1989. 26th May. It was a huge moment, and like the Sex Pistols Free Trade Hall gigs, more than 200,000 attended. Given Arsenal’s habit of overstating the attendance of matches, did Liverpool get into trouble for a gargantuan understatement?
News that there is a new documentary on the cards is welcome, and mention of the traffic jam reminds me of our journey as we reached the outskirts of Liverpool to hear the moment the ball was cleared off the line. Such was our almost panic-stricken state that hearing Steve Bould’s name on the radio commentary made us assume that we were under the cosh. It wasn’t until we got to the stadium that we realised it was, in fact, Arsenal who had almost scored.
My befuddled state could also be while on the M6, we’d had the radio on in the van and around 5-6 pm, David Jensen – from memory – played The Men They Couldn’t Hang, in what I still believe is the only time I heard them played on daytime Radio 1.
It was, and remains, the only instance of that. Surprisingly, Round Table – was that the name of the segment – gave their new release the thumbs up. Happy days and surprising because TMTCH’s moment in the sun seemed to pass after Ghosts of Cable Street.
Phil ‘Swill’ Odgers and TMTCH are still going strong, gigging and recording. They are one of the growing numbers of artists who use Pledgemusic as a way of funding their new releases through pre-orders.
There’s a lot of music there and not always well organised regarding the search facility, but I’ve used it on some occasions for both Swill and TMTCH releases but also Echo and the Bunnymen, The Rifles and Bruce Foxton although The Jam book was still too bloody expensive for my taste.
Some of the interesting upcoming projects are The Who’s My Generation which at £30.50 is cheaper than a lot of places while Fresh Cream is a great album although I’m not sure it’s this great.
Others worthy of mention are:
- Stone Foundation, Street Rituals
- Echobelly, Anarchy and Alchemy
- The Skids, Burning Cities
- Ronnie Lane biography
- Trojan Records, Spirit of ’69
- Mark Morriss, new album (as yet untitled)
- Don Letts, Culture Clash compilation
And so to the playlist. The beginning of another Golden Age for me, music-wise. Cutting this to 60 songs was tough. 1990 is proving to be even more problematic in that sense! If the technical side of life has beaten me, you can listen to the playlist here.
| Title | Band |
| Back To Life (However Do You Want Me) | Soul II Soul, Caron Wheeler |
| Fools Gold | The Stone Roses |
| Hallelujah | Happy Mondays |
| On 33 | Stereo MC’s |
| Veronica | Elvis Costello |
| Mayor Of Simpleton | XTC |
| Made of Stone | The Stone Roses |
| I really do love penelope | Hey Paulette |
| Dizzy | Throwing Muses |
| Debaser | Pixies |
| Kennedy | The Wedding Present |
| Lover, Lover, Lover | Ian McCulloch |
| Always Saturday | Guadalcanal Diary |
| Peace In Our Time | Big Country |
| Splashin’ With The Mermaid | The Mermen |
| Bed and Board | The Prime Movers |
| Union Jack | Big Audio Dynamite |
| Run 2 | New Order |
| Brassneck | The Wedding Present |
| I Wanna Be Adored | The Stone Roses |
| Jackie Brown | John Mellencamp |
| Battle of the Roses | The Rainmakers |
| Me, Myself & I | De La Soul |
| Pacific State | 808 State |
| Round And Round | New Order |
| The Big E | A Certain Ratio |
| Here Comes Your Man | Pixies |
| She Bangs The Drum | The Stone Roses |
| I’m Alive | The Prime Movers |
| Move | Inspiral Carpets |
| Keep On Movin’ | Soul II Soul, Caron Wheeler |
| 50 Shades of Blue | Edwyn Collins |
| Stalag 123 | Big Audio Dynamite |
| Stalin Malone | Elvis Costello |
| What Have I Said Now? | The Wedding Present |
| Joe | Inspiral Carpets |
| Compositions For The Young And Old | Bob Mould |
| The White Hotel | Ian McCulloch |
| Monkey Gone to Heaven | Pixies |
| Cynical Days | XTC |
| You On My Mind | Swing Out Sister |
| This Woman’s Work | Kate Bush |
| I Want That Man | Debbie Harry |
| Can’t Be Sure | The Sundays |
| Darling They Want It All | Edwyn Collins |
| The 3rd Time We Opened the Capsule | Kitchens Of Distinction |
| Wave of Mutilation | Pixies |
| Orange Crush | R.E.M. |
| Proud To Fall | Ian McCulloch |
| Funky Cold Medina | Tone-Loc |
| The Measure Of The Man | Edwyn Collins |
| Getting Away With It | Electronic |
| Love And Anger | Kate Bush |
| Broken Heart (Thirteen Valleys) | Big Country |
| She Comes in the Fall | Inspiral Carpets |
| Dead Beat Descendant | The Fall |
| Blues From A Gun | The Jesus and Mary Chain |
| King For A Day | XTC |
| Granadaland | The Wedding Present |
| I Am The Resurrection | The Stone Roses |
