Rock's Backpages

By: Barney Hoskyns Mark Pringle Jasper Murison-Bowie
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  • Summary

  • Tales from the world's largest archive of music journalism: entertaining interviews with luminaries such as Neil Tennant, Billy Bragg, Pamela Des Barres, Gary Kemp, Vashti Bunyan, Midge Ure, Nick Hornby and Robyn Hitchcock. Thoughtful and informative conversations about all aspects of popular music history, interspersed with clips from exclusive audio interviews that date back to the mid-'60s. The RBP podcast is hosted by Barney Hoskyns and Mark Pringle and co-hosted & produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie. We're a proud part of Pantheon — the podcast network for music lovers.
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Episodes
  • E192: Pat Kane on Hue & Cry + Sinatra + Chic + '80s Brit soul

    E192: Pat Kane on Hue & Cry + Sinatra + Chic + '80s Brit soul
    Dec 23 2024
    For the final episode of 2024 we're joined by the formidable Pat Kane, who answers our questions about his dual career as a musician and writer with what co-host Martin Colyer describes as "an almost frightening eloquence". Commencing with the formative memories of his late father singing Frank Sinatra songs to him at bedtime — and his lifelong fixation with Ol' Blue Eyes — Pat talks about Hue and Cry, the R&B-infused pop group he formed with his brother Greg in 1983. Reflections on the success of singles such as 1987's 'Labour of Love' prompt a general discussion of '80s "Brit Soul", with significant input from fellow practitioners Mark Pringle and Martin Colyer. The two linchpins of Hot House recall the 1987 sessions they recorded in the Southern-soul oasis of Muscle Shoals, Alabama. After bringing the Hue and Cry story up to the present day, Jasper introduces clips from Daryl Easlea's 2001 audio interview with Chic's Nile Rodgers. As a tribute to the group's Alfa Anderson, who died two days before this episode was recorded, Daryl's splendid interview provides the perfect excuse to express our love for disco's greatest self-contained band. Finally, we ask our guest about his exceptional writing as a cultural and political journalist, focusing in particular on his brilliant pieces about Brian Eno (1995) and Michael Jackson (2009). Mark and Jasper then talk us out with quotes from (and remarks on) their favourite newly-added pieces in the RBP library. Many thanks to special guest Pat Kane. Subscribe to his Substack at patkane.substack.com.
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    1 hr and 15 mins
  • E191: Chris Charlesworth on Melody Maker in the '70s

    E191: Chris Charlesworth on Melody Maker in the '70s
    Dec 10 2024
    For this episode we're joined by Chris Charlesworth, mainstay of Melody Maker in its '70s pomp and subsequently editorial director of music imprint Omnibus Books. Starting out at Skipton's Craven Herald & Pioneer in his native Yorkshire, Chris talks us through key moments in the Maker years he documents in recent memoir Just Backdated. Paying particular attention to his stints as a '70s correspondent from L.A. and New York, we also ask Chris about MM colleagues such as Max Jones, Richard Williams and Roy Hollingworth. Recollections of close encounters with the likes of John Lennon and Debbie Harry are followed by clips from a 1989 audio interview in which Elkie Brooks talks to John Tobler about Vinegar Joe and Leiber & Stoller. After Mark quotes from newly-added library interviews with South African jazz man Dudu Pukwana (1970) and punk icon Jordan (1978), Jasper talks us out with his thoughts on pieces about hip hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash (2009) and Queen legend Freddie Mercury (2023). Many thanks to special guest Chris Charlesworth. Just Backdated: Seven Years in the Seventies is published by Spenwood books and available now. For more Chris, visit his website at justbackdated.blogspot.com. Pieces discussed: John Lennon: Lennon Today, Debbie Harry: Face It, Elkie Brooks audio, Dudu Pukwana, Captain Beefheart & Frank Zappa, Jordan: Love is not easy for a painted lady, Grandmaster Flash, Eagles of Death Metal and A piece of Freddie Mercury.
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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • E190: Simon Garfield on Cher + Beyoncé + Luther Vandross

    E190: Simon Garfield on Cher + Beyoncé + Luther Vandross
    Nov 25 2024
    In this episode we ask the former Time Out editor and acclaimed author of fascinating studies of fonts, maps and encyclopaedias about his long writing career; we also discuss semi-colons and listen to clips from audio interviews with Cher and Luther Vandross. Our guest reflects on Expensive Habits — his 1986 investigation of the music industry's "dark side" — and revisits two of his many great pieces: a hilarious 1987 encounter with Guns N' Roses and a 2003 interview with the newly-solo Beyoncé for the Observer Music Monthly. Cher's new autobiography leads to discussion of the singer-actor's remarkable life and work, while the new documentary Luther: Never Too Much prompts thoughts on the sadness of Vandross's double life as a closeted gay man and object of romantic female desire. Among the newly-added library articles we consider, aptly, is Lucy O'Brien's 2001 Q piece "Why Is Pop So Gay?"; we also hear quotes from the late great Eve Babitz's 1979 Rolling Stone celebration of L.A.'s Troubadour club and from Del Cowie's 2009 Exclaim! interview with hip hop elder Big Daddy Kane. Many thanks to special guest Simon Garfield. For more Simon, visit his website at simongarfield.com. Pieces discussed: Guns N' Roses, Cher audio, Beyoncé: Uh-Oh! Uh-Oh! Uh-Oh!, Pete Townshend: Who He Is, Luther Are Good For The Soul, Luther Vandross: Let's Start with Pacman, Luther Vandross: The Sadness Behind the Soul, Shel Talmy, The Good Old Days at L.A.'s Troubadour, Stock Aitken and Waterman, Pet Shop Boys, Why Is Pop So Gay?, Snoop Dogg live and Big Daddy Kane.
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    1 hr and 26 mins

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