Being somewhat jazz-hesitant, if not an outright jazzophobe, especially when it comes to the F-word – “fusion” – I obviously haven’t heard of Alphonse Mouzon before.

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This song has been covered numerous times by a who’s who of soul singers. This is the original – the first of two versions by bluesman Latimore – from 1974.

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Here’s a blast of primal punk… no, wait. Not that. It’s the theme music of Douglas Sirk’s magnificent film Written On The Wind, written by Sammy Cahn and sung by The Four Aces.

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I love Snõõper’s description of themselves as “a band who, in a 33 ⅓ RPM world, make 45 RPM music they play at 78 RPM.” Alternatively, you can use the shorter term “egg punk.”

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The Angelic Upstarts, led by shaven-headed Mensi, flew the flag for back-to-basics punk from the North East – and for socialism and kicked off the much misunderstood Oi! movement.

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The Zeros are another of the long-forgotten punk bands from the Class of ’77. This was on the fairly terrible Streets compilation on Beggars Banquet that year.

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Public Image Ltd: End Of World – album review

PIL’s 11th album End Of World finds John Lydon channelling his various contrary selves to come up with a curate’s egg of an album, says Tim Cooper.

There comes a time when old rockers begin to turn into a parody of their younger selves. For the artist formerly known as Johnny Rotten that time arrived a long time ago… (click image to read on)

Forget The Fall… The U.K. Subs have had at least 82 members and are still going strong – with the same singer. Charlie Harper formed the band, initially as The Subversives, after seeing The Damned at the Roxy in 1976 and never looked back after shortening their name.

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Here’s a slice of slinky, sinuous, sweaty, steamy Southern funk from the natural home of that sort of thing – New Orleans.

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As far as I know this lower-league punk single was the only release by The Rowdies, released on Birds Nest Records in 1978. You may be able to hear the sound of barrels being scraped. (more…)