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Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 29/05/26 : Florescence - Maisie Peters  Our third visit with Maisie (and somewhat surprisingly, I've also seen her live twice) and I've generally liked both her and her music, so here's hoping for more of the same. Well, it's not more of the same - she's switched from a poppy sound to a more folky kinda thang. And I like it - there's definitely a relationship theme going on but there are good relationship and bad relationship songs so it doesn't get too tiresome one way ("yay, men are the best!") or the other ("boo to all men!"). I was reminded of, and I mean this in a nice way, Ed Sheeran - back in the day when he used to just make decent songs with simple but heartfelt lyrics, so don't let that put you off. We're at #1 with a new entry in the chart this week - she's had three albums out and she's had two #1s and one #2, so well done her! The rest of the top five...

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts. 08/09/63 : It Happened At The World's Fair - Elvis Presley Obviously we weren't going to be able to get through the year without at least one visit with The King - this takes up him up to eighteen and two clear at the top ahead of The Rolling Stones. And I'm sure it will all be perfectly bearable but also completely inessential. Well - this is peculiar. Half of it is rock'n'roll-ish, but it's more swing-y in a Sinatra kinda style than I was expecting - unexpected but not bad. And the other half is more like nursery rhymes with some particularly bad lyrics - unexpected but bad. I can't complain too much though because it's ten tracks which are done in 22 minutes, so you can't say it outstays its welcome - but it was surprisingly close to doing so. We're at #14 in the charts this week on his nineteenth week of a twenty week run, with it having peaked at #4 on it's 3rd-7th and 13th-14th week...

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts. 22/09/63 : Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & The Shadows Oh good - them again. Which brings us up to eight visits with Cliff - but at least I know I'm going to tolerate at least one of these tracks. I even remember not minding the film when I saw it many moons ago - and found it most amusing it had Una Stubbs in it because I only knew her from Celebrity Squares and Give Us A Clue at the time. Well, I obviously knew I was going to recognise the title track, but I'd forgotten that "Bachelor Boy" was also on this album - I also recognised "Foot Tapper", but that was mostly because I'd heard when listening to various Shadows tracks earlier this year. The rest of it is in a similar vein - it's a bit dated and twee, but it is at least charmingly dated and twee, so I didn't mind it. We're at #15 in the charts this week on their last week of a 36 week run, with it having peaked at #1 - for FOU...

A favourite act in a new, old venue for my first gig of the year! I first saw Marina (back in her Diamonds day) at Glastonbury in '10 and she's up there with the artists I've seen most live, having also caught up with her at the Palladium, Royal Albert Hall and BST over the years - and she always delivers. But I've never been to Alexandra Palace before - I feared it was going to be an almighty faff to get to, but then I realised I could drive to Hatfield and it was two stops down the line, which saved me a good hour off the trip. It really wasn't the right temperature for the walk up the hill, but the views over London were impressive once you made it up there. And, considering I headed up there before the doors opened (so I'd have time for a nosey around), I was surprised how many people were already there queuing to be let in. It was quite the diverse crowd (L , G, B, T - and me!) but surprisingly young  considering how long Marina has been around - I did see ...

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts. 29/09/63 : Pickwick -  Original London Cast A couple more albums to report that I've ignored - I couldn't report on Hitsville! (#14) because the internet doesn't seem to know anything about it and I decided against listening to Buddy Holly's third posthumous compilation album (#18) because a) I think that's pushing things a bit far and b) a load of it was overdubbed by someone else three years after he died! Which brings us to a musical that I can tell you absolutely nothing about. Now, sometimes these forgotten musicals from the 60s turn out to be surprisingly decent and it's not clear why they haven't been revived because they still have a lot to say that's relevant to the current times. But the other 95% of the time it's entirely obvious why they've been forgotten... Hmmm. It's not dreadful, but it's very dated - it also thinks it has very clever wordplay, but it's very forced ...

Continuing my trip up Empire's top 20 films of 2025 #10 :     Pillion Yes, Pillion is a kinky dom-com in which Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling wrestle in assless lycra, get frisky at a Picturehouse (the sadly now-closed one in Bromley, film location fans), and don their fair share of leathers and chains. But Harry Lighton's remarkably assured directorial debut is also a brilliantly observed study in consent and connection, in the discovery of community and the path that creates to the actualisation of the self, and in not only how hard it can be to set boundaries but also how hard it can be to stick to them. Finding pathos amid all the PVC, Lighton's unconventional love story is as much about baring souls as baring butts, and all the more glorious for it. I've heard a lot of people be very nice about this, but I'm not convinced it's one I'd have chosen to watch under normal circumstances.  Colin (Harry Melling - a loooong way from Dudley Dursley here)...

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts. 06/10/63 : I Remember You -  Frank Ifield Well, I didn't expect Mr Ifield to be the first person we met twice in the year - and I can't say I'm massively looking forward to it, but I suspect it will be bearable (but pretty cheesy). Hmmm - it's only just bearable because it really is super super cheesy. Additionally, he does more yodelling on this than her did on our previous visit, which isn't exactly a great thing - see also, the harmonica. OK - I'll take some more Merseybeat albums now please (although I suspect I've already heard them all for this year). We're at #12 in the charts this week on his 35th week of an impressive 36 week run, with it having peaked at #3 in its 3rd-5th weeks. The top five this week were  The Beatles ,  The Searchers ,  The Shadows ,  Frank Ifield  and the  Cliff best-of and there were no new entries in the chart this week. Wikipedia doesn't have an entry for the albu...

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts. 13/10/63 : The Concert Sinatra -  Frank Sinatra Considering this is a year that I said I wouldn't be skipping over any albums, I certainly seem to be avoiding quite a few - this week I've passed on a Cliff best-of (#9 - no, thank you) and a most peculiar offering from Peter Sellers, Joan Collins and Anthony Newley (who were married at the time) which is allegedly a political comedy album, but I couldn't find it (and was perfectly happy not to look too hard for it). All of which brings us to out fifteenth visit with Frank, bringing him level with Bob Dylan in third equal most visited - and he'll have his eye on the top spot by the end of the year, I fear... Hmmm - yeah, it's bearable but it's really all a bit boring. I generally prefer his swing-y kinda stuff but I'm happy to admit he does a good ballad when he puts his mind to it - but this is really just some songs sung slowly. The only points of intere...

Continuing my trip up Empire's   top 20 films of 2025 #11 :     Nickel Boys The 2019 book The Nickel Boys, from The Underground Railroad author Colson Whitehead, was already an acclaimed, accomplished, searing piece of storytelling: a fictionalised account of the real-life Dozier School in Florida which was exposed as an abusive and in some cases deadly institution for young African-American men. Filmmaker RaMell Ross — responsible for the hugely underrated 2018 documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening — somehow found a way to elevate the text even further, expanding on the interiority of the book by placing the camera inside the head of his two leads as they navigate the hellish Nickel Academy. The film is a technical and artistic feat, a genuinely innovative use of cinematography for character-based storytelling, but it is the tender, delicate way it approaches the harrowing story — and the humane performances, (sometimes off-screen) from the likes of Ethan He...

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts. 20/10/63 : When In Spain -  Cliff Richard & The Shadows Before we get to the main album, we have another one to discuss that we've skipped over - from that well-known musical duo of Steptoe & Son. Huh? The internet is surprisingly lacking in information as to what was actually on this album (because there were several S&S albums) but it was almost certainly just bits from the soundtrack of some episodes. I listened to the only one available on Amazon Music (which was released in '70, but might have been a re-release of this one) and it was surprisingly dry - so I felt quite happy to skip over it... ...even if it meant having to endure a seventh visit with Cliff. I suspect we're into full-on cheesy Cliff mode by now - surely he must have accepted by now that he's never going to be Elvis? Well - this was unexpected. In some ways, he is quite Elvis-ish - but slow, ballad-y Elvis as opposed to rock'n...

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts. 27/10/63 : Chuck Berry On Stage -  Chuck Berry Somewhat surprisingly, this is only our second visit with Mr Berry, with the previous one being a best-of on Rolling Stone's list which I would otherwise have rejected - and this one is a live album which wouldn't normally be included either. But he deserves the visit more than one I have unusually rejected from this year - we certainly don't need another Sinatra compilation, do we? Hmmm - this is both good and not so good. The songs are, for the most part, pretty decent (particularly when you consider a load of them are from the mid 50s) and there's some very fine guitar playing on them - easily the best we've heard this year. But the sound quality isn't great - we've already met plenty of live albums from earlier years which have a much better tone to them. But overall, I'm pleased I got to visit the lad. We're at #8 in the chart this week on his ...