On the private side it wasn’t the best of a year: We had to transfer me Mum & Dad into a care home, me Dad passed away due to cancer and me Mum ain’t the fittest either.
On top we made a big move into our to-be pension home out of the city, in the green of a “neck of the woods” suburb and as part of it took up a full renovation of a 1970s apartment into modern standards.
As such less time for shows, less time for reading.
I saw about the same number of Shows as in 2024 (32) but less bands (equals to less festival like shows):
| #of shows | # of bands | av. bands per show | |
| Hafenklang | 12 | 26 | 2 |
| Monkeys | 6 | 16 | 3 |
| Pretty Vacant HQ | 3 | 6 | 2 |
| Knust | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| MS Hedi | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Indra | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Komet | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Marias Ballroom | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Stellwerk | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| FCSP Fanshop | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 31 | 66 | 2 |
It sure should have been more, specifically at the Hafenklang.
Best show 2025? That’s a tough one, on my mental shortlist are six shows. Mhhhh. Let’s see:
Best show: Shattered Faith, Sloppy Seconds and T.S.O.L. at the Hafenklang. I guess mainly because of Jack and his lot driving this one home. Gold!
Runners up: Razors & Demolition Girl at Burn Down The Baum 18.0 at the Knust (Silver) and Sonny Vincent & Spitfire Stevens (what a great return for Sonny!) at the Hafenklang (Bronze).
Best set: Rancoeur (Hafenklang), followed by Gimp First (Monkeys) and Youth Of Altona (Pretty Vacant HQ)!
Biggest surprise: The Spartanics! And luckily they will hit Hamburg on 22.01.2026 at the Hafenklang again. Count me in!
On the reading side it was even more bleak: For the first time since i take these statistics (2016) i dropped below 20.000 pages read per year. Damn.
| # books | #pages | # of days | |
| Crime | 52 | 17.671 | 308 |
| History | 3 | 1.072 | 25 |
| Music | 1 | 322 | 10 |
| Fiction | 1 | 396 | 23 |
| 57 | 19.461 |
That is a mere 76 pages read per day (last years high score was 93).
Most of it was crime and my favorite publishers remain almost unchanged: Polar Verlag (12 books), Suhrkamp (8 books), Unionsverlag (6 books) and Kampa (5 books).
Also my trust into those who run certain items remains, including almost blindly trusting books translated by the lovely Conny Lösch.
What was the best read?
That turned – in hindsight – out to be dead easy:
Nicolás Ferraro – Ámbar (Pendragon, 2025) – a real surprise (from Argentina) and a real treat!
Runners up (only by small margin):
David L. Ulin – Die Frau, Die Schrie (Polar Verlag, 2025) – a book where on purpose i do not disclose anything in the review because the story & twists are utmost cool is something special indeed!
Les Edgerton – Das grenzgeniale Pseudo-Kidnapping (pulp master, 2025) – How low can you go? Rarely the books heroes where such looser, rarely that right amount of gore (and blood, and vomit) came through the pages!
And other great reads:
1974, Glasgow. Never done better than in Alan Parks – Möge Gott Dir Vergeben (Polar Verlag, 2025), A great surprise with a local bloody hard-boiled in Timo Blunck – Ein kleines Lied über das Sterben (Emons, 2025), More excellent Canadian stuff from Giles Blunt – Kanadische Nächte (Kampa, 2025) and a great American road movie (down the drain galore) in Hannah Deitch – Killer Potential (List, 2025).
A honorable mention: The completion of the Big Bend trilogy by J. Todd Scott!
Looking forward to some great books in 2026, some have already passed the read!
On the vinyl side i was still concerned with selling off stuff, my Discogs count is now 4.883 – so right below the magic limit of 5.000!
In 2025 i added only 37 new records to the collection (and that included a some great reissue formats).
Best ones (in no paricular order):
Finally score this beauty from Hammerhead. All killer, no filler!
Boy, what a great band. Not only live but also on record. French Cold Oi! – rarely gets better!
A friggin live surprise and a great EP set – any musically utmost giftet!
Sure all of this found it’s way into the 2025 Playlist!
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