Ant & Dec 'Shout'

Chart Peak: 10
YouTube

Released on 3rd March '97, 'Shout' looks certain to become Ant McPartlin and Dec(lan) Donnelly's 12th Top 20 hit in barely 3 years... They have been described as a cross between Reeves & Mortimer and Zig & Zag (!)

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you might be faintly surprised to learn that the only two song from it I have a physical single of are this and 'Beetlebum'. I was slightly surprised there weren't more of them myself, really. But as for my possession of this single at all, well, that's nothing anomalous. You can probably see in the image that I didn't pay full price and my purchase of the single itself was mainly out of curiosity about Steve Lamacq's remix on the B-side. I already knew the song from the album though because my brother had it; both of us had rather a soft spot for Ant & Dec. As dabbling actors, they always seemed to be having more fun being pop stars than most, distancing themselves from the other boy bands who insisted they were serious RnB groups.

By the time the duo had reverted to their own names they'd embraced Britpop more than any of their peers , presumably because this was nearer their own taste than the watered-down swingbeat of their earlier hits. 'Shout' goes a bit further by adding a bassline after the fashion of 'Walk On The Wild Side' and stinging fuzz guitar as well as the slightly odd lyric which the boys themselves presumably had a hand in. It's a slightly odd mix but an enjoyable pop record. It's just a pity that they followed up with the dull ballad 'Falling' and then retired from pop, if we forget the England 2002 single. Which we probably should.

Also appearing on: Now 31 [as PJ & Duncan], 35 Available on: Ant & Dec - The Essential Collection