Hits 21 - 2002 (7): Atomic Kitten, Pink, Will Young & Gareth Gates

Episode Date: March 5, 2023

Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to Hits 21, the show that's taking a look back at every UK #1 hit single of the 21st century - from January 2000, right through to the present day. Twitter: @Hits21UK Email: [e-mail]

All right there everyone and welcome back to Hits 21 Where me, Rob Me, Andy And me, Lizzy Look back at every single UK number one of the 21st century From January 2000 right through to the present day If you want to get in touch with us, you can find us over on Twitter We are at Hits21UK,

that is at Hits21UK. And you can email us too, just send it on over to Hits21podcast at gmail.com. Thank you so much for joining us again. Just like our previous recent episodes, we're going to be looking back at some number one singles from the year 2002 this time we'll be covering the period from the 1st of september through to the 12th of october uh looking back to last week before we get ahead uh with this week's episode just gonna find out who our poll winner was i remembered to put it on twitter this time guys yay well done i'm proud of you So proud Now Every song on this show is guaranteed A place on the podium

At least, because there are only three So bronze medal from last week was Crossroads by Blazing Squad Which got one vote from Friend of the podcast Edward Thomas He told me about it Just the one vote I expected a bit more, but

never mind. So did I. Yeah. Yeah, that is quite harsh. It's not that bad. Yeah. Yeah, I thought there'd be a lot of lapsed Blazing Squad fans out there. There were a few. There were a few people who commented saying they were, but obviously not enough to give it a vote. Not enough to vote. Interesting. Yeah.

Getting the silver medal with nine votes was Colorblind by Darius. So, well done Darius. And Round Round by Sugar Babes takes the gold medal with 14 votes out of the 22 that were made. So,

okay. Yeah, I think that's fair enough. I like that Colorblind got a good you know, there's nine people out there who were like yeah, that was my favourite this week and yeah fair enough yeah totally fair enough and if you're a fan of colourblind and you're probably feeling green

right now or maybe you're angry and you're feeling red or feeling down and you're a bit blue feeling blue but if you're not going to stand up to us and call us out on it then I guess you're feeling yellow. As always, heading on to this week's episode, we're going to give you some news headlines from around the time that these songs were number one in the UK. 202 people are killed and 209 people are injured when two bombs are detonated inside and outside

of a nightclub in Bali in Indonesia. It was revealed afterwards that the 202 people killed were from 24 different countries. Three men were arrested, charged and then eventually given death sentences while more than a dozen others were given long jail terms for their roles in the plot. Meanwhile, an earthquake in Dudley in the West Midlands, measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale, is felt across many areas of England. The tremor was felt for roughly 20 seconds and resulted in 5,000 calls to West Midlands Police. According to later reports by Birmingham Live, the earthquake was felt as far away as Durham in the north and Dover in the south. Meanwhile in football, Leeds United announced losses of £34m, a record loss for English

football at the time. And the old Wembley Stadium is finally demolished after a £750m deal is agreed to build a new 90,000 capacity stadium on the site. The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. Insomnia for one week, The Bourne Identity for one week, Signs for three weeks and Lilo and Stitch for one week. Meanwhile, children's TV show Smile, presented by Fern and Cotton and Reggie Yates, debuts on CBBC alongside a little Scottish kids show

called Balamory. Balamory? Balamory? Yeah. I've been to the island where they filmed that. Really? Yes. Tobamory in the Highlands. Beautiful part of the world. Really, really beautiful part of the world. Oh, must go. Did you just literally tell

us what the story was about balamori that day i went yes that was the story wouldn't i like to know yeah meanwhile as kelly clarkson wins the very first series of american idol pop stars the rivals debuts on itv in the uk with the intention of creating two rival vocal groups who will go on to compete in the UK charts and presenter Tony Blackburn wins the first season of I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. We will

very much be discussing some of what I've said there later in the year and I don't mean Tony Blackburn who is yet to have a UK number one. And as Pop Starts the Rivals debuts on ITV, Hearsay announced that they are to split

18 months after winning the first series. Three days later, the BBC debuts Fame Academy, featuring contestants Lamar Obica, Sinead Quinn

and David Sneddon. It's a shame about Hearsay, isn't it? I can't believe it was only 18 months. Like, as a kid, it felt so much longer. That's just nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I think they were mismanaged. I think it's fair to say. Yeah, very much so. Goodbye, Hearsay. You were fun while you lasted. I enjoyed talking about you. Yeah. Andy, how are the album charts faring right now?

Well, it's more active this week. It's a bit more of a fight at the top of the charts. So where we were last week was with Coldplay, with A Rush of Blood to the Head, who had had an absolutely storming success with that album, 10 times platinum. A week into this period, that's unseated by a group called Atomic Kitten, who we've obviously mentioned before

in this podcast we probably will soon again uh maybe and with feel so with feel so good you can see how good i am avoiding spoilers there can't you yeah so that's atomic atomic kitten with feel so good reached number one and went two times platinum that's their second album. That was unseated by Paul Weller with Illumination, which only went gold. It joins that dubious club of albums that went number one but didn't go platinum, and that was number one for one week. I've never really listened to any of

Paul Weller's recent stuff, but I hear it's quite good. I probably should listen to it at some point. That is then replaced at the top by an Elvis Presley compilation called Elv One Us, which comically replaced the I in Elvis with a

number one. Mad banter from the Elvis marketing team there. Elv One Us would be at number one for two weeks and would go six times platinum. It did most memorably produce A Little Less Conversation, which we discussed a few weeks ago. It produced that as a number one single very very massive hit which was probably why this compilation of elf want us was such a big hit that was then replaced at the top by will young

with from now on which stayed at the top for two weeks and quite interestingly considering that he was the winner of pop idol who still had a lot of cultural capital at this time it only went two times platinum it was nowhere really in the biggest selling albums of the year um and it's i think it's quite interesting considering how quickly they rolled will and gareth out that he's only just now releasing that debut album in october about nine months on from when he won, which is really I know that's what X Factor artists would do but Will's been releasing singles the whole time so that is interesting that the

album seems to have been a bit of an afterthought and been a bit of a damp squib there. But yeah, so very very active this week. A lot of the artists we've discussed will be coming up at some point very very soon. But yeah, it's getting quite competitive at the top now yeah i mean they maybe learned from hearsay where didn't they release a

song the lead single and the album on like the same week and then by the time the second single came around it was a bit oh yeah because everyone's already got the album. We know this. Just on Paul Weller's solo stuff, I haven't done too much of it, but my mum and dad always really, really liked Stanley Road from 95. Because that has... Yeah, it's a good album, yeah. You Do Something To Me on it,

which was the... You do something to me. Yeah, so Stanley Road is the one I remember and would recommend Lizzie over there to the side of the Atlantic over there in places like New York and California

and such how are they all doing in America? Do you want to speak English? What? Well as I mentioned in the last episode Dilemma by Nelly and Kelly Rowland dominated this period with 10 non-consecutive weeks at number one. That run at number one was interrupted by Kelly Clarkson, who won the first season of American Idol in September.

Her debut single, A Moment Like This, got to number one for two weeks in early October. It went gold in the US and finished at number 39 on the year-end list, but wasn't released in the UK. However, the song would make an appearance in the UK charts later on in the decade. There'll be more on that in a future episode, but for now, I will keep shtum and I'll move on to the albums chart,

where we have three new albums to mention. So after one final week at number one for the Eminem show the number one spot was taken by the Dixie Chicks and their album Home for three weeks in September. It finished at number 22 and number four on the 2002 and 2003 year end list respectively and eventually went six times platinum in the US. Following that, Disturbed spent one week at number one with their album Believe, which eventually went double platinum in the US and finished just outside the top 100 on both the 2002 and 2003 year-end lists. However, it only managed to get as high as number 41 on the UK Albums Chart.

And finally, we have three weeks at number one for elvonus by elvis presley which also got to number one in the uk as you've just mentioned andy and as you've also just mentioned featured the chunky xl remix of a little less conversation that we discussed a couple of episodes ago to date date, it's sold over 6 million copies in the US and finished at number 36 and 35 on the 2002 and 2003 year-end list, respectively. And, in addition to that, it finished at number 28 on the UK year-end list as recently as 2022. Wow.

This thing's still sticking around. That is interesting. Wow. The thing's still sticking around. That is interesting. Yeah. Just on the Chicks, by the way, then known as the Dixie Chicks, we're just about into that period now, aren't we, where America has gone nuts

and has decided that the Chicks are not suitably patriotic enough to deserve attention anymore, which is a real shame because that's a really good album. And actually, they're one of those groups who I just love all of their albums. They're fantastic.

I don't think they will release another one now until Gaslighter in the late 10s, which is just phenomenal. So it's a real shame you won't be hearing from them. So yeah, I just love them. They're just great. I couldn't be hearing from them so yeah i just love them they're just great i couldn't let that opportunity pass to mention how much i love the chicks they're just so good yeah yeah no for sure they did one more album in 2006 but then yeah gaslighter is yeah there's a 14 year gap so yeah they were unfortunately they were probably made to just like be quiet for a long time

which is just so because obviously there's the incident that really sends things over the edge is when they're in Shepherds Bush I think they're at Shepherds Bush Empire and she's on stage and she makes that comment about George Bush and it gets back

to America and this is like 2002 and people are not happy. It's just really not that bad. They didn't burn the flag or call for a coup or anything like that.

It was just legitimate political criticism but that was just off the table at that time. Like I say, America had really gone nuts and the chicks the table at that time. Like I say America had really gone nuts and the chicks really suffered from that unfortunately. Yeah, this is like the Freedom Fries era of America. Yes.

Not a very dignified time. Moving swiftly on and back over the Atlantic to the UK the first song up this week is this. To be your number one. I'm not the kind of girl who gives up just like that. Oh no. It's not the things you do that tease and hurt me bad. But it's the way you do the things you do to me.

I'm not the kind of girl who gives up just like that. Oh no. The tide is high but I'm holding on I'm gonna be your number one Number one Number one Released as the second single from the group's second studio album entitled Feel So Good, The Tide Is High is Atomic Kitten's ninth single overall to be released in the UK and their third to reach number one, after Whole Again and Eternal Flame both reached the summit in the year 2001. It is also their last number one in the UK.

The song is both a reworking of the 1967 song by The Paragons, which didn't chart in the UK, and the cover by Blondie, which reached number one in 1980. The Tide Is High went straight in at number one as a brand new entry, knocking Blazin' Squad off the top of the charts. It stayed at number one for three weeks. In its first week atop the charts it sold 144,000 copies beating competition from Dynamite by Miss Dynamite which got to number five. In its second week at the summit it sold 67,000 copies beating competition from Fantasy by Appleton which got to number two. In its third and final week at number one, it sold 46,000 copies, beating competition

from Got to Have Your Love by Liberty X, which got to number two. Papa Don't Preach by Kelly Osbourne, which got to number three. Messiah by Scooter, which got to number four. And I Love It When We Do by Ronan Keating, which got to number five. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, The Tide Is High fell one place to number two. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 16 weeks.

And the song was officially certified platinum in June 2020. So again, pandemic feels, getting to people, and pushing songs over the 600, sales mark andy the tide is high get the feeling um do you get the feeling with this or not you know every time i see the phrase get the feeling i just can't help but think of s club party let's get the feeling push the ceiling that's what i hear whenever i see the phrase get the feeling. Yeah. I actually, funnily enough, had completely forgotten that part of the song,

and I'll get onto that in a minute. But yeah, so I sort of came at this from a quite puzzled perspective of why was this such a big hit? Because I don't really feel like it has the ingredients to be a big hit, to be fair. I mean, thinking about the original, I'm a quite big Blondie fan. I think Blondie is great.

And I think Debbie Harry is a serious contender for the coolest person ever. She just absolutely radiates coolness and this unflappable quality that I just think is just so awesome. And she really anchors that band with that kind of impassive sort of, yeah, whatever kind of flair that just takes a genre that is really, really difficult

to get right with New Wave and turns it into something just effortlessly cool or at least appears to look effortless. And I think, you know, Blondie is just fantastic. And so you would turn to an artist like that if you want to have a sort of big second album launch of, you know, oh, what's a good cover we can do that we can easily kind of get some traction with this?

You would think Blondie, but you would think maybe do Atomic or maybe do Heart of Glass or something like that because I'm quite reminded of the very first song we ever covered on the show, I Have a Dream by Westlife, where they turned to abba for a cover but they picked one of abba's kind of lesser hits you know that wasn't

very representative of them that was a bit bland so they were sort of on a loser right from the start which they did with seasons in the sun as well of course but the atomic kitten have kind of done that here where they've picked tide is Is High which is not one of Blondie's bigger successes I think I think it's a little bit dull if I'm listening to a Blondie compilation that is kind of where the mood dips for me with Tide Is High

so I think it's a bit of an odd choice but they do more with it than I remembered they kind of modernise it I say modernise it they kind of jazz it up with some very obnoxious percussion and do some really quite pleasant harmonies over the top of it and then add in that get the feeling bit, of course,

which I think does actually add something. I think the reasons for that are quite cynical in that they wanted to just kind of have a songwriting credit, probably, which I think is quite a cynical reason to add that in there but that get the feeling bit does kind of lift it and give it a bit more than that just kind of repetitive chorus but i don't know i think this one is kind of in a really awkward place for me where i i don't really see why it was such a big hit because atomic kitten are not quite at that status at this time that they're so big that they could just sing the

phone book and that would get number one which you know we've had certain artists like Oasis for example who you can say that for on the show before but they're also not in that kind of middle in the road inoffensive you know satisfy everyone all the time kind of place that someone like Ronan Keating is where he gets to number one just on the basis of consensus. You know, Atomic Kitten are not really in either of those spaces, and they've released a fairly bland song here, you know, a very, very safe choice. And it doesn't work for me. It doesn't work for me at all.

I just think when you compare it to Eternal Flame and To Hole Again, you know, those songs had a certain kind of earnest, innocent energy to them that I really quite appreciated. I thought they really had the feeling of a fresh on the scene young girl band who were really kind of going for it, that were taking on songs that were a little bit big for them, but making somewhat of a success of it. Here they're doing just a kind of knockabout cover, which they've kind of put a bit of a flair on, but not really. This is sort of atomic hitting

by the numbers for me, and it's quite deflating that it was such a big success, because I think it kind of sends the wrong message there. So it's a bit of a shame. I think this is a come down from previous hits. I think the idea of a girl band covering a big, blondie song for a comeback single, you're like, whoa, that could be good. And then you get this, and I'm just a bit disappointed, really. So, yeah, not a highlight for me this week, unfortunately. Lizzie, how about you? Yeah, I agree with a lot of your points, Andy. I think it's pretty disappointing.

I was really hoping for a breakthrough while listening to this, similar to what I had with Whole Again and Eternal Flame, where I heard them in a whole new light when revisiting them for this podcast. Unfortunately, like you say, I think it lacks a lot of the charm from those previous two. And yeah, just it leaves me quite cold, if anything. Like, I think there's two main problems. It leaves me quite cold, if anything. I think there's two main problems.

One is something that you mentioned to me, Rob, in that it's very obvious that the producers have sweetened up the vocals a bit. Yeah. Part of what I liked about those previous two number ones is that they didn't do that, or at least not as obviously as they did here. Both Hold Again and Eternal Flame felt honest and genuine in a way this doesn't where it feels kind of artificial and lifeless and the other is unfortunately the song itself which I can't really blame Atomic Kitten for like even

the Paragon's original and the cover by Blondie isn't really representative of either group's best work. Like, what a shame we couldn't have had an Atomic Kitten cover of When the Lights Are Low by the Paragons. Or, like you say, Heart of Glass by Blondie. Or Atomic!

It's in their name! Exactly! Atomic Kitten do Atomic. That's just waiting for them. It's just crazy that that didn't happen but yeah it's a license to print money it's right there and yeah i'll say that the get the feeling bit that isn't in the original makes the key change feel a little bit more natural and is at least something to make it stand out from those other two versions, but it's not quite enough to make this much more than what it is, which is a middling cover of a middling song. I agree with you about the key change.

I forgot to mention that, that they actually do a fairly decent job with slipping that key change in in a natural, organic way. Well, not so much because that get-the-feeling bit is very clearly thrown in as a separate entity to the rest of the song but the key change sort of goes unnoticed within that so yeah of course they do quite a good job with that but that that get the feeling bit oh gosh it's it's very unusual isn't it that's it's just a whole different song really it's like two songs happening at once yeah well it's interesting that you say that actually because for years i always thought that um the

get the feeling bit was more like um you know the where did our love go thing at the end of tainted love where like on the 12 inch version where it slowly transitions into where did our love go if you let it play long enough uh the soft sell single i always thought that the tide is high and get the feeling did that where like the extended album version that's like five minutes long get the feeling was like at the last two minutes and the radio's never used to play it but then going back um recently i've i've worked out that oh no the get the feeling part is is part of the actual um part of the actual song um i think this is for me this is basically just they get the same vibe as like their eternal flame cover but it's just slightly sped up you know all the longing

and i'm kind of like you lizzie and i'm not a huge fan of the blondie cover or the original but at least i think the the blondie version has a sense of regret and longing to it it's kind of wistful and sad whereas this kind of takes out all the the melancholy and it makes it more upbeat and jolly and cute and it makes it more hopeful. I think that's the thing with Eternal Flame and with this cover as well, where both the original songs are quite melancholic in their own way um but the atomic kitten versions they take out all the melancholy and just ramp up the hope as if to sort of be like the kind of like supportive song you know give your mate a nudge and sort of be like god god you could do it like

that's the kind of feeling that i get they're kind of warm and bubbly, and I don't think it necessarily suits what they're trying to go for, I think, you know, it's, you know, it's adorable and affectionate in the way that Whole Again and Eternal Flame were, to a degree, and I think it, like U2, I agree that it handles that key change really gracefully, soay for that and the original bridge means I guess that it's not just a straight cover so I'm always down for acts taking classic songs and trying to reinterpret them a little bit but like you Lizzie I keep thinking about how heavily treated this all feels how obvious the treatment is in the mix it makes me think that they wanted to make totally sure that this was going to be like a guaranteed smash like no imperfections allowed combined with everything

else in the song that makes it feel kind of artificial but not in a way that feels deliberate um and i just start to sour on it a bit i don't know i don't think i dislike it but it's just barely a thing like i think they made a mistake with the atomic kitten um because this is their last number one and they kind of fade away kind of as quickly as they appeared but i think with regards to like whole again i think that their management didn't focus enough on the fact that what makes that song work for me is I mean why would their management care what I think but I think that there's the sadness and melancholy at the center of whole again but I think their management focused a little bit too much on the fact that they were just young women who had little hip-hop breakbeats behind their songs, and I think they got a bit typecast as a group who

were youthful and happy and did cheerful interpretations of 80s hits, and it just, I think that's why it kind of fizzled out, because underneath that, if you're like, you know, if you get three number one singles and two of them are covers and then you're kind of finished, it just makes you think like, oh, it's a shame you weren't given better material you weren't they weren't allowed to grow they weren't really allowed to be anything it just seemed like they were permanently going to stay in like orange vest tops and white three-quarter pants with trainers like they're constant they're not allowed to dress any differently you know that their album covers they always have to smile and they always have to be very close to their album covers they always have to smile and they always have to be very close to the camera

and they always have to look like their best friends and it just feels like they're never they weren't really allowed to do or be anything else and it affects this cover I think that they're not allowed to add anything to it beyond what has been laid down very specifically in the brief

which is a shame because we've heard with hall again and to a lesser degree in my opinion eternal flame that they have character within their imperfections and with sugar babes around at the moment and with girls allowed not far away it's kind of easy to see why atomic kitten was sort of left behind at this stage but i don't dislike the tide is high get the feeling um it but i'm just kind of glad that we don't have to talk about it anymore uh when i saw it coming up in the list i was just sort of like oh oh well but yeah that's that's all i have to say so i feel bad because we were we both not both sorry all three of us were pretty positive about both of the previous

atomic kitten songs and we were very positive about them as a group you know we had a lot of time for them and it's quite disappointing that it ended on such a sour note for them really um but yeah it's you are absolutely right, Rob, that if you do two out of three covers, then your shelf life is very limited. And that's a point to keep in mind for later in this episode. That's a bit of a running theme this week. It's an interesting point to make.

I'll revisit that. Because you cannot survive forever off covers because they will inevitably lead to diminishing returns. So yeah, I'm going to keep that one in my cap for later. Yeah. Okay. Then second up this week is this. I'm lying here on the floor where you left me

I think I took too much I'm crying here What have you done? I thought it would be fun I can't stay on your life support There's a shortage in the switch I can't stay on your life support. There's a shortage in the switch. I can't stay on your morphine cause it's making me itch. I said I'd try to call the nurse again, but she's been a little bitch. I think I'll get out of here. Well, I can run just as fast as I can To the middle of nowhere

To the middle of my frustrations And I swear you're just like a pill Instead of making me better You keep making me ill You keep making me ill Okay, this is Just Like A Pill by Pink, released as the third single from her second studio album entitled Misunderstood. Just Like A Pill is Pink's seventh single overall to be released in the UK. It's her first solo number one after Lady Marmalade got to number one last year. This is not the last time we'll be discussing Pink on this

podcast. Just Like A Pill went straight in at number one as a brand new entry knocking Atomic Kitten off the top of the charts. It stayed at number one for one week. In its first and only week at the top, it sold 49,000 copies, beating competition from What I Go to School For by Busted, which got to number 3, which I'm devastated about, Cleaning Out My Closet by Eminem, which got to number 4, which I'm less devastated about, but still, Everyday by Bon Jovi, which got to number 5, Strange and Beautiful by Aqualung which got to number 7, Feel It Boy by Beanie Man which got to number 9 and Dem Girls by Oxider Neutrino which got to number 10. Oxider Neutrino still kicking around.

When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Just Like a Pill dropped 3 places to number 4. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for just 11 weeks however the song was eventually certified platinum in the uk in may 2020 when once again it seems that people were furloughed locked down and thinking hmm i wonder what it was like 20 years ago. Lizzie, just like a pill. Pink, go. Yeah, I mean, this is better than I remember it being. I don't think I've ever truly loved Pink or her music, but I think it was more of a me problem.

I've maybe not investigated, and I think she kind of fell foul to a bit of overplay back in the day including this song which I find really strange because of like the theme and the tone of it it's quite a grim song and to think that this was on like daytime local radio all the time back in the day is quite unusual and I don't want to say prescient because obviously like you know opiate abuse was a thing back then as well but seems much more prevalent now or at least we kind of know more about it we see more coverage of it in the news to think that this was knocking around sort of 20 years ago is quite something.

It does have its issues that make it difficult for me to genuinely love it. I do like it, but I'll start with the positives. I think Pink's got a great voice that suits this sort of thing really well. I think her change in image around this time has worked well for her because she's kind of gone from that like i don't know if you remember when she was sort of an r&b artist and there was like that that image of her with like the she had like a shaved head i think and big shades kind of like a mary j blige type thing going on but she's um... Can't Take Me Home, I think, was the album.

Yeah, yeah. And it seems like it was her decision to make that move because I don't think she felt like the person she was sort of outwardly facing the world as was really representative of her. So, you know, this decision seems to have worked well for her she's kind of i think stuck with this sort of thing for most of her career and um and you know in terms of the lyrics i've already kind of discussed it but they're surprisingly dark and you know, personal for something that, again, I recall being quite common on mainstream daytime radio at the time. It's certainly not something you genuinely expect to be at number one.

And we've not really had much like this. But I think that there are definitely things that let this down. And the main thing, of course, is the production, I think that there are definitely things that let this down. And the main thing, of course, is the production, which sounds far too thin considering what a raw personal track this is. You know, Pink's gone on record a couple of times saying that she wrote this because of her own experiences with drug abuse. And I think if only the production of this sort of represented that I think

Pink obviously her performance there's a lot of like vulnerability but also determination and defiance in there she puts in a really good performance but I just don't think the backing track does it much justice like at best it sounds kind of like a 90s throwback, but at worst, it just sounds kind of flat and doesn't ever really take off. Even when you think you've got to get that big moment of catharsis, it never comes in the actual instrumentation. Like Pink, I know I keep going back to it,

but I genuinely don't want to lay this on Pink because she's by far and away the best thing about this. I know I keep going back to it but I don't I genuinely don't want to lay this on Pink because she's by far and away the best thing about this but yeah if only we'd had some better production I think it could have been an old-timer yeah I really agree with everything that Lizzie has said really that I think you know what really kind of gives the the game away in terms of what a good marketing job they did with Pink is that she was on Lady Marmalade, which, you know, you look back now and like that really is just completely incongruous with this. Yeah.

You know, that's, I think, like I said, you know, sort of shows the man behind the curtain there who's doing Pink's marketing work. And they do a really good job with it. You know, they pull every trick in the book to present her as this rebel the teenagers will relate to you know the kind of graffiti album cover the the hairdo the fact she's got that scratchy voice the fact that they they use the word bitch in this song in the bridge which you know i remember the radio always bleeping it out and i wasn't allowed to sing along to it like i sung along to it a few times got told off by my parents you know it's it's all that slight kind of signaling of rebelliousness without ever having to make it really explicit but because she pivoted away from that early R&B phase which I get

you know was genuinely not her thing but because she pivoted away from that so hard I've always kind of wondered about Pink about how genuine this image actually is because you know they really play hard into this idea that she i mean one of her songs literally says she's a rock star you know so what i'm still a rock star and i'm like are you are you a rock star really you know you are essentially a pop star in the skin of rock music you know this i think pink's music is like mainstream pop music's idea of what rock music is which is a very kind of watered down version of it none of that is to be critical of pink's music because i do actually like pink i think she's very good but she's always been positioned i think and presented as if she is far more of a heavy

rock star and a rebel than she actually really is. And I wonder how she feels about that, like how genuine that image is. Very, very similar to Avril Lavigne, who's been through a similar kind of thing throughout the noughties and the tens, of like, she is positioned as this, oh, nobody understands me, I'm going to write in my diary and then pick up my guitar. And, you know, she did that for like 15 years. And it's like, how genuine is this at this point? and how much of this is just because that's your audience but you know

that's how the game works i get that so it's not a big criticism but um yeah there's a lot of stuff in this song that i picked up as like yeah they're really really they know what they want from pink and they're pushing it hard you know the drug references as much as it's a personal story and that is coming from you know a personal story of pinks i do think you know that's put in there quite deliberately again there's another signal of oh this person's dangerous you know she takes pills which i don't know how i feel about that if that's the intent but i do think it comes across as you know her having real kind of authenticity, that she, you know, she goes further than the likes of Avril Lavigne ever do, really.

And she sort of invokes topics that other people wouldn't, really. I think what I really like about this song, though, is that it is just a really well-written song. I think the fact that Pink can just churn out a great single is really obvious already, you know, at this early stage in her career and the thing that i've always admired about her is that she just always outlasts

her contemporaries you know she just keeps on going and keeps on having hit after hit and solid single after solid single i mean she hasn't really had anything in the last couple of years but right up until the mid-10s you know she really just kept on outlet you know if you look at who her contemporaries at this time are you know the likes of sort of j-lo really um you know she's she's outlasted all of them by a million miles then there's a wave of female pop stars in the late noughties of like katie perry and lady gaga you know who again arguably she she kind of is still going after they've had their peak and then come down to a decline you know she really kind of puts the work in and continues on um having success and i've really admired that about pink that she knows how to maintain that audience and how to keep on

producing good songs and this is a really good one you know um i think the chorus is really well delivered i i do hate the production i think the production is really tinny and really scratchy and really hard to listen to, especially when combined with Pink's voice, which also is really scratchy, and I think the way you should treat that is kind of counteractive a little bit. You know, play against that scratchy voice

rather than making everything distorted. But the production would be one of my only criticisms of it, really. I do think that this is really really nice well not nice song but you know it's a really good song um it's one that you can very easily sing along to i can totally see legions of teenage girls really getting into this back in the day like my sister did um and full credit to pink for that you know she she really is occupying a space that other than perhaps avril lavigne and a few others no one is really occupying at this moment and this is something quite fresh and

different for us on the podcast so yeah full full power to pink it's a shame that most of her favorite sorry most of my favorite songs of hers well all of my favorite songs of hers don't get to number one it's a shame that i'll never really get to discuss them big shout out to family portrait i think that's a really great song i really yeah yeah i really like don't let me get me as well um you in your hands you know there's a lot of really good pink songs that never get to number one which is a big shame but we will get to discuss her again um and yeah i really like this yeah yeah it's pretty good just really quickly in terms of her closest contemporary i'd probably say gwen stefani that's it yeah right yes yeah absolutely yeah yeah

who kind of did the opposite journey yeah that's true if you think about it for yeah um okay so positives first um this is a bit of well i say it's a bit it's a very extreme rebrand for pink after that first album and i think she adjusts to the transition well um she suits this kind of you know peroxide dyed hair rock chick druggie rebel figure character that they've got like like she's playing here uh there's a rough and raspy quality to her voice that they lean into a bit more with these singles and this album where she does sound genuinely exhausted and a little bit delirious and her performance is really convincing her commitment to the bit is excellent it makes the story that's being told here believable and evocative um i think you know

people have this idea of authenticity through suffering and i think this plays upon that um i think when it launches into that first bridge section the um i can't stay on your life support that that bit it gives the song a bit of a kick it's a great bridge section like one of the more memorable ones from around this time in pop like i've got really like you and the really vivid memories of different radio stations deciding whether or not to leave the word bitch in or sub it out for switch sometimes or just complete silence or that noise and she's being a little yeah and that's the kind of thing pop music should do it should make radio producers sweat a little bit it should make your parents go oh don't don't be saying that. Like, that's, you know, you push the boundary a little bit, be a bit rebellious, why not?

But like you two, I think this is awkward in places. They're clearly, you know, like the pink rebrand is well underway, but like it doesn't really seem to go far enough into that beyond like the costume and what pink's doing like you too the backing track is like i just remember this being so much heavier than it actually is yeah me too like it just you have to really squint your ears to hit any guitars like it's

mainly just a very loud drum channel piano bass and some of the studio effects like the guitars are way off way off in the back somewhere and it's like they can't fully commit to the bit yet like like pink's committed to the bit but what's supporting her isn't quite because by the time they figure it out with pink like i think where they finally get it right is on i'm not dead and she doesn't get any number ones like my favorite pink song has always been who knew yeah i love you i think that's her best one and like you and your hand and stuff like that you know by the time they get to the bit it's like she has one other number one single and it's a shame that we won't get to talk about it because's like she has one other number one single and it's a shame that we won't

get to talk about it because she has some absolutely excellent singles between like, well, this point and 2007, like she's already had Get The Party Started, which, yeah, that was great, that was the first time I ever sort of remember Pink appearing in my life, Don't Let Me Get Me, I also like that, after this, just like you mentioned, Family Portrait, I really like that. This one feels like the one from this album that's hedging its bets a little bit, seeing how the public reacts, and then, you know, the next album, the next cycle will fully commit to the bits. I think there's one more album, then you get I'm Not Dead, and then you get Funhaus, and I'm Not Dead and Funhouse seem to be the ones where

the image is complete and the sound is complete but like you Lizzie I've got to admire the way that Pink's made it stick, her image has lasted and lasted and lasted and lasted she's in the top 20 like right now, like she has a song in the top 20 as we're speaking

I did not know that yeah Trustfall, she's it? Yeah, Trustful. She's at number 14. Her album just got to number one. She's had 21. Oh, that's great. Yeah, she's had 21 top 10 singles and she was on Graham Norton last week.

She's had four number one albums in the UK. Three of them have been in the last six years. I think everything she's, well, I think everything she's well i think everything she's released since about 2008 is it's not been for me i'll say that much yeah yeah you know fair play to her like she's adapted to streaming in the way that most artists from the 2000s haven't quite um and i will say as well my mom loves her she says that pink is the reason that my mum has a tattoo you know pink still has the ability to sell out stadiums and arenas worldwide whatever she's doing i think

it works for a lot of people i think yeah you can feel after we'll discuss pins pink once again i think uh with so what in 2008 um after that point it feels a little bit like she's pivoted towards I don't know because like in the 2000s this image seems to stick where it's like someone who's slightly damaged this idea that like tattoos and piercings suggest that somebody comes from a broken home and it feels like she kind of leans into that stereotype and stuff like who knew is like there's like a nuance within that stereotype that she adds and i really like that i really really like her approach to it and it feels like in the 2010s she did songs like uh i want to say perfect was one of them where like isn't the line something like,

raise your glass if you're wrong in all the right ways? And it's like this idea, she's really leaned, one of her albums was called Beautiful Trauma. And it's this idea of making an inspiring message out of damage. That's something that she really seems to be leaning into and has leaned into for about 15 years at this point after so what which i think was written about a divorce or something like that but it feels like that's you know she she since she's become a woman in

the eyes of uh you know the media and the public it feels like she's fully accepted her role as like you know she moved towards like full-on art adult contemporary like doing stuff like what about us and just give me a reason was definitely i felt like a pivot for her yeah yeah they're very very like adult contemporary kind of things and it feels like she's settled with her audience but fair play to pink because i think she does appeal i think if you were to go to a pink gig i think it would predominantly be women there but i don't think there would be a specific age demographic no no because she she appeals to kids that's why she has songs in the charts and it's why she has a number one album apparently she's really great live by the way I always hear it from people who've seen her she's brilliant yeah

I think that's kind of my point really which is that Pink is someone whose longevity and image management I really admire I think to stay around in this game for as long as Pink has then she has such good business savvy and she knows

how to keep you know aesthetic cohesion and i always admire pop artists that can do that because that's difficult um so yeah just like a pill was kind of like a new beginning i guess you know getting to a number one in the uk and who is new pink you know that sort of thing you know the pink that you knew from the first album like oh she can't come to the phone right now she's dead like that sort of thing you know the pink that you knew from the first album like oh she can't come to the phone right now she's dead like that sort of thing so yeah just just fair play just fair play to her i suppose yeah if i could just sort of say one kind of final thought as well as much as she has played on that theme of you know being kind of broken and damaged a lot

i do think that the messages that she you know puts out and how she is as a role model to her younger listeners i do think she's actually a really positive role model you know in that role models the word yeah and that if you know going off this theme of talking about your trauma openly being you know empowered by your trauma and owning it i think it's actually a really positive thing, you know, to be putting across to teenagers. I think that, you know, if I was a parent, I'd probably quite approve of this because it's like, yeah,

she's talking about real stuff and, you know, not being, you know, well, being defined by it, but not being defined by the kind of, oh, woe is me. You know, she's turning it into being a star through the fact that she's not ashamed to talk about these things. So i do think there is a really positive message in there um and i think she deserves some credit for that i think i think she knows what she's doing and she knows that she has to be careful in terms of the messages that she puts across and generally it's all really positive so i think she deserves some credit for that cool right okay Last up this week, third up this week, is this.

The long and winding road That leads to your door Will never disappear I've seen that road before It always leads me here Leads me to your door The wild and windy night That the rain washed away

Has left a bowl of tea Crying for the day Why leave me standing here Let me know the way Okay, this is The Long and Winding Road, Double A Side, with Suspicious Minds by Will Young and Gareth Gates. Released as the third single from Will Young's debut studio album, entitled From Now On, and released as the third single from Gareth Gates' studio album entitled from now on and released as the third single from gareth gates studio album entitled what my heart wants to say the long and winding road double a side with suspicious mind is will young's third single overall to be released in

the uk and also gareth's um it's will's third single to reach number one and also gareth's it's not the last time we'll be discussing will or gareth on this podcast both of the songs are covers the long and winding road went straight in at number one as a brand new entry knocking pink off the top of the charts it stayed at number one for two weeks in its first week atop the charts it sold 133 000000 copies, beating competition from Little by Little by Oasis, which got to number two, if that's a relief, Complicated by Avril Lavigne, which got to number three, which is a bit of a shame,

and Gaust of Loving by Eve featuring Alicia Keys, which got to number five. In its second week at the top, it sold 65,000 copies, beating competition from Down Boy by Holly Valance which got to number 2, Down For You by Irv Gotti which got to number 4, My Vision by Jakarta featuring Steele which got to number 6 and Bunsen Burner by John Otway which got to number 9. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, The Long and Winding Road dropped two places to number three. And by the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 26 weeks. But the song was only certified gold in the UK.

Which is strange. Andy, The Long and Winding Road. What do you think of it? I'll start with long and winding road, and I'll talk about Suspicious Minds as well. But long and winding road, this is a weird one for me in that, again, we've come back to this very déjà vu feeling of you turn to a classic artist who churned out a million hits,

and then you pick one of their songs which is kind of lesser and quite unloved it's like why have you picked this why why of all the Beatles songs that you could have picked you've picked the long and winding road which it's not a bad song you know it's a nice ballad but is it up there with you know the best Beatles ballads no absolutely not you know it You know, it's an odd choice, and it's one of those songs that if you don't do it right, I think it can be quite boring, and this is quite boring, unfortunately. Will and Gareth continue on this theme here, particularly Gareth, of not really yet knowing what to do with them, and so I call back to that

point from earlier on in the episode that you said, Rob, of, you know, three out of four covers or however many it was, you know, you're on a ticking clock here. You're running out of time if you're going to keep going off covers. Gareth has, because he's on Suspicious Minds as well, he's got two songs here that are absolutely ancient. Both of them were written several decades before he was born. And it just doesn't work for him.

Long and Winding Road more so than Suspicious Minds. I think he does something with Suspicious Minds at least but it just doesn't really work for me. It's quite dull. Also an interesting choice to have them kind of singing this to each other, Will and Gareth. I got quite a lot of I think unintended romantic energy between the two of them, which is quite funny, that it kind of felt a bit like a romantic duet in the style of kind of endless love, or I've had the time of my life, or something like that. It really kind of had a vibe that I don't think was intended at all. One thing I will praise about it, though, is that it skips that big, massive strings wall of sound ending that the original has, that Phil Spector production, that it skips that and ends on a more quiet note than the original does, which is an improvement. You know, that's actually a good thing that they got rid of that overblown ending.

But otherwise, no, not a big fan of this. It's a really straight down the line cover of a song that is already quite middle of the road and doesn't suit either of them and it's a weird choice to do it as a duet so it's a thumbs down for me on that one suspicious minds i just want to mention because i actually i didn't really remember it that well until i listened to it i remembered the video i remembered all the lilo and stitch tie-ins that it had and stuff like that but when i listened to the song i was like oh it just kind of came flooding back i was sort of 10 years old again and i was at you know a and stitch tie-ins that it had and stuff like that. But when I listened to the song, I was like, oh, it just kind of came flooding back.

I was sort of 10 years old again. And I was at, you know, a kid's party because you would hear this a lot at kids' parties at this time. Like this song was very much geared towards kids. The main reason I enjoyed listening to it this time is because it did that thing once again, not only of Gareth being given a really ancient song that he's probably never heard before in his life, but also the fact that it's

so overproduced that the production is so loud that Gareth feels like he's fighting against it and has to really sing really loudly just to get past that. It's a fight. He did that in Unchained Melody, which was so funny that I really loved Unchained Melody because of that

because he just had to go so far with his own performance just to keep up with the stupid horrible X Factor winner single pop production he was being given they they do that to suspicious minds and take any kind of hint of Elvis coolness and just remove it entirely and turn it into you know fun with all the family kind of vibes and Gareth has to fight against that so strongly and bless him he's not got the biggest personality in the world so it doesn't really come through for him and this is the problem that we keep on having with gareth here it's like what is he all about you know we don't know what songs to give him we don't know what to do with him and it's not surprising that we're near the end of the road for his career of number ones but if i had to pick i'd say i like suspicious minds more than more than Long and Wind and Road, because

Long and Wind and Road was just dull, whereas Suspicious Minds was a bit of a kind of car crash, but at least one that I enjoyed seeing. That was a terrible metaphor, I'm sorry about that. But yeah, I enjoyed Suspicious Minds slightly more, but Long and Wind and Road, not for me at all, unfortunately. No. Hi, I'm

Troy McClure, and you may remember me from such educational videos as Gareth Gates Adventures Through the Windshield Glass. Oh, God. I'll go second on this. I just want to say that in a previous episode, I said that this was a triple A

side, because on the Wikipedia entry for 2002 in British Music Charts, it does kind of list it as it makes it look like it's triple a side but it's actually a double a side with a b side and it it seems to have listed it which is a cover of um the sweetest feeling or sweetest thing or sweet something that one yeah oh i shouldn't have attempted that, but it's that one. So, yeah, just clearing up that confusion. Look, man, it's Will and Gareth covering the long and winding road,

and then Gareth covering suspicious minds. I feel like, you know this chat GPT thing, this new AI thing that people are using? I feel like you could just get that to write the review for me like because it just feels like the songs are also a bit they feel a bit ai produce like you know what it's like just feels a bit obvious choice not maybe not obvious choice in the sense that like the long and winding road is like a really obvious beatle song to pick but i don't know it just seems a bit like oh yeah we'll go with that why not

it's not an obvious song to pick it's just a really inoffensive Beatles song to pick yeah inoffensive that's probably the better word like it's pretty and it's well performed but it's more functional than emotional and it doesn't really demand much in fact

it actually demands nothing. All I'll really say is that it's a shame that Let It Be Naked wasn't released until 2003, because I think the version of The Long and Winding Road that's on that album might have suited this a little bit better. I think it would have been more like the music video, which I actually quite like. You know, the two of them in the spotlight surrounded by a sea of black. Never quite sure if there's an audience there or not because the video starts and ends with cheers, but you never see who gives them. And it's just this long single take of them performing the song and then smiling and that's it. You know, the cheers come up again, but where are they coming from? Like, you know, that's a nice mystery that the video leaves you with, but the video is more interesting than the

song. I have vague memories of Suspicious Minds by Gareth Gates, and like, I don't know, they're just, I will be completely honest, like, I'm kind of done with the whole Will and Gareth thing, I'm kind of glad it's over, because I think the next time we talk about them, they have been allowed to go off on their own respective journeys, I mean, they are respective journeys that I think tell, they expose the difference between how nicely managed Will was, and how Will was able to kind of form his own path whereas Gareth Gates you know at the point where Will's doing leave right now Gareth is hanging around with the Kumars and we'll talk about that but yeah this feels like a a fork in this long and winding road um I guess where Will

goes off in a direction where it's like oh yeah pretty you know respectable pop artist i guess whereas like gareth is just told to do novelty stuff for another 12 months and before they just sort of go all right okay yeah you're done we'll just move you to the side now um it's yeah so it's fine it's fine i'm just kind of tired of like this like whenever something like this comes up i'm just a bit like oh yeah that that's out this week um and we have to talk about this it's fine but i think i'll just you know listen to the beatles version uh lizzie you can close us off for the week how do you feel about this long and winding road suspicious minds e things yeah i agree with a lot of both of your points like my my goodwill for will and gareth is starting to run

out a bit like okay benefit of hindsight and all that i know the hits get better after this at least for one of them but it means wading through this sort of thing and having very little in terms of new things to say. And it's impossible to talk about this without talking about the Beatles original. Like, this suffers from a lot of the same problems as the Phil Spector produced version on the Let It Be album, but adds some new exciting problems on top. Like, you know, much like the original version, it's overproduced to an

absurd degree, which doesn't line up with the intimate personal nature of the song. There's a very long story, which I obviously won't repeat here, but Paul McCartney's reaction to Spectre's production was one of many contributing factors to the breakup of the Beatles. With that in mind, many contributing factors to the breakup of the Beatles. With that in mind it's surprising to hear this cover make a lot of the same mistakes and Rob I completely agree with your observation about let it be naked. It's one of those perfect what-if scenarios with regards to this cover but alas we're in 2002 this is what we have and in addition to that the chemistry between Will and Gareth here is mixed at best like there's some nice moments like when the two of them harmonize you know on the um I think it's on the still they lead me but it's only like on one little bar but it's really nice and they never do it again and for the most part they sound like

they're competing against one another on an episode of pop idol or maybe um the playstation 2 game of pop idol the 2003 playstation 2 licensed video game where because i tried to find evidence on pop idol they do these things where they'd have like three of them on stage and they'd all perform the same song so it would be like i'm a believer by the monkeys so someone would do one verse one chorus then the next person then the next person and that's what this felt like but i could only find actual evidence this in the terrible ps2 game which is very funny and i want to play it so i might have to seek out a coffee but yeah um like the the bridge in particular has them both singing over one another and i can't help but just picture the two of them like on stage together or in a studio but

they've only got one mic stand so they're like having to jostle one another out of the way so they can get their bit in and it just doesn't work for this song and as you know I said at the start of this like my goodwill for Will and Gareth is running out, but that shouldn't be the case because they're not the ones who are making these decisions for them. And like you say, Andy, it gets to a point where you start to realise whoever's managing them at this time don't really know what they want to do with them. You've obviously got one who's a much more consummate, all-rounded professional, and you've got another who is a heartthrob

and who could be incredibly successful, but also doesn't have as much in the way of, like, a well-rounded persona. And so what you get is just these empty, useless, disposable covers that don't really do anything to help. And in the grand scheme of things, I think are pretty much forgotten. So, yeah, like onwards and upwards, I guess. But this is a bit of an idea for them, I think. Well, you say onwards and upwards, but this is sort of the start.

Well, not this specific song, but Gareth, I think, the way his career went after Pop Idol, is the start of a very, very long series of reality TV show contestants in the noughties who just immediately fell off the map. And for some reason, I really kind of was thinking about this and I thought it's very interesting that it's always the men that don't work out and the women generally do out of reality TV shows the one woman who doesn't is Michelle McManus but the winners if you look at the winners of like X Factor you get Steve Brookstein, Shane Ward, Leon Jackson obviously they all fall off

the map completely whereas you've got Leona Lewis, Alexandra Burke, Little Mix, and Girls Aloud, of course, off of Starz The Rivals. Yeah, but they didn't win. In terms of the winners, women always seem to do better. So I don't know if they just don't know what to do with men. Like Simon Cowell doesn't know what to do with them. But I think there's something to that. But as a broader theme in general, regardless of the gender issue, I do think that Gareth is the first example of something we that. But as a broader theme in general, regardless of the gender issue, I do think that Gareth

is the first example of something we're going to see a lot, which is people coming in hard and then flopping immediately after that. And we're going to be beating that dead horse a lot. Just a question for you, Andy. Do you think it's because people like their

personality on a television show but then when it comes time to buy their album you're sort of like i don't really need this i think so because i think it comes back to that point about you know you need at some point to find longevity you need at some point to have a kind of bank of goodwill to draw upon you know we've we're at one we're at one album each for two of them now they've had two or three singles okay great but who's going to come to the tour who's going to buy the second album you know who's going to you know be out there spreading the word about the stuff they do from here you need a fan base now to go much further and i think

that's the point at which they tend to falter is that they because they don't form an identity with the first album obviously will manage us to get past it full credit to him for that but because gareth has no identity it's like well who's gonna go and see him on tour like who should we be trying to sell these tickets to should we be trying to sell them to little kids or should we be trying to sell them to grandma because really kind of comes across like he's a grandma artist at this point you know he's singing unchained melody suspicious minds long and winding road these are all like you know conservative club classics really that he's singing and where's the longevity there you know who's going to keep on riding that that gareth train really um and i think that's the issue with a lot of people who come from here but you know will makes it girls allowed

make it so there are success stories but absolutely not for gareth unfortunately yeah i think the 2010s offer a little contradiction of your point but only a slight one which is just that james arthur made a go of it whereas sam bailey didn't um but that's the 2010s were years away. And the phenomenon is well established by that point. The only other thing I kind of want to say is that the version of this song that exists on Spotify, this is a version that has 4.5 million streams right now, by the way, which is that it isn't crossfaded properly

from the previous song. which is that it isn't crossfaded properly from the previous song so the end of track 5 on From Now On because the long and winding road doesn't appear on What My Heart Wants To Say so Love Struck track 5 which has got

165,000 streams roughly that has the opening it has the word the at the end of it yeah you're right it did and then when you click on long and winding road to play it just it doesn't go the long end it just goes oh i thought that was just my phone being a bit laggy that did that to me and i thought that was just my phone oh that's so bad that is just it is just it is ridiculously unprofessional like that it's just so so bad

that there was a problem in like the early days of streaming where albums that were done on like you know a cd and like you know they didn't have the track lengths at the end i always remember um cosmogrammer by flying lotus being like you know if you went to find a copy of it online certain tracks were different lengths because i don't think they're specified on the back of the cd and so people were having to guess where the songs ended and began because the whole album is basically instrumental and so i can kind of understand it in situations like this but i think they tried to fade the end of love struck into the long and winding road and they put the split

in the complete wrong place it's just sort it out guys like you know jesus to be fair spotify must absolutely hate albums that are all continuous and crossfaded into each other you know there's some poor guy who has to sit there and find the exact point for songs in the key of life or Dark Side of the Moon, where it's like, come on, give me some pause at some point so that we're not just crashing into the next song. We want to put these things on playlists, so give me something to fade into.

They must hate that. But, you know, I have no sympathy whatsoever. But yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm glad we got to talk about Ong and Winding Road by Ill Young and Arith Gates Before we go

before we do the Piehole and Vault Inductions actually I know that a lot of people started listening to us after they heard me on Popmaster earlier this year this episode will go out two days after the last

ever Popmaster on Radio 2 25 years of radio comes to an end we record this obviously a little earlier than Sunday, otherwise it would be a terrible strain on the podcast maker's wrist

so this will go out after the last ever episode of Popmaster on um Radio 2 um just whatever comes on Greatest Hits Radio or whatever Radio 2 come up with um it's probably even if it's as good it won't feel the same and it won't be the same. And I know that the Popmaster community is massive on Twitter. And so I just wanted to say it was great to kind of go on the show and be a part and become a part of the Popmaster community and stuff. So yeah, I'm just sorry that it's kind of coming to an end. But you know, all things must do that. So, you know, I don't know if you two ever played uh pop master or want to say anything or you know yeah i mean it it is carrying on on

his new show on greatest hits radio isn't it probably but we don't know what form it's going to take yet because he's not really been allowed to talk about it because he can't discuss greatest hits radio on radio too and it's going to be a month anyway so yeah like also don't the BBC own the kind of copyright and yeah they're the ones who publish the podcast yeah so it's one of those like yeah so even if it's the same it may not be the same so I always enjoy Popmaster and yeah it is a sad thing to lose from the airwaves I fully agree it's very very sad to lose it pour one out so Piehole and Vault

inductions at the end of this episode so the tide is high in brackets get the feeling by Atomic Kitten is that going up or down for anybody nah straight in the middle yeah straight in the middle for middle yeah i didn't get the feeling either way the tide is neither high nor low um just like a pill by pink not quite no

it didn't it didn't make me ill but it didn't make me better either it's fine yeah yeah it i would say it nearly got in but it missed it by a fair chalk but not a massive one you know it's just kind of thumbs up pink but not quite in the vault yeah it was fairly it was fairly close actually i did like i did really like just like a pill but not that much so yeah no and the long and winding road double AA Side with Suspicious Minds by Will Young and Gareth Gates. It's leading neither to the piehole nor the vault. I don't know. No. No, me neither.

It was much closer to the piehole than it was to the vault, but it's not slipped in on this occasion next time we'll be back um with the period between the 13th of october and the 9th of november 2002 and oh what we're almost there we're almost out of 2002 um 9th of november 2002 is a very special day uh in my footballing history uh we'll talk about that next time didn't realise when I wrote it down and I've just realised it when I've said it. So we'll talk about that next time. Thank you very much for listening and we'll see you in a week's time.

See ya. Bye bye. What they mean and they mean what they say to us And would that be enough? Are we running out of time? Are we hiding from the light? Are we just too scared to fight for what we want tonight? Close your eyes and leave it all behind. Though our love is on our side. It's a trust fall, baby.

It's a trust fall, baby. You and I and everyone alive. Outro Music