With all the hype surrounding the headline acts prior to  Glastonbury 2013, it is little surprise that all the column inches in the various British newspapers and magazines went to the Rolling Stones, Mumford and Sons, the Arctic Monkeys and the like. However, through the haze of all the endless flags, colour-bursting flares and sun drenched music lovers, all of whom were basking in one of the most memorable 'Glasto's' in its forty plus year history, I found myself extremely excited by finding my own diamond in the musical rough; Ruarri Joseph.

Having been unsuccessful with my attempts to get a ticket for Glastonbury, I was, like many others, glued to the BBC 2's coverage of the festival - and it is through finding Joseph that made the lack of a ticket almost worthwhile. The BBC and their often mind numbingly annoying festival presenters spend, in my opinion, way too much time chatting about all kinds of unimportant anecdotes etc, all usually to promote their own self importance (rant over). However what they do really well is have their own acoustic sessions by their studio - a set that provides what looks like a stunning view over the Somerset venue. There is often an eclectic mixture of music that the BBC showcase with their studio sessions, however, the first sign of any artist stood on the stage with just a guitar for company and i'm instantly hooked. After hearing the gravely tones of Joseph's voice amidst the controlled and rhythmic strumming to his song 'Anyway', I knew I had to research this guy more - and it was to my delight that I stumbled on the song 'Got my share', taken from Ruarri Joseph's fourth and indeed most recent record 'Brother'. 

The opening chords of 'Got my share', against the backdrop of soft drumming and base takes this song from strength to strength throughout. 

So thank you Glastonbury and BBC 2 for introducing me to this fine talent, all from the 'living room' stage. Beats the Pyramid stage doesn't it? 

Almost, but not quite.

JR

This song was brought to my attention in one of those moments when you hear a song that sounds familiar, and although you cant quite put your finger on who sings the original, it gives you a brand new appreciation for the song. That was exactly what it was like the first time I heard Passenger's cover of the Bruce Springsteen track Dancing in the dark.

Buried within the set list at the PinkPop 2013 festival, Passenger has the audience fully attentive and mesmerised by his stringy cover. I had heard Dancing in the dark at almost all weddings i've been to and, although i'm a fan of Stringsteen's music, I admit to having never truly liked this song until now. That is, in my opinion, the beauty of someone as talented as Passenger - an artist who can take a hugely popular and successful song and seemingly make it his own, bringing a new found appreciation to a song that was released more than a couple of decades previously.

JR

Now there's something to be said for people throwing out cover songs and claiming credit which is often unwarranted. We live in a world of entertainment which perpetually pushes people to do 'karaoke' style songs of already famous artists in a bid to win programmes such as The X Factor or The Voice. Don't get me wrong, within this highly manufactured reality musical TV 'machine' that spouts out 'the next best thing' there is the odd gem found, such as James Arthur, who entered the competition with songs of his own and a talent to play guitar -as opposed to sing over a backing track. I expect Arthur to make waves in the industry - but hopefully through his own choice of songs and covers, not his labels's.

I digress. The reason I highlight this point of cover songs is that when an established and magnificently talented artist such as kelly Jones from the Stereophonics covers a song, you know its out of appreciation and respect to the original writer/artist.

Having personally met Kelly Jones in my (now) home town of Chiswick, I can vouch for the fact that he the most humble and down to earth 'celebrity' that i've ever had the pleasure of meeting. A man who was genuinely interested in what I had to say, was humbled by my praise for how much I adore his band and seemed somewhat touched when I told him how I feel Word gets around is the best debut album from the 90's Brit Pop era (yes, yes, even eclipsing Oasis's Definitely Maybe).

Here's Kelly singing the fantastic Tom Petty's Free Falling and boy, does he do it justice.