Favourite Album: Gaz Coombes – World’s Strongest Man

World’s Strongest Man is simply a gorgeous album, full of texture and variety, to knock socks off any more obscure or supposedly clever releases this year. Coombes is a classic British songwriter who puts so much thought into what he does that it will take all that I have not to kneel at his feet when he plays his show at St Paul’s Church in Worthing next May.

Favourite Gig: Britney Spears – Brighton Pride

The most highly anticipated show the city’s LGBTQ festival has possibly ever seen, it was as crazy as it was wonderful. Britters in a corset and suspenders, lip-syncing to her biggest hits, in front of an ‘up for it’ crowd, on a balmy summer’s evening after one of the best days in BN1’s calendar. So what if Southern Fail cocked up the end of the evening in the most spectacular fashion? Ms Spears had us partying on the beach for at least a few days afterwards, right?

One We’ve Missed: Biffy Clyro Unplugged – Le Bataclan, Paris

Hardly surprising that Brightonsfinest missed this one, I guess, but I was there and, not only was it highly emotional due to the location, but the audience was a family, wrapped in a truly beautiful bubble like nothing I had ever experienced. When they played their finale of ‘Many of Horror’, the goosebumps really arrived and I’m pretty sure that everyone was crying, a sea of people standing with arms raised, singing at the top of their voices, letting anyone listening know that live music is freedom, even if we were dancing amongst ghosts. No gig in my lifetime will ever come close.

Anna Claxton

Top Three Tracks:

Gaz Coombes – ‘Oxygen Mask’
Justin Timberlake ft Chris Stapleton – ‘Say Something’
The Prodigy – ‘Need Some1’