Here is another slice of white reggae from the dusty depths of my singles collection. I remember the cover art – by Ralph Steadman – as well as I recall the single.

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Soul singers don’t come much better than Marvin Gaye and this deep cut comes from a session in 1967 – the year he brought us his best known tune, I Heard It Through The Grapevine.

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Gordon Lightfoot, who died yesterday at the age of 84, was a legend in his home country of Canada. He might not have the same global fame but he was revered there as much – if not more – than contemporaries like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.

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Happy Beltane to all the old hippies, from the most famous pop idol to come from my neighbourhood, Stoke Newington.

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Here’s wishing all my gloomy gothic friends in black all the very best for World Goth Day.. with the help of the patron saints of goth.

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Soul singer Al Wilson had a hit with this anti-racist allegory before Donald Trump appropriated it 50 years later as an anti-immigration parable. Because he’s an idiot.

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Peter Gabriel performed A Whiter Shade Of Pale as a punk parody – or was it a tribute? – at Knebworth in the summer of 1978.

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I know there are people – many people – who hate this prime fillet of cod reggae. They probably hate cricket too. In both cases they are mistaken.

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I really tried quite hard to like Nina Hagen, the so-called Godmother of German Punk. She was beautiful, glamorous and a little bit frightening – like a grown-up Toyah.

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Different Trains, composed and recorded in 1988, was Steve Reich’s first composition to draw on his Jewish heritage, inspired by a childhood memory.

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