Rob Hughes

Guitarist, songwriter and producer Steven Van Zandt picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance, and names the greatest female singer of all time

Everybody's got to start somewhere, and some of our very best bands started slowly. Here's 10 great bands whose debut albums weren't actually great

With Manic Street Preachers having have undergone their fair share of emotional upheaval recently, it’s little wonder new album The Ultra Vivid Lament has its melancholic side

As Screamadelica turns 30, we look back at how self-belief, speed, dance music and the best producer the Stones ever had combined to make Primal Scream’s truly progressive and psychedelic masterpiece

He’s collaborated with Crazy Horse, Ringo Starr and even auditioned for Brookside, but now Icicle Works founder and current solo artist Ian McNabb is ready to conclude his latest trilogy

The Ride and former Oasis man explains how he came to play with Pink Floyd and explore the world of progressive music

The 10 best songs from Brian May, Queen's endlessly creative cloud-haired riff-master and space expert

Producer/engineer Eddie Kramer delights in the studio brilliance of Led Zeppelin – even though Robert Plant stole his girlfriend

Written by Otis Redding and his guitarist/producer Steve Cropper, (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay became a classic, but Redding died in a plane crash before he was able to enjoy its success

If you’ve ever heard anything on the Stax Records label, then you’ve probably heard Steve Cropper's masterful guitar playing. He might well have written and produced it too

Illinois Anglophiles Cheap Trick are deep into their fifth decade of existence, and they're enjoying a late-career surge of creativity

If you thought all Hawkwind’s freaky stuff belonged to the early 70s, you ain't seen nothing yet

"Gutless, spineless and devoid of inspiration" said the UK press of Tangerine Dream. UK music listeners didn't agree!

For a short period in the 60s, the Walker Brothers were bigger than The Beatles, idolised and frantically mobbed by hysterical screaming girl fans – but their main singer hated it

Gimme Some Lovin’ by the Spencer Davis Group was knocked off in less time than it took to cart Steve Winwood’s Hammond into the Marquee

Captain Beefheart, the Magic Band’s eccentric leader, was an influential artist tortured by his failure to break into the mainstream. These are his best albums

Ray Davies recalls how, in three takes one morning in 1964, a neurotic 19-year-old and a guitarist with a razor created All Day And All Of The Night and the blueprint for metal and punk

With or without The Dukes, Steve Earle is a true rock’n’roll maverick, and these are his best albums

Actor and musician William Shatner picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance, and reveals why BB King's daughter called him "a gift from god"

“We’re your new leaders!” announce The OBGMs, who’ve clearly got it in for the music business

When the going got tough, heading for burn-out and facing calling time on something they’d put so much into, Swedish band Blues Pills pulled together and got going

That Mark Lanegan is alive is a surprise – to him as much as to anyone else. His self-destructive days are now behind him, but for years it looked like we would be robbed of one of the stand-out singing voices of his generation