This edition of The Essential 10, our quickfire introduction to a wide range of my favourite artists, features everyone's favourite musician who's also an expert on neolithic history and paganism, Julian Cope; an act that has managed almost 40 solo albums so far, over a career that goes back into the late 1970s. As the front man and principle songwriter for the Teardrop Explodes, we will also be taking their brief 2 album foray at the forefront of the British post-punk scene

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

So, another musical icon from Liverpool passed on this week. While he had an association with the Cavern Club scene of the 1960s, it was...

For the second of our run of geographically themed playlists, we head off to the musical mecca of northwest England - Liverpool. But this...