Rewind to 1995 and here, with a little assistance from Boy George, is Lippy Lou with her ragga-rave crossover coming-out anthem Liberation.

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Tony McPhee never achieved the fame and fortune of Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page or Jeff Beck, his fellow British guitarists to emerge from Britain’s blues boom in the 1960s.

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This song has history. In 1955 it gave Johnny Ace his biggest hit single… but only after his unusual death at the age of only 25.

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I don’t know a darn thing about Jacqueline Jones, and I can’t find anything out on the Interweb. No biographical details, no other tunes. But what a voice! 

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A decade ago I went to see a new band called Poliça somewhere in Shoreditch. They didn’t fit into any category I knew: their immersive electronic sound had a dreamy sort of quality with an RnB undercurrent. (more…)

Blues legend John Lee Hooker stretched out his already lengthy I Hate(d) The Day I Was Born to nearly 20 minutes in San Francisco in 1964.

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Rewind to 1975 and here’s an infectious tune by Max Romeo, one of reggae’s great survivors – still performing at the age of 78.

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Is this the most Australian thing you’ve ever seen and heard? I remember it from the time but I’m still laughing at the video, which went viral in 2017 because… well, watch it and you’ll see.

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Tina Turner’s career might never have got started if a backing singer had not failed to turn up for a recording session of this song in 1960.

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This is one of the classic reggae songs. And like so many classic reggae songs, it’s been covered many times in many different versions. And, for that matter, several different titles.

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