So there I am sitting round the house with Jimmy Crashe, (who? - Ed.) playing Monopoly. While we're buying up half of London, we're listening to early Sweet singles, looking for likely riffs to cleverly conceal on our next album. Well, what else can you do when widespread bans by ignorant promoters have reduced your "homecoming tour" to three dates, and you can't even hire rehearsal space?
We're bored. The Sweet aren't being very helpful either. In desperation, Jimmy is reduced to playing 'Funny, Funny' and just as I'm buying a hotel for Mayfair, your happy (ex)hippy editor phones up.
"I know you must be incredibly busy, Phil, but d'ya think you could find time to write a piece for us on your predictions for the Rock Scene in 1978?"
"Well, Niall, I m up to me eyes at the moment, but I'll see if I can fit it in."
"Who was that?" asks Crashe, who is in Jail.
"Niall Stokes."
"Who?"
Jimmy's prediction for '78 is that he'll finally get to finish Dosteoevsky's 'The Idiot', two copies of which he had stolen at different points on the Thin Lizzy tour. (Give them back, Phil Lynott!) Honest, Phil, books don't "turn your head".
Anyway, here are my predictions for what they're worth.
No doubt you've already been told (by "Sounds" especially) that '78 is the year of the Power Pop revolution, and that the singles chart will be liberally sprinkled with The Rich Kids, Gen X, The Radiators, The Boys, The Pleasers, Radio Stars, 999 and many other "pop groups".
Well, naturally, I welcome the idea, especially as we consistently crop up in their lists of the bands-most-likely-to, and I'd personally like to add The Rubinoos (whose 'I Think We re Alone Now' was criminally ignored in '77), Advertising, and Revolver (if Holidai ever finishes mixing their new single!). But they say that pop/rock goes in seven-year cycles, which by my calculations makes the prediction a bit premature, as the last great pop year was 1973. Still, the Power of the Press being what it is, they'll probably convince us enough to make it happen.
Meanwhile, the pathetically out-of-touch Daily Mirage proudly announces that "Punk is here to stay!" Sorry to rob you of all that lovely in-depth and truthful copy this year, lads, but the bubble has burst, and Punk (the Vortex/Roxy variety, as opposed to "Pop Punk") already has a ring of nostalgia about it. The Clash, Pistols and Stranglers will obviously survive, and quality bands like ATV, Buzzcocks, XTC and The Rezillos are individual enough to be unaffected by the backlash.
Bowie will continue to astonish us, and I reckon that the final part of the trilogy which began with Low and Heroes will be a stunner. He's so uniquely ahead of everyone else that he has to be his own source of influence, so while the first two albums are undoubtedly classics, the fruits of their tentative exploration should be borne by the next one.
Nick Lowe, the original Power Popster, kept a Lowe profile in '77, while still managing to produce two of the year's best - the Costello and Parker albums. He should finally release his own album this year, and a lot of people will be very disappointed if it's not at least a 5-star set.
Phil Lynott's solo album should surprise most of us too, and The Rats' second will more than fulfill the rich promise of their debut. Horslips will move closer to the Byrds-type pop which is closest to their heart, and Thin Lizzy will finally do it in the States with their live double set and their four-month tour.

Which reminds me of the inevitability of the British Pop Punk invasion of America; it won't happen as quickly as it should, though, 'cos American record company folk have long memories and they still remember the jeopardy their positions were put in by the last invasion. But by 1979, there'll be nothing they can do about it, and short tours by the "accessible" bands in '78 should lay the groundwork. Already, one US TV station sent an entire crew over to London for the sole purpose of filming ourselves at the Hammersmith Odeon last month.
At home the rapidly developing punk scene will be irreparably stifled unless (a) the no-venues situation is resolved, and (b) the major bands, i.e. Revolver and Vipers, and especially their fans, start working with instead of against each other. The elitism and hostility between the rival factions is pointless in the extreme; the "feud" between ourselves and the Rats was always a joke and never spilled over into the audience, but this is for real. How about it, Phil and Paul?
Other bands to check out if you get the chance are The Jags, The Boy Scoutz, Fabulous Fabrics, Steve Rapid's Modern Airs, and The Kamikaze Kids. (Jimmy sez that takes care of everyone who bought 'TV Tube Heart'!)
You realise of course, that while I've been writing this, I've gone bankrupt in Monopoly and I've had to pay off my debts with the ducks-on-the-wall broaches I got from Geldof's girlfriend, Paula, for Christmas? Ah, well . . .
The crystal ball is a bit foggy these days, what with bagpipes and brass-bands in the Top 10, but I suspect that 1978 will be just like every other year really - 2% of the good records and 80% of the bad ones will be hits.

SINGLES OF THE YEAR - Philip Chevron
1. Heroes - David Bowie, RCA
2. God Save The Queen - Sex Pistols, Virgin
3. Pretty Vacant - Sex Pistols, Virgin
4. Enemies - Radiators From Space, Chiswick
5. Sound And Vision - David Bowie, RCA
6. Lookin' After No. 1 - Boomtown Rats, Mulligan
7. Sweet Gene Vincent - Ian Dury, Stiff
8. Spiral Scratch - Buzzcocks, New Hormones
9. Marquee Moon - Television, Elektra
10. Sunday World - Radiators From Space, CBS
11. Nervous Wreck - Radio Stars, Chiswick
12. Do Anything You Wanna Do - Rods, Island
13. Watchin' The Detectives - Elvis Costello, Stiff
14. In The City - The Jam, Polydor
15. I Think We're Alone Now - Rubicoos, Beserkley
16. Television Screen - Radiators From Space, CBS
17. Sheena Is A Punk Rocker - Ramones, Sire
18. Waiting In Vain - Bob Marley & Wailers, Island
19. Oh! Bondage - X-Ray Spex, Virgin
20. Nasty Nasty - 999, United Artists
21. Prison Bars - Radiators From Space, Ariola
22. Love Lies Limp - A.T.V., Sniffin Glue
23. Sick Of You - Iggy & The Stooges, Bomp
24. Mary Of The 4th Form - Boomtown Rats, Mulligan
25. Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman, Berserkley

MOST AWAITED SINGLES
1. Walking Home Alone Again (?) - (Radiators From Space V)
2. Belsen Was A Gas (Pistols V)
3. She's So Modern (?) (Rats III)
4. Buzzcocks III
5. Rich Kids I
6. Darling Let's Have Another Baby (Johnny Moped II)
7. Radio Stars IV
8. Revolver I (You won't know what hits you)
9. New York Wakes (Horslips XIII)
10. Vipers I/Boy Scoutz I/Gamblers I

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR - Philip Chevron
1. Heroes - David Bowie, RCA
2. TV Tube Heart - Radiators From Space, CBS
3. Bollocks - Sex Pistols, Virgin
4. Low - David Bowie, RCA
5. Rocket To Russia - Ramones, Sire
6. Geef Voor New Wave - Various, Ariola
7. Clash - Clash, CBS
8. Marquee Moon - Television, Elektra
9. Boomtown Rats - Boomtown Rats, Mulligan
10. Stick To Me - Graham Parker & The Rumour, Vertigo

MOST AWAITED ALBUMS
1. R*******S II
2. David Bowie XIV
3. Johnny Moped I
4. Boomtown Rats II
5. Nick Lowe I
6. Clash II
7. Rich Kids I
8. Phil Lynott I
9. A Bunch Of Micks
10. Agnes Bernelle II
11. Sex Pistols II
12.. Horslips X
13. Generation X I
14. Thin Lizzy Live