Fades in Slowly

Work has been a real bugger recently and I apologise for not finishing this lot off earlier. This is just a short one with the links, I’m afraid. Hopefully, normal service will be resumed shortly.

I’m starting to regret committing to getting all the fifties out there, but there you go! On to 1998 then, a time when I was living in the United States and generally gaining lots of weight. Speaking of America, this was the year of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which basically centered around how scandallous it was for any woman to not wash a dress covered with semen for several months. Elsewhere, the world was intrduced to the iMac:

The 1998 Festive 50 was broadcast over several nights, and you can listen to all shows by clicking here, here, here (22nd Dec), here, here, here (23rd), here, here, here (29th), here, here and here (30th).

2002: it feels like yesterday, doesn’t it? Well, it does when you’re my age and have been in the same job since then. The slow but steady collapse of capitalism began when the United States Department of Justice announced it was going to pursue a criminal investigation of those bastards at Enron. HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother of the United Kingdom popped her clogs at the spritely age of 156, Russia started beating the shit out of Chechnya and in Bali, terrorists detonated bombs in two nightclubs in Kuta, killing 202 and wounding over 300. Worst of all though was that the Eurovision Song Contest still hadn’t been outlawed, Latvia trouncing allcomers with this effort…

For those other than I who are starting to feel their age, draw inspiration from Michael Jordan’s almost last stand, as in this year he became the oldest man, at 38, to score more than 50 points in a game:

I think I’m right in thinking that the whole fifty was broadcast on Boxing Day (although I wait for you tell me otherwise). This wasn’t one of my favourite fifties although it did contain this track from one of my favourite bands:

To listen to this festive extravaganza, you can do so by clicking here. I’ll try and complete all the 50s in the next few days, I promise.

So, here they are then, the tracks you voted for. I’m glad that many of you voted for what you were actually listening to at the time, rather than what you feel you should have been listening to. I had great fun putting this together and will definitely be tackling another chart next year.

Thanks again and have a great new year everyone.

01 Sex Pistols – Anarchy in the UK
02 Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop
03 Damned – New Rose
04 Junior Murvin – Police and Thieves
05 ABBA – Dancing Queen
06 Queen – Somebody to Love
07 Joan Armatrading – Love and Affection
08 Candi Staton – Young Hearts Run Free
09 Pere Ubu – Final solution
10 Thin Lizzy – The boys are Back in Town
11 Donna Summer – Love to Love you Baby
12 Osibisa – Sunshine Day
13 David Bowie – Golden Years
14 Be Bop Deluxe – Ships in The Night
15 Augustus Pablo – King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown
16 Bob Marley & the Wailers – Johnny was
17 Peter Frampton – Show me the Way
18 Saints – Stranded
19 Buzzcocks – Boredom
20 David Bowie – Station to Station
21 Steve Miller Band – Fly Like an Eagle
22 Thin Lizzy – Cowboy Song
23 Bob Dylan – Hurricane
24 Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – Blinded by the Light
25 Blue Oyster Cult – (Dont Fear) the Reaper
26 Peter Frampton – Baby, I love your Way
27 Queen – You’re my Best Friend
28 Billy Ocean – Love Really Hurts without you
29 Eddie & the Hot Rods – Teenage Depression
30 Rick Springfield – Take a Hand
31 Electric Light Orchestra – Rockaria
32 Walter Murphy & the Big Apple Band – A Fifth of Beethoven
33 War- Low Rider
34 ABBA – Knowing Me, Knowing You
35 Electric Light Orchestra – Evil Woman
36 Sensational Alex Harvey band – Boston Tea Party
37 Richard Hell – Blank Generation
38 Max Romeo & the Upsetters – War in a Babylon
39 Vicki Sue Robinson – Turn the Beat Around
40 Steve Miller Band – Take the Money and Run
41 ABBA – Money, Money, Money
42 Thin Lizzy – Jailbreak
43 Tina Charles – I Love to Love
44 Wild Cherry – Play that Funky Music
45 Sailor – Girls, Girls, Girls
46 Kiss – Beth
47 Leroy Smart – Ballistic Affair
48 Rose Royce – Car Wash
49 David Soul – Don’t Give up on Us
50 K.C. & the Sunshine Band – (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake your Booty

Hope everyone had a nice time yesterday. Ok, first up it’s joke time:

One sunny day end of January, 2009 an old man approached the White House from Across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he’d been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the U.S. Marine standing guard and said, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.” The Marine looked at the man and said, “Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.” The old man said, “Okay”, and walked away. The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.” The Marine again told the man, “Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.” The man thanked him and, again, just walked away. The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same U.S. Marine, saying “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.” The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, “Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I’ve told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don’t you understand?” The old man looked at the Marine and said, “Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it.” The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, “See you tomorrow, Sir.”

Now on to business… in 1990, the Leaning Tower of Pisa was closed to the public due to safety concerns. Something to do with it leaning a bit, apparently. February was a pretty big month as history goes. In South Africa President F.W. de Klerk allowed the African National Congress to legally function again and promises to set Nelson Mandela free. This he fairly promptly did: Mandela, a political prisoner for 27 years, was freed from Victor Verster prison outside Cape Town. Also, an agreement was reached for a two-stage plan to reunite Germany which, as we know, worked out so well. Indeed, East Germany hastily accepted the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West. Later in the year Latvia proclaimed independence and the first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections were held in Romania. In November, destroyer of towns Margaret Thatcher resigned as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, which was nice.

In the world of computing, the Windows 3.0 operating system was released by Microsoft to wide lack of acclaim and Paperback Software were found guilty by a U.S. court of copyright violation for copying the appearance and menu system of Lotus 1-2-3 in its competing spreadsheet program (that’s the abacus equivalent of Excel for all you young ‘uns). The first known World Wide Web page was written in November. Interestingly, on 8th July or 7th August, depending on how (un)American you are, the time and date was 12:34:56 7/8/90.

This year’s Festive 50 was broadcast between 22nd and 30th December. This was the first chart for a while (ever?) to include a genuine pop chart #1 (OK, I’ll give you a clue, it went in at that all-important #44 slot, although officially it only made #2 in the pop charts – can you remember why?). If my memory serves me well (which it probably doesn’t), this was the closest I ever came to voting for an FF #1 (I went for MBV’s epic ‘soon’). There are a shed load of different downloads for this particular fifty, so I’ll try and make it easier for you not to get lost in them all:

22nd – here, here, here and here
23rd – here, here and here
29th – here, here, here, here and here
30th – here, here, here and here