Human Patterns by Beanfield

I remember Robert Elms regularly playing the title track in the introduction to his show (along with Cold Water Music by Aim) while I was driving 'round the M25 to Bracknell but I never got around to picking this up. Now I have.

It still sounds great. I hope I'll play it a fair bit.

Plastic Box by Public Image Ltd.

An impressively hefty three-disc set of rarities and radio sessions from Public Image Ltd. which has some great liner notes from John Lydon.

Thirty quid seems a lot to have paid for a secondhand copy, especially since I don't listen to it often.

Enough. Go.

Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet by Gavin Bryars

A colleague at Chelsea Physic Garden belonged to an experimental music CD club, got this as a monthly selection and hated it.

I still haven't made up my mind, but I don't love it and I can't wait for it to collect more dust while I decide.

Out!

Electro Shock Blues by Eels

I desperately want to like Eels. I liked Novocaine For The Soul (a fair bit), read a few interviews and bought the first album.

It disappointed me.

This album came out. I read some more interviews. It sounded even better. Something about the aftermath of his depressed sister's suicide.

It also disappointed me.

Now singer E has made a fascinating-sounding documentary about his quantum physicist father and released two albums - one a best of, one a rarities collection.

Must... not... buy...

Icicle Works by Icicle Works (Deluxe Remastered 3 CD box set)

The Icicle Works were the first band I heard on John Peel and thought "they sound good!"

I was travelling home from a Leyton Orient match in the car with my dad (probably a 2-1 win over Bolton) when a song came on which I didn't recognise. In those days, Radio One shared the stereo frequency 88-91 MHz with Radio Two and John Peel's was one of the few Radio One shows you could listen to in stereo, after the switchover from Radio Two at 10pm.

My dad may not have been a fan of the music, but he had a lot of time for John Peel. This led, several years later, to the rather unlikely situation of me walking into the dining room to find my dad sitting at the table, working and tapping his feet to The Jesus And Marychain's April Skies.

So, discovering this to be the Icicle Works of Love Is A Wonderful Colour fame, I acquired the album and became a fan.

Their career followed an up-and-down path, perhaps peaking with the wonderful Blind in 1987, before the band effectively split, reforming under Ian McNabb for one further album before he went solo.

I managed to see them twice - at The Marquee, Wardour Street in 1985 and Camden Palace in 1986, when they encored with Roadhouse Blues and Should I Stay Or Should I Go - and they were wonderful both times.

And that is why I had to have this..!

Police Squad

A friend spotted the first episode of this on late-night TV in the mid-80s. We managed to tape most of the rest of the series and watched the tapes repeatedly until the series was reshown in the early evenings on the release of The Naked Gun several years later and we finally had to share our secret with the world.

The DVD includes all six episodes, interviews, a "gag reel", and commentaries from Zucker, Zucker, Abrahams, Weiss and Wuhl.

Sadly, the packaging is poor. It employs clichés the series avoided (three references to doughnuts - or "donuts") and playing up the wackiness the series studiously avoided by always playing it straight. The Lord preserve us from marketing people.

Now I can free up more space by selling the tapes. Maybe.

Les Amants Du Pont-Neuf

A gritty, gallic drama starring a wonderful Juliette Binoche, this isn't actually mine, but my partner decided she'd seen it enough and she was happy to part with it.

I could learn a lot from her.

Now That's What I Call Music 13 by Various

Another misguided gift, more songs you hear on the radio, more shelf-space taken up and dust collected.

It can just as easily do that for someone else.

Bye!

The Simpsons: Hit & Run

Another gift, this time from my partner who shares my love for The Simpsons and knows I like games. I don't really play games on the PC much any more though.

Game refused to allow me to exchange it for the PS2 version, so it sat around, unplayed and still shrinkwrapped for a few years.

I just bought the PS2 version secondhand and dusted off the console. The game's good. And this copy can go and find a new home with someone who'll love it.

That makes me happy.

Motown Dance Party by Various

A great way to obtain a selection of those Motown hits you always hear on the radio.

Then it sits on your shelf unplayed because these songs are always on the radio.

And you don't give those kind of dance parties.

It goes. So someone else can.