Oasis – First off, I never liked them – them; meaning the obnoxious brothers Gallagher.  However, they made a great career by copying the Beatles template and I gave in and bought their greatest hits Stop The Clocks.  Of course, the big ones are here, but despite that I find the songs repetitive and a bit boring.  Still, I do like ‘Some Might Say’, ‘Half the World Away’ and ‘Don’t look Back in Anger’.

Sinead O’Connor – Well, what do you say about this woman; a hauntingly beautiful voice, a quite deranged at times public persona and a consistently intriguing songwriter and singer.  In short – you never know what to expect next with her.  We start with her second record; I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. (1990).   A mostly gentle album, the vocals plaintive and heartfelt, includes her biggest hit; the prince song ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’.  But my favourites are ‘Three babies’ and ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’.  This was the album which really establish Sinead as a major star – this was before her occasional rants and meltdowns.  Next up is a covers album from 1992 Am I Not Your Girl – this is a very ‘big band’ jazzy sound of covers of songs she says she grew up with.  And very good it is too – I am not so sure the jazzy arrangement works so well with her voice but it is a very listenable record.   Sinead does a very good version of ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’ and I also like ‘Scarlet Ribbons’ and ‘Secret Love’.  It was during the promotion of this album that Sinead had a tirade against the Pope and the Catholic Church which almost ruined her career, especially in America.    Her fourth, my third album was Universal Mother (1994) which is probably my favourite of hers; her voice seems better suited to these songs, varied as they are.  There is politics in there with ‘Red Football’ and a possibly, newly found interest in Rastafarian beliefs with ‘Fire On Babylon’.  A song about Ireland ‘Famine’ – and her gentlest most beautiful song – ‘Thankyou For Hearing Me.’  I sort-of stopped buying her records for a while – but I did buy a double album (though it is the same songs sung differently) – Theology – (2007).   The two versions – Dublin Acoustic and London Full Band is interesting, but ultimately doesn’t justify a double CD; I think I prefer the full band sessions.  Best songs are hard to find as this is a particularly monotonous album – nothing really stands out I am afraid.

Mike Oldfield – I can remember quite clearly buying his debut album in 1973 after reading a review in (I think) City Limits.  It was Tubular Bells, by anunknown artist on a brand new label, Virgin – and it was totally instrumental -I loved it, as obviously did thousands of others as it was an immediate success.  It became part of the soundtrack of the early Seventies, it was part progressive, part classical in approach – and famously it had the inimical vocal introduction of Viv Stanshall (see S) which added a touch of humour to the proceedings.   Unlike anything before it or since (though Mike has released several other similar albums) it remains a monument to one person’s vision and instantly takes one back to those heady days in Music when anything was possible, and usually happened.  I used to own on vinyl his 2 follow-up albums; Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn but have not bothered to get them on CD.  His fourth album was Incantations (1978); I only acquired this much later and frankly it is fairly boring, it does nothing for me.  I also bought a much later album Tubular Bells 3; the only reason to include this as a ‘Tubular Bells’ album was to increase sales, and actually to dupe people.  I read the review in Uncut and realised that this was actually quite a varied album, lots of shorter tracks with only a passing resemblance on one or two songs to his earlier classic.  It is more influenced by the dance music of the 90s than his earlier work.  I find I quite a pleasant listen really – best tracks are – ‘Outcast’, ‘The Inner Child’ and ‘Moonwatch’.   I also have a greatest hits Moonlight Shadow – which is a pretty good collection of mostly early tracks or excerpts.