Years aren't Novels but December's feel like last chapters

It's December on Sunday, and busy as I will be then with hauling out the advent calendar, I thought I'd write a pre-emptive blog post. I didn't think I'd blogged much this year, but a quick glance at the side bar sees that I've blogged slightly more than last year, and pretty consistently over the last couple of years - once a week, and then a few.The last three years I've travelled a lot with work - thirty three trips by my rough calculation - which might have something to do with the numbers coming down from when I blogged every few days. Though I sometimes wonder, when looking at Facebook debates, what role the blog has nowadays. I find I like having a bit more of a considered approach to a subject than in a FB status - ironic, really, as Blogs started as a way to be quicker and less formal than the essay. The other thing is that FB is "public" but only to your network whilst Blogger lasts out there in the real world.

The poetry community seems to prefer FB than blogs to comment -and I've sometimes wondered why. Hermetic sealing? A tendency for brevity? (Though you should see the length of the posts.) Ironically, I don't actually see a massive amount of UK poetry blogs out there. I suppose that though anyone can have a blog, by keeping one going you do pretend to some sort of "authority", though from my own Point of View, I don't think I've ever set myself up to comment on each and every literary issue out there. George Szirtes, Katy Evans-Bush and Todd Swift, practising poets all, are the longrunning blogs I still go to for any sort of poetry summing up. Occasional blogger only, but always thought provoking, is Steven Waling, who, like me uses it as a bit of an extension of his FB musing; whilst Michelle McGrane's "Peony Moon" does the very simple thing of publishing contemporary poets on a regular basis.

Plenty more places to go for the poets, poetry and poetry magazines themselves (see some in the sidebar) though I think we slip into our busy little communities and stay there a little bit. Though I'd probably suggest a novelist might be best avoiding social media, for the time it eats up, for poets its perhaps a little different - an online version of the letters pages of the little magazines. What we lose in a written correspondance we gain in a dialogue. The edifices of poetry's castle remain pretty unaware of all the activity outside the walls of course. I've read some good stuff this year, but in pamphlets, magazines and online rather than in monolithic books from major publishers. The rash of recent anthologies (concentrating on the young mainly) hasn't really done a lot to define where we are with poetry one hundred years after the Imagist anthology, but the public image of poetry only really has room for a few, not the many. There's a slow, steady accretion I think from being in "Grandchildren of Albion" to co-curating a bash for the Queen at Buckingham Palace (Carol Ann Duffy.)

I'm not retiring from the poetry fray as such, more rounding up my depleted resources, and gathering them together for a full assault in the new year. (Ok, I'm at the state of preparing a collection. No publisher as yet, so get in touch if you are interested!)

2013 has been a difficult year. It began with an offer of redundancy, and it ends with us moving offices back into the Town Hall. I've worked for the council for over ten years, but its been far removed from being a council job. We'll have to see how that pans out. In the midst, I had an emergency eye operation which scuppered a few plans; made me reappraise a few things; and then, as ever, go back to the helter skelter of my normality. It feels that 2013 is a novel that is not coming to an end, so much as had a missing middle section (two months of impaired sight does that to you).

Yet in the midst of this I have written some of my finest poems (though yet to see the light of day, so that may be to be decided), recorded a new album (again, still not made public, as there are some final production tweaks required, but something of which I am inordinately proud), and may even have started a new novel (though that also got halted.) I had a story published in a book for the first time, "The Cat" in "Unthology 4".

Writers need reflective time - and I've had very little of that lately. A longer break over Christmas, and a shorter one this weekend, will hopefully move things along a little.

Sunday Roundup

Well, the poets went to the Palace, (as I mentioned beforehand). I'm not sure if anyone's done a good write up of it, but apparently a nice evening was had by most. Some rather nasty Facebook spats have taken place since the event, which have been as bewildering as any family arguments always are. For writers who know they are best with a few words, they do like spreading them around a bit sometimes. I did enjoy Adam Horowitz's take on things however. Though, like me, he wasn't on the list, so was not coming in. A bit like the Hacienda c. 1991. Plus ca  change. (There's a clip of the event here.)

I've been busy not writing anything or rather trying to write at least something during the inevitable busy period that I have every autumn. Got back yesterday from a hectic few days in Barcelona; however, struck by the thought of how much more I might accomplish just by living somewhere that's warm all the time. One's optimism is refreshed. A good place for poets, I think, perhaps less so for prose writers who probably need the long winters, and no distractions of late night cocktail bars.

It meant that sadly I was unable to join quite a lot of Manchester's art community decamping to Scarborough for Bob and Roberta Smith's Art Party conference. That this idea - a political rally cum performance event cum festival - has grabbed artists' imagination, must be because there are so few opportunities when artists - quiet and solitary by nature, like poets - have an opportunity to get together and let there hair down. I wish I could have been there. Are artists more radical than poets these days? It might well be so. (It was only Rembrandt's hanging in the Royal palace apparently, not republicans.)

The first of the end of year lists are out. From Piccadilly Records and Rough Trade shops. There's less of a consensus around records of the year these days (see that RT's number one is only #22 in the PR list for instance) but good lists if you're looking to find something new. I've already good albums by Kurt Vile, Savages and Ducktails on these lists, but look forward to exploring some more.

In books - the first "books of the year" in yesterday's Guardian seems a little dull - especially if you're looking for new fiction or poetry, chockful with biographies (mainly of Penelope Fitzgerald) and other non fiction books. Better off looking at the small publishers who do release books for Christmas, and occasionally put them on sale. I've just received "Posthumous Stories" by David Rose from Salt, and looking forward to "Beautiful Girls" by Melissa Lee Houghton from Penned in the Margins when she reads in Manchester on 5th December. There's also "Unthology 4" with my story "The Cat" if you're looking for a nice compilation. A review of it here.

Erase and Rewind

Reading that the Conservative Party has not only removed past speeches from their website but apparently done everything it can to wipe past traces of them from other accessible internet sites (and in the week that the Internet archive suffered a major fire that though not threatening its existence reminds us that these things are never as permanent as we hope), brings up quite a lot of interesting questions.

Having once worked in data processing I know that data is evidence; yet at the same time its "virtual" nature means that it can somehow stop - to all intents and purposes - existing. Those researching their family tree are so dependent on those "permanent" archives such as censuses, church records, army records etc. yet nothing is ever truly permanent. (Shelley fans may recall "Ozymandias" for instance.) It is why Nicholson Baker (and others) were so up in arms about the deletion of the physical archive. Paper not only gives us the context, but can't be so easily destroyed. Its a stock feature of detective stories and thrillers where a piece of information goes missing (even in SF like "Minority Report") and has been deliberately removed. Its absence is what makes it significant.

Yet if we destroy whole archives - or make them impossible to find - then what next? The assault on the pubic sector that David Cameron (surely not by coincidence) has repeated this week is about a "smaller state". Far better for those who want to control us to control the information flow, the information archive as well? The irony of this - in a year when whistleblower Edward Snowden highlighted how much they are eavesdropping on us all - is hard to ignore. For data is information, information is power - and deletion of the truth and its context are the best ways to avoid the consequence of those actions. It may seem that in a digital world it is harder than ever to destroy information - yet taking data out of consequence can we really be sure that the raw data is understandable?

Why buy books in an age of Wikipedia and Kindle? So much is context - but so much is also conservation - what if we can no longer rely on the public bodies to conserve. Are we like those Dr. Who fans still mistily remembering the single showing of a sixties show that was erased by a BBC that (then as now) placed the news archive above the cultural one. Luckily we have the BBC recordings of the Beatles (out this week) to swell the coffers - as ever these collections don't come from one pristine source but from wherever possible. A record label that went bust like Factory has its master tapes dispersed, often lost. Our personal archives become original sources - more so than ever in the digital age. And here we come back to that erasing of the past - it happens anyhow by things becoming neglected. Archives occasionally discover manuscripts of some importance (amongst the many of no importance.)

Our encouragement to the virtual, cloud etc. means that we are somehow expecting the curation to be done for us  that there will always be a copy available. Yet caught up in extended copyright laws (this month, if I'm not mistaken, copyright on recordings extends from 50 years to 70 years, ensuring the Beatles stay protected another 20 years) things can and do disappear. Archive labels like Trunk Records and Finders Keepers scour junkshops and old archives for the oldest tracks - I know lots of people who were in bands in their twenties or teens and haven't a single copy of their music online or offline. Think of your first digital photographs - do they still exist in any format? Or have you a gap between ditching the Kodak and opening your Flickr account? And what when things close down? Old blogs, old projects.

There is often a commercial desire to erase the past - an artist like Prince stopping his music from being shared online for instance. Yet at the the other end of the spectrum all those Pearl Jam and Fugazi shows available to download. Is this an overcuration?

In "Poetry" magazine last year, they talked about going through the archive and seeing amongst the gems that are now classics, a mass of poetry that isn't, that didn't last. Historically interesting to see which poems were read at the same time as William Carlos Williams or whoever. Look at old punk footage and see the audience - mostly with long hair - as their gigs took place at student unions where the last bands had been prog rockers. I hate recreations of the 80s on television - the pretty young actors have a Now Thats What I Call the 80s view of the decade, the hair and clothes are all wrong, but often, so is the soundtrack.

We can't recreate the past - it is gone - but our archiving of it; our self archiving if you like might be the only thing that separates our own version of that past from the official version which - as the world gets catalogued online by one or two massive corporations or controlled by governments - makes it ever more important that we keep some physical copy even if a CD-R of bits and bytes. The irony about the digital is that it doesn't really exist unless it is copied, but once it is copied once it can exist apparently infinitely. Yet, our reliance on the primary copy (Conservative Party website for their speeches for instance) means that our own version becomes increasingly important. I'm clearing out my desk today; old leaflets for old projects appear and go straight to the bin; I'm assuming everything will be available on the server - yet at some point it will be lost - hidden away, not so much in an unmarked grave, but on an unmarked archive tape or disc. It exists but it is no more.

Writing Ourselves Out of the Narrative

At a time when writers seem to be ever more writing from and about the self; and a first person solipsism dominates new fiction and confessional poetry alike, why is it that I'm craving a writing that is not the death of the author so  much as their erasure? I want a name on the spine, and to know no more. I have no hunger for reality. I want the writer - and that includes myself, this writer - to be as absent as possible from it all. That the work can exist alone. Is this Barthes' Death of the Author and grown up older and wiser? Or rather am I seeing that the integrity of writing in our contemporary 24/7 culture can only really exist if it renounces ego; if it rejects the systemic autobiographical; if it erases all trace of background?

I think in our 21st century post-religious age we have identified and exagerrated the self to such an extent that our desire to understand "ourselves" is becoming a problem. We've never been so aware of the word "self" yet are we self-aware? The few survivors of the Second World War are a generation that when questioned on television are hesitant about the demands of the medium; they want no medals, no memorialising, even, to some extent to have no memory. Are we post-Freudian? Crime is going down all over the Western world, either as a result of our comfort, or the result of our carefulness - and yet the crimes that shock us are those of the person, the individual paedophile, the man who murders his family then himself. We are appalled by these solipsisms; yet we drag ourselves out and into the open with "selfies" - photographs on our mobile phones taken at arms length; or through our Facebook profile.

Writers we are expected to talk like this on our blogs - and yet it is writing that has the smallest of audiences that doesn't sell a book. A poet like Ken Goldsmith can say we don't need to write original work anymore, yet he has to be an original creation, got up as a literary oddity on a TV show, unmistakeably the writer, this writer, even if the words are not his words.

In this world I want to disappear. Mention to someone something from your life, from your past, and they say "you should write about that." But what do I know? Am I to write about what I can hardly believe in? A happened past reconstructed via fake memory and adjectival truth? I don't think so. I want a writing where I am absent. That I am not me. That I am not there. That the "I" is other. That you, reader, will not guess its me, or see its me, or need to know its me. Later, we can marvel at Kafka's diaries or Ballard's biography, or Carver's interviews but do we need to know the life? Do we need to go down that wormhole? At what point does it tire us - make us inevitably disappointing to the one audience we really crave (our "self"). Can we truly surprise ourselves any more when we are there, there, there, all the time?

I want to be invisible in the work - and I don't want you to look for me. Can you make that distinction?

By Royal Request

The ever febrile world of poetry, or at least that which camps on Facebook, has been all agog this week, as invites have landed on desks for an event next week entitled "A Celebration of Contemporary British Poetry." Nothing new or unusual in that you might think, except the inviters are Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Phillip, and the venue is Buckingham Palace.

It's one of the ever-ironies about the arts in this country that although there is a constant debate about funding the arts, "the establishment" has, now and then, a keen interest in art forms that are otherwise seen as under threat, or at least, that area of the arts which has its imprimature. There is after all a Royal Society of Literature; a Queen's Gold Medal Poetry; the Poet Laureateship. Always struck me as a little odd, as the Windsors have never been notorious bookworms. Maybe its a hangover from their German origins - or some strange formulation that means for every fifty horse races the Queen goes to she agrees to a literary event. Who knows who decides these things? Neither the Royal Family or the Government are particularly enthusiastic about literature despite this being the land of "Shakespeare and Dickens."

More curious still, is that word "Contemporary", presumably not just inserted so the Duke of Edinburgh can't bemoan the lack of some Kipling (or is Phil the Greek a Seferis fan? We should be told!) This means that it will be live poets in Buck house, hosted by the poetry world's usual host of choice, the eminently comforting (if not yet eminent - maybe that will come) Ian McMillan. The guest list is going to be a scream, of course.

My favourite story about the royals and poetry is the one about the Queen Mother, when subjected to an evening of T.S. Eliot reading, bemoaning a dreadful man reading some dreary poem called "The Desert." Apocryphal or not, I think its suitably accurate representation of the Royals' relationship to the most important poem of the 20th century.

Dressed up to the nines (or at least in the "lounge suits" of the invite) the poets will probably no more dysfunctional a bunch than any of the other groups who attend Buck house. What's surprised me a little is, that though generally left leaning, the poets seem a little desirous of this formality. Lets be honest, I wouldn't say no, myself (just to see what the loos are like - would we be able to ask which one John Lennon smoked a joint in?) but has made me wonder where's the Republican strand in this land of Keats, Shelley and Wordsworth - sadly lacking it seems.  The $64,000 question of course is whether or not Pam Ayres is invited. I really do hope so.

Knowing What I Now Know

How do I write? How do you write?
How do we write?

Been thinking a lot about this recently.

Sometimes I think creativity happens in a crevasse between large rocks, and only when you climb out of it do you realise where the sky is, what the landscape is. In the crevasse what you do makes sense, but its limited by its environment. 

And then again, I see creativity gambolling across the sky - not so much as free as a bird, but as a tree squirrel spiralling from branch to branch, ungainly perhaps, but confident enough in the trapeze act for when he lands.

But then I see it in another way, the fire ants, bit by bit joining together to create something that is beyond their individual capabilities, so each sentence alone would sink, but together, if you get the bouyancy right then you can create enough surface tension, not just to float, but to navigate across the water.

Knowing what I now know, I know how to do certain things: but I'm not sure I need to do them. As in life, you might say, so in art.

The two things: what you need to do to make the piece of writing work beyond yourself (to hone it, in other ways) and the other thing - the rough drafting of raw ideas...

The latter seems more important to me as an artist than the former. Yet it is the former that I now know, a little, how to do. Making the cobwebs hold the weight. That's where the two things join together. But am I spider or am I fly?

My Favourite Albums of the 00s

I was tempted to bring this right up to date - but good records need a few years to settle down in the memory. The 21st century started pretty poor in many ways - and technology has been the main story. That said there's a diversity of music out there unparalleled; if you like something then you'll find it, whatever the subgenre. Keeping up when you're in your 30s or 40s is a pointless exercise though I can't help but think that Simon Reynolds' view that we're in an age of "retromania" is the correct one - with the whole history of rock at our fingertips (you can buy the complete albums of Bob Dylan this Christmas for about £3 each - convenient I guess, but hardly the somewhat random way we experience music.) That said, there's been some good records; I just think the idea that there are major artists anymore - except maybe in the R&B and hip hop worlds - is somewhat ridiculous. My favourite artists of the decade are probably decent American rock bands like Mars Volta and Hold Steady. British music seems to have been in perpetual slump - though I'm thinking I must have missed someone or something, I kind of think that many of the bands I've gone to see have been from previous decades - and the replacement bands have tended to have one or two hit albums then disappeared or become irrelevant. Who knows? Probably too soon to tell. So a lesser list for the 00s, sixty records (or CDs or downloads) - I'm sure I've missed some along the way, but its what I've listened to, rather than what I've been told I should listen to.

1	Lyre of Orpheus/Abattoir Blues	Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
2	Separation Sunday	The Hold Steady
3	Sounds of Silver	LCD Soundsystem
4	Deloused in the Comatorium	Mars Volta
5	The Greatest	Cat Power
6	Relationship of Command	At the Drive In
7	Fleet Foxes	Fleet Foxes
8	Time The Revelator	Gillian Welch
9	The Trials of Van Occupanther	Midlake
10	Kid A	Radiohead
11	Kala	M.I.A.
12	Turn on the Bright Lights	Interpol
13	The Marshall Mathers	Eminem
14	Stories from the City, Tales from the Sea	PJ Harvey
15	Hour of the Bewilderbeast	Badly Drawn Boy
16	Speakerboxx/The Love Below	Outkast
17	Boys and Girls in America	The Hold Steady
18	In Rainbows	Radiohead
19	White Blood Cells	White Stripes
20	For Emma, forever ago	Bon Iver
21	Elephant	White Stripes
22	Rated R	Queens of the Stone Age
23	American Recordings IV	Johnny Cash
24	Whatever you say I am, I'm not	Arctic Monkeys
25	Greendale	Neil Young
26	Since I left you	Avalanches
27	Blackout	Britney Spears
28	You are the quarry	Morrissey
29	No More Shall We Part	Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
30	Decline of British Sea Power	British Sea Power
31	The Strokes	The Strokes
32	45:33	LCD Soundsystem
33	Figure 8	Elliot Smith
34	Oracular Spectacular	MGMT
35	Lift your skinny fists to heaven like antenna	Godspeed Your Black Emperor
36	XTRMNTR	Primal Scream
37	In Ghost Colours	Cut Copy
38	Late Registration	Kanye West
39	Stripped	Christina Aguilera
40	Stankonia	Outkast
41	Tasty	Kelis
42	Love. Angel. Music. Baby.	Gwen Stefani
43	The Woods	Sleater-Kinney
44	Funeral	Arcade Fire
45	Dangerously in Love	Beyonce
46	The Power Out	Electralane
47	Echoes	The Rapture
48	Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots	Flaming Lips
49	Crystal Castles	Crystal Castles
50	Cuckooland	Robert Wyatt
51	Asleep in the Back	Elbow
52	Ladyhawke	Ladyhawke
53	The Real New Fall LP	The Fall
54	The Last Broadcast	Doves
55	Back to Black	Amy Winehouse
56	Thunder Lightning Strike	Go Team
57	Kaleidoscope	Kelis
58	Graduation	Kanye West
59	Supernature	Goldfrapp
60	Silent Alarm	Bloc Party

My Favourite Albums of the 1990s

The 1990s gave me more money to spend - but less time (as I was working) to listen. Besides, the music that was peaking was usually more accomodated on a 12" dance record or multiple mix CD single than on an album - some dance, hip hop and house haven't lasted, but others have. Then there was the remnants of baggy ("Pills, Thrills and bellyaches" and "Screamadelica" were slow to emerge), which led into Britpop at the same time that grunge was happening. In retrospect the 90s seems, as one commentator noted, "seven years of plenty", with our pick 'n' mix approach to music showcased by the way that festivals began to have dance acts and rock acts on the same stage (and sometimes on the same song.) Its interesting how bands become attached to decades - rock and roll gives longer careers these days - so two, three or more years between Radiohead albums for instance isn't a surprise. The internet wasn't yet transforming how we listened to music (though Napster came out late in the decade, the iPod was a few years off), yet we knew it would. Out of nowhere an "indie" band became the biggest in the world - Oasis, or was that Nirvana? The split between mainstream and alternative seemed ridiculous when worldwide the biggest selling albums were by the Beastie Boys or Pearl Jam. All good stuff of course, and like the previous two decades, ample albums for a top 100. Surprised how few artists lasted from the 70s or 80s into this decade - its more since the millennium that the heritage artist (Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen) has come into their own, though there was always Neil Young, dreadful for much of the 80s, but retooled and touring with Sonic Youth in the 1990s. In retrospect, its a diverse decade, where unlikely records - Belle and Sebastian, Jeff Buckley - could gain near universal acceptance. (And I know that its a bit amazing that I've room for Lisa Lisa or Birdland rather than "Ok Computer" or "Different Class" but those are albums I never really listened to much, though I appreciate their importance!)

1	Loveless	My Bloody Valentine
2	Definitely Maybe	Oasis
3	Doggystyle	Snoop Doggy Dogg
4	Fear of a Black Planet	Public Enemy
5	Entroducing	DJ Shadow
6	To Bring Me Your Love	PJ Harvey
7	Exile in Guyville	Liz Phair
8	If you're feeling sinister	Belle and Sebastian
9	Maxinquaye	Tricky
10	Rage Against the Machine	Rage Against the Machine
11	Slanted and enchanted	Pavement
12	In Utero	Nirvana
13	Midnight Marauders	A Tribe Called Quest
14	The Soft Bulletin	Flaming Lips
15	In the airplane over the sea	Neutral Milk Hotel
16	Sound Verite	The Make Up
17	Ladies and Gentlemen we are floating in space	Spiritualized
18	Crazy Sexy Cool	TLC
19	My Life	Mary J. Blige
20	Dubnobasswithmyheadman	Underworld
21	Heaven or Las Vegas	Cocteau Twins
22	Grace	Jeff Buckley
23	Generation Terrorists	Manic Street Preachers
24	So Tonight that I might see	Mazzy Starr
25	Elastica	Elastica
26	Black Sunday	Cypress Hill
27	Whats the Story Morning Glory?	Oasis
28	Suede	Suede
29	Extricate	The Fall
30	Transmissions from the Satellite Heart	Flaming Lips
31	Nevermind	Nirvana
32	The Holy Bible	Manic Street Preachers
33	Dust	Screaming Trees
34	Cats and Dogs	Royal Trux
35	Transmissions from the Satellite Heart	Flaming Lips
36	Screamadelica	Primal Scream
37	The Infotainment Scan	The Fall
38	Quality Street	World of Twist
39	Ill Communication	Beastie Boys
40	Pills, thrills and bellyaches	Happy Mondays
41	Homogenic	Bjork
42	Tindersticks	Tindersticks
43	Mezzanine	Massive Attack
44	Efil4Zaggin	NWA
45	Achtung baby	U2
46	Ritual de la Habitual	Jane's Addiction
47	Goo	Sonic Youth
48	Time Out of Mind	Bob Dylan
49	Timeless	Goldie
50	Ray of Light	Madonna
51	Puressence	Puresessence
52	Liquid Swords	Genius/GZA
53	Siamese Dream	Smashing Pumpkins
54	Music for the Jilted Generation	Prodigy
55	Play more music	Consolidated
56	Snivilisation	Orbital
57	Homework	Daft Punk
58	Let No Live Here Rent Free In Your Head	Nicolette
59	The Predator	Ice Cube
60	Death Is not the end	Shut up and Dance
61	Urban Hymns	Verve
62	XO	Elliot Smith
63	I can hear the heart beating as one	Yo La Tengo
64	Vs	Pearl Jam
65	Californication	Red Hot Chilli Peppers
66	Park Life	Blur
67	Music has the right to children	Boards of Canada
68	Accelerator	Royal Trux
69	Dummy	Portishead
70	Bubble and Scrape	Sebadoh
71	I Wish My Brother George was here	Del Tha Funkee Homosapien
72	Maya	Banco de Gaia
73	Life with Brian	Flowered Up
74	Sketches for my Sweetheart the Drunk	Tim Buckley
75	Blood Sex Sugar Magic	Red Hot Chilli Peppers
76	Sleeps with Angels	Neil Young
77	Giant Steps	Boo Radleys
78	Crooked Rain Crooked Rain	Pavement
79	1. Outside	David Bowie
80	Debut	Bjork
81	The Bends	Radiohead
82	Enter the Wu Tang	Wu Tang Clan
83	When I was born for the 7th time	Cornershop
84	United Kingdoms	Ultramarine
85	Emperor Tomato Ketchup	Stereolab
86	The Miseducation of Lauren Hill	Lauren Hill
87	Done by the forces of nature	Jungle Brothers
88	Copper Blue	Sugar
89	Your Arsenal	Morrissey
90	Tricks of the shade	Goats
91	Back in  Denim	Denim
92	Red Medicine	Fugazi
93	The Slim Shady	Eminem
94	Happiness	The Beloved
95	The Writings on the Wall	Destinys Child
96	Adventures beyond the Ultraverse	The Orb
97	New World Order	Curtis Mayfield
98	Deadline for my Memories	Billy Ray Martin
99	LL77	Lisa Lisa
100	Birdland	Birdland

My Favourite Albums of the 1980s

I bought "Still" by Joy Division in 1981 and it changed my life.  I'd heard a whole side played on Peel - one of the live sides - and didn't know a thing about this band but was intrigued. The album, in its stark industrial packaging gave no clues. I had to wait for friends to tell me that they were the same band as New Order when that band released its debut shortly afterwards, or that the lead singer had killed himself. Seems odd now, with all the biopics etc. but there was no "heritage music" industry at that point so all you had was the record racks and the occasional rock A-Z, most of which had only just been updated to include punk and new wave. The previous record I'd bought was novelty Beatles medley "Stars on 45", so it was quite a change. I soon got given my dad's old music centre as it was either that or they'd have to listen to this new unpalatable music downstairs. That's why "Still" is so high in this list though its not really a "proper" album. Better than the first 2 LPs I bought with my own money, B.A.Robertson and Boomtown Rats, neither of which have stood the test of time. Whereas my fave records of the 60s and 70s owe a lot to "best of" lists this was the first time I was making my own decisions - which is why Marc and the Mambas, Virgin Prunes, "Autoamerican" by Blondie and "Pornography" by the Cure are so prominent. I was so engaged with music during this period (at least until I started work in 1989) that its rare for me to find something from the 80s that I didn't know about - there's a few of course, and some bands that I overlooked then, I can see how good their records were. Later, but not too much later - maybe 1984 or 1985 I started listening to hip hop, dance, soul, funk - and though black music rarely makes "best of" album charts, I found plenty of stunning albums along the way. Again, I've had to be quite cruel to my favourite artists - time was when this would have consisted of Cocteau Twins, Cure, New Order, the Fall and not a lot else.

1	Psychocandy	Jesus and Mary Chain
2	Treasure	Cocteau Twins
3	Pornography	The Cure
4	Parade	Prince and the Revolution
5	3ft High and Rising	De La Soul
6	Surfer Rosa	Pixies
7	Songs about Fucking	Big Black
8	Still	Joy Division
9	The Smiths	The Smiths
10	Youth of America	Wipers
11	Sign o the Times	Prince and the Revolution
12	Torment and Toreros	Marc and the Mambas
13	Perverted by Language	The Fall
14	Pirates	Rickie Lee Jones
15	Daydream Nation	Sonic Youth
16	Medicine Show	Dream Syndicate
17	Low Life	New Order
18	Paul's Boutique	Beastie Boys
19	Violent Femmes	Violent Femmes
20	Control	Janet Jackson
21	Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables	Dead Kennedys
22	Swordfishtrombones	Tom Waits
23	Sulk	Associates
24	New Gold Dream	Simple Minds
25	Autoamerican	Blondie
26	See Jungle! See Jungle!	Bow Wow Wow
27	Appetite for Destruction	Guns n' Roses
28	Ocean Rain	Echo and the Bunnyman
29	High Priority	Cherelle
30	Sextet	A Certain Ratio
31	The Queen is Dead	The Smiths
32	Foundation Steppers	New Age Steppers
33	Power	Ice T
34	Scary Monsters	David Bowie
35	It will take a nation of millions	Public Enemy
36	The Stone Roses	The Stone Roses
37	Famous Blue Raincoat	Jennifer Warnes
38	If I Die, I Die	Virgin Prunes
39	Red Mecca	Cabaret Voltaire
40	High Land Hard Rain	Aztec Camera
41	Doolittle	Big Black
42	Fishermans Blues	Waterboys
43	Blood and Chocolate	Elvis Costello
44	Music for a New Society	John Cale
45	Travelogue	Human League
46	Suicide	Suicide
47	Songs to Remember	Scritti Politti
48	Closer	Joy Division
49	Music Madness	Mantronix
50	Hot Cool and Vicious	Salt n Pepa
51	Diana	Diana Ross
52	Computer Games	George Clinton
53	My Life in the Bush of Ghosts	Eno and Byrne
54	Penthouse and Pavement	Heaven 17
55	Spring Hill Fair	Go Betweens
56	Heaven or Las Vegas	Cocteau Twins
57	Radio	LL Cool J
58	Tom Tom Club	Tom Tom Club
59	Bizarro	Wedding Present
60	Paid in Full	Eric B and Rakim
61	First and Last and Always	Sisters of Mercy
62	Micro Phonies	Cabaret Voltaire
63	New York	Lou Reed
64	Big Science	Laurie Anderson
65	Playing with a different sex	Au Pairs
66	Dare	Human League
67	This Nations Saving Grace	The Fall
68	Nebraska	Bruce Springsteen
69	Hallowed Ground	Violent Femmes
70	Soul Mining	The The
71	Days of  Wine and Roses	Dream Syndicate
72	Warehouse Song and Stories	Husker Du
73	Whos gonna save the world	Cindy Lee Berryhill
74	Just The Way You Like It	SOS Band
75	Le Mystere De Voix Bulgares	Various
76	Clan of Xymox	Clan of Xymox
77	The Sky's Gone Out	Bauhaus
78	The Scream	Siouxsie and the Banshees
79	Junkyard	Birthday Party
80	The Jaws of Life	Hunters and Collectors
81	Straight out the Jungle	Jungle Brothers
82	Like a Prayer	Madonna
83	Hole	Scraping Foetus off the Wheel
84	Plastic Surgery Disasters	Dead Kennedys
85	Disintegration	The Cure
86	Kilimanjaro	Teardrop Explodes
87	Itll end in tears	This Mortal Coil
88	The Art of falling apart	Soft Cell
89	All over the place	Bangles
90	The Hurting	Tears for Fears
91	Club Classics vol 1	Soul II Soul
92	Nightclubbing	Grace Jones
93	New York	Lou Reed
94	Smell of Female	Cramps
95	IV	Zapp
96	The Clock Comes Down the Stairs	Microdisney
97	Tin Drum	Japan
98	Children of God	Swans
99	Sister	Sonic Youth
100	This is the Sea	Waterbooys

My Favourite Albums of the 1970s

I was nearly 13 by the time the 1970s ended but my "record collection" - played on my dad's Sanyo Music Centre (soon to be mine!) - consisted of children's music, odd presents, and Greatest Hits. Yet the seventies seems now to have been the golden age of the album. How I came to it was secondhand though (literally so in some cases, though "midprice" might be the best word to describe why I got so many seventies records so early on.) So artists such as Bob Dylan, David Bowie and Joni Mitchell were still making just-about-acceptable music by the 80s, or I'd hear an old track - say, by Neil Young - and investigate further. I was a little young for punk, so most of the punk and post punk records I've got - like my 60s collection - are on CD - so came along later. That's why you won't find "The Ramones" or "Never Mind the Bollocks" in this list - I get the feeling you had to be there to truly love them. It was such a fecund decade that a top 50 wasn't enough - after all how do you encompass reggae, disco, funk, punk, early electronica, prog rock (in small doses), heavy metal, glam, singer songwriters etc etc? It was also the golden age of the album really - and even minor artists would release at least an album a year. More recently I've been picking up things from secondhand record shops and I'm amazed at the decades diversity. A few artists - Joni, Bowie, Stevie Wonder, Marvin, Neil Young, Steely Dan - could probably have filled a top 50 on their own so I've been relatively selective there, but it still required a top 100 to do it justice - and I've still missed things out! My number one might come as a surprise, but its been pretty much my all time favourite albums since I first heard it in the mid-80s.

1	Rock Bottom	Robert Wyatt
2	Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust	David Bowie
3	Blue	Joni Mitchell
4	After the Goldrush	Neil Young
5	Horses	Patti Smith
6	There's a Riot Goin' On	Sly and the Family Stone
7	Innervisions	Stevie Wonder
8	Unknown Pleasures	Joy Division
9	Funhouse	Iggy and the Stooges
10	For Your Pleasure	Roxy Music
11	A Wizard a True Star	Todd Rundgren
12	Fear of Music	Talking Heads
13	Mott	Mott the Hoople
14	Superfly	Curtis Mayfield
15	Loaded	Velvet Underground
16	Whos Next	The Who
17	Here Come the Warm Jets	Brian Eno
18	Solid Air	John Martyn
19	I am	Earth Wind and Fire
20	Entertainment	Gang of Four
21	Headhunters	Herbie Hancock
22	Trouble Man Soundtrack	Marvin Gaye
23	Berlin	Lou Reed
24	Bitches Brew	Miles Davis
25	Diamond Dogs	David Bowie
26	Aja	Steely Dan
27	Rust Never Sleeps	Neil Young
28	Luxury Liner	Emmylou Harris
29	Court and Spark	Joni Mitchell
30	Low	David Bowie
31	Exodus	Bob Marley and the Wailers
32	Stretchin Out in Bootsys Rubber Band	Bootsy Rubber Band
33	Motor Booty Affair	Parliament
34	B-52s	B-52s
35	Travelogue	Human League
36	Live at the Counter Eurovision 79	Misty in Roots
37	That’s the way of the world	Earth Wind and Fire
38	Man Machine	Kraftwerk
39	1st	Big Star
40	Rufusized	Rufus and Chaka Khan
41	Here, My Dear	Marvin Gaye
42	A nods as good as a wink	Faces
43	Another Green World	Brian Eno
44	Hunky Dory	David Bowie
45	Hell	James Brown
46	Pearl	Janis Joplin
47	Handsworth Revolution	Misty in Roots
48	Desire	Bob Dylan
49	All Day Music	War
50	Games, Dames and Guitar Thangs	Eddie Hazel
51	John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band	John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
52	Tumbleweed Connection	Elton John
53	Tapestry	Carole King
54	Hissing of Summer Lawns	Joni Mitchell
55	Harvest	Neil Young
56	Risque	Chic
57	The Placebo Syndrome	Parliament
58	Tusk	Fleetwood Mac
59	Back in the USA	MC5
60	Marquee Moon	Television
61	Wish You Were  Here	Pink Floyd
62	Lark Tongues in Aspic	King Crimson
63	The Payback	James Brown
64	Parallel Lines	Blondie
65	Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy)	Brian Eno
66	The Royal Scam	Steely Dan
67	Clear Spot	Captain Beefheart
68	The Captain and Me	Doobie Brothers
69	Electric warrior	T. Rex
70	Machine Gun	Commodores
71	Fly Like an Eagle	Steve Miller Band
72	All Things Must Pass	George Harrison
73	Talk of the Town	Rod Stewart
74	Roxy Music	Roxy Music
75	Radio City	Big Star
76	Roxy and elsewhere	Frank Zappa
77	Sister Lovers	Big Star
78	Psychedelic Shack	Temptations
79	Rickie Lee Jones	Rickie lee jones
80	Stranded	Roxy Music
81	The End	Nico
82	Holland	Beach Boys
83	Music of the Mind	Stevie Wonder
84	Lick my decals off baby	Captain Beefheart
85	Performance Soundtrack	Various Artists
86	Slow Dazzle	John Cale
87	Neu 2	Neu
88	Grievous Angel	Gram Parsons
89	Todd	Todd Rundgren
90	Something/Anything	Todd Rundgren
91	Station to Station	David Bowie
92	Approximate Infinite Universe	Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band
93	Sunflower	Beach Boys
94	Zuma	Neil Young
95	Argus	Wishbone Ash
96	Hejira	Joni Mitchell
97	Blows Against the Empire	Jefferson Starship
98	You Can Tune a Piano But You Can't Tuna Fish	REO Speedwagon
99	Sunfighter	Paul Kantner & Grace Slick
100	Exposure	Robert Fripp

My Favourite Albums of the 1960s

Apologies for the indulgence, regular readers, but over on Facebook I've been listing my all time favourite albums, following my raised eyebrow at the NME's list. It started small and then sprawled. So ignore the next few posts if you're not interested.

When it comes to favourite albums - well, they differ by decade. I was only 2 at the end of the sixties so these were picked up later, usually be a circuitous route. I was a "fan" of the Beatles in the 70s but the actuall albums meant very little to me compared with the 62-66 and 67-70 compilations where I first encountered the tracks. It was in the early 80s that my dad borrowed the records from his boss and taped them for me - and quite a bit later before I bought them myself. I came across "Aftermath" and "Beggars Banquet" by the Rolling Stones in a bargain bin on cassette whilst in Australia in 1985; other artists I'd read about in rock history books without having any way of hearing - and it took a lot of courage to pick up "Trout Mask Replica" or "Forever Changes" unheard as that might be the only album I'd afford that week. (That said, I'd play it until I loved it!) I came to Love via Aztec Camera, Capt. Beefheart via the Fall, the Velvet Underground via Bowie and Joy Division. Later; it was hip hop samples or retro compilations that got me listening to albums by the Temptations or Sly and the Family Stone (and - to be fair - magazines like Mojo, and the whole CD reissue phenomenon.) I still come across good 60s albums - and there are plenty of things missing. I don't really know the Kinks and Small Faces albums from the period, as I've generally listened on compilations, and a truly accurate list would surely include "best ofs" for the Shirelles, Marvelettes, Shangri-las, Supremes et al. It appears that my late 80s love of psychedelia (via the Paisley Underground) has survived the years - see Country Joe and the Fish and Jefferson Airplane - and more recently I've grown to love the English folk revival, especially Fairport Convention and the Incredible String Band. The order isn't arbitrary but I guess the top twenty I couldn't live without, the next twenty or so I've loved at various times, and maybe the last few are just good albums.

1	Velvet Underground and Nico	Velvet Underground and Nico
2	Forever Changes	Love
3	Blonde on Blonde	Bob Dylan
4	In a Silent Way	Miles Davis
5	A Love Supreme	John Coltrane
6	Trout Mask Replica	Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
7	Pet Sounds	Beach Boys
8	Unhalfbricking	Fairport Convention
9	Crown of Creation	Jefferson Airplane
10	Kick out the Jams	MC5
11	Velvet Underground	Velvet Underground
12	The Beatles	The Beatles
13	Alice's Restaurant	Arlo Guthrie
14	68 NBC Comeback Special	Elvis Presley
15	The Band	The Band
16	Everything Playing	Lovin' Spoonful
17	Aftermath	The Rolling Stones
18	Electric Music for the Mind and Body	Country Joe and the Fish
19	Dusty in Memphis	Dusty Springfield
20	SF Sorrow	The Pretty Things
21	Absolutely Free	Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
22	Da Capo	Love
23	Revolver	The Beatles
24	Highway 61 Revisited	Bob Dylan
25	In the Court of the Crimson King	King Crimson
26	Beggars Banquet	Rolling Stones
27	Sketches of Spain	Miles Davis
28	Bookends	Simon & Garfunkel
29	First Take	Roberta Flack
30	Happy Sad	Tim Buckley
31	The Who Sell Out	The Who
32	Younger than Yesterday	The Byrds
33	Live at Folsom Prison	Johnny Cash
34	The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter	Incredible String Band
35	Abbey Road	The Beatles
36	Basket of Light	Pentangle
37	Liege & Lief	Fairport Convention
38	The Stooges	The Stooges
39	Love	Love
40	Tommy	The Who
41	Surrealistic Pillow	Jefferson Airplane
42	Silver Apples	Silver Apples
43	Fifth dimension	The Byrds
44	All Summer Long	Beach Boys
45	Eli and the 13th Confession	Laura Nyro
46	Cloud Nine	Temptations
47	White Noise	White Noise
48	Cruisin' With Ruben and the Jets	Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
49	Ummagumma	Pink Floyd
50	Let it Bleed	Rolling Stones