Fades in Slowly

Here we are then, with the decade about to end. It’s frightening to think that there will be soon be parts of the 1970s that will be forty years ago.

Here be the penultimate part of the festive countdown…

20 The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Stay Alive (Adam – Fades in Slowly)
19 Bats For Lashes – Two Planets (Adam – Fades in Slowly)
18 The Silence – Hi Fi Woman (1979 Peel session version) (Stewy – Mr. obscure)
17 The Wannadies – Might Be Stars (Adam – Pretending life is like a song)
16 Big Boss Man – Beat Breakfast (Dave – Planet Mondo)
15 Richard Hawley – For Your Lover Give Some Time (Davy – Ghost of Electricity)
14 St. Vincent – Actor Out Of Work (Ed – 17 seconds)
13 Cats on fire – Horoscope (Jim – Vinyl villain)
12 Carl Orff – Carmina Burana Ecce Gratum (Steve – Teenage Kicks)
11 Gardeners Question Time – I Saw God (Short Version) (Kris – Burning World)

Listen ye now…

Just in case you’ve had better things to do, you might have missed 50 to 41, 40 to 31 and 30 to 21.

Back in 1984, Martina Extra Dry cost you £2.28 a bottle.

Hope those of you who celebrate Christmas had a good one. I’m a Chivas Regal and a Glenfiddich to the good, so all’s well at my end. Here then, my dear friends, is part three of the stupendous blogger’s choice Festive 50 of 2009.

30 We Were Promised Jetpacks – Moving Clocks Run Slow (Adam – Fades in Slowly)
29 The Jam – Ghosts (Adam – Pretending life is like a song)
28 The Wolfmen – Cat Green Eyes (Dave – Planet Mondo)
27 Smoke Fairies – Sunshine (Davy – Ghost of Electricity)
26 Horace Andy and Ashley Beedle – Babylon You Lose (Ed – 17 seconds)
25 The Twilight Sad – I Became a Prostitute (Jim – Vinyl villain)
24 Shlohmo – Socks (Kris – Burning World)
23 Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev – Classical Symphony 1st mvt (Steve – Teenage Kicks)
22 Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev - Romeo & Juliet (Balcony Scene) (Steve – Teenage Kicks)
21 Johnny Curious – The Road To Cheltenham (Stewy – Mr. Obscure)

Listen now…

If you’ve had better things to do, you might have missed 50 to 41 and 40 to 31.

Here’s what was on offer from BBC1 on Xmas Day 1984: it begins with the end of the Blankety Blank Xmas Special with Les Dawson, followed by a trailer for the Two Ronnies, and a BBC2 slide and the BBC1 Xmas ident linking into the Hi-De-Hi Xmas Special.

You’ve gorged yourself on food, now sit back, relax and have a glass of your favourite tipple while listening to this documentary which celebrates the life and work of John Peel. Presented by Jarvis Cocker, it was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 1 shortly after John’s death in 2004. It features contributions from artists such as Led Zeppelin, Billy Bragg, Pink Floyd, Ash, Orbital, the Cure and Captain Beefheart.

Learn more here.

Happy Hols, I’ll return soon with the rest of the 2009 Festive 50.

This is the Christmas Day edition of Top Of The Pops from 1981, presented by Andy Peebles, Paul Burnett, Paul Gambaccini, Dave Lee Travis, Adrian Juste, Simon Bates, David Kid Jensen,Tony Blackburn, Steve Wright, Peter Powell, Jimmy Saville, Richard Skinner, Mike Read and John Peel making his first appearance since 1968. Happy Christmas everyone!

Lamentably, the audio to parts 1, 6 and 7 has been disabled by internet bastards.

Here we are then, with part two (part one here) of what is becoming a smashing festive chart. More of the same, with a mix of old and new from any genre you can imagine.

Just to let you know, I’ve already started on the mulled wine, so part three might not appear until next Monday depending on my level of merriment. I’ve got a couple of things lined up for Christmas to help tide you over. Have a good one, whatever it is you celebrate.

The Fades in Slowly 2009 Festive 50 part 2

40 Franz Ferdinand – Ulysses (Adam – Fades in Slowly)
39 The Soup Greens – Like a Rolling Stone (Dave – Planet Mondo)
38 Lines – Nerve Pylon (Stewy – Mr. Obscure)
37 Brakes – Why Tell The Truth (When It’s Easier To Lie) (Adam – Fades in Slowly)
36 Electrojuice – Panpan (Kris – Burning World)
35 Paul Haig – Round And Round (Jim – Vinyl villain)
34 Hello Saferide – Arjeplog (Davy – Ghost of Electricity)
33 Peter Parker – Swallow the Rockets (Ed – 17 seconds)
32 Malcolm Arnold – English Dance Set 2 No 1 (Steve – Teenage Kicks)
31 Stevie Wonder – For Once In My Life (Adam – Pretending life is like a song)

Listen now…

In 1987, the BBC was using very weird fonts and we celebrated Christmas night with the two Ronnies.

After last year’s exhausting effort to cobble together a 1976 chart, as enjoyable as it was, I’ve this year asked some of my fellow bloggers to do the hard work and make their choices of tracks they’d like to hear in a festive chart. Here then, is part one, featuring the rundown from that all important number 50 to 41.

I hope you enjoy this chart: it’s reminiscent of the late ’70s 50s, with a mixture of a few old gems and lots of contemporary classics. Rather than do the segways myself, I’ve got in the professionals this time round, although I have to admit, there are one or two discrepancies between the track introduced and the one played.

The Fades in Slowly 2009 Festive 50 part 1

50 Lo Cut a Sleifar – Aduniad (Adam – Fades in Slowly)
49 Richard Hawley – Open up your door (Davy – Ghost of Electricity)
48 Vaughan Williams – Fantasia On A Theme Of Thomas Tallis (Steve – Teenage Kicks)
47 Readymades – Terry Is My Space Cadet (Stewy – Mr. Obscure)
46 The Keith Mansfield Orchestra – Soul Thing (Dave – Planet Mondo)
45 The Big Pink – Velvet (Ed – 17 seconds)
44 Aidan Moffat & the Best-ofs – Big Blonde (Jim – Vinyl villain)
43 The Magnetic Fields – Nothing matters when we’re dancing (Adam – Pretending life is like a song)
42 Four Tet – Love Cry (Kris – Burning World)
41 Richard Addinsell – Southern Rhapsody (Steve – Teenage Kicks)

Thank you to the wonderful bloggers who are making the chart possible.

Listen now!

Remember when TV closed down for the night?

Christmas is a comin’ and it seems like as good a time as any for a bit of sacred cow slaughtering. Hendrix, without doubt, was an unparalleled talent. However, I agree with Peel’s opinion that he would have ended up making dreadful new age twaddle had he lived longer. Not that I’m advocating ridiculous-circumstanced early death, but it really was the making of the legend.

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Anyway, it’s Christmas and I’m in a chipper mood, so no more badmouthing of a rock great. What the hell is that picture on the right, I hear you not bother to ask? That, my dear friends, is the Troutbeck Hotel in Ilkley, the town I grew up in. In March of 1967, this poky little hotel on a backstreet of this small provincial Yorkshire town played host to the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the reason why lost forever in the mists of time. If you’re interested, here are more details of the strangest event in the history of the town.

Apparently, Hendrix, the picture of whom above was apparently taken in Ilkley, and the boys got over this and indeed returned to england frequently, putting in a decent shift at the BBC.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: December, 1967

-Day Tripper
-Spanish Castle Magic
-Radio One Jingle
-Wait Until Tomorrow

Line Up

Jimi Hendrix (Guitar, Vocals)
Mitch Mitchell (Drums)
Noel Redding (Bass, Vocals)

Listen now…

Read more about the Peel sessions.

Good old Steve has made a compelling case against the Cowell-crap that has polluted the Christmas chart over the past few years (at least that’s how I’ve interpreted his post). Hence, I recommend popping over to the suitably Festive Teenage Kicks and read what he has to say on the issue, but only after listening to my choice for this year’s #1.

If you read my recent Syd Barrett post, you’ll already know how much of a Floyd-head I am, so you can imagine how happy I was to get hold of this recently via the Hook / crook method. Recorded during a four-night stint at London’s Rainbow Theatre from Feb 17th to 20th, 1972, this showcases an early, embryonic (sorry) version of the songs that would for the most part go on to be the most famous album ever made. Roger Waters, who by this time was developing his megalomaniacal tendencies, had finally taken it upon himself to decide that their next album would not be called Eclipse: A Piece For Assorted Lunatics, rather, as indicated for the first time in the programme for these concerts it would be named Dark Side Of The Moon. These concerts were therefore the first public performances of the legendary album.

[caption id="attachment_540" align="alignright" width="186" caption="Dark Side alternative sleeve"][/caption]

“Happily, they [Pink Floyd] felt able to pronounce the shows ‘terrific’. The ordinarily stolid Financial Times went further, proclaiming that ‘the Floyd have the furthest frontiers of pop music to themselves’. However, their joy was alloyed, in part, when they discovered that a quality bootleg of Dark Side Of The Moon at the Rainbow had hit the racks at all bad record shops. It went on to sell an estimated 120,000 and deterred Pink Floyd from ever developing unreleased material in concert again.”

Mojo, March, 1998: 25 Years On, The True Story Of Dark Side Of The Moon

They did, of course, keep on developing new material during tours, as most of ‘Animals’ was perfected during the concerts for ‘Wish you were here’, but that’s for another day and another post.

Pink Floyd – Live at Rainbow Theatre, London, UK, Feb 20th, 1972

01 Speak to me (only last 8 seconds of the track)

02 Breathe

03 Travel Sequence (this fairly formulaic instrumental later changed totally and became the innovative ‘On The Run’)

04 Time

05 Home again (Breathe reprise)

06 Religious Theme (‘The Great Gig In The Sky’ replaced this bizarre sequence, which has someone reciting The Lord’s Prayer while a minister administers the last rites in the background)

07 Money

08 Us & Them (most of the middle of the song is missing)

09 Dave’s Scat Section (an early version of ‘Any Colour You Like’)

10 The Lunatic Song (an early version of ‘Brain Damage’)

11 Eclipse (cuts off)

Could you imagine ‘Dark Side’ without Dick Parry’s sax solo on ‘Money’ or without Clare Torry’s vocals on ‘Great Gig In The Sky’. Well, listen to this to get an idea of how different things could have been.

Listen now…

Did you know that in 1975, 2% of all records sold in the World were Elton John LPs? Do you care? Just think about it, there were a lot of people making albums then, so 2% of all sold is pretty good. One band that probably weren’t too far behind, even if they were still yet to hit stratospheric heights, were this lot.

At that time, bands did not expect albums and singles to chart immediately, it seems amazing by modern standards to reflect on the fact that their eponymously titled album only hit the No. 1 spot on the American Billboard chart a whole year after it was released, in 1976, and that the band needed to tour to sell potential hit singles such as Rhiannon and Landslide to the fans. Again, at the time, that seemed the only way.

Here they are then, almost at the peak of their powers, in their radio-friendly glory…

Part 1

1 Station Man
2 Spare Me A Little Of Your Love
3 Rhiannon
4 Landslide

Part 2

5 I’m So Afraid
6 World Turning
7 Don’t Let Down Again
8 Hypnotized