The Cinerama Cup

       A reminder of how the point-scoring works: The panel must award a total of 36 points No song may receive more than 12 points At least one point must be given to 5 songs (i.e. no more than three zeros)  Group C Ears Manhattan Sly Curl I Wake Up Screaming Maniac Get Up and Go Lollobrigida Comedienne The first two groups - despite being more highly regarded than the preliminary round material - didn't exactly set the panel's pulses racing. Which suggests that my blog ranking averages, which had A and B down as the two weakest sets, wasn't too far off the mark. Group C, on the other hand, was the second strongest by the same measure... The Results This time, it was much tighter at the top, but there was a very clear winner of the wooden spoon. Johnny thought 'Lollobrigida' was 'as sexy as hell,' but for most, this was the element that particularly turned them off. 'Sex is really hard to portray realistically in songs,' declared Ian, 'and this ...

      A reminder of how the point-scoring works: The panel must award a total of 36 points No song may receive more than 12 points At least one point must be given to 5 songs (i.e. no more than three zeros)  Group B Airborne Superman On/Off Health and Efficiency Get Smart Model Spy Always The Quiet One Careless Despite the relief of having dispensed of Valentina and the dodgy covers, Group A wasn't quite the breakthrough into the very best songs some had probably hoped it might be. Averaging out my blog rankings, it was the weakest of the eight groups in the main phase, and the comments certainly seemed to reflect that. By the same measure, Group B was only one place above... The Results Once again, we had a very clear winner. The comfortably familar quiet/loud dynamic of 'Health and Efficiency' earned lots of praise, although it wasn't without its detractors. Ian has always been sceptical of the song's merits, especially regarding the lyric: 'like your paren...

     Now that we've waded our way through the covers, Valentina , etc. we can begin on the competition proper... In the group stage, this is how the point-scoring works: The panel must award a total of 36 points No song may receive more than 12 points At least one point must be given to 5 songs (i.e. no more than three zeros)  Group A Tie Me Up Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) Cat Girl Tights Gigolo Edinburgh 7X Pacific Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang The Results We had a very clear winner in  'Cat Girl Tights' , which finished 60 points ahead of its nearest rival. 'One of my favourite Gedge songs from any era,' was Harry's view, 'an absolute masterpiece of a song.' Dave concurred ('a dark, moody fantastic piece of music'), as did Marc ('classic quiet LOUD quiet LOUD which is the hallmark of any great TWP track'). It was not with its critics, however. 'Does nothing for me,' commented Bob; Chris described it as 'drivel.' At the ot...

    The second group of covers, etc. voted for  'Eurovision' style (see the previous post )... Preliminary Group 2 Larry's  Edinburgh 524 Fidelio Always The Quiet One Meet Cute Nickels And Dimes Back a Bit...Stop You Jane Deer Caught in the Headlights You're Dead Diamonds Are Forever Yesterday Once More Elenore There's a good reason why these songs have gone through this preliminary stage, and I'm sure the panel will be relieved when we get to the 'proper' groups. Dave, for example, found this set 'really difficult to rate, probably because about 7 of them deserved a 0.' Or, a s Kirk put it: 'This is a far weaker set of songs than the first lot and I'd easily give them all zeros if I could. The worst thing about this round was having to listen to some of these more than once to rank them against each other.' Steve M's view: 'When the third "best" song gets on the virtual podium because (as I scribbled down) it has ...

   To streamline the process a little bit, we're going to spend the first couple of posts considering the 25 songs that are either covers, early versions of what became TWP recordings or tracks from the 2015 version of Valentina . The panel were asked for 'Eurovision' style votes (i.e. 12, 10, 8, 7, 6....). The winner from each of these two groups, plus the highest-scoring runner-up, will join the other 61 songs in the first 'proper' stage. Preliminary Group 1 Mystery Date Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) The Girl From the DDR All The Things She Said End Credits Spangle Cita a Ciegues Stop Thief! Mars Sparkles Down On Me The Name of the Game Erinner Dich London The Results Not surprisingly, tracks from  Valentina dominated the bottom half of the table. Whilst most of us admire Gedge's willingness to try something a bit different, it has to be said that the album is not exactly a fan favourite... Inconsequential instrumental 'Cita a Ciegues' (described...

  After spending nine months forensically evaluating the back catalogue of The Wedding Present , it's time to do something similar with Cinerama... The panel of judges is very similar to the TWP one: Mandy and Ali are bowing out, but we welcome Dave, Marc, Derek, Chris, Jona and Phil aboard. Format The process will largely follow the same structure as the TWP Cup, but we are going to have a prelimary stage this time. There are 86 songs (as covered in my And Guess What I Found blog), 25 of which are either cover versions or early versions of what became TWP songs (e.g. 'Always The Quiet One' and 'Edinburgh'). These 25 will go into two preliminary groups of 12/13, which will be voted on 'Eurovision' style (12 / 10 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1 points).  The two winners, plus the highest scoring runner-up, will join the remaining 61 tracks in eight groups of eight. The voting in this stage will be similar to stage 2 of the TWP Cup : The panel must award a to...