This is a difficult one. It might change from day to day.

Discounting compilations and various artist albums (right now my favourite album is 'Club Ska 67'), I'll look at the three I've played most often over the past wee while.

First off, an album which really brings me away back to schooldays and happy times, with a fair dose of needless angst flung in. I don't like Rod Stewart these days, but was a fan of the Small Faces and when Steve Marriott left, Stewart and Ron Wood came in with the remaining three to form the Faces. 

An album I was forever playing then and now is "A Nod Is As Good As a Wink... to a Blind Horse". The late great Ronnie Lane shone as a songwriter on quite a few tracks and also was featured vocalist on three songs. No long having taken up the geeeetar myself, I was overwhelmed by Ronnie Wood's playing throughout, especially the slide stuff which really complimented the frenzy of the songs written by Wood and Stewart. Almost 50 years on, I'm at about 5% of his ability.........              Anyway, every single song is timeless on this album, and I love listening to it just as much in 2019 as I first did way back in '71.

Miss Judy's Farm (live):






Dr Feelgood's  "Sneakin' Suspicion" is my second choice. From 1977, this was the fourth album released by the band, and the last to feature the original line up, as main songwriter Wilco Johnson left after recording and before release of the disc. To be honest I might have picked a different Feelgood collection, but this one stands as a monument to, for me, the greatest RnB band to emerge from these islands. The Feelgoods are actually still going, with none of the original line up, and although I enjoy their stuff, they could be any band these days. My full support and awe of the band near disappeared when Johnson's replacement, Gypie Mayo, left in '81, but I still went to see them playing smaller venues until singer Lee Brilleaux died aged 41 in 1994. This Feelgood album I've chosen also features slide guitar (played by Brilleaux) on some tracks, and throughout this is a perfect showpiece of the band's talents. Here's Light's Out live from this album, featuring Mayo on guitar as Johnson had left.




Finally, Julian Cope's "20 Mothers" is the most 'present time' of my choices: it's about 25 years old! Cope has long been one of my favourite musical artists, and unlike the choices above, I still eagerly await any new releases which he may conjure up. Each track, of which there are twenty on this album, is very different in style. I've put the best known song from the listing up here (Try, Try, Try), as it was a moderately successful single, and Cope is wearing a Dundee United hat in a very rare TotP appearance from 1995.




Next week, my choices would probably be different.