Christmas doesn’t start in our house until two things have happened. First of all, I have to hear Bruce Springsteen’s version of ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ on the radio, and secondly the family has to gather to watch the Muppet Christmas Carol. The second of those is cur...

K is for Knopfler, Mark. A man who – through no fault of his own – plays a crucial role in Dave’s early downfall in Dead Man Singing. It’s easy to forget just how huge Dire Straits were in the 80s, although I think Dave would have favoured the sparseness of their earlier work...

J is for the Jericho Tavern, the location of the first scene in Dead Man Singing. A confession: despite living in nearby Thame for a couple of years in the 90s, I have never been to a gig at the Jericho. It first rose to wider national notoriety as the legendary venue for early Radiohead gigs, but t...

What was the best ever year for music? Strangely, I own two books dedicated to arguing the case for particular years: Dave Hepworth’s Never A Dull Moment (which puts forward 1971 as the peak of musical creation) and James Acaster’s Perfect Sound Whatever (which argues for 2016).

The case...