Pete Loveday is a British underground cartoonist. He drew many comics charting the adventures of hippie character Russell including Big Bang Comics, Big Trip Travel Agency, Plain Rapper Comix printed by AK Press.

He draws like Robert Crumb or Gilbert Shelton with lots of cross-hatching. Big Bang Comics is Britain's most successful underground comics. Recurring themes in the comics are drugs, Rock festivals, environmentalism etc. Plain Rapper Comix #2 is Loveday's pamphlet in comic book form on a history of hemp and why it would be beneficial for the environment to replace tree paper with hemp paper and he practices what he preaches by being the first publication in modern times to be printed on such paper. The Russell comics were reprinted in book form Russell, The Saga of a peaceful man published by John Brown Publishing.

Russell reappeared in the Big Trip Travel Agency series published by AK Press (6 volumes); which are a series of short stand alone cartoons and also a serialised longer story. Issue 2 featured The Levellers. After Big Trip 5 (1999) Russell's story was to be continued in Volume 6, which it seemed would never appear. Then in 2012, to many fan's delight, AKPress made Big Trip 6 available through their website and through a mainstream Internet retailer where some reviews of Loveday's classic comics can also be read.

As a champion of British small press comics he drew lots of multi-artist jam strips in B. Patston's Psychopia. He drew a Russell comic in Danny King's Blah, Blah, Blah!

He used to have a stall at Glastonbury Festival, selling his comics and other items and now, after a gap of more than a decade, has a stall at the Secret Garden Party and Beautiful Days, both festivals for which he produces artwork.

Although he has had some problems with his eyesight these are finally being resolved, and have never really prevented him from producing a wide range of artwork, ranging from advertising posters (including some unlikely billboard art for Nike) through greetings cards, postcards, CD and record sleeve designs, book illustrations to flyers and T-shirt designs.

In July 2018 Freedom Seeds, a UK based seed bank, named a cannabis strain ‘Big Trip’ in tribute to Loveday. Pete created a logo for the product.

Loveday attributes his black sense of humour to having spent the 1969 Summer of Love disembowelling chickens in a poultry processing factory, a traumatic experience which left him with a morbid fear of death.

He lives in Devon with his wife Kate.

Thursday Oct 03, 2019

The Go-Betweens special with Lindy Morrison

Thursday Oct 03, 2019

The Go-Betweens special with Lindy Morrison in conversation with David Eastaugh.

The Go-Betweens were an Australian indie rock band formed in Brisbane, Queensland in 1977. The band was co-founded and led by singer-songwriters and guitarists Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, who were its only constant members throughout its existence. Drummer Lindy Morrison joined the band in 1980, and its lineup would later expand to include bass guitarist Robert Vickers and multi-instrumentalist Amanda Brown. Vickers was replaced by John Willsteed in 1987, and the quintet lineup remained in place until the band split two years later. Forster and McLennan reformed the band in 2000 with a new lineup that did not include any previous personnel aside from them. McLennan died on 6 May 2006 of a heart attack and The Go-Betweens disbanded again. In 2010, a toll bridge in their native Brisbane was renamed the Go Between Bridge after them.

In 1988, "Streets of Your Town", the first single from 16 Lovers Lane, entered the Top 100 on both the Kent Music Report chart in Australia and the UK Singles Chartin the United Kingdom. The follow-up single "Was There Anything I Could Do?" was a No. 16 hit on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in the United States. In May 2001, "Cattle and Cane", from 1983's Before Hollywood, was selected by Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time. In 2008, 16 Lovers Lane was highlighted on Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) TV's The Great Australian Albums series.

Tuesday Oct 01, 2019

The Bats with Paul Kean

Tuesday Oct 01, 2019

The Bats special with Paul Kean in conversation with David Eastaugh

In the early 1980s, Robert Scott and Kaye Woodward were sharing accommodation together in Christchurch. Scott was already playing bass in The Clean, and had also played with bassist Paul Kean in the short-lived band, Thanks To Llamas. After Scott taught Woodward some of his songs, the three began playing together at parties as The Percy Taiwan Band. After recruiting Malcolm Grant of The Bilders on drums, they renamed themselves The Bats.

The Bats first performed in Dunedin on New Year's Eve, 1982. Over the next two years, they were involved in the live music scene in Christchurch and Dunedin, before releasing their first EP, By Night (1984), on the nascent alternative New Zealand record label, Flying Nun. The band spent the next two years touring New Zealand and Australia, and released another EP, And Here Is 'Music for the Fireside' (1985). The band's early releases were accompanied by some typically low budget but original music videos, notably 'By Night', 'I Go Wild' and 'Downfall'.

The band then travelled to Europe and spent time touring Britain and Germany, including playing support for Alex Chilton. They recorded the Made Up in Blue EP at the 24 track Point Studio in London in December 1985. 'Made Up in Blue', the first single released in the U.K. by Flying Nun, was awarded 'Single of the Week' by the influential British magazine, NME. An acquaintance in Glasgow offered the use of his home 8 track studio, and half of the tracks for what would become their debut album, Daddy's Highway, were recorded there.

The Bats returned to New Zealand to finish recording for Daddy's Highway, which was released in 1987. The album has been named as their most highly regarded and one of the best New Zealand albums of the 1980s. In 2000, it was named No. 88 in music magazine Rip It Up's New Zealand's Top 100 Albums of All Time. Notable tracks on the album include "North By North", "Tragedy" and the lead single, "Block of Wood", all of which were staples on New Zealand student radio.

The Bats' second album The Law of Things (1990) continued to define a consistent Bats sound. It featured Alastair Galbraith on violin, as did Daddy's Highway. In 1991, The Bats released Fear of God. It spent three months on the French top 50 album charts. Also in 1990, Flying Nun re-released the band's first three EPs on a single compilation CD, Compiletely Bats.

The band found increasing success in the United States over this period. Between 1986 and 1993, The Bats toured the U.S.A four times, including 14 dates supporting Radiohead in 1993. Their fourth album, Silverbeet, reached No. 6 on the College Music Journal album chart.

The Bats' next album, Couchmaster (1995), would prove to be their last for ten years.

Monday Sep 30, 2019

Big Country special with Mark Brzezicki

Monday Sep 30, 2019

Big Country special with Mark Brzezicki in conversation with David Eastaugh

Big Country comprised Stuart Adamson (formerly of Skids, vocals/guitar/keyboards), Bruce Watson (guitar/mandolin/sitar/vocals), Tony Butler (bass guitar/vocals) and Mark Brzezicki (drums/percussion/vocals). Before the recruitment of Butler and Brzezicki an early incarnation of Big Country was a five-piece band, featuring Peter Wishart (later of Runrig and now a Scottish National Party MP) on keyboards, his brother Alan on bass, and Clive Parker, drummer from Spizz Energi/Athletico Spizz '80. Parker had approached Adamson to join his new band after the demise of Skids.

Adamson auditioned Parker (1980) at The Members' rehearsal room in Ladbroke Grove, London and the next day was called on to play drums on demos for CBS Records at their Whitfield Street studios. The demos were produced by Adam Sieff and just featured Adamson, Parker and Watson. Adamson had asked bassist Dave Allen from Gang of Fourto join the band but he declined. Adamson asked Parker to join the band, which led to eight months of rehearsal in Dunfermline in a disused furniture warehouse.

The culmination was a concert at the Glen Pavilion at Dunfermline and an interview with BBC Radio Scotland where the CBS Studio demos were utilised. The band then played live with Alice Cooper's Special Forces tour for two concerts in 1982 at The Brighton Centre.

Butler and Brzezicki, working under the name 'Rhythm for Hire,' were brought in to play on "Harvest Home." They immediately hit it off with Adamson and Watson, who invited them to join the band.

Sunday Sep 29, 2019

John Parish special

Sunday Sep 29, 2019

John Parish in conversation with David Eastaugh

Parish is best known for his work with singer-songwriter PJ Harvey. He has also worked with many other bands including Eels, Tracy Chapman, Giant Sand, and Sparklehorse.

His first record release was a single "Mind Made" by the British new wave band, Thieves Like Us (1980). In 1982, he formed the band Automatic Dlamini, with Rob Ellis. The changing line-up of Automatic Dlamini included Polly Harvey from 1988 until 1991. Automatic Dlamini recorded three albums: The D is For Drum (1987),Here Catch Shouted his Father (1990 – unreleased but available as a bootleg), and From A Diva to a Diver(1992). By the time From A Diva to a Diver was released, Harvey had left to form the PJ Harvey trio with ex-Dlamini members Rob Ellis and Ian Olliver, and Parish was playing guitar with Marc Moreland's band The Ensenada Joyride.

In 1986 Parish had begun a parallel career as a record producer working with UK bands including The Chesterfields, The Brilliant Corners, The Caretaker Race and The Becketts. In 1995 he co-produced PJ Harvey's "To Bring You My Love", on which he also played guitar, drums, percussion and organ. He co-wrote and produced The Eels album Souljacker (2001), and played guitar on the world tour that accompanied its release. He has produced and/or played on a number of Howe Gelb / Giant Sand albums and frequently appears onstage with them. Parish produced the Giant Sandalbum Chore of Enchantment (2000), and a photograph of his wedding in Tucson in 1998 was used as the cover for the 2011 re-release of the record.

He also began working as a film composer in 1998, writing the score for Belgian director Patrice Toye's debut film, Rosie. Parish's score won the Jury Special Appreciation prize at the 1999 Bonn Film & TV Music Biennale. He has since scored other films and a Dutch seven-part TV drama Waltz(2006).

Parish has now worked on seven albums with Harvey, including two co-written albums: Dance Hall at Louse Point (1996) and A Woman A Man Walked By (2009). He played in the PJ Harvey touring band (guitar/drums/keyboards) from 1994 – 1999, from 2009 – 2012 and from 2015 - 2017. He co-produced and played on To Bring You My Love (1995),White Chalk (2007), the Mercury Prize winning Let England Shake (2011) and The Hope Six Demolition Project (2016).