Nostalgia Trip - Songs from the 90s (Arcade)

Last weekend I talked about the songs that take me back to my childhood, playing games in the arcades of Caister and Great Yarmouth in the mid-to-late 80s. This week I thought I would talk about songs from the 1990s that remind me of when I was in higher education and frequenting various arcades around Mansfield and Nottingham. This period was from 1992 to 1996 and coincides with the Britpop explosion, a time when I discovered more music than ever in my life. Whittling this list down to 10 was tough and I ended up editing it numerous times, even after I first published it. As such there are loads of bands I loved from that era that didn't make the list, including Supergrass, Suede, Bluetones, Elastica, Reef, Kula Shaker and Pulp. In the end, these are the 10 songs that I most associate with those care free years, when I would hang around arcades during the day playing Street Fighter 2, Tekken, Sega Rally and Time Crisis, then head to the nearest student pub in the evening to drink myself into oblivion.

Say Britpop to anyone and two bands instantly spring to mind, Blur and Oasis. I liked them both, but in the beginning Blur's greater back catalogue meant I listened to them more. Nonetheless, it was 1994's "Parklife" album that really propelled them into the spot light and my favourite track from that was not "Boys and Girls" and certainly not the silly title track, but this one, "End of the Century":

By the time "What's the Story?" was released in 1995 Oasis felt like the more credible of the two Britpop giants, as Blur became increasingly twee. The first time I heard "Don't look back in anger" I was pulling into the university car park in my Peugeot 309, listening to Radio 1. I remember the DJ saying it was like the Beatles, which meant nothing to me at the time, but Oasis did ultimately introduce to the Fab Four's peerless music.

Now we've got that out of the way, it's time for a bunch of Britpop acts with female vocalists, all of whom I fancied the pants off at the time. Let's start with the cutest of them all, Louise Wener and Sleeper with "Inbetweener":

Next up, a band made up of Butch Vig, producer for Nirvana's "Nevermind" and Smashing Pumpkin's "Siamese Dream" and a wee Scottish lass who looked like she would eat you alive, man or woman. It's Garbage with "I think I'm paranoid": 

Echobelly were a great band and "King of the Kerb" is one of my all time favourite songs from the era. Why they were not bigger I will never know: 

Born from the ashes of The La's, Cast's 1995 debut "All change" was one of the very best albums released during the height of the Britpop scene and is brimful of great singles. Despite this fact, I can't find an official video, only a video of them performing the brilliant "Alright" on the now defunct Top of the Pops. Ahh, the memories:

Technically, Ash were not part of the Britpop scene because they were Irish, but like so many Britpop bands they debuted in 1995 and so they are often swept up with that pack. They recorded their debut album, "1977", when they were just 18. Despite their youth, it was brilliant body of music, full of memorable tracks, perhaps none more so than "Girl from Mars":

A band I absolutely loved in '95 and which hardly anyone else remembers is Honeycrack. Founded from the remains of the Wildhearts, Honeycrack's songs were full of witty, quick-fire social commentry. This is the first single I ever heard, although again, I cannot find an official video of it. No matter, the music is more than enough: 

One of the biggest British bands to emerge in the 1990s was Welsh rockers the Manic Street Preachers. The first time I heard any of their music was actually in a computer game shop in town in 1993. They were playing the whole of the "Gold Against the Soul" album, so I got to hear most of it before I bought it myself a few weeks later. This is "La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)":

I'm going to end this trip down memory lane with a band that emerged in the 90s and whose music still sends shivers down my spine today. If I was ever asked to pick my absolute favourite album of all time, it would be "The Bends" by Radiohead and this is the first song I ever heard by them, "Just": 

And there you have it, the two decades where arcade games were a big deal and the music I listened to in and around those venues. Thank you for indulging an old gamer. Hopefully some of you out there have similar sense of nostalgia for the 20 songs I chose. 

MTW

Nostalgia Trip - Songs From the 80s (Arcade)

When I started this blog a year ago I talked a lot about the games I used to play, the places I used to play them and the nostalgia I have for them. The one thing that kick starts my nostalgia more than anything else is music. Because most of my time playing coin-op games was on a camp site that had a bar and nightclub as well as an arcade, there are a lot of songs from the 1980s that I associate as much with gaming as I do the games themselves.

With that in mind, here (in no particular order) is my top 10 songs from the 80s arcade, starting with the song that somehow conjures up more memories of those happy days better than any other, not because I particularly liked it, but because it was played everywhere! It's the Material Girl, Madonna, and "Get into the groove".

The Old Hall arcade always had a juke box in it and when I could stop myself shovelling 10ps into one of their many games, this is one of the songs I would play. It's the band with the beards,  ZZ Top and "Legs". See if you can spot Space Invaders and Berzerk machines in the video:

I am a big Van Halen fan, but for me it started with Sammy Hagar and "Why can't this be love" from their 1986 album "5150". This was another juke box favourite of mine back in the day, even if it's not a David Lee Roth track:

Here's another track that I played on the juke box from time to time. As you can probably tell by now, in the mid-80s I was into my hair metal. The passion and drama of "Still of the night" by Whitesnake made me want to be a rock star. Instead I got into IT. Oh well:

The Old Hall's night club was quite relaxed and since you had to be a member to use the camp site's facilities  they allowed kids on the dance floor.  Their DJ was open to requests and one song I remember asking for on several occasions was Sly Fox's epic "Let's go all the way".

The Old Hall night club may have let kids one the dance floor, but my folks still wanted me home before it got to late. Back in our caravan we could often hear the music and the opening drums from this track were unmistakable. This is 80s electronica at its best. This is the '88 remix of New Order's "Blue Monday":

When the Beastie Boys emerged in 1986 I was just 11 years old and I didn't really know what they were singing about. What I did know is that "(You gotta) fight for your right (to party)" was a great song to shout along to:

If movies like Last Star Fighter and games like Star Rider felt like the future to my adolescent self, then Sigue Sigue Sputnik and "Love Missile" felt like music of the future. Shoot it up, comrade:

There were some great films with great pop sound tracks in the mid-80s, but for my 10 year-old self, the best one was  "Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News, taken from the 1985 smash hit Back to the Future. I wanted to be Marty McFly so bad I even took to wearing a (grey) body warmer over my denim jacket that year. Classic stuff.

And I'll end with one of the biggest bands of the decade, Duran Duran. There's tonnes of their songs I remember playing in those days, but I'm going with the one that hooks into another piece of 80s nostalgia, Roger Moore as James Bond. What a combo:

MTW

Arcade ambience

One of the things I love about Microsoft's forlorn Game Room service is the background sounds of other games being played.  It effectively recreates the buzzing, beeping ambience of an arcade that was such an evocative part of the experience - even if you didn't notice it at the time.

During this week's Giant Bomb podcast, the guys mentioned a website containing downloadable MP3s of arcade ambience.  Rather than just going for a generic mash up of games, the creator Andy Hofle, has chosen four years and used the sounds of classic games from those eras.  Each recording is about an hour long and was done using MAME.  The games you'll hear are as follows:

1981

Asteroids, Astroblaster, Berzerk, Centipede, Crazy Climber, Crushroller, Defender, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Galaga, Galaxian, Gorf, Missile Command, Moon Cresta, Mousetrap, Ms Pacman, Omegarace, Pacman, Phoenix, Qix, Rally X, Scramble, Space Invaders, Spectar, Tempest, Venture, Wizard Of War.

1983

Bagman, Bump n Jump, Burgertime, Congo Bongo, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong 3, Donkey Kong Jr, Elevator Action, Food Fight, Galaga, Gyruss, Joust, Jungle Hunt, Kangaroo, Mappy, Mario Bros, Millipede, Moon Patrol, Mr Do, Ms Pacman, Pengo, Pleiads, Pole Position, QBert, Robotron, Sinistar, Stargate, Star Trek, Tapper, Time Pilot, Track & Field, Tron, Xevious, Zaxxon, Zoo Keeper

1986

Arkanoid, Bank Panic, Bubble Bobble, Commando, Excite Bike, Flicky, Galaga 3 (Gaplus), Galaga, Gauntlet, Ghosts N Goblins, Gunsmoke, Hat Trick, Hogan's Alley, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Jail Break, Kid Niki, Mag Max, Marble Madness, Ms Pacman, Pacland, Paperboy, Punch Out, Rampage, Road Fighter, Russian Attack, Sky Kid, Spelunker, Super Sprint, Star Wars, Tiger Heli, Time Pilot 84, Two Tigers.

1992

Altered Beast, Arkanoid, Cyberball 2072, Galaga, Golden Axe, Klax, Neo Geo (Magician Lord, Baseball Stars Professional, Nam 1975), Mortal Kombat, Ms. Pacman, Raiden, Roadblasters, Street Fighter 2, Smash TV, Tetris, TMNT, Toobin, Xybots. Pins: Black Knight 2000, Elvira, Fun House, Whirlwind.

I have to say, I think he nailed them all and chose some great years for coin-op games.  Even if you don't like all of the games used, there's no denying you have probably heard them playing in an arcade at some point during your childhood. Sadly, the website hasn't been updated for nearly 3 years and some of the mirrors no longer work, so if you want to have a listen, I suggest you do so pronto.

http://arcade.hofle.com/

MTW