❉ Stephen Porter on Cherry Red’s reissue of a terrific and often brilliant album.

Hearing the Swedish band The Radio Dept. for the first time, I immediately loved the mix of fuzzy guitars, washes of synth, and casually understated vocals.

Formed in 2010, Protomartyr's musical melange of post-punk and melodic hardcore soundtracks Detroit's mix of death, decay and desperation.

Mark Shaw was a fan of Roxy Music, T. Rex and a huge Bowie fan. There was also an admission of influence from Simple Minds so it was a mixture of that relentless noise and energy added to Bowie’s sens...

“Hey sucker ...” and so George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley announced Wham! to an unsuspecting Thursday night TV audience in October 1982 with Young Guns (Go For It!).

Around about this time of year, every year since 1982, I have to listen to one album. It’s an album that screams ‘sunshine’ ... that album is Pelican West by Haircut 100.

A blog about my gig experiences

Addiction, arrest, bankruptcy, madness. Failed country theme park ventures. Bizarre lawnmower incidents. Oh, and along the way, the small matter of creating some of the finest country music ever.

Dolly Parton moved to Nashville the day after she graduated high school in 1964 and signed with a publishing company as a songwriter not long after arriving in the country music mecca.

Songwriter of I Will Always Love You, Jolene and 9 to 5 also invested millions in child literacy, Covid-19 vaccine development and other causes Dolly Parton, one of the greatest singer-songwriters in country music who was also much cherished for her philanthropy, has died aged 80. Her death was announced by nephew Brian Seaver on Instagram. Continue reading...

Pull up a chair, we’ve got to Tres Hombres, the greatest piece of vinyl that the bluesy end of seventies rock ever gave us. I’m talking about heads-down bluesy rock, but even considered among the loft...

The blues guitarist and vocalist Sister Rosetta Tharpe performed at an empty station for TV.

Tributes paid to ‘great friend and collaborator’ who played with band for 56 years and died in hospice care in Texas The ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard has died at the age of 77. A spokesperson for the band confirmed to the Guardian that Beard died on 17 August in hospice care at his ranch in Richmond, Texas. His family were by his side. Continue reading...

Pull up a chair, we’ve got to Tres Hombres, the greatest piece of vinyl that the bluesy end of seventies rock ever gave us. I’m talking about heads-down bluesy rock, but even considered among the loft...

Musician’s projects included Madonna’s Ray of Light, Blur’s 13 and All Saints’ chart-topping singles Pure Shores and Black Coffee William Orbit, the British music producer whose dreamy yet propulsive style invigorated work by Madonna, Blur, All Saints, U2 and more, has died aged 69. A statement on his social media, attributed to family and friends, said he died at home on 23 July. “He will be greatly missed by us and by so many whose lives he touched through his music, friendship and kindness,” the statement read. No cause of death was given. Continue reading...

13 track album

John Peel had played Spacemen 3’s Hypnotized where waves of sound washed up beneath gloriously otherworldly vocals.

The Lotus Eaters' 'No Sense Of Sin' album followed the release of The First Picture Of You and it’s a remarkable thing in its own way, as soft and sweet as a bowl of butterscotch Angel Delight.