After a gap of 45 years and a long career in fashion, original Siouxsie & The Banshees guitarist John McKay releases his first solo album of archive material.

(more…)

Here’s my latest playlist – a spring-flavoured selection from March, ranging from The Damned to Miles Davis, Roy Ayers to Fontaines DC. It starts with a bang, to mark the death of Brian James, before settling into a smooth soul groove, dipping into the Nineties now and then for what we once called ‘indie’ music, making a detour into the Seventies, and ending up back in the Fifties and Sixties with some fiery blues and cool jazz.

Albert King had been making records for more than a decade when the blues legend recorded his signature song Born Under A Bad Sign in 1967.

(more…)

The Spinners – aka The Detroit Spinners – enjoyed their only UK number one in 1980, a quarter of a century after they first formed.

(more…)

Mambo Sun is the first track on the first side of the first proper T. Rex album Electric Warrior, released in 1971.

(more…)

Marty Robbins topped the US charts and had a UK Top 20 hit with this classic country and western tune, El Paso, back in 1959.

(more…)

(more…)

Ezra Collective became the first British jazz band to make a splash at the Brits in 2025, winning Best Group and making headlines with their plea to save the nation’s youth clubs.

(more…)

Hackney girls Mel & Kim followed Britain’s first house single with the global chart-topper Respectable in 1987.

(more…)

Air came to fame with Sexy Boy in 1998 but made their debut three years earlier with this inventive piece of electronica on a compilation album for Source.

(more…)