Following on from my recent discovery that Pogue Mahone was, rather than being the sound of a band dying a painful death, actually Rather Good. So it was that I resolved to pick up Waiting For Herb as well to see if it matched up.

Good news, pop-pickers. It's better. In fact, it's brilliant. Of course it's not as good as The Pogues at their peak (85-88?), how could it be? But all the same, this is one hell of an album.

I've barely had it out of the CD tray since I took delivery of it.

Very highly recommended.…

Now, obviously I am a massive fan of The Pogues. I think my AudioScrobbler chart makes that abundantly clear. I've got just about everything they've ever released (and a few things they haven't), with the notable exception of the two albums they did without Shane MacGowan. For some reason I had managed to convince myself that they didn't exist. Shane IS The Pogues.

Well, this week I had a sudden change of heart and took delivery of Pogue Mahone, the band's final studio album. It was Ebay what did it… 99 pence… how can you refuse???

Anyway……

This week’s bargains. Bought some fantastic folk LP’s from a carboot sale this morning, and a couple of cheapo CD’s a week ago. Here’s the full lowdown…

Chuck Berry - Rock N Roll Music (Musicbank, 2001) (CD)
Believe it or not, I bought this in a “Pound Shop” for… well… a pound! The track listing is quite impressive but on closer inspection they turn out to be later live versions rather than the original versions. Still, well worth a listen, and for a quid you can’t go wrong, can you?

Woody Guthrie - Pastures Of Plenty (Prism, 1998)
A 26-track…

I’ve just typed most of this out once and then, unfortunately, bloody Explorer decided to crash on me and I lost it all. I blame Microbloodysoft.

Anyway - yours truly has been trawling the local car boot sale for bargain vinyl (a predeliction of mine) and this week yielded four albums, one of which is just bizarre (more of that in a minute) and the other three are, as our Yorkshire brethren might say, reet good!

The Best of Blondie
Fifty pence for this. Need I say more. You’ve got to love Blondie and no-one would turn down a bargain…

Everyone else seems to be doing it so I thought I would have a bash at remembering all those gigs I’ve seen… please forgive me for the first one.

Most dates are approximate and many are guesstimates!

“FM”
Hull City Hall, 1989?
Support: Romeo’s Daughter

I haven’t linked “FM” because Audioscrobbler links to a different band by that name. This FM were a very dodgy AOR-type outfit, and I have no idea at all why I went to see them. My first ever gig. I went with a friend who later became the lead singer in Superscape, for a…

Well, dear reader, yesterday I turned 30. It is, in the words of Metallica, Sad But True.

The best thing about having my birthday is that (a) I got a couple of CDs from my wife, and (b) I got some money from other peeps with which I could buy even more CDs. Not bad, eh?

So, I've got hold of some top stuff over the last couple of days…

Achtung Baby — yeah, I know, how come I didn't already have this? Well, I DID have it some years ago, but I think it went off with a…

Having just purchased an excellent book - "Reggae & Carribean Music" by Dave Thompson (which cost me the princely sum of 97 pence from Music Zone - which for over 500 pages has to be a megabargain), I've been having a bit of a love affair with reggae this week. Thanks to the miracle of the internet I've acquired some top, top tunes and I think it only fair to recommend a few. So… fancy a bit of reggae? Try these:

Sinsemilla
Sponji Reggae
Marcus Garvey
Satta Massagana
Legalize It

I also got hold of Murderer - which is scarily…

For no other reason than to amuse myself (and because I'm watching "Lost" as I write this), I thought of a few tracks they could (should?) play on the show…

Living On An Island
We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
Looking For Water
I Wish I Was In England
Lonely
Help
Rescue Me
I Will Survive

Well, that was fun. Note that I picked Cake's version of "I Will Survive" because the original is hateful and I couldn't bring myself to include it…!
And the version by

Dear Ringo Starr

I switched on the TV the other morning as I was about to leave for work - GMTV I think it was (forgive me… I was looking for News 24), and there you were, sitting on the sofa, being interviewed by the guy who used to be a crap tennis player. I forget his name but he's now a crap TV presenter instead. Anyway… after a very dull interview with you, they then proceeded to show a clip of a song called "Fading In Fading Out", from your new album, "Choose Love". Ringo… I was embarrassed on…

With The Pogues touring again this Xmas, I've been thinking about the best gigs I've seen… almost in order, they are…

1. The Pogues - Manchester, 2004
2. David Bowie - Glastonbury, 2000
3. REM - Glastonbury, 2000
4. Thea Gilmore - Glastonbury, 2002
5. Roni Size - Glastonbury, 1998?
6. REM - Hull, 2005
7. Queens Of The Stone Age - Glasto, 2002
8. Doves - Glasto, 2002
9. Bob Dylan - Sheffield, 2003
10. Massive Attack - Glasto, 1997