GOFFA FROM THE BLOCK

Oh well, at least one more post. Has it come to this?  2020 beckons, it goes without saying I should be out pogoing and dancing and fings but I'm at Shamila's.  We had a nice takeaway pizza for tea.  I've had 2/3 of a bottle of nice French wine and 2 large gin and tonic's.  She's asleep, James Bond's on TV and I'm pretty drunk.  It's 22.19 and the (my) plan is to see the New Year in with a (large - actually make mine a v large) malt whiskey and piece of Christmas cake  (not bad).  Going to have to think of something good to do after midnight.  Certainly better than this. Plans?  Always on New Years Eve. Got a text off Don earlier this evening ".... people have stopped caring for each other. The love and humanity have left the building", maybe it was a coincidence but I bought the book "Altruism, The Science and Psychology of Kindness" today.  New years resolutions tomorrow. PS How come Daniel Craig looks younger now than he di...

In any normal year I'd probably have been shouting out for Undress by The Felice Brothers an album of rip roaring Americana tunes or alt folk Big Thief 's first album of the year U.F.O.F. or even In The Morse Code of Brake Light by Canadian Indie Folk band The New Pornographers. I'd be bigging up Irish folk band Lankum's, The Livelong Day, 2020 by Richard Dawson and The Avett Brothers, Closer Than Together but ultimately none of them were good enough to make the final cut. So as follows, Best album of 2019- Big Thief's second album of the year - Two Hands (Indie folk - USA) Joint 2nd Tallest Man on Earth – I Love You, It’s A Fever Dream (alt folk Sweden) BCUC – The Healing (African rhythms - Soweto South Africa) The Good Ones -  Rwanda, You Should Be Loved (African folk - Rwanda) The Murder Capital – When I Have Fears (Indie Punk - Ireland) Wilco – Ode to Joy (Americana - USA) Bryce Dessner, Eighth Blackbird Bonnie 'Prince' ...

Maybe.... and unexpectedly.  I've long lamented over the near mystical nature of the 1979 music scene where my taste moved from punk/pop new wave to post punk.  My aforementioned top 50 if 1979 is ample and definitive evidence (some might say damning evidence of poor taste) of my transition (maturing?  Nah!!!!). It was also a fantastic year for albums or LP's in  old money.  E.G. I'm not sure my tastes have changed that much, I still just like pop music.   According to my end of year Spotify report, I listened to 983 new artists in 2019 which must mean 983 different artists (Spotify is pretty clever but I don't see how it can know if an artist is new to me).  That said, I'm pretty chuffed with that. The general opinion of paid for music streaming services is that they are the devil but I'm not so sure.  Maybe I'm becoming a bit heartless in my old age but isn't it just  a re-calibration of capitalism in the mu...

2019 has been a fine year for music, probably my best since the mythical 1979.  Quite neat mathematically (40 years) not to mention politically.  Thatcher came to power in 1979 and  de Pfeffel in 2019. Jeez - not a nice thought How great would it have been if I'd made a list of my favourite songs from 1979?  Especially if I still had the school exercise book I'd written it out in.   Of course I did and it's only bloody turned up.  I can't imagine how much time this took me to compile but I clearly had too much time on my hands back in the day and definitely didn't have a girlfriend.  In fairness I could definitely pick a better list now but it is what it is. I seem to remember doing a C90 of (think) the Top 25 which I played joyfully to my friends.  I was never less than committed I'm trying to find something profound to say about it.  Fuck it, here it is and a Spotify playlist give or take.

As we hurtle towards the end of another year and another decade, it's a cliche but I find myself asking where the hell have the last 10 years gone?  Also, what the hell was I up to 10 years ago? I could look at previous blog posts and there may be a time when I will rely on them and/or take pleasure looking back but for now I still prefer to trust my memory.   Labour were still in government.  I couldn't have imagined that the Tories were about to grab power that they will retain until at least 2024, maybe even longer.  I'd grown increasingly dissatisfied with the policies of Blair/Brown, the Iraq war and PFI's spring immediately to mind.   My dad died in 2008.  Little was I to know things were about to get much worse in early 2010 when my mam, a true giant of a human being died after a short and traumatic illness.  With the benefit of hindsight there's no doubt she'd been suffering in silence for a long time. I take consolation f...