I’d never say we were really friends, and we came from very different backgrounds. But as fellow punks of the same age (he was born on Christmas Day just 16 days before me) Shane and I had an acquaintance.
For years I knew the name (once heard, never forgotten) but never really paid any attention to the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Until I saw them in the rockumentary Dig!
I’ve always loved soukous music, with its lively rhythms and circular electric guitar melodies. And if this doesn’t get you dancing then your feet must have fallen off. Either that or you’re dead.
This is beyond meta: Teenage Fanclub, who directly inspired Yo La Tengo, a band famed for their outstanding cover versions, repaying the compliment by covering one of theirs in return.
The first time I heard this song it made me cry and it still does. Especially today. Its lyric, written in the 1980s, articulates why a young woman with a young child might not wish to bring up a child Thatcher’s Britain.
Suede’s debut album celebrates its 30th birthday today. Not that I need any excuse to celebrate such a landmark record. This is arguably my favourite track.
Clarence Gatemouth Brown was already in his seventies when he recorded this memorable blues number. Just don’t call it blues.
Rewind to 1995 and here, with a little assistance from Boy George, is Lippy Lou with her ragga-rave crossover coming-out anthem Liberation.
Here’s the mid-nineties classic by KRS-One that might well top the hip-hop hall of anti-cop fame were it not for a certain earlier song by NWA.
Sad news this week with the death of actor Lee Whitlock, whose finest moment in a successful career came in the starring role of the music video for Weekender by Flowered Up.