The Modern Lovers’ only album is, for me, one of the greatest albums ever. Roadrunner is pretty much a standard now. It’s astonishing that this song, which most of us only heard years later, was recorded back in 1972. (more…)

In early May 1976 I went to see my musical hero David Bowie play live for the first time. It was his Thin White Duke period, promoting Station To Station. 

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This was the first UK punk single. It came out on 22 October 1976. Four days later I saw The Damned for the first time.

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For me, punk rock was born on the Fourth of July in 1976, on a sweltering summer Sunday night at The Roundhouse. That’s when The Ramones came to London. (more…)

Here’s another funky slice of disco from the vaults by the splendidly named Juggy Murray Jones. It sneaked into the Top 40 and was a dancefloor staple across Britain in 1976. (more…)

Now this is a CHOON! I’d say it’s a banger but that word was limited to small noisy fireworks back in 1976. And this is bigger and noisier than that. (more…)

My main memory of this group is thinking they were the same people responsible for the dismal dirge If You Leave Me Now. But they weren’t. (more…)

I’m not sure what happened to Chicago in the first half of the Seventies. They got slower, and more middle-of-the-road and, as they lost sight of their roots, increasingly popular. (more…)

The first time I ever saw Joan Armatrading was this spellbinding performance on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1976. (more…)

I know I shouldn’t but I love this cheesy country music pastiche by Pussycat – perhaps the only country-and-western chart topper by a Dutch group.

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