Shows coincide with band's 50th anniversary...

David Bowie, REM, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Waterboys and our preview of 2015’s essential albums all feature in the new issue of Uncut, out now. Bowie is on the cover, and inside we tell the full story of Young Americans, 40 years on.

Over the last few weeks, Uncut has been streaming tracks from the Grateful Dead's forthcoming 23-disc boxed set. The set commemorates the band's three week tour across North America in 1990 to celebrate their 25th anniversary. The tour has already been partly documented in the 2012 box set, Spring 1990. Now the band are releasing a 23-disc boxed set that covers eight complete shows, all previously unreleased, from this historic tour, titled Spring 1990 (The Other One).

This is my last column as editor of Uncut. By the time you read this, in fact, I’ll be gone.

The first time Melody Maker feels confident enough to send me abroad without fearing an international incident as a consequence, I'm dispatched to interview Frank Zappa in Paris, where The Mothers Of Invention are celebrating their 10th anniversary.

The original 1970 film, plus two hours of splendid new footage

But Phil Lesh is on the road to recovery

Captain Trips, Bobby Ace and co ring out the old, ring in the new.

What a long strange trip it's been. Again