2002: The Good Old Days? - May 2002

One thing I remember saying in the summer of 2003 was that the charts were better when we had lots of UK garage in it. Well here in May 2002 we find ourselves at the tail end of the UK garage era so was I right?

One thing to consider is the demise of garage came as a result of the MCs taking over so the latter part of the UK garage era may not be so good. However in May 2003 we had 3 UK garage records and all 3 were good. 

DJ Luck & MC Neat were there at the start of the UK garage explosion at the end of 1999 so it's fitting they have the final record of the era with "Irie". Kristine Blond had her lesser known hit with "You Make Me Go Ooh" which someone on YouTube nicely describes as a cheesy source but great work by DnD. Then there was the Heartless Crew with their self titled theme who were one of the better crews.

The best record was one of the final techno records to make the Top 40 which was "La La Land" by Green Velvet. We also had the only Top 40 hit from Tiga with "Sunglasses At Night". Both are people I've gone to see play before.

We do appear to be going back to a more credible period for dance music in general. We have some proper trance music from Push with "Tranzy State Of Mind" and Cosmic Gate with "Exploration Of Space". Then proving that not all vocal trance is bad is 4 Strings with "Take Me Away Into The Night".

Vocals do however mean that Timo Maas only gets half points for "Shifter", a great tune music wise but the vocals stop me from truly liking it. All the dance record this month which I don't like are quite vocal heavy.

Just the one rap record which is "What's Luv" by Fat Joe, a decent if overplayed record. As an R&B fan in 2002 I'm surprised to see how few of the R&B records from the year so far that I actually like. The only one this month is "Rock The Boat" by Aaliyah. Interesting how I was more into rap and R&B at the time but dance music contributes most of the points.

All that remains is the worst record. S Club 7 were music for kids and terrible in my opinion but then someone had the idea of creating the S Club Juniors, music for kids sung by kids. This month saw their debut single "One Step Close" chart. I remember Noel Gallagher giving his opinion on them and he talked about when they become adults and start working at Burger King. If only that's what happened, instead one of them presents what could be a decent music quiz badly along with her husband and makes it unwatchable.

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 27%

Here's a look at the chart:

Well UK garage has made a difference giving us the best score of 2002 so far. We need improvement if we're to call 2002 the good old days though.

UK Number 40s: LCD Soundsystem - North American Scum (2007)

 

I was still listening to some new music around this period but I had no idea whether any of it was commercially successful or not. Most of it wasn't, but one that was perhaps more popular than I realised was LCD Soundsystem.

When they decided to call it a day in 2011 they were big enough to play their final gig at Madison Square Garden. From a Top 40 perspective though they just had a number 29 and a number 40 to their name.

Their debut was "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House" which was from their self titled debut album. This one came from their second album "Sound Of Silver". The performance of this record at their farewell gig had Arcade Fire on stage doing backing vocals.

Despite this being just one of two Top 40 hits though, when I went to see them on their comeback tour they never played this. It was a shame really because it sounds much better live than the studio version.

UK Number 40s: Mumm-Ra - What Would Steve Do (2007)

 

There's a connection to M People with this record. Musically there's no similarity at all, M People were a dance pop act of the 90s and Mumm-Ra were an indie band of the 21st century. 

Following the end of M People though, the M from M People Mike Pickering went onto to work as a record label A&R and it was him who signed Mumm-Ra to Colombia Records.

This was their debut single that failed to reach the Top 40 when first released in 2006. It did however succeed when reissued in 2007 and became their only Top 40 hit to date. The band split the following year.

25 Years Since....March 2000

The 21st Century was in full swing and I was still optimistic about the future. Here's the tunes I was enjoying:

Artful Dodger ft Romina Johnson - Movin Too Fast

I remember this record confusing a few people. Artful Dodger had become a household name thanks to debut hit "Re-Rewind" but I heard more than 1 person saying what's happened to the bloke who says "Re-Rewind".

That bloke was of course Craig David, featured vocalist on that record and not the Artful Dodger. This was the follow up record and still really the calm before the storm in terms of UK garage exploded into the charts. 

Honeyz - Won't Take It Lying Down

This was the 5th Top 40 hit for the Honeyz and 5th one to make the Top 10. No R&B act had managed to reach the Top 10 with their first 5 singles before. Unfortunately they wouldn't reach the Top 10 again, they next 2 singles would flop and they were dropped from their label before the still unreleased 2nd album.

It's different to their previous 4 hits, more upbeat and different lyrical content. It grew on me though and I have to say I do like the video.

Moby - Natural Blues

Moby enjoyed great success in the early 90s most notably with debut hit "Go". Once he started to experiment in the late 90s his career took a downturn but by the time this record came out he was bigger than ever before.

He'd established himself as more of an ambient artist with records like this as opposed to the rave sounds he was previously known for. I listened to this a lot in my car at the time because his "Play" album was just about the only new album I had on cassette. I eventually bought it on CD once I had a CD player in my car.

Chili Hi Fly - Is This Love

Another record that I'm pretty sure I first heard in the summer of 1999. Turns out this record was originally released in 1998. It was the only Top 40 hit for Chili Hi Fly who were a duo from Australia.

I guess in Australia the was technically the end of the summer of 1999 for them, well the summer that began in 1999 anyway. I don't know how they refer to these things. I'm sure this won't be the last 20th century record to feature here.

N 'N' G ft Kallaghan - Right Before My Eyes

Back in the day pretty much all the records DJ Vibes made was with someone called Wishdokta. This wasn't a DJ you'd see on any rave line ups and I knew nothing about him aside from being someone who made records with Vibes.

Later on I discovered Wishdokta was Grant Nelson who became one of the pioneers of UK garage and is the "G" in N 'N' G with "N" being fellow garage pioneer Norris "Da Boss" Windross. Much like Grant Nelson I was finding myself more drawn towards garage than happy hardcore by this point.

Top 30 in 1999 Reviewed: Week 13

Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 26 years ago. The plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.

Here is the Top 40 in full.

I've decided against repetition from previous weeks moving forward so will only feature the records I'm reviewing for the first time. I also won't repeat the reviews from the Top 20 in 1999 Reviewed posts.

Once again my opinions are inevitably going to differ from other people, but I'm not trying to convince anyone something is good or rubbish, I'm simply giving my opinion.

So this is the records new to the top 30 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:

22. Echo & The Bunnymen - Rust

The final Top 40 hit to date for Echo & The Bunnymen and the end of their late 90s revival. There were just 3 Top 40 singles from this era but it felt like they did a lot more than that, when I heard the band name I think of Chris Evans introducing them on TFI Friday. This record fitted in quite well with the boring indie music that was happening around this time.

Verdict - Rubbish

If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 13/30, or 43%. An improvement despite just one rubbish record between 21-30.

Dutch Top 40 1995: Week 13

These were the new entries in the Dutch Top 40 that never made the UK Top 40:

E-Rotic - Fred Come To Bed

We say hello again to German Eurodance act E-Rotic. We saw them in the 2nd week with "Max Don't Have Sex With Your Ex". Well it turns out Max did have sex with his ex so the singer is now asking Fred to come to bed because of it. They wouldn't trouble the Dutch Top 40 again but continued to have hits in other countries such as their native Germany.

Sandy Kandau - Young Hearts Run Free (Party Mix)

Sandy Kandau was born in Germany but lived in Holland. This as you may expect is a cover of the Candi Staton record. This was the only Dutch Top 40 hit for Sandy Kandau but I gather she's just as famous for being a TV presenter and actress in Holland.

Twenty 4 Seven ft Stay C & Nance - Keep On Tryin

Twenty 4 Seven were a Dutch Eurodance act who had a couple of UK Top 40 hits at the start of the 90s with German based American Captain Hollywood. We've already seen Captain Hollywood continued to have hits in Holland long after this. As Twenty 4 Seven were Dutch it makes sense that they continued to have hits too. This was the point though where they were only having hits in Holland.

2002: The Good Old Days? - June

When I got into rave in the 90s I wanted to trade my guitar for some turntables. A few years later I finally got some turntables it quickly became apparent it would be an expensive hobby and I was a poor student. With vinyl costing around a fiver each it would cost another £100 to buy enough vinyl to play the same set everytime. Basically my DJing never truly got underway and I concentrated my efforts on my band instead.

What's this got to do with the charts in 2002? Well this was the last time I tried to give the DJing another go and I bought 2 of the records that feature this month on vinyl. These were "Be Cool" by Paffendorf and "The Logical Song" by Scooter. The latter made Scooter a household name in this country but they had been going since the mid-90s and had a few minor hits over here back then too.

Dance music was the most prolific genre this month and the majority of the dance records get at least half a point. It also gives us the best record which is "Love Story" by Layo & Bushwacka. This was the original instrumental version and therefore the better version.

However dance music also gives us the worst record which is "Get Over You" by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. I thought her providing vocals to "Groovejet" was bad enough, but her solo career took it to another level.

Not so good on the rap front this month. Eminem did his traditional piss take lead single of his upcoming album with "Without Me" but that concept had worn thin by this record so gets not points. Busta Rhymes is normally reliable for points but having P Diddy feature on "Pass The Courvoisier - Part II" put me off and The Neptunes production made me think otherwise. In reality it's not a very good tune. Then we have "Hot In Herre" by Nelly, far too pop for my liking. The only points come from Ludacris with "Rollout (My Business)" which is OK.

R&B is a mixed bag. We have the only decent record from Ms Dynamite with "It Takes More" whilst I do quite like "Roll On / This Is How We Do It" by Mis-Teeq even if they we better doing garage. We also have the only Top 40 hit from a British singer called Rhianna. She's nowhere near as bad as the singer from Barbados but still not great.

A particularly good record that deserves a mention is "Jump On Demand" by Spunge. They were a rare example of a British punk band in the 21st century who managed to break through to the mainstream. They are still going but have to work day jobs to pay the bills, perhaps a lesson that my dreams of being super rich via my own punk band were never going to happen even if we did made it big.

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 23%

Here's a look at the chart:

The same score as June 03 so now it's up to May to deliver.