| 18–Oct–2019 |
TJR PRESENTS... TOP 10: THE SHANGRI-LAS  No contrived reason for this Top 10 going in today, other than a couple of Twitter pals might like it, and that's reason enough. |
| 17–Oct–2019 |
PLAYLISTS REDUX  Just a month after being introduced, the 'playlists' page @ TJR has been redesigned today, a bit less fussy and more to the point, whilst still retaining my, er, amateur website-building charm. Hopefully not too shabby on your device. |
| 16–Oct–2019 |
TJR PRESENTS... TOP 10: NICO  Christa Päffgen was born 81 years ago today. I explore an immense ten from an extra-ordinary talent, c/w 39 min playlist. |
| 15–Oct–2019 |
TJR PRESENTS... TOP 10: THE UNDERTONES  Might as well make a day of it to mark the 15th anniversary of Peel's last on-air record. This 10-of-the-best sounds terrific, tho I shall understand if you want to skip that overplayed one. |
| 14–Oct–2019 |
TJR PRESENTS... TOP 10: THE SPECIALS  With the debut LP having just turned 40, I compile my Specials Top 10, from 207 collection entries. |
| 13–Oct–2019 |
TJR PRESENTS... TOP 10: JOHN PRINE  Celebrated his 73rd birthday this week, I do enjoy many of his doleful melodramas and his trademark dry humour. Greatness oozes from the ten here. |
| 12–Oct–2019 |
TJR PRESENTS... TOP 10: JOHN LENNON  Another best-of playlist going in today, spotlight on John Lennon, born in this week, 79 years ago. 82 collection entries whittled down to just 10. |
| 11–Oct–2019 |
TJR PRESENTS... TOP 10: EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN  Happy birthday Alexander Hacke, 54 today! Just the excuse I need for another best-of playlist; 158 collection entries whittled down to just 10. |
| 10–Oct–2019 |
TJR PRESENTS... TOP 10: MAHOTELLA QUEENS  Team Mahotella have one of the richest catalogues the world hasn't heard. Yebo! |
| 07–Oct–2019 |
TJR PRESENTS... TOP 10: BOB MARLEY  Celebrating the undisputed King of Reggae, the feature with playlist is now published @ TJR. |
| 04–Oct–2019 |
TJR PRESENTS... TOP 10: THE FALL  My celebration of a group quite like no other, and a law unto themselves. 1,183 collection entries whittled down to just 10. Strictly personal, no-one will agree, but that's ok. |
| 02–Oct–2019 |
TJR PRESENTS... TOP 10: THE ROLLING STONES  And so it is done. 285 collection entries whittled down to a Top 10, a terrific 35 minute playlist I think. |
| 30–Sep–2019 |
TJR PRESENTS... TOP 10: THE BEATLES  Here's my own Top 10, the first of a series @ TJR which will end up with hundreds of artist's featured. There's some brief commentary with my rundown and playlists are shared on both YouTube and Spotify. |
| 23–Sep–2019 |
TJR PRESENTS… THE GOOD YOU DO LIVES AFTER YOU  My 81 track mixtape for Peelie gets a dedicated / permanent page @ TJR today, and I've added a Spotify playlist option too (albeit limited). Research tells me Muddy Waters s/be 1947, and therefore Esmereldy is newly introduced for 1948. |
| 20–Sep–2019 |
TJR PRESENTS… REBEL TABLETS  Another dedicated playlist page going in @ TJR today. With a runtime of just over 5hrs, it features the ultimate Jukebox Pick from 67 different genres; the “Rebel Tablets”. Now that's what I call biblical. p.s. It's on YouTube AND Spotify. |
| 20–Sep–2019 |
THE JUKEBOX REBEL JOINS SPOTIFY   The Jukebox Rebel's now on Spotify, blimey. Stand by for action! Could do with having a few followers… |
| 18–Sep–2019 |
TJR PRESENTS… FABRIQUÉ EN FRANCE: 130 CHANSONS  My nr. 10hr playlist made in Nov' 15, celebrating the French alternative music scene is now a fully featured page @ TJR. Pour mes Rock n Roll frères et sœurs en France. Solidarité de l'Ecosse. |
| 18–Sep–2019 |
PLAYLISTS  A new top-navigation category had been added @ TJR this afternoon: playlists. No new work per ce, but it's a foundation stone for future developments. A few dedicate playlist pages to be added in the next day or two, incl. the recent Peel tribute. |
| 12–Sep–2019 |
ARTIST A-Z CONTINUES TO BUILD  Hyperlinks have been added for 391 artist pages in the last few days, now 700 linked in. Basically, covering all artists with an album reviewed between the years 1939-1981 so far. Some 2,500 to go, still early days... |
| 12–Sep–2019 |
NEW HOMEPAGE  My website home page is changed today, now incorporating two feeds from this Twitter account; one to report new website articles/developments: tiny.cc/TJRnews and one to include my new tunes blog posts only: tiny.cc/tlgr . It'll do for now. |
| 12–Sep–2019 |
NEW TWITTER TIMELINES FOR BLOG POSTS  My blog 'the last great record' now has a dedicated Twitter feed: tiny.cc/tlgr which basically curates my posts in order. You'll see this link at the top of every blog post from now on. |
| 10–Sep–2019 |
1981 – WHA’PPEN BIRMINGHAM?  The Album Chart of 1981 is published today, complete with reviews, ratings and track picks. In comparison to recent years, it's not the strongest year for Jamaican Reggae, and the death of Bob Marley in May, aged 36, is a monumental loss to the world ...more → |
| 23–Aug–2019 |
THE GOOD YOU DO LIVES AFTER YOU  John Peel would've been 80 next Friday, 30-Aug. I celebrate his phenomenal musical legacy via this permanent YouTube-bound playlist, selecting one Peel-flavoured cut from every year, 1939 'til forever. Add your Peel faves, enjoy, smile, remember, live on, #keepingitpeel! |
| 28–Jul–2019 |
ALBUM CHART OF THE DECADE: 1970S  THE BIG BANG, THE POWER SHIFT & THE NOBLE PUNKS: Betraying the counterculture spirit of '67, the first half of the seventies was found wanting when it came to measuring the strength-in-depth of the fresh, exciting and innovative music to chall ...more → |
| 26–Jul–2019 |
TRIPBEAT  An overview of the Tripbeat genre, including best song, best artists and written definition. A genre tag which is completely concerned with the beat which, as far as I hear it, stutters, drags and trips in slow to mid-tempo BPMs. I use the term Tripb ...more → |
| 26–Jul–2019 |
TRANCE ROCK  An overview of the Trance Rock genre, including best song, best artists and written definition. Not to be confused with Trance in the realms of techno music, which is either tagged as Alternative Dance or Club. Trance Rock tracks are hypnotic and rep ...more → |
| 14–Jul–2019 |
TRADITIONAL BAND  An overview of the Traditional Band genre, including best song, best artists and written definition. Including all the pieces played by the traditional brass bands, military bands, marching bands and pipe bands, excepting bands who play in primary ge ...more → |
| 14–Jul–2019 |
STORYTELLING  An overview of the Storytelling genre, including best song, best artists and written definition. Where spoken word storytelling (as nicely defined in Wikipedia below) is the foremost aspect of the piece, which may, or may not, include incidental effe ...more → |
| 14–Jul–2019 |
SPEEDCORE  An overview of the Speedcore genre, including best song, best artists and written definition. Speedcore justifies its own tag due to the distinctly un-danceable nature of the extreme 300 BPM to 1000BPM productions. The related Techno sub-genres of Ga ...more → |
| 14–Jul–2019 |
SPEECH / CHAT  An overview of the Speech / Chat genre, including best song, best artists and written definition. It's where the speech or conversation from one or more person(s) is the foremost aspect of the piece, whether or not any backing music is included. Typi ...more → |
| 06–Jul–2019 |
SOUL BALLAD  An overview of the Soul Ballad genre, including best song, best artists and written definition. The slow-tempo variant of the Soul genre tag, usually, though not always, sentimental in nature. Of course any music which is played with feeling could be ...more → |
| 05–Jul–2019 |
SOUL  An overview of the Soul genre, including best song, best artists and written definition. Of course any music which is played with feeling could be deemed soul music by the literal definition, but let's not complicate things! My interpretation is that ...more → |
| 04–Jul–2019 |
SONGWRITER  An overview of the Songwriter genre, including best song, best artists and written definition. Where the style is non-genre specific, and the focus tends to be on the singer and the lyrics at the front and centre of the piece. Instrumentation is not ...more → |
| 25–Jun–2019 |
SOFT ROCK / A.O.R.  An overview of the Soft Rock / A.O.R. genre, including best song, best artists and written definition. Unlike the Wikipedia definition, I don't tend to include the likes of the Carpenters or Barry Manilow as Soft Rock. They're much more suited to Cro ...more → |
| 22–Jun–2019 |
SKETCH / SKIT  An overview of the Sketch / Skit genre, including best song, best artists and written definition. I define a piece as a Sketch where an acted-out scenario is the primary focus, and music, if there is any at all, is incidental. Sketches may, or may no ...more → |
| 20–Jun–2019 |
SKA / ROCKSTEADY  An overview of the Ska / Rocksteady genre, including best song, best artists and written definition. Jamaica's Ska music emerged in the early 1960s, re-accenting American Rhythm n Blues with motifs from Jamaican mento. Ska is neatly described on Wiki ...more → |
| 15–Jun–2019 |
ROCK N ROLL BALLAD  An overview of the Rock n Roll Ballad genre, including best song, best artists and written definition. There's no identifiable Wikipedia page for the Rock n Roll Ballad, nor do I see any recognition of the term by musicologists. However, it seems lik ...more → |
| 14–Jun–2019 |
ROCK N ROLL / ROCKABILLY  An overview of the Rock n Roll / Rockabilly genre, including best song, best artists and written definition. The grandparents of punk, Rockabilly and Rock n Roll are so closely related that it makes sense to me that they stay together as one (the les ...more → |
| 13–Jun–2019 |
ROCK  An overview of the Rock genre, including best song, best artists and written definition. To my mind the Rock genre began when the electric blues groups decided to bury the blues at the expense of mechanical riffs and extended guitar solos. As I inter ...more → |
| 12–Jun–2019 |
REGGAE  An overview of the Reggae genre, including best song, best artists and written definition. Jamaica's great gift to the world was born in 1968 when the musicians started messing with the rocksteady template, losing the backbeat, rounding the sound out ...more → |