SWSL Top 20 Live Performances Of 2007

To say 2007 was a bumper year for personal exposure to live music would be an extreme understatement. Over the course of the twelve months I took in three festivals - from the bloody great (Glastonbury) to the very small (Supersonic) - and a whole host of gigs, including my very first on a different continent, !!! at the Toronto Opera House. No prizes for guessing where much of my sometimes-hard-earned cash has gone...

Inevitably, the sheer number of gigs I've been to have meant I've witnessed so many remarkable and downright brilliant performances that it's been extremely difficult to whittle it down to just ten - so I've bent the (self-imposed) rules and gone for twenty this year instead. Click on the links if you want to read the reviews themselves. If you're a regular reader, I doubt you'll be greatly surprised by which performance occupies the top spot...

20. CLINIC, Green Man Festival, 18th August

19. DEREK MEINS, Oxford Jericho Tavern, 3rd December

18. RUFUS WAINWRIGHT, Glastonbury Festival, 22nd June

17. CSS, Glastonbury Festival, 23rd June

16. PATTI PLINKO AND HER BOY, Covent Garden Rock Garden, 23rd September

15. THE FALL, Cardiff Point, 26th March

14. FUCK BUTTONS, Supersonic Festival, 13th July

13. GINDRINKER, Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach, 25th January
(Also seen at Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach on two other occasions)

12. DEAD MEADOW, Green Man Festival, 17th August

11. HOWLING BELLS, Cardiff Point, 22nd March

10. MAXIMO PARK, Glastonbury Festival, 23rd June

9. ILL EASE, Cardiff Old Orleans, 21st March

8. FRIDGE, Green Man Festival, 18th August

7. !!!, Glastonbury Festival, 23rd June
(Also seen at Toronto Opera House)

6. LOS CAMPESINOS!, Cardiff Point, 4th June
(Also seen at Glastonbury Festival)

5. BLOOD RED SHOES, Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach, 1st February
(Also seen at Oxford Brookes Students Union)

4. STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS, Green Man Festival, 19th August

3. THE ARCADE FIRE, Glastonbury Festival, 22nd June

2. THE STOOGES, Glastonbury Festival, 23rd June

1. SONIC YOUTH, Camden Roundhouse, 1st September

Every other band / artist I've enjoyed (or, in some cases, endured) this year - every single one reviewed somewhere in the sidebar:

The Alones / Attack + Defend / Babyshambles / Corinne Bailey Rae / Devendra Banhart / Bat For Lashes / Battles / The Beep Seals / Beestung Lips / Biffy Clyro / Billy Bragg / Bright Eyes / Bill Callahan / Calvados Beam Trio / Euros Childs / Chrome Hoof / Confrontiers / Consumer Electronics / The Coral / Creepy Morons (x2) / The Cribs / Guto Dafis / Dartz!/ Das Wanderlust / Directing Hand / Drunk Granny / The Duke Spirit / The Earlies / Editors / Emmy The Great / Evils / Fanfarlo / The Fiery Furnaces / Foals / Goldrush / Goodbye Sergeants / Andy Gower / Lily Green (x3) / Heck / Help She Can't Swim / Herman Dune / The Horrors / Infants / Inner City Pirates / International Jetsetters / Richard James / Rose Kemp / King Alexander / Klaxons / Kling Klang / Lioness / Llan Clan / The Long Blondes / Manatees / Man From Michael / Manic Street Preachers / May Contain Nuts / Miasma & The Carousel Of Headless Horses / Malcolm Middleton / Migrant / Misty's Big Adventure / Modified Toy Orchestra / Monarch! / Monkey Swallows The Universe / Music For One / Napoleon IIIrd / Naughty / The New 1920 / The New Pornographers / Joanna Newsom / The Noisettes / Nomad 67 / Om / Pagan Wanderer Lu & The Volunteers / Gareth Pearson / Gethin Pearson / The People's Revolutionary Choir / Persil / Pete And The Pirates / The Physicists / Robert Plant / Emma Pollock / Qui / Rays / The Rebel / The Retro Spankees / Reverend And The Makers / Gruff Rhys / The Rumble Strips / Seasick Steve / Pamela Wyn Shannon / Silence At Sea / Six Organs Of Admittance / Solomon Kane / Somatic Responses / Sons & Daughters / Space In The 50s (x2) / The Spencer McGarry Season / Spiritualized Acoustic Mainline / Stornoway / Strings Of Consciousness / Sweet Baboo / Thistletown / Threatmantics / Tinariwen / Tired Irie / The Toy Band / Trawsfynydd Lo-Fi Liberation Front / Tunng (x2) / Underground Railroad / The Victorian English Gentlemen's Club / Voice Of The Seven Woods (x2) / The Warlocks / Watermelons / The Who / Witches / Wolf Eyes (x2) / James Yorkston

Silent Words Speak Loudest: supporting live music regardless of bank balance since 2002...

Thanks to all the promoters who've made it possible - Capsule, Forecast, Lesson No. 1, Meltdown, Peppermint Patti and Twisted By Design, to name but a few...

And, lest we forget, last year's Top 10:

10. LOS CAMPESINOS!, Cardiff Dempseys
9. THE YOUNG KNIVES, Summer Sundae Festival
8. DEAD MEADOW, Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach
7. THE LONG BLONDES, Summer Sundae Festival
6. HOWLING BELLS, Summer Sundae Festival
5. THE MELVINS, Cardiff Point
4. MY LATEST NOVEL, Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach
3. YO LA TENGO, Cardiff Point
2. MOGWAI, Cardiff Coal Exchange
1. BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE, Cardiff Point