Prepare yourself for a big old hike this week... with very little reward, I'm afraid. Will you walk Coast to Coast with me?
COAST TO COAST #1
The most successful band ever to choose the name Coast To Coast formed in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire in 1977, though it took them a further four years to crack the Top Ten with a song originally recorded as a jazz instrumental in 1949. Once lyrics were added, the tune in question became a standard, covered by the likes of Chubby Checker, Bo Diddley, Otis Redding, Quincy Jones and Canned Heat. If you were 9 in 1981 though, there's only one version in your head.
Coast To Coast had a small follow-up hit with their version Brenda Lee's Let's Jump The Broomstick before getting lost on the path and never being seen again. The fact that their lead singer shared a tailor and hairdresser with a Mr. P. Gadd does little for their memory...
COAST TO COAST #2
Some smooth early 80s soul from New York next, gaining extra point for rhyming "Paula Marie" with "a state of misery". Featuring singer Mark Beiner and musician Ben Iverson, former manager of the Crown Heights Affair.
COAST TO COAST #3
French synth-rock from 1989. Re-issued in 2012, apparently. And why not?
COAST 2 COAST #4
Back in 1994, this was the sound of Italian Euro-Disco.
This is the "Roberto Bozzo Mix" on Why? Records.
Why, indeed.
COAST 2 COAST #5
Northern Irish trance from 2003. Not my thing, clearly, but it would work well as the incidental music on a gameshow to build a little tension between rounds.
(Note to George - there are 8 minutes of this, and it does get surprisingly good around the 7.30 mark.)
(Note to the rest of you: I could well be lying.)
COAST TO COAST #6
Back in New York - Brooklyn, to be specific - in 2013. Having sampled their whole album on the Camp of Bands, I'd guess this lot had something of an identity crisis about how they wanted to sound. Not the worst thing I've heard today though...
COAST TO COAST #7
Japanese pop punk from 2015. With the exception of the drummer, they don't look particularly Japanese, but far be it from me to stereotype.
COAST TO COAST #8
What I like about the modern world is that new bands can happily come along in the past ten years with no knowledge or memory of 9 year olds doing the Hucklebuck back in 1981. They can then choose to name their trendy new indie-punk band Coast To Coast without once considering the connotations that name might have to a 51 year old blogger. These guys are from Birmingham, apparently, and more power to them.
Did you make it to the end of the walk? Or did you collapse from exhaustion along the way?
