Toadcast #45 – The Stevecast
Okay, not so much a podcast this week, more my effort to recreate a mix tape sent to me by my Mum’s cousin when I was far too young to appreciate its brilliance. On the plus side though, despite my failure to really understand how lucky I was, they leaked more indelibly into my consciousness because I was so young that it all went beyond ‘music I remember’ and became something more fundamental than that.
I played this tape quite literally to death. I think it finally gave up the ghost some time when I was about thirteen or fourteen – about 1988 or 1989. I forgot about it for some time after that, and it was only some ten years later, about the time of Napster, that it occurred to me to finally try and reassemble all these brilliant songs together again.
Well, I tried but I failed. The biggest problem was remembering what was on the thing. I mean, a tape I last listened to ten years ago, what are the chances? Still, aided by perseverance and some good fortune I prety much managed to as best I could. Some I remembered immediately, others took a while, and still others took the discovery of songs on the tape itself to trigger the memory. Easily the best playlist of any Toadcast to date, I’m only ashamed that it’s me talking about this music instead of someone more knowledgeable.
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01. The Piranhas – Tom Hark (02.06)
02. The Clash – Bankrobber (03.57)
03. John Cooper Clarke – Gimmix (Live) (10.42)
04. The Specials – Why? (18.00)
05. The Piranhas – Boyfriend (21.54)
06. Madness – Baggy Trousers (25.35)
07. The Piranhas – Getting Beaten Up (29.00)
08. The Specials – Ghost Town (32.16)
09. The Dead Kennedys – Holiday in Cambodia (37.57)
10. The Beat – Stand Down Margaret/Whine & Grine (46.37)
11. Adam & the Ants – Antmusic (52.39)
This is great, Matthew. Really, really good!
Cheers Fred. Very unpopular from the look of things so far, but I love the playlist all to pieces.
Your relatives have good taste. This was pretty close to a mix I’d make for myself (and in fact, I have put “Boyfriend” and “Antmusic” on mixes!). Did you not get a track listing with the original so that you could recreate it, then?
No, there was no tracklisting, and I think it got binned in one of our various moves anyway. I moved from Singapore to Vienna, three different flats in Vienna, Manchester (three flats), Glasgow (four flats), Holland, America (two places), Glasgow again… well you get the picture.
ooh, very early eighties! Remember them well. As a matter of fact, I made an mp3 consisting of every single 80s No.1 intro condensed into 7 and a half minutes which you or your readers may be interested in. You can hear or download it here: http://www.dailyreckless.com/music/80s.htm
It took me a while to do, so I thought it worth sharing.
Definitely worth sharing mate, thanks.
God, this is brilliant. I love the fact that it’s A and B sides of singles for the Piranhas and the Specials. I have ‘Zambezi’ by the Piranhas knocking around somewhere as well, but for all of it’s status as ‘the song everybody knows even if they don’t know its name’ status I still think ‘Getting Beaten Up’ might be their highpoint.
That ’song that everybody knows’ thing was about Tom Hark, obviously. I got distracted mid comment and then came back and posted it without thinking.