Stewpot’s Junior Choice

Posted on March 12, 2010   |   Filed under: Music  |  Tags: England, Spurs  |  Add a Comment »  

This one requires some set up first before we get to the tunes because I realise that there will be a few of you out there who might not actually recognise or remember the big nosed bloke below:

In the late 70’s Radio One used to play what Radio Two plays now. At the time it was all mainstream, safe middle of the road music, no risks taken. (The late great John Peel was still on, but was shoved into a late night slot and never talked about). The current Radio 2 has some of the DJ’s who were on 1 all those years ago and they are still playing the same stuff. -In another twenty years the DJ’s on One now will be… well you get the gist.

Back in the day the DJ’s on “Wonderful Radio 1…Two Seven Five and Two Eight Five…” were your mates, your chums and they all had nicknames such as ‘Diddy’ David and the ‘Hairy Cornflake’.

The first nicknamed DJ of Radio 1 (“The Happy Sound!”) was Ed “Stewpot” Stewart who was recruited from pirate radio to the newly formed BBC Radio 1 (“Beep Beep Yeah!!”) and eventually he got a Saturday morning show where he hung around with kids… no wait it’s not creepy, hear me out.

In fact in the 1970’s Ed Stewart’s Junior Choice was the most listened to radio show, plus he was on the telly presenting Crackerjack – the most popular kids game show.

You know those novelty songs like “Tie me kangaroo down, sport” or “I’m a pink toothbrush, you’re a blue toothbrush” or “Puff the magic dragon”… (Full list here)…well it was Stewpot who used to play these songs for little children who listened to them.

As well as playing these tunes Ed “Stewpot” liked to get together with a group of kids…no stop that, I told you it wasn’t creepy back then… and sing song with them.

One bad example is on You Tube:

But a couple of better examples – and this is where the footie and music comes in:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. » Ed ‘Stewpot’ Stewart & Junior Choice – Back Home Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. » Ed Stewpot & Junior Choice – Nice One Cyril

Extra Time: Related links to the excellent website Radio Rewind:

- Radio 1 > Ed ‘Stewpot’ Stewart
- Radio 1 > 70’s Jingles [Reg req.]

And Finally…

Stewpot, the man who adults trusted with their kids, stars with his daughter (who must be in her mid-30’s by now) in a public information film about the dangers of talking to strangers:

A Song For England: Round 2

Posted on March 10, 2010   |   Filed under: Music  |  Tags: England, WorldCup, WorldCup2010  |  1 Comment »  

The poll has closed for the 1st round and the winner is…

He will now go up against our next contenders… Blind Granny’s Taxi Nightmare

These chaps have previous with an England World Cup song having previously released a previous version (have I said previous enough ?) of this tune four years ago. They have updated the lyrics > from Sven to Fabio > and are going to have another bash.

The song in question is one I didn’t mention in my 2006 coverage. The reason why was because when Blind Granny’s Taxi Nightmare first released this re-worded cover, it was overshadowed by a well known name who released his own version at the same time. But now they have another chance with their take on an old Jeff Beck classic:

Blind Granny's Taxi Nightmare - Hi Ho Come On England (2010) Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The song is a bit laddish, but obviously has a very strong and familiar chorus which can easily be chanted on the terraces in the plastic seats.

- Find out more about Blind Granny's Taxi Nightmare on their Facebook Fanpage.

...and now a reminder from last week's victor:

The Shining Hour - To England With Love: Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

- plus an additional song from them:

NOW YOU DECIDE:

The winner will be declared once again this time next week.

- If you have a song or want to put one up for the vote then Contact us here.

The Singing Footballer Returns

Posted on March 9, 2010   |   Filed under: Music, Video  |  Tags: footie  |  Add a Comment »  

Heads up ! Some proper writing ahead.

We are bandwagon jumping and have invited Obscure Music and Football (which like F&M it does as it says on the tin…) to do guest post on here.   Read on Macduff:

Football songs are currently going through something of a renaissance. After being shunted for the past decade or so, possibly due to footballers taking themselves too seriously and being less willing to poke fun at themselves, football songs have become the comeback kid. No doubt due to the advent of Facebook and YouTube, footballers are now more than willing to unleash their musical credentials. But in a world where footballers are as characterless as Jamie Redknapp’s punditry, what is the modern football song like?

Unfortunately, Ryan Babel is the perfect example of how footballers have turned into attention-seeking cretins that don’t care about anyone but themselves because they’re so bloody great. It’s quite surprising for a man that sounds like he’s coughing up phlegm whilst rapping. When it comes to his lyrics, Babel is so arrogant to such proportions that it almost becomes unethical. It just shows how much football songs have changed as it’s no longer about hoping your team wins, finding love or eating sausage rolls. It’s now about how expensive your watch is, how big your car is and how rubbish everyone else is apart from yourself. Before football songs was about enjoying the situation and laughing in the face of adversity, but now it’s just full of spite and bitterness. Despite this Babel’s music seems to be very popular in the Netherlands. What do you expect in a country that sees 2Unlimited as demi-gods?

Another interesting change is how seriously music is being taken as a possible career by footballers. Before, you’d think that ‘Diamond Lights’ was conceived after a drunken bet or ‘Head Over Heels in Love’ was just a blatant-cash in. Even something like Andy Cole’s ‘Outstanding’ was not treated as a life-or-death affair. Now it seems like if footballers do not get the attention they crave or if they receive a single piece of constructive criticism, their heads will combust due to its devastating impact. It takes such an obsession on their lives, that in their deluded world, they think that it is now their major career path.

Take a look at Clint Dempsey who, under the alias Deuce (a name that is no doubt influenced by the cheesy manufactured group from the mid-1990’s), wants to be the new Pharrell Williams at whatever cost. Due to hiring the cheapest knock-off of Puff Daddy, however, his song ‘Don’t Tread’ seems to have the intensity of taking out false teeth and the terror of being happy-slapped by a midget. It’s obvious that Dempsey wants to be taken seriously here but, with lyrics describing how he is signed by Nike, his venture into music is as credible as Paul Gascoigne’s music career without even realising it.

Despite these accusations, there have been recent attempts to record football songs for charity. However, these seem to be a cynical attempt to further expose these vanity projects on the public radar rather than being a genuine attempt to raise funds and awareness for various charities.

The Players, for example – fronted by Norwegian Premier League players (i.e. obscure and/or unknown players to the average football fan) Freddy Dos Santos, Kristofer Hæstad, Raymond Kvisvik and Øyvind Svenning, along with Blackburn Rovers winger Morten Gamst Pedersen, they gathered to sing the track ‘This is For Real’ which raised funds for the charity Soccer against Crime. Fair play, until you listen to the song. As tepid as a John Major pose, it has the lyrical content that is likely to induce immediate projectile vomiting. Utterly pointless, where it feels like random members of Embrace, Orson and Westlife have instantly been turned into waxwork models.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. » The Players – This Is For Real

Neil Danns’ effort for the Haiti fund seems even more contrived and self-satisfied than others. In a doomed attempt to show that he cares about the world, he discusses terror and poverty with the substance of the average Metro article. In addition to committing manslaughter to Eric Clapton’s ‘Wonderful Tonight’, Danns tries to be cool and insightful by singing about 9/11 whilst using Auto-Tune and dancing in an ushanka:

Rather tragically though, Danns is the artist most convinced that he is set for music stardom as he is currently studying for a video editing and production course. You can imagine Danns spending every single second of his life thinking about Auto-Tune, given that Sheffield Wednesday duo Richard O’Donnell and Mark Beevers’ have practised the Kings Of Leon song Sex on Fire on Auto Tune with empty Coca-Cola bottles.

There are, however, two saving graces that revert to the stereotypical view of the football song….

One is Carlos Tevez’s band Piola Vago who completely understands the concept of recording a wonderfully bad football song. Recorded by musicians who are performing at five pitches higher than it should be, their musical incompetence is naturally brilliant in its own way. It is also what a football song should be; no boasting or being completely in love with themselves, just a bunch of football fanatics having a bit of fun and not taking themselves seriously with it. Whilst I’m convinced that the song ripped onto YouTube was played at completely the wrong speed, they are comedy geniuses.

Didier Drogba’s effort is equally entertaining. Whether the collaborator is called ‘Billy Billy’ or whether that is the name of the song is unknown, given that every aspect of this recording is completely incomprehensible. Utilising the modern techniques found in the Ivory Coast such as the using the horn function on the 1992 Yamaha PSR-75 electronic keyboard, it somehow sounds like a remedial class trying to play Caribbean music. As devastating as cot death, Billy Boy’s is hilariously bad with Drogba’s contribution a delight to marvel at.

Although it seems like a trivial subject to discuss, modern football songs parallel the criticisms of modern football (whether these are right or wrong is a different story). They are generally mean-spirited and soulless songs, recorded by a bunch of narcissistic show-offs who will throw their toys out of the pram if they don’t get their own way. As credible as Rio Ferdinand’s television career, it is the worst kind of music you can listen to -in the musicians’ warped world they think they are creating something groundbreaking when it is in fact the opposite. Apart from two people, that is. Thank god for Carlos Tevez and Didier Drogba.

About the author:

Chris Ledger is the writer and editor of the cult website Obscure Music and Football.

An Old To Mexico (86)

Posted on March 8, 2010   |   Filed under: Music  |  Tags: England, WorldCup, WorldCup86  |  1 Comment »  

So the first question is then: How come Mexico got it again only 16 years later ?

It was because Colombia – the country who were originally chosen to host it, just at the wrong moment went skint. FIFA then placed an urgent advert in the Fulham & Hammersmith Chronicle asking if anybody could accomodate them and their friends for a couple of weeks.
We’ll be very quiet and clean up after ourselves.

The Mexican President then looked in one of his cupboards and saw that they still had some corner flags and the nets left over from last time and said hey let’s put the show on (again) right here !

Many of us will remember this one better from that one incident, but this post will be a general overview of the tournament that year.   Ah maybe I’ll give it a mention. But first the main event…

Because of the heat and altitude the finals once again favoured the central/south American countries, but a few European teams got through to the Quarter Finals: They were France, Spain, England, Belgium…. (Belgium…seriously…? How did..? Oh three from their group of 4 qualified…couldn’t miss really) and West Germany.

England’s progress through the competition (after scraping through the group stage) was helped when their lucky talisman, the Captain Marvel was injured in the second group game against Morroco.
Although Bryan Robson tried to impede their progress by wearing a shoulder harness, it was clear that he couldn’t go on and after this England’s performance improved.

They made it through to the latter knockout stages and for the first time since the Falklands war, they faced Argentina in the Quarter Finals…  

…In which Maradona scored that goal and England were out.

After that more matches were played and eventually somebody won.

To the music then…

(Bah... If you want to talk about it post something in the comments)

The music – and before the England team departed they did the usual route of stopping by the recording studio first. The resulting cacophony (which reached the giddy heights of No.66 in the charts) was a song which is making it’s appearance here on the web for the very first time. Go on...go and google it, you'll not find it anywhere else.

You will probably not thank me for digging it up after all these years, but here it is anyway:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. » 1986 England World Cup Squad – We’ve Got The Whole World At Our Feet

I don’t know why but like BBC’s 1990 World Cup theme this one is embedded in our memory like…like Gazza’s plastic breasts…

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. » World Cup Mexico ‘86 ITV Theme

Additionally… Keep an eye over at Twohundredpercent because they are undertaking a series looking at all the telly themes from 1966 onwards.

EXTRA TIME:

- From a comment posted by Doro a few months ago. He added a link to the video below, and on the YouTube page there’s another link where you can download the audio version, again below.

A Song For England: Round 1

Posted on March 3, 2010   |   Filed under: Music  |  Tags: England, WorldCup, WorldCup2010  |  2 Comments »  

UPDATE: The poll has closed and the winner of Round 1 is…

As you are well aware by now there will be no official song for England leading up to the World Cup. This is obviously bad news for the listening public as there’s obviously going to be a deluge of songs that will attempt to fill this void.

Since there’s no way of stopping it we might as well decide which tune should be the semi-unofficial England World Cup song.

How this will work is with a weekly knockout competition in which YOU WILL VOTE on who is the winner that week to go through to the next round. The last song left standing come June 11th will be declared the winner and in our eyes, the best half-decent England tune.

Starting us off…

Johnny Normal v The Shining Hour

Johnny Normal bio:

“Johnny Normal creates a musical bag of ‘Englishness’ that finds its roots in pop, punk and electronic music from the 1980s onwards. Johnny’s inspiration is drawn from the life he sees around him, the things people gloss over… everyday stuff like family, fried breakfast, relationships, fear, envelopes and being run over…

… The style of johnny normal is very much what electronic 1980 England should have been together with an oddly modern edge. “

His entry into the England song stakes is a track called “God Save the Team” and yes, it is a reworded cover version of a familiar tune. Correction: An electro punk version.

There is an element of Frank Sidebottom with his Casiotone keyboard, bordering on the Jess Conrad there… I’m sure this is tongue in cheek… But either way taken a listen below:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

- Stream only: Purchase & download the 3 track CD. (including the above song)

- Find out more: MySpace: Johnny Normal music. (*Warning: music starts automatically*)

The Shining Hour bio:

“Mark Cohen has been writing and recording his own songs since 1985. He has been influenced and inspired by 60’s pop, 70’s punk & new wave, 80’s indie & alternative and 90’s Brit Pop. In the early 90s he adopted the name, “The Shining Hour” and has produced a number of home made CD albums.

In 1998, Germany’s Apricot Records released a limited edition 7 inch single EP entitled “Five o’Clock Rise” which sold out. A 15 song album “Long Lost” was finally released in November 2006.”

Mark’s entry is a love song to the national side. It begins with that football and music ingredient of the crowd chanting and then the song is a bit of jangly pop. It is catchy. Has a great chorus with the footie crowd once again involved via a sample. Very clever.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. » Video

- I don’t know if he has any plans to release this song commercially so: Stream only.
- You can download for free the above mentioned ‘Long Lost’ album here. (Nice stuff)

- Find out more: MySpace: The Shining Hour.

So there are your two contenders, now you have to decide who goes through. VOTE NOW:

The winner of this round will be announced around this time next week, plus we’ll find out who they are up against next.

The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme

Posted on March 2, 2010   |   Filed under: Music  |  Tags: WorldCup, WorldCup86  |  3 Comments »  

In another post I will be taking a look at the return of the World Cup to Mexico, but before that an instrumental track from a band who if they walked down the street you probably wouldn’t recognise…

…But if you heard their music – and especially their collaborations you’d know exactly who they were.

Colourbox (pictured above with vocalist Lorita Grahame) were on the seminal 4AD label from the early-to-late 80’s and were proto-trip hop. The combined and drew on influences as varied as blues, soul, rock, dub and funk.

Their releases hit the charts with four of their singles reaching the top 10. Their only proper (self-titled) album went to number one.

Then in 1986 they released two different singles simultaneously on the same day. A rare thing for an indie label and a big risk. But the gamble paid off as the single Baby I Love You So reached No.4 and the other single, which got to Number 6 in April of that year wasn’t even originally written as a football-related tune:

This from their profile on 4AD Records:

“…Alongside this (Baby I Love You So) release, in an entirely characteristic change of tack, they issued “The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme”, timed to coincide with that year’s football tournament in Mexico. And it damn nearly lived up to its title, too – the BBC seriously considered using it to soundtrack its national TV coverage of the event. The track remains Martyn’s favourite Colourbox recording, although, he says, they’d originally written it as a baseball theme. “I’m not even that interested in football, but I do know the BBC came very close to choosing it.”

As you will see from the cover scans below, the front cover of the single featured a vintage pic of Jimmy Hill and the back had Bobby Robson:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. » The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme (7 inch) Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. » Phillip Glass (7 inch version) Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. » The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme (12 inch) Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. » Official Colourbox World Cup Theme/Phillip Glass

But it doesn’t end there…

There was a post over on The Vinyl Villain back in November 2008 in which MrsCTel talked about this Colourbox track. On the comments natp noted that this track had inspired Saint Etienne to create the following track (as a B Side) four years later:

…and of course we have to have the A Side too (12 inch version mind) because with the name of the band and the name of the group this will complete some…sort…of…trifecta….or something…

We are still not done yet…

I mentioned at the beginning about Colourbox and their collaboration. This occurred a year after the World Cup single when they got together with A.R. Kane, then gave the name to this project: M/A/R/R/S – and you know the rest…

[I've mediafired these files - clicking on the link will take you elsewhere] - Pump Up The Volume (Extended) - Pump Up The Volume (Bonus Beats - Pump Up The Volume (Instrumental) - Pump Up The Volume (Radio Edit)

Alright now we’re finished.