Once upon a time, 15 years before Underworld became dance legends and Born Slippy became the biggest song of the rave era, they were a very different band.

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Listening today, 40 years later, it’s so obvious how much Lloyd Cole & The Commotions borrowed from Bob Dylan. Perfect Skin is almost a hybrid of Dylan’s twangy mid-60s period and the country-tinged moments of Lou Reed with the Velvets.

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It’s not hard to guess why this song has come back into my mind for the first time in decades, with history repeating itself in Lebanon.

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Who remembers Los Angeles rockabilly band The Red Devils? Certainly not me. I didn’t even know there was a thriving cowpunk scene, fusing rockabilly and country, in early-Eighties LA.

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I was sad when The Specials fell apart: they had been such a part of my life for what they represented as much as their music. But it didn’t take long to fall in love again with the Fun Boy Three.

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Sixties soul veteran Gary U.S. Bonds had a second career in the early ’80s after Bruce Springsteen wrote and produced two albums for him.

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Whatever we expected from Pete Shelley’s solo debut in 1981, after a string of superlative singles by Buzzcocks, a queer synthpop anthem came as a surprise.

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I loved this song when it came out in 1980. I suppose synth-pop was a novelty at the time; it was certainly not something I associated with Robert Palmer, famed for his blue-eyed soul singing, sharp suits and model girlfriends.

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Dwight Yoakam came along at just the right time for me, in the mid Eighties, launching a lifelong love of country music.

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