The combined efforts of Nina Simone and Dizzee Rascal provided this series with a stay of execution. I’m not holding out too much hope for today given that the rules of the indie chartplacings, especially in the 90s, gave rise to major labels using loopholes, and this is the time of year when novelty records can be all the rage. If so, I’ll take some consolation from the fact that fewer people visit here during holiday periods.
1 January 1988 : mp3 : New Order – Touched by the Hand of God
Now this was a surprise. A song that will feature very soon in another long-running series and so I’ll leave the commentary until then. The reason I said surprise is that I can’t really recall this being a Xmas-time release, but it did go to #1 in the indie charts in early December and held the spot for a very impressive six weeks.
1 January 1998 : Steps – 5,6,7,8
Quickly moving on…..
1 January 2008 : Shaun The Sheep – Life’s A Treat
As I was saying about novelty records. This was on Tug Records, a label that mostly issued material by Right Said Fred….I’ll leave it at that.
Roll on next month.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Tug was genuinely independent, though, wasn’t it?
The Shaun the Sheep movie was possibly the best thing I saw on telly over the Festive period
I can’t believe you didn’t post 5, 6, 7, 8…
I would have loved to have read the true JC review of Steps… or Shaun The Sheep.
Happy New Year, sir.