Chop's Top Fives

Anyone Can Play Guitar - Month 1

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:00:00 +0000

I have a feeling that my selected title for this series of post is going to prove horribly ironic. A quick recap for those of you who don't read every single post I make. As part of my New Year...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Top 5 Albums of 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 06:00:00 +0000

The start of my annual review of the year. This could take a few weeks so forgive me if it gets boring, this is as much for me as it is for you! 2011 turned out to be a year in which I listened...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Top 5 New Year Resolutions 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 06:00:00 +0000

I might as well have another go at this despite my abject failure last year. First a quick recap on how spectacularly badly I did before I move on to this year’s equally doomed ideas. Lose...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Top 6 Marc Riley BBC 6Music Sessions of 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Welcome back, Happy New Year to those of you I haven't already caught up with and I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. I was going to have a week or two off ahead of my usual round up of 2011...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

12 Songs for Xmas - Twelfth Day

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Day twelve. Hope you've enjoyed the songs I've picked. They were all contenders for my top five tunes of the year but didn't quite make the cut. I also hope you've taken down your Crimbo decorations....

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

12 Songs for Xmas - Eleventh Day

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Another Marc Riley discovery. Metronomy are a bit electronic for me but Riley's incessant plays gradually swung my opinion. I saw them live in Kingston for a fiver and they won me over. This is...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

12 Songs for Xmas - Tenth Day

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Heavily influenced by Jethro Tull front man Ian Anderson's style Laura J Martin has been one of my finds of the year. Her debut album The Hangman Tree is not out until the 23rd January 2012 but it's...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

12 Songs for Xmas - Ninth Day

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

David Tattersall is the lead vocalist with The Wave Pictures. I know very little about him or them. Mr Marc Riley, however, has played the single composed with French guitar man Howard Hughes pretty...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

12 Songs for Xmas - Eighth Day

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Figured I ought to go with something quiet and low key today to soothe those New Year hangovers. Here's the rather wonderful The Low Anthem and "Hey, All You Hippies!" played live...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

12 Songs for Xmas - Seventh Day

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 08:00:00 +0000

I had heard about Ron Sexsmith long before I actually heard his music. A night down at my Dad's with minimal access to my usual music channels lead me to a BBC Four programme about songwriters that...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

12 Songs for Xmas - Sixth Day

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 08:00:00 +0000

A concept album about British Wrestling Of The 1970's And Early 1980's? In 2011? Never gonna work is it? Well Luke Haines demented genius ensured that it could and 9 1/2 Psychedelic Meditations On...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

12 Songs for Xmas - Fifth Day

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Slow Club are a band with a history of tweeness. The first time I saw them live they played a number of unusual instruments including a chair. This was endearing on its own but their debut album was...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

12 Songs for Xmas - Fourth Day

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Time to wake things up a bit with the irrepressibly chirpy Go! Team. Their new album, Rolling Blackouts, was a huge return to form after their relatively disappointing second album. T.O.R.N.A.D.O....

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

12 Songs for Xmas - Third Day

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Day three and I'm guessing we're all feeling a little bit tired of rich food and drink. We're off out again later today assuming the country is not in the midst of a massive winter storm (I wrote all...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

12 Songs for Xmas - Second Day

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Sweet Baboo is Stephen Black, sometime collaborator with First Day artist Gruff Rhys. Don't expect the rest of the days to be as joined up as this. I don't actually have a plan this was a fluke....

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

12 Songs for Xmas - First Day

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Something a bit different to celebrate the festive season. A song a day for each of the 12 days of Christmas. I had to check Wikipedia to see when the twelve days actually start and it seems to be...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Top 5 Anti-Christmas Songs

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:00:00 +0000

Despite the fact that, as Half Man Half Biscuit told us, "It's Cliched to by Cynical At Christmas", it's also quite therapeutic to let your "Bah! Humbug" side out once in a while. Also I'm running...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Film 2012 at dotmund - In praise of "The Big Bus"

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:49:00 +0000

Something to tide you over until Friday. I wrote a short dissertation in praise of the 1976 film "The Big Bus" over at dotmund's excellent blog. You can read it here. There's a top five at the...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Top 5 British Punk Singles

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 06:00:00 +0000

I wouldn't say I had a sheltered upbringing but growing up in a small village in the heart of the Surrey commuter belt was never going to make me into a street wise trend setter. The only knowledge I...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Top 5 British Wrestlers of the '70s and '80s

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:05:00 +0000

I didn't have enough time to sort out a proper top five this week but having been inspired by, former Autuers and Black Box Recorder main man, Luke Haines' new album "9 1/2 Psychedelic Meditations On...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Top 5 Ideas I might try to keep this blog going next year

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 06:00:00 +0000

I've not been exceptionally busy these last few weeks but for one reason or another I've not found much time to get ahead with my top fives. It might have something to do with our new TiVo box. The...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Guest Top 5 - Children's Books with Maps by Alicestronaut

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 06:00:00 +0000

This is a bit of a first in that I have shamelessly stolen it from someone else's blog. I'd been struggling to find enough time to write a new top five when my Twitter friend Alicestronaut popped up...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Top 5 Herbie Movies

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 06:00:00 +0000

The Herbie movies were simple but fun and were amongst the earliest films I can remember seeing in a cinema. I totally believed in the sentience of inanimate objects (I should perhaps point out here...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Top 5 Reasons I didn't write a Top 5 last week (and haven't written a proper one this week)

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 06:00:00 +0000

I think last week might be the first Friday I've not supplied a top five all year. Not that it really matters to anyone else but me, but it has provided me with something to write about this week....

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Top 5 Non-Fiction Books

noreply@blogger.com (Chopper) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 05:00:00 +0000

For most of my life I have read very little non-fiction. I enjoy the thrill, that fiction provides, of being transported somewhere else, and until recently, had rarely felt the desire to read about...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]