Originally a snarky term coined by the British music press and aimed at a handful of bands, shoegaze has evolved into one of alternative music’s most influential movements. Through interviews with original pioneers and today’s new wave of artists, in Record Collector June 2026 issue, Wesley Doyle tells us how a handful of experimental 90s bands…
Photographers are integral to the design of many record sleeves. Designer Paul Bowler puts us in the picture.While artwork has long played a vital role in the sale of recorded music, it hasn’t always been that way. In the format’s early years, 78rpm shellac discs were sold in plain brown paper or cardboard sleeves, with little more than their c…
When they first topped the charts in 1982, young Birmingham reggae outfit Musical Youth were a sensation, in demand everywhere from John Peel to Pebble Mill At One. But they were no manufactured boy band – they’d been playing the clubs for some time. Success took its toll and by the mid-80s they’d split, but several members are still playing …
1976 was an exciting year for R&B. Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye crafted albums that sit among their greatest works; the former pushed for social change through a no-borders musical approach on Songs In The Key Of Life; the latter explored sexual politics in a way no one had done before on I Want You.Others were rejoicing in the social and cult…
The birth of disco music followed a 10-year pregnancy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There, African-American dance music gradually changed its shape and sound until, in 1973, its propulsive life-affirming rhythm was dancing around the world.
“Joy Division were clocking things”With a recording career now spanning nearly 60 years, ex-Van Der Graaf Generator legend and cult solo artist supreme Peter Hammill selects his current favourite album from each decade of his solo work. He talks to Daryl Easlea, in Record Collector 581.The riddle wrapped inside the enigma, within the conundrum hi…
Thompson Twins came together on the London squat scene as a six-piece collective. But after splintering into a trio and embracing technology, they assumed a more vibrantly colourful and commercial new style and became one of the biggest synthpop bands of the 80s.
In the late 70s, as punk’s blast of insurrectionary fire began to flame out, many of those inspired to get up onstage began to look further back for inspiration – to the mods of the previous decade, all sharp sense of style and gritty R’n’B pop.
“Bohemian Rhapsody is a total fucking stand-alone outright, balls-out classic… When I heard Blitzkrieg Bop I just thought, how do you beat that…”
“My Bloody Valentine decamped to Island Records but, notoriously, failed to produce any music…”
