I’ve decided to start keeping a monthly music diary. This is more for myself than anyone else, so I can look back in future on what was going on in my musical world. It includes a playlist of the songs I’ve been enjoying this month, the shows I’ve been to, and commentary on musical events and discourse.

I spent most of March listening to music from the 2010s, due to competing in a music challenge on BlueSky involving picking 50 favourite tracks from that decade. The first half of that decade in particular was the period in my life where I listened to the least new music, due to life circumstances, so there was plenty I missed out on.

Beat of my Drum by Nicola Robert’s is one of the great lost (or at least semi-lost) pop singles, not a hit in 2011 when it was released, but an absolutely belting chorus and overall up there with some of the very best of her former group, Girls Aloud.

Other pop I’d missed out on included Die Young by Kesha who I’d only heard much later with the excellent and very different Eat The Acid, and On the Regular by Shamir Bailey, who I’d only heard much later with the the excellent and very different Where Gravity is Dead (a Laura Veirs cover).

My clubbing days were behind me by the 2010s which probably explains how I missed out on Bring in the Katz by KW Griff & Porkchop, Au Seve by Julio Bashmore and Time by Pachanga Boys, with the latter being a particular favourite, 15 minutes of absolutely gorgeous minimal house based on a Sufjan Stevens sample.

I was also re-introduced to Donnie Darko by Let’s Eat Grandma an 11 minute epic up there with their best work that I had somehow forgotten about. One of the few more recent songs I listened to in the month was Olivia Rodrigo’s cover of ‘The Book of Love’ by The Magnetic Fields. There’s always a temptation to be dismissive of big artists covering fairly niche songs that you love, but I have to say it has been delightful hearing these words on Radio1.

In terms of live music, other than going to see my daughter play violin with her beginners strings orchestra, the only show I saw in March was A Guy Called Gerald at Howard Assembly Rooms. He played a set of punishingly hard drum n bass, with a live drummer, and teased but didn’t play his big hit. It was music more at home in a club than the genteel theatre type venue it was actually in, and the man himself seemed (rightly) bitter about the way the music industry had treated him as a black music pioneer. The very white, middle-aged, middle-class audience only emphasised this, myself included. I have more thoughts on this which I will try to develop at another time.

Things I did manage to write this month were unsurprisingly 2010s focused, with pieces on Robyn’s Dancing On My Own and Anohni’s 4 Degrees.

Below is my playlist of the month, on Apple Music, but you can use Tunemymusic.com to convert to a streaming service of your choice should you wish.
https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/musical-diary-march-2026/pl.u-WabZPoGUejgjpAx