Back catalogue: Rock (All)

Review: After their first round was such a success, Gary Crowley and Jim Lahat have been tasked with pulling together another essential collection of punk and new wave from the 70s and 80s, and you can rest assured they've done it again. There are some major, familiar names here like The Clash, The Slits and Ramones, but there's also a hell of a lot of rare delights from the likes of The Limit, The Art Attacks and The Newtown Neurotics. Musically, there's plenty of range too from spiky three-chord pub rock and punk through to Linton Kewsi Johnson and Dennis Bovell's crossover dub as Poet & The Roots. That's just a tiny overview of this mammoth six-disc set, which takes you deep into the heart of a vital, thrilling period in alternative music.

Notes: San Francisco was at the center of an explosion of artistic creation during the mid-to-late 60's. Whether it was art, poetry or music, the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco was the place for like-minded individuals to explore and create. Renowned jazz columnist and television producer Ralph J. Gleason took note of the exploding rock music scene and created several groundbreaking television documentaries spotlighting the music emerging from San Francisco.

A Night At The Family Dog was videotaped in February 1970 at Family Dog on the Great Highway in San Francisco. The show captures the heyday and diversity of the San Francisco sound with live performances from Santana, The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane.

Go Ride The Music was recorded in 1969, focusing on two of the Bay Area's biggest bands at the time - Jefferson Airplane & Quicksilver Messenger Service.

West Pole is an essay on the San Francisco music scene, originally airing in 1969. It features rare performances from local and national favorites, including The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Steve Miller Band, Ace of Cups and Sons of Champlin.

DVD (NTSC, no regional coding)