Play That One Again, Dad!

This week, I'm choosing to reminisce about two songs with a special relevance from about 1992. It's always fun to share music with other people, especially family, who get into it and sing along in the car. These two songs are dedicated to Samantha, who I clearly remember joining in happily with the choruses from the back of the car. She's a mom in her twenties now, so I'm not sure if she remembers these. But I do.

A great track, from a great album, by a great, great artist. Not a hit, sadly.
Lindsey Buckingham - Countdown

A great(?) track, not from an album, by a comedian and his pals. A Number One, lest we forget!
Vic Reeves & The Wonder Stuff - Dizzy

MFL Download Charts

The Fountainhead - Someone Like You (#4)

1. (-) Rumblefish - Mexico mp3
2. (-) Freeez - That Beats My Patience mp3
3. (-) H2O - You Take My Breath Away mp3
4. (-) The Fountainhead - Someone Like You mp3
5. (-) Pseudo Echo - His Eyes mp3
6. (-) November Group - The Promise mp3
7. (7) Midge Ure - Call of the Wild (Extended Mix) mp3
8. (-) Fake - Frogs In Spain mp3
9. (2) Midge Ure & Mick Karn - After A Fashion (Extended Mix) mp3
10. (16) The Monroes - Sunday People mp3
11. (3) Sal Solo - Heartbeat (Extended Mix) mp3
12. (6) Red Guitars - Blue Caravan mp3
13. (12) Snowglobe - Aimless Sailor mp3
14. (4) Ultravox - Rivets mp3
15. (13) Blue Mercedes - That Beauty Is You mp3
16. (10) Virgin Dance - No Disguise (Extended Mix) mp3
17. (5) Impossible Dreamers - August Avenue mp3
18. (8) Bon Voyage - Birthday mp3
19. (1) Robbie Robertson - Christmas Must Be Tonight mp3
20. (14) Neon Neon - Michael Douglas mp3

Apart from the new downloads, the only track to go up the chart this week is "Sunday People" by The Monroes. This is a Swedish group and not the same as the power pop outfit who had a hit with "What Do All The People Know" in the early '80's. "Sunday People" is a fantastic piece of music and I'll have to put up more by them soon. Rumblefish, incidentally, recorded almost twice as many hits as anyone else, which bodes well for my new weekly series The Soundtrack of My Life.

Faith Brothers - Eventide (1985)

I was looking around on the internet for details on a couple of 7" singles I found on soulseek a few years ago. Although I had never heard of the band before, I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only did they release two albums and a clutch of highly regarded singles, but that vocalist and chief songwriter Billy Franks had very kindly made almost all of the Faith Brothers back catalogue available for download at his website at no charge (donations are encouraged). It's very refreshing to find artists who actively encourage people to discover long lost music without any of the problems of format, distribution rights and band squabbling.
[UPDATE: The links were removed from Billy's website. As he is possibly the nicest man in the pop music world I will remove my link if he should ask. About time for a re-release, I reckon!]

Faith Brothers - Eventide (1985)

1. Eventide
2. Sunday
3. Whistling In The Dark
4. The tradesman's Entrance
5. Storyteller
6. A Daydreamer's Philosophy
7. Easter Parade
8. Dust In The Soul
9. Victoria Green
10. Secret Heart
11. The Sleepwalker

Download Now available from Amazon


Comprehensive discography of the band here

Rumblefish - Mexico (1992)

I've decided that Wednesday is a good day for posting a favorite song from my archives. Sometimes, in all the excitement of tracking down rare and forgotten music, it's easy to forget that everyone has their own soundtrack, and certain songs resonate much more with us as individuals. So, each week, I'll strive to feature either a long time favorite, treasured memory or, as in this case, just a great song I heard only a few days ago.

Rumblefish - Mexico

I first heard of Rumblefish thanks to their excellent 1987 single "Tug-Boat Line" which I found last year at Sideroom Singles. Finding their major label debut wasn't difficult, as it is readily available on eBay or Amazon. It just sat in a pile though, weighed down by lots of other new music I bought last year, before I finally dug it out. Frankly, I had heard (or imagined perhaps) that the switch to a major had diluted the material, so I'm not sure what I was expecting. After a passable opening track, I heard the second "Mexico", and was blown away. Just a fantastic pop song. Great stuff. Two days later and I've managed to get to track six, but I'm wearing out the repeat button already.

Random 80's Tuesday

Freeez - That Beats My Patience (7" Single, 1985)
Pseudo Echo - His Eyes (from Autumnal Park, 1984)
November Group - The Promise (from Work That Dream EP, 1985)
The Fountainhead - Someone Like You (from Voice Of Reason, 1988)
Fake - Frogs In Spain (from New Art, 1984)

MFL Download Charts

Midge Ure - Call of the Wild (#7)

1. (1) Robbie Robertson - Christmas Must Be Tonight mp3
2. (13) Midge Ure & Mick Karn - After A Fashion (Extended Mix) mp3
3. (16) Sal Solo - Heartbeat (Extended Mix) mp3
4. (-) Ultravox - Rivets mp3
5. (5) Impossible Dreamers - August Avenue mp3
6. (2) Red Guitars - Blue Caravan mp3
7. (-) Midge Ure - Call of the Wild (Extended Mix) mp3
8. (8) Bon Voyage - Birthday mp3
9. (-) Snowglobe - Medium mp3
10. (-) Virgin Dance - No Disguise (Extended Mix) mp3
11. (-) Snowglobe - Loaded Gun mp3
12. (-) Snowglobe - Aimless Sailor mp3
13. (-) Blue Mercedes - That Beauty Is You mp3
14. (9) Neon Neon - Michael Douglas mp3
15. (4) Rouen - Hold Me mp3
16. (-) The Monroes - Sunday People mp3
17. (6) Smiley Culture - Police Officer mp3
18. (11) Kamera - Borderline mp3
19. (3) Hurrah! - Sweet Sanity mp3
20. (7) Joy - Touch By Touch mp3

Bit of a weird chart this week as I didn't update last week due to vacation and haven't added anything new lately. That will change with lots of goodies lined up for this week.

Ten Things

Ten things I had forgotten I love about the United Kingdom:

1. Quality Street
2. Whot! (a card game)
3. Jasper Carrott
4. Woolies (alas, no more, sniff)
5. Mind Your Language
6. Charity shops (That's usually 50p, but this week it's only 25p, luv)
7. Tango Fruit Twist
8. Football pools (home win!)
9. Kate Bush
10. Lad's mags (Front, Loaded, Zoo, Nuts)

And ten things I had forgotten that irritate me now:

1. Jonathan Ross
2. The weather (bloody cold, innit?)
3. Unhelpful sales assistants
4. The ubiquitous grunt (could mean yes, no, on your bike mate, or anything else really)
5. Stores that close at 5 in the evening
6. Small roads
7. X-Factor (it's everywhere)
8. Jeremy Paxman
9. Ice as an optional extra in your drink
10. Ridiculously small baggage allowances

And ten nice surprises on this trip:

1. Gemma Atkinson calendars
2. Swim (an Irish band from the early '90's)
3. Rainbow Six Las Vegas
4. A Blackadder documentary, followed by a Shooting Stars documentary
5. A single by Jimmy Tarbuck
6. Surplus Woolies stock (Courteeners for a quid, great!)
7. The new Robert Goddard novel
8. A cool 80's T-Shirt from New Line
9. Waking The Dead
10. Facing some ghosts, head on (no, not real ghosts, I mean my dim and distant past)