Max Bell

"My last memory was of Bonham’s hairy backside disappearing, illuminated by a spotlight"

There was a time when all rock and pop roads led to London; you couldn't move without tripping over an icon or a star. Those days are long gone

Country, rock’n’roll, a whole lot of attitude – Jason And The Scorchers were destined to be huge, but they were their own worst enemies

Late New Orleans legend Dr John on that time he drank a case of Blue Nun with Frankie Miller, and other stories

Rock's grumpy old man Steve Miller on fame, the Grateful Dead, and why kids should think twice about becoming rock stars

Growing tired of the tensions in CSN&Y, Stephen Stills moved to the UK to record his debut album, with a little help from Jimi, Ringo and Eric

With hits like Mony Mony and Crimson And Clover, Tommy James should have had the time of his life. Instead, he found himself robbed and threatened by the Mafia

Eric Clapton loved him and Mark Knopfler borrowed his style, but singer and guitarist JJ Cale never had the success to match his massive influence

The unlikely story of psychedelic pioneer and folk swing vaudevillian Dan Hicks

"We were like four students living on top of one another, surrounded by filthy crockery and unmade beds" - Steve Winwood on Traffic's early experiments with communal living

The Doors' Robby Krieger reveals how he came to write Love Her Madly, how Jim Morrison loved it, and how their producer didn't

Famously, Dennis Wilson was the only member of the Beach Boys who surfed - but on land, his life was chaos

With a classic funk-rock sound, the rise of rock'n'roll cowboys the James Gang looked unstoppable, inspired by a real kick-ass guitarist who would both make and break the band

From boozy beat poet to avant garde conductor of the 'Junkyard Orchestra', a guide to Tom Waits' best albums and the work of a musical maverick

In 1976, punk was on the verge of exploding. But rock was far from done – and Bad Company were making a stand with Run With The Pack

Jim Croce's finest moment was poignant and heartbreaking: Tragedy meant he never enjoyed its eventual success

Roy Wood, Trevor Burton and Bev Bevan look back at The Move, the psychedelic pioneers who paved the way for the Electric Light Orchestra

The Grateful Dead's best albums are a kaleidoscopic, loose-limbed, ever-adventurous alchemy of psychedelia, country, folk and blues

Little Feat look back on "the Orson Welles of rock", Lowell George

50 years ago, David Bowie announced that he was playing his last ever show. It marked a split from the men who had revitalised his career – and it was all over money…

David Bowie's last album with the Spiders From Mars, Aladdin Sane was written on the road, inspired by the USA and steeped in sex, drugs and ruthless ambition

In the heady days of 1971, German experimentalists Can pushed the musical envelope to the furthest fringes with their landmark album Tago Mago

"Why would a young man like Jim think so much about death? Sure he was a poet. But my theory was that he always felt he had something wrong" - Robby Krieger