A Year in Music – 2024 – Tim Blanchard (Author)
by Killian Laher

How are you, what sort of year have you had?

I got my chance to speak to some legends in 2024 – at least, legends in some corners of the world. Grimmo, Nick and Hugh of the late, great Fatima Mansions; John of Trashcan Sinatras; Peter of The Apartments; Keith of Kitchenware Records; Neil of Prefab Sprout. Even the feller who played tambourine on Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. The best people.

Coincidentally, grimly, ironically, or however it should be described, I was putting together a chapter on Cathal Coughlan and his tragically early death from sarcoma occurred at the same time as needing a hospital procedure to check whether I had cancer myself. My wife went through something similar not long after. We’re both okay, and it’s the kind of experience that makes every year feel perfect anyway, just in itself.

What are the albums you enjoyed most this year?

Brian Wilson’s Smile. Took a long while to find a vinyl copy at a reasonable price, but one of those records that needs lots of repeat listens, and then you get the full weird majesty. Funny, epic, delightful, there’s something beautiful about the smallest of musical doodles on there.

For that hauntingly sunny, early 80s indie sound: Andy Pawlak’s In the Kitchen.

The soundtrack to Licorice Pizza, a brilliant Paul Thomas Anderson film with some great and some not-so-great Seventies music.

Microdisney – 39 Minutes.

The Apartments – In and Out of the Light.

Cathal Coughlan – The Sky’s Awful Blue / Black River Falls.

Is there any artist or album that defined the year for you?

I got hold of a copy of Against Nature after reading a review in the NME and was suddenly a big fan of the Fatima Mansions. Then Viva Dead Ponies came along and became my all-time favourite LP. But I’d still never listened to Microdisney, didn’t even know the singles – that’s just how it was then, I think we forget how difficult it was to check out different bands when you had very little money. So discovering Microdisney was this year’s thing, wondering how they could have passed me by and getting the back catalogue on vinyl.

Just as important has been getting into Cathal Coughlan’s solo material (the two albums mentioned above especially). Bitter melodies and dark, intelligent, caustic lyrics. A special voice, streaked with an aching sweetness. Cathal did dark beauty just as well as Tom Waits and Scott Walker, and deserves the same degree of cult worship.

Do you get to many gigs these days?

Not the big ones. And this year it was more a case of what I missed: Sister Sledge (trains stopped running); Ride (had to work); Michael Head and Red Elastic Band (forgot, and damn it, they were playing just a few miles away).

Do you think it will get to the stage where the ‘big concert’ is unaffordable for most of us?

Yes. And going to the big music events sometimes seems to be more about the social media shares (I was there!) than the music itself nowadays, a ‘best life’ kind of thing. Hopefully, the commercial upselling will mean we choose the smaller, local gigs instead. The free festivals in towns around where we live are a real mish-mash of bands and they’re great. There’s a whisky bar in Hitchin called the Angels’ Share where there’s regular live music, talented local people with just their guitar or keyboard, doing some covers and then some of their own stuff. They love the chance to perform, they’re really into the music and there’s a shared buzz. I know people loved seeing Taylor Swift, but for me, it’s still this cheap intimacy, rawness, sincerity, and the potential for the unexpected, that makes the magic of music happen.

What’s your reaction if Stairway To Heaven comes on the radio?

I fetch my air guitar because it’s a great chance to embarrass the boys with my sad Dadness.

Anything interesting in the works yourself?

Every time I come back to it, the idea sounds worse and worse: but I’m planning a novel about a bad snooker player.