Insince.re, the blog of Clive Murray

Hark you, and listen.

Many years ago, I came up with an excellent name for a cocktail – the “Gin Diesel”.

B is for… Sebastian Bach (Photo by Jamie - Flickr: Sebastian Bach & Rachel Bolan, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?

A is for… Amorphis (Photo by Cecil - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?

So yeah, observant listeners may have realised that I have now completed my task of picking an Album of the Year (plus runners-up where applicable) for every year from 2017 right back to the year of my birth, 1974.

OK, so I think I’ve sat with the albums of 2017 for long enough now to make the necessary judgement calls. 2017 was the year that came after the one before, and if anyone tries to tell you different, SLAP THEM.

The final part.

On we go, come on come on, keep up, I haven’t got all day, you know. 1980 Honourable mention Van Halen - Women and Children First When Van Halen burst onto the scene they undeniably took it apart (more on that later), and they were still pretty much at the

Right, I hadn’t developed a real taste in music this far back, and a lot of what I’ve gotten into from these years is the back catalogues of a handful of bands, so it’s going to get samey from here on in.

1986.

Unnnnnngh.

In 1987 I was 13, so what do you want?

1988 was the year in the 20th century that had the most digits when written as Roman numerals: MCMLXXXVIII.

In 1989 I was fifteen, and for my birthday I got my first guitar and a year’s worth of guitar lessons.

So, 1990.

In 1991 I lost my virginity and got a 49cc moped.

Right.

In 2015 I left my two-year contract in Westminster to go work for a Jimmy Wales venture, and the nearly 2-year wait for my BlacKat DC7 finally came to an end.

Right, stop what you’re doing and listen closely.

And so, the blog is back.

This blog will be going offline for a little while shortly, as I’m moving house.

2014 was the International Year of Crystallography, of Family Farming, of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, and of Small Island Developing States.

I just bought a house.

So when I launched this blog, 3 years ago this month, it was mainly because I had discovered the wonder of the Raspberry Pi and wanted an excuse to buy one (that wasn’t bitcoin mining) so a blog server seemed like a good idea.

1993 was the last year of my teens.

In 1994 apartheid ended in South Africa with the election of Nelson Mandela as the first multiracially and democratically elected president of that country.

This.

…is this blog trying to live.

…etc etc.

In 1995 I reached legal USA drinking age, ST:Voyager started, Richey Edwards disappeared, Kevin Mitnick was arrested, Nick Leeson collapsed an entire banking firm, Yahoo!

1996 was a leap year, and was designated as the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty.

1997 was the year I first got a modem and discovered the Internet, a move that ended up providing me with a career but started with a £10/month Demon account and a 19.2kbps (it was supposed to be 28.8kbps but I think it was a bit broken and it never once…

1998 marked the end of a few chapters for me, and the beginning of actually having a proper job and getting on with things.

2013 was the last year of my 30s, and was a pretty OK year for me all round.

In Summer 1999 I met a girl.

MM.

2001 was of course released in 1968, and what’s up with that monolith?

2002 was the first palindromic year since 1991 and the last until 2112.

In 2003, the US Department of Homeland Security was established, Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry, SARS happened, Apple released OSX Panther, I got a job at the then fledgling Dare Digital and using mobile phones while driving was outlawed…

Ok, so when last I spoke about feline friends, my wife and I had just adopted four new sets of paws - a mummy cat and her three kittens.

2004 was a leap year starting on a Thursday, and soon after that I turned 30.

2005 gave us YouTube, the Kyoto Protocol, Pope Benedict XVI, the first flight of the A380, Live8, a metre of rain in Mumbai, Disneyland Hong Kong, the Danish cartoons of Muhammad, an earthquake in Kashmir that killed around 80,000 people, the first human…

In 2006 a man named Mathias hired me for the second time, I moved from Leyton E10 to South Woodford E18, I turned 32 and my band Little Monkeys released a live album on 6th June (6/6/6).

So, if the story is about Shira and her departure then this is the third and final part of that story.

In my opinion there is only one wrong number of cats to have, and that is none.

In 2007 the Writers Guild of America went on strike, utterly buggering up the second series of Heroes and cutting short the annual season of many other shows.

People seem to divide reasonably neatly into two groups: cat people and dog people.

The hardest part of starting a new band has always been coming up with a cool name.

I was born in 1974.

2008 was a year.