black

Linda Lewis was a one-off. Not just for her extraordinary five-octave-spanning voice, nor her blissful smile, but just as a black girl with a guitar. (more…)

This song is an important piece of pop history. Emile Ford was the first black Briton to sell a millon copies of a single. Almost as historically, it topped the charts on my second birthday.

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The Average White Band never had a number one hit single but two of them – drummer Robbie McIntosh and guitarist Onnie McIntyre – did… with Chuck Berry. (more…)

Cultural historians may have you believe Kurtis Blow gave birth to the hip hop genre in 1979 with Christmas Rappin’. But I put it to you, ladies and gentlemen of the musical jury, that rapping began five years before that. (more…)

The Equals – Baby Come Back

22nd September 1968 · 1960s, 1968, Music

The Equals were Britain’s first successful multi-racial pop group, and one of the few mixed-race bands in that era. The chart-topping Baby Come Back was their biggest hit. (more…)