I picked up a copy of the Metro today – the English newspaper you get when you hop on a bus or a train rather than the glossy Auckland mag. It’s utter garbage, but it does give you some words to look at if you grow weary of the scenery as you get from point A to point B.

Anyhow – apparently, Radio 2 have embarked upon a search to find the best British song of the past 25 years.

They’re very big on ‘best ever’s over here.

Over the weekend, I watched a programme that counted down to the Best Comedian Ever, as voted by Britain’s current top comedians. My pick was Eric Morecambe, who made the top 5. Peter Cook actually took top honours.

There’s a shortlist of 25 songs in the running for best of the quarter-century that looks like this:

Heroes – David Bowie

We Are The Champions – Queen

Wuthering Heights – Kate Bush

Night Fever – Bee Gees

London Calling – Clash

Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division

That’s Entertainment – The Jam

I Don’t Want To Talk About It – Rod Stewart

Look of Love – ABC

Golden Brown – The Stranglers

True – Spandau Ballet

Careless Whisper – George Michael

Holding Back The Years – Simply Red

Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel

Sacrifice – Elton John

Unfinished Sympathy – Massive Attack

Why – Annie Lennox

Fields of Gold – Sting

Kiss From A Rose – Seal

Wonderwall – Oasis

Angels – Robbie Williams

Yellow – Coldplay

Babylon – David Gray

Leave Right Now – Will Young

Dry Your Eyes – The Streets

…and of course, there’s just no end of debate that could ensue.

I mean, how do you even put Joy Division and Simply Red on the same list of anything? And where’s The Fall? XTC?

And given Radio 2’s theoretical target audience, surely The Waterboys’ Whole of the Moon should be there…

Forget the entire pantheon of British pop since 1980, just restrict it to anything that charted – and whatever way you look at it, this is nobody’s list. It’s trying to be too many things to too many people – and that entirely sums up Radio 2 as a whole.

This is a radio station on which you can hear Jonathan Ross talking about his punk days and playing Kings of Leon on a Saturday morning. Where The Finns feel right at home. Michael Parkinson seems to interview Cliff Richard and Jason Donovan on alternating weeks. Courtney Pine attempts to make up for his absurdly overrated 2004 album by putting together quite a good jazz show… and where you’ll find pretty much every other kind of popular music style going – light classical, pop, world, reggae…

It is the most eclectic radio station. Sure, it has a decidedly white, middle class bias – but be fair, this is Britain. There are an awful lot of white, middle-class people about. There should be a music radio station…

I can’t wait for Bryan Rudd‘s book on Radio 2 to come out. Apparently it’s a great story.

I’ll be seeing him in a day or two. He’s involved with a media conference in Lincoln, and I’m going to be on a panel discussion about radio. Should be interesting. I’ll let you know how it goes.

One thing I’m looking forward to is the 3-hour train journey. I should get a few albums in on the way. I’ll sit there with my big comedy headphones on – and just listen.

I managed to get through a few today too. It turns out I’m not officially at work this week, so that’s how I made the most of my time.

Of course, this doesn’t affect my 1-a-day commitment. If I listen to more than one today, I still listen to at least one tomorrow. In fact, let’s see how far I can overshoot the 365 album target.

Here’s how I treated my ears this time:

4. Lobi Traore – Mali Blue Dixiefrog (2004)

5. Tegan and Sara – If It Was You Vapor (2002)

6. Sonny Clark Trio – Sonny Clark Trio Blue Note (1957)

7. Dizzee Rascal – Boy in da Corner XL Recordings (2003)