Stowaway World Cup – Group Stages – Games 41-44

Game 41: Delerium / Front Line Assembly / Conjure One versus Madonna and Yazoo

1. 6+5. Goal for funniest band picture. 0-1.
2. 5+5. No goal.
3. 1+1. No goal.
4. 6+4. Goal for highest number of search engine results. 0-2.
5. 3+3. No goal.
6. 2+3. Goal for quality of first album. Easy goal for Yazoo. 0-3.
7. 2+1. Goal for most charismatic performer(s). Madonna. 0-4.
8. 6+4. Re-roll. 3+4. No goal.
9. 1+5. No goal.
10. 3+6. No goal. The odd pairing of Madonna and Yazoo win 0-4.

Game 42: Sparks versus Everything But The Girl

1. 3+2. No goal.
2. 3+5. No goal.
3. 4+5. Goal for number of UK hit albums. Everything But The Girl take an early lead. 0-1.
4. 3+2. No goal.
5. 5+1. No goal.
6. 1+6. No goal.
7. 1+4. No goal.
8. 4+5. Re-roll. 5+2. No goal.
9. 2+5. Goal for best artwork. Could go either way, but Walking Wounded and Temperamental are particularly great. 0-2.
10. 5+5. No goal, and a shocker! Everything But The Girl win 0-2, sadly pushing Sparks to the bottom of this tough group.

Game 43: Saint Etienne versus Massive Attack

1. 6+2. Goal for highest estimated total sales. Difficult to know for sure, so no goal.
2. 2+6. Goal for number of permanent members. Saint Etienne score. 1-0.
3. 1+3. No goal.
4. 1+3. No goal.
5. 6+4. Goal for highest number of search engine results. 1-1.
6. 2+6. Re-roll. 6+3. Goal for highest number of mentions on blog. 2-1.
7. 3+5. No goal.
8. 1+1. No goal.
9. 4+2. Goal for most years between first and last hit. Very close, but Massive Attack just have it. 2-2.
10. 5+2. No goal. Draw! 2-2.

Game 44: Kraftwerk versus Hot Chip

1. 6+3. Goal for highest number of mentions on blog. 1-0.
2. 2+2. Goal for number of studio albums to date. 2-0.
3. 5+5. No goal.
4. 3+1. No goal.
5. 4+5. Goal for number of UK hit albums. 3-0.
6. 2+1. Goal for most charismatic performer(s). 3-1.
7. 5+5. No goal.
8. 2+5. Goal for best artwork. 4-1.
9. 6+6. Foul. 2+4. One of Hot Chip gets sent off.
10. 1+5. No goal. Kraftwerk win 4-1.

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Stowaway World Cup – Group Stages – Games 25-28

Game 25: Little Boots versus Madonna and Yazoo

1. 6+4. Goal for highest number of search engine results. Madonna clinches a goal. 0-1.
2. 1+2. No goal.
3. 1+4. No goal.
4. 6+5. Goal for funniest band picture. 0-2.
5. 2+1. Goal for most charismatic performer(s). Little Boots is great, but Madonna has to take this one. 0-3.
6. 4+3. Goal for highest number of remixes of another artist. Little Boots has a few to her name, so 1-3.
7. 2+2. Goal for number of studio albums to date. Easy goal. 1-4.
8. 5+5. No goal.
9. 6+4. Replay. 1+6. No goal.
10. 4+4. Goal for number of UK top ten hits. That’s Madonna again. 1-5.

Game 26: Kylie Minogue versus Everything But The Girl

1. 3+5. No goal.
2. 4+1. Goal for highest debut position on UK singles chart. 1-0.
3. 5+2. No goal.
4. 6+4. Goal for highest number of search engine results. 2-0.
5. 1+1. No goal.
6. 4+4. Goal for number of UK top ten hits. 3-0.
7. 3+1. No goal.
8. 1+5. No goal.
9. 4+2. Goal for most years between first and last hit. 4-0.
10. 2+1. Goal for most charismatic performer(s). Another easy win for Kylie. 5-0.

Game 27: Massive Attack versus Shit Robot

1. 5+1. No goal.
2. 6+2. Goal for highest estimated total sales. 1-0.
3. 3+6. No goal.
4. 6+1. Goal for number of BRIT Award wins. 2-0.
5. 5+1. No goal.
6. 1+3. No goal.
7. 2+5. Goal for best artwork. Both have had some great moments, but let’s give this one to Massive Attack. 3-0.
8. 6+6. Foul. 4+5. Goal for number of UK hit albums. Penalty goal for Massive Attack. 4-0.
9. 1+5. No goal.
10. 2+6. Goal for number of permanent members. Another huge win – Massive Attack win 5-0.

Game 28: Hot Chip versus Bent

1. 2+4. Goal for quality of last album. Both are great, and I don’t think I can call this one. No goal.
2. 3+3. No goal.
3. 2+2. Goal for number of studio albums to date. 1-0.
4. 5+1. No goal.
5. 4+6. Goal for total weeks on UK album chart. 2-0.
6. 1+4. No goal.
7. 2+5. Goal for best artwork. I’m awarding it to Bent for Ariels. 2-1.
8. 2+4. Re-roll. 5+5. No goal.
9. 6+3. Goal for highest number of mentions on blog. 3-1.
10. 1+6. No goal. So Hot Chip win 3-1. Decisive, but not quite as big a win as the other games today.

Stowaway World Cup – Week 1

So we reach the half way point of the group stages, and we’ve already had a lot of surprises. I’m sure you won’t have missed them in all the excitement, but just in case, here’s a recap.

Group A

The group is currently firmly led by Jean-Michel Jarre, with the Delerium / Front Line Assembly / Conjure One supergroup as runners-up, but any of the teams could still qualify.

Group B

Depeche Mode are well ahead, and after two disappointing losses for Sparks and a surprise win for Kylie Minogue, the latter currently looks likely to sneak into the group of sixteen.

Group C

Erasure have a strong lead, with Saint Etienne just holding onto second place, but with a game in hand.

Group D

Kraftwerk lead with two strong wins, and Hot Chip are currently holding onto second place after drawing against Goldfrapp in their first game.

Group E

Pet Shop Boys are leading, and after two dirty games from The Beloved, I Monster currently hold the runner-up spot.

Group F

Big surprises here. The favourites are currently right at the bottom of the table, with Enigma in first place, Air in second, and Röyksopp and OMD in third and fourth.

Group G

David Bowie is comfortably leading, with The Human League in second place.

Group H

New Order lead, with The Future Sound of London in second.

Stowaway World Cup – Group Stages – Games 1-4

Game 1: Jean-Michel Jarre versus Madonna and Yazoo

1. 3+2. No goal.
2. 4+1. Goal for debut position on UK singles chart. Jean-Michel Jarre entered at number 22, Madonna entered at 53, and Yazoo entered at 72, so Jean-Michel Jarre leads 1-0.
3. 3+2. No goal.
4. 6+2. Goal for selling price of rarest item. Jean-Michel Jarre‘s single-copy Musique pour Supermarché sold for 10,500 Euros in 1983, which seems to trump anything I can find by the other two. Jean-Michel Jarre leads 2-0.
5. 6+3. Goal for highest number of mentions on blog. At the time of writing, Jean-Michel Jarre had 227 posts, Madonna had 59, and Yazoo had 50. Jean-Michel Jarre leads 3-0.
6. 5+3. No goal.
7. 5+5. No goal.
8. 2+2. Goal for number of studio albums to date. Jean-Michel Jarre just released his 23rd, Madonna has 14, and Yazoo had just two. Jean-Michel Jarre is now leading 4-0 in this “thrilling” game.
9. 2+1. Goal for most charismatic performer(s). Tricky. Jarre has lasers and citywide spectaculars, but Madonna seems to put on a good show too. It probably has to be Jean-Michel Jarre, putting him up to 5-0.
10. 5+5. No goal. Jarre wins 5-0.

Game 2: Depeche Mode versus Everything But The Girl

1. 6+6. Foul, decided by another dice roll. 6+2. Goal for selling price of rarest item. Depeche Mode‘s was $3,392.87, which seems to trump anything by Everything But The Girl. Depeche Mode lead 1-0.
2. 2+2. Goal for number of studio albums to date. Depeche Mode lead 2-0.
3. 1+5. No goal.
4. 5+5. No goal.
5. 1+5. No goal.
6. 6+6. Another foul! The higher die in the next pair is playing dirty! 5+6. So Ben Watt is sent off.
7. 3+6. No goal.
8. 6+5. Goal for funniest band picture. Depeche Mode win hands down, taking their lead to 3-0.
9. 3+4. No goal.
10. 2+6. Goal for number of permanent members. Depeche Mode have three, whereas EBTG have two, one of whom was sent off, so Depeche Mode win conclusively, 4-0.

Game 3: Erasure versus Massive Attack

1. 3+1. No goal.
2. 5+3. No goal.
3. 6+2. Goal for selling price of rarest item. I couldn’t find much of note for either, so we’ll call this no goal, and from now on we’ll replace this with a new goal category.
4. 2+2. Goal for number of studio albums to date. Goal for Erasure. 1-0.
5. 5+4. No goal.
6. 5+4. No goal.
7. 6+3. Goal for highest number of mentions on blog. Goal for Erasure. 2-0.
8. 5+6. No goal.
9. 6+2, which we’ve had before, so 2+6. Goal for number of permanent members. Well, Erasure have only ever had two, whereas Massive Attack have evolved a lot over time. Wikipedia thinks that only 3D is a permanent member, so goal for Erasure. 3-0.
10. 6+4. Goal for highest number of search engine results. I quoted their names and added “band”, so I got 14.2m for Erasure and 1.3m for Massive Attack. Another goal for Erasure. 4-0.

Game 4: Goldfrapp versus Hot Chip

1. 4+1. Goal for debut position on UK singles chart. Goldfrapp had some early minor hits, at 87 and 62, while Hot Chip didn’t even manage to chart with the singles from their first album, so their debut was Over and Over at number 32. Hot Chip lead 0-1.
2. 1+5. No goal.
3. 4+3. Goal for number of UK #1s. Neither has any, so no goal.
4. 2+4. Goal for quality of last album. Goldfrapp have been struggling recently, so goal for Hot Chip. 0-2.
5. 5+6. No goal.
6. 6+6. 3+3. We’ll have to send someone off from both teams.
7. 3+3. No goal.
8. 2+1. Goal for most charismatic performer(s). Very tough, but while Hot Chip are great, they aren’t exactly charismatic. 1-2.
9. 3+4. No goal.
10. 6+6. 2+3. Goal for quality of first album. Clear win for Felt Mountain over Coming On Strong. 2-2, so that’s our first draw!

So that’s it for day 1 – three very decisive wins, and one draw. Let’s see what day 2 holds!

Stowaway World Cup – Start of Play

So, as of yesterday’s post, we know how the groups are looking. The upcoming week will see four games per day, so in a week’s time we should be starting to have a feel for how the results are starting to shape up.

As a reminder, we’re about to start the group stages, with eight groups:

• Group A, with Jean-Michel Jarre as favourite, but any of the other three could qualify
• Group B, a competitive group containing Depeche Mode, Sparks, and Kylie Minogue
• Group C, another competitive group with Erasure, Saint Etienne, and Massive Attack
• Group D, with Goldfrapp, Kraftwerk, and Hot Chip
• Group E, with Pet Shop Boys and three other strong contenders
• Group F, with Röyksopp, OMD, Air, and Enigma
• Group G, with David Bowie and The Human League
• Group H, with New Order and three other strong teams

The excitement begins (and potentially also ends) tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Stowaway World Cup – The Draw

OK, time for the all-important draw. Pot A consists of the top 8 artists by mentions on this blog:

• Pet Shop Boys
• Depeche Mode
• Jean-Michel Jarre
• Röyksopp
• Erasure
• New Order
• David Bowie
• Goldfrapp

Pot B consists of the next eight, except that Moby is busy getting vegan tattoos, so won’t be taking part this year. Delerium, Front Line Assembly, and Conjure One are pretty much the same people anyway, so they have formed a single team together.

• Saint Etienne
• Kraftwerk
• Sparks
• Delerium / Front Line Assembly / Conjure One
• The Human League
• Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
• The Future Sound of London
• The Beloved

Pot C sees a few disqualifications, with Vince Clarke taking part as part of Erasure, and Martin L. Gore playing for Depeche Mode:

• Air
• Little Boots
• Massive Attack
• Kylie Minogue
• I Monster
• William Orbit
• Ladytron
• Hot Chip

Finally, Pot D sees Dave Gahan disqualified for being part of Depeche Mode, plus U2 and Coldplay disqualified for not being very good. Yazoo formed a team with Madonna, for no particularly good reason.

• Madonna and Yazoo
• The Radiophonic Workshop
• Leftfield
• Everything But The Girl
• Shit Robot
• Client
• Enigma
• Bent

After the draw, the eight groups look like this:

• Group A: Jean-Michel Jarre, Delerium / Front Line Assembly / Conjure One, Little Boots, Madonna and Yazoo
• Group B: Depeche Mode, Sparks, Kylie Minogue, Everything But The Girl
• Group C: Erasure, Saint Etienne, Massive Attack, Shit Robot
• Group D: Goldfrapp, Kraftwerk, Hot Chip, Bent
• Group E: Pet Shop Boys, The Beloved, I Monster, Client
• Group F: Röyksopp, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Air, Enigma
• Group G: David Bowie, The Human League, Ladytron, Leftfield
• Group H: New Order, The Future Sound of London, William Orbit, The Radiophonic Workshop

So the first game will be Jean-Michel Jarre versus Madonna and Yazoo, in a couple of days’ time.

Chart for stowaways – Albums 2020

Here are the top albums for last year:

1. Pet Shop Boys – Hotspot
2. The Beloved – Where it Is
3. The Future Sound of London – Cascade 2020
4. Sparks – Past Tense – The Best Of (climbing from number 5 in 2019)
5. The Beloved – Happiness
6. Sparks – Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins (climbing from number 7 in 2019)
7. Sparks – A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip
8. Erasure – The Neon
9. Caribou – Suddenly
10. Sarah Nixey – Night Walks
11. Depeche Mode – Spirits In The Forest
12. Kraftwerk – 3-D Der Katalog (number 5 in 2017)
13. Hot Chip – A Bath Full Of Ecstasy (falling from number 1 in 2019)
14. Front Line Assembly – WarMech
15. The Human League – The Essential
16. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Ghosteen (falling from number 12 in 2019)
17. Joy Division – Closer
18. Pet Shop Boys – PopArt
19. The Orb – Abolition Of The Royal Familia
20. David Bowie – I’m Only Dancing (The Soul Tour ’74)

Kraftwerk Remixed

When you consider the huge part that Kraftwerk played in the development of electronic music, it is perhaps surprising how few remixes they have to their name – just N of their tracks have been remixed by others. In a way, there’s something rather beautiful about the preservation of their artistic vision in this way, but it’s also something of a shame that we can’t hear a few more reinterpretations, especially given how good the ones we did get are.

So here’s the full list:

Year	Track	Remixer	Version(s)
1983	Tour de France	François Kevorkian	Kevorkian Remix (German) Kevorkian Remix (English) Kevorkian Remix (various edit versions)
1986	Musique Non Stop	François Kevorkian	12″ Version
1986	Der Telefon Anruf / The Telephone Call	François Kevorkian & Ron St. Germain	Remix (German) Remix (English)
1991	Radioactivität / Radioactivity	François Kevorkian	François Kevorkian 7″ Remix (German) François Kevorkian 7″ Remix (English) François Kevorkian 12″ Remix (English)
1991	Radioactivität / Radioactivity	William Orbit	William Orbit 7″ Remix (German) William Orbit 12″ Remix (German) William Orbit 7″ Remix (English) William Orbit 12″ Remix (English) William Orbit Hardcore Mix (English)
2000	Expo 2000	Orbital	Orbital Mix
2000	Expo 2000	François Kevorkian & Rob Rives	François K + Rob Rives Mix
2000	Expo 2000	DJ Rolando	DJ Rolando Mix
2000	Expo 2000	Underground Resistance	Underground Resistance Mix UR Infiltrated Mix UR Thought 3 Mix
2004	Aerodynamik	Alex Gopher & Étienne De Crécy	Alex Gopher / Étienne De Crécy Dynamik Mix
2004	Aerodynamik	François Kevorkian	François K Aero Mix François K Aero Mix Instrumental
2007	Aerodynamik	Hot Chip	Intelligent Design Mix
2007	La Forme	Hot Chip	King of the Mountains Mix

There you have it – just eighteen remixes plus a handful of variations, of seven tracks, by eleven other artists. Some of the early ones don’t even stray far from the originals. But they’re pretty much uniformly fantastic, and do form a key part of Kraftwerk‘s wonderful discography – so I hope that one day we can see them all collected together. The Remix, anyone?

Chart for stowaways – February 2020

February was the month of Pet Shop Boys‘ intriguing homage to Berlin, Hotspot, which started the month off by entering at number 4, and then stole the top spot from Sparks, holding onto it for the rest of the month. They also did the double, with Dreamland holding onto the top spot for another three weeks and then relinquishing it to Monkey business at the end of the month.

This was also the month when The Beloved saw debut release Where it Is finally hitting the charts, deservedly spending the whole month in the top three. Singles Forever Dancing, If Only, and Grin all performed well, the first of those taking the top of the Catalogue Singles chart and also peaking at number 4 on the main chart.

Otherwise this was generally a month for introspection, with new releases by David Bowie, Marc Almond, and Ben Watt all performing well but failing to shake the acts at the top. Here are the singles from 22nd February:

1. Pet Shop Boys – Monkey Business
2. The Beloved – Grin
3. Pet Shop Boys feat. Years & Years – Dreamland
4. Frances Barber & Pet Shop Boys – Musik (Original Cast Recording) – EP
5. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – Almost

And these were the albums:

1. Pet Shop Boys – Hotspot
2. The Beloved – Where it Is
3. Sparks – Past Tense – The Best Of
4. Sparks – Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins
5. Hot Chip – A Bath Full Of Ecstasy

Chart for stowaways – January 2020

I’m afraid this won’t be a huge comeback quite yet, but I did want to check in with everyone. Hope you’re doing well in spite of the current difficulties. Let’s take a look back at the charts for stowaways from back in January.

January saw Pet Shop Boys dominating the singles chart, with Burning the heather grabbing the top spot for one week, and then Dreamland returning for the rest of the month. Decide and Monkey business floated around in the top ten as well. Vince Clarke‘s astonishingly good remix of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark‘s Almost kept it in the top three for the whole month, and Sparks‘ new 7″ release of Let’s Go Surfing spent the month steadily climbing as well. Both also spent the whole month holding onto the top two of the new Catalogue Singles chart.

Sparks also dominated the album chart, with their wonderful three-disc reissue of 1995’s Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins holding onto the top spot for the whole month, and their new Past Tense singles compilation holding the number two spot. It was a quiet month all round, with Hot Chip holding onto the number three spot as well.

Here are the singles for 18th January:

1. Pet Shop Boys feat. Years & Years – Dreamland
2. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – Almost
3. Sparks – Let’s Go Surfing
4. Pet Shop Boys – Burning the heather
5. Pet Shop Boys – Decide

And the albums:

1. Sparks – Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins
2. Sparks – Past Tense – The Best Of
3. Hot Chip – A Bath Full Of Ecstasy
4. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Ghosteen
5. The Radiophonic Workshop – Burials in Several Earths