I always thought that the Housemartins felt like a breath of fresh air after the sometime sneering cynicism of punk, and the preening...

I first heard Scritti on NME's C81 cassette , where The "Sweetest Girl" opened proceedings, and was immediately hooked by the electronic...

This re-issue of the Rezillos first album was an Ebay acquisition last week. I saw the band in their prime in Durham, and it was a great...

Welcome to the 500th review in this blog. I had thought long and hard about which album should mark this milestone, but made my mind up...

This is a jazz purchase on the basis of it being two names I felt I ought to find out more about - US saxophonist Stan Getz, and Canadian...

This 1956 album is the earliest one in a box set I bought of Mingus albums, and which I only listen to rarely. I'm no expert in matters...

I've enjoyed Jane Weaver's music since stumbling across her performance on Marc Riley's All Shook Up show a few years back, and have...

We're rapidly approaching the 500th review now, but before we do, I thought I'd take the opportunity to fill a couple of gaps, in the...

I've been listening to Elvis Costello's autobiography Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink on my morning bike rides recently, and...

It's 1976, and punk is about to sweep the nation. But not in my head - I'm still stuck with the prog rock of the seventies and Genesis...

I went into Oxfam yesterday (Market Harborough, since you ask) intending to buy that Gil Scott-Heron album I saw last week, but was a...

My second purchase from the tiny Kettering record shop was this debut from Heaven 17. It was a hit album on release in 1981, arguably...

I happened upon a little record shop in Kettering this afternoon, and an interesting place it was. Exactly the sort of place where men...

Twenty years ago, Carl Palmer played a gig at the Astor Theatre (capacity about 180) in Deal, where I lived. Ticket prices were...

Last of the Ghent purchases is an album my father made me a tape of, many years ago. His love of classical and my love pf pop / rock...

The second purchase from a Sunday market in Ghent, for a couple of euros. I've spoken before about my Zappa obsession in my 30s, and how...

Stumbling across a Sunday morning market on a recent break in Ghent, there's a chap selling some CDs and I part with a few euros and...

Travelling back from holiday, I've decided to end the break with an old favourite. i had this on vinyl, a Christmas present in 1980, an...

I'm waiting at Brussels Midi Station, my terror of being late getting me here two hours early for the Eurostar, but at least there's time...

I picked this up in a second hand CD shop in Falmouth last year, as part of a 5CD box set (3 of which I already had!) It was Ayers' first...