Your Cherry Lipstick Favourites from 2019
It was another busy year at Cherry Lipstick with an ever-growing readership - so much so that several of the top read articles in 2019 were from 2017 and 2018.
Honourable mentions go out to the ever-popular adventures detailed in the Simon le Bon diaries (2017-18), as well the Arcadia album review (2018).
The website traffic was also very busy with you logging on to find out about - and pay for - the special Cherry Lipstick fanzine on the Early Years of Duran Duran (1972-1980). You supported this venture so well, and the issue is now sold out, much to many people's disappointment. Stay tuned for more information about another fanzine later this year! Join in and be sure not to miss your copy!
But on to 2019, and here are your top 10 most-read articles.
At 10 there is Jason Lent's review of one of the Las Vegas shows from the start of the year. This was Jason's second contribution to Cherry Lipstick and you can find more from him at the Daily Duranie.
Baranduin Briggs returned to the pages of Cherry Lipstick her hazy recollections of a show she is pretty sure she was at in 1984. "I really don’t remember much. I think my seats were decent, but not great. Off house left, JT side, up?" You usually pay hundreds for this sort of memoir of one of the greatest rock shows of all time.
At 8 there is the first entry for C.K. Shortell with his latest contribution to CL's (date I say) iconic 5-star album review series. As it happens, both he and I started writing a Pop Trash review independently, and so decided to team up and complete it together.
Ruth Galvin joins us at no. 7 as, having built up Arcadia in her excellent album review (see above), then chose to take them down by including Say The Word in our unique Forgotten Horror series.
A new writer joined us for the no. 6 placing - Scarlet Poirot, a 15 year old of 2019 vintage. She guest-reviewed the Record Store Day triple -sided LP As The Lights Go Down. Her comments contrasted with what teenagers in 1984 made of it: "It’s all to samey again. It’s too slow and there’s no build up. The chorus sounds like the verse, it hasn’t changed at all. [time passes]. I’m bored. This is rubbish, you can’t dance to it."
Your top 5 starts with another Forgotten Horror, Buried In The Sand. Surprisingly (to me), this was my first entry in the series, and I have to say it scratched an itch. This song has been bugging me for 22 years. Job done.
Compare and contrast with no. 4 - a Lost Treasure, and a competition winner - Read My Lips by C.K. Shortell. "It’s five guys, smoking God knows what, rocking out. They didn’t care if this song got played on the radio, or pleased the record company executives. There were no fucking collaborations with pop stars in completely antithetical genres. It was raw, it had guitars, okay, it was a little over produced in the final analysis. Stop bashing it. Get a grip. Don’t resist. It’s a trip. Don’t resist. Read my lips!"
And so to your top 3. The most recent album review - Duran Duran, the first album - was by yours truly, and it was one i was dreading to write. What is there that's new to say, or that might make you listen differently? I suppose giving Sound Of Thunder 2 stars was one way to go about it.
In the runner-up slot was the other jointly-written album review of All You Need Is Now by C.K. Shortell and yours truly.
And your winner... For the third year in a row, it is by Ruth Galvin. In 2017 she topped your poll with her Electric Picnic live review, last year it was the Arcadia album review, and this year it's with her recent live review of Andy Taylor at the 100 Club in London.
Congratulations to Ruth, and here's to another year of Cherry Lipsticking, with another excuse to print that pic of AT reading his copy of CL.
