Sat 15 Mar – Neil Young, Pegi Young

Neil Young has around 40 albums to his name, plus half a dozen unreleased albums and a whole bunch of oddities and rarities. It’s nigh on 30 years since his first solo album. So it’s entirely possible for two people to both own a dozen Neil Young albums and have no point of common reference (although they’d probably both have ’Harvest’). There are a couple of best of’s, but by all accounts they are patchy and include a lot of odd choices.

So going to see him live was a daunting prospect.…

Here are all of the mis-tagged titles for The Mamas & The Papas, including their numbers of listeners score.

The Mamas & The Papas: correct!
Mamas Papas 32
Mamas 8
Tomcraft Vs Mamas & Pappas 37
Mamas and Popas 12
Mamas + Papas 12
Mama Cass With The Mamas & The Papas 40
Mamas and the Papas (The) 24
The Mamas & The Papas (& frien 22
Mamas and the Paps 11
Mamas The Papas 6
The Mamas && The Papas 11
Mamas & Papas, 5
The Mamas & Papas 7
Mamas ans the Papas 6
The Mamas &…

Fri 16 Mar – AIR

The support act for AIR was slightly unsettling. It was a young guy with long blonde hair, playing an acoustic guitar and singing along. The creepy part was how much he sounded like Phil Collins. Given that on Friday I won a comic relief email auction at work for a signed Phil Collins picture, costing me £25 (ohmygod) it was a moderate coincidence. I think it's immensely brave to stand up on a stage with just a guitar and try to entertain an audience. You're not reliant on anyone else, there's just you and…

Hurrah! I sat through the whole of the NME Chart show once again. The Killers song that I quite liked seems to have vanished off the online chart. Read My Mind is a pretty good single, not as pompous as When You Were Young or as saxaphonic as Bones. The Killers have carved themselves a little niche and if they keep writing songs in that style, they'll generally enjoy some success.

10 The Long Blondes - Giddy Stratospheres
Dull, dull, dull, but hey, it sounds a bit like My Bloody Valentine. Keep pushing kids! One day you'll offend someone.

9…

Lorraine Bowen, possibly the kitschiest queen of lovely Casio music ever to grace the lovely world, played last night at The Theatre Museum in London and myself, along with a few select friends had the great privilege to attend her concert.

It was a lovely tiny venue, properly intimate in the way that Kentish Town Forum can't quite manage, despite what the NME seem to think. We got their fairly early and were able to secure some seats in the 'round table and candles' area. So jazz club! Even if the candles were fake flickering LED's in misty glasses.…

I probably first encountered Bizarre Love Triangle as part of a mega-mix of New Order songs that I heard on LP at my cousin's house. It was my cousin who got me liking my first 'proper' band. Before, the only singles I'd listened to had been James Bond soundtracks and some Def Leppard song. I probably had it on a compilation tape after that, but it was when I got Substance on tape that I discovered what a great song it was.

Recieved opinion seems to be that New Order's best tracks are Blue Monday and True Faith, but…

I don't think there are many bands who failed to live up to their potential as much as Mansun. These were obviously smart, philisophical guys, or at least a cut above most of the other indie bands of the time in terms of producing intriguing music and thoughtful lyrics (even though they "aren't supposed to mean that much" as they claimed on An Open Letter To The Lyrical Trainspotter).

I've seen Mansun play live three times, once headlining at Guildford and one time at the V99 festival. But the first time I saw them was supporting Shed Seven…

20 albums? Piece of pie!

Reveal - REM.
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This is my topster, topster album of all time. Bright, sunshiney and full of brilliant tunes and lyrics. Hurrah the REM.

Everyone Is Here - The Finn Brothers
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The same as above, only a bit more melancholy. An album I keep coming back to and keeps getting under my skin.

Closer - Joy Division
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I don't listen to it anymore, but it's an unsurpassed piece of golden wonder. Terrifying too.

Ta Dah - Scissor Sisters
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I know its brand new, but I'm enjoying it a heck of a…

Yeah, the new Scissor Sisters album is great. It's not awesome, but it's damn fine. It makes me hope that they'll be around for years and release many, many, many albums.

I wrote a long piece about Stevie Wonder's recent album, A Time To Love, but knocked the PC socket and lost it all. I'll re-write it tomorrow.

It's like being 17! When they were good, they were very very good, but how far they fell, no-one can see because it was so bloody far.

Suede were an important band. They mattered, they made great music, they were heroes. This was furthered by the Suede music books, allowing fools like me to work out how to play The Wild Ones and Lazy. The first time I got those songs sounding right was astounding, the licks crawl across the guitar like yogurt dribbling down a naked arse. Well, maybe not so messily or perverse, but very pleasantly anyway.…