Rob Hughes
Freelance writer for Classic Rock since 2008, and sister title Prog since its inception in 2009. Regular contributor to Uncut magazine for over 20 years. Other clients include Word magazine, Record Collector, The Guardian, Sunday Times, The Telegraph and When Saturday Comes. Alongside Marc Riley, co-presenter of long-running A-Z Of David Bowie podcast. Also appears twice a week on Riley’s BBC6 radio show, rifling through old copies of the NME and Melody Maker in the Parallel Universe slot. Designed Aston Villa’s kit during a previous life as a sportswear designer. Geezer Butler told him he loved the all-black away strip.
Latest articles by Rob Hughes

By Rob Hughes Published
The Sex Pistols may have got all the headlines and The Clash the critical acclaim, but The Damned trumped them all

By Rob Hughes Published
Buying guide Captain Beefheart was an eccentric but hugely influential artist tortured by his failure to break into the mainstream. These are his best albums

By Rob Hughes Published
The Rolling Stones’ secret weapon throughout their golden period looks back on his time with the band

By Rob Hughes Published
Four-CD collection covers the period 1967-73, including 32 unreleased tracks

By Rob Hughes Published
Tom Morello might be Mr Politics, but the Rage Against The Machine guitarist is proud to fly the geek flag

By Rob Hughes Published
From The Who’s forgotten singles to unsung solo gems, these are 10 classic Pete Townshend songs you’ll never hear on CSI

By Rob Hughes Published
As Sheryl Crow airs her most socially charged songs yet on new album Evolution, she looks back on her long and winding road

By Rob Hughes Published
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

By Rob Hughes Published
Bill Nelson on Jimi Hendrix, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the brilliant five-album career of art-rockers Be-Bop Deluxe

By Rob Hughes Published
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

By Rob Hughes Published
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

By Rob Hughes Published
You’ve got to have big balls to do an album of covers of songs from rock’s crown jewels. Or be totally bonkers

By Rob Hughes Published
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

By Rob Hughes Published
Buying guide 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

By Rob Hughes Published
The story of Poltergeist's 2013 album Your Mind is a Box (Let Us Fill It With Wonder)

By Rob Hughes Published
Echo & The Bunnymen's Ocean Rain divided opinion upon release in 1984, but time has only deepened its supernatural beauty

By Rob Hughes Published
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

By Rob Hughes Published
How the melodic sophistication of R.E.M.'s second album Reckoning served as a pre-echo of their 90s success

By Rob Hughes Published
The life and times of Michael Chapman, the cult singer and guitarist beloved of David Bowie, Elton John and Sonic Youth

By Rob Hughes Published
Named in honour of Chrissie Hynde’s baby daughter Natalie, Learning To Crawl was also an applicable metaphor for Pretenders 2.0

By Rob Hughes Published
If acoustic hymns, weird gospel and “some real ripping guitar” floats your boat, climb aboard

By Rob Hughes Published
Moody Blues man Justin Hayward picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance

By Rob Hughes Published
Ministry return as a band rather than just Al Jourgensen, and there's both venom and truth in new album Hopiumforthemasses

By Rob Hughes Published
The story of Jethro Tull's "lost" album, the so-called Chateau D'Isaster tapes

By Rob Hughes Published
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
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