Over Our Garden Wall - Music Podcast

After 6 months, and voting on over 350 songs, we came to our final podcast discussion on Scotland's 30 Greatest Songs. Our friends on Twitter/X had already decided that Nothing Ever Happens by Del Amitri was the No 1 song - our podcast panel had the chance to debate this, and indeed the full top 10 that was voted in. Suffice to say, they weren't in agreement! We also managed to chat about...

The title of our podcast suggests that our guests will havesome sort of musical connection. However, it doesn’t preclude us from getting guests on from other genres that are keen to talk about their gig history! Therefore, for this episode we were delighted to be joined bythe comedian & writer Jo Caulfield. We were pretty sure that Jo would talk with passion & humour about the concerts she...

It was all going so well. Voting Party's going great on X, lots of love in our virtual room, some amazing songs getting voted through to the Finals. And then....we get to the 2000-2025 nominated songs. In a word, carnage. 107 songs voted on, only 14 voted through. Lots of big hitters missing out, and recriminations aplenty amongst our music friends. It is with this backdrop that our latest podcast...

Our latest Live Music & Me guest was the singer/songwriter Xan Tyler. We were pretty sure that Xan would have some pretty good stories to share, and she did. From a first gig at Knebworth, to travelling to NYC for a first gig date, to missing Patti Smith playing at the Doune The Rabbit Hole festival, there was plenty going on. Xan also got mentions for 2 gig venues we haven't had before (...

Our guest for this episode of Live Music & Me was the very wonderful musician, arranger & author Helen O Hara - and 25 episodes in we are still pulling rabbits out the proverbial gig hat. For example, we're pretty sure Helen was the first guest to get Ozzy Osbourne, James Brown & a Commonwealth Games closing ceremony into her gig answers. And it was definitely the first time that w...

For our first Live Music & Me podcast of 2025, we were joined by our good friend the Scottish singer, songwriter & musician JJ ‘Jinky” Gilmour. You go into the New Year full of plans to make the podcast lean and mean, focus on the music etc. However, before we even got to the first gig question, we had discussed the ageing process, the relative merits of the Old Firm and hot water bottles....

We have reached the 1990s! For this episode on our quest to create a list of the 30 Greatest Scottish Songs ever- as well as our resident Bay City Poller Caroline Binnie, we were joined by our friends, the actor Colin McCredie & Station Manager for Cumbernauld FM Gerry Duffy. In addition to the panel re-stating how great the 1980s nominated songs are ( all 42 of them!) we had a proper discussi...

When we recorded Episode 1 of this series, we mentioned inpassing that the 1980s looked like being a particularly challenging decade toagree a Top 30 on, and so it proved!   Episode 2 is pretty much taken up with chatting through the 1980s songs that did make the cut, those that didn’t, and those that did but then didn’t. Confused? Join the club.   We also managed to adopt another couple of bands...

When we finished our last music podcast series that took us almost 18 months! (101 Greatest Albums), we had no plans to do another. However, after some pub some chat with friends we concluded that, although there has been plenty of discussion on great Scottish albums, there has been very little on what a great Scottish songs list might look like. So…..we asked our Twitter/X friends for song sugges...

Our guest on this episode of Live Music & Me is the songwriter, musician & singer David McCluskey. When your guests first gig is The Clash/Specials/Suicide - you know its going to be a good un... And it was. From a first winch pogoing at a punk gig, to being the only punks at a Captain Beefheart gig ( no, really) , to walking out on a Johnny Cash gig, David's gig memories were highly e...

We ask a question about bucket gigs to all of our Live Music & Me guests when they join us. We also have a bucket list of guests we would like to get onto our podcast, and Martyn Ware ( Heaven 17, BEF) was on that list. As a musician, composer, arranger, record producer, and music programmer, Martyn has been in the music industry for over 40 years, and we were convinced he would be good compan...

After a few false starts – for this episode, we finally managed to get on as our guest the singer, songwriter, musician Grahame Skinner.   Grahame’s gig memories started on the 16th October 1978 ( Glasgow Apollo). We then weaved through numerous stories with a Stranglers connection, trying ( and failing) to become pals with the Bunnymen, and why Grahame, in his own words, was a ‘fanny’.   We also...

Just when we were beginning to think that we might never give this series the send off it deserved......here is the 22nd ( and final) edition of our 100 Greatest Albums series. Episode 1 was actually in November 2022, at a time when we had just changed Prime Minister - and we end at a time when we have just saw another one off - which feels pretty good. Over the last few weeks we have been voting...

When we are trying to get some of our favourite people on as guests, it’s always a challenge to get diaries to align! However, when the guest is the legend that is Fay Fife ( Rezillos, Revillos, The Countess Of Fife) and she tells us she has a spare 30 minutes – we were up for making that happen.   And it goes without saying that Fay didn’t disappoint. From her first gigs as a cinema attendant wat...

Our latest Live Music & Me guest was the journalist, DJ and radio presenter Jim Gellatly, who was kind enough to give us an hour from his busy schedule. Jim could remember what his first 2 gigs were ( but not in which order). Tbf, they were both belters. He also regaled us with the time he patched a Bon Jovi gig to go and see Take That ( good decision!) , having a ticket to see Nirvana but not...

We have now recorded around 20 episodes of Live Music & Me, and every one of them has been very enjoyable. However, we were extra excited for this one, as our guest was the musician and singer/songwriter Robert Howard ( we have been Blow Monkeys fans for a long time) It was also the first time we had attempted a pan European podcast with a time difference ( Robert lives in Spain now) ,and than...

Although we love having guests from some of our favourite bands on the Live Music & Me podcast, its extra special when we welcome an actor as a guest. And, even more so, when the actor is the Scottish legend Colin McCredie. Colin is well known for his acting prowess - however, from an early age, music has been an integral part of his world. Therefore, the discussion we had on his gig memories...

In 2023, we spent 12 months reviewing the Rolling Stone magazine 100 Greatest Albums list. After 20 podcasts, we had agreed that 66 of these albums were worthy of inclusion on our own 100 Album list. So....we then decided to get nominations from our podcast panel and our music friends, and held 20 Voting Party's on Twitter/X that voted on circa 100 more albums. ( they were very good fun, thank...

If you have been lucky enough to see/hear our guest Paul Simpson in other conversations, you will know that he is very good value for money ( and why his book Revolutionary Spirit is so well loved!) No surprise then that our podcast conversation about his live gigs covered a lot of ground! In between Paul telling us about how his first gig actually wasn’t his first gig ( and also how he managed to...

We love The Pearlfishers, and therefore were absolutely delighted that Davy Scott agreed to join us for this latest recording of Live Music & Me. Davy was honest enough to admit that some of the first gigs he went to was nothing to be proud of ( eg Clapton) - however we all did stuff when we were young we later regret! We quickly moved on - and Davy then took us through his gig memories, talki...

The guest for our latest live music podcast was the singer, songwriter, musician & producer, our friend Daniel Wylie. Daniel took us on a very varied musical journey, from Nana Mouskouri to Elvis Costello, and pretty much everything in between! We also had Daniel giving us a rendition of the Stripper tune ( but not the dance) and name-checked a whole bunch of his musical pals along the way. In...

The great thing about doing Live Music & Me podcasts is that every guest we have on always takes us down their own personal musical memory lane. Going down this episode's lane was the Scottish singer/songwriter/musician & producer Martin Metcalfe, and he was on top form. Martin's musical memories started in 1977, with the Rezillos at the mighty Glasgow Apollo, who supported The Ram...

When we started this podcast over 12 months ago, we weren't entirely sure if we would ever be able to podcast review the top 100 albums from the latest Rolling Stone magazine. Therefore, our podcast panel was especially happy on this recording to be reviewing the final 5 on the Rolling Stone list. And, as luck would have it, this coincided with our podcast Xmas party - cue lots of parallel con...

A momentous day in the life of our podcast - when we finally got to the Top 10 albums on the Rolling Stone's list! Being the top ten - we expected, and got some' big' albums to discuss from: Lauryn Hill Bob Dylan Prince Fleetwood Mac Nirvana We proved by voting out Thriller on our last episode that reputation counts for nothing with our podcast panel & guests. And this episode main...

Question. What do you do when you have recorded a great guest interview on Zoom but the video is buffering throughout? Answer. Convert the file to audio and put it out without the visuals! So, in yet another first for us, on audio only.....we welcome our guest for this episode, the Scottish singer/songwriter/musician John Douglas. Probably best known as a member of the wonderful Trashcan Sinatras,...