[peel] Question about track 20 in 1996 and 1997 Festive 50

[Mark Whitby]

Probably a good time for me to introduce myself on this group - Mark Whitby, Dandelion DJ and author of book on Festive Fifty. Fluourescences was indeed number 20 in both years.  Neither was a session version.  The single was released in December 1996 and charted on the strength of pre-release plays from Peel that year.  It was then allowed to qualify for the 1997 festive fifty.  I'm not sure whether it should have, but bear in mind the voting for the 1997 chart was unusual compared with other years as there was only a late decision to do a festive fifty that year, and votes mostly came in fewer than usual and mostly by phone.  Peel did, on announcing voting for the FF, on at least one occasion state that votes for tracks released the previous December were eligible.  Given his slightly detached relationship with the chart, it's unlikely he would have checked the previous year's chart in order to identify anomalies such as this.

So, an interesting (to me, anyway) quirk of festive fifty history rather than an error.

Mark


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Alex Romanelli 
  To: peel@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2008 7:42 AM
  Subject: [peel] Question about track 20 in 1996 and 1997 Festive 50


  Hi, I'm new to the group so I'm just going to dive right in.

  In a burst of nostalgia for my halcyon listening days of 88-97, I've 
  been tracking down the Festive 50s. Piratebay has a bunch of torrents 
  as I'm sure you're aware, but some of the torrents are corrupted so 
  I've been compiling my own mp3s. 

  However, one thing I can't clear up is that on both the BBC site and 
  rocklist, Stereolab's "Fluorescenes" is no.20 in both 1996 and 1997. 
  Since it came out as a single in 1996, and its not included on their 
  BBC sessions album I'm inclined to think 1997 is an error, but then 
  what was at no.20 that year?

  I'm already thinking of all sorts of other non-50 Peel questions, but 
  I'll save them for next time.

  Cheers,

  Alex