Bizarre confession time…

Like many bloggers (and indeed many non-bloggers), I own an iPod. And like many iPod owning folks, the concept of the Playlist on it has replaced the idea of making compilation tapes for yourself. Face it, takes less time, can be changed, not constrained by the time limitations, though ‘Nanny In Manhattan’ by the Lilys was a song that completed many side ones of C90s because it was very short.

No, the confession is that I’m currently in the process of assembling Playlists for all of John Peel’s Festive Fifties from 1976 to 2004.

Hell, I never said I was cool. But I’m not the only the devotee of Peel out there. It’s time consuming, but fun listening back to it all, as they gradually grow.

Much of it I have on CD and therefore on the iPod. But I’m now utilising the wedding gift of the USB turntable that Mrs. 17 Seconds and I got last year to start filling some of those gaps. Quite a few don’t seem to be on either iTunes or emusic either…

…So why not share some of those songs with you?

Their debut single from 1985, and the first of many entries they would have, from one of the years the festive Fifty was more than fifty songs long.

That Petrol Emotion -‘Keen.’ mp3(1985 Festive Fifty no.70)

Question for people with too much time on their hands; In the 1984 Festive Fifty, two three track singles had all of their tracks in the Festive Fift. One was the Cocteau Twins ‘The Spangle Maker’ -most famous track ‘Pearly Dewdrops’ drops (and I’m posting the other two tracks here)….but what was the other?

Cocteau Twins -‘The Spangle Maker.’ mp3 (1984 Festive Fifty no.4)

Cocteau Twins -‘Pepper-tree.’ mp3 (1984 Festive Fifty no.49)

Finally, the Soup Dragons, like a fair few other bands, had entries in the Festive Fifty only when they weren’t commercially successive. IMHO, this is a hundred times better than their cover of ‘I’m Free.’

Soup Dragons -‘Hang Ten!’ (1986 Festive Fifty no.17)

Finally, if you need more Festive Fifty fixes, try Fades In Slowly and Teenage Kicks

Oh, and to anyone who’s sent me music and wonders why I haven’t commented on it…please hold on, I’ll get there in time!