Well, 1988 is nearly at an end (it will be by the time you read this), and so it’s the customary time to look back over the past year and pick out a few highlights and lowlights.

Top 10 films seen in ’88 (no order – eleven really!)

• The Hidden
• The Seventh Sign
• Reform School Girls
• A Fish Called Wanda
• Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources
• The Gruesome Twosome
• Brain Damage
• Nekromantik
• Prison Ship Star Slammer
• Robocop

Not all these were released in 88, but they all first brushed across my consciousness in the year past. I was torn about including a couple of the films I saw in an all-nighter on the 30th of December 1987, but in the end I decided to be strict with myself!

Top 10 Records released in 1988 (LPs or singles)

• Laibach – Let It Be
• Transvision Vamp – Sex Kick (Ciao Portobello)
• Eighth Wonder – I’m Not Scared
• Act – Laughter, Tears and Rage
• Age of Chance – Take It!
• Siouxsie and the Banshees – Peep Show
• Thomas Dolby – Aliens Ate my Buick
• Devo – Some Things Never Change
• Tiffany – I think We’re Alone Now
• Laibach – Sympathy for the Devil (Who Killed the Kennedys?)

Not a good year musically. Too much garbage, not enough bad taste, with only the rise of the bimbo and the continuing steady improvement of the remarkable Laibach giving much hope for the future.