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Ever since meeting Simon Hobart, getting involved with Ghetto and hearing his stories of the club scene of the 80s, I’ve had fascination with the decade. Ashes to Ashes helped bring that along even further and I’ve loved delving back in time and so far merely scraping the surface of all the brilliant electro pop that came out of that era. I always say that if I had a time machine I’d love to go back to 1980s London and see what it was like. I was here a hell of a lot, but as a child who didn’t really see much.

It’s very exciting to read then about the BBC’s 80s season which is the already made part of the now dropped Decades TV season the corp were planning. The first programme to be announced is 90 minute drama Worried About The Boy which revolves around the life of Boy George. He’ll be played by Douglas Booth who’s only really known at the moment for being the male face of Burbury. Joining him are Mark Gatiss as Malcolm McClaren, Marc Warren as Steve Strange, and Matthew Horne as Jon Moss. I’m a bit face scowly at the idea of Matthew Horne, but we shall see. Excitingly as Worrapolava noticed, it’s being made by Red Productions who are most famous for making Queer As Folk. The Blitz club will be central to the plot and who knows, maybe even Simon’s Kitkat club might get a mention. Boy George is a figure who has his own little role in my life who as a friend of my dad once showed up to my fifth birthday party and gave me a red soap in the shape of a heart. This was in 1987, hopefully it’ll play a central part in the programme.

Sometimes you hear a song and you’re not entirely sure what it is. You’re aware it’s a classic and asking would make you look a bit daft. Shazam has gone some way to solve these issues and I have an almightily brilliant Spotify playlist that I keep up to date with everything I’ve shazam’d in the last year. It’s mainly populated by soul and jazz from many a Saturday night spent holding my phone up in the Dalston Jazz Bar.

I don’t actually care though, hence showing you that list. Yes I didn’t know for a fact what Bob Dylan ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ was. Big deal. We all have different music specialities and learning about new stuff (even if it’s old) is brilliant. That’s part of the reason Absolute Radio is a preset on my car radio. I like listening to the station because it’ll play me some classic songs I’ve never heard before. It’s as much education as it is entertainment.

This is all a big preamble to me horrifying Jack by admitting to not really knowing what Jacques Brel – Ne Me Quitte Pas was before Christmas. As the Dusty greatest hits album is my standard ‘BOYS SUCK. I NEED TO WALLOW’ album, I must have heard Dusty’s version a billion times but never quite clocked it. The reason I’ve gone back and found Jacques though is because Barbra Streisand has covered the song on her latest album ‘Love Is The Answer’. Apart from the fact that it makes you want to tear your heart straight out of your chest I think I’m particularly into this song because of all the quiet then LOUD (probably a good technical term for this somewhere) bits.

Once upon I time I didn’t know much about Barbra. In fact I was once asked ‘Name three Barbra Streisand songs’ as the first question in a job interview last year. Way to throw me off. After this Christmas though I feel like I could go on Mastermind with her as my specialist subject. After Christmas I drove back down from the North to London and challenged myself to listen to Radio 2 all day. I would have listened most of the day anyway but for once I wanted to avoid me being flick happy when I don’t like a song. It was a very strange day on air. Cilla & Tony Blackburn presented the Great British Songbook and Dave Pearce brought Dance Anthems to the station. In between those two came an extremely intense interview with Babs presented by chart god Paul Gambaccinni that lasted for 2 hours and incorporated performances from her recent intimate show at New York’s ‘Village Vanguard’. I heard about 28 Streisand songs in a row and learnt everything from her relationship with the Academy to the lack of love in her life. Did you know that she’s never sung ‘Woman in Love’ live because she couldn’t relate to the lyrics? Did you know that she once went to see Jacques Brel in concert in France and he didn’t sing ‘Ne Me Quitte Pas’ even though he knew she was there? She even went backstage and begged. Now you do.

Anyway here is her version albeit a roping recording. Just buy it. Amazatronica. There are so many versions of this song out there though – which one is your favourite? I’d advise skipping the Belinda Carlise one.

And so Ellie Goulding is the Sound of 2010. I like Ellie but not enough to really care much at the moment – she seems nice enough. Both Ellie and Marina were always going to come at the top of the poll having been knocking about since the beginning of the year and taking time to leak songs, play gigs, in Ellie’s case play Jools, release limited edition singles and set the blogosphere all in a tizz while making sure they didn’t chart in the top 20 and break the conditions of being in the Sound of … poll. The model of the Little Boots winning path was watched and just repeated last year. My votes this year were for 1. Hurts 2. Dollface 3. Jessie Malakouti. I’d have voted for Marina as well but thought she would get enough.

Anyway a couple of the labels were less on the ball about the sound of and sent out I Blame Coco + Eliza Doolittle tracks the week after it shut. I’d have probably have voted for them both otherwise. Eliza was knocking about in development for a lot of 2009 but only released her first E.P. at the end of November. Let’s just hope that wasn’t the first in an attempt to be the Sound of 2011.

If you can get over the name confusion (people should really start thinking about google), Eliza makes toe-tappy jangle pop. It’s not big, bold with massive production; in fact it’s even a little Jack Johnson (wait… come back!) She looks like a more natural version of Miley Cyrus, lyrically there’s shades of Lily with her straight talking tales dresses her age and is distinctly Norf Laaandan. Her age seems to be a bit of a mystery. I think she looks about 17, but her label replied saying they weren’t sure but they thought about 22.

Her videos all have a strong visual identity. This is her first single proper ‘Skinny Genes’, joining the ranks of Ain’t What You Do, Young Folks and er, Blow My Whistle Bitch, as songs with a whistle designed to get inside your head.

Alternatively listen to her EP on Spotify which contains the furiously catchy Moneybox, the trippy Police Car and chirpy Rollerskates.

In my mind I’ve dramatically taken against Roisin Murphy for getting pregnant and having a baby. It just seemed like a weird thing to do at this time, but whatevs. Who cares when it’s made her throw out this banging new track. Previous leak ‘Orally Fixated’ was a bit rubbish but this is a full out dancefloor stomp complete with eurorave piano and drums from 1992. It’s so good probably because it’s just a big massive tune, the lyrics might be fancy but sonically it’s not trying to be cold and arty. It just likes going bang, bang, bang. BANG.

Listen on loop for an hour. Cry at being unable to scrobble it.

I’d love to have the energy to make end of year lists as wonderfully detailed as the mighty XO London. Unfortunately I’m full of a stinker of a cold and generally distracted by everything else. This year I’ve been a little rubbish at listening to as much music as I should do. There’s a whole back-up of albums in my LISTEN TO ME folder on spotify, so this may well be missing some corkers. Like I’m sure Fever Ray and Metric would be likely candidates for my favourite albums had I actually listened to them more than once or twice. I need to catch up pronto.

Anyway my favourite songs of the year:

1. Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling
Simply for packing as much joy and celebration as possible into just under 5 minutes. It’s utterly infectious and I’m even more convinced this is my song of the year after feeling just how amazing it was to both play it and watch others enjoying it at Popstarz NYE last night.

2. Daniel Merriweather – Water & A Flame
I’m not entirely sure what I think about Daniel Merriweather but his album surprised me. Red grew on it to a manic extent but this later released single is without doubt the heart-achingly gorgeous highlight. It’s one of those moments that could make me cry so hard I start to feel sick (see De-lovely, last 10 minutes of ‘Doomsday’, Mr Shue & Emma on Glee etc.)

3. Lady Gaga – Bad Romance
It was tough to choose between this and Pokerface, but again Popstarz last night tipped this one as best. It was as if I could have played it on repeat for 4 hours solid and no one would have minded. Paparazzi was my favourite video of hers this year, but the first 2 seconds even of Bad Romance absolutely smash it. The decade’s most exciting popstar.

4. Royksopp – The Girl and The Robot
A bleak surprise song from Robyn. I interviewed the band earlier say everything I could possibly need to (600 words worth) over here.

5. God Help The Girl – Musician Take Heed
I’d not heard of this album until Colin stuck his iPod on loudspeaker at a late summer BBQ and the brilliant God Help The Girl album came out. It’s a teaming up of Stuart Murdoch from Belle & Sebastian with various female vocalists. Just pipping Perfection As A Helper, this song showcases why I love the album, full of gorgeous, melancholic harmonies.

6. Cheryl Cole – Fight For This Love
I know some people (hello Naomi) fully despise Cheryl, but I’m happy to be swept away with the hype of loving her. Hooray for her pipping Nadine to a solo album. FFTL was unexpected and provided the opportunity for a wide range of new, fascinating dance with your fist type moves from the Talia camp.

7. Jack Penate – Be The One
When Jack released his first album I wasn’t particularly interested in the jingly-jangly nature of it all. Who knows what happened before the release of album #2 (a long holiday in Ibiza?) but it’s euphoric, Balearic sounds were the surprise of the year. A blissfully uplifting song that featured the best use of trumpets since Mark Ronson got his hands on the instrument, and provided a brilliant moment at Wireless in Hyde Park.

8. Shirley Bassey – Apartment
I have absolutely no idea what this song is about. Written by Rufus Wainwright for the latest Shirley Bassey album, it’s entirely nonsensical. That said, the spanish guitars and a roaring vocal make it a quirky and utterly memorable oddity.

9. Rumble Strips – Daniel
I think I should have listened to the latest Rumble Strips album more but this is the song that stuck with me the most. That’s probably because I have a friend called Daniel and when we’re talking about him I like to belt this out. I feel like I want to sing it while standing on a windswept bridge in the rain. Dramatic and dastardly.

10. Lily Allen – Not Fair
A funny, silly, even stupid little song that captures everything we first loved about Lils. It causes a regular barn dance each week at Popstarz and provided a very odd moment with a bride and groom dancing and singing it to each other when I, retrospectively inappropriately, played it at a friend’s wedding.

Special outside the top 10 loving goes to Never Forget You, Bulletproof, Flashback, Empire State of Mind, Battlefield, Warm in The Shadows & Heads Will Roll.

I’ve mentioned it before, but Bug is a brilliant event at the BFI Southbank every month which showcases the very best in music videos under the comedic gaze of Adam Buxton. This video for Cinnamon Chasers’ ‘Luv Deluxe’ was my favourite from the November event.

It’s like (500) Days of Summer gone badly wrong, seen through the eyes of someone reading a ‘choose your own adventure’ book. The video is directed by 23 year old Saman Keshavarz and seems to be one of his first videos, having previously made a short film in 2006 called ‘Drug of Choice’. The music comes from Russ Davies, known in this instance as Cinnamon Chasers and is a a gorgeously dreamy sound-scape of a melody that gradually feels more urgent. It also appears Russ is a little randomly the son of Kinks’ founder Dave Davies which is a good pop fact. Best of all on Last.FM we have a high compatibility. It seems he likes Madonna, CSS, Ladytron, Little Boots and Roisin Murphy. Well done him.

(Is there a bit remix / cover (whatever it is) in the world than the Aeroplane remix of Friendly Fires ‘Paris’?)

I’ve been to Paris a couple of times most noticeably once to interview Daft Punk and then once to see them. The first of these was an 8 hour trip spent running round the capital trying to find the hotel basement we were meeting them and eating somewhere particularly gross. The second involved much more sight seeing but a disappointment in the hotel which I’d spent about 400 hours on trip advisor trying to choose.

The best part of that trip though was our night out in The Marais, Paris’ gay village. We discovered that clubs in Paris have volume monitors with the maximum volume being extremely quiet, danced to Sophie Ellis Bextor’s ‘Catch Me’ for the first time in a very odd house club, and went into the tiniest club we’ve ever found whereupon a gorgeous French boy called Guilleme became very attached to me because I was wearing a star of David and tried to get me to join some kind of French, jewish society.

I do think that I’ve never quite got Paris though. When I went last year with Tom & James it was better probably because we found nice food, but I think I’d pick everywhere over Paris. Maybe I just need to do the right things.

Anyway I’m writing this because last week I was asked to ponder what I would do with 1,000€ on a weekend in Paris thanks to a competition from Le Nouveau Paris. I do often think about just jumping on a train from Kings Cross as it’s so handy but the £££ element of it is off-putting. I know if I was given money for free though I’d spend the first £10 on a Chicken Caesar Salad on the Eurostar. I know that sounds utterly ridiculous but it was amazing when I had one on the way out last time and when told they didn’t have any on the return journey I actually nearly cried.

If I went again though, I’d make sure I took more time to explore and see things I’d like. I’ve never been up the Eiffel Tower or The Louvre. I’d return to the awesome Pompedieu Centre and drop into trendy cafe L’Autre that I clocked but didn’t have time to drop into and then head over to the other side of the city to the Dalston-like vibes of the fun, but cramped Pop Inn. If I had the confidence I’d hire a Vespa on the Left Bank and whizz through the city on a bike, making like VV Brown with less good hair.

As far as accommodation goes, I’ve always got lots of amazing, weird hotels bookmarked on delicious. I’m not sure I will ever stay in any of them though, but one of the most fun sounding is Hotel Everland which was a art installation style pod hanging on the edge of the River Seine. It’s been de-commissioned now though so instead I’d love to rock up to the ridiculously high end Angelina’s in Paris is a famous tea salon, and my new love of afternoon tea (acquired at the Dorchester with Golda) can be compared to the Parisian style. Alain Ducasse’s school of food has long been bookmarked on my computer and can you imagine how much fun it would be to be taught French cuisine. I’d feel like I was in Julie & Julia! Steak though has to be the big find and I’m yet to figure out the best steak in Paris. Le Relais de Venise didn’t impress me much with their London branch, but there are lots more to try.

(written in an attempt to win a holiday to Paris)

From her website

10/10