Bella Union label founder Simon Raymonde joins us this week to talk us through his time with the Cocteau Twins. Simon joined the band in 1983 having met Robin Guthrie & Elizabeth Fraser a couple of years prior while working at Beggars Banquet record shop in South Kensington. The first album he is involved with is 1984's self produced Treasure - although Brian Eno & Daniel Landis were briefly discussed as possible producers. Find out about Cocteau Twin's unique way of working in the...

Join us to take a deep dive into the life & career of LBGTQ icon Dusty Springfield - starting with her early life first in West Hampstead in London & then briefly in High Wycombe, Dusty attended a convent school but reinvented herself after leaving school into the glamorous blonde icon she became famous as. When our guest biographer Lucy O'Brien first wrote about Dusty in the late 1980s little was known about her but her legend has grown exponentially since - we talk about her...

You can see our upcoming live events here: https://rocknrollbookclub.co.uk/live/ Steve Wynn joins us to tell us all about his time with the Dream Syndicate, the formation of the band & the Paisley Underground scene. Steve's new book is out now on Jawbone Press & his latest record Make It Right is out on Fire Records. The Dream Syndicate formed in 1981 with Kendra Smith, Karl Precoda & Dennis Duck joining Steve in the band. Steve briefly had another band with Sid Griffin who later...

Featuring exclusive clips from Jah Wobble, Stewart Lee, Caroline Catz & Richard Norris sharing their memories of the Scala Cinema. You can see our upcoming live events here: https://rocknrollbookclub.co.uk/live/ You can watch the Scala documentary on BFI Player: https://player.bfi.org.uk Scala documentary makers Jane Giles & Ali Catterall join us to share the history of the cinema from its original Soho location & its 2nd home in Kings Cross in London. The first cinema was...

Clem Cattini tells us about the birth of British rock & roll - Clem has played on over 40 number 1 singles, including Shakin’ All Over by Johnny Kidd & The Pirates & of course Telstar with his band the Tornados, the first British band to top the charts in America.  We start in late 1959 when Clem leaves Larry Parnes represented backing band The Beat Boys & subsequently ends up as a member of Johnny Kidd & The Pirates. In early 1960 they hit the top spot with the iconic...

Part 2 of our chat with Prince biographer Matt Thorne picks up where we left off with the release of his debut album For You in 1977 on Warner Bros. We find out about Prince's fast way of working in the studio along with his decision to produce, sing & play most of his records himself. Prince put a full time band together following the release of his debut album & heads out on his first proper tour since singing to Warners. His second album titled simply Prince follows in 1979...

Join us as we chart Prince's formative years in Minneapolis, Minnesota with biographer Matt Thorne. We discuss his family background, how he came to be named Prince, his early bands & songwriting (he wrote his first song at the age of 7). Prince's early influences remained pretty consistent throughout his life & included Larry Graham, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, George Clinton, Sly Stone, the Jacksons, Tower of Power, Miles Davis, Carlos Santana, Joni Mitchell, Rufus and Chaka...

Pulp Part 1 - Nick Banks joined Pulp in 1986 after seeing an ad outside Sheffield Leadmill & as a fan of the local band already decided to audition, making his live debut at the Adelphi Hotel in Hull shortly after. Following Jarvis Cocker's decision to relocate to London in 1988, Nick follows suit & Pulp begin to focus more on gigs in the capital. The Separations album is recorded the following year but doesn't come out until 1992. Island Records eventually become interested &...

Join us to take a deep dive into the little known history of Joy Division right here on our home turf in Walthamstow, East London. Find out from a first hand source how the band came to play 2 gigs here in 1979 - how it came about, how many people were there, what happened & more. Joy Division's first trip to London had been in late 1978 when they played the Hope & Anchor in Islington just after Christmas, at that gig they met some punks from Walthamstow & later come to play 2...

Join us on our first trip to Scotland, Edinburgh to be precise to retrace the history of on elf post-punk's most iconic bands, Josef K. The band were only around a few years but their influence has grown enormously in the intervening years, biographer Johnnie Johnston takes us through our first look at C81, Postcard Records, & the Sound of Young Scotland. We talk about the Scotland of the 1970s & how it differs from today, how the band met & came together, The band's connection...

We welcome Jah Wobble to tell us about his time with PiL (Public Image Limited) - we start with how he joined the band, touch upon his youth with John Lydon, who came up with the name of the band & the brief early involvement of Richard Branson. We hear about how Keith Levene & Jim Walker joined the band (and Jim's departure later) as well as signing with Virgin Records shortly after. Jah describes the chaotic finances of the band & the key part photographer Dennis Morris played...

Biographer Lesley-Ann Jones joins us to talk about Paul McCartney's time in Scotland living on High Park Farm near Campbeltown. We talk about his decision to buy this property in a remote part of Scotland, his & John Lennon's links (or lack of) to Scotland, Linda's role in Paul & his family spending more time there & the privacy it subsequently afforded them. We move onto discuss some of the key songs written at the farm over the years including Heart of the Country, The Lovely...

Carrying on our chat with Tim Booth we continue on the early years of James with the recording of their first demo, signing to Factory Records & making their debut release with the Jimone EP in November 1983. From there Tim tells us about meeting The Smiths & playing with them at the Hacienda & subsequently touring Ireland with them & later joining the Meat Is Murder Tour in 1985. James are touring with Johnny Marr across the USA in the autumn & Tim tells us how this came...

Tim Booth joins us this week to talk about his new book 'When I Died For The First Time' out now on Constable (imprint of Little Brown). We talk about his writing influences from Doris Lessing & Patti Smith to Frank Herbert & then how his experiences in James influenced his writing. We also talk in depth about James latest UK number 1 album Yummy as well as their recent appearance at Glastonbury 2024 & their other appearances they have coming up over the summer & an autumn USA...

Helen O'Hara joins us as we talk through her early career from getting a knock on the door to play with Kevin Archer's The Blue Ox Babes to later joining Dexys Midnight Runners. We talk about being renamed Helen O'Hara by Kevin Rowland & joining Dexys as one of the Emerald Express shortly after & Helen's difficult decision to join the band & turn down an offer to join the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra. recording for the first time with the band at AIR Studios in London with producers...

This week we make our first visit to Birmingham to trace the history & early years of Dexys Midnight Runners - how Kevin Rowland & Kevin Archer formed the band, the strict rules for membership, how the various members came to join. Writer Nige Tassell, talks us through some of the stories, myths & legends from his new book Searching For Dexys Midnight Runners - published by Nine Eight Books. We start with early punk band project The Killjoys, how they jump to the soul inflected...

FIXED AUDIO - sorry the original audio was the previous episode with Thurston Moore, meaning anyone who had already downloaded before we fixed it cannot update to the new audio. So here is a new version for anyone with the wrong audio. Join writer John Niven to have a chat about Bob Dylan & the Band & the time they spent in Woodstock. John talks us through his idea for a fictional book set when the Band were living in Big Pink & recording with Dylan in the basement downstairs. We...

Join writer John Niven to have a chat about Bob Dylan & the Band & the time they spent in Woodstock. John talks us through his idea for a fictional book set when the Band were living in Big Pink & recording with Dylan in the basement downstairs. We discuss how Dylan & the various members of The Band came to be in Woodstock, how the Basement Tapes recordings came about, Bob Dylan's prolific songwriting in Woodstock, the lifestyle The Band were living in the relative anonymity...

Thurston Moore returns for the 2nd part of our chat including: bumping into Joey Ramone on the way to CBGBs for the first time, Wayne County, meeting Lee Ranaldo at a gig, being introduced to Kim Gordon via a mutual friend, the downtown art world including Jean-Michel Basquiat, his early band The Coachmen, even Madonna gets a mention. We also detail the formation of Sonic Youth & how he came up with the iconic band name. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we welcome Thurston Moore formerly of Sonic Youth - we talk about his childhood in Connecticut, some of the early records he including Iron Butterly, Abbey Road, Led Zeppelin & Black Sabbath, Buying the Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request, the influence of his Dad, seeing an early Patti Smith gig in Westbury, CT & later sending off for her Hey Joe 7” single. Sending money to Richard Hell, driving to 2nd hand bookstores with Tom Verlaine & the first mention...

Writer & musician Willy Vlautin (Richmond Fontaine, The Delines) joins us to talk about his new book The Horse on Faber & Faber - we also go deep on his formative years in Reno, Nevada, his love for the Pacific Northwest - specifically Portland, Oregon. We talk about his early influences including Green on Red, The Long Ryders & the Cowpunk bands, The Jam, The Pogues, Bruce Springsteen & Australian songwriter Paul Kelly. Writers that had an influence including John Steinbeck,...

Join us on our first trip to the mighty music city of Sheffield as Martyn Ware guides us through growing up in the city, meeting Phil Oakey at school, his formative early bands, the influence of science fiction on his work, he & Phil's shared love of Marvel & DC comics, seeing Star Wars on opening day at the Sheffield Gaumont, seeing Roxy Music at Sheffield University in 1972, coming up with the name the Human League, recording the demo that became Being Boiled, signing with Virgin...

Richard Norris talks us through the birth of Acid House at clubs such as Shoom, Future & Heaven, the Jack the Tab album, his time as a member of The Grid, their unexpected chart success, Alan McGee's brief tenure as manager, his early trips to Ibiza & collaborations with Andy Mackay and Phil Mazanera from Roxy Music, Robert Fripp from King Crimson, Brian Eno, PP Arnold, Sun Ra, Johnny Marr & surf guitar king Dick Dale. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Acclaimed music writer Tom Doyle is our guide this week as we take a deep dive into the formative years & early career of Kate Bush. From her upbringing on East Wickham Farm near Welling, her early songwriting, learning to play piano, David Gilmour's involvement in her early career, the visual aspect of her work, her early gigs with the KT Bush Band, cutting Wuthering Heights in 1 take, her huge early success with The Kick Inside album, the less successful follow up Lionheart & the...