THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

Not sure how many of you are here to catch the half-time scores but instead want to hear the outcome of the deliberations on the possible expulsion of The Smiths. I’ll come to that in due course….but there’s four crucial ties being played against this backdrop…..

Lightning Seeds 16 v Saint Etienne 13
Pulp 18 v Pavement 6
Wire(2) 14 v Butcher Boy 12
Orange Juice 19 v The Wedding Present 9

Lightning Seeds exploded from the blocks and took a 9-1 lead, but then there was the mother of all comebacks as Saint Etienne went 11-10 ahead before the Scouser(s) got another six goals in a row.  Saint Etienne are fighting back again and there’s much to play for in what has been the most  topsy-turvy tie in the entire tourney.

The other possible historic comeback is in the Wire v Butcher Boy contest with the Scots really clawing their way  into things having been 10-2 behind early on.

I can’t thank enough all of you who offered thoughts, views and opinions on the frontman’s outburst and my intention to now remove The Smiths from the ICA World Cup. It became very clear, very quickly, that whatever decision was taken, it couldn’t please everyone. Some of you thought expulsion was fine, others were completely against the idea. There were suggestions of using instrumentals so that the singer alone was excluded which, although tempting, would have resulted in songs being included despite never having been on any ICA.

In the end, the decision I’ve taken is a bit of a fudge and may only, depending on how the voting goes, lead to a different dilemma further down the road.

The song which had come out for use by The Smiths was, aptly, Bigmouth Strikes Again. The song which will be aired in one of this coming weekend’s ties will be Bigmouth Strikes Again….as performed live by Johnny Marr. You’ll have to wait and see who he’s up against to decide whether he progresses…..

Turning to some stuff from the terraces for your half time entertainment….

I have no idea how the hell the fans of FC Koln adopted this monstrosity of a tune as their anthem!

I just can’t bring myself to post Runrig on the blog….so in honour of the Koln fans taking something bad and turning it into something good, here’s something from a hero of mine.

mp3 : Paul Haig – Something Good (10 inch mix)

Remember….if you haven’t voted yet this week, you have until 10pm on Friday.

JC

It’s been a strange week with the ICA World Cup.

Four superb ties from last Saturday have been somewhat overshadowed by the midweek row over the potential exclusion of The Smiths after the latest interview given by Morrissey in which he, again, uttered words and espoused theories that were truly offensive to most folk.

I have, genuinely, appreciated the various forms of feedback from everyone which has certainly got me thinking about what to do next. It’s no surprise at all to see so many different suggestions being offered up and I’ll continue to take counsel over the next few days and say something when I the post the next again set of half-time updates in a few days time.

Returning again to last week’s match-ups. There was widespread support for all eight sides, albeit none of the games were nail-biters in the end. There’s certainly a lot of quality going to be on display among the final 16…….

New Order 28 v The Fall 14
Talking Heads 15 v The Housemartins 26
The Velvet Underground 17 v The Clash 22
The Jesus and Mary Chain 25 v The The 16

This week’s match-ups were scheduled to be penned by jimdoes, but one of them would have featured The Smiths and so they have all been held over till next week while the matches originally scheduled for next week have been hurriedly rearranged!

Lightning Seeds v Saint Etienne

A tie for the pop purists. And the two songs which have emerged from the selection process will undoubtedly attract votes. The home side has crept quietly under the radar to this point in the competition with Broudie’s Boys seeing off Gemma Ray and Big Audio Dynamite without too much fuss. Cracknell’s Crackers on the other hand, having eased past The Sugarplastic in Round 1, found themselves in a bruising and epic battle against The Cramps last time out. Will the efforts involved have tired them out or toughened them up for this assignment.

The Life of Riley (from Sense, 1992) v Hobart Paving (single version, 1993)

Pulp v Pavement

“I’ll have a P please Bob!’ as the tittering teenagers taking part in the quiz show Blockbusters were so fond of uttering when host Bob Holness asked for their choice of letter.

This is the latest of the many intriguing contests this intriguing competition has thrown up over the first three rounds. Both teams have delivered genuinely brilliant records over the years alongside material that was designed to test the patience and capacities of their more casual fans but to the great delight of the ultras. This could be a whitewash either way or turn out to be very close. It’s almost totally predicatable that both sides have gone with songs that aren’t among their best known, seemingly keeping their powders dry for whatever challenges lie ahead. The original author of the Pulp ICA described today’s song as bleak but rewarding; the original author of the Pavement ICA described today’s song as ‘a bit psychedelic…..like elephants charging’.  The original author of both ICAs was Tim Badger.

The Fear (from This Is Hardcore, 1998) v Texas Never Whispers (from Watery Domestic EP, 1992)

Wire(2) v Butcher Boy

I think you’d have got good odds on both these sides making it to the last 32. It will be quietly satisfying that one of these very fine but unheralded acts will march proudly into the final 16 when so many giants will have been toppled.

Wire, having seen off two English pop acts from different decades – Supergrass and The Higsons – are relying on a typical two minute burst of manic pop thrills to get through against their Scottish opponents this time round. Butcher Boy, conquerors of The Magnetic Fields and Martin Stephenson, are probably more renowned for lush arrangements around heartfelt ballads but take to this field with something a bit more conventional that has possibly the best organ solo that you’ll hear in this or any other round not to mention the best use of a cello on any song outside of Monkey Gone To Heaven.

Two People In A Room (from 154, 1979) v You’re Only Crying For Yourself (from React or Die, 2009)

Orange Juice v The Wedding Present

The competition is meant to be about the merits of the two songs on offer. I’m wondering if the inclusion of a live version by one of these stellar acts will have a bearing on the outcome. Either way, I’m not going to be alone in being delighted for the winner and distraught for the loser.

Felicity (single, 1982) v My Favourite Dress (live) (recorded at Sound City Leeds in 1996)

Just a pity that the coins and dice didn’t give us the cover version of Felicity by TWP……………..

Votes must be cast by Friday 27 April at 10pm.

Happy Listening.

JC

The sadistic streak in my nature has enjoyed many of your undoubted agonies in selecting which tunes to give the nod to in this week’s match-ups.  It’s really interesting that so many of you are doing what I was hoping the competition would do and that’s have the votes cast on a ‘song v song’ basis rather than simply going for the favourite act of the two.  It’s fair to say that, for the first time ever, every song up for grabs in a given week is attracting votes in quantity…

The half-time scores can now be revealed (after 36 comments):-

New Order 22 v The Fall 13
Talking Heads 14 v The Housemartins 20
The Velvet Underground 13 v The Clash 19
The Jesus and Mary Chain 20 v The The 14

As mentioned last week, the half time songs in this round will feature actual club songs and I’ve gone surfing around youtube to find this week’s offering just to keep CC happy:-

mp3 : Marie Osmond – Paper Roses

I have no idea why fans of Kilmarnock FC have adoped this as their anthem…….

Oh and please remember….if you haven’t voted yet for this week’s ties, you have until 10pm this coming Friday.

Oh…..I did say there was more…..

There has been a particularly offensive interview given to a journo by Morrissey. The full thing, if really do wish to torture yourself, can be found here.

Among the gems of wisdom are:-

“And as far as racism goes, the modern Loony Left seem to forget that Hitler was Left wing! But of course, we are all called racist now, and the word is actually meaningless. It’s just a way of changing the subject. When someone calls you racist, what they are saying is ”hmm, you actually have a point, and I don’t know how to answer it, so perhaps if I distract you by calling you a bigot we’ll both forget how enlightened your comment was.”

“Nothing I say is provocative. They are just facts.”

“If animals spoke English then no one would eat them. You see, racism is at its most abhorrent in relation to eating animals. If you eat animals, isn’t it a display of hatred for a certain species? And what gives you the right to eat another species or race? Would you eat people from Sri Lanka?”

“London is debased. The Mayor of London tells us about ”Neighborhood policin ” – what is ‘policin’? He tells us London is an ”amazin ” city. What is ‘amazin’? This is the Mayor of London! And he cannot talk properly! I saw an interview where he was discussing mental health, and he repeatedly said ”men’el ” … he could not say the words ‘mental health’. The Mayor of London! Civilisation is over!”

“London is second only to Bangladesh for acid attacks. All of the attacks are non-white, and so they cannot be truthfully addressed by the British government or the Met Police or the BBC because of political correctness. What this means is that the perpetrator is considered to be as much of a victim as the actual victim. We live in the Age of Atrocity.”

“Diverse opinion is banned in England, debate is over. The most offensive thing you can do in modern Britain is to have an opinion and to talk clearly.”

He also expressed his concern that the ultra-right, anti-Islam political group For Britain does not get fair representation in the UK media….

There are fans out there who continue to justify support for him, although the increasing move is now to say that you have to separate the art from the artist…in other words let it be just about the music and not the person.

Sorry folks, as Hall & Oates once sang, I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)….and so it is with a heavy heart that in addition to the original decision to exclude Morrissey from this ICA World Cup, I’m now kicking out The Smiths and awarding a bye to the team they are scheduled to play in the next round.

However, as I do try to run this little corner of t’internet on the basis of giving readers and contributors what they want, I’d be happy to reconsider the decision on appeal if enough of you think that’s a step too far. I’ll return to the situation this time next week…..

JC

Honestly…..this week’s four ties are mouth-watering affairs so I want to publish the latest full-time scores and then give you the stuff of nightmares.

The Durutti Column 4 v Echo and the Bunnymen 35
The Police 24 v Pete Wylie 15
XTC 17 v Half Man Half Biscuit 22
The Charlatans 9 v OMD 30

I’ve a feeling Drew will be very keen to vote this week………….

Round 3 : Matches 5-8

New Order v The Fall

Anthony H Wilson and Mark E Smith will be pissing themselves laughing at this….as indeed will Rob Gretton.  Barney Sumner is known to be a fan of Manchester United while MES was a City follower, the team he adopted as a kid just to annoy his dad.  The establishment against the noisy neighbour.  The tickets to see this one will fly out of the door.

New Order must be cursing their luck with the draws having already been asked to take care of hardy overseas opponents in LCD Soundsytem and The Go-Betweens.  The Fall have had the slightly easier tasks of taking on Queens of The Stone Age and SBTRKT.  The interesting news for the both sides is that while they each have multiple and guest ICAs, (three for New Order and four for The Fall), the selections for both are coming from their initial ICAs, both of which were penned by me….and what emerged from the coin/dice stuff is quite staggering:-

Age Of Consent (from Power, Corruption & Lies, 1983) v Cruiser’s Creek (single, 1985)

Talking Heads v The Housemartins

New York v Hull…..certainly brings home the romance of the cup.

Talking Heads have had all sorts thrown at them thus far – Close Lobsters, Massive Attack and Kitchens of Distinction have represented very different types of challenges and the latest match is no different.  The Housemartins have progressed quietly to this stage by overcoming Gene and Julian Cope but, thanks to an ICA full of catchy and enjoyable pop songs, they pose a threat to the biggest of names and the most revered of line-ups.

Both songs selected this week have one-word titles which come in at a little over two-and-a-half minutes in length.

TH(NYC) opting for something which, despite being almost 40 years old, still sounds vibrant and fresh – they’ve also drafted in Brian Eno on production duties to the line up.  TH (Yorks.) go with something that, although a flop single from 1986, typifies so much of their output.

Paper (from Fear of Music, 1979) v Sheep (from London 0 Hull 4, 1986)

The Velvet Underground v The Clash

Just as the audience begins to come to terms with the all-Manc tie which opens up this week’s offerings, this curve-ball delivers another strike.  Two of the most admired bands in the competition, each having the firepower to go all the way, but only one will still be on their feet in six days time.

NYC or London?

Warhol or Rhodes??

Reed/Cale/Morrison/Tucker or Strummer/Jones/Simenon/Headon???

It’s all down to you.

The Clash are going for their third successive American scalp having beaten MGMT and R.E.M. in previous rounds, while VU have disposed of The National and Talk Talk with great ease. You may have to take your time with this one….

Foggy Notion (from VU : recorded 1969, released 1984) v Armagideon Time (b-side,1979)

The Jesus and Mary Chain v The The

Here’s a Scotland v England clash to complete a remarkable set of match-ups this week.

JAMC have had very comfortable wins over The Wondermints and Rod Stewart, and while this is a tougher assignment altogether, the names in other ties in this section of the draw surely demonstrate that it could have been a lot worse.

The The are going for a hat-trick of wins over Scottish acts having done enough to dispose of Simple Minds and The Skids.  This is yet another step up in quality and, as is so often the case, much will depend on the random aspect of things:-

Never Understand (from Psychocandy, 1985) v Slow Emotion Replay (from Dusk, 1993)

Have fun….and happy listening.

Voting closes at 10pm on Friday 20 April.

JC

Have particulary enjoyed reading all the additional words that have come with so many comments thus far this week and it’s interesting that some of you have been struggling with your selections this week…..that’s how it should be as we get down to the sharp end of the competition.  Once again, there are a few scorelines which aren’t truly reflective of the quality that’s on offer from both sides…and the possibility of Sting & co getting into the last 16 (and possibly further) seems to bothering a few folk!!

Oh and C, if you’re reading this…..you really can’t tease us with hints of why you had to vote for the Durutti Column song without sharing the sordid details……

Durutti Column 3 v Echo & The Bunnymen 28
Pete Wylie 12 v The Police 19
XTC 14 v Half Man Half Biscuit 17
The Charlatans 6 v OMD 25

In this round, the half time songs will feature actual club songs, and I’m beginning with one that’s associated Hibernian FC:-

mp3 : The Proclaimers – Sunshine on Leith

And here’s the rendition from their fans back in 2016 when their side lifted the Scottish Cup for the first time in 114 years:-

Remember….if you haven’t voted yet, you have until 10pm this coming Friday.

JC

The final four ties have been getting played out all week against an increasing anticipation that we really are getting to the business end of the tournament.

Lemonheads 8 v Prefab Sprout 28
Julian Cope 11 v The Housemartins 26
The Pixies 12 v Billy Bragg 23
Ride 33 v Asian Dub Foundation 4

Condolences if all of your favourites have now been eliminated, but there’s still time to latch onto one of the remaining sides to cheer on from the terraces.

I’ve made the full draw for the last 32 and the matches will be played in the order they came out the hat. It proved to be a relatively fortunate draw in that none of the sides who were involved last week came out in the first four games and so get a well-earned rest. You’ll also spot that all of the first four games of Round 3 fall into the intriguing category but don’t offer match-ups that will make for sleepless nights mulling over the options. But trust me, there’s plenty of that to come with a number of the real big guns having to take one another on…..all of which opens things up for some so-called lesser lights to keep allegedly unlikely runs going.

This week does see a high proportion of sides from Merseyside…..

Round 3 : Matches 1-4

The Durutti Column v Echo & The Bunnymen

Manchester v Liverpool….and not for the first time this week.

Vini Reilly has thus far seen off two cult acts from Scotland but this is, without question, a real step up in class for him.  He’s likely going to have to field one of his strongest bits of music and preferably one that isn’t too noodly and so ends up appealing to folk beyond his small but dedicated fan base.  Turns out, according to strictly rockers who was the author of the original ICA, that it is “Probably the best-known DC song complete with Martin Hannett‘s sampled birdsong.”

McCulloch & co. have already been tested strongly and fought through, with surprising ease, in tough looking ties against Lenny Cohen and EBTG, with the latter being seen off by a live song which was loved and loathed in equal measures.  Perhaps complacency could be their biggest enemy….but looking at the song that’s come out, they’re showing that this is being taken seriously. Very seriously

Sketch For Summer (from Return Of…, 1980) v The Killing Moon (from Ocean Rain, 1984)

The Police v Pete Wylie

Something tells me that Pistol Pete, the self-acclaimed “part-time pop star and full-time legend” will be relishing this match-up and will spend the entire build-up badmouthing his opponents, particularly Sting who will be accused of turning his back on his working-class origins and the shipbuilding town he was born in.  The media will be stoking the fires too….

After a comfortable win in Round 1, Pete Wylie produced his ace card to ensure he progressed against PJ Harvey who was tipped by a few pundits as a possible overall winner and he’s up against a side who, although not hugely popular in the overall scheme of things, have a knack of fielding a terrific pop tune that has seen themn rack up more than 50 goals in seeing off Captain Beefheart and The Stranglers.  The coin and dice combo will be critical….

Weekends (from A Word to the Wise Guy, 1984) v Roxanne (from Outlandos D’amour, 1978)

XTC v  Half Man Half Biscuit

This is one of those ties that I think is, before the songs are pulled out, almost impossible to predict.  If there’s two things I’ve learned in all the years of doing this blog they are that almost all readers like XTC and almost all readers love Half Man Half Biscuit.  There’s a case to be argued that all three of the songwriters deserve national treasure status in the UK.

XTC have two ICAs to choose from, one which is dedicated to songs by Andy Partridge, whose contributions have been used in the first two rounds to see off two of my own favourites in Friends Again followed by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.  This time round its the Colin Moulding ICA from which the song will be chosen which could be bad news for Nigel Blackwell and co, although they do have potential gems of their own to offer

Grass (from Skylarking, 1986) v Joy Division Oven Gloves (from Achtung Bono, 2005)

The Charlatans v OMD

I think both bands will be pleased with this draw and will be quietly confident of progressing….they’ve done well to tip-toe their way through the previous rounds with The Charlatans seeing off The Mekons and Carter USM while OMD have proven to be too good for Super Furry Animals and The Stone Roses, although both losers were guilty of fielding weaker songs than they are famed for.

The home side have already fielded what are arguably their two best known songs while the away side still have some top-notch 45s to offer up.  Once again, the coin and dice will play their part:-

Can’t Get Out Of Bed (from Up To Our Hips, 1994) v Enola Gay (from Organisation, 1980)

Some really good and enjoyable tunes to listen to this week…voting closes at 10pm on Friday 13 April.

JC