New Years Eve 2019

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 did when he played Geordie in Our Friends in the North 23 years ago?

Top 10 Albums of 2019

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' Billy – When We Are Inhuman (alt folk - USA)

Better Oblivion Community Center -Better Oblivion Community Center (Indie - USA)

Fontaines DC - Dogrel (Indie Punk - Ireland)

Bruce Springsteen – Western Stars (Americana - USA)

So in summary 5 for USA, 2 for Ireland and 1 each for Sweden, South Africa and Rwanda. O for UK.

Categories?  Well as the ultimate arbitrator for my list I'll say 3 Folk (of sorts), 2 Indie Punk, 2 African, 2 Americana and 1 Indie.  Which probably sums up my musical taste quite nicely as we are about to enter the '20's.  Let's hope they roar..

I'd say that is pretty much my taste in music as we are about to enter the '20's.  Let's hope they roar. So all in all 2019 has been a great year and if the pattern continues bring on 2059.

PS - Reissues/re-releases - I loved the A Certain Ratio 4 cd box set of remixes, ACR:Box.  I also bought a couple of Chess/Stax soul and quite a few rare Ska compilations.

Music - 2019 even better than 1979?

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 music industry?  If you're a musician you pay your money and you take your chance. I reckon a rough estimate would be that when I buy a CD I play it on average 3 times so if it costs £10 that's £3.33 a spin which isn't cheap.  Anyway, it just isn't my fight and I despite this argument I still buy loads of stuff. 

Yep, Spotify's fancy dan algorithms have done me proud this year.  Well that and me scouring details of new releases in Mojo, Uncut and latterly Songlines.  Oh and also checking out Paste magazine online and not forgetting painstakingly going through festival artists (this year EOTR and Twisterella).  It's not easy being this cutting edge you know?

It's been a truly wonderful year for pop music and I swear if the Rock Garden was still going the clientele would flock to the dancefloor zombie like (ala Screaming Babies/Zerox Machine) everytime the dj plays Dylan Thomas.  So here's my best 53 songs of the year (I gave up trying to cut it back any further).  I've even kindly and self indulgently included a link if you've got 3 hours 38 minutes to waste.

1.       Dylan Thomas – Better Oblivion Community Center

2.      Heart Sutra Song – Gone Beyond – Laurie Anderson etc.

3.      New Partner – Bonnie Prince Billy

4.      Forgotten Eyes – Big Thief

5.      New Partner – Tallest Man On Earth

6.      Annie, Heart Thief of the Sea – Kishi Bashi

7.      Kanougnon – Bassekou Kouyate

8.      Apple – Nel Unlit

9.      We Americans – Avett Brothers

10.   You’ll Need a New Backseat Driver – New Pornographers

11.   Jogging – Richard Dawson

12.   Chasin’ Wild Horses – Bruce Springsteen

13.   Special Announcement – The Felice Brothers

14.   Before Us – Wilco

15.   Blindfold – Martha Hill

16.   Not – Big Thief

17.   You Had Your Soul With You – The National

18.   Moonlight Motel – Bruce Springsteen

19.   More Is Less – The Murder Capital

20.   Gasoline – The Mysterines

21.   Mornings In Memphis – Justin Townes Earle

22.   Figures – Gia Margaret

23.   Where Did You Go Wrong, My Love – The Good Ones

24.   Diggin – Ohtis

25.   Gasoline – The Mysterines

26.   Five On It – Speilbergs

27.   Home Is Where The Music Is – rRoxymore

28.   747 – Bill Callahan

29.   Down In The Willow Garden – Bonnie Prince Billy

30.   Everything Crash – Prince Fatty, Big youth, George Dekker

31.   Georgia Lee – Phoebe Bridgers

32.   Use 2 Be A Romantic – Field Medic

33.   Sunglasses – Black Country New Road

34.   Vals Etter Tot Tut – Anon Egeland

35.   Give It All – Kay Greyson

36.   NGWA - Blick Bassy

37.   Gassed – Bobby Krlic

38.   Nosso Amor – Flavia Coelho

39.   Welcome – Africa Express

40.   What I’ve Been Kicking Around – The Tallest Man on Earth

41.   Everyday Apostles – Spencer Tweedy

42.   Denkilo – Constantinople, Ablaye Cissoko

43.   Young People Are The Future – The Good Ones

44.   There Is No Other – Rhiannon Giddens

45.   The River St Johns – Jake Xerxes Fussell

46.   The Modern Leper – Julien Baker

47.   Hold On – Aimee Mann

48.   La Fanmi – Lakou Mizik

49.   Back To The End Of The World – Jim James

50.   Heavy Crown – Trixie Mattel

51.   Tastes Good With The Money – Fat White Family

52.   Television Screens - Fontaines DC

53.   Evening Prayer aka Justice - Ezra Furman

Rewind to1979

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.

2019

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 from the fact her relatively swift demise meant she lived her life pretty much to the end.  Being genuinely proud of your parents is a blessing and I was and still are a very proud son.

I had a debilitating bad back for most of the year and I became addicted to the opiate drug, tramadol.  Work was particularly shit after I took an ill-advised temporary promotion.  That promotion fucked up my work/life balance for at least 5 years.

On the positive side I got into live music again thanks locally to The Kids are Solid Gold and I attended my first EOTR.  The headliners were Explosions in the Sky, The Fleet Foxes and The Hold Steady.  More notable to me were the opening acts on the Garden Stage each day, Mumford and Sons, The Leisure Society and Whispertown 2000 all played TKASG shows around the same time in the Boro.  

So 2019 - I've had a bloody bad back again (for the last 5 months and counting) although it hasn't stopped me doing much.  I was thrilled to go to EOTR again after a 6 year absence with 2 of my best friends Sylvia and Lucy.  Big yaay for that one.  I also went to the Radio 1 Big Weekend show in Stewart Park in the Boro.  No comment on the music but it was a great Boro day as was Twisterella (see previous write up).   The Spooker Rekkids Attic shows were a constant delight, especially Goodbye Loona  from Nuremberg.  Other stand out shows were Kitty Daisy and Lewis and A Certain Ratio and a rare away fixture in Leeds to see AA Bondy.

Supporting Boro continues to be a challenge.  We narrowly missed out on the play-off's last season and we've continued to spiral downwards this season.  We're currently just above the relegation zone in the Championship but there are enough green shoots to give me confidence that we'll be ok.  

The cricket's been great.   I finally got to see England win the World Cup win in the the most breathtaking and dramatic finish imaginable and I was at Durham when Ben Stokes and Mark Wood paraded the trophy.

Arguably the end to the 3rd Ashes test at Headingly was even more dramatic, certainly to students and lovers of test cricket and me, Mike, Chris, Lore, Ian and Alex were only bloody well there to se it, weren't we!! 

Shoes off if you love Ben Stokes!

Context in cricket is everything and England winning the test kept the Ashes series alive, which was the part of the reason it was so exciting.  Alas a draw in the final test meant we failed to win back the Ashes. Close but no cigar.

Further down my pecking order of importance, me and Sham went on holiday to Jamaica again (3rd time) and a cruise around the Caribbean with day trips to Havana, the Caymen Islands and the Mexican Island of Cozumel.  Hail Shamila for indulging me.  We also visited Glasgow later in the year which was also surprisingly brilliant.

The election result was absolutely gutting, so much more so than 2010, 2015 or 2017.  The UK is at a  Girlfriend in a Coma moment.  I hope I'm wrong but in my head this time I I know its serious.  I'm still grieving and still trying to work out exactly what went wrong.  It's very lazy to simply blame Brexit and/or Jeremy Corbyn, there was more to it than that.  I might start talking about it in the New Year but for now I'd just say that apart from anything else there was an inability of huge swathes of the electorate to critically analyse the bombardment of news/adverts/and opinions we were being fed or decipher facts from lies.  

So we move on, it's now out of my hands and to be honest I just want to stop fretting about it

Work's been strangely ok, that's not to say I ever enjoy going.   As I've often said there's never been a day in 41 and a half years when I'd rather have driven/walked past the office and done something more interesting instead but maybe I've found peace and contentment very late in my career.  Our office is closing in September 2020 and I'll be moving to Peterlee.  I should be sad or more angry.  I don't fancy driving up and down the A19 but hey ho.  I'll be in the closing straight of my career and I think I can manage.

I've only got 18 months to do and I'm trying hard not to wish that time away.  It's not easy ................

Going to try and do  a couple of more posts this year.  

Adios amigos.