Landmarks

Rick Foster recalls the making of Chicory Tip’s 1972 hit ‘Son Of My Father’, the first UK Number One record to feature a synthesiser as the lead instrument

Robin Scott remembers the genesis of ‘Pop Muzik’, his huge worldwide hit as M in 1979. New York, London, Paris, Munich, everybody talk about…

‘Runaway Train’, a stark live recording of radio communication between the driver of derailing Canadian train and his controller, appeared on vinyl in 1993, uncredited on the Ash International label. It was of course an early Scanner release. Robin Rimbaud talks us through the extraordinary release…

Synth master Richard Barbieri remembers the heady days of 1980 and gives us the full skinny on Japan’s first single for Virgin Records

Looking back through the mists of time to 1980, Andy Mccluskey talks us through the making of OMD’s smash hit single. Synths out of a catalogue, a scandal with ‘Swap Shop’, Airfix models – it’s a tale that’s got it all

You might know ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’ as a Heaven 17 song, but it started life as ‘Groove Thang’, an instrumental on BEF’s cassette-only debut, ‘Music For Stowaways’. Martyn Ware explains how the track liberated him from The Human League’s synth-only policy and helped him uncover a very rare talent

Gerald Simpson casts his mind back to 1988 to give us the inside story on the making of the seminal UK acid house track

Gary Asquith winds back to 1989 and recounts a tale about cocaine, cursed death masks and a somewhat informal business meeting with Robert Plant

We’re heading back to the post-punk daze of the Futurama Festival, with promoter John Keenan telling tales of flooded venues and vomiting singers

Where to start when picking a classic Cabs’ track? Founding member Stephen Mallinder gamely takes on our suggestion of the band’s 1979 single – and it’s quite a tale