Music Maps Podcast

Join us for a live recording with Debsey Wykes about her book Teenage Daydream: We Are The Girls Who Play In A Band.  Debsey’s early musical experiences were centred around Cambridge & her early interests included The Bay City Rollers, Queen & David Bowie.  Punk arrived soon after & her tastes developed into The Damned, The Jam & The Stranglers.  Her & a couple o...

We welcome legendary music writer Peter Guralnick as we take a deep dive into the fascinating relationship between Elvis Presley & his manager Colonel Tom Parker.  Peter first gained access to Parker’s archives in the mid 1990s & what he found may change your view of Tom Parker & his relationship with Elvis. Parker was born in Breda, Holland in 1909 & came to the US in 1926, r...

An episode we have wanted to bring you since before we recorded our first episode - the birth of British rock & roll with 2 legendary drummers, Brian Bennett from The Shadows & Clem Cattini of The Tornados.  It starts at the 2i’s Coffee Bar at 59 Old Compton Street, Soho in London.  Opened by 2 Iranian brothers (hence the name) the coffee bar is taken over by 2 professional wrest...

We turn our attention to one of the most influential bands of all time, The Velvet Underground for the first time with biographer Richie Unterberger.  Lou Reed grew up in suburban Freeport, Long Island listening to the first wave of rock & roll.  Later at Syracuse University Reed began to write future Velvet Underground tracks including Heroin & I’m Waiting For The Man, while the...

Join us & Paul Morley to hear all about Yoko Ono & the Avant-Garde Diaspora.  We hear about her early years in Tokyo, born into an almost aristocratic background via her banker father, before her eventual relocation to New York to enter the art world. Once in New York Yoko goes on to create numerous significant works of art including Cut Piece & Grapefruit before meeting John Lenn...

Join us for a deep dive into an iconic gig venue, the legendary Glasgow Barrowland Ballroom.  The building was first opened by Maggie McIver on Christmas Eve 1934 & hosts dances for the East End of Glasgow for decades, however once the big band era passes the venue begins to decline & loses popularity following the infamous Bible John murders in the late 1960s.  After a brief per...

So today we take a deep dive into the early life of Ringo Starr, how he joined the Beatles & their subsequent unprecedented success.  After overcoming various serious Illnesses as a child, a young Ringo first develops an interest in drumming while in hospital recovering.  His first arrives courtesy of stepfather Harry Graves & before long Ringo is drumming in skiffle bands around...

Join us for a very special live episode to mark the release of Dreaming Of You - The Making of the Coral - the new documentary available now to rent or buy.  Our starting point is the faded seaside town of Hoylake, on the Wirral Peninsula near Liverpool, where The Coral meet & come together to form the band.  Before music James & Ian Skelly live in a fantasy world of Ghostbusters...

Altman John’s Uncles Sid Phillips & Wolf Phillips were big band conductors at the London Palladium so John grew up around the likes of Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong & Jack Benny. At a young age he played with the likes of Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green, John Martyn, Nick Drake, Bridget St. John & Kevin Ayers. He joined Hot Chocolate & also found time to jam with Jimi He...

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...