OBSCURITY KNOCKS
Friday 30 November 2007
WMESB™: 2 passengers today: that’s right, there was an interloper on MY bus.
The late night on a school night finally took its toll yesterday afternoon and when I got home I went straight to bed for two hours. After getting up to watch “Never Mind The Buzzcocks”, checking the football scores, doing my e-mails and reading some other blogs I went back to bed.
Today is St. Andrew’s Day and Forth One are making a big play of the fact that they’ll be playing lots of Scottish artists throughout the day. Well it’s nearly lunchtime and all they’ve played is the usual suspects; namely Wet Wet Wet, Texas, The Proclaimers, The Fratellis and other Scottish acts that they always play. Today would have been an ideal opportunity to expand on their normal repertoire and play a wider range of great Scottish singles. From the Jock ‘n’ Roll Singles Poll Top 10 alone they could have played any of these classics:
The Associates – Party Fears Two
The Skids – Into The Valley
Aztec Camera – Oblivious
Big Country – In A Big Country
The Blue Nile – Tinseltown In The Rain
Trashcan Sinatras – Obscurity Knocks
Cocteau Twins – Pearly Dewdrops’ Drops
There’s a whole host of Scottish bands that they could play instead of the usual “safe” selections. Other great Scottish acts that featured in the Jock ‘n’ Roll Top 100 Singles included: The Waterboys, Edwyn Collins/Orange Juice, Gerry Rafferty, Jesus and Mary Chain, Altered Images, Primal Scream, Hipsway, Teenage Fanclub, Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, Lloyd Cole an the Commotions, The Rezillos, Belle and Sebastian, Roddy Frame/Aztec Camera, Strawberry Switchblade, Love and Money, Arab Strap, Friends Again, Idlewild, The Big Dish, Camera Obscura, Shop Assistants, Average White Band, Eddi Reader, Fire Engines, Horse, Bay City Rollers, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, The Vaselines, Sons and Daughters, BMX Bandits, The River Detectives, Win, Josef K, Fiction Factory, Nazareth, H²O, The Bluebells, The Beta Band, Frankie Miller and Bourgie Bourgie. That’s a great list by anyone’s standards but instead we get Travis, Del Amitri and Deacon Bloody Blue all the time.
Sam Jackson’s Forth One show, which starts at 1pm, has a feature called “Class or Trash”. I sent her an e-mail a few weeks ago suggesting that she play the two records that were voted Best and Worst Scottish Single in the Jock ‘n’ Roll poll, namely “Party Fears Two”
up against Wet Wet Wet’s Love Is All Around”, as part of the St. Andrew's Day celebrations. It’ll be interested to see if she actually plays them. As well as being a presenter she’s Head of Music and I’ve always wondered what that job actually involves ata commercial station. Does she go out looking for new bands and singers to play or does she head up a “Roundtable” style “Juke Box Jury” selection of new records, full of RnB and pop records foisted on them from major label pluggers? Either way, they’ve missed some great Scottish records over the last two years. Things like “Lloyd I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken”/“Let’s Get Out Of This Country” by Camera Obscura or Aberfeldy’s “Tom Weir” would sound great on the radio, as would Ally Kerr’s “Could Have Been A Contender”, which is a cracking track and my new favourite record. (Stop Press: She didn’t play my selections – what a shock).
Friday 30 November 2007
WMESB™: 2 passengers today: that’s right, there was an interloper on MY bus.
The late night on a school night finally took its toll yesterday afternoon and when I got home I went straight to bed for two hours. After getting up to watch “Never Mind The Buzzcocks”, checking the football scores, doing my e-mails and reading some other blogs I went back to bed.
Today is St. Andrew’s Day and Forth One are making a big play of the fact that they’ll be playing lots of Scottish artists throughout the day. Well it’s nearly lunchtime and all they’ve played is the usual suspects; namely Wet Wet Wet, Texas, The Proclaimers, The Fratellis and other Scottish acts that they always play. Today would have been an ideal opportunity to expand on their normal repertoire and play a wider range of great Scottish singles. From the Jock ‘n’ Roll Singles Poll Top 10 alone they could have played any of these classics:
The Associates – Party Fears Two
The Skids – Into The Valley
Aztec Camera – Oblivious
Big Country – In A Big Country
The Blue Nile – Tinseltown In The Rain
Trashcan Sinatras – Obscurity Knocks
Cocteau Twins – Pearly Dewdrops’ Drops
There’s a whole host of Scottish bands that they could play instead of the usual “safe” selections. Other great Scottish acts that featured in the Jock ‘n’ Roll Top 100 Singles included: The Waterboys, Edwyn Collins/Orange Juice, Gerry Rafferty, Jesus and Mary Chain, Altered Images, Primal Scream, Hipsway, Teenage Fanclub, Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, Lloyd Cole an the Commotions, The Rezillos, Belle and Sebastian, Roddy Frame/Aztec Camera, Strawberry Switchblade, Love and Money, Arab Strap, Friends Again, Idlewild, The Big Dish, Camera Obscura, Shop Assistants, Average White Band, Eddi Reader, Fire Engines, Horse, Bay City Rollers, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, The Vaselines, Sons and Daughters, BMX Bandits, The River Detectives, Win, Josef K, Fiction Factory, Nazareth, H²O, The Bluebells, The Beta Band, Frankie Miller and Bourgie Bourgie. That’s a great list by anyone’s standards but instead we get Travis, Del Amitri and Deacon Bloody Blue all the time.
Sam Jackson’s Forth One show, which starts at 1pm, has a feature called “Class or Trash”. I sent her an e-mail a few weeks ago suggesting that she play the two records that were voted Best and Worst Scottish Single in the Jock ‘n’ Roll poll, namely “Party Fears Two”
up against Wet Wet Wet’s Love Is All Around”, as part of the St. Andrew's Day celebrations. It’ll be interested to see if she actually plays them. As well as being a presenter she’s Head of Music and I’ve always wondered what that job actually involves ata commercial station. Does she go out looking for new bands and singers to play or does she head up a “Roundtable” style “Juke Box Jury” selection of new records, full of RnB and pop records foisted on them from major label pluggers? Either way, they’ve missed some great Scottish records over the last two years. Things like “Lloyd I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken”/“Let’s Get Out Of This Country” by Camera Obscura or Aberfeldy’s “Tom Weir” would sound great on the radio, as would Ally Kerr’s “Could Have Been A Contender”, which is a cracking track and my new favourite record. (Stop Press: She didn’t play my selections – what a shock).
4 comments:
Based on the quiz show picture you posted a while back, I think I spotted you at the Ferrytoll this morning. When you see the 55 around about 0650-ish, give it a wave. If you see someone waving back... it's me!
And er... with you 100% on the Scottish band playlist thing.
Forth One's shite anyway. And so are every single one of their presenters. Lol.
MJ
x
also - there's Astrid.
The Big Dish - Bloody hell, now that wasn't a name I was expecting to read today, and it takes me back to sitting in my friends bedroom marvelling at their glossy record covers.
Goodbye Mr Mackenzie were the first band I ever saw live around the same time, and they were utterly superb. Martin Metcalfe strode the stage magnificentally. Oh, and it may have helped that I also quite fancied Shirley Manson.
Edit /delete all of this messgae or the next bit of it - but I can see no other way of contacting you apart from through leaving a comments :
I wanted to say thanks for putting the IanTB link on here, that really is incredibly kind and totally unexpected. I shall put a nice link to you in a mo too, explaining how nice you have been!
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