My Random Music

Best 5: Carl Carlton - She's A Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked) Electric Light Orchestra - Hold On Tight UB40 - One In Ten Genesis - Abacab Ultravox - The Thin Wall Worst: The Pointer Sisters - Slow Hand

I wouldn't put the Puff Daddy or LL Cool J records that far down but I can't say I particularly like either and that formula of rapped verses and 80s choruses sang by somebody else got very tired very quickly. I do like "I Believe I Can Fly" but all 3 of those records got to number one for non-music reasons.

Good shout to the above poster on Third World, I'm going to vote for it too. Top 5: Third World - Dancing On The Floor (Hooked On Love) Dead Kennedy's - Too Drunk To f*** Specials - Ghost Town Tom Tom Club - Wordy Rappinghood Depeche Mode - New Life Worst: Elaine Paige - Memory

There were some great records in 1996 but very few of them got to number one. I've not take a proper look at the list before, most of those records are dreadful. My Top 3 would be "Breathe" by The Prodigy, "Setting Sun" by Chemical Brothers and "Ready Or Not" by Fugees. I've never been able to get into Oasis which is a bit of a shame because I often find myself nodding and agreeing with what Noel Gallagher has to say. One factor is that I find their music too slow.

It depends how you would define an artist you listened to in your late teens/early 20s. When I was that age I had a huge list of CDs I wanted but only a limited budget to buy them with so for example Leftfield have only just become part of my music collection but would of been part of it in the 90s if I had limitless funds. I still see it as music of my youth though because it was music I was very much into at the time. Going with the music I was into definition, most of my teens were spent listening to nothing but rave but then I opened myself up to other genres and by my early 20s I was into all sorts of music. Most of the artists that I've got into since are older music acts such as Roxy Music and ELO. I did however go through a phase in my late 20s of getting into new music because I still felt too young to be just listening to the old stuff. The last new music act I got into was Fenech Soler when I was just about still in my 20s.

The 5 best: The Clash - The Magnificent Seven Freeez - Flying High The Undertones - It's Going To Happen! Kraftwerk - Pocket Calculator Squeeze - Is That Love The worst: Hazel O'Connor - Will You

I also cannot stand "Wannabe" or the Spice Girls in general. Not only was the music terrible but I also hated that girl power nonsense when in reality they were assembled by a male and all their singles were written by men. At the same time we had a genuinely talented female musician in Sister Bliss from Faithless yet even today few people seem to realise there's a female behind their music.

My Top 5: Kool And The Gang - Summer Madness Visage - Mind Of A Toy New Order - Ceremony Public Image Ltd - Flowers Of Romance John Lennon - Watching The Wheels Worst: Kim Wilde - Kids In America Tiebreak: Ultravox - Vienna

I agree that all of those 3 number ones are terrible and would certainly come near the bottom of my list. I'd say the Gary Barlow one is the worst of those. However my bottom 3 would have to be the 3 Spice Girls number ones with "Wannabe" down the bottom.

I see everybody so far has voted for Ultravox, Visage and Talking Heads. I'm about to do the same: Ultravox - Vienna Visage - Fade To Grey Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime Roxy Music - Jealous Guy Dire Straits - Romeo & Juliet Worst: Honey Bane - Turn Me On, Turn Me Off

I'm not signed up to any loyalty schemes for that very reason. I did experience having to show ID when purchasing beer when I was younger but now I'm well into my 40s so in the unlikely event that will happen again I will take my custom somewhere else. By paying in cash the banks don't even see where I'm spending my money.

The original comment I responded to was "who CARES that you bought 2 packets of chocolate digestives this week" which in turn was a response to a comment that included "only those that likely have something to hide are so up in arms about it". My point is that buying a packet of biscuits is nothing to hide but I wouldn't want a permanent record of me buying a packet of biscuits because what I buy is nobody else's business.

OK other shoppers in the supermarket can see what's in my trolley but I wouldn't want them to know what I buy every time I go to the shop. The point is my day to day activities aren't a secret but I like my privacy and don't want a record of what my day to day activities are.

It's not just knowing you once bought a packet of biscuits though. When I go to a restaurant everybody in that restaurant can clearly seeing what I'm having for my dinner and I'm fine with that. However if everybody in that restaurant suddenly knew what I'd be having for my dinner at home every day I wouldn't be comfortable with that. Quite frankly what I do in the privacy of my own home whether it's what I'm having for dinner or something else is nobody else's business.

I'm one of those who signed the petition. I'm aware that businesses already have ways of stalking you by simply having a bank account, phone etc. but I always do what I can to maintain my privacy. I have no apps on my phone, I've never scanned a QR code and the only time I use the internet on my phone is to check the tube/train statuses. On my computer I clear my cookies after visiting each website. The only social media I use is Twitter and I only tweet about music. I use cash for my day to day purposes and utilise my bank branch which is fortunately still there. I know not everyone goes to the same extent I do but I do think there's still many of us against technology being forced upon us. A couple of days ago I was in a queue at the shop with one manned till and every single person making a purchase was in that queue whilst a number of card only self checkouts were available and not being used.

I've never lived through a better year than 1995 for both music and other things. I'll concede that Robson & Jerome were awful but nowhere near as bad as most pop music you get these days. The Outhere Brothers though were brilliant. Hearing them just makes me want to get a time machine back to 1995 and "Boom Boom Boom" was the soundtrack to that hot summer.

When I was younger I went through a phase of being a big Alisha's Attic fan and I recently made a blog post about why https://myrandommusicblog.blogspot.com/2025/08/why-alishas-attic.html Basically they were the first all female act I ever bought music by and they were in the unique position of making music I liked and being attractive.

I didn't put words in your mouth. I ask you to clarify whether that was what you were implying and you've more or less just confirmed that, My political views don't align with any of the main parties. They all have policies I'm completely against.

Let me get this straight, you think Tory voters are also evil or stupid? If so then combined with Reform voters that's 11 million voters, or nearly a quarter of all people eligible to vote. I can't see anywhere I have defended Reform themselves. I don't see how merely stating there are Reform voters who are decent human beings means my political opinions are screaming at you.

There's a difference between the Reform party and a Reform voter. Like I said you generally have a choice of 5 parties to vote for and for some none of those options are appealing. If you think Reform are evil then fine, but one may think all 5 options are evil and see Reform as picking their poison. Doesn't make them evil too. I've not once stated what my political opinions are. You're just making assumptions about me. To quote part of your previous post "The talking down of big infrastructure projects that Labour are doing or are considering, northern transport as above", I'm saying that there are transport projects where people have their homes destroyed to build a train line and it's quite possible somebody affected would vote for Reform for that reason alone.

I know very well the sort of money political parties put into their campaigns to get people to vote for them at the elections and yes there are obviously external factors that help us form our opinions. The issue I had in the example of the EU referendum was that those who wanted to remain would say everything about remaining is good and everything about leaving is bad, and vice versa. I never once heard anyone in the media say what the pros and cons were for both sides. A lot of what I'm reading on here is that Reform voters are stupid, deserve no respect, they're being conned, they don't know what they're voting for, they're racist and only want to stop immigration. I completely agree that you can't tar all immigrants with the same brush but at the same time you can't tar all Reform voters with the same brush either. On the subject of transport infrastructure projects, if there was a proposed project that meant demolishing my home to make way for a railway line and just 1 party proposed to scrap the project then that party would almost be guaranteed my vote regardless of who they are.

I recall it being widely assumed that we'd vote to stay in the EU prior to the referendum but we didn't. Assuming the statement that a comfortable majority now think leaving the EU was a terrible idea is true the fact is we've seen the exponential growth of a party born out of Brexit. Yes people do change their minds but that works in both directions and yes it may no longer be ones primary concern but are that many people really going to vote for a party who are going to do the complete opposite of what they'd previously voted for. I said over half the voters voted to leave and naturally that doesn't include those who were ineligible to vote or indeed those who chose not to vote. Yes the media do play their part and in the case of the EU referendum the issue was most sources were just telling you which way to vote rather than present the pros and cons of both sides. At the end of the day nobody is right or wrong to vote for any party. Yes I have my own views and opinions on things but nobody is going to tell me how to vote and I'm never going to tell anyone else how to vote and I'm certainly not going to judge somebody for voting for a party I'm not going to vote for.

A couple of quotes from recent posts - "I have zero respect for anyone who supports Reform in any way shape or form" and "I'm hoping there are enough non-stupid people to stop the madness". You're entitled to your opinion but you're not going to stop someone from voting for Reform by calling them stupid or saying you have zero respect for them. The fact is over half the voters voted to leave the EU. With those sorts of numbers you can't say every leave voter is a certain type of person. We all know people who voted out whether we know about it or not and not everybody has the same reasons. I even know people who originally come from EU countries who voted out. Then there's the general opinion that the Conservatives did a terrible job and Labour are doing no better so something needs to change. Aside from those 2 parties there's only 3 other options in many areas of the country. There's the Liberal Democrats and the Greens who say we will rejoin the EU if they get in which is hardly an incentive for those who wanted to leave. Then you're left with Reform. I'm not suggesting it's the only option but it's easy to see why one may think it's their only option. It doesn't make them a bad person.

I too am very fond of 1995 music. This is what I made from the Top 30 of that particular chart https://myrandommusicblog.blogspot.com/2023/08/top-30-in-1995-reviewed-week-34.html

There seems to be the assumption that the only reason someone votes for Reform is because they want to stop immigration and that they don't know what they're really voting for. Sure some people do fit that category but different people have different reasons for voting for a given party. You will also have those who know exactly what they're voting for and those who don't whether they vote Reform or someone else.