Rocktober’s been a great month for new purchases for me. The highlight? It’d have to be a toss-up between Lindsey Buckingham’s new album Gift of Screws (more-or-less completing the trilogy that began with Fleetwood Mac’s Say You Will and continued with his solo album Under the Skin) and David Gilmour’s mammoth set Live in Gdansk.

Buckingham’s album, his fifth studio solo outing, is quite possibly his strongest yet. Get it now!!!

Gilmour’s is an unintentionally fitting tribute to fellow Pink Floyd member Rick Wright, who only recently passed away. Their performance here of “Echoes” is one for the ages. Too bad the rhythm section of Mason/Waters weren’t present (and what were the chances of the latter?) but when you’ve got Phil Manzanera on guitar, who cares? As long as Gilmour’s around, the Floyd spirit lives on…

A nice treat was the new Kate Miller-Heidke album, Curiouser. I’ll be seeing her live next month.

But first… less than a week ’til Def Leppard and Cheap Trick. Full report soon…

Apparently Rick Wright, the keyboardist for (and co-founder of) Pink Floyd, has just died of cancer.

Wright, who was unceremoniously dumped from the band by Roger Waters during sessions for The Wall, wrote and performed that classic track, “The Great Gig in the Sky”, for example, as well as providing vocals on tracks like “Time” and “Echoes”.

He rejoined the band following the departure of Waters, and if you want to see some of his more recent appearances, check out David Gilmour’s excellent live DVD, Remember That Night.

Folks, cancer sucks. Too many people in my life have been taken by cancer, and I bet anyone reading this has had similar experiences. Really, whether it’s slow or quick, it’s still a bastard.

Anyway, there goes any hope for a Pink Floyd reunion (unless they finally want to tour in support of The Final Cut…).

So I finally replaced the header image above for this theme, choosing a “1980s MTV” theme instead.

The images are taken from my favourite promo clips growing up. From left to right:

1. “Road to Nowhere” - Talking Heads: great surrealism from the masters of art-punk
2. “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” - Pink Floyd: one of my favourite songs as a kid; although I never actually saw this clip until years later, it still has great personal relevance to me
3. “Don’t Come Around Here No More” - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: this clip freaked me the hell out as a seven-year-old, and as a bonus, it’s inspired by one of my favourite books
4. “Every Breath You Take” - The Police: a great clip for a great song by a great band, directed by the greats Godley & Creme
5. “Sledgehammer” - Peter Gabriel: the clip that made me a lifelong fan in 1986
6. “Babooshka” - Kate Bush: minimalistic (as most clips were at the time) but utterly memorable, plus I always associate it with my grandmother despite the title being a total misnomer
7. “Money for Nothing” - Dire Straits: the definitive ’80s promo clip and my favourite track at the time

And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

So wrote Roger Waters in his lyrics to “Time”, one of the best tracks from Pink Floyd’s 1973 classic, The Dark Side of the Moon. The day just gone, 17 March, marked the 35th anniversary of its release, and Vega actually played it in its entirety as celebration.

It was ten years ago that I actually bought the album myself — I was 20 at the time, and here I am now, quickly approaching 30 and realising by the day just how true the quoted passage above is.

Life doesn’t begin tomorrow, or next week, or next year. It’s been happening since the day you were born, so you can either make the most of it now or keep waiting for something that’s already arrived. I’m personally choosing the former.

In 2007 my tastes shifted rather dramatically from pastoral, symphonic progressive rock (such as Genesis and Yes) towards blues and country-influenced rock (e.g. Tom Petty and Eagles). Sure, it’s all still rock — I grew up on AOR in the ’80s, damnit, and I won’t apologise for it!

In any case, here’s 75 minutes of my favourite tracks during 2007, sorted not by preference but by flow:

The 2007 Playlist

1. “Who Can It Be Now?” - Men at Work (from Business As Usual, 1981)
2. “Just What I Needed” - The Cars (from The Cars, 1978)
3. “Trouble” - Lindsey Buckingham (from Law and Order, 1981)
4. “Little Red Corvette” - Prince (from 1999, 1982 (single released 1983))
5. “You Got Lucky” - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (from Long After Dark, 1982)
6. “Golden Years” - David Bowie (from Station to Station, 1975)
7. “Solsbury Hill” - Peter Gabriel (from Peter Gabriel, 1977)
8. “Nine Cats” - Porcupine Tree (from On the Sunday of Life, 1991)
9. “Eyes Wide Open” - King Crimson (from The Power to Believe, 2003)
10. “The Boys of Summer” - Don Henley (from Building the Perfect Beast, 1984)
11. “Running Up That Hill” - Kate Bush (from Hounds of Love, 1985)
12. “Turn It On Again” - Genesis (from Duke, 1980)
13. “Maneater” - Hall & Oates (from H2O, 1982)
14. “Avalon” - Roxy Music (from Avalon, 1982)
15. “Africa” - Toto (from Toto IV, 1982 (single peaked in 1983))
16. “Wrapped Around Your Finger” - The Police (from Synchronicity, 1983)
17. “Comfortably Numb” - Pink Floyd (from The Wall, 1979)

My five favourite albums in 2007…

5. Toto: Toto IV (1982)

Winner of the 1983 Grammy for Album of the Year, Toto IV doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny beyond its two big hits, “Rosanna” and “Africa”. The other eight tracks are pretty forgettable examples of ’80s soft rock, but the album as a whole almost has an archetypal feel that gives it “guilty pleasure” appeal. Worth picking up if you’re a fan of 1980s AM rock.

4. Pink Floyd: The Wall (1979)

There are much better (and more representative) albums by Pink Floyd, but in terms of overblown 1970s rock operas, The Wall is still hard to surpass. More-or-less a Roger Waters solo album with the occasional standout contribution by David Gilmour, tracks like Waters’ “Another Brick in the Wall” and Gilmour’s “Comfortably Numb” make it a bona fide classic despite being weighed-down by angst and ego.

3. The Cars (1978)

A seminal piece of late-’70s New Wave, The Cars’ debut album combines radio-ready hits like “Just What I Needed” and “My Best Friend’s Girl” with a dark-edged song cycle (of sorts) on side two — “All Mixed Up” ends the album in a truly impressive manner. The Rhino re-release with a bonus disc of demos is the edition to seek out for true collectors.

2. Don Henley: Building the Perfect Beast (1984)

Dated by its heavy use of synths, former Eagle Don Henley’s second solo album nonetheless survives its era by including two knockout tracks: “The Boys of Summer” (co-written by “Heartbreaker” Mike Campbell) and “Sunset Grill” (also co-written by a member of the Heartbreakers — Benmont Tench — with Danny Kortchmar). Beyond that, Kortchmar’s “All She Wants to Do Is Dance” gets a gold star for being one of the most politically-subversive dance tracks of the ’80s. Henley’s follow-up, The End of the Innocence, is probably a better album overall, but Building the Perfect Beast is still more fun.

1. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Long After Dark (1982)

The third of Petty’s collaborations with producer Jimmy Iovine, Long After Dark is considered somewhat of a disappointment after Damn the Torpedoes and Hard Promises, but while it’s playing, all you hear is strong, literate rock. The New Wave-tinged “You Got Lucky” and the straight-ahead rocker “Change of Heart” are both superb, but there’s a consistency here that means nothing stands out as being particularly weak. It may not have been Petty & co.’s artistic triumph, but it’s great music nonetheless.