Three of a Kind #116

A lovesick Three of a Kind today. Three completely different songs, all with the same title - and all stupendously good. What are the chances?

Gang Starr - Lovesick (John Waddell Upbeat Mix)

Three of a Kind #115

It's been over two years since the last Three of a Kind post so one's long overdue I think. (I hadn't just forgotten about this series, honest! Much.) The common link between today's featured three is that they're all by female-fronted German bands from the nineteen eighties - Rainbirds, Propaganda and FSK (Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle) - and are all right up there among my favourite songs of that particular decade. Oh, and none of them reached the UK pop 40, natch. Some cracking promo videos here, too.

Three of a Kind #114

It's always a pleasure to chance upon one of the old Indie Top 20 compilations on one's travels - and that's exactly what happened to yours truly the other day when I got Volume 6 on CD for a quid in a charity shop. I already had this one on vinyl and if I'm honest it's not my favourite in the series - there are eight or nine songs on here that I could happily live out my days without ever hearing again - but it does house a handful of gems, three of which I've selected below.

So we've got David Gedge and chums giving us a French version of Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now? (Tres bien! Ou est la bibliotheque? etc), the Colorblind James Experience thinking about relocating, and Sandie Shaw still clinging on to some indie credibility in the wake of her collaboration with the Smiths some five years previously. If this had been Five of a Kind, Bradford and The Parachute Men would have made the cut too. But hey, that's showbiz.

1 Pourquoi Es Tu Devenue Si Raisonable? - Le Cadeau De Mariage
2 The Things You Want - Snapdragon
3 The World Is Ours - Rose of Avalanche
4 Rent Act - Wolfhounds
5 Butterfly - Inspiral Carpets
6 Rain of Ruin - Suicide
7 Black Sun - Loop
8 This Is Not Blasphemy - Christian Death
9 Pas Mal - Young Gods
10 Revolution - Spacemen Three
11 Transcendental - Bam Bam, Shamen
12 Headhunter [VI] - Front Two Four Two
13 Voodoo Ray - A Guy Called Gerald
14 Tangiers - Screaming Trees
15 Blow Up - The James Taylor Quartet
16 Dodging Around in Cars - Bradford
17 Nothing Less Than Brilliant - Sandie Shaw
18 Sometimes in Vain - The Parachute Men
19 Considering a Move to Memphis - Colorblind James Experience

Le Cadeau De Mariage - Pourquoi Es Tu Devenue Si Raisonable? mp3

The Colorblind James Experience - Considering A Move To Memphis mp3

Sandie Shaw - Nothing Less Than Brilliant mp3

Three of a Kind #113

At the time of typing there are still a few hours of the UK's mini heatwave to go*, so if I hurry I might just get this Swedish summer-related Three of a Kind out there before winter sets in.

Popsicle - Summer (Weekend Remix) mp3

Hello Saferide - I Thought You Said Summer is Going to Take the Pain Away mp3

The Wilson Hospital - Midsummer's Ball mp3

*That's except for viewers in Scotland. And Northern Ireland.

In other news, goodness me but the BBC's TV coverage of Glastonbury was poor this year, wouldn't you say? A rare, albeit unintentional highlight for me was the following, extremely awkward exchange between presenters Lauren Laverne and Zane Lowe after Beyonce's set on the main stage last night. If you're a twitterer you'll doubtless have seen or heard all about this already, but it merits another mention here regardless as it is genuine car crash TV gold. Gets funnier the more you watch it, too.



Wouldn't have happened on John Peel's watch!

My one concern in all of this is, now that this pair have stuffed it up, Fearne and Reggie are probably next in line. Be afraid...

Three of a Kind #112

Good evening. Here is the news.

Wills & Kate, Royal Wedding, Queen's official birthday, Queen's unofficial birthday, Bank Holiday Friday, Street parties, Bunting, Patriotism, Royal Honeymoon, New Year's Honours List, Old Year's Honours List, The Duke of Edinburgh at ninety, Deference, Trooping the colour, Princess Beatrice's hat, Kate Middleton's dress, Pippa Middleton's arse, Royal Ascot, The King's Speech, The Queen's Horse, The Queen's Nose, The Prince's Trust, Charles, Camilla, Harry, Kate Middleton's phone, Diamond Jubilee, Bank Holiday Monday, Westminster Abbey, The Mall, ordinary members of the public, that dress, that hat, that arse, know your place, goodnight!

Adam Buxton - Adam's Royal Wedding Song mp3 (very funny, in case you've not heard it)

Marine Research - Queen B mp3

Swissair - One Nation Under A Gloom mp3

Three of a Kind #111

Xfm are running a chart over the Bank Holiday weekend called The Indie 500, in which their listeners have voted for their favourite alternative songs of all time. That's the theory anyway. I caught a bit of it earlier on, and the kind of acts who've made the list are almost laughably not indie, even by modern-day definitions of the word: U2, Guns 'n' Roses, Blink 182, The Knack, Electric Six, Coldplay, Aerosmith, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Damien Rice (for god's sake), to name but several. Apparently Oasis have about 14 songs in the 500 too, just when you thought it couldn't get any stodgier.

In fairness, though, there are some bona fide independent acts in the chart as well, such as The Smiths, Echo & The Bunnymen, Tiffany and Bernard Cribbins. (Two of those may not be strictly true. The Smiths & Echo & The Bunnymen's catalogues are probably owned by Warner Music or Sony nowadays).

Anyway, yes, so bearing in mind that Xfm in 2011 is about as alternative as a royal wedding street party, I thought I'd redress the balance here a fraction by serving up a few actual, proper indie songs that would all be flying high in their "Indie 500" if it had even begun to deliver what it promised. Up yours, Geldof!

happydeadmen - Silent Sigh City mp3

I, Ludicrous - Preposterous Tales mp3

The Brilliant Corners - Delilah Sands mp3

Three of a Kind #110

OK, so as everyone knows, Valentine's Day is basically just an excuse for the greetings card industry and florists to make a killing blah blah blah. But regardless of its rather spurious nature, it does provide us music bloggers with the perfect excuse to post some songs on a theme; most pop songs are on the very subject of love, after all. Here are a few good ones, anyway - a mixture to highlight the ambivalent feelings Valentine's Day can bring about in people (or something). It's also the first Three of a Kind post for five months! Blimey. Anyway, happy Reg Valentine Day!

The Scaremongers - You Can Do Nothing Wrong In My Eyes mp3

Kissing Mirrors - Let's Kill Cupid mp3

Ted Chippington - She Loves You mp3

Three of a Kind #109

Another serendipitous charity shop find today, New Wave Hits of the 80s Volume 1 - a rather splendid US-released compilation featuring, as it does, 16 poptastic classics from... umm... 1979, mostly. A splendid piece of lateral thinking, or a bit of a ricket? It doesn't really matter when the songs are as good as the ones here; and I suppose they had to start somewhere.

Anyway, those not-actually-new-wave-hits-of-the-eighties-at-all runners and riders in full:

1. Ca Plane Pour Moi - Plastic Bertrand
2. Warm Leatherette - The Normal
3. One Way or Another - Blondie
4. Hey, St. Peter - Flash & The Pan
5. Cruel to Be Kind - Nick Lowe
6. Too Young to Date - D-Day
7. Local Girls - Graham Parker
8. Rock & Roll High School - The Ramones
9. My Sharona - The Knack
10. Girls Talk - Dave Edmunds
11. Video Killed the Radio Star - The Buggles
12. I Do the Rock - Tim Curry
13. Dirty Water - The Inmates
14. I'm a Believer - Tin Huey
15. Gidget Goes to Hell - Suburban Lawns
16. Money (That's What I Want) - Flying Lizards

So, yes, a really interesting line-up of songs - some familiar (Cruel To Be Kind and Girls Talk especially being long-time favourites of mine) and some not. I've gone for three not-so-familiar tracks here, with Mute Records boss Daniel Miller's alter ego The Normal's Warm Leatherette, Tim Curry's I Do The Rock (because I know Spike will want to hear it) and the hilarious Too Young To Date by D-Day. Oh yes, peoples, tonight we're gonna party like it's nineteen seventy nine.

D-Day - Too Young To Date mp3

Tim Curry - I Do The Rock mp3

The Normal - Warm Leatherette mp3

Three of a Kind #107

It's always fun to stumble upon old indiepop compilations on your travels, and that's just what happened to me when I picked up a copy of the 1992 album Precious for a quid in a charity shop the other day. I'd not heard of this particular album before but, as you'll see from the track listing below, it's a decent enough representation of (mostly) mainstream (mostly) UK indie circa 1990 to '92. The Spaghetti Head song was the only one I'd never come across previously.

The album also possesses quite possibly the soppiest cover photo of any album I've ever seen, i.e. a small child with some puppies. Aww!/Pass the sickbag, mother (delete as applicable).

Anyway, as a sort of handy guide (albeit one of absolutely no use or interest to anyone but me), I've highlighted the tracks on this album that I'd already owned as (mostly) vinyl singles way back when; and, this being a Three of a Kind post and all, I've made my three favourite tracks available for download. Usual terms and conditions apply - i.e. get 'em while they're hot!

1 Inspiral Carpets - Dragging Me Down
2 The Charlatans - Weirdo
3 The Stone Roses - Fool's Gold
4 Ride - Twisterella
5 Suede - The Drowners
6 Primal Scream - Loaded
7 Blur - There's No Other Way
8 House of Love - Shine On
9 James - Sit Down
10 Jesus Jones - Real Real Real
11 The Shamen - Make It Mine
12 The Sugarcubes - Hit
13 Lush - For Love
14 Voice of the Beehive - Monsters and Angels
15 The Wonderstuff - The Size of a Cow
16 Pixies - Planet of Sound
17 Pale Saints - Kinky Love
18 Spaghetti Head - Glad
19 My Bloody Valentine - Soon
20 Daisy Chainsaw - Love Your Money

Lush - For Love mp3

Pale Saints - Kinky Love mp3

Daisy Chainsaw - Love Your Money mp3

Three of a Kind #105

With, at the time of typing, a mere ninety hours to go until the 2010 World Cup begins in earnest (well, South Africa) there's never been a better time for me to start blathering away about how much I'm looking forward to this summer's soccerball shindig. Non-football fans may wish to look away now - and possibly for the next five weeks or so. I suspect there'll be a lot more of this type of thing to come.

Actually, what am I saying, stick around! For the consistently choice selection of mp3s if nothing else!

I think I've done quite well holding back this long before launching into some of what erstwhile 6-0-6 host David Mellor would have cretinously termed "red hot soccer chat" actually. It's reminding me of the restrain you have to show as a music blogger towards the end of the calendar year, when you're dying to let loose with the Christmas songs but, conscious of the fact that they're not exactly everyone's cup of char, don't want to start posting them too soon for fear of pissing people off. But hopefully four days before the big event is acceptable.

So yes, the thirty-two competing squads will have mostly (if not all) arrived in South Africa by now (probably); the various World Cup shows and podcasts have begun in earnest; I've started counting down the hours rather than days till the big kick off (South Africa v Mexico, 3pm Friday, ITV); my When Saturday Comes World Cup wallchart is firmly in place (albeit, in an act of astonishing rebelliousness on my part, not on the wall at all, but rather the fridge door. Hell yeah. Like some kind of - or actual - maverick wallchart pinner-upperer, I don't play by the rules), and I am ready to go. Or at least ready to go and plonk myself down on the settee and stare at the telly for a month or so straight.

As for who I reckon's going to win the thing, well, Spain and Brazil are the bookmakers' favourites so the sensible thing would be to tip one of those two. But I don't really do sensible, as you know. Besides, I feel there's really only one team I can throw my full weight of support behind at this particular time. In fact, I feel compelled to cheer them on after that Eurovision debacle the other week. They are, of course, the Netherlands!

Oh yes, things are going to be different this time, I can feel it. For one thing, I've done my research this time and, unlike their Eurovision counterparts, the Netherlands football team have actually qualified for the finals, so we're ahead of the game already!

And for another, they have a fine attacking tradition and many technically-gifted and exciting players such as Robin van Persie, Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart in their current squad. Mind, they also have Dirk Kuyt and Ryan Babel, a dearth of truly world-class defenders, and a not-so-fine tradition of internecine squabbling within their championship squads; oh, and van Persie and Robben are injured half the time anyway. But I never said they were perfect. Might be worth a punt at 11-1 though.

Anyway, now we've got the World Cup ball rolling, so to speak, here are some songs on a theme. Mostly. I suspect I'm going to run out of actual football-related songs pre-tty bloody quickly.

Agent Simple - Friday mp3

Woog Riots - Football Round the Clock mp3

Colourbox - The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme mp3

By the way, in case you were wondering, the accompanying picture at the top of this post comes from Jack Rosenthal's 1972 parks football TV play, Another Sunday and Sweet F.A., which is now, thrillingly, available to buy on DVD. Woo.

Three of a Kind #104

For all those people - politicians, party workers, vote counters, broadcasters, pundits and TV viewers alike - who stayed up all night monitoring the election. And still you didn't get a definitive outcome. Bet you're feeling pre-tty silly now, eh? Me, I slept like a log.

(With apologies to any actual insomniacs reading this.)



Madder Rose - Sleep, Forever mp3

Echobelly - Insomniac mp3

The Darlings (Allo Darlin') - You Shook Me All Night Long mp3

Three of a Kind #103

"30,000 singles". So boasts the back cover of my copy of the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles. The 1995 edition mark you. So you can probably add, what, another eight or ten thousand to that tally now (especially given the remarkably short chart-life of a pop single nowadays).

So what, you might reasonably ask? Well, I mention all this because the music radio stations of the UK seem fixated on an absolutely miniscule percentage of these songs, some of which weren't exactly huge in the first place.

Take Waiting For a Star to Fall by US boy-girl duo, the imaginatively-named Boy Meets Girl. This song reached number 9 in the Gallup charts in early 1989 and was their only hit (in the UK at least). Yet, twenty-one years on, you're pretty much guaranteed to hear it at some point during the day if you tune in for long enough to Magic FM, Absolute Radio, Heart, Smooth Radio, or any of the numerous other identikit stations clogging up the FM frequencies. Or Steve Bloody Wright's Bastard Sunday Sodding Love Songs on Radio 2 for that matter. Anyway, yes. I think ubiquitous is the word.

Now, don't get me wrong. I've got nothing against Waiting For a Star to Fall as such. It's a harmless enough piece of quixotic pop fluff. I even have to confess to having bought it on 7" myself at the time of its release. (What can I say? I was quite the undiscriminating pop fan in my teens. And besides, the airwaves would have been even more awash with it when it was actually, like, you know, in the charts. So resistance would've been futile. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.)

My point is: why this particular song (and one or two hundred like it)? I mean, taking what we already know about the sheer volume of singles that have charted over the years, there must have been thousands of other radio-friendly pop songs that would be ripe for a bit of nostalgia-based airplay, yet we only ever get to hear about, I dunno, 0.5% of them, or something. You know, stuff by the usual suspects: M People, Simply Red, Robbie Williams, George Michael, Boyzone, Elton John etc etc etc. It baffles me, readers, it really does. Baffles and vexes.

I won't even get started on the fact that the BBC are, in a well-documented move, planning to axe one of the only stations that actually offer a bit of variety for the discerning music fan in this country, 6 Music, at the end of next year, because, apparently, offering the listener a bit of actual choice isn't something that falls within the corporation's public-service remit. Gah!

Meanwhile, Radio 1 and 1Xtra are given carte blanche to carry on as they are despite the fact that the two stations are pretty much interchangeable, sharing many of the same presenters - and programmes even. Anyway, I wasn't going to even get started on that, was I? Crashing on...

Back to Boy Meets Girl and their ilk. To counteract the effect, even slightly, of all this same-old same-old radio valium that's foisted upon us time and again by the nation's music radio programmers, here are some equally deserving old chart hits that you perhaps don't hear quite as often on mainstream radio these days. Just like Waiting For a Star..., the following songs all reached number nine in the UK around two decades ago. Nine, danke!

Beats International - Won't Talk About It mp3

Morrissey - Every Day Is Like Sunday mp3*

Karel Fialka - Hey Matthew mp3

*In fairness, Absolute Radio do probably play this song from time to time, when they're feeling particularly edgy and it's, like, a Sunday.

Three of a Kind #102

There's been a conspicuous lack of a) Swedish acts and b) quirky cover versions featured on this blog recently. So here are some Swedish acts performing quirky cover versions. Now I can't say fairer than that. (Damned speech impediment!)

The featured songs were originally made famous by: Depeche Mode, Bonnie Tyler and Lady Saw. Oh alright, so I've never heard of that last one either. But if you've ever wondered what an all-female a cappella choir tackling a Jamaican dancehall number would sound like (and I'd be astonished if you hadn't, frankly), here's your chance to find out.

The Wannadies - Just Can't Get Enough mp3

Stickboy - Total Eclipse of the Heart mp3

The Sweptaways with Robyn - I've Got Your Man mp3

BTW, my jury service finished the other day. Did I mention that? I think it may have slipped my mind at the time. Anyway, because it was such a long case, I've now got a ten year exemption from it (a bit like when a golfer wins a major championship, only without the concomitant bad trousers and large cheque). Result!

Three of a Kind #101

Fuck it, I'd better post something here before I forget how to do it, or Blogger delete the blog due to inactivity or something...

Yes, like a screaming girlie on a railway line in a silent movie, I've been a bit tied up of late; give it another week or two, though, and I should be able to get things back on track, blogwise.

In the meantime, ta for your patience - and get yer listening gear round these gems from Popsicle legend Andreas Mattsson's 2006 album The Lawlessness of the Ruling Classes. Makes Richard Hawley sound like Richard Stilgoe!

Andreas Mattsson - It's Easier To Handle All Your Friends Than To Keep Just One Love Alive mp3

Andreas Mattsson - You're Never Lonely When The Band Plays mp3

Andreas Mattsson - Summer of Speed mp3

Three of a Kind #100

A trio of cricket-themed songs, to bring up the Three of a Kind century. Lord's knows it's not been easy. We've maiden no ball effort to keep the partnership ticking over and, while we've almost been stumped a few times along the way and generally talked a lot of balls, we've never knowingly overstepped the mark or been caught out. It's been a good innings really; a real labour of glove. And this may sound like a silly point, but I think it's even made me a better all rounder person.

Righto ducks, time for a declaration I think. Over and out. (Extra information: the third track's a wrong 'un.)

The Duckworth Lewis Method - Jiggery Pokery mp3

Sherbet - Howzat mp3

The Commentators - N-N-Nineteen Not Out mp3

Three of a Kind #99

It's, like, three songs from the My So-Called Life album. Or whatever.

*sigh*

It's only the best angsty teen drama series ever (in my angsty perpetual teenager opinion)!

Daniel Johnston - Come See Me Tonight mp3

Frente - The Book Song mp3

Juliana Hatfield - Make It Home mp3

Now that's what I call music.

By the way, if you think Make It Home sounds suspiciously like Silent Night (which it does), then this is probably explained by the fact that it comes from the yuletide episode of MSCL in which Juliana Hatfield plays a sort of Christmas angel. Behold her dubious acting skills in this 'ere clip!



Buy the My So-Called Life DVD boxset - featuring all 19 fantastic episodes - for a ridiculously cheap £7.43 from The Hut.

Three of a Kind #98

It's the Gallup UK Top 100 Singles of the Year 1986 - and your chance to download a whopping 3% of them! Imagine that!

1986 being the zenith (or nadir, depending on your point of view) of my chart-pop-buying lifespan, I bought no less then thirty-eight of the songs listed below on either 7" or 12" vinyl (including the one at #2), and could still happily listen to most of them on a constant loop for the rest of eternity (if I happened to be immortal. Which I'm not. Or am I? We just don't know yet).

Anyway, here is that hot/tepid/cold (delete as applicable) hundred. Click on numbers 73, 68 & 39 to download these frankly wondrous snapshots of a mid-1980s Smash Hits-reading teenager's idea of pop heaven!

UK TOP 100 BESTSELLERS OF 1986

100 WHY CAN'T THIS BE LOVE - Van Halen
99 BROKEN WINGS - Mr Mister
98 SING OUR OWN SONG - UB40
97 MIDAS TOUCH - Midnight Star
96 GREATEST LOVE OF ALL - Whitney Houston
95 LOOK AWAY - Big Country
94 SET ME FREE - Jaki Graham
93 NEW BEGINNING (MAMBA SEYRA) - Bucks Fizz
92 THROUGH THE BARRICADES - Spandau Ballet
91 OPEN YOUR HEART - Madonna
90 HUMAN - Human League
89 FRENCH KISSIN' IN THE USA - Debbie Harry
88 CALLING ALL THE HEROES - It Bites
87 SHAKE YOU DOWN - Gregory Abbott
86 STUCK WITH YOU - Huey Lewis & The News
85 PETER GUNN - The Art Of Noise & Duane Eddy
84 THE POWER OF LOVE/DO YOU BELIEVE IN LOVE - Huey Lewis & The News
83 DANCING ON THE CEILING - Lionel Richie
82 LIVING IN AMERICA - James Brown
81 FOR AMERICA - Red Box
80 SUBURBIA - Pet Shop Boys
79 HUNTING HIGH AND LOW - A-ha
78 EACH TIME YOU BREAK MY HEART - Nick Kamen
77 RAGE HARD- Frankie Goes To Hollywood
76 CAN'T GET BY WITHOUT YOU - The Real Thing
75 SECRET LOVERS - Atlantic Starr
74 ANYONE CAN FALL IN LOVE - Anita Dobson
73 THE RAIN - Oran 'Juice' Jones
72 VENUS - Bananarama
71 CAN'T WAIT ANOTHER MINUTE - Five Star
70 WALK THIS WAY - Run DMC
69 BURNING HEART - Survivor
68 LOVE CAN'T TURN AROUND - Farley 'Jackmaster' Funk
67 LOVE MISSILE F1-11 - Sigue Sigue Sputnik
66 CAMOUFLAGE - Stan Ridgway
65 WEST END GIRLS - Pet Shop Boys
64 HI HO SILVER - Jim Diamond
63 SYSTEM ADDICT - Five Star
62 ELOISE - The Damned
61 ADDICTED TO LOVE - Robert Palmer
60 WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY - Janet Jackson
59 HOW WILL I KNOW - Whitney Houston
58 LIVE TO TELL - Madonna
57 EVERY BEAT OF MY HEART - Rod Stewart
56 BROTHER LOUIE - Modern Talking
55 TOO GOOD TO BE FORGOTTEN - Amazulu
54 ONLY LOVE - Nana Mouskouri
53 AIN'T NOTHIN' GOIN' ON BUT THE RENT - Gwen Guthrie
52 ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS - David Bowie
51 BREAKOUT - Swing Out Sister
50 BORDERLINE - Madonna
49 WALK OF LIFE - Dire Straits
48 THORN IN MY SIDE - Eurythmics
47 STARTING TOGETHER - Su Pollard
46 HAPPY HOUR - The Housemartins
45 YOU TO ME ARE EVERYTHING - The Real Thing
44 (I JUST) DIED IN YOUR ARMS - Cutting Crew
43 SHOWING OUT - Mel & Kim
42 SOMETIMES - Erasure
41 LIVIN' ON A PRAYER - Bon Jovi
40 YOU CAN CALL ME AL - Paul Simon
39 MY FAVOURITE WASTE OF TIME - Owen Paul
38 I CAN'T WAIT - Nu Shooz
37 MANIC MONDAY - The Bangles
36 WORD UP - Cameo
35 LET'S GO ALL THE WAY - Sly Fox
34 YOU KEEP ME HANGIN' ON - Kim Wilde
33 HOLDING BACK THE YEARS - Simply Red
32 A KIND OF MAGIC - Queen
31 WONDERFUL WORLD - Sam Cooke
30 (TOUCH ME) I WANT YOUR BODY - Samantha Fox
29 ALL I ASK OF YOU - Cliff Richard and Sarah Brightman
28 SLEDGEHAMMER - Peter Gabriel
27 THE EDGE OF HEAVEN - WHAM!
26 GLORY OF LOVE - Peter Cetera
25 LESSONS IN LOVE - Level 42
24 IN THE ARMY NOW - Status Quo
23 WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN - The Bangles
22 ON MY OWN - Patti Labelle & Michael McDonald
21 THE SUN ALWAYS SHINES ON TV - A-ha
20 THE CHICKEN SONG/A NICE SOUTH AFRICAN - Spitting Image
19 CARAVAN OF LOVE - The Housemartins
18 RAIN OR SHINE - Five Star
17 REET PETITE - Jackie Wilson
16 THE FINAL COUNTDOWN - Europe
15 SPIRIT IN THE SKY - Doctor and the Medics
14 WE DON'T HAVE TO... - Jermaine Stewart
13 ROCK ME AMADEUS - Falco
12 A DIFFERENT CORNER - George Michael
11 TRUE BLUE - Madonna
10 SO MACHO/CRUISING - Sinitta
9 TAKE MY BREATH AWAY - Berlin
8 PAPA DON'T PREACH - Madonna
7 WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH - Billy Ocean
6 THE LADY IN RED - Chris De Burgh
5 CHAIN REACTION - Diana Ross
4 LIVING DOLL - Cliff Richard and the Young Ones
3 I WANT TO WAKE UP WITH YOU - Boris Gardiner
2 EVERY LOSER WINS - Nick Berry
1 DON'T LEAVE ME THIS WAY - The Communards

A worthy winner there in the Communards, I'm sure you'll agree (unless you remember the Harold Melvin version, in which case probably not). I remember Don't Leave Me This Way being a big floor-filler at all the school discos and parties I attended that year anyway (especially the bit near the end with the mega-long ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! baby!).

1986 also saw the release of fantastic singles such as Brilliant Mind by Furniture, Driving Away From Home by It's Immaterial, Panic, Bigmouth Strikes Again & Ask by The Smiths, E=MC2 by Big Audio Dynamite and New Order's Shellshock but none of these songs, despite all making the charts, were ever going to rob the likes of Madonna, George Michael and, umm, Nick Kamen of their rightful places in the year end chart.

There were also many memorable and/or innovative videos doing the rounds in '86: Sledgehammer, Addicted To Love, Reet Petite, Dancing On The Ceiling and Happy Hour, to name but several. But I know which 1986 video you really want to see here: Su Pollard's Starting Together! (Just don't tell Miss Cathcart!)

Three of a Kind #97

The weekend stops here!



Edson - Sunday, Lovely Sunday mp3

The Budgies - Lucky Sunday mp3

The Sundays - Gone mp3

Three of a Kind #96

It's been flipping ages since I've roused myself to rip some old vinyl for use on a blog post, so it's high time I rectified this sorry state of affairs I reckon. In which case, please accept these three seemingly random yet suspiciously decent choices from my stack of early-mid-90s indie twelve-inchers.

Cud - Rich & Strange mp3

I've always had a soft spot for Cud, despite the fact that they once released a single with the cringingly awful title Purple Love Balloon (which still didn't stop me buying it on picture disc). I was so gormlessly naive at the time, though, that I didn't even make the connection between the titular balloon and its saucy connotations until years later. Take a ride in your purple love balloon indeed!

Bleach - Shotgun mp3

I've done absolutely no research for today's post (which will obviously come as a massive shock to everybody reading this), but if memory serves Bleach hailed from Ipswich and were quite a hit with John Peel. They sound a lot like the early Lush on 1991's Shotgun, too, which is never a bad thing. There's even an attempt at what I can only describe as some middle-class white girl shoegazey rapping here. Marvellous!

My Life Story - The Lady Is A Tramp mp3

My Life Story were one of the most under-rated bands of the Britpop era for me. Oh yes, you can keep your Blurs and Oasis' (Oasisis?) - give me Jake Shillingford and his hi-octane brand of orchestral pop any day of the week. This band were so good that they could even afford to consign songs as fine as the one above to obscure b-side status (this was one of the extra tracks on the Funny Ha Ha 12"). Listen to the way Jake pronounces some of the words, like he's the Queen of Sheba or something ("The Lady's always thaar, Camden Tiyn to Leicester Sqaar"). Magnificent. And how can you not love a band who christen their information service Sex & Violins? Impossible!

Three of a Kind #95

A washing powder-themed Three of a Kind today, inspired by the product pictured above. Made by the Paxan company of Iran, Barf - meaning 'snow' in Farsi - is an 100% genuine product (as opposed to a 54.68% genuine product) and is quite big in the Middle East, by all accounts. Here are some Dreft jams by way of tribute! (Thank you, I'm here all week.)

The Paragons - The Tide Is High mp3

Persil - Light Up My Life mp3

The Dazz Band - Let It All Blow mp3