This edition of The Essential 10 , our quickfire introduction to a wide range of my favourite artists, features The Psychedelic Furs ; an act that has so far managed eight albums over a career that spanned 1977 to 1991, and then again since 2000 to now. 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 Psychedelic Furs first came into

News emerged yesterday that Fred Smith died on Thursday at the age of 77, having fought an unspecified illness for some time. Fred Smith (not to be confused with legend of the Detroit scene Fred 'Sonic' Smith) was born in New York City in 1948, and played with many notable New York bands of the 1970s and 80s. He got his start in the early 70s in Angel and the Snake , with Debbie Harry , Chris Stein and Billy O'Connor. They played two gigs in August 1974 under that name, bu

I cast the net out for ideas for themes for the next playlist and it was my son who came up trumps this time. So, this time around we will be focusing on Insects - ten interesting and varied tracks about everyone's favourite part of the animal kingdom! *** 1. Adam & The Ants: Antmusic This was the last single off of debut Kings Of The Wild Frontier , only being held off the UK top spot by Lennon's Imagine (fair enough). Interestingly, the video was the first directed by Ste