2007 Comes Back: The music

Some of the music we've enjoyed this year:


Brett Anderson - Solo debut


Arcade Fire - Neon Bible


Architecture in Helsinki - We Died, They Remixed


Au Revoir Simone - The Bird Of Music


Balkan Beat Box - Nu Med

Beep Seals live video
The Beep Seals - Stars


Bloc Party - Weekend In The City



David Bowie's Pye Singles


Buffalo Tom - Three Easy Pieces


Bill Callahan - Woke On A Whaleheart


Neko Case Live In Austin


Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Some Loud Thunder


CocoRosie - The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn


Edwyn Collins - Home Again


The Cooper Temple Clause - Make This Your Own


Comsat Angels - To Before


Rhoda Dakar - Cleaning In Another Woman's Kitchen


Dean and Britta - Back Numbers


Deutsch Nepal - Erotikon


Dinosaur Jr - Beyond


Dolls of Pain - Dec A Dance


Durutti Column - Idiot Savants


Editors - An End Has A Start


Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls


Explosions In The Sky - All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone


Feist - The Reminder


Field Music - Tones Of Town


Fiery Furnaces - Widow City


Future Of The Left - Curses


Ghosts - The World Is Outside


Go Teams - Proof of Youth


Green Pitch - Ace Of Hearts



PJ Harvey - White Chalk


Charlotte Hatherley - Deep Blue


The Hedrons - One More Won't Kill Us



Help, She Can't Swim - The Death Of Nightlife


Kristin Hersh - Learn To Sing Like A Star, best bet of this or any other week


Hug - Heroes


I Ludicrous - 20 Years in Showbusiness


Femi Kuti - Definitive Collection


Monkey Swallows The Universe - The Casket Letters


MSTRKRFT - The Looks


Kate Nash - Made Of Bricks


Sevara Nazarkhan - Sen


The New Pornographers - Challengers


Sarah Nixey - Sing Memory


Bearsuit - Oh:IO


Panda Bear - Person Pitch


Candie Payne - I Wish I Could Have Loved You More


Emma Pollock - Watch The Fireworks


Rilo Kiley - Under The Backlight


Kate Rusby - Awkward Annie


Shellac - Excellent Italian Greyhound


Siouxse - Mantaray


The Soft-Hearted Scientists - Take Time...


The Strange Death of Liberal England - Forward, March


June Tabor - Apples


Tiny Dancers - Free School Milk


Various - Kicking Hitler's Butt


Various - Gypsy Creams & Ginger Nuts


Von Sudenfed - Tromatic Reflections


Jane Weaver - Cherlokalate


Wedding Present - Peel Sessions box set



Lucinda Williams - West

2007 Comes Back: Valete

As part of our round-up of the year, this is the full list of obituaries we've run in 2007:

Ben Aulds, punk & ska guitarist
Richard Bell, keyboards, The Band
Lady Jaye Breyer P Orridge, samplist, Psychic TV
Nidge Blitz, guitarist, Blitz
Pimp C, rapper, Underground Kingz
Casey Calvert, guitarist, Hawthorne Heights
Jamie Coe, singer and promoter
Dainton Connell, Pet Shop Boys management team
Denny Doherty, songwriter, The Mamas and the Papas
Brad Delp, singer, Boston
Joe Dolan, singer
Kevin DuBrow, singer, Quiet Riot
Evan Farrell, bassist
Dan Fogelberg, singer-songwriter
Paul Fox, guitarist, The Ruts
Kevin Greening, presenter, Radio One
Terry Hall, presenter and ventriloquist
Ronnie Hazlehurst, theme tune writer
Lee Hazlewood, presenter, producer, songwriter and solo artist
Kelly Johnson, guitarist, Girlschool
Buck Jones, country singer
Mitch Karczewski, Cleveland promoter
Witold 'Vitek' Kietyka, drummer, Decapitated & Panzer X
Sneaky Pete Kleinow, guitarist, Flying Burrito Brothers
Hilly Kristal, founder, CBGBs
Frankie Laine, singer
Randy Parker Hubbard, stepson of KRS-One
Jimmy Pascoe, charity busker
Luciano Pavarotti, operatic tenor
Bobby 'Boris' Pickett, novelty hit singer
John Pike, drummer, Ra-Ra Riot
Rod Poole, guitarist
Paul Raven, bassist, Killing Joke
Carol Richards, singer
Linda Stein, Ramones manager
Mark StJohn, guitarist, Kiss
Pepsi Tate, bassist, Tigertailz
Tony Thompson, singer, Hi-Five
Ike Turner, producer, singer, musician
U-nee, singer
Paul Wasserman, publicist
Donda West, manager and mother to Kanye West
Tony Wilson, founder, Factory Records, In The City & music TV presenter
Ernie Woo, Liverpool promoter

Showbandobit: Joe Dolan

The funeral has taken place of Joe Dolan, as commenters have pointed out.

One of eight children born to a family in Mullingar, Dolan had initially trained as a journalist before deciding to give music a try. The Drifters Showband, formed with his brother Ben, proved to be a successful gamble, and Dolan quickly established himself as a star. A cover of Del Shannon's Runaway in 1964 was his first track; he went international in 1969 when a deal with the Pye label saw him take Make Me An Island to number one in fourteen countries.

Dolan made a spot of geopolitical history in 1978, when he became the first Western artist to play a gig in Communist Russia; to keep the capitalists happy, within a couple of years he was granted a six-week residency in Las Vegas. By 1990, his success had reached a point where he was able to start his own label - Gable - although he saw out the decade on EMI. It was in this period when his career low-point occurred, when he attempted a novelty hit by re-recording his classic Good Looking Woman in a duet with, erm, a turkey. It paid off - making number one - but still felt a little cheap. Almost as an act of penance, Dolan followed up by recording two albums of covers of contemporary songs. He nailed tracks by REM, Pulp and Blur across Joe's 90s and 21st Century Joe.

Dolan fell ill on Christmas night and died Boxing Day. Thousands of people queued to sign official condolence books set up in his home town; amongst the mourners at his funeral were representatives of the Taoiseach and Irish President.

DJobit: Kevin Greening

The former Radio One breakfast show presenter Kevin Greening has died.

The manager of the 44 year-old said Greening died "peacefully" in his sleep, but gave no further details.

Greening would claim that his start in broadcasting came editing tapes for Checkpoint and Roger Cook, but his route to Radio One was more traditional - after a stint on BBC Radio Solent, he joined GLR at a time when the London station was at its sharpest. A brief stint at the start-up Virgin Radio was followed by the move to Radio One in 1993.

Something of an acquired taste - Greening's show was one of the last to employ comedy voices and characters (Raymond Sinclair, Major Hold-ups), making him like an erudite Steve Wright - his career highpoint came when Matthew Bannister was rushing to correct the fall-out from the Radcliffe and Lard breakfast experiment. He was thrown into a double act with Zoe Ball on breakfast, providing the radio experience to partner with Ball's high profile. The partnership lasted only until Ball started to gain in confidence, then Greening was cut free and floated about the schedules until his contract expired in early New Year, 2000.

There followed a long period where Greening struggled to find a permanent niche - a year at Five Live; some time at London Live (the renamed GLR) where he found himself playing the same role with Amanda Hussein as he did with Zoe Ball at Radio One; Jazz FM, Heart; a surprisingly successful stint at Xfm before winding up at Smooth in London. Greening's trouble was he was a man who had a unique style at a time when commercial radio is obsessed with smoothing out any sign of individuality; he was, effectively, out of the time when he would have flourished.

There has to be limits, warn Radiohead

After having had a 2007 full of good press following the 'pay nothing if you like' pricing of In Rainbows, Radiohead are heading into 2008 having to defend some eyewatering ticket prices for next year's gigs:

The band’s manager Bryce Edge has claimed the £42.50 per ticket for the series of dates in May simply ensures the band do not lose money for putting on the “quality shows”.

He says, “We don't want to go on tour and lose money. It is expensive to put on the quality show people expect. It is a comparable price to artists of a similar stature."

This, of course, is the flipside of the shift from records to live being the place where artists make money. Perhaps Radiohead could offer a slew of different qualities of show - a Value One where Thom doesn't change his shirt beforehand and the venue only serves warm beer for a tenner?

Oddly, Jamie Lynn took no notice

Britney Spears is bitterly upset at her sister for getting herself pregnant, after she'd explicitly warned her against becoming a gymslip mother.

And not just because, like, gymslips are so, you know, over now?

"I'm really disappointed in her," Britney raved to a friend. "I told her over and over just to be a kid and let the adult things like sex and drinking and all that wait."

So it turns out that - while we might have thought Britney was living through some sort of out-of-control carcrash life - she was merely trying to lead through bad example. Sadly, her warning from sistery has failed to work.

That's why Mums go to Shelter

Being caught in the crashing world of Kerry Katona, as she discovers there are limits to the market size for 'tragic stories about someone famous for tragic stories': Her own mother.

Despite Katona's frequent ravings against her mum - mostly after ma flogged tales about the daughter to the paper (stories that Katona herself could have sold for twice as much, so you can see why she was upset) - she's been putting the family matriarch up in a house.

Now, though, with cash low, Katona is selling the house out from underneath Susan. With typical class, Katona informed her mum by text message. Just before Christmas.

Susan's best hope is that something very, very nasty happens to Kerry before the house sells - a large cheque from Now might just save her home.