On this Day: Pet Shop Boys perform Love Comes Quickly on TOTP

It's just as the title says really, I just thought I'd share it because firstly I'm a huge fan of Pet Shop Boys. Secondly because I feel Love comes Quickly is one of their great forgotten singles. It's from their first album, Please. Sadly it didn't do as well as other singles from the album like Suburbia and the classic West End Girls in the charts. I'd actually regard it as the first truly classic Pet Shop Boys song along with West End Girls: it has such a beautiful atmosphere with some of my favourite lyrics Neil Tennat has ever wrote. I think I may even prefer to West End Girls by a fraction really. A brilliant track.

On This Day: The Clash release White Riot

An important anniversary today for Clash fans. On this day 36 years ago, they released their first single of a blistering career: I'll be honest: I prefer their later material to their punk stuff (although I still love the punk material). White Riot though I think is one of their best songs. It's straight to the point and intense without any pointless faffing around. The first time I heard this song was about a year ago when I first began investigating The Clash. It blew me away then because its just has such a rousing and passionate feel even though the song predates my existence by 17 years. I can only imagine what the youth of the time felt like upon their first listen. Happy anniversary White Riot!

On this day: New Order performs Round & Round on TOTP

The clue is in the title really. On this day in 1989 New Order performed the Technique single Round and Round on Top Of The Pops in one of a number of appearances they made on the show. I love Round and Round, its one of their most overlooked singles I think. Its also not lip-synched which was really quite unusual for an 1980's Top Of The Pops appearance. Many New Order appearances on Top Of The Pops were live though. Keep an eye out as well for Bernard Sumner pulling some awkward shapes (although not as bad as the Fine Time appearance) too!

Happy Birthday Blue Monday!

New Order’s classic Blue Monday was released on this day 30 years ago. An iconic song (with gorgeous sleeve artwork), backed up by a sublime B-side in The Beach. Also the best selling 12” of all time. Its not hard to see why: its a utter masterpiece of electronic music. Happy birthday Blue Monday!