How We Used to Listen to Music in the 80s & 90s

Somewhere along the way, we went from queuing outside HMV for one album to having every song ever recorded in our pocket. Inexplicably, this has made us miserable. We investigate.

If you enjoy UK nostalgia, music history, and quietly judging Spotify algorithms, hit follow, share the show with a mate, and leave a review so more people can find "Who Remembers."

Transcript

Welcome And The Big Question

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello and welcome to the UK nostalgia podcast. Who remembers? In this episode, we're asking who remembers the way we used to listen to music.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

This is a th this was sort of we've we've touched on this quite a lot, I think, in previous episodes, but we we do know it needed its own episode. Is that right, Liam? Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

I think I mean in some ways it's quite a sad one, this one. I think we we remember some things that probably it's better has changed, and I think I think this one's quite a sad one for me. Like I I think we've got worse in in many respects in this industry.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Yeah, normally this is it's an upbeat, uplifting podcast, but I think this is a bit sad. Um I think I'll put this to you, Liam, music has changed more than anything else in the way we consume it than any other media.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Yeah, and I I completely disagree with that. I I condemn it. I can you condemn it, why?

SPEAKER_01 1:33

What what you got for me?

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Well, because I think it's pretty much identical to what's happened with films. I think obviously we're gonna get into more detail, but I think when when you were first sort of we talked about this, you you put it out there, it's changing more than anything else. I think it maybe has in your life because Yeah, I listen to more I don't look more than a lot of people. Yeah, you're really into music. Yeah. But I I I think films is very similar. I think games have changed in a slightly different way, but again, not not hugely different. TV's completely changed. I mean, you put communication. I mean, I I don't think anything's changed even any more than communication. You just have to go and talk to somebody. I think think about how many ways now you can communicate.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

So I I don't I I still think the big films are the big films, though. I still think if you went out on a night out, most people would be saying, Have you seen whatever weapons I keep hearing about? I've never seen it. But good films. I still think yeah, I still think the big films are the big films. I'm not sure that's the case with music, whereas before you'd say, Have you heard Oasis?

SPEAKER_02 2:31

I don't know. I still think like if Adele release an album or Beyonce or Oasis, like it'll still be the the big of your thing.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Yeah, I suppose that's fair fair news. Well what I've written down as my like sort of reasons for this is it went from being quite a scarce thing uh scarce thing to infinite, you know. But like I said, we've mentioned it before that you used to spend 10 to 15 pounds on a CD, which is now what you get everything for that. Yeah, every single piece of music ever made, pretty much, you will get for that if you use Apple or Spotify. It's crazy, but but again, I think films are the same.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

Like I suppose the difference with films is there's a period of time where they might be behind uh an additional paywall, you might have to go to the cinema, you might have to have a certain subscription platform.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

You do sound right then uh the David Brent personator, you may drop it, you may do that twice, and you'll be banned from the cinema.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Driving, yeah. For anyone who doesn't know that clip, you'll think about it. I'll share a clip. I will share a clip of that because it's always hilarious. Twice. Um but no, I yeah, I agree, and I think they're all quite sad in a way. I I I think having to we're not doing this right now, but but having to go and rent a film and watch it and enjoy it in a similar sort of way, you have to buy an album and you give it a good go. But yeah, I I think that probably the the difference in music is I don't know, you you can you have to be in a mood to go and watch a film, I suppose. Like you kind of choose your genre, you go and watch a film. I think with music, you can end up just just clicking endlessly through bits of songs.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Well, that's a that's one of the things I do think changed. Tick there's a fantastic again, I'll probably share this clip. It's a guy who sort of predicted TikTok in 1989, and he's talking about the Warpman, the Warpman have come out, and it was the CD. Yeah, well, you know, he's he has intensive journals or he has got intensive journals, yeah. But now he were um so he's like talking about how you can just skip through tracks nowadays, basically. Well, because CDs have sort of just come out or whatever. And he said, like in 30 years' time or whatever, they'll just be he says like you'll be sort of in snippets, yeah. Just snippet, you'll live your life because he said like that's the way food went. Says like fast food became this thing like we need to get food as quick as possible, and not as many people cook. This is like what the guy's saying, and now it's gonna it's gonna be the same in music, and to be fair in that, he was absolutely you know spot on. And we'll share that clip. I've we do struggle to get well, we've had a bit of traction actually recently from a few clips, but we're more into long-form deep intellectual chats, aren't we, Liam? Um, than the quick TikTok sort of thing.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Explosive, um, really shareable, really successful clips. This is not the place. This is not the podcast here.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Yeah, uh and another thing that I want to mention is you went from complaining now albums to getting your stuff as we'll get on to to algorithm uh and I think this is the biggest change as we'll get on to. The algorithm sort of decides what you listen to. I don't know if that happens with films, you might you might tell you I'm wrong there. I would I would assume it does, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

But yeah, I I think obviously like people talk about it in politics and and in much more serious subjects, but I think you do become part of an echo chamber, don't you? I think that the yeah the platforms look like get to realise the things you're doing. Funny that you said that out when you're yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm in an echo chamber, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But but do you know what I mean though? Like that you're kind of starting to hear more of the similar sort of stuff, which is good. Like the algorithms are telling you the things you probably will like, yeah. But what what they're not doing is giving you those really rare oh wow, I would never have listened to that, and that is incredible.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Yeah. Well I'll pass on to you, Lee March, though, because you're gonna you're gonna do the the uh the section on physical media if you wanna if you want to get going. You're gonna say sexual then. Well you can if you want. The sexual stuff it is called whole members.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

Yeah, I don't I don't know any any s sex songs, is there any?

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Um talk about sex, babies. Obviously. Let's talk about you and me. Uh what about uh is Kiss a sexy song? Kiss. Digga dingga digga digga down. What's the one I'm trying to think of? Uh there's gotta be bigger ones than the blurred lines, I know you want it. Relax when you want to get to it.

unknown 6:38

Bing.

Cassettes And First Music Memories

SPEAKER_01 6:39

There's loads, there's loads.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Anyway, there's a lot you can do, there's a lot you can do. But yeah, I'm doing the the physical media section, is what I've been uh assigning your notes. Assigned, yeah. Yeah, so I'm gonna start by talking uh cassettes and mixtapes. Something you're very big on, actually, but yeah, this is the biggest thing, I think.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

I think we're starting with the biggest miss.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

I mean, we we obviously don't remember as good as remembering as we are, we can't remember things that existed before we can remember. So we don't remember free cassettes, do we? So I I do you always remember being able to have a cassette?

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think actually, I think the first record I ever got bought for me was postman part on vinyl because I don't think my dad can't have had a cassette player. So what we're going to 85 or whatever, but me buying stuff and getting into music, it were always cassettes.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

So I had uh Jai Bunny and the Master Mix on on my board.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Uh I had that on vinyl, yeah. Which one? Oh, I think we might have talked about that. I had the Christmas one. No, I think I had uh come on, everybody.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

Come on, everybody.

SPEAKER_03 7:41

Oh, yeah, the Yeah, that one.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Yeah, that one. And uh I think me and my brother collectively owned the frog song, the frog chorus, is it?

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Frog song chorus by uh little while whatever happened to him, little known artist called Paul McCartney.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Yeah, so I I do remember kind of having vinyl, but I think they were the only vinyl until it kind of became a bit trendy later on in life. They're the only vinyl I ever received as a child, but then everything was just cassette. Then it was uh I mean believe it or not, there were people listening who don't know what a cassette is.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

I mean that's incredible, isn't it? I kind of think coming back though, I went with a couple people at work who are lot you're not. Honestly, genuinely DVDs and cassettes. I agree. I think cassette were arguably a step backwards from vinyl, other than the how easy it was to transport, like in cars and stuff. Yeah, I think it's a step back. It's not a step back.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Maybe it's sort of so I know people say the sound quality of vinyl, but yeah, you could never drive around with a record player like that.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

No, no, no, you get that, but I don't I think as a as your your first choice of buying something, I still think vinyl, I don't think it just sounded better. I think all the rewinds you could still you had the grooves where you could skip tracks on vinyls and things like that where you couldn't accept it, it was always like weren't it when you fast forward and stuff.

Home Taping Panic And Copyright

SPEAKER_02 8:53

I know what you mean, yeah. Yeah, and and obviously like well the big thing was at one stage that the the players that you used to be able to play cassettes on, all of a sudden you could actually start recording stuff on there. And this is where people got got savvy to the fact that they could listen to the radio and record their favourite songs, and this did not go down well with the industry.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

No, so uh BPI chairman Chris Wright unveiled a slogan. I don't remember these at all, to be honest, but uh it was big. Um home taping is killing music and it's illegal. And they they launched this massive thing, isn't it? Uh you know, it was anti-taping, it were endorsed by the likes of Debbie Harry, Gary Newman, and Mr. Elton John. I'm a bit surprised by Elton, but ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Elton John does not condone this behavior. Does not condone this. Um and some tapes show like a skull cassette and bones on the logo saying home taping is killing music. I'll try and share that if I remember. Alan Sugar, actually, is the reason why that never became illegal because CBS Song sued Alan Sugar's Amstrad over its dual cassette deck and it lost after UK court said whilst it's clear copying of copyright material without permission is an infringement in almost all jurisdictions, the provision of a service or an equipment to facilitate this is not illegal, essentially. So it's illegal to do with it, but it's not that selling but who's gonna come round to your house really and say, hang on, what are all these blank cassettes here? Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 10:17

Yeah, and I suppose that that's that's kind of the there is logic behind that because you can forge uh an artwork, can't you? But they don't ban they don't ban the paints and they don't ban canvas.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

So thank you to Mr. Alan Sugar.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

But that's slightly different though, isn't it? Because that what that is there when the the dual cassette decks with the fact that you could buy an album and record it to give it to your mates, or you could give it well, yeah, friends at friends of the channel.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

I had loads, loads of them, loads of cassettes that are like tapes off like other people.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

I mean to be fair though, you can see like in those days how all of a sudden that probably started killing the industry because yeah, like I I would get I don't know some some not even necessarily even just music, like I got some dad's army tapes or I got some Black Adder tapes that my uncle would take off me and record them instead of buying them and he'd give me his kid. I remember my all of a sudden instead of like that being three purchases of the the item, it was one. And and that's that's not even people sort of exploiting it for money. We we were never selling anything, that's just people doing it for the mate. So you can see why the problem do you think that's the start of the end? Do you think Alan Sugar killed Alan Sugar killed the city?

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Alan Alan Sugar killed the music industry, yeah. Maybe. I mean, and like I say, uh then it became to to cassette, and uh it's weird that because I didn't realise that was such a big thing. Obviously, it would be for eight what did I say, 88 was the yeah, 88 was the court case. So we won't really remember that at all. So I I never ever considered it illegal at all to tape.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

No, but interestingly, and do you remember because I do there's a thing where DJs had really deliberately talk over the start and the end.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Oh yeah. Uh do you remember when um when Oasis released Be Now and they said like on the to all the DJs, make sure you talk a lot over this. And the first DJ to play was Steve Lamac, and he didn't talk enough, so they didn't let him have any more songs for his show from that album. Wow. Yeah, so they were a real big thing.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

You'd listen to the chart show on a Sunday night and you'd you'd just stood by your tape deck ready with a pause button. And I but I suppose that was planned. The the probably better ones were when a song came on the radio and you had to dive and scramble over to your what what would you even call it a cassette player or ghetto blaster or what?

SPEAKER_01 12:28

I think I think I'm I'm thinking more of a ghetto blaster, play and record. I didn't ever think that was such a big thing because all I did is I I'd sort of rewind after and just record him out, if you know what I mean, if I'd missed it. I don't I don't really buy this sort of dive in a motion.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

No, no, what I mean though is like if say if you'd heard a song that you loved, you'd be waiting for it to come on again, so you'd be sat by your radio. Yeah, and it'd always be like when you were doing something else, you'd think, Oh god, it's coming on, have to scramble across to get to it.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

But yeah, I've got something at home, and sorry, it's uh it's um it's a wait again, await his cover of uh Hey You've got Sarge your lover way about Beatles, and right end of it, and I don't know why I didn't tape over it, is Chris Evans going, uh, and that was for World Age Day. That's it. As if it's part, and you know why? Because you listen to it that often, that sort of became part of the song for me.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

Yeah, that it better be weird for you to hear it without that on.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Yeah, without that. Maybe he should say it and all at the end when he does it. That was for the world aid day.

Mixtapes As Love Letters

SPEAKER_02 13:23

Anyway. Uh, yeah, and obviously uh making mixed tapes, so this was when I mean you were you were well into this. I've made a couple of mixtapes, but yeah, I I was more of a a receiver, not a not a giver, I suppose.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Yeah, not the first time you said that. But yeah, I think um the C90 tapes, 45 minutes each side, that's a lot of music, that's an hour and it's like. A little bit cheaper 60-minute cassettes that yeah, the 60-minute ones, yeah. I mean, like I say, uh writing on the sleeve, creating your own titles, you know, you'd you do it maybe for I mean I I have to admit, I don't think I ever created a tape because people used to create them for for the other half, didn't they? Like when they were trying to pull, and they'd sort of like it'd be almost like a personal I think they say this on might be Nick Ornby who says this on uh High Fidelity in his book. I might be wrong, it might be something like that. But he says like that they became almost like a personal message, like a almost like a love letter via the lyrics, if you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

Oh yeah, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

I think like uh it was an an attempt to kind of show somebody that I don't know that you kind of get them that I think you like these songs that I don't know how work on it, you it wasn't just a case now where I'll say Liam listen to these songs, I've done your playlist in a bit. You just you wrote on it, you had to you had to listen to the songs as you were taping them. Do you know what I mean? Because you were doing the the the stopping and stuff like that, and you'd think, well, what shall I have after this? And it's yeah, you you actually put a lot I did anyway, put a lot of care into these uh.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

But they were much more of a so I mean to be fair to you, we we should probably share it actually on on some sort of format. You once did uh I don't know, it's a few years ago now, but fairly recent. I think one of the best Spotify playlists I've ever heard. Correct. Um it was No Gallagher's High Flying Birds, it was uh Yeah, uh Beach House, I think we're on the Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um Tongue. Not sure, not sure. But anyway. But yeah, back in the tape day as well, like you could kind of tell the effort because it because you knew if you did me a tape, I'd be driving around listening to that, and I wouldn't necessarily be skipping and changing, and I'd I'd have to listen to the songs. So yeah, I thought they were well constructed, very well put together, actually.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

I think our best anecdote uh anecdote of this is you never liked the Smiths, did you? Because I think you heard Morrissey before the Smiths. Morrissey had come on, I think, with come out with Irish blood, English. No, no, no, that's that's a lot later. Is that not right? Or maybe it'll be before that, but you were like, I don't like this.

Algorithms Versus Human Recommendations

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Didn't really know much of the Smiths. Like I kind of thought I'd I'd fallen for the the people saying he's just a bit of a mounger and they're quite depressing, and like I never really got into um who's the other depressing one, Radio Ed. Joy Division, Radio Ed, yeah. All all three, but yeah, I kind of was told, oh yeah, they're a bit like uh he's a bit of a mounger, like he's a bit which he is to be fair, but yeah, yeah, you put what I would say is not the best Smith song by a long way, but some girls are bigger than others on a tape. And I I thought Johnny Mars guitar on that was mind-blowing. And it really got me into Smiths.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they these are the little things, like I say, that you I mean, you said this to me personally that it it it did what AI can't do because I know sort of what you're into. Obviously, not every song hits or every player. Sometimes I major players who said there's nothing on, there is not no word to do it.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Yeah, I remember you like so I used to send you a full review back and you'd be like before it like. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

I think, oh god, yeah. I remember like one of the a couple of times I'm like, oh my god, I'm I put that on as a bit of a you know, it's a bit like him, but I've I've you know I'm really surprised you like that. AI will never get that, AI will never understand people ever, in the sense of as maybe they could in years to come. They certainly don't now though.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

The trouble is the better it becomes, the worse it'll be at taking a pun at thinking, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna have a go at it. It might, it might love it, it might not. There's bits in there that might irritate him, actually, but it might love that. AI will never get to that because it will always try and find the best possible fit. I mean, ultimately, AI will get to a point where it'll just send you the same song 15 times, won't it?

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Yeah, well that's it. I mean, like even now you're like, you know, you put your recommendation. I never I never really look at him anymore, to be honest. And it's you do discover new stuff, but uh, it's just not got that same personal touch for me. Like, like I say, if you if you I'm gonna be honest, if you send me a song now, and this didn't always happen, I might listen to it once and go, yeah, it's alright that. And then I'll never listen to it again because there's literally a fucking 10 billion songs that I can listen to that you know what I mean? It's like you don't back in the day because like tapes were so not rare, but you didn't have every single song, so you might say, Yeah, I'll put this on, do you know what I mean? And give it a go. And you might listen to it four or five times. You think, didn't you used to like this one, but it's really grown on me actually.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

Well, we used to, I mean, this is more recent as well. I if if I did a playlist very rarely, or if you did one, do we have a was it a three three listen rule where you had a few listen roll? Because three listeners.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Well, because we'd seen even back then, which were about 10-15 years ago, that because Spotify and all that sort of stuff have come out, we knew that people it would be difficult to listen to uh you know an album all the way through enough times for for it to warrant a review. It's it's bizarre, isn't it, that?

SPEAKER_02 18:32

Because you're listening to a song and beneath it it'll say suggested tracks, and you'll think, Oh yeah, so I love that, I've not heard that in ages. Yeah, so you you're gonna go to that rather than the one that perhaps needs a bit of time to to kind of get it. And yeah, it sounds a bit sort of pretentious that, but I I do think you had to put a bit more effort into kind of getting a song. Like you might first listen think, oh, I don't really like this, but by three or four listens, think tell you what, it's actually really good. I think that's gone.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Yeah, the only way I get that now is if I'm going to a festival and there's a lot of bands on or whatever I don't know, and I'll listen to them and listen to them, listen to them just to think, oh, you know, is these worth seeing? And I many so many times I've thought, oh, these are a bit shit. Then third or fourth listen, just go through the top five songs thinking, Fucking hell, these are good days. What's got do you know what I mean? And that's the only time that I really do it now. One thing that you don't like, Liam, and this seems to come up every episode, but you obviously couldn't fast-forward albums as you all often say about come on, Liam, give me a couple of things. We can't return it again, can we? Say the life becoming like that.

SPEAKER_02 19:31

Yeah, I I had to listen to the the rolling people by the verb far more times than I wanted to.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

I'm gonna do a compilation of you saying that in all these episodes actually. How many times do you listen to that?

When Tapes Snapped And Songs Grew

SPEAKER_02 19:42

Um by the way, when when I did like towards the end of the cassette era, I did get a a really expensive I don't know about 90 quid, like a Sony uh tape player, and it could skip tracks, like skip to the next gap. It wasn't like faultless, but it could kind of find you that so I always obviously used to skip the rolling people, but I I broke the mechanism in it because I kept rewinding to listen to the bit in uh Sonic where it says, Here we go again, and my head is gone. So I rerun that so many times that little bit of the song that I just broke it.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

That was another thing with cassettes. They did they did break far more easily than any obviously violent vinyls got scratched, but they so if a tape broke, that's it, innit? It's done. Like it's you take scanning.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Do you remember it back? You could if you were kind of skillful, you could you could tape it back together with seller tape, and but it'd kind of have a really weird bit where it kind of went, but yeah, oh yeah, I do remember that actually.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Yeah, I think my I think my can't remember what album it was, might have been a madness album. There were a bit of minutes going, it'd just like come back.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

Might have improved it to be honest, but yeah, it was quite hard to do though. I think like it was quite it was quite a skill to it, but yeah, you'd be listening and all of a sudden you'd start hearing like a crunching sound, yeah, and you think, oh god, what's happening? And it'd just snap the tape.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

There's uh the other thing as well, by the way, is that um you used to buy an album a lot of the time for one song, and again, younger listeners probably can't believe that. Where you'd hear one song on the radio, maybe just once, and it sounds brilliant now. I'm gonna go and buy the entire album of that. And I've bought some shit in my time, but I have to admit that a lot of the albums that I bought, because I give them time and listen to them and listen to them and listen to them. I'm not a massive U2 fan, but I heard oh, what were it? Uh Joshua Tree song. I can't remember which one it was on the radio when I was really young, and I thought, I'm gonna get that Joshua Tree, put it on, and I thought, this is crap. I just it's not my thing at all. But because I listened and I listened and I thought, oh, this is a good song, I just that's amazing, that's brilliant, and I think it's a really good album.

SPEAKER_02 21:47

It's funny though you've picked like quite a kind of iconic album. It's not known as a shit album, is it? Like I I think my example of that would be I think I bought Aqua album because I like Turn My Time and uh did you get into it as an album?

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Uh yeah, it's alright. It's alright. Some some good songs on there. But another way of that is compilation albums because as I've said, you can't rewind or fast forward. So I uh the first cassette I ever got um was now not now 92, it was hits 92, it was called. And it had the cure on it, the manics, Prodigy, Shaman. But it also are there's stuff that's still like um no, but you're the same sort of era. It had the threads on, that's how I got into the threads. Chriss Cross. Dream, was that a bit later? No, that were a bit yeah, a bit later that KWS. Remember, please don't go.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Jump, jump, the book. I reckon I still know every word to every song on that playlist, even though sorry, on that uh compilation because I never skipped them. I'd used to put them on and I'd be playing my computer or whatever, and that'd be on the background, and I got to know every word, and and I got sort of listened to genres that I would never have listened to before. Remember Mark Oldman being on there, the days of Pearlie Spencer. Do you remember that song?

SPEAKER_02 23:03

Yeah, yeah. I I don't like that. I mean, much later, this this was C D era rather than tape, but I remember purely because it was on a compilation, and I still love it to this day. Uh who did uh Never Gonna Letch Go? Is it Tony Tony not Tony Braxton Braxton, but it's not, is it? It's Tony Never Gonna Let Light. Let me do live research.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

Never gonna let you go. Another one on that one.

Walkmans Hi-Fis And Bedroom Listening

SPEAKER_01 23:28

So that would have mixed in like proper rave stuff, like if your name's not down and you're not coming in, bum bah bom ba bum bum bum. The next song could be Give Ma Just a Little More Time. Great song, yeah. Yeah. Tina Moore. That one. Tina More. Tina Moore, Tina More. Tina Moore. It's Tina Moore. Tina No More, it's Tina Moore. The Walmart one was introduced in 1979. Um wearing earphones. I need I didn't have a word of Walpman when I first started listening to music. But I I've got a little crap anecdote here. And I don't know if you've ever had something like this. I one of the I think the first tape that I ever had bought for me, other than the Hits 92 without a Christmas present, was Queen's Greatest Hits One, which a lot of people are, I think. But went from a car boot stall, actually, in I think it was Doncaster. Anyway, I didn't realise I used to listen to that all the time, Queen Greatest It's One. When I got a Walkman and put it in there, I realised that that one of my home speakers were broke, because you know, is this the real life? Is this and it goes from one speaker to the other side, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:28

You've never heard of it.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

I'd never heard the other side of it, genuinely. We're like, is this the real life cutting and let's like what that? It was like almost hearing like a new song again. I must have listened to a speaker being like once coming out of one speaker for about three years.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

Yeah, you are famous for your technology. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

I want to an audio file now, is that what they call them? An audio file. I think um no, I think that it's I think I'm sure it's that. I'm really like now, oh I need the I need the the levels right. I'm a bit of a knobhead actually.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

Well they say don't they like really to get the full effect from from any song you should have it on headphones, you should get the yeah unless you're gonna go uh is this even a thing anymore?

SPEAKER_01 25:14

Dolby surround sound. Dolby surround sound. Well ghetto blasters didn't didn't have did ghetto blasters didn't have Dolby Surround sound, did they?

SPEAKER_02 25:21

No, but they had two separate speakers. I'm I'm not sure if it I think it depends how much you were spending, whether you were just getting a a a mono mix of sound or whether you're getting a left and a right. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

But they are do you remember the massive i fies with the uh five discs change where you why did you have that? Five albums you could put in at once.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

Yeah, but I remember that that was these are things that are so unimpressive now compared to what you can do. But I remember at the time my uncle got one thinking, oh my god, like we could skip from he's got five albums whatever he was listening to, he could skip from and and this in the 90s as well. This is not like you know, you're not talking 1970. I remember being blown away that he'd got three different CDs in his hi-fi that he could skip between.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

Yeah, but I I I mean again, tech dyspraxy man at it again. I often used to drop some CDs down the back of the thing, if you know what I mean. And I'd have to get it. In the machine, yeah, in the machine, and have to I'm like, for fuck's sake. And it comes in like and have to like unscrew it and like get my CD back out and stuff. Um, but I imagine most people don't problem. Dark days. But the the hi-firs that used to have in your house, especially in the in the late 80s, I think. How big were they? They were like bigger than like a uh a fridge. They were a proper like a show-off item as well, weren't they?

SPEAKER_02 26:35

Like you went around someone's out. Have you seen uh seen new hi-fi? Like you'd have to go and have a look at like someone like that.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

Reminds me of uh American Psycho. Check out the new hi-fi. I can imagine that. Do you like Phil Collins? Like, do you know what I mean? Like playing that off.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

But no, it wasn't a proper status symbol, a hi-fi. And the idea ev everybody now is walking around listening to music on the phone, whatever song they want, it's on their phone, whenever they want it. But yeah, people I mean, people would like really precisely place the speakers and have a sort of favourite seat they could sit in and yeah, yeah, yeah, sipping a wine, while listening to the yeah, to the Phil Collins album.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

It's bizarre that everything's got smaller, basically. Pretty much anyway. It was a bit obviously for side there, but yeah, I don't know, everything's sort of got smaller, but in the in the 80s and 90s, the bigger the better, weren't it?

SPEAKER_02 27:21

It felt yeah, yeah, like look how look how expensive this is. It must be it's it's cute. Like people have speakers now that like you're saying, like a fridge or a washing machine size speaker, like in the corner of the room.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

Earphones are another one though, earphones. Like I've got little earphones in now. You won't. I mean, you can't you I still see people with big earphones in.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

Oh no, yeah, well I think was it beats or like they they kind of made it quite cool to have status like bigger headphones against headphones.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

Do you think that'll happen again with like instead of on a phones like we'll have big speakers like on our shoulders, like massive speakers on a shoulder, yeah, it'd be fucking amazing, that wouldn't it? Yeah, imagine that that'd be great, but yeah, I I it did have a it were a bit of a ball ache though, because normally they'd have a tape deck on a vinyl, and you'd have to piss around, you know, clicking onto the different ones and stuff, and there wouldn't have been a lot of it.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

Quite often you'd have a vinyl on top, tape deck somewhere down below with a a mixer section, and then yeah, sometimes a CD as it as it got later. But but I I tell you what I quite liked though that I thought was a kind of step down from that, a much more sensible. Was like, do you know remember? Was it a MIDI fire or a mini hi-fi?

SPEAKER_01 28:30

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

CDs Artwork And The Album Ritual

SPEAKER_02 28:31

Yeah, these these were a much more sensible size thing you could have in your bedroom, you could put your speakers, and to be fair, like I think I don't know, I can only speak for myself. I I enjoyed music more than uh it felt more of a thing to like I'm gonna put an album on, actually. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

Sort of yeah, I mean, just lay on your bed and listen to music. Like you well, that's another thing. I'm jumping ahead here, but well, because we're sort of onto the C D here, uh eerie. Era here, because that's hard to say.

SPEAKER_03 28:58

What on earth are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Uh the C D era here is what I was trying to say. Break it. Um but you used to lay on your bed and read the the sleeve notes as well, do you know, like for your for your CD, because there'd be loads of stuff in it. Like cassette, you didn't really have much in there, but once CDs came out, you'd look over and over and over again at the pictures and stuff. And now I ain't gonna I I have no idea what certain albums that I've listened to now look like, to be honest. I'd see a little thumbnail, and that's all that's the that's the biggest I ever see it. I mean, you probably do actually, because you're fairly into music, but who's a fairly successful artist at the minute that uh Reverend the Makers has done a lot um on the uh on the snooker. Um I think it's a bit I don't know, I'm trying to think of someone that I wouldn't even know what the looks like. Oh Charlie XCS on it.

SPEAKER_02 29:45

I think so, but I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

You know, the first time I saw her, genuinely, is on the Lonely Island song, uh which were a couple of years ago, where we were like a comedy song that were the Carb, Carb, Carbony Carbs, the fucking Pergia, the carbony carbs, you know that one. Um and she were on that, and I was like, Oh, is that what she looks like? She's massive. Yeah, not physically, you mean like in terms of status.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

I mean, yeah, I don't I didn't think I'd have to uh yeah quantify what I meant by I don't but I think there might be people listening who've heard her music who don't know what she looks like.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's fair enough. I'm trying to think of else there. I love it I love your Rodrigo headline, Glastonbury last year. Never seen her before until she's gonna be like, I can't tell you what she looks like. No, I watched it, I watched it, and then yeah, and I I watched it and I was like, oh right, yeah, is that her? Sabrina Carpenter, I do know, because she seems to be everywhere. Yeah, and obviously Swift Ayer now. But yeah, yeah, but obviously you knew the drummer and everything, didn't you? The drummer is fine.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

Yeah, and and you saw the writing credits for all the songs, you kind of knew like what what year they were made and yeah, yeah, you don't get any of that now. Like it's just it's just it's so sort of consumable in a throwaway sense, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 30:49

It's just uh That's what he predicted. The man on the lake shelf, I'm gonna share it. That's what he predicted. It's brilliant, genuinely, how he does it, because it's 1989 and he's i I suppose people might say well it were obvious.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

Well, do you think it do you think there's another step to go to?

SPEAKER_01 31:01

Do you think we go to like five second songs? Five second songs? I think genuinely, to be honest, and I try and discover music still, I saw line listen to it, and I'll click through stuff that I've uh I don't know, read I don't know, got good reviews or someone's recommendation or whatever. And if I'm not into it within the first 10 or 15 seconds, I'll just think, uh nah.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

Which is ridiculous. I'm sure you have done this, and I'm sure everyone listening has, but how frustrating is it, by the way? Say I'm trying to think of an example. Say say I'm washing up and I've got my hands in in hot water and like my phone's on the side, and a short comes on, and it ends up playing in like a loop for five minutes of the same sort of 20 seconds. Yeah, and it might be a clip from a film with a little bit of music behind it, and it just goes round and round. Like I kind of almost like lose my brain a bit.

SPEAKER_01 31:47

Do you know what I hate is because you you've got a phone as shit as mine. I think it's the same make, but it would better not say what it is, actually.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

I think we've got the same phone, and it's a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

I don't know, but we're mad that we've still we've still got it after years of suffering through it. But sometimes and I'm listening to like a podcast and it'll finish, and I'll go back onto Spotify and I'll try and turn but because it's that crap and slow, it'll just go into the next podcast, which is something I've never tried. So if I'm listening to, I don't know, uh uh a bit a music podcast, it'll just go to the next one down on whatever list I'm I'm on, and it'll be like, hello, and welcome to Cold Wall Histories or whatever. I'm like, no, no, I'm not into that moment. No, I don't need to know about the Soviet revolution, I'm on holiday. Do you know what I mean?

Hidden Tracks And Tech Gimmicks

SPEAKER_02 32:28

Yeah, yeah. These as I say, they're scary times, aren't they? Really? Hidden tracks at the end of albums as well, Leon. Yeah, and I never kind of really I get like uh a hidden little bit of a music track is a bit of a treat, but the sort of silly things at the end is like albums and stuff. Like I never never really got that.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

I found that. Did you on the Urban Hymns one then? So if you had it on tape, you might have not got this. The baby crying.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

No, I'd I'd I had no idea about that. I think um I don't know if it's you or somebody's told me fairly recently, but no, I certainly didn't know at the time.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

I didn't know about this, and I had it on CD, and uh it was one of them because you left your CD on and it kept carrying on ticking and ticking and ticking, and you think what the fuck and after a while people realised, oh there's an hidden track here, because obviously it'd never be advertised on the on the sleeve. But there were a guy who I used to go to school with and he had it on in bed and he woke up to this baby crying, he had absolutely nuts, it's like it's an hidden track, it's just the baby wailing, and he had no idea where it were coming from. He said he absolutely shit himself. Yeah, I think you would do.

SPEAKER_02 33:28

I'd I but I don't know, like weren't there a thing that as sort of CD players got better that you could kind of see the track length, so you knew weren't there something where it kind of killed him because you could kind of tell that I did something you need to wait for.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

In the early days, it just keeps ticking on. And if you didn't if you were doing something else, or like say you're falling asleep. I remember falling asleep once listening to the Queen album made in heaven. Um, and right at the I don't think it's about 100 uh minutes into it or whatever, it's just Freddie Mercury goes, yeah. That's it. And I was like, what the fuck? I thought the music had stopped, so I was like just doing whatever I were doing.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

Yeah. Apparently, if you listen after the baby crying on uh Urban Ames, it goes back to rolling people again.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

Imagine if they kept doing that after every song, and then it's remember it changed in the there were tracks before. So you'd rewind on track one, you'd have like a short Ah yeah, yeah, that sounds familiar, yeah. Oh, is it Songs of the Dead by Queens of Queens of the Stone Age? And you rewind it and you're like, What's the fucking point? What's the fucking point? Did you ever have enhanced CDs, Liam, where you sort of put it into a computer or a laptop and like a real Remember QuickTime where you used to have on your uh on your computers in the 90s, and it like a music video would come up and it was like fucking hell, and it was like reading your text out about the band and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

I know what you mean. I don't think I've ever had an enhanced CD. I I was a I was aware of them. Uh certainly you know, I was I was a cool cat back then, you know that. So I certainly knew about that.

SPEAKER_01 34:56

But no, I d I don't think I ever owned one. That felt really big at the time, although Techno Man Strikes Again, I every time I put it never worked on my PC. I could never get it to work, the music video, so it's a waste of time, basically, for me. CD wallets, they were a big thing, obviously, 48 scratch discs in a in a CD wallet. Um you said I had loads of them away. I remember used to take them away with me, and my mum would say, Why why are you taking two full 48 fucking you know, uh what do you call them cases or CDs? You're only going away for a week.

SPEAKER_02 35:27

Yeah, I had a couple of CD cases, but like I say, I went as into my music as you, but I I I like what I like.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

I like what I like and all what I know. Did you ever um borrow CDs from the library? That became like a big game changer that when when you could start copying CDs and stuff, and you'd be able to burn them, obviously.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

No, I think I relied on my cohorts to do that for me. I I was never a CD burner.

SPEAKER_01 35:51

And another thing that you sort of miss nowadays is queuing up outside HMV or wherever, you know, when uh big albums came out. People actually do that though, is that a thing? I know they filmed one in London, but yeah, is that really a thing in Sheffield like queuing outside our price for a lot of people? Well what's interesting, it's not listening to music, but what is interesting in music shops is that that was most of the time the only way you could get uh tickets for gigs and stuff. So you'd queue up outside like all night outside HMV to get a ticket for fucking pulp or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 36:18

Remember, by the way, I've just just thought of this now, but in music shops where there used to be like a post with a couple of new albums on, you go put your headphones on and listen to it. Yeah, brilliant chats. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:28

Yeah, that was good. But yeah, there were a couple of things that they did that for. Um the the queuing up outside, but obviously the big one we've mentioned it a million times for some reason this episode be and our work because it were probably the biggest album of our either in terms of when it the hype I mean about it when it when it first came out. And there's that famous video, aren't there, Pete? No, no, no, no, no. No, it's not, but when it came out, it was like fastest selling album ever, whatever. Have you seen that you've seen that video clip of Pete Dewitty, haven't you? Queing outside for it. Yeah. And it's just like yeah, say some poets of the time or something like that. Yeah, it says something like uh modern equivalent of Wordsworth. Liam's the Time Crower, Town Crower, the Time uh Town Cryer. I can't speak. The Town Cryer and Knowles the People's Poet or something like that, and that's the young I can't remember what he fucking says, some shit. Some pretentious bullshit. Some pretentious bollocks, yeah. I do I do like the Libertines. Uh compilation albums became more popular with CDs because you could skip tracks, I think. So you'd like to get a compilation album with five or six songs, you think, I like these, and you could just go, do you know what I mean? Rather than buying the singles.

SPEAKER_02 37:31

Yeah, but I I suppose that's kind of counterintuitive, isn't it? Because that means there's a lot of people not listening to the songs that they've they paid for, really. Like it again is at the start of the end that yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

I think skipping seats skipping tracks could really be seen as like the the very beginning of the end of listening to full albums, which not that many people do anymore, I don't think, in the younger generations. It's mostly sort of you know, even the thing like I'm gonna it's such a grandad thing now, isn't it? They still get them albums these days. Who remembers albums? Yeah, they still get full albums, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 38:08

Um I think why why would you in a modern climate? Why would you not just release the singles? I suppose it's it's the tart, isn't it? But but people don't pay for it, so why why would you I don't know?

SPEAKER_01 38:19

Because it's mostly now I think your albums now are mostly to promote your gigs, whereas I think before your gigs was to promote your albums because you make no money off albums anymore. You think I'll put a fucking 11 good songs out because then someone will come and see me. If you just get two or three good songs, who's gonna be paying 500 quid?

SPEAKER_02 38:35

Do you know who everything is nowadays to fair point well made?

SPEAKER_01 38:39

But remember all the old compilation albums obviously had now, but Ministry of Sound, that were massive. Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_02 38:43

Yeah, yeah, I had a few of them.

SPEAKER_01 38:45

Yeah, best album in the world ever. Remember them ones?

SPEAKER_02 38:48

Yeah, but they were like uh the best ballads in the world ever, the best is it.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

Everyone would just sort of like they were like best of like dad, dad in the car. They were always like these really weird, they were that this weird crazy. Scotland Rocks. Yeah, specific genre CDs, like they were obviously chill out moods and what would where did we have that time uh when we were on holiday? 3am chill out, 3am grooves. That that was a complaint. It was just bizarre, like all the big fucking Friday Aldi Shop soundtrack or whatever. Do you know what I mean? It was just everything that you did, yeah. Everyone was just like trying to get new ones, like I don't know, standing outside next to a tree when there's nothing to do when they have to. Yeah, yeah, it was, it were all that, it were absolutely ridiculous. I don't know if you get them anymore. I don't think there's any point at all of compilation CDs anymore, to be completely honest.

SPEAKER_02 39:43

No, but why why would you? Because you you don't you just make a playlist now, and I think they're so sort of throwaway as well. Like that I mean I I've I have a few different playlists that I listen to, depending on what I'm doing, but there's kind of so yeah, 3M grooves I have quite a lot, but it's so badly put together, really. Like when I think about it, I I listen to them and I think I don't even really like these songs. It just it just recommended me someone. I put them on a playlist, like yeah, I I I don't put to work in anymore these days, man.

Charts Radio And Waiting For Songs

SPEAKER_01 40:14

Nah, nah, radio dominance and all. Well, that were another big thing. Top 40 on a Sunday as we mentioned, that was that is the biggest miss for me. The top 40 on a Sunday.

SPEAKER_02 40:22

It was compulsory listening at a certain time, yeah. It would it was like the next day, oh did you hear that that new one by them or I don't know like you kind of needed to know the the certainly top ten, like I think you could kind of skip some of the other ones, but and it was genuinely nail-biting if your favourite song would come out, yeah, your favourite band had a song.

SPEAKER_01 40:42

I used to be number one. Yeah, I remember buying North Country Boy by Charlotte. Um I don't even it's such an alright song, but at the time I loved it, and the chart show the day before on ITV had said it were number one. I'm like, oh, get in. I don't remember why. I'm not like investing in the channel.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

Unofficial though, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 41:00

That was unofficial because that were the Saturday charts, and by the sort of you know, they compiled it on Friday, and it didn't get to number one, it would block rocking beats, which I actually think is a better song now. But I went angry, I'm like, oh for fucks, like your team had let a goal in, it were absolutely outrageous. You got behind the singles that you'd bought, like they were like some sort of do you know what I mean? Like you'd have some sort of well, you were I suppose you were part of it, weren't you? You were part of the team. Yeah, yeah. Well, obviously, you know, we've done an episode on our waste and blur, and that was huge because and I'd love something like that again now, just to sort of even if you're not into the two bands, that sort of hype about the and by the way, just to confirm what you meant there is the rivalry was huge, not our episode on it was huge. Both, both huge, both absolutely huge episodes. Um but yeah, Radio One, obviously, I presume you're a Radio One man because the Pepsi chart used to have theirs on local radio. It were it were a uh hosted by Capital, but it went over like Hall M FM and all those sort of things.

SPEAKER_02 41:50

Yeah, there's another one I never never trusted Fox.

SPEAKER_01 41:53

No, no, no. So the the that were based on radio play, which meant the the reason the top four in Radio One were better was because that was based on pure sales. So you would get these obscure indie bands or whoever, or damn straight. Yeah, they just sold really well that didn't have a bigger, but you wouldn't get that on the radio play. So yeah, I was never a Dr. Fox man, to be honest. Like well, this chart. Or him, if I'm gonna be completely honest. Yeah, um not a medical man. He's not even a he's not even a doctor. Dr. Dre, famously, as well, is not a medical man, is it? You are kidding me. You are kidding me. Even session radio, uh, radio one with Steve Lamack and Joe Wiley. You remember that? That were that were a big listening thing for me. Getting into lands and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

Not a huge fan of either of those, to be quite honest. Uh I I used to prefer uh was it was it Dave Pierce on a Sunday night?

SPEAKER_01 42:45

Dave Pierce Dance Anthems, yeah. That were another that were another one right on my street, yeah. Yeah, Dave Pierce Dance Anthems. Uh what happened to fucking Dave Pierce? He's got to be still going, hasn't he? Danny Franchetti's dance hour. What is it that he does? Danny Franchetti's jazz now. Dave Pierce's dance anthems. Judge Jules, he were massive as well, weren't I?

SPEAKER_02 43:04

Yeah, the judge, the the judge, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:06

The judge, the judge and jury of all great music. John Peel uh used to play bands by really obscure uh uh artists, like with mad names.

SPEAKER_02 43:15

I think this is we mentioned it before, it's uh Frank Skinner Stolen idea, idiotic Eureka moments. I always want to tell people when I hear John Peel what his favourite song was because I think ah they'd love to know that, but everyone knows it. I assume assume you know it, I assume everybody listening knows it. Teenage Kicks.

SPEAKER_01 43:31

Correct. Teenage he had it um on his he's got it on his gravestone.

SPEAKER_00 43:35

So hard to be every time she walks down a strange street.

SPEAKER_01 43:40

Great song, actually, yeah. Yeah. But I mean I never really listened. I think I was too sort of cool. No, no, no, the opposite. I wasn't well, yes, that obviously, but I said it really posh, yes, of course. Obviously. Yeah, obviously. Um I think I I wasn't into the obscure stuff that I probably am now when John Peel wearing his wearing his Prime, if you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_02 44:01

You weren't trying as hard to to do that.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

I think here we should kingo. I wondered how far we get into this before you sort of accuse me of being pretentious.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

For the listeners who don't know, you like to like it's not true. It's just fairly sort of shit weird stuff because it's quite cool to say. That is not true.

SPEAKER_01 44:18

That is not true at all. I mean, I I I do like some weird stuff, but that well what your class is weird, but it's not weird to me. Well, and he used to talk about it. Yeah. Um maybe we should do a whole episode to John Peel, but we have to touch on the stuff that it's not all good, is it? You know, I mean this this people there's some things have been said for something some things have been denied. Song dedications over the radio. Yeah, there's a reason why that might be his favourite song. Song dedications um over the radio became a big thing because uh that was sometimes the only time you get to hear it. I never did it myself, but if you'd like phone up a rate, can I I want to hear the new uh menswear single, please? Or you know, or something else that they might not play. You are what you're not what you're on about? Song dedicated so you request him then, yeah. Where's the chairman gone? So song song dedications are requests over the radio. So you yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:22

But what do you mean about like a song that why would you request a song nobody wanted to hear?

SPEAKER_01 45:28

Because that's the only time you'd get to hear it if you'd like to. But you'd phone up and say, I can hear Mike Flowers Pops, Don't Cry for Me Argentina, please. And they'd say, Absolutely, it wants it on. To be fair, I imagine.

SPEAKER_02 45:41

Did they not kind of vet you on the call? Because surely they wouldn't put you through if that's what you wanted, would they?

SPEAKER_01 45:46

Yeah, and thinking about it in hindsight. If I would have asked for Mike Flowers, Don't Cry for Me Argentina, I think they'd have just yeah, the law's been broken. Yeah, they'd just put yeah, yeah, yeah, they'd have put the phone down immediately, to be honest. But um, and then watching watching all day waiting all day for one song, which is something you brought up very early on when we were talking about their show.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

Yeah, well, well, that's not even just that. Like, if you heard a song that you loved, you'd wait all day to hear it. But what was kind of even slightly more weird and obscure than that was sort of speaking to a mate and saying, Oh, you tell you what, you'll absolutely love the new song by uh James. And and then I'm from because I was trying to think of an example of it. So my dad came over from work once and he'd heard sit down by James, first time he'd heard it. Yeah, I remember him saying, God, I've heard such a good song on the on the way back. And he was trying to sort of tell me about it and recreate it, and and he kept like he kept sort of hovering around with the radio. But but yeah, he kept he kept like waiting for it to come on so I could hear it. And I remember it came on when we were in the car, and it was so happy, like turning it right up, but this is it, this is the song, this is what I was telling you about.

SPEAKER_01 46:49

But yeah, that did happen where you'd like to hear a song on the radio, you're like, Oh, it's this, but notch this one up, and it's like you know, off the car share where chick chang chang, you come the hard step, but no, but you would you get stuff like that, you think, oh I think that's one of the reasons. I mean, it's again radio, this is proper old man stuff, this, but I I I'm at work and uh there's a radio on it background, and people normally listen to and they're they're about they're younger than us, and they'll often listen to me. The big Radio 6, which is like the the sort of I still think it's class, I I think it's classic as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um some people call it I saw someone today class it as the Liberal Democrat, the station for Liberal Democrats. Um, and then the other one is um oh either Galaxy Gold or whatever it is, you know, some at gold. And it's crap because you just hear the same songs over and over and over and over again. And there were always stations like that, but I think your virgins and your radio ones in particular.

SPEAKER_02 47:44

Well there's some that do which one is it that doesn't the no repeat guarantee from is it 19 like that. Do you remember uh Alm FM's another three in a row? Yeah, three songs without adverts in between.

SPEAKER_01 47:56

It were three great songs in a row, as if all the others were a bit shit. I always thought imagine. Oh, I thought it were three great, three great songs. I I think I've yeah, I think I've got to be. Yeah, you'll not believe you won't see it coming. But here it is, another three in a row. Uh yeah, I've got I've mixed up that and I've just realised that when they said great songs, they were just talking about all songs are great, aren't they? Like generally, yeah, but I thought they were saying they'll play three great songs. I might be wrong. I thought the rest of them will be shit.

SPEAKER_02 48:29

That there was no ad the no ad break, I thought was the selling point.

SPEAKER_01 48:33

One tent, yeah. Anyway, I think I'll be right back.

SPEAKER_02 48:36

Like Talk Sport ToolStation, it's weather trade, go. How many times have you played that?

SPEAKER_01 48:41

How long how long has that been an advert on there? They must be getting I don't know what kind of money they're paying Talk Sports get on there and billions, hasn't it? For about 20 years, yeah. It's gotta be billions. Especially now like they've got a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 48:57

Didn't they even used to do like uh something like uh we're gonna ask Simon Jordan about his favourite uh games uh sponsored by something like that?

Too Much Choice And The AI Future

SPEAKER_01 49:11

Yeah, they do something like uh Game Day sponsored by or whatever it is, everything's sponsored by business Simon Jordan's business debate or something, sponsored by Selco, yeah. Engineer for confrontation. So that is how we listen to used to listen to music, Liam. Um like I say it's a bit a bit sad quite.

SPEAKER_02 49:30

Quite meandering that, wouldn't it? Yeah, I mean ultimately I I do think things were better when you had less choice, probably generally in everything, but certainly in music.

SPEAKER_01 49:40

Yeah, but if you'd have told yourself in the 90s, do you know when you get to your 40s, you will have every single song you ever, ever could ever listen to.

SPEAKER_02 49:50

Yeah, well, you can't turn it down, can you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But but once you've done it, it's Pandora's box, isn't it? Once you've opened it. That's it. Uh it's out there in the world, and I think Yeah, you don't have to you don't have to wait for anything, you don't have to try and find any. I mean, even now with AI, you could type in sort of well, probably Google probably did this to be fair, but I have a chat with uh AI sometimes, but you can just tell it three or four words within a song and it'll go and find a song for you. That's that's where we've got to.

SPEAKER_03 50:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:19

Do you think it'll be a point where you could like just think to yourself a bit of a song and it'll be able to say I mean you're not far off really now.

SPEAKER_01 50:27

You just get a microphone on, you go do do do do do do. Yep, we know what that is, yep, definitely. Um I'm doing um I'm redesigning our cover for this. It might have already been designed by the time you listen to this, to be fair. Um, because I don't want it to look, it looks way it looks I don't want it to be AI generated. I think it's a bit lazy. So I'm going deep into the night and using Pixar to do a new cover. And I'd like to.

SPEAKER_02 50:49

I did the Ranger Street one on the Twitter page, that's not AI.

SPEAKER_01 50:52

No, that's not AI. That's not AI. I want to get yeah, and I I don't want our cover to be our cover is AI, people probably realise. I don't like it, so I'm gonna get rid of it and do it like proper. But anyway, it's possible you're gonna go back in time, aren't you? It's it's a bit hypocritical this. And so once I've sort of got this cover, I used AI to ask it if it recognised the logos and stuff that I'd used on it. Um and it did. Remember that? I sent it you, didn't I?

SPEAKER_02 51:18

Yeah, yeah, this is where we got to now. You have to get AI to confirm that something that's not AI is acceptable.

How To Find Us

SPEAKER_01 51:25

Yeah, yeah, is this acceptable AI? Yeah, is it I think I might have even put in does this look at all AI to AI? No, no, AI says it doesn't look AI. Anyway, um, yeah, let's let's wrap up there, Liam, and we will see you next time. Yeah, we've gone on far too long. See you later, everyone. Thank you for listening to Who Remembers. If you want to get in touch with us, you can find us at Whoremembers Pod at Outlook.com. If you are a right wing fascist, you can find us on Twitter at Who Remembers Pod. Or if you're a woke note, you can find us on Blue Sky at Who Remembers Pod. Once again, thank you for listening, and we'll see you next time for more remembering.