The Book Tower
debut novel coming soon

No, this isn’t a prediction of how I will be feeling after the half marathon tomorrow. It’s a post about the whole evening of programmes I watched last night celebrating Stiff records.

I realised just how good Elvis Costello, Ian Dury and Dr Feelgood were. Highlights:

Backstage film of Ian Dury tearing down a corridor into Costello and barking “out the way Elvis!”

Strange onstage dancing from the artist Humphrey Ocean.

Stiff tour bus stories. Apparently Costello passed out after drinking too much and The Damned set light to his trousers. “That woke him up”, laughed Captain Sensible.

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So many books have been left unfinished this year. Still in my rucksack or gathering dust around the house are:

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Here are my favourite songs, a list I am now making public following Jack Pickard’s latest post. It’s a list that’s until now existed partly in my head, partly in email exchanges and partly in drunken conversations. This is the first time I’ve actually written it down. As I’ve no Sue Lawley asking “and why your affection for Syd Barrett?” or Ken Bruce enquiring “The Smiths?” it’s up to you to rate my musical tastes.

A Day in the Life (The Beatles)
See Emily Play (Pink Floyd)
This Charming Man (The Smiths)
Waterloo Sunset (The Kinks)
This is a Low (Blur)
Someone Saved my Life Tonight (Elton John)
Eton Rifles (The Jam)
Under my Thumb (The Rolling Stones)
Strawberry Fields Forever (The Beatles)
No More Heroes (The Stranglers)
Atmosphere (Joy Division)
Dark Globe (Syd Barrett)
Heroes (David Bowie)
True Love Ways (Buddy Holly)
On Days Like These (Matt Monro)
What Goes On (Velvet Underground)
How Insensitive (Frank Sinatra)
The Killing Moon (Echo and the Bunnymen)
Sense (Terry Hall)
Rent (Pet Shop Boys)

What, heroes and no more heroes? What a crazy guy!

Comment [2]

We held a small dinner party recently and my wife, as usual, was first to grab some CDs to play. My wife, as usual, chose Frank Sinatra and Elvis. Don’t get me wrong, I like Frank Sinatra and Elvis, but I found myself itching to change the music after a while. I took out ‘The Madcap Laughs’ by Syd Barrett and was about to put it on when I thought to myself “maybe this isn’t suitable for a dinner party”. ‘The Madcap Laughs’ is one of my favourite albums, but unless you’re having David Bowie, Julian Cope and Graham Coxon round for tea, it isn’t really dinner party material.

I’ve compiled a still-incomplete list of favourite albums that, although favourite, are still dinner party no-nos. I’ll be going back to this post and adding to the list as I think of more. I also invite readers to add to them. This is what I have so far:

See list