Apologies for the crass plug but London readers might be interested in the next rock/literature crossover event Klüb Gütenberg this Monday 5 December at The Old Queen’s Head, 44 Essex Road, London N1 8LN.

Klüb Gütenberg is a new monthly night of words and music co-hosted by Rough Trade Books and the Quietus website. The supporting features on 5 December are wild and varied:

The Modern Ovens: Members of British Sea Power, the Brakes and the Tenderfoot with a heartfelt tribute to the songs, style and ice-cream fixations of Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers.

Professor Tim Birkhead: Star of the recent BBC TV series Birds Britannica with a compelling talk on birds and sex – from the sluttish hedge sparrer to the sex-criminal mallard duck.

Andrew Harrison on the rock/food/nexus: After a bravura performance at last month’s Klüb G, Andrew returns with his audio-visual talk based on his book Love Music Love Food: The Rock Star Cookbook. Siouxsie Sioux and Brian May both feature – alongside British Sea Power. NB! BSP-customised copies of the book will be available for purchase.

PLUS!The 5 December edition of Klüb G will open with Roy Wilkinson reading from his family/rock/forestry memoir Do It For Your Mum.

Tickets £8 in advance and £10 on the night: www.wegottickets.com/event/142713

Some years ago I worked with a German girl called Petra who, I subsequently discovered, was the voice that says "Mmm skyscraper I love you" on the Underworld track of the same name.

A few years later, in another job, a different colleague's partner turned out to be the owner of the Japanese voice which talks about "Snake fighting… very dangerous" and similar on 'King of Snake' by Underworld (again).

Similar experiences, anyone? Vocal samples have been turning up on records for at least a quarter of a century now. Surely WORD readers must have friends or relatives who've donated their distinct vocal character to a record or two? Special marks if you can claim "Check it out now... the funk soul brother" or "You're rendering that scaffolding dangerous".

Smiley shirts, pirate eye-patches and "Mrs Mills" at the ready. Continuing the random theme of Spotify Friday, today we alight on the annus mirabilis that was 1988. Click on the link to launch Spotify and add your favourites from the year the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan, Rain Man won three Oscars and the whole Satanic Verses thing kicked off.

THE RULES
1] One track at a time. Please don't dump entire albums on there. We will only delete them.
2] Please bear your fellow listeners in mind and don't foist your "difficult" favourites, obscure b-sides or 28-minute cosmic freakouts on them.

We're building a year-by-year database of the best music as chosen by the WORD massive. The 1975 list is now closed to new additions but we will be doing other years at random in the weeks to come.

In the meantime - what's the worst year for pop music? I'm voting for 1992.

Following the grand success of the marathon that was Spotify The Noughties, we have caved to popular demand and are carrying on with a random year every Friday. Today it's 1975. Click on this link to launch the Spotify playlist for that year and add your favourite songs from that year (WARNING: Spotify is worryingly light on Slade but we can't do anything about that, sadly).

The rules, as ever, are:
1] One track at a time. Don't dump whole albums on there. We will only delete them.
2] Keep it listener-friendly. This is not the place to add loads of obscure b-sides, 28-minute jams or challenging jazz odysseys.

The plan is to do a new, random year each week and build up a giant repository of quality music for the entire rock and roll era. God knows how we'll deal with 1956 but we'll deal with that when we come to it. Off you go!

Well, that's it - let the tickertape fall and the highlights clip roll for we have finished the marathon that is Spotify The Noughties. Click here for the final collaborative playlist of this decade, the 2009 playlist link, and add your favourite tracks from this year. You will be helping to complete the greatest project in popular historiography since the Blue Peter Time capsule.

What shall we do next week? Moves are afoot to choose years at random from the 50-odd year history of rock and roll and have the WORD massive choose a list from there. Let us know if you fancy it, or if you have other ideas, in the comments box below.

THE RULES, ONE LAST TIME
1] One track at a time please, and no complete albums or strings of tracks from the same artist. We reserve the right to nip and tuck.
2] Keep it to music you honestly think is great. This isn't the place to plug obscurities or your mates' bands.

We will be playing the list in the office and you can keep tabs on us at our Last.fm page. The lists for 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001 and 2000 are now closed to new entries but are of course playable (you can copy them into a new playlist and edit them to your own specifications too). And when we get round to it, we will crunch the lot into a giant Large Hadron Collider-style Best of the Decade list.

We're heading towards the home strait in the gala Blue Peter time capsule project that is Spotify The Noughties. Today it's the year 2007 and we invite the learned contributions of the WORD Massive. Click on the 2007 playlist link to open Spotify and add your favourite tracks from the year that H5N1 turned up at a Bernard Matthews turkey farm, Live 8 took place and the final Harry Potter book came out.

THE RULES OF THE GAME
1] One track at a time please, and no complete albums or strings of tracks from the same artist. We reserve the right to nip and tuck.
2] Keep it to music you honestly think is great. This isn't the place to plug obscurities or your mates' bands.
3] As ever, no Stereophonics.

We will be playing the list in the office and you can keep tabs on us at our Last.fm page. The lists for 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001 and 2000 are now closed to new entries but are of course playable (you can copy them into a new playlist and edit them to your own specifications too). And if you want to suggest new additions to Web Fraser's ever-evolving portrait of the Stars of the Noughties above, then please let us know in the comment boxes below.

Our epic collaborative project to choose the best songs of the entire decade reaches the year 2006. You know the score by now. Click on the 2006 playlist link to open Spotify and add your favourite tracks from the year that gave us Casino Royale, PlayStation 3 and the Wii, and death of Ahmet Ertegun.

THE RULES OF THE GAME
1] One track at a time please, and no complete albums or strings of tracks from the same artist. We reserve the right to nip and tuck.
2] Keep it to music you honestly think is great. This isn't the place to plug obscurities or your mates' bands.
3] No Stereophonics.

We will be playing the list in the office and you can keep tabs on us at our Last.fm page. The lists for 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001 and 2000 are now closed to new entries but are of course playable (you can copy them into a new playlist and edit them to your own specifications too). And if you want to suggest new additions to Web Fraser's ever-evolving portrait of the Stars of the Noughties above, then please do so below.

There he is, on the left in a red tie, playing keyboards and dancing to give Peter Mandelson nightmares. "Lead us not into temptation" might have been a better watchword for the last twelve years than "prudence" .

SPOTIFY THE NOUGHTIES
We've reached the half-way mark in THE WORD's grand project to create the ultimate playlist for the current decade - time to do the year 2005. We've started it with two songs featuring the words "push the button" – which may mean something or may not. Now it's your turn. Choose your favourite songs from the year that Pope John Paul II went to meet St Peter, Liverpool won the European Cup for the fifth time in the greatest game of football ever played, Atomic Kitten split up and, amazingly, a load of other stuff happened too. Then click on the 2005 playlist link and add them. Couldn't be easier. Except the first Arctic Monkeys and Arcade Fire albums aren't on Spotify. Oh well, what are you going to do?

THE RULES OF THE GAME
1] One track at a time please, and no complete albums. We reserve the right to nip and tuck.
2] Keep it to music you honestly think is great. This isn't the place to plug obscurities or your mates' bands.
3] Those are all the rules we can think of right now.

We have a new computer in the office so we can play the 2005 list as nature intended. The lists for 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001 and 2000 are now closed to new entries but you can play them to your heart's content. And if you would like to suggest new additions to Web Fraser's lovely evolving portrait of the Stars of the Noughties above, please do so below.

My friend Mat brokered the deal between Groove Armada and Bacardi that got everyone wondering how music and the arts would be funded in the future. Will the cash have to come from large corporations, much as popes and dukes paid for all those lovely cathedral ceilings in days gone by? We have just launched a blog to explore these ideas – none of it constitutes The Word's official position on these matters, but we hope you will have a look and think about it. It's called Culture Karma because we think that karma is a better model for the future of the relationship between art and commerce than just slapping a logo on and hoping for the best. Please let us know what you think.

In other blog news: Our own Joe Muggs is involved with this new project which aims to give a home to the sort of reviews that used to appear on the arts pages of newspapers. It's called The Arts Desk and it's very good.

SPOTIFY THE NOUGHTIES
In THE WORD's grand Spotify the Noughties project, 2004 is upon us. Choose your favourite songs from the year that Facebook was founded, Arsenal completed an unbeaten season, Johnny Ramone died and the traditional bunch of other stuff happened. Then click on the 2004 playlist link and add them. Couldn't be easier.

THE RULES OF THE GAME
1] One track at a time please, and no complete albums. We reserve the right to nip and tuck.
2] Keep it to music you honestly think is great. This isn't the place to plug obscurities or your mates' bands.
3] And that's it.

The lists for 2003, 2002, 2001 and 2000 are now closed to new entries but you can play them to your heart's content. Take it away, WORD Hive Mind…

After the grand exercise in participatory democracy and the opening of canned worms that was yesterday's Good Songs by Bad Bands playlist, we return to the task of Spotifying the entire present decade with the year 2003.

Click on this link to open the 2003 list and add your own favourite tracks from the year that Bob Hope died, Mick Jagger got knighted, England became world rugby champions and a load of other stuff happened.

THE RULES, SUCH AS THEY ARE:
1] Add one track at a time, not whole albums. We'll just delete them.
2] Please add only tracks that you think are genuinely good and worth a listen. This is not the place to try to push your mate's band or wow the world with astonishing obscurities.
3] That is pretty much it.

Sadly we are once again bereft of a working Mac that's within lead-length of the stereo so we can't play this week's list in the office, but you can. And you can also play the lists for 2002, 2001 and 2000 which are now closed to new additions but very good all the same. Have fun and let us know what you think below.

Today THE WORD's grand project to compile the best music from each year of the decade that's about to end reaches the year 2002. Open up our 2002 Spotify Playlist and add your choices. It builds week after week into a huge resource of knowledge that all the family can enjoy (part two free with part one, leather-effect ring binders available).

As seasoned Spotifiers know, the rules are simple:
1] Add only one track at a time, not whole albums - we'll only have to delete them.
2] Keep it to tracks that you genuinely like, and that you think other readers will enjoy. Please don't put your mates' bands on, or add obscurities for obscurity's sake.
3] And er that's it.

We're taking an elastic approach to timing, so if a record was released in 2001 or 2003 but made its real impact in 2002, it's allowed on the list. We'll be doing a little delicate pruning during the day but nothing too painful.

The playlists for the year 2000 and 2001 are now closed to new additions but you can play them at will. And so can we, because we've got a new Spotify machine to replace the one that died. Hurrah! Now, get to it, o great collective WORD mind.

If this month's cover story has piqued your interest in Wayne Coyne and his band, we've compiled a short Spotify playlist of songs from before they became big, one or two favourites and the odd obscurity. Less is more, so it's a compact and bijou twelve tracks long. We hope you like it.

Click here for our guide to the music of The Flaming Lips.

Grand historical project continues! We – by which I mean you – are building a Spotify Friday playlist featuring the best tunes from each year of the decade that's about to end. Today it's the year 2001 so click on the link and add your own selections to the wisdom of the WORD Hive Mind. The idea is that by the end of November, we can crunch each of the individual lists into one enormous playlist of the best of the entire decade.

The rules, as seasoned Spotify Friday contributors know, are very simple:
1] Add just one song at a time, not entire albums. We'll only delete them.
2] Please don't add hobby-horse acts or your mate's band. We're after genuine good stuff that everyone can enjoy. We're trusting you on this one.
3] There are no further rules.

Last week's Year 2000 playlist is now closed to further additions, but you can open and play it, and send it to friends.

Unfortunately, our Spotify machine has died of a fatal logic board condition, so we won't be able to play the new list in the office as we usually do. But we will be watching it with great interest, and you can of course play it yourself.

More information on Spotify here. Free Spotify accounts are invite-only at the moment but if you need one, we have a few spare invitations. Mail me and I'll try to sort you out.