So I was watching American Idol the other night on my lonesome … my wife and I used to watch this all the time but over the years it waned, so now I watch just the highlights and quite enjoy it. While watching I was most impressed with the talented …
Glad to know Max gets in his AFDs before and after the barrel drinking. This is a blog about beer and drinking after all — except for the ones about Sarah and Rachel (not to be confused with rest-in-peace Lou and Rachel). So, we drink on, boats against the current …
So The Consul might think he’s in his Autumn years but not me, I’m still rocking with the young uns! And the proof was evident at the Demi Lovato concert I took my good lady too last week in Dallas. Talk about the oldest mother fucker in the room – …
Even though I thought I had done enough featuring Grace Jones My Top Six Bond Girls these days you have to worry that you are giving a fair shot to all races not just white females. So it is a perfect time to bring up Beyoncé. I’m not really hip …
One of the artists I saw five times in the UK, culminating with meeting him in person in the Union at Leeds, was the amazing and unique John Otway! Otway is 100% the type of act you need to see live. I saw him four times in London at various pubs …
I loved Max’s Top 10 slow punkers and was left wondering what mine would be… Well, I probably can’t better it. A few changes here and there but it’s just quibbling. Then I started thinking more generally about the maudlin tearjerker that goes well with a bottle of something good …
If you’ve been watching this blog closely you’ll notice from time to time I refer to The Top Rank Ballroom – this is before I heard Derek & Clive talking about with an ant sucking his left nipple. I grew up just outside of Brighton, Sussex and the Top Rank …
Now I know how successful my Top Ten Punk lists have been so it’s time for a new one which is less associated with Punk Music – the Slow Song. I’m not sure if these can really be considered Punk Songs – or if there is even such a thing …
So I was reading this post: A Clean Slate and was amazed that I was a mere 48 years old when I wrote it – that seems like a lifetime ago. It was good to read over the pros and cons. And I’m sure 2018 is the year Kentucky comes …
Groove is in the heart? Er no Christmas is in the heart. It must be Santa on his Bob Sleigh!
So they have made Whiskey (don’t forget the ‘e’) from the spirit of the pogues (see what I did there). About time too I hear you say. What about some Damned beer, or some Kate Bush w(h)ine? ‘I am going where streams of whisky are flowing’, as it says on …
And if you don’t Tim Minchin’s song here, maybe this is is more your style. Either way genius is on display!
So we are nearly there for 2017, and my new favorite Christmas Song is the amazing White Wine In The Sun by Tim Minchin. Simply beautiful.
There is nothing like getting on the open road with the sunroof open and speeding to some really heart pounding songs. So to follow on from Love and Life Changing Punk Songs I present my favorite driving songs. Create your own playlist and get out on the road right now and …
So continuing my thread that I began here I wanted to highlight some punk songs that really changed my world. You have to remember back in 1977 I was 14 years old and very impressionable. I didn’t have an older brother or a cool dad or The Consul to steer and …
When I was a teenager and before I got into the greatest live band of all time, The Clash (of course), I was really into those bad boys of punk, The Stranglers. A lot of bands at the time really cared about their image and what people thought about them, but …
Max has shared his favourite punk and new wave love songs; a pretty good selection, though ‘love’ here is clearly a subject rather than an emotion, including bromance, split-up, rejection etc as well as amour fou. Well, that was punk. A gentler, kinder (gruffer, grumpier) example is the greatest singer …
So before The Consul takes over all musical lists on this blog I thought I’d start my own little list of the Top Ten Punk songs. Here we go with some of my favorite Punk Love Songs:
I commend The Consul for his in-depth treatise on the greatest decade of music, but I don’t know if it is because he is a year older or that he really loves 1967 so much (and don’t get me wrong some amazing albums did come out in 1967), but I …
So this is the final vinyl year. We start to see a turn perhaps? The first punk album in The Modern Lovers? Perhaps not, but a bridge between the Velvets, Dolls and Stooges on the one hand and the Pistols, Voidoids and Damned on the other. There’s also some old …
1975 was the first year I think I would have gone and bought some of these albums from new. I remember getting the Number 1 below from Woolworths and peeling away the shiny black shrink wrap that enveloped the original album. And I still wonder who nicked my copy. Probably …
Blimey 1973 looks hard to beat — not on sheer quality but the quantity of good quality. Maybe not many albums in the top 20 of all time, but a good 15 in the top 100? Yet, hang on a minute, here comes a pretty bloody good 1974 and It’s …
Actually, 1973 has just made me think again. I’m gonna list a kinda top ten, but it doesn’t include Countdown to Ecstasy, Solid Air, Greetings from Asbury Park, Berlin, Heartbreaker, Don’t shoot Me … There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, Aladin Sane, Catch a Fire. So, 1973 is starting to win me …
I have a lot of affection for 1972, partly because of the fabulous Josh Rouse album of that name, which evokes the smooth sound of the times. 1 Never a Dull Moment 2 Exile on Main St 3 Harvest 4 Ziggy stardust 5 Talking Book 6 #1 Record 7 Foxtrot …
Well, 1970 was so tough I left out two of my favourite albums, Sweet Baby James by, er, James Taylor and that moody black Elton John by, er, Elton John. So, 1971: the greatest year according to Hepworth. Let’s have a look at a plausible top ten. 1 Blue 2 …
So we come to the 1970s –look at mother nature on the run! There are several years that have a shot at the greatest year accolade, and this is another. 1 Moondance 2 After the Gold Rush 3 Bryter Layter 4 Fun House 5 Led Zeppelin III 6 Loaded 7 …
Well 1968 was another great year, without even mentionind White Light / White Heat, Electric Ladyland, or Eli and the Thirteenth Confession or Aretha and Ennio, Floyd or The Pretty Things, or The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier! Can we get all the great stuff from 1969 into a …
Well 1967 looks pretty hard to beat. It’s so flipping inaugural (Doors, Cohen, Velvets etc) and there’s so much great stuff you can’t get into a list of ten albums. But you have the essence of not just the summer but the year in everything Pepper represents in terms of …
So it’s time to work this one out. The greatest decade in music is 1967 to 1976. Yes, it misses out some classics from Revolver and Pet Sounds to London Calling and Low, but try to get a better decade. However which is the best year? Let’s try to do …
You can always rely on The Consul to bring the smiles. One of the other great benefits of aging is you forget more and more things, not just the milk. Luckily it means you get more exercise, and in that way you start to see the bigger picture – we …
