We had a thread last year going over some of the "best moments" of the 2001, so I see no reason to be shy of it this time around...
BEST COMEDY SERIES: Erm... *coughs*... "The Office"
BEST TV SERIES: I hardly watched any television this year... I was too busy... however, this probably would be a category which others should vote for.
BEST ALBUM: Wire: "Read and Burn"
BEST SINGLE: Pulp: "Bad Cover Version"
BEST NEW BAND: Dufus
BEST LIVE GIG: Dufus at the 12 Bar, London - no, honestly. Highly acclaimed in America, ignored over here, why? Because they're not a "straightforward" punk band, and the music press have difficulties with them. Incorrectly.
BEST NEW COMEDIAN: Sir Gideon Vain
BEST CLUB: The Klinker, London (any club which features obscure Vivian Stanshall and Chris Morris recordings in its breaks between acts has to be worth some attention for that alone, surely?)
BEST STAND UP: Harry Hill
BEST FILM: Um - I didn't see any this year I'd honestly want to vote for...
OVER-HYPED EVENT OF THE YEAR: Oasis at Finsbury Park. I'm still having nightmares. Smashed up people by the first end tent, violence, bottles of piss, crushed people - "incidental" according to the NME. It was nearly bloody Altemont.
TRAGIC EVENTS OF THE YEAR: The deaths of Dudley Moore, Bob Cobbing, Stanley Unwin. RIP.
BEST COMEDY SERIES: I think I'd have to go for Look Around You here, despite the odd dodgy episode along the way. It's been a bit of a thin year for good comedy to be honest, although Dave Gorman's Important Astrology Experiment did pleasantly surprise me, especially considering how much I hated his first series.
BEST TV SERIES: Six Feet Under and Faking It have both been great, but I think my absolute favourite of the year has to be Vicious Circle. I didn't like the first couple of editions, mainly because of the intrusive background music and the incessant shrieking of Benjamin Pell, but I think now it's settled down into a very watchable programme with some serious points to make. Certainly it's the only place on television that you'll actually find heavyweight criticism of television itself at the moment, and I'm amazed by how perceptive Richard Bacon has proven himself to be. I'd written him off as an opinionless fool, and I was very wrong on that count.
BEST ALBUM: Supergrass - Life On Other Planets. For reissues, I'd got for Dig The Slowness, Love's Da Capo and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop CDs.
BEST SINGLE: James Taylor Quartet - Free
BEST NEW BAND: Automation
BEST LIVE GIG: Zombina and the Skeletones. The best live band around by far.
BEST STAND UP: Harry Hill
BEST FILM: It's been a bit of a bad year for good new films, to be honest. Ask me again in a couple of weeks, and I might even say The Santa Claus 2!
OVER-HYPED EVENT OF THE YEAR: The Brass Eye DVD. Nice to own the series, I suppose, but this release was a joke. There's forty year old programmes with no surviving production footage that include more DVD extras.
TRAGIC EVENTS OF THE YEAR: Once again I'd have to say the deaths of Dudley Moore, Bob Cobbing and Stanley Unwin, and rather sadly add Mary Hansen to the list.
BEST WEBSITE: there's not really been that much new material on SOTCAA this year, so on balance I'd have to go for http://www.offthetelly.co.uk - in all seriousness, I always find something new to read every time I go there.
Best website: I could be boring and go to www.cookdandbombd.co.uk, and it's true that I've spent most of my time there, but I won't. I'll go for... www.theslayer.net maybe. It's pretty poor now there though, loads of illiterate posters. www.stanley115.freeserve.co.uk is up there, but it doesn't get updated enough and there hasn't been enough of the old Faze articles put up for a while. And what exactly *has* happened to SOTCAA? Are they working on a ginormous update or have they just given up?
Best album: "Universal Truths and Cycles" by Guided By Voices
Comedy Series - "Phoenix Nights"
TV Series - "CSI - Crime Scene Investigation"
Best Album - "In Their Darkened Shrines" by Nile, pure black metal hatred about Egyptian myths and legends, very cool.....
Best Single - "Church Street EP" by The Relict
Best Gig - Electric Wizard and Warhorse, Joseph's Well, June, Leeds: two forces of doom collide and bring joy to Northern metalheads.
Best Comedian - The two new Bill Hicks CDs on Rykodisc blow away every comedian alive, no question.
Best Club - The Medicine Bar, Birmingham - anywhere that puts on Acid Mothers Temple gets my vote.
Best Stand-up - Michael Moore at the Roundhouse.
Best Film - "Donnie Darko", this was by far the best thing at the cinema for me, just edging out "The Royal Tenenbaums"(but not by much).
Hype - You even have to ask? "f###in' Lord Of The f###in' Rings"...Kill all Hobbits now.....
Tragedy - the deaths of Layne Staley, "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith and actor Glenn Quinn(Doyle from "Angel"), impending war, The MIC, PopStars/Fame Academy, my bank balance.
Yeah, British Bulldog, that was a bit of a shame... god I used to love wrestling. When I was like, ten. Yes. Glad to see another CSI fan as well, absolutely quality programme. Many people I know don't watch "because it's on Channel 5". It's so damn slick though.
Yeah, Davey's death was doubly sad because it was all down to his drug and steroid use. He was only 39, that is just a terrible age to die. I'm one of those born-agin wrestling fans, I loved it in the early 90s, fell out of love and now I'm back in love with it again, for my sins(the WWE is pretty awful, I mainly follow the indie leagues). I'm glad to hear from another CSI fan, too! You're the only person I've mentioned it to that has seen it. William Petersen is great, and I can't wait for the Miami spinoff series with David Caruso coming soon. I think C5 has some high quality show these days, like "The Shield", which I've been glued to since it's amazing debut episode. The season closes tonight. Oh yeah, I forgot a best new band - Erase Errata, four women who ripped up Leeds when they played in September. Cool tattoos, as well!
Crappest Things About 2002: Depression, piss-poor television, Terrible summertime weather, people going on about The Office, the continuing horribleness of rock music, deaths, George Bush generally being a fuckarse...
Special mention for being so horrible they make me want to go out and commit a murder: Popstars: The Rivals, Celebrity Fit Club, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, MTV Undressed, Fame Academy, in fact everyong associated with "reality tv". Bastards.