VOX: CLASS OF '96

1. Trash - Suede

Although not the first song to be recorded by Suede Mk2 - that was the fantastic New Generation B-side 'Together' - Trash was the band's big comeback after Bernard Butler's departure. Trash became an immediate anthem and hit #3 in the UK Chart becoming their biggest single in the process. Despite its classic status, Brett Andersom felt the need to re-record the vocals for the song's inclusion on their 2003 Singles collection so if you're listening to Trash on that compilation and you think it sounds different, that's why. This is the track in its original glory.

2. Smart Dogs - Kula Shaker

Enough time has passed to begrudgingly give Kula Shaker credit where its due. When Crispian Mills' outspoken, usually comical, attitude reached an excruciating climax with his Swastika flirtations, the music of Kula Shaker was written off as quickly as Mills and the band quickly became a byword for pretentious, bombastic indie music - their Hare Krishna leanings not helping their cause. But, whisper it, Kula Shaker weren't so bad at all, their psychedelic Indian-inflected rock has stood the test of time reasonably well, Smart Dogs being a highlight on their debut #1 album. The god-awful Deep Purple cover and inviting crazy old Arthur Brown  on to Top Of The Pops with a giant candleabra on his head didn't do them any favours after Swastika-gate and the band died a death. However, like most bands of the era who passed away, they found a way back and continue to plug away in Japan and Cumbria.

3. If You're Thinking Of Me (FPS-2 Lovesick Mix) - Dodgy

A huge crossover summer hit usually signifies the end of indie bands and Dodgy were no exception, their cause not helped by having a portly, comedy drummer. And, like most bands, they were misunderstood, Dodgy being one of the best indie power pop bands in the business with a wealth of singles-that-should-have-been-bigger to their name. They also had an experimental side, their B-sides regularly dabbling in their own take on remix culture. This almost resulted in their own remix album. FPS-2, the entire album Free Peace Sweet remixed by cohort Jerome Di Pietro. Despite the sleevenotes on this release indicating that the album would be released "sometime in 1997" with an explanation of how the album was made, it never saw the light of day as planned. It gained a belated release on the special edition of their singles collection Ace As & Killer Bs.

4. Oh Yeah - Ash

Oh Yeah was the fifth single to be lifted from the band's #1 album, 1977 but the only single to be released after the album itself. The track became the band's fourth Top 20 and second Top 10 hit charting at #6 - the same week, incidentally, that Kula Shaker charted at #4 with Trout Farm....sorry, Tattva....so blame Crispian Mills for robbing Ash of a second consecutive Top 5 hit.

5.  Things Keep Falling Off Buildings - Mansun

A track taken from the band's Three EP which provided Chester's finest with their first Top 20 hit charting at #19 in September 1996. The EP also contained lead track Stripper Vicar and An Open Letter To A Lyrical Trainspotter, both of which can be found on the classic debut Attack Of The Grey Lantern, the latter included as a hidden track at the end of the album.

6. Icicle - Tiger

The fickle world of indie...huge things were expected of Tiger. Their debut release Shining In The Wood gained huge support from John Peel and the Evening Session resulting in their second EP Race hitting the Top 40. And then, maybe it was the music press focussing on the band's mullets rather than the music, all interest sapped away. Subsequent releases only grazed the Top 75 and the album We Are Puppets, released to a muted reception, could only manage a chart placing of #108. A second album was released in 2000 but that's where the Tiger tale ends. This track was taken from their second single My Puppet Pal.

7. No One Speaks - Geneva

It's 1996 so of course there's a Geneva track on here...what did you expect? This was their much talked about debut single which cracked the Top 40 at #32. The band did have three more Top 40 hits but interest soon wore off. Andrew Montgomery's soaring choirboy-esque vocals proved too much of an acquired taste in the long run...which is why he must really hate Keane (like most people).

8. Woman Of The World - The Divine Comedy

The smallest man in rock, Neil Hannon, IS The Divine Comedy despite attempting to turn the Divine Comedy into a proper band over the years.  The album Casanova was released in 1996 and interest in Hannon had significantly increased since his previous album two years earlier thanks to him recording the theme tune to sitcom Father Ted and the legendary mock-Eurovision song My Lovely Horse as featured in the same show. This attention, and strong tracks such as Something For The Weekend and Becoming More Like Alfie, meant Divine Comedy finally broke through. This track is featured on Casanova.

9. Money (Lost In Space Remix) - Space

Money was the first single to be released from the band's debut album Spiders, a test release, presumably to gauge interest in the band. This remix, by Consolidated, is exclusive on CD to this release having originally been pressed on a four track limited 12" in 1996.

10. Hometown Unicorn - Super Furry Animals.

SFA released two EPs on the Welsh ANkst label in 1995 and were quickly signed by Creation who released this debut single in 1996. This release charted well at #47 before a record breaking run of Top 40 hits...as documented elswehere on TheFreeEPs. Hometwon Unicorn, a classic debut in every sense, was featured on the debut album Fuzzy Logic.

11. Christiansands (Imposter's Mix) - Tricky

After the huge success of Maxinquaye, Tricky made it clear that he was no record company puppet and no commercial artist by releasing that album's follow up under a pseudonym, Nearly God. The official follow-up Pre Millennium Tension was a dark, uncompromising release which scared off the majority of buyers who bought into the Maxinquaye era Tricky. The album's lead single, the moody and captivating Christiansands, made it clear from the outset that Tricky didn't care about commercial success. The single charted at #36 and the album only hit #30 though both are considered modern day classics. This version was remixed by the same Imposter who scored a Top 20 hit with Pills And Soap n 1983...one Elvis Costello.

THE VOX BOX (1992)

Drawn from the labels of Polydor, Vertigo. Mercury, Def American and A&M

LIVE SIDE - yep, they're all live tracks. No idea if these are unique to this cassette OR when these were recorded so all help welcome

1. Don't Believe A Word - Thin Lizzy

A 1976 #12 UK hit from Northern Ireland's premier hard rock outfit, the studio version originally taken from their album Johnny The Fox.

2. Statesboro Blues - The Allman Brothers Band

Featured on the country blues legends' 1971 At Filmore East, this is the most famous version of a track originally written and recorded by Blind Willie McTell. Rolling Stone magaine name the Allman Brothers version as the ninth greatest guitar song of all time.

3. Stay With Me - Rod Stewart & The Faces

Credited to simply The Faces on release in 1971, this enduring classic hit #6 in the UK charts and released on the album A Nod Is As Good As A Wink...To A Blind Horse. The track has been performed live ever since by Rod Stewart and covered by McFly and Manic Street Preachers.

4. Crossroads - Cream

Originally written and recorded by Robert Johnson as 'Crossroad Blues', Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce's live version, retitled Crossroads, was released on their album Wheels On Fire and released as a single in the USA.

5. Hard To Handle - The Black Crowes

The most famous version of the Otis Redding original, was released on their 1990 debut Shake Your Moneymaker. Released twice as a single in the UK, it eventually hit a peak of #39 but has remained a radio staple ever since.

6. Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) - Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix's only, and posthumous, #1 in the UK. The title here is misleading. The track 'Voodoo Chile' is a 15 minute jam featured on Side 1 of the classic Electric Ladyland. A much shorter recording, 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return)' is the last track on the same album and it's this version that was released as the single....When the single appeared though, the track was confusingly titled 'Voodoo Chile'.

STUDIO SIDE

7. Get The Funk Out - Extreme

Extreme's second album Pornograffiti II propelled Extreme into orbit, mostly thanks to the acoustic ballad More Than Words which hit #2 in the UK and #1 in the US. The hard rocking Get The Funk Out was the lead single from the album and paved the way for More Than Words by hitting the UK Top 20. Since the initial demise of Extreme, lead singer Gary Cherone briefly joined Van Halen, lead giuitarist Nuno Bettencourt released a solo album entitled Schizophonic and bassist Pat Badger bizarrely had his birthday announced in The Sun every year for about a decade afterwards.

8. When You're Young - The Jam

One off single released by The Jam in 1979. The single reached #17. Regulars in the Top 40 by this time - this was their eighth - the band would hit even greater heights with their next two singles, The Eton Rifles and Going Underground.

9. She's A Girl And I'm A Man - Lloyd Cole

The lead single from Lloyd Cole's second solo - that is, without The Commotions -album, Don't Get Weird On Me Babe. The single only hit #55 and the album #21 despite good reviews.

10. Sweet Jane - The Velvet Underground

Classic VU, written by Lou Reed and pulled from their 1970 album Loaded which proved to be the band's proper swansong, the Doug Yule helmed Squeeze notwithstanding. Sweet Jane has been covered by Mott The Hoople, The Sugarcubes and -oh dear - The Kooks.

11. Shine The Light - 10cc

Well I can't actually play this cassette, but I can only assume this is 10cc's Shine A Light In The Dark which was released in the same year as this compilation, 1992, on their album ...Menwhile. The album was a comeback for the band's original four members - Graham Goldman, Godley & Creme and Eric Stewart - after the success of the 10cc/G&C compilation Changing Faces. Despite resurgence in interest for the band's back catalogue, this didn't translate into sales for new material, the album failing to break the UK Top 75.

12. Wideshire - Thousand Yard Stare

Early 90s indie favourites from Berkshire. Their singles and EPs, inluding the Spindrift EP containing this track, regularly topped the indie charts and grazed the bottom end of the official UK chart. Despite indie success, they failed to break the mainstream and were brutally bumped off by the rise in the UK Britpop scene. Wideshire was also featured on their album Hands On.

13. Donation - The Wonder Stuff

If you're name is Miles Hunt, you really ought to endear yourself to the UK music press. This didn't happen and the lead singer of the most successful band to emerge from the West Midlands grebo scene became popular rhyming slang - c.f. James Blunt. Donation featured on the band's third album Never Loved Elvis which saw them shed their indie status and become genuine pop stars. The success of the album, and lead single The Size Of A Cow, lead to their first and only #1 single with their Vic Reeves collaboration, Dizzy. No big pop moment would be complete without the inevitable bleak, comedown album (Construction For The Modern Idiot) and split followed by a decade long silence and inevitable reformation....

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.

VOX: THE SPRING COLLECTION (1997)

1. My Beloved Monster (Live From Tennessee) - Eels

A live version of a track from Eels' first album Beautiful Freak. This version was also released on their Top 10 breakthrough single Novocaine For The Soul.

2. Into The Blue - Geneva

Last seen on Never Mind The Buzzcocks' career-defining identity parade, Geneva's Andrew Montgomery was an early incarnation of Keane's Tom Chaplin. Montgomery's angelic vocal coupled with melodic production won over the critics but not the public at large. As this track hit the Top 30 in 1996, this is a rare instance of a hit single being featured on a free compilation; it probably shows how hard Nude were pushing their debut album, Further, at the time. The album promisingly charted at#20 but got no further.

3. Bloke - Republica

For a few minutes in 1997 Republica were massive. With two ubiqitous singles, Ready To Go and Drop Dead Gorgeous, a Top 5 album (containing this track) and an iconic lead singer in Saffron, Republica should have gone on to bigger - and better -things. An underwhelming second album released on a soon to be defunct record label - DeConstruciton - put paid to that and Republica were no more.

4. Believe (18B Remix) - GusGus

Cult Icelandic electronic band Gus Gus are now in their 15th year and still making music. Their album Polydistortion and single Believe, along with this remix, scraped the Top 200. The band continiued to scrape the bottom end of the UK chart for the next 6 years.

5. The Holy Blood & The Holy Grail - Mansun

Mansun released 14 EPs and three albums in their all too brief career. This is from their 5th EP, featuring lead track She Makes My Nose Bleed, which reached #9 in early '97. Their next release, debut album Attack Of The Grey Lantern, went straight in at #1.

6. Closer - Lamb

UK Electronic/trip-hop duo consisting of Andy Barlow and Lou Rhodes. Although their debut eponymous album only peaked at #109 it was a steady seller and spawned the Top 40 single Gorecki. This is from that debut.

7. It's Coming Down - Cake

Alternative Californian rock. This track is from the album Fashion Nugget which featured two Top 30 hits, The Distance and an ironic cover version of I Will Survive. Three more albums followed with ever decreasing success in the UK.

8. Stunt Girl - AC Acoustics

Glasgow's AC Acoustics were one of the most celebrated cult bands of their time playing Jesus & Mary chain inspired fuzz rock. Lauded by their peers, they had no commercial success whatosever and split in 2003 after a decade releasing music. Stunt Girl merited a place in John Peel's 1996 Festive 50 and hit a mighty #182 in the UK Charts. The album Victory Parts failed to chart at all. The 2010 reissue of their follow-up album Understanding Music has given the band's legacy a new lease of life.

9. Low Place Like Home - Sneaker Pimps

Sneaker Pimps were the band to name drop when they put out their album Becoming X in 1997. Two singles, 6 Underground and Spin Spin Sugar also gave them mainstream credibility. Lead singer Kelli Dayton (now known as Kelli Ali) was also cute and fast becoming the latest in a long line of female indie pin-ups. When she was suddenly ousted from the band in 1998, it was also goodbye to success and little has been heard from the band since 2002. A waste.

10. Pie In The Sky - The Supernaturals

Pie In The Sky really is a very Supernaturals title for a song - a cliche that doesn't take itself very seriously. Their single Smile is forever ingrained in everyone's memory after its inclusion on countless television adverts for the website of that name. That, and this track, were included on their Top 10 debut It Doesn't Matter Anymore. The title of which nicely sums up The Supernaturals.

11. Top Trumps - Silver Sun

When this band released their debut EP Sun! in 1996, containing this track, that was also the name of their band until they realised it was already taken. They added the Silver to the band name and the rest was, as they say, a few minor hits and indie obscurity.

12. Ain't Goin' To Goa (Special K Mix) - Alabama 3

An alternative blues ten piece from Brixton...not quite what the name suggests. However, despite not having much chart success - this reached #98 and #40 a year later on reissue - their music has been used on countless television and film soundtracks, most notably The Sopranos which used their single Woke Up This Morning as its theme. This remix is I think exclusive to this CD.

13. Dirt (Edit) - Death In Vegas

The single radio edit of DIV's 1996 single which, like parent abum Dead Elvis and its other singles, was more electronic and instrumental in style than their later dark, guitar-heavy material. This era was only a modest commercial and critical success for Richard Fearless. 1999's Contino Sessions, featuring Iggy Pop, Bobby Gillespie, Jon Spencer, Jim Reid and Dot Allison would change that...

14. Concerto Of The Desperado - The Roots

From Russia With Love sampling cut from Philadelphian hip-hop legends' Iladelph Halflife album.