End Of Year Polls: 2009 Inpress Writers' Poll

INPRESS WRITERS POLL 2009 - James McGalliard

TOP TEN ALBUMS
1. Deaths And Entrances MY LATEST NOVEL
2. Harem Scarem JOE GIDEON & THE SHARK
3. Two Dancers WILD BEASTS
4. Tarot Sport FUCK BUTTONS
5. Union THE BOXER REBELLION
6. Sun Gangs THE VEILS
7. Other Arms REDJETSON
8. The Bachelor PATRICK WOLF
9. Primary Colours THE HORRORS
10. Origin:Orphan THE HIDDEN CAMERAS
Just outside:
Love Songs For The Chemical Generation DANIEL LAND AND THE MODERN PAINTERS; 3-D SPC-ECO; Songs SONGS

TOP FIVE SONGS
1. Sea Of Regrets I LIKE TRAINS
2. Sun Gangs THE VEILS
3. I Declare A Ceasefire MY LATEST NOVEL
4. Sea Within A Sea THE HORRORS
5. Papillion EDITORS

TOP FIVE ARTISTS OF THE YEAR
1. Joe Gideon & The Shark
2. I Like Trains
3. My Latest Novel
4. The Boxer Rebellion
5. The Horrors

TOP FIVE INTERNATIONAL ARTIST GIGS
1. My Latest Novel @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester, UK
2. Joe Gideon & The Shark @ The Lexington, London, UK
3. I Like Trains @ Concorde 2, Brighton, UK
4. Edwyn Collins @ Assembly Hall, Edinburgh, UK
5. The Lotus Eaters @ Royal Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, UK

TOP FIVE AUSTRALIAN ARTIST GIGS
The Shiny Brights at The Great Escape in Brighton played the only gig in the UK by an Australian artist this year that I’d even mention in an end of year poll

TOP FIVE RADIO SHOWS/PODCASTS
1. Adam & Joe (BBC 6Music)
2. Marc Riley (BBC 6Music)
3. John Kennedy (XFM)
4. Steve Lamacq (BBC 6Music)
5. Gideon Coe (BBC 6Music)

TOP FIVE TV SHOWS
1. Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle (BBC Two)
2. In Treatment (HBO)
3. Misfits (E4)
4. Harry Hill’s TV Burp (ITV1)
=5. Battlestar Galactica (Sky 1)
=5. Generation Kill (HBO)

TOP FIVE ONLINE DESTINATIONS
1. Guardian Unlimited – guardian.co.uk - for Charlie Brooker if nothing else
2. BBC News – news.bbc.co.uk
3. Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org
4. Digital Spy – digitalspy.co.uk
5. Dan’s Media Digest – danowen.blogspot.com

THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES AWARD (MOST OVER-HYPED)
Lazy Galah (Lady Gaga)

THE HINDSIGHT AWARD (ALBUM THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN YOUR POLL LAST YEAR BUT WASN’T)
The Guilty Office – THE BATS; The Unruly Imagination – JULIAN COPE

HIGHLIGHT(S) OF THE YEAR
Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Charlie Brooker, reunions

QUOTE OF THE YEAR (DON’T FORGET THE SOURCE)
'I will call on my fully sick boys, eh'. And then they pulled out a gun and just went chk-chk-boom!" - Clare Werbeloff – Nine News May 17 2009

BEST MEDIA MOMENT
Kings Cross shooting video – as above. That and the whole HHIS blackface incident meant a lot of clarifications on the differences between British and Australian cultures were needed from me.

PREDICTIONS FOR 2010
Ride reformation leads to shoegaze going mainstream; debate over whether to call new decade ‘The Teens’; regime change; comedy goes viral.

TOP FIVE ALBUMS OF THE LAST DECADE
The trouble with the noughties was that we seemed to spend the whole decade looking backward, not forward. Pop was literally eating itself. So no! Can I give you five albums to look forward to in 2010 instead? No? Ah well then – Funeral by THE ARCADE FIRE then

TOP FIVE SONGS OF THE LAST DECADE
As above

MOST EMBARRASSING MARK LEFT BY HUMANITY ON THE LAST DECADE
Wars, greed and reality TV

IF THE NOUGHTIES WERE THE DECADE OF WASTING TIME SOCIAL NETWORKING, THE NEXT DECADE WILL BE KNOWN AS…
The decade of multiplatform slacktivivism AKA fiddling while Rome burns


© James McGalliard 2009