The CAT Club (Classic Album Thursdays)

THE SPECIALS – SPECIALS with special guest Paul Williams. This interview took place before and after we listened to the vinyl album.  A perfect moment in time captured on vinyl forever, such is the Specials' eponymous debut album; it arrived in shops in the middle of October 1979 and soared into the U.K. Top Five. It was an utter revelation -- except for anyone who had seen the band on-stage,...

THE WHO – WHO'S NEXT with special guest Jon Astley. This interview took place before and after we listened to the vinyl album. Apart from Live at Leeds, the Who have never sounded as LOUD and unhinged as they do on Who’s Next , yet that's balanced by ballads, both lovely ("The Song Is Over") and scathing ("Behind Blue Eyes"). That's the key to Who's Next – there...

VAN MORRISON – MOONDANCE with special guest Peter Mills. This interview took place before and after we listened to the vinyl album. The yang to Astral Weeks' yin, the brilliant Moondance is every bit as much a classic as its predecessor; Van Morrison's first commercially successful solo effort, it retains the previous album's deeply spiritual thrust but transcends its bleak, cathartic...

THE ROLLING STONES – BEGGAR’S BANQUET with special guest Paul Sexton. This interview took place before and after we listened to the vinyl album. In 1968 the Stones forsook psychedelic experimentation to return to their blues roots on this celebrated album, which was immediately acclaimed as one of their landmark achievements. A strong acoustic Delta blues flavour colours much of the material, part...

AN EVENING WITH P.P. ARNOLD. A fascinating interview with the soul survivor herself who regaled The CAT Club with many fine tales indeed. P.P. Arnold’s career and life story is one of highs, lows, success and survival. Known for chart hits such as The First Cut Is the Deepest and Angel of the Morning, her amazing career spans five decades of rock’n’roll history. Starting out in the Ike & Tina...

THE BEATLES – REVOLVER (Giles Martin/Sam Okell 2022 remix) with special guest Heath Common. This interview took place before and after we listened to the vinyl album. That a new mix exists at all is a testament to contemporary technology; Giles Martin describes the task of "de-mixing" the original tapes to isolate the individual elements.  Despite that herculean effort, Martin admits &qu...

THE CLASH – GIVE 'EM ENOUGH ROPE with special guest Ray Gange. This interview took place before and after we listened to the vinyl album. Part fiction, part rockumentary, Rude Boy tells the story of Ray Gange, a young Clash fan who leaves his dead-end job in a sleazy Soho sex shop to become a roadie for the band. The movie was nominated for the Golden Bear Award at the 30th Berlin Internationa...

PINK FLOYD – THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN with special guest Rob Chapman. This interview took place before and after we listened to the vinyl album. The title of Pink Floyd's debut album is taken from a chapter in Syd Barrett's favourite children's book,  The Wind in the Willows,  and the lyrical imagery of  The Piper at the Gates of Dawn  is indeed full of colourful, childlike, dist...

DEXYS MIDNIGHT RUNNERS – DON'T STAND DOWN with special guest Helen O'Hara. This interview took place before and after we listened to the vinyl album. In March 1985, Kevin Rowland, lead singer and songwriter of Dexys Midnight Runners was facing total ruin. Don’t Stand Me Down , his labour of love and an album he had spent two years of his life writing, recording and mixing, might just have...

THE UNDERTONES with special guest Damian O'Neill. This interview took place before and after we listened to the vinyl album. What is a perfect album? One could make an argument that a perfect album is one that sets out a specific set of artistic criteria and then fulfills them flawlessly. In that respect, and many others, the Undertones 1979 debut is a perfect album. DAMIAN O'NEILL, the ba...

THE CAT CLUB (Classic Album Thursdays) presents a long playing vinyl record. NICK DRAKE – PINK MOON with special guest John Wood. This interview took place before and after we listened to the vinyl album. Both bewitching & brilliant, Pink Moon more than anything else is the record that made Nick Drake the ultimate cult figure that he remains. JOHN WOOD is one of the finest engineers and produc...

THE CAT CLUB (Classic Album Thursdays) presents a long playing vinyl record. LONDON 0 HULL 4 – THE HOUSEMARTINS with special guest John Williams. This interview took place before and after we listened to the vinyl album. London 0 Hull 4 is a varied, tuneful and captivating listen which is as equally enthralling musically as it is thought-provoking lyrically. While you may not necessarily agree wit...

THE CAT CLUB (Classic Album Thursdays) presents a long playing vinyl record. PRIMAL SCREAM – GIVE OUT BUT DON'T GIVE UP (THE ORIGINAL MEMPHIS RECORDINGS) with special guest Andrew Innes. This interview took place before and after we listened to the vinyl album. In 2018 Andrew Innes, Primal Scream's guitarist, found the original tapes of the band's recordings in Memphis of their album,...

THE CAT CLUB (Classic Album Thursdays) presents a long playing vinyl record. IS THIS IT – THE STROKES with special guest Gordon Raphael. This interview took place before and after we listened to the vinyl album. GORDON RAPHAEL produced not only The Strokes’ debut ep but also their first two albums including the seminal Is This It in 2001. His work with The Strokes, The Libertines and Regina Spekto...

THE CAT CLUB (Classic Album Thursdays) presents a long playing vinyl record. DARE – THE HUMAN LEAGUE with special guest Ian Burden. This interview took place before and after we listened to the vinyl album. The Human League’s critically acclaimed, genre-defining classic album, Dare from 1981 features some of the most influential synthesiser sounds ever recorded. 
 IAN BURDEN  was the man with his...

THE CAT CLUB (Classic Album Thursdays) presents a long playing vinyl record. RUM, SODOMY & THE LASH – THE POGUES with special guest Richard Balls This interview took place before and after we listened to Rum, Sodomy & The Lash, a true classic album from 1985. RICHARD BALLS wrote the definitive biography of Shane MacGowan: A Furious Devotion: The Life Of Shane MacGowan. We were delighted to...

THE CAT CLUB (Classic Album Thursdays) presents a long playing vinyl record. THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO with special guest Maxine Peake. This fascinating interview took place before and after we listened to the band's debut vinyl album.  MAXINE PEAKE , the award winning actress, writer and director of television, film, radio and stage starred as Nico in The Nico Project which was featu...

Mar 8 • 57:40 THE CAT CLUB (Classic Album Thursdays) presents a long playing vinyl record. NEVER FOR EVER – KATE BUSH with special guest Brian Bath. This interview took place before and after we listened to the vinyl album. Released in 1980, Never For Ever was the first album by a British female artist to top the UK album chart. It was also the first album by any female solo artist to enter the ch...