I've Done It Again

Left it almost a year between postings. I know there's only me reads it anyway but occasionally (very) it does me good to revisit this cold and lonely place.

Speaking of cold (seamless link) I've made a playlist on Spotify to 'celebrate' the cold weather we've been having for what seems like the last year. I think I might use the blog to post some of my playlists (and maybe other people's too) on Spotify. If you don't know Spotify it's really worth getting hold of. It's like a great big Jukebox you can play on your computer (or your iPhone if you're upmarket). Not all big artists are on there (Beatles, Dylan, Stones to name three big ones) but there is plenty more to listen to. I don't know if you still need an invitiation to get it (let me know if you do as it tells me I have 17 left) but it's worth the effort. I pay the premium account so I can get it on the iPhone but if you get the free version it has an advert every five or six tracks for about thirty seconds. A small price to pay.

Anyway, here's my 'Cold Cut' playlist. If you cut and paste it, don't use Firefox to do so as for some reason it doesn't work.

Cold Cuts

Best option is to copy the URL for this page into IE or Google Chrome then click the link.

Great Gigs - Gaslight Anthem and Magazine

I've been to two great gigs in the past couple of weeks - both at Manchester Academy. The first was The Gaslight Anthem supported by Frank Turner and Polar Bear Club.

Polar Bear Club were ok. They reminded me a bit of Gallows but I'm sure my elder son would disagree. Frank Turner I saw supporting The Levellers before Christmas and was impressed then. Since then I've listened to a lot of his stuff and got to like it a lot so it was even better to see him knowing most of the songs. He is obviously influenced by Billy Bragg, and like Bill he mixes politics and love to great effect. I recommend him highly and will be back to see him when he tours to promote his next album.

The Gaslight Anthem is a group I got into last year when their second album, The '59 Sound, came out. I've since got into the first, Sink Or Swim and can also recommend the EP Senor and the Queen. They played most of the second album and a good selection from the other two releases and they were extremely good. The crowd was very receptive and there were a number of crowdsurfers, including number one son. They are from New Jersey and have obviously taken a lot from that State's most famous modern musical legend, Bruce Springsteen. They have a punk ethic it seems, allied with an appreciation of classic rock and it's a winning combination. Another band I will be back to see.

Last night I went to see one of my favourite ever bands, the recently reformed (for a few dates only) Magazine. The line-up was one of the early classic ones with the exception of the deceased guitarist John McGeoch. His guitar sound was one of the key elements to Magazine's sound and I was interested to hear how his replacement Noko, late of Luxuria and Apollo 440, would handle it. I need have had no worries as the whole thing sounded incredible.

They started with what I would say is the best opener I've ever experienced - a stunning version of The Light Pours Out Of Me from the album Real Life. It really was that good and theey had a lot to live up to after such a start. Fortunately the whole gig kept up the quality and they all seemed to be really enjoying it, which transmitted itself to the audience. We will all quibble about what wasn't in the set - I would have liked to hear Feed The Enemy but it was all great material. The show finished with, what else, Shot By Both Sides, then they were back for a couple of encores finshing the whole set with a storming version of Beefheart's I Love You Big Dummy.

The performance took my breath away - it was worth the wait of nearly 30 years since I last saw them and they honestly sounded as good as, if not better than, ever. What a night.

Drive To Work 20 Jan

1. Woodstock - Joni Mitchell (Hits)
2. Haunted - The Pogues (Just Look Them … Box Set)
3. I Go To Sleep - The Pretenders (The Singles)
4. Videotape - Radiohead (In Rainbows)
5. Melancholy Soldiers - The Skids (The Very Best of …)
6. My Three Sons - Elvis Costello and the Imposters (Momofuku)
7. I Walk On Gilded Splinters - Paul Weller (Live at the BBC)
8. Neonlicht - Kraftwerk (Die Mensch-Maschine)
9. Sweet Little Sixteen - Chuck Berry (The Chess Story Box Set)
10. Wholly Holy - Marvin Gaye (What's Going On Deluxe Edition)
11. If Music could Talk - The Clash (Sandinista)
12. I Can't See Myself Leaving You - Aretha Franklin (Queen Of Soul The Best of)
13. With Or without You - U2 (The Joshua Tree)
14. Ready For Drowning - Manic Street Preachers (This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours)
15. A Hold Of You - Lambchop (OH (Ohio))
16. Feel - Big Star (#1 Record/Radio City)
17. Mr Window Pane - The Stairs (Mexican R'n'B)

Fave Track - Sweet Little Sixteen
Track that sounds even better in German than in English - Neonlicht

Gym 19 Jan

1. Send A Picture Of Mother - Johnny Cash (Live at Folsom Prison)
2. Happy - Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins (Rabbit Fur Coat)
3. Girls Don't Like It - The Undertones (The Undertones)
4. Billericay Dickie (Live) - Ian Dury and the Blockheads (Do It Yourself Special Edition)
5. Weather To Fly - Elbow (The Seldom Seen Kid)
6. This Year's Girl - Elvis Costello and the Attractions (This Year's Model)
7. Down The Big Road Blues - Lucinda Williams (Car Wheels On A Gravel Road)
8. Russian R'n'B (The World Shall Not Be Saved) - The Stairs (Mexican R'n'B)
9. Bang A Gong (Get It On) (Live) - Blondie (Parallel Lines Reissue)
10. Adultery - Scars (Fast Product)
11. Seven Seas of Rhye - Queen (Greatest Hits)
12. East Easy Rider - Julian Cope (Peggy Suicide)
13. Think For a Minute - The Housemartins (Now That's What I Call Quite Good)
14. Big Shot (Live) - The Beat (Dance Craze)
15. Kids - MGMT (Oracular Spectacular)
16. Better Decide Which Side You're On - Tom Robinson Band (Power In The Darkness)
17. Cheated - The Beat (Wha'ppen)
18. Moving The River - Prefab Sprout (Steve McQueen)

Fave Track - This Year's Girl
Forgotten 'Classic' - Adultery

Drive To Work 15 Jan

1. Psykick Dancehall No 2 - The Fall (Dragnet Expanded Edition)
2.. Bush Tea - Lee "Scratch" Perry (Muzik City: The Story of Trojan)
3. Boom Boom - Dr Feelgood (Down By The Jetty Expanded Edition)
4. Right Here Right Now - Fatboy Slim (The Anthems)
5. Blue In Green - Miles Davis (Kind of Blue)
6. Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding - Elton John (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road)
7. So - Soft Cell (Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret Special Edition)
8. Crack In My Wall - The Yo Yo's (Pebbles vol 14-15)
9. Not Ready To Love - Rufus Wainwright (Release The Stars)
10. Drug Drug Druggy - Manic Street Preachers (Gold Against The Soul)
11. Don't Stop - The Rolling Stones (Forty Licks)
12. Sunset - Roxy Music (Stranded)
13. Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve (Urban Hymns)
14. Streams of Whiskey - The Pogues (Just Look Them In The Eye ... Box Set)
15. Agnus Dei - Rufus Wainwright (Want Two)
16. Still Life - Kirsty MacColl (The Best of ...)
17. Curse of Love - The Pogues (Hell's Ditch Remastered Edition)
18. Steppin' Out - Michelle Shocked (The Texas Campfire Tapes)
19. You - Five Thirty (The Brit Box)
20. Avocado Baby - The Wave Pictures (Instant Coffee Baby)

Fave track of the journey: Psykick Dancehall No. 2
"I don't like jazz but I like this" track - Blue In Green

Drive Back from Work after Job Interview

1. Dory Previn - Camera Obscura (Let's Get Out of This Country)
2. Living In Fame - The Clash (Sandinista)
3. Small World - Roddy Frame (Surf)
4. Burning Down The House (Live) - Stop Making Sense Expanded Edition)
5. This Perfect Day - The Saints (NME Classics)
6. Longtime - EMF (Schubert Dip)
7. The Club - Nick Lowe (At My Age)
8. Girl of an Age - EMF (Schubert Dip)
9. Little Red Rooster - Howlin' Wolf (The Chess Story)
10. Don't Look Back - Bruce Springsteen (Tracks)
11. Southern Kind of Life - Kasey Chambers (The Captain)
12. Maybellene - Chuck Berry (The Chess Story)
13. The Great Beautician In The Sky - Magazine (Real Life)
14. Punk Boy - Ash (1977 - Deluxe Edition)
15. Heart and Soul - Joy Division (Closer)
16. Callbacks - We Are Scientists (With Love and Squalor)
17. Cadillac Ranch (Live) - Bruce Springsteen (Live 1975 - 1985)
18. Seven - James (Fresh As A Daisy, The Singles)
19. Somebody Remembers The Rose (Live) - Whiskeytown (Strangers' Almanac Deluxe Edition)

Absolute Classic Song - Little Red Rooster
Best Theme Tune To An Underrated TV Show - Small World

The Soundtrack to my Drive to Work for a New Job Interview

1. You're Hard - Half Man Half Biscuit (Four Lads Who Shook The Wirral)
2. Postcard of a Painting - Maximo Park (A Certain Trigger)
3. Teenage Kicks - The Undertones (1-2-3-4 Punk Box Set)
4. Here Come The Warm Jets - Brian Eno (Here Come The Warm Jets)
5. (Don't Go Back To) Rockville - R.E.M. (Best of the IRS Years)
6. Salute Your Solution - The Raconteurs (Consolers of the Lonely)
7. Stand Up Comic Instructions - The Style Council (Our Favourite Shop)
8. Kevin Carter (live) - Manic Street Preachers (Everything Must Go - Deluxe Edition)
9. Moby Dick - Led Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin II)
10. Prettiest Eyes - The Beautiful South (Carry On Up The Charts)
11. Factory - Martha Wainwright (Martha Wainwright)
12. One More Night - Bob Dylan (Nashville Skyline)
13. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat - Bob Dylan (Blonde on Blonde)
14. Boat Train - The Pogues (Just Look Them In The Eye and Say Pogue Mahone! Box Set)
15. There She Goes - The La's (The Brit Box)
16. Motion Pictures - Neil Young (On The Beach)
17. Someone Keeps Moving My Chair - They Might Be Giants (Flood)
18. A Night To Remember - The Men They Couldn't Hang (Night of a Thousand Candles)
19. I'm Cramped - The Cramps (Songs The Lord Taught Us)
20. Teenage Kicks - The Undertones (An Anthology)
21. The Loved - Paul Weller (Wild Wood Deluxe Edition)

I don't believe in omens but to have two of my Top 10 tunes in there, and for the number one favourite to be played twice put me in a good mood.

Two Top 10 Tunes - Teenage Kicks and There She Goes
My, but that's dated badly - Stand Up Comic Instructions

Clearing The Kitchen after Yesterday's Christmas Dinner Mess

1. To Survive - Joan As Policewoman (To Survive)
2. Poison In A Pretty Pill - Crass (Penis Envy)
3. I Had A Dream - Audience (Life On Mars Soundtrack)
4. Dub Fi Gwan - King Tubby & The Aggrovators (Heavyweight Sound)
5. Trying To Make A Living - Bobby Saxton (The Chess Story)
6. Singer Songwriter - Okkervil River (The Stand Ins)
7. Watefall - Stoney (The Saturday Sessions)
8. Lose This Skin - The Clash (Sandinista)
9. Shout - The Isley Brothers (Soul Deep - The Story of Black Popular Music)
10. Radio - Teenage Fanclub (4766 Seconds A Short Cut to Teenage Fanclub)
11. Council Estate - Tricky (Knowle West Boy)
12. The Machman - Gary Numan (Replicas)
13. Grey Room - Damien Rice (9)
14. Disorder (live) - Joy Division (Still)
15. Suitcase In My Hand - Ry Cooder (My Name Is Buddy)
16. Sly Times - Pele (Fireworks)
17. Porterville - Creedence Clearwater Revival (Collected)
18. Out On The Tiles - Led Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin III)
19. How Can I - Brenda Holloway (A Cellarful of Motown)
20. Pretty In Pink - Psychedelic Furs (All of This and Nothing)

Fave Track - Singer Songwriter
Best Track Sung from the viewpoint of a cat - Suitcase In My Hand

Return Journey iPod

1. Heather - The Wedding Present (Seamonsters)
2. Turn Around (Alternate Version) - Whiskeytown (Strangers Almanac)
3. Granadaland - The Wedding Present (Peel Sessions)
4. The Light Is Always Green - The Housemartins (Now That's What I Call Quite Good)
5. The Maker - Martha Wainwright (Martha Wainwright)
6. Julie Ocean - The Undertones (True Confessions A's and B's)
7. Albuquerque - Neil Young (Tonight's The Night)
8. Shake That Rat - Nick Lowe (Jesus of Cool 30th Anniversary Edition)
9. Walls Come Tumbling Down - Style Council (Hit Parade)
10. Love Is The Drug - Grace Jones (The Collection)
11. Stone's Throw Away - The Style Council (Our Favourite Shop)
12. Either Way - Wilco (Sky Blue Sky)
13. Fans - Kings of Leon (Because of the Times)
14. The Moneymaker - Rilo Kiley (Under the Blacklight)
15. Cool Operator - Delroy Wilson (Cool Operator)
16. Love is a Five Letter Word - James Phelps (The Chess Story)
17. The Thin Air - Magazine (Secondhand Daylight)
18. The Love Song - Au Pairs (Peel Sessions)

Favourite track of the journey - Julie Ocean
The 'Oh I'd forgotten about that track' track - Fans