And be a model pupil tonight babe, I wanna get ten out of ten...

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I've written before about the joys of discussing music and musical tastes and it's a topic that never fails to arouse my interest. It can, at times, give vent to one's inner totalitarian as you question how someone could possibly have all the Coldplay albums yet have no time for The Reindeer Section or how anyone, anyone could find anything positive to say about James Blunt (other than the fact that he seems to have been quiet for a fair old while now).

The oft-mentioned (on this blog at any rate) Tom Morton has, in traditional end-of-year-reflective-stylee produced a couple of "best of" lists over the last few days on his Beatcroft blog, Top Ten Live Albums and an End Of The Decade inventory. Both contain albums I think I'd enjoy, both contain artists I've never listened to before (Elvis Perkins - great name! - and Leo Kottke, though I have always meant to follow up old Leo having had him recommended to me by a colleague around 13 years ago now!) and both have got me thinking.

Certainly in terms of live albums I've never been a fan - I used to buy bootleg tapes at the Barras of gigs in and around Glasgow that I'd been to. The sound quality was generally awful but because I'd actually been to and enjoyed the gigs I was buying recordings of, I could forgive that and relive the event. In terms of live stuff now, it's fairly easy to find mp3s online and you can often acquire great live cover versions - King Creosote and The Bluebells doing "Cath" together, Ray La Montagne and Damien Rice with the Bee Gees "To Love Somebody" spring to mind as great examples but otherwise I tend to avoid live stuff unless I'm hunting down something I've actually heard (KC as mentioned above having seen him do the song at Oran Mor as part of the Homecoming after show party being the most recent example).

As for just general "best of" lists, well Nick Hornby has long recorded the male obsession with lists, best ofs, top tens and so on and, as he so often does, has hit the nail right on the head. It's not done for competition - though the Barry character brilliantly played by Jack Black in the movie version of 'High Fidelity' certainly uses his lists as a "look how much I know" musical obscurist snob exercise - which can sometimes be no bad thing; I particularly love the exchange in High Fidelity between the outrageously opinionated Barry and the mild mannered Dick around "Little Latin Lupe Lu". If you've neither read nor seen High Fidelity, Barry namechecks the song and Dick says "Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels?" to which Barry snaps "No, the Righteous Brothers!" "Oh" says Dick with a look you can even picture in the book which just seems to say "oh, you poor soul, you've never even heard what I regard as the definitive version and your life is undoubtedly the poorer for it" - I get that feeling a lot...

Anyway, onwards to the lists! Now, I reckon that if you're going to be going for the whole "of all time" thing, then, very much like Desert Island Discs, it needs to be something you'll not tire of; the kind of thing where if you only had those records and nothing else to listen to, you'd still be happy. My (and as Tom says "It'll change tomorrow"!) top ten albums of all time just right at this very minute and in no particular order...

King Creosote - KC Rules OK - Faultless genius

Roddy Woomble - My Secret Is My Silence - Haunting, beautiful, very Highland without being twee

The Kevin McDermott Orchestra - Mother Nature's Kitchen - lyrically wonderful, in live format the songs are incredible, Kevin's a lovely guy, what else need I say?

The Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not - has there ever been a better debut album? I came to this late but by jings it's a belter

David Kitt - The Big Romance - under-rated Irish genius

Foo Fighters - Foo Fighters - brilliant first album and the perfect snowboarding accompaniment

Frank Black - Teenager Of The Year - ex-Pixie with an eclectic 20 track masterpiece

Son Volt - Straightaways - Alt country cracker from ex-Uncle Tupelo man

Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True - This would probably get in just for Alison to be honest

The Lemonheads - It's A Shame About Ray - With or without 'Mrs. Robinson' on the reissue, it's just brilliant. 'Frank Mills' and 'Alison's Starting To Happen' would grace any album

Elvis Costello via last.fm

Close but no cigar (today at any rate): Stone Roses - Stone Roses - It may be sacrilege to say this but though I love the Roses (once trekked round the country to see them four times in twelve days) the whole album's not perfect, I can't be doing with 'Elizabeth My Dear' or 'Don't Stop'; Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction - One of the first albums I played to death (I've owned 3 copies now!) but I don't think it's a Desert Island job; Kate Nash - Made Of Bricks - Not my usual bag but I've played this to death too and it's great, 'Foundations' and 'Mouthwash' are already pop classics and 'Mariella' is magnificently eccentric; Kris Drever - Blackwater - I never tire of listening to this but if I'm taking Roddy to my island this is a wee bit similar; Idlewild - anything by them, impossible to choose between their albums, not a duff track amongst them.

Top ten for 09? That's tricky too and I can only think of five...but off the top of my head (and, again, just for today) Airborne Toxic Event - a majestic, soaring record calling to mind early U2, The Smiths and The Jam. Enough said. Ian Brown - My Way - A great album, thumping basslines and that legendary swaggering delivery; Idlewild - Post Electric Blues - superb fan-financed rock monster; Paolo Nutini - Sunny Side Up - A great feelgood album, standout tracks all the way and 'Comin' Up Easy' could easily be vintage Al Green; Vetiver - Tight Knit - Lo-fi acoustic chill out is a dreadfully lazy way to describe an album, the sort of thing The Observer Music Monthly might do but there you go: Vetiver, Tight Knit, Lo-fi acoustic chill out.

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• Favorite Music of 2009 (gatheringinlight.com)
• Five Albums You Should Have Bought in 2009 (popdose.com)

But everybody wants to be the one just climbing out...

I defy you to listen to this and not love it...

I've been working on a cocktail called Grounds for...Demolition?

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I've mentioned before how much I love listening to Danny Baker on the radio. Imagine my delight when, a few months back, I discovered he was back on Radio 5 Live of a Saturday morning with a typical blend of quizzes, phone-ins, random guests and the occasional mention of football.

One of the current features (all of which are eligible for comment by listeners, regardless of how long they've been running or indeed any other new features which may have been introduced that day) is the saving of football grounds from Danny's Totalitarian State Wrecking Ball. Mr. Baker's theory is that we have too many football grounds in the UK and that 20 would, as the road safety folk say, be plenty.

The upshot of this is that listeners can call in and try to save the ground of their choice - when 20 are saved, the rest cease to exist! Many grounds have fallen already, some big names like Anfield and Goodison are no more whilst some of the "wee teams" from North of the Border (Brechin's Glebe Park, Alloa's Recreation Ground) have staved off extinction through the cleverness of their supporters. Intriguingly, any purely football related suggestions (cup finals being played there, Pele or George Best once graced the turf, etc, etc) are liable to immediate anhilation due to lack of colour! Eccentricity triumphs in Danny's Brave New World.

So it was that after many weeks of searching the web to ensure that my memory hadn't failed me, I was able to call in to save Partick Thistle's Firhill Stadium. Eccentric? You bet.

Why should we save it then? asked Danny. Let me tell you...

Some years ago, we had a brilliant management team of the great John Lambie and his assistant Gerry Collins. Many, many colourful tales emerged from the John and Gerry era - a concussed striker led Gerry to tell the boss "Gaffer, he doesnae know who he is!" "Well tell him he's Pele and get him back on the park!" - some possibly (!) apocryphal but the one I thought I remembered definitely happened. Here's the Sunday Herald's version of events:

Banned from the touchline, Collins appeared at a subsequent match standing, complete with hard hat, in the building site that was to become the Jackie Husband stand. His voluble contributions and throwing the hard hat into the air when Thistle scored attracted the attention of the referee. Collins produced his letter from the SFA and argued that the ban did not extend to the terracing. He had eventually to succumb to the rule of law but had shown his mettle.

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Not only did Gerry attract the attention of the ref, he was also spotted by the crowd. I don't think we helped his bid for anonymity by chanting his name!

This seemed to please Danny and his team and I was fairly certain it was job done but I was thrown a bit of a curveball. Mein Host asked me for a "generic" reason to save Firhill, what feature does it have that would make other supporters say "at least that still survives at Partick Thistle"?

Who'd have thought that dangerous, condemnable wooden seating in a 100year old main stand would ever come in so handy? Phew. Call off them wreckers!

Related articles by Zemanta

• 'I'm sensitive to being sat on' (guardian.co.uk)
• Gerry Britton set to quit Partick Thistle to become a lawyer (telegraph.co.uk)

...but the fire is so delightful...

Wow and indeed wee. Nevis Range looking fairly spectacular in an Alpine stylee from the Farm Shop at Torlundy.

Road chaos appears to have hit the country though meaning that although there's any amounts of snow over the other side of the country at Glenshee the road is, as ever, closed rendering it impossible to reach the slopes. Don't you just love this country?

You said "Be there or be square"

The marvellous Idlewild play a cheeky wee acoustic version of City Hall from their excellent new album, Post Electric Blues. Just thought I'd share...

The Fly - Idlewild 'City Hall' FlyTV In The Courtyard on MUZU.

Quick edit: I left the video playing and a brilliant version of Little Discourage came on afterwards. Well worth watching...

I swear I saw this...

Sidewalk Instructions

Spotted on a lower East Side (I think) sidewalk on a recent visit to NYC. A sense of humour is always a good thing, no matter where one finds oneself. I'm not sure how funny I'd find it, however, if I was a sufferer of the following complaint, bearing in mind this is merely the subway station version of the ad - on the way into Manhattan from JFK we saw this ad blown up to building size! Them's some big ol' piles...

...or are you just pleased to see me?

A recent trip to NYC showed just how all those travel writers come across their seemingly implausible tales of encounters with 'colourful' locals which add that oft needed human interest element to the traveller's tale...

A shopping excursion - a must in the Big Apple - took me to the Empire State Building in search of a modelling kit of the eponymous Manhattan landmark. In these security conscious times, no chances were being taken and entry to the skyscraper's gift shop could only be gained after passing through an airport-style security check, complete with walk-through scanner and baggage x-ray.

With nothing to hide I removed my coat and put it in the tray for scanning. Cue 'colourful encounter'

Security Lady: excuse me sir but do you have like a package in your jacket?
Me: There's a guidebook in one pocket...
SL: (not bothering to check the vefacity of my claim)Oh, okay. What about the other pocket? A brick or something?
Me: Er, my glasses case is there, it's quite bulky.
SL: (still not checking) Oh, okay, no problem. On you go.
Security Man: (classic 'Noo Yoik' accent) A brick? A f###in' brick? You kiddin' me?
SL: Well you never know what people are collecting these days...