Surprised to hear that goatboy ... the new album is their best for a while, I think, and looking forward to seeing them live.
How was the Wickerman festival otherwise?

but went along to the Manchester show with friends who were thrilled to bits with the performance.

What I did find, as an innocent bystander, was that not unsurprisingly, they had moved toward the more pipe-n-slippers/cosier aspect of their sound (which had always been there). Consequently I found it was all just a bit too polite and a bit too bloomin "nice" for my liking. When they did 'rock out' a bit, it was tempered somewhat, as if there were some babies asleep in the audience.. probably were actually. It was good and the new songs were very pretty but I still hanker after something a bit more vital and...relevant. It was like visiting an old friend and realising you have nothing in common any more.

A more serious let down for me was the last couple of New Order shows I saw before the split which were lacklustre at best. I was a massive fan as a teenager.
NO have always been famously inconsistent, but usually because they were off their faces, playing a set decided half an hour before the gig, playing unrehearsed new songs, or all of the above. The last couple of times they were playing the same set every night, and clearly going through the motions. We'd have welcomed an on-stage strop or a sequencer breakdown...a malfunction..anything to add some spontaneity.

They lost their magic when Gillian Gilbert left. By her own admission she was not the greatest guitarist and a two-finger keyboard prodder at best. However, she took with her the slightly amateurish charm and a welcome feminine touch which was so integral to the appeal of what would otherwise be a rather laddish band. Worse, she was replaced by a session blokey who did all sorts of unnecessary fancy trills on the guitar (criminal, especially on Joy Division songs), and played the keyboards with *two hands*. Wrong wrong wrong.

They will be back, and of course I'll go and see them.

I know it's not even out yet but I'm distinctly unimpressed by the songs from KT Tunstall's new album, I've Still Got A Loop Pedal (And I'm Gonna Use It With Synths). After exhausting most of her pre-record deal material on her previous three albums is this KT's Difficult Fourth Album? It might have been recorded at the famous Hansa Studios but frankly, I wouldn't care if it had been done at Abbey Road or in her bathroom.

First saw them in 2000 at the Royal Festival Hall and was blown away by the texture, originality and sheer beauty of the music, the humility and humanity of Kurt Wagner and the inclusiveness and friendliness of the crowd.

Saw them several times thereafter including a couple of Kurt's solo shows and every time a little bit of the sheen had gone until the performances were dominated by Mark Nevers lounge jazz piano and the gradual stripping down of the once lush sound. Kurt Wagner lost the previous awe he once exhibited and appeared to be a bit aloof and "rock star".

I still buy their albums, probably out out of loyalty than anything, but they are no longer in the top ten, it's difficult to pinpoint the exact moment, more of just a drifting apart.

99.9% of acts make their best music early on in their career. They then repeat themselves, break up and reform at the point their fans are beginning to miss them. The reformed act are usually more polished but less inspired. At the same time the audience are older and wiser. It can never be the way it was before.

Do you think I'm Sexy - No - now get thee behind me.

It happened for me with David Lynch. I walked out of Lost Highway swearing that he'd never get another penny from me. My wife persuaded me to watch his next film, The Straight Story, and it turns out it was one of the best things he'd ever done. He's not made another film since that I'm interested in seeing, mind.

It pains me to say it, but I kind of agree with goatboyuk above. I've seen Teenage Fanclub live at least once (often 4 or 5 times) a year since 1990. They are my favourite band on the planet, can do no wrong and continually release tip-top albums to lttle fanfare or celebration beyond the walls of their own very staunch and supportive fanbase. When they played Glasgow a month or so ago I left feeling it was my least favourite TFC show ever, for the same reasons mentioned above - cosy, relaxed, 'nice' rocking out etc etc. I was a bit deflated and disappointed. Funnily enough though, the last time I'd seen them before this was in Motherwell about a year ago, when they debuted some of the new album, and they were fucking brilliant!TFC might have evolved into niceness and predictability as they've got older (a bit like their fanbase) but don't give up on them just yet.

The Ballad Of The Streets ep, the Street Fighting Years album, the subsequent tour.

I loved that band. Defended them vociferously against the plebs at my school who thought U2 were better. Even though I was well aware that Live In The City Of Light was dodgy, my considered opinion was that, on the evidence of the only other live album I had ever heard at the time (U2's crappy Under A Blood Red Sky) live albums didn't count.

But oh my God. Belfast Child. A song so dreary it makes Mull Of Kintyre sound like Born Slippy. Never mind! I cried, the album will be good. It wasn't. Who cares! I cried, they will be great live. They weren't. The gig was around two and half hours long, with epic noodling and a Jesus Christ pose from Jim Kerr every two minutes.

For many years it was all heavy metal round my way I was so traumatized.

Without a doubt one of my favourite groups throughout the 90s - Screamadelica was the obvious high point but I really enjoyed the preceding two albums and I never really understood the criticism of Give Out But Don't Give Up which still regularly gets an outing on the Monty stereo.

Things started to go awry with Vanishing Point which came across like Screamadelica with the E replaced by smack. Some of it was fascinating but some was just too dark to be enjoyable. Then came XTRMTR and some other unlistenable garbage which I bought but mentally glossed over when flicking through the cds.

The final straw was Glastonbury 2004 - the one with the floods. Primal Scream were second on the bill on the Pyramid stage. The day had been sunny - finally! - and I thought they would be a great way of rounding off the weekend. Shambolic doesn't do the dismal performance I saw justice. I lasted 5 songs before heading off to the car-park; my once favourite live act now leading me to end the festival early in a somewhat less buoyant mood. I heard later that the only way to get a ranting Gillespie off stage was to turn the power off completely. A sad day indeed...

in the early 80s, my first pop love was Howard Jones.
I still maintain that 'Human's Lib' is a cracking album by any standards, and it stood out in '83, '84. The lyrics were weird and dark at times, co-authored by mysterious, reclusive hippy William Bryant. Great tunes and arrangements too. I saw HJ on a tour to promote an album of remixes in '84, and loved every minute of it. (Hovever, even then I wondered if he'd already run out of ideas...)
The following year he released his second album 'Dream Into Action' - no co-authored lyrics on this one, and it showed, just twee hippy positivity (Life In One Day), ill conceived clunkers (Hunger For The Flesh) and songs no man in his thirties should be singing (Look Mama). I wanted to like it, I bought it, I saw the gig, I dutifully sang along (and endured him scolding us for not singing properly...)

But it wasn't the same - something had gone badly wrong with my hero's mojo, and I couldn't name a single HJ record since 1985.

I think that the bad mood I got into post-HJ fueled my subsequent love for The Cure, a love which endures to this day. So, I've got something to thank him for.

They had me at album 1.
They lost me at album 2.

I adored their first two albums but from album 3 onwards I cannot bear to hear their music let alone go and see them again. In fairness to me, they changed from a country-punk band to a rawk band.

Pink Floyd - no decent songs since The Wall
Genesis - no decent records since And Then There Were Three

From jailhouse rockers to bloated, white sequinned jumpsuit excess in one easy step.

Album #1 - This is great! Classic rock/guitar pop, nodding its head to the Beatles, Who etc with a Sex Pitols-y edge.

Album #2 - Another dose of attitude and great tunes!

Album #3 - A one trick pony (band) even if it is a really good trick. Saying you're as good as the Beatles??? You've some good tunes but you can't match their creativity and diversification.

Album #4 onwards - Please stop.

First time I heard them.

I tend to doggedly stick by bands and never admit they have gone bad, in much the same way as my hopes and dreams are constantly abused by the England football team but I still keep going back for more. My well documented love of Oasis may be a testament to this.

Keep the faith. Even if it's blind.

On the 2nd tour that he did as the 'reformed' Icicle Works when he was so out of it that he could barely plug in his guitar. The first tour a year or so earlier had gone okay but maybe he was just sick of it by the 2nd. He's usually a great live performer but this time he was blown offstage by the support band, Amsterdam. It really made the scales fall from my eyes, especially when combined with the recent autobiography, which although a good read reveals a somewhat flawed, spoilt character. Still love the music and have been back to solo gigs, but not as often as I used to !

I thought Yellow was really good when it came out, everybody seemed to be enthusing about them so the album was duly bought. I've disliked them ever since (and I think I've given them a fair chance now), I don't even like Yellow anymore because it sounds like Coldplay!

me and my mate were booing as loudly as we could. Basement Jaxx were ace afterwards.

nothing else to do at Glastonbury then?

from the titanic, windswept majesty of This Is The Sea, to the disappointing catch that is Fisherman's Blues. They never recovered - personally I blame Karl Wallinger for jumping ship.

They totally lost me at the time with Sandanista. 30 years on I think a lot of it is pretty good.

Elvis Costello has lost me more times than I can remember, starting with Goodbye Cruel World. Somehow he always gets me back though.

From Up, coincidentally (not) when Bill Berry left the band. Saw a few distinctly lacklustre live performances also, notably when support act Wilco blew them off the stage.

My love for the early albums is still there, but it's not the same.

that Tube performance of Thorn of Crowns from Ocean Rain. Jeez Mac yer startin' to believe yer own myth.
OC is held up as their finest work, but it's where I parted company, the first two albums are still in my top 10 with Porcupine hovering somewhere in the mid teens. Evergreen was bearable but everything else I've heard is two guys on auto pilot. The What Are You Going To Do With Your Life album sounds as bad as Travis, I picked it up for £1.99, I was done.

I became a huge fan in about 1984 when I first heard "When Doves Cry" on "Top of the Pops" one Thursday night (it was a "top 40 breaker") and became almost fanatical almost immediately. Bought every album from then on, including all of his back catalogue, and numerous import 12" singles and bootlegs. Saw him live for the first time on the "Nude" tour in 1990 at the NEC the day before my 19th birthday. Happy, happy times.

As he entered the 90s he became very, very iffy indeed, and the albums became patchy beyond belief. "Graffiti Bridge" and "Batman" were all over the place, "Diamonds & Pearls" mostly toss, and a few years later in 1996 there came the dismal "Emancipation" - a 36-track 3 CD set costing £19.99 (oh how I laughed) and if it had been a flexidisk with two tracks it would still have been overlong. On the day it came out I dashed to the shop to buy it, rushed back to work, and plonked myself down in the server room with a CD player and my lunch to have a listen. An hour later I emerged, ashen faced, and told my boss I wasn't a Prince fan anymore.

To this day, in my opinion "Emancipation" remains his absolute worst album, but "20Ten" - the one he gave away with the Daily Mirror the other week - gives it a run for its money.

On record he's now almost embarrassing. On stage, however, he's still unbelievably good.

For a band with a worrying degree of scrapes / flirtations with their fanbases's tolerance levels I stuck with them (conveniently glossing over the Mole Trilogy)for them to reach their peak with the breathtakingly emotional(for these arch pranksters)"Demons Dance Alone", but "Tweedles", "The Voice of Midnight" and "Animal Lover" all left me cold- no tunes, just noodles with muttered "Good Ole Boy" asides intending to invoke menace. They at last seem to have run out of steam - hardly touring hasn't helped (Their "Demons" Royal Festival Hall show was just fantastic).

Sylvian's willfulness in following the muse since "Blemish", phah! I could weep-for a man whose musical arrangements have moved me to tears and whose choice of collaborators has been second to none, to go down the free-jazz route with Derek Bailey was not wise. I know there are some who worship his every move, but for me, I've found all his solo works since( except Nine Horses when he was in a band) to be works of endurance that are just too dour..cheer up David! Tell you what, come and have a pint with me and I'll book you in for a quickie with Big Sally round the back of the Brookland's Pub - that'll cheer you up, morose motherf***er.

Elvis after Elvis is Back! The 70s comeback isn't bad but not in the same league.
The Velvet Underground after their second.
The Stones after Goat's Head Soup.
10cc after Original Soundtrack.
T. Rex after Tanx.
Pink Floyd after Piper At The Gates Of Dawn.

Incidentally, I think Chaos and Disorder is Prince's most under-rated album. And I love XTRMNTR. (That was just to make me feel younger).

when they did a van advert.
Mud - when they went disco.
Morrissey - probably around Vauxhall And I.

when Nick left.

I adored Nanci Griffith in the late 80s. She started to lose me with 'Storms', and after 'Late Night Grande Hotel' I just kind of drifted away.

I really must give One Fair Summer Evening a play soon, though.

lost me at Let's Dance

Macca lost me at Press To Play (he got me back again since, mind)

Stones lost me at Tattoo You

Rod Stewart lost me at Blondes Have More Fun

Lennon lost me as early as Mind Games

Trevor bloody Rabin.

There was a crowd stampede at the front of the stage. People falling and struggling to get back up. One of the few times have felt very scared in a crowd.

All I recall is Geddy Lee looking down with a grin on his face - he could clearly see what was happening in front of him.

Why did it take so long? Mirror Ball. Argh. Broken Arrow. Aargh. Silver and Gold. Aaargh. Are you Passionate. Aaaaargh. Greendale. Aaaaaargh. Prairie Wind. Aaaaaaargh. Living With War. Aaaaaaaaargh. Only then did I see the light.

First album: Ah, this is quite good. Some boss tunes (as I think they say in Liverpool) and the saxophone player's a bit hot- that always helps (c.f. What Floats your Boat?)

Second Album: A few good tracks here, but what's this Dave McCabe has rhymed 'language' with 'sandwich'. Bloody hell, these lyrics are terrible. The album ends very poorly too.

Third album: Heard it once, thought it was shite, never bought it.

Gutted when Emerson ditched The Nice, whose every moment of existence I had followed as closely as you could in the days prior t'interweb thingie.

Saw one of the early ELP gigs and went home broken-hearted at the waste of all that talent on the shear arrogant, bombastic, indulgent, dick (or theramin) waggling grossness of it all.

Mind you, in retrospect The Nice were a bunch of posers - but I was only 16......

'Gallowsbird's Bark' is one of my favourite US albums of the 2000s-catchy, sassy folk/pop. But the FF were determined to be neo-prog band, and while the symphonic 'Blueberry Boat' had its moments, the biographical concept album 'Rehearsing My Choir' was a recondite sequence of tone poems and really rather boring. Their moment had passed...

And that reminds me...much as I admire the ambition of Mark Perry and ATV, everything after 'The Image has Cracked' works better as a concept than a listening experience.

lost interest in The Smiths when Shakespeare's Sister came out. At the time it was terrible but looking back, title track of Queen is Dead aside, I don't think they got any better.

and Tender Hooligan..Moz got angrier, the words got nastier and the guitars got heavier. Who knows what might have been..

Lost me, but for a handful of songs, at Kid A. Regained me at In Rainbows. Now that's not an easy trick to pull off.

And yeah, I know, we've had the "Hail To The Kid Amnesiac" argument before. I still don't like 'em.

I was a couple of months short of my 20th birthday when Be Here Now was released and I was doing my military service. Oasis had helped me get through high school (or upper secondary school or whatever it´s called in Britain, I´m going American for one word- sorry). When Be Here Now arrived I remember a feeling of the party being over. But while it lasted it was one hell of a binge. Every single song knocked me over, both albums and single. D´You Know What I Mean felt like a song that would grow on you if you gave it some time, and it actually did. But then it was goodbye for me.

When I relationship ended at the same time I opted for Bob Dylan´s Time Out Of Mind instead. It´s still one of the most powerful albums I´ve heard. It started with Love Sick if nothing else. He had me at hello.

Loyal support ended at the release of No Prayer For The Dying.
Particularly the 'Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter' single.

Seen live a couple of times after, but never liked the later albums (I have tried).
Early albums still get (fairly) regular plays

lost me at 'Hymns To The Silence' in 1991, a bloated self parody of a double album.

I gave away my ticket for the third and final night of his Belfast shows that year having sat through the two previous nights with my head in my hands. I went back the next year and from time to time subsequently just to check but even live, despite the occasional flash of brilliance, it became a rapidly diminishing return. I'll not be back.

The Rolling Stones lost me and I've never really re-engaged with them since, back in 1976.
It was on the Black and Blue tour. This tour was the first UK outing for new boy Ronnie Wood.
We went to see them at the country cowshed known as Bingley Hall, Stafford. It's a grim venue. To say the facilities are stark is probably an overstatement.
Support was provided by The Meters. They did their set, which seemed pretty short, and then went off. Then we waited. And we waited and waited a bit more.
Eventually they strolled on stage. For all the effort they were putting in, for the attempts to engage the audience, to look as though they gave a flying f**k about us, they might as well as been playing a rehearsal.
After a while Mick decides to speak between songs. He starts off on a "Hello Stafford, we love this place..." then realises, as we're in the middle of the countryside, no-one actually lives here. So he backtracks and tells us he knows we don't come from Stafford. Have we come from Manchester? That LSE education didn't totally go to waste then.
And so things plod on. But the nadir comes when a stirrup is lowered from the roof. Step forward Billy Preston. He walks up to the mike "Do you want to see Mick swing out?" he hollers. The response is muted. "I can't hear you, do you want to see Mick swing out?". "Noooo" I yell as loudly as I can, but am unfortunately outnumbered by those who no longer want to see a rock and roll show from the supposedly greatest rock and roll band in the world, but want to see Mick Jagger swinging from a cable out over our heads. Billy exhorts us to beg even more for Mick to do his mighty swing thing.
In the US they got all sorts of giant size inflatable phalluses (not that I particular want to see that) and other visual enhancements. We get Mick on a rope. I have to say a rather nervous looking Mick on a rope, but that's it. Mick Jagger Swinging On A Rope. It's Only Rock 'n Roll and it is totally f**king useless. Didn't give a flying f**k I thought, when instead we get a flying f**ker.
When we were kids and we'd swing on a rope in the woods, little did we know we were setting a precedent for the prancing ninny we'd seen on Top of the Pops. Little did I realise that one day I'd pay good money to see someone do what we were doing for free.
Rock 'n Roll - Phew!

"Afterglow" and "And then they were crap" lost Genesis for me.

Peter Gabriel likewise after "So".

Clash after "Combat Rock".

Eric Clapton after about 1968.

ELP after "Love Beach".

The Stranglers after "The Raven".

Rod Stewart after "Sailing", Macca after "Mull of Kintyre", John Lennon aftyer "imagine".

after Everything Must Go
AND am I wrong in thinking that EVERY MSP song has the same drum pattern?

Brilliant through to Country Life. A bit of a break for Ferry to get his ego under control then Manifesto. OK....but then Avalon and the other MOR albums. Dull coffee table stuff which sold by their millions. Recent tours have seen them ditch this stuff in favour of gems from For Your Pleasure/Stranded/Siren but I gather that they'll be doing more from their later period to fill the likes of the 02 with the furry dice mob. Shame.

hard to believe it now but at the time they did indeed lose me, along with most of my hard-line year zero no selling-out Joe Strummer worshipping teeny Punk Rockers. It was just hard to accept, it wasn't Punk Rock, it was a big cop-out and we all went off and listened to Crass "Yes that's right Punk is dead, just another cheap product for the consumer...blah blah and boring blah".

Took me a year or two to finally appreciate just what a masterpiece of eclectic classic rock that album actually was.

their very first album (1970) was an original piece of space rock combining good rhythm section with whooshing electronics, nice guitar wig-outs, even melodies. I was smitten. Then album two, In Search Of Space. Guitarist and inspiration gone, they just ploughed along on a few very basic chord changes, utter tosh. Nicely packaged though. Lost me completely with that one.

I can't get past track 5 of the new album, so disappointingly dull.

...Lost it with Let it Be. Overproduced. Too much filler. Gave up on them after that...