The word genius gets bandied around rather too much when it comes to musicians. But few would dispute that Brian Wilson was a genius.

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Rick Derringer was one of those names that I heard a lot growing up, without ever being able to place him or recognise a particular song.

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If James Brown was the godfather of soul, then Sly Stone was the wayward genius of a younger brother who followed him into the family trade.

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With a name like The Electric Prunes, whose founder and front man James Lowe has just died, they could only have been a late-Sixties band from California.

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Obviously there’s no ‘good’ way to die but to lose your life in a house fire, as Jill Sobule has done, must rank among the most unfortunate and unpleasant of all. (more…)

You may not have heard of him, and neither had I, but Wizz Jones was a pioneering figure in British folk: a man described by Bert Jansch as “the most underrated guitarist ever.”

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David Thomas regarded this as the nearest he ever came to writing and performing a straight-up pop song. Which tells you all you need to know about the Pere Ubu frontman, who has just died.

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Max Romeo’s career spanned the early days of ska through rocksteady to fiery roots reggae with a political conscience, peaking in the mid-’70s.

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It’s so sad to learn of the death of Blondie’s drummer Clem Burke, another of the Class of ’77 who has left us far too soon. Is this his finest moment?

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RIP Val Kilmer (1959-2025)

The night I met Val Kilmer was, weirdly enough, at a Mazzy Star gig at the Union Chapel in London. OK, it wasn’t actually at the gig, and I didn’t actually meet him, but we were both there at the same time that night in 1996.

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