What the pop papers said: Shampoo wash Heavenly

From 1992, Shampoo - still in the bit between being fanzine writers and bona fide pop stars - take aim at Heavenly in the NME:

If you're too young to recall 1992: 'Having a go at Sarah Records' was a way of having one foot in the Pop Establishment while making it look like you were an outsider. Shampoo would go on to, erm, help promote the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie.

Everything she does is supported by a motion from the NEC

Thanks to Simon T for pointing out that this week's episode of Alan Johnson's Failed Rock Star series on BBC Radio 4 is this:

Ex Home Secretary Alan Johnson goes in search of the life he thought he nearly had: as a rock star. In the 1960s Alan Johnson was in a band ("The Area") that cut a single but couldn't get it released. He gave music up for a career that took him from Postman to Union Leader to The Cabinet. So what has he missed out on? Does the fame of being a senior government minister compare in any way with that of being in a successful band.

In this series he meets five people who tasted the fame he craved. Each of the warm and engaging interviews reveal something different about life in music and the truth behind the myths.

In Episode three Alan meets Amelia Fletcher - singer with a number of successful indie bands in the eighties and nineties. She's still in a band today, whilst simultaneously holding down a serious office job - as chief economist with the Office of Fair Trading. Amelia and Alan talk about the joys and perils of combining the rock life with a demanding job. Did Alan make a mistake by thinking the two don't mix?

Amelia Fletcher on Radio 4. With or without a former Home Secretary, that's got to be a treat, surely?

Coming attraction: Amelia Fletcher sings Hefner

The Allo Darlin And Friends night at Barden's Boudoir in ofcourseLondon on February 9th already sounds pretty good: Tender Trap + Moustache Of Insanity + Darren Hayman (solo) + Hexicon + Goonite DJs.

Factor in this tweet from @fortuanapop, as well:

cool! darren hayman and amelia fletcher are singing some hefner duets at allo darlin gig next tues http://www.wegottickets.com/event/70139

That's got to look pretty attractive, right?

Where are some of the members of Marine Research now?

Welcome to our occasional feature, 'where are some of the members of Marine Research now?'. Today, we hear news of Cathy Rogers.

Of course, she had been busying herself presenting Scrapyard Challenge, but now, she's doing this. Where "this" is nudo. Nudo. With an O.

It's an adopt-an-olive-tree scheme: you adopt the tree, and it sends you letters detailing how well it's doing in school, and photos of it looking happy. Actually, you just get sent all its produce for the year you adopt it, which is quite nice. And not how adoptions usually work, we're patiently but firmly informed by social services.

It's not a Secret if you don't tell anyone

Secret Shine are about to release their second album, just fifteen years after their debut. And nine years after they did anything.

They're going to be playing Bristol (of course Bristol) on Wednesday; the album All Of The Stars is out in April.
[via MP3 Hugger]

Together at last: Cuties, swearing, dancing

Raiding Sarah Records' back cagoulogue, the stuff Alan McGee used to do before he started turning up on News 24 and putting on bands that tip their hat to the tweescene, from next month, London will be offering a Twee As Fuck clubnight.

Bookmarks: Some other things to read on the web

Stylus revisits the first fifty Sarah Records releases:

Another Sunny Day returns with “I'm In Love With A Girl Who Doesn’t Know I Exist,” the track Sarah detractors would often cite as Exhibit A in their case against the label’s proclivity for sad bastard pop. (Conversely, Haynes said it was one of the most perfect releases in the entire Sarah catalogue.)

Sure, the single is pure schmaltz, evoking modern acts like Aberfeldy – gushy guitar lines, near whining vocals, and Williams revealed to be naive to a fault (“So many times this has happened before / But I never knew that love could make you feel so sore”) – but it’s got subtle, ironic flourishes, too, like that dance-like bass drum featured in the beat. And checking in at just 1:40, one gets the impression Williams got over his romantic mugging rather quickly.

David Hepworth's And Another Thing revisits his twenty year-old Best Albums top ten. Since only time can tell if we stand the test of time, do the choices still stack up?:

1. I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight by Richard & Linda Thompson
Frankly I don't believe in these lists at all but this is still a masterpiece. I picked it for what it represents and I might well do the same again tomorrow.

Idolator watches and transcribes Anne Coulter reviewing Rage Against The Machine:

And, by the way, they are also very unfamiliar with D.C. gun laws if they think they can shoot the president, because no guns allowed.

QVC is the new musical tastemaker, reports the Wall Street Journal, watching Neil Sedaka pitch up and flog scary numbers of albums amongst the cubit zirconium:

During Mr. Sedaka's live performance April 19 at the channel's West Chester, Pa., headquarters, QVC sold nearly 19,000 copies of his new CD, according to his label, about 78% of his first-week sales. That figure helped vault "The Definitive Collection" -- which includes new material and well-known songs such as "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" -- to No. 22 in the Billboard 200, according to data released Wednesday by Nielsen SoundScan.

During the show, the 68-year-old musician's wife watched from the green room as the sales mounted in real time. "She called it 'the slot machine,' " Mr. Sedaka remembers. "It was quite shocking to see how many people would buy off QVC."


Each of the four acts QVC has featured this year has either jumped onto the album chart or seen spikes in record sales after its appearance. In March, the country-rock group Alabama sold more than 21,000 copies of "Songs of Inspiration II" on QVC, the channel says -- or as much as 81% of the figure that landed the album at No. 33 on the chart. After a February performance to promote a special edition of their 2006 album "Let Love In," the Goo Goo Dolls returned to the chart with 15,000 copies sold that week, according to Billboard.

The DigiCreamTimes remembers how Simon Bates suffered for our entertainment:

Radio One disc jockey Simon Bates needed a medical check-up today when he returned to Britain at the end of his round-the-world charity race.

After suffering a severe stomach upset for the past eight weeks, he said he felt weakened and "slightly malariafied" after his travels, which raised £300,000 for Oxfam. Food poisoning, heat exhaustion and a septic foot added to his troubles during the 78-day journey. And on reaching Dover at dawn this morning he quipped: "One thing I have discovered on this trip is there are more cockroaches than people in the universe."