My last playlist of the year spans more than half a century, starting in the early 1960s with Sandra Barry and taking in tributes to those we lost in December, including Brigitte Bardot, Joe Ely, Steve Cropper and Chris Rea. In between there is folk, blues, soul, country, Eurodisco – and even a little Schumann.

November’s playlist finds autumnal songs slowly turning to winter sounds, saying hello with one of the greatest tunes of all time by Squeeze and waving goodbye with Soft Cell. (more…)

To celebrate Samhain – or Hallowe’en if you prefer – here is my latest autumnal playlist. We start and finish with radically different versions of Ghost Town, from almost 45 years apart. In between there’s something old-but-new by T.Rex and more Glam from Sparks and Suzi Quatro. Plus a lot of steamy early-’70s funk and jazz-funk, and some Soft Cell in tribute to my old pal Dave. 

The days are growing shorter, the nights are drawing in and, as Jim Morrison put it, Summer’s Almost Gone. So what better way to start a September playlist than with The Doors’ elegiac tune? And what better way to end it than with that Adrian Sherwood remix of Saint Etienne? In between there’s everything from vintage rockabilly and folk to fingerpicking guitar and French hip-hop, and tributes to those we lost in September, from Supertramp, Blancmange and Pentangle to Robert Redford.

It’s the height of summer – and what better way to kick off a July playist than with the nu-disco sounds of Goldfrapp? We’ve also got some old-time country (Southern Raised) and old-skool reggae (Michael Rose) and a more modern Polish-Jamaican reggae hybrid. Plus the oddest tribute to Ozzy Osbourne you’ll ever hear with a cabaret version of Paranoid… in German. And lots lots more besides.

Summer’s here (and some!). So here’s a soundtrack for these long sunny days. Two hours of pleasure, opening up with The Prodigy, fresh from their Glastonbury triumph, and ending with Kim Gordon bidding us farewell as she gets ready for a holiday. In between there’s a bit of everything: funk and soul, reggae and country, metal and jazz. Start the dance!

Another month, another playlist. This one opens with an Eighties classic and takes us on a journey back to the Sixties with some garage rock nuggets, via deep funk, deep soul, deep blues, and forward through time via electro, hip-hop, a dash of punk and reggae, through to the present day. 

Here’s my latest playlist for the month of April and as ever it’s eclectic; one of the most diverse yet. We’ve got postpunk guitar legends (Keith Levene, John McKay), banging dance choons (ATB, Altern-8, Baby D), vintage soul (Three Degrees, James Carr), old-skool hip-hop (Luniz) and nu-skool reggae (Protoje), ambient (JakoJako) and country (Kaylee Rose) and tributes to those who left us in April (Max Romeo, David Thomas, Mike Berry, Wizz Jones…. Pope Francis).

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.