John Peel’s Festive Fifty- The Number Ones- 1980 to 1990.

Just for fun-
Nothing new here, and no doubt if you're a serious music lover of a certain age then you'll have (or have had) these tracks already, or at least know them.
Introduced in 1976, John Peel’s Festive Fifty (aired in the build up to Xmas) became an institution.

Originally listeners chose their all-time favourite three tracks, but this was replaced by a year-only chart in 1982.

By 1986 Peel was already expressing disillusionment at the predictable and unadventurous choices of his listeners, and he was quoted as saying that he felt there were too many white boys with guitars making an appearance on the countdown.

This culminated in the ‘Phantom Fifty’ of 1991, which was not actually aired until 1993. Peel was hacked off for two reasons- the absence of music that he had been championing in 91 (rave, hardcore) and the inevitability that Smells Like Teen Spirit would be number one by a country mile.
Here then are the number ones from the golden years…a cracking little compilation for the car or the pod or for teaching the children about the old days.
pics: Sex Pistols, Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Sugarcubes, The House of Love, The Sundays, The Fall.

Spunk -Sex Pistols demos- (1976)

Never mind Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols, here’s the Sex Pistols…
So, who played the bass on Never Mind the Bollocks?
Sid Vicious? Well, on one track.
Glenn Matlock? Ditto
It was Steve Jones.
That’s the thing about Bollocks, brilliant album as it is, it’s far from typical of the punk genre. It’s essentially an overcooked, multi tracked studio oeuvre, more a testament to the work of producer Chris Thomas than a representation of the raw power that made the Pistols such a potent force.
Whereas most punk was direct, with a rapid route from brain to vinyl , Bollocks was tinkered with over and over whilst the band and their material were the focus of various wrangles.
It was eventually released on 28 October 1977.
In July 1976 the Pistols had recorded these tracks at the Gooseberry Studios under the producership of Dave Goodman. The bootleg first appeared weeks before release of Bollocks, a move probably choreographed by Malcolm McLaren to maximise both financial returns and media interest in the band.
Like most important bootlegs, Spunk has been recycled and repackaged a great number of times with various embellishments or omissions.
This is a more faithful representation of the Sex Pistols sound- no excessive overdubs, with Matlock’s original bass lines that Jones did not reproduce for Bollocks.
Sex Pistols:
Johnny Rotten – vocals
Steve Jones- guitar
Glenn Matlock- bass
Paul Cook- drums