Best of 2024

Outline 3 January 2025

Our volunteer writers and photographers are STARS. Not only do they trudge along to all kinds of shows and gigs in Norwich, they also take the time to write reviews and take photos so y’all can pretend you were there. Here are some of their personal picks on music and more in the year of 2024!

Here are some of their personal picks on music and more in the year of 2024!

Pavlis

Best Gig: Sing To Tim: Cardiacs Family & Friends Celebrate the Life & Music of Tim Smith, Highbury Garage, 3rd May, although Nordic Giants at Colchester Arts Centre on 16th December and Carol Hodge & Julia Othmer at Aces & Eights on 8th July were damned fine too. Oh and every Other Half set I have seen this year has been superb.

Best Album: can't decide between Effortless InSecurity by Carol Hodge, No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead by Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Dark Ageism by Other Half

Best Song: Feeling For Yourself by Other Half

Best Musical Act: Other Half

Best Movie: No Other Land

Best Book: Diminished Responsibility: My Life As A UK Sub & Other Strange Stories Part III by Alvin Gibbs

Best TV Show: Ludwig

Best Theatre Show: Birdsong

Best Norwich Venue: Norwich Arts Centre

Best Memory: Cardiacs performing Is This The Life? at the Garage in May, bursting into tears (of joy), looking around and realising that there were at least four other people around me blubbing.

David Vass

Best Gig: To preserve any shred of credibility I should say the Idles set at Glastonbury, but the guilty pleasure of Duran Duran at Latitude knocked it off the top spot.

Best Album: Do people still do these?

Best Song: Hat's off to Jason and Lou for Hedge Monkey's reunion single La Chapeau.

Best Movie: The restored Nosferatu – yes, I know it's a hundred years old, but up on the big screen with Minima's live score it was quite mesmerising.

Best Book: Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart – humane, insightful and painfully honest

Best TV Show: Has to be Mr Bates, though the joyously silly Ludwig comes in a close second

Best Theatre Show: Birdsong – a masterly adaptation of a challenging book that started slow but left me reeling.

Best Norwich Venue: The Playhouse – if only they would let us in more

Best Memory: Finding out I'd been misdiagnosed and wasn't going blind after all (well you did ask)

David Auckland

Best Gig: Sting - Thetford Forest

Best Album: Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown

Best Song: Jenny Stardust - Ain't That A Kick In The Cunt

Best Musical Act: Daft Funk

Best Movie: The Taste of Things

Best Book: 'Patriot' by Alexei Navalny