The challenge: to find a band/artist completely forgotten by 2017 - as defined by their artist profile on last fm showing zero plays for the last 7 days.
Has to be a proper band with records/signed to a label etc, preferably one other Dissers can vaguely remember from the dark recesses of their memory.
Surprisingly hard, and goes to show that no matter how peripheral a band was and how much time has passed, there’s still someone somewhere in the world who apparently still remembers them.
I started off with Menswe@r, but it turns out they’re still way too popular. Gay Dad, Regular Fries, Bennet, Geneva, My Life Story & Terris all unbelievably still getting spins. Even Trashmonk whose album I found and threw out before Christmas from the arse end of the Creation roster have had a few plays in the last week.
Thought I’d cracked it with Ten Benson - pushed by the NME in the early 00s, but denied by one solitary click somewhere in the last 7 days.
Finally remembered Mower - signed to Graham Coxon’s label, NME single of the week once & the epitome of that Camden Good Mixer scene at the point where it had descended into total self caricature. They share a last fm page with a US metal band of the same name who did get listened to recently - but Mower UK - no plays!
Don’t know if this idea has legs or not but it was fun trying to think of potential bands. Any others lost to history and/or landfill?
Honestly, it’s been a proper eye opener tvdenimchap! It’s also quite addictive.
The only nervy moment was when i typed in Gay Dad then clicked the icon before the page finished loading properly and it jumped and I inadvertently clicked on a ‘gay singles’ ad that last fm loaded where I pressed. Cue quick backpedal.
Some great work so far. I now kind of want to listen to some of these mentioned, but I’m going to destroy their fragile obscurity if I do.
Monkey Steals The Drum were one of the early pointless answers I got - Ormskirk’s biggest band since…probably Ormskirk’s biggest band ever actually. They did a Peel session, but I’m not sure they ever got fully signed, so I didn’t allow myself them.
This is fucking difficult. I’ve been trawling all those post-big-beat names that the NME used to love in the late 90s… turns out that some people are still listening to Campag Velocet.
Ooh I did recently, it was on an old NME compilation CD that was destined for a charity shop though. Bon Chic Bon Genre - probably the best thing on there.
Zea, Pink Grease, Baby Chaos, A1 People, All Girl Summer Fun Band, The Dexateens and The Little Flames all have listeners. As do Spitfire (Justin from Elastica’s old band), in amongst all the bands called Spitfire there’s a single listener. 2 listeners for Young People.
I know, surprisingly difficult. I’ve been limiting myself to bands I can remember, so extra kudos to anyone who bought stuff by or saw any of these acts live.
Who the hell is still listening to bloody Ooberman in 2017? Someone somewhere, that’s who. A band for anyone who found Belle & Sebastian a little too macho for their tastes.