2017: a year in stats
January 17, 2018 Leave a comment
First of all, apologies to Sarah for the complete absence of infographics in this blog! I’m afraid all I can offer at this stage is some excel graphs.
Gigs attended: 19. This increase on recent years probably represents an attempt to cram in a few more before the arrival of my latest project deliverable.
Artists: 41
Gig of the year: Any year that contains gigs by Nick Cave and Kraftwerk is going to be a tough one to call. There were also a couple of blasts from the past in the form of Robert Forster and even the Sisters of Mercy, who were actually rather good. And, of course, the obligatory Men They Couldn’t Hang gig. For new bands though I’m going to go with the Darts at the Finsbury.
Although this was a great gig, the photos don’t really capture it so I’ll throw in a bonus Nick Cave photo to make up!
Books read: 26. This is down on previous years and is probably a result of an increased consumption of magazines this year. In particular, Electronic Sound, which has some splendid articles and has introduced me to all sorts of new music.
Books of the year: I seem to have read quite a few music books this year – from Robert Forster’s Grant and I to the Iggy Pop Open Up and Bleed biography, both of which were excellent. Viv Albertine’s Clothes, Music, Boys was probably the standout one though. On the non-music front, I really enjoyed His Bloody Project by Booker Prize winner Graeme Macrae Burnet. Thanks to Gill for putting me on to this one.
Tracks added to itunes: 962. This seems quite surprising to me. It may be to do with the arrival of the aforementioned Electronic Sound in my life. It may also be to do with an influx of Fall and Velvet Underground obscurities.
Album of the year: of the 962 tracks, not that many of them were actually from 2017. Good albums from this year included the Lea Porcelain album and the second Autobahn album. Both of these were also very good live.
Tracks of the year: Electronic Sound introduced me to things like Buzz Kull‘s “Into the Void” (classic Potterrow goth), Cold Cave’s “Glory” (pure 80s synthpop) and Wolf Shield‘s Residuum album (haunting electronica – I’m sure there must a new genre for such things). Track of the year though goes to Fews with “Metal” (classic post-punk). I also took the opportunity this year to update the songs that made my life playlist.
Countries visited: 5 (Cape Verde, Belgium, Georgia, Italy, San Marino)
New countries: 3 (Cape Verde, Georgia, San Marino). I suspect this number may not be very large in coming years, now that I’ve reached the magical target of 100 countries. Now I can go back to places and stay for more than 10 minutes.
Current total: 100! I’ve plotted the 100 over the years. You can see, from a start of 2 countries in 1979 (France and Spain), there were no new countries then until 1989 when I went inter-railing for the first time. Then there is another peak around 98/99 when I came back from Japan and a final push around 2012/13 to get me to towards 100.
David Bowie 7″ singles to go: 7/53. This is a new category for this year. In case you’re wondering I’m collecting a picture sleeve copy of each Bowie single from Space Oddity to White Light/White Heat. By my reckoning there are 53 of these and I have 7 left to get. Obviously, these are now the really pricey ones. However, I suspect the arrival of this book sometime later this year will change the 7 and the 53.
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