25 Years Since....October 1993

Time to go back 25 years once again. This time I struggled to narrow it down to 5 records I was enjoying at the time:

INXS - The Gift

INXS were my second favourite band earlier on in 1993 to Guns n Roses. By the summer they'd gone down to third place and by October I think they'd fallen even further down the rankings.

I'm pretty sure they were still in my Top 10 though and I remember liking this record when it came out. That said it's nowhere near their best record, I much preferred "Beautiful Girl" earlier on in the year.

It would be another year before we'd see them in the charts again and they would only have two more Top 40 hits before the death of Michael Hutchence in 1997.

Bon Jovi - I Believe

The reason why INXS fell to third place in my list of favourite bands in the summer of 1993 was because Bon Jovi replaced them in second place. However I believe (excuse the pun!) they had also fell down the rankings by October.

One year on from the "Keep the Faith" album being released they were still releasing singles from it, this one being the 5th, and they weren't done yet. I'd known this song for some time by the time it was released and is the opening track on the album.

Whilst INXS would quietly slide down my rankings of favourite bands, Bon Jovi would eventually jump straight to my list of worst bands for not being heavy enough. This hadn't happened yet though.

Lemonheads - Into Your Arms

Lemonheads were one of those bands who probably made it big because of the popularity of Grunge without actually being a Grunge band themselves. On that basis it meant this song was acceptable to like despite being a bit on the soft side.

That said, I like this song so much at the time that I'd have secretly liked it if it wasn't acceptable. It's also one of the easiest songs to play on the guitar which meant I played it on the guitar a lot.

Despite the Lemonheads being a cool band though, I think people did still consider them to be a band that catered to more than just the Rock crowd. I recall doing a mini group play we made up ourselves in a lesson at school which consisted of some young people and an old man (played by me) which revolved around music. Each character had their favourite band and it was decided the old mans favourite band should be the Lemonheads because they were the cool band least likely to offend old people. Ironically it was only a few months earlier that I considered their cover of "Mrs Robinson" being a bit of a fuck you to the older generations.

Blur - Sunday Sunday

Proof that Blur actually made music between "There's No Other Way" and the "Parklife" album. At the time I remember thinking they were called Blair rather than Blur. I also didn't know they were the band who did "There's No Other Way" so in my mind this was the first time I'd heard them.

This was the final and most successful single to be taken from their "Modern Life Is Rubbish" album, an album that was rubbish according to a Blur fan I knew a year or so later. I can't speak for the album but I like this song.

It reached number 26 and was the 5th single of theirs not to reach the Top 20 since their debut. The following year though as we all know their fortunes would change.

Cypress Hill - When the Shit Goes Down

Me and a classmate would constantly argue about this record, I said it's called "When the Shit Goes Down" and they said no it's "When the Ship Goes Down". Then on the Top of the Pops countdown it would say "When the S*** Goes Down" to which I said why would they do that if it was Ship.

Turns out we were both right as the clean version had been renamed to "When the Ship Goes Down".

I did use what I thought were misheard lyrics to my advantage though as I could sing it in front of people who would normally bollock me for swearing knowing they probably thought I was saying Ship rather than Shit and that did seem to work.