Another list song. I first heard this marvellous melancholic tune when I went to see a quartet of new artists at a Bella Union showcase, billed as A Summer Evening at the Union Chapel in 2010. (more…)

When it came to Slade, the last thing you looked for was something slow, sensitive and sentimental. Especially after they spent Christmas 1973 at the top of the charts with the raucous Merry Christmas Everybody. But a few months later along came this elegiac piano ballad.

(more…)

I had never thought to look up the pop chart on the day I was born. Until now. So it is with great joy that I discover the best-selling single as I was popping out in a hospital in Newtownards, County Down, was Great Balls Of Fire. (more…)

I wasn’t ready for Berlin when it came out in 1973. I don’t think anyone was ready for something like this.
(more…)

I had loved Mott The Hoople’s Bowie-assisted makeover with All The Young Dudes in 1972 and I loved their next album Mott, the best by a reinvigorated band. (more…)

I loved my Slade raucous and rowdy so I was a bit disappointed when they came up with this pub singalong at the tail end of 1973. (more…)

When I think of The Rolling Stones I think of Jagger pouting and strutting as Keith chops out a guitar riff with a fag in his mouth. Angie isn’t like that at all. (more…)

Schoolteacher Clifford T. Ward made an unusual addition to the parade of Glam rockers on Top of the Pops with his sensitive piano ballad Gaye. (more…)

The Faces and Rod Stewart were on borrowed time together when they reached their peak with Cindy Incidentally when it reached No.2 in February 1973. (more…)