A welcome to the site.

Shirley Manson by Rubenfh (Own work)
[GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

All-round sexpot and Garbage front-woman Shirley Manson once declared her belief that if you appeared on Top of the Pops, it guaranteed you'd never die and nothing bad would ever happen to you again.

She was of course wrong.

As any fool knows, it's writing a blog that guarantees you'll never die and nothing bad'll ever happen to you. And so it is I take another step towards the serene immortality I deserve, with the launch of this, my latest blog.

When it comes to the kind of popular culture represented by Top of the Pops, I could claim to be a man with his ear to the ground and his eyes on the horizon but sadly I'm not and, like a fool, I managed to miss the whole of BBC4's run of Top of the Pops 1976 . Late to the party as always, I have, however, finally noticed the existence of Top of the Pops 1977.

Personally, I recall 1977 as being a terrible year for music until Donna Summer released Love's Unkind and we were then granted such musical wonders as the Spy Who Loved Me and Star Wars theme tunes.

Everyone else seems to recall 1977 as the year punk finally got a stranglehold on the UK music charts. This in mind, I'm sure I can look forward to each Thursday being a descent into a level of chaos and social breakdown never before experienced, culminating, at the year's end, with that epitome of the punk spirit Mull of Kintyre. Only three chords and talk of setting things on fire? Did anything capture the zeitgeist of that year more than the sight of three people in wellies strolling around in Scotland?

I can't say it'll be the most well-informed blog, as I feel that flaunting one's ignorance is always a good thing to do in life. On top of that, I'll be typing my comments as I watch the show, so it may have a certain "spontaneity" to it. I also can't guarantee I'll be covering each week's show as it goes out. Fortunately the miracle of the Internet means I can catch up with editions after they've been first broadcast.

But all that matters is the world's greatest ever music show is back in my life and that, like Shirley Manson, with each edition I do, I'll be adding years to my life.

Or at least I'll be feeling like I have.