Bas Jan: Swamp Things

The first weekly Independent Chart was published on 19 January 1980. We talk to Cherry Red’s Iain McNay and Rough Trade’s Geoff Travis, the instigator and the catalyst, about how punk rock and a garden shed ignited the indie label revolution

From Stourbridge to Hollywood, from Pop Will Eat Itself to blockbuster film soundtracks, we pick the brain of in-demand composer Clint Mansell, to see if we can get to the bottom of what it takes to be an, erm, in-demand composer…

Forty years on from their synthpop masterpiece ‘Freedom Of Choice’, Devo’s Jerry Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh reflect on a record made for 1980 whose dire warnings are more relevant today than ever 

With the release of his new solo album, ‘2’, DAF man Gabi Delgado talks about his days as a Düsseldorf punk, his dislike of analogue synthesis, and how his recent move to Spain has re-energised his creative drive

Cool band, good-looking singer, major label deal, infectious tunes. the Top 40 beckoned for 1980s Glasgow outfit Secession… some 18 years after the death of frontman Peter Thomson, we tell the story of a group who shouldn’t have fallen by the wayside