I’ll try to make this short, but be warned: 1979 is my year. For me it is the best year for music ever, for many reasons but principally because the best album (in my opinion) was released in this year, and that is almost reason enough.

This was a transitional time. The 70’s were ready to turn into the 80’s, the country was just entering a long period of Tory government, punk was fizzling out but new wave was getting into the mainstream, as was electronic music, and this new thing called rap appeared. On a more domestic level, this was my transition from school to college. The first half of the year was spent in the bubble of boarding school, the second half in a new place with new people and going home every day. Let’s get that best’ album out of the way first. It was Entertainment! by Gang of Four. I don’t need to say anything about it. I have already written about it some length. Other albums I was listening to a lot can be split into two really. The ones I listened to before leaving school and those after I had left. A lot were down to my own personal taste and choice anyway, but the first lot also included influences from schoolmates Towards the end of the year I was also getting influenced by and introduced to things by my new friends who were generally more indie/punk-oriented.

At school we were listening to Spirits having Flown by the Bee Gees, The Great Rock & Roll Swindle by the Sex Pistols, Breakfast in America by Supertramp, Remote Control by the Tubes, Cool for Cats by Squeeze, Bob Dylan at Budokan, and Rhapsodies by Rick Wakeman. In doing so, we missed out on Armed Forces by Elvis Costello, Look Sharp! by Joe Jackson, Live at the Witch Trials by the Fall, and Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division. Some of those I caught up with later in the year, others much later.

Albums I was listening to and buying after leaving school were the B-52’s debut album, Exposed and Platinum by Mike Oldfield, Off the Wall by Michael Jackson, Reggatta de Blanc by the Police, Tusk by Fleetwood Mac, The Specials’ debut album, and Metal Box by Public Image Limited. Ones that got away at the time were London Calling by the Clash, The Wall by Pink Floyd, Cut by the Slits, Setting Sons by the Jam, and One Step Beyond by Madness.

Looking at that there is a fair number of big 70’s acts having a last successful album, or last successful album for a while, but a bigger number of fantastic debut albums. By the way, it may be a minority opinion, but I think that Michael Jackson peaked with Off The Wall. I much prefer it to Thriller.

It wasn’t all albums of course. A lot of the new wave acts didn’t even have albums but were putting out singles and EPs, often on independent labels. We were lucky to have a couple of record shops in Basildon that had a decent stock of these independent label records. The year had a good mix of big-selling classics and cult favourites. We had Toyah with Victims of the Riddle and the Sheep Farming in Barnet EP, Spizzenergi with Where’s Captain Kirk?, Bela Lugosi’s Dead by Bauhaus, California Über Alles by the Dead Kennedys, Are “Friends” Electric? by Tubeway Army, I’m In Love With Margaret Thatcher by the Notsensibles, Milk and Alcohol by Dr. Feelgood, On My Radio by the Selecter, Playground Twist and The Staircase by Siouxsie and the Banshees, Cars by Gary Numan,  Lucky Number by Lene Lovich, Ring my Bell by Anita Ward, Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang, and Making Plans for Nigel by XTC.

Just in this year, Blondie put out Heart of Glass, Sunday Girl, One Way or Another, Dreaming, and Union City Blue.

How can this be anything other than the best year ever for music? It had the Two-Tone scene explosion, Disco saving some of its best songs for the end of the decade, post-punk/new wave getting its feet under the table and Pink Floyd as the Christmas number one! The only thing that could have made it better would have been a Genesis album.

With so many influential and significant songs it would be hard to pick just one of them so I went for one that wasn’t a huge hit and didn’t break any moulds and is far removed from new wave and indie, but is just a lovely song, especially in its extended 11-minute glory: the title track from the Crusaders’ album Street Life. It takes a little while to get going but after the 90-second mark it really takes off.