The Cinerama Cup

   The last 32: ties 9-12 After quite a few nail-biters in the first two sets of ties, this batch was made up of four notably one-sided contests... 9.  Gigolo v Kerry Kerry 'Gigolo' is a pleasant enough track, but it only just squeezed through from a relatively weak group, so it wasn't a surprise to see it trounced by the Cinerama debut (a 'hot chunk of vibrant pop from the Greggs cheese and onion pasty oven of the indie disco,' according to Johnny). Gigolo 2 - Kerry Kerry 18 10. Tie Me Up v Starry Eyed There was only ever going to be one winner in this all- Torino tie. A few judges found it a tough choice: Kirk 'agonised' over this one, and Johnny thought that the 'lush orchestration' and 'sweeping, aching lyrics' of 'Tie Me Up' was 'just about bettered' by 'Starry Eyed'. Most didn't though.  Tie Me Up 5 - Starry Eyed 15 11. Always The Quiet One v Your Charms I was a little surprised to find ATQO in the last 32,...

  The last 32: ties 5-8 5. Manhattan v Dance, Girl, Dance 'A cruel tie,' according to Keg, but not one that was especially close. DGD received no negative comments - Jona, for example, called it 'an almost perfect pop song' despite voting against it - and was simply unfortunate to come up against a song that is a favourite for many. Manhattan 12 - Dance, Girl, Dance 8 6. Ears v King's Cross Once again, many who voted against the losing song still had kind words to say about it. One was John, who called 'Ears' 'a beautiful melody and lovely juxtaposed vocals hide a sorry tale of regret and jealousy.' It did receive a little criticism, though. Johnny believed that its 'only downside... is that Gedge didn’t bother to write a proper ending'; Marc thought that the song, 'just... meanders.' Chris found this a particularly tricky tie: 'What a difficult choice. I must have listened to Ears about ten times today thinking "how can I po...

The last 32: ties 1-4 1. Cat Girl Tights v Estrella No surprises here, with the clearest victory of this set going to 'Cat Girl Tights'. Gav M went for 'Estrella' (another of his 'personal history' songs: 'the ultimate biographical song that I lived in real time') as did Johnny ('a bona fide, top notch, right rollicking bonanza!') but John's support for CTG was more representative of the majority: 'Beautiful melody and sweeping arpeggios - stunning.' Harry was particularly emphatic: 'Cat Girl Tights by the length of Sauchiehall Street.' Cat Girl Tights 15 - Estrella 5 2. Edinburgh v Barefoot in the Park This one was a little closer, with several judges indicating that it was a difficult decision. This time, Harry's unequivocal view ('Edinburgh by the length of Princess Street') was not that of the majority. Edinburgh 8 - Barefoot in the Park 12 3. Health and Efficiency v 146 Degrees Closer than I thought it might ...

  I know how much the folk on the Something & Nothing forum love a set of statistics, so here is some carefully analysed data from the group stage... For simplicity, I haven't considered compilation albums such as This Is Cinerama ; I've divided the songs by the three studio albums, Peel sessions and b-side/non-album tracks. Proportion of qualifying tracks 77% Torino 64% Va Va Voom /  Disco Volante 50% Peel session 24% Non-album / b-sides Maximum marks (12) per track 2.3 Torino 1.3 Disco Volante 1.1 Va Va Voom 0.9 Non-album / b-side 0.5 Peel session Zero marks per track 1.5 Va Va Voom 2.1 Torino 3.3 Disco Volante 4.0 Peel session 4.2 Non-album / b-side The panel: Average points awarded to qualifying tracks : 6.72 Steve 6.41 John 6.38 Gav M 6.09 Johnny 6.06 James / Jona 6.03 Joanna 5.88 Mike 5.84 Dave 5.81 Gav F 5.78 Ian 5.75 Bob 5.72 Gricey /  Chris 5.69 Harry 5.63 Keg 5.56 Steve M 5.44 Kirk 5.34 Derek 5.19 Marc Number...

            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 H Let’s Pretend Love Christmas Song Because I’m Beautiful Honey Rider Wow Film This Isn’t What It Looks Like And so we finally reach the last group of this stage... The Results Nobody will be surprised that  'Wow' was the runaway winner. It's another where I shall save people's comments until the later stages.  It was neck and neck for second place until the very end. 'Love'  got a maximum 12 from Harry, Keg and Johnny ('Absolute, utter perfection. It has everything, a sweeping irresistible rhythm with a chiming melody... that saucy French opening... those opposing vocal sections, a duet from the angels'). But it also attracted a fair few ones and twos, plus a zero from Kirk ('pish').  'Honey Rider' got fewer top mar...

           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 G The One That Got Away Dance, Girl, Dance Me Next King’s Cross Quick Before It Melts Hate Hard, Fast and Beautiful It's Not You, It's Me My blog scores had this one down as the third strongest of the eight groups, but the majority view seemed to be that it was solid rather than spectacular, unlike the 'group of death' that preceded it. This position was not unanimous, however: Gav M considered this set 'a corker,' whilst Dave's view was 'sh*t... awful.' The Results B-side 'The One That Got Away' reached the lofty position of number 24 on my blog, where I described it as 'an often overlooked obscurity... which is a shame, as in many ways it's a quintessential Cinerama-TWP transformation song.' I could only find on...

          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 F Don’t Touch That Dial Your Charms 10 Denier Apres Ski Unzip You Turn Me On Crusoe 146 Degrees If you take my blog as any sort of reliable guide, this was far and away the strongest set of songs in this stage. Only one of the tracks wasn't in my top 30, five of the eight were in the top 20, and a couple were in the top ten. In general, the panel agreed. Steve M called it both 'the actual group of death' and 'a proper bastard.' Several commented that they gave zeros to songs that would actually have scored well in a different group. The Results Although it ended up coming second (and led the group until the final few votes), 'Don’t Touch That Dial' didn't receive uniformly strong marks. In many cases, this was because - even though it was ...