Adrian Sherwood at the controls for this dub remix of Panda Bear and Sonic Boom’s 2022 album Reset, aptly titled Reset In Dub.

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Bo Diddley’s heyday was long gone by 1970 and he was mostly seen as a heritage act on the oldies circuit (if at all) by the time he tackled the topical issue of Pollution. But it’s a great track.

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Michael Chapman was a guitar virtuoso, acclaimed for his acoustic fingerpicking. But it’s Mick Ronson’s electric guitar that steals the show here.

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Bob Dylan painted a picture of economic despair in his heartbreaking tale of a farmer driven to familicide, The Ballad Of Hollis Brown.

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Virgin Prunes began life at the same time, at the same social club in Dublin, as U2 – but went in a very different direction, blending avant-garde cabaret with improvisation and experimentation.

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When what the music press lazily dubbed “The Scottish Sound” emerged at the end of the Seventies, Josef K were the yin to Orange Juice’s yang – the dark underbelly to their bright and sparkly pop.

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In 1980 the postpunk landscape was expanding in all sorts of new directions. Most of them had identifiable roots in punk but Orange Juice were odds with the New Wave mainstream.

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I was hoping to see Fightmilk on Friday night at a night of LGBTQ+ music at the Sebright Arms, headlined by Belfast’s energetic feminist punks Problem Patterns. But because my friend Alex was late after missing his bus, and his train, I only caught their last number as they were the support act.

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This lost gem from 1976 is a little piece of punk history – the first single to be released by a West Coast punk band. A double A-side of Hot Wire My Heart and Baby You’re So Repulsive (surely a contender for best punk song title), it was the debut single by a San Francisco band called Crime.

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I was never a New Romantic. I never went to Blitz or Billy’s or Le Beat Route. I have never worn make-up. And yet… 

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