And If You Should See Dave.....

[StanInBlack]

Sad times - charts are therefore dead then

Jim

It's just as well that no serious music fan has given a shit about the charts for at least 15 years, if not far longer. You'd have to go back to when Top of the Pops was still on for the last time I cared about chart positions, and even then I'd stopped watching it for a couple of years before it ended. I still think as a show it had a good few years left in it, mind.

[Cricklewood]

Very interesting. I did wonder how some older bands e.g. Sparks and The Specials could get so high on the album charts lately, albeit briefly. I suppose we only got one chance at this with The Stranglers, why the hell not?

[parasiteinblack]

Sad times - charts are therefore dead then

Jim

It's just as well that no serious music fan has given a shit about the charts for at least 15 years, if not far longer. You'd have to go back to when Top of the Pops was still on for the last time I cared about chart positions, and even then I'd stopped watching it for a couple of years before it ended. I still think as a show it had a good few years left in it, mind.

Yeah, you're right there. I tried to keep up with the charts until about 2012 or so when it all just started getting stupid and it became apparent that bands playing their own music had no chance any more unless they were Coldplay.
I used to try to watch Top of the Pops whenever possible too, things were just getting good reasonably again when they cancelled it. It was seeing "Skip to the End" by the Futureheads on there which got me interested in checking them out, and that must have been one of the last shows.
There'd be little point in it coming back now though unless they fix the charts.

[StanInBlack]

I tried to keep up with the charts until about 2012 or so when it all just started getting stupid and it became apparent that bands playing their own music had no chance any more unless they were Coldplay.

To be fair, guitar music in general had lost popularity by that point for a variety of reasons. The way I see it - and even though it was a great year for music with plenty of highlights - with hindsight, the rot started to set in circa 2007 when post-Arctic Monkeys all the record labels started shitting themselves that they were going to miss out on "the next big thing" from Myspace or whatever and started signing any old shit before the bubble burst, so suddenly The Pigeon Detectives are a thing and Kate Nash is having hits with the most amateurish, under-written dreck, and indie is suddenly all about Razorlight and The Kooks and flash-in-the-pan bands like the Klaxons. I don't want to say it was all bad: Radiohead put out a great album that year, as did the Manic Street Preachers (even though Jim will hugely disagree 'cuz I know he doesn't rate that album), Muse were in their golden period and playing Wembley, and of course there were some follow-up albums from the 2004/2005 class of mainstream indie that I enjoyed in spite of them being not particularly well received (the second Bloc Party album for example) ...

... but you could just sense that people were getting more than a little bit weary when you had Pete Doherty doing his zillionth appearance on Jonathan Ross after his umpteenth drug bust promoting one of those Babyshambles records that failed to set the world alight after his fans have given him a zillion chances to clean up his act. I think people had begun to more than tire of all of that schtick, and I remember him and Amy Winehouse never being out of the tabloids for every reason other than the music they were making (and in the case of Amy Winehouse - bless her - we all know what happened there... what a waste), and it just got all very boring.

I started to realise something was up in 2008, when The Verve reformed and put an album out and nobody gave a shit after the first single, and the Kaiser Chiefs were ubiquitous on TV throughout the previous year promoting their second album but when they came back for their third album - and this is ONLY a year later! - it bombed. Poundland were selling stacks of their third album for £1 a piece within months of it being released, and neither single they released from it really took off, even though the thing was produced by "producer du jour" Mark Ronson and the first single had Lily Allen on backing vocals (another person who was everywhere and whose career would be dead in the water within a couple of years) ... and of course this was the year when former Q magazine editor Andrew Harrison legendarily described the huge influx of sub-par bands as "landfill indie", thus giving people who didn't like or had grown weary of that era of music a stick to bash it with, even retroactively - and to my mind, unfairly - the good bands (and there were plenty)

And of course, 2008 was the year of "Sex on Fire" by Kings of Leon, which to my mind was the last big hit to come from that particular era of music and - in hindsight - the death knell. Of course, there's been some great guitar records since (For example: Journal for Plague Lovers, which was of course released the following year), but I don't think guitar music as a staple of the mainstream has recovered since then. Initially, I was like "oh, it's okay, it all comes and goes in waves", but 13 years later it'd be silly to say that it's returned.

Of course, and this is the perfect example of sod's law, the downturn of popularity of guitar music coincided with shops beginning to wind down physical sales of singles (this was the time when I found myself having to pre-order physical singles because stores were beginning to stop stocking them) and of course Spotify started in early '09 and suddenly music fans didn't have to rely on TV or the music press and they could just browse all music past and present at their leisure and go on their own individual journeys with music. There was a noticeable death of tribalism around that time - metal fandom is really the only musical "tribe" still standing.

[Greatkudu]

Off thread I would say Punk is alive and kicking, so I would say it's not only heavy metal that still has a tribe, also physchobilly is very tribal but with a cult following with bands like the meteors, their first album a great piece of work, back on thread I have listened to the new single about 20 times now and I still love it, so either I'm boring? or its rather good? I will answer my own question, its more than good is fucking great, a beautiful heartfelt song. Lt Laurel Kudu.

[parasiteinblack]

I tried to keep up with the charts until about 2012 or so when it all just started getting stupid and it became apparent that bands playing their own music had no chance any more unless they were Coldplay.

To be fair, guitar music in general had lost popularity by that point for a variety of reasons. The way I see it - and even though it was a great year for music with plenty of highlights - with hindsight, the rot started to set in circa 2007 when post-Arctic Monkeys all the record labels started shitting themselves that they were going to miss out on "the next big thing" from Myspace or whatever and started signing any old shit before the bubble burst, so suddenly The Pigeon Detectives are a thing and Kate Nash is having hits with the most amateurish, under-written dreck, and indie is suddenly all about Razorlight and The Kooks and flash-in-the-pan bands like the Klaxons. I don't want to say it was all bad: Radiohead put out a great album that year, as did the Manic Street Preachers (even though Jim will hugely disagree 'cuz I know he doesn't rate that album), Muse were in their golden period and playing Wembley, and of course there were some follow-up albums from the 2004/2005 class of mainstream indie that I enjoyed in spite of them being not particularly well received (the second Bloc Party album for example) ...

... but you could just sense that people were getting more than a little bit weary when you had Pete Doherty doing his zillionth appearance on Jonathan Ross after his umpteenth drug bust promoting one of those Babyshambles records that failed to set the world alight after his fans have given him a zillion chances to clean up his act. I think people had begun to more than tire of all of that schtick, and I remember him and Amy Winehouse never being out of the tabloids for every reason other than the music they were making (and in the case of Amy Winehouse - bless her - we all know what happened there... what a waste), and it just got all very boring.

I started to realise something was up in 2008, when The Verve reformed and put an album out and nobody gave a shit after the first single, and the Kaiser Chiefs were ubiquitous on TV throughout the previous year promoting their second album but when they came back for their third album - and this is ONLY a year later! - it bombed. Poundland were selling stacks of their third album for £1 a piece within months of it being released, and neither single they released from it really took off, even though the thing was produced by "producer du jour" Mark Ronson and the first single had Lily Allen on backing vocals (another person who was everywhere and whose career would be dead in the water within a couple of years) ... and of course this was the year when former Q magazine editor Andrew Harrison legendarily described the huge influx of sub-par bands as "landfill indie", thus giving people who didn't like or had grown weary of that era of music a stick to bash it with, even retroactively - and to my mind, unfairly - the good bands (and there were plenty)

And of course, 2008 was the year of "Sex on Fire" by Kings of Leon, which to my mind was the last big hit to come from that particular era of music and - in hindsight - the death knell. Of course, there's been some great guitar records since (For example: Journal for Plague Lovers, which was of course released the following year), but I don't think guitar music as a staple of the mainstream has recovered since then. Initially, I was like "oh, it's okay, it all comes and goes in waves", but 13 years later it'd be silly to say that it's returned.

Of course, and this is the perfect example of sod's law, the downturn of popularity of guitar music coincided with shops beginning to wind down physical sales of singles (this was the time when I found myself having to pre-order physical singles because stores were beginning to stop stocking them) and of course Spotify started in early '09 and suddenly music fans didn't have to rely on TV or the music press and they could just browse all music past and present at their leisure and go on their own individual journeys with music. There was a noticeable death of tribalism around that time - metal fandom is really the only musical "tribe" still standing.

Without wanting to sound like I'm emulating some other esteemed members of this forum: I agree with all that you say, Sir.

The only thing I maybe add is that there is plenty of good music out there now in the early 2020s, but mainly thanks to obscure youtube channels and bandcamp etc. This may be where "tribalism" will return, if at all.

Very good points about Kings of Leon, Lily Allen et al - it was quite shocking watching the landscape change so rapidly over those short years.

[gjinblack]

Great points Stan. I suppose pop/rock had run its course after fifty years or so and found it hard to thrive in the modern consumer age. People not wanting to invest and always on the lookout for the 'next big thing'.

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[sendwarrior]

They wrote new songs, and tested them out live.

They only started studio recording this album in March 2020, then Covid hit..

Aside from that they were touring extensively. Can hardly be described as fuck all

What about the previous 7 years?


Jim

I had no doubts the album would be finished as soon as they could possibly do so, and they have

Sadly, the events of last year were a catalyst to get it done

They did fuck all in 7 years lol !

[toilerinblack]

keep playing this should see dave song as its in my brain now and just seems to get better everytime that i play it,for me when a song can do that to you then they've got it right...a real thumbs up form me for this one.

[Greatkudu]

keep playing this should see dave song as its in my brain now and just seems to get better everytime that i play it,for me when a song can do that to you then they've got it right...a real thumbs up form me for this one.

Yes totally agree Sir. Lt Kudu.

[jason]

Is this getting any regular airplay yet? I really hope this song doesn't get ignored by all the radio stations.

[Cells&Plasma]

Is this getting any regular airplay yet? I really hope this song doesn't get ignored by all the radio stations.

Apart from when Steve Lamacq played it, I haven't heard it on 6Music at all I'm afraid.

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