Second part of the 1998 Festive Fifty, broadcast live from Peel Acres. 'This time, it's just Anita the producer, meself, no engineers at all, so we're not nervous, I want you to believe that. The Pig doesn't come and listen to these programmes in here, as you imagine that she might do, but sits in the kitchen and listens to them coming out of the radio, as she would do if I was in London.'
John laments the absence of a new Dick Dale LP in 1998, so plays a track from an old one.
He politely rejects a suggestion made by a listener concerning the introduction of a weighted voting system for the Festive Fifty, involving the consideration of things like number of releases, as too complicated, 'but a pretty idea nonetheless.'
Sheila introduces FF #20, possibly under the influence of the champagne that has just been opened.
Recently a continous section of the show including the Festive 50 rundown was made available in higher quality.
(JP: 'In the course of that, my tea arrived, which is very welcome, and I shall be eating it in the course of the next two or three records, well, one record actually, if I eat as quickly as I do normally.')
(JP: 'In previous years...one or two bands dominated the Festive Fifty. There was the year that the Smiths had something like 11 tracks, and the Fall had quite a few in there, and the Wedding Present and others. Actually, David Gedge is about the only person that I could phone up and immediately be able to tell me exactly what had happened, but I won't do that, because I'm sure he's probably having a quiet night in. Perhaps he isn't, perhaps he's having a noisy evening out. The point is that in this year's Festive Fifty, I can tell you this, there have been six artistes or groups that have got two in there, and one only with three, so you can guess who that might be.')
22: Spiritualized, 'Oh Happy Day' (live from Meltdown 98 at the Royal Festival Hall) [2]
(At this point, John ponders the meaning of the word 'mook'. It apparently means either a disagreeable or unpleasant person, a Japanese contraction of 'magazine' and 'book', or a multicoloured Australian stone. The author of this page thanks Google Search for this enlightenment.)