Hit & myth (Chesapeake Juke Box Band)

Jilted John - True Love Stories (Castle)

David Axelrod: The Edge of Music: An Exploration of 50 Years in Music
Axelrod was a 1950s jazzer who became a star producer at Capitol in the 1960s. His signature sound was spacious and groove-heavy: the drums were always to the fore, which means that he has been sampled more than anyone bar James Brown and the Meters.

Their art on their sleeves
The Music Library By Jonny Trunk
Nostalgia for the album sleeve has brought a flood of books. But most enjoyable are the covers of records that you'll have never bought

Books in the news
Instant stardom
Calling their song Overnight Sensation was asking for it. The Raspberries’ 1974 single never bothered the record books the way that the Arctic Monkeys have. A debut single straight in at No 1 and the fastest-selling debut album yet. They will have to get used to being called the New Beatles.

Let's hear it for Slag Bag!
Who needs real pop stars when the best music movies are about fake bands?
Note: Bob Stanley writing about his Pop Fiction Film Festival At The Barbican on Feb 7, 21, and 28 See Timeline

Birth of the uncool
With cardboard drums and songs about hating sharks, the DIY music movement was tiny - but intense. Bob Stanley celebrates the UK's most underground underground scene

The vinyl frontier
Accruing knowledge from gazing at the small print on 45s isn't really something to show off about, but decades of this kind of activity has finally earned me a proper job. Universal - the largest record company in the world - has offered myself and Saint Etienne buddy Pete Wiggs our own reissue label, Eclipse.