Mondeo Pop

I think Heaton is quite an interesting character, and for a year or two in the mid-80s I was quite a fan of the Housemartins. I still quite like things like 'Flag Day' or 'Build' and I think he was a touching singer once upon a time. I suppose the bloozy Radio 2 sound of the BS is the sound of Heaton forgetting Marx and forgetting Jesus and forgetting Hope and discovering beer and boredom and bitterness. He seemed to despise everything about pop music and life, but somehow became incredibly successful from doing so. You would think this would make for an interesting tension in the music, but it doesn't seem to have done.

The Beautiful South vs Simply Red as a post-socialist, pre-Blairite battle for the suburban car stereo of Mondeo Man is a topic worthy of Robin Carmody, though.

-- Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, August 18, 2003 8:52 AM (4 years ago)
Defend The Indefensible: The Beautiful South

He was pretty good, that JtN geezer...

the mondeo was only launched in 1993 but the many of the quintessential mondeo pop tunes predate this. i did not realize that yacht rock was actually a tv show. if mondeo pop was a narrative based television progam the main protagonist would have to be paul heaton.

James - Sit Down '98

paved the way for schaffel

Isn't Mondeo Pop just chart indie with a mortgage?

Mondeo Pop Or Not:

Dubstar
Crowded House
The Lightning Seeds
Alisha's Attic
Badly Drawn Boy
Delays

Deacon Blue were named after a Steely Dan song, fyi, so there's your Yacht Rock/Mondeo Pop link.

Dubstar NO
Crowded House YES
The Lightning Seeds SOMETIMES
Alisha's Attic NO
Badly Drawn Boy SOMETIMES
Delays BIG NO

"Not So Manic Now" isn't Mondeo Pop? That song got rinsed on local radio back in the day.

So not Mondeo Pop. There are many factors. Local radio play is but one. I do not know all the factors.

The other factor is Soul. Mondeo Pop is not soul but must have a soul element, I think. Wet Wet Wet are overlooked but crucial. In fact Mondeo Pop is fundamentally anti-rockist, maybe not in a 1986 sense but certianly in a 1996 or 2006 sense.

Crowded House have a soul element? Someone ain't gonna like that

i was thinking about Wet Wet Wet the other day and how long it's been since they could NOT have happened...if that makes sense.

Dubstar = Micra Pop

I think you should think more about Wet Wet Wet, blueski.

Almost pinefoxian.

Today I came home from the supermarket and snapped the
radio on, and heard the opening of 'Wishing I Was Lucky'.
And I liked it - it must be my favourite of their
numbers; it has poise and dash; despite all the
gymnasium of the soul business, when those travelling
strings start to accompany Pellow halfway through an
early verse, they bear grace.

Crowded House are more Volvo or Audi (A4 not TT) than Mondeo surely, just feel the restrained quality of them.

Crowded House are a bit of a red herring because they're not British. Mondeo Pop is part of a clear era in British history where the concept of "the left" was being invented.

Paul Young's cover of 'Don't Dream It's Over' = ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

What "left" are you talking about, Dom?

The Style Council and Haircut 100 seem too early but still important. The journey of Weller is a good narrative. I don't think Weller could ever be Mondeo Pop. The Mondeo was only introduced in 1993, what model did it replace?

If blueski made that up it is very good. The bit about Wet Wet Wet.

The Mondeo was only introduced in 1993, what model did it replace?

the Sierra, for all you fly fellas

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4967664204

What "left" are you talking about, Dom?

Loose upper working/lower middle Labour voters. The Hornby generation.

Although Hornby himself would obviously detest the music here. See also Big Al Petridis's weekly "the businessman, in his suit-and-tie" rhetoric in Graun reviews.

Is Princess Diana Mondeo Pop?

Kanye: not Mondeo Pop
Rod Stewart: not Mondeo Pop
Lallen: not Mondeo Pop
Duran Duran: Maybe Mondeo Pop
Elton John: not Mondeo Pop
Joss Stone: not Mondeo Pop
Pharrell: not Mondeo Pop

Princess Di officially NOT MONDEO POP

I think Ordinary World by Duran Duran could be Mondeo Pop.

I'd agree with that.

Is "Sleeping Satellites" Mondeo Pop? Can women, other than the ones Paul Heaton gives blacks eyes to in drunken rages, be Mondeo Pop?

What about Morcheeba? Didn't they even do a Mondeo ad?

My line manager just came over to me. He asked "What are you listening to?". I said "Steely Dan". He said "Do you like Fleetwood Mac?".

If I was playing a Mondeo Pop set I think "Sleeping Satellite" would be in there. I'd like to suggest REM.

Pre-Zooropa, were U2 Mondeo Pop?

I don't think U2 have ever been Mondeo Pop. I am not sure about The Lightouse Family.

ledge, I don't think Morcheeba are Mondeo Pop, Micra Pop? Maybe?

I guess maybe U2 were bought by Mondeo Popists to feel a bit edgy (no pun etc) and REM to feel a bit alt-rock? Operative word 'guess'

Morcheeba = Ka Pop

That is possibly patronizing DJ Mencap. Though I realize my whole premise is, really. I'm not sure these people actually exist though. I wonder what people who make Mondeo Pop drive? Do Yacht Poppers drive Yachts?

Tanita Tikaram
Des'Ree
The Lighthouse Family must surely be.
Fairground Attraction
OCS
The Bluetones

It strikes me that I've never heard anything by Runrig.

Elephant in the room #2: The Waterboys

'have a nice day' by the stereophonics

"Traffic" by the Stereophonics, yes. "HAND", maybe not.

The Supernaturals?

OCS = dadrock, but then dads drive mondeos. Everything I think of is too early (Big Country?)

as i said earlier - everything that has been branded as mondeo pop gets airspace on the dreary dermot o'leary show.
i have had to endure the show in recent weeks, and damn, its painful.

Important distinction to be made: Cosworth Rock - Clarkson's vehicle and music of choice in the mid-late 90s.

Clarkson's taste in rock is actually a little closer to Yacht Rock than Mondeo Pop. Aren't his favourite band ever Air Supply?

Electronic
The Blow Monkeys
Hothouse Flowers
Talk Talk
The Wannadies (controversial suggestion)

The Wannadies were Mondeo Pop Jr

I think suggesting the likes of Ocean Colour Scene is rather off base. The one thing that is great about good Mondeo Pop is it's sprightliness, it has a bounce and jangle, a certain jouissance soerly lacking in its post Britpop equivilant.

if going before '93 doesn't damage cred: Red Box

lololl TALK TALK, i was gonna say...

It's like '93 is the apothesis. The music was waiting for the car.

Young At Heart by The Bluebells. I have long despised this song but it's very much key. It got to No 1 in '92 or '93 though was originally from the early '80s wasn't it?

Mondeo House

http://imagebank.aatw.org/thumbnail/553_packshot.jpg

Virgin Radio still has a lot of Deacon Blue on its daytime playlist

So is someone gonna compile the Mondeo Pop rough guide?

Also this thread has made me feel like listening to Dubstar (I used to drive a micra)!

Counting Crows. Mondeo, yes?

So is someone gonna compile the Mondeo Pop rough guide?

^^^My job for this evening

Public response: MEH.

Public response: Dom, you're one of those guys who whines that people are better/fitter/more networked/richer than you as if there is a vast metropolitan conspiracy against your sorry, provincial, undervalued arse. Your solution: the only way to become memorable is to be hateful. Public response: MEH. When they find you as a pensioner, freeze-dried to a chair three months after your lonely death, wearing a bathrobe and dried remnants of excreta, and with more unpublish/ed/able work than Colin Wilson to burn off, nobody who was here will be very surprised AT ALL.

"Hooray for middlebrow" says Simon Reynolds in "Bring the Noise". Is Mondeo Pop the logical conclusion of what he's desperately groping about for over the course of his writings, the spark he tries and fails to find in dancehall, rave, and grime?

His problems with homophobia in dancehall are similar to the problems Mondeo Pop fans have with the misogyny of the Beautiful South, but in the end we have to overlook these things to appreciate an overall beauty of product.

Birthplace of Mondeo Pop?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JJ7oGHwMTI

Fiction Factory.

has balearic stolen mondeo's thunder?

One of the songs on the new Paul Heaton album has a 60-second burst of what seems to be the big man's attempt at 'rave music', which I found to be one of the more upsetting things I've listened to in 2010 so far.

Were Microdisney Mondeo Pop y/n

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq_F0SKFHHo

related videos of the youtube page for 'Town to Town' by Microdisney:
Curiosity Killed the Cat- Down to Earth
The Commitments- Mustang Sally
New Order- True Faith
China Crisis- Wishful Thinking
Phil Lynott- Old Town

Feel like Car Share - specifically the episode that ended with "Oh Patti" - is, in a funny way, the apotheosis of Mondeo Pop.

Save Tonight is The Passenger if the vehicle in question was a, well