Top 30 Music over the last 10 years or so

Do you remember the olden days of this blog, when the Plastic Bag was all shiny and new and not a crease in sight? Well, in the olden days I used to put up lists of what music I'd been listening to and all sorts so I thought, to note the end of the 10 calendar year of the Bag, I'd list my all-time most played artists according to Last.FM.

In total, it tells me that I've listened to 3,034 different artists and my Top 30, in descending order, are:

1. Buffy Sainte-Marie
2. Maximo Park
3. The Human League
4. Suzanne Vega
5. Poly Styrene
6. David Bowie
7. Kirsty MacColl
8. SLADE
9. Amanda Palmer
10. Madonna

Are there any surprises there? I'm a bit surprised that Bowie is so high in the list and that Madonna is in the top 10. With Bowie, I rarely 'binge' listen but he's usually in my playlists somewhere and with Madonna, I suspect her position is due to her last album ('Rebel Heart') that I've listened to a lot. The others? Yes, I'd expect to see them in my top 10.

11. Kim Wilde
12. Pet Shop Boys
13. X-Ray Spex
14. Petula Clark
15. The Dresden Dolls
16. Blondie
17. Boy George
18. Siouxsie & The Banshees
19. Beverley Knight
20. Kate Bush


In the teens, I suspect Siouxsie is so high due to the re-releases of all the Banshees albums over the last few years and her gigs as part of Yoko Ono's Meltdown festival a couple of years ago. Kate Bush is there due her gigs at Hammersmith (obv). I don't recall listening to a lot of Pet Shop Boys or The Dresden Dolls this year so their position probably relies on massive listens in previous years.

21. Public Image Ltd
22. Patti Smith
23. T.Rex
24. Marianne Faithfull
25. The B-52's
26. The Kinks
27. Donna Summer
28. Mary J Blige
29. Viv Albertine
30. P!nk

The 20s are all staples in my playlists and the only one I'm surprised at is The Kinks, although this is probably due to binging on Kinks songs when seeing the stage musical. P!nk should be higher up the list since I used to amend the '!' in her name to an 'i' (i.e. proper English) so a lot of plays won't be counted.

That's one of the oddities of lists and Last.FM since it only counts things in a certain way. Just as P!nk would be higher if plays under the two names were added together then so would Siouxsie (add Siouxsie solo to the Banshees and the Creatures) then she'd be in my top 5. Equally, if I added Amanda Palmer to Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra and the Dresden Dolls - and Evelyn Evelyn if you must - then Amanda would be at number two.

Who do you listen to?

Public Image Ltd - 'Double Trouble'

Fab new single from Public Image Ltd - energy and fun rippling through the whole thing. Looking forward to the new album!

Public Image Ltd + 20 Years

The first new music in 20 years is due from Public Image Ltd in the next few months. First of all we'll get the 'One Drop' four-track EP on 21 April as part of Record Store Day and then the 'This is PiL' album on 28 May on the PiL Official label.

John says,

"'One Drop" is a reflection of where I grew up in Finsbury Park, London. The area that shaped me, and influenced me culturally and musically, a place I will forever feel connected to. But within this I am also saying it doesn’t matter where you come from, we all go through the same emotions especially the disenchanted youth of today, yesterday and the future. Bearing in mind the Olympics are in London this year and who knows what that could bring for London and our country."

You can listen to it on Pitchfork or The Quietus.

Naturally enough, they're doing some shows to promote the record and have already announced shows in London (sold out), Brighton and Leicester. The London gig is small (at the Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of BBC Radio 6's anniversary) so I'm hoping for another London gig to be added to the roster as well as others around the country.

All the PiL albums and John Lydon's solo album have just been reissued in re-mastered format so now is a good time to be a PiL fan. I just want to see them live again and playing the new music. In recent years I've seen them at The Electric Ballroom and at Shepherd's Bush and loved every minute. I need to see them again.


Update:

PiL has announced two gigs at Heaven in London on 1 and 2 April and offered a pre-sale this morning at 9am. I will be seeing PiL on 1 April - see you there!