Simon RushworthSo Self Made Man’s had his say and fair play to our resident blogger – he’s picked a few big winners in his highlights of 2008. But how do his picks stand up to this bunch of Christmas crackers?
Albums Of The Year
1 Tesla Forever More
2 White Lion Return Of The Pride
3 Death Angel Killing Season
4 Joe Satriani Professor Satchafunkilus
5 Def Leppard Songs From The Sparkle Lounge
6 Guns N Roses Chinese Democracy
7 Quireboys Homewreckers & Heartbreakers
8 Black Tide Light From Above
9 Evergrey Torn
10 Alice Cooper Along Came A Spider
11 Metallica Death Magnetic
12 Black Stone Cherry Folklore & Superstition
13 Whitesnake Good To Be Bad
14 Stone Gods Silver Spoons & Broken Bones
15 Extreme Saudades de Rock
16 Thunder Bang!
17 Children Of Bodom Blooddrunk
18 AC/DC Black Ice
19 Stone Rider Three Legs Of Trouble
20 Man Raze Surreal
Top Five Gigs: 1 Turisas Edinburgh; 2 Def Leppard Islington Academy; Black Tide Leeds Festival; Thunder Newcastle City Hall; Quireboys Newcastle Carling Academy.
Top Five Rock Highs: 1 Vinyl’s Comeback; 2 Dirty Rock N Roll playing Halo; 3 Guns N Roses’ return; 4 Planet Rock’s survival; 5 White Lion’s Mike Tramp dedicating Wait to DJ Little Jeff @ The Cluny.
Worst Five Rock Lows: 1 AC/DC snubbing the Toon; 2 North East Rock Radio; 3 Avenged Sevenfold cutting short Leeds set; Rose Hill Drive’s new album; Trillians shutting its doors at 11pm on night of Newcastle rock double.
Top Five Hopes For 2009: 1 Quireboys to return to the big league; 2 Dirty Rock N Roll to sign record deal; 3 Def Leppard to bring out career-defining box set; 4 Metallica tear Toon apart; 5 Tesla play Toon.