Guitar bands are manifold in London town, and it's been a while since that fact could be stated with any certainty. Tastes are reverting as live music played in intimate venues becomes a necessary constant in these cash-strapped, culturally arid times.

Rockers Queen have been crowned top of the patriotic pops in a survey of 100,000 music fans. The band's anthem We Are the Champions was named numbe...

I've grown to hate Don Letts... I'm just sick of his sunglasses-indoors-bedecked face cropping up every five minutes to tell the same boring stories about punk. He has become the George Martin of punk - and not in the 'creative genius' way - more in the 'couple of years of doing something, four decades of agreeing to every interview and saying the same old boring crap again and again' way.

The Damned were always a little different to most punk bands, with singer Dave Vanian possessing the kind of voice many crooners would kill for and guitarist Captain Sensible being a skilled musician. Contrast this to Paul Simonon writing chords on his fretboard and Sid Vicious who had the right attitude, but no ability to play a guitar, and you can see why they stood out.

Today sees the ninth anniversary of the death of a legend and hero to not only me, but a whole generation. That legend was Joe Strummer - born John Graham Mellor - and his band was The Clash.