A Head Full of Wishes is a site for Galaxie 500, Luna, Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta and Dean Wareham. With news, articles and lists of releases and past and future shows.
A Head Full of Wishes - review of the year 2025
After 2024 being fairly quiet on the AHFoW front, 2025 turned out fuller, particularly for Dean, and Britta, but especially for me! But, lets start with some stats:
- AHFoW
- 168 posts, 104 of them about my record collection.
- I also launched a Substack in April that has a weekly newsletter, and a weekly bonus post of new(ish) content so another 68 posts there!
- Also around 300 posts on Instgram and/or Facebook and/or BlueSky
- Shows
- Dean Wareham - 47
- Dean & Britta - 7
- Dean Wareham and Sea Power - 2
- Luna - 8
- there’s always a chance that some might have slipped through the net
- Releases
- 28th March - Dean Wareham - That’s The Price of Loving Me
- 12th April - Dean & Britta - A Gift / Homeward Bound
- 8th August - Galaxie 500 - CBGB 13th December 1988
Things were pretty quiet from Damon & Naomi, particularly during the first part of the year.
January
- Luna had, as they so often do, played a show on New Year’s Eve and Steven kindly sent me a bunch of lovely photos of the show taken by Patti.
Britta and balloons (photo: Patti Bakker) You can see a stack more of Patti’s photos here (AHFoW).
- The month started with a bit of a bang with the unexpected announcement of a new Dean Wareham album scheduled for release in March. The announcement was accompanied by a video for the first “single” from the album:
February
- The second track from Dean’s album was released with another video
We filmed this over the holidays in and around Echo Park. Matthew and I thought for this romantic but contemplative song it would be fun to shoot me doing some romantic activities but all my myself, so here I am, shopping for books, taking a paddle boat ride in the Echo Park lake, eating a cheeseburger.
Listen to the title track from Dean Wareham's upcoming album (AHFoW)
- Dean and Britta sat in for Howard Thompson on his PURE WKPN show - you can listen to the whole show - Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips on PURE WKPN - 21st February 2025.
March
- Dean announced an extensive tour of Europe in April, in support of the new album.
- Dates were then announced for shows in the US.
- Towards the end of the month Dean and Britta hosted a listening party of Bandcamp - you can read most of what was said over here.
April
- Dean and his band arrived in Glasgow on the 1st of April… as did I - Diary: Dean Wareham in Glasgow - 1st April 2025.
- A few days later and the band were in Leeds, and so was I! - Diary: Dean Wareham in Leeds - 5th April 2025.
I invited myself along to the soundcheck - during which the band played the Galaxie 500 obscurity Shout You Down, as far as I know one of the only times it got a live outing… and I was pretty much the only person in the room!
- Hazel and I had intended to go to the show in Hamburg, but travel uncertainties found us in Groningen in the north of The Netherlands at the same time as Dean and band - Diary: Dean Wareham in Groningen - 12th April 2025.
- By the end of the month Dean and Britta were back in the US.
May
- Just when I thought I’d seen my last of Dean for the year a show was announced in Hebden Bridge, just 130 miles from home…
- … and then another, in Durham, just 24 miles from home…
- … and then another, in North Shields, just three miles from home!
- Where next? Whitley Bay?
- Two appearances were then announced at Sea Power’s Krankenhaus Festival - one a Dean & Britta set, and one announced as Dean Wareham and Sea Power play Galaxie 500 and a warm up support slot with Sea Power in Hebden Bridge.
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Six dates in seven days in August… more on that later.
- The excellent Discograffiti podcast did a deep dive into Galaxie 500’s catalogue with Dean - three long episodes that are well worth a listen:
June
- For most of May and June Dean was touring the US in support of That’s The Price of Loving Me - here they are in Washington DC playing New World Julie
- … and here’s the lovely lounge-y cover of Luna’s Friendly Advice played in St. Paul a week later
- An official release of the long-bootlegged live show of Galaxie 500 at CBGB in NYC in December 1988 was announced - with the release set for 8th August.
Captured here in a raw but inspired board mix by Kramer and restored and mastered from the analog source by Alan Douches at West West Side Music, CBGB 12.13.88 is a live snapshot of a Galaxie fully formed, punctuating the end of their first chapter while poised to step into their next with On Fire the following year.
July
- John Peel’s copy of Galaxie 500’s Today sells for £340 at auction.
- Damon’s new book Why Sound Matters was announced with a release scheduled for October.
August
OK, so August was a bit special and the best place to read about it in one place is probably the post I wrote on the AHFoW Substack - Dean and Dean & Britta in the north of England, but here’s a quick précis.
- On the 19th August Hazel and I drove to Hebden Bridge - the first show was a Dean Wareham and Sea Power play Galaxie 500 set supporting Sea Power at the Trades Club. On the following day Dean and Britta interrupted our lunch!
- A breathtaking 30 minute set ended with Tugboat… I was in tears at the end of it!
- The next day, after a sightseeing trip to Halifax we got treated to a Dean & Britta set… but first up were the lovely Deary supporting
- Dean & Britta sat down for (most of) their set with an extra stool for Britta’s electronic box of tricks.
- The next day we drove through the Lakes to Muncaster for the Krankenhaus Festival a beautiful venue and a lovely low-key festival - Dean was scheduled to play another set with Sea Power, this time there was room enough on stage for Britta to add some vocal augmentations:
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Saturday was the one day we weren’t going to see Dean and/or Britta … although we did manage to bump into them… twice… during the day.
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Sunday was a Dean & Britta set at Krankenhaus - they decided to stand this time - and played another beautiful set - here’s their cover of Joy Division’s Ceremony
- Sunday night we drove home and Monday it was off to Durham for the next show - this was the one that Hazel decided to skip - a lovely tiny pub in Durham, filled with fans - it was beautiful!
- Tuesday was to be the last show of the tour at the tiny Engine Room in North Shields, although the day also included Dean and Britta in Whitley Bay enjoying most of the traditions of the English seaside - fish and chips, ice cream, and paddling in the sea!
- The show in North Shields was a perfect end to an amazing week - fun and relaxed and an absolute joy.
September
- Dean released a digital single of his cover of Lou Reed’s The Gift - a different version than the one released on a single earlier in the year - a new vocal with “a better microphone and a better attitude”.
- Luna announce some shows for the end of the year playing with Yo La Tengo at The Fillmore in San Francisco.
October
- Dean’s newsletter reminisces about an early Galaxie 500 trip to the UK and his recent tour of the North of England.
- I come across a recording of Luna supporting The Velvet Underground in London in 1993 that doesn’t appear to have arrived online… so I changed that.
- Dean mentions in an email that the long Bandbox orders from a couple of years ago that vanished into bankruptcy oblivion are finally being honoured - for a small postage fee you can finally get your records! Some have arrived… I’m still waiting although the company doing the honouring are ignoring (rather unhonourably) my emails :(
November
- The my record collection series of posts reaches #300 so I celebrate by posting a ridiculously long post about the wonderful 1996 Galaxie 500 box set.
- Damon and Naomi start selling a series of Galaxie 500 test pressings all in beautiful hand-made sleeves - the first few are auctioned on eBay but later copies are sold for a fixed price on their website. They are very beautiful but sadly beyond my budget!
- Damon and Naomi also announce three dates at Cafe Oto in London for the beginning of January - I’ve bought my tickets and booked my train and hotel so I’ll see you there next week!
December
- Luna play two shows in Texas - here’s a lovely clip of them playing 23 Minutes in Brussels in Dallas at the second one:
- Luna announce that they will play three shows at The Bowery Ballroom in NYC in April, this was followed by more announcements of Luna dates in the US - check the list of all (known) upcoming shows.