Willie Colón was a salsa pioneer and the all-round badass of Latin music – literally so when you consider his surname and nickname of El Malo (‘The Bad One’).

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If he had never played another note after 1977, Fred Smith would still have had a place in music history as one quarter of the band who made Marquee Moon – my favourite album of all time.

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Catherine O’Hara played some of the funniest characters on film and TV – and her sister Mary Margaret O’Hara made one of the best debut albums ever recorded.

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Sly Dunbar was one half of the greatest reggae rhythm section in history, alongside the late and equally great Robbie Shakespeare.

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Kenny Morris was a drummer with a unique style, and one of the founding musicians of post-punk in the early days of Siouxsie & The Banshees.

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I never met Brigitte Bardot but, like half the boys I knew, I had her picture on my wall when I was at boarding school.

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It was when The Clash invited Joe Ely to join them on tour in 1980 that I began to understand the parallels between punk and rebel country music.

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It’s not often you hear people describe a guitarist who doesn’t generally do solos as one of the all-time greats. But countless other guitar greats gave that accolade to Steve Cropper.

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With her bleach-blonde hair, scarlet lipstick and outrageous self-designed creations, Pam Hogg was the archetypal rock goddess. Even though she wasn’t one herself.

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