On the cover this month are Dr Feelgood, the Canvey carousers, prime movers of the early 70s pub rock scene. But was it a scene, a movement, coalescing around myriad groups with a coherent, specific sound, look and agenda? Or was it just a bunch of varied, prodigiously hairy, busy, gigging bands who happened to play the same venues around the same …
Hawkwind are highly respected these days. It’s easy to forget this wasn’t always the case. The space-rockers’ reputation began to be reappraised properly around the turn of the millennium, three decades after they’d formed. With Y2K paranoia in the air, wars in Kosovo and elsewhere, and a lying sleazeball in the White House (Democrat, in th…
Not all sequels are created equal, but this one assuredly is. Twenty-eight years in the making, the 19-track set shepherds Suede B-sides spanning 1997-2023 (plus one previously unreleased track) into one expansive package. Even when Suede’s profile was flagging, their flipsides game remained strong. Slinky-hipped piledriver Crackhead and opiated …
Dennis ‘Blackbeard’ Bovell was a towering presence as British reggae grabbed punk’s safety-pinned tailcoat and found its way to a wider public in the late 70s. The one big hit this collection contains is Janet Kay’s Silly Games, a 1979 lover’s rock sensation that went all the way to No 2 in the UK pop chart. Marie Pierre’s Walk Away arg…
John McKay was the first recording guitarist with Siouxsie & The Banshees, and the one whose innovative style – eschewing conventional riffing and soloing in favour of solid, sheet-metal textures – cast a long shadow over all who followed, including the great John McGeoch. McKay was with the band from Hong Kong Garden through The Scream, on…
