The Chorus

In which we are joined by Mark Banks and several of his personalities as he talks about his new show, Mask About Face; discuss the appeal of getting motherless in the future and do a half-decent job of otherwise keeping it together. COMEDY: Mark Banks - Mask About Face BOOKS: Motherland by Paul Theroux, The Future Starts Now edited by Bronwyn Williams & Theo Priestley MUSIC: Guster - Keep It T...

In which we veer from rose-coloured perspectives on arms up cows' bums to blood-coloured perspectives on rather less bucolic scenarios, and from diving into the Greatest Story Ever Told into Dave Grohl's stories, which are also pretty great. Also, Stefan plays with Lego and Bruce wishes Michael Moore was president of everything. BOOKS: What Is The Bible? by Rob Bell, Storyteller by Dave Grohl TV &...

In which we - on our 50th episode! - welcome Malcolm Burroughs, 67 Blankets for Nelson Mandela Day (go to www.67blankets.co.za for details of the upcoming Rainbow Nation Blanket Of Hope event) ambassador, cake boss and erstwhile guy-in-bandages in Ultravox videos. We chat about the importance of people who combine giving a toss with good systems, as well as Eddie Vedder (who is in no way a tosser)...

In which we welcome cartoonist, satirist and artist Rico to talk about his work and the sordid state of society. We also return to a giant space tortoise and head both west and backwards in time while considering which bad people are less bad than others. GUEST: Rico - Madam & Eve: Family Meeting BOOKS: The First Discworld Novels by Terry Pratchett, Istanbul by Bettany Hughes, Dragon Teeth by...

In which we look on the bright side, dispatch doubts about the value of art over fame and trip over tropes before landing in music, often The Only Place that makes sense. FIRST TAKE: The Only Place BOOKS: Get Back - The Beatles, African Artists From 1882 To Now,  TV & FILM: The Flight Attendant, Kate, Encanto, The French Dispatch, What We Do In The Shadows MUSIC: The Lumineers - Brightsid...

In which we consider that much is stuffed up, but also that much is not, praise men with lovely voices, focus on the strength of sensitivity and intellect over machismo and are otherwise apparently, like, totes woke. FIRST TAKE: Purple Heart - released 21 January 2022: stream and download now at https://electromodeza.lnk.to/PurpleHeartAr BOOKS: Crossroads - Jonathan Franzen, Always Look On The Bri...

In which we are told not to look up but do anyway because Meryl's not our real mom; take eating a level up; sing a song about remembering to rest; travel through Africa in taxis and take our Muthi after a tough year. FOOD: Level 4 at 54 On Bath LIVE MUSIC: Blu Piano Social Club FIRST TAKE: Come Out And Play BOOKS: Through A Black Iris, We Are The Weather TV & FILM: Don't Look Up, Death To 2021...

In which, in our final podcast for 2021, we go to Lesotho, Twickenham and Cambridge; deal with Kingsolvers and crime solvers; and watch the Beatles get back and Dave Chapelle move forward. BOOKS: Wayfarer's Hymns, Animal Vegetable Miracle TV & FILM: Get Back, Archer, The Closer, The Gentlemen, Professor T MUSIC: The Beatles, Ron Carter, The Killers Please give us your comments, suggestions, co...

In which Christmas has arrived on stage, cowboys are bebopping, crows are counting and souls have been collected. Also, Dune is the new Star Wars, movies in general matter, Tenet makes perfect sense and cartoons remind us of the bad times. THEATRE: Mzansi Ballet's Christmas Show BOOKS: It Only Comes In Orange Mr Zuma, Family Meeting TV & FILM: Dune, Cowboy Bebop, Ready Or Not, The Movies That...

In which Stefan falls for Ryan Reynolds - in fairness, who among us has not? - Bruce gets a fresh look at the Good Book, a musical takes centre screen and delays are finally a good thing. BOOKS: Escaping The Delta, Batman: Master Race, What's In The Bible? TV & FILM: The Falcon Has Landed, Red Notice, Free Guy, Black Spot, No Time To Die, Tick Tick Boom, Squid Game MUSIC: Brian Wilson, Muthi M...

In which Stefan hunts guitars, Cinderella and Shakespeare share a theatre, a publisher puts Instagram posts in book on purpose, the West gets revised, and serial killing goes Scottish. BOOKS: It's The Answers For Me THEATRE: Janice Honeyman's Cinderella, ShakesMod TV & FILM: Des, The Harder They Fall GEAR:  Guitar Safari Please give us your comments, suggestions, constructive input and re...

In which Stefan has finished more than one book, Salman Rushdie uses too many words, Satan has a dual role, the end of the world is hilarious, dancers go to hell, the war on drugs is actually a happy thing and Iceland is still mellow. BOOKS: The Hobbit, The Master And Margarita, The Golden House THEATRE: Apocalaughs Now, Inferno MUSIC: David Ford, Madison Cunningham, The War On Drugs, Jonsi Please...

In which singer, songwriter, coffee baron and horse straddler Cito arrives with his own beans to make us a cup of Eden (you can taste the apple). There is live grinding, but not in a (very) smutty way. He also introduces his new Blvd Hvnny single, Joaquin , and the wronged bandit it's written about. Beyond that, we consider Clapton's gear, Springsteen's barn and how a lack of happy endings kind of...

In which live music and lithe dancers return, along with concerns regarding breathing viruses on people; we launch our new Van Dyke Parks Board single, "What We Have Carried"; we discuss guitar men, microphone women; more lithe dancers and dysfunctional folks, both live and on holiday on an island and possibly dead in a church (on an island). THEATRE: Queen At The Ballet, The Nutcracker LIVE MUSIC...

In which our guest Mark Tatham shares what it's like being inside a hyena, dark humour is played by the numbers, squid prove to be lethal, John Mayer cries a bit and we praise a White Room that Clapton has never been in. THEATRE: The Lion King BOOKS: The White Room by Craig Higginson MUSIC: John Mayer, Neil Young, CAIN, Big Wreck, Blu Piano Social Club, Jacob Swann, Bright Eyes TV: Can't Get You O...

In which Stefan comes achingly close to finishing a book, people who play guitars are celebrated even more than usual, a diamond is cursed, a blackbird is slaughtered (more or less metaphorically) and both chefs and sidemen are appreciated. Possibly because they all have lovely guitars. THEATRE: Dance Spectrum: Reflections at The Dome@NSA BOOKS: The Name Of The Rose by Umberto Eco (for the last ti...

In which this episode's heading becomes an actual catchphrase for important reasons that will be lost to our children and their children and their children's children unless you listen to the episode. AND we host the remarkably lovely Kiruna-Lind Devar - actress, singer, dancer and songwriter - who helps up talk about: TV: Avenue 5 ; Brand New Cherry Flavor , Schumacher THEATRE: Simply Broadway at...

In which there is coffee, a pair of errant hounds and wrangling of such topics as: TV: I Can't Get You Out Of My Head - An Emotional History Of The World by Adam Curtis; Brand New Cherry Flavor , Your Honor ; Travels With My Father THEATRE: Simply Broadway BOOKS: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien; No Middle Name by Lee Child MUSIC: Jimmy Bryant ; If It's Love - Sting; I Still Have Faith In You - ABBA FIRS...

We grapple with the tension between FOMO and going back to the good stuff, with Stefan being charmed by a third stab at Umberto Eco's The Name Of The Rose , Bruce not yet being vexxed by the in-house back-slapping of Smartless and both of us still loving the man-boy, goofy joy of Brooklyn Nine Nine . Nobody we're currently seeing onscreen is happy, for various reasons. Perry Mason , Bryan Cranston...

We're joined by singer, songwriter, composer, producer, music publisher, short Lebanese person and bald man Neill Solomon , who tells tales of geographically ignorant record executives, South African bands in the Eighties, world-class Afros and musical mindsets. Musically, The Usual do the unusual by failing to fail and Sturgill Simpson is seriously good and good at being serious. In books, we loo...

We encounter both John McEnroe and Ian Thornley twice - it's more cost-effective that way - in the course of talking about the former writing books and narrating the enjoyable Netflix series Never Have I Ever and the latter being painfully self-effacing on the Everyone Loves Guitar podcast while also being at least as talented as the whole of Led Zeppelin . We also double up on good doctors in, er...

We return, cautiously but happily, to the theatre for " Dusk " - a fictional story about how isolation and a lack of support might send you around the bend (at least that doesn't happen in reality, right?). Krugersdorp goes to hell in a handbasket in " Devilsdorp ", and Los Angeles comes off worse, if anything, in " The Sons Of Sam: A Descent Into Darkness ". And we visit The Museum Of Broken Rela...

Paths to - and definitions of - success in matters of creativity differ wildly. Put the best song at the end of an album? Sara Bareilles does just that in our "Closing Time" feature. Re-imagine language because your brain interprets signals differently? Daniel Tammet does so in his book "Every Word Is A Bird We Teach To Sing". The Netflix series "Criminal" uses the same narrow formula in different...

Post-lockdown. New features. Live performance. Short sentences. Key messages: corruption is bad, music is great, driving is cool, food is complicated and doing things purely to feel joy is essential. Also, a book is abandoned before it is finished, which makes us feel weird. Plus, in First Take (new feature - we mentioned that, right?) - in which we play a song without rehearsal; first take is wha...

People who don't laugh make jokes much funnier. It's Brooklyn Nine-Nine science. As is Stephen King ÷ Stanley Kubrick > 1. Wait, that's maths. Movie maths. AC/DC music videos feel flaccid, but Elvis remains royally vital. In predictable news, country music musicians are incredible and competitive cyclists take drugs. More capriciously, Matthew McConaughey fails to convince as an American and a...