379 to 50: #29 “No Time” by Whiteout

Taking my personal top tunes countdown into the twenties – it’s the great lost Britpop single “No Time” by Whiteout, their debut single from 1994.

Although plenty of my top 50 favourite songs originate from artists with a broad base of tracks to choose from, I also love the appeal of records where the band in question hit gold just once, never to be repeated.  This is part of the joy of the peerless 60s garage rock compilation “Nuggets”, and the chiming melodic powerpop of “No Time” by Whiteout is another perfect example.  Whiteout have a significant footnote in Britpop history in that their brief moment in the spotlight was shared with another then upcoming band who ended up doing alright for themselves, Oasis.  Both released their debut singles early in 1994 and set out on a co-headline tour to promote in March/April that year (see poster below), as well as making their TV debuts on The Word; a show that despite its many limitations was always fantastic at capturing live music performances.

Whiteout/Oasis co-headline tour, March/April 1994

And while “Supersonic” is a firecracker of a first record, it was “No Time” that I preferred then, and still do.  The best Teenage Fanclub song they never wrote, “No Time”’s wide eyed optimism and charm win me over every time, and it’s still to hard to believe this wasn’t at least a minor hit when one considers the dregs of landfill Britpop that did make it on to TOTP at the time.  Most likely is that the early natural comparisons with Oasis didn’t help – could it all have been different if they’d toured with Shed Seven instead for example?

After “No Time”, second single “Starrclub” has its charms – notably highlighting one of their primary influences with its cheeky line that “everybody wants to be a Big Star, I’m the only one that don’t pretend” – but it was downhill after that for Whiteout.  However, when you’ve hit the heights with one song beloved by a devoted few, it’s definitely better to burn brightly for a short time, living the song’s mantra: “…no time to live for tomorrow, I’ve got to live for today…”

VIDEOS AND OTHER STUFF

• “No Time” video on YouTube
• “No Time” live on The Word (with intro by Mark Lamarr and Terry Christian)
• “No Time” is not on Spotify, so is missing from my 379 to 50: 26 to 50 playlist

NEXT: NUMBER 28