Echo & the bunnymen

Simon Neil leads a back on top Biffy ...

In 2001, the suicide of Big Country ’s Stuart Adamson shocked music fans all over the world. How had the man once lauded by DJ John Peel as ‘Scotland’s answer to Jimi Hendrix’ ended up taking his own life? In an exclusive extract from a new book, we look at the inside story of their debut album The Crossing .

Following Richey Edwards’ disappearance and the “commercial disaster” of The Holy Bible , the MANIC STREET PREACHERS were told that this is the end. Instead, they roared back with an unassailable anthem heralding one of the biggest British albums of the ’90s. Sam Richards celebrates 30 years of Everything Must Go : “It was the most spectacular feeling,” says Nicky Wire. “That period when you go over the top...”

In the wake of Peter Gabriel’s departure, GENESIS faced an existential question: carry on, or call it a day? Looking back 50 years, band members revisit the fraught months after their first frontman’s exit – and the creative surge that set the scene for one of rock’s most improbable second acts. “The band was meant to be dead and buried,” learns Peter Watts. “But we refused to lay down and die.”

The brothers Robinson recall the highs, lows and sibling spats of a 36-year recording career

In 1966, BOB DYLAN hit his wildest white-hot creative peak yet, recording one of his most iconic albums, Blonde On Blonde , and blazing new ground with his controversial electric tour with The Hawks. As the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa prepares a major new exhibition exploring this tumultuous year, Uncut is offered an exclusive preview of what they have in store. Meanwhile, we go behind the scenes of Blonde On Blonde and reconstruct Tour ’66, as eyewitnesses share new tales of late nights, cold mornings and chance encounters. “It’s Dylan as spectacle, in a very combative way,” learns Damien Love. “This is me – deal with it .”