The Beatles made their first entry into the pop chart in January 1963, reaching the lofty heights of No.16 with Love Me Do. (more…)

This song is for my old mate Gavin Martin who died yesterday. My not-so-old mate. He was 60. (more…)

If you’d ever wondered what Lou Reed might have sounded like if he’d chosen a career in country music* Garrett T. Capps provides the answer. (more…)

Steady Habits sound like an old-timey country music band from somewhere in the American South – but actually come from Oxford. (more…)

Dutch singer Bonnie St. Claire represented the European wing of 1970s Glam but failed even to cross over the Channel – because she sounded like a shit Suzi Quatro.

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Music with a message doesn’t come much more infectious than Charlotte Adigéry’s anti-racist dance banger, Blenda. (more…)

Dance duo Sofi Tukker’s banger Good Time Girl is the soundtrack to Paolo Sorrentino’s brilliant TV drama The New Pope. (more…)

Dr. Dre’s old-skool hip-hop classic The Next Episode, featuring Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg and Kurupt, has fallen victim to cancel cultutre on the radio. (more…)

No one played the slide guitar like Elmore James. Well, they did – but he did it first. This was his first recording, and became his signature song. (more…)

Saxman Big John Greer is another of those seminal figures turning jump blues into rock’n’roll in the postwar era. (more…)