As for keeping the mags, well, it’s exactly that sort of disposable ephemera that future generations miss. The big players are archived forever. I’ve kept my set. Maybe a library would be interested…?

If time machines were real, I’d go back tonight. Now I’m torn whether to put the mags in the recycle after all these years of hanging on to the memories. Am I throwing away a slice of history I should be hanging on to?

The comments being added to this and the previous post have triggered a lot of memories — as have some activities over at Facebook — so I reckon I’ll have more to say on all this over the next few days.

Take care.

I need to portion the ‘blame’ though for the difference in genres and sounds to JB, the then John Mills… I was just the puppet for his already programmed, chosen and as you pointed out anally-retentive playlists. I think he may have even scripted some of my reads!! This all said, I was in awe with the guy and his knowledge and passion.

And it was an honour to sit in where you and Scotty T had previously…

The days of taping Club Escape 6.30-9pm then pressing play at 9.30pm are still fresh in my mind – and ending up at Metro where Cam or Simon may play the tracks we had just put to air…

thanks for the trip…

The Mad-Baggy-Manchester thing wasn’t in our remit, because (I suspect) that it involved guitars. Dance music, at least at that point, was opposed to the guitar on the grounds that — oh, I have no idea. Maybe someone can explain it to me.

@Snarky Platypus I was howled down about putting The KLF into the chart the previous year. I think there was objection because people thought it was a joke — which it is, but that doesn’t stop it being good music too. Mozart wrote jokes too.

Let us not speak of Crystal Waters.

My favourite thing on this list is Unfinished Sympathy. Dark, atmospheric & moody with a great video to boot. Not particularly danceable though. Safe From Harm would be more danceable — a slow jam type of dance I guess. The vocalist for both tracks, Shara Nelson, is fantastic. It’s a shame she never did more stuff with Massive Attack.

Last Train To Trancentral is also fantastic — it slams you with hook after hook. Where is 3AM Eternal though? It became an international hit in Jan 1991 (originally released a bit earlier though — 1989?)

I remember Enigma’s Sadness being a less annoying Deep Forest type song (i.e still damn annoying)

Crystal Waters proves my theory that making songs about the homeless is generally not a good idea (see: Phil Collins’ Another Day in Paradise). Of course, she’s still lurking around the edges with recent memorable dance hit Destination Calabria (more memorable for the video always being on at the gym I go to — I can’t actually remember what it sounds like despite repeated exposure).

My favourite tune of this era was probably outside Club Escape’s remit: The Only One I Know by the Charlatans. Unfortunately, it was never big in Australia; I suspect the Mod-meets-Baggy vibe deterred all but the staunchest Anglophiles.

Next up on the Nostalgia Channel: the year is 1992, it’s 5 am, and the DJ is playing Opus III’s It’s a Fine Day.

Here’s my take on that list with the ones that I really liked then and now (in NPO) as opposed to own.

Frankie Knuckles: The Whistle Song — Hugs all around at 4am.
Massive Attack: Unfinished Sympathy — And then you get home…

Gang Starr: Love Sick
A Tribe Called Quest: Can I Kick It? — The party hip hop tunes. The former comes from one of my favourite albums of all time Step In The Arena.

Nomad: (I Wanna Give You) Devotion – Perhaps it was the sampled horns, the female vocal or the drum break. A funky number indeed.

Joey Beltram: My Sound
Final Exposure: Vortex — Both of these slamming techno as we knew it. My Sound definitely the ‘ravier’ of the two, but still amazing.

Actually, I do own all of that on vinyl.

There was a far better cut by Midi Rain called Crack Train which didn’t get much play, but to this day is one of my favourite early UK house cuts.