As the year draws to a close it’s time for markontour’s annual homage to John Peel’s ‘Festive Fifty’. As usual, my list is not festive and doesn’t even manage the fifteen tracks I habitual aim for and fail to achieve. But these are my favourite songs released in 2023. Given how much I have travelled this year, there’s a paucity of bands from beyond the Anglo-Saxon world, so that’s by New Year’s Resolution sorted, but I hope you enjoy them as much I have just the same.
There was sunshine, there was rain, bands I’ve loved for 30 years, amazing bands I’d never seen before, top-notch comedy, and plenty of opportunity to dance and sing. I loved Latitude! Herewith the markontour guide to one festival goer’s Latitude 2023.
December is here, which means it is time for the annual markontour Festive Fifteen. As usual, there’s nothing to do with Xmas here, and there has been so much great music this year that I have yet again failed to whittle my list down to fifteen tracks. But, caveats aside, herewith The Festive Fifteen of 2019..
Having the hills and mountains of Wales as a backdrop helps make Green Man the most beautiful of British music festivals, a visual winning card that was matched this year by a gorgeous programme of folk-influenced performers, surely the largest array of decent ales and ciders outside of a beer festival, and the ritual of burning the eponymous green man, taking with it to the skies hand-written messages of the festival-goers hopes and dreams.
It’s time for the annual markontour tribute to the late, great John Peel’s Festive Fifty, championing the best new music of the year. As usual, there…
markontour 