"My scraping knuckles bleed..."

19 November

(From Freak, Strangelove)

"The feelings felt that flew us to the sun..."

18 May

(From Hysteria Unknown, Strangelove)

"Your starry eyes flying so high..."

12 February

(From The Tourist, Patrick Duff)

"There's so much love inside my sober heart."

7 February

(From My Sober Heart, Patrick Duff)

"Through the driving rain...colours run in veins..."

30 January

(From Land's End, Siouxsie & the Banshees)

"Take no prisoners, smash the light."

26 January

(From Dance on Glass, The Mission)

"I only get to live one life."

24 January

(From Do It Again, Queens of the Stone Age)

"I want out, I want out, I want out..."

23 January

(From Saigon, Adam Ant)

"Shot full of diamonds & a million years, the disappointed disappear like they were never here."

16 January

(From Geek U.S.A., Smashing Pumpkins)

"There must be some kind of message, simple plot somehow impressive."

11 January

(From Plan A, The Dandy Warhols)

"The man in the moon's got it in for me."

9 January

(From Sixer, Strangelove)

"Welcome to the aching world."

30 December

(From Broken People)

"I was made with a heart of stone to be broken with one hard blow."

29 December

(From Ocean Size)

"Hillside changing colour as I'm watching shadows throw."

20 December

(From The Riches)

"I came back to pay respect to another fallen angel at the old canteen..."

"...someone had to float the cash to pay for the wake & so we all agreed....

We're all hustlers..."

16 December

(From Underground)

"Now the nameless dwell."

14 December

(From Then She Did)

"Till the shadows and the light were one..."

9 December

(From Three Days)

"The night is swelling off we go..."

7 December

(From Strays)

"Everybody has their own opinion - holding it back hurts so bad..."

I have toyed with the choices for band of the final month of the year.

In the end, I settled on Jane's Addiction.

Yet "settling" seems like the wrong verb.

"Settling" isn't what I'd associate with them. "Unsettling" might be closer.

Because there was always something a little bit off about them.............a little bit European.

Even their most commercial song was about shoplifting. & getting away with it.

That was & is their ultimate genius - in the sheer & utter joy in the seamier side of life, the fun of bad behaviour, in lack of consequence, bad habits & decidedly dodgy activities.

In addition, they have simply made some of the best music ever recorded.

(In fairness & on World Aids Day, a wider social conscience certainly exists in their political lives but where's the entertainment in that?)

1 December

(From Mountain Song)

"Fingers like a fountain of needles shiver along my spine..."

29 November

(From The Sweetest Chill)