If he had never played another note after 1977, Fred Smith would still have had a place in music history as one quarter of the band who made Marquee Moon – my favourite album of all time.

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Melbourne band Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever return with their first music for four years, Sunburned In London.

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Here’s another anti-ICE anthem, inspired by the murders in Minneaolis, this time from across the pond by our own Billy Bragg.

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Chase away the winter blues with my first playlist of 2026 – two and a half hours of eclectic pleasure to warm the cockles of your ears, kicking off with the S.O.S. Band’s and coming to a melancholy close with Mary Margaret O’Hara. In between there’s a few country numbers, a hefty dose of Krautrock deep cuts, some reggae and soul, a couple of protest songs against ICE and Trump, and tributes to those we lost, including two drummers – Sly Dunbar and Kenny Morris – and actress Catherine O’Hara.

Catherine O’Hara played some of the funniest characters on film and TV – and her sister Mary Margaret O’Hara made one of the best debut albums ever recorded.

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TThe Apprentice is, I think, the only reality-adjacent TV show I’ve ever watched. I’m a big fan, largely because of the unrelenting idiocy of (some / most of) the contestants.

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Bruce Springsteen delivers his response to the unfolding disaster in Minneapolis – a powerful riposte to the murderous exploits of ICE.

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Sly Dunbar was one half of the greatest reggae rhythm section in history, alongside the late and equally great Robbie Shakespeare.

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This song is shit. Obviously it’s shit – it’s by Robbie Williams and everything he’s ever done is shit. This is no exception.

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Kenny Morris was a drummer with a unique style, and one of the founding musicians of post-punk in the early days of Siouxsie & The Banshees.

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