i94bar1200x80

robert bSo. The Barman (he of the stained apron and soggy socks) has suggested to me that I provide a Top 10 for 2017. 

He doesn’t say of what, unfortunately, so I am greatly tempted to relate (in considerable detail) each of my Top 10 Excretions this year, including two in which I barely made it to the potty on time. 

However, this is a family website, and we mustn’t say words like "shit’ or even "shitweasel".  

I’ll have to write them instead. 

Now, bearing in mind that I am no-one’s idea of a professional rock writer, and that my little world bears even less resemblance to the mainstream…  

Bear in mind, please, that this is the stuff I’ve been listening to on rotation and in the car. 

Top 10 Albums

Andrew McCubbin and Melinda Kay: Where Once There was a Fire 

Hugo Race and Michelangelo Russo: John Lee Hooker’s World Today

Giant Moths: Strange Birds 

Michael Plater: Mythologies

Mushroom Planet: Get Some

Kraftwerk: 3D the Catalogue

The Braves: All Through Paradise

Can: The Singles

PiL: Disc Four in the ‘Album’ box set

The Systemaddicts: Brokenhearted on the Nullabor

...and one more to make it not just 10 but the hallowed Spinal Tap number...

The Chickenstones: Johnny Streetlight 

But there’s plenty of others which have fought for the attention of my turntable. Leadfinger andJulitha Ryan spring to mind. 

What else have I been listening to? Monk, Mingus, Waits, Wire, Charlie Marshall, the Circus Chaplains, Jeremy Gluck, the Barracudas, the Clash (bootleg dub stuff), Magazine’s ‘Play’, Barry Adamson, the Radio Stars, Sacred Cowboys, Suicide, The Damned ‘Machine Gun Etiquette’ two disc thingy, Siouxsie and the Banshees ‘The Scream’ …

Oh, yeah, and the Velvets and the Stooges.

There’s a huge pile of stuff I haven’t listened to yet, though… 

Best gigs I remember over the last year - I wrote about most of them so that’s easy enough I guess. I think there’s a few I may have missed.

Hydrocephallus

The Beat Taboo!

The Animals

PJ Harvey

The Troggs

All the gigs which involved Michael Plater, Dean Richards and Rossco Jalopeno

Henry Hugo

The Systemaddicts

Andrew McCubbin

Hugo Race and Michelangelo Russo

The Aints

The Sonics

The Undertones

Fear and Loathing

Glen Matlock

The Scientists

The Muscle Shoals Fayre extravaganza in Melbourne

Charlie Marshall 

Books (not at all music related) that I’ve enjoyed this year (among many others, these are the ones I haven't put away yet and really represent what I've been pawing through over the last couple of months) 

Brewer’s Rogues and Villains

Blacky Audett: Rap Sheet

Bobbitt: Terror and Consent

Bill Bryson: The Lost Continent

Ben MacIntyre: Agent Zigzag

Martin Gilbert: The Day the War Ended

Junge: Storm of Steel

PG Wodehouse … I read about ten of these (again 

Eric Williams: The Wooden Hors 

Sir Patrick Hastings: Cases in Court

I really should pull out a few more by Gerald Kersh. Next year, then. Good.

Best radio shows: 

The Devil’s Jukebox (Northern Radio);

Mike Drive (3D) - particularly when featuring Japanophile and Francophile P. Slater Diddy.

Well, let’s face it. If I’m going to listen to the raido, these are pretty much the only radio shows I’m going to tune in to…