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ICA WORLD CUP 2022 : ROUND TWO OF THE KNOCKOUT STAGE (iii)

icaworldcup

Last week’s pairings delivered a match-up for the ages, along with another tie that was close throughout for the most part.  The other two games, while not exactly being blow-outs, saw a couple of substantial early leads that were never in much danger.

At 10pm (UK time) on the Sunday evening, just 16 hours after polling had opened, I did a quick count for all four games. Television and John McGeoch both held identical leads of 20-10 over their opponents.  Only a further 18 set of votes came in through to Friday night, and the gaps never closed (not everyone cast four votes!)

Match E : Television 33 Buddy Holly 13

Match F : Beatles 16 John McGeoch 31

It was Northern Ireland v Scotland in Match G.  Ash v Cocteau Twins, and at the first count, it was a 15-14 lead for Scotland.  The next few days saw Northern Ireland slowly run out of steam, giving a final result of:-

Match G : Ash 20  Cocteau Twins 27

And so, to Liverpool v Leeds.   The Bunnymen had racked up the most points in Round 1, and with a singles-heavy ICA to fall back on, could very much be regarded as one of the favourites.  But in this round, a live cover version was the song for consideration, and as DAM observed in his comments (he was 26th to cast his votes)

“Looks like the Bunnymen have done the equivalent of playing the under 23s, assuming that they will need the big guns later. But on this showing, they could be heading for a fall.”

Cinerama‘s effort had a bit of the continental flair about it, and was picking up a fair few votes….but given they had initially qualified in 6th place from the same group the Bunnymen had won, and in Round 1 had got through by 26-7 when the Bunnymen had triumphed 33-4….it seemed an awful lot to overcome.

Sunday night.  The score was tied at 15-15.  24 hours later, it was 20-19 to Liverpool.

By the time I woke up on Tuesday morning, two more votes had come in.  It was now 21-20 to Leeds.  Tuesday itself saw it move out to a 23-21 lead for Cinerama. No votes arrived on Wednesday or Thursday, but I was waiting on the final flurry on Friday with a great amount of anticipation.

Both picked up one vote each while I was asleep, meaning it was soon 24-22.  The next vote came in at 12.42pm and made it 24-23.

Hamirthehermit dropped by  5.50pm.  As ever, he offered up a commentary on each of his selections. As far as the nail-biter went…..

‘Have a lot more favourite songs by Cinerama than the Bunnies. And I’m not a fan of the Stones.  But a good cover of a good song takes it this round.  Echo & The Bunnymen’.

That made it 24-24

Earlier in the day, thinking that there might eventually be a tie, I had come up with a possible way out of any such impasse.

I made good on a long-time commitment to meet up with Comrade Colin on Friday afternoon.  At one point over our second coffee/diet cola, I mentioned the Bunnymen v Cinerama match-up and asked him that in the event of it finishing in a tie, which of the two songs he would have voted for.

In effect, I was appointing him as the VAR, if required.

But would it come down to that? Midnight came and went……..

Match H : Echo and The Bunnymen 24 Cinerama 24

Cinerama won the penalty shoot-out…….courtesy of Comrade Colin’s preference.

For what it’s worth, if I had been voting, I’d have gone for the Bunnymen on the basis of me seeing them play a storming version of Paint It Black at the Glasgow Barrowlands back in 1985 that has long-lived in the memory. But having decided how the call should be made, my huge thanks to the Comrade for helping out.

After all that, it’s time to turn our attention to today’s quartet, featuring the four who got through from the fifth and sixth weeks in Round 1.  A reminder that the song up for consideration in Round 2 will always be the third track on Side A of the ICA in question.  Will there be any drama?

The Go-Betweens (ICA 200) v Neil Young (ICA 259)

mp3: The Go-Betweens – The Clock v mp3 : Neil Young – Sugar Mountain (live)

Human League (ICA 228) v Beastie Boys (ICA 285)

mp3: Human League – Sound Of The Crowd (complete) v mp3 : Beastie Boys – Make Some Noise

Suede (ICA 209) v Siouxsie & The Banshees (ICA 258)

mp3: Suede – The Big Time v mp3: Siouxsie & The Banshees – Playground Twist

Lloyd Cole (ICA 300) v The National (ICA 243)

mp3: Lloyd Cole – Weeping Wine v mp3 : The National – I Need My Girl

As ever, thanks for taking part.  Voting closes at midnight (UK time) next Friday, which is the 18th of November.

JC

43 thoughts on “ICA WORLD CUP 2022 : ROUND TWO OF THE KNOCKOUT STAGE (iii)”

  5. The Go-Betweens – The Clock
    Human League – Sound Of The Crowd (complete)
    Siouxsie & The Banshees – Playground Twist
    The National – I Need My Girl

  14. Ooh, some tricky ones here.
    The Go-Betweens. just because its them
    Human League, just because its them
    Suede – because its a better song than Playground
    Lloyd.

  19. Some tough games here, great defense and strong middle fields made it tough for the forwards to score. All games single goal wins by;
    The Go-Betweens
    The Human League
    Siouxsie
    Lloyd Cole

  27. this is where things get serious – some difficult matches to call…
    Go-Betweens
    Human League
    Siouxsie
    Lloyd Cole

  33. 1) The Go-Betweens – The Clock
    2) Human League – Sound Of The Crowd (complete)
    3) Siouxsie & The Banshees – Playground Twist
    4) Lloyd Cole – Weeping Wine

  36. For me the poorest selection of tunes of the competition thus far, all narrow victories:

    Neil Young
    Human League
    Suede
    Lloyd Cole

  41. Only came in with one winner last week, glad to see I brought the last match into contention. I’m puzzled that Siouxsie seems to do no wrong as they continually get picked over songs I think are really better, would have thought one of their iterations, as themselves or through John McG, would have fallen by the wayside by now. I’ve never seen the appeal of the group. Can’t cry over the last match tie-breaker, as stated, do like Cinerama better.
    Let’s see for this week;

    The Go-Betweens v Neil Young
    Not a fan of live albums. I rarely do live shows, and live albums often seem exercises in nostalgia for people who go to live shows. They often have moments that break up the flow of the song, Neil’s offering here a prime example. The repeated false starts as he’s trying to get the audience going, ruined for me what I think isn’t such a bad song.

    The Go-Betweens

    Human League v Beastie Boys
    Something familiar about that Human League riff, took me a while to place what it was reminding me of…Kraftwerk’s “The Model” (via a Spizzenergi cover 12” I have). Homage? Rip-off? Or am I just imagining the similarity? Whatevs. It’s more exciting than the alternate.

    Human League

    Suede v Siouxsie & The Banshees
    After what I wrote above, one would not think this would be my choice, but it is the better song, liked the staccato beat it had better than the droning of the other. Let’s see if my support this round does them in.

    Siouxsie & the Banshees

    Lloyd Cole (ICA 300) v The National (ICA 243)
    A bit of a tough call here, both have things going for them. Lloyd’s song has one of those misheard lyrics things going for it…kept thinking he was saying “weekend wife” instead of “weeping wine.” So that was good for a larf. In the end, the intro and vocals of the other did it for me, it’s a very haunting tune, though both will get onto my playlist.

    The National

  42. The Go-Betweens. Need to look back at the rest of the ICA to see if it’s worth laying money on them, but always a strong team.
    The Human League. A somewhat faded glory – succesful a while ago but now maybe a little out of fashion. Still to strong for the Americans.
    Siouxsie and the Banshees. Cannot agree with Hamir on this. Always a personal favourite for their style and artistry, although frequently under-rated.
    Lloyd Cole. Just better than the alternative.

  43. The Go-Betweens – The Clock
    Human League – Sound Of The Crowd
    Siouxsie & The Banshees – Playground Twist
    Lloyd Cole – Weeping Wine

    Thanks!!

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