Welcome Warriors to another topsy turvy week of sonic inebriation and musical thrills. All manner of stuff was flying around this week and we embraced is eclectic wildness as the endless race of popular culture continued to surge around us!

First up I did an in depth interview with Paul Morley about his wonderful new book about the late and great Tony Wilson. Tony was a fantastically complex and challenging character who has left his cultural imprint all over Manchester and I can't think of anyone better than Paul Morley to tackle this subject. With brilliant levels of pretension and thrilling writing Paul has written a book that breaks all the rules of biog and is still enthralling and gets to the heart and soul of its subject which is perfect for the late and great Anthony H as he explains here.

On another distant branch of the showbiz tree another one of our reviewers found themselves at the Maneskin gig in London and was intrigued by the show. The Eurovision winners from Italy are now back out in the real world trying to prove themselves and according to our review did a very good job of this. Eurovision can be a poisoned chalice and that moment of glory in the front of millions of viewers can be hard to sustain but then, of course, Maneskin are a full on band and already popular in Italy and pretty good at doing their rock n roll thing - it makes you wonder why the UK is always sending some Z list X factor losers to the finals but then in many ways it's like getting a sneaky sneak peak at what the UK music industry thinks music actually is and what music would actually be if all the mavericks that we celebrate on LTW didn't turn up and spoil their cosy and rubbish world for them.

Mavericks like Wasted Youth - the east end post punk and proto goth band who suddenly announced their reformation after 40 years. The band are key in the positive punk and goth lineage but in truth had their own trajectory. Is 40 years the record amount of time before a band reforms? Wasted Youth were arguably the greatest ‘lost’ London band of the post-punk years. Rarely mentioned, if at all, in the era’s music history books, they were heavily influenced by the dark narcotic glamour of the Velvets, the Doors and Transformer-era Lou Reed.

John Coltrane is one of the greatest musicians of all time and his trademark sound is instantly recognisable so its always great to hear another gig, another chance to hear his sheer genius taking flight in another direction so it was a thrill to review the just released live in Seattle album that has just been released. A Love Supreme was John Coltrane’s magnum opus. Now, having been hidden for more than fifty years, comes a live recording of this four-part suite in its entirety. It’s a seminal document of music history. Gordon Rutherford reviewed for Louder Than War.

Breaking barriers is something that fasinates many musicians, The Melvins made their name as the grunge pioneers and the band that Kust Cobain wanted to bi in and roadied for as a callow youth. To label them as mere progenitors of grinding proto grunge though is to do them a disservice and the band has an interesting journey with some unexpected tangents like this album shows. With their new acoustic album Five-Legged Dog, the Melvins reveal how music can become wildly untethered from our expectations and experimentation can take new and unheralded forms.

Richard Ashcroft has achieved iconic status over the years especially after the release of A Nortehrn Soul from his former band Verve which is still one of the best selling UK albums ever and was one of the defining album from the Britpop wars. His solo career may never have quite matched this zeitgeist heights of his former band but his still retains an iconic status tinged with a controversial edge. Our reviewer was a bit worried what his recent gig would turn out to be like but is relieved to report back from a glorious evening.

A New book on punk drumming is about to paradiddle its way towards us. Interesting that punk can be considered a style of drumming on its own but then there is a skill and nuance to playing fast and keeping up with the high energy rush of the form. There are many titans in the punk drumming world of course and this book corals them all into one place at once to help define the form.

Speaking of punk drummers you have to tip a hat to Paul Cook - perhaps the ultimate punk drummer who never actually played in a punk style. With his own take on the form, Paul slowed down the punk template and played with his own swing. His style is totally distinctive with whoever he plays with. This week he was out on the road with his own band, The Professionals playing a great show in Manchester that saw the band razor tight and armed with a fistful of great songs from the new SNAFU album.

Billy Bragg is edging toward national treasure status although maybe not from the current government! With his folk infused punk or his punk infused folk he is actually a songwriter first and foremost. The Million Things That Never Happened is Billy’s ninth solo album, is released on Cooking Vinyl on 29th October. It’s arguably the Bard of Barking’s most personal, yet relatable album of the esteemed singer/songwriter’s 30-plus year career.

The name alone, Dark Mark, conjures up all kinds of imagery but none can match its owner - the broodingly brilliant Mark Lanegan whose gift of a voice define gritty nocturnally pitch black wanderings. His new album with Skeleton Joe is the electronic release that he was talking about a couple of years ago when my band the Membranes was supporting him in Europe. It was an intriguing idea then and its great to report that he really has pulled this off. Breaking away from the guitars has been a real boon to his sound and the electro backings have their own broodiness and leave loads of space for Marks voice to stretch out on over the top. This album is a wonderful work. 'Unassailable beauty woven amidst the beats of precarious existence. These are sad, sad songs to dance to.' says our reviewer Audrey J Golden.