Okkervil River

1. I Am Very Far - Okkervil River
   The best live band you will see doing Rock n' Roll shows have put out an album that shows the emotional range of one of their performances. Weaving between melancholia and pumped guitar stylings I Am Very Far is a band hitting the targets that it sets for itself, and very high targets those are. Lyrical, intelligent, excellent.
2. Welcome To Condale - Summer Camp
   Out of the ethereal and onto record it has taken a long time for Summer Camp to emerge after some curious shows and a few hints towards obscurities. What emerges is an album recollecting a time not lived in a place that probably never existed but with a feel that is universal. Songs of heartache and loss are always played out well to a catchy beat.


Stevie Jackson

3. (I Can't Get No) - Stevie Jackson
   Or, if you will, the guy out of Belle & Sebastian doing his own thing and doing it so very well. The references are sixties pop of course but the immediacy of the guitar driven pop and the cute smartness of the lyrics are surprisingly effective.
4. Nursing Home - Let's Wrestle
   It is thrashing guitars and sarcastic lyrics but that has never been something that upset me and Nursing Home manages not only to power through its running time in an indecent haste but also includes some laugh out loud funny moments. Superb.
5. Collapse Into Now - R.E.M.
   Or if you will the end of an era. The last R.E.M. is another addition to the catalogue that adds breadth but lacks the depth of the earlier work of legend. Still a cracking listen and they will be missed.
6. Obscurities - Stephin Merritt
   A collection of Merritt's offcuts from projects is always going to be a sketchy affair but the great stuff is really great stuff.
7. Passive Aggressive: Singles 2002-2010 - The Radio Dept.
   A singles collection, so perhaps it should not count, but unseen by most this Swedish band have been making a cerebral music that aches with a heartbreak unspeakable.
8. An Argument with Myself EP - Jens Lekman
   An EP is half an album so Lekman only gets half points for this brilliant collection of songs about friends dying, getting lost in Melbourne and looking for movie stars in Sweden.

Four Tracks

1. Hanging From A Hit - Okkervil River
   Will Sheff's lyrical masterpiece in two parts is a rock and roll's sexual predatory instinct hitting hard and cruel into a real life. Searing, dazzling, and darkly beautiful.
2. Walked Out On a Line - Okkervil River
   A band so good they can leave this story of drug fuelled destruction on the shelf as Will Sheff and Co reference the sound of the Beach Boys while creating something utterly new. Key Lyric: In the storm's scream and swirl's/Where I spotted my girl/I was pinning her straight to my side.


Jens Lekman

3. Waiting for Kirsten - Jens Lekman
   Lekman's true story of trying to meet Kirsten Dunst in Gothenberg uses the Swedish singer's favourite trick of lulling the listen in with a dry humour and twisting that humour into a thoughtful depression. Key Lyric: But the VIP lines are not to the clubs/But to healthcare, apartments and jobs./"Hey buddy can I borrow five grand?/'Cause my dad's in chemo/And they wanna take him off his plan."
4. In Dreams Part II - Let's Wrestle
   Mayhem on a record. Key Lyric: In my dreams there were Pokemon beating me up/I punched Pidgeotto right in the face

For tracks we had but one winner with Summer Camp drifting from promoter Mark Husak to us and then onto the Dalliance turntable. Read a bit more about that if you will.

The world and its dog loves not to give Arcade Fire's The Suburbs album of the year for fear of being too obvious but our excuse is that we - or I - am just a bit too old and Tracey Thorn's lament on the passing of time spoke to me directly. Read about that if you please.

Gig of the year contenders came late in the year with the visit of Arcade Fire to these shores and Belle and Sebastian's return. Read more about that here.

Thank you, dear reader, for your interest.

B.
1. Christmas Eve - Le Tournoi
2. Sleet and Snow - My First Tooth
3. Christmas Wrapping - Summer Camp
4. Everything is One Big Christmas Tree - The Magnetic Fields
5. Kiss You In The Snow - The School
6. Octopussy - The Wedding Present

There is no gig of the year though. Maxïmo Park stood out in Leeds as did Morrissey but the year of gigging was too often one of disappointment going to "big gigs" and ending the night feeling like cattle.

So gig of the year - such as it is goes to Goldheart Assembly in Blackburn's Live Lounge and to Swimwear Juniors, The Crookes and The Lazy Darlings in Leeds and to Theoretical Girl in Bradford's 1 in 12 club where small groups or people went to see small groups and it did not cost the Earth and the bands did their stuff with pride.

More power to that collective elbow, more of those gigs in 2010.

Enjoy and thank you, kindly thank you, for reading.

• Dalliance Albums of 2009 - Turn yourself around, make yourself better...
• Dalliance Tracks of 2009 - Are you out of love with me?

Enjoy and thank you, kindly thank you, for reading.

• Dalliance Albums of 2008 - Sober, life is a prison…
• Dalliance Tracks of 2008 - My name and your name inside a heart shape…
• Dalliance Gig of 2008 - And I think that I know the bitter dismay of a lover who brought fresh bouquets every day…

The First Time - West Yorkshire Music People Talk About Stuff

Along with any number of brothers, sisters and various other associates William Sanderson's Le Tournoi impress with thoughtful and curiously amusing songs described by some as Modern Folk, others as Joy Division-esque and most as impressive.

The first record bought with your own money?

Embarrassing because its so cliche. I think it was Chesney Hawkes The One and Only from when Morrisons used to sell vinyl. It was that or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme.

Hmm... Just realised that was unlikely with my own money unless I was hustling from a very early age. I bought the first big Bluetones single on tape. It has the word "solution" in the chorus, a key indie word time at the time because it rhymed with "revolution". Oh boy.

The first gig

Rios in 2001 I think. We were a terrible/fantastic punk band called The Inspectors. It went okay I suppose, we didn't mess up our already pretty messed up songs.

I was probably nervous but I can't really remember to be honest. I struggle to remember feelings - wow, what an emotional statement.

However I'm really good at remembering what people say to me and I'm clearly quite proud of this fact.

The Inspectors are reforming for the next "Wollen Wig Out" at the Beehive later this year. Good heavens.

The first Le Tournoi gig went okay, though I was playing my electric which has an odd ability to sound like an elephant. For some reason I'm thinking of using this guitar again for our next gig, maybe I should rethink this.

Actually I remember how I felt after this gig: weird.

That's what happens when you play to a room mostly populated with friends, it's hard to grasp whether you sounded good or awful.

The first bit of fan mail

Does MySpace count? No, I don't think it should.

No ones ever sent me a written letter telling me how great a musician I am, mainly because I'm no Beethoven and sadly I don't hand my address out all that often. If I do wake up one day to find myself a great musical talent, I'll make sure I immediately start giving out business cards with my home address on them.

Le Tournoi are joining Laura Groves and fourteencorners supporting The Twilight Sad at The Love Apple in Bradford on the 9th of September, 2007.

Five Box Set - West Yorkshire Music People Talk About Their Favourite Albums

Along with any number of brothers, sisters and associates William Sanderson's Le Tournoi impress with thoughtful and curiously amusing songs described by some as Modern Folk, others as Joy Division-esque and most as impressive.

William's three favourite albums

This question is next to impossible to answer because I know my answer tomorrow would probably be completely different. I'll try and go with obvious ones.

Jens Lekman - self released EP Four perfect songs: Tram #7 to heaven, Maple Leaves, Black Cab, At The Dept. of Forgotten Songs. Each individual song has more character than most entire albums. Words don't do justice to "shit" good.

The Shins - Oh Inverted World This album is pop rock perfection. With many albums there are obvious weak aspects but here its 100% "Why couldn't I have written that, the brilliant bar-raising motherfuckers".

The lyrics are layered with metaphors and wordplay without seeming pompous. The melodies are beautiful and despite playing this record over and over and over again, I am yet to get the slightest bit bored with a single track. To top things off it was recorded with a 70 quid microphone. Damn them, damn them.

Jay-Z - Blueprint An album with one theme, how good Jay-Z is. It's so pretentious it's not pretentious anymore.

William's favourite on the scene

Laura Groves and Fourteen Corners are pretty darn great. Neither have an album out yet, but I have the majority of their songs on mp3. I don't want to hear their albums because I want to hear higher quality recordings of their songs, but because I want them to take the attention away from the masses of signed bands that aren't as good.

I generally only like bands I am friends with - hahaha - it's a terrible habit that I have no plans on shaking.

I also have an unhealthy, mostly unwarranted, hatred for anything to do with the city of Leeds. So if a band is from there or does that horribly comical thing of pretending they are from there I struggle to give them chance.

William on "The Best Album Ever"

Queen - Greatest Hits II A party isn't a party without it. It's a Hard Life, Under Pressure oh yes! Not even Innuendo can spoil the party.

This Is Cinerama - West Yorkshire Music People Talk About Their Favourite Movies

Along with any number of brothers, sisters and associates William Sanderson's Le Tournoi impress with thoughtful and curiously amusing songs described by some as Modern Folk, others as Joy Division-esque and most as impressive.

William's three favourite movies

Dolemite Honky destroying lover man, overweight and not very good at kung-fu.

With lines like "if you ever see a ghost, cut the motherfucker". This film is terrible. Ha Ha. For the last forty minutes of this film it's impossible to know exactly what's going on.

Casablanca This film is quite the opposite of Dolemite, in the sense that it's really good.

Dolemite 2: The Human Tornado For the same reasons as number one. This one features the "unforgettable apple scene" where Dolemite, upon arriving in California buys an apple and through the medium of voice over we are allowed into the mind of Dolemite to see what he's thinking:

I hope the girls in California are as good as this apple

Never has a single sentence summed up someone so perfectly before (I'm violently exaggerating).

William in the movies

I empathise with the "Hamburger Pimp" from the first Dolemite. He died before we ever got to know him.

I also have a lot of empathy for James Bond. That's not true. I have a lot of time for Chris in the Sopranos. That most definitely is true.

William Sanderson: The bio-pic

It would be an art house film where not a great deal of things happen, probably called "That Didn't Happen, Did It?"

My dog Meg could play herself, she's acted before and she's pretty good. I'd like to be all CGI apart from my mouth. Charles Bronson to direct through the medium of Ouija board.

The Swing Movement

The Swing Movement claim to be the best thing out of Bradford - they are obviously oblivious to Faith Nelson - and they back the claim up with a collection of songs which put one in mind of a less snarling and some watch mixed version of The Libertines. Truth be told Kiss Kiss Bang Bang hangs a little too close to The Libertines romantic English rock but as far as calling cards go it is impressive and hangs around for just the right length of time.

Digging continues the theme which beings to tire on Shooting Blanks until the sound drifts from would be Libertines to something early nineties and interesting. The Swing Movement have a vibrancy that drifts in and out of their songs as they form up a sound. Black Russian puts you in mind of the heavy drumming of Adam & The Ants and that is no bad thing at all. They are gigging around Bradford and Leeds at the moment and have the kind of sound is worth getting out to hear.

Teasers

Always worth getting out to hear are Londoners Teasers who are favourites at The Gasworks in 2006. Back then they come over as a kind of Blondie played by The Wedding Present - continuing reading of Dalliance will show that everything that impresses me will be compared to The Wedding Present - and since those gigs they have expanded the sound adding a frantic drum to Work It Out and some rather strange bass sounds to Light Of Day which suggest someone would like to bring Johnny Cash back. Molly - Molteaser if you will - takes centre stage with her breathless vocals on the latter half whispering over the steady beat and the cowboy calls of the start of Osward perfectly pitch the band. They are a riot worth seeing but current tunes are not as appealing as last year's Bang Bang.

Serious Sam Barrett

A different kind of riot live - the riot of tapping feet if you will - is Serious Sam Barrett who raised spirits in the basement at The Woollen Wig Out more than I ever thought a man on a five string Banjo could do. Gambling Man - a Serious Sam Barrett original - sounds just as good as it did then and Cocaine Blues gets into your soul. Serious Sam is a blues man from Barnsley but his sound is pure Americana - the good kind - and gives your day a an often much needed shot of soul.

T-Model Ford

David Broad

Barrett's gigs takes in most of West Yorkshire but turning up early to his second spot on 24th April, 2007 at the Faversham, Leeds under T-Model Ford will get you the also ace bluesman David Broad.

Further Reading

• Check out The Swing Movement's MySpace page or go to see them on Friday 11th of May 2007 at the Granadaland night at The Love Apple in Bradford.
• Teasers MySpace tells us they are playing London and Rome.
• Get to Serious Sam Barrett's MP3 of his website to hear him then to The Faversham, Leeds on 24th April, 2007.