In The Still Of The Night

Is it too late to wish you a Happy New Year? Probably.

I would love to be able to do some kind of educated and informed musical critique of 2008, but I don't think I've got it in me. Instead, I'll just list the gigs I went to and the albums I liked. Howzat? On the plus side, it won't have many long words in it...

The gigs went a bit like this:


January
12th - Subliminal Girls at The Fly, London
23rd - The Indelicates at Punk, London
28th - Art Brut at Barfly, Cambridge
29th - The Courteeners at Barfly, Cambridge
31st - The Broken Family Band at Barfly, Cambridge

February
5th - Art Brut at ULU, London
10th - Travis at The Junction, Cambridge
13th - Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly at The Junction, Cambridge
15th - NME Awards Tour (The Cribs, The Ting Tings, Does It Offend You Yeah, Joe Lean and The Jing Jang Jong) at Corn Exchange, Cambridge
20th - We Are Scientists at Soho Revue Bar, London
28th - We Are Scientists at Soho Revue Bar, London

March
6th - We Are Scientists at Fopp, Cambridge
13th - Supergrass at The Junction, Cambridge

April
7th - The Indelicates at The Portland Arms, Cambridge
8th - Sugababes at Corn Exchange, Cambridge
22nd - The Courteeners at The Junction, Cambridge
25th - We Are Scientists at Shepherds Bush Empire, London

May
3rd - DJ Yoda at The Junction, Cambridge
19th - The Whip at The Junction, Cambridge
24th - Public Enemy at The Junction, Cambridge

June
8th - The Subways at The Junction, Cambridge
19th - We Are Scientists and The Charlatans at Indigo2, London
24th - Primal Scream and MC5 at Royal Festival Hall, London
30th - Jason Mraz at The Junction, Cambridge

July
18th & 19th - Summercase Festival, Barcelona:

We Are Scientists, Ian Brown, Blondie, Interpol, The Verve, Primal Scream, The Breeders, Kings of Leon, Kaiser Chiefs, CSS, Foals, Biffy Clyro, The Raveonettes, Neon Neon.

August
7th - The Maccabees at The Junction, Cambridge
20th - We Are Scientists at Carling Academy, Oxford
24th - Get Loaded In The Park Festival, London:

The Hives, Gogol Bordello, Iggy and The Stooges, Reverend and The Makers, The Presets.
28th - Michael Caine's The Ethosphere (a.k.a. We Are Scientists) at The Old Blue Last, London

September
Hibernation

October
2nd - Iglu & Hartly at The Junction, Cambridge
5th - British Sea Power at The Junction, Cambridge
6th - Elbow at Corn Exchange, Cambridge
21st - The Rifles at The Junction, Cambridge
27th - The Jesus and Mary Chain at The Forum, London
28th - Black Kids at The Junction, Cambridge
30th - Hot Chip at Corn Exchange, Cambridge

November
10th - Noah & The Whale at The Junction, Cambridge
19th - The Whip at Scala, London
22nd - Carter USM at Brixton Academy, London
30th - Glasvegas at The Junction, Cambridge

December
1st - We Are Scientists at The Hard Rock Cafe, London
3rd - The Zutons at Corn Exchange, Cambridge
5th - Primal Scream at Corn Exchange, Cambridge
11th - The Indelicates and Miles Hunt at The Portland Arms, Cambridge

43 plus two Festies eh? My only concern is that it's now the 24th January and I haven't been to a single gig this year yet. And I've only got two booked so far. Plus two festivals. Meh. I'm sure it'll all come together somehow.

My top six albums of 2008:

1. Kings of Leon - Only By The Night
2. We Are Scientists - Brain Thrust Mastery
3. Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires
4. The Indelicates - American Demo
5. Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
   
6. Neon Neon - Stainless Style

Because five wasn't enough and I didn't think four more would be worthy enough. But that's just me.

Bring on 2009! I'm already adoring so much new music and finding new things to obsess over every week! Right here, right now it's Franz Ferdinand - Tonight. The album is great and I've already listened to it like 8 times today...

Apart from that, new artists I like the sound of (at the moment, for I am quite fickle y'know) are:

Little Boots
La Roux
The Voluntary Butler Scheme
Fight Like Apes
Florence and The Machine

Check 'em out.

Love to your mothers x