The garage revolution picks up pace. All three so-called ‘garage’ chart-toppers that we’ve met so far, though, have been light and fluffy. Garage with the edges softened. Garages that you might find on a semi-detached house in a middle class suburb (Craig David did sing about a jacuzzi, after all).
Bound 4 da Reload (Casualty), by Oxide & Neutrino (their 1st and only solo #1s)
1 week, from 30th April – 7th May 2000
Here though is some proper garage. A garage covered with graffiti on an inner-city estate. Sirens. Gun shots. The theme tune from a long-running BBC hospital drama… Okay, that last bit doesn’t sound too street, but the sample from the ‘Casualty’ theme lends this record its name. It adds a dramatic energy to parts of the song, and works interestingly well when repeated on staccato synths. And it’s the only good thing about this record…
The rest of this song is abrasive nonsense. Bound for da bound bound for da reload… is the hook, repeated over and over, against a simple two-step beat. There’s some rapping, toasting, scatting, call it what you will. There’s a jarring spoken sample from the film ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ (Ah! Shit! I’ve been shot…) I was fourteen when this came out, and yet hearing it now I feel like an old fogey. It’s borderline unlistenable.
Having said that, the sweary sample above meant that ‘Bound 4 da Reload’ received little radio play, and so this probably passed me by unnoticed at the time. It does mean that it becomes one of a handful of chart-toppers so far to have featured swearing, and only the second after The Outhere Brothers to feature an F-bomb. But we’re on the precipice of swearing in number one singles becoming commonplace. Glancing down the list I can see the imminent debut of a certain bleach-blonde rapper, which will contain more swears than any previous number one combined.
Oxide and Neutrino were members of garage/hip-hop collective So Solid Crew, a group of anywhere between nineteen and thirty singers, rappers, DJs and MCs. In just over a year the group will score their one and only chart-topper, but it is Oxide & Neutrino who struck first here. Leading me to wonder, is this the only instance of someone enjoying a solo number one before their group has had one…?
Full, un-edited version:
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Probably what attending a Road Traffic Accident sounds like to the Emergency Services. Gosh what a traumatic revival of a hidden memory.
This is unbelievably bad. There really is always room at the top, it seems.
Maolsheachlann
Not that much of a fan of this at the time, and not heard it since. I mean, in comparison to a large proportion of current urban-charting stuff it’s relatively comprehensible lyrically, and musically it’s not as annoying as it was at the time, but it’s not a classic by any stretch of the imagination. Quite happy to not hear it again oops.
Musically it has something interesting – not many TV themes sampled in pop music – but what’s interesting doesn’t necessarily make it any good!
First time commenter, longtime lurker!
This might be the first time I’ve ever heard real garage music. I’m American and I don’t think this genre ever took off in the US beyond a few random songs here and there. I say that because I know the song Gotta Get Thru This was big in the US, and that song has a similar beat to this one. But I haven’t heard many songs like this, from what I remember on top 40 radio in the US.
That said, the song was….. interesting? Not something I’d listen to again. But it was an interesting glimpse into a genre I know nothing about.
Well thanks very much for reading and commenting, and I hope you do so again soon!
Gotta Get Thru This is certainly garage, though much more to the poppy side of the genre. The 2-step drumbeat is how you can always spot a garage hit.
I can’t remember in which post I wrote this, but ‘garage’ actually started in the US, in a club in New York in the 70s, and morphed into garage-house in the US and UK garage in Britain in the 90s. The reason it’s called ‘garage’ is because the club where it started was originally a parking garage in the 1920s! Very interesting, to me anyway.
Can’t believe they would sully the “Garage” name! lol… no just not me.
I see the comment below…I was like that for a long time on people’s sites. I looked but was afraid to say anything. Me of all people…afraid to talk! Well…in person I am usually.
No this one is God-awful. It’s not just you!
I’ve been getting quite a few new commenters away from the WordPress world who seem to be stumbling across my blog, which is great. And it’s people like you help bring everyone together, by commenting and sharing!
I appreciate it Stewart!
I’m having a new Kinks style week/s…. but it’s an artist that I don’t know if you like as much. Springsteen. Would you be interested?
Would love to, but like you say I’m not that up on Springsteen… I’m fact, what I need is a week of blog posts to help me discover more about him haha. I’ll probably sit this one out. Thanks though, and do include me next time!
Ok man…no problem…got to get you introduced to a few of them! I think you would like something lol. I’ll get you next time.