A Couple of Drips

This time, we're pleased to welcome our guest, Commodore Keith Winstanley, MBE, and he’s joining us to discuss coffee, beekeeping, and not least, to give us anecdotes from his incredible career. Commodore Keith spent 33 years in the Royal Navy serving all around the world both afloat and ashore including active service against Iraq, during the Kosovo War and during the fighting in Bosnia when he w...

In this episode we hear a much overdue for release recording where we talk to Britain's top claw-hammer banjo player, the incredible Dan Walsh. Dan talks about his career, how he got started in the industry and his trip to India to work with Eastern musicians, bringing Irish and Indian music together. We listen to few of Dan's tracks, and we're lucky enough to get him to do a live performance for...

Hello and welcome back, after a bit of a hiatus, due to Kris studying for a qualification.   We return just in time for Autumn and some exciting upcoming guests. So, it’s a big hello, hello, hello to our guest today, Joe Hillcox, who is just finishing his policing training. We discuss studying for a degree when you have dyslexia, Star Wars games and films and the Marvel Universe. As usual the...

In this special episode we feature two guests from a new production of Oliver! Starring as Fagin, we meet Rob Davies, and keeping everyone in order is producer Rebecca Green. Both come from Eccleshall Community Amateur Dramatics (ECAD). We talk about how the production is going, how the society was formed, and what the audience can expect, as well as talking about the importance of local community...

Hello and welcome back, after a bit of a hiatus, due to Kris studying for a qualification.   We return just in time for April 20ths Record Store Day 2024. What better way to celebrate than talking to Stone’s own Peter Morgan, owner of Fish Records, both a physical and online shop, and a music promoter. Peter talks about how the business started, his love of Springsteen and his favourite gig,...

Happy Halloween! Today we have a spooky special treat for you, streaming live from Las Vegas baby! It’s my very dear friend Isabelle Laparé-Guzman. Isabelle is originally from Montreal and talks about being a Québécois living in Vegas as well as talking about her love for Stranger Things and the recent pop-up-shop they hosted. We also discuss the new giant Madison Square Garden Sphere and her post...

The second of these two special episodes sees us talking to the mental health professionals. In this episode, I discuss the mental health challenges of lockdown and modern life Tanya Morgan and Harriet Summerfield. We cover counselling options, wellbeing, self-care and healthy routines.   This is a bonus episode for season 2. Season 3 will return in October 2023 when we’ll be talking to Joe H...

The first of these two special episodes sees us going “doppio” with double the number of guests. In this episode, I discuss the mental health challenges of lockdown and modern life with Micheal Anthony Hayes, Lee Smith, and Martin Davies. We cover topics such as toxic masculinity and expectations, financial pressures, grief, and the cost-of-living crisis. We have a few laughs and quite a few coffe...

The final episode of the season sees us meeting up with the host of Enter The Dark , a darkly humoured podcast and YouTube channel. Jan Siery is 50% of the podcast’s hosts, and we meet with him to talk about the inspiration for the podcast, the tent in the haunted attic where he records, and how you start a podcast with no money, studio, or equipment, yet still get thousands of regular listeners....

Natalie Gibson, A.K.A. “The Nag” is a personal trainer and nutrition expert based in Stone, Staffordshire. Nat has a wicked sense of humour and has some great advice for anyone still trying to lose those Christmas pounds before it’s time to hit the beach ware. What does a personal instructor do if they decide to go it alone a few weeks before lockdown happens? Nat talks about how she quickly creat...

Gianluca Sergi is a professor of Film at the University of Nottingham. He specialises in sound, and his research and contacts have taken him to places such as Skywalker Ranch, Pixar, Dolby, The Oscars and Industrial Light and Magic. Shortly to Publish a book with Oscar winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom, Gianluca talks about how the relationship between academia and Hollywood came about, how we...

Allen Kent is a local musician and author who is developing a strong local following. He has worked as a doorman, bar staff, a boxing coach, musician, songwriter, author, and a media producer for many years. We talk about the move from the front man of a band to solo artist, and the long journey to gaining self-confidence. He drinks something that isn’t Kenco and tells us tales of becoming a dad a...

Crown Wharf Theatre is Stone’s (Staffordshire) new multi-million-pound community theatre development. Coming out of the joint vision of Joule’s Brewery and today’s guest Leo Capernaros, Leo and wife Harri initially had the dream of a small venue with a café attached. Things suddenly got a whole lot bigger when a chance email from the brewery landed on the council’s doorstep at the same time as the...

Today’s guest is my old uni friend, graphic designer, app developer, coder, and all-round tech buff, Andi Elliott from Branded Pixels. Andi discusses the theatrical, arena, and immersive experiences of War of the Worlds, and meeting Jeff Wayne, getting in the way of Oz and James, how to start out as a freelancer and what he did to help, non-tech savvy firms, during lockdown. He talks about his exp...

Today’s guest is a local friend with a similar set of hobbies and obsessions, Dave Deakin. Dave discusses Berlin, Record Store Day, Two-Tone Records, getting fit after lockdown, Films, Video Games and what is an Ampelmann? If you like what you hear, and you can afford it, you can make a one-off donation to us via: https://ko-fi.com/coupleofdrips If you love what you hear, and would like to support...

Today’s guest is the well-travelled and gifted guitar builder, Chris Baxter. Chris talks about his time in the army as a weapon’s engineer, how long you shouldn’t stand in front of an x-ray machine for, and touches on mental health and what it’s like to find out you have autism in adulthood. We delve into the depths of guitar building, sustainability and recycling wardrobes.   We’d love to he...

If you love Motown, Soul and Blues then you’re in for a real treat with today’s show. We talk to local musician Dave Patrick about life on the road with an 11-piece band, the challenges of recording a “big band” during lockdown and punk legend Toyah, asking him if he could ‘turn it down a bit’.   We’d love to hear your comments about things you’d like us to discuss in future episodes, guests...

Today’s show sees the return of our old friend Jamie Summerfield, who we heard remotely over lockdown. Today, Jamie is here, yes, a real person, in the studio! We talk about a couple of truly wonderful coffees and reminisce about our Christmas trip to see Rick Wakeman’s Not As Grumpy As Last Christmas Tour , whilst taking in the coffee and vinyl offerings of Manchester. We’d love to hear your comm...

My guest this episode is Stu Howarth from indie games developer Koko digital. Stu has developed games and training for the likes of Pokemon, Kinder, Lego and Ikea. He is a keen song writer, home recordist, Lego collector and recent coffee convert. In this episode we talk about how Stu got into games development, from a previous “very different” type of business, what he got up to in Hamburg, we di...

EPISODE 4 – Bond, board games. Star Wars, Kubrick, Monolith art, cosplay, listen to the director, and where on Earth do you keep your TARDIS? (with special guest Chris Stone) Hi and welcome to episode 4 of the podcast that hopes to combine coffee, conversation and comedy with interesting topics, A Couple of Drips . In this episode, award winning film-maker and local lad, Chris Stone, talks about t...

EPISODE 3 – Joan Collins, Live Music and The Decline of the Christmas Record. (with special guest Jamie Summerfield) Hi and welcome to episode 3 of the podcast that hopes to combine coffee, conversation and comedy with interesting topics, A Couple of Drips . Reporter, music journalist, social media guru, now turned singer-songwriter, there isn’t much that today’s guest, Jamie Summerfield, can’t tu...

EPISODE 2 – The US Election, Hurricane Sandy and Prince Philip’s Trousers. (with special guest Helene Sandy) Hi and welcome to episode 2 of the podcast that hopes to combine coffee, conversation and comedy with interesting topics, A Couple of Drips . In this episode, we talk to local stand-up comedian and soon to be podcaster Helene Sandy. Helene has been performing locally and at the Edinburgh Fr...

EPISODE 1 – Brian Cox, Sara Pascoe, and the Wedding Proposal (with special guest Danny Davies) Hi and welcome to episode 1 of a brand new podcast that hopes to combine coffee, conversation and comedy with interesting topics. We’ll be taking a totally irreverent look at the world, whilst talking about coffee, things, and to people who have some interesting stories to tell. I’m your host, Kris Grain...