I was away from home all of last week (up in St Andrews with a group of Canadian visitors over for the golf) and couldn’t keep up with the blog all that much. I was stunned, thrilled and, yes, over-the-moon-David, to see the number of responses to the opening Group of the ICA World Cup 2022.
I got home to Glasgow yesterday and immediately started tallying the votes. I did feel when the draw emerged that Group A didn’t bring together too many of the so-called ‘big guns’ and wouldn’t make for too much excitement.
How wrong could I have been?
OK, it was clear from quite early on that six of the eight qualifying spots were destined for Cocteau Twins, Buddy Holly, The Jam, Nirvana, Iggy Pop and Roxy Music, while the likes of Dum Dum Girls, The Fall, Luke Haines, Robyn Hitchcock, Iceage and Mudhoney never really got going.
Of the others, Say Sue Me and Tracey Thorn faded after decent starts, which left Ash, Dinosaur Jr. and Jazz Butcher battling out in a tight contest for the final two spots.
The final tallies at the top of the table:-
- Iggy Pop 39
- Roxy Music 37
- Buddy Holly 30
- Cocteau Twins 28*
- The Jam 28
- Nirvana 24
- Ash 19
- Jazz Butcher 18*
- Dinosaur Jr. 18
In football terms, there were two penalty shoot-outs – which in reality was a toss of a coin. Cocteau Twins snatched 4th place in the group, (which may be crucial in terms of the draw for the knockout stages), but also saw Jazz Butcher progress to the next phase instead of Dinosaur Jr.
It is, I have to admit, a very cruel way to be eliminated. Especially when this song was likely to make an appearance at some point:-
mp3: Dinosaur Jr – Freak Scene
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Freak Scene missing out is akin to a (football) World Cup without Messi, Ronaldo, Lewandowski or Salah. A shocker. Shame about Say Sue Me. Would have been nice to have an Asian representative.
6 of my 8………………This will no doubt just make it more difficult later on!!!
Cheers
Stephen
Grandstand = Tele Printer – please use it for the results
Gutted for Dino Jr.
The Fall regret playing a weakened team in the early rounds
Yeah, I’m late to the party, my personal choices were Ash, Buddy Holly, Dinosaur Jr., Luke Haines, Roxy Music, Say Sue Me, The Jam and The Soft Boys. I was (almost) 4 out of 8, except that coin flip that flipped Dinosaur Jr. My vote could have made the difference! I like the Jazz Butcher, but that wasn’t a good song choice in comparison to the competition. So, three out of eight, I guess my musical tastes here didn’t match well with the other voters.