Feb 28: A-Z summary

Thanks for following through the A-Z of the bands I listen to the most, as suggested by the Spotify algorithm which has been trained for about 15 years now and thousands of hours of music choices.

Thanks to those who have also been suggesting their own A-Zs  - I'd hoped for a few more.

I will update this page periodically...

Some of the acts and bands that have been mentioned are:

A - Aaron Copland, Abba, All Saints, Ash

B - Baxter Dury, Bad Bunny, Ben Folds Five, Blondie

C - Crazy P, Coldplay, Craven Faults, Catatonia, The Cure

D - Def Leppard (Sheffield based - seen them there, and also in a Wes Anderson exhibition), Drake, Dido, Dusty Springfield

E - Elliott Smith, Eminem, Elastica, Erasure

F - Fila Brasilia, Fleetwood Mac, Faith Hill, Faithless

G - Girl Ray, Green Day, George Michael, Groove Armada

H - The Hanging Stars, Harry Styles, Hear'Say, Hothouse Flowers

I - I am Kloot, Imagine Dragons, Iron Maiden, INXS

J - Joe Jackson (my son is heading to see him play live later in the year), James Arthur, James Morrison

K - The Kinks, K-Pop Demon Hunters, Kylie Minogue, Kate Bush

L - Lewsberg, Linkin Park, Liberty X, Lightning Seeds

M - Martin Taylor, Michael Jackson, Macy Gray

N - Nick Lowe, Nivana, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Natalie Imruglia

O - Oscar Petersen, Olivia Dean, Olly Murs, Oasis

P - Psychoderek, Paul McCartney, Placebo, Pulp

Q - Queens of the Stone Age, Quincy Jones

R - Runrig, Roxy Music, Raye

S - Sweet, Saja Boys, Steps, Stone Roses

T - Todd Rundgren, Taylor Swift, Terrorvision, Tears for Fears

U - UFO (seen them), U2

V - Venga Boys, Voice of the Beehive, Vitamin String Quartet (they play instrumental versions of Rush classics, and do a good job. Rush are in the news this week.

They were on the front cover of The Guardian yesterday.

Here's one of their Rush covers:

W - Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan (featured on the blog), Westlife

X - XTC, Xzibit

Y - Young Gun Silver Fox, Yungblud

Z - ZZ Top, Zara Larsson

Not too late to tell me yours and they will be added to this post as updates as March progresses.

Feb 23: V is for Vertical Horizon

An A-Z of bands suggested by the Spotify algorithm. 

This American band's greatest chart success came back in 2000 when the title track from their album 'Everything you Want' went to number one in the USA.

The band was founded by students at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. It has had quite a few members alongside the core members. With a little more support and luck it could well have been much bigger, but I like all of their albums.

Here's that most famous track from 2000. My guess is you may never have heard it before.

They also recorded several pieces of music with the late Neil Peart from Rush, including 'Instamatic'. The enthusiasm of Matt Scannell for this track was really wonderful to see - I posted it on the anniversary of Neil's passing.

Peart co-wrote the song 'Even Now' on 'Burning the Days', released in 2009. I like this a lot.

Vertical Horizon's discography

What V comes up on your algorithm? Tell me in the comments

Or fill in the Google Form below:

Type each letter in turn and see what emerges...

Update

After quite a few years away, Vertical Horizon released new music this week and announced some live dates.

Here's the new music:

Feb 1: A-Z - a February project...

As February has 28 days, I'm going to do an A-Z for the next 26 days after this, and then a summary to complete the month.

As I am using Spotify to compile a play list of all the songs that I mention during the year, I'm going to let the 'algorithm' choose which musical acts appear here. Most of them are bands that I listen to frequently enough for them to rise to the top, but that's not the case for all letters of the alphabet. Each day I will focus on the music of a different band and their connections to 'place' and other aspects.

As always, any songs that I feature here will be added to the playlist which I've been putting together and will add to through the year ahead.

I'd be interested to hear what bands you would choose for each of the letters of the alphabet as we work through the month ahead. 

This sort of curation of the music we are presented with is explored in the book 'Filterworld'.

There may be some other posts as well on some of the days if there are important anniversaries to mark.

Image: Steve Hackett playing live in Cambridge - by Alan Parkinson, shared on Flickr under CC license.

Try it out yourself, and let me know what your Spotify suggestions are in the Google Form below....