666 Hello The Shamen - Pro-Gen

Chart  entered : 7  April  1990

Chart  peak : 55 ( 4  in  re-mixed  form  and  re-titled  "Move  Any  Mountain"  in  1991 )

Number  of  hits : 12

Here  we  have  another  mid-eighties  indie  band  reborn  as  ravers.

The  Shamen  started  out  as  a  trio   named  Alone  Again  Or  ( after  the  Love  song  )  comprising  Colin  Angus  ( bass  and  keyboards ) and  brothers  Derek  and  Keith  McKenzie  ( guitar/vocals   and  drums  respectively .  They  released  their  first  single  "Drum The  Beat" in  1984, a  mix  of  dramatic  vocals  and  electronic  funk  that  sounds  like  The  Associates  given  a  dance  makeover. It  is  however  completely  tuneless  and  cluttered. By  1985  they  had  a  one  single  deal  with  Polydor  and  released  their  second  single "Dream  Come  True"  in  March  that  year.  It  has  a  cleaner  pop  production  and   the   semblance  of  a  tune  but  still  sounds  over-complicated  and  a  bit  like  King  in  trying  to  fuse    contemporary  rock  and  funk  sounds.

They  changed  their  name  to The  Shamen  towards  the  end  of  1985  in  time  for  their  next  single  a  12  inch  EP "They  May  Be  Right  But  They're  Certainly  Wrong". The  dance  moves  had  been  jettisoned  in  favour  of  a  Goth  rock  sound  somewhat  similar  to The  Bolshoi  but  with  Latin  touches. All  three  tracks  would  feature  on  their  debut  album eighteen  months  later. 

In 1986, Peter  Stephenson  joined  to  relieve  Colin  of  keyboard  duties  and  played  on  their  next  single "Young  Till  Yesterday"  in  November  that  year. The song  carries  a  simplified  Won't  Get  Fooled  Again  message  about  disillusion  in  a  murky  mix  of  psychedelic  guitars, harsh  drums and  echoey  keyboards  that  recalls  the  likes  of  Danse  Society  or  Comsat  Angels. I  haven't  heard  the  next  single  "Something  About  You".

The  album "Drop"  came  out  in  1987  and  was  mainly  a  compilation  of  previously  released  material. "Happy  Days"  is  the  best  realised  song  but  it's  strictly  fodder  for  the  independent  charts  at  this  stage.

By  the  time  of  its  release , Colin  was  ready  to  move  on  from indie  rock  and  pursue  a  more   electronic  sound   incorporating  sampling  and  other  studio  technology. This  was  evident  on  their  next  single  "Christopher  Mayhew  Says"  released  in  September  1987.Mayhew  was  a  Labour  MP  in  the  fifties  who  was  famously  filmed  taking  an  acid  tablet  for  research  purposes  for   Panorama  in  1955. It  was  never  actually  broadcast  but  footage  survived  and  was  sampled  by  the  group  for  the  single. It  retains  their  brittle  Goth-dance  sound  but  smothers  it  with   a  layer  of  electronic  bleeps  and  samples  from  the  experiment.  The  chorus  is  a  mantra  of  the  title.

It  was  a  step  too  far  for  Derek  McKenzie  who  decided  to  go  to  university  rather than  continue  with  the  band  just  after  its  release.  He  was  replaced  by  Glaswegian giant    Will  Sinnott who had  been  with  cabaret  troupe  Edith  and  the  Ladies. He  took  on  bass  duties  while  Colin  moved  up  to  the  frontman  role replacing  McKenzie  on  both  vocals  and  guitar.

The  first  single  to  feature  Will  was  "Knature  of  A  Girl"  in  February  1988,  a  tuneless  drone  but  still  anchored  in  their  old  sound. "Jesus  Loves  Amerika"  their  next  single  in  June 1988  was  their  most  coherent  effort  to date, an attack  on  right-wing  Christianity  in  America  that  prefigures  Jesus  Jones  in  its  mix  of  abrasive  vocals,  use  of  samples, loud  guitars   and  hip  hop  beats.

They  released  their  next  album  "In  Gorbachev  We  Trust"  at  the  beginning  of  1989.  Synthesisers  replace  guitars as  the  dominant  instrument  and  the  lyrics  are  predominantly  drug-inspired  as  Will  and  Colin  immersed  themselves  in  the  acid  house  scene. They  linked  together  sixties  psychedelic  tropes  with  the  sound  of  the  second  summer  of  love  on  tracks  like  "Adam  Strange"  whilst  others  are  straight  techno. There  was  still  no  likely  hit  though  and  the  album  didn't  chart.

Feeling marginalised  by  Colin  and  Will's  writing  partnership, Stephenson  and  McKenzie  left  the  band  shortly  after  the  album's  release  and  weren't  on  the  next  single  in  April  1989, " You, Me  And  Everything", a  grinding  industrial  funk  number  reminiscent  of  Cabaret  Voltaire.   It  was  the  opening  track  on  a  mini-LP  the  duo  whacked  out  the  following  month  called  "Phorward" . Now  free  of  all  baggage  from  the  past  the  album  boasts  a  full on  techno  sound  but  there's  also  a  hint  of  a  pop  sensibility  emerging  on  "Strange  Day  Dreams' 89"  and  Colin  tries  his  hand at  Scots-accented  rap  on  "Negation  State".

The  band  spent  the  rest  of  1989  on  the  Synergy  tour  with  Orbital  and  other  rave  acts  bringing  acid  house  to  rock  fans. It  led  to  a  new  deal  with  One  Little  Indian  Records. It  also  led  to  them  meeting  Richard  West, a  house  DJ  and  rapper  under  the  name  Mr  C.

He  was  invited  to  contribute  a  rap  part  to  their  next  single "Pro-Gen" . The  song  is  either  a  hymn  to  positive  thinking  or  about  the  feeling  of  invincibility  engendered  by  taking  certain  illegal  substances. The  Beatmasters  mixed  the  song  and  their  contribution  is  crucial  in  cleaning  up  the  sound  for  a  pop  audience. The  main  synth  riff  is  melodic  and  while   the  chorus  is  little  more  than  a  chant  of  "I  can  move , move, move  any  mountain"  ( hence  its  subsequent  title )  it's  a  strong  enough  hook  to  make  the  song  work  as  a  pop  hit. The  subsequent  version  has  a  brighter  sheen  but  isn't  that  much  different. In  the  cruellest  of  ironies,  it  was  filming  a  video  for  it  that  led  to  Will's  death. Far  from  being  invincible, he  drowned  while  swimming  shortly  after  the video  was  completed  in  Tenerife.

665 Hello Orbital - Chime

Chart  entered : 24  March  1990

Chart  peak : 17

Number  of  hits :16

This  was  the  Spiral  Scratch  of  the  nineties, a  home-made  record  made  in  the  duo's  dad's  converted  office  space  under  the  stairs  of  their  Sevenoaks  home.

They  were  brothers  Paul and  Philip  Hartnoll   making  records  for  the  Greater  London  rave  scene,  the  rough  boundary  of  which  was  the  M25  motorway  as  referenced  by  their  name. This  was  their  first  single  and  Paul  had  to  excuse  himself  from the  pizza  restaurant  where  he  worked  in  order  to  appear  on  Top  of  the  Pops  ( a  can't-be-arsed  debacle  which  ensured  they  weren't  invited  back  for  six  years ). If  the  appeal  of  Pacific  and  Loaded  escaped  me  the  success  of  this  just  baffles  me. "Chime"  is  an  instrumental track  played on  synthesisers  with  an  acid  house  rhythm  track  and  a  top  line  melody  that  is  so  monumentally  boring  and  repetitive  it  almost  seems  aggressive but  then  it  wasn't  composed  with  daytime  radio  play  in  mind.  I  suppose  the  real  question  is  why  would  e-stoked  ravers  who  danced  to  this  in  the  clubs  then  buy  it  in  sufficient  numbers  to  secure  a  high  chart placing ?  Does taking  a  pill  at  home  and  listening  to  the  same  music  on  headphones achieve  the  same  effect   or  is  the  record  just  a  souvenir  of  a  great  time. Answers  on  a  postcard  please.

664 Hello Snap ! -The Power

Chart  entered : 24  March  1990

Chart  peak : 1

Number  of  hits : 12

The  first  German  act to  feature  here for  a  while, Snap!  were essentially  a  duo  of  producers  Michael  Munzing  and  Luca  Anziloti  from  Frankfurt. They  started  out  as  a  sort  of  Teutonic Pet  Shop  Boys  called  16  Bit. They  enjoyed  a  big  hit  in  Germany  with  "Where  Are  You?" a  moody  synth-pop  chugger with  theatrical  vocals  rcalling  Yello. Their  other  singles  were  "Changing  Minds" a  Buggles-meets-KLF  stomper  and  "In  A Gadda Da Vida" which  you  suspect  is  a  cover  of  the  Boney  M  version  rather  than  Iron  Butterfly's  prog-rock  classic.

None  of  these  broke  out  internationally  so  the  duo  took  a  leaf  out  of  Coldcut's  book  and  became  a  production  duo  using  guest  vocalists  re-branded  as  Snap ! For  their  first  single  they  recuited rapper  Durron  "Turbo  B"  Butler, an  American  GI  stationed  in  Germany  who'd  previously  toured with The Fat  Boys. They   arranged  with Chaka  Khan  that  she'd  record  the  female  part  but  she  couldn't  make  the  session  and  recommended  one of  her  recent  backing  vocalists  Penny  Ford  for  the  task. Penny  was  an   experienced  singer  who'd  worked  with  The  Gap  Band, S.O.S. Band  and  Klymaxx  as  well  as  scoring  a  minor  solo  hit  ( number  43 ) with  the  robotic  electrodance  number "Dangerous"  in  1985.

They  were immediately  rewarded  with  an  international  smash. The  Popular  link  ishere

-663 Hello Primal Scream - Loaded

Chart  entered : 3  March  1990

Chart  peak : 16

Number  of  hits  : 21

Here's  another  landmark  record  in  the  rapprochement  between  indie  rock  and  dance  and  a larger  step  forward  for  Creation  Records.

We've  already  met  prime Screamer  Bobby  Gillespie  who  met  Alan  McGee  at  secondary  school  and  formed  a  short-lived  punk  band  The  Drains  in  1978  which  also  featured  teenaged  guitarist  Andrew  Innes. When  the  band  broke  up  , Andrew  and  McGee  moved  to  London  while  Bobby  remained  in  Glasgow. He  formed  the  first  incarnation  of  Primal  Scream  in  1982  with  another  old  school  friend  Jim  Beattie  making  "elemental  noise  tapes". While  the  band  remained  a  going  concern,  Bobby  joined  the  Jesus  and  Mary  Chain  as  a  drummer  in  1984.

Bobby  then  expanded  the  line  up  to  include  bassist  Rob  "Throb"  Young. They  signed  to  McGee's  new  label  Creation  and released  their  debut  single  "All  Fall  Down"  in  1985. it's  a  pleasant  enough  Byrdsian   jangle  despite  Bobby's  off key  vocals  but  doesn't  leave  a  lasting  impression. It  was  however  enough  to  trigger  an  ultimatum  from  the  Reid  brothers  and  so  Primal  Scream  became  Bobby's  sole  concern.

Their  second  single, "Crystal  Crescent" came  out  in  April  1986. It's  essentially  more  of  the  same  except  with  the  addition  of  some  tinny  brass  and  drum  tattoos  to  give  the illusion  of  more  musical  backbone. On  the  B-side  was  "Velocity  Girl", a  brief  but  tuneful  ode  to  a  junkie  which  was  licenced  by  the  NME  for  the  C86  cassette, in  fact  it  became  the  opening  track  and  means  that  Primal  Scream  are  the  second  and  final  band  from  that  compilation  to   qualify  for  this  blog. The  band  loathed  the  association  with  the  so-called  "shambling"  scene  believing  many  of  their  supposed  peers  to  be  musically  incompetent.

This  was  part  of  the  reason  for  switching  to  McGee's  new  label  Elevation  which  was  a  Warner  Brothers  subsidiary. They  started  recording  at  Rockfield  with  Smiths  producer  Stephen  Street  but  were  unhappy  with  the  results. The  sessions  also  resulted  in  the  rhythm  guitarist  and  drummer  quitting.  Andrew  came  into  the  ban  to  fill  the  former  vacancy. American  producer  Mayo  Thompson  who'd  helmed  a  lot  of  Rough  Trade  recordings  took  over  the  producer's  chair.

Their  next  single  in  June  1987  was  "Gentle  Tuesday"  which  had  a  bit  more  bite  to  it. Bobby's  singing  and  the  lyrics  remained  fey  but  there  was  a  crunching  backbeat  and  more  guitar  overdubs  which  in  places  sounded  like  Johnny  Marr. A  stronger  chorus  and  we  might  have  been  discussing  them  a  bit  earlier. It  was  followed  in  September  by  "Imperial" an  Eastern-flavoured  drone  produced  by  Clive  Langer  and  Colin  Fairley   that  sounds  too  like  The  Mission.

Their  debut  album  "Sonic  Flower  Groove"  came  out  the  following  month  featuring  Felt  keyboard  player  Martin  Duffy  who  would  later  join  the  band. It's  a  frustrating  record  because  it  starts  really  strongly  with  two  more  good  songs  following  "Gentle  Tuesday"  and  then  runs  out  of  ideas   and  loses  its  grip. Nevertheless, their  sound  at  this  time  is   very  close  to  The  Stone  Roses. It  got  to  number  62  in  the  album  chart  which  wasn't  bad  for  a  hitless  group.

It  disappointed  the  group  nonetheless  and  resulted  in  Beattie  quitting  the  band. As  he  was  the   co-writer  of  all  their  material  to  date,  this  heralded   a  substantial  shift  in  musical  direction.  Rob  stepped  up  to  second  guitarist  and  the  band  took  on  a  new  rhythm  section  of  Henry  Olsen  ( bass )  and  Philip  Tomanov  ( drums )  who'd  previously  played  together  in  Nico's  band. The  band  re-located  to  Brighton  and  re-signed  with  Creation.

In  July  1989,  they  released  their  first  single  in  nearly  two  years " Ivy  Ivy  Ivy".  Beattie's  jangly  guitars  had  been  put  to  bed  and  instead  you  had  a  hard  rock  track  not  too  far  removed  from  The  Cult  although  Bobby's  diffident  delivery  and  melodic  backing  vocals   prevent  it  going  too  far  down  that  route. Lyrically  it  takes  the  well-worn  route  of  assigning  a  girl's  name  to  the  drug  of  their  choice.

The  album  "Primal  Scream"  followed  two  months  later, divided  between  pummeling  rock  tracks  and  drowsy  piano  ballads  on  neither  of  which  Bobby's  vocals  are  adequate. It  lost  them  more  fans  than  it  gained  and  didn't  chart.

It  did  however  garner  one  important  fan  in  football  writer  and  club  DJ  Andrew  Weatherall  who  gave  it  a  good  review  in  his  fanzine. The  band  then  invited  him  to  re-mix  the  track  "I'm  Losing  More  Than  I'll  Ever  Have"  for  a  second  single. Weatherall's  re-shaping  of  the  track  was  radical. The  song  itself  was  almost  entirely  discarded; he  just  worked  on  the   brassy  two  minute  instrumental  coda  strongly  influenced  by  the  Stones' Sympathy  for  the  Devil. He  spliced  in  a  drum  loop  sourced  from  an  Italian  re-mix  of  Edie  Brickell's  What  I  Am, a  vocal  line  from  The  Emotions  I  Don't  Want  To  Lose  Your  Love  and  a  generous  sprinkling  of   Peter  Fonda's  libertarian  dialogue  from  the  biker  film  The  Wild  Angels   and  the  result  was  "Loaded".  The  band , particularly  Bobby, had  been  marginalised  on  their  own  record . It  didn't  make  too  much  sense  to  me; like  808  State's  Pacific  it  seemed  like  an  extended  intro  that  never  developed  but  then  I  wasn't  a  raver

662 Goodbye Gilbert O' Sullivan - So What

Chart  entered : 24  February  1990

Chart  peak : 70

This  was  Gilbert's  first  hit  in  nearly  a  decade.

Gilbert  was  hardly  a  glam  rocker  but  his  purple  patch  coincided  exactly  with   glam's  hey-day  peaking  when  the  unsurpassable  "Alone  Again  ( Naturally ) "  hit  number  one  in  the  US  in  1972. It  peaked  at  number  3  here  but  there  were  number  ones  with  "Clair", a  lovely  song  tarnished  by  tiresome  and  ill-founded  suggestions  of  paedophilia  and  "Get  Down"  which  is  unfortunately  most  remembered  for  a  disastrous  Pan's  People  routine   on  Top  of  the  Pops.  Thereafter  his  decline  was  swift  with  no  hits  between  1975  and  1980. By  that  time  Gilbert  was  in  dispute with  his  manager  Gordon  Mills  over  royalties . This  escalated  into  a  long  legal  battle  which  put  his  recording  career  on  hold  in  the  mid-eighties. Gilbert  eventually  won  the  case  with  the  judge describing  him  as  "a  patently  sincere  and  honest  man"  ( contrast  this  with  the  judicial  verdict  on  a  certain  Mancunian  singer  some  years  later ).  Gilbert  had  been  vindicated  but  there  was  a  price  to  pay  for  being  out  of   action  for  so  long. The  mordant  "Lost   A   Friend", his  first  single  in  seven  years  was  completely ignored.

For  this, his  next  release,  he  came  out  with  a  wheeze. The  song  was  set  to  an   electronic  dance  rhythm  pre-dating  Everything  But  The  Girls' bedsit/ electronica  fusion  by  half  a  decade.
It  was  then  released  to  clubs  as  a  white  label  under  the  name  "E-Allora and  Go'ss". The  deception  worked  until  the  album  "In  The  Key  Of  G"  was  released  in  November   1989  revealing  the  true  identity  of  the  artist.  Gus  Dudgeon  then  tarted  it  up  for  release  as  a  proper  single  at  the  beginning  of  1990. "So  What"  is  probably  the  angriest  Gilbert  has  got  on  record  having  digs  at  Mills ( probably ), his  critics  and  standing  up  for  unemployment  demonstrators. Gilbert  comes  up   with  a  Stevie  Wonder-ish  burbling  keyboard  riff  to  go  with  the  electronic  rhythms  and  it  is  genuinely  funky. What  it  hasn't  got  is  a  decent  tune, Gilbert  mislaying  his  old  gift  for  the wry  offbeat  melody  in  his  effort  to  sound  contemporary.

The  very  modest  success  of  the single  didn't  lead  to the  album  charting  and  the  next  single  "At The  Very  Mention  of  Your  Name",  a  reasonable  attempt  to  re-boot  his  old  romantic  whimsy  for  the  electronic  age,  made  no  impression.

After  this  failure,  Gilbert's  next  album  "Sounds  of  the Loop "  in  1991  was  initially only available  in  Japan. Not  all  of  it  hits  the  heights  but  there's  ample  proof  that  Gilbert's  gift  for  an  affecting  tune  with  a  smart  lyric  remained  intact  on  gorgeous  songs  like  "Divorce  Irish  Style  and  "Came  And  Went"  while  other  songs  like  "Are  You  Happy"   and  "Having  Said  That  "  embrace  new  sounds  and  could  grace  the  sets  of  artists  like  Red  Box  or  The  Lightning  Seeds. A  compilation  album  "Nothing  But  The  Best"  reached  number  50  in  the  UK  that  year.

In  1992  Gilbert  was  back  in  the  news  when he  sued  the  rapper  Biz  Markie  for  unauthorised  use  of  a  sample  from  "Alone  Again  ( Naturally )". Markie  had  approached  him  beforehand  but  Gilbert, all  too  aware  of  how  the  song  affected  people, refused  to  let  it  be  used  in  a comic  context. When  the  rapper  went  ahead  anyway  Gilbert  sued  and  was  once  again  victorious.

The  renewed  exposure meant  he  could  test  the  water  by  issuing  "Can't  Think  Straight"  his orchestrated whimsical  duet  with  Peggy  Lee  as  a  single  in  1992  and  the  album  followed  in  1993.

In  1994, he  released  "By  Larry", an  album  of  short  songs, some dating  back  to  the  sixties, performed  with  just  a  detuned  piano  and  a string  section. There  are  some  good  ideas  on  it   but  it  sounds  incomplete   and   wasn't  the  route  back  to  fame  and  fortune.

Gilbert's  next  LP  "Every  Song  Has  Its  Play"  was  a  sort  of  concept  LP  with  songs  to  compliment  his   autobiographical  touring  production.There  are  one  or  two  nice  songs  in  "Pretty  Polly "  and  "I've  Never  Been  Short  Of  A  Smile"  which  stand  comparison  with  his  best  work  but  the  rest  is  either  silly  ,as  in  "Showbiz" which  has  a  theatrical  part  for  Nicky  Henson , or  overblown  and  dreary.

In  addition  to  that  the  general  tone  of  the  lyrics  gave  him  a  reputation  for  bitterness   about  his  current  situation. That  didn't  go  away  with  his  last  album of  the  nineties ,"Singer  Sowing  Machine"  where  Gilbert  turns  his  attention  to  political  matters  on  songs  like  "Not  So  Great  Britain"  and  "Con-Lab-Lib"  without  anything  very original  to  say. The  album  also  contains  some  musical  experiments  which  allowed  Gilbert  to  get  off  his  stool  when  performing,  such  as  the  dry  funk  of  "Heavens  Above"  or  the  Northern  Soul  stomp  of  "I  Don't  Care",  but  don't  sound  very  comfortable.

The  noughties  have  put  Gilbert  in  a  strange  position. He's  increasingly  feted  as  a  national  treasure  and  compilation  LPs  charted  high  in  2004  and  2012. He's  played  prestigious  gigs  like  Glastonbury  in  2008  and  the  Royal  Albert  Hall  the  following  year.  And  yet  it's  all  based  on  those  seventies  hits. He's  released  five  more  studio  LPs  and  they  might  as  well  be  radioactive. His  rather  ace  2002  single  "Two's  Company" featured  on  Top  of the  Pops  2  but  otherwise  you  just  don't  hear  his  recent  stuff. Even  in  the  debased  album  chart  of  the  last  decade,  his  albums  don't  appear  and  it's  hard  to  believe  his  fanbase   are  all  inveterate  downloaders. Gilbert  does  interviews  when  he's  got  new  product  out  and  they're  always  laudatory  but  it  makes  no  difference  to  his  sales.

Now  70, Gilbert  carries  on  and  starts  his  50th  Anniversary  Tour  this  September.

661 Hello Thunder - Dirty Love

Chart  entered : 17  February  1990

Chart  peak : 32

Number  of  hits : 21

Like  Gun, these  hard  rockers  built  up  a  loyal  fanbase  who  gave  them  a  very  consistent  run  of  hits  without  ever  crossing  over  to  a  wider  audience.

Guitarist  and  songwriter  Luke  Morley  ( born  1960 ) , singer  Danny  Bowes ( born  1960 )  and  drummer  Harry  James  were  three  quarters  ( later  three-fifths )  of  a  band  called  Terraplane  in  the  eighties. They  began  their  recording  career   in  1983  with  the  single  "I  Survive"  on  an  independent  label  . It's  a  so-so  metal-lite  track. The  following  year  they  signed  with  Epic  who  encouraged  them  to  incorporate  synths  into  their  music  with  mullets  to  match. Their  debut  album  "Black  And  White"  was  a  minor  hit  reaching  number  74  but  none  of  the  four  singles  taken  from  it  were  hits  despite  Danny's  obvious  vocal  talents.

Their  next  single  "If  That's  What  It  Takes"  went  further  down  the  modernist  road  with   a  horribly  over  the  top  production ( from  former  Sailor  man  Phil  Pickett ),  featuring  a  ghastly  Fairlight  riff  and  backing  vocals  from  Ruby  Turner  and  Helen  Terry , that  completely  drowns  the  very  average  song .  I've  not  heard  the  subsequent  singles  from  the  "Moving  Target"  album  in  1987  but  both  were  co-writes  with  Pickett  and  I  gather  they  were  in  the  same  vein. Having  thoroughly  confused  their  audience  and,  one  suspects,  themselves , they  split  up  in  1988.

Luke , Danny  and  Harry  decided  to  re-group  as  Thunder  and  started  recording  demos  with  former  Duran  Duran  guitarist  Andy  Taylor  as  producer  and  Ben  Matthews  as  engineer. They were  signed  up  by  EMI  in  a  matter  of  months . The  line  up  was  fleshed  out  by  Ben  joining  as  keyboard  player  and  second  guitarist  and  Mark  Luckhurst, a  friend  of  Harry's  , on  bass.

In  October  1989  they  released  their first  single  "She;s  So  Fine". It's  a  crisply  produced ( by  Taylor )   hard  rock  number in  a  Guns  n  Roses  vein  with  no  keyboards  just  sizzling  riffs. As  a  statement  of  intent  that  their  new  incarnation  was  not  going  to  be  as  compromised  as  the  old  it  did  the  job. The  band  then  embarked  on  a  tour  of  the  UK  and  Ireland  including  two  dates  supporting  Aerosmith  at  the  NEC.

"Dirty  Love"  was  their  second  single, a  misogynistic  putdown  of  an  ex  that  doesn't  sound  too  far  removed  from  Aerosmith. With  its  na-na-na  hooks  in  the  chorus  and  general  pop  bounce,  it  might  have  succeeded  anyway  but  EMI  were  taking  no chances  and  there  were  limited  editions  of  a  gatefold  picture  booklet  and  a  log-shaped  disc.    

660 Hello Michael Bolton - How Am I Supposed To Live Without You ?

Chart  entered : 17  February  1990

Chart  peak : 3

Number  of  hits : 18

Michael  is  perhaps  the  ultimate  Marmite  artist.  You  either  love  his  over-wrought  vocal  style ( as  my  mum  did  )  or  you  can't  bear  it  ( as  I  can't ).

Michael  was  originally  Michael  Bolotin  born  in  Newhaven  in  1953  of  Russian  immigrant  stock. He  was  interested  in  music  from  an  early  age  and  joined  his  brother's  high  school  band  The  Nomads. Some  sources  say  they  were  signed  by  Epic  and  released  a  couple  of  singles  in  1968  but  I  can't  ind  any  trace  of  them.

His  solo  debut  was  in  May  1975  with  the  single  "Your  Love",  a  rocking  boogie  tune  featuring  a  puchy  sax  break  from  David  Sanborn  and  backing  vocals  from  Marcy  Levy. It's  not  a  bad  song  and  I  could  quite  like  it  without  the  excessive  Joe  Cocker-esque  vocals. It  was  followed  by  his  eponymous   debut  LP. It  was  divided  between  rockers  like  the  single  and  dreary  West  Coast  AOR,   fleshed  out  by  covers  of  "You're  No  Good"  9  ( so-so )  and  "Time  Is  On  My  Side "  ( wretched ).  Michael, whose  voice  is  too  high  in  the  mix,  throughout,  shows  himself  a  stranger  to  any  notion  of  restraint. Like  the  single  it  failed  to  chart  anywhere.

He  came  back  the  following  year  with  "Everyday  of  My  Life" , a  predominantly  covers  album. The  covers  are  all  disposable  and  while  his  own  songs  are  nicely  arranged - "If  I  Had  Your  Love"  dips  a  toe  in  disco  waters - they  are  ultimately  dragged  down  by  his  painful  singing. It  didn't  improve  on  its  predecessor's  showing.

Michael  changed  tack  and  decided  to  form  a  band  with  guitarist  Bruce  Kulick  who'd  previously  played  with  Meat  Loaf. The  band  was  called  Blackjack  and  they  released  their  eponymous  debut  LP  in  June  1979. The  lead  single  "Love  Me  Tonight"  is  a  decent  stab  at  commercial  hard  rock  in  the  Rainbow  vein  and  reached  a  respectable  62  in  the  US charts.  The  follow  up  "Without  Your  Love"  didn't  achieve  the  same  success  and  the  album  stalled  at  number  127. It's  OK  if  you  like  that  sort  of  thing ; Michael's  bawling  is  better  suited  to  belting  out  beefy  hard  rock  numbers.

The  band  toured  in  support  of  Peter  Frampton  , Ozzy  Osbourne  and  Marshall  Tucker  and  released  a  second  album  "Worlds  Apart"  in  1980. The  record  sounds  like  an  average  Whitesnake  album  and  received  little  support  from  the  record  label, Polydor. Discouraged , the  group  decided  to  call  it  a  day. At  the  end  of  1982  Michael  auditioned  for  the  vacant  snger's  role  in  Black  Sabbath  but  lost  out  to  Ian  Gillan.

In  1983, things  started  to  turn  Michael's  way. He  anglicised  his  surname  to  Bolton  for  his  third  solo  release, allowing  him  to  use  his  new  name  for  a  second  eponymous  album. Michael  retained  Kulick  as  his  guitarist  though  not  as  a  co-writer  and  stayed  within  the  hard  rock  genre  although   there's  a  much  more  prominent  role  for  synthesisers  than  on  the  Blackjack  records. He  started  to  tickle  the  bottom  end  of  the US  charts  as  the  album  reached  number  89  and  the  sparky  Bryan  Adams  pop  rock  of  "Fool's  Game"  got  to  82  in  the  charts.

However  these were  minor  triumphs  compared  to  Michael's  success  as  a  writer  with  "How  Am  I  Supposed  To  Live  Without  You  ?"  The  maudlin  lament  from  a  jilted  lover  was  originally  written with  Doug  James   for  wet  AOR  stars  Air  Supply  but  got  passed  on  to Laura  Branigan  who  recorded  it  as  a  straight  power  ballad. I've  got  some  time  for  Laura  and  much  prefer  her  version  to  the  one  we're  discussing, It  got  to  number  12  in  the  US.

Michael's  progress  was  not  maintained  by  1985's  "Everybody's  Crazy"  where  Michael  fell  prey  to  eighties  production  bombast  and  produced  an  entirely  vacuous  set  which  was  a  moderate  hit  in  Sweden  but  didn't  chart  anywhere  else.

The  following  year  he  had  another , more  moderate,  success  writing  for  Branigan  with  "I  Found  Someone"  which  reached  number  90. A  less  synth-y  version  by  Cher  reached  number  10  in  the  US  and  number  5  over  here  in  1988.

In  1987  he  released  "The  Hunger". With  Kulick  less  involved, Michael  dropped  most  of  the  hard  rock  elements  to  his  sound  and  acquired  more  sympathetic  producers. Though  of  little  interest  to  me, it's  a  polished  adult  pop  set  and  the  hit  singles  started  to  flow, "That's  What  Love  Is  All  About" , ""Wait  On  Love"  and  an  awful -though  widow-approved - version  of    "(sittin  On  ) The  Dock  of  the  Bay"  all  made  the  US  Charts  and  the  latter  single  narrowly  failed  to  make  the  chart  here. The  album  made  number  46  in  the  US  ( and  was  a  hit  here  in  1990 )  and  after  twelve  years of  slog  Michael  had  finally  arrived.

Michael  re-surfaced  in  June  1989  with  the  single  "Soul  Provider"  which  turned  out  to  be  the  title  track  of  his  next  album. By  this  point  he'd  left  rock  behind  and  the  song  is  bland  corporate  pop  , the  sort  of  thing  he  might  have  offered  to  Rod  Stewart  or  Tina  Turner; the  aggravating  pun  in  the  title  is  the  only  even  slightly  memorable  thing  about  it. It  reached  number  17  in  the  US  charts  but  wasn't  a  hit  here  until  1995  when  it  reached  number  35.

The  next  single  chosen  was  his  own  version  of  "How  Am  I  Supposed  To  Live  Without  You ?". It's  similarly  paced  to  the  Branigan  version  with  producer  Michael  Omartian  adding   some  nineties  gloss   with  his  sugary  production. There's  a  nod  to  Michael's  rock  roots  in  having  a  guitar  rather  than  sax  solo  but  it's  still  aimed  at  an  adult  audience. Michael's  straining  vocals  don't  convince  me  at  all  but  as  I  said, my  mum  loved  it  and  it  went  all  the  way  to  number  one  in  the  US. Here  it  was  kept  at  bay  and  he  hasn't  got  as  near  to  the  top  spot  since. I  guess  it  is  slightly  preferable  to  his  assaults  on  sixties  soul  standards  but  that's  damning  with  faint  praise  indeed.

659 Hello Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground

Chart  entered : 10  February  1990

Chart  peak : 55  ( 54  on  reissue  with  a  different  B-side  six  months  later )

Number  of hits : 26

These  are  an  odd  band  for  me; I  never  know  whether  they're  going  to  release a  great  song  or  some  tuneless  loose  funk  jam.

They  were  formed  in  Los  Angeles  in  1983  by  four  guys  at  Fairfax  High  School  as  Tony  Flow  and  the  Miraculously  Majestic  Masters  of  Mayhem. They  were  Anthony  Keidis  ( vocals ), Michael  "Flea"  Balzary  ( bass ), Hillel  Slovak ( guitar ) and  Jack  Irons  ( drums ). They  were  an  instant  hit  as  a  live  act  playing  a  sort  of  improvised  punk  funk  and  changed  their  name  to  the  more  manageable  Red  Hot  Chili  Peppers  to  please  promoters.

In  November  1983  their  manager  negotiated  a  deal  with  EMI  America. However  Hillel  and  Irons  were  also  committed  to  another  group  What  Is  This  ?  and  declined  to  sign. They  were  replaced  by  Jack  Sherman  and  Cliff  Martinez  respectively. They  started  recording  their  eponymous  debut  with  Gang  of  Four  guitarist  Andy  Gill  as  producer. It  was  a  fraught  process  as  they  did  not  see  eye  to  eye  with  Gill   particularly  after  they  found  his  notebook  where  he'd  written  "shit"  against  one  of  their  song  titles.

Their  first  single  "Get  Up  And  Jump"  came  out  just  before  the  LP. It's  unequivocally  about  sex,  specifically  about  Slovak  wanting  to  get  off  with  a  Miss  Frumpkin . No  prizes  for  guessing  the  rhyming  word. There's  no  real  song though , just  a  hard  funk  bass  line  with  Anthony rapping  over  the  top. The  eponymous  debut  came  out  just  a  week  later. The  band  were  never  happy  with  it  feeling  that  Gill  had  over-polished  and  sucked  the  life  out  of  their  songs. There  may  be  something  in  that  but it's  a  tedious  listen , a  set  of  rap rock  numbers  owing  a  fair  bit  to  the  British  funk  of  the  early  eighties  with  no  memorable  hooks  anywhere. Only  the  jazz-flecked  incest  tale   "Mummy  Where's  Daddy ?" ( featuring  Gwen  Dickey as  guest  vocalist ) and  the  empty,  space-filling  instrumental  "Grand  Pappy  Du  Plenty "  stand  out.

The  album  came  in  the  middle  of  a  year  long  tour, often  in  support  of  other  acts,  which  exposed  tensions  between  Anthony  and  Sherman. When  it  ended , the  latter  was   fired  and  Slovak, having  recently  quit  What  Is  This ? , resumed  his  place  in  the  band.

Making  their  second  album "Freaky  Styley"  was  a  much  more  enjoyable  experience. After  a  brief  dalliance  with  Malcolm  McLaren,  they  approached  George  Clinton  and  moved  into  his  home  for  a  time. Clinton  introduced  them  to  the  song  "Africa"  by  The  Meters which  they  re-wrote  as  "Hollywood"  and  released  as  the  first  single. The  other  single  was  "Jungle  Man", Anthony's  tribute  to  Flea.  The  album  was  a  big  improvement  on  its  predecessor  with  a  brighter  sound, more  inventive  arrangements  ( for  which  experienced brass  players  like  Maceo  Parker and  Fred  Wesley deserve  much  of  the  creditt )  and  a  sense  of  fun  throughout. On  the  downside,  tunes  remain  at  a  premium  and  they  audibly  run  out  of  ideas  on  Side  Two  rattling  through  the  last  six  tracks  in  less  than  ten  minutes.

Clinton  also  encouraged  the  band's  heavy  cocaine  use ( his  drug  dealer  had  a  spoken  part  on  the  album  because  Clinton  couldn't  pay  him )  with Anthony  and  Slovak  becoming  increasingly  debilitated. Both  were  using  heroin  as  well. Martinez  was  fired and  Irons  rejoined  the  band but  in  1986  it   was  put  on  hiatus  for  a  while  as  Anthony  was  sent  home  to  get  clean. He  came  back  semi-cured  and  with  some  new  songs  although  he  fell  back  into  heroin  use  while  recording  the  new  album.

The  original  choice  for  producer was  former  PiL  guitarist  Keith  Levene   but  that  didn't  happen  and  the  job  went  to  the   unknown  Michael  Beinhorn who  got  the  impression  the  label  had  more  or  less  given  up  on  the  band. The  album "The  Uplift  Mofo  Party  Plan"  was  released  in  September  1987. It  was  much  harder  than  its  predecessors  with  Slovak's  guitar  coming  to  the  fore and  re-balancing  the  sound  towards  rock  rather  than  funk. There's  also  the  hint  of  a  melodic  sensibility  emerging  with  Anthony  actually  singing  for   the  first  time  on  "Behind  The  Sun" although  it's  a  pretty  average  song. The  lyrics  generally  revolve  around  sex ( hence  the  infamous  "Party  On  Your  Pussy" ) , drugs  and  friendship. The  lead  single  was  "Fight  Like  A  Brave"  containing  Anthony's  musings  on  his  recent  travails  with  a  football  chant  chorus  and  wild  guitar  solo. Although  it  wasn't  a  hit  it  attracted  attention  with  a  promotional  poster  featuring  the  four  band  members  wearing  just  a  sock  on  their  member. The  album  became  their  first  to  enter  the  US  album  chart, peaking  at  number  148.

Although  "Fight  Like  A  Brave" was  the  only  single  released  in  the  US, the  hard-driving  "Backwoods "  featured  on  a  UK  EP  "The  Abbey  Road   EP "  put  out  in  May  1988  to  coincide  with  the  band's  tour  there  and  introduce  some  of  their  back  catalogue  to  UK  fans.It  attracted  more  attention  for  the  cover  picture  of  the  four  be-socked  guys  walking  across  that  famous  zebra  crossing  than  its  musical  merits  and  the  record  wasn't  a  hit.

That  tour  was  marked  by  both  the  increase  in  their  fanbase  and  the  worsening  situation  around  drug  use  particularly  Slovak's  addiction  to  heroin. He  died  of  a  heroin  overdose   just  a  month  after  the  tour  finished. Irons  couldn't  handle  it  and  felt  he  had  to  quit  the  band.  the  band  hired  temporary  replacements. The  guitarist  was  fired  off  almost  immediately  and  replaced  by  eighteen  year  old  John  Frusciante,  a  fan  of  the  band  who  Flea  had  heard  play. The  drummer  didn't  last  much  longer  and  Chad  Smith  came  through  an  audition  process.

"Higher  Ground"  was  the  first  release  to  feature  the  new  boys  when  it  came  out  as  a  single  in  the  US  in  April  1989. It's  a  cover  of  Stevie  Wonder's  1973 hit  ( UK  number  29. US  number  4 )  and  melodically  faithful  to  the  original  meaning  Anthony  had  to  sing (  not   particularly  tunefully ) once  more.  Flea  leads  into  it  with  his  steel-thumbed  take  on  the  original  bass  line   then  John's  riffs  and  an  uncredited  synthesiser  ( a  first  for  them  )  fill  out  the  sound. The  band  rounded  up  a  bunch  of  friends  to  do  a  vox  pop  rendition  of  the  chorus. It's  not  essential  listening  but  it's  not  a  bad  record. It  wasn't  chosen  as  the  next  single  in  the  UK   where  the  Inxs-like  "Knock  Me  Down"  came  out  instead  but  that  wasn't  a  hit. "Higher  Ground"  was  originally  issued  in  November  1989  but  didn't  chart  until  the  new  decade. It  was  reissued  after  the  subsequent  single  "Taste The  Pain"  reached  number  29  here.

658 Hello Ride - Ride EP

Chart  entered :  27 January  1990

Chart  peak : 71

Number  of  hits : 10

I  don't  think  any  one  makes  great  claims  for  this  lot  but  they  did  lay  a  trail  for  others  who  came  later  in  the  decade.

Mark  Gardener  and  Andy  Bell  were  old  school  friends  at  Cheney  School  in  Oxford. In  1988  they  both  moved  to  Banbury  to  do  an  Art  &  Design  course. There  they  met  drummer  Lauence  Colbert  and  decided  to  form  a  band. Mark  and  Andy  sang  and  played  the  guitar  , the  latter  bringing  in  another  Cheney  alumnus,  Steve  Querratt  to  play  bass. They  had  played  together  in  an  obscure  reggae  band, Big  Spiderback. After  some  deliberation  they  chose  the  name  Ride  and  played  their  first  gig  at  Christmas  1988. In  1989  they  started  sending  demo  tapes  out. Jim  Reid  of  JAMC  heard   one  and  recommended  them  to  Alan  McGee. They   signed  for  Creation  before  the  year  was  out.

This  was  their  first  release  and  the  first  hit  for  the  Creation  label. They  are  normally  lumped  in  with  the  "shoegazing"  scene  which  we'll  look  at  in  a  future  post  because  I  don't  think  these  guys  fit  the  mould , at  least  not  at  this  point. The  EP  comprises  four  tracks. There  only  seems  to  be  a  video  for  "Chelsea  Girl"  so  I  presume  that  was  the  lead  track. Nothing  to  do  with  the  Simple  Minds  song  of  the  same  name, it's a  noisy slab  of  pyschedelia-influenced  guitar  rock  with  breezy  vocals. It's  not  bad  but  could  do  with  a  chorus. "Drive  Blind"  has  a  slower  tempo  with  an  opening  riff  that's  similar  to  Quo's  Pictures  of  Matchstick  Men  and  a  vehicular  suicide  conceit  borrowed  from  The  Smiths' There  Is  A  Light  That  Never  Goes  Out.  Mark  and  Andy  harmonise  their  vocals  on  "All  I  Can  See"  sounding  a  bit  like  early  Squeeze  and  it's  got  the  best  guitar  work  on  the  record. Only  "Close  My  Eyes"  a  tale  of  ( possibly  narcotic )  hangover  has  a  shoegaze   tempo  but  with  its  grinding  riff  and  feeback  howls  it  sounds  more  like  Andy's  future  employers  than  Spiritualised, The  overall  impression  is  of  a  good  sound  waiting  for  some  songs.

657 Goodbye Ray Charles * - I'll Be Good To You

(* Quincy  Jones  featuring....and  Chaka  Khan )

Chart  entered : 13  January  1990

Chart  peak : 21

And  so, with  some  trepidation,  we  enter  the  nineties. I  say  trepidation  because  the  far  end  of  the  decade  is  real  "Here  Be  Dragons"  territory  for  me. The  Top  20  of  1/1/90  is  familiar, if  mostly  unpalatable ; that  of  31/12/99  is  a  foreign  land. I  could  name  about  five  records  in  it  and  that's  only  because  I  compiled  a  pop  quiz  round  on  it  a  few  years  back.

There  are  a  number  of  reasons  why  this  was  so. The  first  was  a  decisive  break  in  my  radio  listening  habits.  On  the  first  Sunday  of  the  new  decade,  I  caught  Alan  Freeman's  Pick  of  the  Pops  and  got  engrossed  in  the  old  charts, free  from  Stock  Aitken  and  Waterman  and  New  Kids  On  The  Block. For  the  next  couple  of  years,  I  tuned  into  oldies  radio  stations  instead  of  Radio One  ( though  I  remained  loyal  to  Annie  Nightingale's  show  for  a  while ). When  that  palled, I  switched  to  the  old  Radio  Five  which  had   excellent  music  ( generally  the  best  of  the  eighties  ) as  well  as  sports  coverage  and  when  that  was  scrapped  in  1994 , I  turned  to  Virgin  which  would  only  play  a  carefully  selected  portion  of  music  from  the  charts.

Bruno  Brookes  had  already  alienated  me  from  the  Sunday  night  chart  show  but  that  was  OK, I  could  catch  up  with  the  chart  when   Record  Mirror  came  out   on  a Thursday. However  when  that  ceased  publication  in  April  1991  it  left  a  void  that  was  never   completely  filled. My  knowledge  of  the  charts  became  patchy  , gleaned  from  The  Chart  Show  ( which  used  a  different  chart ), Top  of  the  Pops  ( which  I  wasn't  watching  as  religiously )  and  Q  ( which  was  more  interested  in  the  album  chart ).

And  the  nineties  of  course  were  a  time  when  keeping  up  with  the  chart  became  much  more  demanding. As  single  sales  dropped  through  the  floor,  most  releases  didn't  actually make  any  money  for  the  record  company  and  came  to  be  viewed  purely  as  a  marketing  device  for  the  album. It  didn't  really  matter  which  tracks  were  picked  as  singles  any  more  so  many  of  them  were  only  purchased  by  committed  fans  of  the  group  and  disappeared  from  the  chart  the  week  afterwards. This  was  perfectly  illustrated  by  The  Wedding  Present   in  1992  when  they  scored  a  hit  each  month   with  defiantly  uncommercial  throwaway  thrashes , only  three  of  which  remained  on  the  chart  for  a  second  week. The  chart  became  little  more  than  a  bewildering  barometer  of  who  had  the  biggest  fanbase  that  week  with  a  few  genuine   crossover  smashes  establishing   reigns  of  terror  at  the  top.

Anther  reason  I  dropped  away  was  the  poor  performance  of  singles  that  I  really  liked. The  Inspiral  Carpets  couldn't  crack  the  Top  10, 10.000  Maniacs  couldn't  get  into  the  Top  40  and  Stephen  Duffy's  Natalie  wasn't  a  hit  at  all. If  people  wanted  to  slather  over  those  twin  totems  of  nineties  mediocrity, Gary  Barlow  and  Noel  Gallagher , then  so  be  it. I  had  better  things  to  do.

The  enlargement  of  my  social  life  from  1993  onwards  was  another,  more  positive,  factor  in  my  disengagement  with  the  chart.

One  other  thing  I  should  mention  here  is  a  shout-out  to  the  website  45cat  which  has  been  an  invaluable  help  in  researching  this  blog  but  won't  be  for  much  longer  as  the  vinyl  single  pretty  much  disappeared  in  1992. This  is as  good  a  place  as  any  to  express  my  appreciation  to  the  guys  who maintain  it.

It  doesn't  surprise   me  at  all   that  we're  starting  with  a  goodbye  post. The  list  of  artists  making  their  exit  in  this  decade  is  huge  and  from  this  evidence , it  seems  that  Britpop  was  far  more  effective  in  scorching  the  earth  than  either  punk  or  Live  Aid.

Ray  had  been  away  from  the  charts  for  even  longer  than  Max. Genius  or  not, Ray  wasn't  any  more  immune  from  the  Beatles  blitzkreig   than  his  peers  and  after  1963  he  had  to  settle  for  only  minor  hits, the  last  ( prior  to  this  one  )  ironically  being  a cover  of  "Eleanor  Rigby"   which  reached  number  36  in  1968. In  the  seventies  Ray  started  label-hopping  and  recording   shoddy  covers  albums  with  little  new  material, In  the  eighties  he  recorded  a  string  of  country  albums  for  Columbia.

"I'll  Be  Good  To  You"  was  recorded  in  1989  as  a  favour  to  long  time  friend  Quincy  Jones   for  his  star-studded  Back  On  The  Block  album . The  song  was  a  cover  of  a  1976  US  hit  ( number  3 )  for  The  Brothers  Johnson  which  Quincy  produced.  The  original  is  a  likable, if  not  particularly  memorable  piece  of  seventies  pop  funk  in  which  the  singer  promises  fidelity.  Quincy  re-works  the  song  in  a  new  jack  swing  style  although  given  the  combined  age  of  the  trio  perhaps  "old  jack  creak"  would  be  more  appropriate. Ray's  voice  is  still  in  good  nick  at  59  but  neither  he  nor  Chaka  sound  particularly  comfortable  with  the  arrangement  which  jettisons  most  of  the  melody  and  puts  a  horrible  guitar  solo  over  the  first  chorus. It  was  a  number  18  hit  in  the  US. I  must  confess  it  rings  no  bells  with  me  at  all, a  sign  that  my  disengagement  had  already  begun.

Ray  used  the  record's  success  to  sign  a  new  contract   with  Warner  Brothers  something  like  his  seventh  label. He  released  a  new  LP  "Would  You  Believe"  later  that  year.  I've  heard  three  tracks  from  it,  all  polished  retro-soul  and  all  preferable  to  the  single,  but  it  made  no  impact. Ray's  next  album  "My  World"  in  1993  had  more  contemporary  influences  and  was  a  minor  hit  in  the  US.  His  third  and  final  album  for  Warners , "Strong  Love  Affair"  in  1996 is  mainly  composed  of  slow  soul  ballads  with  an  overpowering  lyrical  preoccupation  with  growing  old. It  didn't  find  any  takers  and  Warners  closed  his  account.

Ray  bided  his  time  with  appearances  in  the  TV  comedy  The  Nanny  and  television  commercials  and  continued  to  tour, remaining  very  popular  in  Japan. In  2002  he  got  to  release  the  last  studio  album  in  his  lifetime with  "Thanks  For  Bringing  Love  Around  Again" . Age  really  is  starting  to  take  its  toll  with  lazy  electronic  arrangements  and  a  heavy  dependence  on  backing  vocalists  to  carry  him  through  the  songs, many  of  which  seem  only  half-written.

In  2003  he  had  hip  replacement  surgery.  He  was  then  approached  by  A  &  R  man  John  Burk  to  do  an  album  of  duets  to  be co-sponsored  by  Hear  Music, the  label  owned  by  Starbucks. The  star  guests  included  Norah  Jones, Elton  John, James  Taylor  and  Van  Morrison  on  a  collection  of  covers  and  revisits  to  earlier  hits. It's  all  very  tasteful  and  adult  if  you  like  that  sort  of  thing. Before  it  could  be  released  Ray  died  of  acute  liver  failure  in  June  2004. It  was  released  two  months  later  as  "Genius  Loves  Company"  not  a  title  you  suspect  Ray  would  have  chosen  for  himself. Starbuck's  heavily  promoted  it   in  their  stores  and  it  entered  the  US  charts  at  number  2. Two  months  later  the  biopic  Ray  was  released  and   after  Jamie  Foxx  won  the  Best  Actor  Oscar  for  playing  him  the  record  went  to  number  one.  It  reached  number  18  in  the  UK  and  the  duet  with  Norah  Jones  on  "Here  We  Go  Again"  was  a  minor  hit  in  France  and  Austria.

Later  that  year  a  Christmas  album  Ray  had  recorded  with  a  gospel  choir  was  released. In  2005 , a second  volume,  "Genius  And  Friends",  cobbling  together  previously  unreleased   duets  Ray  had  recorded  at  various  times  between  1997 and  2003,   reached  number  36  in  the  US. In  2008, "Ray  Swings, Basie  Swings"  bolted  together  live  vocals  from  concerts  in  the  seventies  to  new  arrangements  by  the  Count  Basie  Orchestra   and  reached  number  23. Two  years  after  that , "Rare  Genius: The  Undiscovered  Masters " worked  up  10  outtakes  and  demoes  to  a  releasable  standard  but  by  then  people  had  had  enough  of  the  barrel-scraping  and  it  was  ignored.

656 Goodbye Max Bygraves - White Christmas

Chart  entered :  9 December  1989

Chart  peak : 71

This  very  minor  hit  has  a   significance  as  it  makes  Max  the  last  member  of  the  original  chart  cast  to  score  a  new  hit  in  their  lifetime. That's  a  record  he's  likely  to  keep  unless  Doris  Day  does  something  very  surprising  in  the  next  few  years.

Like  most  of  his  contemporaries,  Max  was  chased  out  of  the  charts  by  The  Beatles  in  the  early  sixties  but  had  made  the  odd  return  since, most  notably  with  "Deck  of  Cards",  a  number  13  hit   in  1973  and  his  last  chart  entry  prior  to  this  one.

Max  deconstructs  the  old  standard  with  a  deep  house  version... well  no  of  course  he  doesn't. Max  does  a  Disney  version,  throwing  the  kitchen  sink   into  the  production  with  a  leading  role  for  a  downhome  harmonica  and  liberal  use  of  echo  to  mask  the  decline  in  his  67  year  old  voice.

This  was  almost  Max's  final  release. He  made  one  more  medley  album  "The  Singalong  Years"  in  1990  before  calling  time  on  his  recording  career. For  the  next  two  decades  he  cut  an  increasingly  forlorn  figure; having  outlived  the  great  bulk  of  his  audience  and  not  enjoyed  his  two  year  stint  as  host  of   Family  Fortunes  he  had  nowhere  to  go  on  TV  bar  the  occasional  appearance  on  chat  shows. He  kept  in  touch  with  the  declining  number  of   his contemporaries,  visiting  the  ailing  Ruby  Murray  in  her  last  years. He  published  a  couple  more  volumes  of  memoirs  and  spent  a  lot  of  time  overseas,  entertaining  ex-pats  in  South  Africa   and  Australia. His  last  TV  appearance  was  on  Today  With  Des  And  Mel  in  2003.  That  same  year,  he  and  his  wife  moved  to  their  daughter's  home  in  Australia,.  He  was  soon  suffering  from  Alzheimer's  disease. He  died  in  2012, a  year  after  his  wife, aged  89.

And  with  that  we  say  goodbye  to  the  eighties  too.

655 Hello Inspiral Carpets - Move

Chart  entered : 18  November  1989

Chart  peak  : 49

Number  of  hits  : 16

These  guys  are  usually  regarded  as  tussling  with  The  Charlatans  for  the  bronze  medal  in  the  Madchester   stakes  but  not  by  me  as  they  became  my  favourite  British  group  of  the  nineties.

The band  was  first  formed  in  1983  by  former  school  friends  in  Oldham, guitarist  Graham  Lambert   and  singer  Stephen  Holt  with  two  other  guys. They  recruited  14  year  old  drummer  Craig  Gill  in  1986.  In  1987,  they  started  rehearsing  at  a  studio  in  Ashton-under-Lyne  owned  by  Clint  Boon , formerly  the  organist   in  a  group  called  The  Mill  with  Mani  from  The  Stone  Roses . When  the  I C's   original  keyboard  player   left  they  invited  Clint  to  join  the  group.

 The band's  sound  was  heavily  influenced  by  psychedelia  and  late  sixties  garage  rock . Their  first  recording  was  "Garage  Full  of  Flowers" given  away  on  a  flexi  by  a  Manchester  fanzine  Debris  in  1987. The  song  is  pretty  basic  and  dominated by  Holt's  tuneless  bawling  but  there's  already  something  there.

During  1988  the  band  worked  to  make  their  gigs  an  event   with  an  impressive  light  show, slides  and  their  cow  mascot. Clint  had  worked  a  clothes  stall  and  produced  the  infamous  "cool  as  fuck"  T-shirts   for  sale  at  their  gigs  as  well  as  cassettes  of  their  demo  recordings. Their  first  release  proper  was  the "Plane  Crash " EP  in  the  summer  of  1988  on  the  Playtime   label. The  lead  track  was  "Keep  The  Circle  Around"  written  by  Graham ,a  gloomy  thrash  of  a  song  about  being  stuck  with  the  wrong  partner   with  a  despairing  refrain "You  can  see  inside  of  me  there's  something  going  down". Clint's  organ  suffuses  the  song  with  dread  establishing  their  signature  sound. a 7  inch  version  was   also  released  with  the  other  track  chosen,  the  near-instrumental  "Theme  From  Cow"  which  sounds  like  Johnny  and  the  Hurricanes  on  acid. John  Peel  liked  it  and  invited  them  in  for  a  session.

The  band  recorded   four  new  tracks  for  their  next  EP  at  Out  of  the  Blue  Studios  in  September  1988  but  its  release  would  not  be  straightforward. First, Playtime's  distributor  went  bust  so  the  band  decided  to  form  a  new  label, Cow.  By  the  time  that  was  set  up  Holt  and  bassist  Dave  Swift  quit  the band  to  form  The  Rainkings  so  the  "Trainsurfing"  EP  came  out  with  the  message  "We  need  a  new  singer"  scratched  in  the  run  out  groove. Despite  these  circumstances.  it's  excellent  with  four  urgent  songs  largely  about  poisoned  relationships  - "Butterfly"  features  a  vocal  duel  between  Holt  and  Clint  pursuing  the  same  girl. The  pick  is  "Greek  Wedding  Song" which  features  a  killer  Farfisa  riff  before  shifting  unexpectedly  into  waltz  time.

A  roadie  by  the  name  of  Noel  Gallagher  auditioned  for  the  singing  vacancy  but  was  passed  over  in  favour  of  Tom  Hingley  whose  voice  had  a  similar  tone  to  Holt's  but  was  better  able  to  carry  a  tune. Tom  was  originally  from  Abingdon  and  had  come  to  Manchester  to  study  English  and  in  1984  formed  a  band  with  other  Oxonian  exiles  called  Too  Much  Texas.  They  supported  New  Order  and  The  Beloved   and  released  one  single  during  Tom's  tenure  "Hurry  On  Down" in  1988  which  is  a  pleasant  semi-acoustic  number  in  a  Teenage  Fanclub  vein   but  lacking  in  punch.  The  bass  vacancy  was  filled  by  Martyn  "Bungle" Walsh, a  shaven-headed  veteran  of  various  local  bands.

The  first  record  to  feature  the  new  boys  was  the  single  "Joe", a  sympathetic  ode  to  an  old    street  vagrant, the  sort  of  subject  matter  that  set  them  apart  from  their  hedonistic  Madchester  peers. It's their  first  record  to  flirt  with  funk  rhythms, no  doubt  encouraged  by  producers  Graham  Massey  and  Martin  Price  ( see  the  previous  post ), and  my  least  favourite  of  their  early  singles; the  two  things  being  probably  connected. I  know  a  lot  of  other  fans  love  it  but  it's  always  sounded  pretty  tuneless  to  me. It  was  re-issued , with  different  songs  on  the  B-side, in  1995  to  advertise  their  first  compilation  LP  and  reached  number  37.

Hot  on  its  heels  came  "Find  Out  Why"   a  bouncy  organ-led  ditty  and  of  all  their  singles the  one  most  obviously  indebted  to  US  garage  pop. It  comes  in  at  just  over  two  minutes; the  band  compensated  for  this  on  the  12  inch  by  having  the  epic  16-minute  "Plane  Crash"  on  the  other  side. "Find  Out  Why"  bubbled  under  the  chart  setting  them  up  for  a  breakthrough  with  the  next  one.

"Move"  is  also  influenced  by  the  Nuggets  era   but  is  smoother  and  more  melodic  than  its  predecessor. Tom  adopts  a  less  strident  tone  on  the  laid back  verses  before  moving  up  a  gear  and  being  joined  by  Clint  for  the  plaintive  chorus. With  the  organ  leading  the  way  for  the  rest  of  the  song, Graham  gets  a  rare chance  for  a  distorted  solo  before  the  final  verse. It's  a  shame  they  couldn't  join  their  peers  in  the  Top  40  until  the  new  decade.