It’s hardly rock ’n’ roll but we liked it. The first time I heard the Kinks, I didn’t know what struck me. Well, yes I did – probably the first power chords I’d ever heard; and they made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and start head-banging. It was high summer…

Eric Clapton guests on guitar, says Richards. 11 blues tracks laid down for new album, says Wood. It’s a rare blues fan who hasn’t imagined the scintillating blues of Eric Clapton’s electric guitar accompanying those vintage British rock and blues icons, the Rolling Stones. The good news, blues lovers, is our wait will be finally…

Don’t you just love thumping bass lines, bass lines that punch you in the guts, slap you around the head and slam you up against the wall. Scotland’s Jack Bruce, with that cream of rock power trios, Cream, it seems to me, was first to crank up the bass into another dimension. Jack Bruce was…

He says 1971. But what’s your golden year? I’ve often though 1971 was a bit of a high spot when it came to rock, but now it’s been confirmed: sort of. According to an English rock journalist with four decades in the music business under his belt, more influential albums were released in 1971 than…

Oh, the presumption of youth! I recently came across some old press cuttings, including a page written way back in March 1970. That’s exactly 46 years ago. Nearly half a century! As you can see from the photograph, I was but a child. I was pontificating on the state of rock music in England in…