Permanent Record Podcast

Episode 193: Depeche Mode: Home Video Concert Releases (Part 1) With our attention turned to tomorrow's premiere of Depeche Mode's latest cinematic offering "M", we thought it would be fun to make our way through all of the previously released home video concert offerings from our favorite lads from Basildon.  This first installment covers two releases, which we still have on VHS (remember that yo...

Episode 192: PRP/Synthpop Symphony Crossover: Red Flag Part 2 (with DJ Matt Williams) Brian and Sarah are once again joined by DJ Matt Williams, creator and host of the synth-tastic radio show Synthpop Symphony. Matt's show is aired on dozens of terrestrial radio stations around the world and can also be found on podcast platforms.  In the previous episode, Brian, Sarah and Matt started a discussi...

Episode 191: PRP/Synthpop Symphony Crossover: Red Flag Part 1 (with DJ Matt Williams) Brian and Sarah are thrilled to present the first in what will hopefully become a series of crossover episodes with DJ Matt Williams. Matt is the brains and the voice behind the amazing radio show Synthpop Symphony , which airs on radio stations in 60 countries and is also available for download on virtually all...

Episode 190: End of Summer Special 2025 (Part 2) – The Alarm & Duran Duran Brian and Sarah are back and ready to continue their discussion of a couple of 'summery' songs, as the summer draws closer to an end in the Northern Hemisphere.   (For those in the Southern Hemisphere, maybe think of this as a summer preview!) As in the previous episode, the first song selection comes from Sarah. She chose...

Episode 189: End of Summer Special 2025 (Part 1) - The Power Station & Bananarama In the United States, the Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial end of summer. Brian and Sarah just aren't ready to say goodbye to summer yet, so over the holiday weekend, they recorded a couple of episodes featuring songs that invoke the feeling of summer. Each episode in this mini-series will feature one song chos...

Episode 188: Depeche Mode – Speak & Spell (1981) Part 5 (Featuring Will Crewdson) With this fifth installment, Brian and Sarah wrap up their discussion of Depeche Mode's debut album.  Our hosts have been covering the US version of Speak & Spell , so there's only one more song on that release to be discussed. Fortunately, they always do an Extra Credit section at the end of an album, so the song th...

Episode 187: Depeche Mode – Speak & Spell (1981) Part 4 Brian & Sarah are back for a Martin Gore-focused look at "Speak and Spell" as they shine a spotlight on the three middle songs on side 2 of Depeche Mode's 1981 debut.  Up till now, this has been the Vince Clarke show; however, with these three tunes, we get the first song written by Martin, the first of many Martin instrumentals, and the firs...

Episode 186: Depeche Mode – Speak & Spell (1981) Part 3 In this episode, Brian and Sarah resume their look back at Depeche Mode's debut album. As a reminder, they're using the US track listing as they talk about the album, but for the songs contained in this episode, the track listing is the same on both sides of the pond.  The next songs up for discussion aren't singles, but that doesn't stop our...

Bonus Episode: Colours of Ever - Live at Stone Turtle House Concerts (June 5, 2025) In our last episode, we mentioned that Brian and his life-long friend Jason would be opening for Vicki Peterson (The Bangles) and John Cowsill (The Cowsills/Beach Boys/Smithereens) at Stone Turtle House Concerts in Bucks County, PA.  The two Rock/Pop legends (Vicki and John, not Brian and Jason!) are currently supp...

Episode 185: April 2025 Concert Report (Kylie Minogue, Alison Moyet) and State of the Podcast Where have Brian and Sarah been these last few weeks? Well, for one thing, they've been to several concerts! They started and ended the month of April by attending amazing performances given by a couple of musical icons—Kylie Minogue and Alison Moyet!  The Kylie Minogue show on April 8 was the first time...

Episode 184: Concert Report: Richard Blade/ABC/Howard Jones (2025) With support from legendary KROQ/1st Wave DJ Richard Blade, 80's New Wave icons Howard Jones and ABC just finished an incredible string of U.S. live dates, and your intrepid hosts were there for the penultimate show of the tour! Brian and Sarah take you back in time exactly one week as they relive the excitement of the 2/28/25 show...

Episode 183: The NewlyPod Game (featuring Brian, Sarah, Alex, Andy, Brad, Eric, and Jon) On Saturday, February 8th, podcast hosts from all over the United States met outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to shop for records, eat pancakes, and see Jim Babjak of The Smithereens live with bassist  Graham Maby.  It was truly an amazing night of music, and it was also a truly amazing group of podcaster...

Episode 182: Depeche Mode – Speak & Spell (1981) Part 2 Brian and Sarah's look back at Depeche Mode's debut album, 1981's  Speak & Spell , continues in this episode. As you may recall, they're using the US track listing for the album, so the next songs up for discussion are "Dreaming of Me" and "Boys Say Go!"    "Dreaming of Me" was the debut single for the band, and although to Sarah's dismay, th...

PRP 007 Mini-Broadcast: Episode 8 – Diamonds Are Forever Since the beginning of the show, Brian has done his best to strong-arm discussion of Agent 007 into as many podcasts as he could. Finally he convinced Sarah to embark on a new mission: the Permanent Record Podcast 007 Mini-Broadcast! This occasional series from your friends Brian & Sarah started with "Dr. No" and will work its way up to the...

Episode 181: PRP Holiday Hotline: Musical Christmas Memories It's Christmastime! For many folks, that means it's time to give and receive gifts. And Brian and Sarah's gift to you this Christmas season is this episode, which is also about gifts.  Our hosts asked a number of friends of the show—some of whom have their own excellent podcasts—to call in to the Permanent Record Podcast Holiday Hotline...

Episode 180: Depeche Mode – Speak & Spell (1981) Part 1 – Second Half BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL!!    We wanted to get this episode to you on Black Friday, but in order to do that, we have to get chintzy with these show notes.  I'm just re-using Sarah's notes from last time, and I will mention here that this episode includes the following items of interest: Our personal histories with "Speak & Spell" Di...

Episode 179: Depeche Mode – Speak & Spell (1981) Part 1 – First Half Brian and Sarah are back, and they're ready to talk about Depeche Mode. And talk they do! This episode was about three hours long when they finished recording, so they decided it would be best to break it up into two separate episodes—but they're both considered Part 1 of the Speak & Spell album discussion.  Since this is the deb...

Episode 178: Happy Birthday to Us: The Cure – "Songs of a Lost World" (2024) and State of the Podcast It's been a while since our last episode was published, and part of this episode will explain why. But we wanted to get something released in time for our eighth birthday!  It's hard for us to believe, but our first episode was released way back on November 4, 2016. And although this episode is nu...

 Episode 177: Depeche Mode – Speak & Spell (1981) – Part 0 – "End of Summer Special" featuring Brad Page and Eric Miller OK, so a little confession up front: this episode is about MUCH MORE than just Speak & Spell, or even Depeche Mode, and that's why it's called Part 0!  But we think you're going to enjoy it anyway. Here's who, and what, you'll hear as you listen: • Brad Page, host of the "I'm In...

Episode 176: 80s Supergroup Fantasy Draft Here in the USA, summer is on the way out, and (American) football season is on the way in. And somewhat related to the changing of the weather and sports seasons, our hosts put together something they hope will be fun for everyone.   A favorite pastime of many sports fans is to participate in fantasy leagues, where a person selects players from many diffe...

Episode 175: Concert Report - Totally Tubular Festival (2024)  On July 20, 2024, Brian and Sarah had the pleasure of attending an 80s music festival at Poconos Park Amphitheater in Bushkill, PA.  They got to see many acts they had never seen perform live before, as well as a few they had been fortunate enough to see at other shows. In this episode, Brian and Sarah talk about each act of the festiv...

Episode 174: In Conversation With Billy Vera (Part 2) Our conversation with author/actor/musician Billy Vera concludes with an episode that touches on so many different aspects of this great man's career. Billy started his professional career as a songwriter, but soon moved to a higher-profile gig as part of the duo Billy Vera and Judy Clay.  After a successful album called "Storybook Children", B...

Episode 173: In Conversation With Billy Vera (Part 1) Sarah usually writes these show notes, and on the rare occasion that I fill in for her, I do something silly - I either make them really short or I have ChatGPT help me by doing most of the work.  This time, I asked to do them because I am still in shock that this episode exists and because it was a true thrill to speak with an artist who has b...

Episode 172: Simple Minds – New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) (1982) - Part 4 In the Northern Hemisphere, it's now officially summertime, and it's also time for Brian and Sarah to wrap up their discussion of the 1982 album from Simple Minds,  New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) .  Our hosts find themselves with three more songs on the album to cover, one of which is a single with a video, so there's no shorta...

Episode 171: Simple Minds – New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) (1982) - Part 3 After releasing a couple of special episodes, Brian and Sarah return to the task of discussing Simple Minds' 1982 album, New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) . Part 3 of the discussion finds them finishing up the tracks on Side One and flipping the record over to start Side Two.  As usual, our hosts end up covering a wide variety of...