Kevin Coyne

Blame It On The Night
(Turpentine Records)

4 Stars

It is hard to believe that 2014 will mark 10 years since the death of Kevin Coyne.

Thanks to the painstaking efforts of his sons Eugene and Robert this is an excellent compilation.

Championed by John Peel and admired by John Lydon when the Sex Pistols were his label mates, this represents many highlights from Coyne's 12 albums made for the label.

Full of powerful lyrics about people the X-Factor would rather forget - those with mental health issues, the old or just the lonely and dispossessed - you cannot fail to be moved by this material.

As he sings here, "the world is full of fools but that doesn't make them bad people."

Coyne could have become this country's brightest rock star but he rejected fake stardom in favour of producing brilliant music.

The grapevine tells me that more gems are to be unearthed from his prolific output this year but just in case buy this album to be getting on with.

Ivan Beavis