My top 5.....

1.Birmingham, Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel. A fantastic recording and souvenir of a brilliant night.And there's more to come....

2.Spirits Of The Western Sky,Justin Hayward. A rare solo release from the Moody Blues singer.Brilliant vocals with some mighty fine words!

3.New,Paul McCartney.The boy from Liverpool has still got it! Modern sound and production wrapped up with some mighty fine tunes.

4.Electric,Richard Thompson. A beauty and Salford Sunday has to be the track of the year!

5.Three Chords Good, Graham Parker And The Rumour. Their first release for years.What a comeback! a cracker!

What's your Top 5 ....

Hmmm Hmmmmmm top 5 for 2013?

1. Steve Harley - Birmingham Superb, say no more

2. The Rides - Can't Get Enough Stills and co deliver a great album of covers. Top stuff!

3. Manic Street Preachers - Rewind The Film Mellow supreme, and tuneful. Lots of light and shade.

4. Deep Purple - Now What?! Gold Edition I'd given up on Purple ever reaching the heights again, but this album proved me wrong. Outstanding.

5. Nik Turner - Space Gypsy A mighty effort, with some great musicians. Sounds like classic Hawkwind from the 70's. Vintage space rock.


Plenty more releases that pushed my selections very close, with releases from Neil Young, The Virgimarys, Queens of The Stone Age, The Answer, to name but a few!! 2013 was a good year for music.

Here's my Top 5 (3 the same Stew...we are men of great taste obviously)

1. Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel - 'Birmingham'....A triumph, nothing more, nothing less

2. Paul McCartney - 'New'..... Best McCartney album in 30 years with the exception of the last Fireman album

3. Graham Parker And The Rumour - 'Three Chords Good'....Sounds as though they've never been apart. Brilliant album.

4. Sparks - 'Two Hands, One Mouth - Live in Europe'....The sound of Sparks stripped to the bare bones for the 1st time...one voice/one keyboard. Excellent!

5. Rod Stewart - Rarities....Many superb early/alternative takes from 70's. Great stuff! (and his latest 'Time' album wasn't too shabby either and another return to form)

Your right Graeme,Time by Rod Stewart is another return to form.Nice to see Mr Cregan working with Rod again on the album.

The question is Stewart, why did it take Rod so long to start writing again.

1.Bloodsports SUede
2.Birmingham cd Steve Harley
3.Push the sky away Nick Cave & The Bad seeds
4.Arcade Fire Reflektor
5.Tim Knol

Live conerts
1.Roger Waters Nijmegen, AMsterdam
2.Suede AMsterdam
3.Steve Harley London
4.Nick Cave Amsterdam
5.Waterboys Weert

Wooo top 5 live concerts of 2013 Ruud? That's a hard one!!!

In no specific order:


Nick Cave - Manchester Apollo

Steve Harley - Bilston Robin 2

Ian Hunter - Sale (acoustic trio)

Ian Hunter and Rant Band - Holmfirth

Eels - Manchester Academy

Neil Young with Crazy Horse - Birmingham

Queens of..... arghhhh gone over already!

There were so many more good shows, but these stood out for me. Also, I'm sure the 28th of December Rebel show would feature, as I'm already quite certain it's going to be a christmas cracker!!


Worst gig?

Roger Hodgson - Breakfast in America Tour at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. Stinker.

Re Top 5 gigs of the year.....

1. Billy Joel, Manchester..So great to hear many obscure tracks in an awesome show and Scenes From An Italian Restaurant remains my all time fav live track!

2.Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel,Bilston...A room in the venue and the Fan convention was and is always in full swing at the perfect venue that is Bilston.Never heard Steve singing better!

3.Sad Cafe,The Lowry...Years later back they came with a brilliant show.Fantastic musicians and one of Manchester's finest.My Oh My they were great!

4.Glenn Tillbrook ( solo), The Lowry..brillaint singer,musician and story teller with a timeless collection of songs.

5.The Zombies,The Lowry...Colin and Rod in fantastic form with a great night of Zombies,Argent and solo work.

Like Pete,still think though that the best is yet to come....roll on Holmfirth
and also Pete ironically I'm listening to Breakfast In America at the moment...may not have been a great gig for ya but sure is a great album!!

Hi Pete, what went wrong bij Hodgson. I saw him at Bospop ,not brilliant but good enough imho.
Bit jealous about you're going to see Steve and band soon. Ah well can't have everything right? See you at the Royal ALb Hall or maybe Manchester or Birmingham?

Well Ruud it's hard to explain. Perhaps my expectations were too high? Hodgson and co were so bland. His solo stuff was (for most part) awful, whilst the big hits from Supertramp days were 'okay'. Perhaps I wasn't in the mood? But, my wife was of the same opinion as me, which was strange, because we never agree on anything lol.

Yep, will see you in the new year! Manchester 1st