New Year Dishonour
I am listless, but it is not for a lack of lists.
It is that time of year, a time when newspapers and all associated media are clogged with a catalogue of pointless point-scoring, usually notated in a point by point rating such as the top ten most pointless points I've already made this year at various points but insist upon doing so again, and you will love me for it, pointedly.
I'm possibly somewhat jealous, never having been organised enough to keep adequate notes that could form the basis of such a list. Now, of course, my memory cannot be trusted with such things. It was probably always this way. Once upon a time I was often asked my opinion about the best albums and singles of the year; I could barely remember them at the time. Now I'm no longer asked - partly because I'm not relevant enough, partly because I probably didn't do a good job of it in the past and partly because I no longer listen to enough music to make an educated stab at it.
I even hate to make statements and predictions about music just in case I'm so hopelessly out of touch that everyone's already been there before me. This said I could say with some justification that the best band you didn't bother listening to in 2009 were called The Heavy and that their single 'How You Like Me Now' was a great slab of funking rock with brass; the best example of its kind throughout the decade not just the year.
I tell you this because this year's lists were comprehensively embellished by it being the end of the decade. I can only hope that this'll be the last time we have to hear the term 'the noughties' even if I am quite keen on the next decade being the 'tenties'.
The key reason for many of these 'lists' is that they can be written many weeks in advance. None of us likes to work much over Christmas - there can be no other excuse for ITV's Xmas Day offerings - and these lists are inevitably compiled in advance to avoid the necessity to think much in the interim period. They are journalism that satisfies a need, not much wrong with that - except that it is rarely the need of the reader that they have in mind.
I find myself typing (and randomly thinking) on this, New Year's Eve, because I tend to hate New Year. It is a time of reflection and being a depressive sort, my reflections will no doubt be tinged with negativity. I also tend to have terrible New Year's Eves.
My lack of enthusiasm for NY may be the reason for my terrible experiences on NYE, possibly. I tend to remember only the worst nights-out, such as the time I spent pulling people away from a mass-brawl in the Cock & Magpies on the Hagley Road. This was some time ago, when it was a fun pub rather than a Harvester or Happy Beefeater or whatever it is now.
As the glasses smashed around us and I hauled another naïve and unaware victim from a misdirected blow, I reflected that I hadn't signed up for this and went home to watch Jools Holland see the New Year in. My NYEs are that dull. As I write I see that Jools is still doing it, so I guess they still are that dull. Happy New Year everyone.
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Paul Flower - Paul Flower works in the music industry, a promoter, critic, (self)-publicist and all-round consultant to clients.
Wow! How come I never heard The Heavy in 2009? I want more!
Wow!!! They are brilliant...
It worries me that the music doesn't reach the masses very easily. The processes for recommendation are inadequate, etc. If a band aren't making themselves known to enough opinion-formers perhaps they will always struggle.
Interestingly there is an i-phone app for The Heavy which streams their music (not very effectively - and not at all without a wifi connection), but the app itself is a great idea, well put-together and free.
PF