That Music List

Friday, 22 December 2017

LIST 228 - 22/12/2017

Hello again,

Not often I start a List with an in-loving-memory sort of track, but the sad passing (albeit at the fine age of 89) in the past few days of the much-loved bioengineer, educator and television and radio presenter Professor Heinz Wolff practically demanded the inclusion of the theme tune to arguably his most popular vehicle, BBC2's The Great Egg Race.

As it happens, the Richard Denton and Martin Cook-penned piece is also among my very favourite theme tunes of all time, if not indeed the favourite, being as it is a note-perfect take on the almost-pop of Before and After Science-era Brian Eno. Yes, it really is that good. Rest easy, Professor Wolff.

Newer material this week includes the impassioned anti-Brexit highlight from Gavin Osborn's Echo Bridge album (one of the most important pieces of art you'll consume all year); no less politically charged new fare from Billy Bragg; and amazing, achingly gorgeous electronic indiepop from Deerful.

The evidence of the fine Goose Feather Bed confirms Wave Pictures/Slow Club amalgamation Surfing Magazines as being more than the sum of their parts, as far as I'm concerned. Just for fun, the Go-Betweens song which may or may not have given this project their name is also included.

There's no dedicated Christmas List this year, but I've found a few festive tracks new and old with which to finish, including MJ Hibbett's take on a track by deathless Cologne popsters Bläck Fööss; a Boy Least Likely To number imbued with rather more poignancy now than when released in 2010; and what I understand might actually have been the first ever commercially available track by The School (someone please feel free to correct me if not).

J xx

Click on the video or link to play each tune (links last checked as all working 11/08/2026).

Click here for a directory of updated older Lists.

RICHARD DENTON AND MARTIN COOK – The Great Egg Race Theme (1979)

GAVIN OSBORN – European (2017)

SURFING MAGAZINES – Goose Feather Bed (2017)

THE GO-BETWEENS – Surfing Magazines (2001)

PEACH PIT – Seventeen (2017)

DEERFUL – Peach Rose Tea (2017)

TEENAGE FANCLUB - About You (1995)

THEN AND NOW: Slowdive

SLOWDIVE – Star Roving (2017)
SLOWDIVE – Catch the Breeze (1991)

CHROMEO – Juice (2017)

BILLY BRAGG - Saffiyah Smiles (2017)

BIFF BANG POW! – In a Mourning Town (1987)

BJÖRK - The Gate (2017)

MJ HIBBETT & THE VALIDATORS – Have A Drink with Us (Drink doch eine met) (2017)

THE SCHOOL – Kiss You in the Snow (2007)

WEEBLS-STUFF.COM – Christmas Badgers (2005)

THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO – George and Andrew (2010)

PHIL PRESTWICH – Mexican Nativity Scene (2016)

THE SPOOK SCHOOL – Someone to Spend Christmas With (2017)

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – Twelve Days of Christmas (Peel Session) (2002)

Friday, 15 December 2017

LIST 227 - 15/12/2017

Hello again,

Another bunte Mischung (as we say in Germany) for this third List since we returned, and a small portion dedicated to acts already on my will-see-in-2018 list (Field Music, Belle and Sebastian) or else recently seen (Alasdair Roberts, Diet Cig, The Lovely Eggs; the last-named heroically determined the show must go on, despite the Unity Works in Wakefield's sudden demise only days before they were due to play it). How self-absorbed of me...

The cuckoo in the nest for some of you in this List will be a track from the soundtrack of the original cast recording of Everybody's Talking About Jamie, all the more so when you learn that the thing was written by Dan Gillespie Sells, the guy out of The Feeling.

If, however, there's been a funnier, smarter, more on-point musical created so far this decade, I'm yet to see it, and how lucky were we in Sheffield to have enjoyed the world premiere run before it transferred to London.

If only Gillespie Sells imbued the music from his day job with quite the same lyrical sass and, well, feeling. And if only the pop charts still worked in the same way they did around the time of musicals such as Chess, whereby tracks from the soundtrack would become monster hits months before the parent musical was released.

There are a few tracks in ...Jamie which in another era would surely have enjoyed the same crossover as the likes of I Know Him So Well or One Night in Bangkok. Ah well.

J xx

THE LOVELY EGGS - I Shouldn't Have Said That (2017)

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – I’ll Be Your Pilot (2017)

YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS – Ode to Booker T(1979)

CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG – Deadly Valentine (2017)

THE ALL SEEING I – Stars on Sunday (1999)

THEN AND NOW: Alasdair Roberts
ALASDAIR ROBERTS - Pangs (2017)
ALASDAIR ROBERTS – I Had a Little Boat (2003)

DIET CIG - Barf Day (2017)

FRANKIE VALLI & THE FOUR SEASONS –The Night (1972)

WHITE TOWN – Your Woman 1917 (2017)

MAZZY STAR – Into Dust (1993)

EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE ORIGINAL CAST – Don’t Even Know It (2017)

FIELD MUSIC – Count it Up (2017)

SOPHIE & PETER JOHNSTON – Some Sunny Day (1987)

MOGWAI – Party in the Dark (2017)

OMD – The Punishment of Luxury (2017)

EX ORKEST – Meer Nieuws (2001)

JUANA MOLINA – Paraguaya (2017)

IN LOVING MEMORY: Keith Chegwin
KEITH CHEGWIN – I’ll Never Fall in Love Again (1977)

Friday, 8 December 2017

LIST 226 - 08/12/2017

Hello again,

I don't regret much missing gigs-wise, but one that definitely got away was missing a by then extremely rare sojourn to Britain by Even As We Speak in summer 2008 in order to see a friend's band instead.

With the recent first release by the Sydney indiepop veterans in well over a decade due to be followed by UK dates next year as part of a Sarah Showcase tour being arranged by Boyracer head honcho Stewart Anderson, I'm very, very determined not to make the same mistake twice.

Apologies in advance to any other friends' bands planning to tread the boards on whichever evening it turns out to be :-)

Elsewhere in this List, it's a pleasure to share a track I discovered on a compilation entitled Motown Meets the Beatles, in which Stevie Wonder's (still just about) then wife Syreeta Wright delivers a Wonder-produced interpretation of She's Leaving Home which you'd swear was created three decades later had you not seen the release date, so ahead of its time are the R&B stylings, voicebox treatments, and so on. Quite extraordinary.

Fazerdaze offers delightful shoegaze pop not terribly far removed from Alvvays - I'd love the New Zealand-based Amelia Murray to take in Indietracks and the like in 2018.

Mammoth Penguins and Friends were of course there for all to see at the finest DIY festival of them all this last summer, and The Sailor is as Standard Fare-alike as anything on their valedictory effort John Doe, as deftly a realised indiepop concept album as you'll ever come across.

The passing of the French Elvis Johnny Hallyday is reason enough to include one of his most enduring early rock'n'roll efforts at the end of this week's List. The passing of Christine Keeler is similarly all the excuse needed to unearth a namesake single by Senseless Things, one of the early-mid 1990s most regular fixtures at all good sticky floor venues near you.

J xx

THE SPOOK SCHOOL - Still Alive (2017)

FATHER JOHN MISTY – Pure Comedy (2017)

SYREETA – She’s Leaving Home (1972)

FAZERDAZE – Lucky Girl (2017)

THUNDERCAT – Friend Zone (2017)

A WITNESS – Red Snake (1987)

THEN AND NOW: Even As We Speak
EVEN AS WE SPEAK – Clouds (2017)
EVEN AS WE SPEAK – Drown(1993)

STORMZY – Big For Your Boots (2017)

ALEX LAHEY – You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me (2017)

PORTER WAGONER – The Rubber Room (1972)

MAMMOTH PENGUINS AND FRIENDS – The Sailor (2017)

THE MAGNETIC FIELDS – ’68 A Cat Called Dionysus (2017)

ORBITAL – P.E.T.R.O.L. (1997)

THE HORRORS – Something To Remember Me By (2017)

WIRE – I Feel Mysterious Today (1978)

JENS LEKMAN - Wedding In Finistère (2017)

SENSELESS THINGS – Christine Keeler(1994)

IN LOVING MEMORY: Johnny Hallyday
JOHNNY HALLYDAY ‎– Souvenirs, Souvenirs (1960)

Friday, 1 December 2017

LIST 225 - 01/12/2017

Well, hello there.

Been a little while, hasn't it? More or less eleven months since season eight of That Music List finished, but here at last after a 2017 of unprecedented personal changes (including, but not limited to, marriage and a house move) is the start of season nine.

I've genuinely no idea how long this one will go on for - a few weeks or all of 2018, or some point in between.

Either way, the hiatus has allowed me to frontload the first few Lists back with some of my absolute highlights of 2017, starting with my favourite single of the entire year.

What a joy it was to see Alvvays when they took in the Sheffield Leadmill as part of the tour accompanying the release of the tremendous Antisocialites album; hopefully our advice to Molly Rankin on all matters from what's in Glossop to the difference between trousers and pants was appreciated.

Alasdair Roberts at Regather, again in Sheffield, in November was an altogether different delight - delicate, masterful folk plucking and a fabulous showcase of his original songwriting as well as his gifts of interpretation. Scarce of Fishing, written for a refugee benefit album in 2016, is included here; there'll be more from him in the coming weeks.

Older fare from my big pile of unplayed stuff has also been belatedly attended to since last we spoke. I must be the last music fan on the planet to get round to listening to some Faust, and hence notice the similarities between the opening track of second album So Far and a particular Stereolab track - I get there in the end. Check them out at the end of this List and see what you think.

It's also a pleasure to include some prime Vini Reilly thirty years on, plus a towering, snotty single from Killing Joke from five years before even that. Some of you will be familiar with the Top of the Pops appearance promoting Empire Song, one in which Jaz Coleman - hiding in Iceland at the time in an attempt to survive the impending Apocalypse - was replaced on stage by someone in a beekeeper's outfit miming his keyboard parts. But of course.

J xx

ALVVAYS - In Undertow (2017)

REAL ESTATE – Darling (2017)

THE DURUTTI COLUMN - What Is It To Me (Woman) (1987)

SUNFLOWER BEAN – I Was a Fool (2017)

VERSUS – Shangri-La (2000)

ALASDAIR ROBERTS - Scarce of Fishing (2016)

ROSE ELINOR DOUGALL – Stellular (2017)

KILLING JOKE – Empire Song (1982)

THEN AND NOW: Saint Etienne
SAINT ETIENNE – Magpie Eyes (2017)
SAINT ETIENNE – Saturday (Fugu Mix) (1999)

ENDERBY’S ROOM – Lakeside (2016)

THE OTHER TWO – The Greatest Thing (1993)

THE JUST JOANS - No Longer Young Enough (2017)

DRAHLA - Silk Spirit (2017)

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN – Nocturnal Me (1984)

JANE WEAVER – Slow Motion (2017)

STEREOLAB – Anémie (Peel Session) (1993)

FAUST – It’s a Rainy Day (Sunshine Girl) (1972)

Friday, 30 December 2016

LIST 224 - 30/12/2016 (a 1996 collection, part two)

Hello again,

As promised, herewith the second half of my trawl through some favourites from 1996. In a parallel universe the two of them together might soundtrack some stay at home New Year's Eve parties tomorrow night, but don't feel under any obligation to do so.

Fractal Flow has been placed first in this line-up with feeling. I can still remember clear as day the astonishment in John Peel's voice when able to announce, on his Radio 1 show of December 1st 1996, the first single from Silver Apples in 26 years.

Given Simeon Coxe III's retreat from music and into art (in so far as he was sighted much at all) following the band's original early-1970s demise, this just before Xmas release on the Enraptured label will have surprised John as much as anyone.

This second coming of Silver Apples has, of course, extended to the present day, and it's been a pleasure to see Simeon manipulating his upgraded bank of oscillators live on stage on three occasions, roughly a decade apart (the last time literally down the road from me here in Sheffield, just three months ago). Given his relative antiquity and far from the kindest hand where fate and wellbeing have been concerned, this is nothing I've taken for granted.

...Which leads me in a roundabout sort of way towards wishing all regular That Music List readers a happy, healthy 2017. Do it all again some time soon?

J xx

Click on the video or link to play each tune (links last checked as all working 08/08/2026).
Click here for a directory of updated older Lists.

SILVER APPLES – Fractal Flow

APHEX TWIN – To Cure a Weakling Child

BMX BANDITS – One Big Heart

CARDIACS – Fiery Gun Hand

DEINE LAKAIEN – My Winter

FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON – We Have Explosive

THIRD EYE FOUNDATION – Sleep

BAADER MEINHOF – Meet Me at the Airport

COCTEAU TWINS – Touch Upon Touch

THE FALL - Oleano

SYSTEM 7 – Big Sky City (New Recording)

TECHNOHEAD - Happy Birthday

TOMPOT BLENNY - Sleepwaiting for Trains

FLYING SAUCER ATTACK – At Night

dEUS – The Magic of New Pop Music

SEEFEEL – Utreat (Complete)

LAURA CANTRELL – Cellar Door [1996 Hello Recordings version]

FSK – Euro-Trash Girl

Friday, 23 December 2016

LIST 223 - 23/12/2016 (Xmas special)

Hello again,

Turns out I've enough material for yet another full Christmas selection after all! Please enjoy this, and for that matter your entire festive period by whichsoever name you recognise it.

I must admit with a little embarrassment that I'd gone this long without regarding Joni Mitchell's River as being in any way a seasonal tune. I suspect that's because the version (of the many out there!) with which I initially became familiar was that by former Virgin Prunes member Daniel Binttii, as featured on a Rough Trade compilation widely available in the 1990s - a version which alters the Xmas carol motif of the original beyond recognition. Matters duly rectified.

There is one New Year-themed track in this collection as well, but I've definitely not got enough songs for an entire New Year List - even if I was minded to include relevant tracks by Cliff Richard and Deacon Blue (I'm not).

Back next week for more Listness, albeit not festive themed.

J xx

DEERFUL - City Bells (2015)

JONI MITCHELL - River (1971)

NATALIE PRASS - Everybody's Having Fun (It's Christmas Time) (2016)

DANIEL JOHNSTON - Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer (1994)

CHERRY HEX & THE DREAM CHURCH - Last Christmas (2016)

ERASURE - Bells of Love (Isabelle's of Love) (2013)

HANNAH EPPERSON - Raise the White Flag (2016)

THE YELLOW MELODIES - Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas (2016)

GORKY'S ZYGOTIC MYNCI - Christmas Eve (1999)

JILL SOBULE - Merry Christmas from the Family (1995)

OH PEAS! - An Adult's Christmas in Wales (2014)

SPITTING IMAGE - The Christmas Singles (198x)

KATIE MALCO - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (live in Aldershot) (2011)

MJ HIBBETT & THE VALIDATORS AND A LITTLE ORCHESTRA - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (recorded live at Totally Acoustic) (2016)

NIGHT FLOWERS - To Rest (2016)

THE GREEDIES - A Merry Jingle (1979)

LOW - Some Hearts (at Christmas) (2016)

GAYLA PEEVEY - I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (1953)

ROPE STORE - A Winter's Tale (2016)

HELEN McCOOKERYBOOK AND CHARLIE TIPPER - Maybe Next Year (2016)

FIGHTMILK - It's Only Christmas (Cheer Up You Moody Prick) (2016)

Wednesday, 21 December 2016

LIST 222 - 21/12/2016 (a 1996 collection, part one)

Hello again,

An eighth List inside sixteen days? Beat that for working hard in December, Santa...

There are another two this year after this one, too, including a sixth That Music List Xmas Special two days from now. Either side of that, however, I'll be revisiting some of my favourite tracks from precisely two decades ago.

For many, 1996 was the third and final peak year of Britpop and all for which it stood. Not for me, however.

It's not just in the fact that I was still living in Germany for all of the first half of that year, as enough of that stuff permeated certain of the radio airwaves over there and I'd not usually struggle to find a copy of the NME or Melody Maker at my temporary home town's largest newsagent.

Fundamentally, there were other things occurring in music which just interested me a whole lot more, and twenty years on still do. Not genres and movements specifically (for all that my consumption of post-rock and darkwave/EBM to name but two did ramp up somewhat), but bands and performers.

See how many of these you remember, and remember fondly. Part two to follow before the year is out.

J xx

Click on the video or link to play each tune (links last checked as all working 08/08/2026).
Click here for a directory of updated older Lists.

ARAB STRAP – The First Big Weekend