Top 5 Animal Hybrids

I'm a big fan of the BBC teatime quiz show Pointless, not least because it is co-hosted by a Fulham fan Richard Osman. Recently they had a fine round in which contestants had to identify what two animals had combined to produce hybird offspring based on the name of that offspring. Frankly I had no idea there were so many animal hybrids in existence. Seems rude not to do a top five then.

1. Liger - Possibly the most obvious hybrid but for good reason. A Liger is a cross between a male lion and a tigress and, despite any reservations over why they may be bred, looks absolutely fabulous. The largest feline in existence, a male Liger has the shaggy mane of a Lion with the body stripes of a Tiger. You can surely not get a better big cat than that!

2. Zedonk - The offspring of a Zebra and a Donkey which, like the Liger, produces what appears to be a Donkey with funky stripes. Clearly I'm a fan of stripes on animals.

3. Grolar Bear - The result of a Polar Bear and a Grizzly Bear getting jiggy with it. They're very rare and usually come from captive animals but there have been reports of wild Grolars being identified in the Canadian Arctic.

4. Beefalo - Not, as may first appear, the offsping of a Bee and a Buffalo (Hat-tip to Mr Osman) but slightly less excitingly the fertile hybrid of domestic cattle and American bison. Actually it's a bit dull but I couldn't resist the Bee joke.

5. Killer Bee - The explanation straight out of Wikipedia is as follows;
"Africanized honey bees, known colloquially as "killer bees," are hybrid varieties of the Western honey bee species, produced originally by cross-breeding the African honey bee with various European honey bees. The hybrid bees are far more aggressive than any of the various European subspecies. Small swarms of Africanized bees are capable of taking over European honey bee hives by invading the hive and establishing their own queen after killing the European queen."
Yeah, whatever - KILLER BEES!!!!!!!

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Guest Top 5 Science Fiction Films by Mark Gibson

I've been bugging my friend Mark to do a top five for ages and he finally caved in to the pressure and provided me this gem. It's a topic I've considered doing myself and may still come back to at some point, though I suspect my own version would not be massively different from Mark's own choices. Mark is lead singer with Feltham's premiere covers band The Phantoms and has been a long suffering Fulham season ticket holder with me for the best part of 15 years.

I have been meaning to write David some Top 5s for months now and have finally gotten round to it! My first Top 5 is Science Fiction Films. These are not necessarily the most stylish or ground breaking Sci-Fi movies of all time but they have a certain affection with me and have been included in this Top 5 because of that.

1. Star Wars – A New Hope (1977) Dir: George Lucas
It had to be, this film had a massive impact on me when I was 7 years old , I still remember how amazed I was. Unfortunately I have fallen out of love with the film over the years as it has been re-mastered and CGI versions have been released which have ruined the initial feel of the film , but I’m sure George Lucas knows what he is doing! Note: I have not included any of the other two classic movies in my list, and certainly not I-III!

2. Flash Gordon (1980) Dir: Mike Hodges
This is in at number 2 mainly for the sound track, which I love, I owned the 7inch theme tune (The B-side was Football Fight which is an amazing song especially in context with the film) . This film is also great because it’s a bit of a who’s who of British Actors. And I remember my Mum taking me to this one and she actually enjoyed it for the music too.

3. Battlestar Galatica (1978) Dir: Richard A. Colla
Now been remade into another popular TV series, but this was the Original movie made by Glen A Larson. I think this film was botched together from the TV series and released. Not much more to say about this except I think it was the fist time I went to the cinema on my own, with friends. We ended up hiding behind the seats and watching the film again, of all the films here I doubt I would take the trouble to watch it again.

4. E.T. (1982) Dir: Steven Spielberg
Went to see this with my mates from school, must have been about 15 or 16 and I had to hold back from crying at the end when E.T. got home, it was the plant pot bit that did it, still have a little tear in my eye even now, and I know it's only a lump of rubber!

5. Logan's Run (1976) Dir: Michael Anderson
This just beat Mad Max 2 (I saw Mad Max for the first time on Pirate video back in the 80’s) into 5th place. The reason Jenny Agutter.

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Top 5 Ernest Borgnine Films

Ah crap. Just as I thought I'd sorted out the next few weeks top fives someone I really liked goes and dies and I feel I need to mark this appropriately. Ernest Borgnine was 95 and had a long and productive live but I still feel sad at his passing. He was a staple component of all the best films I saw growing up and seemed indestructible. Born in Connecticut to Italian parents he joined the Navy at 18 and served for ten years. Leaving the service and the end of World War II and keen to avoid factory employment, he landed his first stage role in 1947 and got his break in films, playing the sadistic Sergeant "Fatso" Judson, in the 1953 version of From Here To Eternity.

In 1955 he won the Best Actor Oscar for Marty. He seemed to pretty much always play himself, he was a likeable regular bloke, even when it turned out he was the bad guy. His film and TV career spanned six decades and researching this topic made me realise how many of his films I've not seen, so apologies for any glaring omissions. Andrew Collins has written a far better tribute than I could ever manage which you can read here.

1. The Poseidon Adventure (1972) Dir: Ronald Neame - Hell upside down! The ultimate 70s disaster movie in which Borgnine plays Detective Lieutenant Mike Rogo who ultimately leads the few survivors to safety.

2. The Dirty Dozen (1967) Dir: Robert Aldrich - Playing commanding officer Major General Worden who eventually gives permission for the "Dirty Dozen" to go into combat. A role he reprised for two less successful sequels.

3. Ice Station Zebra (1968) Dir: John Sturges - A film that led me into an obsession with Alistair MacClean novels and Scottish nuclear submarine bases (on a family holiday to Inverness we made a detour to see Loch Long which is mentioned in the book and attempted to get a tour round the Naval Base at Faslane entirely due to my infatuation with the film). Borgnine plays the seemingly amiable Russian defector Boris Vaslov.

4. Escape from New York (1981) Dir: John Carpenter - A cult classic in which the island of Manhattan has been converted into a maximum security prison. Kurt Russell as "Snake" Plissken is given 24 hours to rescue the President who has been taken hostage after his plane crashes onto the island. Borgnine plays Cabbie one of the inmates who becomes Snake's ally and dies in the final dramatic escape over 69th Street Bridge.

5. The Wild Bunch (1969) Dir: Sam Peckinpah - "If they move, kill 'em!" Borgnine is Dutch Engstrom one of an aging gang of outlaws in the dying embers of the American wild west.

I was determined to try and shoehorn in a mention of Disney's post Star Wars turkey "The Black Hole" (Dir: Gary Nelson - 1979) a film I loved mainly due to the little flying robots who prove to be the heroes. Ernest played journalist Harry Booth who, if memory serves, eventually realises what's going on but dies an unfortunate death. It's a film I'll always love cannot honestly claim it's better than any of the five that made the list.

Guest Top 5 70s Choppers (Chop Will Eat Itself) by Dan Whaley

It's been a while since I last published a guest top five so what better way to kick of a run of new ones that with the return of my very first guest contributer Dan Whaley. Dan is a multi-instrumentalist who has played in a myriad of bands, including The Charles Napiers, The McDeath Trio and most recently The DC3. He previously provided this gem about his top five dutch artists and responded to my persistent badgering with a topic that could not be more appropriate and which I'm at a loss to explain why I'd never considered doing myself.

1) The Raleigh Chopper

For anyone who was a kiddy growing up in the 70s, this was the bike to aspire to. This despite the fact that it was a hog to ride – heavy as you like, with a very real risk of impaling your knackers on the low down gear lever, especially if you were giving a mate a “backie”. About 10 years ago Raleigh launched a new “safer” version, which like pretty much all remakes (e.g. BMW’s Mini, Stallone’s Get Carter, etc) was a bag of shite compared to the original.

2) Ron “Chopper” Harris

The reason why anyone with the surname Harris is called Chopper. Back when I gave a monkey’s about football, Chelsea was the team I supported. For me, he summons up a time when football was about genuine blokes playing proper sport, not the dog and pony show it has descended into today. But maybe I’m just an old git.

3) Bell Jet Ranger Helicopter

It seems that this make and model of chopper featured in just about every film and TV programme in the 70s. If I think of a helicopter, this is exactly the model that comes to mind. Not that I spend much time thinking about helicopters, mind...

4) Ron Jeremy

As 70s grumbleflick actors go, he’s perhaps not as well known as John Holmes, but Ron always seemed to approach his work with more humour, gusto and enthusiasm than JH. Plus he’s still alive and still going strong. And why is he in a list of 70s choppers? Because a) he wields a not unimpressive 9¾ inch long hog’s leg and b), his party trick involves rolling himself up into a ball and giving himself a 34-and-a-halfer. Chop will indeed eat itself...

5) The Guillotine

Last used in France as late as the 1977, unbelievably. The final victim of the guillotine was a chap by the name of Hamida Djandoubi. Actually, he sounded like an absolute bounder, so probably deserved it.

Top 5 versions of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Well, it's been a while but you know how it is. The glorious summer. The exciting football tournament. The massive Fulham article that you just didn't get round to writing until it was a week overdue. I'll try and get back on track with regular updates, you'll no doubt be excited to hear I have a stack of guest top fives to publish so you won't need to wade through too much of my waffle.

This week I had the thrill of going to see a Live performance of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Radio Shows at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking. Hitchhiker's had as big an impact on my teenage years as Star Wars, the combination of humour and social commentary striking a chord at an impressionable time.

1. The Books (1979-92) - The second version of Hitchhiker's I obtained having enjoyed the TV series and being desperate to find out more. The original book remains one of my favourite books of all time and for a while I re-read it every year. "The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe" is not so much a sequel as the second half of the same story (elements from both made it into the TV show) and was just as hilarious as the first. My A-level English teacher almost had kittens when I included them in my list of "favourite" novels. Not suitable material for literary consideration she explained. I still think she was wrong, whilst they may not be the most challenging read, hardly a word is wasted that does not in some way lead to smartly observed humour. I found them hilarious and, most important of all, they made me want to read more often. Douglas Adams eventually produced five books in the "trilogy" and became the first author I'd purchase the day any new material came out.

2. The TV Show (1981) - My introduction to Hitchhiker's was thanks to the BBC television adaption of the Radio Show. A mere six half-hour episodes were made but these visual treats seemed light years away from anything else I'd ever seen. In particular the apparently computer generated sequences of section from the Guide itself provided a brilliant way to pull the story together and were actually pain-stakingly produced by hand using traditional cell animation techniques.

3. The Radio Series (1978-79) - The Radio Shows were the original format of the story enabled Adams' to really go to town with the story and of course set him up for years of production hell trying to get a film version off the ground. Many of the cast from the radio show went on to appear in the TV Series as well. Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod, Stephen Moore as the voice of Marvin and most distinctive of all, the wonderful Peter Jones as the voice of The Guide. Though this is really where Hitchhiker's began, I did not get hold of the recordings until several years later. At first hearing Ford Prefect & Trillian voiced by different actors to the ones I knew from TV seemed odd, but both Geoffrey McGiven & Susan Sheridan were well chosen for the parts and soon won me over.

4. The Live Show (2012) - It's over 10 years since Douglas passed away but his Hitchhiker's legacy lives on. In 2009 Eoin Colfer wrote "And Another Thing… " a very passable sixth installment of the novels and from 2003 to 2004 Dirk Maggs produced further radio adaptions of Adams' later books. It was Dirk Maggs who then came up with the idea to take the original radio cast on the road with a live tour which provided me the opportunity to laugh uncontrollably at jokes I'd heard a billion times before. It was a real pleasure to see Simon Jones, Mark Wing-Davey, Geoffrey McGivern and Susan Sheridan reunited and clearly enjoying the opportunity to perform the show in a live environment. They still have shows to play and I recommend anyone who enjoyed Hitchhiker's in any of it's formats to go and see them.

5. The Audio Books (1981) - Narrated by Stephen Moore who was a founder member of the radio series cast. Best known as Marvin the paranoid android (not only on radio but on TV and the Live show) but also the provider of voices for many other parts including the Whale that appears suddenly several miles above the planet of Magrethea, and comes to an unfortunate, but unavoidable, ending. Stephen recorded audio versions of the first four books for EMI in the early 80s. Whilst these don't have the variety and interchange of the radio shows there is something magical about Stephen's voice that I have never forgotten.

A quick postscript to mention the Film version that did eventually get made in 2005. Had I not recently seen the Live show this could happily have made my top five, it's very different from the TV version of course, but then one of the joys of the alternative versions of Hitchhiker's is that they don't always follow the exact same script and in many cases completely contradict each other.

Top 5 Songs that feature the Moog synth

I wasn't going to do a top five this week but I had so much fun playing with Google's Doodle to celebrate Robert Moog's 78th birthday the other day I couldn't help but put together a quick list of the best songs to feature a Moog. I'm sure I've missed some cracker's so hit me up with your own suggestions in the comments.

I managed to hack out a basic version of "Oh When The Saints" using the Google version but it seems some people were able to create synth genius such as this oddly hilarious version of Daft Punk's "Aerodynamic".



1. Krafwerk "Autobahn"


2. Pink Floyd "Wish You Were Here"


3. Donna Summer - "I Feel Love"


4. Jean Jacques Perry - "E.V.A"


5. Yes - "Starship Trooper"


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Top 5 Music Diary 2012 Stats

A slight return to top fives after a frantic week of recording every piece of music I listened to for seven days as part of the Music Diary 2012 project. Whilst that was interesting as far as it went I felt I needed something a bit more from the process. A big list of songs is all well and good but I needed some sort of scientific analysis of what this all meant. What did this sample of my music taste suggest about me as a person? Where there any unexpected trends I wasn't consciously aware of? I needed some sort of conclusion. Something colourful. Something pretty. Something pie-chart shaped!

I love a good pie chart.

1. Top 5 Bands - The list of bands I listened to was dominated by the two artists I saw play live that week. A combination of both being hot listens for me right now and my ongoing obsession with listing everything I do. To be honest his proved to be the only obvious pattern in my listening habits, other than an excessive use of the iPod shuffle facility. Field Music claimed 3rd thanks to a new album that has 16 songs on it. Efrim of Godspeed got 4th because his album was so good I played it twice in a row. My Bloody Valentine and The Gun Club tied for 5th due to single plays of their albums.



Seeing as Google Docs cut off the rest of my legend here's the list of bands included on the graph. Much as I'm sure you're as keen about completeness as I am I figured I'd spare you the full list of artists by cutting it off at bands who featured less than four times.
Trembling Bells & Bonnie Prince Billy - 29
Laura J Martin - 27
Field Music - 16
Efrim Menuck - 15
My Bloody Valentine - 11
The Gun Club - 11
The Antlers - 10
Trembling Bells - 10
Pegasvs - 9
Pixies - 8
Napoleon IIIrd - 7
Beth Jeans Houghton - 5
Black Lips - 4
The Go! Team - 4
Trembling Bells & Muldoon's Picnic - 4

2. Top 5 Genres - I based this on a fairly broad consideration of the genre of band and tried not to think too hard about whether Trembling Bells are New-Folk or Folk-Rock or Alt-Folk-Rock. I expected Folk to form the largest chunk so was surprised to find how significantly Indie had whooped Folk's arse. I think this is partly due to the vagueness of Indie as a genre (it's a neat container for a lot of guitar led new music) but clearly I'm a bigger Indie-kid than perhaps I might normally admit.



3. Top 5 Locations - So, Work and Home proved to be where I do most of my music listening. This is perhaps a little surprising when you take into account I do most of my music listening on my own. At work I suppose I make the most of the times when I'm on my own, at home I take any chance I can get (and wear headphones a lot).



4. Top 5 Devices - No major surprises here as my iPods provide me with the choice of music I want pretty much wherever I am. I've not had a proper hi-fi set up for over 10 years but I'm no audiophile and the convenience of the Pod is a wondrous thing. In another week the BBC iPlayer may have featured more significantly. The one interesting point is how many different devices enable me to play music. We really are living in the future, jet packs and hoover cars can not be too far round the corner.



5. Top 5 other numbers - Er, I've run out of pretty graphs so here are a few extra numbers to tide you over.

Total songs played = 321
Average songs played per day = 45
Approx time spent listening to music per week* = 21 hours 24 minutes
Approx average time spent listening to music per day = 3 hours 3 minutes
Number of different artists = 138

* based on rough estimate of average 4 minute song length.
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Music Diary 2012 - Day 7

The final day of this year's music diary and whilst I've run out of steam a little trying to think of interesting things to say I've enjoyed the insight tracking my actual music listening has brought. I think it has reflected a pretty average week for me, but if time allows I hope to do a summary post to explore exactly how I got on.

Sunday's have a fairly regular routine at Chez Top Five. Mrs takes the boys out to skif whilst I crack on with some jobs and cook the roast dinner. From 10 until 12 the Cerys Matthews 6music show soundtracked my day (listening variously from the TV upstairs, the radio in the kitchen and the TV in the front room). I was in and out so didn't catch the whole show but the following tracks were the tunes that got my attention. Cerys' show is a fabulously eclectic mix and the perfect soundtrack to a Sunday morning.
"Dust My Broom" Elmore James
"The Way It Goes" Gillian Welch
"The Bravest Man In The Universe" Bobby Womack
"Young Man In America" (Live) Anaïs Mitchell
"Coming Down" (Live) Anaïs Mitchell
"Gloom" Don Cavalli
"Mistreated" The Groundhogs
"Bubble Sex" Tommy Seebach

Around 11.30, with the roast well under way, I had a brief break from the radio to practice the three pathetic chords (D, A & G) I know on my guitar. I've been trying to progress from musical duncehood to being able to play at least one tune. I've selected "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedance Clearwater Revival as the ideal starer song but have been making slow progress.

Once Cerys' show was done I turned the radio off and brought up Spotify on the PC. I played The Gun Club's debut album "Fire of Love" a recent discovery thanks to Marc Riley and The Jim Jones Revue. I'd been vaugely aware of them and Jeffery Lee Pierce for some time but wish I'd made the effort to try them out a lot sooner.
Sex Beat
Preaching the Blues
Promise Me
She's Like Heroin to Me
For the Love of Ivy
Fire Spirit
Ghost on the Highway
Jack on Fire
Black Train
Cool Drink of Water
Goodbye Johnny

In places Pierce's vocals remind me a lot of Frank Black's and this prompted me to play something by the Pixies. I didn't have long before dinner was due so went with their debut E.P. "Come on Pilgrim" and throughly enjoyed hearing an old favourite by a band that had a huge impact on my taste in music.
Caribou
Vamos
Isla de Encanta
Ed Is Dead
The Holiday Song
Nimrod's Son
I've Been Tired
Levitate Me

That may well be it for the day. We ate a hearty roast dinner (if I do say so myself), went for a walk afterwards down to Shepperton Lock and back, arrived home in time to marvel at the drama of the last few minutes of this season's premier league, put together a bedside cabinet from IKEA, got everything ready for work and school, and then collapsed on the sofa to finish my book ("Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" as you asked).

It's now 10:20 and I suspect I won't listen to anymore music. Match of the Day starts in 10 minutes and I'll have to watch that before slipping into bed and starting another week all over again.


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Music Diary 2012 - Day 6

Mrs Top Five was out for the morning doing sporty things with son 1, so I had a list of jobs to get on with whilst looking after son 2. I'd read that quite a few other Music Diarists were listening to the remaster of "Loveless" which is an album I'd not played in a very long time. I never got into My Bloody Valentine at the time and when I did eventually buy a copy of "Loveless" on CD it didn't bowl me over. I fired up Grooveshark on the PC and gave it another go. Still not really my thing, but I think I'll stick a copy on my nano and see if the occasional track via shuffle helps me appreciate it a little more.
"Only Shallow"
"Loomer"
"Touched"
"To Here Knows When"
"When You Sleep"
"I Only Said"
"Come in Alone"
"Sometimes"
"Blown a Wish"
"What You Want"
"Soon"

Next I took a look through my music favourites on Grooveshark and decided on the always listenable Pegasvs, a spanish band I know very little about but have enjoyed a great deal since being recommended them by @Nebuchanezer on Twitter.
"Brillar"
"Atlantico"
"El final de la noche"
"No Volvera"
"La Melodia Del Afilador"
"Inmortal"
"Sobre Las Olas"
"Hasta el Horizonte"
"Sol de Medianoche"

Cleaning up after lunch in the kitchen I stuck the radio on and got a bit of Liz Kershaw's show on 6music.
"Everything Goes My Way" - Metronomy
"Blister In The Sun" - Violent Femmes
"Dark Star" - Polica
"ABC" - Jackson Five
"Night & Day" - Hot Chip
"Comfortably Numb" - Pink Floyd

I had a fairly busy afternoon and didn't get another chance to play music until I cleared up after tea. This time it was the Craig Charles Funk & Soul show on 6music, not my favourite, so I channel hopped for a bit until settling on Planet Rock with Alice Cooper.
"All The Young Dudes" - Mott The Hoople
"Unskinny Bop" - Poison
"Stranglehold" - Ted Nugent
"Bargain" - The Who

While the kids watched the Britain's Got Talent Final upstairs, Mrs Top Five and I watched an old episode of New Tricks. When that was done we flicked through and caught a little of an old Top Of The Pops show which featured Legs & Co. dancing to something dreadful, The Four Tops and Leo Sayer. With nothing else really taking my fancy and Mrs Top Five deciding to reclaim our bed from the boys, I hit the red button and found the Cerys Matthews show from last Sunday. Recently I have found I've been less able to listen live but I do normally catch up some time during the week. This meant I'd missed Trembling Bells & Bonnie Prince Billy play live on the morning that I went to see them at the Union Chapel, so I was keen to hear that at least before the catch-up option disappeared.

I listened to the first couple of tracks but the Bryan Ferry tune was awful so I decided to skip ahead to the second hour of the show.
"Yei Baa Gbe Wo" Hedzoleh Soundz
"You Are My Sunshine" Bryan Ferry

This brought me round in time to hear Toots & The Maytals brilliant version of Louie Louie followed by that live session. I suspect Trembling Bells are proving a little difficult for some Bonnie 'Prince' Billy fans to enjoy, but they sounded pretty amazing to me again. I think I snoozed off sometime after the session (I took the tracklisting from the BBC website) but I'm sure it all made some impact on my sub-concious mind.
"Louie Louie" Toots & The Maytals
"I Can Tell You're Leaving" (Live) Trembling Bells & Bonnie Prince Billy
"My Husband's Got No Courage In Him" (Live) Trembling Bells & Bonnie Prince Billy
"Riding" (Live) Trembling Bells & Bonnie Prince Billy
"I've Been Watching You" Southside Movement
"Just A Closer Walk With Thee" Mahalia Jackson
"He Made A Woman Out Of Me" Bettye LaVette
"St Louis Bound" Kansas City Tin Roof Stompers
"See My Jumper Hanging On The Line" R.L. Burnside
"Tosta Mista" Hooded Fang
"Legend" Huun Hur Tu & Angelite Bulgarian Singers
"Wind Blown Waltz" Giant Giant Sand


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Music Diary 2012 - Day 5

After yesterday's post I wondered if I was taking this Music Diary thing a little too literally. It took me a fair while to list every song I heard, though that was not helped by my excessive use of the shuffle facility. today I'm going try and be a bit more expansive with my comments rather than just blat out a vast list of songs. I also realised that I'd been so wrapped up in my own world I hadn't really got involved with any of the other Music Diary participants. I think one of the aims of the project was to encourage interaction between music fans so, last night and this morning I've taken the time to scan through what other people are up to and it's really interesting to see what other people are listening too and how they've approached reporting it. I'll link to some of those examples over the weekend if I get the time.

This morning got off to my normal start with my iPod on the drive to work. I felt the need to play something a little different this morning and decided to play Efrim Menuck's solo album, "plays High Gospel" which I've had on my nano for some time now but not really listened to from start to finish yet. I'm a big fan of Efrim's previous work with both Godspeed and A Silver Mt Zion but, other than when something new comes out or I've just seen them live, it's not that often I feel the desire to play a whole album. His solo album is an interesting progression from his earlier releases. The 9 minute "a 12-point program for keep on keepin' on" is just a little bit too electronic for my tastes but "august four, year-of-our-lord blues", ""heavy calls & hospitals blues" and "i am no longer a motherless child" are right up there with my favourite Efrim inspired music. I finished listening to the album at work and then replayed it all over again(though I did skip "12 point program ..." second time round). One of the benefits I find with using shuffle so much, particularly with my more "challenging" choices, is that when I eventually go back to playing the complete album I'm more familiar with the songs and am able to enjoy the full length album more than perhaps I might have done on first few listens.

Nearing lunchtime and I had a bit of time to kill so selected something a little easier on the mind. I picked up The Antlers' "Burst Apart" after reading some favourable reviews in last years' end of year summaries. DiS choose it as their album of the year, and thanks to the joy of Spotify I was able to give it a spin before eventually buying it via eMusic. It's an instantly likeable album, probably not the sort of thing I would normally go for, but an album full of songs that make me feel glad to be alive. The guitar sounds are warm and gentle, it's beautifully produced and whilst I can happily get on with other things whilst it's playing there are moments when I can just stop and listen and enjoy a truly marvelous piece of music.

I went to the pub at lunch time but there was no music. That's not a bad thing, I like "old man's pubs" that just sell beer and don't bother with the trappings of modern society like Sky TV and digital juke boxes, but I have noticed recently that the new landlord has decent taste in music and was interested in what he might choose today. That said, it turned out to be sunny enough to sit in the beer garden. Which was nice.

Back to work for the final hour or so (short day today) and I decided to play the new Field Music album "Plumb". I saw them last November at the Memphis Industries 13th anniversary shindig and have been frantically picking up all their stuff ever since. "Plumb" has taken a while to settle in for me but it's definitely growing with every listen and there are one or two songs ("Start The Day Right", "How Many More Times" & "(I Keep Thinking About) A New Thing") that are absolute gems.

At home and while I'd been out the man had been to install a satellite dish & FreeSat box, so I listened to Steve Lamacq on 6music while I tidied up the rooms we'd moved furniture in.
Israelites Desmond Dekker & The Aces
Sound of the Suburbs The Members
Oblivion Grimes
She Sells Sanctuary The Cult
Burning Hey Sholay
Believe Chemical Brothers

Later I went out to take son 1 to Scouts and took my iPod classic for a rare trip. On shuffle again, this threw up an excellent mix of tunes from Jazz to Hardcore to Alt-Country and back to Hardcore.
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood Nina Simone
It Follows Minor Threat
Wayfaring Stranger Neko Case
Theologians Wilco
By You Fugazi

At bedtime Mrs Top Five fell asleep with the TV on whilst I was reading, so I switched it over to Classic FM to provide a bit of background music that wouldn't distract me from my book.

I had planned to try and catch up with a couple of radio shows this week but didn't get the opportunity to listen via iPlayer as much as I'd hoped. I also wanted to give My Bloody Valentine another go, having read that several other Music Diarists were play the Loveless remasters. My weekend opportunities for music listening may be limited by family activities and general chores but we'll see how things pan out.

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