After "Springwatch" one evening, we'd decided to create an impromptu Cloudberry night by putting records (well, 3" CD-r's) on. Like proper DJs do. Except it was at home, and we had to, er, stop the indie-pop after a bit, because we wanted to watch Newsnight.

Still, we thought we'd post our selection here for the Cloudberry-uninitiated, because it occurred to us that quite a few of the tunes can actually be downloaded from their website, should you fancy discovering new international indie-pop. We've asterisked those, in typical (stricken) office worker style.

Horowitz "Tracyanne" (from Cloudberry 5)
Puzzle "St. Luke's" (from Cloudberry 91)*
Zipper "Saturday" (from Cloudberry 501, "The Apple Crumble EP")
The Faintest Ideas "If I Could Write Spiteful Lyrics" (from Cloudberry 64)
The Parallelograms "Without You" (from Cloudberry 504, "Thrilled To Bits", and now from Cloudberry 95)*
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart "Doing All the Things That Wouldn't Make Your Parents Proud" (from Cloudberry 13)
Bedroom Eyes "Motorcycle Daydream" (from Cloudberry 19)*
The Deirdres "Claire, Are We Safe To Be On Our Own?" (from Cloudberry 55)
The Manhattan Love Suicides "Last Stand" (from Cloudberry 62)*
The Danny Says "Different Strategy" (from Cloudberry 85)
Strawberry Story "Sci Fi Guy" (from Cloudberry 65)
The Arc Lamps "Billboard Storm" (from Cloudberry 75)
Fantasy Lights "Like Yesterday" (from Cloudberry 74)
The Hillfields "A Visit" (from Cloudberry 78)
The Andersen Tapes "Turn to Speak" (from Cloudberry 81)*
The Hi-Life Companion "You're the Greatest" (from Cloudberry 35)*
The April Skies "A Lifetime in the Sun" (from Cloudberry 46)*
Honeyheads "From A to B to See You" (from Cloudberry 82)
The Garlands "Why Did I Trust You" (from Cloudberry 86)
The Olive Shoots "The Lazy Rest" (from Cloudberry 92)
The Faintest Ideas "Skip the Bridge" (from Cloudberry 64)*
Slow Down Tallahassee "So Much For Love" (from Cloudberry 10)
Zipper "A Good Man"  (from Cloudberry 11)
The Airfields "Yr So Wonderful" (from Cloudberry 47)*
Horowitz "Judy is a Punk" (from Cloudberry 504, "Thrilled To Bits")

Enjoy / agree / ignore!

Some of you wonder why we rep for hip-hop on occasion. Because, just like any other form of music, it's a huge iceberg of varying quality, but the tip of which can be jaw-droppingly, head-spinningly brilliant.

Still, what do we know. Here are 99 observations to the contrary, culled from the ever-reasonable, tolerant court of British public opinion, to put us right in the light of that Jay-Z at Glastonbury "controversy". Good old BBC.

"It's another one of those Politically Correct moves designed to bend over backwards to cater for minority groups who in the UK, shout the loudest and feel they are hard done by. Get over it. You live in the UK, so just integrate"
"There's already too much rap on Radio 1 as it is - every other song is hip-hop or similar. But of course we have to cater for the minorities first, don't we?"
"Here we go again. More 'do-gooders' trying to change the way we behave. First it's fags, then booze now music. If I wanted to live in a nanny-state, I'd move to one. It's a free country, I should be allowed to listen to what ever music I want!! It's Brown and co showing us they can do what they want again."
"As per usual, we cater for a minority, dilute our traditions and our heritage and ruin a perfectly good concept for the sake of political correctness. Rap and Garage belongs in the ghetto's of the US and should be sent back there."
"Welcome to the collapse of the Western Culture."
"There is probably no greater sign of a loser than a hip-hop fan today. It's only political correctness and the fear of the weak-minded lack of self-control which stops millions laughing in public at these fake sheep"
"Junk food, junk culture now junk music,Welcome to dumbed down junk Britain, Almost nothing is sacred anymore"
"Who cares ? Intelligent people grow out of this sort of thing anyway, as soon as they are grown up. Apart from a small minority who desperately try to cling to their adolescence and kid themselves into thinking they're still cool. Utterly pathetic ! Rip-off Britain at its best"
"What has happened to british youth culture ??"
"Noel Gallagher is never wrong. He is spot on. Rap music is for criminals only"
"Hip-hop and rap should be seen for what they are. Unemployed (or would otherwise be) people screaming into a microphone. Too much black music killed off Top of the Pops, and nearly killed off Radio 1"
"Hip-hop, RnB are rubbish genres. The music is bought by chavs, low lifes and those who don't understand decent music."
"Let's not beat about the bush. Chavs are Highlu likely to cause problems and have knives on them. You do not get this issues with kids who like indie and there is nothing wrong with being middle class. A middle class person pays their way in the UK, thank you and I'm proud to be middle class"
"What's Eavis trying to do attract a load of gun toting chavs?"
"Why is what used to be a festival of quality music, now being hijacked with music for Sun readers?"
"Hip-hop is moronic, spoken rubbish. The artists (or criminal gangsters probably better describes them) are not capable of writing vocals ..."
"'Just entertainment for drug dealers and muggers"
"Watch a video of one of Jay-Z's concerts and ask yourself if you would HONESTLY like to be in that crowd. I would fear for my life, especially knowing his racist lyrics."
"Does this mean this years Glasto will be the first where someone is shot dead?"
"Im sure that security would struggle to prevent some bad mofo popping some caps whilst this "rap" is taking place"
"So I guess it'll be full of chavs this year then. I think I'll stay away, don't want to get stabbed by some 16 year old gangsta wannabe....init bruv!"
"Please, lets keep the Chavs out of Glastonbury"
"Jay-Z will just attract idiotic chavs like most of his fans are."
"Rap music? Back to the cave & the jungle - that's were modern music is headed."

"... Can we leave gangster rap in the ghetto where it makes sense. nobody in the uk can genuinely relate to this noise..."
"afte rall who'd want to be surrounded by baseball cap wearing baggy trousered yoof who main reason in life appears to be intimudate and.or steal...or have i misunderstood musical culture completely"
"Hip hop brings attitide and bad vibes. This materialistic and violent rubbish is only for young men with problems.Totally inappropriate for any mixed audience."
"I don't want to listen to a stream of mysoginistic, racist, sexist, homophobic, materialistic, arrogant, violent, abusive, bigoted lyrics accompanied by a 'rhythm' that sounds like someone putting a coffin together with an uzi backed by 'musicians' who can program a simple drum machine with one hand while counting the money with the other"
"RAP should be made illegal! Especially rapping in public, or listening to a rap song on a mobile phone in public etc. 10 years prison for any of the above offences and death penalty for the repeat offence if you ask me!"
"Only urban chavs & gansta types like this hyped american rubbish. We dont need any gobby afro americans ranting about guns, gansta's and violence, our inner cities already have enough teenagers being shot or stabbed."
"I thought Glastonbury was a music festival. Hip Hop isn't music ... it's well ... it's just ranting. Do people want to pay good money for someone to rant at them ?"
"I thought Glastonbury was for rock/folk/blues-you know-MUSICIANS! I've seen phrases on here like 'Top Class Rapper' which made me laugh a great deal.If you can bear to listen to any rap, it's not music, it's for people who shout!Best keep it where it belongs................................in a far-distant galaxy if possible.............."
"Hip Hop is not music - it is just a noise!"
"Hip-Hop should be a crime. It's a crime against good taste."
"Im going to redding, and that has sold out because these sorts of gigs are for rock/indi music. i dont think rap should be aloud."
"Yes hip-hop is definitely wrong. Glastonbury is for Rock Stars and their followers. I wouldn't dream of going to see any other kind of artists there."
"Yes, Hip Hop is rubbish. It promotes laziness and selfishness. Rock promotes original thinking. Which one would you prefer to be?"
"Rap is the anti-Christ of music.Songs of violence, cop killing, drug use, ill gotten gains, degradation of women, and promotion of a thug lifestyle, have no place in the musical world. Keep that garbage where it belongs, in the ghettos. Long Live Rock!!!!"
"Maybe seing a rap artist playing alongside rock groups will open rap's followers eyes to the fact that they are being force fed rubbish"
"I totally agree with one commentator that hip-hop is souless junck music like fast food is tasteless junck food and therefore should be kept for audences who are after this kind of commercially driven product. Non of that garbadge at Glatsonbury, lest keep the spirit of Rock and Rock away from pollution"
"I agree with Noel this is not a festival for this rap rubbish its for real music played by real bands"
"Why would such a festival even consider having such rubbish headlining? Its insult to other bands like Oasis who have previously headlined, to put them at the same level! I expect The Killers, Oasis, Kaiser Chiefs, etc. in other words, good music, to headline a rock festival, not some pretend hardman who think's his a gangster."
"Glasto getting Jay Z to headline does imapact my decision. Jaz Z is certainly no Chemical Brothers, Prodigy or Radiohead."
"And who the hell is Jay-Z? Will be remembered in a couple of years?"
"Could'nt there be a different fesitival for hip hop? I dont Understand why different genres of music should mix."
"I'm quite a music obsessive. When it comes to 'guitar music', I know my stuff. I'm totally honest when I say I couldn't name you one of this guy's songs."
"Why is when people say they don't like rap, they are being called ignorant. My musical taste cross a broad spectrum, however i have tried to listen to rap but cannot listen to it. Most of the background music has been taken from other tracks and you have some so-called-artist talking really fast over it. Only a very very small percentage of people i know can listen to rap as part of their musical taste. But would never pay to see it at a festival..."
"If i go to a festival i want to see a BAND, ie someone who can play their own instruments, write their own songs and sing lyrics. I'm not interested in seeing some one trying to randomly rhyme over some one elses hard created song. Rap stay away."
"The last time I checked, Hip Hop is most definitely not music. Hip Hop artists do not sing or play their own instruments. They just shout over bits of other peoples tracks. Ever wondered why they do this?? Because they don't have the know-how or talent to produce their own stuff! And no, I'm not middle aged - I'm in my twenties."
"Hip Hop is wrong... period. Some ghetto boy talking over someone elses record, hardly talented."
"For the most part, I find Hip Hop to be anti social, vulgar, and just plain offensive. I would never attend a music event that had hip hop as a part of it."
"As an American, I would like to formally apologize for the rubbish that is "Rap"."
"No its not real music, 'performed' by people who cannot sing."
"Hip-hop? Don't make me laugh. Just a bunch of people who can't sing and seem to have no other talent."
"Rap, Hip-hop, Skippity-bob and Street grunt et. al. are simply not music but noise that is devoid of any distinctive, original quality."
"wont pay good money to see rap, any sort of rap. cos, at the end of the day, it's just two grown men shouting at each other"
"I though Glastonbury was a music festival ... is RAP music?"
"Hip hop is not music, just crass rubbish performed by people who want to have talent but were at the end of the queue when god handed it out, infact most of them couldn't read the signs to enable them to join it."
"Rap however is not music. The test for music is going acoustic which rap cannot do."
"Of course rap is wrong for Glastonbury which is a music festival Rap is NOT music... Rap is a way for talentless kids to make a fast buck out of gullible kids who like it because as their parents hate it. Stealing other people's music and then shouting over it takes no talent at all."
"Glastonbury is supposed to be about music, and rap certainly does not qualify on that count... Rap, however, is simply about a bunch of fools talking (usually in abusive manner) to a badly recycled backing track about nothing of any consequence. Hardly musical, so do not expect music lovers to want to listen to the stuff."
"'ip 'op ain't music, its just filth shouted onto recordiings for large sums of money by (and for) people with no brain cells, let alone talent."
"Rap is mostly talentless garbage. It was developed by urban youths who had zero musical talent with a lot of angry anti white, anti-police, anti-establishment messages. It has softened over the years after it was discovered that it could be sold to white suburbia"
"At the end of the day, Glasto provides a platform for bands to play live 'music', not take 'samples' of perfectly good songs and 'rap' over the top of them... Does that make me racist? No, I just prefer 'decent' music."
"Hip Hop is wrong full stop. Puerile trash. Minimalist talent on show at all times. No sign of a musician. Very bad prose. Where's the good bits? I'm a composer/musician by the way. It's time to educate the kids again."
"Rap is about the worst thing that's happened to music in my lifetime. You hear a good song like Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" start on the radio, just when you're beginning to enjoy it some moron without enough talent to write his own song starts droning on over the top of it with some meaningless drivel. Should be banned."
"The only reason hip-hop makes me uncomfortable is because it's talent-vacuum rubbish."
"Hip Hop and *rap are an abomination. No musical merit whatsover. Violent, misogynistic, foul mouthed, drivel chanted by idiotic, posturing, ludicrous fashion victims, many of whom can't string together a sentence without resorting to ghetto-speak."
"As for rap.. it's the voice of the aimless, uneducated, ignorant flotsam and jetsam that inhabit our society today....a badge for the malcontents."
"Any talentless fool consider himself as AN ARTIST nowadays.Punk, Hip-hop, metal, brainless models singing, etc. are just noise"
"Glastonbury has always stood for real music, real instruments, real singing and real talent. Hip hop has none of these thus has no place at Glastonbury."
"... hip hop and rap is merely mindless chanting with no musical roots and therefore has no place at a live music event"
"Rap is for people with no musical taste, 'written' by people with no idea of rhyme or poetry, no musical skills and usually no dress sense. Once in a while something good comes out of it, but it has to fight past the dross to be noticed... It's all about using someone else's musical talent as a sample to hide their own lack of ability."
"I don't understand the appeal of some black bloke talking over a piece of plagiarised music, if that's what "the kids" want them let them have it."
"Talking really fast is not singing. Repeating background music taken from other good songs does not make your song good."
"... hip hop is wrong for anywhere. it promotoes hate, violence and and any synonym that comes along with those two words. besides, it's not music. so why shoull it be played at a msuic festival."
"Glastonbury is a MUSIC Festival. Hip-hop is rubbish, and not music. Of course it is wrong."
"It's about time all forms of talking to a beat (usually in rhyme, sometimes in time!) were seen for what they are - a output for people with otherwise no musical talent. Having suffered this form of 'music' for over 28 years now, I'm thoroughly sick of it."
"I never really enjoy Rap. First, it's bad English. Second, it's beats, not MUSIC. Third, It's all grumpy and mumbles of self-centre issues."

"glastonbury modernising to hip hop and rap (well if thats music stop the world i want to get off)"
"I hate all this hip hop rubbish and would never pay to see it"
"'Hip hop' and 'artform' shouldn't appear in the same sentence - unless of course you include the word 'not'."
"It is the biggest pile of steaming poo I have ever had the misfortune of subjecting my ears to and should be banned from the planet."
"Because "rap" is rubbish."
"You can't put hip hop/rap in the same category as reggae music. Reggae is far superior"
"To my mind, hip hop is the same as opera. No one really likes it, it's just 'fashionable' to say you like it..."
"Glastonbury has never had very much to do with music, more with taking money from the terminally precious and dim. Can anyone think of a better definition of the hip-hop fan?"
"RAP, as George Harrison said, is just missing a 'C' - as that is what it is."
"The thing about rap music is that it's missing the letter 'c' at the front."
"Rap is one letter short of a discription!"
"Is hip-hop 'wrong' for Glastonbury? - No, its just wrong. It aint music, its rubbish and should be ignored."
"Hip hop isn't wrong for Glastonbury - it is wrong for the human race"
"I was under the impression that Glastonbury was some sort of music festival, so why would they be putting on Hip-hop?"
"Hip Hop. The word like the music is ridiculous. Freaks"
"Hip Hop is VILE and so is JayZ"
"Hip-hop is wrong anywhere ..... it's rubbish !"
"Hip hop is just plain wrong."

A sobering reminder to those of us who still believe. Because this is the sort of thing we're up against.

This was the soundtrack to our somewhat low-key New Year domino all-nighter (the dominoes were a Xmas present - hey, we don't do twee as fuck but we still do fucking twee), a chance to re-enjoy loads of the ace songs that came out in 2007. If you're bored (and you must be to be reading this), here's some maths fun for you: try adding up the number of songs here you actually like. The higher the number, the more we love you. Then, for heaven's sake, go and get some fresh air.

6 p.m.
Psalm Featuring Daddy Rusty - Tippa Irie 
Tracyanne - Horowitz 
Cross The Line - Pocketbooks 
80's Nottingham Grindcore Scene - Boyracer 
Curious Role Model - Beatnik Filmstars 
Fall Sound - The Fall 
Jupiter Force (Recruitment Video) - Bearsuit 
Sci Fi Guy - Strawberry Story 
Sixty Seconds to Fall in Love - Sunny Intervals 
Ilene - Harper Lee 
1987 + 1994 = 2007 - Steinbecks
Shrinkwrap - Bodines
The Secret History of Devil's Paw - Tullycraft 
You Could Do Something To Me - The Orchids 
Thought Crime Spree - Pig Destroyer 
Crucifixion - Gallhammer 
F.O.A.D. - Darkthrone 
Kushbu (Featuring JME, Gemini & Skepta) - Benny Bizzie
Star In The Making - Little Dee

7 p.m.
Bow E3 - Wiley 
Celebrate (JME Remix) - Roll Deep 
No Qualms (Revox Radio Edit) - Chipmunk, J.M.E, Skepta & Wiley 
Greatest Hits - Skepta 
64 Bar Statement - Chipmunk
Brooklyn Anthem (Featuring 77Klash & Jahdan) - Team Shadetek 
Harder Than You Think - Public Enemy 
Axiom - Durrty Goodz
Religion Is Fear - Extreme Noise Terror 
Human Waste - Extreme Noise Terror 
Short Fuse - Extreme Noise Terror 
Branded - Extreme Noise Terror 
Nothing No More - Extreme Noise Terror
Feto - Nashgul 
O Puto Lugar (Consumatum Est) - Nashgul 
Tu Que Lo Sabes Todo - Nashgul
Los Humanos Tambien Son Carne - Looking For An Answer
Repugnancia, Aversion y Odio - Looking For An Answer 
Cada Naciamento es una Tragedia  - Looking For An Answer
Fosa Comun - Looking For An Answer
Vuestro Respeto es Nuestro Desprecio  - Looking For An Answer 
Claire, Are We Safe To Be On Our Own - The Deirdres 
Yr So Wonderful - The Airfields
Cracked Open - The Manhattan Love Suicides 
Doing All the Things That Wouldn't Make Your Parents Proud - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Tour Of The Future - Forest Giants

8 p.m.
Popular Nazis - Beatnik Filmstars
If I Could Write Spiteful Lyrics - Faintest Ideas
Hand-In-Hand Grenade - Bedroom Eyes 
Eleven Fingers - The Nightingales
Thinking Is Killing Me (7" Version) - The Manhattan Love Suicides
Island Girl featuring Ari Up (J Star RMX) - Dubblestandart 
Peace Be Unto Thee - Bad Brains
The Majestic - ED209 
Inside Your Mind - ED209 
Hopelessly Wasted - Shrag 
Robot Boy - Robot Boy
05 - Terminator
How I Stay - Chipmunk 
We Aint Free feat. Rayezabeek - A-Bomb & Mindzeye 
This Once Was An Island - Trembling Blue Stars
More Soul Than Wigan Casino - Bearsuit 
Skip The Bridge - Faintest Ideas 
Astronauts - Lovejoy

9 p.m.
Nothing Really Happened - Math And Physics Club
Hopeless Is The Venue - The Deirdres
One Step Too Far - Seb Zero
Make Ends Meet - Jammer & Various Artists 
The Boy Who Cried Wolf - Dap-C
Badness - Badman 
Move Back (Featuring Chiefer) - Sway
Reign (Featuring Skepta) - Team Shadetek
Many Moves - Benny Bizzie 
Somebody Explain - Syer Barz 
200dbs Down - Ted Maul 
Raised On Rock - Darkthrone 
Classless - Armed Response Unit 
The Art Of Partying - Municipal Waste 
Damaged Goods - SSS 
Everything I Do Is Gonna Be Sparkly - Pete Green 
Until Kingdom Comes - Bad Brains 
Life That I Choose - Zion Train 
The Neighbour Next Door - Tippa Irie

10 p.m.
Help Dem Lord - Blak Twang 
Brighton Girls - Celestial 
Kick It Back (7" Version) - The Manhattan Love Suicides
Motorcycle Daydream - Bedroom Eyes 
The Glory Bitches Of Doghead - Mistress 
Drop Dead - Obituary 
Headbanger Face Rip - Municipal Waste 
Canadian Metal - Darkthrone 
Stalking Skills - Liechtenstein 
Girls Make Me Sick - Butcher Boy 
Is This How It Ends ? - Kelman
Wingtips - Boyracer 
Breakaway - Tinchy Stryder 
Top 3 Selected - Ghetto 
Trust (Radio Edit) - Gravenhurst 
A Lifetime In The Sun - The April Skies 
This Love is Fucking Right! - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart 
Shatner - Captain Polaroid

11 p.m.
Unexpected Holiday - Faintest Ideas  
Last Stand - The Manhattan Love Suicides 
The Long Way Home - The Airfields 
Fledermaus Can't Get It - Von Südenfed 
50/50 - Wiley 
Crunch... (Crunch) This From Crunch Time Vol 1 - Trimbal 
Who Are You? - Chipmunk 
Sometimes (Produced By Ratchet) - Frisco 
Never Get Parred - Jammer & Various Artists
Wait (Featuring Gully Rainjah & Knuckles) - Team Shadetek 
Boi Dem - Durrty Goodz
November Starlings - Trembling Blue Stars 
Profit In Your Poetry - Butcher Boy 
Let Things Fall Apart - Slipslide 
Always On The Telephone - The Ladybug Transistor 
Chessmonster - Chester P 
Rudely Interrupted (Ballistics Beats) - Trimbal 
Getalong Gang - Wiley 
Foxy Boxer - Bearsuit

Midnight
The Church Of Real Metal - Darkthrone 
Excuses - Boyracer 
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart 
Way Out of Reach - The Manhattan Love Suicides 
At The Dog Track - Forest Giants 
Temporary Best Friend - Would-Be-Goods 
I Was The Son Of A Teenage Comic Book Superhero's Sidekick - Horowitz 
Alamma - Sonico 
Hangaar 1 - Paul Langley 
Flooded - Von Südenfed 
Keep Up - Durrty Goodz
London Underground - Bashy 
Can You Hear Me Now - Public Enemy 
Rocks Bottom - Chester P 
When Acting As A Wave - The Dillinger Escape Plan 
Killed by the Queen - Gallhammer
Different World - Iron Maiden
Need For Speed - Saxon

1 a.m.
Evil Ways - Obituary
You Banged a Married Man - Boyracer
Wild Eyed & Restless & Free - Beatnik Filmstars
You're The One For Me - Sunny Summer Day 
Heaven - Club 8
My Only Inspiration - The Electric Pop Group
Take Back The Scene - Durrty Goodz  
Nan I Am London - Wiley
Jah People Make The World Go Round - Bad Brains 
Jah Love - Bad Brains 
Lyric A Rhyme - Tippa Irie 
Separating (Featuring Jammer) - Team Shadetek 
Autopsy - Skepta
African Zulu Warrior (Instrumental) - JME 
Saving My Presence - Celestial 
Hey Paul - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart 
Sycamore Peripheral - The Manhattan Love Suicides 
Orchard of My Eye - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart 
Tina's Child - Forest Giants
 
2 a.m.
Good Light - The Lucksmiths 
Violation - Jammer & Various Artists 
Consistant - Chipmunk 
Rest In Peace - Revolver 
Sorry Sorry Pardon What - Wiley 
Ripper in the Gloom - Gallhammer 
Seal Your Fate - Obituary 
Enslaved By Propaganda - Total Fucking Destruction 
Mistress - Mistress 
Nong Eye Gong - The Dillinger Escape Plan 
What A Situation - Zion Train 
Roll On - Bad Brains  
Pricks - Jammer & Various Artists 
Moving At A Fast Pace - Benny Bizzie 
Baby I'm Yours - Math And Physics Club 
Bad Decisions - My Sad Captains 
If Looks Could Kill - Camera Obscura
Keep It Coming - The Manhattan Love Suicides 
Summershine - Strawberry Whiplash 
Shin's Journey - The Steinbecks

3 a.m.
One Essex Girl - Tullycraft 
5ive On It RMX - Jammer & Various Artists 
Beg Your Pardon - Marcie & Hyper and N.J. 
Ghetto Violin (Practice session) ft. Vigar & Diddy 
We're Moving - Benny Bizzie 
Hold It Down (Original Remix) - Fireworkz 
Dance - Griminal 
Lyric That's My Hobby - Tippa Irie 
The City - Chester P 
I Learned To Rob - Revolver 
Don't Act Like You Know - Syer Barz
I Am Chipmunk - Chipmunk 
Class Of 07 - Wiley 
Knuxs Vs Angry Dubstep 
Now Is The Time [Vocal] - Geeneus
Jah War (Original) - The Bug ft. Flowdan 
Trauma (feat. Juakali) - Pinch
Barry Dub 2007 - Milanese

4 a.m.
Heathens (Third Eye Foundation's Step It Out of Lebanon Version) - Bracken
Missin' - Skepta 
Triple 6 - Coki (edit from Rinse 02)
Refuel - Skream (edit from Rinse 02)
Reformation - The Fall 
Systematic Abuse - The Fall
Raver - Burial 
Big Killaz - Parson & Skint 
Ghost Not Memory - Darqwan
That Sound Wiped - Von Südenfed  
247 (Original) - Ice Pack 
My Techno - Chris Liberator & Guy McAffer

5 a.m.
My House - Android and Victor Strogonov 
Hydraulix 37 B (Original) - The Anxious 
Hydraulix 36 A - D.A.V.E. The Drummer / Dj Redmond 
Head Start (Original) - Chris Liberator & Sterling Moss
Technique on Monday - K.N.
4th Dimension - Mark Ankh 
Hydraulix 37 A (Original) - D.A.V.E. The Drummer
We Know You're Cute, You Told Us - Tullycraft 
In My Previous Life - Boyracer

FIN

apparently, faqs are in vogue (it is the 1990s, isn't it ?), as are space-fillers about myspace etiquette. so here goes. if we get asked any others i'm sure they'll appear here eventually. probably.

who are you ? this is not important, and more importantly, it is not interesting. the music, we think without reserve, is both important and interesting.

why haven't you added me as a friend ? because we asked for used notes only. actually, the most likely reason is because we haven't checked our account for weeks, or that when we did we pressed the wrong button or got otherwise distracted. also, we keep meaning to listen to and investigate bands before adding them, which means then we don't get round to it at all, so again that reflects rather more on us than anyone else. in a minority of cases, we haven't added you because you are a terrible band (or label) and we can't conceive what you were thinking of, but in most, it's error or undue prevarication on our part. sorry!

are you on facebook ? are you, or have you ever been, on bowlie ? are you on any forums or messageboards at all ? do i know you ? no.

um, as we still have a kind of blog thing sitting lonelily in cyberspace, we decided to summarise on it some of what we felt was best in 2006.

the main reason being a positive one in that while it can still seem that 'our' music is ever-closer to being suffocated by a deadly pincer movement of tesco rock on the one hand and banda sheet-britpop on the other (i have just suffered the double-whammy of hearing the view album and seeing the nme award nominations), it feels good to know there were at least 50 singles and 50 albums of the last 12 months that can help to redress the balance. hope you agree with some of them (or are tempted to investigate others...)

best,

Buba and the Shop Assistants "Something To Do"

Bogshed "Excellent Girl"

Meat Whiplash "Don't Slip Up"

Mighty Mighty "Ceiling To The Floor"

The Chesterf!elds "Completely and Utterly"

Dog Faced Hermans "Incineration"

My Bloody Valentine "Sunny Sundae Smile"

Fizzbombs "Sign On The Line"

Age Of Chance "Bible Of The Beats"

The Flatmates "Happy All The Time"

Baby Lemonade "Secret Goldfish"

The Nivens "Yesterday"

McCarthy "Red Sleeping Beauty"

A Witness "Hard Day's Love"

Close Lobsters "Going To Heaven To See If It Rains"

Primal Scream "Crystal Crescent"

Soup Dragons "Whole Wide World"

The Wedding Present "My Favourite Dress" (BBC session)

Razorcuts "Big Pink Cake"

The Noseflutes "Perfect Cockney Hard-On"

Talulah Gosh "Talulah Gosh"

The Bodines "Therese"

14 Iced Bears "Sure To See"

Felt "Sunlight Bathed The Golden Glow"

HA!

Found it - in Matinee's own archive, at their site which you can still find here. This was the only interview we ever managed with a major label mogul, as it were. The first time I met Jimmy Tassos, it was by arriving stupidly late (from Sheffield Wednesday, bizarrely enough) in central London and, having missed the Visitors and Pipas, stumblingly introducing myself to him before we all got chucked out into the street - well, I did, anyway. This set a pattern for our subsequent meetings, of which there have been far too few, of me being a bit hopeless and Jimmy being very patient and relaxed. The e-mail exchange below also reflects that relationship! Even as my other top labels change - Maximum Minimum, Powertools, Century Media, and Relapse all issuing towering things now, for example - I would stand by the fact that Matinee Recordings is one of the greatest labels out there.

Matinee Recordings. Date sadly lost.

there have been many superfine record labels over the years. stax, tamla motown, rockney, people unite, postcard, ron johnson, subway organisation, earache and sarah spring immediately to mind (indeed, they appear to be a top ten of sorts). but right about now can there be a label which can oust matinee recordings of santa barbara, ca from pre-eminence ? in the words of professor griff, "not this day and time, my brother". anyway, the man to blame for the formidable back catalogue is mr. james tassos. we asked him some stuff. he replied. we call the result an "interview".

Are you happy to be led by the bands (and your tastes) developing the label "organically" or would you still feel able to put your foot down if a band discovered a particularly horrible new direction (Perhaps you have already!)? Presumably there are enough people out there now regarding the label as a "badge of quality" that you have to be even more careful with the release policy than when you started the Matinée empire?

This has not proven to be a big problem yet, although I have turned down songs by bands on the label maybe five or six times so far. I was surprised (but delighted) to learn awhile back that I instill fear in some bands on the label who apparently are nervous waiting to hear my response to new songs. Mostly I think bands know what I like, but for the record I am generally opposed to long wanky guitar solos, bleepy electronic garbage, unnecessarily long or repetitive songs, and uncredited samples. Note to bands sending demos: the same rules apply to you. We are lucky to have a number of very loyal fans of the label who buy nearly everything released. Of course this could change at any time if I ever put the name behind just one release that people didn't like, so quality control is obviously paramount to the longevity of the label.

And as the label continues to develop, can you see a time where you would consider getting more staff in, etc - or do you think that's when labels reach the size where they start to lose that quality control?

I would love to have help with the mailorder part of the business but I enjoy making decisions on the catalog, corresponding with bands and designing artwork and would find it hard to delegate any of these tasks. I'm a Virgo so I tend to adhere to the "do it yourself if you want to done right" philosophy and it seems to have worked so far.

What was behind the move out to the West coast? How are you enjoying things in Santa Barbara?

The move here was spurred by a great job offer for my wife Mary, and we jumped at the chance for a bit of adventure moving across the country because I work on a consulting basis so can work from nearly anywhere. We lived in DC for almost ten years so the change is nice and we love it here. There is no real indie scene in Santa Barbara, but we are between Los Angeles and San Francisco so if I ever need a dose of a scene I can drive a few hours away or fly to London. Santa Barbara is a pretty groovy place: nobody seems to have a job here, and everybody is good looking and happy. Needless to say, we fit right in. Besides serving as home to loads of famous people who can't stand Los Angeles, it also apparently holds the distinction as the U.S. city with the highest number of restaurants per capita so if you visit us you will eat well.

I get the impression you discover a lot of bands more by word of mouth, but do you find yourself besieged by demo tapes, etc now? Do you even have time to listen to them?

I receive a lot of demos, and I listen to everything I receive but it is a rare day when I like something enough to sign a band. The latest two bands to join the label - The Young Tradition and Pale Sunday - both approached me with demos, so it is certainly not out of the question. The problem with many of the demos I receive is that they appear to come from bands who have no idea what Matinée is about and in some cases have obviously never heard anything we released. I put all the demos in a box and about once a month I sit down for a listen. I try to time the listening sessions to coincide with people visiting Santa Barbara - last year we did demo jukebox juries with Gregory Webster, Jenny and Leonard of Bella Vista, Mark and Lupe of Pipas, and The Lucksmiths. So if you sent a demo last year and you have not yet released a record on Matinée it's most certainly the fault of one of these critics.

You obviously take care with art and design. Quite a few of the sleeves are photographed / designed by you personally - a lot of them seem to have a "Matinée" theme of sorts - although equally, some obviously come from the bands. Is the sleeve art simply a matter of how the bands want to present themselves and you step in by default - or would you ever veto sleeve art? (I'm reminded of tales of Sarah sleeve designs, you know, the ban on pictures of women on the sleeves and the fact they also hated having pictures of the bands...)

I usually collaborate with the bands to create the finished art. There are a few bands who like to develop artwork and in most cases they have good taste so I am happy with the result. In other cases bands need a little or a lot of help to finalize artwork, and in some cases I have relative freedom to design whatever I want. I have not really forced a veto on any suggested artwork but I have successfully moved bands to something better in a few cases. We have no stated bans on women or band photos on sleeves but then again, those Matinée artists are an attractive bunch, don't you think?

Another Matinée hallmark is the cracking line of reissues - the Visitors, Siddeleys, Razorcuts, Brighter... are you still looking into further "archive" releases or will that line of work dry up now you've released some of the very best 80s stuff, say and want to concentrate on the current roster? (If not, how about James Dean Driving Experience?)

Although this cracking line of reissues is fun, the main focus will remain on the current roster. The Razorcuts and Brighter reissues came about because I was already working with Gregory Webster in Sportique and Keris Howard in Harper Lee and we received a lot of requests to reissue material from their former bands. Although the label focus is on the current bands, I personally would love to see retrospective releases from The Bodines and East Village and yes, James Dean Driving Experience, so there is always the possibility of more reissues in the future.

Do you think there's a typical fanbase for Matinée? We worry that maybe fans of 70 percent of the bands might not always like Sportique's recent stuff, say, or the dancier elements of Lovejoy's work... if so does that frustrate you too? Or is it made up for by people getting those records who might not delve into the catalogue otherwise?

There is definitely a hardcore fanbase for the label and these wonderful people buy just about everything released. We love them. Other people come to the label because of one band and start discovering others they like as well. One guy wrote to me after picking up the Matinée 50 compilation "just so he could hear the Lucksmiths song" and he was blown away that the CD contained 19 other songs that he liked as well. He is quickly buying everything released on the label. That is very cool. Lovejoy and Sportique are two bands that continue to push the envelope. Both bands continue to sell well, though, so with a label catalog of over 80 releases I think it's great to have this diversity. The new Smiths tribute record has great potential for exposing new people to the Matinée catalog. We shipped CDs directly to nearly 100 people this month who have never ordered from Matinée before and in some cases have never heard any of the participating bands. If a few of them discover bands they like on the CD and buy something else as a result we will be very happy.

Have you encountered any problems with distribution? We're particularly interested in UK & Europe, given labels like 555 who've effectively been forced to give up - or are you ok simply because you're selling records in sufficient quantities that you still have a decent bargaining hand?

I can honestly say I have no bargaining power with UK and European distributors, but we do continue to sell decent amounts over there. About half of all Matinée sales are outside the US, and because all of my US distributors also export, it could be even more than that. Having a regular release schedule encourages distributors to pay us so they can sell future releases. Downloading is having a negative impact on indie labels, though, so I think it will prove difficult to maintain sales going forward. We have doubled sales via our website mailorder in the past year, which is making up for declining distributor numbers. The number of label collectors also continues to grow and these fans are busy buying up the back catalog in addition to all the new releases.

And what of vinyl... are you confident you'll be able to carry on putting out singles, at least on vinyl, or are there issues now with cost vs demand?

We have no new releases scheduled on vinyl at the moment, and I can't see this changing any time soon. The cost is high for vinyl and fewer people seem interested so releasing a 7" is a certain financial failure. We have never approached 7" releases (or any singles for that matter) with an eye towards profits but instead as a way of gaining exposure for a band or simply an art statement. I love the fact that we have released 25 singles on 7" and that several of them are among the top sellers for the label. In the next year a number of the remaining 7" will sell out and that's great because there are classic songs on those singles that people should hear.

Turning the new technology, you try to ensure that people can hear songs on the website. Are you aware / concerned about people getting Matinée band downloads from other sources, or are you quite comfortable that people who hear your bands that way are still buying them? (I suppose it's a little like a replay of the old "home taping" debate...)

I have no idea if Matinée songs are available for download but can only assume they are if you know where to look. The Matinée website currently offers about a dozen mp3s from new releases and more than 100 real audio files from back catalog titles. These are designed to give people a taste and hopefully encourage further exploration and buying. I recognize that some people just download mp3s and never buy anything, but I suppose those people will likely not buy anything in any event so allowing them a few downloads is at least providing a bit of exposure for the bands.

Very interested to read (in tasty) that early Creation was a real inspiration.... Any thoughts on the other UK labels that were seen as "cool" back then - Cherry Red, El, Sarah, Subway... presumably Sarah was an inspiration at least to the extent that "A Smile Took Over" was an early Matinée artefact...?

Creation was the first indie that made me realize there was something important about label aesthetic. It was around the time of early Primal Scream, The Loft, The Bodines, Biff Bang Pow!, Jasmine Minks, Weather Prophets...and I realized one day that they were all on the same label. That made me wonder what else they released and I quickly started looking for anything with the Creation logo. Some of the other larger indies didn't do it for me. I thought Cherry Red was too inconsistent in terms of style, so I could not trust the logo enough to buy everything on the label. I was never really an él fan although I love the Would-Be-Goods and James Dean Driving Experience releases. For awhile the Rough Trade logo was enough for me to take notice. I discovered Sarah and Subway a bit later but I fully supported what they were doing and probably have every release on the labels.

Have you ever been in bands yourself? Have you never been tempted to do an Alan McGee and indulge yourself with putting your own records out? (maracas on Airport Girl records don't count!)

Hey! It was bongos, man! I have never had any interest in forming a band, probably because I don't think I have any musical abilities. Just good ears.

What was the score with the Razorcuts and Snowdrops legal / clearance issues - as far as you're allowed to tell us? Should such tortuous progress when you want to just get some great records out confirm our prejudices about major labels / "the music industry"? (Or lawyers?)

We keep no secrets from ILWTT readers. The Razorcuts and Snowdrops license clearance problems were frustrating but for very different reasons. With Razorcuts, we knew exactly where to go because Sony took over the rights to the Creation catalogue. The problem was that the potential upside for Sony from licensing Razorcuts songs was so miniscule in the scheme of their corporate profits that we could not get them to focus on the request. In the end we received a letter permitting us to go forward. With the Snowdrops, the request bounced among publishing companies in New York, London and Los Angeles and nobody could say they had the rights to "Mad World" but one of them eventually took our money so we were able to release the record. If only the millions of people who bought the Donnie Dorko version had discovered the Snowdrops instead we would be having a very different discussion today.

Nothing to do with music, but we recall you took an interest in staying up for some of the [soccer] world cup last year - is that still a relatively obscure interest to have in the States? Presumably you were following the USA team in particular - did you feel sympathy for them in that if they'd come from any other country in the world they'd have been hailed as returning heroes after reaching the quarter finals? (I know we did!)

Soccer is a hugely popular sport in the US, particularly among younger kids. I think American interest in the World Cup is growing as more and more kids (and their parents) get into the game. Soccer is particularly popular in Washington DC because it is such an international city and a frequent host to international matches, so living there certainly made me a bigger fan. I absolutely supported the US team but was also pulling for England, Italy, Brazil and Spain at various times. No matter how much they win, I doubt the US will ever be hailed as returning heroes because so many people consider them newcomers to the game. We'll see what sort of response they get in Germany in 2006!

You've made it to London a few times in the last few years - do you have any favourite things about our sprawling home town?

The best thing about visiting London is that I have a lot of friends there, so when I visit I have a full social agenda. That makes it glamorous I suppose. There is a healthy music scene too so hosting or attending shows is always fun. You also have the best Indian restaurants in the world, superb record shops, great museums, and some decent architecture so my visits are always good fun.

And lastly, as a reward for so patiently wading through all these questions, do you want to plug some forthcoming Matinée delights before you go? Please do!!...

Of course! We have just released the fantastic debut album from The Liberty Ship called "Tide" and a slightly controversial compilation called "Romantic and Square is Hip and Aware" with 12 Matinée bands covering songs by The Smiths. The next releases include the "Bitter Club" CDEP by Pipas and a collection of obscure and unreleased recordings from The Fairways called "This Is Farewell." After that, look for new releases by The Snowdrops, Lovejoy, Harper Lee, The Young Tradition, Pale Sunday and a few others. So save up your pennies...with the dollar currently so weak against the pound (thank you, George Bush) you'll only need a few of them to buy everything we release in 2004.

and you can catch up with the latest goings-on at matinée by having a look around the official website. the photos are courtesy of matinée too - thank you, of course, to jimmy, especially for such open answers. j.t. is, quite genuinely, one of the kindest people we've met. that is all. ILWTTISOTT

Rosehips. Winter 2004.

"We cared about dirty guitar sounds and pit closures, not jelly babies and girls..."

OK. The Rosehips. Check it out right now.

The Rosehips were... well, kind of like the Shop Assistants, except from Stoke and faster and punkier and perhaps actually not that much like the Shop Assistants at all except they had a girl singer and buzzing guitars and were on Subway so for most people's purposes it was a fair enough comparison to make. Except the Rosehips didn't do those really slow songs like the Shop Assistants ones where Alex's voice was so honeyed up it kind of dripped on to the glockenspiels and purring guitars below. Instead, they looked to the Ramones and generally speaking did their best to make sure the songs tired themselves out after eighty seconds or so. They were - to start with - Yoland (Yo) on vocals, Glenn on guitars, Ant on bass and Mark (Mark 1) on drums. They first struck gold with "Room in your heart", which we always thought was at least three choruses, plus some great stop / start stopping and starting. And that came, at least on 12", with five other tunes of almost the same calibre. Before we knew it, John Peel was playing us their second single, "I Shouldn't Have To Say", and it was their most Ramones-like, the boys joining in the chorus, and still over pretty much before it began. Again it was accompanied by some brilliant songs - "Loophole" was always a favourite, with its manic 'celebration' of "staying the same forever" then mutating into a two-note slowed down outro in which the two notes always reminded us of our doorbell, and "Sad as Sunday" which flopped through 3 1/2 fantastic minutes, largely with the same repeated refrain which sounded something like "Won't be alone / 'Til it all goes wrong" which if so is such a great line and seems the more so as time passes.

What was the motivation behind getting together originally - just friendship and drinking, or a desire to be the next U2 ?

Rocker: At the time U2 stood for all we were against!
Yo: The "U2 CD plays in my XR3" line [from the third EP's "Designer greed"] was about what we hated. Today's equivalent would be "Radiohead in-car- DVD plays in my Rav 4". Blair's anti-socialists are just as sickening as Thatcher's yuppies were. My reality is "Manics tape plays very loud to compete with the old diesel engine in my Maestro Van".

Who were the bands you were listening to at the time? The Ronettes? The Ramones? Contemporary bands?

Glenn: Certainly the Ramones (you mean you can tell?) but I always liked the Shangri-Las more than the Ronettes. I was listening to a lot of reggae, and obvious stuff like the VU, Iggy and Beefheart. My major musical love has always been The Fall and I was also well into The Membranes / 3 Johns / Nightingales etc fanzine scene, Sonic Youth and The Birthday Party / Nick Cave and general Peelie stuff, like everyone else I suppose.

Rocker: Wedding Present, June Brides, Undertones, Shangri-Las, Shop Assistants, A Witness, Pastels, New Order / Joy Division, Roy Orbison, Ivor Cutler, Mekons, Fall, Pauline Murray, Mega City 4, Inspiral Carpets, Buzzcocks, Slade...

Rocker: Velvet Underground, Television, Blondie, Husker Du, Butthole Surfers, TV Personalities, Housemartins, Nico, Jazz Butcher, Viv Stanshall, Blue Aeroplanes, Doors, Dooleys, Hawkwind, Stiff Little Fingers, Talulah Gosh, Pixies, T.Rex, Felt...

Rocker: The Cure, Soup Dragons, Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes, Spacemen 3, Velvet Crush, Pink Floyd, House Of Love, Groove Farm, Specials, Pop Will Eat Itself, We've Got A Fuzzbox..., Extreme Noise Terror [yaaay!!!]...

How did the band end up on Subway originally ?

Glenn: We sent a (dreadful) tape to about five labels and Subway were the ones who got in touch. I think.

Yo: I think it was cos the Soup Dragons left.

Ant: Martin rang me and asked if we wanted to be on the first Subway compilation album. To cut a long story short me and Yo went to London for the cut and I think I asked Martin if I could buy a Flatmates badge from him and he said "you get them free when you're on the label". Our fifth gig was in Bristol with the Flatmates and after the show he signed us.

Ant: We signed for 2 singles, did 2 singles and I don't remember big arguments about money.
Mark 1: I was certainly never in it for the money. I couldn't tell you how many records we sold either, I wasn't really interested.

Ant: It was all a laugh really. Subway was always a great idea but a bad business decision!

Then came the reshuffle and expansion of the line-up. How did that come about ?

Glenn: Mainly because the first Mark decided to leave.

Yo: Mark 1 was an ace hard-core drummer, we got faster and faster and faster.... he could play and read a paper at the same time, so he got bored and left.

Glenn: We didn't want to pack in so we looked around for people to help.

Yo: We had wanted extra guitar for ages, so it was a perfect opportunity to ask Pete to get out of the audience and onto the stage.

Ant: Rocker was shite on drums really, so that changed very quickly.

Mark 2: Rocker had a very individual style. No one else sounded like Rocker on the drums. It was like an entire Boys Brigade band falling down a flight of stairs - but in a fairly co-ordinated way that used to sound really good. I think, in the end, Rocker's organ proved irresistible and I was drafted in to fill the gap.

Yo: .... And so we were six.

Ant: Pete was always first choice on extra guitar and Mark 2 is the best drummer to walk the planet!! Job done!

Obviously when you came back with the 3rd ep a lot of things changed - not just the music being tighter, and more variety, but in particular the lyrics were suddenly biting, often very funny and sometimes quite brilliant. Was that a conscious thing, or just the way bands get the confidence to start writing about more than "just" boys and girls?

Pete: The songs are Glenn's territory really as he wrote them and we fleshed them out, arranged them, added bits and pieces here and there.

Mark 1: Are you trying to say that my drumming wasn't tight? You cheeky bugger!!

Was there a conscious decision to "beef up" the sound at the same time ?

Mark: Well Ant was getting fatter...

Ant: ...But still the best looking member of the band by far!

Pete: I don't think it was particularly conscious, just that with the line up expansion the sound naturally got fuller.

Glenn: I think it just came naturally from the number of people and the more confident playing. We all listened to far more than C86 stuff (in fact, that was pretty low down the list) so we incorporated bits from post-punk, 50s and 60s rock'n'roll, US hardcore etc.

Rocker: We just found out how to get the stuff to sound more like we wanted it to!

Yo: Most of the band had followed me into vegetarianism by then. We just wanted to sound different.

Mark 2: I just hit the drums as hard as I could and everyone else had to keep turning up to be heard. I think the change was fairly natural. It was not a conscious effort to change but any changes did represent the sorts of stuff we were all into.

And was Chaotic Brilliance your own (aptly titled) label ?

Glenn: Funnily enough, fact fans, the name was taken from a blurb on the back of a Membranes album. The Gift of Life, I think. Ant and I in particular loved the Membranes and it was Ant who organized the label with, I seem to remember, one of those enterprise grants or whatever they're called.

Rocker: They paid you a pittance to set up your own small business, as it kept you off the dole figures.

Yo: It was Ant's way of avoiding a real job.

Ant: Yep kids - me avoiding a job really, loved doing it though!

Which did you enjoy most - making records or playing live? (we're "too young" to remember, but the impression is that playing live was a major part of the Rosehips' whirl...)

Glenn: Making records was much less hassle but of course we didn't get to do it very often! The gigs and accompanying journeys were almost always great fun, although the novelty did begin to wear off after a while. A day on the motorway for the sake of an hour or so on stage can be a drag. I'm glad I did it but I wouldn't wanna 'make a career out of it' as Mark Smith heckled back to that bloke on "Totale's Turns". [forget "Live in Leeds", "Totale's Turns" is the definitive live album].

Rocker: Enjoyed both - especially playing live when the audience were into it!

Pete: Playing live was the biggest fun part for me. My memory of the recordings is that it all seemed a bit stressful - being put on the spot and trying to get a part right. It was just a relief when it was done.

Ant: The studio became more and more interesting each time we went in, but also more frustrating. It seemed really difficult to describe sounds to someone and not get the results I wanted. I think this is why I went into studio work. The live thing was pure chaos most of the time, far too much beer and a blur of ripped up paper!

...And who were the best and friendliest bands you played with ? Any that you were happy not to see again?

Glenn: We always got on very well with Mega City 4, despite having fuck all in common in most respects. Thrilled Skinny were one of my favourite bands anyway, so gigging with them was always a joy. Ditto The Capitols. The Darling Buds were very nice. The Flatmates became good friends of course. As in life, most people were great and you soon forget or learn to ignore the arseholes.

Ant: I'm with the others on this one. I cant remember any twats at all.

Much later we came across the Secret compilation cd, completely by chance. The mind boggled at the time as to what fairy godmother was responsible for a Rosehips retrospective, especially on what we think was a US label - how did that come about?

Ant: I must admit I thought it was a wind-up, or somebody had won the lottery, decided to put a record out, taken a big bag of drugs, stuck a pin in the a to z of all the bands that ever existed ever and landed on us! Nice though.

Rocker: And also we had the extra tracks sitting around and had no plans for any other releases.

Looking back, should there have been more "sympathy" for the Rosehips?

Pete: No not at all - the recordings are still there for whoever to discover. I thought it a bit odd that the later stuff didn't get much attention as there was a some good material. But the music scene was changing - the 90s and all that were just around the corner, so I suppose it was not surprising.

Glenn: I'm glad that whoever liked it liked it. I honestly don't think we were good enough to stick around much longer. It's a shame perhaps that we didn't get to stick out some of those later songs a bit earlier because I agree with you that some of them are the best stuff we did.
Rocker: I think the band was tarnished with a "twee" label that was inaccurate!

But does it bug you that your later songs, especially, slipped under the radar?

Mark 1: No the earlier stuff was always better, especially the drumming!

Mark 2: Poor Mark, heâs clearly mad and his delusional psychosis clearly merits all our "sympathies".

Ant: I have a massive confession Marks 1 and 2. I played drums on all Rosehips tracks! When you boys were in the pub or chasing women I overdubbed all drum tracks!!

Did you formally split up ? Or did Rosehips mk II just slowly disappear ?

Glenn: Well I decided to finish and I remember telling Ant (and Yo, I think) at some local punk gig in the Sutherland Arms. Just that I was finishing - that didn't necessarily mean the end of the band, although I think Ant and Mark 2 had The Venus Beads going by then anyway, so they obviously decided to concentrate on that.

Rocker: Glenn was frustrated that the band weren't doing better, and we all knew we couldn't carry on without Glenn.

Pete: Without Glenn it wouldn't have been the same.

Ant: I'm with Glenn on this one. I thought it had run its course at the same time as Glenn, its just that he was the first to say. I had started Venus Beads with Mark and all my attentions had become focused on that. Having said that I know that I wouldn't be doing what I am today if me and Glenn hadn't formed the Rosehips!

Yo: You can blame me for "Fashion Victim" I really disliked it, couldn't sing it, or much else for that matter. "A slow painful death to vivisectionists everywhere" with words was recorded for the Animal Liberation Front. It made me realise why Southerners think I'm Scouse when I'm angry. The instrumental version is my favourite Rosehips recording, it twanged like it was born to surf!

Ant: I loved all of those tracks but I think for me, we had run out of steam.

Mark 2: Yeah - I like all those songs the most and no one is to blame for them not ever having been released at the time. The main thing is they were released eventually I suppose (to be discovered and revered by future generations no doubt!)

And what are you all up to now?

Yo: We all do stuff we are interested in I think. I'm still doing (and just about hanging on to my own) Mental Health - very topical, poor old Bruno, the Sun should be litigated into oblivion, etc, etc. Best not to get myself started unless you really want to know about the Recovery Model and the appalling lack of Dual Diagnosis provision...

Pete: I make music with Trilemma, run the Blue Minnow label with Rob from Trilemma and work in adult education.

Rocker: I still live in Bristol - haven't been up to Stoke for a couple of years now - I play keyboards for "McDowell" - currently (and slowly) working on our second LP. I also DJ as "B_Man" and play progressive house music.

No chance of a "sell-out" comeback tour like every other band "from the 80s"?

Pete: The Rosehips had their time and it's to best leave it at that, so no - we won't play together again! No one would really be interested anyway - especially us!

Mark 1: I wouldn't do a comeback tour, I think some things are best left alone.

Ant: Best leave the past in the past.

OK... so what bands should we be listening to, especially from Stoke at the moment ? Are we remiss in only being aware of Trilemma ?

Glenn: The Mittens are great. Pete MUST have told you about the Mittens!

Pete: The Mittens are fantastic but I would say that having done some recording with them, helping them out and what-not!

Glenn: Agent Blue are also jolly good but they're on some Billy-big-bollocks label now!
Ant: As for Stoke talent, obviously Agent Blue who have just finished their debut album, also VC's, Trilemma, Alfa 9, Shiro etc.

Yo: The world should be listening to Texas Radio Band, Man....or Astroman? and Cerys Matthews and should be feeding the birds, remembering the miners and discovering Oatcakes.

Rocker: Bristol bands to watch for: Radon Daughters and Hazel Winter.

Pete: Other stuff, the Hidden Cameras lp is fantastic, all the Low records are amazing, the Kills, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Raveonettes.....

And the quickfire buzzer round to finish...
Favourite Rosehips song ?

Glenn: Well as a result of this website business, I've listened to the stuff again for the first time in years (because people asked me for tapes etc) and I must say, a lot of it is better than I thought. Overall, probably Bloodstained Fur - but they all have fond associations for me.

Mark 2: Bloodstained Fur or A Slow Painful Death.

Yo: A Slow Painful Death... or That was your life.

Mark 1: The Last Light , 'cos it got us going. ["The Last Light" appeared on the "take the subway to your suburb" label comp - the first ever Rosehips release]

Ant: Dangerous Transmitter and The Last Light.

Pete: Difficult one but I'd probably go for So NaÃ?ve or Fashion Victim.

Rosehip tea or earl grey ? [Staffordshire caff proprietors, start taking notes here]

Glenn: Ooh God, neither.

Rocker: Tesco own brand, white no sugar please.

Pete: Earl Brutus for me!

Yo: Hard tap water that's come via old lead pipes.

Mark 1: Coffee white 1/2 a sugar.

Mark 2: Just normal tea.

Ant: PG, dead strong, leave the bag in for about 10 mins, tiny bit of milk and a 1/16th of a sugar... not that I'm fussy or anything.

Hardcore or R&B?

Glenn: Hardcore punk or techno? I'm not mad on techno I must admit, but I love good R&B (in its 1960s and 21st century incarnations) and of course I will always love the Kennedys, the Flag, MDC [oh yes - back of the net] and all those doods.

Rocker: Which hardcore is that? I have a particular hatred of "The Streets"

Yo: Surf-punk.

Mark 1: Definitely hardcore.... (we are on about porn aren't we??) [again, yes. good spot]

Mark 2: Hardcore every time.

Vale or Stoke City?

Yo: Vale - obviously.

Mark 1: Red and white all the way.

Ant, Mark 2: Stoke City.

Glenn: I'm a City boy, for my sins. Season ticket holder for donkeys' years and currently praying for a miracle.

Pete: I'm a lapsed Stoke City fan. I used to have a season ticket when they had a good team in the top division but lost interest when they started playing rubbish football! [we make this about 1985, fact fans.] Always had a soft spot for the Vale though.

John Peel - god or god ? (sorry for leading question, but he united us with your music, for a start...)

Mark 2: Isn't he that bloke who does Home Truths ?

Glenn: Er, God.

Yo: Pope John Peel...

Rocker: Peel is still god.

Pete: Irreplaceable.

Mark 1: Not trying to be controversial but he plays far, far too much shite for me, he has done for years and I don't know anyone who listens to him on a regular basis any more. Best before end of 1990. Good when he played us though.

Yo: Radio Times is very dull without his column, yes we are that old, ooh, time for Gardener's World, must go...

and with that, they were indeed gone. thank you to all the rosehips, basically for being so fabulous, but especially to pete for co-ordinating the whole exercise so patiently. er, and sorry to all of them for not flagging more clearly that we were being ironic with the u2 reference (although unlike the rosehips, we are - unironically - lovers of xr3s...) anyway, enough of us. did we mention there is a rosehips website ? thought so - you should go there. now. ILWTTISOTT

While I've never (yet!) got to meet Marc Elston, he was always kind enough to send me tapes of his new band The Liberty Ship, and I was delighted as anyone when they signed to Matinee Recordings, releasing the top "Northern Angel" single. I'd had the immense good fortune to have seen Marc's former outfit Bulldozer Crash in Nottingham an inordinately long time ago, at what I think may have been the Heaven Records Christmas party, a gathering of water pistols, flowers and feyness at which Neil from Bouquet dropped his plectrum in my pint (to be fair, he was very very drunk at the time, as anyone else who saw Bouquet's set will testify). Anyway, on a bill that included many other top artistes of the day (Strawberry Story, Confetti, Slumber - another real find, and probably the Fat Tulips), B.C., possibly with White Town's Jyoti on bass (I have very befuddled memories of gigs from around this time) were probably the most consummate, and I soon tracked down their "Sarah Said" / "Changing" 7", which I am still immensely fond of. Around the time this interview was done, Marc also let me have a copy of BC's excellent album on Sunday Records, which was tremendous - very self-conscious and self-aware, but dead rewarding.

The Liberty Ship. Spring into Summer, 2002.

"Holding on's not easy / But that's another story"

we may have mentioned bulldozer crash on these pages before - stephen maughan (creator of this almighty pop!) and marc elston's early 90s pop combo who shimmered brightly for sunday records of illinois with singles from "sarah said" to the mini-lp "imperfection": the latter, as its title suggests, though not without flaws, was a very human, quietly rewarding and dramatically undervalued creation. now, it's 2 for the price of 1: while stephen and new co-conspirator geoff suggett have resurfaced as kosmonaut with a hook-filled, spacey single on firestation tower and apparently one to come on matinÃ?e, marc has set sail in the liberty ship, a bold and beautiful aggregation of indie sensibilities with elements of alt country, west coast americana, lush sixties velvet(s), even (whisper it softly) folk stylings. songs like "i guess you didn't see her" (first previewed on the firestation tower compilation "i tried a thousand times a thousand times to change your mind") and "don't react", as we may have noted, are pretty instant: musically there's nothing hidden, just in-yer-face harmonies. right about now, things are starting to happen for the liberty ship: "i guess" being the new 7" on matinÃ?e, while in a few weeks their old friend albert at sunday will be putting out a six-tracker called, according to the label site, "small lives". as is our wont, we made a nuisance of ourselves and marc duly obliged to answer our garbled, but well-meaning, enquiries. starting with the most dully prosaic of all.

why the name ?

Real liberty ships were famous for splitting up mid-voyage. On a more earnest level a few years ago I gave myself permission to write melodic, simple and guitar based songs again (twee ? fuck off!) The Liberty Ship is a vehicle for creative honesty... so there!

so you're now a fully fledged 3 - or even 4 - piece ?

We are a four piece now. Tim [bass] is an old friend, Rachel [guitar] we got through an ad in a music shop (a risky strategy that paid off!) Steve [drums] works with Rachel. Steve is that rare thing, a drummer into songs rather than drumming!

i think it's fair to say that the new songs have a very different character to bulldozer crash - there are many more influences than just the traditional "indie" sound, and some of your recent demos are very rustic - a world away from the feedback of "changing"... is this just the way your songwriting has developed, or did you consciously want to move away from those recordings ?

I wasnÃ?t consciously trying to get away from the Bulldozer sound (if you glue the Ship and StephenÃ?s new band Kosmonaut together [maximum soundclash!! excited editor] I guess you would get the v. 2002 Bulldozer Crash). My influences in B. Crash were typical of anyone who spent the late 80Ã?s and early 90Ã?s in various Indie Discos. My tastes are wider now (curiosity, more money and re-issue CDs). Some things I listen to now would get me shot by the Indie Taste PoliceÃ??but endear me to my Dad!

how did the slot on the firestation tower comp come about ?

It is fair to say I was a bitÃ??erm Ã??out of the loop when it came to small labels. My brother Graeme [Love Parade, Eva Luna, Slipslide] gave me a list of labels to send demos to. Firestation made positive noises. IÃ?d love to play one of their club nights if theyÃ?d have us. [memo to FST: you know what to do].

are you a big admirer of gene clark then ? [the b-side of the new single is a fine rendition of clark's "she don't care about time"]:

and other favourite songwriters of now and yesteryear ?

There are loads of writers I admire. Lennon and McCartney - obviously, Andy Partridge - witty and original, Edwyn Collins - wordplay and Michael Head - simplicity and melody.

tell us about the songs on the forthcoming mini-lp, which reunites you with sunday records.

Sunday took an interest early on. Cabin Fever is on the mini LP as it is too long to cut as a 45, it is just about my favourite song as it achieves the kind of sound I have been chasing since I started. The other songs were recorded before Steve joined so there are some which we probably will never play live. I thought it would be cool to give Sunday a new version of What Happens NowÃ?? a coming full circle type thang. On an Indie trivia tip, Albert, the Sunday supremo sends THE shortest e-mails!

what other bands should we be looking out for in the east midlands at the moment ?

Difficult this. Things have reversed since the 80Ã?s, it is easier to record and get music out than it is to get a gig in Nottingham (witness our pitiful gig tally). Johnny Domino keep coming up trumps, IÃ?m an unashamed fan. DerbyÃ?s Frankie Machine sound great as long as youÃ?re not looking for a good laugh. Apart from that itÃ?s the usual grim procession of Nu-metal and tribute bands.

what if you're looking for a romantic meal ?

Bees Make Honey on Alfreton Road.

... a big night out with the, um, "crew" ?

I went for a so-called lads' night out last Friday, my advice to anyone visiting Nottingham is to take the civilising influence of female companions as without them you don't stand a cat in hell's chance of gaining entry into Nottingham's premier night spots.

... a sunny sunday stroll ?

I don't usually get much further than Spar for the newspaper. The Embankment by the lazy River Trent.

and to finish the ilwttisott questionnaire, we're focusing on alcoholic afternoons, celluloid and a leading champion of both... what are your favourite tipples, all-time movies and (naturally) smiths songs ?

Marc: Marston's pedigree bitter, Brighton Rock [a particularly brilliant choice, if we may say so], and "Unloveable" - today!

Tim: Jamesons, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, "There is a light..."
Rachel: Gin, Rita Sue and Bob too, "What she said".
Steve: Rolling Rock, Mad Max, "This Charming Man".

before you go, any world cup predictions ?

No predictions, potentially painful, all I have to say is... Danny Mills - why ?

* * * * *

Why indeed. We should point out that Marc's comment on Danny Mills was made prior to the England v Sweden game, which makes him (Marc, not Mr Mills) one of the more prescient pop stars on the block... Anyway, rather than dwell on it, we suggest you check out these guys - the band whose tastes range from everything from Brighton Rock to Rolling Rock... ILWTTISOTT