I didn’t always buy Johnny Cash’s American Recordings though there were wonderful exceptions like Hurt. The same is true here.

(more…)

In their heyday in the early 1980s, it was impossible to ignore pop-soul trio Imagination with their infectious dance hits and flamboyant front man Leee John.

(more…)

I vaguely remember Revolting Cocks appearing in the mid-Eighties but I’d forgotten all about this magnificent piece of provocation called Beers, Steers & Queers in 1992.

(more…)

The New Romantics didn’t do much for me but like everyone else, some of the songs did. Especially Culture Club’s first hit in 1982.

(more…)

Bob Dylan’s delivery drips with sarcasm on the opaque lyric of Idiot Wind, from my favourite album Blood On The Tracks, but the meaning remains elusive.

(more…)

There are a handful of musical moments in my life where I’ve heard a song for the first time and felt: This changes everything. Never Understand is one.

(more…)

ABC fused the attitude of punk with the sophistication of disco – and great tunes – to create hits like Poison Arrow on The Lexicon Of Love.

(more…)

Diana Ross will always enjoy a special place in my affections – the Queen of Motown sang the first song on the first album I ever bought.

(more…)

Etta James might not have come from the Mississippi Delta – she grew up Los Angeles and came of age in San Francisco – but she was a bona fide blues belter.

(more…)

Chicago blues and soul man Lou Pride recorded this Northern Soul favourite after moving down south to El Paso in 1972.

(more…)