The Last Post (Part 1)

Time for our exercise in citizen blogging, where I invited you each to pick a number between 1 and 26,500 and I would then select a track by the artist(s) that appeared at that position in the list of my listening habits according to Last.fm.

There were more suggestions than I was expecting so I am splitting this into two posts, the first five today and the rest on Monday. Which means that if anyone wants to take part but has not yet done so there is still a chance. Just get your numbers in by Sunday afternoon.

The distribution of the data in the Last.fm list is quite interesting. Just over 40% of artists have been listened to only once (making One what I believe former maths teachers would call the mode). In contrast only 1.5% of them have received 100 or more listens. 

This clearly reflects my unceasing quest for newness and it should not be assumed that those 11,000 or so acts never got heard again because they were rubbish. Having said that, many were. All those Indonesian death metal samplers and Macedonian hits of the 1980s albums can be a bit of a curate's egg to be honest.

Speaking of former maths teachers as we were, George of that ilk was first to send in a request, closely followed by his tartan twin Charity Chic. Both of them dived headfirst into the Ones, with George opting for number 22,705 and CC 23,281, and both have come up clutching duos. 

George hasn't done too badly with his choice of some hypnotic vintage Cajun music from 1929. I'm personally less keen on CC's Kiwis from 1990 but I can recommend "Tally Ho!", the Flying Nun label compilation on which I found them.

Next in line was Pete from Minnesota who interrupted his attempts to catch a fish alive to ask for number 12,345. Still a risky request but in this case the risk paid off. Clara Nunes was a huge star in Brazil before her tragically early death at the age of 40 in 1983 but I have apparently only listened to her twice. I'll be putting that right.

At this point Swiss Adam stepped in to steady the ship with the reliably low number 23. His reward (and ours) is the great Fairport Convention. I have gone for a song from "Liege And Lief" which I think is the perfect showcase for Sandy Denny's voice. Thank you Adam for ensuring there is a small oasis of sanity in here. 

Last but not least today we have an appearance by the famed polymath Mr John Medd. His choice of the number 666 can only reflect his belief that all this is the devil's work. And after listening to the Mexican Elvis take on T. Rex who is to say he is wrong.

"I Am Happy Now" - Bixy Guidry & Percy Babineaux (George)

"Randolph's Going Home" - Shayne Carter & Peter Jefferies (CC)

"Jogo De Angola" - Clara Nunes (Pete)

"Farewell, Farewell" - Fairport Convention (Adam)

"El Groover" - El Vez (John)

All in all you've done a pretty good job. Maybe I should hand over to you lot more often.

I mentioned that only a small percentage of the acts on Last.fm's list had ratched up over 100 listens. Of those only four have passed 1000. Here are numbers 3 and 4 on the list, we will have contributions from numbers 1 and 2 with the rest of your selections on Monday.