We’ve had albums and TV, and I dare say books and films are to come, so what were your best nights out of the year? Thanks to my desktop calendar I know my list includes 34 nights out including the occasional afternoon matinee, with 2 more to come (The Unthanks winter tour at Earth in Hackney on Sunday and The Nutcracker at the Royal Opera House on the Saturday before Christmas).

The largest category is gigs with 14 and my highlights of the year were Peat and Diesel at Chinnery’s in Southend on Sea and The Unthanks reprising 3 early albums in an all-dayer at The Barbican in London. Apart from both fitting the broad category of folk music there is not much to link Peat and Diesel’s sweatbox-singalong-ceilidh and the dark Northumbrian broodings of the Unthanks but they were equally rewarding in their own way, and both sent me home transported by the power of live music.

Comedy is next with 9 entries, and the funniest thing I saw all year was Ross Noble being interviewed for Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast. Ross is the funniest man alive, and his improvisation technique meant that wherever it started the » Continue Reading.