Spelling themselves out on the ouija board of pop culture this week… DÆMON DAYS: Does the prestige BBC/HBO adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials do justice to one of the greatest and most philosophically challenging books in the young adult pantheon? Or what? MUSWELL HILL COMMUNICATION: We finally got that Michael Kiwanuka album. Does it deliver on the modern epic soul front? REDRUM HE WROTE: That sequel to The Shining that nobody ordered is here. Does all plot and no mystery make Do...
Nov 09, 2019•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 177
Tumbling out of the pop culture piñata this week: THE BECH-DEATH TEST: Does the all-new all-female Terminator Dark Fate bring the much-rebooted “killer robots from the future” saga back online? Or is the story trapped in a repetitive subroutine? HOLY JESUS CHRIST ALMIGHTY: Kanye West has got God, but what will God think about that? And will Mr West’s holy-rolling gospel-powered album Jesus Is King save the souls of our heathen panel? BLACK COMEDY: Eddie Murphy’s magnificent starring turn as filt...
Nov 02, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 176
Bubbling out of the pop culture percolator this week… NO SQUID PRO QUO: Has Damon “Lost” Lindelof done justice to Watchmen – the Citizen Kane of wearing your underpants outside your trousers – with his “remix” of the concept for HBO/Sky? And do we have any idea of what the hell is going on? KEEP IT DUSTY: What guest Lucy O’Brien discovered as she updated her definitive biography of Dusty Springfield. STRIFE IN TOKYO: New high-end crime drama Giri/Haji on BBC2 – there’s a dead yakuza in London an...
Oct 26, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 175
Inside the tumble dryer of pop culture this week… REPENT, HARLEQUIN! Is there more to Joaquin Phoenix’s turn in the hit Joker origin movie than half Taxi Driver and half King of Comedy? The movie has divided critics – will it divide our panel? FIRE UP THE QUATRO: Does the biopic of original beleathered rock vixen Suzi Quatro convey the supercharged excitement of her doing Can The Can? And do we actually need biopics of every single pop star? NO MORE KILMISTER NICE GUY: A major reissue programme ...
Oct 19, 2019•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 174
On this week’s pop culture perusal fest… THE GREAT BARRIER, GRIEF: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ extraordinary new album Ghosteen leaves our panel floored and yet somehow elated. How did he turn unimaginable personal pain into something so beautiful? THE ROAD OF XS: Many saw Michael Hutchence as just a likeable accumulation of rock star clichés – but was there more to him and to his personal tragedy? And can new biopic Mystify open up the story? I WAS A TEENAGE TRUMP: Does the camp-meets-social...
Oct 12, 2019•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 173
It’s a special Bigmouth this week as we’re joined by Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys AKA Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark as they mark their 40th anniversary with their ‘Souvenir’ box set – half greatest hits, half Pharaonic treasure trove of all the things they’ve made (including the really weird stuff). ARCHITECTURE AND MORALITY AND SIÂN AND ANDREW: Dive in for a fascinating conversation that takes in the ups and downs of an “accidental” pop career, how Kraftwerk changed their lives, how Pa...
Oct 05, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 171
We’re joined by Guardian telly and podcasts queen HANNAH VERDIER and Telegraph/Guardian TV writer MICHAEL HOGAN to read the tea leaves of pop culture. On the agenda… FROM A VESPA TO A SCREAM: What it is with men and mod? Sky Arts’s Mod Weekend opens a window into the world of Weller worshippers and digs into the history of the thin-lapelled cult that won’t die. Is the world ready for Bradley Wiggins on Mod? OUT OF PSYCH, OUT OF MIND: Cosmic inner-spacemen of Kettering Temples return with their t...
Sep 28, 2019•57 min•Ep. 170
This week Mojo mag news editor IAN HARRISON and Empire/ScreenWords/Jewish Chronicle film writer LINDA MARRIC join us to feel the bumps on the skull of pop culture. On the agenda… CRISPY AMBULANCE CHASERS: Early Factory Records relics go on show in London as the Chelsea Space’s Use Hearing Protection exhibition displays the artefacts bestowed with the first 50 FAC numbers. What set Tony Wilson’s empire apart from the post-punk pack? RUDE AWAKENINGS: It’s 40 years since the dawn of 2 Tone and cele...
Sep 21, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 169
This week we have special guests Miranda Sawyer - author of Out of Time, she writes for the Observer, appears on Radio 4 and much much more – plus ex-Word magazine writer and Bob Dylan boffin James Medd to discuss the pop culture issues of the day. PALE AILES: Will Sky's The Loudest Voice plump Succession as the latest Citizen-Kane-for-our-times? Starring Russell Crowe as Fox News founder Roger Ailes and Sienna Miller as his wife, this aims to lift the lid on the controversial figure pre Fake Ne...
Sep 14, 2019•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 168
LOGAN’S RUIN: Bravura dynastic betrayalfest Succession is back for a second jaw-dropping season on Sky. Are they satirising Murdoch, Trump or plutocrats in general? What do the Murdochs think of it (Simon knows)? And is this actually the new Greatest Thing Ever On TV? MCS GOT TALENT: As long-running “X Factor of hip hop” The Rap Game comes to the BBC3, we assemble a roomful of middle-aged white people to see who’s Alexandra Burke of grime and hardcore, and who’s the Steve Brookstein of MCs. TRAD...
Aug 31, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 167
TRIBAL GATHERING: The first proper compilation of Daisy Age hip hop is out. What made A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Queen Latifah and friends so great and where can we still see the vibrations of “da Inner Sound, y’all”? BACK TO THE OLD HOUSE: Can rave-besotted recovering indie band Friendly Fires elbow their way up to the Hot Chip/Simian Mobile Disco premier league of couture house music with, you know, actual songs? OUR KID’S ELECTRIC: It’s 25 years since Oasis released their debut album ‘...
Aug 24, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 166
ONLY CLUBBERS LEFT ALIVE: Why is everyone talking about Jeremy Deller’s exploration of rave culture, ‘Everybody In The Place’? And what makes it different from your standard “who invented house music” documentary? TEENAGE TORPOR: How truthful is ‘Euphoria’, Sky/HBO’s bleak new teen travails drama starring Zendaya from ‘Spider-Man’? Is a nightmare world of cyberstalking, indiscriminate hook-ups, revenge porn and poly-drug abuse necessarily going to make for your next box set addition? THE ALBUM O...
Aug 17, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 165
This week on the pop culture podcast for free-range procrastinators – LIVE FROM ST. QUENTIN: Does Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood get away with “doing” the Manson Murders? Can our panel discuss it without ruining the ending? And is it the most divisive movie we’ve yet discussed? YOUR FEEDBACK IS IMPORTANT TO US: Sultans of shoegaze Ride are back, older and wiser. How is their sonic cathedral restoration project looking? HALF WAY FULL HOUSE: With 2019 just over half-done, film critic An...
Aug 10, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 164
This week’s special guests are NADIA SHIREEN – author, illustrator and pop nut – and Legendary publicist MICK HOUGHTON, who's just published his memoir Fried and Justified about working with Teardrop Explodes, KLF, Talking Heads, Echo & the Bunnymen, JAMC, Undertones, Sonic Youth and many more... Who took the Ramones for a curry? Mick did. Will The Great Hack on Netflix have us deleting our social media accounts in a hurry as it details the Cambridge Analytica scandal? In question: Facebook'...
Aug 03, 2019•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 163
This week’s special guests are RHODA DAKAR – ska stalwart of The Bodysnatchers and Special AKA fame – and film writer MATT GLASBY, author of new book Britpop Cinema: From Trainspotting To This Is England. On the agenda… A FIELD OF THEIR OWN: Does the Saatchi Gallery’s dance music exhibition Sweet Harmony: Rave Today properly summon up the necessary vibes for another Summer of Love? TANGERINE DREAM: If electronic r’n’b “artiste” Blood Orange’s latest release ‘Angel’s Pulse’ isn’t an album, what i...
Jul 20, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 162
This week, ANIMIST NITRATE: Is pagan psycho-fest Midsommar a mere update of The Wicker Man or does it bring something new to the horror chopping block? HEATWAVE RAVES: Our guests David Stubbs and Linda Marric help Siân and Andrew choose a soundtrack for Summer 2019. IT’LL BE ALT.RIGHT ON THE NIGHT: Can our panel bear to spend 90 minutes in the company of far-right barfbag Steve Bannon in the damning fly-on-the-wall documentary The Brink? Plus the usual recommendations, denunciations and prevaric...
Jul 13, 2019•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 161
This week, THE COLOUR PURPLE – We celebrate 30 years of out-there bleep explorers WARP Records with noted clattery music enthusiasts Strictly Kev AKA DJ Food and Luke Turner of The Quietus. WAR IS HELLER – Have Hulu and George Clooney successfully filmed the unfilmable with their adaptation of the legendary satirical WWII snafu-fest Catch-22? “COME ON, THOM!” – Will ‘Anima’, Thom Yorke’s third solo album, fill the Radiohead-sized hole in your life and what on earth is that Alternative Carpark-st...
Jul 06, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 160
Relive the atmosphere of 24 hours ago as Andrew heads into the Fields of Dreams to bring back what Glastonbury 2019 was really like. Ted Kessler of Q, Bigmouth regulars Ian Harrison of Mojo and Nadia Shireen, and indie labels mogul James Endeacott bring us the true flavour of Planet Earth’s Greatest Event. A word of warning: this is a lo-fi recording and we couldn’t budget for mobile phone interference from passers-by and those festival-goers that we buttonholed. Think of it as the full Glastonb...
Jul 01, 2019•31 min•Ep. 159
We recorded this week’s podcast before the sad death of French house legend Philippe Zdar, who produced HOT CHIP’s fantastic new album ‘A Bath Full Of Ecstasy’. Author and ex-Face magazine editor Richard Benson and Guardian TV and podcasts writer Hannah Verdier join us to talk discuss the Chip’s magnum opus for the older, wiser raver. Plus! The astonishing horror movie IN FABRIC from Peter ‘Duke Of Burgundy’ Strickland. (Are we ready for the Scarfolk ‘Are You Being Served?’) MARK RONSON complete...
Jun 22, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 158
On this week’s Bigmouth, Will Hodgkinson of The Times and writer and film critic Claire Biddles join us on our fab new studios to discuss the releases of the hour. On this podcast – EVE OF DESTRUCTION: Does Series 2 of Killing Eve match up to that incendiary first season and are the carpings of the critics unfounded? PURPLE PATCH: The posthumous Prince compilation ‘Originals’ is streaming on Tidal now and released on June 21. What do we make of these songs that the late Imp of the Perverse gave ...
Jun 15, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 157
This week, TEENAGE RAMPAGE: Why you NEED to go and see Booksmart, the most original and joyful high school comedy since Ferris Bueller’s Day off. OUR KID’S BATHETIC: The fly-on-Liam-Gallagher’s-wall doc As It Was shows him as less mad for it and more dad for it. But is it cosmetic exercise? And FIGHT THE POWER (POINT): Does The Divine Comedy’s satirical workplace album Office Politics meet its KPIs going forward in this space? We’ll shake the tree and loop you in once we’ve bottomed this one out...
Jun 08, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 156
On the analyst’s couch of pop culture this week: YOU WANNA LIVE LIKE CAMDEN PEOPLE? Britpop’s Machiavellian publicist Phill Savidge joins us to talk about his memoir of the glittering 90s scene, and argue with Andrew about who really invented the last epic pop moment. DWIGHT HERE, DWIGHT NOW: Does Rocketman, the “musical fantasy” of Elton John’s life story, entertain as thoroughly as it settles Sir Elt’s score of grudges? RICH PICKINGS: Is Richard Hawley now making the Morrissey records it’s OK ...
Jun 01, 2019•56 min•Ep. 155
On the pop culture dissection table this week: TOP OF THE POPPERS – Do Melbourne’s Amyl & The Sniffers have the punk rock prescription we need? SHANE IN YOUR GAME – The great Stephen Graham in Shane Meadows’ riveting new C4 drama The Virtues. LOTUS POCUS – What on earth is going on with cosmic space-jazz funk-hop auteur Flying Lotus’s latest album? Special guests MICHAEL HANN of The Guardian and ANTHONY TEASDALE, the most Balearic man from West Lancashire, join us to sort it all out. Produce...
May 25, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 154
This week, ECKIE THUMP: Why Scottish rave movie BEATS might be the best movie yet to capture the essence of waving your arms in a field while being chased by the “polis”. FANGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER: Can Taika Waititi’s TV adaptation of his bat-on-the-wall vampire houseshare movie What We Do In The Shadows match the original? And our two guests Michael Hogan of the Telegraph and NME and Select veteran Lucy O’Brien sell us on the virtues of the albums that only they like. Please enjoy your weekly r...
May 18, 2019•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 153
RADIATION FOR THE NATION: Does HBO’s Chernobyl disaster epic work as either science or drama, or would you be better off reading this excellent book instead? HOUSE OF HOROWITZ: How the Beastie Boys’ rap-funk-jazz monster ‘ill Communication’ remade the 90s. TEENAGE LOBOTOMY: The bleak, comic and heartbreaking life of the contemporary American teenager in new independent drama-comedy ‘Eighth Grade’. And, naturally, a whole lot more. Music business journo and U2 fanatic EAMONN FORDE and Face and Ar...
May 11, 2019•57 min•Ep. 152
It’s an epic-length BIGMOUTH this week. First we welcome special guest DAVE BALL to our appropriately subterranean Soho lair to talk about Soft Cell’s one-off (?) reunion and his new memoir of life in pop’s sleaziest duo. Then Dave and guest MARTIN ASTON stick around as we look at BBC2’s THE LOOMING TOWER – can a doggedly factual 9/11 intelligence drama work and how soon is too soon? – and check out the fourth album by well-heeled New York ethnomusicologists VAMPIRE WEEKEND. And then it’s spoile...
May 04, 2019•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 151
On this week’s pop culture death match we’re joined by JUDE ROGERS of The Guardian, New Statesman and The Word RIP and dance music man about town RALPH MOORE of Mixmag fame. On the agenda: Does LIZZO have the body-positive bangers to match her outsize personality? Can C4’s continent-spanning marquee drama CHIMERICA spin fake news, the purpose of journalism, geopolitics and Wham!’s visit to China into a coherent image of the way the world is right now? And can electro-pagan Scouse trio STEALING S...
Apr 27, 2019•57 min•Ep. 150
We’re back from our recuperative week off with SLADE on Spotify at last – should today’s young people be force-fed stomping Midlands yob-pop from the Middle Ages? Also we read the runes for the final season of GAME OF THRONES and experience the antipodean antics of KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD, the pop Hawkwind we didn’t know we needed. Pop culture journo and Throneshead Michael Moran joins us as special guest. Produced and presented by Andrew Harrison and Siân Pattenden. Studio production...
Apr 20, 2019•54 min•Ep. 149
On this week’s podcast… Special guest Andy Gill of THE GANG OF FOUR on new album ‘Happy Now?’, the return of angular rock for crisis Britain, and his secret past with Adam ‘The Power Of Nightmares’ Curtis. Plus Andy joins David Stubbs, Siân Pattenden and Andrew Harrison to debate the Brexit-blocking beats of the new CHEMICAL BROTHERS album, the surprising pathos of BEING FRANK: THE CHRIS SIEVEY STORY and whether BILLIE EILISH is appropriate for impressionable older listeners. As ever, your leisu...
Apr 06, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 148
The death of The Prodigy’s much-loved KEITH FLINT by his own hand left countless people – ravers, rockers, ’90s veterans, lovers of pop and good times in general – shocked, saddened and broken up. Numerous stories emerged afterwards confirming that, far from the twisted firestarter of the videos, Keith was a friendly, warm and above all kind man. It was desperately unfair that evidently he could not feel the happiness that he brought to millions. Friend of the show and radio producer ROBIN LEEBU...
Apr 02, 2019•15 min•Ep. 147
