Alex Waite

In theory, during the heyday of pop groups and alternative rock bands, if someone said they wanted to make a rap-metal group, they would have been laughed out of town. But pioneers stand out in music history for the wrong or the right reasons. They either flop and have to recover their reputation from a failed experiment. Or they achieve immortal status among a mainstream audience. Luckily, Linkin Park broke boundaries with their experimental blend of nu metal and rap in their debut album ‘Hybrid Theory’. The album was a roaring success in 2000 with authoritative vocals and hip hop

Luckily, my parents were the type to embrace difference, and I was allowed to purchase Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter as one of my first-ever CDs at the age of eight. While some kids were scarred by Keith Flint’s mohawk, tattoo-wielding, screaming punk nightmare in the music video for ‘Firestarter’, I was ready to embrace Flint’s solo hysteria. Seeing the Prodigy frontman unleash hell and fury in his solo mosh pit in an abandoned tube station was one of my formative memories of music. From that day on, the Prodigy was a band I have never forgotten. After playing ‘Firestarter’ to death, I

The morning after a heavy night of drinking with some mates, I was travelling back home and I turned to Radio X for some uplifting support to get me through the journey. A regular listener, I’m usually familiar with the often similar sounding indie tracks and classic rock tunes played daily. But this time was different. The opening riff to Sam Fender’s Seventeen Going Under began and I was hooked from the get go. Engaging, slightly melancholic and simple, the track builds beautifully before Fender regales us with his childhood exploits as a young lad in North Shields in a