The Fall Cup

      Group 11 Dktr Faustus, Backdrop, The Usher, Kicker Conspiracy, Leave the Capitol, Symbol of Mordgan, Feeling Numb/Numb At The Lodge, It’s The New Thing, Hot Aftershave Bop, The Book of Lies, Live at the Witch Trials, Contraflow, Hey! Luciani, Cab It Up!, Bonkers in Phoenix The Fallen ' Symbol Of Mordgan ' (despite being a candidate for 'Most Fall-like Song Title') was the latest entry on the growing list of 'throwaway/filler/p*ss-take tracks that were clearly destined for an early exit'. A recording of Peel and Scanlon discussing football might have made for an acceptable 30 second interlude, but three minutes? Even Eric couldn't find it within himself to give it any points.  'Live At The Wich Trials' received quite a bit of support in the Twitter poll I mentioned in the introduction , presumably from people who didn't really know what they were voting for. It only managed a solitary point here (bzfgt: 'there's something affecting a

     Group 9 All Leave Cancelled, Mess Of My, Lie Dream of a Casino Soul, Das Boat, One Day, Mr. Pharmacist, Hot Runes, Stay Away (Old White Train), Your Heart Out, Where’s The F***in Taxi? C**t, North West Fashion Show, W.B., Everybody But Myself, My Door Is Never, I Wake Up In The City The Fallen As was the case with 'Outro' in the previous round, we need not dwell too long on why 'Taxi' did not trouble the scoreboard, although I will quote Richard:  'I have been to the Jude The Obscure pub in Oxford on a few occasions.  It gets mentioned in this track.  You’ll have to take my word for it, because you’ll never listen to it again.' The other 'nul points' track was, not surprisingly, ' Stay Away (Old White Train) '. In YMGTA , I said that 'Burns’ Friday night pub karaoke vocal places it firmly in "possibly forgivable as a b-side" territory', but the rest of the panel were less kind, Richard going so far as to suggest that Dave S

    Group 7 The Classical, Hey! Fascist/Hey! Student, I’m Going To Spain, Calendar, Birthday, Bourgeois Town, Hurricane Edward, A Past Gone Mad (Passable), Dedication Not Medication, Recipe for Fascism, Victoria, Insult Song, The Aphid, Return, In These Times The Fallen The cover of ' Birthday ' (originally recorded by Jeff Lynne's The Idle Race in the late 60s) joins our growing list of zero-pointers. Richard described it as a 'hideous cruise-ship rendition'; Lewis was more blunt: 'sloppy sh*te'. ' Recipe For Facism ', a Levitate bonus track, is one of those brief, fractured bits of MES spoken word soundscape: if anyone was going to give it any marks, its was Eric, and he dutifully awarded it 2. Everyone else's attitude was best summed up by Richard:  'Levitate is a gloriously strange experience.  The bonus disc is merely a strange experience.  This track is barely an experience'. Following the early exit of 'Ghost in My House'

   Group 5 Hark The Herald Angels Sing, Service, Age of Chang, Oh! Brother, There’s a Ghost in My House, Pat-Trip Dispenser, Two Librans, Detective Instinct, Mike’s Love Xexagon, Paintwork, The City Never Sleeps, Kurious Oranj, Anecdotes + Antidotes in B#, Paranoia Man in Cheap Sh*t Room, Wise Ol’ Man The Fallen An error on my part meant that the list I originally sent to the panel omitted  'Hark The Herald Angels Sing' . I think it's safe to say that its pointless performance was not a result of my carelessness. Like many others, I imagine, I laughed out loud the first time I heard it, and then never wanted to hear it again (Richard: 'I fear that this is a joke I don’t get'). I felt pretty much the same regarding 'The City Never Sleeps' , only without the laughing part: for me, it's possibly the nadir of the whole back catalogue and Richard's description of it as merely a 'clunky cover' is overly generous. Still, Eric thought it worth a coup

  Group 3 Early Days of Channel Fuhrer, Dog is Life / Jerusalem, Couples Vs Jobless Mid 30s, Papal Visit, High Tension Line, The League of Bald Headed Men, Totally Wired, Rollin’ Dany, Bo Demmick, Das Vulture Ans Ein Nutter-Wain, Get a Hotel, Don’t Call Me Darling, This Perfect Day, Hands Up Billy, Petty (Thief) Lout The Fallen 'Don't Call Me Darling' , although bzfgt thought it a 'decent track' and Richard described it as a 'plump-bellied roadhouse boogie enlivened by Brix’s grunge-angled chorus delivery', didn't attract any points. 'Hands Up Billy' fared only slightly better, Richard's comment being: 'Awful song, end of. The only real pleasure I get from this is imagining it’s about James Herriott examining a goat for bowel troubles.' It won't surprise anyone that 'Papal Visit' is making an early exit.   'Rollin' Dany' got a 3 from Lewis ('decent enough cover') but that was its lot. Lewis thought t

  You can find the rules and all that stuff here . [As this is the first post, a reminder that in the first stage, the panel each award points to 10 of the 15 songs in the group in 'Eurovision' style, i.e. 12, 10, 8 down to 1. Top 6 go through to the next stage.] Group 1 New Big Prinz, Hip Priest, Victrola Time, The Littlest Rebel, Ludd Gang, Oleano, Hot Cake, Laptop Dog, Mere Pseud Mag Ed, Who Makes The Nazis? The Joke, Blood Outta Stone, Midwatch 1953, Jap Kid, R.O.D. The Fallen All 15 tracks gained at least one point, but for a couple of songs that was all they managed. 'Littlest Rebel' got its sole point from Lewis, who described it as an 'inoffensive little pop song'. Richard thought that, 'On Extricate, it fits in nicely and does its job well.. but do I want this tidy but foursquare 60s bop commanding my full attention? I’m not sure I do... the harmonica is good, mind.' 'Laptop Dog' was the other one-pointer. It got short shrift from Richa