Marianne Faithfull made a comeback, a generation after she came to fame in the Sixties, with the powerful Broken English. (more…)

Here’s a Beatles cover by The Feelies, whose 1980 debut album was a landmark in the New Wave that followed punk. (more…)

Siouxsie & The Banshees brought punk fire and fury to their cover of Helter Skelter, written by John Lennon for The Beatles. (more…)

An evening of avant-garde music involving found objects, sampled voices, electronic noises, drums, trombones… and bubblewrap. (more…)

This emotionally powerful song about addiction is the highlight of the brief moment in the spotlight for Manchester duo Alpinestars in 2002. (more…)

Here’s another forgotten gem from the mid-Eighties. It’s got a gothic grandeur with the deep, rich baritone of Paul Quinn swathed in strings and the searing guitar solo at 2.20. (more…)

Until last night I had forgotten just what a brilliant record this is. I hadn’t heard it in the best part of 40 years. (more…)

Johnny London made history at the age of 16 when his only recording became the first single to be released on the great Sun Studio label in Memphis. (more…)

Satta Massagana was the debut single of The Abyssinians, arguably the greatest of all the vocal groups to come out of Jamaica. (more…)

Straight outta Stokey…. this was local boy Marc Feld’s first single, released by Decca in October 1965. With its stripped-back R&B sound, it could be filed under Freakbeat, and you can already hear the nascent influence of psychedelia and fantasy in the lyrics.

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