Black Uhuru were everywhere in the late ’70s. It seemed they would step into Bob Marley’s shoes after his death in 1981 – only for their lead singer, Michael Rose, to leave the group.

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The summer of ’79 witnessed one of those rare occasions when a reggae song struck a chord with the entire nation – and was the first lover’s rock tune to be sung on Top of the Pops. Dennis Bovell wrote, produced and played the music on Janet Kay’s lover’s rock classic Silly Games – then stripped it back to this killer dub. (more…)

Last night I went to see music legend Michael Rother and took my chum and self-styled (kraut) ‘rock expert’ David Stubbs along to the Barbican to help me identify some of the tunes.

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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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Lizzy Mercier Descloux was one of the first artists to make a mark on the Ze label as the No Wave movement gathered momentum in New York.

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Dexys Midnight Runners came along with their energetic soul revival sound in 1979, riding the coat-tails of 2-Tone as the punk revolution began to diffuse into new sounds and hybrids.

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Here’s an oddity from the depths of my punk-era singles collection. It was only decades later that a friend picked this obscurity out and recognised two of the names on the sleeve – not as musicians, but as music journalists.

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The Adicts were musically influenced by Malcolm McLaren but their image was pure Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange.

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Back from a week in Cornwall but still in a summer mood, so here’s today’s slice of cheesy disco fun – the only hit for Lipps Inc.

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This was my introduction to the weird and wonderful world of The Cramps. They came along at exactly the right time with their decadent and pervy punk-adjacent rockabilly.

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