Never Trust a Hippy: Exalted decade

Paulie states a valid belief that the 80's was the best decade for music.

He's right, of course, but then again, completely wrong.

It's easy to say the decade of your teenage years with the constant gigging / pubbing / clubbing before the responsibilities of family, would represent the "exalted decade". And he goes on to list a who's who of some of the best bands ever, let alone the 80's. A couple of corkers stick out for me; The Damned were the first band I ever went to see live (not a bad choice, eh ?) while The Mighty Lemon Drops were one of the most under-rated bands of the 80's / 90's.

However there are two major reasons why Paulie is wrong on this:

Firstly, there are a large number of bands out there at the moment who are well worth listening to, with the list growing daily. Just go on 'myspace' and search under your favorite band, and dozens more will appear citing influences. Some are heavily derivative, some sadly deluded of their own abilities, but every so often a real jem appears. I have a few linked on my 'myspace' site and if you want to see them, click the link. If new music was good enough for John Peel, it's got to be good enough for me. Liam Frost & the Slowdown Family (above) is a good example, not particularly better than anything else, just something played on BBC 6 Music today.

And secondly, if I started to tell my kids that the music today was rubbish and the best decade was twenty odd years ago, I'll go get some slippers, woodbines and Bryl Cream, and then completely turn into my dad!