Music Maps Podcast

This week we travel back 20 years to 2005 with writer Paul Vallely to hear about Live 8, the G8 summit, Bob Geldof & Bono & more. So it starts in 1997 with the landslide general election win for Tony Blair & New Labour. The government will ultimately be sympathetic to the issues of debt & aid which come to the fore eight years later with the huge gig in Hyde Park in London the week...

We are joined by Peter Jesperson as he tells us about his time spent with R.E.M. & his role in Twin Tone Records in the twin cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul. We also squeeze in a couple of stories about his time around Alex Chilton & the 1993 Big Star reunion. Peter's career began importing records into Minneapolis from the UK at legendary record store Oar Folk, specifically the first relea...

This week we get to talk about one of the best music books of recent years Revolutionary Spirit by Paul Simpson. Paul was born in Liverpool but grew up in Lancashire alongside future members of Echo & the Bunnymen - Les Patterson & Will Sergeant. After relocating back to Merseyside Paul was frequented legendary Liverpool venue Eric's & became a founder member of The Teardrop Explodes a...

It is truly a pleasure to welcome Donovan to Music Maps - a true legend of the 60s. His book The Hurdy Gurdy Man is available on Penguin. We start with his early life in Glasgow in the 1950s & the family relocate to Hatfield in Hertfordshire when Donovan was a teenager. His early influences included Buddy Holly, Hank Williams & Jack Kerouac. After a trip to Southend on Sea with the blue ro...

This week we travel back to the 1950's & 60's to hear all about one of the most influential acts of all time The Everly Brothers with biographer Barry Mazor. Don & Phil's Dad Ike was a musician & the brothers are already playing live & on the radio as children. They sign with Cadence Records in 1956 & record the iconic Bye Bye Love at their very first session. The record sells...

This week we discover the history of The Raincoats - formed by Gina Birch & Ana De Silva in 1977 after they meet at Hornsey Art College in London. The Sex Pistols & The Slits are influences on the burgeoning band & they end up signing to Rough Trade. The classic all female lineup debuts at Acklam Hall in London in January of 1979 & debut single Fairytale In The Supermarket is follo...

Join us for a LIVE episode with Lawrence, Will Hodgkinson & Sian Pattenden to discuss STREET LEVEL SUPERSTAR - one of the best music books of all time.  We retrace Lawrence’s career from Felt & Denim to Mozart Estate & through to the present day.  It takes anything from 5 to 40 hours to prepare each episode of Music Maps - if you’d like to make a contribution to help us cover...

Join us & take a trip to Essex as we focus in on the early years of Blur with drummer Dave Rowntree. His new photograph book is called No One You Know: Early Blur Photos. We begin in Colchester where a young Dave meets future Blur guitarist Graham Coxon on the local music scene. Graham later invites Dave to a mate's gig at local venue the Colchester Arts Centre, that mate turns out to be Damon...

This week we travel north of the border to talk about the history of the Bay City Rollers, one of a handful of British bands to have a number 1 single in the UK & the US.  Stuart ‘Woody’ Wood is our guest & he tells us about going the band after working as a roadie for them first. Once officially a member Woody joins the band, who are without a hit for a few years at this point tourin...

This week we have a world exclusive - we are the first podcast to discuss Freddie Mercury's recently discovered diaries/notebooks with biographer Lesley-Ann Jones. You may have seen it reported in the press that Freddie Mercury left 17 volumes of notebooks to a daughter hardly anyone knew existed - we find a bit more out about these diaries which amount to 500,000 words in length & make up sev...

In May 1980 an unknown Paul Westerberg walked into Oar Folk Records in Minneapolis & handed Peter Jesperson a demo tape. When Peter eventually got round to playing it he was bowled over by what he heard & asked to come & see them play live. All does not go to plan as the band are thrown out of the venue as Peter arrives at the venue. He later falls into becoming their manager & cre...

Join us this week on Music Maps as we dive into the world of metal with Randy Blythe, the frontman of Lamb of God. Hear about his journey from a small-town punk rocker to global success. Randy tells us about the early years of Lamb Of God, when they all worked day jobs in addition to the band, through to signing for Epic Records in 2004. We also hear about Lamb Of God's recent participation in the...

Maybe I'm Amazed - A Story of Love & Connection in 10 Songs is one of the music books of the year it tells the story of how writer John Harris connects with his autistic son James via the music of The Clash, The Velvet Underground, The Beatles, Kraftwerk, Ian Hunter, Magazine, The Band, Wire, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Oasis, Amy Winehouse & more. We hear how music was woven into the fabric of...

We go back to the sixties this week as we welcome Tom McGuinness to tell us about his various number 1s as a member of Manfred Mann.  A chance meeting with a young Eric Clapton at the Station Hotel in Richmond led to them forming The Roosters, it fizzles out but the are both briefly involved in another band, Casey Jones & the Engineers.  Eric drifts off to the Yardbirds shortly after...

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Join us as we welcome our local Member of Parliament here in Walthamstow, Stella Creasy to Music Maps by way of Manchester & Colchester.  Stella grew up in Manchester where she loved the Stone Roses & her Mum taught A Guy Called Gerald at school. As a teenager she was unexpectedly uprooted to the suburbs in Colchester where she discovered a local band by the name of Blur.  She te...

Join us & celebrate the 40th anniversary of Live Aid which took place on July 13th 1985. And to do that we are joined by John Kennedy, one of the original trustees of the Band Aid Trust.  One morning in November 1984 John was surprised when his office door flung open & Bob Geldof walked in. Insisting that John gave him one hour of his time, it led to a lifelong commitment.  Follo...

Join us for a live episode of Music Maps Podcast with John Robb recorded live at the Walthamstow Trades Hall.  We are also joined this week by James from The Oasis Podcast & Sam Shiner to discuss the return of Oasis last week in Cardiff & the 2025 tour.  John takes us through the highlights from his new book Live Forever: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Oasis we start back in...

Stuart Maconie is well known as the host of The Freak Zone on BBC Radio, he has written for NME, The Times, The Guardian & many more. His books have been widely published & include Long Road From Jarrow, The Nanny State Made Me, Cider With Roadies & Pies & Prejudice.  His new book is published by HarperNorth - With a Little Help From Their Friends - The Beatles Changed the Wor...

Part 2 of our deep dive into the New York music scene of the 2000's with Lizzy Goodman - we pick the story back up with the Anti-Folk scene with gives us the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol & Regina Spektor. We find out how the Yeah Yeah Yeahs came to be & the connections between Detroit & New York around this time. The Strokes were the first band to break big & they helped through other...

We welcome Lizzy Goodman as we travel to New York City to discuss her seminal oral history of the NY scene Meet Me In The Bathroom - the Rebirth and Rock in Roll in New York City 2011 - 2011.  Lizzy met Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi a couple of years before the band broke but it’s actually Jonathan Fire*Eater who are the first band to break, signing to DreamWorks. Their success is short live...

Join us & legendary photographer Glen E. Friedman to talk through his beginnings photographing skateboarding before transitioning into the world of punk rock & hardcore photographing Black Flag, Minor Threat & Bad Brains.  Glen also talks us through the creation of his influential fanzine 'My Rules' & his eventual transition more into hip hop photography with the likes of Run...

Join us & legendary promoter and agent John Giddings to discuss the Isle of Wight Festival, its history, and the challenges of managing such a significant event and the evolving dynamics between the festival and the local community. We hear about some of John's most memorable experiences at the festival over the years from biblical rain in 2012 to David Bowie's final UK performance in 2004. Fr...

This week we welcome David Browne, a senior writer at Rolling Stone, to talk about his book Talkin' Greenwich Village & to explore the musical history of Greenwich Village from its heyday in the 50s & early 1960s through to it's decline in the 80s. Many of the areas venues were originally jazz venues hosting the likes of Billie Holiday, John Coltrane & Charles Mingus & many legenda...

In this episode of Music Maps we finally talk about The Beatles as we welcome writer Ian Leslie to discuss his new book on Faber: 'John & Paul: A Love Story In Songs'. We focus on their early years from meeting at Woolton Village Fete in July 1957, with Paul McCartney joining the Quarrymen shortly after. The dynamic in the Quarrymen changed after Paul joined with John Lennon no longer the tota...