Podcast Episodes

Del Amitri’s Justin Currie has faced every tough crowd imaginable. Lessons were learn

Episode 792

Justin Currie recorded and toured with Del Amitri and solo for 30 years and his travelogue The Tremolo Diaries perfectly captures the rhythm of life on the road. He talks to us here about combative c…

Published on 1 month, 1 week ago

Ozzy Osbourne, Jaws, the lost world of mix tapes & the movies’ most chilling moment

Episode 791

Just when you thought it was safe to listen to a weekly rock and roll podcast …

… how Black Sabbath discovered the dark side

… why Elvis went onstage with a pistol in both boots

… rock stars out of t…

Published on 1 month, 1 week ago

The late Nick Drake’s manager on the nine-year project “The Making Of Five Leaves Left”

Episode 790

Cally Colomon looks after the legacy of Nick Drake, who died in 1974 but attracts new teenage admirers all the time. Here he talks to David Hepworth about just some of what that involves, including:

 …

Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago

Suzi Quatro - how Dad, Elvis and Mickie Most transformed my life

Episode 789

Suzi Quatro’s been onstage from the age of 14 as the bassist in the all-girl showband the Pleasure Seekers and the rock act Cradle. And then moved to England in 1971 when signed by Mickie Most. This …

Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago

New Nick Drake tapes, Bob Marley’s masterpiece and the Coldplay ‘kiss-cam’.

Episode 788

A rain-splashed, dub-filled, cash-scattering foray into this week’s news and events which happily lands upon …

… meeting Maddy Prior – a Prior engagement? – and the time Steeleye Span showered their …

Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago

The story of David Ackles, who never recovered from putting out “the best album ever made”.

Episode 787

Picked up in the great singer-songwriter sweep of the late 60s and signed to Elektra Records, David Ackles made four albums which went over the heads of the record-buying public, attracted over-the-t…

Published on 1 month, 3 weeks ago

Kevin Rowland, Oasis, Velvet Sundown – and do we want the truth or just a good story?

Episode 786

Our patent fact-from-fiction separator goes into overdrive this week though sometimes, as Robert Wyatt observed, Ruth is stranger than Richard. High in the mix …

… FOMO (Fear Of Missing Oasis), Gen Z…

Published on 1 month, 3 weeks ago

John Otway – Micro-stardom, 5,000 gigs and how to capture a crowd in 20 seconds

Episode 785

John Otway – self-billed as “Rock And Roll’s Greatest Failure” - has played 5,260 gigs in 53 years, a record possibly only beaten by BB King. There are more this autumn of course. He simply can’t sto…

Published on 2 months ago

Peter Hook looks back at Joy Division, New Order and how not to be a DJ

Episode 784

Peter Hook, bold pioneer of the high, clambering, tune-filled bassline, is touring this autumn with Peter Hook & the Light. We talk to him in Prestatyn - about to deejay at mate’s birthday - about th…

Published on 2 months ago

Live Aid remembered – from inside and out – on its 40th birthday

Episode 783

A 40th anniversary special with two of its presenters (Hepworth and Ellen) and old pal and TV critic Boyd Hilton who watched on the day aged 18 (“young, pretentious, idiotic”) and reviews the new BBC…

Published on 2 months ago