New York's a Go Go

As the sales of the legendary Appetite For Destruction approach the 20 million copies in the United States, who remembers today that it almost never saw the light of day? Not only the bonds uniting Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan, Izzy Stradlin and Steven Adler were fragile, but fate seemed set against this band which seemed to be slow to catch on to Mötley Crüe, Ratt, Cinderella or Dokken. This is almost as a kindness that David Geffen had accepted to welcome this homeless band on his label. He would not regret his altruism…

It’s hard to shout “Rock’n’roll will never die!” without sounding like an idiot. But Neil Young can pull it off. Easily. For over half a century, the Canadian legend has proved himself to be one of the greatest songwriters of his generation, constantly renewing himself and taking rock’n’roll down both rustic and rougher paths. The proof lies in these ten albums.

“If punk was about getting rid of hippies, then I'm getting rid of grunge.” It was with this sentence from Damon Albarn in 1993 that England invaded the stage previously dominated by Nirvana and Seattle grunge. Britpop is deeply linked to politics and local identity and emerged just as Tony Blair and New Labour were entering the scene. English romanticism was once again becoming attractive compared to the American identity, which was considered too hollow in the UK. Make way for “Cool Britannia”.