Sparky - who is soon arriving on these shores - has published a list of all the bands he has ever seen, or those he can remember. I spot a meme! Looking through his list, I realise I wouldn't count a lot of the bands he's included. For instance, I was at the same gay band showcase that he was at one night in New York, and therefore also saw Morplay, The Maul Girls, Paxton, The Velvet Mafia and Russ Turk, but I haven't included them in my list because - well - no-one's ever heard of them! [And never will.....] I've also excluded bands I happened to chance across at festivals when there was nothing better on. And all the South African bands you've never heard of, but which were the only bands who ever toured SA.

Here are the artists I can remember seeing in the last five years or so:

ABC Marc Almond Ash Babybird Beautiful South Beck Blondie Blur Black Box Recorder Nick Cave Clinic Cocteau Twins Cornershop The Creatures Divine Comedy Elastica Erasure Go-Betweens David Holmes Kirsty MacColl Depeche Mode Heaven 17 Human League

Lightning Seeds Magnetic Fields Billie Ray Martin My Life Story Sinead O'Connor Orbital The Pastels Pet Shop Boys Primal Scream Prince Pulp Rolling Stones The Selector Sing Sing Smog Soft Cell Stereolab The Stranglers Super Furry Animals Supergrass U2 Yo La Tengo