"...hope everything is alright..."

Amongst the many half formed ideas for books rolling around in my head is one called 1989. You can guess the year in which it's set, but that's as much as I'll say about it as it is just a collection of half formed ideas at the moment... the thing is, 1989... that's now 25 years ago. 25 years since I first heard The Pixies, and that's scary. 

I remember seeing them, first of all, on The Chart Show which (for those of you reading this that are too young) was a TV show comprised entirely of music videos; a mixture of new releases, specialist charts, and the main chart. These days anything you want is on YouTube. Back then this was a weekly treat, as exciting as - heck, I'll be frickin' sacrilegious here - more exciting than Top of the Pops. You'd get things on here that would never get near TOTP. I mean, when did you ever see Eardrum Buzz by Wire, or Take It Easy on Me by A House, or Hypocrite by Lush on TOTP?

The Chart Show was a show that introduced me to so many new bands, and new songs, that I'd not heard before. I do sometimes think that in this day and age where you can get everything at your fingertips people just end up going for the same old thing time and time again.

Don't get me wrong; The Chart Show itself wasn't some kind of perfect show in which every edition was chock full of stuff I loved. They played a heck of a lot of crap that I couldn't stand. But there was always the excitement, that after this dull ol' song there'd be something just wonderful next. 

As I said, anything you want is on YouTube, is this Indie Chart from March 1989 possibly the very first time I experience The Pixies...? Shivers down the spine...

And I guess this post is an ideal illustration of why this blog's called "digression", as when I started it I intended to just write about Doolittle, and it ended up being more about The Chart Show. I guess that's the way it goes sometimes...