How Bruce Springsteen's The Rising helped America heal after 9/11 By Paul Rees As America mourned in the wake of 9/11's terrorist attacks, Bruce Springsteen made The Rising, an album that offered comfort and light in the cruellest, most impenetrable darkness
How Mick Jagger made the greatest blues album he's never released By Paul Rees In the early 90s, Mick Jagger teamed up with LA blues band The Red Devils for what could have been a return to his roots
Sex, cars and videotape: how ZZ Top’s Eliminator conquered the world By Paul Rees ZZ Top were a boogie-blues band barely known outside the US – until they recorded Eliminator, slammed into fifth gear and took over the world
The 100 greatest rock songs of the century... so far By Malcolm Dome, Paul Elliott, Dave Everley, Polly Glass, Dom Lawson, Fraser Lewry, Dave Ling, Sian Llewellyn, Luke Morton, Paul Rees, Johnny Sparks, Philip Wilding, David Stubbs, Henry Yates Many were longlisted, but this is the final selection – the best rock songs of the 21st century thus far, as voted for by you
The story of Traffic By Paul Rees From their faltering, psychedelic beginnings, Traffic finally managed to weave a path through the hedonistic early 70s and create three albums of groundbreakingly original progressive music. This is their story.
Blues, drugs, fights, cops, jail, death: the incredible story of The Red Devils By Paul Rees The greatest American blues band of the early 90s, The Red Devils were as short-lived as their frontman, Lester Butler, was mortally fated
Fallen Angel: The Life And Death Of Chris Whitley By Paul Rees The cult Texan singer took the blues to strange new places. But he never had a chance to conquer his demons.
Nils Lofgren interview: the ultimate ice cream dish revealed By Paul Rees Veteran sideman guitarist and solo artist Nils Lofgren on back-flips, culinary skills, crying, sugar and more sugar
The lonely death of Sandy Denny By Paul Rees One of the most captivating voices of her generation, Sandy Denny passed away before she could realise her full potential
Remembering Gerry Rafferty, rock's most reluctant star By Paul Rees From folk roots to Stealers Wheel to solo success, Gerry Rafferty seemed to move through eras of popular music with ease. In truth, the star was struggling with fame – and his own demons
The War On Drugs: "I've only just scratched the surface of what's possible" By Paul Rees With his latest album A Deeper Understanding, Adam Granduciel has borrowed from some of the greats of the 80s and fashioned a record filled with bittersweet melodies and enveloping drama
Leaving Las Vegas: the story of John Entwistle's last hours By Paul Rees What happened the night The Who's John Entwistle died
John Entwistle: "I just wanted to play louder than anyone else" By Paul Rees Delivering a deafening but dextrous bass-in-your-face assault, John Entwistle was a key part of The Who’s sound – and also of their combustible chemistry. This is his story
How prog is The Waterboys' Mike Scott? By Paul Rees Whether he was leading The Waterboys or going solo, this Scottish musician has always been unafraid to hold back, so now we have to ask: how prog is Mike Scott?
Steven Van Zandt: "Rock'n'roll is my religion" By Paul Rees Guitarist with Springsteen’s E Street band, leader of his own band, label owner, actor (Silvio Dante in The Sopranos), radio host… And there’s a lot more to Steven Van Zandt than that
An Englishman in New York: How Mick Jones created Foreigner By Paul Rees In an exclusive extract from his new autobiography, Mick Jones tells the story of how he went from Reading via France to the USA, where he put together a new band called Foreigner
1987: The year hard rock struck back By Brian Boyd, Malcolm Dome, Dave Everley, Ian Fortnam, Polly Glass, Rob Hughes, Hugh Fielder, Dave Ling, Sian Llewellyn, Luke Morton, Paul Rees, Mick Wall, Henry Yates 1987 saw classic album releases from Guns N' Roses, Aerosmith, U2, Whitesnake, Anthrax, Heart, Motley Crue, Marillion, The Replacements and more...
Restless Soul: Why Joshua James might give it all up for a life making soap By Paul Rees Joshua James may have just produced a deeply personal record of devastating songs, but don’t count on him remaining a musician...
Patto - Patto/Hold Your Fire album reviews By Paul Rees Not yet rated First two albums from cult – and cursed – Brit fusion rockers
Traffic's Chris Wood: Gifted, troubled and perpetually overlooked By Paul Rees A musician best known for his work with Traffic, Chris Wood’s real gift was his ability to inspire and gild the work of other others - while he himself remains a mere footnote in rock history
Deep Purple: 50 years in, where will the adventure take them next? By Paul Rees As Deep Purple release new album Infinite, all five members look back over almost 50 years of golden days and glittering success, dark clouds and stormy relationships. Where next?
Let's party like it's 1399: The story behind Jethro Tull's Songs From The Wood By Paul Rees In 1977, when punk was washing away the old and bringing in the new, Jethro Tull released an album that could have come from the Middle Ages. Ian Anderson remembers making Songs From The Wood
The second coming: Lift To Experience on their unlikely comeback By Paul Rees After releasing an incredible debut in 2001 – an epic, apocalyptic, double concept album – disillusionment, drugs and death led to Lift To Experience splitting. Now the Texans are back
Aerosmith: How Done With Mirrors took them back to the big time By Paul Rees Aerosmith's 1985 comeback Done With Mirrors served as a crucial bridge between the wild 70s Aerosmith and the smooth-rock behemoth of the 80s and 90s
