In the spirit of Dougie’s Whole of the Moon post, here is another wonderful pop song.
I saw Danny Wilson live and very entertaining they were too. This is their Streets of London so the show is built up towards the inevitable roof-raising moment when he sings “everything is wonderful”.
My memory of MP is that it was released about 15 times over a period of about two years because they couldn’t believe that it wasn’t hitting big.
See also Prefab’s When Love Breaks Down.
These two seem to belong in a sub-genre I think of as “perfect pop songs”. 3 minutes or thereabouts of top-notch, beautifully crafted song writing destined to be massive hits – or not it seems.
The Second Summer of Love should have bestrid the 1989 singles chart like a jangly colossus.
It didn’t.
Alas.
Yep, I have a playlist on my iPod for the very thing, also including things like Forever J by Terry Hall, Pure by The Lightning Seeds and All The Air by Frazier Chorus. I’ve actually titled it Pop. I get fed up hearing about some manufactured nonsense off Pop Factor being a “perfect pop song” because these are my idea of a perfect pop song. What else? Oh Patti by Scritti Politti, I’m In Love Forever by Bill Pritchard, Eskimo Kissing by Andy Pawlak. There’s loads of them.
Glad to see another fan of ‘Oh Patti’ which is indeed a perfect pop song.
Please add The Lilac Time’s ‘Return To Yesterday’ to that list.
Don’t worry, I’m a big Stephen Duffy fan, so there’s a few of his on there.
The Girl Who Waves At Trains…. wasn’t a hit, was it? Help me understand that.
HELP ME!!!
I’m afraid I can’t help with that, other than to say that the record buying general public rarely has good taste. In my head Duffy has always been a mega-star, despite the fact that there were only a few dozen of us sat watching him in Borders bookshop or Cecil Sharp House. I don’t think I would have enjoyed it if he had become a mega-star though, desperately refreshing websites to try to get whatever tickets the organised touts have left for us.
There are only a few British songwriters who have written songs as lovely as The World At Large Alone, 23 or Julie Christie.
I did the sound for the Lilac Time when they played a gig in the coffee bar of the teacher training college ajoined to my university. This would have been around the time of their first LP.
Talk about limited appeal… They were overjoyed when I told them I’d got the LP, even more so when my mate turned up and had come to actually see them – the rest of the tiny audience were trainee teachers who just went along to whatever was on of a Wednesday evening.
I took pity on them and let them sleep in the shared living room of my student digs.
I’m with Sid Vicious on the public taste: “I’ve met the man in the street and he’s a twit*”.
(*) Although Sid used a different 4-letter word ending in a ‘t.’
In around 1989 or 1990 there was something in the NME about them touring and looking for places to play, along with a contact number. So I called asking if they intended to play anywhere close to Liverpool, where I was living at the time. I wasn’t expecting the lady who answered to ask me if I had somewhere they could play. With hindsight, I should have got them to play in the ballroom of the nurse’s home I was living in. We used to put on Christmas Revues in there, so I am sure I could have interested some of the nurses in coming along, and I’m sure some of the band wouldn’t have minded that!
Isn’t there a new Depeche Mode album out?
Due Friday (according to my Amazon pre-Order)
I’ve been given a preview, but haven’t got round to listening yet.
@minibreakfast *what?* (stern northern voice) gerrit listened to NOW!
Yes – due on Friday. I am assuming that Spotify will have it immediately and I will buy it at my leisure. I ordered the last LP Delta Machine early – but it came late – it was a fancy pants release for fans or something.
But – because it came late – all the cool kids down my street were snapping their fingers and whistling tunes from Delta Machine – while I was seething in a corner waiting for the postman to come.
Do you have *cough*dropbox*cough* BC?
Golly, I appear to have rather a tickle!
That *is* a nasty cough you’ve got there… I will send you a PM with details of a remedy.
I’ll have to do it from home though in about 10 hours (I’m at work).
😉
Great song from a rather good album.
Indeed.
I really like “Ruby’s Golden Wedding”. Top tune.
As is often the case when a band is mentioned on this site who I remember from way back when, I went on Wikipedia to find out a bit about their background – it’s always interesting to know where they come from, what they are doing now, what albums they had, what other songs they had and other connections inside and outside the music industry. They were a band whose name put me in mind of others like Deacon Blue, Hue and Cry etc.
In this multi-micro-genre world we now live in, I was delighted to discover there is actually a genre that covers them, those other bands above and even more – it’s “Sophisti-pop”.
It doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue, but it’s quite a useful catch-all, that I shall be using at the next cocktail party I attend.
According to that wiki link, you can’t be sophisti-pop if your band name starts with anything after the 19th letter of the alphabet
I know – how can they have missed out on Tears for Fears, Thompson Twins, erm Touch and Go, and erm erm Workshy? (according to Ranker)
Main man Gary’s still in the biz, and went on to write and produce pop tunes for the likes of Natalie Imbruglia, McFly, The Wanted, and AW faves Lloyd Cole and David McAlmont.
I had a curry with him once and, like many intense-on-stage singer-songwriters, offstage he’s very funny.
They were one of the most relaxed bands I saw live. By that I mean lots of jokey banter. They also did Knowing Me, Knowing You (pre-Alan Partridge) – which was a highlight of the show.
Always fancied this as a pub quiz question: Which charting act shares its name with a Premier League manager? Not sure if there are any others.
The Venga Boys?
Danny Wilson, the band, were a favourite of mine, whilst Danny Wilson the footballer managed the team I support, Barnsley. Now standing with the Reds fans singing “There’s only one Danny Wilson…” would have been wrong anyway, just with the band, but for a time whilst Wilson was our manager and we were singing that my girlfriend was called…Dani Wilson!
Keane?
Jellybean Benitez?
Kenny?
Shakespeares Sister?
Speaking of perfect pop songs, this falls into that category IMHO.
Other 80s pop songs sung my prematurely balding blokes in hats are available.
You mean like THIS?…