Sing me a song

Fifty years on from their first successes, Roger McGuinn, the 12-string architect of THE BYRDS , tells Uncut about their exceptional first 18 months – and his relationship with Gene Clark. As the young group make their jet-powered escape from the folk think tank, we hear about making the scene on the Strip, outraging Iowa and a muted response in the United Kingdom. But ultimately how “Eight Miles High” became the spectacular conclusion of the band’s first era. “I almost left The Byrds entirely to go and be in this space band With Dino Valente,” McGuinn tells John Robinson

JOHN LYDON WITH PHIL MEARS “This pic of myself and John Lydon was taken at the Waterside Arts Centre in Sale, Greater Manchester, as part of his I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right spoken word tour on

In 1976, the revolutionary singer-songwriter LAURA NYRO returned from self-imposed exile. But her comeback confounded expectations, shifting away from the impassioned intimacies of her early albums to embrace more radical perspectives. Fifty years on, Nyro’s collaborators revisit her striking second act. “She was a hip American from the Bronx,” one friend and producer tells Rob Hughes. “But her soul was old.”

Inside the US singer-songwriter’s path from early DIY explorations to modern country-folk force

BIG CROSSWORD

From the Sex Pistols to Sinatra, CHRISSIE HYNDE has spent 50 years moving between musical worlds. Now, as she releases a new album of diverse superstar duets, she confides in TOM DOYLE all about Debbie Harry, Kate Bush, Morrissey, forging Beatles signatures, having hysterics at a CSN gig, and how to deal with the most obsessive Pretenders fans... "Go fuck yourselves!"