The inevitable end of 2024 list of lists …

Much like those family circular letters at Xmas, end of year lists on personal blogs are more for the benefit of the writer than the reader. I look forward to looking back on this list for years to come. And so in that spirit …

BEST NEW BANDS LIVE: The New Eves (“folk horror in frocks with a flute”, I said), Modern Woman (“weird twisted narrative stuff that reminds me of the Birthday Party and early Nick Cave except with female vocals that veer between frantic and angelic”) and Dog Race who were absolutely lovely when I got to chat to a couple of then in November. Sprints would probably be on this list too but I haven’t managed to catch them live yet.

[The New Eves at Paper Dress Vintage]

BEST OLD BANDS LIVE: An emotional night at what might yet turn out to be Depeche Mode’s last ever London show, and OMD roping in Howard Jones to play their biggest ever London show were both great, and I saw Pet Shop Boys do their Dreamworld greatest hits show (for about the 1,057th time) at the Royal Opera House and ABC play Lexicon of Love at the London Palladium, but I think the best had to be seeing Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey playing the whole of Into The Gap without having broken my ankle hours beforehand by “having a fall” like I had when I saw him do it in Aylesbury in 2022.

[OMD at the O2 Arena]

MOST OVERWHELMING MUSIC EXPERIENCE: I got to see Paul McCartney at the O2 earlier this month and while there is nothing on earth quite like seeing a Beatle playing Beatles songs while 20,000 people sing along, at quite short notice I got a ticket in August to go and see Taylor Swift at Wembley Stadium, and I’ve never in my life been at a larger show with bigger more good-natured vibes to it. I was standing right down the front and genuinely found it all a bit emotionally overwhelming.

[Taylor Swift at Wembley Stadium – Folklore/Evermore era]

FAVOURITE PARAGRAPH IN MY MUSIC REVIEWS THIS YEAR: “Also if you are reading this, and you are the blue-haired guy who tried to insert yourself as the main character down the front during Whispering Sons, taking up all the front row with your ‘dancing’ and trying to hand Fenne a beer while they were singing etc, you are a fucking areshole who made the night worse for everyone around you, selfish fucking prick.”

MOST AWFUL MOMENT AT A GIG THIS YEAR: When I inserted myself as a main character by doing an encouraging “Whoop!” at a support act who immediately countered “What the fuck was that?”

BEST NEW MOVIE: I enjoyed Heretic, Anatomy of a Fall, Monster, Drive-Away Dolls and Janet Planet, but there were two movies this year I went to see multiple times.

Future cult classic I Saw The TV Glow “made me nostalgic for a TV show and 90’s teenage years I didn’t actually have” and has left me thinking about it nearly every single day months and months later.

[Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine in I Saw the TV Glow]

I also, in direct opposition to the critics and movie-going public, absolutely loved Joker: Folie à Deux and its bleak critique of relentless capitalism and ubiquitous fan entitlement.

BEST OLD MOVIE: Lost 1980s Irish folk horror tale The Outcasts which got a reissue/remaster this year.

BEST DOCUMENTARY: I recommend No Other Land, made by a collective of Palestinian and Israeli film-makers looking at a community struggling to stay on land farmed for generations by their families in the face of demolition orders from the Israeli government. Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara (2024) was also worth the time.

BEST CINEMA EXPERIENCE: Going to see Michael Cumming present Oxide Ghosts – The Brass Eye Tapes. No spoilers, but suffice to say if you have even a passing interest in Chris Morris this is a brilliant evening.

BEST QUIZ THAT I WROTE FOR THE GUARDIAN: A whole quiz about the Cure.

ARTICLE I WROTE FOR THE GUARDIAN THAT ANNOYED THE MOST NERDS IN 2024: The greatest Doctor Who – ranked!

MOST NOSTALGIC EXHIBITION: I had such a lovely day at the incredible Ladybird book exhibition in St Albans.

BEST TRANSPORT NERDERY: I spent a day travelling completely all the way around London on the new Superloop buses.

WORST FOOTBALL MOMENT: I was at London Seaward v Chatham Town when it was abandoned due to a sickening-looking injury to Seaward’s Beatrice Rogers. Fortunately she was fine in the end, but honest to god it happened right in front of me and I initially thought she must have broken her neck.

BEST FOOTBALL MOMENTS: An away day to Edgeley Park and watching Leyton Orient beat Stockport County 4-1 was tremendous fun in September, as was a 3-0 Orient victory down at Portsmouth‘s Fratton Park in January. It was also good to see Walthamstow FC’s youth team win the Essex Alliance Senior Division Cup at Brisbane Road against FC Baresi in April.

But nothing is going to top seeing on-loan from Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Josh Keeley score a 90+9th minute equaliser against Oldham Athletic in the FA Cup, and for Leyton Orient to then go on to notch a 120+1st minute winner.

BEST XMAS PRESENT THAT I BOUGHT MYSELF: The replica The Spectrum by Retro Games, an emulator of the first computer I ever had. There will be more to read about this in the new year, but in the meantime I am stuck on Eugene’s Lair in Manic Miner.

WEIRD NEW YEAR RESOLUTION FOR JANUARY: Continue blogging like it is 2005 and that somebody is actually reading all of this …