In another of our nods to lost gems set to reappear at a summer festival this year, ATL looks forward to what should be a 'moment' this August in Belfast...
ACT:
TRACK: Sunflower (1993)
FESTIVAL:
CHANCES OF HEARING IT: Good - one of his biggest solo singles (but with such a huge back catalogue to pick from, very few songs are totally guaranteed to appear).
'Real' Weller fans may dismiss this as (at best) one of many standouts during a long solo career or (at worst) an overly poppy single to launch the album 'Wild Wood'. But we reckon it's his finest moment to date.
It's got the kind of opening riff that guarantees no spoken introduction is required, for a start. Always a good thing at a festival. Then there's a basic, singable chorus and a proper ending. Sounds like faint praise, but performed on a warm evening at a festival this one has 'moment' written all over it.
Shakespear Sisters - Stay There's a chance that a lot of people who read this have never heard the track I'm going to write about. Which makes this blog slightly pointless, for you at least. Although I played it in the office earlier and everyone knew it and tried to sing along.
The track is Shakespeare's Sister 'Stay'. Now, this is what I find odd, not about that track but about how it was received.
Back in the indie disco it was treated as one of the slow set. This happened, there'd be 3 or 4 songs and you'd hopefully get to dance with a girl or boy you liked. Hands around each others waist. All very innocent stuff. The songs would be ballads of the time. But 'Stay' is only a ballad for the first half. At exactly 2.00mins it changes into an almost Marilyn Manson-esque epic. With industrial sounding drums and grungey guitars. Sure the main hook is still there but this is NO LONGER a song that should be used for romantic dancing. Why did no one notice? Why did no one say?
It has over 2million hits on youtube, a sign if one was needed that although it may not be suitable for the slow set it is still a tune!
In our occasional series building up to the festivals, ATL unearths another gem we're very much looking forward to hearing blasted out through some very large speakers in a field somewhere this summer...
ACT:
TRACK:
FESTIVAL:
CHANCES OF HEARING IT: Nailed on certainty. Put your nan's house on it.
After seeing the chaotic but utterly engaging live show at Electric Picnic last year, we anticipate high levels of indiscriminate raving this August at Custom House Square. The headliners are Soulwax, and they have some hysteria inducing belters, but this will be hard to top on the day. Labelled as "acid wash dancehall" (sorry, what?) it sounds like master producers Switch and Diplo have stuffed a blender full of ragga, rave and the percussion ensemble from the London Symphony Orchestra. Watch people get bent way out of shape.
