Intergalactic Sonic 7"s: The Best of Ash by Ash

I quite like Ash, but I couldn't say I was a fan. Twice I saw them support U2 in Dublin on the Popmart Tour in 1997, but I only really got interested once they'd released an album their record company was dubious about and the band funded itself - got to respect that.

I actually bought this as a Christmas present for an ex-girlfriend and since I didn't see her that Christmas, it's been knocking around for a while, bonus disc and all.

Regrets? Sometimes.

The It Girl by Sleeper

Sleeper first caught my attention with their "Inbetweener" single, a clever, hummable song about living in suburban Essex. Sadly, the rest of the album didn't quite measure up.

This follow up featured a four great singles which soundtracked the summer of 1996 and were hardly off the radio... and that's probably how I'll remember them. I certainly don't play this much any more.

What Do I Do Now?

Click... off... gone.

Swoon by Prefab Sprout

The second Prefab Sprout album is one of my favourites, produced by Thomas Dolby, featuring "Faron Young" and "When Love Breaks Down"... I bought it with this in a double pack - the old trick: convince you you're getting value by selling quantity not quality. I've fallen for it so often.

This features "Don't Sing" which I remember seeing on The Tube. And that's about all I remember.

Sorry Paddy.

Me and Mr. Ray by Miracle Legion

This is supposed to be a great album. A lost classic. I may listen to it one day and decide I should never have sold it.

But for now it's another record company freebie sitting on my shelves and taking up space which I have to pay for.

And then? I posted it. And it was gone.

Urban Hymns by The Verve

I remember when this was out - Radiohead, Travis and The Verve were ubiquitous on every radio in a public place.

"Bittersweet Symphony" was regularly played prior to U2's entrance on the Popmart Tour and the opening bars still make friends of mine who saw up to fifty shows feel a surge of adrenaline whenever they hear them.

Sadly, a couple of big hits weren't enough to get this to stick in my CD player. The drugs don't work... and neither does this.

Against Nature by Fatima Mansions

I saw Fatima Mansions support U2 on the Zoo TV tour in Paris and London.

They were entertaining, fleetingly. And this - a record company freebie - is taking up shelf space.

Only losers take the bus - or hang on to stuff they don't need, want or care about.

The Jesus And Mary Chain video by Jesus And Mary Chain

The all-reaching power of John Peel was such that I once walked into my parents' dining room in the late 80s to find my father listening to The Jesus And Marychain's "April Skies" and tapping his foot.

In those days Radio One shared an FM frequency with Radio Two and the end of whatever light music programme he listended to in the early evening would be followed at 9:00pm by the familiar theme tune, John Peel's laconic chatter and whatever non-playlist music was exciting him enough to play that night.

The Jesus And Marychain had exploded into our consciousness in the mid-80s with "Never Understand". The (old grey) Whistle Test screened the disorientating video (a formula which this tape reveals they repeated for all subsequent clips bar one) and a superb performance which caught even the unflappable Mark Ellen off-guard when they kicked over their instruments and sat sullenly on the stage at the end.

This tape is repetitive - in a nice way. But it's also VHS sized... and sitting with other VHS-sized video cassettes is a prime candidate for liberation.

Someone out there wants it. Good for them.

(I admit to capturing this on my PC for posterity.)

Never Another Sunset by Rose Of Avalanche

I remember seeing Rose Of Avalanche touring this album with Claytown Troupe at ULU. They were all leather jackets, sunglasses and fake American accents. The first track, "What's Going Down" wasn't bad, the rest not as good.

We had a band called The Raw Bloodthirsty Energy Dogs which sounded a lot like the early, "L.A. Rain"-era Rose of Avalance, though my bass-playing was deemed superfluous to requirements during the summer holidays. They also ditched the cover of "She Sells Sanctuary" and became The Acolytes.

I also have the album "String A Beads" - both were freebies from my plugging years. I don't like my chances of getting shot of that.

Gala by Lush

I once blagged my way into a Lush gig at the Town & Country Club, Kentish Town. I had been promised a guest list place by someone at 4AD, but when we arrived it was such a huge, unmanageable guest list, the doorman had almost given up on it.

There were two great early singles by Lush: De-Luxe and Sweetness And Light and both feature on this compilation which I stopped listening to long ago.

I saw four people who resembled the group in Ladbroke Grove the day after the concert and laughed to myself "Lush!", only to find on getting closer to them that it was actually the band.

Sweetness And Light probably deserves the occasional spin.

From Her To Eternity by Nick Cave

I thought this had "The Mercy Seat" on it. Dummkopf! I didn't listen to it that much. And now it's gone.

The Good Son by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Sales are particularly dangerous for me. The chance to aquire something new and not pay the full price is almost irresistible, so I frequently left HMV and Virgin with goods I didn't particularly want throughout the 80s and 90s.

Around ten years ago I looked at the sale CDs from one end of a row, hundreds and hundreds of them, all sitting there in cardboard boxes. Why cardboard boxes? Then it dawned on me. This wasn't stock. This was cheap product bought in especially to create an event: the sale. Looking closer, the bargains were few and far between. This stuff was garbage. I found myself able to hold onto my hard-earned cash more easily after this.

None of which has anything to do with The Good Son by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, which I did acquire from a sale, but not from a chainstore.

In 1990, I attended my sixth Greenbelt Festival. It had become a regular thing among my friends, signalling the end of summer and a return to either school or university.

This year was different. I'd just left university and would be returning to a job in the music industry, working for a plugging company in Ladbroke Grove.

A Christian festival, Greenbelt had a relaxed, family-friendly atmosphere. You were never worried about losing your belongings, people were very friendly and the only ones drinking tended to be us. The festival gained greatere exposure through Radio One in the years I attended, thanks to support from Simon Mayo, who in 1990 donated all the CDs he'd been sent by pluggers.

I bought this and Goo by Sonic Youth.

I listened to Sonic Youth a lot more.

Sorry Nick.

I Am The Greatest by A House

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I saw A House over at the Mean Fiddler (when it was in Harlesden) on a night when This Picture supported them - my reason for driving round the north circular at a ridiculous time of night, since the tube didn't go all the way out there.

This album contains the radio hit Endless Art, a popular choice on GLR (which BBC Radio London was known in the 90s).

They may not have been the greatest, but they were good.

Sadly the world moved on.

Beautiful Freak by Eels

A striking cover and two strong singles, but the album never impressed me enough to make me grab it from the sheld and stick the whole thing on again.


As I said before, they're such an interesting band, I have to guard against becoming intrigued enough to buy their entire back catalogue.

White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity by Swans

I acquired a lot of freebies while working in the music business. I clung tightly to them, not admitting I never listened to any of them.


Perhaps I convinced myself it made up for not always getting paid.


Most of it was dodgy vinyl from "has-beens, never were and never will bes", but occasionally there was something genuinely interesting.


Swans were an experimental group from New York with a reputation for making noise, who emerged around the same time as Sonic Youth.


I listened to Sonic Youth more. I should probably have put this on a few more times.

Transient Random Noise Outbursts With Announcements by Stereolab

Some people write about music they don't like as if it's a fault of the artist: "I never really got such and such."

I am perfectly willing to accept the problem is mine. Such is the case with Stereolab and the album Transient Random Noise Outbursts With Announcements.

I buy too much music "just to hear" it. Having heard it, it sits on my shelf, never to be revisited. Occasionally I may pull it down, stick it on and get through a few songs before switching to something I enjoy more. This is a pity, because Stereolab are great, they're everything a cult act should be and they have made great albums, of which this is one.

I didn't give up on Stereolab. I listen when their music is played on the radio. I went to see them at Islington Academy around the time of "Margarine Eclipse"'s release. They were good! This album is good!

I just don't like it that much...