I was an early fan of John Cooper Clarke, having heard and liked Disguise In Love a couple of years earlier, and bought the 10" clear...

Santa's one contribution to my CD collection this year was a three album compilation of Gil Scott-Heron's early 1980s CDs, made after...

Elvis Costello's second album, the first backed by The Attractions (Although not yet billed as such), was a recent internet purchase,...

Frank Zappa - such a flawed visionary. A man seemingly so convinced of his own rightness that it's never clear how much of his humour is...

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 of 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...