Blur’s thrilling early years in words and pictures by Dave Rowntree
Dave Rowntree had a camera with him as Blur took off in the early ‘90s and his book ‘No-One You Know’ distils the thrill of a band in ascent...
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Word Podcast
David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and kindred spirits talk about music and laugh until they cry.
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20 of 1,002 episodes
Natalie Merchant returns playing ‘Mother Goose as an 18th Century feminist’
Natalie Merchant joined 10,000 Maniacs when she was 17, had a long and successful solo career and then began teaching children in New York S...
The Proclaimers know the exquisite delight of your songs being sung in football stadiums
The Proclaimers have only had a handful of hits but they’re songs that have kept expanding for nearly 40 years. And the World Cup was a remi...
What are the great singles that have entered our bloodstream? “Nobody hums an album!”
The original rock podcast - now in its 20th year! – knocks the week’s news across the conversational net. Amid the top-spin, rallies and dou...
Martin Simpson’s 60 years on the folk circuit ‘making people cry for a living’
Martin Simpson got backstage when he was 15 and met Jimmy Reed and Big Joe Williams and it changed his life forever. He’s been on the folk c...
The Shadows and the chequered tale of the first British rock’n’roll band
The Shadows were the strongest brand in British pop, adored and widely imitated. When they went out of fashion, no-one wanted them to change...
Stiff Records’ 50th birthday! – the farcical magnificent record label and why we adored it
Stuff, nonsense, the white heat of debate and yesterday’s news today! Which this week involves … … which of these didn’t host a TV chat show...
Elliott Smith, his life, his afterlife and the friends who believed in him
A sense of melancholy hangs over the music of songwriters whose lives were tragically short – Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley, Eva Cassidy, Judee S...
How Kylie became the whole world’s sweetheart
Michael Cragg’s devotion to all things Kylie once led him to Melbourne in search of the actual carousel horse she rode in a pop video. He go...
Sandy Denny’s life and luminous talent celebrated by Linda Thompson
‘Sandy Denny: A People’s History’ has just been published, memories from fellow musicians, old friends, producers, writers, fans and admirer...
The Abbey Road photo miracle, Glen Hansard and TV we’d pay to watch
The news slapped on the conversational barbecue and served with a side of old hokum. This week’s mixed grill includes … … our favourite stor...
Bowie, the Cure, Neil Young and the golden age of the video shoot
Tim Pope caught the video wave in 1981 and made hundreds of promotional clips, often three or four a week, edited at night and on-air days l...
Pauline Black of the Selecter, the girl who invented the Rude Girl
Pauline Black was seen singing Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell songs in Coventry folk clubs and recruited by a local reggae band. Then conve...
Tony Fletcher - teenage label boss! – remembers the Jam, the Tube and the ‘80s pop explosion
Tony Fletcher launched Jamming! when he was 13, wrote for the Face at 16, ran a label with Paul Weller at 17 and a year later was presenting...
Is AI wrecking rock history? – plus festivals in heatwaves and Kate Bush dancing
Testing the temperature of this week’s news to see what trips the fire-alarm, which includes … … does having a Number One still matter? … Pa...
Jonathan Richman, on-the-road songs and the best-known solo ever recorded
This week’s news in a conversational cocktail-shaker and served with ice and a little paper parasol. Those Happy Hour highlights include … …...
Georgie Fame, Ben Sidran and the golden age of ‘60s Soho
Ben Sidran was in a teenage band with Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs, a session pianist with the Stones in 1969 and carved a brilliant career a...
Steve Hackett remembers batwings, blues clubs and Genesis on £15 a week
Steve Hackett’s seven years in Genesis get re-explored when he tours in October, along with ‘solo gems’ from the records he’s made since, th...
Mari Wilson, our favourite girl about town, takes Neasden to Chelsea
Mari Wilson has drunk deep of all that London nightlife has to offer, from a London Transport social club in Wembley to a posh venue in Chel...
All music is dance music! – and the best stage name ever
Another over-heated week put through the conversational air-conditioner, which involves … … the man who got rich writing words that could ne...