Latest articles by Rob Hughes
"A true fighter with a heavenly voice": A tribute to The Alarm's Mike Peters
A look back at the life and music of Mikre Peters, the much-loved guitarist, singer and songwriter with Welsh rockers The Alarm, who died a year ago today
Keith Emerson’s manager wanted to ditch plans for a flying piano. Emerson proved him wrong
Backstage boss Stewart Young took one look at the prototype in 1974 and decided to walk away – but the keyboard maestro wouldn’t have it
The trauma behind Otis Redding's tragic classic (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay
Written by Otis Redding and his guitarist/producer Steve Cropper, (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay became one of the truly great songs
Big Star: Power-pop nirvana meets emotional baggage, personal tragedy and a band destined to fail
Big Star were all but forgotten by the end of the 70s, but they became a Rosetta Stone for a whole generation of later musicians
How country-rock trailblazers The Flying Burrito Brothers pioneered a whole new sound – only for the Eagles to steal their thunder
Splintering off from The Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers burnt brightly on two iconic albums
The story of the song that heralded Blondie's comeback – but tanked in the US
Written about "sexual repression causing incredible desire among a school full of boys", Maria was a No.1 across Europe
The bloody-minded duo who dared to delete a Robert Fripp solo in front of him
Their groundbreaking 1994 album has stood the test of time – but their refusal to compromise with label and management made it look as if their time was up
The surprisingly contentious origins of Gimme Some Lovin' by the Spencer Davis Group
Gimme Some Lovin’ by the Spencer Davis Group was written in minutes - but its roots are still debated
How a neurotic 19-year-old and a guitarist with a razor created The Kinks' All Day And All Of The Night
The story of the song that schooled Metallica's James Hetfield
How Kraftwerk influenced a band who influenced a whole era of British music
An undersold concert by the German icons in 1975 led a young duo to adopt electronic instruments. Their first song launched a clutch of cutting-edge genres
How Humble Pie made the ultimate whiplash boogie white boy blues
With its monolithic riff and yelping lead vocal, the live version of Stone Cold Fever typifies Humble Pie, one of the best live blues-rock bands of their era
73,000 sales before lunch: The incredible story of Mungo Jerry's In The Summertime
How a song that wasn't considered to have potential as a single soundtracked the summer of 1970
Brinsley Schwarz: Shouting At The Moon and the state of the world
A key figure in 70s pub rock is back with more songs "about politics or idiots with fingers on buttons"
How The Byrds, aided by a pair of South African legends, slammed manufactured pop music in song
A light-hearted pop at the superficial workings of the pop industry in the 60s, it remains a minor classic. And if you saw the band live in Bournemouth in 1965, you might actually be on it!
The blues-rock epic that turned Ten Years After into US superstars – with a little help from a legendary Woodstock set
Ten Years After’s I’m Going Home was 11 minutes of blues-rock euphoria
The story of the social justice anthem inspired by a police raid on a Stonehenge beanfield
Fired by social injustice, The Battle Of The Beanfield remains an enduring classic and more relevant than ever
The story of the mongrel mix that sold a million and became the original rock’n’roll anthem
Sell a million, get a free Cadillac
How a 1929 silent movie inspired the surreal alt. rock anthem that helped launch a musical revolution
The making of the alt.rock classic that inspired Kurt Cobain and took 10 minutes to write
The story of the Orange Crush, R.E.M.'s anti-war commentary disguised as a four-minute pop song
R.E.M. countered accusations of selling out to a major by using their commercial clout to promote their political activism
“He wrote, ‘Eat more shit – 100,000 flies can’t be wrong”: German prog icon ignored haters to scale the charts
Accused of being a European “knob-turner,” he faced the music establishment’s rejection attitude with a lesson learned from Salvador Dali, and defied expectations by scaling the charts
Radiohead, Primal Scream influencers found new singer on the street, after the last one went mad on stage
The late Holger Czukay discusses the importance of Can's groundbreaking second album Tago Mago
Born in a dream, the solos in Sweet Home Alabama were out of key, but superstition kept them in
Lynyrd Skynyrd's down-home anthem was a retort to Neil Young's Southern Man, but decades on it's soundtracked everything from KFC to video games
“Somebody threw a toilet roll at Peter Gabriel. He threw it back and it landed just below me. I had that bog roll on my windowsill for years!” Marc Riley’s prog world
Turned on by Genesis, Beefheart, Zappa and Can, the former member of The Fall and The Creepers continues to smuggle prog into his radio shows
