This edition of The Essential 10 , our quickfire introduction to a wide range of my favourite artists, features The B-52s ; an act that has managed 7 albums over a career that begun in 1976 and still continues today (albeit with only three of the originals playing). I have trawled the entire catalogue to come up with ten of my favourite tracks by them, including a few surprises (although, if you don’t know much about them, they may all be surprises). The B-52s came into my l

It was an interesting, and potentially pivotal time, for the rising stars of Scottish rock music. The four years leading up to the release of Once Upon A Time, Simple Minds eighth studio album, had seen a massive commercial boom for them, but also witnessed a few seismic changes to the band. You could go all the way back to 1981, when founding drummer Brian McGee broke up the original dynamic when he quit the group after recording what would become the fourth and fifth recor

In the UK (and the northern hemisphere more generally), we have truly entered that autumnal time of year (a.k.a. fall) - the temperature has finally chilled a bit, the air seems damper and most of all, the nights are becoming way too long. So, to help with that, we have gathered ten more songs broadly (and occasionally tenuously) about this season. It's not everyone's favourite time of year, so these songs will help ease that pain..... possibly. 1. Weezer: Undone (The Sweater

Last weekend (12 October) saw the fortieth anniversary of the passing of one of the founding members of just about the funnest band to ever walk this planet. And, as a mark of respect, we are using that person as the starting link on our (very) occasional wander along Six Degrees Of Kevin Shields . As ever, if we get six links in, it will be more by luck than judgement - because it is all about the journey; the musical meandering from our starting point, along many random rou

If you are thinking about music companies that have been around a while, you might well settle on something like Stradivarius, who...

This edition of The Essential 10, our quickfire introduction to a wide range of my favourite artists, features The Clash; an act that...