Rocks In The Attic #129: Blur - ‘Blur: The Best Of’ (2000)

This was an unsurprising release by Food Records. With only one album left on their contract with Food, a greatest hits collection was assembled. This isn’t a new thing in the record industry - although diehard fans of the band may not rush out to buy a batch of songs they already own, the general public will always buy a compilation album in droves, and so it makes economic sense to bring out a ‘best of’ while the opportunity is ripe, rather than release studio album #452.

As a DJ - which I was at the time of this release - it’s always handy to have a collection of hit songs on one disc (or two, in this case), rather than lug a load of albums around for the sake of one or two songs. Still, saying that, this album did open my eyes to some of the other Blur material which I wasn’t familiar with at the time.

Much after the fact, I had discovered Parklife and, subsequently, The Great Escape, while at University. Blur and 13 sort of passed me by, although by this time they were sufficiently on my radar, enough for me to anticipate their singles as they were released.

I’ve been thinking about ‘90s music for a few weeks now, after somebody mentioning what a truly terrible decade for music it was. I guess it’s too early to tell, but will anybody be listening to this sort of thing in 40 or 50 years?

The reason I prefer to listen to older music - specifically from the ‘60s and ‘70s - is that most of the time you can listen to it without having to handle all of the other bullshit that comes with it. It’s almost impossible to listen to a Blur album without thinking about how much of a knobhead Damon Albarn is.

I remember being asked about Blur and Oasis by my sixth-form English teacher in the mid-‘90s. Their rivalry was all over the British press because of the chart race between Country House and Roll With It. He wanted to know who I thought were the better band. This was many years before I would start listening to “Indie” or Britpop music, and I was existing purely on a diet of hard rock and heavy metal at the time, so the question was sort of lost on me. I still stand behind my response back then, which was “Blur, of course, because they’re always doing something different.” The one thing I can always be sure of is that I can happily look back at Oasis’ entire career and proudly declare ‘not guilty’.

When I look back at Blur’s career alongside British bands which I’m sure they’d like to measured against - The Kinks, The Who, The Beatles, The Stones, etc - I’m not sure if they’ll ever be regarded in the same light. Oasis plumbed new depths of mediocrity in the ‘90s, but Blur were simply the best British band of the decade, and I guess that’s all that mattered at the time.

Hit: Song 2Hidden Gem: To The End



Rocks In The Attic #90: JJ72 - ‘JJ72’ (2000)

This album is much better than I remember. I must have liked the band enough to go out and buy the album, but I haven’t listened to it for about 10 years.

JJ72 were a band that was small enough to be playing The Castle in Oldham when I used to DJ, but still big enough (and talented enough) to be signed and to be releasing albums like this. I remember DJing the night they played - which means I probably also did their lights - but I don’t think I met them because if memory serves, they didn’t stick around to meet anybody after their set.

Hit: October Swimmer

Hidden Gem: Long Way South

Rocks In The Attic #85: Primal Scream - ‘XTRMNTR’ (2000)

Wikipedia tells me that this album was the final LP released on Creation Records. I don’t remember that at the time - I definitely remember Creation folding, but I think I bought this purely for Kill All Hippies, a great song I would regularly play in my Saturday night DJ set at Oldham’s 38 Bar / The Castle.

I must have met Primal Scream (and ex-Stone Roses) bassist Mani not long after this album was released, down in the basement bar of Corbieres in Manchester’s St. Anne’s Square. He signed my cigarette packet - which I still have - and as I’m not a fan of the band he’s more well known for, his bass playing for Primal Scream will always remind me of that chance encounter. His bass playing on this album, especially Blood Money, is noteworthy - it’s like he’s playing his own tune, keeping the bass driving forward regardless of what the rest of the band are doing.

This version of Primal Scream isn’t my favourite. It’s a bit - dare I sound like an old man - noisy and tuneless. It’s also not the most popular thing to say, but my favourite version of Primal Scream is the Give Out But Don’t Give Up version - where they’re practically doing everything right to appeal to my classic rock leanings. That album almost sounds like a Black Crowes record, and although I’d like them to record another album like that, I guess you just have to admit that they’re a continually evolving band - probably one of the most genre-shifting bands in the last couple of decades.

Hit: Swastika Eyes (Jagz Kooner Mix)

Hidden Gem: Keep Your Dreams

Rocks In The Attic #75: Gomez - ‘Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline’ (2000)

This album is number 2.5 for Gomez - a collection of b-sides and outtakes released between their second and third albums. I must have liked both of their first two albums enough to buy this, but I don’t think I listened to it more than once or twice.

I’ve never really understood outtakes albums - well I understand them - but I think in most cases you need to be a total and complete fan of the band to truly appreciate them. This is very true of this album - it’s all recordings made in and around the sessions and tours of the first two albums, but where a studio album is pored over and analysed, this sounds as cobbled together as you would expect.

Also, the vinyl format of this album isn’t assisted by the fact that they’ve crammed 49 minutes on one disc. Normally that would be okay, but given that the first two albums are double-LPs, this just doesn’t have the depth and clarity to stand up to those records.

This was the last Gomez record I bought - but if I saw any of their other ones on vinyl, I wouldn’t hesitate.

Hit: 78 Stone Shuffle

Hidden Gem: Bring Your Lovin’ Back Here

Rocks In The Attic #73: Badly Drawn Boy - ‘The Hour Of Bewilerbeast’ (2000)

I usually remove stickers from the cover of records. Most of the time it’s easy - especially if it’s a brand-new record - but sometimes it can cause more damage than keeping it on there. I’ve brought many records home from second-hand vinyl shops, and tried to remove a sticker that’s probably been on the cover for 15 or 20 years, only to pull off a huge chunk of the cover in the process.

There is a sticker on the front cover of my vinyl copy of this album that I’ve left on there. It is a HMV sticker, and alongside the price (£9.99) and the barcode, is my name in block capitals (MR J ANDREWS), the phone number of my parents’ house, and the date of sale (19/07/00).

This was given to me as a birthday gift by the lead singer in the band I was playing in at the time, and he had to order it into HMV Oldham, as they didn’t usually stock vinyl, hence the sticker.

I have to say I was pretty let down by this album. There was a lot of buzz around Badly Drawn Boy at the time, and I already had one of his early EPs - EP3, I think. This album was set to be an instant masterpiece, but it’s very disjointed. Later, Damon Gough said that he panicked when he got into the studio, and recorded a load of bits and pieces he didn’t plan. It sounds like it. I’d take those first three EPs - plus the It Came From The Ground single - over this album any day.

Hit: Once Around The Block

Hidden Gem: Disillusion

Rocks In The Attic #60: Super Furry Animals - ‘Mwng’ (2000)

I was so happy when I bought this album - on white vinyl - that I played songs from it when I was DJing that evening. Local boy done good and ex-Inspiral Carpet Clint Boon was doing a homecoming show at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in Oldham, and I was asked to DJ. Hardly anybody turned up but I do remember that I played a few songs off this album. I was even approached by one of members of the support bands playing that night (somebody fairly minor, but a known act all the same), when I was playing Ysbeidiau Heulog, and asked who this was.

Apparently this is the best-selling Welsh-language album of all time. I couldn’t care less that it’s sung in a different language. In fact, I think it gives it charm. I hardly listen to lyrics anyway, so it doesn’t mean a thing to me. The music and the melody is where I’m at.

Hit: Ysbeidiau Heulog

Hidden Gem: Ymaelodi Â'r Ymylon

Rocks In The Attic #40: Various Artists - ‘At Home With The Groovebox’ (2000)

I think I bought this album as it had a song by Bis on it - and probably because a lot of other decent bands / artists also contribute a song - Beck, Air, Pavement, Sonic Youth and Sean Lennon amongst others.

Essentially, this album is a celebration of the Roland MC-505 - or the Groovebox of the album’s title. In fact, I believe Roland coined the name ‘Groovebox’ for the 505’s predecessor - the 303 - but that’s probably one of the nerdiest things I know.

I wasn’t blown away by this album - the range of artists is so disparate that there’s no cohesion in style, although all the tracks have obviously got the same common denominator of a Roland synth as the driving force behind the composition.

Hit: Popcorn 1998 (Instrumental) - Gershon Kingsley

Hidden Gem: Insects Are All Around Us - Money Mark

Rocks In The Attic #24: Doves - ‘Lost Souls’ (2000)

Another band I liked really early on - I have all their early singles on vinyl - before abandoning them to the Oasis fans. I’d been following their rise in Manchester, mainly on the coat-tails of Badly Drawn Boy, who they used to be a backing band for; and they got played relatively early by Jo Whiley on Radio 1. I can remember working at my desk in my room at University, when she played Sea Song for the first time on radio. I nearly hit the roof - I had bought the song on vinyl (this was way before the album came out) and I had loved it from the first time I heard it.

I then had the misfortune of missing them play a small bar in my hometown, Oldham, because I was playing with my own band a few streets away on the same night. I did get to catch them that summer at Glastonbury on the Second Stage - I think they were the first band I ever saw at the festival - on the ridiculously early Friday morning slot. This set was also the first of many missed meetings at Glastonbury, as my University housemate Kaj, who I was looking out to meet up with (in the days just before mobile phones) saw me watching them, but wasn’t sure enough that it was me to come over and tap me on the shoulder. We caught up the following day if I remember correctly.

The next time I saw Doves was a few years later. They were headlining the same stage on the Sunday night, touring their second album, and I walked through the field and caught them for 5 minutes, enough to see them dedicate a song to Marc-Vivien Foé - the Manchester City and Cameroon international who had recently died on the pitch (the band are big Man City fans); but by that point they had got a bit more famous and a lot of Oasis fans (ie. non-musos who only dabble in music) had started liking them as a faux-Oasis substitute band.

I did see Jimi from Doves once in Manchester, as pissed off as I was that we both couldn’t get into a bar that was holding a night celebrating Bill Hicks on the 10^th anniversary of his death. I’ve never seen a rock star so mad.

But I have fond memories of this, a great album.

Hit: Here It Comes

Hidden Gem: Sea Song

Rocks In The Attic #5: Bent - ‘Programmed To Love’ (2000)

I love this album. I was turned onto it by Danny, a mutual friend I enlisted to help me DJ on Saturday nights at 38 Bar (now The Castle) in Oldham. Danny would forever be known as Danny Beetle in my circle of friends due to his very nice original (and restored) VW.

I started off DJing purely with old 60s and 70s rock, complimented with some contemporary stuff like Supergrass, Radiohead and the Super Furry Animals. When Danny started DJing with me, his taste in electronica and downbeat rubbed off on me.

I remember seeing Bent play in Leeds as they were touring this album. They were joined on stage by Zoe Johnston, who sings Private Road and Swollen on the album. She stuck around to the end and sang the lead on Always - perfectly recreating the Nana Mouskouri sample that appears on the album.

Looking back, it was probably one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to. Just a nice atmosphere (the two members of Bent, and Zoe Johnston, were hanging around and talking to the audience before and after their set), and although there weren’t that many people there, it just felt like a shared experience. When I got home, I put the album on in my bedroom and, still living with my parents, listened to Always through my headphones.

This album stayed with me so much, I eventually turned my future wife onto it, and when compiling a CD of songs that meant something to each of us, to hand out at our wedding, I put Always on at the end.

I regret not seeing Bent play live again, or even checking out their albums after this one. All I have is this, a couple of 12” singles from this album, and the EP they released next. Given the number of times I went to Glastonbury following the release of this album, I’m sure they would have played there.  I missed them if they did.

Note to self: check out more Bent !

Hit: Swollen

Hidden Gem: Always