Top 75 of 1995

After 1994 had seen me delving further into the world of metal, 1995 carried on that trend.  After progressing through Sepultura and Pantera onto the Earache roster, bands that I'd previously maybe only heard one or two songs by released albums that made me sit up and take notice.

So, as shown clearly in the chart, the albums of the year ended up being Paradise Lost's Draconian Times and Fear Factory's Demanufacture.  White Zombie's Astrocreep received an honorary mention alongside non-metal albums like Shelter's Mantra, Life of Agony's Ugly and Silverchair's Frogstomp.  More established bands in my collection like Carcass, Faith No More, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Senseless Things all had good albums too, even if relatively speaking they all lost their way a little.

But it wasn't rock and metal all the way, I'd started my musical journey away from pop with indie and Friday nights at the Middlesbrough Arena allowed that journey to continue.  With Britpop bursting forth I didn't quite look the part with my long hair, black T-shirts and army trousers, but strangely of all the genres I've dipped into over the years, Britpop was the scene that I felt a part of.

As the Arena included gigs on Fridays too, there were a lot of up and coming bands passing through the doors at that time.  The ones I saw during 1995 are listed below, Skunk Anansie being the only one at the Arena that really moved on to bigger and better things, although there were others like O***s that played there that I was quite happy not to have seen.

03/03/95 Velo Deluxe, China Drum (@Middlesbrough Arena)

31/03/95 Snuff, Bulltaco, Star 69 (@Middlesbrough Arena)

02/06/95 Skunk Anansie, Honeycrack (@Middlesbrough Arena)

09/06/95 Boo Radleys, Swervedriver, Ed Ball (@Middlesbrough Town Hall)

21/07/95 Blameless, Bulltaco, Laxton’s Superb (@Middlesbrough Arena)

22/07/95 Pulp, Sleeper, Menswear, Salad, Powder, Chumbawamba, Skunk Anansie, 60ft Dolls, Blameless, Catatonia, Cecil + Marion, The Bluetones, DetRiMental (@Leeds Roundhay Park)

21/09/95 Shelter, Understand, Shutdown (@Middlesbrough Arena)

06/10/95 China Drum, Honeycrack, Reverse (@Middlesbrough Arena)

17/11/95 Rub Ultra, Fat (@Middlesbrough Arena)

01/12/95 Bullyrag (@Middlesbrough Arena)

The Roundhay Park gig was later dubbed Britstock and was my first festival of sorts, a who's who of up and coming British bands, many of whom would have chart hits.  Note the appearance of Blameless in Middlesbrough on 21/07/95 followed again on 22/07/95 at Leeds, a gap of only 15 hours or so between me seeing them.  Curios in that list come from Fat, who were a rap/rock band featuring Woody from Madness on drums (Downtime made the shortlist for this chart) and Bullyrag whose guitarist took to wearing what was basically a tea cosy over his entire face and head in the early days while staring out members of the audience.

My own music remained mostly in the indie and punk arena too, mostly down to my playing skills.  Me and my brother recorded 3 albums and 2 EPs as Pyf Belly Machine as well as the extended incarnation of that band playing a gig at my college in February 95.  We were the least talented in terms of playing, but the only band that went to the college that were playing original songs.  And we were all right as well, rough around the edges but I still think we had some decent songs despite the constant instrument swapping.

Solo I recorded 2 albums and 2 EPs as Marvin (later to become Spraypaint), one each of which were recorded on my brother's new 4-track Portastudio.  The increase in sound quality coincided with an increase in songwriting quality and despite the constraints in playing produced one of the best songs I've ever written in One of These Days.

I also did an album and an EP as Uranium, which was my first attempt at rock music, although there were a fair amount of keyboards on there too as I was really attempting to be Guisborough's answer to Nine Inch Nails.  Results weren't amazing but I'd hone it a little in subsequent years.

As with last time I'll give a shout to the bands that made the shortlist but not the chart, so commiserations to Chemical Brothers, Carter USM, Schtum, Smashing Pumpkins, Lightning Seeds, Napalm Death, Presidents of the USA, Rocket From The Crypt, Sleeper, Bal-Sagoth, Charlatans, Saint Etienne, EMF, Die Krupps, Fat, Primus, Marilyn Manson, Extreme and Silverchair.  Maybe next time?

1. My Dying Bride - The Cry of Mankind

2. At The Gates - Blinded By Fear

3. China Drum - One Way Down

4. Life of Agony - Let's Pretend

5. Anathema - A Dying Wish

6. At The Gates - Slaughter of the Soul

7. Paradise Lost - Forever Failure

8. Ash - Girl From Mars

9. White Zombie - Electric Head Pt 1

10. Red Hot Chili Peppers - My Friends

11. Paradise Lost - The Last Time

12. Paradise Lost - Once Solemn

13. Pulp - Disco 2000

14. Fear Factory - Self Bias Resistor

15. Paradise Lost - Hallowed Land

16. Cathedral - Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)

17. Fear Factory - Replica

18. Paradise Lost - Enchantment

19. Fear Factory - Demanufacture

20. Fear Factory - H-K (Hunter-Killer)

21. Paradise Lost - Shadowkings

22. Pulp - Common People

23. Shelter - Message of the Bhagavat

24. China Drum - Barrier

25. Faith No More - Ugly in the Morning

26. Faith No More - Digging the Grave

27. White Zombie - Super-charger Heaven

28. Fear Factory - Body Hammer

29. Misery Loves Co. - Need Another One

30. Life of Agony - Lost at 22

31. Shelter - Here We Go

32. Elastica - Blue

33. Ugly Kid Joe - Milkman's Son

34. The Gathering - Strange Machines

35. My Dying Bride - From Darkest Skies

36. Paradise Lost - Yearn For Change

37. Senseless Things - Something to Miss

38. White Zombie - Electric Head Pt 2

39. Faith No More - What a Day

40. Foo Fighters - I'll Stick Around

41. Senseless Things - 16.18.21

42. Senseless Things - Touch Me on the Heath

43. Elastica - Stutter

44. Blur - Country House

45. Black Grape - Reverend Black Grape

46. Boo Radleys - Wake Up Boo!

47. Faith No More - Ricochet

48. Pearl Jam - I Got ID

49. Boo Radleys - Find the Answer Within

50. Life of Agony - Seasons

51. Life of Agony - Damned If I Do

52. The Gathering - In Motion #1

53. Shed 7 - Where Have You Been Tonight?

54. Sugar Ray - Mean Machine

55. Rancid - Time Bomb

56. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Warped

57. Skunk Anansie - I Can Dream

58. Faith No More - The Gentle Art of Making Enemies

59. Faith No More - Cuckoo For Caca

60. Carcass - Keep On Rotting in the Free World

61. Cathedral - Utopian Blaster

62. Paradise Lost - Shades of God

63. Paradise Lost - I See Your Face

64. Shelter - Civilized Man

65. Rancid - Roots Radicals

66. Menswear - I'll Manage Somehow

67. Reef - Good Feeling

68. Reef - Choose To Live

69. Menswear - Stardust

70. Menswear - Being Brave

71. Supergrass - Alright

72. Senseless Things - Wanted

73. Green Day - Stuck With Me

74. Iron Maiden - Man On The Edge

75. The Gathering - Eleanor

Top 75 of 1993

Compared to the years of musical discovery that were 1991 and 1992, looking back at the albums and songs in my collection from 1993 there were a lot of strong contenders but not as much in terms of volume.  There were some excellent albums released in 1993, but it didn't seem as though there were that many of them.  Hence this chart is dominated by a few prominent releases.

Back in 1992, through the influence of The First of Too Many album and the Easy to Smile single, Senseless Things had established themselves as my favourite band.  I got background information in the form of newsletters (no internet back then of course) and wore my blue Pop Kid shirt with pride, they were MY band.

But in 1993 I sent off for and received a pack of goodies from another band who, through a flurry of singles and a great debut album, had also got my attention big time the previous year.  I'd already read the interviews in my brother's Melody Makers, NMEs, Selects etc. but now I was reading uncut manifestos, background information, lyrics, I had badges, stickers and a membership card.  Impressive stuff for a 14/15 year old.  And then came the second album which impressed me even further, time has pegged it a little further back in their overall album rankings but then it was fresh and new.....and of course that band was the Manic Street Preachers.  1993 saw them become my favourite band and they're unlikely to ever be dislodged from that status.

I suspect, as with 1992, that I was catching up a little in terms of the previous year so some of the albums I bought in 93 would have been from 92.  But those I did buy that year were the aforementioned Gold Against the Soul by the Manics, Senseless Things' Empire of the Senseless, Pearl Jam's Vs and Sepultura's Chaos AD, all on cassette (my dad had a CD player in 93 but I didn't, meaning that I could only ever play my only CD - Rollins Band's Tearing single - downstairs).

Another major first from 1993 was something that happened on the 5th October at Middlesbrough Town Hall - my first gig.  Headliners Carter USM were obviously the main draw but support band Sultans of Ping FC were also well known to me at the time through Where's Me Jumper and Stupid Kid and to be honest I think I ended up enjoying them more.  The first band on were called Blink, pretty unremarkable although I imagine they were the Blink that caused Blink 182 to add the 182 onto their name.

1993 was also the year I first started making music, if you can call it that.  In the March, a couple of months shy of my 15th birthday, I recorded 6 solo tracks under the name of Listy.  Predominantly recorded on keyboard they were pretty awful, one track even just consisting of me singing alternative words over the top of Shadow by The Lurkers (the actual song itself, not a cover), renaming it Neale James is a Saddo after the radio DJ.  In May me and my brother teamed up to record Totally Spontaneous Masterpieces under the name of Sludge From the Bottom.  A list of pre-planned song titles based on TV and in-jokes were created off the cuff using a keyboard, a guitar and our voices.  Filling a one hundred minute tape.  Let's just say I don't listen to it very often.

October and November saw a slightly higher standard of improvisation, although still pretty dire, as our main 90s collaborative band was born - Pyf Belly Machine.  Best of 93 Sessions and Forks Brain Cake by the Lake Near Cirencester were the titles......it could only go up from here.....

But enough of that, back to the proper music.....a smaller number of bands made the shortlist this time but didn't get in the final 75.  Those bands consisted of Primus, KMFDM, Brad, My Dying Bride, Duran Duran, Saint Etienne, Thousand Yard Stare, New Order and Clawfinger.  I've always had the feeling that after Stone Gossard was part of the Brad album that he was never the same again in Pearl Jam.  His songs became less frequent, maybe even less interested and given his songs were some of the classics on the first two Pearl Jam albums that was a shame (no pun intended surprisingly).

One of the possible reasons for the lack of new album buying in 93 could have been that in terms of media I was still only reading my brother's indie papers and magazines, while I was moving further and further into rock and metal territory in terms of what I was listening to.  So, as shown with the Manics, Senseless Things and Pearl Jam, I was largely sticking to what I already knew.  In 1994 I started buying my own magazines, which blew everything apart, but that's for next time.

1. Paradise Lost - Embers Fire

2. Manic Street Preachers - From Despair to Where

3. Pearl Jam - Rearviewmirror

4. Paradise Lost - True Belief

5. Senseless Things - Too Much Kissing

6. Die Krupps - Fatherland

7. Carcass - Heartwork

8. Sepultura - Territory

9. Sepultura - Refuse/Resist

10. Manic Street Preachers - La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)

11. Manic Street Preachers - Sleepflower

12. Smashing Pumpkins - Today

13. Pearl Jam - Go

14. Life of Agony - This Time

15. Pulp - Lipgloss

16. Skyscraper - Choke

17. Senseless Things - Primary Instinct

18. Mega City Four - Iron Sky

19. Life of Agony - Through and Through

20. Smashing Pumpkins - Cherub Rock

21. Die Krupps - Crossfire

22. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Soul to Squeeze

23. Faith No More/Boo-Yaa Tribe - Another Body Murdered

24. Tool - Sober

25. Senseless Things - Hold it Down

26. Senseless Things - Too Much Like I Know You

27. Manic Street Preachers - Donkeys

28. Carcass - Rot 'N' Roll

29. Manic Street Preachers - Life Becoming a Landslide

30. Manic Street Preachers - Roses in the Hospital

31. Carcass - This Mortal Coil

32. Sepultura - Slave New World

33. Sepultura - Biotech is Godzilla

34. Senseless Things - Homophobic Asshole

35. Manic Street Preachers - Patrick Bateman

36. Sultans of Ping FC - Stupid Kid

37. Sultans of Ping FC - You Talk Too Much

38. Life of Agony - River Runs Red

39. Pearl Jam - Animal

40. Pearl Jam - Daughter

41. Type O Negative - Black No. 1

42. Senseless Things - Keepsake

43. Suede - Animal Nitrate

44. Blur - For Tomorrow

45. Suede - So Young

46. Blur - Advert

47. Manic Street Preachers - Symphony of Tourette

48. Manic Street Preachers - Yourself

49. Paradise Lost - Widow

50. Paradise Lost - Dying Freedom

51. Pearl Jam - Glorified G

52. Carcass - Blind Bleeding the Blind

53. Sepultura - Propaganda

54. Carcass - Death Certificate

55. Cathedral - Midnight Mountain

56. Paradise Lost - Colossal Rains

57. Utah Saints - Something Good

58. Manic Street Preachers - Drug Drug Druggy

59. Manic Street Preachers - Gold Against the Soul

60. Pearl Jam - Leash

61. Die Krupps - Bloodsuckers

62. Sultans of Ping FC - Where's Me Jumper?

63. Blaggers ITA - Stresss

64. James - Sometimes

65. Napalm Death - Nazi Punks Fuck Off

66. Paradise Lost - Christendom

67. Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box

68. Senseless Things - Runaways

69. Kingmaker - 10 Years Asleep

70. Inspiral Carpets - How It Should Be

71. Breeders - Cannonball

72. Senseless Things - Tempting Kate

73. Pulp - Razzmatazz

74. Carter USM - Lean On Me I Won't Fall Over

75. Jesus Jones - The Devil You Know

Top 75 of 1991

All of the previous charts were looking back in a way.  Even though the last one covering 1990 had some songs in it that I liked at the time it was still mostly looking back, even if in some cases it was just a year or two.

1991 was a full year's worth of immersing myself in music that I was finding myself.  Me and my brother were listening to the Evening Session on Radio 1, I think I used to listen on a Tuesday evening and he would probably listen to it every other night as well as some other radio stations.  Being the older brother he was into it more and listened to a wide range of indie from baggy to shoegazing and all points in between.  And of course I'd listen to some of those bands too from simply being there when he was playing songs, stuff like the Stone Roses, Charlatans, Inspiral Carpets to others like Lush, Slowdive and Chapterhouse were bands I was hearing second hand.  Some of it I liked, others I didn't (*cough*, Slowdive) and I was on the lookout for bands that I could claim as my own.

Albums number 10, 11 and 13 in my collection would become those bands - namely The Farm's Spartacus, EMF's Schubert Dip and Flowered Up's A Life With Brian, all on vinyl (if you're wondering what album number 12 was it was covered in the 1990 chart - Extreme's Pornograffiti).  Singles by all three of those bands were also added to my collection along with Nine Inch Nails' Sin and The Black Crowes' Seeing Things to bring my collection up to 29 singles and 13 albums by the end of the year.  So while I was listening to a lot of new music, I wasn't particularly prolific in my record-buying during that year (probably because I was still only 13).

There were a lot of bands that missed out due to a huge shortlist this time around and I'll take the unusual step of listing them all this time.  So here we go: The Prodigy, Primal Scream, Ride, Inspiral Carpets, Top, Anthrax/Public Enemy, The Wendys, Curve, Lawnmower Deth, 2 Unlimited, The Waterboys, Chapterhouse, Carter USM, Skid Row, Five Thirty, Napalm Death, Scorpions, Northside, Mock Turtles, Wonder Stuff, Teenage Fanclub, Cicero, KLF and The Shamen.  Many of the songs concerned would have got into the top 50s of previous years and in fact for some bands they did have inferior songs which had been in those charts.  It was just their luck to hit an overcrowded year full of great albums and songs.  One good example of this is in the Senseless Things top 50 I did previously - When You Let Me Down made only no. 48 in the Senseless Things top 50 but was as high as 15 in the 1988 top 50.  However, Ex-Teenager was 25 places higher at no. 23 in their own chart but didn't even get in the 75 here.

Of the bands that did make it, it tended to be the indie ones that I was actually listening to in 1991 itself.  The chart that I compiled at the end of 1991 can be found here and its noticeable that bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers etc. that take up a decent chunk of this chart are absent.  The rock and metal bands mostly caught up in 1992, in some cases because they took that long to become hits over here, but also because I started to search further afield than just what my brother was listening to and find my own tastes.

So 1991 was the year music blew apart for me, but 1992 would end up being the year where I really started finding my pieces in the resulting wreckage.....

1. Manic Street Preachers - Motown Junk

2. Senseless Things - Easy to Smile

3. Pearl Jam - Alive

4. Pearl Jam - Black

5. Mega City Four - Words That Say

6. Metallica - Wherever I May Roam

7. Pearl Jam - Jeremy

8. Senseless Things - Got it at the Delmar

9. Metallica - Sad But True

10. Metallica - Nothing Else Matters

11. Metallica - Enter Sandman

12. Senseless Things - Should I Feel It

13. Manic Street Preachers - You Love Us

14. The Farm - Love See No Colour

15. Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Happy

16. Pearl Jam - Even Flow

17. Soundgarden - Jesus Christ Pose

18. Senseless Things - Everybody's Gone

19. James - Sit Down

20. Sepultura - Arise

21. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Under the Bridge

22. Pearl Jam - Porch

23. Pearl Jam - Once

24. Soundgarden - Rusty Cage

25. The Farm - All Together Now

26. Chesney Hawkes - The One and Only

27. Senseless Things - Can't Remember

28. New Fast Automatic Daffodils - Man Without Qualities One

29. EMF - Children

30. Nirvana - In Bloom

31. Sepultura - Desperate Cry

32. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

33. Pearl Jam - Why Go

34. Flowered Up - Take It

35. Metallica - Through the Never

36. Metallica - The Unforgiven

37. Temple of the Dog - Hunger Strike

38. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Give It Away

39. Rollins Band - Tearing

40. Smashing Pumpkins - I Am One

41. Smashing Pumpkins - Siva

42. Rollins Band - Low Self Opinion

43. Swervedriver - Sandblasted

44. Smashing Pumpkins - Rhinoceros

45. Carcass - Corporal Jigsore Quandary

46. Paradise Lost - Gothic

47. Nirvana - Lithium

48. Metallica - Of Wolf And Man

49. Paris Angels - Perfume

50. Blur - Bang

51. Manic Street Preachers - Sorrow 16

52. Jesus Jones - Real, Real, Real

53. Catherine Wheel - Shallow

54. Ugly Kid Joe - Everything About You

55. Guns N' Roses - You Could Be Mine

56. Nirvana - Territorial Pissings

57. Nirvana - Breed

58. The Farm - Groovy Train

59. EMF - I Believe

60. Nirvana - Come As You Are

61. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Breaking the Girl

62. Soundgarden - Outshined

63. Pearl Jam - Garden

64. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Suck My Kiss

65. REM - The One I Love

66. Senseless Things - Wrong Number

67. EMF - Unbelievable

68. Charlatans - Over Rising

69. REM - Losing My Religion

70. Red Hot Chili Peppers - If You Have to Ask

71. Red Hot Chili Peppers - I Could Have Lied

72. Ugly Kid Joe - Sweet Leaf/Funky Fresh Country Club

73. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik

74. EMF - Lies

75. Sepultura - Dead Embryonic Cells

Top 50 of 1990

1990 was a turning point of sorts for me.  Previously I had watched Top of the Pops and heard music generally and I had a record collection made up of about 10-15 singles and around 8 albums, but in terms of genre and identity they were all over the place, something I heard and liked - musical innocence in its purest form if you like.

In 1990 I turned 12 and started taping things from the top 40 with the intention of keeping it, I think I had already been doing this before but I don't think anything stuck around for very long.  I still have some of the recordings from 1990.  Me and my older brother also started making charts, our favourite 20 songs from this week's top 40, we would disappear off separately on Sunday night then come together and share them number by number.  You can find my top 40 for the year that I compiled at the time here.

If you look at that chart, it has some of the singles I bought that year (Gazza, Aztec Camera, FAB featuring MC Parker), it has plenty of pop that I couldn't necessarily recall today, but it also has the seeds of where I was about to go with my musical tastes.  My brother was starting to listen to indie music, in particular those associated with Manchester, baggy and associated hangers on for starters, hence the presence in that chart of the likes of The Charlatans and the Soup Dragons.  Within a year The Farm and EMF would release albums that would kick off my record collection proper, they would become "my" bands, but that's for the next blog.  As an aside the EMF and Farm songs featured there are eligible for the 1991 chart I'll be doing next as the albums were released then, rather than being separated out because the singles were released in 1990.

After a while I started to separate the tapes I had into Rock, Indie and Dance.  I had by far the most indie tapes, rock and dance were fairly equal for a time.  As you'll see below dance didn't stand the test of time with me, although my first rock tapes contained some entries in here like Holy Smoke, Thunderstruck and Hangar 18 as well as other songs that didn't quite make it (Poison's Unskinny Bop anyone?).

As with 1989, in particular with the American bands, some of the songs in this chart didn't become known over here until the following year as the world caught up.  So albums like Extreme's Pornograffiti and The Black Crowes' Shake Your Money Maker were two of the first rock albums I ever bought, just not actually in 1990.  Mix in some of the aforementioned indie and rock, throw in some Senseless Things, Pantera and Manics that I caught up with after discovering them in the next year or two and you have a very solid year of songs.  No really classic albums I don't think, but 1991 was poised and ready to change all that in a big way.........

1. Senseless Things - Tangled Lines

2. Megadeth - Holy Wars....The Punishment Due

3. Pantera - Cemetery Gates

4. Pantera - Domination

5. Inspiral Carpets - This is How it Feels

6. Senseless Things - Is It Too Late?

7. Iron Maiden - Bring Your Daughter....to the Slaughter

8. Charlatans - The Only One I Know

9. Megadeth - Hangar 18

10. Extreme - Decadence Dance

11. Black Crowes - Jealous Again

12. Black Crowes - Hard to Handle

13. The La's - There She Goes

14. AC/DC - Thunderstruck

15. Charlatans - Then

16. Manic Street Preachers - New Art Riot

17. Extreme - More Than Words

18. Black Crowes - She Talks to Angels

19. Pantera - Cowboys From Hell

20. Stone Roses - One Love

21. Manic Street Preachers - Strip it Down

22. Pop Will Eat Itself - 92°F

23. Extreme - Hole Hearted

24. Extreme - Get the Funk Out

25. Senseless Things - Leo

26. Carter USM - Rubbish

27. Happy Mondays - Step On

28. Extreme - It('s a Monster)

29. 1000 Homo DJs - Supernaut

30. Black Crowes - Stare it Cold

31. Slayer - War Ensemble

32. Black Crowes - Twice as Hard

33. Extreme - Song For Love

34. Napalm Death - Suffer the Children

35. Napalm Death - Vision Conquest

36. Extreme - He-Man Woman Hater

37. Black Crowes - Sister Luck

38. Inspiral Carpets - She Comes in the Fall

39. Happy Mondays - Loose Fit

40. Extreme - Pornograffiti

41. Megadeth - Rust in Peace....Polaris

42. Helmet - Repetition

43. Iron Maiden - Holy Smoke

44. Pantera - Heresy

45. New Order - World in Motion

46. James - Come Home

47. Aztec Camera - Good Morning Britain

48. Megadeth - Tornado of Souls

49. Megadeth - Lucretia

50. Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss

Top 50 of 1989

All of the preceding charts were a mixture of childhood pop reminiscence and time-travelling discovery at a later date, but by 1989 the pop had dried up.....or maybe it hasn't stood the test of time particularly well. Perhaps I was also growing out of it as the likes of Stock/Aitken/Waterman were taking over the charts.  All the songs that made it onto my pop shortlist ended up losing out including Technotronic's Pump Up the Jam, Bobby Brown's My Prerogative and On Our Own and the one that came closest, Jason Donovan's Too Many Broken Hearts (perhaps assisted by my later cover), the latter two expanding my ever growing 7" collection.

In 1989 I turned 11, so I don't think I was aware of most of the songs here in that year but I certainly became aware of most of them over the next 2 or 3 years.  Many of these songs and albums were part of my grounding in music even if it didn't necessarily take place in that year, in fact a few of the albums featured here didn't actually break over here until subsequent years, with an accompanying breakthrough single.

So with pop gone and the two bands that dominated the 80s charts, Iron Maiden and Metallica, between albums it allowed other bands to shine.  Bands like Faith No More, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails, Sepultura and Soundgarden produced very good albums in 1989, in all cases they would follow it up with one even better that would further shape my tastes in years to come.  The Senseless Things' Postcard CV in particular was a huge influence on my own songwriting and was another that was to be followed up by even greater songs.

The musical landscape, as well as what would become my musical taste, was starting to change, definitely for the better with a new rock/alternative slant and a healthy dose of indie pushing its way in.  My musical awakening was beginning.....

1. Senseless Things - Too Much Kissing

2. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground

3. Faith No More - Epic

4. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Knock Me Down

5. Nine Inch Nails - Head Like A Hole

6. Faith No More - From Out of Nowhere

7. Senseless Things - Teenage

8. Stone Roses - I Am the Resurrection

9. Senseless Things - Standing in the Rain

10. Nine Inch Nails - Sin

11. Carcass - Reek of Putrefaction

12. Nine Inch Nails- Terrible Lie

13. Faith No More - Falling to Pieces

14. Extreme - Mutha (Don't Wanna Go To School Today)

15. Faith No More - The Real Thing

16. Stone Roses - Waterfall

17. Manic Street Preachers - Suicide Alley

18. Sepultura - Inner Self

19. Sepultura - Beneath the Remains

20. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Taste the Pain

21. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Nobody Weird Like Me

22. Faith No More - Woodpecker From Mars

23. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stone Cold Bush

24. Soundgarden - Loud Love

25. Senseless Things - Girlfriend

26. Senseless Things - Back to Nowhere

27. Carter USM - Sheriff Fatman

28. Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored

29. Senseless Things - Trevor

30. Stone Roses - Made of Stone

31. Nirvana - About a Girl

32. Soundgarden - Hands All Over

33. Extreme - Play With Me

34. Senseless Things - Someone in You

35. Stone Roses - She Bangs the Drums

36. Extreme - Flesh 'N' Blood

37. Nine Inch Nails - Sanctified

38. Faith No More - Zombie Eaters

39. Inspiral Carpets - Find Out Why

40. Pop Will Eat Itself - Def.Con.One

41. Wonder Stuff  - Don't Let Me Down, Gently

42. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Johnny, Kick a Hole in the Sky

43. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Subway to Venus

44. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Good Time Boys

45. Nine Inch Nails - Down In It

46. Bolt Thrower - World Eater

47. Sepultura - Mass Hypnosis

48. Extreme - Kid Ego

49. Extreme - Little Girls

50. Nine Inch Nails - Ringfinger

Senseless Things Top 50

I had already heard a few Senseless Things songs, in fact my brother had the 'Got it at the Delmar' cassette single, which he later gave to me along with his blue Pop Kid shirt.  But when 'Easy to Smile' came out I had a new favourite band.  I went back slightly and bought 'The First of Too Many', also on cassette, and it was just as good.  It wouldn't be much longer before 'Hold it Down' was on its way, followed by the 'Empire of the Senseless' album, by which time they definitely were my favourite band (although the Manics' 'Gold Against the Soul' tipped the balance in their favour shortly after).

If it wasn't enough to have the songwriting and singing of Mark Keds, the leads and harmonies of Ben Harding and the Animal-from-the-Muppets drumming of Cass Browne, the Senseless Things had their secret weapon in the bass-playing talents of Morgan Nicholls.  I've never really heard anyone play in his particular style before or since, there were similarities with others but he was quite unique and once he had inspired me to give up trying to be any good on the guitar, I took up the bass and started playing as much like he did as I could.

Their sound changed over the years from the teenage angst (in a fun way) and scratchy punk of 'Postcard CV', to the shinier, effervescent 'The First of Too Many', to the rockier 'Empire of the Senseless' and finally the loose-limbed swansong 'Taking Care of Business', which, while being a really good album, the title probably described how the band saw making it before they split.  I followed Jolt and 3 Colours Red for their relatively short durations (never really got into Delakota), but nothing was like the band they came from.  Listening back to these songs now they are still one of my all-time favourite bands, and if you haven't heard them before and like a good tune you could do a lot worse than going and discovering them.

1. Easy to Smile

2. Tangled Lines

3. Got it at the Delmar

4. Should I Feel It

5. Too Much Kissing

6. Everybody's Gone

7. Can't Remember

8. Too Much Like I Know You

9. Is It Too Late?

10. Hold it Down

11. 16.18.21

12. Primary Instinct

13. Teenage

14. Something to Miss

15. Trevor

16. Someone in You

17. Homophobic Asshole

18. Standing in the Rain

19. Wrong Number

20. Girlfriend

21. Any Which Way

22. Radio Spiteful

23. Ex-Teenager

24. Touch Me on the Heath

25. Back to Nowhere

26. Leo

27. Best Friend

28. Keepsake

29. Christine Keeler

30. Laura Lamorna

31. It's Cool to Hang Out with your Ex

32. Ice Skating at the Milky Way

33. Watching the Pictures Go

34. Just One Reason

35. Cruel Moon

36. Tell Me What's on your Mind

37. Shoplifting

38. Page 3 Valentine

39. Tempting Kate

40. Say What You Will

41. Runaways

42. Fishing at Tescos

43. 19 Blue

44. Lip Radio

45. Marlene

46. Wanted

47. In Love Again

48. When You Let Me Down

49. Drunk and Soppy

50. Passions Out of Town

By Era

Postcard CV 12

The First of Too Many 12

Empire of the Senseless 11

Taking Care of Business 9

Others (inc. non-album singles and Peel Sessions) 6