Hits 21 - 1994 (3): Tony Di Bart, Stilstkin, Manchester United Football Squad

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Hits 21: The 90s.At the roundtable this week it's Rob, Ed, and Andy!This week - Tony The Bart is here with his real thing, Stiltskin get Ed dreaming of the Highlands (and denim), and Manchester United prove that you can't get 11 tone-deaf lads to make a good song.Email: [e-mail]: https://bsky.app/profile/hits21uk.bsky.social

It's 24. Hi there everyone and welcome back to Hits 21, the 90s, where me, Rob, me, Andy and me, Ed are looking back at every single UK number one of the 1990s. If you want to get in touch with us, you can, email us, send it on over to hits21podcast at gmail.com. Thank you ever so much for joining us again, we are currently looking back at the year 1994 and this week we'll be covering the period between the 1st of May and the 28th of May, which is a very short step. It feels almost uncharacteristic of the 90s to only not even make a month with three number ones. But there you go. Things are moving a little more slowly in 94.

Last week's winner, just Prince, most beautiful girl in the world. Well done to him. Shit sound effects and all. So it is time to press on with this week's episode and here are some news headlines from well, May 94. In football, Manchester United win the Premier League, winning their third title in a row ahead of runners-up Blackburn Rovers. And United also win the FA Cup, beating Chelsea 4-0 in the final at Wembley.

And on the continent, AC Milan beat Barcelona 4-0 to win the European Cup, beating Chelsea 4-0 in the final at Wembley, and on the continent AC Milan beat Barcelona 4-0 to win the European Cup with the final held at the Olympic Stadium in Athens. John Smith, the leader of the Labour Party since 1992, dies suddenly at the age of 55, with Margaret Beckett becoming acting leader for the next two months. The Camelot Group Consortium wins the contract to run the UK's first ever national lottery draw, and the Channel Tunnel is officially opened in Dover

by Queen Elizabeth II. In America, serial killer John Wayne Gacy, better known as Killer Clown, is executed by lethal injection. Former First Lady Jackie Anasis dies from cancer age 64. Michael Jackson marries Lisa Marie Presley in the Dominican Republic. Nelson Mandela becomes the first black president in the history of South Africa. The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows.

Ace Ventura Pet Detective for two weeks before Four Weddings and a Funeral begins a run of for two weeks before four weddings and a funeral begins a run of nine weeks at the top. And in Formula One, Brazilian driver and world champion Ayrton Senna is killed in a crash at the San Marino Grand Prix. He was 34. Also killed at the San Marino Grand Prix was driver Roland Ratzenberger who died in a separate crash. The entire race was broadcast live on BBC2. The BBC also broadcasts coverage of the Queen travelling to Calais in France by train, and the May 12th edition of Question Time abandons its original itinerary to discuss the life of John Smith.

In America, Johnny Carson makes his final TV appearance on David Letterman. Phil Hartman, Rob Schneider and Sarah Silverman all make their last appearances on David Letterman. Phil Hartman, Rob Schneider and Sarah Silverman all make their last appearances on Saturday Night Live. And Star Trek The Next Generation airs its final ever episode, a 90 minute special entitled All Good Things, during which Captain Picard visits his friends and colleagues in different timelines. It's a good one that one. Andy, the UK album charts, how are they doing for this very brief period in May 94? We've only got three albums in this period at number one but one of them is very notable indeed and I think in fact I'll introduce it in the style of its title track so just to set up a rhythm.

There's only three albums to cover this week and only one of them is very notable, but let me tell you it is super notable Parklife It is Parklife which comes I didn't rehearse that at all. I am like, whoa, Phil Daniels eat your heart out. Um, Yeah, that only gets number one for one week Ever it's its only week at number one in the first week of May 1994, which is absolutely balmy to me But anyway that goes four times platinum before it is replaced at the top by the much more influential album Our town the greatest hits by Deacon blue which went one Two weeks and went double platinum twice as long as Parklife the British public everyone

And then that's replaced with I Say I Say I Say by Erasure which went number one for one week and only went gold. So yes, it may only be for one little week but this is the month where Britpop I think we can determine has now arrived.

We can cut the ribbon. Alright then, so Ed in the States how are they welcoming May 94? US billboard number one LPs-wise, well it was probably CDs by that point, but I'm an old fart, the division bell rings profitably for another couple of weeks before finally succumbing to spectrox toxemia and dying on the floor. This is going somewhere. a small fraction of people. But then, whoosh, that's four weeks with one album. Makes you sound a rather egotistical old band.

What's happened? Tim McGraw, my dear, and my album, Not A Moment Too Soon. Can I just say that I understood every beat of what you were doing there, and the Venn diagram of people who listen to our show and people who will have got that reference is the pin of the needle. It really is. I'll be honest Andy, that one was for you more than anything else. Thank you. And to be honest, I just saw that the album was called

Not A Moment Too Soon, and I can only think of one thing. So Rob, how was that for you? Sketchy. Yes. It's the last moment slash first moments of Peter Davison slash Colin Baker in the 1984 Doctor Who serial, The Caves of Andrazani. Okay!

That's what was being performed there, yes. And Tim's record sticks around for a twin week, as if to say, I am at number one, whether you like it or not. That's a reference to the Colin Baker 1984 serial The Twin Telemma. Singles, leaving Doctor Who aside for now. R. Kelly is replaced once more by Ace of Base as if reality was somehow embarrassed. They have two more weeks of the sign before all four one forego making semi-functional all brand TV remotes

to spend a galling amount of time at the US top spot with I swear, which goes on to sell more than one and a half million units. Wow, yeah. According to certification alone in the US alone. It would have sold more, but there was only a 50% chance it would work in your machine. Please tell me, does anyone remember? These are such folkyish references.

Does anyone remember those awful remotes? No, that one was lost on me, I'm afraid. They were shit. They were supposed to be like, what? I've lost your remote. Well, remote broken. This will work with any TV and DVD player. And it worked with about three if you kept changing the settings

and the thing on the back. So that was was great there are some very old people who will like that joke anyway that's back to you Rob all right then so that means we are on for the first song this week which is this. I've been holding on, I've been looking for the real thing Waiting patiently, but I never stop believing Say I'm chasing rainbows, living in a dream Girl I kept my fantasy, I never gave in, I'll tell you why If I can't have you, I don't want nobody baby Girl it's got to be you, only you Okay, this is The Real Thing by Tony DeBart. Released as the lead single from his debut studio album titled Falling For You, The Real Thing is Tony DeBart's first single to be released in the UK and his first to reach number 1, however as of 2025 it is his last. The Real Thing first

entered the UK charts at number 13, reaching number 1 during its fifth week. It stayed at number 1 for… one week! In its first and only week atop the charts it sold 47,000 copies beating competition from Inside by Stiltskin, which got to number 5, Light My Fire by Clubhouse which climbed to number 7, and Come On You Reds by the Manchester United Football Squad which climbed to number 8. When it was knocked off the top of the charts the real thing fell two places to number 3. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 13 weeks. The song is currently officially certified silver in the UK as of 2025. Ed, how are we feeling on Tony Duvart?

Err, yeah I don't remember this one one but I kept thinking it was going to turn into another song which I pinned down quite quickly Well if you hurt what's mine I sure as hell retaliate I was like, oh I want to listen to Save From Harm now by Massive Attack but I've got to listen to Tony DeBart and The Real Thing instead That's a bit harsh. I like this

It's nice I'm stalling for time here because I don't have a huge amount to say it was entirely pleasant it doesn't really go anywhere and the His voice does not have sufficient texture to carry it above a kind of nice Loungey ambiance through it. The thing about his vocals, I don't know if either of you noticed this, I was like, this sounds like someone but not from that era, it sounds like someone more recent. And I'm not sure if they just, his vocals sound more modern because he thought in his head he sounded like Seal or someone

but it just accidentally sounded weird. Seal was... I thought he sounded like Seal. Yeah, that came to my head. Another thing is what I thought he actually sounded like was a slightly pitchier Plan B. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I get that. Yeah, I mean that's probably not as far, Plan B had a load of vocal smoothing going on. No criticisms, really good singer, but everyone did by the turn of the 2010s and at this point it was a little bit more of a rarity and usually sounded pants. But yeah, it's nice, isn't it? It's very of

its era. It would be nice and atmospheric if you didn't have the kind of tinny, corny little off the rack techno drums that come in. But it's fine. I'm slightly alarmed this got to number one, because it somewhat lacks peaks and valleys, but it's fine. Yeah, a bit of a strange one this. Tony DeBart, proper relative newcomer. Like, he was apparently a bathroom salesman who had a home studio and he recorded an original version of the real thing in 93 and then benefited from a remix that was released by Cleveland City Blues Records which appears to be just his label based on Discog's stuff, it's just all him and a couple of other artists and it's very much an overnight

kind of rags to riches thing, and an overnight success thing, and then an overnight vanishing thing. He kind of spent the 2010s appearing at village fairs in his hometown, and then in 2023 was found guilty of assaulting a police officer. What a journey. I would say this is a strong remix, but maybe with a singer that doesn't entirely suit it, it feels like the track is overwhelming Tony at points. The entire thing, and I mean by thing I just mean that being a pop star at all, feels a bit too overwhelming for him. I don't think he has the vocal chops or the personality really to rise above this whole

thing and lead it, but with that said, I'd still kind of regard this as like, it's a fairly classy bit of dance pop this. It reminds me of things we've covered before, like Killer or Loneliness or It Feels So Good, where you get a lot of moody textures coming through, slightly sinister dance pop in that way. Plus, you know, the 90s goes in a very moody kind of dance pop direction from this point. Maybe this made it clear to label heads that stuff like You're Not Alone by Olive

or that professional Widow remix or even Frozen by Madonna, you know, that, you know, get these artists to do these things. You know, if that guy on his own label can shift a few thousand copies and get to number one, then, you know, with a bit more backing, we could really make something here. And that's kind of what happens anyway.

I don't know if Tony Dubard was an actual reference point, though, especially for artists like Madonna. But, you never know. I love the atmosphere. I love the brooding, slightly sinister energies that kind of hang around the edges and then head towards the middle. The forceful kind of middle of the night kind of drum textures that mean this would slot quite nicely into a DJ set. The momentum it builds up from second to second is quite solid. I also think the

way Tony's voice is kind of being crushed under the weight adds like a Cocteau Twins My Bloody Valentine kind of thing. But where the Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine kind of did that by design so that, you know, that you they bury the voice so much that you search for it this just feels like something that's happened to Tony DeBart's voice later i don't know if it's by design this song this song happened to me yes uh it feels like the remix just kind of happens to Tony DeBart's voice as opposed to it sort of being a considered instrument in the whole wider texture. But hey, you know, seemed like this guy was pretty much an outsider,

brought into the inner ring unexpectedly, lands himself a number one, so okay, fine, yeah. Andy, how about you with Tony? I mean, I've not got a whole much to add to be honest, because the points that I did have, you've both covered, but particularly the add to be honest because the points that I did have, you've both covered, particularly the comparison to Killer because that did jump out to me to be honest. That's like, I think there's a bit of a running theme of all my comments this week about all three songs

about whether this feels like it's in the right era or not because this one I think feels slightly out, feels like more in place if it was in like 1991 maybe, the 94. Not wildly out, we've got another song coming up that I think feels wildly out of time that I couldn't believe that that was 1994. And then we've got a song that is like absolutely 1994 to me. And this one is just like, it feels a little bit a little bit out and I

think it's because it does remind me of killer and stuff you know like the songs Corona were doing and things like that a few years ago but that's not a bad thing I just I agree with Ed that like I don't really understand why this got to number one and I say that about so many songs I've lost count of the number of times it's like if people have a bingo card, if it's 21, it's probably Andy doesn't know how this got to number one. It's on one of them. But really now, like really, this one, I am struggling because there's not really much of a hook.

It's just sort of pleasant and pleasant doesn't take things off the shelves. Like I've always thought that songs in more recent times that are just sort of pleasant that have gotten number one, I've done so because they can be streamed and you can be very passive and you're listening to them because they're just sort of a nice thing to have in your ear. So I always thought the great example of that was Let It Go by Passenger. But like that's endured because it's just mood music that you can put on not actively and a

lot of their cheer and stuff is the same and this is in that category but it's one of those things it's like people left their homes went to a shop picked this up bought it took it home and i just think why why tony debart of all things there's other things on the shelf it's not the only thing that's out this week it's yeah it's really really interesting to me because there's something i'm missing It's yeah it's really really interesting to me because there's something I'm missing with this. Like it's it's nice enough but that's all it is it's just nice enough and that's all I've got to say this is this runs it close with that one song that I finally reached after ten seasons

of the show Never Leave You by Tinchy Strider I think it was which was the first song we reached that I had absolutely nothing I could think of to say about it. Rob's never quite reached that, although you've had a few near misses. Ed managed it in about one and a half seasons because of Elton John. So I nearly had another one, this one nearly. One final bit of trivia for you that language heads might like. Tony de Barth is

Italian for Tony of Bart. That's my last comment. The Tony Bartther. Okay so, second up this week is... Avis. of this. Swing low in a dark glass hour You turn and cower, see it turn to dust Move on a stone dark night We take to flight, snowfall turns to rust Seeming a fuse in mind like a nursing rhyme Fat man starts to fall, here in a hostile place I hear your face start to call And if you think that I've been losing my way

That's because I'm slightly blinded And if you think that I don't make too much sense That's because I'm broken-minded Don't keep it Okay, this is Inside by Stiltskin. Released as the lead single from the band's first studio album, titled The Mind's Eye, Inside is Stiltskin's first single to be released in the UK and their first to reach number one, however as of 2025 it is their last. Inside first entered the UK charts at number five, reaching number 1 during its second week. It stayed at number 1 for

one week. In its first and only week atop the charts, it sold 61,000 copies, beating competition from around the world by E17, which got to number 7, and Just A Step From Heaven by Eternal, which climbed to number 9. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Inside dropped 1 place to number 2. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 13 weeks. The song is currently officially certified Silver in the UK as of 2025. Ed, you can go with stilt skin. Yeah, this I didn't realise at the time. Actually, I must have known and have just forgotten.

This was deliberately, I believe, made for an ad, as I understand it. Yes. Probably ordered to be a deliberate Nirvana crib. I mean, it's not very subtle. But I'll tell you what me and my brother used to flip for this we loved it you know when you're eight years old and you get some like proper like grungy pop rock coming in you think it's like the most cool badass thing ever by the time you're like 11

it's not but it was yeah but what surprised me though is that I still like this I've not heard it in years in part because it's more or less been removed from all streaming services and prior to that most compilations so I'm not entirely sure how you were supposed to have listened to it other than on YouTube but yeah I, it's just a song that has good elements, really. It has a great riff at the beginning, that's stuck in my head for 30 years.

It has a good sing-along-y bridge, and it's got a nice harmonic and dynamic movement between the different sections. It feels a bit cut and pasty. I can kind of tell that in the original order, they only really needed to do a verse, a bridge, and a riff, and then the rest were like, well, let's do that again then.

Do you do a bass solo and we'll literally copy, couldn't copy that in using Pro Tools 1.2. And the lyrics, what? I think, to be fair, I think that they're more for sound than anything, that they're more for effect, that they've got the vibe of that kind of self-serious alt rock thing, but it's just, you know, it's bollocks. I mean, we take to flight, snowfall turns to rust.

Now snowfall turns to rust, I mean, it's like, ooh, ooh, you can waste time thinking about what that might mean, and then realize that there's nothing to be drawn from it. But is it just me or does we take to flight really irritate anyone else? Because it's we take flight. We take flight! Damn it! You either take flight or you take to the air. Yes, exactly. Take flight, yeah.

It's just slightly annoying because they're just, they're making up a load of syllables. They might as well Make up ones that make sense. That's a complete non sequitur anyway Do you know years ago I'm gonna plug my own music here I wrote a song that was called Auditorium and I put it on An album of mine that I put out in 2017. And I only realized two years later, I was so into the melody that I'd written for the chorus, that I had completely missed for like two years, that one of the sentences in the chorus starts, weather or, as in, w-h-e-t-h-e-r, weather

or. Not just, it was supposed to be weather your, whether you are, but I put, weather or, which is kind of the same thing. That's about two years later. The most notable one of that I think is live and Let Die, which I think is so annoying that Paul McCartney lies about it now, and he does lie, because you can hear what he says in the song. So it's got that line in Live and Let Die,

in this world in which we live in. Oh! And he says, oh no, no, it's this world in which we're living. It's like, no, Paul, I've got ears. I it's this world in which we're living. It's like no Paul. I've got ears I know that you said in which we live in and the record will hold that forever Yeah, and I can't hear it every time it's that song now. I'm like in which we live in Oh, I bought his correction, but I always did think it sounded very distinctly like in which we live in

Yeah, oh gosh. Yeah, that's not great. But hey, look it's it's still a good song. I think it's still a oh, that's a great song Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is this is a style pastiche. It's not even a subtle one The lyrics are complete Guff but I I still think it's a lot of fun. It's And credit to them. I think they never really did anything else, aside from the album this was on. I might be wrong.

But, you know, it was something that got its own momentum. They made something out of it. And, you know, me and my brother had a good bounce about, pretending we were adults who liked serious things and were all dark and broody before, you know, brooding, not broody. Slightly different. But there, it's Stiltz kid, it's not Nirvana. But yeah, yeah, I like this.

Yeah, I enjoy that revolving lead guitar part. Just the thing that keeps coming back around is the that's just sort of like a scale thing, but that's pretty cool. guitar part, just the thing that keeps coming back around, just the da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- them all fairly well. A lot of the impressionistic lyrics don't really grab me from a storytelling point of view, but they're interesting enough from a sort of crafting memorable images point of view. A fat man starts to fall. But mainly, this feels like proper chart acknowledgement at last that grunge and alternative are the future of rock in the 90s and that rock can be commercially huge again. Even if you're going to use that popularity and use the sound of grunge to just sell clothes. But you know, it's had a bit of a down period while we've, you know, gone through the first few years of the 90s, but we're on the eve of it dominating again and something like this just kind of creeping in before the party starts is a bit of a, you

know, it's a bit of a precursor, I suppose. Although while I listen to this, all I can imagine in my head is somewhere in Los Angeles, Lenny Kravitz coming across this and immediately going to a studio and going like, right, let's write fly away. And do you know what I mean? Like, yeah. And that also got used in an advert for Peugeot, I think, years down the line. I get this, I don't know, with this, I like it, but I do get this overwhelming sense that this is laced with all the kind of double-edged sword

stuff that occurs when a genre gets accepted into the mainstream, where like it's joyful because something from the fringes is accepted into popular culture, but that immediately means that your thing can be hollowed out and just kind of like, hey, buy denim. There you go. Buy some denim. There you go. More denim. What about cotton as well? We buy, we sell a lot of products made out of that too,

and I think it struggles to justify its length ever so slightly. Even the single version touches four and a half minutes, but it's a nice slice of something that we've not had on the show yet. It's a nice little signal for something we're going to be seeing a bit more of as we go through the 90s. So yeah, my assessment is broadly positive on this. I did like it. Total newcomer did not know about this before we put the list together for the 90s. I wasn't really that familiar with it.

Finding it on streaming services wasn't that easy. That's what's killed it. You know, I think the lack of it being on any classic compilations, except I think it might be on one of the now ones and it not being available on streaming ever or on its own on iTunes without buying a whole album or something has really killed its momentum Because this is a this song has stuck with me for 30 years It was amazing how crystal clear my memory was because I've not heard it in a long long long long time

I think that revolving lead part definitely, you know, there's the That's that's memorable I think I will you know when I'm 60 and then I haven't heard this for 30 years I got oh That's the big bond. That's the big bit of it. Yeah, so Andy how we feeling on stilt skin. Yeah, I largely agree I think it's very interesting that I had no context when I put this on I just went into this completely blind I have no idea who stilt skin were what song was, why it was at number one. And I was just like, whoa, this is so, so 1994 in a kind of, don't know who it is

who says that in the Simpsons, that is so 1991. I think it's Ralph Wiggum who says that. But it's so, it's so of its era. And I thought within about 30 seconds, I was like, well, this must be a parody. Because this is like, it's so on the nose. And I'm so transported to the era that this must be a parody

because it's getting to the point of being generic. And obviously it is, it's designed for that purpose. But it manages to touch a lot of different touch points, like Nirvana being the obvious one, but also I think what's really surprising about this and deserves real praise is that it touches at things that haven't actually really happened yet, that there's definitely echoes of early Radiohead in this who are only just starting to really get started and a lot of people wouldn't have heard them yet. I thought the song,

if I had to pick the single song that this reminded me of the most, in the verses at least, it's Zombie, which won't come out for another six months. Like, it's touching on things that don't quite exist yet, and I think that's the sign of a really good parody. That's because it's like you're tapping into something and demonstrating you actually understand it, so you're able to have some level of foresight

about the kind of sounds it, where it might go. I've always thought one of the most pinpoint accurate parodies of something I've ever heard was Chris Morris in Brass Eye doing the Myra Hindley thing. I mean he's great at always, that's his special skill of his is tapping into an absolutely pinpoint accurate parody because he does that one of Nirvana himself on the day-to-day in 1994 and he does that Eminem one in 2001, which is also really, really good. Little wiper, my little wiper.

Yeah. I always think that's like, when people parody something, there's a type of parody that's just pastiche and like deserves to be just thrown in the bin because you're just knocking something off. Whereas there's a type of parody like this where I actually think there's a real talent to this, where it's like, you're just knocking something off. Whereas there's a type of parody like this where I actually think there's a real talent to this where it's like you're paying tribute, you're slotting into a space

and showing that you really have the breadth of knowledge about it to be able to get the level of detail there that's like actually yeah it's going to sound like things haven't actually come out yet because you're so in the genre you've really understood it. And I think that's the best thing in this song's favour that it actually could have fooled me that this was a genuine like competitor in this era and you could have fooled me that it came out a year or two later than it did which again is a huge compliment for a parody song so yeah as as as what it is like I don't know there's that much to it to be honest and like you know I'm not really gonna listen to it again to be honest and like, you know, I'm not really gonna listen to it again to be honest but I just admired that quality about it that like it's it's really

getting right into the depth of something that's happening at this moment. I also agree with you Rob that it's definitely like sort of sounding the signal of right this is where music is going this is like the big thing of this time which is true but it's a little bit of a shame that right here in this same week Britpop started that like in in terms of British rock music things are about to change quite radically in terms of what's like the thing that people parody what's the thing that's at the top it's uh it's weird it's it's almost like this week's got a kind of post-credits scene with Thanos turning around on his chair at the end except it, it's almost like this week's got a kind of post-credits scene with Thanos turning

around on his chair at the end, except it's Damon Albarn turning around on his chair, and the person he's talking to rather than a nameless alien, it's Alex James, and instead of happening on an alien planet, it's in a studio, and no one in the scene wants to commit genocide, but other than that, it's exactly like that post-credits scene. So yes, I'll leave on that note. To be honest the other thing, something I kind of felt coming through is that there is among that kind of power poppy grunge influenced pop punky kind of scene, punky kind of scene, I think you can always tell when the group is British rather than American. There's a particular attitude to the guitar playing, there's a particular feeling and all I could really think with regards to stiltskin were hearing them was Ash. I could hear Ash in this a little bit, not like you know

Girl From Mars or anything like that but you know just sort of like some of their slightly slower numbers and maybe stuff from like their first album, well I mean Girl From Mars was their first album but it just there's just a little there's a flavor in their guitar playing that I think is Stiltskin's guitar playing that does kind of match. There's a little bit of Ash, there's a flavor in their guitar playing that I think is Stiltskin's guitar playing that does kind of match. There's a little bit of baggy in its jeans, if you'll forgive the pun there. Yeah, again with that kind of guitar style actually, that's right. A little bit more psychedelic than anything the Americans were doing.

And it's almost like we can't help ourselves. I don't know why. We try to do something, you you know heavy and slouchy and stonery and it just comes off sounding You know Anthemic It's just it's kind of got that slightly like pieced out LSD vibe. I don't get it. That's a terrible comparison anyway I don't think so because I think like you are totally right that you know where I guess you know grunge Maybe came in America came from like you know sort of like the emotional hardcore scene and sort of had more punk roots

I guess you know the British kind of grunge scene like you say it's kind of our Alternative scenes at the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s the big one is obviously Manchester so he has a lot of baggy influence and Baggy was very wedded to those kind of blown out guitars that were kind of quiet and in the distance off somewhere. The big sound thing going on. This is music for driving around Scotland with kind of vibe, which you don't get with Soundgarden exactly garden exactly well guess where stilt skin were from yeah So yeah, I just said as I say that like yeah, well, that's not really too bloody surprising I'm also probably thinking a part of the video or the advert

All right, then so on to our third and final song this week, which is this song this week which is... this. Must be made, say, always make me cry Thinking about the teams from years gone by Charlton Edwards, Paul and Georgie West We're united, you can keep the rest Climb above the palace bed Go and push up a bit Fuse with lead, even tantalum

Robs and caps, sips and geeks Come on, you rips, come on you Reds, just kick the ball on United, here we go. Come on you Reds, come on you Reds, just kick the ball on United, here we go. Come on you Reds, come on you Reds, just kick the ball on United, here we go. Glory, glory, by the United, glory,s by the Manchester United Football Squad. Released as a standalone single, Come on you Reds is Manchester United Football Squad's 10th single overall to be released in the UK and their first to reach number one. However, as of 2025, it is their

last. Come on you Reds, first enter the UK charts at number 16, reaching number one during its fourth week. It stayed at number one for two weeks. In its first week atop the charts, it sold 77,000 copies, beating competition from Love is All Around by Wet Wet Wet which got to number 4, shame that just missed number 1, we'll never hear from it again, The Real Thing by 2 Unlimited which climbed to number 9 and More to This World by Bad Boys Incorporated which got to number 10 and in week 2 it sold 84,000 copies, beating competition from Get Away by Max, which climbed to number 5, and No Good by The Prodigy, which got to number 9. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Come On You Reds dropped 1 place to number

2. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 104. 16 weeks. The song is currently officially certified silver in the UK as of 2025. Ed take it away with Manchester United Football Squad. Have fun. I don't remember this at all and I don't think that's tremendously surprising. I was born and raised in Leicester. I was going to school in Leicester

at this time and I'm pretty sure that Leicester Sound wouldn't touch a track like this with a radiation suit on. I'm thinking that while, you know, they were a popular team to a degree around the country, I think this was going to be pretty regional. But they had such substantive support that it was enough to keep it on top for a little while at least. And I've never heard this. I wasn't excited about it looking at the fact that A, it's a fucking football team football song in combination with the lords of excitement status quo. But you know, for a limited period, my thoughts were it's cheesy, it's chintzy. It's more or less brain dead But it's a fucking club football. We're gonna win football song

I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting. I wasn't expecting anything. I was not disappointed I actually think the verse is musically a solid Unfortunately the verse is musically a solid. Unfortunately, the chorus is horrible, utterly fucking awful for a number of reasons that I will attempt to break down here. First of all I was trying to put my finger on what it sounded like and it's a bit like King of the Castle. I'm not talking about the Wam-Do project I'm talking about the King of the Castle, Dirty Rusk, all that one and for He's a Jolly Good Fellow and all of those fucking rhymes that have that similar rhyme scheme but then I realized oh no it's a combination of the title screen music from Super Mario World and Horsey Horsey Don't You Stop,

which is a winning combination to match a winning team. But not only is it really plinky plonky, it's also too fast at the same time. Now those two things don't usually coexist, but Stata's Club done something quite amazing here by making those two terrible aspects work together in dire harmony. It's twee, and it's super annoying,

even though it's not very long And I think in many ways The main problem is that this and this is as pretentious as fuck allow me to to issue forth my thesis This oversteps a line The concept of play line. The concept of play is slightly uncomfortable for adults, even though you say we play football, we play instruments, there is that uncomfortable sort of redolence of childhood with it, of the infantile, which I don't think is a problem at all in itself, but I think there is this unquestioned discomfort of having your adult passion equated with a child's

fun. And the problem is that because this chorus oversteps that never to be trodden line between football chant and nursery rhyme, it makes it all of a sudden seem utterly infantile in a way that most football songs don't. You know, a lot of them just sound dumb by design but this really does sound kind of like bouncing on your mum's knee kind of stuff. It's also... Have you ever heard, Rob, any Man U fans singing that chorus? No, the bit that I hear them sing is the Glory Glory Man United thing, but that was a song before this. It was already a song. And Come On You Reds was already a chant. Come on you reds. Yes, it wasn't that. It wasn't that.

No, it wasn't. And that's the problem. It's like, how have you done that? You've turned a football chant into something you can't chant It's yeah, I mean this is this is in so many ways a travesty And yet for some insane reason that I'm struggling in this very moment to justify to myself I'm not putting it in the vault and I think the reason is... Pie hole, if you're not going to say that again, pie hole. Yeah, yeah, okay. I'm not putting this in the pie hole and I think it's because my hatred of this song is a... it seems to open up a can of worms for me in a sort of interesting analytical kind of way, for me at least. Am I insane to have been sent on that little journey by

Come On You Reds by Manchester United Football Club featuring status quo? Probably. But also the rest of the song, as chintzy as it is is fine It's pretty well written and the you know, the glory glory man united bit that's pretty well put in there It works well as a song. It's easy to forget especially when we did that piss awful anniversary waltz a little while ago Status quo know what they're doing. They can write a really good song. They know a decent melody. I mean, recently for a completely unrelated project, I've been listening to their debut album

when they were a proper like acid psych pop band. And do you know what? They were really good at it. And they were good songs. They were interesting songs that didn't, didn't hang around too much on one bit or another. I mean, they're not the most charismatic group in the world, but they certainly know what they're doing and there is a reason why they've been popular for a very long time.

Nonetheless, that chorus is a fascinating black hole. It's just just it's a total misfire if it wasn't for the sense of occasion I don't think this would have gone anywhere really Anyway, yes, it is a part of the tradition. I suppose of releasing songs on the way to the FA Cup final Because Chelsea also released one, but it didn't get anywhere near Number one, I think it stalled at like number 24 or something like that. So eek. Full disclosure, I think I've mentioned this on the podcast before, but just in case I haven't, or if people have forgotten, I am a Manchester City fan and I have been for like, oh wow, like 26 years now since I was four years old thanks to Paul Dickhoff in 1999 against Gillingham.

That name, did I hear that correctly? Because that's, oh, that's unfortunate. Yeah, Paul Dickoff, yeah. D-I-C-K-O-V. That's unfortunate. Sorry, carry on. Yeah, the week that United won the treble in 99, I decided to support City because they'd beaten Gillingham in what would now be the League One playoff final which Stockport County have just missed out on this year. So you'd expect me to just like shit on Come On You Reds by default, but another thing I should be honest about is that I have no real hatred or dislike for United really.

I kind of did hate them growing up, but that was because they were much better than us. And a lot of people I knew at school were United fans. But you know, those, I don't know, maybe you don't know these kinds of people, but there are people out there who aren't football fans, but they're United fans because like they see a winning thing and they go, oh, I like, I just want to like what's popular. That sort of thing. It's like an insecurity thing within themselves and they think that they're better. They never pay attention to football.

They never watch football, but their dad's a United fan and United win all the time. So it's like, Oh, I'm a United fan. But as much as they liked to lord it over me, the United were amazing and City were not, you know, I only really wanted United to lose so I wouldn't have to face them all on a Monday morning with that thing that they get, that superiority complex that fans of really good football teams who are children pick up and never let go of. At the same time though, like my dad is a United fan and he's never really been the type to join in with the hatred and the taunting and whatnot.

You know, he started supporting them in, well, he was forced to support them by high school bullies when he was eight years old and he'd arrived back from Australia because he lived in Australia for four years between the ages of four and eight. And he arrived back and all he knew was Aussie rules football and he supported Geelong Cats and so when some school bullies cornered him and said who do you support it better be Manchester United he went uh yeah sure whatever and because United had just won the European Cup. With Bobby Charlton leading the team so that's but then you know he then followed them through the 70ies and 1974 was the last time United were ever relegated from the top division. So, you know, we kind

of known a period of them struggling before Alex Ferguson turned up and all this success started. So, you know, and a couple of my absolute best friends in the world, the United fans as well. And it means all the nonsense that comes with football tribalism about how every other team support is a scum except yours. And you know, it all kind of falls away when you like scratch like an inch beneath the surface and most football fans know this. They're just in denial and won't do it. It's kind of hard though to hate a football team when you realize that they're just like

yours. Like they're just a bunch of people cheering on a smaller bunch of people on the pitch and hoping that the bunch of people who control the club's money make the right decisions. So the idea of a United team getting a number one single doesn't really bother me, especially because I wasn't even born at this point. I'm still about a month away from being born. My mum is very heavily pregnant right now, but I don't know any of United in 1994. I just don't, you know, it's kind of another realm.

Being asked to like hate something from before I was born feels especially silly to me because of one thing or another. But it, oh, but this, oh, this is dog shit. This is so bad. Even with everything I've said, this this is we had a discussion about this when we covered world emotion and we'll have this discussion again when we cover three lions 96 but like pop songs about football are often just so shit it's kind of a tradition it doesn't matter what team it is trying to apply football terms football culture terrorist chants, etc

to pop music is a horrid clash of styles that rarely works if ever and this This reminds me of anniversary waltz status quo in all the worst ways and it also reminds me of Superman the black lace the did it lead it did it lead it it a lot of, and it also meets a lot of like drunk men in a pub at 11pm, it's tuneless and tone deaf and loud and stupid, there's one nice melody in the verse, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,

the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, theam all the names into the lyrics is pretty funny, but I don't know, then you just get served up all the vague nothings about being the best and winning all the time and I think it taps into that arrogance of certain football fans whose clubs do win all the time and think the sport isn't actually a sport made up of lots of teams

who were trying to win. It's actually just an entertainment product for them and them alone. They must win all the time and if they're not winning all the time, then something is wrong with the sport. Something is wrong with the entertainment product and they have all these existential discussions about how football was, oh it was so much better 20 years ago which coincidentally is when their team was winning everything. United had it once, Real Madrid currently have it, Arsenal had it, Barcelona had it, I've definitely noticed it creeping into City's fans behaviour in recent years as well. This divine rightism, this entitlement, this unwavering belief that all will bow before them and will continue to bow before them until the end of time. In reality, football is a cyclical thing. Sometimes those cycles take years, but they

always come around, especially in English football. That's why we love English football and the English football pyramid so much, because it operates under the rule that what rises must fall. The songs like this, Come On Your Heads, come from a belief that like, no, our team is more special. The cycle will never come for us. We'll be the best forever. We will win because we're the best, our players are the best, we have the most money. Everyone who comes up towards us and tries to beat us, we'll just knock them in the

nose and push them to the ground. And it reminds me of that tweet from the user, the handle is so the at symbol and then it's ham knocks H-A-M-N-O-X from 2022. And the tweet is just rest in peace to everyone killed by the gods for their hubris, but I'm different and better, maybe even better than the gods. I've always found that so funny. Pop songs about football should not be this. This has also helped me articulate why Three Lines 96 is fucking brilliant, but Three Lines 98 misses the point and is kind of so-so. I just cringe when football songs break into the pop charts

and it takes something special to stop me from folding into a small ball and hoping that I suffocate to death just to avoid the experience but this isn't special at all it's not even spare it's just status quo writing a bad song for a bunch of lads who can't sing and city tried their own version of this and I've lost sight of whether it's good or bad or what because I've heard it so much. But it was recorded in 1972 and it was called The Boys in Blue and it was written by the, yeah, the 1972 Manchester City Squad. But it was written, I did not know this for years, it was written by Godley and Cream, which I, of 10cc. They recorded it all at strawberry studios in stopport which is right down the road from where I live and used to live even

closer to it I don't know if it's any good but objectively I think it has a key change in it that it handles quite nicely it's tunefully sung enough but it's still this whole like and it's I guess he's kind of mournful as well in its tone but it's still very like we're the best we'll be the best forever we'll be in first place forever aren't we amazing all this stuff but it just has some nice kind of decorative stuff going on in its composition it's fine it's passable I think as a football song. I'll play it to close the episode out and see what everybody makes of it. But Andy, what about you? How are we feeling about coming, you Reds?

Yeah, I mean, I've got to slightly call you on your bias there, Rob. I know that you're not anywhere near as biased as most City fans would be. But to end that long rant about how bad this is, correctly, by the way, I very much enjoyed it but to end that with a recommendation in a positive sense for cities like I like it it's just that like I have lost all sense of being able to judge it objectively because I must have heard it over a thousand times because they play it at the Etihad before the game starts. And there are some nice little compositional things,

but most of all of the bad stuff in the song is the football content. Just taken as a piece of instrumental music, it might be more bearable than this. Well, to be fair, that's, yeah, I mean, that's how I felt about World in Motion. Whereas like, that's just a genuinely good late eighties, early nineties, new order song that sounds a bit like True Faith. So I like it as a song. The football bit was the

bit I didn't like. And that was set to be the case with this because I also didn't so much mind that intro. Status Quo are one of those bands that like, the large bulk of them, I absolutely hate. Like, down there in the ranks with me, were like, the UB 40 at the very, very bottom, they're like my least favorite ever. But status quo, they're like in that bottom five for artists who I just like despise everything. But I was absolutely stunned a few weeks ago,

I also, Ed and I were talking about this the other day, that I also came across, it was pictures, pictures of matchstick men his occult from I think 1969 68 years from the first home 68 Yeah, and I was just watching a YouTube video or something where that was the background music and I remember thinking this is a good song I like this. What's this? She's amd it and to my absolute Shock it was status quo doing this psychedelic off-the-wall thing that was very like Strawberry Alarm Clock kind of Austin Powers Groovy

Man sort of thing you know I was just like absolutely astonished that that's you know the same band with it. I could find you, I bet you I could find you a good handful of songs by them you would probably like. But they did milk the shit. You're alright, honestly. It's fine. You're alright. They've always reminded me of, I had this teacher at school who wasn't a music teacher, he was a maths teacher, but he had a guitar. So in assembly, if we did hymns or if we did songs or whatever, he would bring his guitar. But it was a standard joke with my friends and my sister. We all recognized that he could only

play in one rhythm on the guitar. So every song, no matter what it was, followed the rhythm. But obviously by McFly, all of the songs sounded like that. And that's what status quo would like to be where it's like, everything is essentially the same. Everything other than that first album, everything from 70s onwards really is the same. And that's unacceptable. And I've always just seen it as like deeply kind of brain dead music, to be honest. I'm not saying that about people who like them.

I'm saying it about like there's nothing to engage with. It's like no brain activity kind of music. It's like it's really just like empty. Combine that with football songs. And I've said before about how football music is really not to my taste. And partly that's because I do think a lot of them are just intrinsically shit and really cheesy. Partly because my experience growing up with football is like I briefly when I was 10, I spent like one year being really into football and I was a big Everton fan because that's

where I grew up. But as a teenager and as a young adult, realising my sexuality and stuff, football is like I ran a million miles away from it and football music, it kind of gives you that sense of like I'm about to get glassed. Like it just feels a bit like unsafe, which is not true because I'm now into football again. I now support my local team, Stockport County, and I genuinely am a big supporter of them now.

I go to matches and I like follow them avidly every week Which is really nice and unexpected things happen in my life that I really support my local team now But I would never get back into a Premier League team that would just would not happen because of that culture around it where it's like it's treated as Something else it's treated as something bigger where it's about entitlement It's about sort of, it's about, sort of about class to some extent, but not the same kind of class as social class,

it's about like your worth, depending on who you support. And there's stuff that's baked into it as a child even, that's like really not nice. And like I have a different perspective from you too, because I grew up in Liverpool, so obviously it's Everton versus Liverpool. Man United. Growing up in the 90s, you can't avoid the specter of Man United. They were the big sort of celebrities of football.

But no one in Liverpool in the 90s that were kids actually supported Man United and Man City, I'm afraid to say, I didn't know they existed until the mid-noughties. Like just like not even in the conversation. But Man United were like, you know, the big spectre on the horizon and we all kind of respected them. But in terms of Everton and Liverpool, it's just like, oh, I absolutely hate it. I absolutely hate it that like people like the first question they ask you sometimes you'll meet people like, oh, you're right. Yeah, you're red or blue. What? Do I ask my name first? You know, like you get that like in barbershops

in Liverpool and stuff, it's like, why is that the very first question you're asking me? Like you're making like a social cast judgment on me here, depending on who I support. And like I grew up with it and I loved my dad very much and he's not like an absolutely crazy loony, like obsessive football fan. But we weren't allowed to wear the color red growing up at all yeah and sometimes we bought red things that my dad made us give away to charity

shops because like he just wouldn't allow it which to me is absolutely bar me firstly because I love the color red it brings out my cheeks but also just because it's stupid and I still still know fully grown adults in Liverpool, from my extended family, who treat it as like, they will get upset in arguments about football. And if there's a bit of bad referee in decision, they will go out and get really drunk and have to be talked home.

It's not okay. And I think when people say, oh, it's more than just a game, and let's dissect that. It's okay for it to be more than just a game in terms of what it means to you that's absolutely fine but it is just a game and that's not an insult that's not a condemnation that's not a juvenileization of it it is just a game like you can you can really really believe in it and you can really be inspired by and really be passionate about it.

But at the end of the day, the players you're playing there, it's work. All the people who work at those clubs, it's work. And all the people who support them, they've just picked their favorite in the same way that you've picked yours. Chill out, stick your head in a bucket of water and just enjoy the game that you're watching.

I don't think it's that hard for grown adults to get through their head. And so I just don't like the whole culture around football and I find that with lower league football which I'm into now you don't really get that people just happy to be there and have a nice day out and I've never felt at all like there's any bad atmosphere at Stockport County. I can't recommend their games enough it's lovely down there. I did a gig once with a fairly shabby scar band I was in at, is it FC United they're called? Yeah, yeah, FC United, yeah. My god what a game and

welcoming crowd they were. They seemed to be amongst the least protected, they just they just wanted a good time and I I mean, we were probably shit, but they treated us like we were great. We had Josh doing the drag at the front. Fucking loved Josh. And it was like, oh, well, this wasn't what I was expecting. It probably wouldn't have been the same if we were like, you know, in front of old Trafford or something, to be quite frank.

Last match I went to was Stockport County, I was sat there with my husband, we were holding hands the whole way through, kissed a couple of times and he had a rainbow beanie hat on. And not the slightest issue at all. I never got any of that tension that you get sometimes in certain crowds when you dress like that. It's just, yeah, it is different in the lower leagues. It is like fundamentally different. And so coming to this then, where I agree with everything Rob said about the whole attitude of we're the best and like that's just a fact and like our whole

meaning is based on the fact that we are the best. It's like where's your sportsmanship? You know, you might lose you and if you lose you will lose fairly probably unless the referee makes a genuine mistake people don't generally corrupt matches like you might lose you might win you know let's all have a good game I wish there was a little bit more of that in football and this is the opposite of that I don't think the song is as awful as like some of the worst stuff we've ever covered on the show like it's it's it's not a good song, but mainly it's just really awkward. I think it's just like badly put together. Like it's very like you said, it's very anniversary of Walter, but also like

who actually is singing like it's this weak sort of almost like a sort of church choir kind of sound that's made to sound like a football crowd like who are those people singing? It's been hard for me to find that out and it's just like it's it's odd I think it's double track. Yeah, whoa, and they found like Two or three of the man United players who can actually hold a melody and just put them lower in the mix I think that's probably the blend there. That sound you hear of football chanting and that sound that it sounds like it's because there's thousands of people singing it when it's a few people in a studio it just

sounds like people singing like you know you think come on you reds you know it doesn't when it's one person sound like come on you reds people don't do that they don't sing that way that's because it's been amplified as terrible acoustics sung by a thousand people so it's like people in a studio deliberately doing a football voice which is horrible like really like cringy to listen to so this is like rubbish but I don't think it's that bad I just think it's like total meaningless tat and I will say growing up with Everton that Everton have got quite a few good songs under their belts like they've got like they had my dad had this album of like 25 Everton that Everton have got quite a few good songs under their belt. Like they've got like, they had, my dad had this album of like 25 Everton songs and there are about six or seven that like

have stood the test of time that are genuinely well known. There's a bit of an Everton canon. And I can see from having looked at it that Man U have got a huge canon as well. So it's a fascinating world. It really is. But it's not one that I'm at all interested in and this is not a good example of it. So then, wrapping up, Ed, the real thing inside, come on you Reds, where are they all going? It's a kind of mantelpiece kind of song, the real thing, it's not really going anywhere, it's fine.

I'd be happy to have that on in the background, It's like having the hay wane on your wall or something. As for still skin inside, it isn't dumb. I don't want it to stay away, but it doesn't quite make me cum as it is. There's something in the way of avalting, namely its origins as a radio-friendly unit shifter. All apologies, but it's on a plane. And Frances Farmer will have her revenge on Seattle.

As for Man United and Status Quo, it's a Man United song. To bin it would be kind of snobbish in a way for me even though it's a bit gash. To elevate it to vault territory would be a crime against all good sense. It's just it's left in a field somewhere, just not a football field. Andy, Tony DeBart, Stiltskin and the Manchester United football squad. I've been trying, yeah that's a Manchester United football squad. I've been trying to think about a suitable Simpsons reference for Tony DeBart and the best one I've got is Trap Id E-NOT.

Trap Id E-NOT. Yeah anyway, no I don't think that's going anywhere. Like, I don't like or dislike it enough so it's going to stay where it is. I don't want it to totally depart. So it's staying where it is. Yeah, you can have that one. As for still skin, inside is where it's staying. The inside being the middle section. It's not going outside anywhere

You might say it didn't quite rumple my still skin If that means anything at all and as for come on you reds No, that's That that that's definitely being pie hold. It's not vaulting on you reds. It's pying on you reds Yeah vaulting on you reds, it's pie-ing on you reds. Yeah, sorry, sorry. I really, like, try to think of a better one for that, but every version of that, I know I don't want to vault, I don't want to pie on you reds, ended in an incredibly rude joke, which you can probably work out from the title of the song. So I'm not going to do that, so let's just say I'm going gonna pie on you reds, which is also quite rude, but anyway Well for me the first two the real thing at inside they're both going nowhere

But come on you reds. Yeah, that's getting pretty firmly slammed into the pie hole Not because it's Manchester United that have recorded it I would have done the same if it was literally any other club including my own So would you though would you though I think if this song yes yeah I think like even the one that was recorded by my team well my team from 1972 it would only just miss the pie hole I think because of the instrumental. That's it really. So that is it for this week's episode. Thank you very much for listening. When we come back we'll be continuing our journey through 1994. If you thought we had a short step through 1994 this week, oh my god, you will be paid back several times over next week. So we will see

you for it. Bye bye now. Bye Bye bye Behind us, to cheer us on our way City, Manchester City We are the lads who are playing to win City, the boys in blue never give in Blue is forever the best team in the land Playing together, together we will stand City