Guest Top 5 - Things that as a kid I thought were fantastic and 30 years on, still are! by Al Westoll

Part 2 of the Alun Westoll Easter extravaganza. Al is the drummer and driving force behind Feltham's finest covers band The Phantoms who will be playing with JB & The Wolfmen and Clarabella & the Cryptkicker 5 at The Alley Cat Club in Denmark Street on Thursday 18th April. See you there hep cats!

Top 5 things that as a kid I thought were fantastic and 30 years on, still are!

1. The Wizard of Oz, 1939 film

Probably the genesis of my attraction to gingers! The Wizard of Oz was my favourite film as a kid & still is today. Most people berate the fact that it’s churned out every Christmas but apart from the presents (and a sneaky swig of my Nan’s Snowball!), it’s annual repeat was one of the highlights of my childhood festivities! It’s amazing to look back at it and think it was made in 1939! It looked and sounded great then, and still does. By the way, it is possible to love this film & not be gay!

2. The Beatles, Pop Group 1960 to 1970

As a child I’m sure you can all recall those long tedious car journeys on the way to some hideous Butlins holiday camp somewhere in the UK for your annual Summer family holiday. All the way there you were forced to listen to your parents music from the back seat of the Ford Mondeo, something like Abba or The Carpenters, and whether you like it or not, that music stays with you forever. I should be thankful though. Although I’m still quite fond of Abba & The Carpenters, my parents favourite was The Beatles, and so from an early age was inducted into the brilliance of the greatest ever pop band! I was only 9 months old when they split up (the Beatles, not my parents!) but their timeless songs have stayed with me for a lifetime & still sound as fresh & innovative today as they did 50 years ago! Thank God my Mum and Dad didn’t like Barry Manilow!

3. Stephen King, The Stand, 1978 Novel

I used to love reading as a kid. First off it was classics like Treasure Island, Sherlock Holmes & Around the World in 80 Days, but as I grew older (early teens) I developed a love of horror books and authors like Stephen King & James Herbert. To this day I can recall as a 13 year old being asked to read out loud to my English Lit class at Abbotsford School a paragraph from the book I was reading at the time. I chose to read the chapter from James Herbert’s ‘The Rats’ where a couple get eaten alive by a swarm of rats whilst having it off! I digress. I’ve also always been partial to a big fat book, the more epic the better, and as a result my favourite book back in the 80s was ‘The Stand’ by Stephen King. It’s a monster of a book (734 pages) telling the tale of the fight between good & evil in a post-apocalyptic America. I’ve never tired of this story and as I’m still an avid reader, will every now & then dip into it all over again. I’ve still got the same paperback I originally had all those years ago, but it’s starting to look a little faded & dog eared! By the way, like a lot of Stephen King books, it was made into an awful TV series sometime in the 90s & later released on DVD. Do not be tempted to watch it, but do read the book!

4. The Wombles Band!

The first albums I can remember playing on my tiny child’s record player were by the ‘furriest and possibly the tidiest band’, The Wombles (in reality songwriter Mike Batt). I loved all the songs and can remember many happy hours singing along to the lyrics reproduced in the lavish gatefold album sleeves! The Wombles released 4 albums between 1973 & 1975 and I had them all (my ‘little’ nephew has got them now but seeing as he’s now 18 maybe he can give them back)! Sadly they split in 1976 when Wellington left to pursue a solo career (really)! But why are they still great now I hear you ask? Well, in June 2011 I was lucky enough to be in the front row of a packed Avalon Tent at the Glastonbury Festival to witness the Wombles reunion! The capacity crowd (made up mainly of 40 somethings!) sung along to every word, just like me! Check it out! Fantastic!

5. BBC Classified Football Results (& Baked Beans on Toast)!

For many years as a young kid the highlight of the weekend for me was staying over with my Nan in her council flat in Brentford on a Friday night. I’d then spend Saturday morning doing my homework & watching TV. My parents would then come back and we would all sit round for our tea (always beans on toast for me!) at about the same time as Final Score on Grandstand & listen to Len Martin read the classified football results. This has hugely nostalgic memories for me & to this day I still love to tune in every week and listen the how all the teams got on (East Fyfe 4, Forfar 5, etc, etc) and remember my old Nan! Ahhhhhh. Incidentally, despite now being a bit of a foodie, I still love nothing better than a nice plate of beans on toast too! Oh, and a cup of tea. Obviously.


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Guest Top 5 - Things that as a kid I thought were fantastic but looking back were not so great! by Al Westoll

A bumper Easter special. You may remember by pal Alun Westoll from his previous Guest top five double header "Top 5 Bands that only ever made one album" and "Top 5 Bands that SHOULD only have ever made one album". Well he's back with not one, not two but THREE top fives and I'm gonna give them all to you over the next few days.

(Editor's note: I particularly like how Al has attempted to recreate Bruce Campbell's pose in the swimming picture)

Things that as a kid I thought were fantastic but looking back were not so great

1. Live Aid, Concert (1985)

Kicking off with the inspiration behind this top 5. Fellow band member, Mark Gibson, recently lent me his DVD box set of Live Aid which I slowly worked my way through over a number of evenings. This is a prime example of something everyone (including myself until now) rave about saying what an amazing gig it was. But having now watched it all over again it’s definitely not as good as we remember! Yes, the odd bit still holds up (Quo, Queen) but mainly it’s terrible! From the Wembley gig, the performances of The Style Council, Adam Ant & Paul Young have not aged well. And as for the Philadelphia gig, it’s all quite painful, with the Thompson Twins a particular low point! See for yourself! 27 years later I’ve now taken off my rose tinted specs regarding Live Aid and well and truly stomped on them!

2. The Evil Dead, Movie (1981)

I can vividly remember being scared witless watching this film one Halloween at about the age of 12. A bunch of us got together round a friends house and scared ourselves silly watching it on VHS. Then sometime in my mid 20’s I can recall going to see a late night re-run of it at the cinema & this time laughing all the way through! The time lapse plasticine special effects & ‘raping tree’ were certainly not as terrifying the 2nd time around! I have to admit that I still love this film and rushed out to buy it when it was released on DVD. OK, so as a horror film it no longer cuts the mustard, but it’s a great watch with loads of top memories attached!

3. Swimming!

Kids love nothing better than splashing around in the pool & would stay in there for hours if it wasn’t for your parents having to drag you out. I know I used to love nothing better than a trip to Staines swimming pool. But somewhere along the line the fun seems to go out of it and as an adult it just seems like exercise. And there’s no fun in that!

4. 80s Fashion!

Growing up as a kid in the 80’s it was all about having the in-look! All the girls wanted to look like Madonna. All the boys were busy nicking VW badges to look like the Beastie Boys! For me it was a mullet haircut (which I still had when I started work in 1988!), a Gallini jumper (a hideous 3 coloured horizontal striped sweatshirt with a huge logo in the middle), dark blue jeans with a thin red (or white) pin stripe down the leg and white socks! All bought from Feltham Market (where Tesco’s is now)! For my Sister it was massive hair, leg warmers & Ra Ra skirts. Good grief, what were we thinking! Although the Parka Jacket was good! Now when I see young white kids walking around today with baseball caps on sideways (like the chavy comedian Lee Nelson) I’m amused to think that they will probably regret it too in 30 years time!

5. Madness, Pop Band, 1976 to now (unfortunately!)

I used to love this band when I was a kid. I can still remember Baggy Trousers being the ultimate anthem as a 10 year old at the Echelford School disco! I spent many hours on a Sunday night up in my bedroom listening to Simon Bates presenting the top 40 on Radio 1 & taping the Madness hits (desperately hoping no-one would make any noise whilst I hit the Play & Record buttons on my cassette player)! I used to listen to them all the time. Which was probably as annoying for my family as I found my Sisters constant rotation of Tight Fit’s ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’! Some people still love the Ska sound but now with adult ears it’s just too close to Reggae for my liking! One step beyond! BTW, why do these pop dinosaurs keep getting wheeled out every time there’s some kind of high profile gig recently? It was bad enough having to see them ponsing around on the roof of Buck House at the Jubilee gig. And just as I thought they had gone they were back again (singing exactly the same bloody song!) at the Olympics closing ceremony! Please make it stop!

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Top 5 Songs about Frogs

It's been a week of stress. Work has been busy on many fronts and the week has disappeared all too quickly. Then our boiler, which has conducted an almost sentient vendetta against us since we moved in to our current house some ten years ago, sprang a leak so I awoke to the sound of water dripping through our ceiling ... via the light fittings. I'm feeling a bit strained, and I think I just put four sugars in my coffee. Anyway, this is all just a roundabout way of explaining that I needed a quick and quirky top five topic this week and was inspired by my friend MaRaineyBlues' attempts to list all her favourite frog related songs for Cerys Matthews' 6music show this Sunday. If I'm honest I just nicked most of these of Ma's list. No words to explain just play dem tunes.

1. The Jim Jones Revue "Princess and the Frog"



2. Floyd Newman "Frog Stomp"



3. Louis Armstrong "Leap Frog"



4. Walter Beasley "Toad Frog Blues"



5. Flaming Lips "Frogs"



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Top 5 Songs by Status Quo

It's Status Quo week at Chop's Top Fives HQ. I know this won't mean much to non-Quo fans but the classic line-up have reunited for a mini UK tour and I'm off to see them at Hammersmith Odeon tonight (yes I know that's not it's current name but it is it's CORRECT name). I don't think I've ever been this excited about seeing a band live. I spent a considerable amount of my teens jumping up and down to Quo records in my bedroom and perfecting my air guitar technique. In many ways it's a shame I never applied myself to anything useful with quite the same degree of enthusiasm. I got into the band just before their "End of the Road" tour in '84, so failed to see them live before they split. Of course they popped back in time to open Live Aid in 1985 which meant I saw them on telly but then that was it ...

... until Rossi & Parfitt decided to get back together in 1986. It was possibly the shortest split in the history of rock. So, I finally got to see them live in 1986 supporting Queen at Wembley Stadium, and then later the same year at Hammersmith Odeon. They were brilliant (and have been every time I've seen them since) but they were without Alan Lancaster and John Coghlan. Alan had been a founder member of The Spectres with Rossi in 1962 and John had joined on drums a year later. They were an integral part of Quo during their best years (1971-1976 in my opinion) when they became known as the Frantic Four due to their live prowess. With all four of them now well into their Sixties, and the split fairly acrimonious, a reunion seemed pretty unlikely, so I'm over the moon to get a chance to finally see them play.

I did my Top 5 Status Quo albums last year, which you can check out HERE though, with hindsight, I think now I'd reorder that to read Live/Quo/Dog/Hello/Piledriver. My problems getting the album order right pale into insignificance compared with the anguish of pinning down my favourite songs. I found it fairly easy to draw up a short list of 20 but it was a struggle to whittle that down to just 9 at which point I spent a few days performing a sort of chinese puzzle to decide which would miss out.

1. Caroline (on Hello, 1973) - It's the song I think most people would identify with Quo. Down Down might be their only number one but Caroline is really their greatest hit. As such it's easy to overlook it. I've heard Caroline a lot, but it's still a monster of a tune. The perfect opening number kicking off with a typical Parfitt riff before settling down into the familar chug. It's got the hint of a Fifties rock'n'roll classic but Quo'd up.



2. Railroad (on Dog Of Two Head, 1971) - I love the sound on the Dog Of Two Head LP. It was the last they recorded for Pye (who were never happy with the rock turn their psychedelic pop stars took) and walks a fine line between the heavier sound that was to follow and the lighter tone of their earliest releases. Railroad is probably the closest to the sound that was to follow. It's got the perfect tempo to jump up and down to. Not so fast that you can't keep going for the whole song, not too slow. Halfway through there's a trademark widdly guitar solo from Rossi and then a fantastic bit of Harmonica (by tour manager Bob Young) that bridges into the slower chugging riff that brings the song to a close.



3. Backwater/Just Take Me (on Quo, 1974) - I realise that technically these are two songs but ... BUT ... oh come-on! They are nearly always paired together. The version on the album sees Backwater end with a clatter of drums that builds straight into the start of Just Take Me. It's seamless and brilliant. Individually they're both cracking tunes, together they are outstanding. Hey, it's my blog and I'm having them.



4. Paper Plane (on Piledriver, 1972) - Just shy of three minutes and with some mild drug references in the lyrics, this is Quo at their most efficient. Their first big hit as a proper rock band and the point when they really caught public attention.



5. Slow Train (on Quo, 1974) - Following in the tradition of epic album ending tunes that had previously provided two of Quo's best live tunes (Roadhouse Blues & Forty-Five Hundred Times) this is not so well known but has been a favourite of mine for many years. Quo seem perfectly suited to songs about trains and as the video below shows their rhythym fits the sound of a locomotive very well. There's enough time for some twiddly guitar jigs and even a drum solo before it all ends.




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Top 5 Concept Albums

Last Sunday I took part in my first @LPGrp communal listen. The topic was concept albums and the winner was "The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars". I've only recently given Bowie much time and this was an excellent chance to listen to a classic album and discuss it with some fellow music lovers. "Ziggy" is fast becoming a favourite record for me though I was surprised it won the category. I'd been expecting a slew of Prog Rock albums, which I'd have been fine with, but the eventual list of nominated albums was both broad and intriguing.

I spent the previous week listening to many of the albums I'd never heard before and re-playing the ones I knew and loved. This was handy research for a top five so I thought I should strike whilst the iron's still hot. My top fives are nearly always about my personal taste rather than a definite list but this week's is particularly personal. I know I've missed off some significant, and excellent, albums but the five I've selected mean something special to me.

"Ziggy Stardust" was close but I decided not to include any of the excellent albums I've discovered in recent weeks. I really liked four or five others too but I need to live with an album for some time before I can genuinely assess it's worth. If you're not a great fan of the concept album it's worth checking out the full list of nominated LPs. There's a lot of excellent music on it and they might be good enough to change your mind.

1. "Misplaced Childhood" Marillion (1985) - I know what you're thinking! Let me explain. I got into Marillion about 6 months before this came out. It was the year I took my GCSE's so I was 15. I'd begun to discover this whole world of music outside of Top of the Pops and, for whatever reason, Marillion really did it for me. This might have been the first album I knew about before release and I remember rushing in to Kingston to pick it up the same week it came out. I think the Kayleigh single had preceded it and become a bit of a hit. I wasn't so keen on that but as part of the overall theme (lost love, acceptance and lost childhood) it really worked. I loved this album so much it led to my first ever concert (having spotted the band were touring on Ceefax). Originally planned for October '85 it was postponed due to Fish having throat problems so I finally popped my gig cherry in February '86. I didn't really stop after that. Any doubts I might have had about where to place this were dispelled by my first listen to it for very many years. I know it's as much about nostalgia as the music but I still know all the words and it gives me a feeling very few albums do.



2. "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" Genesis (1974) - My love of Marillion eventually, and inevitably, led towards me exploring Genesis (a gateway Prog band!). It didn't take me long to realise the Peter Gabriel years were the best but The Lamb was probably the album I took the longest to get to grips with. It's everything you'd expect of a Prog concept album. Long, sprawling and slightly off the wall. I did get there eventually and, unlike other albums of a similar vintage, I think this has really stood the test of time.



3. "Thick as a Brick" Jethro Tull (1972) - My second ever gig was ... Marillion again ... at the Milton Keynes Bowl with Jethro Tull as special guests. They were amazing that day and that was my starting point for a long love of the band. "Thick as a Brick" is not my favourite Tull album by any means (that's probably "Aqualung" which Tull were pretty adamant it's NOT a concept album so I couldn't include) but it is a very fine piece of music that captures Ian Anderson's mischievous sense of humour. A parody of the overblown epics of the band's contemporaries, that was supposedly the musical adaptation of a poem by 8-year-old Gerald Bostock. Last year I got to see Anderson perform the whole thing live for the first time, along with his recently recorded follow up. Inevitably "Thick as a Brick 2" isn't a patch on the original but it was a very fine and entertaining show.



4. "Radio K.A.O.S" Roger Waters (1987) - I am aware that I've overlooked several Pink Floyd albums to include this in my top five. That's not to say I don't love those Floyd albums but they don't occupy the same space in my heart as this album. Compared to "The Wall" this is a much more compact and succinct. Eight songs and a little over 40 minutes and all the better for it. The story is great, touching on Britain in the Thatcher years and the effects off monetarism (you can read all the details at Wikipedia) and is presented as though it's a live radio show. I went to see Waters perform it live at Wembley Arena and, despite the fact I was in a back corner of one of the worst venues known to mankind, it remains one of my all time favourite gigs.



5. "The Chronicle of The Black Sword" Hawkwind (1985) - Looking at the release date I'd guess this was my first Hawkwind LP, it didn't lead on to a massive surge of Hawk interest but it has remained a firm favourite. I bought in on vinyl but these were the days of Sony Walkman so my strongest memories are of listening to it through headphones on my walk back from college. The walk would take me about 50 minutes (I could have got the bus but I used to get fed up waiting) which was exactly the right length of time to play the entire album. It's a great headphone album, there's a wall of sound throughout and all sorts of typical Hawk-type space noise. It's based on the Elric stories by Micheal Moorcock (I'd have been into sword & sorcery at the time too) and they recorded a live version at Hammersmith Odeon that added inter song narration from Moorcock himself. I played it recently not expecting to enjoy it quite as much but I absolutely loved it.



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Top 5 Songs of 2013 - January/February

I don't know if 2013 has gotten off to an unusally productive start but I've noticed a lot of new music that I've really enjoyed. I figured this might give me a quick top five every couple of months and make doing my top five songs of the year a lot easier too, so, here's the first of a possibly recurring series.

1. Low "Plastic Cup" - Low just seem to get better and better. This has an amazing lyric about what future generations might think if they discovered a plastic cup, a melody that melts your heart and some sumptuous harmonies.



2. Hot Feet "Wood House" - Really catchy little folk-rock tune from an marvellous EP that you can for under a fiver at Hot Feet's BandCamp site.

SoundCloud - Wood House



3. Teleman "Cristina" - Formed from the ashes of Pete & The Pirates, who with my usual sense of timing I got into about a week after they split up, this has all the hallmarks of that former band.



4. Jacques Caramac & The Sweet Generation "It Takes All Sorts" - This is a cracking song made all the better by their brilliant band name/song title combination. REPTILES!

SoundCloud - It Takes All Sorts

5. B.C. Camplight "Grim Cinema" - The title track from the forthcoming (if not already out) LP, which I loved when he played it in session for Marc Riley.





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Guest Top 5 - Early Blues Musicians by MaRaineyBlues

I got to know MaRaineyBlues thanks to the power of Twitter and Cerys Matthews Sunday morning show on 6music. My Sunday morning routine used to involve cooking a roast for lunch whilst listening to Cerys and trying to get myself name checked on air. Ma is one of a number of regular listeners who I got on with really well and who helped the show feel really interactive (Cerys is still making ace radio by the way but we now have the roast in the evening so I listen live less often). Anyway, it was pretty obvious Ma had a huge love of music and an amazing depth of knowledge to back it up. I'd been hoping I could convince her to do a top five for ages and persistence finally paid off.

This is the first top five I've published without an order as Ma decided she liked all five so much she couldn't place them. I think she's right so make sure you check out those video links 'cos they're all amazing.

Led Zeppelin. Cream. The Black Keys. The Rolling Stones. Jimi Hendrix. The Alabama Shakes. Janis Joplin. Jack White. Valerie June. Just a few of the new kids on the block and some of the legendary old guard who make or made music which comes directly from the blues or is influenced by it.

The importance of blues in music history cannot be underestimated. Academics say it is the very backbone of rock and roll. But I'm no academic, merely a fan. Here are 5 of my favourite blues artists from the era when blues was first being heard outside of the Deep South plantations, the illegal juke joints and the travelling shows, when performers were making tentative, ground-breaking steps into making records.

These five all made their first recordings pre-1935.

Skip James - Labourer, sharecropper, Baptist Minister and one of the first Delta blues singers to cut a record. Highly influential on people such as Robert Johnson and Eric Clapton and re-discovered in the 1960s, where he was feted for his mournful voice and virtuoso finger-picking style.

Skip James "Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues"

Lead Belly - Schooled in part by Blind Lemon Jefferson, multi-instrumentalist blues & folk singer Lead Belly was discovered by musicologist Alan Lomax whilst singing prison hollers as an inmate at Angola State Prison. Lead Belly's first recording was made inside the prison walls. Following his release,the Lomax family took him to New York, where, styled as 'King of the 12 string', he began a long association with left-wing causes.

Leadbelly "The Gallows Pole"

Son House - One of 17 children, it wasn't until he was in his 20s that Mississippi's Son House picked up a guitar. After reportedly killing a man in self defence in the juke joint where he was playing, Son House was sentenced to 17 years in prison. Although he made records in 1930, he faded into obscurity, to be rediscovered by younger generations in the 1960s blues revival. It was here that Son House first spoke of the legend that Robert Johnson had sold his soul to the Devil in return for his talent, a legend that continues to be talked of today!

Son House "Death Letter Blues"

Lonnie Johnson - Believed to be the first person to record a single string, guitar solo. Johnson won a blues talent competition in 1925, the prize included a recording deal with Okeh Records. Despite working with some high profile names, Johnson's career floundered & he was forced to take a job in a steel mill, only returning to blues singing & guitar playing in the late 1930s.

Lonnie Johnson "Life Saver Blues"

MA RAINEY - The 'mother of the blues' who i took my Twitter name from! With a deep, raw, country blues style, she fronted jug and washboard bands and, so it is said, was singing the blues in a touring minstrels band more than a decade before genre became well known. In the early 1920s she made her first recordings. A great influence on Bessie Smith who she knew, Ma Rainey paved the way for all female blues singers who followed.

Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"

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Top 5 Gigs of 2012

I'd intended to cut back a little on gigs last year but somehow that ended up with me going to more than I'd managed for a good ten years. I also started a new blog under a similar false impression that doing so would help me spend less time blogging. To be fair to myself, it was only supposed to be a way to capture set lists but typically spiraled into something more extensive. My number one was never in doubt but picking the other four was hard as I had at least seven good contenders for the remaining places.

1. Japandroids at Upstairs at the Garage (29th May) - It seems it doesn't matter that I'm now in my mid-forties, I still enjoy a gig that involves leaping around like an idiot in the middle of a bunch of sweaty strangers. Japandroids are a great live band and this was the second of three times I saw them in 2012. It was also my first visit to the Upstairs venue at The Garage. I was really impressed. The sound was really good and the band were on top form.
Chopper's Gigs: Japandroids Upstairs at the Garage

Photo courtesy my crappy HTC camera phone - it's of a bloke from the crowd singing Darkness on the Edge of Gastown

2. The Jim Jones Revue at The Concorde 2, Brighton (24th October) - The Jim Jones Revue proved they'd lost known of their rock'n'roll swagger despite broadening their horizons on the latest album. I went down with a car load of pals to this one and had a fantastic night.
Chopper's Gigs: The Jim Jones Revue at The Concorde 2

Photo courtesy @TrevorMakey

3. Laura J Martin at The Little Chapel behind The Galley Cafe (9th May) - I'm pretty sure anyone who's read this blog will be familiar with my ongoing obsession with Laura. I saw her three times last year too but this show, in the tiniest and most intimate of venues, was my favourite.
Chopper's Gigs: Laura J Martin at The Little Chapel, Gallery Cafe

Photo courtesy Annie Hall

4. The Low Anthem at Bush Hall (29th August) - A gig of two halves would you believe? The first part saw the band crank out some of their rockier numbers alongside a couple of Tom Waits covers. The second saw them turn on the "Moth Machine" and everything taking a turn for the psychedelic. To be honest the strobes gave me a bit of a headache after a while but I was no less captivated. There was even time for a comedy interlude sung by drummer Jeff Prystowsky, including a brilliant tune in praise of Plankton from Spongebob Squarepants.
Chopper's Gigs: The Low Anthem at Bush Hall

Photo courtesy @Boring_Craig

5. Trembling Bells with Bonnie Prince Billy at The Union Chapel (6th May) - Another special show. I'd not seen Bonnie Prince Billy before so that was a bonus but I was really here because I was desperate to catch Trembling Bells live. Their joint set spanned the best of their collaborative LP as well as a fine selection of tunes from Will's back catalogue and a couple of cracking covers. For those that got there early, there was the added treat of seeing Alex & Lavinia (of Trembling Bells) perform an a capella set with Harry & Katy of Muldoon's Picnic.
Chopper's Gigs: Trembling Bells at The Union Chapel

Photo courtesy of vicaviber on Twitter

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Top 5 Books I Read in 2012

2012 was a good year for books. I managed to read almost two a month, which I reckon is pretty good going by anyone's standard. 2013 may not be so fulsome as I've not even finished one yet. That total did included two kid's books (The Borrowers & the 2nd Artemis Fowl story) and a Jim Thompson novel that (I only realised halfway through) I'd read once before. I read four of the 2011 Booker shortlist (all excellent & very easy to read), three of the 2012 Booker longlist (thanks mainly to the Library), three books about music, two other non-fiction books, two books off my reading pile, one e-book (written by a pal), one Bond, one Sherlock Holmes and one Agatha Christie. I enjoyed them all though, if I'm honest, I struggled with Will Self's stream on consciousness novel Umbrella.

1. "Half Blood Blues" Esi Edugyan - A captivating story of a group of Jazz musicians caught in pre-WWII Nazi Germany, cutting the disc of their lives but then being separated by the impending war and their own fears and jealousies. This treads the line between historical fact and narrative fiction really well and provides some insight into what life at the time was like as well as being a gripping story. It's a well crafted tale that doesn't attempt to hide any truths from the reader but leaves much unsaid by it's choice of narrator. I like that this left some room for reader interpretation. I read it in under a week whilst on holiday in Cornwall which helped me get fully immersed in the lives of the characters and felt a pang of sadness when it was finished.

2. "Do It For Your Mum" Roy Wilkinson - Ostensibly the story of the band British Sea Power written by Roy, former manager and elder brother of BSP's Scott (Vocals & Guitar) and Neil (Bass & Vocals). It's typical of the band that this biography is much broader than your average Rockopic and some of it's best passages dealt with how the band's success affected the Wilkinson family, particularly their BSP obsessed Dad. Ronald Wilkinson, 87-year-old veteran of World War II, is the real star of the book. The band's biggest fan who gets frustrated as one weak indie band after another leapfrogs his boys on the rise to popularity. Better still, as Ron's appreciation of the deepest recesses of alternative music grow broader, he is constantly pushing them towards more left field explorations.

3. "Lowside Of The Road: A Life of Tom Waits" Barney Hoskyns - I'd tiptoed around the periphery of Waits' discography before reading this book. I struggled with a couple of listens of Swordfishtrombones, enjoyed Mule Variations but had only recently made a proper breakthrough thanks to Small Change. I picked this up after seeing a glowing review in Mojo and attempted (thanks largely to Spotify) to get to grips with Tom's albums chronologically as I read. This is a fine book by Hoskyns, who is clearly a huge fan, and packed with detail. It certainly proved to be the breakthrough for my enjoyment of the music and I've now filled in a lot of the gaps in my collection. I suspect I will enjoy reading this again once I've got to grips with Waits full body of work.

4. "The Sisters Brothers" Patrick deWitt - The second book on this list from the 2011 Booker shortlist, I thoroughly enjoyed this darkly comic Western though I think I'm going to struggle to explain why. Eli and Charlie Sisters are infamous assassins sent to kill Hermann Kermit Warm who is accused of stealing from their boss. There's not much plot beyond that but there are a series of short events along the journey. The story is told from Eli's perspective and it seems like he's the less cold-hearted of the two, however, there's a suggestion that he's actually the more dangerously psychotic. Hermann Kermit Warm turns out to be extremely likable and the denouement is well played out.

5. "Inverting The Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics" Jonathan Wilson - I'd heard good things about this book and when I found it for £2 in a bookshop near work I couldn't resist. A fascinating study of the development of football tactics from it's earliest days in the 19th century to the early 2000s. It's well structured to provide good chapters on the key moments in football development including the great teams like 1950s Hungary, 1970s Holland and the many eras of Brazil. Wilson writes really well, so this never feels like a scholarly discourse but nor does it stint on detail. He's also keen to point out that football success is not just about tactics. I'm now better equipped than ever to win an argument in a pub about why Fulham will only achieve success when they find a mobile central midfielder who can put his foot on the ball.

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Top 5 TV Shows I Saw in 2012

I watched A LOT of television in 2012. We got a TiVo box at the end of the previous year so 2012 was the first year for some time that I'd been able to record everything and anything that I might want to watch (we still had a video but I could no longer be bothered to find a tape that had space on it or work out the complicated series of operations that allowed me to record over night or when we were away). The TiVo made things a little too easy which inevitably lead me to go slightly over the top. I'm now in a constant battle to keep the box below 50% despite knowing that I record more each day than I can watch.

My top five turned out to be full of foreign imports (at one point it was almost entirely Scandinavian subtitled imports) so to bring a bit of balance to proceedings this week provides a bumper edition with three top fives for the price of one! I can only apologise.

Top 5 TV Shows in 2012

1. The Bridge - This really was the stand out television programme of the year for me. I was on the edge of my seat for most of it and reckon even the most sub-title averse viewer would enjoy it. At times it was laugh out loud funny, with the brilliant but flawed partnership between Saga Norén (Sofia Helin) and Martin Rohde (Kim Bodnia) at the heart of all that was good about the show.

2. The Killing II - The first series of The Killing had left me somewhat drained (in a good way) so it took me a while to summon up the courage to dive into the second series (similarly I've not yet watched The Killing III which was aired just before Christmas). In the end I devoured this series in a number of days and wished I'd watched it sooner. It had a lighter touch that series one, as well as a new jumper for Sarah Lund. There was less angst over the murder and more mystery over what has really gone on but it retained the same tense drama and interesting character moments of the previous story.

3. Homeland (Series 1) - This was more gripping TV that belted along and built to a thrilling conclusion. Clare Danes occasionally annoyed with her attempts to convey someone coping with a bi-polar disorder whilst trying to hold down a senior role with the CIA. I was also bemused by the likelihood that Brody would even consider cheating on his, frankly, seriously hot wife with anyone but I guess captivity can do funny things to your brain. I watched the second series later in the year too but that struggled to maintain the drama as it stretched the story beyond believable parameters.

4. Spiral (Series 2 - Gangs Of Paris) - I think Gangs Of Paris built successfully on the character foundations laid down in series one. Caroline Proust (as Captain Laure Berthaud) is the main draw still but seems less in control of events this time round, particularly in her personal life. The surrounding cast are more familiar now and that helped give the story more momentum. I particularly enjoyed Philippe Duclos' portrayal of Judge Roban and his knack with an off-hand put down.

5. Lilyhammer - Continuing my fixation with subtitled telly though with a more American slant. Steve Van Zandt, long time member of Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band, plays a character not a million miles away from his role as Silvio in The Sopranos. Van Zandt contributed to the writing and also selected much of the music, a feat highlighted by the regular show ending appearance of a live band in his Flamingo club.

Top 5 UK TV Shows in 2012

1. Fresh Meat (Series 2) - The second series of Fresh Meat was a sharply scripted as the first. The cast is brilliant and seem to be able to push their characters in new directions. Zawe Ashton as Vod steals most of the best moments but I'm a big fan of Greg McHugh as the socially inept geology student Howard MacCallum too. I suspect this is really aimed at a younger audience (it could be a Young Ones for the modern age) but is one of the few things on TV that makes me laugh quite so heartily.

2. Twenty Twelve (Series 2) - Perfectly timed to coincide with the final few weeks before the Olympics and, I suspect, frighteningly close to what was happening in real life.
3. Episodes (Series 2) - Picking up four months after the end of the first series with Sean and Beverly trying to find a way to continue working together after Beverly's fling with Matt LeBlanc.
4. Line Of Duty - Not quite as gripping as last year's The Shadow Line but this was still BBC drama at it's best. Lennie James is brilliant as DCI Tony Gates who is under investigation by the anti-corruption unit.
5. Getting On (Series 4) - A forth season of Jo Brand's brilliantly observed and poignant hospital sitcom.


Top 5 Documentaries in 2012

1. Storyville: From the Sea to the Land Beyond - Ostensibly just archive footage of the British coast set to a soundtrack by British Sea Power. I'm a big BSP fan obviously but there was something about the way the footage was spliced together that made the programme a transfixing watch. Check out the landbeyond website here or look for the show on Amazon or the BBC iPlayer.

2. Punk Britannia - Three part documentary about the growth of Punk with some brilliant footage from the time and some contemporary interviews with many of punk's leading protagonists.
3. Jon Richardson: A Little Bit OCD - Following on from his book, It's Not Me, It's You!, Jon Richardson explored the truth behind OCD and how crippling it is for those people who suffer. It was lighthearted and revealing but put paid to me ever "humorously" referring to myself as a little bit OCD again.
4. Rich Hall - Inventing The Indian - Comedian Rich Hall goes in search of the real American Indian with the help of his friend, Native American, Dallas Goldtooth. Rich is fairly scathing in his assessment of how they have been portrayed by Hollywood but manages to be very funny at the same time.
5. Horror Europa with Mark Gattis - Follow up to his three part series about British Horror this was a more compact assessment of European horror from a castle in Slovakia where FW Murnau shot Nosferatu in 1922, to the hotel in Ostend where Harry Kümel filmed his erotic vampire classic, Daughters Of Darkness in 1971.

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