Cicciolina and Pop Will Eat Itself

When going through my CD collection here (with a view flogging them to a second hand record shop) I rediscovered some half forgotten gems in the form of my Pop Will Eat Itself collection. It must have been about 10 years since I played any of the CD’s – plus vinyl – half of them I bought on plastic before that compact disc revolution took over.

I’ve dismissed music in the ’90s as a sh’t pointless decade, but there were some exceptions. Radiohead and Nirvana excepted, but Pop Will Eat Itself too.

I know that I’ve rasied some eyebrows with mentioning PWEI in the same breath as those two, but if you have any of their albums in your collection go back and have a listen to them. They have a place in musical history. All these mashups that you hear now – they were doing it years and years before.

Cicciolina cartoonBut I digress.   The reason for this (unplanned until yesterday) reappearance of the Hungarian-born/Italian prOn star-cum-politician *ahem* is because of PWEI’s “tribute” to her.

Cicciolina’s…don’t google her unless your safe search is on… it’s difficult to find a picture of her with her clothes on… real name is Ilona Staller…Did you also know that her stage name of La Cicciolina means “the cuddly one” in Italian and when political speeches, in fact at any given moment she liked to pop a tit out.

As I was listening to the Poppies this track played and I decided at that moment to gather together all the various versions of the song. After a quick bit of research… to find more info about the tune you mucky minded people… I fortuitously stumbled across this great review/comment on Discogs.com »

:Pop Will Eat Itself always maintained their punk attitude, even when producing acid house/new beat-influenced dub tunes like Touched By The Hand Of Cicciolina. Released as ‘The Unofficial World Cup Theme’ in Spring 1990, the tune samples football fan chants, tv speakers, a female opera singer, and features trumpet, piano, a mighty bassline, and a breakbeat at 112bpm. Only occasionally, Clint and Graham of the Poppies chant their slogan of ‘Cicciolina for Italia 1990’, but the tune is rather to be called an instrumental. It has stood the test of time remarkably well, and from today’s perspective it can be said that Pop Will Eat Itself were on one level with acid dub pioneers Renegade Soundwave and Meat Beat Manifesto in 1990. “

– Take a moment to read the whole thing. It gives an excellent background all about this single.

» Touched By The Hand Of Cicciolina (1st Half)

» Touched… (Edited Highlights)

» Touched… (7 inch version)

» Touched… (Extra Time Mix)

» Incredi-Bull Mix (2nd Half)

» Diva Futura Mix

» Renegade Soundwave Mix

I think that Edited Highlights and 7 inch version are one in the same, but I’ve added them because I’m a completist.

Video:

PWEI on ToTP:

It is with grateful thanks to The (new) Vinyl Villain and Madchester Rave On for originally posting & letting me borrow a tune (or two) to complete the above. Both are exceptional places to visit.

Additional:
I asked JC of The Vinyl Villain (the supplier of the 12″ version) which other PWEI track I should throw in and he suggested Wise Up! Sucker and it to be dedicated to Garry Cook, the Manchester City Chief Exec who in his words: “….is doing his single-handed best to turn Man City into the most hated team in Englishire.” He also used the word loathsome in his description, which as a long suffering Citeh supporter myself I’m inclined to agree with. His remarks also gave me an idea for another F&M post, but that’s for another day.

» Pop Will Eat Itself – Wise Up! Sucker

But it doesn’t end there:
As well as Cicciolina’s political oration and video fellatio, she tried another line of work in the guise as a pop star. A few samples of her output, in English and in Italian below:

» Cicciolina & Franco Franchi – Cappuccetto Rosso

» Cicciolina – Muscolo Rosso   [see note]

» Ilona Stalla (Cicciolina) – It’s All Up To You

» Cicciolina – Satisfaction (Rolling Stones cover)

» If you like that sort of thing then you can find more of this sort of thing here. Safe(ish) for work.

4 Replies to “Cicciolina Revisted”

  1. Cicciolina should have been the theme to the 1990 World Cup. And with due respect to the mighty JC, you should have gone forKarmadrome as the other track.

  2. I was born after the 1990 world cup (Sorry if I make you feel old) and I heard all about her but never bothered looking until now 😉
    Never heard much about Pop Will Eat Itsels again until I found this post.
    I went to find out more about them and I’ve downloaded some of theirs from Amazon. Thanks for posting this, it has helped me discover their music.

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