Days 2 and 3 Ambleside

This is going to be more of a note making exercise and so if you can't really be arsed this would be one to skip.

Old new band of the week are The Young Republic, their Myspace has some great new songs. The first three are all worth a listen and with a new album due out I can see them being the New New Band of the week all over again soon. Napoleon Roses is a belter.

And so we left Clapham near Ingleborough (Chris heading back to Ponte Carlo no doubt via an ancient mountain pass just south of Inver-outer Isles) in the dark with the promise of a few beers in a cosy Ambleside in our heads. From the M6 virtually all the way back to Windermerewas a solid line of traffic, thankfully all headed albeit in a stationary fashion in the opposite direction to us. Now either,Godzilla had arrived in Ambleside and was taking chunks out of the mountains, or the post New Year romantics were now sat in the cars opposite arguing about ' who's bloody idea was this in the first place'. Really, the post new year romantics could easily have been a Record Mirror special subset genre to challenge the post C86 brigade. Think Shop Assistants if it helps...........no...............moving swiftly on.

The Shoppies  bloody hell that's jangly

30 minutes later we ambled into Ambleside (how else do you get there?) no problems at all, oh until we reached the archway to the car park off the main street. Designed for a horse and cart circa 1725 I think, and a bloody skinny horse at that, still if I'm going to hang off mountains I can certainly take the odd risk with a wing mirror..........it's all adrenaline junky stuff for me these days. I just made it through while Craig opted for the 'yay go me' park right outside the front door technique....jammy git. Now this may appear a bit bloody convenient but lets just say the pub/hotel receptionist did look a bit like Tracy Tracy.

The Primitives -Crash  

nanananana nananana nana

and the even better

The Primitives - Really Stupid   and live Really Stupid

We checked in,we planned routes and had a bit of tea and we were knackered so no 'on the town' for us tonight. 10.30pm and I'm all tucked up in my room watching Match of the Day and I knew I wasn't even going to see the end of that through drooping eyelids. Then it started....right below my first floor bedroom, 'Ladies and Gentlemen it's Lakeside Karaoke' oh good I thought!. Well by the third American Pie I was beginning to lose the plot, I've seen The Deer Hunter, I know how it works. One stray bullet, you pretend you weren't there and its Buddy Holly time. Just in case this ever comes back to bite me, I learnt everything I know about guns from the owl murderer who also used to take pot shots a builders in his youth.

Thankfully the overnight bag I'd brought had a brand new pair of festival camping earplugs tucked down the side, lucky for them I thought as I dreamt of Camper Van Beethoven.

Take the Skinheads Bowling - Good tune good vid

Bright and Breezy next day we set off to walk the Fairfield Horseshoe, down Tyrone Road, passed Shannon Crescent shops (steal a Bar Six), onto Bishopton Rd West and down to theRimswell,turn left up to the VG and then round the back through the cut and home by dark........shit that's when I was 4, I got in right bother that day too. This one has 8 Wainwrights (look it up, it's like train spotting for walkers) it was also going to be a heck of a challenge, 8 real peaks with the tallest Fairfield being only 15 metres shorter than Great Gable and then back around the rest before dark.

We could see the whole route from the first hill and the really good thing is the second half really did look to be downhill all the way. It was bloody freezing in parts, but we are all kitted out these days,witness the Marshmallow Man in the pictures. 

Maybe this had caused the mass exodus the previous day. The views all day were pretty awesome, from Ambleside to Helm Crag, to Striding Edge and Helvellyn, but the extended sunset over the gas rigs and right across Morecambe Bay were brilliant. The Close Lobsterswere pretty cool too.

The whole horseshoe wasn't too much agg at all once we'd summited the first peak, a few interesting climbs on the way down,but we were swigging hot chocolate well before dark (10 minutes).

Shower, curry and beers and another early night for a much needed sleep. That was the plan anyway until we happened upon a pub with the promise of 'Julio Geordie' appearing later....how can you resist that? We didn't. It was a very odd thing to see a bloke who thinks he's a bit JulioIglesias, singing Eagles songs in a geordie accent. Mind you if he had got three notes into American Pie I'd have wrapped a wrought iron bar stool round his Julio Smuggio chops.

And Relax - The Chesterfields

Next morning and still fighting fit we decided to tackle Wansfell (another Wainwright- not that I'm ticking (or now have a book) (and a poster). This was supposed to be the tester day, 'oh day three you'll be knackered' 'your legs will fall off' 'you'll have bones sticking through your feet' and other such things were said .......in my head. Well we fair flew up Wansfell and then another couple of peaks along the ridge and then headed down towards the lake. This now felt like the return leg as we were headed home............. nothing could stop us.......except

'The Horses of Doom'

ok maybe I'm overplaying their part but..

1. They were roaming free on 'our' fell
2. They were in our way with no route round
3. They have teeth, are cloven hoofed, big hair and scary eyes (yeah...same as a Stoke nightclub)

It turned out that the biggest danger to my life and limbs was falling asleep and being trodden to death while waiting for Craig to flounce round like a big brother wannabee insisting on me taking photographs of him with every horse on the hillside. I was relieved when some dog walkers turned up and put him off his stride. One pout too many mate.

We were then faced with 'The Ice Road of Death', if I'd been carrying One Ring or had a hobbit with me then it would have been understandable but this was getting silly. (it was like this for half a mile)

The rest of the walk back to Ambleside was absolutely gorgeous, perfect sunshine,we could see for miles over lake Windermere and we were treated to a wild deer stalking us. I took the gun off Craig and managed to get a photo too. All we needed was one thousand violins (sorry but this is the best one)

Relaxed, a bit tired and extremely happy having spent three days in the hills I returned to my car. YIKES, I had to get it through the 1" gap again...........blood pressure back to normal.

The rest of the pics are pretty cool too

Ingleborough Revisited

The whole new year resolution thing has always seemed a bit negative to me, who wants to spend their time giving up things? Ok murderers and smokers excepted it does seem to be the wrong way around. Having had prior discussion with my climb the big hill pal, he’s resoluting to do at least 2 walks per month. I’m going to resolute to do loads more than that as I like playing out.

To get a head start on the years’ resolutes we headed out on a three day trip on the 2^nd of January. I was probably ok to pass a breath test at this point (a police one, as opposed to a ‘am I ok to snog horses’ one) since I’d stopped drinking just over 24 hours before. It may still have been a close call (not with the horses). With the days still being pretty short, a fairly sharpish 9am meeting in Clapham just outside of Ingleton was going to be needed.

 As Craig pulled into the car park at 8.55 am I nearly fell over in surprise, unfortunately Beechy had taken directions from his old man who seems to have less sense of direction than dill the dog. To make it worse Chris adopted classic taxi driver tactics, ‘yeah yeah I’ll be with you in 20 minutes’  2^nd call, ‘no worries I’m just round the corner’, 3^rd call ‘1 minute just pulling into the car park now’ ‘ Chris you are not, we are stood by the gate!’

 

Prompt at 9.40 we headed off to climb Ingleborough and view the magnificent Gaping Gill, the highest single drop waterfall in the UK. The immediate uphill climb certainly helped as it was a bit parky, I’m not sure Craig was as pleased with the sudden incline. Back down the hill and along the river to be greeted by a dead rabbit on a bench. Quite why it chose to pass off this earth while having a snooze on an old blokes bench is beyond me, not a mark on it. Craig then went through the whole pose with the dead thing rigmarole ‘by the feet mate’, that’s what the hunters do. Did I mention he kills owls?

 

It’s a great route up to gaping gill through crevices in rocks giving great protection from the wind. Gaping Gill on the other hand quite frankly left way too much to the imagination. Its was 98% imagination as we watched the stream pass into a small cave opening and then looked at the picture of the waterfall on the information board ‘ let’s see what you would’ve won’. I’m so pleased I didn’t bring my kids here I could just imagine the response ‘dad it’s a hole in the ground’ ‘yeah and not a very good one, can we go to the funfair now?’ us hardier souls nodded sagely (if I was a sage I think I’d do a lot of headshaking just to confuse people) and moved on towards the hilltop.

 

I know its supposed to be cold and windy at this time of year, but heck it was too. 

As we approach the plateau at the top of Ingleborough and headed across it to the trig point it must have been minus 15C. We’re coming back in the summer to play cricket up here though, one hit over the side is going to go miles. Spicy parsnip soup again and a bit of shelter did the trick and it was off back down via the longcut (no songs this year). 

Simons path is a gentle stroll really, well without the ice it is, with the ice I was suddenly doing Tucker impressions down to a nearly full splits (9 out of 10 judges please). Am I the only person who doesn’t get this whole celebs not being able to dance on ice thing, I made exception to this nonsense once when we won our medal in the winter Olympics but it should have been strangled at birth. (even the scots playing shove h’penny on ice have more merit in their meddle). It’s not that it’s just crap, and even more crap when you put people who can’t skate out to do it but there is no real marking. A bunch of nomarks giving no marks to nomarks , no thanks. And a youtube video of said nomark mark/tucker whatever bloke gets 1,000,000 hits……shakes head sagely.

 Here it is

The strange thing about this walk was we never once got off track, we had a few doubts and a few, ‘where the hell is the stile’ moments but 100% on track. I’d have this down as a bit dull normally but we had misjudged one thing, Beechy being late, my time and distant planning and Craig’s post party sluggishness had combined perfectly to make it a race against the oncoming gloom. 

We nearly lost Craig to a dead ovine colleague and then nearly lost him to a bit of a fall or so we thought, he was having a sit down in a spot where we couldn’t see him. Fortunately we hit a small road just as it was getting dark and then had a lengthy pitch black tunnel to negotiate. 

It was probably the childish woooooo—ing that caused the girl at the far end to give us a very strange look, either that or the fact we were all looking a bit knackered, bedraggled and were seriously in need of a drink.

Not Moel Arthur Dad

Moel Arthur not looking too big?

I'm good with books, particularly non fiction and more specifically development , learning advice sort of books. We read every 'how to bring a baby up in 3 days' guide that there was. It still doesn't stop you bouncing them on the concrete floor once or twice, perhaps the idea is to cover the floor in books. I digress, having read the 'how to get your kids hill walking' book, or at least a section in Trail Magazine I was a world expert.

As usual I followed the experts advice to a tee.

1) Choose a short distance

2) Pick good weather

3) Make sure there's lots to see

4) Choose easy terrain

And I'm very happy if you copy all of the above and use it with your children, not you Craig, if you could bring Tom with us when we head up Scafell, in wind chill minus 10, in the fog in his flip flops it'll serve him right for stuffing me at air hockey. (not that I'm competive or harbour grudges).

Having said all that Jess didnt fair too much better,

1)It was about 9 miles (the book had said about 2 miles)

2)It really was windchill-10C

3) There were loads of fields to look at

4) the MASSIVE uphill at the start was probably a mistake

But at least I had Shad with me so it was bound to turn out nice. Actually it could have been even worse, I had planned a quick warm up 3 miles over Moel Arthur as a bit of a preamble. I was ganged up on in the car park, they took one look at the Moel to our right and basically said

'No Chance - Loser'

Now I'm sure even all this would have been ok had Jess not had crisps for breakfast swished down with fizzy pop.....standard teenage fare I would have thought. Well the standard except on the hills where even the slightly less steep first hill we chose had a more than nausious effect on the stomach. 95% of the time, Jess is a pretty happy person, somewhat understandably jolliness had now left the hillside. Ten minutes later though she was back 'up and attem' and biased as I am I think that despite her lack of sporting prowess, a Duke of Edinburgh may be attained on willpower alone.

I'm pretty sure I would have cried off, I've seen Craig cry off cos his boot was a bit tight!

And so we headed along the ridge into the bitterest of winds, luckily me and Jess were buffed up, I think the pink buff was actually the key to getting Jess out..exercise meets fashion. It got to the point where Shad actually put his gloves on.....thats really freakin cold. Slight aside

Shads birthday and he never gets any presents except another crap jumper off his mum from Boys stores or the Welsh equivalent. The latest one actually has leaves on the shoulder, its so bad I was lost for words so havent mentioned it yet. BLUE leaves. At work the whole team decided to club together to get him a pressie this year and having a hefty collection, amongst other things he gets a top of the range pair of Thinsulate gloves. The ungrateful so and so then comes out on a walk a week later and says ' I don't know why the girls got me these I never wear gloves'. Two issues mate 1)Me and Ric chucked some cash in too and 2) it could have been another bloody jumper. It turned out he spoke too soon though and has now taken to wearing them....sometimes!

There was a bizarre women (sixty ish) we passed who had a chat with Shad(they all do) and claimed to have been dropped off by her hubby and was walking 30 miles to the pub on the coast where he was watching the football. Odd behaviour.

Well we made it too the top without too much cajolling and it was all pretty successful, reasonable views, warm drinks a bit of food. I did have to do a bit of explaining about the fact we could have parked around the corner, rather than in the carpark 5 miles away with one other car. I think the other 40 people at the top were the main giveaway, still what doesn't kill em...etc etc.

Luckily I decided not to check if the bouncing on the head technique was still working or not.

Almost Official - Middle of Nowhere

Layers with ice

It's kind of a spare day after Christmas and I needed some fresh air, don't get me wrong I love the whole Christmas thing, providing most of the domestics are sorted, then I'm really good at the surprises and the entertaining. I know...bloke!

Mary Poppins at the theatre on boxing day with the old folks, now that's jolly well planned entertaining as the tickets were bought in March. I mention this on the basis that one of the scenes from the stage play never existed in the movie, even this wouldn't warrant a mention but...full on dream sequence with scary toyish looking things freaking everyone in the audience too. In true fashion of describing things by lazy people for lazy people it was a cross between the spaced out bit in the middle of Dumbo and the Child Catcher in CCBB. I'm amazed the Daily Mail havent had it banned yet for upsetting 3 old ladies (tossers). 

Oh and rant time Daily ****ing Mail indeed, what's with the give away a free John Lennon CD in the Mail on Sunday. One word rant .....inappropriate. Ok it wasn't a very strong word so feel free to think a better one.

So Christmas came and went and again just so the detail is covered I got a full on metal dance mat, very good it is too. However, being an only child, sometimes I really do need time by myself or as its better know selfish time. Mum and Dad were off on Saturday morning so that was my entertaining over (for the record - great Christmas) and it was hill time. 

I've recently discovered that the place I headed for is possibly THE most remote spot in England, bit of a close call with 5.8km off Morcambe Bay at low tide and Dartmoor, anyway ones a bit bloody risky and Dartmoor was a heck of a round trip. Halfway across Woodhead Pass, park up by the reservoirs and then head up and North and just keep going and you'll hit Blackhill. I do have fond memories of this road as I used to travel it regularly to a job in Sheffield, but the reason I remember it fondly is because it was 1995 and Chris Evans was on the radio playing and I quote 'banging tunes to go to work with'. The songs were bangin too

Common People by Pulp

Wake up Boo - Boo Radleys

Alright - Supergrass

and a bunch of Oasis, Blur, Echobelly etc

The trouble with this stuff is that once you think about 'where was I songs' you can take up half your head and most of your time ignoring the rest of the world, and so I fell into a rather large bog due to the fact it was quite slippy and icy up top and my head was all Wednesday Week by The Undertones.

A more appropriate example

Wuthering Heights - hiding in a tree from some bad lads by the railway line at Billingham Bottoms. Never caught us either so thats a good memory. I did have a list of about 50 but I think I'm going to hang onto them for a drunken conversation down the pub. 

Blackhill- middle of the Pennines in almost officially the middle of nowhere, icy boggy, a pretty sharp wind and cold.........bloody marvellous. I ignored the map, I ignored the GPS and I outwillpowered them both to make it to the top. Approximatley 10 minutes later I had to admit I had 'topped' completely the wrong hill, they are a bugger these GPS's as they tell you exactly where you are. No ifs, buts or maybe's just YOU ARE HERE ........O.....it may as well add the word Tosser!!!. 

And it keeps it for posterity - mid right hand side turn back bit

And so I headed back on my tracks and then further into the correct middle of nowhere. It was too! I eventually got to the top of Blackhill and hadn't passed one person in either direction (this may also have been due to my circuitous route). It was now very bloody cold indeed in the wind and getting down the valley was a bit of a priority as they really weren't many people about....until I turned the corner and saw the first of the madmen.

I know it may seem a bit odd to go walking uphill all the time, but surely not half as daft as these idiots that run up them. Fell running has got to be the madest of mad things, you can never look up for fear of falling over, so all you ever see is your feet and stones and mud. I suspect it's megaconcentration too, so no time to think of shite like you can when out walking. Other than erasing bad stuff it does seem a bit bonkers. Not that I mentioned these thoughts to the 20 odd of them heading up into the middle of nowhere, running on ice..

Eventually I plodded into the valley out of the wind and had my head set on a pleasant and easy walk back to the car. Until wrong turn number 2 (or maybe 3) struck and before I knew it I was too far back up a ridge to turn back around. The good news was I could see the pleasant valley sunday track at the bottom meandering along with the babbling brook.

Worth a double click - I was miles off track again.

Meanwhile back in icy blast city I was above Rake's Rocks Ridge and getting battered, I did see some more nutcase fell runners who decided to head off from the top down what could only be described as a cliff face. I on the other hand picked my way safely down the more used ridgepath and rejoined the correct path two miles later on.

Great day out....if you like walking uphill, in the cold, in the middle of nowhere, in your own company thinking about shite.......  :-))

New band of the week

Following White Rabbits through Doctor's Gate

I know it sounds like I'm on drugs, but if you add in an ancient hill fort and most of a B52 bomber then it's a pretty accurate picture of the walk. One of the web chaps who also happens to be a mountain leader / ranger / bear fighter had posted that he was walking up Bleaklow and that he was going to be visiting the site of a crashed B52. Its only 45 minutes from home and last time I was up here I could see about 10 yards, oh and we get to see crashed aeroplanes...well that was me in.

For 8.30am on a Sunday with only a few days notice I thought a turnout of 8 people was pretty impressive. On the basis of my recent being lates I was actually first to the car park and it was already pretty foggy...the forecast was for a bit of drizzle but nothing too severe. It doesn't matter anymore as I've got even more kit now although this stuff being called 'soft shell' is drifting a bit close to 'shellsuit' for comfort. I'm so looking forward to the Chav walkers in the summer in their shell gear doing the Ian Brown across here.

I'd already made a bit of an arse of myself prior to the meet up by asking for exact directions to Doctors Gate, I think the words I used were  'less mappy directions please'. He'd used a grid reference FGS. Anyway no harm done as we headed up a recognisable path until red leader said 'ok cross country from here'. I normally do this stuff by accident or through necessity of getting home before dark, so its foggy moorland with no paths and no features and now we're going cross country...bloody rangers. It turned out nice though as within about 200 yards we'd seen one of the white arctic hares who appear to have taken a wrong direction somewhere and ended up around here. Quite how they hide on all this brown moor side is beyond me.

We seemed to be following hares in a very Alice fashion as we plunged deeper and deeper into the wasteland, if Mr Ranger had ran off now we were probably hare food. Oh me of little faith, out came the compass a bearing of 221 degrees  was taken with slight adjustment for moving magnetics (no idea - me neither) and hey presto 200yards later we were in the middle of a full scale plane crash.

Its a permanent memorial now to the poor folk who came down in the fog, but it's honestly one of the most amazing places / sights I've ever seen. 

I think perhaps the other worldliness of the location or the atmospherics of the mist may have added something, it really was jaw dropping. Well that's scuppered things a bit as it turns out it's 

B29 44-61999 of the 16th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, 91st Reconnaissance Group, 311th Air Division. 

and not a B52 after all, still any excuse for some good music - Planet Claire

From here we headed out back across the open moorland to a bunch of rocks on a hill about 2 miles away which head ranger man reckoned was a good spot for lunch. It was a bit like being taken to the wind and rain blasted seaside when you were a kid and being made to eat shellfish in whilst huddled in the back of a freezing car.  I don't think I ever saw Whitby other than through a rain speckled windscreen perhaps it's not so weird in real life.

Excuse for a shellfish song too

So we sat in the rain and although the shared hot chocolate made in the 45 second funky hot water pressure boiler was good, it wasn't a patch on the sludgy spicy parsnip soup we normally have handed around. And so off to the ancient hill fort, this fort may have been over billed I think, think old fatboy Ronaldo a couple of world cups ago overbilled. Turns out it's a hill in the middle of nowhere...oh except that its surrounded by loads of other hills in the middle of nowhere. Still a forts a fort so I charged the ramparts and slipped over in the boggy mess doh! From here on in it was up to Bleaklow head, again a very misty head at that.

Now I've been known to make the odd slip up with directions, but this was classic, one minute big group discussion on the best way to go. Next minute I get to take this picture.

After about 10 minutes it was then on more familiar almost paths back down to the cars and some weird conversation in the pub.

Firstly mountain man and Jonno had been up on these moors a few weeks earlier via Ladybower reservoir area. It turns out that on the way back down they went through a carpark that's known locally as Dogging City and were actually invited to take part. Luckily mountain man declined in a very stern and manly voice I was told...especially as the whole car park was under secret surveillance and has since been in the local papers. Must have been a bit like my dad when approached by the prostitute in Romania, looking down and saying 'I don't think so pet' was brilliant.

Anyway from there the conversation moved to the array of dispensing machines in the gents, no point writing any detail down as you honestly wouldn't believe me.

A decent set of Pics this time - also a full white rabbit skeleton for your

 www.deadpetsreunited.com Craig.

Top Tens Part 2 - The Albums 2008

Even happier than when we met them in a lift

Down to three entries this time although I'm sure that next year it'll be up to at least 5. Yet again the top of the pop charts are unlikely to be unduly worried by a music revolution lead by me and my pals. If it wasn't so cold I'd write a natty little ditty about the featured albums...key tracks etc. however its more than minus on the mecury counter so in a reveal all at once spectacular.

 In a bid to be somewhat impartial the mates top ten albums of the year are

1.The Hold Steady

2.Mogwai

3.British Sea Power

4.Bon Iver

5.Bob Dylan

6.Foals

7.God is an Astronaut

8.Kings of Leon

9. The Young Republic

10. Helen Love

Ok the last two may have a tadge of bias seeping through the cracks but I got Craig's vote. Again if there are any obvious voids or Dig Lazerus Digs omitted please feel free to plug any gaps.

And just for the completists

Entry One

3.Foals - Antidotes

7.MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

3.The Young Republic – 12 Tales From Winter City

1.Bob Dylan  - Highway 61 revisited

7.Mogwai – The Hawk is Howling

6.BSP Do You Like Rock Music

8.LOTSP  - The Age of The Understatement

5.Peter and the Pirates – Little Death

10.Conor Oberst – Conor Oberst (although that’s just lazy)

9.Hot Chip – Made in the Dark

2.The Hold Steady – Stay Positive

5.Gaslight Anthem – The 59 Sound

4.Helen Love -  Its My Club

9. Natty - MAn Like I

Entry Two

3.  Centro-matic/South San Gabriel - Dual Hawks (2 bands with essentially the same people, 1 disc each...South San Gabriel are better!)
1.  Bon Iver - For Emma, forever ago
2.  Hold Steady - Stay Positive
5.  Black Keys - Attack and release
9.  Paul Weller - 22 dreams
8.  My Morning Jacket - Evil urges
4.  REM - Accelerate (lots of guitars!)
7.  Black Crowes - Warpaint
10.  Counting Crows - Saturday night (the noisy first half of the disc...the second half of the disc "Sunday morning" is whiny crap)
6.  Kings of Leon - Only by night

Entry Three

1.Mogwai- The Hawk is Howling

2. God is an Astronaut- God is an Astronaut

3. Vessels- White Fields and Open Devices

4. Glasvegas- Glasvegas

5. British Sea Power- Do You Like Rock Music?

Anyone brought up on a diet of John Craven and kids with crap hairdo's will quickly spot  the seismic gulf in both musical tastes and fontability(also countability). 

Top Tens Part One -The Songs

The Winner - White Lies

We had five sensible entries for the best songs of the year and thank you to all who could be bothered. What it shows is we have no idea what’s going on in the real world, however for being obscure, geeky gits we win the prize hands down. Andy and Rich (Get well soon mate) if you do a best of best of CD from your list I’ll do the other chaps with edited lowlights from my list. You’ll need 4 copies and maybe one for Craig who did make a halfarsed attempt at an entry. I’ll send then all back out and we can slag each other off all over again for crap choices.

Kim And Jessie - M83

End Of The Line - Metallica

Dig Lazarus Dig - Nick Cave

Wanna Be in LA - Eagles Of Death Metal

No Pussy Blues – Grinderman

Sound like Guns - Alcatraz

The Lovely Eggs - Have you ever heard a digital accordion and I like birds but I like the other

Fight like Apes - I'm beginning to think you love Beverley

White Lies - Death

30 White Lies- Death
29 Secret Shine- Voice Of The Sea
28 British Sea Power- Canvey Island
27 The Early Years- Say What I Want To
26 A Place To Bury Strangers- Ocean
25 Lowline- Monitors
24 Mogwai- Dracula Family
23 Glasvegas- It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry
22 Russian Circles- Youngblood
21 I Like Trains- South Shore
20 I Concur- Lucky Jack
19 M83- Graveyard Girl
18 Vessels- Look At That Cloud!
17 I Like Trains- Friday- Everybody Goodbye
16 Mogwai- I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead
15 Prego- Cause & Resolve
14 Jakob- Everything All Of The Time
13 Glasvegas- Geraldine
12 Exit Calm- We're On Our Own
11 Sennen- A Different Life
10 God is an Astronaut- No Return
9 93 Million Miles From The Sun- Take Me Away
8 The Twilight Sad- And She Would Darken The Memory
7 Mogwai- I Love You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School
6 God is an Astronaut- Snowfall
5 Kyte- Planet
4 This Will Destroy You- Happiness: We're In This Together
3 Mogwai- Batcat
2 I Concur- Oblige
1 The Domino State- What's The Question?

Love is pain - The Verve
Still Burning - Queen + Paul Rodgers
Time to pretend - MGMT
Second chance - Liam Finn
Goodbye daughters of the revolution - Black Crowes
Things ain't like they used to be - The Black Keys
1492 - Counting Crows
Stay positive - Hold steady
Closer - Kings of Leon
Umbrella - Manic Street Preachers
Wire to wire - Razorlight
Remnants - My morning jacket
Push it along - Paul Weller
Horse to water - REM
That's not my name - The Ting Tings
To the dogs or whoever - Josh Ritter
Geraldene - Glasvegas
For Emma - Bon Iver
Grounds for divorce - Elbow
From this I will awake - South San Gabriel

MGMT – Time to Pretend

Foals – Cassius

Bloc Party - Talons

LOTSP – Age of the Understatement

Polly Scattergood – Hate the Way

MGMT – Kids

Mogwai – The Sun Smells too Loud

Young Republic – Bronagh

The Ting Tings – That’s Not my Name

Kings Of Leon – Sex On Fire

Lethal Bizzle – Police on my back

Pete and the Pirates – Mr Understanding

BSP – Atom

The Hold Steady – Slapped Actress

The Hold Steady – Constructive Summer

Gaslight Anthem – Miles Davis and the Cool

Modest Mouse – Float On

Primal Scream – Uptown

Dan and Pip – Thou Shalt Not

Polly Scattergood –Nitrogen Pink

Black Kids – NGT you Boyfriend

Helen Love- Debbie Loves Joey

Natty – Cold Town

Polarbear – Straight Outta Compton

Glasvegas – Geraldine

White Lies – Death

VV Brown – Crying Blood

Florence and the Machine – Kiss With a Fist

Young Republic – The Alchemist

Vampire Weekend – A Punk

The Wave Pictures –Now you are pregnant

Black Kids – Look at me

Withered Hand –Religious Songs

 And the winner is Death by White Lies – 3 Votes.

And Geraldine by Glasvegas with 3 votes but Death is better.