The football on Monday evening was actually really good fun. It was really, really cold, and the pitch did have quite a bit of ice on it, but there is something madly exhilarating about running around in conditions which would cause any sensible person to snuggle up in front of the fireplace.

I have been racking my brains over the past few days. A fellow blogger, Jen from Washington has been writing about putting together a list of the 20 songs, which have had the biggest influence of your life. I normally hate being asked to name you 5 favourite records of all time, or best record of the year type things. Anyone that loves music will tell you that favourites change from day to day. However this question has got me thinking, in a way it’s more about the sort of music that has been a stepping stone to a different part of your life, so it could be something that is sort of embarrassing now, but at the time changed the way you thought about things. Music often opens the door to other area’s it can spark an interest in, films, politics, books, history, food, people and places in fact virtually anything. I think that’s why I am amazed when I talk to people that aren’t interested in music. Although I enjoyed my time in school, it’s fair to say that I was not overburdened with academic qualifications when I left. A large amount of the knowledge, which I have acquired, has been prompted by a musician’s lyrics or sleeve notes, making me go away and find out about the background to a story, which they have been inspired to make music by. Sometimes this can be a very direct link, The Clash singing about Nicaragua, on other occasions it’s a bit more obtuse, say Charles Mingus working with beat poet’s this leads me to the writing of people like Kerouac and Ginsberg and then onto people like Lenny Bruce, from here I go to Jewish history and politics and so it goes on. Of course it’s not just education that music provides me with, it’s the sheer joy that a great song can bring to you, moments wistful beauty that can stop you dead in your tracks or the mad adrenaline rush that a powerful band can give you. How do people live without the contrast’s that music can provide for you? Anyway I’m working on that list, when it’s done I’ll post it here, so that you can snigger at my embarrassing choices.