@keithharrison.bsky.social
Charity CEO. Songwriter. Hill-walker (flat-landscapes also good!)
#90sTop30 (xv) ‘IKB (RIP)’ #FrankToveyAndThePyros. It’s not unknown for me to like posts by @brunelmuseum.bsky.social or @brunelsbridge.bsky.social; here Isambard’s ghost meets a singer/songwriter and they head to Millwall Docks wearing stovepipe hats. A great song. www.shazam.com/song/7673860...
10.11.2025 07:58 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
#90sTop30 (vix) ‘I Give To You’ #NitzerEbb. If I was an adept writer of engaging prose I’d submit an idea for a @3313books.bsky.social on ‘Ebbhead’; this song is that album’s pinnacle. The orchestral lift is so tastefully applied. m.youtube.com/watch?v=sL1t...
09.11.2025 10:51 — 👍 13 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
#90sTop30 (viii) ‘Heaven Or Las Vegas’ #CocteauTwins. Pure musical euphoria. Centrepiece and title track of a phenomenal album too. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven_...
08.11.2025 08:07 — 👍 13 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
#90sTop30 (vii) ‘Happy Endings’ #Pulp. The group lean chanson-ward in this one, certainly with hints of Charles Aznavour’s take on domesticity. Candida Doyle’s synth interlude is wonderfully cinematic. m.youtube.com/watch?v=ElIe...
07.11.2025 07:46 — 👍 10 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
#90sTop30 (vi) ‘Give Me Time’ #BillyMackenzie. I saw an interview with Jim Kerr once, describing Associates’ work as “spy thriller music” - and this, a co-write with Paul Haig, continues (superbly) in that vein. Quite a direct lyric, sung brilliantly. m.youtube.com/watch?v=0hbL...
06.11.2025 07:45 — 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
#90sTop30 (v) ‘Dry The Rain’ #TheBetaBand. Quite a lo-fi first section and then the uplifting ending that sits somewhere with ‘Hey Jude’ or ‘One Day Day Like This’ - yet is quite different from either. All very singalong-able too. m.youtube.com/watch?v=6XKv...
05.11.2025 08:45 — 👍 16 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Some promo! @danthompson33.bsky.social was in with us at @thebaytrust.bsky.social yesterday, working on our #PinesGardensIn30Objects project. He’ll be in #Margate on Thursday, hosting a conversation with @holsmith.bsky.social on her ‘Up In The Air’ book. You’d never guess I studied town planning…
04.11.2025 20:50 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0That’s one I tend to forget the impressiveness of, despite my view that ‘So Tough’ is a captivating listen from start to finish!
04.11.2025 08:09 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
#90sTop30 (iv) ‘Doing The Unstuck’ #TheCure. Whilst I think that ‘Trust’, from the same LP, is a better song this has a real Sunday morning “blow the cobwebs away” sense that takes me back to my student days. A very singalong-able chorus too. m.youtube.com/watch?v=VhIj...
04.11.2025 08:00 — 👍 17 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0This came close to being my choice from Saint Etienne - the album version is particularly good.
04.11.2025 07:55 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
#90sTop30 (iii) ‘Democracy’ #LeonardCohen. I recall seeing this performed on ‘Later…’ back in the early/mid 90s. It’s been on numerous mixtapes and playlists of mine since. Very adept songwriting. m.youtube.com/watch?v=DU-R...
03.11.2025 07:13 — 👍 14 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
#90sTop30 (ii) ‘Black Sun’ #DeadCanDance. From an LP dominated by early music, Lisa Gerrard & Brendan Perry deliver a dramatic and spiralling composition. Perry’s vocal adds hints of Goth too. To respect BlueSky concerns with the ‘Aion’ cover, this link is to ‘Wake.’
m.youtube.com/watch?v=an9r...
#90sTop30 (i) ‘A Long Time Ago’ #DavidByrne. Not exactly the happiest of lyrics but they are delivered to an almost nursery rhyme strength melody which gives it a Blue Nile-esque earworm factor. m.youtube.com/watch?v=XeWO...
01.11.2025 07:32 — 👍 11 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Part of the front sleeve of Cocteau Twins’ album ‘Heaven or Las Vegas.’ The image features a largely pink/red background in the lower 60% of the image with a blue above this. Arcing across those backgrounds are a series of illuminated lights, akin to firework trails, in various hues of yellow, gold, pink, purple and white.
November’s musical diversion is the @tansleyjames.bsky.social enabled #90sTop30. My choices will be in the thread 🧵 below. One song per artiste and, this time, in alphabetical order by composition. As with #80sTop30, feel free to comment…
31.10.2025 21:56 — 👍 12 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
#80sTop30 (xxx) ‘Pacific 202’ #808State. An end of decade, possibly era-defining, composition that might be danced to or just enjoyed as a listening experience - from the bubbling synths to the sax that can be confused with a clarinet. I prefer the LP version :-) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific...
30.10.2025 08:30 — 👍 16 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Good praise for my gardening and #volunteer colleagues at @thebaytrust.bsky.social here. The dead hedge in our #GenerationRestoration area is coming along nicely, whilst the #PinesCalyx roof mowing reminds me I have a case study to send to @asbpuk.bsky.social soon! @unep.org
29.10.2025 14:07 — 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Image of a CD in its jewel case. The CD is largely a dark grey, with eight white lines of varying lengths scattered across its surface (though all aligned in exactly the same direction.) There is some white text circling the edge of the CD, stating ‘(c) 2014 East India Youth’ and then repeating that further round, followed by ‘/ Stolen Recordings’. The backdrop to the jewel case is card printed as though a light grey pencil has been scrawled across paper - though it looks light brown in this picture.
Possibly my first suggestion for a @richards7370.bsky.social poll (though I’ve voted on some past ones)… for #5DebutAlbums1014 here is ‘Total Strife Forever’ by East India Youth. Under his real name, William Doyle, he went on to make a record with #JonathanMeades.
29.10.2025 17:44 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0Good praise for my gardening and #volunteer colleagues at @thebaytrust.bsky.social here. The dead hedge in our #GenerationRestoration area is coming along nicely, whilst the #PinesCalyx roof mowing reminds me I have a case study to send to @asbpuk.bsky.social soon! @unep.org
29.10.2025 14:07 — 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
#80sTop30 (xxix) ‘Desire’ #Yello. This is a luxurious sounding record (the single even more so than the version opening their ‘Stella’ album), seemingly about the morning after a night before. m.youtube.com/watch?v=GAF8...
29.10.2025 07:46 — 👍 12 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0
#80sTop30 (xxviii) ‘Senses Working Overtime’ #XTC. A song of differing musical dynamics and fascinating lyrics - always an enjoyable listen :-) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senses_...
28.10.2025 08:11 — 👍 17 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
#80sTop30 (xxvii) ‘Perfect’ #TheThe. With a lyric that might be setting the scene for a kitchen sink drama, easy rhythm, nice trumpet part in the middle and a real ear-worm of a chorus, this is a special record. m.youtube.com/watch?v=gmS-...
27.10.2025 07:13 — 👍 15 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0That would be great to hear! FWIW I’ve long imagined what either Almond as a solo artist, or Soft Cell as a duo, might have sounded like covering ‘Country Bus’ - it’s not really Soft Cell territory, lyrically, but I’m convinced it would have suited a Dave Ball arrangement.
26.10.2025 11:14 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
#80sTop30 (xxvi) ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’ #SoftCell. Dave Ball (RIP) & Marc Almond sit at the tables of Aznavour, Brel and even maybe Jake Thackray, having written one of the greatest chansons of all time (IMHO.) I really like the all too short synth outro too. m.youtube.com/watch?v=y9Kg...
26.10.2025 08:07 — 👍 17 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0I would agree on ‘A Secret Wish’ being the best ZTT album, though it isn’t the one I’m most fond of (that’s ‘Who’s Afraid of the Art of Noise?’) Hence, there’s at least two of us with that controversial opinion!
25.10.2025 13:16 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
#80sTop30 (xxv) ‘P:Machinery’ #Propaganda. Possibly a triumph of studio work over song, this still sounds fantastic - there’s a beautiful intro synth melody, rhythmic tension through the verses and those big brass blasts. Quite the collage. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P:Machi...
25.10.2025 06:51 — 👍 10 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0
#80sTop30 (xxiv) ‘In The Night’ #PetShopBoys. Effectively an imagined Parisian wartime film theme, with its deadpan and almost hungover sounding vocal over rudimentary sounding (though possibly expensive) synth & drum-machine accompaniment. m.youtube.com/watch?v=hpgl...
24.10.2025 07:24 — 👍 13 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
What a difference a day makes! Yesterday was perfect weather for mowing and tidying up the green roof of our eco venue, The Pines Calyx. Thankfully that's done and dusted, so we can make the most of today's wind and rain to get to work on some indoor jobs! 🌱
23.10.2025 10:47 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
#80sTop30 (xxiii) ‘Stanlow’ #OMD. A song that does sound like people making (synth-focused) orchestral manoeuvres in the dark. Much of this evokes nighttime, it features industrial pumps, at least one glorious instrumental melody and a vocal delivered with feeling. m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wuxi...
23.10.2025 07:22 — 👍 14 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
#80sTop30 (xxii) ‘Your Silent Face’ #NewOrder. A glorious composition, combining technology and humanity in its delivery. Stately melodies through synth strings, bass, guitar and melodica and an engagingly frank vocal. m.youtube.com/watch?v=MEl0...
22.10.2025 06:50 — 👍 20 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
#80sTop30 (xxi) ‘America For Beginners’ #LatinQuarter. This has all the tension of a classic black & white film; there’s a strong narrative but so much room for one’s imagination in the pauses too. The chorus is beautifully hushed. m.youtube.com/watch?v=HXWy...
21.10.2025 07:57 — 👍 9 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
