U2 were having problems with ‘The Joshua Tree’ LP – they knew they had a good bunch of tracks but couldn’t find a good order for them. In stepped Kirsty MacColl (the wife of the LPs re-mixer Steve Lillywhite) and she delivered the goods, placing the tracks in an order that everyone was happy with. “How did you do it?” asks Bono “Well, I put the one I liked best first, The second best one second, the third best third…..”

I’ve just bought ‘The Last Shadow Puppets’ CD “The Age Of Understatement” and it didn’t really click with me until “Black Planet” (Track eight). Maybe it was just that I didn’t ‘get’ the style of the album until I’d heard a few tracks (?) but I felt the same about the excellent ‘Ting Tings’ CD “We Started Nothing” – should’ve started with “Shut up and let me go” (Track five) and ‘The Falls’ “Imperial Wax Solvent” should’ve started with “Tommy Shooter” (Track eight). Best track on the Wedding Presents new one ‘El Rey’…..track eight ‘Don’t Take Me Home Until I’m Drunk’.

All these tracks would be top ten hits in fair world – but should you start your LP with a killer track? Commercially speaking, in these snippets of tracks iPod obsessed days you’d be daft not to I guess. Got me thinking of my favourite debut tracks – track one side one of a debut LP……now there’s an idea for a meeting….