UK Number 40s: New Young Pony Club - Ice Cream (2007)

 

Around 2013/2014 time I went to see Fenech Soler at Shepherds Bush Empire. This was a group with no chart success but big enough to play a 2000 capacity venue in London. I would also speculate I may not have heard of them had I not made the effort to find them.

At the gig I bumped into someone I knew and they were there to see the support act New Young Pony Club. I had no idea who they were but I was about to find out. I didn't know anything they played until they finished off their set with this record. That was the one and only record of theirs I did know.

It raised the question why were they supporting Fenech Soler and not the other way round. It turns out that this was their only record which only made number 40 and was several years old by this point.

What I'm not sure about is whether I knew this record properly or I was only familiar with it after it appeared on an advert.

20 Years Since....Q1 2005

Here's the tunes I was enjoying 20 years ago:

Roni Size ft Beverley Knight - No More

It had been 4 years since Roni Size had been in the Top 40 and this would be his final Top 40 hit to date. It's also just about the last decent drum & bass record to make the Top 40, we'd be introduced to Pendulum later on in the year not to mention the more modern rubbish we've had in the Top 40 since.

Eminem - Like Toy Soldiers

We were just about still in a era when I took sides when rappers had beef with each other. In the Ja Rule vs 50 Cent one I was very much team Ja Rule and given this record disses Ja Rule I shouldn't have liked it.

However all that was overruled by the music itself. This is a very dark record just the way I like my rap music. 

Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyz - Roll Call / What U Gonna Do

I was really into Lil Jon at the time. It was simple but effective, he wasn't really much of a rapper and the lyrics were generally a repetition of the same thing. I liked the aggressive tone though.

Trick Daddy ft Twista & Lil Jon - Lets Go

It's Lil Jon again, I told you I was really into him at the time. This one is more of a rap and rock crossover record and again I love the aggression of the record.

Snoop Dogg ft Pharrell - Lets Get Blown

This was pretty much Snoop Dogg makes an R&B record the Snoop Dogg way. It was his 3rd Top 40 hit to feature Pharrell and as you'd expect it was produced by The Neptunes. I was listening to his "R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece" album on which this appeared a lot at the time.

Top 30 in 1999 Reviewed: Week 14

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:

No new entries between 21-30 this week.

If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 16/30, or 53%. A great 21-30 has more than doubled the 1-20 score.

Dutch Top 40 1995: Week 14

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

Vangelis - Conquest Of Paradise

Vangelis is a name many will be familiar with and best known in the UK at least for doing "Chariots Of Fire". That was his only UK Top 40 hit as a solo artists, though he also had hits as a member of Aphrodite's Child and Jon & Vangelis. In Holland though this was his biggest hit which topped the charts.

Cappella - Don't Be Proud

Italian Eurodance act was a name I wouldn't expect to find on this list. In the UK they had 5 Top 40 hits from their "U Got 2 Know" album but not with this particular single. However at the same time Gianfranco Bortolotti, the main man behind Cappella, had a Top 40 hit in the UK with "Express Your Freedom" as part of Anticappella.

EZK - Oh Diana

I can't find any information about this record other than the fact it exists. It was the only Dutch Top 40 hit for this act. It's a reggae record, where it's from is anyone's guess.

2 Brothers on the 4th Floor - Fly Through The Starry Night

Here we have yet another Eurodance act who never had a UK Top 40 hit. 2 Brothers on the 4th Floor were funnily enough 2 brothers, Martin and Bobby Boer and they had a male rapper and female singer fronting the act. They had a string of hits in Holland in the 90s including a chart topper in 1994. There is a UK happy hardcore take on this record simply called "Starry Night" by Hixxy.

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.