Forty

Apple might be deep in the launch of the Vision Pro, which could very well become the future of computing, but the device that made the company what it is today – and the device we have to thank for changing the world when it came to personal computing – is celebrating a big birthday. Yes, that's right, the humble Apple Macintosh has just hit 40 years old.  Quite significant changes have happened in the last four decades, and there are also some excellent things you might not know about one of Apple's most successful…

Lynval Golding, guitar, backing vocals, songwriterWhen we were in the Specials, working on the More Specials album, every day someone would leave the band, then three days later they’d rejoin. It’s an amazing record, but we needed a good break from each other. After doing Ghost Town on Top of the Pops, three of us went to see Jerry Dammers at his house and told him we were leaving. He was in bed and said, “You’re not allowed to leave.” We said, “That’s the reason we’re going, Jerry”, and walked out.We’d already written…

It’s probably overstating the case to say that the release of Blue Monday transformed New Order’s career, but it certainly changed it. It put them in the Top 10 and on Top of the Pops for the first time. It spent 38 weeks in the Top 75, became the biggest-selling 12-inch single of all time and altered public perceptions of New Order: previously The Band That Used to Be Joy Division, the province of John Peel listeners, they now reached an audience that had never heard of Ian Curtis.It also proved hugely influential,…