The Stooges

When US television decided to broadcast live the Cincinnati Pop Festival in 1970, producers, audience members and straight-laced host Jack Lescoulie were in for quite a shock. Feedback and heavy, driving, distorted riffs poured out of the speaker stack before a screaming Iggy Pop dived head first into the crowd and proceeded to smear peanut butter over his shirtless torso. It was quite an introduction to the world for The Stooges who quickly became the watermark for debased, raucous rock'n'roll and went on to inspire the punk movement and influence every hard rock act from Nirvana to Rage Against The Machine and The White Stripes. Debut album The Stooges (1969) captured that manic energy with classic tracks such as I Wanna Be Your Dog, No Fun and 1969, but it is follow up Fun House (1970) and the David Bowie-produced Raw Power (1973) that are seen as the band's landmark moments. They split in 1974 amid a host of drug problems with Iggy going on to a successful solo career, but they reformed in 2003 and continue to perform occasionally despite the death of guitarist Ron Asheton in 2009.

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