Talk ’90s to me

Diving deep into all things ’90s… From The Wire to Game of Thrones, Mojo to Peaky Blinders and The Dark Knight Rises, acting superstar Aidan Gillen has made his name playing characters of complexity and grit. But the role that first took him stratospheric was that of Stuart Allen Jones in Queer As Folk, a charming advertising executive in Manchester who becomes infatuated with the teenage Nathan M...

Diving deep into all things ’90s… He made his name at the heart of the ’00s indie explosion, became a mainstay of breakfast radio, and has since become a podcasting sensation with his shows Dish with Angela Hartnett, and Sidetracked with Annie Mac… but where did it all begin? Today, we are speaking to presenter, DJ, podcaster and best friend to the nation, Nick Grimshaw, who joins Miranda in our ’...

Diving deep into all things ’90s… Hardcore, crusty, dub, four to the floor, LET’S HAVE IT… we are, of course, finally diving into the unrelenting, tribe-declaring world of ’90s techno (and the chemical revolution that fuelled the whole thing). The story starts in a Detroit suburb in the late ’80s with Kevin Sanderson, Derrick May and Juan Atkins – a trio of high-school friends with a deep fascinat...

Diving deep into all things ’90s… Canadian art school kid turned indie bass player Melissa Auf Der Maur was sucked into the whirlwind of two of the biggest alt.rock and grunge bands of the ’90s, centre stage with two of the most divisive characters of the decade: first Billy Corgan and then Courtney Love. Born to creative and politically active parents in Montreal, Melissa was never going to confo...

Diving deep into all things ’90s… Which TV moments stick with you forever? If you were growing up queer in the 90s, some of those scenes went beyond fond memory and became monumentally life-affirming. From Two of Us to Queer as Folk, Brookside to Coronation Street, ’90s TV was peppered with script-writing that brought the LGBTQ+ experience to the fore, sometimes facing moral outrage, backlash and...

Diving deep into all things ’90s… We celebrate Andrew Weatherall, the DJ giant who influenced every corner of electronic music across the ’90s and ’00s. Master arranger, remix royalty, father of indie dance and pioneering selector, he brought dub, rock and roll, soul, pop, punk, noise and techno from across all generations to the dancefloor. “Wevvers” kickstarted the ’90s with Primal Scream’s ‘Loa...

Diving deep into all things ’90s… It’s the episode you’ve been waiting for. We present to you, Princess of Pop, ultimate gay icon, international treasure… Kylie. She kicked off the decade with Michael Hutchence on her arm – a masterclass in shaking off your good girl past – before diving into the world of indie via Nick Cave, the Manics, the Poetry Olympics, and a series of identity-shifting hairc...

We are going live! On 15th October, Talk '90s is live at the ICMP in Queen's Park, London. We are joined by former guest and Bandsplain-legend Yasi Salek to talk all things Courtney Love - don't miss out. Tickets are just £17 and available from here (£13 for Patreons - sign up now) - there are only 100 available so get on the case! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoic...

Diving deep into all things ’90s… From Kate Moss and Keanu Reeves to Blur, Britpop and climate change, the original style mag The Face celebrated youth culture as well as spotlighting social change. Founded by former NME editor Nick Logan in May 1980, it paved the way for titles like i-D and Dazed. When Nick fell ill in the mid-80s, Sheryl Garrett stepped up to become editor, and under her and art...

Diving deep into all things ’90s… He’s Britain’s best and most admired film critic and he cut his teeth in the ’90s, but what are Mark Kermode’s favourite movie soundtracks from our favourite decade? The bequiffed star of 5Live, primetime TV and now his award-winning podcast with Simon Mayo has co-authored a book Mark Kermode's Surround Sound: The Stories of Movie Music. He joins Miranda to pin do...

Diving deep into all things ’90s… Young and quick-witted with an infectious energy and a flame of short red hair, Sarah Cawood encapsulated everything it meant to be a ’90s TV presenter. Fronting The Girlie Show with Sara Cox before moving onto Singled Out, Live and Kicking, Top of the Pops and Night Fever, she represented everything a smart carefree ’90s woman could be. But behind the scenes it w...

Diving deep into all things ’90s… A regular on the decks at Turnmills, Fabric, Ministry of Sound, The Haçienda, Space, Amnesia, Privilege and Panorama Bar, the legendary Smokin Jo is the only woman ever (!!) to win DJ Mag’s coveted DJ of the Year award. After a painful childhood, she found herself and her family at gay raves, plus a new career and a lifelong obsession. But where were the female DJ...

Diving deep into all things ’90s… “It’s an event for 4000 people starting at midnight. We won’t need alcohol – just water and soft drinks.” When Kirk Field found himself helping a mobile bar service to deliver to strange, out-of-town, alcohol-free parties – Sunrise, Raindance ajd more – he was on the road to becoming a full-on, acid-house-mad, die-hard raver. From these early days of naivety...

Diving deep into all things ’90s… It was impossible to miss anthemic Manchester groundbreakers James’ monster hits in the ’90s, like Sit Down, Laid and She’s A Star. Huge communal singalongs with a melancholic beauty that struck a chord on both sides of the pond, they put James right into the mainstream (and on thousands of t-shirts too). Away from the charts it was even more of a rollercoaster st...

Diving deep into all things ’90s… The fierce face and blazing voice of post-grunge feminist rock’n’roll, Shirley Manson became a 90s icon with Garbage’s era-defining hits: Only Happy When It Rains, Stupid Girl, Milk, I Think I’m Paranoid and more. A James Bond theme, acting in video games and TV – she played an actual Terminator! – fashion fame and more all followed. What was i...

Diving deep into all things ’90s… Primal Scream began the decade by smashing indie rock into acid house. Their euphoric classic Screamadelica made everyone briefly believe in a happier, kinder, more disco-psychedelic Britain. But there’s more to the Scream than Movin’ On Up and their late ’90s masterpieces Vanishing Point and XTRMNTR – now re-released as part of the “Bunker Trilogy”  –&n...

Diving deep into all things ’90s… In 1978, skate died for good. Skateparks closed, toys went to landfill, boards gathered cobwebs and Tony Hawk couldn’t pay his bills. But then a new wave of skaters swapped the vert for the street, new fashion brands and magazines like RaD (Read and Destroy) and Thrasher were born, and skate culture began to take over the world. When an older, maybe less cool...

Diving deep into all things ’90s… If you wanted the Britpop sound* you called Stephen Street – the legendary record producer, musician and band-wrangler who brought out the magic in Blur’s Parklife and The Great Escape, two colossal Cranberries albums, and Britpop classics from Sleeper, Catatonia and Shed Seven. Oh and before that he engineered a little-known record called Meat is Murder by T...

Diving deep into all things ’90s… Stand-up comic, actor, prolific podcaster, 5 Live fixture and proud ’90s kid Elis James has led a hectic life, from playing in indie bands in his mum’s wedding dress to selling out the London Palladium. Today he’s here to talk about his ’90s – from his burgeoning obsession with music and the music press as a teenager to the real (read: not so great) fashion of the...

Diving deep into all things ’90s. Observant, razor-sharp, and totally uncynical, there’s a reason why Clueless has stood the test of time. Often referred to as the best teen film ever, it takes Jane Austen’s Emma and transplants her into the plastic-chic world of 90s Beverly Hills. At its centre is Cher Horowitz played by Alicia Silverstone, a blissfully unaware teenager who – while desperate to i...

Diving deep into all things ’90s. Big Breakfast presenter, tabloid icon and 50% of THE rock power couple, Paula Yates was one of the most fascinating and complicated figures of the 1990s. A journalist, presenter, style icon and gossip column fixture, she helped redefine celebrity culture with her unconventional Big Breakfast interviews. Her high-profile marriage to Bob Geldof, and later relationsh...

Diving deep into all things ’90s. Not many images epitomise Britpop more than Suede’s Brett Anderson in front of a Union Jack with “Yanks go home!” emblazoned across his chest. Suede were not happy… but the readers of Select Magazine – the delinquent lovechild of Smash Hits and NME – loved it. In-your-face, colourful, and never taking itself too seriously, Select brought Oasis, Reeves & Mortimer,...

This episode was recorded prior to the sad death of the brilliant Anthony Head on 5 June 2026. Diving deep into all things ’90s. Fangs for the memory! Buffy the Vampire Slayer began life as a teen horror-comedy film that came and went in 1992 with barely any impact. But five years later, creator Joss Whedon brought Buffy back for television, casting Sarah Michelle Gellar in the lead role and someh...

Diving deep into all things ’90s. The music business’s last hurrah of excess, extravagance and super-colossal expense accounts came in the ’90s – and John Niven was in the front row as an A&R man* at era-defining label London Records. His experiences of trying to sign the next big thing in a cloud of money and “stimulants” became the cult book and movie Kill Your Friends (the British American Psyc...

Diving deep into all things ’90s. Paul Verhoeven’s camp, deranged, Vegas-based “erotic drama” Showgirls was a $45 million Hollywood gamble that became one of the biggest box office flops of the decade. Nominated for 16 Razzies, it got its lead actress Elizabeth Berkeley effectively blacklisted for almost 20 years. But thirty years later, things look very different. Once dismissed as pure camp exce...