Well, here we are again for my 63rd, although somewhat belated, annual trawl through last year’s new albums. To be honest, 2025 was not a vintage year for new albums, or new artists, but that happens some times. Nevertheless there were still a steady flow of purchases to be reviewed in my Album of the Year 2025.
Continue Reading
It never ceases to amaze me that I am still doing this every year, if only the fact that, at my age, I still find new music so enthralling. But anyway, here we are for my 62nd consecutive annual trawl through the year’s new albums in my Album of the Year 2024 – and a very eclectic bunch they have been.
2024 has been a really busy old year, hence no time for other blogs during the last twelve months, a trend I will be reversing next year having ‘retired’ from a number of other commitments in recognition of the fact that life is like a toilet roll – the more you use up, the less there is left! So apologies that this blog is a little later than usual but, like last year, it is along the lines of earlier ones and covers all aspects of my musical year.
Well, who would have thought back in 1963 when I drew those first columns in my school roughbook that sixty years later I would be choosing my Album of the Year 2023 ?
When I consider all the music I have listened to over that period, I cannot help but think how lucky my generation are to have been there literally from the start of modern pop/rock music – and that the generations following have kept it all going for our continued entertainment.
Continue Reading
First Gig of the Year for us was Gentlemens Dub Club, one of the bands we have been waiting to see since before ‘the world stopped’ in 2020. We were finally able to make the short trip to the Marble Factory in Bristol to catch them.
The gig was part of a double-header tour with The Skints, in which they took it in turns to headline. On the night they had support from Cardiff singer Aleighcia Scott, who also shares an evening slot on BBC Radio Wales with DJ Huw Stevens. Her set was very tight, and I look forward to hearing her debut album due out later this year..
Continue Reading