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Ian Robinson · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2022 9:02 pm Post subject: Mike Read's Heritage Chart

Has anyone come across this on various outlets? Mike Read does it on whichever radio station is employing him this week but there's also a TV version on Talking Pictures TV and the That's channels.

The theory is really good - a chart for new releases by acts of a certain vintage, giving their new stuff exposure they may not usually get. I'd love to hear some of these bands and their new material on Radio 2 alongside all the old records we get.

But in practice, the thing is a mess and it's not at all clear what the criteria is or who picks the artists. The current chart includes Toyah, Robin Gibb, Tony Hadley, Soft Cell & The Pet Shop Boys and a collaboration between New Kids On The Block, Rick Astley, Salt n Pepa and En Vogue that has a great video.

But while there's no sign of Kate Bush, currently the biggest song in the world by any metric, there's room for a band called The Cathodes who've only been going 4 years! A lot of the bands do just seem like aging rockers that Mike Read has met in the pub.

The TV show is also incredibly amateurish, apparently filmed in someone's basement and edited on an Atari.

I really like the idea but I just wish someone else was running it, with a higher quality control level.

oldraver · Joined: 18 Dec 2006 Posts: 1189 Location: London

I watched a few minutes of one a week or so ago, Ian. Very amatuerish,I thought. He's in with the Talking Pictures bloke, whose name escapes me.

Mike Read has been on there for a while now, usually scrunched up on a three seater (or is it a two?) with Mr TP and a guest, filmed by an Atari or whatever.

Now, if he was to resurrect Pop Quiz...I had that on a Commodore 64!
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Ian Robinson · Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2022 12:18 pm Post subject: