(BONUS POST) : ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #018

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#018– The Crimea – ‚Lottery Winners On Acid’ (Warner Bros. Records ’06)

Hello friends,

and today I come up with yet another band which was grievously underrated at the time, The Crimea. And although The Crimea came from London and have nothing to do with “the other” Crimea, the Eastern Europe peninsula located in the Black Sea, both Crimeas have one astonishing similarity: no one ever gave a flying fuck about them when it was high time to do so. And the world was given several chances, because this awesome tune was presented in various forms:

First on CD only in 2002, on Shiny Beast Recordings. Did anyone care? No, everyone was busy listening to Ronan Keating’s ‘If Tomorrow Never Comes’. Then our tune was re-released, again on CD only, in 2004 on Double Dragon Music. And if you think the public noticed its brilliance then, you’re wrong – apparently LMC together with the twat with the hat’s awful ‘Take Me To The Clouds Above’ was more enjoyable.

And to make things even more curious, also in 2004, in March in fact, The Crimea’s debut album, Tragedy Rocks was issued, again on CD, as you might already have gathered, both on Klutz Inc. and on Warner Bros. Records. Did it include ‘Lottery Winners On Acid’? You bet it did – still Britney Spears ruled the charts with bloody ‘Toxic’!

Finally, the song was issued on vinyl, as a 7” on Warner Bros. Records. 2006, that was. Now the vinyl enthusiasts would have gone mad, one thinks. Oh, you couldn’t be more wrong – perhaps they were so skint that only one vinyl single could be afforded …. and that would have been Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s ‘Déjà Vu’, as it seems.

So, to sum it up, we were given four opportunities, each and everyone of which was shamefully missed. On the plus side, we now have four different versions of the song. By and large there are no big differences, as far as I can tell, they are all wonderful. But still The Crimea never received the attention they should have received upon the strength and greatness of this song.

And this, dear friends, closes the circle, and we come back to The Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula … you remember? Exactly the same as above happened when it was invaded by The Russians in 2014:

No one noticed and/or cared at all … everyone was singing along to Ed Sheeran’s ‘Sing’ instead, I reckon.

In conclusion, at least in my book, the world would be a better place today if everyone had taken more care in the past: the Ukrainian people wouldn’t have to live in fear for their lives, their families and their homes and we in greater Europe wouldn’t have to be constantly afraid of a sudden nuclear attack by bloody Putin. And, perhaps equally important, it would be more worthwhile to live in this world if Calvin Harris + Ellie Goulding weren’t ruling the charts any longer with ‘Miracle’ – it could be The Crimea instead, mind you!!

So here they are for you. I do love this tune, let me tell you:

mp3:  The Crimea – Lottery Winners On Acid

Stay safe & enjoy,

Dirk