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Get the  Spotify playlist here  or the  Apple Music one here   Where did it go, girls? Blink and it’s another 12 months gone - thank god for the music eh, as ABBA almost said (and seeing as we paid another  three   visits  to ABBA Voyage this year we should know eh?) Right let’s cut to the chase of what you are here for - The Top Pop of the year. Well, here are twenty banging songs at least - 20 for 2023.  Enjoy them via the playlists or just read the list and sing to yourself in your head or out loud if you will.  2023 was of course the year of the Padamic, and isn’t it bloody wonderful to see Kylie riding supreme again - and in the Top 10 to boot - that was not on my bingo card for the year but crikey this middle-aged gay boy is thrilled. And we’ll be able to celebrate her continued triumph in a few weeks experiencing our own Vegas High! Do I need to say the usual rules by now (they’re not new but we got ‘em anyway)? One per artist, although featuring on someone else’s is a loophole

Another year.  #DONE.  There was some great pop about, but for some reason it was harder to say “these were the few best of the year”. So I haven’t attempted a top 5, 9, or 10; instead you’ll find a playlist of 20 great pop bops to enjoy, alphabetically by title. Just over an hour of entertainment pleasure. It sounds pretty good!  Find the playlist on Spotify here or Apple Music here .   I’ll get some embeds done at some point too.  Usual rules apply: must have been released/pushed in the year (so no album tracks unless they got some sort of promo); one per artist (sorry Ava! Had to cut your great choices right down- looking forward to the album in Jan!); and no Eurovision, although you can find a big selection of 2022 national final faves here and here .  After the ravages of ‘Rona we had a full programme of gigs again this year - won’t list them all but seeing Gaga in Paris was a magical experience; CRJ was back in town after too long; New Order in New York ticked off a long-tim

Folks, we did it. We got to the end of 2021. And it feels a little like the end of 2020 (actually not really - although things are up in the air Covid-wise we are at least able to go about our business - even if we had thought that this might all be a distant memory by now...) And 2021 was also a year where we got to see live pop music again. Granted, not loads of it - and the continued cycle of postponements and cancellations continues, even into 2022 as we see some of the Q1 schedule start to disappear. But we had a dance to some great pop - we made a triumphant return after 17 months away from an arena floor with The Vamps , then had a brilliany boogie with Natalie , Erasure , Jase , and McFly . (And actually we shouldn't forget the great outdoor pop fun of Hoopla in September either). But of course the absolute highlight of the year (not just musically, I mean pretty much across the board) was the return to the stage of The Mighty Steps - and, miraculously, and despite Covid&#

What better to do on a New York Saturday Afternoon than put together a playlist of Stock Aitken Waterman-produced singles that were released in the UK but didn't make the Top 40? Anyone? Don't judge me. Yes, lockdown is over. I just was taken by the idea. Actually I thought there'd be loads more but quite a lot of the 'flop' bangers did make the Top 40, just the lower reaches. But I'd already decided on my rules by the time I properly looked into it so here we are. [And big thanks to Jeremy Kay for the famous PWL text file/spreadsheet with everything on - I can't remember where I acquired it from but it is obviously invaluable!] Plus, constrained by what isn't on Spotify of course. I would have prioritised Morgan McVey , Haywoode and even Fresh it they were available for streaming but alas not, and this is the world we live in (not a SAW song that one). I've obviously always had a massive love for all things SAW/PWL, but this year the addition o

I shall spare you the "what a difficult/unprecedented/challenging" year boilerplate, you can take that as read. It was a shitshow. So thank god that there was some bloody great pop music to listen to. Just such a shame that we didn't get to dance to any of it in the clubs or indeed in front of any of those making it at gigs. My goodness, we will be dancing until my feet fall off when we can. This is a promise. It's hard to remember now but there was a brief bit of 2020 that was 'pre-pandemic'. And we did get ourselves to a couple of concerts, including the return (finally!) in a decent venue for the wonderful  CRJ . We also saw La Roux and, our final concert hurrah, was the frankly big-chaos-energy (and potentially now thinking about it Covid-ridden) experience of seeing Kim Petras .  (I guess we should add in the two amazing livestreams: from Kylie and Dua - as not-going-to-gigs goes, they were pretty awesome.) I won't bore you with the full list of canc