1. Ramones - It's Alive
The first punk rock album I heard, rummaging through a mate's big brother's record collection when I was ten. 28 no-frills songs in less than an hour with only the occasional 1-2-3-4 to separate them was something completely other than the double live albums I had, fleshed out with jams, drum solos & Paul Stanleyish embarrassing banter. The simplistic lyrics were easy to sing along to & the brothers image of these cartoony characters was perfect for a kid. Listening to it now, it feels like I haven't aged that much since then. The Ramones are dead; long live the Ramones!
 
2. Bad Religion - 30 Years Live
The LP that really made me fall in love with punk was Suffer, which I heard in '89, a year after its release. The short energetic songs connected with me more than any other punk or metal I'd heard both because of Greg Graffin's unprecedently melodic (almost folky) vocal melodies and the way the lyrics actually spoke to me about my life & the human condition so eloquently. It wasn't the Ramones' Hey ho let's go chantalongs, but just as catchy. Like Fat Mike sings, "I bought Suffer, then I bought a thesaurus." And Brett's a great songwriter. They've been knocking out classics ever since, as witnessed by this live album. You can often clearly hear the influence on my band Venerea, from the first song we wrote in '91 (Slavery) to the last we released (The Hill Street Blues & Yellows).
 
3. Elvis Costello & The Attractions - This Years Model
I know Jay Bentley from Bad Religion is a fan too, and no wonder since Bruce Thomas' contrapuntal bass playing was amazing. And he's not even the best musician in the group...I only first heard Costello in the late nineties, but it had an immediate effect on my own songwriting. I'd dabbled in wordplay all along but his influence stepped up my game with thematic punning, allusions and doing character assassinations or just writing in character. (Tabula Rasa is a typically Costello-influenced Venerea lyric from 15 years ago.) This is their first LP together and their "punkiest" and apart from being a golden shower of hits I love the live-in-the-studio feel of Nick Lowe's production, like the vocal & drums verse in the manic Lipstick Vogue, where the other instruments are bleeding through the drum mics. Every time I listen to this record in the car I start speeding. Health & safety: Another reason to buy the vinyl.
 
4. The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God
Costello had produced their second album Rum, Sodomy & The Lash (whose cover painting I allude to in Not My Country from the new Venerea LP Last Call For Adderall, incidentally) and married their bass player, but this really is their masterpiece. "In Brendan Behan's footsteps we danced up and down the street" (of New York) Shane MacGowan sings in Phil Chevron's wonderful immigrant's song Thousands Are Sailing, and that's what the band is doing here. The Irish tradition is living and breathing and dancing (and feeding off American music styles) in these vivid tales of rebellion, drinking, gambling, vengeful ghosts and losers in love. In my book Shane was one of the great writers of the 20th century, partly because his best songs sound timeless, like the gorgeous Broad Majestic Shannon. I also like the idea of connecting with tradition but not being afraid to fuck with it. From the gutter to the stars.
 
5. The Fall - Sublingual Tablet
Along with Shane & Keef, Mark E Smith probably has the lowest odds at the bookies to be the next legend to bite the dust but by the sounds of this, he may well keep going for another 40 years. I first heard & saw the Fall live in November 2008 and was so hooked that by the following February I'd bought 40 of their records, few of which sound the same (from punk to kraut rock to rockabilly to pop to disco/electronica to sound collages to beefheartian stuff to...) or even features the same line-up as any other. Since then that figure has doubled and I've seen them live dozens of times and the only line-up change has been the occasional additional drummer. The current group really hold their own, especially with dynamics and weird sounds. Always best experienced live, but the proof is in the pudding that is their latest DLP. No one else could have recorded an insane one chord stomp like Pledge or the groove monster Dedication Not Medication, with its fabulous opening lines "Pierce Brosnan, how dare you prescribe sad grief and bed-wet pills?" I also love the slightly African-sounding Junger Cloth, which could be about an archaeologist deciphering some weird inscription in a newly uncovered tomb...or an annoyed drunk having an eye test. With Mark E Smith it's often hard to tell but always captivating. After having discovered his singular world view, original approaches to language and unusual styles of "singing" I rarely listen to anything else. It's often inexplicable but almost every listen fills me with a sense of wonder.