Latest articles by Rob Hughes
“Documents a clamorous creative peak”: Edgar Broughton Band’s Gone Blue – The BBC Sessions
Four-CD collection covers the period 1967-73, including 32 unreleased tracks
Tom Morello is a Star Trek nerd and proud of it
Tom Morello might be Mr Politics, but the Rage Against The Machine guitarist is proud to fly the geek flag
The 10 most underrated Pete Townshend songs
From The Who’s forgotten singles to unsung solo gems, these are 10 classic Pete Townshend songs you’ll never hear on CSI
Sheryl Crow on a lifetime of battles, triumphs, hardships and hopes
As Sheryl Crow airs her most socially charged songs yet on new album Evolution, she looks back on her long and winding road
Graham Bond thought he was the son of Aleister Crowley. He was also one of the most influential musicians of the 1960s
Graham Bond told people he was the son of Aleister Crowley. His life was blighted by drugs. And on May 8, 1974, he died under a train in North London
Blazing Apostles: How Bill Nelson built up then broke up Be-Bop Deluxe
Bill Nelson on Jimi Hendrix, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the brilliant five-album career of art-rockers Be-Bop Deluxe
The Waterboys song Mike Scott wrote to prove how easy it was to write songs
A song whose key line its writer Mike Scott says “floated into my mind as if by magic”, it's still The Waterboys’ signature track and a magic moment live
The Pete Townshend song that savaged a pair of music writers
Written in response to two journalists who said it was good that Keith Moon was dead, it's one of rock’s most spiteful songs
That time Carlos Santana recorded an album of classic rock covers including songs by AC/DC and Led Zeppelin
You’ve got to have big balls to do an album of covers of songs from rock’s crown jewels. Or be totally bonkers
Moby Grape, Oar, and the wild genius of Skip Spence
Moby Grape co-founder Skip Spence wrote his album Oar in a psychiatric ward after threatening his bandmates with an axe. Years after his death, artists still acknowledge its influence
The Stranglers' albums you should definitely own
Too punk to be pop, too loads of other things to be punk, The Stranglers had dozens of hits by doing it their own, unique, way
The story of Poltergeist's 2013 album Your Mind is a Box (Let Us Fill It With Wonder)
The story of Poltergeist's 2013 album Your Mind is a Box (Let Us Fill It With Wonder)
"We'd play small islands on the west coast of Scotland rather than stadiums": Echo & The Bunnymen wouldn't play the game, but that didn't stop them from creating "the greatest song of all time"
Echo & The Bunnymen's Ocean Rain divided opinion upon release in 1984, but time has only deepened its supernatural beauty
“Robert Fripp played the solo and we didn’t like it. He said, ‘You’re wrong.’ Steven Wilson said, ‘This is how wrong we are,’ and deleted it”: How No-Man prospered by refusing to ever fit in
Housekeeping box set illustrates that when Tim Bowness and Wilson refused to compromise, it was a strength rather than a weakness – even if one of them couldn’t listen to their early work for 20 years
R.E.M.'s Reckoning: raw, mysterious and strangely melodic, refracting their influences through a murky Southern prism
How the melodic sophistication of R.E.M.'s second album Reckoning served as a pre-echo of their 90s success
“I don’t know that much about folk music, except that most of it bores me to tears”: the incredible life of Michael Chapman, the greatest singer-songwriter the world never knew about
The life and times of Michael Chapman, the cult singer and guitarist beloved of David Bowie, Elton John and Sonic Youth
Recorded in the wake of tragedy, The Pretenders' Learning To Crawl was an indestructible triumph of sheer will
Named in honour of Chrissie Hynde’s baby daughter Natalie, Learning To Crawl was also an applicable metaphor for Pretenders 2.0
Taylor McCall studied wildlife management at university: Now he writes deeply personal songs inspired by the Vietnam War and tours with Robert Plant
If acoustic hymns, weird gospel and “some real ripping guitar” floats your boat, climb aboard
“Certain people I knew from the scene wouldn’t speak to me after I got a hit. But it’s all music… I just had a great time”: Brian Auger warned Jimi Hendrix off drugs, lent money to Rod Stewart and learned what prog was from Keith Emerson
Multi-genre organ master’s fervent hope is that he opened a channel between rock and jazz: ”And it kind of worked out…”
"In the sixties, my mind was elsewhere – chemically, mystically and emotionally": Justin Hayward picks the soundtrack of his life
Moody Blues man Justin Hayward picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance
"We're all in this together": In a world getting crazier and crazier, Ministry's Al Jourgensen is the unlikely voice of sanity
Ministry return as a band rather than just Al Jourgensen, and there's both venom and truth in new album Hopiumforthemasses
"The red wine had flies in it. The mystery meat caused musicians to head loo-wards. There were bedbugs": In 1972 Jethro Tull retreated to a French chateau to record a new album. It was a disaster
The story of Jethro Tull's "lost" album, the so-called Chateau D'Isaster tapes
"He was absolutely the best guitar player of his generation. Dylan thought he was. Hendrix thought he was. Clapton thought he was": The sensational story of Mike Bloomfield, from prodigy to tragedy
A 60s guitar prodigy who shaped Bob Dylan's sound and blew Eric Clapton away, Mike Bloomfield had the world at his feet before his demons came calling
“The press called us The Dirty Things: ‘Did you see them last night? Disgusting!’”: the epic story of The Pretty Things, the cult British band who should have been as big as the Rolling Stones
They went to school with Mick Jagger, Pink Floyd and David Bowie loved them, and Led Zeppelin signed them to their label. But The Pretty Things remain the greatest rock band the wider world doesn’t know about
"He ended up moving to Hawaii and living in the jungle in a tent for two decades": Israel Nash on the stories that inspired new album Ozarkers
With his new album Israel Nash is following in the footsteps of the great songwriters for whom the American heartland is a rich inspiration, who re-told tales passed down generations
