There are some guitarists, only a handful, whose playing – whose tone – appeals so much that I can listen to almost anything by them, just to hear them play. Thurston Moore is one of those.

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“Following an incident at a press reception in Kilkenny for Thin Lizzy, it was decided that it was in the band’s best interests if the band’s manager – and drummer – Nigel Hamilton left immediately following the tour.” That may be the most interesting thing about Belfast band The Tearjerkers. Sadly it seems that whatever happens in Kilkenny stays in Kilkenny.

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The Moondogs were another of the seemingly endless parade of power pop bands to spring up in Northern Ireland in the late 70s.

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I wonder what the actor Colin Salmon (three Bond films, two Resident Evil movies, and lots of telly) thinks when – all right, if – he listens back to the solitary single released by The Tee Vees in 1979.

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It’s facile to think of all Northern Ireland punk bands furiously raging against the Troubles. Apart from Stiff Little Fingers, most of the New Wave bands from Ulster tended more towards power pop. Like Starjets.

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I first came across Heather Woods Broderick when she was playing keyboards for Sharon Van Etten at Cargo in Shoreditch, back in 2012. It was the first time I had seen Shaz, who was promoting her third album Tramp and would go on to become my favourite singer.

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Is there a Glam revival? If there is – and this would seem to suggest as much – then it’s crept up on me unawares. Rather like that cat Mud sang about. Apparently this video has gone viral, and I can see why: it’s like a pastiche of something from an early 70s Top of the Pops.

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Sad news this week with the death of actor Lee Whitlock, whose finest moment in a successful career came in the starring role of the music video for Weekender by Flowered Up.

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As a longtime fan of The Dears, I’ve always enjoyed the melancholy music and Bowiesque / Morriseyesque / Albarnesque croon of frontman Murray Lightburn. Even so, this is something I never expected from the creator of apocalyptic albums like Degeneration Street and No Cities Left.

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Long-forgotten by all but hardcore punks, Belfast band Victim were the second group to put out a single on the city’s Bad Vibrations label. This is it.

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