This morning the Sydney Morning Herald tells us how an economist’s research shows that AC/DC’s Bon Scott wasn’t as good a singer as Brian Johnson. Alas, it’s been exposed as a joke. Will the Herald give as prominent a place to their “correction”?
Club Escape’s “Perfect List” 1991
OK, I lied. I have managed to find a hard copy of the Club Escape Perfect List from 1991.
As before, this is a list of the “best” dance tracks released in 1991, as chosen by the crew at Club Escape, the Adelaide-based dance music program on Triple J.
I wasn’t involved in Club Escape that year. I’d already gone on to The Core magazine — and indeed this list is taken from The Core issue 12, from 15 January 1992. So the people to blame for this list are producer John Thompson-Mills (â€JBâ€) and presenter Paul Kitching.
[Update 6 September 2007: I’ve linked to as many of these songs as I can find on YouTube. Some of them may not be the exact mix played on air, but you get that. Enjoy. And if you find any others, please let me know.]
[Update 27 January 2011: I’ve just updated all the links back to the songs on YouTube. So many had suffered linkrot over the last few years. Not all of the links will be to the same mixes that were originally played on the radio.]
Top 10:
1. De La Soul: Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)
2. Quadraphonia: Quadraphonia
3. The KLF: Last Train to Transcentral
4. Enigma: Sadeness
5. Rozalla: Faith (In the Power of Love)
6. T99: Anastasia
7. Crystal Waters: Gypsy Woman
8. PM Dawn: Set Adrift on Memory Bliss
9. LL Cool J: Mama Said Knock You Out
10. Sabrina Johnston: Peace (In the Valley)
Club Escape’s “Perfect List” 1990
Before The Core magazine, there was Club Escape, a dance music radio program on Triple J which went to air on Saturday nights in Adelaide during 1990 and 1991.
I had the very great pleasure of presenting this program during its first year, along with promoter Scott Thompson — who also ran the coolest nightclub in the history of the universe, Metro on Rundle Street.
Club Escape was created by John Thompson-Mills (“JB”) who, through anally-retentive production, made Scott and me sound like stars.
I know I only wrote about The Core the other day. But on Facebook today someone’s brother saw that I was a “friend” and asked him to ask me if I had the Perfect List from 1991.
I don’t.
Well, I might have the audio somewhere, but not the list of tunes. Actually, I do have it, see this post.
However I do have the Perfect List from 1990 — our choice for the best 50 best dance music tracks released that year. And here it is.
How many of these tracks do you remember? And which ones would you prefer to forget?
The Core: “The KLF: Genius or Gibberish?”
It’s two weeks since I posted the last thing from my deep past, the Script Challenge, and no-one’s solved it yet. So I’ll post something less cryptic, a little less demanding — an extract from The Core magazine, which I worked on back during the brief period when I was cool.
Plus it gives me a chance to reminisce about The KLF.
The Core dates from a fantastic period of my life. I’d been working for ABC Radio for a few years, and along with club promoter Scott Thompson — does anyone know where he is now? — I presented Club Escape, a dance music program on Triple J created by John Thompson-Mills that aired in Adelaide in 1990-91.
Club Escape was hot. We had 11% of the total radio audience on a Saturday night, which means we probably blitzed the 15-25yo demographic. Nightclub owners told us their venues were deserted until the clock struck midnight and we were off the air.
It Was So Much Fun.
But I was getting tired of the ABC.
Dance music enthusiast Acb Tyson griped that there wasn’t a local magazine about dance music, and The Core was born. The first issue hit the streets on Wednesday 23 October 1991, and I left the ABC in February ’92 to concentrate on it full time.
I’ll write more about The Core another time. I’m even tempted to put all of the content online, since it chronicles an important period in the evolution of dance music in Australia. But for now, here’s an article from The Core number 6, published 27 November 1991. Enjoy!
Continue reading “The Core: “The KLF: Genius or Gibberish?””
Weekly Poll: Bono is…?
I’m chuffed! Inspired by the work of the Bonological Semiotics team, I coined my own Bonophone.
Bonorrhoea: A chronic disease which causes meaningless words to dribble from the mouth and, more usually, other orifices. Also known as “talking out one’s arse.”
As a result, Arch Bonologer Sabian Wilde has promoted me to the rank of Clayton Private. To celebrate, this week’s poll can only be… “Bono is…?” Go to the website to vote.
[poll id=”6″]
Bonus link: Netscape founder Marc Andreessen has a whole blog category about Bono.
Last week’s results: Clearly I’m the only one who’s getting moist over the return of Supernaut. Screw the lot of you.
Dreaming of Daniel Johns
Weird. Last night I dreamed that I met Daniel Johns of Silverchair and The Dissociatives fame. It was immediately after he’d performed on stage, and he was energised but very sweaty — and was, um, “extremely friendly”.
This is an unlikely dream. I rarely remember my dreams. I haven’t ever thought Mr Johns was particularly “my type” — though I don’t think he’s ugly or anything. I’ve just not thought about him in that way. And besides, he’s married. And it’s not like he was in Supernaut… or even alive at the time.
What does it mean?