12. Obtain 40 albums in a single year (Year 2)

So, the last day of 2014 and I thought I'd share with you my list of top 40 albums I obtained during the year.  I guess the list is in this order based on what I enjoy listening to the most and also my favourite artists.  I never go into the technical side of things like the production etc. it's purely on how I feel when I listen.

Feel free to comment below about what your favourite album of the year is and why.

No.	Band/Singer	Album
40	Rumer	Into Colour
39	Paloma Faith	A Perfect Contradiction
38	Lewis Watson	The Morning
37	Maroon 5	V
36	Damian Rice	My Favourite Faded Fantasy
35	Train	Bulletproof Picasso
34	Rascal Flatts	Rewind
33	Within Temptation	Hydra
32	Ari Hest	Shouts & Whispers
31	Daryl Kellie	Wintersong
30	Mamas Gun	Cheap Hotel
29	The Hoosiers	The News From Nowhere
28	Kasabian	48:13
27	The Fray	Helios
26	Julian Velard	If You Don't Like It, You Can Leave
25	Little Big Town	Pain Killer
24	Ben Howard	I Forget Where We Are
23	Stu Larsen	Vagabond
22	Kenny Chesney	The Big Revival
21	Lady Antebellum	747
20	Adam Cohen	We Go Home
19	Brad Paisley	Moonshine In The Trunk
18	Jon Allen	Deep River
17	Christina Perri	Head Or Heart
16	First Aid Kit	Stay Gold
15	The Black Keys	Turn Blue
14	Phillip Phillips	Behind The Light
13	Morrissey & Marshall	And So It Began
12	A Great Big World	Is There Anybody Out There?
11	Paolo Nutini	Caustic Love
10	The Pierces	Creation
9	Passenger	Whispers
8	Ryan Adams	Ryan Adams
7	Miranda Lambert	Platinum
6	Hozier	Hozier
5	Take That	III
4	Various Artists	Begin Again Soundtrack
3	Andy Burrows	Fall Together Again
2	Ed Sheeran	x
1	Jason Mraz	YES!

Jason Mraz's "YES!" is my number 1 album because I think he's an exceptionally talented singer/songwriter and the songs on it are so easy to listen to.  A great mix of up tempo and slower tracks.  Jason teamed up with a band called Raining Jane who provide the backing vocals on the album - and everyone knows I'm a sucker for harmonies.  I saw Jason and Raining Jane live this year at the Royal Albert Hall and it was totally worth the money - a fantastic show!

You may have noted I put in a soundtrack in the top 40.  I don't usually do this but it was one of the albums I couldn't stop listening to after seeing the film.  It really affected me (in a good way) and thought it deserved to be in the chart.  Well-written songs sung by Keira Knightley and Adam Levine.  Go and see the movie!

Year 2 is DONE!

Looking forward to some amazing album releases in 2015. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR READERS!

5. Get into the "Never Mind The Buzzcocks" studio audience

Ever since the days of Mark Lamarr, I have (pretty much) watched Never Mind The Buzzcocks religiously.  It was always a good way for me to increase my knowledge of music and test what I already knew...it still is.

I stuck with it when Mark was replaced by Simon Amstell, who was actually hilarious...one specific moment that springs to mind is Simon dressed as a big pink rabbit.

When Simon left it was a real shame, especially as they couldn't find a permanent host but there were some great guest host episodes that stick with me.  Jack Dee (this is still on my Sky Planner), Adam Buxton "dis guy must be an alien or sutin" and Alex Horne "Josh Widdico MBE".

Now they've found a permanent host in Rhod Gilbert (who had been a guest host twice previously) and he's actually pretty good.  Not as shouty as his stand-up routine.

I've ALWAYS wanted to be in the audience to see how it all works and therefore it HAD to go onto my 40 list.  I joined the BBC notifications to see if I could get tickets to be in the audience.  After a year of notifications I couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting any for Buzzcocks.  I did a Google search and found a company that actually did do the tickets for various TV shows as well as Buzzcocks.  I registered and then waited until I got a notification so I could apply.  It all happened pretty quickly.  

I got an email notification and applied for two tickets instantly.  I knew I'd find someone who would come with me.  One of the best bits was that it's filmed in Elstree.  Not far to go at all!  A couple of days later I got an email saying I was successful.  I contacted the ONE person I knew who would be totally up for it...my friend Daniel Rissen.  We turned up on the night and, unfortunately, we were turned away as they'd over-allocated.  We were gutted.  I thought that there was no way we'd get to go this series.  We handed our tickets over and were told we'd get priority entrance next time and we'd get an email with dates.  The email never arrived but another email notification did with some new dates.  I found a phone number and called explaining the situation and she sent me priority tickets straight away.

My priority ticket

I got there early and awaited Daniel's presence.  He was cutting it really fine but we eventually got in and walked into the studio.  I looked around in awe, not quite believing it was actually happening.  We were told to turn our phones off...not before I managed to get this cheeky one of the studio.  It was a lot smaller than I had imagined.

The Studio

After the warm up act had done his thing, Rhod Gilbert came out and had a little banter with the audience and then introduced Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding.  After Phill stole a shoe from a member of the studio audience, he and Noel introduced their guests.

On Phill's team were Romesh Ranganathan and two guys from the band Rixton (Jake Roche and Charley Bagnall). 

Phill's Team (L-R: Romesh, Phill, Jake, Charley)

On Noel's team were Kym Marsh and a stand-in guest, Van McCann from Catfish & The Bottlemen (who just won the BBC Introducing Award at the first ever BBC Music Awards).

Noel's Team (L-R: Van, Noel, Kym)

The quiz started and it was really good except for the fact that Van McCann kept saying he wasn't supposed to be there and came across quite jealous of the Rixton boys and kept insinuating they had loads of money.  He also didn't grasp the concept of the "Corrie-off"!

Rhod Gilbert was a great host and kept everything together really well - like running a tight ship.

Rhod Gilbert

Now I've seen the edited version on TV, it's quite interesting how much actually gets cut out.  There was one whole round they cut out but probably because Van McCann wasn't quite getting the point of it so it fell flat.

The intros round had one of my favourite lines of the episode in it.  Romesh said of Little Mix's song Salute, "That sounds pretty dark and heavy and that, doesn't it?"  Then Phill (who I've never really found particularly funny at times) replied "dark and heavy?, I thought that was our cop show".  I was really impressed by the quick comeback.

The Identity Parade round was Imaani (former British contestant for the Eurovision) and Bushkin from Heartless Crew.  What you don't see on the aired footage is that Van said of number 5 in the Imaani line-up that it looked like a friend of his who was in the audience so they got him down to stand next to number 5.  This was the round that Daniel was most interested in seeing.

The next lines round was funny because when trying to explain "White Horse" by Taylor Swift with models, it led to craziness.  In the recording, Phill takes the horse and for 5-10 minutes has it pretending to throw up (the audience was in absolute hysterics but you probably had to be there to see how funny it was).

All in all it was a great experience and now I know how to apply I might try to go again if I'm successful.  Seems silly not to considering I'm around the corner!

Images courtesy of BBC iPlayer and my iPhone!