That's Entertainment : 2015

That's Entertainment : 2015

Okay, so it’s almost Christmas.  Which means the year is almost over.  Which means that the year has hurtled by at a million miles an hour.  It’s gone…in a blink of an eye.  And this time of year always gets me pondering the past and the future.  

I’d like to think I’ve done something meaningful with 2015.  Can’t say I succeeded.  Oh, maybe I did…just a smidgen.  

It wasn’t all beer and skittles.  Along the way music lost a couple of shining stars when Ben E King, BB King and Scott Weiland (of Stone Temple Pilots) passed on.  Other’s to leave us included: Motorhead’s Phil “Filthy” Taylor; Percy Sledge (When A Man Loves A Woman singer); Cilla Black and Lynn Anderson; Chris Squire of YES; Gary Richrath (formerly of REO Speedwagon [their peak years]; that sexy thing Errol Brown (Hot Chocolate singer); Lesley Gore (It’s My Party singer); and Steve Strange.  Even Lee’s grandfather left us with a song in his heart - a single cassette tape recording of his warm rendition of Because of You with a fond farewell coda that had his mourners simultaneously laughing and crying.  

On the flip side, there were plenty of wonderful releases in 2015.  

For mine, I can’t go past the pop wonder that was Walk The Moon with their second album Talking Is Hard which is chock full of toe tapping, dance floor filling, shouty pop rock numbers that will leave you with the biggest smile on your dial.  Their US #1 hit Shut Up And Dance along with it’s video, have quickly become one of my favourite all time songs and seeing them live in early September was one of those great nights out, so much so, as soon as tickets went on sale for their return shows in January became available, I snapped them up.

Another great album by an Aussie act was Atlas Genius with their album Inanimate Objects.  Another indie album of great songs, these guys really have the world at their feet and I can say that I reckon they’ll be ruling the world in the next 5 years along with Walk The Moon.

Saddest release of the year was Perth’s Emperors who recorded and released their new album Chupacabra then broke up.  Sigh.  

There were releases from old timers - Duran Duran, A-Ha, Everclear, Def Leppard.  Death Cab For Cutie released their latest gloom pop masterpiece and The Wombats were held off #1 on the charts with their 3rd LP, Glitterbug (by none other than Lee Kernaghan and his cash in, kerching album for the 100th Anniversary of the ANZACs).  Something new from Wolf Alice, Everything Everything and Tear Council and Bloc Party dropped their lead in single for their next album sounding nothing like they used to but winning me over in the process with the guts to do something different and unexpected.  And of course, there were 20th Anniversary celebrations for Garbage, Foo Fighters, Everclear, Smashing Pumpkins…hell, everything I grew up with now getting the remastered midas touch.  I am getting old.

And here’s the proof.  1985…

1985 was the year I started my own musical journey.  This was the year I got my first tapes and religiously watched music television.  It was the year of A-Ha, Wham!, Madonna, REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, Dire Straits, Starship, Phil Collins, Bryan Adams, Tears For Fears, Simple Minds, John Parr and Huey Lewis and the News.  It seems like only a heartbeat ago, but it’s 30 years.  I think it’s still fresh and new but I’m guessing, really, it’s old and dated.  In 1985, if someone had said to me to listen to stuff from 1955, I’d have run screaming to the hills so I’m sure right now, in 2015, when I tell people younger than me about 1985, I must be that sad old fogey who listens to that poxy s#ite from so so long ago.  I laugh to think that some of the school teachers Alex and Zach have were born when I was listening to Ratcat or early Stone Temple Pilots in the early 1990’s, and they could care less or have NFI, so what does it say about my own kids?  Well, a good song will always be a good song.  So they’ll get a well rounded pop music education ha!

But 1985 was the year of Back to the Future, and 2015 was the future.  Oct 21, 2015 was way way way in to the future.  For a day this year, it was the present.  And ever so quickly, it has merged in to the past.  That 9 year old boy is nearly 40.  And he often asks himself where the hell did that time go?  Oh I know.  It’s been spent listening to songs and albums that have amassed from a single cassette tape of the Ghostbusters soundtrack in to a spare room filled with 6000 CDs.  I’d like to think I’ll never get Alzheimer’s because I have a memory attached to every song I’ve ever listened to and I hate to forget it all.  But as long as there’s a song in my heart, I’m sure I’ll be able to hum along.

So Merry Christmas one and all.  Or Happy Hanukkah.  And Happy Festivus!  Here’s to a great 2016!