In the 80s we had The Chart Show, The Tube, Whistle Test and Top of the Pops so although we didn’t have YouTube and seven thousand channels we were pretty well catered for hearing new bands and music. Channel 4 put out a late night show called Max Headroom which was a computer generated host who presented music videos (it was actually an actor Matt Frewer in prosthetic make up and a rubber suit). I personally found him quite annoying, but I used to watch it as it played video

Killing Joke had a loyal live following but the record buying public had started to lose interest from Night Time peaking at number eleven in 1985. Outside the Gate scrapped in at number ninety-two just three years later, members left and the band, although not officially breaking up, went into hiatus. Original bassist Youth had left the band in 1982 and had become a well-known producer and met up and worked with guitarist Geordie on a compilation album and then suggested t

It’s 1980 and Top of the Pops is on we had a lot of John Lennon videos after his terrible murder, ABBA still dominating and luckily for us all St Winifred’s School Choir had given us the joy of There’s No One Quite Like Grandma so a man dressed as a pirate with a white band of make-up painted across his nose made me sit up. My dad had died that year, and we spent a lot of time at my grandparents, and my grandad was not impressed by a man in make-up I seem to remember. I just

Eels had made a huge impression with their debut album so their record company must have been excited when the band delivered their second record. However, there was a problem lead man Mark Everett’s sister had committed suicide, his mum had terminal cancer and this brought up memories of him finding his father dead when he was just nineteen, they were not getting a party album. What they did get is sixteen songs delivered in under fifty minutes that showed the excellence of

So, @AdrianTudorDr asked me to review two records and first was The Housemartins, magic love them and listened many a time the other request was Oysterband, you know what’s coming, yep not got a clue. Usual read of the internet and they formed in 1976, so they have been around for the bare fifty years and I had no idea and they have released twenty four albums (they were previously known Oyster Ceilidh Band and Oyster Band) and their website is telling me that they have ret

I had certainly heard her voice as I was fifteen when Birthday came out and was on my voyage of discovery with music, and when I first heard it there was a “what the hell is that?” and you had to hear it again, It was no surprise that it made the number one spot in John Peel’s Festive Top fifty and The Sugarcubes followed it up with Hit a few years later, which was a welcome addition to the charts and although they split the following year in 1993, I had no idea the lead sing

A request, not mainstream and I have heard of them, what’s going on? Now when I say I have heard of them, that’s it, I have never actually heard a note, have no knowledge of what they are like and despite racking my brain cannot for the life of me think why I know them. Time to turn to the internet. Formed in 2009 in San Francisco they are a four-piece band who have released five studio albums but there has been no recent music from them since this record was released in

I really could not get into Arctic Monkeys last two albums a more sophisticated sound and Alex Turner as a lounge singer, maybe they are works of genius but after one listen, I couldn’t face listening to them again. Some bands I love, I won’t mention them again as I feel I may have mentioned them before! There are other bands that I appreciate but I know I will never love and that’s how we arrive at Arctic Monkeys, they have two songs I personally think are classics and some

Mojo magazine recently had the headline New Order Reunite? I’d rather die. Me and everyone with a slight interest in New Order knew it would be Peter Hook talking. Hook, as well as his years in Joy Division, was in New Order from 1980 – 1993 and 1998 to 2007 so has been out of the band for nearly twenty years but with them being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Hook has made it clear he will never appear on stage with Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris and Gillian

I am not really a TV person I watch the odd series, but I don’t watch the television for the sake of watching like some people do. The only time is usually between Christmas and New Year, sadly I am too old to go out every night, so I try to find something. A few Christmases ago Mystify: Michael Hutchence was on BBC2, I was no fan, liked the odd song but why not give it a go. If you have never seen it, you should, it’s excellent. It follows Hutchence life from childhood right

Gavin Clark is not a household name. A friend of Shane Meadows who had made music for his films, and made several albums with his band Clayhill, he also was considering delivering pizzas after drifting away from music when Meadows made a documentary about him relaunching him back into music working with UNKLE and working on further music, sadly troubled he died at the age of forty-five in 2015. You may be thinking I don’t know him, sadly he never got the credit he deserved bu

I assume anyone who picks up an instrument, can sing, and performs hopes that they will be successful. Success can be that you can write a song, perform in a local pub, get a John Peel Session, record a single or an album. If you have done any of these things then you are a success, doesn’t matter if it sold five copies or a million, you still did it. How about being successful then coming back again and being even bigger. That’s exactly what guitarist Andy Cox and bass pla

The two things I would say I am knowledgeable about are football and music, anything else I forget because I am not really interested, my much better half cracks up because we go on holiday and within a week of being home I cannot remember the name of the hotel we were in, if I’d have bumped into Kenny Dalglish or Mick Jones in the hotel then it would be engraved in my mind forever but alas that has yet to happen. However am I really that knowledgeable about music, I thought

In the old days you did a tour in the hope that people would then buy the record as that’s where the money was. With income from streaming this has reversed as touring has now become the main income for a band. Many bands tour but haven’t released a new record in years, New Order eleven years, Echo and the Bunnymen twelve years, Human League fourteen years, Massive Attack sixteen years. Sisters of Mercy laugh at these bands releasing such recent music as they have not relea

I have talked about Echo in Byres Road and having been persuaded by the brothers to part with my money I usually crossed the road and went upstairs in Cresswell Lane to Lost In Music that was a treasure trove of posters, CD’s, records, and cassettes. There was a song playing behind the counter and I asked the guy what it was. Kevin McDermott Orchestra Wheels of Wonder I was informed. The man didn’t know me from Adam but somehow, I have a face that can clearly demonstrate th

The only thing I know about The Courteeners is they played Man United’s title party. Football rivalries are petty, I know they are. I support Liverpool. I have never listened to The Courteeners. King of petty here. Obviously The Courteeners will be devastated to hear this news and since I have decided to snub them it has had a huge effect on their career, over the twenty years they have been together they have released eight albums and every one of them has made the top ten

They were the great hope, they could barely play, their gigs lasted twenty minutes they hated everything and they had delivered with a debut album that over forty years later is still glorious to these ears. Bobby Gillespie had left the band to focus on Primal Scream full time and for the recording of their second album drum machines replaced him as the Reid brothers went it alone. The band parted with manager Alan McGee and were even able to manage forty-five-minute sets

I’m fifteen in 1986 and never miss an episode of Top of the Pops, The Tube and The Chart Show as I slowly become obsessed with music. There is some guy on The Chart Show with the most imaginative video for a song called Sledgehammer, it becomes a huge hit and the subsequent solo album So is a number one smash. This guy is Peter Gabriel and it’s the first time I have heard of him. Numerous articles at the time informed me that he was the original lead singer of Genesis, but

We are back on Top of the Pops, and a woman is on singing her debut hit, she’s dancing away seven months pregnant rapping and then hitting the chorus with a great voice and really annoying me. Why? I know her, I can’t think why but I know her, but this is pre internet, Buffalo Stance is a wonderful song, something fresh and she is not holding back and looks fantastic. How do I know her, over time you find these things out. I own The The Infected and there she is duetting with

Now I have struggled with bands in the past, Mercury Rev and Grandaddy took ages and I’m sorry if this offends some I still can’t get Lampchop’s Nixon or anything by Tindersticks and I know I am probably wrong. I once read that The National sounded a bit like Tindersticks and because I am such an open minded man I never listened to them. It’s good to attempt to write music reviews with such an open mind. Formed in 1999 we have two sets of brothers backing lead singer Matt Ber