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BBC Radio 2 - The People's Songs


Vincent

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Part 20: Are 'Friends' Electric? - A Dystopian Vision

A chart-topping hit single, but one which took seven weeks to reach the top, and a song whose composer claimed had "no recognisable hook-line whatsoever". And if that didn't exactly smack of mass appeal, the cold, sci-fi influenced lyric and Gary Numan's aim to get "really hung up with this whole thing of not feeling, being cold about everything, not letting emotions get to you," made it an odd single to chime with the populace. But with his first stiff, robotic appearance on Top Of The Pops (self-effacingly put down to a glut of nerves and a dearth of showmanship), Numan resonated with many kids who also felt alienated.

In the late '70s, unemployment was sky-high, a new government had just come to power with a radical agenda and technology was increasingly becoming a part of everyday life. The question: "are friends electric?" meant different things to different people. For some, technology led to a utopian future where machines would labour for us. But for others it meant robots taking their livelihood; an increasingly mechanized UK car industry had seen many people lose their jobs.

And talking of motor vehicles, Numan's next hit was Cars, a song partly influenced by JG Ballard's infamous novel Crash; "in which cars symbolise the mechanisation of the world and man's capacity to destroy himself with the technology he creates". Numan wasn't alone in scrutinising Ballard. Other acts from the era who openly acknowledged his bleak futurism included Joy Division, The Creatures, Hawkwind, Buggles and The Normal.

Meanwhile, films depicting futuristic nightmares like Alien, Mad Max and Logan's Run played to packed British cinemas in the late '70s. And Blade Runner would follow in 1982, adapting a Philip K Dick sci-fi story which questioned how man and machine might co-exist in the near future. These weren't the first cinematic visions of a bleak future. Fritz Lang's Metropolis - influenced by the industrialisation of modern life and the shadow of the WW1 - posited such a possible future as far back as 1927. But, along with the emerging electronica of Tubeway Army and many others, these visions reflected contemporary fears and hopes for our future.

Did you welcome the advent of synthesizer music? Did you identify with the alienation depicted in Numan's dystopian vision? The People's Songs wants to hear from you.

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Music Played

Gary Numan - Are ‘Friends’ Electric?

Zager & Evans - In The Year 2525

Elton John - Rocket Man

Walter Carlos - Brandenberg Concerto No.3 In G Major, Allegro

Kraftwerk - Autobahn

Gary Numan - Bombers

Gary Numan - Down In The Park

The Normal - Warm Leatherette

Gary Numan - Are ‘Friends’ Electric?

Gary Numan - Complex

Gary Numan - I Die: You Die

Ultravox - Slow Motion

The Human League - Being Boiled

Pet Shop Boys - Go West

Sugababes - Freak Like Me

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  • 2 weeks later...

Part 21: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor - Social Networking and iPod Culture

I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor going straight to the top of the singles chart in 2005 was significant for three reasons. Firstly, it was a classic underdog story - unknown band from Sheffield gets to number one (and everyone loves an underdog). Secondly, it marked the arrival of an interesting and talented young band. And thirdly, it had serious ramifications for the music business as a whole. It marked a point at which the grip of the multi-national conglomerates had been weakened. A more democratic form of power had arrived.

It was the band's fan-base, not the machinations of a major label that had propelled them into the limelight. Bands like The Darkness and Enter Shikari had managed to sell-out London's Astoria while unsigned. Fan power and technology had levelled the playing field. The internet allowed bands direct communication with fans and a worldwide window to showcase their music. The Arctic Monkeys were the right band at the right time to spearhead a new business model.

Technology not only empowered artists, it empowered the consumer. Since Napster and the iPod reared their heads, a decades-old business model was dead in the water, although the industry took a long time to recognize and react to this. More people were downloading music (whether legally or illegally), and fewer people were buying physical product, preferring to carry a virtual record collection in their back pocket. Today music fans seem happy to just consume music online without ever possessing it in any form; Lady Gaga recently racked up over two billion hits on YouTube, yet her actual sales are a tiny fraction of this.

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Music Played

Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor

Psy - Gangnam Style

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message

Bing Crosby - We’re In The Money

Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells

Steely Dan - Black Cow

Pink Floyd - The Great Gig In The Sky

Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through The Grapevine

Pearl Jam - Spin The Black Circle

Arctic Monkeys - Baby I’m Yours

Arctic Monkeys - Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured

Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor

Kylie Minogue - Dancefloor

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Part 22: Can't Get You Out of My Head - Manufactured Pop and Svengalis

Until the beginning of the 1960s, pop stars sang songs written by people crammed into little offices and cubicles in places like the Brill Building or Tin Pan Alley, daily churning out pop nuggets. But The Beatles changed things almost overnight. Bands now wanted to write their own songs, especially when the basics of publishing and royalties had been explained to them. So bands like the Stones, The Troggs, Them, The Beach Boys or The Kinks were self-contained hit-making machines and were 'credible' by simple virtue of the fact that they wrote their own stuff.

Yet songwriters like Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Hal David, Burt Bacharach and Lamont-Dozier-Holland continued to toil away, honing their craft and pitching songs to well-known acts. Despite the Fab Four there were still bands like The Monkees: contrived, made-for-TV boy bands, singing other's songs and not even playing on their own records. But by 1967 even they decided to rebel; wanting to be taken seriously as artists - writing, singing and playing their own songs. The man behind them, Don Kirschner, instead dreamt up a manufactured group over which he could have total control - the cartoon band The Archies (30 years ahead of the ground-breaking Gorillaz).

By the end of the '60s while Hendrix, The Doors, Led Zeppelin and The Who challenged the notion of what rock was, bubblegum pop still dominated the charts, with hits like The Lemon Pipers' Green Tambourine, 1910 Fruitgum Company's Simon Says and The Ohio Express' Yummy Yummy Yummy. Even the proggy, pomp-rock '70s had teen-friendly producers like Mickie Most or Chinn/Chapman. But following punk, new wave, indie and electro, teen pop music was in a lull: until an Australian child actress changed all that.

Before being a pop diva, Kylie Minogue was a soap star in Neighbours. Her first hit - a cover of The Loco-Motion - spent seven weeks at number one on the Australian chart, becoming the highest-selling single of the decade. This led to a contract with songwriters and producers Stock, Aitken & Waterman. Legend has it that they completely forgot a meeting they'd arranged with Kylie and quickly wrote I Should Be So Lucky while she sat waiting outside the studio. But it was a dream team: debut album, Kylie (1988), and the single I Should Be So Lucky both reached number one in the UK, and over the next two years they were a hit-making machine. 13 of her singles reached the British top ten.

Since Kylie there's been no let-up. Throughout the '80s and '90s there's been a slew of boy bands, girl groups and TV spin-offs, like Robson and Jerome in the UK or the Disney-reared holy trinity of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake. All were the creation of pop svengalis and all have released brilliantly-realized, bubblegum pop. Britneys' 1998 single ...Baby One More Time sold more than nine million copies (in no small part due to that video): a fact which no doubt helped Kylie's resurgence as a recording artist in the late '90s.

Were you a huge Kylie fan back in the late '80s? Do you love or hate manufactured pop music... and why? The People's Songs wants to hear from you...

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Music Played

Kylie Minogue - Can’t Get You Out Of My Head

Mel & Kim - Respectable

Tommy Steele - Singing The Blues

Joe Brown - With A Little Help From My Friends

The Monkees - Theme From The Monkees

The Monkees - Pleasant Valley Sunday

The Monkees - Last Train To Clarksville

The Archies - Sugar Sugar

Stock Aitken Waterman - Roadblock

Dead or Alive - You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)

Kylie Minogue - I Should Be So Lucky

Kylie Minogue - Better The Devil You Know

Reynolds Girls - I’d Rather Jack

Kylie Minogue - Can’t Get You Out Of My Head

Lord - On A Night Like This

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  • 3 weeks later...

Part 23: Paranoid - The Birth of Heavy Metal

An argument has long raged as to what was the very first Heavy Metal track: Led Zep's Communication Breakdown? The Kinks' pair of singles All Day And All Of The Night and You Really Got Me? What about Link Wray's Rumble? All paved the way, but one track managed to coalesce all of the facets of what was to become Heavy Metal. The track was Black Sabbath's Black Sabbath. And - from the ominous tolling bell, through the guitar's use of the flattened fifth (a dissonant interval that was banned by the medieval church), the horror show lyrics evoking Satan, to the accelerated riff at the end -The track managed to feature all of the elements that would become clichéd, but at the time were new and terrifying.

The track was groundbreaking but it was Paranoid that was to become Sabbath's most iconic - literally thrown together during the final half an hour of a recording session. With its classic Iommi pull-off/hammer-on riff, Ozzy's anguished lyric and its propulsive brevity, it was catchy, despite having no obvious chorus. It's a textbook example of Metal.

This music was very much the product of the UK, but was even more localized than that: it was born in the West Midlands. Judas Priest's Rob Halford and Diamond Head's Brian Tatler have both said the sound of the area's heavy industry - the foundries and metal-works - informed their sound. They literally grew up surrounded by the sound of heavy metal, it was in the air, an inescapable part of the surroundings. Another facet of that industry had a more direct, visceral effect on the music of Sabbath. On his last day of work before turning pro as a musician, guitarist Tony Iommi lost the fingertips on his fretting hand to a steel cutting machine. As a result, Iommi tuned his guitar down three semi-tones (so the strings would be slacker and less painful on his mangled fingers). This low tuning made Sabbath's music all the more gut-churning and gloomy.

Metal is, of course now a worldwide phenomenon. It became hugely popular in California but there's no way Heavy Metal could have originated in LA. The blueprint for Californian metal -arguably created by Van Halen - (originally called Rat Salade in tribute to a Sabs song), was worlds away from the British version. It sounded like sun, sand, surf and sex. Black Sabbath most certainly did not. It was too grim, too industrial: gothic music for a gothic environment. Other British Metal came from equally tough places - Def Leppard from Sheffield, Saxon from Barnsley, Iron Maiden from the East End Of London and Raven and Venom from Newcastle. Of course The Tygers Of Pan Tang bucked the trend coming from picturesque Whitley Bay... but then the cognoscenti would tell you that they were never a proper metal band!

Heavy Metal became one of Great Britain's greatest cultural and financial exports to the world. Def Leppard sold over 20 million copies of Hysteria. Iron Maiden bestrode the globe like a rock colossus (and still do). And not for nothing did Judas Priest title their 1980 album British Steel. The little band from Aston, Birmingham has inspired millions of kids from Alice Springs to Zagreb.

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Music Played

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

Black Sabbath - Supernaut

Steppenwolf - Born To Be Wild

The Kinks - You Really Got Me

Van Halen - You Really Got Me

Black Sabbath - Iron Man

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

Led Zeppelin - Ramble On

Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song

Led Zeppelin - Black Dog

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

Deep Purple - Highway Star

Iron Maiden - The Trooper

Judas Priest - Rapid Fire

Def Leppard - Rock of Ages

Stone Gods - Don’t Drink the Water

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Part 24: Y Viva Espana - The Advent of Package Holidays

With the boom in Britain's economy following the austere post-War years, coupled with the twin facets of falling flight prices and a rising number of flights heading to Europe, Britain enjoyed the start of a burgeoning holiday business. The Horizon Holiday Group, pioneered the first mass package holidays abroad with charter flights between Gatwick airport and Corsica in 1950 and organized the first package holidays to Palma in 1952, Lourdes in 1953, and the Costa Brava and Sardinia in 1954. Within a decade of the end of World War Two mass tourism was now very much part of our nation's social fabric.

These cheap package holidays (so called as they packaged together the flight, accommodation and meals) gave Brits their first chance to travel abroad, and the choices available were further expanded when airports like Manchester and Luton opened up routes to Europe in the early 1960s. It was the proverbial no-brainer - Blackpool or Benidorm, Scarborough or Sardinia?

Television was a key factor in the expansion of British holidaymaking. Thanks to its boom in the mid-'50s, the world was now becoming a smaller place and we could see, and be tempted by, exotic destinations from our own living rooms. The BBC launched the Cliff Michelmore-fronted series Holiday 69 at the tail end of the '60s, with ITV following suit with Wish You Were Here some five years later.

Foreign travel was now every bit as much a part of our culture as the football, the horse-racing or the Top Forty countdown. As well as broadening our nation's culinary tastes, bringing previously exotic dishes like moussaka and paella into kitchens from Andover to Aberdeen, holidaymakers also brought home pop music alongside the straw donkey and dubious liquor. From Viva Y Espana and Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep to Whigfield's Saturday Night and a host of sun-kissed Ibiza tunes, these tracks then took residence in our pop charts becoming as popular and as British as Spag Bol and Mateus Rose.

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Music Played

Sylvia - Y Viva Espana

George Formby - Isle Of Man

The Shadows - A Place In The Sun

Billy J. Kramer - Trains And Boats And Planes

Andy Williams - Music To Watch Girls By

George Baker Selection - Paloma Blanca

Middle of the Road - Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep

Sylvia - Y Viva Espana

ABBA - Waterloo

Moby - Go

New Order - Fine Time

Blur - Girls & Boys

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Part 25: Lad and Ladette Culture

The term: 'new lad' was first coined by journalist Sean O'Hagen in an article for Arena magazine, in 1993. But there was nothing essentially 'new' about this lad. In fact he seemed a throwback to the late '60s/early '70s - a simpler time when men were interested in beer, football, fast cars and dolly birds. This was explained away as a reaction to the sensitive 'new man'; a confused reaction to feminism or, more patronisingly, as a middle-class aspiration towards some sort of mythical working-class values. But, of course, all of this could be also argued to be absolute nonsense, and it was just a lucrative marketing ploy driven by cynical magazine editors at the likes of GQ and Loaded. They recognised that many young men will always be interested in the same things, even if it wasn't politically correct to admit this, hence Loaded's motto, 'For men who should know better'.

James Brown, one of the driving forces behind Loaded, had said ultimately he'd wanted to capture his old employer the NME's readership, and in the process kill the old music press. At the height of its success, Loaded would sell nearly half a million copies a month, celebrating male rogues (say Liam Gallagher, Ollie Reed or George Best) and scantily clad women. But music also played a big part, exemplified by the likes of sharp-dressed geezer Paul Weller or boozing, brawling Manc loudmouths, Oasis. And what better anthem could lads have than Cigarettes And Alcohol?

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Music Played

Oasis - Cigarettes & Alcohol

Symarip - Skinhead Moonstomp

Morrissey - Suedehead

Sham 69 - Hurry Up Harry

Wham! - Bad Boys

Primal Scream - Loaded

Sleeper - Inbetweener

Oasis - Cigarettes & Alcohol

Blur - To The End

Oasis - Champagne Supernova

The Mike Flowers Pops - Wonderwall

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Part 26: Dedicated Follower of Fashion - Swinging London

Come the mid-1960s, The Kinks' Ray Davies was becoming increasingly jaded with the pop roundabout he found himself on. Always a keen social observer Dedicated Follower Of Fashion neatly skewers Swinging London's pretensions and foibles. Some might argue that Davies was something of a misanthrope, a grouch complaining about the beautiful young things having a whale of time in the nation's capital. But here was a fortunate new generation born post WWII, who hadn't experienced the horror of war, who probably couldn't remember austerity and were hitting their late teens as the British economy boomed. National Service had been abolished and The Beatles and the English football team ruled the world. In 1965 the American singer Roger Miller had released the unintentionally hilarious tribute England Swings. If a middle of the road country singer from Texas knew what was happening on the other side of the world, it must have been a big deal. And it was.

Journalist Christopher Booker, a founder of the satirical magazine Private Eye, observed Swinging London with a similar cynicism to Ray Davies. But this was a bubble that was not about to get burst, and it must have been wonderful to live inside it. Not only was the economy booming, so too were our arts and culture. Alongside The Beatles, The Stones, The Small Faces, The Dave Clark Five et al signed up for the British Invasion. Jimi Hendrix left New York to get noticed in London. And whilst The Kinks poked fun at Swinging London, The Who celebrated the rush of youthful revolution in My Generation quite clearly telling the old guard they could just go and ''F-F-F-Fade away''

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Music Played

The Kinks - Dedicated Follower Of Fashion

The Who - My Generation

Wilson Pickett - Mini-Skirt Minnie

Sam Cooke - Wonderful World

The Rolling Stones - Paint It, Black

Manfred Mann - Do Wah Diddy Diddy

Anita Harris - London Life

The Kinks - Dedicated Follower Of Fashion

Dusty Springfield - The Look Of Love

The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset

The Kinks - Where Have All The Good Times Gone

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  • 3 weeks later...

Part 27: Gold - Thatcherism and the aspiration of the 80s

When Margaret Thatcher came to power in May 1979, she declared she was determined to drag Britain out of the strike-bound '70s; as the memorable campaign poster had it: Labour isn't working. Thatcher was determined to reverse the nation's economic decline, and what she saw as the Union's all-too-powerful grip on much of the working class. The nation's first female Prime Minister heralded serious and sweeping change.

But with someone as divisive as Thatcher, there were plenty of acts that were willing to take a stand against her and what she stood for.

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Music Played

Spandau Ballet - Gold

XTC - Making Plans for Nigel

The Beat - Whine And Grine/Stand Down Margaret

Crosby, Nash & Young - Our House

Harry Enfield - Loadsamoney (Doin’ Up The House)

Jan Hammer - Miami Vice

Culture Club - Karma Chameleon

Duran Duran - Rio

Heaven 17 - Crushed By The Wheels of Industry

Pet Shop Boys - Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)

Spandau Ballet - To Cut a Long Story Short

Spandau Ballet - To Cut a Long Story Short (12” Version)

Spandau Ballet - Gold

The Style Council - Walls Come Tumbling Down

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Part 28: Tubthumping - Environmentalism and Anti-Globalism

Chumbawamba's single is definitely one of those tracks that's become known as an earworm; once inside your head, it's very hard to dislodge. It's also an unusual commercial hit in that it came from a resolutely anti-commercial bunch of anarchic folk-punkers. It even reached number six in the USA, though one can assume that buyers were unaware of the band's socialist leanings. It's also obviously the song's infectiousness (as well as the lyrical refrain of getting back up having been knocked down) that led Nike to offer the band $1.5 million for use of the song. The band said they considered the offer for all of 30 seconds before saying "no". But they still enraged hard-core fans by signing with the major label EMI: seemingly going against their anti-corporate stance. EMI would later drop the band for their political activism.

Tubthumping is lyrically ambiguous, yet the band have adjusted the lyrics in the live setting to offer support to death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamil and to criticise Tony Blair's stance over his refusal to support the Liverpool docker's strikes. The band has also campaigned for the miners, for animal rights and against homophobia. They've questioned Bob Geldof's motives for organising Live Aid and raised money for the Zeebrugge Ferry disaster. They were nothing if not polemical, impassioned and interesting. The band seemed to stand for that classic British trait of fair play and decency.

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Music Played

Chumbawamba - Tubthumping

Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton & Linda Ronstadt - After The Goldrush

Steve Hillage - Leylines To Glassdom

The Smiths - Meat Is Murder

Robert Wyatt - Pigs… (In There)

Levellers - One Way

New Model Army - Great Expectations

Chumbawamba -Song On The Times

Levellers - Battle Of The Beanfield

Galliano - Twyford Down

Chumbawamba - Tubthumping

Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi

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Part 29: Light Flight - The Folk Revival

Off the back of the Skiffle movement in the mid-'50s, the UK's folk club scene enjoyed a boom spearheaded by the likes of Ewan MacColl who saw our indigenous folk music as both an antidote to the influx of American rock 'n roll and also as a means of conveying a left-leaning message which was totally absent in popular music. Though Skiffle had originally been founded mostly on covers of American folk and blues songs - Lonnie Donegan's Rock Island Line being a perfect example - many of those British kids who had picked up acoustic instruments found their way towards our nation's own folk music. This inspiration could come from the pens of singer-songwriters like Ewan MacColl or instrumentally from people like Davy Graham, whose timeless piece Angi was hugely influential on a generation of kids learning to play guitar, and inspired everyone from Ralph McTell and Martin Carthy to Jimmy Page.

But, ironically, it was an American, Bob Dylan, whose part in this revival cannot be over-stated. Dylan had turned to folk troubadours like Woody Guthrie and Ramblin' Jack Elliott for inspiration, but it was when he went electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 that folk music was made anew and forever changed. Dylan had shocked and upset the Newport audience, and did so again months later when he toured the UK. Dylan's compadres, The Byrds' mix of folk music and Rickenbacker guitars also helped move the music towards folk-rock and progressive folk. And among the leading lights of the progressive folk movement were Brits Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, who would later form the folk rock band Pentangle in the late '60s.

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Music Played

The Pentangle - Light Flight

Bellowhead - A Begging I Will Go

Ewan MacColl - Dirty Old Town

Anne Briggs - The Doffing Mistress

Ralph McTell - Streets Of London

Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone

Fairport Convention - Tam Lin

Curved Air - Back Street Luv

Bert Jansch - Angie

The Pentangle - Pentangling

The Pentangle - Light Flight

The Bad Shepherds - God Save The Queen

Chris Wood - Hollow Point

Peggy Seeger - I’m Gonna Be An Engineer

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  • 5 weeks later...

Part 30: Wannabe - Girl Power and Feminism

For most people the expression of 'girl power' is synonymous with The Spice Girls, but its origins pre-date any mainstream appearance. It's believed that 'Grrrl Power' was first floated in the early '90s in a fanzine by punk band Bikini Kill: part of the hardcore female punk/grunge movement Riot Grrrl and worlds away from the slick, homogenised pop of The Spice Girls. The pop punk band Shampoo later released a single and album called Girl Power the year before the Spice Girls had their huge hit (and which also featured such feminist tracts as Don't Call Me Babe and Bare Knuckle Girl). But as this was around the peak of the New Laddism, it's no surprise that a counter ideology sprung up celebrating and empowering the feminine. Also at this time there was a marked increase in iconic and indelible fictional female characters that kicked ass and weren't to be trifled with (but still looked like shampoo models): Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider game, Xena the Warrior Princess, Nikita or Tank Girl.

But for some girls and young women The Spice Girls were the first time they'd even thought about gender identity and politics. Each Spice Girl each supposedly represented a role model to be admired, celebrated and possibly emulated. From a marketing perspective, no doubt, it was hoped that young girls could identify with one of the girls, whether Posh, Scary, Sporty, Baby or Ginger. Whilst it's easy to mock the broad brush-strokes at work here, maybe a sporty girl (maybe a little boyish) or a ginger girl (perhaps mercilessly taunted) could feel a little better about themselves. And was there a more indelible image of late '90s Britain than Geri's Union Jack dress? 7

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Music Played

Spice Girls - Wannabe

Shampoo - Girl Power

Spice Girls - Spice Up Your Life

Gracie Fields - Sally

The Kinks - A Well Respected Man

X-Ray Spex - Oh Bondage Up Yours!

Madonna - Material Girl

Spice Girls - Wannabe

Spice Girls - 2 Become 1

All Saints - Pure Shores

S Club 8 - S Club Party

Spice Girls - Holler

Joy Division - She’s Lost Control

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Part 31: How Soon Is Now? - The Sound of the Post-Industrial North

From the bombed-out, broken down cities of the North they came, a stream of pasty-faced, earnest young men and women in trench coats and black clothing with a new music that sowed the seeds of what became commonly known as 'indie': totally changing the nation's musical landscape.

When the Sex Pistols played Manchester's free-trade hall in 1976, many of the crowd went on to form their own bands; The Buzzcocks, Joy Division, Durutti Column, The Fall and The Smiths, all began after that fateful night. And word soon spread like wildfire across the North of England. Out of Sheffield came The Human League, Cabaret Voltaire and Heaven 17. From Leeds there was The Gang Of Four, The Mission and The Cult. Liverpool gave us Echo And The Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes and The Icicle Works. Maybe it was the wetter weather that encouraged kids to stay indoors and play records and pick up instruments. Or maybe it was the lack of job opportunities and the hard, bleak social conditions that persuaded kids to turn their attentions elsewhere. Maybe these teenagers couldn't get a job and, inspired, by the old cliché, found an escape through music.

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Music Played

The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?

The Clash - Hitsville UK

The Teardrop Explodes - Reward

Joy Division - Transmission

Joy Division - She’s Lost Control

New Order - Blue Monday

The Smiths - Hand In Glove

The Smiths - This Charming Man

The Smiths - Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now

The Smiths - William, It Was Really Nothing

The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?

The Stone Roses - Fools Gold

Two Door Cinema Club - Something Good Can Work

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Part 32: Give Ireland Back to the Irish - The Troubles

It's hard to believe now, but back in the early to mid-1970s a bloody running battle was taking place between the British Armed Forces and Irish Republicans. Bombs went off in Birmingham, Coventry, London, Aldershot and Bristol. Families were ripped apart on both sides of the divide. 1972 alone was a terribly bloody year in Northern Island; nearly 500 people lost their lives, of which over half were civilians. The apogee of The Troubles was Bloody Sunday, when 13 unarmed demonstrators were shot dead by The Forces. As the blood continued to spill and the rhetoric raged, both sides became further infuriated and more deeply entrenched. The nation was truly divided.

Into this vicious, volatile climate stepped the cuddly ex-Beatle, Paul McCartney, and, to the surprise of many (and probably disdain of even more), he introduced his new band with a single that he'd written in response to Bloody Sunday. The band was Wings, and the song was called "Give Ireland Back To the Irish". For many, this was more the domain of the firebrand radical Lennon, but McCartney? The man who'd broken ranks with the Beatles and had become a staunch vegetarian and sheep-farmer? That an MBE-awarded ex-Beatle took such an outspoken and essentially anti-Monarchy stance was remarkable, and perhaps seen as a slap in the face to many who'd welcomed McCartney into homes.

Having recorded the single, McCartney was soon phoned by the chairman of EMI, Sir Joseph Lockwood, who was unhappy with the track. McCartney stood by it, saying he felt strongly about what had just happened in Northern Ireland. Lockwood warned him it would simply be banned. And so it proved. Yet though the single received no airplay in Britain it still got to number 16 (and to number one in Southern Ireland and Spain).

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Music Played

Paul Brady - The Island

Morrissey - Irish Blood, English Heart

The Freshmen - Good Vibrations

Harvey Andrews - Soldier

Horslips - Dearg Doom

Planxty - Junior Crehan’s Favourite / Corney Is Coming

Wings - Give Ireland Back To The Irish

Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster

The Undertones - Teenage Kicks

U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday

Thin Lizzy - Emerald

Billy Bragg - Northern Industrial Town

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Part 33: The Ying Tong Song - Comedy and Popular Music

Britain has always loved a good comedy song. And even a bad one from time to time. As a large part of British musical entertainment had its roots in the nudge-nudge wink-wink of the Music Hall, the risqué songs of Noel Coward or the clever but daft Flanders And Swann, it's no surprise that comedy songs keep rearing their ugly heads. During the Second World War, while Vera Lynn kept the boys in touch with home, it was George Formby who kept them laughing through those dark days. And laughter would prove to be a much needed tonic during the hard task of re-building our country during the austere 1950s. Thus, the Goons: Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe - a comedy trio who were just as influential on The Beatles as Chuck Berry (just watch any Beatles' films or press conferences for proof). And it was the 'fifth Beatle', George Martin, who had honed his skills recording comedy songs with the likes of Sellers and Milligan, as well as Rolf Harris and later Bernard Cribbins (Cribbins' "Digging A Hole" was discussed earlier in the series in the "Part of The Union" episode).

The Goons' comedy offspring like Dudley Moore and Peter Cooke as well as The Pythons also had pop hits; the former with "Goodbye-ee" and the latter with "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life". Other comics like The Goodies, Bennie Hill, Jasper Carrot, Alexei Sayle, The Comic Strip or Spitting Image have had hits. The latter's "The Chicken Song" was almost inescapable for a large part of 1986. Then we've had groups like The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band who did comedy material or The Barron Knights who specialised in comic parodies.

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Music Played

The Goons - The Ying Tong Song

Monty Python - Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life

Spike Jones - Der Fuehrer’s Face

George Formby - With My Little Ukulele In My Hand

Flanders and Swann - The Gnu Song

Bernard Cribbins - Right Said Fred

The Goons - The Ying Tong Song

Benny Hill - Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West)

Benny Hill - Transistor Radio

Frank Zappa - Valley Girl

The Rutles - Ouch!

Spitting Image - The Chicken Song

The Mike Flowers Pops Wonderwall

Joe Dolce - Shaddap You Face

Vic Reeves - I Remember Punk Rock

Baauer - Harlem Shake

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  • 3 weeks later...

Part 34: Bleeding Love - X Factor and Talent Shows

Britain's music scene is at an interesting juncture in the second decade of the 21st century. On the one hand technology is changing the rules of how a band interacts with its audience and how it supplies its music to that fanbase. Yet that same technology has also destroyed a band's traditional form of income: selling CDs. So, in a sense, music is now paradoxically both more and less popular. On the one hand, fewer people are actually buying music, and yet it's ubiquitous: in shops; on mobile phones; online and on TV, especially prime-time weekend TV where programmes like X-Factor, The Voice and Britain's Got Talent dominate the ratings wars.

The talent show is nothing new to the British audience. Opportunity Knocks debuted on radio in 1949, then appeared on TV in 1956 where it came and went for three decades. But when the BBC revived the show for a final run in 1987, the Beeb's decision to use a telephone voting system created the format we still watch today (prior to this, rather sweetly, the audience was invited to post their vote in).

Leona Lewis' number one single, "Bleeding Love", is a perfect example of the modern hit. Sung by an X-Factor winner, it was not only the biggest selling single in the UK in 2008, but it was the biggest selling worldwide, hitting number 1 in 34 countries. But both song and performer had the advantage of being exposed on national television to an audience of millions. The talent show has given us an insight into the spectacle of creating a star from scratch. It's thrilling entertainment, a large slice of human drama complete with tears and triumph, adversity and audacity, and one that we can have a hand in shaping.

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Music Played

Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love

Ed Sheeran - The A Team

Bryan Adams - Heaven

U2 - Even Better Than The Real Thing

Mary Hopkin - Those Were The Days

Steve Bent - I’m Going To Spain

The Fall - I’m Going To Spain

Power Rangers - Power Rangers

Tom Jones - Listen To The Music

Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love

Adele - Someone Like You (Live Recording)

One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful

Susan Boyle - I Dreamed A Dream

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Part 35:Don't Cry for Me Argentina - Musicals

The pop musical has long had a place in the nation's heart; particularly so post-World War II. From the Beatles' films to the jukebox musicals currently clogging up London's West End, Britain clearly has a soft spot for musicals. And if you doubt that, consider this salient fact; the soundtrack for "The Sound Of Music" dominated the pop charts in the Swinging Sixties, being the best-selling album in 1965, 1966 and 1968. In other words, during the absolute height of Beatlemania, the biggest selling album was actually a kitsch, sentimental musical movie.

The seeds of the pop musical can be found in such British stalwarts as Gilbert & Sullivan, Noel Coward, Ivor Novello and musicals like "Oliver". All are very much a part of our culture, and yet have little resonance or meaning outside of the UK. In fact, "Oliver" made its debut three years after the racy American musical "West Side Story" became a hit here, and yet this musical remake of the Charles Dickens novel seems like it's from a different era altogether, as if rock 'n' roll never happened. But the American rock 'n' roll films "The Blackboard Jungle", "Rock Around The Clock" and "The Girl Can't Help It" did shake up sleepy Britain, kick-starting the British rock revolution. Without these there would have been no Tommy Steele, no Cliff Richard or Shadows, no Beatles and thus no Beatles films. And without the Beatles films, you could argue there might not have been any of the other classic rock films, from Slade's gritty "In Flame", to the nostalgic David Essex vehicles "That'll Be The Day" and "Stardust", onto "Quadrophenia", "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" and even "Spiceworld". A huge slice of British pop culture would never have existed.

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Music Played

Julie Covington - Don’t Cry For Me Argentina

Julie Andrews - Do-Re-Mi

The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour

The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company - I Am The Very Model of A Modern Major General

Noël Coward - The Stately Homes of England

Eddie Cochran - Twenty Flight Rock

Slade - How Does It Feel?

David Essex - Stardust

The Pretty Things - SF Sorrow Is Born

The Who - The Real Me

Richard O’Brien (Riff Raff), Little Nell (Columbia), Patricia Quinn (Magenta), Charles Gray (Narrator) And The Transylvanians - The Time Warp

Stockard Channing - There Are Worse Things I Could Do

Yvonne Elliman - I Don’t Know How To Love Him

Jason Donovan - Any Dream Will Do

Julie Covington - Don’t Cry For Me Argentina

Jeff Wayne - The Eve Of The War

Original London Cast of We Will Rock You - A Kind Of Magic

Original 1985 London Cast of Les Miserables - Empty Chairs At Empty Tables

Original London Cast of Evita - A New Argentina

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  • 2 weeks later...

Part 36:Shipbuilding - The Falklands War

When Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands on the 2nd April 1982, few could have foreseen quite how this event would play out. Certainly not the Argentineans, who gambled on the fact that the Brits wouldn't respond militarily. For them, a successful and swift campaign would be a welcome distraction from the country's dire economic situation and would rally the nation's flagging spirits. Unfortunately for the South Americans, Margaret Thatcher felt much the same way; a war could be a quick and simple way of uniting the country and boosting the industrial manufacturing base at a time of recession.

Though it occurred only 30 years ago, the conflict seems to have happened in an altogether different age. The BBC only found out about the invasion from some islanders, via amateur radio. But this conflict would last for 74 days, 649 Argentineans would die, as would 255 Brits. A British ship, HMS Sheffield was sunk, as was an Argentinean ship, The Belgrano, which was responsible for half of the total number of Argentinean casualties and which was sunk in debatable circumstances.

But beyond these sad and stark statistics, more existential matters arose. Firstly, as a nation how could we lay claim to islands that were thousands of miles from us? It also inspired some soul-searching as to what an empire meant and if it was worth the blood, sweat and tears to maintain it. It certainly provoked a reaction from some of the nation's songwriters. You had The Pretenders' "2000 miles", New Model Army's "Spirit Of The Falklands", Billy Bragg's "Island Of No Return" and probably the most famous example: a song written by Elvis Costello, but made famous by Robert Wyatt.

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Music Played

Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding

Tears for Fears - Mad World

Brian Eno & David Byrne - Mountain Of Needles

Saxon - Power And The Glory

The Human League - Tom Baker

June Tabor - The Grey Funnel Line

Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding

Visage - Fade To Grey

The Human League - Darkness

Billy Bragg - Island Of No Return

Ultravox - Mr. X

David Bowie - Heroes

England 1982 World Cup Squad - This Time (We’ll Get It Right)

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Part 37:World in Motion - The British Love of Football

Despite Britain's love affair with pop music and football, any marriage of these two is almost always less than the sum of its parts. Sometimes rousing, sometimes jingoistic and frequently naff, the football song hasn't got a particularly spectacular or noble history.

Football teams record songs for a lot of reasons (celebration, anticipation, remuneration), but unless it's one of the bigger teams, there's little chance it will bother the pop charts. But a song from one of our national teams is a different matter. As the nation pulls together pre-tournament, these tracks usually sprint up the charts; as much a part of a national campaign as the inevitable early exit from the competition.

In 1986, the England squad's World Cup campaign was preceded by the somewhat presumptuous and fate-tempting track, "This Time We'll Get It Right". But of course, they didn't and this was mostly down to the fact that Argentina's tiny talisman, Maradona, scored with his hand and then claimed it was God's doing. A bitter pill to swallow, indeed. Four years later it was arguable whether the English team was any better, but their campaign song certainly was. In fact, it's quite possible that the English 1990 World Cup campaign song was the best, coolest, most iconic football song... ever! It shouldn't be forgotten either, that "World In Motion" is New Order's only number one single. And such is the song's excellence that it even got to number 5 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart, in the USA, a country which couldn't give a hoot about soccer or the England team.

Previously, football songs were usually rough 'n rowdy affairs, more in keeping with songs sung on Britain's football terraces. But this was a lot more sophisticated, more pop-sure, and in terms of credibility it couldn't have been bettered, even if it did feature a much-maligned rap by striker John Barnes. LL Cool J or KRS-1 weren't going to be losing any sleep over it, but given that Paul Gascoigne and Peter Beardsley were both considered for the part, maybe we should be grateful for small mercies.

"World In Motion" played a big part in lifting the mood of the nation prior to the World Cup. It seemed like 'Cool Britannia' happened half a decade before Tony Blair appeared (well, that's Britannia minus all of Scotland and parts of Ireland and Wales). The English team started well but, true to form, quickly fizzled out as old foe, Germany, beat them on penalties, giving us one of England's most iconic moments, when Paul Gascoigne was sent off in a flood of tears. And the final proved to be a bittersweet affair, as Germany won, beating Argentina who'd knocked us out of the previous World Cup Finals.

Come the next World Cup Finals, Scotland also roped in a genuine pop star to help them out, namely Rod Stewart who sang "Purple Heather". And though it only reached number 16 in the charts, that's probably more a reflection on the size of Scotland's population than the song's worth, although the New Order song is, obviously much, much better

Are football songs just naff, or good, rousing fun and a big part of the build-up to big competitions? The People's Songs wants to hear from you.

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Music Played

New Order - World In Motion

Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight

Robin Hall And Jimmie MacGregor - Football Crazy

The Hollies - Bus Stop

Don Fardon - Belfast Boy

Gerry & The Pacemakers - You’ll Never Walk Alone

Lonnie Donegan - World Cup Willie

The Fall - Kicker Conspiracy

Happy Mondays - Loose Fit

Luciano Pavarotti - Nessun Dorma

New Order - World In Motion

The Smiths - Sweet And Tender Hooligan

Black Grape Featuring Joe Strummer And Keith Allen - England’s Irie (Remix)

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  • 1 month later...

Part 38:5:15 - Youth Tribes

A goth, a punk, a raver and a soul boy walk into a bar... well of course they would, they're probably just mates, hanging out. This is the 21st Century and pop tribes rub along quite differently today. In fact, it could be argued that pop-tribalism isn't the be-all and end-all it once was, when what you wore and how your hair was cut really mattered and defined who and what you were. This track from the Who is a perfect slice of life from the perspective of a young Mod, from the album "Quadrophrenia" and is completely rooted in the notion of youthful tribalism and what it means to be young and searching for one's identity.

Tribalism has been part of British pop music since the rock 'n' roll invasion in the mid-1950s. Kids finally had their own fashion and music, and were thrilled to just look different to their parents. The generation gap opened up, and it was 'us' versus 'them'. But youth culture became more sub-divided over the years. When the skiffle boom happened, on the other side of the aisle were the Trad Jazz fans, looking down their noses at these noisy oiks in their denim jeans and check shirts. In the early '60s you were probably either a Beatles fan or a Rolling Stones fan. A few years later, maybe you were a mod or a rocker. Fights broke out depending on which haircut or trousers you sported. In the '70s you might be a mod, a rocker or a punk. As music splintered and mutated throughout the '80s there were now New Romantics, Metal-heads, Trendies, Yuppies, Punks, New-wavers, Rastas, Soul-boys and girls, Hip-hop heads, Goths, Sports Casuals...

But, come the Noughties, pop tribes seem to have dissipated or been assimilated to a large degree.

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Music Played

The Who - 5.15

Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

Dion & The Belmonts - A Teenager In Love

Chuck Berry - No Particular Place To Go

Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers - I'm Not A Juvenile Delinquent

The Dave Clark Five - Catch Us If You Can

The Who - 5.15

Hawkwind - Silver Machine

The Jam - When You're Young

Run-D.M.C. - Walk This Way

Wiley - Ya Win Some, Ya Lose Some (Instrumental)

Adam and The Ants - Stand And Deliver

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Part 39: Move It - The British Take on Rock 'n' Roll

That rock 'n' roll was an American invention, built from blues and country music, is unquestionable. But in the stew that made up rock 'n' roll, British folk music was also one of the ingredients. Cliff Richard was Britain's answer to Elvis, though he didn't appear for a full 3 years after Bill Haley entered the British charts in December 1954 with "Rock Around The Clock", with Elvis' "Heartbreak Hotel" following a few months later. Cliff was every bit as popular and handsome as The King and while he was never quite as cool, dangerous or sullen and sexy as Elvis, it was his "Move It" that really kick-started British rock 'n' roll. Yes, we'd had skiffle (as documented in episode four, "Rock Island Line"), which had taken inspiration from American folk and blues, but this was something else. Skiffle was acoustic music, but thanks to Cliff's pal Hank Marvin, every young guitar player now wanted an electric guitar, and more specifically a Fender Stratocaster, an impossibly exotic looking instrument, first seen in Buddy Holly's hands.

Rock 'n' roll turned life upside down in the UK, especially after Bill Haley's visit to the UK in 1957. That a fat man with a kiss curl and a chequered suit could cause rioting and hysteria speaks volumes about the excitement and volatility of these times. Mind you, The Shadows were also hugely influential, and they were an instrumental group, led by a lanky kid in thick glasses and collectively looking like Gerry Anderson puppets with their goofy dance steps. Their twangy but polite tunes influenced every aspiring rocker from Lennon and McCartney to Jimmy Page, Tony Iommi, Brian May and Mark Knopfler: this was life-changing stuff.

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Music Played

Cliff Richard - Move It

The Beatles - Rock 'N' Roll Music

Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls Of Fire

Paul Anka - Diana

Bill Haley & His Comets - Rock Around The Clock

Eddie Cochran - C'mon Everybody

Elvis Presley - Heartbreak Hotel

Little Richard - Lucille

Cliff Richard - Move It

The Drifters - Jet Black

Cliff Richard - Living Doll

Billy Fury - My Advice

David Essex - Rock On

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Part 40: Bye-Bye Baby - Pop Heartthrobs

The current hysteria over Harry Styles and One Direction is clearly nothing new. Young girls (and even grown women) have been screaming and swooning over groups of good-looking young men forever. It's said that when silent movie star, Rudolf Valentino died in 1926, thousands of women fell into a state of despair or hysteria. And, ever since the teenager was created in the Fifties, there have been teen idols. Beatlemania caused girls to scream themselves silly, swoon or just fall to their knees in a faint.

Prior to this there was Britain's first teen-idol, Tommy Steele: a man who was cutting "The Tommy Steele Story" biopic movie just four weeks after his first chart success, such was the demand for product. Following hot on his heels was Britain's answer to Elvis: Cliff Richard. Both Tommy and Cliff were toothsome and talented, but clearly non-threatening. Things would later turn a little darker when The Rolling Stones reared their ugly heads, tabloid headlines screaming: 'Would you let your daughter marry a Rolling Stone?'.

Post-Beatles there was a slew of manufactured musical mannequins of the likes of The Sweet, Mud and this episode's headliners, The Bay City Rollers - a perfect embodiment of the teenage heartthrob, with their simple, catchy hits and a contrived image based around tartan and trousers that were clearly too short. Pop idols like David Essex soon crossed over from music pinups to movie pinups. Punk briefly broke the heartthrob's stranglehold on the charts (though for many a confused girl or boy, Sid Vicious was something of an anti-pinup). But the likes of Wham! returned golden, girl-friendly guys to the top of the charts, and so began another run of boy bands not seen since the heyday of glam in the '70s. So Andrew Ridgeley, Adam Ant, Robbie Williams, Simon Le Bon and Nik Kershaw were on more walls than Dulux and were the musical manifestation of a million schoolgirl crushes.

The pulling power of boy bands (no pun intended) can be amply illustrated by Take That's recent, second spell of success. Their massive sell-out stadium tours were pretty much packed with women who'd been teenage followers of the band during their '90s heyday. Both bands and fans had grown up, but were still locked in a mutually beneficial, nostalgia-nursing relationship. And for one night these women could forget about work, family and the inevitable march of time and get back in touch with their inner-teen. Nostalgia is a powerful urge, and music is the quickest means of getting you there.

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Music Played

Bay City Rollers - Bye Bye Baby

The Walker Brothers - Deadlier Than The Male

Frank Sinatra - Young At Heart

The Beatles - She Loves You

Donny Osmond - Puppy Love

David Cassidy - Run And Hide

David Essex - Gonna Make You A Star

Bay City Rollers - Bye Bye Baby

Bay City Rollers - Shang-A-Lang

Take That - Back For Good

Take That - Relight My Fire

Duran Duran - Planet Earth

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Part 41: Do They Know It's Christmas? - How Pop Found a Social Conscience

We Brits like to think that we believe in a sense of fair play and of doing the right thing, and this episode proves this absolutely. In the midst of the Thatcher years, the so-called time of greed and self-interest, where pampered rock stars jetted all over the world in mind-boggling luxury, a very strange thing happened. An ex-punk singer was watching TV and was appalled to see a human disaster enfolding on a massive scale in West Africa. Charities were doing their best to help battle the famine, but governments sat idly by wringing their hands and saying how awful this all was. But Bob Geldof was determined to do something about it. So enlisting his pal Midge Ure (of Ultravox fame), they wrote a song and then persuaded, coerced and even bullied the rock royalty of the day to sing on it. It was a song that was at once both uplifting and yet unsentimental, and the key line, "thank God it's them instead of you", was searing in its honesty.

Within a week of release, the single had sold a million copies, was number one for five weeks (ultimately selling 3.7 million copies in the UK), and was, at the time, the biggest selling UK single ever. But that wasn't enough for Geldof. Thanks to Sir Bob's drive and compassion, charity singles became ubiquitous but back in the mid '80s it was a novel solution to an old problem. There'd been George Harrison's single, concert (and subsequent triple live album and film) in aid of war victims in Bangladesh, as well as other ad-hoc charity fundraising gigs, but Geldof's vision was on another level altogether. Do They Know It's Christmas? would sell nearly twelve million copies worldwide and was soon followed with a plan to stage the greatest show ever seen. And in that hot July of 1985 Live Aid took place, most famously in London's Wembley Stadium and the JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. But events also took place in Cologne, Moscow, The Netherlands and Sydney. It was truly a global event, watched by an estimated worldwide audience of 1.9 billion - or in other words, by about a third of the planet.

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Music Played

Band Aid - Do They Know It’s Christmas?

George Harrison - While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Live Recording from The Concert For Bangladesh)

The Beatles - Taxman

The Police - Message In A Bottle

Band Aid - Do They Know It’s Christmas?

The Housemartins - Flag Day

Status Quo - Rockin’ All Over The World

Queen - We Are The ChampionsU2 - Bad

Faith No More - We Care A Lot

Queen - We Will Rock You

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Part 42: One Day Like This - The Music Festival Experience

The British music festival is now as much a summer staple as Wimbledon, the FA Cup or Glorious Goodwood. It's also a rite of passage for any music fan; there's nothing quite like the heady combination of being in a crowd in the great outdoors with waves of music washing over us. No doubt it's a primal human experience hard-wired within us.

The rock festival, like the music itself, has its roots in jazz and blues, namely The Jazz and Blues festival - which started in the early '60s and would in time become better known as the much rockier Reading Festival - and which featured The Who, The Yardbirds, Jethro Tull and Fleetwood Mac in the mid-Sixties. Then came a festival in Spalding, Lincolnshire, in a cattle auction shed in May '67 featuring Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and The Move all in one day, for the princely sum of £1! The Isle Of Wight started in '68, and there were also festivals in Uxbridge and Bath, before the daddy of them all, Glastonbury, started in 1970. The last Glastonbury, in 2011, sold out its ticket allocation in just four hours, and 18.6 million viewers watched the BBC's coverage on TV.

Today, there's is a music festival of every stripe, ranging from the full-on Metal festivals like Download or Bloodstock through to those that cater for the arty, Guardian-reading crowd with their literary tents and highbrow headliners, such as Latitude in lovely Southwold, Suffolk. There are festivals in Sidmouth and Cambridge that cover folk music both indigenous and from further afield. And there are cultured and curated festivals like All Tomorrow's Parties and those held in holiday camps catering to families and those less-inclined to sleep in a tent in a field, with the promise of a bed, a hot shower and choice of restaurants.

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Music Played

Elbow - One Day Like This (Live Recording from Glastonbury 2008)

Joni Mitchell - Woodstock

The Rolling Stones - Sympathy For The Devil

Osibisa - Music For Gong Gong

Guns N' Roses - Welcome To The Jungle

Pink Floyd - See Emily Play

Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze

T. Rex - Get It On

Blur - The Universal

The Orb - A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraword

Garbage - Only Happy When It Rains

Elbow - One Day Like This (Live Recording from Glastonbury 2008)

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