Friday, February 01, 2008

Festive Fifty Stuff for a Friday



John Peel and his wife Sheila, affectionately known as The Pig

I’m glad that quite a few people have been enjoying these Peel posts. I won’t be doing these forever, or I may take a different approach to these, but for the time being, I will do a few more Festive Fifty posts (the only annoying thing about them is just how long they take to do!)

First up, a band who have evolved constantly over the last thirty years, even if they only released five studio albums and one compilation in that time. It’s hard to imagine it not being worth the wait, though. Green Gartside and his merry men:

Scritti Politti -‘Faithless.’ mp3 (1982 Festive Fifty no.13)

One of the most heartbreaking bands ever, with surprisingly their only festive fifty entry:

Trembling Blue Stars -’Abba On the Jukebox.’ mp3 (1996 Festive Fifty no.19)

Morrissey had many entries in the Festive Fifty with the Smiths and for the first few years of his solo career, quite a few too. This was the last of his:

Morrissey -’November Spawned A Monster.’ mp3 (1990 festive Fifty no.16)

Underworld only ever had two entries in the Festive Fifty, no surprise that this epic track was one of them.

Underworld -‘Born Slippy (NUXX).’ mp3 (1996 Festive Fifty no.5)

Another band I remember hearing on Peel and scrawling on my school bag…

Huggy Bear -‘Herjazz.’ mp3 (1993 Festive Fifty no.3)

Over the place of a decade, John Peel gave a lot of coverage to Cornershop. This was their final entry.

Cornershop featuring Bubbley Kaur -‘Topknot.’ mp3 (2004 Festive Fifty no.40)

An aching anthem about being an outsider…and this time, Morrissey wasn’t the singer

Bronski Beat -’Smalltown Boy.’ mp3 (1984 Festive Fifty no.48) (N.B. This is from my vinyl copy of the Age Of Consent and is a bit crackly in places)

As mentioned previously, The Wedding Present were up there with The Smiths and The Fall in terms of entries. This is my favourite song of theirs to make the Festive Fifty

Wedding Present -’My Favourite Dress.’ mp3 (1987 Festive Fifty no.6)

Rather like Blur, Radiohead actually seemed to do better on the Festive fifty further into their career than earlier on:

Radiohead -‘There, There.’ mp3 (20003 Festive Fifty no.37)

And finally, mad, and wonderful -Spizzenergi:

Spizzenergi -’Where’s Captain Kirk?’ mp3 (1980 Festive Fifty no.40)

Have a good Friday!

Edx

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cheers again for all your efforts - really appreciated. Just thought you might like to know that you've got your own wee fan club here in italy where it's pretty tough for us scots boys to hear decent music. Forza 17 seconds!

Anonymous said...

Another great selection, Ed, thanks!

I'd argue that "you should always keep in touch with your friends" was the best WP song to make the F50 :)

cheers, Craig

Ed said...

To the anonymous Scots italians -very flattered, and feedback is always welcome.

Craig -thanks for your regular comments, I guess with weddoes stuff there's plenty to choose from. If you like weddoes stuff, check out The Vinyl Villain's blog (link on the right-hand side) where he's featured them in the last day or so.

Ed

Anonymous said...

Hey Ed

Thanks for the awesome Peel-centric posts. A mix of nostalgia and the chance to hear some of the more obscure tunes that never quite made it all the way here to South Africa in those pre-MP3 days. Please keep it up.
All the best
Chris

Ed said...

You're welcome, Chris, and glad that these posts are reacing out across the world.

Ed

Thistle said...

Huggy Bear - I'd forgotten about them! Went and downloaded Concrete Life which a friend had on 45 at some pont....