Sailor seemed like a homegrown version of Sparks when they steered into the spotlight at the end of 1975 with Glass Of Champagne, led by a real Russian prince. (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…)

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…)

No one had a voice quite like Esther Phillips, with that distinctive Minnie Mouse twang, which is why I remember her only hit – this disco classic from the Seventies – so well. (more…)

Joni Mitchell’s extraordinary gift for images and phrases first caught my ear, as much as her voice, with the jazz-textured 1975 album The Hissing Of Summer Lawns. (more…)

Hello were strictly second-division Glam. They had the second – and last – of their hits when they got back together with Russ Ballard of Argent, who had first discovered them when they were a covers band. (more…)

I’ve got to be honest: I find Glen Campbell’s life story much more interesting than his music, which I always found bland and middle-of-the-road. (more…)

After the pleasures of Pyjamarama and Virginia Plain the last thing I expected was for Roxy to turn their hands to funk. Love Is The Drug is nothing if not funky. It’s also archetypal Bryan Ferry: louche, sophisticated, sexy, urbane, expensive, nocturnal… and a little bit pretentious. (more…)

I was still riding around on my Raleigh Chopper bike, thinking I was cool, when Tina Charles (nee Hoskins) burst into the charts with what may be our first home-grown disco hit, I’m On Fire.

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