(Sweet?) Childhood Memories, Part Two

The story of my earlier life continues. Soon after Mr. President's eurodance came the biggest 90s phenomenon, the boy bands and girl bands. The biggest thing were of course the Spice Girls.

Spice Girls could still be considered one of the biggest phenomena of my entire life. When they started releasing music in 1996 it was everywhere and they became almost every little girl's biggest idols and role models. Looking at the Spice Girls now it is no wonder they became so big. They sang very nicely (harmonies too), their music was absolutely catchy and melodic dance pop, their dancing was fun to mimic, they looked good and gave away lots of positive kick-ass energy, also known as girl power. In true bubblegum fashion there was also a massive amount of different merchandise around. Girls (and maybe a few boys) listened to them, collected photos, posters and stickers of them and dressed up as them. All in all, the Spice Girls gave me the ultimate bubblegum pop experience.

The Spice Girls did seem to represent positive values such as encouraging different people to accept themselves and other people as they are. They participated in the writing of their own music and their videos are still amazing to watch (check out Who Do You Think You Are, Too Much, Spice up Your Life, 2 Become 1, Viva Forever and others). For me, the music was always the biggest part of the experience despite everything else that was going on. Spice Girls' pop melodies are timeless and the music expresses true emotions even though the computerized production may not appeal to everyone – not even me, but it is a fairly small thing.

However, it can be argued that the Spice Girls may not have played a very significant role in inspiring girls to develop musical skills of their own. In fact, the different dance choreographies, clothing styles and looks in general got so much attention that practically the only thing the Spice Girls inspired in my life was collecting their pictures and dressing up like them. Or maybe me and my friends were just too young for other musical activities.

The Spice Girls were a fairly short-lived phenomenon but they surely were a fantastic one. The concept was very appealing both visually and musically. The Spice Girls phenomenon also had a strong social character: me and all of my friends were interested in the same music which is something that have I never experienced since.

I listened to the two first Spice Girls albums (Spice, 1996 and Spiceworld, 1997) very carefully but me and most of my friends seemed to lose interest after Geri Halliwell left and the group went on as a quartet: I guess it wasn't the same anymore. Maybe things like the Spice Girls mania aren't supposed to last very long.

I don't actively listen to the Spice Girls anymore but every time I do it is great fun. A while ago there was a documentary on TV about Viva Forever, the Spice Girls musical. It was great to see my old idols again, and a musical play surely is a very suitable medium to keep the music alive. All in all, it is good to see that there is still some pretty strong activity around the Spice Girls.

Also very much worth mentioning are the Backstreet Boys who were never the biggest thing until the Spice Girls had pretty much broken up. I did indeed listen to the Backstreet Boys quite a lot even when the Spice Girls were on top of their fame. The Backstreet Boys are still around and I was even hoping to finally go see them live in Helsinki a while ago but I still couldn't make it – I never seem to be able to! I don't listen to Backstreet Boys either anymore but when it comes to music they were once a relatively important part of my life.

Rollermania Rises

Well, the big news is that I’ve found myself a new craze and I’ve been enjoying it for nearly a month already. Bay City Rollers were the hottest Scottish teen idol boy-band of the 70s, and given my fondness towards bubblegum pop and well.. boy-bands.. it wasn’t such a big surprise I fell in love with this music.

These guys drove teenage girls wild 30 years ago, and I would be lying if I told they don’t look sweet when you look at their pictures. They were on the covers of every teen magazine, girls picked their favourite member.. That’s approximately what it was like when Backstreet Boys were on top of their fame and I was 12 and totally fond of them. However, their music doesn’t sound equally good compared to the Rollers’ music. Generally speaking, something about the late 90s boy-band/girl-band/bubblegum music was wrong. For me the most obvious thing is that it was too perfect soundwise - way too artificial. 70s bubblegum sounds much more pleasant even today.

Bay City Rollers came up with some excellent bubblegum pop. At first, they didn’t write songs and performed quite a few covers, but later they started writing their very own material, too. They scored a couple of #1 hits in the UK, Bye Bye Baby and Give a Little Love, and also succeeded well albumwise. The music pays a lot of respect to 60s bubblegum music, yet I sense some difference in the general sound compared to The Archies, 1910 Fruitgum Co. and others. The Rollers have a slightly more polished sound, and there are more violins than organ hooks in the music.


I’ve found The Very Best of Bay City Rollers a very entertaining collection of the group’s most popular songs. Among my biggest favourites are Saturday Night, It’s a Game, Shang-a-Lang, Remember (Sha-la-la), as well as Give a Little Love (that definitely deserves to be mentioned twice in this article!). I Only Want to Be With You is a really cool cover that always makes me wonder: “Geez, how can McKeown sound so brilliant?” Another song truly worth checking out is Love Me Like I Love You, a great representation of the group’s own songwriting, and it’s a wonderful song.

When it comes to the lead singer of Bay City Rollers, I’ve once again proved my true nature. It’s becoming more and more clear. The thing is, if you want to create music that will stay on the playlists of yours truly for the rest of her life, start a band and, as your first assignment, find a singer who sounds exactly (or at least very much) like Les McKeown. On the other hand, I really didn’t expect to find such a brilliant British (or rather Scottish) version of my #1 favourite singer this soon. What can I say, anyway? It’s another dream come true..

Bay City Rollers music at YouTube

Candy in the Sun

Swirl 360 is one interesting band. Originally there were only two people in it, the founder brothers Kenny and Denny Scott. Later, the group expanded into a four-piece band, and in 2007 the band was renamed. They are now called Echo Jet.

I’ve recently found myself listening to Swirl 360’s debut album Ask Anybody (1998) quite often. The main reason is the fact that these 13 songs are damn catchy! Everything here is very solid. Singing is great, playing is great, songs are very good.

What is special about this Ask Anybody album is that many of the songs feature programmed drums, which is (as long as I’m aware) not often heard on powerpop albums. In fact, the whole of this album sounds very programmed, which could easily lead people to find this music largely over-produced. Actually, this is the first album in a long time that I’ve listened to that reminds me so much of Backstreet Boys–kind-of recordings… You know, I used to loooove Backstreet Boys when I was 12-13 years old. Actually, I still like them a bit, ‘cause it’s melodic music and their sweet love ballads are just fabulous.

The opening track of Ask Anybody, Candy in the Sun, is a very nice and energetic song. It gives summery vibes. I can’t name many specific favourites because I like all of these songs. The title track Ask Anybody, though, must be the catchiest song of all. It’s simply magnificent. Ken Stringfellow even co-wrote it.

Despite Swirl 360, I feel I’m drifting towards country music this evening… Right now I’m giving spins to The Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons and The Byrds. We’ll see what this leads to…

Swirl 360 at MySpace
Echo Jet at MySpace