Box Set: Loungecore

A collection of some of my recent features on mid to late nineties loungey indie dance music...

It looks as though some of you aren't aware that I now have a new website (which you can find here), and are still hanging around here wondering where all the new 'content' is. Well it's over there, obviously. To give you all some idea of where to start, though, I'm adding some new posts here with themed collections of links, and this time it's some of my recent features and podcasts about the long-forgotten Britpop spin-off Loungecore...

Come On And Love Me Now - the enduring appeal of Life by The Cardigans

Amongst Them Trevor The Sheep - what really happened when Chris Morris' Blue Jam got taken off-air halfway through a show?

I Love The Gentle People - how did a kitschy lounge/dance act come to be all over daytime television and 'lad' mags?

Food Processors Are Great! - why I still find Modern Life Is Rubbish by Blur inspiring and exciting, and why the nonsense about it 'inventing' Brexit should be slung into the nearest burning bin.

Looks Unfamiliar: Emma Burnell - Emma shares her memories of nineties Easy Listening radio station Melody Radio.

Looks Unfamiliar: Jenny Morrill - Jenny talks us through her attempts at looking like Justine from Elastica.

I'm Leaner, I'm Meaner, I Ain't No Inbetweener - late nineties Post-Diana moody trip-hop and the bewildeirng rise of unlikely chart star Jimmy Ray.

Je Suis Perdue Dans La Nuit, Dans Cette Ville Où Je Vis- how I discovered 1968 by France Gall.

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Not On Your Telly is available in paperback here or from the Kindle Store here. And there's several other books to choose from here...

Box Set: Looks Unfamiliar Series One

The first six editions of my podcast Looks Unfamiliar...

It looks as though some of you aren't aware that I now have a new website (which you can find here), and are still hanging around here wondering where all the new 'content' is. Well it's over there, obviously. To give you all some idea of where to start, though, I'm adding some new posts here with themed collections of links, and this time it's the initial run of my podcast Looks Unfamiliar, the show that looks at all of the things that you remember that nobody else ever seems to. Have you missed any of them? Get them listened to now...

Phil Catterall
Podcaster and gamer Phil Catterall on on Madballs Comic, Channel 4 consumer advice show Wise Up!, animation Phantom 2040, the Platoon computer game, Birdseye Steakhouse Grills adverts, and Star Wars: Droids.

Garreth F. Hirons
Musician and writer Garreth F. Hirons on indie band The Bigger The God, action figure range Food Fighters, ZX Spectrum game Saboteur, wrestling tag team The Triangle Of Terror, Sizzlin’ Bacon Monster Munch, and BBC3 sitcom Fun At The Funeral Parlour.

Mark Thompson
Radio host and political pundit Mark Thompson on computer-driven action serial Whiz Kids, Crash ZX Spectrum, ITV filler Night Shift, Public Information Film family The Blunders, sci-fi drama The Last Train, and Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Drak Pack.

Stephen O'Brien
Writer Stephen O’Brien on Steven Moffatt's The Office, LM magazine, You Can Do The Cube by Patrick Bossert, Brilliant (the band), The Beachcombers and other last-minute ITV emergency schedule replacement standbys, and The Morecambe And Wise Board Game.

Ben Baker
Writer, broadcaster and quizmaster Ben Baker on early Chris Evans vehicle TV Mayhem, football comic The Onion Bag, novelty yoghurt range Fiendish Feet, the early internet craze for misidentifying every comedy song as ‘by’ Weird Al Yankovic, Betsy Byars' Bingo Brown novels, and the International Youth Service penpal scheme.

Emma Burnell
Journalist Emma Burnell on The Miners' Strike Tape Whose Side Are You On?, Sweet Valley High, playground craze Scoubidou, childrens' horror book The Patchwork Monkey, Rutger Hauer movie Split Second, and the Ever Ready ‘Power To The People’ advert.

Series One Compilation
Highlights from all the above plus Tim talking to Georgey Spanswick on BBC Radio York about seventies TV Tie-in board games.

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Higher Than The Sun is the story of Screamadelica, Foxbase Alpha, Bandwagonesque and Loveless, and how, long before Britpop, Creation Records took on the world and nearly won. You can get it as a paperback here or from the Kindle Store here.