I had me a real good time recently, getting 2025 off to fun start by listening to lots of The Faces and Van Halen.

The Faces At The BBC is one of the best box sets I’ve bought for a while, I’ve been enjoying it immensely. The fact that The Faces were ace live isn’t exactly news because the Five Guys Walk Into A Bar… box set already did a great job of documenting that, but these BBC recordings are a soulful, rocking revelation all the same.

You don’t need me to tell you how good the first two Van Halen albums are, but I’ve been listening to them cause I’ve been enjoying Alex Van Halen’s Brothers book. Actually it’s the audiobook I’ve been enjoying because I liked the idea of hearing him reading it. It’s a thoughtful, detailed and moving memoir and Alex hasn’t been an outspoken figure for many years so it’s a treat to hear him reading the story.

All this brings me to the topic of my plan for 2025: I want to read more.

I’ve got a pretty cool library of interesting music books and used to read them loads but in recent years I’ve lost the mojo. Although Brothers has been great, an aborted attempt to read Tom Werman’s disappointing Turn It Up! reminded me that I mostly prefer biographies or books about genres, music history, listening etc… rather than autobiographies.

Also, while I can never rule out re-reads of favourites like Dayal Patterson’s Black Metal: Evolution Of The Cult and Albert Mudrian’s Choosing Death: The Improbable History Of Death Metal & Grindcore (two of my favourite music books), I’ve got a notion to read more about other genres I enjoy, like folk and progressive rock.

First up, a book I had been eyeing up for a while and received as a Christmas gift, Michel Faber’s Listen: On Music, Sound And Us. I saw it in a branch of Waterstones and liked the “how and why we listen to music” premise and the discursive, conversational approach Faber seemed to be taking. I thought I would find it quite inspiring for my own writing efforts. And, even if I’m not always on board with some of the arguments and sentiments in it, Faber has gotten my year of reading off to an engaging and though-provoking start. And disagreeing is part of the fun when talking about music, right?

I was also gifted a copy of Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch And The British Folk And Blues Revival by Colin Harper. This looks like a slam dunk and I’ve wanted it for years. Now I finally have a copy and it seems like I got it at the right time.

On the folk topic I’d also like to revisit Rob Young’s Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music and JP Bean’s Singing From The Floor: A History Of British Folk Clubs. Two weighty and excellent books that I’ve had for ages but have never managed to finish. But I’ll be starting, and hopefully getting to the end, of both of those this year!

In addition to the folk stuff, I also hope to read Mike Barnes’ A New Day Yesterday: UK Progressive Rock & The 70s. Another weighty genre dive, I think this was first published in 2020 but I never knew about it until I saw the new “Omnibus Remastered” edition in yet another Waterstones (while on a lovely day out to Perth last year).

For music listeners, there are other kinds of reading too. Talking about the Free box set a while back reminded me that I’ve also not been as diligent in reading liner notes as I used to be. So last night, while listening to the new, lovingly researched and compiled, Davy Graham box set He Moved Through The Fair: The Complete 1960s Recordings, I made a point of reading the liner notes. And I had a great time immersing myself in those while listening to the magical The Guitar Player album.

Actually, author Will Hodgkinson wrote about meeting the enigmatic Graham in his book Guitar Man so that’s another one I should re-read!

And there are magazines too. I just bought the new Feb 2025 issue of Uncut because it has a cool-looking article about Blue Öyster Cult in it.

So… looks like we’ve got ourselves a reader! Let me know what you’ve been reading recently or are intending to read.