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Rant Of The Day THIS RANT 24/06/98

Rant Of The Day is where I get to mouth off about whatever I feel like for however long I like. Theoretically, I'll update my whinge/opinion piece every weekday; in practice, maybe not so often.

Sing a song for Eurotrash

A CD that I've been looking to buy for quite a while, and finally obtained yesterday, is A Song For Eurotrash, a compilation of covers of well-known songs that have been entered into (and in most cases won) the Eurovision Song Contest. Inspired by the UK TV show Eurotrash, the CD was part of a broader promotional scheme that included a fake version of the contest and videos for most of the songs on it.

Essentially, I only wanted the CD for one track: the cover version of 'Waterloo' by Bananarama. Not only does this neatly merge two of my favourite musical obsessions, but it also marks the first recording by the original Bananarama lineup - Keren, Sarah and Siobahn -- since Shuv left a decade ago and formed Shakespears Sister. How cool is that?

It's interesting to note that on this version, Siobahn's Sister-era leanings are every bit as apparent as the trademark Nana sound. She sings in the throaty tones familiar to anyone who has heard 'Stay', while Sarah and Keren pursue, as ever, a more blended approach. The result is a fascinating Sister-Nana hybrid, rather than a straight reunion record, but that makes it all the more interesting, really. Siobahn is rumoured to be "assisting" on the next Nanas album, so there could be a few interesting outcomes.

I'd have happily paid $35-odd dollars just for that song, but some of the other tracks are quite impressive too. The title theme 'A Song For Eurotrash' is perverse yet catchy, Terry Hall and Sinead O'Connor duet on Dana's famous list song 'All Kinds Of Everything', and even 'Congratulations' gets a mauling. I can't help wondering why Bucks Fizz's 'Making Your Mind Up' isn't part of the tracklist, though. You'd think Oasis would have been dying to do it.


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