VOX: CLASS OF 95

Vox's Best of '95 cassette:

1. This Is A Call - Foo Fighters

A year after Kurt Cobain's - and ultimately Nirvana's - demise, drummer Dave Grohl announced Foo Fighters to the world. This was their debut single proper and immediately hit the Top 5 in the UK as did their debut eponymous album. Give them a few years and they'd be one of the biggest stadium rock bands in the world...

2. He Thought Of Cars - Blur

Blur may have won the Blur-Oasis singles chart battle with Country House but Oasis won the war with the era-defining ...Morning Glory. Blur's The Great Escape reached #1 but was not nearly as loved as Parklife previously. Ultimately, it marked the end of Blur Mk1 before they shed the Britpop sound that made them famous. This relatively downbeat track is one of The Great Escape's highlights.

3. Sitting Up Straight (Live) - Supergrass

One of the few bands to be born during the so-called Britpop years to last the distance, something they did until last year when they became one of the era's final casualties. Sitting Up Straight was one of the first 'Grass songs appearing as B-side to the original 7" release of Mansize Rooster in its initial incarnation. The track was re-recorded and appeared on the re-released Rooster single and subsequently on their classic debut I Should Coco. This live version is only available on this cassette and was recorded at 1995's T In The Park Festival.

4. In The Name Of The Father (Choppers Mix)- Black Grape

1995's most unexpected, and celebrated, comeback. After Happy Mondays' messy split, Shaun Ryder's future looked bleak. He returned, alongside Bez and Kermit from Ruthless Rap Assassins amongst others, with Black Grape and massive album It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah. In The Name Of The Father preceded the album as their second single and hit #8. The Choppers Mix, mislabelled here as the Chopper Mix, was remixed by Danny Saber. Shaun Ryder was last seen on This Morning.

5. Down By The Water - PJ Harvey

Second outing for this To Bring You My Love in a week on TheFreeEPs. Harvey's new album Let England Shake is out on February 14th.

6. History - The Verve

The third single from The Verve's second album A Northern Soul was to be their final single. Posthumously released, it became their biggest hit reaching #24. Needless to say, the History books had to be rewritten two years later......

7. Sorted For Es & Wizz (Live) - Pulp

Recorded live at their triumphant Glastonbury performance in 1995. Pulp were only invited to perform Glasto after illness forced a dying Stone Roses to pull out. On the back of the release of the anthem Common People, this couldn't have come at a better time and the band went on to become one of the era's defining bands.

8. Yes - McAlmont & Butler

David McAlmont's career was going precisely nowhere until he hooked up with Bernard Butler, fresh from leaving Suede behind. Combined, the results were magic and Yes became an immediate Top 10 and one of 1995's most uplifting singles. The two released one more single, You Do, and one album - which wasn't much more than a compilation of their singles - before splitting acrimoniously. They did patch things up for one more album, Bring It Back, in 2002. Since then, McAlmont has kept himself busy on the jazz circuit. Butler has not only worked with Brett Anderson again with the one-off Tears project but also become a producer of note, producing amongst others Duffy's huge Rockferry.

9. (Nice Dream) - Radiohead

Radiohead had little to do with their contemporaries but almost certainly benefitted from the Britpop movement and the resurgence of indie/alternative rock with huge sales for their album The Bends which included this track. The album's huge, epic sound was light years from their grunge-inflected debut Pablo Honey. The band would travel several more light years over the next decade...

10. Screamager (Live) - Therapy?

The original version of Screamager was taken from NI's biggest alternative metal band Therapy?'s highest charting single, the Shortsharpshock EP which hit the Top 10 in 1993. The band scored several more hits throughout 1993 and 1994 before releasing the dark, ballad-laden album Infernal Love in 1995, which still hit the Top 10 and spawned three Top 40 singles. It proved to be the band's last major stab at success, their next album Semi Detached proving less successful before they retreated into cultdom.

11. Hyperballad - Bjork

Even though this was the 4th single from Bjork's second album Post, and released after given away free on this very cassette, it still managed to hit #8. This was no doubt in part to being released straight off the back of Bjork's big pop single, It's Oh So Quiet. Although it was probably given a leg-up by a lot of casual buyers who weren't expecting this wonderful slice of electronica, justice was done as this is one of Bjork's finest moments and deserved to be a Top 10 hit.

Q LIVE FROM GLASTONBURY (2007)

Breaking from tradition with this one as it exceeds the Year 2000 FreeEPs timeframe by a good seven years but there's some genuine rarities on here so here are the cherry picked collector's highlights:

Rescue - Echo & The Bunnymen (Glastonbury 1997)

1997 was the year Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant brought back the Echo & The Bunnymen name after original Bunnyman Les Pattinson joined the ranks of their first reunion band Electrafixion. The reactivated group immediately hit the Top 10 with another enduring classic, Nothing Lasts Forever and the album Evergreen. Rescue was the band's second single and first Top 75 hit, charting at #62 in 1980 and. E&TB, minus Pattinson, are still going strong today.

Down By The Water - PJ Harvey (Glastonbury 1995)

Harvey's 1995 album To Bring You My Love was her first as a fully fledged solo artist, becoming visually more arresting and sonically more adventurous. The unsettling Down By The Water with the now legendary 'Big Fish Little Fish' refrain was the first taster from the album and hit #38 in the chart.

Holes - Mercury Rev (Glastonbury 2002)

Nobody, let alone the band themselves, expected cult, psyechedelic oddballs Mercury Rev to become a major concern; but that they did with 1998's Deserter's Songs, its lush, orchestra-laden tunes soundtracking the last two years of the 1990s. Ironic really, considering Holes' parting shot: "Bands, those funny little plans, that never work quite right".

Young Offender - Pet Shop Boys (Glastonbury 2000)

For PSB completists, of which there are many, this FreeEP is essential as it's the only place to legitimately find this version of Young Offender. The track originally appeared on their 1993 album Very and subsequently remixed by Jam & Spoon; the Trip-O-Matic Fairytale Mix originally appeared on their 1994 single Liberation and included on the limited Pop Art Mix compilation in 2003. Always ready to embrace remixers' interpretations of their own work and utilise them, the Jam & Spoon remix forms the basis of PSB's own live version of Young Offender. In fact, this was the second time they showed their respect for Jam & Spoon - the single version of Very's final single, Yesterday When I Was Mad, also utilised elements of J&S' remix of the track.

The Box - Orbital (Glastonbury 1999)

What Glastonbury compilation would be complete without an appearance from the brother Hartnoll? This version of the #11 hit and In Sides track is also available on their own compilation Live At Glastonbury 1994-2004.

For reference, the other tracks on this CD are: Mr Brightside - The Killers (2005), Matinee - Franz Ferdinand (2004), Everyday I Love You Less And Less - Kaiser Chiefs (2005), A Thousand Trees - Stereophonics (2002), Helicopter - Bloc Party (2005), There Goes The Fear - Doves (2003), Wires - Athlete (2005), Somewhere Only We Know - Keane (2005), Get Thy Bearings - Zero 7 featuring Mozez (2004)