Ben Forrest

The chance to join one of the world's premier hard rock outfits sounds like a childhood fantasy or the plot of a cheesy 1990s coming-of-age film.

You could be forgiven for thinking that bringing four of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century together would result in musical mastery the likes of which the world had never seen before.

Soul music is a universal language, worshipped by everybody from the architects of Afrobeat to the sweat-soaked, wide-eyed dancers at Wigan Casino.

Station Road, Wigan: Today, this damp stretch of tarmac is no more noteworthy than any other generic stretch of road in any other generic northern English town.

Dave Grohl has done more in his career than he ever thought possible for a kid from Virginia who just wanted to drum.

If you ever feel as though you aren't good at your job, console yourself with the fact that, in 1962, a Decca Records executive rejected The Beatles on the basis that guitar bands were a thing of the past.

It's difficult to imagine Ron Howard doing anything other than acting or directing, but he was at risk of throwing it all away on the set of 'Grand Theft Auto'.

When all is said and done, when the androids take over and throw the last guitar in the world on a funeral pyre of human creativity, XTC will still

It is difficult to dispute the credentials of Motown Records circa 1965, given just how ubiquitous Berry Gordy's legendary label was in the pop charts of both the US and the UK during that time.

From gritty gangster boss Harold Shand in The Long Good Friday to the Hollywood private investigator Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?