Tears & fears

The accessibility, affordability and portability of synthesizers in the late 70s had a profound effect on popular music, particularly in the UK, where the likes of Ultravox!, Gary Numan and OMD reshap

A few years ago, Charlie Burchill and Jim Kerr were interviewed for a BBC documentary about music’s messiest break-ups. Which may seem like an odd booking, given the pair’s famously adamantine bond. B

Of course Trevor Horn is a genius. But part of Horn’s talent is in seeing ideas through to their maximum potential. And this gigantic boxset of possibly the ultimate 80s album reveals how the initial

Just as UFO seemed poised to take the next step up, their ace-card guitarist Michael Schenker quit. But instead of going to the pub to sulk, the hellraisers took off to the Caribbean and recorded belter No Place To Run without him.

John & Yoko/ Plastic Ono Band Power ...

hen Soft Cell were art students at Leeds Polytechnic, Marc Almond wrote a song in the vein of Ziggy Stardust about a fictional band breaking up. Four years later, when Soft Cell had been informed by t