Michael Taylor, from Tameside Radio's Music Therapy show, takes us through the five best lists of music he's been listening to recently. Find out how the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, gets a mention...

What is it with blokes and lists? The 20 best songs in films, the 100 greatest backing singers, 50 amazing tambourine players. You know the score.

Me and Neil both have form for this in our previous and present lives. 

I used to edit magazines where I’d frequently draw up lists of people in whichever world I was writing about.

The 20 best Music Video Directors of the ‘90s was one that stands out (Jonathan Glazer, by the way, Radiohead, Jamiroquai, as well as that Guinness advert with the horses).

Neil’s illustrious career in television saw him making documentaries and light entertainment shows, but he also worked on the ITV series The Nation’s Favourite Queen song, and there are no prizes for naming the song that was top.

So, here, briefly, are the five best lists of music I’ve been accessing recently.

At five, it’s Andrew Collins, the former editor of Q and a prolific writer, has come up with a formula where you can pick 143 songs, but only one per artist. 

He started at 50, but it was a definitive, heroic, primal list of songs that were massively important to him. 

He kept going and stuck at 143. It’s good, look it up. I’ve done 100 and 200, but discovered recently that my 100 is in fact 112. I’m going to have a go at my 143.

Number four, is Garry Mulholland, another music journalist, who produced my favourite music book of all: This is Uncool, the 500 greatest singles since punk and disco. 

It starts around 1976, and was published in 2002, so it covers a hugely important part of my musical awakening, from when I was 10, and up until when my second son was born. At which point I lost the capacity to absorb much more music, until recently. 

At three, there’s a bloke I follow on Twitter called Memorial Device. He does some great and wonderful lists. 

One recently was the 30 best musicians in the post-punk era. Number two was Mark Hollis of Talk Talk. But number one was Dave Greenfield of the Stranglers. Neil wasn’t happy that Johnny Marr only made it to 10, and Matt Johnson of The The was stuck in the 20s. The lesson is, do your own list. 

At number two, Classic Pop magazine has a beautiful list of the 15 best Sophisti Pop albums. 

I’m still in a state of shock that a load of music I liked back in the ‘80s has now been re-classified as a genre all of its own. Sade, Style Council, Matt Bianco, Prefab Sprout and ABC. 

Finally, in at number one, I may have mentioned that I’ve recently completed a Masters degree in political communications. 

Amongst the sources is a Spotify playlist called Mayor’s Manchester Music which are the 18 songs played at Andy Burnham’s Greater Manchester manifesto launch in 2017. 

It’s decent, to be fair, and starts with Bury’s Elbow and their epic One Day Like This, takes in Stockport’s Blossoms, Wigan’s Verve and ends with Ten Story Love Song by the Stone Roses (Altrincham?). 

There’s something for everyone in there.

But I suspect Tameside was once again cruelly overlooked. 

You can listen to Michael Taylor and Neil Summers on Music Therapy on Tameside Radio 103.6FM on Sunday evenings from 9pm to 11pm. Click here to subscribe and catch up on previous shows.

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