The Hold Steady – Sequestered in Memphis (2008)

Just a relentlessly wonderful track.

Setting the standards only ever later achieved by Gaslight Anthem, the Hold Steady are just perfect 21st century punk rock.

The fact that I still have more hair than the singer is a source of cheap satisfaction for someone with the merest fingerhold on credibility ….

Live in the studio, CD version then live on Jools Holland. Every version is stupendous!

In barlight, she looked alright

In daylight, she looked desperate

……

Subpoenaed in Texas

Sequestered in Memphis

Grinderswitch – Pickin’ The Blues (1975)

For people of a certain age, this piece of music was the gateway to another world – the theme tune to the John Peel Show of the late 1970s.

As the decadence of modern living relentlessly squeezes quality and originality out of the life blood of civilisation, sit back and enjoy this. It will never happen again. See you at the barricades between life and death.

As John Cooper Clarke observed: “this is the way the world will end; not with a bang but with a Wimpy”