Last week (10 October) would have - no, should have - been the 65th birthday of Kirsty MacColl, had her life not been robbed prematurely...

There have been two waves of musical greatness from the city at the western end of the M62 motorway (Liverpool, obvs), first in the early...

"Panther power! They kept my history a mystery but now I see the American Dream wasn't meant for me. Cause lady liberty is a hypocrite,...

A couple of things this last week - one a sadly unfolding saga of a band crumbling in front of our eyes, the other a very specific (and...

It is time for another of our geographically themed playlists - and this time we focus on the large, mysterious continent of Africa....

When four Dublin teenagers burst onto the scene in 1980, it is a possibility that they might have ended up being 'just another post-punk...

It was a random song on a playlist I had on in the car yesterday that I hadn't heard in a while, coupled with the fact that there were...

What happens when a seemingly larger than life character gets together with several of the brightest young Scottish musical talents of...

The question is, as Art Publika magazine put it, how did "a group of arty middle-class Jewish kids responding to Manhattan's eclectic...

As another wonderful summer Olympiad draws to a close, it seems only fitting that we mark it with a playlist - and I think that this...

It used to be assumed that decent cover versions were few and far between - but the fact that we are now on to our fifth set of covers,...

What does it take to create the perfect indie pop song? Well, I suppose you first need to decide what constitutes an indie pop song....

Following on from my chronicling of my favourite drummers and bass players, I thought it was high time to start considering the...

It is hard to believe, but somewhere around this day thirty years ago (yes, really), I attended my university graduation ceremony! I...

"The Minutemen's classic double album is unlike any punk record, or double album, before or since. It is a compact explosion of ideas and...

June 27 1989 saw the release of one of the great 'let your hair down' records of them all. Yes, Cosmic Thing by the B-52's came roaring...

There are many times when I really feel my age - but this last weekend, I really felt it on account of taking my daughter to look at her...

After focusing on my favourite drummers a few months back, this time it is all about the bass. The bass player is often the hardest...

They came. They conquered (a bit). They went away. They came back again (briefly). They disappeared again (possibly indefinitely).......

Yes, it's time for another playlist, and this time we are off to mainland Europe. Here we have ten more interesting (well, eleven...