Metallica ’s 1984 began with a gear heist and a cancelled UK tour; it ended with them being heavy metal’s Next Big Thing. Then came Master Of Puppets. This is the inside story of the making of that album and the two year whirlwind that took four “alcoholica” outcasts from the El Cerrito garage to the big time.

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.”

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...”

He’s lived it live and dangerous as part of the classic line up of Thin Lizzy, lived it loud in Motörhead, ridden his own band Wild Horses, has an impressive list of credits as both session musician and producer… There’s much more to Robbo than you probably think.

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 .