Rob Hughes

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

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 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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Multi-genre organ master’s fervent hope is that he opened a channel between rock and jazz: ”And it kind of worked out…”

Moody Blues man Justin Hayward picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance

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

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

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

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

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

Roll Away The Stone was such an obvious hit The Hollies tried to steal it sway, but it was effectively Mott The Hoople's final chartbuster

Riffing on Lewis Carroll's Alice, inspired by Miles Davis, Grace Slick's two-and-a-half minute hallucinogenic classic would provide her with an income for life

The Black Crowes' Rich Robinson picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance, and names the album that brings him joy every time he listens to it

He’s defended students in court, ordered cops to stop assaulting fans, and played free shows when he was warned against it – and while identifying with the prog genre, he believes he was proto-punk too

Powered by Jan Akkerman's guitar and Thijs van Leer's Hammond organ, Sylvia helped pave the way for the rapid rise to fame of Dutch proggers Focus

The story of the criminally short-lived Swindon prog quartet Tin Spirits' second album, 2014's Scorch

Dolly Parton, the undisputed Queen Of Country, talks about the road to her rock album, transcending country music, and what Stairway To Heaven and Free Bird mean to her