About a quarter of the way through Neil Young's concert at London's 02 arena on Monday, he decided to visit the gates of Hades. As post apolcalyptic wind blew pieces of paper across the stage and lights flashed threateningly, he huddled with members of Crazy Horse to hand-beat guitar strings and conjour feedback in a cacophony of heavy-metal-meets-prog-rock-meets-garage-band.

It went on for 10 to 20 minutes - anarchically excruciating, yet strangely entertaining. But not…

One of the pleasures of being of a certain age is that you can literally rack up decades of seeing great musicians and attending gigs of all shapes and sizes. A recent BBC documentary about The Eagles jarred my memory about one such event in (gulp) 1976. 

I was a Brit newbie in America and was taken to a political fund raiser for then (and now) California Governor Jerry Brown. It was at the Capital Centre outside Washington DC , which is now called something odiously…

An Englishman and an Irishman meet on a train sounds like the beginning of a terrible joke. Actually it was the start of a band called Winter Mountain, an indie folk duo with more than a touch of Americana about them judging by this video (The train was in Chicago after all).

I can't say I know much about the band. I was invited to a gig to listen to them but couldn't make it. I listened to their link, nonetheless,…

If Kat Edmonson ever becomes a household name, she can put it down not just to her talent as a jazz singer, but to some decidedly modern financing as well.

The 29-year-old Texan, an old-school chanteuse with a contemporary lilt, has funded production of her second album via a community workshop and through…