band I saw at Steve Lamacq haunt, The Camden Falcon before it closed down. I think Jockice said he knew them or at the very least knew one of the member's girlfriends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rje-UuDfUJ8

#1523
Quote from: Brundle-Fly on April 28, 2021, 09:12:54 AM
Jesus Built My Hotrod - Ministry. Released on Sire in 1991.

We can't do alternative 1991 pop without including this mini-masterpiece of mayhem.

Indeed. Or, for that matter, this one:

Negativland - U2
EP released by SST Records



Arch experimentalists Negativland have already appeared in this thread but 1991 brought them exposure and notoriety way beyond their mission statement in the shape of heavy-handed law suits for copyright infringement, trademark infringement, fraud and defamation. Aside from the uncleared sampling issue, Island lawyers claimed U2 fans, feverish with anticipation about the release of Achtung Baby, would have been duped into buying the EP only to be horribly traumatised by the prospect of an Emo Philips soundalike (member David Wills) mercilessly lampooning 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' interspersed with out-takes of Casey Kasem, beloved American Top 40 host/Scooby-Doo's Shaggy, in full meltdown mode. "These guys [U2] are from England and who gives a shit?". The band later documented the substantial fallout in a 96-page magazine plus CD (which also attracted legal action) followed by a 275-page book plus sound collage CD addressing 'the right to make new art out of corporately owned culture'. I still love revisiting this saga thirty years later. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqse3vYcnaU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6gPSSYxex0


Brundle-Fly

Ah, yeah, that's a goodie. If I remember correctly U2 themselves weren't bothered by it. Always the grasping managers.

daf

D Code ‎– Mrs. No. 3 (Divorce) *



Featured on the 'Look Back And Wonder' 12-inch EP - released in 1991

The only copy of this I could find on Youtube is from a John Peel show, with the start missing. He must have played it at least twice, as the time I heard him playing it, (on 20 October 1991), he introduced it by saying :
Quote'When I was a little boy, me and my little brother Frank, who was a couple of years younger than me (still is as a matter of fact) had an imaginary person who lived in our garden called BooBoo, who lived at the bottom of our flag pole in fact – we had a flag pole - that sort of a family – and we had a secret word as well.'

The track starts and ends with "and what was that secret word?". Coming out of the track Peel announces :
Quote"Well actually it was mononucleosis but we were unbearably precocious children."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* [couldn't find a picture of the label on the net, so I've had to take a fuzzy snap of my own copy!]

jamiefairlie

Catherine Wheel - Shallow

https://youtu.be/IVJMneYJHXw



Formed in 1990 in Great Yarmouth, comprising singer-guitarist Rob Dickinson, guitarist Brian Futter, bassist Dave Hawes, and drummer Neil Sims. This is from their debut release, the "She's My Friend" EP.

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: jamiefairlie on April 29, 2021, 11:28:23 PM
Catherine Wheel - Shallow
Possibly my favourite band of the 1990s, certainly in my top five of all time. Any vague hope of seeing them on stage ruined by knowing Rob Dickinson is happily making a good living renovating old Porsche 911s out in LA. But, fuck me, they should have been huge.

daf

Mel Smith – Another Blooming Christmas



Released in December 1991 - reached #59 in the UK charts

QuoteFather Christmas was a 1991 British animated short starring Mel Smith as the titular character. Created for Channel 4 and first broadcast on Christmas Eve 1991 in Britain, the story is an adaption of two books written by Raymond Briggs - Father Christmas and Father Christmas Goes on Holiday - and is the second animated adaptation of Briggs' work made for the channel, following the 1982 animated short The Snowman. The story focuses on a stereotypical vision of Father Christmas with a down-to-earth twist, living in contemporary Britain with his pets and reindeer, coping with everyday domestic chores, who recounts to the viewers about a holiday he took before preparing for another Christmas.



A heavily sanitised American version was produced. The most notable change is that Father Christmas was re-voiced by William Dennis Hunt, becoming much jollier, and all 76 instances of the word "blooming" were replaced with "merry". Scenes where Father Christmas gets drunk, over-eats, dances with chorus girls and suffers a hangover were removed. Also cut are a few candid moments showing his "builders' bum". Tragically, it was this shit version that was released on DVD. Blooming arseholes!

jamiefairlie

Electronic - Tighten Up

https://youtu.be/SC_aIPJgg9I



Two years after their debut single they released their self-titled first album, from which this track is taken. One of the few songs in an otherwise disappointing catalogue that actually lived up to the 'Smiths meets New Order' expectations.