This is the first Ocean Colour Scene song I consciously remember hearing. Their earlier hits had passed me by. There always semed to be something 60s-ish about their sound, though.

Ocean Colour Scene: The Day They Caught the Train

It’s safe to say the Prodigy’s music wasn’t really to my taste. What you couldn’t say about it was that it didn’t make a statement. It stands in stark contrast to the ocean of blandness into which modern music has submerged in the late teen years of the twenty-first century, where all the performers seem to merge into one generic mass.

It was therefore sad to hear of the demise of Keith Flint who fronted the Prodigy in their mid-90s pomp. Even sadder that it seems he took his own life. Any life cut short is a misfortune but more so when it might have been prevented.

I also discovered from the obituaries a personal connection with the band as it was formed in Braintree, Essex, a town where I lived for two years during 1980 and 1981.

Listening to this (and to their only other number one Firestarter) now, I find myself warming to their work. Too late, alas.

The Prodigy: Breathe

Keith Charles Flint: 17/9/1969 – 4/3/2019. So it goes.

A bit of polished pop from 1996. With the added bonus of a Scottish lead singer in Shirley Manson.

Garbage: Stupid Girl

A by now Fishless Marillion recorded this in 1992.

The original was of course first released by Rare Bird in 1970.

Marillion: Sympathy

If ever a song struck a chord with people this was it. If Pulp had never recorded anything else of significance this would still have been a magnificent contribution to popular culture.

I had been familiar with Pulp before the release of the album from which this was taken, Different Class, as my eldest son (despite being then still of a relatively tender age) had discovered them a few years earlier. I had not paid very much attention – well, children don’t want their parents muscling in on their music tastes do they? Common People really woke me up to the band. Odd to think it’s over twenty years since this burst onto the world.

This is the longer album version.

Pulp: Common People

Another from 1990. Another from Inspiral Carpets.

I suppose I ought to add the warning, “This video contains flashing images.”

Inspiral Carpets: This Is How it Feels

In 1998 it was great to hear P P Arnold’s voice again as she provided the other vocal in this duet with Ocean Coloured Scene.

Ocean Colour Scene & P P Arnold: It’s a Beautiful Thing

Another decade ticked over and The Lightning Seeds got even better.

I remember this song as being the musical background to a montage of football clips on the BBC’s Saturday lunchtime Football Focus when it was a part of Grandstand (remember that?) but I may be confusing it with Bruce Hornby (and the Range)’s The Way It Is as Wiki has The Life of Riley as the theme set behind Match of the Day’s Goal of the Month.

Whatever, it’s another piece of joyful pop.

The Lightning Seeds: The Life of Riley

Yet another song from 1990.

World Party: Put the Message in the Box

One from the mid-90s this time. Apparently this was a much bigger hit in Europe (no 14 in the UK) than in the US.

The Connells – ‘74-‘75