Debating the quality of music must be one of the  favourite pastimes. Rarely, however, does conversation turn to influential music. This list is designed not to provide a definitive guide, but to give you food for thought and provide a catalyst for further debate. So here goes: the 9 most influential albums of all time.

01. The Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols

October 27th 1977. An unsuspecting British music scene is rudely awakened by Johnny Rotten screaming ‘I am an anarchist!’ If the previous 9 albums combined caused ripples in the music world, Never Mind the Bollocks was a 1000ft tidal wave of punk rock innovation that violently shook the very foundations of British music. Underestimate the influence of this album at your peril. It is unquestionably the most significant offering out of all the Manchester Brand artists of the era. When one considers that this list includes the likes of Joy Division, The Clash and The Jam, this statement mounts The Buzzcocks upon a solid gold plinth of musical infamy and superstardom. Without it, it’s unlikely you’d have heard of bands like Blink 182 and Greenday. It really was that important. Think I’m talking out of my hat? Listen to it and then listen to American Idiot. You’ll see what I mean…

02. The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Well, you knew it was coming didn’t you. Think this is a bit of a cliché? There’s a reason why things become clichés. It’s because they’re inescapably true. Every now and again something comes along that just changes everything, and in the world of music, this is one such thing. The Beatles’s eighth studio offering was received with both popular and critical acclaim, achieving incomprehensible commercial success. This album virtually provided the soundtrack to the 1960’s. One critic even branded Sgt. Pepper: “A decisive moment in the history of Western civilization”. Make of that what you will. Maybe they were more popular than God…

03. Oasis – Definitely Maybe

In bronze medal position, we have one of the most successful British bands of all time. These pioneers of Britpop followed in the footsteps of their punk and post-punk rock predecessors and perhaps defined the 1990s. Locked in an intense charts battle with main rivals Blur in 1996, Oasis ultimately won the war and continued to make critically acclaimed music well into the noughties. Definitely Maybe is often hailed as the greatest album of all time by critics and the list of bands that claim to have been influenced by Oasis reads like a who’s who of modern music. The Killers, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian; I could continue… Oasis’s influence is simply staggering and this is the album that introduced them to the world.

04. The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds

This album is another example of a true change in direction. The experimental vocal harmonies, inventive instrumentals and sound effects make the cut of this album’s jib very interesting indeed, and nothing short of an absolute masterpiece. Cited by Paul McCartney and The Beatles as a major influence on their work, Pet Sounds largely dictated the direction in which pop music went for decades into the future.

05. Elvis Presley – Elvis Presley

One word springs to mind. Originality. There was absolutely nothing like this before Elvis released his debut album in 1956. One could argue that Bill Haley was the proverbial ‘Big Bang’ in the rock world, but The King was something different altogether. He was a trailblazer in every sense of the word. He dared to go where no artist had gone before. He pretty much invented, mastered and then set alight the world of Rock and Roll, becoming quite literally one of the most iconic and recognisable figures of the 20th Century. He transcended music, and occupies a mantle not all that dissimilar to that of God to this day. Enough said…

06. David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars

Put simply, there hasn’t been anything like this before or since. Bowie’s originality is little short of staggering, with this album undoubtedly being his very finest work. Consistently credited as one of the most significant rock albums ever, Ziggy Stardust transcended its glam rock foundations to influence a number of other musical genres.

07. Michael Jackson – Thriller

The most commercially successful album of all time, Thriller is considered MJ’s greatest musical achievement. This was his sixth studio album, however, and for this reason, its actual influence in terms of a change in direction in music is debatable. Nevertheless, the influence Jackson had and continues to have on pop music is too significant to ignore.

08. The Clash – London Calling

It’s difficult to imagine a more fertile music environment than the North of England in the 1970’s and 80’s. One could be forgiven for thinking that you wouldn’t be able to walk down the street in Manchester in 1980 without bumping into Ian Cutis or Paul Weller. The Clash were by far the most notable exception to the rule; Southern lads at the very forefront of the Mod rock revolution. London Calling marked a change in direction for the band; their intriguing blend of rock, ska and pop really gave those Northerners a thing or two to think about.

09. The Who – My Generation

Initially dismissed as a rushed and unrepresentative piece of work by The Who themselves after its release in 1965, My Generation has since cemented itself as one of the best rock albums of all time. The Who lent a fresh sound to rock, incorporating synthesized sounds that had rarely been heard beforehand, and inspiring future artists of the heavier rock kind, most notably, Black Sabbath, AC/DC and Iron Maiden.

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Sorry Rob!

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The Strokes have indicated they are to start work imminently on their new album. And according to bandmates Julian Casablancas and Nikolai Fraiture they could be doing so as soon as January next year.

“While the guys are in LA, I went to scout some studios in NYC with Ryan [Gentles - The Strokes manager] today for what looks like Jan recording!!! mood = f***ing excited.” Fraiture wrote on his Twitter. But Casablancas said the plans weren’t set in concrete, but also revealed January sessions had been discussed. “We’re supposed to get back together in January but don’t hold me to that,” Casablancas told Pitchfork. “We’ve been trying to do it for years. I’m always available and they know that but getting together is tough,” he added.

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The band will top the bill on the Friday night (June 27) of the three-day event for the first time in their 32-year career, flying in for the weekend before heading back to America to resume their tour.

Festival organiser Michael Eavis told the event’s official website, Glastonburyfestivals.co.uk: “I promised the best possible line-up for the show next year and the confirmation that U2 will play their first ever Glastonbury – and their first major festival gig since the early 1980s – is fantastic news. “We’ve been trying for years… And now we’ve finally made it happen. I’m sure they will pull out all the stops to make next year’s Glastonbury the most memorable ever.”

The band have been rumoured to appear at the festival a number of times over the years but they have always failed to appear on the bill until now. Earlier this year Bono did confirm that the band wanted to appear at Glastonbury at some stage.

Other acts rumoured to be in contention to play at next year’s event include The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Muse and David Bowie.

All 190,000 Tickets for next year’s Glastonbury sold out within 12 hours of going on sale in October.

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A clean-cut Pickering man admitted yesterday he attacked Noel Gallagher while the leader of British rock band Oasis performed in Toronto last year. On Friday Daniel Sullivan pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm for the September 2008 attack, which was captured on video by several fans and has garnered worldwide attention on the Internet.

At the concert on Toronto Island, the band had launched into its hit ” Morning Glory” when Sullivan sneaked by stage security, skipped over the electric cords and passed the drum kit to charge into the guitarist from behind.

“Sullivan managed to make his way up to the main stage area, run past the electrical cords set up along the stage, pass the drum kit and lunge toward Noel Gallagher, shoving him violently from behind with great force,” said Crown attorney Ruth Neilson in reading an agreed statement of facts to Justice Richard Schneider in the Ontario Court of Justice.

Gallagher, who was facing the crowd and playing his guitar at the time, suffered three fractured ribs when he fell forward on to a speaker. He then turned and lunged at Gallagher’s younger brother, singer Liam, but was tackled by three security guards. The crowd of 25,000 cheered when the singer jabbed and kicked Sullivan while security dragged him offstage. He continued to struggle and scream as police arrested him backstage, court was told.

Sullivan only recalls trying to climb over a fence before falling on his back, according to an agreed statement of facts. Neilson said Sullivan was intoxicated at the time and has no recollection of how he was able to mount the stage, except that he “remembers attempting to climb over the fence .

The judge ordered a pre-sentence report for Sullivan to determine whether there are any extenuating circumstances that should affect his Feb. 5 sentencing. Calls to Sullivan’s Pickering home on Friday went unanswered.

In the moments after the tackle, the band stood stunned and Gallagher’s guitar rang with feedback. Gallagher walked offstage, where he stayed for several minutes before returning to perform the last 20 minutes of the set. The next day, he went to Toronto General Hospital for x-rays, where a doctor recommended he rest. He was reassessed two days later and told to cancel all performances until he was better.

A CT scan in London, England on Sept. 22, revealed he had fractured his ninth, tenth and eleventh ribs on his left side. As a consequence, Oasis was forced to cancel five concerts that were scheduled to promote the band’s new recording. One of those concerts was  major record launch in New York City.

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Interpol have revealed that their new album will be released in early 2010 – and is a bit of a retro affair. The record will be the follow-up to 2007’s ‘Our Love To Admire’ and the group’s fourth studio album, and the band’s drummer Sam Fogarino has revealed how the sound of the LP is a return to that of their 2002 debut album ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’.

“The new record falls back towards the first,” he told Paste Magazine. He added: “In trying to move forward, there was an unspoken realisation that you can’t let go of your sonic-defining tag.” Although a release date, title or tracklisting is still yet-to-be announced, Forgarino also revealed how the band had reverted back to their early sound. “There was an effort in Daniel [Kessler]’s guitar tone; he rediscovered it playing in his loft space for a year without anybody,” he explained. “The quality of that tone, played in a big room, is just beautiful. It creates an atmosphere.”

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The Libertines’ 2002 debut Up the Bracket was voted second in the list of the top 50 albums, with Primal Scream’s XTRMNTR coming in third. Bands such as Radiohead and Arctic Monkeys, plus record producers and label bosses were among those who cast their votes. Guitar-led rock acts dominated the list with nine out of the top 10 places.

Is This It, with its lo-fi scratchy guitars and hits like Last Nite and Someday, was one of the most acclaimed albums of the year when it was released in 2001. Its infamous cover shows a hand in a black vinyl glove resting on a woman’s naked thigh – thought by many to be a reference to Spinal Tap’s fictitious Smell The Glove album.

The Strokes’ frontman Julian Casablancas said of his band’s top position: “It’s totally crazy! I thought it was great when I heard. “But does it mean it’s a good musical decade or a bad musical decade? I don’t know, I’m such a bad judge of my own stuff.

The year 2002 is the most well-represented in the list with eight albums, including releases by Interpol, The Streets and Queens of the Stone Age.

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Just switch over to Pretty Green

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If reports are correct ex band members Gem Archer and Andy Bell, as well as Chris Sharrock (drums) and Jay Darlington (keyboards), are on board with Liam. Apparently Andy will switch to guitar to help Gem take up the empty spot Noel Gallagher has left behind. The band is currently talking to some bass players to complete the group’s lineup. According to Liam, the yet to be named band, already has 7 demos recorded.

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