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

[Brundle-Fly]

Mo Bounce - Tim 'Love' Lee Released on Tummy Touch in 1997.



This has a funkier, less wonky Thundercat feeling to it.  Ok, it sounds like 'a bar by the hotel swimming pool in Tenerife' music but quite frankly, I could be doing with being sat at a bar by a hotel swimming pool in Tenerife right now.

Tim "Love" Lee is the Head honcho at Tummy Touch Records, Peace Feast Industries and Boy Scout Recordings as well as prolific, eclectic and highly regarded producer and DJ since the late 80s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhWLcln-nPI&t

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Cornershop - Candyman



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

This great goddamn groove is one of the highlights from Cornershop's critically acclaimed breakthrough album, When I Was Born for the 7th Time. It failed to chart when it was later released as a single, but there's no accounting for taste.

Cornershop are a British indie rock band formed in 1991 by Wolverhampton-born Tjinder Singh (singer, songwriter, and guitar), his brother Avtar Singh (bass guitar, vocals), David Chambers (drums) and Ben Ayres (guitar, keyboards, and tamboura). The band name originated from a stereotype referring to British Asians often owning corner shops. Their music is a fusion of Indian music, indie rock, alternative and electronic dance music.

The band released their critically acclaimed album When I Was Born for the 7th Time in September 1997. The album featured collaborations with Allen Ginsberg, Paula Frazer, Justin Warfield and a Yoko Ono- and Paul McCartney-approved cover of "Norwegian Wood" recorded in the Punjabi language. The album was produced by Tjinder Singh and Dan the Automator. Rolling Stone called it one of the essential recordings of the 1990s. The album was ranked No. 1 on Spin's list of 'Top 20 Albums of the Year' (1998)

The track Brimful of Asha topped the legendary Festive 50 rundown of John Peel's tracks of the year in 1997.

Norman Cook (a.k.a. Fatboy Slim) loved the track and remixed the song, which became hugely popular and captured the attention of the world. The song was a tribute to the prolific Indian playback singer, Asha Bhosle, and Tjinder's musical influences such as Trojan Records and vinyl culture in general.

[Jockice]

I Need You - Wireless

Band formed by half of Manc also-rans (but quite good ones) Molly Half Head, with my schoolmate Christian on keyboards and the wonderfully-named drummer Basil Creese. This, their debut single, was a very minor hit (If you count one week in the top 75 as a hit. Sorry I can't reach my Guinness Book Of Hit Singes from here) as was the follow-up. Alan McGee was involved with them (although they were signed to Chrysalis) and they were named in a magazine (The Face if I remember correctly) as possible rivals to Radiohead.

They then proceeded to be so thoroughly screwed over by the music business that to this day I am convinced they are the band mentioned near the start of Kill Your Friends by John Niven, even down to the 4/10 album review in the NME. I'm even sure there was a video made for this single (set at a wedding ceremony) that seems to have been removed from youtube. I've definitely watched it before.

Christian now plays in wedding bands and the like. And is much happier for it.

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

Number 68. The follow-up, In Love With The Familiar, got to 69. And that was a big blow to their hopes.

[daf]

Hugh Cornwell ‎– One Burning Desire



Opening track on the album 'Guilty' - released in May 1997

Hugh Cornwell attended William Ellis School in Highgate, where he played bass in a band, Emil and the Detectives, with Richard Thompson, later a member of Fairport Convention. Hugh Cornwell : "Before Richard left school, we were gonna change the band's name to the Germs. Richard needed a bass player in the band, so he taught me how to play it. I had a rudimentary knowledge of chords and stuff, but I couldn't play that well. So my first exploit in a band was playing bass. I switched to guitar when the band with Richard folded; that's when my brother left behind his Spanish guitar, so I had access to that. Then I went to study at Bristol University and got a proper acoustic guitar. No bands at the university, but I did lots of busking."

In the late 1960s, after earning a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Bristol University, he embarked on post-graduate research at Lund University in Sweden. Not long after his arrival he formed the band Johnny Sox with Hans Wärmling - who had played in a late line-up of the Swedish band The Spotnicks.

Hugh Cornwell : "There was a singer, a lead guitarist, a bass player, a drummer, and me on second guitar and harmony. Occasionally I'd sing a lead song. And it was the same line-up for the whole time. The trouble was that Hans Wärmling, the guitarist and main musical driving force behind the writing side of the band, didn't want to come to the UK with us. So we went from a five-piece to a four-piece band."

In 1979, he recorded his first solo album, 'Nosferatu', in collaboration with the Captain Beefheart's Magic Band's drummer, Robert Williams in California. The highlight of the album was a cover of the Cream cracker, 'White Room', which was released as a single in November 1979.



Hugh Cornwell : "I was in San Francisco and went to a Captain Beefheart show with Blondie, because I was friends with Debbie and Chris. We were all Beefheart fans. And Beefheart was playing for three nights in a row, so we trouped down to see him all three nights, and I met Robert there. I think it was the first tour that he'd played with Beefheart, and we immediately became very firm friends. I said, 'Hey, let's make an album,' and Robert said, 'Okay'."

His second solo album, 'Wolf', released in 1988, featured the singles "Another Kind Of Love" and "Dreaming Again".



After leaving The Stranglers in 1990, Cornwell worked with Roger Cook and Andy West as CCW. Their self-titled album was released in 1992, and a third solo album, 'Wired' followed in 1993.



The 1997 album, 'Guilty', saw Cornwell teaming up with Laurie Latham, who had previously produced the Stranglers classic album 'Aural Sculpture' in 1984.

[Jockice]

Number 68. The follow-up, In Love With The Familiar, got to 69. And that was a big blow to their hopes.

A bit more about Wireless, which is a dreadful name incidentally. Hadn't they noticed that up and coming thing called the internet when they decided to call themselves that?

You could tell the label had given up on them by the time the album came out, Apparently only 4,000 copies were made and the ones sent  to magazines etc came with a desultory obviously uninterested press release, saying that among their fans were Alan McGee (fair enough, he did like them), a couple of others I can't remember, and Drugstore.

Now Wireless supported them for a few dates around the time of their first single, but when their second came out Isobel thingy was doing the singles reviews as a guest for Melody Maker. And she absolutely slated it, without mentioning that they'd supported her band or that they knew (or even presumably had met) each other. I don't know if something personal had happened between the bands but I think you could safely say that Drugstore were NOT fans of Wireless.

Not that Drugstore were much cop anyway. Apart from that one with Thom Yorke I can't remember any of their songs. So to pretend that they were Wireless fans and this was somehow a good thing shows how desperate the record label were to try and forget they existed.

Mind you, at least the album came out. Another band I knew a few years earlier - they also had a shit name, Respect - were on Chrysalis as well, and after a couple of single flops they were summoned to the HQ, told they were dumped and made to leave by the back door, walking past a skip full of copies of their never-to-be released album.

The music business is just so nice.

[daf]

Mansun – The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail



Released in February 1997 on transparent red vinyl as the B-side of "She Makes My Nose Bleed" - reached #9 in the UK chart.

Dominic Chad grew up in Maidstone, Kent, and went on to study French and Russian at Bangor University, where he met bassist Mark Howard. They formed the band "Floating Bear" in 1991 with Lance Paine, Pete James and Iain Jenner and released a five-track cassette entitled "Barely Real". The band regularly played at the university's student bar including an Amnesty benefit gig, and also played at Pontardawe Festival.

After being kicked off his degree at the end of the second year, Chad re-located to Chester where he worked as a barman at the Fat Cat Cafe Bar on Watergate Street and met Stove King and Paul Draper, with whom he formed Mansun. As well as being the lead guitarist, Chad worked as an arranger and songwriter, and co-wrote several of Mansun's songs with Draper, including 'The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail'.



The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail was written by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. The authors put forward a crackpot hypothesis that the historical Jesus married Mary Magdalene, had one or more children, and that those children or their descendants emigrated to what is now southern France. Once there, they intermarried with the noble families that would eventually become the Merovingian dynasty, whose special claim to the throne of France is championed today by a secret society called the Priory of Sion. They concluded that the legendary Holy Grail is simultaneously the womb of Mary Magdalene and the sacred royal bloodline she gave birth to.

In January 1997, Chad was the 'guest reader' on Mark Radcliffe's 10-midnight Graveyard Shift Radio 1 show, reading extracts from 'The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail' over four nights.

[dr beat]

Its late, I'm too important for these lengthy introductions and you're even more important too.  So lets cut to the chase.  This lot.  Again.

These Animal Men - Life Support Machine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fef2Jx0Zv-M

[dr beat]

Apologies for my remiss, no Widnes-referencing Stars of Track and Field, but lets do LLPJ.  Just sadly just missing out from qualifying in the group stages at 41:

Belle and Sebastian feat. Monica Queen - Lazy Lane Painter Jane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s_fgVUhy7M

[Brundle-Fly]

The Plan - Sofa Surfers  Released on Universal in 1997.





Ok, I might occasionally be secretly wishing we were still doing the late sixties/ early seventies AAHoPM Pt1 thread but indulge me yet again?
This is Lalo Schifrin meets Quincy Jones soundtrack - 90s style

Sofa Surfers were an Austrian band that plays a mixture of rock and electronic music floating between trip-hop, dub and acid jazz chillout music. They have also composed film scores.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1AoPYR4Vnc&t

[Smeraldina Rima]

Yo La Tengo - Stockholm Syndrome



From I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One (1997). Robert Christgau called this a 'simulated Neil Young ballad'. I'm not sure if the lyrics are supposed to be sinister or not. Bass player sings, drummer harmonises, guitarist solos.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Ultrasound - Same Band



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

What do you get when you cross the outsider ethos of Pulp with the urban drama of Suede and the epic bombast of '70s Who? Well...

Ultrasound shoulda been contenders, but alas it all fell apart too soon. However, I highly recommend their 'comeback' album from 2010. How different things might've been had it come out circa 2001, but I suppose we should be grateful that it exists at all.

Their performance at Glastonbury '98 during a torrential afternoon downpour is one of my most powerful and cherished gig memories. It was such a perfectly dramatic setting for them.

Ultrasound are an English indie rock band. With roots in the British underground psychedelic and experimental rock scenes of the 1980s and early 1990s, the band emerged in 1997 and soon gained attention for their "operatic prog-glam ambitions".

Signing a high-profile deal with Nude Records at the tail-end of the Britpop era, the band released several well-received singles and were tagged as "another big, bright hope for British music" but split up acrimoniously in 1999 following the release of their debut album Everything Picture. Reuniting in early 2010, Ultrasound have gone on to tour and to release two further albums.

In the late 1990s, the band received favourable reviews for their recorded output, while receiving a good deal of press attention for their energetic live gigs, unusual appearance and determined outsider appeal. Singer/guitarist Andrew 'Tiny' Wood, in particular, became a frequent interviewee and subject of attention in the British weekly music press, making a virtue of subjects usually avoided or discouraged in pop music discourse (such as his relative older age as a rock star debutante, his imposing physique, and his unfashionable enthusiasm for progressive rock).

[Jockice]

Ultrasound - Same Band



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

What do you get when you cross the outsider ethos of Pulp with the urban drama of Suede and the epic bombast of '70s Who? Well...

Ultrasound shoulda been contenders, but alas it all fell apart too soon. However, I highly recommend their 'comeback' album from 2010. How different things might've been had it come out circa 2001, but I suppose we should be grateful that it exists at all.

Their performance at Glastonbury '98 during a torrential afternoon downpour is one of my most powerful and cherished gig memories. It was such a perfectly dramatic setting for them.

I love this lot. One of the most underrated bands ever.

[daf]

Grass~Show‎ – Getting You out of My Head



Featured on the album 'Something Smells Good In Stinkville' - released in the UK in June 1997

Grass~Show were a Britpop-inspired indie band from Sweden, active in the mid- to late-1990s. They released their first single, "I Stole Your Girl Away" in Sweden in 1994, followed by "Illusion" in 1995.



Signed to Food records, the artwork for Grass~Show's releases, designed by Stylorouge, often portrayed imagery of 1950s American families, which were juxtaposed with surreal and absurd elements. The band released one album in the UK, 'Something Smells Good In Stinkville' in 1997 - which included the singles : "1962", "Freak Show" and "Out Of The Void".



The album also contains a cover version of the Ace of Base song, "All That She Wants" - which had previously been released as a single in August 1996.

[Brundle-Fly]

Grass~Show‎ – 1962



Released in February 1997 - reached #53 in the UK chart

I nominated Grass-Show's 1962 on June 9th in the 1996 section, daf and you even commented by saying 'Food are the Deram of Britpop'.

Have you been on the grass show ?  ; )

[Brundle-Fly]

She's My Lover (A Revolution Sitting Stoned In A Field - Remix Edit) - Kid Loco. Released on Yellow Productions in 1997.





A sultry mellow moment for a sunny Friday afternoon? Bon!

Kid Loco AKA Jean-Yves Prieur is a French electronic musician, DJ, remixer and producer, born June 19, 1964 in Antony, Hauts-de-Seine, France.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elh5X4pgtdo&t

[daf]

I nominated Grass-Show's 1962 on June 9th in the 1996 section, daf and you even commented by saying 'Food are the Deram of Britpop'.

Have you been on the grass show ?  ; )

Haha - oops!

Hold on, I'll just do a quick switcheroo! . . .

[Pauline Walnuts]

Ooh, I loved Ultrasound back in the day,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lffLq7zbk30

The American dronetastic ones! lolz.

Actually, I've only heard their first couple of albums, also sorry, no uploads from the 1997 album, so have the 1999 one instead. Probably sounds the same to be honest.


This post is a complete disaster.



Hang on,



Stars of the Lid 3rd album, 1997

https://youtu.be/6Ub681YQENc

I had to check them out after John Peel played Before Top Dead Center off the first album, not sure they really improved on that to be honest*, but sometime you've got drone till you just don't stop.

*Their 6th album was called 'The Tired Sounds Of Stars Of The Lid'.

[Greg Torso]

Prolapse - Autocade



I thiiiiiink we've had this band in the thread already? Apologies if we have to whoever posted if they did, but anyway, Prolapse were mostly from Leicester and known for having two singers - Linda Steelyard (who sings on this one) and Mick Derrick, a gruff Scottish bloke (unfortunately not present on vocals for this song) - who seemed to spend most songs arguing with each other and trading off surreal, rambling lyrics.

[Brundle-Fly]

Haha - oops!

Hold one, I'll just do a quick swicheroo! . . .

Yaay! Nicer pic too.

[daf]

18 Wheeler ‎– Stay (William Orbit 'Stereo Odyssey' Mix)



Reached #59 in March 1997

18 Wheeler were a Scottish rock band active in the 1990s, consisting of Sean Jackson (vocals, guitar), David Keenan (guitar, vocals), Alan Hake (bass), and Neil Halliday (drums). Keenan left in 1994 to start his own group, the Telstar Ponies and was replaced by guitarist Steven Haddow.



In July 1994, the band released their first album 'Twin Action' on Creation Records



Their second album, 'Formanka', was released in May 1995, followed by 'Year Zero', released in March 1997, which saw them take a more experimental sample-based approach.



The remixed single "Stay" was given mainstream radio play and gave them their only UK Top 75 hit single. They were subsequently dropped by Creation during the recording of what was to be their fourth studio release.

[Smeraldina Rima]

I enjoyed that Prolapse album after listening to "Autocade" and "I Hate the Clicking Man" which came on after. Thanks also for indirect introduction to Cindy Dall - have been listening to the untitled 1996 album.

[The Culture Bunker]

Catherine Wheel - Here Comes The Fat Controller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l0hohwfUOs

Rob Dickinson and company had managed to toddle through the 90s without any major commercial returns, mainly concentrating on breaking the American market without any real success. Still, I think their 1997 album 'Adam and Eve' is the best of the year, though it did little to reverse their fortunes chart-wise (UK #53, US #178). Sadly, the original line-up fractured not long after and their next album 'Wishville' was a bit wank.

Dickinson made a fine solo album 'Fresh Wine for the Horses' in 2005 (two tracks featured Catherine Wheel alumni Brian Futter and Neil Sims along with the Tim Friese-Greene, who produced their first and last albums) before concentrating on restoring old Porsche 911s for rich Hollywood types.

[Greg Torso]

Thanks also for indirect introduction to Cindy Dall - have been listening to the untitled 1996 album.

No worries, that's a good one. I love the Russian lullaby at the end.

[jobotic]

I saw Prolapse at this gig and I can't remember a fucking thing about it. Wish I'd drunk less then.

https://www.last.fm/event/236686+Stereolab+at+Electric+Ballroom+on+12+July+1994

[jamiefairlie]

The Delgados - Pull the Wires from the Wall

https://youtu.be/PKjxcSHWFFk



Formed in Motherwell in 1994 by Alun Woodward (vocals, guitar), Emma Pollock (vocals, guitar), Stewart Henderson (bass), and Paul Savage (drums). This is from their third (of seven) Peel session and is unusual in that it charted twice in the Festive Fifty, this version making number 27 this year and the 'official' version topping the chart in 1998. They split up in 2005.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Khaya - Summer/Winter Song



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PkAHyfppjE

Do you remember that Leonard Cohen song, Suzanne? Well, do you?

Khaya were an eccentric art-rock band from Edinburgh. They were signed to local label SL Records, which was also home to Peel favourites ballboy.

This song reminds me of being young, drunk, poor, stupid and happy in Auld Reekie. I am now middle-aged, drunk, poor, stupid and of middling mental health in Glasgow. How times change!

[Pauline Walnuts]

MESSAGE NUKED FROM ORBIT FOR COMPLETE AND UTTER CHRONOLOGICAL FAIL

STOP GETTING THE SPICE GIRLS WRONG

[Astronaut Omens]

Post it! Don't worry about being a year out, with so much music there was multiple different release dates on different formats or in different countries, and there's so much contradictory stuff on discogs etc about dates.

[Brundle-Fly]

Bounce To Dis - Ebo Man.  Released on XL Recordings in 1997.





The first two Ebo Man E.P.s were PHAT!  Even though that term is probably over thirty-odd years old, I still feel like a trendy vicar saying it.

Ebo- Man AKA Jeroen Hofs is a Breakbeat, Big Beat music-maker, DJ/ producer from Utrecht, Netherlands. Ebo Man is NOT part of the Marvel Universe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUCMmS6DhXk&t=8s

[Brundle-Fly]

Richard's Hairpiece - Beck (Devil's Haircut remix by Aphex Twin) . Released on Geffen in 1997.







We've covered Beck and Aphex Twin already. This almost sounds like the precursor to Come To Daddy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKHJgK8C9Fo