Gallifrey Base iPod MP3 Chart March 2012

Around a year has passed at this point since the denizens of Gallifrey Base began picking favourites from the previous poster's selection in the Random MP3 list thread, and things are settling down a little. As posters come and posters go there will always be changes though, and the highest new entry in the March 2012 top 50 list is Elvis Costello at 37, with 8 picks in the period. Highest climber is Kate Bush, up 14 places to 24 after 7 picks, while at the top the Beatles are the most picked of the period with 25 to Bowie's 19, closing the gap to 16 points. Another impressive performance from the Floyd as well with 18 votes to overtake Maiden and Duran Duran on their way to fourth overall.

1	1		David Bowie	143
2	2		Beatles	127
3	3		Queen	87
4	6		Pink Floyd	59
5	4		Iron Maiden	57
6	7		Clash	50
6	5		Duran Duran	50
8	10		Levellers	40
8	8		Metallica	40
10	9		Pulp	38
11	14		Blur	35
11	11		ELO	35
13	11		Bee Gees	34
14	21		Foo Fighters	32
14	14		Jam	32
14	14		Madness	32
14	18		Pogues	32
18	14		Depeche Mode	31
18	18		Manic Street Preachers	31
18	11		U2	31
21	18		Marillion	30
21	21		Ultravox	30
23	21		Scissor Sisters	29
24	27		Beach Boys	28
25	24		AC/DC	26
26	26		Cure	23
26	40		Kate Bush	23
26	24		Muse	23
26	33		Who	23
30	27		Helloween	22
30	27		Johnny Cash	22
30	30		Led Zeppelin	22
30	30		New Order	22
30	42		Status Quo	22
35	37		John Lennon	21
35	33		Rolling Stones	21
37	NE		Elvis Costello	20
38	33		Oasis	19
38	42		Tori Amos	19
38	30		White Stripes	19
41	33		Blondie	18
41	37		Chumbawamba	18
41	47		Coldplay	18
41	37		Radiohead	18
41	42		Slipknot	18
41	47		Tears for Fears	18
47	NE		Joy Division	17
47	47		REM	17
47	47		Stranglers	17
47	42		Super Furry Animals	17
47	42		T Rex	17

Gallifrey Base mp3 picks Christmas 2011

OK, I'd actually got a bit further than I let on last time, just wanted to check the blog still worked :) Also in the interests of accuracy, I fouled up on my last post by printing the top 50 Fm mid-October 2011 rather than the start of November. Ah well...

So, Christmas 2011. Or more accurately New Year's Day 2012, I've just noticed.In the past two and a half months another 125 artists have been added, taking the total to 1061. The top 5 are unchanged, with Bowie adding another 45 picks, the Beatles doubling their score with 51, Queen 37, Maiden 10 and Duran Duran 13, but up to number 6 with an impressive 24 picks in the period is Pink Floyd. Floyd's rise is all the more remarkable in that at the start of September 2011 they weren't even in the top 80, with just 5 picks in over 5 months...  Highest new entry is U2, who in mid-Sep were down in a share of 62nd place, but added 21 picks to go straight up into 11th equal. Biggest fallers are the Stranglers, down 24 places after not adding to their 14 picks.

Pos (Was)         Artist                              Picks

1	1			David Bowie	124
2	2			Beatles	102
3	3			Queen	77
4	4			Iron Maiden	49
5	5			Duran Duran	45
6	15			Pink Floyd	41
7	6			Clash	39
8	6			Metallica	38
9	8			Pulp	32
10	12			Levellers	31
11	13			Bee Gees	29
11	17			ELO	29
11	NE			U2	29
14	27			Blur	27
14	8			Depeche Mode	27
14	15			Jam	27
14	10			Madness	27
18	17			Manic Street Preachers	25
18	19			Marillion	25
18	19			Pogues	25
21	36			Foo Fighters	24
21	13			Scissor Sisters	24
21	10			Ultravox	24
24	30			AC/DC	22
24	30			Muse	22
26	36			Cure	21
27	NE			Beach Boys	20
27	23			Helloween	20
27	30			Johnny Cash	20
30	44			Led Zeppelin	19
30	19			New Order	19
30	19			White Stripes	19
33	23			Blondie	18
33	NE			Oasis	18
33	NE			Rolling Stones	18
33	36			Who	18
37	29			Chumbawamba	17
37	NE			John Lennon	17
37	NE			Radiohead	17
40	36			Kate Bush	16
40	36			OMD	16
42	30			Slipknot	15
42	NE			Status Quo	15
42	NE			Super Furry Animals	15
42	NE			T Rex	15
42	NE			Tori Amos	15
47	30			Adam & The Ants	14
47	NE			Coldplay	14
47	NE			Cradle of Filth	14
47	44			Korn	14
47	NE			REM	14
47	23			Stranglers	14
47	27			Tears for Fears	14
47	NE			Toyah	14
47	NE			Wings	14

Gallifrey Base Random MP3 picks top 50 - March to November 2011

Ooh, first post in ages - bit cobwebby in here...

Anyhoo, I've been whiling away some free time by - shock, horror - putting together a list.

At the excellent Gallifrey Base we have for a while had a thread where people post a random selection of 10 songs from their mp3 player of choice, as is common in many places. Sometime in March 2011, someone had the bright idea of picking their favourite song(s) from the previous poster's list, before then posting their own.

What I've been doing is collecting those picks and keeping a record of picks per artist. Where more than one person has picked from any particular list, I've allowed all those picks, except where they are duplicated - i.e. a song can be picked from one list once and once only (though it can certainly be picked again if it later comes up on another list.) Similarly, though admittedly a little more abitrarily, I'm only allowing an artist to be picked once per list, so if poster A includes 8 Radical Cleric tracks in their list, and the next poster is also a Radical Cleric fan, I'll only count one pick for Radical Cleric off that list.Where duets or collaborations are picked, I've used common sense (?!?) in determining whether to credit each artist separately(Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot) or as a pair (Hall and Oates, Oakey and Moroder.)

Anyway, as of November 2011, over 930 artists have been represented. The top 50 (and ties) stood like this:

1	David Bowie	69
2	Beatles	51
3	Queen	46
4	Iron Maiden	39
5	Duran Duran	32
6	Clash	28
	Metallica	28
8	Depeche Mode	26
	Pulp	26
10	Madness	22
	Ultravox	22
12	Levellers	20
13	Bee Gees	18
	Scissor Sisters	18
15	Jam	17
	Pink Floyd	17
17	ELO	16
	Manic Street Preachers	16
19	Marillion	15
	New Order	15
	Pogues	15
	White Stripes	15
23	Blondie	14
	Helloween	14
	Stranglers	14
	Toyah	14
27	Blur	13
	Tears for Fears	13
29	Chumbawamba	12
30	AC/DC	11
	Adam & The Ants	11
	Johnny Cash	11
	Muse	11
	Slayer	11
	Slipknot	11
36	Cure	10
	Foo Fighters	10
	Gary Numan	10
	Kate Bush	10
	OMD	10
	Police	10
	Specials	10
	Who	10
44	ABC	9
	Bjork	9
	Buggles	9
	Dubstar	9
	Franz Ferdinand	9
	Heaven 17	9
	Ian Dury	9
	INXS	9
	Kirsty MacColl	9
	Korn	9
	Led Zeppelin	9
	Smiths	9
	Soft Cell	9
	Spandau Ballet	9
	Sparks	9
	Thin Lizzy	9
	Visage	9
	Yazoo	9

 I'll try to post updates after every couple of months' worth of posts, until I get up to date, at which point if I still have the will to live, I'll update it a little more frequently. Next post will see how things have developed by Christmas 2011...

Top 7... 80s Who

Spanning 1983-89, or Seasons 20-26 if you prefer, these were out preferred viewing choices from the dog days and declining years of the Classic Series. Unfortunately Darth's taste for the Colin Baker years was not shared by the other two, and Vengeance on Varos and Revelation of the Daleks failed to make the cut. Those that did were (now with the respective votes of myself, Matt and Darth in that order):

1 Ghost Light (1989, D, 422)  Let me guess. My theories appal you, my heresies outrage you, I never answer letters and you don't like my tie. The genius of Marc Platt, Sylvester at his most mysterious - finally the series was back on track. Unfortunately the last story made prior to cancellation. None of our favourites, but top by consensus as one of only three in all our lists.

2 The Curse of Fenric (1989, M, -13)  Evil, evil since the dawn of time! Not in my list, though it wasn't far off, but as can be seen I was comprehensively outvoted. Very atmospheric and Nicholas Parsons proving that celebrity casting doesn't have to be a disaster.

3 Terminus (1983, T, 15-)  Short term memory... always the first to go...  My favourite Davison story despite it's poor reputation in fandom, and Darth only abstained from voting as he's never seen it. Nyssa in her undies and a star turn from Peter Benson as Bor, the radiation-ravaged Vanir.

4 The Caves of Androzani (1984, M, -33)  More of a tennis player than a cricketer.  Again not a favourite of mine, but I seem to be in a small minority. 80s Who at its bleakest, but as least in the hands of Bob Holmés rather than the Sawardinator done with some panache.

5 Frontios (1984, M, 646) I got this one cheap because the walk's not quite right... And then there's the accent...  Chris Bidmead's best Who script by a mile - Tegan as a defective android, a hatstand used as a weapon, and a quite clever story at its heart.

6 Paradise Towers (1987, T, 38-)  Red Kang eye-spy says we can't go through usual carrydor. Blue Kangs out and lurking... No yellows. All unalive now.  Hardly an unalloyed masterpiece, this had typically poor late 80s lighting, uninspired direction and Richard Briers not so much chewing the scenery as swallowing and regurgitating it, nonetheless after years of unremitting turgidity PT showed there was vitality in the old corpse yet - an intriguing backstory, some sharp political satire and Clive Merrison putting Briers to shame as a genuinely chilling Chief Caretaker.

7 The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (1988, T, 577)  Clowns are creepy.  Dr Who goes all postmodernist, a full 18 years before Love & Monsters. Creepy clowns, annoying fanboys, alluring vampires and Peggy bloomin' Mount, what's not to love? In fact how did this end up as low as 7th on this list?

Top 7... Punk & Nu-Ro Who

Well it seems as good a title as any for a set covering 1977-82, otherwise known as Seasons 15-19, or the Williams and early JN-T years...

It was another chat in which we had difficulty in all agreeing, with only one story in all our top 7s, but unlike the last poll this was because there were more than a dozen stories each of us liked, just not all to quite the same extent. In fact every one of the five seasons under review got at least one entry in the list. With regret, as we all liked them anyway, we rejected Black Orchid and the sublime Androids of Tara, leaving us with :-

1 City of Death (1979, M) - Can anyone join in on this conversation or do you need a certificate? Tom, Lalla, Douglas Adams and Paris. 'Nuff said?

2 Warriors' Gate (1981,T) -  I don't know what these levers do, but it's pointing in your direction...
The end of the E-Space trilogy, the end of an era, and a story with more quotable lines than possibly any other Who. Influenced by Cocteau - how many Tennant stories can boast that?

3 Horror of Fang Rock (1977,M) - Gentlemen, I've got news for you: This lighthouse is under attack and by tomorrow morning we might all be dead. Anyone interested? Pure scares, deaths a-plenty and almost a trip back to the Troughton days with the scientific research base replaced by a lighthouse under siege.

4 State of Decay (1980, D) - Do you know, it just occurs to me there are vampire legends on almost every inhabited planet. Vampires in E-Space. As with WG, even Adric wasn't bad in this one...

5 Kinda (1982, T) - It is the Mara who now turn the wheel. It is the Mara who dance to the music of our despair. Our suffering is the Mara's delight. Our madness - the Maras' meat and drink. And now he has returned. The only Davison story to make it - forget the rubber snake and revel in the psychological drama played out largely in Tegan's head, but reflected in the entire world.

6 The Pirate Planet (1978, M) - I’ll never be cruel to an electron in a particle accelerator again! Douglas Adams' debut TV script. Notable for the battle to the death between a robot dog and a robot parrot .

7 Nightmare of Eden (1979, T) - My arms! My legs! My... everything! Ostensibly written by Who stalwart Bob Baker, this has more than a touch of S17 script editor D Adams about it. For my money, the most underrated Tom Baker story of the lot...

Top 7... 70s Dr Who

Our latest project was to find our favourite stories from the Pertwee and "classic" Tom Baker years, spanning 1970 to mid 1977. It initially seemed like we might struggle to find seven we could agree on, as Martin loathes all of the Pertwee era and I'm not too keen on most of the early Bakers, but in the end we discarded The Mutants and The Seeds of Doom to end up with...

1 The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977; DM) - Yes, we can be conventional at times; though this wasn't actually top of any of our lists, it's the only story to be in all our top 3s. Oozes mid-late Victorian atmosphere and has one of the most popular supporting casts ever in the redoubtable Jago and Litefoot.

2 Pyramids of Mars (1975; MI) - a moody Doctor, Sarah-Jane at her most appealing and robot mummies to boot, along with Gabriel Woolf as a superbly evil Sutekh.

3 Inferno (1970; MI) - the top-ranked Pertwee in the list and again no departure from fan orthodoxy there, but for two of us at least this is right up there in the lexicon - parallel universe, dirty great  mineshaft, and a very real sense of danger. And an eyepatch of course...

4 The Robots of Death (1977; MI) - "Please do not throw hands at me" - almost certainly the best of Who's occasional stabs at an Agatha Christie pastiche, this also takes advantage of the standby budget saving "Base under Siege" trope to provide excellent drama and makes a star out of new assistant Louise Jameson.

5 Carnival of Monsters (1973, TC) - for me, a Troughton story that crossed the striations of the timeline, this is by far my favourite Pertwee (and even Martin's least disliked one!) Dry wit, topical humour and a neat idea combine with unusually good acting performances for the time.

6 The Green Death (1973, TC) - our second pick from Season Ten, and Jo Grant's last story, as we invstigate giant maggots and green slime in a Welsh coal mine. By turns gripping, touching and corny, it gets away with it all by dint of the sheer force of will of a team determined to go out on a high.

7 The Deadly Assassin (1976, DM) - truthfully not in the top seven for two of us, but the closest we could get to agreeing one, this is a tour de force of innovations, some of which work (decaying Time Lord society) and some of which don't (the Doctor usually has a companion for a good reason) but if nothing else it was disliked at the time both by the NVLA and DWAS, which can't be a bad thing...