The Corona Diaries

This is one of those chapters of TCD that actually moves the whole kit and caboodle on a few notches, whilst also setting up what comes next. It's that bit in the movie that normally happens about 30 minutes in, when you have found out a bit about the main characters and one of them neatly explains what has really happened so far and what the hero is going to do to fix it. Or the bit in the play w...

So it turns out my new favourite thing is that, whenever we get to an episode of TCD that ends in a zero Dave Meegan turns up! And that of course is both a real treat and very, very cool… And of course it allowed Ant to go to town, honing in on the mixing process of This Strange Engine before turning to Dave’s memories of writing & recording Anoraknaphobia. It’s a bit of an epic, and it’s rich...

A little bit of a departure this week, as it's a bit of a themed episode. For those that support the show on Patreon (or 'purples' as they have become known) Ant & I produce an extra couple of pieces of content every month. The Odds n'Sodcast , which contains excerpts of unpublished diary as well as other peeks behind the curtain and the Guest Book Q&A which is where I answer those questio...

Pete’s Easy Soda Bread   Ingredients 375g bread flour. (I use half Wholemeal, half White)  1 Dessert Spoon of Caster Sugar 1 Teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda 1/2 Teaspoon of Salt 284ml Carton of Buttermilk 1 Egg Method Heat oven to 180 Degrees Centigrade.  Cover baking tray with baking parchment.  Whisk egg.  Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  Turn out on...

"Well he is nothing if not persistent...?!" Ant has one final go at trying to tie up all the loose ends in the story of 1996, choosing to focus this time on Album Artwork, how song publishing works & the decision to use email as a comms tool. And true to form I wanted to talk about my new two bruises, swiping at people with a velvet gauntlet on the village green and the strange north/south div...

And we're back and having another go at making some sense of what happened in 1996... So after a little bit of feedback on matters outstanding from Chapter 65 (thanks to Sarah, Darren, Rich, Adam & Julie) Ant was determined to get me organised. To be fair he had a pretty good go at eliciting some background on Made Again, and when we had (soon) exhausted that particular topic he came back swin...

It would be fair to say it took us a little while to find our collective oeuvre this week. What with the heat, and the excitement of ‘freedom day’ getting down to the business of recording a public service podcast was a little protracted. But like the pair of old pros that we are, we settled into a discussion about 1996. That particular year turned out to be quite a full-on period for the band, bo...

So we finally got around to talking about Books. "Why books?" I hear you cry.... Well, Ant has had it in his head that he wanted to chat about books ever since Leo Tolstoy kept coming up in the diary sections. I had been working my way through War & Peace on the tour bus and it took him back to a conversation we had had about the first few pages of Peter Pan. So for 64 we have tried to uncover...