The nineties revival looks like it’s set to be upon us any day soon.
So let’s hope that ‘they’ (i.e. the tastemakers that tell us what, apparently, we were doing in the nineties) focus on the good stuff.
1990:
I reached my fourteenth birthday in November. The previous year I’d got the latest Kylie album for my birthday, this year I asked for and got albums by the Rolling Stones, the Sex Pistols and the Clash. I moved school, it was rubbish, but it’s a long time ago. I should probably also be honest and admit I wasn’t listening to all of these bands at the time. I started covering my pencil case with tippexed on band names, and as I became more and more into ‘indie/alternative’ embraced the world that was out there, somewhere, away from a drab East Midlands town, reachable only by dipping into the NME…
This I was listening to. The Mondays were getting on Top Of the Pops, and coverage in Smash Hits. I didn’t realise it was a cover but it was a good ‘un. I was aware of Madchester, and aware of raves taking place around the M25, but this wasn’t happening to me.
Happy Mondays -‘Step On.’
This was a cover too, but Sinead made it her own. I remember watching the video for this on the Chart Show, and thinking it was great. I’d heard her a couple of years previously with a song called ‘Mandinka’ but this was a bona fide number one ‘on both sides of the pond’ (as they say).
Sinead O’Connor -‘Nothing Compares 2 U.’
In 1990, the Stone Roses were the next big thing, and they were happening. Like me they were looking forward to a bright future, then after this single, they were banned from recording by their label of the time, Silvertone, and this would be the last new track from them until November 1994 (unless you include the remixes, and I’m not). My bright future disappeared when I hit adolescense and realised that Adrian Mole had only told me part of it.
Stone Roses -‘One Love.’
I didn’t know much about the goth scene, but this was another track that made it onto Top Of the Pops. I think this band have been somewhat derided over the years, but in my head they still rule…
The Mission -‘Butterfly On A Wheel.’
I saw a clip of this video on the Chart Show and was more fascinated by the video than the song. Could you get away with just doing this in a music video?! I read an interview with them in a copy of Q. They said that they’d put ‘No Timewasters’ on the add that had formed the band. So a couple of years later I decided that was extremely cool and had to do the same thing. ‘You can’t do that!’ said my horrified Father. ‘That’s what prostitutes say!’ Ah well…
The Pixies -‘Velouria.’
There’s many songs that came out in 1990 that should be on here*, but aren’t, due to current problems with YouTube. This is on there…no I wasn’t listening to them much at the time, though I knew of them, but three years later I got Extricate, the parent album, and became smitten…
The Fall – ‘Telephone Thing.’
* A list of songs that I can’t post in the UK so far includes:
Madonna -‘Vogue;’ B-52s ‘Love shack’ and ‘Roam’; Pet Shop Boys -‘Being Boring’ this is why it’s only six videos…