A show about music and creativity.
Subscribe:.rss.atom.json.md.m3u.pls
Live Last read · last published · next check
Saves to your Listen queue, to pick up on another day or another device.
This episode I’m very pleased to be joined once again by Marillion guitarist Steve Rothery, for his third appearance on the show. We had a lot to discuss, primarily the release this month of his joint album with Steve Hackett, “The Roaring Waves”, which is out next Friday, and you’ll hear a little bit of it during the episode. When we spoke, Marillion were about to play at Pompeii, so we discussed…
Hailing, of course, from Detroit, Martha Reeves is best known for fronting Motown group Martha and the Vandellas. When we spoke, she was about to turn 85 years old. In 1957 she joined a group called the Del-Phis, and by the early 60s was singing jazz and blues standards in clubs around Detroit. She ended up working as a secretary at Motown and soon found herself in front of the microphone. “Heat…
100 episodes baby! This episode, I’m joined by Nick Heyward and Blair Cunningham of Haircut 100, very appropriately for my 100th episode. The band are back, with their first studio album since 1982’s masterpiece, “Pelican West”, that’s not counting a 1984 album they made without Nick. The new album is called “Boxing The Compass” and it is sensational. I caught them play a tour warm-up recently and…
Geoff Downes has quite the musical CV. Shooting to fame with The Buggles, then joining Yes alongside Trevor Horn for their 1980 “Drama” album, he then had massive success alongside Yes member Steve Howe with the supergroup Asia. He rejoined Yes in 2011 where he remains to this day. Geoff joined me from his home in Wales for a career-spanning conversation discussing songs by The Buggles, Asia, and…
The Four Tops formed in Detroit in 1953, originally named The Four Aims. They’re a cornerstone of American pop music and helped propel the Motown label to international recognition. Although ostensibly a soul vocal group, I find the band interesting in how broad they were stylistically and in the variety of material they adopted. The current incarnation of The Four Tops are touring this year with…
Charlie McCoy has an incredible musical CV to look back on. His relationship with Bob Dylan began when he was asked, at rather short notice, to join the session for “Desolation Row”. He went on to assemble the core band when Dylan decamped to Nashville to record his masterpiece “Blonde On Blonde”. He went on to play on “John Wesley Harding” and “Nashville Skyline” too. Add to that, the many…
The Twilight Sad are a Scottish indie rock band, currently consisting of Andy MacFarlane and frontman James Graham who joins me this episode to discuss their new album “It’s The Long Goodbye”. It’s an appropriate title, as the album documents the loss of James’ mother to a 9 year battle with dementia. On top of this James has been battling serious mental health challenges. It’s a heartbreaking…
This episode I am joined by two-time Academy Award nominee, film editor Pamela Martin. She edited the recent Springsteen biopic “Deliver Me From Nowhere”. The film was directed Scott Cooper, adapted from Warren Zanes’ book documenting the making of Springsteen’s stark classic “Nebraska”. Pam has worked on movies including King Richard, Little Miss Sunshine, Battle Of The Sexes, Free State Of…
In February 2025 at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia, something incredible happened. Jason Narducy, alongside actor Michael Shannon, were out touring their R.E.M. tribute project, where they perform early albums in full, alongside deep cuts from the back catalogue, when all 4 original members of R.E.M joined them to perform a version of “Pretty Persuasion”. Over the past couple of years various…
Always a pleasure to have Steve Howe on the podcast. The Yes guitarist joins me this time to discuss a couple of reissues from his solo back catalogue; “Natural Timbre” and “Portraits of Bob Dylan”. The former being an all acoustic record, and the latter being, as you may have inferred, a Dylan covers album. It was a nice excuse to talk about Dylan, and solo albums in general. I, of course, also…
