Simple minds

And win every pub quiz and office challenge in a battle of musical wit, forever

Mike Peters, frontman with The Alarm, recalls his experiences on the Never-Ending Tour

This time he’s a seasick singer on a ship of noise, apparently

New York’s next heroes – the perfect fusion of Duran Duran and The Strokes

Two-disc set celebrating Manchesters baggy-trousered dance-rock primates

PiL single from 1979 achieves semi-brand status

Deeply disappointing follow-up to Gold, Uncut's 2001 album of the year

Some imagined that by Avalon, Roxy Music had degenerated into non-ironic AOR. But the sounds on this, the biggest-selling album of their career, are as avant-garde as anything they'd ever done, just more subtle, Ferry having exchanged art attack for ambient seduction. Remember this came out in spring 1982, as New Pop was peaking—it's as if the Godfather had returned to show the rookies how elegant isolation should really be expressed. Throughout there are expressions of Ferry's uncertainty, plus evidence they'd been listening to Joy Division and Jan Garbarek.

Dutch death disco from early '80s

Nostalgia overload for the School Disco crowd