WOW. What a way to remind yourself of the multi-talents of Steve Winwood. Island Records have marked almost 50 years of his career with a single greatest hits CD and a four-CD deluxe box set that are astonishing in quality and influence.

If you’ve never been moved by any of the diverse elements that comprise his stellar career then shame. You’ve missed out. Winwood’s glittering musical path has encompassed the headiest of 1960s pop with the Spencer Davis Group, the experimental blues-folk psychedelia of Traffic and super-group status with Blind Faith alongside Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker.

That ill-fated alliance was then followed by two decades as an eminent solo performer in which compositions like Higher Love, Valerie and Back In The High Life were garlanded with numerous awards and high chart placings, especially in America. The latter stuff rings most hollow– too much like AOR a la Peter Gabriel-less Genesis.

All that is swept gloriously aside by classic tracks such as the dynamic Gimme Some Loving, and Keep On Running from his Spencer Davis days and Traffic-stoppers like No Face, No Name, No Number, 40,000 Headmen and Smiling Phases. What a win-win.