THE SOUND OF 2019

So 2019 is now over and we are almost in 2020.

Seeing as everybody is doing End Of Year Reviews, I thought i’d join the party, albeit a bit belatedly.

So here is my Top 50 Songs Of 2019. There’s no scientific formula to this list. I just went through 2019s Friday Fives and decided to spend an hour and rank the songs in order of favouriteness.

In a change from previous years, it’s only a Top 50 as it would probably take me until 2021 to do a Top 100.

1. Vampire Weekend – Harmony Hill
2. Sigrid – Mine Right Now
3. Taylor Swift ft Brendon Urie – Me
4. Dermot Kennedy – Outnumbered
5. Catfish and the Bottlemen – Longshot
6. Liam Gallagher – Shockwave
7. Sam Fender – Hypersonic Missiles
8. Two Door Cinema Club – Talk
9. Freya Ridings – Castles
10. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Wandering Star
11. Tom Walker – Just You and I
12. Billie Eilish – Bury A Friend
13. Pet Shop Boys ft Olly Alexander – Dreamland
14. Of Monsters And Men – Alligator
15. Chvrches and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra – Miracle
16. Kygo ft Whitney Houston – Higher Love
17. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Black Star Dancing
18. Bastille – Joy
19. Coldplay – Orphans
20. Liam Gallagher – Now That I’ve Found You
21. Sam Fender – Will We Talk
22. Gang Of Youths – What Can I Do If The Fire Goes Out?
23. Editors – Black Gold
24. Bastille – Can’t Fight This Feeling
25. Bloxx – Go Out With You
26. Katy Perry – Never Really Over
27. Blossoms – Your Girlfriend
28. Muse – Hungry Like The Wolf
29. The Courteeners – Heavy Jacket
30. Billie Eilish – Bad Guy
31. Chemical Brothers – MAH
32. Jade Bird – Lottery
33. Haim – Now I’m In It
34. Crystal – Just Can’t Get Enough
35. Rick Astley – Every One Of Us
36. Chvrches – Death Stranding
37. OMD – Don’t Go
38. The Divine Comedy – Infernal Machines
39. Vic and Bob – Bono’s Cooking Some Pork
40. Miles Kane – That’s Life
41. Liam Gallagher – The River
42. The Divine Comedy – Queuejumper
43. Weezer ft Tears For Fears – Everybody Wants To Rule The World
44. The Vaccines – All My Friends Are Falling In Love
45. Dua Lipa – Don’t Start Now
46. Shakespear’s Sister – All The Queen’s Horses
47. Lizzo – Juice
48. Rose Elinor Dougall – First Sign
49. Miley Cyrus – Nothing Breaks Like A Heart
50. Dea Matrona – Let’s Go Crazy

Congratulations to Vampire Weekend. There’s no physical prize, but they can just boast about it everywhere they go. Ideally, they’d be doing so in Belfast before a concert. Hint hint.

If you care, here’s the list of previous winners (NOTE: The 2006-2008 Countdowns were on Bebo, and have now been wiped from internet history)

2018 Lovelytheband – Broken
2017 Liam Gallagher – For What It’s Worth
2016 The Strumbellas – Spirits
2015 Blossoms – Charlemagne
2014 Jamie T – Zombie
2013 Haim – The Wire
2012 Taylor Swift – We Are Never Getting Back Together
2011 Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – AKA …… What A Life
2010 Marina and the Diamons – Shampain
2009 Little Boots – New In Town
2008 Sons and Daughters – Darling
2007 Feist – 1, 2, 3, 4
2006 Kasabian – Empire

THE FRIDAY FIVE – 19.4.2019

1. Youth of the Apocalypse – Fire In My Mind
2. Vampire Weekend – Harmony Hill
3. Weezer ft Tears For Fears – Everybody Wants To Rule The World
4. Dea Matrona – Let’s Go Crazy
5. Marshmallow ft Chvrches – Here With Me

THE SOUND OF 2018

Better late than never, I decided to wait until the first day of 2019 to post my favourite songs of 2018.

It would have been a shame not to continue the tradition of this award* (*Disclaimer, no actual trophy) that goes all the way back to 2006.

I cobbled this up after browsing through my Friday Fives from 2018 with absolutely no scientific methodology whatsoever. So, here it is, the Top 50 Songs Of 2018.

1. Loveleytheband – Broken
2. Alice Merton – No Roots
3. Kyle Falconer – Family Tree
4. Rasmussen – Higher Ground
5. AJR ft Rivers Cuomo – Sober Up
6. Mumford and Sons – Guiding Light
7. Pale Waves – Eighteen
8. Jade Bird – Uh Huh
9. Kyle Falconer – Poor Me
10. Richard Ashcroft – That’s When I Feel It
11. George Ezra – Shotgun
12. Kylie Minogue – Dancing
13. Tom Grennan- Sober
14. Chvrches – Graffiti
15. Kyle Falconer – Kelly
16. Rudimental – These Days
17. Manic Street Preachers – Hold Me Like A Heaven
18. The Coral – Reaching Out For A Friend
19. Portugal, The Man – Feel It Still
20. Snow Patrol – Don’t Give In
21. Sam Fender – That Sound
22. Madame Monsieur – Mercy
23. James – Coming Home (Part II)
24. Manic Street Preachers – Distant Colours
25. Blossoms – I Can’t Stand It
26. Christine and the Queens – Girlfriend
27. Kylie Minogue – Stop Me From Falling
28. Snow Patrol – Empress
29. Dennis Lloyd – Nevermind
30. The Kooks – Four Leaf Clover
31. Blossoms – There’s A Reason Why
32. APRE – All Yours
33. Ash – Annabel
34. Pound Shop Boys – Fireman Sam
35. Editors – Cold
36. Vampire Weekend ft Danielle Haim – Sone Of A Preacher Man
37. Weezer – Africa
38. Natalie Prass – Short Court Style
39. Hozier – Nina Cried Power
40. Sleeper – Look AtYou Now
41. Turin Brakes – Lifeforms
42. Arctic Monkeys – Four Out Of Five
43. Yonaka – Creature
44. Florence and the Machine – Hunger
45. Courtney Barrett – Nameless Faceless
46. Weezer – Roseanna
47. Ten Tonnes – G.I.V.E
48. Razorlight – Carry Yourself
49. Ash – Confessions In ThePool
50. Aurora – Queendom

So, congratulations to Loveleytheband on winning this year’s poll.

If you haven’t heard it, the video is below.

They join an illustrious list of former winners, listed below.

2017 Liam Gallagher – For What It’s Worth
2016 The Strumbellas – Spirits
2015 Blossoms – Charlemagne
2014 Jamie T – Zombie
2013 Haim – The Wire
2012 Taylor Swift – We Are Never Getting Back Together
2011 Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – AKA … What A Life
2010 Marina and the Diamonds – Shampain
2009 Little Boots – New In Town
2008 Sons and Daughters – Darling
2007 Feist – 1, 2, 3, 4
2006 Kasabian – Empire

THE FRIDAY FIVE – 29.6.2018

1. James – Coming Home (Part II)
2. Weezer – Roseanna
3. Weezer – Africa
4. Liam Gallagher – I’ve All I Need
5. Johnny Marr – Hi Hello

It’s a rest day in the World Cup, but don’t worry, you can survive this difficult 24 hours.

Women’s NIFL Cup Final is on the BBC Red Button, meanwhile, BBC Four will be making the licence fee a bargain tonight with a whole night dedicated to Duran Duran. Remember, it’s only a few weeks until Duran Duran Appreciation Day (August 10th)

And after all that, BBC Scotland will be broadcasting highlights of TRNSMT.

Decent night of TV viewing to make up for the lack of football.

Also, Canada Day and Independence Day coming up as well. Sounds like an excuse for a couple of themed charts.

FIVE SONGS BY AMERICAN ACTS

1. Toto – Africa
2. Britney Spears – Boys
3. Dan Hartman – I Can Dream About You
4. Deep Blue Something – Breakfast At Tiffanys
5. Christina Aguilera – Keeps Getting better

FIVE SONGS BY CANADIAN ACTS

1. Celine Dion – It’s All Coming Back To Me Now
2. Tegan and Sara – Closer
3. Nelly Furtado – All Good Things
4. Tom Cochrane – Life Is A Highway
5. Appleton – Fantasy

FIVE SONGS BY DURAN DURAN

1. Ordinary World
2. Wild Boys
3. Hungry Like The Wolf
4. Serious
5. Reach Out For The Sunrise

MAGAZINE ARCHIVE : KERRANG – 14.7.2001

This week, we go back to the summer of 2001, and Stereophonics are the cover stars of Kerrang, as they get ready to perform at Donnington.

You may see a sticker that says the magazine cost £2.50, I actually got it for £1 on discount.

In news, Blink 182 are embarking on a Kerrang sponsored UK tour, well, gigs in Glasgow, Manchester and London, and Gwen Stefani has gone hip-Hop, promoting a single with Eve.

Meanwhile, the surviving members of Nirvana are in a dispute with Courtney Love over the proposed release of unreleased Nirvana material. This story gets a double page feature with Kerrang even invite Nirvana fans to voice their opinion.

Anyone is predicted for great things. If you’re trying to keep up, that’s a band called Anyone.

It’s all about tours in this edition, as Kerrang goes on one massive tour with Rancid, Pennywise, AFI, New Found Glory, Alien Ant Farm and The Ataris, and joins Medadeth for their first ever concert in Poland.

Cover stars Stereophonics get eight pages, profiling their ten year journey from formation to performing at Donnington, a journey which Kerrang says had several mistakes, countless arguments and one near riot.

In concert reviews, Kerrang went to see Weezer, supported by Jimmy Eat World, whose album gets reviewed.

If books are you thing, a biography of Motley Crue by Neil Strauss get five stars.

Unsurprisingly, cover stars Stereophonics upcoming gigs at Donnington Racetrack and Millennium Stadium in Cardiff are named as gig of the week.

The magazine ends with an advert for the following edition of Kerrang, which has a free CD and meets Rancid.

THE FRIDAY FIVE – 27.1.2017

1. The XX – On Hold
2. Weezer – Buddy Holly
3. Marsheux – Suffer The Children
4. Joy Williams – Ordinary World
5. Circa Waves – Fire That Burns

THE FRIDAY FIVE – 19.9.2014

1. Johnny Marr – Easy Money
2. Twin Atlantic – Heart and Soul
3. George Ezra – Blame It One Me
4. Labrinth – Let It Be
5. Weezer – Back To The Shack

50 YEARS OF TOP OF THE POPS : JUN 13 – JUN 19

Last week’s 50YOTOTP featured Cerys Matthews, who ended up getting an MBE. I didn’t even know The Queen read this blog.

This week’s trawl through TOTP history begins with Buddy Holly. Oh wait, it’s a guy who looks like him.

And from Buddy Holly …….. to the Rovers Return.

…… and a TOTP performance from the first band to appear on CD:UK

Boy George turns 52 this week. This song, is brilliant.

Another week, another Sugababe birthday. This week, Siobhan Donaghy, who narrowly lost out to Siobhan Fahey as pop’s most famous Siobhan.

Noddy Holder turns 68 this week. You know what song I want to play, but well, IIIIITTTTTTT’S NOOOOOTTTT CHHHRRRRISSSSTMMMAAASSSS!!!!

Here’s Oasis covering Slade from 1996

The first of two Norn Iron pop birthdays this week, Gary Lightbody (being covered by Leona Lewis)

And on his 9th birthday ……. Nadine Coyle came into the world

Meanwhile, the second greatest living Beatle celebrated a birthday this week.

And from Macca, to Moyet.

Whicj nicely links into the fact it’s two years since the Moyet covering Brian Hibbard died.