Pop: The History Makers with Steve Blame

Joan Baez: The Last Leaf - written by Elizabeth Thomson, provides a picture of an artist who became a voice for social change.  And although she officially retired in 2021, a new documentary, I Am A Noise, which premiered recently at the Berlin Film Festival, and a book of upside-down drawings, Am I Pretty When I Fly? available in books shops, Joan Baez is once again garnering public acclaim. In t...

Alanas Chosnau is Lithuania's most famous singer. He's recently released an album of great electro-pop with Mark Reeder (listen to his podcast too - great cold war story). And he has lived ten lives in his one life. His story reads like a Netflix movie. Born of a Lithuanian mother and Iraqi/Kurdish father, Alanas spent the first 8 years of his life in Baghdad in the late 70s. His mother di...

Today on both the podcast and the YouTube channel an UPDATE interview with legendary rocker Suzi Quatro. She's back on TOUR - go to her website for those dates. http://www.suziquatro.com/⁠ In the UPDATE interview, Suzi talks about covering ABBA's 'Does Your Mother Know' during her live performances in Australia. This track was included as part of the extra songs on a double CD comp...

Sleaford Mods - political post-punk poetry underlined by stark electronic beats. ⁠Nottingham duo, Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn, who broke through ten years ago with their political protest poems and minimal electronic beats about Austerity Britain, are back with a new album 'UK GRIM'. ⁠ In this wide-ranging interview, they both talk about their early years, their political message, an...

BISHI, born Bishi Bhattacharya, is a British singer-songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, multimedia performer, producer, and composer - simply put a polymath. She was even a DJ having come through the London underground club scene. The daughter of Bengali parents, BISHI's latest album, is Let My Country Awake, a title inspired by and using a poem of Rabindranath Tagore - another polyma...

Both the DEEP DIVE and this UPDATE interview with Marcus Vere from the band Living in a Box are available on the platform.⁠ ⁠Both interviews can be heard or seen through the profile link. ⁠ ⁠In this UPDATE episode, Marcus talks about the latest news including working with their new vocalist Bryan Chambers and rehearsing in the studio. In the DEEP DIVE interview which is also now available, Marcus...

Marcus Vere's own story is intriguing, He might call it luck, or he may say it’s the right place right time. Still, in the end, it’s also the story of a combination of undeniable talent and extraordinary songwriting that led to a string of successful hits for Living in a Box.⁠ So how did the track „Living in a Box“ come about? Is it true it started out as a radio jingle? And why put the word ‚...

With his celebration of one of the most influential bands of the 60s and 70s, journalist and musician Mike Evans has managed to bring together the story of the band, whose tumultuous history is as pioneering as their live performances, in his book - The Who - MUCH TOO MUCH. This DEEP DIVE interview with author Mike Evans relates the story of The Who and explores their legacy. They were pioneers, a...

Following the fascinating one-hour interview with Man Parrish last year, this is the 20-minute update interview about his new album Sunset on Mars, which contains a cover of the David Bowie classic Space Oddity. With hits like Hip Hop, Bee Bop (Don't Stop), and Boogie Down (Bronx), Man Parrish's stripped-down early hip-hop/electro music proved influential. Later, his single Male Stripper w...

Warning; This episode has very explicit language. With hits like Hip Hop, Be Bop (Don't Stop), and Boogie Down (Bronx), Man Parrish's stripped-down early hip-hop/electro music was to prove influential, and his single Male Stripper with Man 2 Man was to be his biggest hit.⁠ His childhood was far from easy. He suffered parental abuse, & sexual abuse. He left home at 13. He was 14 when he...

Spandau Ballet's 'True', Imagination's 'Body Talk', Bananarama's 'Cruel Summer', are just some of the albums (and also the singles) that Tony Swain, one-half of the production duo Jolley and Swain produced during the early to mid-1980s. In the mid-1970s, Tony's career started as a camera operator on The Muppets where he witnessed many star performances, mayb...

Nearly 18 months after the Deep Dive interview of 2021, I caught up with Sam Brown again for a short and sweet UPDATE chat to fill us in on what has happened since. Last time, we learned about the loss in her life, of her mother who died at the height of her fame, and in recent years of her voice, a devastating loss for a singer. But Sam has returned to recording and released a new album - Number...

With the release of a new album - Number 8, Sam Brown has recorded an album of electronic music, something that seemed impossible when she lost her voice a few years ago. In this interview, recorded when Sam was starting to record, she talked about her life, how she was brought up around music - and not a fan or her father's tastes, instead her mother's. Her first album and single Stop! br...

Lanah P is new on the podcast this week. A pioneering LGBTQ Person of Colour, Lanah was born in Grimsby, an English fishing port. Often derided in earlier times with the words - It's grim in Grimsby, it clearly was for Lanah, who left at 17 for Manchester. There, Lanah became a drag artist, performed at the notoriously tough working men's clubs of the era, and quickly learned the art of pu...

With David McAlmont's and Hifi Sean's album 'Happy Ending' just out, the time was ripe to interview one of the great vocalists of the current era.  The track 'Yes' from David and Bernard Butler (then of Suede), became the anthem of the Britpop era, but David, who started out in the band Thieves, was never going to be reduced to such trite classification - his career has see...

John Aizlewood's - Radiohead: Life in a Glasshouse. ⁠ ⁠When “Creep” was released in the early ‘90s, Radiohead looked like becoming a one-hit-wonder band, but eventually evolved into trailblazers, unpredictable and uncompromising in their choice of musical direction, and with an unchanged line-up, each pushing their own musical boundaries.⁠ ⁠John tells Radiohead's story, as he says, a band...

Chris Roberts's fascinating look at The Velvet Underground. ⁠More than 50 years after their inception, they are still influencing bands today, but what made Lou Reed, John Cale, Nico, Sterling Morrison, and Moe Tucker, such influential figures? What was it about their world, an alternative to the peace-and-love sixties, influenced by literature, drugs, sex, and decadence, which led them to cre...

The Sex Pistols initiated punk in the U.K., but their music and influence are often overlooked. Journalist and author, Dave Simpson, puts it best when he says that they were no ordinary group. I Wanna Be Me is an extraordinary tale of no ordinary band. It's a definitive history of the Sex Pistols, looks somewhat like a fanzine, and contains over 150 photos. Their legacy is immense, as Dave wil...

P. P. Arnold, born Patricia Cole, is one of the world's greatest soul singers. Her career spans 7 decades, starting off as an Ikette with Ike & Tina Turner in 1965. Just over a year later she came to London as part of the Ike and Tina revue, supporting the Rolling Stones, and launched her own solo career on Andrew Oldham's (the then Stones manager) label. Her hits were The First Cut is...

This week a look at DECADES Joy Division + New Order from John Aizlewood. ⁠ ⁠Both bands were genre-defining, Joy Division consisting of Ian Curtis, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris, proponents of dark and gloomy atmospheric music, and whose legendary status remains intact through Ian Curtis' suicide shortly before the release of Closer. And the band's remaining members were,...

In Shakespear’s Sister she was known as Marcella Detroit, but for most of her career, she has gone under the name Marcy Levy. It may surprise you to hear that Marcella, who sang lead vocals on their biggest hit ’Stay’, was already a successful songwriter before teaming up with Siobhan Fahey. She co-wrote the Eric Clapton classic ‘Lay Down Sally’ with George Terry in 1977, and sang backing vocals o...

Lady Gaga - Applause by Annie Zaleski. With other 124 million records sold, 13 Grammys, 18 MTV Music Video Awards, an Academy Award, and two Golden Globes, Lady Gaga has solidified her name as our era's leading proponent in the fields of music, fashion, and film. This book, Lady Gaga - Applause, is a celebration of a true artist of our time, written by Annie Zaleski, an award-winning freelance...

Steve Lipson is a multi-award-winning producer, guitarist, songwriter, and engineer, Steve mastered his craft by working with Trevor Horn during his heyday, and alongside artists such as Annie Lennox, Franke Goes to Hollywood, Will Young, Geri Halliwell, Jeff Beck, Hans Zimmer, Propaganda, and about 100 others. ⁠ ⁠In this latest podcast interview, Steve talks about his life and work, with some sur...

ABBA at 50 by Carl Magnus Palm. There probably isn't a better authority on ABBA than author and historian Carl Magnus Palm. His first book on ABBA was in 1994, and his eighth book is titled ABBA at 50, which is available now. ABBA at 50 is a fascinating read, and takes us through the whole ABBA story from the beginnings of each of the members, and takes the date for the band's formation as...

Chris Huelsbeck remains one of the most important composers in the area of computer games music. He was influenced by Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, and other experimental electronic bands of the 1970s. His sounds for Turrican, Star Wars, and The Great Giana Sisters rank amongst his most famous compositions but he has in total written music for over 100 games in his career. Born in Kassel in Germany,...