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Tuesday 21 April 2009

Boo Radleys

Bit of an odd one this time, it's the Boo Radleys, but not really what you'd think of first when you heard the name; oh, and I've cheated a bit because this isn't on vinyl, it's on a bloody tape. A cover tape no less.

Cover tapes are an entirely different genre of music blog, so I'm only using it to illustrate a point (and show how much crap I carry around from house to house over the years; there's all kinds of rubbish in a box in the cupboard, if you're particularly unlucky I'll drag them out too).

This particular song is "Blues for George Michael" from the tape stuck to the 12 February 1994 edition of the NME. Here you can insert your reminiscences about how the NME was much better in our day and how we looked forward to cover tapes...

Apparently it's supposed to sound like this as well. Not what you'd expect from the band that brought you the singalong masterpiece of 'Wake Up Boo', or the swirling wonders of 'Lazarus', but there you go. It was the B-side to 'Wake Up Boo' though but the NME it came from was out in the shops a whole year before their massive hit, about the same time as the infinitely preferable Lazarus.









Right click, 'Save As...' to download


The Boo Radleys are one of those bands that hung around for ages before making it big. They were formed in 1988 by baldy singer Simon Rowbottom, his Liverpudlian chum Martin Carr, Tim Brown and Steve Hewitt. They recorded for a few years, recieving lots of indie love, recorded Peel Sessions and were darlings of the music press. Then suddenly in 1995 they exploded into popularity with a massive hit.

Anyway, you know the rest, and if you don't read the official site, the wiki, Martin Carr's page or this handy page from the Archived Music Press blog.

In a nutshell, the music press loved them, they signed to the Creation label, they had their massive hit which has been used time and time again on breakfast TV and radio and goodness knows where else, they hung around until a rather disappointing final album (1998's Kingsize) and split up.

You can buy "The Best of the Boo Radleys" here

9 comments:

  1. disappointing final album?

    "Kingsize" is way better than "C'mon Kids". (despite some junglist try-hard-ness). Track 2 "Old NewsStand At Hamilton Square" is one of my favourite Boo Radley's tracks.

    The official boo radleys site has comments from Martin on most songs they released. Which is good. booradleys.co.uk

    'Jungle'... tsk.

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  2. Hi do you gave the other tracks off that tape on mp3? I own the tape but would love the mp3's.

    Cheers

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  3. thelightjockey26 April, 2009

    goody, goody, gumdrops.... a cover tape. tee hee.

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  4. This version is actually a totally different mix and about 6 minutes shorter than the official b-side that was originally released!

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  5. theandrew, I have this tape in full on my blog:

    http://hopeless-m.blogspot.com/2008/12/nme-mutha-of-creation-various-artists.html

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  6. No way is Kingsize better than C'mon Kids!

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  7. Not only is "Kingsize" better than "C'mon Kids" it's better than "Wake Up!" too.

    "It's Lulu"?. Tsk, I ask you...

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  8. Kingsize is the Boos 2nd best album! (after Giant Steps)

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