[polliwog]

So, do you think Joanna is going to win this tournament?

[dwaink]

Group 1: - 'En Gallop'
Group 2: - Autumn
Group 3: - The Book Of Right-On
Group 4: - / Sadie
Group 5: - Peach, Plum, Pear
Group 6: - Emily
Group 7: - Sprout And The Bean
Group 8: - Flying A Kite
Group 9: - Jackrabbits
Group 10: - This Side of The Blue
Group 11: - Kingfisher
Group 12: - On A Good Day
Group 13: - Sawdust & Diamonds
Group 14: - Bridges And Balloons
Group 15: - Colleen
Group 16: - Cosmia
Group 17: - Easy
Group 18: - Does Not Suffice
Group 19: - Good Intentions Paving Co.
Group 20: - Esme
Group 21: - Only Skin
Group 22: - Swansea
Group 23: - Soft As Chalk
Group 24: - Go Long
Group 25: - Inflammatory Writ
Group 26: - In California
Group 27: - Have One On Me
Group 28: - Monkey & Bear
Group 29: - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
Group 30: - Baby Birch
Group 31: - What we have known
Group 32: - '81

[Steve]

Dwaink - many thanks for your votes.
That has made at least one of the groups very interesting ...

[Steve]

Anyone intending to cast a First Round vote, please note that there are only 14 hours and 16 minutes left to do so, after which I will post the outcomes, a short commentary, and the draw for Round Two.

[YsStreet]

Group 1: - En Gallop
Group 2: - Three Little Babes
Group 3: - The Book Of Right-On
Group 4: - Sadie
Group 5: - Peach, Plum, Pear
Group 6: - Emily
Group 7: - Sprout And The Bean
Group 8: - Flying A Kite
Group 9: - Erin
Group 10: - This Side of The Blue
Group 11: - Kingfisher
Group 12: - On A Good Day
Group 13: - Sawdust & Diamonds
Group 14: - Bridges And Balloons
Group 15: - Colleen
Group 16: - Cosmia
Group 17: - Easy
Group 18: - The Fray
Group 19: - Good Intentions Paving Co.
Group 20: - Yarn And Glue
Group 21: - Only Skin
Group 22: - Swansea
Group 23: - Ribbon Bows
Group 24: - Go Long
Group 25: - Inflammatory Writ
Group 26: - In California
Group 27: - Have One On Me
Group 28: - Monkey & Bear
Group 29: - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
Group 30: - Baby Birch
Group 31: - What we have known
Group 32: - '81

[Steve]

Thank you, YsStreet, for your vote - the last one to be accepted for Round One - which came in 1¾ hours before the deadline. So it WAS a good idea to keep the polling booths open for two whole weeks, I guess.
Votes are now closed for Round One.
My apologies for not getting the results and next round draw up yesterday (GMT) - something came up, but I am working on these now and should get them here shortly. After checking the board this morning, I was pleased to see that no-one had voted between 3pm (GMT) yesterday and now, which may have given me a dilemma.

[Steve]

It was great that so many people took the trouble to participate in the First Round, even though many of the groups were virtually ‘foregone conclusions’: I hope that your interest remains as high now that we are getting to the stage where more difficult choices have to be made.

I’ve been thanking everyone as we go along so far, partly because I am genuinely gratified about the success LawnsOfDawns’ idea (and my implementation of it) seems to be having so far, and also as encouragement and to clear up any little anomalies as they occur. (But also because I keep checking back and want to stay as ‘hands on’ as possible). Perhaps I will stop doing this from now on in – but it doesn’t mean I am any less delighted to receive your input. And of course if any queries or quirks crop up, I’ll try to get straight on to them and seek out others’ opinions.

Twenty-three people took the trouble to vote, which was great. In a few cases, a voter opted for a two-way tie in one of the groups, and in these cases I awarded 0.1 of a vote – enough to split a tie in the overall tallies, but insufficient for a number of such votes to add up to one whole unequivocal vote, as per my original stated intention.

Turning to the Groups themselves, it’s fair to say that there were not too many surprises, and in general the seedings were justified. The higher seeded songs were matched up against those less highly regarded, and came through most comfortably, and those where lower seeded songs were paired gave somewhat closer results.

That said, two of the groups (3 and 9) did not go according to the seedings, and as a result two songs that were earlier mentioned as voters’ favourites will have to proceed only as ‘best losers’. Another, Group 8, was in the balance right up to the end, before the wonderful Flying A Kite (ooops, I am not supposed to express my personal preferences here, am I?) finally overtook You And Me, Bess. In two of those cases, earlier songs (pre-MEM) were defeated or run close by songs from HOOM – Erin and Flying A Kite against Jackrabbits and You And Me, Bess. There are two possible interpretations of this: either the two HOOM songs are “growers” that were not especially well liked when the previous surveys were taken (and, I must admit, have yet to charm me); or the early EPs are not so well known and hence overlooked by some voters. If the latter is the case, I really would urge you to try to dig these out (at least one can be heard on YouTube, probably both) as both are enjoyable. The other case was the reverse: The Book Of Right-On beat Occident, and to me the interpretation is very likely that the new live version of the former has given the older MEM song a new lease of life. Which reminds me – when placing your votes, think of your favourite version of each song: it does not have to be the one on the official album etc.

All of Joanna’s solo songs – even Prepared Harp Improv. – received at least one vote, except for Angel. That surprised me a bit, as I thought Angel the best of those obscurities, and although it was up against the lovely Easy, the latter is an unusual song that I suspected may lose a vote or two. Only five of the collaborations received a vote, but three of these got more than one.

I am pleased that we’ve decided to give ‘second chances’ to the best of the group runners-up, and for this round at least I have decided to bring forward as many as 16 songs. This means that each Second Round group will have three songs to choose from. The first two will be listed in a random order, and the third song will have a “*” by its title to denote it is on its last chance: it will be eliminated if it doesn’t win its group. As mentioned, no second-chancer will be matched up against a song that has already beaten it. As it turned out, exactly 16 losing songs received more than one vote (in one case, 1.1 votes was enough), and so were reprieved into the second round. Two more received exactly one vote, so we have to say farewell to Do You Know Who You Are? [GS] (voted for by me – just to show there’s no favouritism!), and one of the Joanna covers, Man’s Road. (If I Were [VB] and We Are Doctor [P] both appear in Round 2, having collected 2 and 1.1 votes respectively, even though they only finished third in their groups).

My plan from here on in is to allow the groups in subsequent round to have a maximum of three songs in each. As in the First Round, the Groups will be presented in a random order, and the ordering of the songs within groups will be as above (with reprieved songs listed last).

A question I was faced with was – ‘Should I alter the seedings as we go along?’ On the one hand, they were rather rough-and-ready and perhaps a bit out of date. But on the other, results from the groupings are not a very comprehensive guide, as songs are paired up with uneven opponents. I think I will just have to play that by ear, leaving in a reasonable level of randomness, but enough of the seedings to try to ensure the heavyweights don’t meet too early.

Timings: Eighteen people voted in the first five days of posting Round One. After that, five voted in the remaining 9 days. For Round Two, then, I will keep the limit to two weeks, but I would be interested to hear from everyone how frequently they visit the site, and therefore how long they would like later rounds to be open for. In particular, it would be interesting to know why the later voters did vote late: do you only visit infrequently; did you want to use all the available time to make up your minds; were you anxious to keep your vote secret for as long as possible ... ?

[Steve]

The results are listed below. The first three columns show the number of votes cast for each of the songs in the group, and these songs are then listed in their order within the group, and separated by a “/”. The group winner is thus named first, and is also highlighted in bold. The eliminated songs are shown in italics. Those shown in normal type are the 16 ‘reprieved’ songs.

Group 01: 23·0– 0·0 ... ‘En Gallop’ / Mountain [GS]
Group 02: 16·0– 7·0–0·0 Autumn / Three Little Babes / R.U. In [P]
Group 03: 20·0– 3·0–0·0 The Book Of Right-On / Occident / Pow Strikes Pow Implosion [NC]
Group 04: 19·1– 3·1–0·0 Sadie / Rock Bottom Riser [S] / Let Go [P]
Group 05: 17·0– 6·0–0·0 Peach, Plum, Pear / Cassiopeia / Wake Up Instead [P]
Group 06: 23·0– 0·0–0·0 Emily / Get Wolf Boy And Get In Context [NC] / Orange Peter [P]
Group 07: 22·0– 1·0–0·0 Sprout And The Bean / Man's Road / Hawk Feeds You To Feed Itself [NC]
Group 08: 11·0–10·0–2·0 Flying A Kite / You And Me, Bess / If I Were [VB]
Group 09: 13·1– 9·1–0·0 Jackrabbits / Erin / No Style [P]
Group 10: 21·0– 1·0–0·0 This Side Of The Blue / Lifetime [RL] / Orderly Manor [P]
Group 11: 23·0– 0·0–0·0 Kingfisher / Exit [P] / Little Picture Of You [KB]
Group 12: 19·1– 2·0–1·1 On A Good Day / Ring The Living Bell / We Are Doctor [P]
Group 13: 23·0– 0·0 ... Sawdust & Diamonds / I The Province [P]
Group 14: 19·0– 4·0 ... Bridges And Balloons / No Provenance
Group 15: 22·0– 1·0–0·0 Colleen / Do You Know Who You Are [GS] / Nonrum Nonproblem [NC]
Group 16: 23·0– 0·0–0·0 Cosmia / Eleven Continents [RL] / Secret [P]
Group 17: 23·0– 0·0–0·0 Easy / Angel / Colorchains Of Inner Space [NC]
Group 18: 18·0– 5·0–0·0 Does Not Suffice / The Fray / Ill Pearls [NC]
Group 19: 23·0– 0·0–0·0 Good Intentions Paving Co. / Amerilie [V] / Intermission [P]
Group 20: 17·0– 6·0 ... Esme / Yarn And Glue
Group 21: 23·0– 0·0–0·0 Only Skin / About Me [P] / Nuflesh, Old Thirst [NC]
Group 22: 23·0– 0·0–0·0 Swansea / Already Gone [P] / I'm Already Gone [P]
Group 23: 15·0– 8·0–0·0 Soft As Chalk / Ribbon Bows / The Honey, The Power, The Light [GS]
Group 24: 22·0– 0·0 ... Go Long / Franks Vs Frank [NC]
Group 25: 21·0– 2·0–0·0 Inflammatory Writ / Prepared Harp Improv. / If You Can Afford It [P]
Group 26: 23·0– 0·0 ... In California / Rice Precipitation [NC]
Group 27: 23·0– 0·0–0·0 Have One On Me / Another Disaster [P] / Setting The Bushes On Fire [NC]
Group 28: 23·0– 0·0–0·0 Monkey & Bear / Against The Sky [VB] / Oh Canada [P]
Group 29: 22·0– 0·0–0·0 Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie / Good Heart, Money And Rain [MB] / Never Come Home [P]
Group 30: 23·0– 0·0–0·0 Baby Birch / Don't Make Things [P] / Through The Trees [RL]
Group 31: 19·0– 3·0–0·0 What We Have Known / Little Wing / Swift Nude [P]
Group 32: 14·0– 9·0–0·0 '81 / Ca' The Yowes To The Knowes / One Horse [P]

There were four groups that attracted one fewer vote, presumably because the voter could not make up their minds which to vote for, disliked them all, or was unfamiliar with them all, so the votes in groups 10, 24, 29 and 31 only sum to 22, not 23 (after adjusting for the 0.1s, which effectively count as half a vote for this purpose). That means that a grand total of 732 votes were cast.

[Steve]

Group 1: - Soft As Chalk / Monkey & Bear / The Fray*
Group 2: - This Side Of The Blue / What We Have Known / You And Me, Bess*
Group 3: - Sawdust & Diamonds / Autumn / Occident*
Group 4: - Go Long / Does Not Suffice / Little Wing*
Group 5: - Flying A Kite / Swansea / No Provenance*
Group 6: - Colleen / Sadie / Ca' The Yowes To The Knowes*
Group 7: - On A Good Day / Kingfisher / Three Little Babes*
Group 8: - Inflammatory Writ / Baby Birch / Erin*
Group 9: - Sprout And The Bean / Good Intentions Paving Co. / Ribbon Bows*
Group 10: - Only Skin / Jackrabbits / We Are Doctor [P]*
Group 11: - Bridges And Balloons / In California / Prepared Harp Improv.*
Group 12: - En Gallop / Peach, Plum, Pear / Rock Bottom Riser [S]*
Group 13: - Have One On Me / Esme / Yarn And Glue*
Group 14: - The Book Of Right-On / Cosmia / If I Were [VB]*
Group 15: - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie / Easy / Cassiopeia*
Group 16: - '81 / Emily / Ring The Living Bell*


As before, please select one song from each group as your preference, and post your list back into this thread by 12:00 noon (BST) on Friday 1st April 2011. If you can't decide between two songs, please state the two. If you've no preference, or can't decide between all three, leave that group blank. The first two songs in each group listed above are in a random order, thr third song (marked "*") has been reprieved as a 'best loser' from Round One. A best loser cannot go through as best loser for a second consecutive round, and so must win its group to stay in the tournament. The groups are drawn into a random order.

Timings: I need your guidance to assist with the timings of future rounds. Eighteen people voted in the first five days of posting Round One. After that, just five voted in the remaining 9 days. For Round Two, then, I will keep the limit to two weeks, but I would be interested to hear from everyone how frequently they visit the site, and therefore how long they would like later rounds to be open for. In particular, it would be interesting to know why the later voters did vote late: do you only visit infrequently; did you want to use all the available time to make up your minds; were you anxious to keep your vote secret for as long as possible ... ? Do we risk losing interest if the rounds are open too long, or is the greater risk that hastening through the rounds will disenfranchise less frequent visitors?

[Jordan~]

Group 1: - Monkey & Bear
Group 2: - This Side Of The Blue
Group 3: - Sawdust & Diamonds
Group 4: - Does Not Suffice
Group 5: - No Provenance
Group 6: - Colleen
Group 7: - Kingfisher
Group 8: - Inflammatory Writ
Group 9: - Good Intentions Paving Co.
Group 10: - Only Skin
Group 11: - In California
Group 12: - Peach, Plum, Pear
Group 13: - Have One On Me
Group 14: - Cosmia
Group 15: - Easy
Group 16: - Emily

Much harder to choose some of them this time!

[Steve]

Thank you, Jordan - our first respondent in Round Two.
And yes - I sketched out my votes and have found that several of the groups will require a careful "listen-off" on a quiet night to make sure I get the choice that's right for me. It should get harder and harder to choose as we go along...

[ursulabear]

Group 1: - Monkey & Bear
Group 2: - What We Have Known
Group 3: - Sawdust & Diamonds
Group 4: - Go Long
Group 5: - Flying A Kite
Group 6: - Colleen
Group 7: - Kingfisher
Group 8: - Inflammatory Writ /Erin
Group 9: - Sprout And The Bean
Group 10: - Only Skin
Group 11: -In California
Group 12: - En Gallop
Group 13: - Have One On Me
Group 14: - The Book Of Right-On
Group 15: - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
Group 16: - Emily

[under a CPell]

Group 1: - Soft As Chalk
Group 2: - You And Me, Bess*
Group 3: -
Group 4: - Go Long
Group 5: - No Provenance*
Group 6: - Sadie
Group 7: - Kingfisher
Group 8: - Erin*
Group 9: - Good Intentions Paving Co.
Group 10: - Only Skin
Group 11: - In California
Group 12: - Peach, Plum, Pear
Group 13: - Have One On Me
Group 14: - Cosmia
Group 15: - Easy
Group 16: - '81 / Emily

Much, much harder to choose now than in the first round!

[doublewuzzy]

Lots of ties in mine...

Group 1: - Monkey & Bear
Group 2: - You And Me, Bess*
Group 3: - Sawdust & Diamonds
Group 4: - Does Not Suffice
Group 5: - Swansea
Group 6: - Sadie
Group 7: - Kingfisher
Group 8: - Baby Birch
Group 9: - Sprout And The Bean
Group 10: - Only Skin
Group 11: - Bridges And Balloons / In California
Group 12: - En Gallop / Peach, Plum, Pear
Group 13: - Have One On Me
Group 14: - Cosmia
Group 15: - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie / Easy
Group 16: - '81 / Emily

[Jessie]

Group 1: - Monkey & Bear
Group 2: - You And Me, Bess
Group 3: - Sawdust & Diamonds
Group 4: - Go Long
Group 5: - Swansea
Group 6: - Colleen
Group 7: - Kingfisher
Group 8: - Baby Birch
Group 9: - Good Intentions Paving Co.
Group 10: - Only Skin
Group 11: - In California
Group 12: - En Gallop
Group 13: - Esme
Group 14: - Cosmia
Group 15: - Easy
Group 16: - Emily

[ursulabear]

I think Only Skin is going to be the ultimate winner.

[polliwog]

A lovely, lovely song, Only Skin. I can see it as the winner, but then I could see others there too. I could never choose a single winner. There are so many that are so good.

[beverley]

Group 1: - Monkey & Bear
Group 2: - You And Me, Bess
Group 3: - Sawdust & Diamonds
Group 4: - Go Long/ Does Not Suffice
Group 5: - Flying A Kite
Group 6: - Sadie
Group 7: - Kingfisher
Group 8: - Baby Birch
Group 9: - Good Intentions Paving Co.
Group 10: - Only Skin
Group 11: - In California
Group 12: - En Gallop
Group 13: - Have One On Me
Group 14: - Cosmia
Group 15: - Easy
Group 16: - Emily

[claire]

Group 1: - Soft As Chalk
Group 2: - You And Me, Bess*
Group 3: - Sawdust & Diamonds
Group 4: - Go Long
Group 5: - Swansea
Group 6: - Sadie
Group 7: - Kingfisher
Group 8: - Baby Birch
Group 9: - Good Intentions Paving Co.
Group 10: - Only Skin
Group 11: - Bridges And Balloons / In California
Group 12: - Rock Bottom Riser [S]*
Group 13: - Have One On Me
Group 14: - Cosmia
Group 15: - Easy
Group 16: - Emily

[milkteeth]

Group 1: - Monkey & Bear
Group 2: - You And Me, Bess
Group 3: - Sawdust & Diamonds
Group 4: - Does Not Suffice
Group 5: - Swansea
Group 6: - Sadie
Group 7: - On A Good Day
Group 8: - Baby Birch
Group 9: - Good Intentions Paving Co.
Group 10: - Only Skin
Group 11: - In California
Group 12: - Rock Bottom Riser [S]
Group 13: - Esme
Group 14: - Cosmia
Group 15: - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
Group 16: - Emily