I’m doing something I promised I’d never do, yep I’ve been asked to choose my favourite gig, my favourite single track and my favourite album of 2023.

Not only that, I’m doing it along with my favourite collaborators Ian Dunphy from Halfway 2 Nowhere, and Duncan Grant (whose excellent writing has graced both H2N and Old Man Blues). It’s just a bit of fun as my choice at least, has a habit of changing with the wind and the weather.

Let’s go….

Album of the Year 2023

(Duncan) Lottery Winners: Anxiety Replacement Therapy

This is the album where Leigh based Lottery Winners came of age. It’s the album that got them firmly onto mainstream television, the album that saw their fan base grow and grow and the album that got them to number one! It’s a glorious complication of music styles and genres that is mixed and produced perfectly.

Since its release, the LP has had many positive reviews and the band many plaudits. It’s not just me that sees their musical credentials though as the album contains not just one collaboration, but three!

These joint ventures aren’t with just any old artists, however. Shaun Ryder joins them on Money, bringing his rasping vocals to the scene and contrasting dramatically with those of lead singer Thom Rylance. It’s a master stroke and gives both the song and album an edge and a diversion from the norm. Rylance even tells a fantastic story about recording the track with the former Happy Mondays frontman. Let’s just say that it sounded like fun!

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A totally different feel is created on Let Me Down with the lead vocalist here being none other than Boy George! It’s a far more mellow, soulful affair which allows for some wonderful harmonisation with Rylance and vocalist/bassist Katie Lloyd. Lloyd herself shares the limelight on many tracks, not least on Burning House, a track which builds and builds as it plays, culminating in a musical cacophony of instrumentation and tempo.

The one other collaborator is Frank Turner. He, of course, is no stranger to working with the band having previously written Start Again with them. This time it’s Letter to Myself, a song detailing the autobiographical journey and life lessons of Rylance. It’s a wonderfully moving and poignant number that is part sung, part spoken.

Other stand out tracks, for me, include Sertraline, which sounds more like The Lathums than The Lathums do themselves, and Jennie. That said, however, it’s a little cruel to single out any song from what is an exceptionally clever and rounded collection.

This band have their future now firmly in their own hands and I’m sure we’ll be hearing much more from them next year.

(Ian) The Dream Machine – Thank God! It’s The Dream Machine.

Despite stiff competition from The Coral, Holy Coves and Holly Humberstone, my pick for album of the year goes to The Dream Machine with their eponymous debut album Thank God! It’s The Dream Machine.

Even the album’s title oozes self-assurance. It’s a galloping, fuzzy, nuggety extravaganza of Neil Young/Gram Parson’s Americana mixed with British psychedelia. There are unexpected twists round every corner starting with the soulful keyboards on the yearning Lola, In the Morning, through the bounding banjo strings on Children, My England and concluding with the lazy, meandering slide guitar and saloon bar piano on final track Angel Of The North.

In the past I’ve favourably compared singer Zak McDonnell’s elfin style to that of Steve Marriott, best witnessed here on White Shadow Blues. Lyrically the songs on Thank God! It’s The Dream Machine are fully rounded tales brimming with evocative imagery. Just take this one couplet from Angel of The North ’You took the sadness out of my heart, rolled it and smoked it in your back yard’. The songs are like Kerouac short stories.

The exploration of the nature of Religion is a major theme of the album with numerous references to heaven and hell, Satan and angels, and temptation. Even the album cover sees the band sat contemplatively on church pews.

When not examining redemption and salvation The Dream Machine give thought to the state of the country. If there’s currently a better song about growing up in a northern town than Children, My England then I’ve yet to hear it. So indeed, Thank God! It’s The Dream Machine.     

(Chris) – The Goa Express – The Goa Express

It must be supremely annoying when you release something in December, just as many of the “of the year” lists are coming in and missing you out of contention. Such is the fate for the delayed debut from the Manchester Tod/Burnley 5 piece, The Goa Express.

I’ve been following The Goa Express since I first caught the band live at the Hebden Bridge Trades Club in early 2017. I was captivated by their live energy, and the manic following those teens had already attracted. The band blew the main act right off the stage and out of the door as I recall.

I like the immediate accessibility of the Goa Express. There’s shades of psyche, shades of West Coast, shades of 1990’s Manchester power pop, but mixed in with harder edges. Fans of the likes of Stone Roses, The Teardrop Explodes, Love, and the Vaccines would be happy in the company of this album. Yeah, diverse.

There’s nothing profound or earth shattering in this album, but it’s insanely likable, and one of those albums you can play first thing in the morning while you battle with a piece of toast, on a road trip, during a tea break and late at night over a bit of something while chatting with mates.

There’s the in-your-face hard style of a track like Portrait with a banging keys backdrop and an urgent pulsing sound, then the soaring sweetness with tracks like Small Talk, which just soars like the sun during a beach long day.  There’s the retro bouncing Talking About Stuff which is pure power pop Spinn in sound. You’re The Girl is an out and out rocker, but all the songs on this album belong together.

However The Goa Express album might fare in the short term, I’ll guarantee in 20 years time it will be considered to be a revered classic album. It has that immediacy, that sense of class about it.

The album reflects the feel of The Goa Express, five young mates goofing around, sharing life and developing together. Hard to beat to my ears.

Gig of The Year

(Ian) – The Heavy North at Camp and Furnace, Liverpool, and Louie Louie, Estepona, Spain.

I’m going to be greedy here and pick two gigs, but from the same band. Latterly The Heavy North played a stunning show at a packed Camp and Furnace in Liverpool. Ably supported by The Northern String Quartet, a horn section and backing singers, The six members of The Heavy North put on a truly memorable performance of epic blues rock tracks from their albums Electric Soul Machine and Delta Shakedown.

However, earlier in the year I saw The Heavy North play at Louie Louie in Estepona, Spain. The venue could have been the inspiration for the band’s 2020 EP Dive Bar Blues. The support act was two aging Spanish Rockers who had a decent stab at rock classics (a sort of Latin Les Alanos from Phoenix Nights). At around midnight The Heavy North clambered on stage and blasted through a blistering set that included standards such as Satisfy You, Darkness in Your Eyes, and To The Wind I Go to a nodding, modicum of appreciation from the locals.

Then something magical happened. The Heavy North played a raucous cover of Jumpin’ Jack Flash and the place erupted. The seated nodders were out of their chairs dancing. Outside, the smokers threw down their cigarillos and came in from the street. Joy abounded and continued through the band’s final song As Long As You’re Here With Me. Merch was sold. Amigos were made. As my friends and I strolled home across the Spain/Gibraltar border at 3 am we were presented with a stunning view of the moon peeking out from the Levante cloud above The Rock. Marvelous.

(Duncan) Rianne Downey. Oporto. Leeds. 19th March

I’ll be completely honest here… I’ve still not recovered from this gig.

I’d seen Rianne Downey twice before, albeit at distance given the bands she was supporting, but nothing, absolutely nothing could have prepared me for the musical experience that I was about to encounter. I was fully aware of the precision of her singing and of her vocal range but it all meant nothing until my first hand experience that evening. To be within touching distance of this incredibly talented musician was nothing short of spellbinding.

When I’d seen her before, once solo, once with a band, I  was impressed and intrigued. It was this that led me to buying the ticket for the intimate, but iconic venue of Oporto. Country music, or even an edge of it, really isn’t my thing but talent certainly is and Downey has it in spades. To see and hear her at such close quarters was an event in itself and I was well and truly hooked in.

The ‘Belshill Busker’ was firmly at ease with the packed room, talking to us throughout the gig and sharing both memories and experiences. She was equally enigmatic afterwards, as well as incredibly humble, in conversation at the merch stand. I’d defy anyone, after watching her live, not to be swept away by the swell of her sound and be moved by her music. With guitar, without guitar, she is equally proficient and has surrounded herself with top end musicians, all of whom I’ve witnessed before, either in the form of Michael Head’s Red Elastic Band or as part of Peach Fuzz. 

Belting out numbers such as Home, Stand My Ground or Hard seems to come naturally to Downey who performs them with such accuracy, but nothing prepared me for the stillness, solitude and wonder of either Paper Wings or Method To My Madness. Awestruck doesn’t come close to doing either the song or the moment justice.

She’s since gone on to become guest vocalist for Paul Heaton, playing to thousands in the fields at festivals near and far.

All I can say is that it was a privilege to be there in person in the confines of a small Leeds bar to witness such an intimate and pivotal musical moment…hopefully for her, but definitely for me

(Chris) – Benefits – Live at Leeds, The Wardrobe

I always think the best gigs are those you don’t anticipate. They can just thrill and shock you to the core.

So it was at some stupidly early time just after lunch where we had stumbled in from the sunshine to witness probably my most intense live performance of the year. The first gig of the all day Live at Leeds city festival, and the best that night, that month, this year.

Benefits for the early bird, dear reader.

Newcastle’s Benefits by sound and sentiment took me somewhat back to one of the first bands I adored as a teen, Crass. Benefits are a band unafraid to question the rubbish our media want to share, and in turn questions why our billionaires might wish to manipulate us to fear each other and accept a populist view of the world.

To listen you get a spoken, shouted, poetry rap/poetry covered with hard drumming and perfect hard synth. In a (very) weird parallel universe, this is kind of Eninem backed by classic Sunn-O))).

I’m an almost stupidly mild and passive individual for most of the time, so I tend to feel a little cautious around strong looking shouty blokes, but Benefits have a captivating story to share. The anger is directed in the right way, to channel and focus your mind against the rubbish society and our rulers try to condition us with. I like to imagine that politically at least I can be hard and savvy, but Benefits cut it to the quick – explain what its like to be in poverty, how our rosy vision of England is unreal, and why we are being conned and ripped off.

A Benefits gig is an intensive session exploring modern British culture and history – it’s daunting, but vital and refreshing. In and amongst you are reminded you are beautiful, special and powerful.

Every Daily Mail reader, every 15 year old should be prescribed a Benefits gig every 6 months on the NHS. Our world would be so much different for the better if we all listened to Benefits.

 Single of The Year

(Ian) – Reignmaker – ‘Find My Own Way’.

My single of 2023 is Find My Own Way by those youthful, melodious indie-rockers Reignmaker. The Liverpool based quintet original released the track as a single way back in February and it also made an appearance on the band’s debut EP We Go Round released in July.

My obsession with this track started after I saw the band perform it at The Belgrave Music Hall at Live at Leeds. I’ve been playing the song pretty much continually since.  It starts with a faint guitar riff, crashing cymbals, and then these wonderful, Slowdive-shoegazery guitars come in.

Singer Jude Williams uses his voice like another instrument weaving in and out the intricate hooks and riffs. Find My Own Way is essentially an optimistic, uplifting break-up song evidenced by the emotive, anthemic chorus, ‘Don’t live your life in fear, Don’t say that I wasn’t near, That’s the way that it goes, I’ll find my own way home’. The song is euphoric, charismatic and bulges with swirling indie-rock melodies.

The We Go Round EP was released through Modern Sky Records and having played with Dave McCabe (The Zutons) and supported Jamie Webster, expect big things from Reignmaker in 2024.   

(Chris) – Tom A Smith – Fading Away

I’ve been banging the Tom A Smith drum for the best part of two years now (not literally, band member Frazer is the real beats deal), and the 19 year old now has an almost unstoppable momentum.

Tom has a mix of unbelievable energy and a lust for life which sees him want to push his musical career and talents as far as they might stretch. But there’s also a slight fragility just wondering if he is going to be left high and dry on a turn of the tide. This emotional mix of confidence and focus, anxiety and reassurance comes through in Tom’s music. It’s that very real mix of aspiration, hope and fear that most of us face, which perhaps hits the target for me.

2023 has seen a constant flow of gigs, new songs and recordings from Tom A Smith, but it’s the final release of the year Fading Away that sticks with me. It’s a song which has all the hallmarks of a classic. There’s a slightly at kilter ear catching riff, a strong imagery of being adrift in space, and a lyric which speaks of being lost and of struggle.

The video to accompany the tune sees a 9 year old Tom playing as a spaceman on the beach, which adds a further potency as it makes it feel Tom’s career now was always destined to be.

Tom A Smith on record or live, I implore you to catch this man now. The stars are the only place for this guy to reach in 2024.  

(Duncan): The Snuts: Gloria

Two minutes and thirty two seconds of the best pure indie pop/rock; this is the first release by the Whitburn four piece on their own label, Happy Artist Records, after the previous marriage with Parlophone started to sour.

Written and produced themselves, you’d be forgiven for thinking that they’ve been doing this for all of their young lives. From the first bar you get a real sense that they’ve re-found themselves and their sound.

To some extent it’s a hark back to their original demos when they’d hadn’t started to experiment with electronic effects, but at the heart of it is a fantastic, simple love story told through the medium of song.

And what a song it is too: bright, lively, upbeat and sharp. One thing The Snuts have always been able to do is write a tune, and this song is no exception. The upbeat, jangling guitar work of Joel McGillveray provides the perfect platform for Jack Cochrane’s distinct vocals to cut through and reach a range that I’ve rarely heard from him before. Jordan Mackay’s percussion is complex in its simplicity and works in perfect harmony with Callum Wilson’s bass.

The lyrics? Well, any song that open with the line ‘When I met you at the Tesco…’ has got to be worth a listen! The opening slide to the accompanying video best describes the song’s content: ‘A short story in the life of a real couple. There is so much beauty in mundane, ordinary love’. And there you have it. Perfect pop…although that’s not the full picture.

There’s actually three versions out there by the band if you search out their videos. This, a pure acoustic version recorded in a car park in one take, and arguably my favourite, the ‘official’ acoustic version. Accompanied by beautiful strings in the form of violin and cello, the rearrangement is not only clever but it’s moving too. A real testimony to the band’s strength and talent.

On this showing the new album, Millennials, in 2024 promises to be their best yet.

* A joint collaboration from Ian Dunphy, Duncan Grant and Tiggerligger.

* Photos bar the Lottery Winners image (which was on the band’s socials), are the authors own.