Helen Love - We Love You / The ITV Chart Show

Someone on the Drowned In Sound messageboards has posted something rather ace tonight; a link to youtube archive of video caps of the Indie Chart show from the now fabled ITV Saturday Chart Show. The show ran from 1988 to 1999, switch from channel 4 to ITV after 2 years and providing a priceless saturday morning view into a world that pre-internet was always hard to get much of a glimpse of. For those of us non-posh Brits who didn't have MTV in the 1990s, ie everybody I knew, before Britpop (and indeed during) it was near impossible to see 'our music' on tv that much. We had the NME, Melody Maker and Select, we had Peel and Lamacq, all of which were priceless despite their faults. But on TV, it was the chart show. Because the chart show gave us a 6 or 7 minute rundown of the national Indie chart, compiled by stores such as the Chain With No Name, Spillers, Replay, etc, and the national Rock chart, made up of... i'm not sure. But it rocked. Yes it was too short, and yes they always showed the video in full that you least wanted to see, but for many years it was unmissable, because as I said, before the internet 'our music' was much harder to find, but so much the more special because of it. Or at least that's how it felt. We're probably being snobs, jealous of these kids who've grown up with mp3s in their bloodstream. But who cares.

As I'm not in a 90s mood, here are some songs from a band that couldn't have existed without that underground British indie scene, Ramones obsessive indie techno pop idiots led by the eponymous Helen who've put out far too many fantastically catchy pop singles to count, and never seem to get boring despite every single song basically being the same. But then the same can be said for the Ramones. So it's all good, as they say in yankland. Here are all four tracks from 1995's super special We Love You single. The band are of course still about, and have a new record named It's My Club and I'll Play What I Want due out in November. In some ways (in terms of 'serious music' and professionalism) they're truly awful and in others (being fun, DIY sillyness) they're truly brilliant. Thus, they're ACE.

By the way, you can get more nostalgic about the Chart Show over at its v. interesting wiki page. Enjoy!

Helen Love - 01 We Love You
Helen Love - 02 Girl About Town
Helen Love - 03 We Love You (alt. version)
Helen Love - 04 Punk Boy