I bought the Enlightenment cassette and Safira played it in her car. We used to sing Real, Real, Gone! on the way to Tien Mu swimming pool.

I first heard Smells Like Teen Spirit at Revolver discotheque. I didn't know the band but the raw emotion and primal power struck me. The whole floor would erupt and amidst the threshing bodies, I would dance dementedly like a spastic scarecrow. Smells Like Teen Spirit and Lithium were from the Nevermind album.

Unbelieveable was a big hit with a thumping electronic beat at Revolver. Another sweat inspiring anthem.

Global Village classes would regularly invite their teachers to join them at a Karaoke club (KTV). It was all innocent fun but slightly surreal after nights of bar hopping with my Western friends. While the quality of my performance wasn't too much of a factor as the key was to simulate some enjoyment and have the courtesy to sing at least a song or two. Being tone deaf, there was so much I wanted to inflict on these guys. After a few misses, I reckoned Leaving On A Jet Plane & Suspicious Minds as my best KTV numbers. The songs were bouncy and one could ham it up by a bit of overwrought emotion and theatrical gesticulation.

Achtung Baby . Hamo played this constantly at Tsien Tien Village. I love Mysterious Ways and One but as Hamo said it is a sign of a excellent band when they produce an album which is strong throughout. This is one such band and alongwith Joshua Tree , one of their best outputs.

My memories are of an early Best Of collection I bought on cassette and played while staying at Yung Ho. When I first arrived in Taipei, the grungey discotheque I frequented played Losing my Religion and Shiny Happy People but these are lesser songs compared to their earlier sisters.

Tops was the name of the dismal disco. It was pretty rough and ready. Beer bottles would be flung in fights between South Asian “guest workers” and local Taiwanese guys. They would end the disco every Friday night at about 4.00 pm with a rendition of Light My Fire . It is incredibly long and boring and the least suited song for any dance-club. Maybe that's why they played it. After Tops closed, I would buy a hotdog and a can of beer from 7-11 and walk home to the Hostel passing geriatric Tai Chi practitioners in one of the local park as the sun rose.

Wicked Game was simply the favourite song at the FUBAR. I remember telling Hamo that I would die happy if I ever produced four minutes of creative brilliance like this song.

Sweet Child Of Mine . Another favourite from the FUBAR. G&R are a derivative rock band but this early hit had a passion and energy they never quite captured again.

I am a Stones freak. If I am ever stranded on a desert island, I could live quite happily munching Sushi and listening to Let It Bleed, Exile on Main or Beggars Banquet . That's why I bought these albums in Taipei.

San Min Chu (“Rights of the People”). The words of Taiwan's National Anthem are by the first President of China and are from a speech Sun-Yat-Sen made at the Whampoa Military Academy in 1924. It is the music I remember however. It is extremely martial. By law, it had to be played before the start of any movie. While they played it at the old picture theatre on Minchuang Bay Lou. they showed a map of the Mainland and Taiwan. The former in red and the latter in green. During the course of the anthem, the green of the ROC engulfed the red of the PRC. The locals dutifully stood up and stopped munching their deep fired chicken feet on a stick.

Distingue Lovers . Cecilia had both bad and good taste. The bad was represented by woeful wails from Whitney and Mariah. The good was represented by this Billie Holiday classic.

I bought a Best of Jimmy Cliff album on a trip to Bangkok and it was a ripper. Many Rivers To Cross is one of the standouts. Gil loved this album as well surprisingly. It reminded him of his Marine days.

When Ye Go Away (from Siobhan's favourite album, Fisherman's Blues) was one of our favourite songs we played in Calcutta on my tinny reporter's cassette player.

Siobhan taught me the words of The Irish Rover and it is a wonderful evocative tune.

Love and Other Bruises was playing on the big screen at Taipei Rail Station on my first night in Taipei. Surreal!

From St Kilda to Kings Cross . Reminded me of home in drunken moods of maudlin! From the Post album.

All the English teachers waited for Friday night and the big drinking/ dancing/ partying session it represented. I'm not a Cure fan but Friday I'm In Love is ok by me.

While Revolver played largely alternative music, the DJs like to mix things up a bit including Vogue & Justisfy My Love .

Stone Roses in the 90s meant instant credibility in terms of good taste. They were leading edge and Fool's Gold is almost a perfect single.

The Chillies released the unusual and groundbreaking Under The Bridge which cemented as a melodic, innovative, alternative dance band!

One of the DJs at Revolver was a Velvets/Reed fan so Heroin and Walk On The Wild Side would occasionally spice up the night air with their distinctive beats.

Roxette is like a thousand other rock/dance bands but hey they can be fun nonetheless. Joyride at least summed up occasional schizophrenic emotions about Taipei.

I reckon that Tyler does the worst Mick Jagger impersonation around. Similarly Janie's Got A Gun is a second rate number.