Hot 100 #11

And so we reach the end of double digits on the Hot 100 Countdown, with lost 80s postpunk pioneers (they might not have been pioneers, I just couldn't resist the alliteration), Eleven Pond. Here they are in all their glory...

Eleven Pond - Portugal

I'm actually surprised by how few 11 Songs I (and you) could find. Somehow, I expected there to be more. Still, we start the official Top Ten next week, so I imagine we'll be spoilt for choice then.

As is often the case, The Swede was first out of bed last Tuesday morning... with a selection of tracks I struggled to find any audio for on the interweb...

Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - The Eleven Year Glitch

Hatfield and the North - Elevenses

Thin White Rope - Eleven

Then came Lynchie, who broke the first rule of Hot 100 Club with his first suggestion...

U2 - 11 O'Clock Tick Tock (The lyrics are crap but the guitar's pretty neat)

Sadly, I struggled to find a link for that anywhere on the interweb either. The difference being, I did at least try to find links for all The Swede's suggestions.

Fortunately, Lynchie redeemed himself (slightly) with this...

Nine Below Zero - Eleven Plus Eleven

Not my fave Nine Below Zero track, he adds. I bought "Don't Point Your Finger" in 1981 and it has the mega awesome "Ain't Coming Back".

Nine Below Zero - Ain't Coming Back

That is pretty cool, thanks.

George crawled out of the woodwork next with three top suggestions...

Blondie - 11.59 from Parallel Lines

(Worth watching that video for a supremely Debbie Harry performance by Debbie Harry.)

Hank Locklin - Seven or Eleven... surely this week's winner?

Surely not, but a fine song anyway.

Before Charity Chic gets to it, what about...? 

Buck Owens - A-11

As it turns out, Charity Chic only had the following this week (which he called "My entries for this week and next!", though I'm sure he'll come up with something else for 10).

Terry Hall & Mushtaq - Ten Eleven

Lee Hazlewood - Ten or Eleven Towns Ago

I tell you what, that Lee Hazlewood could have been in with a shot... if I'd heard it before today. What a tune!

Swiss Adam dropped by next with an excellent (hidden) suggestion...

The last song on REM's Green is sometimes called the Eleventh Untitled Song...

REM - Untitled

...which is definitely better than the REM song I was going to put forward this week...

Oh, hang on... Last Minute Arrival: here's Douglas McLaren with the same idea as me...

Late to the game again. I'm going with "Rotary Eleven", the b-side to r.e.m.'s Losing My Religion. I bought the cd single back in the day and was disappointed that it was an instrumental, but now after many years I have grown to really like it.

REM - Rotary Eleven

We're on the same wavelength again, Douglas... just not a winning one this week. Thanks anyway.

And then came Alyson...

Tin Tin Out - Eleven To Fly

...featuring Wendy Page, apparently.

No, me neither.

Starting to wonder if we're going to get to No. 1 whilst still in lockdown.

I seriously hope not, Alyson, or I might be compiling this feature from a rubber room by then.

Time for Jim in Dubai...

Momus - Eleven Executioners

Sigue Sigue Sputnik - Love Missile F1-11

I like that a lot more now than I did when it was actually out. Very bizarre to find the cover version below in my collection though...

David Bowie - Love Missile F1-11

Dead or Alive - Number Eleven

Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension

Pete Wylie - Four Eleven Forty Four

James Dean Driving Experience - Dean's Eleventh Dream

Rigid Digit found most of his songs had been chosen by others this week, leaving him with only this...

Paul Weller - 111

...which I'm not sure counts. However, knowing how stroppy Mr. Weller can get at times, we'll let him have it. Although... I'm sorry, Paul, but it's hardly Down In The Tube Station At Midnight, is it?

And finally, there was Brian, who also felt rather limited this week...

Like Saturday's quiz, you gotta get in early around here. All but one of mine taken already. I'll leave you with:

The Wondermints - Project 11

All in all, it wasn't a great week for this feature, was it? I expected more from eleven. Here's the rest of my own findings...

Daisy Chainsaw - Room Eleven

Scritti Politti - E Eleven Nuts

Cold Seeds - By 11 O'Clock She'd Left

Moss - 11-11

Transvision Vamp - W11 Blues

Hamilton Leithauser - 11 O'Clock Friday Night

Lifter Puller - 11th Avenue Freeze Out

Having listened to all of the above... well, had that Lee Hazlewood track been in my collection, I might well have given it to him. And I was tempted by Sigue Sigue Spitnik, I really was... but 14 year old Rol kept screaming 'Nooooooo!'

In the end then, I went for this. I haven't listened to it in years, but I really enjoyed the first Magic Numbers album, and this was a favourite...



Next week - it's Bo Derek running towards Dudley Moore on a beach. Contemporary references my forte, as always. What's your pick of the Ten Songs?

My Top Ten Scottish Songs of 2018

My favourite radio station of 2018 has been BBC Radio Scotland. I started listening to it because I discovered Ricky Ross's Another Country, which plays a far better selection of new and old country and Americana than Bob Harris does these days. I'll always be thankfully to Whispering Bob for introducing me over the years to many of my favourite artists, but he's gone a bit commercial in his old age. Deacon Blue's Ricky Ross is an unlikely country fan, and he admits to coming late to the genre, but 90% of the music he plays is of interest to me, whereas Bob manages about 50% these days.

While enjoying Ricky's show, I also discovered a couple more Radio Scotland shows that became firm favourites, both devoted to the singer-songwriter genre, and invested in lyrical storytelling. Iain Anderson (not the guy from Jethro Tull, though I did have to check) covers the older end of that spectrum well, while Roddy Hart (another songwriter-turned-DJ) has introduced me to some more contemporary acts I've really got into this year. There's a fair bit of crossover between their shows, and a focus on some Scottish musicians I'd never encountered before. They both hit the mark with me far more than the average 6Music show, a station which is still trying too hard to be cool, something that'll only increase once Lauren Laverne takes over the breakfast show. After the doubly demoted Keaveny & RadMac, only Guy Garvey really tickles my fancy on 6 anymore, and even he tries a little hard at times. (Most of my radio listening is done in the wee small hours these days, via iPlayer, so much as I enjoy Iggy, Huey and Riley, I only get to catch them live every now and then... and they're not going to soothe away the mental aches and pains of the day in the way I need at 3am.)

Anyway, Radio Scotland has introduced and re-introduced me to some great Scottish records this year. The Proclaimers have already featured in my Top 18, and there's another great Scottish record coming up once I hit the Top Ten. Here's ten more great Scottish tunes that made me hit download this year...

(I'll dedicate this Top Ten to the late Scott Hutchinson from Frightened Rabbit, a truly great Scottish musician who tragically departed this mortal coil earlier this year.)


10. Blue Rose Code - Ebb & Flow

Top of my list of artists to investigate further in the new year is Edinburgh's Ross Wilson, aka Blue Rose Code.

9. The Gracious Losers - Where The River Meets The Sea

I owe this lot initially to Charity Chic, though they also cropped up on Roddy Hart's show later, once Roddy had decided to follow the cool crowd.

8.  Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbert - Quantum Theory Love Song

I often find space in my record collection for the Arab Strap boys. Here Aidan teams up with RM Hubbert from El Hombre Trajeado to offer a tribute to the late Stephen Hawking...

7. Martha Ffion - Record Sleeves

From the album Sunday Best, this reminds me very much of Camera Obscura (of whom more in a moment). Great opening line too.

When we were 15,

We burned our diaries

You saw the devil

Painted on our record sleeves

6. Dead Man Fall - Andy Warhol

Know very little about this lot, but they remind me of a Scottish Vampire Weekend.

5. Daniel Meade - If The Bombs Don't Kill Us

Glaswegian Americana. Lovely stuff.

4. Tracyanne & Danny - Alabama

I suspect quite a few of my fellow bloggers may have found a place in their year end countdown for this collaboration between Camera Oscura's Tracyanne Camplbell and Crybaby's Danny Campbell. I liked the album a lot, particularly the retro-Richard Hawley vibe to some of the songs, yet somehow it couldn't quiet edge its way onto my shortlist. Alabama though, is a classic.

3. Neil Sturgeon & The Infomaniacs - NY Reflection Song

They don't write them like this anymore.

Oh, wait... they do!

2. Karine Polwart - Laws of Motion

I was a fan of Karine Polwart's debut record some years ago, but she'd slipped off my radar until a couple of months back when she released this album... one I've only started listening to in detail and I'm already wondering whether I should have found space for it in my Top 18.

There is one track on this record which is definitely one of my songs of the year... but I'm saving that for another Top Ten in a week or so.

1. Iain Morrison - Let's Go Captain

I have snuck this one into a post earlier in the year, but it deserves another play now. As I said at the time, don't make up your mind about it until 1 minute 10...