Guitar legend Mick Ronson performed this magical instrumental, showcasing his unique style, with the Hunter-Ronson Band shortly before his death.

It wouldn’t be fair to call Mick Ronson underrated as a guitarist. But really he was so much better than the way he’s mainly remembered, as sideman to Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust.

Ronno is one of that elite few whose tone on his instrument is so distinctive that you can instantly recognise him after just a few notes.

That puts him in a pantheon alongside the likes of Hendrix, Gilmour, Santana, Knopfler, BB King, May, Harrison, Metheny, Edge and a few others; maybe Zappa, Fripp, J Mascis.

Anyway, the lad from Hull had far more to him than being a member of the Spiders From Mars; starting out with his hometown band The Rats, who no one ever heard of then or now, but whose song Telephone Blues – first defining his signature sound – I’ve posted here before.

Moving to London, he failed to find success in a couple of other groups and was playing in a band called The Hype back in Hull when they got the gig as Bowie’s backing band. After five albums with him, he played on, and co-produced (with Bowie) Lou Reed’s breakthrough album Transformer.

He also played on fellow Hull guitarist Michael Chapman’s Fully Qualified Survivor, and briefly joined Mott The Hoople before breaking away to form a duo with their main man Ian Hunter – a partnership that continued off and on for many years.

This song, Sweet Dreamer, comes from that period, as the Hunter Ronson Band, and features Ronson on guitar – arguably his finest moment – and Hunter on piano, recorded live in 1990, three years before his death – but not released until 1999.