Top 5 Bands

1983 was my year zero for music. The point at which I started to take an interest in music beyond what I heard on Top of the Pops and that I found in my parents record collection. Since then I've always maintained a mental list of my favourite bands. In fact this was probably the beginning of my obsession with top fives. By the end of that year my Top 5 Bands list would have looked something like this;

1. Status Quo
2. Marillion
3. Iron Maiden
4. Pink Floyd
5. Big Country

My musical tastes remained fairly set for the best part of ten years. These bands were set in stone. Somewhere around the early nineties my musical horizons began to expand. I went to the Reading Festival and saw six bands in three days, my mental list began to unravel as I discovered new bands, new genres and new friends.

I thought it was time for me to have another go. It wasn't as easy as I thought it might be. My top two are pretty set but beyond that I've changed my mind at least ten times since I started to put this together. So, currently, my favourite bands/artists are thus.

1. Pixies

2. Johnny Cash

3. The Specials

4. A Silver Mount Zion

5. Arcade Fire

This will almost certainly change next week.