The 24-hour delay in bringing you the results was due to the need to get the offer of a free ticket to the upcoming Glas-Goes Pop festival out to everyone. If you missed that, then all you need to do is scroll back or down to yesterday’s post.
It was Aldo who perhaps best nailed what was most intriguing about Group B
“First glance I thought I knew my 8, but after a listen through, half of those were discarded, and I had to whittle down.”
This proved to a group with just about everything. The top four were neck-and-neck from the get-go, and while qualification for each of them was secured early enough, the question of who would top things went to the wire.
Two more acts secured plenty of votes early on to ensure likely qualification, which left two slots up for grabs among the rest, although Chuck Moseley/Faith No More, Clearlake and Quickspace never really looked likely.
In the end, it all came down to the very last set of votes cast by DAM with one of his choices breaking what had been, up to that stage, a tie.
- Joy Division 31
- Electronic 30
- Blondie 29
- Belle and Sebastian 27
- Stevie Wonder 24
- Black Box Recorder 23
- Hot Chip 19
- Fad Gadget 17
DAM cast a vote for Fad Gadget and thus eliminated The Siddeleys on 16.
Looking from the outside, the big shock is the failure of Blur to get through having gained just 14 votes which was the same as Urusei Yatsura, while Joe Jackson perhaps paid the price of a lesser known track being the ICA opener and was eliminated after receiving only 12 votes. Josh Ritter got a lot of early votes and was very much in the running, but eventually proved unable to get more than 10 all told.
As ever, I’ll leave you with a song that will now be unable to make an appearance in future rounds when It may well have been something of an ace card to play:-
mp3: Joe Jackson – Is She Really Going Out With Him?
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
I am delighted Fad Gadget got through but it’s an uneasy victory at the cost of The Siddeleys. Cruel.
Good to see the mighty Urusei Yatsura holding its own against the likes of Blur.
Crikey!! I’ve never felt so important. And I almost added The Siddeleys to my list but Fad Gadget would probably have been my vote if limited to a sole vote.
Line up for knockouts looking strong.
I knew it was rigged when Clearlake didn’t advance.
Another late comment from the peanut gallery.
This was a tough one, lots of good options, I really couldn’t nail it down to eight, in the end, I whittled down to ten…
Black Box Recorder, Clearlake, Electronic (though not the best version of the song), Fad Gadget, Faith No More, Hot Chip, Joe Jackson, Josh Ritter, The Siddeleys, Urusei Yatsura.
Even so, I still only ended up with matching 4! Clearly my musical tastes only intersect with about 50% of the rest of youse muggs. Doesn’t look like my votes here would have have swung things either way… Though if I’d been pressed for a choice…The Siddeleys and Fad Gadget would have been on my chopping block…. Jangly Guitars versus Ponderous Synthesizers…. Two perennial favourites.