Music – Page 5 – onetruekev

Now That’s What I Call A Lot Of Music

The phenomenon that is Now That’s What I Call Music has now reached number 100.

When EMI and Virgin joined forces in December 1983 to release the first in the very long and very successful compilation series, Now That’s What I Call Music, it is unlikely that they realised just what an impact it would have on the music industry as a whole, and specifically to the compilation market.

Prior to this the compilation market was basically run by two labels K-Tel and Telstar, who would release any number of sub-standard albums every year claiming to have the biggest acts and biggest hits on them. In reality, the original artist’s own labels were reluctant to license the songs to these compilations, and a lot was done under the proviso that they could have some big names, but they had to take tracks from less well known and less successful artists as filler to get the deal done. Therefore, compilation albums were often very hit and miss. So, what should have been the greatest hits of the year, had totally random tracks on. The Waders with a rock cover of “The Birdie Song” called “The Qwaka Song” on Chart Hits 81, and the never heard of before or since Debbie Aimee “No Answers” on Superchart 83.

Then there were the other labels trying to make compilations (mainly Ronco and Pickwick) who couldn’t get any licensed tracks, so went out and got session singers and musicians and re-recorded the songs. The only exception to this was the very successful series of Motown compilations, however they had no licensing difficulties as all the artists were signed to Motown anyway.

What the Now series did was to bring the compilations to the major labels, who could get the licensing far more easily and without the trade off in quality. Now 1 was a runaway success spending 6 weeks at number one, and they followed it up with 2 and 3 at Easter and in August the following year, both of which also hit number 1 and stayed there for several weeks.

This success drew the attention of other major labels and by the time it came to the 1984 Christmas market CBS (now Sony) and WEA (Warner) had joined forces and came out with the Hits series and prevented the latest release Now 4 from hitting number 1, the only Now album not to hit the top spot. By the summer of the following year Chrysalis, MCA and Polygram (now Universal) had their own series Out Now. By Christmas 1986 there were compilation crazy buyers everywhere. Now had been joined by Polygram, Chrysalis was on board as well after being taken over by EMI, who were also only months away from merging with Virgin. RCA (now BMG) has joined the Hits camp, and for the next 15 years the lines were drawn. EMI/Virgin/Universal against Sony/Warner/BMG with the Now series coming out an easy winner.

Elsewhere the success of Now had led to labels being willing to license tracks to compilations, and compilation series popped up all over the place, to the extent that by the start of 1989, a separate Compilation chart was started as the artists weren’t getting a look in on the album charts. So, when you see the vast selection of compilations available, it’s the Now series you have to thank, or if you think that compilations are a plague then it’s the Now series you can blame. Now days the battle lines have been erased somewhat and there is some crossover between the labels.

Apart from 1985 – 1987, and 1990 – 1991 there have been three Now chart releases every year. In addition to the 100 Now albums, they have also released Christmas albums, summer albums, Now Dance albums, and the Now Year series with a “best of Now” for each year since 1983-2000. With the record company landscape changing drastically over the years, the series is now run by Universal and Sony. Since that pairing came together, the amount of side line “Now That’s What I Call…” albums have spiralled almost out of control. At least one new one comes out each month the standard Now release comes out.

We have seen such titles as Now That’s What I Call Rock, Now That’s What I Call Reggae, Now That’s What I Call Mum, Now That’s What I Call Dad, Now That’s What I Call Housework, Now That’s What I Call Workout, Now That’s What I Call The Attending The Opening Of An Envelope, Now That’s What I Call Scraping The Bottom Of The Barrel, and more. (Some of those titles may not be strictly accurate).

The next planned release is going to be a compilation of the numbered Now compilations, where there will be 100 tracks, with one off each of the 100 Now albums. They did a slight fudge of this on Now 100, with the second disc supposedly giving a representation of the series over the years, but the choices were very hit and miss, with five and six years gaps between tracks and then two off the same Now album a couple of times.

Therefore, I’m going to get my picks in for the 100 from 100 first. I’ve picked a single track off each of the 100 Now albums. In doing so, I’ve avoided having more than one track by any artist. Additionally, I’ve avoided easy pickings like reissues. Finally, I’ve tried to think back to the time when each of the albums came out and pick the track that I would play repeatedly at that time, rather than the track I might choose now.

On the law of averages, with the Now albums starting with having 30 tracks, and having a maximum of 46 tracks, at least two of my picks should make it onto the officially picked 100 from 100 album, but, I’m not going to hold my breath if I match any of them. My picks are below.

Now 1 – Rocksteady Crew – (Hey You) The Rocksteady Crew

Now 2 – Thomas Dolby – Hyperactive

Now 3 – Special A.K.A – Nelson Mandela

Now 4 – The Kane Gang – Respect Yourself

Now 5 – The Style Council – Walls Come Tumbling Down!

Now 6 – Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Lost Weekend

Now 7 – The Real Roxanne – Bang Zoom (Let’s Go-Go)

Now 8 – Cameo – Word Up

Now 9 – Robbie Nevil – C’est La Vie

Now 10 – Fat Boys – Wipeout

Now 11 – Wet Wet Wet – Angel Eyes

Now 12 – Salt ‘n’ Pepa – Push It

Now 13 – Yello – The Race

Now 14 – Then Jerico – Big Area

Now 15 – Double Trouble & The Rebel MC – Just Keep Rockin’

Now 16 – Erasure – Drama!

Now 17 – Happy Mondays – Step On

Now 18 – Bass-o-matic – Fascinating Rhythm

Now 19 – 808 State – In Yer Face

Now 20 – Marc Cohn – Walking In Memphis

Now 21 – KLF – Justified And Ancient

Now 22 – SL2 – On A Ragga Trip

Now 23 – Sophie B Hawkins – Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover

Now 24 – Snow – Informer

Now 25 – New Order – Regret

Now 26 – The Goodmen – Give It Up

Now 27 – Tori Amos – Cornflake Girl

Now 28 – The Grid – Swamp Thing

Now 29 – Oasis – Cigarettes and Alcohol

Now 30 – Freak Power – Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out

Now 31 – Edwyn Collins – A Girl Like You

Now 32 – Paul Weller – Broken Stones

Now 33 – Technohead – I Wanna Be A Hippy

Now 34 – OMC – How Bizarre

Now 35 – Ocean Colour Scene – The Riverboat Song

Now 36 – No Doubt – Don’t Speak

Now 37 – Fun Lovin’ Criminals – Scooby Snacks

Now 38 – The Verve – The Drugs Don’t Work

Now 39 – Cornershop – Brimful Of Asha

Now 40 – Fat Les – Vin-Da-Loo

Now 41 – Stardust – Music Sounds Better With You

Now 42 – The All Seeing I feat Tony Christie – Walk Like A Panther

Now 43 – Chemical Brothers – Hey Boy Hey Girl

Now 44 – Bran Van 3000 – Drinking In LA

Now 45 – Blink 182 – All The Small Things

Now 46 – Bloodhound Gang – The Bad Touch

Now 47 – Zombie Nation – Kernkraft 400

Now 48 – Feeder – Buck Rogers

Now 49 – Outkast – Ms Jackson

Now 50 – Alien Ant Farm – Smooth Criminal

Now 51 – Puretone – Addicted To Bass

Now 52 – Doves – Pounding

Now 53 – Bowling For Soup – Girl All The Bad Guys Want

Now 54 – Junior Senior – Move Your Feet

Now 55 – 50 Cent – In Da Club

Now 56 – Justin Timberlake – Rock Your Body

Now 57 – Franz Ferdinand – Take Me Out

Now 58 – Razorlight – Golden Touch

Now 59 – Deep Dish – Flashdance

Now 60 – Uniting Nations – Out Of Touch

Now 61 – Bodyrockers – I Like The Way

Now 62 – Gorillaz – Dare

Now 63 – Hi Tack – Say Say Say

Now 64 – Pink – Who Knew

Now 65 – Fedde Le Grand – Put Your Hands Up For Detroit

Now 66 – Fall Out Boy – This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race

Now 67 – Reverend & The Makers – Heavyweight Champion Of The World

Now 68 – Mark Ronson feat Amy Winehouse – Valerie

Now 69 – Timbaland feat OneRepublic – Apologize

Now 70 – Pendulum – Propane Nightmares

Now 71 – Madcon – Beggin’

Now 72 – Metro Station – Shake it

Now 73 – 3OH!3 – Don’t Trust Me

Now 74 – Ian Carey Project – Get Shaky

Now 75 – Alicia Keys – Empire State Of Mind (Part II)

Now 76 – Plan B – She Said

Now 77 – B.o.B. feat Hayley Williams – Airplanes

Now 78 – Chase & Status feat Liam Bailey – Blind faith

Now 79 – LMFAO feat Lauren Bennett & GoonRock – Party Rock Anthem

Now 80 – Maroon 5 feat Christina Aguilera – Moves like Jagger

Now 81 – Florence + The Machine – Shake It Out

Now 82 – fun. Feat. Janelle Monáe – We Are Young

Now 83 – Ne-Yo – Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love Yourself)

Now 84 – Bastille – Pompeii

Now 85 – Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams – Get Lucky

Now 86 – Fatboy Slim & Riva Starr Feat. Beardyman – Eat Sleep Rave Repeat

Now 87 – Paloma Faith – Can’t Rely On You

Now 88 – Mr. Probz – Waves

Now 89 – Ten Walls – Walking With Elephants

Now 90 – Labrinth – Jealous

Now 91 – John Newman – Come And Get It

Now 92 – The Weeknd – Can’t Feel My Face

Now 93 – Alessia Cara – Here

Now 94 – Viola Beach – Boys That Sing

Now 95 – Offaiah – Trouble

Now 96 – Rag’N’Bone Man – Human

Now 97 – Rudimental – Sun Comes Up

Now 98 – Katy Perry Feat. Nicki Minaj – Swish Swish

Now 99 – Portugal. The Man – Feel It Still

Now 100 – Ariana Grande – No Tears Left To Cry

A Pirate Party

Now I’m not one for fancy dress. At all. Ever.

Yet there I was in full pirate regalia, at a sixtieth birthday party. It was a family affair, so it was more of a chatty do that a rave up. When the party expired we decided to go into downtown Taunton.

We got their eventually, after two unsuccessful attempts to get through the park to the High Street due to closed, locked, bolted and chained gates. With pointed spiked tops to prevent clambering over, we managed to find a way out without having to go all the way around.

We headed to the Bierkeller, where we could hear the venue before really seeing it. The bouncers just waved us in. No asking for ID, not a single batting of an eyelid at full pirate outfits, no weapon check at the door, anything. In fact, watching the bouncers in action was a joy to behold. They did their job efficiently. A couple of ejections went without punches being thrown or heavy handiness. They interacted with the heaving crowds with a smile, and even taking time out to dance, and displaying a general friendly demeanour.

Now, this is something the SS storm troopers that are employed in some of Crawley’s drinking establishments (Octopus and The Punch Bowl, I’m looking at you), could do with taking lessons on. When someone is obviously in their forties, there is absolutely, positively, no fucking need to be asking them for ID. No need to be punching people. You are allowed to smile occasionally.

Anyway, back to the Bierkeller. A good mix of danceable, and sing along music from all eras. The place was set out in the style of a German Bierkeller, with long tables down the room, with benches either side. Not that the benches are used much for sitting down. They actively encourage you to dance on the benches. Much in the style of Walkabout in Manchester back in the early noughties.

It was a really good atmosphere. The kind of place that had people of all ages in there dancing and drinking together. The kind of place where no one cares or notices that you are dressed up as a pirate. The kind of place that Crawley could do with, but will never get. Mainly due to the fact that the police and the council wouldn’t allow a license for somewhere like that. Plus Crawley bouncers wouldn’t know how to be friendly if their lives depended on it.

Therefore for good nights out, with or without full pirate regalia, we have to rely on doing it in any other locale apart from Crawley. And it was a good night out, thoroughly entertaining and fun. Roll on June and more days out of Crawley.

Not A Record Year

Most people who know me know that I’ve always been slightly obsessed with music. I can’t remember the last time I went more than a week or so without buying music in one format or another. It may not have always been new music. I’ve spent countless hours wandering around charity shops, second hand stalls jumble sales and car boot sales looking for music.

Over the years I’ve built up massive collections twice, having to start from scratch in 2001. Since the dawn of mp3s I’ve rarely gone anywhere without an mp3 player, and have ran out of space on pc’s, laptops, and external drives on more than one occasion.

I’ve always been a vinyl junkie, and since vinyl has been taking off again over the last few years, when I’ve bought new music it’s normally been on vinyl. Most new releases tend to come with download codes, so I have the physical thing of beauty that is a vinyl LP, and the portability of listening to it whilst on the move. I’ve probably bought a new release every week.

However, this year it’s not been like that. I haven’t been in a record shop all year. I’ll qualify that by saying HMV isn’t really a record shop, and I’ve been in there a couple of times to get presents for people, but I haven’t bought anything for myself. I’ve not looked at the offerings in the supermarkets. Sainsburys, Asda, and even Aldi have vinyl selections, but I’ve been walking straight past. Charity shops have been getting short shrift as well. Crawley’s vast array of charity shops must have seen a substantial downturn in earnings so far this year. Not even Amazon has seen any musical action. I haven’t listened to a single thirty second track preview.

It got all the way through to week twelve of the year before I bought any music for myself. Even then it was only the ubiquitous Now That’s What I Call Music release. Number 99 in what is now a never-ending sequence. I have them all, either on Vinyl through to the early twenties, or then on CD from the twenties on. It’s more out of habit now than anything else. I may have bought it, but I’ve only listened to the first four or so tracks.

I still have a backlog of tracks to listen to from albums I bought at the back end of last year. I just don’t seem to have the time or inclination to listen to a lot of music. I rarely travel that much nowadays, the hours of having the iPod plugged in to block out the general public as I walked, bussed, or got the train anywhere has shrunk down to probably an hour or so a week.

The decks sit on top of the unit next to the sofa I sit on in the living room. Yet it barely gets used. Thousands of records adorn the units on the opposite wall, yet the sense of apathy around playing any of them seems to grow by the day. So much so that I’ve committed to having a thorough sort out and selling a number of them. Something else that I’m struggling to getting around to.

Part of me wonders if I’ve hit that stage where music is over for me. A constant companion over the years, especially as I had no television for several them, it has now drifted away into a casual background acquaintance that I barely seem to recognise. Or is it that this writing I now find myself doing has taken over? Do I avoid playing music and using my senses to accept incoming stimuli so that I can concentrate on outputting streams of consciousness instead? Or is it somewhere in between the two?

I hope it is not the end of my musical fascination, it would be a terrible way for it to end. Yet it is not something I can force, I think I’ll just have to wait it out and see if it does come back to me, hoping that the apathy will depart.

Perhaps once I’ve sold some of these records and CD’s that I’m sorting out, and had that kind of cathartic clear out, it will clear my mind out and it will all come back to me.

Listening to Now 99 too much isn’t necessarily going to help.