Rick Derringer was one of those names that I heard a lot growing up, without ever being able to place him or recognise a particular song.

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If James Brown was the godfather of soul, then Sly Stone was the wayward genius of a younger brother who followed him into the family trade.

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There’s something about Matt Berninger’s mournful, melancholic baritone that gets me every time. His voice, and his way with words, and his gift for melody.

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In the first half of the ’70s Brinsley Schwarz were the flag bearers of pub rock – the backlash to prog that led directly to punk. Bob Andrews played keyboards.

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BC Camplight opens up about his depression, his addiction and the childhood abuse that has haunted him on Two Legged Dog.

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Another month, another playlist. This one opens with an Eighties classic and takes us on a journey back to the Sixties with some garage rock nuggets, via deep funk, deep soul, deep blues, and forward through time via electro, hip-hop, a dash of punk and reggae, through to the present day. 

With a name like The Electric Prunes, whose founder and front man James Lowe has just died, they could only have been a late-Sixties band from California.

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Spellling’s queer power ballad manages to be ethereal, euphoric and anthemic all at the same time, and crosses as many musical boundaries.

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Suede return with new single Disintegrate from what Brett Anderson descirbes as their post-punk album, Antidepressants.

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This new track by Little Simz, a defiant celebration of self-reliance, is all about the video, in which she plays a poverty-stricken punk granny living life to the full.

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