Mellow grooves don’t come much mellower – or groovier – than this soulful slice of pub rock that gave Ace their one and only hit in late 1974. (more…)

If there was ever a competition to find the funkiest funkster in Funkville, then Sly Stone would be in the final funk-off, probably with George Clinton and Bootsy Collins. (more…)

This may have been my introduction to folk music. I was a bit late, considering it’s a nineteenth-century song, though it goes back even further than that in its inspiration. (more…)

Lou Reed has probably loomed larger in my musical life than anyone else. Both as a solo artist and in his band The Velvet Underground. (more…)

This might not be not my favourite Bowie song – though it’s one of them). And it is, for me, the most perfectly produced song of all time. (more…)

It’s a sad irony that it typically takes a pop star to die before you start delving through their back catalogue. (more…)

From the last album Biggie Smalls released in his lifetime, a user guide to making money in the way he used to earn his. (more…)

I’m not normally a fan of mixing music and comedy – quite the reverse – but in this particular case it seems to work. At least it did at the time. (more…)

I’ve always regarded jazz-funk as the devil’s music, something for which I primrily blame George Benson’s scat singing along to his guitar. And Level 42, obviously. (more…)

Break-up songs don’t come much more devastating than The End Of The World, which gave country legend Skeeter Davis her only UK hit in 1963. (more…)