Top Of The Box

The Room – Shirt Of Fire – Whistle Test
The Room was an indie pop band from Liverpool in the 1980’s that got lost along with The Pale Fountains and The Bodines as they attempted to crossover from indie chart cult status and commerical pop success.
Shirt Of Fire is my favourite track from The Room; and [...]

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Robert Wyatt – Shipbuilding, The Old Grey Whistle Test,1982
This live performance on the BBC music programme The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1982 is truly awesome. It was such an odd site to see a person in a wheelchair performing on a music show; and his voice was so fragile and sincere.  I fell in [...]

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Public Image Ltd (PiL) – Careering & Poptones, The Old Grey Whstle Test
Here is one of the most powerful performances both Annie Nightingale and I ever saw on The Old Grey Whsitle.  Public Image Limited, PiL at their very very best performing Careering & Poptones in 1980.
Johnny Rotten was still known as John Lydon and [...]

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Janis Ian was one of the army of singer song writers to emerge in the early seventies, she is best known for this track, At Seventeen from her excellent 1975 album Between The Lines.
This performance is from the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1976.
Janis Ian – At Seventeen

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Gang Of Four – To Hell With Poverty, Live in Germany, 1983
For a short period of time the politically motivated Marxist-Leninist group Gang Of Four produced some great music while signed to EMI, the largest capitalist record company in the world.  Unfortunately, their first album, Entertainment was by far there best and for me, they [...]

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