Music Maps Podcast

Jon King joins us to talk about the early years & formation of the Gang of Four - formed at Leeds University while Jon studied art.  Jon was born in South London but moved to a village near Sevenoaks in Kent & while the King household rarely featured music, Jon grew up listening to Motown & Trojan Records before discovering Bob Dylan & the Velvet Underground.  Another not...

Take a deep dive with us into the end of the Beatles, Paul McCartney in the 70s, Wings Over America, Mary Had a Little Lamb, feuding with John Lennon & more with writer Tom Doyle whose McCartney biography Man On The Run is out now .  The Beatles come to an end & Paul takes refuge at High Park Farm in Scotland, taking a little time to consider his next move.  Amid the Paul Is Dead...

This week we welcome Melissa Auf der Maur to hear about her new book Even The Good Girls Cry - out now on Atlantic Books.  Our starting point is Montreal as Melissa recounts growing up listening to The Cure & The Smiths, studying photography & seeing Hole & Smashing Pumpkins in one week in 1991 - both bands she would later join.  On her first meeting with Hole, Melissa in for...

Join us for our first episode on one of the seminal bands of the 90s - Nirvana with legendary music writer Everett True. His book Nirvana - The True Story is out now.  Kurt Cobain & Krist Novoselic meet in Aberdeen, Washington but it’s in Tacoma & Olympia where the band really comes together.  We hear about Kurt’s early influences including The Melvins, The Raincoats, The Pastels...

This week we celebrate 50 years of The Undertones with guitar player Damian O’Neill.  Damien kept diaries during the early years of the band & reads extracts for us throughout & he tells us about joining the band age 15 & their first gig at a local scout hall. From there The Undertones honed their craft playing regularly at The Casbah in their hometown of Derry, Northern Ireland.&...

This week we travel to Forest Hills, Queens, New York to trace the origins of the legendary punk band The Ramones.  While Joey Ramone is actually the only Ramone born in Forest Hills, it is this conversation suburb of New York which creates one of the iconic bands in the history of NYC.  The bands influences include 1960s Girl Groups, The Beatles, The Beach Boys & Elvis Presley.&nbsp...

This week we bring you a very special conversation between singer/songwriter Amy Rigby & Kathy Valentine (The Go-Go’s) to mark the publication of Amy’s brand new book Girl To Country .  Amy Rigby has established herself as one of America’s enduring underground/cult/indie artists, combining the insight and humor of country and folk songwriting with classic rock craftsmanship and punk DIY s...

In July of 1966 the biggest band in the world touched down in Manila in the Philippines to play 2 shows at the Rizal Memorial Stadium - and we are joined by David Guerrero whose book You Won't See Me - When The Beatles Ghosted Imelda is out now on Penguin. Why did the Beatles choose to play in the Philippines? Who made the call to tack it onto an existing trip to Japan? There are a number of bizar...

This week we start in Brooklyn to chart the life & career of Carole King - from her beginnings as part of a local Doo Woo group through to the unprecedented success of Tapestry via New York’s Brill Building.  Carole King & Gerry Goffin’s big break came when they are asked to write a hit for girl group The Shirelles - the song they hand in, Will You Love Me Tomorrow shoots to number 1...

Baz Warne frontman of The Stranglers joins us this week to talk us through his new book & to tell us a little about his recent tour & his history with The Stranglers, the Toy Dolls & more.  Baz was born in Sunderland but it was while briefly living in Vancouver he first discovered the guitar. Upon returning to Sunderland, Baz sets about learning to play.  His diligence is rew...

Roddy Bottum is best known as the keyboard player in Faith No More & his new book The Royal We is out now on Akashic Books.  Roddy moves to San Francisco from L.A. in 1981 & a l;ittle while later he joins what was originally known as Faith No Man. After a few lineup changes (including a brief stint with Courtney Love as lead vocalist) the band morphs into the first incarnation of Fait...

This week we celebrate 50 years of The Undertones with the one & only Mickey Bradley - our starting point is Derry in the late 1970s as we trace the formation of the band at the O’Neill house on Beechwood Avenue.  Although the initial idea for the Undertones was a folk band playing Mandolins - everything changes when they hear The Ramones & the early punk records - realising they need...

This week we are joined by an all-star panel comprising founder member of The Jam, Steve Brookes, Acid Jazz founder Eddie Piller & Dan Jennings, author of Paul Weller - The Oral History.  We retrace the early years of The Jam from Steve & Paul playing in Paul’s bedroom on Stanley Road in Woking, through Bruce Foxton & Rick Buckler joining the band.  However Steve dislikes the...

This week esteemed writer & broadcaster Robert Elms joins us to tell us about the legendary Blitz nightclub in London’s Convent Garden.  Back then Central London looked very different to today - back then it was an empty & desolate wasteland of abandoned buildings & crumbling blocks.  But from this rose a cultural phenomenon - starting at Billy’s as a David Bowie night &...

Join us to celebrate 100 episodes of Music Maps with the mighty Kevin Rowland to discuss hew recent memory Bless Me Father & the story of Dexys Midnight Runners.  We start with Kevin’s early years in Wolverhampton, the families relocation to the London suburbs & how he ended up attending the 1966 World Cup Final & briefly meeting Cassius Clay.  Kevin’s tells us about his earl...

Our starting point is the breakup of The Beatles as writer Tom Doyle joins us to talk through the life of Ringo Starr, his biography is out now. His debut album Sentimental Journey arrives in March of 1970 & is quickly followed up with Beaucoup of Blues, a set of country standards.  Ringo has also began to build an acting career with The Magic Christian alongside Peter Sellars. An appeara...

Join us for a live conversation linked to the recent release of ACR:NYC - Live at Hurrah 1980, with A Certain Ratio, director Merrill Aldighieri - moderated by Dave Haslam. 45 years after A Certain Ratio’s first performance in the US (at Hurrah, NYC in September 1980) the band premiere a film of the performance. The Hurrah performance took place on 12 Sept, just before the band took to the studio...

Join us to hear all about Pulp with Mark Webber - Mark found his way into the band by way of running the fan club (Pulp People) before eventually joining full time in 1995. Mark's wonderful new book 'I'm With Pulp Are You' traces the band's history in forensic detail via the many bits of Pulp ephemera Mark collected over the years. We hear about his initial Pulp fandom, getting to know the band lo...

Join us to round out 2025 by travelling back 30 years to 1995 with writer Anna Doble.  Among much more we discuss the battle of Britpop with Blur v Oasis, the disappearance of Richie Edwards & the return of the Manic Street Preachers, the emergence of Supergrass, the joy of making tapes, our favourites from 1995, Pulp headlining Glastonbury, Oasis playing Earls Court, queuing up for gig t...

This week we are joined by music writer Paul Morley to guide us through the early years of David Bowie - from his early life in Brixton & Bromley through to his formative experiences in Soho, his early bands & his original desire to be a saxophone player.  We find out what led to his rebranding of himself from David Jones into the David Bowie the world came to know.  After meetin...

This week we welcome Del Amitri frontman Justin Currie to talk us through the history of the band - starting in Glasgow in the early 1980s following in the footsteps of the success of the Sound Of Young Scotland on Postcard Records. She bands first releases appear to significant fanfare after Melody Maker featured the band on the cover before they’ve released anything - bit their debut on Chrysali...

The story of the Beach Boys begins in Hawthorne, California in the late 1950s as the band come together led by Brian Wilson, originally as The Pendletones & Dennis Wilson suggests they focus on surfing themed material.  They sign with Capitol Records in 1961 & soon have chart success with Surfin’ Safari, Surfin’ USA & Surfer Girl.  There is also more introspective material ap...

Join us to discuss a music book classic ‘I’m With The Band - Confessions of a Groupie’ with Pamela Des Barres.  Pamela’s first touchstone in music was the Beatles & she became on obsessive Beatlemaniac after the Fab Four arrive on US soil in early 1964.  The following year she met Captain Beefheart & it opened up a new world to her on the Sunset Strip in LA.  Before long she...

Join us & writer Mark Blake to hear about the formation & early years of Pink Floyd - from their beginnings in Cambridge, ultimately relocating to London where the band gets going. Syd Barrett's songwriting develops quickly & before long the band are playing iconic gigs & 'happenings' at UFO, the Marquee & the Roundhouse. Joe Boyd produces debut single Arnold Layne but is repla...

This week we are joined by Ride bassist Steve Queralt to discuss his new album Swallow - which is out now on Sonic Cathedral featuring contributions from Emma Anderson (Lush) & Verity Susman (Memorials). We also delve into the history of Ride starting in Oxford in the late 1980s where Steve met Andy Bell & Mark Gardner at college, even making a recording of Freedom by George Michael with A...