A to Z

Since taking to the air in 1974, Rockpalast has become an institution on German TV, broadcasting live performances from different venues around the country. Bruce’s three appearances on the show between 1980 and 1993 are presented here across five discs, starting with a concert with a stellar band of jazz-rock titans that included Billy Cobham, David Sancious and Clem Clempson. The lineup had just recorded the album I’ve Always Wanted To Do, and the quartet show off their chops playing seven of the album’s 10 songs, including the complex jazz-rock patterns of the 13-minute “Bird Alone”. The virtuosity is impressive, but inevitably it’s Bruce’s old Cream showpieces such as “White Room” and “Sunshine Of Your Love” that ignite the audience. The 1983 show includes most of Bruce’s Automatic album, before ending with more Cream-ery. The third set, recorded in Cologne in 1990, is perhaps best of all, featuring splendid versions of “Theme From An Imaginary Western” and “Weird Of Hermiston”.

Extras: 6/10.Two DVDs of concert footage. NIGEL WILLIAMSON

Countless obituaries last Christmas mourned Pete Shelley as punk’s greatest pop songwriter. And Singles Going Steady is possibly the greatest “greatest hits” album of all time: eight singles on Side One, eight flipsides on Side Two, each a masterclass in heart-wrenching melody and lovelorn lyrics, with “Orgasm Addict” and “Oh Shit” serving as endearingly gauche pieces of juvenilia. Amazingly, this compilation was released simultaneously with the band’s third studio LP, A Different Kind Of Tension. Steve Diggle writes and sings three songs – including the proggy “Sitting Round At Home” and the thrashy “Mad Mad Judy”; Shelley seems to have developed a Lydon-esque nasal whine (particularly on “I Don’t