Book club is on this evening so I have been banished to a side room with only a tinny bluetooth speaker to keep me going. at least it is playing Animals That Swim.

Every so often I will find myself in the house by myself. This maybe for a stray 20 minutes whilst a lift is being done or, a few times a year, days at a time.

This provides an opportunity to play my music as loud as it ought to be played with no heed to the neighbours and anyone passing on the road outside.

Ideally I should be plying vinyl and if I am feeling reckless I might take hold of an air guitar and swing my arms through the air.

if it is vinyl then there are a number of favourites that deserve to be played the loudest. some of them I was playing more than 25 years ago when my bed was a futon and I could take stage dives into its middle.

1.  Freak Scene by Dinosaur Jr.

It’s so fucked I can’t believe it
If there’s a way I wish we’d see it
How could it work just can’t conceive it
Oh what a mess it’s just to leave it

2. Another Girl, Another Planet by The Only Ones. The great lost band and the great lost single. I think I may have snapped part of my futon collapsing to this.

3. Sympathy for the Devil by The Rolling Stones from Get Yer Ya -Ya’s Out! Whip smart.

4. Chronic Town by REM.

5. Miss Black America by Curtis Mayfield. If ever there was a song we need now this is it.

6. Rocks off by The Rolling Stones. Still the best start to an album ever.

7. Entertainment by Sleater Kinney. The best band in the world kicking off.

8. Negative Creep by Nirvana. I haven’t listened to this for twenty five years but next time I am in the house by myself I might shred my lungs to sing along.

9. In and out of grace by Mudhoney. I saw them with Tim in Edinburgh at about thirty years ago. There was little distinction between the stage and the crowd. They probably played this. I wish I could remember.

10. Patriots Heart by American Music Club. I am learning the words.