After setting up this page as long ago as 2017, it took until the 19th December 2022 before I actually posted anything on it. I’ve had plenty of ideas and created numerous lists over the five year gap. I’m not entirely sure what prompted me to start typing that evening, but I have found that stationing myself at the PC in the titular study and listening to and writing about music and various linked experiences has been quite helpful in coping with a number of stresses, including the ongoing situation with my mother’s health.
After a break during the second half of January, when I was routinely falling asleep at the times when I’d wanted to type something, I was glad to get back to it. What also pleased me was that visitor numbers actually increased upon my return, which was not what I’d been expecting at all. However, I feel that the quality of recent posts hasn’t perhaps been that great, and one or two pieces have felt like a bit of a chore when I was writing them. This seems to be borne out in visitor numbers, which have dropped off a cliff since the beginning of March. Not that I can complain – I’ve not been visiting my usual blog haunts that much in the last month or so either. I’m writing this primarily for myself, as a way of formalising my thoughts and memories about music, but I’d like to think I can do that in a way which others find entertaining. There are a couple of recent posts that I can barely re-read myself, so why should I expect anyone else to look at them?
So where to go after 18 posts and 21 YouTube links?
I have listened to another Cassette Album, so that is most likely the next thing I will write about, and I made a lot of notes whilst listening. I’m not sure if everything will make the cut, but it was one I picked out as something that I really wanted to revisit after a long time of not playing it, so I do want to do it justice.
There will be some more Seen ‘Em Live – including a couple that I’m really looking forward to writing about if the gigs are half as good as I’m hoping they will be.
I also want to start a new series – The Underachievers. This will focus on records that for whatever reason failed to make the impression in terms of UK Chart position that I feel they should have done. It may be that they did well in other countries or have done well years later or whatever. My blog, my rules as to what constitutes underachievement. Obviously this will be time-locked to the period when I took an interest in what was actually making the Charts, so that will feature music from the 20th Century. I’ve got five song titles noted down so far – and many more in my head.
And then there is what seemed like a good idea at the time – picking something from the Discover Weekly playlist based on matching the date and the number on the list. It had its moments, but last week it threw up a Top 10 hit from 1987. A song I hadn’t consciously heard in 36 years. A song so awful I opted not to share a link or write anything about it. A song that I hope I don’t hear for another 36 years (if I make it that long, I will be 92 and will probably be past caring).
But Discover Weekly will stay with different rules, and it may not necessarily appear every week. My focus with this now will be genuinely on something I haven’t heard before that’s made a positive impression on me and that I feel I want to share. I will be taking into account the full playlist and not just the track that matches the date. Bear in mind I don’t listen to the radio all that much these days, so my knowledge of new stuff is not what it was. My definition of “new” is pretty much anything recorded since 2010! Comments mocking my levels of being out of touch will of course be warmly welcomed. There was a song from 2017 on this week’s list that may feature, but I want to play it a couple more times before I decide.
So after Taking Stock, hopefully there are treasures still unlocked.
At which point Echo & The Bunnymen become the first act to feature twice on the blog.
TGG
Wasting time in the study 
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