Best of 2022
Film:
Elvis
Last year: –
Foreign-Language Film:
Hit the Road
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Documentary:
Nothing Compares
This Much I Know to be True
TS Eliot: Into ‘The Waste Land’
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Male Lead:
Austin Butler – Elvis
Tom Hanks – A Man Called Otto
Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin
Bill Nighy – Living
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Female Lead:
Carey Mulligan – She Said
Olivia Coleman – Empire of Light
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Male Support:
Brendan Gleason – The Banshees of Inisherin
Anthony Hopkins – Armageddon Time
Judd Hirsch – The Fabelmans
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Female Support:
Mariana Trevino – A Man Called Otto
Michelle Williams – The Fabelmans
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Director:
Baz Luhrmann – Elvis
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Writer:
Martin McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin
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Editing:
Jonathan Redmond & Matt Villa – Elvis
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Cinematography:
Jamie Ramsay – Living
Roger Deakins – Empire of Light
Charlotte Bruus Christensen – All the Old Knives
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Film Music:
Elvis
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Single/Song:
Grace – Kae Tempest
Running Up That Hill – Kate Bush
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Album:
Black Acid Soul – Lady Blackbird
The Line is a Curve – Kae Tempest
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Gig:
Lady Blackbird – Barbican
Kae Tempest – Brighton Dome
La Voix Humaine & Les Mamelles de Tirésias – Glyndebourne
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Play:
Jerusalem (Apollo, Shaftesbury Ave)
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Art Exhibition:
Post-War Modern: new art in Britain 1945-65 (Barbican)
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Book:
Good Pop Bad Pop – Jarvis Cocker
Four Thousand Weeks – Oliver Burkemann
The Big Goodbye – Sam Wasson
The Promise – Damon Galgut
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TV:
SAS Rogue Heroes (BBC)
The Offer (Paramount)
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Podcast:
Soul Music (BBC)
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Sport:
England at World Cup in Qatar
Last Year: –
Dance:
–
Last Year: –
Event:
The Queen’s Jubilee video with Paddington
The wreck of Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance being found on the sea floor, in a remarkably good state of preservation
…contrasted by sinking of the warship Moskva in the Black Sea and the immortal “Russian warship, go fuck yourself!”
The abject failure of Liz Truss and her rapid sinking, beaten even by a lettuce
[professional] Sharing a screen credit with Matt Damon & Ben Affleck
Dearly departed:
Terry Hall, Keith Levine, Pharoah Sanders, Jean-Luc Godard, Lamont Dozier, David Warner, Claes Oldenburg, Monty Norman, James Caan, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Paula Rego, Jack Higgins, William Hurt, Shane Warne, Ivan Reitman, Gorbachev, Monica Vitti, Norma Waterson, Michael Lang, Sidney Poitier, Maxi Jazz, Pele, Vivienne Westwood & Jordan.
Best of 2020 and links to earlier Bests Of [there is no Best of 2021 …yet]
Simple Pleasures part 4 
Music:
‘Ali’ – Vieux Farka Toure and Khruangbin
‘Isabela’ – Oded Tzur
‘Cure the Jones’ – Mamas Gun
‘Where I’m Meant To Be’ – Ezra Collective
‘10’, ‘11’ and ‘Today and Tomorrow’ – Sault (yes, three albums)
‘Reflections’ – Alina Bzhezhinska & HipHarp Collective
‘In These Times’ – Makaya McCraven
‘Ticket to Shangri-La’ – Young Gun Silver Fox
‘Could We Be More ‘ – Kokoroko
‘Cure the Jones’ just edges it as the best, but many more will be discovered over time.
Re-releases:
‘Cookin’ with Blue Note at Montreux – Donald Byrd
‘The Movers – 1970-76’ (Analog Africa)
‘Perú Selvático – Sonic Expedition into the Peruvian Amazon 1972-1986’ (Analog Africa)
‘Sapana’ – Amancio D’Silva
Live:
1. Maisha
2. M’Dou Moktar
3. Lady Blackbird
Sport:
The remarkable transformation of the England cricket team.
Saracens match against Gloucester (4 tries in the last 15 minutes to win it).
My rugby team’s (Havant) first half performance against Oxford Harlequins.
The football World Cup Final.
Politics:
A series of lows … Truss, Johnson, the plague of Brexit.
Some highs … the likely marginalising of Trump, Bolsanaro, Johnson; election of Macron over the hideous alternative.
The possibility of a ten-year economic depression.
Podcasts:
1. Battleground Ukraine
2. The Rest is Politics
Travel (resumed):
Germany (five times), Bangladesh, Lebanon, The Netherlands, Kazakhstan, France, Italy, Jordan, Greece and Poland.
Highlight: Lying on my back in the Dead Sea and watching the sun set behind Jersusalem, Bethlehem and Jericho.
Book:
‘Second City’ – Richard Vinen (a history of Birmingham)
‘What Just Happened’ – Marina Hyde (she’s just very, very funny)
The final part of the Chips Channon Trilogy
Predictions:
The war in Ukraine will still be with us this time next year, unless Putin is given an exit strategy/golden bridge.
Revolution in Belarus.
Sunak will still be here, and the Tories will show signs of recovery towards the end of 2023. Labour needs to keep its discipline.
China will poke and prod around Taiwan a bit more, testing the ground. Will the west have the appetite/resources to protect it, post Ukraine?
Sad losses:
An almost overwhelming number this year. Seems crazy but in the last ten days Maxi Jazz (who I saw pre-Faithless days, singing/rapping over Jason Rebello’s piano in the Barbican foyer 30 years ago), Terry Hall and writers of a huge number of soul classics, Thom Bell and Lamont Dozier. Joey DeFrancesco – in my opinion the greatest Hammond B3 player there has ever been. Gal Costa – a standard bearer for that glorious era of Brazilian music and William Hart, of one of my favourite soul groups, the Delfonics. But a special place reserved for Pharoah Sanders (who appeared on DeFrancesco’s last album).
Eddie Butler, Dodie Weir, Shane Warne, Jim Parks (a great Sussex/England player from the early ‘60’s) and the incomparable Lester Pigott from sport.
Gorbachev, Madeleine Allbright and David Trimble (who sacrificed his political career for peace).
Personal in 2023:
To accept reality
To spend less
To move house
More travel to Africa (starts with Namibia in February)
What a wonderful selection, adds a whole new dimension to mine – will work my way through all the music as always. But how come Lady Blackbird is No.3 on live gigs? You raved about that one at the time. (Or does the number not signify anything?)
Maisha (with Gary Bartz) I saw two nights after Lady B and they took me to an even greater height. Absolutely amazing and I cannot wait to see them again. I still rave about Lady B – tears running down my face. It was a beautiful experience and I think I must have been shedding some deep psychological whatever which she tapped into. Mdou Moktar I went to with my eldest daughter. She said it was the best thing she has ever seen. I loved it. All three fit into the ten best things I have seen live. Nitin Sawhney was good too – I saw him about 12 years ago and he was much better this time around.
Some entry points into a few of the recommended albums, which you might want to try first:
‘When You Stole the Sun From the Sky’ on the Mamas Gun album is gorgeous (the album is really great – a coming together of Bill Withers and Lewis Taylor). Talking of which, remarkably, Lewis Taylor released a new album this year, his first for 17 years which I am listening to right now.
‘Sienna Nights’ on the Young Gun Silver Fox (it’s all guns) is also great in a ’70’s ‘MoR’ish way.
‘Love Song For the Rainy Season’ on Oded Tzur’s album is sublime with Jonathan Blake’s drumming a standout.
2022 was great for retro soul. I highly recommend Lee Field’s ‘Sentimental Fool’ and to a slightly lesser extent ‘Get on the Otherside’ from Bobbly Oroza.