Chart Music Podcast

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

While we're putting faces to voices...

Sarah Bee


David Stubbs


Neil Kulkarni


Everyone knows what Simon Price looks like, but here he is anyway.

[Neomod]

Yeah, he looks like he sounds, whereas I never imagined Al as a bald chap with glasses. It's probably just because of the Midlands accent, but I always pictured him as looking a bit like Paddy Considine.

Al Needham


Paddy Considine 

Yeah, I had Al down as a John Power lookalike.

[gmoney]

I saw Pricey at a scarcely attended goth night in Brighton about 8 years ago. I remember thinking he seemed very tall, and getting the urge to go and talk to him, but I realised other than saying I really liked his Manics biography I didn't know what else I should bother him with. These days I'd be loaded with Chart Music guff that I'm sure he'd love.

[Fabian Thomsett]

They all look exactly like music journos.

[worldsgreatestsinner]

I had Al down as looking like David Schneider.

[buzby]

Proudest day of my life.

well done, lad.

Parkes harsh on The Creatures. Their version of Right Now is significantly different (and IMO better) than Mel Torme's twee original (recorded in 1965 but it sounds like it's from a decade earlier). TOTP fact - the vintage BBC Type A microphone in the rectangular suspension frame that Siouxsie uses for this performance reappears 3 years later for It's Immaterial's performance of Driving Away From Home.

The instrument Andy Fletcher is miming with on Everything Counts is a Shawm:

It was played from sample on the record (as was the Hohner melodica), using Daniel Miller's newly-aquired Synclavier.

[Neomod]

TOTP fact - the vintage BBC Type A microphone in the rectangular suspension frame that Siouxsie uses for this performance reappears 3 years later for It's Immaterial's performance of Driving Away From Home.

In which John Campbell appears to be doing an Emo Phillips impression.

[sweeper]

Stubbs looks like a stevedore extra from series 2 of The Wire in that photo.

[Camp Tramp]

I was happy to hear confirmed on the podcast what I discovered on here.
Andy Fletcher performed no discernable function.

[buzby]

I was happy to hear confirmed on the podcast what I discovered on here.
Andy Fletcher performeds no discernable function.

FTFY
To be fair, given Yesitsme's Bummerdog/Rhubarb pitch became a reality, they may well have read it on here too...
(the extent of Fletcher's role in the band had been pretty much known long before the 2005 Rolling Stone review of Playing The Angel, which is where they extracted the quote about him 'showing up for photoshoots and cashing the cheques' - there's a scene in 101 where he admits this himself, saying 'Martin's the songwriter, Alan is the good musician, Dave's the vocalist and I bum around')

[Chriddof]

Just so everyone knows, that "Wattoo Wattoo" show Taylor mentioned was Wattoo Wattoo Super Bird, a series of short five minute French cartoons which also got shown in the Thames region as well as Border and wherever.

The eponymous Wattoo Wattoo is a black and white ovoid bird. He comes from a cube-shaped planet called Auguste. In the first episode he becomes aware of the very stupid and extremely wasteful race called Zwas. The Zwas are goose-like creatures (in French, "les Zwas" sounds like "les oies" = the geese) that live on the Earth in cities very much like our own. They have exaggerated human characteristics, they are irascible, badly behaved and generally thoughtless. The Zwas are not without kindness however and many of them keep pets called Credo who are spheroid cats, dogs and other similar creatures. Often the actions of the Zwas puts the Credos in danger.

An example episode (in French)

[sweeper]

I do hope they read this thread, because I want Taylor Parkes to know I bought a lovely bunch of roses from his florist stand at Liverpool Street in 1978, and they brightened up my old mum's lounge right proper, they did.

[worldsgreatestsinner]

Didn't Pricey used to post here in the old days?

[Chriddof]

He did, but he made the mistake of liking a thing that SOTCAA didn't like.

[worldsgreatestsinner]

Barley, Boosh or Darkplace?

[Chriddof]

I think it was Barley. And also he expressed some amusement at My New Best Friend featuring the dreaded Mark Wooton, which is less understandable. But never mind.

[non capisco]

I think it was Barley. .

Not even joking, I think it was 'I'm Alan Partridge'. Series 1! Those guys!

[Neomod]

Taylor may have read the totp thread from earlier this year judging by his comments on 'softlad' music..

Neomod  Re: Top of the Pops on BBC Four
« Reply #2644 on: March 20, 2018

I really liked early China Crisis. They were a kind of an electronic Sarah records band. I bought African and White after hearing it on Peel and then saw them support Altered Images at the Hammersmith Palais. Listening to Difficult Shapes and Passive Rhythms recently it's still a cracker of an album.

[Brundle-Fly]

I hope Neil Kulkarni and his family are coping. I can't imagine he will be making a return to the podcast for a long time, if ever, which is a great shame but obviously irrelevant given his current situation.

[DrGreggles]

I hope Neil Kulkarni and his family are coping. I can't imagine he will be making a return to the podcast for a long time, if ever, which is a great shame but obviously irrelevant given his current situation.

Neil's been back on Twitter, so hopefully he'll return to CM soon. He's a great contributor - and is a great audience for whoever else is on his episodes.

[worldsgreatestsinner]

Yeah, he was talking today about submitting an Eminem review and he tweeted about the new ep the other day. He could be coping by throwing himself into work related stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if he found it helpful to come back.

I'm Alan Partridge? Jesus.

[Brundle-Fly]

What a shame Simon Price doesn't post on here anymore. I can't imagine it was just down to the SOTCAA fellas disagreeing with him. They might have been divisive but hardly the mafia. I can imagine someone like him has thicker skin than that or maybe he just thought, "You know what? Fuck this."

[worldsgreatestsinner]

I've been lurking around here for quite a while and I remember the SOTCAA days as being filled with really interesting threads about the minutiae of comedy but quite aggressively negative about most new things to the extent that it was pretty offputting. Threads were interesting to read but I wouldn't want to get caught in the middle of one.

[Brundle-Fly]

Such a shame as they really knew their onions but could be insufferable at the same time.

The shift is now in the political threads to alienate lurkers. Although since hisnibs has scarpered, things seem a little less judgemental.

[worldsgreatestsinner]

Yeah, I discovered quite a few t.v. and radio shows for the first time because of SOTCAA posting about them. But I remember getting the feeling that they were a bit like a certain breed of music and film fan where there's a cut-off point for them and everything after a certain date is met with hostility.

[Jockice]

What is SOTCAA? Neil is still posting on Facebook too. I'm a fan. I'm very proud that he's liked several of my posts. As for Pricey, he's had that side spikes hairstyle for about 20 years. He certainly had it the only time I've ever seen him in person circa 2000. I know that many men keep the same style for most of their lives, but surely he fancies a change sometimes?

[Brundle-Fly]

What is SOTCAA?

Oh law. Best off out of it.

[Uncle TechTip]

The Chuckle Reich, as they were lovingly referred to.

[Auntie Beryl]

What a shame Simon Price doesn't post on here anymore. I can't imagine it was just down to the SOTCAA fellas disagreeing with him. They might have been divisive but hardly the mafia. I can imagine someone like him has thicker skin than that or maybe he just thought, "You know what? Fuck this."

Similar pattern to another forum I'm on. Racked up thousands of posts, got into a running spat with another regular and departed.

[Natnar]

It'd be interesting if Al got a couple of musicians who had actually appeared on Top Of The Pops to do a Chart Music with him.