Fanny special with in conversation with David Eastaugh.

Fanny was an American rock band, active in the early 1970s. They were one of the first all-female rock groups to achieve critical and commercial success, including two Billboard Hot 100 top 40 singles.

The group was founded by guitarist June Millington and her sister, bassist Jean, (who had been playing music together since they moved from the Philippines to California in the early 1960s). After playing through several variations of the band, they attracted the interest of producer Richard Perry who signed them to Reprise Records in 1969 as Fanny. The band recorded four albums together before June Millington quit the group, leading to the original line-up splitting. Following a final album, Fanny disbanded in 1975. The Millington sisters have continued to play music together since the split, and with a former drummer, Brie Howard Darling, formed the spin-off group Fanny Walked the Earth in 2018.

The group has continued to attract critical acclaim for rejecting typical girl group styles and expectations of women in the rock industry generally, and emphasizing their musical skills. Later groups, such as The Bangles and The Runaways, cited Fanny as a key influence.

Sisters June and Jean Millington moved with their family from the Philippines to Sacramento, California, in 1961. They began to play music together on ukuleles as they found it helped them gain friends. In high school they formed an all-female band called the Svelts with June on guitar, Jean on bass, Addie Lee on guitar, and Brie Brandt on drums. Brandt left to get married and was later replaced by Alice de Buhr. When the Svelts disbanded, de Buhr and Lee formed another all-female group called Wild Honey. The Millington sisters later joined this band, which played Motown covers and eventually moved to Los Angeles.

Frustrated by a lack of success or respect in the male-dominated rock scene, Wild Honey decided to disband after one final open-mic appearance at the Troubadour Club in Los Angeles in 1969. They were spotted at this gig by the secretary of producer Richard Perry, who had been searching for an all-female rock band to mentor. Perry convinced Warner Bros. Records to sign the band, still known as Wild Honey, to Reprise Records. The group won the contract without the label hearing them play, on the grounds of being a novelty act, despite their genuine musical talent. Prior to recording their first album, the band recruited keyboardist Nickey Barclay.

The band was then renamed Fanny, not with a sexual connotation but to denote a female spirit. The initial lineup consisted of June Millington on guitar, Jean Millington on bass, de Buhr on drums, Barclay on keyboards, and Brandt on lead vocals and percussion. Perry dismissed Brandt because he wanted the group to be a self-contained four piece band like The Beatles. The Millingtons and Barclay all assumed lead vocal duties on alternating songs, while de Buhr sang lead occasionally on later albums.

Perry produced the band's first three albums, beginning with Fanny in 1970. Because of the connection to Perry and Reprise Records, Barclay was invited to tour with Joe Cocker as a backing singer, and consequently appeared on the album Mad Dogs and Englishmen. The group's cover of Cream's "Badge" from the first album had significant radio airplay. The follow-up album, Charity Ball was released the following year, and its title track reached #40 on the Billboard Hot 100. The members of Fanny also worked as session musicians, and played on Barbra Streisand's 1971 album Barbra Joan Streisand, after Streisand had wanted to record with a small band. The group continued to pick up well-known fans; David Bowie sent the group a letter admiring their work and invited the band to a post-show party where he showed them mime techniques. With young engineer Leslie Ann Jones as their road manager and live sound mixer, Fanny toured worldwide, opening for Slade, Jethro Tull and Humble Pie, gaining widespread popularity in the United Kingdom. A 1971 article in Sounds remarked that the group "seems that they are the support group to everyone these days". The group made several live television appearances during tours, including The Sonny and Cher Show, American Bandstand, The Old Grey Whistle Test and Beat-Club.

The group's third album, Fanny Hill (1972) featured the Beatles' engineer Geoff Emerick in addition to Perry's production. It included a cover of "Hey Bulldog" and Marvin Gaye's "Ain't That Peculiar". The latter featured regular Rolling Stones saxophonist Bobby Keys, and was released as a single, reaching #85 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[16][17] Fellow Stones sideman Jim Price also played brass on the album.Rolling Stone wrote a rave review of the album, praising the group's musical skills and particularly June Millington's ability to play both lead and rhythm guitar.

Their fourth album, Mother's Pride (1973), was produced by Todd Rundgren. By the time Mother's Pride was released, June Millington was feeling constrained by the group format. The record label wanted her to wear certain designer clothes and adopt a hard rock image, which she resisted. She decided to quit the group, later saying "I needed to figure out who I was" and regularly clashed with Barclay, who had a different personality to her. June moved to Woodstock to study Buddhism, but insisted the group continue without her.

de Buhr also left the band, with Brandt returning on drums. Patti Quatro (sister of Suzi Quatro) replaced June on guitar. This lineup signed with Casablanca Records and released the final Fanny album, Rock and Roll Survivors, in 1974. The first single, "I've Had It" reached #79 on the Billboard Hot 100. Brandt left the band shortly after the album's completion when she married composer James Newton Howard, and was briefly replaced by Cam Davis. Barclay quit the group at the end of 1974, thinking it was not working without June Millington. The second single, "Butter Boy" was written by Jean Millington about Bowie, and became their biggest hit, reaching #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1975. By the time that was released, the group had split.

Ut special with Jacqui Ham in conversation with David Eastaugh 

Ut's members were Nina Canal, Jacqui Ham, and Sally Young. They were joined briefly by filmmaker Karen Achenbach in 1979 before resuming as a three-piece band and relocating to London in 1981. Ut toured the UK with bands such as the Fall and the Birthday Party. Originally releasing albums on its own label Out Records, the band became a favourite of John Peel and recorded several sessions for his show before joining forces with Blast First in 1987.

In Gut's House was originally released in 1988 and made NME's Top 50 that year. The Washington Post noted, "With In Gut's House, Ut has scraped and droned one of the finest underground rock albums of the year.... The tightly woven, firmly focused sound...is rich, spooky, urgent, and quite unexpectedly beautiful."

In 1989, the band recorded and released the album Griller, engineered by labelmate Steve Albini, who shared Ut's raw aesthetic. In March 1990, Ut played its last concert in Paris.

The Senseless Things special with Morgan Nicholls in conversation with David Eastaugh

Senseless Things formed around the musical partnership of songwriter Mark Myers aka Mark Keds (vocals, guitar) and Morgan Nicholls (bass, originally guitar), who as eleven-year-olds in Twickenham, Middlesex put together Wild Division in the early 1980s. With the addition of drummer Cass Browne (also occasionally known as Cass Cade and Cass Traitor) they became the Psychotics, playing various venues in their local area despite still being at school. Their first gig together as the Senseless Things (named after a phrase used in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Julius Caesar) followed at the subsequently-demolished Clarendon in Hammersmith, London, in October 1986. Auxiliary members at this stage included a keyboard player, Ben, and a guitarist, Gerry, who deputised for Nicholls while the latter was studying for his O levels.

The definitive Senseless Things line-up formed in summer 1987 when Nicholls returned to take over bass, with the new recruit, former BBC clerk Ben Harding acquiring the vacant guitarist's role. The band regularly appeared at The Clarendon in Hammersmith, London playing both downstairs in the Broadway bar and upstairs in the main auditorium.

Taking their musical cue from the Ramones and the Dickies, and their spiritual lead from fellow guitar outfit Mega City Four, the quartet embarked upon a hectic touring schedule, often playing on the same bill as Mega City Four, Snuff and Perfect Daze.

The band's first releases were singles given away with issues of Yo Jo Jo and Sniffin' Rock fanzines. By March 1988 the band had attracted the attention of the BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, who invited them to record the first of three sessions for his programme. The "Up And Coming" 12" followed, then "Girlfriend" the following year, both on Way Cool Records.

Their first album, Postcard CV, was released in 1989, capturing the energy of their concerts by packing ten tracks into twenty two minutes. Record Collector called it "sprightly pop-punk/ indie with touches of Buzzcocks and the Undertones". The album was rounded off by "Too Much Kissing", which was released as a single and was to become their signature track.

In 1990 the band signed with What Goes On Records, just as the label collapsed, resulting in an abortive EP release. The band then signed to Vinyl Solution subsidiary Decoy Records, who released the four-track EP "'Is It Too Late?", produced by Jon Langford of the Mekons. The group stayed with Decoy for "Can't Do Anything", (also produced by Langford), which prefaced an appearance at the Reading Festival; the band then signed to Epic Records at the start of 1991.

The subsequent album The First Of Too Many saw the band experimenting with other styles including acoustic songs, and the single "Got It At The Delmar" entered the Top 50 of the UK Singles Chart. Allmusic praised the album's blend of "bubblegum pop" and "gobstopping hard rock", likening the band's sound to the Who and the Replacements. Two further Top 20singles followed in 1991/1992 - "Easy To Smile" and "Hold It Down". The band toured the United States, supporting Blur, and went to Japan for the first time, appearing on talent show Ika-Ten.

Cover art for the first two Senseless Things albums and most single releases around the same period was provided by comic artist Jamie Hewlett, creator of Tank Girl and later Gorillaz.

The second single from their third album, 1993's Empire of the Senseless, "Homophobic Asshole" (with promotional video directed by Steven Wells) received critical acclaim but was released reluctantly by their record company due to the band's choice of title and failed to chart highly. Follow-up single, "Primary Instinct", an equally political (anti-racist) lyric but a more radio-friendly title, had slightly more commercial success. In a further Mekons connection, the album shared its title with a track from the 1989 album The Mekons Rock 'n Roll, itself named for a Kathy Acker novel.

In 1995, the band released a final album, Taking Care Of Business accompanied by two singles, "Christine Keeler" (renamed from "Christian Killer") and "Something To Miss". The latter's b-sides included a Replacements cover as well as a song co-written with Lenie from Mambo Taxi. Senseless Things went into permanent hiatus the same year after farewell tours of the UK and Japan.

Mark Kramer in conversation talking about his life in music with David Eastaugh 

Mark Kramer  known professionally as Kramer, is a musician, composer, record producer and founder of the New York City record label Shimmy-Disc. He was a full-time member of the bands New York Gong, Shockabilly, Bongwater and Dogbowl & Kramer, has played on tour (usually on bass guitar) with bands such as Butthole Surfers, B.A.L.L., Ween, Half Japanese and The Fugs(1984 reunion tour), and has also performed regularly with John Zorn and other improvising musicians of New York City's so-called "downtown scene" of the 1980s.

Kramer's most notable work as a producer has been with bands such as Galaxie 500 (whose entire oeuvre he produced), Low (whom he discovered and produced), Half Japanese, White Zombie, GWAR, King Missile, Danielson Famile, Will Oldham, Daniel Johnston, and Urge Overkill, including their hit cover of "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon".

Age of Chance special with Neil Howson in conversation with David Eastaugh

Steve Elvidge was a Leeds native, and attended St Michael's College (R.C.); being the most notable musical alumnus of that school since Jake Thackray. Neil Howson, (guitar) also from Leeds studied at Jacob Kramer College of Art, Geoff Taylor (Liverpool) and Jan Perry (Stockport) were students at Leeds Polytechnic, now Leeds Beckett University.

Age of Chance first came to national attention in 1985, when their debut single, "Motorcity/ Everlasting Yeah" released on their own label, Riot Bible, was picked up and championed by BBC Radio 1 DJ, John Peel. A session followed, recorded at Maida vale studios and four songs, "Going, Going Gone Man", "Mob Hut", "The Morning After the Sixties" and "I Don't Know and I Don't Care" were recorded. "I Don't Know.." was re-recorded for Gunfire and Pianos, a compilation album released by Zigzag magazine.

They released their second self-funded single, "Bible of the Beats" / "Liquid Jungle" in January 1986, which led to an invitation to contribute a track, "From Now On, This Will Be Your God" on the NME C86 compilation tape. The band made their London debut at the ICA Rock week in July 1986. A second Peel session was recorded in June 1986, with "Be Fast, Be Clean, Be Cheap", "From Now On, This Will be Your God", "Kiss" and "How the West was Won". "Kiss" was recorded for the John Peel session while the Prince single was still in the charts.

The band then signed to the Sheffield independent record label, Fon, for "Kiss" and its remix 12"s and six track mini-LP Crush Collision. "Kiss" was No. 2 in John Peel's Festive Fifty for 1986.

The band signed to Virgin in January 1987, and embarked on a nationwide UK tour. They recorded a Janice Long session comprising "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Noise", "Hold On" and "Bible of the Motorcity Beats." They began recording their first single for Virgin with producer Howard Gray: "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Noise/Big Bad Rap" and then started their first Virgin album, One Thousand Years of Trouble. A second single "Don't Get Mad, Get Even" was released in October, followed by the album. In 1988, Channel 4 began using "Don't Get Mad..." as the music for the American Football programme, which ran over the next three years. The band began recording their second Virgin album in the summer at Rockfield in Wales.

Original singer Steven-E left in September 1988, during the recording of their second LP, forcing the rest of the band to recruit a new singer, Charles Hutchinson, in January 1989, and "re-vocal" the LP, which was released as Mecca in 1990. The main single from that collection, "Higher Than Heaven" reached No. 53 in the UK, despite being voted "record of the week" by BBC Radio 1's breakfast show listeners. When Hutchinson left, Perry took on vocal duties briefly before the band split in 1991.

The Pooh Sticks special with Hue Williams in conversation with David Eastaugh

The Pooh Sticks were an indie pop band from Swansea, Wales recording between 1988 and 1995. They were notable for their jangly melodiousness and lyrics gently mocking the indie scene of the time such as on "On Tape", "Indiepop Ain't Noise Pollution" and "I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well". The band changed direction on their 1991 U.S breakthrough The Great White Wonder, eschewing the 'twee' British indie pop sound for a more American-styled power pop sound, akin to bands like Jellyfish and Redd Kross. Subsequent albums Million Seller, released on 11 January 1993, considered by some power pop fans to be the band's best work, and Optimistic Fool, released on 24 April 1995, followed in this style.

Galaxie 500 & Luna special with Dean Wareham in conversation

Guitarist Dean Wareham, drummer Damon Krukowski and bassist Naomi Yang had met at the Dalton School in New York City in 1981, but began playing together during their time as students at Harvard University.Wareham and Krukowski had formed a series of punk-influenced student bands, before Wareham returned to New York. When he returned in 1987 he and Krukowski formed a new band, with Yang joining the group on bass guitar, the new group deciding on the name Galaxie 500, after a friend's car, a Ford Galaxie 500.

The band began playing gigs in Boston and New York City, and recorded a demo which they sent to Shimmy Disc label boss and producer Mark Kramer, who agreed to produce the band. With Kramer at the controls, the band recorded the "Tugboat" single in February 1988, and the "Oblivious" flexi-disc, and moved on to record their debut album, Today, which was released on the small Aurora label. The band toured the United Kingdom in late 1988 and in 1989, then signed to Rough Trade and released their second album, On Fire, which has been described as "lo-fi psychedelia reminiscent of Jonathan Richman being backed by The Velvet Underground", and is considered the band's defining moment.On Fire reached number 7 in the UK Indie Chart, and met with much critical acclaim in the United Kingdom, but was less well received by the US music press, who cited Wareham's 'vocal limitations' as a weakness.

Galaxie 500 recorded two sessions for John Peel's BBC Radio 1 programme, these later released on the Peel Sessions album. Their cover of Jonathan Richman's "Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste" was also voted into number 41 in 1989's Festive 50 by listeners to the show.

The band split up in the spring of 1991 after the release of their third album, This Is Our Music. Wareham, who had already moved back to New York, quit the band after a lengthy American tour.

Galaxie 500's records were released in the US and UK on the independent Rough Trade label. When Rough Trade went bankrupt in 1991, Krukowski and Yang purchased the masters at auction, reissuing them on Rykodisc in 1996 as a box set containing all three albums and another disc of rarities.

Dweezil Zappa discussing his life in music, Frank Zappa and performing the classic 1974 album Apostrophe - with David Eastaugh 

Dweezil commented “Not only will we be performing with Frank once again via the technological wonderment of enhanced video during the live performance, but we will also be performing the works from one of his most well known albums. That’s right, ‘Apostrophe’, played in it’s album running order. It’s always been one of my favourites and it’s certainly a fan favourite as well. My very first experience playing to a large audience took place in the UK. I played at the Hammersmith Odeon with my dad when I was 12 years old. All these years later I still feel a connection to the UK because it’s part of a touchstone type of memory for me. One day I would love to come full circle and play at that venue again with my band. I know the venue now lives on under a different name but there’s a parallel there. My father’s music is also living on under a slightly different name, Dweezil Zappa Plays Zappa.”

“I’m really looking forward to this upcoming tour especially on the heels of the Roundhouse Zappa festival. That was such a great experience. We’ll be playing the entire Apostrophe album on tour and that really is a lot of fun. We’ll have some other surprises in the set as well. We always strive to learn new material each time we tour and this time we’re going to dig deep”

Author Sam Knee discussing Memories of a Free Festival: The Golden Era of the British Underground Festival Scene - with David Eastaugh

Free music festivals were at the epicentre of counterculture in Britain during the latter half of the 20th Century. With roots deeply embedded in the social history of British folklore, they evolved from embryonic jazz festivals through the anti-nuclear protest marches of the early ‘60s, to the Rock Against Racism and Jobs for a Change gigs of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. They encapsulated the most radical voices of generations of young people, as they responded to the political schisms and social unrest that surrounded them. Memory of a Free Festival celebrates this wondrous world of bohe - mia. Hundreds of previously unpublished period photos capture jazz-loving beatniks, flower power hippies and post punk indie kids in all their festival finery.

The Searchers special with Frank Allen talking about their career and recent tour - with David Eastaugh 

Ray Foulk discussing his two new books on the Isle of Wight Festival - Stealing Dylan from Woodstock and The Last Great Event with Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison with David Eastaugh

The 1969 Isle of Wight Festival was Bob Dylan's one and only full concert appearance in seven-and-a-half years and played its part in a highly transformative period of the artist's life. Stealing Dylan from Woodstock tells, from a unique perspective, of an extraordinary event which seismically altered the lives of the author, his family, all those involved with it and many of those who attended.

For a time, the Isle of Wight Festivals transformed a sleepy English island into the rock'n'roll capital of the world. What started in 1968 as a parochial one-nighter in a stubble field to raise funds for a local swimming pool, a year later ballooned into a massive outdoor gathering. Numbers sky-rocketed as devotees flocked to the Island from mainland Britain, Europe, the Americas and as far away as Australia, to pay homage to rock's poet laureate, Bob Dylan.

The reclusive star had been holed up in the artist-town of Woodstock for more than three years, following a serious motorcycle accident. He toyed with playing the Woodstock festival brought to his own front door but it was the Foulk brothers who succeeded where all others failed, luring Dylan 3,000 miles away from home to their Island, to create a Woodstock of his own.

Landing the music biz coup of the decade, the three Foulk brothers, a printer, an estate agent and an art student became pioneers in pop promotion by signing for the world exclusive appearance of the reluctant 'voice of his generation'.

For the organisers, short on experience, resources and time, the ensuing public response was almost overwhelming, and the challenge of delivering the most eagerly-awaited musical event of the era daunting. The world's media covered the phenomena, gave the event global coverage and marked it as a suitable climax as the swinging sixties drew to a close.

My Life Story with Jake Shillingford in conversation

At the time of their debut single, "Girl A, Girl B, Boy C" (1993) produced by Giles Martin son of George, the group had a regular line-up of twelve members. Though the membership fluctuated continually, it rarely dipped into single figures until 1999, when their third album credited just four regular members, though most of the former line-up were still used as session musicians. Their orchestral sound led them to be compared to groups such as Tindersticks and especially The Divine Comedy. Their debut album, Mornington Crescent was released on 10 January 1995. My Life Story enjoyed the most success at the time of their second album The Golden Mile, which was released on 10 March 1997. It spawned five singles that entered the lower half of the UK Singles Chart, but finally disbanded after a series of farewell concerts in December 2000.

On 26 May 2006 the band reformed with the full line-up of thirteen members, to play at the Mean Fiddler (LA2) on Charing Cross Road in London, in support of their forthcoming Best Of album. The gig got a review rating of 10/10 from Planet Sound. A second reunion show took place at the Astoria in London on 8 December 2006. Further reunions have taken place every two years on 13 December 2007 at the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, and Koko on 26 November 2009, where the band performed their debut album, Mornington Crescent, for the first time in its entirety. In 2009, it was announced that, to mark 15 years since their debut album, the group would reform and perform the album in full, together with later songs. This concert took place at KOKO which is next door to Mornington Crescent tube station.

My Life Story announced that they were to reunite again to perform The Golden Mile at the Shepherds Bush Empire on 3 March 2012 to celebrate fifteen years since the album's release.

In mid-2013 the group announced their first UK tour in 14 years. Singer Jake Shillingford is reported to have said: "For many years we have only been able to play a big London show due to the sheer size and scale of the band. Now I am able to take my songs out on the road with a stripped down tight rocking outfit."

"I will be joined by various members of My Life Story along my journey around the UK, culminating in our traditional annual London concert with the original bunch, I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone again, expect a big, bold and brash performance, all foxy horns and horny foxes."

In September 2016 My Life Story released their first single in 16 years, "24 Hour Deflowerer". The launch was marked with a two-night residency at The Borderline in London on 14–15 October, with all audience members receiving a numbered limited edition 7" vinyl of the single.

My Life Story performed in the Star Shaped Festival, a Britpop revival tour, alongside The Bluetones, Space, Dodgy and Salad, in July/August 2017 and again in August/September 2018 together with Echobelly, Black Grape and The Supernaturals. The band's current five-piece line-up features Jake Shillingford (vocals), Nick Evans (guitar), Chris Hardwick (drums), Jack Hosgood (bass) and Aimee Smith (keys).

The fourth My Life Story studio album, World Citizen, was crowd-funded with pre-orders from fans and was released on 6th September 2019. Described as "the best My Life Story album ever", World Citizen received review scores of 4/5 in The Express, 85% in Hi Fi News and 7/10 in Uncut

The release will be followed by a UK tour in November.

Dave Brock in conversation with David Eastaugh

Hawkwind are an English rock band and one of the earliest space rock groups. Formed in November 1969, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and they have incorporated different styles into their music, including hard rock, progressive rock and psychedelic rock. They are also regarded as an influential proto-punk band. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes.

Dozens of musicians, dancers and writers have worked with the band since their inception. Notable musicians to have performed in the band include Lemmy, Ginger Baker, Robert Calvert, Nik Turner and Huw Lloyd-Langton, but the band are most closely associated with their founder, the singer, songwriter and guitarist Dave Brock, who is the only remaining original member. Hawkwind are best known for the song "Silver Machine", which became a number three UK hit single in 1972, but they scored further hit singles with "Urban Guerrilla" (another Top 40 hit) and "Shot Down in the Night." The band had a run of twenty-two of their albums charting in the UK from 1971 to 1993.

Arthur Brown in conversation with David Eastaugh 

Arthur Brown  is an English rock singer and songwriter best known for his flamboyant theatrical performances, eclectic (and sometimes experimental) work and his powerful, wide-ranging operatic voice.

Brown has been lead singer of various groups, most notably the Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Kingdom Come, followed by a varied solo career as well as associations with Hawkwind, the Who and Klaus Schulze. In the late 1960s, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown's popularity was such that the group shared bills with the Who, Jimi Hendrix, the Mothers of Invention, the Doors, the Small Faces, and Joe Cocker, among others.

He is best known for his 1968 single "Fire", reaching number one in the UK Singles Chart and Canada, and number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 as well as its parent album The Crazy World of Arthur Brown which reached number 2 in the UK and number 7 in the US. Following the success of the single "Fire", the press would often refer to Brown as "The God of Hellfire", in reference to the opening shouted line of the song, a moniker that exists to this day.

Although Brown has had limited commercial success and has never released another recording as commercially successful as "Fire", he has remained a significant influence on a wide range of musicians in numerous genres due to his operatic vocal style, wild stage persona, and often experimental concepts; he is considered to be a pioneer of shock rock and progressive rock and has had an influence on both electronic and heavy metal music. In 2005, Brown won the 'Showman of the Year' award from Classic Rock magazine, with Brown receiving the award at the Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards ceremony held in London's Café de Paris.

Nicholas Pegg discussing his latest book The Complete David Bowie - with David Eastaugh

Critically acclaimed in its previous editions, The Complete David Bowie is recognized as the foremost source of analysis and information on every facet of Bowie’s work. The A-Z of songs and the day-by-day dateline are the most complete ever published. From his boyhood skiffle performance at the 18th Bromley Scouts’ Summer Camp, to the majesty of his final masterpiece Blackstar, every aspect of David Bowie’s extraordinary career is explored and dissected by Nicholas Pegg’s unrivalled combination of in-depth knowledge and penetrating insight.

Mike Garson in conversation with David Eastaugh - recorded 28th January 2016

Garson was David Bowie’s longest and most frequent band member. They performed together for both Bowie's first and last concerts in the United States as well as 1,000 concerts around the globe in between.

Garson provided the piano and keyboard backing on the later Ziggy Stardust tour of 1972-73 and his contribution to the song "Aladdin Sane" (1973) gave the song an avant-garde jazz feel with lengthy and sometimes atonal piano solos.

I had told Bowie about the avant-garde thing. When I was recording the "Aladdin Sane" track for Bowie, it was just two chords, an A and a G chord, and the band was playing very simple English rock and roll. And Bowie said: 'play a solo on this.' I had just met him, so I played a blues solo, but then he said: 'No, that's not what I want.' And then I played a Latin solo. Again, Bowie said: 'No no, that's not what I want.' He then continued: 'You told me you play that avant-garde music. Play that stuff!' And I said: 'Are you sure? 'Cause you might not be working anymore!'. So I did the solo that everybody knows today, in one take. And to this day, I still receive emails about it. Every day. I always tell people that Bowie is the best producer I ever met, because he lets me do my thing.

Garson played also for Bowie's guitarist bandmate Mick Ronson on his first and last solo tour, and his first Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (1974) and second solo album Play Don't Worry (1975). Garson came to replace Ronson as Bowie's musical lieutenant on several occasions, notably on "We Are the Dead" from the 1974 Diamond Dogs album, where Garson's metronome-like keyboard provides a dramatic setting for Bowie's vocals, and on the title track to Young Americans (1975) where his jaunty piano leads the band. Garson played with Bowie on and off over the years, resurfacing on The Buddha of Suburbia (1993) and 1 Outside (1995).

Jethro Tull special with Ian Anderson in conversation with David Eastaugh

Jethro Tull are a British rock band formed in Blackpool, Lancashire, in 1967. Initially playing blues rock and jazz fusion, the band later developed their sound to incorporate elements of hard rock and folk rock to forge a progressive rock signature. The band is led by vocalist/flautist/guitarist Ian Anderson, and has featured a revolving door of lineups through the years including significant members such as guitarists Mick Abrahams and Martin Barre, keyboardist John Evan, drummers Clive Bunker, Barriemore Barlow, and Doane Perry, and bassists Glenn Cornick, Jeffrey Hammond, John Glascock, and Dave Pegg.

The group first achieved commercial success in 1969, with the folk-tinged blues album Stand Up, which reached No. 1 in the UK, and they toured regularly in the UK and the US. Their musical style shifted in the direction of progressive rock with the albums Aqualung (1971), Thick as a Brick (1972) and A Passion Play (1973), and shifted again to hard rock mixed with folk rock with Songs from the Wood (1977) and Heavy Horses (1978). After an excursion into electronic rock in the early-to-mid 1980s, the band won its first and only Grammy Award with the 1987 album Crest of a Knave. Jethro Tull have sold an estimated 60 million albums worldwide, with 11 gold and five platinum albums among them. They have been described by Rolling Stoneas "one of the most commercially successful and eccentric progressive rock bands".

The last works as a group to contain new material were released in 2003, though the band continued to tour until 2011. Anderson said Jethro Tull were finished in 2014; however, in September 2017 Anderson announced plans for a tour to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the band's first album This Was, and then record a new studio album in 2018. The current band line-up includes musicians who have been members of Anderson's solo band since 2012. The band began a world tour on 1 March 2018.

Paul Hanley was the drummer in Manchester legends The Fall from 1980-85 and now plays with Brix & The Extricated. He's studying for an English degree with the Open University and occasionally writes for Louder Than War. He's married with three children and once got 21 on Ken Bruce's 'PopMaster'.

When British bands took the world by storm in the mid-sixties, the world turned and looked at London. Despite the fact that the most successful of these bands hailed from the North West corner of England, for the USA, London was the source of these thrilling new sounds. And in many ways it was - The Beatles, The Hollies and Herman's Hermits recorded all their hits with London-based producers, for London-based companies in London studios. And that's how it remained, until four Mancunian musicians became alive to the possibility of recording away from the capital.

Against the prevailing wisdom, they opted to plough their hard-earned cash back into the city they loved in the form of proper recording facilities. Eric Stewart of The Mindbenders and songwriter extraordinaire Graham Gouldman created Strawberry Studios; Keith Hopwood and Derek Leckenby of Herman's Hermits crafted Pluto. Between them they gave Manchester a voice, and facilitated a musical revolution that would be defined by its rejection of the capital.

This book tells the story of Manchester music through the prism of the two studio's key recordings. Of course that story inevitably takes in The Smiths, Joy Division, The Fall and The Stone Roses. But it's equally the story of 'Bus Stop' and 'East West' and 'I'm Not in Love'. It's the story of the Manchester attitude of L.S. Lowry, by way of Brian and Michael, and how that attitude rubbed off on The Clash and Neil Sedaka. Above all, it's the story of music that couldn't have been made anywhere else but Manchester.

Author Richard King special - discussing his book How Soon Is Now?

'If you look at all the people involved - Ivo, Tony Wilson, McGee, Geoff Travis, myself - nobody had a clue about running a record company, and that was the best thing about it.' Daniel Miller, Mute Records

One of the most tangible aftershocks of punk was its prompt to individuals: do it yourself. A generation was inspired, and often with no planning or business sense, in bedrooms, record-shop back offices and sheds, labels such as Factory, Rough Trade, Mute, Beggars Banquet, 4AD, Creation, Warp and Domino began. From humble beginnings, some of the most influential artists were allowed to thrive: Orange Juice, New Order, Depeche Mode, Happy Mondays, The Smiths, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, Aphex Twin, Teenage Fanclub, The Arctic Monkeys. How Soon Is Now? is a landmark survey of the artists, the labels, and the mavericks behind them who had the vision and bloody-mindedness to turn the music world on its head.

Author Simon Reynolds discussing Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-First Century with David Eastaugh

A Guardian, Sunday Times, Mojo, Daily Telegraph and Observer Book of the Year
Longlisted for the Penderyn Music Book Prize 2017

As the sixties dream faded, a new flamboyant movement electrified the world: GLAM! In Shock and Awe, Simon Reynolds explores this most decadent of genres on both sides of the Atlantic. Bolan, Bowie, Suzi Quatro, Alice Cooper, New York Dolls, Slade, Roxy Music, Iggy, Lou Reed, Be Bop Deluxe, David Essex -- all are represented here. Reynolds charts the retro future sounds, outrageous styles and gender-fluid sexual politics that came to define the first half of the seventies and brings it right up to date with a final chapter on glam in hip hop, Lady Gaga, and the aftershocks of David Bowie's death.

Shock and Awe is a defining work and another classic in the Faber Social rock n roll canon to stand alongside Rip it Up, Electric Eden and Yeah Yeah Yeah.