If dance music was​ rock music, then this tune, Waters Of Nazareth by French dance duo Justice, would be its Smoke On The Water.

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Pete Wylie had his finest moment – and biggest hit – when Wah! released The Story Of The Blues at Christmas 1982, and reached No.3 in the charts.

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Charley Crockett is a new name to me, though I feel I ought to have heard of a guy who’s made 14 albums in nine years. His hybrid of country, blues and soul taps into that sound forged at Muscle Shoals in the late Sixties and Seventies, with smouldering horns and searing blues guitar matched to a country twang.

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Blue Cheer was never been anything more than a name to me – a late-Sixties band that I’d never actually heard. Now that I finally have… well, fucking hell!

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Mel Day first came to fame at the age of 77 as a contestant on Britain’s Got Talent. Now he’s made a brilliant slice of Deep Soul with Tito Lopez Combo.

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When I first heard Domino on The Cramps’ landmark debut Gravest Hits EP, prompting the birth of psychobilly in 1979, I had no idea it was a Roy Orbison song.

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The sun is out, the sky is blue and you’ll forget the mercury is hovering just above freezing as soon as you hear this tasty slice of funked-up Congolese rumba.

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Back in 1980 I discovered A Certain Ratio through this song. But until now I never knew it was a cover version – of a 1975 tune by Banbarra. In fact Banbarra’s entire discography consists of this solitary song, divided into two halves of 7-inch single.

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From the moment I first heard and saw them in December 2018 at The Good Mixer, I’ve loved Fontaines D.C. This may be their best song yet.

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When Tony Wilson signed A Certain Ratio to Factory Records in 1979 he told the world they were “the new Sex Pistols.” They weren’t, but they did leave their mark on Manchester music as one of the first bands to incorporate funk into an industrial take on postpunk.

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