The Best of The Crimea and The Crocketts

Joe writes: The Crocketts built a dedicated live following but there was something slightly comedic about them (not least their name, as their singer was called Davey), which I felt held them back. But they did have one wonderful song, Mrs Playing Dead. Its opening lines are almost perfect: "It's not every afternoon that you walk into a bar" (I always thought it should be "a room") "and I look at a woman and I know I'm gonna love her all of my life".

Next came The Crimea, who featured two members of The Crocketts - singer and songwriter Davey Macmanus and drummer Owen Hopkin. They were a serious band with a serious name which was partly a reaction to the comedic element I mentioned earlier. I stumbled across them by chance at In The City (a now-defunct music industry conference which gave many bands early opportunities). Their gig was shambolic but I thought songs like Baby Boom and Bombay Sapphire Coma were literate yet anthemic, with the most wonderful extended melodies, and lyrics that pinpointed the male psyche like no-one else. They became the first signing to my publishing company and the first band I worked closely with.

There was a time when every relevant Radio 1 specialist DJ was a fan of theirs, including John Peel and Zane Lowe. Then they signed to Warner Bros US and disappeared to the US to remake their album (which, in retrospect, was unnecessary). By the time they returned home, their moment at Radio 1 had passed, never to return.

After leaving Warner Bros, they made headlines around the world by giving their second album away for free online, but they didn't manage to capitalise on that moment in the spotlight, nor on a TV ad for the most commercial track on that album, Loop The Loop.

Like The Crocketts, they built a loyal fanbase without truly breaking, and I'm still hurting about that, but at least they left behind some wonderful, unique music:

There's one Crimea song you should hear that isn't on Spotify et al - Six Shoulders Six Stone, wherein Davey's girlfriend dies from anorexia. It's hard for me to be objective about The Crimea so I will you leave you to decide whether this is brilliant or uncomfortable or both. It's definitely brave:

the London 2012 Paralympics theme song: Harder Than You Think by Public Enemy (just like that)

Joe writes: Excellent choice of theme for the Channel 4 Paralympics coverage, giving Public Enemy their first hit in a while (it's no. 11 on iTunes UK at the time of writing).



If this is the first Public Enemy track you've heard then I recommend you go for Rebel Without A Pause next, but that might prove difficult as the original version isn't on iTunes or YouTube (it is on Spotify though). Fortunately my favourite bootleg of all-time is on YouTube, Rebel Without A Pause (The Whipped Cream Mix) by Evolution Control Committee, which is the Public Enemy a cappella over the top of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass playing Bittersweet Samba. I first heard this when John Peel played it on Radio 1 in 1994, long before such bootlegs became ubiquitous. It was quite a revelation.

PJ Harvey

Joe writes: When I first started listening to Radio 1, Mark Goodier presented the Evening Session and of course John Peel was a fixture. Songs that stick in my head from what was a period of discovery for me include Here and Trigger Cut by Pavement, Jesus Built My Hotrod by Ministry, and Sheela Na Gig by PJ Harvey:

I've now learnt what Sheela Na Gig is thanks to the YouTube comments (knowledge was not so accessible in the era of Mark Goodier's Evening Session). What a way to announce yourself as an artist.

Just last week I saw this photo displayed in a venue, and it was so familiar despite the fact that I hadn't seen it for 15 years or so:

I think I may have torn some PJ Harvey photos out of Select magazine and Blu-Tacked them to my bedroom wall.

I was at the Mercury awards the first time PJ Harvey won, on September 11th 2001. Here's You Said Something from that album Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea:

I was pleased that PJ Harvey won the Mercury Music Prize again tonight. I hope this will encourage more artists to engage with politics in their music, as Polly has done on Let England Shake. And I'm going to spend more time with Let England Shake, which is the kind of reaction the Mercurys are supposed to inspire I guess.

I wish there were more artists like PJ Harvey. Well done to the Mercury judges for recognising her.