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Blog: STAT ATAK: What?

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Happy New Year one and all - all does INDEED seem to be very quiet around here today, WELL DONE BONO, although I have to say things were very different overnight. I was woken from my slumber - it must have been around MIDNIGHT or something - by EXPLOSIONS and SHOUTING. I've checked on the news pages, but nothing seems to have been noted. What on EARTH could have been going on?

Anyway, today we're looking at WHAT was played during all these gigs, so here's the TOP THIRTY songs I played this year:

PositionSongGigs (%)
1The Lesson Of The Smiths55 (76.39)
2Easily Impressed45 (62.5)
3It Only Works Because You're Here44 (61.11)
3Do The Indie Kid44 (61.11)
5The Peterborough All-Saints' Wide Game Team (Group B)43 (59.72)
6Boom Shake The Room33 (45.83)
7I Did A Gig In New York30 (41.67)
8Hey Hey 16K26 (36.11)
9The Gay Train24 (33.33)
9Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid24 (33.33)
11Billy Jones Is Dead20 (27.78)
12Sod It, Let's Get Pissed19 (26.39)
13Professional, Competetent, Rocking And Tight14 (19.44)
14(theme from) My Exciting Life in ROCK13 (18.06)
15Mental Judo8 (11.11)
15My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once8 (11.11)
15We're Old And We're Tired (and we want to go home)8 (11.11)
18Payday Is The Best Day5 (6.94)
18I Come From The Fens5 (6.94)
18Red & White Sockets5 (6.94)
21(theme from) Dinosaur Planet4 (5.56)
21Back For Good4 (5.56)
21The Advent Calendar Of FACT4 (5.56)
24Work's All Right (when it's a proper job)3 (4.17)
24If You're Too Turned On3 (4.17)
24Better Things To Do3 (4.17)
24The Fight For History3 (4.17)
24Fucking Hippy3 (4.17)
24The Stores Of Not To Be3 (4.17)
24Looking At My Hands3 (4.17)


No MASSIVE surprises at the top of the chart - it's THE USUAL from gigs, rather heavily WEIGHTED towards the songs that appeared in My Exciting Life in ROCK. That said, I AM slightly surprised to find that even The Lesson Of The Smiths was only played at three quarters of gigs, and that the next few only managed to be in around 60% of them. It FELT like I was playing pretty much the same set wherever I went this year, but maybe I mixed it up a little bit more than I thought?

Also of note is that FIVE of the Top 30 are songs from the new album, which BODES well, and that there's oddments like (theme from) Dinosaur Planet LURKING near the bottom. And who know I played "Back For Good" FOUR times this year? NOT ME.

But how has this CHANGED over the years? Let's see the ALL TIME (well, since 2005 When Records Began) TOP 41!

PositionSongGigs (%)
1The Lesson Of The Smiths188 (82.1)
2Easily Impressed166 (72.49)
3The Peterborough All-Saints' Wide Game Team (Group B)136 (59.39)
4Hey Hey 16K108 (47.16)
5Boom Shake The Room105 (45.85)
6The Gay Train104 (45.41)
7It Only Works Because You're Here87 (37.99)
8Billy Jones Is Dead84 (36.68)
9Do The Indie Kid79 (34.5)
10The Fight For History50 (21.83)
11Clubbing In The Week48 (20.96)
11I Did A Gig In New York48 (20.96)
12Better Things To Do42 (18.34)
13My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once40 (17.47)
14Never Going Back To Aldi's38 (16.59)
15Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid37 (16.16)
16Red & White Sockets36 (15.72)
17Fucking Hippy34 (14.85)
18Leave My Brother Alone31 (13.54)
19Sod It, Let's Get Pissed30 (13.1)
20Things'll Be Different (when I'm in charge)29 (12.66)
21Quality Of Life Enhancement Device25 (10.92)
22The Perfect Love Song23 (10.04)
23Mental Judo20 (8.73)
24We Only Ever Meet In Church19 (8.3)
25Payday Is The Best Day18 (7.86)
26I Come From The Fens17 (7.42)
27Professional, Competetent, Rocking And Tight14 (6.11)
28(theme from) My Exciting Life in ROCK13 (5.68)
29The Advent Calendar Of FACT12 (5.24)
29Breaks In The Journey12 (5.24)
30Work's All Right (when it's a proper job)11 (4.8)
31Tell Me Something You DO Like11 (4.8)
32Dino At The Sands10 (4.37)
33We're Old And We're Tired (and we want to go home)9 (3.93)
33Born With The Century9 (3.93)
33The Symbol Of Our Nation9 (3.93)
33Chips And Cheese, Pint Of Wine9 (3.93)
34Good Luck In Your New Job8 (3.49)
34Leaning On A Lamppost8 (3.49)
39The Saturday Lunchtime Wrestlers7 (3.06)
39Looking At My Hands7 (3.06)
39Ctrl-Alt-Delete7 (3.06)


It certainly LOOKS like I've been mixing the songs around a LITTLE bit more, and you can also see the difference My Exciting Life In ROCK has made to the RANKINGS, especially pushing up some of the newer songs. But OH! Look at some of the old favourites that have pretty much DISAPPEARED from the setlists of today, like Never Going Back To Aldi's or Things'll Be Different (when I'm in charge). I used to play those ALL the time but now, hardly EVER.

And talking of songs hardly EVER played, JUST FOR FUN, let's have a look at the songs I've only played ONCE. There's a LOT of them, so first of all here's the songs what I wrote that have made a SINGLE appearance in the past four years:
Dinky Doo
Dinosaur Planet
Everything's Turning Out All Right (everything)
Good Cooking
Hell On Earth
Hey Hey 64k
Honey Honey You Work Too Hard
It Isn't Jetpacks
Never Been Superstitious
Nobody Believed It
Praise The Traffic Warden
Save A Meadow
The Ballad Of Alan Moore
The Mystery Train
The Story Of My Life
We Can Start Having Fun
We'll See What We Can Do
Where Do All The Women Go To?

There's some PROPER old favourites in that list - Good Cooking, Praise The Traffic Warden, We'll See What We Can Do and Where Do All The Women Go To? used to be STAPLES of the live set at the the turn of the century, and now they're reduced to mere CAMEOS. I must dig some of them out of the BRANE again! Some of the REST of the songs, especially those from off of A Million Ukeleles have never really had their CHANCE in The Live Arena, whilst some of them... Well, some of them are unlikely to be heard in the open ever again.

And with that in mind, here's a list of the COVER VERSIONS which I inflicted ONCE and ONCE ONLY upon a delighted/surpised/APPALLED (delete as applicable) Universe:

All Of Me
Ask
Brickbat
Country House
Do They Know It's Christmas?
Don't Dilly Dally On The Way
Dress Sexy At My Funeral
Friday 13
In The Rain
I've Just Seen A Face
Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue
St Swithin's Day
The Last Of The Gang To Die
Theme From Sparta FC
To The End
Walking In A Winter Wonderland
Who's Sorry Now?
Wondeful Christmas Time
World Without Love

And that's the FACT for today - I'm away for the weekend from tomorrow morning, so our next STAT FACTS will be, hopefully, on Monday. I'll be back at WORK then - whoo - so in keeping with the theme of EARNING we'll have a look at how the SALES went this year. Early indicators show that they were SOMEWHAT in line with The Economic Downturn!

posted 1/1/2009 by MJ Hibbett

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