States of Independence

Welcome back to States of Independence! This special episode goes deep into the story of Trunk Records, home of The Wicker Man soundtrack, Joe Harriott's Hum Dono, Michael Garrick's Moonscape, the music from Kes, Bod, The Clangers and so much more. Our guide on this grooviest of trips? The label's founder, Jonny Trunk. We discuss the avant-garde music under films of microbes on The Open University...

In this last episode of the series we’re at the end of the 90s, a time when Beggars Banquet were signing a lot of guitar bands, but finding it hard to get any of them away. Derby’s own The Beekeepers struggled - the band’s ex-singer Jamie breaks down exactly why. Another that soldiered on and broke internationally was Biffy Clyro, but only after they’d left the label, as Biffy’s singer Simon Neil...

Beggars contains multitudes. Here, three very different acts from its storied roster share their own experiences of the label. Buffalo Tom’s Bill Janowitz recalls emerging from the same Amherst alt rock scene that birthed Dinosaur Jr and happily stumbling into the line up of one of his all-time favourite labels. Then, Trevor Tanner tells the story of The Bolshoi – another act who seemed poised to...

Bonus time! A story so compelling, we thought it deserved its very own episode. Behold: the full account of the fire that gutted Rick Rubin’s studio, destroyed all of Love and Rockets’ gear, and had everyone involved swearing never to dabble with a ouija board ever again. Featuring a scene-stealing walk-on from Throbbing Gristle’s General P. Orridge, and the most hair-raising description of a vood...

When Love and Rockets tentatively emerged from the ashes of Bauhaus, Daniel Ash and David J were mainly looking for a way to get out of the shadow of their first, totemic project, and to have a little fun in the process. Little did they know that Love and Rockets would offer them so much more: a route into a whole new phase of music history, as legends in their own right. Here, the two of them ref...

In part two of this Go-Betweens special, frontman Robert Forster remembers his dear friend, the late Grant McLennan, the band they began together as schoolboys, and his group’s quest to find a creative home that would last after the turmoil of moving from Brisbane to London. After a couple of false starts, that quest would eventually lead them to Beggars Banquet. The Go Betweens might not have fou...

For every Gary Numan or The Cult, there’s a few Go-Betweens. Those bands that stood right on the brink of breaking through – but, by some trick of fate or circumstance, never quite tipped over the edge. In part 1 of a 2-part special celebrating Australia’s greatest indie pop export, drummer Lindy Morrison reflects on all the things that made The Go-Betweens both so special and so very unlikely to...

Subscribe to ⁠Fela Kuti: Fear No Man.⁠ In a world that’s on fire, what is the role of art? What can music actually…do? Can a song save a life? Change a law? Topple a president? Get you killed? In Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, Jad Abumrad—creator of Radiolab, More Perfect, and Dolly Parton’s America—tells the story of one of the great political awakenings in music: how a classically trained 'colonial boy...

It’s the dawn of the 90s and Beggars Banquet, after a decade of goth darkness, are due a little refresh. Enter, The Charlatans – a band surfing the crest of the baggy zeitgeist. Every label in Britain wants to sign them, and lo and behold, where others fail, Martin Mills succeeds. It should be the beginning of a long leisurely stroll towards ‘happily ever after’, but the story of The Charlatans is...

Mark E Smith was many things. Visionary songwriter? Certainly. Enduring champion of DIY culture? Without a doubt. Lifelong grunt-worker at the Post-Punk factory? Sure, why not. But one thing he most certainly wasn’t, is easy-going. In this episode of States of Independence – the accounts of two people well placed to testify to that effect: firstly Beggars boss, Martin Mills, who had the distinct p...

Rock and roll partnerships are tempestuous at the best of times. Throw twin brothers into the mix? That’s a recipe for Armageddon. Gene Loves Jezebel were, for a stretch in the mid-80s, one of Beggars Banquet’s flagship bands, but when differences between the twin frontmen at the heart of it all became irreconcilable, they split apart – and eventually launched two competing versions of the same gr...

There are two sides to every story… In part two of the Gene Loves Jezebel saga, Michael Aston shares his own recollections of the band he formed, loved, and lost with his twin, Jay. Funnily enough, his story doesn’t always align with his brother’s account. But then that’s what makes the whole story of Gene Loves Jezebel so very interesting… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adch...

After the split of Bauhaus, a whole new wave of goth bands step into the breach. But none will prove so pivotal in the story of Beggars Banquet as The Cult. Here, Martin Mills and legendary Cult guitarist Billy Duffy tell the story of his band’s dizzying ascent from the ashes of Southern Death Cult to full-blown Californian rock gods. It’s a story filled with all the usual trappings of rock and ro...

Gary Numan has gifted Beggars Banquet their very first number one. So why is neither he nor the label happy? We step inside the intense backlash that comes with fame, as a painfully young Gary Numan tries to make sense of sudden superstardom. Plus, Martin Mills scrambles to define Beggars Banquet as more than just one very big artist… which brings us first to John Rocca’s delightfully unpunk elect...

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was Beggars Banquet. The story starts in 1974 with three mates, a little bit of cash, and the dream of opening a record shop. But when punk happens, it changes everything – and suddenly there’s a new fantasy to chase. Label founder Martin Mills drops us into the chaotic formative years of Beggars Banquet and introduces us to their very first signing, The Lur...

In States of Independence hear first-hand the stories behind the world's greatest independent record labels. The series includes new interviews with luminaries signed along the way, including Gary Numan, Pete Murphy, Brix Smith and founder Martin Mills. All of them come together to tell the story of an organisation with the spirit of punk rock baked into its very DNA. Learn more about your ad choi...