Thursday 21 February 2013

Dreadzone 'Little Britain'

Chart Peak: 20

YouTube

Greg, Tim and Leo scored their breakthrough Top 20 hit with 'Little Britain'... Dreadzone "orbit the world of music, scanning the positive elements to feedback into a unique sound that reflects cultural diversity in the UK..."

As it turned out, this was to be the only Top 40 success for the Big Audio Dynamite spin-off act, although they had several other hits in the lower reaches of the chart and retain a significant following to this day, seeming almost more like a movement than a band. Their one crossover to the mainstream is not necessarily that obviously commercial a track: it's largely instrumental (a vocal version exists but it wasn't the hit) and based around classical samples overlaid with noises various other types. There's a sound at 2:29 that's very like a loon calling, for example. With the dialogue from satirical film If... ("Britain today is a powerhouse") there's obviously something of a mocking intent, something which doesn't quite fit in with the stereotyped image of the mid-1990s "Cool Britannia" era, but there again we were still in the back end of the John Major government at this point. Of course it's likely that many buyers didn't pick up on the political intent at all and just thought it was a good tune - as indeed it is. It still seems the sort of thing that would only have been a hit at a particular time though.

Available on: Second Light (2012 - Remaster)

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