Who February 13 2023

2023 will see Billy Bragg and Cooking Vinyl celebrating forty years of music from the singer, songwriter, activist and author, with a selection of releases to appeal to casual admirers and die hard fans alike. The career spanning 14 CD box set, contains more than 300 tracks including highlights from each of Billy’s twelve studio albums, non-album singles and B- Sides, session tracks, rare live recordings, collaborations and previously unreleased material from across his career.

The Songs of Bacharach & Costello, brings together all of the published songs that Costello has written with Burt Bacharach, celebrating the three decade songwriting partnership between them. Compiled by Costello, the Super Deluxe Edition includes the newly remastered album, Painted From Memory, along with a new collection, Taken From Life, featuring unreleased songs from the proposed “Painted From Memory” musical score, plus live performances, and a detailed 10,000 word essay by Costello.

Bruce Springsteen once said he intended to make an album with words like Bob Dylan that sounded like Phil Spector where he sang like Roy Orbison, a nifty summary of many, but not all, of his artistic ambitions and a key to his appeal. Unlike any other singer/songwriters saddled with the appellation of "the new Dylan" in the early '70s, Springsteen never hid how he was raised on '60s AM radio. He loved rock & roll, whether it was the initial blast from the '50s or the mini-symphonies from the days before the Beatles or the garage rockers that surfaced in the wake of the British Invasion, and all this could be heard within his wild, wooly collective E Street Band, a group who debuted on his second album, 1973's The Wild The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, and who would support him throughout most of his career.

Duke Ellington was the most important composer in the history of jazz as well as being a bandleader who held his large group together continuously for almost 50 years. The two aspects of his career were related; Ellington used his band as a musical laboratory for his new compositions and shaped his writing specifically to showcase the talents of his bandmembers, many of whom remained with him for long periods. Ellington also wrote film scores and stage musicals, and several of his instrumental works were adapted into songs that became standards. In addition to touring year in and year out, he recorded extensively, resulting in a gigantic body of work that was still being assessed a quarter century after his death.

Ed Sheeran is set to release his new album ‘-‘ (Subtract) - the last in his decade-spanning mathematical album era - on 5 May 2023 through Asylum/Atlantic.

Still Got the Blues is the eighth solo studio album by Northern Irish guitarist Gary Moore, released in 1990. It marked a substantial change in style for Moore, who, prior to this album, was predominantly known for rock and hard rock music with Skid Row, Thin Lizzy, G-Force, Greg Lake and during his own extensive solo career, as well as his jazz-fusion work with Colosseum II. As evidenced by its title, Still Got the Blues saw him delve into an electric blues style. The album features guest contributions from Albert King, Albert Collins and George Harrison. The title track was released as a single and reached No. 97 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album reached No. 83 on the Billboard 200 on 16 February 1991, then was certified gold on November 1995. This was the most successful album both in sales and chart positions from Gary Moore in the US.

First complete anthology of late 60s recordings by highly-regarded Irish singer/ songwriter. Includes his best-known song, the huge European hit 'Days Of Pearly Spencer', as well as more than a dozen tracks making their CD debut. At the height of the protest singer boom that spawned the likes of Dylan and Donovan, Irish-born music industry heavyweight Phil Solomon received a demo tape from a young Ballymena-based singer/songwriter by the name of David McWilliams. Sensing the possibilities, the entrepreneur added McWilliams to his Irish-based roster of acts (The Bachelors, The Dubliners, Van Morrison's Them, etc) and placed the youngster on his fledgling record label Major Minor. Launched in a blaze of publicity in mid-1967, McWilliams coupled voguish songs about social deprivation with lighter, more romantic material, with producer and occasional Beatles/ Rolling Stones associate Mike Leander providing the striking string arrangements.

First complete anthology of late 60s recordings by highly-regarded Irish singer/ songwriter. Includes his best-known song, the huge European hit 'Days Of Pearly Spencer', as well as more than a dozen tracks making their CD debut. At the height of the protest singer boom that spawned the likes of Dylan and Donovan, Irish-born music industry heavyweight Phil Solomon received a demo tape from a young Ballymena-based singer/songwriter by the name of David McWilliams. Sensing the possibilities, the entrepreneur added McWilliams to his Irish-based roster of acts (The Bachelors, The Dubliners, Van Morrison's Them, etc) and placed the youngster on his fledgling record label Major Minor. Launched in a blaze of publicity in mid-1967, McWilliams coupled voguish songs about social deprivation with lighter, more romantic material, with producer and occasional Beatles/ Rolling Stones associate Mike Leander providing the striking string arrangements.