Gavin and Stacey, mainstream TV

I tried to make a list of the greatest British TV shows a while back, with some motivation to doing what most such lists fail to do - covering and giving credit to the full range of genres and formats, not just scripted drama and comedy. 

But I gave up, as even my large ego had to accept that, in the scheme of things, I don't know anything about TV. In truth, I hardly watch any TV.

Well, I watch a lot of sport. That's what I mainly watch. Since I got Sky Sports in 2007, I've mainly watched sport, to the exclusion of most else. It didn't happen immediately, but sport, having a child, and deciding in 2018 i really needed to read books again, has meant that my watching of mainstream TV is spare at best. I certainly hardly ever just browse TV (unless it's sport). I still make time for a few series a year. This year, I can remember watching Mr Bates vs the Post Office, One Day, Sherwood, Colin from Accounts, Rings of Power, Wolf Hall,  Boybands Forever, The Bear, Inside Number 9, and maybe there were a handful of others, certainly a few sports and music documentaries, but it's not much, really. Oh yes, and old Top of the Pops on a Friday night. Lots of that.

But I'm usually not watching what everyone's watching. What people tweet about and talk about - Doctor Who, Strictly, Line of Duty, The Chase, The Traitors, Ludwig, I'm a Celebrity, Slow Horses, Baby Reindeer, The 1% Club, University Challenge. I don't even watch hit show Only Connect.

I'm not snobby about TV - I used to watch any old shit - all the soaps, all the reality shows, all the talent shows, all the dodgy sitcoms, all the daytime quizzes. But now, I'm mainly out of the loop. Whereas, because I, in some sense, "work in TV", most of the people I encounter professionally know a lot, care a lot, think a lot about TV, and I, perhaps to my professional detriment, do not. 

In actual fact, working on OC has been a factor in that. After a few series, I realised it was far healthier for me to shut it out completely, as far as possible, when i wasn't working in it, in terms of online and real-world responses. I do still like to know the ratings, but that's all ...

And I also think it has meant I don't watch other TV within the same - rough - genre (daytime/quiz/game etc). I don't want to think about formats of TV shows, and whether these are good quiz questions etc, if I don't have to ...

Anyway, all this is to say, I don't see myself as a TV guy, and when folk online are tweeting about this and that, I tend to think "why aren't you watching Everton-Wolves?" "why aren't you watching Sri Lanka-West Indies?", "why aren't you watching Baltimore Ravens-Houston Texans?" ... which is what I intended to watch a bit of on Christmas Day evening, to relax with a little bit of magical Lamar Jackson and his Baltimore Ravens. But then it wasn't on Sky Sports NFL and I wasn't sharp enough to remember it was the first venture into NFL by Netflix, and I was a bit bereft.

And Juliette said, "Do you want to watch Gavin and Stacey?" And I said ok, remembering that actually I'd watched all the other episodes of Gavin and Stacey, and this used to be the kind of thing I watched .... and I'm glad I did, because I really enjoyed it, which in a way is hardly the point, but in a way is. Perhaps I had become a TV snob and thought I was too good for Gavin and Stacey and should only watch certain anointed shows and not heartwarming Christmas specials, but Gavin and Stacey was actually always a good show, and it is a weird little blip that a small BBC3 sitcom from 2007 became the biggest show on TV in 2024, and they can't change the characters' surnames, even though they're West, Shipman and Sutcliffe.

I guess the point is it's nice to watch what everyone else is watching every now and then, and ... what else ... people should stop hating James Corden. It's a bit weird.

2024

In 2023, I produced a list of my favourite 100 albums of the year, which was clearly a very normal and worthwhile thing to do. Although I have listened to as much new music this year, I have less desire to process and qualify what I listened to this time around.

So, perhaps my 73rd favourite album of the year was Grace Cummings' album 'Ramona', but that's the only such fascinating tidbit you'll get. 

All I'm going to do is give you a playlist of 40 songs. Because of the way Apple Music (or Spotify) works, I know exactly what I listened to the most this year. So these songs are drawn from the 100 songs I've listened to the most. They're not even all from 2024 (I'll star the ones that aren't). Anyway, over the course of it, you'll find out, no doubt, what my favourite things were.

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/2024-final/pl.u-11aPBHBM0JV

Good Luck Babe - Chappell Roan

I guess this was my favourite song. I first heard it while sitting in the passenger seat at the roundabout of Junction 10A of the M20, a place I hear and recoil from many of the modern pop hits. I heard it and exclaimed "What the hell? This is a great song", and so it is. I'd heard about Chappell Roan by that point, but wasn't sure, from online descriptions of her oeuvre, if she was for me. Turns out, she's for everyone. Let's call this the best megahit since 'Umbrella', or something like that. Bit of Cyndi Lauper, bit of Kate Bush, unforgettable hook both melodically and lyrically. Her album is good, too, though a bit more "not for me", after all.

Right Back to It - Waxahatchee ft MJ Lenderman

This is the song I've listened to the most. I've listened to it a lot of times. It's not even that it makes my heart race with excitement, it's just such a pleasant, fine song to listen to. I sing along with MJ as he does his wobbly Gram Parsons thing on the chorus without even noticing I'm doing it. This replaces the song I listened to the most in 2020, 21, 22 and 23, which was Can't Do Much by someone called Waxahatchee. I didn't actually love Tiger's Blood as much as Saint Cloud, but how could I?

Although it's Katie Crutchfield's most high-profile song, I might have expected it would be an even bigger crossover hit.

All in Good Time - Iron & Wine and Fiona Apple

The Iron & Wine album Light Verse was a favourite of the year. I really wasn't expecting a good Iron & Wine album - my favourite since 'Shepherd's Dog'. This is another country-tinged duet, which might have grabbed more attention, considering it's a rare public appearance by Fiona Apple, whose voice just comes in like a knife (through iron, through wine ...), and prompted me to listen to a lot of Fiona Apple again. [Incidentally, Pitchfork judged her Fetch the Bolt Cutters the best album of the 2020s so far. I may come back to that list.]

Head Rolls Off - Frightened Rabbit *

The Wild Kindness - Silver Jews *

Two songs now which I've listened to a huge amount, which aren't from this year. They're beautiful songs. Inspiring in their way -  sung by two mordant, dark, funny, twisty lyricists, Scott Hutchison and David Berman, yet their legacy lyrics are two simple lines of determination and humanity;  "While I'm alive, I'll make tiny changes to earth" and "I'm going to shine out in the wild kindness and hold the world to its word". Everything you ever need.

Song of the Lake - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Talking of lyrics, it says everything about Nick Cave's understanding with his listeners and his position within his own songs that the line "And all the king's horses and all the king's ... oh never mind, never mind" can be so moving. I liked this Cave album, 'Wild God', a lot. I thought it was a really good reconciliation of his old and new writing styles. There was a hint of classic Bad Seeds, but it was unmistakeably Warren Ellis-era. I loved the Dave Fridmann Soft Bulletin swirl at the start of Song of the Lake, which begins the album. I also loved O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is).

The World's Biggest Paving Slab - English Teacher

The definitive Mercury-Prize-winning/7.4-from-Pitchfork album (don't worry, this is a joke for me and me alone who reads too much music press and has gradually built up 18th century levels of anti-American resentment.) Good on English Teacher - a real nice debut album.

Cards on the Table - Nia Archives

The definitive Mercury-Prize-nominated/7.3-from-Pitchfork album ... fuck dose guys, capisch? Anyway, this jungle-revival pop album was a surprising hit with me. Loved her voice, loved the sound. This was my favourite song on the album.

Bad Friend - Gruff Rhys

One of my favourite Gruff solo songs - a gentle, strangely moving rumination on a perennial problem of middle age - being a bad friend. Also, perhaps, a subtle apology to his fellow Furries for not getting the band back together? 

Love Story - Taylor Swift *

There was a lot of Swift in this house this year, particularly the Eras Tour Film. Love Story is still my favourite, followed by Betty and Shake It Off, with You Belong with Me not far beyond. Nothing from this year's torture, though, which is a bad album. I remember once writing, in relation to 'evermore', of the value of always listening to an album all the way through more than once, as you'll always hear different sides. But, you know, with this one, forget that. I did listen to it twice, but life was too short. A bloated, boring, piece of work.

I thought the same about Cowboy Carter. These were two textbook "bad albums by great artists". Much better, for me, were the albums by Billie Eilish and Dua Lipa, and of course, Charli XCX. I listend to Brat quite a lot, and almost thought it was as great as everyone else did, but, I guess, if comparing it to Melodrama by Lorde, the most obvious point of comparison, i didn't feel, as i did with that, that lots of the songs would be great broken down to any era, era genre, were just classic songwriting. Doesn't really matter, but that was just what i felt.

All I Ever Asked - Rachel Chinouriri

Rather like a minor version of the Good Luck Babe experience, this landed in my ears and brought a satisfying "Aah yes, they don't make them like that anymore". A lovely, well put-together indie-pop song with a hook and a chorus and a lyric. I think the song originally came out in 2022, but the album What a Devastating Turn of Events, which is also excellent, came out this year. 7.5 on Pitchfork, of course.

Something Like Happiness - The Maccabees *

Just love this song - pleased the Maccabees are getting back together, though I can't see them at All Points East, annoyingly. For me, the best British indie band of that era - missed the boat of having hit singles by two or three years. By the time they were known, indie bands didn't really have hit singles anymore. This should have been a hit single. This is what I wanted Coldplay to sound like. Richer sound, better singer.

I Got Heaven - Mannequin Pussy

Really, though? Are you sure? How about the Mannequins? It's not too late to change your minds ... Anyway, this is a great album. Rage and tunes.

Looking Back - Laura Marling

This song from Laura Marling's family-focused 'Patterns in Repeat' was written by her father many decades ago, and apparently he didn't hear her version of it until the record was released, which is a nice story. It's a very nice song, too.

Where Are You Tonight? (Journey through Dark Heat) - Bob Dylan *

I really thought my most-listened-to artist this year wouldn't be, for the first time in 28 years, Bob Dylan, but it was. There we go. My most listened to Bob Dylan song was Mississippi, but I'll include this one, because it was something of a new discovery. I got really into Street-Legal, and was really surprised how great this song is.

Luther - Kendrick Lamar (ft SZA)

This was the first Kendrick Lamar album I've really liked since TPAB. It was sharp and precise and full of hits. I found the feud with Drake quite the most unedifying thing, though. And i loathe Drake, but really ...

Mahashmashana - Father John Misty

This, funnily enough, is the most I've enjoyed a Father John Misty album. For some reason, he's never quite landed with me before. But I love this epic title track.

Surf - Roddy Frame *

I wrote a little about this beautiful song recently. Magic. Would love a new Roddy Frame album. Only eight (inc Aztec Camera) in 40-odd years. Time for another ...

Burial Ground - The Decemberists ft James Mercer

This was a nice comeback single by The Decemberists, and their album has a few other good moments, though is a bit long. But most of all, Decemberists ft James Mercer of The Shins is the most "my-taste-in-music-in-2006" combination that could possibly exist.

History Lesson Pt 2 - Minutemen *

This seems to be an absolute seminal song of US alt-rock but i only got into it this year. I like it a lot.

We Don't Need Them - Bill Ryder-Jones

Beautiful album this - Iechyd Da. Toured with Gruff. Fragile, ambitious.

We Make Hits - Yard Act

The last line of which is "and if it's not a hit, we were being ironic". It was not a hit. Though i did see it on a US talk show. Quite good with words, Yard Act. Quite fun.

The Purple Rain - Pernice Brothers

Have talked about this one before, too -  a tribute to David Berman and others. Beautifully done.

All Now - The Staves

The Staves have made reliably beautiful music for some time.

Don't Forget Me - Maggie Rogers

I loved this album - probably one of my Top 5 of the year. Apparently Maggie Rogers got famous through TV though i hadn't known that. She has a voice that would sound wrenching singing anything.

Houdini - Dua Lipa

Listening to Dua Lipa as a political act. There are three things about Dua Lipa 1. she's a genuine outspoken leftie. Commits to causes and says things other pop stars don't say. 2. the American music press designated her 2024 album Radical Optimism as a flop. The narrative went elsewhere. But her Glastonbury headline was a triumph where SZA's was a flop. And, the most obvious, important thing, 3. she's got about 15 songs which literally anyone in the UK with even a casual acquaintance with pop music will sing along to. I enjoyed her album more than plenty of others this year.

Impossible Germany - Wilco *

Different versions of Impossible Germany on youtube. Always the same set-up. The bunch of six dads - different kinds of snazzy dad hair. Stocky grumpy feller in the middle, noodles away, sings the gentle song with the odd lyric "Impossible Germany, unlikely Japan". The tall, skinny, even older fellow with quite extravagant 14-year-old boy hair screen left, taking the baton after two or three minutes, winds it up, increasingly thrilling - after some amount of time, while the rest of the bands have been ignoring him and noodling away, they reconnect, they find a riff they play together, and then he's off again, even more extreme, another couple of minutes. I'm not a guitar heroics rock music fan, not usually. But Impossible Germany, all the different live performances where Nels Cline has his moment (he could have his moment on any song, but the fact it's just Impossible Germany where it happens like this makes it all the more), I will never watch/listen to it enough.

Triumph - Wu-Tang Clan *

Wu-Tang forever! This, the first single from their second album, is the one Wu-Tang track that contains every member. All time fun.

Distant Sun - Crowded House *

Sometimes one just wants to listen to a bit of the old Crowded House.

The Place Where He Inserted the Blade - Black Country New Road *

I'd listened to the BCNR albums, but got really into them this year for some reason. Somehow works ...

Iceblink Luck - Cocteau Twins *

I liked watching Netflix's One Day a lot, and I loved the music in it, both in terms how closely it matched up sometimes with my own taste, and a few songs I didn't know. This Cocteau Twins song is fantastic. 

Something on My Mind - Karen Dalton *

As is this Karen Dalton song. I tried to get into Karen Dalton years ago, as Dylan raves about her in Chronicles, but this recording is so eery and timeless.

She Still Leads Me On - Suede *

Have discussed this before. A great vocal, a great chorus.

She's Leaving You - MJ Lenderman

I think, if i had to name one, i'd go for MJ's Manning Fireworks as my album of the year, as it took me by surprise. I thought his songwriting would be goofy, like Mac De Marco or something, and it's not, it's sharp and poignant. This is one of several great songs on the album. Nice bit of guitar. MJ had quite a year - I even saw him on stage doing his day job, as guitarist for Wednesday.

Look to the East, Look to the West - Camera Obscura

For a while, this was my favourite. Such a great band, and I think this is one of their best sets of songs.

The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll - Aoife O'Donovan

A really well judged cover of Dylan's greatest, or second greatest, song.

The District Sleeps Alone Tonight - The Postal Service *

Weird to have been at the Death Cab/Postal Service fandango at Victoria Park considering i was never a huge fan of either, but really enjoyed it, particularly the latter. Ended up listening to this album a lot. Struck again by the weird status of Jenny Lewis. The most famous non-famous person in the world, or the least famous famous person. When people saw her on stage, half the crowd was like "wow, Jenny Lewis is here", the other half was "who's that?" ... anyway, apparently there'll be some Rilo Kiley in 2025. Marvellous.

Tell Me Who You Are Today - Beth Gibbons

Great. Just a great singer.

Rise Up Singing - Paul Weller

And a really enjoyable Weller album. Probably my 5th favourite of his solo albums.

Starburster - Fontaines DC

Do you know, without going all Jordan Petersony, in Pitchforks's Best 100 Albums/Songs of the 2020s so far, there's barely anything by bands of blokes - just one each by The 1975 and Vampire Weekend in the lower reaches. It all used to be bands of blokes, didn't it? Not that that was a good thing, but, i do slightly feel that something that is lost in the world of critically acclaimed music now is the weird alchemy of a bunch of not particularly charismatic or handsome or officially special young men getting together when they're kids cos there's nothing better to do, and, from an absence of beauty, creating some beauty. Like The Coral, you know? Or The Jam .. or countless others ... maybe that was actually a good thing for young men to do. Anyway, having said all that, Fontaines DC is Number 2 in the year's aggregated list, so someone still loves a bunch of blokes. Nowhere to be seen on Pitchfork's Best albums, list, though ...

Ha, i'm a little obsessed. Anywhere, there we go.

Song 103: She Still Leads Me On

This is a song that, strange as it may sound, changed my whole opinion on Suede, or more specifically, Brett Anderson.

I've been, to some extent, a Suede fan since the beginning. My one cool friend at that miserable stage of school, the soon-to-be-expelled Snazzy Kesner, tried to get me into them, and I remember seeing Animal Nitrate on TOTP and, at a certain point, really hearing the chorus, and thinking "yes, i like that".

I wasn't really buying albums then, but I liked the singles from Dog Man Star, particularly The Wild Ones - still, arguably their greatest song. I read about the tension between Butler and Anderson, and took Butler's side. Anderson just seemed a bit the worst of both worlds - both pretty dark and seedy, but also a real dweeb. I didn't like that combo. I didn't like him clearly being on drugs on 'The O Zone' - we're kids watching here, for god's sake - or his self-important, try-hard pronouncements.

My certainty that the real genius was Butler was confirmed by what came next - Yes by McAlmont and Butler, the greatest single of the 90s, and the averageness of post-Butler Suede. I thought Trash and Beautiful Ones were pretty good, but nothing else after that, and the band seemed shorn of its extremes. For a man who vituperatively condemned his Britpop peers, their songs post-95 were the most archetypally Britpop going.

I was quite interested in The Tears - the reunited Butler and Anderson in 2005 - but after a decent first single, the rest was not good at all. In fact, the spectacle of them headlining the first night of Benicassim to growing dissatisfaction and disinterest and multiple shouts of "Play some fucking Suede!", was pretty miserable. 

I, almost certainly wrongly, assigned more blame to Anderson for the fiasco. I long held the view that his fatal flaw was overinvesting in the idea of himself as rock star. I felt he thought he possessed more of the base material than he did, and that imbalance was, for me, hard to watch.

Still, when Suede returned, there was a lot of enthusiasm for it. I saw them at Latitude in 2011 and liked, almost loved it, but still didn't quite buy into Anderson. I thought their new material decent. I went with Mikey to see them in 2016 playing all of their new album, Night Thoughts. To be honest, I don't remember that much, I got pretty drunk. Maybe the last time (pre-baby as it was), I've been that drunk. I remember returning home and aping Anderson's preposterous stage moves, though, so I assume I basically maintained the same view.

Anyway, on to 2022, the release of their well-reviewed new album 'Autofiction'. In the meantime, Brett Anderson had published two well-reviewed volumes of autobiography. I was still only a bit interested.

But my youtube algorithm brought me the band's performance of 'She Still Leads Me On', performed on Jools Holland. I've long since given up on Jools' show, it's a pretty hopeless, arid, environment, for rock bands, but Anderson and the band's performance blew me away.

For starters, it was loud. Louder than bands usually sound on TV. And his performance was fierce and magnificent. It helps that this is a great song. It's unmannered, it's personal, it's deeply moving, it's got a monster chorus. But, for the first time, silly as it sounds, I thought, jesus, he's a good singer. Like, in the all the years talking about Brett Anderson and his demi-monde lifestyle, his sexual ambiguity, his hatred of Damon Albarn, his feuds, his lyrical preoccupations with nuclear motorways, I really don't think I had read enough "Brett has a great pair of lungs on him". Or maybe it had been written, and I hadn't seen it.

And somehow, that's unlocked everything. I know that's ridiculous. But just realising that his main thing, above and beyond all else, is that he's a great singer ... music is so funny, isn't it ...

Song 102: She's Your Lover Now

A Bob Dylan song!

Of all things ...

Bob Dylan recorded 'She's Your Lover Now' on 21st January 1966. There were 16 takes and he was not satisfied. It was not released until the first Bootleg Series CD in 1991.

That was the 15th take, which is the most renowned, albeit he did not reach the end of the song on that take. He did get to the end on the 16th (substantially musically different) take, and that take emerged in the 2010s, on a later Bootleg.

'She's Your Lover Now' is sometimes my favourite Bob Dylan song.

It is the work of someone at the peak of their evil powers.

But he didn't finish it, and he didn't release it. Did he not rate it?

I think he did rate it. He knew it was a great song. It was one of the first songs he attempted to record for Blonde on Blonde and he gave a whole day to it.

The most famous recording, Take 15, ends with the song breaking down midway through the last of four mammoth verses and a slightly irritated "What?" from Bob.

It turned out that, although they had backed him to famous effect on tour, although they would make the Basement Tapes together, record and tour together again, at that point in early '66, he was dissatisfied with the Hawks/Band in the recording studio (he told as much to his friend Robert Shelton a few weeks later). This aborted attempt to record 'She's Your Lover Now' probably brought an end to Blonde on Blonde being recorded in New York with those musicians. He moved on to Nashville, taking Robbie Robertson but not the rest of the Band, and that is where most of Blonde on Blonde was recorded.

So 'She's Your Lover Now' was a pretty significant failure.

And yet ... the most glorious failure.

The premise of the song - it's a three-hander. The singer, his former partner and her current partner. I've always assumed the former partner is Joan Baez, maybe I read that somewhere, but who knows.

It's a mean song. Maybe his meanest. And that's saying something for Dylan.

I have also heard it said that he left this song behind because he moved on to One of Us Most Know (Sooner of Later), which is similar structurally. Sooner or Later is also a great song, though I prefer this one. Sooner of Later is significantly kinder and more conciliatory. Maybe that's why he went with it.

She's Your Lover Now certainly has the more memorable lines. I won't list them all, but "And you, you just sit around and ask for ashtrays, can't you reach?" (one of the "asides" where he turns with an "And you" to the unfortunate new boyfriend) never fails to amuse.

And, in my opinion, some of Dylan's greatest singing. The reality is that through 65 and 66, Dylan was taking more and more drugs, getting less and less sleep, living closer and closer to the edge. July 29th 1966 was the famous motorcycle accident. It is widely thought the lifestyle break it necessitated was a lifesaver.

That lifestyle is reflected in his singing. 64 and 65 Dylan has a big, strong voice. '66 Dylan is that thin, stoned whine. Truthfully, his voice is more and shot through the course of '66. But 'She's Your Lover Now', from January, still has the power in the lungs of something like Positively Fourth Street or Like a Rolling Stone.

The vocal performance he gives her really does make it even more perplexing that he just discarded the song. It is one of his most passionate, furious performances, In the last verse, just second before the recording stumbles to a finish sings "It's just like a dead man's - last - pistol shot - babyyyyyy" and it's one of the greatest, most intense bits of singing he ever did.

Anyway, there it is - in my opinion, one of the all-time great Dylan lost tracks. I doubt it'll be in Chalamet film ...

Song 101: Danny Callahan

This is one of my favourite songs, has been for over 15 years, but I'm writing a little about it because I suddenly remembered an odd evening I associate it with.

'Danny Callahan' is from Conor Oberst's 2008 solo album 'Conor Oberst'. I've mentioned it before briefly, I think. Of all the songs in the whole world, it is the one that, however many new times I listen to it, never fails to catch me unawares and kick me in the guts.

It manifests as a jaunty tune, and it's not entirely clear, over the first couple of verses, what it's about, with some vaguely philosophical lyrics. Then, after a brief solo, the lyrics focus on what the song is really about, which is about a boy, a real boy Conor Oberst knew, called Danny Callahan, who died of cancer.

The lyrics go

"What gauge measures miracles? And whose heart beats electrical? 

We feign sickness with our modern joy,

but even western medicine, it couldn't save Danny Callahan - 

bad bone marrow, a bald little boy.

But the love you feel he carries inside can be passed.

He lay still, his mother kissed him goodbye said, "Come back!

Where are you going to alone? Where are you going all alone?""

and, I swear, there is really nothing else, over the last 16 years, that has so often brought me back in touch with the tragedy and beauty of life.

Particularly as Conor Oberst, with Bright Eyes, and solo, is often known for vocal and lyrical histrionics, whereas here, he underplays it. It's a beautiful vocal performance, and I think his greatest song, which, considering I played 'First Day of My Life' to the three of us in a momentarily empty and still maternity ward on the day Rosa was born, is not a light compliment.

Well, anyway, there's the song ... I love it. But I remembered one of the first times I heard it, certainly out of the context of my discman, in October 2008, a month or so after the album was released.

I was in Chicago. I went to Chicago with three other people, one of whom was a friend of mine, the other two who were friends of my friend, to run the Chicago Marathon. We ran the marathon. For me, it went pretty badly, nowhere near as well as I hoped. It was very hot, my body didn't work properly. I made it to the finish without stopping, because if I'd stopped, I'd have been in the middle of Chicago, cramped and parched, without a map or the strength to get myself started again.

So I was proud to finish my first marathon (4hr3, perfectly fine, really, but on a good, cold, wet, day with an injury-free preparation, I had a 3h20 in me, I'm sure of it) but in a slightly weird, slf-recriminatory and sulky mood. We still had a week in Chicago, and after weeks, if not months, of taking care with food and drink, I was now not.

One of my friend's friends was a really nice guy and also his brother lived in Chicago, and so he knew, and was able to arrange, some really good restaurants to eat in.

One of them was, I'm pretty certain - this place https://www.alinearestaurant.com/, fairly recently opened at that point, and already Michelin-starred, and within a few years judged the best restaurant in the world.

I say I'm pretty certain ... I'm 99% certain that was the place, but that week is one of those weeks where my memories are a bit surreal.

I remember the atmosphere was low-key, chilled, the food was stunning, the wine was flowing, and on the stereo came Conor Oberst's solo album in its entirety - a soundtrack I was absolutely delighted with. Sounds like an ideal evening, right?

But I haven't mentioned my friend's other friend, yet, have I? 

Look, I'm not one for being mean about someone in public, but I haven't seen this person since, in fact haven't seen any of them for many years, I'll use no names, there is not a cat in hell's chance anyone associated will ever read this. I feel ok about it.

There had already been signs. This person did not agree with tipping. Well, perhaps, on the grand scale, this is fair enough. American service staff are made to rely too much on tips and not paid enough. But that, I don't think, was this person's point. It was just that they got too much. Well, each to their own, except, when we had all got a taxi, and I had provided the tip at whatever the generous American rate I had researched was, the person literally grabbed some of the money out of the driver's hand as I was giving it to him, snarling "Too much!".

So it was in the restaurant, the relaxed, hospitable, not overly pricy considering it was on the cusp of global acclaim, restaurant, as the evening went on, the person became increasingly, loudly contemptuous of the decor, the food, the service staff.

I remember at one point just sitting back and realising with dread that the rest of the restaurant had fallen silent and our dining companion was the only voice that could be heard, against the background of Conor Oberst's poignant tunes. Ah, Brits are great, I'm sure they were all thinking. 

Often, particularly in recent years as I've become almost entirely re-un-socialised, I tell myself I'm super-weird, have always been weird, have no graces, am uncomfortable to be around, and that's my problem. But when I remember evenings like this, I really can tell myself that, no, it was always, and is always, other people that are weird and bad, not me, and if I have, in the end, reacted to that by giving up on trying, so be it.

Busy guy, small world

I'd like to briefly sing the praises of two small albums I love, which are quite similar.

One is 

Surf - Roddy Frame, from 2002

The other is

Busy Guy - Stephen Fretwell, from 2021

The superficial links are interesting - both Frame and Fretwell with their alliterative, guitary surnames.

Both had a song uses as theme for a gentle BBC comedy - Frame's 'Small World', from this very album, was the theme to 'Early Doors' (early McAvoy...)

while Fretwell's 'Run' from 2004's 'Magpie' was used as theme to a little BBC3 comedy called 'Gavin and Stacey'. Fretwell has said that, though he was ambivalent about the song being used, it has been invaluable to his finances, akin to having a part-time job.

For Fretwell has not "done well". 'Busy Guy' is not the album of a guy that has done well. Nor did it do well.

Nor, particularly, did 'Surf'. Has Roddy Frame done well? Not sure, relatively speaking. I expect 'Somewhere in My Heart' has kept him in shirts, but considering his faultless voice, his guitar expertise, the fact he wrote 'Oblivious' when he was, like, 18. and that's one of the greatest songs ever written, you might have expected him to be as famous as George Michael, or at least Marti Pellow. Which he's not.

But he is one of the great British songwriters, and 'Surf' is his masterpiece.

'Surf' is a break-up, or post-relationship, album, which is pretty much entirely just Frame and his guitar, set in London. I love that about it. It's got a real sense of place, of Soho and Notting Hill and such like.

The same is true of 'Busy Guy' - it's a post-relationship album, set in London. The songs are exquisite - they have titls like 'Oval' and 'Embankment'.

It feels like there used to be, or ought to be, thousands of these kinds of albums, but there are perishingly few now. Albums by people who are good enough at the basic, all-inclusive art of writing and singing songs that they can hold your attention and your heart for 40 minutes on their own.

The title track on 'Surf' is, in particular, a wonder. I've been listening to it a lot this year. It feels like one of the songs that invented songs. The melody and the lyric just curl around, then soar, then sink, and reach their natural stopping point and break your heart.

Anyway, that's all. Real deal albums, like 'Blue', these are. Get them, if you like sad guys.

What's the interesting bit?

You may have seen this recent Radio 2 countdown of the Greatest British Groups ...

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2024/radio-2-ultimate-british-group-result

... which is all pretty predictable.

About 10 years ago, I made my own such list. Although it has a fair bit more indie, it's hardly significantly more interesting and diverse, I regret to say. 

https://101songs.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-great-british-band-its-official.html

The Radio 2 list has no black artists (apart from Mel B in the Spice Girls), only two primarily female groups (though also Fleetwood Mac and The Beautiful South), and only one, the Manics at 30, from anywhere but England.

No doubt if it had been compiled by something other than Radio 2 listeners, the list would have been a little more varied, but one can hardly complain. It all makes solid sense. They're all - nearly all -  very successful groups with long and varied discographies.

Anyway, that's all by the by. If I was in a different mood, maybe I'd analyse why the mainstream history of British music remains, primarily, the story of suburban middle-class boys, but, that being so, I started thinking about the Rolling Stones, who were second on my list and third, behind Queen, on this list, and I thought, well, the Rolling Stones are one of the least British of the great British bands (Fleetwood Mac, who are 5th, being barely British at all), and that is probably a factor in their vast and lasting success. Only for a brief period was their something strongly British/Londony in their music.

And then, I thought, they were at their best when they were quite British ... and I started thinking about their best ... and then, the question became .... what's the interesting bit?

What's the interesting bit about the Stones, or, if you will, the bit that is hard to explain?  If you had to say just one thing ... i think the interesting bit is just how good their songs were for a short while... which sounds completely stupid. i know. But people talk about them starting out as blues copyists, they talk about the sexual magnetism of Jagger (the weird dichotomy of Jagger is the second most interesting bit), the drugs, the danger, the deaths, the survival, the comradeship, the arena tours, all that, but the interesting bit, the bit that makes less sense than anything else, is just how good those songs were for a while ... Gimme Shelter, Street Fighting Man, She's a Rainbow, Sympathy for the Devil, Tumbling Dice, You Can't Always Get What You Want ... i mean, those are just incredible songs which burst with range, depth, imagination, beauty, darkness. And i guess it's stupid to say "how did the band who sang 'Get Off My Cloud' sing 'Gimme Shelter'? because they're both great songs, and just as silly to say "and then how did they end up singing 'Start Me Up', because that's a good song too, but there's a direct line from 'Get Off My Cloud' to 'Start Me Up', and 'Gimme Shelter' is something else ...

Maybe it's just me, I wasn't that impressed by the Stones when i was young, the footage of them on Sounds of the Sixties, the stuff they played on the radio, i thought they were ok, but didn't really get it. I think my favourite was 'Get Off My Cloud', actually .... And then i heard 'Gimme Shelter' and 'Street Fighting Man', and I finally got it, the extra level the band had ... maybe it was Mick Taylor ...

... anyway, I could go on about the Stones, but i think ...

what's the interesting bit? ...

is a good question about any band. Imagine someone who is not into rock'n'roll but fancies themselves as smart is trying to get to grips with all the big acts, without actually listening to them, and they asked you, tell me, in one sentence, what's the interesting bit ...

Now i'm torn as to whether to go through all those bands and say what i think the interesting bit ... i'd imagine it's different from what other people think the interesting bit is sometimes, and sometimes it's just the same...

no, I won't do that. I'll just do a playlist of one song from each band ... i mean, that's ok, isn't it?

Penny Lane - The Beatles

Don't Stop Me Now - Queen

Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd (a band about whom there is no interesting bit ...)

Songbird - Fleetwood Mac

Kashmir - Led Zeppelin 

Patience - Take That

Slide Away - Oasis

Yellow - Coldplay

Can't Get it Out of My Head - ELO

Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who

Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode

Down in the Tube Station at Midnight - The Jam

True Love Waits - Radiohead

That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore - The Smiths

Turn it On Again - Genesis (i mean i don't know, even tho Best of Genesis was one of the first tapes i ever bought ...)

Suburbia - Pet Shop Boys

In Between Days - The Cure

The Deal - Stephen Duffy (for Duran Duran ... sorry, i just can't)

My Girl - Madness

The Promise - Girls Aloud

Ol' Red Eyes is Back - The Beautiful South

Days - The Kinks

You Win Again - The Bee Gees

Edge of Heaven - Wham!

Death or Glory - The Clash

Badhead - Blur

Stop - Spice Girls

So Lonely - The Police

Prologue to History - Manic Street Preachers

The test for whether it is a good list they have created is that this is not a fun, interesting, playlist, is it? Ah well ...