Your New Favourite Band by The Hives

Some bands are too fun to be denied. Fundamentally, for me, there's something really exciting about a cool-as-fuck garage rock band. Their music is a loud racket, the sound of my emotions. These bands look cool with their music playing, just as cool when they stand for photographs. The Donnas. The Cramps. The Kills. Black…

Vibrate You by King Adora

King Adora arrived before quickly vanishing completely, a standout cameo in a really shit film. Though they're gone, Vibrate You is still here, always somewhere close to me. Hands up if you form emotional connections with albums? 2001 was a strange time which demanded strange music made by odd people. I knew I wanted to…

Benefactor by Romeo Void

Let's have it right: no other band sound, or made sounds like Romeo Void. It isn't just the saxophone or the synths. Romeo Void had something else that set it apart from other songwriters and musicians - her name is Debora Iyall and her writing was fundamentally rooted in poetry, while her appearance was striking…

The Fifth Release From Matador by Pizzicato Five

Pizzicato Five were an oddity of a band among a collection of odd bands - my collection, in fact. In a cupboard full of CDs, all arranged in order of how much I loved them, Pizzicato Five were always near the top row, alongside other dear favourites, the songs that gave me an escape route…

Alisha Rules The World by Alisha’s Attic

I really want to wash those dishes up. 1996 was a vintage year for my CD rack. Keith Flint stood in a tunnel, monochromatic yet brighter and more colourful than anything else around. Britpop approached a zenith, Jarvis Cocker's arse made The Brits relevant, Alanis made us reach for a dictionary to check the actual…

City of Subarus by Tullycraft

Debut albums (like debut novels) contain an entire lifetime of ideas and ambition. The really great ones are those that make everything fit together as neatly as possible. But sophomoric albums? They're a trickier proposition, because with your first attempt you've said everything you've always wanted to say - and if you're lucky enough, you've…

The Bravery by The Bravery

The Bravery were a song and a video but definitely not an album. Goodness, why would I buy that? They weren't my thing at all, so I thought. My opinion was based on nothing other than a photograph of them in NME. Back in the noughties, I tended to identify what I liked and hated…

I’ve laminated my Dorit Kemsley fan club badge

I can't pretend The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills is my favourite show from the long-running, mega-successful franchise. My heart belongs to New York. However, I watch most of the various different shows in the Real Housewives umbrella. Beverly Hills is often regarded and referred to as 'lifestyle porn' because it presents the cast in…

Boomania by Betty Boo

Every kid deserves their own pop star, that one superstar they can adore from a distance. As a child, I wasn't short of icons to admire. There was The Doctor and Ace, who saved the universe from evil monsters each week on BBC1. Agent Dale Cooper was there for me even though he preferred coffee…

Chemistry by Girls Aloud

One of my favourite hobbies in the early years of 2000 was trolling the pages of Channel 4's Planet Sound music page on Teletext. Every week I'd write in and upset people with my eloquent displays of bitchy brilliance. Oh yes, I enjoyed it. My favourite technique was to write really long letters praising Girls…