Month: October 2024

Something a little different to finish off the month. By 1997, Britpop was burning itself out. The fun and games of the previous three or so years had started to become stale. The main artists of the period were starting to release music that had lost some of its sparkle which could be argued to have been caused by exhaustion/drug problems etc. 

That didn’t stop some quality music from being released. I put this compilation together from songs that I had not used on previous posts this year. Most of the major Britpop acts are included, with some obscure ones added for good measure. There are stand alone singles, single mixes, B-sides and album tracks. As the are the midst of a vinyl revival, I have made this a double LP. 

Side A

1. Hush – Kula Shaker
2. Young Girls & Happy Endings – Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci
3. Echo Bass – The Verve
4. Everything Is Sorrow (Granby Remix) – The Boo Radleys
5. Down A Different River – Super Furry Animals

Side B

1. Taxloss (Single Version) – Mansun
2. Nothing Is Changing – Sleeper
3. Hello Monday – Ocean Colour Scene
4. Death Of A Party (7” Remix) – Blur
5. Don’t Need A Gun – The Charlatans
6. Sometimes I Make You Sad – Supergrass

Side C

1. Brimful Of Asha (Album Version) – Cornershop
2. Thickshake – Silver Sun
3. I Am The Mob (Luca Brasi Mix) – Catatonia
4. Stand By Me (French Radio Edit) – Oasis
5. True Love Waits (Full Band) – Radiohead

Side D

1. Free Me (Acoustic) – Cast
2. Where Are They Now – Gene
3. Best Regrets – Geneva
4. Duschess – Suede
5. Laughing Boy – Pulp
6. Come Together – Spiritulized

The artwork comes from BBC Radio 2 show about Britpop. Used Virgin as the record label as they were the ones who produced The Best Album in the World Series of CDs that I bought in the 90s.

Out of all of the bands that could be classed as Britpop, Pulp formed first. Starting out in 1978 (when Tim Wheeler from Ash was about 1 year old), front man Jarvis Cocker has been the only ever present. It took them two years to play a gig and then in 1981, they had recorded a demo tape which the band gave to legendary DJ, John Peel, who duly gave them some exposure with a Peel Session. The original line up disbanded not long after this as most of the members went off to University and, the Peel Session not leading to any success. A new line up was formed and it was then that ‘It’, their first album was recorded and released in 1983. A second album, ‘Freaks’ was released in 1987 but Cocker took a break to study at Central Saint Martin College, putting the band on hiatus. 

By the 1989, Cocker had resurrected the band and they had a deal with Fire Records. It was whilst on that label that the released the ‘My Legendary Girlfriend’ single. This was made weekly music newspaper, the NME’s single of the week. The trajectory of the band started to rise and ‘O.U’ was made single of the week by Melody Maker, an other UK weekly music paper. Signing to Island Records, ‘Lipgloss’ became their first single to break the UK top 40. Parent album, ‘His ’n’ Hers’ broke into the top ten of the LP charts and the band was on its way, finally. 

‘Different Class’ followed soon afterwards but there were some incidents of controversy. There was the single ‘Sorted For E’s & Whizz’ which was said to be pro drugs and the original artwork showed people how to make a paper wrap which was interpreted as a way of hiding drugs. Then there was the 1996 BRIT Awards when Cocker rushed the stage during Michels Jackson’s over the top performance of ‘Earth Song’ for which he ended up spending a night in jail for. None of this seemed to hurt record sales though.

There would  three year gap before their next album was released. ‘This Is Hardcore’ which was darker than the previous two efforts, mostly down to the pressures of fame, Cocker having a cocaine addiction and a lack of new material. The band would record one more album, 2001s ‘We Love Life’ before splitting. There have been a few reunions but none that herded any new music. They did leave quite of a lot of quality music though for us to listen to and this is shown by the amount of top notch B-Sides they produced during the period they were signed to Island Records. For this, the sixth and final B-Sides collection from the major players of Britpop, Pulp are afforded a double album. 

Side A

1. The Babysitter (Do You Remember The First Time)
2. Deep Fried In Kelvin (Lipgloss)
3. You’re A Nightmare (Lipgloss)

Side B

1. Seconds (The Sisters EP)
2. Street Lites (Do You Remember The First Time)
3. Your Sister’s Clothes (The Sisters EP)
4. The Professional (This Is Hardcore)

Side C

1. Ansaphone (Disco 2000)
2. His ’n’ Hers (The Sisters EP)
3. Ladies’ Man (This Is Hardcore)
4. Tomorrow Never Lies (Help The Aged)

Side D

1. We Are The Boys (Party Hard)
2. P.T.A. (Parent Teacher Association) (Mis-Shapes & Sorted For E’s & Wizz)
3. Cocaine Socialism (A Little Soul)
4. Mile End (Something Changed)
5. 59 Lyndhurst Grove – Live (Common People – French Single)

I normally would not include live tracks on B-Sides collections, but this version of ’59 Lyndhurst Grove’ was. It finishes with a nice thank you by Jarvis Cocker and I felt it was a really nice way to finish off. 

I must admit that Moby passed me by for most of the 1990s. I seem to remember the single ‘Go’, but that is about it. I therefore did not know anything about the artist when I picked up the ‘Honey’ single after listening to it on the radio. Even though I did not think much of the remixes, I still liked ‘Honey’. The mix of an old song with a techno beat intrigued me so a few months later when I saw there was an album for sale with ‘Honey’ on it , I picked it up. What I din’t realise at the time was this was this was Moby’s last throw of the dice as far as his music career was concerned. His previous effort, ‘Animal Rights’, had been a commercial disaster and he was contemplating quitting music all together. Some positive feedback from fellow musicians gave him the confidence to at least give music another go.

‘Play’ was released in mid 1999 to little fanfare. It initially sold enough to break into the UK Top 40, but after his fanbase had bought their copies, it slipped down the chart. However, in an attempt to get the music heard, Moby and his management team decided to license the tracks for adverts. In the end, every song from the album was licensed and exposure for the record increased dramatically. In the end, the record would sell over 12 million copies worldwide and eight singles were ultimately released from it. The album was so popular that in 2000, a compilation album was released called ‘Play: The B-Sides’. This also sold in good numbers but was not a comprehensive set as it did not contain any remixes. Moby recorded so much material in preparation for ‘Play’ that a bootleg came out not long after this called ‘Play: The Outtakes’. 

One of the features of the album of the numerous styles that were incorporated into it. There are the aforementioned techno and blues. However, there was electronica, downtempo, ambient, breakbeat and roots. As successful as this album was, it was also quite schizophrenic. What I looked to do here is repackage these records with more of a theme.

The first disc is called ‘Natural Blues’ and contains songs that sampled blues and roots music. The second is ‘Bodyrock’ which contains more big beat and techno tracks. The third is a reimagining of the album which took out the more uptempo numbers to be replaced by something more ambient.  

Natural Blues

Side A

1. Honey – Play
2. Find My Baby – Play
3. Flower – B-Side (Find My Baby)
4. Run On – Play

Side B

1. Natural Blues – Play
2. Flying Foxes – B-Side (Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad)
3. Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad – Play

The cover was used for the ‘Natural Blues’ single. 

Bodyrock

Side A

1. Bodyrock – Play
2. Machette – Play
3. 7 – Play

Side B

1. Flying Over The Dateline – B-Side (Porcelain) 
2. Running – B-Side (Run On)

The cover was used for the ’Bodyrock’ single.

Play

Took out the more upbeat numbers to make something a bit more mellow.

Side A

1. Dispatched – Play: The Outtakes
2. If Things Were Perfect – Play
3. Porcelain – Play
4. South Side – Play
5. The Sun Never Stops Setting – B-Side (Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad)

Side B

1. Everlong – Play
2. Inside – Play
3. Graciosa – Play: The Outtakes
4. Rushing – Play

Side C

1. The Whispering Wind – B-Side (Natural Blues)
2. The Sky Is Broken – Play
3. Summer – B-Side
4. Sown Slow – Play

Side D

1. Guitar, Flute & String – Play
2. Deep Seated – Play: The Outtakes
3. Memorial Gospel – B-Side (Run On)
4. My Weakness – Play

The cover is the same as the one used for ‘Play’

This reimagining of ‘Play’ could not be recreated on Spotify as a number of these treks come from the Outtakes bootleg.